, . GOLD C, O,. ,AST~ ',' ..; . - (\ ; - \.-. ',. ( : -, -, Right Reverend Joseph o. ~yt.ers. S.V.D .• J.c.L.. D.D. Bis~op . of :Kcera. Gold Coast GOLD COAST MISSION HISTORY 1471'-1880 RALPH M. W.!.LTGEN, S.V.D. DMNE WORD MISSIONARY DOCTOR OF MISSIOLOGY f~ 1956 DMNE WORD PUBLICATIONS, TECHNY, ILLINOIS, U.S.A. IMPRI M I POTEST: August 15, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1956. L. G. Mack, S.V.D., Provincial, Techny, Ill. IMPRIMATUR: Steyl, die 15 m. Septembris 1956. P . Erdmann, I. c, ~B: C~3CJ Dfl &V3~~~9~5 \y47lA ;-L (\" ( 1518 May 5 West Africa gets its first African Bishop. . 1529 Feb. 8 King Joao III of Portugal orders reading and writing taught to Elminians. 1534 Nov. 3 The Gold Coast becomes part of Sao Thome Diocese. 1537 May 29 Pope Paul III excommunicates every Catholic connected in any way with the slave trade. i< 1537 June 2 Pope Paul III makes void all contracts of Catholics which may have deprived natives of their liberty or of their goods. 1554 St. Ignatius of Loyola is asked to send Jesuits to the Gold Coast. 1572 Portuguese Augustinians teach reading and writing at Elmina. 1582 July 27 The French reach the Gold Coast for the first time. .7 1585 Jan. 25 Pope Gregory XIII allows West Africans to use the Pauline Privilege under certain conditions without interpellations. 1631 Feb. 25 The Gold Coast comes up for the first time in_a busmess meeting of the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, Rome. 1634 July 14 The Gold Coast is entrusted to the care of French Capuchins. 1637 Aug. 2 French Capuchins open their mission on the Feast of Portiun- cula. 1637 Aug. 29 The Portuguese surrender to the Dutch at Elmina. 1639 Apr. 22 Pope Urban VIII excommunicates every Catholic who has anything whatsoever to . do with the slave trade. 1651 West Africa is dedicated to the Queen of Heaven at the Holy House of Loretto in Italy. 1658 The first known catechism in a West African language is printed in Madrid, Spain. XIII 1679 The first Negro priest known to work in the Gold Coast is assigned to Accra. 1686 An ambassador sent to France by the Paramount Chief of Ko- menda becomes a Catholic there. 1686 Mar. 20 Bill of Rights for the protection of natives against slave traders is issued by the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, Rome. 1687 Apr. 21 French Dominicans are temporarily entrusted with the Gold Coast by Propaganda. 1687 Dec. 25 French Dominicans open their first mission at Assinie. 1691 Aug. 1 In Paris, Bossuet baptizes an Mrican from Assinie. 1700 Sept. 13 Propaganda changes the temporary assignment of French Domin- icans to the Gold Coast to a permanent one. 1701 Feb. 12 An Order of Knights, called Order of the Star of Our Lady, is founded in Paris for Gold Coasters. 1737 May 11 The United Brethren, first Protestant missionary society to reach the Gold Coast, arrive at E1mina. 1752 The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts sends a chaplain to Cape Coast Castle. 1792 Denmark outlaws slavery in her possessions. 1807 Jan. 2 Great Britain outlaws slavery in her possessions. 1828 Dec. 18 The Basel Evangelical Missionary Society takes up work at Christiansborg Castle. 1834 Dec. 31 T he Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society arrives at Cape Coast Castle. 1842 Jan. 22 An American is made Prefect Apostolic of West Mrica. 1842 Sept. 8 On the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, West Mrica is raised to the rank of Vicariate Apostolic. 1842 Dec. 18 The Vicar Apostolic consecrates West Mrica to the Immaculate Heart of Mary at Notre-Dame des Victoires in Paris. 1844 Mar. 19 Assinie is made headquarters of the Vicariate of West Mrica. 1845 West Mrica is lowered to the status of Prefecture Apostolic when the Vicar Apostolic· resigns. Immaculate Heart of Mary Missionaries are put in charge. 1845 Dec. 7 Msgr. Tisserant, the Prefect Apostolic, perishes at sea. 1846 Msgr. Grayjere is made Prefect Apostolic over West Mrica. 1846 Aug. 15 Father Lihermann lays before Propaganda a detailed plan for the development of mission territories in West Africa, and suggests that Kumasi be made ecclesiastical headquarters for the Gold Coast. 1846 Oct. 4 Pope Pius IX raises West Africa again to Vicariate status and places Bishop Truffet in charge. 1847 May The North German Missionary Society (The Bremen Mission) begins work in the Gold Coast. 1848 June 4 Bishop Bessieux becomes Vicar Apostolic of West Africa. 1850 The Danes sell their Gold Coast possessions to the English. 1856 Dec. Founding of the Society of Mrican Missions. XIV 1870 Nov. 2 The Superior-General of the Society of African Missions asks Rome to entrust the Gold Coast to his society. 1872 Feb. 25 All Dutch possessions on the Gold Coast are ceded to the English. . 1874 July 24 The Gold Coast is removed from the jurisdiction of the Sierra Leone Government and erected along with Lagos (Nigeria) into the Gold Coast Colony. 1878 May The Paramount Chief and Queen-Mother of Kuroasi ask for Catholic missionaries. 1879 Apr. 28 The Prefecture Apostolic of the Gold Coast is founded and entrusted to the Society of African Missions. 1880 May 18 First two priests of the Society of African Missions reach the Gold Coast, landing at E1mina. 1880 Aug. 5 Co-Founder of Gold Coast Catholic mission, Father Murat, S.M.A., dies and is buried at E1mina. 1880 Dec. 25 First Elminian is baptized and received into the Church. 1886 Mar. 21 Founder of the Gold Coast Catholic mission, Father Moreau, 8.M.A., dies and is buried in the waves offAxim. xv ABBREVIATIONS Acta: Acta Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, in Arcruves of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide, Rome. Archives O.F.M.Cap.: Archives of the Capuchin Generalate, Rome. Archives O.P. : Archives of the Dominican Generalate, Rome. Archives 8.M.A. : Archives of the Society of African Missions, Rome. Ibid,: ibidem (in the same place). This always indicates the last mentioned source. ed. : edition or editor. Lettere Volgari : Filed letters written by Propaganda, in Archives of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide, Rome. MMA: Monumenta Missionaria Africana: Mrica Ocidental (1471-1531), Coligida E Anotado Por Padre Ant6nio Bnlsio, C.S.Sp., Volume J (Agencia Geral Do Ultramar, Lisboa, 1952). n .: note or footnote or nwnber. Scritture Riferite : These are letters and reports sent to Propaganda, in Archives of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide, Rome. The first 381 volumes are labeled Scritture di diversi paesi and are called by many authors Scritture Antiche; volumes 382 to 417 are labeled Memoriali; volumes 418 and all others that follow are labeled Scritture riferite nelle Congregazionj generali, or Scritture originali riferite Aelle Congregazioni generali. ZMR: Zeitschrift fijr Missionswissenschaft und Religionswissenschaft (Aschen~ dorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, MUnster in Westfalen) . XVI CHAPTER 1. THE PORTUGUESE PERIOD (1471-1637) A. Discovery and Settlement Curious Mrican eyes followed every single move of the white man robing himself in strange garments. They saw him march to a table covered with white cloths in the shade of a tree. He set something down in the middle of the table and went to the right side where he opened a thick book. This man, whose lips constantly moved as if he were talking to someone invisible, a short while later bent over a large white wafer which he raised high over his head for all to see. Then he bent over a golden cup. This too he raised aloft. After a while he retired' from the spo{and unvested, Instinctively the Mricans who had watched from their houses just a few steps away felt that something sacred had taken place before their eyes. But just what, they did not know. The day this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass took place, the first Mass to be offered in what we today call the Gold Coast, was il!!.u~Q. 1482,. . It was a Sunday, the feast of SS. Fabian and Sebastian./A Portuguese fl<;et had come there with intentions of building a fortified settlerllent, the first in the land. The celebrant of the Mass, a secular ' priest, served as chaplain for the fleet and was to remain behind to serve as chaplain for the;. garrison once the fortress was built. The Mass was offered on the spot the captain of the fleet had judged best sw.ted for his proposed, settlement. Today the place is named Elmina, and St. George Castle stands overthe very spot '). When this Mass was celebrated, Portuguese discoverers had not yet reached the Congo River and Columbus had not yet even thought of setting out for America. Portuguese ships, howevep, were not the first to appear off the shores of the Gold Coast. As early as 597-595 B.C., or more probably 596-594, Phoenician navigators sailed by in the first recorded circumnavigation of Africa '). More than 2000 years had to pass before navigators again reached the Gold Coast '). Prince Henry the Navigator, founder and promoter of West Mrican explorations, had begun Portugal's march down the coast inlmediately after the Saracens were decisively defeated at Ceuta. On August 25, .1415, the mosque of that city was turned into a Ca~olic church. Some time later, when the Portuguese at Ceuta built ') Barros, Asia I-3-i&~"" 1552/1778), i:155f, 169. Barros says nothing about Africans witnessing the Mass, but s' ce some had their houses only a few feet away, they must have seen it. The m,ajor part 0 the village of Edina was somewhat to the west. See Pina, Chronica del Rei Dom Joao II, cap. II , in Bclsio, Monumenta Missionaria Africana (1504,1952), 1:13. Pina says that January 19,1482, was Wednesday, "quarta feira," which would place the Mass on Thursday; Ibid., 10. But see Grotefend, Taschenbuch Der Zeitrechnung (1941), 170. . ') "Herodots Bericht scheint mir daher durchaus gloubhaft zu sein ... . Als Zeitpunkt der Umfahrung .. 'J our die Jahre nach der Eroberung Jerusalems durch Nabukadnezar (597) in Betracht ko=en, also friihestens die Jahre 597-595, wahrschein1ich erst 596- 594." Hennig, Terrae Incognitae (1936), 1: 53. S) Hennig says that Hanno the Carthaginian certainly reached as far as the equator and therefore passed the Gold Coast between 530 and 520 B.C. But the conclusion of MallOY's study is that Hanno did not get past Morocco. Compare Hennig, ibid., 76, 78; MallOY, "Note sur Ie periple d'HannonJ JJ in Premiere Conference Intemationale Des Africanistes De L'Ouest: Comptes Rendus (1951), 2: 528f. their first church on African soil, they called it the Church of Santa Maria of Africa, Santa Maria meaning the Blessed Virgin Mary. Prince Henry himself had chosen the name, giving it to a statue of the Virgin which he donated to the church '). It was his way of dedicating the whole of Africa to Mary. By the end of 1460, the ycar of Prince Henry's death, Portuguese explorers had reached as far as Sierra Leone. King Alfonso V carried the discoveries further. In November, 1469, he made a five-year contract with a Lisbon merchant by the name of Fernao Gomes, giving him the right to a qualified trade monopoly on Africa's West Coast under the con- dition that his ships push 100 leagues farther along the coast every year. The starting point was Sierra Leone '). So it was that on a day in January, 1471, two of his captains reached the Gold Coast. They were J030 de Santarem and Pedro de Escobar. The place where they first landed was Shama '). Undoubtedly they had judged the whole coastline from Assinie down to Cape Three Points far too rough to make a landing. It is not surprising that they picked Shama. In need of water and seeing a river, a village of nearly 500 inhahitants and a fine harbor, they naturally stopped there. They went ashore, got their water and probably also wood, and carried on trade. But when they saw what the people offered them in exchange for their goods, their eyes bulged and their excitement knew no bounds. It was gold, honest-to- goodness gold I And by signs the people let them know that there was more where that came from. Along the coast Gomes' navigators in testimony of their discoveries had been placing huge wooden crosses at all the notable places where they stopped 7). Certainly they put one up at Shama for Shama was the most notable of all the places they had come across south of Sierra Leone. Filled ,vith eager excitement, they and others after them visited other ports in the area and found it was true : in every one there was gold to be had. There were other villages east of Shama, one of which was built on a rocky peninsula. It too was alongside a river. And it too had abundant gold to offer in trade. When the Portuguese asked for the name of the village as they had at Shama, the answer they got was A-D-I-N-A. Had they understood correctly? They asked again, and again heard A-D-I-N-A. The ,vit among them must have slapped his comrades on the back and laughingly said, This place should not be called A-D-I-N-A; it should be called A-M-I-N-AI . ffA Mina" in Portuguese means "The Mine." Adin~today usually written Edina, is th;-;'ame which tradition ascribes to the ') Bnisio, "Santa Maria de Africa/' in Portugal Em Africa (1944), 1: 151f. ' ) Barros, Asi. 1-2-ii (1552/1778), 1: 142. ') Pacheco Pereira, Esmeralda de Situ Oebis, in MMA (1506/1952), 1: 3. Shama is the European corruption for Esma (Amissah , Personal Letter, March 16, 1953). Sharoa appears variously in Portuguese sources as Sarna, Samma, Sarna and Saama. Locally the word is pronounced with the accent on the second syUable, as indicated by many Portuguese writer'S. ') "Nero dahl por diante consentio que os Capitiies, que mandava a descubrir esta costa, puzessem c.ruzes de p:io per os lugares notaveis delle, como .se ruia em tempo de Fernao Gomes, quando descubria as quinbentas leguas de costa per condj~o do contracto que fez com E1Rey D . Afonso ..." Barros, Asia 1-3-iii (1552 ,1778), 1: 171. 2 __~ ~~l --~--~ £LMIN-A K r p. £ founder of the village '). Although the Portuguese kept the. names Shama, Axim, Komenda and Efutu, they did not keep or use Edina. For them "A Mina" was filled with more meaning and they applied it almost at once not only to Edina, but to the whole coast east and west of Edina wherever gold could be had. Edina is modem E1roina '). ') van Heesewyk, Personal Letter, February 18, 1953. An authority believeS the founder of the village was really Amankwa. not Edina. See Meyerowitz, Akan Traditions of Origin (1952),71. .) My basis for this view on the origin of the name is: "La Mina, cosi chiamata da Porto- ghesi per ch'U nome della Terra, si chiama Adena, fu discopef1a .. . . A Mina, called so by the Portuguese because the name of the land was Adena, was discovered . . . . " Scritture Riferite 103: SSr. This is the introduction to a report written by the Portuguese Vicar of Sao Jorge da Mina (Elmina) on October 23, 1632, on the state of the church there. His report was written in Portuguese and translated into Italian at Lisbon (Scritture Mente 103 : 84r), hence we have "La Mina" in the text for "A Mina," "la" being the definite article in Italian. Corroborative arguments are the following: a) In the various dialects of the mixed popu- lation the word is today pronounced Adana, Adena, Adina, Odena, Edina, Edena, etc. Meyerowitz, Personal Letter, March 21 , 1953. b) Throughout the Portuguese period the definite article "a" was used with slavish regularity before "Mina/' whether the word was used alone or in compounds. For approximately fifty examples of this, see "Mina S. Jorge da) ," in MMA (1952), 1: 569. c) Bosman guesses the name Mina was used by the Por- tuguese "because here they found a great affluence of Gold from all Parts .. . . seeming just as if it came immediately from the Mines ..." But in that case would they not have called it "Minas," i.e., "Mines," and not "a Mina"? Bosman, A New And Accurate De- scription Of the Coast Of Guinea (1705,1907), 42f. In the ten years that followed, from 1471 to 1481, heavy trade was carried on in the area between Cape Three Points and Winneba, villages to the west and east of Edina. The Portuguese, forgetful or neglectful for the moment of the excommunica- tions and censures incurred, readily turned over to the people their arms in exchange for gold. When Prince J oao heard of it, he begged Pope Sixtus IV to lift the penal- ties and allow the trade to continue. On January 28, 1481, the Holy Father forgave the offenders, but said they should abide by the law for the future and distribute no arms on the Mina Coast, a law made for fear that thereby Islam be armed by Christians for a renewed attack on Europe 10). So much gold had been gotten in those first ten years, that Portugal was anxious to get a permanent establishment in the area. It was very inconvenient to do all the trading from ships lying at anchor with nothing but tents to live in on the coast. Better would be a base on land where the goods could be stored. In that way goods could be kept on hand until buyers arrived from inland areas. The price level too could be better maintained because when a shipload of material arrived and had to be disposed of in a few days, it often had to be given away more cheaply than· desirable. Such a base, however, would have to be fortified, so that the traders within would have protection if they were attacked by a jealous foreign power by sea, or if they were attacked by discontented buyers by land. Prince Jo.o, in charge of commerce on the Mina Coast since the days Gomes' five-year contract had expired, knew well the great source of revenue the gold Some authors believe Edina is a corruption of the Portuguese word "aldea" (earlier orthography), meaning village, with which the Portuguese referred to Edina. The theory is that the people adopted the name from the Portuguese, using it in a corrupted form. It is true that uneducated Portuguese stationed there would readily have ommitted the "I" to give the form "aclea." The people of Edina hearing that, may have inserted an "n" between the last two vowels for pronunciation's sake (van Heesewyk, Personal Letter, February 18, 1953). Or again, "adea" may have been contracted to "ade" and then the suffix "-n3", which signifies "descendants of," may have been added. See Wartemberg, Sao Jorge D 'EI Min. (1951),15; Meyerowitz, Akan Traditions of Origin (1952) , 71f. But both hypotheses seem excluded by the following reasons: a) There are many words in the vernacular ending in "ian: hyia, kyia, tsia, pia, mia, fia, hia. wia, ewia, esia, etc. b) ". .. if the word (Eilia' had come to the Elminians from the Portuguese, the former would have had no difficulty in pronouncing it, nor would they have had any desire to insert an (0 ' between the'j' and the 'a', since the word ended in a voweL" Amissah, Personal Letter, March 16, 1953 . c) If •••• I have gone through the names of the villages of the Elmina district, and have not found any ending in '-oa'." Ibid. d) Other villages on the Gold Coast have retained their own original names among Elminians in spite of these villages having been given other names by Europeans: Accrn-Nkranj SaJtpond- AkyemfOj Cape Coast-Oguaa; Sekondi-Skunde. It would be strange that Elminians should be-so conservative about the names of others, and Dot their own. Ibid. e) fl • •• • the Edenafo (Elminians) are very well noted for their conservativeness •. and the most unlikely thing the Edenafo of old would have done is to have adopted a foreign name for their town . . . even the literate Edenafo ... prefer to refer to their town as Edena, and not Elmlna." Ibid. f) "Aldea" was also used ~y the Portuguese at Shama and at Axim for the villages there; in fact, it was common practice the world over wherever the Portuguese had settlements. Why should 1:1. corruption of "Aldea" be adopted by this one village, and not by all the otbers ? The name "Adena" in the 1632 document excludes the view which says ". .. it seems more likely that Edina is a corruption of Elmina than vice versa." Ward, A History of the Gold Coast (1948), 60. "Elmina," of post-Portuguese origm, was not yet coined when "Adena» existed. >0) Alguns Documentos (1481/1892), 46. 4 from this coast was for thl: fewa! treasuries ll). When he finally decided to buil~ a fortress on the Mina Coast, his councirors argued against it, saying that the - climate there was deadly, the food poor and the journey so long and dangerous .... that it were better not to think of the project. But the prince was adamant. He said J that if by their efforts one single soul would be converted to the true faith, it was worth the risk. He argued too that God would bless them for they were setting out in His Name, and he gave the assurance that all his vassals - and this was the part of the argument that convinced the councilors - would surely profit by it. A castle there, he maintained, was strategical for Portugal's overseas power 11). 'i1> ..,. It seems Prince Joao had a difficult time getting enough personnel to volunteer \ for the venture due to the large number of .!!eatbs among the Portuguese that had traded in the area. He felt the solution would be a guarantee from the Pope of the full remission of their sins through a plenaty indulgence at the hour of death for all who should happen to die there. WithOUtlosing any time he had both the Cardinal of Lisbon and Portugal's Ambassador at the Holy See present this petition to Pope Sixtus IV. This was nothing strange because the crusaders had received a similar privilege, and in a way this castle on Africa's West Coast was to be a bulwark against Saracen foes which were thought to inhabit that coast. jk In answer the Holy Father wrote Prince J030 that he was well pleased with his devotion to the Holy See and with his interest in the salvation of souls. "Gladly, we concede and grant," . he said, "in virtue of our Apostolic power and by the mercy of almighty God, a plenary indulgence for the remission of all the sins of every member of the faithful who should happen to die in the castle already' built or about to be built in Mina in Africat1We wish this indulgence he.nceforth to be fully enjoyed .. . , all things to the contrary notwithstanding. Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, under the ring of the Fisherman. September 11, 1481. In the eleventh year of Our Pontificate 13)." By the time this Brief was issued, Prince Joao had become King Joao II through the death of his father, King Alfonso V. This did not alter his plans in the least. In the middle of December, 1481, Diego da Azambuja set out from Lisbon for the Mina Coast as commander in chief of ten caravels, a pinnace, and two transports. Aboard were 100 artisans and 500 soldiers. The transports carried stone already cut, ,~---- H) Barros, Asia 1-3-i (1552/1778), 1: 152. U) Barros, Asia 1-3-i (1552/1778), 1: 153f. Fr. Jose de> Acosta, S.J., after fifteen yean in the Americas, wrote in 1589 that the world was bitterly pOOr as to genuine apostolic spirit. "Aurum. argentumque his terns tam. copiose donavit, hisce veluti illexit nostrorum cupiditatem, ut si cbaritas non invitaret an.ima.rum, auri saltem cupiditas i.p.escaret . . . . Christianorum avaritia Indorum vocatio facta est. H Acosta, De procunm.da Indorum salute, 111-18, cited in Hoffner, Christentum Und Menschenwiirde (1947), 111. U) ...... omnibus illis Christi fidelibus, quos in Castello apud Minam in partibus Ethio- piae constructo seu construendo ab hac luce decidentes contigerit, plenariam cunctorum suorum peccatorum Indulgentiam., de omnipotentis Dei misericordia apostolica auctoritate concedimus et benigne elargimur. Volentes eos, Indulgentia huiusmodi deinceps plene gaudere: non obstantibus ... . contrariis quibuscunque. Datum Romae apud Sanctum Petrum sub annulo piscatoris. Die xi Septembris. -McccclLai. Pontificatus nostri anno undecimo." MMA (1481/1952), 1:7. West Africa was then called Ethiopia. • An indulgence does not take away sin. Neither does it take away the eternal punishment due to mortal sins. An indulgence is the remission gnmted by the Church of the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven. A plenary indulgence is understood to be so gnmted that if a person should be unable to gain it fully, he will nevertheleSs gain it parlially, in keeping with the disposition that he has. 5 tile and wood for building the fort as well as food aI\d munitions for the artisans and soldiersll). Some time previous another fleet had set out for the Mina Coast com- missioned to find the best ~ossible sP."!. for the proposed fortress be~ Cape Three Points and Winneba "), a dlS"tance of some forty leagues. Many places along this strip of coast were well situated, but the anchorage before them was no good. Others had ideal anchorages, but the land was too low for a fortress, or if it was not too low, it lacked water and rock, and so proved unsuitable. But one place was ideal in every respect. That was Edina. It was high enough to be easily defended. Rock was abundant. The healthy and large population gave hope of a good climate, an adjacent sweet water supply, and sufficient food and trade. The anchorage too was perfect. In short, "no better place could be had, no better place could be imagined Ie)." .J Azambuja arrived off the coast of Edina on January 19, 1482. A Portuguese ship was already lying there at anchor and its chief trader, Jo~oJlemaides, was." ashore trading for gold. Bemaldes, being on good terms with the Chief of Edina, arranged an audience with him for Azambuja. The next morning Azambuja and . : Jart of his men went ashore. An altar was set up in the shade of a tree and Mass was V ~elebrated. In remembrance of that first Mass on the Mina Coast - it was the feast of SS. Fabian and Sebastian - they gave the nanie of their more favored I Saint, Sebastian, to the spot where their discoverers in 1471 had first set foot on land: the valley made by the Pra River where it empties into the Gulf of Guinea at Shama 11). When the Mass was over, and after they had all taken something to eat, they prepared themselves for the audience. Knowing the custom of the land from Bemaldes, Azambuja seated himself on a platform and had his highest officials seat themselves about him in semi-circular fashion. Even musicians were on hand. The Chief, whom the Portuguese knew as Caramansa, came from the village towards the group gathered on the far east end of his peninsula. Nana Caramansa was surrounded hy his elders and councilors as well as by his sub-chiefs with their retinues 16). Nana Caramansa received his guests with all the friendliness for which Gold Coast Africans are still known today. The Portuguese were particularly struck hy the boy attendants who carried wooden stools for each of the more important personages to sit on during .the audience. As the Chief approached, Azambuja descended from his platform and greeted him. The Chief took his hand and in the act of releasing his grip snapped his fingers, saying at the same time in his own U) Barros, Asia 1-3-i (1552/1778), 1: 154f. ") The source (note n. 14) has "Cabo das Redcs ... Cape of the Nets" which is in the immediate vicinity of Winncba. See Ward, History of the Gold Coast (1948), 68, n. 26. ") Pina, Chronicn dEl Rei Dom Joao II, cap. II, in MMA (1504/1952), 1: 10. " .. . . pern Fortalcza sc nom podia nchar, nero pyntar melb~r desposi~ .. . " Ibid. 11) Ibid. Here Pina seems to say the valley called Sao Sebastiao was at Edina. Barros, however, mokes it clear that the valley was at Shama; Barros evidently used Pina's text and corrected it. See Barros, Asia 1-3-i (1552 11778), 1: 144, 156f. The fort later built at Shamo was called Sao Sebastiao. Atlas of the Gold Coast (1945), Mop No. 19. 18) The name Caramansa does not exist in the vernacular but because it alone appears in the sources, I have decided to use it. The Gold Coast Observer (January 18, 1952). page 385, gives the name as Nann Kwamina Ansah. Others woold spell it Kwamena Ansa. Mrs. Meyerowitz says the name was Kwagya Ansa. Meyerowitz, Akan Traditions of Origin (1952), 73. Nana is n title of reverence. 6 language, Peace, Peace. This type of handshake, used still today in the Gold Coast, signified joy at meeting Azambuja and hope of hearing good news;-'Fhen after the Chief, all the noblemen with him did likewise. But before they took Azambuja's hand, they moistened their fingers in their mouth, rubbed them clean on their bare breasts, and only then reached out their hand to shake that of Azam- buja. He accommodated himself perfectly to this strange type of courtesy, having learned from Bemaldes that this was a sign of special reverence given only to Chiefs and people of high standing. That ceremony over, all returned to their places and sat down "). X The palaver followed and during it Azambuja said he was anxious to make a settlement on the very spot where they were talking. N ana Caramansa showed no enthusiasm whatever over the prospect of )laving a settlement there. Noticing . this, Azambuja told him that Nana Bayo, Chief of Shama, was most anxious that they build the fort in his village, as were also other Chiefs along the coast~ 0 doubt, he added, the spot where they settled would become the richest, the most envied and the most PQwerfu1 on the whole coast. This was the kind of language { Nana Caramansa understood and a wistful smile came to his face and that of ' i his elders, councilors and sub-chiefs. The smiles broke out into cries of satisfaction~" t and Azambuja knew that he had won the day. Well content and full of hope, after being assured of rich gifts, the group retired to the village 10). Immediately Azambuja made the ground plan for the proposed fort, and on the next day his men began breaking rock on the seashore which they intended to use for foundation stones. Unhappil/, and apparently unaware of what they were doing, they hami'nered at rocks which were considered sacred "). Greatly angered the Edina warriors ran upon them and drove them to their ships. Azambuja, however, remedied the matter with rich presents - those and even more that had been promised the day before and not yet given - and temporarily the work could progress. In twenty days the palisade, citadel, and other dwellings were finished. But not without the loss of life due to the dea~ climate which had . begup to take its toll with the very outset of the work. Dunng all that time the folk of Edina remained hostile, not allowing the Portuguese access to the nearby water supply. Eventually the matter was remedied by getting water elsewhere. When the work was finished, the name "Castle of Sao Jorge" was given to the I settlement in honor of St. Geqrge, Patron and Protector of Portugal. Before long friendly terms were again establiShed with the village folk, and Azambuja succeeded in" trading for gold all the merchandise the fleet had brought along. Keeping sixty ") Pina, Chronica dEl Rei Dom Jo.o II, cap. II, in MMA (1504{1952), l:lOf. Pina'. ch!oniclc;, finished in 1504, contains- all these details. . Fr. Mouezy says today the handshake with the accompanying snapping of the fingers signifies joy at meeting a person or hope of hearing good. news. It has become a conventional gesture before many an important affair or palaver. But evidently it is not of European origin, as the author would have us believe. See Moue:zy, Histoire Et Coutumes Du Pays D 'Assinie Et Du Royaume De Krinjabo (1942), 215. ") Pina, Ibid., 13; Barros, Asi. I-3-i (1552{1778), 1:162. 11) Ward thinks it was the rock on which the castle was being built that was sacred (History of the G<>ld Coast, 63, n. 14). But Pin. says it was on the beach (Ibid.), and the Vicar of Sao Jorge Church writing in 1632 said a huge rock, sacred to the people, lay a musket shot away from the castle (Scritture Riferite, 103:85v). What makes Ward's view unlikely is the fact that some of Edina's citizens themselves had their dwellings on part of the site chosen for the fort. See Pina, Ibid. . 7 men and three Portuguese women behind, Azambuja sent the rest back to Lisbon with the gold that had been won II). B. The First Church One of the buildings within the palisade was Slio Jorge Church, a separate building by itself. In front of the church under the tree where the first Mass had been celebrated those who had died during the work of construction were buried II). Since it was the usual thing for the Portuguese to have a church in their settle- ment, the Popes looked upon Portugal's march down the West Coast of Mrica as a double blessing~ortugal was placing vanguards against the ejected Saracen .~ foe lest it strike back and once agsin get into Europe, and Portugal was giving new . , .r·p eoples the chance to have the Gospel preached to them "). Lest in thiS advance I r the latter item be overlooked, Pope Sixtus IV on August 21, 1471, ordered the Archbishop of Lisbon to take care that all along Africa's coast churches be built "). And ten years later, on June 21, 1481, the same P!,pe renewed ,fulgeQ<' IV's and ~CaIlistus Ill's grant to the Order of the Knights of Christ of spiri~ction :over all churches in West Mrica and even as far as India "). This military religious order was founded on March 15, 1319, in Portugal. In the following year it opened a monastery in Thomar which soon became the nerve center of all missionary X ~ctivity along Mrica's West Coast "). Until the dsy when bishops would be stationed along the coast of Mrica, the mission churches were to remain under the juris- diction of the Vicar at Thomar. T he Church of Silo Jorge was the very first church ever to be built on the:l( I G~ Coast. Unfortunately the pages of mission history have been cluttered witl). .. ·. . · references to a nebulous "Chapel of the Mother of God" said to have been huilt I there by the French as early as 1364. But since the French never were on the Gold Coast before the arrival of the Portuguese, neither was the chapel which 'is mentioned in nothing but a fraudulent document "). The chaplain assigned to the Castle of Silo Jorge. had the obligs'tion of offering U) Pina, Chroruca dEl Rei Dom Joiio II, cap. II, in MMA (150411952), 1:13f. The view of Barros that the name of Sao Jorge was given to the fortress for the singular devotion which the King had toward that Saint sounc\s like flattery, considering that Pina does not mention it. Barros, Asia 1-3-ii (lSS2j1778), 1:168. Barbot says the Dame Sao Jorge was given to the settlement because it was discovered on the feast of St. George, April 23. Barbot, A Description of the Coasts of North and South-Guinea; and of Ethiopia Inferior, vulgarly Angola (1732), 157. U) Barros, Asia I-3-ii (155211778), 1: 169. U) On February 16, 1456, Callistus III ordered four Military Orders to go to Ceuta to protect Spain agsiost the Saracens. Alguns Documentos (145611892), 20. ") Ibid., 36. n) Ibid., 52. 17) Jann, Die katholischen Missionen in Indien, China und Japan (1915), 16, 23. III) The myth.ical chapel is mentioned in Knops, "Het Missiewerk En Zijn Wederwaardig- heden In West-Afrika Van De XlVe Tot D e XIXe Eeuw/' in Kerk En Missie (1939), 19:125-127; Mouezy, Histoire D 'Assinie (1942), 17-19; and elsewhere. The source for this chapel is the anonymous "Briev estoire del navigaige Mounsire Jehan Prunaut, Roenois, en la tiere des Noirs homes et isles 8 now incognew," which was published for the first time in Pierre Margry, Les navigations fran~ses et 1a revolution maritime du XIV siCcle (paris, 1867), 56. Major, Keeper of the Department of Maps and Charts In The British Museum, where the original of the above document is asserted to have been found, says, " . ... as all the 8 Mass daily for the repose of the soul of J'..riUf!' Hem'o/_t he Navigator ..) . On Satur- days, accorcling to the stipulatIon laid GOwn in the Prince's last will and testameiit, the Mass was to be a Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with a commemora- tion of the Holy Spirit as well as the commemoration of the dead which oegiIw, "Fidelium Deus, omnium." Before beginning the Mass the chaplain was to turn I toward the congregation and ask them out of charity to say in common with him one "Our Father" for the repose of the soul of Prince Henry, as well as for the souls of all deceased members of the Order of the Knights of Christ, and for the souls of those other deceased for whom Prince Henry in life was bound to pray. T1iis was prescribed not only for the Church of Sao Jorge but for all the I churches ever to be built by the Portuguese in Guinea, as the whole West Coast of Africa at that time was called. What is more, the practice was to be carried on in perpetuity accorcling to his will. The stipends would be given in alum? sum, one silver mark, at the end of each year, to be drawn from the 20% of Guinea trade profits which the Prince had decreed given to the Order of the Knights of Christ BO). ( The prescription regarcling the Votive Mass on Saturdays, however, was not faithfuJJy carried out at the Castle of Sao Jorge any more by the turn of the century. surrounding evidence is not only not corroborative, but contradictory and condemnatory~ an vnauthenticated document, with internal indications of not being genuine, and represented by a copy of a c(ljry which is itself not forthcoming, nor its possessor traceable, is worth absolutely nothing." Major, The Life of Prince Henry of Portugal (1868), Ii. See his long study in Ibid., mv.