[3117]
Today, now that I have in front of our Institute on the Nile the two large boats which are going to take my apostolic caravan to the edge of the desert, I am pleased to send you some news as well as the Accounts for 1872 and the Budget for 1873.
[3118]
The Egyptian troops stationed on the Abyssinian border have taken all the camels in the desert and the health authorities sent by the Khedive to Nubia for the alleged cholera epidemic have cordoned off the area of the Tropic and Thebes and have also taken the boats, so that our great caravan is lacking in both camels and boats for its journey which is to last three months.
Having sent two missionaries and four brothers to Khartoum on 26th November, they managed to find camels at Korosko after waiting 20 days and now they are heading for Khartoum. By the time you receive this letter, I will have left Cairo with more than 30 people, men and women. It is the first time that Sisters and women of the Gospel sail on the Nile in Upper Egypt and Nubia and cross the desert, but this has required great prudence and particular preparations.

[3119]
In my letter of last 28th July I explained to you the great good you have done to the largest and most difficult Mission in the world, by giving me, with the greatest charity and rapidity, the wonderful sum of 45,000 francs. I cannot stop thanking the Propagation of the Faith which has enabled me to undertake the Mission. Without this it would have been impossible for me.
[3120]
It is in the first year that sacrifices are necessary. This is why the Propagation of the Faith is the only solid association capable of giving birth to the Mission in Central Africa. The Society in Vienna, which once gave this Mission so much
money, has had to gather together all its existing funds collected over many years to be able to give me 6,590 francs. The others are small associations in the area.
I implore you therefore to redouble your generous efforts so as to give me great help this year, half of which we shall be passing on the sand, on boats, etc. exposed beneath the vault of heaven but under God’s protection.

[3121]
From the enclosed accounts you will be able to see the state this Mission is in. It can be compared to no other Missions, as I told you in my letter of 5th June from Rome. Here, everything needs to be done, everything needs to be paid for, even people need to be bought in the beginning. Great sacrifices have to be made, but in a few years the Association for the Propagation of the Faith will have the joy of seeing the light of the Gospel shine forth among the tribes of Central Africa, where over one hundred million infidels are asking for salvation.
[3122]
At the moment I am asking you for two graces in this month of January:
1. To send Mother Emilie Julien, Superior General of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition in Marseilles the sum of 5,000 francs as partial payment of the debt of 8,000 francs I have with her.
2. To send me, as part of the amount due for 1873, the sum of 5,000 francs because with so many people on a three-month journey, I would not like to be stranded in the desert for lack of money.

[3123]
All this I ask you for this month. Last week I received from Mgr Ciurcia a letter of credit for 2,400 francs, for which I am infinitely grateful.
Here is the address of my representative in Egypt to whom you can send the money and letters for me:

Don Bartolomeo Rolleri
Apostolic Missionary and Superior of the Institutes
for Africans in Cairo (Egypt)

[3124]
He will change the letters of credit for me and convey the money to me in Khartoum and Kordofan through the Diwan of Cairo. The letters and correspondence will reach me through the Austrian consul in Khartoum.
Within this week I shall send you a photograph of the caravan that is to leave in a few days’ time under my leadership. I will also send you a report by Carcereri which I received from Kordofan for the Missions Catholiques and which Laverrière is to receive.
Please accept, Monsieur le Président, the homage of my deepest veneration and eternal gratitude with which I have the honour to remain
Your most devoted servant

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


Translated from French.

