MISCELLANEOUS.                       491

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, but 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 ex-
amination. 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 parti-
cularity. I never felt better in my life; but I cannot say how
long this will continue.
  They say Hon. Alexander Clarke, who died here, had passed
through the acclimating fever and would have lived easilyenough
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 night and morning 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 I 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 Eng-
lish. I infer this from what I have read and heard of English cus-
toms more than from any personal knowledge. Politeness, style
and dignity are by no means wanting, yet the cast of the Ameri-
can order is not prominent. But we Americans have no social
standard. In Liberia breakfast receptions at ten o'clock in the
morning are the rule for distinguished guests.
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