Chapter 1 A Glance Into the Future

Chapter 2 A Mother's Prayers Answered

Chapter 3 Offers Himself for the Mission Field

Chapter 4 At Uganda. The Beginning of His Life's Work

Chapter 5 Sowing the Seeds

Chapter 6 The Flames Burst Out

..."Tell the king that I die for Uganda. I have bought this road with my life." These were the

last words of the heroic, the sainted, James Hannington, the first Bishop of Eastern Equatorial

Africa. After many years' devotion to the Master's cause in Africa, he conceived the idea of

pushing right into the heart of Uganda for the purpose of communicating with, and assisting,

Alexander M. Mackay, the noble Christian Scotsman, who, in spite of terrible persecution,

persisted in delivering his God-given message.

After much weary marching, Hannington reached Luba', where he fell a victim to the treachery

and brutality of Mwanga's savage host. He was seized on Wednesday, the 21st October, 1885.

The entry in his diary for that date graphically describes the incident. Though treated with

almost revolting barbarity the sublime faith of the hero sustained him. He felt certain that his

captors were dragging him to his death, but he sang, "Safe in the arms of Jesus," and also,

"My God, I am Thine."

But James Hannington was not granted as quick a passport to his eternal reward as he

expected. After being kept eight days in prison he was led out towards the banks of the

Victoria Nile and there martyred. Such a reference to Bishop Hannington is valuable for two

things — his death took place upon the threshold of the territory which is dedicated to the

heroic service of Mackay; also because the same characteristics belong to both — heroic,

devoted to duty, loving God and His cause on earth more than life, and saint-like to a degree

seldom seen on earth.

As the opening sentence of this narrative typifies the life and work of Bishop Hannington, so

may we throw into bold relief the noble simplicity of Mackay's character by two passages from

his writings, referring to the land for which he so willingly, so cheerfully, died. Writing to the

Church Missionary Society on the 12th December, 1875, he said:

"My heart burns for the deliverance of Africa, and if you can send me to any one

of those regions which Livingstone and Stanley have found to be groaning under

At the time he wrote this he was well on the road to the highest possible material prosperity.

An equal partnership in a successful business in Moscow had been offered him, but his heart

had been touched with a live coal from the altar of God, and the condition of the thousands in

darkest Africa seemed to weigh upon him like a heavy personal burden. To go out and teach

them was the great passion of his life, and this led him to offer himself to the Church

Missionary Society for service in Uganda. He left England on the 27th April, 1876.

Then, after many years of devoted and loyal service, too often checked and interrupted by

bitter and unreasoning persecution, he wrote to Mr. Eugene Stock, the editorial secretary of

the Church Missionary Society, a letter which shows his love for the country in which he

laboured:

"What is this you write — 'Come home? Surely now, in our terrible dearth of

workers, it is not the time for any one to desert his post. Send us only our first

twenty men and I may be tempted to come to help you to find the second twenty."

In this manner he refused to accept the tempting offer to return home, where so many dear

ones were anxiously waiting to welcome him. Then, at last, on the 14th April, 1890 (fourteen

years after he left England), the sad news of his early death reached the Church Missionary

Society. It had been telegraphed from Zanzibar. Ten days later Mackay's last letter reached

the Society's headquarters. It shows how much he loved the heathen land for which he died,

and for the enlightenment of which he forsook home, and all its dear ones, and turned his

back upon business prospects which, in a few years, would no doubt have made him a wealthy

and successful man.

Referring to recent events in Uganda, and more particularly to the Church, which had stood

the sternest of tests, he asked:

"Shall it be left to die of neglect, or mayhap to be suckled by some ravening wolf,

which is already eager to nourish the infant nation with her milk, which centuries

have shown to be deeply saturated with the ravening wolfish nature? Is this to be

so? or is it the resolve of Christian England that the blood of pure Christianity shall

be instilled into the veins of this African infant, and that it shall be brought up in

the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Mwanga (who had very recently been

carried in triumph to the throne from which he had been deposed) writes: 'I want

a host of English teachers to come and preach the Gospel to my people.' Our

Church members urge me to write, imploring you to strengthen our mission, not

by two or three, but by twenty. Is this golden opportunity to be neglected, or is it

to be lost for ever? You sons of England, here is a field for your energies! Bring

with you your highest education and your greatest talents; you will find scope for

the exercise of them all. You men of God, who have resolved to devote your lives

to the cure of the souls of men, here is the proper field for you. It is not to win

numbers to a church, but to win men to the Saviour, and who otherwise will be

lost, that I entreat you to leave your work at home to the many who are ready to

undertake it, and to come forth yourselves to reap this field, now white to the

harvest. Rome is rushing in with her salvation by sacraments and a religion of

carnal ordinances. We want men who will preach Jesus and the Resurrection. 'God

is a Spirit,' and let him who believes that throw up every consideration and come

forth to teach these people to worship Him in spirit and in truth."

This last message of the hero and martyr should be an eloquent appeal to Christendom to

stretch forth its hand and gather, in the heart of even dark Africa, a rich and bountiful harvest.

Though dead, Alexander Mackay still speaks. His life has become a sainted memory, and the

record of his heroism will undoubtedly inspire in the breasts of many young men a God-like

zeal to continue the work which he began.

