A History of Sierra Leone

Citation preview

/

nARIN COUNTY FREE LIBRARY

Christopher Fvfe OXFORD

:

AT THE

CLARENDON

PRESS

69 oiS The

Leone peninsula was in 1787 by settlers of African origin. After 1807 it became the centre to which slaves from all over West Africa, captured Sierra

colonized from Britain

by the British navy

In transit

across

vO

=

3 O O

(

I

the Atlantic, were brought to be freed, to start a

new

life

familiar conditions. This tal

under un-

monumen-

history of Sierra Leone, the first

to be published on such a scale.

= n

J

Is

written with particular emphasis on

the liberated Africans and their descendants, the Sierra Leone Creoles,

and on their contribution to the history of

West

Africa.

M O.U.P.

105/

RETURN TO CENTRAL DATE DUE

96

A history of Sierra Leone Oxford Univ. Press [cl962] maps. 773p«,

[London]

Bibliography: p. 621-639.

1.

Sierra Leone

GS 2/68

Hist.

I. Title

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2010

http://www.archive.org/details/historyofsierralOOfyfe

A HISTORY OF SIERRA LEONE

A HISTORY OF

SIERRA LEONE BY

CHRISTOPHER FYFE

/Warm County h^e Horary wvsc Cenier _

Aomu^mm

^"

«^afael.

BuMml

California

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Oxford University

Press, Ely House,

London W.

i

GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON

TOWN

CAPE

IBADAN NAIROBI

SALISBURY

LUSAKA ADDIS ABABA

BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA KUALA LUMPUR HONG KONG TOKYO

OXFORD UNIVERSITY

PHESS Iy62

69 51

FIRST PUBLISHED IN I962

AND PRINTED BY HAZEL L, WATSON & VINEY AYLESBURY AND SLOUGH

LTD.

REPRINTED LITHOGRAPHICALLY AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, OXFORD FROM CORRECTED SHEETS OF THE FIRST EDITION 1963, iy6

PRINTED

IN

8

GREAT BRITAIN

PREFACE

THIS book was

I was temporary Government was written after I had left government service, and appears on my own responsibility, iinsponsored by the present independent government of Sierra Leone or by the

planned while

Archivist in Sierra Leone.

late colonial

It

government.

who have helped me write it I must thank my and brother-in-law Margaret and Cyril Mabey. Had they not brought me to Sierra Leone it would never have been written. I must also thank my parents whose roof sheltered me while I was writing. I am particularly indebted to those who have generously put family papers at my disposal Miss Lloyd Baker and Colonel A. B. Lloyd Baker (Granville Sharp papers), the late Mr T. C. Macaulay and Mrs Errington (Macaulay papers), Mr C. E. Wrangham (Wilberforce papers), and Mr and Mrs C. F. C. Letts (Bonner papers). I am also grateful to Miss Ruth Young, Mr Marcus Macaulay, Mr C. TobokuMetzger, Mr and Miss Daly, the Rev. Charles Leopold and the late Mrs Casely-Hayford for family reminiscences. Mr Charles Rhodoway Morrison and Sir Charles Gwynn have given me valuable personal reminiscences; Madam Isa Blyden and Miss Edith Holden have supplied information about Dr Blyden, Mr R. M. Hague about Sir John Jeffcott. I am also grateful to Mr B. Touch of the Countess of Huntingdon's Comiexion, to Monsieur Yves Person, Mr C. R. A. Cole, Mr Stiv Jakobsson, Miss Burton, Dr H. Marwick, Mr H. J. Channon and Mr Edward Hall who provided me witli, or gave Before

I

recall those

sister

—

me I

access to, material

must

also

I

could not have discovered alone.

thank the Committees of the Church Missionary Society

Rosemary Keen and Miss Belcher of the archive department), Methodist Missionary Society, and of the Society for the Propa-

(and Miss

of the

gation of the Gospel for permission to use their archives; the authorities at

Howard

University, Washington, d.c, at the Huntington Library,

San Marino, California,

at

Colonial Williamsburg, and

Library, University of Virginia, for letting their care

me

at the

Alderman

have manuscripts in

microfilmed; the librarian of Hull University for access to the

Thompson

papers; the librarians at the Royal Geographical Society

Rhodes House; Mr B. Cheeseman of the Colonial Office Mr Donald Simpson and the staff of the Royal Commonwealth Society library (and Mrs Simpson who typed out my manuscript); the staffs of the British Museum Manuscript, State Paper, and Reading Rooms and above all the successive members of the staff in the round room at the Public Record Office whose unwearied kindness and efficiency have so sweetened my labours. I owe a special debt to Dr M. C. F. Easmon whose help and encouragement inspired me to conceive the book in its present scope; to Averil Mackenzie-Grieve, John S. Woods, and the late Mr G. R. Mellor for helping me trace elusive documents; to Kenneth Dike whose Trade and and

at

library;

;

Politics in the

Niger Delta

made me

see

my work in a new light;

Peterson for checking some references for

me—but

stimulating conversation and criticism; and to has

let

me

far

more

to

John

for his

John Hargreaves who

use material he has collected in the French national archives,

and has been unfailingly ready with advice and assistance. Anyone who publishes their first book must realize how many there are whose indirect influence' he ought to acknowledge. I recall here particularly Dr Kurt Hahn. C.

F.

NOTE TO SECOND IMPRESSION About twenty small misprints and errors have been corrected for this impression. Once again I am grateful to Professor John Hargreaves, who pointed many of them out to me.

NOTE TO THIRD IMPRESSION Some more I

am

small corrections have been

made

for the third printing.

indebted for them to the published works or personal comments

of Professor Phihp Curtin,

Dr. David Dalby,

Dr. Paul Hair,

Dr.

Marwan Hanna, Mr. Adeleye Ijagbemi, the Reverend Matei Markwei, Monsieur Yves Person, and Mrs. Gail Stewart.

VI

CONTENTS page

Introduction

Chapter

I

I

13

II

38

m

59

IV

88

V

105

VI

127

vn

152

via

180

DC

207

X

239

XI

266

XII

292

xm

317

XIV

343

XV

367

XVI

394

XVII

427

xvm

457

XTK

478

XX

501

XXI

522

xxn

558

xxm

600

Guide to Sources

621

References

640

Index

725

vu

INTRODUCTION

THE

Sierra

Leone peninsula, a small mountainous lump forming of a wide estuary, protrudes abruptly from the

the south shore

The surrounding country is flat, swampy near the sea, for fifty to eighty miles inland. Then it rises, forming here and there mountains higher than those on the peninsula. From them flow roughly parallel rivers, which divide rather than open the West African

coast.

country, in that until twenty or thirty miles of the Atlantic, rocks and rapids obstruct

any but the shallowest

craft.

In the fifteenth century peoples speaking similar languages inhabited

On

and round the peninsula as far south as the Sherbro estuary were Bulom. Inland, and at the Scarcies mouth and northwards were Temne, migrants originally, it is said, from the north-east. Beyond them, up the Scarcies were Limba. In the mountainous country northwards were Susu and Fula (as the the coast.

name

been customarily rendered in Sierra

Fulani, Fulbe, or Peul, has

two peoples whose customs were similar but speech dissimilar. South of the Small Scarcies were Loko, like the Susu of Mande speech. Each seems to have been politically independent. The coastal peoples had similar religions. None were Muslim. Leone),

Portuguese peninsula

voyagers

Serra

in

mid-fifteenth

the

Lyoa from

century

wild-looking,

its

leonine

named

the

mountains

(other explanations have also been fancifully given). Corrupted through

the centuries into

many

without the

— Serra Lyonne, Sierra Leona, — the form Sierra Leone, pronounced

variants

Serre-Lions, Sierraleon, Serillioon

as

final e, has eventually prevailed.

Portuguese traders brought the factures: in return they

Bulom and Temne European manu-

gave slaves and ivory. The Susu,

regularly with the coastal peoples, bartering for

by the

Fula,

and iron worked from the

salt,

who

cloths

traded

woven

ferriferous rocks in their

also supplied a little gold. The Portuguese government claimed a trading monopoly, built a fort on the north shore of

coimtry,

the estuary, but abandoned it. Individual Portuguese defied the monopoly and settled down, trading and intermarrying with the inhabitants.

By

the early sixteenth century

some were

living in a

Bulom town on

— the south shore,

where

down from the mountains. Bulom who carved in ivory.

stream flowed

a

There were fine craftsmen among the The Portuguese commissioned them to make cellars

ornate spoons and

with European designs which they copied in

their

of African and European art. European ships were attracted to this watering-place,

own

salt-

style

a rare blend

anchorage on a largely surf-bound

coast.

Once

a sheltered

past the treacherous

rocks at the estuary mouth, they kept close to the southern shore avoiding the shoals in the middle, along the sandy bays below the mountains. It

became

a trading-centre.

Portuguese acting

Towards

as

The

chief in control was assured of trade, the

intermediaries between

him and

ship's-captains.

the mid-sixteenth century the coastal peoples

Portuguese called

(^apijis

(whom

the

or Sapes) were invaded by an inland people

whom the Portuguese called Manes. Having conquered the country round Cape Mount (about 150 miles south of the peninsula), they set off in war canoes up the Atlantic coast. Ferocious fighters. known also as *Sumbas' (which meant cannibals), they devastated Sherbro Island and the watering-place. As they went, Portuguese ships followed to enslave refugees: the Bulom king gave himself up as a slave rather than fall into their hands. Having conquered Bulom, Terrnie and Loko, they were defeated by the Susu and Fula. The Susu thenceforth took their trade to the Rio Nunez, about 200 miles to the north. The Manes were too few to people their conquered lands. Their king, Flansire (as the Dutch later recorded his name) returned to his kingdom of Quoja at Cape Mount, leaving sub-kings to rule. Europeans of many nationalities put in at Sierra Leone. Sir John Hawkins made three visits in the 1560s, taking away slaves to the West Indies. Drake called to water on his voyage round the world, and carved his name on a rock. In 1582 Edward Fenton put up an armorial plate in Elizabeth Ts name. But neither she nor any other European ruler exercised sovereignty there beyond granting their subjects trading rights. Portuguese traders settled up the nearby rivers, some in the Scarcies, some among the Loko, where they were given a monopoly. Their trading centre Os Alagoas became known as Port Logo, or Port Loko. They traded peaceably, but some ship's-captains, like Hawkins, seized slaves

without paying.

place took to

To protect themselves,

making European

the chiefs at the watering-

ships send hostages

on shore before

trading with them. In 1605 an elderly Portuguese Jesuit, Balthasar Barrcira, settled in Sierra Leone, ministering to the Portuguese, preaching to the Africans.

He

baptized several kings, and went up the Scarcies to the Bena coun-

try.

His

efforts to

convert the Susu king,

who had

were

invited him,

Muslim from the north. A Mani still ruled the Loko kingdom (known as Mitombo) at this time, and another the upper part of the south shore. The memory of his allegiance to the King of Quoja may survive in the name Quia or Koya the land adjoining the peninsula on the east. But the north shore was under a Bulom king. The watering-place too was held by a non-Mani, known after baptism as Dom Philip de Leon (though he may have been subordinate to his Mani neighbour). The Bulom tradition of ivory carving seems by this time to have been lost. forestalled

by an

itinerant

—

By

mid-seventeenth century

it

was

established that ships calling at

was known, must pay regular customs for water and firewood to the king of the south shore, the king of Bureh, whose town Bagos was up the river on the point between Rokel and Port Loko Creek. By then Temne, not Bulom, was spoken on the south shore. Whether or not the king still claimed to be a Mani, his people were Temne, who had displaced Bulom: Tura, ruling in 1690, had the Temne style Bai Tura. Temne also supthe watering-place in ^Frenchman's Bay', as

planted the

Loko

in

it

Mitombo.

Thus they cut off the Bulom on the north, or Bulom Shore from on the Atlantic coast of the peninsula and in the Sherbro estuary.

those

The name Sherbro (sometimes

confusingly written Sherbro')

ably derived from a chief's name. tants

who, though they

call

It

was

also

is

prob-

given to the inhabi-

themselves Bulom, are usually called

Sherbro.

No

king ruled very

power was

restricted

far.

by

from the

mysteries remain hidden

geographer, described trader

who

In the Sherbro-Cape

it,

Mount

a secret society, the Poro. uninitiated. Olfert

Its

probably from information given by

the country quiet, enforced obedience to

its

and the uninitiated

He

to witness

its rites.

society, social rather than political,

where

orders,

and forbade

his

Dutch it

kept

women

women's

were circumcized and

womanhood.

In Barreira's time, the king of the south shore customarily

of

a

—how

also described a

girls

its

Dapper, the Dutch

lived there in the early seventeenth century

prepared for

area, royal

origins like

absence. In the Sherbro

Seniora Maria, a

whom

left

one

were Bulom) to rule his towns in his seem to have also ruled on their own. Bulom, had her own town near Cape Sierra Leone

wives (some of

women

in the early eighteenth century.

Rice was their chief food. In the Sherbro, and the Gallinas estuary first on swampy ground, then on dry. It was also grown on the steep wooded slopes of the peninsula, where patches were roughly cleared and burnt. After the harvest they were left fallow and adjoining patches cultivated.

south of it, successive crops were sown,

English traders, licensed by the

Crown, visited Sierra Leone in the camwood, a hard timber, used to

early seventeenth century, buying

make

red dye, which could then be cut accessibly.

was an English 'factory' (as where camwood and ivory were

By at least

1628 there

trading posts were called) in the Sherbro,

Sherbro Island): a London firm.

plentiful (there

Wood &

were

still

elephants

on

Co., was well established

King Towa, who ruled the river and its nearby tributaries, granted them a trading monopoly. Camwood, cut up the Kittam and Bum (where they had a factory at Bamani), was brought down in

there

by

then.

shallow craft and loaded onto ships anchored off the north shore of

Sherbro Island. In 1663 Charles

ing into Africa the Sierra

II

chartered the Royal Adventurers of England Trad-

who

Leone

built forts in the

Sherbro and on Tasso Island in

estuary. Tasso fell in 1664 to

De

Ruyter, the Dutch

name at the watering-place), so the Royal Adventurers, or the Gambia Adventurers to whom they sub-let part of their trade, moved to the adjoining, more easily defenadmiral (who, like Drake, carved his

sible,

Bence

Island. It

may have been called

after Squire

Bence

who was

connected with both companies.

The Royal Adventurers were reconstituted in 1672 as the Royal African Company, and took over the Gambia Adventurers* trade when the lease expired. The Sherbro factory was moved in 1688 from the mainland at Shebar Straits to York Island, off the north-east corner of Sherbro Island, a central depot with sub-factories in the rivers. A stone fort was built with twenty cannon. Bcncc Island was fortified too. But neither resisted two French warships which plundered and destroyed them in 1704. Bence Island was abandoned till 171 3 then it was revived as a sub-factory under the Chief Agent at Sherbro. But York Island, low-lying and swampy, proved unhealthy, so in 1719 Bence Island ;

became

the headquarters.

The Company

paid 'Cole' (which included rent, tribute and the

right to trade) to the

King of Sherbro

the rivers for sub-factories.

When

for

York

Island,

and

the king died, if there

to kings in

was

a

long

interregnum, every chief might begin demanding Cole.

Some impor-

tant Sherbro chiefs also received regular payments, as did the kings at

Cape Mount when the Company traded there. Cole Bence Island was paid to the king at Bagos the king of the Scarcies and other rulers received Cole when the Company traded in their countries. Regular payments were also made on the Bulom Shore. Special charges were exacted at an agent's death, sometimes at his

the Gallinas and for

;

arrival or departure: a

king not invited to the York Island agent's

to seize some of the Company's made to stimulate or extend trade, as in open trade with the Limba country.

'Cry' (or wake) in 1714

felt entitled

goods. Payments were also

1679 to

Capuchins continued the mission. But it was small and hampered by growing English predominance. By the eighteenth century it had ceased, though priests occasionally paid visits, and some Africans and Afro-Portuguese went on professing Christianity. Afro-Portuguese acted as middlemen for Bence Island; they were advanced goods, usually repaid in ivory. But neither forts nor charters could prevent private traders encroaching on the Company. EnglishAfter Barreira

men

left in

1610, Jesuits and, later in the century.

settled near the watering-place to trade

were former

pirates

who welcomed

with passing

ships.

their old colleagues. In

Some

1719 and

1720 pirates captured and plundered Bence Island. Warships were then sent to put a

famous

them down.

pirate,

In 1726 the

'Pirates

Bay' where Bartholemew Roberts,

sank a merchant ship,

Company,

still

commemorates them.

increasingly doubtful whether to

go on

maintaining forts so easily taken, sent a surveyor, William Smith, to

of Bence Island fort, which mounted fifty cannon, shows a triple-bastioned stone wall facing the anchorage, protecting the houses where the Company's employees lived and the slaves' quarters; outside were villages for free labourers, or 'grumettas'. Smith was accompanied by an energetic governor who determined to

inspect. His plan

suppress

all

trading rivals, including the Afro-Portuguese. Intending to

divide them, diplomatically, in uniting

from

their African relatives,

he succeeded

both against him. hi October 1728 Lopez, an Afro-Portu-

guese, surprised the fort, drove liim out

and burnt

it.

The Company

then abandoned Sierra Leone.

During the seventeenth century Muslim Fula from the Upper Niger and Senegal began scttlmg in Futa Jalon, the mountainous country

where the

rivers

north of Sierra Leone

rise,

among

the

non-Mushm

and Yalunka. About 1725 they began a Holy War to convert and subdue their neighbours. By the end of the eighteenth century Futa Jalon had become an Islamic state. Fula, Susu

The war pushed many

Susu, converted or unconverted, south and

west. Small groups settled

among

conquering them, or driving them

the Limba, at east.

Others

first

peaceably, then

moved

to the coast to

Temne and Bulom north of the Scarcies. Susu immigrants whom Temne chiefs allowed to build a town opposite dominate the Baga,

Loko at Sendugu gradually wrested power from them; eventually Sanko family, MusHms of Serakule origin, supplanted them alto-

Port the

gether.

The Sulima Yalunka

at first

powerful they renounced Jalon.

They founded

it,

their

new

the source of the Rokel. Others the

accepted Islam.

Then

as the

Fula

grew

fought them, and were driven from Futa capital Falaba in the

went further

mountains near

into the mountains

among

Koranko, Kisi and Limba.

Muslim adventurers

—Fula,

—

Mandinka and Susu dispersed too (though they are perhaps more exactly classified by family than by national names). The Loko invited a Mandinka from Kankan to be their chief A Fula styled Fula Mansa (or king) became ruler of the Yoni country south of the Rokel. Some of his Temne subjects, afraid he would sell them, fled, and settled ultimately near the Jong, where they became known as the Banta or Mabanta people. Non-Limba chiefs ruled the Limba. Thus throughout the coastal area peoples were ruled by aliens. Muslim Mandinka traders also spread through the country, singly or in groups, from the interior. Interested primarily in trading, they also spread the knowledge of Islam. Europeans tended to describe any Muslim trader as a *Mandingo'. Meanwhile in the Sherbro hinterland the Mende, a people of Mande speech, untouched by Islam, were moving towards the sea. At the end of the eighteenth century they were still an inland people, though coming to the coast to trade woven cloths for salt. They displaced, or replaced, a people

By

who

carved soapstone figures, 'Nomoli'.

the eighteenth century the Vai, a people of

from

Mande

speech,

of their immediate neighbours, were settled at the Gallinas estuary. By tradition they migrated from the Mani country inland. An oflshoot of their migration, the Kono, stopped off in the mountainous interior. It may be that they arc the 'Manes', confined differing

that

where they

to the place its

first

reached the coast,

known by

the

name of

original inhabitants, the Vai.

The Royal African Company was wound up vested in the

Company of Merchants Trading

in 1752.

Its forts

were

into Africa, a holding

a government grant. The abandoned Bence had already been bought by a London firm Grant, Oswald and Sargent. The buildings were restored: a drawing of 1745 shows it fortified again. For a while it was called George Island, but the old name persisted, corrupted into *Bance Island'. Thus it was known until the later nineteenth century when (perhaps through confusion with the Bunce River opposite) it became 'Bunce Island*. French rivals, trading from ships, cut out much of its trade; in 1772 a French trader settled on Gambia Island, at the mouth of the Bunce River. Bunce Island was well fortified and though its defences were ill-maintained it was reckoned the best English fort on the Coast. Its amenities included a two-hole golf course. But when the French attacked in 1779, during the American War, it fell, as before, almost undefended, and was destroyed. It was rebuilt, but its trade declined. In 1785 after Richard Oswald's death it passed to his nephews John and

company supported by Island fort

Alexander Anderson.

The Temne chief at Robana granted a French officer land for a on Gambia Island in 1785. Rough defences were built and a garrison installed. But it was unhealthy, without water, surrounded by swamps, and after a few years most of the troops were withfactory

drawn.

An

English firm had a factory in Whiteman's Bay, west of the

murdered the agent. Such murders were rare in a country where European traders and the goods they brought were so prized it was a capital offence even to watering-place. Early in the 1770s the people

No

European dared settle there until 1785 when John Matthews, an unemployed naval officer, went out for the firm, made peace with the chief, and rebuilt the factory. strike one.

In

1785 the British government considered relieving the over-

crowded prisons by transporting convicts to West Africa. Sierra Leone was among the possible stations. But Burke denounced in ParHament the cruelty of sending convicts to certain death in a fatal climate, a naval officer sent to report advised against healthier site

was chosen

at

Botany Bay.

West

Africa,

and

a

The hope of making

a fortune in the slave trade attracted

many

European adventurers to Sierra Leone and its vicinity. Some settled on the Banana Islands (where an armorial tombstone commemorates a Liverpool ship 's-cap tain

who

south-east, the Rev.

Islands,

died there in 1712).

John Newton,

On

writer, in his unregenerate days as a slave trader, passed a

persecuted by his English master's the

Bulom

the Plantain

and hymnyear of misery,

abolitionist

mistress.

Others settled along

many river banks.

The trader would get permission to trade from the chief whose town he settled in, giving presents, or 'dashes' in return. Sometimes superior kings exacted duties too. The chief would then agree, in return for regular payments, like 'Cole', or perhaps a commission on sales, to become his 'landlord', responsible for his safety. If he were involved in a dispute the landlord settled

it.

A

landlord was not only

responsible for upholding his 'stranger's' interests, but accountable for

Thus the

his misdeeds.

chiefs

could go on settling disputes themselves

without interference.

The

trader

would wait v^th

of goods

his stock

until slaves

and

produce were brought for sale, or advance goods to those who would go and fetch them. The landlord assumed responsibility for collecting debts so credit could be safely given. If a customer defaulted, the landlord seized his relatives, or other inhabitants

them pay or

sold them. So the trader's

of

life

his village,

and

either

made

was peaceful and sedentary,

waiting for agents or customers to bring goods, and for ships to

sell

them to. Those living where no ships came had to sell at the factories. Along the coast south of Cape Mount ship 's-cap tains often took slaves by force, kidnapping (called 'panyaring') unsuspecting Africans who came aboard to trade. The victim's countrymen would retaliate by attacking the next European crew who came their way from the same port (following

A

own

their

principle

of

collective

responsibility).

Lancaster captain became so notorious for kidnapping in the 1780s

had to send their ships from Liverpool for fear of captain making his last voyage might kidnap indiscrimin-

that Lancaster firms reprisals.

ately

all

A

along the Coast, leaving the consequences to others. Settled

Gold Coast traders, European dignity), deplored such irresponsible violence wliich undermined the mutual trust their business rested on, and threatened their own safety. Many slaves were brought from inland, passing usually through

traders,

dependent on

entrenched

several

in

their landlords (to a degree

castles,

thought

middlemen's hands. Only

degrading

in the

to

Rio Nunez-Rio Pongas area

did Fula caravans bring

them

wars activated by the

Mushm

direct.

Some were

captives, taken in the

conquest of Futa Jalon; the Sulima

Yalunka, for example, sold their defeated Limba or Kisi opponents to

Susu middlemen.

war were usually criminals: in coastal areas, at anyone to be sold without being charged with a crime. Theft, adultery, debt and witchcraft were all grounds for sale. As it was generally believed that no one died or fell ill suddenly without having been bewitched, charges of witchcraft were frequent. Slaves not taken in

least, it

was

rare for

Suspects were usually tried

by

ordeal, like drinking 'red water'

which

they had to vomit to prove their innocence. Only in Mushm areas, where adulterers were flogged, and charges of witchcraft less frequent, were slaves regularly obtained by kidnapping. Europeans paid for slaves in manufactured goods, otherwise unobtainable. Though 'country cloths', narrow cotton strips sewn together and dyed, were woven, imported textiles were in great demand. More textiles were imported than any other commodity; by the end of the eighteenth century Manchester cottons were supplanting East India. Guns were specially manufactured in Birmingham for the West African market. Imported tobacco was preferred to the inferior kind grown on the Coast, rum and brandy to palm wine. Payments were made in 'bars'. Originally a bar of iron given in barter, the bar became by mid-seventeenth century a conventional medium of exchange so many pieces of calico or baft, so many guns or barrels of rum, were valued at so many bars. As the prices of goods bought in Europe fluctuated more than the rate of bars fixed on the Coast, the trader could usually make a profit by combining the goods making up his bars so that what he had bought cheap predominated. So for a slave valued fifty bars one trader might ofler a consignment chiefly of tobacco, another of copper basins, as he could make most :

profit.

Customers, in return, learnt to

of high-valued

bars.

They

insist

on taking

a certain

proportion

not with the

also learnt to sell their slaves in lots,

individually, so forcing the purchaser to take the sickly

healthy.

They would refuse to do business without As they grew experienced in trade slave

free drinks.

were bought

at

Bence Island

for forty to sixty in 1725. in

Sierra

Leone was over

first

being given

men

prices rose:

for eighteen to twenty-four bars in 1678,

By

1787 the price of

five times

what

it

a

slave in sterling

had been

a

century

earlier. 821613

o

B

Thus from

the fifteenth century the coastal peoples

Europeans.

When York

lation least

Island

was

a

were habituated

of the Sherbro was larger than for another two

centuries.

one brought a European wife. Most had African wives. When

children

grew

up, the

to

headquarters the European popu-

Company employed

them.

At

their

Two sons of Zachary

Rogers, chief Sherbro agent 1677-81, went to trade in the Gallinas early

They

in the eighteenth century.

of Massaquoi to found

into the ruling family

powerful

the

as

or their descendants a

may have

dynasty almost

(though tradition declares

chief's

Englishman, Charles Rogers,

Henry Tucker, perhaps

who came

a descendant

married

its

as

founder an

straight out to the Gallinas).

of another of the Company's

early employees (though tradition also traces the Tuckers back to an

independent English trader), was established on the mainland by the

Shebar

Straits

silver plate.

by

the mid-eighteenth century, a rich trader, eating off

His wealth

won him Newton's In 1684

set

him above

the Sherbro chiefs; his honesty

praise.

Thomas Corker came out from London

to the Sherbro in

Company's service. He was employed for a couple of years in the became chief agent York Island, was transferred thence to the Gambia, and died in England in 1700. He had sons, Stephen and Robin, by a lady known to the English as Seniora Doll, Duchess of Sherbro: Bulom tradition knows her as a member of the Ya Kumba family who ruled on the shore of Yawry Bay, between the Sierra Leone peninsula the

rivers,

and the Sherbro

estuary.

She died

in 1722.

Their descendants, keeping

the paternal surname, inherited the maternal claim to the cliiefdom,

which they extended to include the Plantain and Banana Islands. A Corker chief's daughter married William Cleveland (or Clevland)

who is said to have belonged to a respectable Devonshire and been brother to the Secretary of the Admiralty. He settled on the Banana Islands, died in 1758 and was buried in the Bance Island graveyard. Their son James turned against the Corkers. Educated in a slave-trader,

family,

Liverpool, he increased his loca]

power by joining

the Poro. In April

1785 he sent a force to the Plantains, surprised chief Charles Corker,

and cut off his head.

There were no large towns or kingdoms in Sierra Leone in the eighteenth century. Some rulers were called kings, and had ascendancy over others but their powers were hmitcd. They lived by trade, receiving customary presents from their people, and regular revenue from their

^strangers'.

They

of European

also enforced laws

salt,

to protect their

of trade,

own

like forbidding the

import

But those who European manu-

salt-makers.

prospered could not build up capital. Their riches, factures, were unproductive consumer goods, soon worn out, drunk, or given

away

who

to their subjects,

looked to them for maintenance.

dominant power in the Sherbro. Newton declared it an excellent institution which secured its members a high degree of political freedom. By the early nineteenth century it had spread to the Temne country. The Temne also had their own men's society, Ragbenle, and a woman's society, Bundu. The Susu too had

The Poro was

Poro and

woman's

a

the

still

society.

Following European example,

men took to wearing coats and trousers.

Chiefs bought gorgeous footman's liveries, resplendant with gold lace,

and

sat

on

chairs. Friendly ship's-cap tains

would send

England. Settled traders

sometimes took them to

their children

by

visit

their African

wives to school there, and encourage chiefs to do the same, employing them as agents on their return. There were said to be about fifty, boys

and

girls, in

Liverpool in 1789, others in

London and

of Sierra Leone sent one son to Lancaster in 1769

Bristol.

A

King

to learn Christianity,

another to Futa Jalon to learn Islam.

means to outwit European business apart from outward elegancies, the edu-

Education was chiefly prized rivals.

Once back

in Africa,

as a

cated tended to assimilate themselves to their children their mothers'

—

people again.

Where

own

—or

if traders'

the slave trade provided

was no incentive for them to introduce the industries, or improved farming, they might have seen in England. Some European traders grumbled that the people showed no moral improvement, and only ridiculed attempts to convert them to Christianity. But there was httle to attract them to a religion professed by men who only came to cheat and sell them. As Bishop Thomas Wilson

so easy a livelihood, there

observed in

his Essay towards an Instruction for the Indians,

published in

1740, the intelligent heathen were bound to be repelled by discrepancies between Christian precept and practice.

Newton, in retrospect, felt that if the Bulom benefited materially by contact with Europe, morally they were worse ofl'. Indeed some traders dropped even the pretence of moral superiority most continued to feel, gave up European ways and adopted African, so that after a few years residence little but their colour distinguished them. It was estimated in 1789 that about 74,000 slaves were exported annually from West Africa, about 38,000 by British firms. Matthews II

in his

^

Voyage

to the

River Sierra Leone published in 1788, an apologia y

for the slave trade, which includes information about local customs, trading methods and natural products, estimated about 3,000 bought between Rio Nunez and Sherbro. About ^^ 500,000 worth of British manufactures were imported annually, chiefly for slaves. Thus the slave trade gave a livelihood to a large British business interest

— to

manufacturers producing trade goods, trading middlemen, shippers

and

market where they could the price of one another's bodies.

investors, as well as giving Africans a

easily obtain

European goods

at

12

.

I

MANY

Africans lived in England in the eighteenth century.

Most were imported

for domestic service

from Africa or the

transatlantic colonies; a few, freed in the colonies, safer

home. After

1772,

when Lord

case that a master could not reclaim a free.

found

it

a

Mansfield declared in Somerset's

former slave in England,

all

were

African in origin, even those born in Africa were cut off from

homeland; those born in colonial slavery knew it only by hearsay. Yet in their new land of adoption they were strangers. their

Two

Ottobah Cugoano in Thoughts Olaudah Equiano (or Gustavus Vassa, the name he went by) in his Interesting Narrative published in 1789. Kidnapped from West Africa (Cugoano was a Fanti, Equiano an Ibo), sold to the West Indies, the former was brought to England as a servant, the latter made his way after many adventures. Both learnt to read and write, and became Christians. Vassa wanted to return to Africa as a missionary. Theirs were not the first books by wrote accounts of

and Sentiments on

the Evil

their lives,

of Slavery published in 1787,

Africans published in England: Ignatius Sancho's Letters, for example,

appeared in 1782. They

holograph

name John

letter

may

well have been helped to write them: a

of Cugoano's

Stuart)

is

that survives (written

styhstically

under

his

English

very different from the high flown

periods of his book.

But, helped or not, each pointed out what England could do for Africa, Africa for England.

Cugoano

called

on

the

government to send twenty years his

a fleet to suppress the slave trade; within just over

proposal was being adopted. Both insisted that English industry

would

benefit if the slave trade ceased. Vassa in his book, and in a letter to the

Secretary of State, suggested that treating Africans as customers, not

merchandise,

would bring manufacturers

Supposing', he wrote, *the Africans, collectively and individually, to expend Five

Pounds

Head

vast profits.

*

Raiment and Furniture yearly, when civilized etc. of a Continent Ten Thousand Miles in Circumference, and immensely rich in Productions of every denomination, .' would make an interesting Return indeed for our Manufactories a

in

.

.

the Cloathing etc.

.

13

.

end of the War of American Independence some of the former left Republican or Loyalist masters in response to proclamations offering them freedom if they served against the rebels, found their way to London. Sailors stranded at the end of a voyage also

At

the

slaves

who had

swelled the African population. Unlike those in service they lacked

employers to protect them. Friendless, often

destitute,

they wandered

the streets, distressing the kind-hearted, alarming the timorous and propertied. In January 1786 a committee, chiefly City business

men,

published an appeal in the newspapers for contributions to relieve the

Hanway, champion of chimney sweeps, fallen women and other outcasts, eventually became chairman. Behind it, though with characteristic modesty not a member, was *Black Poor'. Jonas

who had

brought James Somerset before the courts and given the 'Black Poor' their charter of freedom. A man of unGranville Sharp

shakeable principle,

who

resigned his post under the Board of Ordnance

making arms to fight the Americans like Hanway, championed the

rather than be connected with

whom

he sympathized with, he,

neglected and oppressed, devoting himself single-mindedly to the causes he adopted with that unselfconscious eccentricity

sometimes

The

which

is

allied to saintliness.

appeal raised

buted food daily

at

X^^^

^^ ^

^^^ months. The Committee

public houses in Paddington and Mile

distri-

End Green,

opened a hospital, and found berths for those who wanted to go back to sea. But the number of those seeking relief increased steadily. Most were Africans, a few Indians, chiefly lascars. As those who had served in the American War had some claim to official recompense, and all swelled the number of vagrants, the Committee decided to approach the government. It was suggested they be shipped to a country where they could fmd work, like Nova Scotia, where thousands of refugee Loyalists were settled on the land and labour was scarce.

An

ingenious amateur botanist

Islands in

Henry Smeathman

1771 to gather specimens

Banana London. His Swedish pupil of Linvisited the

for collectors in

knowledge was slight; for a wliile a naeus, Anders Berlin, helped him. The 'Flycatcher' as he called himself (and was remembered by the people on the Bananas) left after three years for the West bidies, and eventually London, where he read the Royal Society a paper on termites. He also lived in Paris, occupying himself chiefly with air balloons. But he dreamed of returning to botanical

14

colonize and cultivate the unexplored riches of Africa neglected

by

slave traders.

Hard pressed by creditors, he wrote to the Committee for the Black Poor in February 1786, offering to take their charges, for -^4 a head, to found a settlement near the Sierra Leone River. A year before, he had told the Committee investigating a possible convict station in

West

Africa

hundred

a

(p.

7) .that convicts

month.

Now

would

he painted

a

die there at the rate

land of immense

fertility,

of a per-

who lived temperately, where the soil need only be scratched with a hoe to yield grain in abundance, where livefectly healthy for those

stock propagated themselves with a rapidity

unknown

in a

cold

where a hut provided adequate shelter at all seasons. He stressed the commercial advantages of a settlement which would repay initial outlay by opening new channels of trade. The Committee were impressed and recommended his plan to the Treasury. The Treasury agreed and accepted fmancial responsibility for the 'Black Poor', leaving the Committee to make arrangements for their departure. climate,

Only former

the prospective emigrants suspected a plan to send them, chiefly slaves, to a centre

angued them and

of the

won them

slave trade.

Hanway went and

har-

round.

Like Cugoano and Vassa, Smeathman held out the double lure of

and philanthropy. When the Committee examined his motives closely they found the former predominated. Agreeing to abominate the sale of human beings, he had no objection to buying them; the *true principles of commerce' his plan was based on, provided for plantations worked by slaves purchased on the Coast. He was backed by two business

London merchants anxious

to invest in large-scale cotton-growing,

uninterested in the settlers. So that his

when he

died in July

it

may

be assumed

connexion with the Committee was only severed prematurely.

Conscience-stricken,

Hanway

felt

Smeathman had

tried to lure the

emigrants into a trap. For though the Treasury was paying to send

them away, settled.

was no provision for protecting them once they were So the Committee went back to considering settlement across there

the Atlantic.

Smeathman's plan had attracted African domestic servants, stirred by the vision of returning to their ancestral home, as well as destitute Loyalists and sailors. Now they were determined to go nowhere else. In vain they were warned of the danger. The fifteen corporals, or headmen, chosen to represent them told the Committee that a native of Sierra Leone then in London had assured them the people there would

69 515

them joyfully. They asked that Smeathman's friend Joseph Irwin him in charge. They went in groups to see Sharp, who was in friendlier touch with them than any of the Committee, to get his sympathy. Even the lascars preferred Africa. So insistent were they, the Committee had to agree to their going to Sierra Leone after all. The Treasury, only anxious to get them out of England, made no objection. receive

succeed

more than a receptacle unwanted vagrants. In Somerset's case he had provided them with a charter: in Sierra Leone he looked to provide a country and a constitution. His version of current constitutional theories antedated the American the settlers had already spent a week in Sierra Leone when the constituent convention met in Philadelphia. His Short Sketch of Temporary Regulations {until better shall be proposed) was a constitution bound by a social contract rooted in history, in the institutions of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy, and of Israel under the judges. Its bond was the old English system of Frankpledge ('strictly enjoined', he once Granville Sharp intended the settlement to be

for

:

,

wrote,

'in

Magna

would form sible for

Carta

a tithing,

as a

fundamental law'). Every ten householders

every ten tithings

a

hundred, collectively respon-

preserving order and keeping watch against outside enemies,

each householder with a voice in a

Headmen were

Common

Council.

already chosen, to prepare

them

for the responsi-

of self-government. Every prospective settler had to sign a which included a clause where each 'binds and obliges himself or herself to the other settlers for the Protection and Preservation of

bilities

contract

their

common

Freedom'.

As they insisted on documentary proof of their being free, to protect them against slave traders, they were given parchment certificates bearing the Royal Arms, granting them the status of free citizens of *the Colony of Sierra Leone or the Land of Freedom'. But they were not real passports. They were only signed by the Clerk of the Acts of the Navy. For, though they swore allegiance to the king, once established, they became free settlers in the Land, or as Sharp usually called

it.

Province of Freedom, their

own

country, ruling themselves

without reference to higher authority.

Towards

the end of October the

BelisariuSy

and Vernon,

to

Navy Board

Dcptford to take the i6

sent transports, Atlantic,

settlers.

When it came

to

embarking, their enthusiasm waned. hostile reports in the press. tiser

that they

were

frightened

away by

really being sent to a penal colony, misrepresenting

Sharp's regulations to military rule.

Some were

Correspondents wrote to the Public Adver-

Some

make

it

appear they would be under

feared the expedition being fitted out for

strict

Botany

Bay might take them off to the Antipodes. Some suspected government might abandon them to slave traders. So though nearly 700 signed the agreement, by the end of November only 259 were on board. The Committee got the City authorities to round up any still begging in the streets, yet by January 1787 only two ships were filled. While the transports waited in the Thames, about seventy London prostitutes, outcasts too,

but not for their colour, embarked. According

some of them

were made drunk, brought aboard, and married to settlers. Some have seen in this episode (which most writers of even the most cursory account of Sierra Leone usually include) a sinister plot, have assumed that the government put the women on board, even that Sharp connived at it. Nothing is less likely than that Sharp, rabidly puritanical, would have agreed to what he must have conceived the contamination of a settlement he intended to be founded on strict Christian principles. The Treasury, Admiralty and Navy Board papers dealing with the embarkation do not mention the women. The hostile press has nothing of a story ready-made to discredit the expedition. Lack of evidence to the to the story

told four years later, they

contrary supports the conclusion that the for

themselves, anxious

settlers

more female company, took on board whatever

forty-one

women

of

their

own

offered.

Only

colour embarked, and though a few

had European wives, even with the prostitutes added, most had none. It is also doubtful whether under the then law such 'marriages' could have bound the women. Had they really wanted to return on shore they had ample time and opportunity.

At

least a

dozen plainly

consented to go, for they signed the agreement. So even if brought forcibly aboard, they must have agreed to stay, lured by visions of a rosy future with their

Sharp wanted the

new partners

in the Province

renounce the

of Freedom.

of a monetary economy. based on individual labour, with a special tax on those too proud or idle to work. He was ready to take in any industrious European (if Protestant), particularly those who could teach a craft. So the sailing lists included about twenty artisans, settlers to

evils

He proposed instead a medium of exchange

17

some with and

a

town-major to build

families, a

fortifications, five doctors

sexton. Sharp persuaded the Archbishop

of Canterbury who wanted

Patrick Frazer (or Fraser), a Scottish Presbyterian

to let

to

go

be ordained into the Church of England; the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel allowed him -^50 a year and books. Irwin succeeded Smeathman as Agent Conductor. He had charge of as chaplain,

were on board, and on arrival was and built, paid with one lot in ten.

the settlers while they

town

No

laid

out in

lots

to

have the

expense was spared fitting out the expedition on a scale far

exceeding Smeathman's estimate. The Treasury gave the

Navy Board much as

a free hand, merely requesting that the public be spared as

Over ^10,000 worth of stores and provisions were supplied: came to over -^15,000. The Comptroller of the Navy, Sir Charles Middleton (later Lord Barham) an active opponent of the slave

possible.

the final

bill

trade, ready to befriend Africans, appointed Gustavus Vassa

mended

to Sharp

Commissary

by General Oglethorpe,

(recom-

the founder of Georgia)

to the expedition.

and Belisarius left the Thames for Portsmouth where Captain T. Boulden Thompson was waiting for them with a Navy ship, the Nautilus sloop. There fever broke out, so the Vernon, still unfilled, was sent to take some of the passengers and relieve congestion. The epidemic ceased, and on February the 23 rd the convoy sailed. In the Channel a storm sprang up. The Vernon lost her fore top-mast and was carried with the Nautilus to Torbay; the other two made for Plymouth. There they reassembled to wait another In the middle ofJanuary the Atlantic

month while

the Vernon

At Plymouth ties

who

repaired.

the passengers

wandered

ashore, alarming the authori-

feared they might stay behind. Vassa began accusing Irwin to

Navy Board of cheating in settlers. He wrote Cugoano, who

Thompson and ill-treating the letter

was

the

which appeared

in the

ordering stores, and stayed in London, a

newspapers calling Irwin, Frazer and the

was accused of stirring up mutiny against the Europeans. The people began refusing to attend Frazer's services. Thompson wrote in alarm to the Admiralty about the growsenior surgeon, villains. He, in turn,

ing turbulence, wliich he had no authority to check.

was

deliberately fomenting

it,

He

believed Vassa

but also reported Irwin unfit for his

Middleton was inclined to support Vassa. Irwin hurried to London to sec Samuel Hoare, a Quaker banker who had succeeded Hanway (who died in September 1786) as Chairman of the Committee; at his representations the Treasury agreed Vassa be

post, neglectful

of his

duties.

18

dismissed and the purser of the Nautilus be given charge of the stores.

Vassa and twenty-three associates were put on shore. Eventually the

Treasury gave him -£$0 compensation. On April the 8th they set out again. When the transports there

had been 456 passengers. Vassa recorded them

41 black cliildren;

women,

11 black children, 70

white

as

left

London

290 black men, and 6 white

women

the remaining 38 were officials or craftsmen with their

and i private passenger. Over 50 died on board; 24 were landed Plymouth; 23 ran away. But more were sent to replace them.

families at

Finally 411 sailed.

Leone normally took three or four weeks. The return passage, when ships had to sail out to midAtlantic for a wind to carry them north might take much longer. The convoy put in at Teneriffe, stayed nearly a week, and entered the Sierra

The

passage

from England

Leone River on

May

to Sierra

the loth, anchoring in Frenchman's

Bay

at the

historic watering-place.

were to take the settlers to Sierra Leone, from the chiefs, land the stores, and stay in the river to help them as long as provisions and crew's health allowed. If the chiefs refused, he was to go on down the coast till he found some more accommodating. The following day he saluted King Tom, the chief at the watering-place (part of whose realm, the adjoining peninsula, still bears that name), and went ashore to negotiate. Tom was a sub-chief under Naimbana who lived up the river at Robana and Robaga (on or near the site of the former Bagos) (p. 3) and had ruled the Koya Temne since 1775. Styled king, he was a regent (and may perhaps have been of part Mandinka origin); he seems also to have been overlord of the Bulom Shore. It was he who ceded the French Gambia Island in 1785 (p. 7). *King Annamboyna' (as the Nautilus log called him) came down after a fortnight, spent a night on board, but left without making any agreement. When a treaty was made on June the nth, only King Tom and his sub-chiefs Pa Bongce and Queen Yamacouba put their marks to it. Some write the titles King and Queen these rulers bore in inverted commas. Certainly their kingdoms were small: Tom's was only a few villages. But they were subject to no European. Naimbana spoke, as of an equal, of liis friend George in. So the historian may adopt the style their own European contemporaries readily addressed them by.

Thompson's

instructions

acquire a settlement

19

In return for

^59

is

5^ worth of trade goods

—muskets, gunpowder,

shot, swords, laced hats, cotton goods, beads, iron bars, tobacco

rum

and gave up the shore from the watering-place to Gambia stretch of nine or ten miles, to a depth of twenty miles.

— they

Island, a

On May the

15 th the people

disembarked and cut their

way through

the bush to the top of the hill overlooking the watering-place (the

present Government House site), where they planted the British flag. There at Thompson's suggestion they started their settlement. The hill was named St George's Hill, Frenchman's Bay St George's Bay, the

Town,

after Granville Sharp. Then, that Sharp be name, the settlers elected their officers, choosing Richard Weaver (one of the first to embark at Deptford) Chief in Command, or Governor, of the Province of Freedom. Tents were put up for temporary shelter, town lots laid out and allotted.

settlement Granville

honoured

in

The long year.

deed

as in

delays in sailing brought

Four days

after

them

prelude to the rainy season, which usually or June, reaches

its

to land at the worst time

of

anchoring there was a heavy thunderstorm, the starts in Sierra

Leone

peak with almost daily downpours

in

in July

May and

August, and slackens in September and October. Even on the voyage

many,

cooped up on board, fell ill fourteen died before they Now fever and dysentery broke out while rain, heavier that year than for many years, beat down their tents. Within three months about a third were dead. Irwin had no disciplinary powers over them. When they refused to do what he wanted he washed his hands of them, went back to the Vernon, took ill and died. They declined to build Frazer a church so he had to hold his services under a large tree. Sick and discouraged, he went off to Bance Island. Thompson, without legal powers over them, did what he could to maintain order: the Nautilus log shows he had so long

:

reached Teneriffe.

two the

settlers

less

flogged for insolence and misbehaviour.

disheartened to build a store-house, and plant

of August the

He

stores

He encouraged rice. By the end

were unloaded and the transports

sent

stayed until September the i6th when, after landing the

home. settlers'

arms and ammunition, and sending King Tom a present, he sailed away. While the settlers were dying daily only one man died on board the Nautilus and that through liis own carelessness. Otherwise the crew remained healthy. They had strict orders not to sleep, or do unnecessary manual work, on shore. Canary wine, wliich Thompson found health-giving in the tropics, was specially shipped at Tencntie, 20

This record of health contrasted so strikingly with mortality on shore that the sponsors of the settlement climate for salt

misfortunes. Sharp

its

food, and drinking the daily

felt

they could not blame the

blamed the

rum

settlers for

embarked. Thompson blamed the choice of

over-eating

them

ration allowed

since they

declaring

settlers,

them

drunken and lawless, imfit to colonize. was assumed that an agricultural community would arise on the soil Smeathman had declared so fertile: Sharp, dreaming of the primitive simplicity of pastoral life, imagined he was planting a breed of sturdy farmers. When the rains lessened, the survivors began cultivating. But the gardener sent with them had been one of the first to die. So did the seeds brought from England. Nothing would grow on the hill where Thompson put them, so they moved lower down to damper soil. They had to barter their stores, even their muskets and clothes, with the Temne for rice. Later they were reproached with having sold improvidently what the government had provided for their subsistence and protection, but being without crops, livestock or proper trade goods, they had no other alternative to starving. James Reid, a literate settler, who was elected to succeed Weaver as Governor, wrote asking Sharp whether some business agent could not come out to supply them with goods and credit, till their crops were vicious, It

established.

Unable to gain

a livelihood, they

began drifting away to work on

passing ships or for neighbouring slave-traders.

When

Frazer returned

England in March 1788 he reported that on his last visit to the settlement only 130 were left. Sharp determined to send out another ship with more settlers, well supphed with livestock. to

He had already paid out nearly loans he

was unlikely

;/^500 in gifts to the

to recover to individuals.

Treasury (which had spent over (p.

another

18) to give

;;/^200

community or

He

-^15,000 on the

in

persuaded the

first

expedition)

towards livestock; a friend, probably

Samuel Whitbrcad, the brewer, gave 100 guineas. Otherv^dse the cost of the new venture fell on him. By the end of 1788 he reckoned he had spent altogether ^i,73S iSs Sd

on

the Province of Freedom.

Captain John Taylor, owner and master of the Myro brig, was engaged to take out the

new

Remembering

the mortality

emigrants and buy stock

at the Cape Verde Islands. on the first transports Sharp arranged for only fifty passengers, though the ship held seventy. In the end only thirty-nine embarked, some of them, including two doctors, Europeans. Spruce beer was substituted for rum, Whitbread adding a

21

present of porter. Sharp suggested (for he

was

careful never to order,

always to treat the 'worthy passengers', the 'worthy inhabitants',

as

equals) they levy a fme on any found drunk. Despite precautions,

twelve died on the voyage, four stayed

at the islands. Taylor, instead of took out trade goods, bought with the money Sharp provided, and gave them to the settlers instead. By disobeying Sharp

buying

cattle,

he did the

vaUd on

The

settlers a

good

turn, supplying

them with

the only currency

the coast.

huts were unprotected

from

town-major sent to build a fort had been one of the first to die. Thus they were at the mercy of Temne neighbours who sent, as they wrote to Sharp, 'repeated challenges to our senit\ When two of them annoyed King settlers'

Tom he

sold

them

to a passing French ship.

In June 1788 five settlers store. settler

attack: the

went up

to

Bance

Island

and robbed the

Captain Bowie, Messrs Andersons' agent, threatened to

every

seize

he saw unless the culprits were produced, so the Governor

gave them up. They were found guilty (seven traders or

'banishment',

and

ship's-captains

which meant

them

selling

Bance

at

Island

by

a

jury

and sentenced to French ship. Alexander

five settlers)

to a

Anderson subsequently admitted to a Parhamentary Committee that was illegal to sell British subjects, but that they might be sold in case of necessity if natives of Africa. King Tom died about this time. Naimbana who, never having it

agreed to the treaty, disclaimed

them warning who had left

to quit.

all

But when

responsibility for the settlers,

the

Myro

the settlement returned with

arrived in August,

new

gave

many

hopes. Naimbana,

revived, agreed to let them stay if Taylor would make a new of purchase with him. Taylor was not authorized to make treaties. He was not in government service, and though the treaty he made described the Myro as His Britannic Majesty's brig, she was in fact his own. But he seized a chance of getting rid of a consignment of pistols, cheeses, satin coats and waistcoats, bottles of port, barrels of seeing

it

treaty

mock diamond ring, which he handed over on the settlers' behalf as the price of the new grant. On his return he claimed ^85 15 yd from government as the value

pork and

a

of the treaty goods, adding

a

claim for -^50 los spent entertaining

and forty followers for a fortnight. The Treasury reimbursed brought government's expenditure for the Black Poor to ^15,679 135 ^d, the Tenmes' price

chiefs

him

for the treaty, not the entertainment. This

for their land to ^^ 144 35 in trade goods.

22

Taylor's treaty, signed August the 22nd 1788,

beginning of the Colony Thompson's, which :

it

is

deemed

the legal

expressly repudiated,

Naimbana and James Dowder put their marks, Pa Bongee and Dick Robbin their signatures James Dowder may be King Tom's successor, more usually known as King Jimmy, or Jemmy; Dick Robbin later took the name Prince Tom. Taylor, Richard Weaver, Thomas Peall (a doctor who came out in the Myro, then, repenting his boldness, returned in her) and Benjamin Elliott, a settler who came out in the Belisarius, signed is

not included

in the official collection

of

treaties.

;

for the settlers.

Governors succeeded one another briskly in the Province of Freethe first, fell ill in September 1787 and James Reid was

dom. Weaver,

elected to succeed him. stores

and was

Weaver

recovered, accused Reid of stealing the

June 1788 John Lucas, as Governor, and Chief Justice, handed the five settlers over to

reinstated. In

Charles Studdard,

as

Bowie; in August Weaver signed the treaty, but Lucas is described as Governor in an additional article, repudiating the earlier treaty. The treaty was witnessed by Abram Elliott Griffith, one of the headmen in London, a valet by trade, whose schooling Sharp paid for. Naimbana asked him to Robana, made him his secretary, and gave him his daughter Clara to marry (on the Belisarius he had been attached to one of the prostitutes). As Naimbana spoke httle Enghsh he normally acted as interpreter.

Even with those who returned when the Myro arrived, the total population was not more than 200. They still lived in temporary huts; the planned church, court house and prison were unbuilt. Several Europeans from the Myro, including the doctor, went off to the slave trade. What distressed Sharp most was hearing that some settlers did the same, particularly that Henry Demane, whom he had rescued from slavery in 1786 by sending a writ of Habeas Corpus on board a ship already under sail from Portsmouth, had crossed to the Bulom Shore to trade in slaves. His remonstrances, if they reached Demane, seem not to have moved him; a dozen years later he was still slave-trading to the north.

But Sharp was quick to note that the surrender of the Bance Island proved quite as much that they were a law-abiding community as that some of them were thieves. Even Captain Bowie admitted that once they started trading their behaviour improved. They wrote asking culprits

23

sharp to send them a small sloop to bring produce from the rivers. Unable to finance it himself, he began persuading City friends to start a

trading company, the St. George's

The western boundary

lay

Bay Company,

between the streams

River and Sanders Brook, where Captain

to help them.

now called

Alligator

Thompson marked on liis map

no-mans-land between them and the Temne. Thus the watering-place (now King Jimmy Brook) lay witliin the settlea strip

of 'Savannah',

a

ment. Taylor's treaty guaranteed Naimbana the immemorial right to customs from ships putting in to water. The

settlers were allowed an from ships duty anchoring additional in the bay and so acquired a

small public revenue.

Captains of slave-ships resented their claim to be recognized

A

independent community.

Liverpool captain

who

as

an

during a dispute

with them seized a settler and kept him in irons for three days, was himself seized and kept on shore till he paid a fme. They pursued another captain fifty miles, to the for stealing

Isles

goods from a trader

second unwarrantable,

as

Robana

slave-traders. Fearing to attack

ment they began An American

He

de Los, and brought him back to

inciting

at

lay

trial,

Robana. Such aggressions, the

beyond

their boundaries,

enraged

openly a settlement planted by govern-

King Jimmy

ship's-captain

against

it.

kidnapped several of King Jimmy's

way by seizing a boat from another rowing up to Bance Island, killing three men, impounding the cargo and selling the boat to the French. Soon after, in November 1789, Capt. Henry Savage, H.M.S. Pomona, anchored in the bay. The settlers complained to him of Bowie and of King Jimmy. Bowie was sent for, persuaded him their complaints were groundless, then complained himself about the murder of the Americans. Savage asked King Jimmy to come aboard. When he declined he sent a party of marines, with Bowie, to fetch him. Some settlers accompanied them as guides. Later they said they were compelled to. After a while Savage heard firing and saw a Temne town in flames. A lieutenant went on shore with reinforcements and sent word all was well. But as they were getting back into their boats to return to the Pomona the Temne fired from the bush and killed the lieutenant, the sergeant of marines and a settler, and wounded another settler. The boat party returned fire as they rowed off, but once they were safely back on board Savage decided not to send any more of liis crew to risk their lives in a private quarrel imsanctioned by the Admiralty. He contented himself with having liis ninc-poundcr gun fired at any people.

American

retaliated in the usual

ship

24

Temne who

appeared on the beach. Next day he went ashore under

cover of the guns, to see the dead properly buried; a

wooden monument

was put over the heutenant's grave. But he took no further action against King Jimmy, sending instead for Naimbana, who had promised in the treaty (as landlord) to protect the settlers, to come and make peace. A few days later some of King Jimmy's people shot a settler dead at the watering-place. The settlers begged Savage to take them away in the Pomona lest they all be massacred. Unable to comply, he told them to wait for Naimbana and sailed off on December the 3rd. Once he was gone. King Jimmy gave the settlers three days warning to quit the settlement. Then, in revenge for the burning of his own town, he burnt

down. So perished the

it

first

Granville

Town,

capital

of the Province of Freedom.

May

few weeks after the first settlers sailed, Thomas Clarkgraduate who had determined to devote Cambridge son, a young himself to opposing the slave trade, formed a committee, which included Sharp and Samuel Hoare, to work for its abolition. Wilberforce, Pitt's intimate friend, became their spokesman in Parliament. Their agitation stirred a wide public all over England. Like Vassa (p. 13),

In

1787, a

Clarkson supplemented philanthropic arguments with economic. When he went round the sea-ports getting information about the slave trade, he was careful to collect and display samples of African produce, holding out the bait of

only available

when

new

Thus those genuinely Passage found alhes those

who made

sources

of raw

new

materials,

markets,

the slave trade ceased. horrified

by

the cruelties of the

among manufacturing

the trade goods used to

pour in to Parliament.

A

buy

Committee of

capitalists,

Middle

even among

slaves. Petitions

the Privy Council

began to

was ap-

pointed in February 1788 to hear evidence about the slave trade. In

May abolition was raised in the House parliamentary campaign

it

was

Sharp's proposed St George's interested capitalism.

of Commons, the beginning of a

to take nineteen years to win.

Bay Company was no

Though he pointed out

published anonymously. Free English Territory

bait to self-

in the prospectus

in Africa, that

the

he

West

African barter trade provided a profitable market for cheap English

manufactures, he settlers'

request,

made and

it

clear that the

subscribers. 821613

Company was formed

for their benefit, not to

25

make

at the

profits for the

Twenty-two attended

the first meeting, in February 1790, to subof kindness rather than as an investment. They included Wilberforce and Henry Thornton, a rich banker, who had been on the Black Poor Committee. Through Wilberforce they bought a thirtyscribe as an act

four-ton cutter, the Lapwing, seized by the customs for smuggling, to

send the

settlers.

In April Sharp heard the settlement had been destroyed. Pitt for help, for a naval ship to settlers, for a

Sierra

take

it;

letters

further grant

Leone was

go out with marines

of ;£300.

He

He begged

to restore the

how

pointed out

valuable

to England, that, once abandoned, the French

he justified

as best

he could the

between April and August, but

settlers'

Pitt

conduct.

made no

would

He wrote

reply.

A

four

letter to

no more than formal acknowledgement.

the Treasury got

Denied government's help Sharp had to turn to private sources. But if he had found it easy to induce a few rich friends to advance, and perhaps

lose, a little

money

to help an established settlement, to raise

enough to re-establish, he had to solicit subscriptions from those who would demand some security for their investment. Though the Treasury had poured out public money in 1786 without inquiring how the settlers would spend it, private investors inevitably demanded some control. Control of expenditure implied control of government, and the end of the self-governing Province of Freedom Sharp had envisioned.

Thirty-eight shareholders petitioned for incorporation by Act of

Parhament settlers,

fort

as a

Company, with

possession of the land granted the

exclusive trading rights for thirty-one years, a grant towards a

and

soldiers,

and powers to make laws

capable of making their own. Their seeking a hostility

of

all

until the settlers

were

monopoly roused

the

connected with the African trade, freed from restraint

Royal African Company was wound up (p. 7). Slavetraders, in any case hostile to a body Sharp and Wilberforce sponsored, were enabled to oppose the petition on grounds of pubhc as well as since the

private interest; the Attorney-General advised against

it.

Undeterred, the promoters sought wider support, until in February 79 1, numbering about 100, they petitioned Parliament for incorporation. Realizing with Vassa and Clarkson that philantliropy may be 1

made more

by the inducement of eartlily rewards, they stressed their commercial rather than attractive

as

well as heavenly

their pliilanthropic

intentions (though admitting privately that the cliances of profit small). Their project offered tlioso

were

who supported abolition on humaiiiz6

tarian principles a practical

African trade.

Thus they

way of

encouraging alternative forms of

sympathy of

attracted the

abolitionists all

when shares were eventually offered to the public many were taken up in the provinces as in London. In April a Bill to incorporate the Company was introduced into the House of Commons. Petitions came in from London, Liverpool and over England: almost

as

Lancaster, slave-trading centres, against re-introducing

protested against the

monopoly Company's

and from the African Committee, (while the

Company's

bill

bill,

Thornton, the sponsor,

British sliips free trade, except in slaves, within the

territories.

opposed the already,

all

Committee their own, by

India

possibly infringing

planting sugar). Rather than risk losing the

agreed to allow

West

on

Lord

Sheffield, a

champion of the slave trade, were enough colonies

the grounds that there

new one would only cause expense, perhaps war. J. C. who had been shipwrecked at Sierra Leone two years before,

and a

Hippislcy

settlers' unhappy fate. The thought of expanding trade with Africa silenced such objections; the bill passed by eighty-seven votes to nine and became law on June the 6th 1791.

returning from India, recalled the

The petition to Parliament sought to incorporate 'The St George's Bay Company' this name also appeared on the draft bill. But it was ;

read in committee, in March, as the 'Sierra Leona Settlement' petition,

and the proposed company left nameless. 'The Sierra Leona Settlement' bill was debated; the Act (31 Geo. iii cap. 55) incorporated the 'Sierra Leone Company', the name, and spelling, henceforth adopted.

Company

from the Crown the on the peninsula (the southern boundary of which was wrongly given as the Kamaranka River). But what Parliament enacted, the government was slow to implement. The Attorney-General objected to the proposed form of Crown Grant. Repeated applications were fruitless: eventually the Company had to begin work without a Charter of

The Act empowered

the

to hold

land originally granted, and any other land they might acquire

incorporation.

The Act

vested

management

in thirteen directors, elected amiually

by the shareholders, and allowed the Company to make its own laws for those concerned in its affairs. Thus a colony governed by absentees in England replaced the self-governing Province of Freedom. Sharp had to submit, realizing the alternative was abandoning the settlers altogether. Chosen a director, he found it repulsive to direct those he had intended should direct themselves. Vainly he besought Pitt to 27

protect the settlers against the

Company. His

fellow directors, putting

business before philanthropy, elected Thornton, not him, chairman;

henceforth his influence counted for

little.

Henry Thornton who, more than anyone, was to direct the Company, was Wilberforce's intimate friend. They worked together to suppress the slave trade, and

were neighbours at Clapham, the nucleus of the so'Clapham Sect' a pious, benevolent. Evangelical group with which Sharp, though he lived at Fulham, is often associated. A rich

called

who

banker

felt it his

duty to devote

a

large part

Thornton weighted generosity with sound

charity,

of

his

income

to

business caution.

His wealth kept pace with his liberahty. Introspective, ever brooding

on

his

duty towards

God and man,

he lacked the easy manner Wilber-

force cloaked his conscious virtues with, or Sharp's charming simplicity.

He remained Olympian,

Stephen,

*laid aside the ermine'),

never entering

whom

judge-like ('he never', wrote Sir James

as

ready to help, to accept rebuke, but

Sharp had into personal relations with the

he treated more

as

settlers,

employees, cooperating to advance the

Company's good, than as equals in need of assistance. The Lapwing was ready to sail in April 1790. Sharp delayed her departure, hoping for government aid, until September when, realizing Pitt would do nothing, he wrote to tell the settlers she was coming out. But he no longer decided such matters. The Lapwing only left Gravesend in December, and arrived in January 1791, over a year after the burning of Granville Town. Nor did she bring relief: until the Company was incorporated the subscribers would not risk money in anything that did not bring immediate return. Her cargo was chiefly penknives and other ironmongery, suitable for established settlers to trade with, small comfort to the dispossessed and homeless. Nor was the captain allowed to give them anything unless they paid him with

produce or labour.

The

delay in sending relief was explained to the public by blaming

who were accused of intercepting the settlers' letters and preventing the news of the destruction of Granville Town being known in England until late in 1790. In fact Sharp's first news of the disaster was from Messrs Anderson whose letter reached him in April; shortly after, it was confirmed in a letter from Abraham Ashmore, the last Governor of the Province of Freedom, actually written from Bance the slave-traders

Island.

28

Driven from Granville Tov^oi, the with Bowie

who

found employment on back to England.

settlers

found temporary

shelter

Some Some made their way by Namina Modu, the Sanko

put them on Bobs Island, near Bance Island. or at the factory.

ships,

Some were

taken in

by Pa Boson, a nearby chief, who and hold regular church services. have a them let A few weeks after the Lapwing sailed, the directors sent an agent, chief of Port Loko, and about fifty

Alexander Falconbridge, to

relieve, if possible resettle,

them. Formerly

employed in the slave trade, Falconbridge had turned against it with the uncompromising violence of a religious conversion and helped Clarkson collect evidence. The directors judged liim chiefly by his opinions, overlooking his lack of self-control and addiction to a ship's surgeon

drink.

With him

who had just

sailed his

wife

Anna Maria,

married him against her

Englishwoman

to visit Sierra

Leone

a

young lady from

relatives' wishes.

she

(p. lo),

was the

her experiences in print. Dispassionate she was not her :

Not first

Bristol

the

first

to record

book ends

in a

of invective. But she was ready to make light of difficulties and judge what she saw fairly, with a spontaneous, unprejudiced interest, which raises her Narrative of Two Voyages high above those many tirade

books about the tropics which merely deride or deplore the unfamiliar amusement of complacent readers at home.

for the

The

directors

had to send Falconbridge

in

one of the Anderson's

bound for Bance Island. There he quarrelled with the agents and made his wife sleep on board a tiny, stinking cutter anchored off the island rather than accept slave-traders' hospitality. Settlers came to beg him to take them back to the settlement. Like the directors, they seemed to have lost faith in self-government J. W. Ramsay, a headman in London, wrote to Sharp that they must have someone to command them, and would obey Falconbridge. Falconbridge went to persuade Naimbana to let them return, making it clear the land had been twice paid for, and any further payment could only be compensation for Savage's aggression. Naimbana, influenced by his secretary Ehiott Griffith, was inclined to be friendly. Seven times Falconbridge went to Robana, twice with his wife, for ships,

:

protracted palavers, until the assembled chiefs consented, in return for

about -^30 worth of tobacco, rum, iron bars and gold-laced

hats.

About fifty men and women gathered under Falconbridge's care. They include seven of the prostitute wives, so black with dirt, so covered with ulcers, Mrs Falconbridge, seeing them almost naked and 29

unashamed, was amazed to discover they were Europeans. Granville Town was overgrown with bush so, having agreed to keep quite

away from King Jimmy, Falconbridge took his party eastwards to of what is now Cline Bay (then Fora Bay). They settled by

east side

the the

shore (north of where Kissy village was later built) in a village aban-

doned

for being

haunted by

evil spirits,

which they gave the old name,

Granville Tov^oi. Li a few weeks they built huts and a store, and planted cassava for

coming

the

cannon

sent

—

They had arms to defend themselves though six them lacked carriages and were useless. A militia was

year.

organized to keep guard.

them

By mid-June

to report to the directors.

The

Falconbridge could safely leave

captain of the Lapwing

was dead.

who came with them had turned slaveSo Theodore Kalingee, a Greek who came

Falconbridge's brother William

and was dead

trader

out

as Falconbridge's servant,

After his

too.

was

Naimbana ceded Gambia

left in

charge.

Island to the French he gave

was being brought up

Henry

Granville),

a

Muslim.

A third, John Frederic (later christened

he sent to England with the Falconbridges.

voyage Mrs Falconbridge taught him

to read,

intelligent pupil (unlike his sister Clara Elliott

friendly advances). Sharp called

*as

and Thornton

On

the

fmding him a quick, who had resisted her

sent the Black Prince, as they certified by two was hoped, would Peter were in their respec-

him, to be tutored by a country clergyman

bishops as respectable

be

them

son Pedro, or Bartholemew, to be educated in France; another son

enough

to instruct

useful in Africa, as Alfred

and the

one who, first

it

tive countries.'

Having heard Falconbridge's

report,

Thornton

called a shareholders'

meeting to consider policy. They decided on generous

capital outlay

as the only way to secure an adequate return. Instead of ^{^42,000 capital, originally proposed, it was resolved to raise -^100,000. Eventually ^235,280 was subscribed. -((^30,000 was estimated for initial expen-

diture in the

of it for

first

salaries.

year; recurrent annual expenditure ^7,000,

^2,000

Prospective settlers were to have free passages, rations

months, half-rations for another three, and grants of land, proportionate to the size of family. Land was to be subject to 25 an for three

acre quit-rent for

two

years, then to

an annual

tax.

The Company

would market goods and produce, taking 10 per cent on sales, 2^ per cent on purchases. These charges, with the profit from land reserved

for the

would,

Company it

to plant or

let,

and an extensive trade to the

was hoped, yield the shareholders

a

interior,

return for their invest-

ment.

The Company was not intended to make vast profits, but tors hoped it would prosper commercially. Its arms (never at the

the direcregistered

College of Heralds) depict their intentions grapliically a rigged :

sailing-ship surmounted by a crowned lion has as supporters a European in tailcoat and breeches with a heap of parcels, and an African in a loincloth with an elephant's tusk, emblems of peaceful trade. But if the employees were instructed that their main object was commercial, they were also reminded that their trade was subserving a nobler purpose, 'the Honourable Office of introducing to a Vast Country long detained in Barbarism the Blessmgs of Industry and Civilization.' The directors drew up a declaration to be explained to the neighbouring peoples that the Company renounced the slave trade, and

—

would keep

of goods to exchange for other commodities. Those who came to live within their jurisdiction were promised government by English law without respect to colour, those who sent a large stock

their children, free education at the

Company's

schools.

During the War of American Independence many slaves, preferring liberty under the flag of empire to slavery under the flag of liberty, joined the British forces. Organized into Corps of Guides and Pioneers, they did useful service. At the end of the war some were brought away with their families by the defeated army in defiance of a clause in the peace-treaty stipulating property taken in the war must be returned. A few found their way to England, thence to the Province of Freedom. Most were planted in the cold forests of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Having served under the Crown they were- entitled, as disbanded soldiers, to grants of land. But there were thousands of Loyalist immigrants in Nova Scotia with claims on government; some had abandoned large properties. When land was allotted, these humbler refugees who had left behind nothing but their chains tended to be overlooked. Some were told to wait; others were granted tracts of remote, impenetrable bush. Many had been baptized as Christians but in their new refuge lacked

When Whiteficld, the Methodist leader, visited America before the Revolution his converts included a young free Afro-American, Jolm arrant, who was impressed into the British

organized churches.

M

31

navy during the war and discharged in England. Hearing that his brethren in Nova Scotia wanted a minister he got in touch with the Countess of Huntingdon who had him ordained in 1785 a minister of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, an independent Church which had seceded from the Church of England. In Nova Scotia he started a Huntingdonian congregation at Birch Town, on the Atlantic coast near Shelburne, among the people of his colour. He then returned to England and died in Islington in 179 1. There was also a Methodist congregation at Birch Town, ministered to by Moses Wilkinson, a fervent, emotional preacher who, though blind and lame, had managed to escape from his master in Nansemond, Virginia, during the war. A Baptist preached there too, David George, converted by Baptists when a slave in Georgia. He prospered as a free man in Nova Scotia and accumulated some property. Driven from Shelburne for baptizing a white woman, he went round preaching in the vicinity, and in New Brunswick. Most of these people had grown up in Virginia or South Carolina and were unused to the severe winter. Without land, they had to work as labourers for masters accustomed to slave-owning, who had few scruples about exploiting them. Slavery was legal in Nova Scotia. Those forced by fear of hunger to work for a share of their employer's crop foresaw a dependence little better than their former state. Among them was Thomas Peters, a millwright, aged about fifty, who had escaped from his master in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1776, served as a sergeant in the Guides and Pioneers, and settled at Annapolis,

Nova

Scotia in 1784. After waiting vainly six years for his

land, he determined to

Barely

go

literate, liable as a

to

England

deputy to seek

redress.

him

American port, risking from the Nova Scotian government which would resent such

unscrupulous ship's-captain take reprisals

as their

freed British slave to be sold again should an to an

unauthorized criticism, he courageously crossed the Atlantic.

By

March 1791 he was in touch with Sharp. He may have met him through Cugoano, who seems to have been a kind of headman for Africans London, and even planned to go himself to Nova Scotia to recruit When the Sierra Leone Company directors heard his story they offered his people asylum in Sierra Leone. The Secretary of State took immediate action on Petcrs's petition, backed by the directors, and instructed the Governors of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to give those who wanted to stay the land due to them, those who did not, the choice of enlisting as soldiers or going to

in

settlers.

32

Sierra Leone.

The Treasury undertook

Company

the

(as

in

the expenses

of shipping while

1787 the Black Poor Committee)

made

the

arrangements.

Thomas Clarkson was a director of the Company. He and

his

brother

John, a twenty-eight-year-old naval lieutenant, were interested in Sharp's plans. John, who possibly once considered settling in the Province

of Freedom, offered in August and fetch the emigrants.

to

go

to

Nova

Scotia for the

Company

had been heard. Governor and officials, outClarkson reached Hahfax in October. wardly civil, were secretly hostile to a scheme that showed them up for having neglected their duty, and might deprive them of their cheap labour supply. Clarkson believed that the Under-Secretary of State (to whom Wilberforce had recommended him specially) had written privately against it. Rumours were circulated among the prospective emigrants that Sierra Leone had a deadly climate, and that they would have to pay heavy rent for land there. The directors stipulated they be first certified of good character, but Clarkson was unwilling to let their going depend on testimonials from masters who wanted them to stay. Two or three hundred were expected: the news stirred far more. As they flocked in, he felt bound to point out the dangers of venturing into an unknown land, and to urge those who had prospered in Nova Scotia not to abandon their new home. Few would be dissuaded. They mistrusted the Nova Scotian government. They feared their former masters might be allowed to come and claim them. When Clarkson said he would see that those who stayed got their land they replied, 'Massa Governor no mind King, he no mind You*. Peters went to spread the news in New Brunswick; Clarkson went round the bleak Nova Scotia villages. At Birch Town the people assembled to hear him in Moses Wilkinson's church. Beneath his matter-of-fact naval efficiency (he had been at sea from the age of eleven) Clarkson was deeply emotional, easily stirred (like liis brother) by injustice and misery. Sympathy for the sufferings of these his helpPeters returned

less

first

to tell the people their prayer

children, as he felt them, turned to a passionate, possessive protec-

which he was never to and devotion.

tiveness trust

In the pulpit at Birch

They asked

if it

were

Town

true, as

lose,

and they repaid with

a child's

he expounded the Company's terms.

was being rumoured, that they would He swore that as Government had

have to pay rent for their land.

33

promised them land free in Nova Scotia, so the Company promised it free in Africa, and that any charges they had to pay on it would not be rent but Neither

rates to

now

directors' offer.

maintain the sick or poor, or for schools.

nor

later did

They looked

Clarkson admit he misrepresented the

for quit-rents as an important and, as they

Company's income. The terms he brought stated explicitly that land was offered subject to charges, not,

conceived, reasonable part of the

as

he

said, for local rates,

perity.

What

he promised, and

directly contrary to the

Towards

almost

was

policy.

November

emigrants began assembling in

them from Shelburne and Annapohs. exodus from Birch Town; David George brought

went

a general

all his

his hearers joyfully believed,

Company's

the end of

Halifax. Ships

There was

but towards the Company's general pros-

to fetch

Baptist flock. Peters returned with his wife Sally and their

from New Brunswick. Four men, led by Richard Crankapone, whom the New Brunswick authorities maliciously prevented sailing, came on foot, over 300 miles from St John to Halifax through the thick wintry forests. At Halifax they were lodged at government expense in companies, each with its own headman, or captain. As the British Treasury was paying, local contractors could

children and emigrants

afford to be lavish: their lodging, with clothing and provisions for the

voyage, came to over ^6,000. For a further ^9,592 fifteen ships were chartered to take

A

away the

1,190 emigrants.

but Clarkson, assisted by man, supervised everything. Laurence Hartshorne, a Halifax businesis His good-natured frankness disarmed hostile officials (who would only have been further antagonized by an enthusiast like his brother or Falconbridge). He saw the ships fitted up, had vent holes cut to air those he considered stuffy, fires lighted to dry out the damp. He acted as banker for liis charges, helped them sell their property, quieted their fears that irreligious sailors would disturb their prayers, and exhorted them, in return, not to interfere with the sailors who, religious or irreligious, would give as good as they got. He warned the ship'scaptains that if they did not treat the emigrants with the consideration they would show fare-paying passengers he would, on arrival, refuse to sign the certificates to entitle the owners to recover expenses from

government agent chartered the

the Treasury.

The people

ships,

referred every

trifle

to his paternal decision.

Harrassed by their ceaseless plaints he was yet determined to sacrifice his

comfort for

them

crossly,

theirs,

reproaching himself bitterly if he answered

making himself ill by

his

34

arduous exertions.

They embarked in

their

keeping order. Those

companies, their

who

^captains',

two

to each ship,

by a jury of were aboard he

misbehaved were to be

tried

and the verdict reported to Clarkson. When all went round the fleet mustering, exhorting and giving each a certificate entitling him to his grant of land in Sierra Leone, and on January the

five,

15 th 1792 the expedition sailed.

Army

officer, Henry wanted to return Dalrymple who, having served to foimd a colony. He insisted on grandiose preparations which alarmed them, a garrison of 150 soldiers (they thought fourteen enough). Finally he left them, taking some of the proposed settlers with him, to start a colony of his own at Bulama, an island about 300 miles north of

The

chose as Governor a former

directors

on the West

Coast,

commercial enterprise for European settlement. Warned high-handed pretensions, they decided to divide and rule. In-

Sierra Leone, a

by

his

new Governor

stead of a

the

title

they appointed a Council of Eight, one with

Superintendent and a casting vote, but no power to

make

decisions without the majority approving.

When in

Nova

Thornton heard Scotia,

European

how many

volunteers Clarkson was raising

he realized they would make

colonists.

Only

much

destitute or eccentric

better settlers than

Europeans were likely

who could neither work in the sun, nor pay them. He decided to send from England only

to offer, people

others to

work

qualified

for

craftsmen or traders, to exclude decayed gentlefolk and adventurers,

and above

all

to

demand good moral

character, lest the

Company's

noble aspirations be corrupted, and the future happiness of miUions of Africans jeopardized.

He was determined the Council enforce, and set an

example of, the strictest morality, as befitted their high task, punishing,

if

need be expelling, the profane, the immoral and Sabbath-breakers. In February 1792 over 100 Europeans, only ten colonists, the rest the

and

Company's employees and tliirty

or forty

women

their famihes, including sixteen soldiers,

and children, arrived

in the

Company's

Harpy and the Lapwing. Falconbridgc who returned with his wife as Commercial Agent (though he knew notliing of trade) supposed he was to be Superintendent. But Thornton and Wilberforce were so impressed by the accounts from Nova Scotia they sent despatches asking Clarkson to stay on for a while and superintend, a decision justified by their hearing Falconbridge had been seen publicly drunk at Tenerifie on the voyage out. ships the

Amy,

the

35

:

So

Colony had no need

large a

disembarking

were, they started afresh tions,

at the first,

on

King Jimmy.

Town, where

renamed,

Freetown. Naimbana, presented with

moved him site

to fear

second Granville

at the

Instead

of

the original settlers

at the directors' instruc-

his son's portrait,

which

made no objection to their returning to the best ceded shore. The rising ground made it easy to drain; St

the

to tears,

George's Hill (renamed Thornton Hill) provided a

site

for a fort;

the watering-place not only supplied water but attracted passing ships; in front lay a

fme harbour. Only one

serious disadvantage impressed

Mrs Falconbridge

then, and future governments later, that the landing were rocky and shallow. The Council's immediate task was preparing for the Nova Scotians,

places

own dignity. Splendid in cockaded hats, epauletted and swords, with the title 'Honourable', they asserted their preeminence even on board ship, until Captain Wilson of the Harpy knocked one of them down on the quarter deck. The Surgeon, Dr Bell, their chief care their

coats

than his brother Councillors, spent much of his time in a drunken stupor. The Surveyor, James Cocks, preferred his military

less officious

commanding the sixteen soldiers to the heavier work bush. The Council met in state to reprimand a soldier for

duties as Captain

of clearing the

rudeness to him, then to determine the exact military status of each

When

from Halifax only two patches of ground were cleared, a hut and a few tents put up. The Councillors were still living on board the ships where they held their meetings and quarrelled with the captains. Storms separated the transports. The first arrived on February the Councillor.

28th.

The on

arrived

rest

the transports began to arrive

followed

at intervals until

March

the 9th. Clarkson

the 7th. Sailors and passengers lived in amity

only one passenger,

a

woman who

Clarkson for misbehaviour. The

'captains'

who had

the voyage

kept good order, some with

the added moral authority of religious leaders, like

Cato Perkins

on

threatened another, was reported to

William Ash and

ministered to the Huntingdonian congregation

Birch Town. If Moses Wilkinson was too infirm, Luke Jordan, one of his preachers, once a slave on a neighbouring Virginian plantation, was captain of a company. So was David George, who (with Peters) acted as a general intermediary between the people and Clarkson, at

who

loved and admired liim. So when the people first landed,

a

hymn

of praise,

their pastors led

them ashore, singing where

to a cotton tree standing, tradition says, near

St George's Cathedral later stood.

36

There

like the Cliildrcn

of

Israel

— which were come again out of the captivity they rejoiced before the who had brought them from bondage to the land of their forefathers. When all had arrived, the whole colony assembled in worship, to proclaim to the dark continent whence they or their forebears had Lord,

been carried in chains *The day of Jubilee is come; Return ye ransomed sinners home/

37

II had broken out on FEVER board, victims perhaps also

the

the transports: sixty-seven died

to

Dr

Taylor, the surgeon sent out

on by

Company, who administered only emetics. Thirty-eight died weeks on shore. Clarkson, already ill with excitement and

in the first

fatigue in Halifax, caught

it

and arrived an enfeebled convalescent,

anxious to hand his charges over to Governor Dalrymple and go

marry

to

Susanna Lee.

his fiancee

No

home

Governor appeared, only

him come

a

quarrelling Council, and the directors' letters asking

to stay as

Superintendent. Unwilling to abandon those he had

to feel his

children to so quarrelsome and incompetent a body, he agreed.

The Nova

(as the new settlers were henceforth called inbegan clearing the bush and unloading the trans-

Scotians

Sierra Leone) at once

which were sent off empty on March the i8th. Rough tents of and sails were put up for temporary houses and churches. Baptist, Huntingdonian and Methodist. The directors sent out Anglican

ports,

spars

clergymen, the Rev. Nathaniel Gilbert and,

Home, as Nova Scotians

Melvill

chaplains.

later in the year, the

Rev.

As both sympathised with Methodism,

as holding their own. from England, was fitted up as church, Council chamber. Councillors' quarters and many other uses, except what Mrs Falconbridge maintained it had been sent for, a house for her. She and the other European wives stayed on board the ships, quarrelling, gossipping and setting their husbands against one

the

A

attended their services as well

large prefabricated canvas house, sent

another.

