Worshipping the Dead Prince 
we will hear more later on, but starvation had so 
broken the health of some of them that they soon 
pined away and died. Only seventy remained 
when I reached Abeokuta about eight months 
later. 
Under very trying circumstances, the care of 
an important mission station had suddenly and 
unexpectedly devolved upon me, but I had an 
excellent interpreter who was always faithful to 
me, and 1 could now speak the language very 
well for ordinary purposes myself. 1 instructed 
and encouraged the converts the best I could, and 
whenever her health or the condition of things 
would allow it, my wife continued to teach the 
children. Whoever had food in the town kept 
it concealed, but as long as there was any in town 
to spare, I was able to buy a little on the sly, the 
people who sold, bringing it in the night. Once 
I was entirely out of cowries and had nothing 
that anybody in town wanted to buy. In special 
prayer, I laid the matter before the Lord, and that 
day a man came from the Egbar camp and of¬ 
fered to buy the colt of my wife’s riding mare. 
The sum that this brought lasted us for some 
time. We had some rice and some arrowroot. 
We also had plenty of sugar, tomatoes and 
oranges. We preserved the tomatoes and ate 
187 
