The first shipment of colonists took place in February, 1820, from New York, by the ship _Elizabeth_ which had been chartered by the government. It carried two agents of the United States Government--Rev. Samuel Bacon and John P. Bankson; Dr. Samuel A. Crozer was sent as agent of the American Colonization Society; 88 emigrants accompanied them, who had promised in return for their passage and other aid of the Government, to prepare suitable accommodations for such Africans as the Government might afterwards send. The expedition went at first to Sierra Leone, thence to Sherbro Island, landing at Campelar, the point chosen by Mills and Burgess for settlement. The place was badly selected. Practically the whole company suffered frightfully from fever. Bacon, Bankson, and Crozer, all died, together with many of the colonists. A second party was sent out in 1821 in the _Nautilus_, a vessel chartered by the United States Government. It carried two agents of the government--J. B. Winn and Ephraim Bacon--and two agents of the colony--Joseph R. Andrus and Christian Wiltberger. Some emigrants accompanied them. On their arrival at Sierra Leone, the emigrants were left at Fourah Bay, while Bacon and Andrus went on down the coast in search of a suitable situation for settlement. In this search they went as far as Grand Bassa. Soon after they returned to Sierra Leone, Mr. and Mrs. Bacon were invalided home; shortly afterwards Mr. and Mrs. Winn died of fever; thus Wiltberger was left alone in charge of the settlement, until Dr. Eli Ayres arrived as chief agent of the Society in the autumn. Wiltberger visited Sherbro, and finding the conditions of the settlers serious, he took them with him back to Fourah Bay, Sierra Leone. In December, Capt. Robert F. Stockton, of the _Alligator_, came to the coast with orders to co-operate so far as possible with the agents. Leaving Wiltberger in charge of the colonists at Fourah Bay, Ayres and Stockton made an exploration of the coast. On the 11th they reached Mesurado Bay, and being pleased with the appearance of the district, they sought a palaver with the native chiefs. Making their way through the jungle to the village of the most important chief, they found hundreds of people collected; negotiations were at once begun for land at the mouth of the Mesurado River, upon which a settlement might be made. The business was not conducted without excitement and some danger, but Stockton appears to have been a man of parts, and finally a contract was drawn up and signed by six kings, with their marks, and by Ayres and Stockton. The territory secured included all of the cape, the mouth of the river, and the land for some distance into the interior, although the boundaries were left indefinite.