Writings

[3172]
I have just received your dear letter of 24th April which has given me great pleasure. When I handed the three Sisters your letters, they kissed them and began to weep with joy, such is your maternal power. There is no place on earth where you could live as actively as in Central Africa. These three Sisters are incomparable.
I thank you infinitely for the four Sisters you have sent me, who are already in Cairo, and I also thank you for the ones you will be sending me in September. I must tell you that the Khartoum Mission cannot be properly set up without at least 6 Sisters.

[3173]
Consequently, for the love of God, let there be at least 7 Sisters in the September expedition. Regarding those who are already in Cairo, I am giving the order for them to leave Egypt immediately and to go to Shellal, in Lower Nubia, so that they may cross the desert in August, that season being very cool. The ones who will be reaching Cairo in September will set off for Khartoum in October. Sr Giuseppina tells me that some of the ones who have reached Cairo can be Superiors, since, should a Superior die, a house could remain without a Superior for a long time because of the huge distances. Here, because of the desert, we are further from Europe than Australia is from Japan. From this capital in the Sudan, a letter can reach Marseilles in 40 days, but it took us 99 days to travel from Cairo to Khartoum.
[3174]
Please authorise me to send the Sisters either to Khartoum or to Kordofan, according as to whether I deem it appropriate for the good of these two respective houses, and in agreement with the respective Superiors, because we alone here can judge the needs of the Missions. You understand what I mean? So in the letters of obedience, do not put that Sister so-and-so is destined for Khartoum or Kordofan, just put for the Sudan. Then the Pro-Vicar Apostolic and the Provincial Superior of the Sudan together will agree where to send the Sisters, because we must carefully preserve the precious health of our Sisters. If one of them is exhausted by the fevers or the work in Khartoum, we transfer her to Kordofan and vice versa, etc., etc. Indeed it is difficult to find Sisters who are as good, as generous and as heroic as these three.
[3175]
As for those African girls Fr Biagio has offered you, I will not have them. Sister Giuseppina and I, together with all the Missionaries and our Sisters, have established that we will no longer receive African girls who have been to Europe. They are the ruin of the Missions and the death of the Sisters. The journey from Cairo to Khartoum cost me 22,000 francs and there were 28 of us. On this journey each African girl costs me 800 francs: for that amount, we can redeem six of them. Then the food, the clothing, etc. of one African girl in Cairo costs a lot and we get no profit from it. These African girls from Europe think of nothing else but getting married, and take up the time and resources we should dedicate to the Mission.
[3176]
Besides, I shall never receive an African girl offered by Fr Biagio because this holy man has always forbidden the good African girls in his monasteries in Europe to come to us in Cairo: they have the vocation to be nuns. He sends them all to the Poor Clares in Cairo and has even had the courage to write to me that I should send those of our African girls who want to become religious to the Poor Clares. On the contrary, he always sends us the ones the Poor Clares have rejected and who cannot stay in other convents in Europe. Therefore, God bless Fr Biagio, but I will never receive any of his African girls for they have always been the martyrdom of our Sisters and the bane of our houses. Indeed, I shall never receive African boys from Fr Lodovico in Naples: they are the dregs and the mud of Africa because this holy man lacks good teachers.
[3177]
Now about Khartoum.
The enthusiasm with which the Sisters were received in Khartoum is impossible to describe. The Consul came in full regalia to greet us at the boat and, on behalf of the Emperor of Austria, the Pasha of the Sudan and the European colony, thanked me for being the first to have brought Sisters to the Sudan. The Pasha of the Sudan came to my beautiful residence to thank me for having brought the Sisters and he repeated the same thing at the great dinner he gave in my honour. This is remarkable. The Grand Mufti, or head of the Muslim religion in the Sudan, congratulated me in a toast for having brought the Sisters here. For the European colony, the Sisters are the right arm of my apostolate. Only two Catholic families here live in a Christian way: all the others are living in sin. At the moment, one month after our arrival in Khartoum, the concubines are receiving instruction from the Sisters and we shall soon be celebrating many weddings.

[3178]
Sr Giuseppina is a highly qualified apostle and preacher. She has already made friends with many families. She speaks to the husbands, the women, the concubines, everyone, introducing Catholic morals and religion, and our confessional is busy. In a word, we have a great mission to accomplish in Khartoum: the Sisters will work miracles, but I need Sisters. In the Annals you will read many things that I do not have the time to say here because in two days I am leaving for Kordofan. I came to Khartoum with a firman from the Sultan of Constantinople which the Emperor of Austria obtained for me. The Grand Pasha of the Sudan has become my friend and protector. He has given me a steamer to sail up the White Nile to the closest point to Kordofan; with the steamer, getting to Abu-Gherab will take me only five days. I am in a happy situation here in the Sudan. Nowhere in the world are priests and Sisters so respected as in Central Africa.
[3179]
I have chosen Fr Stanislao Carcereri as my Vicar General: he has done much for Central Africa. I have given the Sisters Canon Pasquale Fiore as their confessor. He is a holy man and will guide the Sisters in the path of perfection. Sr Maddalena and the good Domitilla were the only ones on the terrible journey through the desert and on the 99 day journey from Cairo to Khartoum who never had the slightest ailment, the slightest headache; but I will tell you that everyone says: “God’s finger is here”. I am moved by this and I see that God always uses the weak for the most difficult tasks. The Blessed Canossa has worked a great miracle. We always travelled 18 hours a day on camels in the desert, in a heat of 50 degrees during the most fearful season. Sr Giuseppina and our Sisters (in my pocket I always carried the Holy Oils for Extreme Unction) crossed the desert better than me and the Missionaries. At last, after 13 days, we dismounted in Berber at the edge of the desert at the most critical time. We shall fulfil our obligations to the Blessed Canossa. She has led us to Khartoum in perfect health, miraculously.
[3180]
Just a word about our houses.
My residence is a palace quite a bit longer than that of Propaganda in Rome and it has a garden which 20 men have to tend and which stretches to the banks of the Blue Nile. I had decided to divide this palace in two with a dividing wall for the Sisters, but Fr Carcereri has taken a building near ours with a lovely garden for the Sisters: it is one of the most solid buildings in Khartoum, near my residence, which is the most imposing building not only in Khartoum, but also in the Sudan and which cost my predecessor Mgr Knoblecher more than one million francs. But Sr Giuseppina does not like her residence very much; this is why we are about to build the division in my palace. At the same time I have decided to build a church three times as big as the one we have, which is not big enough for our faithful. As for food, here it is cheap: I will be able to treat the Sisters like countesses, at little cost. But provisions can only be made for the mission alone, because everything is produced at home, it grows on our land.

