liberated Africans, of from one to three weeks, and I shall merely state those facts, as I consider them better than any reasoning. The number of frame-houses with stone foundations, and also stone houses, has increased in all the villages, particularly the mountain ones of Gloucester and Regent. Three sold during the last three years at Wellington. There are seven stone houses nearly finished, all begun during the last two years. The owners of these habitations, which cost them from 100 to 200 dollars, have all acquired the means of so permanently establishing themselves, by free labour and industry: they were all, with the exception of a few discharged soldiers from the Fourth West India Regiment, landed from the ships here after capture, and merely given a lot of ground and rations for a time: they became masons, carpenters, coopers, smiths, and farmers.

"The markets at Freetown are supplied with fruit and vegetables, almost exclusively, by the mountain villages; and from 80 to 100 men, women, boys, and girls, are to be seen daily on the hill leading to Gloucester town, with the produce of their farms and gardens. This is also entirely the reward of their own industry and perseverance, for not the least instruction on this important branch of labour have they ever received."

Major Ricketts in a despatch, dated June 30th, 1829, speaking of the produce raised by the liberated Africans, says:

"The value of these articles may be estimated by the well-known fact, that a labouring man can go into the market and purchase as much food for a penny-halfpenny as will suffice for two meals. Some of the persons supplying the market are known to travel from Waterloo and Hastings, the former being 22, and the latter 16 miles from Freetown, carrying their produce in baskets on their heads. This kind

* Papers relative to Sierra Leone, September, 1830, No. 57, p. 15—17.

of industry clearly manifests the desire the liberated Africans have to labour voluntarily, to enable them, by honest means, to become possessed of those luxuries, which they see their more wealthy brethren enjoying."*

MY DEAR FRIEND,

APPENDIX D.

Playford Hall, 17th July, 1839.

Having read your little book, bearing the name of "The Remedy," I congratulate you on having at last discovered a way, which if followed up in all its parts, would most certainly lead to the abolition of that execrable traffic called the Slave Trade.

Two of the measures which you hold forth to accomplish this object, are the employment of steamers in conjunction with sailing vessels, and the annexation of the island of Fernando Po to our foreign possessions. Simple and insignificant as the means may at first sight appear, they will be decisive in their consequences, and fully answer the end as far as the capture and destruction of slave-vessels are concerned. Steamers, it is obvious, will come up with these, at times and seasons, when our best sailing ships cannot touch them, and Fernando Po is a station, in the sight of which eight-tenths of the existing slaves must pass to be carried on. Commodore Bullen, whom you have quoted, says, "that if a look-out be kept from the shore of this bay, (in Fernando Po) scarcely a vessel could leave the Bonny, Calabars, Bimbia, and Camaroon rivers, without being observed time enough to signalize to any vessel lying in the bay to intercept her;" and he cites as an instance the cap. ture of a slaver Le Daniel by his own vessel. This capture

* Papers relative to Sierra Leone, September, 1830, No. 57, p. 39.

was effected within four hours after first seeing her, although his vessel was then lying at anchor in the bay. Taking in these three happy circumstances together, the employment of steamers, the vicinity of Fernando Po to the coast, and that the island commands a sight of eight-tenths of the Slave Trade now carried on, I cannot doubt that ten vessels would be captured where one was taken before. I verily believe that our cruisers would make such havoc among the slave vessels in three months, that when the news of what they had done should reach Cuba, Brazil, &c., the insurance there would be raised to a frightful amount, and merchants begin to query, whether it would be advisable to send any more adventures to that part of the coast. So far for the first three months; but after this, other vessels would be on their way to the Niger, ignorant of what had happened, and would share the same fate. Here a fresh report of captures would be communicated to the people of Brazils, Cuba, &c., and what effect would this produce there? No insurance at any rate! No heart to venture again in this trade! And here I cannot help stating the benefit that Fernando Po would be to the slaves who should be captured on these occasions instead of being carried to Sierra Leone, as heretofore, many of them in a diseased state, a voyage of five or six weeks, during which a prodigious loss of life has occurred, they would be landed there in health in three or four days, some of them in a few hours, where they would be liberated, and set to work, and earn their own maintenance immediately. I have been writing hitherto under the supposition that we are at liberty to take vessels of this description bearing the Portuguese flag. It is said that a treaty is on foot for that purpose with Portugal, but if that should fail, existing treaties would bear us out in the capture of such vessels.

But supposing these two measures should be successful,

as you think they would be, in putting an end to the Slave Trade, what do you recommend next? You recommend that a new trade should be proposed to the natives in exchange for that of the Slave Trade, in the productions of their soil; that is, by means of agriculture, by which their wants, and more than their usual wants, would be supplied, so that when the new trade should come fairly into play, they would find, practically find, that it was more than a compensation for the old; and that the rise of this new trade should immediately follow the downfall of the Slave Trade. But how is this new trade to be brought about? You answer by treaties with the native chiefs; by subsidies to some of them, which, though they would be important, would be of trifling amount; by purchasing land, which, though extensive, would be attended with little cost; by introducing settlements among them, by which their industry would be directed to the proper objects of cultivation, and that cultivation improved by our skill; by which their youth would be educated, their manners and habits civilized, and the gospel be widely spread among them.

There is no doubt that if all these things could be accomplished, not only the Slave Trade would be abolished, but the natives would never wish to return to it. Now you have shown by historical proofs that all these things have been already done in many instances in different parts of Africa, and that the results have been highly favourable, and this, without any particular pains being taken, except at Sierra Leone; in fact, without any but ordinary stimulus being given, the natives being left to their own will and pleasure, and without any other incitement than the protection which a settlement in this vicinity afforded them, and a simple declaration, "that they should be paid for their labour." What would be the case then, were a great company established in England, whose constant object

would be to excite their energies by the prospect of a suitable reward, and by instructing them how to earn it?

Let us now see what these historical proofs are (and I shall quote from them very briefly) on which you place so much reliance. Sierra Leone offers itself for consideration first. You say that "the accounts, soon after the settlement was formed there, stated that the natives crowded round the colony, both for education and for trade, and that the beneficial effect upon them in inducing them to quit slave trading, was instantaneous. That effect has been continued, and has extended in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone to a very considerable distance round the colony. Traders bring down ivory, gold-dust, and palm oil as usual. Of late years a very important branch has been added to the legal trade for the cutting of timber for the British Navy, &c. &c.

"In the year formed at St.

The river Gambia presents itself next. 1814," says Mr. Bandinel, "a colony was Mary's on this river. This colony has increased and flourished beyond all reasonable calculation, and is already more powerful and wealthy than any of those older settlements of the British in Africa, which were formed for the purpose of promoting the Slave Trade."-" The beneficial effects of this settlement at St. Mary's on all the tribes along the banks of the Gambia, are perhaps still more prominent than those which have taken place round Sierra Leone."

In the year 1833, a mission in connexion with the Wesleyan Society was established at Mac Carthy's island. "Before the abolition of the Slave Trade," says the Rev. Mr. Macbriar, "there were considerable factories here, but now that the slave market is abolished, and the natives can find a ready market for the produce of their lands by means of the British merchants, the cultivation of the soil increases every year; and the aborigines have been heard