LETTER X

LETTER X.

FREE TOWN, SIERRA LEONE, 28th Dec. 1792.

My dear Friend,

Within ten or twelve days after the date of my last [letter, there] arrived the two ships that were expected. One is the York, a large vessel of a thousand tons (belonging to the Company) that is intended to end her days here in the character of a storeship, for which purpose she is admirably adapted. The other is the Samuel and Jane, likewise a vessel of great burden chartered to remain here six months if wanted. This vessel arrived some days before the York; in her came a Mr. Wallis [spelled Wallace by John Clarkson] to supersede Falconbridge; the Directors having thought proper to annul his appointment as Commercial Agent.

That they had a right to do so I will not question; but methinks it developes [sic] treachery; and I now suspect their whole conduct to us in England was only a complication of hypocritical snares to answer selfish purposes, which having attained, they cared not any longer to wear the mask.

Does Anna Maria go to Isaac DuBois to seek information.?. DuBois queries John Clarkson, who has misgivings, and reports back to Anna Maria. "Mr. Wallace knows the West African coast well; he has spent twenty-five years in the slave trade."

"They’ve sent a slave trader out to replace my husband?"

"So it appears."

"But the Sierra Leone Company directors are determined to stop the slave trade. Why on earth would this man want to work for them when the slave trade is so much more profitable?"

DuBois shakes his head. "Mr. Wallace seems to have gotten himself into severe financial difficulties."

Anna Maria is furious—too angry, in fact, to write another letter for many weeks. By the time she does take up her pen again, it has become clear to everyone that Wallace is just as addicted to drink as poor Falconbridge. On 7 September John Clarkson writes in his journal: "I am persuaded when he gets from the Colony with the entire charge of his vessel and cargo and no check upon his conduct, he will continually be in such a state as to be unfit for active and profitable business."¹

By the time Anna Maria sits down again to write her friend in Bristol, her fury against the Sierra Leone Company has coalesced. She writes that Falconbridge's every proposal was dashed with cold water by the Council, and that his request for a ship in which to go in quest of cattle and local foodstuffs was preemptorily refused, although the refused vessels are put to no profitable use. It may be that Clarkson hardly dares trust Falconbridge with a company ship, knowing well how much of his time is spent in some state of intoxication. Ships are the slender thread on which the tiny settlement is wholly dependent for supplies and safety, and Clarkson can hardly afford to endanger one in an enterprise he expects to fail.

It is unfortunate that Anna Maria’s husband is not molded from clay as sturdy as she is, or he might have made some more positive contribution to the new colony rather than being a dead weight on all concerned. By mid-September Clarkson is alarmed about Falconbridge's failing health. "Dr. Winterbottom . . . has given up Mr. Falconbridge as a lost case."² Clarkson takes Falconbridge with him on a holiday voyage in October, hoping that the sea air might improve his disposition. It does not.

Back in Freetown three weeks later, Falconbridge is intransigent. Clarkson thinks he is too shamed to return to England, and is distressed by Falconbridge's resolution to give in to indolence—to retreat to a tumble-down house that had been built some years before in Yamacoupra's town by an English naval officer. The house, like anything left neglected in that part of the world, is overgrown with brush and creepers, and will take some time to be made habitable. Falconbridge refuses to wait and staggers off to collapse in a native hut nearby until the house is ready, leaving Anna Maria on her own in Freetown.

Having been abandoned by her husband, why didn’t Anna Maria board the next ship sailing out of Freetown harbor for England?

After all, the chairman of the Sierra Leone Company had promised her that should any accident happen to Falconbridge, she would be well provided for by the Company. Why was she willing to stay on in Freetown after Falconbridge’s dismissal? Something kept her there.

As soon as he learns of Falconbridge’s defection, does Isaac DuBois seek out Anna Maria? "Come," he says angrily, "I need to talk to you. Let’s walk along the waterfront."

Anna Maria follows him without protest.

"The bastard!" Isaac growls. "How can he do this to you?"

Anna Maria can only sigh.

"He’s put you in an impossible situation! What are you going to do?"

"I should probably take the next ship to England."

Isaac halts abruptly and turns to her. Both anguished, they gaze into each others eyes. He shakes his head. "That would break my heart."

Anna Maria turns finally and walks slowly on. After some moments she whispers, "I could wait for you in England."

Isaac paces beside her, head lowered, hands clasped behind his back. "I don’t know when I’ll be returning to England. I need this job. We haven’t received any compensation for all the property the American rebels took from us in North Carolina during the war. My mother and my siblings are completely dependent on my income." He kicks a withered branch aside, then lifts his head and turns his angry gaze to the hilltops above them. "Having you here makes all this bearable. I want . . . "

She turns and touches his arm, interrupting him. "Say no more—please—no more." Then she walks on.

Isaac watches her face as the silence between them lengthens painfully. Finally Anna Maria lifts her head and smiles faintly at him. "I will stay."

Of course, there is always the possibility that Anna Maria and Isaac were already carrying on a torrid affair. Some steamy pages relating that possibility could be inserted here, except that the logistics would have been very difficult. Bachelors and men without their wives in Freetown did not each have a private dwelling. They shared the limited accommodations, so that assignations where Isaac lived would have been very awkward and certainly much frowned upon. Nor would an abandoned African hut have been a comfortable rendez-vous because its thatched roof would have long since become the abode of a deadly green mamba or spitting cobra. And one certainly wouldn’t lie down to make love in the African bush, where all sorts of creepy critters crawl around. Spiders the size of saucers? Yes. Night adders? Deadly.

When she next writes in her journal, does Anna Maria nurse DuBois’s declaration in her heart as she spells out her defense of her delinquent husband? She might rather condemn Falconbridge, but that would upset the flow of the many chapters she has already written in her travel book. Her pride prohibits her from admitting his defection.

In their dismission they accuse Falconbridge of not extending their commercial views and wanting commercial knowledge. The latter charge may be in some measure well founded for Mr. Falconbridge was bred to physic, and men of perspicuity would have known how unfit such a person must be for a merchant. Indeed he was aware of it himself, but it being a place of much expected profit (a temptation not to be withstood), he was in hopes by application soon to have improved the little knowledge he had so as to benefit both his employers and himself; but in this they disappointed him and were actually the cause of choking the attempts he might have made.

They should recollect the deep deception played upon him. He left England with independant and unlimitted powers, which were restrained immediately on our arrival here. Thus bridled, with the reins in possession of men who considered commerce only as a secondary view of the Company and who negatived [sic] every proposition of the kind Falconbridge made till a very short time before his appointment was annulled.—What was he to do?

