Writings

[3381]
Our soul filled with the deepest sorrow, we hasten to announce that Reverend Father Giuseppe Pio Hadrian, a Benedictine Priest of the original Congregation of Monte Cassino and Apostolic Missionary of Central Africa, after a long chronic illness unknown to the medical profession which he contracted some years ago in Europe, fortified with all the comforts of our most holy Religion, departed to eternal repose on 17th August 1873 at 8.30 a.m., in El Obeid, Kordofan, Central Africa, with edifying resignation and Christian courage, at the age of about 26.
[3382]
He was born in one of the tribes of the Peninsula of Sennàr near the Blue Nile. As a little boy barely four years old, he was violently torn from his family by the fierce merchants of human flesh. After being sold and resold many times in Nubia, he was taken to Cairo in Egypt and redeemed by the Very Reverend Fr Nicola Olivieri of happy memory and taken to Italy. He was received by the goodness of the Benedictine monks at Subiaco near Rome, where thanks to the most diligent and affectionate care, after being instructed in the first rudiments of our holy Religion, he was baptised on 24th June 1853 in the Monastery of St. Scholastica by the most worthy and reverend Fr Pietro Casaretto, President of the above-mentioned Order, and now Abbot General of the Primitive Monte Cassino Congregation of the Patriarch St Benedict. On 26th April 1856 he made his First Communion with great devotion in the above-mentioned Proto-Cenobium. On 18th October that same year he received the Sacrament of Confirmation there, from the hands of His Eminence the late lamented Cardinal De-Andrea. He entered the Novitiate of the said illustrious Benedictine Congregation on 16th February 1861 and was clothed with the monastic habit on the 24th of the same month and year. On 19th March 1863 he made his simple profession.
[3383]
Responding faithfully to divine grace, the new African religious was admirably imbued with the spirit of his Holy Patriarch; and in his mind combined with the treasure of distinct piety, frankness and irreproachable habits, a sound foundation in the sacred sciences together with knowledge of the Liturgy, sacred music, drawing and several languages.
[3384]
While he showed the most promising hopes of succeeding as a model of excellent piety and a well-instructed religious, in 1867 he fell victim to a slow disease unknown to the most enlightened doctors. It resisted every remedy and all the treatment lavished upon him by the excellent love of his Superiors.
Judging that the climate of his homeland might restore his former vigour and perfect health, with the agreement of the immortal Supreme Pontiff Pius IX and the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, he was entrusted last year to the most Reverend Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa, Fr Daniel Comboni, to be brought back to the land of his birth to recover his health, so that he might dedicate his life to the apostolate of that holy Mission.

[3385]
On 26th May he received minor Orders at the Sacro Speco, the cradle of the glorious Benedictine Order, from the hands of H.E. Monsignor Filippo Manetti, Bishop of Tripoli i.p.i. and Apostolic Administrator of the Abbey nullius of Subiaco. On 2nd June, he was promoted to the Subdiaconate by the same Prelate, also in the Sacro Speco, on 9th June to the Diaconate, and on the 16th to the Priesthood. On 12th August he reached the Institute of African Missions in Verona; on 3rd September he had the honour to be received with his Pro-Vicar Apostolic by His Apostolic Majesty the Emperor of Austria and Hungary in Vienna. Three days later, he had the comfort of visiting the distinguished and very ancient Monastery of St. Peter’s in Salzburg and the famous convent of the Benedictine Nuns of Nonnberg, founded by St Erentrude in 581 and which has never been suppressed throughout its life of thirteen centuries.
[3386]
It was one of the sweetest moments of his life, since he admired the eminent spirit of his venerable Patriarch St Benedict in those pious and fervent religious, benefactors of the Work for the redemption of his dear Africa. He established with them a sacred bond of reciprocal daily prayers which he faithfully preserved until his death. On 26th September he arrived at the Institute for Africans in Cairo, where he admirably spread the sweet fragrance of his beautiful virtues. On 26th January this year, he left the Egyptian capital and set out for Central Africa with the great Apostolic caravan, led by the head of the Mission. After ninety-nine days of the most gruelling and disastrous journey on the Nile and through the Desert, he reached Khartoum, the capital of the Egyptian possessions in the Sudan, where he stayed a month. He then set out once again with the Pro-Vicar for the White Nile and, entering Kordofan on camel, he reached this capital, El Obeid, on 19th June.
[3387]
After about a month in this new Mission where the air is healthy, his former illness returned with a vengeance. He visibly declined, his condition aggravated by violent dysentery, the result of a chronic intestinal infection caught a few years earlier. After 20 days of acute pain which he bore with Christian cheerfulness and edifying resignation his immaculate and eminently religious life came to an end with the death of the Just, leaving in sorrow his beloved Missionary confreres who will henceforth never be able to forget this first flower of the indigenous priesthood of Central Africa, embellished with the shining graces of religious virtue of the most noble and illustrious of the Cenobitic Families of the Catholic Church.

Given in El Obeid, at Our Residence in Kordofan, 20th August 1873.

(L.S.)...........................................

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa



V. Reverend Abbot General,

[3388]
In telling you the sad news of Fr Pio’s death, I promise to send you the details through Propaganda. He has gone straight to Heaven. Since on 18th August last I made him an associate of Congregation in Verona, I have sent the announcement to its President so that more than 600 (six hundred) Masses are celebrated for him as of right. I cannot tell you how deeply I am grieving; but may God’s most holy will be done. Give my regards to Fr Procurator and all the Fathers, and bless me. Many regards to Mgr Manetti, Bishop in Subiaco.

