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ore 1 
 ALFRED SAKER, 
 
 A BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 EDWARD BEAN UNDERHILL, LL.D., 
 
 Ilonorarij Sccrctavij of Uie Baptist Missionary Society. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY, 
 10, CASTLE STREET, HOLBORN, E.G., 
 
 AND 
 
 ALEXANDER & SHEPHEARD, LONDON, 
 
 ISSl. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PHIIfTBB BY ALBXANDBB AND 8 H B P H E A B Bv 
 
 L0N3DALB BCtLDINGS, CHAJfCKBT LIIIK. 
 
Paul's love oF Christ, and steadiness unbribed, 
 Were copied close in him, and well transcribed. 
 He folloAved Paul : his zeal a kindred flame, 
 His apostolic charity the same. 
 Like him, oioss'd cheerfully tempestuous seas, 
 ForsakiuL; country, kindred, friends, and ease : 
 Like him, he laboured, and, like him, content 
 To bear it, .suft'er'd shame where'er he went, 
 
 COWPF.R. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Alfred Sakeh wisliod to be known under no other 
 ■designation than a " Missionary to Africa " ; and it is 
 under that aspect of his character that the following 
 pages have been compiled. All the energies of his 
 nature were concentrated on that one object, and its 
 fulfilment he held to constitute his one claim to our 
 regard. But in otl^er respects he was a man worthy of 
 admiration and of the deepest affection; and in the 
 pursuit of his aim he never ibrgot the claims ..f family 
 love, of Christian dut}^ or of the Master to whom with 
 great joy he gave the life he had received at His liands. 
 Tor the purposes of this biography, I have been much 
 indebted to Mrs. Saker for many details of her hus- 
 band's early life; and the (Jommittee of the Baptist 
 Missionary Society, whose honoured servant he was, 
 have freely placed at my command the correspondence 
 in their hands. A comparison \\ith some pages of the 
 Misdonary Herald will show that I have freely used 
 many statements recorded there; Imt as tliey wore the 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 production of my own pen, and often derived from my 
 own personal knowledge, I have not thouglit it neces- 
 sary to make any distinct reference to the paragraphs 
 I have quoted or used. 
 
 I trust that, under the Divine Blessing, this sketch of 
 a noble and useful life will contribute to deepen the 
 interest of the Christian Church in Foreign Missions,, 
 and more particularly in the salvation of that great 
 Continent which still so lamentably needs the utmost 
 devotion of the people of the Lord. 
 
 EDWARD B. UNDEPvHILL. 
 
 Hami'STEAD, Feb. 5th, 188.1^. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 VAGK. 
 
 Early Life and Consecration— 184M842 1 
 
 Birthplace — Childhood — Youth — Conversion — Devotion to 
 Christ— In Devonport Dockyard — Marriage — Desire for a 
 missionary life. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Departure for Africa— 1843 8- 
 
 Origin of the African Mission — The exploration — Commence- 
 ment at Clarence — Objections to the Mission — Explorers diiven 
 to Jamaica — The Chilmark engaged — Departure of ]Mr. and 
 Mrs. Saker — Voyage to Jamaica — Voyage to Fernando Po — 
 Sufferings on the voyage — Arrival. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Commencement of Missionary Labour— 1844-1845 20 
 
 Reception at Clarence— First trials— Personal toil— First 
 attempt.s at printing — Death of infant — Visit to Binibia and 
 the Cameroons — Description of the river — Warm reception 
 by the Dualla chiefs— The first week. 
 
 CHAPTER IV, 
 Pkkils AiioNG THE Heathen— 1845-1846 2* 
 
 The A'kwa towns — Barbarous practices— Witchcraft— Mr. 
 Saker's residence — Its purchase— Quarrels of the chiefs- 
 Learning the language— Review of the first year's work. 
 
Xn ' COXTE^'TS. 
 
 CHArXEK V. 
 
 TAGE 
 
 PekseveeaxjC'E in Laeove— 1846-1847 36 
 
 Listless attention of the people — Sufferings — Mr. Saker's first 
 visit to England — His return to Africa — A busy life — Desire 
 for books — Begins to translate the Scriptures — Visit to 
 Clarence — Ba^itism of converts — Return to Cameroons— 
 Cruelties of the heathen — Building of a school-house — Need of 
 better dwellings. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Anxious Days— 1848-1850 44 
 
 Residence at Clarence — Illness and de[iarture of missionaries 
 — Appeal for help — Work in Clarence — Arri%al of the Dove — 
 A day of joy — Shadows retnm^ — Death of Mr. Merrick — The 
 work at Bethel — First marriage and baptism — Formation of 
 a church — Health, and voyage to England. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Dawn of Bkighter Days— 1850-1852 56 
 
 Dr. jSTewbegin's death — Appeal to the Committee — Mr. and 
 Mrs. Saker's return to Africa — Joyful reception — Visit to 
 Bethel — Baptisms — Persecution of converts — ]\Ir. Saker again 
 resides at Bethel — ^Manufacture of bricks — How accomplished 
 — Advance of the Gospel — Destruction of chapel at Clarence 
 — Mr. "Wheeler's departure — Heavy toil — Triumph of truth. 
 
 CHAPTER VI n. 
 
 The MissioxAiiT at his Wokk— 1853-1S56 69 
 
 Bimbia station — Causes of its decay — The work at Cameroons 
 — The church — The sick missionary — A'isit to England — 
 Return to Africa — Persecution of convei-ts — Acquisition of 
 Dualla langTiage — Books prepared and printed^The standard 
 Alphabet. 
 
CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 I'.VOK 
 
 The Home of Freedom— 1858 80 
 
 Claim of Spain to Fernando Po — The missionaries driven 
 away — The Mission abandoned — -Exploration of Amboises Bay 
 — Description — Colony of Victoria founded — Its advantages 
 — The exiles —Laws of the colony — The home of freedom—- 
 Grateful retrospect. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Days of Hope-1S59-1861 97 
 
 Progress of the work — Composition of hymns and tunes — 
 Visit of Mr. DiboU and Mr. Saker to England— Approval of 
 the Committee — Return voyage — Trials of the Slission — 
 Intense activity of Jlr. Saker — Completion of New Testament 
 — Classes for reading — Native i|uarrels — The Dualla language 
 and people. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 Ascent of the Camerooxs ]\Iouxtaix— 1861-1862 110 
 
 The start— The native population — The ascent — Encampment 
 — Traces of volcanic action — The summit— Final ascent by 
 Captain Burton — Return to Victoria. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 In Peril on eveky Side— 1862-1863 117 
 
 Slow growth of Victoria — Description of it — Departure of hia 
 family for England — Interruptions from native quarrels — 
 Savage life — Attempts to revive tlie slave trade — Additions to 
 the church — Failuie of health — Another visit to England. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Perseveking Toil— 1864-1869 125- 
 
 Eeturn voyage to Africa — State of Mission — Death of Mrs. 
 Smith — Perseverance in manifold labours — Death of Johnson 
 — Obstruction from wars — Progress in translation — Danger of 
 drowning — Growth of the work — Translation of Bible com- 
 pleted — Baptisms — Visit to England. 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Visit of the Deputation— 1869-1870 133 
 
 First steps of the Mission — Obstacles and difficulties — 
 Diversity of judgment among the missionaries — The Deputa- 
 tion — The voyage — Causes of difference — Formation of local 
 Committee — Secession of Mr. Saker — Secular work — Its 
 necessity — Charges of extravagance and waste — Not sustained 
 — Visit to Victoria — Growth of the colony — Mrs. Underhill's 
 decease — Report of Deputation. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Last Days in Africa— 1870-1876 145 
 
 His great task completed — Study of the prophets — The steam- 
 launch — Voyages up the rivers — Ravages of small-pox — 
 Arrangements for the Mission — A retrospect — Mr. Grenfellon 
 effect of his labours^Leaves Africa. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 <Jlosing Days— 1877-1880 156 
 
 Arrival in England — Health of ]\Ir. Saker — The Congo 
 Jlission — Speech at Cannon Street — Reception at Glasgow — 
 His address — His daughter's consecration to the work — Mr. 
 Gust's testimony — Decline in health — Approach of death- 
 Closing scene — Mr. Raynes on Mr. Saker's life and death — 
 The funeral — Reception of the news at Cameroons — Character 
 of Alfred Saker — Dr. Livingstone's and other testimony. 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 No. PAGE 
 
 I. — Regulations for the Colony of Victoria, Amboisks B.vy 169 
 
 II. — Resolution of the Baptist Missionary Society on the 
 
 Death of the Rev. Alfred Saker 172 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 FROXTIsI'IKiK— POJITH.UT OF TtEV, ALFRED SaKEU. 
 
 1. — Arrival of the "Chilmark" at Clarence 
 
 2. — a a'lllage on the cameroon's 
 
 3. — KiNf; A'kava'.s House axd Street 
 
 4.— Bethel Chapel, Cameroox.s 
 
 o. — Bird's-eye View of Victoria 
 
 6.— Mission-house and School, Amboises Bay 
 
 7. — Cameroons Mountain', kiiom A'ictoria ... 
 
 8.— Victoria Charel, Amboises Bay 
 
 9-— CH.A,rEL AT Hickory, or Mortonville ... 
 
 10. — New .Mission-house, Victoria 
 
 11. — On the Mungo River 
 
 12.— Map of Cameroons River, &c., &c. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 20 
 28 
 30 
 G4 
 92 
 96 
 
 no 
 lis 
 
 12S 
 144 
 143 
 16S 
 
ALFEED SAKEE. 
 
 A BIOGEAPHY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EAKLY LIFE AXD CONSECRATION, 1814-1842. 
 
 HE small hamlet of Borough Green, in the 
 parish of Wrotham, Kent, was the 
 birthplace of Alfred Saker. It lies in 
 a richly cultivated district, below the 
 chalk cliffs that rise to the north, from 
 whence may be seen, looking over the (|uiet village of 
 Wrotham, one of the most beautiful of the many lovely 
 landscapes that the weald of Kent offers to the lovers 
 ■of scenery. It is a district of meadows, cornfields, and 
 hop-gardens, interspersed with shaws and orchards. 
 Near at ha ad are the fine plantations and woods sur- 
 rounding Mereworth Castle. Still nearer to the little 
 Green, on the north-west, is Addington, with its numer- 
 ous memorials of Druidical times in circles, broken 
 cromlechs, and the remains of a great stone avenue that 
 remind the traveller of the monumental lines of Carnac 
 in Brittany. 
 
 Not far from Borough Green, to the west, is the con- 
 siderable village of Ightham, with its interesting relics 
 
 1 
 
2 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 of the Eoman occupation, consisting of a large intrench- 
 ment and traces of a Eoman road, which appears to 
 have run through Borough Green itself. 
 
 Here Alfred Saker was born on the 21st July, 1814, 
 and amid these scenes he spent the years of his child- 
 hood. His father was a millwright and engineer, and 
 the parent of a large family of children, many of whom 
 died in infanc}'. Alfred was a weakly babe, and, m the 
 opinion of the old nurse, " was not worth rearing." He 
 grew an exceedingly sensitive child, a gentle, retiring 
 boy, feeble in frame and caring little for the boisterous 
 games of the children that gave life to the quiet 
 village. The only school his parents could afford to 
 send him to was the National School of the place. He 
 early showed a great love for books, and preferred their 
 society to that of his playmates on the Green. At ten 
 years of age he had mastered all the lessons of the 
 school, and had made besides good progress in arith- 
 metic and in the geometry of Euclid. He therefore left, 
 and soon after entered his father's workshop, carrying 
 with him an eager thirst for knowledge, filling every 
 leisure hour with study, and spending every spare penny 
 in acquiring the books and instruments he longed to 
 possess. 
 
 Among other acquisitions, he learnt to sing. He had 
 a sweet voice, which he generally exercised in the choir 
 of Ightham church; but he often accompanied his 
 choral companions to Wrotham, where the father of his 
 future wife was the leader of the church's song. Before 
 he was fifteen years of age, he had purchased a large 
 pair of globes, which, at a later period, he gave to the 
 Society of which he became an honoured missionary ; 
 they are now preserved in the library of the Mis- 
 
EARLY LIFE AND COXSECKATION. 'f 
 
 sion House. A telescope was also among the scientitic 
 treasures he dearly loved, and with which he spent 
 hours in the fields behind his father's house till lona" 
 after midnight, watching the stars. Before he was six- 
 teen, he had constructed a small steam-engine, which 
 remained in his possession till he sold it on the eve of 
 his departure for Africa. 
 
 All these incidents of Alfred Saker's youth are 
 eminently characteristic of the man he became, and in 
 the Providence of God his self-chosen pursuits were the 
 most useful preparation that could have been devised 
 for his future career. 
 
 Up to this time Alfred Saker's mind does not appear 
 to have been awake to the claims of the Gospel on his 
 faith and love. They had probably never been pressed 
 on his attention. There was, indeed, a small Baptist 
 chapel in the hamlet, which, however, it is likely he 
 had never entered. The people attending it were poor 
 and despised, and the good old minister, the Eev. John 
 Morris, was much persecuted. The small community 
 over which Mr. Morris watched had been formed in 
 1809, and for twenty-one years he held the office of its 
 Pastor. In 1830 he was removed by death, and was 
 followed in his ministry by tlie Rev. Wm. Bolton, Mr. 
 Bolton was a man of much energy and singular zeal, 
 and his coming was followed by a revival in the con- 
 gregation. 
 
 It was about this time that Mr. Saker was " lent " by 
 his father to assist in a millwright's business in Seven- 
 oaks. One Sabbath evening he was strolling alone 
 through the street, when the singing in a chapel that he 
 passed drew his attention. He entered. The excellent 
 pastor, the Ptev. Thos. Shirley, was not, however, the 
 
 1* 
 
4: ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 preacher, but some stranger. The words to which the 
 youth listened fastened on his susceptible mind, and 
 the quiet hours of the night that followed witnessed the 
 consecration of his life to the service and the kingdom 
 of his Saviour. The preacher's name he never knew, 
 nor probably was the fact of Mr. Saker's conversion, 
 through his sermon, ever made known to him ; but, in 
 after-years, Mr. Saker often referred to the incident as 
 an encouragement to earnest labourers in Christ's vine- 
 yard, who yet may remain ever ignorant of the effect 
 that their work, under God's blessing, may have 
 wrought. He soon returned home, and at once became a 
 teacher in Mr. Bolton's Sunday-school, and shortly after 
 its superintendent. He assisted in the choir, and as his 
 gifts drew attention, he was prompt to exercise them in 
 the cottages and hamlets around. He took an active 
 part in every good work. Though modest and unas- 
 suming in manner, he did not fail to exhibit that 
 firmness and persistency of character which, in later 
 years, shone out so fully. In a recent reminiscence of 
 these days, a life-long friend says of him : " What is 
 most memorable to me now, was the earnestness of his 
 devotion, and of his pleadings with God at the prayer- 
 meetings. So much was this the case that I seem to 
 hear, even now, his earnest tones, although more than 
 forty years have passed away." On the 4th January, 
 1834, when nearly twenty years of age, he was baptized 
 by Mr. Fremling, of Footscray, and became a member of 
 the church in the village of his nativity. 
 
 With the public devotion of himself to Christ, he 
 be«jan to extend his labours in every direction. His 
 evenings were either given to self-improvement or he 
 would go to some member's house, where a few lowly 
 
EARLY LIFE AND CONSECRATION. 5 
 
 people were gathered for converse and prayer. His fit- 
 ness for evangelistic service became more and more 
 apparent. Not a village or hamlet in the neighbour- 
 hood was left untouched by his zealous ministrations. 
 " The first time," says the friend already referred to, "that 
 I remember going with him was to Wrotham Common. 
 This, perhaps, may be regarded as the beginning of liis 
 ministry. It was a voluntary movement on his part, 
 but most cordially approved by his brethren. At Piatt, 
 Ightham, among, the huts of the sand diggers on 
 Wrotham Commoni, and at other places of the neigh- 
 bourhood, he sought and found opportunities to carry 
 on the good work." The church soon called him to 
 exercise his ministry in a more formal way, and for 
 some time, at their request, he occupied every other 
 Sabbath the little chapel at Plaxtol. 
 
 The death of his father, in 1838, led Mr. Saker to 
 decide on seeking employment elsewhere. He accord- 
 ingly applied at various dockyards, and, after passing 
 his examination at Woolwich, he was appointed to a 
 situation in Devonport. In his studies for the 
 examination he obtained valuable assistance from the 
 late Eev. Jno. Cox, of Woolwich, His work at the 
 Devonport yard chiefly consisted in the preparation of 
 drawings for the Admiralty. They were of suflicient 
 excellence to secure his promotion on the first vacancy. 
 In October, 1839, he was sent for nine months to the 
 dockyard at Deptford, to superintend the erection of 
 machinery. 
 
 In the following month of February, he was married 
 to Miss Helen Jessup, and at the close of his engage- 
 ment at Deptford, he returned to Devonport. 
 
 In the early days of his Christian life, he had 
 
6 ' ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 formed tlie desire to consecrate his powers to the 
 service of Christ in Africa, but he was more espe- 
 cially stirred at this period to offer himself for this 
 work by the striking narratives of the Kev. John 
 Clarke and Dr. Prince, on their return from a visit 
 of exploration to the West Coast, in the year 1842, 
 In this wish he was encouraged by his devoted 
 wife. The counsel and opinion of his highly esteemed 
 pastor, the Eev. Thos. Horton, brought decision to the 
 yearnings of his heart, and, after some delay, he was 
 accepted by the Committee of the Baptist Missionary 
 Society. He owed much to the ministry of Mr. 
 Horton. "Writing many years after to Mrs. Horton, on 
 the decease of her husband, Mr. Saker thus speaks of 
 the benefit that he received during the years of his 
 connection with him: — " I shall ever remember the 
 debt I owe to the departed. In my early days he 
 showed me the beauty of holiness in a devoted human 
 life, and also by his teaching and counsel incited all 
 my affections and faculties in earnest efforts to promote 
 the present and future happiness of the human family. 
 And in whatever respect my life in Africa has been a 
 blessing, it has resulted greatly from the teaching of 
 those early days, even as the harvest from the seed 
 sown. Oft I meditated writing to him while yet 
 among us on earth — my attempts were failures. I 
 wanted to give him a brief account of tlie result, through 
 his help, of my life's toil, — in a written language, a 
 completed Bible, the conversion of hundreds, the training 
 of young men to teach and to preach, and the gathering 
 together of churches to maintain the ordinances of 
 divine service ; thus securing, as far as human eye can 
 see, the dissemination of the word of God with all its 
 
EARLY LIFE AND CONSECRATION. 7 
 
 benign influences. Such lines have never been 
 written ; the pleasure to me to tell, and the departed 
 to hear, was denied. I could neitlier write nor travel. 
 May the mercies of God be long continued to you and 
 yours in tliis life, and, finally, the joy of endless life 
 with the holy above." 
 
 Mr. Saker's residence in Devonport w^as a period of 
 useful preparation for his missionary career, and he 
 found in his connection with the church in Morrice 
 Square, a fitting sphere for the exercise of his gifts. 
 Old scholars still living, tell of his labours in tlie 
 Sunday-school with devout thankfulness, and speak 
 with tears of gratitude of his strenuous exertions for 
 tlieir highest welfare. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Depaetuee foe Afeica, 1843. 
 
 MOISrCTST the earliest results in Jamaica 
 of the great Act of Emancipation, was 
 the earnest desire of numbers of the 
 freed Africans to convey the Gospel to 
 the land of their fathers. Many still 
 remembered the homes from which they had been torn,, 
 and longed to revisit the j^lf^ce of their l)irth to com- 
 municate the " riches of mercy," of which they had 
 become the grateful recipients in the house of their 
 bondage. Encouraged by numerous offers of personal 
 service, and by the abounding liberality of the Jamaica 
 churches, the Committee of the Baptist Missionary 
 Society, mindful of the Divine blessing that had 
 crowned its labours with such large success in the 
 chief island of the Antilles, felt itself compelled, in its 
 year of Jubilee, to undertake this arduous enterprise.. 
 The time was auspicious, and the triumph of freedom 
 over slavery could not more signally or gratefully be 
 commemorated than by an effort to give the light of life 
 to that " Dark Continent," and to atone for the crimes- 
 that English greed had for centuries committed, by 
 proclaiming in Africa itself the glad tidings of a Divine 
 liberty from on high. 
 
 It was at once seen to be indispensable that fuller 
 information than was then accessible should be obtained,. 
 
DEPARTUEE FOR AFRICA. 9 
 
 both as to the feasibility of a mission on the western 
 coast of Africa, and as to the spot most suitable for its 
 commencement. For this purpose the Eev. John 
 Clarke, of Jericho, Jamaica, and Dr, G. K. I'rince, who 
 had practised the healing art there with reputation and 
 success, were invited by the Committee to proceed on 
 this necessary errand. Their long residence in the 
 tropics, and their knowledge of the negro character,, 
 gave them special fitness for the work of exploration. 
 They embarked on board a trading vessel proceeding to> 
 Africa on the 13th October, 1840, and after sailing 
 leisurely along the western coast, calling at Cape 
 Palmas and Cape Coast Castle on the way, they reached 
 the island of Fernando Po on the following New Year's 
 Day. Every opportunity of procuring information was 
 eagerly embraced. Intercourse with the natives was. 
 everywhere sought, and minute intpiiries were made as 
 to the probable reception of the messengers of the Cross. 
 At Clarence, Fernando Po, many of the inhabitants 
 were found to possess some acquaintance with English ; 
 while from the situation of the island, nearly opposite 
 the important river Cameroons, ready access could be 
 had to the interior of the continent, which lay only 
 twenty miles away, presenting a coast-Kne of moun- 
 tain and valley unrivalled for grandeur and salubrity 
 on tlie sea-board of the western coast. From Clarence 
 the travellers passed over to the mainland, visited the 
 chiefs, and met everywhere with a cordial welcome. 
 They, therefore, resolved, while awaiting the resolution 
 of the Committee on their report, to commence their 
 labours in Fernando Po, and to watch for the open- 
 ings that Providence might offer to the great region 
 beyond. 
 
10 ALFRED SAKEK. 
 
 On reference to a map, it will be seen that Fernando 
 Po lies in the Gulf of Biafra, near to the coast of Guinea. 
 The island is about forty miles in length by twenty in 
 breadth. It is nearly 120 miles in circumference, and, 
 like the adjacent part of the mainland, is very moun- 
 tainous ; Clarence Peak, the most elevated point, attain- 
 ing the height of 10,700 feet. The southern extremity 
 is intersected by several steep mountains, varying from 
 1,000 to 3,000 feet in height, which, with the interven- 
 ing valleys, are covered with dense forests of large and 
 valual)le timber, and watered by numerous rivulets. 
 The wet season commences at the latter end of May, 
 and continues till the end of November. The sea 
 breeze is regular, but the land breeze is often inter- 
 cepted by the high range of mountains on the main- 
 land. 
 
 Clarence, the principal settlement, is on the north 
 side of the island, in latitude 3^ 53' N., and longitude 
 7° 40 ' E., and is built close to the sea upon an elevated 
 plain, embracing two small peninsulas, Point William 
 and Point Adelaide, with a semi-circular space extend- 
 ing about a mile in length, and forming a cove well 
 adapted for shipping. The spot is fertile, and the water 
 of the best quality. The tribes inhabiting the interior 
 were in a state of nature — wild, savage, and without 
 culture. But the people of Clarence were, for the most 
 part, liberated slaves, brought there by the British 
 cruisers, finding a sufficient livelihood in supplying the 
 wants of the vessels frequenting the coast. 
 
 The labour of the missionaries among these people 
 soon met with an abundant reward. By the begin- 
 ning of the year 1842 five persons had been baptized, 
 numerous inquirers gathered into a catechumen class, 
 
DEPARTURE FOR AFRICA. 11 
 
 and a school of seventy cliildren formed. The wikl 
 Adeeyahs of the mountainous interior had been visited, 
 and the foundations laid for future labour amongst 
 them. So encouraging were the reports sent home, 
 that the Committee lost no time in announcing their 
 decision, and in sending out the liev. Thos. Sturgion 
 and his wife, permanently to occupy the fertile held 
 that the Island of Fernando Po seemed to present. 
 
 Now that forty years have elapsed since the resolution 
 was taken to establish the mission on the West Coast 
 of Africa, it may be useful to recall the objections and 
 prejudices which had to be overcome. The resolutions 
 of the general meeting of the Society open with the 
 remark, that the obstacles to such an enterprise had 
 hitherto been deemed insuperable. The inquiries of the 
 deputation, however, removed this objection. But there 
 were excellent persons who thought that the attempt to 
 preach the Gospel to the children of Ham was a profane 
 interference with a Divine decree. The African natives, 
 they said, were suffering from " the judicial sentence of 
 God against them ; " but, af&rnis the resolution in reply, 
 " the Gospel which repeals every national malediction, 
 and addresses itself to every creature," had rendered this 
 sentence of none effect. The asserted mental inferiority 
 of the negro race was next dealt with ; this, if true, it was 
 replied, had doubtless been intensified, if not caused, by 
 the horrid cruelties of slavery, and by the demoralising 
 vices that it encouraged. But slavery, and the slave trade, 
 had received an irrecoverable blow by the action of the 
 British Parliament, and missionary culture elsewhere 
 sufficiently proved that the negro mind was fully capable 
 of instruction. With regard to the deadly nature of the 
 clhnate, it was hoped that its perils might, in great mea- 
 
12 
 
 ALFEED SAKEK. 
 
 sure, be overcome by the employment of men acclima- 
 tised in the tropical regions of the West Indies, and 
 fitted, by natural constitution, to encounter its dangers. 
 The agency offered by the Jamaica churches would, it 
 was thought, meet tlie difficulty, and the new army of 
 the Lord could be ofdcered by a few trained men that 
 England would supply. Thus the churches of Britain 
 might fitly celebrate the fiftieth year of the Society's 
 existence, and hope to find, even in Africa, " a place 
 for the Lord, a habitation for the mighty God of 
 Jacob." " ISTo field," adds the committee, " is more 
 worthy of cultivation than this, nor is any more likely 
 to repay the toils of the husbandman."* 
 
 In order to facilitate the proposed arrangements, ]\Ir. 
 Clarke and Dr. Prince early in the year (1842) took 
 ship to return to England. By a " signal providence " 
 their vessel, struck by lightning and dismasted, was left 
 to the kindly influences of the trade winds, and drifted 
 across the Atlantic to the West Indies. Some days 
 were spent among the Windward islands, but at length 
 the voyagers reached Jamaica. Their unexpected 
 coming aroused the enthusiasm and touched the sym- 
 pathies of the congregations. Tlie hand of the Lord was 
 in it. Numerous candidates for service in Africa came 
 forward, some of whom were examined and approved. 
 The stay of the two explorers, however, was brief, and,, 
 again taking ship, in company with the Eev. Josepli 
 Merrick, who resigned the charge of a large church at. 
 Jericho for the mission work, the voyagers reached 
 England on the 8th September. Their presence in 
 numerous meetings served to deepen the interest of 
 
 • Keport for 1842, resolutions of the fiftieth annual meeting. 
 
DEPARTURE FOR AFRICA. 13 
 
 British Christians in the evangelisation of Africa, and, 
 in the course of a few months, the services of four 
 brethren, with their wives, were accepted. One of the 
 four was Alfred Saker. 
 
 For the transport of the West Indian contingent, a 
 sailing vessel, the Chilmark, of only 179 tons mea- 
 surement, was engaged. It was resolved, that Mr. 
 Clarke and Mr. Saker, with their families, should pro- 
 ceed in her to Jamaica, and accompany the chosen 
 band. The rest of the missionaries, led by Dr. Prince, 
 sailed direct for Fernando Po. 
 
 The sorrows of parting with many beloved friends, 
 both in Kent and in Devonshire, were deeply felt by 
 Mr. and Mrs. Saker ; but on the 16th August, 1843, 
 tlie last words were spoken, and, with their little 
 daughter Eliza, they left London for Portsea, there to 
 embark. The same evening a farewell service was held 
 in the chapel of the Pev. C. Poom, in which ]\Ir. Saker, 
 with his companions Mr. Clarke and Mr. Hume (a 
 Baptist missionary, likewise bound for Jamaica), took 
 part. The ship did not arrive at Portsmouth till the 
 18th. Early on the 19th they went on board the 
 Chilmarh, and by ten o'clock were passing through 
 the Solent. " We had," says Mr. Saker, " a lovely view 
 of the garden of England, the Isle of Wight. Its glens, 
 hills, parks, and towns appeared in beauteous prospect. 
 Towards night we passed The Needles, and ere 
 morning anchored at Poole." The voyage connnenced 
 auspiciously ; but in a day or two the weather changed, 
 baffling winds hindered their progress, calms delayed 
 them, and sea-sickness aftlicted all the party. The 
 smallness of the vessel, the scanty accommodation 
 provided by the owners of the vessel, and bad 
 
14 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 provisions added to their misery. Mr. Saker was 
 compelled to sleep on the floor of the saloon, and 
 the eight weeks that the voyage to Jamaica lasted 
 were passed iu great discomfort, and ofttimes distress. 
 Still the days were utilised by much reading. An 
 Adeeyah vocabulary prepared by Mr. Clarke was 
 copied, and the elements of the Houssa grammar were 
 studied. In his remarks on their pursuits, Mr. Saker, 
 in his diary, thus early betrays the purpose he had 
 formed : — " May the Lord assist me," he says, " to study 
 these languages until we shall be able to give to the 
 millions of Africa the word of God in their own tongue." 
 The Sabbaths too were days of delight, and, in holy 
 worship of the Master they served, the little band 
 found consolation and peace. 
 
 On the forty-eighth day of the voyage, at dawn, the 
 welcome cry was heard of "land ahead," "After 
 giving utterance to my gTateful feelings," says IMr. 
 Saker, "I hastened on deck to see the long-desired 
 object. The head-land of Deseda was clearly descried 
 in the distant gloom. I ascended the rigging, and, after 
 half-an-hour's search, just caught a glimpse of the dark 
 outline of Antigua, rising like three majestic rocks on 
 the distant horizon. Oh ! it was a pleasant sight, after 
 forty-eight days' imprisonment to the narrow limits of a 
 vessel, and the monotonous scenes of a long passage." 
 During the day Guadaloupe, and nearer at hand the 
 romantic islands of Montserrat, Nevis, and St. Kitts, were 
 passed ; but contrary winds delayed their approach to 
 Jamaica. On the afternoon of Friday, the 13th of 
 October, the grand outlines of the Blue Mountains came 
 in sight, to the great joy of the voyagers. The morning 
 of the day was squally, and at midday thunder, 
 
DEPARTURE FOR AFRICA. 15 
 
 lightning, and rain stayed their course. Some of the 
 sails of the vessel were torn in pieces by the violence 
 of the storm. The next day, Saturday, was calm, and 
 before noon the ship was safely anchored in the harbour 
 of Port Eoyal. In the evening the party was heartily 
 welcomed by the brethren and friends in Kingston. 
 
 Mr. Saker conducted the services of the Lord's-day 
 at Spanish Town, and returning on Monday to the 
 Chilmarh, sailed with his family to Black Eiver, 
 where they spent three weeks of grateful rest and 
 enjoyment with the esteemed missionary, the JXq\. 
 Thos. May, whom they had known at Saltash, in 
 Devonshire. Most gratifying visits were also paid to 
 the venerable missionary, the Eev. Thos. Burchell, at 
 Mount Carey, and to the home of the Eev. Thos. 
 Cornford at Montego Bay, with whom also they had 
 been previously acquainted in England; thence they 
 proceeded to Falmouth to embark for Africa. 
 
 The six weeks thus spent were occupied by the 
 brethren, aided by the pastors of the churches, in 
 collecting the negro converts who were to assist in the 
 mission, some as missionaries and others as settlers. 
 In all, forty-two persons, including children, entered 
 on the generous enterprise of civilising the savage 
 tribes of Africa, and of giving to its perishing myriads the 
 bread of life. Tlie deepest interest was manifested by 
 all classes. Valedictory services were held in every 
 part of the island. The closing service took place on 
 Tuesday evening, November 28th, when a crowded 
 assembly gathered in the Baptist chapel in Falmouth, 
 at which numerous addresses were delivered and much 
 prayer was made. Fifteen hundred persons remained 
 at the close to celebrate the dying love of the Saviour, 
 
11 ALFRED SAKEE. 
 
 looking forward to the day when He shall come in 
 His kingdom, and gather all the redeemed from among 
 every people and nation to His feet. 
 
 At length the preparations were complete, and the 
 iJhihnarh sailed from Falmouth on the 1st December. 
 Writing the next day, the devoted Knibb said, " The 
 Chilmark sailed yesterday, and is now in sight of 
 Kettering. She carries a noble band of missionaries. 
 If ever I wished to have my likeness taken, it was 
 ■when I requested and obtained permission to steer her 
 -out of harbour, which under the directions of the captain 
 I accomplished. Oh, it was an interesting, it was a 
 noble sight ! " 
 
 Contrary winds, adverse currents, and calms delayed 
 the vessel for many days in sight of Jamaica. On the 
 11th she was still opposite the east end of the island, 
 and it was not till the 13th that tlie voyagers lost sight 
 of the "Queen of the Antilles." On the 22nd they 
 passed Watling's Island not expecting to see land 
 ao-ain until the Cape de Verde Islands should come 
 into view. 
 
 Mr. Saker cheerfully shared the labour of instructing 
 the various classes that were formed for the study of 
 subjects likely to be useful to the Jamaica brethren in 
 the work before them. Di\ine service was held every 
 day, as well as on Lord's-days, both in the cabins and 
 the steerage, where most of the emigrants were lodged. 
 The monotony of the x^^ssage was also dispelled by 
 light occupations and amusements, such as the weather 
 and the sea allowed. A voyage, however, that might 
 have been agreeable and profitable in every respect, 
 was often made miserable to all by the violence of the 
 captain, the drunkenness and blasphemies of the crew. 
 
DEPARTUEE FOR AFRICA. 17 
 
 the scarcity and bad quality of the food, and the 
 wretched accommodation provided for the passengers 
 and their families. The captain set an example of 
 rudeness, contempt, and injustice towards the coloured 
 people, which the sailors were not slow to follow. The 
 pain suffered by Mr. and Mrs. Saker from his harshness, 
 amounting at times to inhumanity, was aggravated by 
 anxiety on account of Mrs. Saker's delicate condition. 
 In other respects the voyage was not without its 
 intervals of pleasantness. After leaving the West 
 Indies, favourable winds were enjoyed, and no very 
 heavy storm was encountered. Harmony prevailed in 
 the missionary band, and diligent advantage was taken 
 of quiet hours to study the languages of Africa, and to 
 prepare for the task that lay before them. On the 
 whole, notwithstanding the crowded state of the ship, 
 the health of the entire crew and passengers was good. 
 
 A few extracts from Mr. Saker's journal will suffice 
 to indicate the character of the voyage : — 
 
 " Dccemhcr 13th. — A favourable wind sprang ui> 
 during the night, which, by the morning, at eight 
 o'clock, carried us out to sea, so that we lost sight of 
 the Blue Mountains. Very thankful to get away, after 
 so many days of vain effort against the wind. The 
 distance from Falmouth to the east end of Jamaica is not 
 more than fifty miles ; yet it has taken us twelve days 
 to make it, and we hoped to get through the Windward 
 passage in eight days. Toward evening St. Domingo 
 came in sight, and we have hope of passing the island 
 soon." 
 
