In 1875, Stanley wrote in the _London Telegraph_ of the wonderful opening in Uganda, at the court and among the people of Mtesa, for missionary effort. Within three days after the publication of his letter, the Church Missionary Society received, from an unknown giver, $25,000, which was soon increased by the same person to $50,000, for opening a mission among the Waganda. The reception of the mission, which was soon sent out, was most encouraging. The opposition of the Mohammedan Arabs, bitter as it was, did not materially interfere with its prospects. The king seemed intelligently alive to the fact that there was something, at least, in a Christian _civilization_ infinitely superior to what was offered in Mohammedanism or heathenism. For a time, everything progressed most encouragingly; the king and all his people gave themselves assiduously to the new doctrines, and the work of the mission was interrupted only temporarily by a suspicion on the part of the king that the missionaries were emissaries of the Khedive of Egypt, and were intriguing in his interest. This jealousy was soon allayed, friendly relations were restored, and the work was fully resumed, when there appeared upon the scene ten Jesuit missionaries, sent out by the Archbishop of Algiers, with instructions to occupy every station of the Protestant missionary societies in the region of Victoria Nyanza and Tanganika, with the intention of carrying the French language and influence into the depths of Central Africa. Their coming endangered for a time the life of the mission, and their settlement near the palace by the king proved to be a serious obstacle to the prosecution of its work. They gladly bribed the king with gifts of arms and ammunition, articles eagerly sought by him, but refused by the Protestant missionaries. They immediately assumed a most hostile attitude toward the mission; denounced the missionaries as liars, and threw the king and court into the greatest perplexity. “What am I to believe?” cried the king. “Who is right? First, I was a heathen, then a Mohammedan, then a Christian; now some more white men come and tell me these English are liars. Perhaps if I follow them, other white men will come and tell me these are liars also.” After a time, matters had settled down to comparative quiet. The missionaries appealed to the word, which they were rapidly teaching the people to read. King and people were learning with an eagerness like that manifested by the Freedmen of the South after the surrender. The king had the prayers written out in Arabic characters, and ordered many copies, so that all might join in the Sunday services; and such was the evident interest of all, that neither the efforts of the Moslems, made after the fast of Ramadhan last autumn, to have their creed introduced, nor the opposition of the Jesuits, availed to hinder the work.