AFRICAN NOTES.
—The River Binue, one of the great confluents of the Niger, which Bishop Crowther and Dr. Blaikie ascended, in 1854, to a point 400 miles above its union with the other great branch, has recently been explored 150 miles beyond the furthest point before reached by any white man. This was done by the C. M. S. Steamer Henry Venn, under the command of Mr. Ashcroft. This voyage was recently described before the Royal Geographical Society of London, which awarded Bishop Crowther a gold watch, valued at £40, for geographical explorations on the Niger. Mr. Ashcroft considers the Binue a most interesting mission field. In no part of Africa has he seen so many flourishing towns—“a good-sized town every mile along the bank of the river for a long distance, thickly populated.” He says: “I spoke to the kings at many of the heathen towns, and they were all willing to learn the white man’s book, and that their children also should learn.”
—The Royal Geographical Society, on the 26th of April last, was visited by Rev. C. T. Wilson and Mr. Felkin, who had just arrived from Central Africa, and with them were three ambassadors from King Mtesa’s court in Uganda. These were introduced as “Earl Namkaddi,” “Earl Kataruba,” and “Earl Sawaddu,” nobles of the second rank at home. These men are described as of slight build, very black in color, and with features more bright and intelligent than in the common negro type.
It was in 1863 that Speke and Grant discovered the great lake Victoria Nyanza, and made known to the world the existence of Uganda and its people. Since then only four whites have visited that country—-Mr. Stanley, M. Linant de Bellefonds, Col. Long, and Dr. Emin Effendi, until the visit of Mr. Wilson, who returns with the first natives who have visited Europe from that region.
—The Peninsula of Sierra Leone is 22 miles long by 12 miles broad, with a population of 37,000, all of whom excepting about 4,000 bear the name of Christians. About one-half of these are connected with the C. M. S., and the remainder are for the most part Wesleyans. It became a diocese in 1852, and may, with as much propriety, be called Christian as England or the United States. It is no longer considered missionary ground. The church sustains itself, and the whole peninsula is divided up into parishes, the same as England, each one having its own clergy, Sunday-school and church council. The cost of all is met by voluntary subscriptions, as it has been for nearly twenty years. Three hundred and forty-three persons partook of the Lord’s Supper at Lagos last Easter Sabbath, members of one church, which during the past three years has contributed no less than £3,412 for church purposes.
Sierra Leone is the oldest, but not the only, mission of the Church Missionary Society on the West Coast of Africa. Yoruba has eleven stations, thirteen African clergymen, more than two thousand communicants, and nearly six thousand professing Christians; and the Niger Mission, begun 23 years ago, has its African bishop and clergy, two hundred communicants and 1,500 Christians.
—Robert Arthington and the English Baptist Mission.—It is difficult to decide whether to admire most the overflowing love which prompts his gifts, the large, unsectarian spirit with which they are bestowed, or the wisdom with which they are placed and limited. Evidently, he has profoundly studied the problem whose solution he feels called to attempt. He has just written a letter to the directors of the English Baptist Missionary Society, offering 4,000 pounds toward putting and maintaining a steamer on the Congo River, for the use of the Congo Mission of that Society. He writes:
“I believe the time has come when we should make every necessary preparation to carry out the original purpose of the Congo Mission to place a steamer on the Congo River, where we can sail north-eastward into the heart of Africa for many hundred miles uninterruptedly, and bring the glad tidings of the everlasting Gospel to thousands of human beings who are ignorant of the way of life and immortality.
“I have, therefore, now to offer your Society a thousand pounds toward the purchase chase of a steamer, of the best make and capacity, every way suitable for the purpose, and its conveyance and launch on the river at Stanley Pool, and three thousand pounds to be carefully invested, the interest only to be used for the perpetual maintenance of such steamer on the Congo and its affluents, until Christ and his salvation shall be known all along the Congo from Stanley Pool to the first cataract of the equatorial cataracts of the Congo—beyond the mouths of the Armvimi and Mbura Rivers.”
—The Uganda envoys from King Mtesa’s court sailed on the 22d of June for Aden, whence they will take the British-Indian steamer to Zanzibar; the closing of the Nile route making it necessary for them to return by way of the East coast. Mr. Felkin, whose health will not admit of his going back to Uganda, accompanies them to Zanzibar and will return to England. They will be conducted to their home by Mr. Stokes, who is on the coast making the necessary preparations for the journey. They carry back valuable gifts, have seen much of England’s civilization and the fruits of her religion, and it is not unreasonable to expect that the future of their country will be greatly influenced by this visit of her intelligent chiefs.