The quotations here given from his letters throw his noble character into bold relief. They tell

us the life he lived, the deeds he performed, the prayers and supplications which he daily and

hourly laid before his Maker.

made him an ideal missionary — a zealous and devout Christian burning with a passion to

extend Christ's Kingdom on earth, an intrepid explorer, a practical and skilled mechanic, and

an organiser and leader of the highest order. Mr. Stanley frequently met Mackay, and had

ample opportunities for testing the value of the work he so patiently and so devotedly

performed in Uganda.

The testimony of the great explorer is emphatic. "He was the greatest missionary since

Livingstone," said Mr. Stanley, on hearing the news of his unexpected death. The ordinary

terms of eulogium seem stale and commonplace when used as a description of such a

magnificent and yet such a simple life, but it is perfectly safe to place on record the statement

that public opinion will yet place Livingstone and Mackay upon the same level. He has not

been dead long enough for us to see fully the beauties of his life. We shall draw nearer and

nearer a true conception of his character as the years roll by, and as the work which he

"In full and glad surrender

He gave himself to Thee;

Thine utterly, and only

And evermore to be."

Alexander Mackay was blessed with a truly Christian parentage. He owed much

to the life of a pious mother; he owed a great deal more to her death. It was

during the sadness which surrounded her death that the future missionary

sought Divine light and guidance, which afterwards were the mainsprings of his

inspiring life. Alexander Mackay, LL.D., was Free Church minister of the parish of

Rhynie, and it was in this obscure Aberdeenshire village that the future engineer-

missionary was born on the 13th October, 1849...

Much might be written of Mackay's boyhood, but we must be content with a reference

sufficiently long to foreshadow his after-life. His boyhood was spent amid cultured and godly

society. His father was a scientific student as well as a preacher, and he undertook his son's

education until he reached his fourteenth birthday, when increasing pastoral duties rendered it

necessary to send, in 1864, young Alexander to the Aberdeen Grammar School.

Up to this point he had shown great intellectual capability. A love of books and an intense

passion for mechanics appeared to run concurrently through his ever active brain. At seven

years of age his text-books were the immortal Paradise Lost, History of Modern Europe by

Russell; Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Gibbon's prodigious masterpiece; and History

of the Discovery of America by Robertson.

Men who were leaders of various branches of scientific thought met around the serious, but

hospitable, table of his father, and the boy's developing faculties were inspired by the

discussions on various important questions which took place.

He was alike the pet [loved person] and the anxious care of his mother. All her motherly

yearning seemed to concentrate itself around the young, impulsive, bright, lovable boy. Daily,

almost hourly, her prayers ascended for his welfare. Her great hope was that his life should be

dedicated to the Master's cause, the sacredness ,of which had been increased by the stainless

life and the holy devotion of her husband. This hope she was never privileged to see fulfilled.

His love of books produced an almost natural revulsion, and for two years, or a little over, the

passion for practical handicraft became the absorbing interest of his young life. Many and

many a time he would walk out of his picturesque native village to the nearest railway station

There is almost a tragic element intermingled with the death of the hero missionary's mother.

He was sixteen years of age when the end came, and was still a student at the Aberdeen

Grammar School, preparing for the career of a professional teacher. He was the only member

of the family absent from the deathbed. The death of his mother was the beginning of his

spiritual life; it was the first thread woven into the strong cord which afterwards drew him with

a mighty impulsion into the very heart of Africa.

Her last days and nights were spent in prayer for her boy, and when the end was approaching

more rapidly than the messenger who could bring Alexander to her, she handed to a godly

attendant her most precious souvenir, to be given to [Alexander] when the last scene was

over. It was her Bagster's Bible, which had been presented to her as a wedding gift by her

husband. To her it had been one of the dearest of mute companions, and she gave

instructions that certain passages, specially applicable to the needs of her son, should be

prominently marked, in the hope that they would flash conviction across his mind.

Her repeated prayers were abundantly answered; and if Christians can behold after death the

things of time and sense (as some authorities aver), she would be more than abundantly

satisfied with the nobility of purpose which was created within her son's breast by her last

prayerful injunction, "Search the Scriptures."

The Bible was given to the youth just after the funeral. The injunction and the marked

passages came to him like messages from Heaven, and they had an inestimable effect in

bringing about a thorough conversion. His later life was marked by a devotional reverence and

"Take my life, and let it be

Consecrated, Lord, to thee."

The prayer of Mrs. Mackay not only shaped the destiny of her son, but influenced the whole

history of Africa. This is only one additional testimony to the illimitable influence which good

and true women have exercised in the world; it is another proof that very often mighty

influences spring from apparently trivial things.

In 1867 a great change came over the family. The little village of Rhynie was left, and

residence was taken up in the busy, but picturesque, city of Edinburgh, "the modern Athens,"

the most beautiful city in the United Kingdom. Vastly different scenes surrounded the family,

but on the whole they were beneficial in giving fuller scope to the constantly developing

faculties of the youth whose history we are following.

Alexander, determined upon the pursuit of teaching, entered the Free Church Training College

for Teachers, of which the Rev. Dr. Maurice Paterson was Principal. To this sterling Christian

Mackay owed a great deal, and of him he always spoke in enthusiastic and affectionate terms.

For two years he remained there, and retired with the very highest laurels. Of the students

sent for the examinations by the Free Church he stood the highest, and he also received a

valuable prize from the Art Department of South Kensington. Three years' study at the

Edinburgh University increased alike his knowledge and his reputation. His studies were

applied more particularly to the highest branches of handicraft, with an earnest search into

classics more by way of relaxation than anything else. Mechanics and engineering, higher

mathematics, natural philosophy, surveying, and fortification building: these were his pet

studies, and at them he laboured with an industrious application which commanded the best

results, not only in the examinations, but in the greater tests which followed.

