Writings

[5187]
With this letter, I introduce the excellent and most respectable Doctor Pellegrino Matteucci from Bologna who, having returned from an important exploration on the Blue Nile wishes to pay his respects to Your Most Reverend Eminence and, thanks to your recommendation, to have the honour of a special audience with His Holiness.
I have the supreme pleasure of writing to you for this purpose, for the praiseworthy Dr Matteucci is one of the many and most distinguished travellers who are profoundly convinced that only the Catholic Missions have the secret of being able in time to establish Christian civilisation soundly in the densely populated regions of Central Africa, and that the Protestant missions and scientific expeditions will be unable to obtain similar results.

[5188]
He has just visited the Blue Nile, that is, one part of the eastern side of my Vicariate, reaching as far as Fadassi on the border with the Gallas; and he visited them, gaining respect for the moral standing and dignity of Europeans through his example. He therefore deserves the honour of being granted an audience by Your Eminence and by His Holiness.
As I bow to kiss the Sacred Purple, I remain with the deepest respect
Your Most Reverend Eminence’s most humble, obedient and devoted son

+ Daniel Comboni
Bishop of Claudiopolis
Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

I beg Your Most Reverend Eminence to discuss the Nyanza lakes and their importance for the Vicariate with Dr Matteucci.

[5189]
I take the liberty to implore Your Most Reverend Eminence, in your supreme bounty, to receive the illustrious bearer of this letter, Dr Pellegrino Matteucci, a traveller of Central Africa who has just visited a part of my Vicariate, the eastern part that is, which borders on the Gallas.
[5190]
Since this distinguished explorer has visited a very interesting part of the eastern side of the Vicariate, he has been able to form an idea of the immense work we have done and of all that still remains to be done. After seeing so many things, he is convinced that only the Catholic missions with their apostolic action can succeed in civilising Central Africa in a Christian manner, and that to achieve such a difficult goal, both the Protestant missions and the geographical and scientific expeditions, while producing good effects, will always remain impotent unless there is mutual collaboration. Dr Matteucci has published stupendous articles on our missions which he visited, and some of these were also published in L’Osservatore Romano.
[5191]
He has a thorough knowledge of the reasons why it is necessary for the Nyanza lakes, or the territories between the Equator and the 5th degree of Latitude South, not to be detached from Central Africa; and why the Vicariate of Central Africa could cede all the kingdoms and empires beyond the 5th degree of Latitude South to the courageous Missionaries from Algeria who, after very many trials and experiences, will even be able to form three or four enormous missions there.
[5192]
I have asked the Most Eminent Cardinal Simeoni to obtain a special audience with His Holiness for Dr Matteucci, and I humbly address this plea to you too. As I thank you in advance, I kiss the Sacred Purple and remain with the most profound respect
Your Most Reverend Eminence’s most humble, obedient and grateful son

+ Daniel Comboni
Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[5193]
The illustrious Dr Matteucci from Bologna, traveller of Central Africa, is profoundly convinced that only the Catholic Missions can succeed in the arduous task of bringing more than a hundred million Hamites, still languishing in the darkness and shadow of death, to the true Christian civilisation. On his return from an important exploration of the Blue Nile which belongs to my jurisdiction, he ardently wishes to kiss Your Holiness’s feet as an expression of his filial veneration, and explain to you the importance of the sublime and arduous work of our holy African missions, and especially of that mission which is the main objective of the Khartoum Mission, namely the Nyanza Lakes or the Sources of the Nile, on the Equator, which I would have already occupied if the fearful scourge of famine and drought which struck my Vicariate had not taken up all my resources.
[5194]
As many as nine Protestant Anglican Societies with enormous sums of money and most powerful equipment are setting off from different directions for that area. But I am confident that, with God’s help, we shall not delay in countering the forces of error and of false civilisation with the banner of truth and the Cross to gather these people into Christ’s single flock.
[5195]
Since the aforementioned Dr Matteucci well deserves the grace he implores, I humbly beseech Your Holiness to grant it to him.
Prostrate as I kiss your sacred feet, I implore your Apostolic Blessing for myself and the whole Vicariate. which, etc., etc.

