GENERAL NOTES.
AFRICA.
—The German Reichstag has voted an appropriation of one million marks to defray the expenses of an expedition now being fitted out for the exploration of Central Africa.
—The Church Missionary Society have received tidings from their Uganda Mission at Mtesa’s capital that five young men have been baptized, the first fruits of the mission.
—Notwithstanding the presence of General Matthews with the troops of the Sultan of Zanzibar, a brisk trade in slaves is going on at Mombassa. General Matthews is now fighting with a rebel chieftain who has a settlement not far from Mombassa where he receives runaway slaves.
—The Church Missionary Society of England is about to begin missionary operations in Egypt. It is to be under the care of Rev. F. A. Klein, an able Arabic scholar. The same society had a station at Cairo in the beginning of this century, but abandoned it in 1824.
—The English Baptists have established a station at Stanley Pool. The new missionary ship “Peace” is now ready to be shipped to the Congo. Mr. Stanley is about to publish an account of the results of his explorations. The French government has recently appropriated about $300,000 to defray the expenses of De Brassa’s expedition.
—The famous work of Miss Whately, daughter of Archbishop Whately, who for years carried on her work at Cairo, at her own charges, is a very interesting branch of Egyptian missions. The Khedive presented Miss Whately with land for her buildings, and her Cairo schools number 300 boys and 200 girls, more than two-thirds of the girls and half the boys being Moslems. She has a branch school of ninety pupils at Damietta.
THE CHINESE.
—There are now between three and four hundred Christian schools in China, containing over six thousand pupils.
—It is pointed out as a significant fact that the missions in Japan, which have been so prosperous, were started by a contribution sent by Christian converts of the Hawaiian Islands.
—There are in New York City and vicinity 500 Chinese laundries, managed by about 2,000 Chinamen. No foreigners are more industrious, more peaceable, or more anxious to conform to the laws of the land. None are so reliable in their business arrangements or so desirous for instruction in mission schools.
—There are at present in connection with Protestant missions in China more than 600 stations and out stations; more than 300 organized churches, a goodly number of them self-supporting, and some 20,000 communicants.