BIBLIOGRAPHY

(CMS. C A 2/049).

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Influential rboo in Sierra Leone were equally anxious*

They petitioned the Local Coalite® of the C.M*S. to take advantage of the mail hosts for extending Christianity to the Hi *er as it had done tc the loruba country. In 1855*

the C,M,S. asked the Eev. Edward Jones, a west Indian, prlnoipal of Pourah Bay College, to lead an expedition of three Ifeos to visit the Higer and report onthe prospects awaiting emigrants there, The delegation did not reach the Higer. By the time the mail boat took theato Fernando Po, Jones said he was

"fully satisfied in (his) mind from conversation with naval officers and others that it would not bepossible for them to ascend the Wiper and reach

q»oh unless In a steamer".

He added that Beeoroft was of r,he same opinion and that he directed them to go to Calabar instead, where there was already a sieeable colony of Ibos. At Calabar King Eyo of Creek Town declared himself in favour of welcoming

emigrants. From then, emigrants began to arrive in Calabar, A few went over to Creek town, but the majority of them

settled on the mission land at Duke Town. .Again, it Is not clear how many of them there were in Calabar. In 1856,

1, B. Jones, Journal of a Mission to the Wiper, 1853, (C.*,S. CA1/0 I 2.^ )* Also C.P. Missionary Record, 1854, p p.3'M1.

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Anderson reported a dozen families in Duka Town, in 1859, 16 Sierra Leone nen were listed ns hewing joined the

Pres-2

byterlsn Church, rao«t of the others remaining, either method 1st® or Anglican® th t they they were, though they usually did attend the Presbyterian Church.

The failure of the Jones mission was an added reason for the C.M.S. to join Macgregor Laird in pressing the government for a contract like that of carrying the nails for a new expe ltion to open up the Niger. The travel® of Dr. Barth in Northern Nigeria and faia accounts of the reeouroei of the country made the government ready to co-operate with Laird. The expedition went up the Niger in 1854. Beeoroft wee to command It but he died just before the steamer resohed Fernando Po and the leadership passed to hr. yJlliam Baikie.

The H*v, Samuel Crowther was the G.?A«8. representative on it.

The expedition reported success both inthe prospects of trade, the ready welcome nromised to eaSgrants, and the

•’bsence of any disastrous mortality among the member® of the 3

expedition. tfeogregor Laird, supported by the mlasionariea 12 1. William indereon to Consul Hutohinson, Way 30th, 1856,

e n d . in Hutchinson's deeptaoh no.71, June 24th, 1856, (TO 84/1001)•

2. U.B. Missionary Record 1859, p.118.

3* M.B. Balkie* Narrative of an Exploring Voyage

Lond. (1856)j 8. Growths rt Journal of an Expedition up the Niger and Tafaada .... In 1854- ~ (Lond. 1P5^)V"''

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<mi philanthropists in England, therefore redoubled the prea'sure on the government to grant an annual subsidy for five consecutive years to sand up more pioneering expeditions to trade on the Niger. *m*no roast?nr I venture upon your lordship to continue the exploration of Central .Africa,»

-aid Laird in a memorandum to Lord Clarendon in 1855#

"ore the 3Cientifio and Geographical results ...

and the advantage we possess in the colonies of the Gambia, sierra Leone and of the Gold Coast, most efficient agents by whose means new life and energy and a higher standard of living nay be introduced naturally, unobtrusively, end rapidly into the remoxest regions of the interior. To succeed, this return of the oivilified African to his native country carrying English habits and language with him, m s t be spontaneous and self- supporting*4. 1

-1 (x^oica

that they only required regular and assured means of communication and they would soon be settling on the JHger#

When the subsidy was granted raid the 1857 Expedition was being fitted out, notices were posted up in Sierra Leone inviting emigrants who could pay their passage to take advantage of the opportunity. More than that, Crowther was again on the Expedition, this time with the Hev. J.C.

faylor, an Tbo, and 25 emigrants as schoolmaster* and evan ©lists -’ho opened a mission station at Onitsha and 1. Laird to Lord Cl :x'enaon, 5tu Matron, 18*55. (2*0 2/23)

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another at Igbebe si the confluence, wnd the period of a-i .ration to the Niger bad began. More will be heard

1

'tout this later. But it must be said again that this erirr-'tlon to the Niger, largely inspired by missionary and esaaeroial expansion on the Niger, was different in character fro a the earlier emigration to Yoruaa, A» Taylor pointed M t in 1866,

*There is a great difference between thoea who

<?o to the Yoruba mission and the Niger. The former return to their own home, meeting their parents or surviving relatives, whilst the latter though descendants of the Ibo or Hausa ere perfect strangers to the country at large. There are only two in our mission {on the Niger) who are

actually sons of the oountry.*' 2

figures for the movement from the New rorld are even

;=ore difficult to get at thf n those for the sierra Leonean aovenent* By 1853* when the Brazilian ami pranta, who were as.-'tly Portuguese-speaking Roman. Catholics, gathered together

squired a piece of l?ind for a ohuroh in L -gos, there

3

.-.re perhaps only about 200-250 of them. Emigration continued, sometimes direct on Brazilian merchant vessels, 1. F. Orowther % J.C. Taylor* The Gospel on the Banka of

tao rtiger, p.39. (C.M.S, 1859).

