early, about mid-May, before they had found shelter. The whites were
attacked with climate-fever, which did not respect even the doctors.
Quarrels and insubordination resulted, and 800 of the little band were
soon carried to the grave. Then a famine broke out. A ship from England,
freighted with stores, provisions, and frame-houses, was driven back by a
storm. Forty-five acres had been promised to each settler-family; it was
found necessary to diminish the number to four, and the denseness of the
bush rendered even those four unmanageable. Disgusted with Granville Town,
the new comers transferred themselves to the present site of Freetown, the
northern _Libreville_.

The Company offered annual premiums to encourage the building of
farm-houses, stock-rearing, and growing provisions and exportable produce.
Under Dr. Afzelius, afterwards Professor at Upsal, who first studied the
natural history of the peninsula, they established an experimental garden
and model farm. An English gardener was also employed to naturalise the
large collection of valuable plants from the East and West Indies and the
South Sea Islands supplied by Kew. The Nova Scotians, however, like true
slaves, considered agriculture servile and degrading work--a prejudice
which, as will be seen, prevails to this day not only in the colony, but
throughout the length and breadth of the Dark Continent.

Meanwhile war had broken out between England and France, causing the
frequent detention of vessels; and a store-ship in the harbour caught
fire, the precursor of a worse misfortune. On a Sunday morning, 1794, as
the unfortunates were looking out for the Company's craft (the _Harpy_), a
French man-of-war sailed into the roadstead, pillaged the 'church and the
apothecary's shop,' and burnt boats as well as town. The assailant then
wasted Granville, sailed up to Bance Island, and finally captured two
vessels, besides the long-expected _Harpy_. Having thus left his mark, he