Writings

[4019]
To our dearest Brother and Son Fr Stanislao Carcereri, Prefect of the Ministers to the Sick in Berber, Missionary Apostolic, health and blessings.
[4020]
With the present Document, on the basis of our Authority received from the Holy Apostolic See and our Convention with the Most Reverend Father General of the Camillian Order, we hereby appoint our dearest Brother and Son, the Most Reverend Fr Stanislao Carcereri as Superior, parish priest and explorer of the new Mission in Jebel Nuba, with the faculty of administering the sacrament of Confirmation and with the faculty of granting absolution even in cases covered by the Bull Apostolicae Sedis moderationi, ad exceptionem absolutionis complicis in peccato turpi.
[4021]
From the time of his arrival in Delen until new orders from us, and during his presence among the Nuba, our dearest sons Fr Luigi Bonomi and Fr Gennaro Martini will relinquish the respective faculties they have as Superior and parish priest of the Nuba. However all the other faculties we have granted them will not lapse, except Fr Martini’s right to administer Confirmation. In this way he will be able to make use of the said Nuban Missionaries in whatever way he feels is appropriate, bearing in mind that in the exploration of each site of any importance a report will have to be drafted giving the respective judgement of all three on the place, to be transmitted to us. The most appropriate place for the formal establishment of the Mission will then be determined, after hearing the advice of the other two, by our aforementioned first-born Fr Carcereri.
[4022]
When passing through Khartoum and El Obeid, he can to take from these Stations any items he may judge necessary or appropriate for the enterprise he is to undertake; for the purpose of which we have given the relative orders.
Issued in Berber, 3 January 1876

(L. S.)

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

The Secretary
Fr Paolo Rossi

[4023]
As you will have heard from my excellent Secretary Fr Paolo Rossi, I arrived safely in Cairo via the desert of Suakin and the Red Sea. I have completed practically all my business here in Cairo and ardently wish to move on to Rome to confer with Your Eminence about the interests of my most important Vicariate, which, thank God, is progressing in spite of all the devil’s efforts to halt God’s work.
[4024]
Since on my return from the Nuba I found out that a report to the Sacred Congregation had been prepared by one of my good missionaries in which Khartoum is accused of opening letters, and since the chief target is my aforementioned Secretary, I have forwarded it to Your Eminence so that you may be able to examine it at your leisure. Neither he, nor I, nor anyone in Khartoum has ever dreamed of opening the letters from missionaries, least of all letters addressed to major superiors. My Secretary, Fr Paolo Rossi, is a young missionary who is holy, upright, learned and most prudent. He has the spirit of God and a true zeal for souls: he is a perfect missionary and although he is only 27, he has the judgement, the sense and the prudence of a man of 50. Should Your Eminence need any further information about him, you can ask Mgr Canossa, in whose seminary he always had First Prize at all levels in all the sacred sciences, piety, behaviour and judgement. But Rome has a long nose, especially Propaganda, and will see everything for itself.
[4025]
The last letter I received from Your Eminence was in Berber, and was No. 4 dated 10th November 1856 (sic). Since then I have had no letters. There is a ninety percent probability that the Duke of Modena (who a few days before he retired to bed wrote me a long letter with 2,000 gold francs) may have left me 100,000 francs. I shall soon know for certain, through the most venerable Count of Chambord, to whom I sent my condolences. St Joseph is the true father of Africa.
In the hope of being soon at your feet, I kiss your Sacred Purple and remain in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary,
Your Most Reverend Excellency’s most respectful, humble and unworthy son

Fr Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[4026]
I send you the two notes for the allocation. I am infinitely grateful to you for last year’s subsidy which I heard about in Jebel Nuba. I insistently beg you to help me powerfully this year, since I need it even more. I shall soon be sending you the two reports on the Vicariate, one for Lyons and the other for Paris. I now stress a point to be noted with reference to the importance of the buildings under construction in Cairo.
Between 1848 and 1860, two out of four Missionaries coming to Central Africa died in the first year, and at least one other died in the second year. Always, during their first year, half the Missionaries died. Instead, from 26th October 1870, when I sent the first explorers to Kordofan, until today (more than 5 years later) not a single European missionary priest has died. Fifteen European priests have reached Central Africa and 15 are still fully active.

[4027]
I ask you, Mr President, to send 10,000 francs to Fr Rolleri in Cairo as an advance on next year’s subsidy, if this is possible, so that the construction of our two important establishments may continue. The 18 month extension granted by the Egyptian Government for the spending of 50,000 francs ends next March, but I have obtained a few months’grace. When I have finished my business here, I shall go to Rome.
I assure you of my devotion and my gratitude, to you and all the members of the Council.
In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, I remain forever, Mr President,
Your most devoted and grateful servant

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


Translated from French.

[4028]
I received your most precious letter on 10th February, and it is fine. I shall abide by the two conditions you desire. On the first I have no doubts. On the 2nd, I do not understand it; however I shall submit all things to your mature judgement, and should you deem it necessary, I shall also carry out the 2nd, although I do not have the slightest thing printed on something I knew nothing about. However, I am a gentleman, and to you, V. Rev. Father, I will open my heart, which does not appear to have been understood too well. All will be done for the good of Africa and for those who work for it.
Please accept my respect,
devotedly yours in the Lord

Daniel Comboni,
Pro-Vicar Apostolic

[4029]
Your letter of 5th July reached me in the midst of the inhabitants of Jebel Nuba, where I witnessed the miserable state of the slaves. To capture 500 slaves, they kill over 200, they tie them by the neck with a rope, men and women together, and make them travel for months on foot until they are sold.
After reaching the capital of Kordofan, I travelled for two months via Suakin and the Red Sea. I arrived in Cairo and after I have done my business, I shall leave for Rome. From there, I shall send you a detailed report on the Vicariate and on the great good the Oeuvre Apostolique can do and has done so far.

[4030]
Allow me to draw your benevolent attention to the state of my immense Vicariate, which is the largest in the whole world, larger than Europe, as well as the hardest and most laborious. At this moment I do not have the time to write, I only implore you to reserve for my Vicariate a good portion of everything and especially cloth for my Missionaries and the poor women, for whom solid support is required because they sleep on the bare ground and live in little huts. They do receive clothes, but so far it has been impossible for us to give them. In their huts they use the clothes at night, for the days are very hot and the nights are very cold in comparison for those who have nothing to cover themselves with. In two Nuba tribes I only saw one chief with a wool blanket which we gave him: all the others sleep without any blankets, quite naked that is, except a few who have animal skins.
I apologise for these sad details, but most of my Vicariate is more backward in its civilisation and customs than our fathers were at the time of Adam and Eve. This is why the admirable work you founded, now so flourishing, can give so much help to Central Africa.

[4031]
Almost everything you sent me went down in the cataracts of the Nile; there was a complete Mass set which arrived all ruined, but thank God, this was the first time since 1848 and I hope it will be the last. Fr Carcereri, to economise, had tried to run the cataracts: his boat was smashed and sank. This was a great loss for me, but patience, French charity is inexhaustible! We never see wine, except at Mass. I have just read in your dear Annals, which are so interesting and so consoling, that in Bordeaux there is an association of bottles from the grape harvest, which distributes wine for the Holy Sacrifice to Missionaries: what a touching charity, and that you also add consommé broth for the sick.
[4032]
For the love of God send us both the wine and the broth. I cannot describe to you the deprivations we put up with in Central Africa. The Missions of the East, of India, of China, of America, of Australia are swimming in abundance compared with us: that is why, while you help these venerable champions of the Faith, who certainly have their crosses to bear, because that is the sign they are God’s workers, you must not forget Central Africa and send me an abundant shipment.
[4033]
Remember 1870, at the time of the Vatican Council, when you were in Rome for your admirable work. My own work was then quite small: I only had two small houses in Cairo with African girls, and see now how the Hearts of Jesus and Mary have blessed this work. I have two houses in Verona, two in Cairo, two great Institutes in Khartoum, two in Kordofan and two in Jebel Nuba. I have to set up the most difficult Mission of the Catholic Church and it must be reinforced in a way that makes this Mission eternal, so that the standard of the Faith may be raised where the Word of the Gospel has never been heard.
Therefore bless with me the Hearts of Jesus and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, St Joseph, St Peter and St Paul.
Give my regards to all the venerable ladies of the Association.

Daniel Comboni Pro-Vicar Apostolic


Translated from French.

[4034]
To tell you the complete truth I feel very guilty, for I have not written to you in three years. After being appointed Pro-Vicar of the largest and most difficult Vicariate, I toiled so much, suffered so much that it is a miracle I am still alive. But not a day went past without my praying for you and your most noble family which I love so much and which remains permanently engraved in my heart; hardly an hour went by without my remembering you all.
[4035]
During these three years, I have made huge journeys by camel, founded the missions of Kordofan, Jebel Nuba and Berber, and we have spread the tents of the Lord very widely where there was nothing but death. In the eight and a half years since, alone and without human subsidies and with the protection of Mgr Canossa, I began my work; I have two establishments of my own in Verona, created by me, two in Cairo, two in Kordofan, two in Jebel Nuba and one in Berber, and I have spent more than eight hundred thousand francs in these calamitous and difficult times. You can see clearly that what I have undertaken is a work of God. But I shall not speak of this now and shall wait to tell you personally. I would like to write to Fr Orazio and Guido, but I am freezing cold, for I have been well toasted in the scorching deserts of Central Africa. In fact, on 4th November, with another companion, two Sisters of St Joseph and one of my lay servants, we certainly feared for our lives. Racked with fevers, without a drop of water or food, surrounded all night by five roaring lions and nine hours away from the nearest muddy water hole, spending the night on the hard ground to the tune of the roaring lions which terrified the poor Sisters, I had no hope of getting us out. But, thank God, after 4 months of most tiring travelling, I can still write from Cairo to Princess Falconieri, and write in perfect health (though I am frozen) and intone my war cry: “Africa or death”.
[4036]
Please give my very best regards to your most devout sister, after giving my affectionate greetings to the Prince, your consort, to my dearest Guido and his angelic wife, to Count Filippo and to the faithful and dear Nannucci, whom I have always remembered. Oh! How happy I shall be in a month’s time to see Guido’s little ones, who will have grown very well I’m sure. Oh what a joy for me to be seeing you, Princess, for whom I shall always be
Your most devoted and affectionate

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[4037]
Over a year after I had the honour of receiving your letter of 28th July 1874, on 24th October of last year, from Jebel Nuba, I sent you a letter with a Report on my immense Vicariate of Central Africa, in which I insistently implored your help. But since the post does not work between Jebel Nuba and Kordofan and we must entrust our letters to two Africans whom we send ourselves at our expense from Nuba to El Obeid, the capital of Kordofan, and they sometimes do not reach their destination because of the murderous Baqqarah, or because they are abducted and sold, it is possible that my letter and Report were lost, like many other letters, for this dispatch never arrived in Kordofan.
[4038]
I hurriedly left Kordofan after getting there from Jebel Nuba, which I left on 30th October, and I reached Cairo last February by way of Khartoum, Berber, Suakin and the Red Sea. From here, I now send you a warm and pressing appeal that the admirable Society of the Holy Childhood may come to the rescue of this Vicariate of Central Africa, which is the largest, the hardest and the most difficult in the whole world. I must now repeat, in a few words, what I had said in the lost Report.
[4039]
The Vicariate of Central Africa was established by Gregory XVI with the Brief of 3rd April 1846 and includes a huge area, much larger than Europe, bounded by Egypt, the Red Sea, Abyssinia, the Vicariate of the Gallas, the 12th degree Latitude North, the two Guineas and the line drawn from the Niger and the Prefecture of Tripoli.
The first Missionaries to have occupied the Vicariate in Khartoum were Fr Ryllo, Mgr Casolani, Knoblecher, Vinco and Pedemonte who reached Khartoum on 6th February 1848. From that time until 1861 (I reached Khartoum in 1857) 37 European Missionaries and many German lay brothers came to the Vicariate. During that period there were many expeditions; in each expedition of European Missionaries, half died in their first year in the Vicariate, and the other half died almost entirely in the second year, in such a way that when, for example, 6 Missionaries arrived in the Vicariate, 3 would die in their first year on the Mission and 2 would die in the second, etc.
In the second Franciscan period, from 1861 to 1871, out of more than 40 Franciscans, 22 died and the rest returned to Cairo or Europe after great efforts.

[4040]
Now in the recent period, since the Holy See has entrusted the Vicariate to me and to the Institute for the Missions of Africa in Verona with the help and protection of Mgr Canossa, that is over five years, 15 European Missionaries have reached the Vicariate in 4 expeditions, and 15 Missionaries are still alive and are fully active in their work, without any one of them dying in this 5 year period. That is the good result and happy consequence of my Plan for the Regeneration of Africa.
Before my appointment and the designation of my Verona Institute for the apostolate of Central Africa, in the whole Vicariate there was only a small community of Franciscans in Khartoum which consisted of two Fathers and two lay brothers, including one German Father who was a real saint.

[4041]
As I write to you now, Monsignor, my Work for the Regeneration of Africa possesses two large Institutes in Khartoum, two in Kordofan, two in Jebel Nuba, one Camillian house in Berber and two small houses in Cairo to acclimatise the European Missionaries and Sisters and two Institutes in Verona for the formation of candidates, both male and female, for the apostolate of Central Africa.
The preservation of the European Missionaries’ lives in the Vicariate, despite the burning climate, the immense efforts, the difficult journeys and the greatest deprivations is due, after the grace of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to the system I have established of having the Missionaries spend some time in Cairo to acclimatise. This had never happened before.

[4042]
I have thought it my duty to tell you all this to let you understand the stability and permanence of this laborious Mission, as long as Providence supplies it with the means to live and to give life. Now, the admirable Association for the Propagation of the Faith and the offerings from a few other small Associations have been my support so far. But the considerable resources the Propagation of the Faith have given us are not sufficient to supply everything that is of prime necessity to the Vicariate to ensure the greater development of our apostolate.
[4043]
To begin with, the provisions we buy in Cairo (since much is lacking in these central parts) end up costing enormous amounts by the time they reach the Vicariate, since everything has to be carried by camel. The trips are long, tiring, interminable and very costly.
The last caravan of provisions led by Fr Carcereri took more than 7 months from Cairo to Khartoum. A considerable sum is therefore spent on the journeys, in which we have to suffer all sorts of things. Food is also enormously expensive. My Missionaries and the Sisters practically do not know what wine is, while it would be so necessary for our sustenance in these great efforts, at least once a week. But for lack of resources, we have had to do without, since a bottle of wine costing half a franc in Cairo, cannot be found in Kordofan for less than 8 francs.

[4044]
The same is true of the other items we need to live and clothe ourselves, etc. Houses are also needed for the Missionaries and the Sisters to live in, but solid houses made of red brick to protect them from the enormous heat and atmospheric variations, to preserve their lives.
Only in Khartoum have I so far been able to build houses of this kind. Not yet in Kordofan, where we have houses made of mud and straw which can be used in periods when it does not rain. But when it rains and the rains are violent, they dissolve like sugar and chocolate when they are soaked. For me, as representative of the Holy See in this Vicariate, which has more than 100 million infidels living in it, I have the strongest room in our house in Kordofan, but with the arrival of the rains, I have always had to seek refuge in a grass hut.

[4045]
Last year, this happened several times to our Sisters during the night and they found shelter in a hut that was near their house. Now it is necessary to build brick houses so as properly to preserve the life and health of the members of the Mission. In Kordofan, a small house made of bricks would cost an enormous amount, and this expense should be made, but so far I have lacked the resources. In Jebel Nuba we all live, including Our Lord, in grass huts which we defend as best we can from the rains, the elephants, the hyenas and the lions who roar all night. A good building in the interesting Mission of Jebel Nuba would also defend us from the murderous Baqqarah, in the same way as the venerable Franciscans of the Holy Land defended themselves in times past from the Turks.
[4046]
All these things are material, but they are of prime necessity for us to be able steadfastly to achieve our spiritual aim and consolidate our works, and especially that which concerns the Holy Childhood. In China there are houses and security for the Sisters, but in Central Africa everything has yet to be created because all is primitive.
[4047]
To date, therefore, I cannot submit for the Missions of Central Africa the lists of saved children that you receive from the Missions of China. But if I receive the means to prepare the houses and the homes for children and to house the Missionaries and the Sisters properly, I assure you, Monsignor, that we will soon be able to present you with some very consoling records. We have taken in children in Khartoum, Kordofan and Jebel Nuba, and we receive them constantly; but if we had the means to build solid houses, the work of the Sisters and the Missionaries would be flourishing.
We need the means to build the barricades, the places, etc. from which to lay siege to the formidable fortress of Africa: we must prepare the cannons, the machine-guns, that is, all the elements we need for this apostolate to be fruitful, and among these elements we need houses to ensure our survival.

[4048]
It is for this reason that I am writing to the admirable Society of the Holy Childhood so as to obtain a good subsidy to create in Central Africa a society for the children, and to educate them in the Faith and ensure their eternal salvation. I implore you, Monsignor, in the name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who is patron of Central Africa, to help this important Mission.
I hope that this time the humble prayer of Missionaries of the Vicariate, the most difficult and strenuous one on earth, will penetrate the hearts of the members of the Central Council and yours, Monsignor, which burns for the salvation of souls.

[4049]
It is 27 years and 62 days since I swore to die for Central Africa: I have been through the greatest difficulties, borne the greatest fatigues, several times been at death’s door and, despite so many deprivations and difficulties, the Sacred Heart of Jesus has preserved in my spirit and in the hearts of my Missionaries and Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, such a degree of perseverance that our war cry will remain until we die: “Africa or Death!”
We have the consolation of seeing the bases of our Work solidly planted for success in our aim, to see the standard of the Cross shine forth where the Word of the Gospel has never been heard, thanks to the Propagation of the Faith and the associations which have helped us.

[4050]
I shall await another occasion to give you details of our Missions in Kordofan, Khartoum and Berber and of the horrors of slavery which we are continuously witnessing and which thrives in the Sudan, despite all the treaties of the European powers and all the nonsense in the press. I shall tell you something about the new Mission in Jebel Nuba which I have recently founded.
[4051]
The Nuba peoples constitute a special race and one of the most intelligent, more positive than the Kish and the Bari, with whom I spent a great deal of time between 1857 and 1859. They inhabit remote plains surrounded by mountains and cultivate the land during the rainy season from June to October and, in this period, they harvest what they need to live frugally throughout the year.
They are indeed poor. They hate Islam and the Muslims, because the latter have decimated and almost totally destroyed these populations, taking them as slaves or as soldiers under the Egyptian government of the Sudan. We have carefully studied their superstitions and their language, but we are still a long way from penetrating the mystery of their beliefs and extravagant superstitions.

[4052]
It is in the area of Delen, which the locals call Uarco, that we have set up our first Station with the Nuba. It is a group of five mountains whose granite masses form slopes and hollows where part of the population lives.
[4053]
As far as I have been able to understand, these populations are not idolatrous. But it seems to me that they have a quite unique religion which prescribes many ceremonies in which they claim to honour a single Supreme Being, Master and Director of the whole universe, and at the same time certain spirits which protect them. Their ceremonies are presided over and conducted by certain Cogiurs or priests, of which there are five in Delen. The great Cogiur, whose name is Kakum, is also king or head of government and presides over the most solemn ceremonies which concern their religion and the interests of the whole tribe.
They have no temple, but each Cogiur has a special hut which is reserved for religious ceremonies.

[4054]
Inside this hut, four stakes one metre high stand in the ground and support rough horizontal boards to form a narrow platform. At the sides of the hut one sees a few cow skulls, the use of which I have not yet been able to discover. This is how they perform the religious ceremony. With the people staying outside the hut, the Cogiur climbs onto the platform and lies down on it. He begins to breathe very heavily and to turn this way and that. In a short time, his face goes red, his eyes swell up and he utters a few low moans. Little by little, his voice grows louder, he shouts and emits strange shrieks, still thrashing around and frothing at the mouth, his voice going hoarse.
[4055]
The spirit then completely possesses the Cogiur… and the people, in utter silence, await the oracles. A representative of the Cogiur stands at the door of the hut to gather the words coming from his mouth, since the Cogiur, possessed by the spirit, is subsequently unable to tell others what he has said during the alleged ecstasy.
Then in a dull voice, with several pauses, he begins to speak according to the circumstances, reproaching the people for its mistakes, predicting the future, answering the questions for which the ceremony was held. The word of the Cogiur inhabited by the spirit is sacrosanct for all, it is received with great faith and accepted with great respect. When he has finished speaking, the Cogiur remains lying down for some time, then jumps to his feet like someone awakening from a deep sleep. From the mouth of his representative, he then listens to the words the spirit has revealed through him, as if he did not know them.

[4056]
We have not yet been able to find out what they understand by spirit. Each Cogiur possesses one of his own. The great Cogiur Kakum, in addition to his own spirit, is assisted by the shades of the other minor Cogiurs who are in the ceremonial hut. Everything generally ends with abundant libations of merissa (a kind of beer made with fermented grain and full of alcohol), so much so that ugly scenes of drunkenness follow the religious ceremonies. These ceremonies are frequent and regulate all the activities not only in private life, but also in the public life of the tribe.
Here I could give many details, but I shall save that for another time, when we will have made a more thorough study for the great purpose of combating all this and making our most holy Faith triumphant.

[4057]
Two things have struck me. The first is that, although these people, both men and women, dress practically like our ancestors Adam and Eve before the fall, there is not the slightest trace of scandal about these people who are generally well-behaved. In the 7 months that my Missionaries have been in Delen, never have they discovered the slightest disorder. And our Sisters, who have been communicating for some time with the indigenous women, have never been able to discover a single one of those disorders that are so widespread. We have been doing everything we could through the Sisters to get the women dressed, especially young married women, not without some difficulty.
[4058]
There are two main reasons for which the women do not wear clothes. The first is that they do not have the cloth to dress with. The second is a superstition which prevails among the Nuba. It is generally believed that once a woman is dressed she can no longer have children. But our holy religion will fully answer this objection. 1. by giving them clothes to wear; 2. by holding Christian weddings according to the rites of our Faith, and then the people will soon see that our Catholic women can have children, even dressed.
[4059]
The other thing which struck me most vividly is the respect, the docility that this people has with regard to their great chief. It is quite a surprising spectacle. The great Cogiur Kakum has no codes, no laws, no prisons, no means of coercion. Despite this he resolves all matters, he listens to and judges all those of his subjects who turn to him and, once he has pronounced a sentence or judgement, he is perfectly obeyed.
It is impressive to hear the considerations he utters before passing a judgement. He shows great wisdom and judgement in his reflections: he frequently consults the elders who are members of his council, gathering them under a tree; and I have several times been present as matters were dealt with. I was amazed. The great Cogiur is a very fine, prudent and wise man. He knows men’s wiles and is a leader. Without a doubt, the great Cogiur Kakum would be capable of administering a large French province and even a small kingdom: he has a great deal of common sense.

[4060]
Now, as regards our religion, many efforts will be required to vanquish so many superstitions and overcome the many obstacles caused by the Baqqarah Homur Arabs who often devastate the territories of the Nuba, abducting their children to sell them, and destroying their crops. But in time all will be conquered.
We have complete freedom to spread our principles and our Faith to the Nuba, and this by the authority of the great Cogiur Kakum who came in person to El Obeid to invite me to set up a Mission among his people. They all send their children to us. But we need the means to learn their language which is completely different from those of the other tribes and Arabic. Once we have consolidated a Mission among the Nuba, the door will open for us to proceed to the heart of Central Africa.
I insistently request your prayers and your help for this purpose. I will end this letter by telling you a story which will enable you to understand the deprivations we have to bear on our journeys.

[4061]
It was on 3rd November last, after our departure from Jebel Nuba, that my caravan consisting of 16 camels was in a forest of ebony and acacia, full of animals and lions, but without any water. The rains had ended a month before. Accidentally, with the good Lord’s permission, without our noticing it, the caravan had divided in two.
Those lagging behind included myself, Fr Giuseppe, Mr August from Ermeland in Prussia, the blacksmith, my Turkish cavas and two Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, namely: Sr Germana Assuad from Aleppo and Sr Maddalena Caracassian from Erzurum. The reason we were lagging behind was that Fr Giuseppe had a fever and, every now and then, he would stop on his camel, his strength failing. Every quarter of an hour he would stop and then force himself to go on, but then would stop again. This is why all the above-mentioned travellers gradually lagged behind around Fr Giuseppe’s camel. At 9 in the morning the sick man stopped. Sitting his camel down, he declared that he could go no further. We dismounted from our camels and dragged the poor man under a tree because the sun was scorching.

[4062]
All our provisions were up ahead. All we had, on one camel, was a canteen of quite dirty water, about three litres of water. Fr Giuseppe was burning with a terrifying fever so that within one hour, what with giving him to drink and bathing his head as he wanted, the water was consumed. He was at death’s door.
At one o’clock, after indescribable sufferings, he fell asleep and half an hour later he woke up again all sweaty. The fever had waned considerably, but he was exhausted. However, being very courageous, he said: we must leave.

[4063]
After considering it carefully for a few minutes, I gave the order to proceed, although the sun was at its hottest in the sky. These were my reasons: all our provisions and water for two days had gone ahead with the camel-drivers and Fr Luigi and Fr Alfonso. I was exhausted by 22 days of fevers which had lasted until the day before I left Delen. It was an hour and a half after midday and no one had had anything to eat and we were all burning with thirst, without a drop to drink. We had to travel all day to reach the others, since before we had set off in the morning, we had said we would proceed to an agreed spot so as to be able to reach Shingiokaen, where there was water.
[4064]
We travelled all day with enormous fatigue, since we were all sick, even the Sisters. At sunset we were all dying of thirst, hunger (for we had nothing, everything had gone on ahead) and fatigue. We found a small foulah, a kind of ditch where there was some black and muddy water, into which the camels and cattle step to drink: this black water was bitter. Our thirst was extreme: all of us including the Sisters drank this water which gave us the courage to proceed.
But the night came and since the forest was very thick and the ground uneven, we advanced with difficulty through the thorny branches which invade the path so that our hair, the Sisters’veils and our clothes were all torn.

[4065]
In addition, camel riding in the dark without seeing a thing was a real hardship to me, especially since I had already broken my left arm by falling from a camel in Kordofan desert on 25th November 1873. Moreover, the lions were beginning to roar in the forest. So I gave the order to halt and settle under an acacia. The Khabir, or guide, the cavas and our good August opposed my orders saying that if we stopped we were certain to be devoured by the lions and that we were only three hours away from Shingiokaen. I no longer had the strength to proceed and travelling in the dark was even more difficult. I was therefore the first to dismount and I ordered everyone to do the same. Sr Germana and Fr Giuseppe were also on their last legs.
[4066]
Then I took a coin (Megid) from my pocket and gave it to my cavas (who is an enormous Caucasian sent to me by the governor of Kordofan) and I told him: go on ahead at once; catch up with our caravan, make it stop and wait for us tomorrow, and bring back camels, provisions and water.
The cavas answered: That is impossible for, by myself I would be devoured by the lions. In short, we all settled on the ground under trees, lighting fires in a circle that were to last all night. But there was nothing to eat or drink or to cover ourselves with and our bed was the bare earth. We commended our souls to the Sacred Heart, to Our Lady, to St Joseph and to St Jude the Apostle, patron of lost causes.

[4067]
With great trust in God we prepared for death. I was moved by the courage of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, admirable Sisters for whom all praise falls short of reality. They gave me courage. The poor things were dying of hunger and thirst like me. As time went by, the lions began to growl and roar on all sides. Their roars made the forest, the camels and the souls in our bodies tremble. Nothing is more terrible in the world than to live a night like this. But there were the Heart of Jesus and Our Lady to sustain our courage.
We were totally worn out. The cavas gave me the coat of his uniform to cover me. The poor Sisters had a shawl. But we needed to eat and there was nothing.

[4068]
By chance, the cavas had half a pound of raw meat and I found, by a stroke of luck, in my little case a tiny little piece of the three bits of salami I had bought in Khartoum for 5 francs of which we had eaten twice in 5 months: once in Kordofan and once in Jebel Nuba, when we had remained 14 days without any salt in our food.
This is what we did: to the best of their ability, the Sisters arranged the little meat there was, mixed with the tiny piece of salami on a piece of iron (the cooking utensils having gone ahead with the caravan) and we put this on the fire. In four minutes, seeing that it was impossible to cook, we divided this meal and each of us swallowed a little portion. Then, singing a short song of praise, we each went to our places to spend the night which seemed a year, since it was impossible to rest and sleep.

[4069]
In our sufferings we had the indescribable consolation of thinking that we were suffering for Jesus Christ and the souls of humanity. Oh, what ineffable wisdom the Divine Saviour showed in creating and building the Cross. The Cross is the strongest comfort and remedy to sweeten the hardships of life and I am convinced that it is the Cross which gives strength to our Holy Father Pius IX in his prison of the Vatican and makes him formidable to those who lead the chorus of cosmopolitan revolution.
[4070]
And what had happened to the part of the caravan which had gone ahead? This is what had happened: Fr Luigi Bonomi and Fr Alfonso (who was exhausted by recent fevers), seeing that I and the Sisters and Fr Giuseppe had stayed behind, stopped several times to wait for us. But those villains of camel drivers complained, saying that the caravan had to reach a place where there was water. Later the camel drivers led the Missionaries to believe that we had taken a different route and that we were ahead. But later I discovered that on the evening we had stopped, the Missionaries had stopped too, an hour away from us; but since they had the provisions and the water, they had eaten and drunk enough and had gone to sleep, also to the roaring of the lions, but on their mattresses. During the night, the camel drivers had drunk all the Missionaries’ water so that, the following morning, so as not to die of thirst, they pushed on to Shingiokaen where they believed, on the word of the camel drivers, that we had arrived.
[4071]
But in truth it was not so. When the morning came, extenuated by the effort, thirst and oppressive weakness, I ordered our departure and, after a thousand afflictions and a six-hour march through the thorns we arrived more dead than alive in the village of Shingiokaen where our confreres were preparing a team to search for us in the forest with food and water. As soon as we arrived, we devoured water and milk and, preparing ourselves for a terrible fever, we heartily thanked the good Lord for saving us.
[4072]
Eight days later we arrived in El Obeid, the Capital of Kordofan. From this brief account you may have an idea of the journeys undertaken by the Missionaries and Sisters of Central Africa. But since these souls we are going out to seek with such effort and unheard-of sufferings are redeemed by the Blood of Jesus Christ, we are certain that God will help us and that your eminent charity will come to our rescue for the unfortunate children of Central Africa.
[4073]
I now turn to you with tears in my eyes, venerable Monsignor, and beg you to support my cause in the Central Council so that I may receive the help of the admirable Society of the Holy Childhood and receive it in two forms: 1. The prayers of the members; 2. The abundant offerings of the Holy Childhood.
If God inspires you to help me, please write to me at the Institute for the Missions of Africa — Via del Seminario 12 in Verona, or to Mgr Marchese di Canossa, Bishop of Verona.
In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, I have the honour to remain with great respect
Your most humble and devoted servant

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar of Central Africa


Translated from French.

[4074]
A brief word to tell you that I have arrived in Rome. In these last few years I have suffered the pangs of death. The war waged against me from all sides (and you know its main instigator, for he even made use of some Sisters) should have killed me. But I have come to Rome and I hope that truth and innocence will triumph. I find the whole of Rome is on my side. The Cardinal Prefect received me with immense kindness. He has ordered me to draft a Report on the history of the Vicariate from 1872 to today.
The Congregation of St Joseph will feature in it with much-deserved prominence, since the dedication of this Congregation and many of its Sisters verges on heroism. I have developed my plan to entrust the Institute of the Devout Mothers of Africa entirely to you and to establish it (the Congregation) in Verona and Venetia. I am proud of Sr Veronica. She is an excellent Sister. I have observed her well in Cairo.
Experience has taught me that one should not listen to everyone in one’s affairs. One learns only from experience.

[4075]
I do not have the time to give you a detailed report on the work of the Sisters in Central Africa. For your Report to Propaganda and to the Bishops and Regulars it is enough to say that the Sisters are carrying out all the Catholic works in Central Africa: education, schools, orphanages, homes for the slaves, caring for the sick in hospitals and at home, baptisms in harems and among the infidels, the apostolate (they have converted souls to the faith), etc., etc. In Central Africa, the Sister is everything. As soon as I have made my Reports to Rome, I shall send to Marseilles my incomparable Secretary Fr Paolo Rossi, who despite his age possesses the goodness of an angel, eminent talent, wisdom, calm and prudence. Our Mother Provincial knows him well.
Pray for me who have suffered so much and who will not be at peace until my affairs in Rome have been dealt with. They have sworn to annihilate me, but the horns of Jesus Christ are harder than those of the Devil. Truth will be triumphant.

[4076]
Give me news of Mme de Villeneuve to whom I wish to write. The best Sisters who are the most useful to Central Africa are Sr Emilienne and Sr Anna. Jealousy and wickedness can in no way tarnish their merit.
In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary I remain (since last 7th March I ordered Fr Mauro to pay the Mother Provincial in Khartoum for the semester from 1st April to 1st October 1876 for the Sisters in Khartoum and Kordofan).
Your most devoted

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic

I shall send you 200 francs as soon as I receive a cheque in the next few days.


Translated from French.

[4077]
In obedience to Your Most Reverend Eminence’s invitation, I make it my duty to provide you with a succinct outline of the History of the holy Work for the Redemption of Africa, of the current situation of the Vicariate of Central Africa and of the stable and permanent nature this arduous and difficult Mission seriously presents, and which is undoubtedly one of the most sublime and important apostolic works of the Catholic Church in the world.
[4078]
To begin with, for a better understanding of the history of this Mission and of its topographic location, I believe it is appropriate here to refer Your Eminence to the three Ponenze by which the Sacred Congregation erected, regulated and ordered the Vicariate, dated respectively January 1846, May 1872 and August 1874; and to indicate also the Map which I had the honour to submit to the Sacred Congregation in 1872, in which I outlined the exact boundaries of the Vicariates and Prefectures Apostolic of the whole of Africa on the basis of documents made available to me by Propaganda.
[4079]
The overall history of the Vicariate must be considered to have had three distinct periods. In period I, this great Mission was under the governance of Fr Ryllo, who died in Khartoum in 1848, and several German and Italian secular priests until 1861. In period II, it was governed by the Reverend Franciscan Fathers from 1861 to 1872. In period III, finally, from 1872 to 1876, it came under the governance of the Institute for the Missions of Africa, founded by me in Verona in 1867 under the auspices of the Bishop, Mgr Canossa.
[4080]
In the Report I presented for the Ponenza of May 1872, it can be seen that in the first period four Stations were started in the Vicariate: Shellal, on the Tropic of Cancer near the Island of File in Lower Nubia; Khartoum, the capital of the Egyptian territories in the Sudan, located near the 15th degree of Latitude North in Upper Nubia; Holy Cross in the Kish tribe near the 7th degree of Latitude North and Gondokoro in the Bari tribe near the 4th degree of Latitude North on the White Nile. In the 14 years of the first period, just under 40 European missionary priests toiled there and nearly all perished as victims of charity, their immense efforts and the inclemency of the climate. In the second period, the more remote Stations of Holy Cross and Gondokoro were immediately abandoned, and gradually so was the closer one of Shellal, concentrating the apostolic action in the Khartoum Station. About 50 Franciscans, mostly lay, worked there, of which 22 died and nearly all the survivors retired to Egypt and Europe, leaving only two, and at times just one missionary with a lay brother in the Mission.
[4081]
In the third period, finally, in addition to many lay coadjutors, several Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition and many African women teachers, as many as 11 priests and 3 theology students from my Institute for the Missions of Africa in Verona and 5 Camillian Fathers penetrated and settled in the Vicariate; and none of these have perished, but all 19 are living and working zealously in this arduous Vineyard of the Lord. This clearly shows that the Vicariate of Central Africa in its beginnings and its development has been down the ordinary paths that Divine Providence has mapped out for all holy works, the paths, that is, of trials, battles and triumph.
[4082]
Here I must make fleeting reference to the origin of this Holy Work for the Redemption of Africa, founded under the auspices of the illustrious Bishop of Verona which, with the help of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, in such difficult and calamitous times and through many trials and obstacles, succeeded in establishing itself in Verona, in Egypt and in Central Africa. This work now feeds and directs this arduous and difficult Vicariate.
[4083]
Among the first five missionaries sent by the Holy See to Central Africa, there was the priest Fr Angelo Vinco, member of the private Institute of Fr Nicola Mazza in Verona, where I myself was educated and to which I belonged from 1843 to 1867. After the death of Fr Ryllo, Fr Vinco, who had returned to Europe to collect offerings and missionaries, spent two months in the aforementioned Institute in Verona. This was a providential opportunity, so the illustrious Fr Mazza resolved to educate and send to Africa those of his students who showed a vocation for such a ministry. It was in January 1849 that, as a 17 year-old student in philosophy, at the feet of my venerable Superior Fr Mazza, I vowed to consecrate my whole life to the apostolate of Central Africa. And, by the grace of God, I have never broken my vow whatever the circumstances, never trying to do anything else but to equip myself for this most holy enterprise. Indeed, in 1857, during the first period of the Mission, I was sent with other priests to Khartoum and the Stations of the White Nile where, among other trials, I was several times at death’s door.
[4084]
During this period I was able to become well acquainted with the language, the character and the customs of the numerous tribes of the African interior. But in 1861, the Mission having been entrusted to the Franciscan Fathers, I withdrew from the Vicariate, after having carried out, at my Superior’s orders, an important expedition to Aden and the eastern coasts of Africa. On 18th September 1864, having attended the beatification of Marguerite Alacoque at St Peter’s in the Vatican, my Plan for the Regeneration of Africa flashed into mind, which I presented to the Sacred Congregation and in which I formed the plan of ensuring the stability and permanence of the Missions in Central Africa by erecting for this purpose an Institute somewhere in Italy and founding two establishments in Egypt for the acclimatisation of the men and women missionaries and their proper preparation for the arduous apostolate of Central Africa.
[4085]
But being alone and completely without support or financial resources to give flesh to my concept and put it into practice, with the approval of my Superiors, I travelled for three years in Italy, France, Germany, England and other parts, practising my priestly ministry, visiting and studying the missionary associations abroad, seeking enlightenment, protection and subsidies, and promoting the importance of the work I had conceived to those who could help me, comforted also by the Most Eminent Cardinal Barnabò and by illustrious and eminent Church and secular personalities, and especially by the precious encouragements and by the prophetic words of our beloved Holy Father Pius IX, who in September of 1864 whispered in my ear: labora sicut bonus miles Christi pro Africa. Although I was faced with insurmountable obstacles and foresaw enormous difficulties both in Europe and in Africa, but also trusting in that Divine Heart which beat and suffered for unfortunate Africa too, I never gave up the hope of succeeding in my arduous task.
[4086]
It was in 1867 that Providence showed me the true ground on which to plant solidly the structure of the work I had already conceived. Mgr Canossa, Bishop of Verona, had several times contemplated the group of lucky African girls for whom Fr Olivieri was asking him to give alms; and moved by compassion he had several times urged and encouraged the illustrious Fr Mazza, his friend, to receive these daughters of Central Africa in his female Institute to educate them in the faith so that they might in turn teach in their own land under the guidance of the missionaries. This is why, after careful consideration, I turned to this noble and most merciful Prelate; I presented him my plan and warmly entreated him to take the work I had conceived under his protection and become its guide and president, assuring him that until I died I would be his right arm, indeed, the support of the whole work; and that as regards financial and material resources, I alone would provide them by means of the illustrious Patriarch St Joseph.
[4087]
The magnanimous Bishop, undeterred by the calamitous times, my weakness and poverty or the size and difficulty of the enterprise, supported and fortified by the Holy Father Pius IX, His Eminence Cardinal Barnabò and a large number of Bishops we had met together at the solemn celebration of the 18th Centenary of the Martyrdom of the Prince of the Apostles here in Rome, assumed the protection and the mandate to be the head and president of the whole Work. So, under his auspices, I immediately opened two houses in Verona, namely: the Institute for the Missionaries of Africa and the College for Women Missionaries, known as the Devout Mothers of Africa, for the support of which I founded the Association of the Good Shepherd, under the presidency of the Bishop who is assisted by a Council of respectable ecclesiastical and secular personalities, which was enriched by the Holy father with Plenary Indulgences.
[4088]
All this was done after I had already left the old private Mazza Institute, which had withered, so as to found the new Institute for the Missions of Africa and submit it to the approval of the Church’s Supreme Authorities, placing it under the absolute patronage of the Holy See. After placing the late lamented Fr Alessandro Dalbosco, my former companion in the missions of Central Africa, at the head of this new Cenacle of Apostles of Africa, I left for Egypt with 16 African women teachers and three Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition. On 8th December 1867, I opened two establishments in Cairo, under the auspices of Mgr Ciurcia, Vicar Apostolic of Egypt. One being a male Institute for Africans entrusted to the priests of my Institute in Verona; the other being a female Institute entrusted to the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition.
[4089]
Concerning the purpose, the rules, the development and the situation of the Institute for the Missions of Africa in Verona and in Egypt, erected in 1867, Your Most Reverend Eminence may refer to the Ponenza of May 1872. Among the priests who accompanied me in Egypt, there were the two Camillian Fathers Carcereri and Franceschini who, having had to abandon their own religious house in Verona following the suppression of religious orders in Italy, implored through Mgr Canossa, appointed Visitor Apostolic to the Camillian houses of the Lombardy-Venetia Province, and obtained from the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars with a Rescript of 5th July 1867, permission to be associated ad quinquennium to my work. They helped me with great zeal to direct the Institutes in Egypt. Indeed, the interests of the Work having forced me to return twice to Europe, during my absence I entrusted the direction of the establishments in Egypt to Fr Stanislao Carcereri.
[4090]
In 1870, I had the pleasure of presenting to the Vatican Council a Postulatum undersigned by many Bishops, which Your Eminence, as Secretary of the Congregation called upon to examine the proposals of the Fathers, submitted to the Holy Father for signature on the evening of 18th July, for it to be presented to the Congregation established for the Apostolic Missions.
[4091]
Seeing the Institutes in Egypt mature and prosper, I turned my mind to the transplanting of some of their best fruits to the African interior. Since the experience of the first period of the Vicariate had not offered too brilliant results along the banks of the White Nile, comforted by the good spirit of my Missionaries, especially Fr Carcereri, I prepared to test the routes of the interior, namely the territories lying between the White Nile and the Niger.
[4092]
That is why, after I had gathered precise information on the kingdom of Kordofan, where no Catholic missionaries had ever ventured, knowing full well that its capital, El Obeid, was a centre for the vile trade in slaves who flowed there from a hundred tribes in the interior and the vast empires of Darfur, Waday, Baghermi and Bornu, I thought of founding a Mission in the capital of Kordofan, which was to be the centre and starting point from which to spread the apostolic action gradually to the lands and tribes of the central part of the Vicariate, in the way that Khartoum is truly the centre and the starting point for the spreading of the faith to the vast tribes which make up the eastern and southern part of the Vicariate. To this end I chose the two Fathers Carcereri and Franceschini as explorers with two lay coadjutors from my Institute in Verona, appointing Carcereri as leader of the expedition, and gave him the necessary subsidies and money for them to live there two years. I giving him appropriate instructions, ordering him to take the desert route via Korosko and Khartoum, to penetrate Kordofan and, after a thorough exploration of the main places, to settle in the capital El Obeid so as to study the customs, the people, the climate and the government of the country; and after fully examining everything, to send me a precise report and await the resolutions I was hoping to obtain on the matter from Propaganda.
[4093]
Indeed, once the planned exploration had been accomplished in a short time, Fr Carcereri sent me his report, which is included towards the end of the said Ponenza of 1872. Furthermore, since he had informed me that a comfortable house built of mud bricks was available in El Obeid for the price of one thousand scudi, I hastened to send him quickly this small sum from Rome for the purchase of this house, urging him to stay there quietly until further orders, while in the meantime studying the language and the land and saving a few souls, especially those of children in articulo mortis. Meanwhile, I took care of my work in Verona, raised in Germany the necessary funds for the Institutes in Verona and Egypt and, duly instructed by the Bishop of Verona, came to Rome to submit the Work for the approval of the supreme authorities of the Church.
[4094]
Following the decisions of the Sacred Congregation in its general assembly in May 1872, the Holy See having entrusted the whole Vicariate of Central Africa to my Institute for the Missions of Africa in Verona, and to me its governance, with the title of Pro-Vicar Apostolic, after paying my respects in Vienna to His Apostolic Majesty the Emperor of Austria and Hungary, the Protector of the Missions of Central Africa, from whom I obtained ample favours, I left for Egypt with a good following of auxiliaries. From there, I immediately sent some of my missionaries to Kordofan; I temporarily appointed Fr Carcereri as my Vicar General, instructing him to take possession in my name of the Station in Khartoum which two Franciscan Fathers were about to abandon, having been recalled by their Most Reverend Father General, and to rent a comfortable house in which to settle the Sisters and the African women teachers whom I was to bring with me from Cairo to Khartoum.
[4095]
Indeed in January 1873, I left Cairo with 30 people, including Missionaries, Sisters, lay-brother coadjutors, African boys and African women teachers. After 99 days I reached Khartoum, where I was welcomed with great festivity by the Grand Pasha, the Imperial Royal Consul of Austria Hungary and all the Catholic and non-Catholic population. I settled the Sisters of St Joseph with the African girls in the rented house and the Missionaries in the vast dwelling built by my late lamented predecessor Fr Ignazio Knoblecher. It took me a month to organise the two establishments for the Missionaries and the Sisters and to restart the dying mission of Khartoum. Leaving Fr Carcereri as Superior there, with Canon Fiore, a member of my Institute in Verona, as his assistant, I left for Kordofan and reached El Obeid on 19th June to be received with great rejoicing by all, especially by the Pasha who, perhaps through fear, a few days before had abolished the public slave market which used to be held in the squares of the capital.
[4096]
Not having enough candidates among the Sisters to establish a female Institute in El Obeid, I brought from Khartoum my excellent and experienced cousin Faustina, who had been working in the Cairo establishment for 4 years, with two selected African women teachers, to care for the African girls we were bound to redeem and the slave-girls seeking refuge; in other words, to have them manage the female activities in Kordofan.
[4097]
I settled them temporarily in a corner of the house separated by a dividing wall until I could buy a spacious and comfortable dwelling place, where I installed the female Institute under the supervision of my above-mentioned cousin until February 1874 when the Sisters arrived in El Obeid, taking over the direction of the whole female work. Thus in a very short time I succeeded in organising and arranging the two establishments in Kordofan, which have contributed and will contribute so much to the apostolate in Central Africa.
[4098]
Since 1848 I had known the good young African Bakhit Caenda who belongs to the noble family of the Counts Miniscalchi, a native of the tribe of Jebel Nuba, and with whom I had become acquainted in Propaganda. In the long years of true friendship and the close relationship I had with this fervent African Catholic, with the Bishop of Verona I could not but admire in this Nuban a distinct piety, an unshakeable faith and an admirable strength of character, so that almost without realising I conceived a high esteem for the Nubas, and repeated to the excellent Bakhit thousands of times that I would not be content until I had planted the Cross of Jesus Christ in his homeland. This wish was somewhat academic in the first years of my ministry, since our apostolic activity was concentrated on the White River.
[4099]
But when I reached Kordofan and had the opportunity every day to hear about the land of the Nuba, the excellence and loyalty of Nuba servants and the keenness with which the Egyptian Government recruited soldiers amongst the ranks of Nuba slaves who frequently used to arrive in El Obeid, the desire to take the light of the Gospel there was then rekindled in my heart. This is why I took every care to gather exact information on this neighbouring people. I contacted one of the Diwan’s chiefs of police, by the name of Maximos, who among his wives had a relative of the great chief of the Nuba people, with whom he had formed a close friendship. Providence was not long in providing me with the most propitious opportunity.
[4100]
One of the Nuba chiefs from Delen called Said Aga having come to El Obeid, the police officer, Maximos, introduced him to me in the Mission on the morning of 16th July 1874 dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as we came out of Church after our usual Hour of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament which I instituted in all my houses in Egypt and the Vicariate, and which is practised every Wednesday pro conversione Nigritiae. I greeted the Nuba chief with great deference. I showed him the craftsmen’s workshops, the little school for African boys and girls, I played him the harmonium, I showed him the main altar well adorned, and the statue of Our Lady, etc. Seeing Said Aga’s supreme satisfaction and contentment, I told him of my wish to meet the great chief of the Nuba people and let him understand that I would not be against planting a mission among the Nuba.
[4101]
The good Said Aga was so struck by the marvels he said he had seen in our mission at El Obeid that, when he returned to his village, he talked and did so much about it that the great Chief, Cogiur Kakum, decided to come in person to visit me in Kordofan. It was indeed a pleasant surprise for me to see the great chief of the Nuba enter the mission in El Obeid with a retinue of more than twenty people between chiefs and servants, on the morning of 24th September, dedicated to Our Lady of Mercy just as we were coming out of our usual hour of adoration pro conversione Nigritiae. I kept the great chief and his whole retinue with me all day, spoke to him at length of my intentions and showed him everything. He repeated the visit to the Mission four days running and between us we decided that after the rains I should undertake with some of my companions a visit to the Nuba territories where, after exploring the land and examining everything, I would probably establish a Mission. With this hope he returned home full of amazement at the things he had seen and beside himself with joy at my forthcoming exploration among the Nuba.
[4102]
Since 16th July, when the Nuba chief Said Aga had come to visit me, I had already informed my companions in Khartoum of what had happened in El Obeid and of the fact that I would probably explore the Nuba territory. Fr Carcereri repeatedly begged me to let him accompany me among the Nuba: indeed he offered to carry out this exploration himself, saying that for this purpose he would gladly postpone the trip to Europe which he had decided to make. After carefully thinking everything over, I invited him to come to El Obeid at the beginning of October and, after thoroughly planning and discussing the new expedition, I agreed to send him on this expedition with other companions and obtained the Pasha's agreement for the praiseworthy police officer, Maximos, and a guide to accompany my explorers to the Nuba territory. To tell the truth, the exploration made by Carcereri, which I had ordered should take two months, was very short, since he only stopped in the first town Delen and stayed there only 40 hours; after which he returned to El Obeid. Nevertheless, when he returned to Kordofan, he confirmed the truth of what I had already been able to gather about the Nuba people from the two previous visits of Said Aga and the great chief Kakum.
[4103]
On 17th November 1873 Fr Carcereri left El Obeid for Rome, where he arrived in March 1874. After having built and arranged the two establishments in Kordofan, I returned to my main residence in Khartoum where, since the Sisters were living in a rented house which was quite small, I built an entirely new establishment of tiles and solid brick 112 metres long with the resources I had received from various private benefactors, including the Emperor Ferdinand and the Empress Maria Anna of Austria and the late lamented Duke of Modena. As a result of this I was able to house the female Institute, the Sisters, the orphanage and the schools. While I worked with my companions on the Mission in the field, Fr Carcereri in Rome was stipulating in my name the convention valid for five years between myself and the V. Reverend Fr Guardi, Vicar General of the Camillians and between myself and the Superior General of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition.
[4104]
On the basis of the convention with the Camillians it was established that these Religious should serve the mission in whatever station they were sent to by the Pro-Vicar Apostolic. In addition I assumed the obligation to erect a Camillian House in Berber, where the Religious could gather together from time to time. They must care for those Catholics who are spread around in the four great Provinces of Berber, Suakin on the Red Sea, Ta k a and the ancient kingdom of Dongola, while depending on and under the jurisdiction of the Pro-Vicar Apostolic. Faithful to the commitments made in this convention, I hastened to Berber, bought and completely paid for the finest and most comfortable house in town, on the banks of the Nile; I settled Fr Franceschini in it, ordering him to make the repairs and improvements required for it to comfortably house a Religious Order, and on 2nd March 1875 five Camillian Religious, including Fr Stanislao Carcereri, the Prefect, and also two lay brothers, settled there. On 1st April, with the due Decree, I canonically erected this house and entrusted it to the Camillians.
[4105]
The purpose for which I agreed to the introduction of the Order of St Camillus de Lellis into the Vicariate was solely to provide ever more for the eternal salvation of nearly one hundred million infidels who inhabit my Vicariate and to have zealous Gospel workers so as to save the largest possible number of the souls entrusted to me, and also to reward the services Fathers Carcereri and Franceschini had rendered to my work. I therefore made the convention for only five years, so as to have the means and the time to really assess whether the Order of St Camillus could be of use to Africa, and to act accordingly.
[4106]
As regards the foundation of the new Mission of Jebel Nuba, ordered by the Sacred Congregation, started by the excellent missionaries of my Institute in Verona, Fr Bonomi and Fr Martini, and concerning my stay with these peoples, the importance of such a Mission and its regular institution, I refer you to my report of 10th October of last year 1875, which I had the honour of sending to Your Most Reverend Eminence from the Nuba territories themselves.
[4107]
When I returned from Jebel Nuba, I stopped in El Obeid, then in Khartoum; from there I went to Berber; then after visiting the city of Suakin on the Red Sea to know the needs of this place and administer the sacraments there, I pursued my journey as far as Cairo where, having removed all the obstacles, I ordered the building to continue on the two new preparatory establishments on the land given to me by the Khedive in the finest quarter of the Egyptian capital, in which the missionaries and Sisters of Central Africa have just settled. Until now they were living in two rented houses in Old Cairo.


II

[4108]
Having given a short history of the origins of the work for the redemption of Africa and of the foundation of the individual establishments and Missions in the Vicariate of Central Africa, I shall now give Your Most Reverend Eminence an outline of the present situation of the Vicariate and the character and stability it seriously presents. To this end it is appropriate to consider the state of the Vicariate as regards 1. the establishments and the resources it possesses; 2. those working there; 3. the climate; 4. the dispositions of the government and the peoples in the midst of which the apostolic action is taking place.
[4109]
1. As regards the establishments for the Missions of Central Africa, in addition to what may be gathered from the 1st part of the present report, there are two establishments in Verona: one for the Missionaries and the other for the Devout Mothers of Africa, each with adjoining gardens, sufficiently large and subsidised by the pious Association of the Good Shepherd, the income from two buildings and one farm recently bought by me not far from the city for 50,000 Italian lire, with a church and two houses, one for the farm-hands and the other, a manor, both standing in the property itself. In these Institutes, the candidates acquire experience and they start their training for the missions of the Vicariate, which they then accomplish in the two entirely new establishments built in the most propitious part of Cairo, where they acclimatise while learning the character and customs of the Africans for the benefit of whom they will especially be working in the present central Stations of Berber, Khartoum, Obeid, Jebel Nuba and in the future ones. The Mission of Central Africa owns establishments in each of these towns or cities, each with a population of 50,000 and even 80,000 inhabitants, as well as in Shellal where it has its comfortable house, built solidly and properly.
[4110]
In Berber there is the house entrusted to the Camillians and here they find themselves in the heart of that extensive territory which has now been entrusted to them. The house has an adjacent chapel and land suitable for a garden and its location is convenient both for the missionaries who live there and for our caravans arriving from Cairo through the Korosko Desert, or via the Red Sea and the Desert of Suakin. It has been properly equipped and is large enough to accommodate the missionaries and has room for them to exercise their apostolic ministry. In Khartoum is the male establishment, a solid stone building 112 metres long which cost my predecessor Ignazio Knoblecher the sum of about 700,000 Lire; and the female establishment which I built in stone and very solid brick in 1875 is the same length.
[4111]
These buildings, separated by the church to which they are both joined, occupy almost one whole side of the Mission’s large garden, which is also surrounded by a brick and mud wall and provides the Mission with its daily supplies as well as producing an income of about 3,000 lire for the Mission, which reduces our debit balance. It will be far more fruitful once we have perfected a system of irrigation to which the site lends itself, since the side opposite the mission buildings faces on the Blue Nile which waters it. The two Institutes of Obeid, each with their own chapel, but temporarily built in sand and mud, are organised, properly arranged and spacious enough to accommodate both the Missionaries and the Sisters and the male and female schools they will direct, and to enable them to exercise their apostolic ministry in that densely populated city.
[4112]
With regard to special sources of income, in addition to the common land which is sufficient but not very productive due to the lack of water, these houses have nothing but two storerooms that together produce a yearly income of 500 lire, and the annual fixed subsidy for about 30 African boys. The houses recently established in Jebel Delen, the first mountain of Jebel Nuba, are the only ones that do not yet have an income of their own, but the common resources compensate totally for this temporary lack.
[4113]
It is true that although the necessary expenses are enormous: for building, for the two Religious Congregations brought in, for travel, for the Missionaries’ maintenance and for transportation, etc., Divine Providence always comes to our aid when we are in need, so that the Vicariate is not burdened by any debts. The principal sources of income that have materially maintained the Vicariate entrusted to me, both in the beginning and during its rapid expansion and which will maintain it in the future, are not so much the specific possessions of each Institute and the abundant donations of my private Benefactors as the ordinary alms given by the Charitable Societies in Cologne whose donations have been in the order of 20,000 lire per year; (1) the lesser but ever increasing donations from the Society of Vienna: those especially granted by Propagation of the Faith, which have constantly increased, from 45,000 to 54,000 francs annually. The maintenance of the Work for the Redemption of Africa was and is assisted by the Society of St Ludwig in Munich, by the Holy Childhood and by the Immaculate Conception in Vienna, and by the Society for the Schools of the East.
[4114]
And I here I must add the sum of 50,000 lire, bequeathed to me in the will of the late Duke of Modena (which I shall use for the mission’s benefit) whose generous charity frequently consoled me with generous donations. From what has been said so far, it will appear that thanks to divine Providence and the intercession of the glorious Patriarch St Joseph, the existence of the Mission for Africa is in no way in peril as regards its establishments and resources.
[4115]
1. Another most important topic in proof of the Mission’s stability, is the sufficient number of workers who set out to exercise the apostolate in the abandoned lands of Central Africa from three Congregations, as from three cenacles: Firsty the Institutes of Missionaries and of the Devout Mothers of Africa, founded by me in Verona under the patronage of the Bishop Mgr Canossa, provided: the Superior of the Institutes in Cairo; the four priests who run the Mission in Khartoum; the two priests who care for the Mission in Obeid; and the other two who helped open the Mission in Jebel Nuba and who are currently in charge of it; the three clerics who are studying at the Station of Obeid; the eight laymen, five of whom still teach crafts, who also assist the Priests. These pious and diligent sons of the male Institute in Verona work unanimously with me in the field for the advantage of unfortunate Africa, under the direction of my prudent and most circumspect representative, Canon Pasquale Fiore.
[4116]
Nevertheless in the male Institute of Verona there is still a group of two clerics, four lay students, aspirants to the Priesthood and three lay craftsmen. Various priests from different Dioceses have asked to be accepted on the Missions of Central Africa, including five who when they have overcome several outstanding difficulties will be admitted to the Noviciate for the Missions of Africa at the Verona College. Then a few more vocations are maturing among the female sex just as they are among the craftsmen and clergy; and already, since its foundation, the Institute of the Devout Mothers of Africa has accepted twelve novices who, guided by the excellent Superior who currently directs them, offer gifts and qualities most suitable for the Mission in Central Africa.
[4117]
To be perfect, the only element missing in the two above-mentioned Institutes is respectively a male and female Arabic teacher, which is why the missionaries were obliged to learn Arabic at the Cairo Institutes; but this will be remedied. Moreover, the number of Gospel workers presented by the Institutes in Verona is not only more than sufficient but they will be offering an increasing number, because with the ever wider distribution of the annals of the Good Shepherd, knowledge of the work is constantly spreading; and the Lord, who has shown in various ways that he wants at last to readmit the lost black sheep to the fold, will increase vocations for the apostolate amongst the clergy and the people, according to the various mansions, even to the point when Africa herself will help Europe regenerate Africa.
[4118]
2. The Vicariate Apostolic of Central Africa also finds personnel from the pious Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, whose usefulness not only in Catholic countries, but in those that are still infidel, is attested in such beautiful terms by the Ordinaries of the places where they have lived and still live. Two Sisters of this pious Congregation of which Your Most Reverend Eminence is Patron, by virtue of a convention are already quartered at the Institutes in Cairo, four in those of Khartoum, four in Obeid, not to mention the most experienced Provincial who now governs them and resides in Khartoum after having previously been a Superior for thirty years on the missions in the East.
[4119]
3. Lastly the third cenacle from which, in accordance with a convention, apostles for the conquest of Africa for the Sacred Heart set out to help the Verona missionaries, is the Camillian Order which has supplied five priests and two laymen to date. While, as has been shown in this section, the number of workers to labour in the Missions of Africa is sufficient and there is sufficient hope of more, the Vicariate’s stability could be threatened, not because of the number of candidates but because of the climate that does not suit European constitutions.
[4120]
The African climate is considered dangerous to Europeans and rightly so, for half the first champions of the Catholic faith who hastened over those boundless sands died during their first year and almost all those remaining died in their second. And truly the banks of the Nile, and especially of the White Nile, cover the mortal remains of numerous robust missionaries who by travelling directly to Khartoum and from there to Holy Cross and Gondokoro, fell prey both to their zeal and to the climate. However various experiments and long experience of these areas has at last helped find a line along which a climate could be found that constantly proved not only less detrimental to health than that of the White Nile, but really good and healthy, as has been the case in Berber, Obeid and Jebel Nuba. It is certainly true that here too, the heat has been found to be somewhat more intense than in the hotter countries of Europe; but it is likewise true that as well as being more or less intense according to the various seasons, it is nonetheless tempered by a wind that blows especially in the deserts; and it is in fact relatively less unbearable than the heat in Rome.
[4121]
In any case, unlike the first Missionaries who went straight to the central places in Africa from their European countries, no missionary now goes up the Nile if he has not first been acclimatised, staying for a time in the Cairo Institutes that were founded for this purpose. Having become accustomed to the climate there, missionaries and Sisters can attempt the routes of the interior without inevitably falling ill. It is very true that the rapid drop from a high temperature during the day to a low one at night or some other new local condition, could be bad for the health, especially for Europeans. In this regard Khartoum alone is not very healthy. But the climate here would be less healthy than in the other stations only in winter, that is, during the two or three months that follow the rainy season; and this is because of the vapours rising from the water that lies stagnant in the lower parts of the city. This would therefore be one effect to tolerate in a season which soon passes, but it could be prevented, as it will be, by levelling the surface of the city.
[4122]
However, the climate of the Blue Nile which flows through Khartoum, and of the surrounding desert compensates for this. For the weakest, a trip on the Blue Nile or a few days in a house for this purpose in a neighbouring village is a remedy, whose immediate effectiveness has already been proven by experience, for illnesses contracted in that short season. Furthermore, it is not that the climate of Khartoum is absolutely unhealthy; all that is necessary is additional diligence in using precautions suggested by many years’ experience, no more than in the other seasons and in other countries. These precautions are no sacrifice to the Missionary; they are more or less the same measures taken in the hotter climates of Europe: light food and regular meals, no spirits; a sparing use of wine if it is to be had; keeping out of the sun at certain hours and out of the rain.
[4123]
If one practises these small measures, the climate of Khartoum, which is not actually dangerous in the short winter season, could be said to be healthy in the other seasons, just as the climate in Berber, Obeid and Jebel Nuba is really healthy for Europeans if they take these same precautions, and are not already ill when they leave their homeland. In this case, should they succumb, it must be admitted that this is not due to the climate but to the disease they already had, as has happened to some of those who dedicated themselves to the Mission of Central Africa. Moreover, European traders who also come from the cooler climes of Europe, stay and work in Khartoum and in other countries of the Sudan and live in the central regions for quite a number of years even without proper regard for themselves.
[4124]
Thus in all honesty missionaries and Sisters who are acclimatised in Cairo and who take the above-mentioned precautions can penetrate the Sudan and work there without being doomed to ill health. Truthfully, with regard to the 16 European Priests and 3 Clerics who reached the stations in the interior, not only do they all enjoy good health, but some have regained there a constitution they did not enjoy in their country of origin. While European Missionaries cannot live in Africa without a certain sacrifice, they will be able to live there more easily in the future, when with the introduction of agriculture and the material progress brought there by Religion and through Religion, the specific climate of every country will improve. Now if Missionaries in Africa, by taking certain precautions, can live the same life they can live in Europe, it must be deduced that life on the Mission in Africa is not in danger from the climate, just as it is not threatened by the Government or by the tribes.
[4125]
4. Everyone recognises that the favour of the Government and the population is a factor which has a positive influence on a Mission’s security and progress, just as it is recognised that opposition from these sectors seriously impedes not only the development but the very existence of the Missions themselves, especially among the infidels. That is why, if from the very beginning I studiously applied myself to gaining the favour of the people and the Government, and with divine help I was able to succeed, it should now be everybody’s concern, as far as possible, at least not to make enemies of them. As things stand today, thank God, the Mission of Central Africa is in no danger, either from the government, or from its subjects or from the free tribes.
[4126]
Your Most Reverend Eminence knows how, favoured by the law of freedom of worship, the Franciscan Fathers have churches open to the public in Egypt, one of which is in the capital, Great Cairo. Now since the Government penetrated the kingdom of Kordofan thirty years ago, the aforesaid law is also respected there, as far as its furthest boundaries, and the Governors of the Viceroy’s fanatical administration and affairs have not yet dared to bother Catholic Missionaries seriously. These fanatical worshippers of the Grand Sultan, their sovereign and religious leader, respectfully kiss the great Firman which the Mission received by the mediation of the Emperor of Austria, Franz Josef I. With timid respect for all the European powers, they fear and respect Catholic Missionaries who are protected by Austria which is represented in Africa by two resident Consuls, in Cairo and in Khartoum, who even today efficiently stand by the Mission.
[4127]
While it is true that at first certain Governors tried to make trouble, this soon ceased. The law that forbids offending the Mission, the grace granted to me by the Khedive, the Firman of the Grand Sultan and the protection of Austria, represented by Consuls who are friends of the Mission, everything concurs in giving the Catholic religion more tranquillity in Africa than in any other region, even civilised,. That is why the Viceroy granted the Mission use of the postal services gratis throughout his territories and gave it a piece of land worth 43,000 lire for my Institutes in Cairo; the main Governor of the Sudan, resident in Khartoum, prides himself on having a friendly correspondence with me, visiting me often, allowing me to travel with government steamers or lending me his own. I have obtained various favours from him, for the Mission and for others, sometimes even to the detriment of his own interests.
[4128]
For example, although the Government benefits from the slavery as though it were a commodity, it recognises as free and no longer to be taken as slaves all those who have been educated by the Mission and who are provided by it with papers of liberty. It forbids masters from committing acts of violence in the Mission houses to reclaim slaves who may have escaped and sought refuge there. It is quite true that under false pretences of justice, as a favour to a master, a slave is sometimes called to the Governor’s Diwan and secretly returned to his master; but this subterfuge is neither always nor universally practised. And these are cases on which the Mission, though saddened, keeps silent, so as to preserve the Government’s approval and friendship for the greater good of Africa. And it is precisely for this reason that the conquest of Darfur was a remarkable advantage for the Mission, since while it was free no European could go near it without being killed. Now that it is an Egyptian possession, the Mission has no hostility to fear from it, except that that it is actively present and works most safely in the other countries which have already been subjects of this same Government for some time.
[4129]
The people here, although fanatically Muslim, never have recourse to the Government of which they are the blind and fearful subjects; thus they do not dare to harm the Catholic Missionaries whom they recognise as persons not only armed with the protection of a European power and of its Sultan, but also as friends of this same Government, who are given preference by the Government itself. This does not mean to say that in those lands the Missionary is absolutely safe and absolutely free to act in such a way that he does not need to use prudence and skill, and that he never needs to use patience; but it does mean that by a certain exterior conduct and the use of certain precautions alone, Missionaries can be, as they are, feared and respected, so as to make the Catholic Religion more tolerated and esteemed than it is in any other — even Christian — country of Europe.
[4130]
Just as the Mission’s existence in lands subject to the Egyptian Government and therefore to Islam is in no danger, it is likewise in no danger in the free and pagan tribes which occupy the heart of Africa; for if some are inaccessible, others show no hostility. The Missionary can therefore turn to these in the meantime; and if certain tribes are absolutely inaccessible to the European, others are only so because from their own or others’ experience they have learned that Europeans brought them harm, killing people and making them slaves; therefore if by experience they were to be convinced that Missionaries would approach them with friendly intentions, they would accept them, as they were accepted by the tribe of Jebel Nuba. Since this tribe borders the kingdom of Kordofan, it was easily persuaded that the Missionaries’ goal is solely to be concerned with the peoples amongst whom they live for their own benefit: therefore although they do not allow whites in general to approach them, they invited me, and repeatedly begged the Missionaries to move to their mountains, where they would be given a festive welcome and respected: and this is what happened.
[4131]
Now it could happen with other tribes just as it happened with the tribe of Jebel Nuba; and the Missionary will also use his prudence and skill to achieve this goal before attempting to penetrate them, and in the meantime he will succeed in learning the language of that tribe he has planned to enter, and in making friends with a few of its members, especially the chief, on whom all the others blindly depend. Then having entered it, the Missionary will not immediately start talking about Religion; he will build himself a house, and at the same time do what he can for the tribe’s good, treating the sick and teaching some crafts, etc. Meanwhile as he earns their respect with his conduct, with his behaviour and with conversation, with healing and other acts, he will win their affection and at the same time become familiar with their customs and temperament; after which, in the most suitable way suggested by prudence, he can begin to exercise his apostolic activity.
[4132]
Moreover, if from what has been said so far it is evident that the Catholic Religion is not in danger anywhere, because of the independence of the pagan tribes from one another and from the Government, yet there are plenty of ways to protect and safeguard it everywhere; just as it survives in all the places of the Vicariate Apostolic of Central Africa where it exists, although certain tribes, such as the nomadic Baqqarah, are absolutely inaccessible and could create some temporary disturbance.
[4133]
As I end the Second Part of this Report, from its various points (in the hope that the Lord will continue to grant me his assistance that I may govern his work well and lead it to ever greater prosperity), it seems to me I can safely conclude that the existence of the Mission in Central Africa is both stable and safe, just as from the following section the exercise of apostolic activity will appear sufficiently free and effective.


III. Apostolic Activity

[4134]
The Missionary trained in the Verona Institutes and completely readied and acclimatised in those of Cairo, then moves to the interior to work for Africa’s benefit in the Stations and offices that will be assigned to him by the Superior. There he will certainly encounter, as he would anywhere, obstacles and difficulties in exercising the apostolic ministry. And here, being obliged to mention the different Religions the Missionary must combat, I must describe the horrors of the Coptic schism, which in my Vicariate extends to the furthest boundaries of Kordofan, of the dominant Islamic faith which is professed in Nubia, Kordofan, Darfur, Waday, Bahermi, Bornu and by the nomadic Arab tribes; and the superstitions of paganism which prevail among the central tribes.
[4135]
I must mention once again the pitiful scenes of slavery which occur daily; and the barbarous treatment of the slaves among the Muslims, more gentle among the pagans. But to avoid becoming boring by repeating what can be read so many times in the reports, although these descriptions never adequately portray those wretched conditions in their whole appalling truth, saying this I will be content with merely mentioning them to Your Eminence.
[4136]
A universal obstacle, that is, one which the Catholic Religion encounters in every part of Central Africa in addition to the ancient practice of certain immoral traditions, is the natural sluggishness and laziness in which the indigenous peoples of Africa are born and grow up. This laziness is perhaps due to the hot climate, but certainly to the ignorance of comforts and needs. Accustomed to the very little that is produced by their small strip of land, turned over and sown a few days before the rains with no further care, which yields its harvest to them after three months; in addition to what is provided by the flocks that feed on the green pastures that spring up after the rains, and by the bushes and dry things in the desert, they are supplied with all they need for a year; they can desire no more, and therefore do not trouble to perfect, or rather to learn, the art of agriculture. In certain parts, they are used to living partially clothed and in others, completely naked, so they do not feel any need for the tailor’s craft, and do not bother to learn it.
[4137]
Accustomed to living in the open or in huts of mud and straw, they have no incentive to learn the builder’s craft and are content merely to admire the Missionary’s achievements. Used to seeing in their huts no more than the pot for cooking the grain whole or ground on a stone, no other furniture or equipment than a great earthenware vessel where the grain is stored and another for water, they have no need of a smith or carpenter; so they do not apply themselves to learning the craft. The only skill these unfortunates know is how to temper iron, found in large quantities in Kordofan, and to make it into knives, spears and arrows. In their total, extreme poverty, these peoples are the richest in the world, for they possess nothing and need nothing; so in this regard they are naturally content; but as they do not feel any need to learn these skills, they make unnecessary, to some extent, the free school of crafts through which the Missionary could build up their affection and more easily and effectively exercise his apostolic activity among them.
[4138]
Well, this is what happens at the beginning, especially among the free tribes where inexperience of the advantages of crafts makes their members indifferent to them; just as at first, the impossibility of exercising them mainly for others but for their own profit, is bound to make them idle. However, if the Missionary’s work in the craft school does not serve to gain the people’s love, it is at least effective in earning their respect, while there are other ways to win their love: the zealous practice of medicine free of charge, conversations, gifts, gentle manners, and in some places, education. And while he is working for this goal, the Missionary should visibly practise those religious maxims which he will later also prudently succeed in spreading by his words and in establishing, as soon as irreligious and pagan practices cease.
[4139]
The dependence on the chief that all the members of the tribe acknowledge, helps achieve this aim, since they all conform to him: thus the difficulties of all the individuals are concentrated in one person, and if overcoming them in him does not immediately have the same effect on them all, at least it smoothes the way. Hence the attentions of the Missionaries are turned particularly towards the chief. This is in regard to their apostolic activity among the adults of the tribe. As regards the young people, who can be persuaded without difficulty to attend the Missionary’s school, they are given, together with an education in morals, a practical education free of charge, limited to reading and writing and some of the crafts most suited to the place, without thereby increasing their needs, but on the contrary leaving them, as far as virtue and religion will allow, to their own customs.
[4140]
Then the young minds and tender hearts are gradually taught the Catholic Religion, faith in it and the practice of its precepts until, baptised and ready for marriage, they are married in the Catholic Church to some African girl who has been educated at the same time by the Sisters. We hope in this way that the Cross will also penetrate and triumph amongst the free and pagan tribes. Meanwhile, the way to its triumphs has also opened up among them, since it penetrated the tribe of Jebel Nuba which is only a six-day journey through the desert from Obeid, last year, 1875. That tribe gives the Missionary’s patience the brightest hopes. Since it is divided into various sufficiently numerous groups, spread over twenty hills enclosing a plain that it takes a day to cover on foot, it affords a greater facility for activities: many small stations can be founded there, neither the people nor their head priest himself who is the political leader are bound to paganism by material interests; and less moral damage than among the Muslims is found in that tribe whose children have sound common sense as well as a good character; and although they are pagan in their beliefs and customs, they even boast that they are Christians and are generally opposed to Islam.
[4141]
Because of all these reasons and through the prayers of the dead children who, found by the Missionaries at death’s door were baptised by them; through the prayers of those first flowers of the apostolate who are radiant in Paradise, we hope that the spread of the Faith amongst the tribes of the Nuba will be crowned with success.
[4142]
It is with greater difficulty, and therefore more slowly, that the Catholic religion will triumph in the midst of Islam where the other Stations have been set up. Both because these had to be established too far from each other, twelve or fifteen days away, since that is the distance between the populated cities where crowds gather: although just a few days from these cities there are towns, villages and isolated families, even in the barren mountains of the desert; and because as long as there is a lack of Catholic missions there, no power will suffice, in view of Islam, to destroy the ignorance and corruption it encourages, combined with the indolence which is natural in these parts.
[4143]
However, aided by the practice of the means to penetrate families and win their love and respect, the Missionary’s apostolic activity is far from sterile in these regions. For if the Missionary’s apostolic work is unfruitful among the Muslims, since their religion is predominant and he is simply only concerned with not making enemies of them, his action is not so ineffective as regards the Europeans and Oriental Catholics from Aleppo, Syria and Egypt, who have settled there to trade and whose various families alone number 200.
[4144]
There are some, though fewer, in Obeid, in Berber and in the Provinces under their jurisdiction, and they will probably be ever more numerous for there is more and more work and trade is picking up. The fact is that the Missionary is active among these people too, both to do as much good as possible, promoting the observance of the commandments of the Church and of God, church attendance, recourse to the sacraments and the Catholic education of children; and to prevent as much evil as possible, sparing no efforts to this end, dispensing charity, visits, exhortations, threats and free treatment and free accommodation in the quarter set aside for any needy person who falls ill, etc.
[4145]
In this way, by the grace of the Lord, it has been possible to destroy certain evil practices in a few families; to eliminate concubinage in others, bringing them to legitimate marriage by giving the African or Abyssinian concubines Catholic instruction through the Sisters; nearly all were persuaded to attend Sunday Mass and many others were convinced to go to confession at least once a year, as they still do.
[4146]
There is no lack of heretics in these parts, and among them, especially where there are Coptic priests who threaten to excommunicate any of these schismatics who frequent the Catholic Mission, the Missionary is wasting his efforts. However something may be achieved in those areas where the Copts are not governed by priests because, save a few exceptions, schismatic Copts live in good faith, and therefore love and respect the Catholic Missionary. But if there are no fruits to pick among the Copts, three conversions to Catholicism were made in the last few days among the schismatic Greeks. These, together with three other whole families, constitute the sum of the acquisitions made for the Cross among the schismatic Greeks.
[4147]
The field the Missionary finds sown with finer hopes is among the slaves. These wretches, who work mostly as servants to Muslim families, form the majority of the population and, since they come from the central tribes, from paganism, are more easily induced to abandon the Islamic faith into which they are forced by their condition.
[4148]
While it is true that the adults are rather unstable and that while they are in contact with their Muslim masters they can easily abandon the Catholic religion; while it is true that the Missionary must beware of baptising them unless they either stay on in the mission or serve a Catholic family, or preferably enter into holy matrimony with an African girl who is already Catholic and keep themselves by the craft which they must learn, so as not to risk becoming apostate by being in the service of Muslim masters; while it is true that for all this the Missionary has only been able to bless nine such unions in Khartoum and five in El Obeid; nonetheless there is a great number of boys and girls there, some given by others, some bought by the Mission, some who have fled their masters, who are growing up in the Mission houses where they are kept like adopted children.
[4149]
I baptised about seventy of them last year. It is especially these young people, together with those who preceded them, twelve of whom were snatched from me by premature death, and those who are to come, who will increase the Catholic flock around the Mission houses. It is therefore to these that the Missionary gives a basic education in reading, writing, arithmetic and in the practice of certain skills, while at the same time he provides them with a complete education in the Catholic religion and the virtues, so that when they reach maturity they can marry young African girls who have been educated in the Catholic religion and feminine skills by the Sisters.
[4150]
So, if in addition to the care the Missionaries and Sisters must take to preserve the respect and influence they enjoy with the local peoples; to find and baptise dying Muslim children, to promote good and gain a few conversions and to prevent evil among the Catholic Europeans and the schismatics, they are also able to address their active charity to the slaves, as indeed they take particular pains to do, then the Cross finds areas in Muslim lands over which, although slowly, it triumphs.
[4151]
It will triumph everywhere: nor is there any reason to doubt, inasmuch as if the Missionary’s apostolic activity has been rewarded by satisfactory results in just the last four years, as can be seen in this Third Part of the Report, it will have even greater results in the years to come; for the Missionary’s activity, henceforth rendered sufficiently free, safe and unhampered, will now be dedicated to these Stations which exist solely for this purpose. Free, because not only is he already equipped with protection, but he is also sufficiently friendly to have gained the respect of both the Government and the peoples.
[4152]
Safe, since the climate found along the line recently adopted is favourable because of the means to preserve health that have been provided and are consistently practised in the acclimatisation in Cairo, and because of certain precautions suggested by experience. Unhampered, because although until 1867 the mission did not possess anywhere to exercise its activities except the dying male establishment in Khartoum, subsidised by three or four thousand francs annually by the enfeebled Society of Mary in Vienna, it is now provided for not only by sufficient private charities, but also has positive resources, as Your Most Reverend Eminence can note from the Second Part of this Report; it has two establishments in Verona, two in Cairo, one in Berber, two in Khartoum, two in Obeid and two in Jebel Nuba, with the establishment and organisation of which I have been especially occupied over the past two years, as appears in the First Part of this Report.
[4153]
Thus may Divine Mercy, which in the past helped me make the Missionary’s apostolic action free, secure and unfettered and has also made it sufficiently effective for the eternal salvation of souls in those abandoned lands, deign to console with ever more abundant fruit the Missionary who will now devote his active charity to this holy aim alone. God wants the redemption of poor Africa, he really wants it; and on the Missionary’s lips, a sincere expression of his feelings, will constantly resound the words: Africa, or death!
Prostrate at your feet, I kiss the sacred Purple and declare myself with all respect and veneration,
Your Most Reverend Excellency’s most humble and devoted son,

Fr Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar apostolic of Central Africa

(1) In a letter to the Holy Father and to Propaganda, the Society of Cologne undertook to give me all its resources ad sexennium, as you may observe from the Ponenza of May 1872.