Sierra Leone
a small British colony and a protectorate on the W. coast of Africa. The colony occupies the peninsula, Sherbro Island, some small isles and a coast-strip between French Guinea and Liberia. Area, 4,000 square miles.
The protectorate extends inland and is bounded by French Guinea on the N., by SIERRA MADRE Liberia, E. and S. E. Area, 27,000 square miles. Principal products: palm kernels, cola nuts and gum copal. Exports in 1919 were valued at $2,101,569; imports at £2,123,344. There are 169 elementary schools. A college at Fourah Bay, to prepare natives for the ministry, is supported by the Church Missionary Society. Pop. of colony about 75,500; of Protectorate, about 1,400,000, mostly negroes. There are about 700 whites. Sierra Leone was purchased by Great Britain in 1787 from the native chiefs, for the purpose of a settlement for liberated negroes, and to aid in the suppression of the slave trade.
Capital, Free Town. Pop. 34,000.
SIERRA MADRE ("Main Chain"), a general name for the mountains that in Mexico stretch N. from about Guadalajara to Arizona, forming the W. wall of the plateau, and separating Chihuahua from the maritime States of Sinaloa and Sonora. Along the E. foothills of the range, in northwest Chihuahua, the country is very fertile. The so-called Sierra Madre plateau, on the United States frontier, is a continuation of the Chihuahua plateau. The name has often been more widely extended, however, to include the central and E. ranges of the Cordilleras.