This article examines conflict between spiritual and temporal power in nineteenth-century West Africa – the uneasy relationship between the Church Missionary Society in Yorubaland and the official British presence in the nearby port of Lagos. Having encouraged Britain to intervene in Lagos in order to extirpate the slave trade, the mission soon found itself disagreeing with the policies of the colonial government concerning both the expansion of the Lagos colony and relations with the largely Christian Egba tribe. The dispute developed into a concerted attack on the colonial governors both from missionaries in the field and from the CMS headquarters in London.