436 AFRICA SPEAKS 



On the morning of July twenty-ninth, we left Jebba 

 in my truck, the "Maudie H," for Lagos, leaving 

 Jones behind with "Jacqueline H." My plan was to 

 return him an axle from Lagos which he would install 

 in the disabled truck and then follow. Our route lay 

 through Ilorin, where I replenished my gasoline and 

 Mobiloil supphes at a Vacuum Oil depot. Then we 

 proceeded to Ogbomosho, where the night was spent 

 in an excellent rest house, close to which was an 

 American mission and hospital. One of the doctors, 

 hailing from Virginia, came over to pay us a visit, 

 and we talked far into the night about "the States.'* 



Starting early next morning, we drove hard all day, 

 passing many villages, such as Oyo, and through Ibadan, 

 the largest native town in Nigeria. From there to 

 Abeokuta and onward to Lagos, we traveled a district 

 reminding me of our own Southland. There were 

 savanna lands fringed by lagoons, and we crossed 

 miles of country similar to that about New Orleans. 

 The principal occupation of the natives is the growing 

 of cocoa for export, although, because of the dense 

 population, it is also necessary to raise great quantities 

 of yams, peanuts, and Guinea corn for domestic use. 



Late on the afternoon of July 30, 1929, we crept 

 slowly over the narrow bridge that connects Lagos 

 Island with the mainland, and thus completed the 

 first trans-African journey, from East to West, by 

 motor truck through Central Equatorial Africa. The 

 distance from the East Coast was five thousand five 

 hundred forty-five miles, excluding side trips, but we 

 had traversed thirteen thousand two hundred eighty- 

 two miles of veldt, swamp, jungle, mountain, and 

 desert since leaving Mombasa. 



