GENERAL NOTES.
The Freedmen.
—There are probably a million and a half of church members among the colored population of the Southern States.
—Ex-Governor Brown, of Georgia, expresses himself as follows in regard to the position and claims of the Freedmen: “I think I speak the sentiments of a vast majority of our people, that it is our interest to make of the colored race the very best citizens we can. To do this it is necessary to educate them as far as our means will allow, and to lift them from the ignorance in which they were found at the time of their freedom to a much higher grade of intelligence. They can never be good citizens and exercise intelligently the rights of freemen till they have these advantages.”
—We regret to see that the Young Men’s Christian Association, of Washington, D. C., by the Rev. O. C. Morse, its secretary, feared to have a few colored Sunday-school teachers mingle with white persons engaged in similar work, withdrew invitations given, and at first refused admission to the three or four who came with cards of invitation, though they were afterwards allowed to enter. Meanwhile Senator Bruce was occupying with dignity the chair of the Senate of the United States.
Africa.
—The Khedive of Egypt, at the close of 1877, appointed Captain George Malcolm (Pasha) for the suppression of the slave trade in the Red Sea. As late as June 1878, he reported that he could accomplish nothing, as the trade was effectually protected by the Turkish flag.
—Mr. Maples, of the Universities Mission, writes from Masasi, East Africa, that, owing to the energy of Dr. Kirk and Seyid Borghash, the wholesale slave trade at Zanzibar, and up and down the coast for hundreds of miles, is almost entirely stopped; but that they are still smuggled into dhows by twos and threes so clothed and disguised as not to awaken suspicion; that in the interior, slave caravans make their way from the Nyassa region to the coast as far north as Somali, and south to and beyond Lindi. He says: “I should scarcely be believed were I to tell you how great is the deterrent effect upon the slave trade in these parts of a solitary mannered Englishman dwelling among the people.”
—Mr. Penrose, of the Church Missionary Society, with all his camp followers, has been killed in the country of the Unyamwesi.
—Mr. Mackey, of the C. M. S., arrived last July with the caravan at Kagei, on the Victoria Nyanza. (See map.) He visited Lukonge at Ukerewe, in regard to the murder of Mr. O’Neill and Lieutenant Smith; heard the explanations given, and demanded the note-books and pistols of his friends, as an evidence of regret and a pledge of friendship. These were not given up to him, and he, therefore, declined to have further relations with that people.
—Mr. Wilson writes of the healthiness of the Uganda country, and thinks that missionaries’ wives may safely accompany them thither.
—There are large deposits of kaolin, or china clay, near Mtesa’s capital, and abundance of nutmeg trees.
—Col. Gordon has advised the C. M. S. to establish a mission on the west shore of the Albert Nyanza, which he represents to be a healthy location, free from foreign influence, and substantially under protection of the Egyptian Government.
—Rev. J. B. Thomson, of the London Missionary Society at Ujiji, on Lake Tanganika, died at his post January 20th. It is a great loss to this new mission. The Directors ask, “Who now will be baptized for the dead?”
—The English Baptist Missionary Society will occupy San Salvador, 50 miles from the west coast of Africa and south of the Congo, as the head-quarters of their work, with a station at Makuta. Mr. Comber returned to England after a tour of observation, and hopes to return this month with two associates.
—Mr. Stanley strongly advocates the construction of a railway, which would be about 500 miles in length, from a point on the east coast to the southern end of the Victoria Nyanza. Another railway 150 miles long would bring us to Lake Tanganika, which has a water-way of about 330 miles, and another 200 miles long to Lake Nyassa, which gives many hundred miles of water-way. A fourth short railway would lead to the navigable waters of the Shire and the Zambesi, which flow into the sea. These link-lines of railway would open up about 1,300 miles of splendid navigable water. Connect these lines also with the sources of the Congo or Livingstone river, and a chain of trading posts is possible across the continent to the west coast. The value of this new market to English and American merchandise would thus be immense, and the speedy downfall of the slave trade be made sure.
—The Wesleyan (English) Missionary Notices publishes an account of a recent visit by two of their missionaries into the interior, seventy miles west from Sierra Leone. They found a healthier country, though only 210 feet above sea level, and a cooler climate. Fruit is grown, cotton spun, and iron implements made. The villages were increasing in size, and are now at peace. Slavery and polygamy exist among them. The country is open to missionary effort, and Mr. Huddleston is speedily to be located at Fouracaria, in the Limba country.