For a time all intention to enter the ministry was abandoned. To say that this determination

was a disappointment to his father is using the mildest possible phrase applicable, but, like a

pursuit of a profession for which apparently nature had eminently fitted him. For a time

Alexander held a morning engagement as a college teacher, and then, after donning the

roughest of clothes, he went down to Leith and spent the afternoons toiling hard and patiently

in the engineering works of Messrs. Miller & Herbert. Then back to Edinburgh he went, and

most of his evenings were spent at the School of Arts, where he earnestly studied chemistry,

geology, and other sciences.

Very few of those who then knew him apprehended the momentous fact, but in God's hands

this varied educational experience was but the training for his history-making, history-

brightening labours in the dark land which provided him with a tomb. Of course it matters

little where his body lies; we know where his spirit is, and that is the sole importance which

surrounds the whereabouts of a man who has passed out of the range of man's contracted

vision.

It was during his terms at the Edinburgh University that he began to take an active, personal

part in Christian work. He attended the church of the Rev. Horatius Bonar, who never failed to

exercise a very powerful influence over him. The Sunday afternoons he filled up, not by

visiting the picturesque sights of the magnificent city, but by conducting special services

chiefly for the outcast and ragged children who exist in large numbers even there, and in the

evenings he and Dr. John Smith were amongst the most faithful of the teachers at Dr.

Guthrie's ragged school, which, at the time referred to, was under the superintendence of that

devoted Christian, Mr. Robert Simpson. The future missionary was always happy amongst

children, and if we wish to estimate the measure of his self-sacrifice for the sake of Africa, and

for Christ's sake, we must pursue our investigation by taking into account the beautiful home

life he might have lived if he had been content to pass away his life in the profession which

would undoubtedly have yielded him a greater degree of wealth than his soul craved for.

For several reasons Mackay, in November, 1873, left Scotland for Germany. One reason is

plain enough -- he was enamoured of the German tongue and the wealth of legendary lore

which it covers. He secured a lucrative appointment as draughtsman in a large locomotive

factory just outside the imperial city of Berlin. At that time German religious thought was in a

strange state of unrest. Thousands were literally wrenching themselves away from the old

creed which enabled, or compelled, Luther and Gustavus Adolphus to win their immortal,

though opposite, victories. Both these warriors fought on German soil, and secured the same

ends with vastly different weapons -- the liberty to read the Scriptures, and to worship God

according to its dictates.

Mackay in his new sphere was surrounded by many young men, who considered it an evidence

of intellectual superiority to keep their infidelity and their godlessness perpetually under the

eyes of all beholders. This caused the young Christian draughtsman much anxiety, and many

prayers he offered up on behalf of those who too frequently indulged in jeering scoffs at his

earnestness. There were over a thousand men employed at the works, and Mackay was ever

anxious to so conduct himself before them that he would lead at least some to come to a right

conception of the Christianity which was the motive power of his useful existence. Once he

wrote home the following pithy sentence:

"Here I am amongst a heathenish people; almost all are infidels, but agree in so

far acknowledging God as to continually use the expression, 'Ach Gott!' often

more than once in a single sentence."

He prayed much and was sustained. In May, 1874, he went to reside at the home of Herr

Hofprediger Baur, a man of earnest Christian life, and full of a deep sympathy for foreign

missions. Here the young man was brought into close personal contact with the elite of

Christian society in the city, and to a far greater extent than hitherto he dedicated his life to

Christ's service.

In the same month (4th May, 1874), the following passage, which is perhaps the most

significant foreshadowing of future events ever recorded, appears in his diary: "This day last

year Livingstone died -- a Scotsman and a Christian, loving God and his neighbour in the heart

of Africa. Go thou and do likewise!" And in God's good time he did go and do likewise, and to-

countrymen, linked together as the two greatest missionaries and explorers of modern times.

This seems to have been the period in which he solemnly and reflectively dedicated himself to

the work of foreign missions. Somehow he felt that he would be called to the work in

Madagascar, which at that time was creating a good deal of public interest and sympathy. He

consequently began a close study of the language, and of the sciences which he considered

would be most suitable to him as a missionary in that interesting, though afflicted, island.

His dedication to the work came about in a simple manner. God was guiding his life. His sister,

living in Edinburgh, attended a meeting of the literary association which was held in

Chalmers's Memorial Church. Dr. Burns Thompson delivered an interesting address on

Madagascar, and appealed to the young men present to dedicate their lives to the work of

medical missionaries out there. She forwarded a lengthy description of the address to her

brother, who was fired with a holy zeal for the work. Almost immediately he wrote to his old

friend and pastor, Dr. H. Bonar, offering himself for mission work in Madagascar. To him, and

also to his sister, he wrote: "Well, I am not a doctor, and therefore cannot go as such; but I

am an engineer, and propose, if the Lord will, to go as an engineering missionary."

This was a perfectly novel idea, and Mackay knew it, and was therefore not surprised when, in

reply, Dr. Bonar told him that he thought the ideas difficult to combine -- mission work with

engineering -- but at the same time he offered to make all necessary inquiries.

Another letter home shows how intense was his desire for mission work. "Do not think me

mad. It is not to make money that, I believe, a Christian should live. It will indeed be a trial of

all trials to part with you all, to go to such a country, where so many Christians (2000) were

not very long ago put to death. Such persecutions I do not expect will occur again. At any

rate, Christianity should teach men, of course, how to be saved for eternity, but also how to

live comfortably and healthily together."