Your most humble, devoted and true servant

Daniel Comboni,
Pro-Vicar Apostolic

[3389]
I have been wanting to write to you for ages, to tell you all the details with full knowledge of the facts of your two dear disciples, confreres and sons, Fathers Stanislao and Beppi; but my many occupations have prevented me, as well as a certain blameworthy negligence. Nonetheless I have known your heart inside out since you were still in the secular world and under the same roof we devoured Fr Mazza’s classical and philosophical polenta, that is, when I was young and heedless and you young, but already endowed with mature judgement, sense and prudence beyond your years! So I am sure you will forgive me.
[3390]
The two Camillians are now the ornament and pillar of my immense Vicariate Apostolic, which in St Camillus acknowledges an effective patron and helper for unhappy Africa. They were the first, with the limited means I gave them, to open a new mission in this capital which is rather more densely populated than Verona, and they gave birth to Christianity here. Since this Mission is the true gateway to Africa it promises the most beautiful hopes, and the Work of St Camillus can be more fruitful here than in any European city because, since all are infidels, we need to establish all the Catholic Works amongst which those of St Camillus are most important. The same is said of Khartoum, where the climate has improved considerably compared to the times when the missionaries of the Mazza Institute were there. But the climate of El Obeid is far better, and the summer I have spent here since 20th June until today is like a Verona spring.
[3391]
In a word, Fr Stanislao is a great man, capable of great things, a man capable of heading a diocese and more, especially if he is at my side, because he has a great influence on me and has given me proof that I (most unworthy) have an influence on him. Thus since we are two little devils as was said in Rome, I am able to temper the impulses that would spur him beyond duty, and he has the strength to keep me within the bounds of prudence and what is right; from this providential connection so much good has sprung that in less than six months, with God’s providential help, we have revived this immense Vicariate which was moribund, and brought it to a degree of prosperity that was never attained, even in the wonderful times of my illustrious predecessor, Mgr Ignazio Knoblecher. Then Beppi, I say it with pride, because with the sound and excellent principles he acquired thanks to the school of Heaven, he has become such under my banner through a most active apostolate, that he is a man of 50 as regards his judgement, prudence, critical ability, soundness and firmness of soul.
[3392]
They are two true and most valid missionaries, two good and able workers in the Lord’s vineyard and two true and most faithful sons of St Camillus of Lellis, who would let themselves be massacred and cut into pieces; consequently they are capable of giving up any boastful and capital desire in order to stay faithful to their 4 vows and to the obedience of their legitimate Camillian Superiors. They must have had a very sound religious education in the paradise of Verona. The defection of Perinelli and several other Neapolitans and Veronese who were at my Institutes in Cairo, enable me increasingly to appreciate these two Camillian apostles, and they convince me in practice of what I wrote in my rule for the new African Institute of Verona: that to labour in a vineyard as arduous as this one in Africa, a firm religious basis and training in extraordinary self-denial is essential and in accordance with the spirit of Jesus Christ Crucified, because the gift of self, and the whole of self, in order to fling oneself into the arms of obedience and God, is not obtained without the extraordinary help of grace. And this is vital for Central Africa.
[3393]
Furthermore, these two are so familiar with Arab life, full of privations in these countries, that I have never seen missionaries the like of them in Central Africa: they ride camels, sleep fully clothed on a skin on their journeys, eat locma with the Arabs, enjoy an iron constitution and work like natives under the sun and everywhere. I have to take certain precautions, to which perhaps I owe the excellent state of health which I enjoy.
[3394]
But despite my strictest orders, they do not think of themselves: they go without a thought wherever the ministry calls them. All in all, it would be hard for me to have two missionaries so suited to Africa as these: so you can imagine how dear they are to me, and how much I rely on their work. On the day of the Assumption I baptised eleven infidel adults, one of whom was a Mohammedan. On the 14th of this month, I shall baptise 12, and we still have many other catechumens. I would never end were I to have to describe to you the prospects of this mission that they founded.
[3395]
It is now necessary to come to a definitive solution with regard to the future of these Camillians who are here by the grace of God, of Pius IX, and of Fr Guardi. As my Vicar General, Fr Stanislao is based in Khartoum, my principal residence. Beppi is here. But neither of them know that I am now writing to you. However, yesterday Beppi had a letter from Guido in which, among other things, he tells him he must remember that he is a Camillian and that he is bound by the voice of obedience to return to his nest, etc. You must know, my dear Fr Germano, that I was, and perhaps still am a great simpleton. But God, through his inscrutable and ever adorable judgement, has permitted me to make many blunders, and has had me fall into a great many traps which I now frequently detect from afar.
[3396]
I have dealt with the world and with the highest and most spurious many-faceted diplomacy, with great bigots and scoundrels, with the great and the lowly, so that through God’s dispositions I now believe I am not the greenhorn that I was at S. Carlo, where it was impossible to know either the profane world or the sacred, Freemasons or Papists or anything. One applied oneself to one’s studies and that was all. Fr Guido wrote as a true Son of St Camillus and I hold him in esteem. But I realise, reading between the lines, that in his venerable superior reasoning, with praiseworthy and just intentions, there might be a thought of recalling these two Fathers to Europe. The venerable Camillian Superiors would only do what they are inspired to do by the Lord; and I know that Beppi and Fr Stanislao are so deeply rooted in their sacred duties that they would leave a paradise to obey their Superiors.
[3397]
This is the reason why, in God’s name, since as I have been established here by the Holy See to safeguard the interests of the hundred and more million infidels that the Church has entrusted to my care, I must convert them to the faith, I turn to you to be my patron and protector with Fr Guardi, so that the plans made six years ago to found a Camillian House in Africa to be as it were the centre and the seed bed for founding one or more missions in the African Interior may be put into effect.
[3398]
When the famous five-year Pontifical Rescript expired, I had the honour to get in touch with the most Reverend Fr Guardi. Moved by the warmest charity with which he has been filled since becoming a Camillian, he allowed his two dear sons to remain indefinitely in Africa, and assured me that should it be possible to found a Camillian House in some safe place in the Vicariate in accordance with the conditions prescribed by the Holy Lellian Rule, in view of the true desire of these two sons he would consent to the matter as long as Propaganda agreed. As I see clouds gathering – a Novitiate has been opened in Verona and there are requests for Camillians in France and in England – it is now time to deal with this most important Camillian business in favour of Central Africa where souls are more numerous, unhappy and in need than in France and England, who can be saved more easily; and in greater numbers than in Europe and who have also been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
[3399]
Since I now have at my disposal the necessary means to satisfy the proper demands of the Most Reverend Vicar General Guardi and all the conditions required by him and by the Camillian rule, and having these two incomparable individuals especially suited to Central Africa who want to sacrifice their lives for this most holy work, I think the time desired by Providence has come: to decide on the foundation of a Camillian Work in Central Africa on a lasting and perpetual basis. Only think that if these two priests were in Europe, they would do two degrees of good, whereas here they do thirty, because they are saving so many souls who will invoke the choicest of blessings upon the Camillian Order!
[3400]
Fr Germano will object that today there are only two of his subjects, and that the Order has so dwindled in Europe that it cannot provide others. I answer him that today they are two; but in ten years’ time there will be twenty Camillian missionaries in Africa, and forty more in France associated with the famous Order because of Africa. I know the French and their mentality far better than you or anyone else possibly could. In France the Camillian Order, as long as it is limited to hospitals and its own goal, will not put down firm roots, nor will that of the St. John of God Brothers either, because the French do not want men in their hospitals, but women; and almost all French hospitals are in the hands of women. To make a hospitaller Order flourish in France it must be involved in some kind of charitable work (the French call them oeuvres de zèle) or apostolic work there, or in preaching and diocesan missions. I have visited nearly all the Establishments in the whole of France, where there are more than three hundred religious Congregations, counting both the male and female.
[3401]
The Brothers of the Christian Schools alone have 750 houses. But neither the Trinitarians, nor the Augustinians nor the St. John of God Brothers, have had success to match that of the others who are missionary. If the Order of St Camillus were to annex some kind of Apostolic Work, Central Africa for example, I assure you that crowds of postulants would flock to join St Camillus, and there would be enough for France, England and Africa. You will not be able to believe this, not having the experience that God has given me, without knowing about these matters. But keep this letter of mine for a few years, and you will see the truth of my assertion.
[3402]
It is enough, having completed the negotiations with the General and with Propaganda with regard to these two, that I publish in the Propagation of the Faith, in the Missions Catholiques of Lyons, in the Univers, in the Monde, and in several issues of the Semaines Réligieuse a eulogy of these two Camillians, inciting the French to enter the Camillian Institute which now exists in the Diocese of Autun, saying that by becoming Camillians they can be missionaries in Central Africa, and you will see many rushing to St Camillus’ shadow under the good Tezza (it is very good that the Novice Master should be an Italian such as Tezza).
[3403]
I put my hopes for this in God’s help and in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to whom I consecrate the whole Vicariate on the 14th of next month. Therefore, since these very delicate and important matters cannot be treated by letter, and since the Superiors have the right to weigh up, sound out and find out how the whole ground lies in order to discover the pure truth and God’s will (which is the only thing I desire and want, because otherwise one builds on sand), I have arranged to send Fr Stanislao to Europe immediately. He will negotiate this business properly, as well as some other small matters of mine in Germany and France. I had decided to have him leave in January; but thinking things through thoroughly, he will leave on 1st October or at least before the end of October.
[3404]
He will go to Rome and to Verona; you will understand each other well, and in the meantime, knowing that the Heart of Jesus and Mary is stronger and more powerful than Fr Guardi and Germano, I shall pray and have many novenas said in my Institutes of Africa, and at La Salette, Lourdes, and Notre Dame-des-Victoires, etc., to obtain that the most holy will of God be done on the basis of my own most holy will. If you have decided to call both of them back, put the project on hold for now, and pray to St Camillus and Mary Most Holy that the divine will alone should be done, for the honour and benefit of the Order. You will see what Fr Stanislao has become in six years: I am sure you will be glad of it. Pray for your most affectionate friend,

