Post-Mortem on the Mende Rising1

Although the Sierra Leone settlement was taken over as a Crown colony in 1806, the British appear to have made Little or no political contact with the Mende until quite well on in the latter half of the century. This was largely because policy, as in the other British settlements in West Africa, was uncertain about the wisdom of taking over the interior. As late as 1865, ² it looked as if the British would be content to remain on the coast; and not until 1876 was a vigorous attitude adopted towards the hinterland.