Missions -- Uganda; Negrillos; Uganda -- Description and travel
The country was a monotony of undulating land, with no hills, forests, or
rivers to interrupt the continuity of sameness. For three days we were
travelling through a district of Uganda called Singo, where eight years
ago Mr. Fisher was stationed. A particularly dreary spot was pointed out
to me as the place where he lived for months quite alone, and had one
attack after another of fever. During one of those occasions, a woman,
the wife of the district chief, came a long distance twice a day to nurse
him, and, when he lapsed into unconsciousness, she took a razor and
shaved his head to ease him. He was rather a shock to himself when he was
well enough to see his own reflection in the lid of a Huntley & Palmer’s
biscuit tin—the only looking-glass then in his possession, as he had lost
most of his things through a recent act of incendiarism.
We were delighted to catch sight of the hills that lie round Hoima, the
capital of Bunyoro, on the seventh day. Mr. Lloyd, who had been Mr.
Fisher’s fellow-worker in Toro, and chaperon to the party from England of
which I had formed part, came scorching down on his bicycle to meet us,
with a large following of natives who had come to greet “their father.”
In the year 1895 Mr. Fisher had visited these people, who, up to that
time, had never heard of Christianity, and in 1898 was located at Hoima
in order to establish a European Station. Then the country was in the
grasp of famine; the people, from the King down to his peasant subjects,
came each day to the European teacher and his two Baganda assistants
begging food. Through the generosity of friends in England and Uganda,
a fund was organized, and with presents in kind from the Christians in
Uganda and Toro, hundreds of the Bunyoro were saved from starvation. With
the return of the rains, the famine terminated, but this time of trouble
had created and cemented a confidence between the natives and missionary,
who learned to know them then better than if he had lived years in the
country at the time of its prosperity. The King, his brothers, sister,
and several of the leading chiefs, became sincere inquirers after
Christianity, and ultimately acknowledged their faith in public baptism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account