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

[5196]
I enclose a letter written to His Holiness, as was my duty after his most rapid and prodigious elevation to the Supreme Pontificate. This is a letter which is at the same time my profession of faith and that of my three Institutes operating in Central Africa, and which I beg you, in Your Eminence’s goodness, to present to the throne of the Holy Father and to be the interpreter of my sentiments to His Holiness.
[5197]
With resignation and courage, we are struggling in the middle of the scourge of famine. When the price of bread in Italy reaches three times the ordinary price, one says that there is a famine. Here, bread and items of prime necessity cost eight to twelve times more than their ordinary price. Yesterday, for example, I paid for durrah (corn bread) a price eleven times higher than that I paid in 1875. Water in Kordofan is still bought at a high price. No one can remember such misery in these parts. But we must be patient! In St Joseph’s beard there are thousands and millions; I have assailed him so often, and have had so many prayers said to him that I am most certain that the current critical situation in Central Africa will soon change into a prosperous condition. Time and catastrophes are passing, we are getting old; but St Joseph is always young, he always has a good heart and a righteous mind and he always loves his Jesus and the interests of his glory, and the conversion of Central Africa is of greatest and eternal interest for the glory of Jesus.
[5198]
Thank God great work is being done in Jebel Nuba and Kordofan, and very well, I hope. Here too, many people have been prepared for a long time to join the Church: but I think it is prudent to go slowly to ensure the stable future of the catechumens, because we must preserve the faith in the midst of the Muslim society. Among all these crosses, in fifteen days the Lord has given us some true consolations. Apart from the dying children (infidel children) we sent to heaven by baptising them during this typhoid epidemic, there were also two Muslims baptised and employed by me, who had been prepared for several years, and a rich Greek merchant who, thinking he was about to die, sent for me and after two visits made his abjuration to me, etc., etc. I tell you in two words that last week, within six days heaven acquired three lost souls who stole the eternal glory of paradise.
[5199]
In the vast province of Kadaref near the border with Abyssinia (where I have already had an exploration made by my missionaries with a view to establishing a Station there), last year a Greek from Smyrna who was an Austrian subject died leaving about 7,000 scudi, three Abyssinian concubines and the three illegitimate children of one of these. The Austrian Consul liquidated the assets, which he sent to the legitimate family of the deceased in Smyrna, leaving the three concubines with the gold they possessed, a few rags and some provisions. When these three concubines and the children had consumed everything in the Kadaref, they came to Khartoum to request the help of the Austro-Hungarian Consul in retrieving the assets left to them by their Greek paramour. But since the assets had been liquidated and sent to Smyrna, the Consul sent them off to look after their own business.
[5200]
He suggested to them that they turn to the Catholic mission, but they declared that, being Muslim, they would never set foot in a church. Famine being rife in Khartoum, these three concubines with three children were rejected by the Muslims; which is why they turned up begging for charity from us. In view of their situation and taking our poverty into account, we gave them board and 8 Khorda piastres (31 Italian cents) a day. In the meantime, we sent the Sisters to take care of them and introduce them to the faith. In short, last May all three of them came to me to obtain some help from Smyrna, etc. and they declared they wanted to become Christian with the children.
[5201]
While I was dealing with the papers at the Consulates I sent the Arabian Sister for their Catholic instruction; and since all three of them (especially the mother of the three children who had the common sense of a Roman lady) were talented, they learned quickly. When one of them caught smallpox and typhoid, she was so constant in imploring me for baptism that I baptised her last Tuesday and confirmed her in the evening and she died quite content that night. Then the 2nd concubine, the mother of the three children, who had nursed the one who had died, contracted smallpox and typhoid and begged me for baptism and commended her son to me and her two daughters to the Sisters. She was baptised, confirmed and, on Friday evening died content. That Friday the third concubine fell sick, asked for baptism, was baptised and confirmed and assisted by the Sisters and the priest, and on Monday morning she went happily to heaven.
[5202]
In this way, three Abyssinian women between the ages of 20 and 24 in a few days stole heaven and we inherited a son and two daughters whom we shall bring up in the Catholic faith. God’s judgements are loveable and always adorable! What an amazing way for three souls lost in vice to be guided to heaven in only six days! Such cases are frequent in the Vicariate of Central Africa.
[5203]
Now a couple of words about the Nyanza lakes. It now appears that the expedition of the Church of Scotland Society called to the Nyanza lakes by the famous traveller Stanley, my friend, which had over 300,000 francs a year, after the death in Tanganyika of one of the eight Anglican missionaries and after the massacre of two other missionaries on the island of Kerewe on Lake Victoria, is being dissolved, because the Rev. Wilson, its head, who spent a year with King M’tesa, is returning to England with all the others, they say here never to return. Captain Etton, the head of another English Society, died not far from Tanganyika. Now Reverend Smith’s Society, which seeks to introduce crafts in Equatorial Africa, is threatening to become all the rage.
[5204]
When His Excellency Gordon Pasha, Governor General of the Sudan, of Massaua, Zeila and Berbera (the Egyptian possessions in my Vicariate form a territory five times as big as France) came to Khartoum, he told me that 4 Anglican missionaries had reached Suakin and were heading for Khartoum, the White Nile and the Nyanza lakes to found an English mission there. Although Gordon Pasha has repeatedly told me that despite being an Anglican (he meditates on the Bible for at least three hours a day, lives without women like a perfect monk and prays a lot) he is convinced that the Catholic missions bear more fruit and succeed better than the Anglican missions and all the other religions in the world, as he has been able to see in the Sudan and in China, nonetheless, the news of the arrival in Khartoum of the 4 Anglicans on their way to the Nyanza lakes did not please me very much. I went home worried and prepared to sniff out these Reverend Sirs like a truffle hound when they reach Khartoum.
[5205]
When His Excellency General Gordon came to visit me, I raised the subject of the Nyanza lakes and clearly and boldly told him: “My dear Pasha, you know that the whole of Central Africa, including the Nyanza lakes, belongs to my jurisdiction. I intend, as soon as possible, to establish two Catholic missions: one on Lake Albert and the other on Lake Victoria. But at the moment I do not have the means to do so, indeed I have many debts which I hope to pay soon because I have my St Joseph, whom you know by name, but whose virtues you perhaps do not know. Such things transeat. I know that you are in greater financial straits than I am, because you are full of debts and cannot even pay your staff. But you trust in a provident God. I am poor, but I want to set up missions on the Nyanza lakes and you, one way or another, must help me. The funds I receive from Europe are sufficient for the existing Missions in my Vicariate; but this will not happen in a hurry for the Nyanza lakes; I therefore ask you who are good-hearted to help me”.
[5206]
He answered: “At the moment, I can help neither you nor the English missionaries; I told them in Suakin that I would do nothing more for them than what I must do for Mgr Comboni, who has been established in the Sudan for many years and has spiritual jurisdiction over the Nyanza Lakes. I am well disposed towards you, but at the moment I cannot help you”. To which I replied: “You know that we Catholics are modest, and we are used to doing with one hundred English pounds what the English missionaries do with ten thousand. I do not ask for much, etc.”. Then he replied: “I shall see. I’ll think about it” and left. I visited him a second time and he asked me when I intended to make an expedition to the lakes. I answered: “I would make this expedition in the period Your Excellency considers the safest and most propitious”. He answered: “The safest and most propitious season would be after the great rains in September or October”. “Well”, I added, “I could be ready for that season”. “But”, he said, “would you go yourself?” “I cannot make plans at the moment; but either I myself will go or I will send other missionary explorers of mine”, I told him.
[5207]
We spoke no more of the matter; but two days later he sent me Captain Gessi, the new head of the next military expedition on the river Sobat (which flows into the White Nile at the 9th degree of Latitude North, and which I visited in the winter of 1859, nineteen years ago), with this message: “Tell Monsignor Comboni that I want to help him and that his expedition will be made at my expense, at the expense of the government, that is. I will see to the transport of the missionaries, the luggage, etc.; he will only have to see to the specific food supplies”.
[5208]
Then Captain Gessi explained to me Gordon Pasha’s intention. He intends to transport the Catholic expedition by steamer from Khartoum to Lado (about 800 miles): there, he will place at my disposal the Government’s African bearers to transport our luggage on their backs and on foot 120 miles as far as the river at Dufilé, which flows from Nyanza Victoria to Regiaf and forms the White Nile, and at the same time he will provide the bulls and cows for the journey of the personnel. At Dufilé, he will have at our disposal the steamer which will transport us along the river to Magungo, a town on Nyanza Albert. There, he places at our disposal dugout canoes or transport for the river which forms Nyanza Albert and which flows from Nyanza Victoria (240 miles). In short, the Government and Gordon Pasha are paying nine tenths of all the expenses required to make a Catholic expedition to the Nyanza Lakes. I therefore thanked His Excellency with a kind letter in English and accepted the generous offer he has made and I shall certainly make the necessary arrangements for this purpose.
[5209]
I now have three or four most comfortable months in which to reflect on this important enterprise and to make the necessary detailed preparations, because the first thing to be done will be a simple but careful exploration. In addition, the only mandate the Holy See has given hic et nunc to the Archbishop of Algiers must, by my reckoning, be limited to the simple permission to explore Equatorial Africa and the Nyanza Lakes, but it cannot be that the Holy See has already erected two Vicariates by Apostolic Decree for the Missionaries of Algiers, which would require a Ponenza, a General Congregation of the Eminent Cardinals of Propaganda and ratification by the Pope, all of which would have needed more time than there has been.
[5210]
Therefore I am immediately setting to work on a short Report for Your Most Reverend Eminence, detailed and as precise as possible, in which I intend to deal with the following points:
1. The need and reasons for the Nyanza Lakes to remain under the jurisdiction of the Vicariate of Central Africa.
2. The usefulness or need for separation from Central Africa, or the allocation of a large territory in the African Interior to constitute two new great Vicariates to be entrusted to the Missionaries of Algiers.
3. The definition of new borders for the Vicariate of Central Africa, which should only reach the southern confines of the sources of the Nile, which are the Nyanza Lakes, that is the 4th or 5th degrees of Latitude South.

[5211]
I shall do this with the utmost diligence by the middle of this coming July, on the basis of the most precise and certain information I can get. Should the Missionaries of Algiers succeed, as I hope in God they do, in properly founding and consolidating two vast new Vicariates, in my humble opinion these should be: 1. The new Vicariate of the Kazembe empire or states, which embraces many millions of infidels with no knowledge of Jesus Christ, and which border to the north with Lake Tanganyika inclusive, and to the south and the west extend for many thousands of miles. 2. The new Vicariate of the Muati-Yanvo empire or states, which extend about 500 miles to the west of Kazembe and Tanganyika and contain many millions of infidels, among whom the Gospel has never penetrated. If, as I said, the missionaries of Algiers succeed in consolidating these two new important Vicariates, which will take many years, then they will be able to think of the Nyanza Lakes too, and if by then the Vicariate of Central Africa has not spread its apostolic activity over these parts, it will even be able to cede the Nyanza to the Missionaries of Algiers.
[5212]
I hope that my pupil Antonio Dobale has now received the Sacred Orders, should Your Eminence and the excellent Rector of the Urban College have deemed him worthy. Should this be the case and should Your Eminence think it appropriate, he can be sent to Verona, where he will then be able to leave for my Cairo Institutes. Whatever Your Eminence has decided or will decide will be my only pleasure and will.
I kiss the Sacred Purple and remain with the deepest respect
Your Most Reverend Eminence’s most humble, obedient and respectful son