-li. (Italics are his.) La Ronciere, Historien De L..i Marine Francaise, says of Pierre Margry, Le conservateur des archives de 1a Marine, "Margry avait reproduit sans m~fiance 1a copie ... Or, A"l'etudier attentivement, la Briev estoire del navigaige MounsiTe Jehan Prunaut donne l'impressiort d'un faux ou d'un pastiche mal fait, peut~tre anciennement. Un Prunaut, voire Pruneau de ' Pommegorge, aurait bien ete: en Guinee, mais au XVIlle siecle:' aurait-il voulu se forger un ancetre et un devancier? La Briev estoire est suspecte tant par les maladresses d'une langue trop archaique et fautive que par des contresens geograpruques ... lehan>P runaut est un mythe." La Ronciere, La Decouverte De L'A frique Au Moyen Age (1925), 2: 14. Hennig in his classical four volwnes on pre-Colwnbian voyages says of the above document and of the only other source, Bellefond's, which speaks of Frenchmen on the Gold Coast prior to the Portuguese, "Als trauriges Beispiel einer kecken und gewissenlosen Gescruchts ... falschung muB man eine ,Fabel bezeichnen, die seit mehr als 250 Jahren irnmer aufs neue in der wissenschaftlichen Literatur vorgetragen worden ist ..." Hennig, Terrae Incognitae (1938), 3:305. See his long study iIi Ibid., 300---314. La Ronciere, criticising Villault de Bellefond, Relation des costes d' Afrique Appel6es Guin"" (paris, 1669), 410, says, " •... un texte medieval vient ebranter definitivement la these de nos voyages aux c6tes de Guinee." (p. 16) Then he cites from a newly discovered 1404 document written by Gadifer De La Salle, discoverer of the Canaries, and goes on to say, ". ... la necessite OU il se trouvait d'envoyer explorer les abords du Senegal, prouve p¢remptoirement que nos marins ne les connaissaient pas encore. Autant les voyages des Normands aux cOtes de Gurnee en 1364 sont du domaine de la Iegende, autant la conquete' des Canaries par l'un d'entre eux tient de l'epopee." (p. 17) & to the French Bastion men- tioned by Dapper and pointed out to tourists who visit St. George Castle today, he shows how it originated with the first landing of the French on July 27, 1582.(p. 15) The numbers too, "13-," have been either forged or misinterpreted. See his long study in La Ronciere, La Decouverte De L'Afrique Au Moyen Age (1925),2:10--17. It) UNa qual Igreja em memoria dos trabalhos do Infante D. Henrique, por ser auctor deste descubrimento, se diz hurna Missa quotidiana por sua afina com proprio Capellio a ella ordenado." Barros, Asia I-3-ii (1552/1778), 1:169f. Welch incorrectly says it was a yearly Mass. Welch, Europe's Discovery of South Africa (1935), 169. ") MMA (1501-1503/1952), 1:I84f, 188f. so King Manuel I decided to remind the captain there on September 28, HOI, as well as the priests then stationed there. And he did so in rather strong terms. He felt he had that duty, not only because the Prince was his uncle, but also because as King of Portugal he was Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of Christ upon whom the fulfillment of the Prince's will fell. If the Masses were not offered, he decreed, the stipend was tQ be lowered accordingly. But in every ·case the captain of the fort~e to it that someone else offered the Masses when the one who had the obligation clid not, in such wise that Prince Henry's will be fulfilled. And if for some reason it was not possible to offer ..t he Votive Mass on Saturday with the. prescribed "Our Father" before it, this was to be done on ""other day of the week SI). V However in the over twenty ·churches on Mrica's West Coast where the above " p rescription was in force, some of the vicars and chaplains excused themselves from the obligation, saying that Prince Henry's will was not able to enforce what >the rubrics forbade, and until the Pope said it was allowed, they would continue ~o abide by their conscience. So King Manuel wrote to the Pope. His Holiness, Alexander VI, answered and said, "In virtue of holy obedience ansi· under pain of excommunication we command .... whoever happens to be head of the churches in question to offer the Votive Mass every Saturday as laid down, and that they .. ee to it that it is offered. Anything to the contrary notwithstanding. Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, under the ring of the Fisherman. May 17, 1503. The eleventh year of Our Pontificate II)." Politically the Castle of S~o Jorge made rapid strides. Alrl"ldy on March 15, 1486, it had been raised to the status of city by special Patent Letters of the King, ..h aring thereby in all the rights and privileges of a Portuguese city. It was as city that.the Portuguese from then on referred to it: Cidade de Silo Jorge da Mina - the City of St. George in Mino. The city was very tiny; the palisade of the cas~e marked the city limits. Due to ordinances passed by the capa!)le Azambuja duririg the two years and seven months he had remained, the prosperity of Silo Jorge City seemed assured. He had also succeeded in making concordats with Nana Caramansa, so politically and economically all was well 33) . .{ .V But spiritual progress, at least as far as Edina was concerned, was practically - ~\ nil .. Azambuja had tried his best to have Nana Caramansa accept the faith, knowing well that if he did not, there was little likelihood that any of the others in the village would. But neither Azambuja's efforts nor those of the chaplain had been of any avail "). Apparently the two had no idea of the religious rites a Chief was bound to perform. To become Christian in the full sense of the word, and remain Chief, was impossible. Although not a good missionary, Azambuja bad proved a good businessman, so the King of Portugal allowed·him on March 17, 1485, to add 11) Ibid., 184f. ") MMA (1503/1952), 1:188f. "Mandantes in vin,culo sanctae obedientiae et sub ex- communicationis pena, tam dicta Magistro quam Rectoribus ecclesiarum predictarum pro tempore existentibus. quatenus Missam huiusmodi quolibet die sabati ut prefertur celebrent, et celebrari faciant. Contrariis non obstantibus quibuscunque. Datum Romae, apud Sanctum Petrum, sub annulo Piscatoris, die xvii Mall. MCCCCCIII. Pontificatus nostri anno uo- decimo.·' Ibid., 189. ") Pino, Chronica dEl Rei Dom J030 II, cap. II, in MMA (150411952), 1 : 14. It) ?critture Merite (1632), 103: 8Sr. 1O to his coat of arms the Castle of Sao Jorge in remembranGe of his achievements there "). •.. .<... The world was rapidly becoming larger. In the space of two generations the whole western roast of Africa was made aGCessible to the heralds of the Gf Spain and Portugal, fortunately, did.' Spain promised that she would look after . the evangelization of the West Indies; Portugal promised to 'do the same for the I East Indies along with Africa's West and East coasts. Not doubting their sincerity . r for a moment Pope Alexander VI on May 4, 1493, divided the world into two vast missionary territories and co=anded in virtu~.of holy obedience "that the mainland and islands discovered be supplied with uprigllt and God-fearing missionaries, learned, experienced and skilled, so that all people living in these lands whether they be native to the land or only colonists could be properly instructed in the Catholic faith and good morals" 88). An emergency had to be taken care of; this was the solution found SO). For the moment there were no difficulties because Spain and Portugal were the only colonial powers in the world. -:I- As long as Caramansa lived, however, Edina did not accept the faith. Elsewhere on the West Coast, however, the faith was making advancesXThe paramountf " 1C hief of Congo accepted the faith and was baptized on May 3:1491, ~ wjth . ' six of his noblemen <0). l! was 1503 before the first Paramount Chief on the Mina Coast was converted, and then with startling success I Diogo de Alvarenga, an eyewitness, described the whole event for King Manuel I in a letter be wrote to him from the City of Sao Jo~ge on August 18, 1503. ~ V '-, " ) MMA (1485,1952), 1:49. '-" ") The sojourn is mentioned in Fernand Colom'b, fol. 9, in La Ronciere, La Decouverte De L' Afrique (1927), 3: 48. . ") Welch, Europe's Discovery of South Africa (1935); 230. as) ...... mandamus vobis in virtute sanctae obedientiae (sicut pollicemini, et non dubi- "tamus pro vestra maxima devotione et regia magnanimitate vos esse facturos) ad terms finnas et insulas praedictas viros probos, et Deum timentes, doctos, peritos. et expertos ad lnstruendum incolas. et habitatores praefatos in Fide Catholica, et bonis moribus imbuen- dum destinare debeatis, omnem dehitam diligentiam in praemissis ai:lh.ibentes/' Alguns Documentos (1493,1892), 68. h) Dr. Hoffner maintains that this decree was no bestowal of the hemispheres upon Spain and Portugal, that it was not fonnally an arbitration measure, but that its principal object was to insure the carrying on of mission work. See Hoffner, Christentum Vnd Men- Bchenwiirde (1947), 162f. <0) Pino, Chronica dEl Rei Dom Joiio II, cap. lxii, in MMA (1504 ,1952), 1:121£. 11 ~ First he told of the good prospects of one day seeing the Paramount Chief of Komenda accept the faith. Allured by the tempting commercial offers of the captain in the Castle of Sao Jorge, Nana Xeryfe on July 22 previous had come as close as three cannon shots to the castle with all his tribe. That is, they approached as far as the western limit of Edina. On their way they had cut a path through the jungle to make it possible for Komenda merchants to get through with their goods for trade. Alvarenga was sent with an escort of eight crossbowmen to speak with Chief Xeryfe and try to gain his friendship. The parley was successful, for the Chief not only pledged his friendship but even assured Alvarenga that he hoped to become a Christian some day. There were likewise hopes that the Chief of Anpia ( I) would become Christian ~a ._ Alvarenga's report stated that two days after Xeryfe's visit he had a similar meeting with the Paramount Chief of Efutu. It was July 24th, the eve of the feast of St. James, when Alvarenga, the vicar and a number of the garrison weht into ·1 Efutu territory. It was not far; they merely had to cross the River Benya to get l there. No doubt due to an arrangement of the captain of Sao Jorge Castle similar 1 to that made with Xeryfe, the Chief of Efutu was waiting for them. The group from the fort approached the Ciiief in procession, the first one carrying a cross. Soll)e business matters were quickly discussed as ordered by the captain, and then ., ·"'!most imm. .d iately ~e CJ:Uef, Nana S~, .expr~ed the desire to receiv~ bap- , tlSm. The VIcar bapttzed him on the spot, glVlng him the name of the late King of . Portugal, Joao. Along with him six noblemen were also baptized. . On the moming of the following day, Tuesday, the vicar and Alvarenga and members of the garrison again crossed the river and went atop the flat hill where the newly baptized Chief had a shelter quickly put up in which Mass was to be offered for him "j: When the walls and roof were finished, the vicar put on his ' surplice and stole again as on the previous afternoon. God then deigned graciously to shed His grace upon the bystanders, said Alvarenga, stirring up in them the desire for baptism. The Chief's son was baptized, taking the name of the contemporary King of Portugal, Manuel. Two of the Chief's wives were baR-tired .t~ one no doullt..fu§!. =Iting.clL~.!LI>!.0~e ~bo_u.~~g_~~ concubinage, theEI'port of Which sll.~~b1y_.gg~Qt und~flitand~ Elders, coll!.lCtlors::a!>d suI).. chiefs alSo asKiii!-ror baptism, as well as other important people. All told, they amounted to some 300 persons. But that was not all. When these more important members of the tribe had· been baptized, all the others roundabout approached the vicar and also receive,( the holy waters of baptism. There were more than a thousand of these. The children, once baptized, were snatched up by their ·p arents and .clasped to their bosoms. The baptisms over, both Alvarenga and the vicar set up an altar and cruci- fix in the tiny chapel and the vicar probably then offered the first Mass ill the new chapel, the Mass of St. James or, as the Portuguese called him, ll~. The little chapel was fairly sturdy, and Alvarenga wrote in his letter to King Manuel, "I feel that both God's glory and Your Highness' interests would be promoted if Mass could be sung in Santiago Chapel in Efutu territory every two weeks. In U) When the Congo Paramo~t was baptized in 1491, Mass was celebrated immediately after since his baptism had taken place in the morning. See Pins. Chronica dEl Rei Dom Joio II, cap. lxii, in MMA (1504,1952),1 :122. 12 that way the people will become more devout and better Christians. Should this sound advantageous to you, Your Highness ought to write to the captain that he should look after the chapel, and-you ought to send one more priest. Then the two here together with that one will have no excuse. It will mean very much for the glory of God and the interests of Your Highness, and at the same time the vicar will look upon this lessening of his labors as his reward ")." Lately baptized Manuel, son of the Efutu Chief, was in the City of Sao Jorge at the time Alvarenga wrote his letter "). Santiago Chapel atop the hill across the river from Sao Jorge Castle would not remain forever, but the name Santiago or St. Jago would. The Dutch would come and build a fort where the chapel once stood, giving the name Santiago to their fort. When they changed its name to Fort Conraadsborg, the hill on which the fort was standing took on the name Santiago or St. Jago, and has kept it down to our own day"). Before finishing his letter Alvarenga reminded the King that Axim was badly in need of a chaplain. Over this point he showed special concern because he had just been assigned to go there. It made him shudder, to think of how many had died off at Axim and were still dying without the last rites of the Church. But a chaplain was not the only need at Axim. The royal merchandise there, he assured the King, would in short order be ruined if the negligent captain at Sao Jorge Castle did not get a reminder from the King himself to finish the warehouse, until then only partly built. As for materials in Axim, there was simply nothing there to build with. The King would do well, he said, to send plaster and tiles and bricks and wood to finish it. Once that warehouse was in order a thriving business could be conducted "). ' :..; X Missionary progress in West Mrica was beginning to demand closer cohtact , with a bishop. As a result, a new diocese, sUffragan to Lisbon, was foun~ed on . June 12, 1514. It was fairly without limit, embracing the west and east coasts of Mrica, India, China and Brazil. The diocese was named after the episcopal see, U) "Me parece seruj~ de Deus e de Vassa Alteza aqueUa jrmjda de Santyago dAfuto de xb e xb , Ibid., (1697/1952), 1:99-'102. 14 rapid succession; he was ordained priest by the end of December, 1520. SinC& a dispensation for the impediment of insufficient age was required for him to- become bishop, the Holy Father had pondered long before granting it, but heo considered both the exceptional qualities of the young Prince and the good that , would accrue to the faith as justifying reasons 00). The bishop was not at on= assigned to the capital city of Congo, but to a neighboring territory. On August / 25, 1526, his father begged Portugal's King to see if his son could not be transferredl to the capital city 6l). Some time later King Joao III invited Bishop Henrique- to visit the Holy Father in Rome to give a report on the state of the Church in: Congo "). . )l.On the Mina Coast the picture was quite different: The City of Sao Jorge w. .... first and foremost a trading center, a stopover for ships sailing down along the I West Coast to the Island of Sao Thome in the Guinea Gulf or to the Congo_' Its business was trade and it served only as a warehouse for merchandise that had to be traded off for gold to fill the royal treasuries. The officials in the Castle had quickly learned that being on good terms willi the surrounding Chiefs was absolutely necessary for abundant trade. So when. a new Chief came into office, they showered him .with gifts as was the case on, September 26, 1519. That day the man holding the office of Captain and Governor of the City of Sao Jorge da Mina, Fernao Correia, wrote out an order for Manuel, de Sande, then head agent in the Castle, to make several presents to the newly designated Chief of Komenda. The Chief was to be given several items .of clothing, some colored cloth, and a large copper kettle or basin. On the same day the Chief of Efutu was ordered given a thick woolen blanket for the cool nights. This blanket was to be principally an incentive for him to visit the new Chief of Komenda. and make peace with him '~). A few days later Duarte Pacheco Pereira arrived to take over the office of" Captain and Governor. On October 3, exactly one week after the previous presents. were ordered distributed, he directed the new agent who had taken office with him, Joao de Figueiredo, to shower the same two Chiefs with new presents, as well as the Chief of Anpia( ?) "). He likewise used presents to gain the good will of the, Chiefs of the Assans, Accanes, and Abermus (Aburas) in the following J;llonths~ as well as others roundabout 50). ' King J oao III, however, was not satisfied with his City of Sao Jorge remaining: only a trading post; he wanted to do something special for .the people of Edina and the merchants of surrounding tribes who came to trade at the fort. He wanted, - to give them not only merchandise for their gold but also the benefit of intellectual and spiritual goods. In short, he wanted to launch an earnest and intensive mis- sionary and educational program on the Mina Coast. On February 4, 1529, he made Estevao da Gama both Captain and Governor' of the City of Sao Jorge 50). Four days later he issued special regulations for hirn.. ") Cuvelier, L'Ancien Royaume De Congo (194{»), 315-322. ") MMA (1526 ,1952), 1:483f. ") Ibid., (1529{1952), 1:525. ") MMA (1519{1952), 1: 426f. ") Ibid., 428. U) Ibid., (1519-1520,1952), 1:430, 441--445. ") MMA (1529,1952), 1: 519. IS: the tenth chapter of which had to do with missionary work and schools. The King not only reco=ended but also co=anded that the captain carefully seek ",ut all excellent and honest ways possible to get the people of Edina and those from inland and adjacent tribes who came to the Castle for trading to accept the faith. So that, as he said, both they'a nd their posterity might attain salvation.)( J As for the people of Edina, King Joilo III had a very special instruction for the captain. "Take special care," he said, "to command that the sons of the Negroes living in the village learn how to read and write, how to sing and pray while min- istering in church, and (how to carry out) all other duties connected with ,divine services. It is my wish that those priests who have the office of vicar and chaplalns ",f the church there should take charge of these matters. Or, if they cannot, ,then $Orne other person who may be better qualified for the task, one of those mentioned f1!rther above, whom the captain should assign for the task ")." To give both the captain and the head master in the City of Silo Jorge special ;reason to be both willing and diligent in the matter, King Joao offered a handsome premium. The one who took upon himself the duty of teaching the above subjects for the space of a year, he said, was entitled to ~o Justps or their equivalent for each pupil instructed by him in that time. The premium was good for as many .as fifteen pupils, but no more. More than fifteen could be instructed, but then the -teacher got only his usual salary as an official of the City of Silo Jorge. This is easy to understand when one realizes how large an amount a Justo was: a piece of gold weighing 121 grains. Therefore the teacher who conducted a class of fifteen for a year was entitled to the handsome sum of 3630 grains of gold. And .to make sure the captain would not get jealous, would not impede the oteacher in the fulfillment of his obligations or the pupils, and would even be moved ,to take measures to see that the instructions were given, wise King Joao decreed 'that the captain should get exactly the same amount as the teacher, two Justos for each of one to fifteen pupils instructed per year. In addition to this the King wished to give the captain an incentive also to take care of the propagation of the faith in Edina. He promised him a Justo per convert made. As for the payment, it was to be made from the King'. own gold gotten by trade at the City of Sao Jorge. In an effort to check possible abuses in his school 'program, the King decreed that an exact record be kept in the archives of Sao Jorge, ordering that at the beginning of each year the .cnDes attached to the Castl~ enter in their books the exact number of those who had been taught to 'read and write and to assist at church services. They also had to record the exact 'number of those who had become Christians in the course of the year. Tills record ,with the financial report of the trading post went to the treasury in Portugal every -year, and so the annual progress or lack of it could be noted. As an afterthought, ;knowing the weaknesses of his officials at the Castle, wise King Joao added that if some of the pupils should discontinue their studies before the year was over, 17) " ... e aserca dos negros mandores da aldea, tern espe~al cuidado de mandar ensinar :30 ler, e a escreuer seus filhos, e a siruir na Igreia de resar e cantar, e todos os outros officios do officio deuino, da qual couza encomendo ao uigairo, e capeUaes que estiuerem na dita Igreia, que se queirno disso encarregar, ou qualquer outta p~a que 0 melhor saiba &Zer, ~quando eUes nao podem, e qualquer dos sobreditos, a quem 0 capitio isto encarregar." MMA (1529/1952), 1: 502 . .16 or if in the course of it one or the other should die, the teacher was to be paid correspondingly less, depend!!!g on how long the instructions had lasted. Today a school of fifteen pupils seems small to us. But in 1529 a class of fifteen who had to be taught to read and write was a large class 1 They had not the abun- dance of grammars and readers and teachers we have today. Nor did they have the huge buildings devoted exclusively to giving instructions. But that waS no reason for ignoring education altogether as was the case up until KingJoao took steps to rem- edy the matter. It was his aim to impart to a select group in the village a certain amount of European learning which he thought would surely benefit them. He had limited the special premium to the number fifteen, knowing well that if he set no ceiling, the school registers would have been filled with names, but not the school benches. Another part of the RegulatUms of the City of SiiO Jorge, the following chapter, had to do with the vicar and the chaplains assigned to the Church of Sao Jorge. "I order and command;" the King said, "that the said vicar and the chaplains always keep the said church very clean and in good order as well as its :vestments, chalices, liturgical books, surplices, censers, candies, and all other furnishings that are necessary for divine services. I command too that they perfoihr-tlieir sacred functions with the perfection due them. And as for all church goods men- tioned above, or any other things that may be necessary in the said church,' let the said captain send word to my agent and my scribes in the Casa de Guine, where I have a standing order that all things needed be sent to Sao Jorge Church as soon . as word to that effect arrives ")." The Regulations, written in Lisbon, were dated February 8, 1529 "). It seems strange that a King should have so much interest in and so much to say about the management of Sao Jorge Church. But when one remembers that as Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of Christ it was also his bounden duty, the matter becomes clear. When his decree was put into effect, the words of Barros were more true than ever, "In the Church of Sao Jorge today God is , praised and glorified not only by those of us Portuguese who go to that City, but . also by the MricanS~of that district who through baptism are numbered among the faithful ..) ." " As if keeping pace with the hoped-for developments on the Mina Coast, the vast Diocese of Funchal was broken up into several smaller dioceses on November 3, 1534, by Pope Paul III. At that time the Mina Coast became part of the newly erected Diocese of Sao Thome whose jurisdiction stretched from the Sassandra River of todays Ivory Coast to the Cape of Good Hope. The Holy Father's Bull ") HEncomendo, e mando 30 dito uigairo, e capellaes, que sempre tenhio a dita Igreia muyto limpa, e con~rtada com suas vestimentas e calizes, e liuros, sobrepeliyias, trihos, sera, e todos outros ornam.entos, e couzas necessarias, com que nosso Senhor seia seruido, e [0] officio deuino se fa~ com perfei~o, e quando as ditas couzas, ou alguas dellas forem necessarias na dita. Igreia. as mandari 0 dito capitio requerer 30 meu feitor, e escriuies da Caza de Guinee, que por minha ordenan~ lhas ande mandar quando uirem seu recado.H MMA (1529/1952), 1: 503f. M) Ibid., 502-504. He expresses the payment for the teacher as follows: "Quero que . .. haia em cada hii anno por cada hG m~ te quinse, que ensinar nas ditas cousas . . . dous Justos de ouro ou sua ualia . . '." Ibid., 502f. -) .... . Igreja de voca~o de Sio Jorge, em que hoje Deos he louvado, e glorificado, nAo s6mente dos nossos, que via 'quella Cidade, mas ainda dos Ethiopas da sua Comarca, que per Baptismo sao contados em 0 numero dos lieis." Barros, Asia I-3-ii (1552/1778),1: 169. 17 of erection, "Aequum reputamus," gives special mention to the Mina Coast, saying that "the village,. called City of Silo Jorge of the Mine of gold," is included in the jurisdiction of the new diocese 01). The first Bishop of the new Diocese, appointed the same day, was Diogo Ortiz de Vilhegas "). D. St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Francis Xavier Twenty years later, 1554, Joilo III was still King. In the interval he had received many unfavorable reports about the clergy assigned to the Church of Sao Jorge. Some converts had been made, true. But it seems the abuses increased as did the converts, for the King had it on competent authority that the priests absolved from sins whether they had jurisdiction or not, not to mention worse things. What to do 1 He felt it was a great temptation for these priests without vows of poverty to be there, where gold was so abundant and so easy to be gotten. Had he not been obliged as early as 1529 to write to Captain Estevilo Da Gama at the City of Silo Jorge and lay down special regulations to hinder priests from coming there 1 Word had reached him that many a free-lance priest had shown up both at Sao Jorge and the other gold trading center at ~~ly to minister the Sacra- ments but altogether unauthorized by the bishop who had jurisdiction over that area. There was a strong suspicion, if not actual reports to the effect, that they were out to amass a fortune for themselves. To remedy the matter the King ruled on June 25, 1529, that henceforth even if chaplains had a royal decree which assured them of food and shelter and all other usual things, the captain at Silo Jorge as well as all his successors was not to give them anything whatsoever nor to consent to their ministration of even a single Sacrament unless they first showed the credentials they had received from the bishop or his substitute. Let this instruction of mine, he said, be entered in the Regulations g6verning this City so that it may be observed for all time "). King Joao came to the decision that perhaps order priests were the solution. The order he turned to, one that was still very young and yet had made a great name for itself as a teaching and missionary order, was ~..&!iciety of JesllS, popularly known as the Jesuits. In 1546 they established a P~-vince of their order , in Portugal an~ in 1554, when Joao III had decided to send them to Sao Jorge, Fr. Diego Mir6n was Provincial. "The Queen told me," wrote Fr. Mir6n from Lisbon on September 30, 1554 "), "that the King has decided to send two Fathers of the Company to a part of Africa very near Guinea called Min"a, a place where gold comes from. The territory has the most unhealthy climate of all territories' in Portuguese possession. It has only one port and one administrative district. The people there are Negroes. The King has come to this decision because of the bad reports he has received concerning the clergy there who a~olve from everything, etc. He would like to have two Fathers Qf the Company there, and no one else ")." 11) ". .. oppidom, civitas nuncupatum Sancti Georgii Minae aun .. /' Paiva Manso, Ristoria D o Congo (1534/1877), 63 . U) StrcitwDind.inger, Bibliothcca Missionum (1951), 15:325. ") MMA (1529 /1952), 1 :519f. 14) This information is contnined in an undated postscript written by 8 secretary different from that who wrote the letter of September 17, 1554, to which it was appended. Internal evidence, however, shows that the postscript was written on September 30th of that year. n) ". . . . La Reina me dixo que detreminava el Rei mandar dos Padres de la Compania , una parte de Mrien, que se llama )0 Mina, de donde viene el oro, que est&. mas ceres. de 18 The letter was addressed to Fr. Juan de Polanco, S.J., then Secretary to St. Ignatius Loyola at the Gesu in Rome where the Society of Jesus had its Generalate. Unfortunately the Archives "fThe Jesuits are silent as to the response given- by St. Ignatius of Loyola, and so we shall never know the real r~on why he did not accept the ~ion .. ~as i~ the sicke~g climate that m~de him hesitate? Or ./ was It because his InlSSlonartes were haVIng so much trouble' ln Portuguese Congo 1 v ' Or was it rather because all his available personnel had to be sent to the new expanding Abyssinian and Brazilian missions 1 We can only guess "). :t- v / Although the Jesuits never went to the Mina Coast as missionaries, there are those who would have us believe that at least one Jesuit set foot on land there, the greatest of all Jesuit missionaries, St. Francis Xavier 01). Now it is true that there have been many important historical figures at the City of Sao Jorge on the . Mina Coast. Christopher Columbus for one, as already mentioned. Then Vasco da Garna stopped there on his first voyage on July 22, 1497. There was Bartolomeu Dias, too, who was captain of a ship that brought supplies there and he was himself once Captain and Governor of the City "). But unhappily there is no indication whatever that St. Frap.cis Xavier was there in 1541 on his voyage to India, the only time he ever passed Mrica's West Coast. Those who assert the Saint was on the Gold Coast go principally upon the assumption that the Saint's ship had to stop at Sao Jorge to take on water and food like other ships going down West Africa's coast to the Congo "). But ships headed for India did not take the same route as ships headed for the Congo. Leaving Lisbon they made as straight a line as possible from Lisbon through the Cape Verde Islands to a point east of Brazil. There they shifted their position to catch the winds which drove them straight to the southern tip of Mrica wi,th the first stopover at Mozambique 70). It was precisely for this reason that s!:!ips putting out from Lisbon for India were well stocked with dried biscuits, salted fish and salted meat, wine and casks of water. Running into calms at the equator on both sides of Mrica was the usual and expected thing. The crews were in mortal dread Ginea. Es tierra la mas enferma que ay de todas las que naviegan los portugeses: alli no ay m.3.s de un puerto y una capitania. La gente de la tierra son niegros. La causa porque se mueve el Rei es, porque tiene mala relaci6n de los cIerigos que est3.n alli., que absolven de todo, Etc.: querria poner dos Padres de la Compania, y que no vuiesse ningun otto .. . " Archives of the Society of Jesus at the Generalate, Rome, Epp./va NN. vo!' 69, I, fo!' 362. Published in Monumenta Historica Societatis lesu - Epistoiae Mixtae IV (Matriti, 1900), 348. M) The Archivist kindly tried to locate the response for me, but in vain. "Avendo esaurito tutte Ie possibilita per trovare la risposta del P. Polanco al Provinciale Mir6n .. . mi trovo costretto di risponderLe che non sono riuscito di trovarla." Teschitel, Personal Letter, October 25, 1952. The Congo difficulties are mentioned in van Wing, Etudes Bakongo (1921), 39-43. '7) "n est certain que la fiotille portugaise OU se trouvait Ie Saint s'arr~ta a Elmina en 1541. St. Fran~ois Xavier y ceIebra la messe et pr~cha. Peut-E:tre fit-il des baptE:mes et les ancetres des Minas purent Ie voir et l'enten4re." See P., "Voyage De Saint FranfOis Xavier Sur Les Cotes Africaines," in La Croix Au Dahomey (December, 1952), 3. D) Welch, Europe's Discovery of South Africa (1935), 217f. b) ...... I'on du s'ard!:ter plusieurs fois pour embarquer des vivres frais, car it fallait craindre Ie scorbut qui decimait si facilement equipage et passagers." P., "Voyage De Saint Fran~ois Xavier Sur Les Cates Africaines," in La Croix Au Dahomey (December, 1952), 2. TO) ". ... por 10 menos son necessarios seis messes para de Lisboa llegar aG oa, no tomando ni descubriendo ordinariamente otra tierra sino la isla de Mo~bique . .." Valignano, Vita , S, Francisci Xavern, in Monumenta Xaveriana (1564/1900), 9. 19 of them, because if they were of long duration the water supply gave out. There would have been no grounds for such a fear had they taken the longer way along the coast with its ample opportunities to stop for water "). Some again argue that tradition on the Gold Coast today says St. Francis Xavier was there. If it were true that he was there, it would seem very strange if " the tradition should exist any place but at E1mina, the modem site of the City of Sao Jorge. In fact, even if it existed there - it doesn't ") - it would be highly suspect because in 1541 at the very beginning of his missionary career the Saint enjoyed no renown. He still had to make a name for himself. When he passed Africa's West Coast be was just Father Francis Xavier, one of the many missionaries aboard ships heading south. Others see in St. Francis Xavier's own letter the proof for their thesis that the Saint was at Sao Jorge or at least elsewhere on the West Coast of Africa, for from Mozambique he wrote on January I, 1542, in his first and only report of the voyage, that he had been seasick for two montha and had run into forty terrible days off the coast of Guinea, there being no wind and the worst of sailing weather. But he goes on to say that the fa.mirle and thirst aboard ship was frightful, and it was relieved only when "Our Lord God in His great mercy saw fit to guide us to an island. There we have remained to the present day." That island was Mozam- bique"). . People of the Gold Coast can pray to St. Francis Xavier, patron of world missions along with the Little Flower, as to a man who has felt the same scorching equatorial heat which they must bear. And though his ship was beyond the horizon when it passed Gold Coast shores, they can rest assured that the praying heart of Xavier reached out to them, begging of God then as it does now the grace that each of them might come to know, love and serve God in this life and be happy with Hiro forever in the next. E. P<>rtuguese Augustimans Teach Reading and Writing Although the Jesuits did not found a mission and open schools on the Mina '. Coast, another religious order did. T hat was the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, better known as the Augustinians. King Jo.o III, the great promoter of schools, 11) Ibid., 13. These details are given in Fr. Alessandro Valignano's biography of St. Francis Xavier which his Superior General commissioned him in 1564 to write, telling him to use the utmost care in gatbering the details affecting the lives of Jesuits destined foe the missions in India. In India he consulted with two Jesuits who had often conversed with the Saint. Ibid., xxiii. ") van Heesewyk, Personal Letter, September 20, 1952. T') "De Lisboa .. . . partimos a siete de Abril del al\.o de 1541. Anduve por la mar mareado dos meses, pasados [pasando?] mucho travajo quarenta dfas en la cuesta de Ginea, as! en grandes calmas como co no ayudarnos el tiempo. Quiso Dios nuestro Seftor hazemos tao grande merced de trahemos a una isla, en la qual estamos fasta el ella presente . .. De Mo~bique el primer ella de Enero de 1542." Xaverius, Epistolae S. Francisci Xaverii, in Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu (1944), 67:91, 93 . "Beiligend schicke ich Ihnen die drei Seiten Anmerkungen Threr Dissertation zuriick. P. Schurhammee bat darauf die gewohnliche Reiseroute nacb Indiea gezeicboet. Es besteht wirklich gar keine Wabrscheinlicbkeit, dass Xaver in Guinea laodete. Es ist mic such kein einzigee Fall nus jenen Jahren bekannt, wo eine solche Landung der Indienmissionare be- richtet wird ..." Wicki, Personal Letter, November 1, 1952. Fe. Scburhammer is th~ authority on St. Francis Xavier, and Fr. Wicki is the authority on journeys to India of the first Jesuit missionaries. 