Liberia ^#- 



out of their holdings on the soil, and that they were bringing 

 Christianity and true civilisation to a country still ravaged by 

 the slave trade. The first disillusionment began over Bushrod 

 Island (as the colonists named it, after the President of their 

 Society, Bushrod Washington), a considerable tract of low-lying 

 but fertile land between the St. Paul's River, Stockton Creek, 

 and Mesurado Bay, Here the colonists were opposed by the 

 local Negroes, who forcibly prevented their settlement. 



The colonists — some eighty Negroes in all and two white 

 men — moved over to Perseverance (or Providence) Island, a 

 low, rocky, tree-crested islet in Mesurado lagoon, only two or 

 three furlongs in length. Here the mulatto trader, John 

 Mill, had his establishment.^ 



Dr. Ayres proposed a final return to Sierra Leone. 

 Wiltberger, on the other hand, declared for remaining and for 

 securing a site on the high land of Mesurado promontory 

 (where Monrovia is now built). He met with strong support 

 from a Negro, Elijah Johnson,^ a survivor of Samuel Bacon's 

 Sherbro expedition. Johnson exclaimed, when pressed by Ayres, 

 " Two years long have I sought a home ; here I have found 

 one, here I remain." He probably decided thus the fate of 

 " Liberia." 



After Ayres had left for Sierra Leone, Christian Wiltberger 

 in June, 1822, set himself to lead the colonists to the inland 

 aspect of the Mesurado promontory, and to the great astonish- 

 ment of the natives trees were felled and slight fortifications 

 were erected on this plateau. But fever prostrated Wiltberger, 

 who was forced to return to America with Dr. Ayres. He 



' This was called Kingstown. Mill seems always to have befriended the 

 Liberians, and his help is justly commemorated in the name of Millsburg, a 

 settlement on the St. Paul's River. 



* Johnson's son was the celebrated Hilary Johnson, President of Liberia 

 from 1884 to 1891. 



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