An effervescing medicine was a novelty to the natives. They thought it was boiling, and anxiously asked, “Is it hot?” Even where we did not know what was wrong with a negro, we gave him something. It was prudent to do so, as he would otherwise go to the sorcerer, who might make him believe he was bewitched, and ultimately get some one poisoned. Even when he received English medicine, he was very anxious about shaving his head, and otherwise conforming to African customs. It was always difficult to diagnose a native patient, his answers to questions about his symptoms were not to be relied on. He seemed to think it a religious duty to declare that he felt pain everywhere. The influence of the native medicine man was very great. Often a sick native will part with all his property to procure some amulet. Occasionally the school children were robbed of new dresses by this greedy practitioner. At the end of this half year, a new medical man arrived. He brought us the mail which told us that the Mission was to cease to be a colony. We were now informed that our position “must be understood as excluding the power and jurisdiction known as civil government”. All along I had felt that _my own_ position excluded this jurisdiction. I was aware that the Directors had “no right to give” me, and that I had “no right to receive” any powers of this kind. But I was not aware that even in their days of greatest perplexity, the Directors had desired me to act as their magistrate, or to be conjoined in such work. The letter continued, “We cannot make you civil magistrates over any portion of Africa, even though we may possess property therein”. Well, why had they given commission to various individuals to act as magistrates? Why had they, from the beginning of the Mission down to the very last mail, urged the carrying out of civil jurisdiction? We could only hold up our hands in amazement! Besides, the real question at issue was of the simplest character. It was not “whether civil jurisdiction was necessary in the region occupied by the Mission”; it was not “whether Livingstone and other travellers and hunters had caned offenders”; it was not “whether the humblest artisan had not as good a right to protect himself in this way as Livingstone had”; it was not “whether the laws of Britain were good or bad,” but simply “what were the laws of Britain on the subject”. Now the Missionaries received information that certain British statutes were against the assumption of civil jurisdiction. “Any assumption, therefore, of jurisdiction by us or by you in Africa, and any act of punishment done in virtue thereof, would, in the opinion of the Committee, make us or you liable to the provisions of these statutes.” This information would have been worth a great deal to the poor Missionaries if it had been given when they first left their homes.