642 BANTU NEGEOES 



wars, raids, and civil wars which took place under the kings Mutesa, Kiwewa, 

 K are ma, and Mwanga, and which resulted from the counter-raids of Unyoro. 

 But another cause seems to have been the exhaustion of men and women 

 by premature debauchery. From some cause or another the women of 

 Uganda have become very poor breeders. If a woman has more than one 

 child she is looked upon as quite remarkable, and is given a special honorific 

 title. In former days, the Baganda women being so frequently barren, it 

 was the custom of the men. at any rate amongst the chiefs and aristocracy, 

 to raid the neighbouring countries of Unyoro, Toro, and Busoga for wives, 

 or to obtain large numbers of women by the slave trade. Since this means- 

 of recruiting for the marriage market has been put a stop to, even though 

 at the same time wars and massacres have come to an end, the present 

 population remains in a rather stationary condition. If the Baganda are to 

 be saved from dying out as a race — and I cannot but believe and hope they 

 will — it will be entirely through the introduction of Christianity and the 

 teaching of the missionaries, both Roman and Anglican. The introduction 

 of monogamy as a universally recognised principle now amongst all people 

 who desire to conform to mission teaching may be the salvation of Uganda, 

 strange to say. The people, through this teaching, are now becoming 

 ashamed of marrying girls who have led a bad life before marriage. The 

 appreciation of female chastity is distinctly rising, while at the same time 

 young men find debauchery no longer fashionable, and endeavour to marry 

 early and become the fathers of families. If ever a race needed a Puritan 

 revival to save it from extinction, it is the Baganda, and if ever Christian 

 missions did positive and unqualified good among a Negro race, this good 

 has been accomplished in Uganda, where their teaching has turned the 

 current of the more intelligent people's thoughts towards the physical 

 advantages of chastity. 



The other diseases to which this people are subject are numerous. They 

 suffer from malarial fever, but not to the same extent as Europeans. It 

 is a mistake to suppose that they are immune from hamioglobinuric, or 

 blackwater fever. They do enjoy, apparently, immunity from this 

 disease within their oivn hind, but if a Muganda goes (for instance) to 

 the Congo Forest, or to the south shore of the Victoria Nyanza, he is as 

 likely on any European to (jet blackwater fever and die of it. Small- 

 pox is a constantly recurring plague which ravages this country, as it 

 does most parts of tropical Africa. The people also suffer from a mild 

 form of chicken-pox and from mumps. Dysentery is not often met 

 with amongst the natives of Uganda itself, but the Baganda are 

 particularly subject to this disease if they quit their own country and 

 travel to other parts of the Protectorate. Under these circumstances the 

 disease is a very fatal one. The Baganda suffer much from that 



