3-077-996 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Mr. A. M. Mackay, Agent of the Church Missionary Society in Uganda, Lake Victoria Nyanza, 1890. Portrait from a photograph taken in 1876. Mackay was...driven out of Uganda by the fierce persecution there and the revolution of October 1888...Alexander Mackay [was] one of the ablest and bravest and most constant labourers in the cause of African civilisation, whose life and work...are well known...He went out to Africa in April 1876...and has not left the work he undertook for any holiday, or been stopped by any perils and difficulties in its performance. No other European, in an equal degree, won and preserved the confidence of the successive native rulers, King Mtesa and King Mwanga, while he successfully carried on that teaching of the people of Uganda which resulted in the conversion of hundreds to Christianity; he also effected the reduction of the language to writing, with the translation of portions of Scripture and prayers, and the preparation of "reading sheets," by which large numbers learned to read. He worked the little printing-press which has supplied thousands of copies...while he used his mechanical skill in house-building, boat-building, and frequent commissions of all sorts for the King of Uganda'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.