[3181]
I very much regret having refused Sr Genoveffa, the ex-Superior in Cairo, when you offered her to me in Rome. If she wants to come, send her right away to Cairo so that she can leave for Khartoum with the four Sisters who are ready. I have asked Fr Carcereri to write to you on this matter. Sr Genoveffa, whose skills I know, would work miracles here in Khartoum. In this city of 50,000 inhabitants, we are teachers more than anything else: she would do very well.
[3182]
Let me tell you something: in five years the Vicariate of Central Africa can become one of the most flourishing, but only if you send me at least 50 Sisters in these five years and Arab Sisters in particular. You must establish a Province and give me as Mother Provincial an able and holy woman. Sr Giuseppina has all the qualities except for health. She works night and day even with a fever and there isn’t a power on earth that can dissuade her. This cannot go on. It is a miracle she is alive. This is why, even if I see her always at work, I constantly fear her death, because God wants us to look after ourselves, not to kill ourselves. The Canossa miracle is extraordinary, but if the person who is cured miraculously wants to kill herself, it is her own fault if she dies.
[3183]
If there were a Provincial Superior who could call the Superior Giuseppina to order, she would live longer for the salvation of souls because, as a missionary, Sr Giuseppina is without compare; there is certainly no one like her in the whole Congregation and I would be most unlucky to lose her. She is still drinking ass’s milk, but since I have heard that camel’s milk is better, I shall have a camel bought for Sr Giuseppina and put in her garden. Compel her to look after her health. Do not fail to send me the Sisters in September. Bear in mind that the delay in sending me the letters of obedience last January cost me more than 12,000 francs and all the hardships of a 99 day journey. I had written you this beforehand, but you did not believe me. The Sisters leaving Cairo in August will be reaching Khartoum in 50 days and with great ease. You will have received 5,000 francs from Lyons and I am now writing to Cologne for you…

[incomplete sheet]

[3184]
Under pressure from the Franciscans, Mgr Ciurcia has forbidden us to baptise in Cairo and I have been reported to Rome for the matter of Fr Biagio’s African girl who ran away from our Sisters. That this African girl (the one you sent me with Sr Germana) should have run away from us is a great crime, whereas for the fact that she escaped from the Poor Clares 20 days later there is a plenary indulgence! So the Franciscans in Cairo are not our friends, except for Fr Pietro and the odd other holy religious. This is why I am keeping the houses in Cairo open on principle, so as to do what I have in mind later, but for the moment I must concentrate the core of the forces in the Vicariate where we have the direct mission of converting these peoples. If we cannot baptise in Cairo, to whom are we to give the annual 25,000 francs? This is why I shall reduce Cairo to a Procure for Central Africa. The most urgent needs are in the Vicariate…

[incomplete sheet]


[3185]
The house in Khartoum will cost me more than 100,000 francs. The facade is longer than from palazzo Propaganda in Piazza di Spagna to the Polyglot Press on Piazza S. Andrea delle Fratte. The garden is bigger than yours at Cappelletta. I have had to make the same plan and everything for the Sisters just like my residence which cost 600,000 francs. The gate for the Sisters with the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph is costing me more than one thousand francs, but this Institute of the Sisters’ is a work for posterity and the house will be intact after a thousand years.
[3186]
I await the Provincial Superior of Khartoum. For every Arab Sister who succeeds, like Sr Anna, I will pay you 500 francs, as agreed.
Give my greetings to Sr Caterina and all the Sisters in Rome, the Mother Assistant. Pray to Jesus for

Your most devoted Daniel Comboni

I ask the Mother General to put a 20 centimes stamp on the letter to Unità Cattolica and to send it.


Translated from French.

[3187]
The news that by special divine favour Your Eminence has fully recovered your sight, filled my heart with indescribable consolation and cheered my good companions and the Sisters; so yesterday we all gathered around the altar and sang the hymn of thanksgiving. It was proper that the Lord should deign to grant such a grace to reward the marvellous calm and edifying resignation with which Your most pious Eminence bore such a serious disaster.
[3188]
It is not my intention to describe to you the wretched state in which I found the mission in Khartoum, especially as regards the souls. The lack of the bread of the divine Word, which has not been preached here since 1861, and the weakening of the spirit into which the best prepared and well-disposed Gospel workers generally precipitate when, in such perilous lands far from the eye of the Bishop, they remain alone and isolated, or when they are not supervised from time to time by Superiors, or when they are not awakened and revived by the odd beneficial Apostolic Visitation, were to my mind the prime causes of the most deplorable state in which I found the small flock in Khartoum, of which generalised concubinage is not the greatest vice.
[3189]
If I did not know that Your Eminence has experienced in other Missions the regretful consequences of Vae soli , I would be urging you with the most vehement solicitude never to leave a mission in the care of only one or two missionaries. I cannot understand how the Holy See never sent an Apostolic Visitor to Central Africa, whereas it took such wise and healthy measures in other less arduous and perilous missions. Certainly, even this was in God’s adorable plans.
[3190]
My first concern was to put into effect the preaching of the Gospel in parish Masses every Sunday and feast day, and very shortly I shall also be introducing Christian Doctrine after Sunday Vespers. It is already a consolation to me that our chapel has been extremely well attended since our arrival, so much so that it is not big enough for all the people, to the point that I have decided to build another one with greater capacity. To this effect, in my homily in Arabic on the day of Pentecost, I expressed the desire to build a new Temple and invited the faithful to participate with their offerings. In just three days I received contributions amounting to 1,256 thalers, equivalent to 6,280 gold francs. These, together with other resources I am expecting from Europe, and others that I shall receive from the Turkish government and the faithful, will enable me to lay the foundation stone of this sacred building next October when I return from Kordofan.
[3191]
In the name of God we have started to envelop our Catholics with our active urgings, to bring them back onto the path to eternal salvation. It seems that God blesses our humble task, in which to our greatest joy we are assisted by our devout and able Sisters, so that the grace of God and Christian piety will soon dominate the small sheepfold in Khartoum. Thus the sacred ministry is fully active here, and is being exercised among the wayward sheep as well as among the infidels, since a considerable number of catechumens are being instructed every day in both of the Institutes.
[3192]
As regards the Sisters, next Monday, the 9th, the girls’ schools will be opening. Thanks to God’s gift to me of religious with a good spirit and capabilities and of good women teachers, I soon hope to see a flourishing Catholic school in this capital which has never seen a Sister and the miracles of charity of the women of the Gospel. It is also thanks to the numerous teachers that the mission has, that we were able to work so hard last month to prepare candidates for Confirmation. This sacrament had not been administered in Central Africa since 1860.
[3193]
On the recent solemnity of Pentecost, after the homily and solemn Mass, I gave confirmation to 35 people young and old; and there are as many, even more, receiving instruction. We will not be able to open the boys’ school until November.
[3194]
The city of Khartoum has about 50,000 inhabitants, including 200 Catholics, 1,000 heretics of different sects, 25,000 African slaves and the rest are Nubian, Egyptian, Abyssinian, Galla and Turkish Muslims, etc. and there
are more than 8,000 soldiers. In the Christian colony there are more than 200 Greeks and 70 Aleppians.

