December 20, 1818, fair notice of his intention, no objection being made, he proceeded to appoint two agents, the Rev. Samuel Bacon, already in the service of the Colonization Society, and John P. Bankson as assistant, and to charter the ship Elizabeth.  The agents were instructed to settle on the coast of Africa, with a tacit understanding that the place should be that selected by the Colonization Society; they were to provide accommodations sufficient for three hundred, supplying provisions, clothing, tools, and implements.  It is important to note the essential part taken by the Government in the establishment of the colony, for this is often said to be purely the result of private enterprise; the inference tending to free the United States from any responsibility for the protection of its feeble offspring.  It is true according to the letter, that the Government agency was separate from the colony:  the agents were instructed “to exercise no power founded on the principle of colonization, or other principle than that of performing benevolent offices;” and again, “you are 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,” Yet as a matter of fact the agency and colony were practically identical; and for years the resources of the Government were employed “to colonize recaptured Africans, to build homes for them, to furnish them with farming utensils, to pay instructors to teach them, to purchase ships for their convenience, to build forts for their protection, to supply them with arms and munitions of war, to enlist troops to guard them, and to employ the army and navy in their defence,"[7] These words of one unfriendly to the colony forcibly show the extent to which our national government was responsible for the experiment.

When the Elizabeth was chartered the Society was notified that the Government agency was prepared to transport their first colonists; or more literally “agreed to receive on board such free blacks recommended by the Society as might be required for the purpose of the agency.”  For the expenses of the expedition $33,000 was placed in the hands of Mr. Bacon.  Dr. Samuel A. Crozier was appointed by the Society as its agent and representative; and eighty-six negroes from various states—­thirty-three men, eighteen women, and the rest children, were embarked.  On the 6th of February, 1820, the Mayflower of Liberia weighed anchor in New York harbor, and, convoyed by the U.S. sloop-of-war Cyane, steered her course toward the shores of Africa.  The pilgrims were kindly treated by the authorities at Sierra Leone, where they arrived on the ninth of March; but on proceeding to Sherbro Island they found the natives had reconsidered their promise, and refused to sell them land.  While delayed by negotiations the injudicious nature of the site selected was disastrously shown.  The low marshy ground and the bad water quickly bred the African fever, which soon carried off all the agents and nearly a fourth of the emigrants.  The rest, weakened and disheartened were soon obliged to seek refuge at Sierra Leone.