though decreed by the superior Court to be restored, Mr Kenneth Macaulay, then "acting Governor," directed that they should be treated and dealt with as" emancipated negroes;" that is, kept in the place, in consequence of which this nation will ere long have their value to pay, while this "acting Governor" will probably be found claiming and receiving the sum of L.13 sterling twice for each, as the bounty decreed by law for Africans seized ashore, and liberated by Governors, and 5 per cent commission as Navy Prize Agent! How far I have erred, misrepresented, or exaggerated the expenditure upon Sierra Leone, a few official references will show. In my first letter, (Blackwood, Dec. 1826, p. 879,) the sums of money paid by this country, in bounties and head money for liberated Africans to different captors, to a period undetermined, is stated to be L.465,211, 3s. 4d. sterling. By the Parliamentary Return, No. 399, pro 1820 1821 First Letter. duced last Session, the sums paid, exclusive of claims not yet paid, are L.484,344. 6s. 8d.; being L.19,133, 3s. 4d. sterling LESS than what I had stated the amount to be! Examine every account, produce every item under their respective heads, and I feel confident, that in the aggregate expenditure the same results will follow. Thus, in the letter referred to, (Blackwood, p. 876,) the expenditure under the head "Army Extraordinaries," is stated to be L.1,117,261, 5s. 114d., or at the average of L.58,801, 15s. old. per annum. But the expenditure for 1825 was greater than I supposed ; and besides, I had omitted many sums charged in the different pages of the account, entitled "Army Extraordinaries," and also "the pay and the provisions for the troops, provided for in England." By the Parliamentary Papers for the undermentioned years, which are all I have at present by me, the sums stand as under: ARMY EXTRAORDINARIES. Present Letter. L.66,368 8 69,618 0 93 which is above L.85,000 too little, in- PRIZE AGENT," but also "CONTRAC stead of being too much! To contradict the daring statements and the impudent appeal made unto you, that a certain merchant in London had not, since the year 1807, anything to do "either in one way or the other" with the expenditure of Sierra Leone, I produced an extract from the agreement betwixt the merchant in question and Mr Macmillan, constituting him their deputy in the Navy Prize Agency concern at Sierra Leone, by which the Commission, 5 per cent, was to be equally divided betwixt them. The Commissioners tell us, p. 90, that the partner of that merchant or mercantile house in London, is to this day not only "NAVY TOR for part of the Government supplies;" and in how many other things he and they are concerned, we shall see as we proceed in this inquiry. Lest, however, I may be told, that though the individuals in question were constituted Navy Prize Agents, yet they never acted, or obtained any emolument under their commissions, and their agreement, I adduce, from Parliamentary Return, No. 177 of 1822, pp. 1, 3, 4, 5, &c. the following extracts, which show the sums of money issued at the Exchequer, out of the Consolidated Fund, regretting exceedingly that brevity compels me to omit the full and particular details: Par. Pap. No. 59 of 1824, p. 12, states, L.15,000 of this sum to have been paid, Jan. 23, 1823, to Thomas Hoblyn, Esq. to pay for captured negroes. TO CHARLES W. MAXWELL, Governor of Sierra Leone, January 28th, 1815, L.1264 0 To ZACHARY MACAULAY, Esq. Agent for various persons, July 6th, 7th, 12th, 14th, and 21st, 1819; and April 22d, 1820, and January 13th, and April 7th, 1821, The preceding are extracted from columns of details of the application of the sum of L.54,728 : 16: 8d. paid in bounties out of "THE CONSOLIDATED FUND," while, in the same Paper, p. 7, L.273,670 additional stand paid by the NAVY OFFICE" for the same purpose! For how many other individuals the gentleman in question acted as agent, I cannot, in absence of the specific details, at present state; but all the officers of the Navy, and the Governors of Colonies, were too well aware of the control which the individual in question had over the money bags of the British Treasury, and Mr Vansittart, to constitute any other person their agent. I call your attention, sir, the attention of my country, and the attention † 13,286 0 0 L.14,550 0 0 of the Legislature of my country, to the preceding details, by which it appears, that as "Seizors" the Governors of British Colonies have, first, the bounty decreed by act of parliament; and next, as GOVER NORS, AN EQUAL SUM, and consequently the Navy Prize Agent, receives, not five per cent commission, but TEN PER CENT commission for the same thing! In the name of justice, sir, and a country bleeding at every pore in her precious resources, is a system like this to be suffered to go on? The pestilential nature of the climate of Sierra Leone is admitted and cannot be denied ; but it has been generally supposed, that its effects are confined to Europeans: that, however, * I select the following items from the general details, to show how the system was carried on : Jan. 28, 1815.