Clarence, Fernando-Po, March 10th, 1852.

My dear Walter,

I was much pleased at receiving a letter from you, and hearing that my coming out to Africa had made you feel more interested in missionary work. You ask me about the heathen here, and their language. With the exception of this settlement, they form the population of the island, and [January.

live in a very primitive state. They are very inoffensive, although energetic when provoked; and it is said here that if Spanish or Portuguese settlers were to come to the island they would massacre them or drive them away, so keenly do they still feel the bad treatment received from each in past times. As you may expect, they are very dirty in their persons, daubing their bodies with red earth, and working it well into their bushy hair. They wear no clothing, but the "gentlemen," as they are called, adorn their bodies plentifully with beads, grassmade chains of their own plaiting, and suspended lumps of goat's fat! Their talk is very pleasant to the ear, but their language not easily acquired. They talk so quick, and glide one word so much into another, that a learner will make continual mistakes. What has already been done is too imperfect to be a safe guide, and the much there is to attend to among the people of Clarence, and my illnesses, have prevented my making any great progress myself. I have paid one visit to them, and you may be glad to hear some account of it. I had long been wishing to go, but the rains and my illness had quite prevented. I found, however, a favourable opportunity before the end of the year.

Having fixed a day, I started early in the morning with one of our deacons, who has had a little school-house built in a Bubi village called Basili, about five or six miles up the mountain, and who is engaged to spend at least half the week in endeavouring to gather some of the children, or any that will come, to receive some instruction. We were accompanied by two others, settlers in this place (Clarence). One of these is Bubi born, and knows a little of the language, but imperfectly, for he left the mountain to live here when very young. Passing from this house to the further corner of the town, we soon came amongst lower bush wood, and, getting over a little style, just like English excursionists, we got well into the path to

the bush. The underwood was not very thick on each side, but often so close on the path that we had to brush or break through it. The dew was still thick upon it, just as thick as the drops after a smart shower in England; the consequence was, that the long coat I had on was soon wringing wet at the skirts, and my legs did not escape. I now began to observe some of the farms of the town people on either side,—portions of the bush which had been cleared and paled in, and then planted with yams or other things, which the settlers make their food. Most of the people here have these farms, and when their regular work is slack they give more attention to them; but the principal labour is performed by boys, i. e., servants of any age-Bubi, Bimbia, or Cameroon men, who come to the town to get engaged.

As we advanced the tall trees increased, the sun began to throw more of his rays through the branches and across our path, increasing the beauty of the foliage, &c. We soon came to the first brook which we had to cross,-there it lay in a deep hollow, pouring its sweet, clear waters quietly along; but it was like a panther at rest, for when the heavy rains come the brooks swell, and rise, and dash forward and downward with irresistible impetuosity; so are our sinful feelings when at rest, but when temptation comes to stimulate, how they will defy all restraint!

And now, to such a stay-at-home traveler as I am, came a little difficulty. Hitherto, indeed, although the season was dry, and the path called good, it yet had been rather troublesome walking; there was rather a greasy slipperiness about the earth, and it was interspersed, as all the ground here is, with hard stones of different sizes, all pretty large, and, further, the path was crossed by tortuous roots of trees. Here, at the brook, besides these, the way down was most steep. I was glad to exchange my umbrella for the long Bubi stick of our leader.

However, the descent was made without any unpleasant slip. On coming to the stream, my guide, tucking up his trousers, waded into the water to lead me over the stones, which abound in the brooks, as well as everywhere else. It was, perhaps, more difficult to clamber up the opposite side. Here our leader and another had a decided advantage; indeed, all the way; they had no shoes, and hence could pinch and fit their feet as they liked, to the inequalities of the way.

We now got into the thick of the trees-palms, cotton, red wood, and others. The appearance of the palms was very beautiful, especially at one part. A considerable group shot up their fine tall trunks uniting their plume-covered tops so as to form a rich verdant roof, lightened and beautified by the peeps of sunshine glistening through them. It was a natural cathedral, the light and graceful columns, the springing arches, formed by the branches as they shot forth from the tree and expanded, meeting, at points, the others,-even the regularity of the trees combined to make one to feel,-Here is a temple to worship the Lord of Heaven and Earth, but how few the worshipers! Some of the others are most noble trees, shooting up a hundred and twenty feet and upwards,-a hundred or more feet straight up without a branch or even a knot, smooth and grey, here and there richly marked with dashes and stripes of brown or red moss. The cotton trees have most singular trunks, sending out nearer their base, from their sides, portions like buttresses, and often in so fantastic a way that they look as if they had been put up against the tree afterwards, in consequence of some discovered weakness. If, in looking at them, I was not reminded of a cathedral, I was of some of our old country churches, where you find their failing walls propped by various buttress-additions. Amid so much foliage we had but little of the sun, but where it gained an opening its light dappled our path most sweetly.