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CHA P.
XI.

SIERRA LE-
ΟΝΑ.

tion and civilization

advance.

tended.

Several towns near the Company's plantation

are very much increased, by the natives who work for the are very company, and by many others. The natives are alfo more Yet popula difpofed than before, to settle on the fides of the river. A fense of fecurity gains ground, and they are less averse to the bush round their towns being cut down, which they always confidered as affording a refuge against being furprized and made flaves. The difficulty indeed of landing on the Bullom fhore, by leffening European intercourse, has rendered the natives lefs violent, and kept them more fober and induftrious than their oppofite neighbours. They are generally disposed to enter into the views of the government of Sierra Leona, and give little credit to the flave-traders, who tell them that the Company have injurious defigns. One of them makes it a principle neither to Natives de- fell, nor to keep a flave. They appear to defire a fecond plantation. plantation, for which their king has lately ceded another square mile of land. In a small garden of experiment, near Freetown, many native plants and feeds are attentively cultivated, under the eye of an able botanist (See § 369) from whofe labours fome future benefits may be expected to the Company, or colony, as well as to the science he profeffes. The Directors, with His Majefty's permiffion, have obtained from the royal gardens at Kew, fome valuable tropical plants, especially that important one, the bread-fruit tree.

fire a fecond

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430. They cannot yet report any confiderable progress in cultivation, either by the Nova Scotians, or the natives on their own account. Much of the industry of the colonists has been applied to the building of the town, of which fome description may be proper. It is fituated on a dry defcribed. and rather elevated spot, on the south side of the river, and occupies between 70 and 80 acres, it's length being about

Freetown

one

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.ONA.

one third of a mile, and it's breath nearly the fame. It CHA P. contains near 400 houses, each having one twelfth of an acre annexed, on which a few vegetables are raised. There are nine streets, running from N. W. to S. E. and three cross streets, and they are 80 feet wide, except one, which runs within 50 feet of the river, and which is 160 feet wide. (See the Plan Plate II.) In the broad ftreet are almost all the public buildings, confifting of a church, near the middle, capable of containing 800 people; a governor's house and offices; a large store-house, under which, and the governor's house, there are brick ftore-cellars; a large hospital, and 6 or 8 other wooden houses, offices and shops, occupied by the Company's fervants. The frames of all these buildings went from England, as alfo four canvas houses, or rather rooms *. One public building is compofed of the country materials; but this and the canvas houses are decaying, while all the other buildings, being framed of wood prepared in England, feem likely to laft for fome years. The houses of the colonists were at first inferior, but are now far fuperior, to those of the natives. A few have been repaired and enlarged; but most of them have been rebuilt, their general fcite having been changed by the government. Indeed the first huts of the Nova Sco- and houses. tians were merely temporary, wattled, plaiftered with clay, and thatched with long grafs. On an average, they might be about 18 feet by 12, and the labour might be worth 40 fhillings. The fides and floors of the present houses (for they are all floored) are of country timber; and, to exclude damp, they are raised a foot or two from the ground. (See 84.) Many are already roofed with boards or fhingles,

* See in the Append. Notes, &c. respecting S. Leona and Bulama, NOTE Y.

as

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ONA.

CHA P. as all of them are intended to be; but most of them, for the present, are thatched. Only a few have chimneys; yet, during the rains, a fire is commonly used, the smoke issuing through the thatch, or by the door and windows. They are generally from 20 to 30 feet long, from 12 to 15 wide; are mostly divided into two rooms, and the average coft of each, for building and materials, may be about £10.

Town land.

431. Of the land immediately surrounding the town, a portion has been reserved to the Company. This, exclufive of the remote parts directly fouth, where the reserved land has no boundary, but the distant one prescribed in the grant, may be about 200 acres. Part of it is the land before mentioned, that was intended for a cotton plantation, but now occupied by the N. Scotians. Only a fmall part of these 200 acres is cultivated; but the whole was early cleared, which * doubtless promoted the healthiness of the colony; and the prudent reservation of this land may hereafter be found of importance, especially in enlarging the town, if neceffary.-The lots given to the Nova Scotians lie on the S. E. of Freetown, all the western district being pofsessed by the natives, and the southern being thought too mountainous for present cultivation. The nearest of these lots is about of a mile from the town, and the most diftant about 2 miles. They occupy in all, about 4 square miles, or 2560 acres, and are each of them acceffible by a path 10 feet broad, cut with great labour and expense. Only a few of the lots nearest the town have been yet tolerably cleared and cultivated.

* with the elevation of the houses, mentioned in the preceding § 340. C. B. W.

342. To

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for cultiva

432. To excite emulation in culture, the government CHA P. gave premiums, the first year, to those colonists who raised the most rice, yams, eddoes, cabbages, Indian corn and cotton, respectively. All the premiums amounted to about Premiums £100, and they appeared to have fo good an effect, that tion. they are intended to be repeated in the second season, with a few variations, fuggefted by the first year's experience. (See § 301, 302.)

of natives

433. Of the progrefs of cultivation among the natives, it Cultivation can hardly be expected that much can yet be said. Indeed fluctuating. the fize of their plantations has varied so much annually, that any appearance of their increasing industry, in one season, should not be too confidently ascribed, either to the new demands of the colonists, or to the Company's example. Rice, the chief crop on the coaft, has varied in price, from 40 fhill. per ton, to no less than £25, or even £30. This is partly owing to the difference of seasons, but ftill more to the inability of the Africans to compute the probable demand; a plentiful year fometimes betraying them into neglect of cultivation, and a scarce one seldom failing to produce fuperfluous cultivation, the next year.

434. The establishment of a commercial factory on the coaft, to form contracts with the natives, to observe the extent of cultivation, and to buy up the furplus produce for exportation, will tend, as the Directors truft, to excite a more regular industry, and gradually to produce the most important confequences.

Under this head, the Directors will speak of the co435. lonial government; of the character of the colonists; of civilization, with the miferable flate to which the Africans have

Factory to

buy up furplus produce of natives.

CIVILIZA

ΤΙΟΝ.

been

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CHA P. been reduced by their intercourse with the Europeans; concluding with an account of the steps taken to introduce Christianity and civilization among the natives, of whofe capacity and docility fome fatisfactory information will be given.

ONA.

jurymen,

436. The Directors have yet received no exprefs powers from Parliament, for governing Sierra Leona. They have confidered, as they were bound, that the British conftitution, as far as it applies to the circumstances, is of course transferred thither, and equally to black and to white colonifts. The Nova Scotia blacks, though poffeffing very little Blacks act as knowledge of the British laws, have acted as jurymen, one of the Company's chief fervants always being the judge. The punishments have been mild, rather pecuniary than corporal: the verdicts have been generally very just, and, on the whole, the Nova Scotians, as jurymen, have proved the propriety and prudence of extending to them a privilege which they fo much value. It may be prefumed, that the acquaintance with British law gained by the Nova Scotians, in the periodical feffions of the peace, will improve their minds, and, in conjunction with other kinds of knowledge, operate as an auxiliary to civilization.

and as tything-men and hundredors,

and as militia.

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437. To introduce internal police, every ten householders have been inftructed to chufe annually a tithingman, and every ten tithing-men a hundredor (see § 167, 191.) Of the last there are three, answering to about 300 householders in the colony. The hundredors are confulted by the government, in cafes which concern the interests of the Nova Scotians.

438. The defence of the colony is neceffarily entrusted to the Nova Scotians alfo. Their arms are always ready; and, though their courage has not been actually tried, their

alacrity

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