The reception of the mission, which was soon sent out, was most encouraging. The opposition of the Mohammedan Arabs, bitter as it was, did not materially interfere with its prospects. The king seemed intelligently alive to the fact that there was something, at least, in a Christian civilization infinitely superior to what was offered in Mohammedanism or heathenism. For a time, everything progressed most encouragingly; the king and all his people gave themselves assiduously to the new doctrines, and the work of the mission was interrupted only temporarily by a suspicion on the part of the king that the missionaries were emissaries of the Khedive of Egypt, and were intriguing in his interest. This jealousy was soon allayed, friendly relations were restored, and the work was fully resumed, when there appeared upon the scene ten Jesuit missionaries, sent out by the Archbishop of Algiers, with instructions to occupy every station of the Protestant missionary societies in the region of Victoria Nyanza and Tanganika, with the intention of carrying the French language and influence into the depths of Central Africa.
Their coming endangered for a time the life of the mission, and their settlement near the palace by the king proved to be a serious obstacle to the prosecution of its work. They gladly bribed the king with gifts of arms and ammunition, articles eagerly sought by him, but refused by the Protestant missionaries. They immediately assumed a most hostile attitude toward the mission; denounced the missionaries as liars, and threw the king and court into the greatest perplexity. “What am I to believe?” cried the king. “Who is right? First, I was a heathen, then a Mohammedan, then a Christian; now some more white men come and tell me these English are liars. Perhaps if I follow them, other white men will come and tell me these are liars also.”
After a time, matters had settled down to comparative quiet. The missionaries appealed to the word, which they were rapidly teaching the people to read. King and people were learning with an eagerness like that manifested by the Freedmen of the South after the surrender. The king had the prayers written out in Arabic characters, and ordered many copies, so that all might join in the Sunday services; and such was the evident interest of all, that neither the efforts of the Moslems, made after the fast of Ramadhan last autumn, to have their creed introduced, nor the opposition of the Jesuits, availed to hinder the work.
But there was a danger greater than the joint opposition of Arab and Frenchman, of Islam and Loyola, with their confederates of the slave trade—an adversary more to be dreaded, because indigenous to the country, not foreign, and entrenched more deeply and strongly in the African nature than any possible influence by which he could be swayed.
Messrs. Mackay and Litchfield were in November last anxiously awaiting the return of Mr. Felkin from England, whither he had gone with the Uganda chiefs, being in sore need of more paper to meet the demand made for printed cards and pages of the Scriptures. Mr. Pearson was at Kagei, where he had gone to bring some machinery from that point to Rubaga. This he was not able to do and was compelled to return without it. On arriving at Buganga his request to be allowed to go on was refused, because Mokassa, one of the Lubari of the Nyanza, had possession of a part of the lake, and no one could pass over it. At the same time a number of half-caste traders were kept waiting at Rubaga, not allowed to proceed to Unyanyembe until this Neptune, god or devil of the lake should return home. Messrs. Mackay and Litchfield heard from time to time that the Lubare was expected at court to cure the king of his sickness. One day they ventured to introduce the subject of his or her (for in this case the Lubare is an old woman who personifies the spirit or devil of the lake), coming. The king entered heartily into the subject and translated to his chiefs all that was said by the missionaries. They said to him, if Lubare is a god, then there are two gods in Uganda—Jehovah and Mokassa. If he is a man, then there are two kings in Uganda—Mtesa, who has given permission for these traders to depart, and Mokassa, who has forbidden it.
The next day, an order was sent for the traders to depart, and the king proposed to his court that some cattle should be given to the Lubare and she should be ordered to go back the way she came.
Weeks passed, and it seemed doubtful whether the king would triumph or the old chiefs and the king’s mother, who insisted that the Lubare should have houses erected for her in the king’s inner court. Mtesa himself said to Mr. Mackay, “I believe what you say is true, and that every Lubare is a liar, and deceives the people only to get food.”
There was a gathering of the old chiefs, and the king was advised by them that the missionaries had come to take possession of the country, and were laboring to change its customs as a preliminary step to conquering them altogether. Evidently the king was afraid of the chiefs. The missionaries were at length summoned to court, where were gathered the chiefs and a vast concourse of people. At length the king announced the result of the council: “We shall now have nothing more to do with either the Arabs’ or the white men’s religion; but we shall return to the religion of our fathers.” Every one assented with a simultaneous motion of hands. The next day, the beating of drums announced the great procession which accompanied the Mokassa to the palace.
The pupils have all ceased to come to the mission; a time of persecution is anticipated by those who have inclined to Christianity; and everything looks dark for the mission, which had been planted at great expense, with so much hope. It is emphatically Satan’s hour of triumph; but we feel assured that the hour of the Son of Man also draweth near, and this darkest is the hour before the dawning of the day.