Liberia ^ 



fused) had extended the limits of the republic eastwards along 

 the Ivory Coast to the River San Pedro, about sixty miles 

 east of the Cavalla. This extension really covered all the coast 

 territory inhabited by people belonging to the Kru race, so 

 that it was to a great extent coincident with an ethnographical 

 boundary. When the present writer was Acting Consul for 

 the Niger Coast, etc., in 1888, he visited this portion of the 

 Liberian coast to settle some disputes which had arisen between 

 Kruboys and their employers in Southern Nigeria. At that 

 date the territory between the Cavalla and the San Pedro 

 was distinctly recognised as Liberian. Nevertheless, when 

 French ambitions in the matter of an African empire were 

 revived in the beginning of the 'eighties of the last century, 

 it was determined to extend the scattered French possessions 

 on the Ivory Coast until they covered the whole region between 

 the British Gold Coast on the east and the Cavalla River on 

 the west. An indication of this intention was given by a 

 decree published in the Bulletin des Lois in 1885, which declared 

 the coast to be French territory not only between the San Pedro 

 and the Cavalla but beyond the Cavalla and Cape Palmas to 

 the town of Garawe. France also began to revive claims of 

 a very shadowy nature^ to Cape Mount, to the original site 

 of Petit Dieppe (Grand Basa), and to a large piece of territory 

 at Grand Butu." Most of these claims were based on offers 

 of territory by native chiefs to the commanders of French war 

 vessels. 



In 1 89 1 an official communication of these intentions on 

 the part of the French Government was made to Great Britain. 

 But no doubt unacknowledged negotiations had been proceeding 



' Dating from 1842. 



^ Also the site of a supposed Norman settlement, Le Grand et le Petit 

 Putteau. 



283 



