We Have All Landed on the Shores of Africa

After a voyage of more than six weeks, the Luna arrives at Monrovia, where Austin and Tolbert Major, their children, Agnes Harlan and her family, and the other passengers disembark and get their first glimpse of Africa. The Luna’s crew offloads supplies and picks up food and water for the trip to Bassa Cove, their new home. Three weeks later, Tolbert Major locates some hard-to-find paper and ink and writes a letter to Ben: “Dear Sir: We have all landed on the shores of Africa and got into our houses . . . none of us have been taken with the fever yet. We have a prospect of war with the natives.” It is the first of many letters the new settlers will exchange with the man who had once owned them.