816 
THE WESTERN COAST. 
renders it very difficult to preserve the degree 6f 
order and propriety necessary to render it useful 
in itself, and creditable in the eye of the Africans. 
The introduction of the English forms of law has 
produced a most violent spirit of litigation. The 
suits for petty assaults and defamation are almost 
innumerable, and the plaintiffs are usually in the 
proportion of four women to one man. The dis- 
tance from Britain, besides the unhealthy nature 
of the settlement, and the very moderate amount 
of the salaries, make it scarcely possible to pro- 
cure respectable and duly qualified persons to fill 
the different official situations. 
Notwithstanding all these obstacles, a sensible 
improvement has taken place, and more may be 
expected, as experience shews the best modes of 
conducting such a colony. 
According to a survey in April 1811, Sierra 
Leone contained three hundred and seventy-one 
houses, chiefly of wood, some wattled, and only 
three of stone. The population was one thousand 
nine hundred and seventeen ; of which number, 
twenty-eight were Europeans, nine hundred and 
seventy-two Nova Scotians, eight hundred and 
seven Maroons, and one hundred Africans. * 
The political state of the Gold Coast has been 
* Report of Select Committee on the African Forts, (29tli 
June 1816), p. 13S. 
