He reports a conversation with Rev. W.K. Betts on the climate and people of Sierra Leone and the opportunities for profitable investment there in agriculture. He proposes a three-way trade between England, Africa, and the West Indies, the production of sugar in Africa, and the use of pious laymen to supplement the missionaries' work. He suggests that by means of steamers, Europeans might be enabled to spend five months of the healthy season in Africa and return to England for the rest of the...

He judges Sierra Leone's climate to be particularly bad because of the humidity and miasma and sudden drops in temperature, and describes the course of the River Nun as the worst place in all this region, but notes that the highlands seemed to be comparatively mild and healthy. He describes the temperature and the wet and dry seasons in Bornu (Borno), Kashna (Katsina), and Kano. He considers the land along the course of the Formosa River fine and comparatively healthy, forming an 'African...

Also includes transcripts of these letters and of one by W. Wemyss Anderson, the original of which is in MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 444 Vol. 18, pp. 90-91, and a covering letter by John Trew, which quotes the response of Knibb, the Baptist missionary in Jamaica.

Approving of the aims of the new society for the suppression of the slave trade and recommending two of his own congregation for work in Africa together with the son of one of them who had moved to Demerara (Guyana) who also wished to go. He expresses doubt about the suitability of large numbers to go there from the West Indies because of the different moral standards.

See MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 444 Vol. 17, p. 373. (Copy).

The agents should be married men with wives capable of acting as teachers and overall supervision of the scheme should be by a committee based on the Trustees of the Mico Charity and influential members of various religious bodies.

He asks Gurney to introduce him to Buxton, with whom he had lost contact since he had disagreed with him some years before over the best way to 'civilize and Christianise' Africa. He suggests that Rev. Williams of New York would provide information on Hughes's character. He proposes that Hughes be placed at the head of an agricultural station, possibly directed towards raising cotton in Africa. He himself had experience in directing the labour of 'uncivilized' men, and he hoped that...

He asks whether a place might be found that would be safe for a European's health, where they would not encroach upon the work of other missions, whether the accompanying Black missionaries could be defended from the slave trade, whether communications could be maintained if a mission were set up in the interior, what the language difficulties might be, and whether the Black missionaries would be able to carry on should their European leader die. Transcript of this letter and of one from...

He offers to supply candidates for five of the sections mentioned. He thanks Trew for his interest in him and explains why he had been unable to pay for the purchase of his horse himself. The first letter is endorsed with a note that extracts from it had been inserted in the book. The second letter introduces Rev. Bennet Harvey, the superintendent of the Moravian mission, who was returning to England for his health and wished to be introduced to Lord Glenelg. He also recommends paying...

Finally, he announces the arrival of Soul in the island.

He declares that the failure of former emigration schemes from the West Indies might be easily accounted for. He asks if he could be introduced to Lord John Russell or James Stephen before he left for Scotland in a few days' time.

He reports on the meeting held in his chapel in East Queen Street the very day his circular arrived on Africa concerning the same subject. He gives his opinion that there were plenty able to go out to Africa as mechanics, etc., but that they would need ample supervision. He describes a member of his congregation, a cooper, who would be suitable. He describes the character of the people of the island, urging Trew to discount 70% of what he heard but admitting that the people were not perfect....

The Hausa man claimed to have had knowledge of Kashna (Katsina), Kano, and Zaria and the areas east and west of the Niger, and was seized while acting as a merchant's agent and brought to the West Indies in a Spanish slave ship. He was a Muslim and knew many of the West African kingdoms well and several African languages, but could supply Trotter with no information on the Tchadda (Benue) and Shary Rivers, nor was it easy to learn from him the probable attitude of the local chiefs to the...

A letter from Robert Stokes to Buxton on 2 Aug about sending copies of The Remedy to Lord Lansdowne, some lists of possible committee members for the new society, which he was enclosing, the choice of name for the society, the possible naming of the working committee, the Board of Directors, the other committees therefore not called sub-committees, and the choice of a president lying between Earl Grey, Lord Lansdowne, and the Marquess of Northampton. He disagrees...