Liberia 



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trade guns, swords, knives, striped linen, Indian cottons, glass 

 ware of all sorts, beads, kauri shells, brass rods, pewter plates 

 and pots, gunflints, iron bars, and coral. The Director of 

 the colony was to have the munificent salary of ^150 a year, 

 with a chaplain at ^54 a year. 



Another French traveller, Grandpierre, who visited the 

 River Cestos in 1726, wrote in his book of travels about this 

 place : " My ambition is to be powerful and rich enough to 

 fit out a large fleet, filled with able and intelligent people, to 

 make a conquest of this fine country, and change its nature 

 by introducing the best social laws and religious knowledge." 



Captain Snelgrave, an English slave-trader who visited 

 the Liberian Coast in or about 1730, reported that on the 

 windward or northern part of the coast there was not a European 

 trader left, owing to the hostility of the natives, caused by 

 kidnapping on the part of Dutch and English. English and 

 Spanish pirates infested the northern littoral of Liberia from 

 1720 to 1740, "the Spanish being the worst offenders." The 

 Dutch frequented the Liberian Coast at first, mainly for the 

 pepper and ivory. When they took up the trade in slaves 

 they seem to have preferred dealing with their settlements 

 on the Gold Coast — Elmina especially — leaving the Grain Coast 

 to the attentions of the EngHsh, French, and Spaniards. Yet 

 in the nineteenth century, soon after Liberia was formed, the 

 Dutch traders came back, and the Dutch House (the Oost 

 Afrikaansche Compagnie) is now one of the oldest established 

 and most respected commercial agencies in the country. 



A Swede named Ulrik Nordenskiold in 1776 proposed 

 Cape Mesurado and Cape Mount as suitable places for colonies 

 which should start sugar plantations. A Dane — J. Rask — 

 who wrote a description of Guinea in 1754, states on page 

 46 that a sugar plantation was established in 1 707 by the 



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