st and reading the service."

"With pleasure, as far as I am concerned, and I thank you for the
proposal," replied Swinton.

"And I am equally pleased that you have proposed it, Wilmot," said Major
Henderson; "even we may be of service to the good cause, if, as we pass
through the land, the natives perceive that we respect the Sabbath as
the missionary has requested them to do. We are white men, and
considered by them as superior; our example, therefore, may do good."

The evening was passed away very agreeably with Mr. S., who was
inexhaustible in his anecdotes of the Caffres. He informed them that
Hinza intended to call the next morning to receive his presents, and
that he would be interpreter for them if they wished it.

Alexander, having thanked the missionary, said, "I think you mentioned,
sir, that some of your brother missionaries have their wives with them.
Since you have told me so much of the precarious tenure by which you
hold your ground here, and I may add your lives, I think that the wives
of the missionaries must have even more to encounter than their
husbands."

"You are right, sir," replied the missionary; "there is no situation so
trying, so perilous, and I may say, so weary to the mind and body, as
that of a female missionary. She has to encounter the same perils and
the same hardships as her husband, without having the strength of our
sex to support them; and what is more painful than all, she is often
left alone in the Mission-house, while her husband, who has left her, is
proceeding on his duty, at the hourly peril of his life. There she is
alone, and compelled to listen to all the reports and falsehoods which
are circulated; at one moment she is told that her husband has been
murdered; at another, that he is still alive. She has no means of
hearing from him, as there is no communication throughout the country;
thus is she left in this horrible state of suspense and anxiety, perhaps
for many weeks. I have a letter from a brother missionary which is in my
writing-desk, wherein the case in point is well portrayed; I will get
it, and read that portion to you." Mr. S. went to the other end of the
room, and came back with a letter, from which he read as follows:--

"Having been detained among those distant tribes for nearly two months,
report upon report had been circulated that the interpreters and guides,
as well as myself, had all been murdered. On my arrival within forty
miles of the station,