224 HISTORY OP THE PROTECTORATE TERRITORIES 



]\lombasa iucluded, of the Sultan of Zanziliar. Sir .John Kirk \vas then 

 the British representative at the court of the Zanzibar " sayyid," or sultan. 

 He was hojnug to see the growth of a large, prosperous, and well-governed 

 Arab state over East Africa between Somaliland on the north and the 

 Portuguese possessions on the south, and inland as far as the great lakes. 

 This state, he hoped, would eventually come under a sufficiency of British 

 protection or control to prevent the intermeddling of other European 

 powers, and to secure an unhampered field for British commerce. Mutesa 

 had heard from, the English missionaries of Sir John Kirk, and had 

 commenced a correspondence with him. Sir John Kirk had intervened to 

 send away the fleet of .^IcOillop Pasha, and had prevented the Egyptian 

 Oovernment from laying hold of the Sultan of Zanzibar's possessions south 

 of Somaliland. He now made a certain intervention on behalf of Uganda, 

 and his representations through the British Foreign Office restrained General 

 Gordon from establishing the Egyptian power south of the Victoria Nile. 



In 1884i\Iut ^a died, and was su cgp eded Jrv h is son Mwanga . ^Nlwanga 

 was a youth of very vicious tastes, and introduced practices into his 

 court of an in^escribablenature, only to be alluded to in Latin 

 phrases which miglit 1ie borrowed from the works of Suetonius. He 

 very soon came into collision with Christianity. Both the Anglican 

 and Roman con\erts steadily refused to join in his orgies. Several cruel 

 executions followed, and the persecution of both Ch ristia ns and iNluham- 

 luadans became jo. vehement t hat, d espite_tIie__a1 most religious reverenc e 

 which_jwas paid to the sacred person^of_jJ]e Jdng^ irii_TIgaji da, a stron g 

 feeling grew~npr"fbr~tlTe deposi don of Mw anga. King Mutesa during his 

 later years had "been less afraid of Muhammadanism, and had decidedly 

 acquiesced in the settlement of Arabs in his country both as traders and 

 religious teachers. His half-brother ^Nllwgo had become a ^luhammadan.* 

 and numbers of other Baganda had been converted to Islam, ^ianv of 

 these people, in fact, had travelled to the coast, returning with Aiab 

 caravans, and had joined the Muhammadan faith at Zanzibar. 



In tlie late 'seventies a great revival of i\rab enterprise had taken 

 place, firstly in matters of commerce, and secondlv not unconnected with 

 a desire to establish an Arab rule over the countries of inner Africa. 

 Aral? t caravans had pushed boldly inland from the ]Mombasa coast, feeling 

 their way along the direct route to the Victoria Nyanza. In this way 



* Mbogo was once for a brief time made king over Uganda. He lias always 

 been a loyal adherent of the British Government, is now regarded as the official 

 head of the Muhammadans in Uganda, and receives a yearly pension. 



t When I say "Arab" in dealing with periods since 1850, I nuist be taken to 

 include black men with only a proportion of Arab blood in their veins, as well 

 as pale-complexioned, long-bearded Arabs from Southern and Eastern Arabia. 



