SAMUEL AJAYI CROWTHER was born in 1809 in the little village of Osogun, now in the southwestern state of Oyo in Nigeria. Captured by slave-raiders in 1821, he was freed by British war ships and settled in Freetown. There, he became educated, was baptized, and the first student enrolled at the famous Fourah Bay College. He became a priest of the Anglican Church, was posted to Abeokuta along with others to start the mission there and, having participated in some expeditions up the Niger River, was eventually appointed as the first black Bishop for West Africa.