In three days, at Tougaloo, I inspected the Institution; counselled with the managers as to building schemes; lectured on “How to make money,—by labor, economy, education, investment;” and delivered a missionary address and a sermon, being permitted to rejoice that day with the teacher in the conversion of one of their most interesting young men.
The tour, which was one of 2,804 miles, occupied a month. The cost of travel was $88.15, unusually large, even for so long a trip, as I had to use the two great roads leading to Texas, which decline the usual ministerial courtesies. With five nights of riding, and only two of those in sleeping cars, with a steady push in travel and in work, it was a wearying tour. The postage of the month, $4.55, shows the amount of correspondence kept up along the way with the “field.”
In contrast with the two railroads referred to, I wish to report that I have in hand the annual half-fare permits of twenty-eight railroad companies in the South, nearly all that I have occasion to use, besides an annual free pass, held now for two years, on Senator Joseph E. Brown’s road from Atlanta to Chattanooga, which I use a great deal. Having received marked and unvarying courtesy from the officials of all of these companies (and, indeed, from everybody South as yet, without exception), I count it a testimony to the recognized position of the American Missionary Association in the South that these favors have been granted so generally and so cheerfully.
GENERAL NOTES.
Africa.
—In South Africa, where Dr. Moffat waited years for a conversion, there are 50,000 Christians.
—In almost every leading town in Egypt, from Alexandria to Assouan on the First Cataract, mission stations have been founded by the United Presbyterians.
—Four persons have offered to take up the mission work in the field left vacant by the death of the Rev. Dr. Bushnell, of the Gaboon, Africa.
—From their possessions in Algeria, the French are projecting a trans-Sahara railroad from the Mediterranean coast to Timbuctoo, on the Niger; and another from Senegal to the Niger. The English are planning four other railways to the interior of Africa. If these plans are carried out, new districts of the vast continent will be brought within easy reach of the Christian missionary.