Annual report on the social and economic progress of the people of Sierra Leone.

Date:
[1935]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the social and economic progress of the people of Sierra Leone. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    estuaries; and, although none of them is navigable for ocean¬ going steamers, several of them provide useful waterways for lesser craft, particularly during the wet season. If the mountainous peninsula be excepted, the Colony and Pro¬ tectorate as a whole may be described generally as being flat and low-lying in the south and west and broken and elevated in the north and east, where altitudes of over 6,000 feet have been re¬ corded in the Loma and Tingi mountains. The nature of the vegetation varies considerably. South of the 8° 30' parallel of north latitude dense bush country (originally tropical forest) is as a rule encountered; but this gives place as one travels northwards to more open or “-orchard bush ” country. Climate. The seasons may be divided into wet and dry, the former com¬ mencing in May and lasting until October. The rains are as a rule ushered in during the latter part of March and April by a series of tornadoes. Similar phenomena, though as a rule of a less violent nature, are experienced towards the end of the wet season. The dry north-easterly “ Harmattan ’’ wind usually blows at intervals during the December—February period, visibility being thereby greatly restricted owing to the fine dust which it is believed the Harmattan carries down with it from the Sahara. During this period hot days and cool nights are the rule. The shade temperature at Freetown varies during the year from about 65° to 95° Fahrenheit. The average minimum and maximum may be placed at 74° and 87° respectively. The average annual rainfall at Freetown over a forty-year period amounted to 152 inches. This figure is based on observations made at Tower Hill at a point some 200 feet above sea-level. July and August are as a rule the wettest months. History. Sierra Leone, which has been known to voyagers and historians for many centuries, first became a British settlement in the latter part of the eighteenth century. The settlement was established, at the instance of a Society for the Abolition of Slavery from which sprang the Sierra Leone Company, in order to make pro¬ vision for a large number of slaves who had found their way to England after the American War of 1782, and also for such slaves as might be recaptured by British ships operating against the slavers. A strip of land was acquired on the north of the Sierra Leone Peninsula, and on this site the first colonists were landed in May 1787. These were augmented in 1792 by a large party of Africans (freed slaves who had fought for the English in the American War of Independence) from Nova Scotia. Later,
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