CHAP. VI.

ON the admission of the Maroons, whose arrival had thus preserved the peace of the colony, the Governor and Council hoped to procure for them the island of Bananas, about thirty miles to the south of Freetown; but in this hope they were disappointed, through an alarm raised in the minds of the Natives by the Slave-traders. They then turned their thoughts to the Bulam shore (which forms the north bank of the river Sierra Leone), where a purchase of land had been made a long time before. But as the Natives had there also been led to entertain great fears of the Maroons, it was doubtful whether the settlement would be effected without opposition.

The favourable testimonies, therefore, of the officers who conducted them to Sierra Leone, their own anxious desire to be placed under the immediate protection of the Company, and the actual services which they had rendered it, disposed the Governor and Council to grant them lands on the same side of the river with the Company's settlement, where, under the immediate eye of the Government, they would not only be less liable to an attack from the Natives, but more likely to improve in habits of subordination and civilized life *.

Town lots were accordingly marked out for them in Granvilletown, November 1800, and farms allotted to them near that place.

After the disappointments already experienced in the instance of the Nova Scotia settlers, the Directors were not disposed to form any sanguine hopes respecting the Maroons. Their conduct, however, proved to be regular and satisfactory. They built a neat town for themselves, and began to cultivate their farms with spirit.

* Report, 1801.

About this time, the liberality of the British Government was again excited toward the struggling colony, by a memorial on the part of the Company; and a parliamentary grant of 4000l. was obtained for the support of its civil establishment; which grant there was reason to hope would be annual. Provision was made for defraying the expense of settling the Maroons in its territory. A sum of 10,000%. was granted to indemnify the Company for a part of its heavy expenditure in the first settling of the Nova Scotians; and a further sum of 70001. was voted toward building a fort *.

This timely relief was of essential importance. Besides the destruction of property caused by the French squadron in 1794, the colony had suffered the loss of several richly-laden vessels at sea during the three last years of war. The progress of cultivation had also been checked, in consequence of the recal of the native labourers by their chiefs: and the advance of the schools was retarded by the want of sufficient teachers. But as soon as the favourable disposition of the British Government was made known in the colony, a new spring was given to industry and hope ‡.

The Governor and Council were anxious to employ the new authority with which they had been invested by the Charter, in introducing a firmer system of order; and they were beginning to witness its happy effects, when a sudden blow was again aimed at the very existence of the settlement, by some neighbouring native chiefs, who had not previously alleged any cause of complaint. On the 18th of November, 1801, about day-break, a body of Natives, headed by two of the late Nova-Scotia insurgents who had effected their escape, made an assault on the palisades of the Governor's house. After

* Report, 1801.

+ In the year 1798, three or four hundred native labourers, called Grumettas, worked in the settlement, chiefly on the farms, which were increasing rapidly; some in the service of the Europeans, and some in that of the Nova Scotians. These native labourers were freemen, who dame from neighbouring parts, and received monthly wages, the whole of which was their own. -Report, 1804.

Nearly at this time a newspaper was begun to be published once every fortnight; and propositions were sent to England for furnishing it to subscribers at seven shillings per annum. -Report, 1801.

some loss on both sides, the assailants were repulsed, and were pursued till they had withdrawn from the situation they before occupied in the neighbourhood of the colony. In March 1802, a truce was concluded with them; and some additional troops having arrived from Goree, the peace of the colony was restored.

But it was conceived that the chiefs, who had made this unforeseen attack, were still busy in exciting among their countrymen an apprehension of the growing power of the Sierra Leone settlement; and the Directors were induced again to have recourse to Parliament for the means of greater exertions. In May 1802, they petitioned for an enlargement of the pecuniary grant of 4000l. which had been paid to them for the two preceding years. On this occasion they delivered a statement in detail, respecting the colony, in which they showed as well the difficulties that had been experienced, as the progress that had been made. After considering its actual state and prospects, under the heads of trade, cultivation, and civilization, they next set forth the advantages, in a national and political view, of maintaining the settlement by adequate provision for its support*: and having shown that there was reason to hope for great and extensive benefit from a firm maintenance of the colony, they threw themselves on the protection of the British Government, submitting to it the question, "whether the work which they had begun might be considered as a ground on which the Parliament of Great Britain ought to proceed; and adding this remarkable and decisive declaration-that "unless the colony was likely to be rendered permanently safe, the Directors were of opinion that it ought to be relinquished †.”