Naimbana paid Clarkson

a

ceremonial

visit

dressed in full state with

wearing a pendant lamb and cross set in brilliants. His accompanied him. They demanded the Colony compensate

a judge's wig,

chiefs

King Jimmy

for the towns the Pomona burnt. Clarkson, unfamiliar with the customs of the country, declined responsibility for another's misbehaviour; he also laughed off attempts to make the Colony buy

them tlie treaty already signed. Naimbana King Jimmy remained imconvmced: ultimately, to sweeten him, Clarkson paid him lOO bars for the damage. the land again, showing agreed, but

38

A week after Clarkson arrived death released Dr Bell from his drunken The

stupor.

pomp.

Councillors

demanded

a state funeral

with

all

possible

In vain Clarkson objected the bad example to those they were

bidden to edify, the affront to the religious principles the Company-

was trying to embody. They had a majority, so their will prevailed. In solemn procession they committed their sodden colleague to the earth, while minute guns fired from the ships. A gunner had his arm shot off as he was loading, and died soon after. Clarkson, too ill to join in the loathsome obsequies,

convulsed by alternate

fits

down when he heard of the accident,

broke

of fainting and

His nominal superintendency gave

who

did as they chose.

The

hysteria.

him no

control over his colleagues

of the goods on board the

invoices

ships

The Councillors would look them over, one another, order on shore what they wanted. Thus consignments of similar goods might be landed from separate

lay out

on

the Council table.

then, without telling

The

happy

to annoy, put the goods on shore whether there was anyone to receive them or not. Crates landed at low tide might be soaked, or washed away, before they were noticed. ships.

The

ship's-captains,

soldiers

put on guard usually pilfered from them. Indeed what

stealing stores, and from one another, with drunkenness, mutiny and attempted desertion, the soldiers contributed only disorder; eventually they were sent home.

with

Clarkson tried to enforce a systematic check on ordering from the But no sooner had he induced his colleagues to agree than he

ships.

found the Surveyor had without asking sent for an expensive machine for grubbing up tree-roots, broken it on work it was not meant for, and abandoned it.

The Company's terms promised

the

Nova Scotians equal rights with word ^African' be substituted

Europeans. Wilberforce suggested the in the

Colony

Clarkson did

for *Negro' or *Black',

with

their pejorative undertones.

he could to keep the Company's promise. In April three European sailors on the Lapwing whom he observed particularly all

offensive to the

Nova

Scotians exposed themselves to further punish-

ment by disobeying orders. He summoned the whole Colony and had Simon Proof, a Nova Scotian ex-serviceman, flog them pubhcly, making it clear in a long speech beforehand that they were punished as

much

for misbehaviour to the

Nova

Scotians as for disobedience.

But when his fellow-Councillors abused or threatened them, undermining the happy relationship he had estabhshed, he had no power to do more tlian remonstrate vainly. Licessantly thwarted in carrying out 39

his

Nova Scotians, he succumbed to physical debihty Thomas who, frustrated in his efforts to abohsh the

mission to the

(hke his brother slave trade,

fell ill

and

and exhaustion enfeebled him; poured out agonized complaints in an ulti-

retired). Hysteria

memory went. He matum to Thornton, threatening to return to England unless given full powers. He bought a fast schooner to take the letter, sending the chaphis

lain

with

it

But

to explain anything omitted.

an answer came he had

till

to submit to his colleagues' vagaries.

He

also

Company was

complained to Thornton that the

being

cheated or misled over almost every cargo sent out. Bricks were sent

but no trowels. Space in the

ships'

holds that provisions or building

have filled, was taken up with and dressing cotton, though neither had yet

materials, the first necessaries, should utensils for boiling sugar

been planted, let alone harvested. Molasses came in leaking casks, flour not in casks but sacks. The store-house stank of rancid butter and rotting cheese. Insects

storekeepers

By

swarmed on

fell ill,

one

the molasses-drenched flour- sacks.

after another,

and died.

the end of March the waterfront

twelve

streets laid out,

Clarkson suspended

was cleared 200 yards deep and

running inland, to be named

all

public works to

let

proper houses before the rains began, but felled

The

they had to go further afield for

it

the

as the

and

after the directors.

Nova

Scotians build

nearby timber was

for grass for thatch, so

progress was slow. Tornados, prelude to the rains, began early in April.

Fever and dysentry broke out.

By May the rains had set in,

ushering the

when Mrs Falconbridge wrote, 'It is quite customary of ask "how many died last night?" words that long served

terrible period

a

morning

to

',

motto for Sierra Leone. of sending out dozens of Europeans, some of them idle, for the plantations they were to oversee were not yet cleared, now became apparent. Many had wives and children; few had experience of the tropics or were prepared for hardship. In the middle of May with

the English public as a

The

folly

people dying daily, and the rough provisions, unsuited for invahds,

running short, a storekeeper arrived from England with a wife, mother-in-law and six children. Those with families saw them sicken without might die themselves, alone and unnoticed. fell ill. Contemporary remedies were in

and

die, those

The

doctors went home, or

any case of little avail: quinine (or 'bark') might be given, but accompanied with purges, emetics or bloodletting. Of 119 Europeans sent out in 1792, fifty-seven died.

the rains

was

liigher,

Among

the

Nova

Scotians, mortality during

though proportionately lower, nmety-eight. 40

As the Nova

Scotians' reason for leaving

Canada was

their

not having

received the promised grants of land, Clarkson v^as determined they

should get their lands in Sierra Leone puffed up

when he from the

left, ill,

scratch.

Nova

as

Cocks,

no surveying:

Clarkson wrote, only constart

almost

unsheltered, their land unallotted, not even surveyed,

weak with

their deliverer,

Company. Only

the voice

and exhaustion, exhorting

fever

to patience, restrained their violence.

Clarkson assumed

Once

pied.

as possible.

Richard Pepys, had to

his successor,

Scotians began to turn against the

of Clarkson,

them

Ill,

having caused,

in July

and expense,

fusion

soon

as

with his Councillor's status, did almost

their leader, their

his influence after his

announcing

the position Peters originally occu-

deputy in England, Peters gradually lost He had no official

triumphant return to Halifax.

Company, nor

post under the State

among them

—though he wrote to the Secretary of —under the British government. He

their arrival

ignored the Councillors' pretentions contemptuously, but could not

two of them them up to make

ignore his people's devotion to his rival. Early in April

warned Clarkson privately that he was trying to stir him Governor. Clarkson had the bell rung, then standing under amidst the assembled people, threatened Peters

tree

harangued them passionately on the the dangers

A

of discord, and

as usual

sacrifices

as a

a big

He

mutineer.

he had made for them,

convinced them.

was accused of embezzling money belonging to two orphans. As the colonists were allowed the rights of English law he was tried by a jury of Nova Scotians who found him guilty; he was made to give up the money and rebuked severely. After this few weeks

later Peters

humiliation he started attending the nightly prayer-meetings and,

though not

a preacher,

did, suspecting

spoke regularly. Clarkson, informed of

him of plotting, attended

rule alone in the

prevented from

Nova

Scotians' hearts, as in the

fulfilling

what he

felt his

all

he

too. Ruthlessly determined to

Colony,

lest

he be

sacred mission towards them,

he steadily undermined Peters's influence and

won round his supporters.

When

them choose between no one stir towards him.

Peters

summoned

the people and bade

him and Clarkson he was mortified

to find

ill with the prevailing and in the night of the 25th-26th of June he died. Legend has prolonged Peters's life into distinguished old age, built

Isolated, threatened, sick at heart, Peters fell

fever,

him

a stone house in

town, has

first

African

Water

Street, created

murmured, history-books have 821613

him

member of Legislative printed.

41

first

Headman of Free-

Council, and what legend

But

if his career turns

out

to be less than

it

has appeared,

its

importance should not be denied.

Without his courage and faith in coming to England, no Nova Scotian would have come to Sierra Leone; without the Nova Scotians the Colony would have failed.

Emmanuel Swedenborg,

the mystic founder of the

New

Church,

somewhere between the Nile and Lake Chad lay hidden a pure African Church, founded by special revelation, whose members apprehended unmediated truth in a way unattainable by Europeans. declared that

Some of

Swedish followers, anxious to

approached Three set out for Africa in 1787, reached Goree, but returned to England after some disagreement with the French government. One of them, C. B. Wadstrom, then helped found the Swedenborgian Church in his

Sharp while he was sending out the

investigate,

first settlers.

London, met Clarkson and gave evidence for him about the slave trade, and interested himself in the Sierra Leone Company*s affairs, which were described in detail in his Essay on Colonization published in 1794.

Wadstrom never saw Sierra Leone: a picture of it he drew and published is a work of imagination. Dr William Dickson, a fellow Abolitionist,

even claimed to have composed the Essay, to have supplied

material and style, while

Wadstrom wove

fantastic

theories,

then

departed for France leaving his collaborator unpaid. Several Swedenborgian compatriots pursued the quest cally.

James Strand,

whom

more

practi-

the directors appointed Secretary to the

Council, came out in 1792 and assisted Clarkson loyally and efficiently. Nervous, apprehensive of illness, he dosed himself regularly with

opium which may have

accelerated rather than delayed his death in

October 1794. Augustus Nordenskiold, appointed the Company's mineralogist, had been alchemist to Gustavus iii though his dream was not to

—

make

the king rich, but gold plentiful, that poverty be abolished.

In Sierra Leone he sought not the Philosopher's Stone but the fabled

wealth of Africa and the purer riches of the hidden church. in

May, eager

to set off at once

could not persuade him to wait

from

travelling east

through the

later

through Port Loko by exorbitant

which he had invested

all his capital.

42

arrived

Clarkson

than September. Then, prevented

north by boat to the Susu country, taking in

He

torrential rain:

a large

prices,

he went

stock of trade goods

At Wonkafong (Wadstrom

in

his

account mistakenly says Port Loko) he

goods and returned to the Colony to

Adam

Afzelius, the third

fell ill,

was plundered of his

die.

Swedenborgian Swede in the Company's

of Linnaeus's, recommended to the directors by Sir His was the first systematic botanical work on West Banks. Joseph African flora Smeathman and Berlin he regarded only as collectors of curiosities. He arrived in May, with a beautiful young Milanese assistant service,

was

a pupil

:

Francesco Borone. His

first

months were

necessarily idle,

cooped up in

cramped quarters with quarrelsome companions, while the rain poured down outside. But when it ceased, Clarkson had a garden of experiment prepared for collecting

He

him

and

near his

own

house on the waterfront, and he began

planting.

too visited the interior where,

skiold,

he met three persons of great

more

fortunate than

spiritual beauty,

A

Norden-

but sought their

Swedenborgian wrote sadly, 'Any exterior communication with the African church I think very improbable in the present state of the Christian world, and until the life of heaven is more internally found, I do not see what use it would be of. church in vain. Here the quest ended.

Thornton (p. 17).

a

later

banker, did not share Sharp's disapproval of

money

Feeling that 'bar' currency encouraged fraud, and prevented

small accumulations of capital, he had silver and copper coinage in

and cents (but including pennies) struck for the Company at Soho Mint, Birmingham, the first issue dated 1791. The obverse bore a lion, with the words 'Sierra Leone Company, Africa', the reverse clasped black and white hands, symbol of racial amity. The first consignment was ordered out in 1792: until it arrived Clarkson, having run through what cash they had, issued paper notes based on bills of exchange on the directors. The Company's currency was readily accepted by Temne or Bulom bringing produce for sale. dollars

the

The Granville

Town

soon tired of supporting Falconbridge's Greek governor, who ate and drank for two, sold their gunpowder to the Tcmnc and told Falconbridgc on his return they were all thieves. Falconbridge, once their father, turned cruel stepfather, ignored their complaints, arrested ex-Governor Ashmore for slavc-dcahng, and locked liim up on board ship five days, then settlers

servant Theodore, their

43

releasing

him

for lack

of evidence. Clarkson, having heard only

When

Signior

Domingo,

evil oi

lest

they corrupt the

Nova

the chief at

Royema, round

the point

them, kept them out of Freetov^n

Scotians.

from

Granville Tov^oi, wrote complaining of them, he replied that they v^ere

not

his subjects

and that Domingo could do

Ostensibly a

Roman

as

he liked w^ith them.

Catholic, able to read Portuguese, Signior

Domingo may have been

descended from the Afro-Portuguese earlier Temne, respecting his v^isdom, deemed him a him Pa *Potoo' (a w^ord meaning originally *Portu-

so prominent: the stranger, calling

of selling the

guese', applied in time to all Europeans), histead as

he might

safely

settlers,

have done, he talked over the dispute amicably.

Clarkson was mortified to get a reproachful ing Domingo's Christian charity with his

letter

own

from them

contrast-

unchristian harshness.

friendlier and allowed them into Freetown. employed by the Company as interpreter as well as being Naimbana's secretary, was allowed to live there on his agreeing to obey the laws. Even before Clarkson's ultimatum arrived, the directors sent him discretionary powers to overrule his colleagues. They then disbanded the Council and made him Governor. Two full-time Councillors, advisors whose views he could overrule, were to be sent out later. Thus he was able to enforce his views on the squabbling officials who, with their wives, he lamented, seemed unable to make the smallest concession to one another to compose their selfish interests. Rid of Peters he no longer feared a Nova Scotian rival. Henry Beverout, captain of a company and Methodist preacher, born free in St Croix Island, whom he suspected of having been under Peters's influence, he won round by making him Church Clerk. Griffith, whom he also mis-

Put to shame, he became Elliott Griffith,

trusted,

remained submissive.

Pepys began clearing the bush

east

of Freetown for the Nova

Scotians' farmlands, cutting a straight road as base-line (the present

Kissy Road) to Granville it,

Town, and running out

blocks of land across

eight of which

survive as the parallel

divided by avenues (the

first

still

between Hagan Road and Ross Road). As Granville Town lay amid the 15th and i6th blocks Clarkson decided to incorporate it in the Colony. Six Nova Scotians went to negotiate with the inhabitants who, streets

Company's rules, but remaining in their own town. Clarkson, cheered at last by a positive achievement, wrote in his diary that he looked on that day as the

on August

the 4th, agreed to join, accepting the

foundation of the Colony. 44

A

Dalrymple with about 150 of his Bulama colonists on their way back to England, and hostile neighbours. Clarkson, with hardship frightened away by barely enough for his own people, could provide little but civilities, or such unexpected services as going aboard to christen a baby and church its mother. The passengers wandered ashore and made trouble with King Jimmy's people. Clarkson feared their influence on the Nova

few days

later

arrived in the harbour, sick and starving,

Scotians

who

and resented of them.

As

the

sold

them provisions they could ill spare, at high prices, them. It was a month before he was rid

his trying to stop

rains

lessened

the

Colony grew

healthier

and tempers

Dr Thomas Winterbottom, who came out in July, tended the sick conscientiously. To restore inward as well as outward health, Clarkson had a mess-room built for the Company's officers to work and dine in together, calling it Harmony Hall, that pubhc association overcome private feuds. The Company sent out more supplies, frames improved.

and prefabricated houses of canvas covered with oilcloth (which did not, however, long survive heat and damp). A store-ship, the York, was sent to anchor permanently in the harbour to provide better shelter than leaky store-houses. A framed hospital building was brought on the ship Duke of Savoy, and Clarkson had Savoy Point' (later, Mabella Point) east of the town, cleared for it. Later another hospital building (used as living quarters) was put up beside Falconbridge's house, at the north-east corner of Freetown (still known as Falconbridge Point). Clarkson's house, the main storehouse, and the church were west of it, along the shore above the main wharf. Another store-house was built south of Falconbridge's house in Susan's Bay (which Clarkson named after his fiancee), with a wharf for housebuilding,

*

below.

Much of the in

building was supervised by Isaac

June to plant cotton and take charge of the

DuBois who came out

soldiers,

but undertook

more important tasks. A dispossessed Loyalist from Wilmington, North Carolina, he had in childhood known (his family may even have owned) some of the Nova Scotians Thomas Peters came from ;

Wilmington. Practical and

versatile,

he turned doctor during the

rains,

then builder.

Nova Scotians drew rations from the Company two days work a week in

Until farms were allotted, the

Company's

store,

giving the

repayment. They were also given credit. larly, the

heads of each department

Many were employed

regu-

—surveying, building, carpcntermg

45

—tempting them away from one by

the

another by higher wages,

Company. Clarkson supphed

fishing boats.

Within

few months

a

all

paid

with materials to build dozen had boats and were

several a

trading with passing ships or at the slave-factories, using their wages,

or their surplus rations,

as capital.

Anxiously paternal, he feared their

buy more rum than the

trading outside the Colony, where they could

would

Company's

store

had no land

to farm.

sell,

but realized

Endlessly patient with them, he

inevitable while they

it

was ready

to sacrifice the

still

Company's

He promised them part of the reserved Company would get more profit from their

policy to their peace of mind. waterfront, feeling the

being contented and loyal than from the use of the land. short of the high standard he set for

them he tended

When they fell

to detect the cor-

ruption of European example. Sometimes he prayed every European

but himself might be turned out of the Colony the directors

demanding more European

—then wrote angrily to

teachers

and

artisans.

violent, inconsistent reproaches, often dashed off in a state

exhaustion, distressed Thornton, and drove

him

Plis

of nervous

to long, moralizing,

self-justifying, replies.

As a banker, Thornton knew little of trade. Subordinates regularly imposed on the directors, ordering cargoes to suit their, or their conpockets.

tractors'

One

ship arrived laden with garden water-pots.

Clarkson reckoned mismanagement cost the in the first year.

ployees

who

on board

He

Company

thought the directors too

cloaked dishonesty under a show of piety.

the York (whose captain the directors

about ^40,000

by em-

easily taken in

When he went

recommended

particu-

whether urgently needed stores were his hand, and he had to stay for morning prayers; yet the sailors swore, stole, even mutinied. The soil round Freetown proving less suitable for large plantations than the directors had been led to suppose, Clarkson crossed to the Bulom Shore and leased from the chiefs a square mile of what it was larly for religious zeal) to see

being unloaded, a

hymn book was pressed into

ground. James Watt, a member of the original Council, once a planter in Dominica, was put in charge of

hoped would be more

fertile

*Clarkson's Plantation', as rice

it

was

called, to plant sugar-cane,

with hired Bulom labourers,

hoped would

free labour

cotton and

whose produce

it

was

undersell that of West Indian slaves.

Falconbridge talked of going

down

The Company's trade goods rotted in

the coast to trade but did not.

the store. Eventually the directors

dismissed him. Thornton wrote and published in 1794 a report

46

making

!

him

blamed him

a scapegoat,

for the

Company's

misfortunes, without

Commercial Agent a hatred of the slave trade.

accepting responsibihty for having appointed as

doctor whose only recommendation was his

His successor was chosen on the opposite principle, an unrepentant old slaver

who knew

sank from

few months. do

really

DuBois

the tricks of the Coast. Falconbridge, dismissed,

will not be guilty

*I

to tell a falsehood

*as I

all

intermittent to permanent intoxication, and died within a

on

To prove

not.'

of such meanness,' wrote his wife, by saying I regret his death, no

this occasion, it,

within a fortnight she married Isaac

name

in her book), celebrating the

joyous

When the Temne sold the shore,

they did not realize the Colony

would

extend inland. They took fright

when

(she suppresses his

event with a grand dinner.

through

their

they saw Pepys cutting avenues

farms and villages. In September Clarkson invited

Naimbana and his chiefs to settle the Colony's boundaries fmally. The land having been twice granted and paid for, the Company's right to clear and allot it was not contested, but as the chiefs had not understood what they were selling, it was agreed to indemnify any

who

lost their crops,

Maquoit

Will to the adjoining

did

all

were

east,

ownership of it,

and not to disturb

villages along the shore.

Pa

Domingo and Pa King Jimmy was also assured

west of Granville Town, Signior

to the

all

and

left in possession.

land west of the watering-place, some sacred bush his right to collect

customs for watering. Clarkson

he could to make ships pay, indeed ingratiated himself with the

chiefs as successfully as

These concessions

grasslands to the west, the

could not

fulfill

Nova Scotians. Nova Scotians to Temne. Shut out of the waterside villages to the east, the Company

with the

sacrificed

the promise to give each twenty acres with a farther

ten for his wife, five for each child. Clarkson nevertheless persuaded

the mistrustful people, cheated of their land in a fifth

Nova

Scotia, to accept

of what they had been promised, on the understanding they get

the rest later.

Before returning to England for the leave his health demanded, he began giving out the reduced allotments, preaching patience to those who had to wait, reasoning with the dissatisfied. Once allotting began, he reduced the rations they had

come

them the Company was not obliged them wage-labour, and begged them 47

to rely on. Firmly he convinced to

compensate them by giving

to take

up

as

farmers the indc-

.

pendence they had longed for in

Nova

Scotia, rather than

depend on

wages.

On November the

day the land was first allotted, Clarkson climbed what he named Directors' Hill (today Mount Aureol), whence he could look down upon his work and see that it was good. It was a day of rejoicing. Salutes were fired, toasts

and

13 th, the

a great multitude

were drunk. He resolved

The

ships'

to build a house there

companies tended to

on

his return.

on

stick together

shore, building

adjacent houses, representing grievances through their captains. In

December

the captains' authority was regularized. The community was divided, on Sharp's model, into tythings and hundreds. Every ten freeholders were to elect a Tythingman, every ten Tythingmen a Hundredor, to settle small disputes, keep order, and represent their constituents' views. Legislative power was reserved to the Company's Governor and Council (whose laws were subject to the directors' disapproval), but they could propose laws to be enacted.

John Cuthbert,

a Baptist elder,

and captain of a company, and James

Reid, once Governor of the Province of

Hundredor s, were Granville In the

Town,

to

also

made

summon juries and

weeks before

his departure

people to patience, sobriety and

them

in a

Freedom

(p. 21, 23), elected

Marshals, one for Freetown, the other

enforce writs.

Clarkson constantly exhorted the

self-reliance.

He

took public leave of

long prayer where. Saviour-like, he implored

his sacrifice for their shortcomings, to bruise iniquities, that the sacred task

December

him,

God

to accept

if need be, for their

he had begun be not frustrated. Then on

the 30th 1792 he sailed, reading his history as

Governor

in

eyes restored to health and brighmess, tearful only at his departure, in a ship laden with fruit

and vegetables, fowls and eggs, collected

in

ones and twos from almost every family.

Thornton could not let Clarkson rule alone if only because if he fell ill was no substitute. William Dawes arrived in September to act with him in Council and as Governor when he left. A second Member of Council, Zachary Macaulay, arrived in January 1793. Dawes, a Marine officer, something of an astronomer and mathematician (he taught Mathematics for a year at Christs Hospital) had gone out with the first shipload of convicts to Botany Bay, where he quarrelled with the Governor and returned to take service in a Colony founded on more there

liberal principles.

His detractors suggested he tried to import convict 48

methods:

it

might be

he brought the rigidity of a just but he left, laboured in vain to make

fairer to say

distant schoolmaster. Clarkson, before

the

Nova

Scotians like him.

Macaulay, even more aloof and

man

inflexible,

is

much

the

most famous

have governed Sierra Leone. His long devoted labours towards

to

abolishing

first

employment

the slave trade, then slavery, began w^hen, disgusted

on

by

Jamaican slave plantation, he turned in revulsion to a Colony w^here slaves had become free. His stern, intelas overseer

a

lectual passion for righteousness raised against

tion

which pursued him

all his life:

him malice and

execra-

the forbidding grimness of his bust

Westminster Abbey perhaps helps explain why. Thornton warned

in

Clarkson that his repelling appearance belied

his

deeper feelings.

The parting Clarkson told the people, Pepys consenting, their land would all be allotted within a fortnight. But Pepys and Dawes turned and the final allotments were delayed. Many who land had no time to plant it before the rains. Others could

to planning a fort

got their

never plant, for the parallel blocklines, so neat on the plan, were drawn up the steep, rocky slopes east of Freetown.

The

huts built during the rains were only emergency structures

on Soon after Clarkson left, Pepys began allotting new town sites for permanent building, reserving the waterfront for the Company. Along the shore by Susan's Bay (where Little East Street now runs) a group of Birch Town people under Luke Jordan, the Methodist preacher, (p. 36), captain of the passengers in the Brothers transport, had built a row of huts in what they called Brothers Street. They refused to move, alleging that Clarkson had said they might temporary

stay.

sites.

Pepys, a disgruntled survivor of the original Council, replied that

Clarkson's promises were often thoughtless and irresponsible. Such an

answer alarmed them, and divided the Europeans into pro- or anti-Clarkson.

London

new

factions,

Governor who had, Yet neither were in real sympathy. Clarkson was impatient with their business caution which he thought cold-blooded parsimony, and abused them violently for meanness and incompetence. They, in return, mistrusted him, feared In

the directors received cordially the

as

Thornton

his

unauthorized promises, and suspected

declared, saved the Colony.

him of withholding informaThornton had not mentioned the mortality during which they had had to discover from strangers. They were

tion: his letters to

the rains,

49

frightened at the vast expense of shareholders'

money

—while

he

demanded more liberal salaries. When Dawes and Macaulay wrote

letters praising one another's government by firmness with the disadvantages of persuasion and promise, a way was pointed out of their difficulties, hi April, just as Clarkson was going to Norfolk to be married, they informed him his services were no longer needed. Overwhelmed by the shock of sudden dismissal, Clarkson nevertheless made no public protest, lest he provide a weapon for the Colony's enemies. He wrote privately to friends in bitter outcry at such ingratitude, but in his letters to the Nova Scotians urged obedience to Dawes, even hinted his marriage had prevented his return. Rejected by the directors (as Peters by the Nova Scotians), disgusted with public service, disappointed of promotion in the Navy, he settled down as a banker abilities,

contrasting the advantages of

in East Anglia until his death in 1828, only letting his benevolent his wish for quiet domestic obscurity by helping found the Society for the Promotion of Universal Peace.

emotions overcome to

Rid of Clarkson, the directors removed several of his adherents, including DuBois who led the pro-Clarkson party. Clarkson maintained he

worked harder than

all his

colleagues put together, but, a

strong partisan, he was no longer acceptable. Thornton, in his published report, accused

him of stirring up

ment. Returned to England, vainly for

money

she claimed

the people against the govern-

his indignant still

wife beseiged Thornton

due to Falconbridge.

When

verbal

on the defended her and directors' meanness and hypocrisy. Wadstrom, too, Clarkson with veiled asperity. Thus, apart from the Company's published reports, the first accounts of the Colony to appear in book form presented its promotors in unattractive guise.

entreaties failed she turned to print, venting her witty fury

Cheated once of property and independence, the Nova Scotians feared that were Clarkson's promises forgotten they would again be reduced to servitude. Even before they heard he was dismissed they determined to put their grievances to the directors themselves. A petition was

drawn

up, apparently

by DuBois,

Dawes, the new Governor, the

rum

detailing their complaints against

his raising prices at the store,

liis

watering

(on philanthropic principles), grievances they necessarily

50

felt

were dependent on the Company. They chose two it to London, Cato Perkins, the Huntingdonian preacher, and Isaac Anderson, and subscribed money to support them. Anderson, a man of violent emotions, lived in Brothers Street (known to Europeans as 'Discontented Row') and bitterly resented the attempts to move him. Born free, he had been a carpenter in Charleston before the American War. so long as they

deputies to take

The up by

directors suspected the petition to be a party

Clarkson's supporters;

explaining

away

at the Sierra office.

the grievances. So the deputies aroused

Leone House, Birchin Lane, Cornhill,

letters

sympathy Company's

little

the

After about six months in England (from which Perkins at least

benefited sent

manoeuvre got

Dawes and Macaulay wrote

home

from

the attentions of

members of his

church), they were

again, their grievances unredressed.

In 1793 began the long wars with France. Shipping was dislocated,

insurance

rates

rose,

goods became dearer and

scarcer.

Already

Company had to raise prices without wages. The Nova Scotians, obliged to shop

threatened with trading losses, the

being able to afford to

Company's

raise

saw in the rise a kind of indirect taxation, another burden imposed on them which they had no hope of removing. Some threatened Dawes with the fate of Louis XVI, the news of which had just reached them. By September the community was so divided that Macaulay could write in the journal he sent home regularly to Thornton of the 'white Party'. When, in November, the York, filled with valuable produce and cargo, caught fire in the harbour, no Nova Scotian would go to help extinguish it, for fear there was gunpowder aboard, though they were assured there was none. All was lost; neither ship nor cargo were insured; the loss was estimated -^15,000. Yet some instead of mourning a common disaster, rejoiced at a judgement on their oppressors. As Clarkson foresaw, failing to conciliate them by concessions at small immediate loss risked antagonizing them and wrecking the whole at the

store,

enterprise.

At the end of the eighteenth century English evangelical Christians were increasingly fired to spread their gospel abroad. Home shared this enthusiasm. He yearned to be more than a chaplain, to preach to the Temne, to convert the milhons of Africa. One day he went to Signior Domingo's town and preached a long sermon through an 51

interpreter

natives

He

:

it

was

la ter

printed as the only sermon ever preached to the

of West Africa (though

was

it

Evangelical stronghold.

He

published his views on missions

moving round

—that

Freetown but in African villages, on the Wesleyan model. He also

missionaries should not live in

preferably

a circuit

urged privately (perhaps recalling be

not).

returned to England in 1793 and became vicar of Olney, an

his late colleagues' wives) that

they

single.

Once

was cleared and rainproof houses built, the people throve. Year after year Dr Winterbottom and his successors reported only minor ailments among them; Europeans still caught fever regularly but few died of it. To the end of his days Zachary Macaulay maintained Sierra Leone was healthy. Many, having learnt building and carpentering in America, could replace the wattled huts put up in the first days with timber structures, cut and framed themselves. To keep out the damp they usually built on a foundation, rising above ground, of laterite stone, easily quarried and plentiful, with roofs of narrow wooden shingles which (unless slates were imported) provided for the next fifty or sixty years the normal roofing for a Freetown house. Bricks to build chimneys had to be imported, so most houses had none. Cooking was done in outside kitchens, detached from the house. The town lots were big enough to give each house a garden. Property was normally sold in lots or half lots, so inner Freetov^oi was long spared congested building. When gardens grew up round the well-spaced houses, the town appeared to rise from a shrubbery. Along the waterfront the Company put up about two dozen buildings, quarters, store-houses and workshops, wdth the church in the middle. The Governor's house was at the north-west corner of the town, above the mouth of King Jimmy Brook. A garden was laid out near it for Afzelius; he had another above Susan's Bay. His first botanical report was appended to the Company's printed report in 1794.

To

the bush

encourage farming the

cleared and built houses

on

Company

their lots

by

offered prizes to those

who

certain dates, or raised specified

amounts of produce.

land of their birth. Several

Nova

home-coming to the were Koranko, carried from their homes to

For some the voyage from

Scotia

52

was

a

:

Bance hhnd and sold. One found her mother, a slave to a Tenine chief. Another met the Mandinka who had sold him, and gave him a present for having unwittingly been the means of his conversion to Christianity. A servant of Macaulay's, engaged in England through Sharp, insisted on returning to his home near Cape Palmas. Frank Peters returned from exile in South Carolina and Nova Scotia to his own village, and resumed his former way of life with its attendant risks only his connexion with the Colony saved him from being sold a second time.

By Act of employees or

Parliament the colonists,

but

ungranted, the extent of

its

Company

make laws

could

for

its

Charter of incorporation was

as a

jurisdiction

was

uncertain. Clarkson

still

was

on passing ships. While his pendant was hoisted over the transports from Halifax, he could command the authority of a naval officer; once they were gone his power was purely moral. Sailors would escape from brutal captains on slave-ships and several times asked to settle disputes

hide in Freetown. Unwilling to shelter them, and arouse their captains'

enmity, he had no authority to force them back on board.

He wanted a

naval ship permanently stationed in the river to keep order, but the

Admiralty refused. Early in 1793 three European sailors from a ship chartered by the

Company

killed a

them with

a

duck belonging

Nova

Scotian jury

to a

Nova

Scotian.

who found them

Macaulay

guilty.

tried

One was

fmed and imprisoned. Their captain complained to the captain of a passing naval ship who, having read through the Act of Parliament, produced for his inspection, denied publicly flogged,

the others

it gave the Company any power to constitute law courts, and made Macaulay release them. Nor was it clear whether the Company could legally free slaves.

that

directors laid down a general rule that runaways ought not to be given up to their masters, but agreed that prudence and local circum-

The

stances determine

valid in Sierra slaves

became

how

Leone

strictly it

it

be enforced. Yet

if

English law was

followed (and Clarkson maintained), that

all

free automatically. In July 1793 five slaves escaped there

from the Isles de Los. Their owner, Horrocks, an English slave-trader, demanded their return or compensation. Macaulay warned the Nova Scotians against sheltering fugitives until there to free

them: uncertain whether the

was some

legal

power

Company would

be upheld in the English courts against slave-traders, he feared to risk open hostility.

But they would not give them up, so he agreed 53

to their staying

and

refused Horrocks compensation. Later he found (what had been care-

from him) that the custom of the country provided that a slave v^ho ran av^ay became the property of the master he ran to. In general the Colony maintained friendly relations with neighbouring slave-traders. Aspinall, at Robat on the Great Scarcies, over twenty years in the country, and Cleveland of the Bananas, who had plantations on the mainland, supplied rice. The directors, who sometimes sent consignments in ships bound for Bance Island, acknowledged publicly how civil factory proprietors in England were. Messrs Anderson, forseeing the end of the slave trade, offered to sell them Bance Island, then, having changed their minds, began planting cotton, an alternative commodity, on the adjoining Tasso Island. But many traders disliked the Company and tried to prejudice the chiefs against it. fully concealed

Naimbana

declared readily against the slave trade: several of his

people had been kidnapped and sold to the published an account of their reporting

them

fate.

living at St Croix,

Some one

West

hidies.

Wadstrom

years later Sharp got a letter

a blacksmith,

one

a tailor, better

off now 'than as a Prince selling Bananas in a Canoe'.

Naimbana died in February 1793. It was nearly a year before a King of the Koya Temne was elected, with the style Bai Farama. Meanwhile in England John Henry Naimbana was finishing his education, based on an intensive study of the Bible, including some Hebrew.

His virtues and diligence were Prince,

He

where he

is

depicted

commemorated

in a tract.

The African

on the cover spurning an improper book.

returned to Africa in June,- dreaming of preaching the Gospel to his

On the voyage, he began to feel increasingly the contrast between Christian precept and practice: he noted in liis pocket-book how the sailors swore. As the ship neared Africa he brooded on the task before him and the difficulties obstructing it. He became delirious and at Freetown was carried ashore dying. liis French-educated (p. 30) brother Bartholemew put it about that he had been poisoned. Only after a long palaver was the family persuaded that the ship Vcap tain had not murdered him. Even so, it was repeated for generations in the Temne country that he had been killed, lest he reveal the white men's secrets. Despite his fate, other chiefs sent their sons to England. Signior Domingo had already sent his son Antony; when Dawes went on leave in March 1794 he took Henry Kokclly, a Temne chief's son, and John Wilson from Yongru, on the Bullom Shore. Many sent their children to school at 'the Camp', as they called Freetown (a name that survives in Bulom, and Tcnme). countrymen.

54

Scotian teacher, was engaged by the Company from the other children who, ahcady knowing Enghsh, were at a different level. Another teacher, Boston King, was sent to the Bulom Shore, a missionary of African descent to Africans. The few schoolmasters could not cope with the demand for schooling within the Colony, where grov^oi-ups as well as children sought education. Almost everyone literate enough was employed to teach. The Governor examined the schoolchildren. Teachers were enjoined to enforce personal cleanliness and morahty, and take their pupils to church twice on Sunday. Home, who as chaplain had general oversight, said he thought them equal to English children of the same class and advantages. Denied citizen's rights in Nova Scotia, the people cherished the forms of law that guaranteed them in Sierra Leone. The lawcourts, where the Governor or another European official sat as judges with Nova Scotian juries, were kept busy. So many frivolous suits were brought that a rule was made to fme the losing party five shillings. Where English law fell short of their requirements it was modified. At their general request, 'cursing', calling bad names, was made punishable. At the August Quarter Sessions, 1794, Macaulay sentenced a woman found guilty of adultery to be flogged, and fined her lover -^5, sentences unheard of in England, but approved of in Freetown. Jurors

Mingo Jordan,

a

Nova

to instruct them, apart

took

their duties seriously, debating

long over even

trifling cases.

The

were no barristers. attachment to the law lay their love of

parties pleaded themselves as there

Deeper than their religion. wrote Mrs Falconbridge, 'met with, heard, or read of, any set of people observing the same appearance of godliness; for I do not remember, since they first landed here, my ever awaking (and I have

1

never',

awoke at every hour of the night), without hearing preachings from some quarter or another.' They observed Sunday scrupulously, turning out in their best clothes for church, the men in gingham coats and nankeen breeches, the women in muslin dresses and turbans, or beaver hats (worn by both sexes). Religion coloured their speech: the letters they sent Clarkson complaining of Macaulay's government abounded in biblical phrases. Anderson sent him a barrel of rice grown on his ov^oi farm with the words, *it is said Thou shalt not mushel the ox that Treadet out the corn and If so estened

how much More Your Hond ought to be

More them an ox.'

They planned George went

their

own

missions to the surrounding peoples. David

to preach, taking

Thomas London, one of liis congrega55

wKo had been born in Africa, but they were turned back by war. Beverout went to the Rio Pongas, but the Mushms he preached to were unimpressed by his roaring style of oratory. tion,

The

directors, appreciating their rehgious feelings, gladly

deserving preachers to it

was observed they

build a

new

visit

called

brought

England. David George went 'home'

money

with Clarkson, returning with

it)

(as

to

church, and a promise from the English Baptists to give a

any candidate for the ministry. Boston King, and Cuthbert accompanied Dawes on leave. Nevertheless Macaulay and

year's training to

Thornton regretted what they felt the undisciplined extravagances of some preachers, and their readiness to mix pohtics and religion in their emotional,

even

ecstatic,

outpourings.

Governor in Dawes's absence, dismissed Channel and Robert Keeling, for violently threatening the captain of a slave ship who had called in. The Hundredors and Tythingmen met to protest at their dismissal, offering to resign if this and other grievances were not redressed. When Macaulay rebuked them for questioning the Company's right to choose its own employees, and rejected their resignations, Channel raised a mob which beat up Crankapone, who had succeeded Cuthbert as Marshal, and threatened to attack the Governor's house. As the Hundredors and Tythingmen refused to help, Macaulay set up cannon at his gate. Rioting went on next day the Secretary's office was broken into and papers destroyed. The next day was Sunday, and dawned peaceably. Macaulay issued In June 1794 Macaulay, acting

two of

Company's

the

porters, Scipio

:

an address to be read aloud in

all

the churches, pointing out persuasively

the danger and folly of rioting against the its faults,

was

dissatisfied

their

back to

Company wliich, with all He offered to send the

only source of protection.

Nova

Scotia, free

of charge, and bought

a ship to

take them.

His address restored order. recalled to their

the riot, eight

The Hundredors and Tythingmen,

duty of keeping the peace, arrested the ringleaders in

of

whom

were

sent,

with

six

wimesses, to be tried in

England.

No empty

one accepted the in the

Leone than had broken

in

harbour

Nova

faith

offer

of a free passage to Halifax the ship lay prove they were better off in Sierra :

as if to

Scotia. Yet, they

by not giving them 56

still

maintained the

Company

the promised allotments.

Mac-

aulay, admitting the grievance,

thought

it

by

offset

the

Company's

and by their employment. and credit at the store, having received rations so long, Both parties felt aggrieved, the Nova Scotians at the breach of faith, extra,

the

unpromised,

Company

services, free schools

and medical

care,

want of gratitude. Thornton's published report, them credit for their good quahties, deplored their sensible of the benefits the Company was conferring on at their

after carefully giving

being so

little

them Here .

at the

end of the eighteenth century,

as

throughout Africa

ever since, the outraged protest of the unappreciated benefactor set a barrier

between European and African.

Despite such divisions, the loss of the York (with

all

the

Company's

accounts) and the outbreak of war, the directors could in 1794 at last look forward to hopes of some return for an outlay of over -^100,000,

nearly half their capital.

Small cargoes of African produce were

A new

Commercial Agent went out and started trading A factory was opened in the Sherbro. Watt's plantation on the Bulom Shore, though small, and plagued by termites, seemed hopeful: the Bulom labourers he employed were learning European work routine. A second square mile was leased, arriving.

systematically along the coast.

west of the plantations, to be

let to

Nova

Scotians dissatisfied with their

barren allotments, a step towards what Sharp had originally intended,

community of small tov^niships, each surrounded by farmlands whole bundle of such town plans survives among his papers). But as those who took land there had first to renounce all claim to tov^oi or country land in Freetown, and were charged rent of a bushel of rice an acre, no one accepted. The Hundredors and Tythingmen protested, so the conditions were revoked and land offered simply at an annual rent of 25 6d an acre payable after two years' occupation. Even so, scarcely any went. a

(a

Many

in England, notably the promotors of the African Association founded (with Wilbcr force a member) in 1788 to encourage exploration,

regretted the interior of Africa remained utterly peans. Early in 1794

unknown

to

Euro-

Watt and Dr Wintcrbottom's brother Matthew

up the coast to the Rio Nunez, then overTimbo. The Fula received them warmly, and sent a deputation with them to Freetown to arrange regular trade. The following year set

off for Futa Jalon, sailing

land to

821613

^y

E

Watt and John Gray,

the

Company's accountant, went up

the

Kamar-

through the Corkers' country, to visit a who wanted to trade with the Colony. Mushm Mandinka MediterFired to explore further, they planned an expedition to the the year, in ranean via Timbuktu and the Sahara. But Watt died later

anka and

Bumpe

rivers,

chief

and

their

dream was

unrealized.

58

Ill

HAVING

Nova

by suspending work on up a palisade on Thornton Hill, a refuge against attack by land, with a few cannon mounted. Attack by sea was not contemplated: the Colony was deemed neutral in the war against France. While it was threatening, Clarkson wrote Lafayette, whom he knew, a friendly letter pointing out that they, like the Revolutionaries, were guided by principles of Freedom, and should be spared. One of the Company's enraged the

Scotians

the allotments, to build a fort, Pepys eventually only put

shareholders sent a

of their

list

ships to the National

Convention, that

they refrain from attacking an enterprise with aims so similar. Thus

Macaulay remained on good terms with Renaud, the French agent at Gambia Island, and refused to join the agent at Bance Island who proposed they combine and drive him from the river. Early on Sunday, September the 28th, 1794, seven large, well-armed ships were seen flying English colours, rigged in the English way. Some were indeed English, but it was not until they began firing over the town that the colonists realized they were prizes captured by the French. There was no hope of repelling such a force, so Macaulay put up a flag of truce. It was disregarded. The firing went on a Nova Scotian women and her child were killed, others wounded, before it stopped. Then the French landed, led by an American slave-trader with a grudge against the ;

Colony.

The squadron was but the

filthy,

ostensibly

commanded by

a naval

commodore,

ragged crews represented the Jacobin terror already

suppressed in France a few months earlier.

No

sooner on shore than

they began stealing and destroying whatever they could lay their

hands on. The people

fled,

homes to be ransacked. Every Not content with taking what

leaving their

house was broken into and plundered.

they wanted, killing livestock, shooting pigs, dogs or cats

as

they went,

they smashed everything of use or value. Furniture, books and papers, the

printing

press,

the

dehberately destroyed. shop.

The church,

a

library,

telescopes

They broke every special

and barometers were

bottle in the apothecary's

object of their

59

revolutionary

fury,

was gutted, Bibles and prayer-books torn up, even the clock broken. In two years Afzelius had planted his gardens with the rare specimens he was laboriously collecting in the bush, and had assembled a small zoo and an aviary. All this the French devastated. His trees and plants were cut down or uprooted, notebooks and collections trampled underfoot, the birds and animals killed, some even eaten, hi vain he explained he was a Swede, a scientist who took no part in the strife of nations. All they would let him keep was what remnants of the wreckage he could sweep from the floor. This deliberate brutality was curiously blended with civility. The

commodore listened sympathetically to Macaulay's protests, gave him hospitality on his ship, and helped him salvage some of his clothes and papers. One of his captains even gave up his own bed to Gray. The officers expressed sympathy with Afzelius, assured him he deserved to be compensated for his losses, but when one of them restored him his bedspread a sailor snatched it away again. Only after repeated protests

did he

manage

had carried

sailor

to recover a set

off.

For tKe

of botanical drawings which a were under no control, and

sailors

treated their officers as equals.

The people, and some officials, took refuge in the bush, or at GranTown, where the French only fired one shot without landing. Bance Island fell, as so often before. Some were sheltered by the Temne. Pa Demba whose town lay to the south (where the road that still bears his name crosses Sanders Brook) took in refugees, including Mrs Perth, the Nova Scotian schoolmistress and her charges. But Bartholemew Naimbana came down to welcome his French friends, and tried to ville

get Farama to join them, so that the distressed people had the added

apprehension of a

On

Temne

attack.

2nd the French set fire to Macaulay's house and those adjoining; on the 5th they burnt down all the Company's buildings. Some Nova Scotian houses were burnt too, despite promises to spare them.

the

Still

the squadron remained in the harbour.

loaded with a cargo valued

England, put about she could escape.

England, even the

new

letters

Kew

all

from

of the destruction, but was captured before

and

spectacles, the

but his gown, while

Rev. James Langlands,

official

despatches, private

of plants sent from the royal gardens

a large collection

were flung into the

Not

^10,000,

the 9th the Harpy,

passengers were robbed. Cuthbcrt, back from

lost his hat

chaplain,

and

at sight

The

at

On

sailed in unsuspectingly

at

sea.

until the 13th did the

French

sail.

60

As

a final

blow

to the stricken

colony the parting

commodore put on

shore 120 European

sailors,

it was two months before a ship was found to take the survivors (for most took ill and died) to the West Indies. Yet, with his usual civility, he also landed provisions which, supplemented by produce from the Nova Scotia ns' farms, and bought

taken prisoner from his prizes;

from Aspinall, prevented starvation. Nevertheless the Europeans, crowded into temporary shelter, without medicine, fell ill. Pepys, who fled into the bush with his wife, little boy and maid at the sound of the first shot, died of fright and exposure even before the French left (though his family survived). By the end of the year ten of the Company's forty European employees were dead, including the chaplain and two royal gardeners from Kew who came out in the Harpy. Francophile shareholders in England, and the Republican Bishop

Gregoire in France, protested the French government

knew nothing

of the attack and never intended it; it is said that the commodore was imprisoned on his return. But the Company's losses were not made good. As well as the Harpy and five other ships captured in the harbour, two

more were

taken, dov^m the coast, after the French left Freetown.

insurance rates had risen with the war, httle

was

insured.

The

As

total loss

was well over ^50,000. Renaud abandoned Gambia Island and continued the squadron's work. Having captured the Company's ship Naimbana and renamed her Carmagnole, he

waged war

against

all

British shipping. In 1796 he

captured the Company's Ocean, captained by Macaulay's brother

Alexander, with a valuable cargo. Petitions were sent to the British

government but not until 1798 did a naval ship arrive to put down French privateers. Even so, two of the Company's ships were captured in 1798 (Alexander Macaulay in charge of one), two in 1799, two in 1800. Only when Gorec was taken from the French in 1800 did the coast

become

safer.

The Company could not afford to rebuild lavishly. The store-house was replaced on the old site, with the church behind it, and a house put up for living quarters, but no other buildings along the shore. The governor moved from the waterfront, where his house had presented Thornton Hill. A few camion were end of the town, though they inspired confidence. One battery was at Falconbridgc Point; the other,

the French with an easy target, to installed facing the sea at either little

61

above ICing Jimmy Brook, Wadstrom marked on his plan of Freetown as he presumed it, before and after destruction) as Padenheim Fort, called after another Swede in the Company's (which shows the town,

D. W. Padenheim, engineer and builder. Nor, having lost so much, could the Company afford to go on treating the population as employees. Storemen and porters were given up: when, soon after the French left, a ship arrived with salt, two Nova Scotians contracted to unload it. The Company's store had already renounced its wasteful, aggravating monopoly of retailing. service,

Licensed shops were opened instead, though prices were

and unlicensed

Money was

retailers

still

controlled,

punished.

Crankapone, Abraham Smith and John Kizzell to build a boat, The Three Friends, to trade for cattle in the Northern Rivers. Others followed their example: by 1796 half a dozen were lent to

went up the Rokel. Kizzell was one of the witnesses sent to England to give evidence on Channel's riot. He returned with a supply of trade goods to find the Colony devastated by the French, and devoted his first profits trading in the Rio Pongas. Others

relieving

to

his

goods to open his

fellow

Baptists.

The Company advanced him moved to the Sherbro,

Port Loko, but he

a factory at

old home, whence as a boy he had been carried a slave to

Charleston.

So

after the

French attack the

Company became more of an

indirect

than direct source of livelihood. Builders and carpenters were employed

by

the job, not permanently.

found them to officials, quarters,

Those

who

good houses them profitably

built themselves

a valuable investment, for they

could

let

whom the Company could no longer afford to supply with

sometimes for

The Company

also

as

much

allowed

its

as 155 a

European

week, or officials to

as stores

buy

or

offices.

land, hitherto

forbidden.

Many more

turned to farming their mountainous country

lots.

Andrew Moore, bred on a plantation in Georgia, walking down through the bush

from

his distant

farm (near the present Leicester village), He traced it to a nearby tree

noticed a coffee seed lying on the ground.

which Afzclius hurried up next day to identify as an indigenous variety of coffee, liitherto unknown. His discovery stimulated cultivation further: gradually the slopes round the town were cleared and planted. James Robertson, junior, another witness sent to England in 1794, brought back ginger and planted it successfully. Macaulay built a house, which he called Mount Pelicr, and farmed 62

beyond where the i,ooo ft. Leicester The hill above ThornRoad). present the crosses Hne contour ton Hill was farmed by Nathaniel Wansey and called Wansey Hill. On Washington Hill (Clarkson's 'Directors' Hill') Henry Washington put into practice agricultural lessons he may have learnt at Mount Vernon before he left his master since President of the United States.

on

the high plateau near Moore's farm (just

—

and many alarms of attack in succeeding years, tended to unite the divided colony. Yet it caused indirectly another division. A few Nova Scotians surreptitiously joined the French in

The French

attack,

own

Company's expense. Macaulay told them to give up the Company's property, offering twenty per cent of the value as salvage. Little was restored, so he drew up a declaration for everyone to sign, of not possessing any of the Company's property: those who refused, were denied free medical care, free schooling for their children, and prizes for farming. This was felt a bitter grievance, particularly by those who had sheltered houseless officials. Some of Moses Wilkinson's congregation wrote angrily to Clarkson that they had not stolen the property, only protected it, so had a right to keep it. They went on to ascribe the invasion to God's judgment on tyrants, alternatively suggesting Macaulay had deliberately betrayed them to the French. Some even hinted that the destruction of the town had brought the Colony to a legal end, and that its laws were no longer binding. As at the time of Chamiel's riot, Macaulay answered with brisk, overwhelming arguments. When new Hundredors and Tythingmen plundering, to recoup their

losses at the

were elected in May 1795 he recalled again how dependent they were, warned them sharply to think less of their rights against the Company, more of their obligations to it, and explained clearly that he was accountable to the directors, not to them. He promised that if their outstanding grievance, not getting their full allotments of land, still rankled, he would allot at once, but emphasized that he could not guarantee, any more than the directors originally, allotments on flat or accessible land.

He rebuked

their suspicious readiness to believe the

government, to impute evil motives and espy tyranny where there was none; he reminded them how much they were left to rule themselves through their own juries, how the Hundredors and

worst of

their

Tythingmen were not only responsible a potential House of Commons. 63

for

law and order, but formed

Thus he quieted suspicions.

A

their

murmurings, but without allaying their Dawes returned and he went on leave to

fortnight later

England.

As a potential House of Commons the Hundredors and Tythingmen drew up rules to govern their deliberations, providing for regular meetings, freedom of debate, and decisions by majority vote. At their request Dawes and his Council (consisting after Watt's death only of John Witchell who came with him from England as a Councillor)

who

passed laws fixing the price of bread, and forbidding strangers

brought

cattle to the

Colony

to cut out the butchers

by slaughtering and Tythingmen

In October the Hundredors and

retailing themselves.

proposed, and the Governor and Council passed, the direct taxation, a

Road Tax,

obliging

Other

confirmed

resolutions,

measure of

adult men, and female landon the roads or commute with

all

holders, to supply six days labour a year a fine.

first

as laws,

during 1796, included rules

had husband

to prevent strangers exercising freeholders* privileges until they

held land in the Colony for a year, and a divorce granted a

whose

unfaithful wife

had remained

in America, (on the analogy

of

Parliamentary divorce in England). Such laws were recorded in the

Minute Book of the Governor's Council.

No

separate Statute

Book

has survived.

A

court was constituted in 1795 where

Tythingmen

sat

with the

with power to inflict fines, confmement in the stocks, thus relieving the overburdened Quarter Sessions and giving Nova Scotians magisterial responsibilities. A few refused to take part in the elections. Jordan and some of his friends in Brothers Street, got land from a Temne chief. Prince George at Pirates' (or Cockle) Bay to move to should they be ejected. They wrote begging Clarkson to return and lead them from the House of Bondage. But most were reassured by the respect paid their representatives and settled down again quietly. whippings and

justices to hear petty cases,

Ill

and depressed

of the Native Africans until 1803

the

after

restored his equanimity

by

in tJic

(though he

French had gone,

Dr Winterbottom

collecting material for a book. His Account

Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, not published

left in

April 1796), gives valuable descriptions o£

the surrounding tribes to supplement Matthews's rather superficial picture;

Bulom, Temne and Susu vocabularies

second volume

is

the

first

are appended.

The

systematic account of African medicine, with 64

— of

descriptions

diseases,

remedies and therapeutic plants. Eschewing

theories himself, he provided astringent answers, based

who

experience, to European writers

out studying them.

He was

and died,

for he lived to be ninety-four,

years*

theorized about Africans, with-

good advertisement

a

on four

it is

for the

said, the oldest

Colony, doctor

in

Europe.

with

Afzelius,

stoic resignation, resisted the

One

the scene of his miseries.

temptation to abandon

garden and some manuscripts had

Sweden and England sent new instrumoney, and he resumed work, cultivating plants he

escaped destruction. Friends in

ments and

a little

found growing wild, rebuilding

his collection of insects and animals, and the Rio Pongas. In May 1796 he returned to London to classify his discoveries. Only fragments were published: the Flora and Fauna of Sierra Leone he seems to have projected was never written to commemorate his patient, courageous

visiting the

Banana

Islands

labours.

While Christian Europe was gaining a foothold on the peninsula, Islam was still spreading south and west from Futa Jalon (pp. 5h5). The Baga, Bulom and other coastal peoples along the Northern Rivers

Nunez and

Melakori, Bereira, Rio Pongas, Rio penetrating tributaries

—were

dinka and Fula, or by Susu who, though most swelled the invading tide.

their sluggish, inter-

gradually conquered by

Mandinka

still

Muslim Manrejected Islam,

settled at Forekaria; the

neigh-

bourhood became known to Europeans as the 'Mandingo country'. Susu ruled the adjoining kingdom, Wonkafong. The French on Gambia Island sent Bunduka, aristocratic Fula, into the Temne country as trading agents they stayed and won themselves the Mafonda chiefdom, south of the Small Scarcies. Individual Muslims, adventurers in search of chiefdoms or itinerant teachers, penetrated to the Sherbro and Gallinas. Matthews wrote that he never visited a town without its Mandinka 'bookman'. Welcomed for their learning and occult powers of divination, such Muslims made few converts. Chiefs were sometimes attracted by the prestige of Islam, but seldom their subjects. The Muslim cliief Watt and Gray visited in the Bunipe River :

ruled people

Vai

chiefs,

who

preserved their

own

religion. In the Gallinas too the

but not their subjects, were converted.

During the 1780s Smart, a Loko slave at Bance Island (later known as Gumbu Smart), proved himself so capable and intelligent that he was 65

not

sold,

own

but employed. Sent up the Rokel

countrymen, and kept them

Temne.

he bought up his army, which he used to

as a factor

as a private

was allowed to settle at Rokon where he town. Soon he was the most powerful chief in the country, independent of his employers at Bance Island who dared help the

In return he

built a large, well-laid-out

not ask him to repay the credit advanced him.

Trading in the north, he met Mori Bundu, educated Muslim, and brought

He

him back

to

Bunduka make charms a

Fula,

an

for him.

too became an important chief, married a daughter of Naimbana's,

and settled to Koya.

a

few miles down the Rokel

at

Foredugu, nominally subject

Muslim penetration linked a wide area behind the Colony to North Wandering pilgrims or traders brought news from the Mediter-

Africa.

ranean, or gave information about Timbuktu, or the Hausa country, still unvisited by Europeans. If some European observers noted the West African Muslims' deviations from strict orthodoxy, their disregarding the restrictions on plurahty of wives, their using magic to

exploit the credulous, their times

Winterbottom observed

of prayer, and the Ramadan

fast.

how

strictly

they kept

Impressed by their decor-

ous manners, and by reports from Timbo, he and other Europeans in

Colony contrasted them favourably with the peoples of the coast, long corrupted by contact with European slave-traders. Afzelius found visiting Fula confirmed his Swedenborgian pre-conceptions, which indeed seem revived in a new form when Macaulay maintained that Africans were the more civilized the further away they were from the the

coast.

Obliged to

restrict their policy, the directors still

the interior to trade. In 1795

years earlier

wanted

Thomas Cooper, who had

to

open up

arrived

from England (where he was born of African

two

parents),

Rio Pongas to trade with the He was instructed not only to refuse slaves, but avoid the customary dishonesties of the Coast trade, and so raise the general standard of business. This self-denying ordinance did not extend to refusing to sell rum or firearms which

went

to start a factory, *Freeport', in the

Susu, and the Fula caravans

figure in his

first

from Futa

Jalon.

accounts.

—

The Northern Rivers were full of slave-traders European, like the notorious Jolm Ormond, a byword for cruelty, who died in 1791 after his slaves

had

risen against

him, or American, 66

like

Benjamin

Curtis,

who

home-town, Boston, or their children few were friendly, like David Lawrence, son of a slave-trader from Deal, who visited Freetown and told Afzelius about local substitutes for quinine. Miss Betsy Heard who had been in England as a girl, and ruled as chief at Bereira, also supplied information about medicinal plants. But most were hostile, tried to thwart Cooper, even unsuccessfully incited the Susu to burn his factory. War between Fula and Susu often prevented caravans getting to the coast when they did, the store was often empty because no trade goods had arrived from England. But if Freeport was disappoiuting commercially, it provided cattle for the colony, where there were none. Trypanosomiasis was not yet endemic there, so they could be imported to drag loads or eat. But it was difficult to breed from them or rear calves. Cows were regularly decoyed away by neighbouring Temne. So the Colony remained dependent on an imported called his factory after his

by African mothers.

A

:

supply.

Contact with the Fula provided the link with Islam the directors

had long hoped

for. Its austere

monotheism

attracted their

extreme

Protestantism: Wilberforce told Clarkson to explain to any Muslims

he met that he did not worship images like the

who

Roman

Catholics.

Freetown were deeply impressed by Macaulay's rigid self-discipline and principles, while he was interested in a religion that seemed to share much with Christianity. Opponents of the slave

Muslims

trade

were

visited

also

impressed by their apparent unwillingness to

sell

fellow-Muslims.

When Macaulay returned in March 1796 a band of missionaries came with him chosen by Dr Coke, Superintendent of the Wesleyan Foreign Missions, to convert the Fula. Two were ordained ministers, the rest Christian craftsmen to teach

new

Gospel.

It

was

new

skills as

wives and children following

when

well

men go

originally intended that the

as

preaching a

out alone, their

they were well established, but

Dawes pointed out the temptations single men would be exposed to, so all went out together. The six missionary families were quite unprepared for what awaited them. The wives found to their horror that there were no pastrycooks' shops in Freetown, and that they were expected to cat

One took

to drink; another

shouting bitter reproaches.

salt beef.

pursued her husband through the

streets

The men were amazed when Macaulay

mentioned they would have to work with At last, on the morning they were due to 67

their sail

hands

to the

among

the Fula.

Northern Rivers,

they announced they

would go nowhere but on board

the next boat

for England.

Macaulay was back, Dawes, whose health had suffered, Macaulay took over and was eventually confirmed as Governor. Witchell left with Dawes; Gray formed the Governor's Council. When he went on leave James Carr, the accountant, sat there temporarily. For nearly five months, from November 1797 to April 1798, Macaulay ruled alone, registering his own decisions as those of the Governor and Council. Having lost so much, the directors decided to supplement their meagre trading returns by tapping a source of income foreseen from the start (p. 30); but never yet exploited, the quit-rents on the Nova Scotians' land. In June 1796 a notice was issued fixing them at a shilling an acre per annum, chargeable from January the ist 1797, the first half-yearly payment of 6 J an acre to be made in July 1797. The name 'quit-rent' was not strictly applicable to the Company's charge. A survival of mediaeval land-tenure, the ancient quit-rents surviving in England, and those levied on newly granted land in Crown Colonies, were originally exacted to safeguard Crown rights rather than to raise revenue. Though the Company's first statement of policy differentiated between quit-rents and taxes, the distinction was ignored in 1796. The quit-rent was imposed as a land tax to yield the

As soon

as

resigned.

Company revenue. The Nova Scotians it

a

did not need to understand legal terms to believe

breach of faith. Nothing the directors or their employees could say

would Birch

efface the

memory of the

Town when

pay rent for had announced

scene in

Daddy

Moses's Chapel at

Clarkson had promised they would never have to

their land (pp.3 3-4). All their suspicions revived.

lost their land grants during the French invasion, so at the

same time

new

new certificates would be issued. Only many who did, later returned them, for

that

about half came to fetch them: the

Many

Macaulay

grants explicitly specified quit-rents.

Macaulay

also tried again to

remove Jordan, Anderson and

their

party from 'Discontented Row'. At the July Quarter Sessions an action for ejectment

was brought

them on the Company's behalf. jury was being tampered with so the

against

During the trial it appeared the case was retried with a Special Jury. After long deliberation they found for the defendants some jurors subsequently apologizing to Macaulay

—

68

had not

that they

approved of the verdict. But their decision of the impartiality of the Company's courts, and

really

stood, a vindication

the rights of juries.

A new

chaplain, the Rev.

John Clarke,

Edinburgh, came out with Macaulay.

a Scottish Presbyterian

Some

not being an Anglican but had to give

directors objected to his

in.

'Here',

Macaulay once

Two

Scottish school-

wrote, 'we are not Presbyterians but Christians.' masters accompanied

them

from

so the school could be divided

:

till

then

all

200 or so children had been together in the church. Mrs Wilkinson, a

widow from Clapham, was

in charge

of the

girls

with

a

Nova

Scotian

schoolmistress to help her.

Now retrenching, the Company stopped supplying the children with were only collected from parents who of not possessing looted property (a dollar a quarter), or from outsiders. A trader at Cape Coast was charged /J 14 a year, including board and lodging, for a girl he sent to

stationery.

But school

fees

refused to sign the declaration

school.

Children sent by chiefs paid nothing and were lodged in Macaulay's

house where he led them daily in family prayers, and catechized them on

An

Edinburgh missionary magazine reported that he was waited on by the children of kings. Clarke and the Presbyterian schoolmasters were amazed at the Nova Scotians' lack of intolerance. Baptists and Methodists attended one another's services, and expected them to do the same, showing an example of Apostolic simplicity. Clarke was soon preaching in David Sundays.

George's Chapel.

The

welcomed Europeans as helpers but not as guides or instructors. They trusted to the Holy Spirit, not to human instruction, believing God would as soon enlighten the illiterate (which some were) as the educated. The disgruntled Scotsmen soon noted amid Apostolic preachers

simplicity the 'turning the grace the Apostles'

own

of our

God

congregations. Yet those

into lasciviousness'

who

of

erred, held they

were justified by the Spirit working within them. Clarke and Macaulay, them slow to accept rebuke, called this Antinomianism using religion to cloak immorality and insubordination.

—

finding

Among sent out

m

the

Company's European schoolmasters was

1793.

He

Jolin Garvin,

resented Clarke's being set over him, resigned,

but stayed in Freetown, where he had great niflucnce, preaching to 69

Moses Wilkinson's congregation, seeking to supplant the blind pastor in their affections. He was joined by Jacob Grigg, one of two missionaries sent by the Baptist Missionary Society, who, after a short stay at Port Loko, settled in Freetown. Grigg and Garvin had grown up in the deep-rooted tradition of resentment Enghsh Nonconformists inevitably felt at the disabihties the Church of England imposed. They hated Clarke, the representative of the Established Church of Scotland, put about rumours that he and Macaulay were seeking to suppress the Nova Scotian preachers, shut their chapels and establish Presbyterianism. They played on the people's mistrust of quit-rents to suggest the Company was trying to reduce them to slavery, warning them that those who resisted would be dragged at the tails of horses. Clarke's congregation dwindled: when he went round visiting, the Methodists shut their doors in his face.

Marriages were performed in the Colony without the formahties English law required.

nor

by

if there

The Chaplain sometimes

was none, and

a register

was

officiated,

kept, but

or the Gover-

many were

married

what was a legal as well as a rehgious contract, drew up rules, under which future marriages would be vahd only if performed by the Chaplain, or some person designated by the Governor, after having the banns called in the Church. He also appended rules to oblige fathers to maintain bastards. The Hundredors and Tythingmen, after long debate, agreed to them by preachers. In July 1796 Macaulay, wishing to regularize

a large majority.

Garvin represented these

rules as the prelude to the closing

of all the

He and Beverout harangued Moses's congregation a violent of protest with 128 names appended, was sent to the Governor and Council. Even the sober David George was worked up to a frenzy. Macaulay waited a day or two, then explained publicly that the rules implied no more than they stated. By then passions had calmed; David George, thinking better of his excitement, helped to talk round the misled. Some confessed they had allowed Garvin to add their names to the letter without knowing what was in it. But the Methodists remained suspicious of Clarke who, attending Moses's meeting, had to sit through a sermon preached against him by Luke Jordan. Soon after, Macaulay discovered that Garvin had written defamatory letters about him to Home in England, and had liim tried for defamation, incitmg to riot, and forging a signature on the letter of protest (which he admitted). Foiuid guilty, he was dismissed and given a passage to America. Grigg joined him, having represented Inmself to chapels.

;

letter

70

of persecution. Their congrehad duped them, turned back to Clarke again, and imported sectarian strife died down. the Baptists in England as the victim gations, reahzing they

The Colony's misfortunes inclined the directors to think in terms of •cutting losses, not making profits. Fewer cargoes were sent to risk capture by the French. Even so, of six ships sent out in 1798 and 1799 four were taken, and a fifth wrecked. In the barter economy of the Coast, reducing the supply of trade goods meant turning away customers and losing trade to the well-stocked slave-traders: Cooper's was unavailing when his store was empty. As the

efficiency at Freeport

French took

all

available coin, the

Colony had again

which could only be exchanged if there were none it failed

store

:

Nova Scotians felt cheated. A new issue of one cent and

to use paper

against goods in the in

its

money

Company's

function as a bank and the

was struck in 1796, but the war raised the price of silver too high to mint new dollars; European traders in any case mistrusted them. American captains often refused to sell for anything but American dollars or slaves, so ships full of urgently wanted goods would sail past to Bance Island without the Colony being able to buy from them. As in Clarkson's day the Company's agents in England were negligent, often sending

were

the ledgers

ten cent pieces

damaged or unsuitable cargoes. Early in 1797 all none arrived from England, so the elaborate

fJled,

accounting system had to be abandoned. acting for ficult.

With

officials

one another, systematic accounting was

in

often

any

ill,

and

case dif-

by complaints, waged long, shortcomings. Macaulay sometimes

Storekeepers, their dignity affronted

angry paper-battles to justify their

had to do the accounts himself. Where European officials were so often incapacitated, or incompetent, there was every inducement to train Nova Scotians. In 1796 Jesse

George and

Eli

Ackim were

taken on as assistant apothecaries;

three years later George was appointed apothecary. Promising lads were trained as artisans. Nathaniel Snowball, junior, was given command of one of the Company's schooners as a trading agent in the Northern Rivers. Nova Scotians were responsible for administering the road tax and maintaining roads. In his speech in March 1795 Macaulay said no European was doing work they could efficiently do.

European

salaries

were too low

to be reduced without alternative

71

compensation. Even the Governor only got /^400, with ^^400 table officials could barely provide the necessaries of life.

allowance: junior

1797 the directors decided to

In

let

them

forbidden, and receive in return lower

trade privately, hitherto

salaries.

The Company's own trade was cut down and separated from government; Gray was given full charge as Commercial Agent. Neither he nor the Governor were allowed private trade. The change made government easier and raised the Governor's status.

He no

prices to

longer needed to risk enraging the people by raising

make

profits for the

by haggling behind

Company, nor compromise

commercial rivals who and had salaries which, even

governments

if reduced,

suffered, for land in the

provided

the

Company its

suffered

interests for

Company's

Future

officials.

Above

all,

from employees who henceforth tended to their own. Instead of trading through the

ill-supplied store they dealt

whose

capital.

middle of Freetown, originally

reserved for public building, was parcelled out to

neglect

his dignity

But the Nova Scotians were given were allowed credit at the Company's store,

a counter.

with the better-stocked slave-

were gradually drawn. Increasingly independent, they refused to pay the Company's Customs, which had to be abandoned. So by cutting immediate losses the directors reduced hope of future gain. traders into

orbit they

Cinnamon, guinea-grass (to feed cattle) and mangoes were brought from St Thome to plant on the Bulom Shore (also a horse for Macaulay to ride), but the soil was less fertile than had been supposed. Labour was hard to get: the Bulom soon lost interest in working for others, Nova Scotians had their own farms. In 1796 'Clarkson Plantation' was virtually abandoned.

Thompson's Bay,

A

six

just west

acre plantation cleared and planted at

of Fora Point (land originally intended for

a dockyard), also found unremuncrativc,

from

the

Cape of Good Hope

to

farm on

was liis

let to a

German

planter

own.

found wild cotton growing plentifully, but termites underground, grasshoppers above, thwarted all attempts to plant it systematically, or to cultivate plantations of imported Brazilian cotton. Afzehus

Scarcely half the seeds planted

came up;

often witliin a fortnight

no

plant in a hundred survived. But SLigar-cane did well in the moiuitains. A rough sugar-null was put up by the stream east of the town (later Nicol Brook); Macaulay

more than one

72

:

wrote in 1798 that several farmers had suppHed themselves v^ith tw^enty or thirty pounds of home-grow^n sugar. Coffee-planting held out hopes of profit. Some European officials planted it successfully Gray cultivated twenty acres at his farm by a little stream on the waterfront east of the Scotians did

town

(the site

of the future Bishopscourt). The Nova

planting, but about three-quarters

less large-scale

grew

food for themselves or to supplement their other earnings.

Mihtary

service,

which Sharp held an obligation of frankpledge, had

been forgotten while the Colony seemed secure.

With

constant alarms

of another French invasion, Macaulay organized a regular militia. If he lacked Clarkson's emotional sympathy with his subjects he was ready to interpret the promised equality of colour as liberally. Instead of making the Company's European people elect their own, and

made

handled a gun before, serve under the military experience.

Those

who

December 1796

elections

let

the

some of whom had never

Nova

Scotian captains with their

protested he rebuked sharply.

This display of confidence did In

he

officials militia officers

officials,

little

were

to restore faith in the

and

Company.

of its opponents owned land had votes but none

held,

a majority

were chosen. European officials who were elected, indeed attempts were made to stop them voting. The six Hundredors included Anderson, Nathaniel Snowball (another inhabitant of 'Discontented Row', a bitter opponent of Macaulay's), and Ishmael York and Stephen Peters who had led the outcry against Europeans voting. In January 1797 Macaulay again announced that quit-rents would be payable in July. He added a notice that the Company would charge interest

on outstanding debts

This too was a grievance:

at the store,

many

some unpaid

for years.

suspected that previous storekeepers

had overcharged them to hide deficiencies. Snowball led a dozen or so families out of the Colony to the land they had bought at Pirates' Bay where they built houses and a church, forming their own settle-

ment under liis governorship. The Baptists agreed to pay the

quit-rents; the

refused; the Methodists threatened those

who

The Hundredors and Tythingmen drew up

Huntingdonian leaders paid with expulsion. a

respectful

protest,

arguing that they had been promised land, had been led to behcve it theirs, and that they would never have accepted it had they realized the

Company would demand 821613

rent. 73

F

Macaulay replied

in a long speech, his bibhcal phrases

Company's

theirs, recalling the

terms, rehearsing

all it

matching had done in

providing doctors and teachers, in lettiQg them off quit-rents for so He begged them, if only in gratitude, to recompense the heavy

long.

outlay with so small a payment as five shillings a year (the rent of a five-acre allotment). their

As

only safeguard against their

were printed (on the vasion) to circulate

many

enemies.

A

Company was hundred copies

were determined

collectively never to pay.

the end of September rumours reached

would be put down

French in-

But, convinced individually by his

him an armed

being planned. Dropping his persuasive mask he riot

the

press repaired, or replaced, after the

among them.

patient reasoning, they

At

warned them

before, he

let it

be

rising

was

known

that

rigorously, order enforced if need be with the

no attempt was made to normal law-abiding quiet. When elections were held at the end of the year, only one of the existing Hundredors was re-elected, and Carr, the Company's accountant, was included among the Tythingmen. gallows. His threats calmed them, and as

collect the quit-rents they reverted to their

King Jimmy died in May 1796. His successor Pa Kokelly, who took the old name King Tom, was a chief from the Bunce River, whose son Henry was being educated by the Company in England. Like young Naimbana he disappointed his sponsors by dying there of smallpox. Signior Domingo's son Antony returned rather unwillingly and was employed in the accountant's office. Macaulay found him frivolous, while he annoyed his father by rejecting the ministrations of a country doctor when he fell ill. Eventually, tired of Macaulay 's reproofs, he went back to his family. Naimbana in his lifetime acted as the Colony's 'landlord'; Bai Farama appointed successively King Jimmy and King Tom. But the Company's government did not observe the familiar usages between landlord and stranger (p. 8). The landlord was not allowed to interfere in disputes witliin the Colony. No rent was paid for the land. No new treaty was made when the landlord died. King Tom could not see that he was bound by a treaty made with liis predecessors. Macaulay argued with him, as Falconbridge and Clarkson with Naimbana, that the land, once paid for, need not be bought again. Tom licld that the land was inalienable: Macaulay could only reply that it had plainly been alienated. 74

Unconvinced,

Tom

nourished

a

grievance

against

Macaulay,

blaming him for the

rise in the Company's prices. Snowball and his and a slave-trader who lived on the other side of Pirates' Bay, encouraged his animus. Those aggrieved against the Company hoped he would take back the ceded land and give it to them instead. He refused to accept as his boundary a straight line drawn from the mouth of the brook west of the watering-place (later, Sanders Brook),

associates,

on

of the brook itself. Farmers in the disputed had to be given land elsewhere. Bai Farama too had grievances against the Colony, notably its providing a refuge for slaves he was proposing to sell. It was rumoured persistently the Temne intended an attack. Thus the friendly relations of the early 1790s were succeeded by mutual mistrust. insisting area,

the curving line

alarmed by

The Missionary

his threats,

London Missionary Society) was body to sponsor Protestant missions. Home's writings, among others, helped inspire the founders. The Glasgow branch sent two missionaries early in 1797 to revive the unhappy mission to the Fula; six more, from Edinburgh, Glasgow and London, followed later in the year. As before, clergy and laity were mixed: some were ordained Presbyterian ministers, the rest pious artisans, who rather disliked their subordinate status. None were trained for their work. Even before they left Gravesend they were founded in 1795,

Society

(later,

a non-sectarian

•

disputing furiously about theology to the delight of captain and

crew: in Freetown they quarrelled perpetually. Macaulay, realizing they could never go as a group to the Fula country, where in

war had

any case broken out against the Susu, distributed them in

pairs

nearby.

Henderson and Campbell, the two first arrivals, went up to Rokon where Smart received them warmly. But they were uncongenial companions. Henderson, dissuaded by Macaulay from bethrothing himself to one of Smart's ten-year-old daughters, fell ill and went home. Campbell was joined by his wife and daughters. Mrs Campbell,

money, did all her own domestic work and like her neighbours Rokon, went about barefoot; within a few months she was dead. Campbell after a year or two abandoned his missionary calling, married

to save at

an African

girl, and turned slave-trader. Another pair went to Jenkins, a town on the north shore of Sherbro Island, luider the protection of William Ado, an aged chief (Wmtcr-

75

bottom believed him about a hundred) who had originally come from the Gold Coast. Both caught fever and died within a few months.

The

missionaries realized that to be at

African languages. Clarke began to learn

Ro

all useful they must learn Temne, and preached in it

King Tom's town. He started writing a Teimic book, but died in December 1798 before finishing it. Peter Grieg and Henry Brunton who were sent to the Rio Pongas learnt Susu. When Brunton returned to Scotland he published, in 1801, a Susu Grammar, and a series of Susu catechisms, the first books published in Britain in a at

Fransa,

West African language (though language bore

little

slave-traders in

the area said his

resemblance to what the Susu spoke).

This Susu mission was short-hved. Brunton abandoned Africa, and went as a missionary to the Caucasus. Grieg, alone in the Rio Pongas, was murdered by a party of marauding Fula.

hi June 1797

home

Macaulay applied

the following spring.

to the directors to be allowed to

Not

Thomas Ludlam, son of

go

until April 1798 did his successor

well-known Cambridge mathethough never at a university (he had been a printer's apprentice), a young man of twentythree without experience of governing or of Africa. Rather than leave the uneasy Colony to his inexperience, Macaulay postponed departure arrive,

a

matician, himself of scholarly temperament,

a year, to guide

him

in his task.

further attempt was made to collect quit-rents (Macaulay wrote to the directors he thought they could only be raised by force) there was little opposition to the government during the first months of 1798. Continual alarms of French fleets in the neighbourhood united

As no

the

Colony

in

common

defence:

all

joined gladly in strengthening the

October Gray returned from England (after being captured by the French en route) with despatches from the directors instructing Macaulay to try again to levy quit-rents, but, as a

feeble fortifications, hi

concession, to apply the proceeds to local improvements, not the

Company's revenue. Concession was in

name

was enough to revive mistrust. Again Macaulay offered new grants: only a dozen or so accepted. This time he announced that the Company would no longer recognize that those without grants had any title to their land. At the elections in December fierce opponents of the quit-rents were vain: the

76

quit-rent

chosen Hundredors, including Anderson, Thomas Freeman, one of Garvin's strongest adherents, and Ansel Zizer, a former captain who,

Company's

refusing to sign the

farm

for cultivating his

peaceable and law-abiding united

Ready

money

to

work on

the roads or

had been refused a prize of Washington Hill. Even the

declaration,

at the foot

pay

a

behind them against quit-rents. road

tax,

ready to consider raising

communal services, they would not which they conceived robbed them and their children of

themselves, if need be, for

hear of rent

right to the land.

all

The

directors, cutting

down

expenses,

wanted

to reduce the cost

of education. In January 1799 it was announced that only children whose parents had paid quit-rent would be educated free, the rest be charged a dollar a quarter. At once almost all children were withdrawn.

Even when the condition was abandoned sixty sent theirs back.

a school

An English

sailor,

and had seventy pupils in

a

later in the

year only about

stranded in Freetown, opened

day or two. Yet when he died

would not send them to the Company's school. So when Macaulay sailed on April the 4th, he left a Colony not in open opposition, but discontented and mistrustful. He never went the parents

back to Sierra Leone. In England he married Selina Mills, the fiancee

him since 1796, and was appointed the Company's secretary London. He took with him twenty boys and four girls, some of the children from up country whose education he had been supervising, with a few Nova Scotian children added: Robert Haldane, an Edinburgh philanthropist, was paying to bring them to Scotland for further schooling. Arrived in London, Macaulay decided Haldane's religious and political principles debarred him from caring for his charges. Instead the directors agreed to support them, and they remained at Clapham under a awaiting

in

suitable schoolmaster.

They

received a general education including

were eventually baptized in Clapham Healthy at first, some developed or had to be sent home dying, before their

religious instruction: eighteen

Church.

Some

also learnt trades.

lung complaints, and died, course was fuiished.

The

frontispiece

Macaulay

of Winterbottom's book depicts the Freetown engraved from a drawing by W. A. Bowles who chief of the Creek Indians who, having escaped from

left. It is

purported to be Spanish slavery,

a

made

liis

way

to

Freetown 77

in 1798

on

his

way back

across the Atlantic.

The town

appears rebuilt after French devastation,

with one-storey huts. At the wharf is

about half-way up the

cliff above;

a store-house,

behind

hill

is

with another on the

a large

be the church (rebuilt 1797), with an avenue leading nor's house,

building,

it

Thornton flies

above

mistress)

the

its

Union Jack (sewn by

pahsade;

well

as

as the

up

to the

may

Gover-

A wooden, pedimented

or Fort Thornton.

Hill,

hut which

the

Company's schoolit was the

Governor's house

Secretary's office.

From

the harbour the 300 or so huts

placed in regular

streets.

seem

About half the

were by farming

to straggle, but they

inhabitants lived

which appear in the print as patches cleared on the surrounding hills most of the rest worked as artisans or fishermen, sometimes growing their own produce as well. About fifteen were retail shoptheir lots, :

keepers, another dozen or so traded with small boats in the nearby rivers.

Some settled down outside the Colony to

ment

at

slave

rebuilt the

John

factories.

Bance

trade, or took employMasons and carpenters from the Colony

Island factory after the French destroyed

Tilley, the chief agent,

had

a

Nova

or

came from nearby to work on

Nova Scotians' farms. home after laying

turning

in 1794:

Scotian mistress.

In addition to the settled population, sometimes as

300 labourers

it

the

many

as

200 or

Company's plantations

Usually they only stayed a few months, reout their wages in the Freetown shops, others

replacing them. Retailers were

made

to undertake not to cheat them,

a fme to the Benevolent Fund. Another 100 or so by canoe with produce. Men from the Kru Coast, some 300 miles south of Freetown, worked on the Company's ships and wharf. Efficient and industrious, their services had long been prized by slave-traders. By tradition they left home young, to work on ships or at factories. Kru women stayed at home: not until he had worked for twenty or tliirty years abroad did a Kruman settle down permanently with his wives. They first came to Freetown in 1793. The Company's employees (a few with wives), and drifting adven-

under penalty of

came

daily

turers,

comprised the twenty or thirty European

ships put in regularly, the

Company

inliabitants. Slave-

powerless to rescue slaves from

them: only with doubts as to whether the law would uphold him, did Macaulay make an American captain anchored in the harbour in 1796 give up some slaves he had just bought from King Jimmy. When the Navy began taking action against French privateers naval ships called in sometimes. Macaulay, welcoming their protection, deplored 78

on

their influence

the

Nova

Scotian

women who,

aheady used

to the

promiscuous hfe of the American plantations, grew more conspicuously licentious.

When

Cromwell's

soldiers

drove the Spaniards from Jamaica in 1655,

the slaves took to the mountains, and there

warfare against the

new

waged

intermittent guerilla

English proprietors. These Maroons,

as

they

were called, a name of uncertain derivation meaning a runaway slave, were joined by Ashanti (known there as 'Koromantees') who had escaped from their masters. The military efficiency of this warlike people, exercised in the impenetrable, precipitous, Jamaican bush made them almost invincible, hi 1739 the Jamaican government rather than prolong a tedious, expensive war, made a treaty with them. The Maroons were allowed to keep their mountain strongholds, laws and customs in return they undertook to help the government in invasion or insurrection and to track down runaway plantation slaves. Thus they remained isolated; even in the twentieth century their descendants in Jamaica preserved relics of the 'Koromantee' language. They settled ;

down peaceably, enforcing their ov^i laws, own courts. When the slaves revolted in

punishing offenders in their the 1760s they helped the

them down. 1795 the Maroons of Trelav^mey Town,

planters put

In

in the north-west

had broken the

of the

treaty

island,

a

mountain stronghold

conceiving the Jamaican government

by having two of them flogged, resumed

guerilla

war. Their neighbours refused to join them, but they were

still

a

formidable force. Experienced hunters, camouflaged with leaves, they easily

ambushed

were

at their

the red-coats sent marching against them.

mercy:

a fire started in the

The

planters

dry season might destroy

They also feared the Maroons might rouse their colour war as in the neighbouring St Domingo in

dozens of plantations. slaves in a ruthless

1791.

