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. Many of these letters were published in 1889 as Sur le Haut-Zambèze: voyages et travaux de mission. His letters also appeared in an English translation by his niece, Catherine Winkworth Mackintosh (On the Threshold of Central Africa, 1897). After experiencing serious illness in 1895, Coillard spent the period 1896-8 in Europe. By February 1899 he was back at Leribé in Basutoland, on his way back to Barotseland. However, a large number of fatalities ensued among the missionary recruits of 1897 and onwards. Coillard was further shaken in 1903 by a breakaway movement of his converts, led by Willie Mokalapa. Coillard suffered a fatal attack of haematuric fever at Lealui and died on 27 May 1904; he was buried near his wife at Sefula. References Sources Norman Etherington, ‘Coillard, François (1834–1904)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 accessed 16 July 2006 C. W. Mackintosh, Coillard of the Zambesi (1907) E. Favre, François Coillard: enfance et jeunesse (1908) F. Coillard, ‘Preface’, in H. Dieterlen, Adolphe Mabille, missionnaire (1898) Journal des Missions Evangéliques (1865–1904) M. Wilson and L. Thompson, eds., The Oxford history of South Africa, 2 vols. (1971), vol. 2 J. Du Plessis, A history of Christian missions in South Africa (1965) R. C. Germond, Chronicles of Basutoland (1967) L. H. Gann, A history of Southern Rhodesia: early days to 1934 (1965) A. Hastings, The church in Africa, 1450–1950 (1994); repr. (1996) Protestant missionaries in Lesotho Protestant missionaries in South Africa Protestant missionaries in Zambia 1834 births 1904 deaths National anthem writers University of Strasbourg alumni French Protestant missionaries French expatriates in Zambia