Freetown, Sierra Leone, Africa, November 12, 1891.

MR. EDITOR:

        I arrived here a few days ago after a rather tedious jaunt from Liverpool. The ship could run fast enough, but the captain would not let it.

        My reception here was indescribable. The ship came into port late at night, but I awoke early in the morning and looked out upon the city and saw a place much resembling Vicksburg, Miss., except that the mountains rose in the rear of the city much higher than the lofty bluffs of Vicksburg. Upon the inclinations or declivities of the receding elevations a city of 30,000 population stood in surprising majesty--surprising by reason of the wide streets and stately two, three and four-story buildings which stretch along the streets for a mile or two. I had looked for no such place. I thought it was a low, swampy, lagoony town with narrow, muddy streets, as filthy as a cess-pool; but cleanliness, pavements, sidewalks, rock sewers and decency everywhere met my eye. But when I pointed this and that fine building out, and was told that they all belonged to black men, I was surprised more than ever. Again, when I inquired about the great cathedral, with tower and clock, and other large churches, with spires, domes and steeples, and was told they were all black people's churches, I had to say, "Thank God for this sight!"

        Shortly boats came to the ship in scores, and the ship was crowded with black men. All had clothes on and some were finely clad. Every officer was black, and some were haughty and dictatorial as lords; a few a little too much so, I thought; but when I discovered the downright villainy of some of these English officers, I saw the point.

        However, while standing upon the ship, noting things as they transpired, a gentleman from the wharf walked up and said, "Are you the bishop of Mr. Frederick?" I replied, "I am Bishop Turner." He said, "Give me your card for him, as he has been looking for you

several days." I gave him my card and he disappeared. In a short time Elder Frederick and Mr. Bowser, the representative of the United States Government, a noble-looking, brown-skinned gentleman, formerly of Ohio, came on board, accompanied by some more prominent gentlemen. The salutations' were cordial; Frederick and Geda hugged each other, etc.

        In a few moments more we were en route for the wharf, where I expected to kiss the ground of my first proper disembarkation; but as I set my foot on shore, a waiting multitude of men and women rushed upon me and shook my hands and exclaimed, "Glory to God, Hallelujah!" etc., till I was melted with tears. I never witnessed such emotions of thankfulness in all my life; but the scene beggars description.

        Elder Geda, myself and trunks were conducted to the custom house. Every custom house official was black; the collector-in-chief was intensely black. All trunks were examined except mine and Geda's. The collector told his officers not to touch our trunks, but he asked me a few questions as to their contents, and ordered them passed through the custom house. Frederick thanked him and marched them off to the Lady Huntington A. M. E. Church.

        As we filed along the street for some four squares great crowds stood out and looked on with much eagerness.

        The church was ultimately reached--an edifice corresponding to our church in Richmond, Va., except that it has only one aisle, in the centre. As we entered, the packed house, up and down stairs arose and sang "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow," in a most solemn and pathetic manner. Geda and I were conducted to the altar, and Elder Frederick gave out page 252, "We bid thee welcome in the name," which was sung, and prayer was offered to heaven for us. I was then presented to the people in an able speech by Elder Frederick, but I could not speak; I was completely broken down. When I saw the emotions of gratitude, not to me, but to the church I represented, I cried like a child; I would have given my life could all the bishops have been present. While it is impossible to picture the scenes in words, let me say, the joy of those people--I mean our people--at the presence of a bishop was simply overwhelming. They had been

told so often that no bishop would ever come from our church; that the African colored bishops did not care if they all were lost, etc.; and, strange to say, too, they were told this by white missionaries, so that when one did come their joy knew no bounds. Gracious alive! how white people have misrepresented the A. M. E. Church and her bishops in Africa. I hate to say some of them were white bishops, too, but it will have to be said ultimately.

        This morning at 10 o'clock we opened the First Annual Conference of the A. M. E. Church in Africa, in the Zion A. M. E. Church formerly known as the Lady Huntington Church.

        As Elder Geda is so well pleased with the possibilities of Africa that he is going to remain here, I have transferred him from New England to the Sierra Leone Annual Conference, which gives us at present five members of our Annual Conference; but as two learned Wesleyan preachers may join the church to-night, it is likely we will soon have seven members. Our session to-day was watched with much interest; the term "African" to our church is a magic word.

        There is no church on earth that can grow like ours if we will half work. The heathen kings will drive out other denominations, so I am told, and declare our church the church of their kingdoms.

        But as I must close this letter, as the mail will soon leave--in one hour from now--I beg to say, the three days I have spent here have been fine. I am no more alarmed about sickness than I would be anywhere else. I may get sick and die, but I feel fine now. Geda says he is not scared worth a cent.

        Sierra Leone is about like Memphis, Tenn., Helena, Ark., Vicksburg, Miss., or Baton Rouge, La.

        I saw a white girl who came here from Ohio three weeks ago to marry a fellow; she is fourteen years old. She looks well enough.

        I believe many of the European and American white people's deaths here at Sierra Leone are due to liquor drinking; most of them who come here are whisky sots.

        I may be sick here, but I shall not believe it till I feel it.

        Geda declares he feels better; yet from nine till one it is quite hot, but I have felt it much hotter in America.

        I will write much more in my next letter.

SEVENTH LETTER.

Freetown, Sierra Leone, Africa, November 16, 1891.

MR. EDITOR:

        In my last letter I stated the impressions and circumstances of my arrival at Sierra Leone. Before proceeding further on that line, permit me to state a fact that some of our learned men may philosophize upon in some of their leisure moments. I find that the waters of the ocean here are more salty, dense and heavy than the waters of the same ocean about New York and Liverpool and in the Northern Hemisphere. They are harder to raise into waves and billows and hence are far more pacific than our section of the same ocean. The quantity of water that will weigh two pounds at Liverpool or New York will weigh two pounds and a quarter here, and sometimes a half ounce more. I confess it is a puzzle to me; and all I have asked--sea-captains, doctors, engineers and mineralogists--have failed to explain this secret of nature. Will some of our learned professors at Wilberforce, Paul Quinn, Allen, Morris Brown, Kittrell or some of our other centers of learning tell us the reason?

        But let us return to Sierra Leone. I find the mountains, which rise up in the rear of this city, are all of volcanic origin; a blue granite, which is the youngest of the granite series, if the learned theories are correct, forms the substratum and glides into the ocean; but over that is a thick layer of porous rock (we will call them), tinged heavily with iron, which is compounded with a basaltic feldspar. The old geologists would call it "Titanic iron base." This condition runs, subject to undulations and horizontals, from the ocean beach to the top of those 3,700 feet mountains. The English government has a fort that overlooks the city, and a hospital upon the mountain-top, only for soldiers, however. All the troops here are colored--West Indians--except the officers, who are all white.

        Freetown is at the mouth of the Roquelle River, which higher up appears to be the recipient of two or three others; this makes Freetown

quite accessible to large regions of the interior by the agency of small boats and canoes.

