' x x i :
Bishop
JSflttHW
\w
i
L
!**!!!
Tl pi<
ill
^
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
PRESENTED BY
PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID
BISHOP HANNINGTON
BISHOP IIANNINGTON
BISHOP
HANNINGTON
AND THE STORY OF THE
UGANDA MISSION
PREPARED BY
W. GRINTON BERRY, MA.
New York Chicago Toronto
Fleming H. Revell Company
London and Edinburgh
t T / At 4,
U4H3
PREFACE
ABOUT a third of this little book is the work
of Bishop Hannington himself. A most
graphic, racy, and altogether charming
volume entitled Peril and Adventure in Central
Africa, consisting of a number of letters, with
humorous illustrations, from the Bishop to his
nephews in England, was published some years
ago by the Religious Tract Society. A considerable
portion of these letters has been incorporated in
this book. The only regret of the reader will be
that there is not more material from the vivid
and glowing pen of the Bishop himself.
The compiler of this volume desires to acknow-
ledge his special obligations to James Hannington :
A History of His Life and Work, by the Rev. E. C.
Dawson, M.A. ; The Wonderful Story of Uganda, by
the Rev. J. D. Mullins, M.A. ; The History of the
Church Missionary Society, in three volumes, by
Mr. Eugene Stock; and the annual reports of the
M31G079
vi PREFACE
C.M.S. Mr. .Dawson's work is on a larger scale
and more expensive than this little book. The
object of the present compiler has been to produce
a volume interesting to all the friends and supporters
of missionary work, and specially adapted for
wide-spread circulation among the older members
of Sunday Schools, in Bible Classes, Christian
Endeavour Societies, and kindred organisations.
The story which it has to tell is that of one of the
most thrilling campaigns of the Gospel warfare in
heathen lands.
W. GRINTON BERRY.
CONTENTS
CHAP »AGS
I. ' A Gentleman at Large ' • • t i
II. The Story of Hannington's Conversion . 13
III. A Faithful Minister of the Word . .18
IV. The Early History of the Uganda Mission . 33
V. An Adventurous Journey : Hannington's
Narrative . . . . .42
VI. At the Great Lake : Hannington's Narrative
continued . . . . .86
VII. The Darker Colours of the Picture . , 117
VIII. Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa . .124
IX. The Last Journey . . . . .138
X. What had Happened in Uganda. , .156
XI. The Martyrdom of Bishop Hannington . .163
XII. The Story of Uganda since Hannington's
Death . . . . . .174
The Religious Tract Society and the Uganda
Mission ...... 210
vii
BISHOP HANNINGTON
Chapter I
'A GENTLEMAN AT LARGE'
A. headstrong, passionate Boy — ' Mad Jim ' — Cardinals and Choco-
late Shops — His Mother's Influence — Becomes interested in
Religion— Studying for the Ministry — His Mother's Death —
Ordination.
JAMES HANNINGTON— appointed in the pro-
vidence of God to a conspicuous place in
the noble army of martyrs — was born on
September 3, 1847, a ^ Hurstpierpoint, a pretty
little village in Sussex, some eight miles north-east
of Brighton. He was the eighth child of his father,
Charles Smith Hannington, who had a big drapery
business in Brighton, and had just bought the
property of St. George's at Hurstpierpoint.
The prosperity which the family enjoyed had
been established by Smith Hannington, the grand-
father of the future Bishop, who is described as
a shrewd man of business who never wanted a
holiday and never thought that other people wanted
2 'A GENTLEMAN AT LARGE'
one/ upright and stern, greatly loved and also
greatly feared. The father was a man of somewhat
similar temperament : he ruled his children with
a firm hand, and was not sparing, when occasion
rose, with the rod of correction.
James, ' a pickle of a boy/ always in scrapes,
often emerging from them with impunity, sometimes
not, was tenderly devoted, as a boy and always,
to his mother, ' the gentlest mother, the sweetest,
dearest mother that ever lived.' Her darling hand
had always power to soothe him.
James was a headstrong, passionate boy, with
a marked individuality, and perfectly fearless.
His friend and biographer, Mr. Dawson, records
how at the age of seven he clambered unnoticed
up the mast of his father's yacht and was at last
discovered high aloft, suspended on some projection
by the seat of his trousers !
From very early he possessed a commanding
— we do not say imperious — personality. At eleven
years of age he made his first yachting trip with
his elder brother in a hired cutter, and presently
we discover him, with the calmest assurance,
rebuking the captain and owner for broaching
the wine locker and conniving at the projected
theft of the cutter's sole silver spoon.
In one of his mad pranks, an attempt to blow
up a wasp's nest by gunpowder, James lost the
thumb of his left hand. It was by the mention
of this personal defect, years afterwards, that
'MAD JIM' 3
Alexander Mackay, calmly and quietly, almost in
isolation, working away at Uganda, was able to
identify the tall Englishman who was reported by
the natives to be approaching their country from
the east.
The education of the warm-hearted and quick-
tempered boy was carried on at home, in a desultory
and unsatisfactory way, until he was thirteen, when
he was sent to a private institution, Temple School,
at Brighton. He was even less in love with learning
than the generality of boys, but he soon became
very popular both with the other boys and the
masters. He earned the nickname of ' Mad Jim '
by such escapades as lighting a bonfire in the middle
of his dormitory. One day he was caned more
than a dozen times till his body smarted in every
inch of it. Yet the heart of his moral character
remained uncorrupted. He hated a lie, his word
was as good as his bond, and he could stand up
to a bully.
One day provoking a conflict with the tyrant of
the school, Hannington was punished by the closing-
up of both his eyes and the temporary addition to
his cranium of several egg-shaped excrescences.
His mother, to whom he had to pay his weekly
visit that same day, was dreadfully shocked, and
made him promise that he would not fight again.
He promised, but, exasperated beyond his endurance
by a bully who knew of this pledge, Hannington
broke faith with his mother, gave the fellow a
4 C A GENTLEMAN AT LARGE*
sound thrashing, and never again received provoca-
tion from that quarter.
Hannington, designed by his father for the
counting-house at Brighton, left school at fifteen,
and for the next six years on and off — very
largely ' off ' — he was learning his father's
business.
Before settling down to business he was allowed
the delights of a trip to Paris. The love of travel
was born in Hannington. Before he had reached
his majority he had done more travelling than
falls to the average Englishman in the same station
of life during a long lifetime, and he had had
adventures galore. He was madly excited by the
prospect of his visit to Paris : ' Visions of cardinals
shut up in cages, of the horrors of revolutions, the
Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Morgue, magnificent
chocolate shops, all these and more confusedly
floated through my brain/ The collocation of
1 visions of cardinals ' with ' magnificent chocolate
shops ' is eminently characteristic of a boy at once
romantic and very natural.
At this time too he gave evidence of the possession
of that rich fund of humour which helped him
over many a difficult place in his journey through
life. With regard to the proprietress of the
boarding-house in which he stayed, he writes to
his mother that ' Madame Boys is a kind, good-
natured, vulgar, blowing-up-servants little woman
— all very desirable points to make me happy/
A YOUNG OFFICER 5
And he adds, • I mean to bring you home
six snails with rich plum pudding stuffing in
them/
Six months later he had another Continental trip,
taking with him faculties of observation that were
always wide awake. He notes, for example, that
the regular professional gamblers at Wiesbaden
were ' the ugliest set of people * that he ever saw in
his life. He recollected these ' awfully eager ' faces
for many a day.
When only sixteen and a half years old Hannington
acquired a commission as second lieutenant in
the ist Sussex Artillery Volunteers. Soldiering was
much more in his line than business — was he not,
once he was converted, and until he received the
crown of martyrdom, a typical fighting Christian ?
— and he made an excellent officer. He knew
how to command and, not less, how to win the
affections of his men. He was a splendid specimen
of an English youth, standing, on his seventeenth
birthday — as he records in his diary — 5 ft. 10 in.
high, and weighing 11 st. 6 lb. He was long,
but his weight shows that he could not have been
lean. ' He threw himself heart and soul into the
work of his battery/ says Mr. Dawson, ' and
received his commission as captain. He took a
great deal of trouble in procuring for his men
suitable recreation-rooms, and personally inspected,
tested, and bought the various articles necessary
for their equipment. He organised concerts, read-
6 'A GENTLEMAN AT LARGE'
ings, and games, and made himself a prime favourite
with the men under his charge/
During a yachting tour in the North Sea and
Baltic, Hannington gave another signal instance
of his power of firm command. The crew had
been getting very disorderly, and Hannington
announced to them that in future any man breaking
leave would be discharged. The first to offend
was the captain ; he went ashore, got hopelessly
drunk, and overstayed his time. He imagined
that he would easily make it up with the youth
of nineteen who was his ' boss/ Mighty, then, was
his astonishment and that of the whole crew when
the captain was there and then sent ashore with
all his belongings. There was no more trouble
from disorderly seamen on that yacht !
Hannington had by this time clearly demonstrated
his unfitness for business ; his heart had never
been in it ; even the father gave up hope of launch-
ing James out into a successful mercantile career ;
but what was to be done with the young man ?
Echo answered, what ?
Heart religion had up to this point borne no
part in the life of James Hannington. He was a
good, honest, truthful, manly lad, but, as he would
probably himself have expressed it, religion was
not in his line. The piety of his father was of a
simple and somewhat severe character. Of his
mother, James, as a lad of sixteen, wrote, ' Never
was there such a churchgoer as my mother. She
A GODLY MOTHER 7
simply would go if it was possible.' This refers to
times when the family were yachting, and Mrs.
Hannington, in spite of the roughest weather,
would insist on landing in order to go to church.
On another occasion we read in Hannington' s
pocket-book : ' It blew furiously. No landing
for church. Which means it did blow.' He
concludes his diary for 1864 with the following
verses :
• My heart, Lord, may I ever raise
To Thee in humble thanks and praise
For keeping me throughout this year.
Lord, guard and guide me while I'm here,
And when to die my time is come,
Oh, take me to Thy heavenly home.'
About this time he had a strange hankering
after Roman Catholicism, probably dazzled by the
powerful appeal of its ritual and ceremonies to the
senses. This phase of his life was merely momentary.
He soon came to the conclusion that ' the system
was rotten.' At a later time, visiting the Pope's
yacht, ' The Immaculate Conception,' at Civita
Vecchia, he describes the vessel as ' handsome
outside, but very dirty in.' Hannington would
have admitted that the words aptly enough described
popery as well as the Pope's yacht.
The soul of a young lad is often a thing of mystery,
and it is not easy to find the key of interpretation.
While out shooting one day he lost his ring. He
asked God that the ring might be found and be to
him a sure sign of salvation. It was found, and In
2
8 «A GENTLEMAN AT LARGE'
a most unlikely place. Hannington's comment
in his -diary is: 'A miracle! Jesus, by Thee
alone can we obtain remission of our sins/ It is
difficult to know what to make of this incident ;
was it an instance of mere superstition, or was
there an element of true faith in it ? What if the
ring had not been found ? Hannington, writing
several years afterwards, says that this strange
occurrence befell him at the most worldly period of
his existence.
Mr. Hannington, James' father, held the tenets
of the Independents, and had built a chapel in the
grounds of his residence, in which Nonconformist
services were held. At the end of 1867, however,
the family joined the Church of England, and
St. George's Chapel was licensed for public worship
by the Bishop of Chichester. The Nonconformist
minister and his wife were pensioned by Mr.
Hannington, the pension to continue for the sur-
vivor's life.
James now began to interest himself in religious
matters, and his loathing for the business at Brighton
led him to think about the ministry as a profession,
although to outward appearance he was still as
gay, thoughtless, and reckless as ever. However,
he kept Lent of 1868 with much severity, fasting
twice a week. He told his mother that he had
decided in favour of the Church and that he believed
that God was with him in the matter. He went to
all the special religious functions in the neighbour-
STUDIES FOR THE MINISTRY 9
hood, heard the distinguished preachers that
exercised their ministry in, or visited, the vicinity,
attended the Church services regularly, and alto-
gether was what would be called a very active church
worker. Religion was in his head and hands and
feet, but not in his heart and soul. Nevertheless,
it was decided that in due course James Hannington
would seek ordination as a clergyman of the Church
of England.
Accordingly, in the autumn of 1868, Hannington
entered St. Mary's Hall, Oxford. He was then
twenty-one, a tall, handsome fellow, full of ' go '
and fun. He was a thoroughly ' good fellow/
and from the beginning of his college course to
the end he was the most popular man at St. Mary's
Hall. He was not, however, a brilliant or suc-
cessful student, he cared little for the classics,
and his own favourite subjects, botany and natural
science generally, were not the sort that brought
high marks and distinction to a man whose end
was the ministry. It was something, however, that
he should even think of preparing himself for a pro-
fession, for he had private means more than ample to
supply the wants of an irresponsible young bachelor.
Hannington kept open house at St. Mary's and
had hosts of friends. His pranks made him some-
thing of a trial to the Principal of the Hall, but his
good-nature was recognised and his offences against
college discipline winked at. Upon one occasion,
however, the Principal remonstrated with him
io 'A GENTLEMAN AT LARGE'
upon want of attention to study, and inquired how
long he intended to continue ' a gentleman at large.'
Hannington rather ' cheekily ' replied that he
intended in future to be a gentleman at ' smalls.'
' Smalls ' is, of course, the name of one of the
examinations to be passed by the undergraduate
in his progress towards his degree.
His studies, such as they were, did not seriously
interfere with his sports, and especially with boating,
of which he was passionately fond. Of course he
was elected captain of the boat club. Hannington
had, and continued to have throughout life, that
indefinable something which we call ' weight ' or
1 character ' which points out a man to his fellows
as their born and natural leader ; the impress of
his personality, without any conscious effort of
the man himself, made itself immediately felt
wherever he was — whether in the committee-room
of the C.M.S. at Salisbury Square, or amidst a
throng of excited, squabbling, perverse natives in
the heart of Africa.
Hannington spent the vacations in ceaseless
travel on the Continent and elsewhere. When in
the autumn of 1869 he returned to Oxford the
Principal of St. Mary's, thinking that the situation
was now serious, advised him to find a tutor in
the country and read steadily for his degree.
Accordingly we find Hannington in the household
of the Rev. C. Scriven, Rector of Martinhoe, a
wild lovely corner of the North Devon coast.
DEATH OF HIS MOTHER u
Hannington fell in love with the place and the
people. He was the sort of man whom everybody
very soon got to know and like. He several times
came near to losing his life in the course of his
adventures among the rocks of the wild coast.
We hear little about his studies, but in any case
he passed his Responsions in the following June.
He suggested to Mr. Scriven that he should come
to him at once as his curate and read for his degree
afterwards, but the Bishop refused to ordain him
until he had graduated.
The death of his mother, whom he passionately
loved, made a deep impression on the heart of
Hannington. Her last words were from Holy
Writ. She kept repeating, ' I will take the stony
heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart
of flesh. I will take — I will take the stony heart
away — away.' As she breathed her last her
heart-broken son fell on her face and kissed her
and cried to her, as though she could still hear him.
' It was almost impossible,' Mr. Dawson writes,
1 to bear him away from her bedside. He would
sit there in the silent gloom, hour after hour,
plunged in grief that refused to be comforted.
Or he would be found kneeling by that figure so
mysterious and still beneath its enveloping sheet.
They had to coax and almost to compel him from
the presence of the dead in order that he might
take rest or meals/ This sad event occurred on
February 26, 1872.
12 <A GENTLEMAN AT LARGE'
Hannington took his B.A. degree in 1873. His
University course had been prolonged by his dis-
inclination to study, but towards the end of it
he had really worked hard. He now returned to
Martinhoe to prepare for the Bishop's examination.
He left his study of the Prayer-Book for the last
fortnight's reading, and he was exceedingly unwell
on the day when he had to tackle the examination-
paper on that subject. The result was that he
failed and was overwhelmed with shame and
despair. He was conscious of his own remissness,
but also felt that the Bishop (Dr. Temple) was
hard in his manner towards him.
However, though he was possessed of a sufficient
competency, and the temptations towards a life of
exploration or scientific pursuit must have been
great, he persevered. Examinations were a terror
to Hannington ; put him down in front of an
examination-paper and the chances were that all
his knowledge would fly away out of his head.
The second time he got through, although the
Bishop told him that he must remain a deacon
for two years and come up for an intermediate
examination. ' You've got fine legs, I see,' added
his Lordship ; ' mind that you run all about your
parish.' The ordination ceremony deeply impressed
the susceptible young man : ' Behind Bishop and
officiating clergy, he saw One to whose awful
majesty he had consecrated the service of his life.'
Chapter II
THE STORY OF HANNINGTON'S
CONVERSION
First Sermon — Unconventional Country Parson — Something
lacking — Distress of Soul — The wonderful Power of Prayer
— The Light breaks.
THE power of prayer is strikingly illustrated
by the circumstances which led up to
Hannington's conscious acceptance of for-
giveness at the hands of Christ, and his absolute
surrender of his life and heart and soul to his Lord
and Saviour. We shall tell the story as succinctly
as possible.
Hannington preached his first sermon at Hurst-
pierpoint among his own people. His friends
congratulated him, but the young clergyman
was not satisfied with his performance, and tore
up the manuscript.
Then he began his duties as curate of Trentishoe,
the sister parish to Martinhoe. There was nothing
conventional about this country parson, ' clad in
a pair of Bedford-cord knee-breeches of a yellow
colour, continued below with yellow Sussex gaiters
with brass buttons. Below these a short pair of
14 STORY OF HANNINGTON^ CONVERSION
nail boots, four inches across the soles, and weighing
fully four pounds. My upper garment, an all-round
short jerkin of black cloth, underneath which an
ecclesiastical waistcoat, buttoning up at the side/
He went about the scattered hamlets, riding on
his rough Exmoor pony, with a Prayer-Book in one
pocket of his shooting- jacket and medicines in the
other. He was welcomed, admired, beloved every-
where. He sat up long nights with the sick and
dying ; those who came to him in want did not
go away empty. He preached against immorality
and hard drinking.
But he knew there was something lacking ; he
had not experienced the power of the Gospel in
his own heart, and he could not preach what he
had not experienced.
And now comes the memorable story. About
thirteen months before the time of which we are
writing, the Rev. E. C. Dawson, a college chum of
Hannington, settled as a curate in a country parish
of Surrey, was converted. He knew himself re-
deemed and in union with the Father of spirits.
He began to think about Hannington and
to pray for him. It seemed that the Lord
had specially laid upon him the burden of that
other soul. No letter had passed between the two
for nearly a couple of years; but Mr. Dawson, coming
upon a pair of skates that belonged to Hannington,
wrote to the latter about where he wanted these
skates sent to. And so a correspondence was opened.
'HE KEPT ON PRAYING' 15
Hannington mentioned that he was meditating
ordination and expressed a doubt as to whether
he was as fit as he ought to be. This gave Mr.
Dawson his chance. He knew that Hannington
had openly expressed his contempt for religious
enthusiasm and for what he considered cant.
Nevertheless, Mr. Dawson resolved to risk the
loss of Hannington' s friendship. Here we must
use Mr. Dawson's own simple and sufficient
narrative : ' With prayer for guidance he just
wrote a simple, unvarnished account of his own
spiritual experience ; tried to explain how it had
come to pass that he was not as formerly ; spoke
of the power of the love of Christ to transform the
lif e of a man and draw out all its latent possibilities ;
and finally urged him, as he loved his own soul, to
make a definite surrender of himself to the Saviour
of the world and join the society of His disciples.'
Thirteen months passed away. No reply came
from Hannington. Mr. Dawson concluded that
the letter had been treated with contempt, yet
he kept on praying for Hannington, feeling perfectly
convinced that the Lord had laid that burden upon
him.
The fact was that Hannington had read the letter
again and yet again, that it had lain on his table
all the year, and that he simply could not get
away from the impression that it had made upon
him. Yet there was no peace in his mind. At
last he wrote to Mr. Dawson, saying that he was
16 STORY OF HANNINGTON'S CONVERSION
in much distress of soul, and begging his friend to
pay him a visit, even though it were a short one.
Mr. Dawson could not get away from his work,
but he wrote a helpful letter, invited Hannington
to come to him, and enclosed a copy of Grace and
Truth, a volume by Dr. Mackay of Hull.
Hannington was in despair, it seemed to him that
his death-knell had been sounded. He wrote to
Mr. Dawson that darkness, coldness, and barrenness
had seized hold upon him, that he was being bound
by the devil hand and foot. ' I have no faith, I
can lay hold of nothing/ he cried in his agony ;
' I cannot believe that I can ever be saved ; and
I feel that I have no right to preach to others. I
try to feel that God willeth not the death of the
sinner, but no ; I can preach it, and feel it for other
persons, not for myself. Will the sun ever break
through the clouds so that I shall be able to say,
" Jesus is mine and I am His " ? '
Hannington began to read Grace and Truth,
but detecting in the preface a mistake in scholarship,
as he thought, he threw it away in disgust and
annoyance. But he felt that when he met his friend
he would have to tell him about the book, so a
second time he tried to read it. This time the
book fared no better ; Hannington disliked it so
much that he determined never to touch it again.
Yet he took it with him on a visit to Hurst. Once
more he took up ' the old thing ' and read on
until he came to the chapter entitled ' Do you feel
A NEW CREATURE 17
your sins forgiven ? Then his eyes were opened.
He was in bed at the time. He sprang out of bed
and leaped about the room, rejoicing and praising
God that Jesus died for him. In a short while he
emerged finally from the mists into the full sunlight
of the Father's smile.
In the autumn of 1874 Hannington and Mr.
Dawson met in Surrey. The time of stress through
which Hannington had passed had had its effect
upon his health, but the joy of his soul nothing
could impair. The friends had sweet converse
together concerning how the Lord had dealt with
their souls. Hannington went back to his charge
among the moors of Devon, to tell the people in
his own simple, powerful language what he knew,
what great things the Lord had done for him.
His long anxiety was over, he had found the hidden
treasure for which he had made a prolonged and
painful search, and his joy was now ' exceeding
great/ ' He shook off the chains of darkness and
bounded into the light.'
Chapter III
A FAITHFUL MINISTER OF THE
WORD
A Devonshire Moorland Parish — Return to his Native Place —
Hannington's Saints ' — The old Fuddlers— Marriage — A
successful Ministry — A fighting Christian — His Thoughts
turn to the Mission Field.
AFTER his conversion Hannington, not without
a severe struggle at first, adopted the plan
of preaching in extempore language. He
prepared for his pulpit work carefully, and he made
copious notes for his discourses, but for the actual
words he trusted to the inspiration of the moment.
He soon developed considerable power as a preacher.
His father, when he heard him for the first time
in St. George's, was deeply moved.
The young convert threw himself enthusiastically
into evangelistic work. The record of his life
from this time, until he offered his services to
the Church Missionary Society seven years later,
consists in great part of home mission effort among
his own people and evangelistic tours throughout
the country. His experiences from the first were
encouraging. At Parracombe, in Devonshire, he
A COUNTRY PARSON 19
preached in connection with a parochial mission
there from Rom. v. 1 : ' Therefore being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ.' He spoke the thing he knew, and
his discourse was made useful to inquiring, anxious
souls.
In the meantime Hannington continued to work
quietly in his Devonshire parish. He now eagerly
grasped every reasonable opportunity of com-
municating the Word of Life to the people. He
was always a ' handy ' man, was James Hannington,
and he acquired quite a reputation among his
simple friends for his knowledge of medicine.
He was sent for in almost every case, and he never
missed a suitable occasion of speaking to his patients
about their souls. The people over whom Han-
nington had charge did not number more than
three hundred, but great distances had to be
traversed over moorland roads and bridle paths.
In every corner of the large area Hannington and
his harum-scarum Exmoor pony were familiar
friends. The young minister was happy in his
work, and he had the satisfaction of seeing fruit
from his labours.
A proposal from his father that he should take
definite charge of the Chapel of St. George, Hurst-
pierpoint, was, therefore, not at all viewed with
any feeling of bounding joy. Hannington was
quite aware of the peculiar difficulties attaching
to work among the people who had known him
20 A FAITHFUL MINISTER OF THE WORD
from boyhood — and that a rather wild, ' larky/
tempestuous boyhood, too. The style of discourse
that did good among the inhabitants of a Devon-
shire moorland parish might not prove acceptable
or fruitful among people who lived within a few
miles of a genteel and fastidious place like
Brighton. Then he was as yet only a deacon ;
neither his own Bishop of Exeter nor the Bishop
of Chichester might wish him to undertake a new
charge until he had received priest's orders. In
sum, he was very loth to leave Martinhoe.
It was, however, just because the proposed
transference was so contrary to his own natural
inclinations that Hannington considered himself
bound to give earnest heed to the suggestion of it.
* He ever distrusted his own flesh,' says Mr. Dawson ;
1 and thought that, in doubtful cases, it was a
good and safe rule to run counter to its special
pleading.' All the difficulties were cleared away,
and Hannington resolved to risk the fate that too
often overtakes a prophet in his own country.
Before taking up work at Hurst, Hannington
spent the best part of three months at Darley
Abbey, a suburb of Derby, in order to learn how
to work a well-ordered parish. The vicar was the
Rev. J. Dawson, a powerful and attractive preacher,
a devoted parish worker, a successful minister of the
Word in every sense.
During Hannington's stay there a mission was
held by the Rev. C. Melville Pym. Hannington
AMONG HIS OWN PEOPLE 21
took part in it, every day giving an address, assisting
at the after-meetings, and visiting from house to
house. On one occasion he seized hold of a
notorious drunkard and would not let him go until
he had made a definite promise to attend that
evening's service. Hannington took the hearts
of the people by storm. His general manner
might be a trifle boisterous, but to the aged, the
weak, the suffering, the lonely he was tenderness
itself ; his manner then became quiet and gentle,
and there was a ring of true sympathy in his voice.
Hannington preached his introductory sermon
in St. George's Chapel, Hurst, on November 7,
1875. Mr. Dawson has given a charming account
of Hannington' s work as a faithful country parson.
All the children of the place knew him. He would
stop them in the street, give them little homilies
as to their duties to their parents and to each
other, and, as application to his discourse, out would
come some goodies or bull's-eyes from the capacious
pocket of the old faded boating-coat. A godly
manliness was one of the most striking traits of
Hannington's character, and therefore we are not
surprised to learn that he was particularly
successful in his dealings with boys and men. He
interested himself in the pursuits of the boys —
it was not a mere patronising but a natural and a
real interest ; he showed wonderful skill in weaning
them away from evil pursuits and evil companions
and drawing them towards things that were lovely
22 A FAITHFUL MINISTER OF THE WORD
and of good report. ' Boys who showed a liking
for curiosities or natural history were invited to
his house and allowed to examine his own large
and various collections, and his cabinets of classified
specimens.' All the same, he had a genial and
effective way of snubbing boys who were inclined
to be priggish or conceited.
A certain lad fancied himself as a musician, and
Hannington readily consented to allow the use of
his own harmonium.
' But when shall I begin, sir ? ' asked the boy.
' Oh, well/ said Hannington, looking at him
with an amused smile, ' I shall be out on Thursday/
' Hannington's Saints ' was the nickname given
to the lads and young men that he gathered into
his Bible class and temperance association. Han-
nington was a teetotaller, — indeed, it is believed, the
first teetotaller that there was in Hurst. Many a
time from his pulpit did he denounce the vice of
intemperance in language that no one could fail
to understand. ' The old fuddlers ' was how he
used to dub the alehouse theologians and pothouse
politicians. One Sunday he gave out the announce-
ment : ' I intend to preach a temperance sermon
next Sunday evening ; I am aware that the subject
is unpopular, but you know my own views about it.
I shall, no doubt, speak pretty plain, so if any of
you do not care to hear me, you had better stop
away.' The church was crowded.
Hannington waged war to the knife against
'HANNINGTON'S SAINTS 1 23
drink. During his first year only four pledges
of total abstinence were taken, but as a result of
his perseverance, in spite of the most determined
opposition, the number of abstainers gradually
increased. There were no fewer than seven public-
houses in the village. Hannington never went
about without a pledge-book. Those who signed
were derided by the cry of, ' He's joined the saints/
but this petty persecution merely roused the zealous
pastor to greater effort. He was perfectly fearless.
With the utmost good-humour he would say, ' Ah !
you're another old fuddler ; won't you come and
write in my little book ? ' He had a well-known sign
which he used to make ; holding up his left hand he
would write with his fingers upon it. Everyone
knew that it meant, ' Come and sign the pledge.'
He did not mind preaching on behalf of temperance
in the Church of the Annunciation at Brighton,
though it was a ritualistic place of worship. When he
gave out as his text, ' Take a little wine' (1 Tim. v. 23),
a look of terror passed over the faces of many
persons in the crowded congregation, but Hannington
went on to show — to quote his own words — that
his brother had a stronger claim upon him than
his stomach !
The absence of men from the churches is still, alas !
a too common and too just cause of lament. But
no one looking round Hannington's congregation
at St. George's ever asked, ' Where are the men ? '
Hismanliness was his most conspicuous characteristic.
3
24 A FAITHFUL MINISTER OF THE WORD
He was a man first and afterwards a parson.
Hanningtofi was a true chivalrous knight ; he had
' a way with the ladies ' when it was necessary to
employ it, but he was in no sense ' a ladies' man/
he was not the kind of parson that young damsels
gush over. Practically all his friends were men ;
his greatest strength lay in the management of
men, and in the power and conviction with which
he could address himself to their souls.
The one and only love of his life was the lady
whom he married in 1877, Miss Blanche Hankin-
Turvin. Until he met this lady, Hannington had
imagined himself a confirmed bachelor ; he enjoyed
his ' independence/ he was a ' handy ' man, not
needing the ministrations of women, he had his
own little stock of peculiarities which might not
easily fit into the character of another, and, above all,
he was wedded to his work. It was indeed in the
interests of his work that his thoughts turned towards
matrimony. A clergyman without a wife, he felt,
lay under various disadvantages ; if he is popular
and good-looking the young ladies of his church
are apt to embarrass him by their marked solicitude
for his comfort and happiness, and he may easily
find himself in positions of awkwardness and
difficulty.
Hannington accordingly asked Miss Hankin-
Turvin to become his wife because she was a lady
of sound, earnest character, well qualified to
discharge the duties of her new position. The
A SCRUPULOUS CONSCIENCE 25
marriage turned out to be one of perfect happiness.
Hannington's character was softened and mellowed
by matrimony, and he found in his wife a true
helpmeet, who entered with all her heart and soul
into his views of the Gospel and into his many
good works.
Hannington kept back nothing from his Lord.
He was very fond of riding, but receiving an im-
pression from Heaven that he must deny himself
this pleasure, he sold his horse and turned the stable
and coach-house into a mission-room. As incumbent
of St. George's he had no stipend; his private fortune,
which had been ample for his bachelor wants,
became something of a tight fit when he married,
and a small band of little children began to grow
up around him. Yet he managed to give away a
considerable part of his income, in sums of £50,
£40, and smaller amounts. There was no ostentation
in his liberality, — the world knew little of it, and
that the most insignificant part.
As a preacher, Hannington was not perhaps
entitled to be called ' great/ but he was certainly
effective. He knew what he meant to say, and
he could make other people know it too. No
conventional tones or attitudes were his. His
thought, earnestness, and passion gave him language;
he did not bother about the rigid correctness of
his grammar or the classical turn of his periods —
all that was beneath him. Practice soon put him
in possession of a concise, pithy style; he knew
26 A FAITHFUL MINISTER OF THE WORD
his Bible well, he had thought deeply, he had
passed through the crucial religious experience,
he led a life of service and communion with his
Lord, — these qualifications made him not only a
cultivated but also a powerful preacher. He was
never either dull or vague. He was as far removed
as possible from the temperament of the Irish
clergyman who sought laboriously for a euphonious
synonym to the ' vulgar ' word potato. ' What
truths were made plain to his own heart, these he
sought the power of the Spirit of God to enable
him to make plain to the congregation.'
The result was that his little chapel was filled to
its utmost capacity, that many souls were brought
out of darkness into light, and many others built
up in their most holy faith. Hannington preached
for conversions. He never forgot that a great part
of an ordinary congregation consists of people
who have not definitely accepted the salvation of
Christ and surrendered their lives to Him as their
Lord and Master. He sought for broken hearts,
contrite spirits, and souls willing to be saved through
faith in the Redeemer.
