n, and his right to the territory was not then
called in question. Trouble, however, developed out of the attitude of
John M. Harris, a British merchant, and in 1862, while President Benson
was in England, he was officially informed that the right of Liberia was
recognized _only_ to the land "east of Turner's Peninsula to the River
San Pedro." Harris now worked up a native war against the Vais; the
Liberians defended themselves; and in the end the British Government
demanded L8878.9.3 as damages for losses sustained by Harris, and
arbitrarily extended its territory from Sherbro Island to Cape Mount. In
the course of the discussion claims mounted up to L18,000. Great Britain
promised to submit this boundary question to the arbitration of the
United States, but when the time arrived at the meeting of one of the
commissions in Sierra Leone she firmly declined to do so. After this,
whenever she was ready to take more land she made a plausible pretext
and was ready to back up her demands with force. On March 20, 1882, four
British men-of-war came to Monrovia and Sir A.E. Havelock, Governor of
Sierra Leone, came ashore; and President Gardiner was forced to submit
to an agreement by which, in exchange for L4750 and the abandonment of
all further claims, the Liberian Government gave up all right to
the Gallinhas territory from Sherbro Island to the Mafa River. This
agreement was repudiated by the Liberian Senate, but when Havelock was
so informed he replied, "Her Majesty's Government can not in any case
recognize any rights on the part of Liberia to any portions of the
territories in dispute." Liberia now issued a protest to other great
powers; but this was without avail, even the United States counseling
acquiescence, though through the offices of America the agreement was
slightly modified and the boundary fixed at the Mano River. Trouble next
arose on the east. In 1846 the Maryland Colonization Society purchased
the lands of the Ivory Coast east of Cape Palmas as far as the San Pedro
River. These lands were formally transferred to Liberia in 1857, and
remained in the undisputed possession of the Republic for forty years.
France now, not to be outdone by England, on the pretext of title deeds
obtained by French naval commanders who visited the coast in 1890, in
1891 put forth a claim not only to the Ivory Coast, but to land as far
away as Grand Bassa and Cape Mount. The next year, under threat of
force, she compelled Liberia to