+ Daniel
Bishop Claudiopolis
Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[5213]
I should long ago have presented, at Your Holiness’s throne, the fullest offering of my respects, my services and my boundless devotion, because upon my arrival in Khartoum, around the middle of April, I had the consoling news of your propitious and prodigious exaltation to the Chair of St Peter. But the indescribable fatigue of an eventful journey from Cairo to here, taking all of 77 days, the extremely tiring crossing of the great desert in a heat of nearly 60 degrees, and the serious resumption of my care for my arduous and difficult Vicariate, which I found oppressed by the scourge of a terrifying famine, led me, without my realising it, to procrastinate until today this most respectful, cordial and filial oblation; I therefore made do in the meantime with conveying to you my homage and congratulations by means of the Venerable Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda and the worthy Cardinal Secretary of State.
[5214]
Most Holy Father, I am now writing to you on my own behalf and on behalf of all the priests and workers for the Gospel who are members of the Institute of the Missions of Africa, of the good Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, who work with such zeal in my Vicariate, and of the Missionary Sisters of my Institute of Verona, founded under the auspices of the Most Eminent Cardinal di Canossa. Allow us all, together with all your faithful children scattered throughout the world, to offer you our humble and very warmest greetings, with which we too salute you as Pontiff and King, as Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth and as the worthy successor of the angelic Pius IX. He was holy, strong and great, and in him the omnipotence and love of God was radiant, making him its sublime image and its true likeness. Be pleased to accept the deep homage of our hearts and the warmest and sincerest wishes of our humble, perfect and unlimited submission, reverence and affection.
[5215]
Leo, God’s chosen one, you are the precious gift the heart of God held in the infinite treasures of his love for the Church to console her in the most mournful widowhood in which she had remained with the loss of Your Holy Predecessor. You are the high priest of the New Covenant, the expert Pilot of the mystic ark of the eternal Alliance, outside which there is no salvation, the great Centre of the Catholic Unity, which Pius IX sublimated to the apex of its perfection and greatness. You are the corner-Stone of the Church of Jesus Christ, the sincere Witness of her revelation, the faithful Depository of her Doctrine, the infallible Interpreter of her oracles, the fearless Supporter of her Altars, the just Vindicator of her Law, the legitimate Propagator of her Religion, the unvanquished Lion of Juda, the most brilliant Star spreading true light throughout the darkness of the Universe, the Supreme Pontiff, the infallible Master of the truth, the Supreme Shepherd of souls. Inspired by you, the world looks for peace. The world hopes that you will unite all under the shade of the one Sheepfold of Jesus Christ.
[5216]
Yet among these souls, who look to the Vicar of Jesus Christ for a blessing and for life, are the hundred and more million non-believers who make up the Vicariate of Central Africa, which is the largest, most populated and most trying and difficult Mission in the world. We, the members of the three above-named Institutes, are ready to bear all the difficulties, privations, dangers, scorching weather, and all kinds of sufferings and trials which unfailingly accompany our dangerous and thorny apostolate. We are always ready to suffer martyrdom to win for the Catholic Church so great and desolate a part of Christ’s flock. All our trust is placed in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, in St Joseph and in you too, Peter living again, visible head of the mystical Body of the Incarnate Word, from whom there springs the word of salvation and the source of true life.
[5217]
Deign therefore, O Leo, to look from your lofty throne towards this abandoned part of the sublime heritage of Christ, for whose redemption we consecrate our mind and heart, our blood and life. Grant to these lands a special blessing that will bring them to true life. I, for my part, prostrate myself before your Majesty, our Pontiff and King, and renewing the fullest and sincerest offering of my homage, service and unlimited devotion, implore for all of us your Apostolic Blessing.

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

[5218]
Can it be true that the little angel Nina, whom I loved and respected so much since 1852, for the 26 years since I knew her as a little girl, has been called by God into heaven to reap the rewards for her innocence and her splendid virtues? It seems like a bad dream. I received the news at Bure on the Blue Nile, where I went and will go again for a change of air: I studied it, examined it and worked out the genealogy. After all, Clementina (whom I always thought was Fr Luciano’s mother) is Nina, your daughter, your only daughter, the all of you and Angelina, on whom so much was staked, and on whom so many concerns of your life were focused: this Nina who was a real angel, of the kind I would say could never again be formed, knowing her mind, with a kind heart, educated, an excellent daughter, an excellent wife and an incomparable mother. In sum, what can I say to my dear friend, Dr Frigotto?
[5219]
What can I say to Angelina? What can I say to the dear young Creazzo, who was so worthy of Nina? I do confess that it is a most bitter pill, and its bitterness will last for years and years. But first of all we must lift our thoughts above these misfortunes and worship the ever adorable plans of God, who was loved so much and so constantly by that pure soul that she was mature for heaven. Therefore let us find our true comfort in God, in heaven and in the centre of its eternal delights.
[5220]
But I tell you, also, that you, Angelina and the husband have good reasons to feel comforted and to savour the sweetness of this misfortune under your roof, and they are those dear little angels who are the living image and portrait of Nina. You understand me well, better than I can express myself. For me, everything in that blessed house projects the image of Nina: and if I were to return to Lonigo, maybe more than in the past, I would see Nina sculpted there. So take courage, my dear doctor, dear signora, dear husband: you all have religion eminently engraved in your hearts, clean souls, right judgement, deep religion. Lift your eyes to heaven, and may continuous and fervent prayer for Nina be the link for you to communicate with her now: faith, faith! Oh, how good the Lord is! I have already celebrated two Masses for her, and when it becomes a little less hot we shall give her a funeral service and I will say other Masses.
[5221]
A couple of words about my present condition. I am extremely happy to be suffering for Christ and for the most abandoned souls in the world. My mission is the most arduous and wearing in the world. But I hope it will lead me to that place where Nina is, because here we have to suffer Purgatory. After a most tiring 77 day journey from Cairo to Khartoum, on which we had temperatures of 60 degrees in the desert, travelling by camel for more than 17 hours a day, I made my solemn entry into Khartoum and my reception as the first Bishop and Vicar Apostolic in the Sudan was a real triumph for the Catholic religion, the likes of which had never been seen in these parts. But the poetry soon changed to prose as I found the Sudan crippled by a terrifying shortage of everything, especially those things most necessary for survival.
[5222]
When in Venetia polenta or bread cost four times their normal price, that is called a famine. Now, as I write to you from here (and in Khartoum alone I have more than one hundred people to maintain) for durra or maize (the poor people’s staple food) I paid 67 gold francs an ardeb (a sack made of date bark) whereas in 1875 I was paying 5 or 6 francs an ardeb. The cattle, camels and oxen are nearly all dead. Butter and oil have disappeared. In the garden I had 11 oxen; when the hay disappeared they were fed durra and now they are nearly all dead.
[5223]
What else? In Kordofan (where I have three establishments with Sisters and Missionaries) the poor sisters have to go to distant wells at 4.00 in the morning (our wells have dried up) and sometimes have to wait till noon to obtain black and brackish water at 75 cents a litre, so that in Kordofan, it is only with great difficulty that dirty water may be obtained for drinking, washing and cooking, at the same price as wine in Lonigo. The cause of this whole disaster, never seen in human memory, was the scarcity of the rains last year. In my bishop’s quarters the temperature is 30 degrees: in Fr Squaranti’s, 32. The outdoor temperature is 50 to 55. Just think what a life this is. On top of all this I found the stores depleted and 50,000 francs of debts; I have finished all my resources and am now raw and thin, with so many establishments to support, etc.
[5224]
What can be done? The One who put the stones in cherries will work it out: because he’s level-headed and has an upright heart and conscience. It is his work, so he will think it out: I am his servant.
[lines in italics are in the Verona dialect]
I have also called to order my bursar, St Joseph, and let him know, with the threat that otherwise I would turn to his wife, that within a year, from 12th May, I want my Finances to be balanced; not the balance of Lanza, Sella, Minghetti or Semits Doda, current Italian Minister of Finance, but the real balance: otherwise I shall go to his wife. Enough.

