Liberia <*- 



Bacon, came out (with his wife) on the U.S.A. brig Nautilus^ 

 commanded by Captain R. F. Stockton,^ with Messrs. Joseph 

 Andrus, J. B. Winn, and Christian Wiltberger. They brought 

 a few more Negro colonists, and came especially to relieve 

 the unhappy band of pioneers remaining over from the 1820 

 voyage, who were temporarily settled at Fura Bay, Sierra 

 Leone. 



The first impulse of the party was to proceed to Cape 

 Mesurado and negotiate there for a site of land. But their 

 reception was unfriendly, so the ships passed on to Grand Basa, 

 where a contract was entered into with the local chiefs. Here 

 a beginning in colonisation might have been made but for an 

 outbreak of fever which laid low Ephraim Bacon (whose 

 brother Samuel had already died), Winn, and Andrus. These 

 three returned at once to America, leaving Wiltberger in sole 

 charge of the emigrants. The returning ships brought back 

 with Captain Stockton a Dr. Eli Ay res to take joint charge 

 of the expedition with Wiltberger. Ayres and Stockton returned 

 on December nth, 1821, to Cape Mesurado^ six months 

 after Bacon and Joseph Andrus had failed in their negotiations 

 with the De chiefs. Through the intercession of an English 

 Mulatto trader, John Mill, who had a trading licence on Cape 

 Mesurado, Ayres and Stockton were more fortunate. 



On December 15th, 1821, not only was the future site of 

 Monrovia bought, but, in addition, the chiefs or " kings " Peter, 

 George, Yoda, and Long Peter (of the De and Mamba tribes) 

 made over to the American Colonisation Society (represented by 

 Ayres and Stockton) a strip of coastland one hundred and thirty 

 miles long and forty broad, which might be reserved for ever for 



' Commemorated in Stockton Creek. 



^ The early expeditions to Liberia misspelt this cape as " Montserrado." 

 This led to the county being called Montserrado. Subsequently the correct spelling 

 for the cape — Mesurado — was restored. 



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