Africa and the American Flag

by Andrew H. Foote

“That is the spot we ought to have,” said Captain Stockton, pointing to the high bluff of the cape; “that should be the site of our colony. No finer spot on the coast.” “And we must have it,” added Dr. Ayres.

They landed without arms, to prove their peaceful intentions, and sent an express to King Peter for negotiations. The natives collected in large bodies, until the captain and agent were surrounded without the means of defence, except a demijohn of whiskey and some tobacco, which convinced the natives that no hostility was then intended.

King Peter at length appeared, and a long palaver took place, when the agent informed him that their object was to purchase the cape and islands at the mouth of the river. He strongly objected to parting with the cape, saying, “If any white man settle there, King Peter would die, and his woman cry a plenty.” The agents represented to him the great advantages in trade, which the proposed settlement would afford to his people. After receiving a vague promise from the king that he would let them have the land, the palaver broke up.

On the 14th instant the palaver was renewed at the residence of the king, whither, as a measure of the last resort, Captain Stockton and the agent had determined to proceed. The first word the king said was, “What you want that land for?” This was again explained to him. One of the men present accused them of taking away the King of Bassa’s son and killing him; another of being those who had quarrelled with the Sherboro people. A mulatto fellow also presented himself to Captain Stockton, and charged him with the capture of a slave-vessel in which he had served as a seaman. The prospects now looked very gloomy, as here were two men in the midst of a nation exasperated against them. But by mixing a little flattery with threatening, Captain Stockton regained his advantage in the discussion. He explained his connection with the circumstances, and complained of their constant vacillation of purpose in reference to the lands. The old king was at length pacified, and promised to call some more kings, and have a meeting the following day for the purpose of ceding the lands.

Several palavers of a more amicable nature were afterwards held, and the kings at last consented to cede a tract of land, receiving as a compensation goods to the value of about three hundred dollars. The deed bears on it the marks for signatures of King Peter, King George, King Zoda, King Long Peter, King Governor, King Jimmy, and the signatures of Captain Robert F. Stockton and Eli Ayres, M. D.

The tract ceded included Cape Mesurado and the lands forming nearly a peninsula between the Mesurado and Junk rivers—about thirty-six miles along the sea-shore, with an average breadth of about two miles.

Captain Stockton then left the coast with the Alligator, placing Lieutenant Hunter in command of a schooner, who, with Dr. Ayres and the men, proceeded to Sierra Leone, and brought from thence all the working men to Cape Mesurado. They disembarked on the smaller of the two islands amidst the menaces of the natives.

It was ascertained on their arrival that King Peter had been denounced by many of the kings for having sold the land to a people who would interfere with the slave-trade, and were hostile to their old customs. The king was threatened with the loss of his head; and it was decreed that the new people should be expelled from the country. Dr. Ayres at length succeeded in checking the opposition of the kings, and restored apparent tranquillity.

The island on which the colonists first established themselves, was named Perseverance. It was destitute of wood and water, affording no shelter except the decayed thatch of a few small huts. Thus exposed in an insalubrious situation, several of the people were attacked with intermittent fever. By an arrangement with King George, who claimed authority over a part of the northern district of the peninsula of Mesurado, the colonists, on their recovery, were permitted to cross the river, where they cleared the land, and erected a number of comparatively comfortable buildings; when, in the temporary absence of Dr. Ayres, a circumstance occurred which threatened the extinction of the colony.

A small slaver, prize to an English cruiser, bound to Sierra Leone, ran into the port for water. During the night she parted her cable, and drifted on shore, near King George’s Town, not far from Perseverance Island. Under a prescriptive right, when a vessel was wrecked, the natives claimed her, and accordingly proceeded to take possession. The English prize-officer resisted, and after one or two shots the assailants hastily retreated. The officer learning that another attack was meditated, sent to the colony for aid. One of the colonists—temporarily in charge during the absence of the agents to bring the women and children from Sierra Leone—regardless of the admonition to avoid “entangling alliances,” and approving “the doctrine of intervention,” promptly afforded assistance. The second attack was made, but the colonists and prize-crew, with the help of one or two rounds of grape and cannister from a brass field-piece on the island, which was brought to bear on the assailants, soon scattered them, with the loss of two killed and several wounded. On the following day, they renewed their assualt with a greater force, and were again repulsed, but an English sailor and one colonist were killed.