Soon we started again; to see that no one fell behind I went last. The carriers marched in single file—often forming a line which might extend for a mile or more, as they did not keep close together. Scarcely was I out of sight of the village when I heard a great commotion—people were running and shouting. All the inhabitants of Mbami seemed to be in pursuit of a girl who was running as if in desperation. When within a few yards of me, she was caught by a young man, but she struggled most violently. I asked what was the matter, when the girl whose face was wet with tears, cried out, “I wish to go with you”. She laid hold of me with the greatest earnestness just as the other pursuers were coming near. The girl’s mother was there reproving her with “Will you leave your own mother?” I tried to calm the girl and told her to stay contentedly at her home. All the people said, “Do you hear that now? he tells you to stay at your home,” but by this time her little fingers had clutched my coat. I put beads into her hands, as this is usually an infallible way of getting the hands of a native diverted—so great is the desire for the money of the land. But this creature held on and let the beads fall. It was the mother that let go her hold of the girl in order to pick them up. Again I tried to soothe the child while her mother and all the women coaxed her by saying she would get to Blantyre to school and the Msungu (white man) would come back again and teach her, but after all she went away weeping most bitterly. I was myself deeply affected. Perhaps the girl was a poor slave who had been stolen away from her true mother. One may know natives a long time without making out their true relationships (59.) Mbami is a pretty spot, and has a good supply of water. It may one day form a small Mission station. A little beyond it we could hear the sound of a waterfall. The headman lived once with the Magololo, but he disliked their laws, and now he is practically a chief himself. But if a war broke out between the Yao and the Anyasa he would have to join either the one party or the other, else he would be liable to the attacks of both.