the coldest months is hardly more than 3° Fahr.,
the mean annual temperature does not exceed 70°.
During the late morning, and in the middle of the
day, the vertical rays of the sun are, as might be
expected, too fierce for thorough comfort, and would
make it unsafe for Europeans to walk about without
some good protection for the head ; but the evenings
and nights are cool and fresh, and we all slept under
at least one, and more often under two good blankets.
The inhabitants of Uganda consist, to speak
correctly, of an agglomeration and partial fusion of
many different races. Local tradition and internal
ethnological evidence agree in supporting the theory
that at some comparatively remote period, the date
of which is hopelessly lost, the country was overrun
by an invading horde from the north-east, possibly
of Abyssinian blood, which drove most of the original
inhabitants southwards into a district on the western
shore of the Lake, where they were allowed to remain
unmolested, being contemptuously known as Buddu



THE UGANDA TRIBES 185

(slaves). That part of the country has taken its
name from this circumstance, and has figured con-
spicuously in recent history as the fertile province
of Buddu. After the successful occupation of the
country, the conquerors, as so often happens in Africa,
mingled and intermarried freely with the subject race,
losing by degrees nearly all trace of their distinctive
language, and gradually acquiring more and more
of the negro type, until we have to-day the curious
mixture of negro coarseness of feature with slight
traces of higher refinement, of African cunning with
some real intelligence, of sensuality, cruelty, and
immorality with polished manners and courteous
dignity, which are among the most striking charac-
teristics of the race of people known as the Waganda,
who constitute by far the greater proportion of the
present inhabitants of the country.

Leaving aside several unimportant Bantu tribes
occupying certain parts of the country, who are all
either connected with or in process of assimilation
with the Waganda, we may say that the remainder
of the population is supplied by the far more interest-
ing, refined, and handsome race of Wahuma. Although
the villages of the Wahuma are to be found scattered
throughout the country, they keep themselves quite
distinct from the Waganda, retaining their own
language in all its purity ; nor do they willingly
intermarry with their neighbours. These Wahuma
are a pastoral people, their villages are always to be
found in a rich grass country, on which roam their
herds of cattle. They live chiefly on beef and milk,



1 86 THE MISSION TO UGANDA

whereas the Waganda, with the exception of the wealthy
chiefs, seldom eat anything more invigorating than
bananas and pumpkins. The Wahuma are probably
an offshoot of the Galla race, and although the sleek
Waganda affect to look down upon the hardy but
somewhat poverty - stricken race of herdsmen, this
contempt is said to be cordially reciprocated ; and
one glance from the tall upright figures, the clear
skins, the oval faces, thin lips, straight noses, and
classically- chiselled features of the Wahuma to the
lowering, coarse, and indeterminate faces, the thick
skins and heavier bodies of the Waganda, shows at
once on which side lies the pride of race and the
purity of descent.

It is a curious fact that in spite of this real or
assumed contempt on the part of the dominant
Waganda, the royal family is reputed to be of
Wahuma extraction, although by indiscriminate poly-
gamy and concubinage it has now lost nearly all
outward trace of its racial origin. Among the
Waganda I never saw a handsome man, nor even
a passably good-looking woman or girl; the latter
after marriage, as in the case of most African races,
soon " fall to pieces," and are wrinkled and old by
the time they have reached their thirtieth year. In
a Wahuma village stalwart, proud-looking aristocratic
men are the rule rather than the exception, while the
large, soft hazel eyes, the delicate lips gently parted
over most brilliant teeth, the proud carriage of
the little head, the clear velvety skin, the firm
budding figure and elastic step of some of the



POPULATION 187



Wahuma maidens would be more than sufficient to
turn the head of many a London sybarite.

Besides these two races, the inhabitants of the
islands of the Lake present yet other distinct charac-
teristics. They are divided into the Wa-Vuma, in-
habiting the islands of that name scattered all along;
the coast from the eastern corner to about the centre
of the northern shore, and the Wa-Sesse, occupying
the Sesse archipelago on the western side of the Lake.
These tribes, though quite separate one from the
other, and speaking different languages, may be
jointly described as being negroes of a blacker colour
than the Waganda, more savage, more courageous,
but altogether less civilised than the inhabitants of
the mainland. The Sesse islanders have the reputa-
tion even of beino; cannibals, though it is said that
if taxed with it they do not admit the soft impeach-
ment.

