We bought several nice peices of country cloth this morning, 
all of the native cotton spun and woven in this town* One piece 
was a handsome Chief's robe in -white and two shades of blue* 
We get interesting war bulletins here. We heard today that 
we war was finished, that America had entered the war, and that the 
King of England had fled to Freetown. Inasmuch as Freetown is 
only two days ' walk from, here, that was exciting news indeed. 
& 
Flomo produced tonight for dinner, as good palm, butter chop 
as we have had in all Liberia. Although he made no pretensions to 
being a cook, he can make good coffee, country chop and open tin 
cans - which is all you want in the bush. 
May 23 - 
The day’s collection was a sad one ~ a civet cat with a broken 
back, and a francolin with a broken leg. These people have no idea 
of how to catch animals or care for them. 
The Chief and his young brother spent the evening with us, 
drinking beer and discussing political problems of Liberia. They 
dislike and mistrust the government, saying that although they pay 
a hut tax of eight shillings a year they get absolutely nothing for 
it* The natives are .forced to work on the roads for nothing, and 
then the government claims to be too poor to build bridge's, so that 
the roads are of no use for carrying produce down to the Coast. They 
say the officials are corrupt, and take government money to build 
fine bungalows for themselves and their sons# There is no government 
medical service through 9 the country, apart from one doctor in 
Monrovia, and the child mortality is said to be as high as 80 %, 
Boima Quae told us a little about the Gola war, which he led, and 
said sadly that their knives and cutlasses were of little use when 
the government turned a machine gun on them. 
May 24 - 
The same young hunter who brought us the first deer turned 
up with another one today - a nice chevrotain. He is a soldier, 
carries himself very erect, is young and cheeky, and loves a swig 
of gin which he can drink straight without changing the expression 
on his face. He claims to have shot three bush cows in one day, 
bringing down ekk two with one cartridge. 
I spent a large part of the day learning how to- load the 
Cine-Special. In the course of- the struggle (which was eventually 
successful) I ruined a good many feet of film, which Pay-Pay garnered 
to make himself a belt, and a strap for a stick which he carried 
over his shoulder like a guii. With a piece of termite nest for 
a khaki-colored head-dress he paraded up and down outside the house 
and had us all howling with mirth. 
In the evening we heard a loud palaver going on outside the 
Chief's hut, and looked over to see a number of visiting chiefs and 
head men. Thfel Chief's young brother had some Monrovia war bulletins 
the latest of which was May 12, and was reading them aloud and trans- 
lating. Fis gestures as he strode up „ and down proclaiming Germany’s 
invasion of Holland and Belgium were equal to anything one could 
see in Union Square* By the time we joined the group they were 
discussing the rice problem# It is hard to buy rice along the Coast 
