MISSISSIPPI 



MISSISSIPPI 



i Missions, was cstab- 

 i-li.-d in 1810. All the larger 

 <'lm-tian bodies in Kurope and in 

 North Anii-rn-ii in succession gave 

 -ions a place among 

 ' -o^m/ed activities, and in 

 it was estimated that more 

 UK) separate organizations in 

 Km..|'i-, America, and Australasia 

 were either directly engaged in 

 : missionary work or con- 

 tnluiting to its maintenance, while 

 .ili. Mii ;i hundred organizations of 

 \arioii- kinds hod their head- 

 i|iiartfrs in Asia and Africa. 



Tin- annual expenditure of the 

 Protestant bodies in the different 

 countries on foreign missionary 

 work, iiiclndiiii: in the case of the 

 expenditure on work in 

 Latin America, before the Great 

 U'.u was, according to World 

 Statistics of Christian Missions, 

 roughly as follows: U.S.A.. 

 .<K)0; Great Britain, 

 2,750,000; Canada, Australasia, 

 and South Africa, 400,000 ; Ger- 

 many, 420,000 ; other European 

 countries, 380,000. The total 

 ;int missionary force work- 

 ing among peoples not professing 

 the Christian religion was in round 

 figures 10,000 men and 6,500 un- 

 married women. 



The World Missionary Confer- 

 ence held in Edinburgh in 1910 

 appointed an international and 

 interdenominational committee for 

 common consultation about mis- 

 sionary matters. The missionary 

 societies in Great Britain and 

 in North America are united in 

 annual conferences in the two 

 countries, and are acting together 

 in an increasing number of matters. 

 Similar interdenominational or- 

 ganizations representing the dif- 

 ferent missions have been formed 

 in the principal mission fields of 

 Asia. Many undertakings are 

 carried on jointly by several mis- 

 sionary societies, such as the 

 Women's Christian College in 

 Madras, which is maintained by 

 twelve separate societies, six being 

 Mritish, five American, and one 

 Canadian. 



The work ot Roman Catholic 

 ini->ions is carried on bv the Bene- 

 dictines, Capuchins, Dominicans, 

 Franciscans, and Jesuits, and by 

 special societies, the largest of 

 which is the Societe des Missions 

 Etrangeres, with headquarters in 

 Paris. The supreme control over 

 these bodies is exercised by the 

 pope through the Congregatio de 

 Propaganda Fide, established at 

 Rome in 1622, and they derive 

 support partly from the funds be- 

 loni;iug to the various orders and 

 societies, and partly from such 

 collecting societies as the Society 

 for the Propagation of the Faith, 



the receipts of which amounted 

 in 1912 to 322,000. According to 

 Streit's Atlas Hierarchicus, pub- 

 lished in 1913, there were engaged 

 in missionary work among non- 

 Christian peoples about 6,000 

 priests, 2,500 lay brothers, and 

 nearly 7,000 sisters. 



The results of Christian missions, 

 so far as they can be indicated by 

 statistics, are shown by the follow- 

 ing figures of the number of bap- 

 tized Christians in the principal 

 mission fields : 



.lap. in and Korea 

 i liin.-i .. 

 India and Ceylon 

 Dutch East Indies 

 Africa and Mada- 

 gascar . . 



tant- 



195,000 



1,077,000 

 139,000 



1,190,000 



i:.. in ,n 

 Catholics 



145,000 



1,400,000 



2,160,524 



37,000 



873,000 



Christian missions have been a 

 powerful agency in the spread of 

 education, and in promoting phy 

 sical and social welfare. In China 

 and in the Turkish Empire mis- 

 sionary schools and colleges have 

 been the chief means of spreading 

 western knowledge, and have 

 exerted a far-reaching influence on 

 the national life. 



