In Afric’s Forest and Jungle 
was of no use in this climate without this in¬ 
dispensable ingredient. But the people of Ejah- 
yay were now starving by hundreds. The sup¬ 
plies brought from Abeokuta by military caravans 
were used only for military purposes, and the 
poor who could not secretly escape from the 
town, were left to miserably perish. For some 
reason many preferred to die on the bank of the 
creek where it flowed through a grove near the 
gate in front of the station. Every day a num¬ 
ber of living skeletons would totter and stagger 
along the way by our yard to reach this hallowed 
spot that they might lie down and die there. 
After death they would look like mummies, and 
the Egbar soldiers would throw their dry and 
wasted forms in heaps on each side of the path 
leading to their camp. 
Than this famine, in all its circumstances, I 
never saw anything more pitiful. At first, I took 
a portion of the food I happened to have each 
day and standing by the side of the path, would 
try to induce the starving to eat a little, but they 
would look at me with a vacant stare showing 
that they were unconscious and too far gone to be 
benefited by human aid. 
The famine and suffering among the people 
failed to enlist any sympathy from those in 
184 