As

soldiers

could not subdue them with arms, the government

decided to hunt them with dogs. Mastiffs were hired from Cuba.

Unafraid of a human enemy, the Maroons sent word, before one dog had been loosed, that they would capitulate. General Walpole who

commanded last.

the troops, realized that their pacific feelings

might not

Rather than goad them back into resistance with harsh conditions,

he promised that

if

they surrendered they

would not be deported.

A general's word does not bind a legislature of frightened landowners, 79

No sooner did the Maroons surrender than the Jamaican Assembly had them and their famihes put on board ship. Without waiting for orders from England, they sent them to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and passed a law making it a capital offence for them to return. As they also voted money

to support

them, the British and

Nova

Scotian governments

decided to acquiesce.

The Maroons were landed were put to work building village deserted since

at Halifax,

seemed peaceful and

fortifications,

cheerful,

then settled at Preston, a

Hector Peters, Andrew Moore and

its

other

inhabitants sailed off with Clarkson four and a half years earlier.

Walpole, dishonoured by the Jamaican government, sent back the

went home, resigned

present of 500 guineas the Assembly voted him,

commission, and embarked on a career of

his

political opposition.

Sheridan reprobated in Parliament 'the abominable aid of bloodhounds'. After the winter of 1796-7, the longest and coldest ever

known

at

Maroons began petitioning to be removed from the bitter climate. In vain the Governor of Nova Scotia assured them and the British government that the climate Was healthy, that their dislike of it was pure malingering. They were determined not to stay. Knowing that government had undertaken to support them until they had grown enough to live on, they refused to grow anything. Their petitions went mostly to Walpole, the one man they could trust. One was to Thornton, asking him to have them sent to Africa. However unwilling to take these turbulent settlers, he and the directors saw a chance of getting government support. In February 1799 they agreed to take them if government would ship them across. In return they received -^7,000 from the vote for the Gold Coast forts, to fortify Thornton Hill, and a promise of a detachment of soldiers and an annual grant of ^4,000. The Charter ofJustice, delayed since 1791, was drawn Halifax, the

up

(it

took

a year to prepare

incontestable jurisdiction over

The Maroons had

and cost ^1,393) its

to give the

Company

subjects.

to endure another

Nova

Scotian winter, for the

them went to Quebec first, stuck in the ice, and had to wait for the thaw. It was August 1800 before they embarked, 550 of them, in charge of George Ross, a Company official sent over to bring them. A detachment of soldiers went to keep order on board, a needless precaution. Their own officers, commissioned in the Nova Scotia militia, their veteran General Montague James, their

Asia transport, sent to fetch

and captains, kept order and mountams.

colonels, majors

the Jamaican

80

discipline as strict as

on

James Cleveland of the Banana Islands (p. lo) died about 1791. His nephew William who succeeded was lazy and easy-going, but his enemies William and Stephen Caulker (as it came to be spelt), two brothers, one living on the mainland, the other on the Plantains, hated

much to combine and revenge their brother's murder. In 1797 Wilham Caulker died. Stephen, now in control of the whole chiefdom, joined by the Koya Temne, attacked Bemba, or Lord North, one another too

a

former

slave,

hated for his cruelty, who had beheaded Charles Caulker,

and been rewarded by the Clevelands with land southerly tip of the Sierra Leone peninsula).

Cleveland in alarm packed

his

at

Cape

Bemba was

Shilling (the

driven out.

people and possessions on board some

passing slave-ships and fled to the Sherbro. Caulker seized the Bananas,

and carried off James Cleveland's tombstone in triumph as a door-step to his family burial ground on Tasso Island, adjoining the Plantains. As the directors were afraid of planting the Maroons among the

Nova Scotians, it was proposed the Banana Islands home for them. Stephen Caulker was on friendly

already disaffected

be acquired

as a

terms with the Colony: two of his sons accompanied Macaulay to Clapham. But he hesitated to give up his newly reconquered patrimony,

and after long negotiations, only offered half the islands, for ^10,000. During the negotiations it appeared that Bai Farama had a claim to them; the exiled Cleveland too denied Caulker's ownersliip. Unable to pay such a price, unwilling to be entangled in disputed claims, the Company gave up the plan. Instead, Ludlam persuaded Bai Farama and his chiefs to sell the land between Pirates' and Whiteman's Bays, a strategic site, commanding the river mouth, to settle the Maroons on. But Snowball and his exodus were already established there. Fearing, on second thoughts, that they might influence the Maroons against the Company, he changed his mind and decided to settle them on the Bulom Shore.

The Hundredors and Tythingmen took with

their

own

to sitting separately, each chairman, a system that gave prominence to those

chosen to preside. The Tythingmen for 1799 elected James Robertson (or Robinson) chairman, Nathaniel Wansey, deputy. Robertson, a

man of about sixty, born in Virginia, had been a captain, was sent to England as a witness after the 1794 riot, and on his return set up as a spirit dealer. He felt a grievance against the legal system because he had lost

an action for debt. 81

Wansey, aged about

farmed above Thornton

forty,

Plill

(p. 63).

Hitherto he had taken no direct part in pohtics. Neither seems to have

been hterate

—both signed with

Though no

further attempt

a

mark.

was made to levy

of Collector of Quit-Rents, included abolished

—many

their

felt

rights

quit-rents

—the

office

in the Estimates for 1799,

still

was

endangered. Early in 1799

Robertson and Wansey asked in the name of the Hundredors and Tythingmen to have two Nova Scotians appointed j.P.s, and another sit at the Quarter Sessions. The Governor and Council on the grounds that a judge's function is to know and declare law, which they were not educated enough to do. Dissatisfied,

judge, to refused,

the

they persisted, and in June chose

Anderson and Cuthbert, England.

Mingo Jordan,

who were

both

the schoolmaster, with

literate

and had

The appointments were turned down, and

visited

the question

referred to the directors.

When spokesmen protested against quit-rents all were united behind them: the demand forjudges went beyond what many, even of those government deemed disaffected, wanted. The Methodist preachers, strong against quit-rents, further.

who

would not follow Robertson and Wansey

There was no strong

sought their

own

feeling against the existing judges: those

did so on grounds of principle, or self-interest,

rather than because they thought the

Increasingly the extremists turned

general assault

on

the

Company.

Company's oppressive. from particular demands

to a

In September the Hundredors and

Tythingmen issued resolutions declaring that the Nova Scotians owned the Colony and the land, that none but the Hundredors and Tytliingmen had the right to make laws, and that all foreigners should pay them tax.

Ludlam, confirmed

as

Governor

in

November, lacked

the personal

toughness which enabled Macaulay to keep order. Gray, his most

experienced adviser,

appointed Commercial Agent, went off the

Council. Richard Bright, appointed Councillor, was only just out from sensitive, Ludlam preferred to temporize, by the hope that the soldiers and Charter promised with the Maroons would arrive soon enough to prevent violence. In December, just before writs were issued for the new elections, he announced that the directors had refused to allow elected judges, pointing out that neither in England nor any British Colony were judges and j.p.s elected, but always appointed. He also announced that the schools be re-opcncd on their old footing. But reasoning and concession only

England. Cautious and sustained

82

— cnflamed opposition. Robertson, Zizer and Anderson were elected

Hundredors, Wanscy chairman of the Tythingmen,

were

In February 1800 the captain

King

many of whom

his active supporters.

Tom

of a Liverpool slave-ship refused to pay

anchorage dues. There was a violent dispute, and Ludlam

When the captain went, unarmed, to Thornton Hill a body of Nova Scotians turned out, threatening to give him up to King Tom unless he paid heavy compensation. Ludlam, who had promised him safe conduct, was powerless, publicly humiliated. The captain had to pay; though he was plainly in the wrong, the Company later indemnified him for Ludlam's enforced breach of faith. Anxious to regain his people's confidence, Ludlam asked for a statement of grievances. Wansey drew up a few, their paper money not being accepted at the store, their being rebuked publicly by the Company's employees, and instanced Robertson's and another verdict where the losing party was dissatisfied, as sufficient cause to warrant demanding their own judges. In April a judge and a J.P., Robertson and Cuthbert (once a supporter of government, but increasingly its opponent) were again chosen and offered to mediate, as a neutral.

again rejected.

Once more Ludlam

issued an explanatory address,

pointing out that juries, not judges give verdicts, that, with their

own

they could already. decide cases (though not the law which none were learned enough to know). He ended with a warning, that under the promised Charter ofJustice, they would fmd authority enforced by the Crown. But only a handful turned up to hear the address read. At the end Robertson rose and announced that he forbade the holding of another Quarter Sessions until new laws were made. His words were a sign that he and his associates were preparing the rival government already foreshadowed the previous September. The Tythingmen expelled those who opposed them, and put in their supporters. There was even talk of putting the Europeans out to sea in an oarless boat. Most disapproved strongly of violence, but few would join actively with a government they mistrusted against extremists. On September the 3rd the Hundredors and Tythingmen published their code of laws. It fixed prices, specified fines to be exacted for juries,

criminal offences

—

theft,

assault,

adultery.

Sabbath-breaking

threatened anyone serving a writ without their leave with a

etc.

^20

fine,

gave them power to scrutinize claims for debt, and denied the right of Governor and Council to interfere in anything but the Company's affairs.

The people were warned they must obey or 83

leave the Colony;

those siding with

Governor and Council were threatened with

a

^20

fine.

The paper

declaring the laws, issued in the names of Robertson, Anderson and Wansey, was stuck publicly on a house. Bright saw it there and told the owner it was seditious and illegal it was then taken down. A meeting was held at Cato Perkins's chapel where Cuthbert stirred the audience up to believing that Ludlam had dismissed the Hundredors and Tythingmen. On the 25th a paper was put up proclaiming the new laws in force. Next day Ludlam called the Company's employees and the Nova Scotians he could trust to Thornton Hill, gave them arms, and summoned Robertson and Wansey to come and explain their illegal assumption of authority. When they failed to appear he issued warrants to arrest them, with Zizer and Anderson, for signing the paper. That evening Crank apone, as Marshal, took a small armed party to arrest them at Ezekiel Campbell's (possibly a house on the east side of what was later Gloucester Street, just south of Oxford Street) where they were known to be assembled. As his party went down the hill, some got out of hand and rushed ahead, shouting and threatening. Alarmed, the conspirators came out with sticks and clubs. Though instructed not to fire without orders, Crankapone's men started shooting and using their bayonets; several were wounded on both sides, before they returned up the hill with Robertson, captured after a struggle, and Zizer who surrendered peaceably. Anderson and Wansey escaped, and next day, answering violence with violence, assembled their followers in open rebellion at the bridge (later, Nicol Bridge) on the road to Zizer,

;

Granville

Town.

Only about

of the 300 or so householders followed Anderson; Freetown itself remained peaceful. Some of those who, like Henry Washington, farmed east of the town (p. 63), where the rebels were fifty

home. Many who had opposed government constitutionally declined to take arms to instal Anderson and Wansey as governors. None of Moses Wilkinson's ciders joined. Cuthbert, who had accepted the illegal judgeship and cnflamcd feeling against the Governor, when it came to fighting, went up to Thornton Hill to mediate; so did Cato Perkins, though most of the rebels were gathering, joined them.

Most

stayed at

from his congregation. Ludlam issued a notice calling on them to submit, and got the imprisoned Robertson and Zizer to do the same. He also offered rewards for the leaders. Anderson replied on the 28th with an unsigned S4

letter telling

cliildren

him

to give

up

his prisoners, or turn the

women

and

out of the fort and expect a fight.

Ludlam wanted to avoid battle. He could only rely on Nova Scotians, with fourteen Europeans and about fifty Kru and Bulom labourers. The remainder he could not hope would be more than neutral. Again he sent a message, through Perkins, offering, At

all costs,

about thirty

if

they

would submit,

whole dispute

The

accepted. to

it

no

was not

Nova

settled

Scotians.

was not

Tom sent word that if the

King

within a few days he would

himself. This alarming message

seen

action against them, but refer the

began plundering the country houses belonging

rebels

Europeans and loyal

dispute

to take

to the next passing naval officer. His offer

from

him humiliated made Ludlam

a chief

decide,

on

come and

who had

settle

so recently

the 30th, that he

must

attack.

That day a large two-decked ship was seen in the distance. It neared, anchored, and proved to be the Asia, with the Maroons and their escort of soldiers on board, seemingly a miraculous intervention in the

Company's

favour.

The Maroons were

in

good

health and spirits

delighted at the suggestion they stretch their legs in familiar warlike pursuits.

A

final offer

of peace was made, and,

as the rebels

only tem-

on October the 2nd. A heavy thunderstorm spoilt an elaborate plan which had aimed at encircling them; there was only a small skirmish where two rebels were killed. The remainder fled into the bush where the Maroons spent the next few days tracking them down; some, including Anderson, escaped, but were given up by Bai Farama; Wansey and a few more got away altogether. As the Charter of Justice had not arrived, Ludlam could not yet try them. There were no prisons to hold so many, nor could the Company afford to send them to England for trial, with the added cost of sending

porized, the

Maroons and

soldiers attacked

and maintaining witnesses. So administrative sanctions were sub-

The three officers from the Asia, two "military, one were constituted a Court of hiquiry which found thirty-one prisoners guilty of breaking their engagements to the Company and trying to seize power, and sentenced them to banishment for life. Five were sent to Goree, including Robertson and Cuthbert who, despite his not having taken up arms, was held too dangerous to stay. Most of the rest, including Zizer (though he had not resisted) and Henry Washington (less fortunate in -rebellion than his former master), were stituted for judicial.

naval,

sent to the

Bulom

Shore. «5

few were remanded

In addition, a

for trial at the first Quarter There three were chosen to be warning to others. One indictment was

Sessions to be held under the Charter.

indicted for capital felonies as a

thrown out by the Grand Jury, but Isaac Anderson was found guilty of sending the Governor an anonymous threatening letter, Francis Patrick, long

obnoxious to authority, of stealing

offences in English

On November

the 6th 1800 a naval officer delivered

awaited Charter. indisputably

a gun,

both then capital

law and they were hanged.

It

constituted Sierra

from London, the

Leone

directors

a

Ludlam

the long-

Colony, governed

exercising

the

normally exercised in other Colonies by the Secretary of

powers

State.

The

Hundredors and Tythingmen, whose dehberations the directors had in any case never recognized as legislative, only consultative, disappeared.

The lawcourts

the Charter constituted were not suppHed with an

independent judiciary: Governor and Councillors went on judges in criminal

cases.

But

trial

by jury was

retained

sitting as

—Grand Juries

which under the then English law decided whether those remanded for trial should be tried, and Petty Juries which gave guilty or not guilty. In so small a Colony the jury qualification had to be extended more widely than in England: all freeholders and their sons, householders, and officials were eligible, unless disqualified by age, sickness, or criminal conviction.

Freetown was constituted a corporation, the Mayor and Aldermen with juries, to try civil cases. They were not elected, but chosen by the Governor and Council. The Governor and Council sitting as judges,

heard appeals. Only cases involving over ;£400 could be appealed further to the Privy Council, in England. Cases of less than 405 were heard in a Petty Debt Court where

Nova

Scotians

went on

sitting as

made up eight of the first twelve Commissioners. Thomas Cox, the Company's storekeeper was first Mayor. One of the aldermen, Major Thorne, was an elderly army officer who wanted to farm on the Bulom Shore: when he saw it he changed his mind and went home. The Marshals were replaced by a Sheriff, a European before: they

official

;

Crankaponc was Undcr-Sheriff.

As a final safeguard for authority, fifty European soldiers of the Royal African Corps, formed in 1800 for service at Gorcc, were sent to garrison and rebuild the fort. 86

The Company's published

report for 1801 described the tragic failure

of their hopes, depicting the Nova Scotians as refractory from the first, building up their successive protests to culminate in the climax of rebellion. 'They have made the worst possible subjects/ v^rote Wilberforce to Dundas,

'as

thorough Jacobins

as if

they had been trained and

educated in Paris/

As against that judgement, a Nova Scotian v^rote to Clarkson in 1796, are here use (sic) with Tyranny and Oppression'. Yet the directors and their employees, however determined to enforce their rules, were no tyrants, any more than the Nova Scotians, whatever extremists among them might say, were revolutionaries.

*We

87

IV THE

Maroons, having turned out so unexpectedly

Bulom Shore, but the Nova Scotians to

not sent to the

kept

near enough to

inspire

enough

were

docile,

at Granville

Town,

them with awe,

to prevent strife. Recalling the promises

far

broken in Jamaica,

they refused to sign the Company's terms, but agreed to them readily,

and

settled

down

where

Scotia

of peace already urged on them in Nova and schoolmaster had been employed to tame

to the arts

a chaplain

them.

The

older Maroons, ready to give their children education,

have none themselves:

would

Europe was isolation, they had Parkinson; all had

their conspicuous concession to

made in Jamaica where, notwithstanding their adopted planters' surnames, as Thorpe, Jarrett,

European names. Their children made good pupils. In 1803 John Thorpe, who had learnt to write in Nova Scotia, was for a while assistant schoolmaster; he was then sent, with Maroons, to join the children at Clapham.

Rejecting Christianity, the older

When

the authorities in

Nova

but one wife, they replied that

Maroons

a

few other young

also rejected

Scotia tried to get

God would never

them

monogamy.

to give

be so cruel

as to

up all want

away their dependents. Probably not more than a third arrived with more than one (about a quarter had none), but that was alarming enough to the directors. Granville Sharp .wrote begging them to abandon polygamy. Rather than antagonize them over so them

to turn

cherished a custom the government passed an act invalidating future

marriages not performed by law, but not interfering with existing

arrangements.

The Maroons took

this,

took everything, calmly. They

settled

to build themselves huts (perhaps introducing the verandas they

down had

in

Jamaica: Bowles's picture of Freetown in 1798 shows none). They gave

up shooting off their muskets in the streets, and preserved order as jurymen and constables as in their own jurisdiction in Jamaica. In 1803 they made no protest when two of their number were hanged for murder. 88

Fenda Modu, head of a powerful Mandinka family, living at Wonkafong, where he virtually ruled for the aged king, visited Freetown in

Macaulay impressed him. His son, Dala Modu, a successful came with about fifty followers, to settle in the Colony. The government welcomed them, pleased their influence was extending, as the directors had always wanted. 1794.

trader,

Aggrieved

at the ill-success

the sensitive

Ludlam decided

of to

his labours,

renounce the

chronically constipated, responsibilities

of govern-

ment, though he stayed in Freetown. The directors persuaded Dawes

govern a Colony where his once detested rule was recalled Golden Age. He arrived early in 1801 with his little nephew; a niece and her maid joined them later. Cheered by the Parliamentary grant, the Governor and Council drew up plans for a larger, better paid, establishment, suited to the expanding Colony. A newspaper was started. The Sierra Leone Gazette, printed on the government press at Fort Thornton the first issue was to return to

as a

;

sent to the directors in February 1801.

With troops and Maroons at their disposal the government could avenge King Tom's victory over Ludlam: Bai Farama was told that unless the western boundary was settled at once he must depose him. The Temne had always been

assured the

Colony was

pacific.

Threaten-

ing messages, the arrival of troops, the proposed rebuilding of the fort,

seemed a breach of faith, the prelude to the loss of their country. Encouraged by Wansey and other refugee rebels, they resolved to attack at once.

A

few hundred yards west of the fort lived George Sanders, a disNova Scotian who farmed on King Tom's land by what is still called Sanders Brook, an easy base for a surprise attack. Most of the Nova Scotians lived down the hill to the north, the Maroons to the contented

east at Granville

Town.

morning of November the i8th 1801, Wansey led a of Koya Temne gathered by King Tom and Bai Farama against Fort Thornton. The defenders were unprepared. An officer and two soldiers were killed. Crankapone, roused at the first shots to Early

on

the

large force

go up to defend the

was twice wounded, then, fighting to the last, received a third woiuid and died. Cox was shot dead defending the town where he had been first mayor. About thirty, including women and children were killed, before Dawes, badly wounded in the 821613

fort,

89

^

shoulder, led a charge

which

finally

drove the

Temne

out of the

fort,

back across the brook.

During the next fortnight he prepared a counter-offensive. The Maroons were moved from Granville Town to Freetown. Captain Bullen of H.M.S. IVasp^ cruising along the coast, anchored in the harbour. Smart and other friendly chiefs assembled with their followers.

On December the 2nd a

force from the Colony with two boatloads of from the Wasp, attacked and burnt King Tom's towns; in next few days they drove out all the inhabitants between Freetown

sailors

the

and the Cape, and systematically destroyed their farms. King Tom took refuge in the Northern Rivers, where the Mandinka chiefs, neutral in this war between Europeans and Temne, proposed to mediate. But their envoy, Fatima Fodi, instead of negotiating, urged

King Tom to go on fighting. Meanwhile more troops were sent to Freetown from Goree. Captain Bullen, too, busied himself there for another four months, went to Robaga to see Bai Farama, attended meetings at Fort Thornton where the remaining Temne chiefs promised peace, until April the ist, 1802 when he sailed away, 'having succeeded,' he wrote to the Admiralty, *in making peace between the Colony and the Natives.'

At dawn on Sunday with their

Thornton

new

ally

the

nth King Tom, Wansey and their followers,

Fatima Fodi and about forty Susu attacked Fort

again, this time

from

the east, but

less successfully.

Within

twenty minutes they were driven off, their flag was captured, and they were pursued dov^m the Granville Town road and out of the Colony. King Tom and Wansey fled north again. A few months later Dawes sent Bright up to the rivers where, aided by Dala Modu and by Miss Betsy Heard, the stout, amiable lady who ruled Bereira, he persuaded the Mandinka and Susu chiefs to give no further countenance to the

They gave up Wansey and two other rebels. But King Tom Bulom war chief living in the Northern Rivers, and they encamped together on the Bulom Shore. Between the two assaults Benjamin Elliott, a Granville Sharp

war.

joined Mori Kanu, a powerful

beyond Granville Town was found murdered on the it was believed, of an escaped rebel repaying his loyalty to the government. Warned of the perils of straying beyond the town, apprehensive of furtlier attack, the people abandoned their farms. Food grew scarce. Little rice could be bought locally; the continuing Caulker-Cleveland war cut off the Sherbro supply. After the first attack, the Governor and Council passed an act to make everyone

settler,

who

lived

road, the victim,

90

day on the defences. Unable to trade or farming, they were glad to make a living by defending themselves. The palisade round the fort was strengthened. Rough walls, three foot of rubble surmounted by a three-foot fence, were built round the town, with wooden blockhouses at intervals. One wall ran east from Fort Thornton along the line of the present

work two days earn money by

a

week,

at forty cents a

Garrison Street to Susan's Bay; the other ran north-west, cutting across

Walpole Street, including the watering-place point west of it (taken from King Tom), but excluding Dala

the top of the present

and the

Modu's settlement wliich

lay just beyond.

These poor defences offered

little

security against the concerted

from the Bulom Shore. The ill-housed garrison was steadily reduced by disease and drink, despite acts passed forbidding anyone to sell soldiers spirits. By the end of 1802, forty of eighty-four were dead, most of the rest enfeebled invalids, scarcely fit to fight. The Corps could only be brought up to strength by letting convicts from

attack expected

the English hulks enlist. Earlier in the year the Treaty

of Amiens was signed, suspending

temporarily the war with France.

Dawes was warned that the French Gambia Island, empty since

were thinking of sending

Renaud

left,

among

a

garrison back to

the Colony's

Temne

the garrison and formally annexed

it,

enemies.

renaming

it

An officer went from George

Island.

Dawes and Ludlam were sickened with responsibilities they felt unrewarded; Gray went off to the slave trade. It was rumoured the Colony would be abandoned altogether. In January 1803 Commodore Benjamin Hallowell put in, a hard-headed Canadian, unimpressed by the government,

suspecting

principles hypocrisy.

their

incompetence,

anxieties

But he agreed

their

high

to their urgent plea to station a

naval ship in the harbour to protect them.

A

few weeks

after

he

left,

Navy came

the

Captain William Day, a half-pay naval sent out as

Governor, who,

as if to

officer,

make

light

to the rescue again in

born

in the

West

Indies,

of danger, arrived, with

wife and child. Fired with the impatient enthusiasm gout sometimes causes he at once

expect

much from

began making the Colony defensible. Unable to the moribund European garrison he enlisted Nova

Corps of Volunteers. Like Macaulay he made some of them officers drilled and exercised, they were soon an efficient force. Fort Thornton was rebuilt, the wooden fence replaced by Scotians

and Maroons

in a :

91

ramparts of local granite blocks, hauled into position with fibre 'country rope', and mortared with lime burnt from oyster the shore. (In 195 1, they

were underpinned with concrete

shells

from

to support the

of the new Government House.) The cannon, mostly were remounted, and a battery built at Falconbridge Point, with a Dutch artillery officer sent out by the Company in charge. Another Dutch employee. Sergeant Vanneck, supervised the steel structure

unserviceable,

building.

With

Colony transformed into an active garrison, Day could King Tom and his allies. The King of Kafu Bulom (on the Bulom Shore) had just died; he discovered that, by custom of the country, the Colony's owning land there gave him the right to nominate a successor. He chose Jack Wilson of Yongru, who had spent a year in England at the Company's expense (p. 54). Crowned with the title King George Bana, he and Dala Modu's family turned Mori Kanu off the Bulom Shore. Bereft of his ally, King Tom returned to his the

deal firmly with

original

Few

home

east

of the Colony.

honest, capable Europeans

were ready

go out

to

small salaries the directors offered. Before the

to labour, for the

Temne Wars, when

local

produce was

plentiful, it was reckoned that those ready to eat rice of bread could live as cheaply as in England: when food became scarce many had to pay away most of their salary to subsist. A clerk earning ;£ioo a year in 1803 had to spend over ^90 on board and

instead

lodging alone.

them

Ill-paid,

overworked, by

a

to imagine their routine a vocation,

government which expected

many

revolted.

The minutes

of the Governor's Council are full of protracted, bickering, correspondence with employees, terminated as a rule by their resigning or being dismissed.

Those allowed to trade privately laid the foundation of a new career, away from the nagging, unrewarded round in Freetown, in easy independence in the neighbouring rivers, buying and selling the only commodity which yielded an unfailing profit, slaves. Hallowell drew up a list of a dozen of the Company's former employees who had gone into the slave trade. in

produce

in

moved away there,

a

Macaulay

It

who having traded a wliile own wharf and stores, de Los, and James Wilson who joined him young Presbyterian who came out with

included Gray, Carr,

Freetown, where he built to the Isles

high-principled in 1796.

92

his

The Company could no longer hope for trading profits. Their agents left them or made unrecoverable debts. The Freeport factory failed after Cooper died: his successor squandered money on large stone buildings, then turned slave trader, as did his successor. The directors, once confident they were providing in the produce trade, an instrument to beat the slave-trader, had to admit they had no hope of profit so long as the slave-trade

remunerated

easy a source of income.

their rivals so richly

By December

property, including land and buildings lected debts, barely

kept

it

came

to -^30,000.

and gave

chiefs so

Company's entire and nearly ^12,000 in uncolOnly the Parliamentary grant 1803 the

going.

Yet if the Company had failed, and shareholders' subscriptions proved pure philanthropy, the directors would not wind it up like an ordinary commercial venture. Unwilling to abandon their mission, Thornton determined in 1803 to try and get the Government to take it on. But Hallo well's report so alarmed the Chancellor of the Exchequer

from seeking new responsibility, he insisted a Parliamentary Committee investigate whether any more money be voted the Company at all. Macaulay and Day answered Hallowell's criticisms as best they could, and the Committee (Thornton a member) recommended the Colony be transferred to the Crown, stressing that if it were given up the government would have the expense of moving and resettling the Nova Scotians and Maroons. Pitt moved, and Parliament, after some

that, far

and 1804, with an extra ^4,000 for fortifications, but his government, busy fighting Napoleon, unwilling to annoy the slave-trading interest, ignored the Committee's recommendation, and left the Company to continue precariously on its own.

objections, voted, the grants for 1803

Day returned to England at the end of 1803 and gave

the Parliamentary

Committee a glowing account of what his enthusiasm had effected. Back in Freetown in January 1805, liis gouty, dictatorial energy again roused the stagnating Colony to complete the defences by building a tower above Fort Thornton to command the town. Martcllo towers, a military innovation, were being built all along the English coast against French invasion. He got the latest model from the Board of Ordnance, and on April the nth 1805 led a solemn procession up Wansey Hill, renamed Tower Hill, to lay the foundation stone. He and his wife then entertained the officers and ladies to a cold collation, while the soldiers and workmen feasted in the market place. 93

No years

with

from the tower. Within twenty and was partly demohshed. The base still stands

shot was ever fired in anger it

a

was

a ruin

water tank inside

it.

Having secured the Colony strategically, Day determined to revive agriculture, and laid out a large sugar plantation cast of the town whence the Temne Pa Maquoit had been driven. Known at least since the early eighteenth century as Foro or Fora Bay (and its point as Foro or Farran Point), it came to be written Fourah Bay (and will be so spelt in this book).

Agonizing pains in the bowels distracted

November Colony

the 4th he

commended

Day from

and expired, the first Governor the cemetery east of Fort Thornton.

to Ludlam's,

and be buried

in

his plans.

On

his children to his wife's care, the

to die in office

The London Missionary Society sent no more agents to the Fula and Susu. The existing Anglican societies, the Society for the Propagation Promoting Christian Knowledge, sponsored primarily chaplaincies to the converted. So in 1799 a group of evangelical Churchmen, lay and clerical, with whom Wilberforce, Thornton, Macaulay and other 'Clapham-ites' associated themselves, founded the Church Missionary Society (to give it the name adopted in 1 81 3), to sponsor missions to the unconverted. Sierra Leone provided a starting-point for their labours warned by experience, they determined to send out only those who had been trained. No Englishman could be found. But for some years English evangelicals had been in touch with a Lutheran Society which trained missionaries at a seminary in Berlin. Two candidates, Mclchior Renncr and Peter Hartwig, were chosen, brought to England to learn English and Susu (from Brunton's grammar), and sent back to be ordained Lutheran pastors. Hartwig married an English wife, and early in 1804

of the Gospel, and the Society

for

:

they went out to Freetown. It

was from the

home

start a rule

of the

C.M.s. that every missionary send

Committee

(and, indirectly,

were discouraging. Instructed

to stay a year in

regular journals to cdif)^ the Parent

the historian).

Freetown

The

first

to acclimatize themselves before going to convert the Susu,

the missionaries stayed two.

They

all fell ill;

Mrs. Hartwig,

who had

opened a school, had to go home. The two men quarrelled so violently that crowds used to collect outside their house to listen. Hartwig, who had only become

a

missionary to avoid having to serve 94

m the Prussian

army, went off visiting the Susu country, where eventually he stayed, not to convert the people, but to buy and sell them, as the employee of Mrs. Williams, an English slave-trader

at Bereira,

twenty years in

Africa.

Undismayed, the C.M.S. sent out three more Germans in 1806, the Revs. Leopold Butscher, Gustavus Nylander and Johann Prasse. Nylander stayed in Freetown as chaplain the others went with Renner to the Rio Pongas where they settled down to convert the Susu. :

Without Day

keep order the

to

turned against one another. Military garrison,

their

duties

trifling

energies, often exercise

them

group of European

little

officials

officers in a peaceful tropical

occupy self-important

to

insufficient

in harrassing, even trying to supplant,

commanding the Ludlam, armed with a

the civil government. Early in 1806 the lieutenant

troops sought to usurp the acting-governorship.

Secretary of State's instruction subordinating military to civil power, was able with the help of two naval captains to pack his rival off under

army headquarters

arrest to

at

Goree.

Day's optimism, which ignored what not induce farmers to return to their

it

preferred not to

lots.

Many of

banished in 1800. Vainly the directors renounced rents in the

hope of getting them back

Freetown, earning

money

Corps, which, despite the

Colony had

parties until

it

could

were

claim to quit-

They

ships

name, was paid. Farms reverted to bush; on imported food. When it ran short, famine arrived with provisions there were feasts and

threatened again.

Ludlam, eight years

in Sierra

Leone

— 'no

place in the world' he

wrote, 'could be better suited to check an excess of ardour'

easy-going than prayers.

He

preferred

building fortifications, or in the Volunteer

its

to rely

When

threatened.

all

to the land.

see,

the best

Day who had

—was more

the missionaries in daily' for family

gave dances in the barracks, picnics in the woods, diversions

scarcely consonant

with the

directors' principles,

though gratifying to

the Colony's enemies.

As the

assaults

on

the slave trade increased,

its

defenders

anxiously aggressive. Mrs. Falconbridge's book, with

Thornton, was re-issued

in

improbabihty of the slave Francis

Spilsbury,

1

802 with a

new

its

grew more

onslaught on

title-page proclaiming the

trade's being abolished.

surgeon to H.M.S. Favourite (whose brother

George became surgeon

to the

Colony 95

in

1

809) described in a published

account of his voyages the

and

sickly, half-starved

improper junketings,

their

as

population of the Colony,

he saw them in 1805 and 1806.

Joseph Corry, an employee of Messrs. Anderson of Bance Island and an apologist for the slave-trade, visited the Coast in 1805 and pubhshed a

book on Island).

it

(with charming coloured plates of Freetown and Bance

He eagerly denounced the Colony's feeble, hypocritical govern-

ment which countenanced immorality and did nothing

to

encourage

industry.

were brought against Dala Modu, long suspected of Company's protection. He appeared to answer them not in his usual European clothes but defiantly in a Muslim gown. Ludlam turned him out of the Colony so he took his people over to Lungi on the Bulom Shore. Cleveland, driven from the Bananas, went on fighting the Caulkers. The Shcrbro chiefs were drawn into the war. European slave-traders supplied arms, and reaped a rich harvest of slaves captured from devastated villages all over the country. Dawes went vainly to mediate in 1803. Ludlam tried again in 1805 and finally succeeded, with Kizzell's help, in making a truce, the Sherbro people agreeing that the ancient British right to York Island (where traces of the ruined fort were still visible) gave the Governor a claim to interfere, even to crown their kmg. In 1806 charges

slave-trading under the

War also

raged in the Gallinas where. a succession dispute turned into

between the coastal people, who monopolized trade with Europeans, and the inland, resentful of their monopoly (a constant source of war throughout West Africa) As in the Sherbro European slave-traders supplied arms and bought prisoners. King Tom and the Koya Temne remained peaceful; in July 1807 a final settlement was negotiated with- them at Robis (between the present Wellington and Hastings). The treaty confirmed the Colony's conquest of the land west of Freetown. The Temne also gave up their enclaves to the east, Pa Maquoit's and Signior Domingo's towns, and were allowed only three villages near the eastern boundary. In return Signior Domingo (who died a few months later) was promised compensation, and Bai Farama the watering dues (collected henceforth by government) and an annual present as landlord. Thus the Colony's original right to the peninsula, cession, was a struggle

superseded by conquest.

The Temne, 96

threatened inland by

Susu

Gumbu Smart and his from the sea. In March 1792, soon after Loko, were now driven back Clarkson landed, a Temne woman had come up to him and pointing her foot at a cannon lying amid the confusion on the beach, cried out that he had come to take away her country. He replied that they came only as friends, without any such intention. Yet within fifteen years he had been proved wrong and the woman's prophecy was fulfilled. encroachment, and by the growing power of

Early in 1806 Pitt died.

The succeeding

the 25th 1807 passed an

'Foxite' government on March Act forbidding British subjects to trade in

of May. Severe penalties were empowered to bring illegally

and

slaves after the ist

enacted, and naval

customs

transported slaves for

officers

adjudication before a Vice-Admiralty Court.

Meanwhile Thornton was still pressing the British government to Colony already virtually supported from public funds. By 1806 the Company had received ^6j,ooo from the Treasury. The fortifications cost about ^20,000, the Volunteer Corps about ^3,000 a year. As basing currency on non-existent goods in the Company's store had roused so much resentment, the directors allowed the Governor to make payments in bills drawn on them. Thus they were constantly faced with demands for sums they knew nothing of, but dared not repudiate lest they lose their credit. The government grant for 1806 was swallowed up at once repaying uncontrolled expenditure. Early in 1807 a transfer bill was introduced into Parliament. It was amended and delayed: its opponents declared that far from taking on the Colony, government should make the Company repay the grants. Not until the end of July did it pass the House of Commons. On August the 8th it became law. Under it the Colony was transferred to the Crown and the Company wound up, government taking over all but its purely commercial property. The directors' authority passed to the Secretary of State. The formal transfer took place in Freetown on January the ist 1808. Ludlam handed over the Company's Charter to the senior naval officer on the Coast, the Company's flag was hauled down and the Union Jack hoisted. The transfer made httle immediate difference to the inhabitants. Thornton arranged for them to be spared military rule and retain trial by jury. The Charter superseding the Company's continued most of its provisions. Ludlam remained in office until liis successor arrived; take over altogether a

97

.

Company's employees were allowed to stay on in government service if they chose. Slave-dealing was specifically prohibited within the

the Colony, and, at Macaulay's suggestion, Freetown designated the

of

seat

a

Vice-Admiralty Court where recaptured slaves could be

adjudicated.

In

1

The surrounding country, was almost empty only at Cape

808 barely 2,000 people lived in Freetown.

denuded of its Temne inhabitants, Sierra Leone was there a village of grumettas from Bance Island who piloted ships up the river. After the Maroons moved to Freetown, Granville Town was abandoned to the evil spirits who were said to have haunted it (p. 30). Thornton's name was perpetuated by the fort, Wilberforce's by a street, but Granville Sharp's vanished. The survivors of his Province of Freedom, the Old Settlers, as they were called, gradually merged with the rest. Only ten were listed as heads of families in 1802. At least one was killed fighting the Temne; some, like Dcmane stayed up country (p. 23). Elliott Griffith, arrested for debt to the Company, died in the gaol at Fort Thornton in 1802. James Reid, once Governor, became the Company's gaoler and commissary. After his death (by 18 14) his widow handed over to government the original grant of land and two letters from Sharp which he had preserved (they do not survive in the Sierra Leone Archives). He :

owned

three

good houses

in Freetown, one, in

Water

Street,

valued

widow

sold to John Stevenson, also an Old Maroon. Studdard, the former Chief Justice was dead without issue by 181 3. Only two other Old Settlers then owned houses, William Bond, and George Clark who helped Dawes beat off the Temne attack in 1801 and succeeded Reid as gaoler. His house was inherited by his son Samuel

at

;^2io. Another, his

Settler,

who

who

sold

it

bequeathed

to a

John Lemon,

Nova

it

to a

Scotian in 1830.

a Bengali hairdresser,

one of the headmen of the

*Black Poor' in London, was imprisoned for slave-dealing, escaped,

joined the French in 1794, and helped them plunder Freetown. He was back in the Colony in 1808 with his wife Elizabeth, one of the original

who had sailed with him in the Vernon. Ordered out of the Colony for having helped the French, he seems to have returned later. She stayed in Freetown after his death as a shopkeeper, and died about 1820. Another prostitute wife, Hannah Blewer, went home ill

prostitute wives,

in 1798.

98

— when

Maroons were brought in to defend Freetown most were given town lots to the west; after the Temne were driven out, King Tom's peninsula and the grassfields south of it were allotted them as the

farmlands. Those given land

among

Nova Scotians moved west distinct Maroon Towoi. Though the

their own people to form a was occasional intermarriage and some Maroons went to the Nova Scotian churches, they tended to remain hostile communities divided by the memory of their first encounter. Collectively they were called 'Settlers', a name sometimes used for

among there

the

Nova

to

mean both

the streets in 1808 illustrate the division.

The Nova

Scotians alone, but used henceforth in this

book

groups and their descendants.

The names given

Row

Scotian streets began with East

(the

former Brothers

Street, or

Then followed three called after generals they had served in the American war Tarleton, Rawdon and Howe. Tarleton was changed within a year or two to Wilberforce 'Discontented Row') and East Street.

—

Street (perhaps because General Tarleton

championed the

slave trade in

Rawdon was for a while Rodney Street. Then came three streets called after members of the royal family Queen Charlotte, the Duke of Gloucester (who took an interest in

Parliament).

and George III. George Street was the beginning of the Maroons' town. Trelawney Street, west of it, commemorated their Jamaican home, Walpole Street their betrayed champion. The point beyond the watering-place within the town walls was called Westmoreland, another Jamaican name ^Westmoreland parish Africa)

—

when the government took over the name Westmoreland was transferred to the three streets running east and west, known in

adjoined Trelawney. In 18 14, point for building, the

southernmost of the 1808 it

as

Church

Street, as the dilapidated

church stood there. North of

ran Davies Street, probably called after a friend of the Governor's

and changed

after his departure to

forty years or so did

Water

it

Street, twice as

Cross Street

get the

name Oxford

wide

the others,

as

(p. 108)

Street.

;

not for another

North of it was

rmming along

the cliff

above the harbour.

The Maroons were Scotians.

as disinclined to

Those described

for 'husbandry',

officially as

merely grew

from which they made

their

farm

'yeomen',

own

fufu, their staple

99

as the

discouraged

who

Nova

took apprentices

vegetables, cliiefly cassava,

food

in Jamaica, as in Ashanti,

unknown

to the rice-eating

Temne and Bulom.

Smith, given land (which became 'Smith's

Hill')

Captain

among

Andrew Nova

the

Scotian allotments, farmed on a rather larger scale, but most Maroons became labourers or artisans like the Nova Scotians. Those who prospered copied them in building houses to live in or let, usually a wooden frame on a stone cellar, with shingled roof; the poorer thatched, and increased the danger of fires, which constantly broke out. Within a dozen years of landing Captain Herbert Newton Jar rett, who worked as a mason, owned two framed houses, his son another; Charles Shaw, another captain, had a house in Trelawney Street valued at ;£i8o. Such leading Maroons served as Commissioners of Requests in the Petty Court with the Nova Scotians, and sat on juries. Several of the boys from Clapham returned to official posts. John Macaulay Wilson, son of King George of Kafu Bulom, became apothecary, James Wise, a Nova Scotian, government printer. He

printed The Sierra Leone Gazette^ part

official gazette,

part newspaper,

few numbers of the first issue, was revived in January 1808. Others became clerks: Ludlam preferred them to disgruntled Europeans. David Edmonds, junior, whose father, one of the original Nova Scotian captains, was conspicuously loyal to the

which, having languished

Company

after a

during the rebellion, returned

as

a skilled boat-builder.

few years he had several ship's carpenters with him building small craft on the shore by the mouth of Sanders Brook. But, save for Macaulay Wilson, most of the Clapham boys from up country left the Colony within a year or two. After Dala Modu's departure no single group from the neighbourhood was domiciled in Freetown. But labourers came to work; children were employed as servants in Europeans' or Settlers' households, often adopting their names (to the confusion of the genealogist). A few

Within

a

had country women living with them. A Caulker married a Nova Scotian. Macaulay Wilson married Captain Shaw's daughter Mary and settled down with her in Freetown. Spilsbury has a story of a Nova Scotian woman marrying a nearby chief, then being driven Settlers

away by

his other wives.

By the beginning of the century at least twenty Settlers were permanently domiciled up country, trading in slaves: after the Temne wars particularly, many lost their scruples about buying and selling people who had attacked them. Hector Peters, for instance, born free in

who had played the French horn in a mihtary band during American war, left the Colony in the 1790s to trade in slaves up the

Charleston, the

100

Rokel. Sometimes he even sold them (the process was called *ransoming') in Freetown.

When

the slave trade

became

general

illegal a

amnesty was given to all, slave-traders or banished rebels, who chose to come back to the Colony. Peters returned, and when David George died in 1810, took over the Baptist congregation and was pastor. Zizer

European

many

years

and others returned from the Bulom Shore. slave-traders too, including several renegades

from the

Freetown. They and those of the

Company's service, came Company's employees who stayed on to settle in

as traders, bought up good sites, and imported trade goods from Europe. The agency system the slave-trade was based on persisted (p. 8): European merchants sent agents, often Settlers, up the rivers for rice to sell in the Colony, or for ivory and camwood to export. Thus the Settlers,

built houses

without

or connexions with Europe, were confined to trading as

capital,

agents, or to petty retailing

:

when government tendered for rice in

for example, four Europeans, but

no

Settler

Maroon women worked hard

In Jamaica the

1 8 1 1,

put in for the contract.

in the fields, freeing

of Scotland and other mountain communities) for the more leisurely and congenial arts of war. There was a tradition of a Maroon woman, Nanny, fighting in the early wars, but they had long ceased to be Amazons. In Sierra Leone their their

husbands

(as in

the Highlands

customs tended to keep them subordinate.

widow had

to give

up

his estate to the

dozen years in Freetown

less

When

a

Maroon

died his

head of the family. So

than a dozen

after a

Maroon women owned

house-property the only owner of a large house had been a European :

official's mistress.

The Nova sexes

Scotian

worked, were

women, bred on

less

the plantations,

dependent on their menfolk.

where both

Some had

escaped

from slavery on their own. When they left Halifax, unattached women cliildrcn were registered as heads of families (while the Maroon women were all assigned to husbands). Mary Perth, for instance, converted while still a slave in Norfolk, Virginia, had gathered her own congregation there; she escaped during the war to the British lines, and ultimately Nova Scotia, with three children from her master's plantation. In Sierra Leone she managed Macaulay's household, looked after the cliildrcn sent to school in the Colony, and opened a shop. Witli her profits she built a good house in Water Street. Her religious fervour was described in an English missionary magazine. When her with

lOI

fell ill she took her to England, first sending Henry Thornton ;£i50 for him to invest in the funds for her. After her return, towards the end of her life, she re-married: in her active years she did

only daughter

very well without a husband.

When

Company

allowed

open shops

of were women Mary Perth, Sophia Small, and Martha Hazelcy. Within two years Mrs. Small had built a two-storied house, the only one in the town, for about ^^150 and was letting it to the missionaries. She kept one of the two taverns opened in 1795: the

Settlers to

Spilsbury supped there enjoyably ten years petition

was

fierce.

in 1794 three

—

the first six retailers

By

181 1 only eight

later.

But here male comnineteen men, held

women, but

spirit licences.

Women

preached and testified in the Nova Scotian churches as the moved them Amilia Buxton had her own congregation in her house in Water Street. Abraham Moore's widow went off to the north to trade. A list of heads of Nova Scotian famihes drawn up in 1802 gives one name in three a woman's. Until 1797, when women were Spirit

:

excluded, they could vote, and stand as Hundredors and Tythingmen.

of women gave evidence in a case in 1809 to determine whether or not a girl had ever had a child. They made full use of the courts for one man, four women were said to bring actions in the Petty Courts. No wonder if amid so

Though not summoned

as regular jurors, a special jury

:

much female litigation a Scolds Act was passed condemning women convicted of defaming their neighbours to a public ducking in the harbour.

(a

Dawes took Phillis, the daughter of Martha and Abraham Hazcley Nova Scotian farmer, born in Charleston, who served as Church

Beadle, and

on

the Petty Court) to school in England.

On

her return

she opened a school, teaching reading at three cents a week, with

and arithmetic ten cents. Mrs. Elizabeth Robinson had a rival school, but for reading and needlework only. Girls were said to forget what they had learnt as soon as they left, testimony confirmed in the land registers where of sixty-two women who bought or sold land between 1825 and 1850 all but eight witnessed their naines with a mark. The marriage registers too are full of women's

needlework an extra

five cents, writing

marks.

Nova ing, in

1

Scotian 81

3,

five

women owned of the sixteen

several

lots

Mrs Hume, who owned two,

of the best properties, includ-

on the harbour had a house

also

side

of Water

Opposite, on the corner of Wilberforce Street, stood

house belonging to Martha Burden, her 102

own

Street:

in Charlotte Street. a large

frame

property, which passed

at

Women

her death not to her husband but to her daughter's family.

drew the first three of the country allotments. Lot number three (where Magazine Street now runs) remained in the family of the original owner, Lettice Demps, until the 1850s when her grandson, the Rev. Scipio Wright, sold

it

off in small building

lots.

Sophia Small also put her retailing profits into land.

Maroons were

settled at Granville

Town

she gave

When

the

up property she had

acquired there and was given in return Gray's farm, forfeited by his

having entered the slave trade. In Freetown she built a large house in Charlotte Street valued at ;^900, with outbuildings and cowsheds stretching over three lots;

it

stood there until burnt in a

fire in 1881.

So Jane, her daughter by a European, was an heiress, a great catch for George Nicol, a European carpenter, employed by the Company, who married her. Backed by her capital he went into business himself, extended the country property westwards

till it

reached the stream

Nicol Brook, and built two houses in Water Street;

called

and brick-built house above, and just

east of, the

liis

still

stone

Government Wharf,

cost ^3,500.

German missionaries followed Nicol's example. Renner married his Nova Scotian housekeeper, Elizabeth Richards, who went with him to the

Rio Pongas, taught in the school and was an ornament to the Nylander married Phillis Hazeley. She died after a few months

mission.

and he subsequently married her successor

as

schoolmistress,

Beverout, one of the Methodist preacher's family. Her

sister

Ann

Frances,

Bance Island, married the Rev. Charles Wenzel whose European wife had died in childbirth at the Rio Pongas. Most Europeans dispensed with the formality of marriage: when the

once

Tilly's mistress at

Nova Scotian widow ladies gave them an annual banquet, marriages were not what was arranged there. Macaulay found even his own brother Alexander, a ship 's~cap tain in the

Nova

Scotian

girl.

Nylander wrote since

am

I

in

18 12,

^children

in the Colony.'

their cliildren to

beg

Company's

service,

kept

a

*There are about twenty Mulatto children here,'

He

some fathers went away leaving But it became the practice for fathers

said

in the streets.

to leave house-property to the

of respectable gentlemen, born

mother, or in

trust, for the children's

benefit.

So

if

Freetown was held depraved (Captain Chamier

at this period,

described

poste rcstante) the Settlers

yoiuig

officials,

it

years later in

liis

who

visited

it

Life of a Sailor as the devil's

cannot be wholly blamed. The half-educated

disreputable soldiers, passing sailors, and retired slave103

traders,

who formed

the European population encouraged rather than

Few

checked immoraUty. used also

attended Nylander's services.

as a military hospital,

officiate in his

own

In contrast, the

gradually

fell

The church,

to pieces so

he had to

house.

Nova

Scotian churches were

full.

The Hunting-

donians had theirs in Wilberforce Street, on the corner of Church

moved

Street; later they

widow of

them by Mary Ash, leader, drowned in 1801. The Baptist Church of Rawdon Street, where lower down, on the

their early

to the adjoining site left

was on the west side east corner of Cross Street, the Methodists

many

with

their

away

in 1809 to

preachers, cohered less than the others:

form

a

ingly infirm, could do

new

They,

some broke

congregation. Moses Wilkinson, increas-

little

more than preach

Joseph Brown, a leading preacher,

England for

built theirs in 1798.

his health, in 1796,

whom

the

horrific

sermons.

Company had

sent to

wrote to the Wesleyan Conference in

1806 asking them for a missionary.

The Company

relieved the poor, pensioned old employees,

supported the families of those killed in the

Temne wars under :

and the

new government the destitute were left to private charity. The Maroons usually supported their own dependants, but many old Nova Scotians were uncared for; Moses Wilkinson was left destitute in old age. In 1 8 10 a Poor Society was founded, on the model of similar charities in England, supported by private contributions; of -£52 subscribed during the first year the Governor gave ^^30, other Europeans ;£io, the Nova Scotians /jio, the Maroons ^2. Despite their attachment to the forms of English law and love of the courts which guaranteed their rights. Settlers occasionally reverted to summary procedures that had survived two Atlantic crossings. A Nova Scotian woman was prosecuted for cruelly beating her servant girl, three Maroons for similar cruelty to their niece. Both girls had run after strange men and incurred a traditional penalty unsanctioned by English law.

were also prosecuted for bringing in witch doctors to by ordeal though some rejected firmly a practice which was the mainstay of the slave trade. A law passed in 1808 forbade the use of witchcraft to intimidate. Thus by 1 808 when the Granville Town Settlers had been twenty-one years in Sierra Leone, the Nova Scotians sixteen, the Maroons eight, they formed together a distinctive community of their own, neither wholly European nor wholly African. Several Settlers

try suspects

—

104

V THE

directors

of the dying Company were unwilling to abandon

their mission to the

Colony

altogether.

Warned

off financial

founded in 1807 the African Institution, to stimulate trade with Africa without itself trading, to promote African education and improved farming methods, and to be a watch-dog against the slave trade. An influential board, headed by the Duke of speculation, they

Gloucester, sponsored

He and Thornton responsibility, did

of

State

and

it.

Macaulay was honorary

forsaw

that the transfer, if

secretary. it

relieved

them of

not necessarily deprive them of power. The Secretary Under-Secretary, knowing and caring

his

who

little

about

Macaulay was asked to recruit officials; he wrote memoranda of advice. He was even appointed agent to administer the Colony's fmances, until the Secretary of State found the post came under the Treasury and must go to a Treasury Sierra Leone, turned readily to those

Clerk. His salaried post under the

bought

and

a ship

did.

Company

having come to an end, he

with Sierra Leone, first on his own, nephew, as Macaulay and Babington.

started trading

then, in partnership

with

his

Wilberforce, on intimate terms with the great, was always ready to

send urgent

little

mended

first

the

notes of advice or recommendation. royal Governor,

He recom-

Thomas Pcrronet Thompson. He

procured Dawes and Ludlam well-paid temporary employment on

Commission third

to investigate the British

possessions; the

Commissioner, Captain E. H. Columbine, of the Navy, was a

governor of the African still

West African

a

Institution.

Thus 'Clapham-ite'

influence

was

exercised in Sierra Leone.

807 a ship's-captain from Rhode Island, anchored in Fourah Bay, kidnapped some boys from Robana, then sailed up to

In

November

1

Freetown. The

Tcmne

chiefs

complained to Ludlam

Maroon

who

sent

a

on board. They freed the party of Volunteers under a boys and arrested the captain. Threatened with being handed over to the Tenme, he agreed to stand trial in the Colony, and was fined /^500821613

105

officer

H

— who were indentured as of the Company's employees who paid $ioo each for them. Part went towards the fine, part to the chiefs to prevent their being revenged on the next American ship. Four months later Commander Frederick Parker of the Derwent, a supporter of the former Company, the first of the long succession of His cargo, distrained to pay, included ten slaves, servants to three

who fought

two ships, believed American, taken at sea with 167 slaves on board. Under the Act of 1807, captured slaves condemned in a Vice-Admiralty Court were forfeited to the Crown, and were to be enlisted in the forces or apprenticed, the captors receiving a bounty for each. Ludlam had no power to constitute

naval officers

a court,

the slave trade, brought in

nor fund to pay bounties from, nor instructions

or apprentice. So, without attempting to

condemn

how

to enlist

the slaves legally, he

followed the previous precedent and apprenticed them.

To

of so many he had to reduce what the master paid to $20; government took some at the same price for a Corps of Labourers. Parker was paid dispose

the proceeds.

Governor Thompson, banker in Hull

(a

who

arrived in July,

was the son of a rich of a close

friend of Wilberforce's), the grandson

of Wesley's. From Cambridge he had joined the Navy and, as midshipman, was elected a fellow of his college (Queens'). But instead of returning to reside he went into the Army, took part in an attack on Buenos Aires, then, at twenty-five, accepted the governorship of Sierra Leone. associate

a

Though Wilberforce's nominee, he saw no reason to share liis views. Even before leaving England he was finding fault with the Company's rule in Sierra Leone he saw everywhere evidence of their easy-going inefficiency, culminating in what he declared the public sale of 167 slaves. For though Ludlam held them apprentices, they were sold. Masters do not normally buy apprentices; no indentures were drawn up. Thompson could maintain them as surely sold as if the masters had bought them from a slave-ship. His mounting indignation overflowed in a series of despatches to the Secretary of State, denouncing with savage fury the Company, and those of its employees who remained in Freetown winding up its affairs or in government service, for hypocritically pretending to seek :

the abolition of the slave trade while they bought and sold slaves in

Freetown Little

itself

escaped

liis

censure.

Had

the

Company's

store sold clothes

they had deliberately encouraged the Settlers to dress luxuriously. J

06

Did the Company's servants tell him Bai Farama was entitled to they were seeking to degrade the Crown by making it pay

customs

—

tribute to a chief.

Did

a

Nova

Scotian girl give birth to a light-skinned

—

baby wliich disappeared one of the Company's servants was to blame, and Ludlam had comiived at its murder. Determined to enforce discipline in a Colony he felt demoralized, he disbanded the Volunteer Corps with its smart blue and scarlet uniform, its drummer boys in turbans and feathers, its handsome rates of pay for sleeping on guard. A new militia was constituted under an Ordinance allowing courts-martial to give sentences of up to two years imprisonment in irons. The Nova Scotians sent delegates to protest. Thompson threatened to charge them with high treason, and reduced their officers to the ranks.

He

hated the

Nova Scotians as he hated the Company, and suggested The Maroons he liked better, as less infected by

they be deported.

democratic insolence. Best he liked the liberated

slaves,

whom

he

hoped to turn into 'a free and hardy peasantry'. During November 1 808 Parker brought in another seventy-eight to be condemned in the Vice-Admiralty Court, officially constituted with Thompson acting-judge; another 230 were condemned during 1809. The Governor was instructed to register the condemned and send an annual return to London. Many registers survive in the Sierra Leone archives, showing name, age, sex, and sometimes a rough physical description including tattoo marks, with a note of how each was disposed of. Some were carelessly made out: often the disposal column is

empty.

Those for 1808-9 show that Thompson was still obliged under the Act of 1 807 to go on apprenticing (though he had proudly declared he would resign rather than do so), chiefly to Europeans and Maroons. Some of the children were sent to school. But one group from the Bambara and Jolof countries he sent to farm on the slopes of Leicester Mountain, the peak rising abruptly behind Freetown (which Ludlam,

who had

a house there, may have named after his home, Leicester) beyond reach of Nova Scotian contamination. He also laid the first stone of Kingston-in-Africa (after his own home, Kingston-on-HuU) in the mountains about five miles inland by the Hogbrook.

To stamp

out in

name

as in

deed the seditious

polluted the Colony, he abolished the

cents,

he declared

as inclining the

and substituted 'Georgetown'. Dollars smacking of American republicanism, were replaced by

inhabitants to insubordination,

and

spirit

name Freetown,

707

sterling.

He

clergy and

pay

advised the Secretary of State to send out an established

make every

colonist, including the

Nova

Scotian sectarians,

on citizens' duties, justifications of his renamed in January 1809 The African was printed (but not published) as a facetious lampoon

to support them. Homilies

policy, appeared in the Gazette,

Herald.

One issue

on

the Colony. Yet he did not want to make his subjects servile. He suggested young men be sent to England for military and naval instruction, and that John Thorpe and George Caulker, both educated at Clapham, return to study at his

own

college. Queens',

Cambridge.

Rather than be advised by anyone connected with the Company,

Thompson took

into his Council the officer

commanding

the troops,

when he died, Captain Forbes, a disreputable who like many officers found service in than a vocation. Unemployed slave-traders,

Captain Macgregor, then,

brother of Lord Granard's, Africa a refuge rather

robbed of

enemy

their profession, rejoiced at a

Company. He

governor

who

assailed their

was inclined to welcome them, sold Joseph Davies, a former slave-trader from Cape Coast, Day's plantation at Fourah Bay, and bought large quantities of unwanted stores from him. Daniel Botifeur, a slave-trader in the Rio Pongas, once surgeon at Bance Island, who had supplied the Colony with cattle after the Freeport factory closed, was friendlily received at Fort Thornton when supercargo of a slave-ship sailing under Spanish colours which was openly buying slaves from the Bulom Shore. With the slave trade illegal, Bance Island lost its importance. The Andersons again tried vainly to sell it to government; they (with other former slave-traders) joined the African Institution, which gave them a prize for growing cotton on Tasso Island. The Superintendent at Bance Island found it increasingly difficult to maintain authority over the Temne grumettas who knew he could no longer sell them. Their headman began claiming to be equal with him. In October 1809 they rioted. Davies and Botifeur, both on the island, summoned Thompson who formally commissioned the Sheriff and Montague James, the Maroon general, to administer the Colony, and sailed up with a detachment of troops. Alleging that the riot might old

the

encourage the neighbouring

in return

Tcmnc no

to attack the

Colony, he held a

on Bance Island and transported the ringleaders to Cape Coast. Thompson's many charges against the Company was its

court-martial (for there was

constituted authority

to hold a civil court)

Among

being hostile to Islam. Embracing enthusiastically the theory (which the 108

Company's agents themselves maintained (p. 66) and the African of Africans being more civihzed the further they contrasted the pohshed urbanity of visiting Muscoast, he were from the Institution accepted)

hms, not only with the degraded habits of the coastal peoples, but with the hypocrisy and corruption the Company had spread in Freetown. Castlereagh, the Secretary of State, who took little interest in Sierra Leone, passed on the Governor's tirades to the horror-struck Wilber-

and Thornton.

force

To Thompson

reply to so many), directing

him

to

he sent only one despatch

(in

hand over the government

to

Captain Columbine and return to England.

Columbine stopped on

commanding

his

way

out

the garrison, persuaded

at

Goree where Major Maxwell,

him

to join in an attack

on

the

neighbouring French Colony of Senegal. They

sailed up the Senegal and the French capitulated. While Columbine was on shore his ship foundered on a sandbank and was lost. He had to return to England, and only reached Sierra Leone in a

landed through the

river,

new

surf,

ship in February 1810, ten

months

after Castlereagh

had written

his despatch.

In September 1809

him

Thompson had the D'erwent case formally brought

where he appointed John from Clapham, prosecutor, or Kings Proctor. Sheltered by his judicial immunity, he delivered a diatribe on the Company with a vehemence that made one of his audience observe 'you would think he had taken his degrees at

before

Thorpe,

in the Vice-Admiralty Court,

a clerk in the Secretary's Office since his return

Billingsgate.'

He

accused the directors of seeking to aboUsh the Atlantic slave

trade merely that they

seeking to ruin the filling the

might monopolize

West

India planters

it

themselves in Africa, of

by denying them

slaves,

and

market with the produce of their own slave plantations. He letters, left behind by Ludlam, interpreting

read aloud extracts from their

them

to support his charges.

Dawes,

who was

present in court (and

when he protested), was accused of Ludlam, of encouraging immorality and The speech was then published for general circulation in

threatened with imprisonment

approving infanticide.

of

slavery,

the African Herald.

Among the correspondence read out and published, was a letter from Macaulay warning Ludlam

though Castlereagh was ready enough was hostile, advising him to be careful- what reports he sent home, not suppressing the truth but wording it carefully lest unfriendly readers misinterpret it. By that

to countenance their views, his Under-Secretary

109

publicizing this letter as an example of Jesuitical dishonesty started a cry that

was

hound Macaulay

to

for another

Thompson

twenty

years.

As Governor, Thompson continued the Company's practice of manufacturing paper-money, signed with his name, but backed now by Treasury

bills: a

Columbine

blank

arrived, so

^5

note survives

many were

Colonial Accountant not to take them.

saw

among

his despatches.

in circulation, that

When

he ordered the

The Company's

supporters

chance of revenge, bought up over -^5,000 worth (trusting,

a

would honour them), and had Thompson arrested for debt as he was embarking. Their triumph was temporary. He was under orders to report home, so Columbine granted him an immediate Habeas Corpus. But his sailing was delayed, and he had to stay an extra day in the Colony while his enemies gathered in the church to pass enthusiastic resolutions disapproving of his rule. If a rather crest-fallen Thompson left Sierra Leone he did not long correctly, that sooner or later the Treasury

remain

dispirited.

martial and closed

His future army career (which included a courtwhen he had risen to be a general) might have been

who would guess that the flail of republican Freetown would one day become an outspoken radical pamphleteer, Bentham's friend, an associate of the Chartists, a champion of parliathen foreseen. But

mentary and economic reform.

Paying current expenses with home-made Treasury

enabled

bills

Governors to spend almost unchecked. Ludlam raised subordinate salaries after the

took on more

Crown took

over;

Thompson

raised

them

higher,

and created several well-paid posts. Buildings were put up, and the Treasury asked to pay for them. Allowances were added to salaries. Officials living in hired houses had their rents paid and clerks,

repairs done: those

who bought

houses were even paid for living in

them. Parhament voted an annual grant, averaging about

-^T

16,000,

but by the end of 18 10 an additional ^^59,000 had been spent. So a detailed estimate for a Civil Establishment was drawn up. Parliament

voted ^15,545 for

it

current expenditure to

He announced

his

in

181

fit it,

and Columbine was instructed to cut and incur nothing extra without sanction. 1,

unpleasant task at once, dismissed those not

inckidcd in the Estimate, and aboHshcd lodging allowances. Everywhere

he found waste. Despite lavish expenditure on public works the church, barracks, gaol

were

all

and courthouse

ruinous. His

(a

canvas building in Gloucester Street)

own wooden

no

house inside the fort was too

decayed for

wife and children to Hve in; he had to hire another.

his

who had

Settlers

put their

money into building good houses were Nova Scotian carpenter, was paid ^80

well rewarded: Peter Francis, a

a year for a building used as the Secretary's office.

was allowed). Columbine recom-

extra grant for buildings (which

mended

that

labour, and

Obliged to ask for an

once they were finished government give up employing

do

all

public

The Company was

works by

local contract.

restored to official favour.

Columbine removed

Forbes from his Council, and took on the Company's accountant, as government's; a new mayor and aldermen were Ludlam and Dawes answered Thompson's charges at a public meeting, then went down the Coast to finish the Commission of Inquiry, Columbine intending to follow. American traders whom Thompson had favoured were excluded. 'Georgetow^i' became Freetown again. The African Herald a Gazette. Columbine brought out another young protege of Wilberforce's, John Grant, as junior Member of Council. He disliked him, and rather

M.

D.

put

Hamilton,

in.

than saddle himself with an argumentative associate, declined to swear

him in without

further instructions

his brother-in-law, seat.

who had come

from London. out

Instead he appointed

as his secretary, to a

temporary

allies among Thompson's friends: it was rumoured Columbine left the Colony on the Commission of he would hoist a yellow flag at Fort Thornton and assume

Grant found

that as soon as

Inquiry,

government.

Columbine might have laughed off this futile plot (which gave him home on the next boat) but for Forbes who, enraged at losing his Councillor's seat (with /^400 a year),

an excuse for sending Grant

wrote angry ing, as

letters declining to

accept the Governor's orders, imply-

one of his predecessors to Ludlam

(p. 95), that

dent of civil control. Columbine ordered

He

him

to

he was indepen-

Army

Headquarters.

Columbine called out the militia, landed the marines drew them up ready to fire on the soldiers should they be summoned to defend their captain, and put him under arrest. refused to go.

from

his ship,

Forbes confined his resistance to savaging a brother officer with his

on board, and was shipped off to Headfrom the Army.

walking-stick, joined Grant quarters to be cashiered

war was averted. Forbes's supporters apologized (except Dr Spilsbury who went home in a huff). The Secretary of State, Thus

civil

Wilberforcc prompting, upheld Cokmibine, and exonerated Dawes

and Ludlam from Thompson's charges. Ill

Some may

feel this history takes

too

But from whatever standpoint the

much

account of Governors.

history of a

Crown Colony

is

written they obtrude themselves. In the days of sailing-ships a Governor

of Sierra Leone was under little control. With a good wind despatches from London might reach him in a month, but it might take much longer to send a reply. It might be half a year before he heard whether the Secretary of State approved of what he was doing. His salary alone placed him high above his subordinates. The Estimates for 1811 gave him -^2,000 a year, the Chief Justice ^1,500, but the Members of his Council, whom he could suspend at will, only ^400, the Secretary and Chief Surgeon /isso. Even when steam, then the telegraph, brought him closer to London, he was still left to initiate and carry out his own policy, reversing if he chose his predecessor's, so that in Freetown people repeated, 'New governor,

From

the

new law'.

first

States. Sharp,

the Sierra

who

Leone settlement roused

interest in the

kept his American friends informed of

United

its

early

was approached in 1789 by the Rev. Samuel Hopkins, a Congregational pastor in Newport, Rhode Island, some of whose Afro-American flock thought of migrating to Africa. In 1795 they sent a delegate to Freetown to prospect; Macaulay offered land on the Company's usual terms, but none came over. The American government, too, was interested in a Colony founded with American (though not republican) settlers. In 1802 Jefferson proposed to ship across a large number of slaves who had taken part in an insurrection in Virginia; the directors, already overburdened with difficulties,

responsibilities, declined his offer.

In

New Bradford, Massachusetts, lived Captain Paul Cuffee,

freed African father and a

Quaker, trading with

of religion

his

Red

own

son of a

Indian mother, a pious, industrious

boats.

He

yearned to bring the blessings

Having heard of the African Sierra Leone in 18 10 in his brig the

to his brethren in Africa.

Institution's plans,

he

sailed

over to

mamied with a crew of African descent. There letters reached him from Wilberforce and from William Allen, a fellow Quaker in business in London, a member of the African Institution, asking him to England. So after a couple of months he went to England, addressed the African Institution, and persuaded Allen to help him give tlie Settlers practical encouragement. On his Traveller,

112

return to Freetown at the end of 1811 he got one of the Methodist

congregations to organize a co-operative trading society, the FriendlySociety of Sierra Leone, to enable settlers to combine to

produce and market

monopoly was

trade

(p. first

with

president. Allen a

grow

or buy

abroad, to break the European merchants'

loi). Kizzell

Clarkson, started their

it

his

long experience of the Sherbro

and some

friends, including

Thomas

non-profit-making society in London to dispose of

produce and send out goods in return.

Cuffee planned to bring over Americans of African descent, skilled, self-reliant

farmers or artisans whose example of sturdy independence

would stimulate the Settlers to enterprise. To prove his interest in the Colony permanent, he bought a house in East Street (on the northwest corner of Church Street), and went home promising to return annually with goods and immigrants.

On

voyage back from England he brought the Rev. George three schoolmasters, missionaries sent by the English in belated response to Joseph Brown's request Conference Wesleyan (p. 104). A site for a mission house was bought where Dala Modu's town had been, just west of the town wall, no longer needed for defence. his

Warren and

Chief Stephen Caulker, the re-conqueror of the Bananas, died in 18 10. country his brother Thomas was his heir. But his son

By custom of the

at Clapham (p. 81), employed on his Company's then government, storekeeper, of primogeniture. Supported by Dawes, who

George Stephen, educated return to Freetown as the

had learnt English rules accompanied him to the Plantains, he persuaded his uncle to divide the chiefdom again. Thomas took the Bananas and the mainland, George Stephen the Plantains.

The

rainy season of 18 10 was particularly unhealthy: Nylander some-

Ludlam died at sea, leaving Dawes and Commission of Inquiry. Mrs Columbine died in October; her children were sent home ill, and one died on the way. Columbine, too, was constantly ill, left in May 1811, and died of dysentery in mid- Atlantic. times had ten funerals a week.

Columbine

to finish the

Before leaving, he took the

first official

census, published in the

Commissioners' Report. Enumerators were sent round making returns: a previous

count made in 1802 was only based on the Company's 113

of households. The total population, grouped as European, Nova Scotian, Maroon and African, was given as 1,917. But the 28 Europeans (with 4 women and 2 children) did not include the garrison; nor can the 100 Africans have included the recaptured slaves, about 1,000 of whom had been landed by March 181 1. The Nova Scotians, given as 891 in lists

1802, had risen to 982; the increase included returned rebels and slave-

The Maroons, 515 in 1802, numbered 807. The returns showed 381 houses. Three were of stone, one belonging to a Nova Scotian stonemason, George Carrol, the others to Europeans. Most of the rest were wooden framed houses. 136 were classed as traders.

wattled huts.

Their total value,

Government least

when new, was reckoned

-^26,589, of

which

buildings (excluding Fort Thornton) accounted for at

-^3,000.

Europeans owned

at

least

another

-^8,000

worth.

Macaulay and Babington had a stone building valued at ^^900 by the government sawpit in Susan's Bay; James Carr, returned from the slave trade, built a house for ^1,000 on a site in Rawdon Street that belonged to his Nova Scotian mistress, Betsy Walker. The remaining houses may be considered not only the Settlers' homes, but their invested capital.

The Act of 1807, which prevented

British subjects openly taking slave-

ships across the Atlantic stopped for a short while a trade hitherto largely in British hands. Americans, sailing their

own

under Spanish colours, defying

anti-slave-trade laws revived

it.

Spaniards and Portuguese

joined them to supply the newly expanding markets of Brazil, justifying Burke's

prophecy

'that so

long

some means for its supply will be found'. The Commissioners of Inquiry believed that

Cuba and

as the slavery

con-

tinues,

as

many

as

80,000

were shipped during 18 10. Columbine, despairing of enforcement over the whole coast recommended the Navy patrol only the so-called Windward Coast (north of Cape Palmas) ignoring the Leeward Coast (south of it) the main supply of slaves. Dawes, and eventually the government, disagreed, preferring that the Navy try to cover the whole coast. By the end of 181 1, 1,991 slaves had been captured and condemned or more accurately re-captured, since they had already in Freetown once been taken as slaves. 'Re-capturcd', was in use as an adjective by the 1820s; the noun 'recaptive' only appears in print in the 18 80s (and has not yet found its way into the Oxford English Dictionary).

—

114

The recaptives were known officially as Captured Negroes. As their number increased (they already outnumbered the Settlers) a Superintendent was appointed to register and look after them: the

first,

Kenneth Macaulay, was a second cousin of Zachary's who came out aged sixteen as a government writer in 1808. He had charge of them while they were awaiting disposal, distributed country cloths to wear, and made out indentures for those apprenticed. Charles Shaw, the Maroon captain, oversaw those settled at Leicester, under Macaulay 's supervision. They were ruled summarily, the unruly,

men

or

women,

publicly flogged. Their expenses were paid

from

England, not out of the meagre Colonial vote, but under a special

Treasury grant voted annually by Parliament.

From

the beginning of the century the British

sought to recruit Africans, to serve in the

West Indies.

Army

in

government had

West

Africa or the

some recaptives were enlisted and sent to be trained at Goree. A few boys were also entered on board naval ships. Most were apprenticed to Freetowoi people who took them gladly as servants. When a group of Ashanti was liberated the Maroons welcomed them as countrymen, took them into their homes and taught them trades. Eventually they were given lots in the Maroon In 18 10

Tov^m. Lieutenant Bones, a naval officer Columbine

left

temporarily in

charge of the Colony, held a general muster of recaptives to check

what was happening to them. About eighty were said to have run away; another dozen had vanished completely. Impressed with the industry and behaviour of Thompson's Bambara community at Leicester, he settled forty-two from Cabenda (at the mouth of the Congo, some 2,000 miles away) on the ridge above the Cape, known as Devil's Hill, or Signal Hill, where there was a military lookout post. An abandoned Temne town, Beaver Tom's, was taken over and called

New

Cabenda.

Serving or half-pay officers, unafraid of the tropics, could be found to govern Sierra Leone: it was less easy to find a qualified lawyer for Chief Justice, an office created by the Royal Charter. In Upper Canada Robert Thorpe, an Irish barrister, appointed judge, was behaving with a Violence

him

and indiscretion

which left no alternative but to remove Government of the Province'. The first 1808 he was passed on to Sierra Leone. .

.

.

or the whole Executive

choice was the easier, so in

115

The Charter was drawn up and

sent to

Lord Eldon, the Lord

Chancellor, in August 1809; rather unwillingly he affixed the Great

was handed over to the new Chief Justice in March 181 1. By then questions were being asked in Parliament, for Thorpe had been waiting in London since 1808, drawing his full salary. He took office in Freetown in July, with Lieut. -Colonel C. W. Maxwell, promoted Governor from commanding the troops at Senegal. Appointed by Commission (as his predecessors were not) Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief, Maxwell was also comSeal to

it

in

missioned

August 18 10;

as

it

Vice-Admiral to give sanction to the Vice-Admiralty

The Chief Justice was senior Member of Council, but in a member acted Governor, to keep executive and judiciary separate. Maxwell made one of his staff officers, Dr John Court.

vacancy the next senior

Heddle, Colonial Secretary, with

Member. While Thorpe waited

a seat

ex

and another the other

officio,

were being brought before the Vice-Admiralty Court where he was to preside. Columbine appointed Alexander Smith, the Company's former storekeeper who had stayed on in trade, acting-judge. He adjudged cases as Thompson had and restored at least one cargo of slaves, legally shipped by Spaniards, to their owners receiving no salary, only court fees. When Thorpe arrived, he demanded Smith pay them over. Smith refused, so he brought an action in his own court, won it, and was awarded ;/^300 damages. Smith complained officially, and though Thorpe maintained in his own defence that he had sued not for the fees, but on principle, to punish contempt of his jurisdiction, the Secretary of State eventually made him disgorge them. Captors who brought ships before the Vice-Admiralty Court had prize agents in London to collect bounty money and in Sierra Leone to prosecute cases: many appointed Zachary Macaulay and the Freetown agent of Macaulay and Babington. The Court also brought the Colony employment and wealth in the form of court officials' fees, fees for ship-minding and admeasurement, and small contracts for ship's stores and carpentering.

—

in England, slave-ships

—

Maxwell was bidden continue Columbine's regime of economy, cut

down

public works, deprive the

salaries,

and

the Colony,

Members of

relieve the British tax-payer,

by

raising

some

who

local revenue.

116

On

liis

Council of their

bore the whole cost of

August the 22nd 18 12

:

Customs Ordinance, to tap that prime source of Colonial revenue. Two per cent was levied on British, 6 per cent on foreign goods; watering dues were increased; tonnage collected on carhe passed the

first

goes landed. Foreign ships, forbidden to trade under the British Naviga-

were permitted to, exceptionally, if the state of supplies in the Colony demanded it, under Governor's licence. To check fraud, ship'scaptains had to deposit their papers at the Secretary's^ (or, as it was now tion Laws,

usually called. Colonial Secretary's) office, so long as they remained in

the harbour.

Duties were also levied on goods sold at auction, including the constant auctions of prize goods

from condemned

slave-ships. Licence

from auctioneers and spirit retailers; twenty-seven were taken out in 1811. The Road Tax was revived and reorganized. The money it raised, and a Horse Tax, were earmarked for roads and bridges. The Governor could apply the rest as he chose. ^2,058 was collected in 18 12. The paper bills were called in, dollars sent to replace them; copper coins were also sent out in 181 3. But Maxwell still went on issuing local notes, which were not called in and destroyed until 18 16. fees

were

collected

spirit licences

With

the Colony, the

Crown took

over responsibility for the

Com-

pany's land grants, which the quit-rent dispute, then the fmal years of slack

government, had

settle all

left in

confusion.

Maxwell was

instructed to

outstanding claims to land, to grant the remaining four-fifths

of the promised allotments, withheld since 1792, to those who wanted them, and to give all landholders a secure title. Thorpe drew up rules for granting land under the Great Seal of the Colony (which arrived in 1 8 12), in which quit-rents were revived though the Company had abandoned them and heavy fees charged for those who made out the

—

—

grants.

The

Settlers beseiged

of land, but,

Governor and Council with petitions for grants few took out the required grants

their petitions granted,

title, they escaped paying quit-rents. were confiscated in 1813 for non-payment, another six in 1 8 14. Mrs Maria Parker, a Nova Scotian, gave up a house worth ^65 rather than pay 15 io| J quit-rent. Now that so few farmed, only nine applied for their long-promised country lands, and only four were put into immediate possession, in satisfaction of the engagement made over twenty years earlier in Nova Scotia.

thus, if they

Even

so,

still

lacked secure

eight lots

117

Maxwell took most advantage of ^Smith's Hiir forfeited

*Belle Vue', as

lOo) he enlarged

(p.

Nova

Scotian lots until

he called

it

it

Having bought by granting himself empty or

the land grants.

included the adjoining

hill.

To

he added, by purchase and grant,

his estate,

Fourah Bay Point. There he laid out plantations, cultivated by recaptive apprentices. Kenneth Macaulay was granted forty acres between Cockle Bay and Whiteman's Bay, where he grew cotton he also had a house and farm on the east side of King Tom peninsula. His brother :

George, a government writer, had a plantation beyond Granville Brook. Between them the three owned more than half the cultivated land in the Colony.

The Royal Charter empowered under military or

the

Governor

discipline, if need be, in or

to raise a militia to fight

out of the Colony, on land

Maxwell, fmding Thompson's militia decayed, passed a new The preamble rehearsed the provisions of the Charbut the Ordinance prescribed service within the Colony only;

sea.

Militia Ordinance. ter,

also required militiamen to take the Oath of Allegiance on penalty of outlawry if they refused. Maxwell had the Ordinances he and his Council passed printed for circulation: previous legislation had merely been recorded in the Council minutes. The Settlers, unused to legislative formulas, took the preamble for the enactment. Rumours circulated that they were to be degraded from free citizens to soldiers, liable to be shipped from their homes. The Maroons, the backbone of the militia, remembering their deportation, were determined never to go to sea again. They abhorred alien discipline: their revolt in 1795 was provoked by a flogging. Remembering the broken promises, they were suspicious of oaths (p. 88). Led by Charles Shaw, who had led the fighting in Jamaica, it

they refused to swear, believing Maxwell would never dare alienate

them. In

1800 the Maroons counterbalanced

in 181 to the

1

Maxwell saw Maroons.

He

in the also

Nova

Scotian disaffection:

ever-growing body of recaptives an answer

wanted

to enlarge his

own Royal

African

Corps with men more suited to tropical service than debauched Enghsh and to provide from the recaptives recruits for the West India Regiments. As there was no building in Freetown suitable for a recruiting station he took over Baiice Island, where a few of the convicts,

Andersons' employees lived on wretchedly in the decaying splendours. 118

Recaptives were drafted there for enlisting, then went, with recaptive wives, to the Barbados, or to Freetown where, formed into

two com-

panies of the Royal African Corps, they took over garrison duties.

They

built huts to live in

called Soldier

Town,

west of Fort Thornton in what came to be

thus saving the expense of rebuilding the dilapi-

dated barracks.

With

recaptive soldiers to rely on.

Maroons, no need even for

Maxwell had no

fear

of the

a militia except to enforce subordination.

He still demanded the oath, so Nova Scotians, left with their

a large

body of Maroons, and

famihes for the

money

houses they had invested their

in

had

Bulom

few

a

Shore.

The

to be left behind.

Declared outlaws, their property was confiscated: some was taken by

government, or sold for debt. Thomas Cato, back from the

Bulom

a

Shore, was rewarded with

by a Maroon. The Maroons trusted

Nova liis

Scotian rebel

old country

lot,

forfeited

policy, a

the Secretary of State, upheld to take the oath;

reported

Columbine had reversed Thompson's out to reverse Maxwell's. But

jthat as

new Governor would come most got

it.

their

few stayed away until he left the new status, no longer the courageous

had returned, but

all

Colony. They returned to a

Gradually during 1813 they began

property back. In June 18 13 Maxwell a

warriors of the Jamaican mountains, but civilians kept in order recaptive troops.

The

suppression of the 1800 revolt set the

Maroons: enlisting recaptives outsiders given arms against them.

