the medieval nomenclature, graine de paradis (grain of paradise), for the malagueta pepper. In the seventeenth century, the Dutch established a trading post at Cape Mount, and English, French, and German traders began to operate in the area. Trading posts were established by Europeans at Cestos and Grand Cess. Around the same time, African peoples who had settled in the region included tribes and villages associated with inter-related ethno-linguistic groups, the Bassa, Kru, and Grebo people; the Kpelle, Loma and Vai people; and the Gola people. These groups did not found unified states, but traditionally lived in autonomous villages, characterized by patrilineal descent which engaged in fishing and farming. Most of these tribes were involved in the slave trade, bringing slaves from the interior to the coast for sale to Europeans. In 1787, British abolitionists established a settlement, Freetown, near Cape Mesurado, for the resettlement of freedmen from Britain and her colonies. The idea fueled plans in the United States to found a similar settlement. Between 1815 and 1821 numerous attempts to resettle freedmen on the Pepper Coast failed and negotiations for suitable land were unsuccessful. In 1820, the American Colonization Society drafted a constitution based on the American legal system to establish that the colony was to be administered by the Society and that any person repatriated to Africa agreed to be governed by the Society. They sent two agents, Robert F. Stockton and Eli Ayers in 1821, to negotiate with local chieftains to secure a place for colonization. Reaching an agreement with all of the headman of the tribes in the vicinity, Stockton and Ayers acquired Cape Mesurado and land on Dozoa Island in the cape for settlement. Colony of Liberia (1822–1847) The Colony of Liberia was established on Dozoa in January 1822 as the local inhabitants did not allow them on the mainland. After negotiations to settle the dispute, they were able to relocate to Cape Mesurado in April. Additional colonization organizations sent freedman to Liberia. In 1822 a settlement was established at Edina by the Colonization Society of New York City of New York, which also founded a colony at Bassa Cove in conjunction with the Young Men's Colonization Society of Pennsylvania, in 1834. That year, the Maryland Colonization Society settled colonists at Cape Palmas. In 1837 a settlement was located at Sinoe by the Mississippi Colonization Society. In each case, negotiations to acquire land were