        But why waste time and space with the topography of the country? Your readers will be more concerned about the people, their habits, customs, manners, etc. I find about everything here common to other cities. House builders, rock blasters, lime burners, stone chiselers and polishers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, painters, whitewashers, tailors, watch-makers, jewelers, finest kind of bootmakers, dressmakers, glass polishers, boat caulkers, engineers, storekeepers, doctors, lawyers, judges, druggists, postmasters, custom house officers, schools, seminaries, colleges, cathedrals, publishers, editors, bookbinders, medicine makers, chemists, scholars and everything except horses and mules. Yes, I hear there are a few jackasses about--four-legged I mean. We can find two-legged assess anywhere. And what is grander to me than anything else, is the fact that the trades-people are black men and women. Mixed bloods are not excluded, however. They have a share in everything. Several white men from England and some from France, Germany Italy and America have come here and married black women and raised up families of mixed blood. Some have lived with colored wives awhile and left them several children to look after, and disappeared; so mulattoes are not absent at all. But other white men have lived with their colored wives right along and died with them. A few black men have also gone to England and elsewhere, and married white ladies, and they have children, etc.

        All the ministers here, except the Baptists, wear robes--the Catholics, Mohammedans, English Church, Wesleyan Methodists, Free Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans and African Methodist Episcopal. Elder Geda looks grandly in a robe, and the people here thought he was used to it. I smiled, but said nothing. Of course, I was at home in my robe. The Catholic and Mohammedan priests wear robes all over the city.

        The dress of the people is not uniform at all. Some are dressed in fine broadcloth, some in silks, bonnets, jewelry, and in the fashions; others in cheaper style; others in shirts, gowns, wraps; others almost as God made them. The old settlers are the bloods or dignitaries; then comes in the tribal part, according to grade. Tribal prejudice

runs high in many cases. The bush crowd are the servants and domestics.

        The bush or native heathen Africans do all the drudgery work, such as pulling and pushing the carts, wheel chairs, sedan chairs, hammocks, hearses; carry all boxes, barrels, stones, mortar, bricks; row all the boats on the river, etc. The people are peaceable; I see or hear of no fighting; shooting is never heard of. Sometimes an African king may come from the bush, or country, and kill some runaway wife; then he is arrested and banished to some island, and made to work the balance of his life; but if a king comes to the city and kills a decent wife, he will likely kill himself before he will be arrested.

        Elder J. R. Frederick is a great and good man; he has done a noble work here. While I have found fault with Bishop Payne for ignoring the missionary channels and sending his missionary money directly to Brother Frederick, I am prepared now to say, Bishop Payne deserves the gratitude of our church; the reasons why I hope to give in the future. The ladies of the Mite Missionary Society also have done more good than they have any idea of. God bless every one of them!

        I have received two able ministers from the Wesleyan Church and have entered them into our itinerant work; one is very learned. I have preached or exhorted every night since I have been here, and most of the time presided over the Sierra Leone Annual Conference of the A. M. E. Church, four hours each day, and feel as well as I ever felt. Sierra Leone is far healthier than Memphis, Tenn., Pine Bluff, or Helena, Ark. No one coming from Memphis would ever notice anything but a favorable change.

        We will have two or three churches here soon--possibly before I leave--besides what we have up the rivers. The A. M. E. Church can be the Continental Church of Africa, if it will hear me when I reach home.

        I learned that Bishop Crowther, of the Niger, has not been treated right somehow by the Church of England, and he and his ministers are about to set up an independent apostolic denomination. I am urged to go and confer with him, but the object might be misconstrued, therefore I shall not go. I do not blame the bishop for kicking, if what some of his ministers tell me be true.

        White men and their wives are coming here from New York State, Ohio, Indiana and Iowa and going one hundred miles in the country and settling among the heathen, preaching, teaching school and training the black children.

        Rev. J. M. Johnson, of Iowa, came in this morning from over a hundred miles and related his labors, and his wife's labors, and told me of others out there, etc., while we are evading Africa as a deadly viper.

        These whites say the interior is cooler than Texas and far healthier than Houston, while iron ore stands in mountain heaps and the finest wood on earth is boundless.

        A singular fact is, that anybody, white or colored, from America is welcomed out here in Africa, either on the coast or back in the interior, while Englishmen, French and Germans are mostly hated. The kings hate them, especially about robbing them of their lands. The French are hated as the devil. Americans are looked upon as the guardians of Liberia and the friends of her black, and it modifies the prejudice somehow. I do not understand it yet. France is more intolerant in her claimed possessions than England it seems, and far less compromising, while the Mohammedans abominate Germany about the shiploads of rot-gut whisky they land along the coast to ruin the more heathen African. The English ships despise the German ships about the same; nearly every time they see a German ship at sea the entire crew will curse it about shipping poisoned liquor to Africa. The English ships carry a good deal, too, but they ease their conscience by saying, "Our whisky is all first-class. It is inspected before we leave Liverpool and London."

        The "Galaxy," containing the bishops and their wives, is a great treat to our members here and the people in general. I wish I had 10,000 of them instead of 40 copies. The preachers and people want them for the interior by thousands, for kings and their judges and big men.

        The African ladies who come in the city from the bush, for hundreds of miles, have to buy white doll-babies for their children. They want black, brown and yellow dolls. If some of our people will engage in their manufacture they can sell millions of colored dolls. England,

France, etc., only send out white dolls. The black merchants out here (and they are plentiful) are crazy for a line of steamships to America, like England, France and Germany have, so they can deal in American goods, medicines, etc.; so the merchants can come over in ten or fifteen days and return in haste--the sail vessels are too slow.

        I find people here 75, 80, 90, 100 and a few 112 and 117 years old, about as old as some of the who are afraid to visit Africa. I do not think Rev. J. W. Randolph, D. D., is much over 117 years old.

        I took some observations this afternoon in the rear of this city. I find millions of dollars of iron awaiting the hands of industry. I am told silver mines abound not far from here. I was surprised to hear them singing gospel hymns in the Roman Catholic Church. I see white Sisters of Charity here, moving around as in other cities. Yesterday they marched at least a hundred young ladies up the street, of all colors and shades, neatly dressed, and the young ladies did look grand. The priest in charge has been here forty years, and says he would not exchange Africa for the world--white as he is. He is assisted by three other priests.

        This morning I had a grand treat. Two of the great granddaughters of Rev. Daniel Coker, of Baltimore, one of the chief organizers of the A. M. E. Church, called upon me to inquire about their relatives in Baltimore. It appears that when Rev. Daniel Coker came here, sixty odd years ago, he brought a son with him, a young man. Rev. Daniel Coker died about 1846; his son (Henry) died some years ago. Henry had a son, whose name was Hillery T. Coker, who died in his fifty-sixth year in February last, and was buried by Elder Frederick, as he was his member. He leaves a wife and two daughters, Jane Coker, twenty years of age, and Susan Coker, near eleven years, two beautiful ginger-cake-colored children, and very smart and bright.

        Miss Jane Coker is the interpreter for the United Brethren of America out among the Sherbro tribe. They preach and talk to this tribe through her. She is proud of her ancestry and feels she is of no common blood; she is pretty, modest and thoughtful; she wishes to visit Baltimore, but money is wanting. I told her if she dared to visit Baltimore, Philadelphia, or anywhere the A. M. E. Church existed, she would never get back; that the people would feast and honor her to

death, because she had the blood of Daniel Coker in her. Little Susan Coker is anxious to come back with me, and her mother is willing. She wishes the child highly educated; she has a bright intellect and a fine head phrenologically, and could be made a great woman. I may or may not bring her. It appears that Rev. Daniel Coker and his son had a number of the Akoo tribe placed under them for training and they all took his name, so that the Cokers are very numerous. One of the preachers I have admitted on trial in the traveling work is a Coker. He says Daniel Coker was his grandfather's master--a term here which means boss.

