Abbeokuta.
Abbeokuta next claimed a visit, but to proceed by water would take five days each way, and to hire horses in Lagos was impossible; so a messenger was sent on foot to bring horses down as far as Mokkolokky, which we could reach in canoes in two days, ...
Abbeokuta next claimed a visit, but to proceed by water would take five days each way, and to hire horses in Lagos was impossible; so a messenger was sent on foot to bring horses down as far as Mokkolokky, which we could reach in canoes in two days, ...
Source: The Church Missionary Gleaner November 1888
My Visit to West Africa by the Rev. W. Allan
Photo: Agege - on the road to Abeokuta, circa 1883. (Photo by J.W. Rowland/Royal Geographical Society via Getty Images
My Visit to West Africa by the Rev. W. Allan
Photo: Agege - on the road to Abeokuta, circa 1883. (Photo by J.W. Rowland/Royal Geographical Society via Getty Images
... and from which place Abbeokuta might be reached in one. These canoes are by no means roomy vessels, being merely hollowed trunks of trees eighteen inches wide and sixteen inches deep, half above and half below the water.
They have to be covered by a low awning of matting, which renders reclining the only possible position until the sun goes down, ...
... and then, thrusting the matting aside, it is possible, though hazardous, to stand upright in what may be called the doorway, and gaze around, at the imminent risk of an upset.
Food, water, bedding, culinary and other utensils, luggage, and every kind of requirement had to be packed on board, and room still found in each for three natives besides Mr. Wood and myself.
These preparatory arrangements occupied the whole of Monday, Feb. 20th ; but at 5 a.m. on Tuesday we started, crossing the Cradoo Lagoon, ...
... touching at Ebute Metta. and then wending our way through the noisome Agboi Creek, till about noon we found ourselves on the shallow waters of the Ogun.
Coming to a spot where river dues were collected, and where officials were stationed to prevent any unauthorised persons from Lagos passing by that way, we paid tribute, or “ dash,” in the form of a couple of bottles of lemonade, and proceeded onwards.
About 7 p.m. we landed on a sand-bank, had supper and prayers by moonlight, and then lay down, by no means to sleep, but to supply the mosquitoes with English food, ...
... to learn patience by suffering, and to listen to the extraordinary series of noises which make an African night hideous.[!]
At 5 a.m. on Wednesday we started again; and as we were attired rather in African than English costume — a pyjama suit, with no boots or stockings, constituting my whole apparel —
--- it was easy to relieve the monotony of canoe imprisonment, and to prove ourselves amphibious, by stepping overboard and wading in the water or walking on the sandbanks, as fancy might suggest.
At one spot we landed, and made our way through the bush to a village where a Mission station is about to be opened, and where a country fair was going on.
As utter strangers, in a place where white men are almost unknown, and not on account of our very light and airy raiment, we formed the centre of admiration [?]...
... to a wondering crowd, but there was so much true politeness about these [nasty word] that we had no cause to complain of incivility on the part of any of the gaping throng.
From thence we proceeded to Mokkolokky, where the horses were in waiting, and where we spent another night on the river, starting as early as possible and breakfasting at Afarjupa, one of the missionary out-stations of Abbeokuta.
A few hours of tropical heat and tropical scenery, including one ravine of the most exquisite beauty, brought us to a large village, where we rested and lunched under the “ travellers’ tree,” and then continued our course till we were about four miles from Abbeokuta.
Here a surprise awaited us, for in the centre of a heathen village about 150 Abbeokuta Christians in gala dress were ranged along the two sides of the highway, shown off to the best advantage by a background of dusky and unclad, but most orderly and interested [same nasty word].
These Abbeokuta Christians had come out in a body to welcome the C.M.S. Deputation, which they proceeded to do, first by singing the English anthem, ...
... “ How beautiful upon the mountains,” &c. ; then by an address, to which I responded as in duty bound ; and lastly by a Yoruban hymn of rejoicing.
The whole party then led the way back to Abbeokuta, singing as they marched along, and I was thus escorted to the Mission compound in the Ake quarter of the town and welcomed by our missionary, the Rev. T. Harding.
Almost as soon as I arrived Mr. Wood received a present from Ogundeyi, one of the heathen kings, of a kid and a sheep “ to feed his stranger with.”
The next day the women of the Ake congregation presented me with a sheep, an ex-communicated polygamist Chief gave me a cock, the wife of a Native pastor two bottles of milk, ...
... and subsequently the Serike, or Christian Chief, who was out of town, sent me another sheep all the way from his farm in the country.
Moreover, when, in accordance with the decrees of Yoruban etiquette, I called upon the Alake, or Chief King, he presented me with a bag of cowries (20,000), and wished to accompany his gift with two bottles of liquor; Ogundeyi gave me two bags;...
...Ulado, whose palace had just been burned down, only two heads, or 4,000 cowries ; and the Jaguna, or War Chief of Igbein, laid at my feet a bag of cowries...
... and a demijohn of rum, though the latter was declined at the time, and all the other presents, except the milk, handed over to a slave redemption fund connected with the Mission. ...
What with paying calls, receiving deputations, visiting Iporu, Ikija, Ilugun, lkeruku, Igbore, Gbagura, &c., conferring with the missionaries, home correspondence, attending Church services, and school inspection, ...
... my strength was slightly overtaxed, while the strong aroma of cow-dung floors both in the church and on the Mission premises, which is the Yoruba substitute for asphalte, somewhat affected my health...
I should have greatly liked to visit Iporu myself as well as Ibadan and all the other numerous and, in some instances, more distant stations in Yoruba; but a peep at Ebute Meta in returning was all I could accomplish further.
Still I had seen enough to make me thankful for the simple, unaffected, and comparatively satisfactory tone of the Christians of Yoruba, and especially of Abbeokuta, for their efforts to influence the heathen, and for their apparently sincere abhorrence of polygamy.
I also saw enough to make me hopeful that the appointment of a firm but kindly Yoruban bishop would lead, with God’s blessing, to the eradication in time of domestic slavery
