17

younger and more active people escaped from these, having been alarmed by -'s first assault; but on the whole, said H, they caught

a pretty good lot.'

"The war in Rokelle is suspended: all parties seem to have been too busy in Trade to think of regular war. The same is the case in Sherbro. In both places they are catching each other openly and secretly, and on all manner of pretences; but not fighting.

"I believe however that more money will be lost than gained in the Slave Trade this year. Most of those who did not go off very early, have met with many difficulties in obtaining their Slaves, and provisions sufficient to carry them off. They have also suffered much in their crews, officers as well as men.

"Several Vessels are reported to have been lost or cut off, chiefly to Leeward; and several insurrections have happened. The reason is said to be, that a great number of Beach-men,* and Grumettas † have been sent off, in consequence of the unusual demand for slaves."

*This is the name given to the persons, residing on the Coast, who act as interpreters to the Captains of Ships, and assist them in condcting their trade.

+ Or domestic servants. These have always been considered as not liable to be sold, unless when convicted of crimes to which the crime of Slavery is attached.

C

In such a dreadful state of society as is here exhibited, what success could rationally be expected in any attempt to promote agriculture or legitimate commerce? The attempt was obviously hopeless. And even if there existed no other assignable cause for the small progress made by the Sierra Leone Company, in meliorating the condition of Africa, the account now given seems to furnish a satisfactory solution of it.

The Committee, however, are desirous of cautioning the Subscribers against expecting any very great effects to be immediately produced, even by the cessation of the Slave Trade. Africa, exhausted by the expiring struggles of that ruinous traffick, may for a time be incapable of much exertion in other directions. On the coast especially, where the operations of the Society must commence, the population is so greatly thinned, by the excessive demands which have been made upon it, as to place very considerable difficulties in the way of the general diffusion of knowledge, and the general excitment of industry. Large districts in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, which, ten years ago, were comparatively populous, are now reduced to wastes, with hardly a trace of their former culture. And if an estimate were to be made of the existing population, for about seventy or eighty miles inland, on that district of coast which extends from the Rio Grande to Cape Palmas, with the exception

e state where some degree of se

curity and improvement is enjoyed in consequence of the adoption of the Mahomedan code, the average amount would probably be found to be less than seven persons to a square mile.

The

These facts, at the same time, are not of a nature which ought to have any effect in discouraging the exertions of the Society: on the contrary, by displaying the magnitude of that work of beneficence and mercy in which it is engaged, they ought rather to redouble those exertions. difficulties are great, but by no means insuperable. Though the coast has been so greatly depopulated, yet the African continent is still possessed of an immense population. If security be given to the Coast, and encouragements held out to industry, the waste will soon be reanimated with new life. Labourers will migrate to the spot where their persons will be safe, and their labour productive. Men of commercial enterprize will be attracted to the points where the manufactures of Europe may be safely bartered for the productions of Africa; and the benefits of industrious occupation, of a fair and legitimate commerce, of order, justice, and security, being once felt, they cannot fail to be duly appreciated and widely diffused. *

But how, it will be asked, is that security which is the parent of industry, and of all those blessings which attend industry, to be attained? This is a subject which has occupied the attention of the * See Appendix E,

C 2

Committee, and on which individual members of their body have faoured them with valuable suggestions; but as yet it is one on which they are not prepared fully to enter. They will at present advert only to a single point connected with it.

One great, it may be almost said, indispensable step to the attainment of the security here spoken of would be, to induce the other nations of the earth to follow the example which has been set them by Great Britain and America, and to relinquish the Trade in Slaves. It cannot be denied that much of the success of any plan, which may be devised with a view to the improvement of Africa, will depend on the degree in which that trade is generally suppressed. At present, indeed, the Portugueze settled at Brazil are the only persons at liberty to carry it on. Whether they can be prevailed upon to abandon measures can be taken effectually to prevent British capital from swelling the negro population, and enlarging the cultivation, of South America, at the expence of the protracted misery of the African continent and the eventual ruin of our own Colonies; are questions which the Committee will not now discuss. It may however he possible to induce the government of Brazil, if not wholly to abandon the Slave Trade, yet to confine it within certain limits, by forbidding the supply of any Colony belonging to a foreign nation, and by restraining their traders to the eastern Coast of

it, and whether any

Africa, or at least to that coast and the coast of Angola. This may be the more practicable, since, with the exception of not quite a thousand Slaves, which have been annually taken by the Portugueze from their settlement of Bissao at the mouth of the Rio Grande, their Slave Trade is, in point of fact, already confined within the limits which have been specified. And, should the Portugueze agree to this restriction, the African Coast, from the 20th degree of North Latitude to the 4th or 5th degree of South Latitude, an extent of about 2300 miles, would be entirely free from the European Slave Trade, at least during the continuance of the present war.

But, supposing this object to be attained, it must still require the utmost efforts, on the part of the friends of Africa, so to improve the present crisis, as that on the termination of the war, those powers, who may wish to resume the Slave Trade, may find the Africans so much enlightened with respect to their true interests as to be proof against its temptations. Under these circumstances it seems unnecessary to endeavour to impress on the Subscribers, how very urgent is the call for exertion; and, with a view to that exertion, how important it is that funds should be provided for giving effect to the beneficial designs of the Institution.

The Committee, before they close their Report, will briefly advert to the measures which have