The Freedmen.
—The Mississippi Valley Labor Convention met, May 6th, at Vicksburg. It was composed of both white and colored delegates; the latter, however, by their own choice, not voting, but hearing what there was to say to them. The resolutions which were adopted refer to many causes for the exodus to Kansas, among which they do not name extortionate and oppressive contracts, and express wonder at the credulity of the negroes. The practical suggestions are: 1. A system of contracts which shall be of mutual benefit. 2. Absolute political equality. 3. Free and fair elections. 4. A limitation of liens on expected crops. 5. Contradiction of false reports about Kansas. 6. The unrestricted right to emigrate. Governor Foote offered a substitute intimating that the true causes had not been given, and suggesting local committees to investigate grievances and protect the rights of the Freedmen, which was voted down.
—The Refugee Relief Committee of St. Louis reports that over six thousand of the emigrants have passed through that city. About two thousand of these were able to pay their fares to Kansas. The others were sheltered, fed and partly clothed while there, and had their passage paid to the same destination.
Africa.
—A letter dated Demidris, Jan. 1, to Gordon (Pasha), Governor-General of Southern Egypt, from one of his officers who was sent to break up the slave depots in the neighborhood of Bahr el Gazal, in the Province of Kordofan, reports an engagement with Suleiman, one of the chief slave-traders and owner of 25 depots, in which it is stated that the women alone, waiting importation into Egypt, number 10,000. The Egyptian forces numbered 3,000, and were intrenched, a part of them being armed with Remington rifles. On the morning of the 28th of December, Suleiman, with 11,000 men, attacked the intrenchments. After numerous assaults, in which the Arabs, under the personal lead of Suleiman, fought with desperate courage, the attack was completely defeated, and the assailants fled in disorder, leaving 1,087 dead on the field. The Egyptians lost 20 men. A special dispatch from Alexandria says: “On the day after the battle between the Egyptians and Arabs, under the lead of Suleiman, 5,000 deserters came over to the Egyptian camp. The Egyptians followed the retiring enemy, killed ten chiefs and 2,000 more men, and were still in pursuit at last advices. The capture of all the slave depots is considered certain.”
—A telegram dated London, May 5, says: Conflicts between the Egyptian troops and the slave-dealers on the 13th and 14th of January, in Upper Egypt, resulted in the complete defeat of the latter, with the loss of six thousand killed and wounded and prisoners. The Egyptian troops lost two hundred men.
—A telegraph line is now proposed from Cairo up the Nile southward to Gondokoro; thence to Mtesa’s capital; thence to Unyanyembe; thence to Ujiji west and Zanzibar east, from Bagamoyo to Lake Nyassa, and to meet a line from Cape Colony to Pretoria, in the Transvaal at Pretoria. This is said to be no more difficult than was similar work accomplished in Australia and India.
—The Methodist Missionary Society have made arrangements for missionary work in the interior of Africa. Mr. Osgood, who is now in Africa, will locate a mission post somewhere in the interior, and Miss Mary A. Sharp will soon leave this country for work there.—Christian Union, April 2.
—A letter from Zanzibar announces the arrival of Henry M. Stanley, the African explorer, with M. Dutalis, the officer in command of the Belgian expedition in Africa. It is stated that Mr. Stanley will act as guide and interpreter to the Belgian exploring expedition under M. Dutalis.