As to the total population of Uganda proper it is
difficult to arrive at any very accurate conclusion,
though it may safely be said that it has been vastly
overstated by several enthusiastic writers and speakers
during the last few years. The almost incredible
misgovernment, the barbarous enactments of its kings,
the cold-blooded massacres, the wars of extermination,
the raids, the murders, and the internecine conflicts
under which the country has groaned for the last
thirty years, have in many districts more than deci-
mated the population, and have driven thousands into
voluntary exile to the south of the Lake. In 1875
the population was estimated by Mr. Stanley at under



188 THE MISSION TO UGANDA

one million; in 1879 an English missionary put it at
five millions ; more recently I am informed that one
of the authorities of the British East Africa Company
announced that the country contained three millions
of inhabitants, while a member of the Church Mis-
sionary Society has been heard to state that in
Uganda are nearly a million Protestants out of a
total population of a million and a half. On the
other hand, another officer of the East Africa Com-
pany, of local experience, held the opinion that there
were not more than 250,000 people in the whole
country. A careful, but at present incomplete, cal-
culation of the number of inhabitants, taking village
by village, and province by province, has been carried
on during the last few years by some of the French
missionaries in Uganda, and these gentlemen told me
that their labours had now progressed far enough to
enable them to predict that they would find the total
population to amount to about 450,000, but certainly
to fall short of half a million. We may, therefore,
in default of more accurate statistics, take 450,000 as
the figure, which gives us an average of about thirty
per square mile. To convey to the reader a sense of
the relative density of population, I would remind
him that Switzerland, in about the same area, con-
tains three millions of inhabitants, and that in
England and Wales there is an average of 500
human beings to every square mile.

It is already well known from the accounts of
former travellers that in its political and social
economy Uganda stands forth in strong contrast to



THE GOVERNMENT



all surrounding African nations; this indeed is one
of the principal reasons for which this country has
attracted so much attention, and has been the un-
willing cause of so much heartburning among politi-
cal, religious, and general circles at home. It has
been the fate or the fortune of Uganda to differ in
character and habits from its neighbours ; its peculi-
arities and idiosyncrasies have secured public atten-
tion, and, like any private individual who is rash
enough thus to single himself out from the common
herd, it must now, whether for good or evil, prepare
to incur the inevitable consequences of the sin of
individuality.

I have already said that the government of
Uganda is vested in the hands of a king (in the
vernacular Kabaha), assisted by a council of chiefs.
To define accurately the powers and functions of this
council, or the limitations which it may exercise on
the king's despotic authority, is, I regret to say,
beyond my ability. Generally speaking, the authority
of the council, as in England during the Middle
Ages, would appear to rise and fall in inverse ratio
to the strength of character of the monarch. In the
days of Speke (1862) and Stanley (1875), when all
men trembled under the tyranny and nonchalant
cruelty of Mtesa, this council appears to have con-
sisted of little more than a ring of fawning syco-
phants, who were beaten, fined, mutilated, or executed
like the lowest of his subjects at the whim of the
autocrat. To-day, under the weak and invertebrate
Mwanga, although each chieftain is careful to pre-



190 THE MISSION TO UGANDA

serve, iu the royal presence, all the outward signs of
abject submission and grovelling humility, nobody
knows better than the king himself that if his wishes,
advice, or commands do not happen to coincide with
the opinions or interests of his council, they will be
ignored or disobeyed without the smallest hesitation.
The council itself consists of some ten or twelve
chiefs, all of whom assist at its deliberations in virtue
of divers offices held by them, and to which they
have been previously appointed by the king. The
majority of them are governors of certain of the ten
provinces into which Uganda is divided ; the re-
mainder hold posts, which need not be detailed, in
the kind's household.

