The population of the colony in 1851 was 44,501. It included individuals from as many as 100 African tribes. The number of Euro peans was little more than 100. Of 5223 slaves brought to the colony in 1849 and 1850, as many as 3852 emigrated. The colony is divided into 16 parishes, which are under the superintendence of the Bishop of Sierra Leone, 13 European and three native clergymen. There are good stone churches iu almost every important village in the colony. The Wesleyan Methodists have four ministers and several native lay preachers. They have seven chapels in Freetown,' and eight in the villages. There are about 30 chapels belonging to other sects; the ministers are generally persons of colour. Extensive has been made for education in the colony. The Church issionary Society and the Wesleyans have schools in the villages and many parts of the rural districts. In Freetown the Church Missionary Society has a Grammar school and a female institution, and near the town, the Fourah Bay Institution for general education and the training of teachers and ministers. The Wesleyan Method ists have also a training school at King Tom's Point in Freetown, in which the pupils are clothed and fed at the expense of the society.
The affairs of the colony are administered by a governor and a council of seven or more members, appointed by the crown at the recommendation of the governor • the chief justice, queen's advocate, and colonial secretary being members ex officio. ihe law courts are the Assize, Royal Commission and Chancery courts, the Court of the Ordinary, of the Recorder of Freetown, of Vice-Admiralty for adju dicating on captured slave ships, and the Police and Small Debt courts. The revenue is derived from customs duties, of which the most important is an ad-valorem duty of four per cent. on all British and foreign goods imported, and from a few local taxes, the most productive being the spirit licence. A house and land tax first levied in ]852 produced iu that year 30751. African produce pays no duty. The revenue for 1852 was 19,8861. lIs. 2d., the expenditure was 19,7081. 14s. 2d. The principal articles exported from the colony are teak timber, camwood, ginger, pepper, palm-oil, nuts, gum-copal, cola nuts, and ivory. The chief imports are India goods, cotton manu factures, arms, ammunition, hardware, beads, sprits, ale, and wine from Great Britain; and tobacco, lumber, and cotton goods from the United States. The fisheries of the Banana Islands and the Isles do Loss employ from 150 to 200 boats and canoes, and from 1000 to 1500 men.
Freetown, the capital, stands on the north side of the peninsula, and on the left bank of the Sierra Leone River, about 5 miles from the sea, in 8' 29' N. lat., 0' W. long., on an inclined plane at the foot of some hills, on which are the governor's residence or Fort Thorn ton, the barracks, and some other public buildings. It is 50 feet above the sea-level at high-water mark, and is regularly laid out in fine wide streets, thickly interspersed with orange, lime, banana, and cocoa-nut trees. Many of the houses are commodious and substantial
stone buildings. The population of Freetown is about 16,000. The town contains St. George's church, a good atone building ; several chapels and schoolhouses ; the Church Missionary and Wesleyan Missionary institutions ; a Grammar school ; a market-house, fish market, customhouse, and jail, including the lunatic asylum. The navigable entrance of the river is narrow, there being au extensive shoal with steep aides in the middle of the river, called the Bullet') shoals. The river can only be entered with a sea breeze, which, though tolerably regular, is not always certain either in strength or duration. Katy, a small village 2 miles E. from the town, has a church and parsonage, and a hospital, to which is appended the lower hospital, a building between the pillage and the sea. Regent's-Town, at the basin of Sugar-Loaf 11111, 6 miles S. (rein Freetown, consists of a number of streets regularly laid out, and contains a good stone church, a parsonage, several school-houses, including a missionary training institution, a government house, and several warehouses. Many houses of the natives are built of stone. Gloucester, between Freetown and Regent's-Town, has a neat stone church and missionary residence, with a government establishment for African children under a native schoolmaster. There are many other villages in the colony, with populations varying from 100 to nearly 2000. In the eastern districts are Wellington, Newlands, Allen's-Town, Hastings, Stanley, Victoria, Rokelle, Waterloo, Calmont-Town, Campbell-Town, and Macdonald. In the western district are Kent, Russell, York, and Sussex. In the mountainous district are Bathurst, Charlotte, Leicester, Gloucester, Wilberforce, Congo-Town, Murray-Town, Aberdeen, Lumley, Goderich, and Adonkia.
The British Colony of Sierra Leone was established in 1787 by some philanthropists, who intended to show that colonial productions could be obtained without the labour of slaves. In that year 470 negroes, then living in a state of destitution iu London, were removed to it ; and in 1790 their number was increased by 1196 individuals of the same race, who had been settled in Nova Scotia, but could not bear the severity of that climate. Teu years later, 550 Maroons were trans parted from Jamaica to Sierra Leone ; and in 1819, when a black regiment in the West Indies was disbanded, 1222 black soldiers and their families were settled there. Since the abolition of the slave-trade in 1807, the slaves captured by the British cruisers have been settled in the colony, and the population has beau thus so much increased, that in 1820 it amounted to 12,000, and in 1846 to about 45,000; since then it has been kept nearly stationary by emigration. In 1818 the Isles de Loss, and more recently the Banana Islands, were added to the colony by purchase.