At the time he wrote this letter he was not quite twenty-five years of age. Naturally the world

was tinged with a roseate hue, and, like most young men, he was ambitious to make his mark

in it. Nor did he relinquish his ambition with his dedication to foreign missionary labour.

Nothing definite was done for a long time about his offer to go to Madagascar. Patiently he

prepared himself, so that when the call should come he would be ready to accept it. His

twenty-fifth birthday came round, and on the 13th October, 1874, he jotted in his diary:

"Twenty-five years old this day. 'Bless the Lord, O my soul,' for all His goodness.

Man is immortal till his work is done. Use me in Thy service alone, blessed

Saviour."

He was ever thinking about a missionary's life. In 1875 the Church Missionary Society

appealed for the services of a lay superintendent to take the secular oversight of a settlement

for liberated slaves, to be established near Mombasa. Mackay instantly offered himself for this

arduous duty, but the position was filled up before his letter reached London.

In September of the same year the engineering company at Berlin dissolved, and Mackay was

thrown out of employment. One of the directors, however (one of Abraham's wandering sons),

offered him a partnership in a similar enterprise at Moscow. This would have sealed Mackay's

fate. Africa would not have been the better for the devoted labours of one of the noblest

missionaries who ever lived and died there; and Alexander Mackay would, perhaps, have

attained to opulent prosperity as an engineer in the ancient capital of Russia. The offer was

one that would have allured most young ambitious men. It was an encouraging testimony to

the manner in which he had performed his work at Berlin; it was an evidence of the Jew's

belief in the vastness of his future prospects. He prayed much as to the way in which he

should turn, and having in mind the glory of his after career, who dares to say that God did

not listen to, and answer, every petition sent up by the young anxious one?

The offer was refused. This was one of his first great sacrifices. It gave him strength to make

similar firm at Kottbus, sixty miles from Berlin. Few men of twenty-six receive such onerous

appointments; still fewer have the moral courage to vacate them because they inwardly feel

that the finger of God points towards poverty and duty, hardship and the glory of being

engaged in Christ's service.

His change of residence did not contract his sympathy with religious endeavour. He was soon

hard at work in his new sphere. He translated into German one or two of Dr. Bonar's

devotional works, and, at much trouble and expense, sent copies to a large number of

ministers in Germany.

Then came the great crisis of his life. Two offers of missionary labour in Africa were received

by him on the same day, the 26th of January, 1876.

Most people are acquainted with the genesis of the Uganda Mission. The intrepid explorer, Mr.

H. M. Stanley, in his travels, came into personal contact with Mtesa, the King of Uganda.

Recent events have unfortunately proved too clearly that Mr. Stanley's estimate of the king

was much more hopeful than accurate. He represented Uganda as ripe for the harvest. Mtesa

was anxious to receive English missionaries as guests at his court, and he challenged the

missionary societies at home to stretch forth their hands to grasp the finest opportunities ever

providentially placed within their reach.

The Church Missionary Society were the first to develop their plans. Almost immediately they

accepted the challenge and placed themselves in communication with Mr. Mackay and others.

The other offer was made by an old friend, Rev. Alexander Duff, who was practically acting on

the authority of the Free Church of Scotland's Committee, who had determined to send out a

small missionary steamer to Lake Nyassa and were in need of a head engineer.

After much prayerful thought he decided to accept the offer of the Church Missionary Society,

and began to prepare himself for his great life's work. He did not leave Germany until the

following March. An industrial and mechanical element was intermixed with the purely

evangelical plans of the Society, and of this branch Mackay, then just turned twenty-seven

years of age, had almost complete control. Few men of that age have opened their eyes to the

infinite possibilities which even a degenerate world offers for being good and doing good.

His first task was to request a London engineer to manufacture a boiler and engine from plans

and drawings prepared by himself. These were upon an entirely new principle, and the engine

was made in such a way that it could be conveniently carried by porters right through the

heart of Africa to the Victoria Nyanza, where the missionaries were to erect a boat specially

suited to their requirements. This, though a work of considerable difficulty, was but the

prelude to many more of a much more difficult nature.

Mackay had placed his hand to the plough. He was not the man to turn back until the greatest

possible measure of success had crowned his efforts. He prayed much and devoutly, but his

efforts did not end here. He did all that was humanly possible to make himself a capable

missionary. And in that brief interval between his return from Germany and his embarkation

[embarking] for Africa he studied a variety of practical arts and sciences, which afterwards

proved of immense service in the dark continent. He laid in a full set of tools and purchased a

printing press, with all accessories.

Then he went up to Edinburgh to take a farewell, which proved to be the last. His love for all

who made home the dearest place in the world was intense, but his love of duty was more

intense still. In those last few days he evinced an almost pathetic longing to lay in a stock of

information which would in some way ameliorate the condition of the people to whose service

he had nobly dedicated his life.

Those last days at home were amongst the most active of his busy life. His friends and

relatives complained (and with excellent reason) that they saw too little of him during what

unfortunately proved to be his very last visit to the modern Athens. Three hours every

alternate day he spent at Leith Fort studying astronomy and the use of the sextant; another

three hours a day in the extensive printing office of Messrs. Blackwood & Sons. Then he paid

and the use of the stethoscope. Photography, coal-mining, iron puddling, etc., were also

added to his already extensive collection of practical subjects.

