gative has sometimes presumed to interfere, but very illegally, as I conceive.

I have also returned Dr. Turner's letter, and I will send you in writing as exact an account as I possibly can, of the new Settlement, for his perusal.

I will certainly endeavour to avail myself soon of your kind permission to pay you a visit, on some Tuesday or Thursday evening.

I remain, with great esteem, Dear Sir,

Your obliged humble servant,

GRANVILLE SHARP.

Dear Sir,

LETTER CLXIX.

From the same.

Wicken Park, near Stony Stratford,

Bucks, Oct. 13, 1788.

Your kind communication of a sensible letter from Dr. Thornton at Philadelphia, has devolved on me an indispensable duty to give you the fullest information in my power respecting the new Settlement at Sierra Leone, because your friend seems to be heartily desirous to promote it. The opinion which he has adopted of my late worthy friend Dr. Fothergill, that the establishment of a Free Settlement on the coast of Africa for honourable trade, would be the most effectual

means of destroying the slave trade, has so far been always my own opinion, that it induced me to advance much more money than a private person in my situation ought to have done, among the first settlers, to encourage their embarkation

last year; for many of them had pawned their

cloaths and other effects, and refused to go on board unless they could redeem some part at least of their effects out of pawn. Several other circumstances concurred to injure this first attempt, though the expence of transports and subsistence, as also of tools, arms, &c. was defrayed by government. Many of the black poor were embarked in the river Thames before Christmas 1786, and by living entirely on salt provisions, they began to be sickly even before they left the river': others delayed going on board till January and February 1787, being deterred by a jealousy which prevailed among them, that government intended to send them to Botany Bay, as the transports for that expedition were then waiting at Portsmouth, where the ships for Sierra Leone were also to wait for orders. On the 20th Feb. 1787, instead of nearly 700 black poor, who had offered themselves to go to the proposed Settlement, there were only 439 or 441 (for the accounts differ) that embarked on board the three transports appointed for them, viz. the Belisarius, Atlantic, and Vernon, which by that time were all arrived at Portsmouth.

On the 22d February, 1787, they sailed from Portsmouth under the command of Capt. Thompson, of His Majesty's sloop Nautilus; but meeting with stormy weather, they were separated; and it was the 19th March before they were all collected in Plymouth Sound. Thus the best part of the season was lost, and many of the people had been on board above three months, and were become very sickly. Unhappily the allowance of rum, granted with the most benevolent intention for the comfort of the poor people, really proved their greatest bane. Many of them, it is said, drank up their whole day's allowance at once, and got drunk with it; and this irregularity, together with a diet of salt provisions, and being rather too much crowded between decks, increased the sickness, and occasioned the loss of more than 50 lives, it is said, even before they reached Plymouth. Other bad consequences of the rum were, disagreements and mutinous behaviour, for which 24 were discharged, and 23 ran away. Nevertheless, by an account before me, 411 settlers sailed from Plymouth on the 9th April, 1788; so that they must have had some recruits, though they are not mentioned in the lists.

Of these 411 persons who sailed from Plymouth, 34 died in April and May, before they had made any settlement on the coast; so that the climate of Sierra Leone is not to be blamed for their deaths; and 15 were discharged or run away; and

on the 16th September, when His Majesty's sloop Nautilus left the Settlement, there remained in all 276 persons, so that 96 must have died at Sierra Leone in June, July, August, and September; but this mortality, though on the coast, is not to be attributed to the climate, for most of the people still continued intemperate, and they had not yet any fresh provisions; so that many of the sick did not recover of the distempers they carried with them, and the rainy season set in before they could finish their huts; so that they were neither wind nor water tight, which bad accommodation certainly increased the mortality.

I am obliged to be very prolix in my account, lest the misfortunes should be attributed to the climate and country, instead of the true causes.

However, a fine tract of mountainous country, covered with beautiful trees of all kinds, and perpetual verdure, was purchased, at a trifling expence, of a negro chief called King Tom, extending from the Watering Place in Frenchman's Bay (since called St. George's Bay) up to Gambia Island, which is above 15 miles of the Southern Bank of the Sierra Leone River, and 20 miles back all the way, which reaches almost across the Promontory to the Sherbro River. This situation, between two great rivers, renders the air particularly temperate for that climate, and the advantages for trade will certainly be very great. Capt. Thompson fixed upon a beautiful eminence arising from the side of a higher mountain, for the

site of the new township, having a fine brook of fresh water on three sides of it. Above 360 town lots, of one acre each, were marked out in streets, and the lots were drawn and appropriated on the 12th June, 1788. But the death of Mr. Irwin, the Agent Conductor, as also of Mr. Gesau, the Town Major (to whom I had given particular instructions and drawings for temporary works of defence and accommodation, as he was a good engineer and draughtsman), and of Mr. Riccards, the Gardener (in whose skill for the cultivation of vines and other useful produce, I had built great expectations of public profit), and the desertion of many others, who had previously sold their musquets and other arms for rum, occasioned great discouragement to those that remained. The sickness also of the Rev. Mr. Frazer, the Chaplain, was another great misfortune to the Settlement. His weak state of health obliged him to go to Bance Island, about 30 miles distant, as he was afraid of the want of accommodation in the New Settlement. His disorder however increased, so that he came home in March last, seemingly in a deep consumption; which, however, is not to be attributed to the climate of the Settlement, as he did not reside in it; and it is remarkable, that when he called there, just before his return to England, he found that he himself was the only unhealthy person in the Settlement; which he acknowledged in a letter to a friend of mine. The number of settlers were then, as he told me, only