1804.] 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
ACCOUNT of the PRESENT STATE of the 
COLONY 4@f SIERRA LEONE. 
. MORE benevolent enterprize than 
A the eftablifhment of the Britifh 
Colony of Sierra Leone, for the civiliza- 
_tion of natiyes of Africa in a ftace of 
jiberty, was never undertaken by any 
people. 
It was attempted under many difadvan- 
tages. Perhaps, not the leait of thefe, 
was that enthufiafm of freedem and phil- 
anthropy in which thofe excellent men, 
who were its chief promoters, heped to 
impart the bleffings of civilization to a 
face, once treated almoft as brytes utterly 
incapable of it, without fubjeéting them 
to thofe reftraints which are the moff pain- 
ful to barbarian and fayage natures, bur, 
wanting which, there aye no inftances of 
barbarian ferocity having been effectually 
fubdued, or of habits of moral order and 
induftry thoroughly acquired. 
The laft and the prefent war, by fub- 
je€ting the fhips and cargoes of the Sierra 
Leone to capture at fea, have contiderably 
enhanced the difficulties of ‘foftering this 
colonial eftablifhment.—-Moft enemies 
would have gloried to {pare fuch a fettle- 
ment as that at Sierra Leone, even all the 
havock and the ravages of war; but, the 
French took a wanton pleafure in endea- 
vouring to deftroy a colony in the profpe- 
"ity of which all civilized humanity ap- 
eared to have a ftrong intereft. The 
Peritith dealers in African flaves, too, 
were, of courfe, no friends to an eftablith- 
ment intended to fhew that the Negroes 
were capable of learning habits of induf- 
try and order, without being reduced to 
fervitude. The African princes, who 
fold their captives of war and even their 
fubjeéts into flavery, were peculiarly ad- 
yerle to a (yftem which threatened. them, 
in the end, with the lofs of all their cu‘to- 
mers in that trafic. . Befides, the fetrle- 
ment and rearing of an infant colony 
can never be from the very firft a prefita- 
ble mercantile undertaking, nor is ever 
to be accomplifhed without a fruggle 
with many difficulties, and a confiderable 
walte of lives and other expence. 
. The original capital of the Company 
was 230,000l. tlerling. They had enter- 
ed upon their undertaking about one year 
before the commencement of the laft war. 
In the firft inftance, they had intended 
little more than to eftablifh a fecure factory 
for peaceable. and honourable trade with 
the native Africans of the regions adja- 
gent to Sierra Leone. They were, how- 
Prefent State of the Colony at Sierra Leone, 
21 
ever, foon induced to offer fettlements at 
the fame place to nearly 1200 free Blacks 
from Nova Scotia, perfons who had gains 
ed their freedom by taking part with 
Great Britain in the American war.— 
Great inconvenience began, foon after, 
to arife from the Company’s want of an 
authority adequate to she controul of thofe 
free Blacks. They landed at Sierra 
Leone, in the year 17923 bout, epidemic 
fickne(s, the periodical rains, and the cha- 
raéteriftic idlenefs and turbulence of thofe 
people, hindered them, for fome time, 
from doing any thing confiderable in the 
cultivation of the lots of land which the 
Company affigned to them, ‘The Com- 
pany cultivated, with better fuccels, a 
plantation of their own, and a garden of 
experiments, in which their chief object 
was to provide feeds and plants for the 
fettlers. In 1794, they opened an inter= 
courfe with the Foulahs, an inland peo- 
ple confiderably civilized; and with a view 
to future commerce with that nation, en- 
deavoured to eftablith a fattory on the 
higher part of the river, which they were 
afterwards obliged to abandon. Tonat 
fame year the Company lofi, upon tbe 
taking of the fettlement by a French 
{quadron, property to the value of 52,0001. 
fterling. Within two years from the 
commencement of the undertaking, they 
had expended upon it not lefs than 
110,000!. . 
In 1798, there was a town called Free- 
town, confifting of about 300 houfes, and 
many public buildings. There were 
three wharfs. The government-houle, 
fituate fo as to command the town and 
harbour, was proteéted by a palifade, and 
by fix pieces of cannon. The inhabitants 
of the colony were about 1200: of thele, 
15 were fhopkeepers, 20 or 25 hfhermen, 
To or 16 trading thip-mafters, owners of 
fmall veffels, 12 or 15 feamen, zo labourers 
employed by the Company, 4 {choo}mat- 
ters ; about one-half of the whole popu- 
lation petty farmers, the reft mechanics. 
The number of the Eurooeans refident im 
the colony, was from 20 to 30. About 
300 or 400 free natives wroveht as la- 
bourers, for wages, on the farms in the 
colony. Thefe native labourers had the 
merit of expending {carce any part of their 
wages in the purchale of {pirituous lis 
quors. Between 100 and 200 of the na~ 
tives came daily to Freetown, to exchange 
articles of African produce for Britiih 
manutactures. Many of thefe came in 
canoes, trom a diftance of between $0 and 
100 miles. J 
In 1800, to controul the turbulence . 
‘ the 
! 