        These black Mohammedan priests, learned to kill, walking around here in their robes with so much dignity, majesty and consciousness of their worth, are driving me into respect for them. Some come for hundreds of miles from the country--out of the bushes--better scholars than in America. What fools we are to suppose these Africans are fools!

EIGHTH LETTER.

Freetown, Sierra Leone, Africa, November 18, 1891.

MR. EDITOR:

        The Sierra Leone Annual Conference is over. Thursday, November 10, the following ministers met in our church here: H. M. Turner, J. R. Frederick, T. R. Geda, H. M. Steady, David B. Roach, Matthew Newland, and organized and went to work. The same evening I took into the church, among twenty-one others, George D. Decker and Isaiah Coker, two preachers from the Wesleyan Church; one very learned and popular, the other very strong, and posted in the Timnee language, the language of the greatest tribe in the vicinity.

        The boundaries of the conference include all the territory of the leading tribes for three hundred miles, viz: the Timnee; Casso, Akoo, Ebo, Sherbo, Mendi, Mandingo, Fullah, Limba and Yennie tribes. The king of each has welcomed our church, and the king of the Timnees has declared our church the church of his nation.

        The conference remained in session from Thursday, the 10th, until Monday night, the 14th. We were busy all the time. Our property here amounts to about $10,000, and membership, including the probationers, to 405; our prospects, to millions of members and property. By taking up two local preachers we had ten ministers to whom I gave appointments. We ordained three deacons--I was willing to ordain more, but we did not think it wise to be too merciful at first--those we did ordain stood a fine examination.

        A long discussion arose over the name of the conference, some fearing if we called it the Sierra Leone Conference, the country kings would rule our church out, as some hate Sierra Leone, because it is an English colony, and that England is a usurper to claim territory in Africa. The African kings are willing and are glad for their black and yellow kinfolks to come home from America, and teach, preach, work and marry their women; but they want nothing to do with England, France or Germany. We named the conference the Sierra

Leone Conference, nevertheless, hoping to explain away all grounds of fear or apprehension to those royal heads of the millions of our people. For every ten thousand dollars the A. M. E. Church could send here, from seventy-five to a hundred thousand dollars could procured to our church.

        Elder, now Presiding Elder, Frederick, has some of the most awful church deeds I ever saw. What I mean by awful, is in size and weight; some are four pages of parchment, two feet by twenty inches. Strange to say, too, some of the African kings have signed their own names. On one of the deeds I see the name of Scipio H. Robertson. That must be our Scip. of Georgia. When did he slip off and come over here?

        Last Sabbath was without doubt the grandest day I ever beheld. There must have been three thousand people in and around the church; hundreds went away for want of out-door room; many of the colored dignitaries of other churches were present, civil and military, as well as the heathen themselves. Love-feast at 6 o'clock in the morning--the church was crowded by 5 o'clock. The experiences given were familiar and unfamiliar. Some expressed themselves in good English, some in broken English, other in this and that language. Some twenty languages were used in giving the experience. But a large number would understand everybody and responses would come from all over the church, and tears would be shed. Never were more languages used in one love-feast since time began; never were more terms used to express approval. Great heavens, how white people on one hand, scullion negroes upon the other, have misrepresented Africa! Some who got up in that love-feast to talk were what they called heathens, right from the bush, with a mere cloth over them, and while I could not understand a word, you could see they were full of the Holy Ghost. I tried to preach at 10:30 o'clock, Elder Geda at 3 o'clock, and I again at night. I ordained three ministers, took twenty-seven into full membership. Put my hands on their heads, too. Confirmed them, if you chose to call it, and took some forty in on probation. We gave the Lord's Supper to 500 persons. Every minister was robed and that alone was glory enough for me. But I cannot picture the day and the scenes. I never expect to see the like on earth again.

        Alpha Mohammed San u Si, one of the Mohammedan bishops, called upon me at Presiding Elder Frederick's house, to pay his respects; he speaks English, Arabic, Timnee, Akoo, Su Su, Mandingo and the Fullah languages. He came in his splendid robes and looked grandly. He is a man of rare learning and his bearing was kingly. I tried to look big, but felt small, in his presence. He resembles Bishop Gaines in color, stature, beard, features and walk--maybe a bit taller; but he is another Gaines; he is about as proud as Bishop Gaines.

        Yesterday afternoon, to my surprise, Dr. J. H. Cold called upon me (with horse and buggy). I did not know there was a horse in the city; he drove me away out in the country. It was a regular African horse, too, fat as a butter-ball. Such sights as I saw I will never forget. I went among some country natives and looked at their thatchcovered huts, and to my surprise, in some I found looking-glasses, chairs, clocks, furniture, etc. I saw some nearly naked men and women out on the road, but in town they live nicely at home. Another sight which I had to admire was the erectness with which these men and women stand.

        The native African has no fear, no cowardice, no dread, but feels himself the equal of any man on earth. The land, as far as I went, is rich, water streams in abundance, fruits of every kind, flowers of every beauty, and while I saw many doing nothing at all, I saw many hundreds at work, and hard at work, too. They need skilled labor, however, skilled farmers. Since I found out more, I find horses will live here and be fat. Dogs are like ours in every particular. The dogs, roosters, goats and sheep all talk like ours. I told the doctor they were all I could understand. I could not understand the people, but he could.

        I have just had the honor of my life. King Kobbena Eljen, of the Kromantic tribe, a powerful tribe on the Gold Coast, who was captured in the late war with England, and who is here as prisoner-of-war, called to pay his respects, through me, to his race, as he says, "over the sea." He means in America. I kissed his hands a dozen times, and would have kissed his feet, had he not said, "No, no." The king is 64 years old. He is tall, erect and majestic, and is deeply

concerned about the colored people in America. He wanted to know when we were coming home.

        During the great Ashantee war he was captured by the English army, and England tried to get him to sign away his territory and his people's land. He refused to do it, and they brought him to Sierra Leone, as a prisoner, to be held until he signs away his kingdom. The king says he will die first. If he would sign the documents, England would send him back at once in a man-of-war. The African kings and nobility will make me hate England, grand as old England is in many respects. The king walks about town, but cannot leave. He is loyal to his race and to his people. He will give his kingdom to his children in the United States, but not to England.

        Well, the ship has arrived which is to carry me to Liberia, and having completed my work here, I must close this letter and begin to pack up. I have not written half, but all I could find time to write.

        Neither Geda nor I have been the least sick yet after eleven days hard work, but I have a little headache to-day, for coming home last night out of a hot church and sitting in a draft, when I was begged not to do it. The weather is fine and pleasant for summer. Off for Liberia.

        I neglected to say, the ministers of the Church of England have called upon us as other ministers, regardless of all sacerdotal considerations.

NINTH LETTER.

Steamship "Mandingo," West African Coast,
November 21, 1891.

MR. EDITOR:

        After I closed my last letter at Sierra Leone, I called upon His Excellency, Gov. James H. Hay. I was kindly received, and was introduced by Presiding Elder Frederick, who has the respect of His Excellency. He gave me much information about the colony, and showed me the falsity of the deathly and sickly reports current about Sierra Leone, in presenting his own fine-looking, healthy and corpulent person, which several years' residence here had not intercepted. He told me a vast deal which I have no time nor space to write at present; but the whole was full of information, and shows progress all along the line. His mansion is magnificent, overlooks the city, flowers of every variety, shades, walks fountains, etc.

        The governor is down upon African slanderers, white or black. He says if we had skilled labor and civilization here, Africa would be the mistress of continents.

