ALABA IS

[s. 29] : The northernmost group (comas the Torres Is.), of the New He brides Islands. The Me lanes i an Mi ion has kept teachers in the Torres Islands since 1878. monly known ALASKA: The northwestern corner of North America, formerly known as Ru ian America, and purchased by the United States in 1867 for $7,200,000. It embraces all of the N. American continent W. of the 141st meridian of W. longitude, together with a narrow strip of land between the Pacific ocean and the British dominions, and also all islands near its coast, as well as the Aleutian archipelago. Including islands, its area is 590,883 miles; an area about equal to that of the Northern States east of the Mi i ippi, with the addition of the Virginias, Kentucky and Tenne ee. The exact eastward bounds of the southern coast strip of Alaska are The population (1900) is 63,592, still unsettled. The of whom 25,000 are Indians and Eskimos. white population is rapidly increasing in conse- Aleiipo quence of the discovery of several very rich deposits of gold in the western and central part The native tribes of Alaska of the country. pagans, mostly worshipers of departed are spirits, cruel in their rites, and superstitiously subservient to their medicine men or religious The climate of Alaska in its southern leaders. coast regions and in its islands is much le severe than in the same latitude on the eastern On the central plateau, coast of the continent. 600 miles long from east to west an-d 400 miles wide from north to south, the summers are quite Because hot, altho the winters are very cold. of the hot summers the cereals and many vegetables of the temperate zone can be grown, and Alaska may yet prove to be an agricultural Acce to the region with a large population. interior of the country is facilitated during the summer by the Yukon River, which is one of the great rivers of the continent, being navigable for 1,500 miles. The Ru ian (Greek orthodox) Church had opened mi ions among the Aleutian islanders and at one or two points on the mainland before the ce ion of Alaska to the United States, and had made some converts. Since the country became a dependency of the United States, and the various Protestant denominations Roman Catholic Church have established misThe Protestant sion stations in various places. mi ions in Alaska have about 20 stations, occupied by 118 mi ionaries and 13 native workers, men and women, with places of worship, schools and hospitals. These mi ions are maintained by the Presbyterian Home Mi ionary Society, the Protestant Episcopal Domestic and Foreign Mi ionary Board, the Moravian Church, the Friends’, the Methodist Episcopal, the Baptist, the Congregational, and the Luther an Churches (Swedish and also Norwegian), the American Mi ionary A ociation and some smaller societies. Some of the mi ion stations occupied are within the Arctic circle, where daylight in winter is a sunle sort of twilight of but three hours duration. One station (Point Barrow), on the northernmost point of the territory, is reached by reindeer post. A considerable number of Indians and Eskimos have been drawn under the influence In the southern part of the of these mi ions. country, men engaged in the liquor traffic seduce and destroy a certain number of the simple-minded natives. But in all the stations industrial education, especially education, has been made an ally of religion in lifting the ideals and enriching the lives of the people. The total of Protestant Christian natives is (1900) 7,600 souls. Alaska: Government Printing Office, Washinffton, 1900; Mi ionary Review of the World, Vol. XI, p. .513; Vol. XII, 500; Vol. XIV, pp. 481, 499;.lacks on {S.) Alaska and Mi ions on the North Pacific Coast, New York, 1880; Education in Alaska, Wafihin^iori, 1^9G; Knapp (F)., and p. Childe (R. L.), Thlinkets of S. E. Alasfca, ChicaRo, 1897; and others of Harriman Expedition, (.J.), Alaska, 2 vols.. 1901. BurrouEhs ALBANIA: The region called Albania includes the two provinces of Jann in a and Skodra (Scutari) in European Turkey, stretching along the eastern shore of the Adriatic from 39° to 43° north latitude, and from 18° 24’ to 21° 48’ east longitude. length is about 300 miles from Its extreme Monte negro to the Gulf of Arta and the frontiers of Greece, while its breadth varies from 50 to 100 miles, from the Adriatic to an irregular line on the east, generally following lofty mountain IZ ranges. It is a mountainous region throughout, being traversed by two or three elevated ranges which run parallel, in general, to the shore of It is also well watered,, the Adriatic Sea. Its large altho its rivers are not navigable. lakes of Jannina, Castor i a, Ochrida, and Scutari impart a peculiar interest to the country. The earliest authentic notices of the country occur in connection with the Greek colonies of Epidamnus, or Dyrrachium (now Durazzo), the ancient port of transit from Brundusium (Brindisi) and Epidaurus, in Dalmatia, to which we may add the later colony of Jannina, which seems, to have grown up almost unnoticed, not far from the ancient Oracle of Dodona, on the western shore of the lake of the same name. The name Albania, first applied to this country in 1079, originated from Elba an, the seat of the tribe of Albani in the center of the land. Anciently the region from Preves a to the mouth of the Voyu a was called Epirus, and was considered more or le as a province of Greece, while all north of Voyu a was known as lUyricum. Hence we may conclude that the Apostle Paul himself preached the Gospel in Albania,, when he tells us (Rom. 15: 19), that “from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ.” Albania is the least civilized of all the provinces of Turkey. Except at rare and short intervals, under honest and energetic Pashas, brigandage, with its cruel murders and atrocities, may be said to be an almost constant feature of the country; so much so, that the districts of Dibra, Jakova, Ipek have long been inacce ible to outsiders, while the Mirdites, southeast of Scutari, retain even now a barbarous semi-independence, to guard which all strangers are jealously excluded. The soil is fertile, and in several districts is well cultivated; but much of it lies waste, partly from defective methods of agriculture, but also from the* insecurity of life and property in eon sequence of the bands of robbers that so frequently infest the country and commit the most frightful exce es. It is difficult to form any reliable estimate of the population, but probably 2,000,000 may not be far from the truth. There is no mi ionary station in Albania. The BFBS has colporteurs and book depots at points, and the ABCFM has native various workers who are Albanians teaching one or two schools in the borderland between Albania and Macedonia. The Balkan Peninsula, Laveleye (E. A.), 2 vols., London, 1887. 30