86 
A SWARM OF LOCUSTS. 
the negro be raised, he will never truly appreciate his 
spiritual wants. 
The exports of the colony are indeed small, com- 
pared with its resources, being chiefly coffee, a few 
hides, pepper, ginger, and some indigo of inferior 
quality. We had intended to introduce the cochineal 
insect, some of which we had procured at Teneriffe, 
but we could not see any of the proper cactus ; that 
which is met with here and at Cape Coast, being a 
small, thin-leaved, and less succulent one, than the 
Opuntia Tuna, The most valuable export is the 
timber, from the banks of tlie neighbouring rivers. 
The day before leaving Sierra Leone, we witnessed 
one of those destructive flights of locusts which some- 
times visit the settlement with such blighting influence. 
It first appeared about three p.m. and only terminated 
after sunset. The insects followed one another at the 
distance of several feet, but in such myriads, that a long 
and broad line only was discernible in the air, making a 
course from north to south. This was said only to 
have been a moderate swarm ; but it gave us some faint 
idea of the eighth plague of the Egyptians. The inha- 
bitants of the several villages lighted fires, and mus- 
tered with drums, tomtoms, and such other articles as 
would assist by their noise in preventing the devastating 
legions from making a descent on their plantations ; 
where they would soon have reduced every edible herb 
to a leafless state. As the people here do not, like the 
Arabs, turn these insects to account as an article for the 
