A Thousand Miles in a Machilla 



Several attempts had been made to extend the 

 Mission to the mainland. These had resulted in 

 repeated failures, but in 1875 a permanent Mission 

 was established at a place now called Msalabani, 

 meaning *'at the Cross." It was attacked by a 

 warlike tribe who were driven off. The local chief 

 and his warriors in great spirits executed a war 

 dance outside the church; the missionary went 

 out and invited them in ; they entered, their spears 

 still gleaming with the blood of their enemies. 

 Thus was a beginning made. 



The good bishop and his missionaries had not 

 lost sight of their original goal, Lake Nyasa; it had 

 only been abandoned temporarily. Bishop Steere 

 made a lonely journey in 1875, and got within 

 seventy miles of the lake, but it nearly cost him 

 his life. The Rev. W. P. Johnson was the next 

 to follow, and after two years of great hardships 

 and incessant work, visiting different wild tribes and 

 carrying his life in his hand, he eventually reached 

 Magomera, the birthplace of the Universities 

 Mission in the country where Mackenzie had died. 



He initiated the idea of a small steamer, subse- 

 quently named the Charles J ansen, after a companion 

 missionary who had only lived to reach the lake, and 

 in order to collect funds for this purchase, returned 

 home. Every one of the three hundred and eighty 

 cases containing the sections of the boat had to be 

 carried from the coast by native porters to the banks 

 of the Shire. It was launched 5th September, 1885, 

 and the following year was in full work, visiting towns 

 on the lake coast, fetching mails and stores once a 



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