is
subject, because with me it is a very important one, and because
of the interest which the Board has taken in this mission.[63]

Mrs. Cary, "a sensible woman and an exemplary Christian,"[64] was sick
at this time and soon died, leaving her husband the care of their two
children.[65] Despite this and the appalling circumstances of the
first settlers, they wrote to the Board rejoicing that they were in
the country of their forefathers and hoping that His gracious
approbation would crown their labors.[66] Lott Cary kept constantly in
mind the great object of his mission. He not only preached as often as
opportunity would permit but he established a mission among the
Mandingoes.[67]

Nevertheless, there was danger for some time that the whole enterprise
would be abandoned. Whereupon, Captain Robert F. Stockton was sent to
Africa in the armed schooner _Alligator_ with full powers from
President Monroe and the American Colonization Society to make
arrangements for a new and permanent settlement.[68] On December 11,
he and Doctor Eli Ayres, the Society's agent, who had left America in
July, anchored off Cape Mesurado or Montserado and, with John Mills,
an English mulatto and slave dealer, as interpreter, made negotiations
with King Peter, the principal chief around the Cape, for the purchase
of a settlement. After much parleying and delay on the part of the
king and treachery on the part of Mills,[69] they finally exchanged
gunpowder, tobacco, rum, iron pots, beads, looking glasses, "four
Hats, three Coats, three pair Shoes"[70] and other minor articles not
worth more than $300 for that valuable tract of land[71] which was the
nucleus of what is now the Republic of Liberia.[72]

Arrangements were made for the colonists to take possession of their
new home the 7th of February, 1822.[73] The territory, finally
including ninety miles of coast lying between the Junk and Sesters
Rivers and extending nearly seventy miles into the interior,
presented, on the one hand, an excellent opportunity to work among the
Bassa, Vey, Dey and Kroo tribes,[74] who numbered about 125,000, and
exhibited, on the other hand, many obstacles, for the natives were
hostile, and the rainy season was approaching, at the time when
provisions were scarce.

The condition of the colonists was so appalling that many proposed to
return to Sierra Leone. Just a few more hours and the Cape would have
been abandoned, but when the Agent went ashore t