{
  "bookName": "HISTORY OF THE MISSIONS",
  "authorName": "BERNARD DE VAULX",
  "publisherName": "HAWTHORN BOOKS PUBLISHERS",
  "publicationYear": 2026,
  "chapterNumber": 9,
  "chapterName": "The African Missions",
  "pageFrom": 131,
  "pageTo": 143,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 131,
      "ocrText": "CHAPTER IX\nTHE AFRICAN MISSIONS\nFIRST FOUNDATIONS ON THE PERIMETER\n(1820-75)\nAt the beginning of the nineteenth century African Christianity\nwas in process of extinction. Its revival should undoubtedly be\ndated from the day when a few nuns belonging to the order of\nSt Joseph of Cluny landed on Senegal in 1817 and in 1820\nopened a school at St Louis de Senegal, but still more from the\nday of the arrival, two years later, of the foundress of the new\ninstitute. A trifling matter, you may say. No, it was a matter\nof immense importance if we bear in mind the vision which\nMother Javouhey had seen in 1800.\nAt a time when, already attracted to the life of perfection,\nshe prayed to be granted new light, she saw little children with\nblack faces crowding into her room. \"They held out their hands\nto me and called me 'dear mother'. They seemed so unhappy\nthat the memory of it has ever since been impressed on my\nmemory...\" St Teresa appeared in one corner of the scene\nand told her: \"They are God's children and I am giving them\nto you. I shall be the protectress of your order.\" She had just\nestablished this order, the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny. Mother\nJavouhey found her \"children\" on Senegal in 1822 in the\nstreets of Saint-Louis.\nHer genius for putting ideas into practice was so quick in\naction that she was already thinking of giving them instruction,\nof providing for them a specially recruited body of priests pre-\npared for the apostolate in the colonies, and a seminary to\nwhich young Africans fitted to become priests would be\nadmitted."
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 132,
      "ocrText": "132\nTHE AFRICAN MISSIONS\nIn 1825, she made herself responsible for the transfer of\neight of these to France where they began their studies at\nBailleul-sur-Thérain. Three persevered and were ordained by\nMgr Affre in 1840.\nBut even before this threefold ordination, the cause of the\nmissions in Africa had found its second hero in Abbé Liber-\nmann. Among the \"devotional groups\" he had formed in the\nseminary of Saint-Sulpice, two Creole seminarists, one from\nthe island of Bourbon, the other from Port-au-Prince, had\nopened his eyes to the wretched state of the Negro slaves. This\nstaggering discovery which followed his meditations on the\nbold programme of Mother Javouhey, moved Libermann and\nhis friends to found the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of\nMary, which was to devote itself to the evangelization of the\nNegroes. When it received the approval of Gregory XVI in\n1840, it was composed of a mere handful of priests. Its founder\nentrusted ten of his men (seven Fathers and three Brothers) to\nMgr Barron, vicar apostolic of the two Guineas. This first\nparty was all but wiped out in a few months (1844) in the\nCape Palmas area by a deadly climate against which at that\ntime there was no defence. Two survived and one of them,\nFr Bessieux, was sent to Gabun where he landed in 1845.\nIn France, the news of the disaster was a torture to Liber-\nmann, torn between his sorrow (\"I do not want to send my\nchildren to be butchered\", he cried) and his desire not to\nabandon \"more than fifteen million souls who have never heard\nof the good news our Lord brought to earth\". His disciples all\nasked if they might leave for Guinea. He yielded, and in 1846\na second party founded a post opposite the small island of\nGorée in a modest concession which in 1862 still had the\nappearance of a village but later became Dakar.\nThus the two first bases for this new evangelization were\nnow in existence, one in Gabun with Mgr Bessieux, appointed\nvicar apostolic of the two Guineas in 1848, the other on\nSenegal. Their founders thenceforward belonged to the Con-\ngregation of the Holy Ghost which emerged from the fusion in"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 133,