[3195]
The Mission House is the most solid and fine building not only in Khartoum, but also in the whole of the Sudan and the whole of Central Africa. With the adjoining garden, it cost Knoblecher more than 200,000 (two hundred thousand) Roman scudi. It is a single-story building, one and a half times as long as the Palazzo di Propaganda and it is only one eighth of its original design. The very large adjoining garden which stretches to the banks of the Blue Nile is now a wilderness, but in a few years I hope to render it productive enough to maintain the whole Mission in Khartoum.
[3196]
My position with regard to the Catholics of different rites is excellent. Everyone displays unlimited trust in me, my missionaries and the Sisters. We hope to take advantage of this for the good of their souls.
[3197]
My position with regard to the Muslims, especially the local government and the consular authorities, could not be better. The Catholic Mission is the first power in the Sudan and everyone, great and small, respects us and is in awe of us.
[3198]
The Firman from Constantinople and the name of the Emperor of Austria, which I was able to slip in in tempore opportuno, produced the most splendid results. I cannot yet explain it all, but what is happening these days is quite important. His Excellency Ismail Pasha, the Governor General, who is in command as far as the sources of the Nile, has been to visit me and offer me his friendship and all his support to accomplish my desires regarding the Catholic mission.
[3199]
He is a man with a sprinkling of everything, an educated Turk, a fox, a cheat and a swindler of the first order; but he is supremely bountiful to me and to the mission. At a very early date he gave me the most splendid proof of this good will by offering me his steamers for my pastoral visits, giving me wood for the mission and declaring that he would free any slave who was presented to him in the Diwan in my name; something which has never happened before in the Sudan, in Egypt or in any other part of the Turkish Empire. I will not mention all the other facts, but only the diplomatic lunch he gave in my honour where he invited all the Pashas, the Beys, the government officials, the notables of the European colony and the leaders of the Muslim religion. On this solemn occasion, much more splendid than any in Paris, 4 toasts were given, which are as significant here as in England.
[3200]
The first was given by the Grand Pasha himself who, speaking with the admiration of a Catholic, thanked me and my companions for having left our homeland and the comforts of Europe to come to Central Africa to spread civilisation, and he thanked me on behalf of the Sudanese and the Government for coming to place myself at the head of civilisation in the Sudan. The second was given by the Grand Mufti, or head of Islamism in the Sudan, who congratulated me for having brought the Sisters to Khartoum. The third was given by the Austrian Consul in which he thanked the Supreme Pontiff Pius IX for having revived the Vicariate of Central Africa, for placing me at its head and for sending the Sisters: he then toasted His Majesty the Emperor of Austria for having assumed with renewed solicitude the protection of the Vicariate of Central Africa. The fourth was given by me to His Highness the Khedive of Egypt and to His excellency the Pasha of the Sudan, thanking them for the protection they have granted the mission and expressing the hope that this will continue in the future; and this after wishing them long life and prosperity.
[3201]
Regarding the Austrian Consul, who is an ex-member of the mission led into Africa by the late Pro-Vicar Knoblecher, he is called Martino Hansal and is a distinguished geographer: he is a true friend and servant of the Mission.
[3202]
From all this Your Eminence might say that my present position is a most happy one: however, far from letting vain flatteries go to my head, after so many Hosannas I steadfastly await the Crucifige. All my trust is in the Cross and in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. This is why I have chosen the 3rd Sunday in September, the 14th, dedicated to the Triumph of the Holy Cross to solemnly consecrate the whole Vicariate of Central Africa to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
[3203]
On that day the most devout members of the Apostleship of Prayer who are readers of the Messager du Sacre Coeur on the five continents will accompany and echo my solemn act with fervent pleas to this most divine Heart, which must inflame the whole of Central Africa and convert its peoples to the faith, and all these unhappy tribes which are still under the curse of Ham. For this reason I have just composed a Latin prayer which we recite every day for the Conversion of Africa and which I enclose in Appendix A.
[3204]
I would implore Your Eminence to beg our Most Glorious Father to grant to any faithful in the Catholic world who recites the prayer pro Conversione Chamitarum Africae Centralis ad Ecclesiam Catholicam in any language, the following Indulgences:
1. 300 days each time they recite it.
2. A Plenary Indulgence to any one who recites it each day for a month servatis servandis, and at the same time I would ask you to change or correct this Prayer, should it have been improperly conceived.

[3205]
Although the toils and sacrifices we shall have to bear for the love of Christ will be great, nonetheless I seem to perceive a happy future for Central Africa. The climate of Khartoum, which in my time was so fatal to Europeans, has remarkably improved today. It is an established fact that there will be a railway from Cairo to Khartoum, via Shellal, Wadi-Halfa, Dongola and Shendi, and I have this officially from His Excellency the Pasha and from speaking with the
English Commission that has planned the route it will cover. In this way, within 4 years, it will be possible to travel from Alexandria to Gondokoro at the 4th degree Latitude North in a month by steamer and railway.

[3206]
I am leaving tomorrow for Kordofan. His Excellency Ismail Pasha has placed his steamer at my disposal. He himself will accompany me for 110 miles as far as Abu-Gharat on the White Nile, where I shall mount the camel that will carry me to the capital El Obeid in 8 days. Asking you to obtain a special blessing for us all from His Holiness, I kiss the Sacred Purple
Your Eminence’s most humble and unworthy son


Daniel Comboni


[3207]
P.S. I also implore Your Eminence to obtain from His Holiness a plenary indulgence for all the faithful of the Vicariate living under my jurisdiction, such as the members of the small Institutes in Cairo who, having been to confession and received communion, praying for the Church and the Supreme Pontiff, will be attending the Sacred Mysteries on Sunday the 14th of September next, when I shall solemnly consecrate Central Africa to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; which will also be done at the same time on the same day by the superiors of Khartoum and Cairo, while I will be doing it in Kordofan.
I kiss the Sacred purple and remain, in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
Your Most Reverend Eminence’s
most humble and obedient son


Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


There follows the prayer for the conversion of Africa in Latin.

[3208]
“This is the first letter I am writing from Porta Nigritiae haec, and it is deserved, above all others, by my dearest first-born. I will tell you, I was confused by all the honours and the solemn entrance into El Obeid. At the Fula (a place two hours’ journey from El Obeid) I found all the colony of Easterners there to receive me… Halfway there, the schismatic Copts and their priest came to meet me, so that I entered El Obeid in a procession. When I reached the gate of the Mission house – where I was struck by the magnificent inscription Porta Nigritiae haec – there was the Pasha’s military band; so after praying a while in our beautiful chapel, I went into the diwan, where I was cheered by all the Catholics, the schismatic Greeks and Copts, the Turks, the court presidents, the captains of the troops, etc., along with a delegate from the Pasha, that is, his First Adjutant who had come to bring the compliments of H.E. the Mudir.
[3209]
In the morning of the 20th I visited the Pasha, who received me with full pomp; and he came yesterday to return the visit, with all the dignitaries of the Diwan, all on horseback, and preceded by several squads of troops, in the midst of a crowd that filled every corner of the big square, and the wide main road that passes in front of the Mission house. In a word, here at El Obeid everyone, from the Pasha to the shopkeepers and the populace, has accorded the greatest honour to the most unworthy Representative of the Pope in the Sudan. I was amazed by the amount of work that you and Fr Giuseppe have done in this new Mission: God will pour his blessings on your labours. And what consoles me is the credit the Mission enjoys with people of all classes. Then, I am very happy with Fr Giuseppe, who has behaved and worked with the soundness and seriousness of a man of greater years. He is a true and solid Missionary, able to do great things for the glory of God; God has given him much, and he has used it well…"
[3210]
In a later letter, Monsignor says to me:
“The climate of Kordofan cannot be better; the position of El Obeid, as Porta Nigritiae, is of the greatest importance for our purpose, and I cannot understand why the first missionaries did not think of this capital first. You two Camillians, in little more than a year, have worked wonders here, and now I would not give the mission station of El Obeid for any of the stations in Upper Egypt that are more than a century old. The good name and the reputation that you, my two dear firstborn, enjoy with everyone, is splendid, so God will bless you and the Mission. A start has been made, you must move forward. The divine Heart of Jesus will be with you.”

(Daniel Comboni)