20 had died fifteen years before the arrival of the first four Augustinians at the City of Sao Jorge in 1572. Perhap~ was King Sebastiiio himself or someone else in the royal family who had prevailed upon Fr. Agostinho de Castro, Provin-cral of the Portuguese Augustinian Province, to send these first of his priests to this part of the world "). Superior of the small band was Fr. Gaspar dos Anjos. His companions were Frs. Pedro da Gra9", Jose de Moraes, and Jer6nimo da Encarna~ao "). With all possible zeal they undertook their task, beginning at once an intensive apostolate in the village of Edina. It did not take them long to see that spiritually the village was sorely neglected. True, many were baptized, approximately one in twenty. But that was about as far as Christianity went. Not a one of the baptized persons bad been married before a priest. And when asked why not, they said simply that no one had ever said it was obligatory. Consequently they bad gone on using their own marriage rites. Neither did they know the other obligations of a Christian. Apparently the educational program advocated and enjoined by Joao III in 1529 . did not long endure. Some of the more promising lads of Edina, however, seem to have been sent to Portugal to learn reading, writing, and Portuguese etiquette, as well as other subjects, so that on their return they could serve as qualified teachers "). The Fathers went about their task systematically. After dividing the village oi Edina into sections, each took a section and there gave regular catechetical in- structions and lessons on how to read. As someone writing from the Castle of Sao Jorge on September 29, 1572, described it, he bad seen many boys both little and big with papers and books in their bands heading for the places where classes were being held "). He said it was his conviction that the system of baving schools in Edina itself was just as good as if not better than sending lads off to_Portugal to study. Explaining the courses, he said it was impossible to begin immediately with full courses in religious instruction because the people simply were not prepared for it. First they had to learn elementary concrete things before they would be able to grasp the spiritual and supernatural truths so necessary to get a clear understanding of the faith. , Fortunately there was a zealous vicar in office at the same time, Fr. Martim Gon~vez, who did the same for the mulatto children within the Castle that the missionaries did for the children in Edina. Up until this time, too, the matter of regular attendance at Divine Services bad been neglected, people and children excusing themselves from them and from .r egular attendaDce at .instructions for one reason Of another. ") Lanteri, Eremi Sacrae Augustinianae Pars A1tera (1875), 283 . ") Crusenius, Pars Tertia Monastici Augustiniani (1890), 621£. ") Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa, Fundo Geral, C6dice no. 8.457, fls. 103r. e v. e 107v., nlS. inedito, em c6pia do sec. XVII, in Dias Dinis, Personal Letter, February 8, 1953. "Ouvi dizer aqui que se mandavao levar desta terra algiius m~, pera que aprendio boos costumes e letras e depois virem ensinar a seus naturaes, cousa por certo maravilhosamente feita ..." Ibid. The entire report InfcmnOfdo cia Mina, from which this and the following information is taken, was written in Sao Jorge Castle on September 29,1572. The document is anonymous. '") ..... lB. fora, na aldea, onde me dizem que cada hum em sua parte ensina a doutrina e a ler; e vejo andar muitos negros, man~bos e mocos, com papeis e livros nag maos." Ibid. 21 The children living inside Sao Jorge Castle assisted at Mass in Sao Jorge Church, as well as the other converts. The missionaries, however, had thought it would be more convenient for the people of Edina - and also more practical because they expected a large congregation - if there were a chapel in the village itself. What they did as soon as the decision was taken and permission from the captain in the fort gotten to go ahead with the plan, was to put up a huge cross in an open field and erect an altar at the foot of that cross. Until the walls and roof could be built around it, that spot served as their church. And it was there that they offered Mass at a definite time every day and there that they taught prayers to their Christians and prospective Christians. They also planned to have registered all those who had been baptized before their arrival, and then call off their names at the beginning of instructions to see if they were in attendance or not. This would have the additional advantage, they thought, of the baptized hearing their Christian names. For as it was, as long as they were' gathered together in the presence of the missionaries, they went by their Christian names. But once the gathering broke up, they went by the names by which they were still known in their village - by which they had been known since their birth. A John was called Tabo, and a Mary was called Adu~. There was another plan discussed by the missionaries, namely whether or not it would be more advantageous to create a Christian section in the village of Edina, so their Christians could be together near the fort. As it was, the Christians were living mixed in with those who were still pagan, and when it came time to carry on the usual fetish worship, it seemed that the Christians succumbed to the temptation and joined the rest in the pouring of libations and other ritual per- formances "). It goes without saying that the books from which the pupils were taught to read were in Portuguese, not the vernacular of Edina. Most probably they used the grammar of Joao de Barros, published in 1539, the first grammar of the Portuguese language "). Barros intended his book to be an instrument for spreading the faith because as reading lessons he chose the Commandments of God and the Church, a treatise on the Mass and also some prayers. His grammar was divided into two parts. The first part taught the art of reading. In order that beginners could better remember the letters of the alphabet, he placed above each letter the picture of an object, the name of which began with that letter. For example, he would put an A below an anchor, a B below a book, a C below a cat, and so forth. This help for the memory proved so effective, and the system so practical, that 250'years later it was still being used in Portugal. The second part of his grammar was devoted to grammatical rules and to orthography"'). The Laubach technique, used in Mass Education Courses in the Gold . Coast today, works on a slightly different principle. In this system simple drawings are used to suggest the shape of the first letter of the word Bl). 71) The source mentioned in note n. 76 ends here. 'H) " .. • foi 0 primeiro Author que reduzio nossa lingua a Arte .. ," Faria, Vida de Joaa De Barros) in Barros, Asia I (1778), xxii. The title of the grammar was: Grammatica da lingua portuguesa com os mandamentos da santa madre igreja (Luis Rodriguez, Lisbon, 1539), 56 folios in octavo. See Streit-Dindinger, Bibliotheca Missionum (1951), 15:641£, n. 2195. ") Faria, Vida de Jolla De Barros, in Barros, Asia I (1778) xxi-xxii. n) Achievement In The Gold Coast (1951), 40. ' 22 In 1573, just one year after the first four Augustinians arrived at Sao Jorge, two more came. They were F!'!.:.pomingo de Santa Maria and Atanasio da Cruz. Mendo de Mota, Captain and Governor of the City, saw to it that a monastery was built for them the very next year. It, like the City, was called Sao Jorge. With the arrival of the first Augustinians, the folk of Edina must have seen a new statue added to the number used during the feastday processions, it being Portuguese custom to carry statues in procession whenever a feast of special importance was to be celebrated. The new statue was one of the Augustinian Saint, Nicholas of Tolentino, who died in 1306. A Confraternity of St. Nicholas of Tolentine was established almost from the start of the mission, and through the intercession of that Saint many miracles were performed which did much to promote conversions in Edina and roundabout .'). ,. Using Sao Jorge Monastery as a base the missionaries carried on an intensive f apo§tolate not only in Edina but also in the surrounding '!Ountry .'). On every side their work was blessed and it seemed the hour of faith had come for the Mina Coast .'). Fr. Pedro da Gra~ ha4 a way with people and took the lead in convert work. The missionaries, six in number, divided themselves into thre.e groups. One group stayed in the monastery of Sao Jorge and the other two groups went to the Komenda and the Efutu tribal areas, both of which could soon boast of their own churches 86). Before 1576 was over, the Par"!1lount Chief of Efutu along with six of his sons and three of his nephews was baptized. (The other Efutu Chief baptized in 1503 was long dead.) The Paramount Chief of Komenda too was converted along with his firstborn son. Contact was also made with the Paramount Chief of Abura and as a result he too and many of his tribe were won over to the faith 88). Whether the missionaries were located in the capital cities o{ these I U) Cruseruus, Pars Tertia Monastici Augustiniani (1890), 621f. Here he lists the monas- tery as "Conv. Georgii in Regno Minae, alias Angolae in Africa . .." "Angola" is evidently 1,- an erroneous insertion on the part of the author, no other source speaking of Mina as a part of or synonymous with Angola. The City of Sao Jorge is definitely in question, first, because the earliest source of all, written by one who had the manuscript of Fr. Pedro da Gra·Yl at his disposal giving the history of the mission, says that this Father converted the Chiefs of Efutu and Komenda, neighbors of the Elminians. See Antonius a Purificatione, 'De Viris Illustribus (1642), 95v, 96r. Secondly, because the document mentioned above in note n. 76 explicitly says a Fr. Jer6nimo was one of the newly arrived order priests at Sao Jorge da Mina in 1572. Now Crusenius says that in that year one of the four Augustinians sent to Mina was Fr. Jer6nimo cia Encarnac;:ao. See Crusenius, Ibid. IU) I have not been able to ascertain whether this monastery was built in the town of Edina or in the City of Sao Jorge. The former would seem to be the case since they had their church in town, and the custom was to build the monastery near the church. a.) "Statim coeperunt Christi Evangelium cum ingenti fructu disseminare, multosque indigenas ad Catholicam Fidem convertenmt." Crusenius, Ibid. to) Scritture Riferite (1632), 103:85r. M) "Religiosissimus Pater Pettus a Gratia Algarbiensis . .. ab anno salu~s 1572 Pro- vincialis vices tenens in Regno Congo, & Mina (ubi eo tempore tria extabant monasteriola nostri Ordinis huic Frovinciae subiecta) historiam scripsit, in qua eorum fundationem, & . progressum explicavit: & quorundam Fratrum nostrorum, qui in illis regionibus pro Christo animas posuere, felicem exitum de voto (sic) carmine decantavit; opus tamen nondum prodiit. Ipse autem mem.orabilis vir Petrus in illis partibus zeto Catholicae Religionis incensus ad fidem convertit ab anno 1576 Regem Afutensem sex:que ejus fllios, & tres nepotes; item Regem Camanensem, filium [que] ejus primogenitum; item Regem Abramuzensem, .& magnam populi multitudinem .•." Antonius A Purificatione, De Viris Illustribus III-II (1642), 95v, 96r. Note tliat "-ensem" is • La1in ending in each case. In early orthography 23 tribal areas, is impossible to say. The capital of Efutu was some eight miles inland from Edina, that of Abura called Aburakrampa ten miles straiglit north of modem Cape Coast, and that of Komenda nine miles to the west of Edina. The Komenda on the shore was called Little Komenda and another Komenda ten or twelve miles northwest of Edina was called Great Komenda or Eguafo. It was at the latter village that the Paramount Chief usually resided though he also came down to the coastal village for perioda of time "). AU went along splendidly for a while in the mission stations at Efutu and Komenda. But then one day the natives in·a fit of anger feU upon the missiol)llries, beat thew.. to death, tore open the tabernacles and ran off with the precious cibori- urns and the more precious Holy Eucharist. Monstrance, altar clotha, missal, I priestly vestments, statues - all disappeared "). It may weU be that the cause was a misunderstanding that arose between the City of Sao Jorge officials and the tribes. In any case, the missionaries had to suffer for it, and the flame of faith that had at first burned 80 brightly was snuffed out. No more Augustinians came to take over the ransacked stations, nor did the vicar or chaplains have the courage or zeal to do 80. Fr. Pedro da Gra~'s life was spared, no doubt because he was already elsewhere fulfilling his new office as VlSitator General of the churches on the entire Guinea Coast, remedying abuses and checking vices of both cleric and colonist. He wrote a history of the mission work carried on at the Mina Coast, but unfortunately it was never printed and today all trace of the manuscript has been lost eo). and even today vowels are often variously written. "The kingdom of Great Commcndo or Commany or Aguaffo, borders ... east on Oddena or Mina, a little commonwealth between Commendo and Fetu" (Barbot, Description of Guinea, 154). Other forms of Efutu in the sources are Fetu (Bo~man, New Description of Guinea, 46), Mato (Scritture Rifente, t03: 85r), Futo and Muto (MMA, 1:191, 427f, 443), Mutu (Meyerowitz, Akan Traditions of Origin, 71f). Other forms of Komenda are Commani (Atlas of the Gold Coast, Map No. 19), Cumane (Scritture Mente 103: SSr), Commando (Colombin de Nantes, Relation Inedite, 11), Commedo (Analecta O.F.M.Cap., 22:215), Acomane and Comane (MMA, 1:426, 428). Rex Abramuzensis "can only be the paramount chief of the State of Abura - capital Aburakrampa at 10 miles straight north of Cape Coast" (van Heesewyk, Personal Letter, September 20, 1952). Du Casse, writing in 1688, spelled it "Abrambo" (Memoire Sur Son Voyage, 10). That the Portuguese in Sao Jorge were already in contact with the Para- mount Chief of Abura State at this time is evident from Governor Pacheco Pereira's order given ?n August 8, 1520, that the presents demanded by him (elRey dos Abermus) be given him since the path of the merchants who came to Sao Jorge passed. through his tribal area.: Joao Vieira was to take the presents to him, accompanied by two carriers and an interpreter. Pacheco Pereira's secretary spelled the name "Abermus," but he himself wrote "Bremus." See MMA, 1: 4, 444f. ~) Barbot, Description of Guinea (1732), 154. ") ". .. per il tempo avanti si andarono facendo alcuni Christiani con la conversatione de bianchi, et si fabricO una Chiesa in Cumane Terra di un Re nostro vicino, che resta dalJa parte di occidente da questa fortezza, et un altra in Afato, che resta a Tramontana. Terre de Re convicini, i, quali uccisero a pure percosse, i, Religiosi, che vi stavano, et presero, i. Sacramenti, et Suppellettili delle Cbiese di maniera che non vi fu mai piu christianita." Scritture Riferite 103:8Sr. -) Antonius A Purificatione, De Vms Illustnbus (1642), 95v. "Malheureusement Ie ms. de Fr. Pedro da Gra~ ne se trouve plus nulle part ... Moi-m8me je Ie cherche pour la publication integrale dans rna MONUMENTA MISSIONARIA AFRICANA ..." Brisio, Personal Letter, September 29,1952. 24 Any.one wh.o believes that the early missi.onaries had n.o method, need .only- review the w.ork.of the Augustinians .on the Mina Coast. And as for JGng J.oao· III, his name shall live .on as--ene who took his religi0n and his rega! .office_of provider for the common good - even the good of his colonial su1;>jects - to> heart. F. Propaganda Congregation Assumes Control The Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, composed.of Cardinals and f.ounded. by P.ope Gregory XV in 1622, had as its principal aim the direction and supervisi.on. .of missi.on work which by that time had c.ome t.o be quite neglected in many- Portuguese and Spanish possessi.ons. Fr.om then .onwards whenever problems were submitted t.o the P.opes that had t.o d.o with missi.on territories, the P.opes. let the Pr.opaganda take care .of the matter in their name. Pr.opaganda was n.ot yet ten years .old when P.ope Urban VIII in 1630.or 1631 received the f.oll.owing letter: "Most Blessed Father! Because the Island .or- rather the Land .of Milla under the P.ortuguese Cr.own, lying in the m.ost rem.ote, parts .of India, does n.ot have its .own bish.op, and since the .one t.o wh.om recourse, must be had in cases .of necessity is far away and can be reached .only with difficulty and great cost .of time and m.oney, the vicars and chaplains 00) in that jurisdictionali area beg Y.our H.olifiess to give them and their successors in perpetuity the faculti"", f.or confessi.ons granted t.o bish.ops by the Council .of Trent in Can.on 6 of its, twenty-f.ourth sessi.on, 'de ref.ormatione.' They w.ould like the faculties t.o be just like th.ose which Y.our Holiness gave a sh.ort while ag.o t.o the discalced Car- melites in Arabia. They would like in addition the faculties t.o administer the Sacrament .of Confirmati.on, bless vestments and .other items necessary f.or Mass,. consecrate chalices and altar stones. His Divine Majesty will greatly pr.ofit by the granting of these faculties, and they will bring both spiritual and temp.oral consola-· ti.on to the peoples in that area ")." to) The words "Parochi" and "Curati" stand in this letter, which seems to indicate that it was written for the vicar by an Italian scribe aboard one of the ships that stopped at Sao-- lorge. The Italians would call a vicar and chaplaift by those nam.e3. A contemporary ex:' Governor's report about Sio Jorge speaks of a "Vicario con quattro Cappellani ... Vicar with four Chaplains." Scrittute Riferite 99: 14r. To avoid confusion, I shall continue to- use Portuguese terminology for. these offices, vicar and chaplain . . 11) "Beatissime Padrel L'Issola (, vero terra della Mina sotto la corona de Portugallo" giacendo in remotissime parti dell'lndie, et non tenendo Vescovo proprio, et stando molto. distante quello al quale si ricorre in casi di necessita con difficolta grande, spesa, et tempo. SuppIicano per tanto humilmente Vostra Santita Ii Curati, et Parochi sotto quella giuris- ditione quorum nomina etc., si degni ooncedergli et a suoi sucessori in perpetuum, che- possano dispensare nelli casi ch'll Cone. Tridentino concede alii Vescovi nel cap. [can. I] 6 .. sess. 24. de reformatione in quella stessa maniere che Vostra Beatitudine poco tempo fa concesse alli CarmeIitani Scalzi che stano in Arabia, et anoo che possano ministrare il Sacra- mento della Confirmatione, benedire Ii ornamenti per la Messa, et consecra.re calici, et ' piette d'Altare, dil che ne resultara grande servitio a sua divina Maesta, et consolatione - spirituale et temporate a quei populi, et il tutto etc." Scritture Riferite 391:36r. The letter ' is not dated but most probably was written in 1630 since it came up at the February 25,1631, . session of Propaganda. See Acta 7: 31, n. 36. "Cap. 6." is evidently the vicar's mistake because this chapter deals only with an ex- planation of the impediment of'abduction and gives no faculties to bishops. ~on 6 does, . and it was canon 6 that Propaganda and later the Collector of Portugal understood .... meant. See Concilium Tridentinum ••• Nova Collectio, Societas Goerresiana ed., (1924), . 9:970, 1011. Pope Urban VIII handed over the letter without more ado to the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide. When the letter was discussed at Propaganda's , -session of February 25, 1631, the immediate decision was that the faculty for , ..d ministering the Sacrament of Confinnation should not be given. But before further action could he taken, the Cardinals felt some questions should be answered. First of all where in the world was this Island called Mina 1 Who were the priests 'there 1 Were they truly in need of the faculties 1 Was the bishop of the opinion that the desired faculties be granted 1 How many Christians were concerned 1 All this had to be known before Propaganda could hope to render a wise .decision in the matter. Cardinal Trivulzio, the one who had brought the letter to the attention of the other Cardinals, did not know any more than what was in the letter. Neither was Fr. Frimcesco Ingoli better informed. Fr. Ingoli was the zealous, capable and well-informed Secretary of the Congregation, the real driving -spirit behind it. He would know if anybody should, because as early as January 15, 1622, the day after the first meeting of the newly founded Propaganda Congre- -gation, he as Secretary had written letters to all Nuncios asking for reports on the state and progress of mission work carried on in their districts and in the Jands possessed by the nations of whlch they were Nuncios 01). But nothing had been reported concerning an island in the Indies called Minai The outcome of the discussion was a resolution to write to both the Nuncio of Spain and the Collector of Portugal to see if either knew of the place "). On March 8th, two weep later, when the busy Secretary eventually got around "to letter writing, he must have been pressed for time because he wrote only to the Nuncio of Spain. He asked the Nuncio to be frank and give hls personal opinion .as to whether or not the faculties should be granted "). It must have been due to an oversight that he chose to write to the Nuncio of Spain, because the very petition says that, Mina was under the Portuguese Crown. For even though both Portugal and Spain were united under the same King since 1580, the King of Spain, each country had its own laws and privileges. Spain had a Nuncio, Portugal .. Collector. The Collector differed in name, but in prerogatives and faculties was .equivalent to a Nuncio OS). Spain's Nuncio answered briefly that Mina was a city in western Mrica between the episcopal see of Santiago in the Cape Verde Islands and the see of Sao Thom6"). He must have forwarded Propaganda'S letter to the Collector of Portugal for under tOf, Gescrucbte der Pipste (1929), 13 : 728, n. 4; Torres, La Bula Omnimoda De Adriano VI (1948), 300. M) Acta 7 (July 29, 1631) 106, n. 32. This is said to be the fint mention of Mina in the Acta, in Kilger, "Die Missionen in Oberguinea und in Ostafrika each den ersten Propa- .gandamaterialien (1622-1670)," in ZMR (1930) 297. But the first mention WllS in Acta 7 (February 25, 1631) 31, n. 36. 26 long report written by a trustworthy ex-Governor of Sao Jorge Castle, arrived in time for Propaganda's September 9th session, 1631 01) . From the abundant information sent it was clear that Mina was not an island at all, but "a city on the Guinea Coast five degrees and five minutes north of the equator, and over 700 miles from the Island of &lao Thome ")." From his use of the word "Mina," it was clear that the ex-Governor included both the City of &lao Jorge and the village of Edina, a change from former days. As for the word "Island" used in the vicar's first letter, that was more literary flourish than anything else. Literature of the period was wont to designate with that word any far off and romantic land. Or perhaps the vicar wished to make reference to the fact that Mina was almost an island, a peninsula, surrounded for the most part by water. In his report he had said it was more mainland than island "). The ex-Governor said a vicar subject to the Bishop of Sao Thome and four chaplains were attached to the Church of Sao Jorge. In the fortress ofAxim there was another vicar, wit1!.out chaplains, subject to the vicar at Sao Jorge. As to the number of Christians, he said there were some 400 in Mina, or Edina. The other 400 inhabitants would also be Christian if only the priests there lived exemplary lives and had the zeal and interest to propagate the faith. In fact, the people along the whole Mina Coast were all so well disposed that they would gladly accept the faith, he said, if only someone took the trouble to offer it to them. The village of Axim counted some 200 Christians and 300 pagans. There too all 500 would be Christians if only the vicar fulfilled his duty. Another place on the Mina Coast in whiGh HiS Majesty had an interest was Shama, a village of some 200, between Mina and Axim. The sole Christian there was the one Portuguese soldier whose duty it was to collect for His Majesty one-tenth of the daily catch of fish. While · still in office the ex-Governor had suggested to authorities in Portugal that a worthy vicar be stationed at Shama and that the priests at Mina and Axim be removed and worthy ones be sent to take their place, but nothing had been done about it 100). At hearing this Propaganda swung into action for it had been founded precisely to remedy abuses and negligences such as these. It ordered the Collector as overseer of all Portuguese missions to supply the Mina Coast with the desired type of Priests 101). When this news was sent to the Collector on September 20th, the Secretary mentioned that the Holy Father had been present when the report on the Mina Coast was read and had been highly pleased with the Collector's sending such a fine report. It was the Holy Father himself, said the $ecretary, who desired that the Collector be most diligent in searchiIig out worthy priests ") Acta 7 (September 9, 1631) 121f, n. 13; Scritture Merite, 99: 13f. The name appears also as "Tramolli." t8) "La Citta della Mina e sita nella Costa di Ghinea cinque gradi et minuti sotto l'eguinot- tiale della parte di Tramontaha, e distante piu di 200 leghe dall'Isola di S. Thome, che sta sotto I'istessa linea Eguinottiale." Scritture Riferite, 99: 14r. This is the position of modern E1mina. See Atlas of the Gold Coast (1945), Maps No.2 and 3. M) "L'Issola (, vero terra della Mina ... the Island or rather the maiiiland called Mina." Scritture Merite, 391:36r. Girolamo Nicolio. taking "island" literally. did not identifj this Mina with that on the Guinea Coast. See Combaluzier, Un inventaire des Archives de la Propagande, in Neue Zeitschrift fUr Missionswissenschaft (1947), 3: 56, n. 18. ''') Scritture Merite 99:14. See the map in Barbet, Description of Guinea (1732), 148: vol. 5, plate K. ''') Acta 7 (September 9, 1631) 121, n. 13. 27 to go to the Mina Coast. The names of those chosen were to be sent to Propaganda 80 the Cardinals could better keep tab of their missionary activity 101). In the letter he had sent along with the ex-Governors report, the Collector had told Propaganda that he thought it prudent to proceed cautiously regarding the desired faculties since the two vicars and four chaplains were not worthy of the favor to all appearances. He said that since Propaganda had asked his opinion in the matter, he would make the following suggestions: 1. As for the faculties granted by the Council of Trent to Bishops in the section which begins "Liceat," grant the faculties only to the vicar of Mina. Since the number of Christians is 80 small, he alone should suffice 101). 2. Before granting the above faculties, write to the Bishop of Sao Thome to see if he approves of the concession and judges the vicar worthy. 3. If the faculties are eventually granted, make it very clear exactly what cases are intended by the Council, 80 that under the name of excommunication and irregularity the priests of Mina do not understand all possible cases, matrimonial included. Else they may assume that they have the faculties to dispense in matri- monial cases and every other kind without the least restriction whatever and under the slightest pretext, which usually happens when such faculties are granted. 4. Likewise make it clear wben a case is to be considered occult and hence covered by these faculties. However, it might be better to be a bit more lenient than the direction issued by the Sacred Congregation of that Council was, so that on the one hand they do not consider everything as occult which has not been proved in court, and on the other that they do not consider as occult every- thing which is probably occult only on the basis of some slight reason, even if that reason be the matter's being secret. 5. Lastly, in regard to the faculties for blessing and consecrating, it should be sufticient to give faculties to the vicar of Mina alone. Let him bless all sorts of priestly vestments, corporals and palls included. But since the consecration of chalices and altars occurs so seldom, this should be left up to the Bishop 10'). After considering the pro's and con's, Propaganda decided to follow the Col- lector's advice and grant only the faculties for blessing vestments, palls and corporals. These faculties were not to be perpetual, but personal, and for the vicar of Mina alone 105). Propaganda informed the Collector of its decision at the time it asked him to get more priests for Mina. On November 1, 1631", the Collector answered and said he would do all in his power to have the desired priests sent there. In fact, he said, at that very moment plans were being made to send a new Governor to the Castle of Sao Jorge, a personal friend of his. The Castle had been without a Governor since the death of the previous one more than two years lot) Lettere Volgari 11: l07r & v. lOS) "Canon sextus. Liceat episcopis in irregularitatibus omnibus et suspensionibus, ex d~~cto occu1.to provenientibus, excepta ea, quae oritur ex homicidio voluntario, et exceptis ~J ded~cb.S ad ~orum contentiosum, d.i~pensare) et in quibuscumque casibus occultis, etJam Sedi Apostolicae reservatis, delinquentes quoscum.que sibi subditos, in dioecesi sua, per se .ipsos aut vicarium, ad id specialiter deputandwn, in foro conscientiae gratis absolvere. lDlpOSlta poenitentia salutari. Idem et in haeresis crimine, in eodem foro conscientiae, cis tantum, non eorum vicariis, sit permissum." Concilium. Tridentinum. ... Nova Collectio (Societas Goerres;ana ed.), (1924), 9 :101-1. 1") 8critture Riferite 99: 13r & v. "') Acta 7 (September 9, 1631) 121, n. 13. 28 before ".). It should not be hard, the Collector said, to make arrangements with him to take along as many missionaries as needed. And as for the Brief with faculties to bless vestments, palls and corporals, if it arrived on time the new Governor could take it along for the vicar of Mina. Propaganda learned of these good prospects on January 26, 1632, and hoped that two months later, when the new Governor was scheduled to sail, a zealous group of missionaries would accompany him 107). The vicar of Slio Jorge Castle at Mina sat down at his desk on October 23, 1632, to inform the Collector in Lisbon that the Holy Father's Brief with faculties for him had arrived ""). He was glad to see that his petition for faculties had received consideration in Rome, and he had decided to give Rome a glimpse into the spiritual life, pagan life, and history of Mina, so Rome could see how necessary the other faculties were for him. He told how Diego da Azambuja had received from Caramansa "9) the land on which the castle was built and how all the attempts to convert this Chief had been in vain. He told how churches had been built in Efutu and Komenda and the religious in charge there beaten to death, and all the church furnishings stolen. The contemporary generation of Christians in Mina, he went on to say, were Christians in name only, going to confession only under pressure, and then not even knowing how to make a good confession, or what to confess. As far as he could see, the greatest good being accomplished in Mina was the baptism of infants who died before attaining the use of reason. As for the African women who lived with the Portuguese traders in the fort, they were the only ones considered well enough instructed and properly disposed to receive Holy Communion. As for paganism, the village was rife with superstitious and magical rites of which the people were so fond that they allowed only every other child to be baptized ... and those baptized were quickly corrupted by their pagan brothers and sisters. Pyromancy, for example, was constantly made use of to tell the future, to learn the unknown. They would make a small fire, throw a green bough into it, and judge from the way the fire spurted what the answer to their question was. There was sortiIege too which the vicar considered an implicit pact with the devil. And the success the magicians had with this black magic was so much better than that of the Negroes in Mozambique and the East Indies, said the vicar, that the people unwittingly and irrevocably remained thoroughly enslaved by the devil. Edina, he said, had its own pagan priest to whom the people gave their full confidence llO). They would go to him to get water which they called holy, put it into their mouths, and then blow it out in a fine spray upon themselves and others. The pagan priest was even consulted by many so-called Christians, in secret of course, they placing more confidence in him than in their Catholic priests. "') Scritture Riferite 99: 14v. i "') Scritture Riferite 74:315; Acta 8 Ganuury 26,1632) 7f, n. 22. A 1641 document .uy. that a Pedro Mascarenez, newly appointed Governor of Sl10 Jorge, left Lisbon in 1632. This i. probablY the Collector'. friend. See Scritturo Riforito 83: 386r. 1ta) Scritture Mente 103:84r. 1") "Caramansa" or "Caramanza" is the fonn in this 1632 document. See Ibid. , 85r. 111) The vicar says he was called Sofo. But today Sofo is 8 term reserved for Catholic priests and Protestant ministen. The fetish priest is a Konfo or Komio. Hearing himself referred to 88 Sofo, the vicar may have believed that the pagan priest was also a Sofo. 29 Rocks too played a great role. The vicar said he rould not see how the people of Edina came to reverence rocks covered with the excrement and urine of swine, how they could call the rocks holy, and how it carne about that food was placed upon the rocks, to be eaten by the rocks, as the people said. There was an especially large rock in a field about a musket shot from the fortress, which was called, The Great Saint. Once a year they would gather to venerate this rock. And since it was near the ocean, it was often rovered over completely with sand, and then it took some time to find it. But once The Great Saint was actually found and unrovered, '" the pagans and the 'Christians' along with them gathered for the revelry and orgies which followed. All women in Edina joined in, those in the fort alone excepted. Magic, acrording to the vicar, was a passion with them, and magicians from the most distant places were invited to come to Edina. Although being grossly ignorant and not in league with the devil, they managed to deceive the people at every step, living on their lambs and other possessions which they claimed were necessary to perform their magical tricks. Actually the sole motive in all this hoodwinking was to make an easy living. Governor after Governor had tried to drive them out but with so little success that one could say of them what Tacitus in his first book of history had said about the Judiciaries of Rome: "Genus hominum Principibus infid~, credentibus fallax, a Civitate Nostra semper prohibetur, sed nunquam expulsum . ... A profession disloyal to rulers, treacher- ous towards those who trust in them, always forbidden residence in Our City, yet never expelled." This was the note on which the vicar of Mina ended his long report lll). When this report carne into the Collector's hands, he hesitated at first about sending it to Propaganda. The entire report seemed to him so utterly pessimistic, so different from the glowing reports he himself had heard from various retired officials of the Mina Coast, noblemen who had resided in the very same Sao Jorge Castle from which the report carne. They appeared to have been well acquainted with the village, and also the Collector felt he could trust them. He did not know about the vicar I Then too he suspected that perhaps the vicar was guilty of un- charitableness. Or again he thought the dour report manifested a probable lack of zeal since it seemed the vicar hoped all would be ronverted and live model Christian lives without his moving a finger. In any event, the Collector carne to the decision that nothing should be concealed from' Propaganda whose task it was to apply remedies where they were needed, For that reason he had the report translated from Portuguese into Italian and on April 30, 1633, wrote an acrompanying letter which he sent to Antonio Cardinal Barberini, Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda. In the letter he bewailed the {act that the propagation of the faith should have come to such a sorry pass, as the report implied, in this Portuguese colony which was one of the first the Portuguese had founded and also relatively close to the mother country, The Collector informed Propaganda that the Dutch - the then Calvinistic Dutch - were gradually gaining romplete control of this territory. Should that 111) 8critture Riferite 103: 85£. An. official of Propaganda or someone else who later consulted this report wrote on folio 86v: "Breve relatione den'Isola della Mina ... Short Report on the Island of Mina". See note 99. page 27. 