In theory this system of government by the king
and his council would appear to be well enough, but,
unfortunately, on our arrival we found that neither
the one nor the other exercised any authority what-
ever over more than a portion of the whole country.
For instance, the Catholic party had recently been
driven away from the northern shores of Lake
Victoria, and had been given the province of Buddu
as their portion. The governor of Buddu was ex
officio a member of the great council, but not only did
he and every other official in the province decline to
come near the capital — and indeed it would have
been as much as their lives were worth to do so— but
the whole province and the Catholic party looked
upon the king and his chieftains as the representa-
tives of a foreign and hostile power, and absolutely
ignored their authority. Again, the British East



PROVINCIAL GOVERNORS 191

Africa Company had recently brought into the
country a large number of Waganda Mohammedans,
and had caused them to be allotted three provinces
in which to settle, their own chiefs beino; made
governors of the provinces ; by all of these also the
orders, writs, mandates, or exhortations of king and
council were treated with calm contempt, and merely
disregarded without any show of overt hostility. It
will thus be readily understood that we found the
central administration in a very limping, dishevelled,
and unhappy condition of mind and body.

Below the governors of provinces, the country is
cursed with an endless and complicated network of
chiefs, sub-chiefs, petty chieftains, and jacks-in-
office, from the wealthy court favourite who exercises
his sway over a district of a hundred square miles,
daily fawned upon by dozens of grovelling underlings,
down to the poverty-stricken headman of a miserable
village with its half-dozen tottering reed-built huts.
In a few rare cases the chieftainships of districts are
recognised as being the legitimate inheritance of
certain families, but with these exceptions every one
of these thousands of so-called "chiefs" who prey
upon the country is, in theory at least, appointed by
the king himself. The natural result is that the
higher offices, governorships of provinces, seats at
the council, and so forth, are held by favourites, who
have generally served an apj:)renticeship at court,
and have wormed themselves into the royal favour as
" the king's pages." The minor posts are simply
given to the shrillest and most pertinacious appli-



192 THE MISSION TO UGANDA

cants, and to those who can "grease the palm " of the
chamberlains and even of royalty itself in the most
satisfactory manner. As soon as the coveted ap-
pointment is successfully secured, two qualities are
simultaneously developed in the new chief, which are
universal among his colleagues, and common equally
to the highest and to the lowest of the fraternity.
The first of these is that from the moment of his
appointment he ceases to do a single stroke of work
of any sort or kind himself, and the second is that he
forthwith lays himself out to beat, rob, maltreat, and
oppress the wretched peasantry or bakopi by every
means in his power.

The working of the whole of this quasi -feudal
system may perhaps be best illustrated by an example
of the methods of procedure which are almost daily
obtaining in all parts of the country. Let us imagine
that the kino- as is the habit of king's all the world
over, feels a sudden desire for an increase of revenue
to meet his real or imaginary needs. He informs his
council of the fact, and after a short deliberation it is
decided that a certain province shall be forthwith
called upon to furnish the required contribution. It
is perhaps scarcely necessary to explain that there
being no money currency in Uganda, all taxes and
contributions to the exchequer are made in kind —
viz. in ivory, in cattle, sheep, goats, corn, bark-cloths,
and all other produce of the country, besides a system
of corvee or forced labour, for which men have to be
supplied by the different provinces in certain propor-
tions. As soon as the king and council have agreed



THE PEASANTRY



193



upon the province which shall be the victim of the
royal necessities, the governor is forthwith informed
that he had better bestir himself, and produce what
is wanted with as little delay as possible. He, nothing
loath, for he has probably even intrigued that his
province may be the one selected, departs from the
capital with many promises and vows of loyalty. On
arrival in his district he summons before him all the
most important local chiefs, and to each one assigns
the amount of the contribution for the production of
which he will be held responsible. In this partition
the governor is particularly careful to see that the
aggregate amount, when brought in, will be more
than double of what he has to pay over to the king ;
the rest will remain in his hands. Away go the sub-
chiefs ; the whole proceeding is repeated again and
again in endless subdivision and gradation, and thus
the hard-working peasantry, beaten and persecuted
until the very last drop is wrung out of them, have
to pay in the end five times, and even ten times, the
amount at which their province was assessed. It is
safe to say that scarcely one- tenth of what is paid in
taxes by the people ever reaches the exchequer for
wdiich it is ostensibly levied ; the remaining ninety
per cent remains in the hands of those drones and
curses of the country, the chiefs and petty chieftains
of Uganda.

