A Liberian Journey

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                  Tues Aug 3^rd.

                  We all got up at about 500 & started the vaccination game immediately before breakfast. With 4 men vaccinating & 4 men washing arms we went along very rapidly. Dr. Shattuck & I did 105 men in about an hour – pretty good. Then we called a halt for breakfast as we had finished Crums Men & had not yet started on Putnams. While we were eating Allen, Bequaert & Theiler arrived by foot in answer to a note sent up by runner last night. They were soaking wet but cheerful and after coffee were ready to settle down to the mornings work. Bequaert has not shaved since he got here so that his whiskers are coming along nicely now, especially as they are black. The combination now is short hair & long whiskers.

                  By 1000 we were through our task and were ready to go but still there was no sign of the launch. However, by good fortune a whale boat load of rice had just arrived and had been emptied so that and with a little financial persuasion we were able to convince them that a row up stream in the rain would be an ideal form of amusement. We loaded our goods & chattels into the sloshing boat and with umbrellas set as well as rain coats on we embarked for the last stage of our journey. Once more we were slid along to the tune of chop-chop or tsing-tsing as we heard when we were coming into Monrovia. Only this time we were huddled in the rain and instead of buildings, we had tall vine clad trees and steep vine-clad banks to look at as they slipped by.

                  But eventually the rain stopped, umbrellas collapsed – and as the sun worked out raincoats were shed and we basked and dried our clothes. Dr. Strong – the wettest went so far as to shed most of his clothes garments in an endeavor to get some of the moisture out of him. The only sea valuable wild animal we saw was a big yellow brown owl which sat in a tree and watched us slide by beneath him. But soon we reached NO 3.

<Map of No. 3 campsite>

                  Our camp is rather scattered as can be shown by a diagram. The tents are all the same size and are rather small being only 7 ½ ft square and are 3ft at the eaves 6ft at the peak with a fly over each one to make them water proof against the tropical downpours thru which we are going to pass. The thatch Lab is merely a thatch roof with open ends & sides. There are two shelves (or tables), one on each side. In it we keep the guinea pigs (only 12 are left by the way) due to the continued dampness) and the mice. It is the microscopic lab, and I also do all my developing down there – to be sure at times in a rain coat – altho I dry my negatives in an extra tent. This latter is extra because Hal & I sleep together and store our ammunition etc in the other.

                  But to continue my narrative – It wasn’t long after we arrived that we got our lunch – and a welcome meal it was too after an early breakfast. In the afternoon I got my bed unpacked and my blankets partially dried before it started to sprinkle again. I also repacked my trunks so that I could put as much as possible under the storage fly. It was a slow job and as the tent is extremely small after two bunks are set up it took the whole afternoon. And soon after supper I turned in. I must admit that it seems nice to be in camp again with the smoke occasionally drifting into ones eyes.

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