and then the charge of the Shambala Mission was given to the Rev. L. Fraser. Mr. Fraser preached in the villages within his reach, and instructed the children who were willing to be taught. His holy life and conversation had a great effect upon the natives with whom he came in contact, and his lessons are well remembered. He was hoping soon to have had some natives prepared for baptism, when he was called away during the frightful prevalence of cholera in this part of Eastern Africa. He was to have been succeeded by the Rev. O. Handcock, after whose sudden and premature death Magila remained unoccupied,—except that it was visited twice by Bishop Tozer,—until October, 1872, when the two subdeacons were sent up with instructions to occupy the post, and carry on such work as they could until a clergyman could be found to superintend it. Their last letters spoke of themselves as settling down and making arrangements for commencing a school, and some kind of public catechizing or preaching.
The Mission has an iron house and two large thatched native huts; the subdeacons proposed to set up another as a school and temporary church.
The prospects of this Mission cannot be well understood without a short account of the country and its government. The coast is occupied by the Swahili, a mixed race of Arabs and negroes. They hold only the villages or small towns on the sea, and the gardens and plantations adjoining. The