In India nearly one-quarter of 

 the pupils in secondary schools and 

 colleges are being taught in mis- 

 sionary institutions, and mission- 

 aries like Alexander Duff and 

 William Miller are outstanding 

 names in the history of Indian 

 education. Throughout the greater 

 part of the African continent native 

 education has been almost en- 

 tirely the work of Christian mis- 

 sionaries. They have also been 

 mainly responsible for reducing to 

 writing the numerous languages of 

 Africa, and many languages in 

 other parts of the world, and for 

 the preparation of dictionaries, 

 grammars, school-books, and litera- 

 ture hi these languages. The whole 

 Bible hss been translated into 

 about 140 different languages, and 

 there are more than 500 other lan- 

 guages, in which at least one com- 

 plete book of Scripture has been 

 printed. More than 1,000 doctors 

 and 500 nurses are included among 

 Protestant missionaries, and more 

 than 3,000,000 persons receive 

 treatment annually in mission 

 hospitals and dispensaries. 



Bibliography. Outline of a His- 

 tory of Protestant Missions, G. 

 Warneck, Eng. trans. G. Robson, 

 3rd ed. 1906; Reports of World 

 Missionary Conference, 9 vols. 1910 ; 

 Atlas Hierarchichus (Roman 

 Catholic), C. Streit. 1913; History 

 of Christian Missions, C. H. Robin- 

 son, 1915 ; Statistics of Christian 

 Missions, 1916; Encyclopedia of 

 Religion and Ethics (Article on 

 Missions), ed. J. Hastings, 1918; 



The Conversion of Europe, C. H. 

 Robinson, 1918 ; International Re- 

 view of MiMtons, pub. quarterly 

 since 1912. 



Mississippi. River of the 

 U.S.A. It risen in Little Elk Lake, 

 but I^ke Itaftca, Minnesota, 1,680 

 ft. alt., is generally regarded as its 

 source. In its earlier course, 

 marked by rapids and beautiful 

 falls, it winds through a swampy 

 country and forms many hikes. 

 At Minneapolis, the head of it- 

 navigation for large ships, are the 

 Falls of St. Anthony, where the 

 river makes a descent of 80 ft. in 

 half a mile. Nearly 80 m. below 

 St. Paul it expands into the large 

 and picturesque Pepin Lake, on 

 the Wisconsin border, and from 

 this point separates the states of 

 Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkan- 

 sas, and Louisiana on the W., and 

 Wisconsin. Illinois, Kentucky Ten- 

 nessee, and Mississippi on the E. 



Rapids are met with at Rock 

 Island, where the fall is 21 ft. 

 Ship-canals have been constructed 

 to help navigation. After a cir- 

 cuitous course, the Mississippi em- 

 bouches into the Gulf of Mexico 

 through many " bayous," the 

 chief being the Atchafalaya and 

 the Lafourche. Its length is about 

 2,460 m., but including its longest 

 tributary, the Missouri, it measures 

 4,200 m , and is thus the longest 

 river in the world ; at its junction 

 with the Missouri its breadth is 

 5,000 ft, and below New Orleans 

 2,475 ft. It receives many large 

 tributaries, the more important 

 being the Minnesota, Des Monies, 

 Missouri, Arkansas, and Red from 

 the W., and the Wisconsin, Illin- 

 ois, Ohio, and Big Black from the 

 E Among the important towns 

 on its banks are .Minneapolis, St. 

 Paul, Dubuque, Moline, Rock 

 Island, Burlington, Quincy, St 

 Louis, Memphis, Vicksburg, and 

 New Orleans. 



The waters of the Mississippi 

 have a gradual swell, which begins 

 in Feb. and continues till June. 

 They occasionally overflow the 

 embankments and inundate the 

 entire lower valley. The area 

 originally subject to inundation 

 was nearly 30,000 sq. m., but it 

 has been largely reduced by a 

 system of embankments (levees). 

 The construction of these levees 

 was begun early in the 18th cen- 

 tury, and in 1916 the system, on 

 which more than 27,000,000 has 

 been expended, comprised about 

 1 500 m. About 95 m. below New 

 Orleans the river divides into 

 several outlets, the principal being 

 the S.W. Pass, the S. Pass, and the 

 N. Pass. By means of jetties, 

 known as Eads jetties after the 

 designer, the navigability of the 



