GENERAL NOTES.
Africa.
—King Meneleck, who rules in Southern Abyssinia, has recently abolished the slave-trade in his dominions.
—Tunis and Algeria are now united by a daily postal service, and letters are transmitted at a cost of fifteen cents each.
—M. Lombard, corresponding member of the Norman Society of Geography, has been charged with a scientific mission in Abyssinia. He has arrived at Massoua.
—The caravan of the missionaries from Algeria, bound for Lake Tanganyika, has arrived safely at Karéma, near the Lake. Those that started, however, for the Victoria Nyanza, have been pillaged on the route.
—The Chamber at Paris has approved the grant made to a company for a railroad from St. Louis to Dakar and voted a credit of 1,700,000 francs for laying a cable from Dakar to St. Vincent. This last line will place Senegal in direct communication with Europe.
—The Church Missionary Society has received an offer from Mr. Arthington, of Leeds, of $25,000, the income of which they will be at liberty to use towards maintaining a steamer and staff of agents on the Upper Binué and Lake Tchad. In returning thanks to Mr. Arthington, the Society was obliged to inform him that the amount would be insufficient for the purposes mentioned.
—Mr. J. M. Cnouwer, a Hollander, has undertaken a journey from Alexandria to the Cape of Good Hope. It is announced that he will be joined on his way by a Frenchman who has lived a long while in Abyssinia. He possesses considerable fortune and has had much experience as a traveler. It is not his purpose to take with him more than a single servant and a small amount of luggage. If he succeeds in his endeavors, his name will be placed by the side of the most renowned African explorers.
—Stanley continues his travels towards the interior without allowing himself to be stopped by the difficulties of his enterprise. The 7th of November he was rejoiced to meet H. Savorgnan de Brazza, who, after ascending two tributaries of the Congo and establishing a station, traversed the territory of Apfourous and reached by land the shores of the Congo. Resuming navigation he descended the course of the river half way to Stanley Pool, where he founded a new station. Then, continuing to follow it, he rejoined Stanley. It appears that the journey made by Brazza, which traversed a territory north of the lower Congo towards the interior of Africa, is a much more practicable route than the one up the river itself.
—Praggia, who is engaged in exploring the Soudan south of Khartoum, between the Blue and White Nile, is said to have met a large caravan with thousands of oxen, cows, goats and sheep. The children held in their arms the lambs and kids and even the little calves. The chiefs were mounted upon mules and asses, while their commander, upon a beautiful dromedary, ran hither and thither and superintended everything. These troops of quadrupeds were accompanied by bands of birds, which flew over their backs. Praggia estimated that the caravan would count 50,000 living beings. He also met other and smaller caravans of the same character. The object of the emigrants seems to have been a purpose to escape from the flies and particularly the tsetse. The region from whence they came lies a little northeast of the territory where it is proposed to establish the Arthington Mission.
The Indians.
—A small congregation of full-blooded Chickasaw Indians lately gave $400 for the Foreign Missions of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
—The largest tribe of Indians in the United States is the Sioux, or as they call themselves, the Dakota. Since the Sioux were first known, they have occupied a large portion of the center of the American continent, including the head waters of the Mississippi River.
—In the last Annual Report of the educational work of the Friends among the Indians, it is stated that at the Osage agency there are 2,745 Indians. Of these, 205, on the average, are in attendance at the two boarding-schools sustained at that point.
—The American Sunday-school Union has planted 121 Sunday-schools in the Indian territory. Next year they are to have a Sunday-school camp-meeting of ten days in August, at Atoka, in the Cherokee Nation, where a large gathering of full-bloods, who are averse to meeting in houses and among strangers, is anticipated.
—The laws of the Indian Colony at Metlakahtla, British Columbia, under the auspices of the English Church Missionary Society, are fifteen in number, and worthy to be imitated by those laboring for the Indians everywhere. These have been summarized as follows:—1. To give up their Indian magic. 2. To cease calling in conjurers when sick. 3. To cease gambling. 4. To cease squandering their property. 5. To cease painting their faces. 6. To cease using intoxicating drinks. 7. To rest on the Sabbath. 8. To attend to religious instruction. 9. To send their children to school. 10. To be clean. 11. To be industrious. 12. To be peaceable. 13. To be honest. 14. To build neat houses. 15. To pay their village tax.
The Chinese.
—In one district in Japan seventy-one Buddhist temples have been diverted to secular uses since 1873, and over 700 in the whole empire since 1871.
—Mr. D. Smith, of the Presbyterian church of England mission at Formosa, has lately been privileged to baptize nine natives, making in all thirty-two members of the Peh-tsui-Khan Church. There has besides been a considerable amount of inquiry here, so that the congregation of hearers has greatly increased. Other places in this island have also had blessing and additions to the churches.
—Dr. Happer thinks that Prof. S. Wells Williams over-estimates the population of China at the present time. The loss of life in recent years, caused by wars and famines, has been considerable, and the recuperative power of the Chinese people has greatly decreased on account of the use of opium. Mr. Happer estimates the present population as 300,000,000.
—The singular idea prevails among some in China that the reason why Chinese become Christians on reading the Bible is, that they are stupified by the ink used, in consequence of which they lose their reason and are thus ready to believe what is false. People are warned, therefore, against buying or reading foreign books.
—The students sent by the Chinese government for study in this country live in American families, and visit the headquarters at Hartford at certain times for inspection, and for drill in their own language. The number is distributed at present as follows: Boston Institute of Technology, 8; Troy Polytechnic Institute, 5; Lafayette College, 2; Lehigh University, 5; Bethlehem, Pa., 2; Institute of Technology, Hoboken, 2; Yale College, Classical, 9; Scientific, 5; Amherst, 1; Harvard, 1; Columbia, 1. The greater number are in Hartford and vicinity.