-^ A Dutch Account of Liberia 



After the wars of Louis XIV. were over, France and 

 Holland somewhat drew together in their common policy ; so 

 much so, that in the middle of the eighteenth century the 

 informal alliance between them at the Cape of Good Hope 

 became a danger to the British East India Company, and led to 

 abortive attempts on the part of the British to seize the Cape of 

 Good Hope. Under the Orleans Regency, advantage was taken 

 of this friendlier feeling with the Dutch to call at the Dutch 

 settlements on the Gold Coast, and the French began to think 

 of creating depots for trade in slaves and even for colonisation 

 far to the east of their establishments in Senegambia.^ In 

 tropical South America, as well as in Africa, the Dutch and 

 the French were in friendly relations, and in 1725 and subse- 

 quent years the Chevalier des Marchais was sent by the 

 French Government to visit the West Coast of Africa and the 

 South American settlement of Cayenne (Guiana), and report 

 on the trading prospects of both regions. The following is 

 an abridgment of Chevalier des Marchais' description of his 

 visit to Cape Mesurado (the modern Monrovia). 



" Almost every vessel, after leaving Cape Mount, touches 

 at Cape Mesurado, They are obliged to call at this last cape for 

 wood and water, to serve them while they remain at the factory 

 at Fida (Hwida -), where the water is indifferent and difficult 

 of access. Another reason is that the natives of Fida, looking 

 upon trees of every kind as species of divinities, will neither cut 

 them down themselves nor allow other people to do so. In 

 the third place, rice, maize, or Indian corn, fowls, sheep, goats, 

 and even oxen are in greater plenty at Mesurado than at Fida. 



^ Which had been commenced (perhaps) in 1360 by the Dieppe adventurers, 

 recommenced in 1637, and definitely established by the building of Fort St. Louis 

 du Senegal in 1662. In 1677-8 the French captured from the Dutch the forts of 

 Beguin (South-west Sahara coast) and Goree (Dakar). 



^ Otherwise " Whydah " in Dahome. 



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