30 happen, he knew, all hope for propagating the true faith would be lost. For what was true in Holland would also hold for this colony, and in Holland - as all knew only too well - even priv~divine services had been forbidden for Catholics. under penalty of severe fines in 1622, again in 1624, and again in 1629 112). But maybe for the sake of the faith, the Collector suggested, God Himself might intervene and somehow vanquish the more powerful Dutch where human means were inadequate 118). " The Holy Father,. Shepherd of all Christendom and Vicar of Christ on earth; was most interested in the progress being made throughout the world in mission lands and very often sat in at the sessions of the Propaganda Congregation. When the long report of the vicar of Sao Jorge at Mina and the Collector's accompanying letter were introduced at Propaganda's general session of August 29, 1633, in the Quirinal Apartments in Rome, Pope Urban VIII was with the nine Cardinals in attendance. His Holiness must have been saddened to hear how strong a hold paganism had on these people of Mina, and how the baptized were so engrossed in superstition and other vices that they could not be called real Christians, but Christians only in name. At once the question came up, What can be done to assist these poor people spiritually? Both the Holy Father and the Cardinals were eager to give whatever special help was needed. But just what was that help? The resolution was then passed to have the Collector gather all possible information on the best way of fostering the spiritual life of Mina, both from the vicar at Sao Jorge and from other persons in Portugal who formerly had been there lU). The letter carrying these orders was mailed a few days later, September 3, 1633 "'). His Excellency, Lorenzo Tramollo, titular Bishop of Geraca and Collector of Portugal, was a conscientious and obedient prelate as well as efficient, always working hand in hand with the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda. Just a bit more than two years before, he had been told that Propaganda was desirous of getting periodic reports from him on mission progress so that the progress could be noted in the Acts of the Sacred Congregation which would later be used for writing mission history m). He had answered under date of May 3, 1631, saying that he would faithfully report everything that came his way and would make suggestions as he saw fit for the advancement of the .h oly work of the missions 117). So Propaganda waited for his answer, confident that he would propose wise meas~ ures, the fruit of his inquiries. But word from him never came, for the following year he was succeeded in office by Bishop Alessandro Castracani. This new Collector concentrated his attention on rectifying the unjust practice of the State in taking for itself all the goods left by the faithful to the Curch with the obligation of offering Masses and ·performing pious works. The quarrel that ensued resulted in Lisbon's being placed under interdict and the Collector being driven out of Portugal in l639U 8). "') These dates are given by Pastor, Gescbichte der Papste (1929),13 : 781. lIS) Scritture Rifente 103:84. 'U) Acta 8 (August 29, 1633) 293, n . 21. "') Lettere Volgari 13:96r. "') Ibid., 10: 146f. 117) Scritture Riferite 99:10. Propaganda's letter, dated December 31,1630, is incorrectly referred to in this source as of October 31, 1630. The error may have been due ,to seeing the date written "Xbris." and then considering it the tenth month instead of Decem-bris. m) Pastor, Gescbichte der Pipste (1929), 13:728f. 31 CHAPTER II. THE CAPUCHIN PERIOD (1637-1684) A. French Capuchins at Assmi£ Although the Propaganda Congregation did not succeed in bringing about improvements in the Gold Coast through the Collector of Portugal, it did succeed in doing so through the French Capuchins of the Province of Brittany. There was ,great hope that at long last the evangelization of the district was well taken care of. The beginnings of th'e Capuchin mission go back to the early 1630's when the cShipowners of Saint-Malo, a harbor city in Brittany, France, were planning to form a new company for trading in Guinea. Before asking the King for a trade monopoly and perhaps risking their capital, they decided to make a preliminary .expedition. Being on good terms with the Capuchins of Saint-Malo Monastery, they naturally turned to them for chaplains. Fr. Raphael de Nantes, Provincial ",f the Brittany Province at the t ime, saw granting the request as perhaps the first ..t ep toward a new mission and readily offered two of his priests, Fr. Colombin de Nantes and another. It equid well be tha~ the shipowners had requested Fr. Colombin explicitly, knowing that he had made studies in hydrography in Nantes -before deciding to become a Capuchin in 1619. The two priests reached the -Guinea Coast in 1633 1). Trade was carried on along the whole length of coast stretching from Cape Mount which was west of Cape Palrnas in modem Liberis to Cape Lopez just below the equator in modem French Equatorial Africa. A number of stops were made along the Coast of Mina, as the French in imitation of the Portuguese called this gold producing area. Much later, toward the end of the century, they would <:all it Cote d'Or, T he Gold Coast, in imitation of the Dutch who had coined the =pression and were already using it ' ). Because of the weird night he spent 1) Scritture Rifente 394: 196r & 199v; Besson, Un Capucin Nantais premier explorateur ' but always "8 Mina.n The usual view seems based on Barbot, Description of Guinea (1732), 145: "The Portuguese call'd it Costa d'Oro." But "Costa d'Oro" is Italian, not Portuguese, easily explained by the numerous Italian sailors on the coast. Barros in 1552 wrote both "do ouro" and "d'ouro," and the latter fonn is used still today, sounding much like Barbot's .. d'Oro." But Barros never speaks of 'the Gold Coast as "Costa d'Ouro," but always as " 8 Mina." " ... 0 resgate do ouro, onde ora chamamos a Mlna . .. the place for trading in gold, which we now call a Mina." See Barros, Asia 1-3-i & U (1552/1778), 1: 143f. Otbers taking Barbot'. view: Ward, History of the Gold Coast (1948),81; Time (Atlantic Edition), February 9,1953, p. 18; Claridge, A History of the Gold Coast and Aslumti, 1: 100. The expression "Gold Coast/' appears in the title of a Dutch book printed as early 881602: "Beschryvinge end Historische Verhael Vant Gout Koninckrijck van Gunea, anders 32 + at Komenda, that stopover remained most vivid in Fr. Colombin:s mind '). Towards evening one of the women in the village died and throughout the night she was bewailed by her relatives and friends . When morning came, each took a share in the burial. Pieces of cloth were wrapped around a plank and the body was laid thereon. Then the deceased was dressed in all the clothes and ornaments she possessed. So prepared the corpse was carried in procession to the burial spot by four women who rested the plank on their heads. A crowd of women followed, some balancing on their heads huge wooden plates heaped with finely chopped meat. Others beat sticks together all the while to make noise. Others made lamentstion. The men had gone ahead earlier to dig the grave. When the procession reached the grave, the men sat down -in a circle around the grave with their weapons ready as if they were keeping guard. Then the women laid the body in the grave and sprinkled some of the finely chopped meat on the lips of the dead woman so that she could eat when she wanted to. The grave was de Gout-custe de Mina genaemt liggende in het deel van Africa.." Gout-custe de Mina or Gold Coast of MinaI The author is P.D.M. (pieter de Marees), [Amsterdam, 1602]; 129pp. Thirty years later the French on the coast were still using" Coast of Mina": " . .. un endroit de la coste de Mine qui se nomme Commando ..." Colombin; Relation Ineelite, (1634/1906), 11. Fifty years later, after the fall of Portugal, French authors who were on the coast regularly use "Coste d'Or" or "COte d'Or." See Roussier, L'Etablissement D'Issiny 1687-1702: Voyages de Ducasse, Tibierge et D'A mon a la, COte de Guinee publies pour la premiere fois ... (paris, 1935), passim throughout. • ) Colombin, Relation Ineelite (1634/1906 Ubald ed.), 6, 11. 33 then :filled with earth and afterwards a small hut made of wood and leaves was huilt over it. All the utensils the woman had used in her life, her pots, pans, kettles and so forth were placed inside the hut. That was so she could use them in the other world, the people explained. If a man was being buried, Fr. Colombin was told, his principal wife or whatever one he chose to have as companion in the other world was buried along with him as well as his slaves. If he had been a successful warrior, then all his trophies, human skulls, would be displayed on his grave as a sign of his prowess. Such enemy skulls were esteemed so highly that they were guarded in private homes like a treasure. In some places the skulls were even used as goblets. In wartime the aim was to cut off as many heads as possible, the sex, age or condition of the victim making no difference whatever '). Fr. Colombin also learned the complete pagan rite connected with Devil's Mountain, a place just west of Winneba where it would seem he also set foot on shore since he saw one of the men who had been deputed by the village folk to ascend the mountain and receive revelation from what he called the devil. As the one deputed to ascend the mountain came down again, he was like another Moses with special marks on his body which assured him of having the people accept . as genuine the revelations he had received. At times the so-called devil also asked for the sacrifice of infants. People of Winneba today are deathly afraid of ascending the mountain and from time to time make offerings at the foot of it '). Back at his monastery in Saint-Malo Fr. Colombin told how he had found people along the coast refraining from work ()n Tuesday instead of Sunday, how he had seen· pagans reverently kiss the crucifix or a picture of the Blessed Mother or of St. Francis of ASsisi, and how he was convinced that an abundant harvest of souls could be won there. The community became so enthusiastic that the Pro- vincial wrote to Propaganda and begged to have the whole coast entrusted to his Province I There would be no expense whatever as far as transportation was con- cerned, he said, because the trading company had offered to transport all mission- aries free of charge. In fact, the merchants were even anxious to get missionaries for varioUs spots along the coast. Not for the benefit of the merchants but for the benefit of the Mricans had Fr. Raphael accepted their offer. He asked Propaganda, too, to give the Minister General of the order the power to send missionaries from the Brittany Province as they were needed in the mission so that the needs could mo,e quickly be taken care of without first having recourse to Rome '). . To make sure that Propaganda would not be mistaken about what part of the world he meant, Fr. Raphael called it "Old Guinea or African Guinea," most probably intending to distinguish it from New Guinea near Australia 'i. The island of New Guinea is said to have received its name in 1545 from Yiligo Ortiz de Retez; seeing a resemblance between the Negroes on the Guinea Coast ' ) Colombin, Relation lnMite (1634{1906), IIf. o ' ) . Ibid.-, 9£. See also Barbot, Description of Guinea (1732), 180: "Mango is famous for Its situation near Monte del Diabola or the Devil's Mount . .. " This is near Winneba. Also Pot, S.M.A., Personal Letter, Apri114, 1953. II) Colombin, Relation In6dite. 10£; Scritture Riferite 394: 196r. ') ". .. navigantes in Africam ad illam partem, quae Guinea dicitur Vetus, seu Africana ... u Scritture Riferite, Ibid. 34 of Africa and the Papuans, he called the yet unnamed island of the Papuans, New Guinea 8). But there was someone else o.ther than Propaganda and the Capuchins interested in the voyage Fr. Colombin had made. That was Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc, Councilor at the Parliament of Prov~nce. On April 10, 1634, he wrote and asked for detailed accounts of the produce of the lands and of the customs of the peoples that Fr. Colombin had visited. Getting such information was a habit with de :t;'eiresc. Fr. Colombin answered from Saint-Malo on June 20th with a lengthy report, adding as postscript that he expected to remain there until September in case de Peiresc desired to write for further information. De Peiresc took that to mean that Fr. Colombin was about to leave for Guinea a second time to devote himself to the conquest of souls for Christ '). Less than a month after Fr. Colombin had sent his letter to de Peiresc, the proposed Capuchin mission in Guinea was brought up at a general session of the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, held in the Quirinal Apartments with Pope Urban VIII presiding. After discussion of the letter received from Fr. Pro- vincial Raphael, Propaganda decreed that his ' petition should be granted. That day, July 14, 1634, the missions of Old Guinea were entrusted to the Capuchins of Brittany 10). The Procurator General of the Capuchins was informed' of the decision very soon after the meeting and was told of Propaganda's eagerness to get the names of the new missionaries as soon as possible 11). Only then could the letters patent be written out exactly. Those chosen by Fr. Raphael to open the new mission were Frs. Angelique de Nantes, Colombin de Nantes, Bernardin de Mayenne and Samuel de Campbon. Fr. Angelique was reco=ended as superior U). When Propaganda approved of these four missionaries at the session of November .21st, the Holy Father was again present. Through the Holy Office all the faculties usually granted to missionaries heading for the East Indies were granted them "). On Propaganda's side all was in readiness for departure in the beginning of 1635. But the four missionaries did not sail until two years later by which time another member, Fr. Cyrille d'Ancenis, had officially been appointed U). ·Perhaps ~e trading company had not been ready for its venture as early as 1635, or perhaps the missionaries had been called upon to assist their fellow religious in caring for those afflicted with the pest then raging in France "). In any case all five missionaries were still alive and ready to set sail in the first half of 1637. Their ship was the "Croissant" and de Basselaude was Captsin "), .) Saint-Martin, Nouveau Dictionnaire (1884), 2: 578 . •) Cc?lombin, Relation Inedite, 3,4, 14; Peiresc, Correspondance De Peiresc (Apollinaire ed., 1891), 4{), 82£. >0) Acta 10 Guly 14, 1634) 74£, n. 20. n) Ibid. ") Scritture Riferite 394:406r & 413v. ") Acta 10 (November 21, 1634) 135, n . 4. The Secretary copied into the minutes of this meeting the names "Columbus" and "Bernardus" but Fr. Provincial Raphael had written "Columbinus" and. "Bemardinus." See preceding note n. 12. a) Scri= Riferite, 83:379r. Analecta Capuccinorum (1915), 31 : 327, says the mis- sionaries left in 1634. '') Pastor, Geschichte der Pipste (1929), 13: 552. ") Scri= Riferite 247:211v, "gran Vsasello chiamato i1 Crescente .. . " 35 The Portuguese fearing that just such expeditions were a threat to their overseas power had urged Pope Clement VIII to decree on December 12, 1600, that all missionaries leaving for Mrica from any port hut Lisbon were excommunicated. But on June 2, 1608, Pope Paul V had already revoked the decree in favor of Capuchin missionaries and all others of mendicant orders and so the missionaries were perfectly justified in sailing from Saint-Malo "). The "Croissant" belonged to the Saint Malo Company that had heen founded in 1634 by Briant de Larey and his associates as a result of the 1633 reconnoitering on the coast. They had been granted a ten-year monopoly on the trade from Sierra Leone to Cape Lopez lO). The merchants aboard had their eyes principally on the Mina Coast and intended to open several stations there, hoping 80 to get a share in the trade Portugal was rapidly losing. This was not the first time France was trying to settle on the coast. As early as July 27, 1582, the two traders from Rouen named Senecal and Uzart had arrived on the "Esperance" and due to conniving with the Governor at S~o Jorge Castle against the Spanish King who just two years before had taken over Portugal they had managed to set up their trading station within the very Castle itself I They enforced the ramparts but a year later were driven out hy the Spaniard Passagtie. Today one part of St. George Castle is pointed out as the "French Bastion," and though it dates only from this period, there are Gold Coast Mricans and authors alike who say it antedates the arrival of the Portuguese "). Long experience had proved that the most profitable trade could be had only hy those who had a base on the coast. The Dutch had built theirs at Mouri as early as 1598, and the English had huilt theirs at Kormantin in 1631 10). Now, 1637, the French had come to make the first preparations for theirs. Anxious to keep a safe distance from the Portuguese, Dutch and English forts, the merchants aboard the "Croissant" chose to drop anchor at a spot on the far west end of the Mina Coast, the first place where gold could be had in abundance. It had the further advantage of good winds, 80 necessary in those days, for sailing vessels were all they had 11). Later when they got to shore they learned that the name of the area was Abiany, called also Bene "). It seems the Ehoutile who originally inhabited Abiany had by this time already withdrawn farther to the interior, making room for the refugee Efies who had been driven out of their area west of the Ankobm River during a war with Axim "). Some thirty years later the name Abiany would .') Grentrup, Jus Missionarium (1925),1:206. ") MouCzy, Histoire D'Assin..ic (1942), 23. I') La Ronciere, La Decouverte De L' Afrique (1925), 2 : 15. ~) Ward, History of the Gold Coast (1948),364. 11) Du Casse, Memoirc Sur Son Voyage (1688), 7. 11) Using old orthography Fr. CoIQmbin wrote "Besoc" on August 7, 1637 (Scritture M erite 247:211v). "Abiani aut Bene" was his spelling when writing in Latin on December 26, 1640 (Scritture Rifente, 83 :379r). "Dum nostri Beneti morarentur ..." wrote Fr. Raphael in 1641, putting the word in the ablative case (Scritture Riferite 83: 387r). II) Fr. Loyer says the E6es (Esiep) arrived "10 or 80 years ago" in his book published in 1714, so this is of no help. However be says the Ehoutile had no fireanns in the period up to 1670, whereas the Efies had many that they had gotten from trade along the coast. N?w the French merchants in this 1637 expedition most probablY used firearms, the usual thing, for trade. Had the Efies been there, they' would have had the firearms. See Loyer, Relation Du Royaume D'Issyny (1714), 186f. Fr. Loyer refers to the Ehouti16 as the Veterez (Rougerie, La~es Et Terriens de la (:ate d'Ivoire (1950), 2,5). Fr. Mouezy uses Efies for Fr. Loyer's Eslep. See Mouezy, Histoire D'AssWe (1942),19. 36 be changed to Assinie, a name this part of the coast has retained ever since "). As a sign of welcome the Chief sent a canoe to the ship with a present for his guests. Losing no time three of the missionaries and the captain clambered into the ship's boat and headed for shore. It was the last day of July, 1637. Getting dose to shore the three bearded Capuchins in their long brown cassocks took hold of the new mission crosses hanging at their breasts and raised them aloft to bless the gathering throng on the beach "). The orders from Propaganda had been short and clear. Pope Urban, Propaganda " had said, was sending them to these shores because he was anxious that all peoples have the Gospel preached to them. The missionaries were to teach as well the precepts of the Church and put special stress on the general judgment. They were to beware of all heretical, schismatic and pagan rites and ceremonies, not partaking in them under any pretext whatever. And above all they were to do all in their power to fuJfilJ their apostolic task worthily and faithfully - even at the cost of blood and, if necessary, life itself - so that they might win from the Father of lights an everlasting crown !O). The closer they came to shore the more evident it became that the breakers made going all the way with their boat impossible. The "p addlers of the African U) My reasons fOF identifying Abiany and Assinie (Asseny, Isseny, lssinie, Issiny, Issyny, Isigny, Issigny) are: a) Barbot who was on the scene in 1682 said the five Capuchins "were set ashore at Isseny" which from his description and his maps is surely modem Assinie. He mistakes the date, giving the year 1635. Barbot, Description of Guinea (1732), ISS, 305f. b) Fr. Colombin on December 26, 164(), said Abiany was thirty leagues from Axim (Scritture Riferite 83:379r). Fr. Loyer who was at Assinie from 1701 to 1703, using French leagues like Fr. Colombin, said the Assinie of his day was 20 leaglJes west of Cape Apollonia. Now Cape Apollonia was 10 leagues west ofAxim. And so the Assinie of Fr. Loyer was 30 leagues west of Axim,the very distance given by Fr. Colombin for Abiany. Loyer, Relation Du Royaume D'Issyny (1714), 187f. c) Up until about 1670 the location of modern Assinie was known as Asbiny according to the transliteration of Fr. Loyer in which the "s" may well be silent. Variants in spelling are no difficulty since each new group of missionaries or mer- chants wrote the word as it sounded to them. Loyer, Ibid. d) Abiany like most African place 'names was probably descriptive and may come from the combination of Ebou-anu or Aby- anu, which means "Mouth of the Ebou or Aby." Now Assinie is situated in the immediate vicinity of the mouth of the Aby Lagoon which as late as 1699 was not called a lagoo!, at all but the "River Ebou" ("Une grande et vaste riviere qui se Dorome EOOu qui a son cours du nord au sud passe presque par Ie milieu du pays . .." Damon, Relation Du Voyage, 1699, p. 77). And so the area about the mouth of the River Ebou may have been called Ebou-anu or in Fr. Colombin's transliteration Abiani. Initial vowels are often slid over or altogether unpronounced which may account for the second name Bene. e) An apparent difficulty is BarOOt's mention of a place called "Abbiany or Assene" which he says was three leagues west of "Tebbo." But both in the text (p. 1<17) and on his map (p. 148) he clearly distinguishes this place from the "Isseny" wliere he says the Capuchins landed (p. 305). This "Abbiany or Assene" must be nothing else but the "Issyny" which Fr. Loyer says was vacated when the new (modern) Assinie was founded. The name "Abbiany" then is Barbot's orthography for "Awianu" which means "End of the Land," the local name for modern Half-Assini. See &rbot, Description of Guinea; Loyer, Relation Du Royaume D'Issyny 186--188; van Heesewyk, Peraonal Letter, February 18, 1953. In October, 1942, a tidal wave demolished Assinie. ") Scritture "Riferite 247:211v. ") Bullarium O.F.M.Cap. (1752), 7:332. The letter is dated November 21,1634. 37 canoes accompanying them invited them to go the rest of the way by canoe, which they did. The captain and Fr. Bernardin got into one of the canoes, Fr. Colomhin into another. Fr. Angelique, probably at the insistance of the others that it was too risky for him as Superior, went back with the boat to the ship. & for Fr. Bernardin and the captain, they got to shore safely. But the first big wave that hit Fr. Colom- bin's canoe upset it. His two paddlers automatically dived into the water but he clung to the sides of the canoe for dear life, even when he found himself under- neath with the overturned canoe above him. His frantic kicking let the paddlers know where he was and with a skillful flip they set the canoe upright and dragged their soaked passenger aboard. When Fr. Colombin reached land, he was fil led with salt water and mixed feelings of joy and sorrow - joy hecause his life had been saved, sorrow because he had lost his mission cross in the process "). A chattering crowd gave their soaked missionary a rousing welcome. The two missionaries and captain were marched off to the Chief whom they found surrounded by his sons, elders, sub-chiefs and other important people of the land. De Basse- laude, using the "language" understood all along the Guinea Coast, presented the Chief with a flask of brandy from which the Chief insisted the captain and two priests drink first. After paying their respects they were given stools. Only with difficulty did the missionaries get across the idea that they had come to remain, to teach such wisdom and mysteries the like of which none in the assemblage had ever heard. And the French would come, spoke up the captain, to trade and bring every kind of merchandise des' red. The Chief understood the talk about merchandise much better than that about mysteries and gave permission for the missionaries to stay. All three guests were then taken on a tour of the neighborhood to see which place they preferred for their residence. Each new place seemed better than the last. T here was one that had banana trees and tropical fruit trees of all kinds, fields cleared of stones and already tilled and sown, and not far off was a stream of cool, swe~t drinking water. Told that this was precisely the spot the Chief thought would best suit them, they accepted at once and hurried back to tell the Chief how pleased they were with the location. De Basselaude felt he had accomplished what he wanted to do and returned to the ship ; F rs. Colombin and Bernardin remained behind. Most of the day they spent in the cpmpany of the elderly good-natured Chief. They even had meals with him. T he Chief, struck by the crucifix Fr. Bernardin carried at his breast, asked for an explanation. T hat day the Chief learned his first Christian prayer, "Jesus Christ, for us crucified, have mercy on us I" Not only he but also the sub-chiefs and a large crowd of people which gathered in the village square got their first cate- chetical instruction that very first day. They learned to fold their hands and pray together in a loud voice, repeating again and again, "Jesus Christ, for us crucified, have mercy on us I" By the time night feU the missionaries had so many friends that everyone offered them a place tp sleep. But the Chief said it would be best if 1'7) This nnd w hat follows unless othe.rwise stated is taken from Scrittllre Riferite, 247: 21 t -214. It is a letter written by Fr. Colombin from Abiany on August 7,1637, in French to Fr. Justin of the monastery of Saint-Malo. This priest. in turn sent a copy of the letter to his Provincial, Fr. Raphael. who had an ltalio.n translation made for Propaganda, which was my source, This seems the only copy extant . 38 'they slept in the house of his son who was, as the missionaries experienced, a gentleman whose courtesies and attentions knew no measure. The next day, Saturday, Fr,-C-olombin had one of his newly won friends take a note to Fr. Angelique aboard ship, asking him to be so kind as to send asnore the things necessary for celebrating Holy Mass. The following day, at once Sunday 'and August 2nd, was the important Capuchin Feast of Portiuncula, an ideal' day suggested Fr. Colombin for officially opening the mission. Fr. Angelique agreed and late Saturday afternoon tables were lowered over the side of the ship onto waiting canoes and then half carried, half floated ashore along with other necessary items. The tables would serve as a makeshift altar. A large crowd of men and boys and even excited little girls turned out on the beach to help. They jumped into the large breakers and dragged the tables ashore. But night was falling fast and Fr. Colombin feared that by morning all the equipment would be stolen if it were left unguarded on the beach. One who understood his gesticulations faster than the rest went to inform the Chief who sent his coat of arms, the skull of a cow, which was set atop the heap. It was then explained to the Fathers that now 'they need not fear, because anyone who dared to take anything would pay for it with his life. The next morning every last item was still there. With the help of volunteers that morning Frs. Colombin and Bernardin soon had everything transported to the site they had chosen for their chapel, not far from the spot where they intended to plant a cross as a visible token of the mission's establishment. One after the other the ship's personnel came ashore, Fr. Angelique, Fr. Cyrille, Captain de llasselaude and officers of the crew IS). Fr. Benedict came ashore too. He was a secular priest from the city of Saint-Malo whose zeal had urged him to join the Capuchin missionary band. Each newcomer lent a helping hand in the work of preparing Abiany's (Assinie's) first chapel which was nothing else but an altar with a few plants and flowers for omarnent. When all was in readiness, de Basselaude and Fr. Colombin invited the Chief and asked if he would be so kind as to inform his people that all were invited. The Chief was most pleased with the invitation, and immediately gave the order to have the news drummed round. ' " No sooner had the drumming begun than people came flocking from every direction. Some climbed into nearby trees for a better view, others clambered to the top of adjacent hillocks because the firstcomers were already jammed around the improvised altar. The Chief and sub-chiefs ceremoniously marched to their place of honor, a small fenced-off area near the altar, where ,each sat on the little stool an attendant carried for him. The Fathers all vested in long flowing albs and the ,ceremony begsn. First Fr. Superior blessed a huge wooden cross and then he, the other priests, the captain and all the officers approached to venerate it. This done, they sang the "Veni Creator Spiritus . . . Come Creator Spirit," begging the blessings of the Holy Spirit upon the new mission. Though the crowd listened in silence, the Chief and his court folded their hands in imitation and began to sing too. Next came the triumphal chant, "Vexi1la Regis , Prodeunt .. . The Banner of Christ the King Advances," during which the cross was raised aloft and carried in '!) Most probably Fr. Samuel came too, but he is not explicitly mentioned. 39 procession to the spot a short distance away where it was set up. In the Mass that immediately followed, the living Christ under the species of bread and wine came to dwell in the midst of Abiany (Assinie) for the first time. After Fr. Superior's Mass each of the other priests in turn celebrated his. Waiting for his turn Fr. Colombin was actually moved to tears by the appropriate- ness of the liturgical prayers he found in the Office for that day's Feast of the Dedication of the Patriarchal Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels of Portiuncu1a. So many of the prayers could be applied to the people of Abiany: "It is my delight to be with the children of men; now therefore, my children, hear me: Blessed are they who follow in my footsteps. Let all your actions and desires be good, and then I shall dwell with you in this place ... Rest assured, my children, that I have hoped for all eternity that you should be saved ... The Lord has sent me to heal the contrite of heart, to preach pardon and release to those who are held captive ")." Fr. Colombin looked upon these and similar texts as a sign of this people's election by God for the full Christian supernatural life. And when he mounted the altar and read the Epistle (Ecclus. 24, 21-31) and Gospel (Luke 1, 26-38) of the day's Mass, his conviction grew. Even the last Gospel taken from the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost had its meaning, for it spoke of Jesus weeping over stiff- necked Jerusalem which had refused eternal salvation when it had refused to accept Him. Would Abiany be another Jerusalem? Or would it be another Nazareth in which the God Who became a Carpenter could dwell and fashion their souls for Heaven? When the last priest had finished his Mass, all were invited to the home of a sub-chief for dinner. On their way through the village streets the priests were presented with fruit on every side, and just as often invited to visit private homes for a sip of palm wine. The remainder of the day was spent visiting families. Wherever they went the children toddled after, proudly repeating again and again, "Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ." The people had a word for God in their own language, the missionaries were told: Yangemeni. Repeatedly that day the Chief sent a messenger to them asking that they pay his dwelling just one more. call and in the following week they were invited to confer with him at least once a day. The Chief even turned instructor, teaching the newcomers his own language. Nothing made him happier than to see his patience rewarded by their pronouncing a word correctly. On Monday or Tuesday Fr. Colombin held another prayer meeting, this time by special invitation in .the Chief's dwelling and in the presence of his court. After having them fold their hands, he held up towar~ them a crucifix and hegan, "Jesus Christ, for us crucified, have mercy on us . ... Although the missionaries thought they had already been .officially accepted by the Chief and could remain, they were mistaken. Not until ~~esday was this II) "Deliciae meae esse cum filiis hominum: nunc ergo, filii. audite me: B~ti qui custodiunt vias meas. Bonas facite vias vestras, et stowa vestra, et habitabo vobiscum in loco ista . .. Animaequiores estote, filii, ego enim speravi in aetemum. salutem vestram .. .. Misit me Dominus ut mederer contritis corde, et praedicarem captivis indulgentiam et clausis aper- tionem..·~ Fr. Colombin does not quote from the Divine Office and Mass formulae, but only mentions them.. This quotation is from., Breviarium. Romano-Seraphicum. Ad USUUl Fra· trum Minorwn Capuccinorum, Pars Aestiva, die 2 Augusti. 40 to be decided by the Chief, sub-chiefs and elders of the village. When Wednesday morning the principal sub-chief, brother to the Chief, came to the small chapel and asked the priests to acco!!!£any him, they thought it was another invitation to sip palm wine. So only Frs. Benedict and Cyrille who had already finisliecl tlieir Masses went along. To their surprise they found all the principal members of the tribe armed to the teeth and in orderly array. They were gathered around an open area. A man who proved to be a brilliant orator stepped into the open area and addressed those gathered round, propounding the advantages of allowing the missionaries and traders to make a permanent settlement in their midst. When he finished, another who was just as capable an orator advanced and proposed the disadvantages. Later by public vote a majority decision was reached in favor of allowing the newcomers to stay. As representative of the missionaries Fr. Benedict expressed his thanks to all and then shook hands with each of the sub- chiefs. Writing to his confreres back in Saint-Malo on Friday, August 7th, about all that had happened that first week in the mission, Fr. Colombin said there was every hope of having a flourishing mission at Abiany. The people could not be better disposed, the missionaries were enjoying perfect health, they had been granted an ideal location, the country was fertile and thickly populated. And as for French merchants, some of them would also surely come to make an establish- ment because the trade was inviting. The only bad feature about the entire mission was the difficulty of making a landing on the rough coast SO). The six priests worked out a plan for the evangelization of the coast. Fr. Superior and Frs. Colombin, Cyrille and Samuel would remain in ·Abiany and from there spread out along the coast and to the interior. Fr. Benedict, the secular priest, and Fr. Bernardin would board the "Croissant" after its trading was finished at J\biany and go farther down the coast to establish another mission station. Perhaps they intended to go to Komenda where Fr. Colombin had been so hospitahly received four years before. The day came for the "Croissant" to sail, but before Fr. Bernar- din could reach his destination he came down with a severe case of fever tliat quickly cost him his life. He was not dead more than sever:iTd"Snffien Fr. Benedict also came down with fever and was carried off just as quickly. Four members of the crew died as well S1). The four missionaries left behind in Abiany had their share of sickness as well and in November they wrote that though each in his tum had been at death's door, the health of all thanks to the grace of God was again improving "). Fr. Superior and Fr. Samuel said good-by to Frs. Colombin and Cyrille whom they left in charge of Abiany and headed for Alle, a tribal area to the east of Abiany. Here they opened a mission station in the main village. But first sickness cut their labors short, then death. Fr. Angelique the Superior died on Good Friday in 1638,; and five days later, April 7th, Fr. Samuel also died 03). 10) Scritture Riferite 247: 211-214. Here ends the source mentioned in note 27. U) Scritture Merite 247: 211r. ") Ibid., 214r. U) Analecta Cal?uccinorum (1906), 22:215. Here Fr. Colombin is quoted as saying the. two missionaries died "in urbe dicta Alene." I believe "Alene" is the Latinized ablative: of Ale or Alle, the latter of which Damon mentions when writing in 1699: "Le royaume d'Issigny . .. a Ie Roy d'Alle a rorient ..." Damon, Rdation Du Voyage, 77. There is no. village or kingdom of this ruune in the vicinity today. 41 Within nine months four of the six missionaries had died! Meanwhile mission work in Abiany went on. A small chapel was built and within it the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was offered and other religious services were held. But month after month passed and the promised ships did not rome. The missionaries rould sense the restlessness of the people, their growing impa- tience over the slow arrival of the promised merchandise. There were French ·ships on the roast; they had seen their flags. But none stopped at Abiany. They sailed right by! The missionaries found an excuse for this, but not the people. 