Spices of almost every description grow naturally and in abundance;
and it would require but little capital, with industry, to make the
soil produce sugar, coffee, tobacco, and indigo in great plenty. In
short, the produce of the Boollam country might, without very great
labour be made to rival that of either our East or West India
possessions, in fact almost every article imported into Great Britain
from either is indigenous to this soil. The indolent and lazy
natives, however, cultivate little excepting rice. The articles
procured from the British settlement at Sierra Leone, such as
fire-arms, gunpowder, tobacco, rum, &c. are got in exchange for
timber, and occasionally labour.

"During my residence in Boollam, it frequently struck me, that a
British Settlement on the Boollam coast would be highly desirable,
say at Madina. For the reasons stated above, I am almost certain that
practical agriculture would soon become prevalent, inasmuch as it
would soon become profitable. Another, and a very strong inducement
to settlers would be, that Madina, and indeed the whole range of the
Boollam coast, is very healthy. What is called the _country fever_ in
Sierra Leone, is scarcely known in Boollam.

"To-day five or six of the mourners came to do service to me, which
they performed by bending their heads to the earth, and, in that
position, moaning in a low tone the praises of the deceased King,
mixed with compliments to myself.

"At midnight I received letters from Sierra Leone, by which I had the
satisfaction of learning that His Excellency approved of my measures.

"_Wednesday, March 7th_.--This day I succeeded in removing the
numberless evasions and objections urged by the chiefs against the
treaty.

"In effecting this measure Mr. S----'s exertions were of the greatest
service.

"In the evening we were a good deal amused by the natives fishing on
the beach. They caught a great number of fish, such as snappers,
cat-fish, soles, sharks, &c.

"_Thursday 8th_.--This day the convention arrived, and the blanks
being filled up, and the treaty solemnly signed and ratified, I had
the satisfaction on _Friday, March 9th, 1827_, of hoisting the
British flag, and of taking possession of Boollam in the name of His
Britannic Majesty."

Such is the narrative of Lieutenant Maclean, respecting a people whose
habits are as peculiar as his account of them must b