MACKAY, Alexander M

[s. 436] : Born at Rhynie, Aberdeen shire, Scotland, October 13, 1849; a son of a minister of the Free Church. At three years New Testament; at seven, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Robertson’s History of the Discovery of America. His father taught him geography, astronomy, and geometry, stopping in their walks to demonstrate a proposition of Euclid, or illustrate the motions of the heavenly bodies, or trace the course of a newly discovered river of the Dark Continent with his cane in the sand. He listened with interest to letters and conversations of men of science, as of age he read the Hugh Miller, Sir Roderick Murchison, and others, who were sometimes visitors at the manse, sometimes in correspondence with his father. He chose engineering as his profe ion, and for some time he was draughtsman and designer to a large engineering establishment in Berlin. In 1875, in response to an appeal from the CMS for a practical busine man to go to Mombasa, he offered himself, but another person had been secured. Later in the year an oiler of a highly lucrative secular position was made him, but he declined it, that he might be ready, when the Lord should permit him, to go to the heathen. Early the next year he was appointed by the CMS to go to the Victoria Nyanza, reaching Zanzibar May 29, 1876. In November, on the march through Ugogo, he was taken very ill, and was sent back by Dr. Smith, but recovered before reaching the coast. Instructed by the secretary not to return before the close of the rainy season, he constructed 230 miles of road to Mpwapwa. In November, 1878, he reached Uganda. Alluding to the kind treatment he had received from the natives, he says: “Wherever I find myself in Stanley’s track, I find his treatment of the natives has invariably been such as to win from them the highest respect for the face of a white man.” Mr. Mackay had acquired a knowledge of the Swahili language, and was able immediately to print portions of the Scriptures (cutting the type himself), and to read and explain them to the king and his people. King Mtesa showed much interest in the truth. In 1884 the native church consisted of 86 mem- But in that year King Mtesa died, being succeeded by his son Mwanga, who proved to be weak and vacillating, lending himsen now to the Mohammedan and now to the Roman Catholic party, persecuting the evangelicals, and often threatening Mr. Mackay with expulsion. But Mr. Mackay held his ground, and was allowed for a time to continue his work, his skill as an engineer and mechanic, of which the king often availed himself, helping to secure his favor. In 1886 the persecution broke out again, many under great tortures exhibiting a Christian fortitude and heroism unsurpa ed in apostolic times. In 1887 the Arabs succeeded persuading Mwanga to expel Mr. Mackay. Having locked the mi ion premises, he embarked July 20 for the southern end of the lake, making his abode at Usambiro. Here he remained for three years, translating and printing the Scriptures, teaching bers. m the Christian refugees from Uganda, instructing the natives of the district, as far as he could, with an imperfect knowledge of their language, and working at house-building, brick-making, and the construction of a steam-launch with which to navigate the lake. He was attacked with malarial Mr. Mackay fever, and died February 8, 1890. utilized the knowledge of both cla ical and modern languages in reducing the vernacular of Uganda to writing. He was a born leader of men, as gentle as he was brave. He was no mere industrial and civilizing mi ionary, and took a leading part in the evangelistic work of the mi ion. MACKENZIE, J. Kenneth, M.D.: A medical LMS; was first appointed to mi ionary of the Hankau; he took charge of the mi ion hospital there till 1878, when in the autumn he was transferred to Tientsin. dispensary was opened in the Viceroy Li Hung Chang’s theater, with a female department, and large subscriptions were A made by the Viceroy and other high officers toward the building of a hospital. In 1881 the hospital, on the premises of the London Mi ion, was opened by the Viceroy, and plans were adopted for a medical school, to which the students formerly sent to the United States of America by the government were sent to be trained as doctors, and a thorough organization of a medical staff for the Chinese army and navy was in course of formation. Amid his arduous duties Dr. Mackenzie found time to pursue evangelistic work, both among the poor patients and those “in Caesar’s household,” for the favor of the Viceroy secured him acce to many of the high officials. The work at Tientsin grew and enlarged, so that in his last report, 1887, he gave the number in attendance at the dispensary as 13,799, in-patients in the hospital 591, and 9 medical students. He was called suddenly away from his work by death, April 1, 1888. 437