M. Coillard's Labours in the Barotse Valley. 255 
abscesses, had much disquieted him * Among the natives, raiding on 
neighbouring tribes still continued. On one occasion a war party 
brought in forty human heads and a number of slaves. The king's 
nephew and heir, Molenga, died in July, and on the morning of 
his death five persons were slain, five more in the evening, and four at 
his burial, to attend upon him in the spirit world." This was doubt- 
less done by the king's orders, but he sought to keep the white men in 
ignorance of it. His conscience is probably not at ease, but he may not 
have courage to break through African customs. There is, of course, 
a fear that he may not like the moral restraint which the presence of 
our two friends causes, and may some day turn against them. 
The process of acquiring the Luba language was a slow one, there 
being no competent interpreter. Day by day words were noted down, 
and the number had been increased to 500. 
The young man Dick, whom Mr. Arnot had brought from the 
Barotse, and who was much attached to him, had gone off to the 
coast to await the arrival of his master ; and the other one, Susi, 
was also there. 
It is Mr. Arnot's purpose to leave London for Benguella March 23rd, 
with four more fellow-labourers. His stay in England will thus have 
been only a few days over six months. 
B. 
Mr. Arnot's account of his two trying years among the Barotse cannot fail 
to enlist interest on their behalf, and also sympathy with M. Coillard in 
his patient and devoted effort to help them. A more sorrowful history 
of civil war than that he gives is not often met with, and it makes one 
long for the time when, through the spread of the gospel, a more peaceful 
state of matters may prevail. M. Coillard's labours have long been known to 
many, but the following letters may convey an idea of his more recent work 
to some who have not heard much of him. They will also, we trust, draw 
out hearts towards labourers in Africa generally, and especially towards 
isolated ones. These letters do not give the latest information regarding 
M. Coillard. We fear that he and his wife are now struggling on alone, one 
after another of their few helpers having left, and the young medical 
missionary, M. Dardier, to whom he refers, having succumbed to fever. — Ed. 
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS TO MR. F. S. ARNOT. 
Lealui, iSth January, 1885. 
"It was only yesterday that your kind letter of April, 1884, was 
handed to me. It was a disappointment not to have met you. When 
* vSufficient attention was probably not given at the first. Carbolic acid 
and other remedies were at hand. 
