from the same chief as the thieves, and were probably glad of their position in order to assist their friends. As the natives wear no boots and hardly any clothing, they can break into houses without making much noise. Still the Europeans became very expert in attending to everything that betokened the presence of a thief. Our houses were full of rats, which are here better equipped for making a disturbance than rats are in England. It was Livingstone, I think, that first complained of the laughing rats of the Zambeze! These inmates of our dwellings not content with biting our fingers, knocking down tins, and dancing at large over everything that was capable of giving out a noise, aspired to divert us by going into fits of loud laughter! All this performance, it will be thought, made the task of the housebreaker more easy. Yet it sometimes produced the very opposite effect. When the rats discontinued their dance, the European was at once all ear. “My rats are quiet. What _can_ be the matter? There must either be a snake on the verandah, or a robber at the window.” This reasoning, strange as it may seem, led, at least, on one occasion, to very important results. But the thieves gave indications of their presence in various other ways. As I lay one night in bed, the moon which seems always to shine brightly here, cast the shadow of a native on the calico window. The man’s movements were suspicious: although he would not contemplate anything more serious than theft; yet so small was our room that a native could have easily given us the full benefit of his assagai as we lay in bed. I thought that this chance of scaring a thief was too good to be lost, and I fired a revolver bullet through the calico. From the man’s shadow I could easily see where he stood, and so avoid the risk of striking him. It need scarcely be said that he disappeared at once. As we were all expected to get up on any nocturnal disturbance, the other members of the Mission were over in a few minutes, but could find no trace of the person, and it was not likely that the same individual would return that night. Several nights after this, a noise was heard at midnight in our larger room. I got up and stood before one of the windows for a long time, till I began to shiver with cold. But everything was quiet except that I could hear our two watchmen snoring very loudly under a large tree not far from our door. Becoming tired with waiting, and wishing also to rouse the watchmen, I fired the revolver through the calico as before, when to my surprise, I heard a great scamper. A thief had really been at the window. In his rapid retreat he threw away his bow. The calico in the window was cut in the usual way, but so quietly had he been working, that even although I had been sitting awake in the dark room, he might have ultimately entered without my hearing him! Afterwards we kept a lamp burning all night, and I had only to carry it to the window where a thief was, in order to