[3125]
Here at last, he said, is the moment we have so longed for, you and I, brothers and sisters in Christ, in which we are going to be able to achieve what has long been our heart’s desire. I thank you for the patience with which you have awaited me during my long absence, for the selflessness with which you have endured so many privations, discomforts and so much poverty. All this is a guarantee of how much I can count on your co-operation in the great and arduous enterprise the Holy Church has deigned to entrust to me. The past sacrifices are perhaps only a sample of all those we will still have to endure in order to plant the Standard of the Redemption in the centre of Africa; but let us have no fear, for the God who has supported us in past trials will not abandon us in our future efforts.
[3126]
Let us sacrifice our lives to the objective of this Holy Enterprise, and it will surely succeed. The Apostles fell, but their faith has reached as far as us, and will last to the end of time. My long absence, if on the one hand it tested your patience greatly, on the other it ensured the survival and the future of our Mission. With the offerings of some private benefactors, I have been able to buy two large establishments in Verona in which two Institutes have been opened for the formation of male and female students for our Mission.
[3127]
From the Associations in Lyons, Cologne and Vienna, I have been able to obtain regular annual resources for our maintenance and for all the expenses to be incurred for the establishment of the Mission in Africa. Finally, what is more important, I have obtained from the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, with the approval of the Holy See, the entire Mission of Central Africa with the title and jurisdiction of Pro-Vicar Apostolic. So we have obtained the field to be harvested, and all that is needed is our work: the work required by our vocation, the Holy See, the faithful who support us and by unfortunate Africa itself which, from its burning centre, is holding out its black and emaciated hands, fettered by the devil. Come then, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters in the Lord, let us follow without further ado this irresistible urge which presses us to the rescue of an abandoned people, of populations torn and convulsed by a thousand customs and errors: let us arm ourselves with the shield of the faith, the helmet of hope, the armour of love, the double-edged sword of the Divine Word and let us march bravely to the conquest of this last nation of the universe to the Gospel.
[3128]
Courage, let us be off to destroy the rule of Satan in the midst of these peoples and plant there the triumphant standard of the cross, and in the splendour of this sign these peoples will see the light. Let us irrigate with our sweat, with the waters of eternal life these arid and burning regions and these will bring forth a new people of adoring faithful for the Creator.

Daniel Comboni

[3129]
Just a word to give you news of our Sisters. Sr Germana is the Martha of our caravan; she is behaving really well. Last week we made slow progress, but now we have a good wind. Sr Maddalena is in perfect health, I have never seen her so well. Sr Giuseppina is well, but she did have a chest infection because she worked hard for the preparations in Cairo and had started the same thing in the boat when we had two days and two nights of winter: but I forced her to stay in bed out of obedience and she is now well. We are doing all we can to cure her, so that she will be able to travel and work in the Sudan.
In 15 days we shall be reaching Shellal, entering our Vicariate. I thank the Lord for granting me the Sisters of St Joseph.

[3130]
The three I have are heroines: argue my cause with the Mother General, that she may send me six more next March. Give her our news and thank her for what she has done for me. This new world of Central Africa belongs to St Joseph. We always pray for our Mother General, for you and for the Mother Assistant, Mother Caterina, Superior in Rome and for all the other Sisters. Pray for us too. We are well in God’s hands and hidden in the Sacred Heart. I preach a sermon every day to the Sisters and the African women. They are happy, as far as I can see, they are good. A thousand compliments to the Mother General and her beloved daughters. Pray for

Your most devoted servant

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

With our boats from Cairo to Shellal, we have covered three sevenths of our journey. I hope to make it in 40 days from Shellal to Khartoum.


Translated from French.

[3131]
Here I am at last, after 38 days of slow and difficult navigation from Cairo, inside the Vicariate of Central Africa. I left the Egyptian metropolis on 26th January with two large boats, one of which carried the missionaries and the lay brothers and the other the excellent Sisters of St Joseph and the African women teachers: 26 people altogether. The Lord visited us with the death of a good lay brother, a farmer from Verona, who caught the horrible smallpox on the boat in Upper Egypt and whom the Prefect, Fr Angelo, had buried at Negadeh near Thebes.
[3132]
Despite my efforts to hurry as soon as possible to my Vicariate, it has been impossible for me to do so until now:
1. Because of the Government’s cordoning Egypt off from Nubia for sanitary reasons on account of the alleged cholera epidemic in Berber, Khartoum and Suakim; a scheme thought up to remove these areas from diplomatic supervision and prevent the Khedive’s troop movements for the conquest of Abyssinia being spied on (the undertaking has now been foiled by the British Cabinet). This led to the complete disappearance of camels for the desert crossing and the scarcity of boats to sail up the Nile, which meant that the two missionaries and four lay brothers, whom I had sent on 26th November from Cairo to Khartoum to prepare lodgings for the two caravans, were stuck for 81 days in Korosko on the edge of the desert for lack of camels. It took me a telegraphic order, extracted from the Chancellor of Cairo by means of the Consulate, to provide 4 camels and another two are waiting for me in Korosko.

