“We learned last spring from Gordon Pacha, the late Governor-general of the Soudan, that it would be necessary to secure certain privileges from the Egyptian Government, assuring protection to the missionaries, the privilege of navigating the Upper Nile, etc. This we trust may be accomplished in part, at least, by correspondence, upon which we can enter directly. Meanwhile, inasmuch as the best season for starting from Cairo and the mouth of the Sobat commences about the first of October, we desire Mr. Ladd and a physician to be on the ground at that time, to take advantage of the favorable weather of the latter part of autumn and the early winter, to visit the territory it is proposed to occupy, and determine about the location, and the men and facilities needful in order to insure the success of our new work. “We are seeking prayerfully and most earnestly under God, to lay enduring foundations, and to build up a work which may extend over the utterly destitute region of country, included in the boundaries, marked out, we believe, so wisely and prayerfully by yourself. We now most cheerfully, and relying upon God hopefully, are ready to undertake the great work you have suggested to us.” * * * * * GROWTH OF NEGRO POPULATION IN THE SOUTH. The negro most perversely and persistently refuses to do what has been prophesied of him, or to conform to the general rules enumerated as applicable to him. The census reports for 1880 reveal the last and most striking phase of this, perversity, as may be seen in the following table taken from the _New York Herald_, comparing the colored population of the old slave States, except Texas, in 1870, with that of 1880: STATES. 1870. 1880. Alabama 475,510 600,141 Arkansas 122,169 210,622 Delaware 22,794 26,456 Florida 91,689 125,262 Georgia 545,142 724,654 Kentucky 222,210 271,462 Louisiana 364,210 483,898 Maryland 175,391 209,896 Mississippi 444,201 652,221 Missouri 118,071 145,046 North Carolina 391,650 531,316 South Carolina 415,814 604,325 Tennessee 322,331 402,991 Virginia 512,841 631,756 West Virginia 17,980 25,729 The increase in these States during this decade has been more than 33 per cent., and at the same rate will give us at the beginning of the next century more than ten millions of negroes in these States alone. During the same time, the per cent. of increase in the white population has been less than 28 per cent., which will give something over eighteen millions as their total white population in 1900.