 " December IQtJi. — About noon a vessel was discovered 
 bearing on our course ; the wind being very liglit, she 
 made but little progress. Towards sunsetting she 
 
18 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 approached sufficiently near to show the number, when 
 we distinctly read, HopeioeM. Intense was the feeling 
 of all on board, as the vessel came near, to speak ; ' Was 
 all well ? ' ' Have you anything from England ? ' A 
 pleasant interchauge of question and answer followed ; 
 but night had so far advanced that the vessel was only 
 distinguished by her liglits. On separating, we burnt a 
 blue light, and sang, ' Jesus shall reign where'er the 
 sun,' &c. In return our friends gave three cheers. I 
 sent off two rockets. We closed the day in public 
 prayer on deck. The vessel had on board Mrs. Knibb 
 and child, Mr. Button, Mr. and Mrs. Abbot, missionary 
 friends bound for Jamaica." 
 
 " Vlth, Sahhath Day. — I have preached to-day on the 
 authority of Scripture from 2 Peter i. 16. The seamen 
 seemed much impressed. Mr. Clarke preached in the 
 evening from Genesis xv. 1." 
 
 " December 22nd. — Yesterday we passed Inagua, a 
 low barren island, and we have to-day left behind us 
 Acklin's and Crooked Islands, thus bringing us once 
 more on the bosom of the mighty Atlantic. We have 
 safely passed the dangers of the Windward passage. 
 We are all in health, and peace reigns among our little 
 band, though they have cause to complain. The captain 
 annoys us in every possible manner." 
 
 " Decemher 27th. — A good wind and straight course. 
 Much seaweed and many fish. My dear wife and child 
 continue well. May my heart rise in gratitude for such 
 favours." 
 
 Glad indeed were the voyagers when the mountains 
 of Fernando Po came in sight on the 1 5 th February. But 
 a calm delayed their approach, and was the forerunner 
 of a fearful tornado, that threatened them with destruc- 
 
DEPARTURE FOR AFRICA. 10 
 
 tiun, when just at their " desired haven." Through the 
 goodness of God the storm passed away, and a gentle 
 "breeze bore them into Clarence Cove, where, about noon, 
 they dropped anchor. Mr. Merrick and Mr. Christian 
 met them on the shore, and gave them a warm welcome 
 to the sphere of their future toil. " In the enjoyment 
 of untold mercies, after a passage of eleven weeks, we 
 are privileged," says Mr. Saker, writing to Mr. Angus 
 on the 20th February, 1844, " to tread these shores, and 
 mingle with the dear brethren here in thanksgiving and 
 prayer. You, my dear Sir, and the thousands of British 
 friends, who have offered up earnest, fervent, constant 
 prayer for us, will know how to appreciate these tokens 
 of Divine love, and unite with us in gratitude to God. 
 They seem to me as evidences of His favour, cheering 
 us in the mighty work in which our hearts are engaged, 
 and saying, ' My word shall not return unto Me void,' 
 and bidding us look with sanguine hope, yea, pious 
 assurance, of a great and glorious success." 
 
 Such was the buoyant spirit and bright expectation 
 with which Mr. Saker entered on the arduous career 
 now opened before him. 
 
 2» 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Commencement of Missionary Labour; 1844 — 1845, 
 
 N landing, tlie voyagers found that Mr. 
 Sturmon and Dr. Prince were on a visit 
 to the interior ; but they hastened home 
 on receiving a message from Clarence 
 announcing the Chilmark's arrival. Dr. 
 Prince and his party had reached the island in the 
 previous September. They now gave the new comers 
 a most affectionate reception. " We have been received 
 here," writes Mr. Saker, " with every demonstration of 
 joy which the friends could show, in a way suitable to 
 the occasion, agreeable to our wishes, and honourable to 
 the Gospel. We landed about noon on Friday, the 16th 
 February, 1844. Before night every arrangement was 
 made for the present location of all our company. The 
 friends have cheerfully offered their homes to receive 
 us, and supj)ly us, accordiug to their ability, with pious 
 pleasure. In the evening, at seven o'clock, we assembled 
 at the mission-house for thanksgiving and prayer. It 
 was cheering to our spirit to meet such a company, and 
 hear their simple, touching, expressions before God. 
 After a hymn of praise we united in those sweet lines- 
 of Doddridge — 
 
 ' Look down, Lord, with pitying eye, 
 And view the desolation round ; 
 See what wide realms in darkness lie, 
 And hurl their idols to the ground. 
 
iii^fll;ii:;i!iil:i::l'^rH;!ii!ill|||!i|:^ 
 
COMMENCEMENT OF MISSIONARY LABOUR. 21 
 
 • Lord, let the Gospel trumpet blow, 
 And call the nations from afar ; 
 Let all the isles their Saviour know, 
 And earth's remotest ends draw near.' 
 
 •Surely the poet must have stood on the shore of 
 Fernando Po, so expressive, so appropriate are these 
 lines. The welcome was heartfelt and joyous. On 
 Sabbath morning a large company assembled at six 
 ■o'clock, when I preached from John iii. 16.* In the 
 evening Mr. Clarke preached an interesting sermon, 
 which was listened to with much attention; I hope 
 profit. But what a scene! A house crowded with 
 thoughtful, attentive, and now respectably clothed, 
 hearers, listening with joy to the words of ' this life.' 
 Who can forget that, three years since, they were all 
 given up to work all wickedness greedily; but now, 
 ' What hath God wrought ? ' To Him be all the praise.' 
 The vessel is now leaving, and I only add, I feel it in 
 my heart to live and die for the delightful work. I 
 bless God that I am permitted to see and hear, and 
 work in tliis heavenly field." 
 
 Mr. Saker soon began to experience some of the trials 
 which the missionary in Africa has to bear. The wood- 
 ants invaded and destroyed the contents of his clothes 
 chest. A tornado tore off the thatch of his house and 
 deluged it and all its contents with rain. Four times 
 in twenty days he was laid down by fever. His labours 
 at the printing press were constantly hindered by the 
 want of some necessary material. But these trials were 
 cheerfully encountered. "Individually and in my 
 
 " It is interesting to note that, under this first sermon of I\Ir. 
 Saker's, Thomas Horton Johnson was converted, who afterwards 
 became a most useful fellow- worker and friend. 
 
22 ALFRED SAKEE. 
 
 family," he says, " numerous mercies are daily accorded 
 to us by our heavenly Father — so numerous that I 
 cannot attempt an enumeration." Of these, not the 
 least was the safe delivery of Mrs. Saker of a little girl, 
 on the 25tli February, the expectation of which event 
 had been a source of great anxiety and suffering on 
 board the Chilmarl: 
 
 The moments were too precious to be lost in merely 
 curious investigation of the strange scenes around 
 him. "From my landing till now," he says, writing 
 a little later, "I have been constantly engaged in 
 what we may call the outworks of our enterprise." 
 For already Mr. Saker began to display that remark- 
 able eagerness for " work " which characterised him 
 to the close of life. To the remonstrances of hi* 
 brethren that he was " doing too much " — " Too much 
 exposure, brother, will not do,"— his only response was, 
 " Tfieir kindness in this respect I feel, and am desirous 
 of doing all I can to preserve the precious boon given 
 to us — health. I know that European life is valuable 
 here ; but I must work while I have life, and I hope 
 the Lord will bless our efforts." 
 
 The acconnnodation provided for his family was 
 necessarily of tlie rudest kind, and much time was 
 occupied in making provision for it. From the first, 
 Mr. Saker's skill as an artisan was put into requisition, 
 and building and furniture of every kind were 
 constructed under his direction, as well as by his 
 own personal toil. "I have no less than five houses 
 building for the missionaries and teachers," he says, a 
 few weeks after his arrival, " besides my teaching, which 
 I have daily to attend to." As the year wore on 
 severer sorrows came to him, fever frequently laid him 
 
COMMENCEMENT OF MISSIONARY LABOUR. 23 
 
 prostrate ; Mrs. Saker also was often ill, and tlieir 
 new-born babe was taken from them to the enjoyment 
 of an immortal life. On the 31st July he writes to the 
 Secretary of the Society : — 
 
 " We have still to enumerate afflictions and mercies. 
 I would rather leave out the former, but I must tell 
 you briefly. I recovered very slowly from my late 
 attack of dysentery, and it was not till last Monday I 
 felt able to assist brother Merrick in attempting to cast 
 some quadrates for the printing-ofiice. Such was the 
 deficiency that we felt we must wait a supply from you, 
 unless I could succeed. Impelled by such considera- 
 tion, I made my moulds from some old lead, and 
 borrowed a ladle. Thus equipped, I set about casting, 
 and by Wednesday noon had finished nearly a thousand, 
 quite to my satisfaction, and the joy of my dear 
 brother. But the labour was too much for me, and, ere 
 I had accomplished all I wished, my strength failed, and 
 four hours of fever every night since still keeps me low. 
 Sabbath-day a fit of vomiting of four hours laid me 
 prostrate, and I feel exceedingly weak now. Still the 
 Lord is gracious to us." 
 
 " Since my dear wife's fever, the infant babe has 
 passed through much suffering ; but now those sufier- 
 ings are closed for ever. Parental feelings have been 
 stretched on this severe loss ; but all is well. We 
 would not call her back again to earth. Yes, dear 
 brother, while prostrate on the bed through weakness, 
 and maternal tenderness watching and nursing the 
 suffering one, her spirit fled ! Before our Sabbath lamp 
 had ceased to burn, she fled to the glorious regions of 
 light and joy, to enjoy an eternal Sabbath of happiness 
 with the adorable Eedeemer." 
 
24 ALFRED SAKEK. 
 
 " On Monday, brethren Clarke, Prince, and Merrick 
 came to confer on a place of interment. This was soon 
 decided, and at 12 o'clock a lovely spot in the Mission 
 House garden was consecrated by the reception of this 
 innocent, this first of the Mission families that has 
 fallen here." f 
 
 Other trials could be more lightly borne. At the 
 close of the year he tells us that all the missionaries 
 were suffering from destitution of some of the neces- 
 saries and many of the conveniences of life. " No 
 biscuit, no flour, no sugar, no butter, no meat of any 
 kind, except sometimes a fowl, a squirrel, or piece of 
 good mutton. Yarn, our chief dependence, is now 
 getting scarce. But I do not complain, Tlie host of 
 self-denying men in ancient and modern days would at 
 once reprove my carnal heart. Oh ! for the zeal of an 
 apostle, to spend my days in cheerful laljour to spread 
 the knowledge of the great salvation ! " It was enough 
 for Alfred Saker to be engaged at any cost in any de- 
 partment of this noble task. To promote the kingdom 
 of righteousness and peace he desired to labour night 
 and day ; for this end he wished to live, and in this 
 work to die. 
 
 Early in the year (1845) Mr. Saker paid a visit to 
 Mr. Merrick at Bimbia, and with him traversed several 
 of the neighbouring towns. While thus engaged fever 
 again assailed him, and by the advice of Dr. Prince, 
 who hurried from Clarence to his help, Mr. Saker re- 
 turned thither. The arrival of the Bove, from England 
 on the 22nd March, with her band of new missionaries, 
 the Thompsons and Newbegins, and Miss Vitou, not 
 only relieved the many pressing wants of the mis- 
 sionaries, but enabled Mr. Saker to commence the 
 
COMMENCEMENT OF MISSIONAKY LABOUR. 25 
 
 •achievement of a desire he had from the first cherished, 
 — that of opening a new station on the Cameroons river. 
 When first built, the Dove was intended to sail as a 
 steamer, and her engines and machinery were to have 
 been jolaced in the charge of Mr. Saker. But certain 
 defects in her construction led to her being employed 
 as a sailing vessel only, and thus Mr. Saker became free 
 to enter on the sole duties of the missionary life. He 
 says, "I cannot express the high satisfaction I feel when 
 ■looking at the Dove ; I have not been without my dis- 
 appointment at the ' minus engines,' but I am sure that 
 all is well. It will not be possible to ascend any one of 
 the rivers without a ' power ' superior in strength to the 
 current, and it will be equally futile to attempt it before 
 our hands are strengthened by aid from home. We 
 need fifty brethren now for the great work. If the 
 Lord has need He will soon send them. May we Ije 
 strengthened to persevere. The gentleness of the Dove 
 seems to destroy the thought of the sufferings we have 
 -endured for the want of it ; and I am confident that 
 ■Ood will bless His servants in the use of it to His 
 glory. Soon, soon may its wings be stretched, till all 
 the nations far and near be converted to the heavenly 
 Kingdom of Jesus and His Spirit." 
 
 In the month of April a brief visit, chiefiy for health, 
 was paid by Mr. and Mrs. Saker, in company with Dr. 
 Prince, to a district already marked out, about twenty 
 miles up the broad estuary of the Cameroons, as suit- 
 able for a missionary station. 
 
 After passing the mangrove swamps which lie on 
 both sides of the river's mouth, and whose poisonous 
 reaches are pierced by many tortuous channels leading to 
 the interior, the eastern shore changes its character, 
 
26 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 and from the sandy beach begin to rise low cliffs 
 of rich red-brown earth, generally covered to the 
 base with various shrubs and trees, interspersed at the 
 top with cocoa and oil nut-palms. The first native 
 settlement that is reached is the town of King Bell, 
 and is marked by the canoes and traders' sheds that line 
 the river's brink. Beyond this another beach, with its 
 numerous canoes, points out the landing place of a still 
 larger town, the residence of the chief. King A'kwa, the 
 head of the most powerful of the tribes on the river. 
 A little farther on, and on the same side of the stream, 
 is situated Dido Town, lately founded by a branch of 
 the A'kwa family. The chief occupation of the people 
 is the collection of palm-oil and ivory from the natives 
 of the interior, with which they barter with the traders, 
 whose store-hulks lie oif the town, for the cloth and 
 tobacco, the beads and trinkets, that form the bulk of 
 their trade. 
 
 Assured of a welcome by the chiefs, Mr. Saker, on 
 his return to Clarence, at once made preparation to 
 occupy one or other of these native settlements as his 
 permanent residence. 
 
 The Dove being otherwise employed, Mr. Saker 
 engaged a small schooner, the Wasp, and with Horton 
 Johnson, on the 10th June, proceeded to commence his 
 work in the Cameroons river. In thirty hours they 
 reached King A'kwa's town. The next day they landed 
 a portion of their boxes at Dido Town, taking a house 
 offered them by the chief on their former visit. At 
 this King A'kwa was indignant. Was he not king ? 
 Was not Dido his inferior ? He was old, too, and would 
 not live long. So he sent to demand the immediate 
 surrender of the missionary. As Chief Dido replied 
 
COMMENCEMENT OF MISSIONAKV LABOUE. 27 
 
 with defiance, the war-canoes were ordered out, and 
 next morning it seemed as if a furious onslaught on 
 Dido Town would alone avenge the injured honour of 
 the King. Mr. Saker, however, immediately interposed. 
 A palaver ensued, and, after twenty-four hours' negotia- 
 tion, the King triumphantly Ijore away the missionaries 
 with all their belongings. 
 
 The house hired of King A'kwa was built of wood, and 
 consisted of one room only — twenty-one feet by fifteen. 
 It had been erected a few months before by a trader 
 for the King's own use. Here, on the 16th June, 1845,. 
 Mr. Saker, with his companion, took up his abode, and 
 began his ministry as a messenger of Christ to the 
 Duallas. A few extracts from his letter to Mr. Angus 
 will best describe his first movements : — 
 
 " Txiesday, Vjth. — Sliglit fever, and much weakness 
 all day." 
 
 " Wednesdaj/, IStJi. — Much l)etter, rested all day. 
 Dreadful storm at night, the rain Ijreaking in so as U> 
 cover tlie floor." 
 
 " 19 fh and 20^7i.— Much better. Began the addition 
 of two rooms to the present, in hopes of being complete 
 before my family arrives. These rooms will be con- 
 structed by tlie natives, and made of tlie same material 
 as their own huts — bamboo mats and rods." 
 
 " '21st. — Sat nearly all day at the language with in- 
 terpreter. Enjoyed much communion with God. One 
 of my happiest seasons in prayer this morning. Felt 
 nmch enlargement of heart when praying for the 
 heathen, my brethren, and the Society. I am con- 
 strained to say, ' Lord, renew the visits of Thy love.' " 
 
 " Sahbath Day, 22nd. — Eose early and met the chiefs 
 and people of A'kwa town soon after six. We liad a 
 
"28 ALFKED SAKEIl. 
 
 good meeting, and tliey sat patiently (nearly two hours) 
 to hear the word of God. At nine the children with a 
 few adults came to our little house. Johnson and my- 
 self sat with different companies till twelve o'clock. At 
 half-past twelve I went to King Bell's town to have 
 my first meeting. Was a little disappointed ; could not 
 collect more than about twelve, who sat with the king 
 for about half-an-hour. I tried to engage their atten- 
 tion, but they had drunk too much, so I left them, and 
 walked on to Joss's town. After waiting a little we 
 had a large but noisy company. I do hope God will 
 answer the many prayers of His people on their behalf. 
 
 " After returning and refreshment, we visited a town 
 lying back in the bush between A'kwa's and Bell's town. 
 Here we had a meeting which I tliink I shall never 
 forget. As I explained the design of Christ's mission 
 into our world, and illustrated His Divine power by His 
 miracles, and His love by His freely giving Himself to 
 death for us, the astonishment and manifested surprise 
 of these people is past my power of utterance. About 
 105, old and young, sat in a circle before me, with an 
 •attention surpassed by no congregation at home. To 
 me it was an hour of hallowed feeling. We left witli 
 fervent prayer that God would bless His word, fulfil 
 His promise, and make the heathen His own." 
 
 Thus passed the first week of the laborious life that 
 Mr. Saker now commenced among the tribes of the 
 Cameroons. 
 
 On the 28th Mrs. Saker with her little daughter 
 arrived in the Dove, in company with Miss Stewart, 
 Mr. Clarke, and Mr. Merrick. 
 
A VILLAGE ON THE CAMEE00N3. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Perils among the Heathen, 1845—1840. 
 
 K. SAKEE was now fairly launched ou- 
 his life's work. He was surrounded by 
 a multitude of heathens, without a 
 head or leader, for with King A'kwa's 
 mortal illness his authority was set at 
 naught. Every one did that which suited his disposition 
 best, under no control, and delighting in cruelty and 
 revenge. The better informed among the people were- 
 traders, and a few of them were thoughtful and serious. 
 These endeavoured to maintain some degree of order. 
 They showed Mr. Saker and his family much kindness,. 
 and, what in his estimation was far Ijetter, they were 
 desirous to hear the Word. They did all they could to- 
 protect the missionaries and their property from the 
 hands of violence. " I cannot," said Mr. Saker some 
 years afterwards, " describe to you the condition in 
 which I found this whole people. A ])Ook they had 
 not seen ; the commonest implements of liusbandry and 
 tools of all kinds were unknown. I brought with me 
 tools to make my own dwelling. My circumstances 
 were for a long time on a level with the natives' ; our 
 food was nearly the same, but we were clothed and 
 they were not." 
 
 The station Mr. Saker formed at King Akwa's town, 
 
 and which he now named Bethel — the house of God — 
 
 I 
 
30 ALFKED SAKEK. 
 
 is situated about twenty miles from the sea, on a liigli 
 bluff on the eastern or left bank of the river Cameroons, 
 which disembogues its waters about four degrees north 
 of the Equator, nearly opposite the northern end of the 
 island of Fernando To. The space of about a mile 
 separates the town of King Bell from that of King 
 A'kwa. The territories of the two chiefs are conter- 
 minous for some distance into the interior, and, as a 
 •consequence, the two tribes were often at variance and 
 war. Although the river somewhat winds in its course 
 to the sea, the sea-breezes have almost direct access to 
 these two towns, and, l)eing clear of the dense mangrove 
 swamps which line the sea-shore and spread on either 
 side of the river's mouth, the mission premises on the 
 Cameroons are more healthy than Bimbia and other 
 spots on the coast. The cottages of the people lie along 
 the river and spread for some distance inland, shrouded 
 by trees and bananas, the paths encumbered by bush. 
 Tlie food plantations of the natives are still farther 
 inland, and are cultivated almost entirely by the wives 
 of the people, of whom the chiefs have many and the 
 ranks below them as they can afford to buy. 
 
 Higher on the same side of the river is Dido town, 
 and farther still is John A'kwa's town, the chiefs of 
 which recognise King A'kwa as their superior lord. 
 These towns are a mile or two apart. Crossing the 
 river obliquely from John A'kwa's town, but higher up, 
 we come to Preso Bell's town, or Hickory, inhabited by 
 a branch of the family of King Bell. The river here is 
 about a mile broad. All the triljes dwelling in these 
 towns speak the Dualla language. At the time the 
 mission began they were in a state of unfriendliness, if 
 not actual warfare. 
 
KDfG A'kWA's house XSB STEEET. 
 
PERILS a:\ioxg the heathen. 31. 
 
 They were, in fact, utterly l)arl)aroiis, practising the 
 wildest and most debasing superstitions, and given up 
 to the practice of every vice that degrades humanity. 
 The work to be accomplished, and the condition of these 
 savage tribes, can only be understood by a few illustra- 
 tions. One day, on visiting Bell Town, the missionaries 
 passed by the side of the river a corpse lying unburied, 
 and mangled by dogs. It was the body of a man from 
 Wuri, drowned by the upset of a canoe. No persuasion 
 coiild induce the king to order its interment. Tlieir 
 entreaties were laughed at. " The man," said they, " is 
 not a Dualla man." Another day the brethren were 
 shocked to learn that the chief, Dido, had cruelly killed 
 one of his wives and a slave. Another slave was thrown 
 into the river, bound ; but, getting loose, he swaui 
 ashore, and fled into the bush. 
 
 Mrs. Saker mentions tlie following instance of 
 barbarity : — 
 
 " One of our first converts, a woman called Anna, 
 was on the way to chapel one Sabbath morning. On 
 passing the Egbo house (where the men practise their 
 superstitious rites), she heard the cries of women. On 
 ]3ushing the door open, she saw two women hanging by 
 their wrists from the roof of the house, and beinsj; 
 rubbed all over with a kind of herb that produces a 
 fearful irritation. The cries of the poor creatures were 
 most distressing. Anna begged they would untie them. 
 They instantly seized her, and tied her in the same 
 way, rubbing the same herb on her. We did not hear 
 of it for nearly six hours. Some of our young men, 
 with Mr. H. Johnson, immediately went to the rescue. 
 They had to fight their way in, but at length succeeded 
 in bringing Anna away. She had been one of our 
 
32 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 brightest women, but from that day she was an 
 idiot." 
 
 Nothing among these people is more fatal than a 
 charge of witchcraft; one that is often made on the 
 occurrence of any accident or natural death. A slave 
 of King A'kwa's was thus accused. To try the truth of 
 the accusation, she was first tested with poison. She 
 was made to drink an infusion of a poisonous nut ; 
 but, although she speedily vomited the poison, which is 
 usually regarded as a sign of innocence, .she was tied 
 hands and feet, and cast into the river. Another slave 
 was savagely mutilated by her enraged master, and left 
 in a miserable condition to perish. 
 
 Soon after Mr. Saker's arrival, in the month of July, 
 King A'kwa died. Mr. Saker was at the time busily 
 employed in making the doors and shutters of his new 
 apartments. With a few boards and joists, and a little 
 contrivance, by the end of August the walls of the new 
 structure were finished, and the two rooms floored. 
 But, on the death of A'kwa, indescribable scenes of dis- 
 order, confusion, and wrong ensued. The two elder 
 brothers quarrelled and intrigued for the succession. 
 The houses of the dead chief were ransacked. Even 
 the box (or coffin) containing his remains was broken 
 open, and rifled of everything of value. His wives and 
 slaves destroyed the dwelling that he had occupied. 
 The town was given up to plunder. In October the 
 mission premises were invaded; the knives, books, 
 spoons, and table linen, and, worst of all, the flour, on 
 which life itself depended, together with the goats and 
 fowls, were carried off. These disorders and plunder- 
 ings continued till December, when the elder son was 
 declared king through the intervention of her Majesty's 
 
PEIIILS AMONG THE HEATHEN". 33 
 
 naval officers on tlie coast. A better state of tilings 
 then began to prevail. 
 
 It was in the midst of these disputes that A'kwa's 
 "fifty sons, with the chiefs of the tribe, assembled at Mr. 
 Saker's cottage to sell it to him, together with the plot 
 ■of ground on whicli it stood. The price was soon settled, 
 'but the purchase was followed by incessant bickerings 
 among the vendors respecting their shares, and con- 
 stant attempts were made to force more cloth and 
 goods from tlie buyer. Three days after the purchase 
 was completed, a large body of A'kwa's sons and 
 slaves collected together, armed with firebrands, guns, 
 sticks, and swords, and with wild noise and shouting 
 <lemanded possession of the house. Eeasoning was in 
 vain. One son, in his rage, with his axe split the door 
 of the house into three pieces. Eight days after another 
 assault took place, which brought on the serious illness 
 of Mrs. Saker and her child. On this occasion, how- 
 ever, other chiefs interfered ; a goat was offered in 
 compensation for the injury done, and, although the 
 sense of insecurity was not removed, the missionary 
 and his family were kept in peace, finding their refuge 
 and safety in the Lord their God. 
 
 His house-building accomplished, Mr. Saker next 
 gave his attention to the language. Altliough a toler- 
 ably large vocabulary had by this time been secured, it 
 was not till the end of the year that Mr. Saker felt 
 himself able to read, write, and converse with some 
 iluency in the Dualla tongue. " About January 1, 
 1846," he says, " I completed a draft of my first class- 
 book, and, if I had had nmch confidence in it, should 
 have sent it home at that time to be printed for the use 
 of the Dualla schools. I have made the study of the 
 
 3 
 
34 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 language iny special work, and although I cannot say 
 much as to the advance which I have made, yet I hope 
 it is something ; and I hope more, that I shall live to 
 translate the whole Bible into the Dualla tongue. 
 With Divine assistance I have a settled purpose so 
 to do, and I hope not to relinquish my work till it is 
 done." 
 
 Later on we shall see how this nohle purpose was 
 achieved, Eeviewing his first year's work in May, 
 1846, in a letter to his sister,* he says, " When I re- 
 member that twelve months since I did not understand 
 anything about the language, that we had no house at 
 Cameroons to contain us beyond the single room, that 
 during the time we have been not less than two months 
 absent on account of health, that while at labour often 
 afflicted and hindered in a variety of ways ; but that 
 now we can look upon things around us, and know that 
 we have a substantial store-house for boxes, barrels, 
 and provisions, which has occupied me one month this 
 year in erecting, and that now we are in health, better 
 health than when we commenced the year, surely I 
 ought to be grateful ! If we cease to speak of His 
 mercy, the stones and trees around would reprove us. 
 May our hearts be ever alive to His mercy, and that 
 mercy assist us to go on with our work, till we shall 
 rejoice over sinners converted to God. This is the result 
 for which we hope and pray, and it will be with un- 
 speakable pleasure that we inform you of such success ; 
 but we need your prayers and the prayers of all our 
 friends. You must not forget that nothing short of 
 
 • In which, however, he omits to notice a visit paid to the 
 Bassa towns in the interior. 
 
PERILS AMONG THE HEATHEN. 35 
 
 Divine power is sufficient to eftect so great a change* 
 If this is necessary in England, how much more so- 
 with tlie heatlien tribes, whose character is so accu- 
 rately drawn in the first chapter of Eonians ! Forget 
 not that it is among such we live and labour, and 
 cease not to pray for us, and the success of the Word 
 amons us." 
 
 3* 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Perseverance ix Laboue, 1846 — 1847. 
 
 UPtING tlie next two years Mr. Saker 
 clilip,ently and laboriously pursued his 
 arduous laliours amono; the ungoverned 
 and ungovernable race around him. 
 Sometimes not one individual would 
 come to the worship, which was regularly maintained 
 with the two or three assistants Mr. Saker had secured. 
 Occasionally King A'kwa, with a few of his chiefs and 
 attendants, would be present and give him a listless and 
 uninterested attention. Or he would meet them at 
 their frequent palavers, and endeavour to awaken their 
 minds to some desire for the comforts and advantages 
 of civilised life. A few children would fitfully attend 
 the daily school, and repeat the little Dualla hymns 
 and prayers their anxious teacher had prepared. 
 Superstitious practices were employed to frighten him 
 away. His path would be laid with the leaves of 
 poisonous trees, with the hope that the touch of the 
 missionary's foot would stimulate their fatal properties 
 and destroy his life. From robbery the mission goods 
 were never safe. 
 
 Besides these trials, necessarily incident to the work, 
 others bore hardly upon the energies and spirit of the 
 missionary and his little family. The pestilential 
 climate would for days together lay him aside, while 
 
PERSEVERANCE L\ LABOUR. 37 
 
 liis beloved partner often sank Ijeneatli the fatigues, 
 the privations, the anxieties, and the perils of their lot. 
 The irregular communication with England frequently 
 entailed severe sufiering. There were no mail steamers 
 in those days. Their stores failed, their supplies were 
 long delayed, when some unexpected relief drew from 
 their eyes tears of thankfulness, and from their hearts 
 songs of grateful joy. In February, 1847, Mrs. Saker's 
 health was so far impaired, and their little girl seemed 
 so hopelessly ill, that the husband and father was 
 constrained to send them to England. It was a bitter 
 trial to be left alone in that land of " suffering, danger, 
 and death." He feared, so ill were they, that they 
 might never reach their native land, or that he himself 
 might not live to welcome their return. His tender 
 anxiety expressed itself in a letter to his wife, written 
 on the 3rd April, to reach her soon after her arrival in 
 England, when, among other words of affectionate 
 thoughtfulness, he says, " I am very anxious to hear 
 that all is well. How does the sea air and change of 
 diet affect you ? Is there any sign of a return of last 
 June's del )ility and danger ? Is there any change for 
 the better ? Then the dear child I is the spleen 
 reduced ? Is it still the same ? May we hope that 
 she wiU live ? Ah ! my dear H., let us mingle our 
 prayers and trust in the Lord. For the present, 
 farewell." Yet, a few days later, in the midst of all his 
 afflictions, he could say, "Hope buoys my mind. I 
 have many seasons in my solitude that words will 
 not express. I have withal great reason for gratitude 
 that I am kept so hopeful and quiet. My constant 
 duties tend much to keep me in peace. If I had naught 
 to do I should soon die with grief ; so that my earnest 
 
0» ALFEED SAKER. 
 
 cry every day is for an energy of spirit, strength of 
 body, and a heart devoted to the glory of God in the 
 translation of the Scriptures and the publication of the 
 Word of Life." 
 
 To a large extent the prayerful desire of his heart 
 was fulfilled. Nothing could repress the ardour witli 
 which he pursued his toil. To his sister he writes : — 
 " I rise every morning between four and five, and witli 
 brief intermissions for meals, &c., I am busy — the word 
 is not expressi^'e — I am more than busy ; I am over- 
 wlielmed with cares and duties till eight, sometimes 
 nine, at night ; and what I am at this time most engaged 
 in, I am trying my utmost to complete, the translation 
 of the Gospels, and speedily, lest my health should fail 
 before it is done. If my health fail again, I feel there 
 will be no hope in any change short of Europe. And 
 lest it should fail, I wish to have the work ready for 
 the press, that it may be printed in England under my 
 own care." 
 
 Six months later, to the same correspondent, he 
 says : — " During the day I have not time to sit down to 
 eat bread, except a few minutes at nine, and again at 
 five. I sit at my books, teach boys, labour with my 
 tools. (Jne day a carpenter, another a blacksmith, 
 another a joiner, another a shipwright, or whatever is 
 necessary. But my chief and all-important work at 
 present is the study of the Dualla language, the pre- 
 X3aration of elementary books, the translation of the 
 Gospels, &c. This comes every day, and all other 
 things, either as necessary repairs or needful occupa- 
 tions, are attended to for recreation." 
 
 It is most interesting to note liow this study of the 
 Dualla language, and tlie preparation of a dictionary. 
 
PERSEVERANCE IN LABOUR. 30 
 
 grammar, Scriptures, and school-books are tlie theme of 
 ahnost every letter. He cannot obtain the means of 
 printing so soon as he desires, so he makes many shifts 
 to supply the want. His invention, aided by his know- 
 ledge of iron work and engineering, enables him to cut 
 ii matrix, and to construct a^rude press ; but he is soon 
 at a standstill for lead for the type, and he waits 
 wearily for the chance of obtaining it from some passing 
 sliip. The books he needs are not at hand. " I wisli," 
 he writes to Mr. Angus, " some good-natured friend, 
 who ]ias the ability, could give me the volumes of the 
 ' Penny Cyclopa'dia.' Do you know, my dear brother, I 
 am sure I should be very thankful." Again, writing in 
 January, 1848, to the Committee of the Society, he begs 
 them to devote £10 or £15 of the surplus of his salary 
 to the purchase of works on Biblical criticism, the 
 Septuagint, and elementary works in Hebrew. " These 
 books," he says, " I most want, and I beg of you, dear 
 brethren, to let me want no longer. Look and see if 
 you are not wrong in withholding books so long, and 
 after repeated requests for tliem. Think of the position 
 you have placed me in, In the midst of a heathen 
 people — a people speaking their own language — a lan- 
 guage I have been obliged to acquire, Tliis heathen 
 people I have to instruct, and open to them the way of 
 life. But how shall 1 do this ? I must read and 
 <3X[)lain the Word of Life in their own language, and I 
 nuist translate that Word of Life, or how shall I 
 succeed ? " He then points out that his translation 
 should be drawn from the Divine originals ; l)ut liow 
 can this be done, if lie is not assisted by the solid 
 learning of liis predecessors in this task ? Therefore, lie 
 pleads for tlie aid that learned works can supply ; but, 
 
40 ALFEED SAKEE. 
 
 while using every appliance within his reach, he, never- 
 theless, declares that he maintains "a constant, unwaver- 
 ing dependence on Divine aid." Anticipating the 
 objection that the early training of his youth could not 
 have fitted him for the achievement of the grand work 
 at which he aimed, he goes on to say that it was true 
 his early life was passed in occupations of another kind, 
 but he is now free to give his whole heart and mind tO' 
 the great task of Bible translation, and to make himself 
 competent for its execution ; and, for the sal^ of this 
 '•' noble cause," he earnestly entreats the Committee to 
 grant him the requisite aid. That aid was not with- 
 held, and in " due time " the devoted herald of the Gross 
 reaped the harvest of his desires. 
 
 But while the work of conversion was necessarily 
 slow among the tribes of ilie Cameroons, the Gospel 
 continued to make good progress at the seat of the 
 mission in Ternando Po. After the lamented decease 
 of Mr. Sturgion, on the 13th August, 1846,* the station 
 was placed in the charge of Dr. Prince, whose labours,, 
 l)oth as a medical man and a missionary, were of in- 
 valuable service in the early years of the Mission. In 
 December, 1847, Dr. Prince paid a l)rief visit to Mr. 
 Saker, at Cameroons, and at his urgent persuasion Mr. 
 Saker laid aside his studies for a short visit to Clarence,, 
 the special inducement being the services intended for 
 observance on the baptism of several converts on New 
 Year's Day. Before leaving home he thus reports to 
 
 • Mr. Sturgion died of an illness contracted at Bimbia on a 
 visit to Mr. Merrick, in the niontli of July. He landed in Afiica 
 on the 7th February, 1842, and was elected pastor of the Clarence. 
 Mission Church on the 3Ist March, 1844. It then consisted of 
 forty-two members ; and of sixty-three at his decease. 
 