[3133]
2. Because the Most Reverend Mother General of St Joseph delayed sending me the obediences for the Sisters destined for the Sudan, which were signed in Marseilles only on 2nd January and received by the nuns on the 19th, just one week before our caravans left Cairo. I had long since fulfilled my obligations to the Sisters in accordance with the convention stipulated in Rome between me and the Mother General, but it so pleased the Lord that certain respectable persons should try by not altogether fair means to prevent the devout and able Sisters from participating in this arduous and laborious mission of mine. It was not so much my awareness and efforts which removed this danger, but rather the mercy of God, who watches over his work with compassionate care.
[3134]
3. Because of the many cares and sorrows we experienced in Cairo, which I shall describe to Your Eminence when I reach my residence, and because of the most frustrating and intricate activities needed to put together the provisions for such a difficult 3 month journey of so many people and to procure the necessary items for the setting up and modestly furnishing of two important establishments to be erected in the Vicariate.
[3135]
My presence in Cairo would have been necessary properly to negotiate the matter of the acquisition of a piece of land for the building of two small preparatory establishments for the mission in Central Africa, so as to avoid the expensive rental of the two present houses, for which purpose I have already completed all the appropriate dealings with the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Royal diplomatic agent and Consul in Egypt to have it given free by His Highness the Khedive. It would have even been much more useful to watch over the silent war which, as the Lord permits it, is being waged in Egypt against the holy work for the regeneration of Africa. Some of those who by vocation should be fostering whatever enhances the greater glory of God, sought, and will perhaps still be seeking, to increase the difficulties I face, and they have not hesitated to use various means to harm me.
[3136]
My Work is in itself arduous and difficult. Only God’s omnipotence will bring success. That is why, having placed all my hope in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary’s intercession, I am prepared to suffer everything for the salvation of the nations which have been entrusted to me, in the conviction that the cross is the seal of God’s works, whenever it is not brought on one by imprudence or malice, and I am strengthened by God’s word: qui seminant in lacrimis in exultatione metent.
[3137]
Yes, it is for such reasons that my presence in Cairo would have been useful. But having carefully pondered all this, I decided to entrust the Institute and my affairs in Cairo to the mindful supervision and prudence of my excellent missionary Fr Bartolomeo Rolleri, a man of proven integrity, discretion and apostolic zeal who has been doing a praiseworthy job in my Cairo Institute for the last five years, and to go immediately with the caravans to the Vicariate, since it is hic et nunc urgent and more in conformity with the thinking of Propaganda for me to occupy the Vicariate, to visit it and to set up the Stations of Khartoum and Kordofan properly.
[3138]
As for Shellal, I found the House in excellent condition structurally; but completely stripped of the items valued at 2,000 scudi which it possessed. These were partly sold and used up, partly stolen and partly destroyed by termites. Since the climate here is excellent and we own a vast piece of productive land (75,000 square metres) and since Shellal is a location destined to become important, it is my intention to bring this Station back to life and make it useful to the mission, in accordance with the purpose for which it was founded, as I shall explain to you after my pastoral visit to the Vicariate.
I kiss the Sacred Purple with every respect

Your most humble, devoted, obedient son

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[3139]
It has taken us thirty-eight days to travel from Cairo to Shellal and we shall need a month and a half to reach Khartoum. We have so much trust in God. He has encouraged us by granting us a miracle through the intercession of the Reverend Mother di Canossa, the aunt of the Bishop of Verona, foundress of the religious order known as the Canossians. The Superior of the women religious who are on the caravan was dying. We began a novena to the Reverend Mother di Canossa.
On the third day, the 10th of March, the patient was able to get up and today she is completely cured.
Prepare the columns of the Bulletin for my report on our expedition. I must close this note now because the violence of the wind is preventing me from writing.

Daniel Comboni


Translated from French.

[3140]
Her I am, after a thirty-eight day journey on the Nile, in the Vicariate of Central Africa. Today the Sisters renewed their vows. They are the first women religious Central Africa has ever seen in its endless bosom. These three Sisters are angels: I must admit this to their dear Mother in all truth and happiness.
What graces we received from God! The Holy Virgin and St Joseph!… But today I must report another great protection for Central Africa and the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition: it is the venerable Marchesa Maddalena di Canossa, the Bishop of Verona’s aunt whose canonisation is being discussed in Rome. Sr Giuseppina Tabraui, the worthy Superior of our Sisters, although she was in quite good health fifteen days before our departure from Cairo, had nevertheless worked so much to prepare the journey that she was taken ill: spitting blood and with a fever that would not go away.