Two days before his dismission came out, he crawled from his sick bed and, at the moment it was delivered him, was in the act of arranging and preparing matters for the trading voyage I mentioned in my last. I am certain it proved a mortal stab to him. He was always addicted to drink more than he should; but after this, by way of meliorating his harrowed feelings, he kept himself constantly intoxicated. A poor forlorn remedy you will say; however, it answered his wishes, which I am convinced was to operate as poison and thereby finish his existence. He spun out his life in anguish and misery till the 19th instant, when, without a groan he gasp'd his last.!!!³

I will not be guilty of such meanness as to tell a falsehood on this occasion by saying I regret his death. No! I really do not; his life had become burthensome [sic] to himself and all around him, and his conduct to me for more than two years past was so unkind (not to give it a harsher term) as long since to wean every spark of affection or regard I ever had for him. This I am persuaded was his greatest crime. He possessed many virtues: an excellent dutiful son and a truly honest man were conspicuous traits in his character.

Isolated in his hut, Alexander Falconbridge is not found until the next morning. The tropical heat and flies have already begun their assault on his remains. They wrap the body immediately in canvas and bury him among the other deceased Englishmen in the red laterite soil beside the Anglican chapel. Anna Maria stands mute as John Clarkson reads the Anglican burial service over his grave. Isaac DuBois waits quietly behind her, ready to offer any support she might need.

John Clarkson feels a qualm at the haste with which his countryman is consigned to eternity, but death in Africa is not something to be lingered over. It occurs to him that Falconbridge would resent being denied a coffin, but no precious building wood has been wasted on coffins for any of the scores of dead—black or white—since April, with the exception of Thomas Peters.

Clarkson also feels a pang of guilt over his failures with both Falconbridge and Peters. Would it have made any difference if he had given Falconbridge more encouragement? Was he too hasty in concluding that Peters was challenging his authority? Perhaps the man had a right to challenge. He, after all, had gone to England and initiated the plan to move the Nova Scotian settlers to Africa. He had recruited a large share of their numbers and commanded their loyalty till the very end. Six month later, burying another problematic associate, Clarkson is humbled by his inability to engage two such diverse and determined personalities. He knows that Mrs. Falconbridge is furious with the Sierra Leone Company directors. He can admit to himself now that Peters too had grounds for so vehemently opposing arbitrary Company rule.

As Anna Maria turns away after the Benediction, does Isaac DuBois fall into step beside her? The others watch the two move away down the slope but make no effort to intrude. Surely Anna Maria deserves whatever consolation she can find after the many weeks of being abandoned by her husband.

Isaac keeps his hands clasped behind his back and his head lowered, but she hears him murmur, "May I speak now?"

Anna Maria draws a long, deep breath. "Yes, the time has finally come."

* * *

In late December, Clarkson boards ship for England, ostensibly for a short holiday and consultation with the directors of the Sierra Leone Company. Before he leaves, he promises the settlers that farm allotments will be made within the following two weeks. Life is easier now, and reassured, the settlers look forward to his return to a prosperous colony. Forty-nine men and women, including David George (the leading Baptist preacher in Freetown), Richard Crankapone (elected town marshall in Freetown, then undersheriff), Boston King (a leading Methodist preacher), John Kizell (elected tithingman in Freetown and a determined farmer), Ely Ackim (who became the apothecary’s apprentice and invested in real estate), and Hector Peters (a Baptist preacher), sign a petition to the Sierra Leone Company, requesting his speedy return.

Clarkson himself sets out to visit each household to say good-bye personally, and finds himself reduced to tears by the "expressions of gratitude, affection, and Respect."⁴ He is charged with all sorts of errands in England: Mary Perth (a successful shopkeeper, boarding-house owner, and housekeeper to the second English governor) can no longer read her New Testament and needs spectacles; Luke Jordan, trusted assistant to Moses Wilkinson (a leading Methodist preacher), wants a seine and fish hooks; Joseph Brown would like a loom. Others ask that watches be repaired, a spinning wheel and tailor’s tools be purchased, and so on. On Christmas Day, Joseph Leonard (an Anglican preacher and schoolteacher) leads his schoolchildren through the town, singing hymns before various houses. Clarkson helps serve communion in the Anglican service.

David George, the leading Baptist preacher, accompanies Clarkson in boarding ship; he has applied directly to Chairman Thornton for permission to study in England and increase his understanding of Baptist theology. Chaplain Horne gives him letters of introduction to several clergyman. George will stay six months in England, tell his life story to Baptist leaders there who publish it,⁵ and return with new clothes and gifts worth £150, enough to build a new chapel in Freetown.

One of the last things Clarkson does before his departure is to sign a marriage license on 27 December.⁶ He tries to dissuade the couple from their intent to marry immediately. "I fear that such a precipitous act will meet with strong disapproval among the other officers and artisans."

"The banns have already been posted," the prospective bridegroom replies.

"I don’t care what any of them think or say," says the future bride. "After being abandoned by a derelict husband for the last four months, I am impervious to any further gossip."

As Clarkson boards ship on December 28, settler women come bringing food for the six-week voyage: six dozen chickens, 600 eggs, dozens of yams, onions, fruits, and even a pig or two. As the ship weighs anchor the following day, the battery of cannon on shore fires a 15-gun salute, and the settlers and white officials gathered at the landing "Waved their handkerchiefs and gave three hearty cheers." This moving farewell from the assemblage on shore must have lingered with Clarkson long after the estuary faded away behind him.⁷

Anna Maria would have appreciated the irony in the fact that the Falconbridge name is immortalized in Freetown in that point of land which juts out into the estuary east of St. George's Bay. Although the superintendent, John Clarkson, was beloved by the black settlers, the map of Freetown, as decreed by the company directors, can be searched from end to end without finding his name.

JOURNAL

Anna Maria knows that her last letter was much too long and rambling and covered far too many topics. Letting so much time pass between letters muddles her memory and mixes up events. And she has other interests absorbing her attention now. She decides to abandon the formal letter format and simply make journal entries as events occur.

FREE TOWN, SIERRA LEONE, Jan. 1st, 1793.

Two days ago Mr. Clarkson sailed; his departure operated more powerfully and generally upon people's feelings than all the deaths we have had in the Colony. Several gentlemen accompanied him two or three leagues to sea and returned the same night.

