with a brief notice of the neighbouring tribes, soil, productions, &c. and some observations on the facility of Colonizing that part of Africa, with a View to Cultivation; and the introduction of letters and religion to its inhabitants: but more particularly as the means of gradually abolishing African Slavery relative to an attempt to establish a British Settlement on the Island of Bulama, on the Western Coast of Africa, in the year 1792
with a brief notice of the neighbouring tribes, soil, productions, &c. and some observations on the facility of Colonizing that part of Africa, with a View to Cultivation; and the introduction of letters and religion to its inhabitants: but more particularly as the means of gradually abolishing African Slavery relative to an attempt to establish a British Settlement on the Island of Bulama, on the Western Coast of Africa, in the year 1792
24 African Memoranda. v 17 ^ 2 -, The surgeon having reported every one well who had been April 29. infected with the small pox,* great care was taken to wash with vinegar, and then to smoke the cloaths worn, and places occu pied by all who had been affected, or who had attended those that had been affected with it. The public and private servants, accustomed to a life of labour, have had since their embarkation no employment to fill up their time ; and this, the greatest misfortune that can hap pen to any one, produced in them such a rage for gaming, that many of them had really lost, not only all the land which they were to receive at a certain time, but even all their cloaths, except those which they wore. To put a stop to this eternal card playing, and arrest its pernicious effects, it was judged ex pedient to paste up the following notice in several of the most public places of the ship :— “ The members of the council on board the Hankey observe with much concern the prevalence of the idle practice of gaming, reprehensible in all cases, but in our situation emi nently pernicious, as it has a direct tendency to the dissolution of all industry, frugality, good order, and good morals ; with out sedulous attention to the practice of which virtues, an infant colony cannot subsist, much less thrive. “ Those to whom the protection of others is confided would be wanting in their duty were they not to do all in their power to repress the progress of such an alarming evil, they therefore with this admonition give notice, “ That no play debts or wagers shall ever be recoverable either at the islands where we may stop in our passage, or at * Six in number, besides the boy Meares who died in Yarmouth Road. 3