Mr. Dawson records several striking instances
of Hannington's devotion as a shepherd of the
flock. A boy was seized with the smallpox, no
one would go near the house where he lay, and the
lad was dying for want of milk. Hannington
fetched the milk, and prayed with the boy and his
mother. The people of the parish were dreadfully
A SOUL TO BE WON 27
alarmed when they heard that Hannington had
visited the smallpox case. The relieving officer
forbade the clergyman to go to the house, but,
though the officer of health added his warning,
Hannington did not so understand his duty. A
lady member of his flock wrote to him entreating
him not even to speak to her husband in his carriage
out of doors for three weeks. Thanks no doubt in
large part to the devotion of the minister, the boy
recovered. Hannington devotedly and tenderly
loved the flock over which God had made him a
pastor.
A certain married man in the parish ran away
with another woman, leaving his lawful wife des-
titute. Hannington put the police on the track of the
scoundrel, and he was soon safely lodged in prison.
He understood, however, that his duty demanded
something more than bringing a malefactor to
justice, namely, bringing him to repentance.
Accordingly he called upon the prisoner, and sought
to show him his sin in its true light. But the
heart of the man was hardened. Yet Hannington
appeared in the man's behalf in court, and said
all that was possible in his favour with regard to
his past history. The culprit was sentenced to
three months' hard labour. Hannington called
upon him again, and received nothing but reproaches
and bitter accusations for his pains. But the
devoted clergyman would not loose his hold on
the man, — this was a soul to be won for the Lord,
28 A FAITHFUL MINISTER OF THE WORD
and, God willing, he must be won. Hannington
continued to petition the throne of grace for this
hard-hearted sinner. When the man stepped out
at the prison gate Hannington was there. There
was an affecting interview, lasting three hours, and
at last the sinner was penitent. There was joy in
the presence of the angels of God. The poor
fellow, now utterly broken down, was helped by
Hannington to sail away to another land, there to
live the regenerated life. In due time he returned
every penny of the money that Hannington had
lent him.
It would be difficult to find among men a more
striking illustration of the sanctified pertinacity
that marks the good shepherd of souls ; if he lose
one of his sheep he goes after that which was lost
until he find it.
The doings of the vigorous, unconventional
young clergyman, the large audiences he commanded,
the spiritual success with which his labours were
blessed began to be noised abroad, and he was
offered livings with larger and better known spheres
of labour. But he refused preferment, his constant
reply being, " I dwell among mine own people.'
There was no occasion or excuse for slackness in
the work of ' fishing for men ' even in a quiet
country parish.
Hannington had the happiness of associating
his youngest brother Joseph with him in this
work. He set Joseph to work in connection with
A POPULAR MISSIONER 29
his meetings. ' My part/ said Joseph, ' was to
waylay souls and catch them by guile, in order
that they might be induced to remain to be dealt
with personally, or to seek an interview with him
in his own study. Thus a goodly number were
brought to the Lord. He was particularly apt in
dealing with souls, and was much used in removing
their difficulties and pointing them to a simple
acceptance of the Saviour.' He started a Mothers'
Meeting (the first ever held in Hurst), a Women's
Bible Class, a Men's Bible Class, a Saturday Night
Prayer-Meeting for Men, and other organisations,
all of which were honoured by the Lord with
much fruit.
A year before his marriage, referred to above,
Hannington passed his final examination for priest's
orders at Chichester. He was highly complimented
by all examiners, five in number, and told that
he had come out at the top of the list. It is
characteristic of Hannington that he found recrea-
tion the day after his ordination examination by
nesting in the Bishop's garden and round the
belfry tower for swift's eggs.
Hannington was invited to conduct missions in
various parts of the country. His accounts of these
in his letters to his wife and in his diary are very
vivid. At Atwick, for example, he tells us that a
man walked all round the neighbourhood literally
compelling the people to come in. Hannington
describes the fruit as ' small, yet very blessed.
30 A FAITHFUL MINISTER OF THE WORD
God be praised for even one ! Oh, the value of one
soul ! it is priceless.'
He refers several times to the small but some-
times exasperating difficulties of evangelistic work.
At the end of a meeting at Birmingham he asked
those who were anxious about their souls to stay
behind. Thereupon the organist immediately stood
up and announced a choir practice !
On another occasion a huge, tipsy man, wedged
into the middle of the crammed meeting, kept
interrupting the preacher. ' Nevertheless/ wrote
Hannington, ' the Lord gave me immense power,
so that I held them together in spite of intense
interruption. But the strain was so great that I
afterwards burst into tears.'
One man professed to be in a difficulty because
he had been told that God came from Teman ;
evidently he was labouring under a strange mis-
interpretation of Hab. iii. 3. Those who labour
in spiritual things among the poor frequently get
staggering glimpses into abyssmal depths of ignor-
ance. A parishioner of Hannington once asked
him whether God was alive before Jesus Christ,
who Paul was, and who the Israelites were.
Hannington cried earnestly to be filled, more and
more, with the Holy Ghost. The entry in his
diary on New Year's Day, 1879, is : ' I pray for
more earnestness, more love, more diligence, greater
regularity, and entire consecration to the service
of the Lord.'
PROTESTANT SINNERS 31
He had sometimes difficulties in his evangelistic
work with some brethren in the ministry. A
mission was held at Hurstpierpoint, one sequel of
which was that Hannington got what he called
' a tremendous rowing ' from a neighbouring
clergyman, the root of whose grievance was that
one of his parishioners had been converted at the
mission !
Hannington's congregations used to include people
of many denominations. On one occasion it was
known that among his hearers were two Unitarians,
two Roman Catholics, Ritualists, Wesleyans,
Calvinists, a Quaker, Congregationalists, and Ply-
mouth Brethren.
His experience of a mission at Ballybrack, by
the lakes of Killarney, leads Hannington to remark
that the people appeared to be ready to hear of
the sins of the Roman Catholics, but never dreamt
that Protestants were sinners too !
Hannington, up to this time, had confined his
spiritual work to his own parish and to the missions
that he was invited to conduct in different parts
of the country. He knew little about foreign
missions, and this fascinating theme had not yet
gripped his heart. However, on one occasion at
a friend's house near Derby he met Miss Gell, the
sister of Bishop Gell of Madras, and with her had
some talk about the work in the regions beyond.
Gradually his mind and heart opened to the work
of the advance guard in the army of Christ. He
32 A FAITHFUL MINISTER OF THE WORD
was just the sort of man, a fighting, chivalrous,
knightly Christian, every inch of him, to whom that
work, once known, would powerfully appeal.
He carefully notes in his diary the occasion of
his first C.M.S. sermon. Towards the end of 1881
he attended a meeting at Eastbourne, at which
Mr. Eugene Stock, the editorial secretary of the
C.M.S. , gave an address. ' If he had asked me to
go out/ wrote Hannington in his diary, ' I should
have said, Yes/
It was the violent death of Lieutenant Shergold
Smith and Mr. T. O'Neill on the shore of Victoria
Nyanza, towards the end of 1877, that first turned
the thoughts of Hannington towards the heroic
and devoted life of a missionary. Although his
name is inseparably associated with Uganda,
Hannington, oddly enough, never entered the
country for which he laid down his life. For the
sake of clearness we shall devote our next chapter
to a brief statement of the Uganda Mission up to
the point at which Hannington enters its history.
Chapter IV
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE
UGANDA MISSION 1
The first Missionaries in East Africa — Stanley's Letter to the
Daily Telegraph — How it reached its Destination —
Action by the C.M.S. — First Expedition to Uganda — Arrival
at the Capital — Murder of Shergold Smith and O'Neill —
Alexander Mackay — General Gordon helps forward a C.M.S.
Party to Uganda — Romanist Priests arrive and cause
Trouble — The first Baptisms.
JUST over sixty years ago two German mis-
sionaries, labouring under the auspices of
the Church Missionary Society, took up their
abode at Rabai, on a hill near one of the many
creeks which run inland from Mombasa, a chief
seaport on the East Coast of Africa. These were
Ludwig Krapf and John Rebmann. In the cause
of the Gospel they made many journeys into the
interior, discovering the snow-clad mountains of
Kilimanjaro and suggesting the great lake system
of Central Africa. They had heard from Arab
1 This chapter is a summary of the narratives contained in
The Wonderful Story of Uganda, by the Rev. J. D. Mullins, M. A.,
and The History of the Church Missionary Society, in three vols.,
by Eugene Stock. Both works are published by the C.M.S.
33
G
EARLY HISTORY OF UGANDA MISSION
traders tales of a great lake which had no end,
'although one should travel for a hundred days to
see the end.' Stay-at-home geographers demon-
strated by argument that no great lakes could exist
along the line of the Equator, but Speke, Burke,
and Grant went out to see, and proved that the
missionaries were right.
Among the marvels reported by these travellers
was the existence of a considerable kingdom on
the more distant shore of the Victoria Nyanza,
700 miles from the coast. Here was a young king
whose power was felt over thousands of square
miles, and who, amidst much oppression and
cruelty, had developed something like organised
government. This w as Mtes a and Uganda.
Then on November 15, 1875, appeared the famous
letter of Stanley in the Daily Telegraph, in effect
a challenge and an appeal to the Christian churches
to send missionaries to Uganda. Nowhere in all
the pagan world, he said, was there a more promising
field than Uganda. The Baganda are a Bantu
race, of intelligence and general capacity far
beyond any other inhabitants of Central Africa.
The hand of God may be clearly discovered in
the extraordinary adventures of this letter in its
journey from the heart of Africa to Fleet Street.
The only practicable route at that time (says
Uganda Notes) was by the Nile. A young Belgian,
named Linants de Bellefonds, was then in Uganda,
and to him Stanley entrusted the letter. On his
FIRST C.M.S. EXPEDITION 35
way north his expedition was attacked by the
Bari tribe and he himself murdered. Some time
later a punitive expedition, sent to inquire into
his death, discovered the body still clad in the
high knee-boots he was wearing at the time of his
death, and in the boots, thrust in at the last moment,
was Stanley's letter to the Daily Telegraph. It
was forwarded to General Gordon at Khartoum,
and by him sent to England.
Three days after the appearance of the letter ' An
Unprofitable Servant ' placed £5000 at the disposal
of the C.M.S. for the immediate and energetic
organisation of a mission to the Victoria Nyanza.
The Committee closed with the offer ; another
gift of £5000 was forthcoming, and in all £24,000
was soon subscribed. It must be remembered
that the adventure was a much more daring and
more perilous one than it would be nowadays.
The temper of the chiefs whose territory must be
traversed was unknown ; communications were
uncertain, and the climate was unhealthy.
The first expedition to Uganda was composed of
George Shergold Smith, an ex-Lieutenant of the
Royal Navy, who was studying for the ministry of
the Church of England; Alexander Mackay, a
young Scotch engineer; the Rev. C. T. Wilson, a
Manchester curate ; Mr. T. O'Neill,- an architect ;
Dr. John Smith, a qualified medical man from Edin-
burgh; G. J. Clark, an engineer; W. M. Robertson,
an artisan; and James Robertson, a builder from
36/ EARLY HISTORY OF UGANDA MISSION
Newcastle, — in all eight persons. The last-mentioned
had been rejected by the doctors and accompanied
the pioneers at his own risk and expense.
By the end of April £876. all had sailed for Africa.
James Robertson, fulfilling the warning of the
doctors, died on the coast before the journey into
the interior was begun. The track followed was
an old trade round, beginning on the mainland
opposite Zanzibar, proceeding about 250 miles
west, then about 300 miles in a north-westerly
direction to the south of the Victoria Nyanza,
whence Uganda was to be reached by a long voyage
in canoes, skirting the shores of the mighty lake.
Mr. Mullins draws a vivid picture of the acute
discomforts and dangers of the journey. First
there is the heat, like that of a furnace, yet damp,
causing exhaustion and depression. Then there is
a^jcpntinuous plague of insects, centipedes, snakes,
and. beasts of prey ; thirst ; fever ; menacing
demands from all the petty chiefs for tribute. All
the materiel of the expedition, including the food,
and the cloth which served for money, had to be
carried on the heads of the black porters. ' The
long, straggling line which wound its way along
the narrow paths often comprised hundreds of
men; some deserting, some falling ill and dying,
some attacked by robbers.' The journey to the
lake occupied six and a half months, the shore
of the Victoria Nyanza being reached on January 29,
1877.
'COME QUICKLY' 37
The expedition, as we have said, started with
eight white men. One was already dead. Mackay
was prostrated with fever when the expedition
had reached Mpwapwa, 220 miles inland, and was
ordered back to the coast. Clark was placed in
charge of the station at Mpwapwa, but was after-
wards forced by ill-health to return home. W.
Robertson was invalided home shortly after the
party had started onwards from Mpwapwa. Four
members of the party reached the southern shore
of the lake, having had to fight their way through
waterless deserts and malarial swamps. Dr. John
Smith died there. O'Neill was left behind.
Meanwhile news of the arrival of the missionaries
on the southern shore of the Lake had reached
Uganda, and Mtesa had sent letters urging them
to come quickly. These letters were written in
English by a lad who had been brought up in
Bishop Steere's mission-school at Zanzibar, had
travelled into the interior with Stanley and been
left by him in Uganda.
Shergold Smith and Wilson pressed forward in the
1 Daisy/ a small steam-launch which they had
brought with them in sections. Trying to land at
an unknown place they were assailed by a shower
of stones and arrows. Smith was rendered almost
blind by injuries from the stones, and Wilson's
arm was pierced with an arrow. No further mishap
was encountered, and Rubaga, the capital of Uganda,
was reached on June 26, 1877, a date ever to be
38/ EARLY HISTORY OF UGANDA MISSION
remembered in the annals of mission work. Shergold
Smith and ^Wilson were escorted to the reed-walled
palace of the king through lines of soldiers dressed
in white raiment. Salutes were fired in honour of
the missionaries and of the name of Jesus.
After the ceremonial reception, says Mr. Wilson,
the king sent a message to say that he had one
word which he wanted to say to us, but was afraid
to do so before the people in the morning. So
about four o'clock we went up. ... He said he
wanted to know if we had brought the book — the Bible*
Of course they had.
Soon a mission-house was built by order of the
king. Shergold Smith returned to the south of
the lake to join O'Neill, and to bring up the rest of
the stores. A sudden quarrel broke out in that
region between a native king and an Arab trader
from whom the missionaries had purchased a dhow.
The Arab fled to the missionaries for shelter. The
king demanded his surrender. The missionaries
refused, their camp was attacked, Shergold Smith
and O'Neill were slain. This disaster happened on
December 7, 1877. It was the news of it which
first led the thoughts of Hannington towards the
mission field.
Wilson was now alone in Uganda, and remained
so for nearly a year. In the meantime Mackay had
started again from the coast ; this time he reached
his journey's end, arriving at the lake about the
middle of June and at Uganda in November 1878.
GORDON AND UGANDA 39
The C.M.S had in the meantime determined to
send a new party to Uganda by the Nile route.
Gordon, who was then Governor-General of the
Soudan, had offered to assist any men who might
be sent that way. Four men were selected by the
C.M.S. : Pearson, who had been an officer in the
P. & O. service ; Felkin, a young doctor ; Litch-
field and Hall, students of the C.M.S. College at
Islington. They left England in May 1878. Hall,
however, was disabled by a sunstroke in the Red Sea
and had to return. The other three went on camels
across the desert from Suakin to Berber, and thence
up the Nile to Khartoum, where they were received
with unbounded kindness by Gordon. He sent the
party on by his steamers, and at his personal
expense, right up to the frontier of Uganda.
Pearson, Felkin, and Litchfield thus joined Wilson
and Mackay early in February 1879.
Soon after two French Roman Catholic priests
reached the country, and at once began to act in
opposition to the English missionaries. They not
only refused to join in the worship which Mackay
conducted at the king's court, but denounced him
to the king. Mtesa was sorely perplexed. ' Has
every nation of white men another religion ? ' he
asked. The French priests had brought for Mtesa
just the kind of present he most valued — rifles,
powder and shot, military uniforms, helmets, and
swords.
Two more C.M.S. men arrived in April, Stokes
4
40 EARLY HISTORY OF UGANDA MISSION
and Copplestone, making now seven Protestant
missionarie*s in Uganda. Soon, however, four of
them — Stokes, Copplestone, Wilson, and Felkin —
left the country, their services being required in
other spheres of labour. The king's caprice, the
slander of the Arabs, and the opposition of the
French priests combined to cause much discomfort
to Mackay, Litchfield, and Pearson. Litchfield left
in June 1880 and Pearson in March 1881.
Nevertheless the period was, upon the whole,
one of much practical work — teaching, preaching,
translating, and introducing the elements of
civilisation. Mackay was not left alone. He was
joined in March 1 881 by the Rev. Philip O' Flaherty,
who proved himself to possess a remarkable per-
sonality, with a singular power of picking up a
language, and great readiness in making the best
of untoward circumstances.
The mission had already begun to gather fruit.
In the previous year two lads had openly avowed
their belief in the religion of Christ, and were in
consequence seized, bound, and sent away into the
country. A third youth came to Mackay, on October
8, 1881, with a note written by himself with a
pointed piece of spear-grass, and asking for baptism
because he believed the words of Jesus Christ.
A fourth lad, when dying, had induced a companion
to fetch some water and pour it on his head, saying
over him the names of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost. The companion, after the lad's
FIRST PROTESTANT CONVERTS
©
death, came to the mission and told the story,
bringing his dear friend's Gospel of St. Mark — a
tentative version printed by Mackay — which he said
had been constantly read by him.
The French priests had already baptized half a
dozen lads. The ' gospel ' of fear which they preached
proved more quickly effective than the Gospel of
Grace. ' How many more days ? ' said one who
had been instructed for two months, and was told
to wait a little ; ' see, I tremble in every limb when
I lie down to sleep at night in the thought that
death may surprise me and cast my soul into
eternal fire.' This was in 1880. Not till March
1882 did the first Protestant baptism take place ;
but on the 18th of that month, to the great joy
of the two missionaries, five well-tested converts
were publicly admitted to the Church. Only a
few days later a fifth, who had found the Saviour
in Uganda, was baptized 800 miles away.
And this brings us to the date, May 1882, when
Hannington set out from England as the leader
of a new expedition to Uganda. 1
1 This is a convenient place to note that in the language of
the country itself the place is Buganda, the people Baganda,
a single native Muganda, and the language Luganda.
\
Chapter V
AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY:
HANNINGTON'S NARRATIVE
Hannington offers himself to the C.M.S. — Made Leader of a
new Expedition to Uganda — Touching Scenes at his Farewell
Sermon — His own vivid Narrative of his Adventures.
WHEN Hannington first definitely thought of
offering himself to the C.M.S. he was held
back by the fear in his secret heart that he
might not be accepted, that he was not worthy of
the honour. He did not perceive what was evident
to those who knew him, that no man was more
fitted by natural gifts and temperament and the
grace of God for work of toil and danger, in the
interests of the Gospel, among a savage race. He
was tall, strong, fearless, fond of travel and ad-
venture ; he had the habit and the gift of command,
and great influence over men, especially over rude
and untrained natures. He was clearly marked
^v out by God for the work to which he felt his heart
was being drawn.
Although some of his friends produced an
abundance of specious arguments in favour of his
staying at home, the upshot of the matter was that
HANNINGTON'S EXPEDITION 43
Hannington placed his services at the disposal of
the C.M.S. for work in Uganda. For payment he
asked nothing more than his travelling expenses,
of which he undertook to contribute £100 a year
himself and £50 towards his outfit. The C.M.S.
undertook during his absence to ' supply * St.
George's Chapel with retired missionaries or mis-
sionaries at home on prolonged leave. These
proposals were accepted. When Hannington
announced his decision to his congregation, many
of the people wept aloud. They were not rich,
but they subscribed £85 towards the initial expenses
of this great Gospel adventure.
Hannington was placed in command of the new
expedition to Uganda, which consisted of six men —
himself, the Rev. R. P. Ashe, B.A., St. John's
College, Cambridge, J. Blackburn, Cyril Gordon
(Hannington's nephew), W. J. Edmonds (three
students of the C.M.S. College), and C. Wise, an
artisan. The route was to be the same as that
taken by the first C.M.S. party to Uganda, due
west from Zanzibar for over 200 miles, then north-
west to the southern shore of the Victoria Nyanza.
Uganda, which is on the north-west of this mighty
inland sheet of water — 20,000 squares miles, with
an island in it as large as the Isle of Wight — was
to be reached by canoes, skirting the shores.
A book about Uganda, written by Wilson and
Felkin, 1 had just been published, and very favourably
*See previous chapter.
44 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
reviewed in the Times. Hannington took advantage
of the public interest in the country to make an
appeal in that paper for a new boat with which to
navigate the Victoria Nyanza in place of the ' Daisy,'
which had been wrecked. The response was
adequate, and that in itself was an encouraging
beginning.
His farewell sermon at Hurst sent a thrill of
emotion through the densely-crowded audience.
He said that if he lost his life in Africa, no man
was to think that his life had been wasted. As
for the lives which had been already given for the
cause, they were not lost, but were filling up the
trench so that others might the more easily pass over
to take the fort in the name of the Lord. A great
crowd waited for him outside the church, forming
a continuous double line all the way to his own
house. He had a formidable ordeal of hand-
shaking to go through.
On the morning of his departure his boy-servant,
Tom Lowry, flung his arms round his neck and
juplored Hannington not to leave him. Another
friend, who had been breaking his heart for a
month about Hannington's departure, offered to
work his passage to Zanzibar if he might be per-
mitted to follow him. The three little children
could not, of course, comprehend all that it meant,
but they cried, ' Come back soon, papa ! ' The
parting from his wife need not be described. As
he was about to jump into his brother's carriage,
A FILTHY OLD VESSEL 45
a publican's son crept up and thrust a letter into
his hand, a pretty book-marker and a text, and
a letter written by his mother.
Hannington started on this great missionary
journey, one of the most thrilling and perilous
ever undertaken, from the Thames on May 17, 1882.
At Aden the party for Zanzibar, opposite to which
the expedition into the interior was to begin, were
transported into a filthy old vessel called the
' Mecca/ dreadfully overcrowded, and swarming with
cockroaches, black ants, and bugs. Food, accom-
modation, and management were as bad as bad
could be. The voyage was stormy, a feeling of
discomfort developed into one of horror, and
Hannington, old sailor as he was, was prostrated
with sickness. It was with great relief that the
island of Zanzibar was sighted on June 19. We
are now happy to be able to take up the narrative,
for a considerable number of pages, in Hannington's
own words : —
You will be glad to hear that I have completed
the voyage through the Red Sea most satisfactorily,
and have duly arrived at Zanzibar. The journey
out I shall not attempt to describe, since there
was nothing very extraordinary about it, nor must
we delay for any length of time discoursing upon
Zanzibar, for it is well-trodden ground, and wq
have far wilder scenes before us. The streets, like
those of all Oriental towns, are very narrow and
46 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
tortuous, and have such a cut-throat appearance
that at first one seemed afraid to venture far, but
experience soon showed that there was nothing to
harm beyond that occasional fragrance which one
is wont to come across in every foreign town.
' As we peep into the shops we perceive that for
the most part the traders are not negroes, but
Hindus, and that they are subjects not of the
Sultan of Zanzibar, but of her Majesty the Empress
of India. Their wares are not very inviting, being
chiefly cheap Manchester and Birmingham goods.
Even the strange-looking cakes and sweetmeats
that are occasionally to be seen would scarce tempt
Miss Hettie to delay, although I expect I should
have had a different tale to have told had she
been there.
' When we got a little farther on we reached the
African quarter, and saw piles of bananas, oranges,
mangoes, and other kinds of fruit strewing the
ground. We glance through a half-open door, and
notice some camels solemnly turning a mill. They
are extracting the oil from ground nuts, which will
probably be sold for the best Sorrento olive oil.
1 Outside the town a delightful scene meets the
eye. Dark-spreading mango, vine, lemon, orange,
broad-leaved bananas, and plumed cocoanut trees
are crowded together with the luxuriance of a
forest, while pineapples are planted along the
roadsides, or are massed together in small enclosed
gardens. Here and there groups of tropical vegeta-
THE SULTAN OF ZANZIBAR 47
tion crown a gentle slope ; or, standing out against
the clear sky, form a succession of beautiful pictures
which I hope would have more attraction for you
than the mandarin oranges hanging overhead.
1 How you would have laughed to have beheld
your sober old * uncle climbing a cocoanut tree —
one, by the bye, that was somewhat out of the
perpendicular — and you would have been still
more amused to have seen his energetic struggles
to emancipate the nut from its fibrous husk. But
I must leave you to digest that cocoanut whilst I
visit his Majesty the Sultan, Bargash Bin Said, the
noble and energetic ruler of Zanzibar.
1 People in our station of life do not visit Sultans
every day, so I will endeavour to give you a full
description of the interview. The palace is well
situated in the Grand Square, and looks out on the
roadstead, beautiful with its deep blue water and
varied flotilla. Thither, at the appointed time,
Colonel Miles, Acting Consul during the absence of
Sir John Kirk, conducted me, duly arrayed in cap
and gown, together with Captain Hore, of the
London Missionary Society, who was also to be
presented. A guard of honour was drawn up in
front of the palace, and saluted upon our arrival.
'The Sultan then appeared on the scene, shook
hands cordially, and beckoned us to follow him.
We mounted some stairs, which were so steep that
l This is merely Hannington's fun. He was only thirty-four
at the time.
48 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
they formed a perfect safeguard against an inebriate
thrusting himself into the royal presence, and then
were led into a small reception room, and bade be
seated on elaborate amber-satin arm-chairs. Im-
mediately attendant slaves brought coffee, in glass
cups, tastefully mounted in gold. That was coffee !
I should like to soliloquise on it, but you are not
old enough to appreciate delicate flavours. You
would have done greater justice to the iced sherbet
which followed ; only, if I mistake not, you would
have looked rather glum when, having taken a
gentle sip (it is vulgar to take deep draughts in the
presence of kings), the attendant at once presented
a tray, and relieved you of your burden.
1 Conversation now waxed warm. The Sultan
was greatly interested in our movements, asked
me many questions, through an interpreter, as to
how we travelled, how long we expected the journey
to take ; and he was further very inquisitive about
a report that he heard of a serpent in Ugogo,
reputed to eat up whole oxen and women and
children !
' The royal attire was the plain everyday costume
of wealthy Arabs — the long black coat, trimmed with
silver, an ordinary turban, a handsome waistband,
in which were thrust two finely-wrought dirks,
while a very handsome ring, worn German fashion
on the first finger, graced his hand. His Majesty
was exceedingly courteous, and did his utmost to
entertain his guests. Upon our rising he also rose^
UNMINDFUL OF SHARKS 49
led the way into the Grand Square, and wished us
farewell.
4 1 must now hastily pack my goods in small
bundles of about half a hundredweight, hire porters,
and cross to the mainland. I should perhaps explain
to you that on account of the ravages of the tsetse
fly we are unable to use beasts of burden, and so
are compelled to have all goods carried by porters.
These porters are for the most part of two different
races — namely, the Wanguana, or coast men from
Zanzibar, and the Wanyamwezi, or the men from
the Country of the Moon, that vast region which lies
to the south of the Victoria Nyanza.
' Our next step is to hire an Arab dhow, which
is to take us over from the island of Zanzibar to
the little town of Sedaani. We pack in as tightly
as safety will allow, weigh anchor, and soon after
reach the coral-bound coast.
' We touch bottom about half a mile from the beach,
and, as there is a heavy ground-swell on at the
time, the crazy old dhow threatens to go to pieces.
So while some made their way to shore in a small
dug-out canoe, half full of water, your uncle put
his clothing in a bag, plunged into the water, un-
mindful of sharks, and thus, with a heart throbbing
with emotion — and, I might add, feet throbbing
too, for the coral was sharp — entered the land of
Moffat, Krapf, Livingstone, and Gordon. That I
was not prudent thus to fling myself into the water
I will allow, but you cannot fully enter into the
50 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
feelings aroused by such tremendous associations
in the heart* of one whose life was about to be
devoted to Africa.
' It is not too much to say that the poetry of the
situation was dispelled shortly after by our sitting
down to dine on a tough goat. I have seen goats on
the table which knives refused to manipulate, and
chickens whose limbs denied that they would part
company, so strongly were they attached to each
other, until one seized hold of one leg and another
the other, and had a tug-of-war.
4 It will not do to expatiate on the comforts and
discomforts of tent life at this early stage of the
journey. I believe that most of us slept well ;
nor did I hear of more than one bed coming down
with a crash. But no doubt I shall have some
pleasant little adventures of this kind to talk about
hereafter, but we will not anticipate evil, nor meet
troubles half-way. One more day being required
to set things in order and to call over the loads,
we remained where we were, and did our utmost
to get our baggage thoroughly shipshape, and on
3the morrow, June 30, 1882, we started for the
'interior, — seven white men and about five hundred
porters, headmen, and tent-boys, all told.
4 It may assist your geography if I give you a
brief description of the whole route from the coast
to the lake.
1 It has been well divided by the great African
traveller Burton into five different regions. The.
THE PEOPLE OF THE MOON 51
first of these is the coast belt which lies between
the Indian Ocean and that vast chain of mountains
which runs from Abyssinia to Lake Nyassa, and
numbers among its peaks Kenia and Kilimanjaro.
This district abounds in rivers, and has the general
appearance of English park scenery. The second
region is that occupied by the mountain chain we
have just named, and is truly beautiful, being in
places not unlike the best parts of North Devon.
Here we have two flourishing mission stations,
namely, Mamboia and Mpwapwa.
1 Leaving this truly delightful district the third
region is entered, which comprises the thickly-
populated plains of savage Ugogo, and two or
three almost uninhabited and waterless tracts.
Fourthly, you come to the country of the Wany-
amwezi, or People of the Moon, the great traders,
and consequently travellers, of Equatorial Africa ;
here we have one station, Uyui. Then, lastly, the
great lake basin is reached, which nurses in its
bosom the mighty Victoria Nyanza. Each of these
regions is well defined, the people and the physical
features being very different ; but more of this
as we proceed.
1 Our first experience, I think, might well have
disappointed those in search of wild adventure,
or what you in England picture to yourselves as
tropical scenery. It is true that from the moment
we left the coast candle-shaped euphorbias, umbrella-
like acacias, and long-spined mimosas were at once
52 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
met with ; * but no very wonderful butterflies or
birds or flowers dazed the eye with their brightness,
much less did savage beasts break from the thicket,
or disturb our slumbers by their nocturnal roarings.
^ * If you want to learn a little about the hardships
of the missionary's life, you must think of him as
compelled to march day after day under the rays
of a tropical sun. Night-marching, which many
suggest, is quite out of the question. The roads
are too narrow and rough ; the men, with their
bare feet, tread on the thorns and stones, and get
maimed ; nor can one see them if they linger
behind, or even desert us altogether. Once or
twice we were compelled to march through the
night in order to reach water, and we found it
more trying and dangerous than even tramping
at midday. On one of these occasions, after
arriving at camp, and calling over our men, we
found that one was missing. A search-party was
sent back, and presently they spied a pool of blood
in the footpath, which told the dismal tale that
he had straggled from us, and been set upon by
robbers, who had speared him to death, dragged
his body into the jungle, and had stolen the valuable
load that he was carrying.
' Another great cause of suffering was the frequent
absence of water, or, when not absent altogether,
it was often so thick and black that it is scarce
an exaggeration to say that one looked at it and
wondered whether it came under the category of
TADPOLES IN THE TEA-KETTLE 53
meat or drink. At times it was lively, so much
so, that if you did not watch the movements of
your " boy " with fatherly anxiety, you always
stood a chance of an odd tadpole or two finding
their way into the tea-kettle ; occasionally it
showed a bright green tinge. I had previously
seen green tea, and had been taught studiously
to avoid it ; but green coffee was a new and at
times unavoidable delicacy only known among the
luxuries of African travel. But I cannot say that
I minded very much about finding the pools lively
with toads, or even crocodiles, and I soon grew
tired of grumbling because dogs and men would
bathe in our drinking-water ; but I did not like
to find dead toads and other animal and vegetable
putrefaction. Afterwards, when weak and ill, I
used to avoid drinking any liquid ; I have been
three and even four days at a stretch without
drinking anything at all. But while we are talking
about water I must tell you about my river
experience.
