CONGO. 



CONGREGATIONALISM'S. 



recruited a fresh force of 200 Ilaussas in Lagos, 

 notwithstanding the edict of the British Govern- 

 ment against engaging even laborers in the Gold 

 Coast and other colonies, issued in consequence of 

 complaints that, men hired as railroad laborers had 

 been compelled to serve in the Congo public force 

 and attached to expeditions, being shot if they at- 

 tempted to ex-ape and flowed for every infraction 

 of discipline. On the Congo the Batatela soldiers 

 in the Luluaberg district mutinied and killed 10 

 whites, while 5 were murdered on the upper Welle. 

 Missions and commercial posts were plundered and 

 destroyed. Major Lothaire proceeded against the 

 Batatelas with 300 soldiers, and pursued the rebels 

 to the upper Lomami, where a revolt had been fo- 

 mented by the Arabs. Though wounded, he con- 

 tinued in command, and was finally victorious in 

 October, 1895. The Itimberi revolt, which paralyzed 

 trade for nine months, was finally suppressed by the 

 concentration of the Congo forces. The district of 

 the Welle was still in a disturbed and dangerous 

 condition in the beginning of 1896, powerful chiefs, 

 such as Semio and Bungasso, being well provided 

 with arms. The natives on the Aruwimi were in 

 open revolt. In April, 1896, Capt. Chaltin con- 

 ducted a brilliant campaign in the upper Welle, 

 inflicting crushing defeats upon the formidable 

 Arab chiefs Nbili and Ndoruma, the latter of whom 

 confronted him with several thousand men and 

 quick-firing guns. This chief was the instigator of 

 the assassination a year before of Capt. Janssens 

 and the sergeant and 38 soldiers who accompanied 

 him. In the delimitation between French and Free 

 State territory on the Mobangi Bungasso and his 

 numerous tribe, formerly firm friends of the Congo 

 State, and afterward infected with the spirit of re- 

 bellious discontent, were handed over to France. 

 The Congo State still maintained its advanced post 

 of Dongu, on the upper Welle, a fortified camp, 

 where there were 65 Europeans. When the British 

 advance was made up the Nile to Dongola, Baron 

 Dhanis strengthened his forces in this district and 

 on the upper Congo, and was said to be preparing 

 an expedition against the dervishes, or for the oc- 

 cupation of the district on the upper Nile that was 

 leased to the Congo State by agreement with Great 

 Britain. Large supplies of ammunition and can- 

 non, including a battery of Maxims and 6 Krupp 

 guns, were collected at Stanley Falls, whence 1,000 

 men marched in June to Kilongalonga in the direc- 

 tion of Lake Albert Edward and the Nile. 



CONGREOATIONALISTS. The summary of 

 the statistics of the Congregational churches in 

 the United States as given in the " Congregation- 

 al Yearbook" for 1896 is as follows: Number of 

 churches, 5,482, of which 4,186 are supplied and 

 1,296 " vacant " ; of ministers, 5,347, of whom 3,588 

 are in pastoral work and 1,759 "without charge"; 

 of church members. 602,557; of additions during 

 the year on confession, 35,327; of baptisms dur- 

 ing the year, 15,943 of adults and 12,047 of infants; 

 of members of Sunday schools. 6S2.5SO. represent- 

 ing 413.167 families, aiid giving an average attend- 

 ance of $418,146 ; of Young People's Societies of 

 Christian Endeavor. 3,825, with 219,112 members. 

 Amount of benevolent contributions (4.510 churches 

 reporting) : For foreign missions. $444.643 : for edu- 

 cation, $191,299 ; for church building. 75.131 : for 

 home missions, $581,316 ; for the American Mission- 

 ary Association, $142.624 : for Sunday schools. s5T.- 

 319; for ministerial aid, $25,557: other contribu- 

 tions, $669.261 : making a total, as footed up in the 

 tables, of s2. 187.050. Contributions for home ex- 

 penditures (4.715 churches reporting). $6,707.613. 



