I stayed at a spot which is now covered with dense jungle, but on clearing a space to pitch my tent for the night, I found that there had once been a village which reached down to the side of a pleasant stream, but it had been sacked long ago by the Mangoni. At midnight we heard two hyenas very close to the tent, while about four o’clock in the morning, a great herd of buck came to the stream to drink. _May 29._—I reached Zomba about three o’clock in the afternoon and found Mr. Buchanan looking pale and dispirited on account of the hard sentence which had been passed against him. He had no idea what the grounds could be. As we subsequently learned from the best authorities, the so-called leaders of the Church had feared that the British Government would enquire into their assumption and exercise of civil jurisdiction: still I could not appreciate any motives of expediency however urgent that led to inflict on such an earnest worker so much loss and suffering without the semblance of a trial. So far as I could judge, every one that carried out the details of civil punishment felt called to the unpleasant task by the Church herself, and, indeed the “leaders” now much regretted that the Church had instructed its agents to act as civil magistrates; but while they were most generous in sharing the _blame_ they did not seem desirous to share _the loss and the suffering_, which they were so anxious to inflict on the Missionaries. Nor did they wait to see whether the latter had any defence to offer. As I spent that hot day at Zomba, I felt that a great injustice had been done. I knew the Lay Agents that had been dismissed and I knew the men that had condemned them. For five years the former, while devoting all their time and talents to the service of the heathen, had been obliged to live in hovels, to spend sleepless nights amidst enemies and many dangers, to battle with discomfort and fever and hunger, while the latter lived in comfortable homes amidst friends and relatives. The Missionaries were much puzzled to know where they had done wrong, and in some cases there were years of their engagements yet to expire. One might have expected, with Shylock’s judge, that the Church leaders would have been less hasty even although it had not been ‘in the bond’. By condemning men whom they had not heard, they had given their Missionary work in Africa a severe check for several years to come. They would not however realise this—there is an unfortunate tendency to look quite as much at the fame of organisations as at the good done among the heathen.