Isobel Reid offers a concise account of the origins, establishment, and some internal dynamics of the Livingstonia Mission, in particular those impacting missionary families as seen through the eyes of a young missionary couple at its Bandawe station. This study not only demonstrates a general awareness of the role and initiative of the people of Northern Malawi, among whom and with whom the Scottish missionaries lived and worked, but also of the specific importance of interpersonal relationships between Scottish and Malawian women - as in the case of Marie Martin and her Tonga women friends. Race as the primary dividing line was thus subverted by mutual gender awareness.