        In speaking about black men representing the native African as so low and ignoble in other countries, because they had acquired some intelligence from being brought in contact with the whites, the governor said, "How foolish they are. Don't they know if the black men are nothing here they are nothing everywhere; that nothing must proceed from nothing; that if the original stalk or trunk is nothing, the offspring or branches will be nothing, too?" He says, "Every black man who berates Africa berates himself."

        The funniest thing that has come under my attention is the criticism of Dr. Randolph's "Criticism of Bishop Turner," published in the Christian Recorder of October 15, by a native born and raised African. He read it and commented most severely, yet in the most courteous language, which showed his high literary culture and refinement, until I told him that Dr. J. W. Randolph was a great linguist, scholar and a D.D. Then he opened the vials of his literary

wrath. He took up his sentences, analyzed them, denied that he understood the English language, pronounced his argument coarse and illogical, and pitied the college that would conter D.D. upon such a poor scholar. The use Dr. Randolph had made of the term "nonsense" seemed to fire every fiber of his soul. The house roared with peals of laughter, so I need never reply to the doctor. Africa has replied in full.

        Several white American missionaries called upon me before I left Sierra Leone, and gave me some missionary items I did not know. Those who called upon me consisted of men and women from Wisconsin, Nebraska, one was from Ohio--a young, beautiful white lady.

        I find the following to be the result: From Nebraska there are five missionaries here; twenty-seven more coming. From Kansas there are nine here, and fifteen coming. From Minnesota there are ten here, and eighteen coming. From Ohio there are twelve here. From Illinois there are four here. A majority of these missionaries are white ladies. But what beats all is, they tell me 128 are now being trained, mostly in Chicago, to follow these. Almost every steamer is bringing more missionaries, teachers, preachers, dress-makers and tool users. I had been told by the ship's captain of this, coming out from America, but did not know the extent until now. The singularity of this movement is, that all these missionaries should come from the West. Outside of middle New York state, I find no Eastern, Northern or Southern whites out here as missionaries. The present program of the missionaries from the West is to establish a line of mission centers back into the interior for 400 miles, with mission houses and schools erected every fifty miles along that line, so that native runners can carry letters from one camp to the other. To extend 400 miles from the sea interiorward will require eight mission camps or centers. Travelers can find resting places for this 400 miles, every fifty miles on their route. They say the African kings bid them welcome when they are satisfied they are not Germans, French or English. They think Americans will not bother with their territory or slaves. While the Germans and French do not meddle with their slaves at all, they wish to gobble up their lands and mines. The English, on the other hand, are more reasonable in regard to territorial

possessions, but will free every slave and wife they can. I find that wherever England holds possessions in Africa there is another Canadian asylum for the slaves and oppressed--the same as our American Canada used to be when slavery existed in the United States. The Germans and French often return slaves and wives to their claimants; but England, never. When a slave or a wife gets into her possessions the whole military and navy protect their liberty. And another thing that England does that Germany and France do not: If England captures a king and holds him as a prisoner of war, she treats him royally; she allows him to walk about, gives him from five to ten dollars a day, and provides a place for him in keeping with his status; if he is an imperial king, ten dollars a day, is allowed; if a large tribal king, five dollars; if a petty king, three dollars. But all do nothing but sit and walk about; no shackles, handcuffs or prison cells. God save old England, is my prayer!

        I am told the Liberians do about the same in regard to slaves and wives. But as I will be in Liberia in a few hours, I will learn more about it.

        It is marvelous how white men bow, bend, lift hats and smile around colored ladies out here--I mean the dressed, civilized and cultured ladies. They walk, sit and talk with them, and do all the honors they do to white ladies, and seem to be as natural about it as if they were raised at it. I believe several of these African ladies rather prefer the white fellows, too. Don't matter, however; the colored gentry have a nice time with the white ladies, also, when they are about.

        I have seen the beauties of nature in its varied tints, colors and shades. I have looked on and admired the artificial as well as the permanent formations, but I have never seen anything to compare with the ocean here along the African coast after night. The waves produced by the ship, which roll off on either side, appear to be studded with millions of glittering gems; the waters at times would seem to be on fire, yet the fire does not seem to resemble the fires of earth. I am told if one bathes in the waters and stands in the dark he will glitter from head to foot. The waters are full of phosphoric animalculæ called "Medusæ," and their beauty and splendor in the ocean is literally indescribable.

        Rev. Herbert H. Richmond, LL. D., the district superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, has been reading "Methodist Polity" for two days, and congratulates the author in high terms. He is going to try to have it made a text-book in their theological seminaries. The doctor is on his way to Lagos, where he has not been in twenty years. He does not want the A. M. E. Church to go where the Wesleyan Church is, and he says, "Two churches of the same order and faith confuse the African kings, and they will get mad and drive both out of their kingdoms if our preachers should get to disputing over the respective churches." He thinks the A. M. E. Church and the A. M. E. Zion Church should unite before we come to Africa.

        Before I reached Africa proper some English sailors were telling me about the limited ability of the native African, stating that they could not learn this or that, viz: they could not learn to be engineers, not even firemen, and such stuff. I told them black men could do anything that white men could do in the Southern States. But since I have reached here, I see native Africans running engines, manning oar and steam boats, and what is more, here on this steamship, the "Mandingo," are two black ocean pilots, and another black man measuring the depth of the ocean and guiding the ship amid the dangerous points.

        Poor black man, how the world tells lies about you! Well, we are at Liberia at last. I will close this letter.

TENTH LETTER.

Muhlenberg, Liberia, November 29, 1891.

MR. EDITOR:

        I am here in Liberia, and have been for over a week, and have had a grand time of it. I landed at Monrovia, where I was met by Rev. S. J. Campbell and Clemmons Irons, of Charleston, S. C., and conducted to the splendid residence of Gen. R. A. Sherman, the General-in-Chief of the Liberian Government, where a grand welcome was accorded me. But as the little steamboat was awaiting me, I soon left the city and proceeded up the St. Paul River, a river that corresponds exactly with the Ohio River between Louisville, Ky., and Cincinnati, Ohio; if anything a bit wider, and, in the main much deeper, for the St. Paul River at places is ninety feet deep. But, unfortunately, the rapids set in about twenty-five miles above Monrovia and stop all decent navigation; only canoes can be pushed and pulled beyond the rapids, and that at great labor. Yet, when the rapids are passed, the river is navigable by small boats to a long distance. The sceneries along this river are prodigious; the trees of every kind for miles are so interwoven that they constitute a matted texture, with an occasional intermediary elevation or hill, just high and frequent enough to break the monotony and afford beautiful building sites, where exuberant farms can be cultivated and the horticulturist can spread himself. All along the river sides, after leaving the inundated portion, beautiful two and three-story brick houses, covered with zinc roofs, with dormer-windows often projecting from the top, and a number of small adjacent houses meet the eye. I was certainly surprised to see the comfortable and excellently constructed homesteads which dot the river banks in all directions.

        As you ascend the St. Paul varied settlements can be seen, bearing principally American names, where houses, streets and town clusters are visible. The towns and settlements between Monrovia and the rapids are called by the following names: New Georgia, Caldwell,

Upper Caldwell, Virginia, Brewersville, Clay Ashland, Louisiana, New York, White Plains, Millsburg, Harrisburg, Muhlenberg and Arthington. Indeed, Arthington is above the rapids, and is the principal seat of the Azor emigrants, who came out here twelve or thirteen years ago. The conveniences for settlement along the St. Paul are far better than along the Savannah, Chattahoochee, Alabama, Tennessee or Gunpower rivers of America. The Delaware River itself has nothing to boast over the St. Paul; minus the Palisades, the Hudson River has but few advantages over the St. Paul.

