In the third place, it was hoped that the greater salubrity of the new colony would lead to the eventual abandonment of the settlements of Sierra Leone and Cape Coast Castle, the direful effects of whose climates upon European life have long been proverbial.  The Insular position of Fernando Po, and the nature of its climate and localities, appeared to offer an earnest that it would not abound with those, destructive malaria which have proved, on the neighbouring continent, so fatal to our brave countrymen.

I might also advert to the facilities which the situation of Fernando Po, at the estuaries of so many great rivers, together with its insularity, holds out for extending and protecting our commercial relations with Central Africa, and probably extending the blessings of civilization amongst its inhabitants; these, however, although important, were minor considerations with the British Government.

To carry the proposed object into effect, an expedition was fitted oat in the early part of the summer of 1827, under the command of Captain William Fitzwilliam Owen, of His Majesty’s ship Eden, who received the appointment of superintendent of the colony, and than whom no one could be better adapted to fulfil the important duties which were to devolve upon him; Captain Harrison, a highly meritorious and indefatigable officer, received the chief civil appointment under him.  A number of appropriate artificers, with an abundant supply of the requisite stores, including several framed wooden houses ready for immediate erection, were embarked in a transport; and it was arranged that a body of troops, with an additional number of workmen and labourers from Sierra Leone, should be attached to the expedition on its arrival at that settlement.

On first approaching the island, its mountains were shrouded from view by heavy clouds and a hazy atmosphere; which, however, gradually dispersed as we neared the shore, and revealed to the eyes of my companions a magnificent display of mountain scenery, closely studded with large trees, and thick with underwood, whose luxuriant foliage of various tints and hues, blending with the scarcely ruffled bosom of the ocean, and the retiring clouds, making the sky each moment become more lucid and transparent, formed such a variegated picture of natural beauty, that we unanimously hailed it as the land of promise.

It was not long before the scene began to assume an aspect of animation, the immediate consequence of our arrival; for, in less than half an hour after we anchored, a number of canoes, with several natives in each, who had already been trafficking with the Diadem,[30] approached us for the purpose of bartering the productions of their island, namely, yams, fowls, palm-wine in calabashes, fish, some boxes made of split cane, monkey and snake skins, with other trifling articles; for pieces of iron hoop, a few inches long, which we afterwards found they made into two-edged