Account of a late eighteenth-century colonising expedition to the island of Bulama on the coast of West Africa, which intended to attempt the cultivation of tropical produce with free labour in Africa. Although the scheme ended in disaster, Beaver decided to publish his notes during the Napoleonic wars, to encourage Britain to make another attempt to found a West Africa settlement. He suggests that paying wages to the African labourers engaged in the colony was beneficial (300-04), and that he became well known as a European opposed to slave dealing. He describes the colonisation of West Africa as: "the surest way of introducing civilization, and at the same time of abolishing slavery" (305-06).

Includes a note on Golberry's Fragmens d'un Voyage en Afrique, fait pendant les années 1785, 1786 et 1787, which prompted the publication of Beaver's African Memoranda (411-15). Also includes a number of official documents on the colonisation scheme of Bulama, published as appendices.