Writings

[5047]
Our caravan is ready; we leave the day after tomorrow on a large boat for Aswan.
After five months, the Mission of Jebel Nuba has started again and Fr Luigi Bonomi, the former Superior of this Mission, has already settled in again. But about this and about many other things, I shall write from my boat as we go up the Nile. I shall also tell you about my meetings with the explorer Stanley who has seen the Nyanza lakes and discovered the whole course of the great River Congo.

+ Daniel Comboni


Translated from the French.

[5048]
In the few hours I spent in Rome last December I visited you in your apartments to give you a hug and also to give you the enclosed petition, which is (between you and me) from the sister of Fr Vincenzo Rossetti, Secretary of the Most Eminent di Canossa, who commended it warmly to me, because his sister’s large family, to which he passes all his salary, is in serious need and is suffering from hunger. I implore you to do all you can with Monsignor and the Holy Father in this matter.
[5049]
I will write to you often from Africa: today I am extremely busy, because tomorrow I am leaving Cairo on a great ship up the Nile with a large caravan, and I hope in one month to reach the great desert. I will write you of many things, about the discussions with the Khedive, who praised His Holiness to the skies, about my arduous enterprise and its hopes and results.
[5050]
But in the first place let me express my deep and eternal gratitude for what you have done for me, for the sincere, holy and precious friendship you granted me, and which I shall hold dear and precious until death. I carry with me in great respect and veneration the objects which, through you, were given to me by the Holy Father and which form the glory of my Vicariate. In my will I have ordered them to be passed on, after my death, into the hands of the Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa alone, to be used exclusively and solely by him and only for great solemnities. A thousand thanks to the Holy Father and to you.
[5051]
The Holy Father has outlived even Victor Emmanuel. I read in the Egyptian newspapers that not only Mgr Sacristan but also Mgr Cenni were at the dying king’s bedside!!! Oh! The charity of the Holy Father!
Please give my regards to Monsignor Cenni, Mgr Macchi, Ricci, De Bisogno and the Rector of the Capranica College, etc., and pray for
Your most affectionate friend

+ Bishop Daniel
and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[5052]
Please excuse my unintentional silence. Tonight I myself, Fr Squaranti, the General Administrator of the Work, Fr Giovanni Battista Fraccaro and Fr Salvatore Piazza with 5 Devout Mothers of Africa and 9 lay craftsmen will be leaving Cairo for Aswan, Korosko, Berber and Khartoum on a great dahhabia. I will write to you at length from the boat, because I am very tired now; putting together a caravan of one hundred camels is hard work and time consuming.
[5053]
The news from Berber, Khartoum, Kordofan and Jebel Nuba (where the old Superior Fr Bonomi is) is good, with the exception of Fr Policarpo who is as meddlesome as ever, insubordinate, bossy, a drunkard and behaves more like a soldier than a good priest. But with patience, charity and restraint (I shall keep him with me a long time), I hope he will become a good missionary and a good Zouave.
[5054]
In the meantime pray for him. He is going around saying that he has the German benefactors in his hands and that if he so wished, he could dry up all the aid to Africa with one word: he threatens (and he sent this message to Gordon Pasha) that if slavery is not eliminated, he will arm the Africans against the Egyptian government, he drinks like a bad soldier, wants me to send away all the Sisters, etc., etc., and he meddles with everything, and he writes (so he says, but I do not believe him, because he is a braggart) that it is his duty to inform Propaganda on matters concerning the mission, etc., etc. But all will be put right with patience and prudence.
[5055]
Here in Cairo I was well received by all the Pashas and our good Consul General von Schaeffer. But the best welcome of all I received from the Khedive, with whom I had a long discussion for over an hour; he had the Prince, his heir, give me two firmans to commend the expedition to all the Pashas and Mudirs from Cairo to the Equator. In sum, everyone is praying for us and I trust in the sweet Hearts of Jesus and Mary that this time we shall wage a fine war against the devil and plant the Cross in many places.
[5056]
From on board ship, I shall write and tell you about other things that are to God’s greater glory. God’s Works must have crosses, because they are all born at the foot of Calvary. I am prepared to suffer all things, and to be peripsema… for his glory: but Africa must be saved. I am very pleased to have with me Fr Squaranti who, apart from being a good and most thrifty administrator, is an angel of good counsel. He says that we will benefit by keeping Policarpo under observation and in obedience, and be able to make him a good missionary.
[5057]
I want news of His Most Reverend Highness and yourself. Write to me at Korosko (Lower Nubia) or at Berber (Upper Nubia). While I send my regards to all, both in your religious house and in His Most Reverend Highness’s castle, I remain with eternal gratitude
Your most affectionate friend

