North Eastern Atlantic

Beyond Cape Mesurado the Atlantic washes a coast once visited by Portuguese ships seeking malagueta pepper. African traders supplied the spice, known in Europe as grains of paradise, at the cape and other places along the shore. The cape also became a centre of the trade in captive people. In 1822 free African American settlers founded a colony there after representatives of the American Colonization Society obtained land from local leaders under pressure. Their settlement grew into Monrovia.