[5225]
I have all my friends from Lonigo in my heart. I owe Fr Luciano a letter, and I want to write him a long one. May he forgive my silence. I must get round to writing. I never sleep at night, I have no appetite, I am always tired… Give him my greetings. Give my greetings to everyone… everyone… priests… lay people… gentlemen… ladies… the darling little girls… Nuns… the Reverend Archpriest… Angelina… the young husband… and I remain
Your most affectionate

+ Daniel
Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[5226]
The difficult journey with my whole caravan of Missionaries and Sisters, whom I accompanied in a rather bad season, the serious duties of my apostolic ministry and the grave worries I have had on account of the terrible scourge of the terrifying famine and extreme shortages which have laid bare more than half my colossal Vicariate, thus exhausting all my financial and material resources for the partial relief of the most extreme misery, have prevented me from satisfying my great desire to write to Your Majesty and to start a correspondence with you, which would be of some use for the civilisation of Central Africa.
[5227]
First of all I wanted the honour of expressing in writing to Your Majesty my deepest gratitude for the generous welcome you deigned to give me on the afternoon of the feast of All Saints last year, and also of showing all my profound veneration and boundless admiration for Your Highness; you who have inaugurated a new era for the regeneration of the world’s most unfortunate and abandoned peoples, who have impressed upon all civilised Europe a providential movement, lit the sacred fire in all generous hearts to bring their co-operation to the great enterprises, both scientific and civilising and religious and Catholic for the redemption of Central Africa.
[5228]
This Work has no equal as the most pious and the most philanthropic of this century. It is the most interesting and worthy of progress and the elevation of the Christian and human spirit, the most urgent and necessary for the fulfilment of the adorable plans of the divine Redeemer of mankind, who proclaimed the liberty and fraternity of all men and who first abolished slavery.
I am deeply convinced, after serious examination, that this great Work will succeed and will gradually produce most consoling fruits and, after a series of numerous and varied vicissitudes and practical experiences, will eventually be immensely beneficial to the Church and Christian civilisation and become the strength of the Catholic Missions of Africa.

[5229]
I am very happy to have the honour of being linked to Your Majesty by an indissoluble bond of heart and soul, which consists of an identical lively and tenacious aspiration to civilise and regenerate this beloved Central Africa, which is the part of the world most worthy of the friendship and attention of all humanity and to which I have devoted my heart and my soul, my life and my blood. This is an indissoluble bond between the august promoter of the great Work for the Redemption of Central Africa and the first legitimate pastor, the first Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of this Central Africa, however unworthy and small I may be, with all the other Missionaries, the true executor of the admirable Work that Your great regal soul has proclaimed and that God himself has inspired.
[5230]
It is an indissoluble link, finally, between Central Africa and your beloved Brussels, this noble city which has become and will ever remain the true headquarters of the movement to civilise and regenerate Central Africa.
Your Majesty’s bounty is so great that I take the liberty humbly to submit herewith a few little ideas that, from my modest experience of African affairs, you will find effective and appropriate for the good of the great enterprise.

[5231]
First of all, the basis of all wisdom in the conduct of a great work, after having realised its usefulness, necessity, excellence and sublimeness, is unfailing perseverance in achieving it, never retreating from any obstacle or difficulty and letting the whole world crumble without ever leaving or abandoning the great work one has undertaken.
All great works on earth always encounter obstacles and difficulties that often threaten the very existence of the work. Yours, Sire, will also encounter enormous obstacles and constraints: there will be moments when others will urge you to abandon it, presenting magnificent, plausible and specious motives and reasons to make you give it up.
Reject them fearlessly and remember that your work is God’s work, it is the work of the century, the work that will regenerate one hundred million wretches and give them freedom and happiness on earth.

[5232]
This work will raise more than one tenth of the whole of humanity to the level of the most civilised nations. The majestic voice of a very enlightened Catholic king is extremely powerful when the greater interests of humanity are at stake.
May Your Majesty deign to adopt as the principle and basis for your great work the principle of unfailing perseverance in achieving it, never shrinking from any obstacle. This magnificent work will be the brightest and most luminous jewel in your royal crown; it will be the most sublime, lasting and solid glory of Belgium.

[5233]
I was sorely grieved by the death of Mr Crespel and Mr Maës who came to Zanzibar. I have taken this opportunity to submit to Your Majesty’s wisdom one of the first articles of my Plan for the regeneration of Africa which I submitted to the Holy See on 18th September 1864 and which was approved. This little idea saves the lives of three quarters of the travellers in Central Africa. It consists in founding a Station to acclimatise the explorers before they set off for the scorching regions of Central Africa.
Such a Station should be in a town or place where the temperature is a little higher than the average between Europe or the country the explorers come from and the regions of Central Africa where the explorers are going.

[5234]
The explorers should spend at least one or two summer seasons in the Station, where they should lead an active life practising their profession or doing all the things they will be doing in Central Africa. In addition, in these stations, they must gradually accustom themselves to the style of life and nutrition that they will need to adopt in the interior, such as an appropriate parsimony in the consumption of meat, spirits and wine, the abuse of which is very harmful in Central Africa.
It is easy to get used to this gradually, especially for those who like green vegetables, which are most useful here.

[5235]
Very robust men who do not acclimatise in one of the acclimatisation stations are the first to succumb. The more robust a man is, the longer the time he needs to acclimatise. All this is an axiom I have observed frequently and which is very little known in Europe.
[5236]
At one time I was very keen on having in Central Africa European doctors who had completed their studies and practised in European universities and hospitals. I also very much wanted to have pharmacies equipped with all types of European medicines and remedies. Today, I am rather less keen on these ideas. All the medical studies I did in Europe were aimed solely to the use I could make of them in Africa.
[5237]
European doctors must apply only half the European medical practices in Central Africa. Half the European medicines and remedies are very harmful in Central Africa, both for Europeans and for the indigenous peoples.
For the latter, there are local remedies that the Creator destined for them. External medicine and all elements of surgery are acceptable and very useful here, and the main remedies of European medicines, such as quinine, Pulvia Doweris, digitalis, ipecacuane, etc. are also very useful here.

[5238]
Lastly, another rule is essential for Your Majesty’s great enterprise: to choose explorers whose proper moral conduct is well known (in this regard I am sure that both in Belgium and in Poland, one may make magnificent choices). Otherwise, instead of bringing civilisation to Central Africa, immorality, scandal and hatred for Europe will be brought, as has unfortunately often happened.
[5239]
The peoples of Central Africa have sufficient perception and good sense to distinguish between European travellers and Catholic Missionaries, and they very well know how to appreciate right conduct, so that when they see a European traveller for the first time, they hide the women in their huts or in the desert.
On the other hand, when they see Missionaries or Sisters they come to them, happy to meet them, show their children and their women who ask for medicine and money, and they bring them food to eat, etc.

[5240]
Here I shall make a brief digression which may be of some use to appreciate the European view of African peoples. In 1875, I travelled from El Obeid, the capital of Kordofan, to Khartoum, with Colonel Colston, a former division commander from America who, since 1874, had been the head of the Egyptian expedition which was to explore Kordofan and proceed in a straight line towards the Equator as far as Mombuttu, but which he suspended because he fell ill.
As an army commander, he was accompanied by about thirty soldiers and everywhere we passed on our 12 day journey we hardly saw anybody and hardly found a guard at the wells we went to for water.

[5241]
What a difference there was between that journey, where I was accompanied by Egyptian soldiers, and the other occasions on which I have travelled the same route with only Missionaries and Sisters to make my pastoral visit to Kordofan!
Then, I would meet masses of people and herds of cattle at every instant. People came out to meet us asking for medicines and giving us presents of sheep, durra and milk.