+ Bishop Daniel

[5058]
This morning at last, before midday, I shall be leaving Cairo with my caravan aboard a large dahhabia for Aswan. In the Atmur Desert I will need more than one hundred camels and I hope to reach Khartoum in two months. In taking leave of Your Most Reverend Excellency, I renew my eternal gratitude for your having so powerfully supported my arduous and difficult Work, and I warmly commend to you these two small establishments of mine in Cairo, and in general all things that are mine in Egypt as though they were your own interests, because you are a true father to us.
[5059]
I am most grateful for the kindness of the excellent Fr Guardian of Cairo in making the very able Fr Gesualdo available as confessor to the Sisters: this is a great stroke of luck and I hope it will continue a long time. Thanks to the supreme bounty and kindness of the Imperial Royal Diplomatic Agent and Consul General, Cavalier von Schaeffer, I have two firmans from the Egyptian government and was given an audience of about an hour and a half with His Highness the Khedive, who showed his appreciation of the work in the Sudan and was generous with his protection.
[5060]
I commend myself to your goodness and your prayers; and I beg you to convey my gratitude and pay my respects to the Consul De Franceschi, and send my greetings to the Most Reverend Fr Elia, the Secretary, Fr Guardian of Alexandria, the venerable Fr Ventura and all the friars. Please accept the respects of Fr Antonio Squaranti, my Administrator, of my missionaries and of my lay brothers and my Sisters (I am sorry not to have introduced to you in Alexandria the 5 Devout Mothers of Africa of my Institute in Verona, but I thought that, as usual, Your Excellency would have been coming to Cairo in the winter), while I ask for your blessing, with all my heart I remain
Your Most Reverend Excellency’s most affectionate son

+ Bishop Daniel Comboni
Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[5061]
Greetings and blessings to our most beloved Children, venerable Missionary Priests and the Faithful of all Rites in Our Vicariate.
Oh, what a terrible catastrophe has just struck the Catholic world! What a hard trial God has chosen to set his Church! Its august head, the steadfast defender of her sacrosanct rights, the expert pilot, the tireless Apostle, the Pontiff of the Immaculate and of Infallibility, the angelic Pius IX is no more.

[5062]
After the longest and at the same time the most tempestuous and glorious Pontificate, on the evening of 7th February, amid the tears of the Eminent Princes gathered at his bedside and amidst the lamentations of all good people, he gave up his soul to God. The gravity of such a loss can well be felt, but not described.
[5063]
We feel it most intimately; and I am sure that you too, my most beloved children, are smitten with the same grief. Indeed, how can one think of Pius IX without deploring his loss? He who was so rich in virtues, he who was as great as the Gregories and the Leos, he who was admired by the whole world, the decorum of the Chair of St Peter, beloved by all, the terror of the enemies of Christ, to have been stolen from the Church in such very sombre times! But may God’s arcane counsels be praised! We bow our heads to God’s divine dispositions; and in the midst of such universal mourning let us find comfort in the fact that he has not left his Sacred Spouse long widowed of her Head.
[5064]
On 20th February last, the Eminent Cardinals gathered in the Vatican raised to the Pontifical throne His Eminence Cardinal Gioacchino Pecci, Archbishop of Perugia, who has taken the name of Leo XIII. Therefore, as we give heartfelt thanks to the Most High for having given us a worthy successor to the late lamented Pius IX, we order that henceforth in the celebration of the Mass be added, in accordance with the norms of the Sacred Rites, the Collects 4 and 10, that is, Pro Papa and Contra Persecutores Ecclesiae; so that God in his infinite goodness may deign to support and defend the new Supreme Hierarch and the Church from the assaults and ruses of the powers of darkness, and restore true peace to the whole world.
[5065]
Since the time of Lent is approaching, availing ourselves of the very wide faculties we have received from the Holy Apostolic See, we have established that all the faithful in our Vicariate will abstain from meat and fast only on Fridays in Lent, the eve of the feast of St Joseph and the last three days of Holy Week, specifying that only on Good Friday will there be strict abstinence and that fish and meat must not be eaten at the same meal throughout Lent.
[5066]
We also grant that meat may be eaten on all Saturdays of the year, the year being that which begins today and ends on the last Saturday before Lent next year.
We thank the Church for such indulgence, to which we respond with other acts of mortification and penance; we undertake above all to receive the Most Holy Sacraments to fulfil the Paschal Precept between the 1st Sunday of Lent and the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. We order that every Friday and Saturday of Lent the Blessed Sacrament be exposed for half an hour before Maghreb (sunset), and that the usual prayers we have established be recited. Fervently exhorting you to remain steadfast in your faith, we impart our Pastoral Blessing to you.

