SHERBRO MISSION. 
27 
Mr. Plickinger now returned to America, hav- 
ing been elected by General Conference to the 
office of corresponding secretary of the missionary 
society. As the rainy season was just commenc- 
ing, Messrs. Witt and Billheimer thought it not 
prudent to commence the work of erecting build- 
ings till the next dry season. Meantime they 
continued to make their homes at the stations of 
Mendi Mission, and to teach and preach as the 
Lord gave them opportunity and health to labor. 
Mr. Witt, owing to failing health, returned 
home at the end of a year and a half. He did 
good work while there, and ever after was a zeal- 
ous advocate of African missions. As soon as the 
rainy season of 1857 had passed, Mr. Billheimer 
employed men to clean off the mission-ground to 
erect a mission-house which was made ready 
in New York and shipped to Shaingay. This 
wooden building, 24 by 80 feet, was put on stone 
pillars seven feet high. It was divided into three 
rooms, two of them 10 by 12 each, in which the 
missionary lived; and the other was 20 by 24, 
which was school-room and meeting-house. Mr. 
Billheimer deserves great credit for his persever- 
ance in finishing this house, and the more sub- 
stantial stone edifice which he built afterward. 
The enervating climate began to impair his 
health, which he improved some by spending 
