Improvements 
prayed for my recovery. My wife was twice 
brought to the brink of the grave, and if we had 
not had the services of an experienced English 
physician, I think she would have died. The 
grief and anxiety of the people and the school 
children were very pathetic and were only 
equalled by their joy when she began to recover. 
They sincerely appreciated her self-denial in liv¬ 
ing among them and in sharing their sorrows as 
well as their joys. 
The strain on her nervous system by these two 
attacks and by the incidents of our last year’s life 
in Ejahyay, greatly weakened her constitution 
and, at the end of our second year in Abeokuta 
and of our fourth in the interior, Mr. Phillips 
having returned from England, I determined to 
return for a while to America. While preparing 
to leave, I heard that marauders, taking advan¬ 
tage of the disturbed state of the country, had 
appeared on the Ogun river and were robbing 
canoes and maltreating those found in them, even 
selling some for slaves. Especially on account of 
my wife, this news was naturally very disturb¬ 
ing. Besides, 1 had agreed to take the two chil¬ 
dren of Enigbio to Lagos. In leaving Africa, I 
did not want to undo any good I might have 
done if it was possible to avoid so great a mis- 
263 
