NATIVES OF UGANDA.
“I have, indeed, undermined Islamism so much here that Mtesa has determined henceforth, until he is better informed, to observe the Christian Sabbath as well as the Moslem Sabbath, and the great captains have unanimously consented to this. He has further caused the Ten Commandments of Moses to be written on a board for his daily perusal—for Mtesa can read Arabic—as well as the Lord’s Prayer and the golden commandment of our Saviour, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ This is great progress for the few days that I have remained with him; and though I am no missionary, I shall begin to think that I might become one if such success is feasible. But, oh! that some pious, practical missionary would come here! What a field and harvest ripe for the sickle of Civilization! Mtesa would give him anything he desired—houses, lands, cattle, ivory, etc. He might call a province his own in one day. It is not the mere preacher, however, that is wanted here. The bishops of Great Britain collected, with all the classic youth of Oxford and Cambridge, would effect nothing by mere talk with the intelligent people of Uganda. It is the practical Christian tutor, who can teach people how to become Christians, cure their diseases, construct dwellings, understand and exemplify agriculture, and turn his hand to anything, like a sailor—this is the man who is wanted. Such an one, if he can be found, would become the saviour of Africa. He must be tied to no church or sect, but profess God and His Son and the moral law, and live a blameless Christian, inspired by liberal principles, charity to all men, and devout faith in Heaven. He must belong to no nation in particular, but to the entire white race. Such a man or men, Mtesa, Emperor of Uganda, Usoga, Unyoro, and Karagwé—an empire 360 geographical miles in length by 50 in breadth—invites to repair to him. He has begged me to tell the white men that, if they will only come to him, he will give them all they want. Now, where is there in all the pagan world a more promising field for a mission than Uganda?”... “Then why further spend, needlessly, vast sums upon black pagans of Africa who have no example of their own people becoming Christians before them? I speak to the Universities’ Mission at Zanzibar and to the Free Methodists at Mombassa, to the leading philanthropists and the pious people of England. Here, gentlemen, is your opportunity—embrace it! The people on the shores of the Nyanza call upon you. Obey your own generous instincts, and listen to them; and I assure you that in one year you will have more converts to Christianity than all other missionaries united can number. The population of Mtesa’s kingdom is very dense. I estimate the number of his subjects at 2,000,000. You need not fear to spend money upon such a mission, as Mtesa is sole ruler, and will repay its cost tenfold with ivory, coffee, otter skins of a very fine quality, or even in cattle, for the wealth of this country in all these products is immense.”
On the 17th of April he resumed his voyage along the shores of the great lake, and delightedly enjoyed the beautiful panorama of nature as it passed in review before him. Many of the scenes presented most lovely vistas to the eyes of Stanley as he scanned the ever-changing outlines of water and sky. To follow him closely in his journeyings, and to enter fully into all the minor details of his observations would require more space than these pages afford. We can, therefore, but confine ourselves to the most noted incidents that came under his observation, and such as are of the most thrilling and adventurous character. As an instance, we will give for the benefit of our readers one of Stanley’s pen pictures of what he saw at this time. It was upon the island of Musira. He had after some little difficulty scaled the summit of its highest point, whence he gazed long on the grand encircling prospect. A halcyon calm brooded on the lake, eastward, northward, and southward, until the clear sky and stainless silver water met, the clear bounds of both veiled by a gauzy vapor, suggesting infinity.
“It is a spot,” says Stanley, “from which, undisturbed, the eye may rove over one of the strangest yet fairest portions of Africa—hundreds of square miles of beautiful lake scenes—a great length of grey plateau wall, upright and steep, but indented with exquisite inlets, half surrounded by embowering plantains—hundreds of square miles of pastoral upland dotted thickly with villages and groves of banana. From my lofty eyrie I can see herds upon herds of cattle, and many minute specks, white and black, which can be nothing but flocks of sheep and goats. I can also see pale blue columns of ascending smoke from the fires, and upright thin figures moving about. Secure on my lofty throne, I can view their movements and laugh at the ferocity of the savage hearts which beat in those thin dark figures; for I am a part of nature now, and for the present as invulnerable as itself. As little do they know that human eyes survey their forms from the summit of this lake-girt isle as that the eyes of the Supreme in Heaven are upon them.
“What a land they possess! and what an inland sea! How steamers afloat on the lake might cause Ururi to shake hands with Usongora, and Uganda with Usukuma, make the wild Wavuma friends with the Wazinza, and unite the Wakerawé with the Wagana!”
His experiences at Bumbireh Island were not so pleasant, however. Here, when about ten yards from the beach, the natives, who had been invited with engaging frankness to come closer, did so; and after consulting a little while, leisurely advanced into the water until they touched the boat’s prow. They stood a few seconds talking sweetly, when suddenly with a rush they ran the boat ashore, and then all the others, seizing hawser and gunwale, dragged her about twenty yards over the rocky beach high and dry, leaving Stanley and his men almost stupefied with astonishment.
“Then ensued a scene which beggars description,” says Stanley. “Pandemonium—all its devils armed—raged around us. A forest of spears was leveled; thirty or forty bows were drawn taut; as many barbed arrows seemed already on the wing; thick, knotty clubs waved above our heads; two hundred screaming black demons jostled with each other and struggled for room to vent their fury, or for an opportunity to deliver one crushing blow or thrust at us.
“In the meantime, as soon as the first symptoms of this manifestation of violence had been observed, I had sprung to my feet, each hand armed with a loaded self-cocking revolver, to kill and be killed. But the apparent hopelessness of inflicting much injury upon such a large crowd restrained me, and Safeni turned to me, though almost cowed to dumbness by the loud fury around us, and pleaded with me to be patient. I complied, seeing that I should get no aid from my crew; but, while bitterly blaming myself for my imprudence in having yielded—against my instincts—to placing myself in the power of such savages, I vowed that, if I escaped this once, my own judgment should guide my actions in the future.
