The conference, at Leeds, opened on the 1st of August, and “a more loving one,” says Wesley, “we never had.” The _Intelligencer_ newspaper, of August 8, tells the public, that, “for a week past, Wesley had held a kind of visitation, but what they call a conference, with several hundreds of his preachers, from most parts of Great Britain and Ireland, where he settled their several routes for the succeeding year.” It further states, that “a large sum of money” was collected for the purpose of “sending missionaries to America.”[60] This was the “tall talk” of a newspaper. “Wesley’s itinerant preachers” throughout the entire kingdom were only one hundred and eleven in number; and the “large sum” collected for sending missionaries to America was £70, of which £50 was to be appropriated to the payment of the debt on the chapel in New York. Above two days of the time of the conference were spent in the arrangement of temporal matters,--a thing which annoyed Wesley, who therefore directed that, in future, as much of such business as possible should be done by the secretaries before the conference met. The two topics of most interest were Methodist missions, and the perpetuation of the Methodist system after Wesley’s death. It is a fact worth remembering, that already, for years past, Methodism had been planted in the West Indian islands, by means of Nathaniel Gilbert and his co-workers. Laurence Coughlan had recently taken it to Newfoundland; and a few soldiers had established it at Gibraltar, where there were thirty-two members, fifteen of whom were rejoicing in the consciousness of personal pardon.[61] They had preaching every night and every morning, their preachers being “Brother Morton,” Henry Ince, of the 2nd Regiment, and Henry Hall, of the Royal Scots; six classmeetings were held every week, and the work was prospering.[62] Lord Cornwallis, the commanding officer, issued a garrison order on June 9, 1769, as follows:--“Whereas divers soldiers and inhabitants assemble themselves every evening to prayer, it is the governor’s positive order, that no person whatever presume to molest them, nor go into their meeting to behave indecently there.”[63] Wesley was acquainted with this; but not a word is found in the conference minutes concerning it. The truth is, while Methodism was now really planted in the West Indies, Newfoundland, Gibraltar, and America, none needed help except America, and, hence, none else are mentioned.