[5242]
Why was there such a difference? Because when the Africans see armed men, they think they are soldiers or jallabas coming to steal their children and their cattle and so they escape into the desert with their children, families and cattle.
Colonel Colston made his report to the Egyptian authorities and it has been published. In it he estimates the total number of inhabitants in El Obeid and the kingdom of Kordofan to be 130,000… I can assure Your Majesty that there are well over one million inhabitants in Kordofan.

[5243]
Moreover, the greatest obstacle to the abolition of the slave trade, slavery and the efforts to civilise Central Africa is Islamism. The Muslims have penetrated nearly everywhere and it is the Muslims, or Africans who have become Muslims, who are the satellites of the small coastal kingdoms where Muslim sovereigns, themselves from the African interior, practise the horrible slave trade and nurture and perpetuate slavery.
[5244]
I shall wait for another occasion to prove to Your Majesty that the route via the Nile and the White Nile may be easier and more suitable than the one via Zanzibar to reach the Nyanza Lakes. I say may be, because before I make an affirmative proposal on this subject, I want to try that route myself.
From the news I receive from the Nyanza Lakes, it appears that the movement of Anglican Missionaries in Equatorial Africa is colossal. They have ample resources. I hope that some of them will work for us Catholic Missionaries, since many of them lack the essential element of perseverance.
In a few days’ time, four Anglican Missionaries will be arriving in Khartoum and leaving immediately by boat for Ladò to proceed from there to Lake Victoria.

[5245]
Rev. Wilson, the head of the Scottish Missionaries expedition, who lost two of his companions, Smith and O’Neil, massacred by the Sultan of Ukerewe Island on Lake Victoria and another, who died of an illness on Lake Tanganyika, is about to return to England via Zanzibar, as far as I can tell from all his dispatches to London which he sent via Khartoum.
Gordon Pasha, the Governor General of the Egyptian Sudan, including Massaua, Zeyla and Berbera, who lives in Khartoum, has just appointed as Governor General of the White Nile and the Equator Mr Emin Effendi (his real name is Dr Schnitzer, German). He is an able man, whom I know perfectly. He is at present on the White Nile.

[5246]
Yesterday, Gordon Pasha also appointed Mr Rosset, the Vice Consul of England and Germany in Khartoum, as Governor General of Darfur, and Captain Gessi as Commander of the troops in Darfur, but neither has accepted yet, because they would like to be put in charge of the exploration of the Sobat river (which I visited in 1859, nearly 20 years ago) to discover communication routes between the White Nile and the kingdom of Kaffa, near the Galla territory.
Mr Mason has drawn a magnificent map of his journey around Lake Albert. According to this Map, Stanley’s Beatrice Bay is not a gulf on Lake Albert, but a new lake, because the last tip of Lake Albert is about 70 English miles north of the Beatrice Gulf.

[5247]
His Excellency Gordon Pasha is by no means a good administrator, but he is a fearsome enemy of slavery and the slave trade.
I can confirm that he has dealt a terrible blow to this shameful scourge in many places under his administration. For example, on the White Nile and on the main routes slaves are rarely to be seen, as well as in the Nile valley, on the road to Kordofan and the Blue Nile and in the Suakin desert. One no longer encounters those numerous and large caravans of slaves that we used to see in the past.
Slavery exists, the slave trade exists and will continue to exist for a long time, but it is kept hidden from Gordon Pasha who is very strict with the merchants of human flesh.

[5248]
Therefore it can be said that slavery in the Khedive’s possessions in the Sudan has slightly diminished. The merchants of human flesh keep away from the main routes and penetrate into the interior for their raids to capture the poor Africans to practise their infamous trade.
It must be said the these jallaba are very scared of Europeans, whether they are lay or Missionaries, because they know that these Europeans are against slavery. Consequently, the scientific and medical Stations and explorations decreed by the Brussels Conferences will be ever more useful for the abolition of the slave trade, just as the presence of the Missionaries and the Sisters is always a pressure on the jallabas’ conscience.

[5249]
Here is an example. When, in 1874, I had founded a Mission in Jebel Nuba, which is a great field for the merchants of human flesh and through which pass at least 30,000 slaves each year, one of the greatest and most active jallabas, belonging to the nomadic Arab Baqqarah Omur tribe, who always came to me for medicine in Delen, introduced himself to His Excellency the Governor of Kordofan and said to him: “As long as you leave those Christians in Jebel Nuba, it will be impossible for us to pay our tribute (annual tax), since we cannot go and get our farkhat (hens, which is the word recorded in the El Obeid government register but which really means ‘young girl’slaves) and our khorfans and gional (sheep and camels, which are the words used in the official register for ‘little and big boy’ slaves. Until a few years ago, and secretly even today, the governors in Kordofan always received as a tribute from these people enormous numbers of slaves instead of money and cattle) to pay you, that is we cannot steal and snatch our slaves to pay you our tribute”.
[5250]
Indeed, since there has been a Catholic Mission in Jebel Nuba, not a single slave has been snatched from this tribe and no slave caravans have passed through. The traders who make their raids in Giangheh or Dar Fertit take another route which is much further than the ordinary route and shorter than passing Jebel Nuba.
[5251]
I hope to found a new Mission on Lake Albert within this year and a second one on Lake Victoria within next year. It is more difficult to found a regular Catholic Mission in a location of Central Africa than to make a simple exploratory visit, as the explorers do.
[5252]
The travellers and explorers pass through these places like meteors and gather little of the truth because one needs time, and to know the languages, which is possible above all for the Missionaries who stay there a long time or for ever.
[5253]
But I do not know when I shall be able to leave Khartoum because of the difficulties I am going through due to the painful famine and shortage of goods which are oppressing my Vicariate. At the moment we buy durra and grain at prices that are ten times higher than last year, on account of the absence or scarcity of the rains last year.
In Kordofan, water for drinking, washing and cooking costs us more than wine does in France, but Providence will remedy this.

[5254]
I take the liberty of sending Your Majesty the Prayer for Central Africa, which Pius IX of holy memory approved, and I beg Your Majesty’s pardon for having made my letter too long. I am sure that you will deign to grant me a generous pardon.
Bowing humbly before Your Majesty’s throne, I beg you to accept the deepest homage of my heart and soul, as I have the honour to remain
Your Majesty’s most humble, devoted and obedient servant

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


Translated from the French.

[5255]
Since I have an extreme need of the help of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Sovereign of Central Africa, the very joy, hope, fortune and the all of her poor Missionaries, I write to you, my friend, the apostle and faithful servant of the divine Heart which is so full of love for the most unfortunate and abandoned souls on earth.
[5256]
How glad I am to spend half an hour with you, to commend and entrust to the Sacred Heart the most precious interests of my trying and difficult Mission, to which I have vowed my whole soul, my body, my blood and my life!
[5257]
A tragic famine and an extreme shortage of provisions, combined with harmful diseases, have laid waste my immense Vicariate and as a result of these scourges all my resources are exhausted and I am burdened with most serious concerns.
This, then, is what I want to ask you to do for us: to publish in the “Messenger” a special request to all the friends of the Sacred Heart to pray especially hard for my dear Vicariate, for me and for my Missionaries, as well as for the Sisters of the two Institutes, St Joseph of the Apparition and the Devout Mothers of Africa, who serve Central Africa.

[5258]
The intention of these prayers should be the conversion of my dear unbelievers and that we may obtain all the necessary resources for the Vicariate’s activities. The intention of these prayers should not be that we and the Missionaries may be spared the cross, the sufferings, the pains and the privations to which we have submitted. The Cross and very great tribulations are necessary for the safe-keeping, establishment and progress of the works of God, which must always be born, grow and flourish at the foot of Calvary.
How lovely it is to suffer greatly for Jesus and for the most abandoned souls in the world, who are entrusted to us by the Vicar of Christ! The divine and adorable Heart of Jesus is a great help to us and strengthens us in the Cross.

[5259]
So the intention of the prayers should be the growth and development of the work for the redemption of my hundred million non-believers, and that the lack of resources may not hinder its development. At any rate, dear Father, you will have understood what I am getting at, although I am not able to express it well myself.
In addition, I would ask you to translate into French and publish in the “Messenger” a few passages of my first letter to Leo XIII, which I sent him on the feast of the Sacred Heart, 28th June last, and which is a sort of profession of loyalty to the new Sovereign Pontiff, of myself and of my Missionaries and Sisters. I send it to you under this title: Mgr Comboni and Central Africa at the feet of Leo XIII.

[5260]
I would now like to say a couple of words about my Vicariate, on the history of which I published a short work in Missions Catholiques of Lyons, starting from issue n. 13 of last October.
[5261]
When I was appointed Pro-Vicar Apostolic of the whole Vicariate of Central Africa in 1872, all that existed there were the isolated house in Khartoum and the abandoned garden which had been created by Fr Pedemonte of the Society of Jesus, who came here in 1848. Thanks to the Sacred Heart of Jesus to whom, as you know, the whole Vicariate was consecrated on 14th September 1873, we now have two large Institutes in Khartoum, three in the kingdom of Kordofan, two in Berber and two in the Jebel Nuba tribe.
I have already sent Missionaries to Kadaref, on the border with Abyssinia and I shall soon be founding a Mission on Lake Albert.

[5262]
In five years very many souls have been saved, contact has been made with many peoples, missions have been founded and built up, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus has granted many graces to this immense Mission.
[5263]
Now since the works of God must walk with the Cross, after about a year the Lord allowed this great Vicariate to be afflicted by the terrible scourge of a terrifying famine and extreme misery which are devastating these parched regions and are leaving a trail of cruel diseases, to such an extent that these unfortunate populations are being decimated. The cause of these great hardships is the lack of rain last year. A large part of the cattle and the camels have died of hunger. The fields are arid and dry: there is no more grain or hay, etc.
[5264]
Hundreds and even thousands of villages have been abandoned by the starving population and those poor people are dying like flies.
In France, when you pay five or six times the normal price for bread, you say there is a famine. Well, here the durra (or maize; the staple food of the people) has become ten times more expensive and last week we had to pay twelve or thirteen times the normal price…
I shall continue my narrative in my next letter, for the dromedary is going just now and I am extremely busy.
In the meantime, I remain, etc.
Your most devoted confrere

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


Translated from the French.

[5265]
I have just received your honourable letter of 20th June which filled me with sadness because you say nothing of the Sisters and the Principal Superior of Khartoum whom I have insistently requested, but it is possible that you have prudently left it to the future Superior General (who I hope will be you) to decide on this matter which is essential for the good of Central Africa.
I have only half an hour to answer you and to give the order to Sr Arsenia to let Sr Maria Giuseppa and Sr Anna leave for Khartoum in accordance with your wishes.

[5266]
I know nothing about what you tell me concerning my Secretary. The conditions he gave to the Mother General were thoroughly approved by the Mother General herself (as he wrote to me) and by Cardinal Franchi. I based them on many other contracts the Congregation had already made with Tripoli and with many other Bishops that I was able to examine. And my Sr Caterina, to whom I had explained my ideas, assured me that the conditions I was offering were much more advantageous to the Congregation than those offered by many other Missions.
[5267]
That is what I know. For the rest, in order to do things conscientiously and in full knowledge of the situation, the Contract must be made in Central Africa and by the Sisters of Central Africa who know the circumstances and the conditions in the Mission. Otherwise it is impossible to evaluate the precision and necessity of the various articles, and this is the way the Church operates.
[5268]
I have never had any objection to letting the two Sisters who have asked to do so return to France. Sr Severina told me that Sr Giuseppa and Sr Anna were authorised to return, but Sr Severina also said that they should not leave before the arrival of other Sisters from Europe.
[5269]
You say nothing of this matter…
… All God’s works must be put to the test. The blood of martyrs is always the seed of Christians. The death of a few Sisters in this great vineyard of Jesus Christ is a consecration of the Congregation of St Joseph of the Apparition in Central Africa. To leave this great Mission because of the death of a few Sisters means leaving the merits and glory to others.
Your Congregation has a great reputation in Europe for having undertaken the Mission in Central Africa, it would lose much by abandoning it.
Please send me a Superior and Sisters for Khartoum as soon as possible.
Pray for me

+ Daniel Comboni
Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


Translated from the French.

[5270]
This morning I received your precious letter of 21st June. Distances are becoming shorter, even in Africa, because today steamboats ply the Nile and railways function. Some time ago I received a supremely welcome letter from your Mother Superior, dated last 9th January. In Korosko on the edge of the great desert, I heard the news of your serious illness. I prayed for your recovery with the Devout Mothers of Africa of the Institute I founded in Verona (I had five of them with me), and the Missionaries, on camels and in a temperature of 60 degrees, as we travelled over the burning sands for 17 hours a day. But how can I reply to the more than a thousand letters I receive from all over the world when I am burdened by so many crosses and afflictions, which I will now briefly mention to you? You should not worry about my silence, even if it lasts a long time.
[5271]
As long as you and I are alive, you must always write to me in Khartoum, even when I am on a visit in my immense Vicariate, which is the largest, most populous, arduous and difficult in the world, and you must give me news 1. Of yourself. 2. Of the Mothers, daughters of my dear Falconieri. 3. Of all the other African girls with whom you are in contact, telling me their names, tribes, ages, convents, religious state, etc. Since you are a Nuba, you should know that the mission I founded among the tribes of the Nuba is flourishing; among others, I have sent there a holy priest, one of my missionaries, who is already learning the language: Fr Giovanni Losi from Piacenza, whom I appointed parish priest, and Fr Luigi Bonomi from Verona, who is Superior there. They are working energetically: the men and women there are all naked, but well disposed. When I went there in 1875 to found a mission, I suggested to the great chief that he clothe his women. He told me this was impossible, for if they were dressed, they would have no children.
[5272]
I therefore dispatched to serve on that mission several families of newly converted Africans, whose wives were always dressed; and when some of them gave birth, the great chief exclaimed: “Agiab, the Pro-Vicar was right!” Those who can find some sort of rags are now starting to wear clothes. Next October, from the Kingdom of Kordofan, I shall make a Pastoral Visit to Jebel Nuba, to see to the preparations for settling the Verona Sisters there. I have temporarily housed them in Berber.
[5273]
Let me now tell you briefly something about the tremendous tribulations in which I am submerged, but which are ever beloved because they are sent by God. You will tell the African sisters all about them, so that they pray for me and for the conversion of Africa, and have prayers said in their convents.
After leaving Cairo with the missionaries and Sisters on one of Egypt’s most beautiful sailing vessels, opposite the lovely city of Minieh in Upper Egypt the ship collided with an anchor hidden under the water which made a hole in the boat, and in less than an hour the ship had almost completely filled with water. However, with the Government’s help we all disembarked onto dry land, safe and sound but terrified, but the expense of the damage was more than 10,000 florins, what with the provisions, medicines books and food destroyed.

[5274]
I had provisions for ten establishments with me, bought with the money I had made such efforts to collect during my journey around Europe after my consecration. When I reached the edge of the great desert of Nubia, I heard that
most of the camels had died of hunger and exhaustion, and I found many Arab traders there who had been waiting in vain for camels to transport their goods. The great chief of the Desert advised me to return to Cairo (44 days after I had left), and to try the route via the Red Sea and Suakin. But what can one do with so many people and so little money in one’s purse?