PERSEVEEANCE IX LABOUR. 41 
 
 llr. Angus the progress of his hibours : "' You will 
 receive a parcel by the Ecqyicl, containing a few copies of 
 our books. My Class Book, 1 and 2, is through the 
 press. I have borrowed a page of type of l)rother 
 Merrick, with wliich I have printed four pages, one 
 page only at a time, of my "\'ocal)uIary, which extends 
 to 400 pages of letter paper (4to) in manuscript, twelve 
 pages of hymns, and twenty of jNIatthew's (lospel.. 
 Tliese I use in the Dualla services, and hope in the 
 beginning of the year to add the whole of Matthew,, 
 and increase my hymns to about a hundred. These 
 will all be printed in the same size, page after page. 
 But I hope the day is not distant when I shall receive 
 a press and type, to enable me to print in a better 
 manner. The whole of Matthew and Mark are waiting 
 for the press ; but printing in the way I have begun 
 enables me to correct as I go on, and when complete a 
 revised copy will be a proof sheet for an edition, whether 
 it be printed in England or Africa. I sliall be out of 
 paper by the end of i'ebruary, so nmst wait the supply 
 which our brother Merrick expects." 
 
 The happiness and the rest were well earned which 
 Mr. Saker now enjoyed at Clarence. He thus describes 
 the scene of that New Year's Day morrdng : — " At six, 
 o'clock we all met at Waterfall. Three sides of a square 
 were occupied by a devoted band of men and women, all 
 in white. In the centre a desk. In the background a 
 tent, and around tlie square not less than 200 inquirers 
 and spectators. In front the Howing brook, winding in 
 a delightful curve, and then seeking its way among the 
 massive rocks, till at last it rushes over the precipitous . 
 fall. This, with the lovely bank, heavy foliage, and 
 towering trees backing the stream, presented an en- 
 
42 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 •chanting scene. I read the 3rd of Matthew and prayed. 
 Mr. Merrick preached from Philippians iii. 8, 'Yea, doubt- 
 less, and I count all things but loss for the excellency 
 of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,' &c., &c. 
 Dr. Prince then led nine candidates to the water side, 
 ^nd, after a solemn address, immersed them in the stream, 
 in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 Spirit. This done, we sang another hymn, and returned 
 to breakfast. But first, Dr. Prince and I walked through 
 the town to see the sick, and it was ten when we ate 
 our meal. At half-past three we began our missionary 
 meeting, and it was a delightful happy meeting too. 
 A collection was made amounting to £11. Yesterday 
 morning I had to preach to the people. The text was 
 a suitable one — " Grow in grace and in the knowledge 
 of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour." It was a very 
 .solemn sermon, and I felt the hallowing influence of 
 the truth, I spoke with much freedom. At eleven I 
 went into the school; a cheering sight: 260 scholars 
 iissembled, with not less than thirty teachers. At 
 half-past three we met again for public service. Dr. 
 Prince preached to a crowded house a baptismal 
 sermon, argumentative and clear, and after an address 
 to the newly baptized, he received them into the church, 
 and we all communed togetlier. At seven we dined, 
 and spent the evening in cheerful song." 
 
 Eefreshed by the fraternal and spiritual intercourse 
 he had enjoyed, Mr. Saker, early in January, returned 
 to Cameroons, visiting on the way the station of Bimbia, 
 where, since his arrival in Africa, Mr. Merrick had 
 laboured with great zeal and efiiciency. In the few 
 <lays of his sojourn with Mr. Merrick an incident 
 happened which will well illustrate the evil customs of 
 
PERSEVERANCE IN LABOUR. 43 
 
 the people. A young man, wliile liatliing. was seized 
 by a shark, and in a few minutes his spine was torn 
 out by the ravenous beast. Three men, two of them 
 slaves, were accused of liaving bewitched the sufferer. 
 They were seized, carried to the town, and put into 
 chains. It was the Lord's-day, but after service ]\Ir. 
 Merrick and Mr. Saker went to the town and found a 
 council sitting, consisting chiefly of slaves, debating 
 with King William the doom of the accused men. The 
 result was that, instead of being murdered on the spot, 
 the trembling wretches were condemned to exile. One 
 ]^00Y fellow was, however, allowed to accompany 
 the missionaries to their settlement. A second escaped 
 to the home of Mr. Christian, one of the Jamaica 
 assistants ; it was soon surrounded by a violent crowd, 
 and with difficulty the man was rescued. Ultimately 
 he was sent away for safety to Clarence. The third 
 man was not permitted to escape the doom intended f<)r 
 tliem all. 
 
 On reaching Bethel, the erection of a school-house 
 at Bell's Town engaged Mr. Saker's attention, and 
 another, to be used also for public worship, was begun 
 at Bethel. The foundations of a house for ]\Ir. 
 Johnson, who had now resided with Mr. Saker fifteen 
 montlis, were also laid. In these structures, progress 
 was very slow, owing to the want of men who knew the 
 use of tools. Then the mission-liouse itself was 
 beginning to show signs of rapid decay. Tlie wood of 
 which it had been constructed was eaten into by ants, 
 and tlireatened by its fall to entomb (African fashion) 
 its inmates. This experience of the fragility of African 
 structures gave Mr. Saker tlie greatest anxiety. 
 Writing Mr. Angus, he says, " I do want to make 
 
44 ALFEED SAKEE. 
 
 myself a house as strong as the Lest wood and nails 
 will admit, and I cannot patch np these mud walls 
 many weeks longer. What to do I know not." 
 
 But, fired by zeal, and strengthened in his weakness 
 by Divine grace, Mr. Saker pressed onward, cheered by 
 the hope that ere long the light would dawn on the 
 blinded eyes of the people around him. " Dualla is 
 dark," he said ; " grossly dark — dark as death ; but,, 
 blessed be God, the Gospel which we bear is able to 
 dispel it, dark as it may be." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Anxious Days, 1848—1850. 
 
 N" tlie month of June, 1848, the general 
 state of the mission constrained Mr. 
 Saker, till relief should come, to take 
 up his residence at Clarence. Of the 
 band by which the mission had been 
 ■commenced, only Dr. Prince, ]\Ir. Merrick, and Mr. 
 8aker remained. Mr. Sturgion and Mr. Thompson 
 were dead. Mr. Clarke had returned to Jamaica with 
 ?. party of the Jamaica immigrants, some of whom were 
 driven from Africa by failure of health, and others were 
 found, from various causes, unfit for the work. A few 
 of them had died. Two or three only, men of tried 
 courage and ability, remained. Dr. Xewbegin's healtli 
 had also broken down, and he had left for England. 
 And now Dr. Prince and his wife were compelled Ijy 
 the deadly climate to hasten away, and to relinquisli 
 an enterprise in which they had borne so distinguished 
 and useful a part. Writing to the Committee on the 
 .^th July, Mr. Saker thus explains the reasons for his 
 provisional settlement at Clarence : " In time past, we 
 have had to mourn over the dead again and again. We 
 have been called to bid adieu to the bereaved widow, 
 and tlie afflicted wife and children. Our Jamaica band 
 liave almost disappeared, some by death — we hope now 
 in glory — some by the disgraceful end of ' having loved 
 this world.' In February, 1847, we were compelled to 
 
46 ALFEED SAKER. 
 
 part with afflicted sisters, one a wife [Mrs. Saker], and 
 a dear child ; in May, with Mr, Clarke and his sickly 
 band ; in September with brother Newbegin, and now 
 a severer stroke has come in the removal of our beloved 
 brother and sister, Dr. and Mrs. Prince. We have been 
 weakened, chastened, and subdued, yet still our 
 Heavenly Father removes not His hand. Sorrow 
 comes on sorrow, and we are distressed. Oh, that we 
 may ever bow with submissive love to all His will ! " 
 
 " This is a trial ! to send away those, the most useful, 
 and without whom we know not how to go on, and we 
 exclaim. What shall we do ? This is the conclusion : 
 Clarence is of more importance than Cameroons. 
 Cameroons is less important than Bimbia. Then, 
 Cameroons must be laid aside. I offer to take charge 
 of Clarence till another shall relieve me. The doctor 
 and his church thankfully accept it. It is decided, 
 and I am your missionary resident at Clarence ; and as 
 to Cameroons, Johnson, aided by James Frazer at pre- 
 sent, will do what he can while I am away." Under 
 such circumstances, we cannot wonder at the bitter cry, 
 the sorrowful moan which his loneliness forced from 
 him in his letter to the Secretary, of the 14th June. 
 " Oh I that our God may send us help speedily ! Dear 
 Sir, — Are the churches so destitute of young men, that 
 labourers cannot be found for Africa ? Are there none 
 who can place their lives at the disposal of the Saviour 
 in this sickly land ? Do our pious youths forget that 
 ours is a God near and far off? Oh ! that the blessed 
 Spirit may send you the men and the means, as well as 
 the heart to send them here ! We must have them 
 speedily. Africa groans to be delivered from the bond- 
 use of sin." 
 
ANXIOUS DAYS. 4T 
 
 Hai^pily, in this sad state of things, Mr. Saker'* 
 health had gradually improved since the serious attack 
 of illness that he passed through in the early months 
 of the year. Aided by Miss Yitou, whose services in 
 the schools were invaluable, he was al)le to meet the- 
 emergency, and with unconquerable energy to give- 
 every moment of time and every faculty of heart and 
 mind to the duties that devolved upon him. The press 
 he had with rapture received, through the liberality of 
 friends at home, was set up in Clarence, and, with the 
 help of some lads he had trained, he soon threw ofT 
 many pages of school books and of Scripture for the 
 use of the people at Cameroons. The services of the 
 sanctuary in Clarence were usually crowded, both on 
 the Sabbath and in the week. The prayer-meetings were- 
 filled with earnest worshippers, whose supplications for 
 a Divine blessing on the Word received large and gracious 
 answers from on high. Here is a sketch of his daily 
 toil : — " I preach twice on Sabbath days, once in the 
 week, attend the prayer-meeting on Tuesday evenings 
 Monday evening being devoted to teachers' meeting, 
 maternal meeting, and missionary meeting (in order), 
 Wednesday evening, all the classes (and everybody 
 connected with the church is in class) assemble in the 
 chapel. Thursday evening a Bible-class meets at my 
 house. Friday evening, public lecture. Saturday 
 evening, to myself. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday 
 mornings from ten to one o'clock, I instruct classes of 
 inquirers (in which there are at present fifty). Monday 
 evening, from five to six, another class who cannot 
 attend earlier. My other hours are filled up in visiting 
 the people, or in study, and even at my table I can- 
 not sit without some one calling on some business." To 
 
48 ALFEED SAKER. 
 
 ^hese constant and severe labours lie added the super- 
 intendence of the " boys " whom he had taught to act as 
 compositors and pressmen, and the supply of manuscript 
 daily for the press. In his last letter of the year 
 (December 18th), it is no wonder that he should say to 
 the Secretary, " My legs fail, my knees tremble, and I 
 hnow not what I shall do. Yet, hitherto, I am mercifully 
 lielped, and, with the exception of weakness in my 
 joints, my health is good. Pray for me, dear brotlier ; 
 and send help as soon as you can." 
 
 But while Mr. Saker was thus toiling and \vriting, 
 the help he longed and prayed for was on the way. On 
 the 8tli December the Dov& once more left Gravesend, 
 having on board Captain and Mrs. ]\Iilbourne, Mr. and 
 Mrs. Newbegin, Mrs. Saker, and Mr. and Mrs. Yarnold, 
 the latter to assist as a teacher in Fernando Po. Tlie 
 ship was also laden with a valuable printing press for 
 Bimljia, the gift of friends in Scotland and Xorfolk ; a. 
 •sugar mill, the gift of Mr. Peto ; and with a large quan- 
 tity of stores and provisions for the sorely tried workers. 
 By these arrivals the missionary band was increased 
 -to eleven European agents (including the wives of the 
 missionaries), and eight native preachers and teachers. 
 A brief sunmiary of the work accomplished in the 
 Mission up to this point is given in the Society's annual 
 reports. " Since 1841, the year of the opening of the 
 Mission, the bread-fruit tree, the pomegranate, the 
 mango, the avocado pear, and the mammee, fruits of 
 ■great value, and all suitable to the climate, have been 
 introduced by our brethren ; garments sufficient to 
 ■ clothe not less than 20,000 persons have been distri- 
 buted ; many hundreds of the natives, it may be said 
 ■thousands, have received medical assistance ; tln-ee 
 
ANXIOUS DAYS. 49 
 
 principal stations (Clarence, Bimlna, Cameroons), have 
 been established ; and about eighty persons have been 
 baptized. An ' Introduction to the Fernandian tongue ' 
 has been written by Mr. Clarke, and, with specimens 
 of translation, has been publislied by liini at Berwick. 
 The gospel of Matthew, the book of Genesis, and Scrip- 
 ture extracts in Isu])u have been published by Mr. 
 Merrick at Bimbia ; and Mr. Saker is engaged v/ith 
 tlie Dualla at Cameroons. Judging from these results, 
 and comparing them with those of tlie first seven years 
 of missionary labour in India, or other fields, we can- 
 not but regard the labours of our brethren in Africa 
 as very encouraging and important." 
 
 Anxious hearts, both on board the Dove and in Fer- 
 nando Po, were awaiting the vessel's arrival, which 
 took place on the IStli Feljruary, 1849. The voyage 
 had its perils, for in the Bay of Biscay, on the 23rd 
 December, she encountered a storm, v/hich on the 
 following day increased in violence, and continued to 
 rage for several days. A sail was torn into shreds, the 
 tiller was broken, the aft light was sto^'e in, and the 
 ship was nearly eugiilphed. The passengers, especially 
 the females, suffered much from the incursions of the 
 sea, as well as from the violence of tlie rain. At length, 
 on the 6th January, they reached Madeira, and after re- 
 fitting, proceeded on their way. The rest of the voyage 
 though tedious, was pleasant. " It was Sabbath morning," 
 writes Mrs. Saker, "at daylight, that we could trace 
 land in the distance. No sea breeze until ten o'clock. 
 But we were not seen hj our friends on shore until one 
 o'clock. I cannot describe how anxious I felt for many 
 days before, but especially as we approached the island. 
 I could not tell what lay before me ; whether my dear 
 
50 ALFEED SAKER. 
 
 husband was living or dead, sick or in liealtli." Not 
 less anxious was the husband, who, for days, had been 
 watching from the shore for the arrival of the " large 
 mercy " for which he had longed and prayed. The 
 Sabbath-school had just closed, when tidings came that 
 the Dove was in sight. The fogs, called " smokes," 
 which so often prevail on the coast at this season, had 
 for many weeks been exceedingly heavy, so that any 
 object three miles off covild scarcely be discerned. A 
 small glass gave evidence that something was approach- 
 ing. " The news," says Mr. Saker, " tied through the 
 town so quickly, that I had not time to prepare myself 
 ere five or six of our people came up to tell me. Others 
 ran to the beach to procure a boat, and soon a dozen 
 friends were ready, seated in Mr. Lynslager's boat, to 
 convey us to great joy, or heavy tidings. Eapidly the 
 boat glided over the waves, and all doubt as to the 
 identity of the vessel was removed ; yet, no one was 
 to be seen on deck, owing to the thick haze. We soon 
 neared the Dove, and one by one I saw Captain Mil- 
 bourne, brother Newbegin, a stranger, another, and 
 another, but no Mrs. Saker. Another moment and a 
 voice came pealing over the water, ' All right, brother.' 
 A happy greeting followed. My dear wife had been 
 obliged to go below from over-excitement. In a few 
 minutes all our minds were calm, and, after reading the 
 103rd Psalm, we prostrated ourselves before God in 
 adoring gratitude." 
 
 As the ship's dingy neared the shore, canoes and boats 
 filled with people crowded about the new-comers ; the 
 whole town was moved, and every one, young and old, 
 came out to show their welcome. Smiling and happy 
 faces greeted them. After a slight repast, the bell 
 
ANXIOUS DAYS. 51 
 
 sounded for worship, and a crowded assembly united in 
 thanksgiving. Again, in the evening at seven, the 
 church met to express in song and prayer the gratitiule 
 so strongly felt. Not less animating was the meeting 
 held on the following day. It was a joyous gathering, 
 for it spoke of hope and blessing for Africa ; while it 
 was an unspeakable relief to the heart of the burdened 
 missionary. To use his own expressive words : " To me 
 it has been an exliilarating time. It has had a happy 
 efiect on my spirit. But I feel unable to bear the joy, 
 and I shall soon need a f[uiet, retired hour to moderate 
 my feelings. The hour will soon come, foi' on Tuesday 
 next the Dove will move on to Bimbia. Brother Xew- 
 begin and wife, Yarnold and wife, will take passage in 
 her; and on its return it is probable I shall visit 
 Cameroons with ]\Irs. Saker." 
 
 " The 18th Feljruary," he continues, " came, and was 
 a day of joy. Our hearts beat more freely as we looked 
 around on our brethren, blooming in health, and ready 
 for the work. We hoped for large success." It was 
 the expectation of j\Ir. Saker that the arrival of this 
 band of helpers, radiant with health and hope, would 
 set him free to return to Cameroons. But this desire 
 soon received a check. Light sicknesses came as warn- 
 ings of danger ahead. " I:^ot to destroy hope," he said, 
 " but they hindered labour, and became the precursors 
 of heavier calamities." The first of these omens was 
 the decision of Captain ]\Iilbourne to return to Europe. 
 Then tlie health of Mr. Yarnold began to decline, and 
 before the end of the year he felt constrained to aban- 
 don the work altogetlier. ]iut the illness of ]\lr. 
 Merrick, his departure from Africa, and death at sea in 
 
 4* 
 
52 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 the month of October,* was the most painful and fata! 
 blow of all. These distressing events compelled Mr. 
 Saker to reconsider his decision to return to Cameroons. 
 He ever thought of it as the true field of his missionary 
 labours. Not that his efforts at Clarence were without 
 reward. Many conversions testified to the power of his 
 ministry. The people were attached to him. His 
 medical knowledge added both to his influence and use- 
 fulness. An occasional visit to the Adeeyah tribes of 
 the interior encouraged him to make some efforts for 
 th^r benefit. His printing operations also went steadily 
 forward. But, under these circmnstances, he felt it liis 
 duty thus to write to the Committee : " I know the 
 mind of my brethren and the wish of the church. But 
 I do not feel willing to remain at Clarence. I shall, I 
 hope, yield to whatever may, in the judgment of the- 
 Committee and brethren here, be my duty. The church 
 and the brethren write in one voice, and if the 
 Committee recommend it, I shall comply with the re- 
 quest of tlieir letter. But my feelings are against it ;: 
 my heart is at Cameroons." 
 
 But there was no alternative, and Clarence became' 
 for a time the headquarters of his work. An occasional 
 
 * The Kev. Joseph Merrick was a native of Jamaica, and of 
 African descent. He was educated in the Society's schools, and 
 as a yoiith began in 1837 to preach. He was soon after asso- 
 ciated with his father in the pastorate of the church at Jericho. 
 He entered on mission work in Africa in 1843, and laboured most 
 diligently among the Isubu tril^e on the Bimbia river. He- 
 quickly learned to speak their language with great readiness and 
 precision, and translated a portion of the New Testament inta 
 the Isubu tongue. It was partially printed by himself, but was- 
 completed at press by Mr. Saker. He died on the 22nd October,. 
 184D, on his passage to England. 
 
ANXIOUS DAYS. o'j 
 
 visit to Bethel was all that he cmikl do. Tlie voya<^e 
 -across the strait and up the Caineroons river was often 
 perilous, often delayed for days together by baffling 
 winds and currents. These he willingly encountered, 
 frequently in an open boat, to assist and encourage the 
 coloured brethren, Johnson and Fuller, whom he had 
 left there. Under their industrious hands the seed iMr. 
 Saker had sown began slowly to appear. He visited 
 them in the mouth of April, and, writing to the Secretary 
 a few days after his return, he says : " I heard from 
 Johnson yesterday. The schools and meetings are still 
 well attended. King Bell grieves his heart that I do 
 not come back again. His entreaty is that I would 
 send some one to teach his children. And, dear sir, 
 what am I to do ? At Cameroons, where I hoped to 
 spend my days, they are not half provided for. Hun- 
 dreds of children there are clinging around my heart, 
 and I feel deeply distressed that I cannot go to them. 
 What can be done ? Entreat the Committee to let me 
 have another native teacher." 
 
 Encountering a very stormy passage, another brief 
 visit was paid to Bethel in the month of August, when 
 Mr. Saker had the pleasure of marrying the first of the 
 Duallas wlio submitted to tliat sacred and social rite. 
 Three paonths after, the marriage was followed by the 
 husband's baptism. To celebrate this joyful service, 
 Mr. Saker left Clarence on Monday, the 5th Xovember, 
 having Mrs. Saker and Miss Yitcu in company. At 
 Bimbia they were joined by Dr. and Mrs. Newbegin. 
 Tuesday and Wednesday passed in the endeavour to 
 reach their destination in the face of a fearful tornado, 
 and with disabled rigging, about six o'clock in the even- 
 ing of the second day, they landed at Bethel. The fatigues 
 
54 ALFRED .SAKER. 
 
 of the voyage could not repress his anxious desire to- 
 gather in the first-fruits of his labours at King A'kwa's- 
 town. " At eight o'clock," continues Mr. Saker, " we held 
 a prayer-meeting with our brethren, and a goodly com- 
 pany of Duallas. At four next morning we met a large- 
 number of Duallas for prayer. This meeting continued till 
 six. On account of the tide we deferred our next service- 
 till eleven o'clock, when we met again in the chapel. 
 Sang and read in Dualla. Mr. Newbegin then explained,, 
 through an interpreter, the chapter I had read, after 
 which I addressed the congregation in Dualla, showed 
 from the Scriptures the command of Jesus to discij)le 
 all nations and then baptize them, and exhorted the 
 inquirers to a steadfast adherence to the words of our 
 Lord, and the path of righteousness. We closed with 
 singing and prayer, and then went down to the beach. 
 Another Dualla hymn was followed by an address to- 
 the candidate. I then baptized this, our first convert,. 
 in the waters of Cameroons. Oh, that this small be- 
 ginning may be speedily succeeded by the ingathering of 
 a mighty host to the Lord our God ! The spectators of 
 this (to them) novel scene were very attentive ; silence 
 and order were observed by all. Deep seriousness and 
 anxiety were on the faces of many. Dr. Newbegin 
 closed with prayer." 
 
 The afternoon was devoted to the formation of a 
 church, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Saker, Horton 
 Johnson and his wife, and Smith, the convert just 
 baptised. The services w^ere closed by the celebration of 
 the Supper of the Lord. " Thus," concludes Mr. Saker,. 
 " I have lived to witness what I have long desired 
 intensely, the beginning of a good work at Cameroons,, 
 and the formation of a Christian church. Oh, that I 
 
ANXIOUS DAYS. 5;> 
 
 may see it increased to a thousand souls ! And I 
 do hope, for the Spirit of God is doing a large work 
 there. More than twenty inquirers are hanging on 
 my heart and lips with marks of deepest solicitude. 
 The ferocious, demoniacal features are assuming the 
 softness of children, and those who a little time since 
 sought my life are saying to me, ' What shall I do to 
 be saved ? ' I cannot describe my feelings when I see 
 and hear what I would record if I had but time. Dear 
 sir, pray for us, and rejoice with us too." 
 
 The regret of ]\Ir. Saker that he could not himself 
 minister to these eager souls was the more intense, 
 because the chapel, built to hold 200 persons, was 
 now crowded with interested hearers, and that during 
 these visits hundreds more gathered to listen to the 
 words of grace which fell from his lips. 
 
 By this time, however, the tropical heats and fevers 
 were making their mark on the sinewy and spare 
 frame of Mr. Saker, and notwithstanding a run to the 
 river Gaboon in August, from which he returned 
 " much bettered," he yet felt it his duty to avail him- 
 self of the offer of a free passage, in the Mission vessel 
 of the United Presbyterian Church Mission at Calabar, 
 to make a brief visit to England. After seven years 
 of unceasing and exhausting toil, and many attacks of 
 illness, this change of climate was as necessary as it was 
 welcome. On the 12th of March, 1850, with his wife 
 and Miss Yitou, he left Clarence. The voyage was 
 tedious, but the tedium was more than compensated by 
 the improved health with which the party landed at 
 Liverpool on the ensuing 28 th of May. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Dawn of Bkighter Days, 1850 — 1852. 
 
 N" Mr. Saker's arrival in England, he found 
 that the condition of the African Mission 
 had for some time occupied the anxious 
 attention of the Committee of the Society. 
 But scarcely was he landed when the 
 lecessity of immediate steps being taken for its re- 
 inforcement was solemnly impressed upon them by the 
 unexpected tidings of the decease of Dr. Newhegin, 
 which took place shortly after Mr. Saker's departure 
 from Clarence. This sorrowful event occurred near 
 midnight, on the 17tli April, at the mouth of the 
 Calabar river, whither Dr. Newbegin had sailed in the 
 Dove to obtain medical advice. Words cannot express 
 the consternation with which the news was received. 
 Not one of the English brethren sent out from England 
 was left in Africa. The hearts of many of the sup- 
 porters of the Mission failed. 
 
 It was at this moment of dee^) depression that IMr. 
 Saker addressed the following remarkable letter to tlie 
 Committee : — 
 
 " I have a fear that some of you who wish well to 
 Africa will be discouraged, and I think you ought not 
 to be. Let us re\aew some of the facts. Ten years 
 since you commenced the work. You sent many 
 labourers and expended much treasure. Of those sent 
 
THE DAWN OF BMGIITEIl DAYS. 57 
 
 out, God has gathered to himself Thompson, Sturgion, 
 A. Fuller, Merrick, and Newbegin. Prince and Clarke 
 have been driven from the field, and a small company 
 of West Indians have tied, terrified by the toil and 
 suffering. This suffering and loss of life show that the 
 sacrifice you have made is large. But ought we to have 
 expected less ? Bloodless victories are not common. 
 Sometimes we have to wait long for the results we seek; 
 but in this Mission God, in His Providence, permits us 
 to look at something accomplislied before this last afflic- 
 tion fell on us. Let me refer to these results. There 
 are now living in Africa about one hundred souls hope- 
 fully converted to God. In nine years past, forty may 
 have died leaving the pleasing testimony that they are 
 gone to a better land. They are saved, instrumentally 
 through you and your agents. 
 
 " There are now eight native teachers engaged, more 
 or less, in efforts for the salvation of souls. They are 
 not all supported by you, but they are what they arc 
 through you. The education imparted is an immense 
 benefit. In the colony of Clarence you have effected a 
 transformation unspeakably valuable, and almost unpre- 
 cedented. Among the natives of this island, impressions 
 have been made that only need fostering to result in the 
 glorious and happy cliange you long to behold. On the 
 continent it is difficult to say what has been done. 
 Souls have been brought to God, churches formed, and 
 actually the wilderness is now being transformed into 
 the garden of the Lord. 
 
 " All this stands against so much suffering, and so 
 many deaths ; and will any say that the sacrifice equals 
 the results ? 
 
 " And w^e must not forget that all who die are self- 
 
58 ALFEED SA.KER. 
 
 de\'oted, and God has accepted this offering, and by it 
 wrought all that we see accomplished. 
 
 " Brethren, I think you will feel with me, that we 
 must not be discouraged. God afflicts us ; let us humble 
 ourselves before Him, and try to bring to His service 
 purer and more devoted sacrifices. 
 
 " You will doubtless conclude, that I ought to return 
 to Africa immediately ; I can only say, I am ready." 
 
 This trumpet call to " Come up to the help of the 
 Lord, against the mighty," roused every heart. 
 
 The history of the Mission was passed in review. 
 The proofs of God's working in the conversion of souls 
 by the preaching of the Word were patent, and destroyed 
 every doubt in the minds of the Committee as to their 
 duty. Fidelity to the great cause committed to their 
 charge required the continuance of their efforts to win 
 Africa for Christ. No past suffering, no prospective 
 peril, could daunt the firm, calm resolve of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Saker However fearful others might be, their lives 
 were the Lord's, and to be spent in Africa for Him. 
 
 Arrangements for their return were made as speedily 
 as possible, and on the 25th October they sailed from 
 Liverpool, Owing to light winds and frequent calms, 
 the passage was longer than had been anticipated ; but 
 it was on the whole a pleasant one, and was crowned 
 with a warm welcome, when, on the 29th December, on 
 a Sabbath day, they entered Clarence Cove. " Truly," 
 says Mr. Saker, " it was a day of joy to me and our 
 people." Many wept for gladness, and within an hour 
 and a half some five hundred persons gathered in the 
 chapel, to rejoice in hymn and prayer that the Lord had 
 not forsaken His heritage. The gratitude of the 
 travellers was not a little increased by the fact they 
 
THE DAWN OF ilKIGHTEK DAYS. 50 
 
 learnt on landing, that two vessels, in wliicli they had 
 endeavoured to secure a passage from England, had been 
 wrecked on their way. Twelve days afterwards Mr. 
 Saker was joined by the Eev. John Wheeler, who had 
 been the pastor of the church in Windmill Street,. 
 Finsbury, London, and had nobly offered himself to share 
 with him the perils of the Mission. He was immediately 
 chosen to fill the office of pastor in the church at 
 Clarence, and Mr. Saker was once more free to give him- 
 self to the work on the great continent so near. 
 
 Having set " in order the tilings wanting in the 
 church " at Clarence, Mr. Saker paid a brief visit to 
 Bimbia, where he collected the manuscripts and Isubu 
 translations of the lamented Merrick. Leaving directions 
 for their j)rinting with Joseph Fuller, he hastened tO' 
 Bethel, where he found a state of things that filled his 
 heart with joy. He received " a truly Christian wel- 
 come," and became immediately busy with the ex- 
 amination of inquirers, and in listening to an account of 
 the trials and persecutions through whicli the infant 
 community liad passed. Twenty persons were examined ^ 
 fifteen belonged to the number of those who, in October, 
 1849, had given him reason to hope that a work of 
 grace had been begun in their souls ; but only five were 
 for tlie present accepted for baptism ; one, a slave ; 
 another, a prince belonging to a neighbouring tribe ; and 
 three females, each in years. " On Sabbath morning, 
 the 2nd February, 1851," writes Mr. Saker, " we 
 assembled at six o'clock in our chapel, which was soon 
 filled. I read and explained to the multitude some of 
 the Scriptures respecting the institution and design of 
 baptism. I then addressed the candidates, and exhorted 
 them to steadfastness. After prayer we left the chapel 
 
■60 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 for tlie river. The candidates and a large company of 
 inquirers followed nie down the hill, while nearly 200 
 spectators took their station on the high bank over- 
 vlooking us. We prayed again, and then baptized. Then 
 .it was proved that the Dualla is changed. Usually they 
 express their joys and sorrows with heathen noise. Yet 
 here was no noise, save the sobbing of those whose dee]) 
 ■feelings could not otherwise lie expressed. The tears 
 rolled down many cheeks that day that have not Ijeen 
 •accustomed to weeping. Many said, ' Baptize me too.' 
 We once more expressed our thankfulness to God, and 
 then returned to the chapel yard, singing a sweet song 
 as we ascended the hill. In the afternoon we received 
 the newly baptized into our little church, rejoicing in 
 these, and hopeful for yet greater numbers." 
 
 The converts had, through much tribulation, entered 
 the kingdom of God. The congregation had been 
 severely tried. The evident changes wrought by the 
 Gospel stirred up the hatred of not a few enemies of 
 ±lie Cross, and efforts were made to prevent the access 
 •of the people to the chapel ; these failed, and at last 
 the chiefs privately met to deliberate on the course to 
 be pursued. It was resolved to destroy the mission 
 .station entirely, and to kill every native, male or female, 
 who persisted in attending the ministrations of grace. 
 A plan was secretly prepared ; but the principal chief 
 was uneasy. To kill the young prince was certain to 
 fcring on a war with the tribe to which he belonged. 
 Persuasion was therefore employed to detach him from 
 Mr. Johnson. A special messenger was also despatched 
 to Bimbia to fetch his sister, that her entreaties might 
 he added to those of others. He listened, but declined 
 io yield. In his turn, he spoke of Christ, and pleaded 
 
THE DAWN OF r.RIGHTKU DAYS. GT 
 
 witli her to forsake the workl. One argument she' 
 urgently pressed. She said he woidd be killed, and' 
 in saying this revealed the plot that had lieen laid' 
 for the destruction of all who cleaved to the Word' 
 of the Lord. This at once opened his eyes to the- 
 danger ; but he nobly replied : " Well, if they wish 
 to destroy the Gospel, they cannot, and they shall' 
 not kill the missionaries till they have first killed 
 me. We will die together. I now see why you are- 
 brought here. Go to the chiefs, and say to them, 
 I will not leave the Gospel of God." The prin- 
 cipal chief's heart failed. To kill the prince was- 
 perilous ; so the word M^ent forth : " Let the white men 
 live." Still, many of the converts were put in chains- 
 and cruelly beaten. Twice Mr. Johnson rescued one- 
 woman from death. But at the time of Mr. Saker's 
 arrival this season of trial had nearly passed away, and 
 his heart was filled with joy " that God was making 
 His own Word thus to grow." 
 
 It was not till the month of September that Mr. Saker 
 was able to take up his abode again at Bethel, to begin, 
 as he said, " a long and solemn work." For the few 
 months during which Mr. Wheeler was passing through 
 the fevers which usually attack a new-comer, Mr. Saker 
 continued to assist him in the work of the church in 
 Clarence. In April he visited the mountain people, 
 and in June Imptized nine persons below the well- 
 known waterfall. Writing on the 28th August, he tluis 
 anticipates tlie labours before him at Bethel : " I now 
 go to my loved work again. How soon I shall be al)le 
 to write you from my deep mine of toil I cannot tell. 
 Next Aveek I iiiust baptize many at Cameroons, marry 
 some others, and then assemble all the children for 
 
62 ALFBED SAKER. 
 
 examination and reward. Remember us in your daily 
 •supplications, and may the cheering presence of the 
 Father of mercies be with you." 
 
 Almost his first task on arriving at Cameroons was 
 to provide suitable dwellings for the Alission families. 
 The frail and perishable character of the materials of 
 ■which houses were usually built, and the destruction 
 -caused by the invasion of white ants, had early led 
 Mr. Saker to devise some means for securing more 
 ■durable structures. At first he tried the harder woods 
 •of the forests, but at length discovered that clay suitable 
 for bricks and tiles existed on the spot. He first set 
 up his brick-making shed and kiln at Clarence ; but it 
 was soon evident that the clay of Cameroons offered a 
 far better material. Writing on the 3rd January, 1852, 
 he reports : " I am happy to say that in this I have a 
 ■complete success (both building brick and paving tiles), 
 and for some weeks past my brickyard has been in 
 active operation. I suppose that 10,000 are now ready, 
 -and we are making 2,000 a-week." The entire cost, he 
 thought, would average about twenty shillings a thou- 
 sand. To accomplish this great task he had himself to 
 labour with his own hands, and to train the lads who 
 were willing to submit to his tuition. 
 