      "ocrText": "THE AFRICAN MISSIONS\n133\n1848 of the Congregation established by Libermann and the\nSeminary of the Holy Spirit. In both places, the period of trial\nand error lasted, it may be said, until the speeding up of ex-\nploration during the last quarter of the century. On Senegal,\nMgr Kobès (Mgr Bessieux's coadjutor in 1849), helped by the\nLammenais Brothers and the Sisters of Castres for the schools,\nand the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny for the care of the sick,\nsucceeded, in spite of the strong positions held by Islam, in\nestablishing six posts on the coast: Saint-Louis, Gorée, Joal,\nDakar, Sainte-Marie de Gambie and Ngazobil. At his death\nin 1872, the Senegal mission was well established and had six\nSenegalese priests and a congregation of Negro sisters, the\nDaughters of the Sacred Heart of Mary, founded by the Blue\nSisters of Castres. His successor brought the Gospel to the\nsouth, to Casamance in the country of the fetichists, where\nIslam had not gained an entry.\nProgress was slower perhaps in Gabun. France had only\none miserable little outpost on the Libreville peninsula, in-\nhabited by a Negro population which the slave traffic and\nvarious kinds of trade kept in a state of listlessness and corrup-\ntion. Beyond the post was the unexplored forest. Mgr Bessieux,\nwith the monks of the early centuries in mind, decided to give\nthese rather unapproachable Negroes an example of a Christian\nlife and productive work. He himself took part in the clearing\nof the forest and the prairie, so that a mission post might be set\nup. It had its church, workshops, vegetable and fruit gardens\nand soon after its schools under the direction of the Blue\nSisters of Castres. This method was that adopted in Canada\nduring the seventeenth century by the builders of the first\nChristian villages. He himself acquired sufficient prestige to be\nable to tell the French admiral who, after the events of 1871,\nwas talking of evacuating Gabun: \"Admiral, we are standing\nin front of a door which may well open one day.\" And he\nproved to be right when exploration began to develop.\nPrevious to this period, the missionaries had blazed trails"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 134,
      "ocrText": "134\nTHE AFRICAN MISSIONS\nin two other sections of central Africa on the shores of the\ngulf of Guinea and on the east coast.\nIn 1856, a former member of the Paris Society of Foreign\nMissions, Mgr de Marion-Brésillac who had been vicar apos-\ntolic of Coimbatour, made up his mind to devote himself to\nthe evangelization of the Negroes and, with the approval of\nPius IX, founded the Lyons African Missions. He was\nappointed vicar apostolic of Sierra Leone and landed there in\n1858 with three priests and two brothers. Less than two months\nlater all five of them died of yellow fever. It was an even\ngreater disaster than that of Cape Palmas. Yet it too was not\nallowed to breed discouragement. A new party set out from\nLyons in 1861, this time for the Slave Coast and Dahomey,\nwhere there were still a few small groups of Christian Negroes\nwho had been evangelized in America and repatriated after\nthe abolition of the slave trade. At Lagos, Ouidah and Porto\nNovo between 1861 and 1868 new mission posts developed of\nthe same type as those established by the Holy Ghost Fathers.\nOn the east coast where the slave trade was practised more\nblatantly and with more impunity than in the west, a Holy\nGhost Father, Fr Horner, established at Zanzibar in 1863 a\nmedical centre and a Catholic school which took in Negro\nchildren who had been ransomed. In the course of the next few\nyears, he built it up into a mission that was a model at the\ntime. He added to the elementary schools a vocational institute\nfor adults with facilities for training in all trades, an embryo\nseminary where Latin was taught, and a school of domestic\nscience. From 1868 onward, he built another centre on the\nsame model at Bagamoyo on the mainland opposite Zanzibar.\nSoon afterwards, he built a third on the heights of Mhonda.\nThese three foundations, and Bagamoyo in particular, were\nto serve as bases for the departure and as stages on the journey\nof new bands of missionaries and several explorers, among\nthem Stanley and Cameron. Bagamoyo, like Libreville in the\nWest, was \"the mother of all the missions\" in the East."