[3211]
I now come to tell you something about the Work. It is now well under way, and I assure you that it is bound to succeed, and many millions of souls will be converted. And this is not because all of us, missionaries, sisters and labourers, have decided to win or to die: but because the Work is entrusted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus which must consume the whole of Central Africa and fill it with his divine fire. On the 14th of the coming September, I shall solemnly consecrate the whole Vicariate here in El Obeid to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, while on that same day my Vicar General will carry out the same consecration in Khartoum. On that day the Members of the Apostleship of Prayer will make the same act of Consecration composed for me by our beloved friend, Fr Ramière.
[3212]
You will of course be reading the Messager du Sacré Coeur. Now, how is it possible that the Heart of Jesus should not grant the fervent prayers of so many righteous souls associated with the Messager, who are the very flower of piety and virtue? Jesus Christ is the king of gentlemen, and has always kept his word. He has always answered accipietis… invenietis… aperietur, to the petite… quaerite… pulsate. Thus Africa will see the light, and its hundred million unfortunates will rise to new life through the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
[3213]
When, thanks to royal munificence, it became possible to buy the Caobelli house near the Seminary of Verona, while still on my travels in Germany I set my hand to the Institute’s Rule, in order to present it in Rome. In the meantime, my companions in Cairo and especially the excellent Fr Carcereri, were researching those places in Central Africa where, because of their good climate and important strategic situation, it would be appropriate to settle members of the Institute, if they were ready for the apostolate in lower Africa. We studied, wrote, discussed and travelled. Finally we agreed to attempt an exploration of Kordofan.
[3214]
Since the experience on the White Nile from 1848 to 1864 had been unfortunate because of the immense swamps which provoked deadly fevers and the most dangerous diseases in Europeans, I turned my gaze to the inner tribes lying between the White Nile and the Niger, where there are mountains and healthy air. I was very happy to accept Fr Carcereri’s suggestion of Kordofan, and in a letter written from Dresden on 15th August 1871, gave him orders that preparations be made for an exploration of Kordofan to take place shortly. On 14th September, I ordered the explorers to leave Cairo the following October, a suitable season for navigation on the Nile. In fact, the valiant Carcereri together with Franceschini and two laymen, reached Kordofan via Khartoum after only 82 days; they explored both in the region of Darfur, and southwards, towards Tekkela and the borders of the Nuba; and they considered it appropriate to establish a station here in El Obeid which I now realise is the real centre of communications for the whole of the true interior of Africa, and where the air is far better than it is in Khartoum and the White Nile.
[3215]
In fact, the territory of Darfur is reached after only 3 days by camel and in 15 days one arrives at the capital where the Sultan lives. From here it takes 3 days to reach the first mountains of the vast tribe of the Nuba, Bakhit Miniscalchi’s native land, where there are many millions of unspoilt Africans who have never wanted to know anything about Mohammed. In 30 days, one enters the vast empire of Bornù, while for those who wish to go there from Tripoli or Algiers, it would take more than 100 days and the journey would be dangerous. Here in El Obeid are the procurators and representatives of the Sultans of Darfur and Bornù who provide those lands with European goods and objects through barter.
[3216]
Last September I arrived with a substantial caravan in Cairo, where the devil, as the Lord permitted, had prepared immense difficulties for me which threatened to prevent me from undertaking the expedition to Central Africa with the great caravan to take possession of the Vicariate in accordance with Propaganda’s orders and with what I had told the societies who are our benefactors in Europe and who had provided me with aid for this purpose. Not to mention the most serious opposition which arose by God’s will and from my own unworthiness; many most eminent persons wrote letters to the Most Reverend Mother General of my Sisters in Marseilles, entreating her never to let any of her sisters go to Central Africa where they would be bound to die, as had all the previous missionaries.
[3217]
The Mother General, who had 8 sisters ready to send me in Cairo in November, was alarmed and subsequently sent these sisters to Belgium to open a new house there. Likewise, with all possible cunning and deviousness it was insinuated to the three sisters who had already received their obediences from their Mother General to follow me to Central Africa, and who had been in my Institute for more than 2 years, that they should not go to Central Africa; but here there was no chance of success: they remained constant in their holy resolution since they had already received their obedience, and were ready to die for Christ.
[3218]
Apart from being gravely compromised since, although the Most Reverend Mother General was convinced she had fallen into a trap, and again assured me she would send the sisters after the Feast of St Joseph on which she was to have more than 30 new professions, I was nevertheless seriously prevented from undertaking the expedition: the superior destined for Khartoum was poorly and it did not seem prudent to risk 16 black teachers with two or three sisters. A new assault, plotted by those same people who had sought to scare off the above-mentioned General and sisters contributed to cooling down the Mother General and several of the sisters. It was the following:
[3219]
Since the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph has more than sixty houses in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, the Mother General has to provide for them all; I realised with certainty that all the Bishops and Vicars Apostolic where these houses are located, constantly insist on having more Sisters, since it is a Congregation with an excellent spirit and destined precisely for the missions, whose Cardinal Protector is the Eminent Prefect of Propaganda himself; but the Mother General cannot always satisfy the needs of all.
[3220]
Therefore since I foresaw that I too would never be able to obtain the necessary number of sisters for the immense Vicariate of Central Africa, after having in vain made inquiries through Mgr Canossa as to whether the Canossian Sisters would assume the direction of some male Institutes in Central Africa and after obtaining the consent of Pius IX, to the supreme pleasure of Mgr Canossa, I opened a female Institute in Verona to train women missionaries for Africa, which I temporarily called the Devout Mothers of Africa. For this purpose I purchased the Astori convent in S. Maria in Organis and settled in it the Devout Mothers of Africa, an Institute that is making rather good progress as the Bishop writes to me, and which will provide me with some good missionaries in a few years.
[3221]
Now my dear friends in Cairo, informed of this, wrote to the Mother General of St Joseph and insinuated to the Sisters of Cairo that Comboni was now making use of the Sisters of St Joseph until his own sisters in Verona were ready; but that as soon as he had his own sisters, those of St Joseph would be given their passport, he would thank them for helping him in the early stages of his Work and would end by sending them away. This was a great shock to the Mother General’s firmness, but finally by the grace of God and after my prayers and assurances, she decided to give me all the Sisters she will be able to, just as she does in her dealings with the other heads of missions, and obliged herself to do so with a document signed by me and by the Most Eminent Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda. You see how good Jesus is, and how he treats Our Lady and her most holy Husband, St Joseph!
[3222]
I shall say nothing about the other storms raised against me by divine will, about the efforts to undermine the constancy of my missionaries, about being denounced to the Turkish police for the crime of baptising Africans who were already Muslim (which is true), etc. We would all be too fortunate if the Turks cut off our heads for the faith; indeed, we have long been prepared for this, in the certitude that God will inspire others after us, according to the wise economy of his Providence.
[3223]
Although I was aware that letters slandering me had already been written in Europe and even to Rome saying that I would lead the sisters and missionaries to their death, although I only had three sisters and unwell to boot, who had obtained their obediences from the Mother General, I nevertheless decided to leave Cairo for the terrible Khamsin of the desert, during the most critical season and aware that I should meet contrary winds. After consulting my companions, we decided to throw ourselves into the arms of Providence and comply with Propaganda’s wishes, thoroughly known and expressed.
[3224]
On 26th January, on two large dhows (dahhabias), in one of which were the missionaries and lay brothers, and in the other, the sisters and African girls, we left Cairo for Central Africa. Almost by a miracle, after a most disastrous 90-day voyage and after losing a lay brother smitten with smallpox near Thebes, we reached Khartoum safe and sound. After another 10 days from Khartoum, I reached El Obeid with the others. Since the description in print of this terrible journey will be sent to you from Verona, I am not telling you about it now…