From our residence in Shellal, 1 March 1878


(L.S.) ……………. + Daniel, Bishop and Vicar Apostolic

[5067]
Only upon arrival in this last Egyptian city did I learn that the Lord had made a great visit to your family which is so dear to me. Fr Squaranti had been told of this a month ago in Cairo. But knowing me well, he kept silent even with me. When I was informed, Sr Teresa knew nothing of it. She only complained several times during the journey on the Nile that, while I had received a letter from my father and from the Verona Institute, she had not had a single line from her family.
[5068]
Fr Antonio gave me the news yesterday at 10 a.m. At 1 p.m., I did not want to go to lunch, because my grief was too great and I feared that Sr Teresa, who sits on my right at table on the ship, would read this on my face. I went at Fr Antonio’s request; and tried in every way to appear detached: but it was impossible. Sr Teresa read my expression, though she appeared detached herself; but as soon as grace had been said, she rushed to Fr Antonio’s room and asked him to speak clearly. Hearing her sighs, I too went there: she said to us: “Tell me the truth, for I will be good and resigned: has my father died?”
[5069]
Fr Antonio and I stood frozen and dumbfounded, unable to utter a sound and in floods of tears, and it was only after ten minutes that we were able to murmur yes… Never have I suffered so much… I knew your family to be the happiest in the world, that it had never experienced the death of a dear one. Teresa had never lost a member of her family; and yet I could tell the full extent of her grief. She loved her father tenderly, for not a day passed without her speaking of him, just as she speaks every day of her mother, her brothers, her sisters and her uncle.
[5070]
But I was amazed at the heroism of your daughter and mine! She is an incomparable daughter, a true saint, she is one of my greatest consolations in my very thorny apostolic career. No sooner had I spoken the word yes, than she went down on her knees and, with her arms wide open before God and the two of us, exclaimed: “Dear Jesus, Heart of my Jesus, Mary Immaculate, St Joseph, with all my heart and soul I offer you my father. Receive him in heaven, if I offer him to you: your most holy will be done, etc. but let him have heaven, where I hope to join him when it pleases you: but grant me the grace of protecting, comforting and defending my mother and my family, dear Jesus; I commend my father, my mother and my family to you; I place my mother and my family in the Heart of Jesus; yes, may thy holy will always be done, oh my God; the cross is great, extraordinary; but you have borne it for me: may you be blessed forever. Oh! father, I will never see you again on earth, but I will certainly see you in heaven; pray for me, for my mother, for my family…” etc., etc.
[5071]
She stayed more than an hour kneeling like this before God and us; the words she uttered were of the most sublime holiness and religion. I have hardly ever seen a daughter so tender and loving towards her parents; and I have never seen so strong, generous, noble and Christian a woman. Oh! she is well worthy of the lofty mission and undertaking to which God has called her. But if I must sing the praises of such a great and holy daughter, I must sing the praises of those who formed her to such perfection and holiness, I must sing your praises, Signora Stella, and the praises of my dear Signor Lorenzo who formed and instilled in the heart of this incomparable daughter so much piety, fervour, zeal, candour and generosity, who formed her in such a way that she may be compared with the sublime women of the Gospel who accompanied and served the Apostles in their preaching.
[5072]
Sister Teresa is a pearl, she is worthy of you and of Signor Lorenzo; she is worthy of comparison with the Lucinas and Petronillas and with the women of the Gospel. Therefore I am convinced that the father who raised and educated such a daughter is in heaven, and now has the prize for his virtues, for his faith and for his exquisite religion. In a word, Signor Lorenzo, whose perfect faith, virtue and attachment to the Church and Pius IX were known to all, is in heaven and is in an exalted place of glory; and from there he will pray for you, for Sr Teresa, for the whole family; and if an angel were to ask him if he were prepared to return to the earth and live another hundred years, he would answer roundly no, because there he is with God, and because from heaven he is more useful to his family than he was when alive.
[5073]
After you have paid your tribute of weeping and tears to your incomparable husband (the most sacred, right and praiseworthy thing, because tears are the holy expression of the perfect love God wants children and wives to have), you must be happy, calm and content, because your dear Lorenzo is in heaven enjoying his reward for the life he led as a true Christian, and from heaven he is in a position to help you down here, and can better protect your family and lead you to fulfil your earthly pilgrimage in a holy way, so as to join him when it pleases God.
