# A pilgrimage to my motherland

A Pilgrimage to My Motherland.
AN
ACCOUNT OF A JOURNEY
AMONG
THE EGBAS AND YORUBAS OF CENTRAL AFRICA,
In 1859-60.
BY
ROBERT CAMPBELL,
One of the Commissioners of the Niger Valley Exploring Party; late in charge of the Scientific Department of the Institute for Colored Youth, Philadelphia; and Member of the International Statistical Congress, London.
New-York:
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS HAMILTON, 48 BEEKMAN ST.
PHILADELPHIA:
BY THE AUTHOR, 661 NORTH THIRTEENTH ST.
1861.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by
ROBERT CAMPBELL,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the
Southern District of New-York.
DEDICATION.
To those friends in America and in England who generously contributed to the expense of the expedition, one of the objects of which was to make the observations and obtain the facts recorded in the following pages; but particularly to BENJAMIN COATES, of Philadelphia, whose unremitting efforts contributed in no small degree to the success of the enterprise, and to HENRY CHRISTY, of London, to whom chiefly the friends of Africa and the Negro are indebted for the cooperation of the English people, this little narrative is respectfully dedicated by
THE AUTHOR.
ADVERTISEMENT.
ALTHOUGH it is desired that this little volume should be sold entirely on its own merits, yet the friends of Christian Civilization in Africa are informed, that the profits are intended to aid the author in defraying the expense of removing with his family to Abbeokuta, which place he has adopted as his future home.
PREFACE.
The intention was to prepare only a small pamphlet, containing those points of general information respecting the Egbas and Yorubas, as persons interested in the objects of my visit to those people would wish to learn; but in spite of efforts to be brief, the work has attained its present dimensions, with the length of which, however, as a book, there is certainly no cause of complaint. The narrative is, as far as possible, confined to personal observations, though this has perhaps deprived the casual reader of some details otherwise interesting. Much error, particularly in reference to Africa, has been propagated in consequence of writers generally not confining the subject of their books to their own observations. In my own case, I presume, the sources of information being equally accessible, that the intelligent reader can obtain for himself, as easily as I can for him, whatever information he desires about the early history of Africa, its ancient races, and the efforts of the Portuguese, British and Dutch to circumnavigate and colonize the continent.
Several items of information are omitted, partly because they are not of general interest, and partly because my worthy colleague and brother, Dr. M. R. Delany, will include ​them in the Report of our Expedition, the labor of which he has kindly assumed.
R. C.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
LIVERPOOL TO LAGOS.
CHAPTER II.
ARRIVAL AT LAGOS.
CHAPTER III.
JOURNEY TO ABBEOKUTA.
CHAPTER IV.
ABBEOKUTA.
CHAPTER V.
NATIVE AUTHORITIES.
CHAPTER VI.
MISCELLANEOUS.
CHAPTER VII
RELIGION.
CHAPTER VIII
JOURNEY TO YORUBA.
CHAPTER IX
ILOEIN.
CHAPTER X
RETURN.
CHAPTER XI
CONCLUSION.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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