Mtesa’s reign, like that of his predecessor, has been distinguished by victories over many nations, such as the Wanyankori, Wanyoro, Wasui, Wazongora, and Wasoga, and his Katekiro has carried his victorious flag to Ruanda and to Usongora on the Muta Nzigé. He has likewise sent embassies to the Khedive’s pasha of Gondokoro, to Sultans Majid and Barghash of Zanzibar, and, having entertained most hospitably Captains Speke and Grant, Colonel Long of the Egyptian army, myself, and M. Linant de Bellefonds, is now desirous of becoming more intimate with Europe, to introduce specie into his country, and to employ European artisans to teach his people. For the interesting facts of the preceding pages, the world is indebted to the gossip Sabadu, for until his revelations, as herein recorded, Uganda and a large portion of Equatorial Africa were (to use the words of ancient Pistol) liked a closed oyster, but which now, with his aid, we have partly opened, thus obtaining glimpses, however unsatisfactory, into the origin, custom, and history of the country. An epic poem might be written upon the legend of the search for the lost patriarch, or a prose romance, for there is material enough for a great work in the tale Sabadu told me. If we begin to speculate as to who this Kintu, the blameless priest, really was, and whether the legend does not bear some dim and vague resemblance to the histories of Adam or Noah, handed down from generation to generation through remote times among an unlettered people, we may easily become lost in a maze of wild theories and conjectures. There is, however, just as much ground for building such suppositions, and to plausibly demonstrate them to be actualities and facts, as there is for many other fables now generally accepted as verities. It is impossible, while reading the tale of Kintu, the Blameless Priest, not to be reminded at one time of Adam, at another of Noah—for both Adam and Noah found the earth void and uninhabited, as Kintu is said to have found Uganda and the neighbouring lands. In the gigantic Kimera, “the mighty hunter,” we remember Nimrod, and in the wicked children of the patriarch can suspect a faint resemblance to the shameless Ham. The prolific wife, and no less prolific cow, goat, sheep, and the wonderful banana-plant, have their counterparts in the traditions of every people under the sun. And do we not ourselves believe “That all began In Eden’s shade, and one created man”?