If, however, the sufferings of the bahopi were
confined to extortions and robberies of this nature,
their lot would not be much worse than that of the
peasantry in several civilised but over-taxed countries





194 THE MISSION TO UGANDA

which might be mentioned ; but, unfortunately, the
power of even the most petty sub -chief goes far
beyond that of mere financial oppression. The whip,
the stick, the cord, and the stocks are in constant
use : the daughters of the people, if looked upon with
an eye of favour by a great man, are taken without
ceremony, and until quite recently even the lowest
office carried with it the power of life and death over
all subordinates. In the days of the late King Mtesa,
and during the first years of the reign of Mwanga,
executions on the most trivial pretext were of daily
occurrence, not only at the capital and by command
of the king, but all over the country, and at the mere
will of these batongoli or district chiefs. An instance
has been quoted to me of a man being put to death
by an insignificant chieftain for the crime of dropping
and breaking; a gourd containing banana-beer; ears
were cut off, eyes put out, hands amputated for yet
more paltry reasons, and there was no redress for the
sufferer ; it was nobody's business to inquire into the
case, nor could any greater chief be expected to put
himself to any trouble about the ear, the eye, or the
life of a mere peasant !

In this respect, however, it is satisfactory to note
that during the last few years the influence and
teaching of European missionaries, and the subse-
quent advent of European authority, as represented
by the East Africa Company, have worked wonders.
On this point, and it is to be feared on this one only,
the missionaries of both the Catholic and the Pro-
testant divisions of the Christian religion have been



MISSIONARY INFLUENCE 195

in full accord, and their joint influence has been
brought to bear on every possible opportunity with a
view to putting a stop to the whole system of off-hand
executions, tortures, mutilations, and other cruelties.
While Mtesa was still alive their representations and
pleadings were met with a deaf ear or a scornful
laugh, and day after day miserable wretches, courtiers,
concubines, and even boys, were hurried off to execu-
tion at the whim of the king, whose example was
imitated by the provincial chieftains until the whole
country ran with blood. During the first years of
Mwanga's reign things were no better, and the mis-
sionaries themselves had to leave the country ; but
when at last the Christian parties really obtained
the upper hand, one of the first and best results of
the newly-acquired influence of their teachers was
the cessation of the deeds of blood which for many
years had characterised the court and government
of Uganda. As usual, the provinces followed the
example of the court, and although there can be no
doubt that oppression, violence, and extortion at the
hands of his superiors is still the lot of the peasant,
and although dark deeds are undoubtedly practised in
country districts, of which the merest whisper scarcely
reaches the ears of the white men many months after-
wards, yet the actual life of the bakopi is now pretty
safe, and he may even congratulate himself on a fair
prospect of retaining and using his arms, hands, eyes,
and ears during the remainder of his days.

In spite of the oppression of the lower by this self-
styled upper class, there is no real aristocracy in Uganda.



THE MISSION TO UGANDA



The family of the kings is distinct, and as I have
said above, there are a few offices and provincial chief-
tainships which have become hereditary in certain
families, but with these exceptions the chiefs from
highest to lowest were drawn originally from the
bakopi class ; a peasant girl may, without exciting
any surprise, become the concubine of the king, and
her son may succeed to the throne ; nor is the pro-
motion of the merest peasant to an important chieftain-
ship a sufficiently rare occurrence to cause any gossip
or even wonderment. Although, as soon as they
have a grasp of authority, the chiefs treat the bakojii
as a conquered race, the same blood runs in both, and
the chief himself probably began his life as a peasant.
He will possibly end it in the same condition unless
he can exact enough from his district to satisfy not
only his own requirements, but also the extortionate
and constantly repeated demands of all his superiors.
Similarly, the open degradation or the mysterious
disappearance of the most powerful lord, or even of
a dozen great personages at one swoop, would fail
to excite more than passing gossip. The African,
whether brown, yellow, or black, is thoroughly
material in his tastes and sympathies, and so long as
he sees a fair prospect of being able to fill his stomach
with the daily ration of food to which he is accus-
tomed, and to surround himself with what he con-
siders his comforts, he is not in the least inclined to
get up any show of indignation, or to "fash himself"
in any way whatever on account of injustice, robbery,
or death suffered by his neighbour.