        I had the pleasure of meeting and riding for several miles with Mr. Jesse Sharp, of Columbia, S. C. I used to board with his mother and smile at his beautiful sisters. Mr. Sharp is about the richest man in the country. His brother James, from whose house I was married has been dead, he says, many years.

        The steamer went ashore at Mrs. Johnson's fine residence, to allow me to shake the hand of Dr. Edward W. Blyden, who will soon be Secretary of State, if reports are true. The doctor looks well and is growing corpulent.

        When I disembarked I was met by Mrs. L. Bibbs, recently of St. Paul, Minn., Wm. Patterson, James Slocum and Stephen Ficklin, recently of Morrilton, Ark.; also by G. S. Daniels, Abraham Tyler and M. S. Stephens, recently of Barnsville, S. C., and others. Mr. Ficklin has a brother, Samuel Ficklin, a deacon in Beal Street Baptist Church, Memphis, Tenn.

        I spent the night at the well-furnished home of Clemmons Irons. Elder Geda went to Rev. S. J. Campbell's. Next morning, quite early, it was announced to me that Brother Campbell had a conveyance at the door for me. When I came down stairs, lo and behold! four men stood with a fine hammock to trot me over to breakfast at the residence of Brother Campbell. It is marvelous what strength these native Africans have. But they will not have it long unless the Mohammedans come to their rescue. Christian France, Germany, England and Boston are distributing too much liquor or rot-gut whisky among them. I had no idea that Boston, the citadel of freedom, was sending so many hundred thousand gallons of poison rot-gut to this country.

        The son of the late Rev. A. L. Stanford, M. D., once a famous preacher in our church, but who died out here some five years ago, as one of the judges of the Liberian courts, has grown up to be an industrious and bright young man. His name is Willie Francis Stanford. But it is useless to mention names, as I find bushels of Americans here. Therefore, let us talk about this beautiful country.

        Liberia is one of the most paradisical portions of earth my eyes ever beheld. Any person who cannot live here with reasonable health cannot exist anywhere. True, there is an acclimating change most people have to pass through. Some do not; if they do, they are unconscious of it. But nature is lavish here with her stores. I have noticed the following things growing here in great abundance: coffee, sugar, ginger, ground-nuts, palm oil, cocoa, rice, cotton, indigo, pepper, corn, ochre, turnips, beans, cabbage, tomatoes, lettuce, sweet potatoes, oranges, grapes, lemons, citrons, squashes, and heaven knows what else. Also, cows, tremendous oxen, hogs, sheep, goats, deer, horses, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, dogs, raccoons, honey bees, fish without end, eagles, parrots in groves, hawks, but no buzzards, and but few snakes. The native heathen and an ant called the "driver" leave nothing for the buzzards; so they, like many human buzzards, have all left and given Africa a bad name. How under heaven some negroes can come here and after remaining awhile, go back to America and give this place a bad name I cannot understand, unless it be for the reason that they do not find scullion employment or some white man to curse and kick them around. Lazy sloths! they could hibernate six months annually and then live, so far as the bounties of nature need operate as a factor. I grant, however, that persons coming here ought to have a little money to start with, and a good-deal of self-reliance, a decent amount of race pride, and considerable common sense. This is no place for the mere kitchen pimp, nor for the Congo negro. Those who are here from the Congo are ignored by the native heathen, much more by the regular Liberians. They sustain the same relation to the higher African tribes that they do to us in the United States. I find that they are the lowest of the African races. I mean all that that word implies, for there are distinct races here. The Mandingo, Vey, Pessa and

Golahs are far above the Congo, Boozie and others I might name. The Pessa ladies are the most beautifully-built of any I ever saw--full limbs, round and large chest, plump all over, indeed; small feet, neat fingers, as though made for the piano, and are the most industrious possibly of any on the coast and the most easily civilized.

        Natives do all kinds of work, and do it for twenty-five cents per day or five dollars per month. Show them once or twice anything you want done and they can do it as well as you. I believe most of them could learn to set type in a day and the next day print a newspaper.

        The man who buys the African heathen for a fool is a bigger fool than he is.

        I dare also to utter another thing, at the risk of being branded as the victim of superstition. While the white man deals with the visible sciences, the African here deals with the invisible sciences; while the white man manipulates and utilizes forces the black man knows nothing of, the black man controls forces that the white man is ignorant of. I believe that the black man is acquainted with secret agents in the realm of nature that the white man has never dreamed of, and will offset any telegraph, telephone or phonograph ever invented by white men.

        This is the only country I have ever seen where everybody could have a stream of water running through his yard. It is the most perfectly watered region I have ever witnessed. The water, too, is clear as a crystal, and rapidly flows wherever seen. The water-power is inestimable--enough to run the machinery of the world! O that my race here had the skill to practicalize it. But that time will come in God's own good time--for come it will if revelation be true.

        I thought when I came to Africa I would see snakes without end, but I have seen none yet. People who have been through the woods in all directions tell me that they have not seen a snake in ten years, some say fifteen years, others say five years. I have traveled by water and land for miles upon miles, and have not seen one yet. People from South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, say they could see fifty snakes there to one here. People here, fifty years old, never saw a boa constrictor; yet, there are some

all concede; nor have I seen or heard a mosquito, though I expected to be almost eaten up by them.

        If some of our rich colored men in the States would come here and open up the coal mines at Carrysburg, they would be worth millions in a few years. The steamships would buy the coal by millions of tons. The coaling stations at Grand Canary and Sierra Leone, now supplied with coal shipped from England, would be transferred to Liberia, and wealth untold would be the result. They have coal, marble, silver, gold, tin and diamonds, all in Liberia. I never had over-much admiration for Liberia until since my arrival here. I thought it was a second-class portion of Africa, but it is the richest region of the globe I ever saw. There is no place in the United States that will begin to compare with it. Any man who will run down Liberia, so far as its natural resources are concerned, is a fool and an ass. I am not talking about what I have heard, either. I am speaking of what I have seen with my own eyes, and handled with my own hands.

        I have seen three armies of the little ants called "Drivers," which travel through the country and destroy every insect, snake or animal they catch. I unsuspectingly walked into their ranks, while prowling around in the woods, inspecting things in general. But gracious! did I not run, jump, dance and get out of my clothes in a hurry! I was soon as clothesless as a native African, and indeed more so. But the Drivers are the friends of the country, and I admire them for many reasons.

        The Annual Conference of the A. M. E. Church, known as the Liberia Conference, has been organized and has been in session three days. The prospects for our church are grand. The joy of the ministers and members is too ecstatic for description. Ministers of other churches have called and make mighty speeches of welcome.

ELEVENTH LETTER.

Muhlenberg, Liberia, December 4, 1891.

MR. EDITOR:

        I have just strolled as far out in the direction of Boporo--the Eden of West Africa--as my strength and convenience would permit. I have seen the African in his native town and hut, rather dwellings, and I have just had a long weep or cry at the grand field for missionary operation here, and that I am too old now to engage in it. But if there were roads cut through the country and bridges for horses and wagons, I would try it, as old as I am. I am sure I could not stand the hills and valleys of this rolling country traveling on foot, at my age, and then the hammock system of travel is too cumbersome for regular locomotion. But Africa is the grandest field on earth for the labor of civilization and the Christian church. There is no reason under heaven why this continent should not or cannot be redeemed and brought to God in twenty-five years--say thirty at most. Note the reasons:

        First.--The African can beat the world in learning to speak the English language, in which all religious terms are found to convey Christian ideas.