-TO CHARLES WILLIAM MAXWELL, Esq. LieutenantGovernor of the Colony of Sierra Leone, for the seizure and condemnation of two males and one female, TO KENNETH MACAULAY, Esq. Collector of Duties in the said Colony, prosecutor for ditto, L. 36 0 0 36 0 0 L. 72 0 0 Jan. 6, 1819.-To Lieutenant-Colonel Macarthy, as seizor, on the condemnation of 43 slaves at Sierra Leone, viz. 7 males, at L.13 each 19 females, at L.10 each, 17 children, at L.3 each. To Lieutenant-Colonel Macarthy, as Governor, on the condemnation of To George Macaulay, Esq. as seizor, on the condemnation of one male, L. 91 0 0 190 O 0 51 0 0 L.332 0 332 0 0 13 0 0 13 0 0 L.690 0 0 April 7, 1821. To William Fisher, Esq. Commander of "H. M. S. Bann," for the following slaves captured on board the “ San Antonio Melagrozo,” and condemned in the Vice-Admiralty Court, at THE ISLAND of Sierra Leone, viz. 265 males, at L.20 each, 135 children, at L.5 each, L.5300 0 0 1575 0 0 675 0 0 L.7550 0 "The island of Sierra Leone!" How the old gentleman must have smiled at official ignorance, as he fingered the bank-notes, and reflected how nicely he had suc. ceeded in saving the payers of them “ the trouble of thinking !” is not the case. It is as fatal to blacks as it is to whites. The former, indeed, are not cut off by fevers, but they perish from dysenteries and sores, brought upon them by the same causes which bring fevers upon the whites, namely, putrid effluvia, damps, and sudden changes of the atmosphere during the rains, to which the negroes are more exposed, and to which their ignorance leads them to expose themselves. The decrease of the American blacks in number is a striking fact in proof. Thus, while 29 only have emigrated, we find them from 1131, the number in 1792, dwindled down to 578 in 1826! But amongst the liberated Africans the decrease is still more terrific. "The total number of negroes captured and landed in Sierra Leone," say the Commission ers, p. 52, "from 1808 to 1825, both years inclusive, was 20,571." The total number remaining at the beginning of 1826 was, according to the same authority, p. 21, only 10,716, making a decrease of nearly 10,000 one half, in the short period of EIGHTEEN YEARS, exclusive of births!! But the mortality amongst this unfortunate race, has in reality been much greater-perhaps double. Various authorities, public and private, lead me to believe, that the number of Africans captured and brought into that colony, exceeds 36,000. The commissioners have given us data, page 50, to approximate the fact in this case. "The proportion of blankets," say they, "hitherto issued to the liberated Africans, is stated to have been one for each adult, and one for Two CHILDREN." The number of blankets issued from the stores from 1816 to 1825, both inclusive, was 26,331, and the number of children "received in charge by the superintendents,” during the same period, was "4389," giving, by the above data, 28,534 negroes, 24,145 of whom were adults received into the settlement within the period mentioned. According to an account certified by Mr Kenneth Mac aulay as superintendent of the captured negroes, dated July 9th, 1814, and inserted in the ninth report of the African Institution, p. 63, the number liberated in the colony to that date was 5925. According to Parliamentary Return, No. 389 of 1824, the number captured and liberated in the colony, from July 1814 to the first of January 1816, must have amounted to 3,300, making together the number of 37,780 liberated in the place, exclusive of the great numbers which perished betwixt the date of the capture, and the date of landing in the settlement. According to Parliamentary Report, No. 512 of 1825, the number of marriages celebrated in Sierra Leone, between the 1st of January 1817, and the 31st of December 1823, was 2107. The natural increase from these, which we shall by way of distinction call the enslaved population, had all things been blessed and correct, ought, to the end of 1825, to have been 3500, exclusive of the free labour produce, which, it has been shown, has been considerable. These data, and they are clear and reasonable, will give us at least 41,000 liberated Africans, and their progeny which have been brought into Sierra Leone since 1808; and yet, two years ago, we find ONLY 10,716 remaining in it!!