medan friend with several other Mohammedan officers and seven hundred natives was slain.

Having returned from his visit Mr. Agnew prepared for his tour of exploration, and, taking their donkeys, several carriers and one native to act as their interpreter and cook, he and Mr. Kelley were soon on their way inland, aiming at a place called Beleni, on the banks of the Limpopo river and about one hundred and fifty miles from Inhambane. On first starting out Mr. Agnew felt in a considerable degree the discomforts of homesickness, inasmuch as all was new and wild and strange to him, and they saw no human beings day after day but uncivilized Africans in their disgusting and repulsive appearances. But after a time God so manifested himself that the youthful and lonely missionary explorer recovered from his homesickness and was enabled to enjoy the rest of the trip. Thus began that missionary pioneering to which much of his later life was given.

On the Saturday following the day of their setting out they came upon a kraal, of about one hundred and fifty huts, called Maralella. Here they decided to remain over Sunday. The chief was well disposed and gave them a goat and other articles of food such as their needs required. In return they gave him cloth worth about seventy-five cents.

On Sunday the natives had a big dance, at which seven or eight hundred gathered, all dressed in the most valuable finery at command. At the native African dances, as in "society" gatherings of civilized lands, each tries, we are told, to outdo the other in the matter of showy attire. Their wardrobes are more grotesque than those seen among the elite circles in

London, Paris, New York or Chicago, but the passion for display is so similar as to suggest that its expression in the extravagant and bizarre fashions of modern civilized life is a relic of the barbarous conditions from which civilization has been gradually developed.

The men in the African dances, says Mr. Agnew, are to be seen gorgeously arrayed in old soldiers' coats, old hats of every description from a cricket cap of different colors to a fireman's helmet and anything else they can get hold of which they think appears striking. The females will not be behind the males in the matter, so they have as much cloth tied around them as they can get, with any quantity of arm and leg ornaments. The dance of the young men is carried on in an orderly manner. All keep in step, and commence and stop simultaneously. The men dance by themselves and the women have a dance a little way apart by themselves. The dancing of the women consists of one after another giving a kind of hop, step and jump into the ring, while the others clap their hands and sing.

The missionaries were objects of great curiosity to these natives, and would have been greatly discommoded if not injured by the crowding of the curious. throngs about their hut had not the chieftain's son. kept the rabble at bay. The people of this kraal at a later period were drawn into fighting the natives of a neighboring kraal, and Mr. Agnew in passing there soon after the fight noticed just outside the kraal limits two somewhat fresh skulls raised on poles, supposedly trophies of the fight. Still later this kraal was burned by the Portuguese.

Having proceeded a couple of days from Maralella the missionaries came upon the ruins of a burned kraal, a short distance from which, by the side of a small lake, they discovered the dead body of a poor

old woman. The body had a number of wounds upon it, indicating that she had been either shot or stabbed repeatedly. Beside her body lay a little pot of corn which she had evidently been carrying when attacked. Other dead bodies were seen lying about in the woods, these grewsome sights indicating that the missionaries were indeed in the midst of one of those "dark places of the earth" described in scripture language as "the habitations of cruelty."

From Maralella to the end of their journey the missionaries were followed by a large number of the natives. It was discovered finally, though unknown by the missionaries at the time, that this was due to a shrewd act of their interpreter. He had given out that the missionaries were bound for the diamond fields, knowing that the young men of those parts are always anxious to go to the diamond or gold fields; and, through thus deceiving them, he became the recipient of a present from every native for allowing them the privilege of accompanying the missionaries, who, as they supposed, would act as their protectors.

Concerning their native cook-interpreter Mr. Agnew has given the following bit of interesting information:

Umzimban, our cook and interpreter, was a rare young man. His forte was dressing chickens. Many boys have I seen working for Portuguese and others who could dress a chicken on short notice, but Umzimban I believe excelled them all. As soon as we got into a kraal at night water would be put on, before a chicken was purchased. Just as soon as the purchase was made the head was whipped off, the still quivering fowl was plunged into the pot, and the feathers stripped off almost as soon as one could say the proverbial “Jack Robinson."'

Umzimban's interpreting abilities were very limited, so that when we attempted to talk to the natives about religious

matters we were somewhat handicapped. In talking to a chief we would perhaps say, "Now, Umzimban, ask him if he knows anything of God." This one simple question would set Umzimban to talking for two or three minutes, when he would suddenly conclude with: "He wants some. "Wants some what?" "He wants some Jesu;" or, "He wants some school; you teach him pickaninny. Instead of merely asking the question we had requested him to, our interpreter had been launching out on his own hook, and had been telling the chief who we were, where we came from, what we intended doing, etc.

About ten days after leaving Mongwe the missionaries arrived at the headquarters of a chief named Bingwane. This man was quite a powerful chief, and an ally of the Portuguese. He had many wives, and was said to have 6,000 soldiers. Sometime after the missionaries visited him King Gungunyana left his northern capital, and, wishing to settle where Bingwane was, surrounded him with an army. The result was that, after being besieged for a number of days, until they were dying with thirst, Bingwane, who was quite old, was one night carried by his men out of the kraal where they were besieged, and all made a dash for liberty. Bingwane and many of his indunas were killed in their attempt to escape. Bingwane's oldest son, named Sipenyanyani, managed to escape into Portuguese territory where he remained for several years. Finally, after Gungunyana himself had been taken prisoner by the Portuguese, Sipenyanyani was reinstated as chief in the territory where his father had been slain.

The missionaries stayed at Bingwane's kraal, where there were about one hundred of his wives, over Sunday. The chief himself was not present, but on Monday morning they went over to another kraal of his