Scotians against the the liberated

set

by

Nova

both against

Recaptives not taken for soldiers or apprenticed to Settlers or

— —

government which employed a West Indian sergeant to teach some to be masons were sent to form villages of their own. In 18 12 a group settled on a hill above the deserted Granville Town. Their settlement was called Kissy Town, which suggests they came from the Kisi country, shipped perhaps from Shcrbro or Gallinas. But village tradition brings them from the Kisc-Kisc (then called Kissi) River north of the Melakori. In the following year a group of Portuguese-speaking recaptives was settled at what had been Pa Demba's Town, renamed Portuguese Town. A shipload of Vai was sent up to the Hogbrook, where Thompson had planned a village; recaptive Jolof, Mandinka and Susu joined them in adjoining villages, each people tending to keep to their own town. Some Bassa from south of Cape Mcsurado formed Bassa Town on the Atlantic beach. Mende recaptives, called 'Kosso' in the Colony 119

(a

name today only

adjoining

used

as a

New Cabenda.

In 1795 a witch doctor called Sandi (a

King Jimmy's Town. Tradition has driven out, he

Pa Sandi,

Town

term of abuse), formed Kosso

moved

a mile or so

Mende name) was living in when the Temne were

that

it

south along the beach and founded the village of

below where the

recaptives

Town. The Captured Negro Department's

lists

were

show

to build

Kosso

a recaptive

boy

living there in 18 12.

Recaptives landed at coasts adjoining the

and

at least

this

period had been shipped chiefly from the

Colony. There were

also Ashanti,

one Ibo. The Congo people who,

by the waterside,

left their hilltop at

New

it is

said,

Congo

(p. 115),

preferred to live

Cabenda and followed the

Congo River down to Whiteman's Bay where in 18 16 they bought from a Maroon woman a site for a new home, Congo Town. pretty stream dignified as the

In 181

1

Brougham

passed through Parliament the Slave Felony Act,

to punish British slave-traders, or foreigners trading in slaves soil, still

with transportation, thus bringing the settled in the rivers adjoining the

many

on

British

British slave-traders

Colony within reach of the law.

Maxwell, a protege of the African Institution, took the offensive in 1 8 12 and had two slave-traders, Samuel Samo and Charles Hickson, seized at the Isles de Los and brought to Freetown for trial. Thorpe, who was to try them, doubted if he could. Samo, though he

had been heard to boast he was English, was Dutch; neither the Isles de Los, nor the Rio Pongas, where he had been settled sixteen years, were British. Governor and Chief Justice hastily despatched to the Rio Pongas an agent who persuaded the chiefs to agree that Europeans living under their protection be held imdcr British law. Armed with this dubious authority, which enabled him to maintain from the bench Rio Pongas counted as British jurisdiction, Thorpe tried the Hickson was acquitted, Samo found guilty. Even then he dared not risk sentencing Samo. Unwilling to discharge unconditionally so notorious a slave-trader, he had another message sent to the that the

prisoners.

chiefs, this time asking them to petition that Samo be pardoned. They duly petitioned, and the pardon was graciously granted. Maxwell then enlisted the Navy. In June 18 13 Captain Scobcll of

Pongas

the Thais destroyed

a

British slave-factory in the St Paul's River, south

of Cape Mesurado, freed over 200 120

slaves

and brought the owners,

Robert Bostock and Jolin McQuin, to Freetown. Thorpe was on leave in England; his bench was filled by Dr Pur die, a friend of Maxwell's, who also held the offices of Colonial Surgeon and Colonial Secretary.

Taking Thorpe's decision to try Samo and Hickson as a precedent, he sentenced Bostock and McQuin to fourteen years transportation; they were sent to England, thence to Botany Bay. Later in the year another naval expedition went to attack the Rio Pongas factories; the slave-traders retreated to a fort up one of the winding creeks and drove away the boats, hi March 1814 Maxwell called his

new

recap tive troops into action. Justifying himself to the

Secretary of State with a gruesome, improbable story of the slavetraders' inciting a chief to kill a

150 soldiers, for

who

European

for a

human

sacrifice,

he sent

destroyed the factories, and brought back 240 slaves

condemnation, four slave-traders for

trial.

Purdie was

bench, assisted by Captain Appleton, Royal African Corps led the expedition, captured the prisoners,

and received

still

on the

—who had

a large share

of the bounty money for the slaves. Maxwell also received a share as Governor. Three, Dunbar, Cooke and Brodie, were given fourteen years transportation and sent to England; Hickson, the fourth, already

once acquitted, three years hard labour in Freetown where he was to

by teaching

his

Thorpe, meanwhile, was

in

expiate his guilt

own

former

slaves

how

to farm.

London, complaining to the African Institution of abuses in the Colony, to the Secretary of State of Maxwell's having put in Purdie, instead of a nominee of his own, as judge. Maxwell followed in July, for a surgical operation. Governor and Chief Justice, hitherto friendly, fell on one another. Maxwell begged that Thorpe be dismissed. Thorpe retaliated in a published pamphlet, A Letter to William Wilherforce, denouncing not only Maxwell, but the African Institution and the defunct Company, raking up Thompson's charges, reprinting Macaulay's unfortunate letter (p. no).

Once

the

of slave-traders, Thorpe became their prop. He called attention to Dunbar, Cooke and Brodie, waiting in the hulks at Portsmouth; flail

they petitioned the

The

Home

Secretary and were released.

Brougham's Act empowering the Sierra Leone courts was based on a repealed statute. Thus their trial had been illegal. They and Hickson were pardoned; Cooke brought an action against Maxwell. Though the pardon was given on a clause in

to try slave-traders for felony

technicality, the Abolitionists felt

it

a severe

blow,

if

only because

it

discouraged further attacks on slave-factories.

Thorpe depicted 821613

the attacks as

unprovoked aggressions on neutral 121

1

soil

by

with

a

governor greedy for bounty money. Macaulay answered him

counter-pamphlet; the African Institution published a long

a

Thorpe replied at once with further pamphlets aspersing Macaulay and the Institution. They were mentioned in Parliament; the House of Lords made merry over Dr Purdie, 'the learned surgeon of Sierra Leone'. If Thorpe always had the last word in argument, his opponents worsted him personally. While the controversy was raging, in March 1815, he received a letter from the Under-Secretary of State dismissing him from his judgeship. Vainly he protested, publicly and officially, against a judge's being removed from the bench, unheard, by the administrative act of a subordinate. Neither Lord Bathurst, nor his successors as Secretary of State, would reinstate or pension him. apologia.

Thorpe's pamphlets delighted the West India fearful

interest,

increasingly

of the Abolitionists. Their ov^m pamphleteers took up

charges Joseph Marryat, m.p. for Sandwich, repeated :

them

his

in a series.

More Thoughts, and More They also alarmed the Colony's friends, apprehensive much of what he said was true. William Allen, whose practical

Thoughts on the Abolition of the Slave Trade,

Thoughts that

sympathy

Still.

for the Settlers already betrayed his suspicion that they

being economically exploited,

felt

were

the African Institution failed to

He was disgusted at the directors for trying blame the Company's failure on the Settlers' laziness and depravity, when they had themselves broken their promises to them. The Clarkson brothers were roused by the revival of quit-rents John prepared his Sierra Leone diary for publication (only an abridgement appeared, in Allen's periodical The Philanthropist), Thorpe pointed out that lack of funds prevented the African Institution fulfilling its mission to Africa. The average income was seldom over ^1,000, much of which went to print pamplilets. A few hundred pounds were spent bringing African boys to England to train as teachers; a European schoolmaster was sent belatedly to Freetown in 181 5, and returned the following year. Otherwise little was done for answer Thorpe adequately.

to

:

African education, Its

less for

sponsors, vilified

agriculture.

by Thorpe and

liis

associates, lost

influence over the Colony. Wilberforce's interventions

received in the Secretary of State's office. Macaulay,

presented as rapaciously using his influence to 122

much of their were

whom

monopohze

less

well

Thorpe

trade, acted

in character

by trying

Colony. His

efforts

fell

heavily

only damaged,

When two young Maroons, arrived in

London in

1

Maxwell levy-

privately to get Bathurst to stop

ing customs duties which

8

1

5

his

on

own

liis

firm, the largest in the

reputation.

Stephen Gabbidon and Samuel Thorpe,

to protest against

Maxwell's outlawing them,

they turned not to Macaulay but William Allen, and John Clarkson. Allen took up their cause in The Philanthropist, publishing the Freetown street

and allotment plans to show

who owned

the lots and

what had

been confiscated.

The African

Institution,

its

shortcomings exposed, went on con-

tributing towards African teachers, but quietly gave

imposed

responsibilities to the

slavery society.

It

shadowy being

a

held

its last

up

self-

an anti-

public meeting in 1827, but continued a

Among the abuses, real and imagined, Thorpe exposed,

When

other as

few years longer.

way Kenneth Macaulay vision.

its

Colony, continuing merely

was the

accounted for the recaptives under

Parliament asked what returns he had

careless

his super-

made

to the

The

Treasury, none were forthcoming.

register in Freetown from 1811 names and numbers; the duplicates sent home were sketchily made out. Kenneth Macaulay, in justification prepared a general return, showing how many had been recaptured by July 1814 (5,925), with a rough description of what had become of them, which the African Institution printed for Thorpe to deride. In 1 81 5 he was relieved of his duties, wliich passed to his brother George, who was as amiable, Thorpe said, as Kermeth was vicious. He returned to Sierra Leone, though, as Macaulay and Babington's

to

1

8

14 shows only the recaptives'

agent.

Maxwell resigned in June 1815 and was found a quieter post as Governor of Dominica. Cooke's action against liim was heard in the King's Bench in 18 17. No defence could be made. Cooke was awarded ^20,000 damages which the government imdertook to reimburse Maxwell. Brodie, too, began proceedings but died before they came on; Dunbar and Hickson were dead by 181 8. Bostock, back from Australia, brought an action against Captain Scobell which was settled out of court. Thus it was shown that the illegal slave trade had to be suppressed by legal means. 123

when Maxwell

left for England in 1814, Lieut.-Colonel Charles MacCarthy, in command of the troops at Senegal, took over in Freetown, as Lieutenant-Governor. Of Jacobite lineage (his great-grandfather had followed James II to France), of French birth and parentage (he used his mother's name, MacCarthy, not his father's, Gueroult),

he started

Devoted

mihtary career in the

his

to

Irish

Brigade under Louis XVI.

monarchical principle, he preferred even Hanoverian

kingship to French republicanism, turned at the Revolution to the

and served

British army,

In 181

1

in Flanders, the

West

Indies

he was posted to the Royal African Corps.

and Canada.

Though

a

Roman

Cathohc, he was ready, in office, to sign the declarations against Popery and Transubstantiation still exacted from ofEce-holders, even the oath abjuring the Family for whom his ancestors had left all. Loyalty to the

Crown came

first:

'I

humbly

beg',

he once wrote to

Bathurst, 'you will lay at His Royal Highness's Feet, the Assurance of

my

and Service.' Leone to arrange for Goree and Senegal to be returned to the French, under the Treaty of Paris. Captain Maling, the senior Member of Council took over, but died within a few weeks. Then Purdie, 'the learned surgeon', acted Governor until March 1815 when he too fell ill and died, leaving Appleton to act; Appleton's health broke down in June and he handed over to the next senior

Devotion

In

to his sacred Person

December he

left Sierra

officer.

While Thorpe's contest were without proper legal

still

raged, the successive administrators

Kenneth Macaulay, appointed But he was debarred from presiding in the Vice-Admiralty Court where, as a prize agent, he profitted from condemnations. James Wise, the Nova Scotian Government Printer, held for a while the post of King's Advocate. MacCarthy returned in July 181 5, and in 18 16 was appointed Governor. His mild sway restored the Settlers' confidence. Quit-rents were forgotten; those who had suffered under the Mihtia Act were compensated. A new Cliief Justice, Dr Hogan, replaced the furious Thorpe, and a qualified barrister was sent out as King's Advocate, with the duties of public prosecutor, legal advisor to the government, and senior Member of Council. assistance.

to the Governor's Council, acted as Chief Justice.

A Temnc

secret society was organized in 181 5 to recover Port Loko from Brima Konkuri. The leader, Moriba Kindo Bangura, from the

124

Sanda country, was himself of Susu origin, brought up

a

Mushm.

He bore the title Alikali (a form of the Arabic El Kadi, the judge), which he had bought from the chief of Maligia. Piis revolt succeeded. The Susu were driven from Port Loko. Brima, who five years earlier had boasted that the Temne would be exterminated within a decade, was beheaded. The Colony government took no part, beyond accepting the Temne claim that Brima was a usurper and refusing him help. Thus Port Loko became a Temne town again, though Susu with Temne mothers were allowed to stay in their own neighbouring towns. Moriba became chief, retaining his title Alikali, under the nominal overlordship of Bai Foki, the traditional ruler of the country.

The tions

peninsula was primaevally covered with forest timber. Genera-

of burning

to

make

shifting farms,

and European

sailors cutting

firewood, gradually reduced the lower slopes to secondary bush. Afzelius (whose Afzelia Africana)

name survives recommended

in a fine

hardwood

the Konta, or

the higher slopes be carefully thinned

and the timber preserved. But his advice was ignored; were felled indiscriminately for immediate use.

accessible trees

John McCormack, a young Irishman from Lurgan, County Armagh, came out to West Africa in 1808 and was employed trading along the coast. In

1

816 he settled in Sierra Leone and shipped to England a

cargo of what was called African Teak fieldia Africana) a hard,

Port Loko Creek. Island,

with

a

To

(really,

African Oak, Old-

durable timber, cut from the banks of the

be near his supply he built a house on

wharf and

sawpit,

where the

Tombo

logs, floated across,

could

be squared for sliipping.

Henry Williams, an English rival, went to Bance Island (where the was given up at the end of the war), as the Andersons'

recruiting station

agent, took

it

over himself and built

a

sawmill. Other prospective

timber merchants settled on Tasso Island: Macaulay and Babington

opened an establishment there

Timber provided

in

1

820.

the long-sought alternative to the slave trade,

giving the Colony a profitable article of export, increasing customs

revenue and attracting merchants with a

Temne traders

little capital. It

restored the

means of getting European goods, scarce since the slaveleft, and again provided chiefs with revenue from rents and a

customs. 125

McCormack found the Temne ready to wages (given in trade goods); he also employed Krumen. In 1818 the Navy Board began taking Sierra Leone timber for the dockyards and the Board of Trade reduced the heavy duties levied on African timber and other produce. Against

work

all

prophecies,

regularly for

126

VI TNon

i8i2 Nylander, disgusted with Freetown, went to

Bulom

the

forward to vernacular teaching,

Vocabulary, and translated St Matthew's Gospel, the lation

made

start a

mission

among the Susu he looked composed a Bulom Grammar and

Shore. Like Brunton

The

in Sierra Leone.

Rio Pongas, but they did

c.m.s. sent

more

first

more than educate

little

Bible trans-

missionaries to the

few

a

children,

including the settled slave-traders'.

The Wesley an mission took over teaching in Freetown. Warren some of his colleagues went home. When the Rev. William Davies, a Welsh missionary, arrived in 181 5 the schools had almost faded away. The c.m.s. sent Butscher back from the Rio Pongas as chaplain. German Lutheran and Welsh Methodist died in 1812;

cooperated

gladly

the

in

of interdenominational

tradition

local

harmony.

The a grant

C.M.S.,

determining to

make more

use of the Colony, obtained

of land on the south-east slope of Leicester Mountain

in 18 14,

where recaptive children could be or farming, and the most promising

as a site for a Christian Institution,

supported, taught useful trades

trained as teachers or missionaries. Butscher took charge as

masons

:

those trained

built premises.

Recaptives had already begun taking European names: nine of Thompson's Bambara had Maroon surnames within a year or so of landing. Apprentices often took their master's; those baptised might take a missionary's. tion after

anyone

Bickersteths,

The

who

Pratts,

Sibthorps (c.m.s.

c.m.s.

Crowthers,

officials

But most preferred

promised to name

contributed -£5 for

its

a child at the Institu-

support, so

Nottidges,

Venns,

little

recaptive

Martyns and

or benefactors), ran about on Leicester Peak.

names of their own. Recaptives, with their diverse speech, had to learn English to understand one another. Amid the Babel of tongues English became not only

a

to choose

lingua franca but a Pentecostal interpreter, speaking a message

many were

ready to hear. For, abandoned by their

failed to protect

them

in their

own

gods

who had

homeland, they came up from the hold 127

of the slave-ship hke Jonah from the whale, cut off from

their old life,

ready to be re-born into a new.

MacCarthy was shocked by the miserable settlements round Freetown where recaptives had been dumped, without help or instruction, to refashion their lives as best they could on alien soil. Where previous governors saw an administrative problem, how to settle them cheaply, he saw a heaven-sent way of transforming Africa by changing them into Christian communities, orderly villages, each

grouped round

its

church tower, instructed and cared for by benevolent European guidance.

The Rev. Edward

Bickersteth (later Secretary to the c.m.s.) was sent

in 1816 to inspect the

whole mission. He and MacCarthy agreed

that

more promising mission-field than the unremake the Colony their centre. 1 8 16 was a year of retrenchment: with the end of the war came orders

the recaptives presented a

sponsive Susu, and that the c.m.s. must

to cut down colonial expenditure. A lesser governor might have abandoned plans necessarily entailing great expense. MacCarthy, not the least of whose gifts was a power to charm money from the British Treasury, so presented his that the government was persuaded into forming with the c.m.s. another of its alliances with private phil-

anthropy.

The Colony was divided into parishes, each to be superintended by a clergyman provided by the c.m.s., paid by government. The c.m.s. undertook to provide and pay

government to build churches, left the Rio Pongas to devote Government appointed a Colonial

teachers,

schools and parsonages. Tlie missionaries

themselves henceforth to recaptives.

Chaplain to relieve them of duties in Freetown.

As an outward mark of their new status, MacCarthy renamed Hogbrook village Regent, Cabenda Wilbcrforce. New villages were formed Gloucester, Leopold, Charlotte, ni the mountains, Kent at Cape Shilling, called after members of the royal family, Bathurst ni the mountains, after the Secretary of State. (Leopold and Bathurst were amalgamated in 1825 on the site of the former, the widower prince's name however giving way to the still officiating minister's.) More German missionaries, including William Jolinson and Henry During, and the first Englishman, Jolin Horton, came out in 18 16. All brought wives. Johnson, a Hanoverian, a labourer in Whitcchapel until his call, was sent to Regent where a Wesleyan teacher had had

—

128

temporary charge. A large body of newly-landed recaptives, many Ibo, had been added to the original Vai. Sick, disorganized, knowing no English, they depended on daily rations administrative confusion sometimes prevented them getting. Johnson began to organize them, set

them

clearing the bush, gathered the children into a school.

Carthy had already sent in August, the first stone

When

soldiers to help build a church:

it

Mac-

was opened

church in the Colony.

of curiosity, or in the hope of being given clothes. Before the year was out they were assembling to hear Johnson's gospel, voluntarily or under orders, for as superintendent, armed with magisterial powers, he could compel them to

come

the bell rang, the people assembled, out

in.

church-goers were converted and had forty-one communicants, a year later seventy-six (this included many young children). The church was enlarged, but still overflowed with orderly, respectably-dressed people, the schoolgirls in white, the boys in scarlet jackets, provided at govern-

Ruled by

baptised.

his persuasive authority

By

early 1817 he

ment expense. A good choir-master, he taught his congregation to sing hymns. Out of church hours the children held their own prayer meetings, praying and singing.

Some have

felt

whose fame soon

that Johnson,

publications, accepted converts too uncritically.

filled

missionary

Yet he rejected those

he believed unregenerate. MacCarthy, brought up a Roman Catholic, wanted recaptives baptised as soon as they began adopting European ways. Johnson insisted they accused

him of

first

show

signs

of conversion, MacCarthy

trying to sabotage his plans, threatened to complain

Archbishop of Canterbury. Johnson still refused. But when in 1 82 1 MacCarthy went up to Regent to be greeted with hymns by an orderly community drawn up under silken banners, he and his to the

sceptical officers

could only stare amazed.

Johnson even seemed able to influence his people physically: once backsliders he rebuked were temporarily paralysed and had to be carried out of church.

Sunday

at

Regent was

a

day of silence, broken

only by the villagers assembling quietly for morning, then afternoon, church.

On

Christmas

Day when

the citizens of Freetown

ing and dancing, his orderly flock

prayer to

a

quiet dinner while

sat

down

shoutmg and

were drink-

outside his house with firing

resounded from

below.

A

Benefit Society (which lasted into the twentieth century) was

started to care for the destitute,

and

a

129

Building Society for the villagers

to build houses for

find

them

so neat,

one another.

An Enghsh

was astonished to road was cut west-

visitor

with furniture and crockery.

A

and rice, Johnson demonstrating how to spht boulders by heating them and pouring on cold water. During took charge of about loo recap tives, chiefly Jolof, Mandinka

wards to the

sea to trade for fish

and Susu, at Gloucester. Only three understood English. Once they were under shelter he began Christian instruction by enforcing Sabbath rest, then daily school and religious services. Like Johnson he made them come, sending his recaptive churchwardens to round them up, and, as at Regent, some responded with conversion. The c.M.s. asked the missionaries to send verbatim accounts of what annual reports, that pious hearts

their converts said, to print in the

be touched by their broken English. Johnson and During insisted on such oral testimony

as

proof of conversion. Thus recaptives were

encouraged to express themselves in experiences,

religious

were

Societies

pennies

to

the

started,

c.M.s.

their

new language,

articulate their

and pray extempore. Auxiliary Missionary through which the villagers could pay their for

missionaries

to

their

still

unconverted

brethren.

Much of the superintendent's work was once persuaded that they were

free,

magisterial.

New recaptives,

often assumed they were free to

had to instill respect and put them to work. MacCarthy loved building so stone churches, parsonages, store-houses and schools, with high walls bounding the government premises, or King's Yard, went up in the take their neighbours' produce. Superintendents for property,

villages.

Those employed by government received

rations as well as

wages; school children and the newly landed were rationed too, so the remaining villagers were encouraged to grow cassava to

sell

govern-

ment to feed them. At Bathurst Horton, who left the mission for government service, brought order to an unruly community ofJolof and Bassa. Renner and his Nova Scotian wife went to Leopold, taking with them sixty children from the Rio Pongas. When he was temporarily posted to the Freetown chaplaincy the villagers insisted she stay behind to look after them and settle their disputes. Christianity was brought to Kissy by a Nova Scotian Baptist who built a rough chapel and immersed converts in the stream. The Rev. C. F. Wenzcl went there from the Rio Pongas in 1816; MacCarthy bought the chapel and discouraged further Baptist labours. Wcnzel was infirm

— deaf, lame, sometimes almost blind from 130

ophthalmia caught

8

from

recaptives

make

converts.

Carthy

laid the

—and was too harrasscd by superintendent's duties to But

his

people had to attend church. In 1817

Mac-

foundation stone of St Patrick's, Kissy, one of the few

this era to be solidly built. When Wenzel died in 181 Nylander took over and the Bulom Shore, where the people were more interested in what little trade the mission brought than in his preaching,

churches of

was given up. MacCarthy spared no expense to make the villages reflect his vision. Bells, clocks and weathercocks were ordered from England for church towers, forges for village blacksmiths, scales and weights for village markets. Quill-pens and copy-books, prayer books and arithmetic books were ordered for the schools, with tin cases for the children to carry them in, lamps to read them by. Hats were ordered for the men, bonnets for the women, shoes for all; gowns and petticoats, trousers and braces buttons, too, with needles, thread and thimbles, soap and smoothing-irons, even clothes-brushes, nothing was forgotten. Mrs Renner told the c.m.s. Committee African women wouldn't sew. MacCarthy determined to alter that. As well as ready-made clothes, he ordered yards of pretty patterned cottons (the samples are still stuck onto his despatches) for schoolgirls to make up into shirts and dresses.

—

The

could not provide for the children

C.M.S.

Institution

on

so lavish a scale.

children distributed to the villages.

nucleus of a

new

Institution,

A

moved

at

the Christian

was given up and the few boys were retained as the

So in 18 19 in

1

it

820 to Regent, a serninary

where they would receive higher education than the village schools provided. MacCarthy envisioned it as a College where Settler and recaptive children

would be educated

for the learned professions.

A

Governor who interpreted so liberally orders to cut down expenditure, was impatient of an official policy wliich, having restored Goree and Senegal to the French, was uninterested in acquiring new West African possessions. In 18 16 he reasserted ancient British claims in the

Gambia, and laid out on St Mary's Island a town tactfully named after Lord Bathurst. Between it and Sierra Leone lay the Isles de Los, deemed British, inhabited by British traders. Forced to stop selling slaves, they bought undutied goods cheap from American ships and smuggled them into the Colony: W. H. Leigh, a former slave-trader, once employed by the Sierra Leone Company, was said to have made ^20,000 in two years. MacCarthy persuaded the British government 131

must be occupied

the islands

Modu

of Lungi,

chiefs,

who

who

to safeguard

Customs revenue. Dala

claimed part-ownership,

won

over the other

ceded them to the Crown. MacCarthy pointed out to

Bathurst that the treaty having been signed during the

he could not be accused of making them drunk

The War of 1812

upset Cuffee's plans

(p.

Ramadan

fast,

first.

113).

With

peace he

returned, in February 18 16, with a sawmill, trade goods and thirty-

four

settlers.

Some were

skilled artisans, useful in

Lockes, a blacksmith, Robert Rigsby,

Cuifee went

home with

Freetown,

as

Perry

a baker, Peter Wilcox, a tanner.

African produce, but sold

it

at a loss. In 18 17

he died. His Friendly Society faded away. Allen could not induce the members to combine to raise produce for export, and they turned to trading individually. Wise, the secretary, abandoned printing, set up in

and began ordering out cargoes of trade goods from England European merchants; Gabbidon and Thorpe, back from London, did the same. In 1 81 8 two delegates from the newly founded American Colonizabusiness

in competition with the

tion Society arrived in Freetown to prospect for a settlement.

They

made friends with Kizzell who took them to his Sherbro homeland, where they fixed on a site at Mano Bagru. MacCarthy, busy trying to check American smuggling at the Isles de Los, was alarmed at the prospect of their settling so near and asked to be allowed to occupy the Sherbro and forestall them. But the British government saw no reason to interfere with peaceful American plans even if they threatened the Colony's revenue. settlers arrived early in 1 820 led by an official of the government agent, empowered to start a Colony for recap tives freed by the U.S. Navy. They made their temporary base at Camplar (a place vanished from modern map or memory), Kizzell's factory on the north shore of Sherbro Island, a marshy site too shallow for their ship to approach. Once landed, they foimd the Bagru chiefs had changed their mmds. Fever broke out, there was no clean water to drink; twenty-five died, including the two conductors. The remainder, led by the Rev. Daniel Coker, an Afro-American African Methodist Episcopal pastor from Baltimore, moved across Sherbro Island to Yoni. When a remforcement arrived in Freetown from Norfolk, Virginia in March 1821 they were easily persuaded to give up the Sherbro scheme. The settlers were brought from Yoni to Fourali Bay while

Eighty-eight

Society,

and

a

went down the coast to find another site. Eventually Liberia, was founded at Cape Mesurado.

their leaders

settlement,

132

their

A

few stayed

in Sierra Leone, including

put in charge of

Macfoy,

who

a recaptive village.

Coker,

whom

MacCarthy

An 'Afro-Wcst-hidian, Thomas

arrived with his family in 1818, also

became

a village

superintendent. Others crossed the Atlantic to settle as shopkeepers like as a boy in the Congo, sailed back to Africa from Charleston in his owai schooner. Another attempted Colony, a group sent from Charleston in 1822 to Ormond's factory on the Rio Pongas, was no more successful than the Sherbro attempt, and the survivors drifted to Freetowai. In 1820 the Caulkers were at last persuaded to lease the Banana Islands to the Crown for an annual rent of 250 bars paid, not as nor-

Alexander Harleston, or James Creighton who, enslaved

mally to

chiefs, in

Caulker

moved

Thomas The Koya Tcmne, who

goods, but Spanish dollars valued a bar each.

to

Bumpe on

the mainland.

were compensated. Recaptives, chiefly those the superintendents found troublesome, were sent there. Frederick Campbell, a young Scot who had served in the Navy, had charge, and laid out Dublin village. Some of the Bulom inhabitants remained, as did a French trader, Jean Meheux, settled several years on an outlying island, where he lived in African style. On the Plantains Stephen Caulker, George Stephen's brother, a C.M.s. teacher, opened a school, where he taught partly in English, partly in Bulom. He translated some hymns into Bulom; they were printed on the government press. Some of his pupils' copybooks were sent to London to the c.M.s. where they still survive. George Robertson, a Liverpool trader, published a book in 18 19 suggesting the British government take the whole coast; he made treaties of his own (in the King's name) with chiefs at Cape Palmas and Fernando Po. The following year Isaac Spencc, a ship's-captain from Hackney, opened a factory by the River Sestos, south of Cape Mesurado, where for nearly twenty years he traded in produce, improtected by any European power, leaving an African manager in charge when he went to England. He died, and was buried, in Freetown, where he also

claimed the

owned

islands,

property, in 1839.

During Maxwell's governorship the barracks at Fort Thornton had been repaired, and a much-needed military hospital built above and west of them; 'Westmoreland' point was cleared for a gaol and a place to shelter newly-landed recaptives. But when MacCarthy took over there were scarcely half a dozen stone buildings, public or private, no 133

Governor's house, no church, no gaol, no proper pubhc

offices;

church

were held in a hired room which was also used as courthouse and girls' school. The gaol was finished in 1816, a three-storey stone building. On the ground floor were prisoners' cells on the first, cells for debtors and Europeans, and the gaoler's quarters; on the top, the Court Hall. Prisoners were allowed to roam freely through the building and in the walled yard outside. The building was in use, structurally little altered, until 1914. Just east of it, above King Jimmy Brook, a stone wall with two gateways (one still stands) enclosed the King's Yard, where newly-landed recaptives were herded. Stores were built there for the equipment supplied them, and offices for clerks. The foundation stone of St George's Church was laid on January the 9th 1 817. Work went slowly, so services had to be held in the Court Hall. A town hall was built in the middle of Water Street, between Trelawney and Walpole Streets, rising on arches above a marketplace with a clock in front. The wharf was rebuilt with stone breakwaters, and a handsome flight of steps down from Water Street; MacCarthy, who lived nearby, was out daily superintending the work. Later generations have called them inappropriately, 'the Portuguese services

;

Steps'.

Even MacCarthy could not extort from the British government permission to build a Government House. Fort Thornton was still uninhabitable, so Maxwell and he hired Nicol's house at the top of the wharf steps. Li London at this period, a house for a family of five with two servants could be leased for under .^loo a year. The Colony paid

^350

a

year for

this

four-roomed house,

later raised to ;£500.

draw on the Treasury mess was built on the slope

As commander-in-chief MacCarthy could for military buildings.

An

elegant officers'

also

between Fort Thornton and Pademba Road, and magnificent Commissariat buildings. The Commissariat store, three storeys of stone with a wooden superstructure, was built at the wharf MacCarthy estimated it would cost ^4,000: the eventual cost was believed to be ^$0jr6o,ooo. Offices and quarters for the Commissariat officers, who, not holdmg commissions, could not mess with the regulars, were built at

Walpole Street. Brick-biult, slated, with iron verandas (bricks, slates and iron posts all sent out from England) with fireplaces througliout) the cellars ventilated with narrow draught-slits to keep out the ram, the verandas boarded and shuttered, it was probably the most comfortable house in Freetown. It is little changed today. the top of

134

Goree and Senegal became French again many British moved thence to Freetown. Rather than pay liigh rents for poor houses they began building their own. In 1814 there were six stone houses, in 181 8, sixty. The town walls were demolished by 18 13 and New Town East laid out beyond Settler Town. By 181 8 Fourah

when

merchants

Bay Road was laid out, and the Circular Road round Tower Hill. Nicol Brook was properly bridged in 1820; T. S. Buckle, the Colonial Surveyor, bridged Granville Brook on the Kissy road at Buckle's Bridge.

Westward

the lines

of parallel

streets

were extended beyond Maroon

Town

as far as Regent Square, laid out for well-to-do residents at the bottom of Bathurst and Wellington Streets. The Kru, originally encamped in Water Street, were moved further and further west, hi 1 8 16 an Ordinance was passed to acquire for them compulsorarily land by the shore beyond Sanders Brook belonging to Eli Ackim, a Nova Scotian trader who had bought it from its Maroon owner. A jury of freeholders awarded him ^62. compensation which he took with bitter protests at being dispossessed in favour of aliens. During

succeeding generations his descendants tried vainly to recover this valuable property, until in 1906

it

was declared by Ordinance Crown

Land.

There were over 500 Kru in Freetov^oi in 18 19 and another 200 working at the timber factories up the river. A few were also settled on the beach south of Cape Sierra Leone where they lived by fishing. However valuable their labour, they were suspect as thieves. An Ordinance was passed to make them collectively responsible for one another's crimes, but the Secretary of State disallowed it. Instead, special Kru headmen were appointed to keep order among them. They were still transients, never bringing their wives, returning home eventually with their savings.

Some complained

they took wealth

as their gains were always invested in goods bought in the Freetown shops, they did more for the Colony's trade than European officials who remitted their salaries home.

out of the country, but

As part of the post-war military reduction, the Headquarters and five Companies of the 2nd West India Regiment took over the Freetowni garrison in 18 19, and the Royal African Corps was disbanded. The Act of 1807 specifically denied pensions to freed slaves recruited into the army, but Maxwell had persuaded the government that pensioning the 135

discharged and settling them in Sierra Leone might help lessen the expectation of bad faith associated with Europeans in

So about

a

West

Africa.

thousand, including some from the disbanded 4th

West

were given land in the Colony with farming implements and 5 J a day (the disabled, 8^. With rice averaging about 45 a bushel, palm oil 25 a gallon, they were well off. MacCarthy kept over 300 in Freetown where they founded a suburb, Gibraltar Town (some had served in Gibraltar). Others he sent to a deserted Temne village beyond Kissy, renamed Wellington, and along the Atlantic coast to a place at the mouth of the Whale River which the Bulom called Mo Mini, renamed York, after the Duke of York. Some joined the recaptives at Kent. Another treaty was made with the Koya Temne who for an annual 50 bars gave up the land cast of Gambia Island, and moved out, leaving it empty for settlement, so that the Colony covered the whole peninsula. Here Hastings, called after the Commander-in-Chief in India, was founded at the Temne village Robump and beyond it, at Ma Porto (known in the 1790s as Jack Ryan's town) Waterloo. A few ex-soldiers were also sent to the Isles de Los. The soldiers were settled in by their officers who stayed with them until they had built houses and started farming. At York, Bulom women flocked in to live with them; others married recaptive women. The expanding colony could absorb many diverse elements. In 1 8 19 a ship arrived unannounced with eighty-five ^convicts and other dangerous persons', deported for insurrection from Barbados. MacCarthy put them on government works they proved peaceable so he let them settle in the Colony. Most had trades and found employment easily as superior servants or artisans. Cain Davis, a tailor, was employed for a while as a village superintendent. Jacob Thomas, a horse-doctor, grew rich as a publican, bought valuable house-property, redeemed his daughter left behind as a slave in Barbados, and sent his sons to school India Regiment,

;

in England.

wife. In

1

Simon Priddy,

841 any

Barbados without

who

fear

a

stonemason, settled

chose were

officially

down with

a

Maroon

allowed to return to

of punishment.

Between 1807 ^^^

their

Mende

them

neighbours. li

Upper Moa country. Kailahun) where powerful war chief who had built

Alldridge meanwhile was making treaties in the

On his first tour in he made

a treaty

890 he reached Kanrelahun

1

with Kai Lundu,

a

(later

up the Luawa chiefdom. On his second, in 1891, he revisited Kai Lundu, then went east across the Kisi country through towns where large weekly markets were held, with small bars of locally smelted iron, *Kisi pemiies', as currency; trade goods were imported from Liberia. Hay linked some important inland towns brought within the Colony's

influence

frontier road'.

—Taiama,

Thus the protected

area, also

country, covered most of the coastal plain.

went

chiefs asked to

Panguma

Tikonko,

—by

an

extending over the

'upper

Temne

Wherever he and Alldridge

have police stationed in

their

towns. So Frontier

Police were scattered in ones and twos over a far wider area than

was and was given some. The regulars, no longer needed, were withdrawn from Robari. Despite Hay's assurances, the chiefs found they were no longer the free agents they had been. Those who ignored Governor's instructions were liable to suffer: Bai Simera, accused to Hay of plundering, only averted arrest by instant apology and restitution. A chief was gaoled for several months by Ordinance because he was said to have contemplated 'buying war' from a neighbour. They were warned against using their traditional economic weapon, the Poro, to restrict trade. originally proposed: even Kai

Nor

Lundu asked

for

could promises to respect 'domestic institutions' stop slaves or

wives ruiming away to the Colony, or bring them back.

Macfoy's business declined during the

he mortgaged ten

late 1880s: in 1890, in

Liverpool,

^6,534 debt. Instead he turned to large-scale farming, cleared land round liis mansion at Jamaica, and employed a hundred or so labourers planting coffee, cocoa and other plantation produce. He experimented with tapioca. Thus he retained his pre-eminence as 'Sherbro Monarch': in 1888 he celebrated the factories for a

Queen's birthday by holding

a levee liimself at Jamaica.

He

subscribed

largely to church funds, gave /J150 to rebuild St Matthews, Bonthe, and built his own church at Jamaica, fming his labourers if they failed to attend.

With

the

Sherbro pacified, others were tempted to follow

example. Harris returned to Sulima with plans to get

grow

a

his

land concession

Samuel Lewis's brother Ebenezer, a professional photographer and trader, got the Tuckers to mortgage

from the

chiefs to

rice.

490

him land

government Gendama, Imperi,

in the Kittam. His brother Alfred, formerly in

service in the

Gambia, obtained Ka Tegbe's land

at

from Macfoy. Ka Tegbe objected to the land being transferred to another owner, and complained to government that Macfoy had punished him for objecting by destroying his town. But there was not enough evidence to prosecute. Unable to get redress from government, Ka Tegbe and his neighbours Ba Sliia of Bogo and Ghana Bunje of Gangama, who had also mortgaged Macfoy their land, had already used economic sanctions against him, by inviting European firms to break his monopoly. Fisher and Randall, French Company, and Paterson, Zochonis, all extending their business, opened up in Imperi. Macfoy warned the chiefs he would be revenged and sent a messenger on a mysterious errand inland to Panguma. Cases of so-called cannibalism were still reported in the Sherbro in the late i88os: in 1887 a man was imprisoned for ten years for dressing as an alligator and attacking a couple fishing in a canoe off Sherbro Island. Soon after Macfoy's messenger returned, murders

human

ascribed to

D.

F.

he seems to have suggested the Tongo Players be

summoned

as landlord, agreed, and interviewed them from up country. Then for a fee of about ^^36 they about thirty victims, including Ghana Bunje, and burnt them

(p. 442).

on

at his house at Gbambaia. One of his was found murdered. Ordinary methods of detection having

Wilberforce was staying

servants failed,

leopards started in Imperi. Early in 1890 the Rev.

Macfoy, consulted

their arrival

seized

to death as

When

human

the

investigate.

traditional

leopards.

news reached Freetown the Police Magistrate was sent to The chiefs made no secret of their having used their

means of

detection, but agreed not to again.

To

prevent

Hay proclaimed

Imperi part of the Colony, subject to of Turner's Treaty). But though nominally amiexed to the Sherbro District, no new administration was introduced. The chiefs were explicitly told their 'domestic institutions' further outrages

British jurisdiction (by warrant

would be

now British soil), and were given no more authority there than beyond

respected (although their country was

the Frontier Police jurisdiction.

Some maintained in cliiefs

beyond the Colony was inahenably vested and people. The advent of concession-seekers obliged Hay to that land

491

were entitled to ahenatc land to foreigners, and whether, if they were not, government should try to stop them. Samuel Lewis told him he believed chiefs had a right to alienate, and

inquire whether chiefs

advised against government's giving their people rights of inalienable possession.

Anxious to

opposed any

opened by foreign capital, he beyond having concessions made before a would explain them to the chief and prevent

see the interior

restriction,

government officer who undue exploitation.

Parkes, pointing to past precedents, agreed land was ahenable, and approved of government's protecting concession-givers. But Hay,

of interfering beyond

realizing the legal complications

shelved the matter until the status of the interior be

jurisdiction,

more permanently

decided.

The

of Colonial Secretary and Treasurer, joined for economy in 1887, were separated again in 1889, each with an Assistant: Enoch Faulkner, the Chief Clerk, was promoted Assistant Colonial Secreposts

tary at ;£300. In

policy agreed

on

recommending

a

Creole

Hay was

in 1865, less often carried out in Sierra

following the

Leone than

in

where Creoles had hitherto had more chance of Gold Coast Charles Pike acted Governor, Francis Smith

the other colonies, rising

:

in the

was puisne judge. In 1890 James McCarthy was appointed substantively to the post of Queen's Advocate in which he had already acted. Thus a Creole was raised to one of the most senior offices, with a seat on Executive and Legislative Councils. His private legal practice was valued at ^1,000 a year, so, for official economy, he retained it and was paid only /^300. As Colonial Regulations disapproved of judgeships being held by officials with local connexions, the Police Magistrate, or the Master and Registrar, both appointed from England, acted ChiefJustice in a vacancy. Having one of its own sons preside over its own bar was an honour to a community where the law was so esteemed, where the return of a young barrister from the Inns of Court roused the excitement other communities reserved for a new matador or prima donna. Nor was there any shortage of heroes. T. J. Sawycrr sent his impulsive, outspoken, son Alfred back to England in 1886 to study law and learn to keep himself out of trouble. The second son John, also educated in England at Monkton Coombe School, then in a Liverpool accountant's

492

office,

followed. Called to the

bar in 1889, Alfred remained in the family stationer's business until

1896

when

the

two brothers went

into legal partnership, Alfred doing

the bar work, Jolin the solicitor's.

They

also carried

on

their father's

firm after his death. Utterly different in manner, John reserved and taciturn where Alfred was extrovert and talkative, the Shorunkeh-

Sawyerr brothers were closely united: they prayed daily at the same hour whether together or apart (a practice copied from their father who prayed thus with his friend James Johnson), and died within a fortnight of one another in 1929. J.

R. Maxwell's younger brother, John Wilfred, was called to the

F. T. Dove, called in 1891, was the son of a self-made man, William Dove, who started as Ezzidio's clerk, then made a fortune trading in the Northern Rivers and in Freetown. Claudius Wright, also called in 1891, was also the son of a selfmade business man, Joseph G. Wright, born at Hastings, who had a shop in Kissy Street. Claudius was originally destined for the ministry, took his B.A. and l.th. at Fourah Bay College and was teaching at the Grammar School when he became involved in litigation with the Colonial Surgeon. Having lost his case he abandoned teaching and took up law. Before the end of the century the bar was further augmented by A. S. Hebron's brothers, Roland and Jabez, T.J. Thompson, and Moses Awooner Williams, a Cambridge graduate, son of G. B. Wilhams. In addition to those qualified at the Inns of Court S. F. Owen, a Gambian trained in Lewis's office^ was admitted to local practice as a

bar in 1889. business

solicitor.

Hay

gratified local feelings

by bestowing

Justiceships

hitherto normally restricted in Freetown to

officials,

of the Peace,

more widely.

In 1889 he appointed T. J. Sawyerr, John Harding, the Army Pay Clerk, and Simon Lardner, a shopkeeper in Kissy Street who ran the

canteen at the barracks and had helped organize the Centenary celebrations; in 1890, J. B. M'Carthy, the Queen's Advocate's father, Bishop, junior.

and

Thomas

Bishop and

mar School

his

brother Theophilus Colenso (so called at the

Gram-

Bishop Colenso's Arithmetic book) were the sons of an Aku rccaptive, Thomas Bishop (and his Ibo recap tivc wife), who traded with Lagos, kept a flourisliing shop near Big Market and died in the

after

month

his

son became a

j.p.

Thomas,

493

junior, after a

few years

trading at Abeokuta, returned to Freetown as a grocer, then hardware dealer;

he helped organize, and

later tried to resuscitate, the

Native

Association.

work

Theophilus went to to the Niger

where

several

for a friend

European

of his

father's in Lagos, thence

firms, finally the

Niger

Company

employed him as agent. He also helped negotiate some of the treaties by wHch the Company extended its sphere. In 1884 he returned to Freetown with inscribed silver plate and a gold watch from the Company, to sell cottons in Rawdon Street at Egga House, called after his depot on the Niger. Both brothers were, like their father, preachers and office-bearers in the Wesleyan Church; Theophilus built a church at Egga and preached there himself. In the villages, pastors had long been j.p.s, at Waterloo a shop-

W. Kawalley, since 1880. Hay added E. L. Auber, the French Company agent at Kent (the son ofJohn Auber, an Aku police sergeant), and the Rev. A. P. Woode, a Wesleyan minister who had served in the keeper, S.

Customs, the son of a Congo-born soldier disbanded at Waterloo. In the Sherbro, European traders had been j.p.s almost from the annexation. J. Bunting Wright, of Bendu, and W. H. Davison, a Creole trader in the Kittam, were included in 1885. Parkinson,

who had gone

Hay added J.

B.

boy from York, and was own, in the rivers, and at

to the Sherbro as a

employed by Heddle, then traded on

his

Victoria Road, Bonthe.

Major J. J. Crooks became Colonial Secretary in 1890. An Irishman, risen from the ranks through service in the Commissariat, he first came to West Africa in 1873, held offices under the Colonial government while still in the Army, and was taken on permanently after he was pensioned. An Irish Home Ruler, he was popular in the Colony

among

those

who longed

for

*Home

Rule' there.

appointment he collected the early volumes of despatches and Council minutes and sent them to the Colonial Office. They were passed on to the Public Record Office where the minute-

Soon

after

his

books up to 1830 and

Leone Company letter-book were kept; were sent back to the Colony. 1895 he retained liis interest in past records, and a Sierra

the rest, duplicated there,

After he retired in

published 1903 a

two

much

liistories

of Sierra Leone, a concise survey in 1900, and in 1925 he brought out a compilation from

fuller account. In

the records of the Royal African Corps.

494

The

produced another

Secretariat

in 1902

College, he entered

historian,

A Durham

took the name Esu Biyi).

government

Claude George (who

Bay

graduate of Fourah

service in 1892 after experience in

Lewis's office and teaching, rising to be ist Clerk, Secretariat.

He made

use of official archives and a wide range of published sources to v^ite

The Rise of British West Africa, published in 1903, quoting from some Sierra Leone Company Letter and Entry Books that have since vanished. Written in

a flowing,

Macaulay-esque

style, his

book

more

gives a

view of the early history of the Colony than Crooks's, but it is well put together, and stops after Sir Neil Campbell's governorship.

discursive less

Trade revived in the late i88os. Though the prices paid for produce remained low, the volume of exports from the pacified Sherbro and

Customs

Gallinas increased.

The

receipts rose too, in 189 1 ^70,000, a record.

Imperial loan of 1877 was at

freed

last

from parsimonious Treasury

money

Large businesses with

paid

and Colonial expenditure

control.

to spend

the recovery. European firms began

were the

moving up

first

to benefit

from

the Sherbro rivers;

opened at Port Loko, cutting out smaller Creole was revised, wharfage dues abohshed, and a

Fisher and Randall rivals. In

off,

1890 the

tariff

wider range of imports dutied instead. This too benefited the large importers with wharfage gone steamships put in at the rate of almost one a day. Small traders and retailers, who had to pay more for im:

ported wares, complained. Hay, and

were unsympathetic. Deploring petty traders, they

by larger

welcomed

rivals into

Hemming

at the

(in traditional style)

Colonial Office, the

number of

the prospect of their being squeezed out

something 'more useful to the community at

large*.

Weekly News leader observed, which gave Creoles a sense of loyalty to the Crown conquered peoples could never feel, British birth, as a

also

gave them a sense of the recognition the

Crown owed

them.

By

was a permanent invalid, too ill to attend Legislative Council; Lewis was constantly away on legal business in England and along the Coast; Sawyerr alone remained to voice local the late 18 80s Syble Boyle

feelings.

W.

Blanshard Marke, a stationer in Garrison Street, S.

to put grievances before

of petitions. artisans,

by A.

Wesley an

Hebron, organized the Central Political government in the traditional form Though the members were mostly small shopkeepers and

minister, assisted

Medium

later a

their

petitions

(particularly

495

against

the

1890

tariff)

were

supported. Hay, frightened they

influentially

asked about

him

in

would

get questions

Parhament, behttled them to the Colonial Office

in the usual gubernatorial style, so their representations

were ignored,

or treated with suspicion.

At the time of the Centenary celebrations it was suggested in Freetown trial by jury be restored in civil cases. Hay was inclined to approve. At the Colonial Office there was a tendency to see juries as instruments of policy: Hemming's reaction was recalling a case ten years earlier

when a jury had

acquitted a defaulting

official.

In 1889

again in Legislative Council. But the Crawford

Sawyerr

had sympathy for Sierra Leone juries. Lewis advised European lessened against the change; so did Hay. A Jury Ordinance passed in 1890 did nothing to redress the community's grievance. The qualification was extended from propertyowners to the literate; the Police Magistrate, not the Sheriff, was empowered to empanel; the right of challenge was reduced; and the raised

it

trial

of unanimity again substituted for the two-thirds majority verdicts that had condemned Crawford. rule

A

group of Creole business

men formed

the Sierra

Leone Printing

and Publishing Company in 1890, putting up ;£soo to start another weekly. The Sierra Leone Times, to rival the Weekly News. J. A. Fitzjohn, the former Postmaster's son, educated in England, edited it, contributing a regular feature headed 'One Thing and Another' where he aired

his forceful, idiosyncratic views.

The Weekly News, with Blyden

a regular contributor,

tended to

approve anything distinctively African, and deplored slavish imitation

of European ways. Fitzjohn preferred them. His paper not only denounced surviving recaptive customs but poured scorn on the *unwashed aborigines', the 'nasal badge' people who flocked in from up country. Yet

than

its

it

rival,

was

in

one way more responsible

to the community anonymous letters on Church of outlook the two remained friendly,

in refusing malicious

matters. Despite differences

avoiding the mutual recriminations early editors practised.

Case brought out another short-lived ^yeekly, The Trader in 1891 and up to 1899 occasional numbers of his Artisan. Sawycrr's press published Saturday Ho! from 1 891-6, a magazine rather than a newspaper, meant to encourage people to read more widely. It scriaHzed Scott's luanhoe;

Abayomi Cole

contributed a 496

news-summary

in

Arabic

for

Muslim

women from

readers. Articles in

out of lying

it

were

said to

have shamed market-

length in the street while a friend picked

full

lice

their hair.

still mistrusted lest it bring back the House and Land Tax, was favoured at the Colonial Office, largely as a way of relieving Colonial revenue of municipal expenditure. In the Colony there were many ready to welcome it as a measure of self-government,

Municipal government,

so long as

it

did not oppress the poor, feeling

city should leave

drawn up

its affairs

in 1890.

It

provided for

a

it

discreditable that a large

A Municipality

Ordinance was City Council with a majority of

to outsiders.

government nominees, with power to levy rates and sell up defaulters. Such an Ordinance gave no satisfactorion to those who sought self-government; those

who

feared taxes declared

it

merely

a

dis-

Land Tax Ordinance. After long discussion in the Hay agreed to abandon it. A Committee, which included

guised House and press,

Lewis and Sawyerr, began slowly drafting another.

Yet the municipal principle, so feared when combined with taxawas deeply rooted in a Colony where unofficially elected headmen had so long ruled the villages. At Kissy the village elders actually took the name 'Kissy Town Council' in the 1870s. At Waterloo, where the Seventeen Nations was languishing, the pastor tried to revive it in its old form in 1886, with national representatives. But several nations no longer survived; a special Creole group had to be incorporated for those who had lost ancestral feelings. By 1889 there was a 'Waterloo Association', by 1895 a 'Town Council', as well as the old Sevention,

teen Nations.

Early in 1891 three elderly

Municipality

Bill,

Amara of Foulah Towoi, since

I.

Aku

recap tives

James Benjamin,

Charles

decided to revive the

who had

opposed the

Pyne and Alimami

Aku

kingship, vacant

B. Pratt died, to restore the glories of what they remembered

golden age of King Macaulay. So King Macaulay's son, George Metzger Macaulay, in and out of government service, now a small trader, was conducted on horseback along Padcmba Road, through enthusiastic crowds, to the bush at George Water, long sacred, and installed with a sceptre as Chief Leader, not just of the Aku, but of all as the

the people.

Some

educated Creoles mocked, but his installation stirred popular

feeling; Blyden,

on

a visit

from Monrovia, acclaimed 497

it

as a step

self-reliance. The government saw only an attempt up an unconstitutional authority. Macaulay was refused official recognition; an Ordinance was passed against impersonating magi-

towards national to set

strates, lest title

he assume jurisdiction over

his

new

subjects. His

empty

conferred no real power; he died eight years later without having

restored his father's

kingdom. So while the government urged an

unwilling people to accept municipal administration,

it

rejected the

municipal administration they desired.

There was

little

between Creole Muslims and Christians. compatriots to instal Macaulay. William Fourah Bay Muslim, was a founder member

hostility

Amara joined with

his

Aku

Cole ('Daddy Ajalay'), a of the Kissy Road Association. Christians contributed to building Mountain Cut mosque, Foulah Town, in 1883, Foulah Town Muslims towards repairing Ebenezer Church. In 1890 the Foulah joined in post-Ramadan prayers for the

first

Town

people

time with the Fourah

Bay community. The immigrant Muslims however prayed

apart.

Nevertheless Muslims were cut off from the community, if only

because they feared to send their cliildren to Colony schools

Thomas

lest

they

Bay Alimami Haruna Fourah Bay, of was a rare College by exception. So was Harun al-Rashid, educated at the Grammar School (as Henry Valesius King), who continued his studies at Futa Jalon and Fez, going thence to Mecca, the first pilgrim from the Colony. On his be converted. Gheirawani (or

George), sent to Fourah

his father

return with the pilgrim's

title

Al-Haji he taught Arabic for a year at

Fourah Bay College, then was

a private teacher until his death in

1897.

Sunter reported about twenty small Koranic schools in Freetown.

On

instructions

from the Colonial

Office

Hay

communities, in 1890, to apply for government

persuaded the Muslim aid, hitherto

only given

to Christian schools. A Muslim school was opened at Pratt's Farm, Fourah Bay (I. B. Pratt's escheated property), government providing

premises, giving a grant towards teachers' salaries and inspecting.

Gheirawani was

and

in charge.

Blyden, long

a

bridge between Muslims

Christians, taught the senior pupils during his visits to Freetown.

No

Freetown Muslim prospered hkc Mohamcd Shitta, born at Waterloo of Aku parents who took him to Badagry in 1844. He traded in the Upper Niger, and devoted much of his large fortiuic to religion, giving a roof when the Fourah Bay mosque was rebuilt in 1892, and at 498

home

in

Lagos building

rewarded

his liberality

a

mosque

with

for ^4,000.

a decoration

The

and the

Sultan of Turkey

title

Bey.

After 1864 only one ocean-going ship, the Ovarense, seized in 1877 by an over-zealous police officer, was prosecuted for slave-trading. She was restored with heavy damages and costs which the British Treasury

had

The expenses of

to pay.

the Liberated African Department,

still

defrayed from England, dwindled to pensions to a few aged recaptives,

and maintaining children rescued from slavery at Charlotte School, managed until 1882 by the c.M.s., then by the Colonial government. The Treasury wanted to be rid of these small commitments, but not a sinecure clerkship,

until

1

891,

with solvency restored, could the Colony afford to assume

them. Then the Liberated African Department was wound up, Charlotte School closed, and the recaptive sick maintained in hospital from the same funds

Colonial poor. Pensions of 2d a day were

as the

still

paid from

Colonial funds to fifty- two surviving indigent recaptives, thirty men,

twenty- two women, until they died. The last payment was made in 1922.

During the

18 80s the French

took up the policy considered

Colonial Office in 1873 of restricting the import of arms

Rowe

fp.

at the

398).

proposed joining with them and the Portuguese to forbid

importation concertedly. But the Foreign Office declined to take part, suspecting the other nations British trade

would

suffer,

would enforce and

the prohibition laxly, that

they be incessantly plagued

by vexa-

tious correspondence.

French writers were indignant about a British government that paid chiefs stipends to

buy arms

at British shops.

The French government

complained of Samori's buying arms in Freetown. Hay retorted that he dealt chiefly with French shopkeepers.

Leopold

II

summoned

the Brussels Conference in 1889, to discuss

principally international cooperation

The

to suppress

the African slave

of the General Act of July 1890 also promised to restrict the sale of arms and spirits in tropical Africa. The Colonial Office was unwilling to enforce it. As Hemming observed, restricting the sale of arms did little to stop the slave trade, but gave great advantage to European governments which were seeking to conquer West African empires by force. He also feared to antagonize Samori. trade.

signatories

499

So not

until 1892

was

a Sierra

Leone Ordinance passed forbidding

of precision arms to any but licensed persons who guaranteed not to re-sell, and providing that flintlock guns, and the 'trade powder' used to fire them, be imported into agreed

(as

at Brussels) the sale

government warehouses, only withdrawn held if the Governor saw

for sale

under

licence,

Members of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce with West interests,

with-

fit.

driven by foreign competition to cooperate and seek

African official

support, formed an African Trade Section in 1884. Underlying the

government was the assumption and that if foreigners were to blame. intruded. Colonial and Foreign OflTice Matacong Island passed from Isaacs' s heirs to a limited Company which found an unsuspecting firm to give them a mortgage and went bankrupt immediately. Left in possession, the mortgagor leased it in 1 891 to Taylor, Laughland, a Glasgow firm long in the Oil Rivers, protests they addressed regularly to

that Africa

and

its

trade should

by

rights be British,

which sent out an agent. He hoisted the Union Jack. The French removed it. He objected and they turned him off the island. When he sought government's aid he was told Matacong and the Northern Rivers had been French since 1882. In December 1891 a formidable deputation representing Liverpool, Manchester, London, Birmingham and Glasgow business interests (and including Cornelius

May

of the Weekly News and the Rev. James

Johnson), met at the Colonial Office. They protested that they knew nothing of the 1882 Convention (never officially ratified), that govern-

ment had thrown away the Northern Rivers and would lose the whole Sierra Leone hinterland unless Samori's offer was accepted. Knutsford answered shortly that they came too late, that the French all he could do was fix abandon differential duties. A Times article recalled that governments had only been consistently following the 1865 policy, and blamed the trading interests, now protesting, for having prevented the Gambia being exchanged for

already controlled the interior, and that boundaries, and try to get

them

to

the Northern Rivers.

The

provincial press answered back, angrily denouncing 'the British

of West Africa', blaming official lethargy for continuing pohcy most traders had welcomed a generation earlier when government mtcrfcrencc, now demanded, was resented. Scuttle out

the

500

XX 432), was elected KEBALAI, who organized Bokari's wars Small with (p.

Scarcies, of Kasse, received a stipend had Kasse Since Bai Bureh. 1871

for his mihtary prowess, chief

the

title

from the Colony. Bai Bureh,

as a treaty chief,

accepted his obligations

to the Governor, agreed, for instance, to refer a land dispute

neighbour Bai Yinka to Hay, fighting the

Limba

in 1890.

with

his

who decided against him. Karimu was still

They sought Bai Bureh's help and he joined

them, pleased to come in on what appeared to be the Colony's side. Hay, trying to bring peace to the protected area, refused to countenance a war which he feared might spread across the Scarcies into

went and persuaded the unwilling Limba his way back he met Bai Bureh who was indignant at his allies making peace without him. Garrett called this defiance, and arrested him, to bring him to Freetown to explain himself French

territory. Garrett

and Loko not to

When

fight.

On

they entered the Kasse chiefdom Bai Bureh,

who

felt

it

monstrous he should be arrested for fighting the Colony's wars, stepped into a

doorway and

escaped. Garrett, with only a tiny police

dared not try to recapture him.

escort,

fighting continued in the Sanda country,

As

^Frontiers' (as the ranks

April

1

of the Frontier Police were

a

party of forty

called)

was

sent in

89 1 to restore peace, and the prestige lost through Bai Bureh's

They marched as far as Tambi (or Tembe), high up the Small Scarcies, where some of Karimu's followers (or, in the official phrase used for them, 'freebooters') were believed stockaded. Remembering

escape.

how Parkes had burnt one

of their towns they refused to open the gate. officers were wounded, a private was The shot (accidentally, from behind), the rocket trough jammed, and Moore decided to retire. Hay and Parkes, both on leave in England, wanted an Frontiers attacked.

The two

immediate punitive expedition to restore

of the

rains prevented

lost prestige.

But the onset

it.

The Boundary Commission agreed on in Paris in 1889 started work in December 1891 on the understanding that the whole upper Niger basin must be French. The British Commissioners, Captain A. H. 501

;

Kenney,

r.e.,

an experienced surveyor, and Major Lamprey, an

Army

doctor long on the Coast, were accompanied by a botanist, G. F. Scott-Elliot, sent at the special request

report was printed for Parliament.

of the

When

Kew. His work in the

authorities at

they started

were told Karimu's followers had dispersed. Tambi, however, was still occupied (according to Kenney, by runaway slaves) Moore pined to avenge his repulse and an expedition was sanctioned. Hay was promoted to the Barbados late in 1891. Crooks, actingGovernor, was on leave when the expedition set out. Government devolved on Sir William Quayle-Jones, a loquacious, ambitious Chief Justice, knighted (the first knighted judge in Sierra Leone) after ten years West African service. Feeling himself the heir of Rowe and Hay he accompanied the expedition. While the expedition delayed, a force of impatient Limba and Loko raided Karimu's allies in the Bena country across the Scarcies in the Scarcies they

French sphere.

To

reassure the French, Quayle-Jones

made

all

the lead-

ing Scarcies chiefs, including Bai Bureh, promise not to cross the Scarcies in

war again.

With

a para-military Frontier Police, there was no need for regular But the War Office supplied a Maxim gun and a staff officer, Major Browne, who had helped against the Yoni. Browne made a reconnaissance, declared his opponents beneath contempt, and promised to annihilate Tambi in ten minutes. 168 Frontiers under seven officers reached it on March the 14th. Browne had underestimated the distance so they arrived exhausted; he had been told Tambi stood isolated in a clearing, but found it hidden in a thicket. They fired rockets, and the defenders extinguished the fires. A seven-pounder gun made no impression on the town gate; Captain Robinson, r.e., tried to blow it up with gun cotton and was shot dead. The defenders kept up a steady fire. The attacking officers were all wounded. The Police seemed disinclined to assault, so Moore beat another retreat. Browne, severely wounded,

troops.

straight home to England. Moore determined on a third onslaught

went

to restore his men's prestige.

Quayle-Jones, who backed him, would not admit they could have been beaten by an African enemy, and wrote accusing the French government of having drilled, if not actively supervised, the Tambi garrison, a baseless charge he had subsequently to retract. Rather than

undergo the humiliation of asking for regular troops, they swallowed of asking Bai Bureh to help them.

their pride to the extent

502

But

the

War

Office, rather than risk a third repulse, telegraphed to

Colonel A. B. Elhs,

now commanding

the troops, to take charge.

took 500 men of the ist West India Regiment and advanced on Tambi with the Frontiers. Bai Bureh's forces accompanied them:

He

Quayle-Jones feared he would take offence join

in.

On

Bai Bureh's

April the 7th they stormed the

men

supporting the attack

if

he was not allowed to

town without

difficulty,

as a disciplined force,

very

from the usual mob of looting 'friendlies*. Promotion had not lessened Ellis's malice: shortly before the expedition his publishers lost an action against a trader he had libelled in his West African Stories, In his reports on Tambi he took all the credit for his ov^oi regiment. Thus the Frontiers were doubly humiliated, prevented from restoring their lost prestige themselves, and denied different

recognition for their part in the fighting.

Alfred Lewis Jones was a Liverpool

West

Welshman who

Africa as a cabin boy. Returned, he

shipping

office,

working

his

way up

became

first

went

to

clerk in a Liverpool

to controlling partner in Elder

Dempster, absorbing the African Steamship Co. and the British and African Steam Navigation Co. Ceaselessly energetic, he looked beyond shipping, revived the decaying Canary Islands by bringing the banana to the British breakfast table, and sought to develop West Africa. He ov^^ed the Sierra Leone Coaling Company, a trading as well as coaling concern. Nor was his enterprise limited by immediate profit, for he was ready to help young Africans to rise in the world as

he had.

Samori caught

his

imagination: the Coaling

the Sofas arms to fight the French.

policy (which his friend

He was

Hemming was

unable to

abandon Samori, and the trade he controlled, Captain Williams, the Coaling

him

Company

Company supphed

enraged

at

government's

alter).

Rather than

to the French, he sent

agent, to

make

a treaty

with

January 1892. Samori readily gave Jones a concession, not merely to build roads and railways, but coin money and levy taxes in his dominions. He also gave a magnificent black ostrich which in

Jones presented to the Queen.

who

was observed at the Colonial Office), seemed to prefer placating the French to wimiing votes in Liverpool or Manchester, could not allow a private firm to support Samori in war against France. Jones was warned that if he sent another mission it Salisbury

(it

503

would be prevented leaving Freetown under the Arms Restriction Ordinance. Thus he was forced to abandon his dream of empire in the West African interior.

The

Anglo-French

Boundary

Commissioners

quarrelled

before

they had finished surveying the Scarcies. Each blamed the other, and

who

the French gave up. Kenney,

were seeking

a pretext to

suspected his French colleagues

avoid entering Sofa territory, went on alone

to the Niger. His survey extended

from the Atlantic

at

Mahela

to

Farana (and included that famous locality the destroyed village of

Thence he went to see Kemo Bilale, the Sofa general Heremakono, within the British sphere. Everywhere he found people believed that the Elder Dempster mission

Passin-no-dia). at

implied the British belief,

allied

with the Sofas. The French encouraged the chiefs to join them. Sayu of Kaliere,

and urged the frightened

near Falaba, went over. Limba chiefs began closing the road to keep the

from Freetown where, if precision arms were no longer availstill buy flintlocks and trade powder'. On Kenney's return to Freetown Quayle-Jones set out for Heremakono, first extorting consent from the Colonial Office by sending incomprehensible telegrams. He reassured the chiefs, who opened the road again. Sayu came and apologized; police were stationed at Kaliere. Kemo promised not to molest the inhabitants of the British Sofas

able,

they could

*

sphere, or use

Heremakono as a war-base.

The Congo

Free State opened a market for indentured labour to

build railways and public works. After 1885 labourers were recruited regularly

from the immigrants who flocked

to

Freetown from up

country. Private contractors shipped them, but contracts were

made

before a magistrate. Thus an appearance of oflicial sanction was given

what seemed to some dubious exploitation. A. T. Porter shipped labourers regularly to the Congo. The son of an Afro-West-Indian who was manager at Kent in the 1830s, and a to

Maroon mother, he had Wharf, below Kissy military installations. sanction, to

In

1

built

up

a flourishing business at Gibraltar

Street, contracting for building materials for the

He

also shipped labourers,

without government

Fernando Po.

89 1 there were complaints that

504

Congo

labourers were being

ill-

went to investigate and found them dissatisfied. But it was shown that some of their complaints were exaggerated so the Colonial Office unwillingly made no official protest. Porter went on shipping labourers. In 1893 he was appointed Consular Agent for the treated. Porter

Congo Free State. The West African Hotel having come stone hotel in Wilberforce Street in

modelled on what he had seen on his with a European manageress to run it.

Colin Rosenbush gave up (p.

383) for high

to an end, he built a large

1892, Porter's Royal Hotel,

visits to

his step-father's

England and Belgium,

loan bank in Water Street

fmance in London, where during the i88os he made West African bank. In 1889 he returned to

several attempts to float a

Freetown (hyphenating his mother's name as Rosenbush-Graham), managing director of the West African Bank Ltd., with headquarters in London. The Freetown branch was on the north-east corner of George and Oxford Streets (where the bank vault may still be seen). He revived the Commercial Association (often revived under different names, and as often defunct), but could not get the larger firms to

who

with him, and the Association collapsed. His directors in London too turned against him. He was

join.

Those

superseded,

did, quarrelled

and

left for Liberia,

in 1892 the

West African Bank was

wound up.

A

more durable Chamber of Commerce was organized

in 1892,

outnumbered by Creole members. was elected first president, Lewis secretary was engaged, Norman Roberts, Matacong. They met at Tinubu House,

the European firms joining, though

Wilham

Pittendrigh, P.Z.'s agent,

vice-president.

who had

A

full-time

been in trade

at

Gloucester Street.

Like the Liverpool and Manchester Chambers they tended to be

of official policy. Their own proposals were usually confined government to greater economy and protesting against any change in the existing fiscal system. suspicious

to exhorting the

During the

1

890s

West Coast

traders

before an indifferent English public, fighter

who wandered alone swamp mud,

sweeping the 821613

found an enthusiastic champion

Mary

Kingsley. This courageous

through the bush, her thick serge seeking rare 505

fish,

skirts

invcstigatmg African Kk

— religion

and customs, and fmding infinite amusement, constituted spokesman of 'the heroes of commerce' as she termed a

herself the class

more

for the

known

usually

official

as

*palm

oil ruffians'.

not know, that her heroes had once welcomed school of Burton, Reade and

st)de, in the

She had only contempt

policy adopted since 1865 (and either concealed, or did

with a devastating

ridicule

it).

Ellis,

Her

cut

witty, slashing

down opponents

which concealed knowledge and experience

ofWest Africa of a kind seldom printed before. The historian, however, need not always accept the opinions, even though he admires the style, of a writer who said she 'would not be seen dead in the same street with

Historians'.

She only passed through Freetown without making any stay though chanced, in 1893, to strike a day when locusts invaded the

Colony as they had not since Mrs Melville described them in 1841. Like Reade she saw the Creoles at first through Burton's contemptuous eyes, but like him grew ultimately to sympathize more with them.

Macfoy extended

his plantations to the

in Imperi, virtually his,

way he his

on

mainland, clearing and planting

a large scale.

Where

villages stood in his

evicted the occupiers and destroyed the houses.

employees dug up the burial ground for

Frontier Police tried to stop

him

At Gangama

a plant nursery.

When

the

evicting without a court order, he

answered that Imperi was British and that if they wanted to stop him they must take proper legal proceedings. After the Tongo Players left Imperi, murders began again, in June 1

89 1.

The

Frontier Police could do nothing; the Early

Dawn

protested

government which refused its new subjects protection. went to ask Captain Soden, the Frontier officer call back the Tongo Players. When he refused them let to Imperi, in they said they would recall them whether he let them or no. Soden was nervous, unsuited to lonely responsibilities. Soon after, he left the angrily against a

The indignant

chiefs

without having reported the chiefs' defiance to his superiors. Ba Shia, Ka Tegbe and the Imperi chiefs then summoned Neppo,

service,

the famous

from Taiama to detect the murderers. A At least a hundred, including Ba Shia, human leopards, were tied up till their relatives paid

Tongo

Player,

terrible holocaust followed.

were

seized as

Neppo

a fine,

then burnt to death.

The burnings took place at Bogo near the house where a Frontier detachment was stationed. Obedient to strict orders not to interfere 506

with ^domestic institutions', they did nothing. Two constables, a Mende and a Temne, even joined in the dances that accompanied the burning. A Creole Sub-Inspector, N. H. Sawyerr, passed through in

November. He saw

gruesome pyre, and reported how the aged Ba had begged his help, but that he had been obliged

the

Shia, awaiting death,

to refuse.

Captain Lendy, transferred to the Frontier Police, acting InspectorGeneral, suppressed his report as reflecting discredit

government remained

on

the force.

ignorant until January 1892

officially

So

when

Macfoy complained to Freetown of these illegal atrocities, taking place on British soil, apparently with official connivance. Garrett was appointed manager, Shcrbro, in 1891. He hated Macfoy, believed he was trying to make himself a real Monarch in defiance of government, and was convinced that he was behind the murders. Thus he supposed the Tongo Players, brought in to detect murderers, Macfoy's enemies. Touring Imperi he saw Neppo and his men, got them to put on their Tongo dress and photographed them (there is a print in Alldrige's A Transformed Colony), without comment on their activities.

Lacking evidence of Macfoy's having done anything

he suggested he be detained to

as a political prisoner.

Bonthe to investigate, and, if need be, arrest Macfoy. The day he arrived in Bonthe, Macfoy arrived in Freetown

Lewis, his lawyer.

When

Quayle-Jones returned, Lewis

report to the Executive Council.

murders were committed

made

to see

a special

was generally supposed leopard body to make

to secure parts of the victim's

medicine. Alldridge, writing

which had

It

illegal,

Quayle-Jones went

later,

with

described a medicine, Borfima,

human

fat (though this has been power. Lewis observed that the Imperi victims' bodies were unmutilated. He therefore assumed (like Garrett) the murders were pohtical, but that Macfoy 's enemies had instigated them

to be annointed

denied) to give

to be revenged

on Ghana Bunje, Ba Shia and

mortgaged him after the

Bogo

it

their land.

burnings).

the other chiefs

who had

(Ka Tegbe, spared by Neppo, died soon

He

did not mention that the chiefs, though

they had originally mortgaged to Macfoy, had subsequently defied

him (p.

491).

felt he had no case for detaining Macfoy, even agreed he might be legally justified in evicting his Imperi tenants. Lewis then visited Imperi with Macfoy to report further: on his return he accused the Frontier officers of having con-

After this report Quayle-Jones

nived

at the burnings.

The manager, Waterloo, was 507

sent to investigate.

His report seemed to imply they had let the burnings go on in the hope of suppressing murders they could not suppress themselves. Neppo and his assistants had meanwhile been brought to Bonthe. Garrett was ordered to send them to Freetown for trial, and to issue a Proclamation warning Tongo Players to leave the country. Convinced Macfoy was guilty, and that Neppo was his enemy, he pretended to believe the second order superseded the for trial soil

he

let

the perpetrator

of at

Instead of sending

Neppo

hundred murders on

British

first.

least a

depart quietly up country.

Suddenly Macfoy had

a paralytic stroke and was brought to Freeby Dr Davies. Discouraged by the protracted medical treatment his fiery energy was too impatient to submit to, his relatives took him to a country doctor in Grassfields. There, on January

town

to be treated

the i6th 1893, died *Sherbro Monarch', aged

than loved, alarming even to those

who

fifty, a

man

feared rather

admired him, an undeniable

if ruthless witruess to the ^native energy' latent in the Creoles.

In the Sierra Leone

Church laymen went on contesting

their pastor's

authority. Class leaders felt entitled to settle disputes within the con-

gregation, like discipline

by

Company headmen, and

objected to his exercising

virtue of his priestly office. There

were angry

disputes

over the custody of Church funds. In 1885 the Church Committee

some

directed that lay treasurers take charge, but

Gradually people

pastors resisted.

denying themselves to support the

lost interest in

dwindled — inevitably time of commercial low — 1888 Church funds were too to pay stipends. depression and by

Pastorate. Contributions

at a

Church Conference held that January, T.J. Sawycrr begged the more restrained, the laity more charitable. To his appeal the suggestion (made recently in England by Bishop Bickeradded he steth of Exeter), that the Church would root itself more deeply in Africa if it relaxed the rule of monogamy for native converts. The audience welcomed his defence of polygamy, upheld by example and precept in the Old Testament, and, it could be argued, not forbidden in the New Some even proposed it might well be extended to the Colony, 'and make us all honest men', as one Churchman frankly At

a

pastors to be

remarked.

The

c.M.s. representative at the Conference,

and the Parent

Com-

mittee in London, were horrified. Rather than seem to coiuitcnance

such suggestions, they

made Sawyerr 508

resign

from the Church Finance

Committee. Thus the Church lost the services of its most generous and champion. The financial crisis was eventually solved by the bishop starting a special appeal fiind which raised enough to pay

influential

stipends.

The Articles of Agreement, the Sierra Leone Church constitution, made the pastors subordinate to Bishop and Church Council, rather as a

missionary to his society. In 1879 Bishop and Council deprived a

pastor for immorality and drunkenness.

He

questioned their authority.

Investigation proved that in the confusion caused

by the

first

bishops*

deaths the c.m.s. had neglected to have the Articles legally validated. So, though the accused did not try to enforce his rights in the courts, it

was showTi

that the pastors

were not

subject to local discipline.

Ingham and the Church Council declared they had the power, given them by the Articles of Agreement, to move pastors from one village to another, and ordered the Rev. Moses Taylor to move from Waterloo where he had been for twenty years. He refused, alleging that Ingham, a 'laymen's bishop' was merely trying to help hostile members of his congregation get rid of him. When Ingham withdrew his licence to preach he took legal advice from Lewis, and In 1887 Bishop

appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury under the Letters Patent of

1852 constituting the Bishopric.

admitted

his right to appeal,

the pastors had the same sort

The Archbishop's

holding

of status

legal

that, as the Articles as

were

advisors invalid,

clergymen in England. Rather

than incur the expense and humiliation of a lawsuit, Ingham restored the hcence.

had no authority over his own clergy, a bitter personal degradation. He was determined not to accept the status of an English bishop and let his clergy defy his orders, ignore (as some were doing) his known personal wishes by introducing surpliced choirs and choral services, which he abominated. So he and a committee of clergy and laity drew up revised Articles, subjecting the pastors to local discipline, to be legally validated as a Church Constitution. Even his powers in the Cathedral seemed insecure. In 1890 the Chief Justice declared he believed the Governor was, by law, Dean and Chapter and that the bishop had no right to interfere with the services. This view, submitted to the Colonial Office, was found wrong. Ingham, confirmed in his jurisdiction over the Cathedral, strengthened it by creating two canons, the Rev. Samuel Spain, and the Rev. John Taylor Smith, who came out from a London curacy with the title

Ingham

felt this

ruling that he

'canon missioner'. 509

The

c.M.s.

new

approved the

Articles in 1890; next year

called the pastors to sign them. Five refused

Ingham

—Taylor, G.J. Macaulay of

Kissy, that formidable controversialist, noted for his powerful letters

of Wellington, Moses Pearce of Christ Church, Pademba Road, and H. P. Thompson of Benguema. They insisted on their right to continue under the constitution they had been appointed under. Unable to force them to sign, or deprive them for to the press, S. G. Hazeley

refusing,

He

Ingham was

yet determined to assert authority over them.

persuaded the c.M.s., which

and parsonages, only let to the Leone Church paying the costs)

still

owned

the freeholds of churches

pastors, to take legal action (the Sierra

to eject the recalcitrant five.

Lewis, the pastors' counsel, protracted the suits from year to year. Delay was to his clients' advantage. The c.M.s. suggested compromise; prominent Creole laymen offered to mediate. Ingham remained adamant though he risked dividing the Church. In the Niger diocese

—

Archdeacon Crowther (the bishop's son) was defying the c.M.s., starting a Niger Delta Pastorage on his own responsibility. Macaulay declared he considered Kissy an independent Pastorate.

Meanwhile the Rev. Nathaniel Boston, a Durham graduate of Fourah Bay College, ordained in 1880, employed as a missionary on the Bulom Shore, was embroiled with the Sierra Leone Church Missionary Association, which had taken the mission stations over

from the

c.M.s. His defiance

of the Association was believed

really

Ingham who had prevented him sitting on the Church Committee. The case was brought into the courts, where the Association got an injunction to prevent him officiating. Ingham then charged him with immorality, proposing to hear the case in his own court. Lewis, Boston's counsel, contested his right to hear cases at all. The judgement of the Supreme Court, that the bishop could only hear directed at

ecclesiastical,

not criminal,

cases,

stopped further proceedings.

the Association brought an action to eject Boston

parsonage

at

Yongru, Lewis

won

the case

on

from

his

When

church and

a technicality, so

he

stayed.

The Five Pastors' congregations divided for or against them. At Benguema the bishop's party left the church in 1892 and built their own. Though the pastors roused some sympathy as martyrs and were legally justified, defiance

enemies in their

At

Kissy,

of the 'laymen's bishop' exposed them

to their

own congregations.

where

the people at

first

supported Macaulay, the quarrel

over church funds broke out again in June 1894. Most 510

left

the church

— and held

Church Committee (Ingham was

services in the market, the

on leave) sending them a pastor to taking the law into their

own

officiate.

Encouraged, they began

hands, stoned the parsonage and

Macaulay's adherents' houses, and barred up the church door to keep him out. The police did nothing to stop the rioters who roused the village,

drumming on kerosene tins singing 'Macaulay go go, Let us watch and pray

And

labour

till

the Bishop come.'

December Ingham returned, and went at once to preach to his supporters at Kissy. The following Friday they mobbed the parsonage, In

turned out Macaulay and his family, killed a bullock and feasted, ringing out the pastor with a funeral chime from his

own

church

tower.

At

this

moment Lewis

got a judgement for one of the pastors against

At Benguema the bishop's party and drove Thompson out. Hazeley left Wellington of his own accord to prevent a riot. Taylor and Pearce stayed put, but part of the Waterloo congregation seceded under the Rev. Pythias Williams, back from the Niger Mission, who opened a rival church, and many left Christ Church for the Cathedral. The lawless, unedifying climax of the Five Pastors' case, so long protracted, so publicized in courts and press, damaged the Sierra Leone Church immeasurably. Many seceded to the Wesleyans. An implacable the c.M.s.

But law was

barred the church,

bishop, restraint,

obstinate

set aside.

as at Kissy,

pastors,

unruly congregations,

each lacking

in

disappointed the high hopes with which the Pastorate was

Ingham blamed the C.M.s. for ever starting it: opinion in Freetown accused him of trying to wreck it. The bond of gratitude and affection linking the Colony with the c.M.s. was weakened while published C.M.s. reports ascribed difficulties at Lagos and in the Niger Mission to Creole influence. It was even decided no more Creoles be employed there to train teachers, lest their corrupting infection mar the converts' native simplicity. Thus even the c.M.s. adopted the doctrines of their enemy Sir Richard Burton. Though educated Creoles explained that their self-assertion was a inaugurated.

—

own sowing, it was not the less frowned on. by the two generations of 'native agents' bred in the Colony, Ingham went home to recruit Afro-Wcst-Indians to work up country.

plant of the missionaries' Dissatisfied

In 1894 he published Sierra Leone

after a :5ii

Hundred

Years, largely

composed

of extracts from John Clarkson's diary (lent him by the family), Sierra Leone Company reports and early mission records, with an account of the present state of the Colony appended. The century appears something of a disappointment. Yet that year died, aged about lOO, Matthew Thomas Harding, a Gola, recaptured in 1810, converted by During, baptized by Johnson, educated at Regent at the Christian Institution, the originator of the first Christian Company (p. 202), who was employed as a village teacher until 1852, when he retired with a long-enjoyed pension. However imperfect Church and Colony in 1894, the century his life spanned was a period any body of missionaries might have been justly proud of.

Quayle-Jones explained to the Secretary of State

how

important

it

Governor who, like Rowe and Hay (and, as he stressed, himself), was not afraid of exertions up country. Opinion and hint were ignored. Sir Francis Fleming, who came out in May 1892 with twenty-three years legal and administrative experience in the quieter colonies, was disinclined to exert himself in the bush. Poor health and the attractions of a newly-wedded wife tended to tether him to Freetown. Though he and Lady Fleming paid ceremonial visits to the Banana Islands and Bonthe, he only once ventured any distance up country, in March 1893 for a few days, to meet a gathering of chiefs at Bandasuma. Alldridge, who arranged the meeting, included in The Sherbro and Its Hinterland a photograph of the diminutive Governor enthroned there in full uniform on a kitchen chair, a leopard skin at his feet, and at a distance an admiring crowd. Freetown, which had seen no Governor's lady since Mrs Havelock, welcomed the gracious pacific pair. ;(^3CX) was voted to repair Government House, fallen into decay in male hands (despite regular annual grants for repair, made even in the depression years of the 18 80s).

was

to appoint a

The Flemings

entered

flowery speeches, where

up

for

whole-heartedly into

social

activities.

elevated rhetoric and lavish promises

any lack of practical content,

won

high

praise.