[3225]
The city of Khartoum and above all the Great Pasha who is in command from Meroe to the sources of the Nile, received me with excessive honours. I then thought that Our Lord Jesus Christ, after the Hosannahs, had the Crucifige lying in store. However the Pasha received me as a friend, offered me all his assistance with anything I want to do for the good of civilisation and religion, gave a great banquet in my honour, and offered me the use of his steamships free to make my pastoral visits of the Blue and White Niles, as far as Gondokoro. He did indeed do so for this journey to Kordofan, since he made his steamship available to me for 127 miles on the White Nile as far as Tura-el-Khadra, where I landed and reached El Obeid by camel in nine days.
[3226]
Not only did the Turks come to congratulate me for having reached Khartoum, but the Great Mufti himself, the head of the Muslim religion, congratulated me for having brought the sisters to educate girls. The same thing happened here in El Obeid, where the Pasha abolished slavery the day before I arrived, and for the first time published the decrees of the 1856 Paris Congress and set free more than 300 of his domestic slaves. He came to visit me with a great retinue, accompanied by two generals and the heads of his Diwan and he volunteered to support me in my every wish.
[3227]
It was not that this applause was spontaneous, because Turks loathe Christianity; it was not that slavery was effectively abolished, but on the contrary, as I shall explain later, it is at its peak in Central Africa and in Egypt, since the Turks will never abolish slavery: they will sign treaties, they will abolish it on paper, they will pretend they do not want it to throw dust in the eyes of simpletons; but as long as Muslims are Mohammedans they will not put an end to the trade in Africans. However, they wanted to lavish this homage on me, who have threatened many Pashas on the subject, since they had been officially warned by the Diwan in Cairo that I am an arch-enemy of slavery. But you must know that I was equipped with a great firman from the Sultan of Constantinople, obtained through our most gracious Emperor of Austria and Hungary, by which the Great Sultan orders the Pasha of Egypt to protect the Vicariate of Central Africa. I brandished this wonderfully written firman from time to time; with the result that the Austrian flag is feared and respected here, and all the governors and Pashas will offer me their services during my long journey.
[3228]
I will now say a few words to you about this Vicariate, the largest in the world and the most difficult and arduous. To cultivate it would require two thousand Jesuits, about fifty Stigmatines from Verona, five hundred Casaretto Benedictines of the new reform, etc., who now occupy Subiaco. We are few at present, but I shall write to you of my projects, which I have already explained to that saint of a man, Fr Beck, Commander in Chief of the Pope’s grenadiers, and which pleased him.
[3229]
In the north, the Vicariate of Central Africa borders Egypt, Barca, Tripoli and Tunisia; in the East, the Red Sea, Abyssinia, Gallas; in the South it extends to the 12th degree of Latitude South, including the lakes or sources of the Nile, Udzkidski, etc. and the Congo; in the west, the two Guineas, and the straight line from the south western point of the Prefecture Apostolic of Tripoli as far as Niger, touching the north of the Vicariate Apostolic of the coast of Benin. You see that this Vicariate is larger than the whole of Europe.
[3230]
Now in this immense Vicariate, under the governance of my predecessors Knoblecher and Kirchner from 1848 to 1861, the following four stations were founded and prospered. They are located on the line formed by the Nile and the White Nile and constitute the Eastern part of the Vicariate, that is: 1) Gondokoro at the 4th degree of Latitude North; 2) Holy Cross at the 6th degree, 3) Khartoum at the 15th degree, and Shellal at approximately the 23rd degree of Latitude North. Under the governance of the Franciscans from 1861–72, in the first two years the three stations of Gondokoro, Holy Cross and Shellal were abandoned, and for nine years they kept up Khartoum alone, with one or two missionaries from the excellent province of the Tyrol. The poor Franciscans, expecting suppression in Italy, lack the members to sustain and preserve all their innumerable missions, as I was told by the most venerable Fr Bernardino, their general.
[3231]
The houses and gardens of Gondokoro and Holy Cross have been completely destroyed. In Shellal the house is still standing but it is in a wretched state. In Khartoum the house is still very sound and it is without a doubt the most beautiful and solid building in the whole of the Sudan; but the garden is reduced to a jungle, and it will take me a year to make it produce its 2,000 francs a year for the mission adjoining it. In addition to all this, the establishment in Khartoum has been stripped of everything; in Knoblecher’s time that Mission was provided with everything like a Benedictine establishment in Europe. The good Franciscans found themselves in a critical period when a revolution was raging in Europe and the Society of Vienna had been reduced to its lowest ebb, almost as it is today. When the Pope suffers, all the Church’s members suffer!
[3232]
Now to lay solid and firm foundations on which properly to establish the Vicariate, I am limiting myself to strengthening as far as I can the two central stations which serve as an operations base for all future missions which will be founded in Central Africa. These are Khartoum and El Obeid: and since the journey from Cairo to Khartoum is sufficient to kill and render useless the missionary, and also to comply with Propaganda’s wishes as expressed to me by the most Eminent Cardinal Barnabò in his venerable letter of 29th April, I intend to open Shellal.
[3233]
I will now considerably deplete the Cairo Institutes because I myself have brought 30 of their members who are ready for the apostolate, to the centre, and another 20 will be taken there in a second expedition next August. So two small establishments in Cairo are always necessary to acclimatise the missionaries and sisters and to test their vocation further; and they constitute a kind of Procurator’s office of the Vicariate for relations with Europe and a source of provision for the Mission. The journey from Cairo to Khartoum is too perilous and excessive for the missionaries’ health. Hence the need of Shellal, which is halfway between Cairo and the Sudan. Since we have witnessed the death of so many missionaries, it is necessary to study the means to preserve their lives.
[3234]
Now in Cairo, when the Consul General returns from Vienna, we shall already have the land given us by the Khedive on which to build these two establishments. Land in Cairo costs 20 francs a metre. The Pasha will therefore be doing us a supremely charitable deed. Since the cutting of the canal of Suez the cost of living in Cairo is two or three times as much as it is in Germany. I therefore intend to reduce the two institutes to the minimum, that is, they will only be for European men and women who are preparing for the Apostolate of Africa.
[3235]
In Cairo, Africans are expensive (500 francs each), and there they are already corrupted by the Muslims. Here they cost almost nothing, from 15 to 30 thalers, and are better, unspoilt and not adulterated by Muslims. Thus where until today the Cairo Institutes cost me 34,000 francs a year, I hope that as from 1874 they will cost me a quarter of that. In Shellal, in addition to the male house, we have 12 feddan of good land (64,000 square metres): with the cost of equipment to draw water from the Nile, half the station’s food can be produced by the station: but it is necessary to build a small house for the sisters entirely in oriental granite like the Obelisks in Rome, which were all cut in Shellal, or in the neighbourhood. In Shellal sick people flock from sixty miles away to be treated by the mission. On 16th March in a single day I baptised four dying children who then all went to heaven.
[3236]
In Khartoum the sisters’ house and the church are essential. Khartoum has a population of about 50,000, and the climate has been improved, because of the large buildings erected there and the creation of gardens. Living there now is like living in the southern part of the regions of Verona and Padua. Since I have had my Vicar General resident in this station, Khartoum has been given a new life and I hope we shall soon see Christianity flourishing there. It now has many catechumens. On the Feast of the Holy Spirit I confirmed 34 new converts. Catechism, preaching and the ministry are now as vigorous as they are in the parishes of Verona. I hope in a few years, if God gives us life, to announce to you that this mission is a great success. Here in El Obeid, where my explorers Carcereri and Franceschini were the first Catholic missionaries to arrive, a small nucleus of Christianity has already been formed.
[3237]
We have our own house and a lovely little church. We need to enlarge it for the schools and the crafts and skills, because for the time being the school is under a big tree and it is hot from 9.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. Then we need the house for the Sisters. At the moment I have three institutes of African girls with my cousin, a professed member of the Company of St. Angela Merici, who live in straw huts. The houses here are huts; but since fires have occurred and will always occur, the government has decreed that they must all be made of sand, since there are neither stones nor earth to make bricks here. Before the rains, these sand houses are covered with a paste made from sand and the excrement of cattle, and this enables the houses to resist the rains for that year. The operation must be renewed annually. The actual house with a church which we possess at the moment cost 13,000 francs, but we have to lay out an expenditure of 600 francs every year, what with beams and mud to preserve it. It is one of the soundest and most beautiful in the capital.