        Second.--The young African can come out of the bush, and in a few months at most, sing and play upon the organ any gospel song in print, even before he learns to wear clothes.

        Third.--The Africans are the most honest people on earth. Where I am stopping at present, at the Training School of Rev. David A. Day, scores of wild and partly civilized Africans gather and sleep all about the yards as well as on the piazzas; not a door or window is shut all night, unless it is raining or windy.

        Fourth.--The African is not a pagan, but a child of superstition; he worships no wooden or brass god, but believes more strongly in the invisible forces than we do; so it is an easy matter to have him transfer his faith from superstition to Christ Jesus the Lord.

        Fifth.--And here is the crowning phase of this question: The Africans will give the god-man or god-woman millions of children to be instructed and trained to read, write, work, sing, pray, farm or do anything that will make them useful. When you approach the older ones, and begin to tell them about the benefits of a civilized life and the virtues of Christianity, they say: "You no change me now; take all my pickaninnies (children) and teach them, make them wise and great; not me, I be too old." And they will give you all their children, and frequently come once a week and bring food for them to eat. It makes one feel singular to see the almost naked native African father come out of the bush, and sit around the Training School, and watch their sons as they walk the yards in decent dress, and read, write, sing, march, use tools, etc. They are so fond of their children. Finally, they will walk off home, possibly having not uttered a word to their child or any one else. The African father seems to be soliloquizing thus: "Well, I suppose that will be the order of things in the future; my day will soon be gone, and another dispensation will be ushered in."

        One thing stands to the everlasting credit of the African; he is anxious to learn; a seeker after knowledge; to-day he is the most susceptible heathen upon the face of the globe. He is ready to lay down any habit, custom or sentiment for a better, or have his children do it, which is the same thing. It is said, that often those that have been trained at schools, will return to the bush and strip off their clothes and go around like the others. That seems to be true from what I have seen in some cases. But what is the result? These very young men become the leaders and general instructors of their people; they do not forget their training by any means. They often become the diplomats of their tribes and negotiate with other tribes and civilized nations. Their education is not lost, if they go as naked as a "skinned coon."

        The Conference has been organized and named the "Liberia Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church." Our session has been grand in every particular. Rev. S. J. Campbell, our chief representative here, is all that constitutes goodness and greatness. He brought nine preachers to the Conference and they were

very decent-looking men. They have some stereotyped modes of expression and ways of doing things, but we believe that will be overcome. The reception tendered Elder Geda and myself was superb. Elder Campbell and Rev. June Moore, of the Baptist Church, made the speeches, and Campbell felt himself upon his own ground, and he literally roared. I had no dream when he was in America that he was so eloquent and masterly. He has the respect and confidence of the whole community and lives in a three-story brick house, with plenty around him. His wife is a perfect lady and fills her sphere with all the grace that her position demands. God save Campbell and Frederick and their wives!

        Rev. June Moore is an able and powerful speaker and a noble representative of the race.

        Rev. David A. Day (white), of the Lutheran Church, with whom Geda and I are stopping, is one of God's noblest men. He and his wife have been here eighteen years; he has built five large houses and teaches a large number of native children. One house is his residence, containing many compartments; then a church and a school-house together; then a workshop and machine shop; then a sleeping house for the students, etc. He has trained a host of heathen children, who are doing much for the enlightenment of their tribes. He has immense coffee farms, and the school is self-supporting. He has solved many problems and has the confidence of the heathen for a hundred or more miles back in the country.

        Mr. Day would have Elder Campbell use his church and buildings for Conference purposes; so that the bishop would have every convenience in meeting the Conference without much walking, and the Conference would have all necessary committee rooms. People came in from the country every night to the Conference by crowds and droves. Some were dressed in fine order and others almost clothesless; but they sang with a vim and listened with great attention. It certainly looks peculiar to see people praising God with a bare cloth around their waists. It only shows that the soul is in the body and not in the garments.

        Rev. S. J. Campbell was elected a delegate from the Liberia Conference to the General Conference, as Elder Frederick was at Sierra

Leone. He got every vote except one, which he cast by himself for another.

        I never saw such rejoicing over the presence of a bishop as there is in Liberia. The preachers seem to have forgotten God and gone to bishop-worshiping. I have reproved them repeatedly, but it does no good. The ministers of other churches have shown us marvelous respect. I have ordained six deacons. Brother Campbell is hard at work on his hundred-acre coffee farm; has several thousand coffee trees set out; and, if we will stand by Africa a few years, the coffee farm will support the whole business. I wish our church in the United States could see the coffee farm Brother Campbell has now growing for our church. If Campbell had $5,000, after five years he would send our missionary treasurer $50,000 yearly.

        Oh! how the people of Liberia want a steamship directly to America. England, France, Spain and Germany all have scores of steamships laden with goods and whisky at fabulous prices; and Yates & Porterfield send only one or two sailships from New York, and they will ship nothing for the people unless they themselves are the purchasers. Elder Campbell wanted to ship a thousand pounds of coffee to Mr. W. H. Amos, of Philadelphia, but could not. If the moneyed colored men of America would band together and go to England and purchase a second-hand steamship at one-third its price and start a trade between here and the United States, they would be worth millions in a few years. It is a shame before high heaven that we are such consummate fools. The national government of Liberia is also unwise for not doing it. The custom house revenues of the Liberian government amount, at least, to $300,000 a year, and might do it easily enough. But she is so American in her ideas that she thinks it beneath her national dignity to engage in commercial enterprises; and here we all are fools together, while England, France, Spain and Germany are reaping untold millions that black man ought to have. I get mad and sick when I look at the possibilities God has placed within our reach, and to think we are such big blockheads we cannot see and utilize them. I have long said that the salvation of the black man was in connection with this country; I see the wisdom of my position now as I never dreamed of before. If the black man ever rises

to wealth, he will either do it in Africa, or as he operates in connection with Africa. He will never do it trying to be white, or snubbing his native country.

        Mrs. Phoebe Corzan, formerly Mrs. Phoebe Brown Deputie, late of Philadelphia, a lady of marked intelligence, tells me that a few miles beyond where I am at present, in the Gibby mountains, about sixty miles from Monrovia, the water is so cool that it chills one's hands to put them in it, and if people coming here would leave the coast and go back there, they would never have any acclimating change at all. Even where I am now I do not believe I would be sick in forty years, although I may be mistaken.

        The Conference here has ten mission points, and three to be supplied--making thirteen in all. One point is named after Bishop Campbell, another after Bishop Shorter and another after Bishop Cain. Elder S. J. Campbell fought till he got one point named Eliza Ann Turner Mission; I objected but the Conference overruled me. Our membership here is a little less than three hundred and fifty.

        Rev. S. J. Campbell is appointed Superintendent of Missions and chief of the coffee farm and industrial department of the Liberia Conference, and Rev. T. R. Geda is appointed Presiding Elder.

        Had Geda not come with me I do not know what I would have done; he has been of incalculable use to me. On committees, especially, he has been a great guide. He has demonstrated superior business tact and a fine judgment.

        Our Conference lasted seven days; indeed, it virtually included two Sabbaths, and we have certainly had a big time. All kinds of resolutions of thanks have been passed to the bishops and Mother Church for sending me here.

