# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1898_S35 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The Lutheran Pioneer. 35: ES ———————e—————e ee Samuel Crowther. One morning, early in the year 1821, the simple people of the town of Oshogtn, in the Yoruba country, Africa, were beginning their day. The mothers were preparing the morn- ing meal, and some of the men had already started out to work. Suddenly, without any warning, the fence which protected the town was surrounded with fierce, slave-trading Mo- hammedans, who broke through the gates and rushed in. The men of Oshogun had no time to seize their weapons, and they were Then followed a very happy time. Adjai took to his books, and made great progress. His heart expanded under the kindness of his new teachers, and, best of all, he learned to love | their Saviour. And on December 11th, 1825, the little slave-boy was baptized and took the | name of Samuel Crowther. As years went by he became in turn a schoolmaster, acatechist, a clergyman, and then Africa’s first black bishop. | And he met his mother again. Twenty-five years after they had been so cruelly parted, | | Samuel Crowther was preaching the Gospel | |in his own Yoruba country, when he was told | quickly overpowered and either killed or made captive. flee with their children, but they were pur- sued and captured, and the town was set fire to. In one of the huts a mother was giving breakfast to her three children and a little niece, when the father, who had gone out to work, suddenly rushed in with the ter- rible tidings. A few minutes later he was killed while trying to protect his family from the savage slavers. The agonized mother, with her boy Adjai, then twelve years old, and the three other little ones, fled toward the bush. But they were caught, and soon after they and many others were bound and led away as slaves from the burning and desolate remains of their once happy home. A fearful march of twenty miles fol- lowed. The slaves were lashed together with forked sticks round their necks, and thus they came to Isehun. And there the bitterest trial of all awaited little Adjai and his mother and sisters. For they were sold to different masters and torn asunder, with no hope of ever meeting again. Little Adjai was sold from one master to another, and the terrible fear came into his mind that he might fall into the hands of white men. Several times he tried to com- mit suicide, but God was watching over the unhappy little slave-boy, and saved him from himself. Then he was brought down to Lagos and sold to a Portuguese, who treated him with great cruelty. Finally, he and nearly two hundred other slaves were hurriedly thrust into the hold of a slave-ship, to be taken they knew not where. Their sufferings were hor- tible. Huddled together with dead and dy- ing, enduring seasickness, hunger, thirst, and blows, no wonder they longed for death. But help was at hand. Two English men- of-war saw the slave-ship, gave chase, boarded her decks, and liberated the slaves. How ter- Tified little Adjai was at the sight of the can- non-balls on the man-of-war’s deck! He thought they were the heads of other slaves, and he mistook the flitches of bacon for their bodies! But the kindly Englishmen soon set his fears at rest, and soon after he and his fellow-slaves were brought to the colony of freed slaves at Sierra Leone, and placed un- der the care of missionaries. a woman wanted to see him. It was his| SAMUEL CROWTHER. saw me she trembled. We grasped one an- other, looking at each other with silence and great astonishment; big tears rolled down her cheeks. She called me by the familiar names which I well remembered. Thus un- sought for—after all search for me had failed —God has brought us together again and turned our sorrow into joy.’’ He had the in- tense happiness of seeing this beloved mother baptized a few years later, the first-fruits of Abeokuta to Christ. Bishop Crowther came many times to Eng- Jand, and used to make his headquarters in a little room at the top of the Church Mission- ary House in Salisbury Square. It was won- derful all the work he got through and all the friends he made. But no man was ever less spoiled by the praises of men. His one thought was for Africa and his work there. The last time he came to England was in 1888, and even then, as an old man of nearly eighty years, he was traveling up and down England pleading for Africa, never sparing himself, always cheerful and ready. The end of the eventful life came on the last day of the year 1891, and the simple, faithful, lovable Bishop was laid to rest by the side of his mother and his wife in the cemetery at Lagos. qs - oe Honest Otto. One beautiful summer morning, two boys were strolling along the beach at a summer The terrified women tried to| mother. He wrote in his diary: ‘‘When she |resort in Sweden. Suddenly one stooped and picked up a beautiful diamond pin. ‘Oh, Carl, see what I’ve found!’’ he exclaimed. ‘Why, Otto, those are diamonds. Won't: you berich; you can get ever so much money for that.’’ ‘‘What do you mean?’” said Otto. ‘‘This isn’t mine. It must be- long to one of the great ladies at the hotel. I shall try to find the owner.’’ ‘‘Nonsense! you’ll not get even a ‘thank you’ for your pains.”” ‘An approving conscience will be sufficient reward,’’ said Otto. He went to the hotel, told the proprietor his story, and placed the pin inhis hand. ‘‘Good!’’ cried the hotel keeper. ‘‘The lady who lost the pin is here now. Stay until I take it to her.’? He soon returned and con- ducted the boy to a richly furnished par- lor.