Had We Known Better The Effect Of Slavery And
Murder On The Temper Of These Bloodthirsty Marauders, We Should Have
Tried Messages And Presents Before Going Near Them.
The old chief, Chinsunse, came on a visit to us next day, and pressed
the Bishop to come and live with him.
"Chigunda," he said, "is but a
child, and the Bishop ought to live with the father rather than with
the child." But the old man's object was so evidently to have the
Mission as a shield against the Ajawa, that his invitation was
declined. While begging us to drive away the marauders, that he
might live in peace, he adopted the stratagem of causing a number of
his men to rush into the village, in breathless haste, with the news
that the Ajawa were close upon us. And having been reminded that we
never fought, unless attacked, as we were the day before, and that we
had come among them for the purpose of promoting peace, and of
teaching them to worship the Supreme, to give up selling His
children, and to cultivate other objects for barter than each other,
he replied, in a huff, "Then I am dead already."
The Bishop, feeling, as most Englishmen would, at the prospect of the
people now in his charge being swept off into slavery by hordes of
men-stealers, proposed to go at once to the rescue of the captive
Manganja, and drive the marauding Ajawa out of the country. All were
warmly in favour of this, save Dr. Livingstone, who opposed it on the
ground that it would be better for the Bishop to wait, and see the
effect of the check the slave-hunters had just experienced.
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