The traders of France were nearly in the same position with those of the United States, and there was the same necessity for guarding against the abuse of their flag. Before proceeding to the proper history of the American squadron in its efforts for the great purposes it had in view, it may be advisable briefly to notice that France, in 1845, had formed with England a treaty under which both parties engaged to keep a squadron of not less than twenty-six cruisers on the coast. The number was afterwards, by a separate agreement, reduced on the part of France to twelve vessels. The reasons for this, and the few captures made by French vessels, apply as well to the American cruisers, and account for the nature of the stipulation in the treaty of Washington, that the United States should only employ on the African coast a squadron of eighty guns. These two nations have not, as England has, the right by treaty with other powers, to interfere with any vessels except their own. Hence the captures made by English cruisers necessarily outnumbered greatly the captures made by both the other powers. The duty of the American and French squadron was in fact restrictive in respect to their own citizens alone; and while indispensable for the general success of these operations, they could not exhibit any thing like the same amount of result in captures, whatever might be the zeal and activity of the cruisers. Several slavers, however, have been captured by this squadron; and its presence has restrained the employment of the French flag in that traffic. [4] Parliamentary papers, presented 1832, B., pp. 170, 171. CHAPTER XXII. UNITED STATES SQUADRON--TREATY OF WASHINGTON. There has been noted in the history of Liberia, prior to the establishment of the commonwealth, the occasional arrival of American men-of-war on the west coast of Africa. But an organized squadron was not established until the year 1843.