Gentlemen, April 15th, 1842.
By Lord Stanley’s desire I send you a copy of Dr. Madden’s Report, on the Gold Coast, and its dependencies.
I am to add, that this is sent to you as being personally interested therein, but that you will be good enough to consider it as entirely confidential.
I have, &c.
R. R. Gibbons.
The Report of Dr. Madden forms part of the Appendix to the “Report from the Select Committee on the West Coast of Africa[3],” and although the first official communication which was received by the house of Messrs. Zulueta & Co., it is not inserted, in consequence of its want of connexion with the chief subject of this publication. It is entitled, “Report of Her Majesty’s Commissioner of Inquiry on the State of the British Settlements on the Gold Coast, at Sierra Leone, and the Gambia, with some Observations on the Foreign Slave Trading Factories along the Western Coast of Africa, in the Year 1841;” and sets forth its object as follows:—
“Pursuant to the instructions of Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for the Colonies, the following matters were duly examined into, and the result of the best consideration that could be given to these subjects will be found in the following order:—
“1st. The state and condition of our forts and settlements on the Western Coast of Africa, their trade, population, resources, and government.
“2d. The facilities afforded in these settlements to the foreign slave traders resorting to them, by affording supplies in goods or stores that are essential to the trade.
“3d. The prospects and practicability of emigration from Sierra Leone to our West India Colonies.