and humble Christian, as in fact are all the evangelist's wives except Johane 's.

ANTONIO AND ESTHER CASSIMO.

They have one child. Antonio is a carpenter by trade. He was converted about nine years ago at Cherene, but backslid. Two years ago he was reclaimed. He speaks Portuguese, besides the native dialects, and is probably the smartest man we have. There is more snap and get up to him than any of the rest. Mr. Baker wanted to get him, but I feel God is going to use him in our work. He is about twenty-six years of age, and is a man that knows God. Esther, his wife, is a real pilgrim. I have great hopes that Antonio will develop into one of the leading men of God in the Inhambane community.

PHILIP AND JULIA MBATA.

What I said to although it was stand for God. He emptied out

Philip was converted while living alone in a low swamp not far from Mavili. About seven years ago I passed by his kraal and asked him to show me the road. him while we walked along he never forgot, a long time afterward before he took his When he did, he was radical and strong. some barrels of beer that he had for sale, and left his kraal and came to the station to live with Tom. He has a large family, four or five girls and as many boys. His head is quite thick when it comes to reading and writing, but he is a man of God, long-headed, and a good preacher-a real evangelist. His daughter Anna is pretty well up in reading and writing, and does the teaching while Philip evangelizes. Anna is a noble young woman, and we have great hopes of her. I agreed to pay her about fifteen dollars per year. Perhaps some one would willingly take up her case. Julia, Philip's wife, is probably the most earnest woman we have. She is a stormer, and prays and cries before God until she gets the victory.

JOHANE AND PAVINI NGUMANE.

Johane is a good fellow, and is the oldest man we have, having sons married. Moreover, he is quite sharp, and learned to read at Cherene about eight years ago. He was converted

at that time, but went to Johannesburg and backslid. When he returned he was restored and has been moving onward ever since. He is a good, steady fellow. Johane is a man of some little influence, and we are praying that he may develop into a strong man of God.

As we have already seen, "rumors of war" reached Mr. Agnew while he was at Inhambane, and necessitated an earlier return to Johannesburg than he had calculated on. The war cloud he hoped might blow over rapidly assumed a more angry aspect after his return, and the troubles grew more and more ominous, until, at last, the war was a realized and terrible fact. October 2, 1899, he wrote from Germiston to the missionary secretary as follows:

The road to Natal is blocked and may not be opened again. The war is on us, and it is very probable I will stay here. Have the church pray for me and the Christian natives here. Send money to wife at Fair View, Natal, South Africa. There is great excitement. Martial law will be proclaimed, perhaps to-day or to-morrow.

His own stay in Johannesburg was terminated soon after this, notwithstanding he thought it very probable he would remain there. October 26th he wrote again, announcing that he reached Fair View the 14th of the month-twelve days after the writing of his first letter. He withdrew from Johannesburg in a very opportune season, and, although he left reluctantly, he did wisely in not remaining. He took with him to Fair View seven of his converted natives, five of them Bachopis. They were put in the mission school at Fair View. Finding himself in enforced absence from his Johannesburg field, he at once began planning a return to Inhambane in the spring, should the war continue,

December 27 he wrote us of his intention to start the next day, accompanied by Mrs. Agnew and Misses Allen and Hartman, for a point forty miles south of Fair View, to hold a series of services with the natives of the Amacele tribe. The single ladies were having their vacation from teaching, and chose to spend it preaching the gospel to the heathen of the interior, thus fulfilling their mission "in season, out of season."

Encouraging news has reached him from Tom at Inhambane, and he rejoices to learn that there will be a number of converts to baptize when he gets back there in the spring.

"We are encour

His letter concludes as follows: aged in the Lord in spite of the horrors of war in the Colony. Reports are published in the papers occasionally in regard to matters in the vicinity of Germiston, where our mission property is, which lead us to believe that all is well there."

In the Free Methodist of March 20, 1900, Mr. Agnew published an able article entitled, "British and Boers," in which he presented a view of those conditions which, according to his mind, made the Boer government, as administered at the time the war broke out, unbearably offensive. It was a clear presentation of the relative merits of the two governments then contending for the supremacy in South Africa, and was drawn out by the publication, in some Chicago paper, of an article from a missionary returned from Natal, which he thought unduly exalted the Boer government, and misrepresented facts. Mr. Agnew's article appears to have been written purely in the interest of truth, and with nothing savoring of bitterness

or of a partisan spirit in it. In some respects he pays a high tribute to the Boers, but their cruelties to the natives in particular are recounted, unsparingly censured and held up to public execration. Some would view the situation very differently from the way he viewed it, but, whoever will read his article will, if unprejudiced, undoubtedly give him credit for having written from deep conviction, and concede that, if he erred in the matter, his error was one of the head and not of the heart.

About the first of January, 1900, Mr. Agnew, accompanied by Mrs. Agnew, Mrs. Brodhead and Miss. Allen, went to a place called Enqabena, Alfred County, Natal, about forty-five miles from Fair View, and on the borders of Amapondoland, and there opened a Free Methodist mission, calling it Ebenezer. It is still one of our most thriving mission stations in Natal. Mr. Brodhead, superintendent of the Fair View mission, also repeatedly visited Mr. Agnew in his work there, and rendered valuable aid.

The climate at Ebenezer is said to be very healthful, and, in other ways, it appears to be an inviting and a promising field. It was as needy, however, as it was inviting when Mr. Agnew first visited it. Writing of it at that time, he says:

The people here have some excellent traits, and some very bad ones. A bigger lot of thieves it has never been our lot to come across. Inhambane and Johannesburg were bad enough, but this place we think, taking all things into consideration, beats them all. The natives steal everything, from a cow down to a nut or a bolt on a bedstead, or a child's buggy.

In the graveyard besides us is the grave of a white man who was murdered about a year ago by the natives, in order to get