—Mr. Mackay, missionary of the Church Missionary Society at Mteza’s kingdom, has completed his translation of St. Matthew’s Gospel into the language of Uganda.
—Lieutenant Dumbleton and the military physician Browning embarked the last of December at Liverpool to penetrate by the Gambia into the valley of the Niger, and if possible as far as Timbuctoo.
—The journal Nature, of London, announces that M. J. Thomson, the explorer of the region between the Dar-es-Salam, the Nyassa and the Tanganyika, has been called to direct an expedition from Sierra Leone to Timbuctoo.
—Capt. Neves Ferreira, Governor of Benguela, and some officers of the Portuguese army, have offered to the Geographical Society of Lisbon to undertake a scientific exploration across Africa, setting out from the Western side.
—A conference has been held at Madeira by the Church Missionary Society respecting West African missions. Bishop and Arch-deacon Crowther, two native Africans, were invited to be present. A deputation from London had arrived safely at the island some time since, and the report of proceedings will be looked for with interest.
—More than nineteen years since, the daughter of Archbishop Whately established a mission in Cairo which she is said to have supported with her own private means. It includes a large mission school for Copts and Moslems, and is attended daily by more than 500. It has also in connection with it a medical mission, book depot and Bible women.
—Mr. Mackay writes from Kagei, on the southern shore of the Victoria Nyanza, on November 1st, that canoes had arrived from Uganda, and he was about proceeding thither together with a re-inforcement for the Romanist mission. The canoes, however, having been three months coming across the lake, there was no news later than July 29th. Affairs were then no brighter and Mr. Pearson found it difficult to obtain food.
—It is reported that the women at the Livingstonia Mission, Eastern Africa, attend the services respectably clothed, and have learned to make dresses for themselves. The native young men have acquired many industrial arts, and can make furniture, bricks, etc., and even work the engines of the steamer belonging to the mission. Over 100 children are on the school-roll, and their attendance is very regular.
—Mouchot, an ingenious mechanic, has succeeded with an experiment in Algiers which is likely to attract much attention among those interested in the development of the manufacture of industries in Africa. He has contrived an apparatus by which he is able to pump and boil water by solar force. With abundance of force, cotton and working people, the unclad millions of Ethiopia, among whom already cloth is the most valuable currency, may become both respectable and rich.
—A new company of missionaries from Algiers has set out to found between that side and the great lakes a station which will render communication easier with the missions of Uganda and Ouroundi, and from whence they can come to their aid, according to circumstances. The missionaries of Ouroundi will also establish a new station to the west of Tanganyika, so that they may advance towards the Manyema and the Upper Congo by a shorter route than that they have hitherto followed.