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African Memoranda. whose labour was all this done ? Except the block-house, almost all by the grumetas ; they alone at least cleared the ground, which was the most difficult and the hardest work. We had at that time in the garden many tropical fruits, esculent vegetables, and cotton trees ; all of which appeared to be in their native soil, and thriving admirably. Now what is the result of all this ? The result is that I have proved the practicability of our PLAN. What did we propose to ascertain ? First—Whether we could cultivate the tropical productions on the Island of Bulama and the adjacent shores ? Second—Whether we could do so by the means of free natives ? Third—Whether by cultivation and commerce we might not introduce among them civilization ? The first of these queries is proved beyond a doubt, not only by what I cultivated on the island ; but from all tropical produc tions growing wild on it, or in its vicinity. Now then for the second, which is by far the most important. It will appear by the list of grumetas in the Appendix * that in about one year I employed on the island 196 of them. These grumetas were not all of one nation ; neither were they only of two ; but they were of three, of four, of five, and even of six,f *No. 15. +1 regret much that I did not, when on the island, keep an account of the nations to which my several grumetas belonged, as, besides being more satisfactory to the reader, it would have enabled us to form some little notion of their national character. However, by far the greatest number were Papels and Manjacks; about a dozen of the whole number were Biafaras, a few Balantees, four or five were Naloos, but only two Bijugas. I had Biafara visitors frequently, and with them sometimes came Man- dingos, but I never had a Mandingo grumeta, though they have frequently come to the 303