[3238]
All the merit for this mission goes to Fathers Franceschini and Carcereri of the Order of St Camillus who joined me with their General’s assent and a Papal Rescript; and I hope that they will always stay on the mission, which is their wish; it must be provided with a hospital, as I promised their general and which will be a blessing from God in this capital, since more than half those who are seriously ill are flung out of the city without being buried, sometimes even before they die, to be devoured by the hyenas and birds.
[3239]
Since the day before yesterday I saw with my own eyes more than sixty dead bodies being thrown out of the city in this way, and they were all Africans. I sent a letter to the Great Pasha of Kordofan in which I suggested that he order all the dead to be buried, because the prevailing custom here is against religion and civility since these unfortunates are our fellow humans. He immediately promulgated the law I desired, and now messengers and heralds are running all over the city to enforce the order with the severest penalties. Among the converts is the most important merchant of El Obeid (a schismatic Greek), who made his abjuration seven months ago in the hands of my Vicar General Fr Carcereri, and with him his whole family was converted, and is now most exemplary.
[3240]
I now come to tell you something of the most grievous scourge that afflicts my Vicariate, that is, slavery, which is at its most flourishing here, partly through the fault of atheism and the frenzy of today’s European powers, and above all of Islam, which will promise everything and sign all the treaties of the European powers, but on paper; never in practice. In my position, I can do some good in this regard; the Catholic mission is a power in the Sudan, and this is largely due to the Austrian flag that flies above it.
[3241]
All the pashas and slave traders fear us and seek to keep out of our sight. I have declared to the Pashas of Khartoum and Kordofan that I will have any slaves I find in the city or outside it, in chains, etc., brought to the mission, and that I shall not return them. Then I shall keep all those who come to the mission to denounce the ill-treatment they have received from their masters, after checking that their claims are true, and I will not give them back. I simply inform the Diwan that I have kept so and so, etc., in the mission, and until the trial takes place and is approved by me or, in my absence, by my substitute, those concerned must stay in the mission. The above-mentioned Pashas or governors, who know they are in the wrong because the most important slave trader is the government, have not said a word to me and agree with everything. Already up to now I have set more than 500 free. The horns of Christ, Fr Mazza used to say, are harder than those of the devil.
[3242]
But Oh! The horror of the slave trade which triumphs in these parts! More than half a million slaves pass through El Obeid, Khartoum and the territory between them. Most are female, but they are mingled anyhow with males of any age but most of whom are between 7 and 18, completely naked, mostly in chains, and most stolen or violently snatched from their families in the tribes and kingdoms to the south or south-west of Khartoum and Kordofan; they snatch them, killing the parents if they are old or, if they are young, both children and parents are kidnapped or stolen. They all pass through here on their way to Egypt or the Red Sea, to be sold! Females who are good-looking are treated reasonably and intended for prostitution or for the Harems, and the others for service.
[3243]
Between Cairo and Khartoum, we encountered more than 40 boats, in which males and females were wedged together like sardines. On our way through the desert, we came across more than thirty caravans, walking naked and barefoot, mothers with their babies and little girls and boys 7 or 8 years old; trailing on foot over the burning sands, on a journey which tires even the strongest of camels, and fed, not even every day, on a little durrah, or millet soaked in water.
[3244]
But what I saw between Khartoum and El Obeid, where I met several thousand slaves mostly females mixed up with the males and without a stitch of clothing, saddened me the most. The little ones, under three, were carried by other slaves, who seemed to be their mothers and were on foot. Others of both sexes, in groups of eight and ten, were tied around the neck to a beam resting on their shoulders which they were forced to carry. This was to prevent them escaping. From ten to fifteen others from the ages of 8 to 15, were tied around the neck with a goatskin cord fastened to a thicker rope which a jallaba or slave trader held in his hand. Others were attached in pairs to a beam across their shoulder, one on each side.
[3245]
Yet others had the sheva, that is, a triangular shaped beam attached to the neck of the slave who has to walk on foot dragging it. Others were chained with their hands and arms behind them, and attached to a long rope held by a villain. Yet others had their feet fettered in iron chains: others chained in this way carried bundles or burdens belonging to the masters, and the old ones walked free. They were all goaded barbarously with lances and sticks, when they stumbled or were tired; and some were already collapsing with exhaustion on the ground. Then the villains finished them off with blows from sticks or lances, or left them there on the road. I found some dead on our way and our poor catechists were upset and horrified.
[3246]
This is only a pale idea of the much more that I could say. You see, Sir, one of the tasks of our mission. No treaty, no authority, can abolish the slave trade here, because it is permitted by Mohammed, and the Muslims believe they have the right to practise slavery. It will only be wiped out by preaching the Gospel and by definitively establishing Catholicism in these parts. The government, which adhered to the 1856 treaty, adhered on paper; but not in practice. The governors of the Sudan are the first to carry on the infamous trade by which they profit; and the Pashas themselves go on raids on the Nuba, the Teggala, the White Nile, etc., taking with them troops of soldiers with guns, and they always return with six or eight thousand slaves! All this is known in Cairo, both by the Diwan and by the Viceroy and, I think, by many European consuls. But since they have all been bought by now and since the cries of pain of these peoples do not reach Europe, today dominated by atheism and Freemasonry, thus the desolation of these areas continues and will continue for a long time to come.
[3247]
Only the Heart of Jesus implored by upright souls, and the charity of the holy and dutiful persons who come to the aid of the Catholic apostolate in this holy and difficult mission, will dry the tears of these unhappy people for whose redemption we are sacrificing our life. You see too, in this respect, the enormous importance of this Vicariate Apostolic…
[3248]
Last December the Ambassador of England came to see me in Cairo: we had a long talk and we agreed to correspond. But how surprised I was when he told me that he was not bound for Central Africa, the scene of the most colossal slave trade, but for Zanzibar and Muscat. He had been to see the Viceroy of Egypt and was quite satisfied with his audience because the Khedive had praised his philanthropic mission and promised him all the support required. I who know how matters stand was silent and left him with his good faith; I only told him that the Turks, sustained by the assertions of their Mufti who interpret the Koran, believe slavery is licit and praiseworthy, etc. Then His Excellency said to me: “Do you think I shall succeed in my mission to the Sultan of Zanzibar?”
[3249]
I answered him, “Mr Ambassador, the Sultan will receive you splendidly, and offer you princely hospitality. But he will refuse to follow your wishes, since according to him the Koran is the word of God and does not forbid but permits the trade in human flesh. Or should the sultan comply with your wishes and sign a treaty with Her Majesty the Queen of England, as soon as you have left Zanzibar, he will continue to trade in slaves as before and will allow other Muslims to do so”. His Excellency was not very happy with my opinion, but expressed the hope of succeeding with the letters from his government and cannons. “With the cannons, yes”, I replied, “but only in those localities where their noise can be heard”.
[3250]
We parted in a friendly way after dining with his large entourage, which included an Anglican Archbishop expert in Arabic and Persian who shared my opinions. He was this embassy’s secretary. I do not know what became of it, because I came to Central Africa: but I am still of the same opinion now. Only Faith in Christ established in the heart of Africa and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Virgin Mary and St Joseph, rather than the Queen of England and the 1856 Paris Treaty, will abolish slavery…
[3251]
Furthermore, the Holy Father Pius IX has always had this mission at heart; and he told me that he has prayed and will always pray for me. We here in Central Africa, after preaching about the Trinity, the Redemption and Our Lady, will immediately preach about the Pope, who is all the greater the more he is persecuted. Oh how delightful it is to suffer with the Pope!…
Receive the whole heart of
Your most devoted and humble

