The excellence of the moral and intellectual quali ties of the pupils, suggested to the society belonging to the Church of' England, the establishment of a seminary called the Christian Instill/le, where the young natives may be prepared for the missionary service. This establishment, at first founded at Lei cester, was afterwards transferred to Regent's Town, and it now contains a considerable number of pupils from 12 to 18 years of age. Several of them who have already gone out have paved the way for the missionaries in the interior of Africa. They carried along with them the first elements of civilization, and disposed their less cultivated brethren to submit to the discipline of Christianity.
The townships of Charlotte, Leopold, Gloucester, and Wilberforce, are in the immediate vicinity of Freetown, and, along with Freetown, contains up wards of 2000 scholars in a regular course of instruc tion.
In consequence of these accessions to the popula tion, four new and more distant stations have been founded since 1818, viz. 'Waterloo, Wellington near Kisscy, Hastings, and York. The three first are on the eastern side of the colony, while York is on the south-west side, bordering on the Sherbros, among whom a settlement called Kent had already been formed.
In connexion with the colony of Sierra Leone, a settlement called Bathurst has been established at St. Mary's, at the mouth of the river Gambia, and to the north of Sierra Leone. In 1820 the population was only 469; but it is now 2000. The natives are all Mahometans. The chmate is healthy, and provisions are much cheaper than at Sierra Leone. From the opportunities which it has of communication with the populous countries on the Gambia, it will, no doubt, become an important station for commercial enter prise. The missionaries who reside here have been sent out by the Wesleyan Society.
About eight miles from Bathurst the quakers have formed an establishment at Birkow, a place in the country of the Mandingos, on Cape St. Mary. A young negro has opened a school at Birkow, for the instruction of children of both sexes.
Since the year 1822 the Americans have founded a colony at the mouth of the river Mesavada, to the south of Sierra Leone. This colony has been called Liberia, and the principal town Monrovia. The po pulation consists of African-Americans, and of free negroes.
The following were the number of scholars educat ing in the year 1820, at the different establishments in Sierra Leone. Since that time we know that they have very greatly increased; but the exact increase we are not acquainted with: The first settlers in Sierra Leone were the Portu guese. The English afterwards established a footing in Lance Island in the middle of the river; butt it was not till near the end of the eighteenth century that the negro colony was established. In 1783, Dr. Smeath mar suggested the idea of it. After the American war, a number of negroes who were discharged the army and navy, Were. collected, to the amount of about 400, and along with about GO whites, they were embarked on board transports, furnished by ment, and were conveyed to Sierra Leone, where they arrived on the 9th May 1787, with arms, provisions, and agricultural implements. Captain Thomson or the Nantilus purchased a piece of ground 20 miles square from King II aimbanna. A proper• site for a town,
called Freetown was chosen, occupying a rising ground fronting the sea. When the lands were di vided among the colonists, they abandoned themselves to indolence and vice; and the consequence of this was, a dreadful mortality, which reduced them to 276. In addition to that calamity, the town was plundered in November 1789, by an African chief, who com pelled the colonists to seek for shelter in Lance Island. In 1791, Mr. Falconbridge went out with a supply of stores. Ile collected the scattered colonists, and hav ing persuaded the native chiefs to cede again the former territory, a new site for the colony was chosen at Granville town. While these things were going on, the original African Association (Sec article As sociA•IoN, AFnicA,) was incorporated by act of par liament in 1791, with a charter fur thirty-one years. They immediatele sent out five ships with stores, ar ticles of trade, and several new settlers. A consi derable number of whites and free negroes, to the amount of 1200, who had taken shelter in Nova Scotia, after the American war, accepted of the offer of the company to go to Sierra Leone; and they ar rived there in 179'2. Freetown was again made the capital of the colony, and for some time it flourished. Discontents, however, soon arose, and complaints were personally made to the Company by the Nova Scotian negroes, respecting the lowness of their wages, and the high price of the Company's goods. When these dissatisfactions were removed, the town was plundered in September 1794 by a French squad ron, and the colonists were thrown into the most des titute condition. The Company, however, repaired this disaster; but so great had been their losses, and so profuse the expenditure, that they found it prudent to make an arrangement with government, by which Sierra Leone was placed like other colonies under its jurisdiction.
The establishment of the African Institution about that time for the improving• the condition of that vast continent, induced government to place Sierra Leone under its management. The method which they have adopted for recruiting its population was, to send to the colony all the negroes captured by the vessels sent to put a stop to the slave trade. From this source of supply', the colony has rapidly increased in numbers, and the colonists now enjoy all the advantages of Eng lish law. From the unhealthiness of the climate, and the smallness of the salaries allowed, it has been found difficult to get qualified persons to fill the official situa tions; but these evils have gradually diminished, and the colony has prospered in the manner which we have described in a preceding part of this article.
Its tranquillity has been very recently disturbed by the surrounding native powers; and unless some more effectual means of defence are provided, there is rea son to fear that it may yet fall under their repeated assaults.
Since the above article was written, government has, we understand, resolved to abandon Sierra Leone, and to remove the colony to the island of Fernando Po, where the new buildings for the accommodation of the troops and the civil authorities arc already in a state of progress.