Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/190

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Bishop of Uganda has stated, " I cannot sufficiently tax my memory to say how the missionary idea took root in my mind. I know it gradually grew ; and I think the close association with Mr Fox, whose connections were all missionary, brought things to a point." After five years with Mr Fox, Mr Tucker was raised to the Episcopal bench with special authority to supervise Christian work in Eastern Equatorial Africa or Mombasa, and he made his first journey to the interior with Douglas Hooper s party, reaching Uganda late in 1890.

After a twelve months sojourn there, the Bishop returned to England to report on the prospects of his new Diocese. The eloquent story he then told and the earnest appeal he put forward bore remarkable fruit. At the C.M.S. Gleaners Union anniversary, in Exeter Hall, ^8000 were subscribed on the spot to help the British East Africa Company to hold Uganda for twelve months, and a further

8ooo were contributed within a fortnight. The

C.M.S. readily acknowledge that that collection undoubtedly saved Uganda to England, and the acknowledgment, by-the-bye, is no slight testimony to the service rendered by Bishop Tucker to his country. One of the first facts which Bishop Tucker drove home after his visit to his Diocese was that Eastern Equatorial Africa was beyond the proper supervision of one Bishop. This likewise bore fruit in time. The Diocese was sub-divided, and the Bishop, who in the meantime had received

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