        Quite a settled African lady came out of the bush, with portly limbs, massive head, all bare except a cloth around the waist, hair done up in the most ornamental style, pure silver cuffs, leopard teeth tied and dangling to the elbows, fetish balls fastened to the rear part of the head, beads strung around the body, dressed to death after the fashion of the Gollah tribe. She was introduced to Geda and me, having learned that we had come from big America. She was mistress of the Greggree Bush and counsellor of the big chiefs of her people.

The woman looked frightful and pretty too. She sat with me on the piazza for some time, then she walked into my room without an invitation and talked with me through her interpreter. She never complimented Geda a bit, but she said I was "a good man and nice heap much, and pretty all over." Of course, I was glad to hear it, for I had not heard it before. Her name is Blarbubber, and she is known as the Queen of the Greggree Bush. But I must close till I visit Monrovia, which I will do next week, when you will hear from me again, God willing. Elder S. J. Campbell disapproves of the way I knock around and the little care I take of myself. He thinks if I should get sick from any cause it would be charged to Liberia.

        Brother Campbell and wife tendered Elder Geda and myself a superb dinner a few days ago. Several of his most prominent neighbors were present--ladies and gentlemen--and the time passed off grandly. I never saw so much to eat for the same number of guests.

TWELFTH LETTER.

Monrovia, Liberia, December 5, 1891.

MR. EDITOR:

        I have descended the St. Paul River and am now in Monrovia, stopping in the beautiful three-story brick residence of General R. A. Sherman, general-in-chief of the Liberian armies. Everything is superb in and outside of this spacious and finely-furnished palace. I would wager anything that General W. T. Sherman never lived in more style, and I am sure he never possessed anything like the social graces of the Liberian General Sherman. The general somewhat resembles ex-Senator B. K. Bruce in stature, color, hair and demeanor. He was born in Savannah, Ga., is about fifty years of age, and has been here some thirty-seven years. He has fought many battles, has been wounded repeatedly, and his name is a terror to the native heathen for hundreds of miles in the interior.

        I have seen many sights of interest in the city. Dr. Blyden carried me through the Kroo Town, introduced me to the king, with whom I had a long talk. I was surprised at his intelligence and general information. He was dressed as a gentleman and very polite. His subjects, or people, treat him with great respect. The city is laid off in streets and squares, but not equal in extent; sometimes the streets curve and, in other cases, they so intersect one another as to form a triangle.

        The houses are built of platted sheets of bamboo, which they plat upon the ground with taste and skill, and in some instances with peculiar art. Then they are set up and fastened to timbers, and rooms, kitchens, palaver halls, sitting-rooms and such like are made in the same building.

        It is useless to talk about the African having no taste and pride.

        I have found out another thing since I have come to Africa. I have traveled scores of miles through the interior and noted the tact,

taste, genius and manly bearing of the higher grade of the natives. I have found out that we poor American negroes were the tail-end of the African races. We were slaves over here, and had been for a thousand years or more before we were sold to America. Those who think the receding forehead, the flat nose, the proboscidated mouth and the big flat-bottom foot are natural to the African are mistaken. There are heads here by the millions, as vertical or perpendicular as any white man's head God ever made. A straight rule laid upon the face of three-fourths of us in America will touch the nose and mouth only; here are native Africans, without number, whose nose and chin the rule would touch without touching the mouth, which is always indicative of the highest type of intellectuality. Some of the most neat and concave feet are found upon thousands of these Africans. I have seen specimens of 19 tribes, and I have not seen over 100 of them constructed on as low scale as I have seen in America. An African said to be 108 years old, said. "We no used to sell 'big blood' African to white man, except we capture him in war." I believe this old man tells the truth; that during the times of the slave trade there were no "big blood" (first class) Africans sold to the white man, unless they were war prisoners.

        Monrovia far exceeds my expectations. Instead of being low, swampy and alluvial, it is on an elevated cape, three sides laved by the ocean and fanned by her breezes. It will average about 150 feet above the sea-level, I think. In the main, the houses are excellent, two, three and a few four-stories high, with sidewalks very good, but the streets proper are grassy and not kept in regular order. As they use no horses and wagons, the streets are not needed; but they are far superior to hundreds of streets I have seen where horses and mules are used.

        In the rear of Monrovia, however, where a branch of the St. Paul River, called the Stockton Creek, and the Mesurado River form a confluence, there are some large mangrove swamps, alluvial, soft and lagoonish, which evidently emit a great deal of malaria and are highly productive of fever germs when the wind is blowing from the land side, just as we have in thousands of places in the United States. There is no remedy for this, for God is making these two rivers cart

dirt from the high lands to fill up the low; the debris is gradually doing its work, and the people must await his time.

        The Liberia College is situated on the side of Mount Mesurado; the curriculum is high and the teachers are well informed. Two more learned professors are being looked for daily. The college is a credit to the government of Liberia, for its is a national institution.

        I have had the honor of visiting the executive mansion of the Liberian government, was received with marked consideration, and the president, who is polished scholar, paid me special attention. I had seen nine presidents in the United States, but a real black president was to me a delightful sight. This administration is praised and blamed by friends and foes, just as is the case with our presidents. The Liberian government is in the hands of the following, who form the executive department: His Excellency H. R. W. Johnson, President, born in Liberia; Secretary of State, Hon. E. J. Barclay, born in Barbadoes, West Indies; Secretary of Treasury, Hon. H. W. Travis, born in Liberia; Postmaster-General, Hon. H. J. Moore, born in Liberia; Attorney-General, Hon. W. M. Davis, born in Philadelphia, Pa., Secretary of the Interior, not filled. The Secretary of the Treasury, for the present, does the duties of the War and Naval departments. Chief Justice, Hon. C. L. Parsons, born in Charleston, S. C.

        The president-elect, who will take his seat early in January, 1892, is Hon. J. J. Cheeseman of Grand Bassa, born in Liberia; vice-president-elect, Hon. W. D. Coleman, born in Kentucky. Mr. Cheeseman is represented as an able man with progressive views.

        I visited the Monrovia cemetery a few days ago, and was pleased with the tombstones, slabs and shafts I saw commemorating the dead. I counted nearly a hundred, some of which cost over a thousand dollars. I saw the grave of my aunt, "Hannah Greer," who died about the same time my mother did, some three years ago. She was about ninety years old. She was my oldest aunt of five, and the people here say she was a grand woman. I hope to send or bring her a marble head and foot slab from America. I visited also the graves of Hon. M. A. Hopkins, Hon. and Dr. Henry Highland Garnett, Hon. Alexander Clark, and Mrs. Mary Garnett Barboza, the distinguished

daughter of Dr. Garnett. Hopkins, Garnett and Clark were the three American Ministers of State, who have died here. There is not a stone, or a shingle, at the foot or head of the grave of Dr. Garnett,--a shame, a shame, upon us American negroes!

        For forty years before Mr. Lincoln issued his proclamation of freedom, Dr. Garnett fought for his race as no other man could, except Douglass, when the lips of the Southern negro was sealed and he was gored by the slave-masters to the verge of death. Dr. Garnett periled life and everything for his freedom. Now for us American negroes to allow his remains to lie here, as though he was a dog, is enough to make God blast the whole of us. As I looked at his grave I wept, and asked God if there was any hope for such an ungrateful people. If we do not send a tombstone here to mark his grave, the whole negro race in America deserves the contempt of perdition, to say nothing of heaven.

