eall them and are going to unload & reload again at
Matadi, the terminus of our destination and are coming
again as far as Monrovia where they will stop. I tho't
the Belgians were a Jabbering set, and then the Span-
iards at Las Palmas, but the Native Negroes here are
just as bade I have never seen yet, any people as
quiet as the Americans and Englishes While we lay here
some of the natives have pineapples, bananas, plantains,
& manioe roots to sell. Everything is quiet now and
the captain has blown the whistle so I guess we shall
soon start. Yes, we have started it is now 5 o'clock.
Just a little before starting, then came on board a
native and his wife on their way to Stanley Fool. He
used to live at the Pool and took a wife (as he says)
there, but it seems that she did not like him and he
went back to his own people at Monrovia, or near there,
and took another who had been promised him from her
babyhood. Her dress consists of a piece of eloth about
a yard, I should say, of calico around her waist, coming
about to her kneew, the rest of her body both above and
below is naked. After supper we repaired to our room
and had prayers. Our Belgian friends are very quiet
tonight. I feel the tropical sun very much. It is
quite different, even to that of la. I have not been
well all day, not sick, you know, but feeling badly,
but sm much better now and hope to have a good night's
rest.

Dec. 22 = Tuesday

I had a good nights rest, as I thought and got up feeling
much better. I am now on deck enjoying the beautiful
morning, while I wait for breakfast. The "Nigs" are all
at work scrubbing the ship all over. These ship men
are serupulously clean about the ship, but when it comes
to the eating, not so clean. For instances The pantry ~
man who washes most of the dishes &e takes his dirty
dish towels that he has washed and wiped the dishes with
and hangs them out to dry. A reppetition of this from
day te day, he never washes them and they are certainly
a filthy lot of cloths. Snough to turn a men's stom-
ach when he knows that he eats from the china that these
towels have dried. We are now going almost East, and I
see land. We will go in this direction cr more oasterly
until we get to Acra when we will make our next stop.
Only for a short time however, and will not be permitted
to go ashore. After breakfast we saw quite a number of
canoes coming toward the ship and the Capt. understood
its meaning and blew the whistle several times. Immed-