[5074]
What I am saying to you, I say also to your children, to Fr Luigi (to whom I shall write as soon as I have time), and to my dear friend, Signor Francesco, Signor Lorenzo’s worthy brother and a true father to all. Yes, you must be happy, resigned and content. I will look after Sr Teresa: she will be one of your greatest consolations. God loves and favours the Grigolini family, because it is a truly Christian family, imbued with the spirit of the Lord, and firm and indestructible in its faith and religion. And God loves this dear family, for he has shown it by calling to his side Signor Lorenzo, such a good father, good husband, good brother, good Christian… Didn’t the eternal Father love his divine Son?… He loved him with infinite love, and therefore he wanted him to die in agony on the Cross.
[5075]
Jesus Christ loved his Most Holy Mother: yet although she was the mother of God, he wanted her to be the Queen of Martyrs. Jesus Christ loves the Church his immaculate Bride: yet he allows it to have tribulations until the end of the world; he wanted it to swim in the blood of martyrs, and today he sends it the tribulation of the death of Pius IX. The saints suffered all things: indeed one can measure the greatness and elevation of their sanctity by the greatness and quantity of the crosses and sorrows they have to bear. What did Queen St Elizabeth not suffer, who after knowing the bliss of the throne, was abandoned and had to go begging with her children, etc. Ah! God loves his favourite children so much that he gives them crosses. So I say that God loves your family because he has sent you a very great cross by taking Signor Lorenzo from you. Since this is the Lord’s will, you must be brave and believe that God loves you. Be comforted, be consoled therefore; and let your whole family take heart. That is what your dear daughter Teresa is doing.
[5076]
In fact, after a brief quarter of an hour, she rose and retired to her room where she found her Sisters who were crying, and they kissed her and bathed her with their tears. I was constantly by her side, and I let her cry for a few hours; but then I told her the above-mentioned truths and others, which the world that has no faith does not understand, but which Teresa understood well. We spent the evening together; and at 10 when I had retired to my room, she spent the night between tears and sleep. In the morning she took part in all the Masses we said on board for Signor Lorenzo, and everyone received communion for him. We spent yesterday alternately crying, praying and working, and talking nearly all the time about Signor Lorenzo, you and the family.
[5077]
Last night Teresa slept and rested; and now she is much brighter and I hope she will soon recover, especially through praying always for him and for you. She lives among peaceful hearts: the Sisters love and respect her as a mother. From the day they left Verona (and I was always with them) these 5 daughters live a heavenly life: I have not seen a single cloud: they love each other more than sisters would: they take turns helping each other, the pleasure of one is the pleasure of the other, Teresa’s wishes are their wishes, their interests are God’s interests and every day I hear your name.
[5078]
Teresa is a true daughter. She is my consolation and Fr Squaranti’s too; and all fired by the same spirit we seek nothing more than to save souls and do our duty. We would not change our condition for a crown, for a throne: we are happier than kings; and as we are prepared to suffer anything and to die for Christ, the days fly by. Tomorrow we shall be entering Nubia, that is, where my Vicariate begins, the largest and most populated diocese and mission in the world, for it contains one hundred million infidels and is larger than Europe.
[5079]
I wanted to write to Fr Luigi (who must have a beautiful soul and an upright mind as I see from the sentiments he expresses to his sister) and to my dear Signor Francesco; but I find I have a mountain of things to do for the unloading of our two great ships and due to the mail I have to write to many parts of Europe and the world. In any case, these days we are celebrating the Masses for our dear Signor Lorenzo, who is all ours because, among the other reasons, he gave us one of his worthy daughters to guide to heaven. But… mark my words, Signora Stella, we do not go to heaven alone; behind us we bring a procession of souls saved from the mouth of hell; so many that when we missionaries and Sisters pass away, St Peter will have to fling open both of heaven’s doors. That is what we hope for, after the Lord has granted us the grace of undergoing and suffering much for him.
Please give my greetings to every single member of your family, to Francesco, to his wife, and most especially to the Archpriest Gazzolato, and give them my heartfelt blessings in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, in whom I remain
Yours most affectionately in the Lord