"The nation which possesses Sierra Leone, may command, in a considerable degree, the trade of a large part of Africa, and will enjoy a paramount influence throughout the whole line of coast from Gambia to Cape Palmas. No other situation on the whole coast, from the Mediterranean to the Equator (not less than three thousand miles), possesses the same advantages. Should the colony be abandoned, there will be no British station between Gibraltar and the Gold Coast, and no convenient and safe harbour between the same place and the Cape of Good Hope."-Report, 1804.

+ Ibid.

A Committee of the House of Commons being appointed to investigate the merits of the petition, and having returned a favourable report of the prospects of the settlement, a sum of 10,000l. was, on the 11th of June 1802, granted for that year.

On this encouragement, the Governor and Council were instructed to pursue the most effectual means of giving security to the colony by erecting works of defence, as well as to renew their efforts for civilization and agriculture.

In the mean time, notwithstanding the truce which had been concluded with the Native Chiefs in March 1802, the colony was attacked, in the following month, with a force amounting to more than four hundred men, among whom were eleven of the rebel settlers who had been banished from the settlement. The attack was sudden and vigorous, but the assailants were fortunately again repulsed with great loss. The spirits of the settlers, however, in consequence of this second attack, were so greatly damped, that they abandoned their farms, and the idea of evacuating the colony became general.

Soon after this period an officer arrived, who had been sent over by Government to examine and report the state of the settlement; and his report was such as to induce the Minister (Mr. Addington) to suspend the grant, which the Directors had conceived to be annual, until another parliamentary inquiry should take place. This inquiry was not instituted till toward the end of 1803; and the report was made in 1804.

Previously to the inquiry, the Directors had strongly urged to his Majesty's Ministers the expediency of transferring the civil and military power of the Company to the British Government, leaving to the Company the care of the commerce, cultivation, and civilization of the colony. The only condition they required was, that security should be given on the part of Government against any admission of the Slave Trade or slavery within the colony. The communications on this subject continued during the succeeding year, but led to no conclusion; and in the mean time the Directors were perplexed as to

the line of conduct which they ought to pursue, while (from the suspension of the expected grant froni Parliament) the affairs of the colony became every day more embarrassed, on account of the insufficiency of the Company's funds to defray the necessary expenses of the establishment.

Urged therefore by the view of the approaching distress of the colony, as well as by the peculiar title to protection which both the Maroons and Nova-Scotians possessed, (all of whom had been induced to come to Sierra Leone in the firmest confidence on the support of the British Government,) the Directors, in the year 1803, drew up a very spirited representation on the subject, which was likewise laid before the Committee of the House of Commons*. Notwithstanding the heavy discouragements which had attended the first efforts to establish a settlement of Free Negroes on the coast, too many circumstances presented themselves of a different cast, to suffer the hopes of such an establishment to be wholly relinquished by the British Nation. The centric situation of Sierra Leone, its safe and commodious harbour, the valuable productions of the surrounding country, rendered it highly important to Great Britain; especially in the view of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, in which case the germ of civilization planted there would prove invaluable. But,

* The statement of the Directors gave a very satisfactory account of what had been effected to answer the purposes of the last parliamentary grant. Captain Day, an officer of his Majesty's Navy, had gone out as Governor, and, by the vigorous measures which he had taken for rendering the colony secure against any future attack from the Natives, had restored confidence both to the Settlers and to the Chiefs who had been friendly to it; and had induced the greater part of those who had entered into a confederacy against it, to sue for peace. The spirits of the colonists were of course revived, the Native free labourers returned to their employ on the farms, and cultivation was successfully resumed.

An accession of territory having been gained by the Company during the late hostilities, in that part of the peninsula which lies between Freetown and Sierra Leone, lands were allotted in that district to the Maroons, who are stated to have proved a valuable acquisition to the colony, by their submission to the laws and general good conduct.

Captain Day returned to England on the declaration of war against France, and Mr. Ludlam resumed the government of the colony.

The Committee, of which the present Marquis of Lansdown was chairman, entered into a very minute and laborious investigation of the state and prospects of the colony. Among others, Captain Hallowell, whose unfavourable report had induced Mr. Addington to suspend the grant, was examined at great length.-Report, 1804.