-»i Governors of Liberia 



But the co-operation of British ships was not without its 

 danger for the independence of Liberia. The palm-oil trade 

 was ousting the commerce in slaves as an inducement for 

 European enterprise on the West Coast of Africa ; and Great 

 Britain at this time, and for many years to come, was the 

 principal purchaser of palm oil, a commodity to which Liverpool 

 and British shipping owe not a little of their development during 

 the last sixty years. Liberia was found to be well endowed 

 with the oil palm, and British traders from Sierra Leone began 

 to settle on the Liberian coast, very anxious to carry their flag 

 with them, and very scornful of a Government conducted by 

 civilised Negroes. In 1840 Buchanan decided to send an agent 

 to England to obtain assurances that English colonisation societies 

 would not encroach on the limits of Liberia. The Liberians 

 viewed with suspicion the motives of the British Anti-Slavery 

 Society even under the direction of philanthropists hke Fowell 

 Buxton. It was thought that under the guise of philanthropy 

 Great Britain would extend her rule eastwards from Sierra 

 Leone until she linked it with the Gold Coast Colony. 

 Americans interested in the future of Liberia at this time urged 

 the United States to purchase the Dutch and Danish settlements 

 on the Gold Coast,^ in the hope that this action might intensify 

 United States' interest in Liberia, which Buchanan was desirous 

 of turning into a regular American colony for American Negroes. 



In 1840 it was calculated that Liberia (excluding Maryland) 

 had a population of 2,221 American settlers and 30,000 freed 

 slaves or natives who had placed themselves under Lberian 

 government. But the whole colony still remained heavily in debt 

 to the American societies, little attempt having ever been made 

 to raise money by local industry so as to repay to these 

 societies the cost of founding Liberia. Buchanan addressed very 



I Eventually acquired by Great Britain, 