 In a letter written a few days later, Mr. Saker enters 
 into somewhat fuller detail of the way in which he 
 attained his end. " In settling myself, seven years since, 
 ..at Cameroons, I resolved to make bricks, if for no otlier 
 purpose, yet for a good cottage for myself. Tor many 
 months I tried, but in the end gave it up in despair. 
 No persuasion or offer of payment would induce the 
 men to labour. They laughed at us, and regarded us as 
 slaves or fools. We could not get bricks, so built a 
 
THE DAWN OF lUHGHTER DAYS. G3 
 
 cliapel of wood, and the people filled it. They heard, 
 and in time felt, the importance of preparing for the 
 solemnities of another world. The truth made impres- 
 sions on their hearts, and they were changed. Eight 
 principles began to have place, and when they went to 
 trade in the country, they could no longer succeed ))y 
 fraud or lies. As soon as this was seen, persecution 
 came; and with the loss of all their property, and with 
 personal suffering, they barely returned to tell their com- 
 panions. And so it has happened that, as soon as a man 
 decides for God, his own townsmen drive him from the 
 markets, lest he should spoil their trade. In their 
 sufferings they came to me to know what they were to 
 do. I have replied, ' Cultivate more ground, .raise and 
 sell provisions, plant cotton, and open a new source of 
 trade.' Latterly, I have said, ' 3Iake bricks and I icill 
 pay you: N'o\<^ see the answer. ' We will do anything, 
 if you will teach us ? ' I have taught tliem, and my 
 brickyard maintains five families, and in return I <Tet 
 2,000 bricks every week. This, my dear sir, is a 
 triumph— a triumph which we owe to God, and the 
 influence of His holy Word. WitJiouf the Gospel, I could 
 get no work done; with it, I can build a bridge across our 
 wide river, or convert the wilderness into a fruitful 
 garden ; and, had I a sufficient sum of money to main- 
 tain a few families through two years of labour, T could 
 open a new source of profit and dependence for our 
 people. Even without money, I hope eventually to 
 succeed in planting a few acres with cotton, even as we 
 have with sugar cane." 
 
 But the possession of bricks was of little avail without 
 mortar to cement them together. We, therefore, soon 
 read : " In my travels, I am now searching high and low 
 
G4 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 for a material witli wliicli to make lime or cement. I 
 hope to succeed, and I purpose sending out my canoe to 
 collect oyster-sliells. If I can obtain sufficient, we shall 
 soon have lime. And then, brethren, what can hinder 
 our work ? If the Lord gives me health, we shall do 
 well." And he did well, for the Lord was with him. 
 In a few years the mission-houses, the chapel, the school- 
 houses, were all transformed, and they remain durable 
 monuments of the practical knowledge, skill, and far- 
 seeing sagacity of this wise worker in the kingdom 
 of God. King A'kwa's town itself has changed its 
 aspect. The brickmakers, the smiths, the carpenters, 
 and the builders that Mr. Saker trained have in many 
 instances exerted their newly-acquired skill in raising 
 structures of brick, and improved habitable dwellings 
 for themselves and others, instead of the frail bamboo' 
 
 t 
 
 and mud huts of their savage ancestors. Christianity 
 and civilisation have gone hand in hand, scattering on 
 every side the fruits and flowers of a higher and better 
 life. 
 
 But Mr. Saker further describes for us, in his own 
 striking way, the advances made in the evangelisation 
 of the people : — 
 
 " A month since we baptized eleven more converts, 
 and still we have several whom we approve. The con- 
 gregation is numerous, and the devout attention tO' 
 the Word by a large number is exceedingly pleasing. 
 At four and five o'clock every morning the schoolroom 
 is crowded to hear the Word of God, and in the evening 
 the ]Deople will only retire when bidden. Numbers use 
 every effort to learn to read. Many have succeeded ; 
 and then the joy, the astonishment, of their hearts at 
 any fresh discovery of Divine Love as revealed in the 
 
BETHEL CHAPEL, CA3IEE00NS. 
 
THE DAWN OF BRIGHTEIi DAYS. 05 
 
 Scriptures ! They hold their lips, or beat their heads, 
 as the expressions they read are explained to them, and 
 are utterly unable to describe the emotions of their 
 hearts. Sometimes they seem afraid to breathe, lest the 
 wonderful idea should be disturbed and flit away from 
 them ; and they wait for minutes, unable to grasp tlie 
 tliought which comes upon them. The parables of 
 Jesus are a continual feast for them. One thing may 
 be recorded. Concern for instruction succeeds con- 
 version ; ignorance is not deplored till guilt is a burden. 
 Our church now numbers twenty members ; inquirers, 
 twenty-five ; a congregation which fills our little temple; 
 school not large, Ijut, I hope, efficient." He closes this 
 deeply interesting narrative with the intunation that 
 he had begun to attempt the same gracious work at the 
 town of King Bell. 
 
 Scarcely, however, was Mr. Saker settled at Bethel 
 than he was called away to Clarence, by the destruction 
 of the chapel in a fearful tornado ; and in the month of 
 May the care of the entire Mission again fell into his 
 hands, by the departure of his valued friend and col- 
 league, Mr. Wheeler. It was hoped that a brief sojourn 
 in England would enable jMr. Wheeler to return in- 
 vigorated and restored, but tliis hope was disappointed. 
 Mr. Wheeler failed to return, and for two years and 
 a-half Mr. Saker was compelled to meet — alone and 
 unassisted by any European — the many cares and 
 anxieties of the entire Mission. But his indomitable 
 courage never gave way. With his native helpers he 
 laboured night and day. " In journeyings often, in 
 perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by the 
 heathen, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, 
 in weariness and paiufuluess," he pursued tlie great 
 
66 ALFEED SAKER. 
 
 object of his life, never happier than when, as the fruit 
 of his self-sacrifice and zeal, he gathered a few sheep 
 from the wilderness into the fold of God. Writinof on 
 the 28th of September, 1852, he says : — 
 
 " The work of Missions, as ^ue see it and feci it, loses 
 none of its interest. "We have two scenes ever before 
 us, and painted in unmistakeable colours. Here is 
 wickedness in its most degraded and deadly form ; 
 misery, discord, and death float around us — a corrupting 
 mass, a sea of death, subjects for deepest compassion, 
 work for the purest benevolence. 
 
 " We have also a pleasant enclosure apart from this 
 fearful scene ; an enclosure where the voice of prayer 
 and praise happily continue, where the lovely plants of 
 a better clime are springing up and bearing fruit to 
 God. All glory to Him who plants and waters the 
 precious seed ! 
 
 " In our churches we liave enough to make us thank- 
 ful in the steadfastness and piety of our members. 
 That many endure so much and so well is a marvel.. 
 This is especially the case at Cameroons. That some 
 are wavering, or worse, cannot be surprising. Since 
 Mr. Wheeler left us we have buried four honourable 
 members. The continued rainy season alone prevents 
 us from baptizing some, and the number of inquirers is 
 increasing." 
 
 " But there is one thing almost disheartening. We 
 have three churches in as many different places. We 
 have two other places where the Word is regularly 
 preached ; yet, what is the whole of this to the mass of 
 men living in darkness around us ? What proportion 
 is a hundred members of churches to the tens of thou- 
 sands treading the same soil, dancing before our eyes. 
 
THE DAWN OF BRIGHTER DAY.S. 67 
 
 alike careless of God and themselves ? What do we 
 among so many ? Where one regards the voice of 
 mercy, thousands turn a deaf ear ; and yet death goes 
 on with his work ; war, disease, and witchcraft are in- 
 satiable ; and a generation is almost gone since I first 
 saw this dreary land. This fearful woe is unmitigated, 
 except we feel the value of one soul saved from ruin ; 
 and it is not of one only we rejoice ; so our joy is great. 
 Thus ours is a mingled lot — highest pleasure with dis- 
 heartening sorrow. In such a land, what manner of 
 men ought we to be ? " 
 
 In another letter of this year he expresses regret 
 that the cares which daily press upon him hinder his 
 communicating the incidents that continually arise. 
 How much could he say of the converts, of his assistants, 
 of the condition of the people ' What touching tales ! 
 What thrilling emotions their persecutions and deliver- 
 ances excite ! Then there are new converts, awakening 
 hope and filling the heart with joy ! " Then come the 
 roarings of the adversary," for the " prey is taken from 
 the mighty, and the enemy brings his host in the shape 
 of a hundred slaves, armed with staves, guns, and swords, 
 as on Monday last, surrounding the houses and threat- 
 ening to drive us all away, and finally decamping with 
 our cow and all the goods that can bo seen. But all is 
 useless. They see and feel that the cause is God's , 
 superstition fails to hold them in chains as heretofore ; 
 and although Satan would excite them because thei]' 
 religion and the hope of their gain are going, yet, when 
 left to think and remember all that they see and heai 
 from us, their heart§ fail, and thus, as last evening, the}) 
 restore all that they took away on Monday. Such a 
 
 thing was never known before. That an animal could 
 
 .=1* 
 
^68 ALFRED SAKEE. 
 
 live in their hands an hour is marvellous, especially 
 ■when hungry and excited to madness. But all things 
 — how can you know them if I fail to write ? And yet 
 I could fill a very long sheet every week had I time or 
 determination equal to the task." 
 
 Indeed, but a small portion of Alfred Saker's life- 
 work can he described in the few pages allotted to this 
 biography. All that can be done is briefly to indicate 
 the nature of the toil, and the breadth of the labours, 
 which filled a life of unsparing devotion and relentless 
 self-sacrifice. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Missioxauy at his Work, 1853 — 185G. 
 
 HATEVElt might be the difficulties auc^. 
 discouragements of the work, Mr. Saker 
 found at Clarence and Cameroons 
 abundant joy and gratification in the 
 manifest growth of the kingdom of God,. 
 in its "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy 
 Ghost." Not so among the Isubu people of Bimljia. 
 This station was founded by the lamented Merrick on 
 his arrival in Africa, and on a spot that was deemed 
 the most healthy of any that could be found at the- 
 mouth of the Cameroons. A high promontory of Ijasalt 
 stands boldly out from tlie main land, breasting the 
 waves of the Atlantic, and apparently free from the 
 lialeful miasma which ever lurks in the swamps and 
 mangrove forests of the low-lymg shores around. It has, 
 however, proved to be the most deadly of any of the 
 settlements on the coast, and every European missionary 
 who has made it his residence, even for a temporary 
 sojourn, has retired from it either sick unto death or 
 smitten with malarial fever of long continuance. 
 
 Tor the first two or three years there were signs of pro- 
 gress, but it soon became manifest that the coming of 
 the Gospel was too late to stem the torrent of iniquity anJL 
 degradation that was hurrying the Isubu tribes to their- 
 destruction. The efforts of Dr. Newbegin, his successor. 
 
70 ALFKED SAKER. 
 
 were alike unavailing, and the wretchedness of the 
 population rapidly culminated in irrevocable decay. 
 Mr. Saker, too, found that the miseries occasioned by 
 internal discords, by the curse of witchcraft, by con- 
 tinual murders, by the unceasing wars with neighbour- 
 ing tribes, were on the increase. As the natural conse- 
 quence, the people were rapidly declining in numbers. 
 The means of existence were failing ; the land ceased to 
 oe cultivated ; fishermen no longer plied their calling ; 
 incessantly harassed with trials for witchcraft, they tied 
 to other spots. The endless fighting cut off the supply 
 of yams, maize, and plantains from the interior. If one 
 man toiled and planted to feed his family, his canoe was 
 burnt and his field and home were invaded until the 
 devastation was complete, and, to use the forcible 
 language of Mr. Saker, " hunger pined in every corner." 
 The few converts, though cared for by the missionary, 
 were in constant peril. This disastrous state of things 
 determined Mr. Saker to remove Mr. and Mrs. Fuller to 
 Cameroons, and with them the printing materials and 
 such of the remaining buildings as would be useful, and 
 to confine the mission to one native schoolmaster. His 
 own visits would for the future be of a purely evangel- 
 istic character. If any other consideration weighed 
 with hmi in coming to this decision, it was the unhealthy 
 character • of the place, which was constantly on the 
 increase from the growth of bush and swamp following 
 the decay of cultivation and the rooting out of the 
 population. 
 
 A short extract from a letter of Mr. Fuller (July, 
 1853) will vividly depict for us the horrors of the 
 savage life by which he was encompassed : — " In June, 
 on the third Sabbath day, the noise of drums was heard, 
 
THE .AIISSIONAKY AT lUS WORK. 71 
 
 a canoe made its appearance at the point, and what was 
 this noise ? The drum was telling (tlie natives can 
 make their drums speak) the horrible tale of their cruel 
 deed. It was too awful a sight for me to witness; but 
 those who saw it said that a man's head, newly cut of!", 
 was at the bow of the canoe. It was the head of a poor 
 innocent creature taken by a man by name Ngganda, or 
 Dick Bumbi, and for no just cause, but simply for what 
 they call ' a hero.' This was soon followed by a grand 
 festival, the particulars of which I am unable to give." 
 
 As there was no prospect of any reversal of this state 
 ■of things, the Committee, in 1870, resolved to withdraw 
 their single agent at Bimbia, and it has ceased to be 
 •occupied as a station. It is, however, occasionally visited 
 by the missionaries in their passages to and from Vic- 
 toria, and the knowledge of the " way of life " is not 
 allowed utterly to die out in the land. 
 
 At Cameroons how different was the scene. Here sub- 
 stantial buildings were gradually spriuging up — a mis- 
 sion-house to last for years to come, and to be a fixed base 
 for future operations, and a liouse wliich, when finished, 
 would accommodate a family and all the visitors it might 
 have to welcome. With it were a school-room, a printing 
 office, a safe store, an artificer's shop, and a chapel, also 
 lesser structures for printers and servants attached to 
 the Mission. " Stand witli me now, dear brother, a 
 minute," says Mr. Saker, writing to the Secretary of the 
 Society (November, 1854) ; " we are in the school-room, 
 at present appropriated to printing. The press is just 
 put up, the type is in cases, and here stands Fuller at 
 my right hand. Next liim is Songe ; near him is 
 Dikundu. At my left hand is Dumbe. Coming in at 
 .the door is N'kwe. Behind him is Carra. Excepting 
 
<2 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 Tuller, all these are native converts * Few of tliem are 
 preachers. Johnson is elsewhere at this minute re- 
 pairing my boat, and with him a company of pious 
 labouring lads. Those named are all young, from eleven 
 to twenty-eight — young men "of approved piety, full of 
 zeal, only waiting a command to do anything, to bear 
 the lamp of truth into the darkest dens. Here, to-day, 
 they have each their employment ; on the coming 
 Sabbath they will be scattered, all at work." 
 
 Kow let us pass from this graphic and interest- 
 ing picture to another drawn by the same vivid 
 pen : " It is evening. I am sick, but writing you. 
 Fuller and Johnson both are near. They are examin- 
 ing candidates for baptism. This final examination is 
 on Fuller's account, that he may know the value to be 
 attached to profession, and Ije gladdened to trace the 
 leadings of the Holy Spirit. And now they come in 
 with a list of eight approved. Their names are read. 
 I know them all, and on Sabbath they are to be baptized 
 by Johnson, Fuller to preach. Then a second list of 
 names is noted, all hopeful ones, but they are to wait 
 yet longer. Then comes the solitary case of discipline 
 during their first years of church-life. This is painful, 
 because it is the first, but one wherein only the temper 
 has failed. To-night, after three months of separation, 
 the breach is healed. Now comes a talk of the future. 
 The missionary is failing ; he feels his growing weak- 
 ness. Johnson is shown how he must be the pastor, 
 
 * Josepli Fuller is a son of Alexander Fuller, one of the Januiicif, 
 immigrants, ■who died shortly after his arrival. This son is still 
 living at Hickory or Mortonville, and serving the Lord with 
 successful diliojence and ardent zeal. 
 
THE MISSIONARY AT HIS WORK. 7o 
 
 that he must begin the work now ; buckle on the armour 
 more firmly and stand, if the teacher falls. 
 
 " We change this scene again, and it is myself, wearied 
 and faint and full of pain. This is not worth looking at. 
 A poor faltering worm. But before I close to-night, let 
 me ask, Will it be lawful for me to come home for a 
 change at no distant day ? I ask now because I know 
 the time will soon come when I must take a change or 
 die, and wlien tlie time comes I cannot wait f(jr an 
 answer. I hope to labour on a few months yet before I 
 am broken down ; and be assured of tliis, I cannot leave 
 till stern duty drives me." 
 
 The needed relief was not only promptly granted by 
 the Committee of the Society, but by the arrival of the 
 Eev. Jno. Diboll, of Holt, Norfolk, towards the close 
 of the year, as pastor of the church at Clarence, Mr. 
 Saker was able in July, 1855, to obtain the change he- 
 so much required. Mrs. Saker, whose health had utterly 
 broken down, as well as that of their little boy, had pre- 
 ceded him homewards in the February of the previous 
 year. It was none too soon. For several days prior to 
 his embarkation, he was so ill that his life was thought 
 to be fast drawing to a close. It pleased God, during 
 the voyage, to restore him in some measure to his usual 
 health, so that on his arrival he was able to communi- 
 cate to many friends in various parts of the country, in 
 some detail, the progress and character of his work, and 
 to deepen in the minds of the churches their interest in 
 the salvation of Africa. 
 
 His stay in his native land was not a prolonged 
 one. Ever anxious to be at the post of duty, Mr. 
 and Mrs. Saker, after an interesting inters^iew with 
 the Comnnttee, in which plans were arranged for the- 
 
74 ALFRED SAKEll. 
 
 welfare of the Mission, sailed from Plymouth on the 
 24th of December (1855). The voyage, till their arrival 
 at Madeira, was a tempestuous one ; but on the 2nd of 
 February (1856) they landed at Clarence, having enjoyed 
 a passage which strengthened their health. A welcome 
 was given scarcely inferior in the rapture of the greeting 
 to that which met them on their return in 1850, when 
 the converts had been bereaved of all their teachers. 
 They found Mr. Diboll in good health, and with much 
 to cheer him in his labour among the people of Fernando 
 Po. At Cameroons the native brethren were persever- 
 ingly carrying on the Lord's work. Writing on the 6th of 
 February, Mr. Saker says, " This evening, at eight o'clock, 
 we were permitted to arrive at our peaceful home, and 
 to bow with Johnson and our young friends in thankful 
 prayer, all of whom the Lord has mercifviUy preserved. 
 Fuller is away at Bimbia, but I hear he is quite well." 
 
 Mr. Saker at once plunged into the full stream of 
 active labour. With slight exception he found every- 
 thing proceeding in a satisfactory manner. The state 
 of the church was gratifying; Johnson's labours had 
 been blessed. Seven persons had been admitted to the 
 fellowship of the church, and there were many hopeful 
 inquirers. As to Johnson, he says, " I need only say he 
 is as he was, perhaps more humble ; I cannot express 
 my thankful feelings on finding him so well." " The 
 name of N'kwe I note with much satisfaction. A. letter 
 written years since informed you of the baptism of 
 several ; one was specified as a prince, another as a slave. 
 The former, under the honourable name of Thomas 
 Horton, has been known in our books for some time ; the 
 other has trodden a very lowly path, but equally useful, 
 till at last we have separated him for the work of an evan- 
 
THE MISSIONARY AT HIS AVOr.K. tO 
 
 gelist. The whole country is at present his field of labour." 
 Mr. Saker was also happy to welcome a trained teacher 
 from Sierra Leone for the school, a young woman of 
 earnest piety and affectionate character, whom he had 
 sent thither some months before for education. 
 
 At Bell Town, in September, the house of the native 
 missionary was invaded by a ral)l)le, incited by super- 
 stition. His wife was dragged out, her clothing torn off, 
 and she was taken with another woman into the bush. 
 Johnson, accompanied by some of his friends, pleaded 
 with the king till midnight for their liberation, and so 
 far succeeded as to have them placed in the house of his 
 nephew, who, with his wife, was a member of the church. 
 The next day superstitious rites were resumed, and pay- 
 ments were demanded to free the women from annoy- 
 ance. Ulthnately, through Mr. Saker's intervention 
 and firmness, the women were released, and the aggres- 
 sors consented to pay a fine to recompense them for 
 their sufferings. " Thus we are permitted," says ]\Ir. 
 Saker, after recounting the incident, " to enjoy a moral 
 triumph, a feeble and unprotected worm in the midst of 
 five thousand heathens contending and triumphing over 
 them. Why is this ? Verily it is that the conscience 
 of the multitude is on our side. God constrains them 
 to bow to the work of a solitary teacher ; and great is 
 tlie rejoicing in the town to-day that I have promised 
 to be their friend still. Yesterday w^as gloom and 
 sorrow ; to-day, one of joy. Well it is for us when our 
 triumph is gladness for the multitude. This evening I 
 attend to receive the acknowledgment of the offending 
 chief." 
 
 It will already have become apparent with what deep 
 interest Mr. Saker studied the native tongue, and 
 
•6 
 
 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 laboured night and day to embody in a i^rinted shape, 
 for permanent use, the knowledge he had acquired. It 
 was no slight task to acquire a barbarous language, 
 having no written letter or character, without books to 
 guide, or competent interpreters to translate. The 
 patience, toil, and incessant correction needful for its 
 successful prosecution few can estimate. It is only due, 
 even at some length, to give in his own words a descrip- 
 tion of Mr. Saker's methods and their results. His 
 letter is dated December 22nd, 185G : — 
 
 " In my various translations and printing in the 
 language which I have most to do with, I have made 
 some considerable progress. The printing has conduced 
 very much to give to my knowledge of the language such 
 solidity as I think will now enable me to give it gram- 
 matical form and order. Through years of labour, not 
 devoted wholly to this one thing, I have sought to lay 
 hold of all the forms of speecli as they fall from native 
 lips, then to compare and separate those forms, and 
 bring out classes of words and syllables. 
 
 " A mental structure at last arose from this chaos, 
 and I wished to give the language that form in print it 
 had assumed in my notes and books. I made a begin- 
 ning, and printed eight pages ; but a multitude of 
 la])ours prevented my prosecuting it, until after many 
 months my health failed so much as to compel me to 
 prepare for visiting Europe. The uncertainty of life, 
 and the consciousness that all my knowledge of the 
 language would be lost to the mission, should I not 
 survive my voyage, determined me to complete the 
 grammar in as condensed a form as possible. 
 
 "In great weakness and oft in fever, the copy was 
 written and the proofs corrected. The day before the 
 
THE MISSIONARY AT HIS WORK. 77 
 
 mail was due, the. last sheet was printed. The lew lines 
 of introduction were then written, and given to the 
 printer at six in the evening ; at midnight I arose and 
 corrected the proof ; at ten next morning a sufficient 
 number of copies were stitched for me to carry to Europe. 
 The mail did not come, and I had then to lie and suffer 
 another month. How nnich weaker I became by tliat 
 month's unmitigated fever, or how near to the grave 
 when I at last left, it is not needful to think about. It 
 is enough to know that the voyage home, the kind 
 attentions of friends, and the innumerable mercies that 
 God granted me through them, resulted in restoring me 
 to health, and eventually to my labour in this land. 
 
 " Now that I am thus restored, and have been enabled 
 to conquer some difficulties that have arisen in conse- 
 quence of my absence, I am very desirous of completing 
 the work which was then so imperfectly and so feel)ly 
 attempted in weakness and pain. 
 
 " While in England I read through this small gram- 
 mar, and although I saw many things imperfectly 
 explained, and many not ex] dained at all, I was satislied 
 with the general distinctness with which the leading 
 facts of the language were exhibited. With the arrange- 
 ment of the verb I was not satisfied, and could see that 
 the whole needed revision. I rememlier but too dis- 
 tinctly the suffering in which it was put together, and I 
 almost wished it had not been printed. 
 
 " A larger grammar I have now begun, and hope for 
 health to finish it. It must have my undivided atten- 
 tion only occasionally, but T hope to complete it durinfr 
 the coming year. 
 
 " I have tried these first sixteen pages in some old 
 type, and by picking the best of the letters it is read- 
 
78 ALFEED SAKEE. 
 
 able ; but I fear I shall be obliged to take my Scripture 
 type, and ns^e this old fount for school purposes as 
 heretofore. 
 
 " You will remember the attention that was devoted 
 to African philology in 1850, and the rules that were 
 sent out, recommending missionaries to adopt one 
 uniform orthography. As these rules made no change 
 of consequence in my work, beyond the introduction of 
 two new characters for previous diphthongs, I adopted 
 them without difficulty. The attention given to this 
 subject in the aljove year and since has, it seems, 
 resulted in the publication of a standard alpluibet. This 
 alphabet I received about three months since, and have 
 given it all the attention it needed ; most of its state- 
 ments will be generally approved. 
 
 " I have printed ten copies for correction, on writing 
 paper, with a large margin ; and if you will kindly make 
 remarks on it, or propose any questionings to direct my 
 attention to anything that may not be plain, I shall be 
 grateful for the aid, and it may conduce much to the 
 perspicuity of the grammar when done. This, of course,, 
 applies to the following sheets as much as this, for I 
 intend to send you each sheet as it is prepared, if you 
 can find time for its reading. 
 
 " I enclose four copies. If you think of any friends 
 who are competent to offer an opinion, and at the 
 same time can command leisure for the examination, 
 I hope you will not hesitate to put one in their hands, 
 and maybe their remarks will be of ser\'ice." 
 
 The allusion here made by Mr. Saker to a " standard 
 alphabet " refers to the result of a conference which 
 met at the Prussian Embassy in the year 1850. It was 
 summoned by the late Chevalier Bunsen, and consisted 
 
THE MISSIONARY AT IIIS WORK. 70 
 
 of sucli eminent men as Professors Lepsius and Max 
 Mliller, Professor Owen, and Sir Charles Trevelyan, 
 together with the Secretaries of the leading Missionary- 
 Societies. Its object was to attain uniformity in the 
 use of Eoman letters when, for the first time, any 
 African language is reduced to writing. By the 
 employment of this alphabet, which was based on 
 scientific and physiological principles, great progress 
 has been made in identifying and classifying tlie 
 languages of the African continent, and in the recog- 
 nition of racial and linguistic affinities between the 
 innumerable tribes scattered over its vast surface. The 
 Dualla has been found to be only one dialect of a 
 tongue which, in its root forms, is known across the 
 entire continent, and from the banks of the Cameroons 
 to the borders of Zululand.* It is matter for reo-ret 
 that this " standard alphabet " is not in every case 
 employed by those who are interested in Africa's 
 civilisation and evangelisation. 
 
 It is only necessary to add to the above striking 
 account of persistent and noble endeavour, that early in 
 the following year (1859) Mr. Saker had succeeded in 
 putting to press the Book of Psalms and the Epistle to 
 the Eomans, and a few copies as specimens had been 
 struck off. He only awaited a supply of accents from 
 England to place these precious documents of God's 
 Word in the hands of the Dualla people. 
 
 * See on this interestinfr subject an important work just 
 published, entitled : " A Sketch of the Modern Languages of 
 Africa." By E. N. Gust, of H.M. Indian Civil Service. In 2 
 vols. London : Triibner. 1883. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Home of Theedom, 1858. 
 
 HE island of rernando Po was originally 
 discovered in 1471 by a Portuguese 
 navigator, who gave it his name, and 
 claimed it as an appanage of the Crown 
 of King Alphonso V. of Portugal. It 
 was ceded to Spain in 1778, and, after a short occu- 
 pation, it was abandoned by the Spanish Government 
 in 1782. In 1827, the English Government formed 
 a settlement on the north side of the island, naming it 
 after the Duke of Clarence, who was then at the head 
 of the Admiralty. The situation of the island furnished 
 the English fleet with a convenient harbour from whicli 
 to watch the coast, and to carry on the suppression of the 
 slave traffic, in which beneficent work Great Britain was 
 then actively engaged. The colonists consisted of two 
 classes, those brought from Sierra Leone as artisans or 
 labourers, for the most part employed in the service of 
 the fleet, and others liberated from slave vessels by Her 
 Majesty's cruisers ; but all of them were British subjects 
 and under English rule. Although, at the commence- 
 ment of the Baptist ]\Iission in 1841, it was known tliat 
 the Spanish Crown had revived the claim to the sove- 
 reignty of the island, its representative, the Commander 
 of the brig Nervion, Captain de Lerena, respected the 
 British character of the colonists, and specially decreed, 
 
THE HOME OF FREEDOM. 81 
 
 on the part of Her Catholic Majesty's Government, that 
 " personal liberty, property, and religion should be secure 
 to every inhabitant." Under this liberal law the INIission 
 was founded, and it was not until the year 1845 that 
 any interference was attempted. 
 
 On Christmas Day of that year, the Spanisli Consul- 
 General arrived at Clarence. He was instructed to 
 send the missionaries away, unless they would con- 
 sent to reside " in a private capacity only."' With 
 this condition they declined to comply ; but as the 
 Consul regarded their labours as of great benefit to 
 the people, he was willing to give them a year's grace 
 in which to prepare for their departure. Meanwhile 
 they might continue to preach, and to carry on their 
 schools. Ultimately it was arranged that for an in- 
 definite time there might always remain in Clarence one 
 missionary and two teachers, but that the interior tribes 
 should not be evangelised. With the Consul also came 
 a bishop and a priest. Their efforts to attract the 
 people by the " scenic display" of Roman Catholic rites 
 utterly failed, and before tlie end of the year 18-i6 they 
 returned to Spain. It is due to the bishop to say that 
 he acknowledged in the warmest terms the benefits 
 resulting from the labours of the missionaries, and pub- 
 lished in Spain a grateful recognition of the advantages 
 he had personally enjoyed from the medical attendance 
 and advice of Dr. Prince. "Inspite of all my endeavours," 
 lie says, " to recompense in a slender degree the gene- 
 rosity and watchfulness of Dr. Prince, I never could 
 succeed in making him receive the smallest remunera- 
 tion for his valuable services." 
 
 Contrary to the expectation of the missionaries, they 
 
 were left with little molestation till the month of 
 
 6 
 
82 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 September, 1856, when another bishop with several 
 priests landed, with the avowed object of extinguishing 
 the Mission and expelling the missionaries from the 
 island. As they were not, however, armed with suffi- 
 cient authority to set aside the arrangements made in 
 1845, the bishop soon left, and shortly afterwards the 
 priests also, with the intention of obtaining enlarged 
 powers from the Spanish Government. 
 
 At length, in the evening of Saturday, May the 22nd, 
 1858, the Spanish steam vessel Balboa anchored in 
 Clarence Cove, having on board Don Carlos Chacon, 
 Commander of the Spanish squadron, and Governor- 
 General of all the islands belonging to Spain on the 
 coast. With six Jesuits, he had come to give effect to 
 the orders of the Spanish Crown. He proclaimed the 
 religion of the Eoman Catholic Church to be the sole 
 religion of Fernando Po, as it was that of the kingdom 
 of Spain, to the exclusion of every other. No other 
 religious profession could be " tolerated or allowed." 
 Professors of alien religions must confine their worship 
 to their private houses, and limit it to the members of 
 their families. The edict was read in a scanty audience 
 of the people, with the firing of cannon, and amidst 
 torrents of rain, the lightning and thunder of a tropical 
 tornado giving a strange awfulness to the scene. That 
 evening, the evening of the 27th of May, the people 
 met for the last time in open worship to call upon God 
 their Saviour. 
 
 That the measure was due in large degree to the 
 restless activity and intrigues of the Society of Jesus 
 there can be little doubt. But, besides this, the rapid 
 "rowth of commerce in the Gulf of Guinea, and the 
 opening of the great river Niger to European enterprise. 
 
THE HOME OF FKEEDOM. 83 
 
 had given increased value to the island of Fernando Po, 
 holding as it does the key to the embouchure of tlie 
 Niger and the command of the entire coast of the Gulf, 
 with its tributary rivers, the Calabar and the Cameroons. 
 The arrival of the Spaniards having thus put a stop to 
 the public services _of the sanctuary, on the Lord's-day 
 afternoon, May 30th, ]\Ir. Saker gathered a few of his 
 flock in the wilderness behind Clarence, and, under the 
 overhanging branches of the forest, conducted the 
 worship of God. The w^eather was not propitious. 
 Torrents of rain descended, and many were prevented 
 from joining the assembly by the Komish priests, who 
 paraded the streets of the town throughout the day. 
 Many armed sailors also moved about, Governor Chacon 
 having been informed by some adversary that the people 
 were being urged to mutiny and insurrection. It was 
 said that they would fight for their worship. Neverthe- 
 less, the day passed without disturbance ; the voice of 
 prayer and praise was heard in nearly every cottage, 
 the proclamation forbidding public worship only in the 
 chapel. 
 
 In repeated interviews, as well as by correspondence, 
 Mr. Saker endeavoured to shake the resolution of the 
 •Commander. His reply to the request for permission 
 to remain, reports Mr. Saker, was, in plain English, " I 
 •cannot ; I will not grant it. Do not ask me again." 
 The final answer of the Governor was read to the in- 
 habitants in a public meeting called to receive it. Fear- 
 ing interruption, there was not any open act of worship 
 performed. At Mr. Saker's request, the assembly sat 
 for a few minutes in silent prayer, and then, with 
 deep solemnity of feeling, the resolve was taken to 
 leave the island as soon as provision could be 
 
84 ALFEED SAKER. 
 
 made for a new settlement, in a land where freedom 
 of conscience and civil liberty could be enjoyed. 
 
 As the entire abandonment of the Mission in Clarence 
 was imperative, a new home had now to be sought for 
 all who valued liberty and truth. No better pioneer in 
 the search could have been found than Alfred Saker, 
 and he was not slow to comprehend and to meet the 
 necessities of the case. After narrating the events that 
 had transpired, Mr. Saker writes to the Committee : — 
 " Now, as to the future, Jesus shall be our guide. There 
 are a few general ideas which I can put on paper. Pray 
 for us that we may be directed aright. Cameroons is 
 ours — a fine station, an open door to the interior of the 
 land. Bimbia is ours — room enough for a town, and 
 large trade. But a port is wanted, where there can be 
 British protection, British capital and laws ; a depot 
 for coals for the navy, a safe harbour for our merchant 
 vessels, a free port for the commerce of these rivers, 
 and a refuge for the oppressed and the slave. These 
 are all essential points to be secured, and I think are 
 all attainable, if the British Government can be so far 
 interested as to put their hands to the work. Then 
 there are matters specially missionary ; these will have 
 our careful attention. There is now no idea of reraain- 
 ino- here. The long-endured oppression, the expected 
 threats of banishment, and the general decay of all 
 business, had determined many to leave before this. 
 Now our course must be, first, to provide a home for aU, 
 if possible, where freedom to worship God must be the 
 first requirement ; and then, next, for employment, and, 
 if possible, prosperity." 
 
 His resolve was taken. Two days after penning this 
 letter, Mr. Saker set f ortli to explore the mountain region 
 
THE HOME OF FREEDOM. 85 
 
 of the Camerooiis, which, with its rocky sliores, bays, 
 and islands, lay opposite, some twenty miles distant from 
 Fernando I'o. 
 
 Wednesday morning, the l^id of June, was wet and 
 gloomy ; but, in company with Mr. Fuller, a native 
 brother, five boys and two women, at eight o'clock Mr. 
 Saker sailed in a small native craft for Bimbia. Heavy 
 rain, chopping winds, with intervals of dead calm, delayed 
 the vessel's progress. Worst of all, in the confusion 
 occasioned by taking on board a large number of pack- 
 ages, the basket of provisions was left behind. The little 
 tea and sugar they found had got mixed with pepper. 
 Hungry, wet, and sick, the voyagers at length reached 
 Bimbia on the following Sabbath. Four days and a-half 
 had been spent in a voyage usually of twelve hours' 
 duration. 
 
 King William, the Bimbia chief, had now to be seen, 
 and his consent gained to the occupation of such a part 
 of the coast as might be found suital)le for a settlement. 
 Previous journeys and voyages pointed out the Bay of 
 Amboises as a favourable spot; and, at Mr. Saker's 
 formal request, the chief willingly agreed to sell such a 
 tract of land as might be wanted. He also promised a 
 guide when the missionary was ready to start on his 
 exploring expedition. The weather being very stormy, 
 Mr. Saker proceeded to his station at Cameroons, where 
 arrangements were rerpiisite for the reception of some 
 of the children from Clarence. The boat being pro- 
 visioned, Mr. Saker left, on jNlonday, the 14th of June, 
 for Bimbia. By nightfall tlie bar of the river was 
 reached, where he anchored till next morning. A night 
 of storms and of rolling seas, with great discomfort, 
 followed. A small canoe that Mr. Saker had taken with 
 
86 ALFKED SAKER. 
 
 him was lost ; but Bimbia was at length reached in the- 
 afternoon. After a hurried dinner, Mr. Saker, with Mr. 
 Fuller and a guide, set out to explore the bay, where he 
 hoped to find a suitable refuge for his flock. With rapid 
 steps they penetrated the wilderness, and soon, at War 
 Bay, came upon the sea, under the towering cliffs which 
 skirt its shores. Tlie track round the bay was exceed- 
 ingly difficult ; they had to traverse broken rocks and 
 boulders innumerable, loose, rolling, with slippery surface 
 and jagged edge, the debris of mighty volcanic action. 
 Turning again into the wilderness, the path led them 
 across ravines and through rivers, over cliffs, and along 
 the base of the mountains, which here approach the sea. 
 The thick bush of the forest was dark as night ; but the 
 level and open land exhibited a rich soil, well timbered 
 and watered. 
 
