362 VISIT OF CHINSUNSE. ; Chap. XVIII. 



followed, we felt sorry for what had happened. It was the 

 first time we had ever been attacked by the natives or come 

 into collision with them ; though we had always taken it for 

 granted that we might be called upon to act in self-defence, 

 we were on this occasion less prepared than usual, no game 

 having been expected here. The men had only a single round 

 of cartridge each; their leader had no revolver, and the 

 rifle he usually fired with was left at the ship to save it 

 from the damp of the season. Had we known better the 

 effect of slavery and murder, on the temper of these blood- 

 thirsty marauders, we should have tried messages and presents 

 before going near them. 



The old chief, Chinsunse, came on a visit to us next day, 

 and pressed the Bishop to come and live with him. " Chi- 

 gunda," he said, " is but a child, and the Bishop ought to live 

 with the father rather than with the child." But the old man's 

 object was so evidently to have the Mission as a shield against 

 the Ajawa, that his invitation was declined. While begging 

 us to drive away the marauders, that he might live in peace, 

 he adopted the stratagem of causing a number of his men 

 to rush into the village, in breathless haste, with the news 

 that the Ajawa were close upon us. And having been re- 

 minded that we never fought, unless attacked, as we were the 

 day before, and. that we had come among them for the purpose 

 of promoting peace, and of teaching them to worship the Su- 

 preme, to give up selling His children, and to cultivate other 

 objects for barter than each other, he replied, in a huff, " Then 

 I am dead already." 



The Bishop, feeling, as most Englishmen would, at the 

 prospect of the people now in his charge being swept off into 

 slavery by hordes of men-stealers, proposed to go at once to 

 the rescue of the captive Manganja, and drive the marauding 

 Ajawa out of the country. All were warmly in favour of this, 