Then at last the heroic pioneers were ready for departure -- eight of them in all, and only one

younger than Mackay, who was not quite twenty-seven years of age. Mackay died at the age

of forty-one, and yet he survived by several years every other member of the first momentous

Chapter 4 - At Uganda. The Beginnings of

"Fly, happy sails, and bear the Press;

Fly, happy with the mission of the Cross;

Knit land to land, and blowing Heavenward

With silks, and fruits, and spices, clear of toll,

Enrich the markets of the golden year."

On the 25th of April, 1876, the party of five took their farewell of the Church Missionary

Society -- the Rev. C. T. Wilson, Dr. John Smith (one of Mackay's earliest and dearest

friends), Messrs. T. O'Neill, James Robertson, and A. M. Mackay. Lieutenant G. Shergold

Smith, with two artisans, had already sailed, taking with them, in sections, a little steamer,

which was afterwards used for missionary purposes on Lake Nyanza.

We have a great amount of ground to cover, but we must make a diversion for the purpose of

quoting a brief extract from the last speech delivered by Mackay in England -- at the farewell

gathering already alluded to. Mackay spoke last, and sent a thrill through the audience with

these prophetic words, which, alas! were soon too amply be verified by actual facts.

"There is one thing which my brethren have not said, and which I want to say. I

want to remind the Committee that within six months they will probably hear that

one of us is dead. Yes, is it at all likely that eight Englishmen should start for

Central Africa, and all be alive six months after? One of us at least -- it may be I

-- will surely fall before that. But what I want to say is this: when that news

comes, do not be cast down, but send some one else immediately to take the

vacant place."

One by one those Christian heroes and pioneers died at the post of duty and danger, and

within three years Alexander Mackay was at Uganda alone, and anxiously but patiently waiting

for the coming of reinforcements which were, by the very necessity of things, long delayed.

The thought of that last speech often recurred to him in those days of lonely watching and

waiting. Yet he bravely held the fort alone, and in the savage, barbarous court of Mtesa, laid

the seeds of a great spiritual harvest, and protested, with all the force of his strong, freedom-

loving nature, against those revolting and barbaric practices, which so often made Uganda, in

common with almost every other portion of Africa, the scene of lawless and bloody carnage.

In his last letter home, dated from Southampton, 27th April, 1876, he said:

"It is His cause. It must prosper whether I be spared to see its consummation or

not. Pray for me that grace may be given me to keep steadily in view the one

great object."

On the day he wrote this letter he went on board the S.S. Peshawur. On the 6th of the

following month they arrived at Malta, and on the 30th they lay at anchor in the harbour of

Zanzibar. Right in front lay the vast continent which these few men, in their God-inspired

During the voyage Mackay kept a journal which, after many strange vicissitudes, came into

the possession of his sister, who undertook to write his biography. Though it is full of interest

we cannot make any quotations.

Their privations soon commenced. Lieutenant Smith and Mackay underwent many perilous

experiences in exploring the River Wami. Fever attacked Lieutenant Smith and O'Neill, and

shortly afterwards Mackay also. Dr. Smith was the first to die under the influence of the

malaria; but before Mackay fully recovered he received instructions from the Church

Missionary Society not to commence the long march into the interior until June, 1877, at

which time the rainy season (so fatal to Europeans) would be over.

During this delay he lived on board the steamer Highland Lassie, which was anchored off

Zanzibar. Soon after his recovery he despatched a caravan into the interior, and then

commenced the laborious operation of making a good permanent road from Sadani, which is

on the coast line near the Island of Zanzibar, to Mpwapwa, a distance of 230 miles. At Sadani

he made some searching investigations into the slave trade, which he quickly found was one

of the worst curses which afflict Africa. In more than one instance he gave chase to the

marauding bands of slave-hunters, and liberated poor helpless things who had fallen into their

merciless clutches.

The march across the heart of Africa was a terrible undertaking. The sufferings they had to

patiently bear were enough to test the powers of the strongest and the most godlike of men.

It is a stock slur against missionaries, in some quarters, that they go into these out-of-the-

way quarters for the purpose of living lives of ease and affluence. Surely the records which

come from this pioneer expedition to the Nyanza are in themselves a perfect refutation of

these slanders. It must be remembered that almost all these men had been brought up in

cultured and refined homes, and the prospects of two or three of them were nothing short of

brilliant. In all human probability most of these men would have lived long lives if they had

remained at home, whereas they were content to place themselves in the hands of God, and

undergo all manner of privations for the purpose of carrying the message of love and hope

and peace to benighted Uganda. All the world united in paying tribute to Mr. H. M. Stanley,

and rightly so; but we must never forget that the same work has been done in a more

complete degree by many who are now lying in unnamed and unknown graves in the land

where they laboured.

Slowly the party journeyed through the country, and Mackay always endeavoured to arrange

amicable terms with the chiefs through whose territories they passed, and with a considerable

number he established "a blood brotherhood."

Very soon he was called upon to perform a painful act of duty which showed how chivalrous

were his feelings. Lieutenant Smith and Mr. O'Neill had pushed on in advance of the rest of

the party. On the 6th December they wrote from Kagei, which is on the borders of the Victoria

Nyanza. Nothing more was heard from them, but Mackay gathered conclusive evidence that

they had been mixed up in an unfortunate quarrel between Lkonge, King of Ukerewe, and an

Arab who had taken refuge with the two missionaries, who sacrificed their lives in trying to

protect him.

