Page:A pilgrimage to my motherland.djvu/127

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118
A PILGRIMAGE

visitor, whose sole qualification is his ability to read, allowed to a town of from sixteen to twenty thousand people.

My horse and men being tired, we rested all the next day at Awaye.

A woman with her son and daughter besought me to permit them to go under our protection to Abbeokuta. I told her she was welcome to all the protection I could afford, and we left together the next morning early. At about eleven o'clock, when half-way on our journey to Bi-olorun-pellu, we suddenly met about two hundred Ibadan soldiers. My servants, who were before me, attempted to pass by the fore-most of them, but were very roughly arrested. My-self and the rest of the party soon came up and were all immediately surrounded. They kept us, while discussing the fate of my people, for nearly two hours. At length they demanded a present as the condition on which they would allow us to proceed. I had nothing to give, having left Oyo with only two suits of clothes, one on my back, the other in a small bundle. My other things consisted only of a gutta-percha sheet and some cooking utensils. I told the man who carried them to open the things and allow them to take whatever they desired: seeing we had nothing, they informed my interpreter, after a little consideration