Dan. Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


[3405]
I ask you to keep these things secret for the moment. We shall first present them to God, and then hope for all the best. I beg you in visceribus Christi, speak and act in favour of Central Africa, because by so doing you will be acting in favour of your illustrious Order, which will acquire from the Apostolic spirit for Africa that life which it does not have for the moment among the freemasons of Europe. Here we are in Heaven as regards the political authorities. The Pashas are our humble servants and do everything we want. Nine days ago now Fr Stanislao made the Pasha of Khartoum tremble, and he had to come up with some money to make peace. Praise be to God.
Say a Memento for me every day. Give my greetings to Bonzanini, whom I always remember; tell him to pray every day for Africa and for your

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[3406]
After taking over the Missionary Station in Khartoum and with it the school for girls which now has a considerable number of pupils, and providing it with male and female teachers, my most urgent task was to found a new missionary station in El Obeid, the capital of the district of Kordofan. This is also very busy and supplied with the necessary number of priests and women teachers. Now I am just about to establish another branch of the Kordofan Station in Gebel Nuba, and thus spread Christianity ever more widely among the African tribes, thereby fully exercising the task incumbent on the Mission. However, not only human forces (personnel) are necessary for this, but especially financial means.
[3407]
May the esteemed Committee kindly bear in mind that life in Khartoum and Kordofan costs twice as much as in Europe, that with the exception of meat, coffee and salt, foodstuffs cost four times as much as in Europe, that travelling today in Africa costs double what it cost in Pro-Vicar Knoblecher’s time, while the rental of a boat which used to cost 100 piastres, now costs 180; in addition in Khartoum there are now two establishments, one male and one female, and also two in Kordofan; they must be provided, even though with the minimum requirements, with food, clothing, lodging, furniture, equipment for arts and crafts and agriculture, and also with medicines. Mindful of all this, the praiseworthy Committee will understand that with the limited means I have at my disposal all economic precautions are necessary to be able to carry out so much work.
[3408]
That in such a short time and with such limited means it has been possible to give new life to so vast a Vicariate already at the limits of survival, and to increase the already existing establishment, to found another station in El Obeid and to acquire and settle zealous and capable sisters there – who now run a public school – when there were none before, deserves to be taken fully into account. I needed to foster and educate African boys and girls, so that they would be able to become teachers of their tribes.
[3409]
I have succeeded in training competent African teachers and catechists, in addition to cobblers, stonemasons and carpenters, and in providing the Stations of Khartoum and Kordofan with them. The indigenous trained in this way are indispensable for a Mission’s life, since it was precisely the lack of such personnel that, after Knoblecher’s death brought the Mission to the point of perishing, although financially it had been so well provided for. Taking into account all that has been explained above, I believe I have done everything possible for the Mission’s prosperity, with great efforts and difficulties, and by so doing I have also acquired the recognition of this High Committee, of the most Reverend Ordinaries and of all the Benefactors of the Mission.
[3410]
In a year I also hope to be able to declare that thanks to the zealous activity of my confreres, and if I obtain the desired subsidy from Europe, the African Vicariate will be one of the most flourishing in the world.


