SIERRA LEONE, a colony of Great Britain, situated on the western coast of Africa. Lat.8.10. Long. 12. 30. It is a peninsula, bounded on the north by the river called sierra Leone, on the south and west by the sea at Calmont creek, and on the east by a line up the Calmont to the Watslod creek, and down this last to the Dunce, which is indeed a part of the Sierra Leone river. These boundaries enclose a tract of country extending eighteen miles from north to south, and twelve miles from east to west; but there is an additional tract of country adjoining Sierra Leone, which was ceded to Great Britain by an African chief in 1819. sierra Leone, as its name indicates, is a mountainous tract of country, but with numerous intervening valleys. The heights are covered to their summit with lofty forests, giving to the distant scenery a rich and romantic appearance. The territory on the north side of the river is, however, low and level. Numerous streams descend from the hills, which collect into a basin called the Bay of Franca, celebrated as a watering-place. The sierra Leone is more of an estuary than a river; it is twenty miles in length, by ten in breadth, at its mouth. The Rokelle affords a water communication for some distance into the interior. The range of the thermometer at Sierra Leone is very slight, and the average heat throughout the year is 82°. The rains continue for six months, and the torrents which descend from the mountains deluge the plains beneath. The mountains in the vicinity of Free Town, the capital, have now been cleared and cultivated, which has greatly added to the salubrity of the climate. Indeed, the settlement is now stated in the medical reports to be as healthy for Europeans as any other tropical country, so that it is no longer the pestiferous charnel-house which it was formerly considered. The edible fruits of Sierra Leone are numerous and luscious, including pine apples, superior in flavour to those cultivated in England;the baobab, or monkey bread, a valuable tree; oranges, plantains, bananas, limes, and many others. The country is prolific in various precious products of the soil, besides fruits. The animal kingdom is very abundant, comprising many species of antelopes, monkeys, and other denizens of a tropical country.

Free Town, the capital of the colony, is built upon the south side of the Sierra Leone river, and at the northern extremity of the peninsula. Immediately in front of the town, the river forms a bay, where there is good and commodious anchorage for vessels of all classes, and timber ships of considerable size proceed with facility nearly twenty miles higher up the stream, for the purpose of taking in their cargoes. The town is beautifully situated on an inclined plane, at the foot of some hills, on which stand the fort and other public buildings, that overlook it and the roads; whence there is a fine prospect of the town rising in the form of an amphitheatre from the water’s edge, above which it is elevated seventy feet. It is regularly laid out into streets, stretching three quarters of a mile in length, intersected by others at right angles, and parallel with the river. The buildings are commodious, and substantially built of stone, which at once contribute to the beauty of the place, and to the health and comfort of the inhabitants. Numbers of cocoa-nut, orange, lime, and banana trees, are dispersed all over the town, imparting to it a peculiarly picturesque appearance. The Madeira and Teneriffe vines flourish well in the gardens. Nearly all our garden vegetables are raised there; and what with yams, cassada, and pompions, there is rarely any want of vegetable products for the table. There are good meat, poultry, and fish markets and almost every article of housekeeping can be procured at the shops of the British merchants. The population of the capital may be estimated at 10,000.

Throughout the peninsula, several villages have been formed, viz., Leicester, founded in 1809; Regent, in 1812; Gloucester, in 1816; Kissey and Leopold, in 1817; Charlotte, Wilberforce, and Bothwell, in 1818; Kent, York, Wellington, and Waterloo, in 1819. These villages are generally situated in different parts of the mountain, but all are connected by good roads with each other, and with the capital. The two Banana islands, situated to the south-west of Free Town, were ceded to the British government in 1819, by a family who receive an annual payment tor them. The total population of sierra Leone is about 35,000, of whom not more than 200 are Europeans; the remainder are captured or liberated slaves, or their descendants, together with some native Africans. Many of the colonists, besides the Europeans, possess considerable wealth. The total number of slaves emancipated in sierra Leone, between June 1819 and January 1833, was 27,697. Some of these, no doubt, retain their habits of indolence, but in general the freed African relishes liberty, and is grateful for the boon conferred on him, and several, by their industry and economy, are said to have acquired property amounting to L.1000 sterling. There are public schools in each parish, and from 3000 to 4000 children attend them. A large portion of the colony are enjoying, and all have access to, the means of moral and religious instruction. Upwards of one-fourth are regular attendants on the public ordinances of religion. They have built for themselves various and expensive places of worship; some of them are employed as spiritual instructors of their sable brethren; and all together, considering its circumstances, this negro colony is composed of an orderly and well-conducted people. Agriculture has not, indeed, been sufficiently prosecuted hitherto, but matters will improve in this respect when population increases, and presses upon the means of supply. The soil is in part very fertile, and more might be rendered so by clearing.

The trade of this settlement is as follows: For the year[7:20:331] ending December 1834, there cleared inwards seventy-three vessels, whose united tonnage was 17,307. Fifty-four of these belonged to Great Britain. The number which cleared outwards during the same period was eighty-four, the tonnage of the whole being 19,068. This shows an increase on the previous year. The total value of the imports for 1831, were L.104,639; and of the exports L.81,280. Subsequent returns for 1833-4, show a decrease, which does not correspond with the number of vessels which arrived at, and departed from the settlement. The chief articles of export are timber, cam wood, palm oil, ivory, rice, bees’ wax, gold, hides, &c. In 1835, these were exported to the extent of L.58,174. The chief articles imported into Sierra Leone, are cottons, gunpowder, linens, salt, guns, iron, hard-wares, and cutlery, and others of our own manufactures. This settlement is kept up at a considerable yearly expenditure. For the five years ending 1824, it was L.75,000 per annum; for the succeeding five years, it fell to about one-half that sum; but still the revenue bears no proportion to the outlay. Sierra Leone is governed by a civil-lieutenant governor, assisted by a council. There is a chief-justice, and a vice-court of admiralty. There is also established, the mixed commission for the adjudication of vessels taken in the slave-trade. A detachment of the Royal African corps (blacks) is stationed in the settlement, under a lieutenantcolonel.

This colony was founded by Great Britain with the most philanthropic views. At the suggestion of Dr. Smeathmane, the negroes discharged from the army and navy, after the American war, were conveyed to Sierra Leone, furnished with necessaries for forming a colony in their native land. But a series of calamities overtook this singularly interesting band of settlers, which obliged those who escaped pestilence and the sword to take shelter on Bance island, a small place. However, the Sierra Leone Company was formed in Britain in 1787, and it sent out five vessels with stores, and other succours, to these black freemen, together with a large reinforcement of free negroes from America. Still the difficulties with which the colony had to struggle, again placed it in critical circumstances, whilst in 1794, it was plundered by the French; and so much had calamities accumulated, that the company entered into an arrangement with the government, to place the colony under their jurisdiction. It was subsequently placed under the African Institution, established for the improvement of the western part of Africa. Great accessions were made to its population, by sending thither the negroes taken in slave ships, and to initiate them in the habits of civilized life; the Church Missionary Society undertook to furnish schools and religious instructors. But the success of this body has not been equal to its benevolent intentions, at least with regard to other parts of Africa, little or no impression having as yet been made on the general mass of the population from this quarter. Since the dissolution of the African Company, Sierra Leone has again reverted to the British crown.