—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.
THE CHINESE.
—The Hawaiian law prohibiting Chinamen from coming to the Islands has been repealed, and 3,000 Chinese laborers have recently contracted for their passage there.
—There is a Chinaman at work in Tahiti, in the South Sea Islands, who is said to be a whole Bible Society in himself, expending twenty dollars a month, out of a salary of twenty-five dollars, for Bibles to distribute among his countrymen there.
CHINESE DRESSED FOR RAINY WEATHER.