+ Daniel Comboni
Bishop of Claudiopolis i.p.i.
Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[5080]
For a long time I have had no dear news from you or from you or from the dear married couple. It is already 45 days since I left Cairo with a great caravan. The journey by boat was difficult, and now I am on the borders of the great desert of Atmur. I really need at least 100 camels and in fact there are only a few, which are starving and exhausted because this year not a single drop of rain has fallen. As a result, the Nile this year is very low and this has led to famine and the camels are dying of hunger.
[5081]
There is another month and a half to go before I reach my main residence at Khartoum. On top of all this, to carry a load for twenty camels, we need forty, because in their present condition camels carry less and for every forty, ten die. Moreover, there are only very few camels to be found. I am in the worst straits in the world: double effort, double expense, double danger and double uncertainty. I am writing to you under a big tree (an acacia) which is at present our palatial residence. Ten paces from the packing case on which I am writing, the temperature is 45 degrees and we are only half way through March. But what can we do? This is our situation.
[5082]
My Missionaries, my five Verona Sisters (they are real angels), my craftsmen and I are all in the hands of God, of Mary and of good St Joseph. We suffer for Jesus and we have all abandoned ourselves to the hands of God’s Providence. Really it is wonderful to suffer with Jesus, for Jesus and for the souls we must win for Jesus Christ!
In my present condition I frequently think of you, since you have borne many trials with heroic resignation and faith, which earned you the great consolations God has granted you.

[5083]
Write to me in Khartoum (Egyptian Sudan) and tell me about yourself, about Auguste and his dear wife, about your sister, about your mother and about your Bretonne niece. We have never ceased to pray for them all. What wonderful memories I have of Prat-en-Raz and of Quimper! I must stop. I shall write to you from Khartoum. I am leaving with the Sisters and the others for the great desert. Half the caravan is taking the route through the kingdom of Dongola.
Yours a thousand times

+ Bishop Daniel


Translated from the French.

[5084]
I am still unable to give you a complete picture of the situation in the Vicariate, as I had promised in my last letter N. 1 written from Berber. I am extremely busy organising things and getting them started for a prosperous future, despite the serious difficulties we have experienced exceptionally this year, due to the general famine and drought and due to the exceptional heat, with a temperature that reaches 40 degrees in the shade of a house and 55 to 60 degrees in the desert sun. We have been under enormous stress and suffered greatly; but we are pleased about this, for, by growing at the foot of Calvary, our Work is certain to bear copious fruits. Now it is incumbent upon me to work very hard to promote the spiritual welfare of these missions, and I must write frequently to my private benefactors in Europe to extract from St Joseph’s beard the necessary financial aid to assist my excellent right-hand man, Fr Antonio Squaranti, the General Administrator of the Vicariate’s temporal possessions, who is here beside me.
[5085]
However, later I will give Your Most Reverend Eminence all the details regarding the apostolate in Central Africa and the most practical way to succeed in all things. Your Eminence will then see that the so-called civilisation the International Committees of Europe are bringing can be nothing more than a fleeting meteorite in comparison with the Work of the Catholic missions, and that if the powers wish to obtain results, they will be forced to support our missions with all the means at their disposal, because only Jesus Christ and His Divine Bride are the true civilisers of infidel populations.
[5086]
I humbly implore Your Eminence, in your supreme goodness, to deign to ordain to the priesthood for Central Africa the Cleric Antonio Dobale, a student at the Urban College who belongs to me, for I redeemed him from slavery in Aden and brought him to Verona in 1860. The excellent Rector had led me to hope that he would be promoted to the priesthood during the last Easter season. If he were to be ordained as soon as possible, I would have him leave Verona with the next expedition in September. In my Vicariate there are thousands of Gallas, and the Stations where we are established at present contain many Abyssinians and Gallas; therefore Dobale’s services would be most useful to me.
[5087]
In my next letter I shall write a letter of greetings to the Holy Father, whom God has given to us as the worthy successor of the Holy Pontiff Pius IX the Great. In the meantime, I beg you to convey my respects and those of all the members of my Vicariate to Leo XIII.
I kiss the Sacred Purple and remain
Your Most Reverend Eminence’s most obedient, devoted and respectful son

