Page:A pilgrimage to my motherland.djvu/134

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TO MY MOTHERLAND.
125

effect of her fright and the fatigue of such hurried travelling; but there were the son and daughter and her other children, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, and their husbands, wives, children, etc. They brought with them presents of chickens, eggs, fruits, cola-nuts and many other suitable gifts.

The interpreter had accompanied me with the object of returning to inform the Doctor whether carriers could be obtained on the route, and if so, to come with him and our luggage after me to Abbeokuta; but the condition of the road, as the reader already knows, rendered it impossible even for the interpreter to return alone.

My next plan was to return myself, taking with me the letter-bags of the missionaries, which they were very anxious to receive; but both the interpreter and Johnson, who belonged to Lagos, wanted to go home, the former because his mother was at the point of death, the latter because he was longing to see his wife, but he promised to return in a week, and to indicate his sincerity refused to take his wages until then. True to his word, he came at the appointed time, and we were about to set out the next morning, my horse waiting, when our native boy Adeneje, who was left at Oyo with small-pox, came in with a note from my colleague informing me that he had just arrived at our