THE WESTERN COAST. 
them to settle on his territories, engaging to pro- 
tect them against the Portuguese, who wished to 
engross the trade of the island. In the mean- 
time, the agents of the system of slavery were 
not inactive, Mr Beaver's despatches were de- 
tained by the captain to whom they were com- 
mitted ; the colony was represented as infected 
with the pestilence, and new colonists were de- 
terred from engaging in the expedition. As no 
vessels arrived with supplies of stores, or addi- 
tional colonists, the Association being entirely 
ignorant of the state of the colony ; and, as th@ 
colonists were menaced with a still more formi- 
dable attack of the Bissagoes, Mr Beaver was 
forced to yield to the repeated solicitations and 
remonstrances of the remaining colonists, and 
sailed to Sierra Leone, where he arrived, De- 
cember ^3d 1793) and immediately returned 
to England. Thus, after the expenditure of 
3^.10,000, the colonization of Bulama terminated 
in the evacuation of the island, which, when the 
character of the colonists is considered, can 
scarcely be reckoned a subject of regret to the 
friends of humanity. It may, however, be re- 
gretted, that the indefatigable exertions and 
powerful talents of the gallant Beaver, which ei>- 
abled him so long to maintain an ascendancy 
among such an irregular, mutinous, and disorder- 
ly bandj in a situation of such dilRculty and dm- 