+ Daniel Comboni
Bishop of Claudiopolis
and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

1. My address for letters from now on remains
Via Egypt…………………… Khartoum(Upper Nubia)

2. Should the Sacred Congregation receive moneys for my account, I beg Your Eminence to have such funds deposited with my banker in Rome, Mr Brown et fils
in Via Condotti.

+ Daniel Comboni
Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[5088]
In the excellent Lyons journal: Les Missions Catholiques, n. 459 of 22nd March 1878, on p. 135, under the heading: Afrique Equatoriale, I read the following:
“Equatorial Africa. The Holy See is to make the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers responsible for the foundation of two large Missions in Equatorial Africa. One mission is to be based on Lake Tanganyika, and the other, on the Victoria and Albert Nyanza Lakes. Twelve missionaries are ready to leave for these distant and dangerous destinations. Their superiors have already been appointed and granted the authority of prefects apostolic. One is Fr Livinhac, who will found the future Vicariate of the Nyanza Lakes; the other, Fr Pascal, will found the Vicariate of Lake Tanganyika and will also make preparations for a similar mission in the States of Muata-Yamvo.

[5089]
Everyone is aware of the importance of the matter of Equatorial Africa, to which the travels of Livingstone, Cameron and Stanley have attracted so much attention in Europe. It explains the importance of the Work which the Holy See will be entrusting to the care of the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers”.
[5090]
Since these two new Missions, known as the Missions of Tanganyika and of the Nyanza Lakes, belong to my Vicariate (as can be seen in the Brief of 3rd April 1846, in which Gregory XVI established the so-called Mountains of the Moon as the southern boundary of Central Africa, which in the opinion of modern Geographers are supposedly situated far south of Tanganyika, discovered by my friend Burton), since the future Vicariate of the Nyanza Lakes is located between the 2nd degree of Latitude South (that is, at only two and a half degrees from our former mission in Gondokoro) and the 3rd degree of Latitude South; and the Tanganyika mission lies at about the 5th or 6th degree of Latitude South, that is, to the North of the so-called Mountains of the Moon and therefore within my Vicariate, I would therefore like your Most Reverend Eminence to kindly let me have a copy of the two Briefs or Decrees for the canonical establishment of the two future Vicariates, or two large Missions, to which the above-mentioned article of the Missions Catholiques refers, for my records.
[5091]
Moreover, since I have my doubts as to the veracity of this sudden creation of the two above-mentioned missions in the terms and sense of the article quoted above because I am familiar with the consideration, wisdom and prudent slowness with which the Sacred Congregation proceeds in its venerable decisions and enterprises, may I make a few small observations to Your Eminence on this subject, keeping my more fully considered reflections for the future, when I have completed my studies on Equatorial Africa.
[5092]
Indeed I think it unsuitable and dangerous to rush from Zanzibar directly into founding a Mission on the Nyanza Lakes without a very soundly established Station on the coast, or at least in the interior of Zanzibar, which could determine the Nyanza Lakes as its own objective. Communication and distances are excessively difficult. Success would be uncertain if not impossible; for an expedition of travellers or explorers in a distant region that they cross rapidly to return home to stun the world with truths and lies about the region explored is one thing; it is quite another to establish a normal Catholic mission for which communication centres and stable reference points are required, if the objective is to be sound and enduring. Otherwise all the work is in vain, and missionaries and money are wasted.
[5093]
I would have liked the missionaries of Algiers, who have existed for 12 years, to have had a bit of experience in founding a mission in the Sahara and Timbuktu, which are the goal of the magnificent establishments in Algeria founded by Mgr Lavigerie. I would then believe in their success with future missions in Equatorial Africa, which are far more demanding than the latter. But instead, we have splendid structures in Algeria and almost nothing in the Sahara and nothing in Timbuktu, as Your Eminence knows better than I. On the other hand, the Nyanza Lakes are the natural goal of the Stations on the White Nile and Khartoum, where today there are communications via steamer with Ladò (three hours from Gondokoro), and