AFGHANISTAN. 



3 



property on hand valued at $8,765.22, and 

 its entire capital stock was stated to be $17,- 

 843.98. More than 1,800,000 pages of tracts 

 had been published during the year, and grants 

 and sales of books and tracts had been made 

 to the value of $4,698.31. 



Dissatisfaction had been expressed with the 

 management of the World's Crisis, because it 

 was thought to have given undue prominence 

 " to a modern phase of the doctrine of holi- 

 ness." The editors were instructed " to make 

 prominent the great judgment message," or 

 the doctrine of the speedy coming of the Lord 

 Jesus Christ. The Association recommended 

 the holding of a General Conference some time 

 in the fall, to be composed of delegates from 

 State conferences. 



The tenth annual meeting of the American 

 Advent Mission Society was held at Springfield, 

 Mass., August llth. The treasurer reported 

 that his receipts for the year had been $6,- 

 429.60, and his expenditures $6,082.09, leaving 

 a balance in his hands of $347.51. Mission- 

 work had been prosecuted chiefly in North 

 and South Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Ten- 

 nessee, Florida, and Kansas. Help had also 

 been sent to ministers preaching in new places 

 in Nova Scotia, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, 

 California, Missouri, Massachusetts, New York, 

 and New Hampshire. 



The annual camp-meeting of the American 

 Millennial Association (Evangelical Advenfc- 

 ists) was held at Hebron ville, Mass., beginning 

 August 12th. 



The annual meeting of the American Mil- 

 lennial Association was held in connection with 

 the camp-meeting at Hebronville, Mass., Au- 

 gust 14th. The treasurer represented that 

 there had been for the past two years a defi- 

 ciency of about two thousand dollars a year in 

 the running expenses of the publication-office. 

 The subscription list of the Messiah's Herald, 

 the organ of the denomination, was reported 

 to number about twenty-eight hundred names. 

 The committee on colportage was given charge 

 of the ordination of ministers and the care of 

 feeble churches. A woman's missionary so- 

 ciety was organized in connection with the 

 Association. 



Elder G. W. Burnham, a missionary of the 

 Board of Home Missions, reported that during 

 the year he had given one hundred and thirty- 

 six discourses, in thirty-two towns and cities, 

 in the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Massa- 

 chusetts, NTew York, N"ew Jersey, and Penn- 

 sylvania. 



AFGHANISTAN,* a country in Central 

 Asia, bounded north by east by Toorkistan, 

 east by British India, south by Beloochistan, 

 and west by Persia ; area 278,000 square miles ; 

 population about 4,000,000. Present ruler, 

 Amir Shere Ali. This country continues to 

 be in a most disorganized condition. The 



* For an account of the regulation of the northern fron- 

 tier, and of the population of the several provinces, see 

 CYCLOPEDIA for 1874. 



Amir, Shere Ali, kept his eldest son, Ya- 

 koob Khan, as a prisoner at his capital. The 

 first commercial caravan which the Russians, 

 during the last spring, sent from Astrakhan 

 to Afghanistan, under command of Colonel 

 Gluchowski, and which was instructed to ob- 

 tain trustworthy information concerning the 

 actual frontier between Afghanistan and Per- 

 sia, had to return when near Meshed, without 

 having accomplished any thing. Serious diffi- 

 culties have arisen with the Mir (ruler) of the 

 Uzbeg principality of Mymana. This state, sit- 

 uated nearly two hundred miles to the north- 

 east of Herat, owes allegiance to the Amir of 

 Afghanistan, but has never been very hearty 

 in its obedience. So little can the ruler of the 

 state be relied upon that, in 1874, the govern- 

 or of Balkh did not dare to march the troops, 

 which were to occupy Herat, through this ter- 

 ritory. In the second half of the year 1875 

 the Mir of Mymana was more than ever sus- 

 pected of acts inconsistent with his position of 

 feudatory, and, when he sent his son on a mis- 

 sion to Cabool, the Amir promptly seized and 

 detained the youth as a hostage for his father's 

 good behavior. This characteristic act of Ori- 

 ental statecraft seems, however, to have been 

 without effect. The Mir continues his intrigues 

 with neighboring states, and Shere Ali thereup- 

 on determined to take active measures against 

 him. The governors of Herat and Balkh have 

 been ordered to march a force upon Mymana 

 without delay. An Indian paper, the Pioneer, 

 estimates the troops of Mymana at twelve thou- 

 sand horsemen, and says that they are rather a 

 feudal militia than a regular disciplined force. 

 In the valley of the Cabool, Naarus Khan, an 

 uncle of the Amir, who resides at Lalfura, 

 raised, in 1875, the standard of revolt, and 

 collected among the savage Mommands, who 

 have repeatedly harassed the agriculturist pop- 

 ulation in the neighboring districts of India, a 

 force of about twelve thousand. He was, how- 

 ever, defeated, and fled into the mountains, 

 where a number of chieftains maintain an al- 

 most complete independence. 



A great danger arises to Afghanistan from 

 the Toorkoman tribes, which, by the establish- 

 ment of Russian forts on the eastern shore of 

 the Caspian Sea, have begun to be alarmed in re- 

 gard to their independence. The Delhi Gazette, 

 in June, published a report from Cabool, that 

 the leaders of the Toorkomans near Merv had 

 inquired of the Amir of Afghanistan whether 

 in a religious war against the Russians they 

 might expect to receive aid from the Afghan 

 provinces of Herat and Balkh. The Amir was 

 said to have replied that he regarded them 

 as boasting robbers. The prince of Mymana 

 likewise refused to join them, and notified 

 of his intentions, not only the Amir at Ca- 

 bool, but the Russian authorities at Samar- 

 cand. It is feared that the Toorkomans, find- 

 ing that they are unable to infest Russia, or 

 even Persia, may commit depredations in the 

 unprotected frontier districts of Afghanistan. 



