Christian Missions 



petty chiefs, harassed by clouds of biting insects, 

 with death ever hanging over their heads — and, 

 in the end, of their arrival in Uganda with sadly 

 diminished ranks, when they were sent for by the 

 King, and eagerly asked by him if they had brought 

 the Bible ; and how they then felt that they had 

 attained the sole aim and object of all their past 

 hardships; this story surely forms one of the most 

 striking pages of missionary history. What greater 

 reward could have been in store for them ! And then 

 when all seemed smooth sailing, difficulties loomed 

 large upon their horizon. Their missionaries had 

 found an intelligent race, with an aristocracy and 

 an advanced system of government, living in this 

 fascinating land of promise. But they also found 

 that their King Mtesa was a supreme despot, 

 regarded as divine, and ruled by means of an 

 exceedingly complex feudal system of government. 

 His caprice at times took the form of beheading his 

 wives for forgetting to shut the door, and terribly 

 mutilating his pages for treading on the tail of a pet 

 dog. Immorality was ripe, no man or woman was 

 pure, any pretty girl could be seized by a chief to 

 be placed in his harem. The women were bought 

 and sold like cattle, and were made to do all the 

 manual labour. Fearful and unheard-of cruelties 

 were of daily occurrence in connection with the 

 slave trade. Trivial offences were visited with 

 barbarous punishments, such as the cutting off of 

 ears and hands, the gouging out of eyes, and various 

 mutilations. 



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