Wallace who was in the cabin, and the gentlemen in the gunroom who were arranging some of the trade goods. They ran up, and found to their astonishment the fire blazing over their heads, having run along the tarred awning from stem to stern, and everybody gone over the side. After trying in vain to prevail on the people in the boat to assist them, they were at length forced to descend to avoid being scorched to death. While this passed on board Captain Telford had got into a boat, a number of Settlers accompanying him, with a view of extinguishing the fire. But the people absolutely refused to pull him alongside, pretending fear of gunpowder. He assured them there was no gunpowder on board, entreated, prayed, and threatened in turn, but all to no purpose, and he had the mortification to be forced to be an inactive spectator of the conflagration. You will ask what did Captain Devereux and his crew all this time. It is certain no exertion was made by the Harpy's people, although the fire was perceived in its early stage. Everything was done which could be done, unassisted as Telford was except by Day, and Rowe the mate of the York.

The Settlers, it would naturally be supposed, felt great concern, and exerted themselves on behalf of their benefactors. Many of them did so, but at the same time there were many who acted very differently. Some were rejoicing in the calamity as a just judgment of heaven on their oppressors. Some said it was but right that the goods, withheld unjustly from them by the Governor and Council, should be destroyed, and that their sinister aims should thus be frustrated. They declared the York to be the repository where Mr. Dawes's gains and mine were stored; and others, more daring, scrupled not to attempt converting to their own use what could be saved from the wreck.

'Some of the more respectable Settlers, ashamed of these proceedings, offered themselves as a guard, and have promised to furnish a list of those who were guilty of any improprieties, with a list of witnesses, so that they may be prosecuted. They have even promised to mark out such as seemed to rejoice in the misfortune, and such as by their insinuations would have vilified Mr. Dawes's character or mine.

'It has been indeed a sweeping fire, there is not the vestige of an account left. I had been at considerable pains in arranging the commercial accounts, but they perished in the general conflagration.

Captain Devereux being unfortunately of a very unaccommodating disposition, and having on the present occasion treated the sufferers, who expected an asylum on board the Harpy, very cavalierly, their distress was of course enhanced. We made room, however, for some of them at our house, and

for the others the James, the vessel we had fortunately bought from Renaud some time ago, was ordered to be fitted up.

'A fire happened in town to-day, and rather singularly the sufferers were almost all of the number who rejoiced in the York's destruction. No man who had a spark of humanity in him could rejoice in their loss, but I confess I could not help feeling less grieved at its falling on those who had shown such a total want of charity, than if it had affected people of a different character. I overheard some people at the time reminding them of the expressions they had made use of a few days before, averring the burning of the York to be a judgment of God.

'December 10.-We determined on sending the Lapwing to England with all speed, and for getting Devereux if possible to carry her home. Much to our satisfaction he gave his assent to the measure, and we shall thus, I trust, part without coming to any rupture; an event the violence of his temper gave me scarce room to hope for.

Tilley thought proper to take offence at our declining to assist him against Renaud, and has since that time been very distant in his civilities. We sent him lately a few articles of provision which came out of the Harpy, and intimated at the same time our wish to supply him with any other articles of the same kind he might want. The following is a part of his reply. "I cannot doubt but any application I may make to Mr. Dawes or yourself will be attended to, when I am so fully convinced of your friendship towards me by the part you have taken in endeavouring to prevent the American, now at Sierra Leone, from doing business with me for slaves. You may perhaps suppose the emoluments arising from informations given of Americans carrying off slaves, will be an advantageous business; but I think it is most probable it will not. I should be exceedingly sorry that anything should happen to cause a difference with this settlement and your Colony. It never shall arise from any proceedings on my part, but when I see it is the intention of any body to distress us by interfering in my trade, I think it high time to look about me."

'The above exhibits no small chagrin and disappointment, but Bance Island is no longer an object of terror to your Colony; and although it is unpleasant to be at variance with any one, yet when such variance arises from the faithful discharge of an important duty, it causes less uneasiness than it otherwise would do. It will be gaining much to the cause of humanity to exclude the Americans entirely from all participation in the Slave Trade.'

