ever be satisfactory, while Missionaries are expected to be their own protectors. Missionaries are ever being called off their proper work for subjects of the most delicate kind, and for which they have no special aptitude.” The Directors had long contemplated the formation of a trading company in connection with the Mission, and it was hoped that this company would manage all civil affairs. The policy of the Scotch Missions on the slave trade, was expressly given as the reason for this conduct of Mityoche’s. A great many refugees had come from his district, and according to native views, the reception of such refugees was a good cause for war. Having been opposed to this policy all through, I wrote home at this time, “All the Missions to this region have run their heads against the question of slavery, and out of it has sprung a world of troubles. We might have done our duty as missionaries, and let slavery alone entirely. We do not find that the great Church of the Middle Ages ran against the question, and it had as many opportunities as we have now. To say the least of it, our taking the matter up hitherto, has been premature; we have not such a knowledge of the language and the feelings of the natives as to justify us in dashing at once into a difficult question like this.” The remainder of October was quiet. In the course of the month, Mr. Henderson visited Zomba. We had asked Mr. Buchanan to consider the expediency of abandoning this station, but he felt quite safe. We also suggested that he should try a stockade but he wrote, “I do not think we should try a stockade.[6] The particular kind of wood is not at all plentiful, and the expense would be more serious than the chance of an attack.” Upon the mountain side he had very little trouble, but the whole plain between him and Chirwa was scoured in the interests of the slave trade. Soon we had more trouble at Blantyre as the following extracts will show:—