?. Teylor to Menry Venn, December 15ih, 1866* (CJSS. CA3/G37) 3. Gollmer* Journal entry for April loth, 1853. (CY8. CA2/

043). Vice Consul fraser reported in December, 1852, 130 families in Lagos, all Yoruab, mostly Bgba. (K).

2/28).

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•ometimer tr England *n<l then by >*.•' "nil bouts to ff^erl**

cow* of the emigrants traded b ok to Brazil and like the Sierra Tr#one emigrants before them began to 5ask for a mipai-inary of their own. However, Portuguese priests in Brazil did not share the missionary enthusiasm of English pastors In Sierra Leon#.

Tt was to France that the Catholic Church owed much of ita missionary expansion in the 19th century, so that '’•"0tent ante did net monopolize missionary work in regions

••’hare Catholic Fnthershad long ago pioneered. It was a 7 'enoh Bishop, fgr. da 9resell&o who resigned fro® his

4 --a Ion in India and in 1856 founded the Society of African

— •~sions (S.M,*♦) intending to wake Dahomey the centre of hi* work. "’ho Congregation for the Propaganda of the Faith, the central body which directed all Catholic mission however

assigned Sierra Leona to him. He died there In 1853, and W<*v

▼ith his all the little band of missionaries who accompanied A

■J auoooftsor, then re-applied for Dahomey which was granted#

first missionary, Father Broghero, arrived in Dahomey in 1- J, coon began to visit Lagos but did not assign a

missionary there till 1867.

-anc Guilders ,n u lia Pl^ngae (Lyons 1928)#

\ 1 y ■-* r on' ry Tn h lc v rean tt Roland Cluny no a# Faya n&ifesion^lro ? (Paris 1354)* C.3# Fhlllipa in

?h'a Church In arnnoa '('Lon'-)'. 1936), p.325-8* says that in 1 j :.) ~l>/$ran ~ot the Catholic missionary priests and? 4/5t*i of the teaching brothers were French.

*, ‘

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However, on© erasnoipado in Braxil h*d volunteered to answer the cell on behalf of the Portuguese fathers. He wee Antonio, originally from St. Thomas island, brought up in a seminary in Bahia. It la not clear exactly when he arrived in Lagos, but he soon made himself a venerable

ire to the emigrants. Pa Antonie, as he was called, built a little chapel and there every Sunday he tried tc recreate the religious ceremonies he had known at Bahles the catechisms, the chants, the bleeeing of the bread, in short, he went near saying mass. Pvery Saturday, he gathered his flock together to recite the roeary. He baptised new bora babies, blessed marriages like the

arehs of old, and was called to the side of the dyine fwr 1

the last ministrations. When Father Broghcro visi*

Lagos in 1863, there was already & Catholic Church in 2 At the mass he celebrated, there were 400 present.

Father Bouohe arrived in 1867 to takeoharge of the 3

he reported "about 500 Catholics". There must have 1. BiographicrJ, Note by father Holley in Lee -fissions

Cathollquew, 2oth =?ny, 1B81. Based on questions to Antonio nimself.

2 . Father Brogh®ro in Lee Missions Catholiguea, Deo. ZLrt, 1063* Also Journal entry for Sunday, Sept. 25th,

(S.M.A, archives, Rome).

"Premiere Temps de la Mission de Lagos d'apres Merl Veronique* in !?lBalonfl de la Nigeria (Typescript is—

sent in The Lagos Census for 1872, listed 572 Catheli — Rev. J. Rhodes to secretaries Aug. 15th, 1871 seii tira were about 2,000 Aaaros in Lagos. (Meth.).

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- older Brazilian -mu Cuban oiaigrunxs who did not go to a-... There wee a sizeable colony of the® at Abeokuta,

®_ _i^ce the sierra Leone emigrant* were to b© found scattered a>.-i» In tne loruba country. There was no mention of them

r. oi-rf Lalta or on the Mger* Barry Johnston estimated in . 5 that there were about 4*QUO Brazilian© at Lagos and ffcjraan. It was after 1888 when Brazil at last abolished slavery and Governor Moloney helped to establish a regular e.^aunioation between Lagoa and Bahia for the returning

•tfiles’ that this other movement of the emigrants reaohed 2

l u oiim&x.

For an over/all estimate, one* could only make a guess u t there mu. t h«ve been some 40-50,000 people involved in b th emigration movements. Perhaps that is not a very large number in a oountry the size of Nigeria. Left to themselves end scattered all over the whole country, they sight have had n: sore significance than a band of er-service men, people who had taken part in a nigfatm&rish experience, with a use-ful stock of strange tales, and a stock of other arts for which there was not much aoope at home. But the missionary --- --- --- — --- ---1. sir Harry -Johnston* The Negro in the New World (New

York, 1916), p.96n. oit in Pieraon, op.oit., p*39n.