76 
GOD'S BLACK DIAMONDS. 
burial, and the drinking associated with such a rite. 
But he pleaded and showed them how much more 
fitting it was to dispose of the dead in the sober, 
reverent fashion of the Mission, and what is more 
gained his point ! In the early days of our work 
there Egbo's influence was very powerful, and a 
great stumbling-block in the way of our advance. 
Yet I lived to see the time w^hen Egbo, instead of 
parading the streets, laying a paralysing hand on 
the everyday life of the town, etc., and indulging 
in disgraceful drunken orgies, had to confine its 
play and celebrations to a compound, and even 
there had to shut itself off from the public gaze. 
For this tremendous change there was only one 
cause, and that the Christian sentiment and con- 
science which had spread until it constituted public 
opinion, and silently but surely governed the town. 
When the boundaries between the Kamerun Colony 
and Nigeria were re-arranged, it fell out that Arsi- 
bongTown was included in German territory. Quite 
a large proportion of the inhabitants left when it 
got known, but some had perforce to remain. 
Amongst these latter was a devoted Christian, Anie 
Kofon by name. When the Mission had to remove 
to Oron, and owing to shortage of staff, even a 
native teaching evangelist could not be spared 
them, Anie Kofon used all his spare time and all 
the weight of his influence to keep together his fel- 
low Christians also remaining behind, and to win 
new converts to the Christ. The missionary at 
Oron went over every six weeks or so, stayed 
usually a full week-end, preaching, exhorting, 
counselling and doing the work of a Christian shep- 
herd. It fell to my lot on a number of occasions 