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 135,
      "ocrText": "THE AFRICAN MISSIONS\n135\nIn South Africa, the hostility of the Protestant Boers delayed\nuntil 1820 the establishment of the first Catholic priests at the\nCape. In any case, by order of the authorities, they were\nobliged to confine their ministry to Whites alone. The apos-\ntolate to the Negroes only really began after 1855 when the\nOblates of Mary Immaculate were given the Natal vicariate.\nTheir success in Zululand had been very moderate and they\nabandoned the missions they had established there and moved\nto Basutoland whose inhabitants gave them more satisfaction.\nOf the African islands, Mauritius was entrusted to the Vin-\ncentians at the beginning of the century. They were succeeded\nby English Benedictines. The appeal made to the Holy Ghost\nFathers by the most active among them, Mgr Collier (a mis-\nsionary from 1840 to 1863), brought to the Island Fr Désiré\nLaval, an apostle who has rightly been compared to Fr Claver.\nHis tomb is still honoured today. Almost half of the population\nis Catholic. At La Réunion, the work of the ministry was first\nentrusted to priests of the Holy Ghost Seminary and then, after\nthe amalgamation achieved by Libermann, was allotted to the\nHoly Ghost Fathers. Today, in a population of 300,000, there\nare 278,000 Catholics.\nAfter the decimation of the Vincentian missions in the seven-\nteenth century, Catholicism had all but disappeared from\nMadagascar. In 1829, Mgr de Solages was appointed prefect\napostolic of the islands in the Southern Sea. During the follow-\ning year, he tried to enter Tananarive. Queen Ravalona forbade\nhim to do so. In 1832, he died of fever and hunger at Ande-\nvorante on the east coast. When the Jesuits were made respon-\nsible for the Madagascar prefecture in 1841, this prohibition\nhad not been withdrawn. Fr Finaz, however, succeeded in\nentering the capital in disguise during 1855. In 1861,\nRadama II allowed Catholicism to gain a foothold, but it was\nnot until the general pacification of the island by Galliéni (1896)\nthat it was really able to develop.\nIn the last years of the century, progress became extensive\nenough to bring about the establishment of two new vicariates:"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 136,
      "ocrText": "136\nTHE AFRICAN MISSIONS\nSouthern Madagascar, entrusted to the Vincentians, Northern\nMadagascar, to the Holy Ghost Fathers.\nThe rebirth of the missions in Ethiopia in the nineteenth\ncentury was the work of two French explorers, the brothers\nd'Abbadie, and an Italian Vincentian, Fr Sapeto. The favour-\nable reports they sent to Rome persuaded Gregory XVI to send\nto Fr Sapeto two other Italian members of his order, Frs de\nJacobis and Montuori who landed at Massouah in 1839. The\nimmense charity of Fr de Jacobis proved so effective that\nPropaganda established two vicariates, Gallas entrusted to the\nItalian Capuchins, Abyssinia under the charge of Mgr de\nJacobis and the Italian Vincentians. The Coptic clergy took\numbrage at this and launched a persecution which led to the\nmartyrdom of an Abyssinian Vincentian, Ghebra Mikael, who\nwas beatified in 1926. Mgr de Jacobis was thrown into prison.\nHe escaped but died, worn out by his labours, in 1860. He had\nbeen responsible for 6,000 conversions. In the meantime,\nFrench Vincentians replaced their Italian brethren (1861) and\nsucceeded in protecting the Christian communities in spite\nof the persecutions of the emperor Theodorus and his succes-\nsor Johannes IV, both enemies of Rome.\nThe first bishop of Gallas, Mgr Massaĩa, succeeded, at the\nrisk of his life, in reaching Godjam and Choa on the Abyssinian\nplateau. Soon after, Kaffa, the southern territory, expressed a\ndesire to receive missionaries. Once again, Copts and Moslems\nreacted violently. The emperor Theodorus imprisoned the\nbishop in 1863. But the dignity and prestige of the prisoner\nwas so great that the emperor released him. In 1877, Johannes\nIV expelled the entire mission, including Mgr Massaïa, who\nreturned to Italy where he received a cardinal's hat. In 1880,\nthe Gallas vicariate was in the hands of Mgr Taurin, a French\nCapuchin who, after initial difficulties, profited from the\nfriendly dispositions of Menelik, Johannes' successor. Thence-\nforward, the mission foundations, while still always exposed to\nthe hostility of the Copts and the Moslems, could be consoli-"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 137,
