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Sierra Leone Treaty of 1807

SIERRA LEONE TREATY OF 1807 (JULY 10)

Treaty of capitulation between the Governor of Sierra Leone and King Firama and King Tom

(Courtesy of British National Archives, Kew Gardens, England)

Treaty of peace and alliance between the Governor of the Colony of Sierra Leone, for the Sierra Leone Company, on the one part, and King Firama and King Tom, with their Princes and Headmen, on the other part.

1. It is agreed that there shall henceforth be peace and friendship between the British Colony of Sierra Leone and King Firama and King Tom, and all the Princes, Headmen, and people subject.

2. King Firama and King Tom, with the consent of all the Headmen at this time assembled, do hereby surrender to His Majesty the King of Great Britain, for the use and benefit of the Sierra Leone Company, all the right, power, and possession of every sort and kind in the peninsula of Sierra Leone and its dependencies which they or either of them formerly had to the westward of the Colony of Sierra Leone or any part thereof.

3. It is, nevertheless, agreed that the claim of the proprietors of Bance Island to the possession of Cape Sierra Leone and the adjacent land, shall not be altered or affected by this Treaty; neither shall the claims of any other person or persons to the same or any part thereof be affected or altered by it; but all such claims shall remain the same as if this Treaty never had been made.

4. No native town shall be built nearer to the Colony than Robiss, except Robiss, Salt Town, and Ro-Cupra; the land between Robin and Ro-Cupra shall be left to the people of those places for their luggars; and in consideration of the permission thus given to rebuild Ro-Cupra, The Governor of Sierra Leone shall have the right to make what use he thinks proper of Sig. Domingo's point and the land adjacent thereto, he engaging to make a reasonable compensation to Sig. Domingo for the same.

5. The customary payment of one hundred bars to King Firama, as agreed upon between him and the Governor of Sierra Leone on the 7 March 1794, shall continue to be paid to him.

6. The Governor of Sierra Leone engages that the usual customs for watering in St. George's Bay shall be collected regularly and paid to King Firama and his successors, or to such person as he or they may appoint to receive the same.

7. And to prevent disputes it is hereby acknowledged that the duties payable for water are fifteen bars (each bar being of the full value of three shillings and four pence sterling, if paid in goods or specie) for every trading vessel that takes water, whether it takes little or much except crafts belonging to traders residing on the Coast of Africa, and vessels of any description belonging to the Sierra Leone Company, or to the colonists of Sierra Leone, or to the proprietor of Bance Island. And further, that no vessel ought to pay for water more than once in one voyage, unless that voyage continue more than a twelvemonth.

8. If any dispute shall arise concerning the boundary between the Colony and Robiss and Ro-Cupra, the Governor of Sierra Leone and the Headmen of Robiss and Ro-Cupra shall meet and settle it in a friendly way.

Done at Robiss this tenth day of July, in the forty-seventh year of the reign of our sovereign Lord George the Third, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, and in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seven.

A. Smith Alexr McCaulay King Firama (X mark) King Tom (X mark) King Banna Firama (X mark) London In presence of— William McCaulay John Thorpe John McCaulay Wilson David Edmund, junr George S. Caulker Charles Shaw