After the attacks on the merchant ships Mary Carver and Edward Barley, the American Congress approved a punitive expedition to the area and placed Commodore Matthew C. Perry in command.

The expedition was successful in exacting redress by destroying the fortified town of Little Bereby and by killing the chief responsible for the attacks on American shipping.

At Porto Grande, in the Cape Verde Islands, Perry later transferred his flag to the 38-gun frigate Macedonian, which participated in the operation along with the 16-gun sloop Decatur and the 10-gun brigantine Porpoise.

Early in the morning of November 29, a party of seventy-five marines and sailors landed at Sinoe where Perry had a meeting, or palaver, with Governor Joseph Jenkins Roberts of Liberia and his staff as well as the "twenty kings" to discuss the earlier incidents.

Again the meeting was successful, so Perry sailed for Cape Palmas the same night and anchored off the town of Caval on December 7 where another palaver was held with the African Chief Ben Crack-O who was the overall king of the tribes in the area.

The meeting was held in a house about fifty yards from the kraal gates, during which Roberts began discussing with Crack-O the Mary Carver and the Edward Barley affairs.

It was apparent that the king was not telling the truth, so Commodore Perry stepped closer to Crack-O to advise him to stop lying and a scuffle ensued.

[4] Now that hostilities had begun, Perry ordered his men to burn the town, and, after carrying out the objective, the expedition was returning to their ships when ambushed by native warriors in the woods.