THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Medical Missions, the (German) Sudan Pioneer Mission, and the (German) Deaconesses of Kaiserswerth (1S57). The United Presbyterian Mission is the largest of these missions, occupying stations throughout the Nile Valley and in the Sudan. All together these missions report 166 stations and outstations, 154 missionaries, with 515 native workers, 171 schools, with over 14,000 pupils and students, ten hospitals and dispensaries, two publishing houses, and about 26,000 adherents. Under British control religious liberty is more or less assured. As a consequence Mohammedans are also included in small numbers among the mission converts. The Church Missionary Society's mission publishes a weekly paper in Arabic and English expressly for Mohammedans. The Bible in Arabic, translated and printed at the expense of the American Bible Society in Beirut, is circulated throughout Egpyt, Arabic being the language of the people. See Egypt.
Eritrea: An Italian possession in Africa extending 670 miles along the coast of the Red Sea and inland to Abyssinia and the Egyptian Sudan. Area about 85,500 sq. miles; population (estimated) 450,000, of whom about 3,000 are Europeans. The capital is Asmara. The native population of Eritrea is chiefly nomadic. In religion more than 100,000 may be reckoned Mohammedans; 17,000, Roman Catholic; 12,000, of the Eastern Churches; 1,000, Protestants; and 500, Jews. The remainder of the population is pagan, belonging to different races. Roman Catholic missionaries have made this region a basis of operations in Abyssinia for nearly three centuries, having been expelled from Abyssinia proper a number of times. Their central establishments are now at Massowah (Massaua) and Keran, where they have a hospital, schools, and two or three orphanages. Protestant missions in Eritrea also directed toward the Abyssinian population are carried on by the Swedish National Society. They have 10 stations on the borders of Tigre' and in the province formerly known as Bogos with about 15 schools, a hospital, a dispensary, and a small but growing band of evangelical Christians. The Swedish missions have done good service in securing a translation of the Bible into the Galla language (1898), and through trained native workers have succeeded in establishing themselves among the Galla people in the south of Abyssinia.
French Guinea: A territory forming a part of the newly organized administrative region known as French West Africa. It lies on the coast between Portuguese Guinea and the British colony of Sierra Leone, extending inland some 400 miles to the district of Senegambia and the Niger. Area about 95,000 sq. miles; population estimated at 2,200,000. About 1,000,000 are Mohammedans; more than 1,000,000 are pagans; 1,000 are Roman Catholics, and 500 are Protestants. The capital is Konakry; from which place a railway is now under construction to the Niger River. French colonization in this district began as long ago as 1685, but its development has only been of recent date (1843). The government is undertaking in this, as in all other parts of French West Africa, to introduce
a uniform system of education. This, if carried out, will prove of inestimable advantage to the population. The Roman Catholic mission in French Guinea is carried on by the Lyons Congregations of the Holy Ghost and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. There are about 10 missionaries with 12 schools. A Protestant missionary enterprise, following one commenced in 1804 by the Church Missionary Society, is carried on in the Rio Pongas region by West Indian Christians aided by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The missionaries are colored men from the West Indies specially chosen for this work, which has been undertaken with the thought of making amends to Africa for the wrongs inflicted upon its people by England and her colonies. The New Testament has been translated into the Susu language (1858).
French Kongo: A French colonial possession which occupies the west coast of Africa between the Spanish possessions of the Rio Muni on the borders of the Kongo Independent State and Kamerun, and which extends inland to Lake Chad. The French occupation began in 1841 in a small colony on the Gabun River. Its extension to the Kongo River followed the explorations of De Brazza, between 1875 and 1880. Area about 450,- 000 sq. miles; population estimated at from 8,000,- 000 upward. Capital, Libreville on the Gabun. Adjoining this territory in the Lake Chad region, Bagirmi, comprising some 20,000 sq. miles, and Wadai, with 170,000 sq. miles, in 1903 submitted to the French control. These two territories are strongly Mohammedan. French Kongo proper has about 3,500,000 Mohammedans in its northern sections, the remainder of the people being pagans of the usual African type. In race the people of the coast are not of the Bantu stock found in the interior.
Roman Catholic missions are carried on by the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Mary and the Algerian missionary order. The ecclesiastical center is Santa Maria on the Gabun, where is the vicariate, erected in 1842 under the name, at first, of " the apostolic vicariate of both Guineas." In the Roman Catholic mission there are about fifty priests and about thirty schools with about 5,000 adherents. Protestant missions were established in 1S42 by missionaries of the American Board. The mission was afterward transferred to the American Presbyterian Board (North), and later for political reasons the interior stations were passed over to the French missionaries of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society. Together these two missions have 23 missionaries and about 1,200 adherents. The languages having been reduced to writing by missionaries, the Bible has been translated into Mpongwe (1850-74) and Benga (1858-88), and various parts have been translated into Dikele, Fang (also called by the French Pahouin), Bulu, and Galwa.
Gambia: A British colony and protectorate lying on both sides of the Gambia River, extending some 250 miles inland from its mouth and closely hemmed in by the French West African territory. The colony was commenced in 1662. Area, estimated (1903), 3,061 sq. miles; population, estimated