Page:A pilgrimage to my motherland.djvu/140

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TO MY MOTHERLAND.
131

Easter Sunday—we attended divine service, and heard a sermon from our venerable friend the Rev. Samuel Crowther, who was now spending a short time with his family, and expecting to return to his labors up the Niger in a few days. Let me here, as well for my colleague as myself, record my acknowledgments and thanks to him, his family, and to the many kind friends we met with in our travels, not omitting our friend Capt. Davis, who kindly furnished us a passage in his boat to the steamer, free of expense.

On the morning of the 10th of April we bade adieu to Lagos, and after an unusually fine passage across the bar, embarked on board the Royal Mail S. S. "Athenian," Capt. Laurie, for Liverpool. The steamer, as in the outward voyage, stopped at the inter-mediate places on the coast, and at Teneriffe and Madeira. She had on board a large number of Kru men, returning from different points of the coast, where they had been serving either on board men-of-war or trading vessels. These men are of incalculable advantage, as without them it would be impossible to work the ships, European sailors being unfit to labor in such warm latitudes, and not understanding so well the management of boats in heavy surfs. No where, I believe, can people be found so