      "ocrText": "THE AFRICAN MISSIONS\n137\ndated and expanded. In 1900 Mgr Jarosseau was succeeded by\nMgr Taurin. His long ministry (1900-36), his prestige and his\ninexhaustible and discerning solicitude for the people who were\noften threatened with famine, completed the work so heroically\nbegun before his time. The situation of Catholicism was trans-\nformed by it. In the days of Mgr Massaïa, everything which\nrepresented Catholicism in Abyssinia was detested. About\nfifty years later, respect had taken the place of hatred.\nPENETRATION INTO THE INTERIOR FROM 1875\nΤΟ 1914\nA period of rapid expansion began during the last quarter\nof the century. A great number of explorers arrived from all\nparts of the world. Each of them was working on behalf of his\nown country and eager to ensure that it had a good share in\nthe forthcoming partition of Africa. The slave trade sparked\noff fervent anti-slavery campaigns. In this combination of\ncircumstances, an opportunity occurred for the missions to\nenter the field of international politics and Cardinal Lavigerie\nseized it with his customary promptness.\nThe international Association for the exploration of Africa,\nfounded at Brussels in 1876, had undertaken to guarantee the\nfreedom of the missionaries. The Protestants were already pre-\nparing to take advantage of this. Cardinal Lavigerie used the\nfact as a pretext for sending a secret memorandum to Pius IX.\nIn it he suggested that vicariates should be established in\nthose places where the Protestants announced their intention\nof founding new missions, that \"Africa should be transformed\nby the Africans,\" and finally that every effort should be made\nto abolish slavery. Fifty of his sons (the White Fathers,\nreligious of the Society of African missionaries which he had\njust founded), he noted at the end of the document, had\npromised on oath to devote all their strength to carrying out\nthis vast programme.\nLeo XIII had just succeeded Pius IX. Four days after his"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 138,
      "ocrText": "138\nTHE AFRICAN MISSIONS\nelection, he signed a rescript establishing two vicariates in the\narea of the Great Lakes (1878) and giving Lavigerie the powers\nof an \"Apostolic delegate for the missions of equatorial\nAfrica\". During the summer of 1878 the first party of White\nFathers left Bagamoyo. At Tabora, it split into two. One group\nreached the shores of Lake Tanganyika at the beginning of\n1879, the other arrived a little later at Lake Victoria-Nyanza.\nThe reports they sent to Lavigerie gave horrifying details\nregarding the slave raids organized against the Negroes by the\nArab dealers. He used them in drawing up a brief for the\nstruggle against slavery.\nLeo XIII was about to issue the apostolic letter In plurimis\naddressed to the bishops of Brazil on the occasion of a decree\nof the Brazilian Government which had just emancipated the\nslaves in its territories. Lavigerie asked for a few words to be\nadded to the letter. His wish was more than granted, the addi-\ntion grew into a page which described the whole African\ndrama.\nLavigerie supplemented the effect produced by the pope's\nletter by himself preaching a crusade against slavery through-\nout Europe. It had a profound influence on the Brussels Con-\ngress of 1890, whose final enactment therefore pointed out that\namong the most effective means of fighting the slave-trade was\n\"the progressive organization of the religious institutions of\ncivilized countries\". Further, the powers who signed the docu-\nment undertook to protect existing and future missions. Cer-\ntainly, the missionaries had not waited for these guarantees\nbefore preaching the Gospel, but the homage paid to their\ncivilizing work, although coming a little late in the day and\nwith a strong suggestion of empty promises, was of a kind\nto strengthen their position as they faced their enemies.\nAfter the division of the party at Tabora in 1878, the first\ngroup of White Fathers, as we have said, arrived at Lake\nTanganyika in the early days of the year 1879. By 1881, it\nhad firmly established itself there, although it had lost two\nreligious during an attack by partisans of slavery who had"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 139,
      "ocrText": "THE AFRICAN MISSIONS\n139\ntried to recover some orphans rescued from their clutches. In\n1886, the Holy See established the provicariate of the Upper\nCongo and entrusted it to Mgr Roelens, a Belgian White\nFather who was joined in 1891 by his first party of mission-\naries. They were of the same nationality as himself. Thus was\ninaugurated the Great Lakes Mission, one of the finest crea-\ntions of the Institute founded by Lavigerie.\nIn 1887, the first representatives of a recently established\nBelgian Institute, the Scheut Fathers, at the cost of severe\nlosses (more than thirty per cent of the pioneers), laid the\nfoundations of Christian communities which were eventually\nto flourish, on the Kasai and at the top of the Congo loop.\nThe Jesuits in 1893 made similar foundations on the Kwango,\nwith the help of the Sisters of Charity of Ghent.