ken in all these lands and sold to
other lands down beyond the coast, whither this Arab would lead your
children. Therefore if you sell slaves you break his law.

"Will you, then, sell your own people that they may be taken out of
their homeland into a strange country? They will be chained to one
another, beaten with whips, scourged and kicked, and many will be left
at the wayside to die; till the peoples of the coast shall laugh at
Uganda and say, 'That is how King M'tesa lets strangers treat his
children!'"

We can imagine how the Arab turned and scowled fiercely at Mackay.
His heart raged, and he would have given anything to plunge the dagger
hidden in his robe into Mackay's heart. Who was this white man who
dared to try to stop his trade? But Mackay went on.

"See," he said, pointing to the boys and the chiefs, "your children
are wonderfully made. Their bones, which are linked together, are
clothed with flesh; and from the heart in their breasts the blood that
gives men life flows to and fro through their bodies, while the breath
goes in and out of their lungs and makes them live. God the Father and
Maker of all men alone can create such wonders. No men who ever lived
could, if they worked all through their lives, make one thing so
marvellous as one of these boys. Will you, then, sell one of these
miracles, one of your children, for a bit of red rag which any man can
make in a day?"

All eyes turned to King M'tesa to learn what he would say.

The King with a wave of his hand dismissed the scowling Arab, while he
took counsel with his chiefs, and came to this decision:

"My people shall no more be made slaves."

A decree was written out and King M'tesa put his hand to it. The
crestfallen Arab and his men gathered up their guns and cloths,
marched down the hill to buy ivory instead of slaves for their bales
of red cloth, and went out of the dominions of King M'tesa, across the
Great Lake homeward.

Mackay had won the first battle against slavery. His heart was very
glad. Yet he knew that, although he had scored a triumph in this fight
with the slave-dealer, he had not won in his great campaign. The King
was generally kind to Mackay, for he was proud to have so clever a
white man in his country. But he could not make up his mind to become
a Christian. M'tesa's heart had not really changed. His slave-raiding
of other tribes might still go on. The horrible butcherings of his
people to turn away the dreaded ange