-Giving a mortality, admitting that 3000 have been sent to the regiments, in the West Indies, of 26,000 out of the number of 37,700, in the short space of eighteen years!! Will Mr Kenneth Macaulay, or any of his school, shew us on the face of this globe any other spot where, without war, and unusual contagious and pestilential diseases, a mortality amongst the human species is to be found to match this? I defy them! The boards required for coffins must be no mean item in the profitable trade of the place! The cause of the mortality amongst the blacks in Sierra Leone, though its real extent is carefully concealed, is ingeniously set down as proceeding from diseases caught on board slaveships, by reason of the excessive numbers crowdedtogether in them. Doubtless, in some instances, this is the fact; but this is a part of the Sierra Leone system, as reprehensible as the rest of it, and which cannot be too severely condemned, nor too soon removed. By a law enacted, by zeal without knowledge," every slave-ship captured on any part of the African (western) coasts, must be sent to Sierra Leone for adjudication. From its The geographical position, and from natural causes, which no human power can remove, this is only practicable after the most tedious voyages. fatal error is well known, and has long been complained of; yet it is still continued, in order, it is presu med, that Sierra Leone money-making proctors and authorities, and navy prize agents, may obtain grist for their mills, and grow rich. These protracted voyages, arising from opposing winds and currents, occasion a scarcity of water and provisions on board the crowded captured ships, which quickly produce the most heartrending, the most fatal, and the most appalling scenes of starvation, misery, despair, disease, and death, that can be imagined or met with, and arising almost entirely from the rigid letter of our, I will designate it, inhuman law. Sierra Leone is to blame for the whole of it. The Commissioners, p. 23, give us a few terrific specimens of the operations of these; and terrible as these specimens are, still they are inferior in horror to others, which, from the African Institution reports, and the public journals, could, did my limits permit me, be produced! "La Fortune was captured by his H. M. S. Brazen, ten days after sailing from her port; and had, at the time of capture, 245 slaves on board. During a passage of twenty-one days to Sierra Leone, for ty-six of the number died. The vessel is stated to have remained in the harbour SIX WEEKS before she was adjudicated, in which period sEvenTY-SEVEN slaves died, making a total loss of ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTYTHREE out of 245, between the date of capture and the actual landing of the negroes! The Rosalia was captured by H. M. S. Athol, in December 1825, at which time the number of slaves on board is stated to have been 285; of these, NINETY-TWO died during a passage of TWELVE WEEKS to Sierra Leone; both the negroes, and those in charge of them, having been for the last three weeks on an allowance of half-a-pint of flour, made from the Cassada root, and a gill of water, each, per day." Unfortunately, their Unfortunately, their sufferings do not terminate here, for, "in the case of the Uniao, besides ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE out of three hundred and sixty-one slaves," which "died PRIOR TO landing, thirty-five died after emancipation, (but before it was possible to have them registered,) owing to the wretched state to which they had been reduced by dysentery and the small pox!!" It is needless to pursue details further, to shew the pernicious nature of Sierra Leone, and of the Sierra Leone sys tem. Twenty years have seen, and in twenty different ships each year, similar horrors!! Such are the fatal effects of the place upon the miserable blacks doomed to nestle in it. It is scarcely necessary to recur to the deaths which it occasions amongst Europeans, which only Sierra Leone " rum-proof" champions will deny and dispute. But justice to you, and to my subject, renders it necessary that I should notice shortly what the Commissioners also state upon this subject. "In the year 1824," say these gentlemen, p. 198," two hundred and eighty-three European troops joined, making the total numbers upon the coast 346, and of these THREE HUNDRED AND ONE died! In 1825, eleven hundred and fifty-four European troops joined, making a total of 1193, and of these SIX HUNDRED AND TWENTYONE died! In the end of February, 1825, one hundred and eight soldiers of the Royal African Corps were sent to the Isles des Loss; these were young men, between 17 and 30 years of age, who had enlisted under General Turner, and accompanied him to the coast. When these islands were visited by the Commissioners in March 1826, FIFTY-TWO of them had died, and there were but few of the survivors who did not suffer from the effects of disease. From the 21st December, 1825, to the 1st of November, 1826, THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY cases of this fever have been treated in the hospital at Freetown, and of these ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY have died; at the Gambia there have been one hundred and twelve admissions, and ONLY TWELVE HAVE RECOVERED!!" The greater deadliness of the climate of