It is not much more than forty years since Sir H. M. Stanley first discovered that country, and some of the Christians living to-day remember the explorer's visit and how they resented it. In 1877 the Church Missionary Society sent missionaries to Uganda, and these Protestants were followed about a year later by French Catholic missionaries, the White Fathers, of Cardinal Lavigerie's Society.

The progress made by Christianity aroused the jealousy of two tyrannical kings, Mtesa and Mwanga, and under the latter more than three hundred natives suffered and died for the Faith. That was in 1886-only thirty years agoand twenty-two of these heroes have just been beatified. Two years later, Catholics and Protestants united to put down the rising influence of Islam, and thus saved the fair kingdom of Uganda from the blight of Mohammedanism.

Unfortunately, trouble arose between the Catholics and Protestants, and a religious war ensued, in which the Catholics were defeated. In 1894, Uganda became a British Protectorate, and a religious compromise was attempted, which would have apportioned the south of Uganda to the Catholics and the north to the Protestants. That would have meant that men would have shown the Almighty which nations should become Protestant and which should become Catholic!

To counteract this unwarrantable division and to safeguard the universality of the Church, it was necessary that British Catholic missionaries should be introduced. Hitherto, the only Catholic missionaries had been French, and thus French and Catholic had become synonymous, as had English and Protestant. In these circumstances both Rome and the British Government looked to St. Joseph's Foreign Missionary Society, of Mill Hill, London, and Cardinal Vaughan was asked to send out some of his missionaries. In the same year, 1894, Father H. Hanlon was recalled from North India to be consecrated Bishop of Teos and Vicar Apostolic of the Upper Nile, and the following year he set out for Uganda with four missionaries.

Happily, the Uganda Railway, which was completed in 1902, has put an end to many of the difficulties which confronted Bishop Hanlon and several subsequent caravans. A long dreary march of more than eight hundred miles, fever and attacks from hostile tribes, often resulting in loss of life and property-these are occurrences of a not very remote past.

The journey being completed by a trip across Victoria Nyanza, which now takes eighteen hours but which then took three weeks, the Bishop procured land at Nsambya, and there pitched his tent. He had a huge task before him. In addition to gaining the goodwill of the Government officials—a task which Bishop Hanlon's tact accomplished very successfully-he had a vast vicariate to administer, stretching over an area of more than forty thousand square miles, and counting scarcely a solitary Catholic, for it was the Protestant and heathen portion that had been handed over to Mill Hill. But the Bishop and his little band were not dismayed. They mastered the language and soon had the nucleus of a Christian community around them.

In the Kingdom of Uganda the land was truly ripe for the harvest. These intelligent natives imbibed the doctrines of Christianity with remarkable eagerness, and in a very short time Churches and Catechumenates had to be built. They were primitive, it is true, consisting of timber, mud and leaves, but they were all that the slender resources of the Mission could afford. Gradually these buildings were replaced by more permanent structures of sun-dried bricks, but buildings of wattle and daub are frequently met with even yet in the outlying Missions. More priests came out from Mill Hill year by year, but often, alas, they merely replaced the older missionaries who had succumbed to the deadly fevers of Central Africa.

From Nsambya the outlying regions were visited. Native Christians, who had received special instruction in our holy Faith and who were anxious for the salvation of their heathen neighbours, accompanied the missionary as catechists, and settled down in distant villages, where they gathered round them the children and a few adults for instruction. No sooner had he settled a catechist in one village than the missionary proceeded to another village, where the same method was followed, for priests were scarce and the area extensive. This paucity of priests could be overcome only by increasing the number of catechists, but even this was limited by the missionary's resources; for, although the catechists often required no remuneration for their services-so zealous were they for the spreading of the Faith-still they had to live.

As often as possible the priest visited these scattered Catechumenates and examined the candidates, the most

advanced of whom were sent to the Mission Station to be prepared for Baptism by the priest himself. Gradually the remote villages became Mission Stations, and from there the missionary widened his circuit and planted the outposts of Christianity further afield.

In this way Uganda itself has been evangelised, and at the present time more than half the population is Christian. Intensive cultivation, as it were, has also been carried on. Missionary Sisters, from St. Mary's Abbey, Mill Hill, were introduced, and they have done excellent work in their schools and hospitals. The priests, too, have opened High Schools for the sons of chiefs, and very good results have been obtained, for the Baganda are an intelligent race, and more than seventy per cent. of them can read.

The Baganda, too, have a good deal of Home Rule, and there are many posts open to educated natives. With their more ample resources the Protestant missionaries of the C. M. S. have been able to increase their educational facilities, and, in order to prevent the Catholic natives being unduly handicapped in their material prospects, the Mill Hill missionaries have been obliged to go in for higher education, as far as their slender means would allow.

