-^ The Founding of Liberia 



1836. He was succeeded by Anthony D. Williams, who was 

 principal agent from 1837 to 1839. Under the brief direction 

 of Skinner, Thomas Buchanan, a white American (like Skinner 

 and Williams and all previous agents), came out as an envoy 

 from the colonisation societies of New York and Pennsylvania 

 to report on the condition of Liberia. He built the first 

 lighthouse at Cape Mesurado, and after him was named later 

 on the Liberian settlements of Upper and Lower Buchanan at 

 Grand Basa. 



During Anthony Williams's tenure of office as agent 

 another independent colony was founded. A fourth colonisation 

 society had been formed in America, that of the Mississippi 

 State. Funds for this Society were chiefly found by a philan- 

 thropist named Reed. The Mississippi Colonisation Society 

 decided to establish its own little colony at or near the mouth 

 of the Sino River. About 1838 the colonists sent by this 

 Society built the town of Greenville, which is still the principal 

 settlement at the mouth of the Sino River. This place was named 

 after James Green, one of the first advocates of emancipation. 



The census taken in 1838^ gives the total population of 

 American origin (leaving out the colony of Maryland) as only 

 2,281. The death-rate amongst these American immigrants had 

 been somewhat high, and a certain number had drifted away to 

 Sierra Leone or had gone back to the United States. It was 

 generally assumed about that time that four thousand emigrants 

 had been sent away from America. Even including those dis- 

 patched to Maryland, this was probably an over-estimate, and at 

 first sight the effort strikes one as being feeble in face of the 

 three million Negroes who then inhabited the United States. 

 But as has been pointed out by several writers, the object of 



' On p. 191 I give a resume of the censuses taken in connection with the 

 Liberian immigrants between 1820 and 1843. 



157 