[5275]
I tormented my Bursar, St Joseph, and decided to divide my caravan (which required 100 camels) in two. I resolved to take the personnel with me on the more gruelling but shorter route across the desert of Korosko and Berber, and to send the larger part of the caravan on ahead, with the imperishable provisions (such as iron, glass beads, etc., etc.), on the longer but easier route through the Kingdom of Dongola. I twisted the arm of my old friend, the great chief, to give me 50 camels instantly (and I sent the larger part of the caravan via the Nile to Wadi-Halfa where they were to take 60 camels), on which I loaded only 40, with water (which immediately became putrid), provisions, and the personnel with their respective trunks. In the evening of 17th March we entered the frightful desert, hurrying our pace and replacing the camels that fell down dead with the 10 I had taken with me in reserve.
[5276]
The desert was littered with the corpses of dead camels and with goods left lying on the sand. I cannot tell you how we all suffered, with our thirst, the temperature of 60 degrees and our exhaustion. I would not bear a hundredth part of it to become the greatest king on earth: but to save Africa, to win over the Africans for Christ, oh! we considered our suffering a mere mignognola, a trifle: death a hundred times and martyrdom is still nothing in comparison with the lofty goal of saving Africa. After 13 days of desert, we reached Berber, baptised several African adults who had been converted, put straight some couples living in concubinage with marriage, administered confirmations, left the Sisters from Verona there and set out for Khartoum.
[5277]
My entry into the capital of the Sudan as the first Bishop of Africa was a real triumph for Religion. Pashas, Consuls, Muftis, Christians, heretics and Muslims joined in celebrating my triumph, or rather the triumph of the faith. But alas! Within three days, all this poetry turned into prose! After the excitement of the celebrations had died down, I set myself to examining our affairs and everything. I found more than 40,000 francs of debt in the Vicariate, of which I had been totally unaware; and the cause? The cause was arranged and desired by God.
[5278]
A terrifying famine on a vast scale has been devastating the Vicariate for almost a year, caused by the lack or scarcity of the rains last year. When wheat in Italy costs three times more than usual, it is said that there is a famine. Here grain, durrah, milk, eggs, meat and essential foodstuffs cost not three times, but ten or twelve times as much as usual. Practically every one of the 8 oxen that worked in my garden in Khartoum died because of the lack of hay, of which there is none; and the two survivors live on grain, and they have to be fed on it, otherwise the work of 27 years will be destroyed and this year we have had a great loss. For example, to feed the African boys and girls in the two Institutes of Khartoum, the tarabla or peasants who work in the garden and the poor families bequeathed to us by my predecessors – and they are old and weak – with durrah (maize) alone, I need 300 ardeb (sacks) a year, which in former years cost me about 3 florins an ardeb. Now an ardeb of durrah can be found with great difficulty at 35 or 40 florins. Make your own calculations for the other establishments in the Vicariate!
[5279]
What more? In the kingdom of Kordofan there is a widespread shortage of water. For six months the Sisters have been doing no laundry, because the dirty, brackish water for cooking and drinking costs a lot more than wine in the Tyrol. In the morning at 4.00 o’clock, a Sister rises, takes four or five girls, and goes to the distant public wells (our wells dried up six months ago), and sometimes they have to wait there until midday to obtain cloudy, muddy water at a florin and a half or even two florins the bormah, (four litres). Hundreds and thousands of villages have been abandoned by the starving inhabitants, who leave in search of food. And I can say, in a word, that they are dying of hunger like flies. We helped those in the most extreme need, not only Christians but Muslims too. But today we have come to the very end of our resources, and I am forced to increase our debts to keep up the establishments.
[5280]
In addition terrible diseases are rampant, typhoid and smallpox, which kill people like flies. I lost seven here in Khartoum in a week. What more? My servant, or valet whom I had brought with me from Rome and who was an angel, died of sunstroke in a few hours. Fr Policarp Genoud, a young priest from Bolzano, ordained in Trento in autumn 1876, also died on me in the space of just a few hours, on 30th June. All in all, I am full of crosses, swimming in anguish and distress, and foresee a gloomy future. I spent two and a half months ill with an extraordinary weakness. We always drink water and do not know what wine is, and what water! For two and half months I did not sleep five minutes in every 24 hours: the temperature here varies from 32 to 34 degrees Réaumur in our room, and we have to run here and there at all hours for the ministry, especially to baptise and to administer confirmation, etc. In the morning, exhaustion seldom permits me to celebrate Mass. I will now sleep, perhaps, for a scant hour in every 24, but I am always dead tired and working and writing to Europe for alms and subsidies. In brief, an extended and most painful martyrdom.
[5281]
However, amidst all these troubles, the acquisition of souls and the progress of the Work for the conversion of Africa gives me great spiritual consolation. God’s Works must be born and grow at the foot of Calvary, the Cross is the mark of the work’s holiness, and the Mother of God herself was the Queen of martyrs; and it is necessary to pass through martyrdom, bloodshed and the Cross; and I, a physical wreck, confident in the Heart of Jesus, am sounder and more steadfast than ever, come what may; in my war cry, with which I founded and began the Work for the Redemption of Africa in the face of so many obstacles and at the price of so many hardships, I am firmer than ever. I said, in my first war cry: Africa or Death!
[5282]
Yes, the heavens may fall; but as long as the Heart of Jesus helps me with his grace, I shall stand firm and unshakeable in my place, and I shall die on the battlefield. To increase my anguish, even a good missionary, Fr Stefano Vanni from Puglia, asked and obtained my permission to return home on the pretext of the recurrence of a former illness, (but basically he said to a companion that he could carry 12 loads of troubles, but not 13); and he was fluent in Arabic.
[5283]
What more? Even my Vicar General who governed the Vicariate during my last journey to Europe, tired out with suffering (he has suffered greatly, and has left me, not through his own fault, very many debts) left for Europe last week, and I fear that another two will ask me permission to leave in the coming autumn; and three French Sisters of St Joseph, who have suffered greatly, will return to their country. Central Africa is the most arduous and laborious mission in the world: the Jesuits tried first (like it or not, they are the first and worthiest missionaries of the Catholic Church) and they never returned.
[5284]
An attempt was made by the good Franciscan Fathers, who always have sublime and holy members; then they had to leave. Now why has the smallest and most insignificant of Institutes, microscopic like mine which I founded in Verona, been able to consolidate the Apostolate of Central Africa and pitch its tents more successfully than my predecessors? Because, in agreement with Pius IX, I solemnly consecrated the Vicariate to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and to St Joseph, and because in all the Shrines in the world which I have visited, and in almost all of the most fervent monasteries and Institutes of Europe, prayers – ardent prayers – are said for the conversion of Africa, and because in the apostolate of Central Africa I was the first to involve the omnipotent ministry of the woman of the Gospel and of the Sister of charity, who is the shield, strength and guarantee of the Missionary’s ministry.
[5285]
However prayer comes first, because Jesus Christ is a gentleman, who keeps his word and proclaimed the petite et accipietis, the pulsate et aperietur: and this is worth more than all the treaties of sovereigns and the powerful of the earth. So you who are called to serve and to sanctify yourself in a convent can be a true missionary and apostle of Africa, your homeland, if you always pray and have the most fervent prayers said by other convents for the conversion and redemption of the more than a hundred million Africans, your brothers and sisters, whom the Holy See has entrusted to my care.
[5286]
Not only must you pray and have prayers said; but you must motivate the convents of the African girls you know and some of the excellent benefactors, in which the most Catholic, devout and generous Tyrol abounds, to grant Central Africa their charitable alms, and to send donations, whether large or small, to the very distinguished and reverend Prof. Mitterrutzner, Director of the Episcopal School in Bressanone, who has been a diligent benefactor of Africa, her true father and faithful and eternal friend, for almost 30 years.
[5287]
