POSTSCRIPT IN MONROVIA	2
territorial waters. The doctor had put iodine on the
scratch and no harm was done, but the woman men-
tioned the incident in a letter to her husband and
he brought an action against the only person who
could be reached, the German agent. The court
awarded him 30,000 dollars. This was going too far
and after a protest by the representatives of England,
France and Germany, the Supreme Court found that
the action lay outside the scope of the Liberian courts.
The Exiles
A curious international life was led by the few
whites in the little shabby capital. Apart from the
Firestone employees, who lived outside in European
comfort on the plantation, there were not more than
three dozen whites in Monrovia; there were Poles,
Germans, Dutch, Americans, Italians, a Hungarian,
French, and English; two of them were doctors,
others were storekeepers, gold smugglers, shipping
agents, and consuls. There was some comfort to be
found at the legations; and though there was not
such a thing as a water-closet in Monrovia, nearly
everyone had an ice-box, for in .the little dingy town
there was little to do but drink, drink and wait for
the fortnightly mail-boat which might bring frozen
meat but was unlikely .to bring a passenger.
These men and women were more exiled than the
English in Freetown; they had less comfort and far
less amusement; there was no golf course and the surf
was far too dangerous for bathing. Once a week they
played a little tennis at the British Legation or had
a game of billiards, and once a week, too, the ol^er