 The Bay of Amboises reached, it was too late to 
 explore it. The sun Avas setting, so the return journey 
 was begun. The dark wilderness was darker by night. 
 The guide lost his way. Then came the necessity of 
 forcing a path through the thick underwood. The rocks 
 had to be scrambled over by the light of the stars, 
 precipices avoided, and deep ravines crossed. Amid 
 these arduous exertions the night wore away. For six or 
 seven hours the weary wandering lasted. At length 
 the roar of the sea was heard. Trembling and thankful, 
 the perplexed travellers reached War Bay, but their 
 labours were far from done. " To walk over these 
 stones by the faint light of the stars," says Mr. 
 Saker, " was impossible, yet go we must. Weary 
 and sore we began. On my knees, my toes, and 
 with my hands, I laboured for two hours over 
 that dreadful road." The cliff reached, it was too dark 
 
THE HOME OF FKEEDOM. 87 
 
 to find the path to ascend it ; so, being safe from the 
 tide, the travellers lay down, under God's protection, on 
 the stones, and tried to sleep. " The cold was too great; 
 Puller and I lay close, to be warm; but we could not 
 sleep. In about an liour and a half the first faint streak 
 of morning aroused us. Soon, very soon, we found the 
 track, and then we ascended. By half-past six we had 
 reached Fuller's house at Bimbia." Shoes, trowsers, hat, 
 umbrellas : all were torn or battered to pieces ; their 
 hands were pierced with thorns, and gashed by the sharp 
 edges of the rocks. 
 
 The morning light also showed them that a few feet 
 beyond the spot where they lay down there was a steep 
 precipice. Surely the hand of God preserved them from 
 taking in the darkness the few steps by which their 
 lives would have been sacrificed. 
 
 Such was the first attempt to find in the wilderness a 
 lodge for the people of God. But, undismayed by this 
 perilous adventure, the indefatigable explorers took boat 
 after breakfast, and set out for Amboises Bay by sea. 
 In the Niger expedition of 1841, this bay was visited by 
 Captain W. Allen, its commander. On several occasions 
 his ships had anchored within the islands which shelter 
 the entrance from the mighty swell of the great Atlantic ; 
 but the officers of the survey received the impression 
 that, while the anchorage was safe, the climate salu- 
 brious, and the proximity of the mountains favourable 
 to health, the bay did not contain a safe landing-place. 
 Naught but a heavy surf w"as visible from the steamer's 
 deck. " But now," says Mr. Saker, " that I need a home 
 for our people, where a trade may be created, and to 
 which commerce may be drawn, I search for a landing 
 only; and, behold ! God hath hidden, up a deep interior 
 
88 ALFEED SAKER. 
 
 bay, for ages — a "bay with nearly two miles of beacli — 
 without a stone, and almost without a wave, large enough 
 to contain a thousand boats and small vessels ; while 
 the Amboises Bay will contain a navy. Into this bay 
 the sea-breeze blows in all its purity, and the mountain 
 wind at night is all freshness. Here, if Her Majesty's 
 Government sanction and sustain our efforts, can be put 
 up coal stores, provision stores, building-yards, and every 
 other essential for commerce. Here, too, a highway may be 
 made into the interior, and the native produce be shipped 
 in smooth water for Europe. It will be a centre of 
 civilisation, freedom, and light. It will be essentially a 
 religious, enlightened colony. And here, also, under 
 British protection, the Lord's people may worship God 
 without molestation." 
 
 During a lovely day the exploration of this beautiful 
 retreat was completed. The toil of the previous days 
 was forgotten in the success which had been achieved ; 
 and the missionary returned to Clarence with a glad and 
 grateful heart to report to his brethren how the good 
 hand of God had led him and prospered his way. On 
 his arrival in Clarence, Mr. Saker found in the little 
 harbour three more Spanish men-of-war. 
 
 Ambas, or Amboises Bay, is situated to the north- 
 east of Fernando Po, and is shadowed by the volcanic 
 mountains of the Cameroons, the highest peak of which 
 rises, within ten or twelve miles of the sea, to the height 
 of 13,760 feet. Three islands occupy its entrance; Abobbi 
 or Pirate Island, Dameh or Ambas Island, and Men- 
 doleh. Of these, the last is the largest, and is covered 
 with forest trees to its highest point. All are inhabited by 
 a race evidently derived from Binibia, and they speak a 
 modification of the Dualla language. They claim to be 
 
THE HOME OF FREEDOM. 89 
 
 independent of the chiefs of the continent, and their 
 independence is secured by the rocky fastnesses in 
 which tliey dwell 
 
 Somewhat nunierous tribes, known as the Bakwili 
 people, dwell among the mountains, and bring the 
 produce of their cultivation for exchange with the Isul)U 
 and other triljes dwelling in the lowlands (jf the ]3indjia 
 country, and with the islanders of the Bay. 
 
 Once within the shelter of the islands, the voyager 
 sees before him a bay some fifteen to twenty miles 
 in circuit, with a rocky shore, and the surf perpetually 
 breaking upon it. An opening in the rocky ridge to 
 the eastward admits boats and small vessels into a 
 cove, revealing an open space, with a fine sandy beach, 
 nearly two miles in length, by a mile and a half 
 in breadth, watered by a deep and copious mountain 
 stream. Mr. Saker fixed on this spot for the new 
 settlement and mission station, which he named 
 Victoria. The outer bay has a safe anchorage for ships 
 of a large size at all seasons, and is open only to the 
 south-west wind, blowing cool and refreshing from the 
 broad Atlantic. The first eminence on the way to the 
 great Cameroons mountain rises within three or four 
 miles of the cove, and reaches to the height of 5,820 
 feet. Its sides are clothed with forest. Old men relate 
 that fire was seen years ago to issue from the main 
 peak. They felt the earth " shake like a steamboat." 
 This, coupled with the local name of the mountain, 
 Mongo-ma-lobah, or God's mountain, lends probability 
 to the supposition that it may be the chariot of the gods 
 spoken of by Hanno the Carthaginian.* 
 
 • Capt. W. Allen's " Niger Expedition," vol. i., p. 273. 
 
90 ALFRED SAKEE. 
 
 Here Mr. Saker resolved to found a colony of African 
 Pilgrim Fathers, where the true worship of God might 
 freely and uninterruptedly be observed, the rights of 
 conscience be secured from the intrusion of Eomish 
 intolerance, and a new pharos of spiritual light be erected 
 for the illumination of the surrounding tribes. 
 
 Mr, Saker and his companions soon tested the salu- 
 brity of the spot, and the excellence of the water, which,^ 
 in an abundant stream, flows into the sea at the western 
 end of the cove. " I went there," he says, " with my 
 company in my usual health, or rather ill-health, strong 
 enough for work, but with little energy ; a ceaseless crav- 
 ing for food, yet no appetite ; eating just enough to live. 
 This is constant. In that state I went to Victoria, and 
 I began to feel the effects of its air the first day. My 
 appetite returned and increased. At night I slept with 
 my whole heart, equally as with my whole heart I da 
 my daily working. Eest was sweet, food was sweet; 
 life was life, and not a dying death." 
 
 The property in the soil having already been secured,* 
 Mr. Saker at once commenced his preparations to 
 colonise it. Eeturning to Cameroons, he quickly 
 brought together the materials for a small hut, and, 
 accompanied by a band of men and boys drawn from 
 
 * " District of land commencing at War Bay, and by coast line- 
 embracing the beadland Mananga, Foo Bay, Ambas Bay, to the 
 point of land called Kokki, including the islands Mondovi, 
 N'Aami, and Bobu ; thence inland towards the Great Mountain 
 five miles ; thence by line to the towTi of Bosambo ; thence 
 to ]\rjanji on the Bimbia River till parallel with the Albert Hills ;. 
 and thence embracing these hills the line shall enter a rivulet 
 running to War Bay." The above description is copied from 
 King William's grant. The original is in possession of the 
 Societv. 
 
THE HOME OF FllEEDOM. 91 
 
 the stations on the river, he proceeded to erect it on 
 the selected site. " On the 9th of June," he says, " we 
 went on shore at Aniboises Bay. Of this land we took 
 possession with prayer. By seven in the evening we 
 had a tenantable abode, nine feet by eighteen. There 
 we then assembled for united worship; and there 
 nineteen of our company laid down to sleep that night, 
 while I, and three of my boys, retired to the boat." 
 
 In constant wind and rain, with short intermissions 
 of fine weather, the labour of clearing the ground went 
 on. The two first trees were felled by Mr. Saker's own 
 hands. '"' In one day," he says, " there fell twenty- 
 seven trees of the dense forest, and very much of the 
 impenetrable underwood." Slowly the rude hut on the 
 beach was enlarged, other buildings for stores were put 
 up, and sections of them were divided into apartments 
 for families as they might arrive from Clarence. " On 
 Friday, the 13th," he says, "we began our public 
 worship, with very fervent prayers that the worship 
 might be contmued, and be pure through coming- 
 generations, and that the Gospel there might be the 
 light of life to thousands. Then, again, on the Sabbath 
 we had our three services, as at Clarence in former days. 
 A prayer meeting on Monday evening, and class on 
 Wednesday and preaching on Friday. Thus the public 
 worship of the tabernacle is begun, and I hope never 
 to cease till the angel announces the ' C7ul of time! " 
 
 As the W(jrk proceeded the situation was found to 
 surpass their expectations. The harbour was well i)ro- 
 tected from seaward by lines of rock, and afforded 
 abundant space for wharves, docks, and landing piers. 
 The land was everywhere raised above the highest 
 tides. The river gave an unfailing supply of the purest 
 
52 ALFllED SAKER. 
 
 water. Willi characteristic skill and energy Mr. Saker 
 .satisfied himself of its abundance. "I measured it," 
 he says, " and found 27,000 cubic feet of water flow- 
 ing into the ocean every minute. Its clear stream shows 
 ,two things — first, that its course is over a rocky bed ; 
 second, that land floods, which would be muddy, do 
 not swell the volume into a turbid bounding torrent. 
 The land floods evidently find an outlet in another 
 river I visited." The first road laid out ran from 
 ]\Iorton Bay to this ever-flowing stream. It consti- 
 tuted the first street, and was 5,480ft. long. In the 
 centre of it a plot was measured off for the chapel, and 
 .1 )uilding lots, each one hundred feet in depth by fifty in 
 breadth, were staked out on either side. A fence was 
 planted to protect the township from the dense forest 
 behind, and from tlie wild animals which have their 
 home beneath its gigantic trees. Names were given to 
 the various points around. Morton Bay was named 
 .after Sir Morton Peto. A mount, 800ft. high, about a 
 mile from the landing-place, with a rocky face towards 
 the Bay, was named Helena, after his absent but beloved 
 wife. Another elevation, east of the town, 2,000ft. 
 high, clothed with richest foliage to the summit, acquired 
 ,the name of Mount Henry, after his excellent friend, 
 the late Henry Kelsall, Esq. 
 
 In addition to the general salubrity of the spot, it was 
 found that the natives of the mountain came every 
 third day to a market that was held on the level 
 beach. It was a provision market. Here the plantains, 
 palm nuts, and yams of the interior were exchanged for 
 ^alt, tobacco, and for the fish caught and cured and 
 .dried by the inhabitants of the islands. The new settlers 
 were spared those privatitjns which Mr. Saker and his 
 
ii! !i 
 
 :l 
 
 rK,, 
 
 
 ^ aHmH 
 
 :i!!li 
 
 ,\,i|i|,; 
 
 
 
 ii'lii 
 
 '£\m.£ 
 
 .!|ii 1 I'l 
 
 ^*Wi>iiidr_ 
 
THE HOME OF FREEDOM. 9o 
 
 family endured on their first arrival in the Cameroons 
 river, " There is," he remarks, " abundance on the 
 mountain, and the fish -fit our command will cause the 
 mountain produce to come down to us. And as to price, 
 a small fish is demanded for a yam or a bunch of 
 plaintains, for which at Cameroons I must pay a 
 shilling." The great advantages the settlement pos- 
 sessed may be summed up in Mr. Saker's own words : 
 " The vast importance to us of a sanatorium I need 
 not speak of to you ; I entertain hopes the most 
 sanguine. This comes unexpectedly to me. I have 
 mentally seen it — Victoria — a centre of freedom, of 
 light, of education, and commerce. It is also a highway 
 into the interior. This has been its highest glory in 
 my eyes. If in addition to this it shall be a refresh- 
 ing, reviving locality, how great will be the advantage ! 
 how large our mercy ' " 
 
 The township planned l)y Mr. Saker for the exiles- 
 from Clarence lay wholly on the eastern side of the' 
 stream ; the western side he reserved with the hope that 
 here might be built the store-houses and wharves which 
 would be required should the British Government make 
 Amboises Bay the centre of their operations on the coast. 
 
 The arrival of the settlers from Clarence rendered neces- 
 sary some regulations by which the infant colony should be 
 governed, and which might afford a firm foundation for 
 its growth and prosperity. Perhaps in nothing was the 
 sagacity and wisdom of Mr. Saker more prominent than 
 in the laws which he laid down for their guidance and 
 control. The document that he prepared will be found 
 in the Appendix, but some of its chief features must be 
 noticed here. After stating that the township of Victoria 
 had been purchased from tlie King of Bimbia, and the 
 
94 ALFRED SAKEK. 
 
 right and title thereto ceded to its present possessors, he 
 declares that the township had been formed " as a refuge 
 and a home for those who cannot continue where liberty 
 of worship is denied, and for all others who may be 
 desirous of living peacefully with us." Following this 
 ; statement are directions as to the purchase and possession 
 of the plots marked out in the town, and then "laws" 
 are enacted for the government of the colony. The 
 government is to be carried on Ijy a Governor and 
 Council, who will have power oxev all roads and 
 tlioroughfares, and enforce, under certain penalties, 
 the regulations that may be agreed upon. The follow- 
 ing important constitutional principle is affirmed : — 
 " There shall be entire freedom in all that relates to the 
 worship of the true God, and the Word of God is hereby 
 acknowledged to be the foundation of all our laws, and 
 claims the obedience of our lives. Although w^e are 
 now all of one mind in the essentials of Christian wor- 
 ship, yet should there come among us persons of differ- 
 ing opinions as to Christian worship and duty, all shall 
 equally share in the freedom of worship, as well as in 
 our protection." The Sabbath is declared to be a day 
 of rest, and all business must be suspended to allow of 
 its enjoyment, and the uninterrupted worship of God. 
 Freedom of trade is secured, and a free importation per- 
 mitted of all articles of commerce, excepting spirits of 
 every kind. These articles can only be permitted to 
 enter for medicinal purposes, or, if for any other object, 
 under a duty of ten per cent. But their sale or barter 
 is not permitted at all. Other regulations follow, one 
 especially reserving power to institute and ordain laws 
 iis occasion may require. 
 
 Under these wise, simple, but efficient rules, the 
 
THE HOME OF FREEDOM. 05 
 
 colony has grown to its present condition of prosperity. 
 Not that it has realised yet all that its founder antici- 
 pated. To use his own trustful words, " For it I toiled 
 day and niglit ; I have worn my spirits down to a wafer's 
 weight; my eyes and hands too." This was literally 
 true. With his own hands he showed the exiles how to 
 build their houses. He planned the structures that 
 slowly rose from the midst of the bush, which he was 
 amongst the first to clear away. He was resolved that 
 on that spot God should be freely worshipped, and the 
 servants of the Lord have a secure home. As the result, 
 some hundreds of Africa's children now enjoy perfect 
 freedom of body and mind. The voice of praise and 
 prayer rises unceasingly on the mountain air, and the 
 schools are ever training their children to enjoy the 
 blessings that a Christian civilisation can impart. Slowly 
 the tribes of the hills around are coming under Christian 
 influence, and important steps have been taken to reach 
 the far interior. Commerce is gradually spreading its 
 beneficent interchanges among the people under the 
 protection of the British flag, which, from time to time, 
 floats in the convenient bay. If the promise of Colonel 
 Nichols has not yet been fulfilled, it is nevertheless 
 probable that at no distant date the Imperial Crown of 
 England will exercise the sovereignty which the inha- 
 bitants of Victoria would gladly recognise and obey.* 
 
 * Years ago the Bimbia chief, William, surrendered the sove- 
 reignty of his country to Colonel Nichols, as the representative 
 •of the British Crown, and received from him the empty title of 
 King, in which his son still rejoices. The act of Col . Nichols has, 
 however, never been formally acknowledged by the Government 
 of Great Britain, although its cruisers and men-of-war frequently 
 visit the coast, and arbitrate among the tribes in cases of difficulty 
 and war. 
 
96 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 Looking back at the close of this eventful year, Mr 
 Saker could gratefully say : " A year of change and of 
 toil. Storms have beat on us, yet He has preserved us. 
 Nor sun nor moon has been permitted to smite. In 
 doubt or perplexity, if it has once crossed our patlnvay. 
 He speedily removed it, and, in the labours of each suc- 
 ceeding hoiir, He has more than supported and sustained 
 our powers. God has opened for us a wide door at Vic- 
 toria, Amboises Bay. This is now our refuge, and already 
 the wilderness begins to rejoice. Its swelling hills and 
 noble mountain range tell of freedom, fertility, and 
 health. No Jesuitical craft nor Spanish intolerance will 
 darken its increasing brightness. There, through the 
 mercy of our redeeming Lord, we shall worship and 
 adore till this mortal sinks and the immortal spirit soars 
 beyond the mountain to the Throne of God." 
 
 In view of the work achieved by this devoted mis- 
 sionary of the Cross, the language of the Society's 
 Eeport, in 1860, is not a whit too strong: — "It is 
 difficiilt suitably to describe Mr. Saker in his varied 
 labours; and when his early circumstances are con- 
 sidered, and his present extraordinary attainments, 
 some of them reaching to the higlier departments of 
 science, he seems to be not only eminently fitted for 
 his post, but to be one of the remarkable men of 
 the a2;e." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Days of Hope, 1859— ISO 1. 
 
 UEING the sixteen montlis which followed 
 the close of the year 1858, the necessities 
 of the Mission required Mr. Saker to 
 be constantly on the move from one 
 station to another. The arrival of the 
 Eev. J. Diboll at Victoria in April, 1859, enabled him, 
 however, to relinc|uish the charge of the congregation 
 and schools there, and personally to superintend the 
 removal and settlement of a portion of the Clarence 
 people in their new home. The return of Mrs. Saker 
 and his daughter Eliza from England secured the pro- 
 gress of his work on the Canieroons, and the appointment 
 of the Eev. J. Pinnock, of Jamaica, to a new station at 
 Abo, higher up the river, gave hope of the extension of 
 the Gospel to the inner parts of the country. The 
 printing of the Scriptures was diligently carried on, and 
 the indefatigable missionary had the pleasure of seeing 
 through the press his translation of the Book of Psalms, 
 and a small collection of hymns, in the Dualla language. 
 He records that he " had so far impressed his ideas of 
 work on others that all the sheets have been printed 
 while he Avas visiting or preaching at other places." The 
 binding also was the work of native lads, who only a 
 few years before had been rescued from liarbarism, 
 Pespecting the composition of the hymns, and also of 
 
 7 
 
98 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 many of tlie tunes sung to them, Mr. Saker gives the 
 following interesting account in a letter to the Eev. F. 
 Trestrail, February 29th, I860:— "I am no poet. In 
 early life, like some others, I wrote doggerel ; but, for the 
 Africans, we are obliged to do our best in everything, 
 and then fear no censor. I have written what is 
 literally thus — 
 
 " ' Son of God, to Thee, 
 To Thee Thyself we come ; 
 With prayer we bend to Thee, 
 With praises, too, we bend.' 
 
 « 3rd ver. ' Through Thee, Thyself alone, 
 We live ; in peace we live. 
 Through Thee, Thyself alone. 
 We tread our weary way.' 
 
 " As to the greater number of the hymns, they are rude 
 renderings of our own hymns. But, in the attempt, my 
 own feelings have dictated something more free, so that 
 the translations are not really such, but may rather be 
 called imitations. 
 
 " I will try to get Eliza to send you one or more of 
 my tunes. Do not let this surprise you, for I am a lover 
 of music. And although I have never allowed my 
 compositions to go out of the house, I get more careless 
 as I get into years, and the praise or blame of men will 
 be alike indifferent to me now. Some of my best tunes 
 are in daily use in our congregations in Africa ; but it is 
 not generally known that they are mine. On my way 
 to Amboises Bay — my first visit — after a terrible day 
 at sea, we reached Bimbia ; and at night, while lying 
 restless in my bed, I found myself singing one of our 
 solemn but sweet hymns, but to a strange tune in my 
 own fashion, and the thought came, perhaps it was the 
 
DAYS OF HOPE. 99 
 
 whisper of sleepless spirits : ' Yes, tliou art a sweet 
 melody for such solemn words ' — so I rose up and put it 
 •on paper. The next day being Sabbath day, I sang it 
 with that same hymn in our morning worship. The 
 natives are fond of singing, and they follow readily in 
 •everything like natural music. A few days later I 
 called this tune ' Victoria,' because it v/as the first time 
 we sang it at the new home. The same day, and the 
 ■same midnight hour, gave birth to another more solemn. 
 It is called ' Helena.' Both were sung at Bimbia at 
 the same service." 
 
 The decease of Mrs. DiboU on the 16 th j\Iarch 
 ■(I860), combined with his entire loss of strength, con- 
 strained the bereaved husband to take a voyage to 
 Teneriffe, and subsequently to his native land. In 
 reference to these events Mr. Saker wrote : " I am again 
 alone with (}od. He will not fail me." Not a European 
 helper was left in the field to share with him the toils 
 and the anxieties of the work. His own health also 
 was in a shattered, if not perilous, state, and the thought 
 often passed through his mind, should he be taken 
 away, how could he best provide for the great interests 
 in his charge ? Other circumstances, moreover, urged 
 him to make a brief visit to England, in order to confer 
 with the Committee, and by personal explanations 
 assist in the decision to which it was necessary that the 
 Committee should come. The Spanish Government 
 still delayed the settlement of the claims of the Society 
 for compensation for the property confiscated at 
 Fernando Po. Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary to the 
 Court of Spain was then most opportunely in England, 
 imd the case could fully, in all its aspects, be brought 
 before him. At the same time, Mr. Saker would be able 
 
100 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 to remove certain unfavourable impressions that had been 
 made on the minds of some vahied friends in England, 
 with regard to the methods he had pursued in carrying 
 forv/ard the evangelisation and civilisation of the savage 
 tribes among whom his lot was cast. On the 30th of 
 April he therefore took his passage in the mail for 
 England, and much refreshed by this A'oyage, he landed 
 at Liverpool on the 19th of June, with the Eev. J. 
 Diboll, whom lie had overtaken at Teneriffe. 
 
 Without delay the two brethren laid before the Com- 
 mittee, in the fullest detail, every department of the 
 Mission, and the transactions incident to the formation 
 of the settlement in Amboises Bay. In tlie resolutions 
 which were adopted on the 18th of July, the past and 
 future were referred to. It was resolved — 1. " That this 
 Committee desire to express to the Eev. A. Saker, and 
 the brethren associated with him in the African Mission, 
 and who have so effectually assisted him, their gratitude 
 for his strenuous and able efforts to meet the difficulties 
 arising out of the Spanish seizure of the Society's 
 property at Eernando Po."* 2. " That this Committee 
 deem it of the highest importance to secure one or more 
 additional missionaries for the African Mission, and that 
 it be referred to the African Sub-Conmiittee to take 
 immediate steps to effect that object." 
 
 • It was not till the 23rd April, 1861, tliat Sir IMorton Peto was 
 informed by the Foreign Office that the Spanish Government had 
 consented to pay ^'1,500 as a final settlement of the Society'.^ 
 claims, " on account of the expnlsion of the missionaries from 
 Fernando Po in 1858." A few months afterwards the money 
 reached the hands of the Treasurer. The cost, however, of the 
 removal of the buildings, and the purchase of the land on 
 Amboises Bay, exceeded i;2,000. / 
 
DAYS OF HOPE. 101 
 
 Tlius, iu fall view of the losses the Mission had sus- 
 tained, the perils necessarily incident to the work, the 
 costliness of the endeavours to introduce the Gospel and 
 its attendant blessings among uncultured and savage 
 people, Mr. Saker's heart was cheered by the confidence 
 placed in him by the Committee, and 1:)y the resolve to 
 continue the conflict with superstition and sin among 
 the fierce and degraded tribes of Africa. The clouds 
 lifted, and a bright hope sprang up in his mind of suc- 
 cessful enterprise and Divine success. 
 
 By the end of (October, the health of Mr. Saker and 
 Mr. Diboll was so much improved as to justify their 
 return. They were joined by the Iicv. liobert Smith, 
 a member of the congregation in Eegent Street, Lambeth, 
 and by Captain Milbourne, who took charge of the 
 schooner the Committee had purchased to convey the 
 missionaries, and to aid them in their work on the 
 waters of the Cameroons and Aniboises Bay. 
 
 On the 31st of October, the Wanderer left her 
 moorings in the Bay of Dublin, and, after eleven days of 
 various weather, the voyagers safely reached the island 
 of Madeira. The entire passage to their destination 
 occupied fifty-two days. In the evening of the 19th of 
 December, the party,, vigorous and hopeful, landed at 
 Cameroons. " The voyage," says Mr. Saker, " has not 
 been a long one, nor has it been unpleasant. We were 
 able to continue our worship twice and thrice a day 
 with very few exceptions. Our health, too, was unin- 
 terrupted, and in health and in peace, in strong hope, 
 we land at this our home." He found Mrs. Saker and his 
 family also well, and, after five busy days at Bethel, he 
 started for Victoria. In a few brief, vigorous sentences, 
 he sums up the result of his observations and inquiries. 
 
102 ALFRED SAKER, 
 
 "A brief investigation of all these places has given me 
 mingled feelings of grief and gladness. Sin reigns 
 where we hoped for righteousness. Oh, maj the power 
 of sin be broken soon ■ Faithful labour has been 
 rewarded and accepted, and in this we rejoice. The 
 schools, where established, are succeeding. Our brethren, 
 Fuller, Pinnock, Johnson, and N'Kwe have laboured 
 with much diligence and zeal ; and our teachers, 
 During, Decker, and my daughter, have succeeded well." 
 The little band of workers had had a trying time 
 during his absence. Mr. Pinnock had been driven from 
 Abo by the violence of the people, and all his pos- 
 sessions seized and distributed among them. War had 
 broken out among the tribes on the river, and the 
 mission family at Bethel had been horrified by the 
 slaughter of a native, and the parading of his head and 
 arms, dripping with blood, through the settlement. 
 Women and girls had been kidnapped by traders in the 
 river, and the renewal of the horrid abominations of 
 the slave trade were only checked Ijy the timely arrival 
 of Her Majesty's Consul with a man-of-war. " One 
 day," writes Mrs. Saker, " our native teacher N'Kwe 
 brought home a poor creature from the town where he 
 preaches on the Sabbath, to whom the people had given 
 the poison drink. A chiefs child had died, and, as two 
 or three of her own children had also died, she was 
 accused of witchcraft. These things do not occur so 
 frequently as a few years ago, but they are very sad. 
 I gave her medicine, and she recovered. This is the 
 third we have been enabled to save from death since 
 I came from England last year." A little later Mrs. 
 Saker continues : " A day or two after, the mothers 
 from the town were running to me begging me to. 
 
DAYS OF iiorE. 103 
 
 take their little girls, and to rescue their chief, who was in 
 irons. The people had sent slaves for his redemption, 
 but the trader refused to take any but girls. I cannot 
 tell you, dear sir, the grief of my heart to see the poor 
 creatures, and to remember that a white man, an English- 
 man, was causing all this sorrow. I rescued three chil- 
 dren. Two are still with me ; one I was obliged to give 
 up to the woman who Ijrought her, for men surrounded 
 the house in search for her. Mr. Fuller told them 
 they must remove him by force before any one else 
 should he taken from the JMission ground." The 
 missionaries, true to their vocation, were the protectors 
 of the poor, the defence of the oppressed, and the refuge 
 of those that had no helper. 
 
 The reinforcements that Mr. Saker had brought with 
 him, and the further addition of the Eev, J. Peacock 
 later on in the year, enabled him to arrange both for 
 the conduct of the stations already formed, and for 
 the preaching of the Word in several neighbouring 
 towns. But to Mr. Saker these accessions of strength 
 Ijrought no diminution of toil, but rather an increase of 
 it, from the superintendence everywhere necessary. Mr. 
 Peacock, shortly after his arrival, in a few graphic 
 sentences, permits us to see this heroic man at work : 
 " Amidst bodily infirmities and pain he does not stop. 
 He moves like machinery, day by day, in the great 
 cause of our gracious Master. I will just give an out- 
 line of his movements. In the day, early, you will find 
 him translating. You may look for him : he is at the 
 forge, like a blacksmith. Then you may see him at the 
 cases in the printing-office, composing. Then it may be 
 he is drawing plans of some work he wishes to be done ; 
 then searching the Hebrew to translate some important 
 
104 ALFRED SAKEE. 
 
 text ; then preacliing in Dualla to the natives. Indeed, 
 I could not tell the varied duties he performs daily. 
 How can I but esteem — yea, love — such a one, whose 
 heart is so engaged in the work to promote the glory of 
 Ood in this place. Truly he was raised up for a great 
 work, and, amidst all the difficulties that surround him, 
 he accomplishes his work as a workman that needeth 
 not to be ashamed." 
 
 It is obvious that missionary life, under such circum- 
 stances as have been detailed, cannot be carried on as in 
 more favoured climes. " I do not "wish," says Mr. Pea- 
 cock again, " to undervalue pulpit duties and good 
 preaching ; but a man that could do no more would be 
 a sorry workman on the "West Coast of Africa." The 
 ripe fruits of civilisation cannot be gathered without 
 arduous and continuous toil. In these regions all trade 
 is barter, and it is only by gifts of beads, cloth, tobacco, 
 and the like that the missionaries can obtain the fruits 
 of the earth for food. If they want a house, they must 
 build it. They must be both workmen and the instruc- 
 tors of workmen. In other lands the missionary, if he 
 only has money, can have all his wants supplied. In 
 Africa he must be his own purveyor, his own carpenter 
 and brickmaker, and money is of no use. Inevitably 
 his day is occupied with manifold so-called secular pur- 
 suits, as well as with exertions for the attainment of his 
 great object — the evangelisation of the people. In these 
 regions the Gospel must go hand in hand with the arts 
 of civilised life, and the missionary must become the 
 pioneer of both. 
 
 In the month of June (1862) Mr. Saker was able to 
 report the completion at press of his version of the New 
 Testament into the Dualla tongue. " You will rejoice 
 
DAYS OF HOPE. 105 
 
 with me," lie says, writing to the Secretary on the oOth, 
 " that God has enal»led me to hring the last sheet of the 
 New Testament through the press. The deluging rains, 
 which confine one so much at home, have contributed 
 to this result sooner than I expected; hut other work 
 which I hoped to complete before the 1st of August has 
 been impeded to the same extent. I shall entrust a copy 
 of the Epistles, with the Eevelation, to the captain 
 of the mail vessel, if he will deliver it in Liverpool 
 without charge. You w^ill rejoice, too, that my health 
 is so much better. During the last month, I have 
 been jjcrmitted to work at least five days in the 
 week, and am now better than at the beginning. At 
 the end of the Eevelation I have appended ' weights, 
 measures, and coins,' and remarks. I enclose a first- 
 proof from the printer's case as far as composed. 
 The additions to be made to-morrow go to show that the 
 ancient cubit w^as only 18 inches. To this will be added 
 the Dualla measures, which in this respect do not differ 
 much from the Hebrew." 
 
 In a letter to Sir Morton Peto, dated a month later, 
 Mr. Saker gives some additional information relative to 
 the use of the translation : — " About the middle of June, 
 cur merciful Lord enabled me to complete the transla- 
 tion and printing of the New Testament. Since then I 
 have had about 200 copies bound, and these are now in 
 the hands of our rising reading population. To bring 
 these pages to the ears of the people, we have appointed 
 an hour, four evenings in the week, for reading, with 
 such explanations as may be needed. On the Sabbath, 
 in the intervals of worship, we have two other meetings 
 in the town, with crowded houses, simply for reading and 
 prayer. My daughter conducts one, and our Mr. Smith 
 
lOG ALFEED SAKER. 
 
 the other. It will be gratifying to you to learn that 
 Mr. Smith is all that I could hope of him. He assists 
 me nobly and well. Some recent visits he paid to the 
 interior towns fill him with hope of success, while pain- 
 ful experience is gradually teaching him that that success 
 must only be looked for as the result of soul-trying 
 labour." 
 
 Eeference is here made to some terrible scenes of 
 cruelty and degradation of which Mr. Smith was witness, 
 and in which he was compelled to interfere, not without 
 peril of his life. On reaching a town a mile up the 
 river, the firing of guns was heard. The people of the 
 town were shooting the wives and slaves of the subject 
 people working on their farms. A fight ensued with the 
 husbands of the assaulted women. Mr. Smith, under a 
 burning sun, amidst the dropping shots of the musketry, 
 hastened, at the desire of the chief, with a messenger to 
 stay the shedding of blood. Two men only were killed, 
 but many were wounded. After some days, with 
 efficient help from Mr. Saker, peace was restored. A 
 little later two innocent men were seized and brought to 
 the landing place near the Mission house, to be drowned 
 or murdered, and, as Mr. Smith was endeavouring to 
 arrest the cruel purpose of their captors, he received a 
 blow from behind, which made him stagger to the 
 ground ; l)ut several of the native converts caught and 
 supported him. Happily his liurt proved but of tem- 
 porary inconvenience. Other like incidents sorely tried 
 the courage of the young missionary, but the true spirit 
 of self-sacrifice animated him. " My love for the work 
 and the people increases the more I come in contact 
 with them ; and they, on the other hand, know how to 
 love and trust those that sympathise with them in their 
 
DAYS OF iiorE. 107 
 
 various treubles. Notwithstanding' their deep degrada- 
 tion, and dark heathen practices, they appear keenly to 
 feel a wrong, and to appreciate an act of kindness, and 
 this opens the way for making known to them the ever- 
 lasting Gospel.'' 
 
 The completion of the New Testament, and in a few 
 months that of a vocabulary, affords a favourable oppor- 
 tunity to give the results of Mr. Saker's investigations 
 into the origin of the Dualla language and people. 
 
 The language is spoken by a population variously esti- 
 mated as consisting of 30,000 to 80,000 persons, living 
 about the mouth of the Cameroons river and the base of 
 the great mountain which dominates the entire region. 
 The people are thought to be a small part of a large 
 family that at an early period migrated southward from 
 Abyssinia, and spread themselves over five or six degrees 
 of country to the north and south of the equator. Their 
 original language has been broken up into many dialects, 
 and with many of their tribes the traces of their origin 
 have entirely disappeared. Among rude and UDlettered 
 })eople language undergoes rapid mutations, and attains 
 forms that battle all investigation. Still there exists 
 evidence that the Dualla has many and close affinities 
 with the languages of Eastern Africa, and with that of 
 the tribes on the Gaboon. 
 