Jan. 2d. The Surveyor has stopped surveying the lots of land for the settlers, although he assured Mr. Clarkson they should have them in a fortnight. His attention is now taken up with fortification, which seems to be the hobby-horse of Mr. Dawes, and a large Fort is plan[n]ed out upon a hill about a half a mile from the water side.⁸

Acting Governor Dawes has found a willing sycophant in Richard Pepys. The two of them listen to the drumming and drunken gunfire from King Jemmy’s town and fear that the Africans intend to attack Freetown, as they attacked Granville Town in 1789. Governor Dawes orders Pepys to halt all surveying work and start work immediately on a fort on Thornton Hill above the cotton tree.

We no longer have John Clarkson’s journal to supplement what Anna Maria records. We would be hard put to determine what happened next had John Clarkson not asked, before he departed, that his good friend Isaac DuBois keep a daily journal and send it to him. Some of his entries parallel Anna Maria’s, but on January 3rd Dubois includes a single startling sentence: ". . . Made my wedding ring this day. . . . He then reports, as Anna Maria will as well, that King Jemmy is upset that John Clarkson made no farewell call on him: "I saw several tears fall from his eyes. I comforted the King with a Glass of wine & he went away in good humour, everything quiet — but the people are rather dissatisfied that neither their Town or Country Lotts are now run out, the Engineer very busy with his New Fort."

Dubois also repeats Anna Maria’s news of "the Providence Sloop arrived from the Carrimancas, has on board 3 ½ tons of Camwood, three goats, some rice, etc." Got three Gramattas [free labourers] today, I have in all 19. — I feel in better health & spirits this night than I have done for some time. — Amused myself till ½ past 10 Oclock at my Neighbour’s [the next time he mentions this Neighbour, he clarifies her sex] & am just going to bed — but I recollect one or two more occurrences of the day. — The bales of Goods from the Amy which are lodged in the new Cellar are all more or less damaged, some of them considerably so. — I called on Mr. Dawes & requested that he would order a Survey on them. — Yesterday I began to cut down the side of the Hill & to level the foundation for the Grand Store House but have had a hint that the Masons are to be taken from me to build the Fort; surely this cannot be true. — Querie — will not one room in that store house be of more consequence than twenty Forts? Have we anything to dread or have we soldiers to occupy a Fort? ½ past 11 Oclock thunder & lightning the first we have had for two months past; the weather looks wild & squally."⁹

After a few Nova Scotian traders in the interior are seized and sold into slavery, a permanent night watch is set to guard against outside infiltration into Freetown. Official preparations for attack unsettle the Nova Scotians, even though many Temne people come peacefully enough every day with food to trade, while others work as day laborers on the plantation. Nervous settlers feel they should be armed to defend themselves, particularly since the slave ships passing so regularly up and down the river seem a constant threat to them.

King Jemmy came to see me this day; he asked what was the reason Mr. Clarkson did not call upon him before he sailed, and said he did not suppose Mr. Clarkson would have left the country without coming to see him. His cheek was furrowed with tears as he spoke; I did not imagine he had so much sensibility.

There was a very heavy tornado last night, an unusual thing at this time of the year. The roof of my house has become so dry that the rain had free access through, and I got thoroughly wet.

5th. A remarkable fine ox (sent as a present to the Colony by King Naimbana) was killed this day. I never saw fatter meat in my life. Our acting governor (notwithstanding it was a present) had it sold at 4d. per pound. I suppose he has done this to shew us he intends being an oeconomist [sic] and thereby reimburse the Company's heavy losses; but that will require more fat oxen than he will be able to procure in this part of Africa for some years.

This is not the only instance of his oeconomy [sic], or I should say, parsimony, for a few days after Falconbridge died, he came and demanded of me his uniform coat, sword, gun, pistols, and a few other presents that the Directors had made him, and which I gave up, they being of no use to me. He also engrosses all the Yams, Pumpkins, Turtle, and almost every kind of provisions in the neighbourhood and has them retailed from the Company's store at an enormous advance. When turtle is killed he sends his own servant to take an account of the weight lest the butcher should embezzle a few pounds; but I doubt, after all, he will verify the trite proverb "penny wise and pound foolish," for I have heard it remarked by a Gentleman of information that the new fort, if finished on the plan proposed, will cost £20,000.

Anna Maria and Isaac Dubois describe many of the same events in their journals. "But the style and comments are hers, in particular the comments about Dawes's meanness, something DuBois does not mention in his journal. Nor did she bring into hers the constant complaints he makes in his journal about the way Dawes interfered with his work, nor yet his own long-standing feud with Richard Pepys, the Surveyor."¹⁰

On January 6 DuBois writes: "Returned from Bance Island at three Oclock this afternoon, called at King Naimbannas in my way down, found the King much indisposed but he received my visit very kindly & I was entertained with palaver sauce and different kinds of fruits. His Majesty took a fancy to my snuff box which I made him a present of & by his request engraved his name on the lid. — Hear such shamefull accounts of my workmens Idleness during my absence yesterday that it puts me out of humour — which my Neighbor takes for indifference towards her, and gets quite in a pet; however a Reconsiliation [sic] is quickly brought about, and we agree to be married tomorrow. — all well, Good Night."

Neighbor? Isaac and Anna Maria have had a spat over his ill humor, but he does not name her. They kiss and make up, and agree that tomorrow is The Day. Anna Maria’s entry on January 7 is a short two paragraphs, the second of which refers to Isaac DuBois, although she does not name him or mention their spat.

7th. This day another plantation was began at Savoy Point about half a mile from hence, which is intended for the cultivation of cotton. Whether it succeeds or not, clearing the wood about the town will certainly be conducive to health.

The manager [DuBois] of Clarkson's plantation¹¹ complains that most of his gramattos or labourers have left him to attend the cry or funeral ceremony of one of their brethren who lately died by the wound of a shark; it is uncertain how long the cry will last.

What Isaac DuBois writes in his journal on the same day is in stunning contrast: "At 9 Oclock this morning the Reverend Mr. Horne performed the Marriage Ceremony and now I am once more, I trust, Happily joined in the bands of wedlock; we intended our marriage would be kept a secret until the 21st of this month & Mr. Horne had promised to do so, but the poor parson was not born to keep secrets; he carried it piping hot to the ears of every one he met, but desired every one he told it to, not to mention it to any one. However in less than two hours it was known over the whole Colony. It made very little difference to me whether it was known today or a fortnight hence. I am happy & Parson is pleased at telling the news. — Mr. Dawes & Mr Pepys went to Signior Domingos upon some business respecting the lands. — I began at four Oclock this afternoon to clear a field at Savoy Point for Cotton, I have in all 21 gramattas, 2 chief men and two Settlers."¹²

Does Anna Maria write of these events at this time? Not one word. The celebratory dinner may have been delayed to await the arrival of Captain Morley and his slave ship Nassau from Bristol, on its way up the river to Bance Island. Captain Morley is Anna Maria’s brother-in-law, married to one of her older sisters.

