Page:Two kings of Uganda.djvu/58

with the guns, they were not likely to do much harm. The question, however, is perhaps a fair one as to how far the Christian Church is justified, in the first instance, in sending missionaries to countries which they cannot reach without being armed.

Hannington succeeded in despatching canoes to take us away, and while Gordon looked after the baggage, I took the three little guns to give them to Roma. I was invited into the straw-built house in which the king received his chiefs and visitors, and duly presented our offering. In showing him how to load one of the rifles, I happened, before inserting the cartridge, to point the gun at my host. He nervously put it to one side with his hand, and I could not help smiling at his apprehension; this he evidently noticed, and so he gravely took the carbine from me, and deliberately loaded it and pointed it full at my breast. It was my turn now to be dismayed, and I quickly put aside the muzzle as he had done, saying at the same time,“Poli, poli!” “Gently, gently!" This was just what he wanted. "Poli, poli, is it?" he cried; "O ho! so the Muzungu (white man) does not like a gun pointed at him." And the old fellow shook with laughter, repeating the words "poli," "poli," between his bursts of merriment.

He and I had had a passage of arms some days before this, when he had come to see us. On that occasion he said very rudely to me that I was only a child. "How then do you account for my beard?" I