 Dualla is the name both of the people and of the 
 tongue they speak. Their traditions are but few, and of 
 no remote date. They refer their origin to one of the two 
 sons of a man who settled on the western side of the 
 Cameroons mountain. One, named Koli, remained in 
 the parental seat ; but the other, Dualla, crossed the 
 region now known as Victoria and r>imbia, and expelled 
 the Basas from their dwellings on the Cameroons river. 
 
108 ALFllED SAKER. 
 
 Marks of the contest are still seen in some embank- 
 ments near the Mission station at Bethel. The river is 
 said to have been narrower than at present, having 
 within the last forty years made great encroachments 
 on the land. 
 
 The Duallas are divided into tribes, nnder inde- 
 pendent chiefs. Feuds are frequent, and property is 
 very insecure. The slave trade was once the calling of 
 the entire people, and to the rapine, oppression, and 
 bloodshed of that fearful time, together with the diminu- 
 tion in the number of people consequent upon it, may 
 he traced the ferocity so frequently witnessed by Mr. 
 Saker and his companions. Since the cessation of the 
 foreign slave trade, there has been a great improvement, 
 and many wasted spots are recovering the' population 
 ihey had lost. Slaves are, however, still held among 
 the people. They are usually the fruit of war, some- 
 times of puichase, and the labour of the field is usually 
 carried on by them, as well as by the wives of the free 
 portion of the population. In most Dualla towns the 
 slaves are two to one in excess of the freemen. They 
 are, in fact, from their numl^er, which is continually 
 increasing by bii'ths, treated rather as serfs than slaves, 
 xmd the chiefs are in constant dread of an uprising 
 among them. 
 
 The Dualla tongue has many affinities with the Isulju, 
 spoken at Bimbia. Northward, and on the sides of the 
 mountain, the lano-uaQ-es differ from the Dualla, and the 
 population has a different origin ; but nearness and 
 intercourse are fast breaking down the distinction. The 
 Dualla vocabulary is very scanty as compared with 
 more cultivated tongues. It contains about 2,400 
 root forms. It is, however, notwithstanding the 
 
DAYS OF HOPE. lOO 
 
 efforts of the missionaries, veiy imperfectly known. 
 " Ever and anon," says Mr. Saker, " we come npon 
 words which lie like griiins of gold in the bed of the 
 stream, and, like grains, are revealed only by the dis- 
 turbance of storms and floods. While the daily con- 
 cerns of man run smoothly on, in a few words he 
 expresses his wants, his thoughts and emotions ; but 
 let his heart be moved by strong passion, by deep dis- 
 tress, by mental conflicts, and words none suspected to- 
 l)e in his memory, or even in existence, are found 
 welling up from the deeps of his heart, and in a moment 
 we see that they are the true words — such words that a 
 less exciting cause would not have revealed." Often, 
 too, on some distant journey, and among some offshoot 
 of the same stem, he has picked up words for his voca- 
 bulary which were unused or unknown among the 
 tribes immediately around him. 
 
 The elementary sounds in Dualla are thirty-three in 
 number, which English letters, with some orthographical 
 additions, have been employed to express ; excepting 
 c, h, q, and z, the sounds of which letters are unknown. 
 
 To this may be added the interesting fact, that all the 
 books hitherto printed in the Dualla tongue, with the 
 exception of the last edition (1882) of the New Testa- 
 ment, liave all Ijeen printed on the spot, and chiefly by 
 lads trained in the jMission, the fruit of missionary 
 labour. The new edition of the New Testament just 
 referred to has been carried through tlie press 
 by Miss Emily Saker, Mr. Saker's youngest and highly 
 estimable daughter, now labouring with the devotion 
 and perseverance of her father at the station, and among 
 the people, so dear to his heart. 
 
CHAPTEE XL 
 
 Ascent of the Camekoons Mountain, 1861 — 1862. 
 
 N" the last days of the year and the first 
 weeks of 1862, Mr. Saker enjoyed a 
 pleasant interlude in his work by the 
 ascent of the great Cameroons moun- 
 tain, having for his companions Captain 
 Burton, H.M.'s Consul, ]\I. Gustavo Mann, a well-known 
 Hanoverian and botanist, in the employment of the 
 English Government, and Sefior Calvo, the Spanish 
 Judge of Fernando To. Mr. Mann left Victoria on the 
 13th of December (1861) for the last town on the moun- 
 tain, and on the arrival of the Consul with Sehor Calvo 
 on the 19th, Mr. Saker commenced the ascent with them, 
 taking Mr. Johnson as interpreter, and several Kroomen 
 to carry the luggage. The distance of the summit from 
 Amboises Bay, on its southern side, is reckoned at 
 14 miles, but the mountain in its entire extent covers an 
 area of about 400 square miles, between the Binibia and 
 Piumby rivers, which bound it on the east and west, 
 and the hilly region that embraces it on the north. This 
 was not the first attempt to climb the peak. Mr. Mer- 
 rick assailed it in 1847, and succeeded so far as to reach 
 the open grassy plain above the forest that covers the 
 lower slopes of the mountain. Here water failed him ; 
 his companions suffered from cold and thirst, and he 
 was compelled to return. In 1860, Mr. Mann ascended 
 
ASCENT OF THE CAMEROOXS MOUNTAIX. Ill 
 
 -a short distance, but time would not then allow further 
 progress, and the mountain " whose glorious pinnacle 
 never yet felt the foot of man " remained for the present 
 party to climb its steeps, and to secure the long-coveted 
 honour of being the first to tread this virgin peak. 
 
 The route from Victoria lay through a noble forest of 
 palms, acacias, African oak, and other fine timber- 
 trees, from 100 to 150 feet high, across a country 
 admirably adapted for the growth of maize, cocoa, sugar, 
 and coffee. Twice the party forded the " bright little 
 mountain stream which supplies Victoria with the 
 purest water," passing west of Mount Henry, " a site," 
 says Captain Burton, " which I at once fixed upon as a 
 provisional sanatorium." After four hours' walking, 
 they halted for breakfast at Bosumba, a village of the 
 ■chief Myombi, 1,000 feet above the sea and four miles 
 and a-half from Victoria. 
 
 The path now led through dense bush and grass. The 
 district was populous. The people are known as the 
 Bakwili, and are allied by language and race to the 
 tribes of the lowlands. Mr. Saker found that they 
 understood the Isubu when he addressed them in that 
 tongue. As usual, their dress was the scantiest possible, 
 a kilt of plantain leaves sufficing for every need. A few 
 possessed slips or rags of stuff or cloth, and a handker- 
 chief for the head. Their ornaments, more abundant 
 than their dress, were of beads of many colours, porcu- 
 pine's teeth, and armlets of copper or brass, and occa- 
 sionally of ivory. The head was bare, shaved, or, when 
 otherwise, the hair was dressed in fantastic modes. A 
 kind of axe, called a matchet, was carried by the men, 
 and in a few cases a rusty old matchlock was the weapon 
 of protection or offence. The women, as among all these 
 
112 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 tribes, performed not only every hoiiseliold duty, but 
 carried on the cultivation of the ground, and were often 
 tattooed in a fashion the most grotesque. 
 
 At half-past four they reached Maponya, in the 
 country of the chief Botani, and the highest village in 
 this part of tlie mountain. Here they met Mr. Mann. 
 The chief received them with great ceremony. Habited 
 in his royal garb, a tall black hat, an old scarlet and 
 gamboge coatee of the Eoyal Marines, and a pocket hand- 
 kerchief, " he performed a lively dance, apparently bor- 
 rowed from tlie movements of excited poultry. In 
 Africa, when the king dances, you have to pay for the 
 honour." 
 
 Disputes arising with the natives, the party soon 
 launched themselves on the wilderness. They bivou- 
 acked in the forest, on a steep and narrow spot, at a 
 place afterwards called Eidge Camp. Proceeding at 
 eight o'clock next day, they found that the plantain and 
 the palm had disappeared, and were replaced by the 
 graceful tree-fern. Ferns everywhere in most graceful 
 forms covered the ground, or ran, creeper-like, up the 
 trunks of the trees. It was " a beautiful fernery, set 
 off by the huge tropical growth around it." 
 
 Passing under a natural arch of fallen trees, which 
 they called Pern Gate, they emerged on a region of tall 
 grass. Then came a broad green slope of small ferns 
 and moss, resting on a rugged bed of old, decayed lava, 
 half-a-mile wide, the banks on either side girt with 
 giant trees. Here they breakfasted, and feasted on 
 blackberries. A hunter's path now led them up the 
 side of the lava river, among huge blocks whicli endan- 
 gered their ancles. Salvias scented the air, and the 
 surface was spangled with the blossoms of an unknow^n 
 
ASCENT OF THE CAMEROOXS MOUNTAIX. 113 
 
 'fldwer. Bees settled upon tlieni, l)ut did not stini; ; and 
 the heat of the svni became intense. 
 
 Tlie last part of the day's journey was the most ruf^ged 
 of all. The lava, as it approached the place of its issue, 
 became more broken, lying al)out in most irregular 
 heajis. ])efore attempting it, Captain Burton lay down 
 to sleep, the rest of the party going on. The Black 
 Crater, from which the lava had Howed, was at length 
 reached. It was about 100 yards in diameter, with a lip of 
 some 200 feet above the level of the platform below. On 
 ]ilacing his compass l)etvveen the rocks, Mr. Saker found 
 that, in an unaccountable manner, the north pole of the 
 needle dipped to the south. Water was obtained near 
 nt hand, and here the travellers encamped. It was a 
 bad camping-place ; a high north-east wind roared round 
 them all night, and the thermometer fell to 40° Falir. 
 Next day brought them a lovely morning, and, at 
 two p.m., they set out for the spring, to which, as he 
 w^as the discoverer, Mr. ]\Iann's name was given. They 
 found a little runnel of pure cold water, issuing from 
 peaty earth, embowered in l>lue flowers, and surrounded 
 by nettles. Here the camp was fixed, and for five 
 weeks it became the base of their researches and the 
 centre of their excursions. It was 7,000 feet above the 
 sea, and was held by common consent to 1 )e an admirable 
 ppot for a sanatorium or a colony. ]\Iaterials for roads 
 or for house-liuilding lay around in abundance, and, in 
 his enthusiasm, Captain Burton exclaimed, " Where can 
 a Lebanon be found cfjual to the beautiful, the majestic 
 Cameroons ? " " Here," says ]\Ir. Saker, in a lower key, 
 '" we had a glorious sky, a dry air, in fact an English 
 ,home, and no great obstacles in the ascent but what a 
 little patient toil will overcome." 
 
 8 
 
114 ALFRED SAKEE. 
 
 Christmas-eve and Christmas-day were spent in 
 takino- bearinos, ramblin" about the hills, and in naming 
 places. The main peak they discovered to be divided 
 into a pair of distinct heads, which they christened Vic- 
 toria and Albert. " Little did we think," remarks Mr. 
 Saker, " that the nation and our beloved Sovereign were- 
 then being plunged into irreparable grief by Prince 
 Albert's death." Another summit was named Earth- 
 work Crater, and the elevation near which they were 
 encamped. Mount Helen, after Mrs. Saker, who had sup- 
 plied the Christmas pudding. From its cone there was 
 a wonderful prospect of wild scenery and of perplexing 
 confusion. Twenty-eight deep crevasses were counted, 
 with numberless thick lava beds and ribs of scoriaceous 
 rock. The morning of Christmas-day was spent by ]\Ir. 
 Saker, in company with Captain Burton, in a climb to 
 the summit of Earthwork Crater, about thirteen miles 
 from Victoria, and five from the main peak of the moun- 
 tain. The volcano had apparently long burnt itself out, 
 and the pools of water formed during the rains at the 
 bottom of the crater were the resort of the small birds that 
 abound in its vicinity. Returning from this excursion,, 
 and breakfast despatched, Mr. Saker left the party, and 
 descended the mountain for Cameroons, where some im- 
 portant duties required his attention. Early in January, 
 however, in company with his colleague in the Mission,. 
 Mr. Smith, he rejoined the mountaineers. They had 
 passed the time in exploring a portion of the higher 
 regions, but were suffering from exposure and fatigue. 
 Mr. Smith being too unwell to go farther, Mr. Saker,. 
 with some Kroo boys, on the 13th, left the camp to 
 climb Victoria, the highest of the twin peaks. The 
 ascent was made on the south side. 
 
ASCENT OF THE CAMEKOONS MOUNTAIN. 115 
 
 " During my absence," writes Mr. Saker, " Mr. Maun 
 had ascended the north side, while Consul Burton 
 attempted the south face. After a day's weary toil over 
 beds of lava, we reached the foot of a small mount 
 somewhat sheltering to weary travellers. There I spread 
 my blanket and passed the night. It was a glorious 
 evening, but somewhat cold. At early dawn I found 
 the glass at 31 "^ Fahr. But the sun rose, a cloudless 
 morning, and it soon grew warm. At six I began 
 the ascent, and at ten reached the southern summit 
 or ridge. By this time it was very warm, and the wind 
 that sweeps so fearfully in these regions seemed hushed. 
 Light fleecy clouds ever and anon shut in the sur- 
 rounding scenery. Towards the east I saw a range of 
 mountains that I had never before observed, and took 
 its bearings; but the attempt to secure the angles of 
 summits towards the west was not so successful. Ere 
 I could bring two points together, one would Ije ob- 
 scured. 
 
 "At this highest point I found the water boil at 
 188°, thermometer 58". This gives an elevation nearly 
 the same as our charts, the result of trigonometrical 
 survey below. My attempt to explore the Crater was 
 a failure. The whole was enshrouded in cloud. The 
 Crater must be of enormous extent. Its two peaks 
 present a large angle at seven miles distance. After a 
 long delay, I began the descent, and at two reached 
 my last night's resting-place. After rest and refreshment, 
 we set out on return to our camp. Here I found the 
 Consul a little better, but still unable to walk much. 
 As I had stayed on this second run up the mountain 
 ten days, I was now compelled to leave for Mctoria and 
 
 Cameroons. We have ascertained that there are native 
 
 8* 
 
n.6 ALFRED SAKEE. 
 
 towns at about 3,500 feet elevation, that cultivation 
 extends but little farther, and that beyond these heights 
 there is every inducement to seek a temporary home 
 for invalids and wearied missionaries." 
 
 A final ascent was made by Captain Burton and his 
 companions on the 27th of January. In this Mr. Saker 
 did not participate, as he had returned to Amboises 
 Bay. The investigators encountered intense cold. Their 
 waterproof coats were wliite with hoar-frost, and the 
 summit was powdered with frozen dew. Before leaving 
 the peak, Captain Burton was able to discover a com- 
 plete solfaterra, lying to the north-east of Albert Crater. 
 Smoke arose in puffy volumes from long lines of white 
 marl and sulphur. This discovery accounts for the 
 many detached reports of flames seen issuing from the 
 mountain by the merchants of Cameroons and the people 
 of Fernando Po. It would seem, therefore, that the 
 great volcanic mountain of Cameroons is not yet an 
 extinct volcano. A hailstorm signalised the descent. 
 "Finally," adds Consul Burton, "on the 2nd of February, 
 1862, I once more saw the scattered bungalows of Vic- 
 toria, where the kindly Mrs. Saker, who would not leave 
 the place till our safe return, received me with all 
 hospitality."* 
 
 * For th.e materials of this chapter, besides Mr. Saker's letters, 
 I am indebted to the Report presented to the Foreign Office l>y 
 Consul Burton, and kindly forwarded to the Mission House by 
 Lord Russell. It is also printed in the " Proceedings of the Royal 
 Geographical Society," vol. vi., p. 238. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Ix Perils ox Every Side, 18G2— 18G3. 
 
 HE next eighteen months of Mr. Saker's 
 missionary life were months of unceas- 
 ing toil and constant anxiety. His 
 expectations with regard to the early 
 colonising of Amboises Bay were only 
 partially fulfilled. The English Government hesitated 
 to avail themselves of the advantages which it presented 
 as a coaling station, and a healthful resort for the sick 
 crews of the men-of-war on the coast. Clarence Cove 
 continued to be the head-quarters of the squadron, and 
 trade naturally remained in its former channels. The 
 people were, therefore, disinclined to leavg the place where 
 their property and livelihood were secure. There were, 
 however, some compensations for the slow development 
 of the colony. The government of it could be more 
 easily controlled ; time was allowed for the foundation 
 of the town, and its due supply with the necessaries 
 and conveniences of life. At the commencement of 
 1862, eighty-two persons had settled there, of whom 
 one-half were children connected with the families of 
 the converts, and a portion of wliom came from Fernando 
 Po to be educated under the care of Mr. Pinnock, the 
 resident pastor of the church. Some fifty or sixty 
 persons habitually attended public worship, a few of 
 them natives from the mountains. Mr. Saker thus 
 
118 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 refers to them in a letter to Lady Peto : — " You will be 
 pleased to hear that some of the poor dark natives near 
 this place are not only listening to the Gospel when 
 taken to their towns, but are attending the services in 
 our little chapel. Many who never heard the name of 
 Jesus are listening to the offers of salvation through a 
 crucified Saviour. It is not unusual to hear them 
 exclaim aloud or talk to each other on the subject to 
 which they are listening." 
 
 The Eev. E. Smith, on visiting Victoria, thus describes 
 his impressions of the place: — "It is a delightsome 
 spot, very beautiful for situation. The little town 
 appears to be rising very slowly. There are several 
 good houses already built on the estate, and a vast 
 number of people live on the mountains around. I 
 made a journey to one of the fishing towns some 
 distance off, in company with our esteemed and loved 
 brother Johnson. After we had climbed over the 
 rocks, and journeyed through the bush three parts 
 of the way, a light tornado overtook us, and wetted 
 us a little. We pressed on to the town close by, 
 and were well repaid for anything we suffered. We 
 had a good meeting in King George's house, the 
 people listening attentively to the good news. The 
 King's ' palace' consisted of one large room, with a few 
 feet partitioned off for a bed-room, a mud floor, three or 
 four stands for drying fish, with wood fires underneath. 
 There were as many drying tables as the King has wives. 
 A number of black earthen pots for cooking completed 
 the utensils in the room. I counted seven goats that 
 live and sleep in the house, and a pig is no uncommon 
 member of the family circle. Three wives and a number 
 of children made up the household present on our visit." 
 
VICTOEIA CHAPEL, AiEBOISES BAY. 
 
IN PERILS ON EVERY SIDE. 119 
 
 ■Such is a fair specimen of the best of the liouses of the 
 Bakwili, among whom the missionaries were labouring 
 to introduce the Gospel with its elevating tendencies 
 and hopes. 
 
 At Cameroons, Mr. Saker was made intensely sorrow- 
 ful by the increasing ill-health of his wife and daughter. 
 In August he was obliged to part with them. The loss 
 this was to his work the following extracts from his 
 letter of August 29th (18G2) will show :— " To-day, I 
 send away to England my wife, daughter, and servant. 
 These, one and all, are worn down to a low, low condition 
 physically, but their flow of spirits seems unconquerable. 
 Of Mrs. S. I say not a word here ; but it seems right that 
 I give a line of information of the others, but chiefly of 
 my daughter. Soon after her arrival here, I pointed out 
 a line of labour which I wished her to undertake, but, 
 after looking round, she saw so much work to be done 
 in other ways that she decided for herself what to 
 do. Of course, in the presence of so much work, I 
 could only consent ; yet did I mwardlysay, 'The novelty 
 will soon wear off", and then she will weary of it.' But 
 it has not been so. She has maintained her plans till 
 now. She chose the day-school, and has continued it 
 with much diligence till a week since. She found the 
 women of the church in much ignorance and wishing 
 for help. She attempted their improvement by opening 
 a service in the town, at the house of one of the members, 
 for women only, devoting the afternoon of one day in 
 the week to this, and meeting the same body of women 
 on the Sabbath-day, instead of attending the Sabbath- 
 school. Although these meetini^fs have all been more or 
 less religious services, reading and expounding Scripture 
 and prayer, at first using our excellent friend the owner 
 
120 ALFEED SAKER 
 
 of the house as interxDreter, but latterly doing withoiit 
 liiin, often have I detected her composing sermons 
 for the Sabbath. Tims has she done much to gladden 
 and instruct these poor women, and they grieve for her 
 leaving. She has also devoted one afternoon in the 
 week to teaching them needlework. Of Maria, I can 
 only say she has been a riglit hand to Mrs. Saker, and 
 heart and soul one with her. To her and Eliza I am 
 indebted for stitching all our books as the first step in 
 binding. This has mostly been the work of evenings." 
 
 Pleasant, indeed, is this sight of the entire family of 
 our missionary brother giving itself to the work of God ; 
 comljining together, each in their measure, to impart the 
 knowledge of both temporal and spiritual things to the 
 ignorant and degraded children of Africa. 
 
 The task was no easy one. Often was it interrupted 
 by bad health ; by violent disputes among the j)eople ; 
 by the outbreak of war ; and Ijy the vile attempts of 
 white men to revive the abolished trade in slaves. Thus, 
 under date of September 20tli (1862), Mr. Saker writes : 
 " After Mrs. S. left me on the 30th ultimo, I came 
 home only to lie down and sicken, and suffered a sharp 
 attack for five days. I then recovered. During that 
 same time Smith, too, was suffering daily from repeated 
 fevers." Again, in the same letter : " Just now we are 
 living in perpetual and daily quarrelling. There seems 
 but little business going on at present, and the natives 
 take advantage of the leisure to exhaust themselves 
 in wrangling and fierce disputes. Three times this 
 month have I been called home to prevent open 
 war. To-day — nearly half a day spent in quelling an 
 enraged multitude. The steam is blown off now; but 
 only to be renewed on Monday." Nature, too, seemed 
 
IN PEKILS OX EVERY SIDE. 121 
 
 often unpropitious. " A fearful storm of rain came on 
 us on Wednesday night last. It commenced just a little 
 before eight, while our classes were still in chapel, and 
 abated not till after twehe. Tlien again at three in the 
 morning, and lasted for half an hour, accompanied with 
 wind, lightning, and thunder. Our people could not go 
 home from meeting till past midnight." In seven hours, 
 by his rain gauge, Mr. Saker found that seven and a- 
 half inches of rain had fallen. The damage done to the- 
 Mission buildings was great, and required many weeks to- 
 repair. 
 
 Here is another scene of savage life, and of the part 
 played in it 1 )y the missionary : — " Saturday night, late, 
 the principal chief of A'kwa town came home, and 
 heard all one side of the dispute. He allowed himself 
 to he excited to madness. At four in the morning he- 
 beat his drum, calling all out to war. At five our yard 
 and outbuildings were filled with women and children 
 of the weaker party. At six the small town close to us 
 was invaded l)y a hostile multitude. We counselled 
 quietness, and took resistance into our own hands. By 
 this means we prevented miicli l)loodshed, and saved 
 most of the property. Smith and Fuller resisted these 
 demoniacal men manfully, and by nine we had so far 
 succeeded in quieting the rabble tliat we saw the last of 
 them out of the town. The destruction of hundreds of 
 plantain and fruit trees makes a desolate show ; but 
 this, and the breaking down of four or five houses, is 
 the chief damage. So our Sabbath was broken up ; but 
 we had a good and quiet meeting in the afternoon and 
 evening." 
 
 The resistance alluded to above was that of earnest 
 and fearless remonstrance. From the first Mr. Saker- 
 
122 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 rejected the use of any weapon for self-defence. Amidst 
 all the perils he encountered in the wilderness from the 
 rage of man he never resorted to violence or retalia- 
 tion for his protection. He was strong in meekness, in 
 patience, and in imperturbable quietness of spirit, and 
 in his calm trust in God. 
 
 Later in the year, two slaves belonging to Portuguese 
 owners on the coast, having escaped, found their way 
 to the Cameroons river. They were claimed by a 
 trader, who sold the man and kept the woman for a 
 worse purpose. Escaping again, they were befriended 
 by Mr. Saker. From this arose another attack on the 
 mission-house by the trader's slaves, and for some days 
 the lives of the missionaries were in serious danger. 
 The poor refugees at length found a place of security 
 at Victoria. 
 
 But, in spite of all these agitations and sore beset- 
 ments, the Word of God was not bound. Writing at the 
 close of the year (December 27, 18G2) this unresting toiler 
 reports : — " God has graciously given us an increase to 
 our church. You will remember that our last increase 
 was in August, the last Sabbath in the month, that Mrs. 
 S. and Eliza might participate in our joy. On that 
 occasion our brother Smith baptized ; and now to-day 
 five others are given to us, and to-morrow, being the 
 last Sabbath of the year, they are to be baptized. Mr. 
 Fuller will have the pleasure of leading these lowly 
 ones into our river. Very many things conspire to make 
 this increase joyous to me, and not the least of these 
 that one more from out of our own family is called to 
 (jod, and is honoured by His grace. It is a sj)ecial 
 mercy to us, that our hearts be not too much oppressed 
 nor cast down." 
 
IN PERILS ON EVERY SIDE. 123 
 
 The severe strain of these events on Mr. Saker's 
 health again raised the question of the necessity of his 
 seeking an invigorating chnie. For more than twenty 
 years he had borne, with a resolution of mind and 
 will that few men could he found to exercise, the 
 debilitating diseases of this pestilential coast He had 
 seen one after another of his colleagues and companions 
 yield to their deadly assaults. Himself with an 
 ■emaciated frame and a shaken constitution, he yet 
 persisted in his work. " I cannot hope," he writes on the 
 .31st of March, 1863, " to live much longer in Africa. 
 The weakness and suffering of the past month have 
 convinced me that if my life is to be preserved I must 
 journey to you." Although he sometimes regarded his 
 life as useless — for his preaching, he said, was curtailed 
 to the lowest point — he could not contemplate an aban- 
 donment of the work without the deepest repugnance 
 and sorrow. But from the opening of the year it 
 seemed his imperative duty to leave. Circumstances 
 at home had also rendered it important that he should 
 again see the Committee. The attacks on his methods 
 of operation, alluded to in a previous chapter, had been 
 renewed, and unfortunately received a certam measure 
 of support from some who were not wholly unacquainted 
 with the exigencies of an African clime, and the perils of 
 a pioneering life among savage races of men. A request, 
 therefore, came from head-quarters that he would revisit 
 his native land. In his uncertainty of the future, he 
 replied to the Secretary's letter conveying the wdsh of 
 the Committee : " I shall obey your summons as soon 
 as I can. Certainly I cannot leave before the 28tli 
 Feb. (1863), and then my foolish heart asks, Who is to 
 care for this land ? But this is weakness, if not worse 
 
124 ALFRED SAKEE. 
 
 The cause is God's, and if He calls me away He can 
 take care of it, either by me or by some other means. 
 Only let me see my duty in the matter, and then reason 
 and command both say, ' Go forward.' The God of all 
 grace comfort your heart with strong hope and faith." 
 
 He felt it, however, necessary that he should remain, 
 if possible, till the return of the Eev. E. Smith, who 
 was then on a brief visit to England. This took place 
 on the 29th of May, and early in July Mr. Saker once 
 more left his work. It is needless to encumber these 
 pages with controversies which are now forgotten, but 
 which at the time were productive of much personal 
 distress. He was heartily welcomed by all who knew 
 his v/orth and the nobleness of his character, and not 
 less cordially did the Committee, after " full' investiga- 
 tion," give expression to their satisfaction "at the 
 diligence, the zeal, the self-denial, and the success " with 
 which he had planted the Christian faith in new fields, 
 on a barbarous coast, amidst wild uncultured tribes, and 
 founded " a Christian colony whence civilisation and the 
 Gospel may spread ; " and all achieved " in the midst of 
 perils b)'' sea and land, among savages thirsting for his 
 blood, or by their spells hoping to destroy his life." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Tersevering Toil, 18G4— 18G9. 
 
 It. SAKER was much refreshed and 
 invigorated by his year's sojourn in 
 England, and l)y the Christian inter- 
 course he enjoyed in the numerous 
 deputation visits he paid to the 
 churches. On the 21st of September, 1SG4, a deeply in- 
 teresting farewell service was held in Bloomsbury 
 Chapel, at which the Rev. Q. W. Thomson was also set 
 apart for the service of Christ in Africa. With Mrs. 
 Saker and her three daughters, the two missionaries 
 went on board the mail steamer at Liverpool on the 
 following Saturday. On the 1st of October Mr. Saker 
 writes from Madeira to the Rev. F. Trestrail : — " We 
 arc quietly at anchor here. Our passage has been one 
 of some discomfort, but of much mercy, and we are all 
 in health and looking forward to our future run as one 
 of peace and pleasure. We left Liverpool with fine 
 weather, which continued all the Sabbath, and we 
 enjoyed an hour's public worship in the saloon. On 
 Monday the wind increased, making it difficult t<j move 
 about. It was worse on Tuesday. On Wednesday it 
 increased to a strong gale. Thursday morning it mode- 
 rated, and continued improving to last evening, when 
 we all assembled on deck. At midnight we made the 
 island, and came to anchor at daylight. We are now 
 
12G ALFRED SAKEE. 
 
 anticipating a day's enjoyment on shore witli our friends. 
 Affectionate remembrances from Mrs. S. and our girls ; 
 also from Mr. Thomson." From this j)oint to Sierra 
 Leone the voyage was most pleasant, and, calling at 
 several ports on the way, intercourse was enjoyed with 
 jnauy Christian friends. Writing on the 13th of October 
 from Sierra Leone, Mr. Saker says : — " The few hours at 
 that lovely place, Madeira, will not soon be forgotten. 
 AVe had a short run on shore at Teneriffe, but the rain 
 made it unpleasant. At Gambia we spent a few hours 
 with the good Wesleyan brother who is there labouring 
 faithfully, but whose health is fast failing. And now 
 here also are we tasting the joy of Christian society. 
 At Madeira it was with the Presbyterians ; at Gambia, 
 with Wesleyans ; and here, with Episcopalians. And 
 yet, in all, spiritual life is the same, and, but for some 
 external manifestations that are apart from Christian 
 life, it would be very difficult to point to differences. 
 How glorious, how precious, is this onenesa of life in 
 Christ. May the day soon dawn when the Saviour's 
 prayer may be fulfilled — ' that they all may be one.' " 
 
 The last fourteen days of the voyage were not so 
 X^leasant as the earlier portion of it. Many days were 
 wet, and the rains continued for some days after their 
 arrival at Cameroons, which took place on the 29th 
 of October. " I am very thankful," says Mr. Saker, in 
 conclusion, " that we are all preserved and brought 
 safely to our distant home, and that we meet our 
 brethren, our friends, and our (school) children in so 
 much health and comfort. May this, our re-union, be 
 greatly promotive of good to this country, to each other, 
 and also glorifying to our God." 
 
 There was no delay in recommencing his interrupted 
 
PERSEVERIXC! TOIL. 127 
 
 labours, and in a few weeks we find Mr. Saker report- 
 ing that lie had laid tlie foundation of a new brick 
 chapel at Bethel, that his translation of the Old Testa- 
 ment had been resumed, and Ruth, jSTalium, Habakkuk, 
 and Zephaniah, for school purposes, were in the press. 
 The ser\'ices at all the stations were revived with fresh 
 vigour. His new iron boat had been put together, and 
 was already employed in communicating witli Victoria 
 and in visiting the outlying trilies among which evan- 
 gelistic etlbrts had been or were about to be commenced. 
 BrieHy, he announces that Mr. Pinnock had had the 
 joy of baptizing two converts. " The attendance at 
 Hickory is excellent. At John A'kwa's Town, JMr. 
 Fuller's new home, very bad. Here at Bethel we are 
 crowded. At Mr. Pinnock's place we can sometimes 
 get a few. At Bell's Town a good company. We wish 
 for, we pray for, and expect a large increase. Pray for 
 us that the blessing may come." 
 
 Sickness and death soon, however, began to enter 
 the small circle of devoted labourers. The wife of Mr. 
 Smith fell a prey to disease on the 27th of January (1865), 
 after a brief life of Christian toil ; while Mr. Thomson 
 and the younger members of Mr. Saker's family were 
 often down with constantly recurring fevers. Death 
 also bore away some of the best of the early converts, 
 who died witnessing in death, as in life, the power of 
 the Gospel to win the most debased of mankind to 
 holiness, and fit them for the bliss of a better land. 
 
 Thus, under sunshine and cloud, in weariness often, 
 disease ever haunting his steps, in the midst of dangers 
 that no human foresight could avert, this heroic 
 man pursued the one great aim of his life. It were 
 a repetition of the like actions and the same 
 
128 ALFRED SAKEK. 
 
 xlevotedness, to follow Mr. Saker througli the next 
 four years in which he was permitted to pursue 
 his course. Frequent spells of bodily sufiering did 
 not prevent the achievement of the oljjects on which 
 his heart was set. War for a time might disturb 
 the quiet progress of his work ; his helpers might fail, 
 or the necessary material for the needed buildings might 
 be long in coming to hand ; still, with unremitting vigour, 
 the work was carried on. Chapels and school-houses 
 and mission-houses, at_ Bethel, at Victoria, at Hickory, 
 .and at Bell Town, were planned and made; repairs of 
 buildings, falling into constant decay from the ravages 
 of insects or of storms, were made ; and, above all, 
 the care of the churches, the training of the young, 
 the translation of tlie Scriptures, the preparation of 
 vocabularies and school books, and the exercise of an 
 influence deservedl}' won in the counsels of the tribes, 
 and which was ever used for the preservation of peace, 
 .civilisation, and good government; — all, and every 
 one of these various departments of missionary labour 
 received ]\Ir. Saker's incessant attention, and called 
 forth the energies of his ever active mind. Exhausting 
 and depressing as is the climate of this region of Africa, 
 Mr. Saker filled every hour with some needed work. 
 
 In his letters, ]\Ir. Saker seldom enters into much 
 ■detail. For the most part he describes his employ- 
 ments in a few short, pithy sentences. He was too busy 
 to give the time to composition, or to dwell on the 
 special features of his work. A few excerpts from his 
 papers will sufficiently exhibit the variety of his aims, 
 and his mode of working. 
 
 Thus, on the 31st of March (1866) he says :—" The 
 month closes heavily on us. For two weeks we have 
 
CHAPEL AT HICKOEY TOWN, CAMEEOONS. 
 
PERSEVERING TOIL. 129 
 
 been in the midst of war and its consequences, and no 
 hope of peace yet. Our work, our journeys, our meet- 
 ings are all more or less impeded. We have to-day our 
 usual service, and to-morrow we hope to have meetings 
 in all the hostile towns. Isaiah is finished. This week 
 I l>egin a new work. Our chapel will have been quite 
 silent this month. The men have been compelled to 
 take the musket and sword instead of the trowel. Our 
 friend Johnson has gone at last, and his family are in 
 deep sorrow." 
 
 Mr. Horton Johnson was Mr. Saker's first convert, 
 and became, under his instruction, one of the most 
 useful and efficient servants of the Mission. His piety 
 and zeal were conspicuous, and his loss was most 
 se^'erely felt by Mr. Saker and the native church. 
 