Mackay's task was one of immense difficulty. Mtesa, who at the time was a professed

Christian, was sending down a large army for the purpose of chastising Lkonge for permitting

such an outrage upon his guests. The intrepid Scotsman knew that if bloodshed was once

commenced there would be very little scope for the labours of missionaries for many years to

come. He therefore pushed on towards Ukerewe with all possible haste for the purpose of

seeking an explanation from the king and, if possible, avoiding the outburst of Mtesa's

revengeful purposes. At Kagei he found a few things which had belonged to these friends, and

also their boat, the Daisy, which was in a very dilapidated condition and in need of great

repairs before it could be made serviceable to the pioneer missionaries.

Mackay had several interviews with King Lkonge, and the result was a satisfactory agreement

between them that the death of the missionaries was due to Smith and O'Neill having

defended the Arab rather than to any hostile intention on the part of the king or his people.

and the two thereupon established "a blood brotherhood" -- a token of mutual agreement and

friendship.

This chivalrous act is a type of Mackay's character, caring much more for others than himself,

perfectly willing to risk everything if the performance of his duty demanded it.

Mackay remained the guest of the king for several days, and in his free intercourse with the

people he never failed to improve every possible opportunity for sowing the precious seed of

God's divine message to men. For several days more he was delayed in patching up the Daisy

and in exploring the magnificent Nyanza. In his journeyings he was frequently brought face to

face with the curses inflicted by the slave traffic, and too often for his comfort or convenience

he was besieged with multitudes of people who desired him to make all manner of things for

them and to administer medicines to their sick ones. Though yearning to help these poor

people, Mackay was often compelled, for want of knowledge or want of resources, to refuse to

accede to these requests for physic. He was not a doctor, and some of the patients brought to

him would have sorely puzzled the skill and ingenuity of our best physicians. Besides, it was

an extremely dangerous thing to doctor these people. Mackay himself defines this danger in

these words: "If a cure is effected, good and well; if the patient dies, it is unfortunate, but

natural enough, for such ignorant people to say my medicine was the cause of death."

That voyage across the Nyanza was full of difficulties and dangers; on one occasion they were

wrecked, and Mackay and his comrades had an exceedingly narrow escape from death. But

they were in God's hands and were saved for the accomplishment of a great and glorious

purpose. How many people were blessed by Mackay's ministrations in Uganda it would be

impossible, of course, to conjecture; but it is safe to say that by his careful and patient

plodding he laid the foundation of a mighty work which has had, and will have, a vastly

"Sow in the morn thy seed,

At eve hold not thy hand;

To doubt and fear give thou no heed,

Broadcast it o'er the land;

And duly shall appear,

In verdure, beauty, strength,

The tender blade, the stalk, the ear,

And the full corn at length."

When at last Mackay arrived in the capital of Uganda (in November, 1878), he quickly

ascertained that Stanley, with his accustomed buoyant hopefulness, had exaggerated the

prospects of the mission. Mtesa was still on the throne, and though it was true that he had

asked for missionaries, and though he extended to Mackay a courteous welcome, he was far

from an appreciation of even the rudimentary elements of a Christian character. His life was in

many respects vicious in the extreme -- not vicious precisely from lack of knowledge of the

truth, but because of a lack of inclination to forgo his brutal orgies.

The Rev. R. P. Ashe, who afterwards became Mackay's colleague in Uganda, in his book, The

Two Kings of Uganda, admirably sketches in a few words the arch king's character -- "Mtesa,

kindly but formal, fearful of his dignity, crafty, suspicious, and capable of acts so foul that they

may only be hinted at; surrounded by an abject court, an object of grovelling adoration to

slavish thousands, but really great in nothing."

Mackay himself adds a grim somberness to this dark picture.

"The king and I are great friends, and the chiefs also have great confidence in me,

existed hitherto. Cruelty, slavery, polygamy, witchcraft, are only some of the

terrible evils to be combated, and I have not been slack in my testimony

regarding them. Only the grace of God can undo all that the Devil has been doing

here since the world began. But that grace is sufficiently powerful to do so and

more."

The hero's entries in his diary, and likewise his letters to England, are full of hope and

confidence. For a time, work progressed smoothly but slowly. Mackay was prepared to sow the

seeds patiently and faithfully, and wait God's good time for the reaping. Continents like Africa

are not converted in a day, nor a year, nor even during the lifetime of the oldest man. Mackay

knew this, and was patient. He knew too well that the truth (though divinely destined to

triumph in the end) moved slowly in the cultured cities of Edinburgh and Berlin, where

hundreds of devoted servants of God were labouring together to accomplish the same glorious

purpose. How long would it take one or two, or even three, lonely men to win the teeming

thousands of Uganda from their rapacity [greediness?], their idols, their false gods, their

superstitions, which they cherished as dearly as their own lives? God only knew. The issue

was in His hands. Mackay felt honoured by being called to be a co-worker with Him in the

fulfillment of His purposes.

Many things prevented rapid progress. The Arabs, who represented the old heathenism, were

in the confidence of the king, and had great influence upon the development of his character.

