MR. SHAW AND HIS “MISSION MEN.” 
33 
in garments of every hue, black, red, brown, and 
yellow predominating, and after remaining with us 
for a quarter of an hour they departed with many 
jambos and hand-shakings. 
The new porters did not come in for enrolment 
as freely to-day as yesterday, but having made our 
complement up to a hundred and ninety-one, we 
decided to start the next day for Rabai, in the hopes 
of being able to get some more volunteers there. The 
afternoon brought us a surprise in the form of a most 
indignant letter from Mr. Shaw, who complained that 
we had not acted fairly by him in engaging men from 
his mission without his sanction, particularly as he 
had told us he did not approve of their mixing with 
our Zanzibaris. It struck me, from this letter, that the 
poor mission men, who are all freed slaves, had only 
left one form of servitude to embark in another, and 
that it was rather hard they should be prevented from 
earning their living by active and honest work, be¬ 
cause it entailed their being temporarily removed from 
the immediate influence of the missionaries. As a 
matter of fact, we were quite unaware we had enrolled 
any mission men at all, having made no enquiries 
about the particular creed of those who offered their 
services. However, we threw what oil we could on the 
troubled waters by sending Mr. Shaw a letter full of 
apologies and explanation. 
The Governor, during our stay, was kind enough 
to send us milk twice a day, a very acceptable form 
of present, for that commodity is uncommonly scarce 
c 
