h.
He made up his mind how he could help them with his skill. They must
have pure water; yet they knew nothing of wells.

Mackay at once searched the hill-side with his spade and found a bed
of clay emerging from the side of the hill. He climbed sixteen feet
higher up the hill and, bringing the men who could help him together,
began digging. He knew that he would reach spring water at the level
of the clay, for the rains that had filtered through the earth would
stop there.

The Baganda[54] thought that he was mad. "Whoever," they asked one
another, "heard of digging in the top of a hill for water?"

"When the hole is so deep," said Mackay, measuring out sixteen feet,
"water will come, pure and clean, and you will not need to carry it up
the hill from the marsh."

They dug and dug till the hole was too deep to hurl the earth up over
the edge. Then Mackay made a pulley, which seemed a magic thing to
them, for they could not yet understand the working of wheels; and
with rope and bucket the earth was pulled up. Exactly at the depth of
sixteen feet the water welled in. The Baganda clapped their hands and
danced with delight.

"Mackay is the great wizard. He is the mighty spirit," they cried.
"The King must come to see this."

King M'tesa himself wondered at the story of the making of the well
and the finding of the water. He gave orders that he was to be carried
to view this great wonder. His eyes rolled with astonishment as he saw
it and heard of the wonders that were wrought by the work of men.

Yet M'tesa and his men still wondered why any man should work
hard. Mackay tried to explain this to the King when he sat in his
reception-hall. Work, Mackay told M'tesa, is the noblest thing a
man can do, and he told him how Jesus Christ, the Son of the Great
Father-Spirit who made all things, did not Himself feel that work
was a thing too mean for Him. For our Lord, when He lived on earth at
Nazareth, worked with His own hands at the carpenter's bench, and made
all labour forever noble.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 53: August 23, 1878.]

[Footnote 54: The people of Uganda.]

CHAPTER XX

FIGHTING THE SLAVE TRADE

_Alexander Mackay_

(Date, 1878)

In the court of King M'tesa, Mackay always saw many boys who used to
drive away the flies from the King's face with fans, carry stools
for the chiefs and visitors to squat upon, run messages and make
themselves generally useful. Most of these boys were the sons of