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 MISSISSIPPI 65T amounting to $113,400, the income to be de- voted to the maintenance of an agricultural and mechanical department. It occupies the site of the institution formerly known as Oak- land college. The farm consists of 295 acres. There are an academic department (English;, a collegiate preparatory department of two years, a collegiate department of four years (with a classical and a scientific course), and spe- cial courses in agriculture and mechanical en- gineering of four years. Students are admitted without distinction of color. Tuition is free to students residing in Mississippi, and there are the same state scholarships as in the university of Mississippi. In Tougaloo university primary, intermediate, and normal departments, and a theological class,, have been organized. The classical department is not yet fully organized. | Workshops and a farm of 500 acres are con- j nected with the institution, which enable stu- dents to support themselves by labor wholly or in part. The number of students in the normal department in 1872-'3 was 85. Shaw university has preparatory, normal, collegiate, theological, and law departments. Tuition is free, except in the law department, the instruc- tors being paid by the freedmen's aid society. The other institutions mentioned in the table, besides a collegiate course, have preparatory and in some cases primary departments. The census of 1870 returns 2,788 libraries, contain- ing 488,482 volumes, of which 2,251, with 400,- 106 volumes, were private. The others were classified as follows: state, 1, with 7,000 vol- umes ; town, city, &c., 2, with 1,000 ; court and law, 3, with* 121 ; college, 1, with 5,000; Sabbath school, 508, with 69,825 ; church, 15, with 3,000. The number of newspapers and periodicals was 111, issuing 4,703,336 copies annually, and having a circulation of 71,868, viz. : 3 daily, circulation 2,300 ; 6 tri-weekly, 3.650; 3 semi- weekly, 2.400; 92 weekly, 60,- 018 ; 2 semi-monthly, 700 ; 5 monthly, 2,800. They were classified as follows : agricultural and horticultural, 3 ; benevolent and secret so- cieties, 1 ; commercial and financial, 4 ; illus- trated, literary, and miscellaneous. 2 ; politi- cal, 97; religious, 3 ; technical and professional, 1. The statistics of churches for 1870 are as follows: s j I DENOMINATIONS. i S Sf I] 1 1 1 Baptist 665 652 - 1770 7.325 I5S2.325 BMM Christian C-onere^ational.

10 1 38 10 800 8.650 MB 1,200 203.000 UJM Episcopal Lutheran Methodit 7-7 776 209s203 Presbvterian, repnlar. 1-1 51.700 RTM 1 " other 81 7- 19.400 MtMl Roman Catholic 27 -.7 8.250 165.S50 r"niver*alit 1 1 400 800 Onion 12 14 3,750 HUM Total 1.529 1.800 455.398 1-2,360,800 De Soto and his companions were the first Europeans who traversed this region. They made no settlements, and the death of the leader in 1542 put an end to 'the expedition. In 1682 La Salle descended the Mississippi, took formal possession of the adjacent coun- try for the king of France, and called it Loui- siana. In 1698 Iberville was authorized by the French king to colonize the regions of the lower Mississippi. He landed on Ship island, and in 1699 erected a fort at the bay of Biloxi, about 80 m. E. of the site of New Orleans. In 1716 Fort Rosalie was erected on the site of Natchez. The colonies grew slowly, and New Orleans, being founded soon after, attracted many of the settlers. In 1728, 1733, and 1752 the settlements suffered much from Indian hos- tilities. After the cession of the E. part of Louisiana (including what is now Mississippi) to Great Britain in 1763, and until the revolu- tionary war, immigration into the territory pro- ceeded slowly. The territory of Mississippi was formed by the act of congress of April 7, 1798, being bounded N. by a line drawn due E. from the mouth of the Yazoo river to the Chatta- hoochee, E. by the Chattahooche, S. by the 31st parallel, and W. by the Mississippi river. By the act of March 27, 1804, the region K of these limits and S. of Tennessee, which had been ceded to the United States by Georgia in 1802, was added, and Mississippi territory thus comprised the whole of the present states of Alabama and Mississippi N. of the 31st parallel. The region S. of that parallel, between the Pearl and Perdido rivers, was added by the act of May 14, 1812, having been taken possession of by the United States in 1811 as a part of the Louisiana purchase of 1803, though claimed by Spain. Alabama territory was formed from the E. portion by the act of March 3, 1817, and by a joint resolution of Dec. 10 of the same year Mississippi was admitted into the Union as a state. In 1832 a new constitution was adopted. At the presidential election in November, 1860, 3,283 votes were cast for Douglas, 40,797 for Breckenridge,- and 25,040 for BelL Immediately after the election of Lincoln became known, the governor called an extra session of the legislature, which met on Nov. 26, and provided for an election on Dec. 10 of delegates to a convention to assemble on Jan! 7, 1861. On Jan. 9 this-convention passed an ordinance of secession by a vote of 84 to 15, and on March 30 ratified the constitution of the Confederate States by a vote of 78 to 7, a resolution to submit it to a vote of the people having been rejected. The first move- ment of the federal troops in the state was the capture of Biloxi and the removal of a battery of two guns bv a force from Ship island, on Dec. 31, 1861. During 1862 the N. portion of the state was the theatre of opera- tions. After the battle of Shiloh the confed- erates retired to Corinth. The federal troops subsequently advanced in force under Gen. Halleck, the town was evacuated, and the fed-