14 



AFKICA. 



hanged late in October for complicity in the 

 massacre, among whom were the Kotwal of 

 Cabool, the head of the city mollahs, and two 

 generals, one of royal blood ; and on the 16th 

 of November forty-nine Afghans had been 

 hanged for complicity in the massacre. A mili- 

 tary demonstration was made from Kuram up 

 the Chakmaiii Valley, which resulted in the dis- 

 persion of the hostile bands. In the last days 

 of October, by order of the Viceroy of India, 

 General Roberts issued a proclamation stating 

 that, in consequence of the abdication of the 

 Ameer and the outrage at the British residency, 

 the British Government had been compelled to 

 occupy Cabool and other parts of Afghanistan. 



AFRICA. The area, according to Behm 

 and Wagner (" Bevolkerung der Erde," vol. 

 v., Gotha, 1878), is 10,941,000 square miles, 

 and the population 205,219,500. For the area 

 and population of the divisions and subdivi- 

 sions, see "Annual Cyclopaedia " for 1878. 



It is believed that about one half of the pop- 

 ulation of Africa are Mohammedans. After 

 being for many centuries the principal religion 

 of the northern and northeastern coast, Mo- 

 hammedanism has made more recently great 

 progress in the interior of Africa, and has ad- 

 vanced westward as far as Liberia. The en- 

 tire Christian population of Africa does not 

 exceed 7,000,000. About one half of these 

 belong to the Abyssinian and Coptic Churches, 

 and are directly descended from the Christian 

 Church of the first centuries. Since the be- 

 ginning of the maritime discoveries in the fif- 

 teenth century, the Portuguese and Spaniards 

 have established their sovereignty over large 

 tracts of land, and the population has gradually 

 become connected with the Roman Catholic 

 Church. In the Portuguese possessions on 

 the continent of Africa, in Congo, Angola, and 

 Mozambique, the carelessness of the Portu- 

 guese Government has allowed the missions to 

 fall to ruin, and the connection of the native 

 population with the Catholic Church to become 

 merely nominal, being reduced to the retention 

 of some usages and ceremonies. Large num- 

 bers of the natives continue, however, to re- 

 gard themselves as Catholics, and still figure in 

 the statistical accounts of the Church ; and, in 

 view of the greater interest which the Portu- 

 guese Government begins to show in its colo- 

 nies, it is believed that ere long the entire 

 population of the Portuguese colonies, no less 

 than that of the Spanish, will be in real com- 

 munion with the Catholic Church. The con- 

 quest of Algeria in modern times has opened 

 to the same Church a new and large missionary 

 field in Northern Africa, in which already a 

 considerable population of European descent, 

 with a small number of native converts, prom- 

 ise for the future an important addition to its 

 territory. Egypt and Tunis have received large 

 additions to their Catholic population by the 

 immigration of Catholics from Italy and other 

 countries of Southwestern Europe. The Ro- 

 man Catholics under British rule live chiefly 



in the island of Mauritius, which formerly be- 

 longed to France, and still is predominantly 

 Catholic. 



The Protestant missions in Africa are classi- 

 fied as West African, South African, and East 

 African missions. In West Africa, missions 

 are carried on in Gambia, Pongas, Sierra Le- 

 one, Mendi, Liberia, the Gold Coast country, 

 Yoruba, Old Calabar, the Cameroons, the Ga- 

 boon, Corisco, and the Sherbro country, by 

 seven American, nine English, and three Con- 

 tinental societies. They include, according to 

 the reports for 1878 and 1879, so far as they 

 are completed, 386 missionaries and assistants, 

 and 25,636 members of the Church. The South 

 African missions are planted among the Da- 

 maras, in Namaqualand, the Cape Colony, the 

 Transvaal, Caffraria, Natal, and Zoolooland, 

 and are under the control of one American, six 

 British, and nine Continental (including the 

 Moravian, Waldensian, French, German, Fin- 

 nish, and Scandinavian Lutheran) societies, 

 and the societies of the colonial churches. 

 They embrace, so far as reports are at hand, 

 637 missionaries and assistants, and 60,000 

 communicants. The principal East African 

 missions are carried on by the societies of the 

 Church of England and the United Methodist 

 Free Churches. Several societies have estab- 

 lished missions in Abyssinia, chiefly among 

 the Jews, and in Algeria; and five societies 

 have begun missions since 1875 in the interior, 

 on the great lakes and the Congo River, em- 

 ploying, altogether between thirty and forty 

 laborers, but have not yet made any reports 

 of converts. Denominationally, the working 

 forces and churches of the Western and South- 

 ern African missions are related as follows : 

 Baptist, 22 missionaries and assistants, 209 

 members ; Congregational, 26 ministers, 670 

 members ; Episcopal and Anglican, 149 minis- 

 ters, 6,878 members (including some white 

 colonists in South Africa) ; American Luther- 

 an, 1 minister, 40 members ; Methodist, 190 

 ministers, 36,751 members ; Moravian, 65 min- 

 isters, 10,386 adherents ; Presbyterian, 33 min^ 

 isters, 3,732 members ; United Brethren, 2 

 ministers, 70 members; Lady Huntingdon's 

 Connection, 60 preachers, exhorters, and teach- 

 ers ; Continental societies (French, Swiss, Ger- 

 man, Finnish, and Scandinavian Lutheran and 

 Reformed), 318 ministers, 31,518 members. 

 The Anglican missions in Sierra Leone have 

 been turned over to the native Episcopal 

 church of the colony, which receives a grant 

 of 500 a year from the Church Missionary 

 Society. This church has 14 clergymen, 4,874 

 communicants, and 14,000 native Christian 

 adherents, with 4,037 scholars. The Reformed 

 Dutch Church of South Africa includes 50 

 ministers, 113 congregations, and 220,000 souls. 

 In Madagascar, the London (Congregational) 

 Missionary Society has 414 European and na- 

 tive preachers, with 3,804 other native assist- 

 ants, 67,729 members, and 233,188 adherents ; 

 the Anglican missions have 13 ministers and 