' On the 8th of July 1882 we reached our first
stream. Loud had been the warnings that we
should not wade through or bathe while on the
march, lest we should catch fever, for it was here
that' one man nearly died because of his imprudence.
I was exceedingly hot when I arrived at its banks,
and needed no advice. Well, just at that moment
there were no headmen up, and I was going to
wait patiently, when my boys volunteered to carry
54 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
me across, ^a feat they could very well have accom-
plished. But the ambitious Johar must needs
have all the honour and glory to himself ; he
seized me and bore me off in triumph. I felt an
ominous totter, and yelled to him to return. But
I shouted in vain ; he refused to heed. More
tottering, more entreaty to go back ; but all to
no purpose ; on he pressed. Swaying to and fro
like a bulrush in a gale of wind, I clenched my
teeth and held my breath. They shout from the
bank for Johar to retrace his steps, but it has not
the slightest effect ; he feels his only chance is to
dash right on. Midstream is now gained, and my
hopes revive ; I think, perhaps — but the water
deepens, the rocks become more slippery, a huge
struggle, and down we go flat, Johar collapsing
like an india-rubber ball punctured by a pin. Far
better to have walked through with all my clothes
on, for I should then only have got wet to the
knees ; but now no part of me could claim to be
dry. Luckily, however, I did not get an attack
of fever, as I expected.
' Not long after this adventure we came to a
broad and deep arm of the Wami. Here the
vegetation underwent a complete transformation,
assuming an entirely different aspect, and we
beheld for the first time what is usually understood
by the term " tropical forest scenery." Gigantic
trees, towering aloft, and supporting endless
creepers and parasitic plants, presented to the eye
PICTURESQUE BUT INCONVENIENT 55
every shade and variety of foliage. There a mass
of jasmine filled the air with its perfume ; there
a euphorbia, like the candelabra of the Jewish
temple, stood stiffly erect ; and from the boughs
of those trees which overhung the stream the great
belted kingfisher watched for his finny prey.
' The natives possessed a small dug-out canoe,
which tempted me to go for a paddle midst the
fairy-like scene ; but the evil spirits of the vasty
deep below, in the shape of crocodiles, soon forced
me to beat a hasty retreat, and make for the less
enchanted ground of the camp. It was probably
this same stream that we crossed, after about
three days' march, by a curious native bridge of
poles, and trees, and living creepers pitched and
tangled together in a most marvellous manner.
Living poles one has often seen used. I remember
four trees being topped, and the roof of a shed
put on them, and the shed gradually getting taller
and taller ; but this was the first time I had seen
living ropes binding a bridge together, and stretch-
ing across to form a handrail for the wayfarer.
It was intensely picturesque, but equally incon-
venient, and took the men with their loads about
two hours to cross. There was not that general
activity amongst them that I expected ; some
almost wanted to be carried over as well as their
loads, though others bounded across like monkeys.
While at the riverside I heard a sharp but familiar
note, and looking up I beheld our gay old friend
5
56 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
the English kingfisher, in his bright blue uniform,
by far the most handsome bird I had yet seen in
Africa. Only one load was dropped over the
cobweb-like parapet of the bridge, but that of
course was a box of cartridges, being one of the
most spoilable things they could find ; it, however,
was better than a man being snapped up by a
crocodile.
Within a mile of this we had to cross the stream
again. Here the river had considerably widened,
and was spanned by a gigantic fallen tree, of
enormous girth and length ; it must have been
about 150 feet long. On arriving at the village
we found that a false report that we were exceed-
ingly hostile had reached the natives. Accordingly
they had fled pell-mell, leaving behind them nothing
but empty huts. In cases of this kind it is ex-
tremely difficult to restrain the men from plundering
the sugar plantations and banana trees, for they
must have something to eat. Then, if they steal,
the natives naturally say the report was right,
and the white men are robbers.
' This district was very swampy, and here, I
think, we began to get incipient fever. It was
a memorable sight to see the swamps at night
literally blazing with fireflies darting about like
millions of miniature meteors ; here, too, we met
with another accompaniment of marshes, which
did not amuse us in the least — namely, mosquitoes,
in equal myriads.
A MALICIOUS DONKEY 57
1 As we journeyed on more rivers had to be crossed.
At one I had an amusing adventure with our
hospital donkey, which we kept for the transport
of invalids. It happened to be at hand at the
time I wanted to cross, so, having had an experience
of a two-legged donkey, I thought I would try the
four-legged one. The wretch had on neither
saddle nor bridle at the time, but was very quiet
and docile until we were well into the stream,
when suddenly he became tired of his burden,
and began to play the natural pranks characteristic
of that worthy race ; his hinder part became
slightly elevated, his head bobbed, and he threatened
to lie down and roll. The headmen, however, saw
my predicament, and rushed at me, caught me
up as if I were a wisp of straw, and bore me in a
horizontal position over the donkey's head to the
farther side.
' At the next stream I selected two men, and
was assured it was exceedingly narrow, and so it
was ; but there was no exit on the other side, an
impenetrable fringe of reeds and jungle hedging
us in ; so we turned up stream. I had to urge
and urge and urge them not to drop me until we
gained a small sandbank a little ahead, where I
stripped and waded the best part of a mile before
we found a break in the dense tangle.
' July 21st we reached our first mission station,
Mamboia, about 150 miles from the coast. Here
our good missionary and his wife, Mr. and Mrs.
58 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
Last, met and welcomed us, and instantly carried
me off to their comfortable quarters.
' The house, or perhaps the word bungalow
describes it better, is prettily situated on the
mountain side, about 3000 feet above sea-level,
and commands most extensive and beautiful views.
Immediately on the left side rises a precipitous
cliff, in which a grand old eagle has its eyrie ;
to the east the mountains form an amphitheatre,
and bold jutting crags add wildness to the scene ;
all that it lacks to make it surpassingly beautiful
is water.
f The soil is most productive, and the climate
sub-Alpine, so that our English vegetables grow
to great perfection. The flower garden in front of
the house was one mass of geraniums, nasturtiums,
petunias, and other denizens of our home gardens.
We had not had enough of the wild flowers of
Africa to care much for these. Next the house
was the church, a very original structure. Circular
mud walls had been built to the height of about
six feet, which were covered by a deep sloping
roof open in the centre, from which rose wooden
stanchions, which in their turn supported a cap
roof ; thus open space was left between the two
roofs for ventilation. The luxury of pews was not
needed, the natives preferring to sit on the ground,
and two chairs served for the ordinary European
portion of the congregation.
*The Sundav we were there of course was an
A MISSION SERVICE 59
exception. On this occasion the church was quite
full. Parts of our prayers were read in the Kis-
wahili tongue, as well as the Lessons for the day.
Two or three hymns were sung ; and by giving
them out a verse at a time the natives were able
to join. Then followed the sermon, which always
takes the form of catechising, or is even more
conversational still. Although, in these early days,
no definite results in the way of conversions are
known of, yet it is most encouraging to see the
natives listening attentively and sending their
children to be educated.
' On 25th July we were fain to proceed, our friends
accompanying us as far as they could ; but at
length a river decided the question, and with
many heart-achings we said farewell. With one,
Mrs. Last, we were to meet no more on this side
of the narrow stream of death. The march was
a long one. We crossed a lovely looking rivulet,
clear as crystal ; but its waters had a strong taste
of Epsom salts, and the effect produced by drinking
them was much the same. There are many saline
springs and streams to be met with in Africa.
Woe betide those who are unwary enough to
partake of them ! When the wave of civilisation
spreads over the land these places will be the Baths
and Buxtons of East African society.
* This part of the country abounds with game.
On one occasion a herd of antelopes crossed the
path as tamely as if they had been sheep, and
60 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
tracks of gkaffe and larger game were frequently
seen. Guinea-fowl were so plentiful that one of
the white men at Mpwapwa told us that he did
not trouble to fire at them unless he could ensure
killing two or three at a shot.
1 1 had two narrow escapes in one of my walks
with a gun in search of game. I came to a belt
of jungle so dense that the only way to get through
it was to creep on all-fours along the tracks made
by hyaenas and smaller game ; and as I was crawling
along I saw close in front of me a deadly puff-
adder ; in another second I should have been on it.
' The same day, on my return, I espied in one
of these same tracks a peculiar arrangement of
grass, which I at once recognised to be over a
pitfall ; but though I had seen it I had already
gone too far, and fell with a tremendous crash,
my double-barrel gun full-cocked in my hand.
I had the presence of mind to let myself go and
look out only for my gun, which fortunately did not
explode. On arriving at the bottom I called out
to my terrified boy, Mikuke f Hapana, "There are
no spears/' a most merciful providence ; for they
often stake these pitfalls in order to ensure the
death of the animals that fall into them. The
pitfall could not have been less than ten feet deep,
for when I proceeded to extricate myself I found
that I could not reach the top with my uplifted
hands.
' Undaunted by my adventures, and urged on by
ATTACKED BY ROBBERS 61
the monotony of nothing but tough goat on the
sideboard, I started before the break of next
morning in pursuit of game, and was soon to be
seen crawling on hands and knees after antelope,
I am afraid unmindful of puff-adders and pitfalls.
1 By and by the path followed the bed of a narrow
stream, which was completely ploughed with the
tracks of buffalo and giraffe, as fresh as fresh could
be. Our impression was, and probably it was right,
that the former were lurking in the dense thicket
close by. The breathless excitement that such a
position keeps you in does much to help along the
weary miles of the march, and to ward off attacks
of fever. All experienced hands out here recommend
that men should, while not losing sight of their one
grand object, keep themselves amused.
* Your cousin Gordon and I, with our boys, had
led the van all the morning. He, having lately had
fever, complained of being tired, and begged me
to continue in pursuit of game alone, merely taking
my one faithful boy with me to carry my gun ;
but I refused to leave him, for never had I com-
plained of an ache or pain but what he was at my
side to help and comfort me. We sat down and
rested, and the other brethren, with a party of a
dozen or fourteen, marched on ahead. They had
not gone many hundred yards before I heard the
whiz of a bullet. " They have found game," said
I. Bang went a second shot. " It's a herd." Then
another. " Yes, it must be a herd." Then a fourth,
62 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
and it dawrfed upon me that they were attacked
by robbers — the far-famed Ruga- Ruga.
' " Stay where you are," I cried, and dashed off,
closely followed by my boys. The bangs had now
reached seven, and we had not the slightest doubt
that it was an attack of robbers, and so it proved
to be. My anxiety was relieved by seeing our men
intact, standing together at bay with a foe that
was nowhere to be beheld. I soon learnt that as
they were quietly proceeding a party of the savage
Wahumba tribe had swooped down upon them ;
but seeing white men with rifles had fled with the
utmost precipitation, without even discharging a
poisoned arrow. To make their flight more rapid
the white men had fired their rifles in the air ;
and one in grabbing his gun from his boy had
managed to discharge it in such a manner as to
blow off the sight of his neighbour's rifle. Finding
that danger was at an end for the time being, I
begged them to remain as they were ready to
receive an attack, while I returned with my boys
to Gordon, and got the stragglers together, after
which we all proceeded in a body. I have always
thought that it was I who had the greatest escape
of all ; for had I gone on, as Gordon proposed,
with only one, or at the outside two boys, I should
most probably have been attacked.
' On July 28th a double march brought me to the
second Church Missionary Station, Mpwapwa. The
house is a fine one for Central Africa, and the
EVERY VARIETY OF SCENERY 63
prospect in the rainy season must be more beautiful
than it was then in the hot dry season. It looks
out over a vast plain, the home of many noble
herds of antelope and buffalo. Food proved to be
rather a scarce article here, as many caravans had
preceded us, and they had also had a very trying
dry season. Smallpox was raging in the neighbour-
hood, and not far from us was a native encampment
terribly infected, so that we felt it was not wise to
delay.
' Six miles from here is an outlying station,
Kisokwe, a delightful spot among the mountains
and highlands of the Usagara district, which form
part of the long mountain chain I mentioned some
time ago. Here almost every variety of scenery
is met with. There are fine mountain peaks
terminating in bare and precipitous crags, and
others crowned with luxuriant verdure, while in
many places torrents dash down the valleys in a
succession of waterfalls, forcibly reminding one of
North Devon.
1 Game, as I have already hinted, is abundant,
and leopards are very plentiful. Hunting excur-
sions, however, are not unattended by danger, for
small bands of savage Wahumba robbers traverse
the country. Fig trees, which are plentiful through-
out East Africa, attain vast proportions in this
district. At the end of the garden stands a
monarch, spreading his densely foliaged limbs over
a space wide enough to shelter a standing army.
64 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
Unfortunately the fruit is not edible. When ripe
these figs look inviting and smell nice, but consist
of nothing but seeds and rind without fleshy pulp,
so that there is nothing for a human being to eat,
although hornbills and other birds relish them
exceedingly.
1 We left this beautiful region by a mountain pass
which proved to be very rugged and steep, and
very trying for the men. Descending on the other
side we entered the third of our divisions, which
comprises desert tracks and the plains of Ugogo.
It is very different from the one we have just left
behind, consisting of broad sandy plains, bounded
by low ridges of hills. Wherever there is water it
is densely populated, so much so that the plain
frequently looks like a broad causeway. Rivers
are superseded by ponds and nullahs, which can
scarcely be graced with the name of lakes. And
it is here that curious isolated granite rocks thrust
their weird-looking heads through the alluvial soil.
' Our first experience in this region was not a
pleasant one. We had sent our men on before
while we dallied with our friends at Mpwapwa.
When we reached the summit of the pass we could
see various villages with their fires in the plains
below, but nowhere was the camp to be discerned.
It was a weary time before we could alight on it,
and when we did, what a scene presented itself to
our gaze ! The wind was so high that the camp
fires were extinguished, and the men had betaken
MEALS OF SAND 65
themselves to a deep trench cut through the sandy
plain by a mountain torrent, but now perfectly
dry ; hence our difficulty in making out where
the camp was. Two of the tents were in a prostrate
condition, while the others were fast getting adrift.
Volumes of dust were swamping beds, blankets,
boxes, buckets, and in fact everything ; and a
more miserable scene could scarcely be beheld
by a party of benighted pilgrims. It was no use
staring at it. I seized a hammer and tent-pegs,
forgot I was tired, and before very long had things
fairly to rights ; but I slept that night in a dust-
heap.
' Nor did the morning mend matters, and to
encourage us the Mpwapwa brethren prophesied
this state of things all through Ugogo. It is bad
enough in a hot climate to have dust in your hair
and down your neck, and filling your boxes ; but
when it comes to food, and every mouthful you
take grates your teeth, I leave you to imagine the
pleasures of tent-life in a sandy plain.
* A day or two after this we arrived at a camp
where the water was excessively bad. We had
to draw it for everybody from one deep hole, and
probably rats, mice, lizards, and other small animals
had fallen in and been drowned, and allowed to
remain and putrefy. The water smelt most dread-
fully, no filtering or boiling seemed to have any
effect upon it, and soup, coffee, and all food were
flavoured by it.
66 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
' That afternoon I went for a stroll with my boy
and two guns to endeavour to supply the table
with a little better meat than tough goat. I soon
struck on the dry bed of a masika (wet season)
torrent. Following this up a little way I saw a
fine troop of monkeys, and wanting the skin of one
of them for my collection I sent a bullet flying
amongst them, without, however, producing any
effect beyond a tremendous scamper. My boy
then said to me, " If you want to kill monkey,
master, you should try buck-shot " ; so returning
him my rifle I took my fowling-piece.
* Perhaps it was fortunate I did so, for about a
hundred yards farther on the river bed took a sharp
turn, and coming round the corner I lighted on
three fine tawny lions. They were quite close to me,
and had I had my rifle my first impulse might
have been too strong for me to resist speeding the
parting guest with a bullet. As it was, I came to
a sudden halt, and they ran away. In vain my
boy begged me to retreat. I seized the rifle and
ran after them as fast as my legs would carry me ;
but they were soon hidden in the dense jungle
that lined the river banks ; and although I could
hear one growling and breathing hard about ten
yards from me, I could not get a shot.
1 I now had severe attacks of fever every day,
and at length we were compelled to come to a
standstill, for I was far too ill to be moved. My
life hung in the balance for three days. I was
NOTED THIEVES 67
so weak that the mere fact of a headman in kind-
ness coming in and speaking a few words to me,
brought on a fainting fit, and on another occasion
I nearly succumbed from moving across the tent
from one bed to another.
1 After a few days the fever left me, and I was
able to sit up for five and ten minutes at a time,
and the next day was lifted into a hammock and_
carried onwards.
' The curiosity of the natives in these parts was
unbounded. They swarmed round our tents from
morning till night, asking to see everything we
possessed, and as they are noted thieves we had
to keep an uncommonly sharp look-out. The
men are exceedingly undressed, wearing only short
goat-skins from the shoulder to the hip-bone.
They besmear themselves with red ochre, and paint
hideous devices on their faces, so that they lool^ j
like red men rather than black. The hair is worn
long, is often interwoven, with bark fibre, and is
plaited in various fashions, some of which are by
no means unbecoming. The Ugogo type of coun-'
tenance is for the most part very low in the scale,
the features being broad and flat, with but little*
forehead. The few handsome exceptions one sees
are, I am told, supposed to be Wamasai.
1 The women are scrupulously clad, and the many
copper and steel chains which they wear are par-
ticularly becoming. 'j
' The great feature of the Wagogo is their ears.
%>
6% AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
The lower *lobes in men, women, and children are
pierced. First starting, they begin by inserting a
straw or two, or a ring of copper wire ; these are
gradually increased in number, until at last the
ear is sufficiently stretched to allow of the
insertion of bits of stick, gourds, snuff-boxes, old
V^V cartridge cases, and other such articles. From
a boy of twelve years old I got a block of wood
that he had in his ear, considerably larger than the
cork of a gooseberry bottle. Sometimes the lobe
is so distended that it hangs down to the shoulder
and refuses to hold anything inserted in it ; in
such a case it is used as a suspendory for fine chains,
or coils of iron wire. Sometimes you would see the
lobes quite broken down, so that to their immense
regret they could wear nothing. I have often
been asked to mend their ears ; but although I
could easily have done it by nipping off the ends
and binding them together, yet I always refused
so to encourage their vanity.
1 1 am supposed to be perverse, and so it was,
I imagine, that I took a great fancy to these ill-
famed Wagogo. It struck me that there was
something very manly about them ; the boys were
daubed with war-paint, and were armed with
bright spears and skin shields, some of which I
could not help coveting a little ; but they asked
such enormous prices, when anything was said
about buying and selling, that I had to forgo
purchasing.
THE WHITE MAN'S FEET 69
' In some of the places I passed through they
had never seen a white man before. They would
gather round me in dozens, and gaze upon me
with the utmost astonishment. One would suggest
that I was not beautiful — in plainer language
that I was amazingly ugly. Fancy a set of hideous
savages regarding a white man, regarding your
uncle, as a strange outlandish creature frightful
to behold. You little boys that run after a black
man in the park and laugh at him, think what
you may come to when you grow old. The tables
may be turned on you if you take to travelling,
just as they were with me. v
' As with other travellers, my boots hardly ever
failed to attract attention.
1 " Are those your feet, white man ? "
* " No, gentlemen, they are not. They are my
sandals."
1 " But do they grow to your feet ? "
1 " No, gentlemen, they do not. I will show you."
' So forthwith I would proceed to unlace a boot.
A roar of astonishment followed when they beheld
my blue sock, as they generally surmised that my
feet were blue and toeless. Greater astonishment
still followed the withdrawal of the sock, and the\\
revelation of a white five-toed foot. I frequently
found that they considered that only the visible
parts of me were white, namely, my face and
hands, and that the rest of me was as black as
they were. An almost endless source of amuse-
70 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
ment was the immense amount of clothing, according
to their calculation, that I possessed. That I
should have waistcoat and shirt and jersey under-
neath a coat, seemed almost incredible, and the
more so when I told them that it was chiefly on
account of the sun that I wore So much.
' My watch, too, was an unfailing attraction :
" There's a man in it." " It is Lubari ; it is witch-
craft,' they would cry. " He talks ; he says, Teek,
teek, teek." My nose they would compare to a
spear ; it struck them as so sharp and thin com-
pared to the African production, and ofttimes one
bolder than the rest would give my hair and my
beard a sharp pull, imagining them to be wigs
worn for ornament. Many of them had a potent
horror of this white ghost, and a snap of the fingers
or the stamp of the foot was enough to send them
flying helter-skelter from my tent, which they
generally crowded round in ranks five deep. For
once in the way this was amusing enough ; but
when it came to be repeated every day and all
day, one had really a little too much of a good
thing.
1 By the 22nd of August we had passed through
Ugogo without having paid hongo (tax), a triumph
in African travel. And now began the desert tracts.
'What must strike every traveller on entering
these plains is the immense quantity of wild fowl.
Bustards, king crane, herons, storks, ibis, geese,
and ducks abound ; but in a land where every-
THE CURIOSITY OF AFRICANS IS BOUNDLESS. THIS
PICTURE SHOWS THEM CROWDING ROUND AND
PEEPING UNDER THE TENT IN WHICH THE
MISSIONARY RESTED.
The Illustrations on this page are from Sketches by
Bishop Hannington.
A SMALL EXCITEMENT 71
body's hand is against his neighbour's, everything
worth shooting is exceedingly wild.
' In the rainy season open breaks in the jungle
are exceeding beautiful, blossom almost concealing
foliage. In the dry season nothing could be much
more dismal than the desert plateau. In some
places it was so arid that no bird, beast, or butterfly
broke the monotony of a scene which consisted
of thin acacia trees at spaces of about thirty yards
distant from each other. I have walked for an
hour without rinding one sufficiently dense to
exclude the rays of the sun and afford a little
shelter. At other times miles of dense tangle
would be traversed, so thick that it seemed to
defy even the penetrating power of an elephant,
and yet the leafless boughs formed no protection
against the rays of the midday sun.
1 At times I would arouse my companions with a
shout of joy.
' " What is the matter ? Elephants ? "
1 " No."
' " Giraffe ? "
1 " No, or I should not have called out/'
1 " Water ? "
' " Not exactly."
1 " What then ? Come, out with it ! "
' " A tor tula ; a new tor tula."
1 " What is that ? — a tortoise or a snake ? "
' " No ; a moss. I haven't seen a vestige of
moss for a hundred miles."
6
72 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
' " Oh ! " with an emphasis that it would take a
long time to paraphrase.
'After six hard days' travelling Sunday came
round again, and most gladly would we have
accepted the Divinely given day of rest ; but it
could not be, for food was running short, and to
lose a day would be to starve the men. The effect
of their provisions being scant began to show itself
in their growing rather quarrelsome, for soon after
starting I had to rush in and, like Mrs. Brown,
stop a tremendous fight with my umbrella. Words
had not only waxed high, but guns were about to
be used. Your uncle seized one of their guns,
but it was some time before I could drag it out of
the man's hands ; nor did I feel safe in the skirmish,
for a full-cocked loaded gun with weak and worn-out
locks is not the safest thing to be wrestling over ;
but such is life out here — one cannot stop to think
what is safe or what is unsafe.
' By the 3rd of September we had reached Uyui,
our next mission station. This is a district in the
fourth region that I mentioned, namely, the country
of Unyamwezi, the Land of the Moon. After this
country the well-known range of the Mountains
of the Moon was probably called, and seems to
have found its way into our older maps from
reports obtained from India.
' This district consists of a high plateau, between
3000 and 4000 feet above sea-level, studded with
little outcropping ridges of granite, between which
COWARDLY AND FRACTIOUS 73
are fertile valleys densely populated. I estimated
that in one valley I passed through there were as
many as eighty villages, the smallest containing
from two to three hundred inhabitants.
It is on the crests of these ridges that the granite
assumes such fantastic forms. It is hard to believe
that they are natural, and are not the cromlechs
of a race of giants ; but situation and size lead
one to the conclusion that these phenomena in
stone are the result of deterioration.
' The Men of the Moon are the great traders of
the interior, and have probably been so from
remote ages. For the love of barter they leave |v
their country as porters, and go to the coast by \
hundreds annually, carrying with them iron spades,
horns, tobacco, hippopotamus teeth, ivory, slaves
— in fact, anything marketable.
4 They are far more industrious than the generality
of negroes. They cultivate cotton extensively,
and manufacture it in their own looms ; they
smelt the iron which abounds in their hills, and
work it with considerable skill and design. A
Wanyamwezi spade when new fetches a dollar,
or cloth to that amount, at the coast.
' As a race they are slimly built, generally intensely / &£
cowardly, fractious, and more difficult to manage v *
than the most spoilt of spoilt children.
'The well-known and mighty Mirambo is the
Emperor of the Wanyamwezi, having raised himself
to that position by his personal bravery. I look
AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
x"
back to my interview with him with the greatest
pleasure, and his answers to questions show an
immense amount of intelligence.
N ' " Mirambo, you are a great warrior, and have
conquered in many battles. Tell me which make
the best soldiers, young men or fathers ? "
' " If I want to march rapidly, if I want to make
sudden and desperate attacks, give me young men,
quite young men ; they are more active, they
are more daring. If I want to defend villages
and to stand sieges, give me fathers ; they will
fight for their wives and little ones and for their
goods to the very last."
' A short time before my arrival he had ordered
a levy of men to be made in the surrounding villages,
as he was wishing to build a new palace. Three
men in a distant village made an excuse ; they were
ill or absent. The next day or so Mirambo, without
any intimation of the fact, arrived in that village,
and found them busily engaged with their own
work, so he immediately ordered their heads to be
struck off. The London Missionary Society's mis-
sionary residing there said to him, " Mirambo, our
Queen is a great Sovereign. She never does things
of this sort," and then he proceeded to explain to
him the judge and jury system.
' " Yes," replied Mirambo, " that is very good for
your Queen ; she is surrounded by clever gentlemen ;
but it would not do for me. My people are so
foolish, I can only govern them in this way."
KING AS EXECUTIONER 75
• When Captain Hore passed through this country
on his way to Ujiji, Mirambo gave especial instruc-
tions that nobody should raise a finger against
his white friend. Now it happened the very night
before Captain Hore started from the capital
that his headman caught one of Mirambo's pages
stealing, and to punish him slightly he tied him
up for the night to a post. It also happened that
long before daybreak Mirambo was abroad, and
visited the white man's camp, where all were asleep,
and there he espied his own page in durance vile.
He hastily retired, and, when all were astir, he
sent down privately to inquire how this came about.
He heard and held his peace until Captain Hore
had marched away ; he then sent for his page,
who had been released, and had returned to the
palace.
• " Where were you last night ? "
1 M Thy servant went no whither," was the un-
blushing lie.
' " Then I will tell you where you went," so he
recounted all. " Now," he said, " I will teach you
to disobey my orders, and to molest my white
friends."
• So he took a bow and arrow and shot him through
the heart,- and then, as he did not die instantly,
he further took his bow and bowstrung him. It
was cruel and severe, but the circumstances of the
case must be remembered. Mirambo had given
especial orders, and one of his own servants was
76 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
the first to disobey it, and thus laid him open
to possible suspicion of connivance. Now it is a
noted fact that he never puts anybody to death
with his own hand, but always employs an execu-
tioner. In this case he made an especial exception
in order to show that he had nothing to do with the
theft, and meant to stand by the white man, and
to prevent his being molested.
* Mirambo's history is too long for me to enter
into at any length. He was first called Mtelya,
but in consequence of his many victories, he assumed
the name of Mirambo, which probably means
ft Killing many men." He is further surnamed
Nzige or Locust, because it is said that he eats
up all before him, and a short time ago he took
the name of Malomo-Malimu, or Five Lamps,
being the number of important places around
him, in all of which he says "he is able to discern
between friends and foes."
* Before Mirambo came to the throne he used to
get drunk on pombe, the native beer, just as those
around him ; when, however, he became king,
he at once also became a total abstainer, saying,
" I could not do all my business and govern my
people well, if I drank pombe."
I was once examined by one of Mirambo's
medicine men. This man was of vastly superior
morality to the majority of his fellows, who I believe,
as a rule, are villains of the deepest dye. He
was, moreover, very good-natured and confiding, nor
THE MEDICINE MAN 77
did he appear to be possessed with that spirit of
hatred which seems ever to have prevailed amongst
the priesthood of heathen systems. He did not
hesitate to show me and explain his charms and
their uses, and at last it ended in his examining
me. For this purpose he used a pair of lazy-tongs,
with a little figure at the end, over which he either
breathed a prayer or else whispered some instruc-
tions. When the doll had peered into my chest,
by an almost imperceptible turn of the wrist, it
came round and delivered its message to its master.
This was repeated twice more, and then the answer
was that I had got a cold, which, considering I had
been coughing and sneezing ever since I had been
in the hut, was easy to guess and hard to deny.
1 When we questioned him about his medicine,
and asked him if he thought putting a little bottle
in the earth and saying a few words over it could
make rain, he replied, " Certainly not ! Only God
could make rain, but how could we expect Him
to do so unless we prayed and made the offerings
we thought right ? " He prayed to God, but he
always went away into the forest to do so. We
asked if God was only in the forest ? No ; but
it was more retired and quiet.
' Now, lest any should think that this man's own
religion was sufficiently enlightened, and he had
no need of our teaching, hear the following tale.
His son was dying, so he sent a message to Mirambo
to say a certain man in his village had bewitched
7S AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
him. The answer back was, " You know the punish-
ment for witchcraft (death) ; apply it." The accused,
however, was a desperate character, and nobody
dared carry out the sentence, so word was sent to
Mirambo, who asked which of his warriors would
undertake the job. All shrank back ; but one
man, whom I knew well, expressed himself willing
to do it. The man was asked to meet him at supper ;
the invitation, however, was refused, so he went
to the man's house, and stood at his door until he
saw him, and was able to shoot at and wound him.
The men round then rushed in and speared him to
death.
I witnessed a rather peculiar Dawa (medicine)
ceremony amongst the Wanyamwezi. A man
solemnly seated himself while another poured some
black ointment into his left hand, and then drew
his knife and made small cuts, as if to tattoo, first
the middle of his forehead and each of his fore-
fingers, the top of his head, each arm, each side of
his back, his great toes, each side of the neck, the
hip, and back of the tongue. After all the incisions
had been made, each cut was lightly touched with
the medicine, and the man was ready to journey to
the coast, his life henceforth being a charmed one.
' Here is another tale about these same strange
people. One day, soon after encamping, I heard
a great shout, and started to my feet in time to
see a zebra bound through the camp, hotly pursued
by a hundred or more men. It was speared a
A SQUABBLE ABOUT A ZEBRA 79
few yards from the tents ; and then I perceived
that mischief was in the wind. A tremendous
quarrel ensued. I pushed my way, closely followed
by Blackburn, into the surging crowd, and found
myself in about as ugly a position as one could
imagine.
' On the ground was a beautiful zebra ; I was at
its tail, Blackburn at its head, and on either side
a dense crowd of fierce and angry men quarrelling
at the top of their voices ; a hundred spears were
pointing in all directions. Blackburn at last got
the public ear, and ordered the animal to be taken
to his tent, saying he would divide it there and
arbitrate between them. This gave general satis-
faction. The skin he gave to me ; but as it had
over forty spear-holes in it, we agreed each to take
a piece as a reminiscence.
' Then came the headmen, and said that the
body must be carried off and thrown into the jungle,
for the Wanyamwezi never eat zebra — it was against
their creed ; if they did eat it, it would very likely
break the camp up. Hearing this the hungry men
sprang on the prey, tore it to bits, and ran off with
it ; in the melee Blackburn getting rather dis-
agreeably splashed. I had asked for a portion to
taste, but this new phase put a stop to my expected
feast. Perhaps I need scarcely add the camp was
not broken up, nor in any way unhinged.
- By the middle of October I was able to walk
from one room to the other, and had had a trial
80 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
trip in my hammock from the mission station of
Uyui to the camp and back. I bore this journey
well, and although unable to sit up at the end of it,
I deemed that the time had come for me to make
a start for the lake. That very evening news was
brought us that fifty of our porters had deserted,
the result being that all was thrown into confusion.
However, it never does to be downhearted at mis-
fortunes, so we decided to start, and leave Rashid
to follow with the boat and a few odd loads. S
asked me to be down at the camp at 2 p.m., and
promised that I should have six porters told off
to carry me. I made this a stipulation, as I had
already experienced the trial of being dragged along
by tired, ill-tempered men.