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[3252]
I should have written to you earlier, to tell you of your worthy sons and my dear sons and brothers, Carcereri and Franceschini. But I was never able to decide on it until I managed to embrace them on the site of their apostolic efforts, and see all they have done with my own eyes, in order to give an exact and conscientious report to their most venerable father, and inform you about them with full knowledge.
[3253]
Without mentioning to you in detail how much good these two good fathers have done in my Institutes in Egypt, for which I owe them and you infinite gratitude, I must confess to you simply that here in my Vicariate (which has exhausted the strength of more than sixty missionaries) they have worked wonders; for in the short space of 17 months they have founded the mission in El Obeid, which because of its geographical location is the true gateway to Central Africa and perhaps the most important base in which to implant the faith in the heart of the immense tribes of the Vicariate of Central Africa. In a few months they have done what a large body of missionaries could only do in a few years. In fact, with the modest means I was able to provide them, they have set up a station in El Obeid, equipped with a house, chapel and garden, which will be adequate for a community with a vigorous apostolate; they have created a small group of Christians which functions just like a normal European parish; and by their dignified conduct and work, they have earned the esteem of all, from the Pashas and the wealthiest merchants to the most humble classes; and with a courage inspired alone by the faith and God’s mission, they have been able to make our holy Work respected by the Turkish authorities and by the fiercest enemies of the faith, so that they have the prime place above everyone else in this capital which has a population of more than a hundred thousand.
[3254]
After my appointment as Pro-Vicar everything in the Station of Khartoum was left to fall into ruin, and everything beautiful and good belonging to that formerly very prosperous Mission was sold in only three months. At that point Fr Stanislao, whom I had made responsible for taking possession of the Station of Khartoum in my name while I was travelling with the great caravan, awakened the declining spirit of those Catholics so well that we can now foresee that we shall succeed in planting a small and flourishing Catholic Christianity on the spiritual foundations which already exist there. In a word, Fr Stanislao is a true and holy religious, a worthy son of St Camillus, a most capable missionary, who seems to have received special gifts from God for the demanding apostolate of Africa.
[3255]
As for Fr Franceschini, in no way is he inferior to Carcereri with regard to the essential gifts that make a true Gospel worker, and he seems cut out for Central Africa. He also has a maturity of wisdom and judgement far beyond his age, so that he works as one who is expert and unfaltering in the most difficult contingencies. In short, he is an experienced and able missionary who continues to be an excellent religious with a deep love for his Camillian Congregation which gave him a spiritual education. Both speak and preach fluently in Arabic and find that they have learned much about the practical apostolic ministry in the six years that they have been in Africa under my humble banner; and they are so motivated for the Apostolate of Central Africa that they are both prepared to spend their whole lives and shed all their blood thousands of times for the poor Africans’ salvation, as long as they have the consent and blessing of you, their Most Reverend Father General, to whom they belong in every way, and for whom they have most sincere veneration and love.
[3256]
Most Reverend Father, I was very pleased when in Khartoum I read your venerable letter in which you asserted that it was not against the spirit and rule of your distinguished Order for a Minister of the Sick to exercise, attentis circumstantiis, the office of Vicar General; which is why, with the appropriate Document of last May, I appointed the above-mentioned Fr Carcereri my Vicar General. I now leave him temporarily as head of the Station in Khartoum to complete and continue the good for Christianity which he first began there; while here in El Obeid, although I have with me a missionary with an excellent spirit and prudence who is 40 years old, I have appointed Fr Franceschini as Superior of the Station. With his critical sense and prudence, which are not that of his 27 years but of someone over 50, I am sure he will be well able to carry out his difficult and sensitive office since for this too, he has rare aptitude.
[3257]
Now as soon as I reached my principal residence in Khartoum with my great caravan, I was concerned to put into practice ad litteram what I had formally promised, and this is why I spoke to you, Most Reverend Father, concerning your famous Order as regards Central Africa; that is, to found in that site or Station which will be the most pleasing to our two beloved sons, a Camillian House complying with all the conditions expressed and explained to me by you, Most Reverend Father: in other words, their own house and the corresponding income to maintain it, since I am now absolutely in a position to keep to the proposals I made to you in Rome.
[3258]
Thus I mentioned it to the V. Reverend Vicar General, Carcereri; but he pointed out to me that two religious alone could not achieve the desired conditions for a flourishing Camillian House and convinced me of what Fr Giovanni Battista Carcereri had said to me in Verona, that is, that hic et nunc it would be easier for these two fathers Stanislao and Giuseppe, and of greater advantage to the Mission, if for the time being they were to continue to work together with me and under my direction, but with the firm conviction that as soon as it is possible to procure additional religious confreres from Europe, they could easily put our idea as mentioned above into practice.
[3259]
Indeed, as long as they are only two, I realise that they can achieve much more by working together with me than if they were confined to a house of their own; and even more, if, Most Reverend Father, you were to grant me the grace of being able to make use of them as I see fit, according to the Vicariate’s requirements. It would certainly be hard indeed to find two missionaries and religious of such a spirit and steadiness for an apostolate as gruelling and difficult as that of Central Africa, as these two worthy sons of yours. I have known them really well for six years; and I have visited various missions in Europe, Africa, Syria, the Indies, and I know what the word missionary means: then I have been a missionary in Central Africa for 16 years and have toiled beside the most distinguished and strenuous champions of Central Africa; thus with full knowledge of what is at stake, I repeat to you that missionaries like Carcereri and Franceschini who manifest the true qualities to succeed in being strenuous champions of this onerous and difficult vineyard entrusted to me by the Holy See, are few and far between in the five parts of the world.
[3260]
Moreover they are excellent religious who, I would say, live almost as though they were in the novitiate. So it is that I would be very glad even if, Most Reverend Father, you were to grant them to me to work with me, as they have until now. You should clearly understand that this consent of yours would not be in perpetuum; but only until a brighter horizon comes in sight for Religious Orders in Europe and notably for the Camillians, and until I have given the most difficult Work of my Vicariate a good start. To do this I would find extremely useful the experience, special talents and unwavering constancy of these two unparalleled religious Gospel workers whose zeal and activity I have to contain and slow down, rather than to incite and inspire.
[3261]
This is why I appeal to your eminent bounty, Most Reverend Father, to beg you earnestly to grant these two fathers, your sons and mine, the grace of being able to work for a few years with me and under my banner. This would be a grace for me that would invoke divine blessings upon you and your entire Order, because thousands of infidels converted by these two would pray at the throne of God for the preservation and fruitfulness of the illustrious Camillian Order.
[3262]
Here then is my thought for the future, which I submit to your judgement, Most Reverend Father. I have a firm and unshakeable conviction in the not too distant triumph of the Church; and in the most flourishing resurgence of the Regular Orders and of the Camillian Order which will extend its flags in France and Africa, especially after the storm of the present infernal persecution and after the conclusion of the Vatican Council. The Camillian Order’s lofty and generous programme is in conformity with the needs of the times, and even more, it is an omnipotent means of winning popular sympathy and triumphing over infidels.
[3263]
I am therefore disposed to put this plan into practice despite any obstacle, as long as I have the consent of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda to which my every action is submitted. My Vicariate is larger than all Europe and the most extensive in the world, and it is peopled by more than a hundred million infidels. Up to now we only occupy the gateway to Africa, and the fringes of the Centre of the Vicariate where vast untouched tribes reside who have not yet been corrupted by the followers of the Alkoran and for whom great good can be done. All who wish to go to the heart of Africa, where the people are still uncontaminated, are obliged to pass through Khartoum or Kordofan.
[3264]
I am therefore very willing to build a house for the Camillians in accordance with what is required by their spirit and their rule, in any spot in Nubia or Kordofan, or the capitals Khartoum and El Obeid themselves, which may serve as a centre of support for a Camillian Mission in interior Africa which in due time can be entrusted to St Camillus, and for which the financial and material means are not and will not be lacking; since now and in the future I am certain to have the same as all the missions in the world that rely for their principal means on the charitable societies in Europe that support my Vicariate; and this is in addition to the resources I can find in my Vicariate. In brief, the Providence which in six years, in such difficult and disastrous times, has given me half a million lire to maintain and direct my works, will be able to help me make a foundation in Central Africa for the Camillians who have played such an important part in the success of my undertaking, contrariis quibuscumque non obstantibus.
[3265]
These are the thoughts and the things that I submit to your wisdom and your heart, Most Reverend Father; and I declare myself ready to do everything in my power that you deem opportune and desire. The only thing I would not be able to come to terms with, would be if you were to recall these two champions of the African Apostolate to Europe. That would be an immense sorrow for them and for me. But I trust in the Immaculate Virgin Mary, Queen of Africa, and in that St Camillus who has given me additional graces for the last 28 years through my beloved Fr Giovanni Battista Peretti of holy memory, who by placing me in the Mazza Institute in Verona paved my way to the African apostolate. These two dear subjects of my devotion will grant me such grace on behalf of the Vicariate Apostolic of Central Africa, the most enormous and difficult mission in the world, for which I and your two dear sons are ready to give our life a hundred times. This is our war cry: “Africa or Death!” This enterprise is truly worthy of St Camillus and of us.
I trust in your magnanimous mind and heart, so zealous for souls, most Reverend Father, to whom I profess filial reverence and gratitude; I commend myself to your prayers, while I have the honour to sign myself in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary,
Your most Reverend Father’s
most humble, devoted and grateful servant,

