This expedition was condemned by all rational Frenchmen, and was disowned by the government, who caused the commander of the squadron to be thrown into prison. His punishment would have been exemplary, if it had not clearly appeared that he was ignorant of the injury he had committed. It was proved from his journal, that he had been led into the error by two American Negroes, and that he thought he was doing a patriotic action by destroying an _establishment of Pitt, for furnishing slaves_. It was evident that he had no other motives for his conduct; but this did not diminish the evil, and the company immediately employed themselves in repairing the injuries which the colony had sustained, with the resources that remained amongst them. It is remarkable that the turbulent colonists were the very Negroes who had been transported from Nova Scotia to Africa, and whom no inducement could attach to the establishment. Although they were free, they complained that they were oppressed; and it is probable that if these refractory beings had found the planters and the remainder of the inhabitants inclined to take part in their project, they would have infallibly attained their object, which was that of a revolution: for the chief officers of the society had neither power nor other means sufficient to keep them in subjection. To obviate this inconvenience, the directors of the company obtained in 1799 from the British government a letter of licence, on the plan of those which had been granted to the India company at the time of its institution; to which was added a corps of fifty men taken from the garrison of Goree; and the sum of 7,000l. which parliament allowed for the construction of a fort. In the month of February, 1800, a quarrel broke out between king Tom, who lived in the vicinity of Free-town, and the captain of a slave-ship belonging to Liverpool, relative to certain rights of anchorage which this king had received, from vessels that entered St. George’s bay, and which the English captain refused to pay. The affair was laid before the governor and council; but the discontented persons, and such of the colonists as were in the interest of Tom, would not abide by the decision of the tribunal; but demanded, on the contrary, that the captain should be delivered up to them, or pay a heavy sum as a ransom. The governor and council endeavouring to oppose the violence of the discontented, who appeared determined to support their pretensions, condemned the captain to pay the sum required; promising him, however, a reimbursement from the company.