'Presently a most unmistakable church, the true English barn, pierced with tall windows and abutted by a steeple, which of course had a clock - a nearer approach showing the belfry to be of lumber and the church and steeple to be mud, roofed with thatch - provided with a schoolroom like the church, but without the steeple, and a bit of 'green', scattered over with not unfamiliar trees, formed the startling termination of the ride ... Our first survey was of the mission compound, a large grassy oblong, garnished with umbrella trees ... cut by paths and surrounded by an ample-gated mud wall, backing the various tenements and outhouses. The position is nearly due north of the Ake Hill, or rock ...' (R.F. Burton, Abeokuta and The Camaroons Mountains, an Exploration, London, 1863, I, pp. 72-3)