CHAPTER IV

INVASION BY THE FRENCH

ON New Year's Day 1794 all the English officials in Sierra Leone assembled at the invitation of the Governor, and Macaulay notes in his private diary that they were twentytwo at dinner, the only absentee being Mr. Garvin, the schoolmaster. Notwithstanding many drawbacks, the prospects of the Colony continued steadily to improve, and their trade began to increase rapidly. The principal difficulties which occurred during the early months of the year were caused by the incessant applications of the native Chiefs to be permitted to purchase rum. The Court of Directors had recently despatched a strong prohibition of the sale of rum by their representatives, and the Governor and Macaulay were exposed to much ill-will and some personal danger in carrying out these orders as far as possible. In a few instances they were compelled to give way, and permit the exchange of casks of rum for necessaries of life of which the Colonists stood in absolute need, and which they could obtain for the moment on no other conditions. But as a rule they remained firm, and faced the bitter offence which their refusals gave to their neighbours. There was one droll episode when a great Chief complained that the cask of rum which he had received had been watered, and detained as a hostage the captain of the vessel in the Company's service who had delivered it to him. The matter became so threatening that Macaulay went in person to investigate the charge, which proved to be true, and he had the mortification to find that the captain himself had been the delinquent.

Mr. Dawes's health had suffered so severely from the climate that he had for some time contemplated the possible necessity of a sudden return to England, and in view of this contingency the Court of Directors had named Macaulay as his successor.

A serious attack of illness finally compelled Mr. Dawes to leave Sierra Leone at the end of March in the Harpy, and Macaulay, at the age of twenty-six, became Governor of the Colony.

He appears to have been singularly qualified by nature, and by the good influences under which he had lately been brought, for the position he was now called upon to fill. The patience and self-control, the exercise of which he looked upon as a duty, were invaluable in the midst of the inflammable and unreliable spirits with which he was surrounded. The success that attended upon his dealings with the superstition and unbelief with which he came constantly in contact, among the natives and the miscellaneous European population collected on the coasts, lay in a great measure in the fact that his own mind was assailed by no doubts. It will be observed that on all occasions when he was called upon to speak upon religious subjects he did so with simplicity and absolute assurance; and although he was unflinching in his support of the truth, and refused to admit any compromise as to moral rectitude, still he never displayed the slightest irritation with those whose belief and practice differed from the standard which he upheld. His own faith was unwavering. He had the habitual sense of living in the presence of God, and the Scriptures were the light to which he turned daily for instruction and guidance in his path through the world.

The anxieties of the position in which Macaulay found himself placed were largely increased by the formidable proportions which the spirit of disaffection among the Settlers now began to assume. Many of these negroes had been eager to join the Colony from the belief they entertained that it would prove to be in the fullest sense the Province of Freedom, which its benevolent founder, Granville Sharp, delighted to call it. Their disappointment had consequently been severe when, instead of the life of license and semi-barbarism which they had hoped to lead, they found themselves subjected to the laws and restraints of a civilised community. They were disgusted by the continuous industry required of them as indispensable for the maintenance of their families, and their jealousy was also strongly excited against the European servants of the Company, whom they ignorantly believed to be largely enriching

themselves at the expense of the Settlers, and thus depriving them of the benefits intended for them by their friends in England. An insurrection broke out, which was promptly quelled by decisive action on the part of the Governor and his associates. The ringleaders were arrested and sent off to England for trial; while, with a forbearance that under the circumstances showed no little courage, Macaulay granted an entire amnesty to the rest of the offenders.

It was fortunate both for the white and the black members of the Colony that there was time for order and some degree of confidence to be restored before the occurrence of the disastrous events which foreign invasion brought upon them in the autumn of the same year. The Company's office had been plundered by the rioters, and many of the papers destroyed, so that the private journal Macaulay kept for the Chairman does not commence till the month of July.

'July 23, 1794.—Two blacks escaped from a slave vessel, an American schooner commanded by one Newell, and complained of very harsh treatment. As Newell was away there was no opportunity of knowing the truth.

Moses Wilkinson and one of his colleagues, Stephen Peters, came to ask my opinion and advice on the subject of the division that had taken place among the Methodists, and accused Mr. Jones and Garvin as the authors of the dissension. Not thinking it right to miss an opportunity of telling the old man a little wholesome truth, I pointed out to him the serious faults in their conduct as a Christian society, which, as they did not choose to correct, it was impossible that sincere and pious Christians could continue with them. I mentioned particularly the notoriously irreligious lives of some of their members, whom they had refused to censure; the encouragement given to discontent and rebellion; their uniform opposition to the establishment among themselves of the discipline required by the Methodist rules; their no less uniform opposition, whenever an opportunity could be had, to the carrying the laws of the Colony into effect; and their refusing to Mr. Jones all liberty of preaching among them without any reason being assigned but that he had called them, what in truth they were, a rotten society. The old man acknowledged the facts, and did not attempt to defend their propriety, but said he was overruled by the others. I was in hopes indeed 1 The principal black preacher among the Wesleyan Methodists. 2 A negro from Nova Scotia who had visited England.