Khan had one, I am told, probably equal to his brother's in Bakhara. What might the number be? said I to an informant. That I cannot exactly state, because, though scattered, they were so numerous, was the reply; but, judging from the progeny, they must have exceeded in number both Solomon's queens (60), and concubines (80); and, added he slyly, they keep no virgins in the Harems at Sierra Leone!!-The progeny of this Khan, what might the number be? said I. Why, judging from what I saw, three or four here, and three or four there, at school, aud at other places, and, from what I was informed by good authority, were daily coming into the world, and growing up in it, the number might approach to FIFTY!!-What would the Emigration Committee say, were Great Britain and Ireland peo pled with men of this stamp?

The proceedings just noticed may be the speediest and most effectual way of improving the population of Africa; yet not being one of the enlightened, I cannot take it upon myself to deter mine how far it is proper to do as they do, namely," evil that good may come;" and although the Missionary Register and Parliamentary Reports may omit the fact, yet it is true, that wherever anything like a ready progress in education is evinced, or seen in the schools in Sierra Leone, supported wholly by the British Treasury, it is amongst the coloured children of the Whites and the Mulattoes that this is seen; a decided proof of the superiority of European intellect over African. One of these schools, said an informant, is nearly filled with children of this description; and several of them readily answered to the name of Macaulay, so called, no doubt, in honour of some venerable patron of that place, or patriarch of that name.

Í should not again have troubled you on this disgusting topic of Sierra Leone vices, had not Mr Kenneth Macaulay and his friends, as unnecessarily as unguardedly adopted the African mode of defence which they have done.

Here it will be proper to state the number and the classification of the population of Sierra Leone, April 1826, as given by the Commissioners at pages

VOL. XXIII.

exclusive of the military. Of this heterogeneous mass, Mr Macaulay says, pp. 16, 17, and other places; First, of the military, that they are commuted men," whose pass-word " is a merry life and a short one," while their white wives are such characters as “do not require the immoral habits of Sierra Leone to degrade" them. Secondly, "the lower class of European adventurers are seldom men of good character. Intemperance is their besetting vice." Thirdly, Mr Raban says of the higher ranks of Europeans in the place, that " THE UNCHRISTIAN LIVES" led by "too many" of them tend to demoralize by their example the untutored Africans. Fourthly, Mr Macaulay tells us of the_natives, that they are Mahommedans and Pagans, quite INDIFFERENT TO CHRISTIANITY;" and Kroomen, with whom "no inducement can prevail to relinquish their native superstitions ;" and lastly, Liberated Africans, who are generally "in the lowest state of ignorance and DEGRADATION, the bad subjects of barbarous states, ENSLA◄ VED FOR CRIMES!!"

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I

neral and pre-eminent, and immorality conspicuous. The superior classes who can afford it, BUY these concubines from the natives in the interior parts. Their price reaches as high as thirty dollars, not, however, always paid in cash, but in rum, beads, baft, gunpowder, &c. The Mandingo girls, being the most handsome, are generally preferred. When at Sierra Leone upon a trading expedition, such fathers who may have numerous families of daughters, generally take the order to bring back a daughter or daughters, on their return. These females, once purchased, dare not return to their paternal homes, unless put away by their purchasers and protectors for alleged inisconduct. The higher ranks have generally coloured females as concubines. With one colour or other, or with both colours, all the males are provided. The pick of the Liberated African girls are taken and cast off as passion, whim, or a love of variety dictates.

Amongst all ranks of the black and coloured female population, but more especially in Freetown, prostitution is undisguised and regardless. The mother readily sells the daughter to the highest bidder, or, as may be, to any bidder. Such is the pitch to which depravity has reached in the place, that, as I have been informed, the black husband quietly retires at the command of his rib, while in his own house she earns the cut money, or the dollar, by the prostitution of her person! This climax of degradation is reserved for this new earthly paradise. In no other quarter of the British dominions, are such scenes or such conduct to be met with or heard of.

Idleness, drunkenness, and debauchery, prevail to an extent scarcely credible, and this without one redeeming point in the human character. Religion in Sierra Leone is a name-" a tinkling cymbal, and the sounding brass." The scenes which take place in assemblies where the blacks are addressed by native preachers, are truly frightful to contemplate or to dwell on. Even in the chief church, Europeans are disgusted with the scenes which they witness, when they behold, as I am informed they have beheld, during the solemn service, the liberated and other blacks stalking about without decency, and sitting making faces at each other, like so many mischievous

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monkeys. The Parliamentary Commissioners, in their Report, justly observe, that in this settlement, teachers of religion are employed who are more likely to excite enthusiasm than to instil morality." At one of these conventicles superintended by native preachers, amidst a pathetic harangue by one of the orators, as I have been informed, a black female threw herself on the floor, and rolling along, with her garments, upper and nether, enveloping her head, she bawled out, "that she had found the Lord!" Several of the congregation rose and offered to bear her out of the chapel, but the preacher commanded them to desist, declaring that IT WAS A GLORIOUS SIGHT!"