He

His

made

revised the

Standing Orders of Legislative Council, turning what had remained

of a council into the debates of a legislature. He strengthened unofficial representatives by replacing old Syble Boyle, bedridden since 1887, by Daniel Jarrett, the doctor's brother. in

form the

Born

in

deliberations

Freetown, educated

at the

512

Grammar

School, Jarrett in-

herited a flourishing business

from

his

Aku

recaptive father, and was,

like him, a prominent Wesleyan. Reserved and independent, he tended to go his own way without considering the movements of popular feeling,

though joining

in political agitations

when

his

own

interests

were concerned. For years he championed the claimants for damages

whom

was his father-in-law, William Cole) against Liberia and was indignant when government, no longer needing them as a weapon to fix the boundary, compromised for a sum far below the original claims. His petitions were well known at the Colonial Office and his appointment welcomed as a muzzle for a tire(one of

(pp. 363, 431),

some critic. His term of office was short. He fell ill visiting England, where his son was at school, and died in Brixton in September 1893. Fleming restored the

civil

service

examination, and, like Hay,

recommended local promotions. When Sunter died his assistant M. J. Marke succeeded as Inspector of Schools. The unified Inspectorate of the four colonies was disjoined in 1893, and Marke given charge of Sierra Leone and the Gambia with ;;{J300 and travelling allowances. The Municipality Ordinance Lewis had been preparing was passed in February 1893. The reintroduction of a house-tax under the name of rate was avoided: the Corporation was to raise money by licensing

men and

government handing over wine and spirit, canoe and other municipal licences with the responsibihty for markets, water-supply and drainage. Twelve of the fifteen Councillors were to be elected, three appointed by government. The traders, professional

Ordinance

also

vehicles, the

provided that the Municipality levy

rates if licences

did not provide enough revenue. Thus the government escaped the responsibihty of having to impose them.

With

McCarthy was given ^JoOy on condition he give up

the Colony's fmances again stable J. A.

the full Queen's Advocate's salary, private practice.

He

also acted

Chief Justice, despite Colonial Regula-

More Creole business men were appointed j.p.s;. Lewis was awarded a c.M.G. Soon after Fleming arrived Colonel Ellis reduced labourers' wages at the barracks from 15 to gd. The labourers went on strike, intimidating those who accepted 9J, and bringing out workers all over the towm. Riot threatened and Fleming swore in 200 citizens as special constables, a mark of confidence in the community of a kind government did not often show. He broke the strike by taking strike-leaders into the police at 15 3 J. No wonder the Sierra Leone Times declared him the most popular Governor since Heimessy. tions.

513

A

Bombay merchants from Cape Town visited the Colony The Mushm community welcomed them and several, includ-

party of

in 1893.

ing the firm of J. T. Chanrai and Co., were established in Freetown

by the mid-*90s. Syrians began arriving in Freetown in the late '80s, street-traders

who

brought

nicknamed

them

and sold imitation coral beads

their families,

—hence

Respectable Creoles despised them, conceiving

'Corals'.

and quite as dirty. But customers of the well-known assortments of trade-goods,

httle better than the aborigines

up country, tired were attracted by their wares. They would go anywhere, undersell anyone, and slowly began driving less enterprising rivals from the field.

While

Colony was in debt to the Treasury the accounts were audited cursorily by G. W. Cole, the Creole audit clerk, and sent to London to be scrutinized by the Exchequer and Audit Department. When the debt was paid off, and the Treasury no longer wanted them, Cole was burdened with an audit beyond his powers. Rather than appoint the

an irresponsible local auditor

(as

in the

1870's) (pp. 369, 404), the

Colonial Office got the Exchequer and Audit Department to resume

charge in 1893, ^i^d send an experienced accountant, responsible to

London, not

to the Sierra

Mrs Ingham persuaded

Leone government.

the Colonial Bishoprics'

of the large Bishopscourt grounds

Creole ladies could be trained in nursing, in Sierra Leone.

She raised

Cottage Hospital' (called

Fund

money and

still

up part where young

to give

for a Cottage Hospital,

an unqualified profession

in 1892 the 'Princess Christian

daughter of Queen Victoria's) was

after a

opened, with a doctor and three nurses from England.

It

served the

adjoining poor, largely Muslim, neighbourhood as a mission hospital as

well

as training nurses.

Government School

After the

there (daughter of a clerk.

When

1892 several

was

first

daughter,

Ida Steinwehr, a

teacher

German

trader) was taken on as a Post Office were extended to the Colony villages in had charge of post-offices. Mrs Toboku-Metzger

postal services

women

postmistress at Kissy,

disqualify, as

closed,

it

left

would

badly

in

off,

it

being agreed that marriage should not

England. Nora Mehcux, the Sheriff's youngest

managed

P.Z.'s fancy department.

514

But, though a

through the

women

most

young lady back from England who rode a bicycle was hailed as a representative of the 'New Woman',

streets

stuck to their old occupation, petty trade. Creole girls

hawking to domestic service. Some made fortunes. Mrs Phillis Mends, left a widow in the i86os, supplemented her pay as Cathedral cleaner by selling preserved fruit, and fancy goods, from her house in Westmoreland Street, and ultimately presented her sons with a flourishing business. Madam Eliza Hedd, of Garrison Street, did a large cola trade. Mammy Martin of the Vegetable Market made enough to still

preferred

pay visits

to England.

Hay's system of scattering Frontiers over the country in small groups presupposed an adequate supply of officers to go round supervising

them. But three years

was hard to recruit two were sent home

it

(one with Delirium Tremens). vised,

suitable inspectors: within the first as unsuitable,

Many

two more

invalided

small stations remained unsuper-

even unpaid, for months on end. The Frontiers posted there did chose, neither chiefs nor people daring to thwart them.

what they

Some performed Johnson, a Creole for his services

their duties

who joined

with conspicuous

the police in 1875,

success. J.

Benoni

awarded the d.c.m.

with Crawford's expedition, promoted Sub-Inspector

in 1892, mediated

among

the

Kunike

chiefs, effecting

single-handed a

had been proposed to send a punitive expedition for. the same among the Limba. But many Frontiers, given the chance to exploit, took it. Thus when Fleming tried to extend the area under jurisdiction by cession treaties he found the chiefs unwilling, fearful of the police and of losing their slaves. At Port Loko they would sign nothing new.

pacification

it

The following year he did

So Turner's Port Loko treaty of 1825 was revived (like his Sherbro with the usual promise to respect 'domestic institutions'. Feared by the people they were supposed to be protecting, the Frontiers were disliked by Creole traders whom they were forbidden to protect. A trader maltreated by a chief could not count on them for help. Nor were European firms protected: when the Palma Trading

treaty) (p. 417),

Company's Wedaro premises were

burnt, allegedly arson, the police

declined to investigate.

Captain Lendy was promoted hispector-Gcneral in 1892.

yoimg

officer

slave-traders,

of twenty-four, whose he wanted

his

first

exploit

A

dasliing

had been against

mcii to seize and free any domestic slave 515

they believed was going to be sold. The number of freed slaves began to rise. Parkes thought

dangerous to allow the Frontiers discretionary-

it

powers in cases which more than any other alarmed the chiefs, fearful of losing their slaves. Fleming, always nervous of deciding between two opinions, referred

nant

at a

them

Governor's so

Hemming was

to the Colonial Office. tactlessly

mentioning in

a public despatch that

He

domestic slavery existed in a British sphere.

indig-

decided for Parkes;

the Frontiers were ordered only to seize slaves actually in transit.

Parkes also passed on complaints of the Frontiers' misdeeds up country. Lendy took offence. Interested only in upholding the honour

of his force (already besmirched

at

Tambi and Bogo), he

resented and

ignored civilian criticism. Fleming,

who

disliked military rule

proposed introducing ^District

and was frightened of Lendy, under jurisdiction. The title

civilians in the area

Commissioner' was substituted for the undignified old

'Manager'. Garrett,

worn out by

his exertions

the Royal Geographical Society gave

him

a

up country,

for

which

medal, was invalided in

1893 and died. Alldridge succeeded as District Commissioner, Sherbro.

W.

H. Davison, Creole

j.p.

him

Colonial Office to deny

Fleming referred to him In

November

the interior.

Mafwe, was given a Commission to its terms were revised at the

rights over chiefs

as a 'District

and

their people,

Commissioner'.

1892 Parkes drew up a plan for the administration of

He proposed

responsibilities,

at

and though

investigate crimes there,

the

government assume

its

long-neglected

proclaim a Protectorate and appoint five Pohtical

Agents (or District Commissioners) to take over the Frontiers' authority with limited juridical powers.

then be gradually disbanded.

The

The

Agents'

tions,

on

Frontiers' pay.

With

would

/^300 each,

salaries,

expenses (which he put at only ;£6oo altogether), saving

political

Frontier Police

and

would be met by

the

perhaps an eye to Fleming's inclina-

he proposed Governors' tours up country (costly in

carriers'

wages) be given up and the chiefs bidden instead to an annual Durbar

on

the Indian model.

Fleming approved, attracted by

a

plan which implied rule by

suasion not force, and substituted civilian for military rule.

he disapproved of 'punitive expeditions'. But

at the

Above

all

Colonial Office

they remembered that armed expeditions had brought the hinterland peace,

and declared

that,

whether or not PoHtical Agents were

appointed, the Frontier Pohce must be maintained in

reorganized under better disciplme. 516

full strength,

but

when

it

was

realized in

that the Political Agents

London, what Parkes had not made clear, Creoles, the plan was turned down.

would be

was assumed that five suitable candidates could not be found, that Parkes whose outstanding abilities were fully recognized was unique. Hemming summed up, 'we could not depend upon them and they would be likely to get us into all sorts of difficulties'. Thus it was settled that whatever future was planned for the Sierra Leone hinterIt

—

—

land, Europeans should rule there.

Yet along the coastline, Creole Customs officers like Songo-Davies, or J. A. Cline on Kikonke Island, had long exercised the sort of power it was proposed to give Political Agents. Creole j.P.s like Davison, or those who, like J. A. Williams, had helped negotiate with chiefs (pp. 400-1), might have assumed wider responsibilities. But while the Frontier Police remained a para-military force under European officers, the battle Parkes and Lendy waged in Freetown would have had to be fought out in every

district,

with the Creole inevitably

at a

dis-

advantage.

Having promised Quayle-Jones not

Kemo

Bilale

to use

moved away. Immediately

Heremakono

as a

war-base,

the French advanced into the

and in February 1893 occupied Heremakono. French policy held a European power responsible not only for its colonies and protectorates but its spheres, a doctrine the Colonial Office was unwilling to recognize. They answered British protests with the British sphere,

counter-protest that if

Heremakono were

really in the British sphere

the Sofas should never have been allowed there.

Nor would they with-

draw, convinced that whatever British governments might

were

secretly allied

Kemo

withdrew

say,

they

with Samori against them. north-east. If the French believed in a secret

Sofa alliance, he saw in the loss of

Anglo-

Heremakono an Anglo-French

arms supply. Having lost the Heremakono-Falaba-Port Loko trade route, he determined to extend Sofa influence southwards, by intervening as an ally, in the alliance against

him. Yet Freetown remained

his

U5ual Sofa way, in existing wars.

A

Upper Moa and helped Kafura, a Kisi sub-chief, against Kai Lundu. Another, under Pokere, went to open a new road to Freetown through Koranko and Kunike, perhaps via Senehun. They found a long-standing war, arising from a quarrel after the Yoni Expedition, between two Mende chiefs, Vonjo, living in party of Sofas

went

to the

517

Kunike, and Foray, in Kono. They joined Foray, advancing with

customary slaughter through Koranko and Kunike.

When the

French advanced, Lendy was sent to investigate. Eager for active service (he had been pressing for a punitive expedition some-

where or other since 1891) he felt humihated by the feeble pohcy he had to execute, ashamed of not being able to give the Koranko protection. He begged that troops be sent. To strengthen his case he alleged that the defenders of Tambi, whom he dignified under the hitherto unknown name *the Mureties', were in arms again and had cut the Freetown-Falaba road. Fleming, with his horror of expeditions, was on leave, Crooks acting Governor.

Lendy had an

ally in

spent his time as colonel training the

ist

Freetown in Ellis, who had India Regiment for bush

West

of the usual placid garrison routine. Having won Tambi, he wanted to use his troops in a full-scale expedition, before they were posted back to the West Indies in January 1894. So when Lendy's message arrived in May he urged instant action, assuring the War Office that the rainy season never set in up country till mid-July. But as Crooks reported the rains had already started,

fighting, instead

glory and a C.B.

at

was refused. Lendy then began sending Ellis regular reports from up country, which were passed on to the War Office. Both broke regulations, Lendy in reporting to Ellis instead of the acting-Governor, Elhs in also communicating information heard in Executive Council. They stressed Sofa atrocities, and their selling captives to Susu slave-traders. Thus they felt sure of moving the British government. Lendy, who wanted sanction

to return to the regular army, even arranged with the to defer his transfer until the

still

War

Office

unsanctioned expedition should be

over.

champion of a peaceful settlement up country, stood in their way. He pointed out that his messengers went safely along the route Lendy alleged 'the Mureties' had cut. Like A. L.Jones he sympathized with the Sofas, continuing what had been the hitherto accepted policy Parkes,

of friendship with them: indeed as late as October a War Office Report was still proposing a policy based on friendly negotiation. He sent a message warnin-g the Sofis out of Kunike. Pokerc unwillingly obeyed, retiring cast to Tckuyema, a town claimed Intelligence

by Nyagua, on the Kono-Mende border. Ellis and Lendy, lest they be cheated of with personal attacks on Parkes, that he was 518

their expedition, replied in league

with the Sofas,

MusHm members

Department were Sofa spies; ElHs even told the Executive Council Parkes was their paid agent. The charges, examined eventually in August 1894, were then disproved: Parkes produced vouchers for every money transaction with the Sofas, authority for every letter sent them. But in his desire for a peaceful policy he did (as the Colonial Office noted) play down reports of Sofa atrocities committed on peoples who had been promised British that the

of

his

protection.

While Sofa troops remained grounds for

French had Heremakono.

in the British sphere the

justified complaint, if

not invasion,

as at

implement the clause of the Brussels Act against slave-trading in the interior, and to protect people entitled to protection, an expedition was sanctioned to drive the Sofas from the British sphere. Fleming returned in November to a situation unprecedented where the government in London urged a military expedition on an unwilling Governor. Sheltering behind his Executive Council, where Ellis to placate them, to

So

he delayed and hindered as best he could. instant report he replied that he was an a telegram demanding

formed

To

a protesting minority,

sending a civilian mission up country for a

an expedition was needed after

month

to discover

whether

all.

But he had to admit there was news of Pokere's having attacked Nyagua, a treaty chief. This was enough for the Colonial Office where Hemming, no longer interested in Samori now that the French seemed to be beating him, was clamouring for action. Orders were given for the expedition to start at once. As Elhs was in charge Fleming washed his hands of it, paid no attention to the arrangements, and held up its departure for a day by taking the Colonial Steamer, needed to trans-

port troops, to Tasso Island where the few inhabitants presented

and his wife with a loyal

A

young French

him

address.

infantry officer. Lieutenant Gaston Maritz,

was

sent

November

1893 from Kisidugu with a small party of soldiers, beyond the Niger source into the Kono country. He had orders to discover how far British influence ran and to make treaties with chiefs beyond it. At Waima, witlnn the British sphere as agreed in Paris, but unvisitcd by British officials, he made a treaty with six

in

south-east

Kono

chiefs, headed by Kurua Wara. Having promised protection, he joined them in attacking Tekuyema, and drove out Pokere and the

Sofas.

He

then retired north towards the Niger source. 519

Meanwhile

Ellis's expedition was starting. It was well planned in detachment went up the Rokel to delude the Sofas into expecting an attack from the west. The main body was shipped to

advance.

A

Bendu and marched via Mafwe to Panguma. Thence they set out on December the 13th, 379 regulars, chiefly ist West India Regiment, under sixteen

and forty-seven Frontiers under Lendy. Fleming recruits who had never seen action. About a thousand carriers were brought from Freetown. A supply column followed with several hundred more, impressed from the villages they marched through sometimes by arresting the chief till enough of his subjects enlisted, and flogging him if they threw down their loads and bolted, as they constantly did. They marched north-east through unmapped country seeking their Sofa enemy. The only resistance was sporadic sniping from flintlocks fired by Sofas or their Kono allies. On the 21st they encamped at officers,

wouldn't spare more Frontiers; some were

—

Waima. had heard rumours of French penetration into Kono he sent from Panguma warning the French authorities of his approach. The rumours were confirmed by the discovery of a private

As

Ellis

off a message

Tekuyema. Maritz, however, away from headquarters when Ellis's warning arrived, had no reason to suppose the British near. So when liis Kono allies warned him that a large Sofa force was encamped at Waima he hurried south again to surprise them on the early morning of the 23 rd before sunrise. Whether Maritz's scouts or Ellis's sentries fired first is uncertain. No issue depends on it for each was justified in assuming the other the Sofas. For forty minutes the firing went on. The British officers, roused suddenly in their white pyjamas showed up conspicuously in the semi-darkness: Maritz, a crack shot, picked off easily what he took

letter

for

of Maritz's picked up

whitc-robcd Sofas.

at

Two officers,

a

sergeant-major and four privates

were killed, another sergeant-major and fourteen privates severely wounded. Lendy roused his Frontiers. The new recruits panicked, shut themselves into houses, firing out wildly, and in the confusion he and two of his men were shot dead. When the firing died down, scouts went out ami returned with Maritz, mortally wounded. He made a short statement and died. Ten of his men were killed too. Pokere, meanwhile, driven from Tekuyema by Maritz, joined Foray, his ally in Kono, to attack Vonjo at Tungea, not far from Panguma. Charles Taylor, an experienced Creole Sub-Inspector in charge 520

of the Frontiers at Mongeri, hurried there with forty men. The attack was beaten off on the 28th and Pokere killed. The remaining Sofas retreated to Bagbwema where Ellis, following the trail of devastated villages, surprised and routed them on January the 2nd. The Sofas now driven from the British sphere, the expedition returned to Freetown. Frontiers remained to keep order. Foray was sent to Freetown gaol where he died. War parties belonging to Vonjo and Nyagua went on raiding Kono and Koranko towns (like de Winton's allies after the Yoni expedition), till their leaders were captured and gaoled. Sub-Inspector Johnson reported the

was dropped.

quiet, so Lendy's expedition against the 'Mureties'

The French

authorities

Limba country

beheaded Kurua Wara, maintaining he had

war against went on until 1898, when he was captured and deported to Libreville, where he died in 1900. Ellis was pleased with his expedition though his men had little real fighting to do, they showed they were capable of something tougher than garrison duties. As at Tambi he magnified their achievements dehberately provoked Maritz to attack the British. Their

Samori, fought inland,

far

from

Sierra Leone,

:

at the

expense of the Frontiers'.

Tungea

that the Colonial Office

He

so glossed over the victory at

had

difficulty in getting

Taylor

a

D.C.M.

But

Ellis's

triumph was

Canary Islands on his Death robbed him they had awaited from an expedition. Proshort. Invalided to the

return to Freetown, he died there in

and Lendy of the

glories

March

1894.

tracted diplomatic wrangles over the compensation the French govern-

ment should pay

the

Waima

victims' dependents

Belgian arbitration in 1902.

821613

521

were only ended by

XXI

WHEN

Fleming went

ill

early in 1894

it

was decided

Colonial Office that he must never return to the

at the

Colony he had been Cardew,

sent to relieve

suffered

from no

twenty years

home

him

so unwilling to rule. Colonel Frederic

temporarily, then remaining substantively,

hesitant fears.

in India, five in

North-west Frontier and Office post in Zululand.

A

professional soldier, he served

South Africa, with active service on the Zulu War, before accepting a Colonial

in the

At

fifty-five (he

was

a

month

older than Hay,

by smoking or drinking, was still equal to exertions in the bush. Within a few weeks of arrival he made a six- week tour across the Mende country to Panguma, through Waima (where he saw to maintaining the unhappy graves) to Falaba, and back by the Scarcies. While the French boundary remained unfixed there was constant risk of another Waima: both sides complained of infringements in the unallotted Scarcies areas, particularly Samu. Early in 1894 a chief invaded the French Bena country from a British base with men supplied by Bai Bureh. Cardew seized the chance to recover the prestige

three years older than Fleming) his robust frame, unimpaired

lost

through Bai Bureh's escape in 1891. Captain Tarbet, Lcndy's took fifty men to Rogballan to arrest him. He retired into

successor,

the bush,

whence he

sent a polite but indignant letter disclaiming

Promised safe-conduct, he came to Port Loko Cardew who rebuked him for letting his men fight in French territory, and ordered him to give up fifty guns. At this time Bai Burch was drinking heavily. He would start in the

hostility to the British.

to see

morning and be incapable by afternoon. Cardew, a convinced teewas disgusted. He hoped he would refuse the penalty, intending if he did, to depose and deport liim. But the guns were surrendered totaller,

witliin the stipulated time.

As he sphere,

travelled, still

Cardew considered how

best to transform a British

ruled by tcclinically sovereign chiefs, into a Protectorate.

522

Legislatively the change torate' for ^Sphere' in

land inclined

him

was foreshadowed by

substituting *Protec-

Ordinances passed in 1894. Experience in Zuluthrough chiefs, by their own

to rule as far as possible

laws, rather than try to introduce English law. Creole opinion sup-

ported him. Lewis and McCarthy,

from seeking to extend the jurisdiction of the Colony courts, welcomed the plans he outlined to Legislative Council on his return. They agreed it would be unwise to subject people suddenly to an unfamiliar, alien legal system, and looked forward with him to the gradual opening up of the hinterland by far

economic rather than pohtical means, trade providing

a

peaceful

stimulus to raise the inhabitants' standard of living.

On

Cardew found evidence of an organized slave trade in the captives taken in the Kono, Koranko and Upper Mende wartheatres, operated chiefly by Susu and Fula who carried them north. From this he concluded that all wars in the interior were waged merely to capture slaves, and that ending the slave traffic would necessarily his tour

bring peace.

So he began his task by reorganizing the Frontier Police to preserve order and suppress slave-trading. More officers were appointed, with a new grade of Assistant Lispector, at ^2S0, recruited from Army officers who had risen from the ranks, whose social and fmancial expectations were more modest than those of the directly commissioned. The Creole Sub-Inspectors' pay was raised to ;^I50, and a Medical Officer appointed,

Bishop

J.P.),

qualified at

at ^^ 3 00,

Dr Thomas Bishop (son of Thomas

Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The country was divided

into five Districts, each under an Inspector.

Outstations were reduced in

number and more

closely supervised to

check abuses. Discipline was tightened up: about thirty were dismissed,

some with prison

sentences.

learn

God Save

the

Schools were started at the District

men

to read and write; each recruit had Queen and the Lord's Prayer, sung and repeated

headquarters to teach the

the end of evening parade.

To

increase their self-respect,

pared with well-armed, well-trained French carbines, precision

were substituted

soldiers,

low

as

to at

com-

Martini-Metford

weapons, but not too elaborate for bush conditions,

for Snider

rifles.

Fisher and Randall's agent C. Tambacci, a persistent critic

of govern-

ment and of Creole officials, told the Manchester Chamber, who A. M'Carthy, it on to the Colonial O^vcc in May 1894, that J.

passed

523

whose

salary

had been

was

practice,

raised to /^yoo

investigated the charge.

ing to

on condition he give up

private

money from clients. The Executive Council M' Car thy insisted the inquiry be held accord-

taking

still

Cardew, no lawyer, was offended. Simple and he would have preferred frank, informal discussion,

strict legal rules.

direct himself,

and suspected formahties were being used to hide guilt. At length the Council found that though he had not been dishonest, he had been negligently slow in winding up his business, and shown carelessness of a kind unsuited to the senior law officer of a Colony. Cardew' s faith in Creole officials was further shaken by finding that his own confidential clerk, Jacob Lewis, had warned M'Carthy in advance of the impending inquiry. He told the Secretary of State that whatever view be taken of the strict legality of M'Carthy's conduct, he could no longer trust him as Queen's Advocate or member of his Executive Council. He also produced evidence to show he had been extremely dilatory in public business.

M'Carthy had

influential friends in

of racial

prejudice.

he did not Coast P. C.

To

as

England. At the Colonial Office

of State, Ripon, was anxious to avoid any imputation

a Liberal Secretary

Cardew to retain an officer So M'Carthy was sent to the Gold

But he could not

trust in so senior a post.

force

Solicitor-General at a reduced salary.

An

Irish

barrister,

Smyly, replaced him.

boundary speedily and end further disputes, the British and French governments signed an Agreement in Paris on January the 2 1 St, 1895, fixing a line for Commissioners to go out and adjust on the spot. It divided the Melakori and Scarcies watersheds, then followed the right bank of the Great Scarcies, branching north-east to meet and run along the loth parallel of north latitude (giving Sierra Leone its flat top). Thence it ran south-east along the Niger watershed, giving Sierra Leone disputed Kaliere, the French disputed Heremakono, till it settle

the

The

delimitation

rivers,

watersheds,

reached the Franco-Liberian frontier agreed in 1891.

was made almost parallels

—not

the people

on

on

entirely in geographical terms

political.

Samu chiefdom,

—

for instance,

the frontier had to opt for .firms

on one

was divided; side or villages

the other.

In return for territorial concessions, the French agreed not to stop traders using the traditional inland routes to Freetown,

duties

from them

at the

same

rates levied at seaports.

524

and

But

to collect

ditierential

duties, the basis

of French commercial poHcy, gradually cut

down

the

inland trade across the frontier.

Creole traders settled in French Guinea

(a

name adopted

in 1891 to

end the confusion of the 'Northern Rivers' in Freetown being in Dakar

du Sud') sometimes complained of ill-treatment. W. C. who traded regularly to the Rio Nunez with two Colony-built

the 'Rivieres Betts,

schooners, enlisted English business associates to get

with the Conakry authorities, But British trade was not driven away.

in a dispute in 1893.

him

ended by

official

his

support

death at sea

Many Creoles remained.

Paterson, Zochonis, the largest English firm trading to the north after

and Randall were wound up in 1896, had depots all along the coast of French Guinea, dividing their trade almost equally between French and British colonies, while French Company did more business in Sierra Leone than any English firm. Fisher

Colony-grown ginger was in demand in Europe in 1893. Longneglected hillsides round Freetown were cleared again. Abayomi Cole, having quarrelled with his Maroon congregation, went up to farm *Beulah Hills' on the road to Leicester where he also sold passers-by refreshments. Peter Africanus Cole, a shopkeeper in Walpole Street, farmed at Portuguese Town. French encirclement having

spoilt

hopes of the Colony's attracting

trade from the far interior, the Colonial Office was readier to hear its prosperity on agriculture (as so often adumbrated). Boundary Commission botanist, proposed an agrinear Charlotte. But the authorities at Kew advised

schemes of basing Scott-Elliot, the

cultural college

against starting with anything too ambitious. Instead a small Botanical

Station

was sanctioned

(as in

the

Gold Coast and Lagos), on the

lines

of Lewis and Vohsen's venture, but supported by public money. A farm near the defunct garden in Pademba Road was bought from French Company in 1894 and a young Kew-trained gardener, F. E. Willey, appointed Superintendent of what was called the 'Botanical and

offered to agricultural

who

applied could pass the qualifying examination.

Lewis his

Two

government scholarships were also apprentices but none of the few candidates

Agricultural Department'.

own

still

backed any plan for agricultural development, though

Christineville plantation did not pay. In January

1896 he

organized an Agricultural Exhibition in the Wilberforce Hall. stimulate

farming, rather than prize-wiiming, 525

a

To

Committee went

:

round the Colony beforehand inspecting farms and giving Lewis was helped by

his wife's cousin,

Fourah Bay College graduate in Wiltshire,

Tutor

at

who

advice.

Solomon Okagu Farmer,

a

whom he sent to an Agricultural College

was, until his death at thirty-eight, in 1897, Science

Fourah Bay College.

But the demand for ginger declined, exports sank again, and with them the old hope of basing the Colony's prosperity on agriculture.

showed the population increasing. Markers annual reports showed the number of schools and schoolchildren decreasing. In the impoverished villages many parents could no longer afford to send their children, or only let them go when there was no work at home. Teachers' salaries remained low: when government

Though

the 1891 census

managers usually reduced their contribution less than a third were certificated. Many gave

school

grants

raised

proportionately. In 1895

unexplained lessons to be learnt by rote.

The

older children were often

put to teaching the younger, so that they learnt notliing new.

Where

was

talent

so

little

rewarded there were few to follow the schoolmasters Marke's own teacher

—

of earlier Thomas George of Wellington, or John Merriman of Hastings, or Samuel Norman of Waterloo and Kissy whose sound teaching in the '60s and '70s filled the Grammar School with bright pupils and made

example

village

—

the villages nurseries of prominent citizens. Hastings, the birthplace of

many famous men,

including the

first

African archdeacons of Sierra

Leone, Robbin, Henry Johnson and Macaulay, was

Bethlehem of West

The in

known

as

'the

Africa'.

declining standard in the primary schools affected the secondary

May

1896

twenty-six candidates for the Civil Service Examina-

all

Grammar School

or Wesleyan

High School,

tion,

mostly from

The

Schoohnasters' Association urged a national system o£

pulsory education

as in

failed.

com-

England, but the Colony was too poor. The

education grant was increased in 1895 to send pupil-tcachcrs to train at Fourah Bay College where a Model School was opened, but there

was no money

government training institution. were offered for teclinical- instruction, but most school managers did little more than have the girls taught sewing. Government promised jC^oo in 1889 towards a Technical Institute if ;^6oo could be raised privately. Meetings were held, a Committee formed, for a

Special grants

but notliing came of it. ^26

Bishop Ingham re-opened the Cathedral School in top of

at the

Howe

Street that year,

master from England.

An

a

new

and brought out

illustration in his

a

building

carpentry

book shows

the boys

building the school veranda. In 1895 he raised ;£soo in England to build a Teclinical School

voted

contribution

a

on

the adjoining lot.

—Lewis,

The

Legislative Council

in the Tregaskis tradition, suspicious

a grant to a bishop's institution.

W.

F.

of by the

Lucia, an architect sent

Annie Walshe School, built it and was first principal, teaching building, plumbing and carpentry. Lewis started a Freetown Committee in 1894 to raise funds and c.M.s. to rebuild the

Colwyn Bay Institute, opened in Wales by a from the Congo to train African craftsmen,

choose candidates for the returned missionary partly financed J.

by A. L.Jones.

T. Ojokutu-Macaulay, a builder and carpenter of Egba descent in

Soldier

Street,

amounted school.

gave

his

apprentices

to technical education.

He

systematic

built Lewis's Christineville

mansion,

which

instruction

Some boarded with him his

as in a

Centenary House,

House (James Taylor's house in Oxford Street, Cummings), and built or rebuilt many churches for the u.m.f.c, his own church. At his death in 1904 few important streets were unadorned by him.

Porter's Hotel, Juliette

called after his second wife, Juliette

Customs

receipts reached

^^80,000 in 1895. After a temporary set-

by a fall in produce prices in Europe, they rose again The Colony had money to spend. For a start the Treasury

back, caused steadily.

directed

it

take over the remaining expenses British taxpayers

still

paid,

the Governor's salary and the upkeep of the Colonial Steamer.

Though European

trade benefited

first

from recovery

(p.

495),

Creole soon followed. Creole traders flocked into the pacified Sherbro hinterland in search of produce, competing fiercely, cutting out

sedentary European

rivals.

The European

factories

on the

coast or

more main

waterways became depots: produce was bought far inland. Victoria, on Sherbro Island, dwindled. Today only a grove of fruit trees and a few bricks on the shore mark the site of the former garrison and trading town. The outstanding Sherbro traders were the sons of Moses Thompson of Kissy, known as a financial genius in his day, who died young in 1877. Maximilian and Frederick Augustus, the two eldest, started in the Sherbro in 1885 as

Thompson 527

Brothers, built large premises in

Heddle Road, the Bonthe waterfront, and bought or

built factories in

the rivers. Their younger brothers Ganzevoort, Maitland, and

Colum-

bus joined them in 1892; three years later they opened a branch in

Leone firm to have its own English estabwharf and warehouses at Cline Town; their store in Wilber force Street was built from the stones of the old American mission church at Bonthe, which they bought, with the land it stood on, from the u.B.c. Generous to the poor in their old home, Kissy, they also supported the Anglican Church in Bonthe liberally, and Manchester, the

first

They had

lishment.

Sierra

a

virtually reorganized

and kept going the lapsed Anglican missions

in

the Sherbro.

As well

as

were increaswent to Europe cocoa. Rubber too was exported, extracted from the

palm produce, the

staple export, cola nuts

ingly exported, chiefly for sale along the Coast; a little to

make

inferior

vine by cutting the bark, wiping the exuding rubber v^th lime-juice

and rolling it into balls which were packed into baskets and carried to Freetown or the factories. But extracted and marketed so laboriously it could not compete in the world market with plantation rubber. A small export trade in piassava, a hard fibre used for brooms, also

grew up

in the 1890s.

Exports to the United States (hides and ginger chiefly) virtually ceased in 1896, though lumber, kerosene and a few other commodities

were still regularly imported by sailing ships from Boston or New York. German trade replaced American. During 1894 twenty-eight German ships, and another twenty or thirty chartered from German ports, were consigned to the Colony. The Woermann line ran a regular service from Hamburg. Exports to Germany, almost entirely palm kernels, rose from ^19,658 in 1889 to ^^106,555 in 1895. By 1 90 1 more was exported to Germany than to Britain. Hamburg gin was imported on a large scale; German cutlery and gunpowder supplanted British. German firms also competed with well-dyed cottons, but could not supplant Manchester.

With West African trade expanding A. L. Jones started the Bank of British West Africa in 1894, an enterprise more securely backed than previous speculative banks. The Freetown branch was in Rosenbush's former premises

on the north-west corner of Water

Though not backed by government, notes, it

it

empowered

to issue

Street.

bank-

had the credit and stability of an official institution, which became in 1898 when the government started banking

virtually

with

or

it.

528

Dr Blyden was

the

to propose a Sierra

first

Leone Railway: on

his

return fi:om the interior in 1872 he suggested a hne to Falaba. During

Enghsh speculators approached the Colonial Office for a railway subsidy; Lembcrg held a public meeting in Freetown in 1888 to rouse Creole interest. But Colonial Office policy disliked subsidizing, preferring if no private company would undertake the full risk, to build a government railway. It was felt that subsidies only encouraged concession-jobbers: a Sierra Leone dock syndicate formed in London in 1891 to build harbour works faded away after the the

8 80s several

1

promoter was refused

a subsidy.

In 1892 the Liverpool

Chamber asked government

to

make

a pre-

liminary survey. William Shelford, a railway consultant with long colonial and foreign experience,

Bly den's route from Port Loko

went

for the

to Falaba.

Crown Agents

to survey

But the government

realized

Freetown must, strategically and economically, be the terminus, and that Falaba, important in 1872, had since been ruined by the Sofas. So Walter Bradford, an engineer sent to survey in more detail in 1 894, took a route from Freetown via Songo Town and Magbele to Bumban.

that

Urged by Alldridge and Harris he also surveyed a line to bring produce from the Upper Moa to the Sherbro waterways. Neither presented insuperable barriers to construction.

Cardew reahzed during

his first tour that the

northern route missed

the areas most suitable for development. Approving of a main line from Freetown to Songo Town, with branch lines radiating eventually

over the hinterland, he preferred building south-east

all

the

Mende

country, rich in

oil

palms, rather than the

first,

across

less

fertile

parallel to

March 1895 he started on a second tour, from Songo Bo, Segbwema and Kanrelahun, on a line rouglily the coast along which, with some deviations, the railway

was

to run (though

north. In

Town

to Rotifunk,

later

it

never reached

his

proposed terminus,

Kanrelahun).

He

from Freetown harbour to Songo cost ^150,000 on a two foot six-inch gauge. He proposed raising it by public loan, interest and sinking fund replacing that for the Harbour Works loan of 1871, due to end ignominiously in 1898. As no private company would build without subsidy, he preferred government bear the cost, running it when completed as a government department, so avoiding the possible political difficulties the employees of a privileged company, exempt from official control, might cause up country. estimated that the

first stage,

Town, would

529

The

Council welcomed

Legislative

his

only Crooks, just

plan:

retiring, objected to saddling the Colony with a railway that might

never repay the cost of building and would chiefly benefit European business.

On

with

in

leave,

Chamber who were

his portrait in the

(Another was also

sold,

Cardew

August,

China

enthusiastic.

middle and

addressed

the

Liverpool

were sold in Freetown running round the edge.

plates

a train

of Hennessy.)

At the Colonial Office, the Permanent Under-Secretary was against letting a Colony so recently insolvent spend a large sum it might never recover: he advised waiting to see if railways paid in the Gold Coast and Lagos. Had the Liberals won the election of July 1895 he might have had his way. But Joseph Chamberlain who took the Secretaryship of State in the Unionist administration saw Sierra Leone not as an isolated unit to be developed by cautious makeshift, but as part of a great Empire where the experimental building of a railway, even if unremunerative, would provide experience for development elsewhere. True to the principle he expounded to Parliament soon after taking office, of developing the colonies by investment like neglected private estates, he sanctioned the building of the first British railway in West Africa.

The Crown Agents had charge of construction Shelford was their consulting engineer, but not contractor. They engaged staff, bought material and were responsible for raising a loan in London. The :

Leone government had no responsibility until the completed line was handed over. Bradford returned in November as Chief Resident Engineer. The long disused racecourse was used for railway yards, a nearby farmhouse, once William Grant's, for offices. Material was landed at Cline Town to prevent congestion at Government Sierra

Wharf The main line

curving

station

down

was

at the east

to the wharf.

end of Water

The main

Street,

line ran

with

up East

a

branch

Street with-

out encroaching on the open space at Falconbridge, then turned east across the streets, over thirteen level crossings and a bridge at Nicol

Brook, to Cline Town. Thence viaducts, steel girders

it

on concrete

Town. Eleven Orugu Bridge near

continued to Songo

pillars,

including

Hastings, over 100 yards long, had to be built across the creeks running

down from trains

the mountains. Viaducts and tracks

running

at

were designed

to take

twenty miles per hour.

Bradford was hampered by the difficulty of engaging satisfactory European staff, and keeping them m health. One of the first casualties 530

Officer, Dr Nicol Paris, a young Creole with whose foot was crushed by a runaway truck: be amputated and he died. After that two doctors were sent

was the Railway Medical a

Durham

degree,

had to from England

it

to

look

after the construction staff.

Cardew*s vigorous schemes were enthusiastically received in Freetown where a new Governor was in any case usually welcomed with joy. A Governor who was Dean Farrar's brother-in-law (and so the greatuncle of another austere Christian soldier, Field-Marshal Lord

Mont-

gomery), and read the lesson in the Cathedral, appealed to going population. his

Some European

officials,

a churchhowever, were upset by

temperance principles, which even prohibited health-drinking

at

his swearing-in.

how official religious observance altered with how the Cathedral, empty under the free-

had long been noted

It

successive Governors,

Rowe, was filled under Havelock, a High Churchman, with officials bowing to the east. But if Cardew filled the Cathedral again he was no enemy to temperate enjoyment. He and his wife entertained, thinking

attended balls at the Wilberforce Hall and danced with the Creole

Mrs Cardew organized sew

for the

poor and

a

elite.

working party among the Freetown ladies to Band of Mercy, a children's organiza-

started the

tion to foster kindness to animals.

Cardew

did not leave his religion in Freetown on tour up country Sunday morning service for the literate, another in the afternoon for the carriers, and attended both. On his first tour a stalwart young missionary, T. E. Alvarez, accompanied him, on his second,

he had

:

a

Canon Taylor Smith. The c.M.s. reverted dislike

to a

more

active policy in 1894. Despite

of Creole agents, candidates were recruited

villages to lead a 'Shall

we go

*the collegian

without conceit') started

1897

at

at

Colony

forward?' movement, to preach to the

Temne. The Rev. Allen Elba (known when Europeans started another

Ingham's

in the

at

Fourah Bay College

a mission at

as

Makomp; two

Rogberi; Alvarez started another in

Sinkunia near Falaba. The Sierra Leone Messenger was founded

in 1893 to circulate in

The Rio Pongas

England and rouse

mission,

work. what had become French

interest in c.M.s.

whose work

in

Guinea was harassed by the government's insisting all schools be run on French lines, also opened a Temne mission, at Kambia, under the Rev.

S.

Cole. 531

The Wesleyan

mission continued

labours

its

among

the

Limba

and in the Sherbro. The United Free Methodists opened a mission at Tikonko in 1892 under a European, the Rev. C. H. Goodman; the Rev.

Wilham

Micklethwaite

Freetown, son of an

who joined him

with

built a

a small mission to the

had been born

They

also

church

at

earlier u.m.f.c. missionary.

Panguma. The Holy Ghost Fathers Patrick's, in 1893,

for a while

Mende

at

preached

in at

Bonthe, St

Bamani, on the

Bum. The most

flourishing, best-equipped missions

were

still

those

affili-

ated to the u.B.C. In 1892 they opened a school at Rotifunk in the latest

American

style, surpassing

to teach anatomy,

anything yet seen in Sierra Leone, equipped

astronomy and brick-making.

Representatives of the Soudan Missionary

Movement

arrived in

Freetown from the United States in 1890 to prospect for a mission. Some were faith-healers, caught fever, and died, rather than call a doctor, alarming the medical authorities who feared they might start an epidemic. Eventually a station was opened at Tibadugu, south of Falaba, under the American Board of Missions. Like the u.B.c. they used industrial methods, planting rubber and making roads, spreading practical as well as religious instruction.

Dr

Frederick revived the missionary tradition of Zion, Wilberforce

Street,

and

Methodist Episcopal missions in 1890

started African

Mange (where

the Huntingdonians had once been)

at

and Magbele.

Bishop Henry Turner of the a.m.e. Church came over from the

and 1893 and ordained pastors in Freetown. George Decker, who had served many years as a teacher at Cape Coast, built a church in Regent Road; ultimately he left the A.M.E. Church and ran it as his own. Another, the Rev. Henry Steady, from Waterloo (whose disbanded father had been a c.m.s. teacher, then Huntingdonian preacher), became pastor of New Zion, United

States in 1891

One of them,

the Rev.

Pademba Road in 1898, known as ^Steady Church'. The Maroon congregation joined the a.m.e. Church for a while, but in 1897 united with Zion as a separate body under Frederick. Their independence was short: in 1900 they joined the Wcsleyans. The remaining in 1900,

Nova

Scotian church, the

was defunct within

a

Rawdon

decade or

Street Baptist,

still

going

so»

There were many complaints that the Freetown postal service was slack, and hints that the officials were dishonest. Cardew appointed a 532

Commission of Inquiry. It was discovered not only that junior employees were conspiring with fraudulent stamp-dealers in England, but that the Postmaster, J. H. Spaine, had abstracted over ^i,ooo. In addition he had since 1885 taken over ^1,800 from the Savings Bank, concealing his frauds by fake entries in depositors' bankbooks, relying on their inexperience or illiteracy, and on the easy-going negligence of successive Colonial Treasurers, who were ostensibly responsible. So a distinguished, honoured Creole, a Head of Department, member of a highly respected family, was arrested in January 1895 on charges of embezzlement. Though the evidence of his guilt was clear, popular feeling supported him. M'Carthy's successor had not arrived yet, so Lewis was engaged to act Queen's Advocate. As when he prosecuted the Onitsha murderers, or William Caulker, or defended Crawford, he took on the case single-mindedly, ignoring public opinion. Spaine's friends brought influence to win round the jurymen. Three refused to fmd him guilty. They were discharged amid the cheers of the crowd, and Spaine remanded for re-trial before another jury. Cardew was determined he should not escape punishment. Before the second trial opened an Ordinance was passed to allow any official charged with an offence against public property to be tried by a judge sitting with three or more assessors, chosen from the special jurors' list, who would not give a verdict but opinions, which he was not bound to accept. The jury qualification was also restricted again, and two-thirds majority verdicts in non-capital cases restored (that provi-

of wanted given). A clause copied from a Gold Coast Ordinance allowed anyone to elect to be tried by assessors except in capital cases. This could exempt Europeans from trial by a sion so regularly introduced or abolished according to the kinds

verdict successive Governors

Creolejury.

An

angry public meeting was held and

against depriving a

one individual engrossed in

community of its

to justice.

liis

case,

a petition sent to

privileges for the sake

But the Colonial Office was unmoved. Lewis,

determined to uphold the sanctity of the courts,

not only voted for the Ordinance, but helped draft to principle earned

London

of bringing

him

a popular

odium which

it.

is

This devotion

not altogether

forgotten today.

came on in October before a new jury, twoof whom could now give a verdict. Again the evidence against him was overwhelming, but the jurymen had also to consider the Spaine's second trial

thirds

riotous

crowd

outside.

One

admitted afterwards he gave a 533

false

verdict

ballot.

To

of being stoned.

for fear

avoid reprisals they gave their verdict by

Spaine v^as acquitted by eight to four, and a tumult of applause

sw^ept through the court.

government used its new weapon and brought him to trial on fresh charges, before assessors. There could be no doubt of the verdict if only because the judge who had summed up against him was still on the bench. As a desperate gesture the five defending counsel threw up the case, refusing to take part in proceedings where the accused was being tried by a prejudiced judge under an Ordinance passed deliberately to convict him. One of the five assessors refused to declare against him, but backed by the opinions of the other four, two European, two Creole, the judge found him guilty and awarded him seven years imprisonment with hard labour.

Then

the

a third time,

A year elapsed before any attempt was pality

Ordinance of 1893.

porary tion

Mayor

in

was found

elector.

made to carry out the MuniciWhen Cardew appointed M'Carthy tem-

June 1894 to arrange elections the

so

narrow

that in the

A new Ordinance was

West Ward

electoral qualifica-

there

was only one

passed widening the franchise.

The

government also agreed not to hand over public utilities until they had been put in good repair. M'Carthy having by then left, Hebron was appointed temporary Mayor. Again there was delay, over preparing Valuation Lists. Not until August the 5th 1895 was the first municipal election held.

The twenty-four candidates who stood for the three Wards, East, West and Central, were chiefly shopkeepers. Three barristers, Lewis, Hebron and Francis Dove, were also elected. To the elected twelve government added three Europeans, Dr Prout, the Colonial Surgeon, Lemberg and T. S. Buckley, Fisher and Randall's agent. Lewis, unpopular over the Spaine

Ward, Hebron,

trial,

polled only sixty-one votes in the Central

Spainc's leading counsel, 194. Nevertheless the Council

Mayor, and re-elected him in 1 896. Town Clerk at ^200. His office was J. W. Maxwell was appointed in the Wilberforce Hall, which the Charity Commissioners handed chose Lewis

as

over to the Municipality.

In

November

1895

Cardew

suggested to Chamberlain that a knight-

hood be conferred ow Lewis. Deeply impressed by 534

his sacrifice

of

popularity to principle during the Spaine

trial,

he recommended the

award (which he had not yet received himself) on grounds of personal merit as well as to honour the new Municipality. So the New Year's Honours List for 1896 included for the first time a West African Knight Bachelor, Sir Samuel Lewis. Though only fifty- two Sir Samuel was already an elder statesman, with twenty-five years experience of the courts, nearly fourteen of Legislative Council. There he consistently followed a declared policy of supporting government rneasures not contrary to his principles with constructive criticism, rather than oppose them (like many colonial politicians) as an unthinking partisan.

As Mayor he worked devotedly,

and health (already failing) to the Municipality. He attended every Council meeting, arranged where each new street lamp should go. As often, his labours earned him as much opprobrium as recognition: when the butchers were made to take out licences for their market stalls they refused to sell his family meat. But he went on speaking his mind on the Council and shut up the Councillors when they prolonged meetings with needless speeches. In 1897 he prevented them spending ^100 on a Queen's Jubilee reception where, as he observed, they and the wealthy untaxed property-owners would be handsomely entertained at the expense of the uninvited street-traders whose hcences supplied most of sacrificing his legal practice

—

the slender civic revenue.

H. Thomas was a fine example of the self-made Creole magnate. Born at Hastings of Aku recaptive parents, accustomed to go straight out from the village school to work the rest of the day on the farm, he went at fourteen to the Northern Rivers as a trader's clerk. After a dozen years he started on his own (helped by a loan from Dr Robert Smith) at Malamah Factory in the Sierra Leone River. When he grew rich and moved to Freetown he was known as Malamah Thomas. The handsome house Ojokutu Macaulay built him in East Street was *Malamah House' it was decorated with carved heads, so he was also called 'Head-Head' Thomas. Specializing cliiefly in cottons, he invented his own brand, 'Malamah Baft', patented in England, which he often visited on business or pleasure. His wife Christiana, sister of T. J. Rollings, a shopkeeper in Westmoreland Street, helped him greatly in his early days, managing the Freetown business wliile he was up country. Most of his friends were

J.

;

535

Freemasons, but not he: he would have no secrets from her. Tall,

enjoyed poor.

his

(like

and game of

his cigar

When

stead,

manner

William Grant), he dressed elegantly, and gave generously to the daughter Laura, back from fmishing school in Hamp-

majestic, reserved in

billiards,

married Councillor C. C. Nicols, a contractor in Garrison

Street, in 1896,

he hired half the houses in East Street to entertain the

Onlookers flocked in from the business was done in Freetown. guests.

villages

and

for a

week

little

In the next street, Wilberforce Street, lived his namesake (but not

Samuel Benjamin Thomas. Born at Wellington in 1833 (as he was called) was educated for the Anglican ministry at the Fourah Bay Institution. He turned to business instead, and, starting with the small capital his recaptive father had made by farming, amassed relative)

'Abukeh'

most of it in England. Frugal, even miserly, with a simplicity that was almost discomfort, shunning any kind of public office, hating to hear his wealth spoken of, he sacrificed a great fortune, investing

living

present enjoyment to the vicarious pleasure of leaving, at his death in 1901, over ^70,000. Originally he intended to

the

Church whose ministry he had nearly

Case shook

his confidence;

endow from

his estate

entered, but the Five Pastors*

money went

instead the

to

found an

Agricultural Institution.

Wealth also trickled back to Freetown from her migrant sons. J. J. Thomas, a Wellingtonian like S. B. (but no relation) who, dissatisfied with being a printer's apprentice, went to Lagos in 1867 as a merchant's clerk, then

married

his master's

daughter and prospered in business,

re-roofed the Wesleyan church in his native village and contributed to

Freetown barrister

charities.

Hebron's

He

sister

returned in 1896 to marry, as his second wife,

Rhoda, and four years

Wilberforce House, Gloucester Street. charity,

endowed

Council in 1901,

a public Ubrary,

He

was given

later settled for

good

at

contributed liberally to a seat

on

the Legislative

a c.m.g. in 1908.

Some, like T. C. Bishop, or J. E. Gooding, or the late Mr F. A.John (who died in 1956, aged 99) returned from the Niger with capital to open a business in Freetown. Cornelius Crowthcr who came back to his native village, Waterloo, in 1892 after fifteen years with the Niger

Company, soon monopolized most of the prising

and industrious, (he opened

something of the

ruthless

trade in the district. Enter-

a hotel at

Waterloo

energy so conspicuous in

S.

him he put some of his profits into firming; his among the very few in the Colony that ever paid. 536

in 1904),

with

B. A.Macfoy,like plantations

were

Even those who remained bered to help those

who

in their

new homes sometimes rememMoney was raised all

stayed in their old.

along the Coast to finish off the Wilberforce Hall.

Horton Jones,

S.

who gave up the unexciting jobs of village constable and baker at Gloucester in 1877, to make a fortune as an importer and government contractor at Bathurst,

Gambia, with eventually

a seat

on the

Legislative

Council there, contributed to rebuild the church in his native village. R. B. Blaize, an Aku recaptive's son who left Freetown in 1862 seventeen to be

Government

at

Printer in Lagos, and, having saved ^^20,

left ^soo to the Princess Dr John Randle, from Regent, who was trained as a

turned with resounding success to business, Christian Hospital.

and qualified as a doctor at St Lagos (where he married Victoria Davies, Queen Victoria's goddaughter) (p. 318). He bought up undeveloped land there which appreciated enormously, so that he could endow a dispenser at the Colonial Hospital,

Andrews, went to

practise in

charity for the poor of Regent, at

and give money

for science teaching

Fourah Bay College.

Thus Freetown's leading citizens and their relatives along the Coast displayed an air of solid prosperity. Even the less opulent would have a good house in town, and perhaps a country retreat outside at Cline Town, Ascension Towoi or on the Leicester Road (like James Taylor's Cassandra House,

Cormack's

Thomas

Garnetville).

A

Bishop's Oleander Villa or E. T.

French steamer captain

Coast said they reminded him of the

villas

who

Mc-

served on the

near Nice.

Revelations of dishonesty in the Surveyor's Department, and in the

Pay Department, another conviction Bank where Spaine's assistant, undeterred by his Frontier Police

followed Creole

in the Savings

superior's

fate,

example, contributed to dispel Cardew's confidence in

his

already shaken by M'Carthy. Not all the fault was extreme carelessness of C. B. Mitford, appointed Colonial

officials,

theirs: the

Treasurer in

1

890,

removed

in

subordinates into temptation

1

897,

encouraged dishonesty, by leading resist. But with revenue

some could not

and expenditure increasing, with the prospect of Protectorate and Railway to administer, and long-delayed public works to build,

no further risk with Creoles. He asked that in Head of Department have a European assistant. Thus the Parliamentary recommendation of 1865 to biuld up an African administration to take over government was fmally abandoned.

Cardew would

take

future every European

821613

^3y

Mm

The new

Postmaster, given the impressive

title

Colonial Postmaster-

were appointed from England. The Queen's was divided. Smyly became Attorney-General; Rudolph De Groot, the Master and Registrar, a barrister of European descent from British Guiana, was promoted Solicitor-General. The Colonial Surveyor, styled in 1896 Director of Public Works (for he did no surveying), and his department Public Works Department, was given a European assistant. Enoch Faulkner was moved from the Secretariat to be District Commissioner of the united Eastern and Western Districts at Waterloo a European succeeded him as Assistant Colonial Secretary. Moses Potts, who retired in 1896 after thirty years in the Treasury, was replaced by a European: an Afro-West-hidian accountant who applied was rejected for his colour. Parkes, however, retained his department and Cardew's confidence, rewarded with the title Secretary for Native Affairs', hi the Customs, too, Caleb Edwin, the senior official, was appointed Assistant Collector in 1895, and acted when the Collector was on leave. When he died of apoplexy in 1897 J. E. Dawson, Chief Clerk, Secretariat, succeeded. But neither was allowed to sit on the Executive Council where the Collector was appointed ex officio in 1896. Nor did Cardew increase Creole representation on Legislative Council if indeed, as some complained, they were represented at all by appointed members. When T. J. Sawyerr died in 1894, he put in T. C. Bishop (Dr Davies having refused from age and ill-health), but replaced Jarrett by Buckley, President of the Chamber of Commerce. When he resigned no one, European or Creole, succeeded. The unofficial members felt their powers lessened by a Colonial Office instruction in 1895, limiting their term to five years, after which General, and

Advocate's

his assistant,

office

;

*

—

they would have to be formally re-appointed. Lewis protested vainly it would favour the subservient, instancing James Johnson whose outspoken criticisms were believed to have prevented his being re-

that

appointed to the Lagos legislature.

Another unobtrusive but far-reaching change was made in 1896 after an Attorney-General was appointed. It became the practice for government bills to be discussed and approved in the Executive Council before he introduced them into .the Legislative. Thus debates

became

a

formal adjustment of measures already decided, rather than

legislative deliberations, the senior official

members, on

given, tending to resent criticism as a slight unofficial

made

to feel

their assent already their abilities,

they were opponents not partners. 538

the

Early in 1895 the people of Mokassi, a village in the

Bumpe

The

they maintained they w^ere unrightfully occupying.

who

referred to Sub-Inspector Taylor,

Mokassi people v^ere

was

a

Upper Bagru-

drove the people of the adjoining Bunjema from land

area,

Mende, was

acting-Governor

dissatisfied, alleging that

biassed.

who

They brought

He

said

The

Taylor, v^hose mother

their case to

also decided against

there, they consulted Lewis.

dispute v^as

decided for Bunjema.

Freetown

to the

them. While they were

he believed the villages lay within

Colony boundary, advised them to ignore the administrative decisions against them and appeal to the courts. They paid Lewis a ^12 fee, went home and drove the Bunjema people out again, alleging that Sir Sam was their Governor, and had the ill-defmed

The

said they might.

and

sent

them

villages lay,

Frontiers arrested seven ringleaders in

to Freetown:

Madam

Yoko,

in

May

1896

whose country

the

alarmed that Lewis should apparently be claiming to

apportion them, backed up the Frontiers. Lewis then applied for a writ

of Habeas Corpus.

Cardew,

distrusting lawyers*

methods, anxious to rule the hinter-

land justly, was determined not to

let

enable people to defy government.

what he conceived

He

legal quibbles

feared that if they did

be impossible to keep order up country. courts deciding that the vague areas ceded

He wanted by

treaty,

it

would

to prevent the

but regarded

beyond jurisdiction, must be ruled by English law. He was

also

as

annoyed

that people should regard Lewis, rather than himself, as Governor.

The writ, applied for on Friday the 8th, was not returnable until Monday. So he summoned Legislative Council on the Saturday to pass at

one

sitting,

an Ordinance to detain the prisoners. Lewis and Bishop

protested vainly: the official majority passed

it

against them.

Lewis's professional pride was roused, his principles outraged, at defeat this

by the executive. As

so often before, he fought

He who had

time against the government.

against the

Frontier Sergeant

on

unhesitatingly,

brought an action for

his clients

arrested them, laying

the

^15,000. Cardew answered with a bill to indenmify public officers who, in good faith, executed orders to keep the peace

damages

at

beyond the Colony's active jurisdiction. Lewis and Cardew fought out their battle

in the

Council Chamber

Lewis accused Cardew of subverting the law, and of personal malice against him. Cardew retorted that Lewis was trying to overthrow the government, and hinted that he only with the utmost

bitterness.

did so for the sake of Ins lawyer's

fee.

539

Lewis's struggle was unavailing.

— The Ordinance was

passed, at the cost

between the Governor and

The boundary by

War

his leading subject.

delimitation agreed

Commission

a joint

of an irreparable cleavage

on

was carried out K. Trotter, of the

in Paris in 1895

early in 1896. Colonel

J.

Office Intelligence Division, and Captain Passaga, his French

colleague, experienced, tactful officers, performed their difficult task

of surveying watersheds and a line of latitude through trackless bush working against time to finish before the rains.

in a friendly spirit,

They drew

their line

accommodatingly, without

insisting

on

strict

geographical terms, putting a workable settlement before national prestige.

Their

only disagreement was over

on

British sphere, but

the route

from

Simitia

claimed by the French on grounds of prior occupation. peaceably to the

—within

the

the Melakori to the interior

home governments and awarded

It

was referred

in 1898 to Sierra

Leone.

The Samu boundary,

separately surveyed to save time,

peaceably adjusted, with a fmal delimitation in 1897.

put up

all

was

also

Mounds were

along the frontier and the inhabitants told which side they

were on. Despite their friendly agreement Trotter

ments.

He

still

feared French encroach-

would be unable to stop the Senehowever much their them, they were no match for their French counter-

suspected the Frontiers

galese soldiers interfering across the frontier, for

own people

feared

and knew it. Had rivalries in the Middle Niger or at Fashoda brought England and

parts

France to war, the Protectorate would have been overrun the French chose to send in troops.

Cardew proposed

as fast as

fortifying

Karene, north-east of Port Loko, to enfilade attack through Kambia.

But the Colonial Office

hesitated to

delay, never prevent, invasion. built.

The

future (though

Not

recommend what could only

until 1901

none could read

was

it)

a

small earthwork

justified inaction

;

the

Protectorate remained an unmolested enclave within the embrace of

French Guinea.

Settling the Liberian frontier, rouglily fixed in 1886,

by the government

War

in the

Tewo

in

Monrovia being unable

country

spilt

was complicated

to rule

its

hinterland.

over into British territory until 1895, 540

when

was moved nearer

the Frontier Headquarters

the

Mano, and

stockaded bases on islands in the river were destroyed.

The frontier divided Kai Lundu's country. When he died in 1895 Cardew recognized his speaker Fabunde as successor on condition he abandon his more distant Kisi territories, and asked the Colonial Office to persuade the Liberians to give up their part of the Luawa chiefdom. Unwilling to discuss the boundary, the Liberian govern-

ment permitted Cardew

to ignore

a party of Frontiers crossed

Liberian side

Kaba

it

it,

to drive

if need be, to stop wars. In

away Bawurume,

1896

a chief on the

who was threatening Fabunde.

Sei, the

Mende

war-chief of Mando, Upper Moa, was said to

have supported Bawurume. Though he protested his innocence he was arrested, liis chiefdom was divided between Nyagua and Kai Lundu,

and he was gaoled

as a political prisoner.

The Foreign Jurisdiction Act of 1890, consolidating a series of earlier acts, empowered the Crown to exercise any jurisdiction claimed in a foreign country as if by right of cession or conquest. An Order-inCouncil of August the 28th 1895 declared that the

Crown had

jurisdiction in foreign countries adjoining the Colony.

On

acquired

August the

was formally proclaimed, as being 'best for of the people', over the territories lying on the British side of the French and Liberian frontiers. Some chiefs in this area had in the past made treaties of cession, many treaties of friendship. Others, in remote parts, like the mountainous 31st 1896 a Protectorate

the interests

Koranko country Trotter surveyed, had made none. Its limits depended on how frontiers were decided in Europe not on treaties or chiefs' consent (as has been believed). The cliief at Simitia, for instance, was not asked which government he wanted to live under. Nor was the term 'Protectorate' (used but not explained at the Berlin Conference of 1885) defined. Only a few weeks before the Proclamation, during the Jameson Raid trial in London, the Lord Chief

—

Justice observed that 'Protectorates

Sierra

vary

Leone Protectorate was what the

So the status of the government chose to

infinitely'.

British

make it. The 1895 Order-in-Council empowered

Leone Legislative Coimcil to legislate for the Protectorate in the same way as for the Colony. A series of Ordinances passed in 1896 and 1897 introduced an administration on the lines already agreed on, over an area of about 541

the Sierra

27,000 square miles (rather smaller than Scotland), with a population

Cardew, judging by the nimiber of huts he counted on

his tours,

estimated roughly at a million.

A

Commissioner at ^^400, rising to /^500, was to be stationed in each of the five Frontier Police Districts. The District boundaries were slightly re-drawn to prevent chiefdoms being divided, but did not necessarily include all the members of one people. Karene District (often written 'Karina'), with headquarters at Karene, northeast of Port Loko on the Mabole, a Small Scarcies tributary, included most of the Temne, Loko and Susu countries and the Bulom Shore. Ronietta, headquarters at Kwelu on the upper Bagru, had the rest of the Temne (including the Yoni) and some Mende and Bulom. Bandajuma, stretching from Jong to Mano, headquarters at Bandajuma, north of Pujehun, had Mende, Bulom, Vai and Krim. Panguma, headquarters at Panguma, comprised the upper Mende and Kono countries Koinadugu, headquarters at Falaba, the Koranko, Yalunka, and Limba countries. The District Commissioner shared his power with the principal chiefs, described by Ordinance as 'Paramount Chiefs'. This term, used occasionally in the past by Governors with the general meaning of overlord, now officially replaced the old style of 'King' and 'Queen'. They were allowed to go on hearing minor cases which concerned 'natives' (defined by Ordinance as aboriginal Africans ordinarily District

;

resident in the Protectorate) in their

own

courts, taking court fees,

awarding fmes and imprisonment, but not corporal punishment. Natives charged with serious crimes, or Secret Society offences, came before a court where the District Commissioner sat with

The

two or more

Commissioner sat alone to try nonnatives (referring only capital charges to the Supreme Court), cases of native slave-dealing and witchcraft, land cases betsvccn Paramount Chiefs, and cases arising from 'tribal fights'. (The word 'tribe' was not chiefs as assessors.

District

defined in the Ordinances.)

The

Commissioner was guided, but not bound, by English legal procedure. He could impose small fines and prison sentences without appeal; floggings and heavy sentences had to be confirmed by the Governor. Non-natives could only appeal to the Supreme Court in serious cases. Nor was he hampcncd by what Cardew called District

and pettifogging lawyers': coimsel could not plead in the He also had powers to settle disputes summarily, administering a rough and ready justice based on common ^agitators

Protectorate without special leave.

sense rather than legal precedents.

542

A

few Court Messengers were appointed to issue summonses and enforce court orders, but policing remained the Frontiers' responsibility. Cardew, anxious to avoid friction between administration and police, decided to

promote Frontier

officers District

Commissioners,

rather than bring in outsiders. The only exception, Arthur Hudson, a barrister without African experience sent out as a District Com-

was promoted Solicitor-General after a year up country. Thus, when District Commissioners went on leave Frontier Officers could act for them, gaining administrative experience to qualify them for transfer. Where none was available, the District Surgeon was put in charge. Appointed from England at -^350-^400, with Creole dispensers as assistants, all were, at Cardew's request, Europeans. The Frontier Medical Officer was given up, and Dr Bishop transferred to the Kissy Hospitals. Cardew also insisted the Railway Medical Officers, who would have to serve in the Protectorate, be missioner,

Europeans. If this simple administration cost

the expense of the Frontier Police,

little, its

cheapness was offset by

;;/^ 19,927 in 1896,

more than

a fifth

of the total revenue. Cardew pointed out that the Imperial government gave a subsidy to start the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and a loan to Zululand. But the Colonial Office would not ask for Treasury assistance. The Protectorate had to be fmanced locally, if need be by the Colony, which would eventually benefit from the outlay with increased trade.

Cardew

did not want to reimpose Colony taxes, or deny the Colony,

works during the depression years, the improving revenue. During his tours up country

starved of necessary public benefits

of a

steadily

he came to the conclusion that he could raise direct taxes in the Protectorate. He had seen them paid without difficulty in Zululand; a house-tax

was levied

in the

Gambia; the French

collected a three

franc poll-tax (then about half a crown) in French Sudan; the Liberians levied poll and property taxes. So as well as imposing store and spirit

on all traders in the Protectorate, he provided for an annual on houses in the Protectorate with four rooms, 55 on houses with less, to begin on January the ist 1898. Chiefs were to be responsible for raising house-tax from their subjects, with a commission of 3 J a house (Creoles and Europeans paying theirs direct), the District Commissioner going roimd with his Court Messengers, assisted if need be by Frontiers, to collect. At first payment in produce was allowed, but Cardew hoped that with trade increasing, licences

tax of 105

543

and the spread of wage-labour on railway and government works, cash would soon supersede it. Once the system was established, he estimated from the number of houses counted on his tours, an annual yield

of about ^20,000.

The Ordinances Governor and

limited Parkes's duties.

chiefs,

he was

No

longer liaison between

restricted to passing

on through

Colonial Secretary information received from the District

the

Com-

some of whom ignored him and wrote to the Colonial Secretary direct. He would have preferred to the House Tax a Poll Tax. Those who paid would have been given a disc as receipt, those who failed, put to road work. He believed many would have paid for the sake of the disc, *to show they belonged to the Government', and that taxation would have been spread more evenly instead of falling on the missioners,

chiefs.

Colony and Protectorate, so differently administered, had to be more accurately than by the vague old cession treaties. Economy demanded the Protectorate administration extend as far as possible. So Ordinances were passed putting most of the country within the Protectorate: the Colony was limited to the peninsula. Southern delimited

Koya, and the Sherbro

District

(which included Sherbro

Island,

Mano, the land between The quarter-mile coastal

Turner's Peninsula and the coastline as far as the

Jong and Kittam mouths, and Imperi). ceded to give fiscal control, were put into the Protectorate, but subject to the Colony's Customs regulations: to have made them Colony would have opened too easy a refuge for tax-dodgers. This dehmitation entailed no formal relinquishment of sovereignty over the parts of the Colony put into the Protectorate. Nevertheless the whole Protectorate was henceforth treated as one unit, under an administrative arrangement which made it unnecessary to define where the

strips

the Colony's boundaries ran. the Mokassi prisoners after the Indemnity Ordinance

Cardew released

warning to keep the peace. Lewis, however, still sought to bring their case before the courts. So Cardew included in the Delimitation Ordinance of 1896 a clause to prevent tlie Supreme Court hearing any action already pending from the Protectorate. Lewis

was

passed,

with

a

protested to the Colonial Office

though

legally indefensible,

concession allowed

where

it

was decided

was administratively

that the clause,

desirable.

—no comfort to the lawyer—was that 544

The only

if such actions

were brought in the Protectorate courts, the htigants should not have to pay double costs. Thus two legal systems adjoined. In the Sherbro District Alldridge, the District Commissioner, administered English law, unaffected by the Protectorate Ordinances, as if he were a magistrate in Freetown. Cardew chose as Assistant District Commissioner, Imperi, in 1896, not a Frontier officer but Wilham Hughes, the Creole Police Clerk, qualified not only by honesty and reliability, but by his knowledge of the Colony's laws laws his neighbour the District Commissioner, Ronietta, could ignore. So a Bulom living on the Protectorate side of the boundary was under the stern jurisdiction of an officer who could punish him summarily and tax him: on the Colony side he was protected by the safeguards of the courts and untaxed.

—

Though Garrett prophesied that the Imperi leopard murders would stop when Macfoy died, they went on. Detectives were sent from the Colony

police to investigate: one

was

said to

associated with an Alligator Society himself.

into giving evidence; three

have been formerly

They

men were convicted by

and hanged. The

press reported

teacher, a report

which

terrorized people

the

Supreme Court

one of them an ex-Sunday school

inspired a grotesque, sadistic novel, J. C.

Grant's The Ethiopian.

Cardew

deliberately kept Imperi within the

Colony

to continue

strict detective supervision. Ordinances passed in 1895 and 1896 gave government powers to imprison chiefs suspected of being connected with Leopard Societies, and made it a felony to own the knives or

leopard skins they used, or Borfima.

Two more Then

were sentenced down.

the murders died

to death for leopard

By

the end of 1897

to incorporate Imperi in Ronietta District as part

and arranged

F.

W.

to

do so

Dove, the

in 1896.

felt it safe

of the Protectorate,

in April 1898.

barrister's brother,

entering a profession,

murders

Cardew

went

educated in England, instead of

into business like his father (p. 493), traded

Northern Rivers, then

Freetown.

He was one of

the

first

1896, just before the Protectorate

was

proclaimed, he got a development concession from a chief in the

Ku-

in the

City Councillors. In June nike country and registered

it

in

in Freetown.

545

He and

Harris,

who had

obtained Gallinas concessions, then

about floating the Anglo-

set

African India-Rubber and Trading Co. Ltd., in association with a

London company-promoter, J. S. Sawrey. Cardew was thus forced to reopen the

question whether chiefs

could alienate land (pp. 491-2). Parkes again replied with precedents Naimbana's grant of 1788, and property Heddle to show they had

—

and Macfoy had acquired, subsequently disposed of as freeholds. He could have added that land in Bonthe, ceded by chiefs in 1861, was freehold, deriving from Crown grant, and that government in buying some of Harris's Sulima property (p. 432) had recognized it implicitly as his,

not the granting chief's or

Cardew, anxious

to

his people's.

prevent

foreign

capitalists

exploiting

the

Protectorate peoples, was as anxious that they exploit the untapped natural

His

resources.

1896 Protectorate

Ordinance implied that

Protectorate land was alienable, safeguarded existing concessionaires*

mineral rights in the Crown, and allowed the Governor of waste land. But the Colonial Office would not allow ^Protectorate' to mean depriving protected people of land they might have no right to part with, and giving it to absentee speculators. Cardew had to repeal the lands clauses in the Ordinance and await rights, vested

to dispose

further consideration.

Even so, speculators were attracted. The West African Manufacturing and Development Co., a London company concerned primarily with supplying Freetown with ice and mineral waters, sent an agent to the

Koranko country prise Ltd., District.

an

in 1897 to get a concession. Representatives

Irish syndicate,

Lemberg secured

got one from

Ba

rights over the

Komp

of Enter-

of Yele, Ronietta

Atlantic shore between

Ribi and Kamaranka. Early in 1898 a party from Reading, the

Development Syndicate, came

Many who

to

Mendi

look for gold in the Upper Bagru.

work Congo or

flocked to Freetown from the Protectorate seeking

engaged to go down the Coast (p. 504), particularly to the Fernando Po. Despite reports of ill-treatment in the Congo, and death lists published in the Gazette, they were attracted by service which paid an accumulated lump sum instead of a daily wage they found it hard to save. Mende particularly pressed overseas (as once into the Sherbro) F. W. Migcod published in 1908, when he had never visited Mende country, a Mende Grammar compiled from what he had :

learnt

from

carriers

and labourers

in the

546

Gold Coast.

In the

Cameroons,

where the German government recruited them, Mary Kingsley found they had introduced the Poro. Congo recruiting alarmed the Enghsh pubhc: in 1896 Chamberlain told Parliament it would stop. Soon after, Porter applied to ship labourers to build the Panama canal. Cardew disliked the exodus of labour, as he feared to depopulate the Protectorate. Nevertheless he

assumed that Chamberlain's prohibition only applied to labour for the Congo government, sanctioned it, and let C.J. G. Barlatt take labourers

Congo Railway, a private company, which he was agent for. Chamberlain was indignant particularly as Porter supplemented his Freetown source with Krumen, engaged on the Kru Coast by giving the chiefs ;£i a head. At Panama the labourers fell ill from beri-beri; some died; they mutinied and were repatriated. The American ambassador in London accused Porter of virtually for the

—

him to The Congo government

reviving the slave trade: Kruger was said to have approached

supply labour for the South African mines. terminated his employment

was severely

restricted.

be submitted

officially.

as

Consular Agent. Henceforth recruiting

Contracts to ship labour from Freetown had to

The Governor was forbidden

unless certain the local labour supply

to approve

them

was adequate, and the conditions

of service unexceptionable.

Canon Taylor Smith went

as

chaplain to the Ashanti Expedition in

1895 on board ship with the Queen's grandson. Prince Battenberg.

The

Henry of

prince died at sea, and he hurried back to deliver his

dying message to the bereaved

made him an honorary memory, raised money

The Queen

royalties.

liked

him and

royal chaplain. He, to perpetuate the prince's

Memorial building

for a Battenberg

in Free-

town.

When Ingham that the Sierra

resigned in 1896

it

Leone Church should,

other Colonies, be disestablished. to the bishop's salary.

bishop was (and,

as

still

also

like

at the

Colonial Office

Anglican churches in most

The Colony stopped

The Colonial Chaplaincy was

contributing

abolished.

But the

paid ^^300 a year to provide gaol and hospital services

Cardew

^50 was

was decided

stressed privately,

a

European

at

the Cathedral).

voted annually towards maintaining the Cathedral

was commuted for ^1,000. Though bishops were no longer appointed by Letters Patent they were still Crown appointments. Taylor Smith was chosen in 1897 to fibric; in 1906

it

547

succeed Ingham.

He welcomed

Leone Church the independent body

The

Five Pastors' case

still left

making

disestablishment as

had long purported Waterloo

it

rival churches at

the Sierra to be.

—Taylor's,

the Pastors', and Williams's, the Bishop's. Early in 1897 some of WilHams's congregation brought in Mende from Matindi, a neighbouring village long famed for sinister doings, and demolished Taylor's

chapel of ease at Kosso

Town, Waterloo. The

ringleaders

were

tried in

Freetown. There was great excitement, and the jury acquitted

against

overwhelming evidence. Re-tried, they were again acquitted. Crown and, as in Spaine's case, was disgusted

Lewis prosecuted for the

by

the verdict.

The government, with

his approval,

decided to

restrict

the scope ofjuries further.

Taylor Smith,

The

a strict disciplinarian,

combined

tact

with firmness.

Five Pastors were reconciled, and he magnanimously

a canon,

made Pearce

Macaulay an archdeacon.

In 1828 George Stephen Caulker, like

many

contemporaries in Free-

town, found himself indebted to Macaulay and Babington. So for a debt of fy9A os i id he assigned to the firm the annual rent of ^^52 is Sd, paid him by government for the Banana Islands, hi 1842 the future

Lord Macaulay sold the firm's remaining Sierra Leone assets and the rent was bought by a Commissariat officer. He died in i860, and it passed to his widow. Rowe questioned this annual payment to a widow lady in the West Indies, but as the rent seemed to have been regularly assigned, the Colonial Office let it go on. In 1896 Cardew pointed out that the original debt, allowing 5 per cent interest, had been liquidated in 1883. So the assigned payment ceased. Though the Caulkers had been given stipends in 1881 in lieu of all previous payments, it was decided that the Bananas rent, made under a special treaty, was not included, so it reverted to them, divided between the two branches.

many

of West African government to which made policy 'a coma accompanied by fits', the coma its ordinary state, the fits the activities of a new Governor, exploding on a course different from his predecessor's. Yet against the disadvantages of discontinuous policy could be set the deterioration in health and enthusiasm winch normally overtook the

Mary

Kingsley ascribed

evils

the constant changes of Governor,

548

Governor who stayed more than a short period in Sierra Leone. Kennedy, full of reforming 'fits' in 1868, by 1871 was chiefly concerned with finding another post; Hay, still energetic in 1888 after thirteen years in West Africa, had lost interest by 1891. The vigour and enthusiasm that carried Cardew happily through hundreds of miles of bush in 1894, and set him planning reforms for the Colony, administration for the Protectorate, had waned by 1897 when his services were rewarded with a knighthood. Neuralgia, insomnia,

shingles,

making him

irritability,

impute

powerful frame,

racked his

exaggerating

his

of advice, quick to take offence and law cut liim ofl^ from the senior firmly as from Lewis, and confirmed

suspicious

evil motives. Distaste for the

natural associates, as

officials, his

his inclination to rule alone.

Even the Colonial

Office

administration

torate

work out

his

plans,

(the

was not always consulted over lands

policy,

for

instance).

his Protec-

He would

then pass them through Legislative Council,

disregarding criticism and offending the public. His

Ordinance, passed without the draft being

first

first

Protectorate

submitted to London,

had to be amended three times. The Protectorate boundary in October 1896 was altered in November 1897. So his haste his plans

down

laid

to execute

tended to delay them.

Yet, if he disregarded criticism, he was flexible enough to change his

up country, when he saw flintlock guns in every village, he planned to forbid the sale of arms. On second thoughts he realized they were needed for hunting, and contented himself with mind. After

his first tour

forbidding sale in

districts officially

As were

he wanted to

a teetotaller

said to

import

restrict the sale

be so strong they could be used

Kingsley found them too

Whatever

proclaimed disturbed.

weak

their strength they

rum below

as

were

which

spirits,

to preserve her specimens

of

often adulterated. Retailers

Mary fish).

would

proof, paying reduced duty, and add pepper,

duty on below-proof

quality, but not affecting

An

Ordinance of 1896 o£ proof, improving the general question of the morality of selling

aniseed, or tobacco to give a strong taste. raised the

of trade

turpentine (though

spirits to that

spirits in Africa.

While

Colony depended largely on revenue from spirit duties no was possible. Cardew had to be content with forbidding traders in the Protectorate to retail for consumption on the the

drastic restriction

premises, or give presents of spirits to natives

Central and South Africa). 549

(a

rule enforced in

Nor

did he risk antagonizing the chiefs irretrievably

by aboHshing he had originally intended. The Protectorate Ordinances merely allowed slaves to buy their freedom for ^4

domestic slavery,

{^2

as

and declared

for a child)

that slavery w^ould not be recognized

by

law. So masters could not legally retain slaves against their will, but

were not made

to free them.

At the Colonial

Office

W.

more

over-ambitious,

who

H. Mercer,

responsible for Sierra Leone,

felt

likely

to contribute to a

little

became primarily

He

to raise opposition than revenue.

bound

suspected the argument that people are

ment would have

in 1896

Cardew's House Tax premature and to

pay

for their govern-

appeal to hitherto independent chiefs, forced

government they had not asked

for.

He and

his

colleagues urged caution.

As 1898 approached Cardew too realized he had underestimated the of collecting. During 1897 he recruited fifty more Frontiers, bring the strength to 574, including twelve European officers, five Creole sub-officers. But the District Commissioners still had only two clerks, an interpreter, and ten Court Messengers each, to collect tax difficulties

in areas averaging 5,000 square miles.

Cardew had no

fear

of active

resistance to the tax

:

he trusted

his

District Commissioners' firmness,

backed by the augmented Frontier

would overcome

As the Protectorate could not be

Police,

ruled without

money

plan a

He

his

trial.

to

passive.

pay

for

it,

the Colonial Office decided to give

agreed, at their suggestion, to

exempt the remote

Panguma and Koinadugu Districts at first, and tax only Karene, Ronietta and Bandajuma. He also exempted villages of under twenty houses, introduced a

flat rate

number of rooms (which

window

English

be taken

as 55.

tax),

and

of

55 a

house instead of grading by the

News compared

the Weekly

said a bushel

to the former of rice or palm kernels would

These concessions reduced the estimate for the

first

year to ^^8,000.

To

save expense he put substantive District Commissioners only in

the three tax-paying districts. Captain

been

at

W.

Sharpe, in Karene, had

S.

school at Radley, then after service in a militia regiment, seven

years in the ranks of the regular

he joined the Frontier Police

army

in 1894,

in India;

commissioned

in 1890,

aged thirty-four. Captain C. E.

Carr, in Bandajuma, a year younger, had also served in the ranks,

and was

several years in the

Niger

Company

550

territories before

joining

the Frontier Police in 1895. Captain E. C. d'H. Fairtlough, born and

bred in Ireland, was commissioned from the Dublin Military in 1888, aged twenty,

and joined the Frontier Police

won a D.s.o. in the Luawa man Cardew wanted. the type of fighter,

The

he

in 1894;

Academy

an intrepid

country in 1896. All three were

Ordinances, which gave Creoles a legal means

Protectorate

of collecting debts up country, also subjected them to government. District Commissioners deprived them of the immunity from punishment they had long enjoyed under chiefs. Carr's first case at

Bandajuma was

against

a

Creole,

for

flogging and brutalizing a

debtor.

Some complained

licences and restricting the sale of spirits would Loko they threatened to give up trading. But the Jong traders who made their progress to Bandajuma to pay licences, accompanied by retinues of hammockmen and porters, showed no signs of being ruined. Indeed some welcomed licences which handi-

ruin them. At Port

capped

their

poorer native

rivals.

Traditional horror of direct taxation inclined them, and the Free-

town

press, to

The rate was declared was levied on. Those who the 'Hut Tax', an emotive name which gradually

disapprove of the House Tax.

disproportionate to the value of the *huts' disliked

it

called

it

it

superseded 'House Tax' altogether. Traders, Creole and European, prophesied that the natives

would

take to the bush rather than pay, and bring trade to a standstill. T. C.

Bishop begged in Legislative Council that

it

be delayed

till

the chiefs

were more used to the new government. The Freetown and Manchester Chambers sent protests to London. But, feeling their views based more on hearsay than evidence, the Colonial Office preferred Cardew's. If they

claimed that years in West Africa gave them experience

Cardew lacked, he could retort that few European traders ever travelled beyond a few miles of the sea, while he had slept in dozens of the huts he was preparing to tax, all over the Protectorate. Indeed Cardew travelled more widely there than any previous European, perhaps than any Creole. Laing, Reade and Garrett only explored the north, Zweifel and Mousticr the route to the Niger; Hay and Rowc never left the coastal plain; Alldridgc was never beyond Luawa until 1894 when he accompanied Cardew on his first tour. 551

In October 1896 the

Department of Native

the chiefs explaining the

new

tions

Cardew had given on

first

Protectorate

Affairs sent a circular to

system, amphfying the general explana-

his tours.

