An African Bishop.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 23 January 1892, Page 2

An African Bishop.

♦ < Samuel Adjai Crowther, Bishop of Nigc Territory died. Of him the two first verses of Pear's " Unpacifio Yarn" advertisement, can be applied : - The Bishop Q, of Wangaloo, in Unpaoific Seas, „.;.■'■■■■ A Service fait conducted there, m dignity and ease; '' V. „7'ii Though White within, and free from am, it was a fact that he Unto the eye externally was black as black could be. 9> The Bishop Q of Wangaloo, beloved was of all -:., The Unpac'ifia residents, his people great and siriail, , They often said, 4l A Bishop bred, and bom of native stock, • • Is fitter than another; man to guide a native flock." The deceased prelate was a native of Africa, and his history extends over 60 years or more, frpra state of abject slavery to -JB& Episcopate. His original name was Adjai, and his family lived at Ochugu, in the Yorubu country, 100 miles inland irom the Bight of Benin. In 1821 he was carried off by the Eyo Mahometans, was exchanged for a horse, was again exchanged at Dahdah and cruelly treated, was then again sold as a slave for some tobacco, was captured by an English ship of war and landed at Sierra Leone in 1822. He was baptised in 1825, taking the names of the Evangelical vioar of Christ Church, Newgate street, Samuel Crowther. In 1889 he married Asano, a native girl, who had been taught in the same school with him. ,He was then for some years school-master at Kegent's Town, and subsequently accompanied the first Niger expedition. Arrived in England, he was sent to the Church Missionary College, Islington and was ordained by the Bishop of London. In 1854 he accompanied the second Niger Expedition, of which he wrote a very able account. He was afterwards an active clergyman of kesea, translated the Bible ■. into Yorubu, and undertook various 1 other literary works of a religious . 1 character for the benefit of his African brethren. He was consecrated first Bishop of Niger Territory, West Africa, 29th June, 1864. In May, 1880, the < ouncil of the Royal Geographic Society awarded a gold watch to Bishop Crowther in recognition of the services he has rendered to geography.