\nThe second party of White Fathers setting out from Tabora\nhad reached the area north of Lake Victoria-Nyanza where\nthree religious were murdered during the first months. Rein-\nforcements arrived. The Superior, Fr Livinhac, obtained from\nthe local ruler a concession at Kasubi. But the baptism of the\npages of his court angered the Moslem party who maintained\nthat the missionaries should be deprived of their freedom and\nMohammedanism made obligatory. Fearing new outbreaks of\nviolence, Lavigerie ordered the Fathers to withdraw to the\nopposite side of the Lake. Left by themselves, their first bap-\ntized converts made many others and they all begged the\nreligious to return. When they did so, six hundred cate-\nchumens were waiting to be baptized. This new progress on\nthe part of Catholicism unleashed a persecution which put\neighty martyrs to death in 1886. Twenty of them, among whom\nwere thirteen pages who were burned alive, were beatified in\n1920. This sublime sacrifice brought about fresh conversions.\nBetween 1886 and 1893, and in spite of two persecutions, one\ninstigated by the Moslems, the other by the Protestants, the\nnumber of Christians in Uganda rose from 4,000 to 50,000.\nOther missionaries also set out from the east coast: in 1890,\nMgr Leroy, a Holy Ghost Father, who celebrated Mass on the"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 140,
      "ocrText": "140\nTHE AFRICAN MISSIONS\nslopes of Kilimanjaro, at a height of 11,641 feet, laid the\nfoundation of a vicariate bearing the name of the mountain.\nIn 1891, the Nairobi mission was founded, again by Holy\nGhost Fathers.\nIn the first years of the twentieth century, the Consolata\nFathers successfully evangelized the Kikuyu and the Ameru\nin the south of Kenya, and the Mill Hill Fathers, the\nKourrondo. In 1889, the White Fathers established the Lake\nNyasa mission on the initiative of Lavigerie who had estimated\nthat the Great Lakes missions would be more easily accessible\nfrom Mozambique than from Bagamoyo. In 1897, Proра-\nganda established the Nyasaland vicariate and in 1908 divided\nit to form the new vicariate of Shiré, which was entrusted to\nthe de Montfort Fathers.\nAs Mgr Bessieux had foretold, the open door leading from\nthe west coast to Gabun widened to allow new parties of\nHoly Ghost Fathers to pass through. Between 1878 and the\nfirst journeys of Stanley and Brazza, they settled at Saint-Paul\nde Donghila (on the estuary of the Gabun), then at various\npoints along the two banks of the lower Congo, especially at\nBanana and Landana. This latter mission gave hospitality\nduring the early days of 1881 to Brazza who arrived, in a\nsemi-dying condition, from Mfoa on Stanley Pool. It was\nfrom Landana again that Fr Augouard set out towards Mfoa\nwhere he found Stanley at the beginning of August 1881.\nMfoa was later to become Brazzaville. The same religious\nhelped towards the peaceful settlement of the French at Pointe\nNoire. Shortly afterwards, the basin of the lower and middle\nCongo became the field of action of this high-spirited mis-\nsionary. When he had founded the mission station of Saint\nJoseph of Linzolo, he arranged for the separate parts of a\nsmall ship to be sent to Brazzaville from France. The ship\nwas constructed under his direction and at times with his\nhelp and, under the name of the Léon XIII, established con-\nnections between the various mission posts that had been\nestablished in the Congo basin. Léon XIII wore out in time"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 141,
      "ocrText": "THE AFRICAN MISSIONS\n141\nand was succeeded by another ship of the same name, then by\na Pie X. The vicariate of Oubangui and Brazzaville, estab-\nlished in 1890 to include these posts in one district, and ex-\ntending from Stanley Pool to the Nile basin, covered areas\nthat were mostly unexplored; it was a very suitable assignment\nfor Mgr Augouard. For many years, there was only a handful\nof Christians there, the majority of them ransomed Negro\nslaves. Then, towards the beginning of the twentieth century,\nan extraordinary movement led these man-eating tribes\ntowards Christianity, and to such good effect that in 1909 the\noriginal vicariate had to be divided. The southern part formed\nthe vicariate of the French Upper Congo and the northern\npart the prefecture apostolic of Oubangui-Chari.\nStill in equatorial Africa, the Holy Ghost Fathers had\nsettled in 1885 on the Ogoué at Lambéréné, at Ndjolé, Lastour-\nville, Fernan Vaz, and to the south of the river, at Loango.\nAfter the founding of French Guinea, other Holy Ghost\nFathers established posts near the coast at Boffa, Sangha and\nBoké, further inland at Kindia and Mamou, and in the Kissi\nterritory, at Guédékou and Mongo. They arrived in Nigeria in\n1885. Fifteen years later, the prefecture apostolic of the Lower\nNiger numbered three posts: Onitsha, Agouleri, Nsubé.\nIn 1879, after the Gold Coast prefecture had been entrusted\nto the Lyons African Missions, the first post was founded at\nElmina on the coast. It included a school and a medical centre.\nThe king of the Ashantis wanted to make the acquaintance\nof these philanthropists and gave orders for them to be sum-\nmoned to Kumassi, his capital. He gave a friendly reception\nto one of them, Fr Moreau (1881), who thought he might\nask for permission to take up residence in the town. The king\nrefused, doubtless because a Wesleyan minister had asked for\nthe same favour. In any case, he dismissed them both. In the\nmidst of all this, a revolt drove him from his throne. The\nLyons missionaries were not able to settle at Kumassi until\n1910.\nTo compensate for this, as early as 1880 they were able"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 142,
