Burton saw the cross at Wari on his trip upriver to Benin on Monday 11 August 1862. Capuchin missionaries are believed to have established a mission at Wari in the 1680's. By the time of Burton's visit, there were just 'emblems' of the Catholic religion and remains of religious edifices.
'I caught sight of a tall crucifix close to Ebewa's house. It still bore a crown of thorns, in bronze, nailed to the centre, where the arms meet the body, and a rude M of the same material was fastened to the lower upright. It has, however, no date. Singularly wild and strange this emblem arose from a thicket of grass surrounded by dense jungle, with a typical dead tree in front. Native huts were here and there peeping over the bush, and hard by stood the usual Juju house, a dwarf shed of tattered matting, garnished with an apron of tarnished white calico: - suggestive signs of the difficulties with which the Cross has to contend in these lands where nature runs riot, and where all is rank as the spirit of man - difficulties against which it has fought a good fight, but hitherto with signal failure!' (My Wanderings in West Africa, p. 153)