The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-26 00:00:00

LABOUR IN THE WEST INDIES.

In the early part of the present year, when the
question of obtaining a supply of labour from the
coast of Africa to the West Indies, became a para-
mount object, some of the colonies dispatched special
agents to Sierra Leone, in order to make the neces-
sary inquiries on the spot, and facilitate the operation.
In the file of papers received by the last mail, we
find the substance of the information collected by
Mr. Guppy, the gentleman who was sent for the
above purpose from the Island of Trinidad, which
being the latest authenticated account from the
African coast, we give at length, under the impres-
sion that it possesses considerable interest in the pre-
sent state of the sugar question. It is taken from the
Port of Spain Gazette.
" The population of Sierra Leone may be taken
to consist of two grand classes—the one, petty pro-
prietors or traders who have each one or more libe-
rated Africans apprenticed to them, and on whose
labours they are mainly dependent for subsistence ;
and the other, of these said liberated Africans. The
former class are, generally speaking, averse to emi-
grate, because they can find no purchaser for their
huts and land, or their petty stock in trade. They
are not in a position to make money, but still they
can live with very little labour of their own hands,
and such a mode of life is quite satisfactory to them.
The class last above mentioned—the drudges of
the other class—would, no doubt, gladly emigrate,
if they could see matters in their true light: there
are many thousands of them at Sierra Leone,
merely earning their vichntle, and the privilege of
sleeping in their employer's huts, but they are landed
from the slaver with a well•grounded horror of white
men, as far as their own experience of that portion of
the human family goes ; their fellow-countrymen in-
terested in keeping up that feeling, and in acting on
their fears to obtain undivided command of their la-
bour, distort facts, and, if necessary, invent the
grossest fal .ehoods for the purpose of keeping them
aloof from the white man—in the rural districts in
which they are located, there is hardly a white man
except the missionary, and his communicating with
them during the first few years after their introduction
into Sierra Leone must naturally he very limited ;
so that between their fears and their ignorance it be-
comes a most difficult matter to get them to view the
question of immigration in its proper light—black
delegates, it is evident, are the only parties suited for
communicating with this class ; and even they find
considerable opposition on the part of the employers
of these people, who are stated not only to follow
them with menaces to the office of the emigation
agent, lout to try and force them away from on board
the vessel in which they had taken passage.
" On the whole, as regards these two principal classes
of Sierra Leone inhabitants, it is very difficult to
Corm any opinion as to the extent of immigration
which may take place to the %Vest Indies ; the mis-
sionaries, both Churchmen and 'Wesleyans, are de-
cidedly opposed to immigration, and exert all their
influence to prevent any of their flock from joining
in it. They openly state that they prefer seeing them
return to their native slave state, to their proceeding
to the West Indies; and the influence of these parties,
especially on the upper of the two classes into which
Sierra Leone society seems to be divided, is very great.
"'There remains, however, another distinct class to
which we have not yet alluded, and who, though a
portion of their tribe are to be found in Sierra Leone,
can hardly be said to be of Sierra Leone, their habits,
manners, and feelings being so widely different
from all the other inhabitants of the co •
lony. We allude to the Kroomen, or men of
the Kroo country, who are stated to exceed in
personal strength all the other tribes of Central
Africa. These people are remarkable for their patient
endurance of toil, and their eagerness of gain.
They would not, however, emigrate in any numbers
without the approbation of their head man, whose
consent must of course be bought, and a free pas-
sage must be ensured them whenever they wish
to return. Of these people, it is believed, many
thousand might be obtained—there are frequently
several thousands of them at Sierra Leone,
working at less than one bitt per day. The ad-
vantage, on the one hand, is, that they are all effective
labourers, 100 of them being considered at any time
equal to 200 of any other description of African la-
bourers—the disadvantage, that they will not allow
their wives to immigrate with them, not even to
Sierra Leone—thus tending to increase the dispropor-
tion of sexes which will be consequent on the Coolie
immigration.

" Such are the prospects of African immigration,
at least, as far as Sierra Leone is concerned. The
Senator, on her next trip, is to try the Gambia like-
wise, where there is thought to be a better field for
our exertions. On a review of the whole circum-

stances of the case, the question of African itnmi
gration appears to be still a grand problem yet un
solved.' "

A necrological table of statistics, relative to the
length of lift, of the animals at the Jardin des Plantes,
contains the following :—" The average length of
life of the panther, tiger, and lion, in a menagerie
at Paris is six or seven years. A lion, however. has
lived twenty-nine, and a lioness seventeen. Lions which
are carried about and exhibited are found to five
much longer, generally from 17 to 20 years. The white
hear of Siberia lives only three or four years, but the
black bear, being of a more robust constitution, survives
to the age of 7or 8. As to the family of bears known
by the name of Martin-monte-a-l'arbre, they live from
17 to 20 years, and behold a long series of
tvonerations. The hyena lives only four or five years ;
dromedaries and camels 30 or 40 ; the elephant, which
when free reaches the age of a century, only reaches a
quarter of that space of time ; the g►raffe, which is now
►❑ the Jardin des Plantes, has been there seventeen
years, and still enjoys excellent health ; monkeys only
survive four or five years, and it is mentioned as a great
phenomenon, that one lived at Gibraltar for seventeen
years."—Galignani.
DIED.—On Tuesday, the 3d inst.. at Bishop's
Waltham, Hants, very deeply regrettvd, Captain Charles
Richards, RN., C. 8., second son of the late Rev. W.
Richards, of Little Chiverell, aged 47. He had been 33
years in the navy. of which period not less than 30 ) ears
had been spent it► active service. He was present at the
battle of Algiers, and had been the constant companion
of Sir Edward Parry in his expeditions to the North
Pole ; and had been employed on every station except
the West Indies. His last service was in China, where
he was very actively engaged, being the commander of
her Majesty's ship Cornwallis, bearing the flag of Vice-
Admiral Sir W. Parker, Bart., by whom he was selected,
at the termination of hostilities, to bring home the dis-
patches. For these services he was promoted to the
rank of Post Captain, and. received the decoration of
C.B. In him his country has lost the services of a gal
lant and well-tried officer.