DuBois writes on the 8th: "Mr. Dawes returned last night from Sigr Domingos and I understand the business he went upon was settled to the satisfaction of all parties. — Mr. Dawes hinted to me this morning that he did not wish I should go on with the Grand Store House under the Hill, this no doubt was the advice of Pepys yesterday. — I pointed out to Mr. Dawes that there was already sufficient stone cut to compleat the building which was the worst of the labour over; also that it was Mr. Clarkson’s particular wish for me to go on with that work. — To this he made no reply, and I mean to go on with it, till I have his positive written orders to stop. I am of the Oppinion there is no other objection than the Masons being wanted for the Fort. Which of the two buildings does the Colony stand most in need of? Mr. Dawes took a walk with me this afternoon to see where I am digging the foundation of my Store, in the course of all the afternoon he neither approved nor disapproved of any thing I showed him which was rather unpleasant."¹³

On the 9th: "I turned several men away from work on account of their sulky behaviour. The Duke of Bucklieu came down from Bance Island. Mr. Tylly [Tilly] came on shore & dined with me. — I went on board with him in the afternoon & wrote several letters to my friends in the West Indies & in Europe — stayed until 10 Oclock at night — drank bad wine, got a violent head ache & came home sick."¹⁴

9th. Came down from Bance Island the Duke of Buccleugh, bound for Jamaica, with upwards of three hundred slaves. Yesterday arrived two ships, one an American, the other a French man; they have plenty of provisions on board, which the Colony is greatly in want of. Mr. Dawes called on most of the gentlemen to request they would not purchase any, saying he intends buying what is wanting by wholesale and will retail it to them at a small advance. Such a proposal would have come better from a jew pedlar then [sic] from the Governor of Sierra Leone or a Lieutenant of Marines.

11th. The Duke of Buccleugh sailed yesterday and the French man this day. I understand Mr. Dawes has purchased some articles of provisions from the Frenchman, who would have nothing but slaves in return, and for the sake of accommodation, Mr. Dawes gave him an order on Mr. Rennieu, who pays him in slaves. I think if this is not, it borders on an infringement of the Act of Parliament for incorporating the Company, which says "that the Company shall not, through the medium of their servants, or otherwise, directly or indirectly, traffic in slaves."¹⁵ It seems as if Providence frowns on this purchase, for an unusual high tide carried away part of the provisions after they were landed.

It serves him right, the penny-pinching arsehole, Anna Maria says to herself. She feels a little frisson of delight at having such a naughty word in her vocabulary. A proper lady shouldn’t. But she has heard some very salty language from the seamen aboard the Lapwing. She knows they have been warned more than once to be circumspect when she is on board, for she has heard the first mate yelling at them. But of course they forget, and she has learned some terms so outrageous that she isn’t quite sure what they mean. She would never say them aloud, of course, or even write them down. Much more circumspect to blame disaster on fate, as she is sure the unpopular governor will.

A small coasting cutter of the Company's called the Providence arrived this day from the Turtle islands, about fifteen leagues to leeward. She brought eight goats, four sheep, and twenty-one turtle; sixteen of the latter died since twelve o'clock, which has disconcerted the Governor very much; but I am told he has made a calculation and thinks if he can sell the other five at four pence per pound, it will be yet a saving voyage.

Between eleven and twelve o'clock last night, the Colony was alarmed by the report of guns, beating of drums, and shrill shoutings of our neighbours at King Jemmy's town. Mr. Dawes assembled all the men and had arms and ammunition given them from a supposition that the natives meant to attack us—but it turned out to be a groundless alarm and is suspected to have been a contrivance of some ill-disposed persons to get the settlers armed.¹⁶

King Jemmy and Signior Domingo being informed of this, came to-day to enquire why their good faith was mistrusted. They dined with Mr. Dawes, and after dinner King Jemmy paid me a visit. He seemed much offended and said it was very foolish to suppose he would make war without a cause—if he had a Palaver with the Colony, he would first come and talk it over, and if it could not be settled in that way and he was forced to make war, he would give us timely notice that we might defend ourselves, but it was the custom of his country to compromise disputes amicably and never to engage in war till there was no other alternative, or words to the same effect. The former assertion, I believe, is not untrue, and his behaviour to the first settlers is an example; in that dispute, he gave them three days notice of his intention to drive them off and burn their town;—with regard to the latter, I have frequently heard wars were common among the natives for the purpose of obtaining slaves. Such may have been the practice, but I have enquired of several Chiefs who positively deny it; and I am certain, since my first acquaintance in this part of the world, none of those predatory wars have happened hereabouts, notwithstanding upwards of two thousand slaves have been shipped and sent to the West Indies from this river within these last twelve months.

15th. Arrived a Cutter belonging to Bance Island from the Isle de Loss. A Mr. McAuley [this is Zachary Macaulay, whose would be a leading player in Freetown for years to come], Member of Council, and the Reverend Mr. Gilbert came passengers in her. These gentlemen came from England to the River Gambia in the Sierra Leone Packet, where they left her to take in cattle for the Colony. The Settlers are highly pleased at Mr. Gilbert's return; indeed, every one must rejoice in the society of so amiable a man.

I have not heard any thing of Mr. McAuley except his lately being an overseer upon an estate in Jamaica. Tis not to be questioned that the prejudices of such an education must impress him with sentiments favorable to the slave trade, and consequently I should not suppose him qualified for a member of Administration in a colony formed mostly of blacks, founded on principles of freedom and for the express purpose of abolishing the slave Trade.¹⁷

16th. I heard this morning there was another alarm last night, but as groundless as the last. Seven or eight canoes full of natives passing the settlement on their way to King Jemmy's, hooping and hallooing as they went, stirred up unnecessary fears in the minds of the settlers, who flocked to Mr. Dawes requesting he would furnish them with ammunition, which (not thinking requisite) he refused, and they returned home greatly dissatisfied.