Now Central Africa will emerge from its present state of ruin. Will I be relieved from so much anguish and misery? Oh! my dear daughter, while the Heart of Jesus and Mary can dose us with the necessary pills of tribulation, they have many remedies to hand. A wealth of pounds sterling, gold Napoleons and florins are hidden in the beard of the Eternal Father and of my St Joseph. Therefore on the Feast of the Patronage of St Joseph this year, 12th May, with all my mastery and boldness (because the Bursar has to obey the master), I presented myself to St Joseph after Mass and told him quite plainly “My dear Bursar, I find myself in rather a quandary; I am up to the hilt in debts and at the same time I have to feed and support my 13 establishments which I founded and possess from Verona to Jebel Nuba. If within a year you do not make the full payment, that is, if within a year you have not paid all my debts and supported the whole Work, so that next year I cannot plant the Cross of Jesus Christ, your putative Son at the Sources of the Nile at the Equator on the Nyanza Lakes, I will turn to your wife… and you will see that she will do what you have failed to do”.
[5288]
My daughter, do you want my Bursar St Joseph to turn his back on me and not grant my wishes? It is impossible for him to say no, because he is the king of gentlemen and it is a matter of the glory of Jesus, his putative son, who is barely known in some parts of this Vicariate. It is a question of freeing a tenth part of the entire human race from chains and eternal death. All in all, St Joseph has always treated me well, with respect and submission, as a good bailiff treats his master. I am therefore certain that I shall obtain the payment in full within a year, and not the kind promised hundreds of times and never paid by the Ministers Lanza, Sella, Minghetti, Cairoli, and all the others round the Italian trough, but a real, true balance of the finances of the Vicariate, worthy of St Joseph.
[5289]
Here I could tell you of the conversions God has obtained, of the souls saved including two Muslim adults (a very rare event in the Eastern missions) whom I baptised after they had completed a four-year catechumenate, and I accepted the abjuration of a rich heretical merchant, etc. etc. But I do not want to leave out, though briefly, of the many things I would have to say, the story of the supreme good fortune of three Abyssinian women slaves. After leading a life amongst the false pleasures of the world as concubines of a rich trader, with only two days of forced or spontaneous repentance, like lucky thieves they stole heaven for themselves, through the work of the mission and especially of our Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition. I will tell you about it in a couple of words.
[5290]
In Kadaref, one of my provinces on the border with Abyssinia, a rich Greek merchant from Smyrna, an Austrian subject, purchased a very beautiful Abyssinian girl and took her home to be his concubine. She was about 17 years old. After a few months he bought another, and settled her with the former and for the same purpose. Finally he bought a third aged 16, and she gave him three children who are still alive. The children of the others are all dead. Last year this merchant died in Kadaref. The Austrian Consul in Khartoum was ordered by Vienna to sell off all his property and to send the proceeds to Smyrna, to his legitimate family. In the meantime, these three poor concubines from 20 to 24 years of age with the three above-mentioned children, were left with only the provisions in the house and a few gold ornaments they had been given by their master.
[5291]
All three were Muslims. They survived for a short time: but because of the famine, they soon exhausted both their provisions and their gold; they then came to Khartoum to ask the Austrian Consul for help. This journey took them 13 days, and the consul replied that on the orders of his Superiors he had sent all the money to Smyrna, and suggested they present themselves to the Catholic Mission for shelter. The Mother of the three children replied: Uaikh, we are not going to those dogs of Christians… The good Jesus was waiting for them precisely at the Mission for a revenge worthy of the Redeemer of the world; the Blessed Virgin Mary, worthy of the title of Mother and Refuge of sinners, was waiting for them precisely with us, to take her revenge for such an insult (dogs of Christians).
[5292]
These three young concubines, with a year-old son and two daughters aged 3 and 5, wandered about Khartoum for a few days and nights. But since there was a famine, they did not find effective help with the Muslims; on the Imperial Royal Consul’s recommendation, they then presented themselves at the mission. They were given 8 Khorda piastres a day (15 Austrian soldi) and two rooms in the section for escaped female slaves; in its difficult plight, the mission could do no more. Then they were cared for by our good Arab Sister of St. Joseph, Sr Germana from Aleppo, a true missionary and apostle, but one of the rare ones who had been Superior in Kordofan and whom I had brought with me to Jebel Nuba, and now here to Khartoum. In brief, in less than a month Sr Germana had made all three concubines Catholics and instructed them in the principal matters of the Faith; and while she was instructing them, just after mid-June, one of these concubines came down with smallpox and was nursed by the others. They called for me to baptise her.
[5293]
After she had been baptised, I administered Confirmation to her, and utterly content, she longed for heaven; on 16th June (40 days ago) she died and went to heaven. The one who was the mother of the three children also fell ill, and went down with smallpox for having looked after the first; she had me called and entrusted the little boy to me, begging me to be a father to him, and the two girls she entrusted to Sr Germana, begging her to be their mother; she requested and obtained Baptism, and died very happily two days after the first and flew off to steal heaven. This young mother could have been about twenty two years old, and had eminent physical and spiritual qualities: her character and sound critical sense were those of a man, and with her bearing and reasoning, in my opinion she could have equalled a matron and a European married woman; she came to see me several times so that I might plead her cause, for her paramour had promised her the earth for her children.
[5294]
However, after her baptism she was very happy and content to die, certain that the mission would be more than a mother to her children. Before her death, the third ex-concubine fell ill of smallpox and having received baptism and confirmation, after three days, she too passed away, filled with consolation; thus these three girls, former concubines, having enjoyed the world for a few years (since their master had treated them very well) and having amused themselves as they fancied, through the grace of good Jesus and Our Lady and the work of a young woman of 32, Sr Germana Assuad, these three famous thieves stole (heaven) for themselves after being ill for only five days, bequeathing to me the legacy of three children with strict orders to make them Christians.
[5295]
I leave you, who are glad always to think of God in the Sacred enclosure, to meditate on the admirable ways Providence chooses to save the most abandoned souls of your beloved Africa. All I add is that God made use of this circumstance to establish a new Mission in Kadaref (where there had never been a Catholic priest except for Fr Gennaro Martini, whom I sent there in September 1876), for last week I dispatched my above-mentioned missionary, Fr Martini from Turin, to explore the whole province of Kadaref, which is larger than the entire Tyrol; and after he has sent me a detailed Report, I shall go there myself, with my Fr Squaranti, to set up the new Mission there.
[5296]
I stop here, because you will be just as tired as I am. I wrote this rigmarole in a single session. But remember that I long for many prayers to be said for the conversion of your Africa, to which I have dedicated my mind and my heart, my blood and my life; and my desire is to be a victim of her salvation. Africa is the most abandoned and neglected part of the world. Here sweat and die so many devout, good and holy priests, cultured and most learned, sent here from the Italian and German Tyrols, by the incomparable Apostle, Friend and Patron of Central Africa, our praiseworthy benefactor Prof. Mitterrutzner of Brixen; and I propose the example of some of these holy Tyrolean priests, with whom I myself have lived, to my missionaries as a model of constancy, firmness and apostolic zeal. We are not even worthy to kiss the feet of a Gostner, a Lanz, an Überbacher, a Pircher and others. But that is enough.
[5297]
I heartily congratulate you for being admitted by the Blessed Virgin, who inspired the Seven Holy founders of the Servites’ Institute, to join this elect group of Virgins, brides of Christ. I thank your devout Mothers for having admitted you to such good fortune: but in the perfect observance of your holy Institute, you must be a constantly active and zealous apostle of Africa and always raise your arms to heaven, like Moses, to implore the conversion of Africa and the necessary graces for me, the first Bishop of this colossal diocese, and for my Missionaries and Sisters, both French and Veronese.
[5298]
Thank you very much for the good wishes you sent me in your letter for my name day, St Daniel Prophet in the Lions’ Den (I am among lions too, and I sent one yesterday to the Austrian Consul in Cairo, with a leopard), which the Church celebrates on 21st July. Indeed, it was a day of great rejoicing in the Mission, and I received, as well as all the members, visits from Pashas, Consuls and the Great of the Sudan. In brief, I gave the impression of being a Harlequin pretending to be a Prince.
[5299]
To the Superior, to all the Mothers, to the Most Reverend Dean, to the Sister of Charity, Carolina Rosa and to everyone I know, and to the little African girls, your correspondents, a thousand regards and blessings,
Yours most affectionately in the Lord

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