Then Mackay was seriously ill for a long time, and very soon after his providential recovery he

was, more frequently than he liked, brought into very close controversial contact with the

papist propagandists, who had followed him to Uganda as it seemed for the purpose of

destroying the beneficial effects of the Christian teaching. But Mackay possessed a wonderfully

strong faith in the vitality of the truth to outlive, and eventually subdue, all forms of error and

strife. So he worked on patiently, devotedly, and his influence began to be perceptibly felt in

the purification of the moral atmosphere of Mtesa's court. Frequent services and Bible

readings were held at court in the presence of the king and his numerous chiefs. Then he

began to carve wooden types for the purpose of printing select portions of the Gospels in their

own tongue, after which he commenced the necessarily slow and tedious task of teaching

numbers of people to read. Mackay, it must be remembered, was a statesman and organiser

just as much as he was a Christian missionary. Like a strong, patient, self-constrained man,

he laboured for the purpose of placing a boundary upon the paralysing effects of the slave

trade. His influence upon Mtesa was considerable. He argued with him the question of slavery,

from its religious and humane points of view, with such power that he published a decree

forbidding any person in Uganda to sell a slave on pain of death. The king also forbade Sunday

labour, and after a long struggle Mackay wooed him from his bloody charms, which in his

heathen superstition he considered were a prevention against the machinations of the evil one.

The missionary often turned his mechanical skill to useful account in the extension of Christ's

Kingdom. Mackay always wrote enthusiastically of the natural resources of Uganda, and the

reading of his geographical descriptions is an instinctive reminder of the region immortalised

in poetry where "only man is vile."

On Sunday, the 26th January, 1879, he held service in court and read the 51st Psalm, and the

king interpreted to those assembled.

A passage or two from his diary tell the missionary's feelings which were created by this

memorable service:

"The Spirit of God seemed to be working, for I never found so deep an interest

before, nor so intelligent an understanding. Explained carefully the failure of man

to keep the commandments of God, and the way of salvation through Jesus Christ

-- He who loved man so much as to die for him. The king was so struck with the

truth of this that he said to Songura, 'This is truth I have heard to-day. There can

be only one truth.' The king spoke also of the persecution which he must endure

from Egypt by becoming a Christian, but saw that persecution was the cross of

Christians. I never had such a blessed service. Oh, may the mighty Spirit of God

work deeply in their hearts by His grace! He alone can do it. In the afternoon the

read to-day. Toli called and spoke of the same."

Extracts like these come with all the force of messages from the sainted and honoured dead.

How closely the heroic missionary walked with God through the years of his danger and toil is

evidenced by the following passage from his diary, which is only the echo of many similar

passages:

"Lord, enable us to search our hearts and humble ourselves before Thee. Oh, for a

closer walk with God, more faith, more sincerity, more earnestness, and more

love. I must study more the Word of God. 'If ye abide in Me, and My words abide

in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.' The Master said so,

and His words are true."

The priests of Rome continued to arrive in Uganda much more rapidly than the teachers of the

Protestant faith. Mackay was anxious to avoid anything approaching controversial contact with

them, but this ultimately became impossible, and he had to combat before the king and chiefs

the many sweeping assertions which Père Lourdel and his associates made against the

truthfulness of the faith which he taught. The Frenchmen made presents to the king very

much calculated to win his vain heart. In one place Mackay records in his diary the

presentation by the French priests of "five repeating rifles, a box of powder and shot,

embroidered military suits, cuirassiers' helmets, swords, mirrors, silver plate, etc." -- most

unbefitting emblems of the doctrine of peace and righteousness which they ought to have

taught by word and deed.

In spite of the efforts of the priests, the king more than once begged Mackay to pray with him,

and read to him portions of Scripture. Mackay fortunately had with him various chapters of the

Bible printed in Suahili, a language understood by the king and many of his people. Mtesa also

requested baptism, and after one of Mackay's arguments he confessed his belief in Christ as

the Son of God from all eternity, and as the only future judge of the world. "I liked

exceedingly Mtesa's behaviour to-day. I often think there is the work of God in his heart. We

must only pray earnestly that the Lord will give him grace to be a real disciple. It is no small

matter for such as he to leave the way of his forefathers and live a Christian."

On the anniversary of his arrival at Uganda (Nov. 6) Mackay wrote cheerfully:

"This day is the anniversary of my arrival in this place. Praised be the good and

loving Father of all, who has bestowed on us and on our work so much blessing

and prosperity since then, in spite of our imperfect service and our constant

unfaithfulness. I have much reason to rejoice that matters have turned out as

they have done, in spite of the gloomy prospect not many months ago, and the

still gloomier forebodings of the members of our mission here."

From this point it must be confessed that Mackay's hopefulness of the king's intentions began

to materially decrease. He played with the old superstition and the new faith, until at last the

missionary felt compelled to ask him if he desired him to cease teaching the Word of God at

court. The king's reply was a negative one, but it soon became evident that his life was not

perceptibly improved by Christian teaching. He began to regard Mackay as one of his slaves

almost, and constantly ordered or requested him to use his mechanical skill in his service.

Mr. Ashe gives a somewhat amusing description of Mackay making a copper coffin for the

king's mother out of fine Egyptian trays, which most probably had been given to the king by

General Gordon during his governorship of the Sudan.

On one occasion (very soon after the time when Mackay asked the king if he should cease

teaching at court) Mtesa said he had understood that missionaries came to teach him and his

people how to make powder and guns. What he wanted at his court was men who could do so.

Mackay replied that he could not, if he would, teach the king how to make guns and powder,

and insisted that the object of his presence in Uganda was to teach the people the Word of

object, then we were not to teach any more." The diary continues: "He (the king) wanted us

to work for him. I said 'we had never refused to do any work he wanted us to do, and that

everything he had asked to be done I had done. There was scarcely a chief present, I said, for

whom I had not done work. I showed my hands, which were black with working in iron every

day for these very chiefs who were saying we would not work for them. They said they wanted

us to stop teaching to read, and to do work only for them and the king. I replied that we came

for no such purpose; and if he wished that, then we could not stay. 'Where will you go ?' was

asked, to which Mackay replied: 'We shall go back to England."'

