A New Field Opened by D. C. Babcock

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 25, 1914

A New Field Opened

By D. C. Babcock

D. C. BABCOCK

For many years the Mission Board has looked forward with anxiety to the entering of Nigeria, West Africa, with the message, but until the present year no steps have been taken in opening this great field. At a meeting held in December, at Freetown, Sierra Leone, it was arranged that two foreign and four native workers should go to that field and plant the first mission station representing the third angel's message. The company left Sierra Leone the latter part of February, and arrived at Lagos, the port of entry, March 7, 1914.

Some of the workers secured materials at once, and began preparation for a building by making doors and windows, while the writer started out in search of a suitable location. During my trip in the hinterland, I traveled as far north as Kabba, on the Niger River, about four hundred miles from its mouth.

It is an interesting country. From the fifth to the eighth degree north latitude it is strictly a farming country. The Yoruba people are agriculturists, and

raise vast fields of cotton, corn, yams, and other products.

North of Offa, there is a decided change in the country. Instead of fertile fields, there are vast grazing lands; and here the Fulahs, a people of altogether different type and race, herd their sheep, cattle, goats, and donkeys. Passing down the western slope of the great Niger basin, we found the country again changed into market gardens, and hundreds of people came out of Kabba each morning, trading in yams, onions, fowls, and eggs.

It looks strange to one visiting Nigeria to find such large towns, or cities. I find there are over twenty-five towns that range from 10,000 to 180,000 in population, and many of these places have some good buildings. I noticed especially in passing Abeokuta that all the houses were covered with corrugated iron.

With 18,000,000 souls to warn of the soon-coming judgments, we earnestly appeal to you for your prayers, your men, and your means, to sound the last cry of mercy to this part of dark Africa. While there are many dialects and languages spoken, yet there are only three prevailing languages, the Yoruba, the Fulah, and the Hausa.

This field, which is six hundred and fifty miles from north to south, and seven hundred miles from east to west, we are entering with courage, believing that we shall reap a harvest for the coming King.

Lagos.