Missions for the benefit of this Colony, were first attempted in 1792, again in 1795, and in 1797; but all these efforts failed; because of the disaffection of the Nova Scotia fugitives, and because the slave trade, then a legal traffic to British subjects, was prosecuted everywhere upon the African coast, and even within Sierra Leone. In 1804, the Church Missionary Society sent out its missionaries, with orders to seek for stations out of the colony, because of the opposition within it; but in this they did not succeed. In 1808, when the slave trade was abolished, these missionaries commenced ten stations beyond the limits of the Colony, according to their instructions, but were unable to sustain them. The natives, interested in the slave trade, burned the mission houses and churches, destroyed the growing crops of the missionaries, threatened their lives, and otherwise persecuted them. When England abandoned the traffic in slaves, she but surrendered its monopoly to France, Spain and Portugal; hence, there was no diminution of its extent, or abatement of its horrors, but a vast increase of both:[30] and, as the missions from 1792 to 1808, failed both in and out of the Colony; so the continuance of the trade, beyond its limits, after 1808, drove the missionaries within its jurisdiction, to enjoy its protection. But these stations were not abandoned, until after a long struggle to sustain them—the last one having been maintained until 1818. From 1808, the work of missions in Sierra Leone, was successfully begun; and the first dawn of hope for oppressed Africa, arose with the first blow aimed at the slave-trade. Up to this date, the slave-trader had held undisputed sway on the coast of Africa, and the introduction of the Gospel was impossible. The slave-trade, it would seem, is an evil so horrid, that the Almighty refused to give success to the missionary, unless that outrage upon humanity should first be suppressed. The Episcopal mission, established in Sierra Leone, in 1808, has been continued without interruption, except what necessarily arose from the great mortality among the missionaries. A college and several schools were established at an early day, in which orphan and destitute children were boarded and instructed.[31] Besides teaching the schools, the missionaries preached to the adults, a few of whom embraced the Gospel; but no very encouraging progress was made for many years. In 1817, however, the labors expended began to unfold their effects, and the mission to make encouraging advances; so that, by 1832, it had 638 communicants and 294 candidates in its churches, 684 Sabbath school scholars, and 1,388 pupils in its day-schools.