Some thought was given this half-year to the civil jurisdiction of the Mission. The feeling of the deputation was that native chiefs should, in accordance with English views, be called in to punish criminals that belonged to their own tribe, but that they should be invoked as seldom as possible, and that a summary method of punishment might be quietly and judiciously carried out at the Mission itself. But it was distinctly mentioned that artisans, when not at a distance from the Station, should refer every grave case to the medical officer. This plan was important, for while the majority of the artisans were men of humanity, we occasionally heard of instances where white men had punished almost as severely as did the natives themselves. It could not, of course, be expected that a deputation would be able, after a visit of a few weeks, to tell what plans would be best for the settlement. All that they could do would be to indicate how much responsibility the Directors might be willing to incur in succouring the oppressed or in liberating the slave. So peculiar are the circumstances of missionary life in districts beyond the range of ordinary civilisation, that there is a proverb to the effect that “a Missionary must not expect to do any good the first year, while he may be very glad if he do no harm!” This applies with tenfold force to the case of agents that deal with civil matters. Hitherto I had believed that a person working as a clergyman would always have so much personal influence that his own work would not suffer although mistakes were made in other departments, but I now realized for the first time that individuals entirely unacquainted with the natives might so manage secular matters as to endanger the life of every European in the country. The deputation proposed a scheme for the protection of the Mission. The idea was to give Kapeni a large supply of gunpowder, and ask him to send over a garrison to the station! We cannot say what protection this garrison would have been against other natives, but we fancy the Missionaries would ultimately have found the greatest difficulty in protecting themselves from their protectors! Probably if it had been known that on the appearance or even the threat of a single artisan, Kapeni and his available forces would run to the hills, we might have heard less of this scheme. After an interview, however, the deputation was content to part with Kapeni on the following understanding:—“If you don’t give us notice when Mityoche’s people are to attack the station, we shall kill only a few of them; but if you give us notice, we shall kill them all”!