ols, and implements. It is important to note the
essential part taken by the Government in the establishment of the
colony, for this is often said to be purely the result of private
enterprise; the inference tending to free the United States from any
responsibility for the protection of its feeble offspring. It is true
according to the letter, that the Government agency was separate from
the colony: the agents were instructed "to exercise no power founded on
the principle of colonization, or other principle than that of
performing benevolent offices;" and again, "you are not to connect your
agency with the views or plans of the Colonization Society, with which,
under the law, the Government of the United States has no concern," Yet
as a matter of fact the agency and colony were practically identical;
and for years the resources of the Government were employed "to colonize
recaptured Africans, to build homes for them, to furnish them with
farming utensils, to pay instructors to teach them, to purchase ships
for their convenience, to build forts for their protection, to supply
them with arms and munitions of war, to enlist troops to guard them, and
to employ the army and navy in their defence,"[7] These words of one
unfriendly to the colony forcibly show the extent to which our national
government was responsible for the experiment.

When the Elizabeth was chartered the Society was notified that the
Government agency was prepared to transport their first colonists; or
more literally "agreed to receive on board such free blacks recommended
by the Society as might be required for the purpose of the agency." For
the expenses of the expedition $33,000 was placed in the hands of Mr.
Bacon. Dr. Samuel A. Crozier was appointed by the Society as its agent
and representative; and eighty-six negroes from various
states--thirty-three men, eighteen women, and the rest children, were
embarked. On the 6th of February, 1820, the Mayflower of Liberia weighed
anchor in New York harbor, and, convoyed by the U.S. sloop-of-war Cyane,
steered her course toward the shores of Africa. The pilgrims were kindly
treated by the authorities at Sierra Leone, where they arrived on the
ninth of March; but on proceeding to Sherbro Island they found the
natives had reconsidered their promise, and refused to sell them land.
While delayed by negotiations the injudicious nature of the site
selected was disastrously shown. The low marshy ground and the bad wat