I learn [that] those people are come down to make one of their periodical sacrifices to the devil—I should like to witness the ceremony, but strangers (particularly whites) are not admissible. It will be performed between Free Town and King Jemmy's on the side of a small brook under a cluster of large trees.

The English in Freetown probably never heard the words Poro or Sande. If they did, they had no idea what they meant. "Poro" means "laws of the ancestors," and initiation into the secret society is compulsory for the attainment of adulthood.¹⁸ The Poro operate, even today, through independent branches in every important town or village, all observing similar rules. The branches are organized into a series of grades. Men who have talent and want additional instruction pay fees to learn the secrets of the next grade. The upper grades constitute an elite inner circle, who organize and train the initiates.

Poro schools are held every few years throughout the countryside in restricted areas adjacent to the village. These are fenced off, and no one is permitted to enter save Poro members and the boys of eligible age who are to be inducted. In the center is a sacred clearing where leaders are buried and sacrifices made.

The bush school lessons in those days lasted two or three years. Initiates were instructed in native law and tradition, in singing and dancing, acrobatics, and crafts. They learned to farm, build houses, defend their villages, and manage their wives. They endured stern tests of bodily toughness and self-discipline, practiced cooperation in work and obedience to their elders, and gained a sense of spiritual communion in their tribal identity. They swore eternal allegiance to the tribal laws and customs and promised under penalty of death never to reveal the Poro secrets.

The central function of the secret societies has always been to deal with the supernatural, which is beyond the scope of ordinary men. Their primary emphasis is on obedience to the authority of the elders and the spirits with whom they mediate. The top officials of the cult—some of whom impersonate the guardian spirits of the society—are important men in everyday life, but their particular office in the Poro is concealed from all nonmembers. Their power in the Poro has a spiritual base which serves to balance the secular authority of the tribal chiefs.

The Sande society is the women’s counterpart of the Poro, and is very similar in both organization and function. The head of the Sande is also the village midwife, and girls in the bush school learn all the womanly virtues and arts—cooking, nursing, fishing, spinning, dancing, singing. These societies were important in creating a sense of common identity among ethnic groups which were not united politically in any way.¹⁹

The weather is particularly fine at present—the fogs or smoaks are mostly dispelled, a salubrious sea breeze fans us daily and agreeably tempers the burning sun.

17th. We are prodigiously distressed to understand King Naimbana is so dangerously ill that his death is hourly looked for. Mr. Dawes, Mr. Gilbert, the Physician, and some others went up to visit him this morning; his death will certainly inconvenience the colony very much.²⁰

Last night arrived the Lapwing cutter from the river Carimanca²¹ (twelve or thirteen leagues from hence) with a load of Camwood, ivory,²² and rice—the Company have a small factory there under the direction of a free mulatto-man, but the trade is yet very trifling, not nearly equal to the charges attending it.

That river produces the largest and finest oysters I ever eat—not such as are in common hereabouts generated on the mangrove tree and rocks, but genuine bed oysters—I have been fortunate enough to get a supply of them several times. The settlers, having now a number of small boats, are able to furnish the colony with abundance of capital fish, and they have such plenty of fowls that the gentlemen get what they require; but the propagation of the feathered species is considerably protracted by the multitude of enemies they have here, viz. snakes, rats, wild cats, armadillas (a kind of scaly lizzard), ants, &c. The most formidable of all these are the ants—in the dead hour of night they come in swarms and attack the helpless chickens while roosting under the mother's wing, who is scarcely able to defend herself. I have had four or five killed in a night by them; and so prying and assiduous are they after their prey that I have known them [to] discover two doves which were hanging in a cage up one pair of stairs, whom they not only killed, but carried off every morsel except the feathers before morning.

19th. Mr. Dawes and two or three other gentlemen went to Bunch river this morning to visit Pa Bunkie, who some people imagine will succeed King Naimbana. They took a present, or as it is termed, Dash, for this chieftain, by far richer than any yet made [to] King Naimbana or any other chief. Returning in the evening, they stopped at Signior [sic] Domingo's, where they expected to have seen a late favourite woman of King Jemmy's drink the red water for suspicion of witchcraft, but their curiosity was disappointed by the ceremony being performed in an inland town;²³ however they were informed the woman had drank the water and recovered, and that in consequence, Jemmy, by the customs of his country, is obliged either to pay the woman's parents a slave or the value of one in goods.²⁴

At half past twelve o'clock P.M. a spark from the kitchen fire kindled in the roof of my house, and before water could be procured, communicated itself in all directions. In a few moments the roof fell in, and in less than fifteen minutes the whole building was consumed; but by the extraordinary exertions of some labourers who were working hard by, most of my cloaths and furniture were saved, so that my loss is trifling. I suppose (from a cursory view of what has escaped), not above £50 [worth]. As luck would have it, I moved my lodgings some days ago [to Isaac DuBois’s house obviously, but she doesn’t tell us this] and only stayed in the thatched house during the day, intending to leave it entirely when another room was finished in the house where I now am, which will be the case shortly. Indeed, it is already so forward that I have asked a party of two and twenty to dine with me the day after tomorrow on an extraordinary occasion; therefore I cannot complain of wanting shelter.

Anna Maria sticks to the travel nature of the book she is writing. She tells us only about her new house and the coming dinner party, with not a word about marriage.

DuBois entry on the 19th (either he or Anna Maria has the date wrong): "About ½ past 12 Oclock a spark of fire was discovered in the thatch of our house at the Point, & before any water could be procured, it communicated it self to the whole roof, which in a few minutes fell in. The building was shortly consumed.. I was much alarmed for the Hummums,²⁵ but most fortunately in the morning I had cleared away all the shavins & trash between the two buildings as tho I had foreseen what was going to happen. The wind was about S.W. and carried the flames clear of the Hummums.. I saved a great many things, but notwithstanding must have losed £40 or £50 at least. The only thing I seriously regret is Mr. Clarksons china which tho saved from the fire did not escape destruction, most of them were broken. I hope when he reads this part of my journal he will recollect what confusiuon [sic] fire makes, & not suppose that his china suffered from carelessness."²⁶

20th. I have been informed that Pa Bunkie was advised by his Palaver Man not to accept the great dash which Mr. Dawes carried him yesterday; and that this Palaver Gentleman made use of the following, or similar language, to dissuade him from taking it:

"Father—these people have been here twelve moons now. Have they ever taken the slightest notice of you by inviting you to their camp (the name given Free Town by the natives) or making you the smallest present heretofore? No, Father! And what makes them thus suddenly over generous to you? Because they think your services will soon be requisite for them. Do not you know white men well enough to be convinced that they never give away their money without expecting it returned many fold [sic]? Cannot you see the drift of this profuse, unlooked for, and unasked for present? Let me warn you against taking it—for be assured, however disinterested and friendly they appear at this moment, they are aiming at some selfish purposes, and although they may not discover what their wishes are immediately—before twelve moons more you will know them."