'The missionaries felt it was surely due to the ronstant roughness of the roast in that area. No captain dared hazard a landing as long as a more ronvenient 1anding place elsewhere was avai1able. A year passed, and still no ship dropped ,"""chor off Abiany. What was once impatience became animosity. No longer were the missionaries :graciously supplied with food. No longer were there lessons for them in the local 'language held by the Chief. The few personal belongings they still had were stolen from behind their backs. Even their interpreter forsook them, leaving them "helpless. Insult, ridicule, mockery, they tasted it all. There was not a sole Christian 1:0 stand up and defend them because that first year not a single adult had been 'baptized. .. none was ronsidered well enough prepared "). The missionaries bore it as long as they could and then under rover of darkness Cardinal Barberini, was himself a Capuchin and Prefect of the Sacred Congregation. of the Propaganda "). Cardinal Barberini was usually called by his title of St.. Onofrio. It was he who regularly got the latest news on the Guinea Mission frOln the Provincial in Brittany and he too who almost always announced the latest· developments of the mission to the assembled Cardinals at Propaganda's sessions. Two years passed before Propaganda got further news of the mission's progress. Then· one day the Cardinal of St. Onofrio received a five-page report fFom Fr• . Raphael, Provincial of the Capuchin Province of Brittany. With mixed feelings' on July 2, 1641, he brought it to the attention of the six other Cardinals of the Sacred Congregation assembled this time in Collegio di Propaganda Fide in Piazza. di Spagna SO). Fr. Raphael had written the report with the same mixed feelings' for his heart was more on the Mina Coast than it was in his monastery. He was' definitely angry with the missionaries for what they had done. Not only had Fr. Colombin himself forsaken the mission without Prop~da's or his consent, but he had even brought along back with him two other missionaries, Fr. Cyrille and Br. Nicolas du Mansi Br. Nicolas, it seems, had been working in the Komenda mission. "The only pretext they gave for deserting the mission," said Fr. Raphael, "WllS' that they felt a personal report on the condition, needs, and improvement of the I mission was necessary I" He then toH in his repOrt how he had rebuked them for I leaving their posts without orders. But they are now sorry for what they have done, he said, and prove they mean it by making plans to take along back a goodly I- number of missionaries. They have asked me to supply as many as they need and~ I they are using every type of moral force to get them. "I shall see to it that their wishes and those of many others [whom they have won over to their cause1 are I~ fuIfilled, and shall leave no stone unturned in an attempt to find out all the various; ports from which ships now sail for Guinea eo)." Propaganda was just as displeased· with the missionaries and in its own tum, foUnd fault with them for leaving the Guinea Mission without permission. The' Cardinals .said too that the Provincial was perfectly right in reprimanding his. men 11). It was a principle with Propaganaa that no area once opened to the faith· be deserted, because the new converts in order to be led ever on to a fuller Christian I life absolutely needed the example and inspiration that only the missionaries could' give "). I ") Acta n (August 19, 1639) 330, D. 8. 18) Scritture Riferite 83:386r; Graglia, "Familia Barberini," in Enciclopedia Cattolica (1949), 2: 826. The Cardinal of St. Onofrio was Prefect of the Propaganda from 1632 to 1644. ") Acta 14 OuIy 2, 1641) 368, n. 1t. CO) Scritture Riferite 83:386r. ... . . . neD aliam sui reditus causam praetexunt, qu.azn.. quod de Missionis suae statu, necessitate, et promotione fusius nos admonendos esse duxer- unt." " . . . . quorum desiderio, aliorumque plurimorum facturus satis nullum non move<)'> lapidem, singulas oras explorando, e quibus in Guineam naves solvere CODSUescunt." Ibid .. Ol) Acta 14 OuIy 2, 1641) 368, n. 1t. ") This principle is crystalized in a letter from Propaganda to the Bishop of Angola dated> November 17, 1687: ...... Tra Ie pill gravi sollecitudine di questa S. Congregazione la 47' There was also a bright side to the report, however. It told of two apparent miracles which gave promise of an exceptionally rich harvest of souls in the years to come. All three missionaries, said Fr. Raphael, swore to him that what they had recounted was true. According to them, this is what happened ... Back in the year 1632 when Pedro Mascarenez, newly appointed Governor of the City Sao Jorge da Mina (Elmina), sailed from Lisbon, he took with him three different statues. One was ·of the Blessed Virgin Mary, another of St. Francis of Assisi, and a third of St. Anthony of Padua. The statues were not exceptionally large, but they were "exceptionally pretty. Just as the ship with the statues aboard was nearing the Mina Coast (Gold Coast), it was discovered that a remarkable change had mysteriously come over the statue of St. Francis of Assisi "). Both the face and the hands of the statue had turned from white to black "). No change whatever carne over the other two statues "). The crew went wild with astonishment. A miracle I A miracle I And then someone said he wanted to know what the miracle meant. Pedro Mascarenez said he thought he knew what it meant. "This change of color," he said, "is a most certain sign from St. Francis of Assisi that he wants to be the Negroes' patron Saint. Having become a Negro to the Negroes that he might win them for heaven, he hereby gives promise that through his .spiritual sons, namely Franciscan priests, the Negroes shall receive the gift of Catholic faith and all necessary instruction in Christian doctrine and moral ")." Ship captains, Portuguese soldiers, Africans in Axirn and on the Island of Sao Thome had testified under oath to Frs. Colombin and Cyrille that the event had happened just in that way. But there was still a second mark of God's evident special concern over the Mina Coast. It had to do with an exceptionally prudent and intelligent Mrican, considered such by all the folk of his village, Edina. But, poor man, he had the great misfortune to go insane, becoming very violent. His relatives tied him down and for a long time succeeded in keeping the violent man in control. But then one day he succeeded in breaking his bonds and escaped into the jungle. His relatives sought him frantically for days on end but all without success. Convinced at last that he must have been devoured by some wild animal, principale e non solo di peosare alia dilatatione della Fede Cattolica neUe parti piu remote, rna d.i premere, che dove, 5i trova gia introdotta,. vi rimanga stabilita con opere di pied. e; col buon essempio de gl'Ecclesiastici per maggiore edificatione de Popoli ..." Lettere Volgari 76: 6Ov, 61r. , ~) This occurred on the Quaqua (Fr. Raphael writes Couqua) Coast, a section of the Guinea Coast roughly equivalent to today's Ivory Coast. U) Many if not all the statues of this period had no feet. The trunk was just material of a rugged sort and was hidden from view by fine clothes. Still today a sacristan is sometimes referred to in Spanish as "the one who dresses the statues:' ") Acta 14 Guly 2, 1641) 368, n. 11 ; and Analecta Capuccinorum 22 (1906) 215; and Kilger, "Die Missionen in Oberguinea und in Ostafrika nach den ersten Propagandamateria- lien (1622-1670)," in ZMR (1930),20: 302, all say that the complexion of St. Anthony of Padua's statue also changed colors . But that this was not the case is evident from the original document submitted by Fr. Raphael de Nantes: "Vix Couquam Guineae plagam attingit cum D . Francisci imago candorem pristinum exuens, allis duabus propriam speciem re- -tinentibus, Nigrorum tetrum induit coloretn, manibus et vultu nigrum vivis coloribus adwnbrans .u See Scritture Riferite 83: 386r & v. If) "Certo certius , inquit, S. Franciscus Nigrorum se Patronum indicat, et suorum [reli- giosorumJ ope, Nigris Niger factus ut Nigros lucrifaciat, cos fide catholics, moribus et doc- trina Christiana imbuendos curabit." Scritture Riferite 83:386v. 48 they returned to their village alongside St. George Castle and carried out the usual pagan funeral rites for one killed and eaten by a wild beast 07). But the lunatic was not dead. He was still wandering about the jungle in his madness. Some two full weeks after the day of his escape, he had an apparition. A person appeared to him, freed him from his madness, and after persuading the now sane man to forsake his helpless idols commanded him to embrace the Catholic faith. At once the man obeyed, marching straight to Sao Jorge Church within the fortress walls. "Baptize me," he said to the astonished priest. Black and white heads pushed their way into the church, wide-eyed to see the madman again sane. But what surprised them most of all was that such an intellectual should ask for baptism. What in the world has come over you? was fired at him from every side. His eye sweeping through the church caught sight of one of the statues. His face lit up and pointing to the statue excitedly he said, "That's the one who made me well, that's the one who ordered me to become a Christian. And it's a Christian I'll bel I beg for baptism; I want to be baptized." The statue he was pointing to was the statue of St. Anthony of Padua. Deeply moved by this unique event in the history of his parish, the vicar granted the good man's wish and baptized him to the satisfaction and joy of all. But what is more important, the convert lived a life of outstanding virtue from that moment onward until the hour of his death, and his shining example affected for good not only those in his own village but those in Axirn and elsewhere along the coast as well"). Fr. Raphael's enthusiastic commentary on the two events was: What a proof this is that both St. Francis and St. Anthony of Padua will ultimately bring about what we so much desire, the conversion of the entire population in this Guinea Mission. From the very outset these Saints have made the already somewhat flourishing mission resplendent with miraclesl ... For my part I'd say the con- version of Guinea is almost guaranteed, for who can remain pagan in the face of such wonders ..) ? Propaganda too was overjoyed at the news, especially the 72-year-old Cardinal of St. Onofrio. Wasn't his own name Anthony 10)? Everything seemed to augur well for a flourishing mission on the Mina Coast. Even if the work would be undertaken at the French stations farther east as Fr. Colombin planned, the mission might in a few years work its way back to the Mina Coast. The day after Christmas, 1640, Fr. Colombin wrote to Propaganda from the monastery of Saint-Malo saying that by the grace of God he expected soon to sail again for Guinea, taking along with him eight missionaries. Just about a year cry Gold Coast missionaries say the very same is still done today in similar cases. All above details are in the docwnent. ") Scritture Merite 83 : 386v. "Paret praecepto Ecclesiamque Minae ingressus, Baptismum petit, et tantam mutationis causam. admirantibus simul et quaerentibus, cunctis D. Antonii imaginem indigitans, En, inquit, qui me morho liberavit, iussitque ut Christianus fiam: :6am ergo Christianus: Baptismum precor, Bap~um volo. Annuit sacerdos, virumque sui compotem summo omnium gaudio baptizat: qui vitam virtutibus c1aram. ad ·obitum usque traducens Deum benedicendi, laudandique singulis praebuit occasionem. It Ibid. -) Scritture Riferite 83: 386v & 387r. ") Acta 14 (July 2, 1641) 368, D. 11. had passed since his boarding the English ship at the Island of Sao Thome for the voyage home, so evidendy he had nc;>t been idle while on leave. Besides Fr. Colombin's talking up the missions along with his two companions and besides the backing he had gotten from Fr. Raphael, the spiritual condition of France had a good deal to do with his getting such a large group to volunteer for the missions. After the conflict with the Huguenots a truly Catholic renais- sance had come about in France, causing an intensified religious life at home and stirring up' zeal for the spread of the faith in mission lands. Paris saw thirty-six convents and monasteries spring up within its bounds in the thirty years imme- diately preceding 1639. The Ursulines alone founded 153 convents throughout the length and breadth of France from 1622 to 1640. And the Capuchins by carry- ing the Gospel to all classes had won for themselves that enviable epithet, "The peoples' priests." The France of this period had no dearth of vocations "). We are prepared and eager, said Fr. Colombin in the letter to Propaganda telling of his contingent of missionaries, to go and live with those people and die with them so that the life of Jesus may become manifest to them and that Christ may be proclaimed to them whether by our lives or by our deaths. So may their eyes be opened and they be converted from the darkness of paganism to the light of Truth, from the power of Satan to the living God. And may they through our efforts in their regard receive forgiveness of their sins and a place among the saints through faith. It is true, the adversaries are many, the difficulties manifold and great, the dangers indescribable as we only too well know, the voyage long and dangerous. There will be robbers, famine, thirst, much fasting, unbearable heat, no end of sickness and disease because of the foul and changeable climate, innu- merable labors, poverty, destitution, distress, contradiction and what not. From all these things the Lord has delivered us in the past and we trust He will deliver us from them again in the future. Such is the confidence we have through Christ in God that we know He will help our weakness and make us fit ministers for the task that lies ahead ... As for my part, in all humility I beg Your Eminence to graci- ously back up this work of God so that it may redound to His glory and so that it may happily effect the salvation of souls and the exaltation of the Church "). After the mission band had sailed for the Guinea Coast in 1641, it was not a case with Propaganda of "out of sight, out of mind." Already at the January, 1642, session the Cardinal of St. Onofrio related how painful and difficult it was for the Capuchins to walk about in their sandals on the hot burning sands of the Guinea Coast. Would the Sacred Congregation consider allowing them to ride on beasts Qf burden, something the rule of their order forbade? Propaganda, putting some mission accomodation into pratice, agreed but only under the condition that the Holy Father did not object 73). In June of that sarne year, 1642, Propaganda deliberated whether or not Fr. Raphael de Nantes, now freed from his office of Provincial, should be allowed to go to the Guinea Mission. Fr. Colombin, Prefect of that mission, had written to Capuchin headquarters in Brittany from the Portuguese Island of Sao Thome that upon arrival there they had gotten a temporary dwelling. The new Provincial, Fr. Severin de Morlaix, apparendy considered this a sure sign that the first three 71) Pastor, Geschichte der Papste (1929), 13:552, 555, 561. ") Scritture Meri'e 83: 379v, 380r. ") Acta 15 Ganuary 20, 1642) 12, n. 1. 50 Capuchln missions of Abiany (Assinie), Komenda and Axim were being abandoned and that Fr. Colombin's plan of restricting mission activity to new outposts belong- ing to the French was being carried out. But was this the right thing to do ? How would any real progress be maoe if the missionaries always started and stopped and started over again elsewhere? Had not both St. Ff3Ilcis of Assisi and St. Anthony of Padua pledged their aid from heaven by unmistakable signs? Maybe a mission superior with more prudenre, more diplomacy than Fr. Colombin possessed, would make further work in these three initial stations possible. Fr. Provincial Severin told Propaganda that Fr. Raphael was just the man for the job, completely devoted to the missions. His exceptionally ardent mission zeal along with his years of experience as Provincial fitted him eminently for the important role. These would seem to be the motives that prompted Fr. Severin to suggest that Propaganda make Fr. Raphael the new mission superior "). At Propaganda's session of June 23, 1642, the Cardinal of St. Onofrio pleaded the case successfully and had Fr. Raphael's name added to the list of Capuchins allowed to take up work in the Guinea Mission "). Fr. Raphael's lifelong wish had come true. He was a missionary at last I But Fr. Raphael was in for a big disapP9intment. Not even three weeks later the Cardinals of the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda assembled to hear from their Prefect, the Cardinal of St. Onofrio, that all the Capuchln missionaries who had left for Guinea in 1641 had been deported by the Dutch to Brazil "). Propaganda had long feared that something like this might happen. As early as April 30, 1633, the Collector of Portugal had written to the Cardinal Prefect sayiI)g that the Dutch were gradually taking over all Portuguese bases along the Mina Coast and that he feared soon all mission work would be brought to nought"). The Dutch Republic, founded January 29, 1579, had adopted Calvinism as the State religion and vigoroUsly opposed everything Catholic, foreign missions in- cluded. The final break from Catholic Europe occurred on July 26, 1581, when Holland declared itself independent from Spain. In the earlier part of the century the Dutch had regularly sent their ships to Portuguese and Spanish ports to pick up merchandise to be tf3Ilsported farther north to other European ports. But with the Spanish victory over the Portuguese at Alcantara on August 25, 1580, Philip II of Spain became also Philippe I of Portugal and that same year forbade Dutch ships to enter either Spanish or Portuguese ports. The idea was to check Holland's increasing mercantile power. But the idea backfired! Holland began overrea€hlng Spanish and Portuguese ports and setting out herself for Brazil, called the "Sugar L""d," and for Africa's Guinea. Lying in prison on the Island of Sao Thome, Barent Erickszoon learned of the rich gold trade on the Mina Coast from French fellow prisoners. He escaped and in 1593 returned to the Mina Coast to do the first Dlltch trading in gold. Five 74) Scritture Riferite 403: 279r, 284v. Mer saying that persecution, death, and smallness of nwnbers in the Guinea Mission were motives for his suggesting Fr. Raphael, Fr. Severin goes on to say, ..... et per altri sinistri accidenti accevenuti, [1a missione di Guinea] sta in estremo bisogno di persona che indefessamente voglia vacare alIa restauratione di quella. ..." Fr. Raphael is "ardentissimo neI servitio delle Missioru." Ibid. ") Acta 15 Gune 23, 1642) 112, n. 7. >0) Acta 15 Gilly 11, 1642) 131£, n. 8. This mission therefore lasted four years, not 'about thirty years' as reported in AnaIecta Capuccinorum (1915), 31: 327. . . ") Scritture Riferite 103:84. 51 years later the Dutch set up a trading station at Mouri, some fifteen miles to the east of the City of Sao Jorge da Mina. In 1602 Pieter de Marees had all Holland talking about his 129-page description of what he called the "Gold Coast ... Gout-custe de Mina," dropping the long-standing Portuguese name of Mina Coast. That same year, 1602, the East India Company was founded in an attempt to stabilize prices that had swtk alarmingly low due to competitive private compa- nies. In 1612 the Mouri base became a fort, and twelve years later, on the other side of the ocean, the Dutch were strong enough to take sao Salvador (Bahls), one of Portugal's most important Brazilian ports. On October 24, 1625, a fleet of seventeen Dutch ships tried to take the Sao Jorge da Mina-fortress, but without success. Some 1200 Dutch. soldiers and 158 Negroes had attacked, and 441 lost their lives. But in the next ten years the Dutch power in Brazil increased rapidly and on June 25, 1637, Count Maurits van Nassau, Brazil's Dutch Governor, sent 800 soldiers and 400 sailors on nine ships from Pernambuco (Recife) with orders to capture sao Jorge. The sao Jorge base was more important to him than all others, because he needed the slaves of that market for his sugar plantations. On August 24th the ships arrived off the Gold Coast, and after making an alliance with Komenda the troops advanced "). Improvidently the Portuguese had almost no defenses whatever on top of Sant iago Hill just across the river from S~o Jorge Castle. The chapel that once stood on the hill had long disappeared and in its place was a single trench with a single cannon mount "). Colonel Coine took the hill from the few Portuguese and 1000 Edina warriors who were guarding its foot, set two cannon and a mortar atop, and began bombarding the fort until it surrendered on August 29, 1637 eo). It was Saturday, the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. Less than one full month before this date, the Capuchins had made their landing at Abiany to open' the first of the Capuchin Guinea Missions. The Edina ChristianS no doubt had been warned, when defeat was judged certain and imminent, that the invading troops were not only hostile to the Portu- guese but to the Catholic religion as well. Whatever is left in the church, the vicar must have said, will surely be destroyed, especially the statues because Calvinists are avowed iconoclasts. With the fervor of apostolic Christians those of Edina until now very lax suddenly came to realize their religion's worth. One after the other took something into custody, the missal, the vestments, the candlesticks, ") Hade1er, Gescb.ichte der holla.ndischen Kolonien auf der GoldkUste (t 904), 14---42 passim. See also title page of, P.D.~. [pietee de Marees). Beschryvinge van Gunea, anders de Gout-custe de Mina genaemt .. ", (1602); Ward, History of the Gold Coast (1948), 364. 'n) "Dieser Berg, benannt nach einer Kapelle zu Ehren des hl. Jakobs, die ehemals auf ihm stand . . !' The Portuguese "hier bios eine Lehmmauer mit nur einem GeschUtzbiigel aufgeworfen hatten . .. " Hadeler, Geschichte der Goldkiiste, 43f. Hadeler drew his history from Dutch sources and the non-existence of the Santiago Chapel is in perfect conformity with the mission history of the place. Claridge states that the Portuguese on the hill "sought refuge in the Chapel of San Jago and the redoubt where they were soon afterwards attacked and forced to surrender." Claridge, A History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti (1915), 1: 94. Ward states that the "chapel had recently been re-erected within the walls of the castle." But St. George Church was already within the walls of the castle. See Ward, A History of the Gold Coast, 72. -) Claridge, Ibid., 1:94-96. . 52 the statues and even the sacred vessels 81). The vicar's foresight was to be commend- ed because later in the conditions of surrender laid down by Colonel Coine the Portuguese were forbidden to take with them into banishment any of the sacred vessels made of gold or silver. Irowever they were allowed to take along all other church furnishings OS). Nevertheless the Portuguese were confident that they would soon be back, assuring the Edina folk that the Dutch stay would be short- lived. The surrendering garrison of only about thirty men, nearly all sick, marched out of the castle with their African wives, children, twelve slaves and one suit of clothes apiece allowed them by the Dutch. Unceremoniously they were rowed out to a Dutch man-of-war, and deported to the Portuguese Island of Sao Thome"). As the prisoners caught a last glimpse of the City of Sao Jorge da Mina, they must have taken courage in the thought that soon they would be back. Little did they dream that Portugal's flag would never agsin be seen proudly fluttering over the Castle walls. With this defeat Portugal's principal base was lost to the Dutch who almost immediately transferred their Gold Coast headquarters from Fort Nassau in Mouri to the much stronger Castle of Sao Jorge da Mina which they came to call Castel Del Mina, the name from which modem "Elmina" apparendyoriginated"). 11) This is an Edina tradition recorded by an Edina man named Rhule in a long letter of August 31, 1903. Archives SMA, Rome, Notes Historiques de cate d'Or. ") Claridge, A History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti, 1: 95. ") Ibid., 1: 95-96. . U) "The origin of the modem English name Elmina is uncertain," says Ward, History of the Gold Coast, 60. I believe the name originated like this: a) From the beginning the Porfilguese referred to the wlwle Gold Coast as "A Mina," i. e. "The Mine," taken in a figurative sense. Only in the documents of the early t 7th cenngy when the Dutch were already expanding on the coast do we find Mina restricted to the peninsula containing"both the City of Sao Jorge and Edina. b) The fort built there in 1482 was named-"Silo Jorge da Mina," i. e. "St. George of the Mine," the "da" being a contractiono:f"de a." c) "Castello de la MinaI) appears on a 1528 Italian map by Girolamo Verazzano, on exhibition in the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican Museum, Rome. Literally translated the expression means, "Gastle of the Mine," "Mina" in this case being the adopted Portuguese word since the Italian "Mina" means rather an explosive charge, "miniera" being used for "mine." The Italians however used their own feminine definite article with the word, not that of the Portuguese, giving "La Mina," "the Mine." d) By 1631 the usual Italian form of contraction had become "La Citta della Mina," "della" being also the present way of contracting "de la." The expression literally means, "The City of the Mine," and is found in Scritture Riferite 99: 14r. e) Considering the great number of Italian seamen in that period of history, it is very probable that the Dutch at the Gold Coast heard more often the Italian form, "della Mina," than the Portuguese form, .. cia Mina," they being enemies of the latter but not of the former nation. But a Dutchman hearing the expressiop. "della Mina" has a very strong tendency after repeated usage to drop the "a" of the "della." Dutch rules of spelling, moreover, dictate that what remains be not spelled with a double "I" but rather like this: "del Mina." f) Curiously enough Barbot in his "Description of Guinea" published in 1732 uses the two forms, "St. George de la Mina," and "St. George del Mina/' See opp. p. 148, and p. 156. g) An engraving made in the Dutch period has this inscription beneath the Castle: "Het Kasteel Del Mina," i. e. "The Castle named Del Mina." See Roussier, L'Etablissement D'Issiny, opp. p. 104. h) The English version of Bosman's "New Description of Guinea" that appeared in 1705 has "the Castle of St. <><:orge d'EImina," p. 42f. Evidently Bosxpan or his typesetter recognized a genitive particle in the. expression "Del Mica" and he showed it by writing "d'Elmina." And so we have the anomaly of a Portuguesetfeminine suJ:>stantive "mina," a Spanish masculine definite article "EI," and a contracted Italian possessive pre- position "d". i) As the village grew in importance and a name was needed which did not 53 The Dutch immediately built a redoubt atop Santiago Hill - called now St. Jago Hill - and in 1666 built the permanent stronghold called Fort Conraads- borg to make sure no other power would repeat what they themselves had done.") In 1640 the Dutch settled at Anomahu and in the same year captured Fort S~o Sebas~o in Shama "). They were expanding systematically east and west along the whole coast. In 1640 they felt strong enough to go farther down the coast towards the south and with a fleet of twenty-one ships under Admiral Houtebeen succeeded in August in taking the capital city of Angola. Next they attacked the Island of S~o Thome and also succeeded in taking that "). Ever since 1580 the Portuguese had been under the Spanish Kings, Philip II, III, and IV. But these kings were more concerned over defending Spanish than Portuguese possessions. Finally, on December 1, 1640, the Portuguese once again became independent and Jo~o IV ascended the throne. But as far as the Gold Coast was concerned, it was too late. The Portuguese would never win back their positions lost to the Dutch. As Providence would have it, three Capuchin missionaries and Fr. Colombin arrived at the Island of S~o Thome just a short while before it fell to the Dutch. The conquerors ordered the four priests to move out of their temporary living quarters and head for the harbor where Portuguese captives were being assembled and put aboard ships. Fr. Colombin begged for mercy, saying that his three com- panions were deathly sick and that a voyage at that time would surely kill them. But neither his words nor his tears availed and he had to stand by as his pale weak confreres were violently driven from their house and placed on three separate ships. He himself was put on a fourth. The dsy was October 27, 1641 OS). On the night of October 29th while the ships still lay at anchor, death came to liberate one of the three sick missionaries. Fr. Michel de Fremay's corpse was cast into the sea with no other shroud but his brown Capuchin habit. The winds cam,e, the sails filled, and the ships lumbered out to sea. Whither 1 The missionaries did not know. January 14, 1642, saw them land at Pernambuco (Recife) on the shores of Brazil. It was the end of the long ocean voyage. Once ashore Fr. Colombin met Frs. Jean de Combourg and Bonis de Quimper whose ships had also reached port that very same day. T he two Fathers, Fr. Colombin immediately saw, were still gravely ill. Fortunately a Frenchman acquainted with the Saint-Malo Monastery received them into his home. , Pernambuco was a grand mixture of Brazilians, Dutch, Portuguese and French. The Crown Governor of Dutch Brazil, relative to the Prince of Orange, was a Humanist. Within two days time he visited the missionaries and showed himself to he of an entirely different stamp from his countrymen in Guinea. The Governor was angered to hear of the harsh "eatment accorded the missionaries on the Island of Silo Thome. As for Pernambuco territory he granted them perfect freedom to exclude it, "Het Kasteel" was removed from the name and the possessive particle "d" either logically or otherwise was also discarded leaving the modem form of the word, "El- mina:' which is found in a letter dated July 25, 1842. Scritture Riferite 968 : 834-836. II) Hadeler, Geschichte der GoldkUste (1904), 44. M) Atlas of the Gold Coast, Map No. t 9. ") Hadelcr, Geschichte der Goldkilste, 54. ") Scritture Riferitc 141 :323. This is Fr. Colombin's report; another source (Ibid. J 404: 118r & 121 v) says one died and five made ~e voyage on five different ships. 54 preach and to conduct public religious services. He promised, too, to give them help whenever they needed it. Two days after arriving in Brazil Fr. Colombin informed his Provincial of the turn of events. Since missionary work on the Guinea Coast was evidently out of the question, he asked his Provincial if the Guinea faculties which he and the other two priests had could possibly be made valid for missionary work in Pernam- buco where along some 130 leagues (350 miles) of coast there were only thirty scattered priests "). The petition, forwarded to Propaganda by the Provincial, was discussed on July 11, 1642. Propaganda decided not only to grant the desired facul- ties, but after hearing further news on January 2,1643, even ordered the Capuchins to remain where they were and to make every effort to stay there lest the Catholics of Pernambuco due to lack of sufficient Catholic priests be led astray by clever heretical preachers 00). The missionaries stayed in Pernambuco as Propaganda wished, and on August 25, 1643, Fr. Colombin could report that they already had a nice church with a small rectory alongside it. Some time previously one of the Komenda missionaries, Fr. Hugues d'A ncenis, had joined them. But as much as work in this new mission field of Pernambuco prospered, Fr. Colombin's thoughts were often elsewhere for in that same report he said: "As for our Guinea Mission, it is not yet abandoned, not yet given up for lost. We still have hope J Yes, even though the mission has undergone persecution, even though eight of our Fathers have there laid down their lives, even though we have had to undergo such long and severe hardships, we still have hope. Some day the most merciful God will reap from out the evils that have befallen that unfortunate pagan land an abundant harvest that will redound to His own glory, to the salvation of souls, to the exaltation of the Church, and to our consolation."") This seems to have been the last report on the Guinea Mission that AntonIo Barberini, the Cardinal of St. Onofrio, ever saw, for his austere life came to an end in 1646. Like many of his Mriean friends he was buried in the floor of a house- a house of God in Rome - with nothing to decorate his grave but the few simple words, "Here lies dust, ashes and nothing»)." With his burial another chapter of mission effort on the Gold Coast came to an end. Human weakness, nationalism, pOlitical power, all had played their part. Would another opening eve" be gotten on . the coast? C. Spanish Capuchins at Takoradi and Arda In the early part of 1651 a band of Spanish Capuchins set out for Benin where rumor said the Paramount Chief was Catholic. Superior of the seven priests and two Brothers was Fr. Angel de Valencia who had been appointed Superior while in Rome. On his way back from Rome to cadiz, Father Angel visited the Holy ") Scritture Riferite 141: 323. M) Acta 15 Guly 11, 1642) 131£, n. 8: Ibid., Ganuary 2, 1643) 247, n. 14. 11) Scritture Riferite 123:99 & 104. ". .. Quod attinet ad nostram Guineam Missionem, nondum deserta, ne conclamata est; etsi pezsecutiones pl~ passa, etsi de nostris patribus octo ibi mortW; speramus adhuc fore ut misericors Deus post tot labores improbos exantlatos, longamque patientiam, ex istis gravis, quae ceciderunt in ilIa terra miserorum' Gentilium, fructum multum tandem aliquando ad suam gloriam., salutem animarum., Ecclesiae exalta- tionem, nostramque consolationem producturus sit." Ibid. ") "Hie jacet pulvis cinis et nihil." He is buried in the Capuchin church just north of Piazza Barberini. 55 House of Loretto in Italy and there dedicated West Mrlca to the Queen of Heaven. Riding the high seas when Lent began, February 22, he and his missionaries decided to carry out publicly their religious exercises just as if they were still back in their monasteries, believing that God would reward them with special blessings on their missionary work because of it. Three times a week there was a sermon for the crew, and evenings the religious and the crew assembled for common prayer after which all publicly scourged themselves in memory of the scourging of Our Lord "). Easter Sunday, April 9th, came and went. Rounding Cape Three Points, they sailed up the coast to Takoradi where the captain decided to drop anchor "). The people of Takoradi were used to seeing ships drop anchor off shore, for Ta- koradi had a reputation for building the largest and finest canoes on the coast. They were some thirty feet long"some seven or eight feet in breadth, and required from eighteen to twenty paddlers when they were loaded with merchandise. Ships headed for Ouidah generally bought one or several of them for transporting goods on the lagoons. Perhaps the Spanish captain was not informed of this, because he had aboard the materials to build a boat which he intended to use to cart his merchandise up the Benin River. He thought Takoradi the best place to assemble the boat to). Since the ship was to remain at Takoradi for some time, the Fathers went ashore and Fr. Angel with the help of an interpreter preached on the necessity of faith for salvation. Some twenty days later when the ship was ready to leave, the people felt they would like one of the seven priests and two Brothers to remain in their village. But Fr. Angel, as hard as it was for him to do so, said he could not possibly grant their wish because of his orders which were to go straight to Benin (Nigeria) much farther down the coast. He promised, however, to inform the Holy Father of their request and said no doubt in short order they would have their missionary. The people asked then at least to be baptized, but the missionaries said they could not baptize them because they had not been sufficiently instructed. Then baptize at least our children, they said. Feeling perhaps that by the time the infants grew up there would be a mission established there, the missionaries granted the request and baptized some twenty children. The cargo boat was not yet finished when the captain sailed away from Takoradi. The reason was that the fiscal agent of Castel Del Mina had come to them by boat and suggested that they go a hit farther east along the coast to Shama, and finish the task there. He said they would find an excellent harbor, sweet water, food, and all the wood they needed. The captain had decided to take the suggestion. Soon after their arrival at Shama, the Dutch Governor of Castel Del Mina invited the crew and the Fathers to pay him a visit, assuring them that though the rest were Calvinists and violently anti-Catholic, he was a Catholic in secret. He wished to give them a real treat, he said. Some helieved him, not suspecting he was lying and that the Governor's only intention was to capture the ship on which they were sailing. As it turned out, several of the sailors and two of the priests were taken prisoner, Fr. Superior Angel among them. Three other Capuchins ") Cavszzi, Istorica Descrizione Bk. 5:4, 11,71 (1687), 531, 534, 575f. ") Scritture Riferite 249: 329r. The name is speUed Tacorare; Barbol's spelling for Ta- koradi is Tacorary. See Barbot, Description of Guinea, 152. ") On TakoI1ldi canoes, see &root, Description of Guinea (1732), 152. 