It is perfectly clear that Mackay never conjectured an immediate return to England. He was

too chivalrous to leave those poor benighted ones who had embraced Christianity to redrift

into their heathen idolatry and superstition, and to become the defenceless victims of cruel

persecution. But it is equally clear that the conduct of the king, which continued to develop in

an unpleasant direction, created a good deal of anxiety in Mackay's mind. He could measure

the king's influence in contributing to the success or abject failure of the pioneer expedition.

In those regions the people almost blindly follow the king. How can they be expected to do

otherwise when their lives are literally in his hands, and when a single word from him would

doom hundreds, perhaps thousands, to a bloody sacrifice?

Still against everything that opposed him, the Christian exhibited a noble courage and an

almost sublime patience. It is said that not long before embarking Mackay had a few minutes'

conversation with Robert Moffat, who had just returned from Africa. The young man asked the

veteran what was the chief qualification for a missionary in Africa, and with a shrewd smile he

replied, "Patience, patience, patience." Mackay now realised the significance of that quaint but

admirable piece of advice. "A godly patience" became, as it were, his motto, his guide in life.

He was brought into hourly contact with many things that grated somewhat harshly upon his

manly nature, and it needed all his sanctified restraint to keep his protests within the measure

of respect which was rightly due to the king, who, with all his faults and foibles and sins, was

a host who had extended towards them his protection and support.

In the same day's entry in the diary he says:

"One result I should rejoice to see, viz., to have permission to work among the

common people, and let the court alone. When I asked this to-day (Dec. 23,

1879), the idea was scouted. It seemed that the chiefs themselves saw the

absurdity, or rather the danger, of the common people being taught Christianity

while they themselves stuck to their idols and witchcraft."

Things went from bad to worse. Mtesa sniffed human blood and then began to wallow in it.

Human sacrifices of a most inhuman character, and on a large scale, became one of his chief

sources of amusement. Truly, "the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of

cruelty. Mackay and his few comrades, and those whom he had reclaimed from the blackness

of their heathenism, went in daily expectation of being sacrificed on the terrible altar of

Mtesa's inhuman cruelty.

"We are in God's hands," calmly wrote Mackay; but a few days later his mighty spirit seemed

to burst the restraint he had placed upon it, and he indulged in some bitter passages which

are happily rare indeed in his many letters home. After describing some of Mtesa's vile acts,

he says:

"The wretch who orders all this to be done for his own gratification is he who is

called in Europe 'the enlightened and intelligent King of Uganda.' It is he who

professed to Mr. Stanley to be converted to Christianity, whom the Romish priests

write of as becoming a good Catholic. It is he who says that we Protestant

missionaries are mad, because we deny the use of worshipping the lubare (genius

of the country); while I am especially mad, because I told Mtesa that he was

merely playing with religion, in professing himself one day a Christian, another

day a Mussulman, and a third a follower of his old superstition ... Now, however,

he has for more than a year thrown off all disguise, so far as our teaching is

concerned. Even the Romanists allow that all his professions of faith in them are

Mussulman at heart, nor in practice, even to the smallest degree. Mtesa is a

pagan -- a heathen -- out and out. All the faculties of lying, low cunning, hatred,

pride, and conceit, jealousy, cruelty, and complete ignorance of the value of

human life, combined with extreme vanity, a desire for notoriety, greed, and

absolute want of control of his animal propensities -- all these seem not only to be

combined, but even concentrated in him. All is self, self, self."

This is perhaps the most terrible indictment that has ever been penned against the arch

autocrat who ruled with a rod of hot iron over the court of Uganda during the greater part of

Mackay's residence there. This is undoubtedly the verdict on Mtesa that will go down to history

and be accepted as literal truth. There was very little bitterness in Mackay's soul; he

possessed an intense love of the absolute truth, and we may rest assured that nothing but the

grimly accumulated testimony of years allowed him to sketch Mtesa's character in the stern

words given above.

And yet, in spite of the treachery of the king, a noble work was done -- a work that will

continue bearing rich and golden fruit until the blessed day when all flesh shall come for

judgment before the great white throne of Him who ordered all things. In Mr. Stanley 's last

great book, In Darkest Africa, it is claimed that "the success of the Mission to Nyanza is

proved by the sacrifices of the converts, by their determined resistance to the tyrant

(Mwanga), and by their successful deposition of him." In the next chapter or two we shall see

"Safe in the fiery furnace,

Joyful in tribulation;

My soul adores,

With all its powers,

The God of my salvation."

In June, 1879, three envoys from Uganda, in company with returning missionaries, started by

the Nile route for England, where they arrived in April, 1880. A powerful help reached Mackay

in March, 1881, in the person of the Rev. P. O'Flaherty, who in succeeding years proved a

devoted helpmate. And in May, 1883, further reinforcements arrived, including the Rev. R. P.

Ashe, to whom reference has already been made in this brief tribute to the God-given

greatness of one of the ablest men who, in the faith of God's promises, lived and died for

Africa.

The three men worked with praiseworthy unanimity and devotion. In spite of the gathering

storm, which cast many dark shadows before it, much useful and lasting work was done, and

many of the people, including several high in authority and great in power, were publicly

baptised. The public and private readings were continued on an extended scale, and there was