Mr Kenneth Macaulay flies at me in a towering passion, because, as an instance of the unblushing immorality which is practised in the settlement, I stated, that "General Turner was scarcely laid in the dust, till the house which he had inhabited swarmed with inmates" of a certain description. "This," says my angry oppo◄ nent, " is a personal attack upon myself. To this accusation I GIVE a most unqualified denial. It is AN INFA MOUS FALSEHOOD, and in proof of this I appeal to the whole colony !"

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Big words are easily penned, and unqualified denials" are readily given; and from a Sierra Leone champion, I am prepared to expect everything that wears a face of brass, or a countenance of hypocrisy. While I do not state, as I am not called upon to state, the name of any individual, or that it was Mr Kenneth Macaulay who collected an assemblage such as that which was alluded to, I must nevertheless still reiterate and affirm the fact-a fact known to "the whole colony." Mr Macaulay ought to have been aware, that the coarse and the false epithet which he has chosen to apply to the statement which I had made, would not be tamely submitted unto. How judiciously he has acted, in compelling me to recur to this subject, will appear, as I proceed in refreshing his memory with names and circumstances, which may serve to convince him, and others of that ilk, that the less that is said by any of them on such subjects the better; and that more is known of Sierra Leone secrets, than Sierra Leone advocates are aware of.

After General Turner's death, did not the free-labour female, MARO, march from a distance to resume her place as a Sultanah? I ask this question at Mr Macaulay, because I believe he can solve it. Moreover, there was a day when a Sierra Leone Khan, or chief, had a party at his house. From some mishap or other, a Harem had on that day broken loose,—as it is supposed, by overpowering its keeper, -in the gallery stood a round half dozen damsels, peeping over it, eyeing the guests, giggling at them as they en tered, and at the same time attracting the gaze of a considerable number of spectators collected in the neighbour hood. The guests remonstrated with the chief upon the indelicacy and impropriety of such a public exhibition, and earnestly begged that the legion might be relegated to its proper place, which was readily admitted and assented to, and the black swarm accordingly driven off to their proper corner. Amongst the females present on this occasion, there was one named ACTOOA, who had a considerable squint in one eye; and Mr Kenneth Macaulay, who was, I believe, present, may remember how one of the gentlemen of that party, who also squinted a little, was jeered by the rest with being on that account Actooa's brother!

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I do not say that this took place in Government House, when Mr Kenneth Macaulay was acting Governor," remember I do not say this; but I affirm that it did take place in a house inhabited by a predecessor of the present Khan," or governor.

Besides, I must demand of Mr Ken neth Macaulay, Does he not know two seemly liberated African girls, natives of ACCRA, who were, within the memory of man, concubines to a man in power in Sierra Leone? One of these was named AFFOOA, and the other, the handsomest and the best-beloved, KOCKQUO. I use the African names, of which it is difficult to be accurate in the orthography. The latter was met at Sierra Leone by an informant, who had previously met her in a less fortunate and prominent situation. She was enciente at the latter period, and the honour of which she said was due to "de Goburnar.”

Let Mr Kenneth Macaulay, who

In defence, for such I must call it, of the scandalous immorality of the place, Mr Macaulay, p. 43, actually proclaims that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, thus:-"The woman who there lives with one man, in unauthorised intercourse, does not thereby lose caste' so completely, nor sink so deep in depravity, as one similarly situated in this country. This SPECIES OF CONCUBINAGE does not cause that total renunciation of moral feeling and conduct, which too often follows it here; and MANY who are living IN SUCH A STATE look upon themselves as virtually married, and would consider UNFAITHFULNESS to their KEEPER as great a crime as if it were committed against a lawful husband!"

I merely stated, that such practices were common; but it was left to this "ex-acting Governor," Mr K. Macau lay, to publish a defence of this system of pollution, and thereby to fix a deeper and a blacker brand upon the forehead of the place and the system.

Into the details of the immoralities and vices, which are so prevalent in the place, it was not to be expected that the Parliamentary Commissioners would enter very deeply; but they have stated sufficient to confirm, to the fullest extent, all that has been advanced in my former letters. "The neglect of public worship," say the Commissioners, page 65, "is very prevalent amongst the resident Europeans; and to this may in part be attributed the non-attendance of many who might be influenced by their example." The " congregation," say they, which attended the Rev. Mr Ra ban, the only clergyman of the established church in the place, did not on any occasion exceed 12 Europeans, 15 persons of colour, the military, and a part of the children who attend the school. The fact, as I have already stated, is, the whites in the

place retire upon Sundays to the Bullam shore, there to spend their time in revelling amongst black females of a certain description," and I have seen these women," said an informant, "coming into stores in Freetown upon the Monday morning following, to obtain the payment of their preceding day's services in beads, baft, or articles of dress, according as were required, or that had been agreed upon.