56 were also captured but managed to escape to their ship by canoe. In revenge- the Spanish captain took possession of one of the Dutch boats as well as some- treasure chests and said he wo~ keep all until the prisoners were released. But: when the prisoners were not released, the Spanish captain left them behind and. sailed for Benin. The Governor at Castel Del Mina (E1mina) found himself burdened witiL extr-\ mouths to feed and on those grounds asked the two priests if they cared: to leave. When they said yes, he supplied them with passage to their destination ..) _ There they found two of the Fathers deathly sick and within a week both died_ Fr. Angel's companion, Fr. Tomas Gregorio, followed them to the grave 50011- after. The remaining missionaries made an attempt at mission work in Benin but. in vain, fleeing to the Island of Principe where they ministered for some time to- the island's 3000 Christians who were in charg",-ot one ignorant priest. Then, feeling that juridically they had· no right to work in this Portuguese possession, they boarded a Spanish ship which took them back to cadiz, the entire mission. having lasted from 1651 to 1653 "). And Takoradi? Evidently the missionaries forgot about it, or perhaps they feared reprisa1s by the Dutch. As for jurisdiction, however, there was no question of not having it because Propaganda had provided for just such an emergency, saying they could found a mission elsewhere if they should not be allowed to> found a mission in Benin "). Once back in Spain, Fr. Angel wrote Propaganda that it had been a mistake sending them to Benin because the Paramount Chief there was not a Christian. as had been reported. The rumor, it seems, was due to the fact that the predecessor- of that Chief was said to have had a Portuguese wife "). This stopover in Takoradi cannot be called a mission. It was - or rather it. could have been - a start. But once again the spark died out. . Much more important for the evangelization of West Mrica was another venture' of the Spanish Capuchins five years later. This was the first printed translation . of the entire catechism in a West Mrican language. Early in 1658 a Paramount Chief by the name of Toxonu who called. himself' King of Arda, a tribal area in Dali.omey between Ouidah and Abomey, sent an. ambassador named Bans to the court of Philip IV of Spain. This ambassador- requested missionaries for the kingdom of Arda. Asked to take over the mission, the Capuchins of Castile consented and immediately contacted the ambassador' and his personal attendaD.t. Using Portuguese, a language the two Africans had: ") Scritture Riferite 249: 329. This was written by one of the nin~ religious in the group .. He spells Shama: Sama. ") CaV1lZZi, Istorica Descrizione Bk 5:75-83 passim (1687), 578-584; Kilger, "Die Missionsversuche in Benin," in ZMR (1932) 319. 1$) ... . .. Sacra Coogregatio ... Praefecto ... et ejus Missionariis licentiam concessit ad alia loca AfIricae excolenda se transferendi, si eis post faetas debitas diligentias ingressus. in . .. Regnum Benin impediatur." Acta Guly 26, 1648) 133r, in Rocco, Missioni Dei. Cappuccini (1873), 3: 580, n. 2. ") CaV1lZZi, Istorica Descrizione, Bk. 5: 83f (1687), 584f. This author does not name, but only describes, Takoradi. As for Shama, written Sam. in the Spanish script of the Capuchin. missionary who was there and whose description I have used, Cavazzi calls it "Sabba,H which is either a misprint or a mistake. The Dutch Fort Nassau at Mouri was located in Saboe tribal area. See Adas of th~ Gold Coast (1945), Map No. 19; Barbot, Description or Guinea (1732), 174. 57 learned from Portuguese traders, the Spanish friars instructed both men in the faith and then christened them Philippe and Antonio. The Capuchins next urged their two African converts to help them write a , 1672, Michault found Komenda's Chief, Asify, one of the most co-operative on the whole Gold Coast. It was because Asify U.) Labouret & Rivet, La Royaume d' Arda (1929), 2. The catechism is not written in Ewe, but in a dialect related to Ewe called Mina or Ge, the language of modem Anecho and the southwestern comer of Dahomey. Due to the way the catechism was written, it has nwnerous mistakes and contains many Spanish and Portuguese words. Strebler, Personal Letter, October 2, 1954. "') The entire catechism has been reproduced photographically by Labouret and Rivet in, La Royaume d'A rda. ''') Acta 31 (November 13, 1662) 268, n. 9. 1M) Scritture Riferite 254: 236r & v. 59 felt a French establishment on his coast would intimidate the folk of Edina and so bring to an end the repeated sacking of his coastal villages, that he showed himself so agreeable. In fact, he was so concerned over having the French make an establish- ment there that he sent two ambassadors along with Michault to France. But when the two ambassadors arrived, King Louis was too busy fighting the Dutch to receive them. The West Indian Company then chose Colbert de Terron to be their host and he arranged a tour that took in Paris and the royal palace. When the ambassadors were sent back to Komenda, they were loaded down with presents for Chief Asify and for themselves. One of the ambassadors, Coucoumy, took up residence in Ampeni, a village four miles to the east of Komenda. Whether or not he and his companion w.ere instructed in the faith in France, as was the custom with such envoys, is hard to say. In any event, friends had been made, and later traders and missionaries would find a welcome at Komendaand Ampeni.'08) The Capuchin Province of Brittany did send two missionaries to the Guinea Coast in 1671 or 1672, but they died off almost immediately, one being poisoned by a Frenchman whose vices he condemned '''). A son of Brussels had more lasting success, and because of his vision and extensive and definite plan for the conversion of the whole Guinea Coast, he merits special mention here. Fr. celestin de Bruxelles, a Capuchin, was member of the Flanders-Belgium Province which had no foreign missions entrusted to it. Seeking an outlet for his mission zeal, he humbly begged his Provincial to allow him to join the Brittany Province in 1681. The Provincial gave his consent and allowed Fr. Benedict de Hulst to accompany him, a priest who had the same desires as Fr. celestin llO). Both of them found that they needed patience in Brittany. The Capuchin Provincial there felt that the political situation in Brazil and on the Island of Santo Domiogo did not allow of sending a man from Brussels in that direction. Month after month passed and Fr. celestin was just on the verge of asking per- mission to go back. to the Province he had so unprofitably exchanged when he received a letter from the Mission Procurator. The letter said that the Brittany Province had just been invited by the Royal African Company to send two mis- 10$) Barbot, Description of Guinea (1732), 154; Roussier, L'Etablissement D'Issiny (1935), xx:xvi.i; Archives du Ministere de la France d'Outre-Mer (paris), "1688 - Memoire ou Relation de ce qui s'est passe touchact Ie Roy de comendo," C- (Senegal ancien) 27bis, f. 1. 1(8) Archives O.F.M.Cap., Letter of Fr. celestin dated September 19, 1681, G.22. 10. In this letter Fr. celestin says the two other Capuchins were there 'nine or ten years ago! This is in conftict with what Delafosse says, for he gives the date as 1667. He mentions no source. but seems to be quoting from the unreliable Labat. Both say that du Casse brought two Capuchins in 1667 and Delafosse says that du Casse signed a treaty with the King of Komenda on December 15. 1667. But du Casse was born in 1646 and though he entered the navy at 14, he became captain of a ship only at the age of 29. Which means the year 16751 Therefore he had no ship on which to take two Capuchins in 1667. Du Casse, according to the original document seen by Roussier, signed a treaty with the King of Komenda on December 15. 1687, not 1667. Hence D elafosse's testimony on the Capuchins, as well as what he says about two Dominicans being put ashore at Ouidah three years after the Ca- puchins, is unreliable. Compare: Delafosse, L'Afrique occidentale fran~se (1931), 38--42; Labat. Voyage du Chevalier Des Marchais (1731). 2:216f; Roussier, L 'Etablissement D'Issiny (1935), xiv, :a:xvii-n::rix. 11.11) Acta 51 (February 25, 1681) 61, D. 4. This session dealt with the Nubia mission 00 the banks of the Nile which was offered to the Flanders-Belgium Province but which was not accepted. 60 sionaries to Guinea, and were Frs. celestin and Benedict interested? Immediatly they flew into action, contacting the Procurator, the Provincial, the Royal Mrican Company. The trading company promised to provide for everything, clothes, food and all else that was needed for the chapel or the mission. On reaching Guinea the missionaries would be given a year's supplies that would be regularly replenished by the company's ships plying the coast. And then, all of a sudden, the bubble burst I The Mission Procurator said no missionaries would be sent. No, not until the Royal Mrican Company with which he had abruptly fallen out apologized and humbly begged from him again the favor of having the two missionaries. Fearing lest all be lost, Fr. Celestin appealed to the Provincial, declaring that he and Fr. Benedict personally had no trouble whatever getting along with the officials of the Royal Mrican Company. The Provincial, magnanimous as he was, stepped in and overruled the Mission Procurator's decision, saying it was not fitting that the whole Guinea Mission be forsaken just for a point of honor. If you can come to terms with the company -officials independently of the Mission Procurator, he told the two missionaries, then go ahead. They did, and on the 12th of September both were already in Dieppe where two small vessels lay at anchor. With these they were to sail to La Rochelle where they would board two larger ships which along with the two smaller ones were to make the voyage to Guinea. After a week of waiting for a favorable wind in Dieppe, Fr. Celestin penned a letter on September 19, 1681, to his former Provincial and the Provincial Consultors gathered in chapter at Antwerp. As he sat aboard his anchored ship, his mind raced -out to sea, through the English Channel, down to La Rochelle, then down past Spain, past Portugal, past the Canary Islands, past Senegal to the Coast of Guinea, where there was not only a material but also a spiritual kind of slavery. "Let us run to their aid," he wrote, "and pull them out of the pit of ancient errors into which they have fallen . For they are brothers of ours, made of the same flesh and blood 'by the same Heavenly Father. And for their ransom the same price has been paid as for ours: the Blood of the only begotten Son of God. Countless years have they lain there, forsaken and deathly sick, not having a friend at hand to put them down :4>to the pool of water and wash them with the waters of baptism so they might at long last be healed . . . " lll) After more of patient waiting the ships sailed from La Rochelle, probably on .october 7th, and soon the two missionaries found themselves sailing along the Guinea Coast 111). Komenda, the land of such great promise for the French, was Teached and passed by. Castel Del Mina, still a Dutch stronghold, loomed up and then faded again. Accra came next, that land of woe where such rivals as the Eng- lish Mrican Company, the Dutch West India Company and since 1679 also the Portuguese lived side by side peaceably on two miles of coastline because the amount 111) All the above is taken from Fr. celestin's letter of September 19, 1681, in Archives O.F.M.Cap., G.22.10. "Accurramus igitur et extrahamus illoo ex cisterna veteris erroris, fratres et caro nostra sunt, ab eodem Patte coelesti creati et eodem pretio, sanguine scilicet Filii sui Unigeniti redem.pti iam a multis annis lethaliter infirm.antur et hominem non habent qui iUoo mittat in piscinam. et lavet aqua baptismatis ut sanentur." Ibid. lU) Barbot, aboard the Jolly, aailed for the Guinea Coast on October 7, 1681, from La "Rochelle. This was most probably one of the four ships in the squadron mentioned by Fr. Celestin. Barbot, Description of Guinea (1732), 523 . 61 of gold and slaves to be got there was seemingly inexhaustible and aroused no competition Ill). Fr. Celestin pressed on as far as Ouidah in modem Dahomey "'). Those were his orders from the Grand Bureau of the Royal African Company for whom he was officially serving as chaplain. He also had the titie of Apostolic Missionary to Guinea "'). A year sped by and when November 2, 1682, arrived, Fr. celestin was quite dejected. He fumbled for pen and paper and poured out his heart to the Provincial and to the Provincial Consultors in the Flanders-Belgium Province, telling them how disrespectful the French were towarda priests at that end of the world. Some four months earlier a Frenchman had proved so mean that Fr. Celestin was on the point of leaving Ouidah and going elsewhere as Fr. Benedict had done "'). He had been practically ostracized in the very house in which he lived. Was it his personality, his Belgian nationality or perhaps !Us campaign against slavery that was responsible for the poor relations? He did not know. D utch and English merchants established in the vicinity, however, made life there bearable by being very friendly. In spite of their being members of Protestant denominations, they supplied him with wine for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and with all else he needed for his chapel. One Portuguese, established there, also earne to his aid. As he wrote, the sadness left him and the old fire came back into his eyes. This falling out with the French, he said, had in God's Providence resulted in a deeper fa lling in with the Africans. The Paramount Chief of Ouidah, named Bangaza ll'), h.d taken him under his own roof until a home could be built for the priest adjacent to his own palace. On October 2nd, Feast of the Guardian Angels, Fr. Celestin had moved in. What possibilities had been opened up in that past month I First of all tilere was the high standing the missionary enjoyed with the Chief who according to tile laws of the land could appear before the public eye only once a year and could never speak alone to anyone. Bangaza waived this rulc very often in Fr. Celestin's case, visiting him by way of. secret garden gate and having a friendly chat, or inviting the missionary to visit him. And it was Bangaza who supplied him with daily food and drink from his own table. In addition to all this, Fr. Celestin had been given full liberty to propagate the faith. What more propitious bcginning could be imagined I But how go about converting the people of Ouidah, the people north, east and west of Ouidah ? That was his big problem. To the mind of this grcat missionary and organizer thcrc appeared only one way. That was to found and maintain a network of schools. And how had he rcachcd that decision? First of aU, he said, though tilC Chief is exccptionally well talented, there is absolutely no hope of HI) Dosmnn, New D escription of Guinea (1705/1907), 69. iti) "Fida, by the English cnned Whidnh, nnd by the French Juydo." Bnrbot, Description or Guioetl , 453 . A nol.her form is Judo. I use the modem spell ing. Ouiduh. 11l) T his and what follows is tl\ken from Fr. Celestin's letter of November 2. 1682, in Archives O.F.M.Cnp.) G.22.10, unless otherwise indicated. n.) AMlectn Capuccinornm (1915),31 ;327. m) "The 8t\mo king that wns at Fidn in my time in 1682, was still vigorous in 1701, on~ then about fifty two or fifty three yeoril of ngo; but as brisk and sprightly as a man at thirty-five. I have been told by a French gentlemnn . .. that this king of Whidah died in 1708 . . ." Barbat. Description of Guinen (1732). 453. The Dominican, Fr. Frnn~is. knew the Chief also and says his nnme wos Bn.ngnzo. See Fmn(:ois, Relation abregee (168811702) . 560. 62 bringing him around to observing the Christian moral code because he is soo irrevocably attached to his numerous wives. The same holds fo! all other adults. in the district for they are just as tanaciously addicted to polygamy as their Chief. Our only hope, he said, is in the children. They are not yet corrupt; they are docile; they are eager to learn how to read and write. So we shall found schools, he said, and along with lessons in reading and writing we shall teach them the divine lessons, of our holy faith. And so, God willing, we shall gradually gather this entire country into the one true fold. 118) Fr. Celestin was not just a wishful thinker. Already he was hard at work holding classes in reading and writing for the sons of the Chief, the first lessons they had ever had. Gradually, prudently, he would introduce instruction on the faith. It would not be a difficult matter getting the rest of the younger generation interested in these subjects, either, he felt "'). Undoubtedly they were already jealous of the prerogative of the Chief's sons. Fr. celestin, at least, was convinced such was the case. But even that, educational work in the entire territory subject to the Para- mount Chief of Ouidah, was too limited for him. On his agenda were visits tOo three neighboring Chiefs. He wanted to ask if they too, like the Paramount Chief of Ouidah, wanted Capuchin teachers to come and educate their sons and the other children in their tribes. Fr. celestin felt sure they would, because not a single person in any of those tribes could read or write 110). Perhaps he only saw schools as an opening for the faith, and so decided to use them. Or did he judge schools necessary? Round about him were many Mricans who called themselves Catholics . .. . they had been baptized. But for utter lack of training, or for lack of sufficient training, they soon forgot all that they had leatnt. Others of them, not understanding fully the sacred content, seemed tOo ridicule Christian doctrines in their pagan religious festivals. And even those whOo were the cleverest of all, those 'who could give long accounts of the creation, Adam's fall, Noe and the flood, Moses and Jesus Christ, even they secretly kg>t up ' the practice of their pagan religion. Long training in a Catholic school where good moral habits could be formed was the only remedy 121). 118) "De Rege. quamvis ingeniosissimo, et allis adultis nihil sperandum est. Sqnt enim. nimis intricati pluralitati mulierum. De cetero Rex non curat quem Deum sll:bditi illius colant ita ut per pueros qui sunt valde dociles totum hoc regnum ad veram fidem adduci passet idque eo facilius quo maiorem commoditatem habemus illos instruendi in fide dum. docemus eos scribere quod nullus eorum scivit hucusque." Archives O.F.M.Cap., G.22.10,. Letter of Fr. Celestin, November 2, 1682, fol. lr. 11.) "Quotidie nuttior cibo et potu regio; illius filios doceo legere et scribere: Simul Deo pIacente et cooperante, in fide illos instruam .. . " Ibid. 11:0) "Puto quod in regnis circumvicinis idem practicari poterit quod ego hie ago. Statui brevi adire tres alios Reges et ab illis petere utrum velint Capucinos ad docendum pueros. et eorum filios. Non dubito quin acceptabunt, millus enim illorum scit legere aut seribere.'~ Ibid., fol. Iv. 111) ... . . they at first seem to give ear to and believe; but as soon as our backs are turri.'d, they forget all that was told them: or if some, who have better memories, do happen to- retain it, they seldom fail, upon the slightest occasion, to ridicule it in their frolicks, even those who are servants to the Europeans on the coast, some of whom I have seen so far in- structed in the christian religion, as to answer very pertly to our catechism, and to speak pertinently of the creation; the fall of Adam; Noah's flood; of Moses, and of Jesus Christ;. and yet would no more forsake their idolatrous worship, than the grossest and most ignorant' of their countrymen; or if any do, . the number is very inconsiderable." Barbot, Description of Guinea (1732), 306. This is • contemporary judgment of the Christians along the whole Guinea Coast. See note n. 112, page 106. See also Barbot, Ibid., 453. 63 Fr. celestin was a capable, enthusiastic, farsighted organizer and leader. But be had no men. And without men the plan simply could not succeed. If only two 'Capuchins could come as a start, he said, the foundations could be laid upon which ·others could always build. He pointed out that getting personnel from the Brittany "Province was out of the question as their ranks had so dwindled that no men could he spared for Guinea. What a chance, he wrote, what an opportunity for the Flanders-Belgium Province to step in and fill the gap I But Fr. Celestin was far away now. His one-time Superiors could not see the :light in his eye nor sense the warmth of his voice as when a few years before he had set the whole Province on fire, getting more than fifty religious to volunteer for a projected mission in Nubia along the banks of the Nile lU). This time he was much more in earnest because here he could see with his own eyes the thou- ,sands upon thousands of souls living and dying in the mire of sin, something he had only imagined then. The door stood open wide and beckoned for members 0) Welch, South Africa under John III (1948), 138. U) Barbot, Description of Guinea (1732),154,156; Du Casse, M6moire Sur SOl) Voyage (1688/1935), 40. From this it would seem that the "pennonent antagonism • . . brought about between the Elmina people and their neighbors" was not a result of the Dutch-Ko- menda war of 1694, as Ward th.inks. but existed even prior to it. See: Ward, History of tho Gold Coast (1948), 89f. 69 by the Dutch, shaved, put in chains and held prisoner in EImina Castle until a ransom of 8000 francs in gold was paid for him. ") It was in Ouidah that Fr. Fran90is finally set foot on land. There he became a fast friend of the Chief in a rather remarkable way lS). Along with some others he had been invited to take dinner with the Chief who was quite unorthodox in this regard, since chiefs are never supposed to be seen at table. This Chief had the peculiar custom of being served at table and elsewhere by seven or eight young women completely nude "). Not knowing this beforehand, Fr. Fran90is innocently sat down to dinner. When the line of waitresses arrived, his face flushed and through Lefebvre his interpreter he graciously informed the Chief that his religion did not allow such a thing. Excusing himself, he left the hall. The Chief, however, was so impressed by this spontaneous act of the priest, that he dismissed the women, had them replaced by men, and recalled his departed guest "). It was at Ouidah that Fr. Fran90is made up his mind to ask his Superior to change his mission appointment. He wanted to work and die on the Gold and Slave coasts "), instead of going to the West Indies. Maybe what moved him was seeing 600 slaves of both sexes loaded onto the ship that was taking him to the West Indies "). If he was going to work effectively against slavery, he had to be at its source. Or maybe what moved him was the amiable spirit of Bangaza, Chief of Ouidah "). He was a man in his 40's, greatly loved by his people, and Paramount Chief over Popo to the west and Anfra to the east. From this Chief as well as from the traders Fr. Fran90is learned of the progress the Capuchin, Fr. celestin, had made there just a few years before. Since Chief Bangaza was such a capable ruler and enjoyed such high esteem in the eyes of his people, Fr. Fran90is felt certain that if he accepted the faith, hundreds and thousands would follow his example. And when he revealed his plan to the Chief and learned that Dominican missionaries would be more than welcome and would receive two fine pieces of property near the palace for a church and rectory, Fr. Fran90is knew that he had found his life's work. Yes, he would ask his Father General in Rome if it were possible to have his appointment changed. 10) It was said the sun and mOOD were worshipped in Assinie, in EImina a river, in Ouidah serpents and croco,diles and in neighboring Anfra trees. How often Fr. FraD90is had read Psalm 148 in his breviary, praying that sun and moon, rivers 11) Du Casse, Memoire Sur Son Voyage, 16. He gives the year 1685, but voyages were reckoned from the year the ships left La Rochelle. II) Circumstances seem to indicate that this event happened already on the first voyage, hence its introduction here. . >0) Laboure' & Rivet, La Roy,urne d'Arda (1929), 23. U) Atoux, "Gonzalez Fran~oisJ" (1702), 547. Fr. Aroux's account says only that this happened in Guinea which for the French of this period meant everything below the Sierra Leone River. It occurred at Ouidah, no doubt, because an anonymous document of the same period describes the Ouidah Chief as having this custom. Then too the only place where Fr. Fran~ois is known to have gone ashore is at Ouidah, and there he had an audience with the Chief. Two years later, after a similar audience with the same Chief, Fr. Francyois says that he was served dinner. It was on the first visit that the friendship was formed. See FranljX>is, Relation abregee. 560. 11). Francyois, Relation abregee, 559f. 17) "Enrait de la lettre eseritte ... ," See n. 2, p. t t 7. 11) Barbot, Description of Guinea, 453. (See D. 117, p. t07). if) Fran~ois, Relation abregCc, 560. 70 and hills, serpents, crQcodiles and trees alQng with man might give praise to.. GQd. Here, in the land he hQped Qne day WQuld be his missiQn, it appeared that all these creatures intercepted the hQnQr and glQry due to.. GQd alQne, their CreatQr to). When the "Saint-Louis" stQPped at the Island Qf Sao.. ThQme to.. take Qn the usual food supplies that could be gQtten very cheaply there Si), the PQrtUguese GQvernQr shQwed Fr. Fran~Qis a letter he had received frQm the ParamQunt Chief Qf Benin (Nigeria) in which he asked fQr a missiQnary "). The sQle Capuchin Qn the Island Qf Sao.. ThQme was nQt in a PQsitiQn to.. answer the request. Could Fr. Fran~is go.. there? Fr. Francesco da MQnteleQne, an Italian, was the Capuchin Qn the island at the time. He had been called there from AngQla by the BishQP Qf Sao.. ThQme in the middle Qf 1684. The two.. men talked Qver the missiQn possibilities Qn the mainland, and Fr. Fran~is learned that Fr. Francesco since his arrival had repeatedly written - to.. Propaganda fQr mQre men. He wanted to.. branch Qut to.. the mainland and take up wQrk at Huere (Owerri), Benin (Nigeria), and Arda (DahQmey), the last Qf which was just inland frQm Ouidah where Fr. celestin had been dQing such splendid wQrk and where two.. Capuchins nine Qr ten years befQre had been wQrking. It was particularly saddening fQr Fr. Francesco to.. hear that he was the sole missiQnary that Fr. Fran~is had come acrQSS since leaving the Sierra LeQne River "). Gradually a plan fQrmed in Fr. Fran~is' mind. He WQuld fQund three central statiQns, Qne at KQmenda Qn the GQld Coast, Qne at Ouidah Qn the Slave CQast, and· a third at Benin. If by the time Qf his return friendly relatiQns were again established between Assinie and the French, he WQuld fQund a fQurth there. His Qwn residence WQuld be at Ouidah because there he CQuld best direct all missiQnary activity up and dQwn the coast, it being the principal French settlement. AnQther reason favQring Ouidah was his clQse friendship with Chief Bangaza. Then too he was determined to.. Qpen Qnce again the school strictly fQr Africans which Fr. celestin had begun three-and-a-half years befQre "). .o) Ibid., 553. U) Damon, Relation Du Voyage (1699/1935),85. It) FranfOis, Relation abregee, 553. ") Jonghe & Simar, Archives Congolaises (1919), 106f, 109. The sources do Dot name the Capuchin Fr. Fran~is met, but it must have been Fr. Francesco da Monteleone because: a) Fr. Franyois met a lone Capuchin in Guinea below the Sierra Leone River (Scritture Riferite 497: 222f). b) Fr. Fnm~is stopped at the Island of Sao Thome (Fnm~is, Relation ahregee, 553). c) Fr. Francesco was the only missionary, the only Capuchin, on the Island throughout the period from July, 1684, until July, 1687. It was within this time that Fr. Fran~is was there. Jonghe & Simar, Ibid., 106-122 passim. Acta create an apparent difficulty with the above explanation becau'se the Capuchin whom Fr. Fran~is met is said to have been French: " ... gli convenne passare per Guinea.~ dove trovatosi un solo M.issionario Capuccino francese. per essere morti gl'altri .. . J> But "fran- cese" is an unfounded insertion on the part of the Secretary since the document sent by the Dominican Fr. General from which the infom13.tion for Acta was drawn merely says, " . . . continuando il viaggio verso la Guinea vidde i progressi che facevano i Padri Missionarii Cappuccini nella fede, de quali essendo morti gli altri un solo ne era rirQ,asto che continuava negli essercitii della Santa Missione .. !' The Secretary of the Propaganda, knowing that the Guinea Mission had originally been entrusted to French Capuchins, automatically thought the Capuchin whom Fr. Fran~is met must have been French and wrote that into the minutes. Compare Acta 57 (April 21, 1687) 57f, D. 2; Scritture Riferite, 497: 222f. ") Fran~is, Relation abregee (1688/1702), 553, 555, 558f; Roussier, V£mblissement D'Issiny (1935), xii. 71 When Fr. Franl'Ois was back in France around the beginning of 1687, he wrote the letter he had long hefore mentally composed. He told his Fr. General in Rome, Fr. Antonio Clocbe, of the vast West Mrican mission field he had found cared for by only one priest. It was evident, he said, that this land called Guinea needed missionaries much more than the French West Indies where already so many were at work. Was Fr. General not of the same opinion 1 Would he not seriously consider sending Fr. Franl'Ois to Guinea, cancelling the first assignment 1 The Guinea Company had offered to transport all missionaries free of charge and supply them with whatever else they needed for their mission stations "). Fr. Cloche and his Council in the monastery of "Santa Maria Sopra Minerva" in Rome studied the proposition from every angle. Consent meant bringing Domin- icans into an altogether new field of labor, the notorious Gold and Slave coasts where a third of all Europeans were said to die off every year "). But danger was no argument when the salvation of souls was in question. Fr. Cloche knew well ' 1 the spirit which fired the young priest. He knew of his virtue too, his learning, J his exemplary observance of the rule 17). Fr. Franl'Ois had been born at Puy in ~ Velay where he received the Dominican habit and had made his studies in the Province of Toulouse. In 1683 the predecessor of Fr. Cloche, Fr. Antoine de Monroy, had given him permission to study sacred eloquence in Paris whither all students of oratory were running to hear Bossuet and Bourdaloue "). All this made him eminently fit to he a herald of the Gospel, eminently fit to he a Superior. That was Fr. General's final judgment as well as the judgment of his C9uncil. Fr. General himself wrote to the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, requesting that Fr. Franl'Ois and some fellow missionaries he allowed to take up the work in Guinea "). The Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda considered the request on April 21, 1687. After laying the petition hefore the assembled Cardinals, the Secretary reminded them that the missions in Guinea were already in charge of the Capuchins, but that the field was so extensive that there was also room for the Dominicans. Propaganda saw the need for more priests and readily authorized the Dominica,ns to open missions in Guinea. Propaganda obtained the necessary faculties for the missionaries from the Holy Office and declared at the same time that these faculties would expire automatically when a sufficient numher of Capuchins should arrive to replace the Dominicans 00). Anticipating Propaganda's official decision by a week, Fr. Antonio Cloche an- swered Fr. Franl'Ois under date of April 15, 1687, giving him full authority to choose up to six memhers from the French Provinces of the order whom he judged fit for this new mission. He asked that the names of all who volunteered he sent to Rome for approval by Propaganda. And to make sure Fr. Franl'Ois would have no trouble with superiors in getting personnel, Fr. General wrote, " . .. we command each and every superior in the French Provinces, by power of the Holy Spirit and U) The content of the letter is evident from what his Fr. General wrote to Propaganda. See Scritture Riferi'e 497: 222r. M) Du Casse, Memoire Sur Son Voyage (1688 /1935), 38. ") Scrittur. Riferite 497 :222. II) Loenertz, "Dominicains . .. en Gum&: au XYlIe siecJe," in A.rchivum Fratrum. Prae- 0). Not long after this palaver Aniaba in the company of some followers approached Damon and solemnly declared that thenceforth all business was to be transacted with him and not with Akasini. His uncle, he explained, had handed over all authority, entrusting the entire management of the country to him. Aniaba was now King of Assinie 101). Aniaba's manner however was so haughty and his words so sharp that Damon felt a great change had suddenly come over him. H e seemed to have not even one spark of gratitude left in him for the French. Certainly if he were in power, France would not have such fine co-operation as Akasini had manifested from the very first moment. Then too, thought D amon, Akasini had all the marks of a true leader whereas Aniaba had not yet manifested the most elementary qualities of leadership in the land where he was King. If it had been the other way round, and Akasini had been the undesirable character and not Aniaba, the accompanying F rench soldiers brought for that very purpose could have removed Akasini and put Aniaba in his place. But as it was, Damon decided it more advantageous for N) I have adopted the spelling of the following proper names that Fr. Mouezy, a missionary of long experience in this area, uses in his book. "Histoire Et Coutumes Du Pays D 'Assinie Et D u Royaume De Krinjabo" (1942), because of the many variants: Akasini (Akassini), Amaha (Aniabas), Amon (EmoD, Emond, Aymont), Nyamke (yamaquay, Jan Moque, Jean Moque, Yamokc), Gyoumray (Guoumray, Guyomray). ") D amoD, Relation Tres Curieuse (1702/1935), 93f; Loyer, Relation Du Royaume D'lssyny (1714 /1935), 156f. 1M) D amon, Ibid., 94. 101) DamoD, Relation Tres Curieuse, 94. 86 French interests to favor Akasini. Chief Amon obligingly agreed to arrange a return audience with Akasini on the morrow for the very urgent matter Damon said needed clarification. At eight the next morning the audience took place 10'). Damon's first concern was to beg Akasini's pardon for his importunity. Then, in the presence of Aniaba, he asked Akasini who really was King of Assinie. I am under the impression that you are King, he said, but Aniaba insists that he is. I earnestly beg you to clarify the issue and tell me with which of you two I am supposed to deal. When Akasini heard these words relayed to him .by his spokesman, he made a lunge toward Aniaba and would have punished him right then and there had Damon not intervened and asked for mercy. Aniaba could only cower as Akasini having regained his composure solemnly informed Damon that he and 'he alone was lord and master of Assinie and would continue to be until his death. It was he who would give -Damon the right ·to choose whatever spot he wished for his fort. It was he who would care for all the needs of the French. And it was with him at Assoko, the capital of his country, that all further arrangements should be made 103). As for Aniaba, he was nobody I ''') Because of the action taken that day by Damon, Aniaba became -the sWorn enemy of the French even in spite of his having been pampered like a favorite child for well-nigh fourteen years. ~") But he would never win a following, would never become Paramount Chief as he hoped, because in· the eyes of his people lie was really nothing but a fraud, nothing but a slave who had managed to deceive the greatest men of France, ignorant of the customs of his country. When he had left his country in 1687, the French had believed that in Assinie, as in France, sons succeeded their fathers to the throne. They did not know that Assinie had a matrilineal system and so a nephew, son of.theParamount ·Chief's sister, was the heir apparent. In fact, Louis Aniaba was not even son of the late Paramount Aniaba, at least not in the sense of the word as understood by Fr. Fran90is and the rest of France. He was just an adopted son of Chief Nyamke, brother -of Akasini, who belonged to the family of the late Paramount Chief. For this people the term "father" did not necessarily and always mean "progenitor," and according to tribal custom it could be applied to several persons who fulfilled or might later fulfill the office of father towards one. Louis Aniaba was really only a prisoner of war, captured by the Assinie when warring against a neighboring tribe. He had been adopted into the tribe. . As early as June, 1692, Tibierge had learned all this when visiting Assinie . . At the same visit he had learned that Banga, Aniaba's companion, was also just a slave. Undoubtedly this accounted for Banga's being returned to Assinie shortly 10!) Ibid., 94£; Roussier, L'Etablissement D'Issiny, xxii-xxiii. . lOS) The island on which the capital was located also bore the name Assoko; today the island is. called Monobaha. The island was and is one of seven at the mouth of the Aby . Lagoon, several miles up the Assinie River (Loyer, Relation Du .Royaume D'!ssyny, 189, 191; see also the map of the area in this book on page 33). Today the Assoko of the late seven- teenth and early eighteenth centuries is abandoned; a village of the same name has been founded on the mainland, south of Etiosika. An arm of the Assinie River which branches off in the direction of the ancient Assoko is still called the Assoko-ebo, that is, the Assoko River (Rougerie, Personal LetteIll of January 13, 1953, and June 13, 1953). Assoko occurs in the sources also as: Soco, Sokoo, Issoco. 1.") Damon, Relation Tres Curieuse, 94f. ...) Ibid., 95. 