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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 tow 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 tow 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 bridges, 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 not government medical service through 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 [[strikethrough]] one  [[/strikethrough]] 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 gun.  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.  The Chief's young brother had some Monrovia war bulletins the latest of which was May 12, and was reading them aloud and translating.  His 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,