[3141]
I must tell you that it is difficult to restrain her. She is tireless and despite my reproofs, my pleas and those of the Sisters, she wants to work, has no regard for her health and is irrepressible. God knows how much we worked and suffered to force her to leave the torrid cabin, or to prevent her from going ashore when we had contrary winds and were halted. Hoping that the rest on the boat would make her better and cure her, we left on 26 January. The fever never left her throughout the 38-day journey.
[3142]
Medicines, blood-letting, rest, food, everything was useless. Since she really is consumptive, half way through the journey I bought an ass and her foal for 145 francs, but the milk did not agree with her at all. We reached our house in Shellal and she went to bed. At 7 she went to confession and received communion. We thought we should administer the Holy Oils. What grief this caused me and the Sisters!
We decided to remain, all 25 of us, in Shellal and wait for the Sisters you had promised me, since neither I nor the Sisters were prepared to abandon her to cross the desert. Every day here costs me 60 francs.

[3143]
We were desperate. We said an enormous amount of prayers, novenas, and triduums to all the saints, to St Joseph, etc. But on 9th March I did not believe we would see her alive. Even Sr Germana had convulsion and heart palpitations.
I was desolate. In the end I decided to have a novena offered to the Marchesa di Canossa, the foundress of the Sisters of Charity in Verona, who has worked so many miracles and who died in 1835.
During the first two days of the novena she got worse, but Sr Maddalena and Faustina, my cousin, shouted that the Canossa woman had to work a miracle.
On the third day of the novena the fever stopped completely. I wanted to make her drink water from La Salette. No, said the Sisters, we must give her nothing, it is Mother Canossa who must cure her.

[3144]
In short, at the end of the novena, on the 17th, Sr Giuseppina got up hale and hearty and is now working harder than ever. The cough which was consuming her has almost ceased and the fever has not returned. Sr Giuseppina is stronger than she was in Deir-El-Kamar and in Cairo and today she rode camels for four and a half hours under a burning sun to Aswan to deal with a matter with the governor and I hope we shall reach Khartoum in 40 days. I am about to write to the Bishop of Verona and I shall do the process to add this to the cause for beatification. The Sisters have made a promise to God not to let one day pass without praying to Mother Canossa and to fast and make a three day retreat in Khartoum if she grants us the grace of getting there safe and sound.
[3145]
Sr Germana is cured. As for Sr Maddalena, she has not had a headache since we left Cairo; she is sun-tanned and healthier and more flourishing than I have ever seen her since 31st July 1864. She does the work of two persons with the greatest calm and judgement. The hardest part is for the other two who want to work; this is why I need Sisters in these distant lands, also to spare these three real daughters of the Gospel.
[3146]
When you have read this letter, let its content be fully known to Sr Bertholon and tell her that I am waiting for her in Central Africa to cure her and make her an apostle for Africa and give her my greetings, as also to the Mother Assistant, of whom we want a photograph.
Send me some Arab Sisters, at least ten Sisters. I will say nothing of the Sisters’ apostolate in this country. The sick are coming by the hundreds every day from thirty or forty miles away to be treated by the Sisters.
Sr Germana is now the Sr Rosalia of Tunis: you do understand me?…

[3147]
Shellal is a village facing the island of File, with 500 inhabitants spread along the length of the cataracts. We own a fine house with 15 feddans of land on the Nile, where I will make a large garden (15 feddans are 75,000 square metres). The air is magnificent. Now if the Sisters are being sought out here in this village, what will it be like in Khartoum, El Obeid and Kordofan where the population is so numerous… I therefore beg you insistently to send me at least seven Sisters right away. Make sure that you send me a good pharmacist, for this is a matter of apostolate. I hope that you will be able to have them leave Marseilles by mid-April.
[3148]
Give me some holy Sisters like the three I have with me. Give me some real Sisters like the ones in the Cairo hospital, because a great spirit of sacrifice is required for this mission…
In three years I hope to have made Shellal into a great Station with a most beautiful garden. I will build it a church completely out of oriental granite like the obelisk standing in St Peter’s Square in Rome, which comes from here.