87 after. But as for Louis Aniaba, the Guinea Company probably argued that it would be good to continue his military training just to play safe. And so the sham went on for all those remaining years with only the highest officials in the Govern- ment and in the Guinea Company cognizant of the true state of affairs 10'). If Aniaba was a failure for France, he was even more so for the mission. Even though not in command of the country, he could have heen a great help as a model Christian and as a catechist. From the office of catechist he could even have ad- vanced to the sacred office of being priest at God's holy altar. But no I Louis Aniaba was made of weaker stuff. Fr. Loyer had gotten sad proof of this when their ship made a stopover to take on food, fresh water and wood near today's River Cess in Liberia. The ship lay at anchor an entire week taking on supplies and all that time Louis Aniaba spent ashore in licentious living. In Assinie seeing himself far ahead of his fellow countrymen in learning, he became extremely haughty and in the end only one person of any authority sided with him. And that was a man who hoped to get half the goods Aniaba had brought with him from France. These two traits of the man made Fr. Loyer's hopes vanish because a proud and unchaste man could never be of any service to a mission ...) . With Paramount Chief Akasini's permission to build a fort wherever he chose, Damon aailed some ten miles down the coast until he came to a small peninsula whose westernmost tip formed the eastern bank of the Assinie River. There he decided to build his fort. The spot was easy to defend and was likewise ideally situated for commerce since the Assinie capital, Assoko, was only a few miles up the river .'"). But the surf was so rough that for two days nobody dared go ashore. When it appeared much better on July 5th, de Bagaret, Damon's lieutenant, went ashore to reconnoitre ."'). Eager to set foot in their new mission, Frs. Loyer and Villard followed right after. When the ship's boat had gotten as far as the bar, both had to transfer to an Assinie canoe since only a canoe could reach shore safely. But the minute the first wave hit the canoe, it went (/kikribou," as the native rowers said, and the next instant the two Dominicans found themselves floundering in the water just as Fr. Colombin had in 1637 near the very same spot. Fortunately they had not far to swim before being able to touch bottom 110). The very next day in the presence of the twelve to fifteen Frenchmen already on the peninsula, the use of the land was handed over to the French with all due ceremony. Chief Nyamke, Chief Amon, Aniaba and many others were there. 1111) Tibierge, Extrait Du Journal, 66f; Roussier, L'~tablissement D'Issiny, x:ri.ii; Loyer, Relation Du Royaume D 'Issyny, 158, 169f. In) Loyer, Ibid., 148 ; Damon, Relation Tees Curieuse, 100. lOS) Claridge states that "Loyer, on his arrival, chose a site on a narrow peninsula on the- east bank of the River Tano, and, having entered into an alliance with the local Chief, built a small fort there." But from Damon's own words it is evident that Damon and not Fr. Loyer chose the spot: "Ayant pris la resolution de faire l'etablissement en ce lieu, je fus a Soco .. . " And Fr. Loyer says that Akasini gave Damon permission to build a fort wherever he, Damon, wished: " ... il lui permit de batir un Fort en son pais, dans Ie lieu qui lui plairoit davantage!' Compare, Claridge, History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti (1915), 1:201; Damon, Relation Tres Curieuse (1702(1935), 95; Loyer, Relation Du Royaume O'!ssyny (1714/1935), 157. 1(1) The source has "Le samedi 5 juillet . . !' But in 1701 the 5th was a Tuesday, not a Saturday. Evidently "samedi" is an error because three pages later occurs "Le samedi 9 juillet ... !' The 9th was a Saturday. See Loyer, Relation Du Royaume D 'Issyny, 157, 160; Grotefend, Tascbenbuch Dcr Zeitrechnung (1941), 149. 110) Loyer, Relation Du Royaume D 'Issyny, 158. 88 Nyamke had someone cut off the branch of a tree and then took and handed it to' Amon who stuck it in the ground. Each Frenchman had to touch the branch, Amon meanwhile declaring in a loud voice that all present were witnesses to the fact that in the name of the Paramount Chief and the whole nation he was officially' granting that piece of land to the-French for a fort 111). . At an official audience with Akasini at his Assoko palace on July 9th the formality of questioning and answering was gone through again. In a low voice Akasini asked his spokesman to inquire why Fr. Loyer and Damon had come and what: they wished. Banga acted as interpreter for Fr. Loyer who said what had moved him to come was his desire to spread the faith in Assinie and teach Assinie the way to heaven. Damon said in turn that his purpose was the establishment of friendly commercial relations between Assinie and France. And if the people of Assinie were attacked by an enemy tribe, he said, France would lend all the assistance needed. The half hour of complimenta that followed assured both missionary and merchant that they were welcome. Less than a week later construction on. the fort began, and on August 24th, 1701, the French flag was raised over it for the first time and the UTe Deurn" was sung. The fort was named Saint-Louis lll) .. A month later, September 23rd, Damon said good-by to the two priests and twenty-eight others he was leaving at Assinje and headed for Ouidah to see if a new beginning could also be made there. A school was being opened in Assinie. and one of Damon's last acta before leaving, was to remind Akasini of his prom- ise to send four lads to the school. When Damon sailed for Ouidah, two buildings; had already been put up at Assinie, each twenty-eight feet long. One was for housing the thirty men, and the other was to serve as warehouse for merchandise· and the ten-month supply of foodstuffs for the garrison. A church twenty feet long had also been built, but still lacked a roof 113). Frs. Loyer and Villard soon learned that there were many obstacles which would: make mission progress slow. The people there, it is true, did believe in one God, Anguiourne, the Creator of all things. Each morning after rising they pFllyed to· Him for their daily needs. But that was about the extent of their cult since they' believed Him so good that they never had to fear any evil from Him. Almost all l¥s power, they said, had been given to the fetishes who were supposed to serve mankind. In speaking with the Elders, Fr. Loyer had often tried to get to the bottom of their concept of "fetish," a word they had borrowed from the Portuguese: who had used it as a general term for all objecta connected with dynamistic, manistic, animistic or naturistic cults. But not once did he get a satisfactory explanation. Each narrator always came back to the same thing: From their an-· cestors they had learned that it was to the fetish they were obliged for all the good. they received in this life, and it was the fetish too that was responsible for whatever evil befell them 114). Fetishes were made of almost anything: a small piece of yellow or red wood; the teeth of a dog, tiger or civet cat; an elephant's tusk; an egg or the bone of a bird; the head of a chicken, ox or goat; a rani's hom filled with excrement; thorn. Ill) Loyer, Relation Du Royaume D'Issyny, 159. m) Ibid., 160-164 passim; Damon, Reliltion Tres Curieuse (1702/1935),101 . 111) Damon, Relation Tres Curieuse, 101f, 105; Barbot, Description of Guinea (1732)r- 453[. n.) Loyer, Relation Du Royaume D'Issyny (1714/1935), 212f. 89' branches or cords made from the bark of a tree. And each fetish had a special ritual that had to be performed on its own particular day, generally Friday. The entire tribe, each village, each person had a fetish. And faith in them was so strong, lic missionaries on the ·other hand were told to keep out, an attitude that did ' not ~hange until 1849 when :·the putch at Elmina and Accra showed themselves willing to admit Catholic ·.missionaries from · France. But lack of personnel made it impossible to accept the ·offer. Prior to 1880, the year Catholic mission work was finally resumed on the Gold >Coast, "five Protestant missionary groups made attempts to evangelize the land. A brief glimpse at the work they accomplished shows that heroism and failure 'were earmarks of Protestant as well as Catholic missionaries. - . A. The United Brethren or The Moravian Church (1717) For a hundred years Protestant churches had ministers caring for troops and :mulattoes in the fortresses lining the coast, but it was the United Brethren, often ·caIled the Moravian Church, who made the first Protestant attempt at direct mis- .sion work on the Gold COast. Graf Nikolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, the founder of the church, met a Gold Coast half-caste in Copenhagen in 1735 named Christian., :Protten. Born in the Danes' Christiansborg Castle (Accra) of a Danish father and ,an Mrican mother, the lad was transported to Copenhagen at the age of twelve 'to learn a trade. He liked Zinzendorf better than his· trade, followed him to H~­ but, Sax"Ony, and after two years training was sent out at the age of twenty-two as :the first Protestant 'mi~ to the Gold Coast along with Rev. Henrick Hukuff.t ·.zinzendoff had been having trouble With the Danish colonial officials over his mission in their Virgin Islands =d so he was happy to find the Dutch West India 'Company of Amsterdam willing to transport his two missionaries free of charge. The missionaries arrived at Elmina ~)tin'May 11, 1737, and immediately headed for the Dutch Fort Crevecoeurin Accra where Rev. Protten's lauguage, Ga, was ,spoken. But &v. l!ukuff died in five weeks and aimless Rev. Protteh soon took r 'to the sea, First he traveled to Herrnhut, then to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, 'then back to Herrnhut, all of his own accoro. Nowhere was he liked, his drinking .and spendthrift ways bringing him into ever greater disrepute: No one felt him 'fit for a responsible assignment. In 1746 he married in Europe, returned to 'Chris!=iansborg Castle only ten years later, but .left agaiIL in 1761 after.Jl1ling a half-caste child while cleaning his gun. In Hernlhut his superiors pleaded with him to devote himself to educating Gold Coast Mricans, not only the mulattoes . :in the Danish fort. He set out again for the Gold Coast in 1763 for the last time, dying iri Christiansborg castle on August 23, 1769. His missionary society un- 1) "St. GeQrge del Mina" was still the name in use at this time. See Miiller, 200 Jahre Brildermission (1931), 1,165. 106 happily remembers him ..s "a man who accomplished absolutely nothing for the Lord ')." . The Danish Guinea Company, having meanwhile come to terms with the Brethren, asked for Gold Coast missionaries in 1767. Rev. Jakob' Meder, leader of the group, made .arrangements in Copenhagen with the trading company, got free passage, and WIth four companions arrived at Christiansborg Castle July 5, - 1768. But before September was over, Rev. Meder and two of his companions had already died from fever. The other two were sick and ~nt an appeal to Herm- hut for reinforcements. Four men were sent out. One of them, Rev. J. E. Westmann, had orders· to make a survey and then return to Herrnhut and report on the mission's progress. The band reached Christjansborg Castle at Accra on February 9, 1770. E~r to 1 t get away from this Danish trading station and from the coast where the people I had been sa corrupted by the ~n and the ~ts, the missionaries accepted the offer of ~'s P9werful cruef to preac~. the G0Spel ~But never- theless they needed a coastal base to get supplies and to keep m touch WIth Herrnhat. Akim lay far to the northwest of Christiansborg. The missionaries decided to , erect their base some ten miles east of Christiansborg in territory protected by the Danish Fort Friedensborg at Nungwa. This was because the area west of Christiansborg and closer to Akim was controlled by hostile companies, clie Dutch and the English '). Four missionaries set out for Nungwa, -b;i 'fever attacked all four of them. Hearing of this Rev. Westmlinn, who had stayed behind with a companion to • • forward the baggage, hastened to their aid, although he himself was SIck. In June, .. 1771, Hermhut received the sad news tb,it all but Rev. Westmann and on~9ther had died. When that com!,anion also died, Rev. Westmann fled by ship ~n1y to die ,-' at sea five days after leavmg port. ~o\,l.w ""-lint ft>,... y.-u '-<\rl':) r(.tU\-rUv """,-V-- I'~ In 1773 the Danish West India' Company once again asked for missionaries " for the Gold Coast, but got none1,The board of directors, like the decease.d zinzeni~. · · "iBnited Brethren set foot on the Gold o,ast 6). r .T heir plan was good, for they were ·c onvinced that it was necessary to break away from the forts on the coast and go inland if they were to have anything like , success--. =B--ut they died in the attempt. t _ _ t) "Protten . .. ist . .. gestorben, fohne etwas vor den Heilarild ausgerichtet zu haben' ." " Ibid., 168. a) Du Plessis calls the Chief in question "the King of Adangme." But MiilleT. writing from archive material, says it was "der Konig von Akem," ruler of an inland tribal area. Adangme is along the coast. See Du Plessis, Evangelisation of Pagan Africa (1929), tt2; MillIer, 200 Jahre Briidermission, 1: 169; Atlas of the Gold Coast (1945), Map N o. 19; Ward, History of the Gold Coast (1948), 101 , 263. 4.) "Der Heil~d will die Mohren erst zu Sklaven gemacht haben, ehe sie ~elig werden, wei! sie so stolz sind." MUller, 200 Jahre Briidermission, 1: 170. ') Ibid., 1:164--170. All data about the U~ted Brethren, not otherwise indicated, comes from this source. 107 B. Tm Society for tm Propagation of tm Gospel in Foreign Parts (1752) \ Next to reach the Gold Coast was an Anglican missionary group. By charter of June 16, lZ,2.1, the Archbishop of Canterbury became president and ninety- three others became members of a corporation in the Chu:rch ~ England called, \ "The Society for' the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." The primary aim of this Society was to supply English colonies with Anglican ministers so as to prevent leakage from the Church of England. Missionary activity among pagans in the colonies was advocated and to some extent also practiced. '). -As early as 1720 the Royal African Company of England had asked for ministers to serve as chaplains in its Gold Coast forts promising "to allow them £80 or £100 per anoum with diet at the Governor's table ')." The first to offer himself /1was Rev. Thomas Thompson in 1751. More than five years before he had resigned a Fellowship in Christ's College, Cambridge, to become a missionary in New ' Jersey, U.S.A. Sailing from .New York he reached his destination, Cape Coast Castle, early in 1752. :r~ ~lish trading company's priocipal Gold Coast base at the time, WheflRev. Tho;Pson's preaclliIlg to the Mricans proved ~l. 'fruitless, he' concentrated on work among the mulattoes connected with the castle. He also"studied the vernacular and paid an occasional visit to the trading station at Anomabu 8). But before spending five full years on the coast he had to return to England, broken in health, having "effected little beyond baptising some adult negroes and collecting a vocabulary of 1200 Fanti words ')." , Aiming to provide for the future, Rev. Thompson in 1754 had sent three. Cape Coast boys all under twelve years of age to London, to his Society's headquarters. The ~ ~as to train them as missionari,.\O! and then send them back to the Gold f Coast to convert their oWn people. Though one lad died of consumption, the other ,..J v~ ," lWo lived to~iye. public baptism on January 7, U5.9, in the Church of St. Mary, M S ·<:hlington. Ifut one .of the two ,went mad and ~ in Guy's Hospital, leaving only Philip Quaque to receive Anglican orders and his appointment in .1765 as "Mis- ; 'sionary, School Master, and Catechist to the Negroes of the Gold Coast 10)." : Rev. Quaque reached Cape Coast Castle early in 1766, visited the· English fort, at Anomabu, and then decided to :W~[l 2 . seh.oW in his oWl' hOl);le at Cape Coast for the iu§..trucrinn of mulatt~. He spent four months in' Accra at the trading company's Fort James but "met with no other success than reading prayers twice, and preaching once to the garrison H)." As for Cape Coast where he resided, th~ /1 evil lives and often hostile attitude of the garrison, along with his having forgotten ~ 11Y! .. ~other tongue while in England, caused almost everything he attempted to fail . By 1774 he had baptized some fifty-two persons, a f.s..w r " ) Ibid., 153-159 passim; Du Plessis, Evange1isation of Pagan Africa (1929), 119. Ii) Findlay & Holdsworth, History of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, 4 : 164. M) Ibid., 166f. 17) Ibid. , 162- 167, 184£, passim; D u Plessis. Evangelisation of Pagan Africa, 120. Ie) Du.-Plessis, Ibid., 119f; FindJay & Holdsworth, History of the Wesleyan Methodist MisSionary Society, 4 : 170--175, 185, passim. 112 general superintendence* "an d direction" It). These orders outlined the future policy of the mission. V E. The 1f-orth German Mir~ or The Bremen Mirsiml (18+7) ~out .members of the North German Missionary Society, or Bremen Mission, arnved m Ca~ 0>ast on May 5, 1.8+7, on their way to found a mission in Nigeria . . When that ID1SSlOn ~Y;ed unfeasIble, they consulted with the Basel missionaries at Christiansborg cal(,;' and were offered the Ewe territory just east of the Volta River. Rev. Lorenz Wolf began work in the village of Peki, fifty miles inland, at the invitation of Chief Tutu's son, arriving there on November 14, 1847. By that date his three companions had already died I Two new missionaries came to his aid on March 3, 1849, but were disappointed at finding only a handful of lax ~rts and a school enrollment of fourteen. Rev. 'Wolf's health forced himto leave the mission in January, 1851, only to die in the Hamburg harbor before setting foot on land. The two missionaries who had come to his assistance in 18+9 were on the same boat 80). oM ore missionaries reached Accra on December 23, 1851. One of the three was convinced that it bad been a mistake to start so far inland, but in spite of his protestations the Peki mission was again opened. When an impending Ashanti war forced the missionaries to abandon Peki in May, 1853, a ,station was opened at Keta on September 3rd. It had been impossible for Rev. Wolf to start there in 1847 because the An.Jtlo tribe was then at war With the Danes of Christiansborg Castle. Keta in Rev.-Wolf's phin was to·be both a starting P?int for inland work as well-as the mission's link with the headquarters at Bremen, Germany. Rev. Bern- hard Schlegel arrived in March, 1854;-purpqsely to study the Ewe language, and asked that a station far inland be founded for him. Ways was chosen, a village of the Adaklu tribe, nineteen hours inland by fool. He reached it on May 2, 1857, but stayed only nine months and then moved to Anyako, just acroSs the lagoon - from Keta, where the third mission station had already been opened on September 2, 1857. Th~ intako dialj'ct ";"d ~i>t, that of AwikIu was the prin?ipal one, he ?ad ['~I // learned. This ed rmgwst dIed ~ Anyako on May .1, .1859, but. m fiv~ years ~e ~ Ift J~~ he bad J1!:.oduced the first EW,,--£rniler, grammar, di~J'~llibkllis~"io: ' - of' Christ, and translation off oe four Gospels. ~') ---systematically the Bremen missionaries worked their way back to Peki, always founding another station closer to it on the path that ran to it from Anyako via Ho. I A fourth station was founded at Wegbe on December 27, 1859, in the vicinity t of Ho. ~!wess and ~th, hostility of fetish priests and ~m.-ba.d:..fr~~w ~g made ~~.Qy_@a planned progrJ'§§ III the four matp statto~ ,impossible. To get children for the schools - the adults seemed hopelessly lost ,K to paganism ,- it was necessary to give free lodging and board, or to pay an equivalent sum to the parents if the pupils lived at home. When tIiis system did ,not work, slave children were ransomed and placed in the schools. But even th,at proved unsatisfactory because the liberated slaves being from another tribe Were considered as strangers and inferiors by the 1000000natives and so their example was -) Du Plessis, Evangelisation of Pagan Africa, t t 9. The quotation is taken from a General Letter of November 3,1877, cited in the note. -) MUlIer, Geschichte der Ewe-Mission (1904), 1-9, passim, . 11) Milller. Geschichte der Ewe-Mission, 9-14, 20--25, 30, 58--60, passim. 113 of no help in the conversion of the village. A catechist school, similarly conducted, was established definitely in July, 1864. Funds for running the mission were obtained by selling palm oil and cotton to a Bremen trading company with offices in Keta "). The main stations in Keta and Anyako suffered setbacks during the war be- tween the Anglo and Ada tribes in 1865-1866. The most flourishing station of all, Wegbe near Ho, was utterly destroyed in the Ashanti war of 1869, as well as that in Waya, and the missionaries were pushed back to Anyako and Keta. By 1871 work could begin again in Waya, and in Wegbe only as late as 1877. So it is not surprising that by December 31, 1872, the entire mission - Keta, Anyako, Waya - numbered only 101 Christians, eighty-four of whom were adults, and had only ninety-two boys and thirty-six girls in the three mission schools. The British war of 1874--1875 against the Anglos wrecked the Anyako station, which was rebuilt in 1877. In December, 1879, Bremen Christians in the Ho area numbered lninety-six. Through trade Keta by that time had expanded into a promising village of 900 inhabitants. Peki, still vacant, would have to wait until September, 1883, and the first Hamburg deaconesses would reach Keta in November, 1889 "). The year 1884 would see the death total mount to fifty-four, eighteen of those .;;: ~ being wives who had accompanied their missionary husbands to the difficult Ewe \'~ , mission "). '. ' r .,,//In 1880 the Basel, the Bremen and the Wesleyan were the only Protestant Missionary Societies at work in the Gold Coast. Ten additional denominational groups have since taken up work there but not one of them has grown as large as any of these three, or even as large as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts which by 1948 had 5,430 Fun Members. That same year the North German Missionary Society or Bremen Mission, now known as the Ewe Presbyterian Church, had 16,412 Full Members, the Basel Evangelical ~ionary Society, now known as the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast, had 30,132; and the Wesleyan Methodist Missioqary Society, now knoWn as the Methodist Missionary Society, had 50,575 ")./ . This short summary of Protestant missionary work in the Gold Coast shows that it was not only the pioneer Catholic missionaries who found themselves de- pendent upon trading companies for their transportation to the mission and for their eventual establishment in it, a point often maintained by some historians. Nor was the formation of a local ministry·as rapid and as successful as ~ sometimes implied. It was not the nationality or the religion of the missionary that determined his policy; it was the conditions he found on the Gold Coast, political, economic and social. Familiar as we are with modem conditions in the Gold Coast, we find . it hard to re~e that they were ever different; that the early missionaries did not .and could not do what we can do today. . at) Miiller, Gescruchte der Ewe-Mission, 21 , 31--48, 54, 100-103, passim. ") Ibid., 112f, 12(}-137, 144, 149, 161 , 183> 238. . It) Du Plessis. Evangelisation of Pagan Africa, 129. ") World Christian Handbook (1949 - Grubb ed.), 268f. 114 CHAPTER VI. THE MARCH BACK TO THE GOLD COAST A. An American Bishop in West Africa The march of Catholic missionaties back to the Gold Coast started in Liberia in the firs~ h~ of the nineteenth century, but it took almost forty years before an actual station ill the Gold Coast was founded. The origins of this movement date back to December 28, 1816, the day the United States Government founded "The American Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of the United States." The initiative had come from Dr. Robert Finley, a New Jersey Presby- terian. The following years saw Masyland, New York, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia each found separate settlements in West Africa for those of their liberated slaves who wished to emigrate. In time the settlements united to form the Republic of Liberia 1). Bishop John England of Charleston, South Carolina, knew that Protestant missionaries had gone to Liberia. Feeling certain that some Catholics were among the immigrants, he asked Propaganda in 1833 if Catholic missionaries could not be sent there. The Second Provincial Gouncil of Baltimore that year, told by Propaganda to make a choice of missionaries, suggested the Society of Jesus. But the Jesuits had to refuse because of their extensive American Indian missions. Propaganda's attempt to get French priests for Liberia through the Apostolic Internuncio of Paris also proved a failure. Then Pope Gregory XVI asked the Bishop of Philadelphia and the Bishop of New York each to send one priest '). The two priests chosen were still riding the high seas on their way to Liberia when Propaganda under date of Januasy 22, 1842, addressed a letter to the elder .of them, Rev. Edward Winston Barron, saying he had been named Prefect Apostol- ic of Upper Guin~ry including the Gold Coast. Before volunteering for . Liberia, Msgr. Barron had been Vicar General of Philadelphia, an office he receiv.ed almost immediately upon his arrival froIl) Ireland in 1837. His companion, Fr. John" Kelly, had been pastor of St. John's Church in Albany, New York. With ~m was an 18~year-old lay apostle from Baltimore, Mr. Denis Pindar. They reached their destination, "Cape Palmas, Liberia, on the last day of Januasy, 1842. The next day, Feast of St. Brigid of Ireland, the first Mass was offered by the leader "of these Irish-born missionaries '). • With 3000 Africans in the Cape Pahnas disttict and 500 immigrants of whom only eighteen. were catholic, the three men felt they had gotten more of a mission than they had bargained for. After several weeks of language study they translated the Our Father, Hail Masy, and the Apostles Creed into Grebo, with the help of the Chief's brother who acted as teacller and interpreter for them. In the months that followed they translated the catechism in the same way. They were asked almost at once to open a school in the very center of the village, a request repeated time and again by other ttibes in the vicinity. •) Bane The Catholic Story of Liberia (1950), 3, 9-11. .) Acta '209 (September 22, 1846) 346r; Bane, Catholic Story of Liberia, 26 . •) Bane, Ibid., 26--33 passim. Fr._ Bane, like Fr. Briault, uses the fonD. "Pindar." Msgr. Barron wrote the name "Pandar." See Scritture Merite 968:834r. 115 All up and down the coast, Msgr. Barron was told, there had once been thriving Catholic communities, not to mention the many churches and chapels built by the Portuguese and Spanish. But Africans who claimed to be Catholics, being deprived of priests for decades and even generations, had given themselves over again to their once cast-off superstitions. Msgr. Barron took courage in the report that at least in Elmina and Accra on the Gold Coast there were Catholic priests .jactive once again, a fact he joyfully reported to Rome, not knowing that it was untrue and that his informers had really meant Protestant ministers '). Gradually a plan formed in his mind. If he was going to accomplish anything big for the glory of God in his Prefecture Apostolic, Msgr. Barron felt he needed first of aU men and funds. He had to build schools and he had to staff them. Not grammar schools, at least not at the start. His people were illiterate, and so he would begin his apostolate by establishing technical and agricultural schools, as many as possible. I am thoroughly convinced, he said, that nothing else would better succeed in drawing them to the true faith, that nothing else is better cal- culated to win the entire confidence of these numberless tribes. vYes, he would readily take lay apostles provided they were devout and showed lively interest in the difficult work of teaching. But what he wanted most of aU was Brothers, skilled Brothers whose lives and work were wholly consecrated to God. Such men in his technical and agricultural schools, he felt, while imparting a bread-winning profession to the Africans by word, would impart by their living example the life-giving faith. He wrote to Propaganda that he felt the future of the Guinea Mission would be guaranteed if he could succeed in getting such men'). In the middle of April, 1842, after two-and-a-half months in Cape Palmas, Msgr. Barron put Fr. Kelly in charge of the station, asked him to buy or build a house large enough for twenty religious, and then left for the United States promising to return by January. Bishop Francis Patrick Kenrick of Philadelphia as well as other Bishops gave him funds, but as for men they said there was no hope at that time of getting any from the States which was nearly a mission land itself. So after only a month in the United States, Msgr. Barron left for France, going almost directly to the Paris and Lyons centers of the 20-year-old Society for the Propagation of the Faith founded by Pauline J aricot, to beg for funds so neccessary for his plan. From there he 'went to Rome '). In Rome Msgr. Barron confirmed by word of mouth everything he had written in a long report from Lyons dated July 25, 1842, and spoke in such glowing terms of the mission's future, and showed himself so zealous that Propaganda asked Pope Gregory XVI to raise him to the bishopric and his mission to the rank of Vicariate Apostolic. The Pope did both on September 8th, feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. All Saints Day that year, 1842, Bishop Barron was consecrated at St. Agatha's in Rome. A month and a half later, December 18th, Bishop Barron celebrated Mass at Our Lady's altar in Notre-Dame des Victoires in Paris, consecrating his mission .) Scritture Riferite 968: 834--836. There were only Protestant ministers in these two places at the time, as elsewhere along the Gold Coast. The words for priest and minister in the Fanti language are identical; this may have given rise to the misunderstanding. "A Elmina et e. Accra qui sont au sud-est de Palmas se trouvent de pretres Catholiques." Ibid., 835r. The letter is dated July 25, 1842 . •) Scritture Riferite 968:836f; Acta 209 (September 22, \846) 346. ') Bane, Catholic Story of Liberia, 35---46 passim. 116 field o.f West Mclca to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. From Fr. Desgenettes, the samtly founder of the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the pastor of Notre-Dame des Victoires, he learned that Fr. Libermann, the very man someone in America suggested that he contact, had been the last priest to celebrate Mass at that altar before him, but had already returned to Amiens. Fr. Fran~is-Marie-Paul Libernfann was an A1sacian convert from Judaism who just eight months before in La Neuville near Amiens, France, had opened a novi- tiate to train missionaries exclusively for the Negro apostolate. After a quick exchange ofletters, Fr. Libermann hurried to Paris to offer Bishop Barron five priests who had just been refused admission to Haiti. He also promised to send a contingent to West Mclca ,every year. Bishop Barron repaid/the visit, going after Christmas to Amiens to give the community an inspirational talk on the possibilities of the West Mclean Mission: Plans were also made for departure in March'). Bishop Barron was overjoyed. Tliis meant he would gradually be able to station missionaries all along'the coast of his vast mission which stretched from the Senegal Riveras far as the Orange River near the southern tip of Mclca, two-thirds of the entire West Mclean coast '). The only territories excluded from his jurisdiction were Saint-Louis Island at the mouth of the Senegal, the Island of Goree, a few neighboring Portuguese settlements which he thought were probably part of Cape Verde Diocese, and the undefined area which belonged to the Congo Diocese. Bishop Barron hurried off to England to get permission for his French mis- sionaries to work in British settlements. Lord Stanley, Secretary of State for the Colonies, graciously gave him letters of recommendation to all the British Gover- nors along Mrica's West Coast '). On the advice of an English doctor, Bishop Barron decided to leave for the mission in August instead of March, as first proposed. By leaving in March, the doctor said, he. and his missionaries would reach the mission just at the beginning of the rainy season, the worst possible time to arrive. Bishop Barron got back to La Neuville on August 15, 1843, to find shocking news awaiting him. Fr. Libermann, he learned, had made an arrangement with tl)e French Colonial Minister which restricted missionary activity to French outposts, principally Assinie, Grand Bassam and Gabon. In virtue of this arrange- ment every new missionary was allotted some 4000 francs, he was given an annual salary besides, he was given free use of French ships, and every mission station with resident missionaries was guaranteed a house and chapel as well as a doctor who would give the missionaries medical care free of charge. Had Bishop Barron been included in these generous allotments and had he not spent close to 50,000 francs on the mission station at Cape Pa1mas, he most probably would have been overjoyed at the arrangement. ') Acta 209 (September 22, 1846), 346v; Bane, Catholic ,Story of Liberia, 41, 45f; Le Missioni Cattoliche (1950),130; Briault, Reprise des Missions d'Afrique (1946),111,113. For more details on Fr. Libermann see: G. Lee, The Life of the Venerable Francis Liber- mann: A Pioneer of the African Missions (2d ed., Burns Oates & Washbourne, London, 1937), xii & 334pp. •) In place of Bishop Barron's Vica.riatethere are now thirty-three Archdioceses, Dioceses, Vicariates and Prefectures. See Despont, Nouvel AtIaa des Missions (1951), 3, 7• •) Scritture Riferite 968: 836r; Acta 209 (September 22, 1846) 346, 350£, 382; Le Mia- sioni Cattoliche, 130; Bane, Catholic Story of Liberia, 45f, 59. 117 Another disappointment was that the Spanish Capuchins he had counted on for Spanish speaking Sierra Leone had changed their minds. They indeed had come to Marseilles to sail, but finding no trace of Bishop Barron, they returned to their monasteries. To make up for this loss, Fr. Libermann offered two more priests. Three laymen also joined the party, Gregoire Sey, Jean Fabe and an Andre whose last name is not known. Fr. Libermann was quite displeased when Bishop Barron registered all three as Religious Brothers. None of them were; only Gregoire would later become one. Mter bidding the missionaries bon voyage and saying he would meet them in Cape Palmas, Bishop Barron went to Ireland. On Septem- ber 13, 1843, the seven priests of Fr. Libermann's Congregation and the three laymen sailed from Pauillac "). I Only on March 1, 1844, did Bishop Barron reach Cape Palmas, almost two full years since the date of his departure, and precisely at the time which the English I doctor had said would be most dangerous. With him were an Irish deacon and an Irish carpenter. The seven French priests and three laymen had arrived at Cape Palmas on November 30th previous. Almost the first news that greeted Bishop Barron on landing was that two of the French priests as well as Pindar, the lay apostle from Baltimore, had died. And Fr. Kelly, broken in health, had gone back to the United States, placing Fr. Jean-Remi Bessieux in charge. Bishop Barron on March 19th set up his mission headquarters at the French trading center in Assinie. He had left Fr. Bessieux and Jean Fate in Cape Palmas to dispose of the mission property; the others he took with him to .Assinie. Two of the four French priests whom he took to Assinie were sent to Grand Bassam, just west of Assinie, as well as the lay apostle, Sey. But in four months death carried off both priests. Fr. Bessieux and Fate finished their business in Cape Palmas and sailed on July 26, 1844, for Gabon, the station Bishop Barron had assigned them. When they passed Grand Bassam, they picked up Sey, the sole survivor, himself sick with fever. When Fr. Bessieux, Fate and Sey eventually reached Gabon on September 28th, the rest of the mission was practically defunct. As for the two priests who had been with Bishop Barro(l at Assinie, one had died and the other as well as a layman had left for reasons of health. Fabe too would sail a month later from Gabon, only to die on the way home. Even Bishop Barron had fled. By November 1, 1844, only eight months after Bishop Barron's return to Cape Palmas, there remained only Fr. Bessieux and Sey n). In the first letter that mao aged to find jts way back to France and to Fr. Libermann, Fr. Bessieux wrote: "God forbid, my Rev. Father, that you should abandon this poor Mrica! ... To give up the mission after a disastrous initial attempt would be, in my opinion, a shirking of our duty to God, to these unfortunates, and to our vocation . . ." 11) 10) Bane, Catholic Story of Liberia, 44-54, 62, passim; Briault, Reprise des Missions d'Afrique, 113-117 passim; Acta 209 (September 22, 1846) 347r. The Bishop's repeated delays are given as the reason for the Capuchins not going, in Acta, ibid. 11) Briault, Reprise des Missions d'Afrique, 116, 159; Bane, Catholic Story of Liberia, 49-58,77, passim; Annales De La Propagation De La Fai (1847), 19:102. It) "Car aDieu ne plaise, mon reverend Pere, que vous abandonniez cette pauvre Afrique I .. . . NollS retirer apres un premier essai malheureux ce serait, il me semble, manquer a Dieu, a ces infortunes et a notre vocation .. ." Annales De La Propagation De La Foi (1847), 19: 104. The letter is dated June 2;9,1845; it was written in Gabon. 