and are there not many ladies in England ready to enter upon this work?

(3) They have medical missionaries who have been of great assistance to them, and who have done much to make an entrance for the clerical missionary.

(4) Their admirable schools have greatly assisted them. They have those admirably arranged and efficiently managed boarding-schools for girls at Kobe, Osaka, and Kiyoto. They have, too, an excellent college at the latter place, where a liberal education is given and to which a Theological School is attached. Here young men enjoy the advantage of a Christian education, and many of this class, from which Native agents are drawn, are brought together. The Theological Department offers advantages of training which to my

knowledge have attached some of the very best men they have.

Here again the contrast between their work and ours is complete. We have no good advanced school in connexion with our Mission, and what theological training has been done has been the work of individual missionaries, at their respective stations, in the midst of other duties, evangelistic, pastoral, and literary.

I have mentioned these four points, because they show where our weakness is, and where the American Board has an advantage over us, and I trust they will help you to understand why they appear to be ahead of us. May the Lord direct the Committee in all their deliberations respecting this Mission!

The concluding sentences give us an illustration of the eagerness with which the position and the proceedings of the Society at home are watched by its missionaries abroad. Mr. Warren will have since learned that, as he hoped, Extension and not Retrenchment is now, thank God! the Society's watchword; but Japan at present has not shared in the extension. This letter will show, as all the reports from that inviting field do show, how easily and how usefully a much larger staff might be employed there. God has set before us an open door; but in the present circumstances of Japan, who shall say how long it will be open? If to Japan the word is, "While ye have light, believe in the light," to us it assuredly is, "Work while it is day: "

And now one word more suggested by the report of the Society's Annual Meeting. That report was waited for with more than ordinary interest and anxiety.

My former bishop, the good Bishop of Norwich, described the case accurately. Last year that ugly word "retrenchment," seemed to bury all my hope of new labourers to reap the fastripening harvest in this interesting land. Truly the report which reached me when I was at Tokushima, telling of more funds and more men," has been as living water to my thirsty soul. But the question naturally arises whether with the many and growing claims which India, Africa, and China have upon the Society you will be able to give us three or four new men for Japan. I do trust that you may be able to do so, and that we may not have to withdraw

from a single station. Brother Fyson, in a letter received yesterday, says,— "Somehow, now that I have got back to Niigata, I don't much like the idea of having this station given up. There is plenty of work to do if there were only the men and means to do it. I shall be very anxious to hear the reply of the Committee." If it is, as Canon Money put it in his speech, the firm resolve of the members of the C.M.S. that in the coming year the word "retrenchment" shall have substituted for it, in the marching orders of the Society, the word "forward," will Japan be forgotten? I trust not. May the Lord direct the Committee, so that, whether it be by a redistribution of our present forces, or by giving us fresh labourers, just that may be done which shail bring most glory to the Lord Jesus!

ON THE INHABITANTS OF LAGOS: THEIR CHARACTER, PURSUITS, AND LANGUAGES.

BY THE REV. J. BUCKLEY WOOD.

HE earliest inhabitants of Lagos or its neighbourhood of whom anything is known were Yorubas. It would appear to have been about the middle of the last century that a number of people belonging to Isheri, on the river Ogun, left that place and settled at Ebute Metta, where they built a town. Subsequently, but at what time cannot be determined with any near approach to exactness, they left Ebute Metta and occupied Iddo Island. This removal was caused by the very disturbed state of the country at the time, and their insecurity on the mainland, in consequence of the ease with which an attack by superior numbers could be made upon them from the land side. About the time that they left Ebute Metta they began to make farms on the Island of Lagos, and were, so far as anything to the contrary appears, the first settlers on it. It was probably somewhere between 1790 and 1800 that a strong war-party arrived at the Island of Lagos from Benin. It was not the object of the invaders either to enslave, drive away, or wholly dispossess those already there. The settlers would gladly have resorted to the use of force to drive off the intruders; but they were not strong enough to see any hope of success if they made the attempt; so they wisely forbore to offer any great amount of opposition, and proceeded to make the best bargain they could for themselves; and here circumstances favoured them to a degree they could neither have foreseen nor expected; for they became joint-occupiers of the island with the Benins, and the possession of nearly the whole of it was allowed to remain with them, and their title to it was considered valid.

What the number of the people-Yorubas or Benins, or both togetherwas at the time this new arrangement was made, cannot be gathered with any near approach to correctness; but when compared with the present population, which numbers thirty thousand, it must have been small.

Besides Yorubas and Benins there are amongst the inhabitants of Lagos considerable numbers of Ijebus, Egbas, Ifes, Effous, Tappas, Ketus, Aworis, Popos, and representatives of many other tribes.

It is not an uncommon thing to set down all Africans as negroes, and to regard these, amongst others, as characteristics of the negro race: namely, the receding chin; the lips thick, fleshy, and protruding; the projecting arches in which the teeth are inserted, which gives the prognathous appearance commonly met with; the high cheek-bones, low forehead, and flat, wide nose. In Lagos there are great numbers of people in whom all these and other racial peculiarities would be found, but there are many in whom several of them would be met with in only a greatly modified degree; and a smaller number would be more correctly classified under the term negroid than

negro.

Amongst Native Lagosians there are many finely-built and well-developed men. But as regards both physique and bodily health the average in Lagos would be found to be below that of interior towns. One who had lived both on the coast and in the interior of the country, would entertain no doubt, that independently of other causes which may have a similar tendency, the tribes inhabiting the low swampy lands on and near the coast are affected by climatic influences which have a prejudicial effect upon both health and development, and which lower both the physical and moral tone of the inhabitants of such regions. This result is shown in the greater

languor and indisposition to exertion noticeable in such places, and in the diminished amount of self-respect, the want of personal cleanliness, and the rude and dirty habitations such people content themselves with. This is true of Lagos as of other places on the coast, where the people have not been to any appreciable extent influenced for good by other than local influences.