        Hon. C. T. O. King is the agent of the Colonization Society here. He is a man of excellent parts and evidently understands himself. Mr. King thinks that some improvements could be made in the reception of emigrants from America, and I think so, too. But as I will speak about them at the proper place if I live, I will only say at present, that any persons coming out here should not come as paupers. While Liberia is the easiest place to make a living on earth and is the most paradisaical spot in the world, all things considered; yet, there is a climatic change which most people must pass through (many do not), and while they are passing through it, they need rest and fresh food, which the Colonization Society does not provide, nor can it without steamships. Hence they need money to purchase the the necessary food and often some medicine. Persons should not come here and expect to be hirelings; for the native African, stands ready to do all kinds of work much cheaper and better than we can, except skilled labor. They till the ground and raise all the produce for twenty-five cents per day, or five dollars per month. A man coming here with two or three hundred dollars and good sense may be rich in four or five years. But this is no place for fools and paupers. The oldest man in Liberia at present is only one hundred and twenty-seven years; the oldest woman is one hundred and twenty. A young man

twenty-seven years old has a wife seventy-two years old, and he is jealous of her and another fellow twenty-four years old.

        The ministers of Monrovia are as follows:--Rev. Garrison W. Gibson, of the Episcopal Church; Rev. Henry Cooper, M. E. Church; Rev. Robert J. Clark, Baptist Church; Rev. J. B. Perry, Presbyterian Church. All these ministers treat Geda and me with great courtesy. The Episcopal minister could not offer me his church to preach in, owing to the canons of his connection but he urged me to lecture in it. The M. E. Church pastor appropriated our service. He is a Christian and a gentleman of the highest type. Everybody seems to be overjoyed at the presence of the A. M. E. Church in Liberia. The welcome appears to be universal. Many desire that it shall be the National Church, others declare it will be the Continental Church. They have come after me to organize in Monrovia at once, but for reasons that I shall tell the bishops, I will not.

        A minister of the A. M. E. Zion Church, who had united with us and claimed to be ordained by one Elder Cartright, maintained that his orders were valid, as Brother Cartright was superintendent of the church here and had been authorized by Bishop Hood to ordain. I denied the right of Bishop Hood to confer any such authority upon an elder and rejected his ordination. I ordained him a deacon, however, after due examination. I am sure Bishop Hood never did it.

        The people here think I am a "rough," because I will sit in the draught, eat all kinds of African food, sleep with the windows open, walk around barefooted, etc., preach or speak every night. But I believe some people die here because of particularity. I never felt better in my life; but I cannot say how long this will continue.

        They say Hon. Alexander Clark, who died here, had passed through the acclimating fever and would have lived easily enough had he not refused to eat food that would strengthen him; he confined himself to American hog soup, when the doctor and all begged him to eat other things. The people here say stinginess killed him. The report, however, that strong drink killed him is pronounced a base falsehood. People here say he was purely temperate.

        The nights and mornings here are as cool as in Washington City in November. This morning a drink of water chilled my teeth. But from 11 o'clock to one it is certainly hot. I have met no hotter weather here, however, than I have in the United States.

THIRTEENTH LETTER.

Monrovia, Liberia, December 7, 1891.

MR. EDITOR:

        The hospitality of the Liberians has no limit; the social forms here, however, partake largely of those in vogue among the English. I infer this from what I have read and heard of English customs more than from any personal knowledge. Politeness, style and dignity are by no means wanting, yet the cast of the American order is not prominent. But we Americans have no social standard. In Liberia break-fast receptions at 10 o'clock in the morning are the rule for distinguished guests.

        It would seem, from all I can learn, that Rev. Daniel Coker played a prominent part in the early settlement of Liberia. The first Methodist Church established here was the African M. E. Church; but by whom established I cannot say. Tradition says it was afterward sold out to the M. E. Church. Besides the probability of Rev. Daniel Coker's having established our church here, he also played a mighty part among the early settlers of Sierra Leone. His children and grandchildren are found there to-day.

        President-elect Hon. J. J. Cheeseman will take his seat early in January, under very encouraging circumstances. The Kroo tribe, the most important along the African coast, by virtue of its maritime character and without whom the ships could do nothing in commerce, has sent him an address expressing its loyalty to the Liberian republic and its desire to co-operate in the maintenance of his administration. This tribe will be a mighty support to the new president; the more so as it is beginning to realize the treachery of some of the European nations toward Africa. The Mandingo, the chief Mohammedan tribe, has also sent the new president an elaborate communication of congratulation, assuring him of its support. This is one of the most mighty and progressive tribes in Africa, and extends back for hundreds of miles into the interior. Mr. Cheeseman has everything

to hope for, provided he fills the bill of public expectation, as everybody believes that his administration will inaugurate a new deal.

        The eight years' administration of President Johnson, while not marked, as I am informed, by many brilliant exploits, has, nevertheless, held things in such a statu quo that the new administration can enlarge, if so disposed.

        One of the chief deficits of the Liberian republic is the absence of a bank. Sierra Leone has at least two banks, and from the income of Liberia she could have a bank easily enough if I have been properly informed; but it is presumed that they understand their business better than I can. Things may drag along somewhat, but Liberia is destined to play a grand part in the future. Her natural resources are too infinite to remain stagnant forever; if there has been any jack of foresight in the past, the remedy will come in God's own time.

        Rev. James H. Deputie, of the M. E. Church, a most polished and Christian gentleman, welcomes the A. M. E. Church to Liberia as heartily as any of our own ministers. His kindness to me personally and his congratulations in general to our church secure our gratitude.

        Bishop William Taylor, D. D., is not just as popular as I expected to find him among the members and ministers of his own church. They say he realizes himself as white, and does not fail to let them know it, and often gives out utterances from the pulpit not appreciated by any means. When, in one of the M. E. churches, I spoke of the bishop as being one of the grandest divines on earth, I noticed that many frowned at the expression, and some took me to task about it after services were over. I did not recant, however.

        Yesterday I received an invitation, through Dr. Blyden, from Mrs. Jennie Sharp, to visit the female department of Liberia College, established in 1883. Mrs. Sharp, formerly Miss Jennie Davis, teacher at Webster Grove, Mo., responded to the call of Dr. Blyden in 1882 for teachers for the college. She went to work, not even waiting to be acclimated, and using the material she had, organized the school, and has continued teaching ever since with marvelous success. Many a young wife, now an ornament of Liberian society, has passed

through her hands. She has nearly fifty girls, both children of the colonists and of the natives from the interior. There are about ten interior girls, one a Mandingo and the others from far beyond the Mandingo districts. These, Mrs. Sharp thinks, belong to the Wahoma tribe in East Africa. While these interior girls are pure African, they show to a demonstration, that all Africans are not black. Some of them are as light as mulattoes, with silky hair. Astonishing sights will some day be revealed from Interior Africa. Mrs. Sharp deserves great credit for her zeal and enterprise in securing and keeping these children. She supports a number of her pupils at her own expense. I would commend this institution to the generosity of all friends of female education in Africa. Any books, clothing or money sent to Mrs. Sharp will be worthily bestowed. She and her children attend the Presbyterian Church at Monrovia. Mrs. Sharp came to Africa, I believe, at the same time Professors T. McCants Stewart and H. Brown did. She is now the wife of that great business man, Mr. Jesse Sharp, referred to in a former letter as having come from Columbia, S. C., forty years ago.

        [Since Bishop Turner left Africa he has learned of the death of Mr. Sharp.--ED.]