 Another month Mr. Saker writes : " Our brethren 
 have taken advantage of the fine weather, and have been 
 journeying. This has left me all the work of the station, 
 besides much translation, printing, and building ; six- 
 teen hours daily, with scarcely time to eat. It will be 
 pleasant for you to know that I have gone on all the 
 month without suffering from it, and am now strong for 
 another month of toil. Our war here is not at an end, 
 but may break out at any moment. The madness and 
 savagery of both sides are a sad interruption to us. 
 But what are our disputes, and hatred, and slaughter 
 to that of the European Continent [the Franco-German 
 War] ! True, both are alike desperate, both are the 
 result of ambition ; but there they separate — they only 
 unite in the character of the misery it entails. Oh I 
 when will the Kingdom of Peace be set up ? " 
 
 Again he writes in July, 18GG : "As to our success 
 in our toils I cannot say much. I have just finished 
 
 9 
 
130 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 Matthew, almost a new translation, as eveiy verse and 
 every word has been revised, and the best possible 
 representation given to the Greek as far as I can do it. 
 Indeed, the present edition is doubtless my final attempt 
 to give the people the true Word of Life. Some ten 
 years liave passed since the Matthew we use was printed; 
 during that time my knowledge of the language has 
 been steadily increasing. I can give a better rendering 
 now than I could then. Some five chapters of Mark 
 are now in the press, and I shall this month print as 
 far as my paper will allow. While this new revision 
 of the Gospels is going through the press, other parts 
 of the Old Testament are to keep pace with it. I am 
 busy now with the Book of Job. While I await paper 
 from you I must attend to Mr. Thomson's dwelling. 
 Certain buildings must be had. For instance, all the 
 cooking must be done out of the house. Then there 
 are sheds for goats, fowls, &c. ; all adds to the expense. 
 We are looking forward to a small addition to our 
 church next month ; it may be six weeks. There are 
 only two accepted at present." 
 
 Mr. Saker's frequent journeys to Victoria often ex- 
 posed him to great danger. On one occasion he had a 
 narrow escape from being drowned. A sudden rush of 
 wind swayed the boom of his little schooner, and he was 
 swept into tHe sea. By the help of the boatmen he was 
 quickly rescued, but had to sit for eight hours in his wet 
 clothes. 
 
 The steady and continuous growth of his work 
 more than compensated him for all his toil and suffer- 
 ings. The work of the Lord prospered under his hand. 
 In his last letter of the year 1868 he had the joy to 
 announce the virtual completion of the version of the 
 
PERSEVERINCJ TOIL. 131 
 
 Old Testament scriptures. "The year's toil is over," 
 he writes. "Tlirough God's manifold mercy I have 
 completed the translation of the entire Bible, with the 
 ■exception of a few chapters of Chronicles, which are so 
 nearly like parts of the Books of Kings that I omitted 
 them till other books were finished. Those chapters I 
 shall not write till next rains, as in the months of 
 January and February I must be out in the country 
 and towns adjacent. You are aware tliat, after my re- 
 covery in February last, I sought to print the revised 
 ' Acts of the Apostles,' and then the Psalms. This done, 
 my health emboldened me to resolve on the translation 
 ■of all the remaining books of the Old Testament, and I 
 am exceedingly thankful that God has helped me to go 
 through it, althougii I have suspended nearly every- 
 thing else, except the preaching, for this one work 
 Some books have given me great trouble. There are 
 •constructions in Ezekiel which T cannot even now 
 understand sufficiently to render into intelligible sen- 
 tences ; even the English rendering I do not understand. 
 If a few things in the ' Acts ' wearied my brain for 
 .hours, Ezekiel has held me for days. Some of his words 
 I must read and read again ere I can print. 
 
 "Our church increases slowly. We baptized six; 
 three others are accepted, and two from Dido Town, the 
 reward of the faithful toil of N'Kwe, and where also Mr. 
 Smith has often visited. These will be baptized in a 
 few days. Our congregation increases slowly too. 
 Sometimes we feel oppressed at the few who will hear ; 
 at other times nearly a full house of earnest hearers fills 
 •one with joy and hope." 
 
 Early in the year 1869 Mr. Saker again resolved on a 
 
 visit to England. His colleagues had all of them, in the 
 
 9* 
 
132 ALFEED SAKE!;. 
 
 three or four years previous, been compelled to return 
 home for invigoration and health ; and Mrs. Saker and 
 her children had been absent for many months. Events 
 to be presently referred to also rendered it expedient 
 that he should confer with the Committee. For twenty- 
 five years he had laboured in the tropics, and, although 
 his indomitable spirit forbade him to relinquish the 
 task, it was yet doubtful whether his strength would 
 permit or justify a prolongation of that intense de- 
 votion which had so wonderfully and so long sustained 
 him. Leaving, therefore, his colleagues, now well inured 
 to the work, he tore himself away, and in the month 
 of May once more reached his native land, emaciated, 
 pale, feeble, and deeply suffering, yet ready at a moment's 
 call to risk all for Christ and or the souls of men. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Visit of the Deputation, 1869 — 1870. 
 
 WEXTY-FOUE years had more than 
 elapsed since Mr. Saker commenced bis 
 missionary life among the Dualla towns 
 on the riiverCameroons. Brief visits had 
 been paid to them by Dr. Prince and 
 Mr. Clarke in the early years of the IMission ; but Mr. 
 ^aker was the lirst missionary to settle there. His first 
 dwelling, as we have seen, was a native hut, without 
 windows or outlet, except the door, raised on a mound 
 of earth, the walls formed of split bamboo, and plaited 
 palm leaves for the roof The peojjle were utterly 
 barbarous, without knowledge or written language, 
 without clothing except of the rudest and most meagre 
 kind, unacquainted Avith the arts of social life, oi 
 with the customs of civilised society, except sucii 
 as ministered rather to their degradation, and the 
 indulgence of vicious inclinations. Food fit for 
 Europeans was nearly unattainable, and the cultivation 
 practised by the people was so scanty and wretched 
 as to leave them for a large part of the year dependent 
 on the spontaneous fruiis of the ground. Communica- 
 tion with England was unfrequent, and Mr. Saker and 
 his family were more than once on the verge of starva- 
 tion. 
 
 Unaided, except by his devoted wife and a native 
 
134: ALFRED SAKEE. 
 
 convert or two from Clarence, Mr. Saker had alone, hv 
 the first instance, to grapple with these difficulties. A 
 better house, if only for health's sake, had to be erected. 
 The first buildings were necessarily of wood, and it 
 was the perishable nature of this material that led Mr. 
 Saker subsequently to attempt the manufacture of 
 bricks. By degrees, the converts and others of the 
 people were taught the use of the hammer, the chisel, 
 and the plane ; the moulded clay was burnt, and a 
 house of enduring materials was built. Gradually and 
 slowly the permanent buildings in which the work of 
 the Mission was carried on were constructed from Mr.. 
 Saker's designs, and erected under his_incessant super- 
 vision. 
 
 But this went on not at one station only. At Dido's 
 Town, at Bell Town, at John A'kwa's Town, at Hickory 
 or Morton ville, more or less of this beneficent work 
 was accomplished ; and, last of all, a permanent town- 
 ship with its laws and regulations was established 
 on Amboises Bay ; a mission chapel and residence 
 for the missionary were erected, and assistance was 
 given to the colonists to establish themselves in their 
 new home, where freedom to worship God and perfect 
 liberty were to the fullest extent secured and enjoyed. 
 
 But if the achievement of these varied results 
 absorbed a great deal of time, we have seen that the 
 more direct duties of a missionary's life were not 
 neglected. Every available moment was consecrated to 
 the acquisition of the language, in reducing it to a written 
 form, and in the employment of the press to furnish the 
 people with the Scriptures and other useful books. 
 Many days and weeks were spent in itineracy, in order 
 that the knowledge of the Gospel might be given to the 
 
VISIT OF THE DEPUTATION. 135 
 
 tribes dwelling on the hi'jjher reaches of the river, and 
 yet farther into the interior ; while the fruits of his 
 earnest ministry at the stations were gathered into 
 schools and congregations. All had to be effected in 
 spite of frequent sickness and necessary absences, the 
 hostility of some of the tribes, and the wearing away 
 of both physical and mental energies in the miasmatic 
 atmosphere of the deadly Western Coast of Africa. One 
 missionary after another had come and gone, some to 
 the rest of G-od, others driven away by the latalities 
 that await all who sojourn there. 
 
 At the time of which we now write (18G9) there re- 
 mained, of all the devoted men who had consecrated their 
 lives to the Mission besides Mr. Saker, only the two young 
 brethren, Mr. Robert Smith and Mr. Q. W. Thomson 
 from England, and Mr. Joseph FiOler and Mr. Pinnock 
 from Jamaica. To the deep distress of Mr. Saker, there 
 had arisen during the last few years much diversity of 
 judgment between him and them, and which for a sliort 
 time seemed to threaten the existence of the Mission 
 itself. Correspondence and forbearance had alike failed 
 to restore harmony. At length, the Committee of the 
 Society deemed it necessary, once for all, to make an 
 investigation upon the spot into the alleged grounds of 
 complaint. For this purpose, in the autumn of the 
 year, the Committee requested me to accompany Mr. 
 and Mrs. Saker on their return. 
 
 Accordingly, with my beloved wife, and in the com- 
 pany of Mr. and Mrs. Saker and their daughter Emily, 
 I sailed from Liverpool in the steamship Athenian. 
 The first two days of tlie voyage were stormy, but the 
 clouds dispersed, and the rest of the way the sea was 
 calm and the journey uneventful. Vv'e landed at Bethel 
 
136 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 Station, King A'kwa's town, on the 7th of December, in 
 Jiealth and safety. Daring the month that I was per- 
 mitted to remain, my time was wholly occupied with 
 the questions that had brought me to Cameroons, and I 
 had but few opportunities for journeying beyond the 
 area occupied by the brethren in their daily toil. I was 
 very soon convinced that the alienation of feeling and 
 contrariety of action, which were soon made painfull}' 
 apparent to me, sprang chiefly, if not altogether, from a 
 diversity of judgment as to the conduct of the Mission. 
 The younger brethren were of opinion that, while a 
 certain amount of secular work in putting np buildings 
 and keeping them in repair was requisite, too much 
 time and attention had been given to them by Mr. 
 Saker, to the detriment of the more spiritual part of tlie 
 work. By an unfortunate concurrence of circumstances, 
 these differences had acquired an importance altogether 
 unanticipated. In 1863 the home Committee had given 
 power to a local Committee of all the missionaries on 
 the spot to meet, as often as might seem desirable, to 
 discuss and decide, subject to their approval, all questions 
 of interest, both secular aud relig iou?, affecting the wel- 
 fare of the Mission. This arrangement came into opera- 
 tion iu 186-4, but, before the end of that year, the 
 removal of all the senior brethren by death, or from othsr 
 causes, had left the management of these matters in the 
 hands of the younger men mentioned above.* 
 
 Mr. Saker soon found himself alone and unsupported 
 hi the councils of this Committee. It is unnecessary to 
 enter into any minute detail of the events that followed. 
 
 * Mr. Thomson only arrived in Africa at the end of the year 
 
VISIT OF THE DEPUTATION. 137 
 
 It was, to say the least, unfortunate. The discussions that 
 arose, and the resistance he met with, gave intense pain to 
 the senior member of the Committee, and after a short time 
 he withdrew from its deliberations, continuing to pursue 
 the course which the home Committee, on a previous 
 occasion, had declared to be " necessary to the well- 
 being of the Mission." It can surprise no one that 'Sh- 
 Haker should decline to allow his actions to be judged, 
 and his views of what was necessary for '''the well-being 
 of the Mission" to be canvassed, in an adverse sense, by 
 brethren who were so much his juniors in age, in experi- 
 ence, in knowledge of missionary atfairs, and in acquaint- 
 iince with the people. They were zealous, assiduous in the 
 discharge of the duties they had undertaken, but had 
 only a limited acquaintance with the severe toil which 
 had secured the advantages they now enjoyed. Mr. 
 Saker, too, was by natural constitution reserved in 
 speech, apt to be silent when resisted, and to retire into 
 himself when no readiness was shown to accept his 
 conclusions, or to act with him in furtherance of his 
 plans. Nor could he tolerate any lack of industry or 
 zeal. Ever himself fighting against the debilitating 
 <itfects of the climate, he did not, perhaps, make sufficient 
 allowance for weaker natures that, as he thought, too 
 easily succumbed to their power. 
 
 It is due to Mr. Saker that his views on the subject 
 referred to should be given. Writing to me in June, 
 1870, he says : — " As to secular work, what is it if 
 rightly looked at ? That which I have done I look at 
 as a portion of my higliest honour. In all mechanical 
 knowledge, I have not had to give a moment's study ; 
 and what is it to me if I find a nation in utter ignorance 
 of all common arts ? I point out to them a better way 
 
138 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 of labour, a word here, a five minutes' handling of tool 
 there — all this is far less than what others have given 
 to idle gossip. Then, on buildings for the Mission ; 
 where would we all have been if still confined to the 
 frail, sickly huts of the heathen ? Deaths among us 
 have diminished in proportion to a better housing, and 
 how can we get better houses but by personal labour ? 
 persevering labour, and with a double object — to secure 
 a healthy dwelling, with instruction to the natives, 
 young and old, to go and do likewise. This, it is said,, 
 is all very well, but it has been to the neglect of the 
 work of a missionary. That means spiritual work, as 
 they would express it. "With such, the true work of the 
 missionary is, it seems, to go, book in hand, under a tree 
 here and a shed there, and preach to the people. With 
 me the work has ever appeared in a different light. It is 
 to go to the man in his house, to sympathise in his 
 sorrows and cares, to aid him to think of a better 
 condition and of the means to attain it. Then, when 
 liis attention has been gained, to speak of that higher 
 life which we have lost, and which the loving hand of 
 God will give us again, if we will hear Him. 
 
 " Who, my dear brother, is to measure the value of 
 such a simple lesson given from one heart to another 
 lieart, from a soul in light to a soul in darkness ? And 
 what if such a lesson be given by showing a better way 
 of planting and building ? I know that this method 
 has no Mat : there is no noise, but I know there are 
 great results. In all places where God has permitted 
 me to labour, the first efforts have in part passed away, 
 but now we can get a settled congregation. Yet, while 
 there are heathen around us, the work must go on from 
 house to house, and from heart to heart, if it is to- 
 
VISIT OF THE DEPUTATION. 139' 
 
 succeed. To me it has ever been that the spiritual 
 work is to get at the heart of the individual man. How 
 it is done I don't care a pin. The Master wrought so ; the 
 apostles in their various modes so worked, but still using 
 the public assemblies when they could, as on the Mount, 
 in an upper room, on Mar's Hill, or by the waterbrook, 
 where prayer was often offered." 
 
 All must feel that is a sutticient and forcible vindica- 
 tion of Mr. Saker's methods of operation. It needs no 
 comment. It is complete, and requires no further 
 explanation. 
 
 But, in connection with Mr. Saker's secular labours, it 
 was also affirmed that there had been much Avaste. and 
 even extravagance. With regard to this point, I may 
 be permitted to quote the observations I addressed to 
 the Committee : — " Doubtless some mistakes have been 
 made, as was inevitable through the novelty of the cir- 
 cumstances. Experiments were tried which could not 
 have been done without expense. Some instances were 
 mentioned to me which were evidently nothing more 
 than diflerences of judgment between Mr. ISaker and 
 the local board ; the latter judging that to be wasteful 
 which did not meet witli their approval. But it must 
 be remembered that Mr. Saker found nothing to his 
 hand ; he had to plan, to conceive, to construct every- 
 thing, with few or no resources on the spot. After the 
 fullest consideration I could give to these adverse state- 
 ments, and after inspecting the presumed evidences of 
 this waste, it is my deliberate judgment that, while in 
 some cases the statements have been exaggerations, in 
 others, when the destructive effects of climate are con- 
 sidered, the interruptions occasioned by illness, the 
 thefts of the native population, the slow and inadequate 
 
i40 ALFKED SAKER. 
 
 workmanship of the men Mr. Saker has had to instruct, 
 the delay arising from want of materials to finish the 
 work, and for which resort must be had to the stores and 
 workshops of England, Mr. Saker has done his best, has 
 never wilfully wasted the Society's property, and has 
 not been guilty of extravagance. On the contrary, I 
 marvel at the amount of work, both secular and religious, 
 accomplished in the twenty-four years of Mr. Saker's 
 toil. He has exhibited an endurance, a devotedness in 
 the ]\Iaster's service, an heroic struggle with perils and 
 difficulties on every hand, which few missionaries arc 
 called to exercise, and which his successors will not 
 have to encounter. I should be unfaithful to my con- 
 victions if I were not -anew to commend Mr. Saker to 
 the fullest confidence of the Committee, or to speak of 
 him as among the greatest of modern missionaries of 
 the Cross." 
 
 During my stay I was able to visit all the stations 
 occupied by the brethren. My last visit, in the com- 
 pany of my dear wife and Mi*. Saker, was to Victoria. 
 Two days were occupied in the voyage there and back, 
 in an open boat, protected l3y an awning from the 
 scorching sun. The crew consisted of four Cameroons 
 men ^ (Christians) and four Kroo boys. It was 
 ■early morning when we started, and, the moon being 
 near her full, it was very light. Partly rowing and 
 partly under sail, about eight o'clock we entered one of 
 the creeks which unite the Cameroons and Bimbia 
 rivers. It was a beautiful pull among the mangrove- 
 trees which grew in profusion at the water's edge, while 
 the Bimbia mountains, which constitute the lower ranges 
 of the great Cameroons mountain, added grandeur to the 
 scene. The necessity of reaching Amboises Bay by 
 
VISIT OF THE DErUTATK)X. 141 
 
 daylight would not allow us when passing Bimbia t&- 
 seek an interview with King William, whose house 
 stands on an eminence a short distance from the river. 
 Leaving the river for the sea, we weathered two or 
 throe promontories, and crossed the mouth of Man-of- 
 War Bay. The coast scenery was very line. It was 
 rocky, consisting of masses of basalt and trap, covered 
 with fine timber to the water's edge, where the sea 
 broke in wild surf. The shore-hills were backed by 
 lofty mountains, and could we have seen the great peak^ 
 wiiioh obstinately clothed itself with clouds and fog 
 during nearly the whole time of our stay, the scenery 
 would have exhibited its grandest and noblest forms. 
 We caught the faintest glimmer of the mountain's shape 
 and magnitude, only sufficient to intensify our disap- 
 pointment. About four o'clock we rounded the island 
 of Mandoleh, at the entrance of Amboises Bay, and 
 Victoria lay before us on its little clearing, and its few 
 houses scattered along the shore. Mr. Saker pointed 
 out to us the chapel, Mr. Pinnock's house, Mr. Wilson's, 
 and other cottages erected by the people. These friends 
 came down to the beach to receive us, as the surf drove 
 our boat on shore amidst the sprinkling of the spray. 
 
 Mr. Pinnock's house became our home during our 
 brief stay. We found the colony to consist of some 
 200 persons, all of whom were under the efficient in- 
 struction of Mr. Pinnock ; either in the day-school, 
 which he personally taught, or in his Bible-class 
 and Sunday-school, or in the sanctuary. A few 
 of the mountain people had lately settled in the 
 town, and a village had been formed, about a mile 
 from Victoria, of the fishing population inhabiting the 
 islands of the bay. Here a school-house had been built 
 
142 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 and the village was regularly visited by the pastor or 
 some of his members. Most of the houses of the nascent 
 colony were well-built of timber, and some progress had 
 been made in boat-building. I saw a schooner of con- 
 siderable size on the stocks, nearly ready for launcliing. 
 Frequent intercourse was kept up with Fernando Po, 
 where the produce of the colonists found a ready 
 market, and from whence children of former members 
 of the church came to the school under Mr. Pinnock's 
 care. I was greatly pleased with the neatness of the 
 people, their industry, their love for their minister and 
 for the house of God. Two days were passed in pleasant 
 intercourse with the people, and we left with regret this 
 fair scene of hopeful toil. 
 
 On the morning of the day following our return to 
 Bethel, my dear wife was suddenly called away to her 
 heavenly home. The exposure of the previous days 
 and the great heat brought on an apoplectic attack, 
 which, without any warning, robbed me of her sweet 
 companionship. The prostration which followed her 
 decease, and the fever which seized me during the first 
 days of January, prevented the fulfilment of my inten- 
 tion to make several excursions into the interior. But 
 the main object of my visit was accomplished, and I 
 had the pleasure of sesing relations of friendship and 
 co-operation re-established and harmony restored. 
 
 This chapter will be best closed with a few extracts 
 from the report which I presented to the Committee, 
 " It is with more than pleasure that I state 
 that all the brethren sustain cheerfully the hardships 
 which this work entails, and endure with manly and 
 Christian patience personal sufferings which fall to the 
 lot of few missionaries in any part of the mission field. 
 
VISIT OF THE DEPUTATION. 14.'> 
 
 For the Lord's sake, for the sake of the salvation of these 
 savage and barbarous tribes, they gladly encounter 
 numerous perils, and fearlessly meet the dangers which 
 a residence among uncivilised people involves, Tliey 
 are worthy of the churches that sent them fortli, and 
 of the support rendered them by the Society wliose 
 missionaiies they are. 
 
 " The effect of these various labours in King A'kwa'.s 
 town is very visible, not only in the improved dwellings 
 which are springing up, and in the introduction of the 
 customs of civilised life among the people, but in the 
 abolition of the sanguinary practices which formerly 
 prevailed ; in the evident decay of superstition ; in the 
 influence of the missionary in the counsels of the chiefs ; 
 in the numbers wlio attend the house of God ; in the 
 estimation in which the missionary and the converts are 
 generally held ; and in the desire of the people for 
 instruction. 
 
 " The tribes living on the higher reaches of the river, 
 as well as others nearer to the sea, are <|uite ready to 
 welcome a missionary to reside among them. The only 
 thing that hinders is the miserable jealousy of the tribes 
 among whom our brethren now labour, who fear that 
 the residence of a missionary in these inner regions 
 would in some way injure their monopoly of the trade, 
 which is every day increasing in importance ; and in 
 these foolish ideas they are encouraged, I am sorry to 
 say, by some of the European traders who frequent the 
 river. On more than one occasion force has been used 
 by the natives to prevent the missionary from settling 
 among other tribes; but it may be hoped that their 
 prejudices will ere long be removed, or that our brethren 
 may be able to seize some favourable opportunity to 
 
144 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 fulfil the wishes of these more distant people, though it 
 may for a time involve an entire separation from the 
 .stations now occupied. 
 
 '• It now only remains that I should record in the 
 warmest terms my thankfulness for the welcome wkicli 
 my l)eloved wife and myself received from the brethren 
 and their partners, their readiness to supply me with 
 the information I required, the solicitude displayed by 
 all, and especially by Mr. and Mrs. Saker, with whom I 
 took up my residence, for our comfort and health, and, 
 above all, for the tender sympathy shown me by the 
 lirethrcn in the great sorrow that befell me. If I left 
 in Africa with irrepressible grief the remains of one 
 most dear to me, my companion and helper in all my 
 travels in the service of the Society, I have nevertheless 
 come away with feelings of gratitude to God for the 
 work which His servants have wrought, and for the 
 success which He has graciously given them. The 
 African ^Mission abundantly deserves the support of the 
 friends of the Society, and is one that, with God's 
 blessing, will largely repay the toil expended upon it." 
 
NEW MISSION- HOUSE, VICTOEIA, CALLED " BROOK MOUNT." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Last Days in Africa, 1870— 187G. 
 
 HE last seven years of Mr. Saker's mis- 
 sionary life in Africa were years of 
 steady and nnceasing toil, often inter- 
 rupted by sickness, and only varied by a 
 short visit to England in 1874. The details of his daily 
 •work difier little [from those already given, and it will 
 suffice to select a few incidents that have some fresh- 
 ness or special interest. 
 
 Notwithstanding frequent exhaustion and growing 
 weakness, he still pressed on his translations and labours 
 at the press. On the 23rd of February, 1872, he announces 
 the completion of the task he had set himself in the 
 earliest days of his career. " I write you a line to-day 
 with sensations of great joy. The great work of years 
 is now completed, and I feel as a bird long iuiprisoned, 
 liberated at last, with permission to fly and enjoy the 
 glories of an open sky. I feel too much joy to express 
 it in a few words. While I write this, do not think 
 that the labour is all over and gone. There is yet 
 much labour before us. Nevertheless, the victory is 
 gained. The great work of getting into type this price- 
 less boDu to this country is now completed. The last 
 sheet of the Sacred Volume, in good and readable type, 
 is before me. There yet remains the task of reprinting 
 euch books as are much needed, and then binding the 
 
 10 
 
146 ALFEED SAKEFv. 
 
 whole in one volume. Our Bible will then be in three- 
 volumes — the Pentateuch, this volume, Joshua to 
 Malachi, and the New Testament. This is mechanical 
 toil, and will be done by my worthy helpers. Having 
 thus prepared a tool, my own work henceforth will 
 consist chiefly in preparing a body of young men and 
 women to use it well. Four young men are now 
 reading with me ; two are already preachers, o.nd the two 
 others will, I hope, begin very soon. Then there are 
 four others, younger, who are studious, working both at 
 the type and their books. I have hope that God will 
 call them also into His vineyard. These are in hand here. 
 There are, beside the young men in the town, members 
 of the church who have long been waiting for me to 
 give them lessons, and my joy is not small that hence- 
 forth I shall have time to help them. On next Sabbath- 
 Day, we have the work of baptizing again. We hope 
 our God has drawn seven others to Himself, and these- 
 we shall baptize and receive into the church." 
 
 But, although the translation of the whole Bible into 
 Dualla was finished, he gave every spare moment to its 
 revision. Often lying on his bed, strewed with his books, 
 unable to rise, he pursued the study of the Divine 
 records in the originals, noting the conclusions that 
 his investigation led him to embrace. Eeferring to 
 his studies in one of his letters, he says (April 25th, 
 1870), " I have been deeply interested for some weeks 
 past in the writings of the old prophets. "Would that 
 I had more of their spirit. The more I look at 
 those old Hebrew writings, the more majestic and 
 amazing they appear ; that so much should be said in 
 such few words, that so much has been left unsaid 
 such discrimination can only be Divine. While trans- 
 
THE LAST DAYS IX Al'lIICA. 147 
 
 lilting, I have often had to pause, heing overwhehnecl 
 with the revelation ; and now, in printing, I feel again 
 my littleness, and am but a babe." 
 
 It was an additional cause of joy to Mr. Saker that an 
 American missionary from the Gaboon, visiting Came- 
 roons in 1875, informed him that his Dualla version 
 of the Scriptures was perfectly understood l)y the 
 natives of that part of the coast, 
 
 Tlie continual quarrels and wars among the tribes, 
 though often bringing the Mission families into great 
 peril, stimulated Mr. Saker's desire to spread among 
 them the gospel of peace. "The war," he says (writing 
 in November, 1872), " is not yet over. In fact, we 
 know not what will be spared to-morrow. Eifle balls 
 are flying about us, but at present our mission-house 
 and chapel are mercifully spared." Fearless amidst 
 every danger, he busied himself in repairing the damage 
 thus occasioned, in seeking to reconcile the combatants, 
 and in devising plans for the extension of the Gospel in 
 their midst. 
 
 The gift of a small steam launch, by a valued friend, on 
 his visit to England in 1874, gave hope to Mr. Saker that 
 he might be able to carry out the wish he had long 
 cherished of visiting the towns lying in the various 
 rivers that deliver their waters to the Cameroons. 
 Unexpected delays took place in its arrival. " I have 
 been strongly hoping," he says (July 17th, 1875), " that 
 this July mail would have brought my little boat. But 
 I must wait a little longer. I have no information 
 respecting it. From the time of my return till to-day, 
 I have given much attention to evangelistic labour 
 around us, as well as to printing. I am happy to say 
 that the work has been resumed at Bell Town, and the 
 
 10* 
 
148 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 school established. At Malimba a school lias been 
 begun, and children already read in the first-class book, 
 while one man evidences a change of heart. Others 
 «,re seeking instruction. The more distant regions are 
 still before me, like the land of Israel to ]\Ioses when on 
 the mountains of Moab. Shall I, like him, be forbidden 
 to enter the land ? I have waited in perfect quiet, 
 having my hands full, and shall find employment here 
 if detained. But I long to do something more before I 
 die. My general health is good, but I have to take all 
 possible care, for the foe is ever on the watch to cast 
 me down. Not a day passes but I hear the warning 
 voice." 
 
 As the letter announcing the arrival of the long-desired 
 boat is very characteristic, showing that the engineer 
 of Devonport Dockyard had lost none of his early 
 tastes or skill, it is given in full. The date is November 
 10th, 1875, from " Old Calabar" :— " Before this reaches 
 you, you will have learnt that the little steam yacht 
 was left for me at this place, and that one of the traders 
 kindly lent me the use of his boat to visit and take 
 •charge of it. I arrived here late on Friday night, the 
 5th inst. Since then I have been cleaning and finishing, 
 for the engineers of the mail could not complete all 
 they wished on account of time. I have put the little 
 vessel on the beach, and, while the tide was out, accom- 
 plished all that was needful to be done except some 
 rivetting in the paddle boxes, for which I need a forge. 
 Last evening we again floated her into deep water, and 
 to-day I have tested the engines. At high water I shall 
 begin my homeward journey, but anchor at the mouth 
 of the river all night. 
 
 " It is a small thing to say that I am very thankful 
 
THE LAST DAYS IN AFRICA. 141> 
 
 to receive this vessel after so long a delay. May it be 
 a consecrated instrument to God's glorious work. I 
 feel that its mission is one and simple — to bear the 
 messenger safely and speedily to his distant work." 
 
 Between tliis date and the 10th of March (187G), Mr. 
 Saker made three journeys in his little steamer ; the third 
 was one of intense pain and grief. Writing under date 
 of February 28th, he says : " I left here (Cameroons) on 
 the 17th. The next morning we sought to enter 
 our eastern river for Lungarsi, but a tornado debarred 
 us. Yetj as soon as possible, we steamed on, and 
 managed to make some forty miles with comfort. The 
 next day we went on again, but were soon detained by 
 shallow water. We waited an hour, and then cleared 
 the bank. Not more than thirty miles of progress all 
 day. The next day was the Sabbath. Tried in the 
 morning to reach the first village ; found the water too 
 shallow, so took the small boat to communicate with 
 the people. Judge of my disappointment in finding 
 the village to contain only five small huts, representing 
 one family, and that a recent immigration from a higher 
 settlement. The former people all cut off by the small- 
 pox while I was in England. 
 
 "By the night tide we passed the bank which was our 
 hindrance in the morning, and came again to deep 
 water. Thence onward, and at nine in the morning 
 made the Butu landing-place. We visited the people,, 
 examined the school-house ; * it is now a ruin. It was. 
 abandoned on account of the plague, and has not been 
 used since. Here 1 found all the old families gone. 
 Two young men, sons of the former chief, welcomed us, 
 
 * At Malimba ; see before, p. 148. 
 
]50 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 and led us over the town, sucli as it is. I counted 
 fifteen bouses, including the chief's three. At a later 
 hour I walked three-quarters of an hour through the 
 one-time town on the bank of the river. In that walk 
 I counted five huts, with two new ones building. I 
 heard of yet other huts if I would walk a luile 
 farther on. In all this walk the spoor of the hippo- 
 potamus and the elephant were everywhere. I cannot 
 describe the spiritless life of these few poor people. 
 The fearful visitation, cutting off such multitudes, is so 
 recent ; stupefaction and powerlessness seem upon all. 
 We found some of the children alive who had read the 
 first class-book. 
 
 "After staying with these people four hours, we 
 passed a mile into ' Kotto.' It was here at Kotto that 
 my heart failed me ; the desolation so great, so recent ; 
 I met a man of years — the chief. With him I walked 
 over the ruins. The chief's street consists now of nine 
 separate buildings. Beyond, street after street, with 
 houses cast to the ground. In many streets not a house 
 left ; the whole choked with dehris, not a way to pass 
 through. Then we came to a house — solitary. It was 
 the house of a slave, the sole representative of a once 
 powerful clan. Then onward, and another house — the 
 home of a woman, the only survivor of a large family 
 which filled three streets. Then on and on, a lieart- 
 rending sight. The one-time multitude to whom I 
 preached the good news of the Kingdom — where are 
 they? 
 
 " Sadly I walked the length and breadth of that town. 
 The plantain and cocoa in luxuriant growth, and no 
 living owner ; a land full of food, and the eater gone. 
 
 " I met in my walk seven men beside the chief, some 
 
THE LAST DAYS IX AFRICA. 151 
 
 twenty women and grown girls, perhaps twenty-five 
 •children. Those I saw and those I heard of will give a 
 popnlation of about eighty souls. My estimate of the 
 population on my former visit was four thousand ! 
 
 " To these few grown-up yet 1 broken men and women, 
 what could I say ? My own heart was dumb ; an 
 indescribable awe was upon me ; I could do but little 
 beyond commending them to God in prayer. 
 
 " After doing what we could at Butu and Kotto the 
 IMonday and Tuesday, we took the high water in the 
 night, and passed safely over the banks on our return. 
 Daylight came, and with tide and steam we went onward 
 with speed, and that night anchored at the bar of the river 
 in a terrible storm. It drifted us with our anchor and all 
 our chain on to a large sand-bank, and nearly over it, 
 and left us so high that we could only float off at nearly 
 high water. Then an hour and fifteen minutes brought 
 us home, thankful, yet sad. The w^ords are constantly 
 welling up within me, ' I was dumb, for Thou didst it.' " 
 
 Such are the terrible ravages of small-pox when it 
 finds a nidus among an uncivilised people, far removed 
 from all the remedies which civilisation can supply. 
 Many a town on the coast of Africa has thus l^een 
 wasted by this fatal and frightful disease. 
 
 From this time, the health of Mr. Saker steadily 
 declined, and it became evident, towards the close of 
 the year, that his shattered condition could no longer 
 endure the fervid heats of the Torrid zone. One more 
 visit to the interior, to the south of Bethel, was paid in 
 the month of June, where he reports that he met with 
 overflowing hearers. But he was compelled to say, 
 " There is a general weakening going on. Daily I feel 
 that the tabernacle is dissolving ; hence 1 try to secure 
 
152 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 every hour for such work as seems imperatively 
 demanded of me." Thirty-two years of labour in a 
 deadly climate, and the unresting toil in which he had 
 exhausted the energies of a frame always frail, left no 
 alternative if his life were to be prolonged for a single 
 day. 
 
 After his visit home in 1874, he had returned to 
 Africa with the Eev. J, Grenfell, a young man of 
 a congenial spirit and of youthful energy, to whom he 
 could confide the well-being of his beloved people at 
 Bethel ; while at Victoria and on the mountain side, Mr. 
 Pinnock, and his son-in-law, Mr. Thomson, could watch 
 over his work and sustain the growing colony so dear 
 to his heart. Mr. Smith had died in the month of 
 August, in the prime of life ; but Mr. Joseph Fuller was 
 admiraljly fitted to supply his place at Hickory and 
 Dido Town. In his last letter to the Mission House 
 from Africa, dated September 28th, 1876, after saying 
 that his "health has been failing very seriously," he 
 adds with joy, " I have good news from the interior ; 
 the work of God is progressing there. Two other young 
 men will leave here in about three weeks for another 
 place where they are needed. Pray excuse more ; my 
 head refuses to direct my pen." The end of this heroic 
 man's career in Africa had come, and it closed, as it had 
 begun, with the one absorbing thought and effort to 
 gi^e to Africa the great salvation. 
 
 We cannot more appropriately bring this record of 
 an earnest missionary life to a close than by giving 
 Mr. Saker's own account of the work in which he 
 had been engaged, as narrated in a private letter to a 
 friend : — 
 
 " I cannot describe to you the condition in which I 
 
THE LAST DAYS IX AFKICA. ISS*- 
 
 fuund this whole people. A book they had not seen ; 
 the commonest implements of husbandry and tools of 
 all kinds were unknown ; civilisation, with all its- 
 appliances, was entirely absent. The hut for dwelling, 
 and its separate shed for working, were in some respects 
 objects beautiful to sight, and in their formation showed 
 taste and ingenuity^. Crockery, too, had just beere 
 introduced by traders, and bartered for oil. But these 
 formed only objects for inspection and admiration to those 
 who could not obtain them ; they were the coveted 
 possession of the chiefs. 
 
