GENERAL NOTES.
The Freedmen.
—The Mississippi Valley Labor Convention met, May 6th, at Vicksburg. It was composed of both white and colored delegates; the latter, however, by their own choice, not voting, but hearing what there was to say to them. The resolutions which were adopted refer to many causes for the exodus to Kansas, among which they do not name extortionate and oppressive contracts, and express wonder at the credulity of the negroes. The practical suggestions are: 1. A system of contracts which shall be of mutual benefit. 2. Absolute political equality. 3. Free and fair elections. 4. A limitation of liens on expected crops. 5. Contradiction of false reports about Kansas. 6. The unrestricted right to emigrate. Governor Foote offered a substitute intimating that the true causes had not been given, and suggesting local committees to investigate grievances and protect the rights of the Freedmen, which was voted down.
—The Refugee Relief Committee of St. Louis reports that over six thousand of the emigrants have passed through that city. About two thousand of these were able to pay their fares to Kansas. The others were sheltered, fed and partly clothed while there, and had their passage paid to the same destination.
Africa.
—A letter dated Demidris, Jan. 1, to Gordon (Pasha), Governor-General of Southern Egypt, from one of his officers who was sent to break up the slave depots in the neighborhood of Bahr el Gazal, in the Province of Kordofan, reports an engagement with Suleiman, one of the chief slave-traders and owner of 25 depots, in which it is stated that the women alone, waiting importation into Egypt, number 10,000. The Egyptian forces numbered 3,000, and were intrenched, a part of them being armed with Remington rifles. On the morning of the 28th of December, Suleiman, with 11,000 men, attacked the intrenchments. After numerous assaults, in which the Arabs, under the personal lead of Suleiman, fought with desperate courage, the attack was completely defeated, and the assailants fled in disorder, leaving 1,087 dead on the field. The Egyptians lost 20 men. A special dispatch from Alexandria says: “On the day after the battle between the Egyptians and Arabs, under the lead of Suleiman, 5,000 deserters came over to the Egyptian camp. The Egyptians followed the retiring enemy, killed ten chiefs and 2,000 more men, and were still in pursuit at last advices. The capture of all the slave depots is considered certain.”
—A telegram dated London, May 5, says: Conflicts between the Egyptian troops and the slave-dealers on the 13th and 14th of January, in Upper Egypt, resulted in the complete defeat of the latter, with the loss of six thousand killed and wounded and prisoners. The Egyptian troops lost two hundred men.
—A telegraph line is now proposed from Cairo up the Nile southward to Gondokoro; thence to Mtesa’s capital; thence to Unyanyembe; thence to Ujiji west and Zanzibar east, from Bagamoyo to Lake Nyassa, and to meet a line from Cape Colony to Pretoria, in the Transvaal at Pretoria. This is said to be no more difficult than was similar work accomplished in Australia and India.
—The Methodist Missionary Society have made arrangements for missionary work in the interior of Africa. Mr. Osgood, who is now in Africa, will locate a mission post somewhere in the interior, and Miss Mary A. Sharp will soon leave this country for work there.—Christian Union, April 2.
—A letter from Zanzibar announces the arrival of Henry M. Stanley, the African explorer, with M. Dutalis, the officer in command of the Belgian expedition in Africa. It is stated that Mr. Stanley will act as guide and interpreter to the Belgian exploring expedition under M. Dutalis.
—An interesting discussion is begun as to the likeness between Lake Tanganyika and the Dead Sea. No outlet of the lake has been discovered, but the exploration has hardly yet been sufficiently thorough to make the negative a proof. The freshness of its waters is in striking contrast with the saltness of the Dead Sea, and, so far, against the theory proposed. We wait for further light.
The Indians.
—Two new projects for a wholesale intrusion into the Indian Territory have come to light: one promoted by certain railroads who claim land grants there, and another expedition of several hundred emigrants, under the lead of C. C. Carpenter, who led the Black Hills expedition into the Sioux country several years ago. In view of these illegal purposes, the President has issued a proclamation, in which he says: “I do further warn and notify any and all such persons who may so offend that they will be speedily and immediately removed therefrom by the agent, according to the laws made and provided; and, if necessary, the aid and assistance of the military forces of the United States will be invoked to carry into proper execution the laws of the United States herein referred to.”
The Chinese.
—Eleven young Chinese, nine males and two females, were recently received into a Presbyterian Church in San Francisco.
—The following card is furnished for publication by the Chinese Six Companies: “The Chinese Six Companies are daily in receipt of applications for laborers to go to Southern States, notably Mississippi and Louisiana, to take the place of the negro labor now emigrating. The officers of these companies wish it to be expressly understood that they have no control over their people’s labor, and have never brought or caused to be brought one of their countrymen here; and have never contracted their labor or collected their wages in any manner whatsoever, the press of California to the contrary notwithstanding.”
—It has been very well said recently: “In America if a man is black, we enslave him; if he is red, we steal his lands and massacre his wife and children; and if he is yellow, we won’t let him come here at all.”
—The Sunday School Times, in commenting on the fact that eight Chinamen were recently received into a church at Sacramento, asks whether it wouldn’t be a good plan for Congress to pass a law that not more than fifteen Chinese converts should join any Christian church the same Sunday.