[3149]
I shall consecrate the Station of Shellal to St Joseph; the climate is ten times healthier than in Cairo.
A thousand regards to the Mother Assistant. Write about the miracle to Sr Caterina in Rome, where I shall write from Khartoum. I await the Sisters.


Your son in Our Lord Daniel Comboni


Translated from French.

[3150]
While we have been grounded for two days among the cataracts of Halfaia, unable to proceed also due to the contrary winds, I have the honour of informing you that in Cairo I received your most venerable letters of the 8th and the 28th of November as well as the Rescript from the Holy Office for the Saturday dispensation; for which I send you my infinite thanks.
[3151]
The illustrious Sir Bartle Frère, Her Britannic Majesty’s ambassador whom you recommended to me in your letter of 28th November, came to see me with his entourage in my Institute in Cairo and we spent a good three hours together discussing the grievous subject of slavery. Although this illustrious gentleman belongs to the Anglican Church, he nonetheless seems most enthusiastic about the philanthropic mission entrusted to him by his Government. He was not heading for Central Africa, which is the real wretched theatre of slavery; but rather travelling to Muscat via Zanzibar. He wants to establish relations with these Sultans to practically abolish the trade in African slaves and after a few months to return to Europe, to London that is. We agreed to correspond mutually usque ad mortem on the aforesaid humanitarian purpose. However, I thought it prudent to keep quiet for the time being about the massacre of Africans another Englishman, Sir Samuel Baker, is perpetrating between Gondokoro and the sources of the Nile. I first wish to verify these facts.
[3152]
What I have been told does however seem to be true, for the captain of my boat, from which I now write, assures me that he spent a good three years, until eight months ago, with Sir Baker and that with Baker the great and Baker the lesser he had killed several thousand Africans and their chiefs because they refused to accompany him to Lake Victoria. But about this I shall write anon.
[3153]
The system used so far by the European powers, and especially by England, to destroy the slave trade is ineffective in achieving the declared purpose. The Sultans of the above-mentioned countries will receive His Excellency the Ambassador with kindness and splendour, just as His Highness the Khedive did himself. They will sign any treaty, giving every guarantee on paper; but once the Ambassador has gone, they will continue to promote and protect the vile trade, because that is the nature of the princes of the Koran and for them it is the source of considerable income and comfort. In the three months and more that we have been travelling between Cairo and here, we have encountered more than 40 boatloads of completely naked male and female slaves stowed like sardines; and in the desert we met more than 20 caravans of quite naked African women being marched and sometimes whipped along.
[3154]
All these were being driven along in broad daylight before the eyes of the officialdom, which is the major defender and promoter of the trade, and were being taken to Cairo and Alexandria. I say no more of the huge number of slaves who are taken every year from our Vicariate and reach the ports of Tripoli and Tunis. I could not therefore but bow my head in despair when in Berber I read in the Times the following passage from the Crown speech made on 6th February this year by the Queen of England in the London parliament: “My Lords and Gentlemen, my last speech focused on the measures adopted effectively to terminate the slave trade on the eastern coasts of Africa. I have sent an Ambassador to Zanzibar (Sir Bartle Frère); he bears instructions which seem to me the most apt to achieve the proposed objective. He has recently reached his destination and has been in contact with the Sultan”.
[3155]
The only way to abolish or prevent the slave trade is to foster and efficiently help the Catholic apostolate in these unhappy lands, where thousands and thousands of poor Africans are violently abducted and the most horrible excesses are committed and where the vile trade is practised. Among all the countries in the world, Central Africa is where the fiercest slaughter of these poor creatures is perpetrated. Since this horrible plague to humanity concerns my Vicariate to a high degree, I shall have much to do and to write on this subject. I would have the best contacts to deal with the highest spheres in Europe on this matter, but today only atheistic and revolutionary governments hold sway: I shall therefore not take a single step without first submitting everything to the wisdom of the Sacred Congregation, on whose instructions alone I will act in this matter.
I kiss the Sacred Purple and remain Your Eminence’s
most humble and devoted son

