6663. _Chairman._] You have no reason to know that a system of kidnapping prevails in the colony, though individual instances may have occurred?--I have no reason to know it; but I have reason to believe that it did exist to a considerable extent, more particularly formerly, when a great number were landed from slave ships; but now that is reduced to a small number. 6664. In those instances of kidnapping you imagine that they were the acts rather of strangers to the colony than a system pursued by the inhabitants of the colony?--In many cases I think they were the acts of inhabitants of the colony, who had kidnapped people, or seduced them from the colony, and then sold them to the slave dealers. 6665. Upon what ground do you imagine that kidnapping does exist to a considerable extent in the colony?--I have heard the thing repeatedly stated with great confidence, and I think those instances go to prove it; when I went into the Gallinas I found 90 slaves, and of those 90 two were British subjects. 6666. Mr. _Forster_.] Could such a system have been carried on without the consequences of it becoming obvious to every person resident at Sierra Leone, and acquainted with the number of captured negroes in the neighbourhood?--I believe that it might at times, when there was a great influx of those black people; my opinion is, from what I have heard, but I am not able to enter into the facts very closely, that the apprenticeship system at Sierra Leone is extremely defective, and that the whole system of supervision over the liberated Africans, as well as of the apprentices, is also exceedingly bad, and open to great abuses. 6667. _Chairman._] Would it not be the duty of the police magistrates of the district to see that there was no diminution of numbers by kidnapping?--I am not aware that there are any district police magistrates, except the superintendents of the villages. 6668. Do not those superintendents exercise the functions of magistrates?--I do not know; but they are very often taken off by sickness, and villages are frequently left without proper people to take charge of them; and I believe, in my own mind, that the system of kidnapping has gone on to some considerable extent. 6669. Mr. _Forster_.] But your opinion upon that subject is founded merely upon report?--Yes; and upon information I have received in conversation. 6670. Mr. _Aldam_.] Do you think that there is any remedy for that evil?--I think the only remedy would be to exercise more supervision over the liberated Africans, by having a larger Government establishment to some extent, and a better class of people employed.