8 
GOD'S BLACK DIAMONDS. 
canoes. One of these arrested my attention. It 
was making for Jamestown, and there were in it 
three people : one paddling at the prow, another 
steering at the stern, and the third huddled up in 
the middle. It was the crouching position of this 
third man that made me knoAv something unusual 
was afoot. So I waited until they reached the 
shore. I found, then, that the crouching native 
was bound hand and foot, and had been brought 
miles in that position with a hot sun beating down 
upon him for hours together. With great difficulty 
I got him liberated and allowed to sit in the shade^ 
whilst the other two went to King James Egbo 
Bassey to complain about him and ask for redress. 
It turned out, that this poor fellow was their slave. 
They had paid 20.000 wires for him- — £12 ids. od. 
in our money— and were disappointed, not because 
he was either insolent or lazy, but because he was 
homesick and unsettled, and they feared he v/oo!d 
become sick and mayhap die ! A slave-boy was 
one day sent by his master on an errand. Instead 
of going straight there and back he played on the 
road and was away a long time. His master worked 
himself up into a towering rage because of the 
delay, so that when the boy returned he struck 
him with a pole across the head and laid it open. 
Several people rebuked the man, saying the punish- 
ment was far too severe, and he might easily have 
killed the lad. How do you think he answered 
them? If I had killed him, it's nothing to do 
with you. He is my slave to do as I like with." 
In our day-school at Jamestown we had a very nice 
girl-slave as one of our scholars. Her mistress was 
the head wife of King James Egbo Bassey, and a 
