Page:A pilgrimage to my motherland.djvu/137

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128
A PILGRIMAGE

would not submit to their extortion. At last Mr. Pedro, an intelligent young native, kindly volunteered to procure a canoe to take down the things, thus enabling us to dispense with the carriers entirely. After some effort he succeeded. It was then concluded that the Doctor, accompanied by Johnson, should proceed by land, while I should go with the canoe to look after the safety of our things. The Doctor left about ten o'clock A.M., the things were placed on board, my horse sent back to Abbeokuta, and stepping into the canoe it was pushed off. We proceeded with much labor for about two miles, when it was found impossible to go further: there was not enough water to float it. We were then left in a worse dilemma than at first, for a little more pay would have secured the services of the carriers. Leaving the canoe, I returned to Aro, to procure if possible the aid of a man to push it on, and fortunately met Messrs. Josiah Crowther and Faulkner, the latter a respectable young man from Sierra Leone, who seeing and pitying my unlucky position, sent a few of their laborers to take the luggage down to Agbamiya, a point further down the river, from which place there is always enough water to float a loaded canoe. These laborers instead of returning with the things to Aro, and proceeding thence by the direct road, attempted a