visit the Congo region proposes to visit also the Gaboon and Corisco field, and it has been intimated by them that the report of this deputation may be such as to induce the French Society to assume that part of the work of our own Board which now lies within French territory. This will completely cut the Gordian knot which has occasioned so much trouble and such painful suspense, both to the Board and to all the missionaries, for several years.

KANGWE.

At Kangwe, where Mr. Good had contrived to open a French school, with thirty or forty boys in attendance, the French authorities had expressed themselves as being completely satisfied, and had ceased from their opposition to our mission work.

A very remarkable revival was reported as in progress at Kangwe on the Ogove a year ago. This still continues. The spiritual interest among the people in this region has been very marked throughout the entire year. It is the custom of our missionaries to have an inquiry class formed of those

who expect to unite with the church. These are generally kept under special instruction. for the period of one year. Ninety-three new inquirers were enrolled in this class at the March communion, and by the end of June the number had risen to 117. The aggregate number of these inquirers for the year reached 379. Meantime, from those admitted previously to the class, 44 were received into full membership with the church, making the number of such accessions through the year on confession of faith, 91. Mr. Good writes in one of his letters, "We have striven to raise the standard of piety in the church, and in order to do this we have been more than usually strict in exercising discipline. The general spiritual tone of the church, though leaving much to be desired, is improving."

At Kangwe the usual congregation in the church on the Sabbath is from 50 to 150; while at the quarterly communions as many as three or four hundred attend, bringing their own food with them, and availing themselves of such shelter as is at hand. Miss Harding at this station has continued

her work as usual, journeying from town to town along the river with a boat and Fangwe crew, and at every place conversing with and teaching the people. She writes: "It has been a great pleasure to me to visit towns during this cheering revival year, when the people are eager to hear God's message and drink in the words of their spiritual teacher with avidity. On Sundays I have a large class of Fans, sometimes numbering twenty, so that we are beginning to reach that large and interesting tribe."

TALAGUGA.

Farther up the Ogove River, some 215 miles from the sea, lies Talaguga, the second station of the mission upon that great stream. It was hoped that the Ogove would prove a highway to the interior regions lying between its head-waters and those of the Congo. If this part of our field shall be in the future assumed by the French Missionary Society this hope may yet be realized. There would seem to be a peculiar fitness in such an entrance of the gospel into these regions through the influence of evangelical laborers from France, since it was one of the most noted of French explorers, Count Di Brazza, who first opened this mighty river to the knowledge of the world, displaying the highest courage and endurance in his journeys of exploration, and it was largely on the basis of his discoveries that the French government took possession of this part of Africa. Talaguga is the home of those patient and courageous missionaries, Dr. and Miss Nassau. Here for long years this devoted brother and sister have labored in one of the loneliest points in the dark heathen world. From among the forests and river villages they have already won a few converts to Christ, have put into their rude language the first lessons of gospel truth, and there every Sabbath day, in the midst of the all-surrounding heathenism, may be seen an humble little chapel, with its clay floor and bamboo walls, filled with worship

pers.

ANGOM.

At Angom, the new station on the Gaboon River opened by Mr. Marling since his re

At Baraka also, the oldest station in the Gaboon district, there has been very little to encourage the missionaries during the past year. There have been no additions to the church, and the customary services have been very poorly attended. The dif ficulties of maintaining spiritual influences at this point are beyond all question greatly increased by the fact that this is the great centre of the commerce of the region. The missionary residing here must of necessity give a very large part of his time to the receiving and shipping of goods for all other points within the mission field. This work, for which any intelligent Christian layman would be abundantly competent, has often sadly interfered with the more appropriate labors of our ordained missionaries there. The necessity for such work on their part, however, has been absolutely unavoidable. At the same time the general concomitants of trade and the influence of foreigners are almost invariably at these ports utterly hos tile to Christian morality, to say nothing of spiritual religion.

BENITA.

At Benita and Corisco, the northern stations of the West Africa field, there has been very much more to cheer our brethren. At the last communion season of the year at Benita, 17 were added to the class of inquirers, which now numbers 50. Five adults have been received into the church on con

fession of faith, and a very general religious interest is manifest. Mrs. Reutlinger has been compelled by her failing health to ask a furlough, a request which was granted without hesitation by the Board. In her impaired health, and now in her absence, it has been necessary to suspend for a time the girls' school at Bolondo. The boys' school, however, has been maintained, and Mr. De Heer writes that the number of pupils has rapidly increased. "Half of each day is occupied by the school-boys in manual labor, including their own washing and ironing. About 40 had been in attendance during the year, most of them boarding scholars. None but Christian teachers are employed." In this school Christian instruction is constantly given in the vernacular. The English language is also carefully studied. A somewhat novel method has been hit upon here for impressing upon the minds of the children the Christian truth which they hear. "The scholars take their slates to church

with them and take notes of the sermon; these notes to be read or repeated on Sabbath evening and then copied on Monday and put into the hands of Bible-readers and other Christians, who use them in turn at their religious meetings."

