an idle one. We ransacked a few Kaffir kraals some 400 yards from our camp, and some fellows cut up an old goat and boiled it, while I did the same to an old cockerel I had bowled over with a brick. At about 8 P. M. the train arrived with artillery, horses, more stores, and forage, so that we finished Christmas day with two hours' hard fatigue duty. Later, while changing sentry, I saw a black thing in the bush, and let go with the butt-end of my carbine. It proved to be an elderly nigger who had come to look round. We got out of him that the natives were 3,000 strong, but only 600 were armed with rifles. Our men numbered 170.

* * * On Saturday we marched off soon after five. We were some two miles on our journey, and the police were in the act of extending on the left flank when bang, bang, whiz, whiz, ping, ping all round us. We extended before the next volley. Never a nigger either volley. Two horses shot, gun-carriage hit, and dust flying up all round. At our first volley they must have retired some 300 yards, as we gradually advanced that distance before getting among their bullets again. This time two D. F. H. officers knocked over, Tennant and Bradie, and the non-coms had to take their * * Then we had a merry place. * five minutes. They did their best to pop us, and we could not see one. A few big shot cleared them out of the scrub, and they took to a sluite and the kopjes, where they fired on us all day. In the evening the dead-tired men had to bury the niggers who had fallen on a kopje we meant to camp on, and then carry all the stores and ammunition on to the top.

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"Early on Sunday morning we rushed sluites and kopjes one after another and had we come across any force or number it would have been a bad go. But Major Peakman knew that 250 men, under Colonel Harris, had arrived. We got to the store first. * * In the garden we found newly turned-over graves, and saw a foot sticking out of them. Alphonse Blum, Frederick Waldt, and Bolton, son of a Kendal solicitor, all battered to death and assegaied in the throat, face, and body. The C. C. read the funeral service with military honors."

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Nyassaland. The expedition dispatched for the punishment of Chief Chikusi (Vol. 6, p. 949) of the Angoni Zulu tribe in south Nyassaland, quickly executed its mission. Captain Stewart left Zomba October 12, with 58 Sikhs and 200 native troops, and a seven-pounder mountain gun. They reached Chikusi's kraal October 21. At daybreak the "rebels" opened fire from behind cover, the troops charged and the Angoni fled. Chikusi's town was burnt, and Chikusi himself taken prisoner. He was put on trial on charges of murder and raiding, and was shot to death on conviction. A subordinate chief of the Angoni,

Odete, was attacked in his stronghold about the same time and defeated with severe loss; Odete was sentenced to imprisonment in one of the company's strong places. While Chikusi was on the warpath, 300 refugees from his murderous forays were saved by the presence of mind of a missionary. The missionary hid the fugitives in underground chambers designed for storage of grain and for other purposes. When Chikusi demanded their surrender the missionary replied:

"I shall not attempt to defend anybody outside my houses because I cannot do so, but the interior of my house is sacred and I defy you to cross the threshold."

Chikusi then turned away and applied himself to the pursuit of the fugitives.

The outcome of these expeditions is regarded in England as decisive of peace and tranquillity in Nyassaland. The tribes less warlike than the Angoni will argue that since that fierce tribe was unable to withstand a very small force of Sikhs and native soldiers, prudence counsels submission to the rule of the white man.

The fine and fruitful country which the English are slowly colonizing has a bright future before it: its geographical position is eminently favorable, being midway between Charterland and the Uganda protectorate. Extensive territories with Blantyre as centre, will, it is believed, prove suitable for British settlement; and it is not improbable that people now living may see a lusty colony of Englishmen exercising supremacy in Central Africa.

Nupé Campaign. A campaign short, sharp, and decisive was fought out in Nigeria in February, the forces of the Royal Niger Company having broken the power of the emir of Nupé, a potentate of renown in those parts. The company's army of 400 Housa troops led by English officers, with Maxim guns, left Lokoja (confluence of the Niger and the Binué) early in January, marched to Sura, thence to Kabba, which was hastily evacuated by the emir's troops; finally reached the emir's capital, Bida, where the emir was determined to offer a stubborn resistance. The company's flying column began to bombard the royal palace January 27; a day or two later the town was carried by assault at the cost of one British officer killed. The emir and most of his army made their escape. to Ilorin. But that place soon fell into the hands of the British; and the emir with four war chiefs made submission to the company's government. The euir was reinstated in office, and signed a treaty giving to the company

complete power over the country. The war chiefs were profoundly impressed by the marvellous perfection of the Europeans' instruments of destruction, by which in two days' fighting 200 of their invincible horsemen were slain. By decree of the governor of Nigeria, slavery in that territory will be abolished on the anniversary, this year, of Queen Victoria's accession to the British throne.

Egypt and the Soudan.-The purpose of the British government to make further advance toward subjugation of the fanatic hordes of the Soudan, was announced in parliament by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, chancellor of the exchequer, February 5.

The occupation of Egypt, he declared, had been prolonged because France had not allowed the British to have as free a hand as necessary. Great Britain intended to occupy the Nile land until those countries were able to do without her. Moreover it would be necessary to reconsider the powers and authority of the Egyptian mixed tribunals, and to decide whether they should be allowed to interfere in such affairs as the cost of the Anglo-Egyptian expedition of 1896.

As the speech was no veiled menace to France and other powers, Sir William Harcourt leader of the opposition, expressed regret at "the unwise language and the gratuitous provocation of the powers" which characterized Sir Michael's remarks.

