Page:A pilgrimage to my motherland.djvu/139

130 when the Ijebu began to take the things out of the boat, in order to repossess himself of his property. I remained quiet until he attempted to remove my things, when I interposed. He turned from me, and began to talk very angrily with the canoe-man. Both became more and more excited. At this time an-other canoe with several men and women came up, and all these took part in the row, which grew more fierce every instant. I saw some of the crowd running away, who in a few moments returned, and with them about thirty men, all armed with knives, their chief at their head. They rushed at the poor man, and the chief seizing the resistless creature was about to slay him, when a woman heroically threw herself in the way of the weapon, and saved him. The row continued fully an hour longer, and terminated at last only from the sheer exhaustion of all concerned. Without an interpreter, and my own knowledge of the language being very limited, I was unable except by conjecture and an expression under-stood here and there, to learn the details of the dispute.

We arrived at Lagos on the evening of the 7th of April. Dr. Delany accomplished his overland journey in the same time, so that we met crossing the bay, and landed together. The next day, Sunday—