Daniel Comboni

[3411]
Yesterday the joy of all the members of this holy mission was supreme because we held the solemn Consecration of the whole Vicariate to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in 1873 marks a new age of mercy and resurrection for Central Africa, bowed beneath Satan’s empire for so many centuries. Thus we opened our hearts, not just to a sweet hope but to the infallible certainty that the Heart of Jesus, which pours forth torrents of his graces in these universally disastrous times for the Church and the world, in his infinite piety has deigned to grant our wishes and those of the many hundreds of thousands of pious members of the Apostleship of Prayer and the Messager du S. Coeur; yesterday, in the five parts of the world they accompanied the Act of Consecration which I solemnly pronounced in El Obeid with special publications: thus we are deeply convinced that the great event of the real regeneration of Africa is now beginning, which is the reason that under the patronage of the Immaculate Virgin, St Joseph, the Apostles and the African Saints and Martyrs the end of its age-old misfortunes, under which are groaning the hundreds and more millions of infidels of which this Vicariate is composed, is near.
[3412]
Although due to our weakness we are not indifferent to the serious crosses (by which God’s Works are always sealed) which surround us, we are always prepared for the harshest sufferings, for the most arduous efforts and even for death, to achieve the great goal of firmly establishing these Missions of Central Africa and calling these peoples to the faith. Under the glorious banner of the Sacred Heart of Jesus which beat on the Cross for these poor souls too, our war cry to the very end will be this: Africa or death!
[3413]
Yesterday the solemn function celebrated according to the norms of my Circular Letter of last 1st August was preceded by the solemn baptism of 12 adults, followed by the Confirmation of 24 converts of this new Mission of El Obeid.
[3414]
To offer a brief report on the religious state of the Vicariate’s Catholic merchants, I am sending Your Eminence a copy of my Circular Letter of last 10th August ( which had excellent results), and briefly mentions the main disorders currently prevalent among our Christians. There is another, for which I am not thinking of prescribing any norms just now, after the decisions of the Sacred Penitentiary, which I will consider later. It is usury. Here among all Christians money changes hands at 5, 10 or 15 per cent a month, and even more: that is, at 60, 120 and 180 and even 200 per cent. On certain occasions, and not in vain, we have attempted to prevent this extraordinarily Jewish usury, which people seek to justify above all by citing the frequent risk of losing all their capital, and with the excessive profit of those who buy on credit, which sometimes reaches the net sum of a hundred, two hundred and even three hundred per cent a year. I have taken no definitive measures in this regard.
[3415]
The most important measure I have taken specifically concerns the Christians who co-operate with the taking of and dealing in slaves. For this crime they supply guns, gunpowder, money and help in a thousand guises. Although it may be absolutely impossible to destroy this enormous scourge of Central Africa for the time being, nevertheless the Catholic Mission’s real influence and the prudent and well-thought out measures I am taking with the local government and the Austro-Hungarian consular authorities will be a powerful contribution to drying many tears and impeding the infamous slave trade, on behalf of humanity and of the Catholic Church.
[3416]
Slavery and the slave trade in these parts are flourishing despite the treaties of the alleged abolition and the false orders of His Highness the Khedive to the governors of the Sudan. Several times a month a few hundred jallabas (slave traders) set out from Khartoum and El Obeid, no longer armed with spears as in previous years, but with gleaming guns of modern invention with firing-pins and breech-loading bolt-action, invade the African tribes and hunt down peaceful Africans in their villages; and after killing all those who resist, they gather the boys, little girls, pregnant women, young mothers with their children and whole families in hundreds, and completely naked, after long harsh journeys on foot, they bring them to El Obeid and Khartoum, or through forests and across deserts take them to Nubia, Egypt and the Red Sea to be sold or made prostitutes.
[3417]
In the Mission I have boys and girls, stolen less than a month ago, whose father, mother or uncle were slaughtered before their eyes as they were abducted. A month ago, more than two thousand jallabas left El Obeid, with superb rifles, setting off to kill the inhabitants of a mountain called Dagio, inhabited by a good 14,000 Africans. From the recent news I have heard, it seems that they have indeed killed the chiefs and made the survivors slaves. Until the time of my arrival in Kordofan, the local Government received a poll-tax for every slave. The Pasha of Khartoum, the predecessor of the present one, came to Kordofan two years ago and, with more than a thousand soldiers armed with guns and two small cannons, penetrated the Nuba to hunt for Africans; he took 9,400 and killed a great many. But to the Government of Cairo he declared only 1,800, and the profit from the other 7,600 was divided between him, his officials, the doctor Giorgio who studied at Pisa, and the other clerks.
[3418]
The Governors of the Sudan often receive orders from the Diwan in Cairo to provide and send to Egypt so many hundreds of beautiful Abyssinian women, hundreds of sturdy Dinka women, etc. and thousands of plump Africans to turn into eunuchs, etc., to satisfy the requests and desires of senior officials in Cairo, Alexandria, etc., and for gifts to be made. For the moment, I limit myself to this since I shall be sending Your Eminence the document on slavery drawn up on my orders by Fr Carcereri, after we have thoroughly examined it and checked the truth of all the points. How do these poor slaves travel, and how are they treated?
[3419]
I will answer only with what I saw with my own eyes on my trip from Khartoum to El Obeid, on which I came across more than a thousand female slaves, completely naked, aged between 2 and 20, and more than five hundred naked males, all mixed up with the females. One and all were walking, goaded by the spears of those scoundrels, a very few of the little children were riding on horses. The young mothers who were carrying a baby and little boys and girls of under six, or seven, walked on foot without chains. But the young boys and girls of seven or eight to twenty years of age were chained together in fours, sixes or tens, male and female, so that they did not escape. Some of them were tied round the neck with a cord attached to another great long rope, securely held in the hand of a villain. Others were each tied separately to a long beam weighing heavily across their shoulders; a burden which was borne and carried by the slaves themselves.
[3420]
Others had their hands bound behind their backs with cords: some were shackled by the feet with iron chains, others were attached to the sheva, a beam three or four metres long that ends with two wooden knobs with wooden or iron pegs, and after it is closed around the slave’s neck he has to walk dragging the sheva with the strength of his neck; and this is how these naked male and female slaves travel all night and part of the day. Then the sight of the fresh corpses I found along the way indicated that some, unable to withstand such fatigue, must have died.
[3421]
This picture is only a pale idea of the reality of the horrors of slavery and the trade in Africans which currently goes on in the Vicariate. For the moment I add nothing else, except that I trust that the protection of the Sacred Heart of Jesus will sustain the holy, humanitarian, and most important work of this Vicariate Apostolic, and will gradually deal a terrible if not mortal blow to the trade in Africans and to Islam in the Sudan. I hope this in the Sacred Heart.
I kiss your Sacred purple.

