AFRICAN NOTES.
—Lovedale: The Missionary, a few months since, gave facts to substantiate the assertion that the Free Church’s Industrial and Mission School at Lovedale was one of the busiest in the world. A magnificent pile of new buildings, which will cost £10,000, will soon meet the demand for enlargement which has been most urgent. The old school buildings will still be used, and these, with the new, the girl’s boarding-house, and the shops required for the various trades, will form a collegiate establishment of which Scotland may well be proud.
Lovedale is the centre and source of healthful educational and saving influences which are reaching out into a large portion of Southern Africa—a true missionary centre. It has a large native church under charge of a native pastor, who has studied the Scriptures in their original language. A missionary association has connected with it several Kaffir young men who preach in all the kraals of the vicinity, and Evangelists who have carried the gospel to Nyassa, and even to Tanganyika. It has also a literary society, a training society, a Young Men’s Christian Association, and other societies such as the best-working churches of this country find necessary for best efficiency.
—The Free Church of Scotland, since the death of Capt. Benzie, of the Ilala, and of Mr. Gunn, last April, are making explorations with a view to a removal of their Station from Livingstonia to a more healthful location. The probable site is Bandawi, midway on the western shore of Nyassa, and contiguous to the promising tribes of the Atonga and the Mangoni, who have reproached the missionaries for not settling among them. The Royal Geographical Society has published in its proceedings the letter of Mr. Stewart, the civil engineer of the Mission, describing his explorations in search of this site, with two maps showing his route on the western coast.
—A Mission of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States on the West Coast of Africa, at Cape Mount, among the Vey people, has been commenced under the supervision of a young man of such energy, talent and Christian spirit, as give promise of successful prosecution.
It will be remembered that the Veys are distinguished as the only tribe on the continent of Africa which has invented an alphabet, and a missionary of the Church Missionary Society has made a grammar of their language. The natives are able to communicate with each other by written letters of their own invention.
Those interested in the evangelization of Africa will rejoice in the establishment of this Mission, and will watch with unusual interest its success among these, the most interesting of all the tribes on the west African coast.
—The success of the Belgian Exploration Company in the use of elephants imported from Asia, for the transportation of its baggage, has doubtless suggested the formation of a company at Monrovia for the capture of native elephants for the same purpose. Vice-President Warner is president of the company, and a hunter of great experience is in charge of an expedition which has been equipped and sent out for the purpose of capturing some of these noble animals, and there is hope that they will prove so valuable that they will be esteemed for more than their tusks, and their wholesale slaughter will cease.
—Malugsy needle-work is so superior to that of the English that it does not pay to send to Madagascar made-up goods, as the natives speak with contempt of the bad sewing, and insist that the cost of picking it out shall be deducted from the price of such articles.
—The London Missionary Society announces the safe arrival at Zanzibar, on the 29th of May, of the Revs. A. J. Wookey and D. Williams, with Dr. Palmer, on their way to the Central African Mission.
—The Stanley Pool Expedition of the Livingstone Island Mission, under the leadership of Mr. Adam McCall, is supposed to have reached the Congo about the 20th of April. The last tidings were written within three days of landing, and were very favorable. Donkeys and kroomen had been secured, and of the latter several were warm-hearted native Christians, who will, it is hoped, render good service as fellow-laborers in the Gospel.