' In spite of much weakness, I sat up the whole
morning and wrote to as many friends at home as
possible, for all at Uyui felt that the experiment I
was about to make was not unlikely to terminate
fatally. At 12 we lunched, and at 2 I entered
the hammock, and proceeded to the camp, where
all was noise and excitement, for now that these
men had departed the question had to be faced,
what loads should be taken and what left ? I
saw that a start was for the present impracticable,
and so was carried beneath the shelter of a great
rock, and there left until 4.30 p.m., at which time
a start was finally made. When the men came to
fetch me, I was too tired to think how many or
who they were, but before very long I discovered
IN BED FOR SIX WEEKS
,,
that I had only one relay, namely, four men in all,
and that these, while at Uyui, had been going
through a course of dissipation, and had neither
power nor inclination to carry me properly.
' I had not gone very far when a large green snake,
about eight feet long, came out of the grass and
drew himself up in a defiant way, plainly indicating
that if we attempted to pass it would be at our
peril. My men prepared to drop me and bolt, so
I jumped from my hammock and called for my
gun, but was not allowed to have it, as they thought
me far too weak and ill. Another then fired a
bullet from a very respectful distance without
any effect ; and, wonderful to relate, one of the
Wanguana was found brave enough to advance
upon the venomous reptile with a stick, whereupon
it retreated, fleeing into a hole.
1 After about an hour and a half my men began
to show signs of utter collapse, and jerked and
shook me most painfully. By and by a stumble,
and both went down. I had been looking out for
this, and so broke my fall ; but it is very dangerous
to be thus dropped, nothing being more likely to *
injure the spine. I gave them a long rest, but it
was of no avail ; finally, for safety's sake, I was
compelled to abandon the hammock and walk for
two hours. How I managed it I scarcely know.
I had been in bed for the best part of six weeks,
and persuaded myself that I could only crawl from
one room to another, and sit up for an hour at a
82 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
time ; now I had to walk six miles, or even more.
It only proves what one can do if an effort has to be
made.
' I arrived in camp at 8 p.m., where sad confusion
prevailed. S had remained to see about the
loads we had been compelled to leave behind ; the
consequence was, the men, being tired, took ad-
vantage of his absence, and threw down their
burdens everywhere. The grass was long, the night
pitch dark, and thing after thing refused to be
found. In my exhausted condition I had to do
without bedding, and, worse still, without food ;
for we had encamped in the jungle with neither
village nor water at hand, and daylight scarcely
mended matters, for there could be no breakfast.
I refused to start until I had more men to carry
me than on the previous day ; but although six
were scraped together, yet they were not regular
carriers, and I was worse off than before. The
scenes of the past afternoon were painfully repeated,
with the additional distress of want of food. At
1.30 p.m., five-and-twenty hours after lunch at
Uyui, we sat down to a meal of pea-soup without
stock, and flour-and- water dumpling without suet.
The next day I declined to stir an inch until I had
six good men allotted to me, for my life absolutely
depended upon it.
' On 1st November we encamped near the village
of a great chief, called Shimami, great in possessions,
stature, and power. He was considerably over six
A LUDICROUS SPECTACLE 83
feet and robust, although not over-corpulent. A
man of remarkably fine points. His first overture
was the present of a very fine goat, which was
followed by some milk, after which came two oxen.
Then, having prepared the way in a right royal
manner, he came himself to see and to be seen,
and to pick up any little treasure that might be
presented to him.
' I gave Shimami a few small presents, and among
them a pair of blue spectacles. He then departed
to the other tents, where he seemed inclined to
spend the rest of the day ; and so, as his room
was rather to be desired than his company, I arrived
on the scene, and suggested that he should take
me to see his village, and there I would present him
with an English hat, which he greatly coveted.
To this he readily assented, and we marched off in
correct order, namely, in single file, the chief leading,
the guest following, then the Kilangori and officers,
according to rank.
1 When we approached the village Shimami pro-
duced the blue spectacles, and said he must put
them on. It struck me that this was the right
moment to bring out the hat, for I had now accom-
plished my object, and drawn him away from the
camp. Accordingly I presented him with it. His
delight knew no bounds ; he put it on, and spectacles
and all, strutted off as proud as a peacock. His
chief minister discovered that the crown was
flattened a little, in the fashion we generally wear
84 AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY
our wide-awakes. So it was taken off, and erected
in a sharp peak ; then its rim was bent up au
brigand, and altered yet again and again. I was
immensely amused, but my mirth only caused
greater delight, for in Africa laughter is seldom
expressive of ridicule.
* Though this scene was otherwise ludicrous, the
magnificent presence of my newly made friend,
with his bright coloured clothes elegantly thrown
around him, was most effective. When we entered
the village every corner had to be explored, and
every subject had to be interrogated, in order that
they might gaze upon the new costume. I felt
quite sorry for the poor chief, because, in spite of
all his grandeur, the white man was the chief
object of attraction. The royal hut was very
ordinary in appearance. I was proudly seated on
the throne — a low stool with a wooden hood over
it, rudely cut from a single block, joinery being
unknown by the Wanyamwezi ; any ethnological
collection would be as proud to possess this rough
seat as was Shimami.
' After sitting a short time, I suddenly took my
leave before his majesty could even rise from the
ground, and I slipped round the corner and out
of the gate of the village opposite to that at which
I had entered. Can you believe it ? — when I
came round the camp side of the Tembe I saw the
same pompous procession, only altered in two
respects — its face was turned the other way, and
THE MIGHTY NYANZA 85
it lacked my figure, for that was at that moment
hiding behind a bush ! My object was hopelessly
defeated.
1 Every day for a week after this we had inter-
esting marches, and health improved sufficiently to
allow me really to enjoy life.
g In my next I shall take you all for a paddle on
the mighty Nyanza.
Chapter VI
AT THE GREAT LAKE: HANNINGTON'S
NARRATIVE CONTINUED
' T GAVE you a brief outline of the three months'
1 journey I took from the coast to the country
of the Wanyamwezi, and there I was obliged
to say farewell. You will remember that I told
you that we had to traverse five well-defined
regions, the physical features of which vary very
much the one from the other. Four of these I
have already described, so now I am going to tell
you a little about the fifth, namely, the Lake
District, which nurses in its bosom the mighty
Victoria Nyanza, that vast expanse of water
which I believe is next to, if not the largest,
lake in existence. However, up to the present
time we have had no very accurate survey of its
dimensions, so that we may have to alter our
opinions a little.
1 As to the district, it is, as might be imag-
ined, far more remarkable than any of the other
four.
' The plateau of the country of Unyamwezi
gradually slopes away to the basin of the Victoria
SKULLS AS DECORATIONS 87
Nyanza, and gradually, too, becomes more and
more fertile until you find yourself in a land
literally flowing with milk and honey, and teeming
with all manner of life.
* With regard to the people, it is difficult to give
any detailed account of the inhabitants of its
shores, because they are divided into so many
tribes. Clothing at the south end of the Nyanza
is very lightly esteemed by men and unmarried
girls. The national costume consists almost entirely
of skins, many of which are badly tanned, and
intensely greasy, and smell most horribly. We
were compelled at times to be ungallant enough
to have the ladies driven from the vicinity of
our tents, for their robes being more ample in
dimension than the men's, were consequently more
effluvious.
' The villages are frequently situated on the brow
of a hill, and the beehive-shaped huts ofttimes
nestle amongst picturesque groups of rocks and
shady trees, and are surrounded by euphorbia
hedges and stout fences. It is customary to orna- I
ment these fences with the skulls of enemies slain
in war, though sometimes a more lofty spot is
chosen, in the shape of a neighbouring tree. Such
trophies announce to the visitor who happens to
be passing by that a warlike chief lives within ;
and if he does not look out his head may be seen
ornamenting a spare bough.
' After the deplorable massacre of Lieutenant
7
AT THE GREAT LAKE
Shergold Smith, R.N., and Mr. O'Neill, on the
Island of Ukerewe, their heads were found by my
fellow-traveller, S , thus put over the gate of
the town, and were bought by him, and buried
in the grave of Dr. John Smith, at Kageye.
1 One day, in passing through a country where they
were at war with some neighbours, I almost stepped
upon two dead bodies, one of which was headless,
and was doubtless that of a chief, whose head had
been taken to ornament the gate of the village.
' When shortly after I arrived there I found the
greatest excitement prevailing ; the drums were
being beaten furiously, and an aged warrior was
addressing a ferocious-looking band of younger
men, and, to make himself look the more savage,
he had taken a piece of brain, which I strongly
suspect had been extracted from the head of the
murdered man, and had tied it on to his hair,
and there it was hanging down over his eyes while
he spoke. A more disgusting picture of degraded
savagery I never beheld, and I think, somewhat
fortunately for me, I could not fully understand
v^ the address that he was delivering to the murderous-
looking gang around him.
' This region we entered when we arrived on the 8th
of November 1882 at Kwa Sonda, the last village
under Mirambo's jurisdiction, and the long-promised
spot where we were to behold the waters of the
mighty Nyanza. The first impression was one of
utter disappointment ; we expected to see a grand
A WORRYING TIME 89
expanse of water and luxuriant foliage, instead of
which there was a sandy plain, and in the middle
of it, for these parts, a singularly unpicturesque
village. Nor could we gather from the natives
our exact position and whereabouts. Some cried
one thing and some another. The greater part
seemed never to have travelled northwards, on
account of hostile tribes, and, therefore, to know
nothing about the countries beyond them more
than that Romwa, Sultan of Uzinza, lived to the
north, and had canoes ; that the Sultan of Urima
reigned over the country to the north-west, and
further, that their peoples were very savage, and
often at war with their neighbours. It was very
puzzling to know how to proceed, the more so as
our long journey from the coast had considerably
reduced our stores. We really had not the means
to explore right and left, as we should gladly have
done. We therefore determined to remain where
we were until joined by a small caravan that was
following us.
' In the meantime I must relate one or two of
my expeditions with a gun, for although I never
went out on what you might call a hunting ex-
cursion, yet I frequently spent an hour or two
searching for food, and some of my adventures
were slightly stirring.
• For instance, one day I had had a very worrying
time with the natives — and they can be worrying
if they try. At length I said to a boy, " I shall
90 AT THE GREAT LAKE
get out of this. I will go for a walk ; give me my
butterfly-net, and you carry the gun for safety's
sake." As usual, near the lake, I had not gone far
before I sighted, game. A fine bluebok was grazing
a short distance from us, but I said, " No ; I do
not feel up to the exertion of stalking it," so
turned away.
V ' Presently, while hunting for insects in short
mimosa tangle up to the knee, I disturbed a
strange-looking animal, about the size of a sheep,
brownish colour, long tail, short legs, feline in
aspect and movement, but quite strange to me.
I took my gun and shot it dead — yes, quite dead.
Away tore my boy as fast as his legs would carry
him, terrified beyond measure at what I had done !
What, indeed ? you may well ask. I had killed
the cub of a lioness ! Terror was written on every
line and feature of the lad, and dank beads of
perspiration stood on his face. I saw it as he
passed me in his flight, and his fear for the moment
communicated itself to me. I turned to flee, and
had gone a few paces, when I heard a savage growl,
and a tremendous lioness — I say advisedly a
tremendous one — bounded straight for me.
' In spite of the loaded gun in my hand, it seemed
to me that I was lost. The boy knew more about
lions than I did, and his fear knew no bounds.
I began to realise that I was in a dangerous situa-
tion, for a lioness robbed of her whelp is not the
most gentle creature to deal with. I retreated
A DANGEROUS ENCOUNTER 91
h
hastily. No ; I will out with it, children, in plain
language — I ran five or six steps ; every step she
gained on me, and the growls grew fiercer and
louder. Do I say she gained ? they gained, for the
lion was close behind her, and both were making
straight for me. They will pause at the dead cub ?
No ; they take no notice of it ; they come at me. \1
What is to be done ?
' It now struck me that retreat was altogether
wrong. Like a cat with a mouse, it induced them
to follow. Escape in this manner was impossible.
I halted, and just at that moment came a parting
yell from my boy, " Hakuna ! Kimbia ! "
' I thought he had seen and heard the lion and * j
lioness, and that, speaking as he does bad Kis-
wahili, he had said, ' Hakuna Kimbia ! ' which
might be roughly, though wrongly, translated,
" Don't run away ! " instead of which he meant to
say — in fact, did say — " No ! Run away ! "
1 1 have no hesitation in saying that a stop wrongly
read but rightly made saved my life. I had in
the second or two that had elapsed determined to
face it out ; and now, strengthened as I thought
by his advice, I made a full stop and turned sharply
on them. This new policy on my part caused them
to check instantly. They now stood lashing their
tails and growling, and displaying unfeigned wrath,
but a few paces from me.
• I then had time to inspect them. They were
a right royal pair of the pale sandy variety, a
AT THE GREAT LAKE
v
species which is noted for its fierceness, the know-
ledge of which by no means made my situation
more pleasant. There we stood ; both parties
evidently feeling that there was no direct solution
to the matter in hand. I cannot tell you exactly
what passed through their minds, but they evidently
thought that it was unsafe to advance upon this
strange and new being, the like of which they had
never seen before. I cannot tell you either how
long a time we stood face to face. Minutes seemed
hours, and perhaps the minutes were only seconds ;
but this I know, my boy was out of hearing when
> the drama was concluded.
1 And this is how it ended : — After an interval
I decided not to fire at them, but to try instead
what a little noise would do. So I suddenly threw
up my arms in the air, set up a yell, and danced
and shouted like a madman. Do you know, the
lions were so astonished to see your sober old uncle
acting in such a strange way that they both bounded
into the bushes as if they had been shot, and I saw
them no more !
' As the coast was now clear, I thought I might
as well secure my prize, a real little beauty. So I
seized it by its hind legs and dragged it as quickly
as I could along the ground, the bushes quite
keeping it out of sight. When I had gone what I
had deemed a sufficient distance I took it up and
swung it over my back, and beat a hasty retreat,
keeping a sharp eye open in case the parents should
A TREMENDOUS SENSATION 93
lay claim to the body, for I should not have been
dishonest enough not to let them have it had they
really come to ask for it !
1 1 soon found the cub was heavier than I bargained
for, being about the size of a South Down sheep,
so I shouted for my boy. It was a long time,
however, before I could make him hear. I began
to be afraid I must abandon my spoil. At length
I saw him in the far distance. Fortunately for me
he did not know his way back to the camp, otherwise
his intention was to return to the camp, and ask
the men to come and look for my remains. The
arrival of the cub caused a tremendous sensation
amongst the natives ; dozens of men came to see
it, nor would they believe until they had seen the
skin that I had dared to kill a " child of the lioness/'
it being more dangerous than killing a lion itself.
I do not think that I was wise in shooting ; but
the fact was it was done, and I was in the scrape
before I knew where I was, and having got into
trouble, of course the question then was how best
to get out of it.
* A few days after my adventure with the lions I
again took my butterfly-net and boy, and consented
gladly to the suggestion of Wise to accompany me
for a walk. We had not gone far when we came to
a beautiful flowering shrub, covered with insects,
and here I should have probably remained for the
rest of the morning, had I not been disturbed by an
excited summons from the others to come in pursuit
94 AT THE GREAT LAKE
of a rhinoceros that they had just sighted. " Well,"
I replied, " rhino or no rhino, I have just sighted a
new species of butterfly, and I cannot leave this
spot until I have secured it."
1 Could anybody be so ignorant of my character
as to think that I would give up the opportunity
of capturing a new butterfly for a chance shot at
a rhinoceros ? Preposterous ! Well, there I re-
mained until I had caught, killed, and boxed my
fly ; and then, with no slight feeling of exhilaration,
I seized my gun and proceeded in the direction
pointed out to me by my companions.
' Wise had never been face to face with big game
before, and was in a great state of excitement,
trembling with hope and fear combined. We
marched on in single file under cover of a tree, and
although Wise thoroughly knows how to use his
gun, he was in such a state of high pressure, that I
momentarily expected the contents of his barrels
to take up their residence in the neighbourhood of
my calves.
' I took a hasty glance round the bush, and there,
sure enough, I saw a magnificent rhino lazily eating
some rich herbage, and taking no notice of our
approach. Back I darted under cover, and whis-
pered my instructions to my eager companions.
There was another bush about twenty yards ahead ;
they were to crawl close behind me under cover of
this, and then I was suddenly to emerge to the
right hand and they to the left, and all deliberately
SOLD ! 95
take aim and fire ; and if this produced a
savage charge, there was the bush to serve as
cover.
' It was an anxious moment. How would my
companions conduct themselves ? Would they
dodge, if necessary ? Would they stand firm, if
firm it must be ? " Now then ; are you ready ? M —
" Yes ; quite." " Now for it "
1 We emerged with bated breath ; and lo ! the
rhinoceros had disappeared, and there before us
stood, or rather lay, a fallen tree !
1 Towards the end of the year the caravan, for
which I mentioned we had to wait, put in an
appearance in an utterly dilapidated condition ;
the barter goods, which we had been relying on,
having been all expended. I therefore determined
to remain here no longer, but to send messengers
to Romwa, to find out whether he was willing to
receive us. The report that these men brought
back was encouraging.
1 Christmas Day found us as follows : Gordon
very ill in bed ; Ashe and Wise tottering out of
fever ; and your uncle just about to totter in. We
had an early Communion, and thought much of our
loved ones at home thinking and praying for us and
wishing us true Christmas joy. In spite of our poor
plight we felt that we must celebrate the day. So
we gave our men a holiday, telling them it was a
great day amongst Christians, and that we should
further give them a goat. I had a kid killed for
g6 AT THE GREAT LAKE
our Christmas cheer, and Ashe undertook the
pudding, That pudding had its drawbacks ; for
when we went to the flour-box the flour was full of
beetles and their larvae, and we could not get them
all out ; the raisins were fermented ; the suet
could easily have been compressed into an egg-cup.
Then the pudding was underboiled, and yet boiled
enough to stick to the bottom of the saucepan,
whereby not only was a big hole burnt clean out of
the cloth in which it was neatly tied (we were saved
the trouble of untying the string), but also its lower
vitals had suffered considerably — in fact, were burnt
black — and yet a musty, fermented, underdone,
burnt plum-pudding was such a treat to African
wanderers, that I, for one, ate three slices and
enjoyed it more than ever I remember enjoying a
pudding in my life. My only regret was that I
could not send you each a slice ; you would have
liked it so much.
' The first day of the New Year, 1883, found us
en route for Romwa's land, encamped on the banks
of the south arm of the Victoria Nyanza. This
was called by one of the earlier travellers "Jordan's
Nullah." Here we were fortunate — or unfortunate
— enough to obtain the services of a canoe and
canoe-men in the employ of Mtesa. The captain of
these men — as degraded a ruffian as ever lived —
was called Mzee, which is simply the Kiswahili for
" old man," or u elder." I translated this name
somewhat freely, and called him " Old Man of the
A TERRIBLE SCRIMMAGE 97
Sea," for he proved to be more troublesome than
the persecutor of Sinbad.
' To begin with, he had promised to start on the
2nd January, but began by declaring that we had
brought more luggage than he had expected, and
he therefore refused to start unless we paid him
more than the original agreement. After a deal of
haggling we came to terms. He then turned round
and said that the canoe leaked, and that he must
take the day to mend it. The fact was he had had
an unusually good catch of fish, and wanted to
skirmish the country to sell it. Evening came, I
saw to the loading of the canoe, and at the same
time thrice over cautioned Mzee that I had ten
more packages to come.
'At 2 a.m. he called me up and said we must
start. Well, unearthly as the hour was, I got up,
saw to everything, cooked my brethren some food,
had the tent packed and taken down to the boat,
when Mzee turned round and said that he had no
room for the luggage, and refused to start until
daylight. This meant that my poor suffering com-
panions would have to sit about in dewy grass, bitter
cold, and biting mosquitoes, for three full hours.
1 1 resolutely answered, " We must start." There-
upon he and his crew rushed to the boat and began
tearing out the baggage. A fearful scrimmage
ensued, during which time I trod in a colony of
biting ants and was woefully punished. Things
got in such a pickle that I did not know what was
98 AT THE GREAT LAKE
taken and what left, and many packages we could
ill spare were left behind.
' At 4 p.m. we got off, a hippo blowing a salute
as we started. We had not gone far when a loud
explosion startled us, and looking up, I saw two
legs of my chair flying upwards. My stupid boy
had put his gun, loaded and full-cocked, into the
boat, and the jarring fired it off. A new rug was
cut in half, the side of the canoe broken, and my
poor chair spoilt. Yet how much worse the
accident might have been !
1 Our next escapade was to rob some natives of
a goat. And thus it came about. The Old Man
of the Sea spied a goat, and rowed after it to shore.
I thought they were simply having a chat or friendly
barter, for the goat was handed over as quietly as
possible, and on we went. It was not until some
time after that it came out that it had been forced
from its owner. At my expressing horror I was
quietly informed that Mtesa's men are accustomed
to act in this way.
' The scenery soon became very varied and
beautiful. Cormorants, darters, belted-kingfishers,
and a very small blue variety, with a robin breast,
constantly crossed our track. Many crocodiles
and hippos floated lazily on the surface, and over
the purple hills the sun rose in golden glory. We
landed on the Uzinza side for lunch. The people
had never seen a white man before, and their
astonishment was beyond bounds. The canoe-
STORM AND HURRICANE
,
men were too wise to misbehave themselves in
the face of such numbers, so the visit passed off
auspiciously. At sunset we camped for the night.
Gordon had to be lifted from the boat. Ashe crept
out and at once went to bed. I had the tent
pitched ; then I discovered there was no firewood.
After an hour's search I found a little, and finally
bought some more, and superintended the cooking,
for the boys were worn out. Then Mzee came
and said I must get the things out of the canoe,
for it leaked, and I found most of the goods wet.
It was very dark, and the air was thick with
mosquitoes — they were like the plums in a rich
Christmas pudding. «A
' As I was sitting down to enjoy a well-earned
meal, Duta came and called me from the tent and
told me that the men had refused to go on unless
I would pay them extra cloth, and from what he
overheard he believed that they intended deserting
us. I went down to see what could be done, but
we could arrive at no agreement. I kept silence,
sparing my brethren any anxiety. I slept little
that night, fearing the men would desert and steal
some of our loads, but daylight found them still
there. Three valuable hours were spent in haggling,
which resulted in my having to pay yet more cloth,
and a start was not made until n a.m. ^v
1 We had not paddled far before a storm gathered,
and we had to put into port, and only just in time,
for a fearful hurricane burst upon us. " Down
(Too) AT THE GREAT LAKE
^v rushed the rain terrific/' and large waves beat upon
the shore, washing up shells and weeds. I should
have liked to have slept here, as the day was waning,
but no ! " Onward ! " was the word. Three hippos
pursued us, and the hippos of the lake are very
savage and dangerous, but the men managed to
outdistance them. Vast numbers of crocodiles
appeared on the surface of the water. I think I
saw as many as a dozen in a shoal. I felt no
temptation to bathe ! The sun then sank into
the west, and we were still at sea. I looked at the
pale faces of my invalids, and I looked at the
luggage, the tent, my helpless boys, and the savage
ruffians in the canoe, and my heart trembled.
1 It was not until eight o'clock that we arrived
at the place where the boatmen intended us to
sleep. It was so dark that it was a long time
before we could find a break in the reeds through
which we could wade ashore, and when we landed
we found we were in a place which was so rough
and damp that there was no possibility of pitching
the tent. We crept on some half a mile until we
reached a native hut. Fancy the good man of
the house, having retired to rest, being disturbed
by a ghost in the shape of the first white man he
had ever seen ! Fortunately he was not tempted
to try my ethereal qualities with a spear, but most
liberally said we might occupy the goat-house.
" Impossible ! " I ejaculated, with something more
than emphasis, as I gazed upon a thatched manure
\
THE CANOE IS SUNK 101
heap ankle deep in mire. " If you will kindly
allow us to sleep within your fence, for fear of
leopards, we shall be content."
' Having agreed to this, I hastened to my com-
panions, and with great difficulty got them over
the rough ground, and had their huts put up in
the open. The native, beholding our sad plight,
generously vacated his hut, but, after recent
experience, I strongly recommended that we should
remain in the open until the rain came on. The
instant the canoe touched the shore the men made
off, leaving us to do the best we could, while they
seized upon all the firewood. Our boys on any
occasion of this kind always became useless, so
that everything fell upon me, and it was some
time before I could manage to get a little food
ready.
' At 2 p.m. it came on to rain, and the invalids
took to the hut, but I preferred wrapping myself
in my waterproof and facing it. When daylight
dawned, I found to my utter despair that the
canoe had sunk during the night, and that almost
everything had been drenched. It was hard to
think of one's note-books, barometers, botanical
specimens, etc., in this condition. But the man
who goes to Central Africa must be prepared " to
take joyfully the spoiling of his goods," and to bear
the reproach of incompetence.
1 Almost superhuman strength at times, I fully
believe, was given me ; but even that had its
102 AT THE GREAT LAKE
limit. After a sleepless night, and then travelling
from 5.30 a.m. till n o'clock at night, I was unable
to unload that canoe, and so it sank. The Old
Man of the Sea and his crew refused to bale it
out, so I and the boys set to work in the pouring
rain, and by 11 o'clock the weather broke, and I
got my friends into the canoe and started. Soon
clouds began to gather, but evidently only for soft
rain.
' Mzee now announced that he had made up his
mind to take us ashore and leave us, — he had had
enough of this journey. We certainly had had
enough of him to last for many a long day.
' " Well," said I, " how far should we then be
from Romwa's ?
' " Altogether out of the way."
' " And are there any canoes to be hired there ? "
' " There are not. Mzee says he won't go on."
' " Why, we shall die if we are left in this way."
• " He says he will not go on."
' Then I said in a firm clear voice, " Give me my
gun ; " and I deliberately proceeded to load it, and
pointing at Mzee, I said, " Now will you go on ? "
' " Yes, Bwana, yes ; don't fire."
' And round flew the head of the canoe like magic.
Once more we speeded o'er the waves ; and a few
minutes afterwards his own men were imitating
my solemn gestures and laughing at me, though
confessing that they were very glad I had made
them go on ; but I had found out a secret — I was
A SMALL ARMY 103
henceforth the master, and our lives, it is not too
much to say, were saved from danger by one
prompt action.
' I now grew generous, and promised the men a
goat on arrival if they made no more ado. The
offer was received with joyous acclamations, and
we paddled into shore for lunch in glee, thinking
all trouble over. Lunch finished and a start made,
they coolly turned on me and said they would only
go to the next village, and then leave us. I made
no comment, thinking I would get there first. To
my great joy when I landed I found that the men
whom I had sent overland had hit upon this spot,
so now I had a small army of men to help us dry
our goods, pitch tent, and get in order. I further
discovered that Romwa's capital was only a short
distance from us. A runner from thence brought
word for us to proceed to a certain spot next
morning, and there to await a canoe from Romwa.
' " Trouble surely is ended !" we cried ; but was
it ? No. After being detained two days while
Romwa made medicine and consulted oracles
as to whether the white men would harm him,
the Delphian reply was, " The white men are good
for you and your people, but injurious to medicine
men." During this day I failed with severe fever,
but could not give way to it, for somebody must
see the matter through. I only remember suffer-
ing more pain, but I buckled myself together,
saw the canoe loaded, and made a start.
8
104 AT THE GREAT LAKE
' No sooner had we got fairly off than I per-
ceived there was a terrible leak in the canoe, and
that the canoe-men were drunk. We landed
and repaired the mischief, and the men plied
themselves with some " pombe " (native wine),
which they had brought with them. The con-
sequence was that when we started they were
worse than ever, and yelled and screamed till
my poor companions felt overcome by the fearful
noise. The captain then stood up and executed
a war-dance on a bale of goods, ending by falling
on me. This was more than I could stand, so
I gave him a needed warning, and said next time
he should have a cold bath. Thereupon he grew
wrathful, and ordered the canoe-men to land us
on a desert shore. This they refused, fearing
Romwa, and perhaps my wrath more than the
captain's. Then a free fight commenced, which
ended in the captain falling overboard. He
climbed in, and in a dreadful rage seized a paddle,
and, as I thought, aimed a heavy blow at Ashe,
which fortunately just missed, but shivered the
paddle completely.
1 Believe me, ill as V was, I bounded from my
seat, seized him, dragged him into his seat, and
defied him to move. I was proceeding to arm
myself for protection if necessary, when one of
my men took me and gently forced me into
my seat, and then proceeded to pat me on the
back and talk in this fashion : " White man, be
THE HABITATIONS OF CRUELTY 105
calm, be calm ; gently, gently ; don't disturb
yourself. We will go on ; indeed we will. White
man, be calm ; quietly, quietly, quietly ; " and
with each wotd administering a gentle pat, until
at last I fairly burst out laughing, and the April
shower of wrath fled before the sunshine of mirth.
' January 9th saw us settled at Romwa's. It
was a lovely spot. We had pitched our tents
on a rocky eminence clothed with beautiful foliage,
and from whence we gazed out on the broad
expanse of that mighty inland sea.
' Romwa himself, like a good many of us, was
not so agreeable as he made himself out, and soon
began to try and extract from us the few remaining
goods that we had in our possession. Superstition
of the most degraded type was rampant, and every
corner of the land full of the habitations of cruelty,
and all that one saw forcibly told, in language too
plain to be misunderstood, of the great need, yea,
and opening, that there is for Christian missionaries
to teach these poor degraded savages the ennobling
and saving truths of the Gospel.
' For some time at Romwa's we seemed to be
State prisoners, and could not tell when he would
permit us to leave. However, at length he con-
sented to my proceeding, providing the others
remained. I accordingly started (22nd January)
with two boys. I had had severe fever the day
before, and did not feel up to much fatigue. How-
ever, I got up early and went down to the royal
106 AT THE GREAT LAKE
hut, and was kept waiting for an hour while I was
inspected by the king's wives ; then another hour
was spent at the water's side, so that it was not
until ii a.m. that a start could be made. Then
hindrances arose and we had to put into shore.
Then came a storm, and the canoe sprang a leak,
so that by 5 p.m. we had only accomplished an
hour's work.
• Once more we put to sea, and encountered
another storm which drenched all my blankets.
At midnight we crept quietly ashore, uncertain
whether the natives were friendly or not. I had
my wet bed and blankets conveyed a little way
from the swamp belt of the lake. The bo}'s and
men feared to remain with me thus far from the
canoe, so I laid my weary frame to rest under my
umbrella, for it was raining.
1 Unmindful of natives or beasts of prey, I fell
asleep. Soon a tremendous roar close to me caused
me to start in a way that no nightmare has ever
accomplished. What could it be, a lion ? No ;
lions are not so noisy. It was only a hippopotamus.
He had, no doubt, come up to feed, and stumbled
nearly on top of this strange object — a white man
with an umbrella over his head, fast asleep. So
bellowing out his surprise, he turned round and
ran to the lake.
' Before daylight dawned we were off, and soon
after reached Kageye. I was welcomed by the
Arab chief, Sayed bin Saif, and as I was seated
SURROUNDED BY ARMED WARRIORS 107
sipping some delicious coffee, a strange white man
stood before me. I sprang to my feet, only to hear,
" Bon jour, monsieur," and then I knew that I was
in the presence of one of the French Jesuit priests.
1 1 started on 30th January 1883 with my two
boys and six men, leaving your cousin in Kageye
to wait for my return with the baggage left behind
in Msalala. I had to cross Urima, in parts of which
they had never seen a white man before. It was
a bold undertaking, but I had no fear of being
molested by the natives, simply because I could
see no reason for their interfering with me.
* However, when first I set foot in Urima about
200 armed warriors turned out and surrounded me,
and I suspect that the least show of resistance, or on
the other hand of fear, would have been followed
by fatal consequences. They peremptorily ordered
me to stop and pitch my tent, and then they sur-
rounded me by a cordon of armed men to see that
I made no escape. In the meantime they despatched
runners to the Sultan of Urima to tell him that they
had captured a white man, and to ask what they
should do with him. I was kept in this durance
vile for the whole day, but I punished the rough
soldiers around me, and myself not a little, by sulking
within my closed tent, so that they were unable to
inspect either me or my things.
