GENERAL NOTES.
—The Italian government will shortly send a messenger to the king of Abyssinia, charged with giving him presents from King Humbert, and renewing at the same time friendly relations between the two countries.
—M. Antoine, who has been some time in Abyssinia, reports that the natives endure with impunity the malaria of the lower regions, pernicious to Europeans, and attributes their freedom from sickness to the daily use of fumigations of sulphur.
—At the request of M. Price, founder of the establishment at Frere Town for the freed slaves, the Committee of the Church of England Missions has decided to send two new missionaries, a teacher, and, if possible, a physician. The agents of the society will endeavor to extend the work to the interior.
—The Universities’ Mission to Africa has now three great centres of operation—Zanzibar, the Usambara country north of Zanzibar, and the Rovuma District. It has about 1,000 natives under its care, has transformed the old slave-market of Zanzibar, where formerly 30,000 slaves were sold annually, into mission premises, with a church, mission-house and school, and established a chain of stations from the coast to Lake Nyassa. The income for 1881 was £11,000 and the mission has 34 European missionaries and 26 native evangelists. The mission was started in 1859 at the suggestion of Dr. Livingstone, and looks to the universities for its supply of clergy.
THE INDIANS.
—Five new Indian students have arrived at the Hampton Institute—one, whose position in the school is not yet defined, as it is difficult to find a class for him. This is Hampton’s first experience in training married people in homes. Miss Fletcher brought from Omaha two families, in one of which there is a fine-looking baby of 18 months.
—At Hampton, in the tin shop, over 7,000 pieces of tinware have been made for the Indian Department since the 20th of June, in addition to the tin work done on school grounds. All the contracts for the Interior Department are completed, and 55 cases nicely packed have been shipped to the different agencies.
—Mr. Cowley writes from Spokan Falls that he returned recently from session of District Court, having been summoned as interpreter in an action of the U.S. Marshal against four white men for selling whiskey to Indians. Two were sentenced to penitentiary, one broke jail before trial, and the other cannot yet be found. It will break up the traffic for a time. The jury in the last case brought in a unanimous verdict of guilty, on the testimony of one Indian, which gives a hint as to the intelligence and absence of race prejudice on the part of the whites, and of the reputation of the Indians in that region for veracity.