THE BISHOP OF UGANDA 161
a most unmitigated mercy," the Bishop added, with emphasis.
" Your lordship is an abstainer of long stand ing ? Presumably you find it expedient to put temperance in the forefront of your programme of work ? "
The Bishop smiled in acknowledgment of his adherence to the temperance cause. " Most of our missionaries are total abstainers, and we do make it a permanent feature of our teaching among the natives. Of course, the natives have their own drinks. There is a kind of beer made from the juice of bananas, which is intoxicating. That, let me add, is not touched by the Brussels Act. It is a great temptation to the natives, and one about which we warn them, both by our example and our teaching."
"It occurs to one that, what the public would most like to hear about is your lordship s efforts to combat the slave-trade."
The Bishop thought for a moment. "Well, in the old days, before Christianity became a power in the country, Uganda was one of the great centres of slave-raiding and slave-trading. Mackay, in some of his earliest letters, tells us how Mtesa, the King of Uganda in those days, used to maintain an army of 10,000 men, whose sole work was raiding for slaves. The Arabs would come up from Zanzibar into Uganda, bringing with them guns and ammunition and cloth. Then, in order
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