ero. It was on a plain 3,000 feet above
the level of the sea, or rather in a hole on the plain; for it was chosen
because the bend of a river encircled it on three sides, so that a
stockade on the fourth would serve for defence, in case of an attack from
the Ajawa; and this consideration made Livingstone enforce the choice
upon the Bishop, who again yielded to his opinion. The higher ground
around was not unhealthy; the air was pure, the heat never excessive; but
the river was too near, and brought fever to a spot soon overcrowded. It
was occupied, however, with high hope and cheerfulness; huts, formed of
poles and roofed with piles of grass, were erected, a larger one set
apart for a church, and a system established of regular training for the
numerous troop of clients, now amounting to above a hundred. To give
them regular religious instruction, without being secure of the language,
was thought by the Bishop inexpedient, and he therefore desired, at
first, to prepare the way by the effects of physical training and
discipline. This was a Magomero day:--English matins at early morning;
breakfast on fowls or goats'-flesh, yam, beans, and porridge; then a
visit to the sick; for, alas! already the whole thirteen of the mission
staff were never well at the same time. After this, the negroes were
collected, answered to their names, and had breakfast served out to them;
two women being found to receive and apportion the shares of the lesser
children, and this they did carefully and kindly.

The tender sweetness of Mackenzie told greatly in dealing with these poor
creatures. He did not think it waste of time to spend an hour a day
trying to teach the little ones their letters; and Mr. Rowley draws a
beautiful picture of him feeding, with a bottle, a black babe, whose
mother had not nutriment enough to sustain it,--the little naked thing
nestling up to his big beard, and going to sleep against his broad chest.

Work followed. One whith man drilled the boys, one command being for
them all to leap into the river at the same moment to bathe; one
bargained with the vendors of mealies, beer, goats, fowls, yams, &c., who
came in numbers from the villages round, and received payment in beads,
and a blue cotton manufacture, called selampore, which is the current
coin of Central Africa. Others worked, and showed how to work, at the
buildings till one o'clock, when the dinner was served, only differing
from breakfast in the drin