quarter of which was issued in copper and the remainder in silver, consigned to Lieutenant-Colonel Maxwell. But in consequence of some unavoidable circumstances, the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury could not comply with Governor Maxwell's request, but sent on the 12th November the sum of £3,750 in coppers, with a promise to send the balance 11,250 in silver for the use of the three Settlements. This was the first issue of specie for the supply of the Colony under the Crown.

RELATION OF THE OFFICER COMMANDING HIS

MAJESTY'S TROOPS TO THE GOVERNOR OF THE COLONY

The stationing of a reinforcement of the Royal African Corps, with a Commanding Officer within the Colony, occasioned the necessity for defining the mutual relations of the Governor and the Officer Commanding as early as the year 1810, and according as the exigencies then demanded.

The military force was subject to the general direction of the Governor through the Officer Commanding, but the latter was not to be interfered with in the detail of the military regimental duties, for which he alone was responsible.

ESTABLISHMENT OF A CUSTOMS HOUSE AT SIERRA LEONE, 1810

Under the Sierra Leone Company there had been a Customs Department in the Colony, under a Collector of Dues, but this was intended chiefly, if not entirely, to protect the Company's trade;

and upon the assumption of the Colony by the Crown, it was thought necessary to prevent the occurrence of irregularities in the trade of the Settlement, to and fro, and this could be done, it was conceived, only by appointing an officer in Sierra Leone, acting directly under instructions of the "Board of Customs." The Governor was therefore requested to furnish a report on the commodities of import and export of the Colony, and local duties levied, so as to enable the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Privy Council for Trade to be able to come to a conclusion as to what course should be adopted finally. This was the occasion for establishing a custom-house at Sierra Leone, which was concurrent with the establishment of one at Senegal.

CHAPTER XIII.

COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF THE SETTLEMENT, 1810

In order to establish matters on a firm and efficient basis and to do away with abuses which had crept in during a long course of ineffective administration under the Sierra Leone Company, and also during the assumption of the reins of government by Governor Columbine's predecessors, a Commission of Inquiry was appointed to investigate the general condition of the Colony, and report on the seeming irregularities that appeared to have hampered its progress.

The importance of the Commission is apparent, first of all, from the particular period in which it was appointed a period when reform was most neededto enable the African Institution to encounter and cope with the difficulties which had menaced the Sierra Leone Company and obliged it to retire from its charge. It was important, again, on account of the change it made in the constitution of the Colony. The recommendations of the Commission seem to have been adopted wholesale; and from this point of view it was possessed of a power and influence that shaped the destiny of the Colony to an eminent

degree. This Commission, consequently, marked a turning-point in the history of the Colony.

REPORT OF COMMISSION

The Commission reported that, although in common with every other part of this coast of Africa the climate of the Colony was very inimical to an European constitution, yet it was far less so than any other place on the whole range of coast-line from Senegal to Benin, Gori and the vicinity of Cape Verde alone excepted; but even these excepted spots, besides other objections, placed as they are in a remote corner of extreme regions, with which a more immediate communication was necessary in order to effect any good, could hardly answer, in the least, the benevolent purpose for which Sierra Leone was founded. More fertile spots indeed there were; Bulama, for instance, but where otherwise eligible, it is so situated that it would have been a bold venture to have placed an European colony on any of them.

AGRICULTURE

But the peculiar difficulties of the Colony, together with the nature of the soil and other difficulties, had greatly retarded the progress of agriculture; the late reduction of public expenditure, however, had had the wholesome effect of awakening the inhabitants to their responsibility, and more lands had been put into tillage by the Liberated Africans, amounting to 448 acres, of which about half that extent had been cleared during the past thirteen months.

THE TOWN AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS

The town and public buildings had assumed a more permanent form. A stone barrack was in the course of erection, on a large scale, and was wellnigh completed, and would afford a comfortable lodging to the troops before the rains were over. The social side of the Colony was also encouraging; within the last twelve months the roofs of no less than twenty-six houses had been changed from thatch to shingles.

PROGRESS OF THE SLAVE TRADE

This nefarious traffic had, to a great extent, been mitigated in the vicinity of the Colony by the frequent interruptions and annoyances which that traffic had received from proximity to an establishment greatly increasing in consideration and influence, and at no distant date would be almost annihilated. The white factors and dealers, of course, made and would make every effort for its continuance, but they were fast dying away in number, and new ones would not venture their lives in such situations as their kind was generally placed to carry on speculations of such very hazardous issues.

The Mohammedan religion, also, had participated in the suppression of the slave trade.

About six years before the Sheriff of Mecca had sent a letter to the King of the Foulas, for circulation through all the Mandingo tribes, strictly forbidding their selling slaves. The slave trade was declared to be contrary to the teachings of Mohammed which pronounces the most fearful denunciations of God's