It

"The progress of morality," say the Commissioners, page 66, 66 amongst the coloured classes, is not to be esti mated by their regular attendance at public worship. In the villages, the clergymen, or teachers who occasionally officiate as such, have generally been also local SUPERINTENDENTS. will readily be conceived with what facility an attendance at worship could, under these circumstances, be insured. But, when it is remembered that a great part of those who attend DO NOT COMPREHEND EVEN THE LANGUAGE in which they are addressed, it will excite no surprise that they should have derived little benefit from the lessons inculcated. At Freetown, similar results may in part be attributed to the unrestrained ministration of individuals, some of whom, however good their intentions, are more likely to excite enthusiasm than to instil morality. Were the prevalence of the domestic virtues to be judged of by the number of marriages, a comparison of these returns would place Freetown in an UNFAVOURABLE point of view. It is not, however, to be inferred, that the morality of the villagers is there fore of a higher standard. For, when the circumstances of the liberated Africans, and the manner in which mar riages are contracted amongst them, are considered, THIS INSTITUTION, so far as it regards them, will be found a FALLACIOUS CRITERION." Indeed so dreadful is the moral pestilence which is engendered in the Freetown atmosphere, that the Rev. Mr Raban says, (page 66,) speaking of those liberated Africans who leave the villages to reside there, "it is much to be feared, they, being freed from the salutary restraint exercised over them in the villages, and SETTLING AMONG THE HEATHEN, have fallen again into those

habits which they seemed to have laid aside. Instead of rising in the scale of moral improvement, or even continuing at the point to which they had been brought in their former secluded situation, THEY SINK nearly to the level of those about them."

Such is the moral state of this capital of British Africa-so horridly vicious and corrupt, that it corrupts, degrades, and debases even the liberated African, who was but yesterday brought from his native wilds, and who is scarcely one degree removed from the most debased and savage state!

It will not be denied, that the African population of Sierra Leone were, nay are, savages, with feeble intellects, and sunk in the lowest state of ignorance and moral debasement. With a knowledge of these facts, it is not necessary that an European should visit the place in order to learn what such a set of savages, supported in idleness, and thrown loose amongst a set of graceless moneyhunting Europeans, would be following and attending to. Common sense would teach us to know, that without forsaking their native superstitions and grovelling immoralities, they would learn, as they do learn, and as they have learned, all the vices of the immoral European, and to practise these as they are practised in Sierra Leone, by these Africans in particular, with their native grovelling bestiali ty. The European must rank below the meanest schoolboy in knowledge of human nature, who does not appreciate correctly the real state of Sierra Leone, the character and pursuits of its population; and detect the impudent fabrications which are circulated so widely and so profusely over this country concerning it, although such an European had never personally visited the pestilential and vicious spot.

At the risk of some repetition, it is due to you and to my subject to point out a few specimens of the utter ignoance, or unpardonable disregard for truth, which characterises the pages of my Sierra Leone opponent.

The individual, however, who demeans himself so far as to fabricate,

ner," says Mr Macaulay, p. 77, " took out two nieces, TWO NEPHEWS, and two aides-de-camp." &c. Here then we have, by Mr Macaulay's admission, two nephews; and besides these, General Turner took out with him a relation named MARTIN TURNER, who was appointed Superintendent of Kissey town, and who died there. Thus, Mr Macaulay's book refutes Mr Macaulay's preface!

"The circumstances attending the death of the two nephews," says Mr Macaulay, page 77, were these: The two nephews were labouring under consumption (one in the last stage) on their arrival in the colony, and both died of that disease!" My informant, who was acquainted with both in Sierra Leone, and saw them on their death-beds, told me a different tale; and upon inquiry at those, who, alas! must know too well, I state that only one of these nephews was affected with consumption when he arrived in the colony, but not severely; while the other was a fine, stout, healthy young man, totally free from any such complaint. He was cut off by the fever of the place; and I have the authority of the officer under whom the other served, to say, that his death was also accelerated, nay, wholly occasioned, by the fatal Sierra Leone fever!

Mr Macaulay denies that General Turner's agricultural schemes really failed; and he denies that General Tur ner ever had employed on his farm a man who had been in the West Indies. The cause of the failure, says Mr Macaulay, p. 56, was:-" General Turner lost his first superintendent, (a hard-drinking intemperate Scots

man,

and not a man acquainted with tropical agriculture, or with the West Indies, as Mr Macqueen UNTRULY ASSERTS,) and he soon ascertained that the multifarious duties of his own extensive command left him no time for personal attention to cultivation."

The man to whom I allude as Ge neral Turner's overseer, was named JOHN GORDON. He had been nine