Sierra Leone over other parts of the west coast of Africa, is placed before us in a striking manner by the Commissioners, in p. 107 of their Report. From 1810 till 1825, the number of European troops which had arrived on that coast was 5,823. Of these 1912 died! During the early part of that period, however, the greater part of the troops were stationed at Senegal and Goree, and, consequently, to shew what is the mortality of Sierra Leone, and what it is compared with these settlements, we must take the latter eight years of the period which are subsequent to the cession of these possessions. The number of European troops which reached Sierra Leone in that period was 1,679, of which 967, nearly three fifths, died. Why should I add more? The year 1826 was still more fatal. General Turner, and nearly all his family and suite were cut off early in that year; and, while I am penning this letter, the accounts have reached this country, that his successor, Sir Neil Campbell, and several other individuals, have also fallen victims to the pestilential swamp, in which the mortality this year has already been exceedingly great. The evil cannot be removed. The pestilence of Sierra Leone, said an intelligent medical gentleman unto me, who bears in his person sad proofs of its effects, and who has paid particular attention to its nature and ravages, and whose opinion has, I believe, been communicated to the Colonial Office-the pestilence of Sierra Leone, said he, can never be rooted out. No European constitution, nor, indeed, any other constitution, can withstand its power. The Whites who boast they can do so, forget to state that they generally run off to England at the commencement of the rains, and return again at the season of the year when their effects cease. The place, added he, is wholly unfit to be made the abode of animal life. The Lagoon which washes its narrow coasts is filled with ravenous sharks, and its destructive shores are abodes where only the poisonous insect and the venomous REPTILE can exist ! The records of the WAR OFFICE will show the greater mortality which prevails in this place than in our other tropical settlements. In the Leeward Islands, the proportion is two deaths in FIFTY; in Jamaica, FOUR DEATHS in FIFTY; and in Sierra Leone, six deaths in TEN, upon an average of several years! The great mortality in Jamaica also proceeds from the well-known unhealthy situation of the principal barracks, and which the Legislature of the island have offered to remove at their own expense, to a healthy spot, if the Government would permit it to be done. The salubrity of Sierra Leone, the morality, and progress made in religion, by its population, and the veracity of Mr Kenneth Macaulay upon these and other subjects connected with it, having been ascertained, we shall next proceed to consider the agriculture, the trade, and the industry of the place, as these have been laid before us by the Commissioners in their Report. First, As to the agriculture of the settlement, the Commissioners state:"Prior to General Turner's time, agriculture appears to have been ALMOST TOTALLY NEGLECTED by the Europeans. Those who had the means of carrying it on extensively, were wholly occupied in other pursuits; and, even had it been their wish to embark capital in the cultivation of the soil, an INSUPERABLE DIFFICULTY presented itself in the want of eligible overseers. -Several small coffee-farms, of from four to six acres, and two of larger extent, were also," (alluding to some cotton farms, which had been undertaken and then abandoned) “at different times undertaken. Some of these have been altogether abandoned; and others, which still exist, are so much neglected, that it seems quite impossible to draw from them any fair inference, as to the advantage which might result from the cultivation of coffee upon a more judicious or extended plan.” (P. 74.) “ I do not," says Mr Reffell," consider the provisions grown in the colony as sufficient for the consumption of the inhabitants; arising, however, as much from their not being of the quality consumed, as from such produce not being cultivated to a sufficient extent. The STAPLE FOOD of the population is rice, while the articles principally grown, are cassado and cocoa."* Yet notwithstanding the demand for rice in preference, the Liberated Africans continue to grow "cassado and cocoa; avowedly because their culture does NOT require that labour or attention which the rice demands, and because they sometimes obtain this by the sale of a larger quantity of the articles of more easy production.” (P. 75). "By far the greater part of the rice consumed Is IMPORTED BY THE Mandingoes, Timmanees, or other neighbouring tribes: that which is raised in the settlement being almost exclusively consumed by the grower." (P. 76.) "A hope has been already express • The latter is explained to be a root the same as the Eddoc.in the West Indies. |