this sweet-tempered pagan. Though they had
never met, Mtesa’s pages had described him,
and with their powers o f mimicry had brought
the soft modulated tones o f Rumanika to his
ears as truly as they had borne his amicable
messages to him.
What greater contrasts can be imagined than
the natures o f the Emperor Mtesa and the King
Rumanika? In some o f his volcanic passions
Mtesa seemed to be F u ry personified, and if he
were represented on the stage in one o f his
furious moods, I fear that the actor would rupture
a blood-vessel, destroy his eyes , and be
ever afterwards afflicted with madness. The
Waganda always had recourse to action and
gesture to supplement their verbal descriptions
o f his raging fits. His eyes,, they said, were
“ balls o f fire and large as fists,” while his words
were “ like gunpowder.”
Nature, which had endowed Mtesa with a
nervous and intense temperament, had given
Rumanika the placid temper, the soft voice, the
mild benignity, and pleasing character o f a gentle
father.
T he king appeared to me, clad as he was in
red blanket cloth, when seated, a man o f middle
size, but when he afterwards stood up, he rose
to the gigantic stature o f 6 feet 6 inches or
thereabouts, for the top o f my head, as we
walked side b y side, only reached near his
shoulders. His face was long, and his nose
somewhat Roman in shape; the profile showed
a decidedly refined type.
Our interview was v e ry pleasing, and he to ok
excessive interest in every question I addressed
to him. When I spoke, he imposed silence on
his friends, and leaned forward with eager
attention. If I wished to know anything about
the geography o f the country, he immediately
sent for some particular person who was acquainted
with that portion, and inquired search-
ingly o f him as to his knowledge. He chuckled
when he saw me use my note-book, as though
he had some large personal interest in the number
o f notes I took. He appeared to be more
and more delighted as their bulk increased, and
triumphantly pointed out to the Arabs the im-*
mense superiority o f the whites to them.
He expressed himself as only too glad that I
should explore his country. It was a land, he
said, that white men ought to know. It possessed
many lakes and rivers, and mountains
and hot springs, and many other things which
no other country could boast of.
“ Which do yo u think best, Stamlee— Karagwe
or Uganda?”
“K a ra gw e is grand, its mountains are high,
and its valleys deep. T h e K a g e ra is a grand
' river, and the lakes are v e ry pretty. There are
more cattle in Karagwe than in Uganda, except