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Captain Beaver now proceeded to the country of Bisugas, for the purpose of treating with their king for the sale of the Island of Bulama; and, with as much courage as prudence, went without arms, to shew the natives that he placed confidence in them, and that he relied upon their hospitality, a virtue not uncommonly found among savages. In a very curious passage (p. 64), too long, however, to be extracted, he describes himself and his companion, a grumeta* who passed as an interpreter, as entering the king's seraglio (or house appropriated for his women) in search of Mrs. Harley and her child, the English prisoners who yet remained with the savages. After some palavers (from the Portuguese word palabros,' to talk) with the two kings of Canabac, Bellchore, and Jalorem,' who we think would make an excellent figure at Astley's in their interview with Captain Beaver, the colonists purchased the island of Bulama for 781. 16s. 8d. sterling: about seven leagues of ground in length, in its breadth varying from five to two leagues; but Captain Beaver does not speak positively, as from being unable ever to leave the blockhouse or head quarters of the settlement, except for a few hours at a time, he could not ascertain the exact measurement of the island.

It might now have been expected, that, profiting by their dear-bought experience, the colonists would have formed some general plan of co-operation, and have begun to erect houses, and to cultivate land in their new settlement, according to an improved and regular design. But dissension prevailed in the council, and after some ill-advised measures, which were spiritedly protested against by Mr. Beaver, the larger part of the members of this disorderly society set sail on their return to England in the Calypso on the 19th of July 1792.

What,' as Captain Beaver asks, became of their avowed motives for having undertaken this expedition, to purchase land in Africa; to cultivate it by free natives; to induce in them habits of labour and industry, and to ameliorate their condition, by the introduction of religion and letters? These motives could not have been very strong. Poor Africans!'

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Captain Beaver was now left with about ninety colonists, men, women, and children, on the island of Bulama. has transcribed for this publication, his journal, kept there

* Grumetas, generally speaking, are native servants or those who work for hire, although the term is sometimes applied to confidential släves

for thirteen months, which puts us strongly in mind of Ro binson Crusoe's way of life; but which, as it is rather minute, though necessarily so, upón unimportant subjects, and as we have already approached our usual limits in reviewing a work of this nature, we must omit, only selecting its most material passages. Being chosen president unanimously, Captain Beaver felt a fresh motive to continue the exertions which he had made during the whole expedition for the welfare of the colony. Things now went on better; but some of the neighbouring savages soon renewed their molestation of the settlers; and Captain Beaver was obliged to purchase peace by presents to two other of the native kings, who claimed a share in the hunting on the island of Bulama.

The colonists, under their new director, now set more manfully to work in building a large block house, that might serve for a general dwelling, divided into compartments, where all the members of the society might be under the eye of their president, and which might also be made a place of defence. Grumetas were now procured to assist in the works,-but on the 23d of November, 1792, after some altercation with Captain Beaver, the surgeon of the colony, and many other of the settlers, set sail on their return to England in the Hankey, and by their departure reduced the settlement to 28 in number. The natives Captain Beaver found to do their work very well for hire, but they had the common vices of savages, cunning, theft, drunkenness, and cruelty. Superstition, the child of ignorance, was also a striking trait in their character; and of course the more sagacious took advantage of this, and contrived to pass for wizards among their more silly countrymen. One of them had the impudence to tell Captain Beaver to his face, that he could change himself into an alligator, and had often done it.' They have an idea, inconsistent enough with the above, that all white men are witches.' This idea Captain Beaver properly endeavoured to strengthen at first. It would be idle. to begin the task of civilization by violently attacking the prejudices of savages. They must be taught the arts, before they are taught abstract truths and principles. They must see the white men that settle among thein, sober, chaste, and industrious; they will then be more ready to believe the doctrines which produce such good fruits. The misguided zeal of missionaries has done much harm. Cultivation of the purchased lands by means of the free natives must be the first step; and it may here be generally remarked that in

these countries most tropical productions grow wild. Commerce will naturally follow cultivation, and civilization will be the result of both. Here then we see the gradual means of abolishing African slavery, and as Mr. Beaver, we think, very well contends, much more rational, fair, and equitable means, than in the immediate repeal of the acts for carrying on that trade: repeal indeed would probably prove vain, but if not, certainly destructive to thousands, who have at least an equal claim upon our consideration with our African brethren. Far from being an advocate for the conti-.. nuance of that trade, Mr. Beaver has pointed out the best way of abolishing it, in the progress of time; and it will be observed, mean while, that the Africans would be daily learning to enjoy more fully the blessings of civilized life, and of well regulated liberty.

What was the character Captain Beaver obtained by his conduct among the Africans? "He completely did away their prejudices against the Europeans, and they all said with one voice, whether Mangack, Mandingo, Papel, Bisuga, Biafara, or Naloo, inhabitants of the neighbouring continent to a very wide extent, that the white man of Bulama can't do bad.'