Ordinance were

The

elaborate provisions of the

out in the reassuring,

set

self-

consciously stilted style in which government addressed chiefs

from the high-flown, often

(as

which chiefs' letter writers, usually Creole traders, rephed). Iriterpreted by government messengers who tended to garble a comphcated statement distinct

they scarcely understood themselves,

them.

The

Many

never heard

it

rather Biblical style, in

it

alarmed rather than reassured

read and had to rely

on hearsay

versions.

most attention: perhaps the them, as minor officials usually do

penal, restrictive clauses attracted

messengers preferred to

stress

everywhere. Instead of feeling their rights safeguarded, the chiefs

them suddenly undermined. What Cardew considered

felt

them go on hearing was construed as a threat to punish those who heard cases that ought to go elsewhere. The penalties prescribed for specific offences were taken as threats to flog, fine, imprison or deport at will. A clause prohibiting sentences of flogging on women was understood to forbid a man to beat his wife. It was believed (though not mentioned in the Ordinance) that chiefs would be forbidden to hear 'woman palavers', cases of alleged adultery with their wives, often brought only to extort money. It was even rumoured that polygamy would be put down. The lands clauses of the first Ordinance were taken as a threat to deprive them of their land, trading licences of their right to trade, the Hut Tax of their homes. They and their predecessors had long known the British government as an unexacting neighbour, sometimes alarming them with expeditions, latterly burdening them with police, but on the whole kindly, as suited the sway of a benevolent Queen. Her changed manner aroused incredulous indignation. Accustomed for centuries to receive from Europeans the benefits of trade, they could not understand why it should be restricted, as they conceived, by licences. Ready to admit that government had brought them advantages, peace and the end of certain cases in their

it

a concession, letting

courts,

pay for them. One chief was impossible the Queen should lack money when her head

the slave trade, they said

own

saw no reason

to

was on every coin. Accustomed to government's paying

and to strangers paying their landlords customs, or rent, they had no experience of paying regularly themselves. Any taxes they collected from their stipends,

people were levied at their discretion, not at fixed rates at definite

They

intervals.

mistrusted innovation.

tax for dwellings was a kind of rent

They

also suspected that

paying

which implied they were no longer

theirs.

Nor

did they

know what

authority government had to rule and tax

them. The Protectorate Proclamation of 1896 was never proclaimed up country. Most treaty chiefs had done no more than promise friendship

At Magbele, Pa Suba began

in return for protection.

to

pay back

They

his stipend, to contract

felt

degraded

at

Commissioner

District

collecting

money

out of the Protectorate.

having to share their jurisdiction with a

who had power

to punish

them, in courts

where their own subjects could have them brought to trial. The slaves whose labour they depended on were no longer under their control. Even before 1896 chiefs who had Frontier posts in their towns had found it hard to retain them, for it was accepted that a slave who held on to a British flagstaff was automatically free. Nor could they get back wives who went to live with Frontiers (and so escaped the field work chiefs' wives had to do). Despite Cardew's efforts and assurances, the Frontier Pohce were still not properly under control. Small parties were still scattered in out-stations. There was a high turn-over among officers: three died and another was invalided in 1896; two were got rid of as unsuitable in 1897. Men were constantly being discharged or dismissed. Sometimes recruits with a month's service had to be made N.c.o.s to keep up the strength.

All

over

the

terrorized chiefs protested. In

Protectorate

and people, seized

some

assumed despotic powers,

their goods, brutalized those

who

of a uniform was enough to drive Surgeon who investigated charges

places the sight

people to the bush.

them

Frontiers

A

District

Bandajuma found most admitted their guilt freely, apparently imagining they had a right to oppress. Now the chiefs felt even more at their mercy, fearing the District Commissioners, former Frontier officers, would rely on them for information, and give them against

in

support.

At Sembehun, Upper Bagru, Sergeant Edward Coker, a Tcmne of the detachment, installed his mistress Nancy Tucker, a trader from the Kittam, as chief in 1897, in succession to Rowe's old ally Humpa Rango who had died some years bcfDre. She had no comicxion with the Bagru beyond having settled there to trade, yet government recognized her. in charge

821613

^^3

Nn

At Karene

the District Headquarters

were

built

on

the chiefs' burial

ground. They were burnt down, but rebuilt on the same

site. The chief Brima Sanda o£ Sanda, having died in 1896, there was a long interregnum while the succession was disputed. Sharpe wanted a successor appointed without too much delay: after eighteen months he had a candidate of his own installed with great difficulty. Bai Koba, of the upper Loko country, by tradition king of all the Loko, was senile and bedridden. The government put in another chief to collect tax. The chiefs refused to recognize him. When Sharpe was on leave in 1897 Captain Cave-Brown-Cave,

there,

an imperious, overbearing Frontier

officer,

acted for him.

He

told the

Paramount Chiefs to come to Karene to receive the gold-headed staffs which were to be their official insignia. Bai Koblo of Marampa and Bai Fold of Mafoki never came, so he sent Frontiers to bring them by force. When Bai Foki's escort reached Port Loko the people, seeing their chief under arrest, rioted and rescued him. He was not re-arrested, but a Port Loko headman was fined for having taken part in the rescue.

At Mahera, Rokel,

the

Loko Smart family wanted

independence of the Koya chiefs

who had

to establish their

them live young man partly educated in Freetown, asked Bai Kompa of Koya to crown him chief. He refused, so Smart got in the Frontiers, and had himself crowned and officially recognized. originally let

there. Charles Smart, a

In such cases the chiefs

felt

deprived of redress, for they had

lost their

traditional channel of complaint. They could only approach the

Governor through

the District Commissioner, an

Parkes, their familiar, trusted intermediary. Those

unknown ahen, not the Bulom Shore

on

were deeply aggrieved at having to take their complaints to Karene, Koya chiefs to Kwclu, foreign countries to them, instead of going direct to Freetown.

To

such encroachments on their pohtical independence

added what long under

is

less easy to assess, fears

Mushm

influence.

progress. Smart, at Mahera,

chief there.

When

of an

Christian

may

be

alien rchgion. In the north,

missions had

was the only even

made

little

ostensibly Christian

the C.M.S. decided to send agents to Kasse in 1897

Bai Bureh tried to keep them out.

But in the Sherbro and Mende countries a generation o^ converts had grown up luider the systematic guidance of the American missions. The Caulkers and Tuckers were Christians. Baha of Mafwe, Thomas

Bongo of Lugu, Seppe of Bumpe,

all

554

joined the Wesleyans. At Roti-

who

died in 1897, was succeeded by his son Santigi Bundu, educated at the Freetown Grammar School. At Tikonko the

funk Suri Kesebe,

chief gave the United Free Methodists his cliildren to educate; at

Bo

The Rev. J. B.

W.

he

let

them

Johnson the

take a grandcliild to school in Freetown.

(the Sub-Inspector's brother), a u.B.C. pastor

Bumpe

twenty years in

River area, destroyed *devil houses' there unmolested

without people seeming to mind.

Yet some

chiefs

had reservations

If they joined they necessarily

in

welcoming the new

took a subordinate place

:

religion.

if not,

they

were cut off from an influence that might set their subjects against them. At Taiama, Foray Vong tried vainly to keep out a u.B.C. mission. Madam Yoko, so compliant to government, was deeply suspicious of missionaries, gave them land unwillingly and resisted conversion herself.

of the was the

u.B.C. missionaries, disliking all secret societies, disapproved

Poro which, whether or not

it

conduced

to 'devil worship',

strongest pohtical force in the country. Wilberforce took an active

Bundu, who took charge at Rotifunk without being properly elected, was believed to owe his position partly to mission support. The Christian Baha was officially recognized as chief of Mafwe against his people's will. So chiefs had grounds for suspecting the missions threatened their power, and could feel their suspicions confirmed when u.B.C. pastors, American and Creole, preached sermons at Shenge and Mano Bagru, telling people they must pay tax. part in politics. Santigi

Cardew altogether underestimated the opposition the Protectorate Ordinances aroused. During 1896 he travelled nearly 700 miles, telling chiefs

about the coming

He assumed

tax.

They

assented politely or said nothing.

they approved, without realizing their assent might be

dislike of contradicting, their silence sceptical conviction that the plans he outlined would never be executed. So he misconstrued the genuine horror that animated their protests, suspecting them worked up by

Creole

'agitators'.

of protest came in from the more accessible chiefdoms. 897 a group of Temne chiefs came to Freetown to send the Secretary of State a petition drawn up for them by W. T. G. Lawson. Some of their apprehensions were misconceived the lands clauses, for instance, were already repealed. Cardew was on leave, so the actingGovernor was told to explain to them what the Ordinances really enacted and why they were being taxed. Nevertheless they stayed in Freetown to await Cardew's return. In October they petitioned LegisPetitions

In July

1

—

555

lative

in the

new

system and, prompted by sympathizers Freetown mercantile community, cabled to the Colonial Office

Council against the

for a reduction in tax.

On

November Cardew

what they had misunderstood, and explained the concessions he was making for the first year of collection. But again there was misunderstanding. They imagined he said villages of less than eighty houses would be exempt and had to be told later, by letter, he had said twenty. Nor did his pointing out that it was usual throughout the world for people to contribute towards the expense of government reconcile them to the Hut Tax. *Our own true fear', they reiterated by letter after the interview, 'is that paying for our huts naturally means no right to our his return in

elucidated carefully

Country'.

South of Bonthe

name may have Yoni

lived near

the

Yoni, Sherbro Island, lived Ghana Lewis (whose

in the 1850s).

name Banka,

he secured

at

derived from the slave-trader, Louis, or Lewis,

The grandson of Kong Kuba who, under

signed Turner's Treaty in 1825 as King of Sherbro,

a stipend in 1881 as his representative.

he used the society to extend

was known often

who

A leading Poro

his personal influence.

By

man,

the 1890s he

Be Sherbro of Yoni. (Though a Bulom, his title was written *Bai' *Bey' was now discredited, though still sometimes as

;

When

of Impcri, an office vacant since 1870, was elected again in 1896 he crowned him, thereby, in accordance with customary usage, securing his obedience. Alldridge described and photographed the coronation. In February 1897 he and Francis Fawundu, a successful trader, used).

educated

at

a

Sokong, or

ruler,

an American mission school,

who had

father in 1894 ^s chief of Mano, Kittam, led a

succeeded his

group of chiefs

to Free-

Cardew explained them they would have to obey, pointing out to Be Sherbro that as he lived in the Colony he was unaflccted. On his return Be Sherbro got the Poro to prohibit the sale of produce to Europeans or Creoles. When D. F. Wilbraham, Master and Registrar, acting District Commissioner for Alldridge, remonstrated, he explained they were boycotting trade because they were dissatisfied with prices, disliked licences, and had no labour, as they were losing their slaves. The traders felt sure these excuses hid a plot to drive them and the government from the Sherbro. town

its

to protest against the Protectorate Ordinance.

provisions and told

556

As an inhabitant of the Colony, Be Sherbro could not be summarily arrested, but an Ordinance was drafted to detain him if necessary. Two of his supporters were convicted for fining a woman who had ignored the Poro and sold a Creole fufu. The embargo was then given up. To prevent it being revived, an Ordinance was passed making the use of Poro, or anything similar, to restrain trade a criminal offence. Thus the Poro chiefs lost the control over produce they had previously had power to exercise.

While the embargo was in force Hughes, alone in Imperi, heard that Sokong had gone to the Mabanta country to try and enhst the chief of Mokele in a special Poro. He reported that there were signs of a planned outbreak against the Protectorate Ordinance. But Wilbraham was sceptical: 'It is not likely', he minuted, 'that Bey Sherbro, Sokong or anybody else would resort to actual arms to enforce their views.' the

557

XXII CARDEWmany

preferred not to harrass his District Commissioners

with too

exphcit orders, relying

carry out the pohcy he outlined.

how ness.

lieu

84

to collect tax, only asking

them

to

He

on

their initiative to

them to decide combine patience with firmleft it to

Each was sent a 56 lb. bushel measure to take the produce paid in of cash, a further concession, as the traders' normal measure held

lbs.

Fairtlough was on leave; the District Surgeon,

Dr Hood, who had

only been out since February 1897, was acting in Ronietta

He

District.

December telling them to come and pay. Madam Yoko, faithful to the government which consistently protected her, and Charles Smart, who owed government his position, obeyed. Nancy Tucker, not yet formally installed, said she would pay when she was, and did. The rest refused. Hood took some Frontiers to Taiama, seized cattle belonging to Foray Vong, who then paid, and distrained on some Creole traders' property. Smart told the doctor his Paramount Chief (and enemy) Bai Kompa of Koya had forbidden his sub-chiefs to pay, and had sent his second in command. Pa Nembana, to say that if he did they would kill him. So Captain H. G. Warren, the Assistant Inspector at Kwelu, went with Smart to arrest the two chiefs for intimidation. Bai Kompa said he was ill and retired to bed at Romangi. Warren, a fierce little Irishman, dragged him out forcibly, not without difficulty as the elderly chief sent a circular to the chiefs in

and heavy. He refused to be taken to Kwelu. Warren, uncertain whether Romangi was Colony or Protectorate (the delimitation left the Koya boundary vague), realizing he might have acted illegally,

was

large

him go to Freetown. When Cardew received Hood's

let

Frontier being

Moore,

thrown

reports,

which

also

On

a

into the river at Mokassi, he sent Captain S.

a Frontier Inspector since 1894, to take charge

returned.

mentioned

imprisonment: he wanted to

till

Fairtlough

Moore gave Nembana twelve months flog him too, but Cardew would not let

Smart's evidence

liim.

558

at Kwelu. Among them was Fula Yoni war-chief who, having served seven years as a Mansa, a former pohtical prisoner, was not going to risk again annoying the government. He told Moore secretly that the Yoni Paramount Chief, Bai Sherbro of Yoni, had sworn them not to pay tax. Moore promptly put the principal chiefs in gaol: he had made them

He

assembled the Ronietta chiefs

leave their 6—7,000 followers outside the town, across the river.

only released them

when

He

they promised to pay, and kept several at

Kwelu until they started.

demanding letters, summoned the Bandajuma Mafwe, and told them that, however poor, they would have

Carr, instead of sending chiefs to

at least to make a token payment. They asked for a week to consider. While he was waiting he heard that Dr Arnold, the District Surgeon, whom he had sent beyond the Moa to warn people to pay, had been mobbed by an angry crowd. The doctor then invalided himself to Freetov^i where Cardew accused him of malingering. He resigned and went home. "When the chiefs met again they said they were unable to pay. Carr, who had already learnt they had decided in advance to refuse, arrested five, and took them to gaol at Bandajuma. Though the town was filled with their followers, the arrested chiefs allowed no resistance. As the District seemed so disturbed, and arresting cliiefs did not bring in tax, Cardew telegraphed for permission to send a company of the 1st West India Regiment to Bandajuma. He instructed District Commissioners to get in three months supplies of rice to their Head-

of arms in the anyone found carrying them

quarters, issued a Proclamation forbidding the sale

Protectorate, and gave orders to have

disarmed. Several

Bandajuma

to get the tax taken

chiefs

off.

were

Cardew

in

Freetown making

sent for

Tikonko, and told them to go back and to, and went home. Francis

Fawundu, however, declined

Momo

start collecting.

to

a final effort

Kai Kai and Sandi of

go with them

Both promised to see

Cardew,

questioning not only government's right to tax, but whether, under

made with Havelock in 1883, he was subject to Cardew was not going to argue about the nature

the treaty his father

government at all. and extent of British sovereignty he considered all inhabitants o{ the Protectorate British subjects. As Fawimdu went on denymg he was :

559

British,

Cardew deposed him. The Colonial

legal point, later

upheld the administrative

Office, dubious

about the

only suggesting that

act,

if

he

submitted he might be re-instated.

The chiefs imprisoned borrow the money from

tion then started. Early in

needed

—

Bandajuma began paying some had to and were released. Tax collecFebruary Cardew decided troops were not

at

P.Z.'s agent

—

after all.

Sharpe, back from leave early in January, went to collect tax at Port

Loko on February excused themselves

the

as

5th.

The Creole

traders,

summoned

first,

being only tenants: he replied that the Ordinance

required occupiers to pay, irrespective of ownership. They then told him they were ready to, but had been warned by the chiefs that the first who did would be murdered. The Alikali of Port Loko was lying paralysed; a regent Bokari Bamp, was acting. Sharpe told him and the other chiefs to undertake

not to molest the Creoles. Bokari declined, saying that tax for their houses, they

would

explained the difference between tax and rent.

Sharpe detained

Bokari

him

He

still

in custody over the following day, a

declined, so

Sunday.

argued it was not for him but for Bai Foki, their overwhether tax should be paid. Sharpe however held him and

also

lord, to say

his chiefs personally responsible for

them

if traders paid

refuse their landlords rent. Sharpe

again. After

much

obeying.

On Monday

he gathered

persuasion they agreed half-heartedly not to

hinder Creoles from paying. But the assurance was so half-hearted the it. When Sharpe had them up in court they and jeering at him. Frontiers were sent to distrain on their shops, but found they had removed their goods, leaving bundles of worthless rubbish; when they were opened in court the Creole women crowed with delight. Unable to collect, Sharpe fmed thirty-

Creoles dared not rely on

still

refused, laughing

eight for tax-evasion and contempt.

Again he demanded the chiefs promise not to molest the traders, and start collecting themselves. As they still refused, he arrested Bokari and four others, sentenced three to twelve months, two to fifteen months imprisonment with hard labour, and shipped them into a boat for Freetown gaol. As at Mafwe, the arrested chiefs told their people not to

resist.

Like

Moore and Carr (who wrote from Bandajuma

the chiefs to

know

if the arrests

were 560

legal),

after arresting

Sharpe was determined to

uphold authority without being hindered by formahties, wanted. But where

his colleagues

as

Cardew

detained chiefs until they promised

to pay, he sentenced them, under the Protectorate Ordinances, to the

ignominy of hard labour in Freetown. Nor did the grounds for conviction amount to much more than disobedience, reinforced by the opinion of Sub-Inspector Crowther, long in the District, that they were bad characters. Once they were gone, the Creoles hastened to pay, and apologize. Sharpe remitted or reduced most of their fines. Then, again at Crowther's suggestion,

unconnected with

he appointed Suri Bunki,

a rich

Port Loko trader,

either ruling family, to act as regent

and

collect

tax.

Bai Bureh of Kasse remained aloof from government after the attempted 1894 (p- 522), drawing his stipend, but treating the District Commissioner with reserve, even contempt. Aged between fifty and sixty, of powerful, dignified build, his health was unimpaired by the heavy drinking that made Cardew dismiss him as a worthless drunkard. His influence and reputation extended far beyond his comparatively unimportant country. It was rumoured at Port Loko that he was in arms and meant to attack. The alarmed inhabitants, determined not to pay tax to the arrest in

usurping Suri Bunki, started moving away, taking the palsied Alikali

with them. Sharpe was convinced that until he put

down

Bai Bureh,

believed government's principal opponent, the tax paid.

So he sent him a message, ordering him to start hoping to provoke him to open defiance

—

whom

he

would never be collecting imme-

—

and wrote to of Frontiers to go and arrest him. A Frontier lance-corporal took the letter but was turned back by his men, who said they had orders not to let any government messenger pass. diately

Cardew

Sharpe

for a reinforcement

later affirmed (but the lance-corporal denied) that

he returned

met Bai Bureh, who had refused to take the letter, and threatened Sharpe's life. But whether Sharpe believed the awaited saying he had

defiance had taken place or not, his plans were already made, even

explained publicly to the people at Port Loko.

On

the

17th Tarbet

(who

failed

to

and his office baggage and ;^200 in tax-money, set

forty-six Frontiers, Sharpe

561

arrest staff,

oti

Bai Bureh in 1894), and sixty carriers with

along the Karcne road,

at Romeni, the Frontiers going off to Mahera, where Bai Burch was beheved to be, the noncombatants going on to

proposing to divide

When

Romeni they found of armed men who said they were there to elect a king. Sharpe went with an escort to get news of Bai Bureh. He began talking to a man (through his interpreter, as he knew no Temne) when they closed round him. Alarmed, he seized the man to bring him away. When he resisted he struck him on the head with his metal-tipped cane and brought him to the lines by force. The people, now thoroughly excited, began shouting, warning the Frontiers not to advance on Mahera. Sharpe and Tarbet realized they must change their plans. Many of their men were new recruits; Captain Hastings, the Assistant Inspector, had only been a few days in Africa. They decided to escort the baggage together along the Karene road, and postpone Bai Bureh's arrest. A jeering crowd followed the retiring colunm, not touching them, but surrounding them, mocking their cowardice. After a bit Tarbet could stand no more, halted the rearguard and ordered them to fire a estabUsh a base near Karene.

they reached

it full

volley.

A

few

fired back, then, as the Frontiers fired again, dispersed

with some As soon as the Frontier advance-guard heard firing they broke ranks and rushed to the rear. The carriers, left unprotected, threw down their loads and took to the bush. When the column re-formed casualties.

had to carry the loads. When they reached their intended base, they were in no state to take the offensive. Instead they marched on ignominiously to Karene. Shots were fired at them from the bush but Frontiers

none were hit.

A

Bureh had eluded capture. Rumours circulated that the Scarcies chiefs were supporting him-and were preparing to attack Port Loko, where only six Frontiers remained to protect Suri Bunki. At Karene Brima Sanda, an unpopular government nominee, could provide no allies, and was himself a likely victim. Cardew decided to get help from the Army. On February the 24th Major Norris (who had won a D.s.o. as Bai Bureh*s ally at Tambi) with six officers and ninety-two men of the ist West India Regiment, a seven-poimder gun, a Maxim and 500 carriers left for Robat, Great Scarcies (lest their landing at Port Loko be opposed), and marched to Karene. The town was empty. Brima Sanda third time Bai

562

and the Creole traders were sheltering in the barracks. Norris took over the District and proclaimed martial law. Less confident of the Frontiers' abilities than Cardew, he decided against staying in Karcne, as arranged, while they pursued Bai Bureh again. Instead, ignoring Sharpe's protest, he marched his column to Port Loko to secure the line of communication. On the way they were attacked; two officers, six men and twelve carriers were wounded.

They

Romeni and two

retaliated, shelling

other towns, and burning

nine villages, before reaching Port Loko.

There the

six Frontiers,

by rumours, had decided to A young mission

frightened

enforce Cardew's order to disarm the people.

employee refused to give up his sword a Frontier struck him with his rifle-butt and killed him. The incensed relatives set fire to the Frontiers' house; neighbouring houses caught too. As there had recently been a bad accidental fire, half the town was in ruins. Suri Bunki deserted his uncomfortable post for Freetown, was captured escaping, and eventu;

ally killed.

Norris encamped at the c.m.s. station on a nearby hill. The church was taken over as a hospital; Miss Sarah Hickmott, a spirited young missionary from Brighton, nursed the wounded. Early next morning they were attacked, but repulsed the attackers easily. Later in the day reinforcements arrived from Freetown, escorted by a naval launch which shelled Old Port Loko, by the wharf, where armed men were gathered. A drawing of the exploit appeared a few weeks later in the Daily Graphic.

Thomas Chadwick, Freetown kept carrier pigeons, to

agent for G. B. Ollivant and Co.,

with the first news of them now for military use. So a miles from Freetown to Karene in an

forestall business rivals

caravans from the north.

He

despatch could travel the sixty

lent

hour when Norris asked for a reinforcement it arrived next day. Norris wanted three companies, one for Port Loko, one Karene, one to attack Bai Bureh. Cardew felt he exaggerated the danger. Under ;

Colonial Regulations the officer hostilities,

but

Cardew with

to take charge rather than

commanding

his years

of active mihtary

Colonel Bosworth,

seen action. Conceiving the

the troops

campaign

ist w.l.R.,

directed

service tended

who had never

in police rather than military

terms, he preferred the lightly-equipped Frontiers to the regulars, with

and equipment, and sent only one company. Cardcw's interference. But when the reinforcing company marched virtually unopposed to Karcne Cardew felt

their

mountainous

stores

Norris was enraged

at

563

He

Loko and telegraphed to London nearly was quelled. that the rebelhon During their first attack Bai Bureh's men exposed themselves to fire. At least sixty were killed. This taught them to fight from cover, firing out suddenly at the columns marching, distended with carriers, along the narrow bush paths. They were mostly armed with trade guns, useless in open fighting, deadly if fired at close range by an invisible enemy, even if only loaded with slugs stuffed into empty cartridge cases picked up in the soldiers' tracks. When Sharpe left Karene, which had been attacked almost daily, for Port Loko, his escort was again opposed. He and Cardew now realized the Frontiers were ineffective. So another company of regulars was sent from Freetown to Karene through the Kasse country, destroying towns. Meanwhile a column went from Karene to fetch stores Norris had left at Robat, but was forced back with an officer killed, seven men wounded. It then returned to Port Loko, firing volleys into the bush all the way, expending a mass of ammunition, but answering Bai Bureh's strategy of ambush. On the 19th Bosworth went to take charge at Port Loko, to end the futile marching and countermarching, and take the field against Bai Bureh. About 600 carriers had been collected at Karene so he sent a company to collect them. On the way it was attacked not by an enemy firing with only foliage for cover, but from stockades. Two officers were badly wounded, thirty men killed or wounded. On their way back two more officers were wounded, and they retreated to Karene. Bosworth set out at high speed to relieve them, dashing past the stockades without stopping to attack, till, stricken with heat apoplexy, he collapsed and died. Night fell, an officer was killed; not till after midnight did the demoralized rout reach Karene. A day or two before, Colonel J. W. A. Marshall who had served in several West African campaigns arrived from England. He assumed command at Port Loko on April the ist, taking the last of the troops, leaving the Navy to protect Freetown until two more companies arrived from St Helena. His exhausted, discouraged officers despaired of putting down Bai Bureh before the rains. Fever combined with defeat to lower their resistance. The three senior officers were ill, 230 of 600 soldiers disabled by wounds or sickness. Smallpox had broken out among the carriers. With casualties so high, it was hard to recruit more. Railway labourers were taken. Tcmnc could not be relied on: Cardew would not let

justified.

ordered Sharpe to Port

564

Norris ask Bai Yinka,

who was

were unwilling. Without

loyal to government, for help.

carriers the

paralysed. Like European troops they

West

Mende

were and bedding,

India Regiments

moved with

tents

from headquarters on carriers' heads. For some time the War Office had considered recruiting a force of West African regulars. Cardew, who tended to exaggerate the helplessness of the West India Regiments, recommended raising a lightlyequipped force, living off the country, independent of carriers, like the Frontier Police and the French Tirailleurs. When the news oftheKarene campaign reached the War Office, Lord Wolseley, Commander-inChief, remembering the Mende who had served under him in Ashanti in 1873, sent Colonel E. R. P. Woodgate, an experienced staff officer, to take charge of operations, with a cadre of officers for a temporary West African Regiment, to be recruited from the Protectorate, to help eating rations brought

put

down the rising.

Marshall cheered his dispirited officers and started an offensive. the loth he had control of the Karene-Port

Loko

By

road, and could send

columns into the Kasse country. Opposition was fierce and stubborn. The stockades were built of palm logs embedded in the ground, tied with creeper, with laterite boulders along the base. A trench was dug inside where the defenders lay protected, firing through loopholes. Groups of stockades were built close to the road, invisible to the marching column, enabling the defenders to fire out suddenly and concertedly. Bai Bureh enforced discipline, as at Tambi. His men fought like experienced soldiers, withholding

was

useless;

seven-pounder

could only cut their

way

bush to take them in the

shells

fire

until ordered. Frontal attack

broke on the boulders. The attackers

laboriously through the thick surrounding

flank.

By

then the defenders would have dis-

appeared along the network of paths cut behind, leaving the soldiers the

empty glory of taking

a deserted fort.

As they always took their satisfaction of knowing

dead and wounded there was not even the

whether any casualties had been inflicted. One stockade taken, there was often another a few yards on, sometimes twenty in eight miles. All through April and May Marshall's column went round slowly destroying them, and burning towns, till resistance gradually slackened.

The c.M.s. had three European agents at Rogbcri, north-cast of Port Loko and about twenty Creoles dispersed 111 villages. The Temne 565

mistrusted the Europeans, particularly after the troops

Port Loko Mission. So

when

encamped

at the

they tried to leave they were brought

back to Rogberi and, though not ill-treated, made to stay. The Rev. William Humphrey, c.m.s. Secretary and Principal of Fourah Bay

Loko to get in touch with them. him not to go nevertheless he set off until turned back. Still he was determined. A week later he set out again. After a few hours he met some men who, perhaps taking him for a soldier in his white sun-helmet, fired at him. His carriers ran away and left him arguing with them, trying to convince them he was a missionary. But they refused to listen, and hacked him to pieces. Tills unpremeditated murder took place without Bai Bureh's knowCollege, hurried to Port

Norris warned

;

ledge and against his will: though suspicious of the c.m.s., he agents unmolested.

A

few weeks afterwards he

near Karene, explained he had had no part in colleagues an escort to Freetown.

explaining he had

asked

(let

He also

no quarrel with

left their

sent for Elba, stationed

it,

and gave him and

his

gave him a message to Cardew

the English, that he had never been

alone refused) to pay tax, and had not taken arms

till

his

people were fired on.

Soon

after,

Marshall took Rogberi and brought away the remaining

missionaries; those at Port

vanished.

The American

Loko

left too, their

missionaries in the

congregation having

Rokel

also retired to

Freetown.

The Freetown

Tax, dropped the subject

Loko

traders

prices

began to

of the Hut rumours of disturbances began. The Port

papers, having signified initial disapproval till

brought alarming news; trade with the war-area ceased; rise. By March rice was 125 a bushel, the price it normally

Both papers pointed out that their advice had been neglected, and suggested the Hut Tax be reconsidered. Everyone blamed Cardew. Women gathered outside Government House and held a prayer-meeting, processing roimd the garden wall, singing hymns, praying that a miracle soften the Governor s fetched towards the end of the rains.

hard heart.

Cardew,

who had from

the tax, not only ignored their machinations.

affecting influence.

the start assumed the Creoles

them but blamed any

He ascribed He told the

would oppose on

failure in his plans

the shortage of carriers to their dis-

Colonial Office that

was put down and the ring-leaders 566

when

arrested, a Special

the rising

Commission

a

would have

to try

them,

as a

Freetown jury would never find them

guilty.

The Creoles were as suspicious of him. When, on March the nth, he made Legislative Council a statement on the causes of the rising, firmly blaming Bai Bureh as the aggressor, the Weekly News, after thanking him for the

first

(indeed only)

accept his view unreservedly.

Bureh*s message,

it

gave

his

When

statement

official

war-report, declined to

Elba arrived in April with Bai

more

credit than Cardew's.

With no official news, wild rumours spread: more than once the Temne were said to have invaded the Colony. A series of inflammatory articles in the

Weekly News presented the war

as the struggle

of Might

—

and Right, with Bai Bureh 'fighting fearful odds' like Horatius Freetown oratory. The rising became 'The

figure often recalled in

Cardew War'. The despite

its

Sierra

Leone Times aspersed Cardew regularly, and,

contempt for aborigines, showed open sympathy

traditional

with *Our Mahdi'.

Short messages occasionally

by

from Renter's Freetown correspondent, amplified their Liverpool correspondent,

English papers at the end of February. serious,

and ascribed

it

to the

suffering, representatives

They

began appearing in the presented the

war

as

Hut Tax. Alarmed by reports trade was

of the Manchester and Liverpool Chambers which they had always

resolved early in April to ask that the tax,

opposed, be repealed. Later in the

month James Marcus, who

for years

had done

a small

but flourishing cash trade in Freetown, arrived from the Colony, and

gave The Standard an interview, blaming government for disregarding

few days later, was demanding Cardew be recalled for wantonly provoking a war. To these commercial outcries Mary Kingsley, embattled in a letter to the Spectator, added the unfamiliar argument that taxing huts was contrary to the principles of African law, which held (she maintained) that if people pay tax for something it is not theirs. Though, as her critics observed, she had never visited the Protectorate to see whether an abstract 'African law' was valid there, she offered a plausible reason why the Hut Tax was feared and hated. Those at the Colonial Office who had only agreed hesitantly to the tax felt their doubts justified. Mercer proposed it be reduced once the rising was suppressed. Chamberlain agreed; as the news deteriorated, he the traders' warnings. Truth, a

5«57

debated following the traders' advice and repealing it altogether. Cardew's too sanguine hopes, his interference with military operations, turned them against him. Mercer imputed to liim, quite wrongly, the of flogging those who refused to pay tax, alarming Chamber-

intention lain

who

disliked corporal punishment.

So when Michael Davitt, turning from the wrongs of

his

own

oppressed Ireland to those of a distant Protectorate, inquired about the

Hut Tax in Parhament, Chamberlain replied it was only an experiment which would be reconsidered once peace was restored. On May the 3rd he drafted a telegram for Car dew that the traders' criticisms showed a new pohcy must be introduced. On the 6th he asked him to consult with his Council whether they should not proclaim that as

soon

as

the insurgents laid

down

arms, the tax

would be

revised or

suspended.

the Ronietta chiefs were collecting tax. When Bai Kompa complained to Cardew of Warren's having kicked him, he was warned to start collecting too. He promised, and was told to go to Kwelu and

Meanwhile

report to Moore.

He

failed to

appear at Kwelu: Charles Smart seized another chance

to discredit him. *a

He wrote

to

Moore

that Bai

Kompa was

gathering

host of men-in-arms', and was in league with Bai Bureh. Early in

March Moore set out with Smart and forty Frontiers; Fairtlough, back from leave, joined them. They marched about looking for Bai Kompa, shots were exchanged, several Koya people were killed (at least one, it was said, in cold blood), and two towns burnt. There was no Frontier casualty. At the end of a fortnight they had still not found Bai Kompa, so they returned to Kwelu where Moore handed the District over to Fairtlough.

Smart then accused another enemy, Alimami Sena Bundu, of disand suggested to Fairtlough that Fula Mansa be invited to help against him. Early in April Fairtlough, Warren, Smart and fifty Frontiers, with Fula Mansa and his Yoni, marched through Koya again. Fairtlough reported that they were constantly attacked but always beat off their assailants. They killed at least fifty-eight, and burnt at least ten towns; not a single Frontier was hurt. The Yoni did most of

loyalty,

the fighting, rushing ahead, plundering, burning, carrying ofl

and children. the

Bulom

When

Shore. Bai

Kompa

sent

568

^30

tax

women

Bundu had left for money from Ins Inding-

they reached Foredugu, Sena

place,

but Fairtlough, unimpressed, appointed Fula Mansa to act

Chief of Koya and collect tax from the terrorized people. As no system of tax-collection was laid down, Fairtlough collected as he thought best. Fula Mansa levied from most of his new subjects, but some paid to a Creole trader who went round with a Frontier

empowered to collect. Sub-hispector Johnson sent Frontiers through the Ribi country and got /^450 in about a fortnight. Sergeant Coker helped Nancy Tucker collect. Some chiefs raised the money escort

themselves and brought or sent

When Cardew tax, old

(

the

Thomas Neale Caulker

Many

of his subjects

martyr.

Rumours

Shenge

visited

Aunt Lucy

it

first

•

in

u.b.c. convert

that he

still

Kwelu. 1896 and explained the coming

to

must

thought him

filled the

descend from the interior.

among the Caulkers) told He remained silent.

refuse to pay.

William a were paid war would Caught between fear of war, and of a a usurper, his cousin

country that

if tax

—

government which refused to listen to their fears for Moore told them no one would dare to bring war again the people warned the chief against enforcing tax. He, loyal to the government which had appointed and upheld him, determined to. Two Frontiers were sent to help him. They went ruthlessly through the chiefdom, demanding instant payment, tying up those who refused till they paid, or burning their houses, exacting tax even from small, exempted villages, so

—

raising ^^300, but also bitter hatred.

R. C. B. Caulker, reinstated at

Bumpe

in 1895 after exile in the

Gambia (p. 474), at first forbade his people to pay, then changed his mind and began collecting. Cardew believed him associated with Bai Kompa, and he was gaoled at Kwelu. There he admitted that, though he paid government

^10

tax, he had sent jTjo out of reach to Koinawere attacked in a village in his country, so the fiery Warren went with twenty men to repeat Fairtlough's Koya exploits, firing at any gathering that seemed hostile and burning villages. They were said to have shot down a man who refused to give up his sword, and burnt a woman inside a hut. Thus by the end of April Fairtlough had collected over ^2,500, chiefly in cash, from Ronietta.

dugu.

Two

Frontiers

Bandajuma Captain C. B. Wallis, a former militia officer just out from England as an Assistant hispcctor, helped Carr collect. Traders were made sub-collectors to store m their factories the produce which,

In

8^1613

569

00

was chiefly paid in this District. Frontiers went round where to send it. At Wedaro, on the Moa, two Gallinas traders, Gbese Kai and Lamin Lahai (a protege, perhaps relative, of John Myer Harris's, educated in England) opposed the tax till Carr made them collectors. Then they collected eagerly, measuring rather than cash,

telling the chiefs

produce

By

in their

own

large measures, not government's.

some only

the end of April Carr had raised ^2,624,

He

after dis-

There were complaints of Frontiers and sub-collectors misbehaving. As in the other two

traint.

tried to supervise collection himself.

man was said to have been killed for not giving up liis Nor were chiefs allowed, as he had hinted at Mafwe, to make a

Districts, a

sword.

token payment only: those

who

did were sent

away

for the rest.

Without active resistance, which he told Cardew he did not expect, the District was uneasy. When the Rev.. Charles Goodman returned from leave to Tikonko he found people, normally friendly, reserved, unwilling to carry his loads.

Panguma, heard reports that a party of Sofas, still lurking beyond the border, were preparing to invade Luawa. Ignoring orders to remain on the defensive, he crossed into Liberia with Fabunde and drove them away. No tax was payable in Panguma yet it too was disturbed. Blakeney heard that Nyagua was summoning chiefs to secret meetings. Two Frontiers who attended in disguise reported he was asking them to help him drive all white men from his country. Armed men were seen in the bush; arms were found concealed at Kenema. Blakeney threatened Nyagua with arrest, and he agreed to his people giving up their arms. Captain Blakeney, the Frontier Inspector in charge

Wallis went to Gambia, on the Small the factory of

M.

Z. Macaulay,

village, thirty years in the Sherbro,

chiefs

brought in their

arrested,

tax.

Bum,

J.P., a

at

to collect tax.

trader, originally

who was

He

stayed at

from York

a sub-collector.

The Jong

Gberi of Gbonge, one of those Carr had

only brought part, so Wallis detained him

till

the rest

was

paid. Hearing a neighbouring chief had refused, he sent some Frontiers to arrest him. They fired, the people resisted, seized a Frontier and killed him. Next day Adolphus Dick, another chief Carr had arrested,

who had

a ship-building business in the

commg. 570

Jong,

warned Wallis war was

Next morning, Wednesday, April were

at breakfast,

The

Frontiers,

built

on

the 27th, as Wallis and

who

slept there,

rushed to the factory, which being

the usual Sherbro plan, three ranges of buildings enclosing a

square, with the river as the fourth side,

ghastly figure staggered after them, his

Macaulay

they heard sounds of war from the adjoining town.

was

both terribly gashed with mortal

child,

easily defensible.

A

Mr James, a Creole trader, carrying cutlass

wounds. The

Anglican catechist and other Creoles in the town were being slaughtered. Wallis sent Macaulay to Bonthe with the surviving children,

and prepared to defend the factory with

Ins

women

and

twenty-five

by a few Creole traders. Attack was easily beaten off. The attackers were chiefly armed with clubs and cutlasses; only a few had guns. But the ill-disciplined Frontiers fired wildly, and by Saturday ammunition was running short; messengers sent to Bandajuma for help were captured and killed. So as night fell, they withdrew quietly by canoe, taking Gberi with them. Not for half an hour did the attackers realize they had gone. Then the excitement of plundering and burning the factory, followed by a heavy thunderstorm, prevented pursuit, so Frontiers, helped

they reached

The

attack

Mende and

York Island unmolested next morning. on Gambia was no isolated outbreak; the whole

Gallinas countries

Sherbro,

were being suddenly, without warning,

given over to slaughter and destruction. Those

who

planned the rising

had used the Poro as a cover to ensure secrecy, swearing their adherents on a 'One Word' (in Mende *Ngo-yila') oath, which gave but one choice obey or be killed. Once the secret groups were sworn,

—

rise simultaneously, judging perhaps by the phase of the moon, or by giving each chief a certain number of stones, with orders for him to throw away one a day, and rise when all were thrown. When the day came, messengers went through the country with a burnt palm leaf, the final signal. Bumpe in the Upper Mende country was believed to have been the centre of the conspiracy. In some places *Bumpe' wa3 used as a password: a trader at Lavana took off liis hat and boots, put on a country cloth, and escaped detection by shouting it

they waited to

when

challenged.

All aliens, European or Creole,

were the appointed victims, also employed or had educated, even, it was said, any man in trousers, any woman in a dress. A few were spared, warned in advance, or liidden, by native friends or wives, at least one for a bribe; a man was killed near Shenge for having helped Creoles escape. Jolni Mannah, a trader long at those closely associated with them, their wives, those they

571

Mokassi,

who was

held in a law case in 1895 to be a British subject,

even joined in and helped murder a Frontier.

Such were exceptions. The accumulated grievances against governtraders, and unpopular chiefs, broke in a wave of fury, to sweep out for ever all taint of alien influence. Every wrong was recalled even the memory of Mende labourers recruited for the Congo, who never returned: captured Creoles awaiting death were mockingly told they were being sent to the Congo. The body of a Frontier officer buried at Bandasuma, was dug up arid burnt, as if to rid the soil of pollution. Encouraged by news of Bai Bureh's success and tales of his supernatural power, they envisioned driving the Europeans into the sea. But they had no Bai Bur eh to lead or discipline them. They fought ment, Creole

—

as a disorganized,

rapacious rabble, incapable of sustained opposition,

but formidable in a sudden offensive against unsuspecting opponents.

As they rushed from town to town offering the alternatives ofjoining them or being killed, they gathered support from those eager for plunder. Primarily a Mende rising (and often so-called), Vai, Bulom, Loko, Mabanta Temne joined in, from taxed Protectorate or untaxed Colony alike. So did the scattered communities of Susu and Fula, to fight or their traditional part in war buy slaves.

—

—

Creoles, scattered in the factories and villages they in for a generation,

were

utterly defenceless.

had been

About 100 were

settled

killed in

Bagru country alone. The u.b.c. mission at Mano Bagru, run by Creole agents, was destroyed: the Rev. C. A. Clemens and the Rev. Joseph Hughes were killed; the Rev. Samuel Morrison took refuge in the bush with his son and died of exposure. Wilberforce escaped, but his mother and sister, making for Bonthe by canoe, were seized and hacked to death. The neighbouring traders suffered similar fates. At Gbangbatok, Musu, the aged chief's daughter, incited her decrepit father and sons to kill two Frontiers and a trader. At Gbambaia the the

chief killed at least twenty-four himself.

The mland stations of the u.b.c. were occupied by American misThe flourishing Rotifunk mission was staffed with six, the Rev. and Mrs Isaac N. Cain, Rev. A. A. Ward, Miss Hatfield and Miss sionaries.

Archer, both quahficd doctors, and Miss

Mary

Schcnk.

Ward was

in

Freetown with the Mission boat when rumours o( the disturbances reached them, but in a country where American missionaries had so long lived unmolested, even during the wars of the '70s and '80s, they had no reason

to fear.

572

Yet on

The

May

war raging

the ist the

all

round

three Frontiers stationed there had fled. Santigi

with government, hid in the bush. Without

hammocks

upon Rotifunk. Bundu, identified

fell

their boat, unable to get

for the ladies, the missionaries set out to

walk

to

Freetown

but were turned back to Rotifunk. There they were seized and stripped,

Miss Schenk was raped,

all

were hacked

to pieces

with

cutlasses,

and

their mission buildings destroyed.

At Taiama the American missionaries, the Rev. and Mrs L. A. also tried to leave and were prevented. Foray Vong promised them protection, then handed them over to be slaughtered on the rocks

McGrew,

by the River Taia. At Yele in the Kittam a new Wesleyan church was to be dedicated on the 27th. The war gathered round, waiting for the service to begin. J.

A. Williams got word of

threatened the

it,

packed pastor and people into boats,

Mende boatmen with

and made them row

his revolver,

to Bonthe.

Few were

so fortunate. R. T. Collier,

who had

traded longer in the

Sherbro than any other Creole, was captured at Bahol, with his son and Willie Lewis, a nephew of Sir Samuel's; all were murdered. Those taken in this area were brought first to Tihun, to Chief Vandi, who would then let the captors take them back again to their plundered factories and kill them. At Koronko, higher up the Kittam, the factories

were destroyed and two Frontiers

killed.

Joseph Matthew Tilley, the

Anglican catechist in the KLittam, eighteen years in trade there, was killed,

with four other Creoles,

Queen

Messe's request. At

the

Roman

at

Bamani

Hahun;

wife was spared at Company's factory and

his

the French

Catholic mission were destroyed, but the mission agents

escaped.

no were set upon, and their murdered bodies thrown into the sea. The government boat, sailing unsuspectingly down the Kittam with mails and ^1,000 from the Sulima sub-treasury, was forced ashore by canoes at Koronko;

The conventional boundary of Colony and

Protectorate was

protection. Creoles trying to escape along Turner's Peninsula

the police sergeant in charge their

way

was

killed,

but two constables

forty miles along the shore, and

by canoe

made

to Bonthe, to

money intact to Alldridge. A young Mancimian, W. R. Leech, trading at Mopalma on his own, who was on board, also escaped. At Sembehun Sergeant Coker and his Frontiers beat off attack. Then, sending Nancy Tucker under escort to Kwelu, they escaped by boat down the Bagru to Bonthe with the Creole traders, repellmg deliver the

573

But where Frontiers were stationed in isolation they were powerless all over the country they were done to death by those who had long awaited a chance of revenge. Mafwe was attacked on the 29th from Bumpe. The Frontier detachment barricaded themselves into a house belonging to W. R. Allen, a trader from Wilberforce, with Creoles gathered from the neighbourhood. They defended themselves until kerosene was poured round and ignited, to burn them out to be butchered or seized. The wild assailants were even said to have driven their own children .into the flames, because they attended the Methodist school and learnt English. Allen and the Christian Chief Baha were taken to Bumpe and publicly slaughtered. Some women and children were spared and sold as slaves. Only one man, Emmanuel Cole, from Wilberforce, who planted coffee at Sumbuya, escaped into the bush. His child Lemuel, enslaved, sold eventually to Susu, only returned to the Colony in 1930. Panic-stricken refugees poured across into Bonthe, where Alldridge with his twenty years' experience of the Sherbro was utterly bewildered by the sudden rising. As part of the Colony, Bonthe had no Frontier garrison, only sixteen policemen, four of them sick, with nine rifles between them. A German steamer unloading cargo on the 28th was sent to Freetown to report their plight. As before, Cardew was inclined to belittle the danger. Conceiving the rising in terms of the Karene war, he was reassured by hearing that the Mende attacking Gambia were ill-armed, sent only thirty soldiers, and twenty half-trained Frontier recruits, and told the Senior Naval Officer he thought any hostile canoes.

;

serious rising in the Sherbro unlikely.

At the

first

news, Alldridge sent five of his precious policemen with

Dr Jarrett by

boat to Imperi to reinforce Hughes, whose apprehensions

were being so cruelly fulfdled, and bring away Miss Mary Mullen, an American missionary alone at Momaligi. Along the river banks they found corpses and burnt factories, but no sign of the kindly, modest Hughes whom the Sokong had carried inland. There, after imprisonment and torture, he was killed; liis wife and clerk were murdered too. At Momaligi Miss Mullen was sitting calmly awaiting the attack, already gathering, wlicn Jarrett arrived and saved her. Her American colleagues at Shenge also escaped: the Rev. L. Burtncr in successive journeys took about 450 refugees in the mission boats to the Plantains, whence they went to Kent. G. M. Domingo (author of 77/e Caulker Manuscript) got

with the Rev.

J.

away by boat from Bompctuk

A. Evans, the remaining American. 574

When

a

Customs

launch arrived from Freetown, with a few pohcemen, to protect Shenge, they found the mission premises empty and menaced.

They

ammunition ran out, then escaped to their boat. The attack on Shenge was led by Alexander P. Doomabey, whose Bulom surname commemorated the notorious wickedness of his father, former chief of Mando. Educated by the u.b.c, he had been their accountant and a candidate for orders, but quarrelled with them, and bore them a grudge. So throwing ofFcoat and trousers, he assumed ancestral war-dress, and led the party that 'sacked the mission and put up a fight

killed

its

till

their

remaining adherents.

Under cover of the

general massacre, the Caulkers enacted a family

drama. Burtner tried to persuade Thomas Neale to escape with him to the Plantains but he preferred to await retribution in his

There

liis

own chiefdom.

cousin Francis, the hanged William's brother, was revenged

on the slave-born usurper he was captured and put to death. Meanwhile Alldridge's compound was besieged by terrified people he could do nothing to help, crowding into the empty protection of defenceless government buildings. At night the fires of burning factories flared from the mainland; the church and Creole shops across the water at Bendu were in flames. Fearful of attack by water, they also dreaded Be Sherbro might take them in the rear. A steamer arrived on the 30th with Cardew's meagre reinforcement and left with as many as could stampede on board. Alldridge summoned Be Sherbro, whom he believed behind the rising, and sent him to Cardew with, a frantic letter describing their desperate state. Scarcely had the steamer left, on May the ist, when a more welcome craft appeared, the gleaming trim of H.M.S. Blonde, sent by Cardew, who now realized the danger. H.M.S. Alecto followed. H.M.S. Fox went on to Mano Salija where five European French Company and Palma Trading Co. agents were gathered with about ninety Creoles, protected by Chief Njehu, who refused to join the war. Other Gallinas factories had been abandoned: a police sergeant and two men defended Sulima for two days but were ultimately forced out. Mano Saiija was easily defensible, but there was no garrison. The Fox began taking the refugees ofl'in boats till the sea grew too rough. For another night they remained on shore, protected chiefly by the ship's searchlights, winch alarmed their surrounding assailants. Next day they walked along the shore to Cape Mount, where the Fox, after ;

shelling the

French

Company

factory to prevent

picked them up. 575

it

being looted,

Though

the

Mende

massacres started on the 27th, Freetown people

horror when the refugees arrived from Bonthe on the 2nd of May. When on the 3rd a report came in from Waterloo that the Mende were advancing on the Colony, they were panicstricken at their defenceless plight. The three naval ships were in the Sherbro; the Colonial steamer had followed them with troops. Of 400 soldiers left in Freetown seventy were invalids, 186 recruits in the new West African Regiment, the half-trained countrymen of the advancing enemy. Mende and Temne servants were scattered throughout the city, and settled in large communities in the suburbs. Cardew telegraphed for a 1st class cruiser and a battalion of European troops but could scarcely hope they would arrive in time and sent 100 soldiers to Waterloo by the newly-built railway to meet the invaders. The Creoles, alarmed at seeing the military records being carried up from the Commissariat to the barracks, and the soldiers' families ordered in for protection, feared that when the attack came the mihtary would retire to Tower Hill leaving them to their fate. They petitioned to be allowed to form a Volunteer Corps. Cardew agreed, but, distrustful of their loyalty, remembering their sympathy for Bai Bureh, put in European officers only James Taylor, as Mayor, was made an honor-

only realized their

full

—

—

:

ary captain,

Dr Renner, Medical

Many would-be

Officer.

Volunteers, reciprocating his distrust,

when

they

saw that under the Volunteer Ordinance the Governor could send them out of the Colony, declined to enlist. Lewis set an example by joining as a private, but other professional men preferred unarmed slaughter by the Mende to subjecting themselves to Cardew. For two days hysteria reigned. A meeting of the Church Finance Committee broke up in disorder at the news that the Mende had taken Hastings and were advancing. Invaders were said to have landed on the Atlantic beaches and be gathering in the mountains. A police sergeant had to be sent to Kent to stop people attacking the canoes full of refugees from the Sherbro, whom in their panic they took for the enemy. The nurses and patients from the Princess Christian Hospital were moved for safety to the Aimie Walsh School; European missionaries patrolled there and at Fourah

Bay

College, with

rifles

lent

of the Mende and Temne in the eastern suburbs. Mende at Congo Town were beaten up by crowds, and the police had to intervene to prevent a general attack on them in Freetown. On the 5th the Fox and Alccto returned, leaving the Blonde to guard

by government,

for fear

Bonthe. Woodgate, back from Port Loko, decided 576

that,

with rein-

forcements from the

West

India

Regiment

could be safely countermanded.

at

Lagos, European troops

News came

in

that

Fairtlough,

besieged at Kwelu, had beaten off attack.

Next day Cardew and Woodgate went by train to Waterloo, where the Railway Engineer, W. R. Howell, had raised a Volunteer Corps. They found that the Mende, far from threatening the Colony, had not crossed its borders; Songo Town, deserted by the Creole inhabitants, was empty. A detachment was sent to secure it. By the end of the week Freetown had calmed down, though people were still nervous. When a ist class cruiser, H.M.S. Blake, arrived it was rumoured (and for years repeated), that Cardew had summoned her to take the Europeans on board, and then blow up the city. Even the presence of six naval ships in the harbour could not quiet fears of a sudden Mende rising within the Colony. Sensitive and mistrustful, the Creoles held a protest meeting when an Ordinance was passed to detain without trial those suspected of complicity in the rising, because it applied to Colony as well as Protectorate. They felt their loyalty slighted,

without reflecting that to apply

it

to the Protectorate only

would enable the guilty to escape to the Colony. Not until the end of the month when a naval contingent was marched smartly through the streets

was confidence

restored.

Not the least of Cardew's worries were Chamberlain's telegrams warning him that the Hut Tax must be reconsidered. As soon as calm was restored, he called Executive Council. They agreed that the need for revenue, and the moral principle of the right to tax, made it impossible to abandon direct taxation. He telegraphed their opinion to London, then composed another telegram, again justifying the tax, and denouncing those he believed responsible for

its

being resisted

— the Creoles.

Even in 1896 he had suggested them as scapegoats to be blamed for any resistance (p. 555). Now he accused them of inciting the natives not to pay, and fomenting disloyalty in the press. The English trading interests, whose views impressed Chamberlain, he declared selfish and biased. Against them he produced missionary opinions that the Hut Tax was not the sole cause of the rising. His telegram arrived on May the 9th, the day Sierra Leone was being raised in the House of Commons. Mercer brushed it aside. Chamberlain was impressed. When Davitt had finished deriding Cardew as a criminal lunatic, quoting Marcus and Mary Kingslcy, he answered on 577

^he lines the telegram suggested.

He

mind

open about the Hut Tax, promised to send a Special Commissioner of hiquiry as soon as the rains stopped mihtary operations, defended Cardew, and repeated his unsubstantiated accusations of the Creoles and their declared his

still

newspapers.

During May, when news from Sierra Leone was published almost from all over the Empire filled the English papers. As if wild tongues loosed drunkenly with sight of power at the Diamond Jubilee had provoked immediate retribution, there were reports of risings in the Gold Coast, the lower Niger, Somaliland, Swaziland, Borneo, and among the Maoris; wars were being fought in Uganda and the Sudan; there were riots in Jamaica, suspected cannibals in New Guinea, and threats of war with France over the Niger frontier; Captain Marchand was marchmg towards Fashoda. daily, disturbing accounts

All

demanded Chamberlain's

the Sierra Leone despatches

cumbered

his desk,

we need

decision. If we

among not

marvel

at his

mastering

the mass of detail that daily en-

feel surprised at his seizing

on ready-

—

made solutions first the traders', then Cardew's. The despatches in which Cardew expanded his

telegrams, and the

advocacy of Lord Selborne, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary, who upheld Cardew, convinced liim that the brutality of the Mcndc rising prevented any immediate concession over the Hut Tax.

He

decided

whether to retain it or not. The spread of war to country where tax had already been paid, in any case weakened the traders' argument that the people to await the Special Commissioner's report before choosing

were only It

resisting taxation

and would stop once

it

was abolished.

supported Cardew's argument that the tax was the pretext, the

real

cause the chiefs' resentment at the loss of their power. interests was lessened by his Chadwick of G. B. Ollivant admitted of gunpowder to natives who were subsequently

Chamberlain's sympathy with trading hearing from

Cardew

having sold lOO

lb.

that

it up country. A Creole clerk in the Coaling Co.'s Kissy had sold a native a 50 lb. barrel. Neither had troubled to

found taking Street shop

inquire

who

their

customers were.

During the panic at Bonthe it was found that the European firms had large stocks of powder, far more than the 100 lb. they were restricted to by law. The Powder Magazine returns showed that during the latter half of 1897 nearly 50,000 lb. of gunpowder were withdrawn for sale up coimtry; Cardew was quick to note that Marcus, who told the press he had seen war coming, was among the largest vendors. 57«

He and Chamberlain wanted to prosecute Chadwick and the Coahng Co. clerk for selling arms to the enemy. But, to confirm Cardew's poor opinion of lawyers, the Colony law officers shied at an action based on the complicated law of treasons. While they delayed the witnesses vanished. it

Chadwick was paid and thanked

for his pigeons,

which made

harder to prosecute him. Eventually the cases were dropped.

Cardew charged

the Creoles with having directly incited the natives,

individually and in the press, against paying tax. easily believed files

than proved.

prosecution. Criticism

hostile articles,

scrutinized the

but nothing to warrant

was veiled, mockery rather than

attack,

nowhere

Cardew's accusation of constant direct incitement.

Nor was said

The Attorney-General

of both newspapers, finding

justifying

The charge was more

it

certain

how

far

they circulated

among

those they were

have inflamed. Creole traders certainly disseminated

to

their

contents up country: in 1896 the Sierra Leone Times published a letter

about a Creole reading aloud from a chance copy to people in a remote part of the

was

in

Bumpe

them

if

Weekly Newses in

But proving

River.

Many

chiefs

they wanted to: Sena

could doubtless discover what

Bundu had

a

bundle of old

his house.

real

Cardew could not

incitement

elicit.

demanded

direct

evidence

—which

Certainly if the press encouraged Bai Bureh

must have been indirectly. Elba reported that no one in his camp could read English: a note picked up saying 'Road clear to Karene' was it

supposed a peace-offer.

Nor

could he easily prove that

(as

he wrote to Chamberlain) 'almost

without exception every trader in the Protectorate' had incited the natives not to pay. Despite his urgent promptings, District

missioners could only convict four

testimony.

The charge

—one

against another

Com-

purely on Fula Mansa's

was having rebuked

a

mission

agent for collecting because tax-gatherers are denounced in the Bible.

Three were charged at Kwelu with having sold Temne arms. Two were released for lack of evidence. The third, H. N. Ring (who had said tax-gatherers were unchristian) was given twelve months' imprisonment. He had to be released after two, as the charge had been wrongly brought.

No

Port Loko trader was prosecuted though their

gunpowder

in January, contained

only empty barrels

arrived in March. Reports that a to to

stores, full

when

of

the troops

Waterloo shopkeeper had sent arms Taiama proved baseless. T. C. Bishop, whom Cardew was preparing denoimce to Chamberlain for selling powder to the enemy, could 579

show

that

all

he had sold since the Proclamation forbidding

sale in the

—though he,

like other

Protectorate was for blasting in the

Colony

shopkeepers, had sold large quantities up country in

1

897.

Despite lack of evidence Cardew*s plausible charges were accepted

unquestioned

at the

Colonial Office.

Though Chamberlain asked condemn unheard

proof, he and his subordinates were ready to

convenient scapegoats so long disciples.

Sympathy

vilified in the

for

the

pages of Burton and his

for massacred Creoles could be henceforth

tem-

pered by the reflection that they had brought retribution on themselves.

when Cardew

pressed his attack into suggesting that half-educated

Creoles were unfit for free institutions and a free press, praising the

French for keeping their democratic principles for

home consumption,

even Chamberlain, the champion and prototype of the half-educated,

seemed inclined

to assent.

In June the Jury Ordinance arising out

came

before Legislative Council.

It

a non-capital offence could be tried

Attorney-General saw

unanimity

fit.

if dissatisfied

Injury

with

of the Waterloo Riot

(p.

548)

provided that anyone charged with

by

cases, it

a

judge and

assessors if the

allowed the judge to demand

a majority verdict. Lewis,

who had

changed his mind; he was absent from the first and voted against at the third. His and Bishop's protests Chamberlain was unmoved by a petition enclosed in a

originally approved,

two

readings,

were

vain.

despatch where

Cardew

attacked the Creoles viciously. Trial by jury

ceased to be a right in non-capital cases, and

became

a privilege

depen-

dent on the will of government.

From

April to July the Sierra Leone Times published for the benefit

of the English press a series of violent leaders against Cardew. Fox Bourne, of the Aborigines Protection Society, used them for an article in the Fortnightly Revieii^, with an account of hundreds being shot down in the Karene District (where Marshall's troops could seldom be sure they had shot anyone at all), hundreds more dead from starvation. Like Cardew, he believed the tax to have been only the pretext for the rising,

An

but saw

as the

underlying cause oppressive government.

Weekly News of April the i6th recalled, as a contributory cause, that the Frontiers were often runaway slaves, recruited and trained in Freetown, then sent back to their homes to tyrannize article in the

580

— over their old masters, a complaint made in the Temne chiefs' petition against the Protectorate Ordinance. The writer brought no evidence

of any

particular Frontier's having oppressed his old master, but

a plausible charge against a force

were posted, Sierra

if possible,

it.

was

where many were runaways and men

where they understood the language. The

Leone Times repeated

press; Davitt raised

it

it

in six leaders;

it

appeared in the English

Cardew admitted there might well have been

when it was true. The Sierra Leone Times, and Fox Bourne,

cases

provoked by

also alleged the rising partly

appointed

Cardew's having

Commissioners. However inapplicable such

inexperienced

District

Sharpe,

a description to

Fairtlough or Carr, officers as experienced as any European the Colonial Office

was

likely to recruit,

it

doctors. Frontier officers just out

fitted

some who

from England, or

them

acted for

unfitted for civilian

duties.

Some of

these charges

were repeated

in an

anonymous pamphlet,

The Last Military Expedition in Sierra Leone, published in Liverpool. Purporting to be written by an Englishman twenty years in Africa,

was the work of a young Creole clerk in the Secretariat, A. B. C. Merriman-Labor. Blyden took them up too. At the suggestion of his friend A. L. Jones, an opponent of the Hut Tax, he put them to the Colonial Office, proposing they return to rule by chiefs, as in Rowe's day, a proposal that, as Cardew observed, ignored the events of the two preceding decades, and Rowe's own unheeded protests. As a good churchman Cardew found clerical champions to justify his ways to the public. Bishop Taylor Smith put his case in the Church Missionary Intelligencer, and in a rather indiscreet letter, published

it

without

his consent, in the Sierra

Leone Messenger.

He

implied the

were instigated by those who wanted to restore the slave traffic Cardew had suppressed. He dismissed the Hut Tax as a cloak used by chiefs trying to revert to ancient savagery. Without giving grounds to risings

connect Bai Bureh with the slave

traffic,

he described him in

a letter,

which Chamberlain quoted in Parliament, as a drunken slaver. Thus it became more difficult for Cardew's opponents to decry his policy on humanitarian grounds.

Bishop Ingham,

still

smarting from

articles

in the

Weekly News

during the Five Pastors' case, wrote to the Times supporting Cardew's denunciation of the Freetown press, maintaining that without Creole incitement the chiefs

on the other

side,

would never have

risen.

A

few

letters

appeared

but the episcopal champions, reinforced by a cor581

respondent's article supporting Cardew, convinced The Titnes, which

accepted their view until the Royal Commissioner should report.

When

Cornelius

May

arrived in England in August and wrote asking

from his Weekly News to justify no reply from the editor or from the

the Times to quote a single passage the charge of incitement, he got

by now

indifferent public.

Kwelu was hard

to defend, about fifty scattered villages

Frontier lines straggling through, the chief's

town

with the

adjoining head-

by Fula Mansa and Kongoma of Kwelu, Fairtwith seventy Frontiers, beat off the first assault on lough and Johnson, May the ist. It is said that after it failed the McGrews were murdered quarters. But, helped

at

Taiama

it

;

was believed

that so long as they

were

alive

Kwelu could

not be taken. Nancy Tucker took refuge there on the 6th, and next

day there was killed,

easily

The ill-armed, disorganized men; only one Frontier was

a fierce assault, also repelled.

Mende were no match

for Fairtlough's

few wounded. Johnson, sent out with a detachment, drove them from Mokassi, where they were encamped, and and

a

killed their leader.

Fairtlough was joined

by four gold prospectors from

the Bagru,

who, caught unawares, escaped through the bush. Edward Monger, the fifth, fell ill on the way and stayed at Bunjema where chief Yayi, who promised to protect him, promptly killed him once his companions had gone the only non-missionary European to perish in the Mende

—

massacres. Fairtlough sent his

Mansa was

killed,

Yoni

allies

to attack

Bunjema; Fula

but they took the town, returning triumphantly with

Yayi's head, the only trophy the plundered prospectors could take

home

to Reading.

Meanwhile Woodgate was leading a column, chiefly of his newly West African Regiment, from Songo Town to relieve Kwelu. They crossed the Ribi on the 13 th on rafts built by the Railway Engineers; Howell was badly bitten by an alligator. They were assailed on the march from stockades but with opposition very different from Bai Burch's. A few rounds from a ramshackle seven-pounder gun with most of the screws missing, frightened the defenders away raised

—

without even hitting the stockade.

Guided by Santigi Bundu, they entered Rotifunk and buried the Woodgate was nervous of going on widi his half-trained men, particularly as the few European gmuiers had fallen missionaries' corpses.

582

and waited for a West India detachment before going on to Kwelu. Then, joined by Fairtlough with his Frontiers, 500 Yoni and 150 Mende, he marched on to Taiama.

ill,

From

the west

bank of the Taia, they looked

across to

what was

believed an impregnable stronghold, a group of clustered mud-walled

towns.

A

seven-pounder

shell dispersed the

bank, but

when

river,

just fordable at the

still

defenders gathered

on

the

the Yoni, the advance guard, began rushing across the

opposed them with

rifle fire,

end of May,

with volleys. Once the Yoni were following, there was

group of Fula, or Susu, covered their advance with about twenty Frontiers a

until the Frontiers across,

no more opposition; they could devote

their

energies to looting and burning, and pursuing fugitives.

Later in the day the troops crossed over

Queen's Birthday they held remaining

tovvois.

a

by canoe;

as it

was the

ceremonial parade before burning the

Woodgate then returned to Freetown, while Fairthis Frontiers to Panguma to fmd out what had

lough marched ofl'with

happened

to Blakeney.

The force sent to Bonthe on the 2nd was commanded by Colonel G. G. Cunningham, who came out with Woodgate, an experienced officer

who had

served

all

He

over Africa.

established a base near Mattru,

whence he could march to rehcve Carr at Bandajuma. Armed boats from the Blonde made punitive excursions up the river, burning towns, silencing opposition

The

with the Maxim.

troops were fired at as they

went up

the Jong: a European

sergeant-major was shot dead. But the ancient brass cannon, loaded

up with old range.

iron,

which the Mende

The column was ambushed

few yards' narrow paths but the assai-

used, often missed at a

on.

the

bush after firing. When they built a stockade at Route they used corrugated iron sheets from the plundered factory roof which bullets penetrated easily. Cunningham's worst enemy was the heavy rain which drenched them almost daily. On the 17th they encamped at Mafwe, with its hideous spectacle of

lants retired into the

two days later by a large army from Tcmne, the Mende fought in the open, exposing themselves to fire. Over 100 were killed before they were driven off. A party attacking from the rear were forced back into the river, where

charred corpses, to be attacked

Bumpe. Unlike

the

the soldiers shot

down

commented

a

young

about sixty

as

they tried to cross. 'Grand sport',

officer in his diary.

583

Detachments from Mafwe then destroyed stockaded towns nearby. after a struggle in which an officer and six men were wounded.

On June the nth Bumpe was taken, When

the

Mende war

started,

Carr was away in the distant

Dama

country, leaving Captain Eames, a newly-joined Assistant Inspector at

Bandajuma. The news took four days to reach him; it was another three before he reached Bandajuma, an hour before the war. The first attack was easily repulsed, but a second, on May the yth, lasted ten hours. The government buildings were built at a cross-roads, not easily defensible, and the defenders harassed by refugees. Yet in all the fighting no Frontier was killed, only one wounded. After the yth there was no further attack, but Carr was cut off until the 22nd when a party sent by Cumiingham relieved him. Momo Ja had originally refused to pay tax and been arrested by Carr. Nevertheless, after his release, he and Kai Kai would not join the war and their towns were attacked. Carr sent Frontiers to help defend Pujehun. Kai Kai helped defend Bandajuma, and they joined Cunningham. When the war reached Tikonko on May the 2nd there was the usual slaughter of Creole missionaries, though their wives were spared. Goodman managed to escape into the bush where chief Sandi, who dared not openly oppose the war, sheltered him secretly. Disguised as an old woman, he returned to the town where he was detected, stripped of all but his underclothes and marched to Bumpe. At his trial a chief pointed out that he was not a government man and should, as a missionary, be treated as a woman and spared, like the Creole women at Tikonko. So, alone of the missionaries who fell into hostile Mende hands, Goodman was not killed. He was kept safe, first in Bumpe, then as the soldiers approached, in the bush, and handed over unharmed

Goodman's

when Cunningham

fate

emboldened

asked for him.

his colleagues to

maintain later against

of Christian missions

that the

Mende showed no

animus towards missionaries

as such,

and that

critics

primarily, as

When

the

some

war

alleged, a religious

war spread

their rising

particular

was not

against an alien faith.

Gbcse Kai and Lamin escaped

to the Gallinas,

with the Creoles over the river into Liberia. The Superintendent protected them, but not their property,

So

their

stop

goods were looted and sold

Tewo

people joining the plunder. 584

the war cross over after it. Cape Mount. Nor could he

lest

at

Among

the refugees

was J. K. Rogers Mannah

(later P.

C. Mannah-

Kpaka) a Gallinas chief's son, educated at the Grammar School, then in government service and business. He wrote to tell Cardew what was going on; a naval ship went to Monrovia to protest. The Liberian government apologized, and agreed to let an expedition be landed at

Cape Mount. Frontiers were sent, accompanied by Mannah, Obese Lamin, and Njehu (who had saved Salija), and his followers. Kai, They met little resistance: only at Bahama was there a fight. East of

Twenty

Moa, Ja and Kai Kai restored order (or, as their enemies said, waged a private war with official support). By August the Gallinas the

and the District Surgeon could begin arresting those suspected of murder. By the end of October French Company had rebuilt

was

quiet,

their store at

Mopalma.

Although Nyagua submitted in April, Blakeney, still mistrustful, him in May, and held him prisoner in Panguma. On June the 4th a large force came to rescue him; for twelve hours Panguma was under continuous fire from their guns and two old cannon. Another attempt was made on the 7th, the besiegers advancing with logs to

arrested

build a counter-stockade to attack from, but the Frontiers dashed out

and dispersed them. After that there were no more attempts. On the 23rd Fairtlough arrived, having fought his way from Kwelu, and four days later a relieving force, sent by Cunningham, which had advanced unopposed from Mafwe. Fighting was still going on to the north, where the Kono

were attacking the Mcnde, in revenge for Mende aggression after the Sofa campaign. But Blakeney had no fear wliile food and arms lasted. His garrison was strengthened, the soldiers returned to Mafwe, and Fairtlough to

On

Kwelu

taking

Nyagua with him.

the Karene front Marshall slowly infiltrated north-east of Port

Loko. Stockades delayed

his

advance, snipers harassed the careless.

Major Donovan, A.s.c, whose cheerful efficiency did much to improve morale, was fatally wounded, running to pick up a wounded hammockman. There was a fierce struggle at Rowula, skilfully defended by Alimami Sattan Lahai. After May the 13 th when Lieutenant Ricketts, ist W.I.R., was shot dead on the way to Romcni, attacks 82161

585

pp

on

communication gradually ceased. By the end of May all through the Kasse country destroying stockades, and, despite Sharpe's protests, burning towns and destroying stores of rice; he is said to have destroyed ninety-seven towns and villages. Still the lines of

Marshall had gone

he could not capture Bai Bureh. Bai Foki of Mafoki was giving Bai Bureh support

—only,

it is

said,

because the troops had burnt some of his towns. Marshall marched

through

his

country, destroying

more towns, and opened

the road to

Falaba which he had closed.

The aged Bai Simera, long mistrusted by government, was in gaol Kwelu. Some of his sub-chiefs, enraged against the Rokon Loko, killed Pa Kombo, Charles Smart's brother, who had been collecting at

and blockaded the river. Marshall destroyed the middle of Jime they submitted.

tax,

Pa Suba,

who had hoped

to contract out

their towns,

and by

of the Protectorate, was

believed to have planned to boycott trade late in 1897.

Warned

he submitted, paid Sharpe his tax and took no part in the war. Suluku of Bumban, rumoured hostile, sent Parkes loyal messages, offering to mediate with Bai Bureh.

officially,

The onset of the rains prevented further offensives. Marshall withdrew most of his troops, leaving a well-provisioned garrison at Karene which resisted attack, and made only small sorties. Elsewhere fighting died down: an expedition sent by sea to the Bumpe River marched back to Freetown via Kwelu unopposed. A fmal, unsuccessful was made on Panguma after Fairtlough left. An alarm at Songo in

assault

Town

August, turned out to be the railway labourers striking for more

pay: by September an

army

officer stationed there

had

his

wife with

him. District

Commissioners began rounding up the ringleaders. Naval

launches sent up the Imperi creeks burnt towns unopposed. Alldridge,

burn the crops too. This Cardew where the worst outrages had been conmiitted should be razed to the ground and, like Carthage, never rebuilt Bumpe, where the Mende war was said to have been planned, Taiama where the McGrews, and Gbambaia where bellicose after his fright,

wanted

to

prohibited, but gave orders that the towns

—

Hughes, perished; Rotifimk he spared, also, at

Goodman's

request,

as the u.B.c.

intended to return,

Tikonko.

But for Bai Bureh, still at large, the war was virtually over. Yet though Cardew offered /^loo reward for him and £$0 for Alimami Lahai, they remained hidden. Bai Bureh is said to have offered jQs^o 586

for

Cardew.

how

No

wonder

strange tales were repeated of his powers,

he could Uve under water, or go about invisibly, or as an animal. first worthy of the name the British govern-

Already the war, the

ment had fought in Sierra Leone, had cost the lives of six officers (including deaths from disease) and twelve men, with thirteen officers, seventy-three men (including Frontiers) severely wounded, and carrier casualties estimated 137. It was said that Bai Bureh was being suppUed with arms by the French, but when Cardew investigated the reports he found them groundless. Indeed the Governor of French Guinea, apprehensive war might spread over the frontier, did all he could to stop arms being taken across.

Woodgate and Cardew decided the first objective, after the rains, must be capturing Bai Bureh. After that, columns would be sent through the whole country, converging on Panguma. The haphazard assumption of the Protectorate on the cheap had inclined many to see their new government as a remote District Commissioner and a few Frontiers. The expedition would demonstrate its overwhelming power. By September over 800 Protectorate men had enlisted in the West African Regiment to

fulfil their

warlike ambitions under government's

orders (like the Scottish Highlanders

iments after 1745). India

The

It

who

joined the Highland Reg-

was proposed they carry out the march, the West

Regiment staying

to garrison Freetown.

suspension of hostilities enabled Chamberlain to send the promised

Special Commissioner, Sir

who had

David Chalmers,

served nearly ten years in

West

a retired Colonial

judge

Africa, including Sierra

Leone, where he was Queen's Advocate, 1873-4. Appointed primarily to investigate the causes

of the

rising, particularly the allegations

Frontier brutahty, Creole incitement, and the effect of the

he was stered

He

also to report generally

how

of

Hut Tax,

the country should be admini-

and financed.

on July the i8th. The Creoles greeted liim as and deliverer from Cardew. The Kissy Road Traders' Association arranged for the shops to be shut; vast crowds welcomed him, and conducted him in triumph to Porter's Royal Hotel in Wilberarrived in Freetown

their saviour

The newspapers urged people to come forward to prove the Creoles loyal, and show the rising caused solely by the Hut Tax and how it was collected. The news of his arrival spread up country; chiefs came from Karene District to give force Street, taken over for the inquiry.

587

Queen for sending him. For the next three and months he and his secretary, M. E. Wingfield (a nephew of the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Colonial Office), sat taking evidence from over 270 witnesses, volunteers who thought they could contri-

evidence, and thank the a half

bute to his knowledge, or those he

The two

summoned

as likely to.

Temne and Mendc, demanded different judicial The casualties Bai Bureh's men inflicted were chiefly in war: only Humphrey, Suri Bunki, Pa Kombo and perhaps John risings,

treatment.

Taylor, a Creole said to have been killed for spying for Sharpe at

Port Loko, were murdered. Chamberlain, unwilling to prosecute for levying war against a tax which might be found inequitable, was

doubtful whether any but the authors of these murders should be

brought to

trial.

Cardew decided

then proclaim an amnesty for

all

to wait

till

Bai Bureh was captured,

but those guilty of specified offences.

The perpetrators of the Mende massacres had to be punished quickly and firmly. Rather than leave them to the dilatory Supreme Court, the Colonial Office sent a Deputy-Judge from England to go round with a panel of assessors trying capital cases. G. A. Bonner, a barrister practising in the Midland Circuit, appointed Deputy-Judge, fications easily

left

early in

September for Kwelu.

To

his legal quali-

he added exceptional physical strength which carried him

through bush and rain on

his

long

legs,

while the court

officials

lagged behind in their soaking hammocks. The acting-AttorneyGeneral prosecuted, there were five Creole shopkeepers

as assessors,

but no counsel for the defence,

as the Freetown bar declined to accept what they considered the inadequate fee offered. Bonner himself

tended to be the prisoners' counsel, ready to

condemn

acquitted prisoners

their

as

he found the

assessors

countrymen's murderers. Twice

whom

only too

at least

he

they found guilty on what he held insuf-

ficient evidence.

After the

Kwelu

session,

an English

solicitor

was engaged

for the

defence; less robust than Bonner, his health broke down after two months and he was forced home before the trials were finished. The court sat at Bonthc, at Bandajuma, Bonthc again, returning to Kwelu for a final session, ending on December the 19th. Bonner heard 233 cases, sitting for six

evidence.

or seven hours a day, weighing the horrifying

Much of it was

massacre of the

first

brought by women, for

after the general

days orders seem to have been given to spare them, 588

to

sell

or use as slaves.

but Bonner

by

Many of the accused admitted their

guilt readily,

refused to accept their plea, insisting each case

He

eye-witnesses.

be proved

convicted 158, recommending to mercy those

who had

merely carried out their chief's orders as subordinates. Executive Council confirmed the sentences on ninety-six, commuting the rest to imprisonment. Those hanged at Kwclu, Bonthe, or

Bandajuma, included the leading Bumpe chiefs, the Sokong of Imperi, Alexander Doomabey, Foray Vong, and the Rotifunk missionaries' murderers.

So many hangings (Cardew only reported eighty-three officially) had the sound of a vindictive Bloody Assize in England. Yet the number of executions was far less than that of murders. Renter's correspondent guessed a thousand murdered. Even the lowest estimate, counting only the Creole

names pubhshed

in the

Freetown newspapers, must be

remote areas, or dissociated from their nearly 300. Many relatives, can have had no such memorial, nor do the lists always specify children. To them must be added natives killed for befriending, living with, working for, or being educated by them, unpopular killed in

chiefs,

and those

killed to repay old grudges.

Chalmers, a crochety Scottish lawyer, inevitably roused Cardew's from gubernatorial tyranny, he was only

antipathy. Hailed as a saviour

too ready to play the part assigned him, return Cardew's

presume the government hostile, and hindrance to the smooth running of called for hidden,

he implied

it

dislike,

see deliberate sabotage in his enquiry.

Was

deliberately withheld.

any

a report

he

Did Cardew and

Bonner object to his bringing convicted prisoners awaiting execution at Kwelu to Freetown for interrogation, he imputed an intention to thwart him.

Cardew was as suspicious of him. Bai Bureh sent a message through the Temne headman in Freetown asking Chalmers to mediate between him and government. When Chalmers tried to, Cardew declared it an attempt to subvert authority behind his back. He would have been even more indignant had he known Chalmers was writing privately to Wingfield advising against the proposed march through the Protectorate.

He

resented Chalmers paying so

much

attention to

Lewis, whose evidence, given, as he had later to admit, in no partisan

over thirty pages of the printed report. Chalmers interrogated witnesses privately, without binding them by

spirit, filled

589

of evidence; he allowed hearsay,

rules

to get uninhibited answers,

trusting to his judicial experience to discount prejudice. In the last

fortnight of the enquiry Cardew, alarmed

by the number of what he

conceived disaffected, even suborned, witnesses, insisted the acting-

Attorney-General attend to cross examine.

On November own

case.

But

the i6th, a

on

already,

the Colonial Office that his

could

tell

him would

methods used

campaign.

A

mobile

it

before Chalmers sailed, he put his

mind was made

alter his

to collect

Late in October the

week

the nth, Chalmers

had written privately to

Hut Tax and

conviction that the

were the

sole causes

of the

West African Regiment resumed it

was equipped

the

rising.

for

the Karene

but with dis-

force, dressed like the Frontiers,

tinguishing fez tassel and badges,

Cardew

up, that nothing

bush fighting

as

Cardew wanted. Alimami Lahai of Rowula surrendered. weeks small detachments went out seeking the elusive Bai Bureh, fired on occasionally from stockades two soldiers were Just before they started,

Then

for three

—

—

wounded destroying the remaining villages, until November the i6th when at last he was taken. The circumstances remain uncertain. The official account describes him being pursued and captured by Sergeant B. Thomas (who was rewarded vdth the d.c.m.). The unofficial, describes how the fugitive killed,

nine

chief emerged

from the bush, and shouting

to the soldiers not to fire,

gave himself up with the words 'De war done done'.

He was

taken to Karene: his portrait, sitting scowling in gaol,

sketched by an

officer,

appeared soon after in the

Illustrated

London

News, As he had committed no murder, Sharpe and Cardew proposed

Bonner try him for treason, so obliging the Colonial O&ce to what had never been clearly defmed, the legal status of the Protectorate and its inhabitants. that

consider,

The Crown Law

Officers held that treason could be

committed,

only within the Queen's Dominions, or by British subjects; that the Protectorate, under the Foreign Jurisdiction Act,

was

'foreign'

Bai Bureh, owing no allegiance to the Queen, could not treason. This decision, directly contrary to

inhabitants of the Protectorate

were

that

Cardew's belief that the

British (p. 559),

to try him. histead he was dctauicd by Ordinance had considered Chalmers's recommendations.

S90

;

commit

made until

it

impossible

Chamberlain

Despite Chalmers's warnings (taken up in England by Fox Bourne)

Bureh was captured, three columns moved out from Freetown to show the flag throughout the Protectorate. Woodgate was invalided home (returning within a few months to Africa to perish at Spion Kop), so Cunningham commanded against 'military promenades', once Bai

the largest force yet seen in Sierra Leone, 995 troops, under fifty-six

with 4,295 carriers. Before they left, Fairtlough reported rumours that Kwelu was endangered by attack from the Kisi country, where Fabunde's enemies were gathering, reinforced by Nyagua's son Mogbe, and some Sofas. An advance party proved the alarm exaggerated with Fabunde's help officers,

;

they dispersed the invaders.

Thomas Clements, an

n.c.o.

Among

the few Frontier casualties

from the Banana

Islands,

who had

was

fought

intrepidly with Fairtlough in the Kisi country in 1896.