Your most humble and devoted son,

Daniel Comboni,
Pro-Vicar Apostolic

[3422]
My heart full of emotion and gratitude, I have just received your kind letter of 12th July with which I learn that this divine Work of the Propagation of the Faith has granted my Vicariate a subsidy of 49,991 francs. If my pen cannot express all that I and my dear Missionaries feel for you, Mr President, and for all the members of the Central Councils who have voted for such considerable aid on behalf of this immense Mission, I can assure you that in these torrid regions hearts are bursting to implore constant heavenly blessings from God on the two venerable Presidents, on the members of the Council and on all the Members of the Propagation of the Faith all over the world.
[3423]
You can realise what an immense harvest your great charity has already produced from the fact that the most enormous Vicariate in the world is revived, and the most populated, arduous, difficult and awesome Mission in the whole world is now working, functioning and flourishing.
[3424]
I am hastening to prepare the annual report of this Vicariate for you: but it is impossible for it to arrive for 1st December, although the Egyptian railway has now been extended to near Assiut in Upper Egypt. I will not be able to give you a complete Report because I have not concluded my pastoral visit. I have yet to visit the eastern part of Nubia as far as Suakin on the Red Sea, which is under my jurisdiction and more than a month’s journey from my principal residence. The Bari who live at the 4th degree of Latitude North near the Sources of the Nile are more than a month’s journey from Khartoum. Nevertheless, I am sure that even from the brief Report you will be receiving you will easily be able to understand the abundant fruit produced by the admirable Association of which you are the worthy president, by reinforcing and perpetuating the Mission of Central Africa which constitutes a tenth part of the whole human race.
[3425]
At present, all my efforts are dedicated to firmly establishing and reinforcing the Vicariate’s two main Missions, that is: the Mission in Khartoum which is the operations base from which to bring the standard of the Cross to the eastern part of the Vicariate that extends from the Tropic of Cancer to Shellal as far as the 12th degree of Latitude South and borders the Red Sea, Abyssinia, the Vicariate of the Gallas and the Prefecture of Zanzibar. And the Mission of El Obeid, the true gateway to interior Africa, which is the operations base from which to extend the Catholic Faith in the central part of the Vicariate. In fact, from this capital the kingdom of Darfur can be reached in 4 days, and, in 14 days, the sultan’s residence. From here in 3 days one arrives among the vast tribes of the Nuba who are all pagans. Then after travelling a month one comes to that vast empire of Bornù which contains the great lake of Chad, etc.
[3426]
I am convinced that God himself inspired us to found a Mission in Kordofan. Last year when my explorers arrived in El Obeid, there was neither a Cross nor any sign of Christianity. Since the time of Jesus Christ the Gospel has never penetrated Kordofan. Holy Mass had never been celebrated there. Today a most flourishing mission is coming to life and, furthermore, this city of El Obeid which has more than 100,000 inhabitants, is the centre and base of operations for all the Missions God will grant us to found in the African interior. This is what the Propagation of the Faith has produced.
[3427]
On 14th September I made the solemn consecration of the Vicariate to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to the greatest satisfaction of our Pope Pius IX who granted us a papal indulgence in writing.
[3428]
When I return to Khartoum this coming November, I shall write to you about the horrible dealing in Africans and the slave trade. The newspapers had much to say about the suppression of slavery achieved by Sir Samuel Baker, etc., the conquest by the army of the Khedive of all the countries on the White Nile as far as the Equator and the ways free from the Sources of the Nile as far as Zanzibar. It is completely false. There is not an ounce of truth in any of it. What will be able to put an end to the trade in Africans is the preaching of the Gospel and the founding of Catholic Missions.
[3429]
Permit me, Mr President, to thank you again for the immense charity you have showed for this Vicariate and for me in Lyons, the last time I had the honour of seeing you. Our work, our efforts, our sufferings, the terrible climate, our deprivations, they are all very sweet to us when we know that the Propagation of the Faith with its subsidies is in a position to make them effective and fruitful for the apostolate of Central Africa.
Please deign to present my homage to all the members of the Council and to your pious family, while I have the honour to declare myself in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary

Your most devoted servant,

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


Translated from French.

