hat had been defeated when he was a young man, but since
then they had dwelt in peace. No European had been there within living
memory.

"Such was, and may be still, the town of Mtakatifuni, as I shall call
it. Do you know Ki-Swahili?"

I shook my head.

"Then the name will do, and not spoil my tale. Let me but tell you how
I came to be there and I will make haste about it. I was exploring.
Ah, but once in all the years have I been able to explore! Usually we
missionaries hurry from place to place on an unending round till the
circle is as big as we can possibly manage. Then a new centre must be
made, and it was because my Order had determined on a new centre that my
opportunity came. The Vicar Apostolic was doubtful as to the direction
in which we should expand. He sent me, therefore, west beyond Mweru to
see what could be seen, and another farther south on the same errand.
The folk were few about Mweru, but I heard a rumour of Mtakatifuni,
much exaggerated, and set out to find it. Foolishly I went west until
supplies were so low that it would have been fatal to turn back over the
bare mountains by which we had come, and our only hope lay in pushing
on. And so I reached my hidden town, stayed a while, and returned
another way, to find that the other explorer had a report to make
of more peopled and easier lands which found greater favour with his
lordship. And rightly. When labourers are so few and the field is so
big, it is necessary to settle where the work offers most prospect of
large returns. So was I permitted to see, but not to enter in."

He leant forward to knock out his pipe, blew down it, refused more
tobacco, and re-settled himself. "Ah, well," he said philosophically,
"le Bon Dieu knows best. I do not believe He has forgotten Mtakatifuni.

"Where was I? Oh yes, I remember. We saw the place then, in the evening,
and next morning journeyed early towards it. You must understand that we
were spent. I cannot recall better water than that at the source of that
little river, and the roasted mealies they gave us, and sour milk, how
good it all was! The chief had sent word that we were to be fed and
given an empty house, and after I had eaten I went to see and thank him.
I put on my cassock and with it my beads about my waist, and I carried
my breviary in my hand, for I thought he might keep me waiting in the
native fashion and that I could say my office in the meantime.

"But he received me at once. The grou