' Just before sunset an ambassador arrived from
the Sultan demanding a present. I assured him
that I had nothing suitable with me, whereupon he
108 AT THE GREAT LAKE
replied that he must be assured that I spoke the
truth. So accordingly I had to show him all I
possessed. At my blanket — you know my blanket,
for fifteen years it has been my companion — he
paused. " He must have that blanket, Bwana
Mkubwa, great master." I cried, " The white man
is cold ; he wants much clothes. If you take his
blanket he will die. When the sun is gone to rest
the white man grows chill. Leave him his blanket. ' '
The earnestness of my eloquence prevailed, and the
next day he permitted me to depart, providing
that a messenger accompanied me to receive the
promised present.
' Then arose a question about canoes to cross the
nullah, and these at first were denied, but after a
great deal of palaver my arguments again prevailed.
A council of war on an occasion of this kind was
really a grand sight. I would sit on my bed in the
tent and have both the doors flung open. Then
the ambassador would take the seat of honour, and
near me would sit my headman and boys, and
near him his chief attendants, while outside and
around the doors would crowd breathless listeners.
I would then tell my man in Kiswahili what I
wanted, and this he would translate in Kirima to
the ambassador, only adding volumes to it of his
own to put it into proper shape. He would say
three or four words only at a time, snapping his
fingers between each sentence, and further pausing
for the audience to exclaim, u Baba."
RETURN TO THE COAST 109
* Here is an example : " The great white man
(' Baba ! ') has come a long distance (' Baba ! ').
He has come to see the black man (' Baba ! ').
He has come to teach the black man (' Baba !
Baba ! Baba ! '). He asks the black man to
be kind (' Baba ! ') " (rather feebly), and so on,
and if he spoke for an hour no one would move
or interrupt or object until he had concluded.
1 Then all eyes would be turned to the ambassador,
who in the same solemn way would state his
objections. I think you would have liked seeing
and hearing one council, but I doubt if you would
have sat through a second; and when it came to
two or three times a day you would have kicked
over the traces, and the consequence would have
been that the ambassador would have sent down
a man to say he was busy that day, and would
talk again in three days' time. The patience
required to deal with savage Africans is almost
superhuman. Still, in spite of everything, I
arrived once more in Msalala.
* I had a long consultation with the other
missionaries, which ended in my immediately
starting for the coast. 1
4 It was a bad time to travel, as the " big rains "
were almost upon us, and they make the country
very wretched. However, there seemed nothing
1 This means that Hannington's health was so desperately
bad that his colleagues refused to allow him to go on. See
next chapter.
no AT THE GREAT LAKE
to be done but to face the worst, ancl make the
best of it.
* We started at daybreak on 22nd February
and marched through jungle until we reached
a plain. There I had at once to plunge into thick
grass, higher than my head, and wringing with
dew. Under foot was water, in most places up
to the ankles. And where it was not water it
was filthy black mud. I never had such a walk
in my life, and the men with me, who have travelled
all their lives, said they never had.
1 When we reached the first village we found
that all the inhabitants had fled, and carried all
their goods with them, since war was raging in
the district, one poor old blind woman being all
that was left behind, and she just struggling off
to a neighbouring town.
' Before reaching camp one of those tropical
showers of which you so often hear came on. I
struggled on, and took shelter in a native hut ;
even here I had to sit with my umbrella up, for
it leaked very badly. While the ground was
running with water my men, in mistaken kindness,
put up the tent ; the consequence being that
the floor inside was much in the condition of the
path I had been travelling, and my bed, on which
for hours I had been promising myself a good
rest* was too wet to use.
' As we marched on we fell in with many rivers
and morasses, and the rains became so heavy
NOVEL METHOD OF TRAVELLING
...
that I doubted whether I should be able to proceed
much farther. There was often an immense deal
of water on^the road, sometimes ankle, sometimes
knee-deep, and sometimes I have been carried
for the best part of an hour with the water up
to the men's chins. In cases of this kind I used
to cling round the pole of my hammock, and six
men would carry me on their heads as if I was
a log of wood ; but it was by no means comfortable,
although far better than getting wet.
1 My mode of being carried across deep streams
was of a novel character. You must imagine your
uncle kneeling on the shoulders of a tall, powerful
man, and resting on the shoulders of another in
front, while a third behind has grasped him by
the feet, to steady him. In very swift streams
sometimes six or eight men were requisite to keep
the three bearers from being swept away, uncle
and all.
' These rivers and floods used to keep me in
suspense lest in my weak condition I should be
plunged headlong into the water. But far "worse
than the rivers were the morasses. For a mile
together have I been borne through the most
horrible black mud, often above the knee. This
was exceedingly fatiguing for the men and trying
to me, and the more so as I knew I was inhaling
malarious poison of the worst description.
' Then again, coming from the lake to Urombo,
I was at the mercy of men whom I had to hire
ii2 AT THE GREAT LAKE
perhaps for,a spell of three days ; they would carry
me two days, and the third day bolt, and leave
me in the lurch. On one occasion, when only
fit to be in bed, I had to crawl fifteen miles. And
yet again, when scarce able to stand or sit up
without being kept on my feet by my boys, I
had to drag my weary limbs six miles. My men
used to say, " Master must die, but how is it
master is so cheerful and happy through it all ?
Black man would lie down by the side of the road
and die like a sheep."
' At length, through another desperate attack of
fever, I had to take altogether to my hammock.
It sounds wonderfully luxurious to talk of being
transported from place to place in such a manner.
Well, all I can say is, let anybody try it, and see if
they care to repeat the dose. I think I could
write a book on the subject, I have had so much
of its excitements, its monotony, and its dis-
comforts.
• Let me mention just a few of the delights (!)
of this method of locomotion, for your benefit.
Upon one occasion the man in front fell down flat,
and by some miraculous means was pinned to
the ground by the hammock-pole ; nor could he
move until a companion released him from his
strange position. Sometimes the man behind
tripped up ; in which case I fell on the back of my
head. Another time he glided on to his knees in
several inches of black mud, And yet again both.
CROSSING A STREAM.
PERSONAL ATTENTIONS FROM THE NATIVES.
The Illustrations on this page are from Sketches by
Bishop Hannington.
A MERE BAG OF BONES 113
bearers simultaneously tripped, and a complete
downfall took place.
1 Further, you are asked to imagine boughs whip-
ping one in the face, or men banging you against
a sharp-pointed stump of a tree, or passing over
rough ground, and being jumped up and down like
a pea on a drum, and yet these were everyday
occurrences. And as for being lifted over and under
fallen trees, and being handed down deep ravines
and up the other side, with one's feet far above
one's head — why it happened so often that I grew
accustomed to have my heels high in the air.
' I have already dilated on the horrors of crossing
streams and floods and mud pools and swamps —
first one man and then the other slipping and
tripping and sliding, and stumbling and gliding
and tumbling, and keeping one in an intense state
of agitation, let alone discomfort beyond imagina-
tion. One good man who carried me had a kind
of springhalt, which was particularly unpleasant,
especially after a meal.
I Altogether I had a nice time of it, and one of the
most suffering things about life in a hammock was
the fact that I was a mere bag of bones, having
been reduced from twelve to eight stones in weight
by repeated attacks of fever.
I I will now give you a description of my tent and
its contents. We begin at the pole, around which
are fastened about twenty spears, besides a bow,
one of my guns, and a native sword. Then we
ii4 AT THE GREAT LAKE
come to the pantry, which contains a native box
made out of bark, a saucepan, bucket of water, and
the two provision boxes ; on the top of the little
one, my lamp ; on the other, a cup, etc. The best
box stands on two fine elephant tusks, to prevent
its being eaten by the white ants. Leaving the
pantry we come to the wardrobe, which, besides
the bags for my clothes, has also a load of shields.
Under some leopard and other skins you would
find a load or two of cloth for barter, and, stowed
away in a corner, a number of native clubs. Then
as we pass on we come to the dining-room and
bedroom ; on my bed is my favourite old blanket
which has accompanied me in all my wanderings
for fifteen years, and to my mind it looks as gay
as ever it did. The three boxes are respectively
medicine, despatch, and lamp-box. They act as
my table, but as they are not very large, if you
come to a meal with me, we must put some of the
things upon the floor.
' " Now, boy, bring in my tea."
• " Yes, sir ; coming."
' Let us see what we have got. First, two eggs,
which, with the salt and our one teaspoon, he puts
down before us. Now, mind I don't forget to help
myself to salt first, because I have only one spoon.
Having finished my first egg, the boy comes again.
M Kettle boils, sir."
' " Well, make the cocoa."
\ V. Spoon ? "
PRIMITIVE HOUSEKEEPING 115
' Then I wonder which will be best, to let the
water or the egg get cold ; finally I decide, as I
have no bread-and-butter, to finish the egg, since it
will only take a very short time to eat. I then hand
over the spoon to be taken to the camp and washed,
only hoping that he will not forget to do so. Perhaps
you noticed as I ate my egg that I was not burdened
with an egg-cup, and that I had to hold it in my
handkerchief ; but I did not like its running over
the side, for run over the side it would, because
African eggs are only the size of bantams' eggs,
and our spoon, not being a silver one, has had
rather an extravagant expenditure of metal laid
out upon it.
I Eggs finished, I proceed to rice porridge — my
standing dish. I may speak of myself having
lived upon it for three months. The spoon having
again been cleaned, I forget that I am going to be
extravagant, and have jam, and so plunge it into
the rice. Dear me ! shall I lick it clean, or wait
while the boy washes it ? Don't tell anybody —
I'll lick it. Having dived into the jam, I taste the
cocoa. 'Tis very weak, and I see all the cocoa
has sunk to the bottom of the cup. Where is the
spoon ? 'Tis jammy ! Never mind ; lick it again,
and don't tell. Then allowing ourselves two sweet
biscuits we conclude our meal, and, seizing pen
and ink, we begin to write our letter.
I I passed the two big Poris (deserts), and at
length arrived at Kisokwe, the home of Mr, and
u6 AT THE GREAT LAKE
Mrs. Cole, ^nd a little English baby, at this time
five months old, the first born in these parts. Both
Mr. and Mrs. Cole are earnest and devoted mission-
aries. Mrs. Cole has a large Sunday-school class.
Its members form such a quaint group, I should
like you just to look in upon them one Sunday
afternoon. Some were very gaudily clothed in all
sorts of bright colours, some merely in goat-skins.
Others, again, were red with war-paint, and carried
bows and arrows or spears. Altogether it would
be difficult to imagine a more quaint and yet
picturesque group of children ; and yet, for all this
funny appearance, they were very respectful and
orderly, and tried to learn the great lessons which
Mrs. Cole endeavours to teach them.
' Here, in addition to my other trials, I lost a
friend, who, like me, was returning to England
for his health. He died very suddenly at last,
and at the moment of his death I alone was with
him. 1
' Not many weeks after, dear Mrs. Cole, who
was so kind to your uncle during his two visits,
and who was such an energetic missionary, and
so truly devoted to the welfare of the swarthy
sons and daughters of Africa, likewise was called
away/
1 Mr. Penry of the London Missionary Society,
Chapter VII
THE DARKER COLOURS OF THE
PICTURE
Hannington makes light of Privations and Sufferings— A Fire
in the Bush — Fever — Dysentery — At Death's Door —
Recovery — Threatening Attitude of Natives — Life a Burden
— Cruel Sufferings — Hannington, compelled to give in, sets
out for the Coast — Twice left by the Roadside for dead, and
revives — Arrival in England — ' Forgive the one that
turned back.'
HANNINGTON'S letters in the previous chap-
ters, full of brightness and vivacity as they
are, give but an imperfect picture of his
great missionary journey to the Victoria Nyanza.
The impression which one is in danger of carrying
away from them, that the expedition was something
of a picnic, with just spice enough of adventure,
discomfort, and danger to make it piquant, would
be an entirely erroneous one. The letters are,
of course, literally accurate as far as they go ; they
manifest the blithe, undaunted spirit in which
the great missionary encountered difficulties, and
as such they are valuable for the insight they
give into the mind and soul of an intrepid soldier
of the Cross. But who would gather from the
«7
n8 DARKER COLOURS OF THE PICTURE
perusal oi them that the enterprise frequently
bore an aspect of tragedy and horror ? Yet such
is the undoubted fact. The details that follow,
collected from Mr. Dawson's biography, will serve
to complete the picture.
A few days after the start into the interior
the high grass round the camp took fire, and a
catastrophe was barely averted. Hannington's
men, having discovered that the fire was caused
by the inhabitants of a neighbouring village,
went off, armed with gun or spear, or bows and
arrows, to wreak vengeance. Hannington tore
after them, and was just in time to prevent serious
mischief. Only one man had been wounded with
a war-club in the head. Hannington doctored
him, and further soothed him with a dollar.
In the middle of July all the party except
Edmonds were laid low by the dreaded fever,
the scourge of African travellers. ' Fever is
trying,' wrote Hannington to the C.M.S. Committee
on ist August, - but it does not take away the
joy of the Lord, and keeps one low in the right
place* Five days after this his temperature
reached no ! he was seized with violent rigors,
and then with alarming fainting fits. The fever,
a few days later, was accompanied by violent
sickness, intense pain in every limb, and burning
thirst. ' I had nothing to drink, and my tongue
was so hard and dry that, when I touched it with
my finger, it made a noise like scraping a file.'
<I AM COMING TO THE CROSS 1 119
For all this he was the life and soul of the party,
and never let his companions' spirits flag.
Hannington was seized with dysentery at Uyui,
a C.M.S. station which the expedition reached
on September 4. For ten days he lay at the
door of death. The Jesuit priests at Unyanyenbe
(the spot where Livingstone and Stanley parted)
prescribed an injection of carbolic acid which
for a time relieved the most distressing symptoms,
but nothing seemed to avail permanently. The
other members of the party held a council and
came to the conclusion that their leader must
be left behind while they went forward. Hanning-
ton was left in charge of his nephew, Gordon.
Rheumatic fever supervened to the African fever
and dysentery, and it seemed that he could not
live. He was in such agony that he asked all
those about him to leave him and let him scream,
as it seemed slightly to relieve his sufferings. ' Can
it be long before I die ? ' he asked Gordon, and
the reply was, ' No ; nor can you desire that it
should be so.'
In the moments of relaxation from his severe
distress he was thinking of others, and drew up a
small book of information for the guidance of
men who should leave home for Africa. He
believed that he himself would certainly die, and
had selected the spot where he was to be buried.
His favourite hymn at this time was, ' I am coming
to the Cross/
9
120 DARKER COLOURS OF THE PICTURE
However, he did recover, and though very weak
was in good spirits, insisting upon going forward,
were it necessary to carry him the whole way. The
expedition had returned to Uyui, having en-
countered difficulties on the adopted route. They
started out again, a united company, in a somewhat
different direction. Hannington described himself
at this time as ' an empty bottle on the shelf/
On October 16, then, after nearly six weeks in
bed, Hannington was on his way again. He
declared that the life was thoroughly agreeable
to him. How characteristic of him are the words
that follow : ' If I had good health I should be
too happy. What wonderful mercy surrounds
us ! Truly, underneath are the Everlasting Arms ! '
Blackburn and Edmonds had been left at Uyui
to take the place of Copplestone, the missionary
there, who was returning to England. Ashe and
Wise were to form a station somewhere at the
end of the lake, which the expedition had now
reached. Gordon and Hannington were to proceed
as speedily as possible to Uganda. What actually
did happen we shall see.
The expedition moved forward along the south
shore of the lake to meet Romwa, the Sultan of
Uzinza. A strange procession accompanied the
savage monarch as he went forth to greet the
white men. First came a long line of medicine
men carrying horns full of rancid butter, then
Romwa himself, not much short of seven feet in
A SAVAGE IN A PASSION 121
height, then wives, councillors, and another mob
of medicine men. As soon as he had seated himself
in a chair in the centre of the tent, the horns of
rancid butter were placed in the ground all round
him to protect him from the white man's witcheries.
As an additional safeguard, the Sultan had anointed*
himself with castor oil from head to foot. When
Hannington told Romwa that he had a handsome
robe for him, but no cloth and no guns, the savage
rose in a passion and stalked off, saying he was a
great chief and would have a great present. The
C.M.S. has always refused to make presents of
powder or guns or offensive weapons of any
sort.
In addition to the anxiety, Hannington had
to bear the burden of sickness. The camp was
moved up a hill, Hannington managing to walk
up, collapsing only twice — as he pathetically
remarks — on the way. From the top of a rocky
eminence, clothed with beautiful foliage, he gazed
out upon the broad expanse of the mighty inland
sea. Romwa consented that Hannington should
proceed by himself to Uganda, and accordingly
on January 22, 1883, he started in a canoe with
two of his boys. When he reached Kageye two days
later he was very hospitably entertained by the
Arab chief, Sayed bin Saif, and the Jesuit priests.
The latter informed him that the missionaries
in Uganda were anxiously expecting his arrival.
But before setting out on the final stage of his
I2i DARKER COLOURS OF THE PICTURE
journey, Hannington thought it advisable to return
to Msalala to bring up the remainder of the goods.
The day after he left Kageye he was again seized
with dysentery. He had to walk with his hands
tied to his neck in order to prevent his arms moving,
as their least motion give him intense pain. Ex-
hausted with cruel suffering, he barely crawled to
his friends' tent at Msalala. He confessed himself
that he was - done.' The bright and buoyant
figure was now bent and feeble, like that of a very
old man. His life had become a burden to him,
and he had quite resigned himself to the thought
that he would never see England again.
/ Hannington now made arrangements, with a
^ sad heart enough, for his departure. He arranged
that Mr. Ashe should take his place and accompany
Mr. Gordon to Rubaga. He established Mr. Wise
at Kageye. Then, having put everything in as
good order as he was able, and committed his
fellow-workers and their holy cause to the hands of
his God, he threw himself into the same strong
hands and, turning his face away from the great
lake, commenced the long and weary journey to
/ the distant coast — 800 miles of forest, morass,
( and desert. Several times, during the journey,
he seemed to be at the point of death, and gave
himself up for lost. On two occasions the bearers
laid what they believed to be his lifeless body on
the ground and left it. Consciousness returned
and he crawled painfully after the caravan till he
w;
ne
CRYING LIKE A CHILD 123
as discovered. Yet his patience and cheerfulness
never forsook him.
An incident at Kisokwe (near Mpwapwa), where
Mr. and Mrs. Cole were stationed, reveals the
passion of tenderness which dwelt at the heart of
Hannington. ' I was greatly affected/ he writes
in his diary, * at the sight of the baby. The thought
of my own sweet children filled my heart, and the
slight hope I have had, and still have of ever seeing
them again all came before me so vividly that I
must confess to crying like a child. I rushed at
the baby, and begged to be allowed to hold and
kiss it.'
Towards the end of the journey to the coast,
Hannington was recovering so fast that he had
serious questionings with himself as to whether he
should not return to the lake ; but the doctor
who had hurried up from the coast to attend him
entirely forbade the project.
Hannington was again among his friends in
England on June 10, 1883. But he could not be
content until he had retrieved his defeat and reached
Uganda. He had seen the need of the Africans
and he passionately longed to supply it. ' Forgive
the one that turned back ' is the plaintive cry of his
heart. Forgiveness was not needed. He had done
his part, but God had seen fit to deny him the
desire of his heart.
Chapter VIII
BISHOP OF EASTERN EQUATORIAL
AFRICA
The first Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa — Hannington's
Experiences in Palestine — Enthusiastic Welcome at Frere
Town — A very much ' alive ' Bishop — Sound Converts
wanted — Expedition to Mount Kilimanjaro — The Bishop
joins in a native Dance — The Rescue of Eight Slaves — The
same Water for the Bishop, the Dog, and the Donkey —
The ' bewitched ' old Woman — Mandara's naked Warriors —
Splashed with Sheep's Entrails — A narrow Escape from
Death.
HANNINGTON settled down to his work at
Hurst again as though he had never left
it. But when he felt once more in bounding
health, the desire to return to Africa returned upon
him in tenfold strength. The medical board of
the C.M.S., however, gave him little encouragement.
The verdict of the doctors on October 8, 1883, was
' Africa NEVER.' But Hannington could not be
repressed. Although he was told not to come
back again for six months, he presented himself
in less than two ! The decision this time was that
he might go anywhere except Africa and Ceylon.
He was greatly encouraged, yet not satisfied,
x*4
HEALTH RESTORED 125
for Africa was the desire of his heart. He had the
instincts of a soldier or a sportsman; Africa had
beaten him and he was resolved, God willing, to
beat Africa. His character in the meantime had
been softened and mellowed, he was as full of fun
and humour as ever, but, says Mr. Dawson, who
speaks from personal experience, he was gentler
and more tender, quieter, and more outwardly
affectionate in his manner.
The improvement in his health continued, and
great was his joy when Sir Joseph Fayrer, the
climatologist, gave it as his unqualified opinion
that he might now return to Africa with a good
prospect of being able to live and labour there
for many years.
The C.M.S. had for some years been revolving
the idea of placing the mission churches of Eastern
Equatorial Africa under a Bishop. The cause of
the Gospel had taken root in various localities
throughout this immense tract of territory, and
there was a reasonable hope that it would grow into
a goodly tree, under which many souls would find
sustenance and shelter. What was now required
was that ' the widely scattered churches should be
bound together by the personal influence of one
who would have authority to command, wisdom
to organise, and character to ensure that his
commands should be obeyed.' The eyes of the
Committee turned towards Hannington, and the
position was offered to him. He saw in this
126 BISHOP OF EASTERN AFRICA
the answer of God to his heartfelt petitions that he
might again serve Africa, and he accepted. Accord-
ingly he was consecrated in the parish church of
Lambeth on June 24, 1884.
Bishop Hannington left England for the last
time in November 5 of the same year. He had
been charged by the Archbishop of Canterbury to
visit Jerusalem on his way out and confirm the
churches. He was compelled to wait five weary
days in quarantine at Beirut. But the Bishop
never lost time. He was fully occupied with corres-
pondence and the study of African languages. While
in Palestine he lived in a whirl of activity. Few
travellers penetrate to the Hauran, the desert
country, infested with Bedawin, beyond Galilee
in the east of Jordan. The Bishop knew no fear
and escaped unscathed. He described the modern
Jerusalem as vile, and the sites as chiefly fictitious.
He informed his wife that his status of Bishop
caused the people to stand rather in awe of him ;
* but I am sure they need not,' he added, ' for I
am an exceedingly meek and unpretentious indi-
vidual/ Yet they loved him, and everywhere
complained that his stay was too short.
The voyage being resumed, the Bishop and his
chaplain reached Aden, where they exchanged into
the ' Baghdad,' bound for Frere Town ; it was to
be the seat of the Bishopric. ' My heart sank,'
he wrote, ' as I smelt the cockroaches and bilge-
water.' However, the voyage was much more
A BUSY BISHOP 127
pleasant than he had anticipated. At Frere Town
(which is situated on the mainland and separated
by a narrow channel from the island of Mombasa)
a thousand people came to the shore to greet him
on January 24 ; guns fired, horns blew, women
shrieked, the Bishop laughed and cried. ' Alto-
gether/ he says, ' there was a grand welcome, and
the moment we could get a little quiet we knelt
down and thanked God/
The fellow-workers over whom the new Bishop
exercised authority consisted of twelve clergy,
priests and deacons, eleven laymen, and four
ladies, wives of missionaries ; twenty-seven in all,
scattered over an enormous extent of country.
Bishop Hannington began his work at Frere
Town. His feelings of anger and shame were
aroused by seeing that the houses of the missionaries
were superior structures to the church. ' We must
have a decent church,' he wrote, ' not a tin ark, or a
cocoanut barn, but a proper stone church — a church
to the glory of God/ He at once issued an appeal
for money for the new church.
The place of worship at Frere Town was crowded
with a very well-behaved body of worshippers who
seemed to realise the purpose for which they were
gathered together.
The Bishop found that the mission steamer, the
' Henry Wright/ was in a very filthy condition,
and set about altering this.
He was ubiquitous and indefatigable. No one
128 BISHOP OF EASTERN AFRICA
knew whera he was going to turn up next, and this
kept everybody on the qui vive. Suddenly, while
believed to be far in the interior, he would reappear
in the streets of Frere Town. It was well for his
colleagues that they were animated with a spirit
like his own ; for a man at all inclined to be lazy
would find the Bishop a very uncomfortable sort
of person to be associated with.
Bishop Hannington was insistent that the
missionaries should make it their first business
to seek spiritual results from their labours. These
are frequently so difficult to attain, so slow in
arriving, that the temptation of workers is to
devote more than a legitimate share of their
attention to educational work, or merely to civilising.
Hannington paid a visit to Bishop Smythies of the
Universities Mission at Zanzibar, and was gratified
to find that ' with all his ritualism he is strong on
the point of conversion, and is very particular
about baptism and communion not being ad-
ministered before conversion, either to heathen
or professing Christians/ He felt strongly that all
the native Christians who preached in the regular
church services ought to be examined by him,
that he might judge whether they were really
fit to teach. The Bishop was above all things
anxious to have sound converts and sound native
preachers and teachers.
Hannington sometimes showed his impatience
at excessive anxiety about the economical admin-
'AWFULLY OFFICIAL' 129
istration of the work. ' I want to hear more about
saving souls than saving pice. I should like to
know that the weeds are being pulled out of the
hearts, while those in the shambas are not permitted
to run wild.' He regretted that he did not see the
souls of the boys in the school being reached as
he could wish. Further, he wanted the most
intelligent boys to be prepared for the ministry,
for teaching, or the medical profession. Half in
fun, half in earnest he complained that letters
from Salisbury Square 1 were so ' awfully official '
that they contained no spiritual lozenges to revive
the workers on the field. ' Would not some dear
Christian soul in the Committee undertake to
write us religious letters, and enclose little leaflets
and choice crumbs — inquire after our souls, and
draw out the depths of our heart ? '
We are now about to give some notes of Bishop
Hannington's great expedition to the Kilimanjaro
mountains in the spring of 1885. We may say
here that the interest of the story of this, as of
the other Gospel adventures of Hannington, will
be heightened if the reader will follow it with
the map of Eastern Equatorial Africa spread out
before him.
Hannington's object when he set out was merely
to inquire into the state of things at Taita, the
farthest advanced mission just along that route
westward, and separated from the coast by some
1 Where the mission-house of the C.M.S. is situate.
130 BISHOP OF EASTERN AFRICA
200 miles of horrible, waterless desert. There had
been a famine in that land, for which the natives
were inclined to attack the missionary stationed
there as the cause of it, although his own flock
had suffered severely. Although the difficulties of
caravans were frightful, supplies of food were
sent up from Frere Town, and many lives were
thus saved.
The first C.M.S. station on the way was Rabai.
Here the people were expecting the Bishop, and
a tumultuous welcome awaited him. During four
whole hours nothing went on but the firing of
guns, dancing, and shouting. The Bishop joined
in one of the dances, to the intense delight of the
natives. He gave a great feast, which was attended
by about 600 guests. Hannington's boys were
caught stealing, and as a punishment were tied
up all four to separate posts, in sight of the
banquet. But the good Bishop was more pained
than the boys, his heart relented, he released the
boys earlier than he had intended, and the next
day they stole the sugar ! Hannington preached
to a crowded congregation on ' What must I do to
be saved ? '
The caravan mustered about 100, as it had
to carry a month's food for the starving people
of Taita. The Bishop laid aside gaiters, shovel-
hat, and apron for the journey, busying himself
in the work of the camp and teaching the native
porters and attendants their business. After passin
THE BLESSINGS OF A WASH 131
through varieties of country, most generally,
however, desert or jungle, he arrived at Taro,
where, for a mercy, there was plenty of water, * if
you don't mind toads and tadpoles and suchlike
denizens of stagnant pools.' Here eight slaves —
a woman and seven children — were rescued from a
gang of Swahilis who fled in fear, leaving their prey
behind. The poor creatures were more than half-
starved ; they were sent down to the coast, freed,
and received by the mission. But so cruel had
been their treatment at the hands of their oppressors
that they all died but one.
The dreaded Taro desert, a veritable land of
death, wherein reigns a dreary and an eternal
silence, is the most trying part of the journey to
Taita. The road passes through closely packed
thorn bushes which tear the clothes and flesh and
do not afford a particle of shade. The traveller
can see only a few yards ahead. ' How little
we appreciate our comforts at home ! ' exclaims
the Bishop, — ' the blessing of a wash, for instance.
No water means almost no wash. Being an old
traveller I meet the difficulty by rilling my sponge
before starting, and tying it tightly in its bag. If
we have two days without water, the first day
I have what a schoolboy would call " a lick and a
promise " ; then the second day I wring out the
water, and get quite a brave wash, the water
afterwards coming in for the dog and the donkey/
Mr. J. A. Wray, the missionary at Taita, was
132 BISHOP OF EASTERN AFRICA
found in "a state of semi-siege. The Wa-Kamba
had attacked and burned villages in sight of him,
and for two days he and his people had been on
guard. The arrival of the Bishop with the much-
needed food was a great relief to him.
Hannington pressed forward beyond Taita. In
a very vivid, spirited, and rapturous style he
describes his first glimpse of the mountain he had
come to occupy in the name of the Lord : ' As we
topped a rise, suddenly before our astonished gaze
flashed Kilimanjaro in all his glory ! How lovely
the great mountain looked — all radiant with the
rays of the rising sun. We had, by the best fortune,
arrived at this point of vantage just at the hour of
sunrise, when the vast silver dome for a short
time shakes aside the mist wreaths which during
the rest of the day so frequently enswathe his
snow-crowned summit. The sight was so sur-
passingly beautiful that it called forth long and
loud exclamations from the stolid Africans around
us, many of whom were well acquainted with the
snow giant. That an African should exclaim, or
even take note of any natural scene, however
grand, is something quite uncommon ; but now
all, black and white alike, were in ecstasy at the
magnificence and beauty of the sight. We at once
called a halt, and, as long as time permitted, we
feasted our eyes on snow under the burning sun of
Africa.'
This great journey, though free from serious
A TIMID OLD WOMAN 133
danger, and during which Hannington, on the
whole, enjoyed excellent health, was fruitful of
striking incidents. At the village of Burra, passing
a foot-track which led in the wrong direction,
Hannington, according to custom, drew a line across
it with his stick, as a signal to those behind not
to go that way. An old woman who happened to
be standing on the path was seized with a paroxysm
of terror. She was fully persuaded that the
mysterious conduct of the Bishop was designed to
bewitch her, and raised the most fearful shrieks,
calling on all around to kill him. Through the
wood and over the hill rang her shrill cries.
Nothing could pacify her, so not knowing what
might come of the matter Hannington left her
screaming and hurried on.
Presently the expedition came upon a fire,
round which were seated a group of starving people
who had come from Taita and were endeavouring
to struggle on to the more fertile districts that
surround Kilimanjaro. They had already aban-
doned one woman and child. The mother was
dead, but Hannington enabled them to rescue the
child by giving them food and encouraging the
poor wretches to return and search for the infant,
which they found.
The Bishop spent three days at Taveta, in the
midst of a magnificent forest, honeycombed with
luxuriant gardens of maize, Indian corn, and
broad-leaved banana trees. The people were
134 BISHOP OF EASTERN AFRICA
peculiarly ^ gentle, and received the expedition in
a most friendly manner. In the rainy season,
however, the rich, black vegetable soil exudes
poisonous vapours. The forest is so dense that
it almost excludes the refreshing breezes, and so
overshadows the open spaces and plantations
that large parts of them are constantly wet.
Hannington had some interesting experiences
with Mandara, the chief of the most powerful
of the tribes which inhabit Chagga, the highland
district on the southern and eastern spurs of Kili-
manjaro. Messengers arrived from Mandara with
an ox as a present for the king. As the expedition
approached Moschi, Mandara's capital, they fired
the royal salute which that august monarch exacted
from his guests, and were answered by a salvo from
his two cannons. When Hannington was ushered
into the presence of Mandara, he was impressed,
not only by his general appearance, but also by
his kindliness of manner and intelligence.
The next morning at dawn Mandara, wearing
a rosy-red robe, visited the camp, accompanied
by twenty warriors, all stark naked, fine athletic
fellows, looking fierce enough to frighten one out
of one's wits. Hannington presented the king
with a box and a uniform, which he received in a
gracious manner.