The 7 theological seminaries (Andover. Bangor, 

 Chicago, Hartford, Oberlin, Pacific, and Yale) re- 

 turn 63 professors, 20 instructors or lecturers. 19 



resident licentiates or fellows. 24 members of ad- 

 vanced or graduate classes, and 460 undergradu- 

 ate students. Among the undergraduates are 108 ' 

 special students, of whom 7 are in German. 12 in 

 Dano-Norwcgian. 34 in Swedish, and it in Slavic- 

 departments. 



The Congregational Education Society (organ i/cd 

 in 1816) purposes to aid, to the maximum amount 

 of $75 each per year, needy and worthy .students. 

 Many of these afterward refund the sums that have 

 been advanced to them. More than 8.000 students 

 have been its beneficiaries. About 330 regular stu- 

 dents were aided in 1895, together with about 50 

 of foreign birth who were preparing to be home 

 missionaries to their own people in the United 

 States. The Slavic department of Oberlin Seminary, 

 which has been receiving $3,000 a year from this 

 society, has furnished 15 graduates who are pastors 

 and missionaries. The society also assists in the 

 support of teachers in 9 home missionary colleges 

 and 17 academies in the West and South, appropri- 

 ating to each college from $1,500 to $5,000 and to 

 each academy from $500 to $1.500 a year. The 

 institutions a're required to raise the rest of their 

 current expenses in their home fields. Aid has 

 been given to 27 colleges that are now strong and 

 prosperous : Salt Lake College in Utah, a training 

 school at El Paso, Texas, in 1895 4 academies, and 

 10 mission schools were supported with total appro- 

 priations of $22,000 in the New West Education 

 department. The year's receipts of the society were 

 $142,100, and the expenditures $138.354. 



The American Congregational Association added 

 in 1895 898 books, 603 pamphlets, and 1,229 un- 

 bound numbers of periodicals to its library in the 

 Congregational House, Boston, making the total 

 numbers in the collection 38,567 books, 34.459 

 pamphlets, and 47.004 periodicals, not including 

 unbound newspapers. The Congregational House 

 is valued at $501.000, with indebtedness of $142,- 

 000, the debt having been reduced $4,000 during 

 the year. 



The Congregational Church Building Society re- 

 ceived in 1895 $141,567, of which $36,808 were 

 from grants and loans refunded. It paid $113,560 

 on account of houses of worship (129 churches), and 

 $18.500 on account of 42 parsonages. 



The available increase of the Congregational 

 Sunday-school and Publishing Society for 1895 was 

 $67,836. It aided during the same year in the or- 

 ganization of 566 Sunday schools ; and 50 Congrega- 

 tional churches grew out of schools organized by its 

 missionaries. 



The Ministerial Relief fund of the National Con- 

 gregational Council was started by a bequest of 

 $10.000, and has grown to be more than $90,000. 



Home Missionary Society. The seventieth an- 

 nual meeting of the Congregational Home Mission- 

 ary Society was held in New Haven. Conn., in June. 

 The total income of the society for the year had 

 been $788,818, and the expenditures $708.378, while 

 the debt had been reduced from $132.140 to $51,- 

 700. Missions were sustained in all the States and 

 Territories of the United States except Delaware, 

 Virginia. South Carolina. Mississippi, and Ken- 

 tucky. Two thousand and sixty-three laborers had 

 been" employed, of whom 1.125 were pastors of stated 

 supplies of single congregations. 645 had charge of 

 two or more congregations, and 293 carried on still 

 more extended work; and under their care 4.110 

 congregations and districts had been supplied with 

 regular preaching. Sixty-four of these missionaries 

 had preached to German" congregations. 94 to Scan- 

 dinavians, 24 to Bohemians, 11 to French. 4 to 

 Polish congregations, 1 to Mexican, 2 to Italian. 

 3 to Spanish. 3 to Finnish. 2 to Danish. 3 to Arme- 

 nian, 1 to Greek, and 6 to Welsh. Twenty-four 