[3430]
Your esteemed letter of 29th July has reached me and made me very happy, because I can clearly perceive in it the will, sentiments and desires of Your Most Reverend Eminence with regard to certain matters relevant to my most difficult office, and I shall always, with the Lord’s help, make them the basis of my actions. Infinite thanks, too, for your fatherly advice about going ahead with caution and prudence and not getting into debt, etc.
[3431]
Prudence more than anything else is necessary in my complex and tricky position as I have to deal with the wiliest foxes and the most cunning scoundrels in the world. If God continues to help me keep these Pashas, Governors and merchants in their place and get the most out of them for the faith, and if I can continue to maintain the Mission’s present dignified standing, perhaps the Catholic Church will little by little succeed in obtaining the real abolition of the vile slave trade. If we can do this, we will have done something that the great powers of Europe have not succeeded in doing with all their money and treaties.
[3432]
Because of this matter and many others concerning my difficult ministry, great caution is required. I will do all I can to avoid any gross blunders and with the help of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and of the great wisdom of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, I hope to succeed, since I shall not undertake any matter of importance without first consulting the Sacred Congregation whose views, prudence and incomparable experience, in addition to the help of the Holy Spirit, far outshine the feeble lights of any Head of a mission. Then as regards debts, I developed such a fear and horror of them some years ago that I hope I shall not incur any. Because I drew a great lesson from what happened to those two venerable personages Fr Nicola Mazza (my late Superior) and Mgr Brunoni, now Patriarch of Antioch i.p.i.: the former left his successors embarrassed by the debt of two hundred thousand lire, and the latter left the Vicariate of Constantinople the unpleasant legacy of a debt of more than a million.
[3433]
Thanks to the Lord and to my dear bursar St Joseph, in six years since I founded the Work for the Redemption of Africa, in the midst of grave difficulties of all kinds and with the world’s exceptionally critical financial state, Providence has put into my hands more than a hundred thousand Roman scudi. I find myself in excellent relations with all the Catholic societies and with the grand, princely and energetic benefactors who continue to show me their effective kindness so that, while I left the Work in Verona without a penny of debt and indeed with funds for possible extraordinary needs, I have also freed my Vicariate of Central Africa of all the debts I found there and I am gradually endowing it with useful acquisitions of houses and land. And without having a single debt, I now possess a good fund of cash with which to go ahead and do works in accordance with the most holy apostolate that has been entrusted to me by the Holy See, as Your Eminence will note in the Report on the Mission which I will not be long in sending you from my main residence in Khartoum.
[3434]
However, although there are these blessings of St Joseph’s (who has been, is and ever will be the king of gentlemen, a man who knows how to run his house and both a wise and a kind-hearted Bursar), please may Your Eminence never cease to stir my attention from time to time, comforting me and enlightening me with admonitions, warnings and exhortations, which are always so wise and beneficial, and never to spare reproofs; and the two words of the Apostle: argue and increpa, for this is a great means to avoid making mistakes and to walk with rectitude in conformity with the spirit of God.
[3435]
Now that Your Most Reverend Eminence, in your above-mentioned letter, authorises me to take advantage in many ways of His Most Illustrious Excellency Sir Bartle Frère’s mandate as Ambassador of England, I shall do so immediately and also in the future. However, since the present situation in Europe is less gloomy than in the past, it seems useful to me not to miss a chance to feel the pulse and immediately contact some of the high officials of Catholic attitudes whom I know in the Cabinets of France and Vienna, to see if I can obtain support from these two Catholic powers, and especially from France, to promote the real abolition of the slave trade, preferring as I do for the time being to avoid going through the Consuls General in Egypt, who are all in the pay of the Khedive. All this I shall do after having submitted everything to the most wise judgement of the Sacred Congregation by means of letters that will be delivered to you next March by my Vicar General, Carcereri, who, apart from settling his private affairs with his Most Reverend General, will be charged by me to settle important matters with Your Most Reverend Eminence regarding slavery and the practical good of the arduous and tricky mission of my immense Vicariate.
[3436]
In my letter n.7 of 25th July, I mentioned how one of the great chiefs of the Nuba people who live in the south-west of Kordofan had come to El Obeid and presented himself to me with his numerous entourage on the morning of Wednesday 16th July, dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, just as we emerged from our Hour of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, which I have established every Wednesday pro conversione Nigritiae in all my houses of Egypt and Central Africa. This chief had come to invite me to establish a Church, that is, a mission among his people who in part pay tribute to the Egyptian government and in part are independent. Using the utmost prudence, after treating him and his retinue extremely well, I invited him to return to El Obeid in September. In the meantime I intended to gather precise information, set to work on the Nuba language and find out about the thinking, tricks and support of the Governor of Kordofan, who (like the Pashas of Khartoum and Fazogl) had already sent Muftis and Muslim clerics some time ago to preach the Koran among the Teggala and in the mountains of the Nuba.
[3437]
Well, the chief of the Nuba himself was unable to come to El Obeid in September, but in his stead he sent the Cogiur of the Nuba, that is the great witch-doctor whom they call We k in the Nuba language and who is at the same time priest-doctor-sorcerer and has more authority than the chiefs themselves. Accompanied by twelve or fifteen Nuba men, he entered the Mission on a Wednesday morning when we were coming out of church after the usual hour of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament pro Conversione Nigritiae on 24th September, dedicated to Our Lady of Ransom. After a three-hour conversation with me and after he had seen our church, the craft workshop, the carpentry, cobbling and locksmith tools, agricultural implements and photographs, after he had heard the sound of the accordion and the harmonium I played in the church, the singing and the instruction of the pupils, some of whom are Nuba and recently abducted and stolen from their lands, the great sorcerer and his entourage were astounded and full of admiration.
[3438]
He was impressed above all by the beautiful statue of the Madonna, the photograph and the attitude of our Nuba pupils; he therefore warmly begged me to establish a Mission in his land, and not to delay in coming to them, telling me that we would be received like their fathers and brothers. He stayed in El Obeid for five days, and spent one or more hours with us every day; and on the last day he made me this ingenuous speech: “Although the chief and his retinue, when they returned from El Obeid two months ago, told me wonderful things about you and your seraia (establishment) I did not believe them; and I confess that I came to you rather unwillingly.
[3439]
But now that these eyes have seen, that these ears have heard, I believe in everything and so I am the first to beg you to come to us to teach us and our children to pray, because we know that there is a God who is God, but we do not know how to pray to him because no one has taught us. I do not want to extend this already over-long letter with the most interesting exchanges that took place during the long and varied conversations that took place between me and him during the five days that this excellent Cogiur of the Nuba spent with us. He left some of his people in El Obeid to wait to accompany the missionaries to his territories.
[3440]
I will only add that from all these facts it seems to me it is God’s will that we take the apostolate among the Nuba into serious consideration, after so many centuries of darkness and death. Therefore, entrusting the matter to the sweetest Heart of Jesus, already absolute lord of the Vicariate in a special way, I have decided to undertake a very detailed exploration of the lands closest to the Nuba and then to submit a detailed report on these new tribes to the Sacred Congregation, so that it can decide on our first step outside the orbit of Muslim possessions, in the free and independent regions, as are most of the lands of the Nuba’s countries. Therefore after examining everything, I decided to summon at once from Khartoum my valiant Vicar General who has already reached us in El Obeid; and we are preparing the equipment for this new exploration at whose head the above-mentioned Vicar General, Fr Carcereri, will leave in a few days, accompanied by another missionary and seven or eight other individuals. It seems to me that the time of the Redemption of Africa has come.
[3441]
I am full of crosses; but the medicine is hidden in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who as well as desiring the safety of the Pope and the Church, will certainly save unfortunate Africa.
May Your Eminence deign to bless the one who kisses your Sacred Purple most respectfully, and has the honour of signing himself with all respect for Your Eminence

Your most humble, respectful and obedient son,

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[3442]
At 3.00 p.m. on the 16th of this month the fact-finding caravan set out from El-Obeid for the Nuba, a numerous, black, largely idolatrous people who live in the south-west of Kordofan where there is a very healthy climate, from what I understood from the great chief and from the Cogiur or Great Sorcerer; where there are hundreds of mountains, some areas of which pay tribute to Kordofan and thus Egypt, but almost all are independent and free. An immense plain separates Kordofan from the Nuba, and is inhabited by the nomads, the Baqqarah Omur, who pay tribute to Egypt, and are the worst kind of assassins and thieves, profess a cold Mahommedanism and exercise (perhaps even for the Government) the office of Jallabas, that is, they are slaughterers of human beings and slave traders.
[3443]
Since the great chief of these Baqqarah, 20 days ago now, was here in El Obeid to confer with the Pasha, I succeeded in getting in touch with him and making friends. And after I had questioned him about the Nuba and explained to him that I intended perhaps to make a journey to see those lands or maybe send some of my missionaries there, he offered to have me accompanied there by 200 armed men and to take me himself, assuring me that his head and his beard would answer for our lives. I gave him a kerchief, a hammer and some medicines; and I told him that at an appropriate time I should make the most of his kindness. I acquired precise information about the great chief of the Baqqarah and the Nuba from a great many people; but especially from Sultan Hussein, who is a descendant of the Sultans of Kordofan who ruled before that kingdom was occupied by the Egyptian Government, enjoys a life pension from the usurping Government and officially bears the title of Sultan.
[3444]
He is our friend, and seems a true gentleman, and presented us with a nice piece of land not far from here which I have destined to be the Catholic Cemetery; he is the person best informed about the African tribes that surround Kordofan as far as a month’s journey or more away. Finally, the great Pasha was most courteous to me and offered me all I could have wished, soldiers, weapons, ammunition, horses, camels, etc. But an apostle of Christ must walk in another way according to the holy sayings of the Gospel; he must take all the measures of prudence prescribed by wise caution. And usually divine Providence must be his guide.
[3445]
When I told him that he could have a good 200 men, my valiant Vicar General Fr Carcereri, designated to head the exploratory expedition, indignantly refused: he wanted to go to the Nuba sine sacco et sine pera, trusting totally in God: but I obliged him, to his final full satisfaction, to leave armed with:
1. A special recommendation from the Pasha to the great chief of the Baqqarah, in which His Excellency ordered him to treat the missionaries as they would treat himself.
2. A recommendation from the Pasha and the above-mentioned Sultan to all the Chiefs of the land through which our caravan had to pass, ordering them to offer lodgings, food and provisions, etc.
3. A Government guide, a native of those countries who knows them well.
4. One of the Pasha’s clerks, our friend, an old schismatic Copt, well known as far as the Nuba mountain of Delen and who had two wives from that country: he told me he would let himself be killed for the Christian religion.

