island in the Atlantic Ocean off the southwestern coast of Sierra Leone, separated from the African mainland by the Sherbro River (north) and the Sherbro Strait (east). It is 32 miles (51 km) long and up to 15 miles (24 km) wide. The western extremity is Cape St. Ann; Bonthe, on the eastern end, is the chief port and commercial centre. Swamp-rice cultivation and fishing are the main economic activities. The site of an early 19th-century British post against the slave trade, it was acquired from the Sherbro people by the colony at Freetown in 1861.