apparent. Not a village or hamlet in the neighbour¬hood was left untouched by his zealous ministrations. This, perhaps, may be regarded as the beginning of his ministry. It was a voluntary movement on his part. The church soon called him to exercise his ministry in a more formal way, and for some time, at their request, he occupied every other Sabbath the little chapel at Plaxtol. Dockyard at Devonport – Marriage The death of his father, in 1838, led Saker to seek employment elsewhere. He applied at various dockyards, and was appointed in Devonport, preparing drawings for the Admiralty. In October 1839, he was sent for nine months to the dockyard at Deptford, to superintend the erection of machinery. In February 1840, in St Marys, Newington, London, he was married to Helen Jessup and returned to Devonport. Desire for a missionary life In the early days of his Christian life, he had formed the desire to consecrate his powers to the service of Christ in Africa. He owed much to his highly esteemed pastor, the Rev. Thos. Horton. In this wish he was encouraged by his devoted wife. He was accepted by the Committee of the Baptist Missionary Society. Mr. and Mrs. Saker, then members of the Morice Square Baptist church, Devonport, offered themselves for the work. It was the purpose of the missionary executive to use a small steamer in connection with mission work and Mr. Saker went out in the position of assistant missionary, combining with that the duties of engineer. Departure for Africa Origin of the African Mission & The exploration The Act of Emancipation in Jamaica drove numbers of the freed Africans to Gospel the light of life to the land of their fathers, the Dark Continent. Other British candidates like Rev. Joseph. Merrick, Alfred Saker, with their families, were examined and accepted. He arrived in Douala with his wife in 1845. Jamaican Baptist Mission to Eq. Guinea and Cameroon In Jamaica, there was an end to slavery. A number of ex-slaves who had become Christians decided to become missionaries in Africa. So began the Jamaican Baptist Missionary Society work in 1843, in Fernando Po, today Equatorial Guniea near the coast of Cameroon. In 1853, the Spanish government, instigated by the Jesuit missionaries, insisted on the departure of the Baptists from Fernando Po, and suppressed all Protestant worship. The converts resolved to accompany their teachers, and