Daniel Comboni, Pro-Vicar Apostolic

[3156]
I am truly happy, dearest friends, to be back with you again after so many sad events and so many sighs of affliction. The first love of my youth was for unhappy Africa and, leaving behind all that was dearest to me in the world, I came, sixteen years ago, to these lands to offer my work for the relief of their age-old sufferings. Subsequently, I was called back home since for health reasons the swamps of the White Nile in the vicinity of the Holy Cross and Gondokoro had reduced apostolic action to impotence. I departed through obedience: but I left my heart in your midst and, when I recovered, as God willed, my concerns and activities were always focused on you.
[3157]
Today, at last taking back my heart by returning among you, I open it up in your presence with the sublime and religious sentiment of the spiritual paternity with which God willed me to be vested a year ago now by the supreme Head of the Catholic Church, our Lord Pope Pius IX. Yes, I am now your Father, and you are my children and as such, for the first time I embrace you and press you to my heart. I am most grateful for all the enthusiastic welcomes you have shown me; they demonstrate your filial love and have persuaded me that you will always want to be my joy and my crown, just as you are my lot and my legacy.
[3158]
Rest assured that my soul responds to this with unlimited love forever and for each one of you. I have returned among you never again to cease being yours and all consecrated for your greater good in eternity. Come day come night, come sun come rain, I shall always be equally ready to serve your spiritual needs: the rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick, the young and the old, the masters and the servants will always have equal access to my heart. Your good will be mine and your sorrows will also be mine.
[3159]
I make common cause with each one of you, and the happiest day in my life will be the one on which I will be able to give my life for you. – I am not unaware of the weight of the burden I have to carry, since as shepherd, teacher and doctor to your souls I shall have to watch over you, educate you and correct you: defend the oppressed without hurting the oppressors, reproach errors without antagonising those who err, denounce scandals and sins without ceasing to show compassion to sinners, seek out the corrupt without weakening to vice; in a word, be a father and a judge at the same time. But I am resigned to this in the hope that you will all help me to carry this burden with happiness and joy in the name of God.
[3160]
Yes, I trust primarily in your work, Reverend Father and dearest Vicar General: you who were the first to help me in this work of the Mission for the Regeneration of Africa, the first to raise the banner of the holy Cross in Kordofan and who taught these peoples the first elements of faith and civilisation. And I also trust in you priests, brothers and sons in this Apostolate, for you will be my arms of action to guide the Lord’s people along His path, as well as being my angels of counsel. And I also very much trust in you, venerable Sisters, who with a thousand sacrifices joined me to help in the education of young girls. And I also trust in you, Gentlemen, who will always comfort me by your obedience and compliance to the loving suggestions that my duty and your good will lead me to give you.
[3161]
As for you, the illustrious representative of His Imperial Majesty and Royal Highness Emperor Franz Josef I, the noble protector of this vast Mission, while I have pleasure in thanking you for all you have done for it so far, I hasten to express the hope that you will gloriously continue to wield the sword in the service of the cross, defending the rights of our divine religion whenever it is ignored or outraged.
[3162]
And now finally, I turn to you, O merciful Queen of Africa, and appealing once again to you, loving Mother of this Vicariate Apostolic of Central Africa which is entrusted to my care, I make bold to implore you solemnly to receive under your protection myself and my children and to guard us from evil and lead us to good.
[3163]
O Mary, Mother of God, the great people of Africa sleeps for the most part in the darkness and shadow of death; hasten the hour of their salvation, remove the obstacles, disperse their enemies, prepare their hearts and always send new apostles to these remote lands which are so unhappy and in need.
[3164]
My children, on this solemn day I commit you to the devotion of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and as I offer for you the most acceptable of sacrifices to Almighty God, I humbly entreat him to pour the blood of redemption over your souls, to regenerate them, to heal them and refine them in accordance with your needs, that this holy Mission may bring you the fruits of salvation, and to God glory. Amen