from here it takes a fortnight to reach Ladò by steamer. Last January in Cairo I had long discussions about this with the distinguished Stanley who gave me recommendations for King M’tesa, who is the sultan of the Nyanza Lakes which are becoming, as it were, the reference point and centre of communications with the Akka peoples, the kingdom of Mombuctu and others; thus detaching the Nyanza Lakes hic et nunc from my Vicariate would cause serious harm to my arduous and laborious mission. In this field we are practised in the dangers of African travel, we are inured to the climate, to the extraordinary privations, to spending the nights sub Dio [in the open] and to putting up with the vicissitudes of the different seasons of the year, etc.
[5094]
I do not think this is the case with Mgr Lavigerie’s new institution, although it has a great number of priests and members; I do not believe their number is matched by their practical experience of travelling in Africa, maturity of concepts, local prudence and extraordinary self-denial in the inevitable privations they will encounter. When I read Mgr Lavigerie’s circular letter in Kordofan three years ago, announcing the departure of three missionaries of Algiers straight for Timbuktu, I instantly exclaimed: they will be killed. When I reached Cairo on my way to Europe, I read with deep sorrow that they had been put to death by the Tuareg. In Africa it is necessary to proceed step by step, with extreme caution, and experience costs years of work.
[5095]
I would say almost the same about Tanganyika, although it is easier. Nevertheless, an operations base would also be necessary for the goal of Tanganyika, in a suitable spot not far from Zanzibar or Bagamoyo. However Tanganyika would be a proper operations base and reference point for the empire of Muata-Yamvo, or rather, Muati-Janvo, which is 700 miles from Tanganyika; that is, the states of Muati-Janvo would not be the obvious goal for the future mission in Tanganyika; rather they would be the objective of the states or empires or kingdom of Kazembe, which is located 400 miles from Muati-Yanvo. But whether the operations base for the goal of Muato-Yanvo is established in Tanganyika or in Kazembe, with time it could work; and should the Holy See consider entrusting to the fervent Missionaries founded by the most worthy Archbishop of Algiers the two missions of Tanganyika and Muati-Janvo, this would already be an enormous field for them, and they would have a more fruitful vineyard in the two above-mentioned missions than in the Sahara.
[5096]
Since the conversion of Africa has always been the most ardent desire of my whole life, I am deeply comforted to see the zeal of the above-mentioned Algerian missionaries for the Africans’ salvation. However, in such a vague way, ignorant of the most essential prerequisites for a probable success and with means less reliable than those I possess, I do not consider it appropriate for the time being; it should be absolutely avoided. Furthermore, my missionaries and I are not at all keen on it, for the good of those peoples who are the natural objective of future missions on the White Nile; especially since the Nyanza Lakes will soon be conquered by the Khedive of Egypt who built up a strong garrison of Egyptians last year for Gordon Pasha, only three hours away from Victoria Nyanza.
[5097]
On the other hand, I declare with heartfelt sincerity that I am ready for anything the Holy See wants of me and therefore to cede not only the Equator but Khartoum and Kordofan or whatever pleases the Holy See, as my one master and arbiter in all things.
[5098]
Should the two missions of Tanganyika and Muati-Yanvo have been or be created for the Missionaries of Algiers, it would be a good thing in that case if the Sacred Congregation were to decide precisely on the new boundaries of the Vicariate of Central Africa for which I have suggested a plan, ready to submit to your Most Reverend Eminence.
[5099]
The Protestant Scottish mission has already been at the Nyanza Lakes for some time. It consists of 8 individuals provided with 300,000 (three hundred thousand) francs, that is, 12,000 pounds sterling a year. But we shall see how long they last there. It will probably do what the one in Khartoum did; the memory of it is all that remains. Two members of the expedition of the King of the Belgians which left last July, consisting of five, including the German, Marno, an acquaintance of mine, died in Zanzibar. In time, the generous institution of the King of the Belgians will be most useful to the Catholic Missions of Central, Equatorial Africa, etc. I kiss your Sacred Purple, and will always be Your Most Reverend Eminence’s
most humble and obedient son

+ Bishop Daniel