riends and kindred, and were agreeably surprised at the wonderful
change that had taken place in so short a time. They returned to
Sierra Leone, only to inspire their neighbors with a zeal for
commercial and missionary enterprise. Within three years, five hundred
of the best colored people of Sierra Leone set out for Lagos and
Badagry on the seacoast, and then moved overland to Abeokuta, where
they intended to make their home. In this company of noble men were
merchants, mechanics, physicians, school-teachers, and clergymen.
Their people had fought for deliverance from physical bondage: these
brave missionaries had come to deliver them from intellectual and
spiritual bondage. The people of Abeokuta gave the missionaries a
hearty welcome. The colony received new blood and energy.
School-buildings and churches rose on every hand. Commerce was
revived, and even agriculture received more skilful attention. Peace
and and plenty began to abound. Every thing wore a sunny smile, and
many tribes were bound together by the golden cords of civilization,
and sang their _Te Deum_ together. Far-away England caught their songs
of peace, and sent them agricultural implements, machinery, and
Christian ministers and teachers. So, that, nowhere on the continent
of Africa is there to be found so many renewed households, so many
reclaimed tribes, such substantial results of a vigorous, Christian
civilization.

The forces that quickened the inhabitants of Abeokuta were not all
objective, exoteric: there were subjective and inherent forces
at work in the hearts of the people. They were capable of
civilization,--longed for it; and the first blaze of light from
without aroused their slumbering forces, and showed them the broad and
ascending road that led to the heights of freedom and usefulness. That
they sought this road with surprising alacrity, we have the most
abundant evidence. Nor did all the leaders come from abroad. Adgai, in
the Yoruba language, but Crowther, in English, was a native of this
country. In 1822 he was sold into slavery at the port of Badagry. The
vessel that was to bear him away to the "land of chains and stocks"
was captured by a British man-of-war, and taken to Sierra Leone. Here
he came under the influence of Christian teachers. He proved to be one
of the best pupils in his school. He received a classical education,
fitted for the ministry, and then hastened back to his native country
to carry the gospel of peace. It