EXPEDITION TO BULAMA, 
S81 
four women, and four children. The judicious 
discrimination that had been employed in the 
choice of colonists by the Sierra Leone Company, 
was one of the original causes which had so ra- 
pidly swelled the lists of the Bulama subscribers j 
here, from inattention to this circumstance, the 
majority of those who went out with Mr Dalrym- 
ple were persons of the most infamous characters 
and vicious habits. When the numerous convicts 
of Britain were accustomed to be transported to 
America, Dr Franklin thought, that the only 
method by which America could testify her gra- 
titude, was by returning an equal number of 
rattlesnakes to her mother country. Yet such 
were the crew of idlers, drunkards, cowards, and 
assassins, accustomed to live in open violation of 
law, who were left with Mr Beaver, in a situation 
where no species of authority could be legally 
enforced. They had arrived at the most improper 
season of the year, just before the commencement 
of the rains ; and, as they had brought no mate- 
rials for building, the timber was then growing 
in the ground, of which their houses were to be 
formed. By exposure to the rains, and to the 
vertical rays of the sun, great sickness and mor- 
tality were produced, before any buildings could 
be erected. As the situation of Mr Beaver pre- 
cluded every idea of selection, the character of 
the grumettas, or free blacks, engaged as labour- 
