224 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
stone when he spoke of Sekeletu ; had he seen Mtesa, 
his ardour and love for him had been tenfold, and his 
pen and tongue would have been employed in calling 
all good men to assist him.” 
Five days later I wrote the following entry : — 
“ I see that Mtesa is a powerful Emperor, with great 
influence over his neighbours. I have to-day seen the 
turbulent Mankorongo, king of Usui, and Mirambo, that 
terrible phantom who disturbs men’s minds in Unyam- 
wezi, through their embassies kneeling and tendering 
their tribute to him. I saw over 3000 soldiers of Mtesa 
nearly half civilized. I saw about a hundred chiefs who 
might be classed in the same scale as the men of Zanzibar 
and Oman, clad in as rich robes, and armed in the same 
fashion, and have witnessed with astonishment such 
order and law as is obtainable in semi-civilized countries. 
All this is the result of a poor Muslim’s labour ; his 
name is Muley bin Salim. He it was who first began 
teaching here the doctrines of Islam. False and con- 
temptible as these doctrines are, they are preferable to 
the ruthless instincts of a savage despot, whom Speke 
and Grant left wallowing in the blood of women, and I 
honour the memory of Muley bin Salim — Muslim and 
slave-trader though he be — the poor priest who has 
wrought this happy change. With a strong desire to 
improve still more the character of Mtesa, I shall begin 
building on the foundation stones laid by Muley bin 
Salim. I shall destroy his belief in Islam, and teach the 
doctrines of Jesus of Nazareth.” 
It may easily be gathered from these entries that a 
feeling of admiration for Mtesa must have begun very 
early, and that either Mtesa is a very admirable man, or 
that I am a very impressionable traveller, or that Mtesa 
is so perfect in the art of duplicity and acted so clever a 
part, that I became his dupe. 
The chief reason for admiration lay, probably, in the 
surprise with which I viewed the man whom Speke had 
beheld as a boy — and who was described by him through 
about two hundred pages of his book as a vain, foolish, 
peevish, headstrong youth and a murderous despot — 
