p. 9 | In Nigeria by D. C. BABCOCK

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C.

FromReview and Herald, Harvest Ingathering Number

In Nigeria

By D. C. BABCOCK

At a general meeting held in Sierra Leone it was arranged for two foreign and four West African workers to enter Nigeria.

Landing at Lagos, I made a trip into the interior to search for a location, while the other workers secured materials and at once began preparation for a building, making doors, windows, etc.

I went northward as far as Jebba, on the Niger River, about six hundred miles above its mouth, passing first through the country of the Yoruba, who are an agricultural people with vast fields of cotton, corn, and yams. Above the eighth degree north latitude the fertile fields change into vast grazing lands. Here the Fulahs, a people of altogether different type, herd their sheep, cattle, and goats. Reaching the western slope of the Niger again, the country changes into market gardens, and hundreds of people come out of Jebba each morning, trading in yams, onions, fowls, and eggs for the towns on the river.

One is astonished to see the large towns. There are twenty-five towns, I find, with from ten thousand to one hundred and eighty thousand population. While there are many dialects and languages, yet there are but three prevailing tongues,—the Yoruba, the Fulah, and the Hausa.

We are entering this region of eighteen million souls with courage, believing that the Lord will give us a harvest for the coming King. D. C. BABCOCK.

Nigeria, West Africa.