The Native Lagosian has much good nature, and in many ways manifests his kindliness of disposition. But he is the slave of ideas and customs which, whilst they would very likely cause the cursory observer to form a different estimate of him, serve as sanctions to the commission of many wrong acts by the worse-natured persons amongst the population. These ideas and customs would probably be found, if they could be traced to their origin, to have in most instances grown out of the teaching of the fetish priests, to whose system they added strength. This should not be overlooked by one who endeavours correctly to estimate the character of the average Lagosian, for if borne in mind it will help him to appreciate better the lights and shadows which are sure to attract his notice, and to account for contrasts which are as apparent as they are real. The Lagosian is very polite, and very attentive to and exacting in regard to small matters which go to make up politeness in so large a degree. He is not inhospitable, but more so than interior people deem becoming. He can hardly be called thrifty: he will work for a time, but when he comes into possession of his earnings he usually gives himself up to enjoyments, till a great part, and not seldom the whole, is spent. He is passionate, but when he has a purpose to serve he can be very patient of rebuke and even insult. He cherishes malice, is often revengeful, and does not easily forgive. He is often very grateful for kindness, and shows his gratitude in a way that calls for the sacrifice of what he values much: he can also be very ungrateful. He is only moderately honest, and is more studiously careful to prevent discovery of his wrong-doing than to amend it. He is not over fond of work, but delights in gossip, and is never at a loss for something to talk about. Social gatherings, drumming, dancing, and merry-makings afford him a very large portion of the happiness he knows. Perhaps his greatest ambition is to have a grand funeral: with a view to this, he will lay up valuables during a long period of years. The average Native of Lagos, who is what purely, or as nearly purely native influences as can be, in the altered state of things in Lagos, have made him, would compare somewhat unfavourably with the average Natives of interior towns. But for this difference reasons might be assigned which would make it appear to be due to the circumstances in which he has been placed, rather than to his being inferior to or of a baser nature than the interior people.

Lagosians are very superstitious. There is abundant proof of this in the every-day life of the people now, and it must have been, if possible, still more apparent when the fetish priests had it all their own way. Human sacrifices were offered annually to Olokun-the sea god; also when the bar was bad it was sought to propitiate this god with human sacrifices. Sometimes these were free-born persons, and at other times slaves. The idol was consulted as to the kind of person the occasion required; if a free-born man was needed a dance was got up, and some one at it was seized by the authority of the king and offered as a sacrifice; if a slave was needed one was taken and offered without any to-do. The wretched victim was placed in a hole in a standing posture, the hole was filled up, and the man left alive, with only his head above-ground. It might be days before death ended his sufferings,

unless some vulture, more friendly than man, hastened his release by plucking out his eyes or tearing the flesh off his face, which was allowed. To those idols which were not propitiated with human sacrifices were offered bullocks, sheep, goats, poultry, pigeons, and cooked vegetable food. The objects of worship were of great variety. A man worshipped his own head, thunder, lightning, the devil, beasts, snakes, water, medicines, brass, iron, nuts, brooms, mats, sticks, and other objects. They had implicit faith in charms, medicines, and omens. The appetite for these was catered for by the Mohammedans, who reaped what was equivalent to a golden harvest. One circumstance out of a number which show the power the fetish priesthood wielded may be mentioned. Misunderstandings between different tribes usually led to the cessation of trade and other communications between them. But no matter what wars were raging, or between what tribes, the roads were ever open to the messengers of any powerful chief or king who wished to consult Elegbara-the devil-at Iworo, near Badagry. The various agencies now at work in Lagos are gradually producing different views regarding these objects of worship, and amongst these agencies the most important are education and Christianity.

All heathens and Mohammedans who are able practise polygamy. The latter appeal to the Koran, which allows Mohammedans to have four wives, and as many concubines as they choose or can afford. Heathen mothers, during the time they are nursing, often return to their parents' houses, which are open to them at such times, and children are not weaned till they are two or even more years of age. Strange as it may seem, under such circumstances a wife will so far consult her husband's convenience as to seek for him another wife, or even more than one. There are, however, proverbial sayings in the language which show that a strong and healthier feeling exists in some women, and that there are those who have no welcome to offer to their husband's second wives. A wife falls in, perhaps, the more readily with polygamy than she otherwise would, because she has to support herself and children in a very large degree, and she is cautious lest her burden become too heavy. Another reason which makes her tolerant of the unnatural system of polygamy is, that the insecure state of society in the country makes wide family connexions desirable, as they hold out the greater hope of assistance to be obtained in times of trouble. To the reasons for polygamy already mentioned this one must be added, that the greater the number of wives a man has the more highly he is esteemed. Wives, besides providing for their own wants and those of their children, even contribute towards the subsistence of their husbands, and she who succeeds best in pleasing her husband's palate commonly is the favourite wife. The king of Lagos had the privilege of having as many wives as he pleased. Any young woman he saw and was pleased with he took; and the parents or guardians could neither refuse, protest, nor dare to show any dislike of the arrangement. The most jealous care was taken lest any man should approach near a king's wife who might happen to be in the street. Even inadvertency in such a case was punished mercilessly.

From the highest to the lowest, husbands and wives did not eat together. If there was any exception to this rule it was that some monogamists allowed their wives to join them when taking food. Sometimes a father, when eating, would allow his young children, without respect to sex, to eat with him. When the wife of a great man had cooked food for her husband she brought it to him in covered vessels, which, as to the material of which they were made, were calabashes or dried gourds, and a coarse sort of earthenware,