Life at Ribe. 
153 
so. As I did not object he soon presented himself, 
accompanied by between two and three hundred 
armed men. He w^as invited into the house, but he 
preferred seeing me out of doors, evidently afraid, 
absurd though it was, that I might intend him some 
mischief. I saw him outside, and after a little con- 
versation he took his departure. 
Not long after this I was called to Mombasa, by 
the governor of that town, on a matter, as was said, 
of great importance. I went down. The governor 
informed me that the Sultan of Zanzibar had dis- 
covered, from private sources, that Mbaruku, the rebel 
chief, had concocted a scheme for the capture of the 
missionaries, both at Rabai and Ribe, and that the 
Sultan desired us, for the sake of security, to retire to 
Mombasa. So we had to beat an inglorious retreat. 
I paid several visits to Ribe by stealth, but nothing 
alarming happened, nor do I know that I ran any 
particular risk. 
Mbaruku s object in his contemplated capture of 
the white men was, first, to embarrass the Sultan, 
and secondly, as was reported, to make for himself a 
great name. With the white men in his possession, 
he persuaded himself that he could dictate to the 
Sultan his own terms ; then, when it should be 
trumpeted all over the world that Mbaruku, like 
another Theodorus, had made some Englishmen cap- 
tives, what a tremendous renown would be achieved ! 
So it happens that when these wild schemes find their 
way into the addled brains of these uncurbed and 
would-be mighty chiefs, and they act upon them with 
success, the missionary often comes in for abuse, i^ 
denounced as a pettifogging meddler, and as the 