After breakfast a return visit was paid, and
Mandara gave Hannington a goat and a cow.
The sum of the royal speech was that Mandara
NARROW ESCAPE FROM DEATH 135
wanted guns and gunpowder, and if he could not
have them, the next best thing would be a white
teacher to live in the land. Mandara maintained
his princely bearing and his gentlemanly conduct
up to the end of Hannington's relations with him.
The only untoward incident was that on one
occasion when the king visited Hannington the
Bishop was drawing, and drew the king, which
rather wounded his majesty's feelings !
Curious and not too pleasant ceremonial marked
the visit of Hannington to Fumba's country. When
the chief's father arrived in the camp, he brought
with him a sheep. Hannington and the old man
had to spit on its head and then it was killed.
Some strips of skin were cut off and made into
rings, one of which was put on Hannington's
finger, he in his turn put one on a ringer of a member
of the other party. After this the liver of the
sheep was examined, and finally, says the Bishop,
1 we were freely splashed with the entrails, and the
ceremony which made us brothers was completed.'
Hannington had a narrow escape from death
a few days later in a new territory. He had
scarcely aroused himself from sleep one morning
when a shrill war-cry rang through the forest,
and a large body of armed men sprang from the
bushes and bore down upon him. ' Thank God my
old nerve remained. I ran forward alone and un-
armed to meet them, for the least false step on
the part of our men would have caused a general
10
136 BISHOP OF EASTERN AFRICA
massacre. *I must confess that my heart seemed
to jump into my mouth as they charged up the
hill, yelling and brandishing their spears. I seized
a bough as a token of peace, and shouted, " Jambo !
good-morning ! Do you want to kill a white
man ? " A sudden halt, and a dead pause ; at
last, " No, we don't ; but we thought you were
Masai." ' The Masai were a thieving and murdering
tribe who made frequent raids upon the peaceably
disposed people of this district. They thought
they had cornered a group of them, and meant
to massacre the lot.
Hannington considered this journey, to the
great mountain and back, as most successful.
He had enjoyed excellent health almost the whole
way, during a tramp, allowing for the inevitable
windings, of more than 500 miles.
On his return to Frere Town the Bishop had the
great joy of ordaining the first native ministers
of the infant East African Church. They were
William Jones and Ishmael Michael Semler, both
of them rescued slaves, men who had given proof
of sincerity, zeal, and spiritual gifts. He made
a second journey to Taita and returned to the
coast in record quick time. From Taita he sent
forward Wray and the Rev. E. A. Fitch (who
had come out from England with Hannington
as Bishop's chaplain) to found a station at Moschi,
Mandara's capital in Chagga.
The Bishop had kept in mind, throughout his
AN UNKNOWN FACTOR 137
expedition to Kilimanjaro, his ulterior object,
namely, the marking out of a new route to Uganda,
approaching that country by the north-east, instead
of by the south, of the Victoria Nyanza. ' He was
overjoyed to think,' writes Mr. Dawson, ' that
upon this new route there were no difficulties
which might not be overcome by courage, prudence,
and experience. No ghastly malarial fevers ; no
cruel dysenteric attacks, as on the lower road.
When he compared his experiences upon this
journey with those of his terrible march from Zanzi-
bar to the lake in the previous year, he was filled
with a kind of triumph. What if it were possible
to push straight through, as Thomson had done,
to the north end of the Nyanza ! Might not many
lives be saved, and incalculable suffering averted ? '
The only serious difficulty appeared to be the
lawless and irrepressible Masai. But others had
overcome that ; why not he ? Yet there was a
vital factor in the situation of which even the most
experienced were ignorant, a factor which was to
seal the fate of the intrepid missionary. What
was that ? We shall see.
Chapter IX
THE LAST JOURNEY
The northern Route to the Victoria Nyanza — The Bishop the
only white Man of the Expedition — The most savage Regions
of Africa — The dreaded Masai Warriors — Loss of the Medicine
Chest — The Bishop's fearless Manner towards hostile
Natives — Adventure with a Rhinoceros — The Difficulties of
buying Food — A Covenant of Blood — Blinded by Bees —
The Masai Warriors — ' A very great old Man ' — Elephant
Steaks — The Bishop leaves the main Caravan — Anxious
Days — Report of his Murder.
THE route taken by Bishop Hannington from
Frere Town to Usoga, on the north-east oi
the Victoria Nyanza, is clearly shown in the
map which accompanies this volume. Various
points of geographical interest would emerge in a
detailed, day-by-day narrative of this great expedi-
tion, but in this little book we shall pass over these.
Our concern is with the human and personal interest
of the adventure.
Hannington resolved that he would take no other
white man with him on this perilous journey,
lying for a great part through the country of a very
savage race and involving, in its last portion, the
treading of unknown soil. He was anxious that if
138
LU
A HAUNTING FEAR 139
he got into any difficulty or trouble he should not
involve any of his friends in the result. ' My
feeling is that I would rather be alone/ he writes
to his wife, ' as the anxiety is rather increased than
otherwise by another man, however good he may
be. I feel this — that another man could add
nothing to my safety/
The Bishop led the way out of Rabai on Thursday,
July 23, 1885, at the head of a caravan 200
strong. Two days later Hannington wrote to the
C.M.S. Committee that he believed the God of Love
was going to give him a time of rest and peace and
a slight cessation from toil. ' While the Committee
is in Scotland, in Switzerland, or, it may be,
eating shrimps at Margate, I shall be taking
things easily in some of the savagest regions of
Africa.'
There had been considerable difficulty in hiring
the porters, because of the dread which was enter-
tained of the Masai warriors, through whose country
the route lay. The terror of these truculent young
blood-shedders and cattle-lifters ' lay like a night-
mare upon the minds of their own countrymen.'
Hannington was always both firm and considerate
towards the members of his caravan ; they had the
utmost confidence in his kindness and justice, and
he had also wonderful success in dealing with the
tribes, not always disposed to be friendly, en-
countered on the march.
The haunting fear of the Bishop through the
140 THE LAST JOURNEY
expedition was the want of food. The country
had suffered from a famine and was not yet far on
the road to recovery. The apprehension of starva-
tion finds expression again and again in his letters
and diary. ' If/ he writes, ' I had been permitted
to start with fifty men less I should have been
more sanguine. But if this is God's time for opening
up this road, we shall open it up!
Hannington's cheerfulness and philosophy never
failed him under the multitude of vexations and
mishaps which must always mark an enterprise
of this sort. At a certain point his watch went
wrong, the candles and lamp-oil were forgotten and
left behind, his donkey died, and so he was compelled
to walk every step of the way. ' Well,' says the
Bishop by way of comment, * having no watch, I
don't wake up in the night to see if it is time to
get up, but wait till daylight dawns. Having no
candle, I don't read at night, which never suits me.
Having no donkey, I can judge better as to distances,
and as to what the men can do.'
The Rev. William Jones, a native clergyman
who accompanied the Bishop as far as Kwa Sundu
and took out of his hands many of the lesser worries
and responsibilities of the management, kept a
journal of the expedition. Further, Hannington's
own tiny pocket diary, with its daily jottings, was
recovered by a Christian lad at Rubaga, who bought
it from one of the band that murdered him. From
these sources, the Rev. E. C. Dawson, M.A., makes
THE MEDICINE CHEST GONE 141
liberal extracts, and from these extracts we have
compiled our own narrative.
The Bishop, as we have already pointed out,
had a rare power of winning the hearts of those with
whom he had to do, European or native. When
the caravan was leaving Taita, one of the Wa-
Zaramo boys who had been engaged to carry food
for the caravan, and who were all paid off and
discharged near Taita, insisted that he would
follow the Bishop. No arguments availed.
' Whither thou goest I will go/ and finally the
poor lad was taken.
A serious mishap befell the expedition within
three weeks of its starting. One day the boy who
bore the medicine chest was nowhere to be found.
The Bishop would not believe that the boy had run
away, nor did it seem probable that he would do
so in a region remote from the coast. In the early
days of an expedition the danger of desertions is
very great, because many of the porters enlist merely
for the sake of the advance wages which they get
before the start, intending to give the caravan
the slip at the first favourable opportunity. When
they have got some distance into the interior, it
is more difficult to retreat than to advance, and
accordingly they then go on peaceably enough.
However, the medicine boy was gone, and it was
hardly safe to go on without the chest he had been
carrying. The Bishop offered a handsome reward
for the finding of the boy, and detached ten men
'I
142 THE LAST JOURNEY
to search for him. It was all in vain. Yet on
they went into the perilous unknown.
Hannington showed both justice and fearlessness
in his dealings with the natives with whom he
came in contact. They were frequently trouble-
some and made exorbitant demands for tribute.
What was offered them they would scornfully
accept and ask for more. On one occasion, being
more than usually exasperated, the Bishop ordered
the tribute that had been already given to them to
be taken away, and calmly walked off to his tent.
The elders of the people were confounded, not
being accustomed to be treated otherwise than
with humble deference by passing caravans. When,
however, they saw that the white man was in
earnest, they called for the interpreter and begged
that his master would not be angry, but would let
them have the original gift.
The way of the caravan, on another occasion,
as blocked by a mob of armed men, demanding
gifts and threatening, if these were not forthcoming,
to fight. On the expedition moved, however,
menaced on every side by the infuriated mob. The
interpreter counselled submission to their demands,
in order to avert the massacre of the whole caravan,
and we are told that the native who bore the Union
Jack trembled fearfully. Presently Hannington
appeared. At the sight of him, says Mr. Jones,
the barbarians gave way like a cloud before the
wind. ' They were all amazed to see the Bishop,
SMILING AT THREATS 143
for many of them had never seen a white man in
their life. They stood thunderstruck and gazing
at him. The Bishop made his way through the
crowd. Then many of them resisted him with all
their might, but he walked rapidly on, quite regard-
less of their yellings and ferocious cries. Twice
they barred our way with a human fence, and
twice we passed through them to their great astonish-
ment. The Bishop all this time was quite calm,
and only smiled at all their gestures and menaces.
At last we came to a stream which divided one
district from another. They refused to let us pass,
but the Bishop went straight ahead, and was
followed by all the caravan/ Later in the day the
same men who had showed themselves so truculent
came to the camp, in a quite peaceful attitude and
frame of mind, to barter and dispose of their goods.
The Bishop and Jones one day sighted a rhino-
ceros, and, as the caravan wanted meat, they tried
to stalk him. They succeeded — says Mr. Dawson,
who tells the story — in creeping within twenty
yards of the monster, who happened to have keen
scent but short sight. Then he spied his enemies.
Down they both dropped upon the grass.
1 Fire, my lord ! ' said Jones.
• No/ replied the Bishop ; ' as he stands I cannot
get a good shot ; wait/
It is not pleasant to kneel face to face with a
rhinoceros in an open plain, with the knowledge
that if the brute makes out your whereabouts
))
144 THE LAST JOURNEY
he will come thundering down upon you like an
express locomotive.
Jones got nervous. ' Fire, my lord ! he
whispered anxiously.
But the Bishop would not, and the two remained
in their uneasy position, like two devotees of Siva,
with their knees bent before the grim idol. At
last the great beast dashed round with a snort.
The Bishop leaped to his feet and fired, but failed
to stop it, and after a short chase had to return
without his rhinoceros steaks. The hungry camp
was bitterly disappointed.
A few days later the Bishop had a narrow escape
from another rhinoceros, which almost charged
him home. A shot in the head produced no effect,
and the second shot, which turned him, was de-
livered point-blank at four yards' distance.
The extraordinary difficulty of procuring food
from the natives is well illustrated in the account
of Hannington's dealings with the Wa-Kikuyu,
a tribe which had suffered severely from the Swahili
slave-traders, and was in consequence both very
timid and very vindictive towards all the caravans
that proceeded through their country.
The Bishop was anxious to hold some intercourse
with the Wa-Kikuyu, but they dared not venture
down to his camp. He therefore went to them
with an escort of only ten men, but they fled before
him. Hannington's men were without food, and
the camp resounded with their wails,, ' Let us go
TIMID SAVAGES 145
back/ some cried. Others asked, ' Is this our
last place ? Have we been brought here to die ? '
It was with the very greatest difficulty that the
Bishop purchased a few sweet potatoes from the
Wa-Kikuyu, and thus for the moment averted
disaster.
Early next morning Jones started off with
twenty men, to see if they could do business with
the Wa-Kikuyu. As payment for their intended
purchases, they took a few strings of beads, some
cloth, and iron wire. They crossed a stream,
made a fire upon a rock and sat down, having
fired guns as a salute and to announce their presence,
though they could see no one through the impene-
trable undergrowth. After waiting two hours a
man came out from the forest, with fresh leaves
in his hand, as a mark of peace. Jones and his
men plucked leaves and waved them. Then the
timid savage drew near, with a message from his
chief, desiring to know whether Jones had come
to fight or to buy gram. When he got his
answer he flew back to his friends and was lost to
view.
Three men next stepped out of the wood, said
that the chief was coming, and disappeared.
Then the chief arrived, a man of about fifty,
half-drunk, and reeling. He spat copiously on his
hand and shook hands with Jones, who said that
he desired to ' eat muma ' with him. To ' eat
muma' is a ceremony by which friendship is
146 THE LAST JOURNEY
supposed to be sealed. Blood is extracted from
the arms of both parties to the contract, and a
piece of meat dipped in the mingled blood is eaten
by each. The two then are accounted ' brothers.'
The chief refused to ' eat muma ' with Jones,
but clamoured for the presents he had brought ;
he promised that after receiving them his people
would bring food for sale.
Off the savages went with their gifts, and a
quarter of an hour later buying and selling began.
Trade had scarcely become brisk when the Wa-
Kikuyu showed signs of hostility. From a distance
they brandished their swords and threw poisoned
arrows in the direction of Jones, who quietly gave
orders to his men to hold their guns in readiness.
The Wa-Kikuyu made the women who were selling
turn back. The children all fled. Only the men
remained, yelling and throwing arrows. Jones
and his escort, without firing a shot, retired slowly
into the jungle with the food they had bought,
keeping their faces towards the enemy.
But the expedition in its desperate straits could
not afford to allow itself to be discouraged. The
Bishop wanted to face the Wa-Kikuyu, armed
with his umbrella, but his followers dissuaded him
from this course. Next day, however, a hundred
men left his camp in order to buy food. This
time the Wa-Kikuyu came down in great numbers,
and there seemed a good chance of doing business.
But some of Hannington's men attempted to
THE TROUBLES OF BUSINESS 147
steal, there was a scuffle, one man received two
sword cuts on his thigh and another had his skull
fractured with a club. Business was again in-
terrupted.
The Bishop now took a hand in the matter
personally. With a hundred men he sought to
reopen negotiations with these tiresome Wa-Kikuyu.
All went well for a little, but presently one of
Hannington' s headmen saw a man making off
with his upper garment and ran after him, firing
a charge without a bullet to stop him. Immediately
the market broke up and the Wa-Kikuyu fled in
all directions into the jungle. But the Bishop,
seeing what would follow if the men were allowed
to do what they pleased, ran and stood where the
natives had piled their saleable things, and prevented
any of his men from snatching them. He then
ordered the men to march to their camp and leave
him alone.
Presently a native peered out of the thicket,
and when the Bishop beckoned to him drew near,
and Hannington gave all the goods- belonging to his
people into his hands and then returned to camp,
very angry with his men. The man who fired
at the native had his gun taken from him and
was severely reprimanded.
The Bishop went out again next day with seventy
men. This time he determined to purchase every-
thing himself. When the natives came down,
Hannington concentrated his men on one spot,
148 THE LAST JOURNEY
from whicfi he forbade them to move. Things
went for a while very smoothly, till suddenly the
cry of ' Masai ' was raised and a number of warriors
leapt from the jungle with spears and shields.
It was a false alarm, but the Wa-Kikuyu took
fright, and again the market was stopped.
The Bishop returned weary and disgusted. The
men were daily growing weaker and weaker and
it would soon be impossible to move either forward
or backward .
A more successful attempt to purchase food
was made a few days later. Hannington again
went out with about one hundred men whom he
caused to sit in a circle while he dealt with the
Wa-Kikuyu, with whom the plain was crowded
and who crept in on every side. The Bishop's
men were in considerable apprehension, and each
of them had his loaded gun by his side. When the
natives had completed their sales, they assumed
a defiant attitude and raised their war-cry. The
women fled. Hannington ran to the front and
waved some grass in token of peace, and for a
time order was restored. Looking round, however,
he saw a group of men close behind him, with
their bows bent, and on the point of shooting.
When they caught his eye, the}'' retreated.
At last, after a fortnight's delay, the Bishop
had purchased enough food to justify him in making
a move forward, and he was done with these
exasperating Wa-Kikuyu. The whole incident is
BLINDED BY BEES 149
a good illustration of the patience, scrupulous
justice, and cool courage which Hannington showed
in his dealings with natives.
A few days later, when the caravan was in motion,
a host of the Wa-Kikuyu made an attack upon
the sick who were being carried in the rear. The
men in charge of the patients fled, but, wonderful
to relate, the invalids suddenly revived and also
took to their heels, escaping with a few blows
from clubs. The Bishop and some of his men,
arriving on the scene, put the assailants to flight
with a single volley.
A new enemy in the shape of a swarm of bees,
numbering thousands, now assailed the caravan.
The insects covered the ground for some 200 yards
in every direction from the tree whence they had
descended. The men ran for their lives, many
of them dropping their loads. Some of them
actually cried like children and called upon their
mothers. The Bishop was driven back in an
attempt to reach the deserted loads. Draping
himself in his mosquito curtains he tried again
and succeeded, but not without being stung most
pitifully. Jones was almost totally blind for two
days as the result of his injuries.
The dreaded Masai warriors were encountered
by the caravan a day or two later. The young
braves surrounded the Bishop and his men, but
did not seem to design mischief. The women
came into the camp and sold things. It appears
>
^
150 THE LAST JOURNEY
that the tarm of service of the Masai warrior lasts
from his youth until he is about thirty, when he
marries. He makes a good fighting man ; living
on nothing but flesh and milk, his body is strong
and healthy. He adds to the fearsomeness of
his appearance by smearing himself with oil and
red earth. In his warrior days he is idle, cruel,
and haughty, holding all other natives, and par-
ticularly the coast porters, in contempt, and very
exacting in his demands for tribute. When he
marries he lays down his spear, and with it lays
aside his fierceness and settles down to a peaceable
life, showing himself remarkably kind to strangers
^ and especially to women.
The Bishop's troubles with the Masai were
comparatively slight. They were very hard to
satisfy in the matter of tribute, and, after being
liberally treated, took to wholesale pilfering. They
tore open the loads and turned over the boxes,
Hannington's men not daring to interfere lest
they might provoke a massacre. The Masai were
everywhere, rilling the Bishop's chair, cot, wash-
tub, bags, and biscuit-boxes. Jones perceiving
a load of wire being borne away by a group of
young warriors, gave chase, flung himself into
their midst and dashed the load to the ground
without regarding their threatening spears. They
were greatly astonished and then gave way, and
Jones carried the load back in triumph to the
^ camp. One of Hannington's men got his head
THE MASAI WARRIORS 151
cut open with a spear-thrust; another had his clothes'
stolen, but Jones compelled the culprit to make
restitution. The Masai insisted upon seeing how
the members of the caravan ate. They touched
and befouled everything with their filthy fingers. .
The Bishop personally was fortunate enough to
gain the admiration of the Masai. They examined
him closely, stroked his hair and smoothed his
beard. Then stepping back to get a good view
of his figure, they murmured, ' Lumuruo Kito ! '
which, being interpreted, signifies, ' A very great
old man ! ' As a matter of fact, Hannington was
only thirty-seven at the time, but sufferings and
privations may have aged him in appearance, .
though they had certainly not robbed his heart '
of its youth. In his familiar correspondence he
would sometimes in fun refer to himself as old,
and his drawings of himself in various predicaments,
mostly amusing, invariably represent him as
much older than he was or could have appeared.
Three Masai brought the Bishop an ox for sale.
With these he made great friends, allowing them
to pass the night in his tent. He writes that,
' Having strewed the floor with the leaves of the
sweet-scented Caleshwa, we laid us down, their
spears and shields at their sides. They packed
themselves away like sardines in a box, and I covered
them over, first with a leopard's skin, then with a
grass mat, and finally with a waterproof sheet. They
fell almost immediately into a most gentle sleep/
11
C 152 THE LAST JOURNEY
Mr. Dawson aptly compares living among the
Masai with ' moving among a troop of lithe and
beautiful, but half -tamed leopards. The traveller
has to be ever on the alert, or he will be pinned
by the throat.' As vividly suggesting the perils
- from which Hannington had escaped, we may
mention that on the morrow of leaving the Masai
he encamped at a place where some years before
a caravan of 1000 men was surrounded and cut'
to pieces by these ferocious warriors.
One day while the Bishop was preparing to
settle with a cow elephant which was charging down
upon him, two rhinoceroses whom he did not see,
proceeding, as they were, from another direction,
also made straight for the valiant hunter. Just
as the cow elephant was getting home, the rhino-
ceroses got in between. Thereupon the elephant
turned her attention to them. And so this great
sight was witnessed : the Bishop volleying the
elephant, the elephant chasing the rhinoceroses,
and the caravan men dashing down their loads
and scattering in every direction before the great
beasts. However, the Bishop brought down his
elephant, and the people shouted for joy. The
men scrambled forward with their knives, and in a
few minutes the huge beast was cut in pieces.
Some of the men ate the flesh raw, while others
made large fires and sat round to enjoy their feast.
Every now and then we come upon tender,
touching, wistful passages in the Bishop's record
1 •
' Jm/sl * ^ ^^
W* "v *&-T$to^M
'* • •u* T if
•^ p^ ''^iij
m&?
• , «*f
THE BISHOP VOLLEYING THE ELEPHANT, AND THE ELEPHANT
CHASING THE RHINOCEROSES. [See page 152.]
THE CRISIS OF THE ADVENTURE 153
of his experiences. ' We had our two pleasant
services ' — he is writing about a Sunday — ' and the
day passed in the most absolute rest and peace.
I lay stretched on my back in quiet contemplation
and sweet dreams of dear ones at home, and often
longing, often wondering whether I shall be per-
mitted to see them/ He never saw them again.
In spite of doubts and fears he pressed on doggedly,
often very fatigued. ' As a sign how tired one can
be/ he wrote, ' on Friday last, when going to bed,
I took a bite from a biscuit, and fell asleep with
the first mouthful still in my mouth, and the rest
in my hand/
And now we approach the crisis of this great
adventure for the cause of Christ. The caravan
had now reached Kwa Sundu. The Bishop here
decided that he would proceed to the Victoria
Nyanza alone, leaving Jones behind in charge
of the caravan. He selected from the 200 fifty
porters to accompany him. Did he reach Uganda,
and find that any of the missionaries wished
to return, he intended that they should take
the new route by Kavirondo, leading back Jones
and the caravan with them. For himself, having
done all that seemed necessary and desirable in
Uganda, he would visit the churches which were
established to the south of the lake, and return to
the coast by the old Unyamwezi route.
Accordingly, the Bishop and his faithful native
chaplain parted — for ever, as it was decreed — on
154 THE LAST JOURNEY
October 12, 1885. Hannington was not at all well,
an abscess in his leg gave him considerable pain,
but he would not be held back. Thirteen days
pass, there is no news from the Bishop, and Jones
begins to get very anxious about his friend's safety
and that of the caravan under his own charge.
' If the Bishop does not come this way,' he writes
in his journal, ' I shall have to return by the same
way that we came. Wherever we passed oui
caravan was laughed at, owing to our small numbers
What will they say when they see us still less in
returning ? ' On October 30 a rumour reached
Jones that Hannington had been attacked by a
neighbouring tribe, but nothing was said about
the Bishop's personal safety. Jones thought he
had reason for disregarding this report as utterly
false. However, at noon on Sunday, November 8,
Bedue, one of the men, came to Jones, sighing and
breathing hard.
' What's the matter ? ' said Jones to Bedue.
' Two men have come to me,' said Bedue, ' with
the report that the Bishop and his party have been
killed ! '
* Where are they ? Bring them to me at once that
I may learn the truth of their story,' replied Jones.
The two men presented themselves. They said
that they had picked up three of Hannington's
men, who had managed to escape when the Bishop
and his men were being killed. They had not
themselves witnessed the massacre nor seen the
CAN IT BE TRUE? 155
dead bodies. As the three men who were alleged
to have escaped had not made their appearance,
Jones persuaded himself that his two informants
were deceiving him. They said that if Jones would
give them presents they would fetch the three men,
but he refused their offer and gave them nothing.
At the same time he was full of trepidation.
Presently one of the three refugees arrived in
camp, stripped of everything. He reported that
the Bishop and his party had been seized on the
confines of Uganda, imprisoned for nine days, and
then slain one by one. Before he had finished his
tale the two remaining men arrived. One of them
had been speared in the right arm. All three
agreed that the Bishop was dead, but as to the
manner of his death there were discrepancies in
the narratives. One said that the Bishop was
speared and his Portuguese cook shot. The other
two said that the Bishop was shot with two guns
and the Portuguese cook with one. Jones could
get no satisfactory reply from these three men as
to how they had managed to escape. Accordingly
he gave out that the report was false/ that these
men had wickedly deserted the Bishop, and in-
structed all the members of the caravan to represent
to the people of the village that the rumour was
tying.
But he could not help asking himself, in great
distress of mind, ' Can it be true that the Bishop
is killed ? '
Chapter X
WHAT HAD HAPPENED IN UGANDA 1
The first Administration of the Lord's Supper in Uganda —
Death of King Mtesa — King Mwanga disquieted by the
German Annexations — ' The Back-Door of Uganda ' —
Persecution of native Christians — Mwanga sends Messengers
to order the seizure of the Bishop — Rumours of his Murder
reach the Missionaries in Uganda.
OUR very brief summary of the wonderful
story of Uganda, given in a previous chapter,
had brought us to the point when the
missionaries were beginning to reap fruit from their
labours, when they had baptized their first converts.
We ought to add here, before proceeding further,
that only one member of Hannington's first ex-
pedition attained his goal at that time — the Rev.
R. P. Ashe, B.A., reached Uganda. At a later
period Gordon also had the joy of working among
the Baganda.
We have mentioned that Hannington, in his
first expedition, took out with him a boat with
1 The materials for this chapter are derived from the two
excellent and indispensable works acknowledged at the beginning
of Chapter IV. in this little book.
i S 6
PROGRESS OF THE GOSPEL 157
which to navigate the Victoria Nyanza. Alexander
Mackay came over from Uganda to the south
side of the lake in order to put the pieces together,
and the little craft was launched at the end of
1883. Mackay gave it the name of ' Mirembe/
meaning 'peace/ He made several voyages in
1 Mirembe,' and in his narrative of one of them
he dwells on the joy of having with him nine
Christian boys whose singing of hymns in the night,
as they rowed, was a great cheer.
Mackay, O' Flaherty, and Ashe were in Uganda
together for more than two years and a
half ; Mackay engaged with works innumerable,
O' Flaherty busy with translations of Scripture,
and Ashe teaching the boys. Mtesa continued
as capricious as ever, and the Arabs as hostile
as ever, but during the greater part of the time
the Jesuits were away. Between March 1882 and
November 1884 eighty-four persons were baptized,
all of them after careful instruction and testing ;
and on October 28, 1883, for the first time the
Lord's Supper was administered to twenty-one
converts.
' It soon became fashionable,' writes Mr. Dawson,
' to learn to read. The store-houses and offices
of the Court were literally converted into reading-
rooms. Lads might be seen everywhere, sitting
in groups, or sprawling on the hay-covered floor,
all reading — some the Book of Commandments,
some the Church prayers, others the Kiswahili
158 WHAT HAD HAPPENED IN UGANDA
New Testament. Nor were the books and papers
given to them for nothing. They were both ready
and eager to buy whatever literature they could
get/ Among the converts was one of Mtesa's
own daughters.
King Mtesa died on October 10, 1884. He
had often talked of becoming a Christian. More
than once he had asked for baptism, for he knew
that the message brought to him was true. But
he would not give up his sins, and so died outside
the pale of the Church of Christ. Mackay
had frequently addressed to the king the most
earnest and passionate appeals. ' You have the
New Testament ; read there for yourself. God will
judge you by that. There never was anyone
yet who looked for the truth there and did not
find it. 1 But Mtesa had remained obdurate.
At his death, if custom had been followed, all
his sons except the one chosen to succeed him
would have been slain, and probably there would
have been also a general massacre in which all
foreigners in the country would have fallen
victims. But the work of the missionaries had
wrought a great change in the spirit of the people,
their ideas of right and wrong had been clarified
and strengthened, and accordingly, though the
whole country went into mourning, no one was
put to death.
Mwanga, the new king, was a youth of eighteen.
He had received instruction from the C.M.S.
THE GERMAN ANNEXATIONS 159
missionaries, and also from the Roman Catholic
priests, but little impression had been made upon
his heart. His father, with all his caprice, per-
versity, and vice, had possessed a considerable
measure of enlightenment ; Mwanga had all his
father's defects and, as far as could be discerned,
a very small share of his redeeming qualities.
He was dowered with more than a pro-
portionate quantity of the dominating vice of
Africans — namely, greed. He requested Mackay
to go across the lake and bring up some more
white men — the idea being to exact valuable
presents from these. Mackay went, but returned
without white men. The unfriendly chiefs at
Court suggested that he had never intended to
bring back white men, but had used the opportunity
to communicate with Mwanga' s enemies. Then
Mwanga bethought him to invite the French
priests to return to his country.
Mwanga's fear and hatred of Europeans sprung
from intelligible causes. The news of the German
annexations, though these were carried out far
distant from Uganda, had reached his ears ; he
was fully persuaded that the white man would come
and eat up his country, and the Arabs about his
Court, for obvious reasons, encouraged him in that
belief. ' Alarm was at its height/ wrote Mackay,
1 the Court counselled killing all the missionaries,
as we were only the forerunners of invasion/
A recent happening had given colour to this
160 WHAT HAD HAPPENED IN UGANDA
suspicion. *Mr. Joseph Thomson had just made
his memorable journey from Mombasa to the north
side of Victoria Nyanza. It is true that he did
not quite reach Uganda, but he had got near
enough to alarm the king of that country ; his
journey showed the practicability of the route,
and mapped it out for those who should follow.
This proceeding was very disquieting to Mwanga.
The people of Uganda regarded the Victoria
Nyanza as their natural frontier, and deeply resented
and suspected attempts to reach them in any other
way. The alarm was raised that Uganda might
be entered by the back-door, as it was called.
A cruel persecution now began. No attempt
was made to molest the Europeans, but it was
sought to isolate them, to render their past work
fruitless, and bring their present operations to a
standstill. The natives who showed themselves
favourable to the Christian teachers, or received
their instruction, were very severely handled.
Three of the Court pages were, on January 31, 1885,
put to death — cut about cruelly with long, curved
knives, and then thrown on to a large fire.
As ever, the blood of the martyrs was the seed
of the Church. Many of the people became eager
for baptism and received it. One of the execu-
tioners was so impressed by the behaviour of the
pages under torture of knife and fire that he came
to learn to pray. The native Christians were not
daunted, although Mwanga threatened to burn
SICKENING SUSPENSE 161
alive any who frequented the mission premises.
On July 26 there was a congregation of 173 souls,
and thirty-five partook of the Communion. A
Church Council was formed, consisting of the leading
members among the native Christians, to act in
case the missionaries should be suddenly expelled
or obliged to withdraw. Mackay went on, in
perfect calmness of mind and undiminished vigour,
with the work of translating and printing. The
translations were actually revised by the native
converts, in order to get as near to absolute accuracy
as possible.
Meanwhile rumours had reached Uganda that
white men were approaching the country from the
north end of the Victoria Nyanza. The missionaries,
knowing the incensed feelings of Mwanga towards
Europeans, and the rooted objection to entrance
into the country by ' the back-door/ were greatly
alarmed. Mackay was charged with sending his
friends to Busoga, there to collect an army, while
he stole away the hearts of the people in Uganda
from their king. When they heard that the leader
of the expedition was a tall, middle-aged man who
had lost a thumb, they trembled, for they recognised
Hannington. They constantly sought interviews
with Mwanga to induce him to allow them to meet
him and conduct him themselves to the capital ;
but their petitions were unavailing. They heard
that the king had ordered the Bishop to be seized,
and they waited in sickening suspense for the issue.
