6841. Mr. _Forster_.] You have stated that there has been no British commerce carried on there to any extent?--In the Return which I have already referred to, in the 14th page of this correspondence, is given an account of the trade which formerly did exist, and which, under the withering influence of the slave trade, has been utterly destroyed. There is no doubt that there was considerable export trade at one time from the Gallinas; they exported rice, and they exported produce. Now they are obliged to import rice to feed themselves; cattle, which were formerly abundant, are now hardly to be procured, and then only at an enormous expense. They used to get cattle from Sierra Leone. Indeed, the only case I know of any communication with Sierra Leone, while I was last on the coast, was, in one or two instances of very small boats, not above six or seven tons, which had in one instance cattle and sheep on board. In the second instance I did not search her. 6842. You have stated that the Gallinas has been principally supplied with goods for the slave trade by foreign ships, and not by British traders?--That has been my statement. 6843. You have stated also that you would have felt it your duty to prevent English trading vessels entering there?--Under certain circumstances, which I have detailed. 6844. Are you not of opinion that if British commerce had been encouraged there, and more particularly if a British settlement had been formed there, British commerce would have been of material assistance in discountenancing and putting down the slave trade at the Gallinas?--Legitimate commerce at the Gallinas has been eradicated and annihilated by the sole influence of the slave trade. It existed there, and the slave trade annihilated it. Had a British settlement been formed there, the results might have been different. 6845. _Chairman._] Do you think the results would have been different if the same goods had been brought by English ships carrying on the same trade as the foreign ships?--I do not see, had they been brought in the same way as the goods were brought in the foreign ships, how any difference would have been made. It would have been the same unmixed evil as it has been when carried on under the American flag. 6846. Mr. _Forster._] Then it is only by the formation of British settlements that you think the advantages of British commerce could be fully realized there?--I think the advantages of legitimate commerce will commence when they make their minds up that the slave trade will no longer supply them with what they have been hitherto accustomed to receive, and that that might be further assisted by the formation of a settlement, I have no doubt whatever.