Bishop Crowther’s Early Life
FIFTY years ago there was a boy in Africa who was taken prisoner in one of the fierce wars between the tribes, and was carried away from his home to be sold as a slave. First he was sold for a horse. Then his buyer thought him a bad exchange for the horse, and compelled his master to take him back. Then he was sold for so much rum. This was called another bad bargain by the man who had bought him, and again he was returned, to be sold for tobacco, with the same result. Nobody wanted the poor, miserable slave-boy, who was on the point of committing suicide, when he was bought by a Portuguese trader, and carried away in a slave-ship. How little that wretched boy knew what the future had in store for him as he lay chained in the hold of the crowded slave-ship! But one of England's war-ships that were clearing the high seas of the slavers bore down upon the Portuguese vessel, rescued the captives, and the African boy was placed under Christian influences, baptized and educated, and to-day he is Bishop Crowther, England's black bishop in Africa.—Gospel in All Lands.