SIERRA LEONE. – British possession in Guinea, situated between Liberia and French Guinea.
It consists of a small colony (702 sq km, 124,000 inhabitants) on the coast, and a protectorate (71,654 sq km, with 1.9 million inhabitants) comprising the remainder of the territory. From the flat coast fringed with lagoons, the land rises inland to elevations exceeding 1,000 m. Forest and savanna give way locally to plantations, which produce rice, barley, manioc, and above all oil palm. The subsoil yields gold, diamonds, platinum, chromite, and, more recently, hematite, whose deposits appear considerable. The inhabitants (over 2 million) are for the most part Sudanese. Freetown (90,000 inhabitants), with a good port, is the capital of the colony.
For evangelization V. FREETOWN.