So far this adventure with Mityoche had proved very unfortunate. Hitherto the Missionaries had got on well with the native, much by reason of their very boldness. When something was done that seemed to proclaim war against the Missionaries, they had gone straight to the aggressor as if nothing had happened. Still, unless he was assisted by slave dealers, Mityoche was not likely to make war upon the Mission. He had not so strong a force at his command as any of the headmen of the three largest Blantyre villages. Kapeni and all the leading men around us were most eager to go and make war against him, so were certain of the Magololo. (The Directors of the Mission when they heard of the matter recommended that these men should be asked to punish him.) But unfortunately the African chiefs would have looked at the step not so much as a method of administering justice, as an excuse for killing Mityoche and capturing his wives. There would have been no use of crushing the man, and for a long time we tried to send messages to him. All these efforts were fruitless. The great difficulty was that he lived so far away: had he been within a day’s journey I should have visited him on my Saturday holiday with every hope of removing the misunderstanding. At the end of September, I wrote to the Directors, “Now we could go and use greater force than Mityoche’s, but nothing can be farther from our inclination. We trust that all you can do to release us from political work will be done. The Committee must make up their mind to get some one to do the Police of the country. The only safe alternative is to recall the Mission.” At this time there was no one to manage the “colony”. The Directors advised that the natives living at Blantyre should select one of the laymen to carry out some kind of government. Mr. Walker perhaps would have been the successful candidate, and might have been willing to take the duty, but I learned from other home letters that he and the other artisans were required to work under Mr. Henderson, who had returned to Blantyre a few days before, and who was expected to “act as a Christian Magistrate”. But Mr. Henderson himself declined to take the responsibility of the office. As for myself, I was precluded as a clergyman of the Church of Scotland, from any thing like civil or colonial work, and the Directors themselves recognised that the magistrate must be a layman. At this time I urged that the political work should be held quite independent of the spiritual. If civil government was to be well conducted it would require a man’s constant attention. In connection with this subject, I wrote, “For myself, I am anxious only for immunity in carrying out the evangelical work, though I by no means overlook the importance of peace and civilisation. It is hard that a great many quiet and docile natives should be deprived of this teaching owing to the presence of a few roughs. We do not think that matters will