“Much annoyance has been caused in the district by a company of Arabs, who have come to Kawinga, on Mount Chikala. Kawinga having been supplied by them with powder, sent his men, armed with flint-locks, into Malemya’s territory to capture and carry off all the people they could lay hands on. At one village, about twenty women and children were carried off during the night; at another village four people; and in a number of cases single individuals have been taken away. In the midst of it all, not a few have lost their lives. Fortunately things have quieted down, but the natives themselves say that Kawinga is only preparing for another raid.” During a visit of slave dealers we often were afraid of being attacked. We put on night watch-men but, as they frequently fell asleep, their presence did not entirely remove our anxiety. For a long time I used to get up about two o’clock in the morning in order to look for enemies. On such occasions I tried to observe whether there were signs of a new camp fire. During the darkness of the night, one sees, along the hillsides, a multitude of fires that are not visible by day. Most of these arise from trunks of large trees which may keep burning for weeks. Parties on leaving a camp fire do not extinguish it, and travellers coming after them gladly make use of the old fire. The natives taught us to look carefully at all these fires! We had times of great trial. Being obliged to live in a miserably small hut with little or no furniture, we did not enjoy robust health, while the food that we could procure was not of the most tempting character. But we saw what an enormous field for labour lay around us, and we were seldom home-sick. Instead of writing home about difficulties, we rather tried to derive amusement from our peculiar circumstances. Dr. Macklin used to tell us playfully that he had never written but one grumbling letter, and the steamer sank with its weight! Now, although the trials of a Missionary’s life might be heavy enough to sink a steamer any day, we could not afford to do such damage to the mail service! Usually we were without letters for about two months, and when a mail did come there was much excitement. We had no inclination, and indeed no time, to read the daily papers minutely. The events had happened so long ago, that we regarded them as fragments of ancient history. But after perusing our letters we found a good mental tonic in the pages of _Punch_: while scores of our dark pupils came up after school and studied the _Illustrated London News_ and the _Graphic_. CHAPTER XII. FOURTH HALF. JAN., 1880—JUNE, 1880. [Illustration: THE “MANSE,” BLANTYRE.]