About twelve o’clock one night, a slave raid took place, and two children were carried off from a Blantyre village. An alarm was raised, and most of us turned out. Amidst the darkness and the excitement, the Blantyre party got divided into two sections, which had to signal to each other by firing revolvers. The deputation that had just arrived from Scotland, being accustomed to enjoy a night’s rest without all this disquietude, were naturally alarmed, and they thought there were two hostile armies firing on each other in deadly combat. However they soon became acquainted with the facts, and imprisoned one man who was found lurking about near the scene of the kidnapping. Amidst the darkness a great number of people could have hid in the jungle near the station, but during the tumult some one set fire to half-a-score of native huts which lighted up the landscape most magnificently. The poor man that was imprisoned could give no information about the slave raid. I left the various parties in consultation and went back to bed. But a little later a band of men were supplied with ammunition and sent out for the purpose of hunting up the robbers. They marched on to a distance of about five or six miles, but they could find no trace of an enemy. Next day it was contemplated to send an expedition with the view of recovering these children, but fortunately this was abandoned. Meanwhile it was discovered that one Blantyre man had proved a traitor. During the disturbance he did not appear because as he represented, ‘the enemy had overcome him by a powerful dose of medicine so that he was unable to awake!’ The deputation immediately went to deal with him, but they seem to have been misinterpreted for the fellow went over to the kidnappers and proclaimed war and every kind of evil unless the children were restored!