roving employment, they are to be found on all parts of the coast, and are sufficiently acquainted with it to serve as pilots.  It is customary with them to establish themselves on various parts of the coast for this purpose, and to leave the elders of their tribes in their own country, unless their presence should be required by any war that might take place.  They are said to return to their country after an absence of several years, when they have amassed by their industry, sufficient to maintain themselves, and some among them are intelligent and active, but they are not always to be trusted, although they are a very superior class of people, in comparison with other African tribes.

Besides a watering place at a short distance to the right of the governor’s house, two small streams, Hay brook and Horton brook, run into Goderich Bay, affording plenty of excellent water, and capable of admitting boats.  The watering place, above-mentioned, is generally frequented, from the convenience with which the water is obtained, being connected to the sea side by a wooden aqueduct, under which boats may lie and fill their casks very easily without removing them.

When the Landers arrived, Clarence establishment consisted of the superintendent, or acting governor, Mr. Becroft, who was generally known by the title of captain; Captain Beattie, the commander of the Portia, colonial schooner; Mr. Crichton, a naval surgeon; Lieutenant Stockwell, with a party of five or six marines; a mulatto ensign of the royal African corps, with two black companions from Sierra Leone, and some carpenters and sail-makers, besides a mulatto, who filled the office of clerk or secretary to Mr. Becroft; an English merchant of the name of Lloyd, in the employment of Mr. Smith, whose residence has been already mentioned.

No place, in point of convenience, could have been better selected for a settlement, than that on which Clarence is situated.  The bay affords safe anchorage for shipping, from the furious tornadoes, which are common in this part of the world, and is sufficiently capacious to shelter as many vessels as are likely to visit the island; it abounds with fish, and is free from sunken rocks, and the shore is steep and easy of access to boats.  There is another bay, called George’s Bay, on the western side of the island, but it has the disadvantage of being open to that quarter, and consequently affords no safety to shipping.  The proximity of Clarence Cove to the coast of Africa, is also another important point in favour of the object for which the establishment was formed.