Bunkie replied, "I know they want something, nevertheless I'll take the dash—it rest with me, whether to comply with any request they make or not. I shall not consider the present by any means binding on me."

Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Horne went up this afternoon to Signor Domingo's (who claimed to be a Catholic), where Mr. Horne preached a sermon to a congregation of natives. How preposterous! Is it possible that a sensible man like Mr. Horne can suppose it in his power to imprint notions of Christianity, or any sort of instruction, upon the minds of people through the bare medium of a language they do not understand? He might as well expect that holding a candle to the eyes of a blind man, or exposing him to the sun, would reclaim his sight! The desire of spreading Christian knowledge through this ignorant land is questionless, most praise worthy, but it will require patience and time to effect it.²⁷

On January 20th DuBois writes in his journal: "The Nassau Captn Morley arrived from the Isles Deloss.. He seems to be a good honest fellow & I am rather gratified by his being highly pleased at his sister[‘s] Marriage."²⁸

21st. Last night arrived the Nassau, ([captained by] Morley)²⁹ from Bristol, but last from the Isles de Loss; Captain Morley this day added to the number at our convivial gala. I was highly complimented for the elegance, variety, and richness of my dinner, which without doubt was superb considering where we are. We had three removes, from six and twenty to thirty dishes each; besides an admirable desert consisting of a variety of European and tropical fruit, the whole of which was garnished with comfort and pleasantry.

This is the date when the secret marriage on the 7th was to be revealed. Again Anna Maria teases us. The customs of the times would not have permitted a lone white woman to set up a household (although several black women in Freetown were heads of households) and hold a dinner party attended by all the elite of the town. Anna Maria has yet to mention marriage.

DuBois writes on that same day: "Gave my wedding dinner this day to such gentlemen in the Colony as chose to attend. Mr. Horne was absent; sent word that he was unwell. Such a dinner in all probability was never seen in the Grain Coast of Africa.. Mr. Dawes invited us to dine with him on Wednesday."³⁰

Anna Maria abruptly changes the subject:

24th. On Sunday last notice was given that Mr. Horne or Mr. Gilbert would perform divine service in future every morning and evening; and every one is desired to attend. I am of [the] opinion the morning service is superfluous. Why? For many reasons, and I will here enumerate three or four: Among the Black Settlers are seven religious sects, and each sect has one or more preachers attached to it who alternately preach throughout the whole night. Indeed, I never met with, heard, or read of any set of people observing the same appearance of godliness; for I do not remember since they first landed here my ever awaking (and I have awoke at every hour of the night) without hearing preachings from some quarter or other. Now, those people being so religiously bent, I think it unnecessary, or, as I first said, superfluous that they should be convened every morning because the primest part of the day for exercising their worldly vocations is occupied thereby; the vicious and lazy (and some such will creep into every society) are furnished with the plea of being at church; an excuse, I am told, many already make after skulking an hour or two beyond the customary and proper time when they have not been within a church door; and it detains the mass of labourers an hour every day, which, lost time, costs the Company at the rate of £1300 per annum. Vice and laziness surely ought not to be protected by Religion any where, but they should be more especially discountenanced in a new Colony where success greatly depends on industry.

Anna Maria never names any of the black settlers except Elliott Griffith, who became King Naimbana’s scribe, then returned to Freetown as interpreter. This is a pity, for many of the other settlers played prominent roles in the founding of Freetown. Fortunately, Governor John Clarkson in his diaries records all of his dealings with the various black pastors, who commanded such loyalty among their flocks that whole congregations had emigrated together from Nova Scotia. They built chapels as soon as possible and held almost daily prayer meetings. The settlers in each congregation wanted their town lots contiguous to each other. The pastors were the political leaders of the black community; they were the ones with whom the governors negotiated at they organized the functions of government. And they were the leaders of the factions which either supported or opposed the rulings of the governor and his council.³¹ Anna Maria, of course, was not privy to the conversations Clarkson had with the black pastors, nor did she attend the chapel meetings as he did to find out what the settlers grievances were and try to gain their support.

This day I [I, not we] dined on board the Nassau in company with Mr. Rennieu and some gentlemen of the Colony. Rennieu says an old man named Congo Bolokelly is on his way from the interior country to succeed King Naimbana;³² and that such great pains has been taken to impress him with an unfavourable opinion of our Colony that he is determined the Company shall re-purchase their land, or he will do every thing in his power to perplex and annoy us.

DuBois’s entry on the same day: "By accounts from Robana this morning King Naimbanna is not expected to live. Mrs. DuBois, Grey & Self dined on board the Nassau. Messieur Rennieu, three or four french men were there. Rennieu told me that there is another King now on his way down the Country to succeed Kind Naimbanna, & I also understand the slave factories have been giving him large dashes, & prejudicing him against the settlement, that in consequence he is determined we shall make a new purchase of the Country as soon as he comes to the throne; his name is Congo, Bolikie.. I learn that Mr. Dawes has been very liberal in his dashes to Pa Bunkie & other chiefs. However I do not disapprove of that, for surely the Sierra Leone Compy should be at least as liberal as the slave factories in the Neighbourhood."³³

Mr. Dawes met with a circumstance very galling to him this forenoon. He had in contemplation to palisade a piece of ground for an immediate asylum in case the natives should take it in their heads to attack us. The spot fixed upon unfortunately took in part of a lot occupied by one of the Settlers, which Mr. Dawes, conscious of his unpopularity, did not wish to encroach upon without obtaining permission, although the Settlers only hold their present Town lots as a temporary accommodation until their permanent ones are surveyed.

He called on the tenant³⁴ and took him out to explain what he wanted; many people in the neighbourhood, having previously heard of Mr. Dawes's intentions, assembled about him, who declared they would not suffer an inch more ground to be enclosed upon any pretence whatever before their town and country lots were given them, and most solemnly protested they would destroy every fence which might be erected till such time.

