Opening Battles around Ejahyay 
all fell on our knees while Mr. Phillips briefly but 
fervently supplicated God’s protection in this 
hour of peril. 
Just then many of the panic-stricken Abeo- 
kutans, some of them desperately wounded, 
rushed into the mission yard. All that could 
fight, we succeeded in rallying and in persuading 
to take a stand at the city gate. But fortunately, 
the Ebaddans were so much encumbered with 
their prisoners that they did not press the siege 
that time, and when the sun went down not an 
enemy was in sight. By morning the defeated 
allies had somewhat recovered from their de¬ 
moralized condition. Some, however, continued 
their flight to Abeokuta, and a few crazed by 
their experience that day, did not stop until they 
reached Lagos. It was, indeed, a very appalling 
disaster. 
The Ebaddans, each one with a fillet of grass 
around his cap to distinguish him from his foes, 
had spread themselves out for several miles and 
hid in the tall grass or canebrake of a small 
stream. In some way they succeeded in lulling 
„the suspicions of the allies and their charge took 
them entirely by surprise. They made a brave 
stand for a while and then broke. Areh suc¬ 
ceeded in rallying some of them and in holding 
179 