Mr. George N. Curzon, under foreign secretary, sought to minimize the effect of Sir Michael's language, and denied that it was in any way intended as a menace to France. Mr. Henry M. Stanley, the African explorer, unionist member for North Lambeth, said that Great Britain was only doing in Egypt what Russia was doing in Siberia and France was doing between the Senegal and the Niger rivers in Africa.

After some further discussion the resolution submitted by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach was adopted by a vote of 169

to 57.

The speech, when reported in Paris, called forth pas sionate comment from the French press.

The Journal declared: "The insolent challenge thrown to France and Russia ought to be taken up." The Autorité: "England dis dains and defies France and Russia, and will continue to do so until both of those powers resort to the sword." The Libre Parole: “The reply to England's challenge must be action, not mere words."

It is a curious coincidence that on the very day that those words of defiance from France were published in London, the news was given out, of the intended construc tion of a system of fortifications for the defense of the British metropolis.

The plan dates as far back as the time of the Duke of Wellington, but has been revived by Lord Wolseley and other military authori ties, and adapted to the changes of modern warfare. The Military Works bill provides for the construction of a chain of forts from the Southern Downs to the heights south of London, on which the Crystal Palace is a conspicuous object. The scheme includes barracks and other military works. The cost, which will be something formidable for the treasury to face, will be met by advances from the consolidated fund, to be repaid in instalments extending over twenty years.

Liquor Traffic.-This destructive trade has grown to appalling magnitude on the west coast.

In one year, 1893-4, the importations of strong drink into the territories of the Niger Protectorate alone rose from $680,000 to $1,170,000. The whole population of many a town is given over to drunkenness; and nearly one-half of the produce of the country, when brought to market, is bartered for liquor. The French agent, Captain Lugard, finds the evil rampant everywhere in the neighborhood of the coast. In Portuguese West Africa a form of slavery exists, the contract system, under which men, women, and children are bought for liquor in the interior and brought down to the coast in gangs: as in the case of the regular slave dealers' razzias, the larger number of the unfortunates perish on the way. The survivors are shipped to the coffee plantations oversea, of course as hired and contracted laborers, not as chattels. On shipboard they are crowded like cattle. Their wages are two cents a day, and out of that pittance they must feed and clothe themselves. Throughout western Central Africa the servile classes constitute three degrees: (1) Those belonging to "the crown," who, with their descendants, are held as the property of each successive ruler; these do not become free. (2) Domestic slaves born in the household, and so treated as to make it almost impossible for a foreigner to distinguish which are the slaves and which the freeborn children. (3) Chattels, the slaves of trade, sold to contractors.

The Philafrican Liberators' League is an association formed for these ends:

1. To work for the extinction of the African slave trade, and of slavery itself, by founding, in Africa, settlements of liberated slaves, in accordance with the Brussels Act, which took effect on April 2, 1892.

2. To gather and diffuse authentic information regarding African slavery.

3. To promote the practical solution, in accordance with Christian principles, of Africa's social problems, such as the rum traffic, polygamy, witchcraft, and ordeals, contract labor, and native rights.

Its headquarters are in the United Charities Building, New York city. L. T. Chamberlain is president; Heli Chatelain, founder of the association, is general secretary; and Thomas L. James, treasurer.

SCIENCE.

Geographical Exploration.-At the annual meeting of the American Geographical Society in New York city, January 12, the Cullum geographical medal was awarded to Lieutenant R. E. Peary, U. S. N., for his brilliant arctic explorations. Lieutenant Peary outlined the proposals of his new plan for further arctic research, which received not only the cordial approval of the society but the promise of financial support.

According to Lieutenant Peary, recent explorations (of Nansen, Jackson, and himself) have shown that there is only one practicable route to the pole-namely, through Smith's sound and along the northwest coast of Greenland. With depots of provisions established at intervals northward from the latitude of Independence bay, the pole, he thinks, can be reached and the whole polar sea explored at comparatively small cost and without risk to life or health.

"My plan," says Lieutenant Peary, "is to raise a fund sufficient to insure the continuation of the work of exploration for ten years if necessary, say $150,000, and deposit it in a trust company, purchase a ship, give her a minimum crew, load with concentrated provisions, proceed to Whale sound, take on board several picked families of my faithful Eskimos, with their tents, canoes, dogs, etc., force a way through Robeson channel to Sherard Osborn fjord or further, and land people and stores, then send the ship back.

"As soon as the freezing of the ice in the great fjords of the northwest coast would permit sledge travel, the work of advancing supplies northeastward along the coast would be commenced, taking comparatively short stages and light loads, so that the trips could be quickly made. As soon as the supplies had been advanced the first stage, the party itself would move forward, leaving a cache behind. * * *

Early spring should find the party and the bulk of its supplies located at the northern terminus of the North Greenland archipelago, probably not far from the eighty-fifth parallel, with caches behind it at each prominent headland.

From this point, when the proper time came, with picked dogs, the lightest possible equipment and two of the best of the Eskimos, the dash for the pole would be attempted, with strong probabilities of a successful termination.

"Should the first season be unfavorable as regards ice conditions, it could be devoted to a detailed survey of the archipelago itself and a reconnaisance of the east coast as far south as possible; and the northern journey reserved for the following season or the next.

"Each succeeding summer the ship would attempt to establish communication with the party's base, succeeding probably every other year at first, then, with increasing experience, every year, and keep up its supply of food, dogs, and Eskimos until the objects of the expedition were accomplished.

Retreat

"Should the ship be unsuccessful in the passage of Robeson channel the first year, the party should land at Hayes's sound and devote the first year to explorations of that unknown region. from the colony at Sherard Osborn fjord would always be practicable across the inland ice to Whale sound.

Vol. 7.-15.

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