Cape Mesurado

Cape Mesurado projects into the Atlantic near the mouth of the Saint Paul River. Portuguese sailors traded here with African merchants for malagueta pepper, the spice that gave the Grain Coast its name. The cape later became a base for the Atlantic slave trade; in 1815 an armed force sent from Sierra Leone seized ships and freed people held in its trading establishments.

In 1821 representatives of the American Colonization Society sought land here for a settlement of free African Americans. Local Dei and Bassa leaders negotiated with them, but the ruler Zolu Duma was pressured into accepting the sale. Settlers established their colony on the cape in 1822; it became the town of Monrovia. Scarce supplies, disease and conflict with neighbouring communities troubled its first years.