396 THE LAND OF THE LION 



between the different departments and the Uganda Rail- 

 road in British East Africa. 



No, backward the East African may be, mysteriously 

 retarded he has been, but unfaithful or ungrateful he surely 

 is not. Let the story of the fight at Lubwas Boma in the 

 days of the Uganda mutiny bear witness. 



The story of that mutiny is not yet known as it should 

 be. It is a story of mismanagement and muddle, not so 

 much by the men on the spot, as by the authorities at Down- 

 ing Street, who did not grasp the situation themselves, 

 and would not listen to those who did. It is the story, so 

 often repeated in the history of England's Colonial enter- 

 prises, of a little band of neglected and unsupported white 

 folk, making good at last for the Homeland's sake, against 

 overwhelming odds. It is also the story of how the black 

 man that had learned to trust the leadership of the mis- 

 sionary, gladly threw his life away to support a cause he 

 knew nothing of, save that it was the missionary's cause. 



The Soudanese battalions, whose mutiny cost Eng- 

 land so dear, would never have mutinied if they had been 

 accorded, not sympathy, but scantest justice. England 

 broke faith with them, orders from home forced their 

 officers to break faith, and the men, under new and unknown 

 leaders cannot be much blamed for what they did. That, 

 however, is a long and a sad story, and as usual, the heavy 

 bills had in time to be paid in precious blood and outpoured 

 treasure. 



But it was the heroic aid given to England by the 

 Waganda, for whom England's missionaries had done so 

 much, that broke the heart of the mutiny almost at the 

 very beginning, and saved for England the immensely 

 important strategic position she held on the great lakes 

 and at the sources of the Nile. 



The story of the fight at Lubwas Boma, in 1897, has 

 been told, yet few have heard it. It is a great story and 