Daniel Comboni


Translated from Arabic by Fr Carcereri

[3165]
Ninety-eight (98) days after leaving Cairo, I finally reached Khartoum with the great caravan. I cannot find words to express the sufferings, the discomforts, the hardships, the heavenly assistance and graces and the events which accompanied this perilous and arduous pilgrimage. The Most Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the constant focus of our hopes and prayers, saved us from all dangers and admirably protected every single member of our remarkable caravan, especially in the arduous and terrible crossing of the Atmur desert where, for a good 13 days, in a temperature reaching 58 degrees Réamur from midday to 4 p.m., we galloped on camels for 16 or 17 hours a day; all of us reached Khartoum safely on the 4th of this month. Two telegraphic dispatches, one from me to Cairo and the other from the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Royal Consul to London, proclaimed the event on that same day.
[3166]
As I am very tired I shall spare you the account of the very promising impression made in the whole of the Sudan by my arrival in Khartoum, as well as the arrival of the Sisters. I will not speak of matters concerning the mission and of how I found it, or of the true miracle worked in Shellal by the Marchesa Maddalena di Canossa, who died in the odour of sanctity, for my Mother Superior, Sr Giuseppina Tabraui who, being cured of a fatal illness on the third day of the novena, was able to cross the desert safely, etc., etc. I shall write to you about all this within the month. Now I will limit myself to informing you about the safe arrival of the caravan in Khartoum, where everything had been prepared by my Vicar General whom I had sent there for that purpose three months earlier, after the departure of the two Franciscans who had occupied the Station.
[3167]
As soon as I entered the Vicariate, at the first cataracts on the Nile, I began showing the Turkish Governors the Great Firman which His Apostolic Majesty the Emperor Franz Josef I had obtained from the Grand Sultan of Constantinople in favour of my Vicariate of Central Africa, so that the Turkish authorities at once began to compete in offering us their favours in all things on this long and perilous journey. In Korosko, within two days 65 camels were made ready and available to us for the desert crossing; in Berber, the Pasha Governor himself gave me his boat for the 15-day passage to Khartoum, etc., etc. My subsequent arrival at my residence was a real triumph by which I was taken aback. The Austrian consul in full dress uniform, followed by Khartoum’s entire Christian colony of every sect, came to meet me at the boat and delivered a moving address in which, on behalf of His Apostolic majesty he congratulated me on my appointment as Pro-Vicar and on my arrival in the Vicariate. In the name of the whole Christian colony in the Sudan and the city of Khartoum, he thanked me for being the first to bring Sisters to the Sudan for the education of young girls, and invited me to enter my residence.
[3168]
Having made a suitable reply, and after introducing the missionaries and Sisters, I set off through the main areas of the city, amidst the echoes of fireworks and rifles, surrounded by the missionaries and the Consular Corps and followed by all the Catholic colony. I entered the church and then my majestic residence, where the most important people of the Colony were presented to me by the Consul. In the evening the Turkish head of the general Government of Sudan came to visit me with his numerous entourage. He congratulated me on my arrival and offered me his full services, for anything I may want. Let’s hope so!!!
[3169]
There was no lack, either, of people who had a good word to say about the Consul, that is, that he cordially thanked the Pontiff Pius IX for giving new life to the Vicariate and for having sent the Sisters to serve the mission. The Angelic Doctor prayed thus: da mihi, D.ne, inter prospera et adversa non deficere, ut in illis non extollar, in istis non deprimar. For my part, having heard the Hosannahs, I am preparing for the Crucifige.
[3170]
Yesterday I made my solemn entrance. Inter Missarum solemnia I delivered my Pastoral Address in Arabic, in which I clearly explained the main objective of the mission I have received from the immortal Pius IX. Besides 130 Catholics, it was attended by a great number of heretics of every ilk, Muslims and idolaters, filling the chapel, the porticoes and the mission yard. I was assured that not for eleven years had the word of God been heard from the altar; which I still cannot believe. Here we are going to have a fair amount of work since, except for two families, everyone lives out of wedlock. I trust in the grace of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to whom I shall solemnly dedicate the whole Vicariate on the 4th Sunday in August which is the feast of the Sacred Heart of Mary. The Sacred Heart of Jesus, invoked by all the members of the Apostleship of prayer, as Fr Ramière wrote to me, must work the miracle of the conversion of a hundred million souls, which is what this huge mission amounts to.
[3171]
The new mission of Kordofan seems to be off to a good start; but we need money for the buildings. Here in Khartoum, the Sisters and the women teachers are housed in a building which is three minutes away from the mission garden, and is separated from this by a wide street of Khartoum.
Regards from the Vicar General, Fr Stanislao, the missionaries and the Sisters as well as your
most unworthy son

Daniel Comboni Pro-Vicar Apostolic