When

the three

columns converged on Panguma

in February 1899,

they took the offensive into the Kisi country, and broke up the coalition

of Fabunde's enemies. They then marched back to Freetown along different routes. By March there were few parts of the Protectorate where the might of British arms had not been displayed; seventy-eight Europeans, more than had ever assembled in the Protectorate, met at Kanrelahun. They covered 2,629 miles, mapping often very imperfectly

When

as

they went country

known.

were advancing peaceably they and welcomed them there was none of the opposition Chalmers prophesied, nor any mass flight into French Guinea or Liberia. The leaders were mostly imprisoned, or hanged, or (like old Bai the people realized the troops

lost their fears

:

Kompa) had died. An amnesty proclaimed for all but the murderers of Humphrey, Suri Bunki and Pa Kombo, allowed those in hiding to return unobtrusively. So, with a speed and ease that in niid-1898 could scarcely have been imagined, the

In

Hut Tax War ended.

December Chalmers went home

Until

it

to

Edinburgh

appeared. Sierra Leone questions were

though the newspapers

still

to write his report.

deemed

sub judice,

printed occasional partisan comments.

Chamberlain, in reply, sent the press a report by Fairtlough upholding

Cardew, thus rousing the Chambers of Commerce to protest at a breach of official impartiality. In January 1899 Mary Kingsley pubhshed West African Studies, which contained an indictment of the Hut Tax and the Crown Colony 591

system. Traders* grievances, so often vague or contradictory, or plainly

of

were

set out convincingly with constructive remedies kind they seldom formulated themselves. She proposed the

self-seeking, a

Colonial Office be swept out of West Africa, replaced by a Council nominated by the English Chambers of Commerce, responsible directly to the Secretary of State, a parliament of business men who would free the country from the shackles of 'governmental hindrance'.

Chamberlain, with

his

business background,

took her

seriously,

corresponded with her about alternatives to the Hut Tax, and seemed ready to seek advice from the Chambers.

He

insisted their complaints,

which some permanent officials considered impertinence, be fully answered, not choked off with perfunctory replies. He conferred with their representatives

about the Hut Tax in

May; he

agreed, against the

permanent officials' advice, they see Chalmers before he went out. Yet their proposals came to little more than complaints of government expenditure and excessive taxes, echoed in Freetown by the Kissy

Road

Traders' Association

who made

similar complaints to

Chalmers.

Yet while the Chambers were declaring government was spending too much, they were objecting to Cardew's proposal to pull

down

the

ruinous bonded warehouse instead of rebuilding it for their benefit at public expense. Early in 1899 they brought up the great hardship jury

imposed on Europeans in Freetown. Investigation showed that Chadwick, one of the three complainants, had served only three times in five years, the others once, that Bonner, anxious to have some European assessors at his assize had chosen all three, but they had refused. Only at Bonthe did he find a European trader public-spirited enough to sit. Thus, even at a time when they were complaining that trade was so disturbed they had nothing to do, Mary Kingsley's service

'heroes' preferred to avoid civic responsibility.

Cardew pointed out that

had opened the

that

it

was government, not European

interior, contrasting his

own

trade,

forward-looking

policy of developing the Protectorate with their sedentary

myopia

which saw no further than the annual balance-sheet. He recalled how the Colony had been starved of revenue for schools, public buildings and sanitation for twenty years to gratify trading interests, retorting on the Manchester Chamber that they welcomed millions being spent to home, but grudged every penny to improve a country

build canals at

whence they diew such

profit.

592

Unlike the Sofa Expedition, an ^Imperial' war, proposed in London, where the Colony only bore part of the expense, the Hut Tax War

was purely Colonial. The cost, nearly -^50,000, chiefly from Army funds, had to be repaid by the Colony in amiual instalments (not paid up finally till 1905). In addition, traders and missionaries, crippled, often ruined, by their

demanded compensation. French Company claimed ^13,676 for their eight Sherbro factories, the Palma Trading Co. -^12,028 for their three, their entire Sierra Leone establishment. Lamin Lahai claimed ^6,937, and many smaller traders smaller amounts. Twelve of Thompson Brothers' factories were destroyed. The u.b.c. asked, through the American Embassy, for over ^17,000, the u.m.f.c. for ^3,150. The total compensation claimed greatly exceeded the Army's bill. The Chambers of Commerce pressed the claims, but the Colonial Office, backed up by the Crown Law Officers, disclaimed responsibihty. It had long been held that traders and missionaries went to remote places at their own risk, that government only had to compensate when proved negligent. As negligence was not shown, the claims were rejected. Ex gratia payment to missions was also refused, lest invidiously compensating some lead the rest to demand it. Yet where government was adamant, a chief complied. At Robethel, the Soudan Mission in Marampa, the missionaries went off leaving their property in Bai Koblo's care. He let it be plundered. When they complained, his sub-chief Pa Suba collected £120 from his people and losses,

paid

In

it

to

them.

December

the Colonial Office telegraphed to defer collecting tax

month until Chalmers reported. But the District Comwent on getting arrears still due for 1898. Whatever the people felt, they paid without murmur. £6,241 was raised for 1898. Add ^i,7Q0 for produce and cash destroyed or looted, and Cardew's estimated ^8,000 was realized (p. 550), enabling him to answer with monetary evidence the argument that the people were too poor to pay. He toured the pacified areas and reported them quietly rebuilding their villages. When the month was up, any arrears left for 1898 were waived. Then collection for 1899 started, sanctioned provisionally, pending Chamberlain's decision on Chalmers's report. for 1899 for a

missioners

Chalmers's draft reached the Colonial Office

at the

end of January,

an uncompromising indictment of Cardew's government and the 593

Hut Tax. Chamberlain

felt he could scarcely reject the conclusions of a Commissioner he had chosen himself, unless they were proved partial or unreliable. As Cardew's views were ignored throughout, he was allowed to comment on the report before it was published, and went on

leave in

March

to put his case.

Major Matthew Nathan, who as a young officer had superintended fortification of Freetown, attracted Chamberlain's notice as Secretary of the Imperial Defence Committee. He wanted to transfer to the Colonial Service, and was seconded temporarily to act Governor while Cardew was in England. One of Bai Bureh's guards, a Temne in the West African Regiment, tried to help him escape from Karene. In February he was moved to Freetown gaol. At the Colonial Office, as in Freetown, there was general sympathy for a fighter who had opposed heavy odds cleanly and bravely when his incarceration was reported in the English press Cardew was warned he must not be treated as a felon. Chamberlain urged Nathan to release him if possible. Cardew too favoured releasing him once future policy was settled. Nathan moved him and Nyagua from gaol to arrest in a house in Ascension Town, near the lodging of King Prempe of Ashanti, sent to Freetown as a political prisoner in 1896. Crowds flocked to see the famous Bai Bureh. But despite popular feelings and Chamberlain's the

:

Nathan decided against sending a leader so much identified government back to a country recently at war, with where his return might be ascribed to official weakness rather than wishes,

resistance to

magnanimity. Nyagua he was readier to release, to quiet Panguma, disorganized in his absence, till he heard he was sending surreptitious messages to liis people, who were in fear that he would punish them on his return for letting

in

him be

Freetown

against him,

him

captured.

in

May

Be Sherbro (Ghana

was believed

either, lest

Lewis), gaoled

on

arrival

1898 without any defmite charge being proved so powerful that

Nathan opposed

releasing

he again disturb trade.

by Ordinance as political prisoners to the Gold Coast (whose government accepted them as Sierra Leone Prempe). They left on July the 30th for Christiansborg, each with a wife and an All three were deported

attendant.

Nyagua

died there in 1906,

Ghana Lewis, 594

despite

vam

appeals to

;

have him to

end

his

about 1912. Bai Bureh was allowed back in 1905

released, in

days peaceably in his

own

country.

Sharpe sentenced Bai Foki and AlimamiLahai to

ment

fifteen years'

imprison-

and others alleged, but not proved, implicated, to imprisonment with hard labour. These sentences, which Sharpe submitted, and Cardew approved, before the prisoners were tried, had to be disallowed when the Law Officers' report on Bai Bureh was for levying war,

received. Instead, the two chiefs were detained in Freetown gaol by Ordinance Nathan decided to keep them there until convinced their countries were quiet. Bai Kura Hari of Tinkatupa, convicted by Sharpe on slender evidence, and similarly detained, he released after a few months. Bimba Kele of Mokele, twice acquitted of murder by Bonner, but detained by Ordinance, died in gaol in July.

Nathan paid short visits to Ronietta and Karene Districts. Where Cardew had seen busy villagers rebuilding their homes and paying tax, he saw large devastated areas and wondered whether the inhabitants, even

if willing,

could

raise the

tax-money. Discharged

about using the tenuous authority of their former to oppress

and plunder.

He

swarmed employment

carriers

official

suspected Frontiers and soldiers of looting.

Defeated in war, the people dared not

resist

and took to the bush

at

the approach of a uniform, seeming to expect oppression. In Masimera blackmailers terrorized victims by threatening to denounce them for the murders excepted from the amnesty. Yet Creoles returning were enraged at seeing those who had plundered them or murdered their friends walking about freely.

Nathan tried to restore confidence in government: at Kambia he shook hands with 300. The West African Regiment was moved out of the towns into miUtary lines under stricter discipline. He persuaded the unwilling

Cardew

to let the

sullen in the bush, return

Taiama people, hidden frightened and

and rebuild

their

town, instead of leaving

it

desolate for perpetuity.

The Creoles welcomed Nathan, if only because he was not Cardew. Though he thought poorly of them, he concealed his opinions and endeared himself to them: in

later years

pacification as well as fortification.

595

he was remembered for

In June there

was

a riot in the

Freetown

streets

between

men of the

A pohceman was killed. Memories of the Mende massacres revived. Mobs attacked the soldiers, and beat up Mende and other immigrants. The Regiment was marched up to Kortright Hill, stoned by the crowds as they went. Respectable people were horrified, if only because they feared reprisals in the Protectorate. Nathan and Lewis walked through the streets together dispersing crowds. Yet the tactful ease with which Nathan restored order was tempered with firmness: he refused to let the military authorities yield to mob violence and move the whole West African Regiment up country.

West

African Regiment and the pohce.

The war held up railway

though the railway played its part Waterloo. In December 1898 the first stretch, Freetown to Songo Town, was handed over to the government complete with rolling stock, stations and telegraph. Nathan opened it formally to traffic on May the ist. This first stage brought new life to the eastern villages, raising land values and enabling the people to send produce easily to Freetown. But there was no hope of its paying. So the construction engineer went on with the next stage, to Rotifunk, wliilc the third was surveyed to Bo, where it was hoped to tap rich natural resources and recover the outlay on building and maintenance. building,

in operations, transporting troops to

Parkes's post

had become an anomaly: Nathan had

to give special

orders upholding his right to see District Commissioners' reports.

His health was failing. Yet, weakened by chronic nephritis, he still went on writing reports on subjects only he understood. He was too ill to accompany Nathan up country. On August the loth he died,

aged thirty-eight.

With

the death of this outstanding public servant

all official

connex-

ion between Creoles and chiefs was severed. His department was

wound

up, and the last vestige of equal partnership between European

and educated African

Chalmers's report appendix, 682.

in the

filled

He came

development of the Protectorate

evidence,

the

Kingslcy's conclusion, that the

Hut

eighty-two folio pages, to

Mary

ceased.

596

his

Tax was wrong

and had been forced unjustly on people too poor to pay. He accused the government of collecting by force, giving many instances of Frontier cruelty. He brought what were less charges than insinuations against the District Commissioners of suppressing in

itself,

He

evidence, and using needless violence.

implied

when a young man was shot dead by the Frontiers District, though Moore in his evidence had denied suggested for the outbreak

and

restrictions

on

—that the

slavery,

or that

it.

All other reasons

chiefs resented the loss

was the

it

independent peoples encroached on by alien rule at least

Moore was present at Mabobo, Bumpe of power

inevitable rising

—he

brushed

once in contradiction to the evidence quoted. Witnesses

upheld them, largely officials and missionaries, he passed over or prejudiced.

The

He proposed

as

of

aside,

who

ignorant

Creoles and their press he acquitted of all blame.

Hut Tax be

that the

abolished, the Frontier Police

cut to a small garrison force, even disbanded, and that chiefs rule, as

Rowe had

suggested, with District Commissioners as advisers.

quate revenue to fmance

this

Ade-

reduced administration he considered

could be raised by the Customs without direct taxes.

Cardew's reply, dated

As

May

the

so often before, he justified the

show

answered him point by point. Hut Tax. He brought evidence to

ist,

the chiefs aggrieved at their loss

of power. Overlooking

his

having told the Liverpool Chamber in 1895 that slave-dealing was it deep-rooted and

virtually extinct in the Protectorate, he declared

the chiefs resentful at

taken

its

him unawares, but

being checked.

He

admitted the rising had

reiterated his conviction that the Creoles

were behind it. Like Chalmers he twisted the evidence to support his case: he said, for instance, that Chalmers's argument that tax was believed expropriation had been elicited purely by asking leading questions, ignoring a spontaneous answer by Parkes. He justified taxing without consent on grounds of expediency. He answered Chalmers's charge that tax was collected by illegal means with the argument that the law it was collected under was his own Protectorate Ordinance which had been carried out as he wanted. Admitting some charges against the Frontiers, he recalled the improvement in discipline during his governorship, and praised their courage and loyalty during the rising, when fifty were killed, seventy-three wounded. He angrily repudiated the insinuation against Moore. Here Chalmers, in his anxiety to discredit the government, spoilt his own case by accepting evidence unsifted. Had he examined it 597

more

might have found that there was indeed a Frontier officer at Mabobo when the young man was shot, not Moore, as supposed by witnesses to whom one imfamiliar white face and uniform was much as another, but Warren, whose wild foray through the closely he

Bumpe

country in March

(p.

569) he overlooked entirely. Careful

might have provided him with a damaging charge against government; instead he laid himself open to the equally damaging charge of gross prejudice and unfairness. Cardew proposed the tax be not only retained but extended to the Colony. Agreeing the Frontiers be kept under strict discipline, he could not agree they be reduced. Ready, as always, to rule through the chiefs as much as possible, he felt they must be controlled by District Commissioners to prevent them warring, or oppressing their subjects, recalling that Rowe, whom Chalmers quoted, had worn liimself out in vain efforts of persuasion. But he suggested they be made fully responsible for collecting tax, as indeed he had always intended. Chalmers's hope of raising more indirect revenue he declared illusory. Cardew's despatch was no mere apologia it proclaimed a positive policy. While Chalmers and the traders, Creole or European, were satisfied with preserving the status quo as cheaply as possible, he envisioned the development of the Protectorate by a civilization and commerce whose worth he was sincerely convinced of. Chalmers, who never visited the Protectorate, wanted chiefs to go on ruling in the old way Cardew wanted an administration fit for an era of economic expansion stimulated by railways and development companies. While traders grudged official expenditure on development he, in 1899, looked forward to metalled roads carrying motor traffic through the Protectorate. Thus whatever Cardew's mistakes in executing the makeshift policy a long tradition of government parsimony forced on him, he could not be blamed for lack of vision. With these two documents before him. Chamberlain could no longer treat Chalmers as a judge, but as an advocate in a case he must judge investigation

:

:

himself. Disinclined at

first

to risk facing Parliament to justify his

damaging to government, made by his own nominee, he was recalled by his Parliamentary Under-Secretary to rejecting a report so

seeing the sistently

Hut Tax

in a less parochial context. Selbornc,

sighted enterprise

who

con-

poHcy the kind of fargovernors had hitherto had little chance o^ pur-

defended Cardew, sensing

in

his

suing, stressed that only direct taxation could raise revenue to develop

the Protectorate.

He

prophesied that 598

if

it

were abohshed

in

Sierra

Leone ies,

it

could never be introduced into the other West African Colon-

for the people

Bonner,

would have

who saw

learnt the lesson that resistance pays.

of Cardew

Freetown (but seems advocated his views on his

a great deal

in

only to have called once on Chalmers), also still anxious for compromise, sug-

return to London. Chamberlain,

Hut Tax, but Nathan advised weakening government's prestige by even a change of name. Early in May Chamberlain asked representatives of the Chambers of Commerce to a conference, apparently the kind of cooperation Mary Kingsley wanted. There he told them what Cardew reported, that the tax was being readily paid. Without discussing whether it should ever gested the tax be retained as 'tribute' not

against

have been levied, he asked them to consider the future, emphasizing that to abandon it would be taken as a sign of official weakness. A. L. Jones agreed that, much as he disliked the tax, it would be dangerous to give

it

up.

Having

The Chambers grudgingly silenced them,

it

was

assented.

easier for

Chamberlain

to repudiate

Chalmers's report, though he stalled off questions in the House until July the

nth

before presenting

it.

The

first,

and thinner, volume con-

tained the report, Cardew's reply and evidence, and Chamberlain's

own

damaging Chalmers outevidence. Chamberlain's despatch, without repudiating right, upheld Cardew. The aspersed officers were vindicated, the Frontier Police exonerated, the Creoles given a cold verdict of Non Proven. It stressed particularly Cardew's references to slavery and slaveconclusions;

dealing,

the

second

Chalmers's voluminous,

which Chalmers ignored,

to silence humanitarian critics.

Volume was debated on August I

volume

II

the 3rd, the last day of the session;

appeared after Parliament had been prorogued. Only one

member spoke

against

it:

events in the Transvaal distracted attention

from Sierra Leone. Chamberlain embodied his despatch in a long speech, enlivened by a touch of tragic drama. As he spoke, a message was handed him with the news that Chalmers, who had returned broken in health by the labours he was repudiating, had just died.

599

XXIII THE

Chalmers Report roused

interest in

little

England.

The

Times upheld Chamberlain, Ingham swelling the correspondence

columns with a note o£ praise. The trading interests, having backed down at their Conference, could only grumble. Nor was their compliance rewarded. When, encouraged by Chamberlain's expressed wish to consult them, they asked that, even if Cardew's policy be approved, he be transferred, they were told not to meddle with the Secretary of State's

Some washing

affairs.

opposition newspapers denounced government for whitea discreditable scandal.

An

article in the Nineteenth

Century

defending Cardew provoked an angry pamphlet from E. D. Morel,

of her late husband by Lady Chalmers. Mary by the Chambers of Commerce, turned saddened from what she believed a betrayal of justice. Yet Cardew pierced her armour, went, as she said, like an early Christian thrown to the lions to beard her in her den in Kensington, and showed her that his policy, however wrong she might believe it, had been honestly conceived and

and

a bitter justification

Kingsley, abandoned

executed.

The Hut Tax War stimulated Wallis to publish The Advance of Our West African Empire in 1903, with a lurid tale of his own experiences, and an account of the Bai Bureh campaign (which he took no part in), condensed from the despatches printed Alldridge included in his 1

in Chalmers's Report. T. J.

The Sherhro and

90 1, an exciting chapter about the alarms

chiefly valuable for his descriptions

Its

at

Hinterland, published

Bonthe, but the book

of the country and

its

is

inliabitants,

based on his long experience.

Foreign observers drew their a pamplilet cities in

the

own lessons. A

exposing the hypocrisy of

Congo

Belgian professor wrote

a nation that

but hushed them up in

war an

its

condemned

own

colonics.

atro-

Emile

of a fatal flaw in British West African policy which, obsessed with the bcHcf in its own civiHzing mission, would not see that the chiefs must fear, hate, and try to throw off^ the alien rule imposed on them. Baillaud, writing in 191 2,

saw

in the

600

ilkistration

would vindicate them, have their oppressor expelled, even perhaps have some control of raising revenue vested in their Chamber of Commerce, were shattered by what the

The

Creoles' hopes that Chalmers

Sierra

But

Leone Times called the

*slap in the face'

was held

having learnt that criticism

of Chamberlain's decision. disloyalty the newspapers

renounced comment for resigned despair. The Lagos Record taunted neglect of duty. They merely awaited passively the return of a Governor who despised and mistrusted them. The City Council, unable to raise enough revenue by licences, had

them with

began in April 1899. So when Cardew returned in October and began preparing a Colony House Tax Ordinance, he decided rates could be considered taxes and left to introduce rates in 1898; collection

Freetown out. In the Protectorate, chiefs could let their people gather tax produce

on any waste ground: in the Colony villages, the soil was technically Crown Land, where encroachment was forbidden. So, though a uniform 55 per house was levied, reductions or exemptions were liberally granted.

The Ordinance

also expressly stated that

used to benefit the part of the Colony

Cardew

was

it

revenue be

raised in.

constituted elected village boards to suggest suitable public

works, but refused them the responsibility of carrying them out.

Government

still

preferred not to notice that most villages had been

When Chalmers asked three government could be introduced

virtually self-governing for generations.

senior officials whether municipal there, they declared

Having

it

impossible.

learnt the danger

Cardew gave

of taxing without adequate warning, It was printed in draft in

the Ordinance full publicity.

from London as early as 1836 (p. 215), revived from time to time (particularly by Fleming), but normally neglected. The Solicitor-General published a pamphlet schooling the people in the virtues of tax-paying. But they had learnt their lesson; there were not even angry letters in the papers. Despite Chamberlain's apprehensions, direct taxation was extended to the Colony without the Gazette, a practice enjoined

riot.

Yellow

fever remained quiescent in

Freetown

lower than in again in the 821613

after the

outbreak of

among European

officials was mortality European rose But the Gold Coast or Lagos.

1884; for another decade the death rate

'90s.

Sixteen died in

March 1897 during 5oi

a fever

epidemic

Qq

which Dr Prout, the Colonial Surgeon, ascribed to the exposure of malarious soil by railway building. In 1899, at Front's instigation, government leased the old Mixed Commission building from the Spilsbury family as a European Nursing Home. Staffed from England with nurses suppled by the Colonial Nursing Association started in 1896, forts lacking in a strange

it

gave invalid Europeans the com-

community: Lewis and A.

S.

Hebron

(ap-

pointed to Legislative Council after Bishop died in 1898) approved of it. If the medical authorities could tality

keep check on the health and mor-

of the small European population,

many

Creoles escaped them,

preferring the ministrations of druggists or country doctors. diseases but births is

and deaths, were incompletely registered so that

impossible to estimate Creole morbidity

were

diseases

Not only

many

intestinal or malarial;

statistically.

The

it

prevailing

died after paralytic strokes.

The early deaths of the prominent (p. 472) seems to point to a low expectation of life, but without adequate statistics one cannot tell whether a tendency among leading Creoles was characteristic of all. Nor is there any standard of comparison with expectation of life among the Protectorate peoples. The censuses taken deceniaUy from 1871 were also defective. The categories ^Liberated Africans

and

their descendants',

and

^Natives',

were loosely interpreted. The census areas varied from decade to decade. No account was kept of Creole emigration along the Coast. Thus demographic pronouncements were bound to be inaccurate and subjective.

In

ing

1

897 Prout reported on public health in Freetown, quoting alarmworked out from the incomplete registers of births and

statistics

deaths.

The annual

death-rate, averaging i'8 per cent in English cities,

he estimated 2*9 per cent. Infant mortahty he put ascribing

it

chiefly to

at 40 per cent, incompetent midwives and improper infant

Cardew assumed

proved that the Creoles were dying out. When the 1901 census showed the population had increased, the Registrar-General could only suppose immigration from the feeding.

his report

Protectorate to account for

accepted

this

it.

interpretation

Many, including some of defective

statistics,

Creoles, readily

and assumed

a

decadence by no means proved.

In

London,

in

1896,

Dr

Patrick

Manson propounded

the theory,

hitherto only tentatively suggested, that mosquitoes carry malaria.

602

Meanwhile in India Major Ronald Ross was trying to prove it. In August 1897 he found malarial parasites in the stomach of an anopheles mosquito, answeriug those who for centuries had 'questioned the winds and waters vainly' for the causes of malaria. The heavy casualties from disease during the Ashanti War had shown Chamberlain the importance of tropical medicine. He appointed

Manson

Colonial Office Medical Adviser and, at his suggestion, per-

suaded the Treasury to give grants for a London School of Tropical

Medicine and a Malaria Investigation Committee. raised

from Colonics

likely to benefit: Sierra

School provided courses

for

Money was

Leone gave

>(^300.

Colonial Service doctors

as

also

The

well

as

sponsoring research.

A. L. Jones, not to be outdone by London, promised /^350 a year for a Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Other business men subscribed; in 1900 R. B. Blaize of Lagos gave

Mary

^soo

m

memory of

Kingsley. Ross was appointed a lecturer and, in August 1899

brought

team to Freetown to seek anopheles and devise ways of

a

fighting them.

Malaria was raging

Regiment

at

at

Wilberforce

;

the barracks built for the

hospital walls, providing a

theory.

He

West

African

anopheles, gorged with blood, covered the

ready-made experiment to confirm

his

discovered that while non-malarial mosquitoes breed in any

on the ground, near was no need to drain the

water-container, anopheles breed only in puddles

human

habitations. Thus he realized there swamps of Africa, empty of people (and so of anopheles), or teach whole population hygiene, that it was enough to drain built-up areas

vast a

and sweep up, or

He

also

which,

disinfect, street puddles.

recommended gauze window

after his years in India,

and suggested houses be

screens,

and mosquito

he was astonished to fmd so

built in the

liills

little

nets,

used,

for Europeans.

This suggestion, rejected in the past for the expense, though acted on by the Arrny, and the missions (Roman Catholics, c.m.s., and u.B.c. had houses on Leicester Peak), was made more practicable by the railway: Cardew proposed a branch line from Freetown to above Gloucester. But at the Colonial Office it was still thought too expensive. E. E. Austen, a dipterologist

Until then

years later a

Ross, solved the

which killed ofi horses, by fmding a tsetse was believed there were none in Sierra Leone. Two doctor from the Liverpool School discovered a trypano-

mystery of the fly.

who accompanied

'loin disease' it

603

some as

in the blood

of

a patient in the

Gambia, proving

it

a

human

well as an animal infection. In Havana, in 1900, self-sacrificing

experiments in the U.S.

Army

fever mosquito-borne. So the

Medical Department proved yellow

new

century opened with the pros-

pect of medical research dispelling the sinister reputation of

West

Africa.

May 1898 that nearly every chief was concerned Yet of twenty-two appointed in 1897 to share jurisdiction with the District Commissioners in the tax-paying Districts, not more than six were implicated. With peace restored, those loyal to government returned to power. Madam Yoko and Nancy Tucker now waged private wars of their own; Momo Kai Kai encroached on his neighbours' land with impunity. Chiefs government could rely on were confirmed or installed in the centres of the Mende rising. Madam Yoko's and Nancy Tucker's chiefdoms were enlarged. Despite orders to give up outstations, Nancy was allowed a few Frontiers to protect her. When Kwelu was condemned as unhealthy in 1899, and District Headquarters moved to Cardew

declared in

in the rising.

Moyamba, Madam Yoko

followed, to build her

having been destroyed in the war), and get

Bimba Kele was Milton Strieby,

replaced

town

official

there (Senehun

protection.

by Bangali Margai, whose brother, educated

a successful trader

at a u.B.c. school,

had

helped capture Doomabey. Wilberforce became chief of Impcri, the first Christian pastor to be a cliief; he renamed his town Toso, Victoria. Lamin Lahai became chief of Sulima. The Bumpe chiefdom went to James Canre baCaulker, cousin of

the luckless Richard

Madam

who

died in Freetown gaol in 1901. At Shenge

Sophia Ncale Caulker (who for her manners, appearance and

respectability has

been compared to Queen Victoria), representing by

line, by marriage the Ba Tham, succeeded her husband and cousin the murdered Thomas Ncalc. Though Ins murderers were known, and some of his relatives called for justice, they

birth the

Ba Charch

were never punished. Chiefs' courts opened again

in

1899, slightly restricted in scope.

Rules for collecting tax defined (what 1898)

which

chiefs

were responsible

was not

clearly laid

for collecting,

down

in

and what rebates

should be given. Thus Cardew's policy of using the chiefs to help administer the Protectorate was restored. 604

As Nathan foresaw, the tax for 1899 was below Cardew*s estimate, only -^19,364, not -^25,000. But in 1900, extended over the whole country (except remote Koranko) -£30,045 was paid, almost all in cash, justifying his contention that whatever objections were made to the Hut Tax, the people were capable of paying it. Nor did he have to take road labour in lieu of payment wliich Chamberlain suggested, but

which he considered Despite

this

again, trade

imports for

kind of forced labour.

a

apparent testimony to the Protectorate's being settled

was

disorganized.

still

Army and

Huge Customs

receipts disguised

railway, and traders re-stocking looted stores.

The value of exported produce was

in 1900

^40,000 below what

it

nearly -£100,000 below.

was

in 1897, in 190 1 Traders kept up a rearguard action against the tax. E. D. Morel denounced it regularly in West Africa, started in London in 1900 to

The European manager of

voice trading views.

Enterprise Ltd cir-

Yoni plotting to avenge their defeat in 1898 (when they had in fact fought for government). Troops had to be sent to Rotifunk to calm the railway construction engineer. Questions were asked in Parhament. When Frontiers at Karene mutinied against an officer who confmed them to barracks, the English press assumed culated stories of the

another war was starting.

Cardew, suspecting them dehberately manufactured, pointed out how little there was to fear from people defeated, disarmed and forbidden to buy arms. Chamberlain brushed

But such alarms proved

illusory.

aside Parliamentary criticism as *almost ancient history

.

Cardew's five-year term expired towards the end of 1900. Antrobus, summed up his career in a minute of

Assistant Under-Secretary,

epitaph

No

:

post

outstanding amid mediocrity, he relied too

was vacant

for a

retired into private life

Governor

and died

much on

so dangerously

thirty years in peaceful island colonies,

repeal.

But

He began

endowed. He

in 1921.

The arrival of his successor. Sir Charles King-Harman, against the tax.

himself.

a civihan nearly

brought renewed

press outcries

the Colonial Office forbade his even considering

touring the Protectorate at once. Loyally received

everywhere, he was soon convinced there was no fear of another rising. The despatches about his tours were printed for Parliament to show

how

down. Deprived of Parkcs's knowledge, Port Loko as until recently a and Bai Bureh as the tool of a gang of Port Loko

the country was settling

he included some strange ^central slave mart',

lore, described

slave-dealers.

605

The

facade of peace and order concealed violence and corruption.

Despite Chamberlain's orders that the Frontiers be kept under control they were

still

strict

allowed to go out registering huts and helping

chiefs collect tax. Outstations, ostensibly abolished, continued.

Away

from their officers there was no one to check how much tax they demanded nor how they collected, any more than in 1898. In Ronietta they were foimd to be burning villages. Everywhere there was bribery, extortion, petty tyranny. Many whose towns had been destroyed in the war rebuilt them away from the roads to elude the Frontiers. The chiefs, too, as tax-collectors with a commission on takings, had every incentive to exploit. install loyal chiefs,

When

put in their

District Commissioners, anxious to

own

nominees, they seemed to their

subjects not lawful rulers but tax-gatherers

masquerading

as chiefs.

of chiefs demanding presents as well as tax, or collecting two or three times. The Koya people were said to have paid Hut Tax, then been made to pay a Farm Tax. The influx of

The Freetown

labourers

press

from

had

stories

the Protectorate

was believed swelled by refugees

from chiefs or Frontiers. During the 1890s the Colonial Office considered amalgamating the West African military police forces: Cardew was inclined to disapprove,

lest it interfere

with the Frontiers' police

duties. In 1899, after

Lugard had raised the West African Frontier Force to resist the French on the Niger, an Inter-Departmental Committee recommended they be merged, to serve primarily in the Colony they were stationed in, but ready to move in a crisis to another. The officers would have military rank, but the force be Colonial, under the Secretary of State's control, each unit paid by its own Colony. This plan was carried out in 1901. But before November, when the Ordinance was passed constituting the Sierra Leone Battalion of the West African Frontier Force (as the Frontier Pohce became), King-

Harman determined

to

make

it

a purely military body.

He relieved

the

of police duties and put them into barracks like soldiers. The Court Messengers, increased by 100, took over policing. To meet the expense, 100 Frontiers were disbanded, the increased efficiency regular drilling gave, making up for loss of numbers. Even so, the Sierra Leone Battalion cost over ^20,000 a year. The Court Messenger Force, directly under the District Commissioners' orders, was formally constituted by Ordinance in 1907. Many abuses in the Protectorate could be ascribed to the lack of administrative officers. District Commissioners were given Assistants

Frontiers

606

in 1899, but while the

Only

South African

War lasted

it

was hard

to recruit.

Fairtlough remained of the original District Commissioners.

Sharpe

moved

to the

more congenial solitude of a remote Northern slack, was made to resign. Inexperienced

Nigerian station; Carr, grown doctors or Frontier ofEcers often diverted energies until 1904,

when

Commissioners

still

had to take charge. Personal bickerings

from administration to long paper-battles. Not was complete, could District

the full establishment

begin

supervising

tax-collection

adequately,

and

preventing chiefs exploiting their people.

whom King-Harman excluded from adminiCardew, resented the District Commissioners* powers which virtually deprived them of legal safeguards, hi 190 1 when the Protectorate Ordinances were revised, the Bar Association petitioned to allow appeals from their judgements. Lewis put their case to Legislative Council with a restraint that proved his contention that criticism need be neither selfish nor disloyal. King-Harman, aware that District Commissioners sometimes used Creoles up country,

stration as firmly as

'crude and peculiar procedure' in court, sympathized, but rather than subject

them

to appeals, established a Circuit

Court under

a puisne

judge, leaving them only magisterial jurisdiction.

Relieved of a judicial burden they were unqualified give

more time

to administration,

and

for,

they could

to gaining the confidence

of

people necessarily mistrustful while they had far-reaching arbitrary jurisdiction.

They could become more

the advisers Chalmers had

wanted, and were instructed to understand and help their people

as

well as rule them.

Apart from

raids

from the

Kisi country across the Liberian frontier,

was was moved to Daru, on the Moa, nearer the disturbed area. The frontier was finally settled in 191 1, delimited in 1912. The Liberian government gave up their part of the Luawa chiefdom (as Cardew had suggested) in return for part of the Gola forest, further south, and -^4,000. The details of the adjoining frontier with French Guinea were adjusted in 19 12. the Protectorate remained peaceful. In 1905 a military expedition sent against the Kisi; in 1906 the w.a.f.f. headquarters

During the depression years there was no money repair, public buildings in

Freetown. 607

When

to build, scarcely to

revenue increased in the

1

many were

890s

worth

scarcely

repairing. Plans

were drawn

for a

grandiose administrative block in Westmoreland Street; Ginger Hall,

property out Kissy Road, which had belonged to

a European trader Freetown family, was bought as a site for a new prison. But Protectorate and Railway expenditure ate up available funds all that could be built was a new Customs House, and a wing to the Post Office. The Secretariat was patched up and not rebuilt until 1925. The dilapidated old gaol remained in use until a new one was built at the end of Pademba Road in 1914. It was then a

in the 1830s

and passed to

his

:

pulled

down

to extend the Hospital.

Freetown saw a view not very Wallis, or Major Mockler-Ferryman, in his Visitors to

the familiar picture of disease

mocks the beauty of

houses, squalid huts,

change in

little

tumble-down houses

still

different British

from Burton's.

West

Africa,

in grassy streets,

gave

where

the surrounding landscape. Half-built

disfigured the

main

streets.

Nathan, finding

twelve years' absence, had an Ordinance passed,

his

with Lewis's approval, enabling the Municipality to compel owners to

improve properties. But only the town centre was affected. The outlying areas were excepted on the grounds of hardship to the poor. Continuous building stretched from Brookfields and King Tom to Granville Brook. The land between the regularly spaced streets to the east (the lines of the Nova Scotian country allotments) was crammed with houses and shanties full of immigrants from the Protectorate. Some crowded into ^accommodates', roughly built sheds let out to as many as they would hold, yielding the owners a rental which may have helped reconcile them to the influx of 'unwashed aborigines'. But they were still kept at a distance, nor was there much interest in missions to convert them to Christianity.

market in Kru Town Road in 1899, but was little revenue for much municipal hillside east of Fort Thornton was set open improvement. Part of the aside at the time of the Diamond Jubilee for the Public Works Depart-

The City Council

even

after rates

ment

were

Park with bandstand and benches. The handed over to the Municipality unfinished, and

to lay out as a Victoria

work was

ill-done,

not fmally opened

An

built a

levied, there

till

1900.

city, where water was was delayed by disputes over how it should be managed. Cardcw, convinced the City Council would be incompetent to run it, wanted government control, the Colonial

adequate water-supply for the expanding

only laid on to the central

Office, the City Council.

parts,

The Crown Agents' 608

consultant spent over

two

years considering plans.

Not

until

December 1901 was an Ordin-

ance passed empowering government to build waterworks at the Colony's expense; when finished in 1906 they were handed over to the Municipality to administer and maintain from water

rates.

The Municipality was too much identified with rates ever to become popular. As a taxing body it had to bear the opprobrium of a people who had grown up celebrating annually the abolition of taxes. But except

when

times were bad and people looked round for a scapegoat,

or during election time, the citizens tended to ignore it. Though the Council gave individuals a chance of exercising official responsibility,

they seldom

felt

they were supported by

more than perfunctory interest.

—

was elected mayor Philhp Lemberg, whose long residence and marriage made him an intimate In 1900 and again in 1907 a European

member of the community.

In 19 12 he retired to

England where he

died in 1914 after having spent forty-nine years in Freetown, fifty-one

on

the Coast.

who was

Only

three Europeans beat his record

—Magnus Smith,

Leone by 1824 and died there in 1876, at least fiftyJohn McCormack, fifty-two in Sierra Leone, fifty-seven on the Coast, and Major W. J. Ross, a retired army officer who settled down and married at Regent, who spent over sixty years on the

two

in Sierra

years,

Coast, the

last

forty-one unbrokenly in Sierra Leone.

Alimami Haruna of Fourah Bay died in 1892. Some of the MusHm community installed his son Gheirawani to succeed him; others, mistrusting his youth and European education, chose an older leader,

Suleimana Johnson. The

rival factions,

Jamaat and Tamba, worshipped

law over the ownership of the mosque. Amid this strife the Pratt's Farm school declined. Nathan, interested in Islam, wanted government help for Muslim education. He persuaded the Foulah Town and immigrant Muslim communities to start schools, promising a grant if they were efficient. Blyden helped stimulate interest and planned an institute of higher Muslim learning. This was more than government would pay for, but in 1901 he was appointed apart,

and

in 1899

went

to

Mohammedan Education to Gheirawani's party won the lawsuit

Director of

supervise schools. in

1901, but his opponents

remained unreconciled, and the Fourah Bay community divided. died in 1903, his rival Suleimana in 1905.

609

He

After Ronald Boss sent out

Dr

left

Stephens and

considered draining effective.

building

Freetown, the Malaria Investigation Committee

Dr

Christopher. Less sanguine than he, they

would be

expensive, laborious and perhaps in-

They found anopheles breeding on the hillsides, proving that houses there would not protect the inhabitants, unless they

were segregated from those already infected. Leicester and Gloucester were as much malarial reservoirs as Freetown. They could only recommend Europeans to keep away from carriers, particularly at night when anopheles came out. Their report disinclined the government from spending money on drainage. Many, including Prout and the Army medical authorities, were sceptical of Ross's theories. Ross complained angrily of Chamberlain, so ready to encourage medical research with fine phrases, so sparing of practical help, hi 1901 he organized another expedition from the Liverpool School to see whether purely sanitary measures could reduce infection in Freetown. King-Harman, unconvinced by the mosquito theory, nevertheless gave help. By April 1902 Ross could claim breeding-places had been reduced ninety per cent. But he explained that for permanent success government must continue his work. At the Colonial Office it was felt that his having failed to exterminate the anopheles completely (which he had not set out to do), vitiated his conclusions. His report only circulated one day, and was 'put by' (the Colonial Office formula for filing a document away) without being sent up to Chamberlain or the Under-Secretaries. In Freetown KingHarman and Prout declared his work inconclusive, and too expensive to continue.

To

sanitation they preferred segregation.

Stephens and Christopher's report had revived the plan to

move

hills. King-Harman proposed a railway to a plateau up between Wilberforce and Regent, well away from malaria-contaminated villagers, where there was room for about 100 houses. The line would go from Water Street Station along Westmoreland and Sanders Streets, through Brookfields, and would also

Europeans to the

7-800

feet

serve Wilberforce barracks.

While

the South African

War

dislocated the

London

stock market,

the Crown Agents had delayed floating the Railway Loan; they were fmancing the railway themselves by advances at interest. KingHarman suggested the extra expense be added to the loan capital.

So the ^1,250,000

^47,000

for houses.

raised

Work

included

;£ 3 9,000

started in 1902.

for

a

Hill Railway,

Components

for

wooden

bungalows, mounted high off the ground on iron girders, were sent 610

from England, and the Congo Stream dammed for a By April 1904 the Hill Railway was opened, and the first bungalows finished. King-Harman hoped business would follow up the hill. But by the turn of the century independent European business men had nearly vanished from Freetown; almost all were employees. Though the Liverpool Chamber urged the Hill Railway, its members declined to let their agents profit by it. Only the Cable Company built a bungalow there. The commercial firms let their employc^es stay where they were, so widening the existing social gulf between them and officials. The European population was steadily swelled by the officials Cardew introduced, by more business employees, as trade expanded, and by wives. The 1891 census gave 210 settled Europeans in the Colony, thirty-three of them women; the 1901, 351, forty-nine women. As their numbers grew, social life became increasingly segregated by colour. The events of 1898 deepened the cleavage. Bonner depicted' in his diary a European society not entirely segregated, for Africans were entertained regularly at Government House, but selfsufficient, where even the gregarious had no need to cultivate acquaintprefabricated special

water supply.

ances outside their

own

the Europeans seemed

circle.

A

Belgian traveller noted in 1899 that

withdrawn

into their

own

society.

The news-

papers deplored the widening gap.

While lived in a

all

were neighbours

flat

in Freetown, while the

Chief Justice

over an undertaker's warehouse, the Colonial Secretary

bound Eurogroup was isolated in the hills with wire fences and threatening notices to keep out the other. Thus the hidian model of a racially stratified society was introduced into Sierra Leone, not shamefacedly as required by prejudice, but openly as dictated by medical science. Yet even science had to yield to comfort. Each European was allowed an African servant sleeping on

in the battered old Secretariat,

peans and Africans.

neighbourhood

They broke when one

interests

racial

the premises, and had to pay the price principle exacts in occasional outbreaks

The railway

line

from expediency

of malaria.

reached Rotifunk and was handed over to the Railway

Department in March 1900. The next lap, to Bo, was finished in October 1902 and a third begun to Baiinia. King-Harman and Shelford continually held out before an uneasy Colonial Office the bait of a really rich palm belt at the end of the line. Baiima was reached in 611

1905; a final extension, a tramline to the Liberian hinterland,

build after the efficiently

Colony

was opened

stage,

with

its

Pendembu in 1908.

many

to tap the produce of Comparatively easy to

viaducts,

work

progressed

once the engineers got into their routine. There were few

labour disputes, unskilled labourers could be recruited in the Pro-

was lower than on any other West African railway. Even so, enormous administrative expenses brought construction and running costs far above the initial tectorate at lod a day,

and the

cost per mile, ^4,316,

estimate.

Once even the intermediate stages were open for trafhc the wealth Cardew had foreseen began to pour in from the Protectorate. Palm produce was increasingly sought

after in Europe: glycerine was from palm oil to make explosives, margarine manufactured from kernels; soap and lubricants were in growing demand in an era when more and more self-respecting mechanics tended machines.

extracted

After 1901 export figures rose again. In 1904 they at

1897

level, in

1909 more than doubled

with exports worth over

^i^

it,

million.

in 1912

last

surpassed the

more than

Customs yielded

trebled

it

^^ 102,969

^301,140 in 1912. Hut Tax proceeds rose steadily at a rate of about ^2,000 a year. During the South African War speculators on the London Stock

in 1900,

Exchange, unable to deal in public

was

^kaffirs',

turned to

offered millions of pounds

West

worth of

Africa. In 190 1 the

shares in over 300

development, chiefly mining, companies in the so-called *West African Jungle'.

Those

who

held concessions hoped to profit. But the Colonial

Office, always less enthusiastic than

Protectorate, gave

Cardew about developing

the

company-promoters no countenance. In 1902 the

long delayed Concessions Ordinance was passed, hedging round con-

whether share-pushers or genuine entrepreneurs, with so drastic they were virtually choked off.

cessionaires, restrictions

With the return of peace the *Jungle' balloon burst abruptly. F. W. Dove, whose Kunike concession had been recognized before the Ordinance was passed, found his London associate meant to exploit him, not Kunike, and liis company collapsed. Thompson Brothers who had obtained twenty concessions, chiefly in the Koranko country, to restore their heavy losses in 1898, foimd them worthless. Only John Myer Harris, who disposed of his concession to a syndicate during the 'Jungle' boom, may possibly have made some money from the unexploited wealth of the coimtry he had been so long associated with, to retire to Maida Vale where he died in 1909. 612

The Concessions Ordinance avoided the vexed Not until 1927 was

the status of Protectorate land.

the preamble of an Ordinance, declaring ties

who

it

question of defining a phrase slipped into

Vested in the

tribal authori-

hold such land for and on behalf of the native communities

concerned'.

So those

who wanted to do business in the Protectorate were restrict-

buying produce and retailing imported goods. overcoming what fears they had of returning to where their brethren had been slaughtered in 1898, went back to the Sherbro or followed the railway line. After T. J. Alldridge retired in 1905, he made a tour up country (described in A Transformed Colony, published in 19 10) and was amazed to see Kissy Street apparently transplanted in places almost unknown to the Colony a decade before. Missions too resumed the work interrupted in 1898. But the trains that opened up the Protectorate brought Creoles competition of a new kind. European firms, once content with factories on the river-banks which enterprising Creoles could cut out by pushing inland, began opening agencies along the line. Where all were engaged in the same trade, those with large capital could squeeze out ed to the old

Many

fields,

Creoles,

the small.

They could advance

monopoly

a chief big credits to get a

of his produce, or send out smartly uniformed agents with presents to attract custom. Competition forced the price of kernels up, of goods

down. The firms, buying in bulk, could afford to undersell the small Goods ordered by train were retailed at Freetown prices or less,

trader.

so

the Freetown shopkeeper lost Protectorate customers.

Creoles,

at a disadvantage up country, conscious many District Commissioners disliked them, even, they suspected, set the chiefs against them in a deliberate policy of Divide and Rule, felt further victimized at what seemed the commercial conspiracy of Europeans and natives against them.

politically

Street trading

brought the Syrian 'Corals'

profits to set

shops or take them up country to buy produce, and

Like the early recaptives (who had also started

combined

to

buy wholesale or

small fortunes to take

competed mistrust rivals

(as

who

home

as fiercely against

many

as street traders)

they

one another gain to the Turkish Empire. Creole traders prevented

as against outsiders:

mutual

them cooperating

against

slowly undermined them. Property-owners began letting

Syrians the larger business premises: Kissy Street Syrian.

in

cut prices.

at auction, helping

one another

lamented)

them up

sell at

The

grew

increasingly

cola trade passed into their hands. Cola exports rose

613

immensely, from ^60,351 in 1902, to ^276,473 in 1912, but by then went through Syrian hands without profit to Creole middlemen.

European firms in Freetown did a growing retail trade, offering lower prices than Creole shopkeepers. Mail-order firms, sending catalogues from England, or advertising in the newspapers, took custom from local tailors and shoemakers. Shoes were sometimes sent to England for repair. The market in house-property, the only reliable local investment, was depressed by the building of Hill Station which .removed good tenants.

Though

were European firms and Syrians

there

houses,

better-class

investors lost

the

secure

official

to take the

tenancies.

As

revenue increased, the government tried to give up renting altogether,

and buy or build houses in Freetown for those whose duties prevented them moving up, grouping them if possible in islands of sanitary segregation.

Trade was booming, revenue coming in as never before, but the Colony's inhabitants found themselves growing steadily poorer, without prospect of recovering their commercial prosperity.

Towards

the end of the century the English medical authorities began

raising their

quahfying standards

:

when medical

services

were expand-

The Colonial Office West Africa. To attract

ing everywhere the supply of doctors decreased.

found

young mated

it

increasingly difficult to recruit for

doctors, the

West African medical departments were amalgaon the lines of the old-established

in 1902 in a unified service

Indian Medical Service.

The West African Medical

Service

old settled colonies, but of the

new

was conceived not in terms of the where an immense

Protectorates,

gulf separated the inhabitants from the small, largely

European population.

It

was decided

socially ineligible for the semi-military

country.

It

was

also

argued that

official or

mihtary,

to exclude African doctors, as

mess

senior officials led

life

up

many Europeans disliked being attended

by an African. Sir William MacGregor, Governor, Lagos, himself a doctor, objected to sacrificing the African medical profession to the social feelings

European

officials.

But the Colonial

Office,

however unwilling

of to

introduce openly racial distinctions of a kind never expressly formulated (though

sometimes acted on), was convinced that good candidates

could only be attracted to

a segregated service.

614

Henceforth doctors of

by government were paid at a over even the most junior Euroseniority they nor had lower pean. Dr Renner acted as head of the Sierra Leone Medical Department for the last time in 1902: for his remaining eleven years service African African (or Indian) parentage employed rate;

parentage debarred him, though as a special concession to age and experience he was allowed the higher rate of salary. Fair

words

in Legislative Council prevented the full force

of

reorganization being generally realized in Freetown until 1909,

this

when

White Paper was issued in England explaining it publicly. By then protest was vain: a people long justly proud of its sons' medical prowess had to submit to seeing them denied recognition. a

Cardew's policy of appointing Europeans to senior

by

his successors,

retired

slowly squeezed out Creole

Europeans replaced them.

A

posts,

officials.

continued

As they died or

European displaced J. E. Dawson

head of the Customs in 1900; when Enoch Faulkner died in District was amalgamated administratively with the adjoining

as assistant

1908 his

part of the Protectorate under a European District Commissioner; as the

were brought in. Sub-hispectorwere given up: Benoni Johnson and A. B. Davies served just long enough to hold commissions in the w.a.f.f., but were pensioned in 1902. About fifty Creoles were embodied in the w.a.f.f., but rules against wearing boots, and the lack of opportunity offered to education, discouraged them from enlisting there or in the West African Regiment. The Colony Police too was recruited increasingly from the Protectorate. So by 19 1 2 those who looked back only twenty years saw a revolution in the public service. In 1892, Creoles held eighteen of some forty senior posts; in 1912 the service had so expanded that there were ninety-two such posts (excluding the w.a.f.f. and the Railway Department) but Creoles only held fifteen, five of which were abolished senior printing staff retired Europeans ships

within the next five years

as their

holders retired.

Burton's views prevailed: visitors went on repeating his strictures unthinkingly.

The

old

tales

of

juries victimizing

Europeans were

repeated long after juries had been shorn of their powers. Writers

on echoing disapprovingly

from Reade's Savage Africa at a they had ceased to. Observers Harry Johnston) spent only a few days in

country where blacks

rule,

who

Sir

(like

Burton, or

went

the sneers

long

after

Freetown, were ready to pontificate about African education being only a veneer through which latent savagery kept bursting. 615

This curious myth, so grotesquely at variance with what

less

pre-

judiced observers might have seen of law-abiding Creole respectability,

was widely

believed. Grant Allen embodied it in a popular short story. The Rev. John Creedy, about an African clergyman who, after marrying an English girl, reverts to barbarism. Lord Wolseley described in his

memoirs how the Rev. Thomas Maxwell renounced Christianity on deathbed and sent for a Tetish man*. But Maxwell was still alive, in retirement near Kissy, when the book appeared, and his lawyers made Wolseley pay for the libel. his

If legal proceedings could expose particular libels, they could

eradicate a

myth

persistently repeated (for

Sierra Leone, published 1916),

were

as

ready to think

ill

Httle evidence (p. 602).

had

nor

in

Newland's

dissipate ingrained prejudice.

of Creoles

Even

example

not

People

them decadent, and on as sometimes adopted what

as believe

missionaries

originally been an anti-missionary cry without seeming to perceive

that vilifying

Sentimentalists

their

own

who

creation

admired

made

pagan

who

humanitarians like E. D. Morel

their

or

labours a mockery.

Muslim

picturesqueness,

followed Blyden in deploring

the Europeanization of Africans, swelled the chorus, until

could write in 191 1 in

his

Languages of West Africa,

*it

Migeod

cannot be dis-

guised that the majority of Europeans view with disfavour the pro-

duct of their

own

civilizing influences'.

This disfavour was exhibited in quaint

official

dress in the pro-

of a government school started in 1906 at Bo for chiefs' sons or nominees. Here the doctrines of Blyden, Burton and Rousseau united uneasily to inculcate the dignity of labour while esche^ving the indignity of becoming educated. The boys were to retain what was deemed their native simplicity of mamiers uncontaminated by pretensions to intellectual superiority. Creole schoolmasters were excluded: spectus

Englishmen, styled 'Education Experts', did the teaching in a school wliich turned a contemptuous back

on

a

century of

West African

education.

on a tradition that had borne so rich of educated Sierra Leoneans, in the Albert Academy, founded in 1904 in Freetown, where Protectorate boys were taught in contact with the Colony, not in artificial isolation. Nor was the fundamental weakness of government's scheme unpcrceivcd. Abayomi Cole prophesied in the Weekly News that those Europeans who preferred the pliant obedience of unsophisticated natives to the It

was

left to

the u.B.c. to carry

a fruit in three generations

pretensions of educated Creoles,

would soon 616

find themselves rearing

of educated much.

a class as

whose pretensions they would

natives

dislike quite

In May 1903 Sir Samuel Lewis, for two years in constant pain with what proved to be cancer, gave up public and private business to which, despite illness, he had remained unremittingly attentive, and went to England for treatment. At Manson's advice he was operated on, but

died shortly afterwards on July the 9th, and was buried in Acton

cemetery, aged fifty-nine.

No

one replaced him in Sierra Leone. J. J. Thomas and Malamah already past their prime when appointed to Legislative

Thomas were

Council. Alfred Shorunkeh-Sawyerr whose originality, eloquence, and legal attainments,

seemed

people

by

as a leader;

ment had ceased For

after Lewis's

to

to

mark him

a successor,

never inspired the

the time he reached the legislature, 191 1, governpay much attention to Creole members* speeches.

death almost

all

vestige

of

away. Debates became increasingly public endorsements of

members were allowed

policy where the unofEcial

faded

real partnership

little

official

more than

protests.

came to realize that a government which moved its seraway bodily, and recruited outsiders to fill senior posts, was becoming utterly estranged from them. New laws, even if for the public good, were received with mistrustful hostility by people who, mistrusted themselves, grew ready to impute evil motives even to Creoles

vants

new policy (for new it was, whether became gradually plain, they began to look back with nostalgia to the days of Queen Victoria under whose kind sway, they believed, it would never have been permitted. Vainly the Freetown press poured scorn on a government which well-meant benevolence. As the

expressly formulated or not)

but spurned the edu-

encouraged education (even

if half-heartedly)

cated. Vainly they called

un-Christian, un-English (for as British

it

When

subjects Creoles could fairly

judge of

Duke of Connaught

Freetown, bringing a message from the

King

to

*my

visited

that, too).

in 1910 the

Colony of Sierra Leone' (the Colony condemned unheard in 1898 for disloyalty)

ancient and loyal

Colonial Office had

the the

words, however gratifying, could not but ring sadly in the ears of those Sir

whose ancient

loyalty

was

so

little

regarded.

Samuel's death at fifty-nine exemplified again

mortality went on cutting 821613

down

how

untimely

proniiiicnt Creoles at an age

5jy

R

when r

5

their

office

The average

hfe-span of the

v^hen Lewis died, was seventy-five, of the previous cabinet

(Rosebery's) seventy-seven.

T.

J.

many more years of members of Balfour's cabinet, in

contemporaries in England could expect

service.

Yet

his colleagues in Legislative

Sawyerr, Daniel Jarrett and T. C. Bishop, died

fifty-three

Council

at sixty-one,

and forty-eight.

Parkes, in

government

Farmer, in education, Macfoy, in

service,

business, all died in their prime. Principal Claudius

Two

men

May

died in 1902

whose voluntary labours the community owed much died in 1901, James Taylor, aged fiftynine, S. H. A. Case aged fifty-six; Ojokutu Macaulay followed at fifty-eight in 1904. Nor did those whose work took them to other parts of the Coast fare much better Dr J. F. Easmon, N. H. Williams, J. R. Maxwell all died under fifty, J. A. M'Carthy, Dr Spilsbury, under at fifty-seven.

public-spirited

to

:

sixty.

The Anglican lived

on

clergy were reputed longer-lived.

in retirement.

The two

Maxwell until 1906 when he died

at

senior

eighty-two,

Nicol until 1907, at eighty-four, each predeceased by several children. The Rev. John Campbell who retired from being Assistant Colonial Chaplain in 1886 drew his pension until 1906. clergy lived to

1909

less

Though the Methodist Marke retired in

conspicuous ages, the Rev. Charles

after fifty years in the ministry,

and before

published his useful Origin of Wesleyan Methodism

his

death in 191

in Sierra

Leone.

J. Macaulay and Bishop James Johnson, ordained together in 1863, died within a few months of each other, the one aged seventy-nine, the other seventy-seven, in 19 17, relics of the era when a great future in Church and State seemed open to Sierra Leoneans. Add the extra years these clerics achieved to the lives of some of the early dead, to Sir Samuel Lewis and William Grant, Dr Horton and Dr Robert Smith, Principal Quaker and Principal May, and that future might have been realized. Expectation of life among educated Creoles, apparently less than among educated Englishmen in England, was probably greater than among the Protectorate peoples. Yet some Creoles were ready to assume the contrary. The blighting of their hopes seemed to confirm what Blydcn preached, the inevitable degeneracy awaiting those who substitute the corruptions o£ Europe for the manners and customs of

Archdeacon G.

the African interior.

Blydcn

retired in 1906 but

remained

in

Freetown, and died there on

February the 7th 191 2. In 1907 he pronounced the Creoles' epitaph 618

in a

of leaders

series

in the

Weekly News,

later

published as a pamphlet,

men mere fortuitous exceptions to a fatal of degeneracy which doomed them all. Consigned to failure by their own prophet, the outstanding example of a Europeanized African, soaked in European culture (which, strangely enough, never infected him with the degeneracy he declared his friends could not hope to declaring their distinguished

rule

though he practised none of the native customs he said could alone save them), it was no wonder if they gave themselves up to escape,

despair.

Denied hope

for the future, they could only look

back to

a

Golden

Age, the vanished era of Queen Victoria and of the departed recaptive

and Creole

giants.

Thus, for example,

at the

20th anniversary cele-

brations of the Leopold Educational histitute in 1903, a

doubly pathetic past

from

as issuing

from young

lips,

a present without prospect

of

boy

in a speech,

apostrophized the glorious a future,

ending with the

piteous cry, *Alas, poor Africa'.

home and in the abroad. More copies of

Discouraged

at

Protectorate they

sought

still

which kept exiles in touch with their homes, were sold outside the Colony than in. An old lady who died at Hastings in 1909 with one son in the Camer00ns, another in the Congo, was typical of many in the increasingly deserted Colony villages. Creole dispensers and nurses easily found employment along the Coast. Ojokutu Macaulay's old pupils built houses in Lagos or Warri. Creoles were employed as marine engineers, like E. N. Boardman with the Niger Company, or Christian Luke in the Southern Nigerian Customs, or Festus King at Dakar. They flocked into Northern opportunity

the Weekly News,

Nigeria, as formerly into the older colonies, to furnish literate office staff,

otherwise lacking. If the government there found them

liking

it

they were restricted to subordinate posts. ships

The

little

to

its

as at

home

judgesliips, the

head-

could not manage without them, though there

of department, Creoles had once held were

now

reserved for

Europeans. Enoch Faulkner's sons, for example, dispersed, two to

Northern Nigeria,

a third

with the Telegraph

Company

to St

Thome,

but were shut out from the seniority their father had had. Hated, despised,

as

they often were, they were yet indispensable, the

unrecognized vehicle by which not only British rule but trade, education,

and Christianity were conveyed to West and schools which must have closed without

Africa. In the churches

mercantile counting-houses and government

offices,

619

their ministrations, in

dependent on

their subordinate toil, these gentle pioneers bringing a

Europeans resented in

their possessing,

European culture

could well look round them to see

whatever good Britain brought West Africa

in the nineteenth

century a plant which could never have taken root without their slighted labour.

620

———

GUIDE TO SOURCES ABBREVIATIONS

—Blue Book. —Commons Journals. c.M.s. — Church Missionary Society. Co. — Governor's Council. — Colonial Secretary's Letterbook. Ex.Co. —Executive Council. —Governor's Letterbook.

B.B. C.J.

c.s.L.B.

G.L.B.

J.

c—John Clarkson.

—Kenneth Macaulay. —Liberated African Department Letterbook. Leg. Co. —Legislative Council. —Lords Journals. M.A.E. —Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres. Marine des Colonies. M.M.c. —Ministere de

K.M.

L.A.D.L.B.

L.J.

la

et

M.M.s. Methodist Missionary Society.

—Parhamentary Debates. —^Parliamentary History. —^Parhamentary Papers. —Registrar-General's — Sierra Leone Archives.

p.D. p.H. p.p.

R.G., s.L.

Office, Sierra Leone.

S.L.A. S.L.s.

Sierra

Leone

s.L.T.

Sierra

Leone Times.

s.L.w.N. s.P.G.

Leone Weekly News.

— Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

w.A.R. z.M.

Sierra

Studies.

West African Reporter.

—Zachary Macaulay.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE series CO. 267. Many are them here without their p.r.o. as Thompserial number, giving only Governor's name, year and despatch number son '08, I. If the despatch is unnumbered date follows Governor's name. Confidential despatches are shown with date, without 'Confidential'; only for 1898-9 when they proliferate is a number given, in brackets, when more than one was written on one day. Enclosures are shown by 'enc' after the despatch number, minutes by *min.* The CO. 267 series also includes letters to the Colonial Office relating to Sierra Leone from other government departments, public bodies, or individuals. They too as Adm. 1.1.08 (letter to Colonial Office from are shown without serial number Admiralty); c.M.s. 1.1.08 (to Colonial Office from Church Missionary Society); as Macaulay (indiv.) 1.1.08. letters from individuals bracket *(indiv.)'

Governors* despatches to the Secretary of State arc in the

duplicated in the Sierra Leone Archives.

I

refer to

—

—

—

621

The same procedure Coast

(c.o. 96)

is

used for Fernando Po (c.o.

and Lagos

82), the

Gambia

(c.o. 87),

Gold

(c.o. 147).

During the 1870s and 80s many Sierra Leone despatches were printed as Confidential and the originals destroyed. They are indicated by the serial c.o. 806. Secretary of State's despatches to Sierra Leone, series c.o. 268, are usually shown with sender's name and date without serial number. Minutes of Council, of Legislative Council, and of Executive Council, series c.o. 270, are shown without serial as 'Co.', 'Leg. Co.', 'Ex. Co.', followed by date. Government Gazettes, series c.o. 271 (incomplete) are shown without serial as 'Gazette', followed by date. Armual Blue Books of Statistics, series c.o. 272, are shown without serial as *b.b.*, followed by date. Prints

Documents

in the following series are also referred to. In general a date rather

than a page or folio number

only

—board

is

used.

Where

a series contains

minutes, letters from a department,

without further

etc.

—date

documents of one follows

serial

specification.

—Admiralty —Admiralty Board minutes. 51 — Captains' Logs. 53 — Ships' Logs, loi — Medical Journals. 106— Navy Board 109— Victualling Department 114—Victualling Department, miscellaneous. A.o. — Exchequer and Audit Office — accounts, various. 16—Exchequer and Audit Office— miscellaneous. 6—Board of Trade, miscellaneous. C.o. — Colonial, General. 217 — Nova to R. W. Hay). 323 — Colonies, General (contains 324 — Colonies, General (contains R. W. Hay's 325 — Colonies, General, miscellaneous. 447 — Order of St Michael and St George, correspondence. 448 — Honours, correspondence. 854 — Circular despatches. 27 — France. 47— 84 — Slave Trade. 97 — General Correspondence, Africa, 315 — Slave Trade: Sierra Lconc. — High Court of Admiralty— Examinations. H.C.A. 35 — High Court of Admiralty — Slave Trade Reports. 49—High Court of Admiralty— C:ourts of Vice-Admiralty Proceedings. Adm.

in-letters.

I

3

in-letters.

in-letters.

3

B.T.

I

Scotia.

letters

letters).

P.O.

Liberia.

13

622

class

number

—Convicts, miscellaneous. —Convict Transportation Registers. 35 —Home Office Correspondence — Colonial. 42 — Home Office Correspondence — Domestic. 48 — Home Office Correspondence—Law 30/6 — Carnarvon Papers. 30/8 — Chatham Papers. 30/11 — Clinton Papers. —Treasury Board Papers. 27—Treasury general. 28 —Treasury various. 29— Treasury, miscellaneous. 70—African Companies. w.o. —^War Office —^War Office (Commander-in-Chief). 4—^War Office (Secretary War). 12—Regimental Pay 32—Registered general. 43 —Very Old 44— Board of Ordnance 55 —Board of Ordnance, miscellaneous. 58 — Commissariat, 59— Corrmiissariat, minutes. 107 — Quarter-Master-General, papers.

H.o. 7 11

Officers.

p.R.o.

T. I

out-letters,

out-letters,

I

in-letters.

3

out-letters

out-letters

at

Lists.

Letters,

Series.

in-letters.

out-letters.

The

series F.o.

84 contains the reports from the Commissioners of the

Freetown. They are abbreviated to *Comm.' with

serial

number and

Mixed Court,

date. Prize Sale

accounts and other enclosures are specified by the report they are enclosed in and

The series T.

i

contains the minutes of the

*enc*.

Committee for the ReUef of the Black Poor.

SIERRA LEONE Sierra

Leone Archives (ref.

(there

is

*s.l.a.*)

a typescript catalogue

of the

Sierra

Leone Archives

in the Colonial Office

Library).

Sherbro Records preserved in the District Office, Bonthe.

Records in the Registrar-General's Office, Freetown

—

(ref. *R.G., s.L.').

Records of the Court of Recorder.

Grant Books. St George's Marriage and Burial Registers. Wesleyan Marriage Register 1843-9.

Chronological List of Events affecting the West Coast of Africa

MSS

in the University College Library

Instructions of the Sierra

Letter

from John Gray

Leone

— (ref

Company

's.l.a.').

Directors.

to Sir Joseph Banks, July 1794.

Journal of George Ross.

'Report of Traders' (typescript).

623

(MS)

:

:

Memorial

:

:

tablets in

Freetown Churches

St George's Cathedral.

Holy

Trinity.

Wesley.

Rawdon

Street.

Samaria,

and

in St Mark's,

Memorials Circular

Waterloo.

in

Road Cemetery, Freetown.

Kissy Cemetery. Claffin

Lane Cemetery, Bonthe.

Medina

Street

Cemetery, Bonthe.

OTHER MANUSCRIPTS Alderman Sir

Library, University of Virginia

George Bonner's papers

hands)

(ref.

'Bonner').

Museum

British

Cotton App.

MS

(in private

— Slavery-Abolition MSS.

xlvii.

14034-

Kings

MS

Add.

MSS

200.

12131 (Sierra Leone).

21256 (Abolition Committee). 33979 (Banks). 36494-5 (Cumberland). 40563

(Peel).

41085 (Melville). 41262-3 (Clarkson).

44393-8 (Gladstone). 461 19 (Boulden Thompson).

Church Missionary Society

(ref.

'c.m.s.*

given with

serial

with

number and

journal' or 'report'

serial

serial numbers CAi or G3); name, journals and reports without sender's name.

with archive

number and

letters are

sender's

John Clarkson:

Museum— Add. MSS

British

Diary

(ref.

'j.c.

41262-3 (Clarkson Papers).

—6.8.1791 —

Diary')

18. 3. 1792 in the

hbrary of

Howard

University,

Washington, D.C. in the author's possession, now —4.8.1792 in volume —26.1 1792 printed in S.L.S. (original not Colonial WiUiamsburg — British Headquarters Papers. lately

19.3. 5.8.

(o.s.) viii

1.

Easmon Family Papers

M. Home

Rev.

—

(in private hands).

letter

to Rev. T.

Haweis 11.1.1794

ref 'Fyfc').

Macaulay at the

sold.

traced).

Huntington Library, San Marino, California:

624

(in the

author's possession,

—

:

:

Zachary Macaulay—journals sent to Henry Thornton

—-journals sent to

Selina Mills

(ref.

(ref. 'z.m.

Journal').

*z.M. Journal (Selina)').

*z.M. to — 'z.M. notebook'). —Zachary Macaulay's notebooks 'k.m. Diary'). — Kenneth Macaulay's diary the author's possesto Thomas Clarkson 27.7.1 19 Governor MacCarthy — recipient'),

letters (ref.

in private hands

(ref.

(ref.

8

letter

(in

sion).

Methodist Missionary Society

— (ref

name and

usually sender's

'm.m.s.' follow^ed

A. E. Toboku-Metzger

Memoir of the

late

Rhodes House,

Oxford— MSS

Royal Geographical Society

by

description

of document

date). (in private hands).

Africa S.21 (Grant), s.22 (Watt).

—Photostats of Banks papers from the Sutro Collection.

Granville Sharp:

papers preserved at Hardwicke Court, Glos. (ref 'Hardvvricke').

(where

a letter

is

printed without too

much garbling in Hoare's Memoir the reference

to Hoare).

is

Smeathman

MSS

(in the author's possession).

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel

Thomas at

Perronet

—(ref

*s.p.g.'

with name and

date).

Thompson

Hull University Library

— and papers (ref —MS Memoir 'Thompson Memoir'). 'Hull').

letters

(ref.

Henry Thornton at

Wigan

Public Library—Journal and

Henry Trevan's Diary

few

references

(ref 'Wigan')

(in the author's possession).

Upsala University Library

A

Notebook

—MS 406 —MS D 26 (Smeathman).

—most

(Afzelius).

generously supplied

me by Mr John

Hargreaves

—are

given to documents in the French National Archives.

They de

are prefixed 'm.a.e.' (Ministere des Affaires Etrang^res) or 'm.m.c' (Ministere

Marine

la

et des Colonies).

PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS Parliamentary Papers are referred to script p.p.

1

page number in the British

865 V. shows the

p.p. 1 899. Ix,

II (vol

ii).

as 'p.p. 'with

Museum copy

number of each

volume number, and

question, not the page, with

the Chalmers Report, however,

Here the printed p^ge number

is

is

the

manu-

(not the printed page number).

Q preceeding.

referred to as c.R.

i

(vol

i)

and

c.R.

shown, followed by the paragraph number.

NEWSPAPERS For the Sierra Leone Press in the nineteenth century see

FREETOWN

LONDON African Times

Gazettes Sierra

Daily Chronicle

Leone Royal Gazette

Daily Graphic

African Herald

62$

s.l.s. (n.s.) viii,

226-36.

—

Royal Gazette

&

Sierra

Leone Advertizer

European Mail

Leone Royal Gazette

Sierra

General Advertiser

Newspapers

General Evening Post

African

Illustrated

African Interpreter

London News

Agency

John Bull London Chronicle

Artisan

Morning Post

Commonwealth

Morning Star

Day

Spring

Pall

Mall Gazette

Ethiopian

Public Advertiser

Free Press

Sierra

Freetown Express

Standard

Independent

Times

Leone Journal

Methodist Herald

Truth

Negro

West Africa

New Era Saturday

West African News

Ho !

Sawyer/s

.

.

.

Medium

Sierra

Leone Church Times

Sierra

Leone Farm

Sierra

Leone Observer

&

Trade Report

Sierra

Leone Times

Sierra

Leone Watchman

Sierra

Leone Weekly News

Sierra

Leone Weekly Times

Trader

Warder

Watchman West African Herald

West African Reporter

BONTHE Early

Dawn

LAGOS Lagos Record Lagos Standard

MAPS, PRINTS, DRAWINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS

Maps

Museum

in the British

are

shown with

their British

Museum

catalogue

reference.

Maps in the Pubhc Record by a specific reference. Prints

shown

as *c.o.

Maps', or

as m.p.d.,

followed

and Drawings referred to

'View of Sierra Leone Missionary Society. .

*

Office arc

Sierra Leone'

by

E.

.

.

March

Duncan,

16,

lygz'

after Lt. S.

by

J.

Beckett

— property

McArthur, London,

626

n.d.

of the Church

— Five lithographs of Freetown after sketches

by Mrs Terry, London,

n.d.

—

*View of Sierra Leone (from the River)' hthograph after (Mrs Waite), London, n.d. Five Hthographs of factories at Sulima and in the Sherbro after A. M. Dunlop

Museum, Greenwich. Albums of Sierra Leone in

National Maritime Five Photograph

the Colonial Office Library

(ref.

*c.o. Library, s.l. Photographs').

PRINTED BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, PERIODICALS The following of

are referred to in the text: they

do not

constitute a

bibHography

Sierra Leone.

—

H. C. Luke: A Bibliography of Sierra Leone, London, 1925. H. Hair ins.L.s. (n.s.) x, 62; xiii, 41 and the card catalogues at the libraries of the Royal Commonwealth Society, the Colonial Office, and Rhodes House, Oxford. For bibhographics see

P. E.

;

(British

&

Foreign) Aborigines Protection Society, Annual Reports.

Aborigines Friend,

A. H. Abel and

London.

A

Klingenberg,

F. J.

Sidelight on

Anglo-American Relations, i8jg-s8,

Lancaster, 1927.

Acts of the Privy Council of England, Colonial Series, Hereford, I908"-I2. J.

Q. Adams, Memoirs

C. B. Adderley, Letter

(ed.

Adams), Philadelphia, 1876. Rt. Hon. Benjamin Disraeli, M.P., on

to the

the present Relations

of England with the Colonies, London, 1861. Addresses, Petitions,

of Sierra

Leone

etc.

the Kings and Chiefs of Sudan (Africa) and the Inhabitants Majesty King William the Fourth, and His Excellency H. D.

from

to his late

Campbell, London, 1838. -4/^iVa

(journal of the International African Institute), London.

African Affairs (see also

Royal African Society Journal), London.

African Association (the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts

of Africa), Proceedings. African Institution, Annual Reports (including Special Report, 1815).

The African Repository, Washington. Prince, London, n.d.

The African J.

E. Alexander, Narrative of a Voyage of Observation

London, 1837. T.J. Alldridge (i) The Sherbro and

among

the Colonies of Western

Africa,

(2)

A

its

Hinterland,

London, 1901.

Transformed Colony, London, 19 10.

Life of William Allen with Selections from his Correspondence,

W.

F. Allen, Slave

Songs of the United

States,

New York,

London, 1846.

1867.

Alvares d'Almada, Tratado Breve (ed. Koepke), Porto, 1841.

American Church History (vol.

D. Berger, The United

xii,

York, 1894.

American Colonization

Society,

Annual Reports.

Annales Hydrographiques, Paris. Annales de

la

Propagation de

Anthropological

la Foi,

Lyons.

Institute, Journals.

Anthropological Society of London, Memoirs. Anti-Jacobin Review,

London.

627

Brethren in Christ),

New

Proceedings of the general Anti-Slavery Convention 1

London

.

.

.

held in

.

.

.

held in London.

.

.

.

1840,

London,

1843,

London,

841.

Proceedings of the general Anti-Slavery Convention n.d.

.

.

(1843).

Special Report of the Anti-Slavery Conference held in Paris

.

.

.

186 j^ London, 1869.

Anti-Slavery Reporter, London. (British

&

Foreign) Anti-Slavery Society, Annual Reports.

H. Aptheker, The Negro A. Arcin, J.

Histoire de

la

in the

New

American Revolution,

York, 1940.

Quince Francaise, Paris, 191 1.

Amould, Memoir of Thomas,

First

Lord Denman, London, 1873.

T. Astley, Collection of Voyages, London 1745. Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, London, 1735. J. Atlas of Sierra Leone (compiled

by

the Survey and Lands Department, Siena Leone),

London, 1953.

W.

B. Baikie, Narrative of an Exploring Voyage, London, 1856.

E. Baillaud,

La

Politique Indigene de VAngleterre en Afrique Occidentale, Paris, 1912.

R. Bancroft, Dangerous Positions and Proceedings published and practised within Island of Britain,

N. Bangs, The

Life of the Rev. Freeborn Garretson,

G. A. L. Banbury, Sierra Leone,

A. H. Barrow,

J.

or

The White

New York,

Mans

1832.

Grave, London, 1888.

London, 1900. London. Beaver, African Memoranda, London, 1805.

Baptist

P.

this

London, 1593.

Annual

R. Best,

Fifty Years in Western Africa,

Register,

A History of the Sierra Leone Railway, Freetown, 1949. A Memoir of Simeon Wilhelm, London, 1839.

E. Bickersteth,

H. C. Billows and H. Beckwith, Palm Oil and Kernels, Liverpool, 1913. S. O. Biobaku, The Egba and their Neighbours, Oxford, 1957. The Letters of Frederic, Lord Blachford (ed. Marindin), London, 1896. E. W. Blyden (i) A Voice from bleeding Africa on behalf of her exiled Children,

Liberia,

1856. (2)

A

(3)

Hope for

Vindication of the

(4)

The People

(5)

Report on the Falaba Expedition, i8y2. Sierra Leone, 1872.

(6)

From West

Africa to Palestine, Freetown, 1873.

Negro Race, London, 1887.

(7) Christianity, Islam,

and

(8) Proceedings

Banquet

LL.D.,

at

the

the

in

Honour of Edward Wilmot Blyden^

London, 1907.

(9) African Life

P. Boasc,

Negro Race, Monrovia, 1857.

New York, 1861. of Africa, New York, 1871.

Africa,

and Customs, London, 1908.

Modern English Biography, Truro, 1892, 1908.

T. Boteler, The West Coast of Africa from the

Isles de

Los

to Sierra

Leone, London, n.d.

(1830). J.

Bouteiller,

De

St Louis d Sierra Leone, Paris, 1891.

Memorials ofJohn Bowen, ll.d., London, 1862. B. Bowen, The Sermon preached at St George's Cathedral, Freetown, Sierra Leone, on J.

May

the yth, i8gs,

Manchester, 1895.

628

T. J.

Bowen, Adventures and Missionary

J.

Boyle,

A

Labours,

New

York, 1857.

Account of the Western Coast of Africa, London,

Practical Medico-historical

1831.

G. Brandt, La Vie de Michel de Ruiter, Amsterdam, 1698. H. Bridge, Journal of an African Cruiser, New York, 1853. Britannus and Africus,

(H. Brunton)

London, 1797.

(i) Religious Instruction for the Soosoos,

(2)

A

Spelling

(British

E. Burke, Works,

L Burton, The R.

F.

Burton

Book for

the Soosoos,

Museum copy

catalogued under Kemp.)

London, 1826.

Life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton,

(i)

Edinburgh, 1801.

Edinburgh, 1802.

Wanderings

in

London, 1893.

West Africa, London, 1863.

(2)

Aheokuta and the Cameroons Mountains, London, 1863.

(3)

(with V. L. Cameron) To the Gold Coast for Gold, London, 1883.

P. A. Buxton, The Natural History of Tsetse Flies, London, 1955.

T.

F.

Buxton, The African Slave Trade and its Remedy, London, 1840. (ed. Crone), Hakluyt Society, London, 1937.

The Voyages ofCadamosto

R. CailHe, Travels through Central Africa Calendar of State Papers, Colonial

O. Cambie^, D'Anvers

h

to

Timbuctoo, London, 1830.

Series.

Las Palmas, Mons, 1900.

T. Canot, Adventures of an African Slaver

Lord Carnarvon, The Defence of Empire

(ed.

Cowley), London, 1928. London, 1897.

(ed. Clarke),

A. C2inies, Journal of a Voyage from Boston to the West Coast of Africa, Boston, 1852. H. Caswall, The Martyr of the Pongas, London, 1857. E. Caulfeild, 100 Years of the 2nd Battalion, West India Regiment, London, 1899. J.

J.

Cave,

S.

A

Few Words

on the Encouragement given

to

Slavery and the Slave Trade by

Recent Measures, London, 1849.

R. Chalmers, (F.

M.

A History

of Currency

in the British Colonies,

London, 1893.

Chamier), The Life of a Sailor, by a Captain in the Navy, London, 1832. L. Charlesworth, Africans Mountain Valley, London, 1874.

'Mary Church', Sierra Leone, or the Liberated Africans, London, Church Missionary Society Annual Reports.

1835.

—

Church Missionary

Intelligencer.

Church Missionary Society Quarterly Papers.

Church Missionary Record. Register of Missionaries, n.d. (1895).

Church Missionary Society

Grammar

School, Freetown, Entrance Register, 1848-1935,

Freetown, n.d.

A. and J. R. Clarke

J.

Churcliill, Collection of Voyages, (i) Sierra

London, 1732.

Leone, London, n.d. (1843).

(2) Sketches of the Colony of Sierra Leone and its Inhabitants, London, 1863. Clarkson, The Substance of a Letter addressed to a Clergyman of the Established Church

on the Subject of War, York, 1827.

T. Clarkson

{i)

An

Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the

Human

Species,

London,

1786. (2)

The History of

.

.

.

the Abolition

1808.

629

of the African Slave Trade, London,

on a Life of William Wilherforce, London, 1838. Not a Labourer wanted for Jamaica, London, 1842.

(s) Strictures (4)

A. and J. de Clercq, Recueil de

The

Political Writings

E.

M.

C.

F.

J.

Traitcs de la France, Paris,

1

864-1903.

of Richard Cobden, London, 1903.

C. (olbeck), Annie Walsh Memorial School, Freetown, i84g-ig4g, London, n.d.

Cole

(i) Education,

Freetown, 1880.

(2) Reflections

on the Zulu

War and

A. (Abayonii) Cole, The Revelation of the

the Future

of Africa, London, 1883.

Secret Orders of Western Africa,

Dayton,

1886.

The

Collection of Hymns sung in the Countess of Huntingdon s Chapels, Bath, n.d.

The Colonial Magazine and Commercial-Maritime Journal, London. Corry, Observations upon the Windward Coast of Africa, London, 1807. J. The Cotton Supply Reporter, Manchester. The Countess of Huntingdon s Connexion Circulars. The Countess of Huntingdon s New Magazine (continued as The Harbinger), London. J.J. Crooks (i) A Short History of Sierra Leone, Dublin, 1900. (2)

A History

of the Colony of Sierra Leone, Dublin, 1903.

{3) Historical Records

A. P. Crouch

of the Royal African Corps, Dublin, 1925.

(i)

On

(2)

Glimpses of Feverland, London, 1889.

a Surf-Bound Coast,

London, 1887.

S. A. Crowther, Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language, London, 1843. Memoir of Captain Paul Cujfee, Liverpool, 181 1. O. Cugoano, Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evils of Slavery, London, B. CuUen, Life of the Venerable Mother Javouhey, Dublin, 1912. J.

1787.

A. Currer-Jones, William Dawes, Torquay, 1930. D. Curtin, Two Jamaicas, Cambridge, 1955.

P.

R. C. Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London, 1803. O. Dapper, Umbstaendliche und Eigentliche Beschreibung von

Africa,

Amsterdam, 1670.

Extracts from the Journal of the Rev. William Davies, Llandidloes, n.d. (1835).

N. D. Davis

(i)

Palaver about West Africa, London, 1875.

and

(2) Chiefs

R. P.

M.

their

Wars

in

West

Africa, 1876.

Davis, History of the Sierra Leone Battalion of the Royal West African Frontier

Force,

Freetown, 1932.

Third and Final Report of the Royal Commissioners appointed

to inquire into the

Defence

of British Possessions and Commerce abroad, London, 1882. J.

Denman, The

J.

Denucc, VAfrique au

African Squadron and

Mr Hutt*s

i6e. Siecle et le

Committee, London, n.d.

Commerce

Ativersois,

Antwerp, 1937.