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[3266]
As I pointed out to you in my last letter of 5th June n.5, the Pasha of Khartoum placed at my disposition a Government steamship, completely free, to transport me and my small caravan up the White Nile to the point where one disembarks to take the route to Kordofan. In fact, on the morning of the 8th of last month, the steamship set sail from the Mission garden; I was accompanied by my Vicar General. In 18 hours we covered about 120 miles on the white Nile as far as Tura-el-Khadra, not far from the vast tribe of the Shilluk where we found the Superior of the mission of El Obeid, who had come to meet me to accompany me to my destination. I landed, and after taking my leave of the Vicar General who was returning immediately to Khartoum with the steamer, I set out with our caravan of 19 camels. After crossing dense forests and sandy plains with a sparse scattering of gum trees, I reached the capital of Kordofan in only nine days.
[3267]
Two hours before, almost all the Christian Colony came to meet me, not excluding the schismatic Copts who hold senior posts in the Diwan; and having received congratulations from them all, I entered the mission, festively decked out, amidst the pealing of bells and the harmonious music of the flourishing band of the military Garrison of the Station (three thousand soldiers between infantry and cavalry), and the exultation of the members of our House and of the small Catholic community of this capital with a population of more than a hundred thousand. I will not conceal from you the fact that the Great Pasha of Kordofan himself (who, given the great distance from Cairo has vast powers and is a little king) accompanied by a troop of soldiers, two Generals and the senior officials of his Diwan, came to visit me with great pomp, offering me his friendship and co-operation in doing all I wished for the purposes of civilisation and charity, for which he knew I had come.
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He is the self-same Pasha who last April refused to recognise the Catholic mission of Kordofan. Your Eminence will have heard about this and other consular disasters last July in a letter from Mgr Ciurcia. But after the Memini that I provoked in Vienna in the name of His Apostolic Majesty Emperor Franz Jozef I, and after the Recommendations that the Royal Imperial Austrio-Hungarian Consul on Vienna’s orders gave the Diwan in Cairo with which I had myself furnished too, not only the Pasha of Kordofan but those of Khartoum and Berber also gave me a most expansive welcome and made me free to do as I wish with regard to slaves who present themselves at the doors of our missions; which I have made the most of until now, setting free as I have done, hundreds of unfortunates who were groaning under the burden of the most cruel and arbitrary despotism.
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The day before my entry into the capital of Kordofan, the above-mentioned Governor General of this immense region ordered that slavery be abolished in El Obeid (with words and on paper, to throw dust in the eyes of simpletons); and he himself gave their freedom to 200 or more slaves in his diwan and harem. For this reason from the 18th of the last month of June, the slave market in El Obeid has been closed down completely, and no longer do so many hundreds and thousands of unfortunates of both sexes appear there, lying chained by the neck, their feet fettered, their arms bound behind their backs with iron chains, or with the sheva, which is a long beam ending in a triangle to which the slave’s neck is attached with chains, as he waits for someone to buy him.
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Here I am concerned to describe to you the horrors of slavery which is in full vigour all over Central Africa, despite the treaties of the European Powers and the fake prohibitions of the Pashas and Governors of the Sudan. Although my favourable position in these parts and the real prestige of the Mission are able to render an immense service to civilisation and limit the fury of this scourge of humanity, it is nonetheless a business that requires the Sacred Congregation’s most serious reflection and most circumspect examination. I shall therefore be writing to you about it in the future, and I now give you a very brief account of this important mission in Kordofan.
[3271]
I am convinced that the fact of establishing a mission in El Obeid, which is perhaps the most densely populated city in the Sudan was a true inspiration of God, above all because of its most important and strategic location. It is the true gateway to Central Africa. Not to mention many other tribes, three days journey from here towards the north-west one enters the territory of the Empire of Darfur, and in a fortnight one reaches the residence of its Sultan. In three days, travelling towards the South West, one reaches the immense, densely populated territory inhabited by millions of souls of the vast tribe of the Nuba who were never conquered by the Egyptian armies, and with whom it is easy for us to have contacts from El Obeid. In one month on camel from here, one reaches the Empire of Bornù, while from Tripoli and with greater risks, it takes a hundred or more days. Here in El Obeid live the procurators of the merchants and Sultans of Darfur and Bornù (and they are already our friends), who through them provide themselves with cloth and European items. Moreover the climate here is good, absolutely good, and the heat is certainly less oppressive and excessive than it is in Rome; and in addition, the fevers and diseases that prevail on the White Nile are unknown.
[3272]
I am still convinced that God’s blessing is upon this new-born mission of El Obeid. We have a house roomy enough for a community of six missionaries, four lay brothers and 20 pupils, provided with schools and halls for the artisan work and the crafts, with an elegant chapel which has a capacity of 100 and a garden which currently provides the mission with vegetables the whole year round. Furthermore, we have a small house annexed to our one where the African girl catechumens are temporarily housed, in the care of my excellent cousin Stampais (who had been with our Sisters in Cairo for 5 years) and two African women teachers whom I brought from Khartoum; it can easily accommodate four Sisters and 30 pupils, and together with another house for which I am now negotiating, will form an establishment for the sisters arriving here in October which is rather more comfortable than that of the Sisters of St Joseph in Piazza Margana in Rome.
[3273]
Here the parish functions are in full flow, with preaching, catechesis and instruction on every Feast day for the 30 Catholics, who make up this new mission. Among them I must mention the richest merchant of the city, a most exemplary man, who with his wife abjured the Greek schism in the hands of the two Camillian Fathers, Stanislao Carcereri and Giuseppe Franceschini, whom I sent here last year to explore Kordofan.
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To be fair, I must mention here to Your Eminence how the foundation of this new-born mission is due to these two worthy sons of St Camillus. It was they who with the modest means I had supplied them, undertook the difficult exploration of Kordofan, discovered the true importance of El Obeid and created this Station and started the mission, gaining with their serious and edifying conduct the whole city’s esteem and veneration, and especially of the top employees and merchants. They both speak, catechise and preach in Arabic, and would be glad to be able to give up their lives for the Redemption of Africa.
[3275]
In view of these considerations, in order, if it is God’s will, to keep these two distinguished men, most zealous and very mature in this gruelling mission, I wrote to their Most Reverend Father General in order to establish a regular agreement that would conform to his wishes and to the interests of Central Africa, and am then submitting it all to the Sacred Congregation.
I kiss your Sacred purple, and declare myself

Your Eminence’s humble son,
D. Comboni, Pro-Vicar Apostolic

[3276]
For Fr Stefano’s promotion to the Subdiaconate, he must and does have his patrimony, that is, the little that suffices to provide an annual income of 250 lire. If moreover, these practices should delay his ordination, I authorise you to ordain him titulo missionis in accordance with the ad hoc authorisation received from the Holy See, but under the absolute obligation that Fr Stefano should draw the interest on his patrimony every year and give it to the mission, because the Holy See granted this privilege only and exclusively to the poor. Pray for your most affectionate,

(L.S.).............................................Daniel Comboni

Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa