e other a crozier, in
front a can of oil, behind, a bag of seeds. "I thought," he writes, "of
the contrast between my weapon and my staff, the one like Jacob, the
other like Abraham, who armed all his trained servants to rescue Lot. I
thought also of the seed which we must sow in the hearts of the people,
and of the oil of the Spirit that must strengthen us in all we do."

The example of Abraham going forth to rescue Lot was brought suddenly
before the mission party. While halting at a negro village, a sound was
heard like the blowing of penny trumpets, and six men, with muskets, came
into the village, driving with them eighty-four slaves, men, women, and
children, whom they had collected for Portuguese slave-dealers at Tette.

The Bishop and Mr. Scudamore had gone out of the village to bathe just
before they arrived; but Dr. Livingstone, recognizing one of the drivers,
whom he had seen at Tette, took him by the wrist, saying, "What are you
doing here, killing people? I shall kill you to-day."

The man answered: "I do not kill; I am not making war. I bought these
people."

Then Livingstone turned to the slaves. Two men said, "We were bought."
Six said, "We were captured." And several of the women, "Our husbands
and relatives were killed, and here we are."

Whereupon Livingstone began to cut the bonds of cord that fastened them
together, while the slave-catchers ran away. All this was over before
the Bishop returned; and Livingstone was explaining to the rescued
negroes that they might either return to their homes, go to Tette, or
remain under English protection, while they expressed their joy and
gratitude by a slow clapping of the hands. They told a terrible story,
of women shot for trying to escape, and of a babe whose brains were
dashed out, because its mother could not carry it and her brothers
together.

If asked by what authority he did these things, Livingstone would have
answered, by the right of a Christian man to protect the weak from
devilish cruelty. There was no doubt in his mind that these slaves, even
though purchased, were deprived of their liberty so unjustly, that their
deliverance was only a sacred duty, and that their owners had no right of
property in them. If a British cruiser descended on a slave-ship, and
released her freight, should he not also deliver the captive wherever he
met him?

And, with this, another question was raised, namely, that of the use of
weapons. The party