“Out of the 4,000 or 5,000 converts reported by Zachariah and Samuel now in Ankori and Uddu, let us assume as 2,000 being due to the labours of Mackay and his worthy associates. At £50,000, each convert would appear to have cost £25. I am not one of those who would always appeal to the state for help in such a crisis as this, but to those able to spare out of great wealth, and who yet answer that they must attend to those at home first, I would give the reply of the wise Gentile woman—‘True, Lord, but the dogs pick up crumbs that fall from their master’s table.’
“The success of the mission to Nyanza is proved by the sacrifices of the converts, by their determined resistance to the tyrant, by their successful deposition of him. I have read somewhere that the recognition of belligerents is not permissible until it is proved that they can hold their own. If this be so the Waganda converts have proved that the mission was a success, and a most remarkable success. The missionaries were compelled to bore deep down, and after that the element sprang up spontaneously. After years of baffling and unpromising work the converts flocked spontaneously to the new church of Equatorial Africa. Princes and peasants, chiefs and warriors came forward to be instructed in the Christian religion, and to be taught the arts of reading and writing, and to be the proud possessors of printed books in their own language, treating of the Author of salvation and His sufferings on behalf of humanity.
“The progress of this religion became alarming to the Mohammedans and their native sympathisers, but it was not until the death of the politic Mtesa that they could venture upon any plan to thwart its growth. The accession of a boy-prince to the throne, and the vices, banghi-smoking, drunkenness, and licentiousness, disclosed the means whereby the Christians might be suppressed, and the Moslems with a low, mean craftiness, and charged with concentrated malice, were not slow to avail themselves of their opportunities. The young king, despite the reputable character the whites had won from all classes of the people, now regarded them with thoughts foully perverted by unmeasured slander. To his distorted view the missionaries were men banded together for the undermining of his authority, for sapping the affections and loyalty of his subjects, and for presently occupying the whole of Uganda. These various expeditions, which as every one knew were roaming over the country, now in Masai-land, presently in Usoga, then again in Usukuma and Unyamwezi, the quarrels on the coast between Seyyid Barghash and the Germans, the presence of war-ships at Zanzibar, the little colonies of Germans studding the coast lands—what else could all these movements aim at but the forcible conquest of Africa? Hence an era of persecution was initiated by the order to burn and slay; hence the auto-da-fé in Uganda, the murder of Bishop Hannington, and the massacre of his caravan in Usogo, the doom that ever seemed to be imminent over the head of the faithful and patient Mackay, and the menaced suspension of mission work. When the Christians had scattered into their hiding places, and the jealousy of the Moslems had cooled, the young King merged into an intolerable despot, and murdered indiscriminately. Many an eminent person in the land fell a victim to his suspicions, and was ordered to be either clubbed to death or strangled. It was then the Mohammedans, fearing for their own lives, solicited the aid of the Christians, and the tyrant was compelled to flee the kingdom to find leisure to repent during his Lake voyages, and finally to submit to be baptised.”[33]
Zachariah and Samuel were now informed that, owing to the impossibility of leaving my charge, they had better trust to Mr. Stokes and Mr. Mackay, and that if I could explain matters to their English friends I would surely do so. Then, seeing that I was resolved on departure, five of the Christians begged to be permitted to accompany me to the sea, which permission was readily granted.
On the 24th, after winding in and out of several valleys, between various pastoral ranges, which were black from recent fires, as the grass everywhere was white with age and drought, we entered the valley of Mavona, to descend gradually amid a thin forest of acacia sprinkled with euphorbia, milkweed, thistles, and tall aloetic plants. The settlement of Mavona produced abundantly quite a variety of garden produce, such as peas, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, manioc, cucumbers, banigalls, bananas, and plantain.
The next day, continuing down the Mavona valley for four and a half hours, we suddenly came in sight of the Alexandra valley, and found that the long line of hills which winded S.S.E. was on the Karagwé side of the river. At this season the features of the land on both sides are very forbidding, and unrelieved by any patch of cultivation, and rendered more so by the fires, which have transformed every valley and hill into wastes of black ashes and desolateness.
During the 26th and 27th we were ferried across the river in four double sets of most uncouth canoes, and then the Ankori escort, the Waganda converts, were dismissed, having satisfied Antari, and each of our friends with such gifts as won their professions of gratitude.
The Alexandra Nile at this place was about 125 yards wide, and an average depth of nine feet, flowing three knots per hour in the centre.