Under the article of civilization, the directors comprised a form of government for the colony: it is founded on the principles of the English constitution. The trial by jury perfectly succeeded; and the Africans appeared to incline to the measures adopted in the colony to introduce Christianity and civil regulations. But the success of the enterprize was a subordinate consideration compared with the grand object, the abolition of the slave trade. Yet to overcome the first difficulties was far more easy, than what they had afterwards to encounter: for they had some severe misfortunes to try their constancy. On the 27th of November, 1794, a French squadron entered the river of Sierre Leone, and fired on Free-town. The inhabitants conceiving all resistance useless, begged to capitulate, but in vain: the French landed, plundered the houses and magazines, and conducted themselves with extreme rigour. They were encouraged in their excesses by the captains of two American ships employed in the slave trade. It was impossible to check the animosity of Arnaud, the commander of the expedition: he protested that he would burn all the houses belonging to the English; and he kept his word. The books of the company were seized and destroyed, and all the bibles and prayer-books were trampled under foot. The collection of the botanist Afzelius was ravaged; his plants, seeds, birds, insects, drawings, and memoranda were dispersed and spoiled, and his mathematical instruments and machines broken to pieces. Even the church was plundered, and the sacred books consumed; nor did the invaders spare the drugs and medicines for the use of the colony. The loss to the company on this occasion was estimated at 40,000l. sterling.