APPENDIX. 515 



wished his people to learn as much as they could from the white 

 men, for he well knew and appreciated their superior knowledge. 

 In manner he was courteous and gentlemanly, and he could order 

 any one off to execution with a smile on his countenance. His mental 

 capacity was of a very high order. He was shrewd and intelligent ; 

 he could read and write Arabic, and could speak several native 

 languages. He had a splendid memory, and enjoyed a good argu- 

 ment very keenly. If he could only get Protestants, Catholics, and 

 Arabs to join in a discussion before him, he was in his element, and 

 although apparently siding with one or other, who might happen to be 

 at the time in his especial favour, he took good care to maintain his 

 own ground, and I do not believe that he ever really gave up the 

 least bit of his belief in his old Pagan ideas. While too shrewd and 

 intelligent to believe in the grosser superstitions which find credit 

 among his people, he was yet so superstitious that if he dreamt of 

 any of the gods of his country he believed it to be an ill omen, and 

 offered human sacrifices to appease the anger of the offended deity. 

 Shortly after I left Uganda, he dreamt of his father, and in conse- 

 quence had five hundred people put to death. He also believed that 

 if he dreamt of any living person it was a sign that they meditated 

 treachery, and he condemned them forthwith to death. This supposed 

 power of divination is said to be hereditary in the royal race. In 

 concluding my remarks about Mtesa, I may say that he denied his 

 Wahiima origin ; not only, however, did his features betray him, but 

 many of the traditions he held regarding his ancestors, especially 

 his descent from Ham, point conclusively to an origin in the old 

 Christianity of Abyssinia. 



When I was in Uganda, Mt6sa had two or three hundred women 

 always residing at his court. He did not know exactly how many 

 wives he had, but said that they certainly numbered seven thousand. 

 He had seventy sons and eighty-eight daughters. — R. W. F. 



Mwanga. — Mwanga is the present king of Uganda, having been 

 chosen by the three hereditary chiefs at the death of his father, 

 Mtesa, and it is certainly to be attributed to the influence of the 

 missionaries in Uganda, that the usual bloodshed which attends the 

 succession to the throne in Uganda did not take place. On ascending 

 the throne he was about sixteen years of age, and up to that time had 

 been a simple, harmless youth, but his high position soon turned his 

 head, and he became suspicious, abominably cruel, and really brutal. 

 He began to drink and to smoke bang, and up to the present time 

 his rule has been characterised by tyranny and bloodshed far sur- 



