t Arochuku they went down the gorge to the juju
house, at the door of which they found a white goat starving to death.
Many human skulls and cooking-pots lying about told a gruesome tale. The
place continued to be the scene of wicked ceremonies, and was at last
blown up with dynamite.

Ma was sorry she had not gone to Iboland before the soldiers, because
she felt that if she had done so she might have saved all the fighting
and bloodshed. Now that a way had been blazed into the country, she was
more than ever eager and impatient to go.

"The Gospel should have been the first to enter," she said; "but since
the sword and gun are before us, we must follow at once."

[Illustration]

So while carrying on the work at Akpap, she began to explore and look
out for some place that would do for an outpost. One day she left Akpap,
taking with her the slave-girl Mana, who now knew English and her Bible
well, and a bright boy called Esien, and tramped to the Cross River,
where she boarded a canoe and paddled slowly upstream. By and by she
came to another smaller river on the west, which seemed to run far into
the interior between Ibo and Ibibio, and there she landed on a beach at
the foot of a hill. This was Itu, a famous place, for it was here that
one of the greatest slave-markets in West Africa used to be held, and it
was down this side river, the Enyong Creek, that the slaves were brought
in canoes, to be sold and sent over the country, or shipped abroad to
the West Indies or America.

"A good place to begin," Ma said; and she landed and climbed up the
steep bank to the top, where she had a beautiful view over the shining
river and the green land. "Oh, yes," she repeated, "a bonnie place to
begin."

Once more she lived the gipsy life. She opened a school, made Mana and
Esien the teachers, and started to build a church. The people, who had
so long trembled in the shadow of slavery, were so pleased that they did
all they could to help her, and the children of the village tumbled over
one another in their eagerness to "learn book."

When she left for Akpap again the chiefs gave her the gift of a black
goat, and she tied a piece of string to it and led it to the beach,
where the Mission boat picked her up and took her down to the
landing-place for Okoyong. She was bareheaded and barefooted, but in
high spirits at the success of her trip, and she went away gaily into
the forest, leading her goat and singing:

Mary had a