1 62 WHAT HAD HAPPENED IN UGANDA
Mackay wrote in his journal on October 30 : ' After
dark, Ismail came to tell us that messengers had
returned from Busoga with the tidings that the
white men had been killed, with all their porters/
Was this true ? And if it was, how had it come
to pass ?
Hannington knew that Mtesa was dead, but of
what else had transpired in Uganda he knew nothing.
Very probably it had never entered his head that
the news of the German annexations was known
in that country, or, if known, would excite any
alarm so very far in the interior. But the factor
of which he and all the experts were ignorant, yet
the factor which sealed his doom, was the ineradic-
able objection of the people of Uganda to any
entrance of their country from the north-east.
The danger which had been foreseen, the hostility
of the savage Masai warriors, had been overcome ;
the unseen and unknown danger was to prove fatal.
Chapter XI
THE MARTYRDOM OF BISHOP
HANNINGTON
Laughing away Obstruction — Encamping between two War
Parties — Held a Prisoner — Harsh treatment — Tortured by
Fever and Anxiety — Deceived by hopes of Liberty — Led
forth to Execution — The Bishop's majesty in the presence
of his Murderers — ' I die for the People of Uganda ' — The
blue Pennon — A sad Procession — A noble Martyr.
WE now resume the narrative of the Bishop's
adventure after he left Jones and the bulk
of the caravan behind at Kwa Sundu on
October 12.
Within a week Hannington had walked about
170 miles. The lake suddenly burst upon his view
long before he expected to see it. The people
through whose country he traversed were friendly,
but each petty chief wished him to stay with him
for a day or two, and Hannington was all impatience
to get on. This pertinacity sometimes excited
feelings of hostility, and threats of violence were
not wanting. His own men were terrified, but
Hannington merely laughed away obstruction, and
on October 17 he found himself on the shore of
163
1 64 MARTYRDOM OF BISHOP HANNINGTON
the lake. ** We are in the midst of awful swamps,'
he wrote in his journal, so wonderfully recovered
after the catastrophe, ' and mosquitoes as savage
as bees/ He had a strange foreboding of disaster
in spite of the fact that everything, so far, had
gone well. The nearer he got to his goal the more
anxious he seemed to be about arriving. When he
expressed this feeling he was within a fortnight of
his death.
He was now in Usoga. He fell in with a mob
of warriors from Uganda, many of whom were
drunk and in a dangerous mood, coming round
him, shouting and yelling, and ordering him about.
However, he opposed them merely by sticking his
fist in the faces of the most noisy, and pushing
through the mob. He encamped between two
war-parties, having both within earshot, and finding
his men very difficult to manage on account of their
terror.
The Bishop came face to face with Lubwa, the
ruler of Usoga and a vassal of King Mwanga, on
October 21. In an insolent tone the savage chieftain
demanded ten guns and three barrels of powder.
Hannington of course refused. He was requested
to remain three days, and again refused. Then
the war-drums beat, and he was surrounded
by more than 1000 soldiers. At last Hannington
consented to stay one day. A soldier was placed
to guard him in his tent, and follow him if he moved
away from it. He climbed a neighbouring hill
THEY FORCED ME UP AND HURRIED ME AWAY. [See page 165.]
HANNINGTON ROUGHLY HANDLED 165
and got a splendid view of the Nile, issuing out of
the great lake, half an hour's distance away. But
he was refused permission to visit it.
What followed is best told in the Bishop's own
words : ' I asked my headman, Brahim, to come with
me to the point close at hand whence I had seen
the Nile, as our men had begun to doubt its exist-
ence ; several followed up, and one, pretending
to show me another view, led me farther away,
when suddenly all twenty ruffians set upon us.
They violently threw me to the ground, and
proceeded to strip me of all valuables. Thinking
they were robbers, I shouted for help, when they
forced me up and hurried me away, as I thought
to throw me down a precipice close at hand. I
shouted again, in spite of one threatening to kill
me with a club. Twice I nearly broke away from
them, and then grew faint with struggling, and
was dragged by the legs over the ground. I said,
" Lord, I put myself in Thy hands, I look to Thee
alone." Then another struggle, and I got to
my feet, and was thus dashed along. More than
once I was violently brought into contact with
banana trees, some trying in their haste to force
me one way, others the other, and the exertion
and struggling strained me in the most agonising
manner. In spite of all, and feeling I was being
dragged away to be murdered at a distance, I
sang " Safe in the arms of Jesus," and then laughed
at the very agony of my situation. My clothes
1 66 MARTYRDOM OF BISHOP HANNINGTON
torn to pieces so that I was exposed ; wet through
with being dragged along the ground ; strained
in every limb, and for a whole hour expecting
instant death, hurried along, dragged, pushed,
at about five miles an hour, until we came to a
hut, into the court of which I was forced. Now, I
thought, I am to be murdered. As they released
one hand, I drew my finger across my throat,
and understood them to say decidedly, No.'
Hannington was informed that he had been
seized by order of Lubwa, and that he was to be
kept prisoner until the pleasure of Mwanga should
be known. Meanwhile he was tormented with
dismal apprehensions concerning the fate of his
men. Were they all murdered ? After two or
three hours of suspense, during which he remained
bound and shivering with cold, Hannington was
relieved by the arrival of his Portuguese cook
and a boy, with his bed and bedding. The men,
like their leader, were likewise robbed, seized,
and detained as prisoners.
The hut in which the Bishop was confined was
warmed by a fire on the hearth, but there was
no chimney and no ventilation. Rats and other
vermin swarmed, and the floor was covered with
rotting banana peel and leaves and filth. He was
in great pain, and consumed with thirst. It was
so dark that he could scarcely see to read or write,
and the prisoner was so weak that he could scarcely
hold up his small Bible. About twenty men
BROKEN IN HEALTH AND NERVES 167
shared this wretched hovel with him. Towards
evening he was allowed to sit outside for a little
time and enjoy the fresh air ; but when he returned
his prison only seemed the more unbearable to
him, and, broken down in health and nerves, he burst
into tears. Though he was so feeble the savages
guarded him as if he were a giant in full vigour.
During the evening of October 22-23 l° U( i yells
and war-cries arose outside the fence which sur-
rounded the prison -hut, and Hannington fully
expected to be murdered. But he simply turned
over and said, ' Let the Lord do as He sees fit ;
I shall not make the slightest resistance/
During the day the Bishop was summoned by
his guards to come outside his prison. When
he emerged he was face to face with Lubwa,
with about 100 of his wives, who had come
to feast their eyes on him in cruel curiosity.
Hannington confesses that he felt inclined to
spring at the savage chieftain's throat, but restrained
himself, and refreshed himself by reading, ' Love
your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good
to them that hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you, and persecute you ; that ye
may be the children of your Father which is in
heaven : for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and
on the unjust ' (Matt. v. 44, 45).
Lubwa agreed to allow the Bishop to sleep in
his own tent, with two armed soldiers at each
12
1 68 MARTYRDOM OF BISHOP HANNINGTON
door. After a good night's rest Hannington found
himself able to say that he forgave the old scoundrel
and his agents for their rough treatment of him,
although he could only move with the greatest
discomfort and ached as though he had rheumatic
fever. But, with his usual soundness of judgment,
he came to the conclusion that, in the interests
of other travellers in that region, the outrage
could not be overlooked.
His sense of humour did not desert him even in
this most perilous extremity. He says that his
guards became very careless, and that he might in
a few days be able to escape. In this hope he was
doubtless quite mistaken, for Mwanga had resolved
to remove him by death ; but it is characteristic
of Hannington that he should add, ' I should be
the more inclined to stop should they say Go, to
be a thorn in the old gentleman's [Lubwa's] side,
and I fear from an inborn feeling of contrariness.
I send him affectionate greetings and reports on
my health by his messengers twice a day.'
Hannington and his guards became very good
friends. Their relations were almost affectionate.
Three detachments of the chief's wives — he
was believed to have iooo in all — came to
see the distinguished white prisoner. They were,
on this second occasion, quiet, well-behaved, and
greatly amused. Two of his men came daily
backwards and forwards to bring him food. This
duty was allotted in turns, and there was great
VISITS FROM THE CHIEFS WIVES 169
competition each day among these devoted souls as
to who should perform that office for their brave
and greatly admired leader.
Signs of fever crept over Hannington during
his fifth day in prison. He was still without
suspicion of the fate that was in store for him. He
was hourly expecting the arrival of a message
from Mwanga, saying that he might advance.
Thirty-three more of the chief's wives came to
amuse themselves by gazing at the prisoner. For
the first time since leaving the coast he was unable
to eat his food. His health and spirits were
rapidly sinking. He feared that Uganda was
going to be forbidden ground to him — forbidden
by disease, not by spear- thrust or musket-shot.
The next day ' only a few ladies came to see the
wild beast. I felt so low and wretched that I
retired within my den, whither they, some of them,
followed me ; but as it was too dark to see me, and
I refused to speak, they soon left.'
Word came on October 28 that Mwanga had
sent three soldiers, but with what purpose they had
come, or what news they had brought, Hannington
did not know. He had passed a terrible night
with a noisy, drunken guard, and with the vermin
swarming in his tent. Fever was fast developing.
' O Lord, do have mercy upon me and release me/
he cried. ' I am quite broken down and brought
low/
He records, under date October 29, 1885, that
170 MARTYRDOM OF BISHOP HANNINGTON
' a hyena howled near me last night, smelling a
sick man, but I hope it is not to have me yet/
That same day he was murdered.
The manner of the end was in this wise : On
Wednesday the 28th, says Mr. Dawson, there
had been much drumming and shouting among
the natives. When Hannington's men asked the
meaning of the demonstration they were told that
Mwanga had sent word that the European should
be allowed to proceed to Uganda. Mr. Dawson
« very reasonably conjectures that the same story
was told to the Bishop on the following day as an
excuse for hurrying him out of his prison — out to
the place of execution. When, therefore, he was
conducted to an open space without the village,
and found himself surrounded once more by his
own men, he was no doubt full of joy, thinking
that the worst was over and that he was now going
to enter on the last stage of his journey to Uganda.
But in a moment he was undeceived. With
a wild shout Lubwa's savage warriors fell upon
Hannington's disarmed and helpless caravan-men
and their flashing spears soon covered the ground
with the dead and dying. As the natives told off
\^ to murder the Bishop closed round him, pausing
for a moment with their poised weapons, Hannington
drew himself up in that majestic manner which,
when he employed it, was so impressive, and bade
them tell the king that he was about to die for the
people of Uganda, and that he had purchased the
A MAJESTIC DEATH
road to their country with his life. Then as^they
still hesitated he pointed to his own gun, which
one of them discharged, and Hannington fell dead.
His last words to his friends in England — words
scribbled by the light of some camp-fire — were :
1 If this is the last chapter of my earthly history,
then the next will be the first page of the heavenly —
no blots and smudges, no incoherence, but sweet
converse in the presence of the Lamb ! '
Bishop Hannington met a martyr's death, as we
have seen, on October 29, 1885. On the following
New Year's Day letters reached Zanzibar from
Uganda by the old route, announcing that Mwanga
had ordered the Bishop to be killed with all his
followers ; and the telegraph passed on the news
to London that afternoon. From Zanzibar the
news also reached Frere Town and Rabai, and
threw the poor women there, whose husbands had
gone with Hannington, into dire distress. Appar-
ently the entire caravan of some 220 men had
perished.
But this was not so. Only fifty men had accom-
panied the Bishop from Kwa Sundu into Usoga,
and of these four had escaped and carried the
tidings of the massacre to Jones. He had not
given full credence to their narratives, because of
the discrepancies in them. He waited on for over
a month, hoping against hope, but at last became
fully convinced that the worst had happened. To
172 MARTYRDOM OF BISHOP HANNINGTON
have penetrated into Usoga would have meant
certain death for the whole caravan, and so Jones
made up his mind to go back to the coast by the
route they had already traversed. We must be
allowed to quote Mr. Dawson's touching and
beautiful account of the return of the caravan.
1 On the 4th of February 1886, at sunrise, the
Christians at Rabai were wending their way to the
early service when they were startled by the sound
of guns ; and presently some messengers — weary
men, and with the marks of long travel upon them
— came in to say that the Bishop's caravan was at
hand. The Bishop's caravan without the Bishop f
While these were being eagerly cross-examined,
other guns signalled from the valley, very distant,
but volleying nearer and yet more near ; and the
whole settlement ran down to meet their returning
friends. Among them were sad-faced and distracted
women, who had gleaned from the first-comers
that their husbands had perished in the great
disaster. As the two Englishmen in charge of the
mission station hurried forward, they met one
bearing a blue pennon — the African symbol of
mourning — whereon was sewn in white letters the
word Ichabod. Behind the sad standard-bearer,
amid a crowd of weeping and distraught men,
staggering beneath their diminished loads, a feeble
crew, lean and weary and travel-stained — most of
them garmentless or clothed in hides. Behind
them came a battered white helmet, and the Bishop's
A PRECIOUS RELIC 173
friend and sharer in his peril was grasping their
hands, and taken into their arms. None of them
were able to say much ; all were thinking of him
who had gone out so hopefully, and whose great
heart was now stilled for ever/
The flag is preserved as a sacred relic in the
CM. House at Salisbury Square, London, E.C.,
and may there be seen by any who are interested
and touched by the story of this noble career. But
Ichabod ? No ! The glory has not departed.
' Hannington did more for Africa by his death than
in his life. Within a few weeks after the news
came to England, fifty men had offered themselves
to the C.M.S. for service in the mission-field ; and
Hannington's name has continued ever since to be
an inspiration to many/ He holds a place with
Gordon, Patteson, Gardiner, and other Christian
heroes of our day in the ranks of the noble army
of martyrs.
Chapter XII
THE STORY OF UGANDA SINCE
HANNINGTON'S DEATH
M WANG A was cowardly as well as cruel, and
no sooner had he compassed the death of
Bishop Hannington than he began to be
very apprehensive concerning the consequences
to his personal safety. But as no vengeance
immediately followed he began to pluck up courage
again, and the missionaries — Mackay, O'Flaherty,
and Ashe — were in peril. Mwanga sent for the
intrepid young Scot and, aided by the moral
support of his chiefs, bullied him for three hours.
He was especially anxious to know how the
missionaries had acquired knowledge of the Bishop's
leath ; the information had come to them through
lative Christians about the Court, and Mwanga's
curiosity remained unsatisfied. Had it not been
:hat Mackay's mechanical ingenuity was useful
:o the king, all the missionaries, Protestant and
Romanist alike, would probably have been put
to death.
The native Christians, however, did not escape
with like impunity. The king's head page, who
174
THE UGANDA MARTYRS
had received Christian instruction, was ordered
to be burnt alive — clemency was extended to him
to the extent that he was killed before being cast
into the fire. For a short time after that the Church
in Uganda had peace, if still not without lively
apprehension. In May of 1886, however, the
fury of the king burst out afresh, and some fifty
or sixty converts were tortured and put to death.
They bore their martyrdom like Christian heroes.
The Son of God was present with them in the fire.
Thirty- two were burnt alive in one huge pyre.
The anguish of the missionaries may be imagined
at seeing their friends, with whom they yesterday
talked and prayed, to-day ruthlessly seized and
hacked to pieces almost before their eyes, and their
members left lying to decay by the roadside.
We will not go into a detailed description of the
barbarities inflicted upon the Christians. It would
be too harrowing. We shall mention only one
case. Roberto was engaged in his house, holding
prayers with several lads, when the executioners
appeared before his door. All the lads but one
bolted through the thin reed wall and escaped.
The ministers of Mwanga's fury seemed in awe
of Roberto.
' Do not be afraid that I will shoot you/ cried
Roberto ; ' come in and take me/
Accordingly he was bound, and with his friend
brought before the king, to whom he did not deny
his faith. ' Take him and roast him/ was the
176 THE STORY OF UGANDA
sentence of the savage potentate. The lad's
friends, by paying a heavy fine, got him off, but
for Roberto there was no mercy. He was kept a
few days in the stocks, and then one of his arms
was cut off and roasted before his eyes. Next a
leg was severed, and that also burnt ; what was
left of the poor man was committed to the flames.
The executioner reported to Mwanga that never
such fortitude and endurance as that shown by
the Christians had he ever seen, and that the
victims prayed aloud to God in the fire. The
brutal monarch and his brutal Court merely
laughed, remarking, with a triumphant chuckle,
that God had not rescued them from the power of
King Mwanga.
The Christians fled into hiding-places. From
time to time visitors came to the missionaries under
the cover of night, new inquirers brought in by the
influence of the heroic deaths they had witnessed.
The missionaries, while themselves escaping
danger, became convinced that their presence
in the country only added to the danger of the
converts, and sought to withdraw. Mwanga, with
that perversity so characteristic of him, was rather
inclined to tolerate the work of the missionaries
than let them leave the country. Finally, he
drew the line at Mackay. Mackay was useful
to him, and he was also held as a hostage in case
the white man should seek to punish Mwanga
for the murder of the Bishop. Accordingly Mackay
THE MAGIC OF A GREAT NAME 177
was alone in Uganda from August 1886 until July
1887. The stress of the persecution was relaxed,
the Christians began to creep out of their hiding-
places, and the work of God seemed again on^
the path of quiet progress.
But the Arabs could not forgive Mackay for his
diligence in the Gospel, nor for the influence, by
reason of his usefulness, that he had acquired at
the Court, and were unremitting in their intrigues
against him. They were at length successful.
Mackay was sent away, but Mwanga insisted that^
the Rev. Cyril Gordon, 1 who was then at the south
end of the Victoria Nyanza, should take his place.
The sole recommendation of Gordon in the eyes of
Mwanga was the name he bore. Here surely was
a striking illustration of ' the magical power of
General Gordon's influence ; for Mr. Gordon was
merely a namesake of the General, and Khartoum
is nearly 1000 miles away from Uganda.'
Gordon accordingly stepped into the place
of Mackay in August 1887, and remained alone
in Uganda until April 1888, when he was joined
by the Rev. R. H. Walker. Mr. Walker was
received by the king with great cordiality and
ceremony, but his smiling face covered a most
diabolical design. He seemed to have resolved
to throw himself back into the sheer heathenism
from which he had first been rescued by the
Mohammedans, and formed a plan to convey all
1 Hannington's nephew, and a member of his first expedition.
THE STORY OF UGANDA
V V the principal ' readers ' to a small island on the
lake and leave them there to starve. The victims
got wind of what was in store for them, and refused
to accommodate themselves to the king's little
manoeuvre. By combining Christians and Mo-
hammedans against himself Mwanga had made
a false step, and his own position began to be
>> insecure and perilous.
The Christians and Mohammedans combined to
overthrow Mwanga. They gathered an army, and
by two different roads entered the capital on
August i, 1888. Mwanga fled with his women-folk
to Magu, on the shores of Speke Gulf, right at the
opposite corner of the lake from Uganda. There
he was virtually a prisoner under the control of
the Arab slave-traders. Kiwewa, an older son of
' Mtesa than Mwanga, and the nominee of the Arabs,
was placed on the throne. Not a drop of blood
was shed. The high offices of state were distributed
among the two parties, liberty of worship was
proclaimed, and the natives buzzed about the
mission stations like swarms of bees.
But not for long could the Arabs be contented
with less than supremacy. They concocted a story
that the Christians wanted a woman on the throne
of Uganda, just as there was a woman on the throne
of England. The Christians were suddenly attacked
on October 12, and forced to flee for refuge to
Nkole, a land on the north-east shore of the Albert
Edward Nyanza. The mission stations, English
THE ARABS AND THE CHRISTIANS 179
and French, were destroyed ; Mr. Gordon and Mr,.
Walker, with the two French priests, were thrown
into a miserable hut, full of vermin. A few days
later the whole party of both missions, thirty-nine
souls in all, were put on board the C.M.S. Mission
boat, the ' Eleanor/ and sent away. ' We do not
want to see a white teacher back in Uganda/ was
the farewell salutation of their enemies, ' until we
have converted the whole country to the Moham-
medan faith/ The party had various unpleasant
experiences on the voyage of twenty days, one of
them entailing the drowning of five of their members.
At last they reached Ukumbi, on the south-east of
the lake, where they were received in a kindly
manner by the Frenchmen. Another day's journey
brought the Englishmen to Mackay's station at
Usambiro.
The Arabs shortly afterwards deposed and
murdered Kiwewa and set up Kilema, another
son of Mtesa, in his stead. This second revolution
had not been accomplished without bloodshed.
Mwanga now succeeded (1889) m establishing
himself in one of the islands adjoining his country,
and asked that teachers should be sent to him. Mr.
Gordon and Mr. Walker accordingly went to him.
He began to seek the alliance of the Protestant
Christians in order to regain his throne. An army
was got together which marched against the force
dominated by the Arabs, overthrew them, and
entered the capital. The commander of the
1 80 THE STORY OF UGANDA
victorious expedition, who was now made Prime
Minister, was Apolo Kagwa, a young chief who
had suffered grievous cruelty at the hands of
Mwanga, now set on the throne again by the very
men whom he had persecuted and driven out.
The joy at this new and happy turn of affairs
was overclouded by the death of Mackay from
fever at Usambiro on February 8, 1890. By his
zeal, constancy, and wisdom, by his mechanical
genius and his gift of languages, Mackay had made
himself a household word and a power in the whole
region. His hopefulness and courage never failed
him. The misfortunes which overtook the Uganda
mission at various times were regarded by timid
and fearful souls at home as indications from God
that the work there should be abandoned. When
Mackay heard of these proposals, he wrote : ' Are
you joking ? If you tell me in earnest that such a
suggestion has been made, I only answer Never !
Tell me, ye faint hearts, to whom ye mean to give up
the mission ? Is it to murderous raiders like
Mwanga, or to slave-traders from Zanzibar, or
to English and Belgian dealers in rifles and gun-
powder, or to German spirit-sellers ? All are in the
field, and they make no talk of " giving up " their
respective missions ! ' That was the spirit which
burnt in the heart of Mackay to the end of his
brief life.
Going back for a few lines in this narrative, we
ought to state here that Hannington was succeeded
BISHOP TUCKER 181
as Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa by Henry
Perrott Parker, a graduate of Trinity College,
Cambridge, who had done noble work as a missionary
in India. But Bishop Parker, consecrated in Sept-
ember 1886, was, like his predecessor, fated never to
set foot in Uganda, for he was slain in the spring of
1888 by fever on the shores of the Victoria Nyanza.
G. L. Pilkington, G. K. Baskerville, J. D. M.
Cotter, and Douglas Hooper, a band of Cambridge
men destined for East Africa, said farewell to their
friends at a densely crowded meeting in Exeter
Hall on January 20, 1890. Sixty undergraduates
of Cambridge, accompanied by Dr. Handley Moule,
then Principal of Ridley Hall, travelled up to London
to bid farewell to their comrades. During a period
of four months' waiting on the coast, Pilkington
gave proof of his linguistic powers by acquiring
an acquaintance with Swahili and other tongues.
Three months after the Exeter Hall meeting
Alfred R. Tucker was consecrated third Bishop of
Eastern Equatorial Africa. He was an Oxford man,
an athlete, and an artist, and had been curate of
St. Nicholas, Durham. When he arrived in Africa
he received the sad news that Cotter, one of the
four Cambridge men mentioned above, had died
from fever the day before. But before Bishop
Tucker started on his journey from Zanzibar to the
lake, four other men had reached him from England.
The weary four months' march into the interior
had not been begun when one of the latest arrivals
1 82 THE STORY OF UGANDA
died. At Usambiro, Mr. Hunt, an official of the
British East Africa Company who had given up his
post to join the missionary party, and J. W. Dunn,
one of the latest arrivals, died. That left six out
of ten. These six suffered terribly from fever, but
were revived by the twenty-three days' sail across
the lake to Uganda. In the meantime Pilkington
had already acquired a working knowledge of the
language, and as soon as he landed in the country
he set about preparing candidates for confirmation.
Bishop Tucker, then, set foot in Uganda on
December 27, 1890. Before his coming a large
new church had been erected by the native
architects 81 ft. long by 24 ft. broad. It
was thronged daily by worshippers and learners.
Some 300 converts had been baptized. The
Gospels according to Mark and John were about to
issue from the press, as well as parts of the Prayer-
Book. Bishop Tucker, the day after his arrival,
preached to a congregation of 1000 people,
including the Prime Minister. He had brought
up with him a stock of Swahili New Testaments,
which were eagerly bought up at the price of
three months' wages by those who understood that
language. Then, after doing all that the immediate
situation seemed to require, he set out for the
coast, on his way to England, there to proclaim the
needs and the opportunities of Uganda. The
prospect indeed seemed fair.
But a fresh storm was brewing. Questions of
A PRECARIOUS SITUATION 183
international politics began to stir up bloody
strife in the country. The British East Africa
Company had been established ; before Mwanga
had recovered his throne he had applied for
assistance from an agent of the Company, and
this agent had sent Mwanga one of the Company's
flags. The king, in accepting it, had placed himself
— though probably he did not understand the
full import of his act — under the protection of the
Company. A little later Dr. Karl Peters, a
German explorer, arrived at Mengo, and induced
Mwanga to sign an agreement with him. 1 The
French Roman Catholic priests, who had arrived
in the country two years after the C.M.S. first
party, did not welcome either of these steps. They
wanted Uganda for France, but they would rather
see it in the hands of Germany than of England.
There were soon three distinct parties in Uganda
— the French or Roman Catholic party, the English
or Protestant party, and the party of heathendom
to which the great mass of the inhabitants belonged.
Sir Frederick Lugard and the officers of the British
East Africa Company ' tried to act impartially
and distributed chieftainships and provinces to
the best of their ability.'
The situation was soon rendered peculiarly
precarious for the English party by the common
1 This agreement was rendered nugatory by a subsequent
treaty signed in Europe which limited Germany to the southern
end of the Victoria Nyanza.
13
1 84 THE STORY OF UGANDA
report that the continued occupation of the Company
was more than doubtful. The expense of holding
the country was more than they could afford and
there was no immediate prospect of a commercial
return. When their approaching withdrawal was
announced, there was something like a panic in
English mission circles. The Company had been
the guardians of the peace in Uganda between the
conflicting parties ; their evacuation of the territory
would mean civil war and anarchy, the loss of
many lives and the ruin of the mission. To stave
off the immediate peril Sir William Mackinnon, a
leading director of the Company, guaranteed half
of the £40,000 which was required for maintaining
the Company in Uganda for another year, if the
friends of the C.M.S. would find the other half.
Bishop Tucker, at a crowded meeting in Exeter
Hall on October 30, 1891, told his story with
thrilling power and awoke the audience and the
country to the peril of the situation. Within a few
days £16,000 was handed over to the Company and
the withdrawal was cancelled.
But in the meantime the opposing factions in
Uganda had come into armed conflict. Captain
Lugard, with a body of Soudanese soldiers, had
fortified one of the eminences on which Mengo is
built and thus for a time kept the peace in the
capital. But the continued prevention of the
daily brawls in the streets was beyond his power.
The situation came to a crisis when in January
GENEROSITY TO THE JESUITS 185
1892 the French party attacked the English party,
killing Sembera, one of the noblest, most con-
spicuous and best beloved of native Christians.
They actually turned their strength upon the
position held by Captain Lugard, but the fire of
his Maxim gun sent them upon a flight which did
not end until they had reached the Sese Islands.
The French party carried off Mwanga, who had
been on their side because he thought they were
going to be the victors in the fight. But when
fortune had turned against them he sought and
found an opportunity to escape from their midst,
and, returning to Mengo, declared himself a
Protestant. Then the French party submitted,
and Captain Lugard assigned to the priests the
province of Budu, in which they were permitted
to labour without interference.
We consider that this was to treat the Jesuits
with generosity, particularly as they were not re-
quired not to interfere in the Protestant provinces.
They would have been well advised and well in-
spired never to have entered Uganda. They
arrived on the scene two years after the English
missionaries ; they must have known that their
presence would stir up strife and impede the
Christian civilisation of the people, and their
intrusion was quite gratuitous, for there were only
too abundant opportunities for them in parts of the
heathen world which had never been visited by
missionaries, Protestant or Romanist.
1 86 THE STORY OF UGANDA
When peace was restored the native Christians
set about the erection of a great cathedral,
capable of holding 4000 people, for the capital.
The walls were made of reeds, the roof was thatched
with grass and supported by a perfect forest of
poles. The missionaries hit upon a novel way of
determining how many persons were present at
the opening service. Each person, rich or poor,
was requested to contribute one cowrie shell only ;
3731 cowries were given at the service.
The most urgent need and demand of the people
was for Christian literature. When Pilkington
reached Uganda in December 1890, the four
Gospels had been translated by Mackay, Ashe,
and Gordon, and St. Matthew's Gospel had been
printed. Assisted by native helpers, Pilkington
within two years — and these years included months
of great insecurity — completed the translation of
the New Testament, several books of the Old
Testament, Bible stories, and hymns, and did a
great deal of work on a grammar of the language.
The difficulties of these labours were monumental,
for no grammars or dictionaries existed and there
are many words and ideas in the New Testament
for which it is a very delicate business to find
equivalent expressions in the language of an un-
civilised heathen race. Pilkington's speed as a
translator has never been surpassed. Most of these
versions had to be printed in England, and having
to be carried on men's heads from the coast to
A NATIVE MINISTRY
Q
Uganda, they cost a terrific figure when they
reached their destination. A New Testament cost
iooo cowries, or the price of five weeks' food.
Yet the books were eagerly bought and as eagerly
read.
In the early part of 1893 the British Government
took over Uganda, and the Union Jack replaced
the flag of the British East Africa Company. In
March, forty Protestant chiefs, without pressure
from the English, published a joint decree, setting
their slaves free. The Baganda, now become
missionaries to others, began to carry the Gospel
to their neighbours. Three Baganda teachers were
set apart for work in Busoga. Six were ordained
deacons, thus beginning a native ministry. Mika
Sematimba, a Christian chief, whose gentle, kindly
face attracted everyone, visited England, accom-
panied by the Rev. R. H. Walker, and appealed
for more missionaries.
Pilkington had occasion, at the beginning of
1894, to go on an expedition which revealed to him
how little the knowledge and influence of the
Gospel had spread beyond the neighbourhood of
the capital. Within a few months he and Mr.
Baskerville, borrowing the idea from the Rev.
A. B. Fisher, had planted about 200 ' reading
houses.' At each of these a little group was ' taught
by a teacher, who was himself under the guidance
of a more experienced worker, the whole being
supervised by the European missionary/ It was
1 88 THE STORY OF UGANDA
a wise and practical application of the principle
of devolution.
The new plan was a great success. Twenty
thousand persons assembled every Sunday to hear
the Gospel. Within a few months 800 persons
were baptized and the number of catechumens rose
from 170 to 1500. The version of baptism that
acquired currency among the heathen still outside
the Church was that it consisted of * making a hole
in the head and rubbing in a powerful medicine,
which kills the old heart ; and then there comes in
its place a new religious heart that does not lust for
anything/ This was surely striking testimony to
the reality and depth of the work that was being
done by the missionaries in the power of the Holy
Spirit. In this same year the cathedral was blown
down, and while it was being rebuilt twenty churches
were erected near the capital. And so the seeming
evil wrought for good ; for in this way the seed of
the Gospel was scattered abroad.
Up to this time no European woman had set
foot in Uganda. The perils of the way and of the
country itself forbade the C.M.S. to allow women
to run the risk. But the northern route, first tra-
versed by Hannington, was comparatively healthy,
and the danger from the Masai warriors had much
diminished with the advent of British authority.
Accordingly five ladies were chosen to be the
pioneers of lady missionaries in this interesting
and promising field. Accompanied by five men,
THE BISCUIT-TIN BIBLE 189
the whole party being under the command of
Bishop Tucker, they arrived in Mengo on October 4,
1895, amidst a scene of tumultuous excitement.
The Baganda women flung themselves upon the
English ladies in rapturous joy. Already six
native women had been at work as deaconesses for
two years, and these were able to facilitate the
operations of their new fellow-labourers from far
across the sea.
The mission was now making simply wonderful
progress. The report for 1897 gives the number of
native Christian lay-agents as 659, baptisms during
the year 4442, and native Christian adherents,
including catechumens, 12,856. Mr. Mullins points
out that in 1896 and 1897 the number of the adult
baptisms was very nearly half of the total recorded
for the whole of the C.M.S. missions.
