weeping tears, I called down to my steed, “My friend, you must put me down, my back is broken with weariness.” Without a word he floundered off through the grass, having spied a fallen tree trunk on which to put down his burden. There we stood panting, too tired to speak, but a hallooing and a shouting at one side made us both turn round. There we saw the other European in a most indescribably mixed-up position, being brought along on the shoulders of two men, while two more hung on to a leg each. With scarcely a note of warning, the front man lost his foothold and disappeared with the second. The European immediately followed suit, but the remaining two stood their ground, still holding on to those legs. Never did the Mountains of the Moon appear more fascinating than when we returned to our home under their shadow after nine weeks’ absence. The first to welcome us, four miles out on the road, was old Apolo Kivebulaya, the native deacon. Close by on his heels followed my little god-son, the first baptised pigmy, who looked characteristically grimy, but his ugly little face appeared really pleasing as he ran up and welcomed his master and mistress back with a grin that seemed to stretch from one ear to another. Then the Katikiro came out with thirty to forty retainers, all of whom he had dressed up in brand new white linen turban caps as a token of welcome to us. Last of all rode out the King. “Well done, my friends. God be praised for bringing you back.” And we could only in our hearts respond “Amen.” [Illustration: TABALA, CHIEF OF MBOGA, AND SUITE.] CHAPTER XVI Tramp IV. Towards the Pigmies While the Kingdom of Toro has distinctly defined boundaries on the East, North, and South (the latter two being the Albert and Albert Edward Nyanzas) there are no lines of demarcation that bound it on the West. It adjoins the Protectorate to the Belgian territory that extends across from the Congo Free State, and until that boundary is officially fixed the Kingdom of Toro may be said to include a number of untamed savage tribes with a portion of the pigmies, who recognise no authority and rule outside themselves. Immediately the Toro Mission was established its first branch station was planted about sixty miles west in Mboga, the district that touches Stanley’s Great Forest—the home of the pigmies. Although the chief offered much opposition to the Baganda missionaries, yet the workers persistently held on, realising its important strategic position for reaching the many tribes round its borders, and it formed one of the few last links yet to be forged in order that Krapf’s dream of a chain of missions extending across Africa might be fulfilled. After opposition had burnt itself out and the Chief Tabala had himself become a Christian the work prospered vigorously, and in 1903 the number of men and women baptised reached over two hundred.