necessaries that we have; though, God knows, they are not much, for we are almost naked of every thing.

"I must now inform you of my misfortune that happened after Captain Thompson's departure from us, as I was left chief in command. Our people was served out muskets, every man as he was able to carry arms, and there was remaining about eighty-nine spare ones them I had secured in our store-house as well as I could, though it was very poorly secured, so that I proposed having them brought up to my own house for better security; and when I came to muster the people to do this, I could get not one person to assist, neither would they, except one or two that lived in my house. Was obliged to do it; and, on examining the muskets, found there was only thirty-six remaining. There was sixty-three muskets stolen by our people, by whom I knew not. After that, Mr. Weaver and Mr. Johnson held with the people, and told them that I had made away with them myself, and got them under arms against me; and they rised on me, and seized my house, and took it from me, and all what little I had in the world, and sold it, to pay for those things that was lost, all which I suppose you have heard of before this time. But when you receive this, you will be a better judge, and I hope you will take it into consideration.

“After they broke me, they thought to have God's blessing, as they said. The first thing was a young lad found shot, lying in the woods, but never found who was the person that did it. The second was, they got in a little trouble with King Tom, and he catched two of them, and sold them on board a Frenchman bound for the West Indies. The third was, five of them went up to Bance Island, and broke open a factory belonging to one Captain Boys, and stole a number of things; but they were detected, and Captain Boys sold the whole five of them," &c. &c.

[The remainder of the letter entreats a supply of necessaries, and encloses a will of William Ramsay in favour of the writer, bequeathing to him all property lying in the Treasury, &c.]

Such as the foregoing letters have displayed, was the general temper of the colony; and such, in chief, the detail of what had passed among the settlers, who, by the unfortunate loss of their conductor Irwin, had been left entirely to their own controul, and with no other rule of guidance than the written instructions which Mr. Sharp had delivered to them before their departure from England.

Mr. Sharp, it is obvious, although discouraged, did not despair of final success. He still preserved a confidence in the conduct of the settlers, if enabled to withstand the difficulties which surrounded them, and he made, as will be further shewn, the most strenuous exertions for the recruit of their strength and support of their settlement.

SAILING OF THE MYRO.

.-1788. " May 1. Waited this day on Sir Charles Middleton, Lord Hawkesbury, and Mr. Pitt, about the sailing of the Myro." "June 2. The Myro brig fell down from Blackwall. I took leave of the Captain."

" June 3. Sent on board the King George, Gravesend boat, twelve hogsheads of porter, a present from Samuel Whitbread, Esq. to the new settlement, to overtake the brig Myro. N. B. Mr. Whitbread had before given fifty guineas *.'

"6th. Received 2001. from the Treasury for the new contract with Captain Taylor.

"7th. The Myro sailed this day from the Downs, with a fair wind." Letter sent by the Myro to the worthy Inhabitants of the Province of Freedom, on the Mountains † of Sierra Leone.

"Dear Friends,

"Leadenhall Street, London, 16th May, 1788. "Ever since your departure from England, in April 1787, I have been exceedingly anxious for your welfare; but more particularly so, since the return

*

G. S. to Samuel Whitbread, Esq. Portman Square.

"June 5, 1788.

"Dear Sir, "Yesterday the two servants whom I sent down to the Myro brig at Gravesend, to deliver your very kind and princely present of porter for the new settlement at Sierra Leone, returned, and brought the enclosed receipt from the mate, in the absence of the master. I wrote a letter to the passengers on board, informing them that your generous donation is intended for the benefit of the whole settlement; that they must be careful that the most temperate and proper use be made of it for the general good, and that they must endeavour to exchange it with the Natives for rice, and also for such articles of commerce as may prove of the most advantage to the settlement.

"My letter was read aloud to the passengers, and they seemed truly thankful for the noble proof of your benevolence.

"With great respect," &c. &c.

"G.

S."*

Is it probable, from the mention here made of the fifty guineas, that the former donation of one hundred guineas (p. 318) was likewise from Mr. Whitbread?

† Alluding to the situation which Captain Thompson bad at first fixed on.

of his Majesty's sloop Nautilus, by which I received a melancholy account of many deaths, which happened soon after your first arrival, as well as during the voyage. This extraordinary sickness, I fear, may be too truly attributed to the imprudence of those who daily consumed their full allowance of salt provisions, as well as of rum, against which I repeatedly warned many of them before they sailed. Certainly the climate of Sierra Leona is not chargeable with this great mortality of the settlers; for the disorder among them commenced long before you reached the African coast; and it appears that his Majesty's sloop Nautilus lost but one man during all the time she was at Sierra Leone, from the 8th of May to the 16th of September.

"The reduction of your numbers since that time, as I am informed, has been chiefly occasioned, not by sickness, but by desertion, probably through the difficulty of procuring fresh provisions and lest the same cause should occasion a total desertion of the settlement, my earnest desire to prevent it has induced me to charter the Myro brig at my own expense, to carry passengers to recruit the new settlement; and I have shipped two months' provisions for sixty persons (as about that number had given their names, though little more than half the number have kept their word), with arms, bedding, clothing, and other necessaries, for such of them as might be destitute. I have, besides, advanced one hundred and ninety dollars, for purchasing live stock at the Cape de Verd Islands, which, I am informed, will procure about one thousand fowls, thirty head of small cattle for breeding (viz. sheep, goats, and swine), and a bull, with two cows and calves, which are as many as the vessel can conveniently carry, with the passengers on board. This live stock I propose to send for the common benefit, and desire that proper persons may be appointed by your common council (with a sufficient salary from the tax-labour for their trouble) to take charge separately of each species of cattle and fowls, and to feed and preserve them in distinct flocks, according to their species, that they may breed and increase for the public benefit.