Mr. Dawes endeavoured to persuade them by argument that what he wanted to do was for their protection; but they were deaf to everything he said and gave him language in return which he could not stomach. He told them [that] if he had imagined they would have treated him with so much indignity, he should not have come among them; and if they continued to behave in the same way, he would certainly leave them as early as he could. To this with one voice they exclaimed, "Go! go! go! we do not want you here, we cannot get a worse after you." He was so disgusted at this that he turned his back and walked off. It was directly before my door, therefore I witnessed the whole and could not help feeling for the Governor, who seemed dreadfully mortified and out of temper.

Dawes’s experience in a convict colony in Australia had accustomed him to arbitrary government, where orders were given and obeyed without question. He was not of a mind to tolerate initiative among his officials or to consult the settlers before announcing his decisions. Not for him the patient convincing and cajoling of illiterate blacks that Clarkson had believed necessary. Dawes’s immediate termination of the farm surveys had already roused the settlers’ wrath.

Feb. 3. Nothing worth recording for these ten days past. Yesterday the manager of Clarkson plantation came over from Bulam; he has had a serious quarrel with the natives, but reason was determined on his side. His advances in cultivation I understand are very slow; for he is not able to keep any number of labourers together more than a month at a time; it is customary to pay them every moon and when they get their wages, like our English tars, they quit work while they have money.

The Sierra Leone packet arrived from Gambia this day with thirty head of cattle; I have not learnt what her European cargo consists of, but it is said to be very trifling.

7th. Since the departure of Mr. Clarkson a number of subtle ungentlemanlike attempts have been made to singe his reputation in the opinion of the people and to warp away their affections from him, which as yet have proved unsuccessful; but I never heard of so unmanly, unprincipled, and diabolical an assault on any one's [sic] character as was last night made on his. The Settlers were summoned to meet Mr. Dawes and the Surveyor in the evening; and being collected, they were informed that their permanent Town Lots were surveyed and ready for them and that they must relinquish those they at present occupy immediately. To this they replied, "when placed on the lots we at present occupy, we were informed they were merely for our temporary accommodation, and we promised, when the plan of the town was fixed upon and surveyed, we would remove. But we were assured no public or other buildings would be erected between our lots and the sea; now in place of this the sea shore is lined with buildings. Therefore, your promise being broken, we consider ours cancelled and will not remove unless the new lots are run from the water's edge and we indiscriminately partake of them. Mr. Clarkson promised in Nova Scotia that no distinction should be made here between us and white men; we now claim this promise. We are free British subjects and expect to be treated as such; we will not tamely submit to be trampled on any longer. Why are not our country alotments of land surveyed? Why are not all the Company's promises to us fulfilled? We have a high regard and respect for Mr. Clarkson and firmly believe he would not have left us without seeing every promise he made performed; if gentlemen here had not given him the strongest assurances they should be complied with immediately."

In answer, they were told [by Pepys] "that it was not uncommon for Mr. Clarkson to make prodigal and extraordinary promises without thinking of them afterwards, that the great advantages he held out to them in Nova Scotia he was in no shape authorised by the Sierra Leone Company to make; they all came from himself merely to seduce them here; and he never had an idea of fulfilling of them, nay, he had it not in his power, and more than probable was drunk when he made them."³⁵

He stated as well that Clarkson would not be coming back to Freetown, and so the settlers had better forget him and obey their new governor.

Here they groaned and murmured, but said "they believed Mr. Clarkson to be a man of honor and that he never made any promise to them but such as he was authorised by the Company to make." The altercation now ended; I have had it nearly in the same language from more than a dozen people who were at the meeting.³⁶

After Pepys had stalked off haughtily, Moses Wilkinson, Boston King, Cato Perkins, and the other black preachers agreed on one thing: Clarkson was the only white official they trusted. They were certain that the directors in London would not want them treated so arbitrarily as Dawes and Pepys were treating them now. They discussed how to make their needs known.³⁷

The blacks seem vastly alarmed and uneasy. Nothing else is spoken of all this day, and I understand they have determined to send two deputies to the Court of Directors to know from them what footing they are on and what were the promises Mr. Clarkson was authorised to make them. Indeed, it is not to be wondered at for no other conclusion can be formed from such base insinuations but that a wish exists somewhere to do them injustice.

DuBois added to his journal: "Memorandum: He Richard Pepys is as black a Hearted insinuating a Villain as this day exists."³⁸

Anna Maria does not elaborate further about the two delegates chosen, but Cato Perkins and Isaac Anderson do not walk on stage at this point with no history behind them. Perkins came originally from Charleston, South Carolina. In Nova Scotia he became a Methodist preacher of the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connection and brought his whole congregation to Freetown, where they built their own chapel. In the early months in Freetown he led an unsuccessful strike by the carpenters for higher wages. They gave in after a week because they had no cash income with which to buy provisions and had to continue working in order to have credit at the company store.

Isaac Anderson was also from Charleston but had been born free, so that he had no memory of slavery to make him cautious. A carpenter by trade, he served in the British Army during the American Revolution. In Freetown one of his first acts against the Sierra Leone Company was to lead a protest when the company wanted to take all waterfront lots away from the settlers.³⁹

12th. We had reason to think for some days past that King Naimbana was dead, but had no certainty of it until this morning; nor do we exactly know when he died [actually in January 1793], but it is supposed several days ago. The country custom is to keep a great man's death secret some time; his coffin (the first in all probability any of his family ever had) is making here and will be sent up to Robana this evening.⁴⁰

To make matters worse, his son John Henry, who had been sent to England in 1791 to be educated by the company, died on board a company ship just as he was returning to Sierra Leone.⁴¹ Other sons of King Naimbana accused company officials of complicity in the death. Several colonists were murdered by vengeful Temne, and Nova Scotian patrols were armed to prevent further attacks.

14th. Yesterday being the anniversary of the Harpy's arrival, a few celebrated it by dining at the house of a late member of council who came out in her. I think it would have been more a propos to have fasted and mourned on the occasion. The day was cloudy accompanied with a rumbling thunder and spitting rain (a circumstance rarely known at this season) as if the heavens were groaning and weeping at the recollection. It was intended to have fired minute guns in compliment to the remains of Naimbana, which would have been very timely, but that ceremony was postponed until this day, when it was performed.

Endnotes:

1. Clarkson journal, 7 September 1792.

2. Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 90.

3. "He has been killing himself by slow degrees for the last three months, and for some days past his Bones have been through his skin in several parts of his Body. He died this eveng. at six o'clock a very happy release both to him and those about him." John Clarkson's Journal, 19 Dec. 1792, quoted in Ellen GibsonWilson, John Clarkson and the African Adventure (London, Macmillan, 1980), p. 117.

