The actions of the Foreign Office served to curb the excesses of the supercargoes. The liberated Africans, as masters of their own destiny and more secure in their position, encouraged more of their kind to migrate from Sierra Leone to Calabar. As their numbers increased, especially after the collapse of the palm oil trade in 1862, so did their influence in trade and politics, and they would occasionally be known to play the local chiefs, missionaries and supercargoes off against each another (Latham, 1973, p. 107). Before long, the liberated Africans attained economic and social positions that attracted the envy of even the Efik, their allies in the struggle with the supercargoes. Efik men charged that they were haughty, arrogant and proud and that they were taking their women - Efik women preferred to form a relationship and even marry liberated Africans because of their apparent wealth and social status (Nair, 1972, p. 123). The liberated Africans had been able, in a surprisingly short period of time, to obliterate the stigma attached to the formerly enslaved and become the pride of every woman seeking a successful husband.  
Liberated Africans played an indispensable role in expediting the expansion of British influence in the Cross River region at a time when the British lacked the staff, revenue and knowledge of the hinterland to strengthen it. Men of personal integrity, with a mastery of the local languages and ability to fluently communicate in English, their willingness to play that role came as some relief to the British officials afraid of penetrating into the interior with its debilitating climate and the  
dreaded fever. Their activities in securing treaties with the rulers in the Bight of Biafra enabled Britain to emerge from the scramble for territory with two-thirds of what is now Nigeria (Wyse, 1985, p. 126); and some would consequently participate in the colonial administration in the Cross River region. As a rule, they always returned to trading at the end of their colonial service: