S/ ( / y Z s ^ -T7V . 'OCCASIONAL PAPER’ (M ' OF THE OXFORD, CAMBRIDGE, DUBLIN, AND DURHAM . MISSION TO CENTRAL AFRICA Cmtbiiratjj fTftas tom BISHOP MACKENZIE, DR. LIVINGSTONE, AND OTHER MEMBERS OE THE ^MISSION AND EXPEDITION, AS WELL AS FROM CAPT. WILS6j|;- H.M.S. ‘GORGON,’ AND DR. RAMSAY §lg (Drbxr of Ihc Central Committee LONDON RIVIN GrTONS, WATERLOO PLACE 1S62 Price One Shilling LONDON PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AKD CO, NEW-STREKT SQUARE Gr«?af umHfll •'i * "N” The Tent do's Till. TtuoR.said to vise tn the JMdlanoe rcciu/e' 'Wa.teisTudjnvbably ZOOC t? ‘ 3£irs7i/ JZleplunnt; UfarsTv',, Wa’B itaract IMururo's 'Vail I CLar enilun. M ‘ IMailn Isl 30 36 9pocciswoocL& &.C? Ixth. IT&wS t. Skitteree X. on cLctl/ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Columbia University Libraries https://archive.org/details/occasionalpaperoOOmack • OCCASIONAL PAPER ’ &c. The heavy tidings from the Universities’ Mission in Central Africa* which reached England by the last Cape mail, have occa¬ sioned a sorrow as deep and as universal as the interest which was felt in that great undertaking, and as the admiration which was excited by the noble self-devotion -of Bishop Mackenzie and his associates, the circumstances of whose departure to the scene of their distant labours is still fresh in the recollection of all who were present at the farewell services in Canterbury Cathedral on October 1, 1860. Never, certainly, did any mission set forth under happier auspices; seldom has the faith which sent forth such a mission been earlier tested by the discipline of heavy trials. Less than thirteen months after his Consecration, within six months after the establish¬ ment of the Mission in the Manganja Highlands, Bishop Mackenzie was taken to his reward, and the banks of the Shire are already consecrated by the dust of a Christian Missionary Bishop; — God grant that it be the earnest of an abundant harvest at the resurrec¬ tion of the just. A second of that small devoted band, the sole companion of the Bishop’s dying hour, having performed the last rites of the Church over his departed father, returned to the Mission station only to communicate the sad intelligence, and then to fall asleep. The infant Church weeps already as a widow, deprived of her head at the very time when his presence seemed most necessary for her confirmation, if not for her existence. Regret for those who have laid down their lives, in the very prime of age, in the service of Christ, were altogether misplaced, and could only argue want of faith in the promises of our Christian calling. Of none could it more truly be said, that ‘they being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time ; for their soul pleased the Lord; therefore hastened He to take them away from among the wicked.’ Sympathy with the surviving mourners, whether the relatives of the Bishop and Mr. Burrup, or their associates in the work of the Mission, is a spontaneous tribute to the worth of the departed which 4 it is impossible for any who knew them to withhold; and if it be any consolation to the bereaved, they may be assured that their sorrow is shared by thousands of their fellow-Christians, and that, while their private loss is wept as a public calamity to the Church, their close relation to the departed is felt to entitle them to the special prayers of the faithful. But another duty must now be performed, for they, who are inte¬ rested in the Mission, have a right to expect a detailed account of what has been already accomplished, in order that they may under¬ stand the imperative necessity that exists for filling up, with the least possible delay, the void that has been occasioned by the removal of the head, and one of the most efficient members of the Mission party—a necessity so strongly felt by the Metropolitan of Cape Town, that he has actually come to England, at great personal inconvenience, on the earnest request of his clergy and the local committee, by the very steamer that brought us the mournful intel¬ ligence, with a view to assist the General Committee, by his counsel and cooperation, in this unforeseen and perplexing emergency. The various letters and journals received by the last mail from the Mission party, as well as from Dr. Livingstone and the members of his expedition, happily furnish the fullest details of all that has happened since we lost sight of the Missionaries on the eve of their departure for the Zambesi, on April 19, 1861, as detailed in a letter from Mr. Waller, which was published in the last Report, pages 26, 27, since which date nothing had been heard either of the Mission or of the expedition, with the exception of some letters written during their progress up the Shire. The narrative of the establishment and progress of the Mission can be given in an almost continuous form, in the very words of the Bishop himself, till within a fortnight of his decease ; and such, details of its brief but chequered history, as are contained in his letters to the Honorary Secretaries, may fairly be regarded as public property. To these letters are added, where necessary, extracts from his private journal or from letters to friends ; and the narrative is continued to the latest possible date in the communications of the surviving members of the Mission, and of Dr. Livingstone, and the members of his Expedition. The earliest letter of Bishop Mackenzie, though dated September 30, refers to the circumstances attending the first establishment of the Mission in July. It is addressed to the late Honorary Secretary of the General Committee: — Dear Strong, Magomero, September 30, 1861. 1 have not written to you since we left Shamo, whence 1 sent a packet of letters by way of Senna and Mozambique. About our tedious journey up the Shire, there is little to say. The few letters that I wrote at that time will show how little there is of interest for me to tell you. We crossed the bar at Kongone, as you know, on the first of May — spent a fortnight working up the Zambesi to the confluence of the Shire, and more than seven weeks labouring up the Shire. It was a considerable trial of our patience — chiefly perhaps to Livingstone, who saw the precious months that he intended to spend in exploring Lake Nyassa, and 5 seeking a communication between it and the River Rovuma, slipping away, and knew that he could not extend his journey beyond a certain date, having made an appointment to meet some man-of-war at Kongone about the middle of December. To ourselves, too, the loss of time seemed injurious, but we comforted ourselves with the certainty that He in whose hands are all things would bring all things to pass according to the counsel of His will; and we prayed that He would prepare their hearts to receive us, and Himself begin the work which He had committed to us. On the 8th of July the ‘Pioneer’ cast anchor at Dakanamoya (marked Chibisa in Livingstone’s maps), an island overlooked by the clay cliff, on the top of which is the village formerly occupied by Chibisa, and still inhabited by his people. Here we determined to leave Rowley, with Gamble and Job, to take care of the goods, and build a shed to shelter them, and to be used on future occasions, when the ‘ Pioneer ’ should bring up a fresh party. Livingstone most generously devoted a fortnight (and it proved to be eighteen days before he got back), for the purpose of coming up to this plain with us, introducing us to the chiefs, and so giving us the advantage of their confidence in him, and helping us to choose a place. I have written at length, to friends, of the events of that fortnight. Livingstone left us on this spot, Magomero, with the chief Chigunda, with whom we are on terms of mutual friendship — who has the greatest respect apparently for us, and we as much respect for him as could be expected. Betore leaving the mention of Livingstone’s name, I must ask you to see that a letter is written, in the name of the Committee (with their consent, of course), to the Foreign Secretary, expressing our thanks for the great assistance rendered to this Mission by the members of the expedition personally as well as collectively. It may fairly be said that, humanly speaking, we should have been utterly helpless, from the time we left the ship till we reached this place, but for the aid given us by Livingstone. Our whole party were carried, with all our stores, on board the * Pioneer,’ landed in health and safety, and guided to a place where we could at once begin our work. We had all the countenance of Her Majesty’s representative in favour of our endeavour to convert these tribes, his piety and religious philanthropy giving reality and ear¬ nestness to all his acts on our behalf. We cannot be too thankful for such efficient assistance. The events which immediately followed the landing at Dakanamoya are briefly narrated by Dr. Livingstone in a private letter to Mr. Frere, an extract from which is here inserted, on account of the important bearing of those events on the early history of the Mis¬ sion. The letter is dated Chibisa, November 13, 1861 : — On July 15 last we went up to the Manganja highlands east of this,in order to show the Bishop an eligible country for his Mission, and no sooner did we cross the brow of the plateau than we discovered that the Portuguese had set up an extensive system of slave-hunting in the very country to which the Mission had come. The first party, headed by a well-known slave of one of our friends, had eighty-four captives. While enquiring who gave the adventurers leave to make war— and of the captives how they came to be bound — the Tette men escaped into the bush, so I handed these, and the captives of three other Portuguese parties over to the Mission as a beginning of the school. A detached portion of a tribe called Ajawa had been incited by Portuguese, who followed the path taken by Dr. Kirk from this to Tette, to attack village after village of Manganja — kill the men, and sell the women and children to them for calico, worth here from Is. to 2s. 6 d. each. We went to try and induce the Ajawa to cease the effusion of blood, and came to them in the act of burning three villages. Flushed with victory, they felt fully inclined to make minced meat of us all. Some Manganja followers deprived us of the benefit of our English name by calling out that one of their great sorcerers had come ; and the effect of this, in nullifying our declara¬ tions of peace, was not realised till afterwards. Showers of poisoned arrows com¬ pelled us to act in self-defence. The same system of using the Ajawa as a 6 catspaw to abstract hundreds of Manganja slaves, and, I cannot help believing, with the view of thereby rooting the Mission out of the country, is still carried on. These same events are more briefly narrated in the journal of Bishop Mackenzie, which bring down the history of the Mission to its establishment at Magomero : — July 15th.— Started from the ship for the Highlands, accompanied, or rather guided, by Livingstone, Charles Livingstone, Kirk, and leaving Rowley, Gamble, and Job. 16th.—Fell in with slave party, whom Livingstone freed. 19th.—Arrived at Magomero. 22nd.—Livingstone rescued second large party of slaves from the hands of Tette men. 23rd.—Battle with the Ajawa. 25th.—Livingstone having invited the chiefs to meet him, Murongwe (more correctly Chabwera) came, and the representatives of Chinsunzi. Livingstone explained that, though they had seen us only as fighters, we had not come for this ; we had come to teach them about God and to promote peace ; but, finding men (the Ajawa) murdering, burning, and selling men, we had gone to stop them. If they profited by this lesson and would live at peace, we should rejoice and be all friends; if not, we should look after them again. He was going, but some would stay ; they would stay here — make a strong place, to which women and children might flee in case of attack. They said ‘ selling people was bad.’ Livingstone said: ‘ You have sold also; the only difference is, the Ajawa murder and steal and then sell.’ They did not deny it. They said, ‘ Let the English settle at Chinsunzi’s; he will not be pleased else.’ Livingstone said, ‘ This place is better; it is far to carry goods to Chinsunzi’s.’ They agreed, and said they thought Chinsunzi would consent. Livingstone said, ‘ You must cultivate cotton ; we will buy that.’ ‘ But where shall we get seed ? ’ Livingstone gave seed to about fifty of them (not that they have no seed, but I suppose none of the Tonje manga, foreign cotton, the better sort). We shall buy from them for Livingstone. We gave a present for Chinsunzi, who, they said, was too old to come so far. Before two o’clock, however, Chinsunzi himself came. Old man, pleasant expression, brass earrings, necklace a single string of red beads, a native cloth six feet each way, a large ivory bracelet two inches broad, and a very dirty cap on his head. A long discussion as to whether we shall build here or at his place. He urged us strongly to come; how could we say we loved him if we would not come and live beside him ? If we stayed here we should get news of his death ; in fact, he was dead already (a strong form of the idea that he was broken-hearted). Livingstone took his bow and arrows, saying that, if he was dead, he would of course let him have them (a laugh). Livingstone said: ‘Well, if you do not want them to stay here, you had better say so.’ To this he gave some vague answer. When they rose to go, Livingstone said, ‘ Well, we shall build here,’ and he made no answer. 29th.—Livingstone started for the ship. Fence begun. 30th.—Procter and Scudamore joined us, having remained at Soche’s on the 18th, The Mission party, being thus far complete, commenced imme¬ diately to establish themselves in the station which had thus been selected. They were not, however, permitted to do this undis¬ turbed : the slave-dealing tribe of the Ajawa occasioned them con¬ tinual anxiety, and they were again brought into collision with them, under circumstances detailed in the following letter, addressed to a member of the Cambridge Committee : — 7 Mr Dear- Magomero, Aug. 21, 1861. I must let a few lines goto Cambridge also. You will know that Livingstone came up to help us to fix upon a spot. He had named Chibaba's before we left the ship ; but on the way up we found so fine a plain, well watered, and only two days’ walk from the ship, that we thought of settling there. We came on, however, to see the country he had spoken of — knowing that it was distracted by the attacks of the Ajawa. We came to Chibaba’s. and found that the chief whom Livingstone had left here was dead. The present man, however, Chigunda, was urgent in pressing us to stay with him. He said all the chiefs in front of him had fled from the Ajawa, but that if we would stay with him, he would not flee. Such an invitation from a chief was too good to be thrown away, and we only delayed our decision till we had seen the ground in front. The great chief of this neighbourhood, Chinsunzi, was about a day’s walk ahead, and Livingstone was anxious to go so far to learn more definitely about the Ajawa. Aug. 25, Sunday.—The result was, that in attempting to come to a conver¬ sation with the Ajawa chiefs, we were involved in an encounter with them. On returning, and on Livingstone’s leaving us, as he did the following Monday, I asked him whether he thought circumstances could arise which would make us go again and fight. He said, ‘No. You will be oppressed with requests, but don’t go.’ Accordingly, for ten days we continued to answer the many applications we received, by saying always that we must stay and take care of the women and children — more than a hundred — which were in our hands. But when four more joined us, we took the question fairly into consideration, and resolved to go. We were ourselves keeping unbroken watch at nights, which fell rather heavy on eight men, with full work during the day, and sometimes one or two on the sick list. Each watch was three hours, and recurred oftener than once in three nights. August 27.—It was very unpleasant being in suspense whether we were to be attacked at night. One night when I was on watch, and all was still, a man who lives in the village—a relation of our chief Chigunda—gave alarm that he had seen two or three strange men cross the village, who had refused to stop when he called and asked who they were. We were all roused, and half-an-hour spent—not in anxiety, for we did not think there was anything in it—but in a careful search, that we might err, if at all, on the side of prudence. But our main motive for resolving to join and lead a Manganja force was this :—The peace of the country was disturbed by a foreign marauding and murdering party. These not only were constantly burning villages and killing the men; but the weaker men and the women and children they captured, and sold to traders from Tette, of whose treatment of their slaves we had the evi¬ dence of our eyes as well as of the poor creatures. We knew of two women murdered in cold blood, simply because they tried to escape on the march ; and another case, where, a mother being too weak to carry her infant, the child was taken from her and its brains dashed out. It is true the people we are among were nearly as bad. They have been in the habit of selling others of their own nation, and the horrors of this very war were revolting; and this sug¬ gested to us that we should use this opportunity to check the crimes of this nation itself. Accordingly, it was a condition of the war, that the Mangai ja should no longer sell or buy people, and that if any slave-traders come into these parts they shall not be harboured as heretofore, and that notice shall immediately be given to us. Hitherto these poor timid people —for they are timid with all their cruelty—have been so afraid of an Unzungo—a man from the civilized world—that two or three of these might march through the country with a train of slaves, unopposed. But now that the Manganja saw that we are not afraid of them— on the contrary, that they flee when they see us, and that when we have caught them we have put their necks into the forked sticks which rve took from their victims, I think they will surely not allow themselves to be oppressed in the way they have been. The issue was that, on the 13th of this month, we started for Chinsunzi’s village, about four hours’ walk from this, where we met our allies. We were 8 disappointed, after all that had been said, to find that it is not the custom of the Manganja for the chiefs to go to war. There gathered, however, about 900 or 1,000 men with bows and arrows, and about twenty with guns, whom we provided with powder. We were led to the top of a hill, from which we could see the smoke rising from the Ajawa villages, about four miles distant, and there we arranged our point of approach. I had asked Waller to take command on this day, both thinking it more seemly, and also believing that his character—prompt and instinctive—as well as his previous habits (among sportsmen) would make him a better general than myself. We agreed to make the attempt to bring the chiefs of the Ajawa to a parley, and arranged to conceal our army, lest it should excite them to war without a chance of averting it, and that Waller and I, with Charles, one of our Cape Town men, and a native of this country (Chimula), with whom Charles can converse in Makao language, and who was finally to speak to the chiefs. We agreed to go unarmed towards the Ajawa, keeping in sight of two of our own party, and not going more than three hundred yards: and to call for the chiefs to come and speak to us. If things looked suspicious, the waving of a red handkerchief was the signal for the advance of our party, on whom we might fall back ; while a white flag would be the symbol of peace. There was some risk in this, but we thought it right to do everything to avoid a battle; and intended to offer them, as conditions of peace, that they should deliver up their guns and ammunition, their captives, and any slave-buyers who might be in their camp, and go right away. The chance of their accepting these terms was infinitesimally small, but we could accept nothing less. What made it the less likely they would agree was, that, by Charles’s account, the Ajawa was forced on by the Anyonyo, who are again forced on by the Makoa, and pursued on the side by the Ajojo; whether these tribes lie on our north-east or south¬ east we have not ascertained certainly, but Charles always says ‘ they cannot fall back for the Anyonyo.’ The actual parley, or rather attempt at one, failed. We went down; and, as it seems, were quite hid from our friends. Three or four men, one with a gun, the others with bows and arrows, came to meet us. We called for the chiefs; they asked what sort of white men we were, and when we said English, they said they did not wish to have anything to do with us, and threatened to fire. Charles told me afterwards that orders were shouted across from their head-quarters to fire ; and they must have been bad shots if they had not hit us at that distance. We kept our place, however, till we had got it clearly transmitted to them—and it was no easy matter to keep men’s thoughts to the ‘ question ’—that if they would speak, there would be no war; if they would not, there would be war. They had intimated that they saw our men on the hill above us. And when they still menaced us, we retreated for three or four yards at a dignified walk, but after that at a smart trot. I quite believe, with Charles, that our safety was due to the overruling providence of God! Then followed a fight—not long maintained—for within an hour there was no man to stand before us. In that hour they had arranged and carried out the retreat of their whole party, some to the NE., between the loftiest part of Zomba and Lake Shirwa; some, as it afterwards appeared, to another Ajawa village on the SW. nearer this than the one we that day destroyed, but of the existence of which we had no idea, having attributed to one party all stories we heard of attacks and ravages of ‘ the Ajawa.’ I am glad to say there was not so much destruction of life as one would have thought. I should think fifty very far beyond the reality. The fact was, the long shots from some of our rifles silenced even their guns ; I have not heard of one killed on our side. But we effected part of our object by driving them away. We rescued probably seventy or eighty captives, and were the cause of the capture of, perhaps, as many Ajawa women and children ; of all these, about fifty are with us, and twenty or thirty have gone, at their own wish, to live in the various Manganja families. The remainder are in the hands of the Manganja who took them on the field. We are still urging as strongly as possible that these shall be allowed 9 to go where they please, and that they shall be brought here as soon as possible that we may see that they have free choice. And we hear to-day that thirteen more are close at hand, and will be here this afternoon. Chinsunzi and Kankombe, the two great chiefs of these parts, are coming, and I suppose they will repeat their request of last week, that we shall join in the attack of this third, and (I trust) last Ajawa village. Our answer last week was, that they had violated the conditions of the last alliance by keeping back the women and children, and that we would listen to no application about going to war again, nor accept the present of a goat which they brought, till they did as they had promised. In the meantime we are getting on in peaceful occupations, laying in food—and 160 or 170 mouths is no small undertaking —building huts ; six men build one in two days; building our own house, of which the walls are half completed, and the thatching three-quarters (no mistake in this); and above all, in our Christian worship of God and learning of the language. We have daily morning and evening service (in full). Communion on Sundays and saints’ days, and we can — some of us better, some worse —give directions to the people. In this, our Cape Town men, Charles and William (Job is in charge of the baggage at the river) are invaluable. Scudamore driils the little boys, about seventy, under ten years old, giving the word of com¬ mand in the native tongue; and our meals are served up (or served down, for a reed mat on the ground is still our table), by a neat, clean, sharp boy of 12 or so, Wekotanga, to whom we speak in the native language, and so run the risk of getting beer in the tea cup instead of tea, &c. The security of the Mission being thus established, the peaceful occupations were resumed, and the interesting details of the following month are thus narrated in the continuation of the letter of September 30, the commencement of which has been given above: — The first party of freed people that came into our hands consisted of eighty-four persons, men, women, and children. On the way here we rescued sixteen ; on July 22, forty-four. On the day after our attack on the Ajawa camp, that is, on August 14, we counted more than eighty in the village of the chief, Chinsunzi, some captives of the Ajawa, some Ajawa captured on the field—and since that perhaps forty freed people have been brought here, and have chosen, most of them, to remain with us. About fifty of the eighty, on August 14, either went, or were taken by the Manganja people, and about fifty others have left us in various ways; for we have now seventy-eight men and boys, and seventy-nine women and girls. We call over a list every morning; I take the women in one place, and Scudamore the men and boys in another. This morning only one was absent. Of the women about forty-five are full grown, and most of these have been married. One, Chesiwiranga, a motherly, excellent creature, always ready to do a good turn for anybody ; she has on her broad back a little two-year old child, whom she adopted, very likely before they came into our charge; certainly I do not. remember the time when she did not have her. If any child is crying, you are sure to find Chesiwiranga is on the spot before you, trying to set things right, and generally taking the right way. She is ready to sympathise with all in distress. I have only once had to scold her, and that was when, in her pity for a boy who was being punished, she incited the boy who was holding him to let him go. She was selected with unquestionable propriety to cook the food, morning and evening, for the thirty youngest boys, and I think no pleasure could be so great for her as the handing lumps of porridge to them as they sit before her in a row. Another of these women, Kinamwisa, has her daughter, and her daughter’s daughter, both here with us. They are all in the hands of the surgeon, for sores on their feet or legs. It is very pretty to see the love of the grandmother for the little child, and the nestling way in which she again clings to Kinamwisa. This child has evidently been kindly treated ; she shrinks from pain, far more than most of them. The old woman has a very sore toe, having cut off the point of it, including the whole of the nail, with a hoe, some time ago; but she thinks little apparently about this, compared with her care for Chenehekondaka. There are others 10 that are more rough and noisy, and that make us -wish for the softening influences of theladies we are expecting. They will be able to excite the latent sparks of modesty and proper shame, and their example will have an effect which ours can never have. At present we have got them to set themselves in order, and answer regularly to their names. Then some of those who are able go out to clear the grain from a piece of ground where we shall sow wflien the rains commence. This they do under the directions of either Charles or William, two of our Cape Town men ; and at night they come and get the native flour to make their porridge for that night and next morning. At night they sleep far more crowded than we like, on the floor of certain huts apportioned to them. This will seem very little way to have made with them, and it is far less than our wishes and hopes—but it is something. At first we could not learn the name of one of them ; they laughed only, when we asked. They much preferred sleep¬ ing round fires in the open air to going into their huts, and we often had to go at night to see that men and women were not all mixed together. I am not certain that these evils are entirely removed ; but at least they exist only in exceptional cases. One means of diminishing them has been our recognising the union of seven couples. — another, the building of additional huts, a work which is far from complete, — a third, our continual presence among them. But much of the very foundation of propriety among them is still to be laid. I have been speaking of the grown-up women. There are twenty-four girls of an age to be still at school, most of them about ten years old. Some of the elder ones go out with the women to work, most of them run about all day ; they must learn to read and sew. In the matter of dress, we have not gone much beyond the natives around us. A piece of cloth round the body is all they wear. The making of dresses will occupy the sewing school for some time when it is established. Of the men and boys, twelve or thirteen are full grown. About five-and- twenty more will include all above ten years old, and there are about thirty-six below that age. The men and elder boys begin work every day after their list is called, that is at eight o’clock. Many either cut down and bring home wood for our use in building — yesterday morning (1 am now writing on Oct. 2) they brought home posts for a fowl-house — or grass for thatching, or stones to fill a drain, or such things. Over the boys we generally send au overseer, such as one of the Makololo, who are living with us; latterly they have been building huts for the use of those who are married. Some of them are working with one or other of the English workmen ; one is assigned as assistant to the cook, and Wekotani (pronounced Weykotaanee) has been trained by Charles to bring in our dinner and wait upon us, so that now he does it without supervision. Another attends upon the one of our party (Waller till the last week, when he was laid aside by sickness) who administers and dresses sores. The younger boys have occasionally been sent to some such work when there was anything they could do; more commonly, they have done nothing. I know this has not been good for them, and we have gradually been introducing a system of control over them. About six weeks ago they began to seek their food regularly cooked and given to them; about a month ago Scudamore began drilling them, and about a fortnight ago we began teaching them the alphabet in three classes. Rowley is urging on me the necessity of having a dormitory, and it is one of the next things to be begun. Another essential part of our work has been the medical department — you know we have no professional man ; but Waller has some knowledge of the sub¬ ject, and by the help of books of reference has done all that has been needful. S. Meller, the physician attached to the ‘ Pioneer,’ has been with us for a few weeks, recruiting his own health and that of two of the crew, by change of air in this healthy highland region ; and by his advice and treatment all the ulcers and other evils among our people are beginning to give way — we have had so much to do in this way at home, that we have not invited our neighbours to use our medicine chest as a dispensary. This I should be glad to be able to do. I trust we shall have a medical man among the arrivals in January. So much for the home mission work of the last two months. Our political 11 relations are also of some importance. Our position to Chigunda, tlie chief in whose territory we live, is, that on the day we arrived with Livingstone (July 19) he begged us to stay here, saying that every one was fleeing from his home for fear of the Ajawa ; hut if we would settle here, he would remain. We agreed a few days after to do so, and proposed to buy the village as it stood. To this he objected, on the ground that this was the home of his ancestors, and their graves were here; ‘ but let us live together.’ We said we would pay, then, for the hut we wished for, when we got our cloth from the ship. He said, ‘ do not talk of paying, it is all yours.’ Accordingly we gave him a handsome present, worth, perhaps, one pound. He has ever since fulfilled his promise : if we wanted to clear a piece of ground for a garden, we might at once remove his tobacco which was growing there: he had gathered the best leaves and did not care for the rest. If we want messengers to send anywhere, he finds the men, and we have only to pay them. Is there a question of punishment, such and such is the custom among the Man- ganja, but the English are wiser — what do we say ? Do we want to get classical Manganja by asking how he expresses himself, he is delighted to help us, and wants to learn English in return. Do other chiefs come on business, he acts as repeater of our respective speeches ; and if he speaks while he urges us to do as they request, hp enforces on them the necessity of doing as we require. It is true that his wife detained one of our free people, a girl, and prevented her from returning to us, by telling her that we were fattening our people up to have a grand feast on them one day (selling them for slaves is too common a thing to excite a child’s imagina¬ tion), or that when we were short of gunpowder we should kill her, and make some from her brains ; such being curreut stories among the Manganja. This is true, and he tried unsuccessfully to escape the guilt of complicity. It is true that his sister-in-law and her daughter, the wife of another of his brothers, joined to steal three or four of our people ; but in this case I think he has no part. On the whole, we may be very thankful to have been led to settle here. We were violently urged by a greater chief, Chinsunzi, to settle at his village, and should have had great cause for regret if we had. Are we wrong in hoping that he [Chigunda] may soon be brought to the faith of Christ, and that his influence may increase, and so our great objects be much furthered ? In the general politics of the country we have not gone out of our way to interfere, but have taken every opportunity of opposing and reprobating the buying, selling, and stealing of men. Our attacks upon the two Ajawa villages (or rather towns), first under Livingstone, and then by ourselves, have been undertaken on the ground that they were slave capturers and sellers quite as much as that they were armed enemies; and in the second case we took occasion, before agreeing to head the Manganja force, to get from the chiefs who were present a promise (which we valued more then than we should do now, though a verbal acknowledgement of an obligation is always something), that they would put down slave-trading as much as they could, would punish those whom they found guilty, and would send away at once any slave dealers who might come into the country. It is very doubtful whether this promise will have any direct effect on their conduct, so little regard do they seem to have for truth. But it is something to appeal to in urging these things upon their consciences, and is all that could be done to legalise a threat of force to be used by the nation as a whole against any particular chief. The direct effect of the two attacks has been the pacification of a wide extent of country, nearly a thousand square miles, which was constantly suffering from the outrages of these marauders, and the interruption of their progress southwards, by which probably a greater extent than I have named would have been depopulated every year. Peace is one of the greatest blessings in itself. Those who live at home cannot form any adequate idea of such a country as this, where no man’s life or liberty is safe, unless he be able to defend himself, where no one thinks of going about unarmed, and where the strong, as a matter of course, oppress the weak. Peace and security is an ines¬ timable blessing ; but besides this, it is an essential for the establishment of civili¬ sation, and, to say the least, a great help and promoter of Christianity itself. How could we hope our mission would be able to work if every man were in fear that his village might be burned the following morning ? These were arguments 12 in favour of our taking up arms—the real reason of our doing so being, however, that when the chiefs of the country called upon us to help in its defence against a powerful enemy, and we felt that the result depended, under God, on our going or refusing, we could not refuse. The position we are in, in consequence, is, that all the people look upon us with the greatest respect, mingled, of course, with fear ; but this is the less marked in a country where almost every one is afraid of every one else, and is greatly diminished in the case of those who know us best, and observe that we use our great power always either .for justice or mercy, that we have taken nothing for ourselves in the war, and that we can be cheerful and lighthearted as well as stern. Scudamore has been teaching the boys and men to use leaping poles and play at leap-frog ! In acquiring the language, we have made fair progress. We have some hundreds of words and phrases noted down, some obtained directly from the natives, some from our interpreter William; some of us can blunder through a conversation regarding visible objects, with one or other of our immediate neigh¬ bours, asking him continually to repeat what we have tried to express, in correct words. We look forward to the time when we shall be able to understand part of a conversation between two of the natives, and shall so learn for ourselves new words and phrases, but that is still at some distance. So far as we can judge, the language is not difficult. There are no peculiar sounds like the Hottentot and Kafir clicks, with which there is a marked relationship both to Kafir and to Sechuana. Of course any attempt at translation is far beyond us, and even preaching and religious teaching I have determined to postpone, till I can at least tell the real meaning of the words used by the interpreter, or, better still, till we can speak ourselves. It requires sometimes a recollection of the reasons for this determination, to keep one from getting into a religious conversation, and the rule is not so absolutely adhered to but that the other day, when a man tried to conceal a crime by a false tale, I told him that God in heaven hates not only murderers, adulterers, men-stealers, but also liars. But for the most part we have spoken in general terms of the teaching we shall give them, and of the message which we have for them from Heaven, and which we shall give when we can speak their language. As to our buildings, See., we have put up a strong fence across the isthmus of our peninsula, about seventy yards long, the posts, as thick as a man’s leg, touching each other. A house forty feet by sixteen, thatched; the only stones employed were those put in the drain under the eaves, and the only nails those in the hinges of the doors. We have two small storehouses full of corn, a storehouse in progress for general goods, a goat house and thirty-seven goats, between one and two hundred fowls, a large house in course of erection, twenty huts, of which we occupy three or four, the married couples six, and the men of our people the remainder ; and, last not least, we have now one post set up, and (Oct. 4) six or seven cut, for the church. We have just about enough barter goods to last till the end of January, when we may expect a new supply. It is curious that on Rowley’s telling me some time ago that we are spending at the rate of about twenty fathoms of calico per day, and that of this perhaps half was for ourselves, and half for the people, I remembered that my estimate at Cape Town was that ten fathoms was more than we were likely to want, and that I said at the time, then let us take twenty. We got a considerable stock of fancy goods, I mean brass wire for armlets, knives, needles, looking-glasses, rat-traps, files, &c., &c., at Cape Town, but these are not usually disposable when cloth (calico) is to be had, and I am glad of this. Livingstone’s remark that the people like a good fabric, rather than a brilliant or showy article, holds true here. The ground on which we have pitched is a peninsula on the left bank of the stream, which nearly surrounds it, about 200 yards by 80 yards. Fine trees are growing on the banks of the stream, which are steep, and from twenty to thirty feet high — so deep a bed being nearly filled, I suppose, by the stream in the rainy season. Near the fence at the eastern and higher end is our house, and will be all our own dwellings when built. The people are in huts dotted about in the broader part, and here also are three of the bridal huts, the other four being 13 outside the fence, and forming the nucleus of a native (not Christian, as yet) village. At the western end is to he our Church, and across the stream the burial-ground; on each side across the stream is a large piece of cleared ground for cultivation. In speaking of our political relations, I ought to have said that though I think we ought not to go out of our way to interfere, yet I am anxious to infuse a right spirit and right principles into their minds on the subject of government, as well as others. I expected to have to preach clemency to some arbitrary ruler, and to impress upon him that he should rule the people for their good, not for his own pleasure and aggrandisement. I find there is very little exercise of power at all ; nothing like the Zulu or other Kafir tribes. Every man does that which is good in his own eyes, and if wronged, looks to himself first to gain redress. There are persons called Mapungo (judges), to whom cases are sometimes referred, and who decide on the merits of the case, and assign the fine : but they have no power to enforce their own sentence, and are therefore more like referees or arbitrators. The chief never compels men to refer cases to these judges, and if appealed to, to compel restitution, it is more in the character of a powerful man, than of a moral governor, that he is thus appealed to ; and he is at liberty, and often chooses, to disregard the appeal. At the same time there is enough in his strength, and in his prerogative, to form the foundation of a regular government. It is in his right to forbid a family to settle within his territory, and I presume he would be equally entitled in removing anyone; and if he did so on just grounds, would be supported by public opinion. I have had one or two oppor¬ tunities of urging him to a just use of discipline. As to the extension of our work here, there is full opportunity for the em¬ ployment of more than we have now with us. I have asked three chiefs who live in different parts of this country whether they would like to have English people to live with them, as we are doing with Chigunda here, and they have each said ‘ Yes; ’ and I do not think there is any one here who would not say the same. So that the question is simply, what would he the most advantageous positions for a series of stations? (In saying that all the chiefs would welcome us, of course I do not mean that they are anxious to have the Gospel preached to them and their people. They know nothing about the Gospel hut what they may have picked up by observing us. They probably know that our daily service is a worship of God. They know that we profess to have come here not for our own profit, but to do them good, and I think they believe in the sincerity of that profession, and perhaps that is all; but still they have no prejudices against us. On the contrary, they would value our presence for all things which they do know about us.) I am waiting to see Livingstone on his return from Nyassa, before making up my mind as to what appear the best places; but my idea is, that two or three stations on the shores of Lake Shirwa would have the advantage of easy water communi¬ cation with each other. One of them might be at the north end of Shirwa, where, according to our present knowledge, there is an isthmus of five or six miles across. But I hope to write more when I have seen Livingstone. This hopeful progress continued during the earlier part of October, when the ordinary occupations of the Missionaries were again inter¬ rupted by another expedition against a more distant settlement of the Ajawa, undertaken for the purpose of assisting their Manganja friends to repel the aggressions of these marauders. The facts are stated in the following extracts from the Bishop’s journal for October, November, December, 1861: — Oct. 1.— Commemoration of our leaving England. Matins, as usual, at 7. At 10 a.m. the Litany, at page 217 of the St. Augustine’s Manual, called Faith, Duty, and Prayers of Christian Missionaries; followed by the Communion Ser¬ vice, page 214 of the same, with a few necessary alterations. In the afternoon 14 placed the north-east corner-post of the chancel of a Church, which we hope to build soon. Oct. 2.— A man, Chimula, having disturbed the peace and morality of the station, I spoke to Chigunda (the chief). Chigunda had already forbidden him to come into the village, in consequence of what had happened; and I had only to beg him to repeat the prohibition, adding my name to his own. Settled the site of a dormitory, to hold fifty or sixty boys. Oct. 6.— Sunday. We asked five chiefs to dinner—Chinsunzi, Kankomba, Mputo, Katanga, Chigunda. Instead of Kankomba came Dzunda, a smaller chief. Oct. 7_A little boy, Saofa, died of small-pox. Those who are infected are removed to a village that has been deserted, about lialf-a-mile from this. Spent a good deal of labour, with the help of some of the ‘Pioneer’s’ men, and several natives, in getting a portion of the trunk of a tree out of the river-bed, to be sawn. In the afternoon a conference with chiefs. I reminded them of the sad end of our last conversation (see Mission Field, vol. p. ). I hoped they would speak the truth this time. Nampeko said he had gone home that day ashamed, and had not liked to come back, but he had been obliged to come and ask us to help him. He hoped we would forget what had happened last time. I said that, if he always spoke the truth, I should forget more and more; and asked what had happened since we were at his place. He said: * Nothing; the Achawa (I used to spell it Ajawa) had been quiet, but they would soon attack him.’ In answer to my ques¬ tions, he said that the Achawa had a camp on this side of Cliikala, and another beyond ; and that the country behind that (towards the north, that is, between Shire and Shirwa) was uninhabited. He would be quite satisfied if the Ajawa were all beyond Chikala, and never came to this side. I said: ‘ I should like to send a message to the Ajawa to say, Go and plant in that unoccupied country, and when the harvest there is ripe, go and live there ; and in the mean time do not molest the Manganja. If you obey, we will let you alone: if not, if you molest the Manganja, we will attack you: and if you do not remove at harvest we will make you.’ Answer : * They thought this good: let us send soon.’ The difficulty arose how to send a message: anyone who took it would be sure to be killed. They did not know anyone who would go. I asked some of our own freed men, themselves Achawas. They said, 4 Oh yes, send a messenger ;’ but each one declined to be himself an ambassador. They thought it would do very well to send William! The conversation to-day was interrupted by a man, who said he had been lately attacked by the Ajawa, coming round the north and west sides of Zomba. We did not believe him. [N.B. Now I think it is quite possible it might be true.] Oct. 8.— Arranged to make manual out-door work (such as building) stop for two hours in the heat of the day, and call a list again at 3 p.m. The chiefs came. [We thought of the possibility of dividing our party and planting a mission at Nampeko’s, whose presence might prevent the inroads of the Ajawa, while it would be starting mission work under favourable circumstances, as every one would be thankful for its presence. But this plan was overruled. Finally determined to propose that Scudamore and Meller should go up for a short time, intending to judge according to circumstances as to future arrangements, when they them¬ selves made request that we would do this very thing that we had thought of Accordingly they started on the following Thursday.] Oct. 9. — Thunder to-day and the last two days. Rain yesterday and about a fortnight ago. My idea in sending the two to Nampeko’s is not only to check the Achawa by their presence, or to reassure the Manganja, but rather to plan the way for a mission to be founded there some day, and, if possible, let the Achawa see what sort of people we are, and so prepare for a mission to them. Oct. 11.—Kauchuchi, a girl of say ten years old, died of small-pox during my visit. Meller is away. Waller is not able to walk so far. Procter is fully oc¬ cupied with sores, so that I am visitor of out-patients. The child was in her mother’s arms, and when the last breath was drawn by the unconscious child the mother commenced a piercing wad, which made me think of the destruction of 15 the first-born in Egypt; a neighbour, whose child had lately died, joined her almost immediately. I returned to give the sad news, which threw a heavy and unmistakeable shadow over the faces of many of the friends of the poor mother ; and I thought, as I have so often done, how they sorrow as those who have no hope. The child ought to have been baptized. I cannot tell why I never thought of doing so. To-day I began showing a picture to the deaf aud dumb girl, known by the name of Kcina-nena —‘ She cannot speak.’ The child is not deficient in brains, as we have sometimes thought; on the contrary, I think she will repay the special attention she will require. Oh, for our Ladies ! ’ Oct. 13.—-Sunday. A letter from Scudamore, saying that on the second day from their leaving this, as they got near Nampeko’s, they saw villages burning towards the mountain Zomba. Next day they went over, found the villages still smoking, the gardens ravaged, and two bodies of Achawa killed in the resistance to the attack. We determined to go next morning, leaving five behind. Oct. 14.—Went to Chinsunzi’s, who spoke to me of his sick daughter, whom I saw. I had no one who could speak so well as myself, and could not get any¬ thing definite enough to prescribe for her. Besides, I had nothing but quinine and rowsers. Perhaps it was as well I could not do anything.—N. B. I hear to¬ day (Dec. 18) that she is quite well again. Chinsunzi was more civil than usual, and had his large hut swept out for us. Oct. 15.—’Went on to Nampeko’s, and found Meller low, having been quite down with fever yesterday My own party, Adams, Gamble, the steward of the ‘ Pioneer,’ and Johnson, all out of sorts. Arranged to go on to night and sleep at Mpola’s, to be nearer the camp. We tried to get a day’s delay to get our sick into health, but Nampeko said his men would all disperse for want of food. Oct. 16 —Up at 3.30 a.m. Breakfast, loading Manganja guns, and off by six. Meller very weak. Another asked me for medicine on the way. More than 1,000 of the allies. Nearly ten o’clock we got to the river Mingole. Adams saw three men on the other side, two of whom had guns. He fired at them, and we never saw them nor any other male Achawa all day. Crossed unopposed; burnt huts, from which the people had fled. Adams pursued till he could see over the hill northwards. Scudamore and I and others turned soon on hearing that the Achawa men had gone out on a raid, and might return soon. We assembled in the central space of the village. Great confusion. . Men passing through in crowded streams, loaded with grain, as booty ; a number of women in the middle, who had been taken. These we took under our guardianship, till they could say where they would like to go. We had agreed they should all be free, and not be captives of war. I offered to take them in sight of their countrymen, and let them all go; but they refused, saying they would rather be with the English. More women and children were continually brought in, till there were about four hundred. There was a rumour of the approach of the Achawa. We took up our guns, and went down to meet them, but could see nothing, so we returned. Tried to send the women off under the charge of one of Nampeko’s men; he said he would take them, but soon slipped away, and we did not see him again. This lost us an hour; we tried to arrange for the women to cook ; giving them water was a long operation. After two hours’ delay, it was evident they were not going to cook. (I don’t sup¬ pose any of them had broken their fast that day, and cannot tell why they would not cook). Finally, Scudamore impressed me with a sense of the unpleasantness of sleeping there, and being, perhaps, alarmed in the night by a cry of the return of armed Achawa. It is clearly unwise to arrange to sleep in an open village in an enemy’s country, without at least a friendly chjef and his retinue, the latter to look out, and he to advise. So about five o’clock we determined to return on our four hours’ march. We all left the village, after setting it on fire, and set off. It was painful to see weak women carrying children, or others with bad ulcers on their legs, on such a walk. We tried to get some of the men to relieve such, but before we had got half way, it was clear they must camp out, and come on in the morning; we quickened our pace and got back tired, just as it began to lighten and rain heavily. The poor unsheltered captives ! ’ S» 16 Oct. 17. —It rained piteously till about three p.m. No food to be got. Three goats we had set apart for the people had been stolen. Some of the captives came in last night, most this forenoon. Children cried. No fires could be lighted out¬ side, and the huts were all filled before half were housed : how to get them dis¬ posed of so as to secure their liberty was now the difficulty. We gathered them and the chiefs together ; asked where they wished to stay; many could not make up their minds : how could they ? They did not know the nature of the choice they had, to go with the English, or with the Manganja. Some made choice, and were put aside. It began to pour ; all ran for shelter, and confusion followed ; at last those who declared for us, were got together, and put into three huts. I wanted to see the rest have their choice with whom they would go, but at last came to the conclusion that if I pressed this point, they would all be starved with hunger, and so there would be nothing left to contend about. Went away with the full belief that Nampeko would allow his friends to take such as they liked, who would then have them as slaves, to pay debts with or such like. But we had done our best. We returned to Nampeko’s to sleep, and with difficulty got enough kanaba roots, to feed them. I do not think I ever spent a more miserable day ; wet through, urging the chiefs to do something, but not succeeding ; quieting the crying of children ; feeling for the hunger of our freed people, which I could ill abate by two or three fowls among sixty or seventy ; and finally doubting whether on the whole we had done much good by our fighting, as we had been the means of 400 women and children being severed from their relations, of whom only fifty ultimately would be free. But I tried to lay the burden on Him, whom I knew I was anxious to serve. When we got home, found we had added forty-eight to the number of our dependents, chiefly old women and children. Oct. 22.—Waller well enough to do something in the medical line, which Procter has been carrying on in the interval, with great diligence. On Sunday last I sent away the Makololo, for misconduct. Four of them had been with us for about two months. On Oct. 23, we heard two guns fired after we were asleep ; went out three or four of us to see what was the matter. It might be an Achawa force, strengthened by a Tette slavedealer or two. Found it was the Makololo, who had remained at a neighbouring village, contrary to my orders. One of them was unwell, they said, and they had fired the gun to bring us to them (like Absalom and Joab’s corn-field). Gave them a good scold, and told them to bring the sick man to the doctor to-morrow. Oct. 24.—An invasion of red ants into the store hut. It was impossible to go near the place for several hours. Oct. 26.—Report of a murder in the neighbourhood. The brother of the mur¬ dered man coming in a most excited state to tell us. An hour or two after, fur¬ ther intelligence that the man is not dead. On making further enquiry it appeared that the knife passed through his cloth but did not even scratch himself. Oct. 27.—Sunday, an orphan, under the care of the excellent woman Chesi- wiranga, died, having been baptized an hour or less before. Oct. 28.—Found the body of the infant had been buried by the men who were told to dig the grave. Read the burial service over the spot. Oct. 29.—Sent message to Katanga about a girl in his village, whose mother is with us. At Mpola’s on the 17th, three persons among those who chose to he with us, were a woman with her child and her mother. While our backs were turned, Katanga, who shares the chiefdom of that district with Nampeko, went to one of our three huts and called the woman and the daughter to come with him, leaving the grandmother, as being, I suppose, of no use. He took them home with him that night, along with his own share of the captives. Next day as our party passed through Katanga’s village, the people told this woman and her daughter to keep inside the hut. The woman, however, sat outside. The daughter was called aside by the people of the village. The woman recognising her old mother in our party, determined not to leave her, but was compelled thus to separate herself from her child. A day or two after reaching this she told us the whole story. I told the messenger, a man of some little importance under Chigunda, to say that if Katanga did not give the child up, I would come t 17 for her myself, and also that if he .succeeded I would give him a reward in addition to his fair remuneration. Nov. 1. — Messenger returned from Katanga with the girl. Katanga had at first denied all knowledge of the girl; then advised our messenger to go and look for her at Nampeko ; the messenger refused, saying, ‘ I look to you for her ; if she is there, go you and fetch her; I sit here till she comes.’ Finally she was sent with the message, that as we had been so kind in helping them against the Achawa, he was glad of the opportunity of obliging me! Nov. 3.—Report that a body of Achawa had burned two villages, and taken the food ; they were on their way to Soche. We did not believe it. [From what we heard afterwards, I suppose these were the men that Livingstone wrote about a fortnight later.] Nov. 4.—Charles returned from the ‘ Pioneer’ with Job and the remainder of our luggage. He told us that he had heard that a number of Nyungwe-people, insti¬ gated by the authorities of that town (Tette), had threatened to destroy the Man- ganja people, in revenge for our liberating slaves ; but hearing that the 4 Pioneer’ was still at her anchorage, they turned at Goa, and threatened Chibisa (who is now living down in that direction), and that he accordingly sent to the 4 Pioneer’ for help. The answer was, that as Livingstone was expected immediately, he must wait. Nov. 5. •— Punished three boys who yesterday chased a Manganja man, and stole his cassava. Our neighbours are afraid of our freed people, partly because they are Achawa, partly because they are, as it were, English. Nov. 6. — William came back, having been sent out with nine women to get us food. He had not only filled the three baskets, but got three men besides. He must go again on Friday. Adams better and worse again. Nov. 8. — Moved into our house — one long room, 40 ft. by 16 — a great luxury. Felt quite strange, sitting at a roughly-made table to write. We are very thankful. Chinsoro in great admiration of the table for tea. Adams, Waller, and Meller all a little better. Nov. 9. —Kankomba (I think I used to spell his name Kankombe) came with Chimwomba, a great chief living in Shirwa, about ten miles south of Psyupsyu. He brought five goats as a present, and apologised for the smallness of it. We gave him a piece of velvet. Asked whether they would like to have other Eng¬ lishmen settled with them, as we are with Chigunda ; they both said yes. Heavy rain; roof leaking everywhere. We hope it will be better when the thatch is set. A letter from Mr. Scudamore to the Metropolitan of Cape Town, written by Bishop Mackenzie’s desire, belongs to this date, and is here inserted, as giving an interesting account of the boys rescued from slavery, who were consigned to his special care : — My Lord, Magomero, Manauja Country, Nov. 7. The Bishop wishing me to send you an account of the boys who are now with us, with great pleasure I avail myself of the opportunity of writing to your Lordship, knowing the great interest you take in us, and remembering your kindness during our stay at Bishopscourt. The number of boys now with us is 77 ; the larger portion of these were taken from the Portuguese slaves, the rest from the Ajawa ; of the whole number 47 call themselves Ajawas, 24 Nyaujas or Maiiaujas, 4 Auguras, and 2 Maraois. They are well-disposed and intelligent creatures, very excitable and easily frightened ; the latter disposition is easily accounted for by the lives they have led. At any moment they were liable, from the unsettled state of the country, to have their homes burnt, or to be sold as slaves, or, for want of food, they would have continually to be changing their abode, or, as often happens, die of hunger. As we knew little or nothing of the language, and the Bishop was anxious to get them into order at once, we have begun to try and teach them to sing, and 13 38 also to drill them. Rowley teaches them to sing, and I have the drilling of them. They have very good voices and a capital idea of time, hut native music is in a most miserable state, and only to he compared with native dancing. The drilling is rather amusing; they are called together by the heating of a drum, and after going through several exercises, and walking in step in and out the rows of huts, are marched straight down to the river and made to stand in a row on a large tree at the edge of the water; then at the word of command they all jump in together; nor does the discipline end here, for they dive, swim, and dance in good order, and wait for the word to rush out tumultuously. They are beginning to learn their letters; one or two in Procter’s class already know their alphabet, and, on the whole, all are rather quick at learning. But the most pleasing part of our work with them is the entire confidence they have in us; several of them have at their own wish gone down to Chibisas Island to see the ‘ Pioneer,’ though at first they were rather afraid of being carried away as slaves. We hope it will not be long before some of them will be carried away, but to the Kafir College at Cape Town ! The mosquito curtains that Mrs. Gray and your family so kindly made for us were of the greatest service on the river; I do not know what we should have done without them. Doctor Livingstone was greatly pleased with his; it came very opportunely, as his own was so full of holes that it only served to keep swarms of mosquitoes in, wffiich might have left him after moderately biting him, had he had none. Here in the highlands we have as yet had no mosquitoes, but we know not what the rainy season may bring. With very kind regards to Mrs. and the Misses Gray, I remain, my Lord, Yours faithfully, H. C. Scudamore. It was at this period that Dr. Livingstone, who, since lie left the Mission station in July, had been on his expedition to the Lake Nyassa, returned to the ‘ Pioneer and the Bishop’s journal continues the narrative of the Mission until December 19 : — Nov. 11.— Meller left us. He has been a very agreeable visitor for many weeks, and has thrown himself heart and soul into all our interests. Nov. 12.—Bawi brought Chinsambo and another chief, to ask us to help them against the Achawa : this is a body on our w est, under the chief Iojo ; they have lately come down the west side of Zomba, between that mountain and the Shire. I declined, on the ground that I must go to the ‘ Pioneer;’ for this after¬ noon I got a letter from Livingstone, written on the 9th, saying he had come back, and was waiting only for Meller to go down to the sea. He said we ought not to diminish our number here by a single man. He sent up the ewe that came from Cape Town (the ram died in the Shire), and a pair of turkeys that Vienna gave him on our way up. He said that ‘ in our second ‘ affair with the Achawa [in August: he had not heard of our news of October] ‘ we were quite right to identify ourselves with the interests of our people . . . ‘ I sympathise with you in all your difficulties. Act with a determined vigorous < will. ... I have no orders about you, but infer from the hydrographer’s instruc- ‘ tions to Mr. May, that the Government is favourable to your being assisted without ‘hindering our own services. I act on this inference, and on my own goodwill < towards a mission working towards the same end as my own. Kind salutations ‘ to all.’ There was no time to lose. We sat up till one, writing letters. I was up again at three, and was off with Charles for the ‘Pioneer,’ with a heavy mail- bag, before five. Nov. 13.—Walked thirteen hours, exclusive of resting, and got to Mbamis, where we first saw a slave-dealer. Nov. 14.— Got to ‘ Pioneer’ at 10 a.m. Found Burrup, who had arrived from Kilimani. Dickenson and Clark were some nine days behind him, coming up in a large canoe. Livingstone and his party had returned on the 8th, I think. They 19 ■were all looking fagged, Kirk perhaps less so than the others. Heard their news —thought of asking to go down with them to meet the mail, and answer my letters — determined rather to go up with Burrup, leaving Charles to wait for the other two. Livingstone would soon see them ; tell them it was all right, and they would come up ; asked Livingstone to let the Bishop of Cape Town know what arrangements he may make with the Admiral about the next meeting at Kongone. Nov. 15.—‘ Pioneer’ started for the sea at 10 a.m., the very day I believe that he named four months ago. We gave him three cheers from the shore, being the first time I ever led the black people in an English ‘hurrah.’ They did it very well. It was a wet morning, and it took us some little time to arrange for our start. Livingstone had very kindly given me, on loan, a bale of cloth, as our stock is short. This had to be made into three packages for carriage. Slept at Mbamis. Nov. 16.— Got to Pingwi, whei’e we spent the following day, Sunday. Nov. 19,—Got home at 11 a.bi. Gamble is ill. Another suitor appears for Songanaga—two have proposed for her, but each has drawn back, for fear of Damanje, who once considered her one of his wives. I was amused to find that neither of them knew her name, but called her the Mother of Malotta. Her former married life had not been happy, for, as I think I mentioned in a former report, her former husband joined with his sister’s husband to sell her to Tetti slave-dealers. In the present case there are two difficulties, one, that having secretly left his former chief, we must seek the approval of that chief before we let him settle here ; the other, that he leaves a wife behind. Nov. 20.—The ceremony of admitting some young people to the responsibilities of manhood and womanhood. This consists partly in their sitting in one posture for some days and nights, without speaking or laughing. When we saw them, there was a good deal of laughing and talking round them, but they never moved a muscle. While the ceremony lasts, and perhaps a little longer, they are called Mwalis. Their names are changed at the same time. Nov. 22.— I have not been quite well for two or three days. Went to-day to hear a Mirandu, or case between one of Chigunda’s men, the defendant, and one of Sachyina’s (a small chief apparently under Chigunda), the plaintiff. The facts were these : The plaintiff’s sister engaged to work in the garden of the defendant's wife, for food ; on the afternoon of the second day, defendant came and spoke to his sister apart. He says he told her to work diligently, and when she got her hire, to take what she got and be thankful. After he was gone, and the sun set¬ ting, the sister said to her employer, ‘ My brother came to tell me my mother was ill, and I must go home at once ; pay me and let me go.’ Accordingly she was paid and went. This last is the defendant’s account, for the woman has not been seen since. The accusation is that the employers have sold her. There was no judge or supreme authority: the two chiefs and their respective parties sat over against each other in the short grass backing the two disputants. The case was opened by a statement made by Chigunda’s brother-in-law. Each party put up a speaker alternately; generally there was a man (I have no one word to describe his office), who sang or shouted a sort of chant at the end of each prin¬ cipal sentence, somewhat like the few notes sometimes played in churches between the verses of the hymn, echoing the last notes of the melody. The object seemed to be, to give the speaker time to turn round and recollect himself. Applause, and confirmation of statements, were made by clapping the hands, and sometimes by a man who left his place and knelt or made some sign of respect to the speaker. I observed what I supposed were ironical cheers from the opposition benches, but was told by William that they were real approvals of certain parts of the rehearsal of all that has been said, which forms so large a part of native speeches. An oration almost always begins with, ‘ you said so and so, we said so and so, and you said so and so — and now we say,’ &c. The de¬ fendant offered to drink muavi (a test of sincerity, for it is believed that if a man is guilty this poison will kill him), but this last was refused by the plain¬ tiff, who continued to say in mournful tones, ‘ I want my sister; I want my sister.’ William tells me that if the muavi points to the man’s guilt he will have to make b 2 20 restitution; but if to his innocence, he will have a claim to compensation for false accusation. The chiefs once or twice took part in the discussion. I left after about four hours, and heard afterwards that the claim had been withdrawn with consent. Nov. 25.—Burrup got some of the juice of the Euphorbia, which he was clear¬ ing away, into his eyes : it was very painful; caused profuse watering, and it was two or three days before the effects were removed. Nov. 26.—Rowley got into his new cottage ; it is very neat and tidy. Nov. 29.— Dickenson and Clarke arrive all right. We get our letters. All work suspended for to-day. Nov. 30.—Writing letters. Dec. 1. Sunday.—Rearranged the Sunday afternoon readings. The white men still with me ; Charles with Procter, William with Scudamore, Job with Rowley, Johnson with Waller. Dec. 2.—Procter and Scudamore set off about noon to explore the route by the Milanji to the Ruo mouth. They took Charles, seven or eight bearers, and one of our own boys, Nkuto. In the afternoon two Makololo came up, wishing to stay with us ; we refused. We found they had taken some women and children on their way. (See my letter of Dec. 4, to the Bishop of Oxford.) To-day a big lad, Kamalira, ran away; he has been helping in the kitchen ever since he came to us, and seemed to be getting impudent and too independent, so he was set to out-door work, cutting bamboos. This I suppose he disliked, and thought he should be happier among the Manganja; I suspect he will find his mistake. Last Friday, the three boys whom we sent out to herd the goats, and keep them out of the people’s corn, ran away; they had relations (all of them, I believe) near Shirwa, about thirty miles off; but they had often been told they might go if they liked. Dec. 3.—Late at night two men were seen stealing two of our goats, which they had strangled. They dropped them, and ran away. Clarke gets on well with the house he is building; he is diligent in picking up words, and in knowing our men by name. Dec. 5.—Job returned after two nights’ absence, with two days’ food. Rowley is far, from well. Dec. 7.—Charles returned, followed soon by Procter and Scudamore. (See my letter to Strong, dated Dec. 7.) This letter is here inserted : Dear Strong, Magomero, Dec. 7, 1861. This is a day we shall not easily forget; and, as our friends at home cannot fail to be interested in the events of the last week, I shall write to-night while some of them are fresh in my mind, and enclose a fuller account of those which did not pass under my own eye. When Livingstone left his anchorage on November 15, he arranged with me that I should be ready to meet him on January 1 at the mouth of the Ruo, about half¬ way between the anchorage and the confluence of the Shire and Zambezi. He would there hand me over the party. We expect to meet him at the bar, and we should proceed to this place by land. Of course it was necessary to ascertain that there was a practicable road this way; and I proposed to explore the way first, and then start from this with a sufficient party in time to keep the appoint¬ ment. He said he thought it would be better to make one trip of it, starting in sufficient time to allow for unforeseen delays; and he also advised me to try a line more to the west than that which I had thought of. On returning home, I considered the whole matter, and, consulting the others, I determined to abide by my own opinion, and have an exploring party first, and try the line of country stretching from this to the southern end of Shirwa, and thence to the Ruo mouth — probably down the valley of that stream itself. My reason for preferring this line was, that it would set at rest the question of having 21 a main line of communication from north to south on Shirwa (as alluded to in my letter to the Dean of Ely last October, and to you last month). I intended to have gone on the exploring party myself, but there were one or two things to be done at home which I could not well commit to any one else, and I had gone on almost every trip; so 1 arranged with Procter and Scudamore, to their complete satisfaction, that they should go with Charles to find the road, and return before Christmas, or, failing that, ‘let me hear from them.’ We only waited for the arrival of the mail with Dickenson and Clarke. They got here all right on Friday, November 29; and last Monday (December 2) Procter and Scudamore set off, having some hastily-written letters to be given to Livingstone in the event of their seeing him. The week has passed much as usual. One or two new events: two of the Makololo coming to ask to be allowed to settle here, and having four captives whom they had taken in war on their Avay from the ‘Pioneer’s’ anchorage to this ; four of our goats being stolen by two of Chigunda’s men in the village, whom we have known and trusted as much or more than anybody, but who are said to be Achawa, and to be no friends of his — men whom he got from another chief a long while ago. The men were about all next day, but we did not suspect them. The following night they disappeared, leaving each a wife, the child of Chigunda (that is, one of his people), and taking, as it seems they undoubtedly did, three of our women away with them. This afternoon I was sitting out, trying to improve in knowledge of the language by talking to one of the natives, and was in the act of endeavouring to get the word for ‘hope,’ by saying that I thought Procter and Scudamore would soon be back, and that I should be glad when they came home safe, when I saw a strange figure coming in at the gate—it was some time before I recognised that it was Charles — haggard, in rags, foot-sore, and looking wretched to the last degree. He was soon surrounded, and said faintly, ‘ I am the only one that has escaped — I and one of the bearers. The Manganja attacked us.’ Finding he had had nothing to eat for eight-and-forty hours, some soup was made ready for him at once. He told us his story. They had got on well for three days, on the third the chief whom they passed at midday going with them to their resting-place, 'Manga. ’ On the Thursday they started with two additional guides, intending to sleep at Tombondira’s, whom Chigunda had named as a great chief of those parts. At a fork of the path their old guide pointed to the right, which was the direction they would have preferred from the compass ; but the two guides maintained that the left hand path was the better one, and their local knowledge gave weight to their counsel, which was accordingly followed. By midday they reached a large village, strongly defended, as some villages in this country are, with hedges and thorns. On entering they were almost at once asked if they wanted to buy slaves — a pretty clear indication of the kind of white people they were accustomed to see. Of course they said they did not come to buy slaves, that the English set their faces against such trade, and that they were English. ‘ Well, then, what will you buy ?’ Answer—‘ We are only passing through to look at the path, and are anxious to lose no time that we may meet our friends at the mouth of this river (the Ruo). Where is the chief?’ ‘He is coming; you must wait for him.’ ‘ Very well; only we want to get on to Tombondira’s to-night.’ But after a delay of an hour or two, no chief appearing, they determined to go on ; packed up, and set off. They were followed out of the village by a number of men with bows and arrows, who became louder in their calls and threats if they did not return. When they had got about two miles from the village, the violence and ill-feeling was such that they stopped to consider whether they were not needlessly making enemies of these people, and whether it might not be best to see the chief, instead of breaking the etiquette of the country by running through his village. They asked if the chief were returned, and, being assured he was in the village, agreed to return and cook food, and then set off, as they were really in haste. * When they got back they found the chief, who treated them civilly enough, giving them beer and wishing to trade. They bought what they wanted, which seemed, however, very small to the people, who unfortunately saw their cash for three weeks’ absence (consisting of about 140 yards of calico), and 22 evidently thought themselves ill-treated in not getting a good share of it. Stragglers were dropping into the village, and things were not looking quite pleasant. Their host was not surprised at several European articles they pro¬ duced, saying he had been at Kilimani and Senna. Still he was civil, and pressed them to remain all night. They went down to bathe, and on their return Charles told them that their bearers had overheard plans for burning their hut in the night, killing them, and taking their goods. This determined them to be off. They called the chief, and while they occupied him by giving him a fine bright-coloured scarf, Charles was instructed to get the bearers into motion, and Procter and Scudamore would follow them out of the gate. The chief seemed taken by surprise, on hearing they were going to start at once, but the scarf occupied his attention in some degree. The men in the open space of the village, on seeing the movement, cried out ‘Atawa!' (‘ they are running away’), and some of them tried to block up the gate ; but Charles dashed forward, and made them fall back, and the flight became general. Charles escaped into the bush ; be heard two shots fired, which must have been by our friends, our dear brothers, as we felt more than ever they were ; but what had become of them he did not know. He had been almost caught once or twice, had heard the pursuers say •here he is! here lie is !’but, thank God, he had been hid in the darkness. They had left the village just at sunset, and night had set in very soon. He avoided all paths, but was stopped by a large river, which they had crossed that morning at a village, so that he was forced to seek a new place. He sat down on the bank till morning. He was then obliged to ask where he could cross, and with difficulty persuaded the people to guide him. That day he avoided villages still, and got here on the following day, as I have described, hungry and weary. You may perhaps imagine our state. We anxiously made enquiry, from which to form conjectures where our two friends might be; but first we gave Charles some soup, and then we joined together in our temporary Church in prayer for them, whether in suffering or fear, or wherever they might be, that God would be their support and strength; and for ourselves, that we might have wisdom to act with thought and charity towards the persecutors, and yet for the safety of our brethren. Then we consulted what was to be done. Rowley was on his bed, unable to move from the place; some of the rest were a little out of sorts; but, besides, we had sufficient accounts of Aehawa fighting on our west, within twenty miles, to make us feel the necessity of leaving sufficient strength here, while we went towards the south-east. On the other hand, to go to a strong village, in the centre perhaps of a populous district, only four or five of us, seemed likely only to increase the mischief; yet we could not depend on the Manganja going with us in a case in which they were not con¬ cerned, still less on their standing by us in case of need. Our only course was to get the help of the Makololo, who would not be disposed to take the part of any of these natives against us, and would be glad to go with us anywhere if there was any chance of plunder. They were most of them at the anchorage of the ‘ Pioneer ’ (Chibisa), and Job must be sent for them. This settled, the sorrow, and the trying to be simply trusting in our Father, returned as before. We thought how sad it was to have to wait some days before setting off to look for them. I could not drive from my imagination the picture of what I saw in August — a man in the act of being stabbed to death. Just then one of our women came running to say that the English were returning: and so indeed they were. They looked in better heart than Charles, for whom they asked imme¬ diately, not knowing whether he was safe. They, too, were hungry, having been on a single fowl each for eight-and-forty hours, in which time they had walked about eighty-five miles. They, too, were supplied with soup, and then we again assembled with very different feelings in our place of worship, to thank Him who had been guiding them while we in our anxiety were praying for them, and to pray that we might be bound together now in still closer bonds in carrying out our great common end. By degrees we heard their account. They had passed through the gate close after Charles. Some of the bearers had their loads taken from them, others threw theirs down. They were followed and crowded on each 23 side by a mass of men armed with bows and poisoned arrows. They shouted for Charles, but got no answer. Two or three of the natives got hold of Procter’s gun and tried to wrest it from him; afterwards they got him down, and he had to defend himself with his heels as he lay on his back. Scudamore, who was a few steps in advance, came to the rescue, and fired on the man who was most busy. On this they ran away. At one time an arrow was discharged at Procter, which must have passed through his thigh, and, laming him, most probably have cost them both their lives, had it not most providentially been received by the stock of his gun. He broke it off afterwards, but the point is still deeply bedded in the wood. Procter also fired both barrels ; and this and Scudamore’s shot having cleared a space behind and round them, they struck off into the trackless bush on the left of the path. In a minute or two they stopped, deliberated, and prayed for guidance, and then set off homewards. It was slow work, treading over the burnt grass, the stalks of which stood up crisp and black, about a foot high ; but it was better than long grass higher than their heads, or thick underwood, while the darkness sufficiently concealed them : thus ‘ all things worked together for good for them.’ About twenty miles they went that night, guided by a fire on the Milanji mountains on their right (the high mountains SE. of Lake Shire). But for this fire they must in all probability have wandered, and perhaps fallen back into the village they had left. Their next difficulty was the river. Three times Scudamore (who is agood swimmer) stripped to find a crossing: twice he was carried down by the stream, and obliged to land on the same side. At the third place he got across, and then they carried their clothes above their heads to keep them dry. For half an hour about sunrise they rested, half-dozing, on the top of an ant-hill, concealed by the bushes which grew upon it, and discussed the plan of hiding there till night. It was well, however, that they went on. That day, Friday, they got over forty miles, finding it safe now to keep the path, but avoiding a village here and there. They asked a man who was hoeing in his garden to show them the path to a hill which they had passed, and which they named, telling him they had no cloth to pay him. The man put his hoe on his shoulder and went with them some miles. Afterwards they thought of their pocket-handkerchiefs. One was torn up and used as cash; a quarter of it remained on their return. On the Saturday they walked about twenty- five miles, making the whole distance eight-five, which tallies with other estimates of the distance. They were both looking much fagged ; Procter has a scratch on his face, made by an arrow in the tussle. Now, after four nights have passed, they are more like themselves. In looking back on all this, some people will blame me for not exactly following Livingstone'S advice. He said: ‘ Send no separate exploring party, but start in ‘ sufficiently good time to explore and arrive on the 1st of January at the Ruo ‘ mouth. Take the old road as far as Sache (Soche), and then keep the mountain ‘ Choro on your right.’ Livingstone had never been on the road, but thought that the best way. He also advised me not to weaken our home party too much, for fear of attack from the Acliawa on our west. My reasons for not acting on this advice were, that by the route actually taken we could get guides on whom we could depend from Chigunda, who spoke at one time of going himself; whereas guides from Sache might, I thought, be as likely to mislead us as to guide us rightly. Besides, I thought it a good opportunity to explore a new route, and one which, if successful, would probably be better than the one named by Livingstone ; and I thought he had given the advice he did, because he wished us to keep the old safe road, so far as it would serve. How far I am condemned by the result will not be clear till we have tried his path, which I now propose to do. Dec. 13.—There have now returned six of the men who went with Procter and Scudamore, leaving two, together with Nkuto, one of our boys who went with them. The sixth came here this morning, and made a formal report to Chigunda and us. He was caught on that Thursday night, on the path, some men having gone on before to secure all who tried to escape. Our friends and the others struck off the path, anticipating the danger. They bound all the four, and kept himself and our boy Nkuto in the great village, the other two in a neighbouring village. 24 Our goods were all put into the large hut in which ‘ the English ’ had been, and to which the two false guides had access. In the morning, these two, the sons as it appears of Chipoka, the chief from whose village they had started on the Wednesday morning, claimed the freedom of this man, and he was at once given up to them. With them he returned to Chipoka’s village, Manga. In answer to the question whether these two had any share of the plunder, he said that he could not see what was inside their bags, nor hear what was said behind his back. Chipoka escorted him to the village of Saopa, and Saopa to a village near this. Chipoka sends an arrow to Chigunda, our chief, and says : I am not in blame for this war; Manasomba has tried to kill the English, has stolen their baggage and their boy, and has kept two of your men. He says, if the English want the men, let them come and buy them out, or else fight for them. We asked why he supposed they had thought evil against us; he said, because you went about with much cloth, and refused to buy slaves, and would not buy much of anything else; so they thought it better to take it from you. We asked some questions about the nation of Manasomba, and extent of his territory. It seems probable, though not certain, that he is not a Manganja; some say Auguru, some Amlache; but if they had kept the right road they would not have come near him, and would have been well received by Tombondira, who is supreme over Saopa and Chipoka, and whose influence is said to extend to the Shire. The narrative is here continued from the Bishop’s journal: the letter was not continued until January 16, 1862, and will be resumed below. Dec. 14.—Last night a slight shock of an earthquake at about 8 p.m. To-day the chief Kalonjire, who has returned to the village from which Nankanjawa drove him about a year ago, and to which we restored him in October, sent us as a present a tusk (only lbs,), and a woman and child. We told him we thanked him for the tusk, but could not take the slaves. It was wrong to give people as if they were things, nearly as bad as selling them. We gave him a present of velvet, and told the messenger to take back the woman and child. Dec. 15.—William came back early, with four Makololo from Chibisa (the ‘ Pioneer’s’ anchorage). We had sent for them all, that we might go down to the Ruo with a force strong enough to prevent an attack. They fancied we had injured Somba in some way, as he had not returned to them: and so only four came, the rest refusing till they heard about Somba. From what they and William heard on their way up, they are assured that we have not hurt Somba, and we are sori-y to hear that he and his companion are bn their way to the anchorage with about twenty Achawas, women and children, which I take for granted they mean to sell. We shall send these Makololo down to bring up the rest, but shall say we do not want Somba, nor any one else that takes slaves. The rest we shall be glad to have. Dec. 16.—A man found dead near this; he came from Shirwa to buy food (bringing fish, I suppose, to pay for it), and seems to have starved. Job went for food. Dec. 17.—Sachima came to ask Chigunda when his children are going to be claimed. The two bearers who still remain are his people. Dec. 18.—One of our boys, Kanda, found this morning lying cold and insensi¬ ble outside. He has been suffering, it seems, from diarrhoea for four or five days, and last night seems to have been driven from the house he was sleeping in, or perhaps, having gone out, was too weary or indifferent to go back. We wrapped him in a blanket, and laid him before the kitchen fire. Dickenson gave him brandy and water, and as the day got warmer laid him out in the sun. But about noon he was found dead, having had a convulsion. A post-mortem examination confirmed the probable supposition that his death was brought about by the causes I have mentioned. It had rained in the night. Our boys having no clothing (any more than the other native children), usually keep themselves warm round fires. This event makes it the more necessary that we should have the dormitory in use, and 25 some one to sleep in it, the boys having each his own place, and his own blanket This will, however, be impossible, unless the request I have sent down to the man-of-war, for a hundred yards of serge, can be complied with. I wrote by last mail for 200 blankets, to replace the serge, which can hardly last two years. In the forenoon a small chief, who lives near Kankomba (called Mpoka on the River Parombe), brought a piece of paper on which were written Arabic characters. He said that about four days ago a party of strangers arrived at his village; about five of them were leaders of the party, the rest, about ten, inferior. By the description they were Arabs; wore turbans, or caps like one Waller had brought from Johanna -, white clothes, but no shoes ; they chewed tobacco, but did not smoke. They did not seem to have any common prayer or prostration practised. They said they had left some of their party at the Ruo mouth with their ship (or boat) ; they had a guide from a village some distance back on that track, who could understand what was said by one of the leaders, and speak for him to the natives. They had plenty of cloth, but did not wish to buy slaves; they had refused to do so. They were on their way to Nampeko’s, to shoot or buy hippopotamus ivory. They asked where the English were, and sent us this letter, and would see us on their way back. The English were their masters. There were two women with them of their own party, not slaves. We think they are an Arab slave-trading party, which has professed anti-slavery principles on finding themselves so near a body of Englishmen. Settled with Chigunda that we shall start for the Ruo on Friday, and stay Sunday at Saopa’s. He will not be ready till Saturday, but will overtake us at Saopa’s. On Monday night we shall be at Chipoka’s, and can then arrange our further course. We may from that go on to Tombondira’s, and so on to the Ruo mouth, leaving Manasomba on our left. Or we may negotiate with him for the restoration of property and pay¬ ment of compensation money. Or we may have to go there and burn his village, as a warning to him and others not toattack unoffending Englishmen, even though they do ‘ think it better to take their cloth from them.’ We shall, by this arrange¬ ment, have teu clear days, not counting Sundays and Christmas Day, for walking. It ought not to take more than six or seven. Dec. 19. —Chigunda finished his prayer but yesterday, and the praying for rain took place to-day. Here the Bishop’s journal ends : but the narrative is continued in the letter to Mr. Strong, the earlier part of which has been given above. It was continued on the Island of Malo, at the confluence of the Ruo with the Shire, whither he had proceeded with Mr. Burrup for the purpose of meeting Miss Mackenzie and Mrs. Burrup, as arranged with Dr. Livingstone in November. It is dated only fifteen days before his death. Jan. 16, 1862.— I have written to my sister a full account, which you will see, of my journey with Scudamore, Burrup, and Waller to Manga and hack, and subsequently with Burrup to this place, an island at the confluence of the Ruo with the Shire, where we are awaiting the return of Livingstone, in the ‘ Pioneer,’ from the sea. We left home on December 23. Spent Christmas at Saopa’s village, under the precipices of the Milanji mountains. Found that Chipoka, whose guides led Procter and Scudamore to the village of Manasomba, disclaimed all complicity in the outrage. Accordingly, with a few of his men, who, together with our own, amounted to about fifty, we went on January 4, and finding the village of Manasomba deserted, burnt it, and returned to Chipoka’s. We went with the avowed object of recovering the two remaining captives, one of whom was one of our own freed-people at Magomero, and punishing the perpetrators of so treacherous an act as that described above, in order that he might desist from such courses, especially in the case of Englishmen, and that others might fear. In this I feel that we did right. It is true our Lord said to his disciples, * they knew not what spirit they were of.’ But, in this case, we were not revenging ourselves There was no ruler ordained of God (Rom. xiv.) 26 to whom we could refer the matter, else we should have been only too glad to do so: but we believed that, being the only power in the place that could do it, we were ourselves God’s ministers for the purpose. I would gladly have left it for Livingstone to do in the Queen’s name, but feared he would say his other duties were too pressing, and that he had no time. 1 should have preferred waiting for his approval of my doing it, which I am sure he would give, but by that time, with ten tons of goods, and probably a party of ladies, on my hands, it would have been impossible. As speedy a retri¬ bution as possible seemed the best; and in that belief, and with the approval of my associates, I acted. We marched peaceably among fields and villages belong¬ ing to Manasomba’s people, and spared a village near his own, said to be the residence of his wife (equivalent to a second village belonging to himself), and were glad to find on our return that this moderation was appreciated, and was attributed to a desire not to shut out the possibility of a recon¬ ciliation with the offender. To this object Chipoka now devoted his ener¬ gies, and, to avoid risk of failure, refused to help me in any way to make my way to the Ruo mouth in a straight line, as I believe I might easily have done in two days. Chipoka said we should pass through country occupied by Manasomba’s friends, and that our doing so would frustrate his attempts to heal the breach. Besides, if we were killed, the English from behind (at Magomero) would come and blame him for guiding us into danger. With the greatest reluctance I yielded to necessity, and got here in eleven or twelve days, instead of two, going over about two hundred and thirty miles instead of about fifty, and being ten days after our appointment with Livingstone. I ought to have said that in the attempt to recover the captives we utterly failed, but left that as an outstanding demand which Chipoka promised to make in my name. The most painful part of the whole was the death of one of our bearers, who was wounded by an arrow on our way back that day, and the illness which the repeated expo¬ sure brought back with increased force upon Scudamore. I left him, I am sorry to say, on January 3rd, in high fever. There was not one of the party that I left really well (except perhaps Adams), though none of the rest were very seriously ill. Burrup and I had a very wet walk to the anchorage of the ‘Pioneer’ (Chibisa of the map), sleeping five nights on the way, and came down here in a canoe with no other mishap than being once upset ; losing one of our bundles, containing our spare powder, so that we have only three or four charges dry; all our medicines, which we miss, as we are both in want of them; and all Burr up’s bedding, change of clothes, and other private property. We had an uncomfortable night (it happened at 10 p.m. by moon¬ light), as we were soaked up to the waist (nothing whatever indeed was dry but the shirts we had on), and we were nearly at the mercy of an unusual number of mosquitoes. Burrup has not been well since. I am myself, thank God, in almost perfect health, and only regret, on my own account, the loss of the little packet of drugs, inasmuch as I shall probably have a touch of fever soon, for want of quinine. We learned that Livingstone had gone down only a few days before we reached : his delays from sandbanks must have been as trying as on our way up ; we do not expect him back for at least a fortnight (our cloth for purchasing will last perhaps three weeks.) At first sight it might seem that it would have been much better could we have been here in time to see him before he went down. We could, it is true, have sent letters later by six or seven weeks, as an addition to our mail of November 15; and we should probably have gone to the sea with him, and so received our ladies. We two might also have answered the letters we hope to receive soon. On the other hand, by our stay here, we are making intimate friends of the inhabitants of this large village. There are, I believe, more than one liuudred huts, giving, I suppose, about five hundred people. I do not know any Manganja village so large, and the importance of this friendship may be great, for I expect to add to this letter a request for a steamer to ply on this lower Shire, to constitute our connection with the civilised world. Livingstone warns me not to depend on the ‘ Pioneer ’ to bring up stores, or occasional additions to our body ; for 27 it will not always be possible for him to do us this service at the time we require it, as he would be only too glad to do. There must, then, be a steamer on which we can depend for supplies and communication. I think I told you how I shrank from the responsibility of having such a vessel, which would have to lie idle for months together, periods alike injurious to body and soul. I thought of fevers on board, and, far worse, of quarrelling among its crew, and of conduct unbecoming a Christian name, and dishonouring to God, and undermining our mission work among the natives. But why should it be idle — why not have mission work on this river, under the management of a priest, and perhaps a deacon always on board — why should not there be several, aye from five to ten villages, on its banks, visited regularly, in which preaching, schooling, marketing, and general civilising influences might go on—the trip to the sea, once or twice a year, making little interruption in this, which would be the main work of the vessel; and if there were this constant passing up and down, at regular or irregular intervals, only not too long, there would be much greater difficulty than at present in transmitting slaves from the east to the west bank. In this way of looking at the matter, which has arisen in conversation at Magomero, all my objections vanish. There would be healthful occupation for the crew, and such employment for their minds as would, I hope, give the ship rather a good than a bad influence on their characters, while the whole would be under the command of a clergyman, who would consider that his parish included his fellow voyagers, as well as the natives on the bank. And, in this view, may not our stopping here and making- friends with this island chief be of importance, greater than all that we might have had if we had been here a week earlier. This was the last letter written by the Bishop which has reached the Committee, unless the following fragment of a letter written in pencil, and addressed to the members of the Boat-clubs in the two Universities, which bears no date of the day, may be a few hours later than the preceding; for his mental powers failed on the 20th or 21st of this month. Sir, River Shire (a branch of the Zambesi), January, 1862 . I write to you as a member of the University Boat Club, of which I am myself a member, to ask you to give attention to the matter which I now lay be¬ fore you. Those were noble contests in which some of us took part, and all took interest, on the Isis or the Cam ; but we are older men now, and may well turn to higher and nobler aims. There is on the river Shire a contest to be maintained with evil, both with sin, as the root, and with oppression, cruelty, and every other form of the fruits of sin. In order to engage in this contest, and to continue the mission already established on the high table-land fifty miles from its banks, we must have a steamer to ply on the stream, to connect and bring under our super¬ intendence the several points along its course where Christian and civilising influences may advantageously be applied; and also to keep up our communica¬ tion with the sea, from which we must receive our letters and supplies for barter and other necessaries. The Bishop of Cape Town first spoke of the need of such a vessel, and I am fully convinced it was absolutely required ; and I have delayed writing for one only till we could see our way through one or two objections to the idea as it at first presented itself to me. The following is a sketch of what I think would do the work, and without which it could not be done. A steamer 80 feet long, 16 feet wide, drawing two and a half feet of water, when carrying her own spare gear, without crew or stores, and making easily (with wood in her furnaces) a speed of eight miles an hour when loaded so as to draw four feet of water. A master of the grade of the master of a merchantman, with boatswain and three seamen, an engineer with assistant, and one stoker and a doctor ; the whole to be under the direction of one of the clergy of the mission. I would make it the duty of this vessel to take a trip down the river and back again, once in, say two months (its head quarters being at Chibisa, the anchorage of the 28 ‘ Pioneer ’), and stay two or three days at each of the five or six villages on the bank, which might by degrees be chosen as central points for their respective neighbourhoods. In the course of these two or three days, preaching, schooling, and general teaching would be the main objects, while the inhabitants of the vicinity might be tempted to swell the numbers in the villages by the opportunity they would have of getting cloth by bartering their goods. The vessel would in this way have a supply of fresh goods, and the first attempt would be made to establish a trade in cotton and other articles of export. To keep up foreign com¬ munication, the steamer would make a trip once a year or oftener to the bar, meet¬ ing some sea-going vessel by appointment. She would then discharge any cotton, ivory, &c., which she might have received in barter, at the same time that she received the year’s supplies for the missions on the river and on the highlands. In case of necessity this vessel would, I conceive, be able to make a run to Johanna or Natal; but I would not contemplate this as any part of her duty. One future good result of the plying of such a vessel on this river, would be that, in concert with Livingstone’s operations on the upper Shire and Lake Nyassa, the transfer of gangs of slaves from the east to the west side of this line would be very much impeded — probably entirely prevented — and thus a slave path, apparently quite recently opened, would be closed. The cost of such a vessel would probably be 5,000/., and the annual outlay not less than 1,700/. Might not these sums be raised by the members of the University Boat Clubs, and the boat be called the ‘ University Boat ? ’ Will you give a liberal share, and do what you can to urge others to do the same ? It remains now to continue the history of the Mission in the words of Mr. Procter. This letter to the Honorary Secretary has been already published; but is here reprinted, with the addition of the Bishop’s will. Mr dear Sir, Magomero, East Central Africa, February 26, 1862. It is my melancholy duty, as the senior priest of this Mission, to be the writer of intelligence which will plunge every well-wisher, as it has plunged us the members of it, into the deepest gloom and sorrow. I have to inform you of the death of Bishop Mackenzie, which took place on an island of the River Shire, where he was waiting with the Reverend H. Burrup for the arrival of Dr. Living¬ stone, with fresh stores, and the ladies of the Mission, who were expected in the 4 Pioneer and also of the death of the Rev. II. Burrup, a few days after his return to this place, which he had been able to effect after the death and burial of the Bishop. It will be needless for me to repeat the history of events which led to this disastrous journey down the Shire. If letters reach you safely, which were despatched from here in November 1861, the pen of the Bishop himself will afford every detail. Neither will it be necessary forme to relate particulars of a journey taken by Scudamore and myself, to explore a land route to the island at the con¬ fluence of the Ruo and Shire, with its unfortunate result ; of another taken by the Bishop, Scudamore, Burrup, and Waller, to punish the agents in our robbery; nor of the progress of the Bishop and Burrup from here to the mouth of the Ruo by way of the Shire, full accounts of which are given by the Bishop himself in letters to you and to a sister, which last is to be sent for your perusal. I have directed my brother to send my own account of our journey to you, which I thought you might like to see, as that of an eye-witness. It only remains for me, therefore, to take up the sad story as far as 1 can from the date which closes the communica¬ tion of the Bishop to yourself, which is, I believe, January 16th, five days after his arrival on the island Malo, at the mouth of the Ruo. It was on the 3rd of January, the day after his return from Manasomba’s, that the Bishop started from this place with Burrup: I should have accompanied them had not an attack of fever, from which I had just risen, rendered me useless and unfit to begin the journey. Weeks passed, and as we got no tidings of them we naturally began to grow anxious, to say the least of it. We feared the prolonged 29 stay in the unhealthy river, and we knew that the quantity of cloth which they had taken for their maintenance could not possibly hold out much longer, while our own stock here was beginning to look uncomfortably small. It was on February 14 that the sorrowful tidings reached us. We were in the middle of a discussion as to the advisability of sending some one down to Cliibisa’s village, near the anchorage of the * Pioneer,’ to try if anything could be heard of our friends, and had almost come to the conclusion that it would be useless, since the Makololo who had remained there would be sure to let us know directly any tidings reached them, when one of them, named Zomba, suddenly made his appearance at the door of our house. His looks, which usually appeared full of glee and merriment, on this occasion wore such an expression of gravity and sadness that we were at once filled with apprehension that something was wrong. He spoke first, and said, in his broken English, ‘ Job no come ! ’ (Job is one of the Cape Town men who was sent after the Bishop two days after his departure with Burrup). We said, ‘ No ; is the Bishop coming P or something to that effect. He shook his head, looked down on the ground, and answered in Manganja, ‘Bishop wa fra.’ The Bishop is dead. (They all knew what we called him.) This was, indeed, a trying and grievous moment ; but a slight relief came in the thought that all this might not be true, and that he was merely repeating a rumour. After hearing his story, however, in full, the truth of his first statement was only too apparent. He had seen and helped in the burial of the Bishop. They had gone down safely and quickly to the island Malo, at the Ruo mouth, with the exception of an upset of their canoe, which happened on account of their running against the bank in the night. Here they stayed many days, until both the Bishop and Burrup became very ill; and soon after the Bishop died, blood flowing from his nose and mouth. Job was coming on with Burrup, who was so weak and ill that they had been obliged to make a sort of litter, in which he had been carried all the way from Cliibisa’s. He had arrived first, having left them a short time before to come by another path, along which Burrup could not be brought, on account of the long grass. When we saw him on his arrival a little later, lying on the rough litter they had made for him, which was carried by two natives, he was scarcely recog¬ nisable ; he had himself suffered so severely from fever on the island that he was shrunk to half his usual size and weight, while the colour of his skin from ex¬ posure was a complete yellow. As soon as he had taken what refreshment we were able to give him, which was poor enough, as our small stock of brandy had been finished long before, he told us his sad story, the former part of which, up to the first illness of the Bishop, is fully given in his letters. This illness appears to have come on shortly after his arrival on the island, in the form of low fever, and to have been increased from the confinement and unhealthiness of the place, and the want of every kind of medicines, those which they took from here having been lost when their canoe was upset. Besides this, both he and Burrup were suffering from diarrhoea when they left us; and though they got rid of that, it must have had a weakening effect, which, combined with that of their previous rapid travelling, now suddenly changed for complete inactivity, must have been most injurious to them both. About the 20th or 21st of January the intellectual faculties of the Bishop gave way, and, in a state of the most utter weakness, he lay in his hut almost without uttering a word, or, when he did speak, using quite incoherent language. So debilitated was he that sometimes, in going out of his hut, he would fall forward on his face, and lie there, without being able to move. On the 24th the rupture of the blood-vessel alluded to by Zomba appears to have taken place, and after that he could not be stirred without the bleeding being renewed. He was now utterly helpless and speechless ; and poor Burrup, who was only a degree or two removed from complete prostration himself, was able to render him very little aid. The three Makololo, however, were very attentive, and gave all the assistance they could. On the morning of the 31st of January, the day on which the Bishop died, the chief, whom Burrup represented as evidently getting tired of them, requested him to move the Bishop from the hut which they occupied into another, as he wanted to store corn in it. The truth most probably was, that foreseeing what would be the result of his illness, he did not wish the death 30 to take place in his hut, since from the native superstition about the spirits of dead persons haunting the places where they die, it would thenceforth be uninhabitable. Burrup protested that the Bishop was very ill, and ought not to be moved; but the chief said that so were a great many of his people, and insisted upon his removal at once. In order, therefore, to avoid giving offence, and fearing that the chief might order them off the island altogether, he consented at last, and the Bishop was carefully taken to another hut. It is to be feared, however, that this was the means of hastening his death, as in the act of moving the blood began to flow from his nose and mouth afresh. In another hour and a half he breathed his last, about five o’clock in the afternoon, retaining, as Burrup said, his fresh healthy looks until nearly ihe very last. As soon as it was known, the chief ordered the body to be removed at once; he would not even allow it to remain on the island until the following day; nor would he lend them any men to help in the burial, though he gave the Makololo a hoe to make a grave with. Burrup, therefore, assisted by tbe three Makololos, took the body across the river in the canoe, and having chosen a secluded spot under a large tree, they dug a grave, and laid it there, Burrup reading as much of the burial service as he was able in the dim evening light. This, then, was on Friday, January 31st, On Saturday, 'February 1st, Bur¬ rup made preparations to return here, as in his then weak state, and with the small remains of cloth and stores which he had,he saw no other prospect in lingering except that of a speedy death. Leaving a letter, therefore, with the chief to be given to Dr. Livingstone on his arrival, he was ready to start up the river on Sunday, February 2nd. The Makololo at first wished to leave the canoe and go up to Chibisa’s by land ; but as it had only been lent to the Bishop by the people of that village, Burrup would not consent to do that. Having at last persuaded them to go along with him in the canoe, they went on through the Fdephant Marsh (as Dr. Livingstone has named that part of the river) for three days, but the work of getting the canoe up the stream was so difficult, and the sleeping at night so bad on account of the swampy nature of the ground on the banks, that on the third day the Makololo positively refused to go any further. Burrup, still wishing to restore the canoe, persisted in remaining with it; and only when they wished him ‘ good bye,’ and left him, did he give up his point and follow them. After three more days of land journey along the right bank, during which, the Makololo told us, though Burrup himself never spoke of it, that he had the greatest difficulty in walking through weakness, they all reached Chibisa’s village, where the natives showed them every kindness and attention when they had heard all their sad story. It is also worth mentioning that at Manhohwe’s village, where you will remember we had a little difficulty with the chief, and who showed his suspicion of us more plainly afterwards, Burrup experienced very- kind treatment at his hands. (He had found himself obliged to pass through his village.) On arriving at Chibisa’s on February 8th, he could walk no farther, and had to be carried all the way from that place to this, in the way I have men¬ tioned above. Job had followed the Bishop from this place on January 5th, but had been detained eight days on the road from sickness; on reaching Chibisa’s after this delay, and finding that he could not get a canoe to go down the river after him, he had remained at the village, awaiting the return of the Bishop and Burrup, and there the latter found him. I am only able to add this melancholy sequel to his story, which I do in a few words. For the first few days after his return to us on the 14th, Dickinson thought that he would soon begin to recover strength, as he was able to walk, and ate heartily; and if we could have given him brandy, or wine, or wheaten bread, the result might have been different. As it was he began to suffer from diarrhoea, which the native corn (Chimanga), on which we are now chiefly living, only serves to aggravate. He got worse and weaker by degrees, until the morning of February 22, when it was evident that he was beginning to sink. About ten o’clock he began to wander, and soon after became quite speechless, turning from side to side where he lay, as if suffering acute pain. Dickenson, himself in a very weak state from a recent attack of fever, having 31 pronounced that he was sinking rapidly, I read the Commendatory Prayer beside him, and a few other collects; he breathed his last exactly at eleven, our efforts to revive him by the administration of chloric ether and mustard poultice on the stomach having proved utterly fruitless. Unfortunately, his weakness throughout prevented him from writing any account of the death of the Bishop ; but there are some brief notes in his pocket-book which will be sent to England, that may be of some use. A rough coffin was made for him of bamboo, and on Sunday, 23rd, we buried him in a quiet retired nook near this village, Dickenson, Waller, Clarke, and Adams carrying him to the grave. Before leaving for Mauasomba’s on December 23, the Bishop put into my hands a paper which I was to look at in the event of his death. I herewith send a copy of it in full, leaving it to the judgement of yourself and the Committee whether it should be published or not. (Copy) Magomero, December 23, 1861. At my death I commend my soul to God, as unto a merciful Creator, Saviour, and Sanctifier, until that day. As to the affairs of this world, I should wish the members of this Mission to act under the temporary headship of the Senior Priest, acting with the advice of the other priests, or if there be no priests, the Senior Deacon, or if there be no deacon, the Senior Layman, acting with the advice of the others of their own degree respectively, reckoning seniority in the following order:—Procter, Scudamore, Burrup, Rowley, Waller, Dickenson, Gamble, Adams, Clarke, Charles, Johnson, Williams, Job. This temporary arrangement to hold until the arrival of my successor, or of instructions from the Metropolitan. My personal property, such as has not been bought at the expense of the Mission, I leave to the Mission, with the exception of a few books, to be given to my family as reminiscences, such as my Consecration Bible, my Bible and Prayer Book, my Prayer Book, Greek Testament, Christian Year, Bishop Andrew’s Riches. After payment of all dues, I give the remainder of my property to the Addi¬ tional Bishopric’s Fund, remitting the loan I made to the Cathedral at Maritz- burg, in Natal, and acting with consideration for all my debtors. This memorandum to be read here, and then sent to my brother, John Mackenzie, Esq., 11 Abercromby Place, Edinburgh. C. F. Mackenzie. Witnesses f R C ’ Scudamore, Witnesses | H Waller . It is almost needless to add that we shall endeavour to the utmost to carry out the wishes contained in the above—those of one whose loss we feel in a manner it were as vain as useless for me to attempt to describe. That our position is one of great difficulty, and at present a most trying one, is obvious to ourselves, and will no doubt be felt to be such at home. The want of a duly authorised and thoroughly efficient leader must throw us back in our work, for, of course, in many things I feel that my own power of action is of a limited character, while the fact of such a position ever falling to my lot has been farthest from my thoughts. We shall of course act in the meanwhile to the utmost of our capacities, awaiting with anxiety the result of this sad intelligence at home. In the meantime we are totally dependent on Dr. Livingstone and the ‘ Pioneer,’ and so many are the circumstances which may combine to detain him at the Kongone, in the Zambesi, or in the Shire, that we cannot possibly tell at the time I write when we shall be able to consult with him as to our best course to take, in order to get these melan¬ choly news conveyed as speedily as possible to the Cape and to England. As far as regards ourselves, we are now living on the produce of the country, and feel much the want of some European stores, such as wheaten flour, and brandy or wine, for medicinal purposes. We are all suffering more or less from diarrhoea, induced partly by our food and partly by an unfavourable situation, which we have hitherto been prevented, by many occupations, from changing. I am happy to say, however, that we are now at the end of the wet season, and that our health is, on the whole, improving. We are looking day by day for news of, or from, Dr. Livingstone, and hope and pray that their arrival may not he long delayed. We go on much as usual, though the recent events have cast a gloom over us which is not easily to be dispelled ; and, however we may look at the future, the present affairs and progress of the Mission itself are certainly prosperous. Our last act has been to send an embassy to an Achawa chief in the neighbour¬ hood, who is desirous, we were told, to communicate with us, hut was afraid to send. A woman of his tribe, one rescued by us, takes the message. March 8.—We have this morning received the joyful news that the ‘ Pioneer ’ is on her way up the river. They came by one of the Makololo (who also brought our mail) who had been sent on by Dr. Kirk ; he and Captain Wilson were at Satchi, where they had been detained by fever on their way up here. It appears that the ‘ Gorgon,’ of which Captain Wilson is commander, brought our goods, and Miss Mackenzie and Mrs. Burrup, to the Kongone; fearing, however, that the‘Pioneer’might he long in the river, Captain Wilson and Dr. Kirk came up in the Captain’s gig, and only heard of the Bishop’s death on their arrival at Chibisa, The letters we sent down there for Dr. Livingstone decided them to come up here, leaving the ladies at the village on the river. Poor Mrs. Burrup has yet to hear of her husband’s death. The fact of Captain Wilson coming up is most providential, as it will enable us to send our sad news to the Cape without delay. Waller, Rowley, and Scudamore started for Satchi an hour or two after we had got Kirk’s note, and we wait for their return. March 10.— The abrupt departure of Captain Wilson compels me to close this as abruptly. I have not a minute to spare. Believe me, yours faithfully, Lovell J. Procter. The following letters are from the Rev. H. Rowley: — Serpa Village, Manganja Land, March 9, 1861. To the Committee of the Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, and Durham Universities Mission to Central Africa. Gentlemen, —In the great exigency in which we most unexpectedly find our¬ selves, I have taken the liberty of writing this, in case we are not able to get off more official letters, in order to make you acquainted with the outlines of our present circumstances and future prospects. In November Dr. Livingstone returned from the Lake Nyassa, and, in a letter to the Bishop, informed him that he could not again bring the ship, the ‘ Pioneer,’ up to Chibisa’s, and that we must not again depend upon him to bi’ing up our stores. He at the same time appointed the mouth of the Ruo as the place where he would deposit what stores of ours he could now bring, and expected us to be there to receive them on the 1st of January. The route from Magomero to the Ruo was not known to us. Every effort was made to open that route, but without success. Our brethren Messrs. Procter and Scudamore first tried. When about eighty miles from here, they were attacked by Manasomba, a naturalised Angura chief, all their property taken from them, and they escaped with life only with greatest difficulty. In December the Bishop went down with a larger party. The result was the destruction of Manasomba’s village ; but they could proceed no farther ; a panic had seized upon all the natives friendly to us. The Bishop and party returned to Magomero ; but the next day, with our brother Burrup, he started for Chibisa’s, purposing to go down the Shire to the island of Malo, the appointed place, in canoes. He did so. He arrived at Malo on January 12. The Doctor, in the ‘ Pioneer,’ had only passed down the river a few days before, the difficulties of river navigation are so great. The Bishop was not well when he left us. He became worse at Malo. On or about the 24th of January his illness had so increased from the want of proper medicines, which had been lost in the upsetting of the canoe, that he became insensible, and so continued until the day of his death, which tobk place on the 31st of January. 33 Our brother Burrup determined upon leaving Malo at once. He, too, was very- ill. After arriving at Chibisa’s he was no longer able to walk. He was carried by the Makololo and other natives up to Magomero, arriving on February 14. He never rallied ; over-exertion and long-continued diarrhoea had exhausted mind and body, and he also died on the 22nd of February. • We at Magomero had for two months been suffering from pestilence and famine ; twice from dysenteric disease. I was in imminent danger, and not one of us but suffered most severely from the same cause and fever ; and we lost by death thirty-five women and children out of those about us and depending on us, and whom we had released from slavery. Magomero in the rainy season is a pest¬ hole. We leave as soon as we can get cloth. We were compelled to put our people on short food — first, because our cloth was so short; and, secondly, no corn — save at an exorbitant price and fetching it from long distances — was to be had. We were not strong enough to form another expedition to the Ruo. We were determined to await news of Dr. Livingstone, resolving to hold out until we were compelled to part with our personalities for food. All our import goods, with the exception of tea and coffee, were consumed. We, in order to husband our resources, told all the able-bodied men and women depending on us that they must provide for themselves for a while by working in the gardens of the Manganja. This they have done during the last three weeks. The sick and the children we fed as usual. Yesterday one of the Makololo brought us up letters from Europe, and also a letter from Dr. Kirk, who, with Captain Wilson, of-H.M.S. ‘ Gorgon,’were ill with fever at this place. Dr. Kirk’s letter informed us that Miss Mackenzie and Mrs. Burrup had been brought up the river by Captain Wilson in his gig, and were at Chibisa’s. We — i. e. Scudamore, Waller, and myself—started at once for this village, and bringing letters written by the Bishop before his death, and written by our brother Procter as head of the Mission, inferring from Dr. Kirk’s letter that it was their intention to come up to our station. Scudamore purposed going on to Chibisa’s in order to see Miss Mackenzie, and to make Mrs. Burrup acquainted with her husband’s death. Miss Mackenzie knew of her brother’s death through letters of ours which we had sent to Chibisa’s. When we arrived here we were surprised to find that Captain Wilson was at that moment going back to the ship with Dr. Kirk. They were both better of their fever, but had lost so much time that they could not come up to us. Captain Wilson was anxious to get to his ship, as it was without provisions, and he had none for his boat’s crew. He could not delay an hour. She will take back the ladies. We at once sent a messenger to Kagunna for Procter’s letters, and for all others; but as Captain Wilson must leave on Tuesday morning at 9 o’clock — this is Sunday — it is more than likely that they will not be there in time — hence this communication. Beyond all this I would wish to make you acquainted with my own view (and I think it is the same in all) of our future prospects here : — Dr. Kirk assures us that we cannot again depend on the ‘ Pioneer ’ to bring up a hundredweight more stores. She has but very little with her; the rest are left at the mouth of the Zambesi under the care of the Rev. S. Hawkins, who has joined us from the Cape. We do not know yet how we shall be able to get them up to us. We cannot remain in this land without regular communication with the sea — we ought to have at least two communications in the year. Captain Wilson tells us that we cannot depend on men-of-war again. A steam-launch for the river, and a ship chartered from either the Cape or Natal, become a necessity— an abso¬ lute necessity of our existence here. We shall rejoin Dr. Kirk and Captain Wilson to-morrow, and purpose asking the latter to write to you respecting the character and expense of the first purchase of the vessel, &c., and the cost of working her. We cannot live here without import goods. The country is fruitful, will no doubt grow wheat, &c., and if sheep were imported they would likely do C 34 well. But at present the produce of the country, save in Indian corn, is not suf¬ ficient to support a large body of Europeans. There are but few goats, fewer black sheep, some fowls, but no game. Generally, the highlands are healthy. Magomero is a most unfortunate excep¬ tion. Its position, however, accounts for its unhealthiness. With the stores we have at the Kongone mouth, we may do well for a full year; at that time, or before that time, arrangements ought to have been made for getting up further supplies. There is a good field for Mission work in its highest and Holiest import. The Manganja are everywhere willing to receive us. The Ajawa are anxious to become our friends—their chiefs sending deputations to us asking if they may come and reside near us ; and if we have only free communication with the sea, there seems every reason to hope that with God’s blessing the best objects of the Mission will be most satisfactorily realised. The commercial prospects of the country are not very promising. It would take years and the full right to use the rivers before anything could be done in that way. In the Shire valley cotton grows abundantly, but about us there is very little; in a radius of fifty miles around Magomero you find scarcely—I feel sure you would not find—fifty acres of it, and what there is is of inferior quality. Sugar-cane is rarely seen ; now and then a few canes of inferior quality are brought to us. But both cotton and sugar would grow if properly cultivated. The difficulties in the way of making either profitable are the expenses of land and river carriage. It will greatly comfort us to have out a successor to our dear, most dear Bishop —whose death is a grief almost unimaginable—as quickly as may be possible. We all feel that. This is written in haste on our journey down to the river, and imperfectly de¬ scribes what I most wish to convey to you; but I thought, in case letters more carefully written should fail, it would be best to communicate even this. I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, Your obedient servant in our Lord Jesus Christ, Henry Rowley. My dear Mr. Strong, March 10, 1861. Will you lay the accompanying papers for the committee before them as soon as may be ? It is mournful intelligence we have to send you now. God help us ! We feel our losses greatly. We are ‘ cast down, but not in despair ’■—far from it—we are hopeful. Depend upon it, we shall, with Almighty aid, do our best to maintain our posi¬ tion and carry out the objects of the mission. Pray for us. Ever truly yours, H. Rowley. The following letters from Dr. Livingstone, and two members of his expedition, will be read with interest, as giving their view of the actual position and future prospects of the Mission :— Dr. Livingstone to the Metropolitan op Cape Town. My dear Bishop, Kongone, March 18, 1862. You will be grieved to the heart to hear of the death of our good and loving Bishop Mackenzie. We went up so very slowly with a load, that Miss Mackenzie and Mrs. Burrup, naturally anxious to join brother and husband, pre¬ vailed on Captain Wilson to take them on in his gig. In the mean time we had found it impossible to ascend the Zambesi and Shire in flood, and turned back to 35 unload and screw the new vessel together at Shupanga. On the evening of the 14th the gig returned, and you may imagine the shock we received when it was found that two of the strongest of the Mission party had departed. We finished un¬ loading next day, came down to Vienna’s, and Captain Wilson engaged him to send up canoes immediately with all the stores which we had on board for the Mission —they will reach Chibisa in about 15 days, and more will be despatched as soon as I get up to Shupanga. The canoes are in charge of Blair, a member of the Mission; and there is a supply of wine, brandy, tea, sugar, meal, calico in bales, & c. &c., so no apprehensions need be entertained on their account. I felt stunned for a while, and could scarcely write to our brethren on the morning of the 16th, but said a few words to each of them. A vessel must be sent out to them at once, and may the good Lord direct you to one of His servants suited to the sphere. I entreated them to let no little petty differences divert them from the great work they have undertaken, and warned them that the eyes of the most influential men in England were upon them; but anything I could say would come with no force equal to a word from you. Be sure and warn the Bishop’s successor against rash exposure. I had to be rude almost, to prevent our dear departed brother from going down with us in November last to the Ruo, to explore from it upwards to the Mission, with but a single native attendant, and heavy rains falling every afternoon. I spoke much of the danger, but Burrup had come up, and all my warnings seemed only exaggerated ideas of the danger of the fever — he even said jocularly that the pills were worse than the disease. Fortunately I prevailed on him to return; for we went one day only, and then, by a sudden fall of the water, were stuck fast for six weeks, with a large marsh ou each side, and there lost our first man in four years. When we at last came to the Ruo, we waited two days before January 1 (the day appointed for meeting us on our way up), one mile above the Ruo, and no one of the natives knew aught of him, or of any white man from the hills; so we passed on that day on our way down. Burrup and he came on the 12th, and by the sad accident of over¬ turning the canoe, bedding, clothing, and medicines were lost. When the Bishop took fever, the want of medicine proved fatal, and we are left to mourn what seems an almost irreparable loss. I dread the effect which this will have in England; but the work is the Lord’s, and He knows how to take care of His own cause. In reference to the Bishop’s fighting, I confess I am not clear that he was in the right to engage in offensive warfare. I have a strong bias against it. I never expected it, and felt very sorry that we did not anticipate the attack of the Ajawa, and use other means before going near them. There is, however, no appeal of one tribe against another—no public law —and it is the slave-market, where all the better feelings of human nature are extinguished by the hateful traffic. We were never attacked in Africa till we came among slave-hunters, and never robbed until we got into the sphere of a slaving dhow’s operations, half-way up Lake Nyassa. I have not yet seen Mr. Hawkins, as he left in the ‘ Gorgon,’ to which ill health drove him—and the ‘ Gorgon’ has put to sea. He is said to suffer from ulcers in the mouth and legs. With respect to the steamer, your Lordship expressed your sense of its im¬ portance before I did. Captain Wilson will explain his ideas of what is wanted as well as the desire of the survivors. It is certain that, however willing to help the Mission with this ship, it can only be done at the expense of giving up our own work. I believed that we could easily help the Mission and do our own work, but I see it to be plainly impossible to attend to both. I had to refuse a passage to Mr. Procter in search of a wife, but I trust you will look on my inability in a humble spirit. Anything that I can do without interfering with my own duties, you will please believe that I am most willing to perform. Poor Mrs. Burrup is sadly changed in spirits. I hope you may persuade her to remain at the Cape for a time, to regain her wonted cheerfulness. If we had C 2 36 possessed a house, we should have detained Jessie Lennox for the Mission, hut we have but poor accommodation in this steamer. Believe me, dear Bishop, Affectionately yours, David Livingstone. Dr. Livingstone to the I-Ionokaby Secretary. My dear Sir, Kongone, Mouth of Zambesi, March 25, 1862. This mail will bring to your mission the deeply afflicting news of the death of good Bishop Mackenzie, and of his associate Mr. Burrup. Coming, as this does, on the back of the sad disaster of our brethren at Linyanti, it seems a blow heavy and discouraging to our hopes for Africa. I need not say that it has caused me the deepest distress; but while deploring the sad loss, 1 shall embrace the oppor¬ tunity, afforded by our waiting here for the return of H.M.S. ‘ Gorgon,’ to give the Committee as much information as I have been able to glean ; and I may venture to urge you, while bowing to the chastising hand of our heavenly Father, not to lose heart or hope in the enterprise you have undertaken. The last we saw of the Bishop was on the 14th November last. He had come down to Chibisa’s and welcomed Mr. Burrup, who the night before had reached us by performing the wonderful feat of coming through all the marshes of the Shire in a small canoe. We had long decided that a new route to the mission