APPENDIX, 515 wished his people to learn as much as they could from the white men, for he well knew and appreciated their superior knowledge. In manner he was courteous and gentlemanly, and he could order any one off to execution with a smile on his countenance. His mental capacity was of a very high order. He was shrewd and intelligent ; he could read and write Arabic, and could speak several native languages. He had a splendid memory, and enjoyed a good argument very keenly. If he could only get Protestants, Catholics, and Arabs to join ina discussion before him, he was in his element, and although apparently siding with one or other, who might happen to be at the time in his especial favour, he took good care to maintain his own ground, and I do.not believe that he ever really gave up the least bit of his belief in his old Pagan ideas. While too shrewd and intelligent to believe in the grosser superstitions which find credit — among his people, he was yet so superstitious that if he dreamt of any of the gods of his country he believed it to be an ill omen, and offered human sacrifices to appease the anger of the offended deity. Shortly after I left Uganda, he dreamt of his father, and in consequence had five hundred people put to death. He also believed that if he dreamt of any living person it was a sign that they meditated treachery, and he condemned them forthwith to death. This supposed power of divination is said to be hereditary in the royal race. In concluding my remarks about Mtésa, I may say that he denied his Wahtma origin; not only, however, did his features betray him, but many of the traditions he held regarding his ancestors, especially his descent from Ham, point conclusively to an origin in the old Christianity of Abyssinia.

_ When I was in Uganda, Mtésa had two or three hundred women always residing at his court. He did not know exactly how many wives he had, but said that they certainly numbered seven thousand. He had seventy sons and eighty-eight daughters.—R. W. F.

Mwanca.—Mwanga is the present king of Uganda, having been chosen by the three hereditary chiefs at the death of his father, Mtésa, and it is certainly to be attributed to the influence of the missionaries in Uganda, that the usual bloodshed which attends the succession to the throne in Uganda did not take place. On ascending the throne he was about sixteen years of age, and up to that time had been a simple, harmless youth, but his high position soon turned his head, and he became suspicious, abominably cruel, and really brutal. He began to drink and to smoke bang, and up to the present time his rule has been characterised by tyranny and bloodshed far sur-