POSTSCRIPT IN MONROVIA 299

as possible is avoided. For example, Mr. King could
not be the only candidate at the convention of the
Unit True Whig Party; at some expense supporters
for Mr. Cooper had to be brought to the convention,
even though it was known beforehand that Mr. King
would be nominated. I received on the morning of
the convention a programme issued by the organisers,
signed by Mr. Doughba Carmo Caranda, the General
Secretary, and attested by Mr. Abayomi Karnga, the
national chairman (the names indicated the policy
of the party, Liberia for the Liberians, everyone had
been busy finding themselves native names to con-
trast with the Dunbars, Barclays, Simpsons, Dennises
of the Government). The proceedings, I read, were
to end with a procession to the house of the
nominated candidate, but rather ingenuously the
route of the procession was given, by the Masonic
Hall, up Broad Street, on to Front Street, "to the
residence of the candidate." It was Mir. Kong who
had a house in Front Street, not Mr, Cooper, so that
the programme took some of the edge off the excite-
ment. Rather damping, too, was the non-arrival of
most of the delegates, for .the second launch was not
so successful as the one in which we travelled and
stuck on a sandbank outside Monrovia. The conven-
tion was to open with prayer at two-thirty, but when
we arrived at three-thirty they were still waiting for
the marooned delegates. Afterwards things got
rather rushed, for when we arrived back at five the
convention was over. The brass band was trying to
get out of the ground and head the procession, but
the mob was too great, and our Legation car helped
to block the road. Several delegates hissed feebly at