It is difficult to reconcile these statements with the fact, that at the very time this Report was given to the public, accounts had been received in England, of a General Public Meeting of the Inhabitants of Sierra Leone, having been convened by the Mayor and Aldermen of Freetown, the capital of the Settlement, to consider what measures ought to be adopted, in consequence of information having been received, that these very captured negroes, whom the Directors of the African Institution state to be persons" possessed of such proper feel

ings;"* who had made such manifest progress in civilization and the arts of social life, who were so comfortable and so useful," who were "as happy, as comfortably settled, and as likely "to rise in the Colony, as any persons in it," had joined the neighbouring natives in a conspiracy to massacre all the white inhabitants of the Settlement. At this meeting, resolutions were entered into, and sent to the Governor, recommending that arms should be distributed to the White Men, the Maroons, and the Nova Scotia Settlers; and that the captured negroes should be kept in the Fort,. after a certain hour in the evening. The Governor, considering this proceeding as an illegal interference with his authority, fined the Mayor for presiding at it; who, conceiving the right to hold Public

* Report IX. P. 55.

Meetings, for the purpose of presenting petitions, or remonstrances, to be perfectly constitutional, sent home a Memorial to His Majesty's Government, praying relief.

These circumstances made too much noise at Sierra Leone, to render it probable that they should be wholly unknown to the Directors of. the African Institution. The Meeting at Sierra Leone, was held in December, 1814. The Ninth Report of the African Institution, though read to a Meeting of the Subscribers in April, was not published till August, 1815, after the account of these transactions had arrived. So that this New Jerusalem, where, according to the Report of the African Institution, Mercy and Peace have met together, Righteousness and Truth have kissed each other, was known, at the very moment when they issued these accounts to the public, to be a scene of civil commotion, conspiracy, and discord. Had not the suggestions of candour, been overruled by the love of popularity, this Report would have been accompanied by an acknowledgment, that the flattering representations it contained, had been contradicted by subsequent events.

A favourite project of the Sierra Leone Company and African Institution, is that of raising

West India produce in Africa. This is avowed in Mr. Ludlam's letter, who says, "The true..

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question is, whether it be an object of national importance, not merely to establish new Sugar "and Coffee Plantations, though this be a part "of the design, but to extend British Commerce “and influence in this quarter of the globe." The same purpose is also acknowledged in Mr. Macaulay's letter to him, dated February 27, 1807;* and hinted at in the Reports of the Directors of the African Institution.† This project would have been greatly facilitated, by the adoption of the system of ransoming the natives of Africa, and binding them to compulsory labour for a term of years; which both Mr. Ludlam and Mr. Macaulay, vindicated and laboured to establish. They were probably fully aware, that the expectations so fondly cherished by some of the Directors, and the flattering accounts given in some of their Reports, of the progress actually made in the industry of the natives, were fallacious; and that compulsory labour alone, would secure the success of any agricultural undertakings in Africa. This part of the plan has been abandoned, on account of the objections made to it on the score of prin

* Letter to the Duke of Gloucester, Appendix, p. 18. + Report I. p. 41, and Report II. p. 18.

The agents of the Sierra Leone Company having been charged with entertaining views of this description, Governor Thompson instituted an inquiry into the truth of the charges, an F

ciple; but the plan itself is still contemplated, and a bold effort was lately made to encourage its execution, by giving it peculiar advantages.

abstract of which is given in the Appendix to Mr. Grant's Account of some Recent Transactions in Sierra Leone, p. 85 to 106. The following is an extract from the decision of the Court.

"After reconsidering the evidence produced before this Court, we have no hesitation in declaring, that there appears to this Court to have existed a plan, digested, connected, premeditated, organized, for procuring the Abolition of the General Slave Trade of Africa and the West Indies, and for establishing on its ruins, a monopoly in favour of this colony, and of such other settlements upon the coast of Africa, as the persons concerned did expect should be committed to their management; but with intent to promote the cultivation of tropical productions by Slaves in Àfrica, in opposition to the cultivation by Slaves carried on in the West Indian colonies, with the advantages of having the raw material, the slave, 'at their doors, and of having thrown all competitors out of the market. We have marked the unravelling of the plot, in the purchases of many slaves before the transfer of the colony, in the purchase of a whole cargo afterwards, in the letters which here substantiate the fact, that they who did not know that the period of the Abolition of the Slave Trade was the proper period to begin the direct purchasing of the slaves, did somewhat misconceive our ideas in England upon that subject;' in the assertion of the Court of Directors, that the money paid for the slaves, to the sailors of the ships of war, was a 'premium of apprenticeship; and above all, in the anxiety displayed, both in time past, and at this moment, to introduce such measures as should prevent'all attempts to revise what has been done,' and all endeavours to promote investigation."

- This plan of the Sierra Leone Company is not new, but borrowed from the Jesuits in South America; as appears from the authority of an eminent modern writer. By the laws, there can be no Indian slaves in the Spanish colonies; and yet by a singular abuse, two species of wars, very different in appearance, give rise to a state very much like that of the African slave. The missionary monks of South America.

Just before the close of the last Session of Parliament, a Bill was brought into the House of Commons, called the African Goods Bill; a title which attracted no attention on the part of the West India interest, as the only goods imported from Africa are dye-woods, gums, beeswax, palm-oil, Guinea grains, ivory, and gold dust. This Bill passed through the House of Commons with extraordinary rapidity,having been read four successive stages in four successive days, with

make, from time to time, incursions into the countries possessed by peaceable tribes of Indians, whom they call savages, (Indios bravos,) because they have not learned to make the sign of the cross like the equally naked Indians of the missions, (Indios reducidos.) In these nocturnal incursions, dictated by the most culpable fanaticism, they lay hold of all whom they can surprise, especially children, women, and old men. They separate, without pity, children from their mothers, lest they should concert together as to the means of escape. The monk who is chief of this expedition, distributes the young people among the Indians of his mission, who have the most contributed to the success of the Entrados. On the Oronoco, and the banks of the Portuguese Rio Negro, these prisoners bear the name of Poitos; and they are treated like slaves, till they are of an age to marry. The desire of having Poitos, and making them work for eight or ten years, induces the Indians of the missions to excite the monks to these incursions."* Thus the union of interest with fanaticism, produces the same effects in all countries; and Humboldt's narrative of these transactions in South America, is just the counterpart of the Sierra Leone project, of redeeming the negroes of Africa, from a regard to their civilization and conversion, but binding them to work out their salvation, by fourteen years hard labour, for the benefit of those who take this pious interest in their welfare.

*Humboldt's Political Essay on New Spain, vol. i. p. 237.