François Coillard

Christina's enthusiasm for missions was kindled at the age of 14, after listening to the preaching of veteran southern African missionary Robert Moffat.

After the missionaries crossed the Limpopo River, Shona chiefs would not welcome the group; instead, the party was forced to go to Bulawayo, the headquarters of King Lobengula of the Ndebele.

Lobengula prohibited the missionaries from preaching in his domains, so Coillard led the group southwest to the territory of Khama III, a Christian Tswana ruler.

Khama suggested that the group could try their luck with Barotseland (the Lozi kingdom), north of the Zambezi River, where a Sotho-related language was spoken.

The missionaries failed to arrange a meeting with the recently elected Lozi king, but Coillard convinced the PEMS to support an attempt to establish mission stations in Barotseland.

In an attempt to strengthen his grip on the kingship, Lewanika enlisted Coillard's assistance in negotiating for a British protectorate to be declared over Barotseland, similar to the one that had recently been extended over neighbouring Bechuanaland.

Lewanika and Coillard were gradually entangled in a web of intrigue, which resulted in the signing of the Lochner Concession, which assigned the Lozi kingdom to the BSAC's domains on 27 June 1890.

During the first seven years after signing the Concession, the BSAC failed to make any of its promised annual payments of £2000 or to provide any of the educational assistance that it had pledged to Lewanika.

Christina Coillard died on 28 October 1891 and the group of missionaries suffered a persistent high mortality rate, due primarily to tropical fevers.

However, Coillard’s lively and moving letters to the PEM's offices in Paris made him a heroic figure to mission supporters in many countries.