In such circumstances various courses were open. The case might be taken up (1) by the natives alone, (2) by the colony alone, (3) by both acting together. The natives acting alone would in accordance with their own laws have killed the offender at once as they proposed to do. If the English colony was to act it had to determine its relations to Kumlomba. These were not clear. At one time (page 34) this man figures as the chief of the Blantyre territory, at other times as a subject of the colony. If he were the superior power he would execute offenders at his own discretion, and if he were a headman of the English colony he had a right according to native law to expect the latter to hand over entirely to him those that were alleged to have offended against him. If the colony were to ignore native law, and try to carry out purely English law, then it would have to judge and deal with the prisoner on English principles. If it resolved to call witnesses it would have been a fair thing first to explain what the precise effect of testimony was in a purely English trial. After such explanation all Kumlomba’s men would have sworn to anything, and all the prisoner’s friends would have sworn to the opposite. In the same way if a jury of natives had been impanelled, their verdict would have depended on whether they were friends of Kumlomba or of the prisoner. Suppose the Englishmen had wished to get out of the difficulty by an ordeal like _mwai_, the natives would have insisted that it was not a case for the ordeal, while to Christians the measure would have seemed an enormity. The same might be said of the plan of redeeming a murderer and executing slaves in his stead. As a matter of fact the colony acted along with the natives. A formal trial was held at which all the Europeans were present: at this I declined to attend because I had been acting as chaplain to these prisoners, consequently I cannot tell whether it was the colony or the natives that took the lead on this occasion. It was also deemed expedient for the Europeans to attend the execution in case the natives should follow their barbarous custom of dishonouring the criminal’s body. Every circumstance was reported to the Directors, and the workers in Africa felt that the view taken at home would be of importance. One day an assassin might cut down some native that had left a home at Quilimane or Mazaro in order to stay at the Mission, and of whom the Europeans were the sole protectors. Long ago Dr. Macklin had asked the Directors what was to be done in the case of murder, but had got no advice.