om whence excellent water is obtained,
complete the conveniences of the establishment.

Mr. McCormack does not fell any timber in the island; he merely uses
his location here as a depot for the wood which is brought down the
rivers Rokelle and Porto Logo from the upper countries. For this trade
he contracts with the natives inhabiting the lands lying near the
shores of the rivers, and the wood is floated down on rafts to Tombo,
where ships come to take in their cargoes. The African oak is so heavy
that the natives are obliged to raft it on wood of a much lighter
specific gravity. This trade is of considerable benefit both to our
colonists and the native tribes. It not only promotes a friendly
intercourse between them, but affords constant employment to great
numbers of the latter, by which they are enabled to secure many of the
comforts of civilized life, of which they must otherwise have been
destitute. It has also had the happy effect of releasing them from
vassalage, which formerly prevailed universally, and which was in some
degree necessary as a protection against the arbitrary power of the
different chiefs during the existence of the slave trade.

A statement of the annual export of timber from Tombo, since the
commencement in 1816, will shew with what rapid strides the trade has
increased.

In 1816 716 logs.
1817 7,087 do.
1818 1,341 do.
1819 2,251 do.
1820 6,271 do.
1821 4,454 do.
1822 1,429 do.
1823 4,593 do.
1824 10,093 do.
1825 22,206 do.
1826 24,456 do.

There is a mud bar across the river about one mile and a half below
Tombo; and as the depth here is not more than 14 feet at high water,
vessels ought not to load more than 13 feet before they drop below.

_Tuesday, Sept. 25th_.--Heavy rain in the night, but a fine warm day.
Soon after noon I left Tombo, and visited Bance Island. The only
objects of interest that presented themselves were the remains of an
old slave factory, and a burial ground. The road to the latter place
was by a path through a lime and orange plantation, which grew so
luxuriantly that it quite obstructed our way, and we were compelled to
have a black pioneer, who went before us with a sword to cut down the
thorny branches. In this remote and lonely place I found the following
epitaph on a tombstone, which appeared to me so curious that I caused
it to be transcr