—There is now an unbroken chain of communication by steam from England to the northern end of Lake Nyassa in Central Africa, excepting seventy miles of the Murchison Cataracts in the Shire River; and it is ascertained that Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika are but 130 miles apart, instead of 250. —The London _Daily Telegraph_ says: Among many interesting particulars of discoveries brought from Africa by the gallant Portuguese explorer, Major Serpa Pinto, none is more absorbing than his story of the white people encountered between the rivers Cubango and Cuando. Serpa Pinto found in these districts a tribe absolutely European in tint, yet nowise of the Albino type, for the hair was black and woolly. He described them as uglier than the plainest negroes, and lower in civilization than any race met with, having receding foreheads, slanting eyes like the Chinese, prominent cheek-bones, and hanging lower lips. The appearance fails to do much credit to the white men whom they resemble. Who, then, and whence, are these people, so strangely recalling the tribe spoken of by Mr. Stanley between the equatorial lakes? —Late news from Bishop Crowther’s mission, on the Niger River, Africa, states that one of the chiefs, Captain Hart, who had been most active at Bonny in the persecution of Christian converts, is dead. On his death-bed he commanded that all his idols be destroyed, warning his followers to have nothing more to do with idol worship. The next day after his death the heathen fell upon the collection of idols with a will. Archdeacon Crowther writes: “Early this morning they began to destroy the jujus. The work of destruction is great. The poor gods and goddesses are having very hard times in late Captain Hart’s quarters now. They are handled in a most unceremonious and rough manner. Two canoe-loads, it is said, have found their resting-place in the deepest part of the river, and those that float and will not sink are broken into ever so many pieces. Floating wrecks of idols made and worshiped since the days of Captain Hart’s father are to be seen dotted all over the creek to the river in the shipping. Imprecations and abuses have taken the place of worship.” Bishop Crowther reports that, after a long season at Bonny, in which, owing to persecution, there were no converts, eight persons have been baptized. —Dr. John Kirk, the British Consul-General at Zanzibar, Africa, writes that Keith Johnson, the leader of the expedition to explore the head of Lake Nyassa, died of dysentery on the 27th of June, at Berobero, 130 miles inland from Dar-es-Salaam. The expedition will be continued by Mr. Thomson, the scientific assistant of Mr. Johnson. —Mr. John S. Hartland reports his arrival at Bonny, and Mr. W. H. Bentley at Sierra Leone, on the West Coast of Africa. They are both on their way to the English Baptist Mission on the Congo or Livingstone River. * * * * * The Indians.