13© BEAUTIFUL UGANDA 



seem to be on another planet. The inhabitants are blacks, but blacks 

 of a different type. Here is to be seen a polite, well-clad, genial and 

 intelligent people, with a fully organized government. They have 

 their king, their parliament and a powerful feudal system; with a 

 court, ministers and nobles ; laws and courts ; industry, peace and edu- 

 cation. It gives us a new idea to learn that more than two hundred 

 thousand of these ebon natives are able to read and write. This they 

 owe to the devoted labors of a large body of earnest missionaries, 

 who have made Christianity the state religion of Uganda. 



Such is the status of the Baganda nation, and its governmental 

 system is of old date. The native government which now exists has 

 persisted for at least several centuries, and though now under the Brit- 

 ish flag, the old system has not been disturbed', except to correct the 

 abuses that had crept in. Safe now from attack by external enemies 

 or rebellious outbreaks, all goes on swimmingly. The present king, 

 Daudi Cehewa, is a half-grown boy; but, surrounded by his officers 

 of state, he presides at the meetings of his council and parliament, the 

 prime minister. Sir Apolo Kagwar, being the power behind the throne. 



Associated with this political organization, and with the control- 

 ling authority of the British officials, is a system of missionary labor 

 on an unequaled scale. The workers are of different nations and 

 different churches, yet are united in their charitable labors, working 

 together with none of the discord which has at times attended the 

 endeavors of different sects in a single field. At Kampala, the native 

 capital, may be seen on different elevations a Protestant cathedral, a 

 Catholic mission, and a White Father's monastery, each engaged in 

 the same good work in harmony. 



Dressed in their long white robes, the Baganda people carry their 

 native politeness to an extreme. Sir Harry Johnstone has well called 

 them "the Japanese of Africa." Their system of friendly salutations 

 approaches the ludricrous in its elaborate expressions of regard. Two 

 Bagandas meeting begin to salute each other while still yards asunder. 



"How are you?" cries one. 



"Who am I that you should care to know?" asks the second. 



"Humble though I be, yet I have dared to ask," rejoins the first. 



"But tell me first how are you?" requests the second. 



