of individuals serving in turn, by invitation, at the plantations of one and then another chief or member of the society. Hundreds of acres of woods are thus cleared off in a couple of days, the guests being provided for with one or two meals a day after work. Wealth is thus easily accumulated, but the want of foresight or the insecurity of the country acts in a manner prejudicial to the maintenance of this wealth; besides, the ease with which it is acquired tends materially to create and foster a sort of careless disregard for its retention. Polygamy is the custom of the Natives, whether Mohammedan or heathen, their religion being no guide as to the number of wives a man might have. With them marriage is a social contract, each man marrying according to his means, not merely for gratification of lustful appetite, but as a sort of appendage for domestic comfort, each wife having in all cases a partition of domestic duties or serving in turn in the same. There is not that imaginable evil of domestic broils and jealousies among their wives which those unfamiliar, or rather unacquainted, with the social life of the Natives are apt to credit it with, which is a mere brain device of religious fanatics.

The following quotation from the petition for

tribe and country. The simple stories which they weave into heartstirring song and moving recitative narrative are in their essential elements very much the same as those upon which the highest powers of modern art have been expended. They touch the same springs that are touched by the great works of Handel, Haydn, or Mendelssohn" (Report on the Timbo Expedition, 1873, p. 5).

Yelis are the same as Balafeus (see Introduction, p. 13, Captain Stibbs' expedition to the Falls of the Barraconda).

dissolution of the Sierra Leone Company, ordered to be printed by the House of Commons on the 25th May, 1802, will serve to show of what benefit the faith of Islam has been in the suppression of superstition and barbarous custom and their replacement by a healthy system of civilisation on the coast in the vicinity of Sierra Leone at this period.

"A remarkable proof exists in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, of the very great advantages of a permanent, though very imperfect, system of government, and of the abolition of those African laws which make slavery the punishment of almost every offence.

"Not more than seventy years ago, a small number of Mahomedans established themselves in a country about forty miles to the northward of Sierra Leone, called from them the Mandingo Country. As is the practice of the professors of that religion, they formed schools, in which the Arabic language and the doctrines of Mahomet were taught, and the customs of Mahomedans, particularly that of not selling any of their own religion as slaves, were adopted. Laws founded on the Koran were introduced. Those practices which chiefly contribute to depopulate the coast were eradicated, and, in spite of many intestine convulsions, a great comparative degree of civilisation, union, and security was introduced. Population, in consequence, rapidly increased, and the whole power of that part of the country in which they are settled has gradually fallen into their hands. Those who have been taught in their schools are succeeding to wealth and power in the neighbouring countries, and carry with them a considerable portion of their religion and laws. Other chiefs

are adopting the name assumed by these Mahomedans, on account of the respect which attends it; and the religion of Islam seems likely to diffuse itself peaceably over the whole district in which the colony is situated, carrying with it those advantages which seem ever to have attended its victory over Negro superstition."

MEDIUM OF EXCHANGE-PAPER CURRENCY AND
COINAGE

The current medium of exchange originally was goods, i.e. barter must always be resorted to in order to enable an exchange of commodities. These goods were reckoned by bars equal to about 25. sterling in value. But this valuation, however, was not uniform, as there were the high price bar and the low price bar.

To rectify this seeming inequality, paper dollars were issued by the Governor and Council, which were virtually promissory notes for goods at current prices. These paper dollars, valuing four shillings and sixpence each, became the medium of exchange. Still, the inequality was not remedied, as the paper money, of which there were 12,354 dollars in circulation, was still calculated on the basis of the bar. It was often found necessary, in order to make up for losses incurred by selling valuable articles at the nominal dollar value, to mix up those articles with cheaper ones in order not to sell at a disadvantage.

To avoid all this trouble, uncertainty, and inconvenience, a fixed and known measure of value, the dollar, was introduced in 1802. It was introduced as an accommodation to the Settlers as well as to

the Company. Its introduction did not supersede the issue of the new paper dollar, whose value was, as it were, enhanced. It was optional with anyone transacting business with the Company to receive dollars, paper money, or bills of exchange drawn at not less than 60 days' sight up to 100 dollars, 90 days' sight for 100 dollars up to 300 dollars, and higher than that amount at not less than 120 days' sight; but the silver dollars having been issued, the holders thereof were not entitled to demand them for bills on England.

The holders of paper money could change them for bills of exchange; but no bills of exchange of less than 100 dollars were issued.

CHAPTER X.

FORTIFICATIONS OF THE COLONY-TREATIES AND CONVENTIONS

In the accounts of the Temne risings in chapter v., reference was made to the wall surrounding the town of Free Town; such language can hardly fail to be unintelligible to those whose ideas of Sierra Leone are only modern, and as those walls formed part of the defence of the Colony, it may be necessary to give some account of them, and the state of the fortifications of the Colony in general, at the time of the surrender to the African institution.

From the year 1787 to 1794 the Government House stood at the north-western extremity of Water Street, whence it was removed to Fort Thornton, a small round hill resembling a skull, after the French invasion of 1794.

The threatening invasions of the confederate Temne and Susu, or Mandingo (as they are described in early records) chiefs necessitated the erection of a wooden palisade round Fort Thornton, (formerly Thornton Hill, in honour of Mr. Thornton, President of the Sierra Leone Company) in 1798. This was intended to be of a temporary charactersimply to oppose an unexpected attack of the