Mr. De Heer has recently completed a translation of Dr. Archibald Alexander's "Bible Truth," which, together with "Questions on the Confession of Faith and Form of Government," has been printed in one volume. After referring to other stations, the report mentions Mr. De Heer's labors at Bata, a church organized only four years ago, but whose members now number 114.

SHALL HE BE SAVED OR RUINED?

Our illustrations convey a lesson which it is not easy to misunderstand or contradict. The Basuto lad riding to school belongs to the tribe amongst whom the laborers of that admirable body, the Société des Missions Évan

géliques, of Paris, have been at work for many years. Now that these French brethren are in a kind of alliance with our own

BASUTO BOY ON HIS WAY TO NIGHT SCHOOL. SOUTH AFRICA.

fully instructed them, more than two thousand being now in their schools. The open adherents of Christianity among them number twelve thousand, and nearly five thou sand are communicants in their churches. This includes the stations on the Zambesi conducted by the same society associated with this mission. A number of the converted, educated Basutos are engaged in carrying the gospel to their fellow countrymen. More than a hundred are in various ways aiding the missionaries in their work.

Our second illustration presents to the eye the fruit of such Christian missions among the once savage South Africans. If these three converted youth have lost something of the picturesque appearance of the boy astride his steer, we may be sure that they would be found far more agreeable persons in actual life. Intelligence, Christian morals, pleasant homes, all learned from the lessons of God's word and from the example of educated missionaries, have transformed. unlettered savages into self-reliant and useful men, and put an unmistakable refinement on their outward life.

The melancholy thought as one looks on the Basuto boy is that so many thousands like him in Basuto-land will never find their way to the Christian school. They will be reached by a far different influence-the emissaries of "commerce," with the rum bottle. Brandy is the bane of the Basutos, as of every other south African tribe. Rev. Wardlaw Thompson, fresh from a journey of four thousand miles in mule cart and ox

The Basutos number about 170,000. Their home is a territory of nearly equal area with New Jersey, lying west of Natal and north of Cape Colony. No more fruitful or wellmanaged missions are to be found in Africa than these in Basuto-land, conducted by the French Protestants. They found the natives savages, without a written language and with all the vices of heathenism. They have given these people a written tongue, in which is now found the whole Bible and a Christian literature of the highest value. Best of all, they have patiently and success

Africa, reports that "in all the tribes of south Africa bad brandy is the curse of the natives. The brandy keg does far more harm than the powder barrel. . . . In Basuto-land in the old times the import of brandy was forbidden. Since the late war, however, liquor has been introduced freely. As a result, half the chiefs in Basuto-land are dipso-maniacs. They drink morning, noon and night, and many of their absurd actions are attributable not to the inherent folly of the Basuto nature, but to the baleful influence of the white man's beverage." Mr. Mabile, of that mission, wrote a few

years since to his society that he had to wage a constant war against brandy; that the crimes of the people and the oppression

CHRISTIAN HERRIROS, SOUTH AFRICA.

of the chiefs were largely for the simple purpose of enabling them to buy brandy. Manhood and womanhood are destroyed by this awful curse. Among the Kaffirs and Hottentots the mortality produced by drink is appalling. The tribes are actually perishing under this blight.

Dr. Clark, as quoted by Canon Farrar, declares that on the south coast of Africa also the people are terribly demoralized by this infernal traffic. "The traders would sell a bottle of gin for sixpence, and he had seen thousands of girls lying drunk around the traders' wagons." The Basutos have lately roused themselves again, under the leadership of the Christians among them,

to break loose from this dreadful snare. But no thanks are due to us. The deliverance has come from the vigorous temperance ex

ertions of the chief Paulus Mopeli, brother of their chief Moshesh.

What words can describe the guilt, the cold-blooded cruelty, of the trader who can approach the unsophisticated Basuto lad and deliberately ply him with temptations to drink, enticing him away from the missionaries who would save him, and debauching and destroying him body and soul!

MADAGASCAR'S WOE.

Canon Farrar, in writing of the liquor traffic in Eastern Africa, says, "Turning to Eastern Africa we are faced by the tragic story of Madagascar-a story which the Rev. H. W. Little, once a missionary on the island, calls without parallel for pathos and consuming interest in the history of the world.' In 1800 the Malagasy were a nation of idolaters; now, thanks in great measure to the London Missionary Society, they are a nation of Christians. They loved, they almost adored, the English, who had done so much for them. Unhappily, however, Mauritius

became a sugar-producing colony, and rum was made from the refuse of the sugar-mills. What was to be done with it? It was not good enough for European markets, and Madagascar 'was made the receptacle for the damaged spirit of the colony!' They received the curse in their simplicity, and it produced frightful havoc. The crime of the island rose in one short year by leaps and bounds to a height too fearful to record.' The native government was seized with consternation, and the able and courageous king, Radama I., paid the duty, and ordered every cask of rum to be staved in on the shore, except those that went to the govern

ment stores.

"The merchants of Mauritius complained,