So the matter ended. Help for Africa was deferred; but it is a blessed fact that Africans were being saved. The successful efforts of Mr. Gilbert in Antigua have been already noticed; and it is a remarkable coincidence, that, in this very year, when Coke first found a place in the conference minutes, and when, for the first time, missions to the heathen were discussed at the conference sittings, John Baxter, a Methodist shipwright at Chatham, felt himself constrained to leave his friends, and to embark for Antigua, principally, as he himself expresses it, that he “might have an opportunity of speaking for God.” He landed on April 2, and, a fortnight after, wrote to Wesley, telling him that the work, begun by the late Mr. Gilbert, still remained. He says: “The black people have been kept together by two black women, who have continued praying and meeting with those who attended every night. I preached to about thirty on Saturday night. On Sunday morning, to the same number; and, in the afternoon, to about four or five hundred. The old standers desire I would let you know that you have had many children in Antigua whom you never saw. I hope, sir, we shall have an interest in your prayers. Dear sir, give me your advice. Provisions are very scarce; but I have all things richly to enjoy; as I have four shillings a day, besides the king’s provisions. I am going to have a house built for me, with as much ground as is needful. I think God has sent me here for good to the poor souls, who are glad to hear, but unable to maintain, a preacher.”[310] Little more remains to be said respecting the conference of 1778, except that it was resolved “to receive no more married preachers, because,” says Wesley, “we cannot keep them”;[311] and, further, that two most characteristic minutes were adopted in reference to preachers who were nervous. It was asked: “Why do so many of our preachers fall into nervous disorders? “Answer. Because they do not sufficiently observe Dr. Cadogan’s rules--to avoid indolence and intemperance. “They do indeed use exercise; but many of them do not use enough,--not near so much as they did before they were preachers. And sometimes they sit still a whole day. This can never consist with health. “They are not intemperate in the vulgar sense; they are neither drunkards nor gluttons; but they take more food than nature requires, particularly in the evening. “What advice would you give to those that are _nervous_? “Answer. Advice is made for them that will take it; but who are they? one in ten, or twenty? “Then I advise: (1) Touch no dram, tea, tobacco, or snuff; (2) eat very light, if any, supper; (3) breakfast on nettle or orange peel tea; (4) lie down before ten, rise before six; (5) every day use as much exercise as you can bear; or (6) murder yourself by inches.”