, of fifteen Africans;[20] in 1835, $3,613 for
the support of thirty-eight slaves for two months (including a bill of
$1,038 for medical attendance).[21]
The African agency suffered many vicissitudes. The first agent, Bacon,
who set out early in 1820, was authorized by President Monroe "to form
an establishment on the island of Sherbro, or elsewhere on the coast of
Africa," and to build barracks for three hundred persons. He was,
however, warned "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." Bacon soon died, and was followed
during the next four years by Winn and Ayres; they succeeded in
establishing a government agency on Cape Mesurado, in conjunction with
that of the Colonization Society. The agent of that Society, Jehudi
Ashmun, became after 1822, the virtual head of the colony; he fortified
and enlarged it, and laid the foundations of an independent community.
The succeeding government agents came to be merely official
representatives of the United States, and the distribution of free
rations for liberated Africans ceased in 1827.
Between 1819 and 1830 two hundred and fifty-two recaptured Africans were
sent to the agency, and $264,710 were expended. The property of the
government at the agency was valued at $18,895.
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