Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/40

 32 SIERRA LEONE of coniferous trees_. The land suited to -agri- culture or grazing is to SM, ill valleys and mountain flats.. The climate , ntor 1 rigorous. The chief Protons I 1870 were 7,794 bushels of wheat 8 250 3 oato, 10,415 of barley, 8,461 of potatoes, 89,200 Ibs. of butter, and 7,466 tons of hay There were 464 horses, 887 milch cows 2,257 other cattle, 402 sheep, and 437 swine; 13 saw 1 machine shop, and 6 quartz mills. Capital, Downievffle. SIMIRi l.KOW; a British colony on the V. coast of Africa, forming one of the West Af- rican settlements. It occupies a small penin- sula terminating in Cape Sierra Leone, lat. 8 l,,n. 18M8' E., and extending JN. to the estuary of the same name. Along the N bank of this estuary is a narrow strip of
 * -y belonging to the colony, which also

includes the district around the mouth of the Sherbro river, about 70 m. down the coast ; area, 468 sq. m. ; pop. in 1872, 38,936, of whom ln7 were Europeans and 1,741 were native Christians. The peninsula is mountainous, some of the peaks rising to the height of 3,000 ft. above the sea ; but there are tracts of level ground, and several small valleys, the whole being well watered and for the most part densely wooded. The lower districts are purely alluvial, but in the more elevated parts the geological formation is volcanic, and iron ore occurs. Free Town is the capital, in addi- tion to which the colony contains several con- si. U-rable villages. The climate is deadly to Europeans. The wet season extends from May to November inclusive; the average annual rainfall is 160 inches, and the mean temper- ature not far from 82 F. From February to December, 1871, of the 98 Europeans resident at Free Town, 24 died, a death rate far ex- dim; any other in the British dominions. This excessive mortality, however, is confined to the coast ; the mountain villages, only 3 or 4 m. inland from Free Town, are described as quite saluhrious. The land breeze, which be- ground laden with malaria, and the unwhole- Mime mists cling to the lower terraces. The not naturally very productive, but cassa- da, cacao, maize, ginger, ground nuts, Guinea corn, yam-, plantains sugar cane, and fruits are .My grown. The principal exports are palm oil, nuts, hides and timber; the total value of the exports in 1871 was 467,755, against imports to the amount of 305,849. same year 411 vessels of 110,646 tons were entered in the colony, and 409 of 110, 919 tons were cleared. The established edu- '.1 system is inefficient. The colony has two bishops of tin- church of England, and re 100 Christian ministers of all denom- l, many of the most intelligent In-int; have achi.-v.-d tenfold the success Christian iiiU-i.mariei in making con- verts. The colonial governor, who is appoint- SIEYfcS ed by the crown and is officially known as the chief administrator, is the executive of all the West African settlements. He is assisted by a legislative council, of which some of the members are pure negroes. The revenue m 1871 was 80,486, collected partly by import duties on spirits, tobacco, and gunpowder, while the expenditure amounted to 76,130. The settlement was originally formed in 1787 by Granville Sharp and other British philan- thropists, with the view of providing a suit- able home for destitute negroes from different parts of the world, as well as promoting Afri- can civilization. The first foreign inhabitants were destitute negroes from London, nearly 500 in number. These were followed in 1790 by more than 1,000 freed slaves who had been collected in Nova Scotia, in 1800 by about 500 maroons from Jamaica, and in 1819 by a dis- banded West India negro regiment. In 1807 the Sierra Leone company, which was organ- ized by Sharp, Wilberforce, and others, and had previously controlled the colony, trans- ferred all its rights to the British government. From that time until recent years the popu- lation was largely augmented by the introduc- tion of the negroes taken from slave ships by vessels of the British navy. SIERRA BIADRE. See MEXICO, vol. xi., p. 465. SIERRA MORENA. See SPAIN. SIERRA NEVADA. See CALIFOENIA, ROCKY MOUNTAINS, and SPAIN. si E VKS, Emmanuel Joseph, count, better known as abb6, a French statesman, born in Fr6jus, May 3, 1748, died in Paris, June 20, 1836. After completing his studies in the university of Paris, he took orders, received in 1775 a can- onship in Brittany, and became in 1784 vicar general and chancellor of the bishop of Char- tres. The ministry having invited French wri- ters to present their views upon the summon- ing of the states general, he almost simultane- ously published three pamphlets : Vues sur les moyena d> execution dont les representants de la France pourront disposer en 1789 ; Essai sur les privileges, a vindication of the rights of the people; and Qu'est ce que le tiers etatf The answer to this question, which he summed up in "the nation," made him famous as the oracle of the revolution. He was elected dep- uty to the states general, where he moved that the three orders should immediately meet in general assembly to verify their powers in common; and the privileged orders refusing to comply with this motion, he insisted that the third should declare itself the "national assembly." He drew up the oath taken by the deputies, June 20, 1789, and originated the organization of the national guards and the division of France into departments. In his Apercu d'une nouvelle organisation de la jus- tice et de la police en France, he proposed jury trial in civil as well as criminal cases. He was elected president of the assembly in 1790. After the flight of the king to Varennes, he vigorously opposed the establishment of a re-
 * t the Mohammedan priests from