GRANVILLE TOWN, June 8, 1791.

My dear Madam,

Since my last visit I have been to the French Factory, visited several neighbouring towns, and made myself a little intimate with the history, manners, customs, &c. of the inhabitants of this part of Africa, which, it seems, was first discovered by the Portuguese, who named it Sierra de Leone, or Mountain of Lions.

The tract of country now called Sierra Leone, is a Peninsula one half of the year, and an island the other – that is, during the rains the Isthmus is overflowed.

The river, which was formerly called Tagrin, now takes its name from the country; at its entrance it is about ten miles from one Promontory to the other, but here, it is scarcely half that distance across, and a few miles higher up it becomes very narrow indeed.

It is not navigable for large vessels any higher than Bance Island, but small craft may go a great distance up.

Besides the islands I have mentioned, there are several others, uninhabited, between this and Bance Island.

Granville Town is situated in a pretty deep bay, on the south side of the river, about nine miles above Cape Sierra Leone fifteen below Bance Island, and six from Robana.

The Cape lies in 8.28. N. Lat. – 12.30. W. Long.

Half a mile below us is the town of one Pa Duffee; two miles lower down is King Jemmy's, and beyond him is Queen Yamacubba's, and two or three small places; a mile above us Signior Domingo lives, and a little higher one Pa Will.

I have been at all these places, and find a great similitude in the appearance of the people, their behaviour, mode of living, building, amusements, &c.

The men are tall and stout, and was it not that their legs are generally small in proportion to their bodies, and somewhat crooked, I should call them well limbed.

The mode of treating infants till they are able to walk, accounts for their being bandy legged.

A few days after a woman is delivered, she takes her child on her back to wherever her vocation leads her, with both its legs buckled round her waist, and the calves pressed to her sides, by which means the tender bones are forced from their natural shape, and get a curve that never after grows out…