4. Clarkson journal, December 16, 1792.

5. "An Account of the Life of Mr. David GEORGE, from Sierra Leone in Africa," The Baptist Annual Register for . . . 1793.

6. which survives among Clarkson’s papers: BL, MS 41262A, fol. 224.

7. Clifford, From Slavery to Freetown, pp. 150-151.

8. DuBois, busy with a number of public works, complained bitterly about the uselessness of the fort. Stripped of workmen from his own projects, he jokingly described Dawes and Pepys as "Fort Mad." British Library, Clarkson Papers, MS Add. 41263, vol. 3. Coleman, p. 164.

9. Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 172.

10. Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 116-17.

11. Clarkson's plantation was a square mile rented by Governor Clarkson towards the end of November 1792. Coleman, p. 164.

12. Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 172.

13. Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 173.

14. Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 173. British Library, Clarkson Papers, MS Add. 41263, vol. 3.

15. An abbreviated version of the Act of Parliament incorporating the Sierra Leone Company can be found in Carl Wadstrom, An Essay on Colonization, particularly applied to the Western Coast of Africa, with some free thoughts on Cultivation and Commerce; also Brief Descriptions of the colonies already formed, or attempted, in Africa, including those of Sierra Leona and Bulama (London: Darton and Harvey, 1794-1795). Coleman, p. 164.

16. The chief suspect was Naimbana's interpreter, Elliotte Griffith, an 'assured Rogue' according to DuBois and Clarkson; apparently Dawes could not see the dangerous extent of Griffith's sway over the settlers (British Library, Clarkson Papers, MS Add. 41263, vol. 3). Coleman, p. 164.

17. Zachary Macaulay (1768-1838) had returned to England in 1792 after a stint as book-keeper, then manager, of a slave estate in Jamaica. Also mentioned in Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 108: "Her comment on Zachary Macaulay (as he spelt it) was wide of the mark. Though he had been employed briefly on a plantation in Jamaica, he had left in digust and had found more congenial employment with the directors of the Sierra Leone Caompny whose principles he fully agreed with. Moreover, after his return to England in 1799 he became a leading figure in the abolitionist movement."

18. See also Roy Lewis, Sierra Leone, (London: Her Majesty’s stationery Office, 1954), p. 129-131.

19. Mary Louise Clifford, The Land and People of Sierra Leone (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1974), pp. 125-126.

20. Winterbottorn wrote of Naimbana's death that it was "much and deservedly lamented." Winterbottom, An Account, vol. 1, p. 260. Coleman, p. 164.

21. Should be "Camaranca."

22. Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 108: Camwood, a hard, red-coloured timber, then used in making red dye, was a valuable commodity in the export trade. Elephants were plentiful enough in the coastal region to supply ivory for export.

23. The botanist Adam Afzelius succeeded in witnessing one of these trials and gave a detailed account in Afzelius, Journal, pp. 21-30. Coleman, p. 164.

24. Winterbottom gave a full account of trial by red water in his Account, vol. I, pp. 129-33. Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 109.

25. Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 122: "Hummums", from hammam, a Turkish bath (OED). Though she calls it "our" (and earlier, in her journal entry for 15 January, "my") house, it seems to have been intended for the company offices (see Dawes’ letter in the journal of DuBois, entry for 13 February 1793). The site, the point of land at the east end of the town, became known as "Falconbridge Point", and when Freetown was fortified, the gun battery constructed there was called "Falconbridge Battery". The name "Falconbridge Point" still appears on twentieth century maps.

26. Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 178.

27. In a letter to Clarkson, John Gray, the colony's accountant, relayed King Jemmy's joke about Horne's fruitless missionary efforts: "This Country People no like dry Palavers." Gray thought the focus should be on the native children, and that they should be trained up "into plantation workers." Feb. 15, 1793; British Library, Clarkson Papers, MS Add. 41263, vol. 3. Clarkson believed Horne's time would be more profitably spent instructing the settlers to read and write. Coleman, p. 165. Also see Ingham, Sierra Leone, p. 146.

28. Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 178.

29. Captain Morley is Anna Maria’s brother-in-law. Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 111.

30. Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 108.

31. This detailed history, focusing on the black leaders, is contained in Clifford, From Slavery to Freetown.

32. Pa Kokelly, as the name is more usually rendered, did not succeed Naimbana, but did succeed King Jemmy when he died in 1796, taking the title of King Tom. By then a successor to Naimbana, with the royal title Bai Farama, had already been appointed. Fyfe, A History, p. 74.

33. Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 179-80.

34. William Grant.

35. Perkins and Anderson, the settlers' delegates who travelled to London in 1793 to petition the Directors, spared Clarkson the exact details of Pepys's speech. They wrote in a letter to him: "We are sorry to tell you that the Gentlemen you left behind you speaks mightily against you and we was present when Mr Pepys told all the people that you had no authority for the Promises you made us in Nova Scotia . . .." See Christopher Fyfe, ed., Our Children Free and Happy': Letters from Black Settlers in Africa in the 1790s, (Edinburgh University Press, 1991), p. 35.

36. Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 114: She fails to make it clear that the "answer" quoted was given by Richard Pepys, the surveyor, not by Dawes. DuBois’s journal contains a very similar text. Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 182-3.

37. Clifford, From Slavery to Freetown, pp. 154-155.

38. British Library, Clarkson Papers, MS Add. 41263, vol. 3.

39. Anderson was an activist throughout his years in Freetown. Besides being a settler delegate to the Board of Directors, he was later appointed a justice of the peace. He carried a petition to the senior naval officer on the coast, asking him to arbitrate in a settler dispute over the quit-rent. He was elected a hundredor by his peers. He was one of the principal leaders of a settler revolt in 1800, put down by the English with the help of Maroons from Jamaica. Anderson’s punishment for his role was to be hanged for treason. Anderon’s story is included in Clifford, From Slavery to Freetown.

40. "One of his daughters was accused of bewitching him & drank red water in consequence— she escaped its effect—several people have been taken up supposed to have used Witchcraft or Poison on the Person of the King, & no doubt some will loose their lives." John Gray to John Clarkson, 15 Feb, 1793; British Library, Clarkson Papers, MS Add. 41263, vol. 3. Coleman, p. 165.

41. "A little tract, The African Prince, A Sketch of the Life of John Henry Naimbana, An African King’s Son (London, n.d.) was published after his death. It has a woodcut frontispiece in which he is depicted spurning an improper book." Fyfe, Anna Maria Falconbridge, p. 70.

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