SWEDISH COLONY. 
from the jarring interests and fluctuating politics 
of her powers — the erection of a community, who 
might have the privilege of enacting its own laws, 
coining its own money, and exempting its members 
from imprisonment for debt — was deemed practi- 
cable on the western coast of Africa. To the exe- 
cution of this plan, which had a more extensive 
object than even the emancipation of the negro 
race, the most formidable obstacle appeared to be 
the opposition which it would necessarily receive 
from the slave-trade. A specific plan was however 
formed, and a charter, empowering forty families 
to settle on the western coast of Africa, under the 
protection of Sweden, to organize their own go- 
vernment, to enact their own laws, and to establish 
a society entirely independent of Europe, was 
procured from his Swedish majesty Gustavus III. 
through the influence of the chamberlain Ulric 
Nordonkiold, The only conditions annexed to 
those privileges were, that the society should de- 
fray the expenses of their expedition and establish- 
ment, and not infringe the territories possessed or 
claimed by other European powers. The execu- 
tion of this plan was, for some time, retarded by 
the American war 5 but, as it was judged expe- 
dient, as a preparatory step, to explore Western 
Africa, the Association entered into engagements 
with the mercantile house of M. Chauvell of 
Havre de Grace, to conduct expedition of dis- 
46 