The printing of Pilkington's translation of the
Bible was completed in the autumn of 1897. Three
inches broad and three inches thick, it has become
known as the biscuit-tin Bible, because it fitted
nicely into one of Huntley & Palmer's 2-lb.
biscuit tins, which were plentiful in Uganda. But
this circumstance was accidental, though very
convenient, for biscuit tins are of great service in
preserving books from the ravages of ants and other
insects.
But what about Mwanga all this time ? He was
st ill King of Uganda , but under a Bri tish pro-
te ctorate he had no longer licence to rob and ki ll
190 THE STORY OF UGANDA
as he chose. He had security and prosperity,
but these were not enough for him. So one night
in the summer o f i%7 h e^stoIF away from his
capital, joined the Roman Catholic party at Budu,
raised the standard of revolt and summoned his
people to help him to drive out the Europeans, kill
the native Christians, and return to the old days.
He was defeated and driven into German territory,
where he was held a prisoner. He was denounced
by the British as an outlaw, and his infant son, a
few weeks old, the son of a Protestant mother, was
proclaimed as King Daudi Chwa, which, being
interpreted, means ' David, the fly ! '
Soon afte r. a .serious mutiny broke out among the
Soudanese troops, upon whom the British mainly
depended for the peace of the country. Three
hundred of them, who had gathered at a place
east of Busoga to take part in an exploring expedi-
tion to the north, seized the fort at Lubwa's, and
murdered three Englishmen. It was feared that
the Soudanese at Mengo might become dangerous
to the British, out of sympathy with the mutineers,
and accordingly they were disarmed. A body of
Baganda under British officers was sent to Lubwa's,
but the siege of the fort proceeded very slowly
because of the smallness of the attacking party and
of the immense banana fields which surrounded
the position. Many of the besiegers lost their
lives. While these things were going on, Mwanga
escaped from the Germans and again showed his
KING DAUDI CHWA IN STATE
APOLO KAGWA, KATIKIRO OF UGANDA AND HIS SON
A HEROIC DEATH 191
face in Budu, but he was very soon put to flight.
In the same month, December, the noble career of
Pilkington, so far as it was to run its course in this
earth, came to an end. As interpreter he had
accompanied the Baganda troops to Lubwa's,
and early one morning, in a hidden sally of the
mutineers, he was mortally wounded by a shot in
the thigh which severed a main artery. Aloni,
his native - boy,' saw the change in his face, and
said to him —
' My master, you are dying. Death has come.'
' Yes, my child/ said the dying man, ' it is as you
say/
* My master/ continued Aloni, ' he that believeth
in Christ, although he die, yet shall he live.'
1 Yes, my child/ again answered his master,
' it is as you say — shall never die.'
His life quickly ebbed away, and the same
evening he was buried under a tree near the spot
where Hannington had been murdered twelve
years before. 1 The Baganda mourned him deeply.
* We all shed tears/ wrote Henry Wright Duta ;
' we cried our eyes out/
Some Sikh troops arrived from India in the
following month, and the mutineers perceived
that their game was played out. Abandoning
the fort in the night-time, they were pursued north-
1 Afterwards the remains were disinterred and buried at Mengo,
where Bishop Hannington's bones, so strangely recovered, had
been laid.
192 THE STORY OF UGANDA
wards beyond Lake Kioga, captured, or dispersed.
For over a year, however, Mwanga and the slave-
raiding King Kabarega, though they had ceased
to menace the capital, continued to be troublesome,
until in March 1899 they were captured and
banished to the Seychelles. Mwanga, removed
from the scene, had no longer a shred of influence,
and he died in 1903 — forgotten. He had been
baptized and had given signs, it is said, of true
repentance.
Our readers will readily understand that in this
rapid sketch we are merely noting the points of
exceptional interest in connection with the Uganda
Mission. There are very important features of
work common to all missions, such as education,
women's work, and the like, which do not, in
such a sketch as ours, call for special mention.
We must, however, note the industrial work,
because it has a bearing on the erection of the
great brick cathedral which is the glory of the
ecclesiastical architecture in the country.
Industrial mission work in Uganda took on
its first noteworthy development under Mr. K. E.
Borup, a Canadian of Swedish extraction, who in
the course of 1899-1900 trained six Protestant
lads in printing and carpentry. Mr. Borup and
his lads set up, printed and issued a four-page
leaflet periodical, called Mengo Notes. Then the
master set himself to teach carpentry and building.
Soon a tremendous demand was made upon his
THE BUILDING OF THE CATHEDRAL 193
resources and his ingenuity. The huge cathedral
of reeds and thatch was in a parlous condition,
and the Prime Minister decided that the new
building must be of brick. But bricks had been
introduced into Uganda only a few years before,
and a building of brick of the size of the new
cathedral had never even been dreamed of by the
Baganda Christians in their wildest moments. The
idea must have seemed as doubtful and as mar-
vellous to them as the structure of glass and
iron erected by Sir Joseph Paxton in 185 1 for the
housing of the first great international industrial
exhibition.
What was to be done ? Mr. Borup rose to the
occasion. He taught brick - making. He con-
structed a huge brick-making machine capable of
turning out 3000 bricks a day. It was calculated
that at least a million bricks would be required.
How was the material for all these bricks to be
obtained ? Volunteer labourers were forthcoming.
The great chiefs, with the Prime Minister himself
at their head, went in state to the clay pits, and
marched back to the sound of the drum, with
great balls of clay on their heads, to the place where
the bricks were to be made. The great ladies of
the country, the princesses and chiefs' wives, went
in similar fashion into the forest and carried back
bundles of brushwood to the brick-kiln fires.
The notables of the country voluntarily taxed
themselves to meet the cost of the cathedral.
194 THE STORY OF UGANDA
It was to be cruciform in shape, with walls
of brick and roof of thatch, lighted by seventy-
four windows and entered by ten doors, and capable
of accommodating 4000 people. King Daudi Chwa
laid the foundation-stone on June 18, 1901. This
stone was a large block which had been used to
mark the grave of Pilkington before a marble
cross arrived from England for that purpose.
The first service was held on June 26, 1902, the
day on which King Edward, but for his sudden
illness, would have been crowned. The people were
summoned to the ceremony by the immense boom-
ing of a drum five feet high, presented by Henry
Wright Duta. This substitute for ' sweet chiming
bells ' was in harmony with the customs of the
country.
The most remarkable circumstances in connection
with the consecration of the cathedral on June 21,
1904, by Bishop Tucker, in the presence of a vast
concourse of people, related to the collection.
This consisted of 13 cows, 4 goats, 125 eggs,
130 fowls, 75,000 cowrie shells, 500 rupees in coin,
600 rupees promised, and 1064 pice. The money
only represented £85 of our money. The cows
were tied up outside the cathedral, but the goats
were led up to the communion rail by a rope, and
the Bishop, after having duly received them,
returned them to be tied up outside. The fowls
were received in large crates made of sticks, and
the shells were given in bundles fastened with the
SIR APOLO KAGWA 195
dried banana fibre. The sidesmen were not content
with collecting from the congregation inside, but
brought in large bags full from the crowd outside,
who had been standing patiently for hours in the
sun with their offerings ready.
Uganda for the last few years has been developing
in a quiet, peaceful manner. Not that there are
not some disquieting and even distressing factors
in the situation, to which we shall refer presently.
A new settlement of the country was made in 1900
by Sir H. H. Johnston, the British Special Com-
missioner, who instituted a hut tax of three rupees,
a very large sum to people who reckon in cowrie
shells, of which at least 600 go to the rupee. But
the tax is not oppressive, and has stimulated many
thousands of lazy people to activity. Further,
the tax may be paid in kind. A live young
elephant is payment for 1000 huts, a hippopotamus
for 100 huts, a tame zebra for 30 huts, a live
young zebra for 20 huts, a live goat for one hut.
At times the seat of Government bears a marked
resemblance to a menagerie.
Sir Apolo Kagwa, the Prime Minister, is the most
influential native personality in Uganda. He is
one of the triumphs of the Gospel in that country ;
his powers as a leader in war and a ruler in peace,
and his sound Christian character, have made him a
mighty force for good. On his visit to England in
1902 his dignity and intelligence made a good
impression. He pleaded before the C.M.S. Com-
i 9 6 THE STORY OF UGANDA
mittee that 200 European teachers might be sent
to Uganda and the surrounding countries. A few
years ago he was knighted by King Edward.
The medical missionary is playing his superbly
useful part in Uganda as in other parts of the mission-
field. Dr. A. R. Cook 1 arrived in Uganda in 1897,
and within a few months the ' mission hospital/ a
reed structure, was opened with Miss Timpson as
nurse and chief member of the staff. A new ward
to accommodate twenty beds was added in the
following year, and in 1899 a new hospital altogether,
in the form of a double Maltese cross, was con-
structed, with accommodation for fifty beds. The
Prime Minister and the other chiefs provided all
the labour. Dr. J. H. Cook now went out with
his wife to reinforce his brother.
Miss Timpson has recorded some amusing instances
of her struggles with the ignorance and obstinacy
of the out-patients. For example, she is handing
to one of them a box of pills, explaining that they
are very strong, that he is to take one pill morning,
noon, and night, and that the supply is to last
three days, when, lo ! and behold ! the nurse's
back being turned, the patient, who has not been
listening but feasting his eyes on the box, proceeds
to swallow the three days' supply at once, and it
is a question whether one of them is rescued from
his throat ! The consequences will certainly not
1 See A Doctor and His Dog in Uganda, published by the
R.T.S. at 2S.
THE RAILWAY FROM THE COAST 197
be pleasant to the patient, and may cause the
doctor considerable trouble and anxiety.
The medical mission work has, of course, grown
with the other operations and the development of
the country. Towards the end of November the
hospital was struck by lightning and burned to the
ground. All the patients were saved, though only
after heroic efforts by Europeans and natives, but
most of the surgical instruments were destroyed.
The chiefs at once agreed to furnish bricks and
timber for the new building. ' If God has allowed
our hospital to perish/ remarked the Prime
Minister, ' it is to show that we must build a bigger
and better one.'
The construction of the railway from Frere Town
to the northern shore of the Victoria Nyanza has
of course altered, almost beyond recognition, the
conditions of the problem which Uganda represented
in the pre-railway days. The sufferings of the
missionaries and the porters in the terrible journey
from the coast are a thing of the past. No long
journey or large caravan was organised which did
not cost suffering and loss of life to many natives,
through privation, disease, the hostility of wild beasts
and of men scarcely less wild. One of the most valu-
able results of the construction of the railway has
been a staggering blow to the slave trade on the East
Coast of Africa. For the making of the railway large
numbers of coolies had been brought from India,
and the problem fo supplying them with food,
198 THE STORY OF UGANDA
while at work, for example, in a waterless desert,
was only solved by the exercise of much ingenuity
and toil. Some districts along the line were
terrorised by lions which carried off quite a number
of the labourers. The journey from the coast to
the northern shore of the Victoria Nyanza, which
formerly took months, can now be accomplished
in three days. A service of fair-sized steamers
now does the crossing of the lake to Entebbe in
Uganda in about thirty hours.
A journey to Uganda is now a pleasure excur-
sion. ' Cook's ' take tourists out from England to
the East Coast of Africa, thence by rail and boat
to Uganda, returning down the Nile past Khartoum
and other spots made so familiar by the recent
history of Egypt. Bishop Tucker has described
his satisfaction at being able to look out of a rail-
way carriage window as he was carried past the
scene of former trying marches.
The flag of the Gospel has been carried into
many of the countries round about Uganda, and
under that banner many signal victories for Christ
have been won. On the northern shore of the
Albert Edward Nyanza, 200 miles west of Mengo,
and east of the mountains of Ruwenzori, lies the
land of Toro. Captain Lugard in 1891 placed on
the throne of Toro the lad Kasagama. At that
time Kasagama' s brother, Yafeti, was in Mengo,
and on the occasion of two visits to his native
land brought with him Baganda Christian teachers.
PRIME MINISTER AT SCHOOL 199
King Kasagama, the Queen-Mother, and fourteen
other Batoro, were baptized in 1896. The king,
who took the name of Daudi (David), showed him-
self to be a Christian in deed as in profession.
When any difficult matter came up for discussion,
he always asked himself, • What ought I to do as
a Christian ? '
In the following year King Daudi sent a letter to
' the Elders of the Church in Europe ' appealing
for more teachers. ' I want very much/ he said,
1 God giving me strength, to arrange all the matters
of this country for Him only, that all my people
may understand that Christ Jesus, He is the
Saviour of all countries, and that He is the King of
all kings. The teachers are few, and those who
wish to read many. Therefore, sirs, my dear
friends, have pity on the people in great darkness.
I want my country to be a strong lantern that is
not put out, in this land of darkness/
Strange sights might be witnessed in the Christian
schools at Toro. Here might be seen the Prime
Minister himself, struggling with the mysteries of
elementary arithmetic. He would have it for a
long time that twice two made twenty, and that
thirteen should be written 103 ; when at length
he understood the notation he rubbed his hands
with delight, exclaiming, ' Oh ! what wisdom we
have ! '
West of Toro, on the borders of the Congo Free
State, is the land of Mboga, at the edge of the
14
200 THE STORY OF UGANDA
famous forest inhabited by pygmies. The Gospel
was introduced into Mboga by the chief of the
country, who happened to be in Toro when ' the
good news ' was brought to that land. The progress
of the Gospel received a blow by the arrest of
Apolo, the principal Christian teacher, who had
come from Uganda, on a charge of murder. A
Christian woman had accidentally impaled herself
on a spear which had been carelessly left outside
her house in a most awkward position. Apolo
happened to be near the spot at the time of the
accident, and went to the assistance of the poor
woman, who was in her death-agony. Some
passers-by whom he summoned to his help accused
him of murdering the woman. He was arrested,
sent to Toro with his accusers, but the British
officer before whom the case came, so firmly con-
vinced was he of Apolo's innocence, discharged
him without even the formality of a trial. Apolo
on another occasion had suffered much for the
cause of Christ, had lain in prison, been beaten,
and lost all his worldly goods. He had sacrificed
comfort in Uganda in order to carry the Gospel
to his brethren. Seduraka, a fellow-labourer, was
declared by his friends and kinsmen in Uganda
to be a madman for returning to work at Mboga.
' I would/ said Bishop Tucker, ' that there were
many such madmen in the world as Apolo and
Seduraka/
Let us turn to another corner of the map. Not
DEVIL-WORSHIP 201
far from the south-east corner of the Victoria
Nyanza are the stations of Msalala and Usambiro,
which have already been mentioned more than
once in this little book in connection with Han-
nington and Mackay, Now, Msalala and Usambiro
are in the country known as Usukuma, now part
of German East Africa. This portion of the field
stirs up memories, sad as well as glad. When
Bishop Tucker visited Usambiro on his first journey
to Uganda, he found the graves of five missionaries
there — those of Mackay, Bishop Parker, Blackburn,
Hunt, and Dunn.
The central and principal mission station in
Usukuma is at Nassa, on the southern shore of
Speke Gulf. The fruit of the Gospel, though the
country is populous, has not been so plentiful
as in Uganda, though it is sound and good fruit.
The converts are real and true, no ' rice Christians '
among them. Daudi Mbasa, the first-fruit, refused
an important chieftainship, and put away a number
of wives, for the sake of the Gospel. Sunday
is observed by heathen and Christians alike on
the shores of Speke Gulf. The missionaries run
up a red-cross flag to let the people know it is the
Sabbath day.
Bunyoro was for years known only as the land
of the slave-raiding King Kabarega, a name of
terror. It lies north of Toro, and along the eastern
shore of Lake Albert. The religion of the people
in the old days consisted of devil-worship. The
202 THE STORY OF UGANDA
•
evil spirit was propitiated by the torture and
sacrifice of human beings. The moment a baby
was born it was scarred with a sharp knife and
dedicated to the devil. If the baby had a pain
in the head or chest, and cried, that was taken to
signify that the devil was angry, and the poor
little thing was burned with a red-hot iron on
head and chest. His teeth, as they arrived, were
painfully extracted. A little girl was once brought
to a missionary with a deep wound in her forehead,
caused by her mother firing a blunt arrow at the
child's head that she might draw blood and cure
pain. These cruel superstitions are all but dead.
When King Kabarega was banished, the British
administrator placed his little son of ten years of
age on the throne. The lad had received Christian
instruction at Mengo, and it was hoped that Yosiya
would be a firm, just, and merciful ruler. The
first convert was a lad called, on account of his
fiery nature, Fatake or Gun-cap. People told him
that if he became a Christian he would lose every-
thing. ' But,' said he, in his first sermon, ' what
have I lost except my evil habits ? '
A wonderful service took place at Koima, the
capital of Bunyoro, on the occasion of a visit from
King Daudi Kasagama of Toro and several Christian
chiefs. One after another, says Mr. Mullins, got up
and testified what the Gospel had done for them.
1 The last time we came to you here in this country/
said one of the chiefs, * we came with shields and
RINGS IN GIRLS' TONGUES 203
spears in our hands and hatred in our hearts ; now
we stand before you with God's Word in our hands
and His love in our hearts.' King Yosiya, who
had proved weak and unfit for his position of
authority, was deposed, by petition of the chiefs,
and in his stead reigned another son of Kabarega,
named Andereya, a young man and a zealous
Christian. The joy of the missionaries was great,
for no Christian worker had been more constantly
helpful than Andereya.
In the descent of the Nile from the Victoria
Nyanza to Lake Albert, the river passes through
Lake Kioga, to the north of which is the land of
Bukedi, wherein dwelt a strange unclothed race.
When the Rev. G. R. Blackledge visited the country
in 1899, the girls thrust out their tongues at him
to show that they wore rings through them, and
then proved that they could work off the rings if
they liked. Mr. Blackledge invited the natives to
receive teachers ; and to discuss this matter a great
palaver was held, to which a crowd of men came
fully armed. ' Each debater marched up and
down between the long lines of men as he spoke,
brandishing shield and spear to emphasise his words.
At length the answer was given —
' " Formerly the Baganda used to make raids
upon us. The teaching that has made such a change
must be good. We will receive the teaching." '
Mwanga and Kabarega, when their case was
desperate, had fled to Bukedi ; they were rooted out,
204 THE STORY OF UGANDA
and the country was placed under the direction
of a Christian chief from Uganda, named Semei
Kakungulu, a man of very earnest character and
distinguished personal bravery. The people of
Bukedi are a fine race — tall, well-proportioned,
athletic, and courageous. Though they believe in
witchcraft and worship devils, they are strictly
moral. They are now being instructed by teachers
from Uganda, and a rich harvest of souls may be
expected in due season.
The Bahima, who inhabit Nkole, a small territory
to the east of Albert Edward Nyanza, are believed
to be the descendants of a tribe of Asiatic invaders.
They are light brown in colour, and have thin but
wiry bodies. They have been described as natural
gentlemen. Their women, who are often beautiful,
are — when not Christian — kept secluded, and are
veiled when they appear in public.
Christianity was introduced into the country at
the beginning of 1900, and at the close of the year
a striking scene was enacted. The Prime Minister
brought all his charms and fetishes to the Christian
teacher, saying that he wished them burnt. It
was resolved to make the ceremony a public one,
in order that the peasants might be disabused of a
prevalent idea that the Christians retained these
surrendered charms for their own benefit. When
the king heard of the proposal, he ordered that the
burning should take place in the courtyard of his
palace. There his majesty, surrounded by his
THE KING'S DRUM 205
chiefs, sat down to witness the ceremony. As soon
as the burning began, the people commenced to
bring their charms, and there was an almost universal
moving towards the fire, which was kept going half
the day. Last of all the king offered up his charms
to conflagration. The scene is reminiscent of a
well-known incident described in the Acts of the
Apostles.
After the baptism of the king, some time later,
a messenger came to the missionary, saying —
' Come and see the king beat his drum.*
What this might portend the missionary did not
know, but, in faith and expectation, he sallied
forth. It appeared that there was a certain
instrument of music — or rather of noise — known as
the national drum of Nkole, and immemorial report
declared that if the king of the country were to
beat it disaster would follow. Now that he was
baptized, King Kahaya wished to beat this drum
publicly that his people might see that he had
given up the old superstitions. When the folk
were gathered together in the courtyard, the king
rose from his chair and solemnly beat the drum.
Then the people dispersed.
Among the most recent authentic statements
concerning the present position and the future
prospects of Uganda is that contained in an interview
with the Ven. R. H. Walker, Archdeacon of Uganda,
in the Record of December 6, 1907. On the whole
this interview makes sad reading. Disease and
206 THE STORY OF UGANDA
death are busy in Uganda. The population is being
decimated by the sleeping sickness, a mysterious
malady which up to the present has baffled the under-
standing and the skill of medical science. Professor
Koch, the famous Berlin student of bacteriology,
has recently returned from a prolonged visit of
investigation to Uganda. Three thousand five hun-
dred victims of the sleeping sickness came under his
supervision ; of these 3000 died and 500 were ' left to
die.' Everyone upon whom this terror-striking
disease fastens is doomed to death within two years.
Archdeacon Walker is the senior member of the
C.M.S. Uganda Mission, and as such his information
and views have especial weight. He points to a
more fearful enemy, baleful in its effects upon body
and soul alike, than even the sleeping sickness.
We are referring to the inconceivable evils of im-
purity. Among savage races, the primitive passions,
against which St. Paul had to contend so earnestly
even in a civilised race, work terrific havoc. Uganda
was in an evil case in this respect even while she
was isolated from civilisation ; but since the opening
of the railway and the influx of population from
Mombasa and Zanzibar, including decadent members
of the Southern European populations, the physical
results of vice have intensified in mischief, until now
we are face to face with this appalling fact, that
the Baganda, the hope of Africa, are a dying nation.
8j The population of the kingdom of Uganda — we are
I not speaking of the whole Protectorate — in 1901
THE ONLY HOPE 207
was estimated at a little over 1,000,000 ; to-day it
may be put at 700,000. ' If the death-rate be not
diminished/ says Archdeacon Walker, ' the whole
population will die out in twenty years/
For this moral sickness the only cure is a vital
personal godliness. Sir Harry Johnston is emphatic
that Christianity is the only hope for the people.
The great things that God has wrought for
Uganda in the past, and is even now working,
forbid us to despair. Sixty thousand persons have
been converted and baptized in the thirty years since
the mission was started ; practically all the principal
men and the bulk of the ruling classes of the
country are professing Christianity ; a large pro-
portion of the native Christians are leading consist-
ent Christian lives ; there is a sincere and earnest
desire on the part of the people to spread the good
news of the Gospel in the regions beyond ; and
there is practically no opposition to missionary
advance in the whole of the Protectorate, which has
an area of 114,000 square miles, rather less than
that of the whole of the United Kingdom. The
number of native Christians in the Uganda Mission,
according to the latest report, is 59,926. There
were 6173 baptisms during 1906.
The man who, at the order of Mwanga, compassed
the death of Bishop Hannington, died so recently
as the summer of 1906. It seems that at the last
Lubwa, the old chief of Usoga, was seeking the
Saviour whose message he had so often heard and
208 THE STORY OF UGANDA
rejected. A circumstance of singular and touching
interest was the baptism, recorded in the latest
C.M.S. report, of a son of Lubwa by the Rev. J. E.
M. Hannington, a son of the Bishop : the murderer's
son is received into the Christian Church by the
son of the murdered man ! Lubwa's son was called
Mubinyo, which means ' very bad boy * ; he is
called Timothy, and is described as 'amiable,
cleanly, clever, painstaking, and above all truly
anxious to follow the Saviour.'
AFRICA
The Redemption of Africa
FREDERIC PERRY NOBLE
Illustrations, Maps and Tables, 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $4.00.
The subtitle of this book, "A Story of Civilization," is
a most fitting supplement to the distinctive title. "No book
on any land surpasses this in thoroughness of preparation,
wealth of citation, impartiality of judgment, and the pre-
dominant desire to tell nothing but the truth." This testi-
mony from The New York Sun is emphasized by every jour-
nal acquainted with missions in that land. It is practically an
encyclopedia on Africa.
Dawn in the Dark Continent; ° r ^ c s ? o : s nd its
JAMES STEWART, M. D., D.D.
Colored Maps, 8vo, Cloth, $2.00 net.
There has probably been no man more competent to
outline the missionary work in Africa than the veteran
founder of the famous Lovedale Institute. This is just what
he has done in this volume, supplementing it by some in-
valuable comments on the training of a missionary.
The Egyptian Sudan
REV. JOHN KELLY OIFFEN
Illustrated, i2mo, Cloth, $1.00 net.
This new mission field of the American # United Presby-
terian Church has been recently brought into prominence
by John D. Rockefeller's gift to it of $100,000. Mr. Giffen's
book describes, in * most interesting style, the unique problems
faced in such a country. The Interior knows of "no other
book so full of information as to a great military and
economic center on the Cape-to-Cairo railway.
On the Borders of Pigmy Land
Illustrated, i2mo, Cloth, $1.25 net. RUTH B. FISHER
Mrs. Fisher is a successful author and has written a book
which commands the enthusiastic approval of "all sorts and
conditions" of papers, missionary, religious and secular. The
Mountains of the Moon, the Great Lakes, the Uganda Rail-
way, Pigmies and other tribes combine to give a rare and sig-
nificant setting to the work of the missionary.
Pioneering on the Congo
REV. W. HOLMAN BENTLEY
Illustrated, 2 vols., 8v"o, Cloth, $5.00 net.
' The present Congo discussions acquire a new interest
in the light of the conditions as brought to light by the
early missionaries. No one has done this better than Mr.
Bentley, of the English Baptists. A fine scholar, a sympa-
thetic, "accurate observer, impartial, intelligent, trustworthy."
AFRICA
Daybreak in Livingstonia
JAMES W. JACK, M. A.
Illustrated, i2tno, Cloth, $1.50 net.
"One of the best missionary histories, combining possibili-
ties of romance almost as thrilling as King Solomon's Mines,
with a calm presentation of visible and tangible results that
ought to open the eyes of any who still consider Christian
Missions a failure." — Glasgow Herald.
In Afric's Forest and Jungle
Illustrated, i2mo, Cloth, $1.00. REV. R. H. STONE
A record of Six Years Among the Yorubans on the
West Coast of Africa, with numerous tales of thrilling ex-
periences growing out of the wars between the great African
tribes." A vivacious and deeply interesting volume."
The Sign of the Cross in Madagascar
REV. J. J. KILPIN FLETCHER
Illustrated, ismo, Cloth, $1.00.
A pastor, appointed to visit Madagascar and report on
the work of the London Missionary Society, fascinated by
what he learned, has gathered up the results in story form.
With remarkably vivid touch he describes the early condi-
tions, the coming of the "strange messengers," the "mighty
faith," the bitter persecution, the divine interposition, the
changes and the victory of the Cross.
The Personal Life of David Livingstone
W. GARDEN BLAIKIE, D. D.
Portrait and maps, 8vo, Cloth, $1.50.
This standard life of the great missionary and explorer
has the peculiar advantage of the special authorization by his
family to use unpublished journals and correspondence. There
is thus a peculiar power in its presentation of what the S. S.
Times calls his "simple but noble life of self-surrender to a
great motive."
Pilkington of Uganda
C. F. HARFORD-BATTBRSBY, M. A., Al. D.
Illustrated, 8vo, Cloth, $1.50.
A fitting sequel to the biography of Alexander Mackay,
covering with that a moral transformation equal perhaps to
anything recorded even in apostolic days.
A Life for Africa
Illustrated, iamo, Cloth, $1.25. ELLEN C. PARSONS
"* This biography of Rev. A. C. Good, Ph.D., of the Pres-
byterian Church in the U. S. A., by the Editor of Woman's
Work for Woman, is both a record of missionary service,
and opens up a section of West Equatorial Africa of which
little is known.
AFRICA
A Miracle of African Missions
1 6 mo, Cloth, 6oc net. JOHN BELL
The story of Matula, a Congo Convert, describes a change
as great as that in the Apostle Paul, as profound as that in
Jerry McAuley. The Interior says, "It ought to be digested
and preached in every pulpit in the land."
AdaOra Z ^e Romance of a West African Girl.
Illustrated, iamo, Cloth, 50c net. MARY E. BIRD
"An excellent book," so says The Christian Observer,
"for our young people's missionary library."
Missionary Biographies Series
Illustrated, ismo, Cloth, each 75c.
Albert Moffatt DAVID J. DEANE
The Missionary Hero of Kuruman.
Samuel Crowther JESSE PAGE
The Slave Boy who became Bishop of the Niger.
Thomas J. Comber REV. JOHN B. MYERS
Missionary Pioneer to the Congo.
Madagascar W. J. TOWNSEND, D.D.
Its Missionaries and Martyrs.
Thomas Birch Freeman REV. JOHN MILUM
Missionary Pioneer to Ashanti, Dahomey and IJgba.
The Congo for Christ REV. JOHN B. MYERS
The Story of the Congo Mission.
David Livingstone A. MONTEFIORE
Missionary and Explorer.
Missionary Annals Series
ismo, Paper, each 15c; Flexible Cloth, each 30c net.
Robert Moffatt M- L. WILDER
David Livingstone MRS. J. H. WORCESTER
Madgascaar BELLE McPHERSON CAMPBELL
Biographies : World's Benefactors Series
Illustrated, i2mo, Cloth, each 75c.
David Livingstone ARTHUR MONTEFIORE. P. R. O. S.
His Labors and His Legacy.
Henry M. Stanley ARTHUR MONTEFIORE, F. R. (i. S.
The African Explorer,
IN OTHER LANDS
Poland, the Knight Among Nations
With Introduction by Helena Modjeska.
Illustrated, Cloth, $1.50 net- LOUIS E. VAN NORMAN
Poland is_ worth knowing — it is interesting. How could
it be otherwise when it gave us Copernicus, Kosciusko,
Chopin, Paderewiki and Sienkiewicz. Not much has been
known about the people because they have been hard to
get at. Mr. Van Norman went to Cracow, won the hearts
of the people, was treated like a guest of the nation and
stayed till he knew his hosts well, and he here conveys an ex-
tensive array of information.
The Continent of Opportunity: south America
Profusely illustrated, $1.50 net. FRANCIS E. CLARK
Dr. Clark writes from a thorough-going tour of examina-
tion, covering practically every centre of importance in South
American continent, Panama, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Argen-
tine, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Dr. Clark's prime
object has been to collect information of every sort that
will help to understand the problems facing Civilization in
our sister Continent.
China and America To-day
i2tno t Cloth, $1.25 net. ARTHUR H. SMITH
Dr. Smith is one of America's ablest representatives at
foreign courts. He is not so accredited by the government
of this country, but rather chooses to be known as a mis-
sionary to China. In this capacity he has learned much of
China which in another relation might be denied him. Being
a statesman by instinct and genius, he has taken a broad
survey of conditions and opportunities and here presents his
criticisms of America's strength and weakness abroad.
Ancient Jerusalem
Illustrated. In press. HON. SELAH MERRILL
This work will immediately be recognized as authorita-
tive and well nigh final. Dr. Merrill, as the American
Consul, has lived at Jerusalem for many years, and has
given thirty-five years of thorough, accurate study and ex-
ploration to this exhaustive effort. It contains more than
one hundred maps, charts, and photographs.
Palestine Through the Eyes of a Native
Illustrated, $1.00 net. OAMAHLIEL WAD-EL-WARD
The author, a native of Palestine, has been heard and
appreciated in many parts of this country in his popular
lectures upon the land in which so large a part of his life
was spent. His interpretation of many obscure scriptural
passages by means of native manners and customs and tra-
ditions is particularly helpful and informing.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
BERKELEY
Return to desk from which borrowed.
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.
3lMay'53WX
May 2 -
|20ct'53fF
ft*****
IN STACK*
NlMUO
^
28Feb'57LS
REC'D LD
FEB 26 1957
FEB 24 '67 -6 PW
UOAN DEPT
ttftR l 3 1967 9f
191)5
SO^ECEFVED
FEB
LD 21-100m-7,'52(A2528sl
2 7 '67 -5 PM
W^an dept.
T 2"- "1975 4
REC
.CIR. OCT 2 k '75
%^/C
M310079
1
jj
? in
IHH.il
I
iii