 " I brought with me tools to make my own dwelling. 
 These attracted immediate attention, and soon several 
 youths learned to use the saw, the plane, and the adze. 
 The want of tools was felt by numbers, and I gave- 
 away much to meet that want. Implements of hus- 
 bandry, the spade and the hoe, were introduced. Then I 
 taught them to cut the large timber trees, and supplied 
 the cross-cut and the pit saw, and aided them in sawing, 
 till they could do it alone. I taught them better modes 
 of culture, and planted ground as an example. I 
 introduced seeds from other parts of the coast at a' 
 considerable charge, until the country was stocked with 
 the sweet potato. And I had the pleasure of seeing a 
 gradual extension of cultivation, and much less- 
 suffering from want. At our first settlement here, the 
 total produce from the land did not exceed three months* 
 consumption for the year, and tliere followed months of 
 semi-starvation, and a running to distant places to 
 purchase food at great expense. In the course of years- 
 we so improved that in some things there is now a 
 redundance. 
 
 "In teachiniT these men A'arious handicrafts and 
 
154 ALFRED SAKEE, 
 
 Imsbandiy, many wants were created, and, except from 
 me, there was no means of meeting those wants. Hence 
 I had to lend tliem tools, and nails, hinges, screws, locks, 
 ■&c., &c., and this lending was, for a long time, no better 
 than giving. In the course of time, and when the 
 people were able to do it, I demanded a payment in 
 produce, and accepted such a price as each was able to 
 render. This also passed away, and now for a long 
 time past I have (except in needy cases) exacted the 
 full value of tools and other goods supplied ; and, as we 
 live chiefly by barter, we oft maintain our large family 
 of native children by the exchange of nails, screws, 
 hinges, &c. 
 
 " For all such expenditure you will readily sec that 
 the Mission funds are not available, and the attempt to 
 supply the want was a heavy drain for years ; indeed, 
 my circumstances were for years on a level with the 
 natives; our food was nearly the same; but we were 
 clothed and they were not. 
 
 " liecalling thus the past, my heart again utters its 
 glad thanks to those friends who aided me in the heavy 
 expenses of those early years. Never shall I forget tlie 
 relief I felt when a friend sent me £10 to buy seeds, or 
 in any other way helped me on — in books, too, for those 
 who learned to read and write, and in class and copy- 
 books. I may also safely say that the many reams of 
 note-paper I have consumed in translations, vocabu- 
 laries, and grammars, friends have supplied the whole. 
 
 " Lest I weary you, I will now cease this reference to 
 the past." 
 
 That these labours bore ample fruit in conversions, 
 iind in laying broad and deep the foundations of the 
 Kingdom of God on this part of the coast of Africa, we 
 
THE LAST DAYS IN AFRICA. loo 
 
 have abuiidaiitly seen. Mr. Grenfell has assured us 
 that, on the general population also, Mr. Saker's exertions 
 were not without ample reward. When a palaver, or 
 native council, he tells us, is held in the town, " the 
 individual against whom a decision is given often refuses 
 to accept the verdict, unless the native pastor or one of 
 the deacons is in the majority. The knowledge that an 
 adverse decision, if not endorsed by some of the Christian 
 people, will be appealed against, renders the palaver 
 especially attentive to their opinions. Culprits have 
 great faith in the uprightness of the officers of the church, 
 and feel sure that their judgment will be tempered by 
 mercy. Such a fact speaks volumes for the power for 
 good that the church possesses. Although the strife 
 between the natives and the traders continues, the 
 Mission premises are held to be neutral ground, and on 
 Lord's-day both parties assemble in that home of peace, 
 the house of prayer." 
 
 Thus, step by step, Christianity and civilisation have 
 l)een planted, and the severe sufferings of Mr. Saker's 
 early years have been abundantly repaid in the improved 
 condition of the people and in the spread of Gospel light. 
 Much yet remains to be done to banish the superstitions 
 and bad habits that ages of ignorance have nurtured ; 
 but the successors of Mr. Saker will find ready to 
 theii hand appliances wdiich were vainly sought in the 
 early stages of the work. The gains of the past are 
 proofs that the Divine blessing has not been withheld, 
 and are moreover pledges that greater things are in store 
 to reward patient well-doing in the time to come. 
 
 Mr. Saker finally left the scene of his conflicts and 
 successes by the mail of November, and reached his 
 native land on the 12th of December, 187G. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Closing Days, 1877—1880. 
 
 LETTER dated the 12th of December, 
 1876, and written as the ship neared 
 Liverpool, announced the arrival of Mr. 
 Saker. " Dear brother," he said, " Thus 
 far God has graciously brought us. In 
 an hour I hope to land. The voyage home has been 
 the renewal of my life. T shall land with much of ray 
 past health. This is a great mercy. Our voyage, though 
 long (40 days), has been exceedingly pleasant. I have 
 received every kindness and attention from the com- 
 mander and officers, and much of my restoration is due to 
 the comforts which have surrounded me." Although Mr. 
 Saker wrote thus hopefully of his health, there awaited 
 him many months of severe suffering. " The Shadow," 
 as the natives of Cameroons had of late years been 
 wont to designate him, as in weakness he moved about 
 among them, landed, worn to skin and bone, emaciated 
 to a degree scarcely conceivable, and with a constitution, 
 never strong, now utterly broken. His indomitable 
 spirit alone kept him alive. As the spring advanced, 
 some degree of improvement began to appear, and in 
 the early months of the following year he was able to 
 visit, as a deputation, a few of the more important 
 churches in various parts of the country. 
 
 The Mission to the Congo, which at this time was in 
 
CLOSING DAYS. 157 
 
 contemplation, excited his deepest interest, and in every 
 possible way he rendered the aid that was in his power. 
 His long acquaintance with equatorial Africa, its people 
 and its languages, was of great service to the Coniniittec, 
 and made his counsel invaluable. Joyfully would 
 he again have gone forth as the pioneer of this great 
 enterprise. In a speech of rare merit that he delivered 
 at Cannon Street Hotel, at the breakfast meeting held 
 to expound the course taken by the Committee of the 
 Society to inaugurate this Mission, after recounting 
 some of the labours and successes of his life in Africa 
 as grounds for encouragement, he added, with an "accent 
 of conviction" that thrilled the assembly, "Though the 
 years past have been years of suffering and years of 
 toil, there is nothing in this country that could tempt 
 me to stop — tempt me to exchange a life of labour and 
 suffering there, if so be I can have but a repetition of 
 
 the joy that has been given to me in that land 
 
 God hath accepted our past labours and blessed them. 
 Let us in faith and in faithful labour trust Him for all 
 the future." 
 
 In the year following, at the meeting held in Cannon 
 Street Hotel to bid farewell to the four youi.-g brethren, 
 Messrs. Comber, Crudgington, Bentley, and Hartland, 
 who were about to enter on the Congo Mission, Mr. 
 Saker met with a most enthusiastic reception, tlic 
 whole audience rising to their feet to do him honour. 
 In the following wise and devout language he gathered 
 up the experience of his missionary life : — " While I 
 congratulate you to-night, and the Committee also, in 
 the establishment, so far, of this Mission, I should like, 
 to utter just this word — that the enthusiasm of this 
 hour will not suffice. AVe are but beginnin"; a work 
 
158 ALFEED SAKER, 
 
 which will test our fidelity, our faith, our zeal, and it 
 will test our hope also. Yet we may go forth with 
 confidence, because He that commandeth that we bear 
 the Grospel to the heathen hath Himself promised that 
 He will be with us. It is not prospective ; but He is 
 Avith us. ' Lo ! I am with you always, even to the end 
 of the world.' And in the presence of the Master, and 
 armed with His power, your brethren, young as they 
 are, may go forth in confidence. You may send them 
 with confidence, and they will labour on faithfully and 
 successfully while they live near their Master, lowly, 
 trusting in Him, holding fast to His hand, and walking 
 as ever in His sight. But they may be called upon to 
 suffer. We know that they must labour, it may be long, 
 long years without much success, and in all the labour, 
 in all the suffering, in all the toil of the future, in all 
 the waiting, they Avill want your sympathy, your 
 prayers, your help ; not the sympathy of this hour alone, 
 but the continuous sympathy of your hearts. These 
 brethren now going forth are but few, and they are 
 weak as we are; yet in the hand of the Master they 
 can be strong. Pray, then, that the Master may not fail 
 them, that they may not fail their Master ; but that 
 they may live near unto Him, and that they work for 
 Him. And, then, while they are down in that deep 
 dungeon, you cannot know the sorrow, the suffering, the 
 toil, they may have. Keep hold of that rope, friends, on 
 which they depend. Let them have the consciousness 
 that the whole Christian heart of this country is beating 
 in sympathy with them, and that your prayers ascend 
 to the Master on His Throne that He may sustain them." 
 Once more, in the autumn of 1879, Mr. Saker 
 appeared before the delegates of the churches assembled 
 
CLOSING DAYS. 159' 
 
 ill Glasgow, and boro his testimony to the -wondrous 
 p;race that had aided his labours, and prospered him in 
 the work of the Lord. It was a wonderful sight to see 
 that enfeebled man, that spare frame, that fadiiig form, 
 in tender, quiet, and yet thrilling words call fortli the 
 deep emotions of the vast throng gathered in St. 
 Andrew's Hall. For several minutes he stood trembling 
 with awe, as the assembly testified its regard and respect 
 for the hero of the Cross. His last words were the 
 breathing out of his life. " If," he said, " the African is 
 a brother, should we not give him some of our bread 
 and a draught of our water ? Oh 1" he exclaimed, with 
 a glow of passionate feeling that touched and awoke 
 into voiceful expression the chords of every heart in 
 his audience, " that I had another life to go out there. 
 The field is white there, the multitudes are in darkness 
 still. It is the Son of (Jod calling on us to go forth and 
 preach the Gospel to this creature, and we have the 
 promise that He will l)e with us unto the end. ]\Iay 
 His blessing be on you and on them." 
 
 Thus closed the public life of Alfred Saker. His 
 few last months were cheered by tlie promise that his 
 work at Cameroons would not be overlooked in the more 
 exciting interest of the movement on the Congo. Mr. 
 Comber and Mr, Grenfell had been taken away to devote 
 their energies and their experience to tlie exigencies of 
 the new field, but ]\Ir. and Mrs. Lyall were accepted 
 for King A'kwa's Town ; and his son-in-law, Mr. 
 Thomson, would not fail to watch with deep and anxious 
 solicitude over the best interests of the colony of 
 Victoria. Above all, his joy was full when the Committee 
 accepted the services of his youngest daughter, Emily, 
 tliat she might enter upon that portion of her father's 
 
160 ALFEED SAKER. 
 
 work which more especially concerned the training of 
 the young. From her childhood she had aided her 
 parents, and given, as the years went on, the most 
 efficient help to her father in his translations and print- 
 ing work. Her familiar acquaintance with the Dualhi 
 language was of great value to the Mission, and all 
 hearts were glad that the name of Saker would not be 
 lost or forgotten among the people he had lived to save. 
 I cannot refrain from quoting the following testimony 
 to the value of the labours of both father and child, 
 .given by that eminent scholar, E. N. Oust, Esq., of the 
 Indian Civil Service, in his important and valuable 
 work (just published) on the Languages of Africa. " I 
 think also," he says, " of the patient, enthusiastic scholar, 
 often tried l)y fever and dysentery, and warned to fly, 
 yet lingering on until his work was stopped by death, 
 bearing hardships and discomforts of which we can 
 form no conception. And it is not every missionary 
 .scholar who, like Saker, has left a young daughter 
 willing and able to take up the skein of an African 
 language dropped by her father, and carry through to 
 completion a revised edition of her fatlier's translation 
 of the New Testament." * The mantle of the father 
 has fallen on his beloved child. Her parents, droop- 
 ing under the weakness and exliaustion consequent on 
 their long life in Africa, cheerfully relinquished " the 
 light of the house " for the cause of Christ in the Dark 
 Continent. 
 
 * "A Sketch of the Modern Languages of Africa,"' by R. N. Oust, 
 Esq., vol. i., p. 71. This edition of two thousand copies of the 
 Dualla New Testament was printed at the cost of the Bible 
 Translation Society. Though Miss Saker made many emenda- 
 tions of the text, it is rather a reprint than a revision. 
 
CLOSING DAYS. 161 
 
 IXiring the last few months of his life, aiuid iii- 
 •creasing sufl'ering borne with singular patience witli 
 unabated mental clearness Mr. Saker would often return 
 to his favourite (jccupations, and take up liis Dualla 
 vocabulary and grammar with the desire to render them 
 more complete, oi' busy himself witli liis tools. But a 
 single half-hour was sufticient to tire his worn-out 
 powers, and for weeks he would be compelled to lay 
 books and tools aside, sorrowfully sighing out the words, 
 "' Oh ! what have I come to, that I cannot even do 
 that ^ " He came home ill from Glasgow, and from that 
 time the disease which he had so long manfully braved 
 gained increasing strength. Eeluctantly he was driven 
 to decline the requests which reached him to visit 
 various congregations where his presence would have 
 been highly valued. With the cold winds of March 
 (1880) he daily became more low. On the 8tli of that 
 month he had a very bad night, but in the morning 
 slept a little. To his wife, who entered his room soon 
 -after he awoke, gazing at her with a far-off" look, he 
 said, " My dear, cannot we have a few words of prayer 
 together ? " Her heart sank ; she felt that the hand of 
 death was gently drawing him away. " He prayed," 
 .says the beloved partner of all his labours, " such a 
 prayer as I had never heard. I often wish I could 
 recall some of it, but I cannot. I felt, 'Truly God 
 is here.'" He then slowly dressed, and descended 
 to his room below, where he remained till the end 
 came. 
 
 Nevertheless, he spoke hopefully to the doctor in 
 iittendance, and expressed the opinion that his work 
 was not yet done. " No, my dear friend," was the reply, 
 "" it is not done, for I believe we shall have glorious 
 
 11 
 
162 ALFKED SAKER. 
 
 work to do yonder.'"' " Yes," he answered ; " but I do' 
 not think my work for Africa is done yet." Nor is it 
 done ; his works " do follow him," and the leaves- 
 of the tree of life he has planted on the Dark Con- 
 tinent remain still, and flourish for the healing of its 
 people. 
 
 It was evident, however, to those who watched him 
 with tender solicitude, that the shades of the dark valley 
 were gathering over his head ; yet was the path before 
 him lit up with the presence of Him who is the Light 
 of Life and the Giver of Victory over Death. Calmly 
 he comforted his wife with words of cheer and hope. 
 " When God takes me," he said, " He will provide for 
 you. Itemember the past, through how many dangers 
 and trials you have been l)rought. He will raise up 
 friends for you." 
 
 As the evening of final rest drew near, he seemed 
 at times scarcely conscious, and when he spoke it was 
 with difficulty that he could be understood. Among 
 his last distinct utterances was one addressed to 
 his grandson Alfred. Seeing iiim entering the room 
 to say " Good night," he watched the boy that he 
 dearly loved to tlie foot of the bed, and then said^ 
 " God bless you, my boy." All day on Friday (the 
 12th) he was evidently yielding to the disease ; but 
 it was not till about five o'clock in the afternoon that 
 he fully realised that the end had come. He opened 
 his eyes, and, looking earnestly at his wife, put out 
 his hand for hers. She said, " Are you conscious that 
 you are going to leave me ? " He nodded assent. " Are 
 you quite happy ? " And again he gave the like token. 
 Then closing his eyes, amidst much difliculty of breath- 
 ing, gently and quietly, about one o'clock, he crossed 
 
CLOSIXG DAYS. 163 
 
 the river of deatli. A sweet smile passed over the 
 pallid, worn fae(^ as the ministering angels Lore his 
 spirit to the presence of his Lord. 
 
 In bringing to a conclusion this brief sketch of the 
 life of Alfred Saker, I am happy to add the following 
 additional particulars of the closing scene from the pen of 
 my dear friend and successor, Mr, Alfred Henry Baynes, 
 the present Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society: — 
 
 " Dear Dr. Uxi)Ekiiill, — You have been good enough 
 to ask me to give you a few particulars relating to the 
 closing days of Alfred Saker's life. You know how 
 our heroic friend disliked all titles ; he often used to 
 say to me, ' I will have neither prefix nor affix to my 
 name — let it always stand, Alfred Saker, Missionary to 
 Africa! There was, as you so well know, a grand sim- 
 plicity about our friend. He had an utter contempt for 
 what the world calls ' fame.' I had the privilege of seeing 
 him frequently during his closing days, and I regard those 
 fre<xuent pilgrimages of mine to Peckham as amongst the 
 happiest memories of my life. Only a few days before he 
 passed away, we were talking together of the probable 
 opening up of Africa by the great Congo water-way. He 
 was then lying in bed, seemingly little more than ' a 
 bundle of bones,' and with scarcely enough skin to 
 decently cover them, when he started up, and, looking 
 at me with fixed eye, said, with intensest energy, ' Would 
 I were a young man again, or had a second life to live, 
 I would be off to Congo to-morrow.' He has told me 
 more than once of how thoroughly Africa possessed 
 his thoughts when he was quite a young man, and, when 
 he was at work in the dockyard, with almost every 
 stroke of the hammer on the rivet he fancied lie heard 
 
 11* 
 
164 ALFRED SAKEE. 
 
 the word ' Africa ' ring forth. At last he would become 
 wrought up to such a pitch that lie could scarcely remain 
 at his Avork, in his passionate longing to be off'. His one 
 master passion all through life was to live and labour for 
 the good of the Dark Continent. 
 
 "The last time I saw him alive — only a few hours 
 before his death — he was greatly exhausted, and I felt 
 sure the end was rapidly approaching. I can never 
 forget what took place then. He was speaking of how 
 manifestly Christ had been with him through the 
 night when, in great suffering, he thought his end 
 had come, and, turning to me with eyes full of 
 brightness, and with a voice unfaltering, he quoted the 
 words — 
 
 ' Jesus, the very thouglit of Thee 
 With sweetness fiffs iny breast ; 
 But sweeter far Thy face to see, 
 And in Thy presence rest.' 
 
 And, apart from a ' Farewell,' and ' God bless you, my 
 dear friend,' these were his last words as I left the 
 house. A few more hours, and a final struggle, and 
 he passed through the gates into the city, and was for 
 ever at rest. Two days afterwards I stood by his cofhn, 
 and looked upon his thin, pale, worn face — very peace- 
 ful and very calm ; it had lost much of its painful look, 
 the result of intense suffering, and there seemed resting 
 upon it a peace which was reposeful and beautiful. I 
 reverently bent my head down, and kissed his cold fore- 
 head, and said ' Farewell,' until the everlasting day dawn and 
 the shadows flee away, to one of the noblest grandest men 
 I ever expect to meet on earth, and 1 cannot recall that 
 moment without the deepest feeling of devout thanks- 
 
CLOSING DAYS. 165 
 
 giving that I was privileged to know him, and to call 
 him my friend. 
 
 " Mrs. Saker will tell you that his last words were : 
 * For Thou art with uie ' ; and surely these words tell 
 out the whole story, and explain the entire life. 
 A ' good soldier ' of Jesus Christ, ' faithful unto 
 death.' 
 
 " Oh, for grace, that we may be enabled to follow 
 him, who now, through faith and patience, inherits the 
 promises ! " 
 
 On Friday morning, March 19th, at Nunhead 
 Cemetery, amid sunshine and tears, the wasted frame 
 of Alfred Saker was committed to the tomb, until the 
 glad morning of resurrection. In the cemetery chapel, 
 the Eev. C. M. Birrell read suitable portions of Scripture 
 and offered prayer, and, after an address by myself, 
 the liev. J. P. Chown conducted the service at the grave. 
 Many who loved him stood around the sepulchre, and 
 sang, with devout and tender, yet grateful, sorrow, the 
 singularly appropriate hymn — 
 
 " Captain and Saviour of the host 
 Of Christian chivalry ! 
 We bless Thee for our comrade true, 
 Now summoned up to Thee. 
 
 " We bless Thee for his every step 
 In faithful following Thee ; 
 And for his good fight fought so well, 
 And crowned with victory. 
 
 " We thank Thee that tlie wayworn sleeps 
 The sleep in Jesus blest : • 
 The purified and ransomed soul 
 Hath entered into rest. 
 
166 ALFEED SAKEK. 
 
 " We bless Thee that His humble love 
 Hath met with such regard ; 
 We bless Thee for his blessedness, 
 And for his rich reward." 
 
 The sorrow felt in England had a touching and 
 characteristic response in Africa. His native helper, 
 Dibundu, writing to Mrs. Saker on hearing of the 
 tidings of her beloved husband's departure, says : — 
 " King A'kwa was up country when he heard of dear 
 Mr. Saker' s death. He was bitterly sorry, and all his 
 people too ; because they cannot forget all the good 
 work Mr. Saker did in Cameroons river, and all round 
 about. So the King made a law for his town, all of his 
 own accord, in remembrance of Mr. Saker, that no w^ork 
 should be done on Sundays, but all ought to go to 
 worship. So on Sunday, May 8th, all the people with 
 one accord came to our chapel, which was over-full, and 
 many more outside could not get in. You will remember 
 us, please, in your prayers, that the good work may go 
 on, and many be converted to Jesus." 
 
 Little more need be said respecting this true hero 
 and faithful missionary of the Gospel of Christ. The 
 narrative of his labours and the story of his life 
 sufftciently express the spirit that animated him, and 
 show the devotedness with which he wrought to fulfil 
 his appointed service. He believed, with profound 
 conviction, that the Lord of the harvest had summoned 
 him to this task. Somewdiat austere in manner, reticent 
 in speech, untiring and indefatigable in the pursuit 
 of the object he had set his heart upon accomplishing, 
 he was, nevertheless, truly tender and affectionate in 
 spirit. If he was hard to please by those who were 
 laggards in the vineyard, or if his plans surpassed tlie 
 
CLOSING DAYS. 167 
 
 ■apprehensions of those who were about him, he was 
 ■ever the foremost in labour and the last to leave the 
 field. He was the pioneer in a region in wliich lie had 
 no compeer, and to his hands fell the severe toil 
 necessary to lay the foundations of the work he achieved. 
 ' Take it all in all," is the testimony of that great man, 
 Dr. Livingstone ; " take it all in all, specially having 
 regard to its many-sided character, the work of Alfred 
 Saker at Cameroons and Victoria is, in my judgment, 
 the most remarkable on the African coast." 
 
 Xot less striking is the testimony of one of the most 
 noted of modern African travellers, who visited the coast 
 only a few years ago, with no sympathy for mission work, 
 and no personal regard for Christianity : " I do not at all 
 understand how the changes at Cameroons and Victoria 
 liave been brought about. Old sanguinary customs liave, 
 to a large extent, Ijeen abolished ; witchcraft liides itself 
 in the forest; the fetish superstition of the people is 
 derided l)y old and young, and well-built houses are 
 springing up on every liand. It is really marvellous to 
 mark the change that has taken place in the natives in 
 a few years oidy. From actual cannibals many have 
 become honest, intelligent, well-skilled artisans. An 
 elementary literature has been established, and the 
 whole Bible translated into their own tongue, hitherto 
 an unwritten one. There must surely l)e something 
 ' abnormal' in this." * 
 
 Yes ; but the " abnormal " character of Alfred Saker's 
 labours lies in this : that, sustained l)y faith, with a 
 heart quickened l)y the love of Christ, and inspired by 
 the H(jly Spirit of God, he wrought with full purpose 
 
 • Mis<ionari) Herald for 1880, p. lO'i 
 
168 ALFKED SAKER. 
 
 of heart for the salvation of Africa, and Uod gave him 
 the success that will ever attend the faithful servant of 
 the Lord. His last words, " For Thou art with me," 
 tell out and explain the story of his life. He was. 
 a gootl soldier of Jesus ('hrist, and, faithful unto- 
 death, and therefore he has won the crown of an. 
 enduring and immortal life. 
 
 Reader : Go, and do thou likewise. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Xo. 1. 
 
 EEGULATIONS FOR THE COLONY OF VICTORIA, 
 AMBOISES BAY. 
 
 Agency Office, (ktohei; 1858, 
 Victoria, West Afkica. 
 
 This district, with its township now named Victoria, having Victoria. 
 been purchased from the King of Bimbia, and the right and title 
 thereto having been ced»Ml to its present possessors ; and this 
 township having Ijeen formed as a refuge and a home for those 
 who cannot continue where liberty of worship is denied, and for 
 all others who may be desirous of living peacefully with us, we 
 do heieby arrange and decree as follows : 
 
 There shall be additional streets formed, as the wants of the 
 township shall need them, according to the plan suspended in 
 this ottice. 
 
 The spaces between the roads or streets shall be divided in Lots. 
 building lots, and numbered. Each separate lot shall be a front- 
 age of 50 feet and depth 100 feet. 
 
 These lots can be obtained, at this office, by expressed adhesion How obtained, 
 to the regulations or bye-laws herein decreed and established 
 among us this day ; and on the following terms : — 
 
 Firstly, — By turchase, when a title iov a secure possession 
 will be given as a receipt of payment made, and an acknow- 
 ledgment of the transfer. 
 
 Secondly, — By an agreement, for a nominal ground-rest, 
 
 and which agreement is to expire at the end of a term of ■ 
 
 years from date, with the option then of purchase at the market 
 price, or a new agreement. 
 
170 
 
 ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 Possession, 
 
 Ci.ardcn ground. 
 
 Thirdly,— By a free grant, to continue during the life of the 
 recipients, man or wife, with then the option of purchase by the 
 heir, at the market price, or a new grant to the children. 
 
 Any lot of ground in the township must be cleared of its bush 
 and trees in six months, and a building— being a temporary or 
 ]3ermanent house— must be erected thereon within the twelve 
 months, and the roadways, measured by the fr.mtage, kept 
 cleaned. FaiHng in these preliminary steps, the right of 
 ])ossession lapses to this office, and the purchase money, if any, 
 will be returned, but any expense incurred in a first clearing will 
 be lost. 
 
 (4arden ground in the neighbourhood granted to any settlers 
 free for seven years. 
 
 For^ the sake of good order, health, and quiet, there must be 
 cleanliness, sobriety, and a strict observance of the laws and 
 regulations established among us, and which are as follows : 
 
 Officers 
 
 C juncil 
 
 Duties 
 
 Freedom of ^ 
 ship. 
 
 Laws. 
 
 For the better secimty of the settlers, and for the suppression 
 of disorderly conduct and crime, there shall be a Governor and a 
 Council— the Governor being the owner of the estate or the 
 representative of the owners. 
 
 The Council to be composed of men of good character, and, if 
 possible, of substance. This Council is not to exceed twelve 
 persons ; half to be chosen by the Governor, and half by the 
 householders. 
 
 This Council shall have charge of all public roads and 
 thoroughfares, of the beach and bays, and shall enforce cleaning 
 of the roads and removal of all nuisances, summoning to their 
 meeting all who infringe the laws in any way ; and shall have 
 power to inflict penalties not exceeding twenty shillings, or 
 confinement with labour not exceeding one month. 
 
 There shall be entire freedom in all that relates to the worship 
 of the true God ; and the word of God is hereby acknowledged 
 to be the foundation of all our laws, and claims the obedience o^" 
 our lives. 
 
 That although we are now all of one mind in the essentials of 
 Cliristian worship, yet should there come among us persons of 
 
AITENDIX. 
 
 171 
 
 differing opinions as to Christian worsliip or duty, all shall 
 equally share in our freedom of worship, as well as in our 
 protection. 
 
 That the worship of God be not interrupted, the Sabbath sliaU Subbuth. 
 be regarded ; all business shall be suspended, and the day 
 esteemed sacred to worship and rest. 
 
 There shall be entire freedom in all that relates to trade and Fxcc u-ii.io 
 barter in. the township and with tlie natives around. 
 
 There shall be free importations of all goods, of provisions, of 
 clothing, of trading goods, and machinery, of all and every 
 article ; except the following : 
 
 Kum, or other spirits, as articles of barter or sale, are tor ever proiubitio 
 
 prohibited. 
 
 Brandj', gin, and wine, admitted free for medicinal pui-poses, 
 but for other purposes, not for sale or barter, only with a duty of 
 ten per cent, paid on the value thereof. 
 
 Porter or ale, not for barter or sale, admitted 
 
 Any infringement on the above clauses will involve, in all 
 cases, confiscation of the property, and a fine of £5 sterling for 
 the first oftence ; a fine of £10 sterling for the i<ccond offence ; 
 and expulsion for the third offence. 
 
 There shall he free exportation of all produce, live stock, or 
 manufacture. 
 
 That the amount of imports and exports may be known, there 
 shall be a registry kept at this office, and a true account must be 
 delivered here specifying the amount or quantity of such imports 
 or exports. 
 
 Power to institute and ordain laws against specific crimes and Future la^ 
 misdemeanours is reserved till occasion shall call for them. 
 
 All trees on this estate are the property of the owners ; and Property, 
 while every facility will be afforded to settlers to obtain materials 
 for building purposes in the township, no person shall be per- 
 mitted to cut down or remove any tree for purposes of manu- 
 facture or exportation, except by written permission from this 
 office, on payment of the assigned value, which will always be 
 most liberal to settlers. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 KESOLUTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE BAPTIST 
 MISSIOXAEY SOCIETY OX THE DEATH OF THE. 
 REV. ALFRED SAKER. 
 
 At the quarterly meeting of tlie Committee in April, the 
 following resolution with regard to the decease- of the 
 Eev. Alfred Saker was unanimously adopted, and 
 ordered t(j be recorded on the minutes of the Com- 
 mittee : — 
 
 "That the Committee of the Baptist Missionary Society 
 cannot record the departure to his rest of the Rev. Alfred Saker 
 without expressing in the warmest and most affectionate terms- 
 their high appreciation of his character and labours. For thirty- 
 seven years Mr. Saker fulfilled his course as a missionary of the 
 Ooss in tlie exhausting climate of Western Africa, throughout 
 suffering much from the diseases incident to a residence on that 
 fever-stricken coast, yet never abating his toil nor intermitting his 
 labours, though often physically unecpial to the achievement of 
 the task to which his life was given. He spared not his 
 attenuated frame, nor did he retire from his post until utterly 
 prostrate, and it was apparent to all that a further continuance 
 was impossible. Under circumstances of great difficulty he 
 planted the mission on the Continent, on the River Cameroons, 
 induced the natives to abandon many of their sanguinary and 
 degrading customs, and, by the blessing of God, established a 
 churcli of Jesus Christ in their midst, ever to testify to the- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 173 
 
 grace and redeeming mercy of tlie Lord. Willi his own liands 
 he laboured to teach, and, encouraged l.y his example, he led the 
 people to aciiuire, the arts of civilised life ; he mastered, and for 
 the first time reduced to WTiting, their language ; prepared 
 school-books and grammar for their use, and crowned his 
 arduous labours by translating and printing the entire volume 
 ■of the Word of the living God. AVhen the mission was driven 
 by the llotnan Catholic Church from Fernando Po, he explored 
 the neighbouring coast, and founded the colony of Victoria in 
 Amboises Bay, where the converts gathered at Clarence might 
 find a refuge and a place to worship C!od without molestation, in 
 freedom of conscience, and exempt from further interference witli 
 their personal rights and liberties. In every trial his resource 
 was the Mercy Seat, and, amid great provocations, he possessed 
 his soul in patience. He endured hardness as a good soldier of 
 Jesus Christ. He was faithful unto death. His whole life bore 
 record to the Psalmist's declaration, repeated in his last moments, 
 'For Thou art with me.' What he was (4od made him ; and 
 for his noble life, his heroic consecration, and blessed example, 
 the Committee adore the Divine Hand whose workmanship he 
 was. 
 
 •'To his beloved widow and life-long companion in all his 
 labours and distresses, and the members of his family, especially 
 those who were his helpers in the work, the Committee tender 
 their earnest sympathy, and trust they may be sustained to the 
 end by the same Divine love, and cheered by the gracious conso- 
 lation, which the Father of the fatherless and Husband of the 
 widow can impart to them in their sorrow\" 
 
LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY ALEXANDER AND SHEPHEAED, 
 LONSDALE BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE. 
 
Zbc Baptist riDissionav^ Societ>2. 
 
 OBJECT. 
 
 T/ie great object of this Society is the diffusion of the 
 kiiowledgc of the religion of Jesus Christ throughout the 
 zvhole world, beyond the British Isles, by the preaching of 
 the Gospel, the translation and publication of the Holy 
 Scriptures, and the establishment of Schools. 
 
 OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
 treasurer- 
 Joseph Tritton, Esq. 
 
 •ffDon. Sccrctanj. 
 Edward Bean Underhill, Esq., LL.D. 
 
 ©cncral Sccretar\2. 
 Alfred Henry BaYxNtes, Esq., F.R.A.S. 
 
 Bssociation Secretary. 
 Rev. J. B. Myers. 
 
 asankers. 
 Messrs. Barclay, Bevan, Tritton, & Co. 
 
 Mission House, 19, Castle Street, Holborn, 
 London, E.C. 
 
 It is requested that all cojitributions he sent to the General Secretary , 
 Alfred Henry Baynes, Mission House, 19, Castle Street, 
 Holhorn, London, E.C, and payable to his order. 
 
PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 JOHN CHAMBERLAIN : a Missionary's Biography. 
 
 By Rev. C. B. Lewis. 
 
 Price One Shilling. 
 
 JOHN THOMAS, 
 
 Surgeon of the " Earl of Oxford " East Indiaman, and first Baptist Missionary 
 
 to Bengal. 
 
 By Rev. C. B. Lewis. 
 
 Price Ten Shillings & Six Petice. 
 
 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE EAST AND 
 
 WEST 
 
 In connection with the Baptist Missionary Society. 
 
 By Edward Bean Underhill, LL.D., F.R.G.S. 
 
 Price One Shilling &f Sixpence. 
 
 MEMORIALS OF BAPTIST MISSIONARIES IN 
 JAMAICA, 
 
 Including Sketch of the Labours of the Moravians, "Wesleyans, and early 
 American Teachers in Jamaica, Bahamas, Hayti, and Trinidad. 
 
 By John Clarke, 
 
 Corresponding Member of the Ethnological Society, and late Missionary in 
 Western Africa. 
 
 Price Pour Shillings. 
 
 LIFE OF JAMES MURSELL PHILLIPPO, 
 
 Missionary in Jamaica. 
 
 By Edward Bean Underbill, LL.D., F.R.G.S. 
 
 Wi/h Portrait, price Six Shillings &• Six Pence. 
 
 " We thank Dr. Underhill for this remarkably cheap, but remarkably rich, contribu- 
 tion to our missionary biography." — The Freeman. 
 
 " Dr. Underhill has given us in this work one of the best biographies of one of the 
 best and most honoured of modern missionaries." — Nonconformist and Independent. 
 
 "One of tlie most fascinating biographies it has ever been our privilege to read. It 
 is certain to be popular." — Saptist Magazine. 
 
 "Dr. Underbill's book is one which the friends of missions will be delighted to 
 read." — Christian World. 
 
 "We commend the book to young men and to all workers in the Kingdom of 
 Christ." — Christian. 
 
 Alexander & Shepheard, 21, Castle Street, Holborn. 
 

 DATE DUE 
 
 
 - .,• ^^-- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLORD 
 
 
 PRINTED IN U S A. 
 
Princeton Theolog'cal S«"""'7,',^?m' 
 
 1 1012 01034 2527