[3446]
I refused the soldiers, camels and other things the Pasha had offered me, and the caravan left after a triduum to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Father of the mission, and another to St Jude Thaddeus. It is headed by Fr Carcereri, with another father, a good lay German who in 1858 was with me on the White Nile, two servants and five or six others. The exploration will take a fortnight; and after his return, Fr Carcereri will leave for Rome as I wrote to you. Then after I have examined the report of the exploration, and thought about everything carefully, I will write a brief but complete report about the establishment of a new Mission among the Nuba, I will submit it to Your Most Reverend Eminence and will do whatever the Sacred Congregation enjoins me in this regard, firm in the principle of never undertaking any important matter without first consulting the Sacred Congregation delegated by God to govern and direct all the world’s missions, and receiving its venerable orders.
[3447]
My main commitment at the moment is still to firmly consolidate and perpetuate the two chief missions of Khartoum and El Obeid. Khartoum is the operations base from which gradually to spread our apostolate in the Eastern part of our Vicariate as far as beyond the Equator and the sources of the Nile; in this section of it there are hundreds of tribes and idolaters in their millions. El Obeid is the base for operations from which to spread the Gospel little by little in the Central part of the Vicariate, which contains immense tribes, kingdoms and empires and certainly more than 50 million infidels.
[3448]
Until now, thanks to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the Mission is in good shape; and I enjoy – externally – a total influence on all the Governors of the Sudan who up to now have granted all I have asked them: free mail services (in El Obeid there is no Consul, but I want to write to the Emperor of Austria to establish a Consulate in Kordofan, since this would be most useful if in the future the Government’s Hosannas should change to Crucifige; for which we should always be prepared, as this is obviously a work of God), land, protection, etc.
[3449]
Until now, all the slaves whose liberation I have requested, all without exception, have been released; those who fled to the mission, for whom I requested freedom and the opportunity to remain on the mission, were all granted to me; indeed, the Pasha asks my opinion in some of his Government’s affairs. But since it could happen that other new governors arrive in the future who operate differently, I am taking my precautions from this moment. I seek to acquire great favours and concessions from the present Pasha, so that I can get them accepted as rights by future rulers and, at the same time, I keep my mind ready for any upsets or persecution that will be inevitable when the horrible slave trade is dealt a mortal blow, which is what the mission will do: so we hope for everything from the omnipotence of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
[3450]
Although my present cares are directed to preparing material and people, weapons and approaches so as eventually to assault the formidable fortress of Africa, and thus I am determined properly to set up Parishes, houses, schools, Institutes, and enact wise and suitable rules etc., to sharpen the weapons well and ensure that every home and every individual on the mission is equipped with all the knowledge, qualities and virtues that make an excellent instrument, soldier and workman of Christ, I am nonetheless not neglecting to study the population, souls, nature and temperament of the people of my Vicariate, subsequently to choose the appropriate means to attract them to the Faith.
[3451]
Here I will just tell you a word about the schismatic Copts who live in my Vicariate. I am diligently studying them to complete the studies I already started some time ago in Egypt on the heretical Coptic Church, which to my mind is a most interesting area for the apostolate of the Orient and for which the current provisions, adopted of course with wise prudence by the Holy See, seem to me rather limited and weak. The number of heretical Copts, as Your Most Reverend Eminence knows well, varies from two hundred and fifty to three hundred thousand. In Abyssinia they exceed one or two million. In my Vicariate there are several thousand with an Episcopal See in Khartoum and several parishes in Khartoum, Dongola, El Obeid; and small chapels in Berber, Taca, Suaken, etc. Now the heretical Coptic or Eutichian Church is limited to the following Sees, and led by the following individuals as Pastors:
[3452]
1. The Patriarchal See of Alexandria with a Residence in Cairo. The Patriarch vacat.
2. The Episcopal See of Alexandria: the Bishop is a certain Morgos, or Marco.
3. The Episcopal See of Jerusalem. The Bishop Basilius, who lives in Cairo, belongs to the Eutichian Patriarchal Curia, and every year at Easter accompanies the schismatic Coptic pilgrims to Jerusalem.
4.The Episcopal See of Cairo. Bishop Botros, or Petro, who likewise belongs to the Patriarchal Curia in Cairo.
5. The Episcopal See of Monutieh near Tantah between Cairo and Alexandria. The Bishop is Joannes.
6. The Episcopal See of Fayyum, ancient Arsinoe or Crocodilopolis. The Bishop is Isaac.
7. The Episcopal See of Minieh, ancient Cynopolis. The Bishop is Thomas.

[3453]
8. The Episcopal See of Monfallut near a large Monastery with many monks. The Bishop is Jussab, or Joseph.
9. The Episcopal See of Sánaboh between Melaui and Assiut. The Bishop is Teofilos.
10. The Episcopal See of Siut, or ancient Lycopolis, capital of Upper Egypt. The Bishop is Macarius.
11. The Episcopal See of Abutig, the ancient Abutis of the Romans. The Bishop is Atanasius.
12. The Episcopal See of Akmin, ancient Panopolis, built, it is said, by Ham, son of Noah, or, according to almost all scholars, founded or developed by Misraim, or Egypt, grandson of Ham. The Bishop is Jussab, or Joseph, and he is well provided with priests. An hour’s journey away is the village of Hamas, the homeland of the excellent Mgr Bsciai, the current Coptic Bishop.
13. The Episcopal See of Guss or Coptos, ancient Justinianopolis, not far from ancient Thebes. The Bishop is Abramo.
14. The Episcopal See of Negadeh, or ancient Maximianopolis. No Bishop has been appointed for many years, and in the meantime it is under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Guss.
15. The Episcopal See of Gondar in Abyssinia. The Bishop is Atanasius, who normally resides in Adua, where the Negus or king lives.
16. The Episcopal See of Esneh, ancient Latopolis. The Bishop is Mattha or Matteo; several months ago he fixed his residence in Luxor, ancient Thebes.
17. The Episcopal See of Khartoum in Central Africa, founded in 1840. The new Bishop has not been named because at present there is no Patriarch – the term the Copts use – and only a Patriarch can appoint and consecrate Bishops. But this reason is not valid, because Matteo, Bishop of Esneh, was appointed and consecrated this year 1873.

[3454]
After I have thoroughly studied the practical way to attempt the conversion of the schismatic Copts of my Vicariate, which will be a difficult task for us given the widespread corruption in which they live in such far-off and hot places (something I shall certainly see to when I have time, in the hope of gaining at least a few), I shall write to you ex professo on the subject. In the meantime, I do not think it inappropriate to point out to you what you will certainly know, that is, that for almost four years the Eutichian Patriarchal See has been vacant, and perhaps will remain vacant for many years, that is, during the lifetime of the current Khedive of Egypt, who has absolutely prohibited the election of a new Patriarch.
[3455]
The reason is that a high official of the great Diwan of Cairo who is a schismatic Copt, through his private hostility to a Bishop who presumed to aspire to the Patriarchal See, suggested to the highly superstitious mother of the Khedive that His Highness her son would die under the governance of the new Eutichian Patriarch. Thus after the mother had beseeched her son to prevent the election of the new Patriarch by all means possible, the Khedive, very devoted to his mother, and also superstitious, obeyed this to the letter; and the Eutichians, who lack the grace and inspiration of the Holy Spirit because they are outside the truth, humbly submitted to this decree.
[3456]
Now could not the Holy See, with its extraordinary wisdom and acumen, profit from such a long vacancy of the Eutichian Patriarchal See to attempt the conversion of a fair number of these heretics who, together with a few dogmatic errors and certainly many vices regarding especially concupiscentiam oculorum et carnis, combine a faith that is out of the ordinary and many evident virtues? For a good 15 years, the Protestants, both English and American, have decimated the schismatic Copts, and induced many thousands to follow them (meaning externally and not out of conviction!): today a great number whom I have seen speak English and go to the American and English schools in Cairo, Alexandria, Tantah, Faium and Siut, where they have won over the richest and most powerful. And in Faium, where there has been a Catholic hospice for 23 years, I saw with horror that the Protestant school was attended by a hundred or more Coptic or Catholic young people.
[3457]
It is necessary to note that our missionaries are poor, and the Protestants very wealthy. But in my opinion it is always true that among the schismatic Copts there are some good sorts, and the acquaintance I made with almost all their Bishops, many priests and a great many of their faithful, convinced me of this. Grace is in God’s hands; and perhaps the Holy See will not lack the measures to begin a conquest that would bear marvellous results in my Vicariate but more especially in Abyssinia, where a single Bishop worth nothing has jurisdiction over one or perhaps two million.
[3458]
I long to renew to you the humble prayer I made to you in my letter of 15th September last about the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus which I would like the Holy Father to declare a Holy Day of Obligation with a Rite that is Double of the First Class, with Octave throughout my Vicariate, because from the Sacred Heart of Jesus I hope for the conversion of the hundred and more million infidels it contains. My predecessor Ignazio Knoblecher, who had made serious studies of the Vicariate, calculated the population as 90 million, as he told us, and it is recorded in his biography, printed by the most learned Mitterrutzner. But then the geographers calculated the so-called Mountains of the Moon, the Vicariate’s southern boundary at the 3rd degree of Latitude North. However today, when Geographers calculate these Mountains at 15 degrees further south, where according to Speke and Grant there are densely populated tribes, it is not far from the truth if they give the Vicariate a hundred million infidels.
[3459]
The Sacred Heart of Jesus which today spreads the treasures of its graces more widely than in the past since the devotion has increased marvellously, will convert them all.
I take this opportunity to offer you the homage of my deep veneration, and declare myself in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary

Your most Reverend Eminence’s
most humble, obedient and unworthy son,

Daniel Comboni,
Pro-Vicar Apostolic

[3460]
It truly seems that the hour of the redemption of Africa has come and that God in his infinite mercy is guiding his Work on his loveable ways. The explorers sent by me into the Nuba territories under Fr Carcereri’s guidance were welcomed with the utmost enthusiasm by the great chief and great wizard as well as by the inhabitants who offered them anything they might want, land, houses, even the chief’s residence; and implored them to stay with them for ever. These people are completely idolatrous, given indeed to many superstitions, but they never wanted to bow to the Koran. They are very intelligent, docile and capable of appreciating the advantages of Catholicism. The great chief, whom I met in El Obeid, is a man of judgement and is good-hearted, as was confirmed by our explorers.
[3461]
Fr Carcereri, after carefully studying these first Nuba villages, fixed the place where it would be appropriate to set up a mission. This is Waco , which the Baqqarah call Delen, a village situated in a pleasant and most healthy location, only 4 days away from El Obeid. This is the first completely idolatrous point from which we shall gradually spread over all the countries in Central Africa. There are many superstitions, as I said; and the Devil is given tribute: but the Cross will put him to flight and the Lion of Judah will win: these people appear most willing to embrace the faith. Fr Carcereri promised the great chief that we would soon establish a Catholic Mission in Delen, or Waco, and returned to El Obeid safe and sound with all the others. Tomorrow I am leaving with him for Khartoum, which I hope to reach after a 15-day camel journey. From there I will send you a precise report on this new undertaking among the Nuba which, according to us, paves the certain and sure way to spread the Gospel in the regions which make up the Central part of the Vicariate.
[3462]
The Mission to the Nuba presents far greater advantages than any other missionary effort ever made in Central Africa since the creation of the Vicariate. Indeed, although the old Stations of Gondokoro at the 4th degree of Latitude North and Holy Cross at the 7th, erected by my illustrious predecessor on the White Nile, were also located in completely pagan territory steeped in idolatry, they had been infested for many years by the continuous presence of Muslim
hordes and European and oriental merchants of the worst kind, attracted by the easy route of the White Nile to trade in ivory and slaves, etc. With their evil ways and the most appalling violence and torture, these people had introduced the plague of all the vices. But no European has ever reached the Nuba, Islam was never able to gain a foothold there, nor has any trading establishment ever been set up: so these people are, as it were, still unspoilt and offer all the advantages that the Vicariate has so far never been able to obtain.

[3463]
This is yet another proof that it was really the Lord who guided the Holy See to approve the new route we have chosen to Kordofan and to establish El Obeid as the true Gate to the African interior and as the operations base for the winning of Central Africa for the Catholic Church. Therefore there is no doubt whatsoever that the stability and permanence of the Mission to Central Africa is assured, both as regards the climate, which in these parts is tolerable, and I would almost say very healthy, and as regards the character of these pagans, which seems by many indications to be inclined towards the faith.
[3464]
Glory be to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, who seems to want absolutely the salvation of these souls.
May Your Eminence deign to accept all my filial veneration and esteem, with which I remain in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary

Your Most Reverend Eminence’s
most humble, devoted, unworthy son

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa