Writings

[4512]
Satisfying the eminent kindness of your hearts and the gracious invitation you expressed to me in your respected letter of 28th July 1874 to give you news of the Vicariate of Central Africa with the intention to come to the aid of this vast and interesting Mission, I hasten today to write you something about my Vicariate’s Apostolic Activity. I am certain this will give you a clear, precise and true idea of it, and that therefore seeing in it a most fruitful field in which to organise the Society of the Holy Childhood in accordance with the spirit and goal of this sublime Institution, you may at last come to the providential decision to grant abundant alms to this colossal Mission from the funds of your holy Work.
[4513]
This time I shall not go into the details of our arduous and laborious apostolate; nonetheless I consider it necessary to give you a general idea of the Works of the Vicariate for the conversion of Africa, to acquaint you with their complexity and the way they are linked, and to touch briefly on how they are achieved and on the obstacles and hopes of our Apostolic Activity in Central Africa.
[4514]
The Vicariate Apostolic of Central Africa was established by the late Supreme Pontiff Gregory XVI with the Brief of 3rd April 1846. Its boundaries are:
To the North, the Vicariate Apostolic of Egypt, and the Prefecture Apostolic of Tripoli.
To the East, the Nubian Coasts of the Red Sea, and the Vicariates Apostolic of Abyssinia and the Gallas.

[4515]
To the South, the so-called Mountains of the Moon which according to modern Geographers are located beyond the Equator and the Sources of the Nile, between the 10th and 12th degrees of Latitude South.
To the We s t , the Vicariate Apostolic of Guinea, and the Prefecture Apostolic of the Sahara.

[4516]
The Vicariate Apostolic is larger than the whole of Europe. It includes all the possessions of the Crown of the Khedive of Egypt in the Sudan, which extend over a territory whose surface area is five times greater than all France.
[4517]
Furthermore, it includes several kingdoms, empires and nomadic Arab tribes ruled by Sovereigns or Sheikhs, more or less followers of the law of Mohammed. Lastly, making up the most extensive and populated part of the Vicariate, it contains countless fetishist tribes and many primitive and independent states, hostile to or unacquainted with the Koran and totally ignorant of even a rudimentary idea of Christianity, who are dominated by peculiar beliefs and the most extravagant superstitions of every kind, which constitute their so-called Religion.
[4518]
Its estimated population of about ninety million (90,000,000), calculated by my distinguished and erudite predecessor Mgr Knoblecher, in my humble opinion, based on thorough studies and according to the calculations of the Washington Statistics Office, reaches the enormous figure of one hundred million (100,000,000) infidels. It is clear from this that the Vicariate Apostolic of Central Africa is the most enormous and densely populated in the whole world.
[4519]
Now this huge Work for the Redemption of Africa, or of the Apostolate of Central Africa, has established and founded the following establishments, some of which are to prepare and to foster vocations of both sexes for the Apostolate of Africa; others, for their acclimatisation, where they can be perfected in their holy and sublime vocation; and yet others for the exercise of this most divine Vocation in the fields of this vineyard of the Lord that is so arduous and demanding. Thus the Work possesses:
[4520]
1. Two establishments in Verona, where candidates are received, prepared and trained for the Apostolate of Central Africa; that is, the Institute of the Missions for Africa that trains Priests, catechists and lay brother craftsmen to bring the Faith and civilisation to Central Africa; and the Institute of the Devout Mothers of Africa, that educates and prepares for the apostolate of the Catholic woman, female missionary candidates, who will introduce all the Catholic feminine skills into the scorching regions of the African interior.
[4521]
2. Two preparatory establishments for acclimatisation in Great Cairo, where the average temperature is midway between the European climate and that of the torrid regions of Central Africa. One is male, for the acclimatisation of missionaries who come from the African Institute in Verona, to increasingly test their vocation, to make them able to withstand the trials of the arduous and laborious Apostolate of Central Africa; the other is female, and is shared by the Sisters who come from both the Congregations destined to help in the Vicariate, that is, by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition in Marseilles, and by the Devout Mothers of Africa.
[4522]
3. An establishment at Shellal in Lower Nubia near the Tropic of Cancer, facing the Island of File, founded by my illustrious predecessor, Mgr Kirchner.
[4523]
4. An establishment in Berber, a town located in Upper Nubia, on the banks of the Nile, at the head of the Great Desert of Atmur at the focal point for caravans coming from Egypt, Khartoum and Suakin on the Red Sea. I founded it in November 1874; and at the present time it is occupied by missionaries from my Verona Institute; but I hope that during this year, when I return to the Vicariate I shall be able to open an establishment of Sisters there, for the education and conversion of females, and for the baptism of infants in the Muslim Harems.
[4524]
5. Two vast establishments in Khartoum, the capital of the Egyptian possessions in the Sudan, located in Upper Nubia on the banks of the Blue Nile, between the 15th and 16th degrees of Latitude North. The great male establishment with a large garden was founded by my distinguished predecessor Mgr Knoblecher, with the abundant donations collected by the committee of the Society of Mary; and the great establishment of the same size as the male one, 112 metres long and occupied by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, which I built in 1874 and which contains the female schools, the orphanage, the home for female slaves and the hospital.
[4525]
6. At a distance of a fifteen-day journey from Khartoum, I have also founded two large establishments in Kordofan and precisely in its capital, El Obeid: that of the Missionaries of the Institute of Verona, and the second one for the sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition. These two establishments have produced and are increasingly able to produce the greatest results for the Apostolate of Africa, winning many souls for Christ.
[4526]
But a lot of money is necessary to change the existing buildings of mud or sand and mud, into more solid buildings of brick or stone; for the mud houses are firm for the nine months of the year when no rain falls; but when in July the rains begin, the houses dissolve like snow in the sunshine. It would be necessary at least for the Church and the house of the European Missionaries and the European Sisters to be made of bricks; but this operation is very difficult in that kingdom because of the area’s small quantity of lime which must be transported on the backs of camels for a three-day journey, and it is two or three times as expensive as it is in Paris.
[4527]
7. Two colonies or establishments in Malbes, two days away from El Obeid, the purpose of which is to gather the families of converted Africans from the establishments in El Obeid. I have had the experience in all the establishments of Central Africa and Egypt, that Africans converted by the efforts of the missionaries and Sisters, do not persevere in the faith if they are in service with Muslim families, who naturally want their servants to be Muslims, and thus the new converts run a serious risk of losing their faith.
[4528]
Therefore to distance these new converts from the scourge and corruption of the Muslims, we have decided to embark on the very heavy sacrifice of purchasing tracts of land in the Malbes plain, which is adequately supplied with water, and to build houses and huts in which we can settle all the Africans who have been converted in the male Institute of Kordofan and will shortly be joined in Christian marriage with African girls educated at the Sisters’ Institute.
[4529]
We have assigned a piece of arable land to each family, we have distributed a good quantity of grain to sow on it, so they will be able to live independently and far from the scourge and corruption of the Muslims, under the supervision of the Catholic mission and with the fruit of their labours and the help of the skills and crafts they learned at the mission. These Catholic families will gradually form a Catholic village, a Catholic town, which as the years pass will become a wholly Catholic city that will be an example to other peoples. We shall adopt this very wise system in the vicinity of the Catholic missions that have been and will be founded in lands dominated by the followers of the Koran.
[4530]
But as everyone sees, substantial financial resources are necessary; we hope to obtain them from the infinite protection of the Sacred Hearts and the exquisite charity of France and of Catholics in Europe.
[4531]
In this way it will not be hard for us to organise the Works of the Holy Childhood there, to save a large number of children. But money is essential to build premises, to maintain the Sisters there and to provide for everything. We are also founding a similar Institution for the Catholic mission in Khartoum, in the village of Geref on the Blue Nile.
[4532]
8. Finally, in 1875 we opened the most important Mission of Jebel Nuba, a six-day journey to the South West of El Obeid, in the town of Delen, the main residence of the great spiritual and temporal chief who is both pontiff and king. These Nuba have a deadly hatred of Islam which has decimated the population, making vast numbers of them slaves and soldiers. On the other hand, they show the greatest willingness to embrace Christianity. In this tribe, where I have taken both Missionaries and Sisters of St Joseph, the inhabitants of both sexes go about as naked as our first parents, Adam and Eve, while they were still in the state of innocence: but they have excellent habits, lead a patriarchal life, they are not nomads but have a fixed abode; they have common sense, a sound critical ability, and appreciate goodness. But I shall write a special Report to the Holy Childhood on the founding of this important mission and on the sound hope it promises, because this new mission could also be of the greatest interest to the charity of this Holy Work.
[4533]
Now at all these establishments from Shellal as far as Jebel Nuba, we have acquired a great many babies who died after receiving Holy Baptism and children whom we redeemed to be instructed and educated in the faith and in Catholic morals. We need enormous resources to strengthen this Work, by creating the strictly necessary establishments in which to install the mothers and children who have been acquired or purchased; and it is here, especially, that I hope for effective annual aid from the Society of the Holy Childhood of Paris, which will enable me to reinforce and extend these works for the salvation of unfortunate Africa.
[4534]
The two principal Missions of Khartoum and Kordofan are the two true centres of communication, the reference points and operations base from which little by little to bring the light of the Gospel to all the vast and populated tribes, states, kingdoms and empires located within the boundaries of the Vicariate. The Mission of Khartoum is the centre of communications, reference point and operations base from which gradually to spread and establish the Faith and true Christian civilisation in all the areas of the Eastern and Southern parts of the Vicariate, from the Tropic of Cancer as far as beyond the Equator and the sources of the Nile.
[4535]
The Kordofan Mission is the centre of communications, the reference point and operations base from which gradually to spread and establish the Faith and Christian civilisation in the Central and Western parts of the Vicariate. In the Khartoum Mission there is the Imperial Royal Consul of His Apostolic Majesty the Emperor of Austria and Hungary, the August protector of the Vicariate, and other Consuls of the European powers; in Kordofan Mission it will not be long before there is a Representative of His Apostolic Majesty.
[4536]
One can therefore say that these missions live under some sort of regular government, thanks to the wisdom of the great Mohammed Ali, Viceroy of Egypt, who has proclaimed freedom of worship, a principle that is adhered to and followed by his successor, the magnanimous Khedive. Now that the general government of all the Egyptian possessions in the Sudan has been entrusted by the Khedive to the illustrious English General, Gordon, we shall have greater freedom, since this eminent personage holds our work in high esteem and perfectly shares our ideas on civilisation, and against slavery and the slave trade. During his rule over the White Nile and the Equator he dealt such a mortal blow to this bloody scourge which has decimated the populations of the White Nile, that while he was there the horrors of the slave trade were no longer to be seen in the parts depending on his jurisdiction.
[4537]
But the whole secret, in order little by little to destroy this despicable scourge to humanity, lies in the divine Religion of the One who, in the Gospel, proclaimed the equality of all God’s children: thus the Mission and the Catholic apostolate alone will gradually be able to bring about the abolition of the slave trade by preaching the Faith in these lands and implanting the Catholic religion in Central Africa. However, to succeed in this holy and laborious enterprise, great financial means and the support of the admirable Society of the Holy Childhood are required.

Having set out these notions, I shall now describe briefly and fleetingly the practice, difficulties and hopes of Apostolic Activity in the Vicariate of Central Africa.


THE APOSTOLIC ACTION OF THE VICARIATE

[4538]
The Missionary trained in the Verona Institutes and completely readied and acclimatised in the Cairo establishments who sets out for Khartoum to work for the good of unfortunate Africa in the Station and role assigned to him, has always encountered, encounters and will encounter, very serious obstacles and difficulties in the exercise of his apostolic ministry.
[4539]
Were I to mention the different religions confronting the Missionary of Central Africa, I would have to describe the horrors of the Coptic schism and of Islam. It is prevalent in the two Nubias, in the kingdoms and empires of Kordofan and of Darfur, of Waday, Behermi and Bornu, and in all the nomadic Arab tribes which, wandering over an immense area, are found disseminated in other parts of our Vicariate, since even the central regions where paganism and fetishism predominate are not all exempt from this scourge. But to avoid being excessively boring by repeating what has so many times been read in reports that were quite lengthy, though they never adequately portrayed those wretched conditions in all their horrible truth, I shall be content merely to mention them.
[4540]
Mohammed used such a fine art to subjugate the minds and hearts of the Orientals that no human power suffices to eradicate all the errors he has spread. The East, which is fascinated only by external appearances, and feels the clash of passions more vividly, was instantly won over by Mohammed who, without imposing any new beliefs, offered a monstrous amalgam of vulgar, common beliefs and made his whole religion consist of purely exterior worship, while at the same time encouraging and authorising the complete satisfaction of the most brutal passions.
[4541]
It is the Koran that condones dissoluteness and does not consider women as daughters of the religion but merely as chattels, instruments of immorality. It is because of the Koran that there are Harems where the human senses become bestial, and ideas, the virtue of mankind, are weakened, unnerved and perverted; where the intellect is blurred and man is made incapable of learning to feel or appreciate not only the nobility of the Catholic religion, but also of Christian civilisation. Indeed, Islam has long been in contact with European civilisation: and yet what gains, what progress has this been able to achieve among the Mohammedans?
[4542]
It is easier for civilisation to be perverted through direct contact than for a Mohammedan to emerge from his state of indolence and renounce his bestial and antisocial principles, thereby violating the Koran which condones these principles and prescribes such a state. Civilisation would have achieved too much were it to have made the Mohammedan destroy his huts or abandon the hedges behind which he sleeps the night, in favour of a better dwelling; but let it not then claim to have found the man: this will never happen. You will always find an animal which neither thinks like a man, nor reasons like a man, nor feels, nor lives, nor acts like a man. You might be able to arouse a spirit of interest in him, but it will never be able to guide him, nor turn his pretensions into fairness or his use of means into justice.
[4543]
Love and respect for fellow men will never be able to unite Mohammedan society. In a word, it would be too much to expect civilisation to awaken life in Mohammedan lands without also introducing new principles. If real progress, real society and real civilisation were introduced, this would require Mohammedans to reject the Koran that prohibits anything new and even education, since it condones the full satisfaction of all vices and all passions, however brutal and cruel they may be, and grants its followers supreme rights over all who belong to a different religion. Thus true society and the Koran, true progress and the Koran, true civilisation and the Koran cannot exist side by side; the one destroys the other.
[4544]
Yet purely human forces would not be able to oppose the Koran except by gaining the same ground as did the Protestant faith; it came to wage war against it on the banks of the Nile, and achieved nothing but two converts in Esne, after spending a considerable sum; then had to abandon the region. Strict observers of the Koran, fanatical worshippers of Mohammed, consider it a sin to discuss religion. They take for a saint anyone who lets himself be trampled upon by the white horse of the high priest when he sets out for the mosque in the period of the pilgrimages to Mecca. They take for a saint anyone who, by dint of constantly invoking Mohammed, falls ill or goes mad. Everyone then contributes to the hero’s keep; he is consulted and venerated by all and when he dies, a tomb is built for him. Well, if education is banned as well as any form of religious discussion and anything new, how can new customs or beliefs be established? To ask the Muslims to reject the Koran without a cause or reason is to ask for the impossible, and this is proved by the rigour and fanaticism with which they observe it. Were it possible for them to accept a new education, who would dare provide it if the Government itself prohibits proselytising? Who would dare accept it if he were reproved by all for doing so, if he had not already been sacrificed by his own parents as a result?
[4545]
Plato recognised that a sovereign light, a miraculous power, would be necessary to illuminate the darkness of paganism and raise fallen humanity. A miraculous force, a sovereign light, the help of divine grace are absolutely essential to raise up minds and hearts debased by Islam. Mere human means are not enough; this triumph will be reserved for the Catholic Religion alone. It is the Lord, who with his voice fells the cedars of Lebanon and makes the pillars of the firmament tremble, who will be able to bring light to these minds in the cause of his religion.
[4546]
He who once upon a time, having demolished the pagan temples, converted the groves of idolatry into the sees of his religion, could now raise his Cross upon the ruins of the mosques. Just as the Gentiles were led back to the path of salvation and civilisation flourished in their lands by means of the Cross alone, so by means of the Cross alone the Mohammedans could share in comparable benefits.
[4547]
However, in his inscrutable designs, the Lord arranged also to avail himself of human means in his works. Thus who is incapable of seeing in the above-mentioned prescriptions of the Koran and its fanaticism the most serious obstacles to their effective deployment? Especially since it is not a matter of replacing the Mohammedan faith by an unknown religion, but by a religion that is loathed, as Catholicism is by Mohammedans, so that they understand the name “Christian” as the very worst of offences, the worst of insults. How could they prefer to a religion that is most accommodating one that imposes the strictest continence, self-denial, mortification and sacrifice?
[4548]
Just to make those minds and hearts, which have been rendered unfit for it by unrestrained licentiousness and legally condoned depravity, appreciate and feel the sublime nature of the Catholic religion, the holiness of its practices, presents difficulties which are, humanly speaking, insurmountable. Nevertheless, trusting in Divine Mercy, the Missionary hastens to the battleground and hopes; he already boards the ship; the wind is favourable and he is off.
[4549]
Oh, what new sights, what new marvels the Nile always leads him to! Stretching out on the right bank are the Mokkatan Mountains in the Nubian desert and on the left, the Libyan Mountains border the river, every now and then revealing a sandy desert plain, or some cultivated land. The views unfolding before his eyes are always beautiful! Here an island on whose green pastures a flock of goats wanders, watched over by a young African boy, not far from the hut, barely visible among the date palms that surround it; there a forest of acacias exudes its sweet fragrance; a thicket of date palms flaunt their fruits. At times the river narrows as if it wished to display the beauty of each of its banks, then the banks retreat to an extraordinary distance, leaving the pilgrim as though in the middle of a lake. Then they can enclose him in the horror of bare rock faces and arid mountains, where the river waters, constrained and lashed by the winds, become turbulent. The river ends its display of these ever new and delightful daytime sights by showing up on its seemingly distant margins ripples of flaming water in the varied bright hues of the sun as it seems to dive into the middle of a sea of splendour.
[4550]
But the beautiful feelings roused by the sweet enchantments displayed here by nature are all too often poisoned by sinister incidents and bitter reflections. When, as the sky darkens, he hears the raucous voice of the Fakir from the top of the minaret summoning the followers of Mohammed to prayer, the Missionary is plunged into sad thoughts as he deplores the unhappiness of so many souls, and in the silence which hangs vast and deep over these shores dotted with huts, he remembers the foreboding wind of the storm, the mourning that will envelop these wretches who will only be awakened from their leaden sleep by the lightning of divine vengeance. All is silent and since the wind is favourable, the boatmen sleep under the boom of the mainsail.
[4551]
And as the moon sheds its feeble light on the neighbouring plains interrupted here and there by grim mountains, it seems to be lamenting the Christianity that once flourished there, which it can no longer illuminate except for the occasional ruin that recalls it; the Missionary prays alone. In the midst of this solitude, seeming to hear the voice of the Heavenly Shepherd out looking for his lost black sheep, he is roused to trust that either all the obstacles placed by Mohammed in the way of the conversion of his adepts will crumble, or that the devil is a poor keeper of his possessions in Africa where, although they are not immune to the Muslim scourge, numerous multitudes of infidels offer the Missionary areas of greater hope.
[4552]
Let his way be barred by the cataracts over whose rocks the Nile’s course swells, crashing impetuously down into other currents rushing and foaming in opposite directions, around more rocks that split its winding course, ever increasing its impetus and turmoil! Let death threaten from these black boulders with which the Nile and its banks are strewn and the river’s triumphs be displayed by the masts of sunken ships in its ebbing waters! There are other ways. Even if the immensity of the desert and its discomforts frighten him, the Missionary does not turn back; for he remembers that 12 fishermen from a poor corner of Judaea, after glancing at the summit of Golgotha, divided the world between them, and that comforted by their faith in the Divine Redeemer and the certainty of their triumph, they exulted in tribulations and suffering.
[4553]
The life of the Apostolic Missionary to Central Africa is indeed arduous, laborious and full of hardships but, by means of a few precautions and practices suggested and approved by experience, he can work long and fruitfully for the good of the one hundred million souls whose damnation the devil has boldly plotted for so many centuries.
[4554]
Moreover, in view of the enormous distances, the inadequacy of the means of transport available there, the irregularity of favourable winds for those who travel on the river and the laziness of the boatmen, journeys in these lands are exceedingly long and hazardous. When the Missionary is abandoned by the fair wind and stranded on a desert shore in this solitude, where by some great good fortune there may be a thorny tree to protect him in his slumbers at night, it can happen that he has to stay there long days and weeks, having to bear for days and months, stuck on the edge of the deserts, the laziness of the camel drivers.
[4555]
And when, riding a camel, he sets off to pass through the boundless desert plains and cross the mountains of bare granite and the endless forests of the centre, he needs to prepare himself for the uncommon conditions he will find; for even if he is not attacked by wild animals especially when they surprise him in the forest at night, if he does not fall ill or receive an injury by being thrown from a camel, he will in any case be obliged to complete his journey amidst unrelieved hardships or else die of thirst, which the camel drivers who are responsible for his life would not allow.
[4556]
Once the Missionary has disappeared down the endless paths of the desert where the burning sun beats freely down on him, where the camel on whose back he sways from dawn to dusk tires and exhausts him. Once darkness has fallen, not composed for rest, he is to be seen alone, scouring the bushes and dry shrubs in these silent plains for the wood he needs to prepare his most frugal meal. When there is nothing else, this consists of bread and onions and a jug of water which although it is usually hot, slimy and often polluted, is the only refreshment available to the pilgrim crossing the desert. He rests contented on the sand and thinks himself the happiest of men if he is shielded from the wind by a cliff. He does not feel these are serious discomforts, for he knows that even in the stations he is bound for, conditions will not be much better. Even if he is not tormented by sickness, worn out by his efforts, he will at times find there the bitterness of disenchantment and the cross of difficulties.
[4557]
Of all the obstacles the Missionary encounters in the exercise of Apostolic Action in African territory, I must count slavery as the worst. In the mountains of the interior, frequent bloody assaults are still perpetrated by bands of armed men and anyone who tries to defend himself or his family from these attacks is bound to be slain by the fierce beasts who roam unchecked over the peaceful fields of unhappy Africa. Furthermore, among the discomforts of a long and dangerous journey under a baking sun and over immense and burning sands, one encounters long lines of completely starving Hamites struggling under the burden of the sheva (a pole, each end of which is furnished with a wooden triangle which encases the neck of a slave) as they are guarded and driven forward by the savage jallabas. These poor wretches cross so many distant and unknown lands, often leaving their footprints in the blood that flows from their feet, swollen by their desperate wanderings in the scorching deserts! Yet the jallabas feel no pity for these poor souls! If from such a catastrophe as destroyed the whole family just one little girl were to survive with her mother, does the mother not have the right to rescue her beloved child as the only remaining heir to her maternal care and affection?
[4558]
Yet if she slackens her pace for the sake of the tired little girl, the brutal jallaba grabs the child from her, pierces it through with savage callousness in front of her eyes, and flings the child down on the sand while the mother, in her misery, feels her heart bleed and break as she longs to die with her; and she would die transfixed if she did not continue to walk in silence under lashes of the korbash and blows of the stick. These poor slaves are still brought to the markets by the hundreds and thousands, broken by the long hardships and sufferings they are subjected to in the deserts and in the boats, where they also travel piled together, sneered at and deprived of food for days a thousand hours long.
[4559]
Anyone who would like to see what a disgrace to humanity slavery is should visit these markets; yet some would like to have it approved as a means of civilisation. But why then are the most sacred rights of nature so outraged? Why is there so much abuse, so much brutality that would even move a heart of stone? The trading of human blood for gold is motivated by sheer interest: and anyone can be convinced of this by seeing the treatment slaves receive when they are taken from the market to the house of the master who has bought them, which is less harsh in pagan households but barbaric among Muslims.
[4560]
Without the rights to sufficient maintenance, these unfortunate souls who must serve the despotic master of their life and death have to hand over to him the little they can earn. They are forced in some cases to steal from the grain stores belonging to others which, some distance from the house of their masters, are guarded by slaves, and thus risk being beaten until they bleed either by the person they have stolen from if they are caught, or by their master if they are unable to bring him the required quantity of grain. Slaves are denied the slightest assistance; not a hand to help them when they are dying, not a tear of comfort shed when they expire, they end their lives of pain and sorrow cast out on the sands where they die abandoned, their unburied bodies to be devoured by dogs and wild animals.
[4561]
Is it possible, despite all this, that slavery could be approved as a means of civilisation, so that (since there are few needs felt there, and they can be satisfied) it is permitted that the slaves pass many, if not all, their days in idleness, and are prevented from approaching Missionaries, from whom they might learn, together with the Catholic Religion, the necessary skills?
[4562]
Yet it is so. Indeed, if any escape because they are badly treated by their master and seek refuge in the Mission as sometimes happens, the cunning the master uses to catch them alone, the ploys he uses to recover them, are unbelievable, and he is even prepared to use violence, if violence could be used in the Mission houses; and all this because once slaves have been educated at the Mission house, they can no longer be sold in the markets. Having completed their Catholic education they receive their bill of freedom from the Mission, signed by the Consul Protector. Barbaric interest therefore, the only reason slavery exists, is one of the serious obstacles to the Apostolic ministry in Central Africa.
[4563]
This is not the only reason why it is difficult to exercise the Apostolic ministry among the Mohammedans. Among these people, where the Stations of Berber, Khartoum and Obeid have been established, apostolic action is also difficult because these stations had to be founded as far from each other as a 12 or 15 days’ journey; because the population is grouped in large multitudes which are that distance from one another; though at only a few days’ distance from the cities and crowds scattered hamlets are found here and there, with some single families even on the bare hills of the desert; and because, apart from the natural indolence one encounters there, no power will suffice to destroy the ignorance and corruption prescribed and encouraged by Islam.
[4564]
However all this should not at all discourage the priest or lay Catholic who is moved by the groans of an immense population, oppressed by the devil and derided by men. The Cross is the mark of God’s redemptive works, for they are all born and grow at the foot of the Cross. Thus, although the redemption of Africa may be difficult, it will be all the more glorious for that. As long as it is not impossible, and it is not, the difficulties alone, far from discouraging, should on the contrary increasingly involve the charity of the redeemed.
[4565]
It is not impossible. Helped as he is by using the necessary techniques in order to make contact with families and win their love and respect, not even there does the Missionary find the exercise of his apostolic ministry totally barren. For if the Gospel worker’s efforts remain fruitless with the Muslims and he mainly tries not to make enemies of them, his work is not so ineffective with regard to the Europeans of Berber, Khartoum and Obeid and their respective provinces where they live together as families; and their numbers will probably grow because there is a constant increase in public works and trade. It is indeed with these people that the Missionary will act to remove or prevent all possible evil and promote all possible good, to which end he will spare no effort suggested to him by charity: visits, exhortations, threats, zealous care for all, free accommodation for the needy who are sick in the rooms set aside in the Mission.
[4566]
In this way it was possible to save certain families from concubinage and bind them in legal matrimony, giving the black or Abyssinian concubines a Catholic education by means of the Sisters, and leading them to the observance of Church precepts. And oh! What a consolation it is to see so many unfortunates saved from the influence of evil so far from the native lands of Catholicism, gratefully responding to the loving embrace of the Catholic religion which searched them out and found them in the remote lands of Central Africa; becoming brothers in religion identical to the converted Africans and attending the same sacred functions; drinking together with them from the fount of salvation which our Heavenly Shepherd pours forth even there!
[4567]
However, the purpose of apostolic action in Muslim lands, where there is no lack of schismatic Greeks or schismatic Copts, is not only to seek the good of the European peoples. Yet if fruit were not harvested among the Copts and there were only hopes of future conquests, because these people, especially when they are not governed by a priest, generally live in good faith and thus love and respect the Catholic Missionary, the Cross nonetheless has made several conquests among the small number of schismatic Greeks.
[4568]
But the field where the Missionary finds the best hopes are sown, is among the slaves. These wretches, mainly employed in the service of Muslim families, are by far the largest segment of society; and coming from the paganism of the Central African tribes, they can be more easily convinced than the Muslims and the schismatics to abandon Mohammedanism which above all their condition has forced them to embrace. It is quite true that the adults are very unstable and that, since they are in contact with Muslim masters, they could easily abandon the Catholic Religion.
[4569]
It is therefore quite true that the Missionary must be wary of admitting them to the Catholic Religion, except on condition that they remain at the Mission, serve a Catholic family or marry one of the African girls already converted and educated, so as to keep up their practice of the faith as they are taught it during the Catechumenate at the Mission and to avoid being exposed to the risk of apostasy when they serve Muslim masters. But there are many young boys and girls, some bought by the Mission, some given to it and others who have fled there from their masters. They are taken in and grow up in the Mission houses, where they are fully maintained as adopted children. These children whose numbers are increasing every day, are given a moral education together with a material one, still confined to reading and writing and some of the skills most suited to the local conditions. Meanwhile new needs are not created for them, but instead, as far as virtue and religion allow, they are left with their own customs.
These young men especially bring the fruits of comfort and hope to the Missionary who, in his efforts and loving care, gradually educates their virgin minds and tender hearts in the Catholic religion until, once they are baptised and mature for marriage, they may be joined in a Catholic union with African girls whom the Sisters are simultaneously training in Catholic principles and the feminine skills. It is mostly they who fill our Institutes and who, being the best suited to a sound education, will multiply the Catholic flock around our houses and in the appropriately located farms outside the cities. That is why they were bought by the Mission from the Mohammedan pestilence.

[4570]
From this it can be clearly seen that the cost of maintaining this work is exceedingly high and represents a considerable difficulty for apostolic activity in these lands. Costs are high a) because of the Missionary system which has been found to be the only one possible that succeeds in these lands. Since there are no buildings, it has been and will be necessary to build establishments and houses where, with the Missionaries and Sisters, the African boys and girls can be taken in and taught crafts and religion, far from the pernicious trade of the Mohammedans. Indeed, while they are being educated, their full maintenance must be assured, with food and clothing, as has been done so far. They must then be able to settle outside the cities in properties also bought by the Mission. It is easy to see that such costs are not negligible and are bound to increase as more conversions and conquests are made.
The costs are exceedingly high also b) because of the nature of the place. Since these parts are insufficiently cultivated, indeed they consist mainly of desert and not arable land because of the lack of water, and since trade is very thin even where it does exist in these cities, every house and individual must be supplied by means of copious provisions made in Europe or Cairo and shipped from there to the Sudan.

[4571]
c) I pass over of the costs of maintaining the Verona and Cairo Institutes, of new expeditions, of travel, of transportation; I say nothing of the losses due to delays, to the enormous distances, to the irregularity of the currency exchange rates on different days and in different countries. I ignore all that. I rejoice in the conviction that it is not impossible to exercise the apostolic ministry even in the Muslim territories of the Vicariate of Central Africa, as can be seen by the fact that the Catholic Missionary, while he is not favoured in all things, is not for all that obstructed in any way, and that those who start by acclimatising themselves and taking the necessary precautions do not find the climate all that injurious, as experience shows.
Indeed, to anyone who considers that not only were two great establishments founded in Verona for the noviciate and two (also big) in Cairo for acclimatisation in addition to the Shellal house, but that the Mission also founded a sufficiently large establishment in Berber and two vast houses in Obeid and in Malbes and that two have been started in Jebel Nuba, all with their own land, it soon appears that everything has been done to ensure the stability of the Missionaries and the Sisters and for the religious and practical education of the poor Hamites.

[4572]
Finally, since in addition to the pains they must take to find and baptise dying Muslim children, to promote good and combat evil among the Catholic Europeans and to gain a few conversions among the schismatics, the Missionaries and Sisters must exercise their charity with the slaves (as they do especially), so as not only to educate them but also to safeguard their Catholic faith, there is reason to believe that apostolic action in Muslim lands is far from fruitless and rather that the Cross in these parts finds ample ground over which, albeit slowly, to triumph.
It is moreover in the midst of the free and pagan tribes of the centre, which are more fruitful, that the Missionary’s patience bears fruit. Already in 1875, we tried to penetrate there. After a 6 day journey, from the heights of Delen (the first hill in Nuba territory) we looked down over the ample vineyard which our sweat was to make fertile. Moved by the courteous welcome and fervent attentions with which these poor Nuba celebrated our arrival, we stayed. However, after we had built the necessary houses and begun our apostolic activities, unfortunate circumstances forced us for the time being to return to Obeid, leaving everything in the hands of the Cogiur (the religious and political chief of the Nuba) who in all this shared our sorrow at even a temporary departure.

[4573]
The troops of Kordofan Government, marching to attack Jebel Nuba; the nomadic Baqqarah tribe, enemy of the Nuba people since they are fanatical Muslims, and who wished perhaps of their own accord or felt urged to take advantage of the imminent war to avenge themselves on the Mission for the harm done to Mohammed in the name of Christ; the diseases which, even in that healthy climate, struck us all due to our being caught inevitably by the rainy season when we were already weakened by our toils and deprivations; the impossibility of receiving any food or medical supplies from Kordofan due to access routes being cut by the war which had already begun; the combination of these circumstances gave our prudence every reason to conclude that to remain in Jebel Nuba would be seriously harmful to us and to the Mission, and even if not harmful to the Nuba themselves, then quite useless to them.
However, the very thought of being able to return soon softened the bitterness of being forced to leave these lands we had so yearned for. Already in 1876 preparations were being made for our return when an order from the Egyptian Government kept us in Obeid, forbidding us to go to Jebel Nuba. Oh! Those fields over which the Catholic religion would find it easiest to achieve its greatest triumphs are the very fields that are the most jealously guarded by anti-Catholic interests, lest the Church attempt to pitch her tents of salvation and freedom there.

[4574]
But we should continue to hope. No means will be left untried to fend off and extinguish once and for all the criminal intentions of these base interests which are such a shameful outrage to humanity, for the way would then clear for the propagation of the faith among the Nuba to succeed. And Divine Providence has already disposed that the Governor General elect of the Sudan should be the illustrious Colonel Gordon, who shares our sentiments and opinions on slavery and wishes to facilitate access to that tribe.
A universal obstacle, one, that is, which the Catholic religion encounters in all parts of Africa, in addition to the ancient practice of certain immoral customs, is the sloth and indolence in which their children are born and grow up due to the hot climate and their lack of experience of comforts and needs. Accustomed for the most part to very little, such as small plots of land planted a few days before the rains, and which almost without being tended yield a crop after three months, and the produce of herds which graze on the wild green pastures during the rainy season and then on bushes in the dry desert, to provide them with all they need, they ask for nothing more, and thus do not worry about learning agricultural skills. Used to living in the open air or in mud or straw huts, they feel no need to learn building skills; therefore the Missionary’s labours do no more than arouse a sterile admiration in them.

[4575]
In their huts, apart from a pot for cooking grain whole and an iron plate to cook it on when ground, they are not used to seeing any other furniture but a large earthenware jar to store the grain and another for water. They do not feel they need the skills certain comforts require: for instance they have never experienced a need for tailors, accustomed as they are in certain parts to living only half-clothed, and in others, like the centre, completely naked.
These peoples who in possessing nothing also desire nothing, are in this respect also the richest and the happiest. But it is these inhabitants’ inexperience of the benefits of skills which makes them indifferent to them; and the impossibility of performing them for others and their own profit makes them completely inactive, and constitutes one of the main difficulties the apostolic ministry encounters in these lands. In truth: in order to practise apostolic action easily and fruitfully especially among primitive and uneducated peoples, anyone will agree that it is necessary above all to bring them into close contact and win their respect and their love.

[4576]
Yet no one would disagree that to achieve this, especially with materialistic people, for whom only the language of interest is eloquent and efficient, schooling and training in skills is a most effective method. Therefore the natural indolence of the Africans, due to their not experiencing needs, making them indifferent to new skills, must be seen by all as one of the serious problems the exercise of the apostolic ministry encounters in these parts.
Nonetheless it should not be thought that the Missionary’s efforts to stimulate their will to work and give them a love of diligence are in any way useless; it is only the beginning which is difficult. Neither should it be thought because of these people’s natural reluctance to apply themselves and to work, that the Missionary’s activities would turn out to be futile unless he multiplied the needs of these people from the start. Rather, within the bounds of virtue and leaving them with their customs, special care is being taken to moralise them in their relationships and educate them in the Catholic Religion.

[4577]
In order to achieve this, the practice of these skills and free schooling in them does not turn out to be useless, for they gain the people’s respect even if they do not win their love; while to win their love other means are not lacking, such as the zealous practice of medicine free of charge, visits, conversations, presents, gentle manners and some form of useful instruction. And while the Missionary thus prepares the terrain, he visibly practises the religious maxims which he will then prudently spread by word. These will be the Gospel seeds which, scattered on the appropriately prepared ground and nurtured by the dew of heavenly grace, will flourish.
For the destruction of paganism among the Nuba tribe and for their conversion to Catholicism, the tribe’s geographical location is also an advantage. Divided into various quite numerous groups over the 20-odd hills which surround a plain which is a full day’s journey wide, it affords great facility for action since a number of small stations which depend on one main establishment can be founded there. Another advantage is the dependence all the members of the tribe profess to their chief, so that they all comply with him. Thus the difficulties of all the individuals are concentrated in one person and destroying these in him makes it easy to do so in the others. Because of all this and because of the good character and judgement with which the children of the Nuba tribe are provided, because of the prayers of the dead children the Missionaries found at death’s door and baptised, the first flowers of the apostolate in Jebel Nuba to blossom in heaven, because of their prayers too, we hope that this people, despised by the devil and by men, will sing the hymn of redemption and salvation under the great tree of the Catholic religion.

[4578]
God wants this; which is why, faithful to our motto: Africa or Death, we shall not retreat in the face of enormous expenses, problems and sacrifices. May it bring glory to God and eternal rewards to our generous Benefactors, who unable to contribute by working for the triumph of the Catholic religion in the unhappy lands of Central Africa, will have co-operated in it with their generous offerings and fervent prayers.
This was a very brief outline which in my opinion suffices to give a pale idea of the Apostolate of Central Africa and of the important role the sublime Society of the Holy Childhood will play. May the guardian angel of Africa accompany the humble prayer I send to the illustrious committee of this most holy Society which has peopled heaven with so many adorers of the divine Child.

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[4579]
Hope is the last thing man gives up. For this reason, since until now my pleas for help to this admirable Society have always been answered; each time God, the divine Heart of Jesus Christ, my bursar St Joseph, the Apostles, St Peter and Paul, St Jude Thaddeus, St Francis Xavier and the Blessed Marguerite Alacoque have filled my heart with such confidence that my appeal will be heard this time by your great charity, Monsignor, and by the well-known bounty of the venerable members of the Central Council of the Society of the Holy Childhood, that I already feel certain that the charity of this holy Society will spread over Central Africa which is the most colossal, vast and densely populated Vicariate in the whole world.
[4580]
The history of the Vicariate can be considered in three different periods or epochs, that is: first, the Mission under the governance of Fr Ryllo S.J., Mgr Knoblecher and Mgr Kirchner which covered 15 years. In that period at least 40 Missionaries, including myself, worked in the Vicariate and nearly all have died, victims of the enormous labours, the deadly climate and their charity. I alone (although I have several times been at death’s door) have remained on the battle ground.
In the 2nd period, more than 50 Franciscans worked in Central Africa for ten years: 22 died, victims of charity and the lethal climate, and all the others returned to Egypt or to Europe without any hope of success.

[4581]
The 3rd period came five years later when the Vicariate was entrusted to a special Congregation which I myself founded under the patronage of the splendid soul of His Eminence Cardinal di Canossa, Bishop of Verona, brother-in-law of Madame Teresa Durazzo, a Lady of the Sacred Heart in Paris, who obtained for me the good fortune and honour of knowing Your Lordship and the charm of the Society of the Holy Childhood.
From that time the Vicariate has been directed in accordance with my Plan for the Regeneration of Africa which I conceived the day I attended the solemn beatification of Marguerite Alacoque in the Vatican, and during this period not a single European Missionary priest has died. They have all kept in perfect health despite unheard of toils, privations and heat, the likes of which no other Mission in the world has any idea.

[4582]
For this reason and to preserve the Missionaries’ and Sisters’ spirit of sacrifice and of the true apostolate, the Missions of Central Africa have acquired a character of stability and perpetuity so that the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda is giving the Mission of Central Africa a formal status, like the oldest and soundest Missions already in existence.
We need a lot of money for the immense and perilous journeys that last five or six months. We need a lot of money to create everything in these immense regions. We find nothing there but a burning sky, sand and very little water. We have to save the water to wash, we hardly ever have any wine and we always drink dirty water.

[4583]
This, of course, applies to the areas far from the banks of the Nile and of the White and Blue Niles. To have wine to say Mass with, we have to spend a lot. One bottle of Mass wine bought in Cairo costs 10 soldi, but when this bottle reaches Kordofan or Jebel Nuba, it has costs seven to ten francs and the wine is practically off. A piece of cloth that we can buy in Cairo for 10 francs, has cost us 50 to 80 francs by the time it reaches Kordofan, Darfur or Jebel Nuba.
[4584]
In those parts there are no tools to build houses, to farm, etc., everything has to be brought from Europe and carried by camel. I cannot describe every detail of our apostolate. All we find in Central Africa are souls, the most abandoned souls: completely naked women and men whom we have to clothe before they receive baptism; ignorant people who need to be educated, and 100 million infidels who must be won for Christ.
[4585]
This is why, Monsignor, I ask you with outstretched arms and tears in my eyes to give substantial support to my Vicariate, which is worthy of your charity and the powerful aid of the Holy Childhood. For my part, even if everyone abandons me, as long as the immortal words of Pius IX endure: “Work as a good soldier of Christ for Africa”, as he said to me in the month of the Beatification of Marguerite Alacoque in the Vatican.
I am not afraid of anything in the whole world and will die in the field in accordance with my battle cry which has been accepted by my fervent co-workers: “Africa or Death”!

[4586]
As well as insistently imploring you to grant me substantial aid, I ask another favour of you: to print the prayer I send with this letter: “Prayer for the conversion of the Hamites of Central Africa to Catholicism” in the Annals of the Holy Childhood, in both Latin and French. The souls fortunate enough to belong to the Holy Childhood are superior souls, chosen souls, souls that are so powerful with God that they will help to obtain from the Child Jesus and the Holy Family the conversion of my 100 million infidels and the means needed to achieve this, which include an important annual donation from the Society of the Holy Childhood for Central Africa.
In the most sincere hope that my humble prayer will be heard by your eminent charity, I send you my most fervent thanks in advance while I have the honour of remaining
Your most devoted and grateful servant

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


Translated from French.

[4587]
Tomorrow is the great day of the Congregation of the Cardinals in the Vatican to decide on the real good and the splendour or theme of Africa, aimed at increasing the true spiritual welfare of Central Africa. On the previous and successive Mondays, their Eminences dealt with matters regarding the Oriental Rites and with establishing the norms that Bishops and Vicars Apostolic must observe in governing their missions in the face of the most formidable Turco-Russian war. As soon as I know the result, which will not be before the 14th since the Holy Father is to decide my appointment on the 13th, I will let you know by telegram or letter. I only beg you, after you receive my dispatch, if it is in the affirmative, to inform the High Committee in Vienna. I will then write in due course to the Archbishop of Vienna and to Steiner.
[4588]
The Camillians have all returned to Verona and Rome. Fr Giovanni Battista Carcereri, the protagonist’s brother, and Fr Alfonso Chiarelli are still here. Only Fr Stanislao is still in Cairo but it seems he might have left for Europe last Tuesday.
[4589]
Now I ask you to do me a great favour for the glory of God and Africa. On the 27th of this month, the Urban College of Propaganda Fide will be putting on a little performance in the Vatican in very many languages. I was warmly beseeched by its most worthy Rector and Committee, of which Mgr Secretary Agnozzi is a member, to prepare small compositions lasting not less than a minute and not more than two minutes in Dinka, Bari, Abyssinian and Gallas. I might barely be able to answer this request with a little Dinka, but I have no books, no practice and an enormous amount of work, with my headaches, etc.
[4590]
For the Gallas and the Abyssinian, I promised Propaganda to write to my friend Antoine d’Abbadie who is a member of the Institut de France; for the Dinka and the Bari I promised Propaganda’s future Consultor, you, dulcissime rerum, as you are the only person who can satisfy these Roman desires. Fac mihi gratum. I enclose the subjects that were given to me. Turn out a couple of compositions: there will be no philological critics, no one will be able to say a word as to whether a verb, a noun or a plural is wrong. Three or four minutes of Dinka-Bari composition are required; fac quam primum et Romam ad me mitte.
[4591]
I have already sent Fr Squaranti 42 pages filled with a General Report on Africa and the current situation in the Vicariate. I ordered him, after having made a summary of these for the Annali del Buon Pastore, to send you the 42 sheets (which correspond to 84 of these on which I am writing), for the Jahresbericht in Vienna, and also for the Catholic newspapers of the Tyrol and Vienna. The other day it was decided at a meeting in London to send Mgr Comboni some Missionaries for the civilisation of Africa. The meeting was chaired by the Duke of Norfolk.
Now I am occupied in writing a small opus of 150 pages entitled:


Historical outline and present situation of the Vicariate Apostolic of Central Africa and its Work.

[4592]
It says more or less the same thing as the 42-page Report you will receive from Squaranti and the figure of Mitterrutzner is clearly portrayed in it, since it is impossible to outline the history of Central Africa without your most ample and powerful contribution. I think I have given a true idea of the Mission and of the fabric and development of the whole Work, because our apostolate is little known in Rome, Italy, France, England and America. It is better known in Austria and Germany. I do hope you will make the necessary corrections and amendments, etc. because you know more in Brixen than we do in Africa. Oh, if only instead of English missionaries, lay brothers and coadjutors, I could have good German and Italian Tyroleans like Gostner, Lanz, Überbacher and others, Africa would be converted by now. Gordon is Governor General of the Sudan. The postage stamps will arrive. Ave, salve, Angelo Brixeniensis Ecclesiae mea,
Tuissimus

Daniel

There was a stupendous attendance at the Rome World Pilgrimages. German Catholic celebrities, etc.

[4593]
I received the telegram with supreme pleasure. It is a monument to your goodness and the supreme interest you show in the wretch that I am. I have already received the two beautiful, full and most Catholic compositions in Bari and Dinka, and they have been well memorised by my two pupils at Propaganda, Antonio Dubale and Giovanni Farag. A thousand thanks. I have asked Fr Beltrame (who is in Rome to attend the meetings of the Italian… m… Geographical Society) to write me the composition in the language of the two Accas in Verona (of which the Geographical Society published a small grammar and a little dictionary). But it seems he has said no, not having the books here.
[4594]
My caravan consisting of Policarpo, another missionary, three sisters and some excellent lay brothers, must have reached Berber via Suakin on the Red Sea by now.
[4595]
I have just received the compositions in Abyssinian and Gallas from M. d’Abbadie, the most Catholic member of the Institut in Paris. The Ponenza has not yet been held, due to the Oriental matters, that is, of 200 proposals, 96 have been examined. I do not know when it will be held: great zeal for the salvation of souls is lacking, as some holy figures have said. Yesterday there was a big feast at St. Peter in Chains. The Abbot received the cream of Germany. As soon as the Ponenza is held, an instant telegram to you. I have here, all ready, the many rosaries I obtained from a Jerusalemite and they were blessed yesterday by His Holiness. All the Camillians are in Verona, except the Grand Orient Fr Stanislao, who is here and threatening flames and fire; but he will succeed in nothing.
[4596]
My trust is in the justice of eternal Rome and in that divine Heart which also beat for Africa. I await the Angel of Brixen to whom I will give all. Just a glance at my Report will be enough for your most brilliant mind to choose what will be of use to the Jahresbericht in Vienna.
[4597]
I have been and still am extremely busy. Fr Gennaro Martini ended his exploration on the borders of Abyssinia. Pasha Gordon has dismissed from his employ (30 English Guineas a month) the Bismarck of Khartoum, Mr Rossel, the Prussian Vice-Consul, who was very close to Carcereri.
Thanks, vale, fave
Tuissimo

Daniel

[4598]
This letter, given to me by Fr Franceschini in full agreement with Fr Antonio Chiarelli who can be heard in Verona, where he is now, I accepted pro bono pacis after having condoned many thousands of francs that he charged unjustly to my account. With this letter I settled the allowance of the Camillians in Berber for the first year, promising, as is noted, to advance 2,000 francs for the second year. But once I had paid the 2,000 francs, Carcereri with blatant injustice did not admit the fact to the Procurator Franceschini, and recorded the two thousand francs as a down payment on the first year; and wanted several hundred more, thus violently robbing me of about 2,500 francs.
[4599]
In addition he most unjustly wrenched from me, or rather stole from me again, on each annual allowance of 5,000 francs, the sum of 316 francs on the currency exchange. From the 1st of March 1875 to 1877, he deprived me of 616 francs on the exchange operations, as I can prove with the receipt from the Austrian Consul, etc. He also spent in Italy (I suspect he did not even spend half the amount he claims, because he brought nothing back to the Vicariate, except the chronometer and a few other little things), 7,000 (seven thousand lire) and charged me 7,000 gold francs. Then he bought himself a nag of a donkey in Kordofan for 115 (one hundred and fifteen thalers). In those parts 36 thalers are enough, and 76 for the harness, which I had to pay. Then he bought here in Rome (I have the receipt) a chronometer for 500 lire (it does not cost even half that amount) and he charged me 500 gold francs. He then made a mistake at my expense of 120 francs, and refused to pay them back to me; then he charged me 1,943 gold francs in travel expenses for 8 missionaries from Verona to Cairo; a journey he did not pay for but which was covered by Fr Squaranti, etc., etc., etc. Then he withdrew from my account with Madame Lafargue in Berber more than one thousand francs over and above (counting the goods given back, etc.) what he should have taken to cover the allowance for himself… etc., etc., etc.
[4600]
After all this and other accounts, can I in conscience pay what is claimed by Carcereri?… I am right to invoke, out of the bounty of our Most Eminent Father, the judgement of a small commission he appointed including Fr Peloso, Fr Aldrighetti, Fr Bacilieri, etc… Carcereri is a violent, unjust man and worse. I forgive him; but I would like the truth to be known by those who need to know it. The Heart of Jesus will see that justice is done. We trust in him. Fr Paolo is witness to how and why I was forced to issue Carcereri with a receipt for certain closed accounts. Others will also experience what it is to deal with that man, for whom I beg God's forgiveness.

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic

[4601]
I send you the proofs of a part of the General Report, which is a sketch or summary of a work I shall be publishing shortly to give an idea of our Work. This passage of six short pages is the least interesting. The most interesting part is what is coming, which has not been published in any Jahresbericht in Italian, German, French or English. If you find any impropriety, defect, exaggeration or anything in it, I beg you to inform me so that I may correct it, because you know more than I do. When my secretary returns tomorrow I will have the rest copied; it is about as long as these six pages. From your summary it is not difficult to make an abrégé for Vienna.
[4602]
I had started the first Report for Vienna: but as Fr Squaranti was pestering me for Verona, where he has not published the Buon Pastore for 18 months because he wanted to wait for the result of matters in Rome, I sent it there first, thinking that Fr Squaranti would quickly use it for a summary and then send it to Brixen. But he had problems and many things to do, and the poor thing became quite confused, just when I had much to do in Rome (where I twice had the consolation of seeing the Angel of Brixen): so in four or five days you will have the rest from me. The most important part in the end is the Apostolic Action in the Vicariate.
[4603]
Excuse me, dearest friend; my heart is torn by weariness and by seeing such little zeal for the salvation of souls among certain Cardinals in Rome, as Cardinal Canossa well observed. He rightly scolded Cardinal Orelia of S. Stefano and Cardinal Sacconi, who are responsible for this delay in my business. This is while Cardinals Franchi, Bilio, Bartolini, de Pietro and all the others would like me to be nominated at once.
[4604]
But we shall just have to be patient. This is how God wants it. If this matter is not brought to a conclusion within the month, I will go to Propaganda and I will tell them clearly that I can wait no longer, because it is my duty to go to the missions where I am awaited and will be received with open arms. I have been in Rome now for 17 months. It is true that the main business has been completed and that Rome has done Africa a very great service by expelling Fr Carcereri and the Camillians and thus freeing me from them, supremely nasty pieces of work, without spirit, without conscience and with as much pride as Bismarck, as has been clearly noted at Propaganda: but something is still missing.
[4605]
If I am to believe Cardinal Franchi, he is going to propose my nomination again to the Sacred Congregation on Monday the 18th. The Cardinal Ponente, Bartolini, has sent me a message through Mgr Caprara, the Assessor of Rites, saying: “Tell Comboni that I love him, that I will always defend him at sword-point and that he will be consoled”.
[4606]
Let’s wait and see: and I shall always be happy to do God’s will. Ave et fave; a memento next Monday.


Tuissimo Daniel


[4607]
I went several times to the Cardinal and Secretary of Propaganda to ask for foreign stamps: I was always promised some: but when I went there on the day of his Highness the Bishop’s departure, he told me he had given them to others; he told me to come back later and that he would save some for the Most Eminent Bishop of Verona and for us.
[4608]
I was forgetting the consoling news of the Vicariate.
1. The city of Suakin on the Red Sea, from which Policarpo left for Berber on 14th May with the Sisters, has sent me a request to found a Catholic church and schools.

[4609]
2. Gordon Pasha refused to have the English Protestants in Khartoum, because we are there.
[4610]
3. He said he was always in agreement with the Mission, in line with the ideas of the Pro-Vicar; and that should there be any divergence, he would always consult the Pope and the Cardinal Secretary of State.
[4611]
4. He will always support the Mission and give it freed slaves, etc. I will tell you all about this in the next Jahresbericht.

[4612]
I am writing you a couple of lines with the deepest emotion to thank you infinitely for the grace which you, Monsignor, and the venerable Central Council of the admirable Society of the Holy Childhood have deigned to grant me by sending a cheque for 5,000 francs. The Most Reverend Father General of the Trinitarians, Martin y Bieues, has kindly forwarded it to me through my bankers, Brown and Son in Rome.
[4613]
I also thank you, Monsignor, for sending me the instructions on the points to include in my next Report, which also enlighten me as to how to organise works eligible for the Holy Childhood’s support.
[4614]
A thousand thanks, Monsignor, for your eminent charity. I hope that with God’s grace I shall live up to the great passion that consumes the hearts of the Members and Associates of the Society of the Holy Childhood.
Please accept, Monsignor, my homage and sentiments of gratitude and esteem with which I shall always remain in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
Your Excellency’s most humble and devoted

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


Translated from French.

[4615]
I read with great attention the respected letter of the Eminent Cardinal Secretary of State on the double request to the Holy See submitted by the distinguished General Gordon, Governor General of all the Egyptian possessions in the Sudan. In my Vicariate, they cover a territory four or five times the size of France.
[4616]
I have only high praise for the judgement and loyalty of this commendable figure. Although he is an Anglican, in his relations with the Catholic Missions he deals with and consults the Authorities of the Church, which could lead to real advantages for Catholic interests in Central Africa.
[4617]
Regarding the first point, the land belonging to the Khartoum Mission was not a gift from the Khedive, but was purchased in 1849 by my distinguished predecessor Dr Knoblecher, with money allocated to him by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda. The Diwan of Khartoum’s request that the Mission should cede a piece of its own land to widen the shore on the Blue Nile was made to me in 1874 by His Highness Ismail Ayoub Pasha, then Governor General of Nubia and Kordofan; I fully agreed to comply with his request on condition that the wall to divide the eastern part from our garden should be built in brick at the Government’s expense.
[4618]
But as the Pasha subsequently left for the conquest of Darfur and was later summoned to Egypt by the Khedive to be a member of his Council of Ministers, my agreement mentioned above had no effect: and since the Pasha who succeeded him refused to grant the agreed compensation, my Representative refused to cede him the land and General Gordon resolved the matter by giving the Mission one hundred pounds sterling.
[4619]
As to the second point of General Gordon’s request which is more important, it is first urgently necessary to state the following notions:
In both Egypt and Aden and in many points on the Eastern coasts of Africa where there are European Consulates and Catholic Missions, a slave who escapes from his Muslim master is sent either by the Consulate or by the Mission, to the Zaptia (Police headquarters), where at the subject’s request he is issued a Letter declaring him free.

[4620]
I have seen numerous slaves of both sexes obtain freedom in this way, by virtue of which the slaves’ masters no longer have any rights over them.
[4621]
However, in Nubia, although the same laws are applied as in Egypt, the business of slaves has gone through various phases and modifications, given, it can be said, that one third of the population consists of Muslims, and two thirds of slaves who are the undisputed property of Muslim families.
[4622]
In the beginning, when the Austrian Consulate was established in Khartoum in 1851 to protect the Catholic Mission, both the consulate and the Mission enjoyed de facto the right of asylum; but after constant complaints from the owners of slaves who had taken refuge there, the Governors refused to grant the Consulate and the Mission this right (which had the benefit of winning many souls for the faith). Their refusal provoked disputes between the Governor and the Consulate and recourse to the Viceroy of Egypt and to Vienna, until the Khedive sent an order to the Governors of the Sudan that slaves who had sought refuge in the Consulates and the Mission should be returned to their Muslim masters, even by force.
[4623]
The Consulates bowed to the sovereign will; but the Mission did not always carry out this order; the Missionaries were frequently upset by the deplorable and bloody state of the slaves and by the well-founded fear that their owners, as sometimes happened, would put them to death or cruelly mistreat them as a punishment for escaping.
[4624]
After this the Consul himself turned to the Ministry in Vienna which itself applied to Rome. Whereupon His Eminence Cardinal Barnabò of blessed memory wrote in about 1864 or 1865 to Mgr. Vuicic, Vicar Apostolic of Egypt and temporarily responsible for Central Africa, and told him to order the Superior of Khartoum to give up all the slaves who had sought shelter in the Austrian Consulate, because he was negotiating their fate with the Government. This order is preserved in the Archives of Khartoum.
[4625]
When I was put in charge of the Governance of the Vicariate, despite the Khedive’s prohibition, since I had good relations with the Governor and since the Superior also had great influence over him, we succeeded in saving a great many slaves. But there were nevertheless always problems and disputes between the Mission, the Government and the slave owners, and also with the Imperial Royal Austro-Hungarian Consul; because I noticed that however many slaves were handed over to the Consul, he handed over the same number to the Government which returned them to their masters without the slightest hope of the Mission being able to do any good for them in the future.
[4626]
After a great many trying disputes and appeals, seeing that the slave owners’ cause was protected by the Governors, the Khedive and the Consul, I issued the following provisions for the peace and good of the Mission in 1875, and they were sent to the Superiors of the Missions in the Vicariate:
[4627]
1. Should a slave, male or female, arrive at the Mission in Khartoum where the Protector Consulate is based, the Superior must report his presence in the Mission to the Imperial Royal Consul in writing within 24 hours, mentioning all his entitlements to protection in order to defend his freedom. If he should then receive an invitation to present the slave to the Consulate or to the Diwan, the Superior himself for a male slave, or the Sister Superior for a female slave, will accompany the person involved, or if personally unable to do so, will have the slave accompanied by a Missionary or by two Sisters in order to defend his or her rights before the local Authority; and if their reasons are not accepted, the individual should be given up; but not without seeking to reclaim him or her from time to time, with due courtesy and presenting strong reasons.
[4628]
2. In the Missions of Kordofan and of Berber and in other places where there is no European consulate, the same procedures as those I prescribed for the Consulate should be followed, but with the local Government.
[4629]
3. In the Mission of Jebel Nuba and in the independent countries not subject to the Egyptian Government, in the process of negotiating the business of runaway slaves, every way should be studied to gain and to create de facto the right of asylum, always sticking to the general rule that the Catholic Missions in those tribes is a legislator and in practice the rules and spirit of the Gospel and the Church are applied, to protect, that is, and as far as possible to defend the slaves’ freedom and spiritual interests in the presence of the sovereigns or leaders, in order later to admit them to Christ’s fold.
[4630]
Although the Superiors have generally behaved in accordance with my instructions as mentioned above, yet sometimes, either out of compassion for the deplorable state of the injured, bleeding fugitives, or the certainty that if they were returned to their masters they would be treated brutally; either for fear of seeing the Mission lose status for having been unable to protect and defend these unfortunate beings or for other reasons, especially during the past 20 months of my absence from the Vicariate, the Superiors of the Missions have not been observing my provisions.
[4631]
This gave rise to complaints from the Government, claims from the heads of Muslim families, and very violent appeals which have even reached the throne of the Khedive of Egypt, who is furious with the Mission today, as General Gordon himself confirmed to my Representative and the Provincial Superior.
[4632]
Since I came to hear of these difficulties I wrote to General Gordon to reinvigorate his protection, and in May last year I sent very strict orders to Canon Fiore, my Representative in the Vicariate, to observe scrupulously the orders I had issued in 1875 concerning escaped slaves. They will fully come into force as soon as I have been able to consult the Sacred Congregation and received its venerable instructions which I hope it will deign to send me urgently.
[4633]
Now that the Governor General Gordon is himself asking the Eminent Cardinal Secretary of State to give the Mission the appropriate instructions (which shows this distinguished figure’s loyalty to and excellent partiality for the Mission), I hope the Sacred Congregation will hasten to provide me with precise norms which will be perfectly observed in future by me and by all the Missionaries of Central Africa.
[4634]
Further to clarify the various points of this most important matter, I believe it my duty to submit the following observations to Your Excellency with due subordination:
1. According to the information I have received from my Representative, Canon Fiore, and from others, General Gordon has formally declared that he wishes to make every effort, with the Khedive’s prior consent, to suppress and destroy the slave trade which is played out in the vast theatre of our Vicariate; and he has thus abolished the following on pain of very serious penalties:

[4635]
a) the entry of jallaba or slave dealers who are all Muslims, natives of Nubia and Kordofan, armed with European weapons, into tribes of blacks to hunt them down or wrench them from their homes with violence and take them as slaves to Kordofan, to Nubia, to the Red Sea and to Egypt, forcing them to make very long journeys on foot, naked and bound by chains to wooden frames carried by the strongest slaves, mingling males and females, etc., etc.;
[4636]
b) the payment of Government taxes, as has been done until now by many tribes and vassal countries, in the form of so many slaves of both sexes (each slave is calculated at about 14 Roman scudos); payment must now be made in cash or in cattle, elephant tusks, or other merchandise.

c) he has ordered that soldiers be recruited from among the most robust slaves.

[4637]
c) he has ordered that soldiers be recruited from among the most robust slaves.
[4638]
2. As a general rule, General Gordon has laid down that the Khedive’s law for returning slaves to their masters should be valid for no more than about 12 years; when this period has expired, all slaves possessed by Muslims will be free and thus their own masters, to go and serve whoever they please.
[4639]
3. As I respectfully pointed out to General Gordon himself in the last letter I sent him, it seems to me that the orders the English Government has issued to its Consuls concerning slaves who have sought refuge in ships with a European or American flag – quoted in his letters to the Eminent Cardinal Secretary of State and to my Representative which I have on the table – would be most appropriate, since they deal with slaves who have fled to ships belonging to the so-called civilised Nations of Europe and of America which have accepted on paper the laws of the abolition of slavery and trade in Africans, respect their dignity and do not recognise the right of slave owners to abuse their honesty and morality, or to put them to death.
[4640]
But this English law does not seem to me very suitable when applied to the slaves of Muslims in Central Africa where slavery is not only legal but virtually the country’s greatest resource; here the slave owner exercises the right of life and death over his slaves and peddles and abuses the morality and honesty of women slaves according to his every whim, making them available for the caprices and pleasure of his guests, to fulfil the duty of perfect hospitality prescribed by the Koran and fully observed in the Sudan.
[4641]
This tragic plight of slaves who belong to Central African Muslims is very different from the plight of slaves in America and of those who escape to ports and board European ships; therefore H.E. Governor Gordon, having taken stock of the really deplorable condition of slaves in Central Africa, should have issued a slightly more lenient law for them than that of the English Government, since he recognises even those unfortunates as human beings who have the right to life and respect for their innocence and morality, and who are created in God’s image and likeness.
[4642]
4. From my long experience with slaves who have sought refuge in the mission, I can conclude that four fifths of them, because of their contact and life with Muslims, are ridden with vices; they are thieving, spoilt and corrupt, offer no hope of conversion, and almost always end by stealing even in the mission; they have no desire whatsoever to work, commit despicable acts, cause scandal to the others, and in the end they either escape of their own accord or are expelled from the Mission.
[4643]
Only a fifth of them respond to the Mission’s care and show a well-founded hope of conversion to the true faith. Next, with regard to slave owners, most are barbaric and cruel; but some are good and ask nothing more from their slaves than the farm work that any European master would require of his peasants, or his servants, for work in his house and stores.
[4644]
5. At the present time of the war in the Orient, religious fanaticism is spreading among the Muslims of the whole world, and hatred of Christianity could even spread to the Sudan. I am therefore of the respectful opinion that to avoid irritating Muslim slave masters in the Sudan, since the Law of the Khedive which protects their cruelty and injustice cannot last more than 12 years and in view of the current troubled circumstances, the Sacred Congregation will have to formulate a similar resolution on this matter. It should not stray far from General Gordon’s judgement, which indeed is not without reasonable foundation and causes, in so far as the Holy See’s concern for the stability and preservation of the Mission continues to be more important than the temporary results of even a few conversions.
[4645]
6. Lastly, I can assure the Sacred Congregation that despite all the legislation of the Khedive and Gordon, despite all the oppositions of Muslims, heretics and the worst Catholics, the Mission will make every effort, and with God’s grace will certainly succeed as in the past, to save many souls including those of escaped slaves, with the most painstaking work, prudence, moderation and the exercise of charity, and with the prestige of the Catholic apostolate that is appreciated throughout Central Africa.
[4646]
I end my humble plea and information by insistently imploring Your Excellency to discuss this important matter with the Sacred Congregation so that I may be given precise and detailed instructions about it, for my own peace of mind and to regulate my activity in the future. At the same time, I would like the Sacred Congregation, should it approve, to suggest to the wisdom and judgement of the Eminent Cardinal Secretary of State that in his wisdom he deign to recommend me and the entire Mission of Central Africa to the distinguished General Gordon’s good offices and effective protection.
[4647]
Let it also assure him that the Mission will do all it can to gratify actively and to extend, within the limits of its powers and of justice, his work of bringing Christian civilisation to the immense peoples of Central Africa, who live under the sceptre of the Khedive of Egypt.
As I respectfully kiss your hands, I have the honour to sign with the full esteem
of your Most Reverend Excellency’s
most humble, obedient and true servant,

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[4648]
When the subsidies of the Propagation of the Faith are distributed, I beg you to have the kindness, Mr President, to send the sum of 1,000 francs from Central Africa’s allocation to Mother Emilie Julien, Superior General of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition in Marseilles, at the Capelète: please have the remainder forwarded to my address here in Rome.
[4649]
Thanks be to God, His Eminence the Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda has ordained that the last General Congregation to conclude the affairs of Central Africa will take place at the Vatican on the 9th of this month, that is, next Monday, and that the Cardinals’ decisions will be submitted to the Pope on the 15th. I have every hope that after the feast of Our Lady of Carmel I shall be able to give you the good news of the success of my business in Rome, and that in the coming month I shall be able to set out for my Mission.
[4650]
I can assure you that being forced to stay in Rome, far from Central Africa, for 16 months has been a far greater trial to me than the scorching heat, enormous efforts, fevers, hyenas and lions of Central Africa.
[4651]
But the will of God and of the supreme authority of the Church and the most important and serious concerns of the mission have obliged me to stay here. I hope in a short time to be able to give a really great impetus to this Mission which God has miraculously protected, and for which I hope to die and to devote the rest of my life.
[4652]
General Gordon, an Englishman who is Governor of the Egyptian possessions in the Sudan, is a person who in following his intentions, will give a mortal blow to the trade in Africans and to the horrors of slavery. I hope the Church will enormously benefit by this for the conversion of infidels.
[4653]
I inform you in confidence that His Eminence Cardinal di Canossa will be writing a Pastoral Letter about it for the Propagation of the Faith, and we shall do our utmost to ensure that the Venetian Bishops follow his example.
[4654]
As I thank you infinitely for the marvellous protection the Propagation of the Faith deigns to grant Central Africa, I have the honour of declaring myself in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary,
Your most devoted servant,

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


Translated from French.