      "ocrText": "142\nTHE AFRICAN MISSIONS\nto found a mission post at Abeokouta, the great city of the\nYoruba, whose local chief, having once invited them to come,\ndid not change his mind. A church soon replaced the little\ntemporary chapel. An educational and medical centre fol-\nlowed for \"the white women who do not marry and who come\nfrom the cold countries to save little children\", as the nuns\nwere called in the deed of conveyance drawn up by the local\nchief. Thanks to his goodwill, another mission post was estab-\nlished at Oyo.\nThe Ivory Coast became a French colony in 1893. Two years\nlater, Propaganda established a prefecture apostolic in the\ncountry and this too was entrusted to the Lyons African\nMissions. After an auspicious beginning, marked by the foun-\ndation of posts at Grand-Bassam, at Memmi, then at Dabou,\nBonoué, Assinie, Jacqueville and Moousso, an epidemic of\nplague accompanied by yellow fever decimated the 1899\nmission. The missionary council decided nevertheless to keep\nall the stations.\nThe first priests to preach the Gospel in the Cameroons,\nHoly Ghost Fathers, came from Gabun in 1884. They were\nsucceeded by German Pallottini Fathers when the Cameroons\nbecame a colony of the Reich and was given the status of a\nprefecture apostolic, and they were subsequently helped by\nGerman Fathers of the Sacred Heart (St Quentin). In the\nmeantime, the prefecture had been replaced by a vicariate.\nNothing remained of the Portuguese seventeenth-century\nmissions in Angola except the memory of a brilliant past, when\nin 1865 the Holy Ghost Fathers were given charge of the\nterritory. One of them, Fr Duparquet, set out from Lindana\non a voyage of discovery in the southern areas. He was respon-\nsible for valuable information which led Propaganda to estab-\nlish the prefecture apostolic of Cimbebasia (1879), later known\nas Cubango. The Holy Ghost Fathers also settled at Huila\n(1881). At the same time, secular missionaries from Portugal,\ntrained at the seminary of Xernache, took over the parishes\nthat had previously been abandoned and revived San Salvador\n(which had seen better days) with the help of seculars from"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 143,
      "ocrText": "THE AFRICAN MISSIONS\n143\nGoa and nuns (Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny and Fran-\nciscans of Mary).\nThe advance of the White Fathers across the Sahara and\nthe Sudan is one of the most glorious chapters in the history\nof this period. Cardinal Lavigerie had indicated Timbuctoo\nas the base where they were to establish a mission from which\nthey could go out in all directions across the Sudan. But in\n1876 three Fathers were murdered by the Tuareg. In 1881,\nthree other religious also met their death in an ambush on the\nroad from Tuat. On the orders of Cardinal Lavigerie, there\nthen followed a period of retreat and preparation in the centre\nat Ghardaïa, where the Fathers and the nuns partly allayed the\nprejudices and hatred of the desert nomads by their works\nof charity. The time came when the Superior, Fr Hacquart,\nwas given a respectful reception in the advance posts in the\nsouth of Algeria and in southern Oranais. When he set out\non his great journey, the atmosphere was favourable and he\narrived at Timbuctoo in 1894 without encountering any diffi-\nculties. From there, he undertook several exploratory journeys\nand investigations across the Sudan. The report he sent to\nRome included a very penetrating forecast of the probable\nevolution of the Negro countries. \"Soon there will no longer\nbe in the Sudan any isolated communities living the simple,\nprimitive life. This fanciful vision must be abandoned and we\nmust train for the different ranks in the social world and\naccording to each man's aptitudes, educated people, open-\nminded people and above all people who are Christian through\nand through.\"\nWho else in 1900 had such confidence in the world of the\nNegroes? Meanwhile, as early as 1895, the White Fathers were\nat Bamako, Segou and Timbuctoo and from there they rapidly\nmoved on to the Kissi, in the direction of Kankan to the\nwest, and the Mossi country to the east. They were followed\nshortly after by the White Sisters. In the Sudan vicariate, of\nwhich Mgr Hacquart was given charge, were included the\ncentres of Bobo-Dioulasso and Ouagadougou."
    }
  ]
}