RELIGION AND EDUCATION 197

It would, of course, be ridiculous on my part to
pretend that, in the course of three months' residence
in Uganda, I or any of the officers with me were able
to acquire any thorough personal knowledge of the
habits, thoughts, or distinctive modes of life of the
Uganda peasantry ; for information on these subjects
we were forced to rely on the opinions of others, such
as missionaries of various denominations, who had
been longer in the country, and the very nature of
whose work brings them into frequent contact with
this class of the people. But here again, as in almost
every instance in which we were compelled to appeal
to Europeans of local experience, we were perplexed
by the utterly divergent nature both of the evidence
and of the conclusions brought forward by competent
observers of different creeds.

On the one hand, we were asked to believe that the
peasants of Uganda are an exceptionally intelligent and
quick-witted race of people, eager to learn, diligent to
work, quick to grasp the benefits of civilisation, and
that they — or at least the Protestant section of
them — had already in large proportion learned to read
and write. On the other hand, we were told that these
bctkopi are little better than any ordinary African
negro, that they were fairly good husbandmen, though
not better than other African races, that they worked
indeed, and kept the banana plantations clear of
weeds, but only because they were cruelly beaten if
they did not ; that, as regards their deep religious
fervour and the extensive purchase of religious reading-
sheets sold by the Anglican Mission, which was so



198



THE MISSION TO UGANDA



triumphantly quoted by the Protestant missionaries as
a proof of the progress of their religion and of the
education of the natives, these things merely proved
once again that the bakopi would at once adopt any
religion favoured at the moment by their masters,




A GROUP OF UGANDA NATIVES.



and would eagerly spend their cowrie-shells in pur-
chasing these or any other " fetishes " which might
appear to them to be connected with such religion ;
but that should Mwanga and the leading chiefs to-
morrow become Catholics, Buddhists, or followers of
Confucius, the peasantry would with equal readiness
put away the reading- sheets for a fresh turn of the



RELIGION AND EDUCATION 199



wheel, and crowd eagerly to the new church, temple,
or joss-house.

As in the majority of such cases, the truth will
probably be found to lie half-way between these two
extremes. It is undoubtedly true that the peasantry
do work, the women more than the men, and that
they keep the banana plantations in beautiful order,
free from weeds, cutting away the decaying leaves,
plucking the fruit at the right moment, and so forth,
but it is equally true that they would pass through
some extremely unpleasant moments, the effects of
which might last a lifetime, should the master dis-
cover that they had been remiss in any of these
duties. As regards their general intelligence, it may,
I think, be placed on a somewhat higher level than
that of the ordinary negro tribes of the Nile valley,
or of East Africa, but more than this cannot as yet
be said ; they are certainly far behind the natives of
various parts of the coast of Africa, who have already
for many years had their wits sharpened and their
morals depraved by intercourse with Europeans. The
religious feelings of the peasantry are no doubt such
as might be expected among such a people. It would
probably be easy to pick out men from each party,
Catholic, Protestant, or Mohammedan, who, whether
from sincere conviction or from obstinacy of character,
would be ready to suffer any amount of inconvenience,
and even death, rather than give up his beliefs at the
bidding of another, but with the vast majority their
creed is without doubt the creed of the strongest
The religion of the peasant is that of his immediate



THE MISSION TO UGANDA



superior, that is, of the man who has most power to
cause him constant inconvenience, and so on up the
social scale, until we arrive at the chiefs of the great
council and the king himself ; and even in this august