EMBASSY TO ENGLAND. 21 has no idea of his real insignificance as compared with European sovereigns. Nothing we could say seemed able to make him comprehend his inferiority, and it was with the desire of enabling the Waganda to see and judge for themselves, that Mr. Wilson and I were willing to undertake the very difficult and responsible task of escorting his envoys to England.

Some may think that on their return to their own land these men will not venture to give a truthful account to Mtesa. Possibly they may not; but though it is to be hoped they will, that is not the most important point. In either case they will tell the chiefs and their own friends what they have seen in England' and on their journey; this report will spread through the land, and both chiefs and people are quite capable of understanding and forming an opinion on the report the envoys will give of the greatness and wonders of the civilised world.

In due course this knowledge will react on the king, even if he should not be directly and immediately influenced by the return of the men, as he is very much in the power of his principal chiefs. This is the first time that Central Africans have visited Europe ; and we shall be satisfied, and consider our trouble well repaid, if others are induced to follow their example". When once the idea is implanted in i i <-' the minds of the chiefs that they are not so great and powerful as they now imagine themselves to be ''