The Sierra Leone company received the sanction of the legislature.
The object of this institution was to colonize a small portion of the coast
of Africa. They, who were to settle there, were to have no concern in the
Slave-trade, but to discourage it as much as possible. They were to
endeavour to establish a new species of commerce, and to promote
cultivation in its neighbourhood by free labour. The persons more generally
fixed upon for colonists, were such Negros, with their wives and families,
as chose to abandon their habitations in Nova Scotia. These had followed
the British arms in America; and had been settled there, as a reward for
their services, by the British government. My brother, just mentioned to
have been chosen a member of the committee, and who had essentially served
the great cause of the abolition on many occasions, undertook a visit to
Nova Scotia, to see if those in question were willing to undergo the
change; and in that case to provide transports, and conduct them to Sierra
Leone. This object he accomplished. He embarked more than eleven hundred
persons in fifteen vessels, of all which he took the command. On landing
them he became the first Governor of the new Colony.
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