But Uganda is only a small portion of the Upper Nile Vicariate, which stretches from Abyssinia to what used to be German East Africa. Traders from Uganda had spread the news of the good tidings brought by missionaries, and many of the surrounding tribes were eager to hear more about it. Some, alas, were not so eager, but all had to be given their chance, and, from an early date, priests made excursions into these more or less savage territories.

In Usoga, the country next to Uganda, on the east, progress was recorded very quickly, and to-day a number of flourishing Mission Stations are to be found in that region. In this success native catechists from Uganda have had a large share. At times, especially at the beginning of the great war, the missionaries have been unable to pay the catechists even the small sum required for their maintenance, but with one accord they have stated their determination to continue their good work, pay or no pay.

It is in the evangelisation of more remote places, such as Bukeddi, that the Uganda catechists have shown their sterling worth. We rightly praise the European priest who leaves his home and country to live among strange races, with different manners and customs, and with strange

and often unpalatable food. But how can we praise sufficiently men who were heathens but yesterday, men who have no long Christian tradition behind them, and yet who are willing to undergo all these privations for the sake of the Gospel? Such are the Uganda catechists.

For them to leave Uganda and to live in such places as Bukeddi is almost as great a change as for a European to go to the Foreign Missions. The language is utterly different, the customs too, and the food is quite foreign to them. Yet there has been no dearth of volunteers. The missionary spirit has taken hold of these erstwhile pagans, and no sacrifice is too great for them to make if only they can spread the blessings of the Faith among their less favoured brethren. Here we have a touching example of the foreign missionary idea on the Foreign Missions themselves-an example that would put many home-Christians to shame.

On one occasion, when one of our priests in Uganda was asking for volunteers for the Bukeddi Mission, every one of his catechists was anxious to go, and the difficulty was to restrain them. After the sermon a native came to the priest and gave him an offering of four pence-a large sum for a native-for those who were going to Bukeddi ! Need we wonder that God blesses the work carried on by such living faith?

Visible results are just beginning to bless the work in Bukeddi, and also further south, in Kavirondo, where missionaries have been labouring since 1903. Several tribes have not yet been touched by missionary endeavour, for how can 60 priests evangelise a series of countries covering 40,000 square miles? Not very long ago chiefs from the district round Lake Salisbury made a journey of several days to beg Bishop Biermans-who succeeded Bishop Hanlon in 1912-to send them priests; but the Bishop had to refuse, on account of scarcity of missionaries, a scarcity which is more keenly felt since several of the priests had to suspend their missionary labours in order to administer to the native troops and porters in German East Africa.

A short account of the position of one of the Mill Hill priests among a hitherto hostile tribe will show more conclusively than pages of explanation the influence which the Catholic missionary wields, even in Darkest Africa.

Some distance from Victoria Nyanza, in a north-easterly direction, lies a region known as the country of the Bakakamega. For years they had resisted all efforts of the

Government, and officials were in danger of their lives when endeavouring to deal with the independent Bakakamega. In the course of time Father Witlox, a Mill Hill missionary, was sent amongst them and he gradually secured their goodwill. By means of a few homely remedies which he carried in his small medicine-chest he increased his reputation, and the nations flocked round Lókesi, as they called the priest.

The Government were not slow in recognizing his influence, which they increased by making Father Witlox a magistrate, with power to settle all disputes between the Bakakamega chiefs. This made the chiefs doubly anxious to keep in favour with their judge, and before long the priest was recognised by them as their king.

Every Sunday Padre Lókesi holds a reception in the open air. Standing on a small platform, he harangues the crowd, which usually numbers about three thousand, mostly heathens, making them recite the prayers, and then giving them an instruction on the truths of our holy religion. In this way he has made several hundreds of converts, and now he has another priest assisting him. The natives are ready to carry out his slightest wish. Whenever he has visitors, he merely informs the chiefs, and in a very short time he has provisions galore. If the Government require anything, for instance, men to do some work, the priest is informed, and he apportions the task among the chiefs and the work is done without a murmur.

If a visitor to Central Africa were to ask where Bakakamega is, he would probably be met with a look of blank dismay; but let him inquire for Lókesi, and anyone within a radius of 300 miles will be able to direct him. Truly a priest-ridden people!

The present state of this flourishing Vicariate can be seen from a few of the statistics for the year 1919. Twentythree head-stations have been established, with numerous sub-stations, and 832 catechists are assisting the missionaries. The Catholic population numbers 39,484, while there are 33,672 catechumens. Baptisms average 4,500 a year at present, more than half of them being baptisms of adults. Of the spiritual condition of the native Catholics figures can offer but a slight indication, though the 200,950 Confessions heard and the 314,740 Holy Communions administered last year speak as eloquently as mere numbers can.