AFRICA.
—Dr. Laws, of the Scotch Mission on Lake Nyassa, discovered two coal seams on the north-eastern end of the lake.
—The Akankoo Gold Mining Company has ordered the explorer Cameron to go to the Gold Coast to study the mineral ores of the grant which it holds.
—Dr. Lanz has exploded the theory of converting the Sahara into an ocean. He reports that the most depressed portion of El Juf, the body of the desert, is nearly five hundred feet above the level of the sea.
—M. Harold Tarry, a member of the French Sahara commission, has discovered, south of Wargla, the ruins of the large city of Cedradra buried under the shifting sands. A mosque and nine houses have been excavated containing columns, statuary and charred manuscripts.
—The village of Roumbeck contains a hundred toukouls (cabins built upon piles to preserve them from the ravages of the white ants). This is the chief place of the province of Rohl. Here are collected ostrich plumes, caoutchouc, tamarinds and cotton, which are sent to Khartoum.
—The efforts of the French to find tracing for a railroad across the Great Desert to Timbuctoo have met with disaster. The great expedition under Col. Flanders, when nearly across the desert, was, according to most reliable reports, attacked by the hostile natives and destroyed.
—Dr. Oscar Lanz, the leader of the German expedition to Timbuctoo, has accomplished the object of his mission. He started from Morocco, taking a south-easterly course across the Great Desert. In returning he followed the route to the westward toward the Senegal river, arriving safely at St. Louis on the coast, after experiencing many delays and hardships. He went in the disguise of a Turkish physician, taking with him one Italian and five Arab servants.
—Timbuctoo is described as lying on the southern edge of the Sahara near the Niger, is five miles in circumference, and surrounded on all sides by plains of white sand. Its population has decreased, many of the houses are in ruins, but it is still the most important city in Central Africa and the great emporium for the slave trade of those regions.
—Dr. Holub is preparing to start for the Cape of Good Hope, from whence he will travel towards the interior of the continent, with the expectation of coming out at some point on the Mediterranean. Although his trip is essentially a scientific one, he will not neglect the commercial question. He is connected with important houses of Vienna, with which he will attempt to establish relations with the tribes of the interior of Africa.
—On his return from Bahr-el-Ghazal, Gessi found Khartoum very different from what he had seen it three years before. The European colony had transformed it. The Catholic mission had become the instructor of the population. The traders had imported all the products of European industry. Houses with magnificent stores had been erected, and one could obtain there all that was required for modern civilization. It had become a centre of exportation for the products of Soudan. To remedy the inconvenience of expensive voyages, they already thought of establishing in the neighborhood a permanent place for receiving the wax, rubber and ivory which they brought from the more central countries.
—The French missionaries who are in the Egyptian Soudan complain that the slave trade is more active than ever, and that far from taking measures to prevent it, the regular troops take part in the plunder in the neighborhood of the White Nile, where they capture thousands of slaves of both sexes and all ages. One of the missionaries saw at Fachoda a number of children taken to the slave market. Another reports that the mountains south of Kordufan are inhabited by a very beautiful race of negroes, who have resisted all efforts of the proselytizing Mussulman. These are sold at high prices, and the slave-hunters regard them as a favorite prey. This missionary also relates that a dozen valleys were recently ravaged by the Bagarahs.
THE INDIANS.
—In British America, during the past 20 years, more than 13,000 Indians have been received into the Church of England.
—There is a church organization at Fort Wrangel, Alaska Territory, among the Stickenn tribe of Indians, with a membership of about forty. In connection with this, an industrial school and home for girls has been established.
—The Indians at present in close relations with the Presbyterian church number about 16,000, and may be divided as follows: Mohave, 838; Chimehneva, 200; Coahuila, 150; Cocopah, 180; Pima, 4,500; Maricopa, 500; Papago, 6,000; the San Carlos, White Mountain, Coyotero, Tonto, Chiricahua, Cochise, Ojo Caliente, Yuma and Mohave Apaches, 4,878; Hualapai, 620; Yuma, 930; Suppai, 75; and Quacharty’s, 400.
These are grouped into the three agencies of Colorado River, Pima and San Carlos. They number 2,218 children of school age. They had 7,700 acres of land under cultivation, and raised 43,333 bushels of wheat, 2,493 of corn, and 10,833 of barley and oats.
—Some poet at Carlisle Barracks, Pa., has set forth the merits of the Indian training-school at that point as follows:
“The Garrison, where tap of drum was rule,
Is now the famous Indian Training School.
In days of yore, the Soldiers there were taught
That RED MEN’S USE WAS ONLY TO BE FOUGHT.
But note the change! The reign of Peace is near,
The ploughshare conquers deadly sword and spear.
The cunning pen shall in their swarthy hand
A swifter missile be than burning brand.
Their only WATCH-FIRE shall be Reason’s light—
Their only WARFARE, BATTLING FOR THE RIGHT.”