GENERAL NOTES.
AFRICA.
—The Niger Mission reports 4,000 souls as under regular Christian instruction.
—Three of Arabi Pasha’s children are in the United Presbyterian Mission school at Cairo, Egypt.
—Mr. Stanley has discovered a lake on one of the tributaries of the Congo which he has named Lake Leopold Second.
—The London Missionary Society has two mission ships that sail between its stations in New Guinea, two in Africa, and one in the South Seas.
—An English Methodist missionary laboring in Africa reports that on going to the coast recently he was saluted by a trader with the remark: “There must have been a lot of heathen joining your church lately.” “Yes, it is so,” he was answered; “but how did you come to know it?” “Oh, because there have been a lot of heathen people here buying dresses, shawls, etc.”
—A new expedition, under German auspices, is being fitted out for the exploration of the Upper Niger and the regions adjacent. It starts out under competent leadership and promises good results in knowledge of a portion of Africa as yet little known, but supposed to be of large commercial importance.
—At the request of the Egyptian Mission, the last General Assembly directed the Board of Publication to contribute $2,000 to aid in the work of publishing a new edition of the Bible in Arabic in large type. In compliance with this the Board of Publication on the 5th of this month paid over the $2,000 to the American Bible Society, who have the work now under way.
—According to a proposed treaty between Portugal and the Sultan of Zanzibar, the two governments will engage that none of their subjects buy or sell slaves in their respective territories. Any one convicted of having violated the treaty will be delivered up to the government, punished in consequence and his slaves set at liberty.