The general appearance of this island is that of the most luxuriant vegetation. Its soil is remarkably rich and prolific; the productions that are adapted to it, are rice of two sorts, one thriving on dry and elevated ground, the other in low marshy places; yams which grow wild, the sweet Cassada, Manioc maize or Indian corn, and ground nuts, the sugar-cane and cotton-shrub, annual vines, and a variety of other useful plants. The island is covered with trees of all descriptions, from the finest oaks to the most diminutive shrubs; · from the iron-wood, so called from its close texture, to the cotton-tree, out of whose soft and porous grain very beautiful stockings may be made. Of the animals, the chief are the elephant, the buffalo, the hippopotamus, deer, the wild hog, and monkey. The only beast of prey that infested the country near the sea coast, was the hyæna. At the first arrival of the colonists, these animals made great havock among their goats and sheep, but when their inclosures were completed, their live stock was ever afterwards perfectly safe. Among the animals. of Bulama and the adjoining country, horses, (excepting only those of the Mandingoes,) sheep, geese, and ducks are not domesticated, although they are to be procured in abundance in the coun-. try between the Gambia and the Rio Grande. But they are

not among the wants of the natives, any more than the cocoa-nut tree, which might easily be found in the above country; and the Portuguese are either too indolent, or too much occupied in trade to introduce it. The ants, of which there are many sorts, were a great annoyance at first to the settlers, bat they retired when the ground was cleared, built upon, and inhabited. Bees were in plenty, and very productive of honey.

Concerning the climate, notwithstanding the uncommon. mortality of the Europeans, Captain Beaver does not speak unfavourably. We think he is here a little too sanguine of the success of his favourite plau. The weather is of course in this country, lying between the tropics, generally hot. Tornadoes, though very violent, are never dangerous to careful seamen upon the coast in the latitude of Bulama, as they give ample notice of their approach. The rainy season begins with the month of June, and ends about the middle of October; what are termed the smoky or foggy months follow, after which, fine clear weather, with pretty regular land and sea-breezes, prevails until the beginning of the ensuing rains.

Captain Beaver, independently of the unhealthy season of the year in which the colonists landed at Bulama, and independently of their hard labour and great exposure during that inclement season, thinks that many of their deaths were occasioned by an extraordinary lowness and depression of spirits. Loss of memory was very frequent among them; and that' to such ab excessive degree as to amount in some instances to idiocy. Curious anecdotes of this are related by Captain Beaver, but (with the exception perhaps of the strange illness of the colonists which was called the plague, or Bulama fever) having, we think, shown from this work, that the plan was a very desirable one to be carried into execution, and that it was not naturally impracticable, we must now hasten to a conclusion, after having called the attention of our readers to the notes in page 297 et seq. where they will find a very singular and interesting account" of Captain Beaver's mode of life on the island, which, we' repeat, since the days of Robinson Crusoe, is perhaps the most extraordinary an European ever led.

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On Friday, the 29th of November, 1793, Captain Beaver, and Mr. Hood, the only two surviving colonists, left the island of Bulama,and embarking, after an unavoidable delay of about three months in Free Town, on board the Sierra Leone Company's ship the Harpy, arrived at Plymouth on

the 17th of May 1794, having been absent a little more than two years. Such was the event of this expedition; but ' although,' says Captain Beaver, we have not been hitherto able to reap the fruit of our labour, I yet hope that the day is not far distant, when some enlarged and liberal plan will be adopted to cultivate the western coast of Africa, without interfering with the freedom of its natives. Such a plan pursued with a wise policy' (which Capt. Beaver does not allow to the Sierra Leone establishment, reasonably enough we think, as they have spent an immense capital and possess a sterile territory, nor are they beloved by the natives) is the surest way of introducing civilization, and at the same time of abolishing slavery; and if the preceding account shall in the smallest degree lead to such a measure, I shall be amply repaid for all the time and trouble I have expended, and all the difficulties I have encountered.'

We heartily join with Captain Beaver in his generous wish; and we think nothing can be more likely to turn the minds of governinent, when released from the consideration of more important objects, to such a plan, than a due attention to the arguments and facts contained in the African Memoranda. The former are strongly and clearly urged; and the more so, we think, for being clothed in the plain, unornamented language of a seaman, whose superior and more pressing duties ever since his return to England in 1794, to the year 1805, having called him with only one short intermission to the active service of his country, he has till now been unable to present the public with the present work. It is a work of general use and entertainment. The facts are so

simply stated, that they bear every mark of indisputable veracity. The examination, indeed, of Captain Beaver at the Mansion bouse, before the Lord Mayor, Le Mesurier, in 1794, then chairman of the committee for the Bulama association, the public thanks he received on that occasion, and the gold medal presented him (we hope not the only reward) for his very meritorious services;-these high testimonies in his favour, give his book an external sanction and authenticity, which cannot fail of adding considerably to the interest which its own peculiar recommendations, even without such helps, would have excited.

The work is accompanied with a very excellent nautical map of the western coast of Africa.

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