On October 27, 1825, Jehudi Ashmun, governor of Colonial Liberia, reached an agreement to lease land on both sides of the river mouth from a local ruler named King Freeman. Within a month, the government had erected a warehouse and placed a trader on the land to buy rice from nearby farmers. The goal was to supply Monrovia with local rice in place of rice imported from America.
Immediately after completion, the warehouse was destroyed, in Governor Ashmun’s words, by “a mischievous individual.” The person responsible was expelled from the area by King Freeman, who rebuilt the warehouse at no cost to the colonial government.
Footnote: J. Ashmun, “Accessions of territory – and new establishments connected with the colony, African Repository, May 1826, p. 93.
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