best sympathies of everyone, and if realised will speedily produce wonderful changes in the very heart of Africa,—changes, however, which will not all prove to be unmitigated blessings, as the facilities which will be afforded for the introduction of strong drink will undoubtedly result in much evil.
At the present time there are seven missionary organizations at work on the Congo: these are represented by about seventy-five missionaries, occupying twenty stations. Three of these organizations are Roman Catholic, and four are Evangelical. The French Society, Du Sainte Esprit, has two stations on the lower river,—one in the cataract region, and one on the upper river, about a hundred miles beyond Stanley Pool. The Portuguese Mission has a station on the lower river, and one at Salvador. The Algerian Mission, under the direction of Cardinal Lavigerie, has one station on the upper river. At these various stations there are some seventeen or twenty missionaries.
Of the fifty-five Evangelical missionaries, five or six belong to the Swedish Missionary Society, which has one station in the cataract region, nine belong to Bishop Taylor’s (American Methodist Episcopal) Mission at Stanley Pool, and the remaining forty or so are about equally divided between the American and English Baptists—the former possessing six stations, and the latter five. These two Societies also possess valuable auxiliaries in the shape of steamers on the upper river, which furnish ready access to vast populations scattered over ten degrees both of latitude and longitude.
Bishop Taylor’s Mission also possesses a steamer larger than either of the others; but as yet it is not at its destination, being on its way up country past the cataracts, in the shape of plates, frames, and portions of machinery, which will have to be put together at the Pool.
Besides these seven distinct enterprises, and that of the London Missionary Society, which has reached from the east coast the far-away