In the month of March, 1791, the company caused 1131 Blacks to be brought from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone: they were engaged for a certain time, and were to be free when their period of servitude expired. Portions of soil were given to them to cultivate for their own advantage; but it was impossible to keep them to the spots which had been assigned to them. Being influenced by a commercial spirit, and wishing to obtain a portion of the money which the company had imprudently introduced into the colony, these new settlers abandoned their fields, and all came to reside in the chief place, called Free-town. The subscription was closed on the 1st of June, 1792; and the capital of the company then amounted to the vast sum of 242,899l. sterling. This sum was employed in the following manner: The first expences of the establishment amounted to £82,620 The dead stock, that is to say, the ships, soil, and articles relative to the defence of the colony, to 24,685 Capital employed in commerce 27,400 Capital placed at interest in the public funds 108,194 -------- £242,899 -------- These expences, however, greatly exceeded the idea which had been formed by the company; they were occasioned by a concurrence of circumstances which it was impossible to foresee, but which are all properly explained in the different statements that have been published by the directors. The colonists arrived in the rainy season, which occasioned a general sickness and many deaths. Several of the principal officers were taken ill, and obliged to return to England; and a great many of the subordinate agents fell sacrifices to the additional labour which they in consequence had to perform. It appeared that the air of Free-town, like that of all the positions on the coast, is bad, and even dangerous during the rainy and stormy season; but that it is good and agreeable for the rest of the year. The cultivation went on slowly, and experienced many difficulties; nevertheless the directors were of opinion that the soil of Africa might be managed by its native inhabitants. They were of this opinion from the apparent success of the plantations, which they had undertaken; but they adhered to their system of making the future progress of such plantations depend on the abolition of the slave trade.