—The following extract is of special interest as relating to the region proposed to us for missionary work by Mr. Arthington:
African research, in its relation to commerce merely, is being taken up with energy in the three principal emporiums of the Mediterranean—Genoa, Marseilles and Trieste. The experienced African traveller, Dr. Mattenci, has started from Genoa at the head of an expedition fitted out at the charge of a number of Italian merchants. He goes through the Suez Canal to Suatin and Matamma, in the southwest of Abyssinia, and will penetrate, if time and circumstances permit, into the Galla Lands. Almost at the same date an Austrian expedition leaves Trieste, under charge of two marine officers, Pletsch and Pizzighelli. They propose to remain for above a whole year in Shoa, in order to make an exhaustive study of its capacity for export and import trading, and to return a complete report to a number of eminent Austrian mercantile firms. From Marseilles, lastly, several representatives of commercial houses in south-western Europe have been despatched to the Red Sea, Shoa, and Abyssinia, with similar instructions.—African Times.
—The Vatican has entrusted to the Algerian Roman Catholic Mission the creation of two stations in Central Africa—one on Lake Tanganika, the other on Lakes Victoria and Albert Nyanza.
The Indians.
—The House Committee reported against the several bills to establish territorial government in the Indian Territory. The conclusions of the Committee are as follows:
First—That the bill (Oklahoma) under consideration conflicts with existing treaty stipulations.
Second—That to decide that a treaty is no longer binding requires for its justification reasons which commend themselves to the principles of equity and good conscience, particularly where the parties to the compact with the United States are weak and powerless and depend solely on the good faith of the Government.
Third—That no such reasons exist for violating the treaty stipulations which reserve the Indian Territory exclusively for Indians, and which secure to the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks and Seminoles, the right of self-government, under the restrictions of the Constitution of the United States.
Fourth—That even if there were no opposing treaty stipulations, no objections resting on good faith, it would be unwise and impolitic to throw the Indian Territory open to white settlers without the consent of the Indian owners.
Fifth—That while official recommendations—some of them entitled to the highest respect—are strongly in favor of making Indians citizens of the United States, and transferring their land titles from the national tenure in common to the individual tenure in severalty, experience has shown that in the great majority of cases such measures, instead of benefiting, have proved injurious to the Indian.
Sixth—That experience fully demonstrates that the holding of their lands in common by the Indian tribes is an effectual safeguard against the worst effects of Indian improvidence. Apart from any considerations of justice or humanity, it would be unwise and unstatesmanlike to adopt measures which, by destroying that safeguard, would be calculated to reduce the great mass of them, in opposition to their own earnest protests, to a state of hopeless penury and degradation.
The report is signed by Messrs. Neal, Riddle, Muldrow, Aldrich, Reed, Bagley and James T. Jones of the committee.
—When Gen. Howard went alone, as it were, and unarmed among the hostile and ferocious Chiricahuas, and boldly faced their head chief Cochise, he showed them a moral power which they had never seen before, and so produced a deep impression of respect for the superiority of white men that has probably done more than any brute force could have effected towards the pacification of the tribe. The treaty then made was, and is still, sacredly respected by Taza, the son and successor of Cochise, and by all the Apaches, except, perhaps, fifty hostiles, who still prowl on the Mexican border.
The Chinese.
—Last month we recorded the failure of the proposal to transfer the Indians to the War Department. This month, with equal pleasure, we note the failure of the bill virtually to prohibit Chinese immigration. After passing both House and Senate, it was vetoed by the President, and on the motion to pass it over the veto, was defeated, having evidently lost ground in the intervening days.
—Among the many memorials addressed to the President on this subject, the following was sent by our Executive Committee:
To the President of the United States:
Sir: The Executive Committee of the American Missionary Association respectfully but most earnestly ask that the Executive veto be affixed to the bill passed by Congress affecting the relations of this country with China. We regard that bill as a surrender to caste prejudice, an injury to this country, a wrong to China, and a violation of treaty stipulations, of the fundamental principles of the Declaration of Independence, and of the law of God.
| Signed by vote of the Committee, | Charles L. Mead, |
| John H. Washburn, | |
| February 21, 1879. | M. E. Strieby. |
THE FREEDMEN.
REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,
FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.