ARRANGES TO LEAVE UGANDA.

337

Katikiro sent for me, but I was too ill with catarrh to go to see him. I hope to arrange so that they will allow me to leave the Mission premises and goods in charge of some of our coast servants until I return, or some of the brethren come, or else that they will allow me to bring in either Gordon or Hooper before I go myself,'

"After many conversations with various chiefs and with the king, this was at last arranged.

once.

"Referring to the close of a long discussion in court about his departure, Mackay writes: 'I was worried to exhaustion, and felt that only more trouble would follow if I did not yield. I therefore left my seat again, and, going over to where the Katikiro was sitting, said: "The question is not, Who reported this or that? but Does the king want me tɔ go or stay? If he wants me to leave, I shall go at I would leave my house and goods in charge of servants, and taking only my bedding, etc., go at once and have this matter settled and come back again." This was agreed to, the king asking me to leave my fundi, carpenter, and tools, The whole matter is so mixed with their fear of the consequences, on account of the murder of the bishop, which Mwanga persists in stoutly denying, that no understanding with him will ever be possible until he acknowledges that crime, and expresses regret for it. Nor dare I charge him with murdering the bishop and his men, nor say that I and others reported the fact of the murder. This

etc.

A. M. M1

22

is uppermost in his thoughts, and, because not alluded to by the Consul, leaves King Mwanga a loophole whereby to charge me of accusing him of making me a prisoner.'

"One hundred and sixty copies of Luganda Matthew complete had been bought up, so that he had not a single copy left. On July 13th the king agreed that Nantinda should go with Mackay as mubaka (messenger), and bring back Gordon, whose name, being familiar to them from Gordon Pasha, they liked.

Mackay sent presents to the king, Katikiro, and others, and the Katikiro, Pokino, Koluji, Kago, Mugema, and others sent him parting gifts; and the king gave him copper and brass spears and a brass ornament for the neck, and sent him a message that if he went only to Msalala he was to return in three months, but that if he was called to the coast he must return very soon.

"On July 21st he locked up the Mission premises, and called on the Frenchmen and left the keys with them. He placed four coast men in charge of the house, and went to the port. He found the Eleanor leaking terribly and was obliged to repair her and patch her before embarking. He arrived at Ukumbi on August Ist, and next day reached the end of the creek, where he met Mr. Gordon, who left by the Eleanor for Uganda on August 10th. Mr. Mackay is now waiting at Msalala till I shall get up there.

"(Signed) HENRY P. PARKER, Bishop."

REMEDIES SUGGESTED

“A mutual understanding can surely be quietly agreed to between Germany and England. This Lake and the Albert are sure to find themselves, sooner or later, under the beneficent protection of Victoria. Let Von Bismarck extend his operations right across from Dar es Salaam to Unyanyembe and Tanganyika, and south to Nyassa, if he likes ; England will have enough to do at the sources of the Nile and in the equatorial Soudan." -A. M. Mackay, Uganda, March 8th, 1887.

"To be, or not to be; that is the question.' Is it to be a track to the Lake or not? I see in you the only hope for this region, in your getting Sir Wm Mackinnon to see the matter in its true light. I would not give sixpence for all the Company will do in half a century to come, unless they join the Lake with the coast by a line, let it be at first ever so rough. When they have got that, they will have broken the backbone of native cantankerousness.”—Last letter from Mackay to Dr. H. M. Stanley, Usambiro, Jan. 5th, 1890.

A

CHAPTER XII.

REMEDIES SUGGESTED.

FTER the mutilations and burnings of many of

their converts, it was the intention of Mackay and Ashe that the one of them who might be allowed to leave Uganda should proceed with all speed to England, and use all possible means to rouse the C.M.S. Committee and the Churches of England, and through them, the Government, to take some effectual steps to curb the cruel violence of Mwanga, and secure liberty of Christian teaching and worship in the land. They did not desire the violent intervention of arms, but they were convinced that means could be used which would sufficiently appeal to the instincts of self-preservation and self-interest which Africans in common with all men have, so that Christian teachers should no longer be oppressed and hindered in their work, and their converts subjected to cruel torture and death.

When Ashe arrived in England, Mackay wrote to him to brace him up for his work, freely explaining what, in his opinion, needed to be done, and the best way to set about it.

In these suggested remedies Mackay's large