Speeches and Addresses of Edward Henry, ijth Earl of Derby, London, 1894.

A. V. Dicey, The

W.

Conflict of Laws,

K. O. Dike, Trade and E.

London, 1932.

Dickson, Letter on Slavery, London, 1789.

Donnan, Documents

Politics in the illustrative

Niger Delta, Oxford, 1956.

of the History of the Slave Trade

to

America, Wasliing-

ton, 1930-5. J.

Durand, A Voyage to Senegal, London, 1789. Easmon, Remarks on the Nature and Treatment of^Blachwater Fever', n.d. Easton, The De la Rue History of British and Foreign Postage Stamps, iS^j-igoi,

P. L.

J. F. J.

London, 1958.

630

B. Edwards, The History,

and commercial, of the

civil

British Colonies in the

West

Indies,

London, 1793-1801. Elder* s West African Review, Liverpool. B. Elliott, The Lady Huntingdon's Connexion in Sierra Leone, London, 1851. J. A. B. Ellis (i) West African Sketches, London, 1881. The Land of Fetish, London, 1883.

(2)

(3) The History of the 1st Battalion, West India Regiment, London, 1885. (4) West African Stories, London, 1890. P. H. Emden, Jeu^5 of Britain, London, 1944. Essays in British and Irish History in Honour off. E. Todd (ed. Crone, Moody, Quinn),

London, 1949. Ethnological Society of London, Transactions.

London. Le Senegal,

Evangelical Magazine, L. L. C. Faidherbe,

W.

B. Fagg, Afro-Portuguese

M.

London, 1959.

An

Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa, London, 1758. Falconbridge, Two Voyages to Sierra Leone during the Years lygi-z-j, London,

A. Falconbridge, A.

Paris, 1889.

Ivories,

1794. (References are to

this,

the

edition.)

first,

The Troublesome Voyage of Edward Fenton 1582-3

(ed. Taylor),

Hakluyt Soc. London,

1959.

W.

A Letter to

Fergusson,

Thomas Fowell Buxton,

V. Femandes, Description de

la

Cote d' Afrique (ed.

Esq.,

London, 1839.

Monod,

Teixeira da Mota, Mauny),

Bissao, 195 1. J.

Fernandez,

A

An

Few Words

Address

Colonies addressed J.

to

His Majesty's Ministers, London, 1827.

on the Promoting and Encouraging of Free Emigration to the

Rt.

Hon. Lord fohn

to the

West Indian

Russell, Liverpool, 1840.

C. de Figaniere e Morao, Descrip^ao de Serra Leon, Lisbon, 1822.

F. Fitzgerald,

The Course of Divine Love, London, 1868. (i) OffHand Sketches ofMen and Things in Western Africa, Dayton, 1857. (2) Ethiopia, Dayton, 1877.

D. K. Flickinger

R. E. Fhckinger, The Flickinger Family History, Des Moines, 1927. J.

Fonteneau

(J.

Alfonce),

A. H. Foote, Africa and F. E. Forbes, Six J.

Months

Foster, Men-at-the-Bar,

W.

Fox,

A Brief History

La Cosmographie

the

American Flag,

(ed. Musset), Paris, 1904.

New

York, 1854. London, 1849.

Service in the African Blockade,

London, 1885.

of the Wesley an Missions on the West Coast of Africa, London,

1851.

Free English Territory

in

Africa (London), n.d. (1790).

G. Freyrc, The Masters and the Slaves

(trans.,

Putnam),

New York,

1946.

J. L. Garvin, The Life offoseph Chamberlain, London, 1932. A. L. C. Gatclct, Histoire de la Conquete du Soudan Francais, Paris, 1901.

M.

Gaunt, Alone

in

West

Africa,

London,

n.d. (191

1).

C. George (Esu Biyi), The Rise of British West Africa, London, 1903. Gill, The Ten Hours Parson, London, 1959. J. C. S.

M. X.

Golbcrry, Fragmcns d'lm Voyage en Afrique, Paris, 1802.

A. Gouilly, L' Islam dans FAfrique Occidcntale G. Goyau, Merc favouhcy, Apotrc

Francaise, Paris, 1952.

dcs Noirs, Paris, 1929.

631

—

C. J.

S.

Grant, West African Hygiene, London, 1882.

Grant,

An

Account of some recent Transactions

in the

Colony of Sierra Leone, London,

1810. J.

C. Grant, The Ethiopian, Paris, 1900.

The

Register of Admissions to Grays Inn, iS2i-i88g, London, 1889. H. Greenberg, Studies in African Linguistic Classification, New Haven, 1955. Henry, 3rd Earl Grey, The Colonial Policy ofLord John Russell's Administration, London,

J.

1853.

O. S.

F.

von der Groeben, Orientalische Reisebeschreibung, Marienw^erder, of Mary Kingsley, London, 1932.

1694.

Gwynn, The Life

M. Hague,

R.

Life of Sir William Jeffcott (unpublished typescript-, property

of R. M.

Hague, Gilberton, South Austraha). Hakluyt's Collection of the Early Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries of the English Nation,

London, 18 10. H. U. Hall, The Sherbro of Sierra Leone, Philadelphia, 1938. The Harbinger (continuation of The Countess of Huntingdon s New Magazine). G. Hardy, La Mise en Valeur du Senegal de 1817 a 1834, Paris, 192 1. D. Hargreaves, A Life of Sir Samuel Lewis, London, 1958. J. J.

M.

Harris, Annexations

to

Sierra

Leone and

their influence

on British Trade with West

London, 1883.

Africa,

Hasting Descendants* Association (pamphlet in honour of the opening of the Centenary Hall, 1952), Freetown, n.d. J.

Hawkins,

A History

of a Voyage

to the

Coast of Africa, Troy, 1797.

Hecht, Continental and Colonial Servants

J. J.

in

Eighteenth Century England (Smith

College Studies), Northampton, 1954.

M.

Herskovits, Dahomey,

F. J.

N. Hewett, European

New

York, 1938.

Settlements on the

West Coast of Africa, London, 1862.

V. Flicks-Beach, Life of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, London, 1932. Historical Manuscripts Commission

MSS, 13th Report, Appendix, MSS, London, 1923.

(30) Fortescue (76) Bathurst

P. Hoare,

Part

iii,

London,

1

892-1927.

Memoirs of Granville Sharp, London, 1820.

W.J. Hocking, Catalogue of the Coins .in the Museum of the Royal Mint, London, 1906. Holman, Travels in Madeira, Sierra Leone, Teneriffe, Stjago, Cape Coast, Fernando Po, J. .

.

London, 1 840. Hooke, Life-Story of a Negro Knight, Sir Samuel Lewis, Freetown, Hopkins, Works {cd. Park), Boston, 1852. Princes Island,

F. S.

W.

M. Home,

n.d. (191 5).

Letters on Missions addressed to the Protestant Ministers of the British Churches,

Bristol, 1794.

Horticultural Society of London, Transactions. J.

A. B. Horton

(2)

The Medical Topography of the West Coast ofAfrica, London, 1859. The Physical and Medical Climate and Meteorology of the West

(3)

The Guinea

(i)

Coast of Africa, Edinburgh,* 1867.

(4) (5)

Worm

or Dracunculus,

London, 1868.

West African Countries and Peoples, London, 1868. The Diseases of Tropical Climates and their Treatment, Lohdon 1874 (2nd

cd., 1879).

632

B. H. Hossack, Kirkwall

Hunt,

in the

Orkneys, Kirkwall, 190O.

London, 1863. London, 18 50. T.J. Hutchinson, Narrative of the Niger, Tshadda, and Benue Expedition, London, 1855. Industrial Exhibition at Sierra Leone, London, 1866. E. G. Ingham, Sierra Leone after a Hundred Years, London, 1894. Irish Encumbered Estate Court Records (British Museum, State Paper Room).

J.

Introductory Address on the Study of Anthropology,

H. Huntley, Seven Years

N.

Isaacs,

Travels and Adventures in East Africa,

Cape Town,

M.

Service on the Slave Coast of Western Africa,

A. Jamieson, Medals awarded

to

North American Indian Chiefs

P. dujarric, Histoire des Choses plus memorables,

A

ed.

Herrman,

.

.

.

and

to

loyal

London, 1936.

African and other Chiefs,

C. Johnson,

London, 1836 (and

1936).

Bordeaux, 1608-14.

General History of the Pyrates, London, 1726.

L. G. Johnson, General T. Perronet Thompson,

London, 1957.

S.Johnson, History of the Yorubas, Lagos, 1937. T. S.Johnson (i) The Story of a Mission, London, 1953. (2) The Fear-Fetish: Its Cause and Cure, Freetown, n.d.

A Memoir of the

Rev.

H. Johnston

London, 1906. The Gay-Dombeys, London, 19 16.

W. A. B.Johnson

(ed. Seeley),

London, 1852.

(i) Liberia, (2)

C.Jones, Pioneer Shipowners, Liverpool, 1935. Journal of Negro History, Lancaster, Pa.

H. Kilham(i) African School (2)

London, 1827. to the

Colony of Sierra Leone, London, 1828.

The Claims of West Africa to Christian Languages, London, 1830.

(3)

(4) Present State

(5)

Tracts,

Report on a recent Visit

Instruction through the

Native

of the Colony of Sierra Leone, Lindfield, 1832.

Memoir of the

Hannah Kilham

late

(ed. Biller),

London, 1837.

C. R. King, Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, New York, 1894. M. H. Kingsley (i) Travels in West Africa, London (ist ed.), 1897. (2) J.

West African

Studies,

London (2nd

ed.), 1901.

Kirsop, The Life of Thomas Truscott, London, n.d. (1890).

Knaplund, Jizmes Stephen and

P.

W.

Knight

(i)

The Missionary

the British Colonial System,

Secretariat of Henry Venn,

Madison, 1953.

London, 1880.

(2) Memoir of Henry Venn, London, 1882. Knutsford, Lfc and Letters of Zachary Macaulay, London, 1901. W. Koelle (i) Narrative of an Expedition into the Vy Country of West Africa, London,

M. S.

1849. (2) Outlines

of a

Grammar of the

(3) Polyglotta Africana,

Vei Language, London, 1849.

London, 1854.

R. R, Kuczynski, Demographic Survey of the British Colonial Empire, London, 1948. P. Labarthe (i) Voyage au Senegal, Paris, 1802. (2) J.

Voyage a

la

Cote de Guinee, Paris, 1803.

B. Labat, Voyage du Chevalier des Marchais en Guinee, Paris, 1730.

A. G. Laing, Travels

M.

in the

Timannee, Kooranko, and Soolima Countries, London, 1825.

Laird and R. A. Oldficld, Narrative of an Expedition into the Interior of Africa,

London, 1837. 821613

533

ss

J. J.

Lamprey, Outbreak of Yellow Fever 1884, London, 1885.

in

R. Lander, Records of Captain Clappertons

The Last Military Expedition

in Sierra

Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Coast of Africa,

last

Expedition

to Africa,

London, 1830.

Leone, Manchester, n.d. (1898).

P. Leonard, Records of a Voyage to the Western Coast of Africa in

H.M.S. Dryad, Edin-

burgh, 1833. Leopold Educational Celebrations,

Lewis

S.

The

(i)

Institute, Sierra

Leone, Proceedings connected with the 20th Anniversary

London, 1908. Agricultural Position of Sierra Leone, Liverpool, 1881.

A Few

Suggestions of the Wants of Sierra Leone, Freetown, 1885. Lex, The Cry of the People of Sierra Leone for the Restoration of the Privilege of Trial by fury in Civil Cases, Manchester, n.d. (2)

La

1' Auteur de Works of Abraham Lincoln (ed.

Vie de R. P. Libermann, par

The

Collected

The Records of the Honorable J.

Lind,

K. L.

An

Europeans

to

de St Leger,

New

Easier),

Society of Lincoln s Inn,

Essay on Diseases incidental

Little,

I'Histoire

Paris, 1855.

Brunswick, 1953.

London, 1896. Hot Climates, London, 1771.

in

The Mende of Sierra Leone, London, 1951.

Liverpool fournal of Commerce, Liverpool.

O. Lucas, Lecture on the History of St Paul's Church, Breadfruit, Lagos, Lagos, H. C. Luke, Cities and Men, London, 1953— Lychnos (Annual of the Swedish History of Science Society), Upsala.

J.

Report of Commander

J.

W.

F. Lynch, in relation to his Mission to the Coast ofAfrica, n.d.

(Washington, 1853). B. Macaulay, Memoirs of the Clan Aulay, Caermarthen, 1881.

K. Macaulay, The Colony of Sierra Leone vindicated from Macqueen of Glasgow, London, 1827. Z. Macaulay, J.

n.d.

the Misrepresentations

A Letter to His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, London,

Machat, Documents

of Mr

1815.

sur les Etablissements francais de VAfrique Occidentale au i8e Siecle,

Paris, 1906. S.

T. MacCarthy, The MacCarthys of Munster, Dundalk, 1922.

J.

A. McCarthy, The Prospects of Christianity

A. N. C. MacLachlan, Napoleon

McLachlan, Travels

P.

into the

in

West

at Fontainebleau,

Africa,

London,

n.d. (1887).

London, 1869.

Baga and Soosoo Countries, Freetown, 1821.

A. Mackenzie-Grieve, The Great Accomplishment, London, 1953. D. Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, London, 1805. J.

J.

Macqueen (M'Queen), The Colonial Controversy, Glasgow, 1825. O. McWilliam, Medical History of the Expedition to the Niger, London,

The Maladministration f. R. Dailey,

Reports

to the

offustice in the

Colony of Sierra Leone

1843.

as illustrated in the

Case of

London, 1857.

Malaria Committee of the Royal Society, London, 1900, 1901.

The Manchester Chamber of Commerce Monthly Record, Manchester. A Narrative of the Lord's wonderful dealings with John Marrant, a Black, London, 1788. C. Markc, The Origin ofWcslcyan Methodism in Sierra Leone, London, 191 3. J.

T.

Marryat

W.

(i)

Thoughts on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, London, 1816.

(2) More Thoughts, London, 18 16. (3) More Thoughts Still, London, 1818. M. Marshall, Christian Missions, London, 1862.

634

A

G. Mathison,

Short Review of the Reports of the African Institution, London, 1816.

J.

London, 1848. London, 1788 (2nd R. Maxwell, The Negro Question, London, 1892.

J.

C. May,

H.J. Matson, Remarks on Matthews, A Voyage to J.

A Brief Sketch

the Slave Trade,

the River Sierra Leone,

of the Life of the Rev. Joseph

May

cd.,

1791).

(Freetown), n.d.

Report of the Medical Committee appointed by the General Committee of the Church Missionary Society, London, 1825.

Memorial of the Jubilee of Her Majesty's Reign and of the Centenary of Sierra Leone, 1887, London.

H. Merivale, Lectures on Colonization and Colonies, London, 1 841-2. A. B. C. Merriman-Labor (i) A Series of Lectures on the Negro Race, Manchester, n.d. (2) Handbook of Sierra Leone for 1901 and igo2, Manchester, 1902. (3)

Handbook of

Sierra

Leone for 1904 and

190^,

Man-

chester, 1905.

The Methodist Magazine, London.

The Methodist Monthly, London. Middle Temple Admission Register 1301-1944, London, 1949. F.

W.

H. Migeod

(i) (2) (3)

The Mende Language LonAon, 1908. The Languages of West Africa, London, 191 1. A View of Sierra Leone, London, 1926. ,

A. H. Milne, Sir Alfred Lewis Jones, Liverpool, 1914. Les Missions Catholiques, Lyons.

The Missionary Echo of the United Methodist Free Churches, London. The Missionary Magazine, Edinburgh.

The Missionary A.

F.

Society (London Missionary Society), Reports.

Mockler-Ferryman,

British

West

Africa,

London, 1900.

A. Moloney, Sketch of the Forestry of West Africa, London, 1887. A. Montagu, The Ordinances of Sierra Leone, London, 1857-81.

The Monthly Magazine, London. The Monthly Observer and New Church Record, London.

Moore, Reports of Cases heard before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, London, 1836-73. E. D. Morel (i) The Sierra Leone Hut Tax Disturbances, Liverpool, 1899. (2) Affairs of West Africa, London, 1902. S. F. Nadel, A Black Byzantium, Oxford, 1942. W. L. Neville, JoMrna/ of a Voyage from Plymouth to Sierra Leone, London, 1858. H. O. Newland, Sierra Leone, London, n.d. (1916). E. F.

J.

Newton

(i) (2)

An

Authentic Narrative,

(3) Letters to a

G. G. Nicol,

London, 1764.

Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade, London, 1788.

An

Wife,

London, 1793.

Essay on Sierra Leone, Freetown, 1881.

Notes from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, Glasgow, 1903-8,

G. R. Nylander

(i) (2)

(3)

Vocabulary of the Bulom Language, London, 1814. Book of the Bulom Language, London, 1814. Book Hoa Matthew: The Gospel according to St Matthew

Grammar and

A

Spelling

Bulom and English, London, 18 16.

635

in

J.

Ogilby, Africa, London, 1670.

Outrage by Missionaries, Liverpool, 1883.

N. Owen, Journal of a Slave-Dealer

W.

F.

W. Owen,

J.

to

London, 1930.

explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and

London, 1833.

Mad-Jgascar,

C. E. Parkes,

(ed. Martin),

Narrative of a Voyage

A Geography of the

Colony of Sierra Leone and

its

Hinterland, Freetown,

1894.

A. H. Parsons, The Colonial Coinages of British Page, Samuel Crowther, London, 1889. J.

Africa,

London, 1950.

M. Penson, The Colonial Agents of the British West Indies, London, 1924. D. P. Pereira, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis (ed. Kimble), Hakluyt Soc. London, 1937. The Philanthropist, London. T. 'Phillips, Journal of a Voyage, London, 1732. L.

Report on the

1st

and 2nd Anniversary of the Pilgrim Church' Manchester, n.d. (1902). *

to the

Heathen

in

Freetown^

Sierra Leone,

The Proceedings of the Governor and Assembly ofJamaica, London, 1796. T. E. Poole, Life, Scenery, and Customs

Leone and

in Sierra

the

Maroon Negroes,

Gambia, London, 1850.

London.

Progress of the Pongas Mission in Western Africa, S.

in regard to the

Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pilgrimes, London, 1624.

New

J.

Purdy, Memoir

J.

Raban, The Eyo Vocabulary, London, 183 1-2.

.

.

.

to

accompany the

Chart of the Atlantic Ocean, London, 1825.

W.

Rainy, The Censor Censured, London, 1865.

(T.

W.

Ramsay), Costumes on

the Western Coast

of Africa, n.d.

(G. B. Ramusio), Primo Volume delle Navigationi

et

Viaggi, Venice, 1550.

H. Rankin, The White Mans Grave, London, 1836. W. Reade (i) Savage Africa, London, 1863. F.

(2)

The African Sketch-Book, London, 1873.

Reasons against giving a Territorial Grant cultivate the Peninsula

Museum copy

to a

Company of Merchants

to

colonize and

of Sierra Leone, on the Coast of Africa, London, 1791. (British

ascribes to

*Mr Campbel').

E. Reclus, Nouvelle Geographic Universelle, Paris, 1887.

Report of the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council

of the Trade

A

and particularly

to Africa,

Residence at Sierra Leone,

by

.

.

.

concerning the present State

the Trade in Slaves,

London, 1789.

London, 1849. London, 1864.

a Lady,

H. Richard, Memoirs ofJoseph Sturge, J. Richardson, The Cruizers, London, 1849.

H.J. Ricketts, Narrative of the Ashantee War, London, 1831. J.

T. Roberts,

A Character-Sketch of the late Rev.

G. A. Robertson, Notes on

Claudius

H. Roe, West African Scenes, H. Rolin, Le Traitement des Indigenes dans C. G. Roscnbush, Sierra Leone,

its

Ics

Royal African Society, Journals. Institute,

1912.

Colonies anglaises, Brussels, 1903.

commercial Positiorr and Prospects,

R. Ross, Memoirs, London, 1923.

Royal Colonial

May, Liverpool,

London, 18 19. London, 1874.

Africa,

Proceedings.

Royal Geographical Society, Journals and Proceedings.

636

London, 1881.

Royal United Service E. G. Sandford,

T.

Memoirs of Archbishop Temple, London, 1906.

Savvyerr, The Sierra Leone Native Church, Freetown, n.d.

J.

C. Schefer, C.

London. London, 1782.

Institution Journal,

Letters of the late Ignatius Sancho,

1763 a 1870 aux Gouverneurs,

Instructions Generales donnies de

Schlenker

F.

(i)

A

(2)

An

Temne

Collection of

Traditions, Fables

Paris, 1921.

and Proverbs, London,

1861.

A

(chon), J. F. S. J.

Schon and

F.

English-Temne Dictionary, London, 1880.

Grammar of the Mende Language, London,

1882.

A. Crowthcr, Journals, London, 1842.

S.

Magazine, Edinburgh.

Scots

H. Seymour, Waste Lands of India, London, 1864. A. E. Shelford, The Life of Sir William Shelford, London, 1909. Mrs Sherwood, The Re-Captured Negro, WelHngton, 1821.

A

Short Sketch of Temporary Regulations,

W. W.

London, 1786.

Shreeve, Sierra Leone, London, n.d. (1847).

A. B. C. Sibthorpe

(i)

The History of Sierra Leone, London,

(2)

The Geography of Sierra Leone, London,

(3) Sibthorpe's

n.d. (1881). n.d. (1881).

Age, or His Celebrated Scholars of this Age (appended

to the 1905 edition of the Geography).

The

Sierra

Leone Almanac for 1822, Freetown.

The

Sierra

Leone Bulletin of Religion, Oxford.

Sierra

The

Leone Company Reports.

Sierra

Sierra

Leone Messenger, London.

Leone Studies

—old

series,

new

W.

Simpson,

(W.

Freetown, 1918-39.

series,

Hertford, 1953.

A Private Journal kept during the Niger Expedition,

Singleton), Report of the Committee managing a

Fund

London, 1843.

raised by

some Friends for the

purpose of Promoting African Instruction, with an Account of a Visit

to the

Gambia

and Sierra Leone, London, 1822.

H. Smeathman

(i)

Some Account of the

(2)

Plan of a Settlement

Termites, to be

London, 1781.

made near

Sierra

Leone on

the

Grain Coast

of Africa, London, 1786.

G. Smith, The Case of our West African

Cruisers,

Goldwin Smith, The Empire, Oxford, 1863. P. Smith, Memoir and Correspondence of the late

W. W.

London, 1848.

Sir James

Edward Smith, London, 1832.

A New Voyage to Guinea, London, 1744. Snelgrave, A New Account of some parts of Guinea and the Slave Smith,

Trade,

London, 1734-

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, Proceedings.

Some

remarkable Particulars concerning the rapid civilization of the Negroes

of Sierra Leone, Retford, 1821. F. B. Spilsbury, Account of a Voyage

G. Stephen, Anti-Slavery J.

R.

Stephen, Essays Streit

in Ecclesiastical

(i) (2)

^ A

Colony

Western Coast of Africa, London, 1807.

London, 1854. Biography, London, 1849.

Recollections,

and J. Dindingcr,

A. T. Sumner

to the

in the

Bibliothcca Missionum, Freiburg,

1916-

Handbook of the Sherbro Language, London, 1921. Handbook of the Temne Language, Freetown, 1922.

637

R. L. Tafel, Documents concerning

.

.

.

Emmanuel Swedenborg, London, 1877.

L. Tappan, History of the American Missionary Association,

New

York, 1855.

H. Taylor, Autobiography, London, 1885. Teilhard de Chardin, La Guinee Superieure et ses Missions, Tours, 1889. J, A. Teixeira da Mota: TSponimos de Origem Portuguesa na Costa Occidental

de Africa,

Bissao, 1950.

C.

W.

Thomas, Adventures and

Observations on the West Coast of Africa,

New

York,

i860.

G.

Thompson

(i)

Thompson

in Africa,

New

York, 1852.

The Palm Land, Cincinatti, 1859. Letter to William Wilberforce, London, 1815.

(2)

R. Thorpe

(i) (2)

A A Letter to

William Wilberforce

.

.

.

the

Third Edition, London, 1815.

(3) Preface to the Fourth Edition of a Letter to Wilberforce, (4) A

Reply 'Point by Point'

African Institution, (5) Postscript to the

A A (7) (6)

London, 181 5.

Report of the Directors of the

London, 1815.

Reply, London, 1815.

View of the present Commentary on

A. E. Toboku-Metzger,

to the Special

Increase of the Slave Trade,

the Treaties,

London, 181 8.

London, 1819.

Historical Sketch of the Sierra

Leone Grammar School,

1

843-

1935, Freetown, n.d. Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London,

London.

London, 183 1. B. Tregaskis, An Address delivered in Buxton Chapel, London, 1872. G. O. Trevelyan, Life and Letters ofLordMacaulay, London, 1908. Translations of the Oxford Prize Poems,

London, 1844. Trimingham, Islam in West Africa, Oxford, 1959. K. Trotter, The Niger Sources, London, 1898. J. W. Tuhh, Journal, Oxford, 183 1. United Methodist Free Churches Home and Foreign Missionary Society, Annual Trial of Pedro de Zulueta, Jun., on a Charge of Slave Dealing,

J. S.

Reports. United Methodist Free Churches Magazine, London.

A. H. Unwin, West African Forests and Forestry, London, 1920. G. Vassa, The interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, the African,

or

Gustavus Vassa,

London, 1789.

Villault, Relation des Costes d'Afrique, Paris, 1669.

W.

Vivian, Mendiland Memories, London, n.d. (1926).

C. B.

Wadstrom

(i)

Plan for a Free Community at Sierra Leona, London, 1792.

(2)

An

Essay on Colonization, London, 1794.

E. Walford,

The County Families of Great Britain, London. C. B. Wallis, The Advance of Our West African Empire, London, 1903. R. F. Walker, The Holy Ghost Fathers in Africa, Dublin, 1933. A. Walker, The Church of England Mission in Sierra Leone, London, 1847. The Diary of Enoch Richmond Ware (unpublished typescript, the property of Ware, Los Angeles).

S.

J.

Wesley,

Letters (ed. Telford),

London, 193 1.

Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, London. Wesley an Missionary Notices, London.

638

E. R.

Wesleyan Missionary Society Reports. D. Westermann and M. A. Bryan., The Languages of West M. Whitlow,/. Taylor Smith, London, 1938. J.

Whitford, Trading Life

in

Africa,

London, 1952.

Western and Central Africa, Liverpool, 1877.

C. Wieder, Monumenta Cartographica, The Hague, 1925. R. and S. Wilberforce, The Life of William Wilberforce, London, 1838. F.

Chapel Hill, 1944. The Maroons Boston, WilUams, Jamaica, 1938. of J.J. British Squadron on the Coast of Africa, London, 1851. Wilson, The L. J. T. Wilson, An Essay towards an Instruction for the Indians, London, 1740. T. Winterbottom, An Account of the Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Leone, London, 1803. Lord Wolseley, The Story of a Soldier's Life, London, 1903. A. S. Wood, Thomas Haweis, London, 1957. Woodforde Papers and Diaries (ed. Woodforde), London, 1932. E. E. Williams, Capitalism and Slauery,

Work and Workers H. Yule, The

in the

Sierra

London. London, 1850.

Foreign Mission Field,

African Squadron Vindicated,

Zeitschrift fur Missionswissenschaft, Miinster.

A. Zimmerman, Geschichte J.

Zweifel and

M.

der deutschen Kolonialpolitik, Berlin, 1914.

Moustier, Expedition C. A. Verminck, Voyage aux Sources du Niger,

Marseilles. 1880.

639

5

REFERENCES Page numbers are printed in bold 1

figures.

16 Fernandes, 77-91 18 Pereira, 96-97 18 S.L.S. (o.s.), X, 9 ig CO. 806/279, pp. 7-8 22 Greenberg, 7 22 Westermann Bryan, 18, 37 23 S.L.S. (n.s.), ix, 27 2j but see Bulletin de I'l.F.A.N., 1961, 20-23, 51 23 Fernandes 75, 79, 81 ji Teixeira da Mota, 205-7

&

20,36 Alvares, 73, 77 J7 Denuce, 37 38 Pereira, 96 59 Blake, 28 2

Fagg

9 Purchas,

I, iii, 189 11-12 Hakluyt, IV, 264, 278; 20 Jarric, III, 420 14-22 Alvares, 82-92 23-23 Dapper, 418-21

598

III,

from the researches of Monsieur Yves Person that I have conflated two

It is

clear

separate invasions

— the

first

about 1560, the second, under Flansire (as described by Dapper) in the early in

17th century.

28 Hakluyt, 2g Purchas,

I,

33 Jarric, 34 S.L.S.

III,

38 Purchas, 3

8

9 13

16 17 18 18

ii,

40 T.70/1465, 22.3.29

3 Dapper, 396-7 5 Matthews, 53-56 3

Winterbottom,

I,

50-52

22 S.L.S. (o.s.) xix, 158 24 T. 70/75, fol. 82 2g T.70/77, 12.7.77, 16.10.77

30 30 34 34 34 37 39

I, iii,

29.e.i7 T.70/11, Piatt 17.3.88 MS. 14034 fol. 102 Churchill, V, 428 T.70/52, 31.3. 13 T.70/1446, I. II. 19 W. Smith, 60

T.70/3, Smith 29. 1. 1

7 T.70/587, 27.3.81 Smith 29. 1. 1

174

89;

B.M. maps,

6 T.70/360, 24.4.79; 30.12.80 6 T.70/649, fol. 3

42 389-91, 407-8

10 T.70/3,

189

11 T.70/360, 10. 1. 79

13 14 14 13

379-458 Purchas, I, iv, 414 Dapper, 375-82 Jarric, III, 396-8 Villault, 62-71 B.M. maps, 64990(6) Dapper, 381 h. M. Falconbridge, 73 J.C. Diary 6.4.92

3 Jarric,

4-8

I,

38 T.70/590, 6.12.99

3 T.70/363, 12.2.24

xlvii fol.

(n.s.), xi,

26 Sumner (i), vii 24-35 Dapper, 384, 421; 406-18 38 Jarric, III, 445

1

593-619 iv, 414

III,

30 Cotton App.

19 T. 70/590, 22.10.99 20 Schlenker (i), 3

13 Dapper, 385 13-18 H.C.A.13/61, 28.6.48, 1.7.48 20 C.O.1/19, fol. 7 21 Wieder, V, plate 102 22 Brandt, 234-5

Fonteneau, 332 5 Fernandes, 97, 105

23

italics.

9 Essays, 86-104 10 ActsofP.C. 1613-14, 633 11 H.C.A.13/48, 14.7.29 12 C.S.P. {Colonial), 1669-74,412

1

5

Line numbers are in

III,

Zeitschrift, 1930, Streit, xvi,

297-300

235

Atkins, 54 T.70/654, fol. 86

1^ Donnan, III, 61 16 Report, Privy Council,

(Penny) 18 T.70/648,

640

fol.

21

Snclgrave, 246

22

W.

51-61

Smith, 41-43

I

5

8

23 C.Johnson, I, 251-326 26 T.70/60, 25.7.22, 7-7-24,

2

3-8

II. 8.26

50 Astley, II, 312 31-35 T.70/1445

13

CO. 806/129, Rowe

'79,

169

'

enc

CO. 806/279, pp. 8, 21-23 16 Laing, 401-16 20 S.L.S. (o.s.), X, 27-97 21 S.L.S. (n.s.), ix, 28 12

24 CO. 806/279, p. 38 26 Matthews, 75 28 Labat, 66

9

28 Trimingham, 14 2g S. L. Bulletin of Religion,

11(2),

36-37 30 Winterbottom, I, 6-7 33 Upsala MS. 406, journal 17.4.95

34 35 33 jp 5p

Macaulay

414-1 Bulletin d'l.F.A.N., 1961, 1-46 Koelle (2), iii-iv Royal African Soc. Journal, x, ;

(2),

459 40 S.L.S.

(o.s.),

10 11,

CO.

maps,

10

MS. D26, Smeathman

20 Machat, 124 21 P.P. 1789 Ixxxiii, 258-61 22 Z.M. journal 6.6.98 (2),

I,

410

T.70/1538, Roberts: Plan

38-1 Report, Privy Council, I, 4-5; I (Matthews) 4 Laing, 401-10 7 Z.M. journal 3.12.96 3-9 Matthews, 123, 153 3-9 Winterbottom, I, 127, 235 11 Fenton, 108 11 Upsala MS. 406, Afzelius

I

13. 11.78

3 T.70/1442-5 6 T.70/1465, 8.2.29 6 T.70/77, 18.12.77 6 T.70/10, Piatt 3.3.81 7 T.70/52, 1 1. 1 1. 14 9 Jeremie '41, 2 enc 10 S.L.S. (o.s.), XV, 59; xxii, 107 12 T.70/1442, 22.7.90 13 Lawson Papers 14.2.79

5.5.73

24 W.0. 1/352, pp. 221-4 23-27 Labarthe (i), 151, 239; 2g B.M. maps, 146. d. 34

31

(2),

t

Forts

Drury

(2),

Newton

40 Report Privy Council, IV, 25

16 Golberry, II, 285 16 Kings MS. 200, fol. 7, 52 J 7 T.70/1532, An Account oj the

to

Smith, 104

Atkins, 152 T. Clarkson

36 N. Owen, 45 37 T.70/360, 20.6.78, 38 T.70/655, fol. 25

S.L., la

14 T.70/1516, Grant 16.1.61; Norie 15. 11. 50

18 Upsala

Matthews, 81-82

W.

I (Matthews) 22-23 Villault, 71-72 28 J.C Diary, 13.4.92 33 Report, Privy Council, (Matthews, Eldrid)

xix, 131; xxii, 104

2 Dapper, 386 7 23 Geo. II cap. 31 7 25 Geo. II cap. 40

f

18-23 26-28 30 33 34 36

12-4.6.95 13 Z.M. journal 18. 11. 93 1 6 Report, Privy Council, I (Newton); IV, i 19 Z.M. journal 7.8.93 21 Report, Privy Council, IV, 4;

(indiv) 1.8.08

Thompson (i), 289

N. Owen, 69

13 Co. 26.4.96 14 Z.M. journal 30.7.93 16-23 Winterbottom, I, 214; 127-8

4 Gouilly, 67-69 4 S.L.S. (o.s.), xix. 50-52

d

Newton

10 Philhps, 191

4 Arcin, 85-95

S

N. Owen, 72-78

W.

Smith, 54 (i), 74-88 10 Matthews, 142-3 3

34

(S.L.A.)

(Thompson)

13

32 W. Smith, 64 29-34 Matthews, 2-6 34 Golberry, II, 249-50, 270-1 37 H.O.7/1, 2.5.85 39 P.H. XXV, 431 40 H.O.35/1, Report 18.8.86

N. Owen, 76

16 Newton (3), 229 17-20 T.70/51, 22.2.00, 3.10.99, 3.12.00 T.70/90, 20.12.20 22 HaU, 2 24 T.70/362, 16.6.22 21

641

26 Co. 30.9.99 27 Report, Privy Council, 27 George, 65 31 S.L.T. 23.11.95 31

Z.M. journal,

I,

25 T.i/634, 2012 29 T. 1/630, 1000

5

33-35 Smeathman to Lee 12.5.72 (Fyfe)

36 Upsala MS. D. 26, Smeathman to Lee 9.4.73 37 Winterbottom, I, 68

12.2.98

32 S.L. Co. Report, 1794, 72 32 Winterbottom, I, 137 34 CO. 267/9, Adams 29.11.90 enc 39 N. Owen, 47 39 Matthews, 74-78 40 J.C. Diary 4.10.92

38 Smeathman

to Tunstall 24.8.75 (Fyfe)

40 Add. 15

2

MS. 36494

Wadstrom

fol.

para.

(i),

3 Add. MS. 36495 11

2 Matthews, 146 3

6

621-48 64-78

5 T.1/631, 1304 8 H.O.7/1, 2.5.85

Wadstrom (2), para. 637 N. Owen, 30-49

8 Report, Privy Council,

fol.

254-96

8-12 Smeathman

I

(2),

6-9

15 T.1/631, 1304, 1333 17 T. 2911-7, 27.5.86 20 T.i/632, 1513

(Newton) 9 Laing, 92

10 Africa, 1959, 158 10 Winterbottom, I, 139

26 26 28 28-34 33

Matthews, 70-73 11 McLachlan, 31 14-20 Report, Privy Council, 11

I, 4-5; (Penny) 22 A. M. Falconbridge, 69-70 24 Matthews, 171 27-29 N. Owen, 71 30 T. Clarkson (i), 85, 161 33 T. Wilson, 39-40 35 P.P. 1 790 Ixxx, 140 37 Knutsford, 127-8

T.i/634, 2012

Wadstrom

(2),

para. 643

T.1/631, 1304 T.i/633, 1673, 1707 T.i/632, 1513

I

38 Newton

16

6 T.i/633, 1673 19 Add. MS. 41262A, Sharp 24.7.92 14-22 Short Sketch, i-io 23-27 T.i/632, 1513 31 T.i/636, 2430

90

(i),

40 Report, Privy Council, IV, 14

12

4 Matthews, 145 5 Report, Privy Council, IV, 5 Macpherson, IV, 68-198

33 Adm.106/2347, 4.12.86 i

40 T.27/38, 21.10.86

17 Chapter I 13

25 Gents. Mag., 67, 356

14

Hardwicke,

n.d.

Vassa, subscribers hst

Cugoano, 132-5 Vassa,

II,

250

Report, Privy Council,

3 Public Advertiser 6. 12.B6, 18.12.86

6 Hoare, 315 7 Cugoano, 139-41 7-10 T. 1/63 8, 2744, 2864 10 T. 1/64 1, 140 14 A. M. Falconbridge, 57-58 17 Kuczynski, I, 42 26 T.i/643, 487 27 General Advertiser 2$. II. S6

8 Hecht, 34-37 13 State Trials, xxx 23 Vassa, II, 217-18

26 27 29-33 29-33 33-40

36-2 T.i/633, 1815 36-2 T/1.634, 1903 4 Hoare, 260 3 T.i/634, 2012

I,

29 26 Geo. II cap. 33 29 Dicey, 54-55, 740-2 31 T.i/638, 2864 36-40 Short Sketch, 13-123

14

6 Hecht, 34-45 4-10 Morning Post 10. 1.86, 21. 1.86 11 T.1/631, 1284 13 Hoarc, 260

18

21 Public Advertiser 1S.4.S6

22 General livening Post 28.1.86

I T.i/643, 487 2 T.i/638, 2864

5 Hoare, 264, 435 8 Short Sketch, 40

24 Morning Post 15.3.86

642

6

7

21

12 T.iglzi. 17.8.86 13 T.i/645, 968

(Hardwicke)

13 T.29/60, 29.7.89 15 Campbell '36, 123 enc

6 P.P. 1790 Ixxxviii, 173 10 Short Sketch, 32-53

Sharp to Jemima Sharp 27.2.1 1 (Hardwicke)

1

17 P.P.1789 Ixxxiii, 271 7-34 Hoare, 317-35; 3i5, 324, 384

17 Adm.106/2347, 4.12.86 20 Add. MS. 461 19, Instructions 20.1.87 22 T.27/38, 26.1.87

23-26

4 Hoare, 316, 325 Sharp to J. Sharp 31.10.87

5

22

33-4

ib.

Appendix

xi; 318, 324,

337 6 Wadstrom (2), para. 687 8 Sharp to Pitt 26.4.90

Adm. 1/2594, Thompson 1.3.87

28 T. 1/644, 777 30 Adm.106/2623, 23.3.87 30-34 Public Advertiser 4.4.87,

g-13 14-22 23-28 34 37

2.7.87

57 Adm. 1/2594, Thompson 21.3.87

37 Adm.106/2347, 24.3.87

(Hardwicke) Hoare, 317-33 P.P. 1789 Ixxxiii, 271-81 Hoare, 335-6 Montagu, II, 265 Sharp to Treasury 18.5.89 (Hardwicke)

38 T.29/60, 29.7.89 19

2 Hoare, 316 3 T.29/38, 6.7.87 4-8 T.i/643, 487 p Morning Chronicle i(7 Hoare, 3i;6

j^ 21

Adm. 5 1/627 Add. MS. 461 19,

23

13. 1.87

(Hardwicke) 9 T. 1/643, 487 14 Hoare, 321-3

Instructions

20.1.87

16 P.P.1789 Ixxxiii, 274 Thompson '09, 6 enc 1 19 T.i/632, 1513 22 T.i/643, 487 23 A. M. Falconbridge, 27-32 26-34 Hoare, 332-45 36 C.O.270/8, Bright 17.10.02 40 P.R.O.30/8/363, Bowie 22.12.89

23 Adm.3/102, 21.2.87

23-27 Wadstrom 28 28 28 28

(2), para. 680;

Z.M. journal

30.7.93

Golberry,

266

II,

map

Matthews, 76

S.L.S. (o.s.), xxii, 115 29 Add. MS. 12131, Gray's journal 1 1.2.95 30 Macdonald '46, 71 enc 33 Adm.5 1/627, 25-6.5.87

24

39 J.C. Diary 26.3.92

20

1

T.l/645, 968

4

Thompson

'09,

6 enc

9 Matthews (2nd ed.), plate 12 T.i/643, 487

14 Hoare, 317-22, 335 1(5 Adm. 51/627, 14.5.87 21 T. 1/647, 1572 22 Z.M. journal, 29.8.93 23 Wadstrom (2), para. 684

26

3 Hoare, 339-50 5 B.M. maps, 146. d. 34 8-10 Montagu, II, 265 12-19 P.P.1789 Ixxiii, 274 20 Sharp to Pitt, 26.4.90 (Hardwicke) 24 S.L. Co. Report, 1791, 6 23-31 Adm. 1/2488, Savage 27.5.90 25-31 P.R.O.30/8/363, Bowie 22.12.89 31 S.L. Co. Report, 1794, 102

Adm. 1/2594, Thompson

25

32-3 Adm.51/703, 21-8. II. 89

Z.M. journal 30.7.93 9 P.R.O.30/8/363, Bowie

23.7.87 27 P.P. 1790 Ixxxviii, 173 28 S.P.G., Fraser 15.9.87 35 Adm. 51/627, 16.9.87 37 P.P. 1790 Ixxxviii, 167

40

Thompson '09, 6 enc 6 J.C. Diary 27.3.92 7 Co. 20.7.97 8 Sharp to J. Sharp 23.9.91

5

5

22.12.89 9 Adm.51/703, 3.12.89 12 S.L. Co. Report, 1791, 6-7

Adm. 1/2594, Thompson

16-26 T. Clarkson (2), 237; II, 13-16

21. 1. 87

643

I,

256-8,

;

28 E. E.Williams, 154-68

II,

M.

14 A.

29 P.R.0. 30/8/3 10, Cutlers 24.4.89 J2 T. Clarkson (2), I, 470-1

Falconbridge,

i

14 Mackenzie-Grieve, 255 30 P. R.0. 30/8/3 10, Ramsay 22.3.91 23-36 A. M. Falconbridge, 10-16

504

31-37 P.R.O.30/8/310, 26

i-j

Wadstrom

Falconbridge 18,4.91

para, 690

(2),

Sharp to Pitt 26.4.90 (Hardwicke) 4-23 Hoare, 347-^3 28 P.R.0. 30/8/363, St George's y-i

1

Bay Co., 2g

ib.

30

33-1 A.

10-14 A.

M.

Falconbridge, 60-62,

Co. 30.4.92 17 Labarthe (i), 155, 241 17-22 A. M. Falconbridge, 32, 119,

African Cttee., 28.4.90

13

3j Reasons 55 T. 70/1 563, Heads for Opposing 35 Hoare, 356 36 C.J. xlvi, 245

53-54 24 Hoare, 367

26 Add,

306

I,

Falconbridge 25-56

82-85

n.d.

40 Wilberforce,

M.

9 S.L. Co. Report, 1791, 8

MS. 41262A,

Hardcastlc

9.11.91

27

2 4

3-8

29-33 S.L. Co. Report, 1791, 44;

Add. MS. 21256, 20.7.90 Wadstrom (2), 341-53 C.J. xlvi, 405, 414, 442,

1794, 7'

34 Add.

454

37-40 Wadstrom

14 P.H. xxix, 431, 652 16 D.N.B., Hippisley

i^ 31 Geo. Ill cap. 55 20 copy in T.70/1563

31

23 C.J. xlvi, 356, 455 31 H.O.48/1, Macdonald 30.8.91

1

14-19 S.L. Co. Report, 1791, 51 24 Aptheker, 16-20 23 P.R.O.30/11/2, Clarke 10.7.80 23 P.R.O.30/11/5, Phillips 3.4.81 23 P.R.0. 30/1 1/6, Instructions

14. 1.92

30.9.81

17 J. Stephen, 525 17 Thornton journal 4.2.95,

29 Sharp to

21-28 Hoare, 355-8 23-29 A. M. Falconbridge, 12, 59 36 Scots Mag., 1791, 579 40 Hoare, 357 2

32

22.12.89

Sharp to J. Sharp 23.9.91 (Hardwicke)

4

Z.M. journal

4 S.L.S. (o.s.),

6

Wadstrom

(2),

13

12 Colonial WiUiamsburg,

46 I,

HQ

10427, p. 90

para. 691

8-11 T. Clarkson (2), 8-11 A. Falconbridge

38-4 Marrant 7 Bangs, 152, 161 8 Harbinger, 1851, 275 10 Baptist Ann. Reg., I, 482 10 J.C. Diary 13. 12. 91

12.9.93

ii,

1.8.86

38 S.P.G. Proceedings, 1784-5, 40

P.R.0. 30/8/363, Bowie

4

Moore

(Hardwicke) 31 C. 0.217/56, Sydney 5.10.84 36 C.O.217/63, Dundas 6.8.91 enc

18.4.95 (Wigan) 23 Public Advertiser 18.12.90

29

3 S.L. Co. Report, 1791, 46-53 3 Rliodes House, MS. Africa.

13 Directors' Instructions, para. 2, 10, 86 (S.L.A.)

30.5.91 J. Sharp (Hardwicke)

para. 696

S.21

P.R.0. 30/8/3 10, Sharp

3 Sharp to

(2),

3-9 C.M.S., watercolour by J. Beckett

3g Hoare, 361-4 40 Sharp to Beaufoy, 23.3.91 (Hardwicke) 28

MS. 41262A, Thornton

30.12.91

10 Penson, 209-10

14 C.O.217/63, Birch Town List 12-16 Baptist Ann. Reg., I, 473-81

348, 387

20 Wadstrom (2), para. 701 20 J.C. Diary 29.10.91

Add. MS. 41262A, Thornton 31.12.92

644

22 Add.

MS. 41262B

fol.

8-9

36

Beaufoy 24.3.91 (Hardwicke)

4 Directors' Instructions, para.

2 J Sharp to

75 (S.L,A,)

HQ

Gray

25 Colonial Williamsburg, 10427, p. 131 26-27 2 17/63, Bulkeley 19.3.92

11

CO.

enc;

Dundas

28 S.L.S. (n.s.), 54 Hoare, 375

i,

23 C,M,S,, watercolour by J. Beckett 25 A, M. Falconbridge, 125-31 26-30 J,C, Diary 19,3.92, 9,3,92

30-32 33 33 34

25.10.91 14 H.O.42/19, Wilberforce 6.8.91

fol.

37 9

482 41263 fol. 236 I,

33 Add. MS. 36 J.C. Diary 19. 10.91 40 Co. 17.11.01 34

0,0,217/63, Birch Town Colonial WiUiamsburg,

List

HQ

3 EUiott, 15 3 J,C. Diary 1 1.3.92 8 Add, MS, 41263 fol, 178 8 Collection of Hymns, 238

Chapter II

38

1-3 J.C. Diary 26.10.91 5 Philanthropist, iv, 105, 262

6

231

40 African 1,4,58

19. 10.91;

MS. 41262B

fol,

EUiott, 15

10427, p. 94

26-29.10.91

28 Add.

Add, MS. 41262A

37 J,C, Diary 11.12,91, 9,12,91

15 J.C. Diary 1. 12.91 17 S.P.G., Howseal 21. 11. 91

31 Baptist Ann. Reg.,

15,2.93

Falconbridge, 129

14,3.92 21 Co, 21,2,92

7

37-3 C.0.2i']l6z, Dundas 6.8.91 7 Wadstrom (2), para, 1019-20 7-13 J.C. Diary 6.8.91, 7.10.91,

18-26 J.C. Diary

M,

A.

12-18 J,C. Diary 5,5,92; 21.3.92;

6.8.91 enc

j5 Stuart, n.d. (Hardwicke) ^6 S.L. Co. Report, 1794, 4-5 33

by Add MS, 41263,

7 at least

Add MS. 41262A, Thornton 30.12.91

6-12 J.C. Diary 6.8,91, 18.11,91 14 Baptist Ann. Reg., I, 482 14-18 J.C,- Diary 29.11.91, 9,12,91 20 ib, 14,12.91, 2,1,92 23 C.0,217/63, Bulkeley

10 Add. MS. 41264 p. 39 10-13 J.C, Diary 11,4.92, 7.3,92 14 Gents. Mag., Ixiii, 478 17 J.C, Diary 18,3,92 22 Baptist Ann. Reg., I, 483 24 Add. MS. 41262A, Thornton

25

30.12.91 to Haweis 24.1,94

Home

(Fyfe)

28 J.C, Diary 24.3.92 29 A. M, Falconbridge, 134 31 Add, MS, 41262A, J, Clarkson

3.-6,2,92

24-2g J,C, Diary 10.11,91, 17,11,91 30-40 ib, 10,1,92, 13,1.92, 4,1,92,

18.4,92

32-40

J,

C. Diary 26-7.3.92, 13.4-92

14,12,91

39 35

2

Add, MS. 41262A

fol,

231

2-5 J,C, Diary 10,1,92

21

P,R.0, 30/8/220, Dalrymple 13 Add, MS. 41262A, Thornton see

Wadstrom

10.3.92, 20,3.92

22 Add,

30.12.91

which

Co,

MS. 41262A, T. Clarkson 17.7.92 23-27 J.C. Diary 24.3,92 30 Add. MS. 41262A, Thornton

11

13 for

1-18 ib. 14.3,92, 21.3.92 ti-i8 A. M. Falconbridge, 132

(2);

Beaver

30.12,91

17-19 Directors' Instructions, para. 17-24 (S.L, A.) 20-30 Add. MS. 41262A, Thornton

33

CO. 217/63,

Birch

Town

List

31-37 J.C Diary 15-6.4.92; 21.3,92 40

30.12.91

32 S.L. Co. Report, 1794, 7 35 A. M. Falconbridge, 120 38 Add. MS, 41262A, Wilberforce 28,12.91 40 ib. T. Clarkson 17.7.92

3 T. Clarkson (2), 469-71 4 J.C. Diary 22.3.92, 4.4.92 4-10 Add. MS. 41262A, J, Clarkson 18.4.92

10-17 J-O. Diary 23.5.92, 25.5.92, 20,6,92, 28,7,92

645

i8-24

31 A. M. Falconbridge, 177 32 Winterbottom, I, 175

2-3.4.92, 20.3.92,

ib. 28.3.92,

15.5-92

26 A. M. Falconbridge, 140 2S-35 J.C. Diary 9.5-92, 15.5.92,

44

3.7-92

38 Lind, 56, 74 40 S.L. Co. Report, 1794, 36-38

35-1 Co. 30.4.92, 17.2.92 1-5 J.C. Diary 30.3.92 6-g Z.M. journal 19.6.93, 30.7.93, 4.7.93

10 Schlenker

41

5 J.C. Diary 1.4.92 6 Clarkson Letterbook 31.7.92

14

CO. 267/9, MS.

J.

Clarkson

17 J.C. Diary 22.6.92 18-21 Add, MS. 41262A, Thornton

(S.L.A.)

16 Add.

393

18.4.92

6-10 J.C. Diary 2.7.92, 19.5.92 15

(2),

Add. MS. 41262A,

Peters, n.d.

22.5.92, 6.7.92 24 J.C. Diary 28.7.92

12131, Strand

27 Colonial Williamsburg, 10427, p. 80 27 J.C. Diary 21.5.92 28 Z.M. journal 17.9.93 33 Montagu, IV, plan of

3-5.92

17-25 J-C. Diary 8.4.92, 26.4.92, 1.5.92

26 Add. MS. 12131, Strand 1.5.92

26-2g J.C. Diary 7.6.92, 15.6.92 29-32 Add. MS. 41263, J. Clarkson

HQ

allotments

34-40 J.C. Diary 2-4.8.92

4-8.93

34 Add.

MS.

12131, Strand

45

1-10

ib.

30.5.92

36 J.C. Diary 26.6.92 42

j-10

New Jerusalem

11-16 ib. 30.8.92; 4.8.92 18 Wadstrom (2), para. 778 ig S.L. Co. Report, 1794, 8 20-24 J.C. Diary 17.7.92, 5.10.92 27 S.L. Co. Report, 1794, 51 28 Add. MS. 41263, J. Clarkson

Mag., 1790,

181; 1821, 331

12

7-9.8.92, 18-19.8.92, 11.9.92

Wadstrom

(2),

para. 1023;

600-16 16 Tafel, II, 810 17 P.P. 1790 Ixxxviii, 18

31-5-25

2g Clarkson Letterbook 31.7.92

B.M. maps, 65700 (i) Dickson 24 Monthly Mag., viii, 862-9 27 J.C. Diary 21.6.92 30 Wadstrom (2), para. 721 32 Lychnos, 1943, 229 33 Tafel, I, 639

(S.L.A.)

21

21

33 33 33-36 37-39

46

2

954-5 A.O.13/118, DuBois C.J. Ixii, 277,

Wadstrom

(2),

para. 778

J-C. Diary 27.4.92, 18.6.92

Add. MS. 41263,

J.

Clarkson

4-8.93

43

35-2 J.C. Diary 21.5.92, 19.9.92, 1

5.

Wadstrom

2-12 J.C. Diary

3-9-92,

11.92

(2),

717-18

para.

14

4-8.93

Add. MS. 12131, Afzelius

14-16 Add. MS. 41262A, Thornton

29.12.92

8 P. Smith, 10 Add.

I,

MS.

22 A.

270

33979, Afzelius

Add. MS. 12131, Afzelius

New

Church Record, 419

MS. 4 1 262 A, T. Clarkson

3-5-92

23-2g Add. MS. 41263,

27.11.94

13-19

23.11.92 M. Falconbridge, 143, 174, 178

27 Add.

2.7.92

12

11.92;

Add. MS. 41263, J. Clarkson

5 R.G.S., Banks, 180-3 7

6. 11. 92, 19.

30.7.92

I,

J.

Clarkson

9.93 32 S.L. Co. Report, 1794, 47 32 Macdonald '46, 71 enc

313,

24 Directors* Instructions, para.

37 Add. MS. 12131 fol. 12-15 39-40 Add. MS. 41262A, Thornton

54 (S.L.A.)

26 Hocking, 297 28 S.L.S. (n.s.), iii, 137-42

14.9.92, 12.7.92

646

40 Thornton journal 7-19.2.95

40 Add.

(Wigan) 47

I

S.L.

50

Co. Report, 1794, lo

M. Falconb ridge, 160, 272 Add. MS. 41262A, T.

1-12 Add.

J A. 5

M.

p A.

14-17 22-23 18-25 26

fol.

J.

2g

4.8.93

Wadstrom

(2),

para, 707, 778,

Add. MS. 12131, Afzelius 27.11.94

HQ

10427, p. 41 8-14 Add. MS. 41263, Thornton 16.9.93; Anderson 30.10.93 16 S.L. Co. Report, 1794, 33-34

18 1-22 28 23-30

14.9.92

Co. 21.8.93 A. M. Falconbridge, 247-63 S.L. Co. Report, 1794, 22

Z.M. journal

17.9.93, 30.11.93 19.10.96 40 A. M. Falconbridge, 191

Christs Hospital

MS.

Falconbridge, 238-79,

6 Co. 13.5.94 7 Colonial Williamsburg,

3

36 H.O.42/9, Watson 2.1 1.86 37 communicated by the Clerk of 40 Add.

236-8

4 J.C. Diary, 31.7.92

5

26.12.92; fol. 218-19

Thornton

fol.

B.M.

30.10.93 enc

17 Baptist Ann. Reg., II, 215 20 Co. 1.4.93 22 J.C. Diary 26.11.92 23 Ingham, 164-5 2g Add. MS. 41262A, J. Clarkson ib.

Clarkson

34-37 A. M. Falconbridge, 203-7 38 Z.M. journal 25.6.93 38-40 Add. MS. 41263, Anderson

51

28.6.94

55

J.

27.7.93

782

35-6 J.C. Diary 13-26. 11.92 7 Add. MS. 41262A fol. 187, 230 p Add. MS. 41263, Jordan p J.C. Diary 19. 11.92 14 Co. 12.12.92 16 S.L. Co. Report, 1801,

;

Appendix

Clarkson

31 S.L. Co. Report, 1794, 5 34 A. M. Falconbridge, 206-7

48

M.

23-28 A.

(S.L.A.)

41263,

9-93

21 ib. J. Clarkson 1.7.93; Thornton 16.9.93 25 S.L. Co. Report, 1794, 18

Clarkson Letterbook 28.11.93

MS.

41263,

copy 17 Add. MS. 41263

224

J.C. Diary 9.8.92, 25.9.92 S.L. Co. Report, 1794, map J.C. Diary 27-8.9.92

27 Add.

;

14 Wilberforce, II, 39 14 T. Clarkson (3), 74 i5 J. Clarkson, note in

Falconbridge, 161-2

Add. MS. 41262A

MS.

30.7.93

Clarkson 17.7.92 g

MS. 41262A, Thornton

14.9.92

5P

4 1 262 A, Wilber-

ib.

force 12.7.92

52

49

A.

15.2.93;

2 Baptist Ann. Reg.,

6 8

M.

Falconbridge, 170-1 3 J.C. Diary 16. 11.92 7 Z.M. journal (Selina) 30.1.97 12 Add. MS. 41262A, Thornton 20.11.92 16-20 Add. MS. 41263, Gray 1

Home,

Home

II,

249

iv

to

Haweis 24.1.94

(Fyfe)

14 Co. 10.7.95, 1. 10.96 15 Trevelyan, 18 ig J.C. Diary 5.7.92 22 e.g. Co. 30.3.95

Anderson 30.10.93

23-27 Winterbottom, I, 276-8 30 Wadstrom (2), plan 32 Add. MS. 12131, Afzelius

24 A. M. Falconbridge, 197-8 24 Add. MS. 1 21 3 1, Afzehus 27.11.94 26 Add. MS. 41262A fol. 231 27 Add. MS. 41263, Jordan

27.11.94

36 Co.

24.5.93, 22.3.94

28.6.94

32 ib. DuBois 7.2.93 34 Add. MS. 41262A, Thornton

53

23.11.92

37 Add. MS. 41263,

J.

Clarkson

1 Z.M. journal 27.6.96 1-3 ib. 8.3.98, 5.7.96, 9.8.96 6 Colonial WiUiamsburg,

10427, p. 41 p Z.M. journal 25.2.99

1.7.93

647

HQ

12-1 6 Add.

MS. 41262A, J. Clarkson

57

18.4.92

18 J.C. Diary 20.7.92 20 Add. MS. 41262A, Thornton, 23.11.92 21-28 A. M. Falconbridge, 214-15 50 (S.L.A.)

32-3 Z.M. journal

3.8.93,

26.8.93,

14-15. 11.93 5

Corry, 109

6 Co. 8

ib. 25.6.94, 28.9.94. 7-3-95 8 S.L. Co. Report, 1794, 58-63 14 Z.M. journal 3.12.93 13 P.P.1801-2 ii, 346

16-18 Co. 29.10.93, 23.5.93 21 S.L. Co. Report, 1794, 43-48 22 Co. 17.10.93 24 Sharp to Thornton 28.11.94 (Hardwicke) 26-31 Co. II. 11.93, 3-6.94, 7.3-95 37 African Association, Proceedings 1790 39 Rhodes House, MS. Africa

J2 Directors' Instructions, para.

54

37-3

17.10.93

Add. MS. 41262A, Wilber-

S.22 40 Co. 5.5.94

force 7.7.92

Co. Report, 1794, 150 Add. MS. 41262A, Thornton

9 S.L. 11

58

3 Add. 5

23.7.92

12 Winterbottom,

I,

Gray

MS. to

12131 fol. 42-156 Banks 7.94 (S.L.A.)

3 C.O.268/5, 3.6.95

20

13

Add. MS. 41263, DuBois

16 18

Wadstrom (2), para. 351 West to Wolff 15.4.97

ig

Add. MS. 41263, Gray

Chapter III

24.1.93

59

(Hardwicke)

10 Co. 7-1-93 12 Z.M. journal 3.7.93 13 Add. MS. 41262A, J.

Clarkson 2.7.92

15-2.93

17 20

20 Co. 2,1.94 22 Wadstrom (2), para. 782 25-jo Z.M. journal 18.7.93 35 R.G.S., Banks, 262-6

Wadstrom

(2),

Z.M. journal 21-34 Z.M. journal

para. 837

18-20.8.93 28.9.94

21-34 Wadstrom (2), para. 806 34-37 Add. MS. 33979, Afzelius

35 C.O.806/279, p. 37

13. 11.94

37 Add. MS. 41262A, J. Clarkson 60

18.4.92

39 Co. 17.3-94 40 Sumner,

55

(i),

14; (2), 125

1-4 Co. 19-3-93, 3-8.93 8 Z.M. journal 4.9.94 10 Co. 2.1.94 12 Home to Haweis 27.1.94

37-9 Wadstrom (2), para. 804-17 10-13 Z.M. journal 28-9,9.94 13-19 Wadstrom (2), para, 817-20 20-22 Z.M. journal 6.10.94, 2.10.94 23-24 Court of Recorder 30.10.37 (R.G.,S.L.)

24-32 Z.M. journal 30.9.94, 8.10.94, 2.-6. 10.94

33 S.L. Co. Report, 1795, 12 36 Baptist Ann. Reg., II, 216

(Fyfe)

16 Z.M. journal 9.8.93 16-20 Co. 1.3.93, 3-8.93 21 Z.M. journal 20.8.94 24 W. 0.1/352, Macaulay 13.7.07 30 A. M. Falconbridge, 193 33 Evangelical Mag., iv, 419 34 in Add. MS. 41263

61

4 Co. 31.12.94 36-9 Z.M. journal 10-13. 10. 94,

28.10.94 13 C.O.268/5, 23.12.94 14 Wadstrom (2), para. 842 13 Hoare, 372

56

3g-i Baptist Ann. Rcq.,

II,

17 Durand, 85 21 S.L. Co. Report, 1795, 18-19 23 Co. 27.8.94

256

3 Z.M. notebook 27.3.96 3-8 Baptist Ann Reg., II, 95 g-12 S.L. Co. Report, 1794, 59 g-12 Z.M. journal 3.10.93 ;/ Add. MS. 41263, Jordan

24-28 C.O.268/5, 7.10.96, 9.2.98 29 Z.M. journal 8.6.98 29 Co. 22.10.98 31 S.L. Co. Report, 1801, 29-31 36 Z.M. journal 22.10.94

28.6.94

18-36 Co. 16-24.6.94, 30.6.94,

38 Winterbottom,

1.8.94

648

I,

276-7

62

1-4 Wadstrom (2), map; para. 821 6-11 Co. 19.11.94, 29.10.93, 5.5.95,

3 S.L.S. (o.s.), xiii, 23 4-8 Z.M. journal 23.4.98; 9-10 CO. 806/279, p- 32 9-10 S.L.S. (n.s.), i, 19

23.12.96

jj J

ib.

5-II-95

J Upsala

MS.

406, Afzelius

11

20 Z.M. notebook 16.5.96 22 African Institution Report, 1812, 20, 145 23 C.O.268/5, 19.6.97

II. 5.94

26 P.P.1801-2 ii, 366 31 R.U.S., Banks, 195-8

28-30 Co. 27.3.95, 25.9.95, 22.3.96 52 Colonial Williamsburg, 10427, p. 66 34-39 Upsala MS. 406, Afzelius

HQ

31

1.2.96

1

W.0. 1/352,

p.

162

37 CO.268/5, 8.4.95 38 Hawkins, 180 40 S.L. Co. Report, 1794, 99-100 40 Upsala MS. 406, Afzelius

40 Z.M. notebook 3.8.96 2

100

'92,

17 CO. 270/8, Bright 6.10.02 18-22 Winterbottom, I, 206-7, 230-5 23 Add. MS. 33979, Afzelius

13 Z.M. notebook 3.4.96 ig Baptist Ann. Reg., II, 255

63

11.97

14 Matthews, 69-70

16.1.96

6.2.96,

Jones

1.

Montagu, IV, plan of

26.2.96

allotments 2 Hay *90, 226 enc 3 Campbell '36, 136 enc 4 Z.M. notebook 5.12.96 6 Colonial Williamsburg, 10427, p. 90

67

1

Corry, 92

1

MacCarthy

'20,

251

2 Spilsbury, 25 4 Add. MS. 12131, Afzelius

HQ

16.5.98

14 Z.M. journal 13-14. 10.94 17 Co. 20.10.94, 3-4-95 19-23 Add. MS. 41263, petition

6 Upsala

MS.

406, AfzeHus

21. 1.96

7 Co. 1.9.95 9 C.O.268/5, 22.1.98

19.11.94

Co. 8.7.96 13 S.L. Co. Report, 1801, 29 11

64

23-2 Co. 7.3.95; 21-8.4.95 4-17 Co. 12.5.95, 9-6.95, 12.10.95,

16 W.O.i/352, p. 130 20 Add. MS. 41262A,

8.7.96

Z.M. journal

19 20 note in

19. 11.96

Wilberforce 28.12.91

CO. 269/1

22 Rhodes House,

24 Co. 12.10.95 26-30 Add. MS. 41263, Liaster 31 C.O.268/5, 13.7.95

65

I,

1-2

6 African 19.8.59 Add. MS. 12131, Afzelius 27.11.94

68

34-2 Z.M. notebook 19-3 1.3.96 3-17 Co. 1796-8; 30.6.96 22 S.L.S. (n.s.), V, 20-35 23 Wadstrom (2), para. 696 33 C.O.268/5, 7.10.96 33 Z.M. notebook 21.9.96 34 CO. 267/92 App.B.2 37 Co. 8.7.96

69

5^-j Z.M. journal 12.7.96,

9

7-16 27 30 33 34 33 37

S.L.S.

(n.s.), iv,

202-7

CO. 270/8, Bright 17-24.10.02 S.L.S.

(n.s.),

i,

14-19

Matthews, 69

N. Owen,

95 361 12131, Gray 15.2.95

P.P.J 801-2

57, ii,

Add. MS. 38 Jeremie '41, 2 enc 40 S.L.S.

(n.s.), ix,

20-2.7.96 8 Evangelical Mag.,

38

9 Hopkins,

66

1

P.P. 1 789 Ixxxiii, 277

2

Z.M. journal

821613

Africa

23 Z.M. notebook 21-3.3.96 23 P.P.1801-2 ii, 360 26-28 Knutsford, 116-122 33 Add. MS. 41263 fol. 116

30.3.96

33 Winterbottom, 37 Co. 18.4.96

MS.

S.22, 28.4.94

I,

iv,

163

151

12 Knutsford, 119, 135 14-17 Co. 28.3.96, 29.4.97

3.6.97

649

Tt

17-22 CO. 268/5, 4-4-96; 30.7.96 23 Missionary Mag., ii, 424 2j Z.M. notebook 27.8.98 2^-2

P.H. xxxii, 922 16 C.0.2 1 7/68, Wentworth

.14

21.4.97 17 C.O.217/72, King, 3.98 ig C.O.217/67, Wentworth

85 34-12 C.O.270/5, pp. 103-4 14 S.L. Co. Report, 1801, 16 15-40 CO.270/5, pp. 105-10

29.8.98

ig-26 C.0.2 17/70, Wentworth 13.4.99; King 22.2.99 enc 27 CO. 217/74, Thornton 12.2.00

86

3 S.L. Co. Report, 1801, 17 6 Add. MS. 41263, DuBois 22.1.93

29 Thornton to H. More, n.d., p. 202 (Wigan) 30 P.P. 1 806 xii, 513

34

1-3 ib. 25.1.00, 4-3-00 4-11 S.L. Co. Report, 1801, lo-ii

12-17 Co. 4.3.00 19 C.O.270/5, p. 103 ip-27 Co. 16.4.00, 20.5.00 19-27 C.O.270/5, pp. 91-97 32 S.L. Co. Report, 1801, 11-12 33 Co. 17.11.01

.Jamaica,

Ixxvi, xlix

23-39 Dallas,

HQ

18.2.99, 4-6.99

24 Co. 14.12.97 5i African Institution Report,

79

Colonial WiUiamsburg,

10427, p. 84 2-13 Co. 29.12.98, 30.12.99;

23.2.25

52'

Town List

40 C.O.270/5, p. 91 40 Z.M. journal 28.4.97

5

6

1-7

CO. 217/73, Wentworth

11

Z.M. journal

CO. Co.

9.8.93

270/5, p.

6.1

1.

no

00

16 S.L. Co. Report, 1801, 25 Co. 31.1.01 11-31 Montagu, III, 147-56 32 Co. 8. 11.00

21.12.99

36 Ross's Diary (S.L.A.) 38 Fitzjames '59, 126 enc 38 Dallas, I, 181

3

34 P.R.O. 30/8/183, Thornc 81

M.

1

A.

3

e.g.

7.5.00

Falconbridge, 137

35-37 Co. 1-8.5.00; 29.9.01

Co. 30.9.99

651

—

59 W.O.i/35i» Dundas 15.11.00

38 P.P.1803-4 V, 139-42 39 W.O.i/352, p. 142

40 W.O.4/180, 28.8.00

87

Co. Report, 1801, 1-17 Add. MS. 41085,

4 S.L.

6

91

Wilberforce 1.8.00 8 Add.

MS.

1 Co. II. 2.03 3 P.P.1803-4 V, 184, 172

9 Philanthropist, v, plan 10-14 Co. 19.2.03; 11.2.02 17 W.O.4/192, 10.12.03

41263, Cooper

14. 1. 96

21

Chapter

88

12 CO. 270/5, p. 106 17 Dallas, II, 222-51 ig Proceedings .Jamaica, xl 20 C.O.217/74, Wentworth .

1

Parish Register

12.2.03 enc 59 P.P.1803-4 V, 195-6

12.5.05

27 Dallas, II, 227 28 W.0. 1/352, pp. 49-51 29 CO. 217/70, Thornton 1 1. 3. 99 enc 30 Sharp: To the Maroons (Hardwicke)

92

2

CO. 270/8,

.

Africa

40

S.22, 28.4.94

W.O.i/352, p. 64 g-17 Co. 4.1.01, 15. 5.01,

(indiv) 1.8.08

shown

the author

by

8 Co. 2.03 g-16 W.O.i/352, Macaulay 5.9.03 enc 17 P.P.1803-4 V, 197 21 P.P.1801-2 ii, 347 26 Co. 8.5.01, 14.3.01 34 W.O.i/352, Thornton 12.2.03 36 P.P.1803-4 V, 204 37 Co. 25.4.01

Bright 17-

MS.

Macaulay

Mr W. Gwynne

.

23.10.02

3 Rhodes House,

2

4 kindly

5j Co. 14.1.01 36 Edwards, I, 553 38 P.P. 1 806-7 ii, 67 40 P.P. 1 803-4 V, 206-7 89

1.7.03

33 P.R.O.30/8/128, Day 6.7.91 35 CAI/E1/115, Renner 3.05 36 W.O.i/352, Thornton

22 Co. 19. 1. 03

Clapham

21. 11.02

.

8.8.00

23

Co.

/5-22 W.0. 1/352, pp. 177; 159-60 26 Co. 8.12.02 27 P.P.1803-4 V, 185-6, 141-78 31 Adm.51/1513, 28.12.02

IV

Z.M.

to

Thornton

19.3.96

4

4.3.00;

93

4

25 P.P.1801-2 ii, 352 26-33 Co. 14.3.03, 18.11.01

15.4-03

20 C.J. Hx, 41 4-23 P.P.1803-4 V, 84-207

35-2 W.O.i/352, Thornton

24 P.D. ii, 965-8 25 P.P. 1 806 xii, 511 27 W.O.i/352, Teignmouth

13.2.02 enc

Co. 20.11.01 6 Adm.i/1526, Bullen

4

6

CO. 270/8,

6.2.01.

Smith 15.12.02 Co. 29.7.02 13 Report to Proprietors 26.3.07 (HuU) 15 W.O.i/352, Thornton

17 Ross's Diary 30.1. 01 (S.L.A.) 18-22 Co. 28.2.01; 27.12.00 23 e.g. Z.M. journal 8.8.98

90

5 Co.

4 C.O.270/8,

17.6.01

13. 12.01

12.8.06

Bright 30.9.02

8 Adm.51/1421,

2.

31 P.P.1803-4 V. 187-98 32 CAI/Ei/Renner 18.10.05

12.01

10 Co. 14.3.03

11-14 W.0. 1/352, pp. 174-5 iS-20 Adm.i/1526, Bullen 17. 12.01,

40

W. 0.1/352,

Thornton

17.10.04, 6.12.05 enc

'40 CAI/E1/115,

12.6.02

21-25 Co. II. 4. -20. 5. 02 30 CO. 270/8 Bright's and

94

Smith's journals

2

6

32 w. 0.1/352, pp. 173-5 33-35 Co. 20.7.97, 6.1.02

Renner

1

1.4.05

Campbell '26, 9 W.O.I/352, Thornton 6.12.05 enc

7 T.70/1465, 31.5.28, 16.9.28

652

7 B.M. maps, 146.(1.34 10-12 CAI/E1/115, Renner

97

6 J.C. Diary 20.3.92 14 47 Geo. Ill 17 Hist. MSS.

25.10.05, 4. 11.05 13 Upsala MS, 406, Afzelius journal 6.2.96

265 17 P.P. 1 806

23 C.M.S. Report, 1801, 8-21 28 Missionary Society Report,

I,

cap. 36

Comm.

(30), viii,

511-13

xii,

21

W.0. 1/352,

j2 C.M.S. Report, 1803, 221;

21

S.L.S.

1805, 433 J4 ib. 1804, 317

24 Thompson 4.2.10 enc 26 C.J. Ixii, 71, 96, 351 28 P.D. ix, 1001-5

33-38 CAI/Ei, Macaulay 10.6.03;

Ludlam 38-40

ib.

22.4.08

98

Hartwig 17.2.06 13-19 W.O.i/352, Thornton 12

ib.

13.6.06

2 C.O.268/6, Castlereagh

Ludlam

26.2.07

(Hull) 3 S.L.

8

Co. Report, 1808, 7

CO. 267/29

fol.

194

Co. 25.4.01 11 Adm.i/1927, Hallowell, Remarks 12 communicated by Miss Ruth 11

23 Co. 18.4.03 23 P.P. 1 806 xii, 513

Ludlam

cap. 44

Ill sess. II,

24.10.07 3 Macaulay to

13-19 B.T.6/70, Thornton 13.5.06 13-19 Odium to Thompson 13.6.10 (HuU) 22 W.O.i/352, p. 134

26-30 CAI/Ei, Hartwig

247

36 Adm. 51/4435, 1. 1.08 36 Gazette 1.08 39 W.O.i/352, Thornton 3.4.07 40 Montagu, III, 162

minutes 29.6.07 CAI/E1/115, Prasse 16. 1.07 3-8 CAI/Ei, Pratt 27.8.08, Prasse 3

pp. 165-9

(n.s.), xii,

32 47 Geo.

20.3.06

Nylander 29.4.07, 10.7.07

ib.

4

14. 1.06;

Young

20.3.06

17 W.0. 1/352, pp. 57-(>y 383, 396, 444, 478, 613-14; L.A., 191, 203-4, 231, 266, 280, 306; Creole, 266, 280, 306, 383, 396, 421, 45i, 454, 463, 467, 478, 495, 515, 613-14trade. Colony, with interior, S.L. Co., 57, 66-67, 93; traders

up country,

revived, 345, 409, 417-18, 428-32, 449, 461, 476, 491, 515; retrocession, 364; printed, 280, 479.

Europe and America), AngloFrench, 91, 427, 432, 486, 500, 524; slave trade suppression, 137, 196-7, 228-9, 230, 331. Tregaskis, Rev. Benjamin, 328, 350-1, 353, 374-5, 386, 388-9, 392-3, 398, 420, 463; and Lewis, 351, 389, 408, 527; and Pastorate Grant, 353, 374-5, 386, 388-9. Trelawney Town, Jamaica, 79, 99. Treaties (in

62,

142-3, 152-3, 175-6, 185-6, 193, 204, 205-8, 218, 226, 23940, 246, 249, 253-4, 258, 260, 273, 276, 284, 285, 297-8, 308, 311, 312, 323-4. 338. 345, 346, 363, 365. 370-2. 379, 384, 397, 399, 400-1, 403, 410-12, 415, 417, 418-20, 433, 441, 444, 448, 449, 461-2, 100-2,

125-6,

'tribe', 542.

West Indies, 211, 212, 219, 224, 255, 283, 449. Troops, Officer Commanding, and Colony Trinidad,

488, 515, 517, 525, 527-8, 535; political implications of, 193, 207-8, 226, 249,

government, 95, 108, in, 140, 177-8,

284, 297-9, 338, 345, 363, 365, 370-2, 384, 399, 400-1, 411-12, 417, 433, 448, 449-50, 451-3, 461-2, 476, 488, 490-2, 515, 525; in Protectorate, 543, 549, 551, 552, 556-7, 560-1, 566, 569-75, 578-80, 585, 592-3, 598, 612-14. 255,

Trade Unions, 443-4;

sec

313, 319, 358, 387, 394, 476, 518-9, 563. Tropical Medicine, Schools of, 603, 610. Trotter, Colonel James Keith, 540-1. Trotter, Rev. John, 290, 469.

Companies;

trustees,

Truth, 567.

Professional Associations.

trypanosomiasis, 67, 294, 603-4. tsetse fly, 294, 603. Tucker, family, 10, 157-8, 162, 273, 313, 322, 338, 430, 490, 554. Tucker, Charles, 322.

Trader, 496. Traveller, brig, 112.

Travelling Commissioners, 454, 480, 486-7. Treasury, London, and G.S. Settlers, 1519, 21, 22, 26; and S.L. Co., 34, 97; and

Colony, 105, no, 128, 134, 142, 155,

Tucker, Tucker, Tucker, Tucker, Tucker,

164, 166, 198, 200, 210, 226, 230, 256,

266, 301-2, 313, 357, 358, 383, 404, 410, 415, 417, 426, 439, 452, 454, 475. 478. 527, 593, 603; and L.A.s, 115, 123, 136, 155, 166, 229-30, 377, 499; audit, 164, 368-9, 514; pensions, 195, 216, 263, 3012, 357, 369; and Colonial Office, 200,

336,

339,

346,

368,

543;

and

569, 573, 582, 604.

S.L.

179. Treaties (in Africa), cession, 19-20, 22-23, 74,

96,

132,

136,

152,

157,

nor,

154-61, 165, 172, 174, 185, 195, 218, 452; treaties, 157, 162, 417, 428-32, 449, 461, 476, 491, 515, 556.

159,

162-3, 243, 309-10, 312, 314, 371, 403, 40SK10, 415, 430-2, 515, 541, 559; peace, 96, 249-50, 255, 312, 403, 450, 453, 476, 485; Caulker, 133, 249-50, 373, 430, 548; private, 133, 475, 494, 503; friendship, 185-6, 193, 206-7, 218, 227, 239, 243, 249-50, 255, 274, 286, 287, 297, 368, 390, 392, 401, 427-8, 475. 485, 486, 501, 541, 553; anti-slave trade, 217, 218, 248, 249-50, 274; Liberian, 245, 250, 307-8, 320-1, 431,

David, 313. Harry, 158, 162, 223, 249, 273-4. Henry, 10. James, 157-8, 162. Nancy, of Sembehun, 553, 558,

Tucker, WiUiam E., 273-4, 312-13, 322, 338,418, 430. Tungea, 520-1. Tura, Bai, 3. Turay (Toure) family, 283, 340. Turf Club, Sierra Leone, 145, 190. Turner, Aberdeen, 199. Turner, Major-General Charles, Gover-

bankruptcy, 256, 404, 410, 415, 417, 426,452-4, 495, 514. Treasury Agent (or 'King's Agent'), 141,

38,

Thomas, 419. church, 139, 20€>-i.

Truscott, Rev.

Turner, Bishop Henry, A.M.E. Church, 532.

Turner's Peninsula, 158, 417-18, 449, 544, 573.

Turtle Islands, 309.

U

488-9, 490,

undertakers, 379.

457, 524; French, 274, 285-6, 341, 345, 409, 416, 418, 474-5, 488-9. 519, 524;

769

United Brethren in Christ Established in America, at Shenge, 284-5, 373, 419-21, 429, 470, 473, 555; at Rotifunk, 420,

W

United Brethren in Christ (cont.) 532, 555; amalgamated, 420, 528; in 1898, 572-5, 582, 586, 589, 593; 603,

Waddy, Sampel Danks,

351.

Wadstrom, Carl Bemhard,

42, 50, 54, 62.

616-17. United Brethren Society, 291. United Methodist Free Churches, in Freetown, 328-9, 363, 366, 466, 527; missions, 418-19, 532, 555, 584, 586, 593.

Waima,

United

Walker, Alexander, 269, 319, 331. Walker, Betsy, 114. Walker, Samuel A., 265. Wall, Thomas Alfred, Commandant,

States

of America, and slave

Waite, Mrs. John, 362. Wakefield, Gibbon, 335-6. Walcott, Wilham Chase, 330, 331, 344, 356, 374.

trade,

24, 71, 78, 105-6, 114, 137, 222-3, 331; trade, iii, 131-2, 226, 258-9,

produce

354, 445, 478, 528; emigration from, 112-13, 132-3, 146, 195, 199, 223, 250, 279; missions, 222-3, 228, 245-6, 273,

284-5, 369, 372-3, 419-21, 429, 470, 473, 528, 532, 555, 572-5, 582, 586, 589, 593, 603, 616-17; Civil War, 310, 321, 331, 334, 346, 354, 363; Creoles in, 420-1, 460, 468, 470; 211, 262, 369, 378,

417, 604. University,

West

African, proposed, 389,

392-3, 405.

519-22.

Sherbro, 386, 428-9, 438, 446.

WaUis, Captain C. Braithwaite, 569-71, 600, 608.

Walpole, Hon. George, 79-80, 99, 176. Walsh, Rev. James, 327. Walshe, Hoi well Hely Hutchinson, 322, 369-71, 442.

Wanje, river, 451. Wansey, Nathaniel,

63, 81-85, 89-90.

Wansey

;

Hill, 63, 93

see

Tower

Hill.

'war boys', 403. 'war fences', 313, 411-12, 432.

War

Office, London, 313, 439; and Creole doctors, 294-5, 347; and military expeditions, 316, 476-7, 485, 503, 518-19, 565; Intelhgence Division, 474, 486,

Vai (people), 6-7, 65, 119, 542, 572; script, 251.

Valantin, Adolphe, 339-40, 377. FeHpe Miguel, 466. Vana, 403-4.

Valcarcel,

Vandi of Tihun, 573, Vanneck, Sergeant Abraham, 92. Vassa, Gustavus (Olaudah Equiano),

489, 518, 540.

Warburg's Tincture, 446. Ward, Rev. A. A., 572. Warder, 353.

13,

Warren, Rev. George, 113, 127. Warren, Captain Harold Galway,

15, 18-19, 25, 26.

Venn, Rev, Henry, C.M.S. Secretary, 251-2, 288, 300-1, 365, 385, 407. Verminck, Charles Auguste, 397, 400-1, 411, 415, 421, 443-4;

^^