was needed, because the ‘ Pioneer ’ was too deep to come up further than the Ruo, a feeder of the Shire, unless with the prospect of remaining up till next flood. The Bishop wished to come down at once to the Ruo and explore from that point upwards; but the rains had begun and fell heavily on the mountains every afternoon, and, by strongly objecting to the project as a rash risk of life, I induced him to postpone the exploration. In going home with Mr. Burrup, he experienced the drenching which would have accompanied almost every step from the Ruo. It was well also that he did not come with the * Pioneer,’ for she went but one day, and a sudden fall of the river kept her stationary over six weeks, with a large marsh on each side of her. The Bishop appointed the 1st of January for meet¬ ing his sister on her way up; but after waiting two days one mile above the Ruo, and hearing nothing of any white man among the natives, we passed that point on the 1st of January on our way down. It now appears that he came to the place of meeting twelve days afterwards, because, having sent Procter and Scudamore to explore the new route, they were led away eastwards instead of southwards— to the source instead of to the mouth of the Ruo—were plundered by a chief there, and barely escaped with their lives. The bishop went and punished the perpetrator of this outrage, then returned to the station, and with Mr. Burrup came down the Shire in a canoe, which was unfortunately upset, and their bedding, clothing, and quinine, tea, coffee, &c., lost. Reaching the Ruo on the 12th, they were kindly received; but the Bishop taking fever, and having no quinine or proper treatment, expired on January 31, the very day on which H.M.S. ‘Gorgon’ came in sight of the Luabo with a brig in tow, having Miss Mackenzie, Mrs. Burrup, Jessie Lennox, Miss M.’s maid, and Mr. Hawkins on board. We were out of provisions, and the ‘ Gorgon ’ could give us none ; but we took the chief part of the hull of a steamer for Lake Nyassa on board, all the female portion of the mission, and Blair, leaving Mr. Hawkins to take care of the goods at Kongone. The ‘ Pioneer’ with a load could not ascend the river in high flood, so we were forced to unload at Shupanga, and there we intend to screw the new vessel together, and then tow her up to the cataracts. Before, however, we came to Shupanga, Miss Mackenzie and Mrs. Burrup, natu¬ rally anxious to join brother and husband, persuaded Captain Wilson, of the ‘ Gorgon,’ to take them forward in his gig. By their return on the 7th current, we received the sad news which I have given. We came down on the 9th to this port, and found that the ‘ Gorgon ’ had put to sea in a storm, and we wait 37 her return. Mr. Hawkins had left in her, ill with ulcers in the mouth and limbs. Our brethren up at the Mission are now fully alive to the importance of having a steamer of their own. This (I mentioned to the committee) was necessary from the first, and the Bishop of the Cape and the Bishop of Oxford viewed the matter in the same light. You may not realise its importance; but I assure you that, however willing we might be to render assistance, it is simply impossible with a vessel of this draught to serve the Mission and the Govern¬ ment. I trust that you will view this matter in a kindly spirit, and receive my assurance that I feel as anxious to do all in my power to serve the Mission as ever, but without leaving our own work undone. We cannot carry for the missionaries. Thirty-five tons brought the ‘ Pioneer ’ so low that.we took three weeks to get up to Shupanga. Last year we did that distance in twenty-one hours’ steaming. If we go up to Chihisa’s once, we must there remain till next year. Had she drawn three feet, as was intended, we could have plied on the river; but drawing four and a half or five feet, we have no choice, but make the best of her to promote the objects for which she was sent out. Canoes were sent off on the 10th, with all the provisions we had on board at Shupanga. They consisted of wine, brandy, tea, sugar, oatmeal, calico, flannel, &c., amply sufficient to keep them going in comfort. We shall despatch an¬ other supply of all they can want as soon as we reach the residence of Mr. Vienna, above Mazaro ; so no apprehensions need be entertained about their starving. I have also tried to make arrangements with Mr. Soares, of Mozambique, and with Colonel Nunes, to send up any provisions that may be landed for them at Mozam¬ bique or Quillimane, and have no doubt but the attempt will be successful. The Bishop did not anticipate any want, for he gave me a note to the effect that he had 1,600 lbs. of preserved meat coming. ‘ We owe you,’ said he, ‘ 300 lbs.; take them, and take or dispose of the rest.’ He wished, too, only one cask of biscuits, and one cask of salt meat. They have abundance of fresh meat, goats, fowls, &c., and, according to the officers who saw them, were looking well, having still plenty of tea and coffee. They had suffered from diarrhoea, and about thirty of their people had died of dysentery. Possibly the site is unhealthy, as it was chosen only as a tem¬ porary abode till enlarged acquaintance with the country would enable the Bishop to select a better spot. It is more likely that no attention has been paid to the 6udden chills which follow the noonday heats of these elevated regions. Broad flannel belts round the stomach, and care not to eat coarse native food, might have saved them the troubles they have endured. But the very serious difficulty stares us in the face that the Zambesi is not free to all nations. Possibly a pinnace of light draught might serve, because from June to November the wind blows steadily up the river ; or a boat like a large paddle- box boat might be fitted with an engine and deck house, and capable of carrying twelve tons, and not much money be lost if obliged to leave it on the river. A small steamer, drawing not more than sixteen inches when loaded, might easily be built by Messrs. Tod and Macgregor, of Glasgow', who built the Lady Nyassa. He takes an interest in these parts, and would treat you honourably. Captain Wilson will give his ideas of what she ought to be, but you may leave a good deal to Mr. William Tod's judgement. There is, however, the difficulty of keeping men in the lowlands, the danger of which I could never get our departed friend to realise. Over against this we have to set developing the cotton trade in the lower Shire, and doing good to the many villages along the slopes of the hills on both sides of the river. Whatever you do, shun great draught and great length in the vessel. Let her have good beam, strong engines, and be capable of carrying not less than thirty tons weight. Our first vessel was given out to draw thirteen inches and to carry twelve tons. She drew twenty-six inches with nothing in her, and, with three tons, thirty-one inches. Her speed was said to be eight knots, and she could not go more than three and a half or four knots. The vile steel plates of which she was built cost 75/. only. We were charged 1,200/. extras, paid for in addition, though the engine and boiler were not worth 100/. It is with pleasure, therefore, I mention 38 Mr. Tod’s name, for I know that, should you employ him, he will treat you fairly. We can he said to have begun our work only since we got the ‘ Pioneer.’ I have no suspicion that, after the first stunning effect of our heavy tidings has passed over, you will feel disposed to draw back. The names on the list of the committee even are a pledge that you will not shrink from the work of planting the Gospel and uprooting slavery in Central Africa. Dr. Ramsay, of H.M. S. ‘ Gorgon,’ will inform you that good has already been done. The country is settling down into quietness, and more land has this year been brought under cultivation than in any previous year. Even the Ajawa, who, 1 feared, were made our perpetual enemies, have made peaceful overtures. This is the testimony of one whom we must consider an unbiassed witness. For the sake of your constituents it might be well to get his testimony in his own words. And if I might presume to address the great men who adorn our Universities, who look back with veneration to the founders of these noble institutions, and ask if it is not as inspiriting to be at the beginning of things, as to be related to a splendid past—to sow that others may reap, as to enter into the labours of those who have sown. This Africa is a continent of the future. The more we know of it, the more interesting it becomes. People glory in having had illustrious ancestors : is it not a noble object to endeavour to mould a nation to our religious faith, and plant a power which may influence an important progeny continuously on till our Saviour comes again? Some may be disposed to sneer at the idea of negroes ever becoming as civilised as ourselves—forgetting, apparently, that no great time has elapsed since our forefathers were famous for burning witches, or that it was missionary agency that put a stop to English youths being sold as slaves at Rome. Allow me to suggest that a new head for the Mission be sent out with all con¬ venient speed ; and pray let it be impressed on the minds of all who may come, that all exposure in the lowlands ought to be avoided. My cautions to the Bishop were unfortunately all nullified by Mr. Burrup’s wonderful feat. We did not then know that before he left the ‘Gorgon’ he was considered the strongest man in her. When he reached us he was but the shadow of his former self. In reference to my own travels, he always said, ‘ What one man has done another may do.’ Now I never exposed myself unnecessarily, and it cannot be too much impressed on all the missionaries that, while working as constantly as possible, exposure in low-lying localities must be avoided. Hints were given that lead me to fear that abandonment of the Mission may have occasionally been contemplated. Mr. Scudamore will never give in; he has always been the Bishop’s right-hand man, and may be relied on, happen what may. I earnestly pray that the great Head of the Church may guide you in the selection of a suitable leader for the mission. I hope you will excuse this long letter—I really have not time to make it shorter. I wrote to Magomero by the canoes on the 10th, urging them to con¬ tinue the work, but was so bewildered by the startling intelligence I could not say much. I shall write again, in the same strain, in a few days. Believe me, dear Sir, Yours very sincerely, David Livingstone. Sydney Strong, Esq. Djr. Ramsay to Miss Mackenzie. H.M.S. * Gorgon,’ April 24, 1862. Before parting, I must fulfil your request and give you a resume of our late trip up the Zambesi and Shire, and the results of my experience of the unhealthiness of that river. Having gone up to Chibisa myself, and having had medical charge of fifty-four officers and men, detached to assist Dr. Living¬ stone in transporting the sections of the steamer ‘ Lady Ripon,’ the largest body of Europeans that has as yet remained any length of time in these islands, I can speak confidently on the subject, my inferences being drawn from facts that have 39 occurred under my own eye. We entered the Kongone mouth of the river, as you know, on February 2 ; and seeing by the slow progress of the ‘ Pioneer ’ that we could not reach Chibisa in our limited time, we left her on the 17th to push on in the gig and whaleboat. Four officers and twelve men, besides yourself and Mrs. Burrup, composed this party. Night and day we worked whenever there was the slightest chance of making a few miles against the current; still, with our utmost efforts, we did not reach the Ruo till the 27th. Here we sent the whaler back, and went on with the gig alone, arriving at Chibisa on the evening of the March 5. The melancholy termination to all our toils, I need not allude to; suffice it to say, that after meeting several gentlemen belonging to the Mission, we turned back on the 12th, and arrived at the ‘ Pioneer ’ on the 15th and the mouth of the river on the 17th, remaining there for the ‘ Gorgon ’ till April 2. The main body of our men, thirty-nine in all, had left the ‘ Pioneer ’ at Sheepanga on March 1, and reached the ship on the 4th. Of that number only five have escaped an attack of fever, the disease beginning to appear about three days after they got on board the ship. Only three or four suffered in the river. Of the whaler’s crew all were attacked in the river; while of the gig’s crew, those who went highest up the river, all escaped till we got to the mouth of the river again, and their work all over; but before we had been there a week, not one of our party, except myself, had not suffered from the fever. I may also mention that not one of the ‘ Pioneer’s ’ crew escaped an attack during the same trip. This certainly appears an enormous amount of sickness to occur among a body of men in the short space of two months, forty-eight out of fifty-four strong healthy men having suffered. Many of the cases were very severe, and the men sadly reduced ; still we have not lost a single man, nor is there one who, I consider, has received any permanent injury from their exposure. Though there are many relapses still occurring, they are getting less severe, and in a short time I hope to have seen the last of them. This shows it is not a very fatal disease, and that it must be very amenable to treatment. The experience of Dr. Livingstone’s expedition shows the same result; in four years they have only lost one man. The unfor¬ tunate deaths of your lamented brother and the Rev. H. Burrup may appear opposed to this; but you must remember they started from Magomero in bad health, suffering from diarrhcea, that they were capsized in the Elephant Marsh, and lost all their medicines and medical comforts, and that though we have reason to believe your brother died of fever, it was combined with diarrhcea, which rapidly reduced him, so that, with no medicine or even proper food tc oppose to these two diseases, no one can wonder that the result was fatal. Mr. Burrup, again, we know died of diarrhcea, never having been free from the com¬ plaint since coming up the river, and being completely exhausted with the journey from the Ruo to Magomero, while suffering from that disease. These certainly 1 put aside when taking into consideration the danger to life from travelling through the valley of the Shire. The danger to life from this malarious fever you must perceive I consider almost nothing; but I do not see that the chances of being attacked are so great as the statistics of our sojourn there would seem to show. Unfortunately for us, we went up the river in the worst month of the year, viz., the one immediately following the rainy season ; and actually while we were in the Shire, the river had fallen eighteen inches. This arose from a circumstance which we could not fore¬ see, viz., the early ending of the rainy season. Had we been a month earlier, our proportion of sickness would have been much smaller. The ‘ Pioneer,’ though coming down the same channels we had traversed, had not a single case of fever for five weeks previous to our meeting her. Still that is not the season I would recommend for any party to go up the river, unless in a steamer; and then I believe the end of January or beginning of February to be the best, as in the steamer there would be shelter from the rains, and there would not be so many stoppages from the vessel getting aground, the river being in flood and gradually rising. But if the journey had to be made in boats, then the dry season is the best, viz., May and June. My reason for saying so is founded on the reports of Dr. Livingstone and his party, and the following is the division they made of the year: 40 The rainy season is November, December, and January. If it commences in October, generally ending in January ; in February if later. This is considered the healthiest, but of course it is impossible to travel in open boats. February, March, and April, the hot moist months following the rainy season, while the river is falling and the marshes becoming dry, are the most unhealthy. May, June, and July, and probably August, are the coldest months of the year; the river is still falling,or at its lowest; but the exhalations from the marshes are not so great, and these are healthy. September and October, again, are the reverse. The atmosphere is dry and hot; why they should be so unhealthy I cannot make out, unless it is from the mere exposure to the sun. Of course these times may vary by a week or two, according to the early or late setting in of the rainy season. Another reason for recommending the dry season is the fact of the wind being steady, generally blowing from 9 a.m. till 4 p.m.; but in all seasons it blows one way, viz., up the river, so that there is no difficulty in going up in a sailing boat. It is only a matter of time. We never experienced a contrary wind in our trip, but we had several days calm, and could never calculate on its blowing at any particular time; while in May, June, and July, it has been found to be very regular. Another cause of our large sick list was the great annoyance of the mosquitoes. This, of course, with proper precautions, could be very much lessened, but we had no means of employing those precautions ; and the con¬ sequent loss of sleep from the excessive irritation of the mosquito bites pre¬ disposed the men to fever, and made them less capable of resisting the malarious poison. In fact, from all I have seen or heard of the fever on the Shire and Zambesi, it need be no bugbear, as it is very amenable to treatment, and need not be so general if proper precautions are taken. These precautions I would define to be — 1st. Attention to the season of the year ; May, June, and July being the most proper time. 2nd. That there be the means of sleeping dry. 3rd. That they have plenty of food, and that of a good description. 4th. That both mind and body have some employment. 5th. That all have mosquito curtains. 6th. That from four to six grains of quinine be given every morning in coffee or wine. The good effects of this latter precaution is still a matter of dispute ; but to people passing up these rivers, not staying on them, it ought to be adopted, and for a limited period I think it is a prophylactic, though far from an infallible one. Having once reached the Mission station, the liability to fever is greatly reduced, yet still they are not free from its attacks; but where will you find an uncultivated, intertropical country, where fever is not to be found. The mere exposure to the sun we know often produces it, and we also know that among the Mission party it is not considered a matter of any consequence. It seldom interferes with any march, and indeed it is no uncommon thing for them to walk it off—a thing which would be quite impossible in the cases I have seen in the rivers, the prostration and severe headache there are too great. It must therefore be a much milder form of fever. As yet diarrhoea has been the great enemy to the Mission party; but while they were suffering at the station the country within a few miles was per¬ fectly healthy. It was not a disease, either, confined to Europeans, as the natives suffered even more than they did. This evidently shows it is the fault of the locality; and as the missionaries now have become well acquainted with the dis¬ trict, there is no doubt that the place they contemplate changing to, will be a more salubrious spot, and free from all the disadvantages of the present one. Considering the immense good that must arise from the establishment of a Mission station among the unfortunately distracted tribes round the lakes and on the Shire ; the great check they are to the slave trade, a trade that is sur¬ rounded with horrors which few Englishmen could ever imagine, and certainly never heard of, but which, o the disgrace of humanity, is looked on with apathy in that country and perpetrated through the instrumentality of the white man ; the success of such a Mission ought to be the earnest prayer of every Christian. And consider- 41 ing also the great benefit their short stay has already been to these people, the sense of security it has given for miles around, and the stoppage it has already caused to the slave-trade, their future looks bright, and the good they -will do is incal¬ culable. Whether the country becomes useful in a commercial point of view or not, the gratifying results of these men’s exertions in humanising these Africans will be immediately evident; and by the blessing of God we may soon hope to see a thriving community among them. The good seed once sown, tended by careful husbandmen, must in time reap good fruit. It is a glorious work, well begun, with every prospect of success; and that it may go on and prosper is the earnest prayer of Yours most sincerely, David Ramsay, M.D. Mr. Meller to the Bishop of Cape Town. My Lord, H.M.S. ‘ Gorgon,’ Simon’s Bay, April 27, 1862. Having but just returned from the Zambesi and Manganja land, by the ‘.Gorgon,’ I hasten to give you some particulars of the Mission, knowing that, from your connection with and deep interest in it, you will be eager to receive any additional information to that you may have already had forwarded to you. I am sure, too, you will be glad to hear of the proceedings of the Livingstone expedition; but I will not enter fully into these now, more than when necessary to explain circumstances in which its movements have been in concert with, or relation to, those of the Mission. I am the more disposed to put in abeyance Zambesi expedition matters, whilst relating those of the Mission, feeling that the former will but hold interest with you, at the present time, in so far as they shall bear upon and elucidate the latter. Beyond this, I feel that personal acquaintance with the Mission for two months, during which I resided at Magomero whilst botar.ising in the neighbouring country, qualifies me more than any other member of Dr. Livingstone’s expedition to give an opinion of the country and people amongst whom they are located, and to speak of the progress and prospects of the Mission, whilst there are several sources from which full particulars of the expedition will come to you. I am unaware of the date of the last news you received, so will go back to that at which the Mission left the ‘ Pioneer’ (July 15th), just before which an oppor¬ tunity had occurred of transmitting letters via Mozambique, by the Portu¬ guese. Leaving the ship moored at Chibisa, ten miles below Murchison’s falls, Dr. Livingstone conducted Bishop Mackenzie to the highlands of Man¬ ganja. The party was rather a large one, comprising all the Mission body but two (who were left to take charge of stores) — the Makololo—and Sena men belonging to the expedition, and a troupe of bearers. On the second day’s march a party of eighty - four slaves were met, the captors at the head of them — these took to flight at once. The bonds of the captives were cut, and they were told they were at liberty to go home, or where they pleased, or accompany the English. Most of them had no friends, and these, with those who had, preferred to follow their liberators. They were accepted by Bishop Mackenzie as ‘ first-fruits,’ to