"I must also request that you will take due care that no individual shall appropriate to himself any of the said cattle or fowls, until he shall have duly indentured for as many days' labour to your public bank as you shall judge the animals to be really worth; adding to the first cost a calculation of the average proportion of freight, insurance, &c. and a profit besides of at least twenty per cent. or else fifty per cent. upon the cost, in order to include freight, insurance, and profit, according to the general custom of the African coast; which will be: a fair means of gradually distributing the animals for private property, to prevent

disputes among yourselves, and at the same time will be the means of enriching your public bank for the common benefit of all the settlement. So great an advance as fifty per cent. may, perhaps, seem too high and inconvenientto individuals in the present case; but as you yourselves alone are to reap the benefit of it, in your joint capacity as a community, I trust that the common council of the settlement will think it prudent to avail themselves of this fair opportunity to establish their bank, by taking indents to the full amount of what I have proposed, for all the cattle that are taken by individuals.

As I have thus incurred a very great expense, not only this year, but also on your first embarkation last year, without the least view of any private interest to myself, but rather for a general good, in promoting a just and honourable trade in African productions, in contradistinction to the Slave Trade, and also for the peculiar advantage of yourselves and the settlers, I trust you will be so sensible of this, that you will not deny my earnest request to you, as a favour to myself, that you will readily admit all the persons that are now passengers on board the Myro, People of Colour as well as White, together with the captain, mates, and such of the seamen as desire it, to an equal share with yourselves in the settlement, gratis, agreeably to what is proposed in page 122 of the additional regulations; and (as the rainy season will probably be set in) that you will also receive them into your houses, and afford them the best accommodation you can give, with assistance to procure shelter also for their goods, cattle, and fowls; and to aid them in erecting houses for themselves, as soon as the weather will permit."

[Mr. Sharp here proceeds to request free lots for the several persons whose arrival at the Province of Freedom might be expected at an ensuing period*.]

* Among those who are particularly named are, "the Rev. Mr. Thomas Clarkson, a gentleman who has eminently distinguished himself, by several excellent publications, as an able, strenuous, and successful advocate for the liberty and natural rights of the Negroes, and who at present is prevented from joining the settlement by his continued indefatigable exertions in the same just cause, as a member of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade; to which Society a continuance of his assistance is at present indispensibly necessary;"-" Lieutenant John Clarkson of the Royal Navy, brother to the Rev. Mr. Clarkson above mentioned, a gentleman every way qualified to render you very essential service, as a member of your free community;""Mr. Peter Nassau, son of Peter King of Massurada;-Mr. William Johnson, a Mulatto, who redeemed him from slavery in the West Indies;-Henry Martin Burrows, a poor Negro, saved this year from slavery, by a writ of Habeas Corpus, from on board a Honduras ship;"-" also twelve Swedish gentlemen of rank, great learning, and abilities (several of them members of Universities, whose names are enclosed), and whose free admission will be highly beneficial to the settlement in general, and will probably be a means of opening to you an extensive

"The late alarming desertions from the settlement made me apprehensive that all the rest would be obliged to disperse in like manner, unless a speedy supply of live stock, with some recruits, could be immediately sent out. This induced me to exert my utmost endeavours for your support, which will cost me near 9007. all of which is out of my own pocket, except one hundred guineas which were given me by a generous friend toward the promotion of your settlement.

"And further, as I feared that the live stock already mentioned (notwithstanding the great expense) would be too small a quantity for an effectual aid to the settlement, and as the Myro would not be able to carry more during the existence of my first charter-party, I applied to his Majesty's Treasury for 2001. in behalf of the settlement, which I conceived would purchase as much as the Myro would be able to carry, with allowance of freight, risque, &c. This sum has been granted to me; and as I found afterwards that it would require 30%. more to make such a contract with the master of the Myro as might leave a probability of his obtaining an adequate profit for his risque and charges, I have taken upon myself to pay whatever exceeds the 2001. and have accordingly entered into a second charter-party with Captain Taylor, to deliver alive at the Province five hundred head of small cattle, and five hundred fowls, at 10s. per head for the cattle (the fowls to be included for that price.)

"Thus the money which I have now given on my own part, together with what I have procured, for your present relief, is more than fourteen times the first purchase of your whole territory; so that I cannot conceive that you will deny my earnest and repeated request of admitting all the present passengers in the Myro, and all the other persons mentioned in this letter, when they arrive, to equal shares with yourselves in the Province of Freedom, gratis. "Your sincere friend and servant,

66 GRANVILLE SHARP

The letter from Weaver (as stated to Dr. Lettsom) arrived soon after the sailing of the Myro, and Mr. Sharp's application to Mr. Pitt instantly followed.

communication with the internal parts of Africa, which they (with the most benevolent intentions toward the Natives) mean to explore."

* This letter to the first settlers was enclosed in another addressed" To the Passengers on Board the Myro;" in which, after expressing the warmest solicitude for their welfare, Mr. Sharp enters into the most minute detail for the regulation of their conduct, both during their voyage and after they shall have reached the settlement.-See extract in the Appendix.