become the nucleus of their future establish¬ ment. With each day’s march came evidences of wide-spread slaving, and from all sides deplorable accounts of the country, which was being desolated by aggressors from the north. When four days’ march from the Shire, they came to Magdmero, the chief of which (Chigunda) was known to Dr. Livingstone, and had been friendly to him on former visits. Chigunda was desirous that the Mission should settle at his village, and offered huts and ground for the purpose. Finding Magomero to be just such a place as the Doctor had wished to secure—affording, by its almost insulated position, natural protection in event of attack — and that it would be difficult to proceed farther whilst the country should be at war, it was agreed to settle there. But first the whole party, by the solicitations of the Man¬ ganja natives, went against a marauding slaving Ajawa people who were fighting 42 close by. The Ajawa were ousted, their prisoners and slaves set free, and allowed to join the mission. Dr. Livingstone then returned to the Shire, and soon after¬ wards set out for Lake Nyassa. Before doing so, he left orders that watch should be kept up and down the river, to prevent slavers going up the country. A month of quiet elapsed at Magomero, in which all were engaged clearing the estate, and providing shelter for themselves and their charge. After this, news came to the ship that the Ajawa had been acting on the offensive a few miles from the station, and that, to repel them, the Mission had headed the Manganja, who had come to them in large bodies, and from all quarters, supplicating help. A camp was destroyed, enslaved Manganja and others liberated; as many of which as had neither friends nor huts to go to, were allowed to join the family at Magomero. After this, peace seemed to be restored, and the house-building and other work was re¬ sumed. Deputations, however, from neighbouring chiefs constantly waited on the Bishop, each with its tale of misery and foreboding, the complaints generally being that the Ajawa had burnt villages, destroyed crops, and were advancing steadily through the country, spreading over it dike locusts, and only leaving a district when it would no longer afford them food. Of the history of these Ajawa I believe you are already acquainted, or I should introduce some of it that we have received from credible sources. Suffice it for the present to tell you that they have themselves been driven down from the north by a stronger tribe—the Machinka, whose chief, Chi-inka, is still acknowledged as a formidable freebooter of the north—and have lived for the last four years by making incur¬ sions into the Manganja country, residing on those parts where the industry of the Manganja had secured good crops, spreading over the country between the Shire, as it runs north beyond Murchison’s falls to Lake Nyassa, and Lake Shirwa (an area of about twenty-five square miles), and gradually moving south till they had come to that part of the country in which the Mission is located. As there may be some difficulty in reconciling the principle which actuated the Mission to take proceedings against the Ajawa with that professedly para¬ mount in the errand of a missionary—namely, the diffusion of peace through the Gospel, and saving of life rather than shedding of blood—I would wish to show what were the proximate causes that led the Mission to take the course they did. You are aware that it is mainly for the purpose of procuring slaves that quarrels amongst the tribes are excited, and traders have an object in fomenting them in order to reap the profits; for the slavers, Portuguese, half-castes, and others, who have been so much in the country, bargain for the prisoners of both sides, and in every quarrel are sure of profit. Both Ajawa and Manganja will sell their own people, and there is in most villages a barracoon, or ‘ pound,’ in which slaves are kept till the arrival of a dealer ; but the demand has been too great for this source of supply, so that, when war has once been set going, it is kept up by those who can make themselves rich by the proceeds. When the Mission first entered the country, they met slavers and heard of many more ; there had been no opposition to the traffic, and the highway to Tette was unobstructed. The trade was brisk, and war gave a good supply. An immediate check was given by the Doctor liberating the first slaves met, and securing slaves in the second. A black cook was discovered in the person of one slaver—a man who bad served the Doctor when at Tette, and who belonged to an influential Portuguese, and probably was engaged in the traffic on his master’s account, though averring to the contrary. He escaped, and no doubt gave information to his master and others of what was going on. An armed party of fifty half-castes and natives, under a Portuguese, crossed the Shire, at the place at which the ‘ Pioneer ’ was moored, intending to go up the country and take advantage of the war; but hearing that the English were before them, they returned, sending word to the ‘ Pioneer ’ that they had done no harm, had no slaves with them, nor had killed any one in the country. Not long after the Mission was established, a slaver, ignorant of their errand, sent to ask whether they would buy slaves of him. On discovering his mistake, he fled and escaped, though followed for some distance. Every occasion was seized by Bishop Mackenzie to stimulate the Manganja to oppose the traffic; and though the natives seemed indifferent at first, 43 and afterwards distrustful of his object, he had the gratification, in less than four months, to find many chiefs pledging themselves to set their faces and arms against all engaged in the trade. But so long as •war continued, slavery -would. The peaceably disposed people were never secure. Mothers said they dared not love their children, after they ceased to be babes, feeling that they might be taken from them at any time, and men would not till the ground, being doubtful of reaping the proceeds. A chief would connive with a trader to entrap some of his own people, or even his relatives, of such value did the bit of calico (a fathom for a man, the usual price) come to be. The arrival of the Mission was most opportune. By the initiatory steps taken with regard to slavers and slaving, they advertised their ob¬ jects through miles of country, and, by exhorting all met with to rouse themselves against such iniquitous dealing, produced an immediate impression, and more quickly gained the confidence of the people. The succeeding operations were but in accordance with those first begun under the generalship of Dr. Livingstone, and carried out in the only way that was left, in the absence of lay executive. So long as the Manganja should be in turmoil, fear, and distraction, and the neighbouring tribes slaving for slavers, the Mission must be in abeyance, unless they should exhibit themselves in a way that would excite attention, and show for what pur¬ poses they had entered the country. That peace, a check to slaving, and confidence in the English have been obtained, those who have lately returned from the country can attest. That it should have been left for the Mission to achieve this in the only way that remained to them, is to be deplored, inasmuch as it may give rise to the question whether it were right, under any circum¬ stances, for clergymen to take an executive character in affairs that more pro¬ perly belong to laymen. There was, however, no alternative. The Mission having settled in the midst of a persecuted people, and adopted them, could not but feel that those most distant, and most oppressed, were as much entitled to their sympathy and help as those nearer at hand. And one must look at this point the more, before questioning the right of going out of the way to do good, since it has been chiefly through those most distant coming for advice and help that an influence on those nearer (who are by so much the more independent from their feeling of security) has been gained. It was a question solely of time, whether the Ajawa should ravage the country southwards to the Shire. They were in greatest force at a place less than a day’s march from the Mission station, and had spread consternation far down the country between Magomero and the river. Days were passed in prayerful deliberation before steps were taken by the Mission to cooperate with the Manganja, not so much that they hesitated in the course to be taken as from the fear that those at home might hold adverse opinions when they should hear of these things, long after they had oc¬ curred, and when collateral circumstances were forgotten. Although so short a time has elapsed in which to speak of the working of the Mission, the results, as they are now patent to all, should be taken for good or ill; and no one can enter that wide country at the present time, who has been in it since or before the arrival of the Mission, without seeing at once the change that has been effected. The objects of the Mission are known and appreciated; a light has been thrown on the vileness of the slave traffic, and chiefs now abhor it who but a few months since were solely occupied in furnishing its victims. The principle of civilising before evangelising is being truly carried out, and the example of the working Christian has already leavened a large multitude, and prepared the way for effec¬ tive religious instruction. By their example and exertions not only friends but foes have been led to compare their conditions, and seek to better them ; and it is my confident belief that, the influence of the Mission persisting, both Ajawa and Manganja will unite to turn their faces against slavery, and to combine their interests, for mutual welfare. The deaths of Bishop Mackenzie and Mr. Burrup will give rise to discussion as to the healthiness of the country about Magomero, and the inferences drawn might unjustly prejudice persons against it. 44 Magomero was not chosen with any regard to its sanitary position, but rather that, being a peninsula, it offered natural protection against any who might be expected to attack. It is, in fact, a bad, if not the worst, site in that part of the country that could have been chosen, being low, enclosed with trees, secluded from currents of air, and too closely packed with houses and inhabitants. It is on the plateau between the Manganja hills and Lake Sliirwa, and 3,500 feet above sea level; nevertheless, it is an unhealthy site, being lower than the surrounding country. In the hot season it is inferior to more open land, confining air,and noxious exhalations in the wet, remaining damp long after more exposed places are dry. It is approached through an avenue of euphorbia trees and brushwood, and surrounded by densely-packed trees, twiners, and long grass. There are many beautiful sites in the country at Zomba, and by the lake, but they are more distant from the Shire. It may be advantageous to be near the river, for greater facility of communication; but for health, there is nothing finer than the slope of Mount Zomba, overlooking the lake, and commanding a view of the country between it and the Milanji and Manganja hills. I can tell you little of the proportion of disease in the up country and Shire. It is lower for fever, and fever is more quickly amenable to remedies at Magomero than on the river. It is seldom severe, and yields to treatment readily, when taken at the onset. It is worst in the months immediately preceding and following the rains, viz. September and part of August (according to the early or late setting in of wet weather), February, March, and part of April, in which last-named months exhalations are rising from the lagoons drying up (though there are but few of these marshy lands so high upas Magomero — and most mild in the cold months, May, June, July — mean temperature 5° lower than in the Shire valley). Dysenteric diarrhoea occurred whilst I was there in October, but I should be inclined to ascribe the cause of this to the hard native food that entered largely into the ordinary diet — not to the water, which is generally suspected, but which at Magomero is of the purest. In the cold months diarrhoea is frequent; the great alteration of temperature between midnight and morning may cause this, the thermometer frequently indicating a difference of 35° between 12 and 6 a.m. In the wet season natives have aggravation of ordinary skin diseases, and Europeans are subject to boils and a pustular eruption like a disease called Herpes Zoster. It is troublesome, but no worse. Small-pox decimates the people. Ino¬ culation has been practised by the natives from time immemorial, and I had no difficulty in introducing vaccination ; but the vaccine I had with me was ineffective. I shall hope for better results if I can procure good vaccine to take back to the Zambesi. With ordinary precaution and regard to the laws of health I believe one might live almost immune from serious disease in Manganjaland. The ill-health that has occurred has been attributable to vapours, unusual hard work, and the remains of fevers contracted in the Shire valley. If due regard were paid to the choice of a healthy site, and attention given to regime, I do not think the per¬ centage of disease or ill-health would exceed that found through European climates. There will always be sickness on the rivers; and those leaving them for the uplands will continue to suffer for some time ; but once established in a good position on the highest plains, there will be little to fear from fever, provided proper remedies be always at hand, and administered at the outset. Of the deaths that have occurred, only one, that of the ‘ Pioneer’s ’ carpenter, can be attributed to true malarious fever; and it is not surprising that our little band paid this' penalty to the poison, considering that we had been fixed on a sand-bank, between two swamps, for five weeks. You are already in possession of the circumstances attending the last movements of Bishop Mackenzie and Mr. Burrnp. I feel sure, that had they been moderately economical of the vires vitce (and they were most careless), they would not have been in the bad state of health in which they found themselves, prior to starting for the Kuo rendezvous. The arduous labours through which the Bishop had passed prior to embarking in the canoe, were enough to prostrate the strongest man, and Mr. Burrup had suffered from diarrhoea since his arrival at the ‘ Pioneer ’ in November—on reaching which, he had completed a journey of 300 miles— 45 undertaken in a canoe lent by the Portuguese—without knowledge of the country or language—sleeping in any place—living on anything, a feat which elicited the admiration, but regret of the Doctor himself. The upset of the canoe—sleeping in wet clothes—and loss of medicines and other necessaries accelerated the end. C. J. Meller. The following short extract from a report of Captain Wilson, of H.M.S. ‘ Gorgon,’ to the Bishop of Cape Town, concerning the ports on the eastern coast of Southern Africa and the navigation of the Zambesi and Shire, must not be introduced without the expression of the deepest gratitude to the commander and officers of the ‘ Gorgon ’ for their important services to the Mission party. Having conveyed Miss Mackenzie and Mrs. Burrup from the island Johanna to the Kongone mouth of the Zambesi, Captain Wilson resolved, at great personal risk and inconvenience, to escort them up the Shire to the vicinity of the Mission Station, a work of great toil and danger. Having there put himself into communication with the Mission party, and learnt the sad tidings of the death of the Bishop and Mr. Burrup, he brought back the widow and the bereaved sister to the Cape. Nor was this all. On his way down the Shire he visited the Bishop’s grave, in company with one of his officers, and there set up a cross of bamboo cane, to mark the spot until a more durable monument can be erected over it. Of' all this there is no mention in Captain Wilson’s letter to the Metropolitan of Cape Town. The grateful acknowledgment of his thoughtful kindness to the living, and his religious care for the dead, has reached the Committee from other sources ; and the Bishop of Oxford, as their chairman, has been requested to convey to that officer the expression of their warmest thanks to him, and the officers and men of his command, for all that they have done .and suffered in the discharge of these self-imposed but most charitable offices. Extract from a Letter from Commander Wilson, H.M.S. ‘.Gorgon.’ To conclude, from what I saw when in the Zambesi and Shire rivers, I feel confident that the Mission, if headed by an energetic, active, and determined man, must before long be placed on a firm footing; and will not only be the means of Christianising the heathen, but also of opening the long-wished-for cotton trade with Africa ; and further, of giving the great blow to the slave-trade on this coast, which is carried on at present to such an awful extent from the country round about them. These letters of the Mission party, as well as of Dr. Livingstone and others, may serve to allay the apprehensions which might not unnaturally be excited by the deplorable intelligence which has reached us; showing that while the Missionaries themselves have no thought of abandoning their great work, the most competent authorities unconnected with the Mission see no reason at all why they should do so, and only urge that the heavy losses which it has sustained should be supplied as speedily as possible. It remains only to intreat all who are interested in this under¬ taking to come to the succour of the Missionaries in their present 46 great emergency, amid trials and difficulties and perplexities of so novel a character, so eminently requiring ‘ a spirit, not of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind praying that Almighty God, for whose love’s sake they have gone forth to spend and be spent, may guide, protect, bless them ; that He may ever keep in their memory the devoted purpose with which they went forth ; that they were not to count their lives dear unto themselves, nor to defend them with peril of shedding the blood of others; but to show them¬ selves followers of Him who declared, f the Son of Man is come, not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them,’ remembering that suffering for Christ’s sake has ever been the victory of the Church, and that prayers are the arms of Christian Missionaries, all-powerful for Christ’s sake ; for they have power with God, and prevail. By order of the General Committee, T. PARRY WOODCOCK, Hon. Sec. 5 Mitre Court, Temple, E.C. APPENDIX, Memorandum of Bishop Mackenzie on the names of Chiefs, &c. in the neighbourhood of ‘ Magomero.’ Chigunda.—The chief at Magomero, -where the mission is settled, a man of perhaps thirty-five years of age, a chief of second-rate importance, being inferior to, though independent of, Chinsunzi, Kankombe, and others. His territory may he about a hundred square miles. Of a gentle disposition, not generally disposed to take a decided part, he has been very friendly to the mission. Chinsunzi,—The chief at Mitanti, fourteen miles NNE. from Magomero, an old man of sixty or seventy; one of the greater chiefs among the Manganja. His power is probably less than it was. Kankombe.—One of the great chiefs of the Manganja. His village lies about twenty miles ESE. of Magomero. He is a man of thirty or forty, of deliberate speech, giving the impression of firmness and decision of character. Mankokwe, a chief on the Shire below Dakana Moia (called Chibisa on the map), a weak man, who has been on good and had terms with Livingstone, in a most capricious way — called himself the supreme chief over the Manganja, which, it seems, was mere assumption: at any rate he has no real power. Chibisa, a chief formerly living on the Shire opposite the island Dakana Moia. (See Liv’s. Lect. by Monk, p. .) His warlike spirit is much vaunted among the Manganja. Mbame, a chief about a day and a half’s march from Dakana Moia to Magomero. Soche, a chief about half-way from Dakana Moia to Magomero. Mingazi, a chief about three-quarters of the way from Dakana Moia to Mago¬ mero. Often drunk: he seems to have had intimate relations with the slave- drivers from Tette. Chabwera, a chief about seven miles N. of Magomero. Nampaiko (alias Mpota), a chief in alliance or joint power with Katanga. His village is about thirty miles NNE. from Magomero. His people, and those of neighbouring chiefs, harassed by the Ajawa at Chaone. He is a man of forty, and seems to be of stronger nature than most of these people. Chiradzura, a prominent hill ten miles SW. of Magomero, about 1,000 feet above the general level of this elevated plain. Zomba, called on the spot Dzomba, a mountain about twenty miles north of Magomero, and rising three or four thousand feet above the level of Magomero. Its southern face is about eight miles long, and it extends for fifteen or twenty miles from north to south. Its top is nearly level, and is drained by a stream flowing eastward, to Lake Shirwa, while its western side overlooks the Shire. Milanji, a very fine range of mountains running nearly from north to south, on the south-eastern shores of Shirwa. They extend from east to south-east, as seen from Magomero. Shirwa, a large saltish lake, about ninety miles long, by broad. (See Living¬ stone’s Lect. by Monk, pp. .) It is known on the spot as ; Nyanja,’ * The Water.’ There is a large island in it called Chirua. Shire, a river flowing from Lake Nyanja, and joining the Zambezi. It lies west of Magomero, being ten or fifteen miles distant at the nearest point. Zachurakamo, the brother of Chigunda, living at Magomero, an active clever man, about twenty or twenty-five. Bawe, a chief living about eight miles west of Magomero, about twenty years of age ; lately succeeded his uncle. Note. The regular mode of succession is that a chief is succeeded by his brother ; or, failing brothers, by his sister’s son, to the exclusion of all his own children. They are the heirs of their maternal uncle. Magomero, the village occupied by the Mission, standing on an oval piece of ground about 170 yards by 70, nearly surrounded by the stream. It was the principal of the villages occupied by the family of the chief Chigunda, and is now shared by him and the Mission body, with their freed people. It is in Lat. 15° 35' South, and Long. 35° 35' East, nearly. The situation is convenient, from the abundance of water and the fine trees in the bed of the stream, though the admission of currents of fresh air is a little impeded. Kapanje, a son of Chinsunzi, whose conduct on one or two occasions has given a favourable impression of his character. Mobita, one of the Makololo who accompanied Livingstone on his return from Sekeletu’s in 1860. He was at Magomero, with three or four other Makololo, for about two months. Akumtonda, one of the oldest and steadiest of the freed people at Magomero, rescued from slave-drivers at Mbame’s on July 16 . His owner had no other slaves but him and the little boy Katolatola; his heathen marriage with a Chivinganira sanctioned. LONDON PRINTED BT SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. NEW-STREET SQUARE