118 Fr. Libermann wrote to Prol?aganda from Rome on August IS, 1846, and confessed that he had been totally Ignorant of the immense difficulties in the mission field to which he had agreed to send his men 18), who had reached Assinie and Grand Bass:"'" two French outJ?osts, in the spring of 1844. Only one year previous, 1843, Fleunot de Langle had sailed for Assinie - abandoned since 1704 or 1703- with. no~g ds~ ~ guide but the report that Fr. Godefroy Loyer, O.P., had published In Pans In 1714. After making a treaty with Chief Amon Ndoufou, de Langle took possession ofAssinie on July 29, 1843, and built Fort Joinville. Grand Bassam was taken on September 29th. The "chapel" the missionaries had found in their station served as well as dining-room, office and dormitory. The doctor, having no knowledge of the deadly Guinea Coast diseases, had been helpless U). On August 7, 1844, exactly five months and a week after returning to Cape Palmas, Bishop Barron wrote to Propaganda from Gabon telling how the mission had died out and begged to be discharged and allowed to go back to Philadelphia in America as a simple missionary apostolic. When he got no answer, he wrote again on September 3rd, this time from the Island of Goree far up the coast near Dakar .. He said there was only one priest left, Fr. Bessieux, from whom he had gotten no word since the day of their parting at Cape Palmas and who for all he knew might -also be dead. Again he asked to be discharged, saying he himself was sickly and that he hoped to leave for America shortly. As Propaganda was drawing up further instructions for him, Bishop Barron - arrived unannounced in Rome in December of that year, 1844, to personally lay his petition for discharge before the Sacred Congregation. It was granted, and thereby came to an end his office as Vicar Apostolic of Upper and Lower Guinea. Fr. Ignace Schwindenharnmer, delegate of Fr. Libermann and in Rome at the time, came to an understanding with Bishop Barron as to the future of the mission. That done, Bishop Barron left for the United States, never to retunt "). B . Father Libermann's C&ngregatUni is Pklced in Charge Propaganda wrote into its minutes that perhaps all would hav,e been lost as far as the Guinea Mission was concerned if Fr. Libermann had not come to the rescue"). In 1845, the first year he was in charge, Fr. Libermann sent two priests, a cleric and two Brothers to the mission. Fr. Nicolas-Eugene Tisserant was named Prefect U) Scritture Riferite 968: 842r. U) Roussier, L'Etab1issement D'!ssiny (1935), xxxvii; MouCzy, Histoire Et Couturnes Du Pays D'Assinie (1942), 9, 63. >0) Scritture Riferite 968 :838, 84{); Acta 209 (September 22, 1846) 347; Bane, Catbolic . Story of Liberia (1950),59; Briault, Reprise des Missions d'Afrique (1946), 162. Bishop Barron died at Savannah, Georgia. on September 13, 1854. He had hurned there from the North to assist Bishop Gartland in caring for those afflicted by yellow fever dwing an epidemic. See Bane, Ibid., 68£. >0) Acta 209 (September 22, 1846) 347. Bishop Barron laid tbe blame for the disruption of the mission ultimately on Fr. Libermann's arrangement with the French Government, as these lines written to Propaganda on January 7, 1845, from Rome, show: "No sooner were my miss'ioners settled in the French stations than they began to be affected by the cli- mate. By the end of September, seven o~ th~ had already died" (Bane, Catholic .Sto~ of Liberia, 48f}. Now it is a matter of histoncal record that three of tho.se seven died .I n Cape Palmas, Liberia. It was not a particular place that was unhealthy; It was the entire coast. 119 Apostolic, his Prefecture being identical in size witb tbat of tbe former Vicariate. But on tbe way to his new assignment he suffered shipwreck off tbe coast of Morocco and perished witb most oftbe crew on Decemher 7,1845. His successor, Msgr. Jerome Graviere, by tbe middle of 184{) had six priests and three Brotbers under him. The main station was at Dakar. Altbough tbe Gold Coast did not yet have one of tbese missionaries, it did figure prominently in Fr. Lihermann's premeditated plan for a highly organized system of hierarchy which he considered 120 a n=ity if the faith was ever to become a living reality throughout the mission entrusted to his Congregation 17). Fr. Libermann wished to concentrate on the section of his mission which extend- ed from Dakar to what is today Libreville at the mouth of the River Gabon called then simply Gabon, the farthest south French colony. Once he had that are:. taken. care of, he would develop the area farther south which reached to the Orange· River, if Propaganda still wished him to. He launched his plan by proposing that Propaganda raise the mission again to the rank of Vicariate Apostolic, giving as. grounds the necessity of episcopal powers in so vast a territory, the greater courage and unity it would foster among the missionaries, the esteem it would give the, Catholic mission in the eyes of the French and British agents and captains of ships. upon whom the mission depended for supplies, and finally the impression it would. make on Protestants. As his first choice for Vicar Apostolic he suggested Fr. Jean-Benoit Truffet of the Diocese of Chambery in Savoie. Propaganda approved and on October 4, 1846, Pope Pius IX raised the mission once again to Vicariate ststus, naming Fr. Truffet Vicar Apostolic and Bishop "'). But this was only the beginning of a carefully worked-out plan which. Fr. Liber- mann had laid before Propaganda on August 15, 1846, while in Rome. As soon. as Bishop Truffet was established in Dakar, he was to begin organizing his vast: Vic:ariate by dividing it into five immense sections, one in which he himself would be principally active and four others in which Pro-Vicars would Feside tt). The Bishop himself would concentrate on the area known as Senegambia, between the Senegal and Gambia Rivers. The first Pro-Vicar would take up residence at the. French settlement at the mouth of the River Gabon, and his territory would extend. from the Congo which began at Cape St. Catherine, up to the Niger River. The second Pro-Vicariate, to be called Dahomey, would extend from the Niger to the, Volta, with the Pro-Vicar's residence in the capital city, Abomey. The third Pro- Vicariate he named the Ashanti Kingdom, and the jurisdiction of the Pro-Vicar residing in its capital, Kumasi, was to stretch from the Volta River on the east to· the Cavally on the west. The fourth with residence in Freetown would begin at the Cavally River and embrace both Liberia and Sierra Leone to). Fr. Libermann added a special note on the Ashanti Pro-Vicariate and said the, xriission there was very promising. As for getting into Kumasi, he felt it was. quite simple. His missionaries would start out from Assinie, the' French base, and. then follow the River Tano or the River Bia back to their sources which lay in the Ashanti Kingdom northeast of Assinie "). Once established in Kumasi, the· capital, they would begin immediately with the special mission method that was to characterize the whole Vicariate. That method was to place chief stress on schools. ") Annales de I. propagation de I. foi (1846), 18:307; Scritture lllierite 968:851, 857; Acta 209 (September 22, 1846), 347. ") Acta Ibid., 350£, 378. The Prefect Apostolic, Msgr. Graviere, was listed as tbird. cboice by Fr. Libermann. ") Fr. Libermann's map, as found in Acta 209 (September 22, 1846) 358r, is in part· reproduced on page 120. .o) Acta 209 (September 22, 1846) 358. In Scritture Riferite 968 : 862 Fr. Libermann says: "Le 3. Provicariat sera celui du royaume des AschantlSj resIdence Coumassle sa capltale j.. son pouvoir s'etendra depuis 1a riviere La Volta jusqu'a cell de Cavally. situee sur 18 cate' d'Ivoire 8utrement rute cOte des Dents, et presque sur la cOte des Vents." 11) "ee royaume donne des esperances pour l'avenir." Scritture Riferite 968:858. See: Atlas of the Gold Coast (1945), Map No. 4. 121 Wherever a missionary had a station, Fr. Libermann said, he would also have "' school. In that school all who wished could receive elementary instruction. The 'brightest and most pious in the class would be allowed to live in the mission station, -and would get special courses in religion and the sciences. Decause the funds sup- plied by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith were far from sufficient to realize such a plan, a farm would be operated in connection with every school. The advantage of running a farm was threefold: it would supply food for the boarders, it would perfect them in the science of agriculture, and it would make the mission g radualJy self-supporting " ). A further choice would be later made from the boarding school students and the most promising would be sent to the mission's large central scbool to be established in Dakar, where three distinct groups would be trained. The first group would include all boys and young men moraUy and intellectUally fit for tbe priesthood. T hey wou ld be taught Latin and the other prescribed subjects, leading 'Up to Philosophy and Theology. Even thougb there might be only a few at first, it was hoped the number would increase with time. Fr. Libermann knew that Abbe Darndllre's fantastic plan in the early 1820's for a bush seminary in which the -candidates were to wear loincloths and go barefoot had never been realized. But 'a few years later Blessed Anne-Marie Javouhcy had sent prospective Senegalese lads to France to be educated there and in 1841 bad the happiness of seeing three -of them raised to the priesthood. She had been doing mission work in that area. T he second group at the large central school would contain all other talented .nod devout lads who did not care to become priests or who for some reason could not. T hey would be trained as catechists and school teachers. The third group would contain those who had neither tbe desire, capacity, nor virtues necessary -for the ftrst two groups. T hose of uhem inclined to agriculture would be trained as exports in this science right on the spot. Those found suitable for other trades would - as soon as a proper place could be found - be sent to a warm European country w here they could get pradce as well as theory, for in Dakar there were neither tools nor machinery "). Fr. Li bcrmann frank ly told Propaganda that behind his back people were laughing nt hi m. They even told him to his face that he was wasting his time working for West Africans. You' ll never Sue eed in making practicing Catholics to catechists who do not intend to advance to Major Orders or to live cehbstely. ~) Scritture Riferite 970:454f; B.nlsio, "Senhora De Africa," in Portugal Em Africa (1947), 194. D) Scritture Riferit. 970,45_57; Acta 211 (May 29,1848) 184-186. 124 Iove rjoyed because now at last he. felt the mission would make steady progress. In July of that year there were thirteen missionaries in the Vicariate of the Two Guineas. When the new group would arrive with Bishop Kobes who was leaving in November so as to arrive in the good season, there would be twentycthree or twenty-four in all. • Bishop-Elect Bessieux was in Gabon at the time of his nomination. To avoid Iha vin~ the mission depri~ed of its Bishop, Fr. Libermann suggested that the Coadjutor be consecrated m France and then go to Dakar to consecrate the Vicar Apostolic there. Propaganda had no objections. Very optimistically Fr. Libermann told Propaganda that he already had visions of the vast Vicariate divided into three major divisions, with a Vicar Apostolic and Coadjutor Bishop in each division 80). As it turned out, Bishop Kobes was not consecrated until November 30, 1848, and Bishop Bessieux returned to France and was consecrated in Paris on January 14, 1849. Both he and Bishop Kobes left together for Dakar a month later at). After their arrival Bishop Bessieux, the Vicar Apostolic, said farewell to his Coadjutor who was to remain in Dakar, and on May 12, 1849, he set sail for Gabon which he reached only on October 1st of that year. In the interval he made a thorough survey of prospective mission stations along the coast. On that voyage he stopped off at Grand Bassam to pray at the grave of Fr. Audebert, one of the missionaries in Bishop Barron's first group. Chiefs in the vicinity asked him for missionaries. At Assinie he stayed two months, even going forty miles to the interior where the Paramount Chief of Krinjabo put a house at his disposal and offered to put up more buildings if only missionaries would come. What made this spot all the more attractive in his eyes was the fact that it was at the very portal of the Ashanti Kingdom. And he was told thst the Ashanti language was spoken from there all the way to the Volta River. Bishop Bessieux sailed farther down the coast and stopped at Axim which also proved inviting. It could be an outstation, he eventually decided, of either the main station that would be established in Assinie or the one that would be estab- lished in E1mina where he also stopped. Since Assinie and Elmina were the principal commercial centers, he thought them ideal for main stations. Accra he found to be nicely situated and healthy. Besides that, food could be had cheaply there and the language of Accra, so he believed, was spoken over a wide area. He had high hopes for Accra because rumor had it that the Danes would soon be hand- ing over Christiansborg Castle to the English, whom he considered very liberal as regards mission enterprise. Even the Dutch at E1mina and Accra had told him thst missionaries would be welcome. The 200-year-old bias was gone; the field was open. Farther down the coast at Ouidah he found 30,000 people just waiting for a J.ni.s- .sionary "). . Back in 6abon he at once contacted his Coadjutor at Dakar and told him of the -openings he had found all along the coast. In his letter he said he needed a well ") Scritture Riferite 970:456f, 551f; Acta 211 (September 4, 1848) 291. U) A.nnaIes De La Propagation De La Foi (1876) 456; Ibid., (1873) 73 ; Bnlsio, "Sen- :hora De Africa," in Portugal Em Africa (1947), 196. ") Briault, Reprise des Missions d'Afrique (1946), 344-347. The friendliness of the Dutch colonial officials was due to 8 concordat between Holland and the Vatican, Slgned January 2,1847. See Grentrup, Jus Missionarium (1925), 260, 264. 125 qualified man as superior to get the new stations under way. Fr. Boulanger, he said, was just the right man for the job. Besides him he listed five other priests whom he said he wished to see at Gabon without delay"). So it seemed that in short order intensive work could begin in earnest at Accra, Kumasi, Elmina, Axim, Assinie and elsewhere along the coast, just as at Dakar and Gabon. But Bishop Bessieux as well as Fr. Libermann soon found out that the deadly climate was more deadly than they had imagined. Only a few mission- aries, like Bishop Bessieux himself, seemed not to be affected by the climate, at least not to the point of death. In 1848 the Congregation of the Holy Ghost was merged with that of the Immac- ulate Heart of Mary, the one founded by Fr. Libermann, but even this added personnel did not mean more men for the Guinea Mission, because the missions previously in the hands of the Holy Ghost Fathers still had to be taken care of. But slowly, surely, progress was made. One Pro-Vicariate after the other as proposed in Fr. Libermann's plan of 184Q became an independent mission: Sierra Leone in 1858, Dahomey in 1860, Senegambia in 1863. As for the vast area from the Volta River to the Cavally River which Fr. Libermann had envisione das the Pro-Vicar- iate of the Ashanti Kingdom, it was still a part of the Vicariate Apostolic of the Two Guineas as late as 1870 "). In that year it was still without a mission station, still without its first priest. U) Briault, Ibid., 346. If') Werner, Katholischer Missions-Atlas (1885), 26. 126 CHAPTER VII. THE SOCIETY OF AFRICAN MISSIONS FROM LYONS (1870-1880) A. In Need of a Sanatorium With missions developing to the east and to the west of the Gold Coast it was. only a matter of time before the Gold Coast would have its own missi~naries. f But would those missionaries be members of Fr. LibeI1Illllln's Congregation?' / Or would they be members of some other missionary society? The missionaries of Fr. Libermann's Congregation, now called the Holy Ghost- Fathers, had a very interesting visitor in the early part of 1874. A Frenchman, named Bonnat, stopped off at Sierra Leone for three weeks on his way back t Europe and told them endless stories of his four-and-a-half year imprisonme in Kumasi, the capital of Ashanti in the Gold Coast. In the middle of 1869, e, said, he was serving as trading agent for the Bremen missionaries at Ho. captive there during the Ashanti war, he was led off towards Kumasi alo with. the Basel missionaries who had been captured in Anum, Revs. Ramseyer ,and Kiih- ne and the former's wife and newborn child. Only on January 23, 1874, did the Ashanti Paramount Chief finally give up his prisoners when the English army was', advancing on the capital in an attempt to break Ashanti power for good and re- establish friendly commercial relations between Ashanti and the coast. Bonnat. twenty-four at the time of his capture, vividly described how courageously the. Ashanti had fought at Amoafo, Bekwai and Odasu the last few days before the, English marched triumphant into Kumasi on February 4th. English officers and men had said the Ashanti forces were frightened by nothing and fearlessly threw themselves against advancing bayonets 1). The Ashanti war had broken out as the result of an apparently wise political move. Ever since the Danes had sold out to the English in 1850, there were only English and Dutch forts lining the coast. But they were intermingled, making: unified legislation imp.ossible. To remedy the matter the English forts at Beyin, Dixcove, Sekondi and Komenda were given to the Dutch, and the Dutch forts. at'Mouri, Kormantin, Aparn and Accra were given to the English. Sweet River, just east of Elmina, was made the borderline, Dutch to the west, English to the, east. But in January, 1868, when the Dutch arrived to take over the Komenda. Fort, the people of Komenda declared war against them. Tribes around Dutch. Elmina even formed the Fante Confederation to help Komenda against the Dutch. In a few years time the Dutch saw that their position was hopeless, so they even- tually ceded all their Gold Coast possessions to the English by treaty signed at: the Hague, February 25, 1871, and ratified a year later. ' In April, 1872, the English took over St. George Castle at Elmina, ever since. 1637 in the hands of the Dutch. The English pleaded with Elmina to give up its, alliance with Ashanti and so restore peace. The Fante Confederation had insisted on the breaking of that alliance before ceasing hostilities. Elmina, Ashanti's only ') Huck, Erlebnisse und Arbeiten eines afrikanischen Missi0nb1i (p. Ludwig Karl Gom- menginger), (1900), 160; Schlatter, Geschichte der Basler J\1isslon (1916), 3:101; Ward. History of the Gold Coast (1948), 238, 272-276, passIm. 127 Qutlet on the coast, sent inland the guns and ammunition with which Ashanti had come to lord it over the coastal trihes lately formed into the Fante Confedera- tion. But Elmina would not hear of it! Breaking that alliance would not only put her at odds with powerful Ashanti, but would also leave her powerless against possible and probable attack by her neighbors. Ashanti stepped in and decided to break the deadlock by destroying the Fante Confederation .and with it the power of the English on the coast. So the English found themselves at war. When Elmina rebelled in June, 1873, the village which from time immemorial existed west of the fort was leveled to the ground as far as English guns could reach '). As Bonnat enthusiastically related all this and assured the missionaries that his trip back to Europe was only to say farewell and then return to settle forever among the Ashanti, the missionaries envisioned the station at Kurnasi which Fr. Libermann, now deceased, had planned so long ago. In those three weeks while Bonnat was with them, they had ample time to observe that his Catholic faith meant much to him and so they felt they could take him at his word when he said· he would do all he could to help in founding a mission station at Kurnasi. While prisoner he had learned the Ashanti language and he had been on the best of terms with the Paramount Chief. The friendship, he said, sti\l endured. His enthusiasm was so contagious that the Prefect Apostolic of Sierra Leone, Fr. Louis Charles Gommenginger, wrote back home; "We can hope the best from Ashanti, because once they accept the faith they will become just as excellent Christians as they are valiant soldiers 1 ')" Fr. Ignace Schwindenhammer, Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers since the death of Fr. LibenDann in 1852, also heard of these new hopes for the Gold Coast. Tile press in France for a long time had been playing up~onnat's capture, and now that he was finally released and back in France, harrowing episodes of his began to appear in print. Very soon his biography went .to press and was translated almost immediately into various languages. All this no doubt made Fr. Schwindenhammer feel that the hour had come for the Gold Coast and he must have written to Bishop Bessieux to send some missionaries there. But there was another missionary society interested in the Gold Coast besides -the Holy Ghost Fathers. That was the Society of Mrican Missions with head- quarters in Lyons, France. The Superior General of that Society, Fr. Augustin Planque, had written to Propaganda about the Gold Coast as early as November .2, 1870. He was under the impression that the Gold Coast was part of the Vicariate -of. Benin Coast, earlier called the Vicariate of Dahomey, that had been entrusted to his Society on August 28, 1860. The Niger River was its eastern boundary, and -the first two missionaries had settled at Ouidah on April 18, 1861 4). . In his letter Fr. Planque said he was contemplating opening new stations at Cape Coast and Accra, the latter of which he judged ideally located for a sana- 1:orium. But for the moment the project had to wait because even though he had I) Ward, History of the Gold Coast, 231-245 passim. The village was rebuilt north of 'St. George Castle on the other side of the River Benya where it is today_ J) "Von solchen Leuten ist das beste zu hoffenj wenn sie sich bekehren, werden sie ebenso tiichtige Christen werden, rus sie tapfere Soldaten sind." Letter of April 23, 1874, in Hiick, Erlebnisse und Arbeiten eines afrikanischen Misslonars, 160. ') Guilcher, Un Ami Des NOlrs Augustin Planque '(1928), 77~ 128 the men, he had no funds at hand to begin a new mission station. Nor did he feel that th~ LyonS c.entral office of the Society for the Propa6tion of the Faith would IDCfease his annuaLallotment ·for such a reason '). On th~ other hand: however, he had great hope of getting the funds necessary for ope~g new statIo!", on the Gold Coast if he could tell the Society for the PropagatIon of the Fruth that the Gold Coast, in which Accra and Cape Coast were located, had been made an independent mission by Propaganda and had been entrusted to his Society. It was ·this that made him ask Propaganda in that same letter of November 2nd to detach the Gold Coast territory from the Vicariate of Benin and entrust it to his Society as an independent mission -'). Alessandro Cardinal Bamab6, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, cautiously answered that if the Gold Coast was part of no other mission, there was absolutely nothing in the way of founding a mission station there. And when the station would begin to develop; he said, Propaganda would consider making the Gold Coast an independent niission and would raise it to the status of Prefecture Apostolic '). That clause, 'if the Gold Coast was part of no other mission,' made Fr. Planque look into the matter more closely. Unhappily he soon learned that he had been mistaken. His mission territory, the Benin Vicariate, stretched from the Niger River on the ~ to ·the Volta River on the west, the very limits that Fr. Liber- mann had laid down for the proposed Dahomey Pro-Vicariate in his plan of 1846. What lay west of the Volta River - and Accra and Cape Coast were west of the Volta - still belonged to the old Vicariate of the Two Guineas and therefore was under the jurisdiction of Bishop Bessieux residing at Gabon. The project was temporarily stalemated. Meanwhile Bishop Thomas Grimley, since 1862 the Vicar Apostolic of the Western District of the Cape of Good Hope, visited Fr. Planque in Lyons and invited him to take over part of his vast Vicariate in the southern tip of Africa. Fr. Planque was eager to get it because it was said to be a healthful region, arid because he was seeking new misaion fields for his expanding Society. But by the time his letter of May 15, 1871, with a r~quest to be assigned to this mission, was considered by Propaganda, Bishop Grimley had died. Propaganda answered that berore any arrangements could be made, Fr. Planque would have to sP.eak with the new Vicar soon to be appointed '). On Christmas Day~ 1871, Fr. Planque again begged ~ropaganda to assign the Gold Coast to his Society, giving four very strong aDd urgent reasons. In the past year, he said, three missionari!'S had di.ed at Lagos who perhaps would have been .) The Society for the Propagation of the Faith, founded by laymen on May 3, 1822, is an international mission aid society established to assist missioDers the world over. It is not to be confused with Propaganda, or the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide, founded by Pope Gregory XV on June 22, 1622, which is a body of Cardinals in Rome who direct mission activity throughout 4the world in die Holy Father's ~e. . ') Riassunto della lettera del P. A. Planque ~ card.Pr~etto di Propa~da F.de, dal Collegio eli Fnbourg (Suisse), 2 nov. 1870: Scntture rifente ne. congress. Africa-Congo, Senegal, ecc., 1861-1886, vol. 8, ff. non n~e~ti. The oripnal of this let.ter will no~ be available until 1970 and there is no copy of It m the Archives of the Society of Mrican Missions. I am ind:bted to Msgr. Montioone for the "Riassunto.'" ' ) Archives S.M.A., Papiers de Rome, 245. . . . 0) Archives S.M.A., Propagande, 1: 6Ox; Archives S.r,1.A., Letter of Cardinal Barnab6, June 15, 1871. 129 saved if they Could have been sent to the Gold Coast to recuperate. The doctors insisted that all they needed for a cure was a prompt and short change of air, and it was simply out of the question to think"o f calling the missionaries back to Europe for that. Repeatedly Propaganda had asked Fr. Plan que to search out all possible means for preserving the lives of his men in the Benin Vicariate. A sanatorium in Accra or Cape Coast, he felt, was the only solution. He was so firmly convinced of it that he told Cardinal Barnab6 he felt obliged in conscience to insist that the 'Gold Coast be immediately erected as an independent mission. The lives of his missionaries were in the balance. This was his first reason. Fr. Planque said he realized that the Gold Coast was part of Bishop Bessieux's Vicariate of the Two Guineas. But Bishop Bessieux, he said, had never stationed any missionaries there, and for all Fr. Plan que knew, he did not intend to send any for a long time. Fr. Planque. on the other hand had his missionaries for the . Gold Coast ready and waiting. This was reason nurober two. A third reason was that a vocational director in France of another Congregation was maligning the Society of Mrican Missions in his ta1ks to seminarians. Totally ignorant of the true state of affairs, he maintained that the Society of African Missions did not have the confidence of Propaganda because although the Society had been founded as early as December 8, 1856, it still in 1871 had only one mission territory, the Vicariate Apostolic of Benin. The vocational director left out all mention of the terrific death toll on this deadly coast whlch had made further branching out impossible. The immediate erection of the Gold Coast Mission, and the sending of missionaries there, Fr. Planque felt, would to some extent Jessen the harm this man had done. And he added that the reputation of hls Society would most probably be wholly restored if Propaganda gave even a second mission to him, either in South Mrica or elsewhere. It made no difference where, as long as it was in a healthy place. T hese three reasons, Fr. Planque was convinced, would make Propaganda decide in his favor, But there was still a fourth whlch added to the urgency of the matter. He was in dire need of funds to open the proposed station at Accra or Cape Coast, and in February or in the beginning of March the Society for the Propagation of the Faith would be making its annual disbursements. He earnestly requested Prop- aganda to inform hlm of its' decision by that time so he could get a suro larger than hls usual annual allotment. Not to lose any time for the negotiations necessary in nominating a superior for the Gold Coast Mission, he suggested that the mission temporarily be administered by the one in charge of the Benin Vipu:iate . . The sentence in hls letter that stood out most prominently of all was this : "Lagos with its very unhealthful climate and its almost superhuman tasks threatens to become a grave if we do not have the Gold Coast as a Sanatarium" '). Cardinal Barnab6's prompt answer of January 18, 1872, was short and simple:" "As to the proposed plan in your letter of last December 25th regarding the 1 foundation of a sanatoriuro on the Gold Coast, I am highly in favor of it. But because this region lies in territory subject to the jurisdiction of the Vicariate of the. Two Guineas, no stone can be turned ,¥,tiI we first hear what the Most Rev. I I, I) Archives 8.M.A., Propagande, 1; 58£. "Lagos avec son climat plus insalubre et Ie travail presque surhumain qu'll impose menace de devenir un tambeau, si nous n'avons pas la Cote d'Or comme Sanitorium!' Ibid. The italics are Fr. Planque's. Lagos is today's capital of Nigeria, then prin~pal station of the Benin Vicariate. 130 Bessieux, head of that Vicariate, has to .say. I therefore wrote to him immediately, and when I .get an answer, I shall dectde the matter. It is impossible to proceed . without first having his opinion 10)." On February 1st of that .year, 1872, Fr. Planque was in Rome to plead his case personally. He. reFted his two requests for part of the Vicariate Apostolic of the Western DlStnct of the Cape of Good Hope and for the immediate establish- ment of the Gold Coast as ~ ~dependent mission. Ten of his priests, he said, were ready to leave for the IDlSSlOns. All he needed was a place to send them. By the time he left Rome he felt sure the case was won and that both the Gold Coast and the South African Mission would be assigned to his Society without delay. But the months dragged on and the missionaries waiting in Lyons for an assignment became restless. When a letter from Propaganda arrived dated June 7, 1872, Fr. Planque read it excitedly because he knew it must contain news about Propaganda's May 21st session which was supposed to take up the matter. But the message broke Fr. Planque's heart. There was not a word about the Gold Coast 1 And as for the South African Mission, the letter only said that the matter was suspended until the late Bishop Grimley's successor should be appointed ll). With heavy heart Fr. Planque on June 19th wrote to Cardinal Bamab6: ' Your Eminence knows the trials through which our young Society has passed. Since my return from Rome the post has brought news of the death of still another confrere: the fourth within a year. Fr. Courdioux says in his letter, 'Look, already the 25th victim that our small Society has offered to God for the conversion of the Negroes I' Besides that, two confreres have returned to Europe for their health but they will never recover. Until now only three confreres have resisted the climate for more th;m four years in the mission. Of these, one died after his fifth Year, and the post any day may bring me news of the death of one of the other two, for his health has failed. With such a percentage, and with not one missionary in ten resisting the climate for more than three or four years, how is it possible ever to get a handfnl of experienced men in the mission? I have always taken heart in my fight against discouragement in this small Society from the hope that some day GOO would take pity on us and give us enough members to allow us to ask Propa- ganda for a mission less deadly. It seems to me that day has arrived: There is no '- question of us giving up the mission in which death is so hasty in mowing down our confreres; what we beg from Propaganda is a land where one can hope to live .. . In any event I find myself faced with a very difficult situation. We have fifteen priests ready to leave; ten of these have waited for six months. At the end of this coming July seven more should be ordained . . . tt) In that same letter Fr. Planque repeated his request for the South Mrican and the Gold Coast missions. Most probably he had gotten the notion that Accra on the Gold Coast could serve as a sanatorium from his study of the mission work carried on there by the Basel Evangelical Missionary Society. They had begun I') "Quod consilium literis tuis die 25 Xbris elapsi datis proponis quoad Sanitarium in Ora Aurea constituendum mihi valde probatur. Verum quia memorata regio in territorio jurisdictioni Vicariatus utriusque Guineae obnoxio sits. est, nullus moveri potest lapis, quin prius RP.D. Bessieux, qui eidem Vicariatui praeest. audiatur. Itaque statim ad ewn dedi litems, ac ubi responsum. accepe.ro, rem ~1vam. Haud enim ilia inaudito procedi potest." Archives S.M.A., Letter' of Cardinal BamabO, January 18, 1872. ") Archives S.M.A., Propagande; t:6Ox, 6Oxili, 63f; Ibid., Confreres, 2:492, 3: 52, 59. U) Archives 8 .M .A., Propagande, t: 63f. 13 1 their work in Christiansborg Castle, then just east of Accra and today part of Accra, and had founded a station inland on a mountain at Akropong. From 1853 to 1867 not one of their twenty missionaries there had died U). Similar studies had made him propose to Propaganda the advances being made by Protestants as another weighty reason for beginning work at once on the Gold Coast. In fact, he had shown himself so well informed that in the beginning of 1872 he was commissioned by Propaganda to make a report on all Protestant missions in the whole of Mrica 11). Twice in one month, July of 1872, Fr. Planque wrote to Cardinal Barnab6 about the Gold Coast, giving further reasons . for its urgency. But Propaganda remained silent on the point 16). Had Bishop Bessieux answered that he had his own plans about sending missionaries there? Had the letter Propaganda sent ·him gone astray? Finally, however, part of Fr. Planque's wish was fulfilled. Bishop John Leonard was named the 'new Vicar Apostolic of the Western District of the Cape of Good Hope, and he readily accepted Fr. Planque's offer of missionaries. In May and July, 1873, eight priests left for that mission and in August of the next year Propaganda detached the eastern part of Bishop Leonard's Vicariate, called it the Prefecture Apostolic of the Cen~ District of the Cape of Good Hope, and placed it in charge of the Society of Mrican Missions It). Fr. 'Plioque, however, did not lose his interest in the Gold Coast. When he had first begun corresponding with Rome about it, an Ashanti war was in progress. But that war was brought to an end by the Treaty of Fomena executed at Cape Coast on March H, 187411). The treaty was followed by a very important political change as well. Previously the Gold Coast had been under the Sierra Leope Government, making feasible a branching out of the Holy Ghost Fathers from Sierra Leone to the Gold Coast. But on July 24, 1874, a new charter was issued which separated the Gold Coast from Sierra Leone, erecting it along with Lagos (Nigeria) into a separate colony called the Gold Coast Colony lB). From that mo- ment on the missionaries of the Society of Mrican Missions at work in Lagos were technically in one section of the Gold Coast Colony. Would it not be advisable that they, and not another missionary group, take up work in the rest of the colony? While Bonnat WM in France, this former prisoner of the Ashanti contacted the highest superiors of the skiety of Mrican Missions and told them that the ·mission stations they should found on the Gold Coast were not Accra and Cape Coasi; but Salaga and Kumasi. Salaga was once again so far inland as Kumasi, not far fropt the Volta River. Both of these places, Bonnat said, were extremely heal.thfuI and populous. He had connections in both places, and would help the missionaries make an establishment on his return. As proof of the excellent climate he told how well the two Protestant missionaries, the wife of one, and he himself had fared in spite of their all having different constitutions. In fact, he said, the woman gave ll) Sch1atter, Geschichte der ,Basler Mission (1916), 3:64. U) Archives ,S.M.A., Divers 1 :.326. ; '''i: \' Ii). Ibid., Propagande 1:66, 68; Ibid., Confreres 3:91. - •. -." ~i)~' U) Ibid., Propagande 1:78; Le Missioni Catioliche (1950), 163; The Catholic Church ,,/;/~A.n~ Southern Africa: A Series of Essays, :(1951), 116f, graph opposite page 180. . t./jjf' : ") Ward, History of the Gold Coast (1948), 279. t;"t':t'f;~' 11) Ward, History of the Gold Coast, 257. if>':':';;' 132 . 'Co.4&; U~" birth to two children while in captivity and both wer; the picture of health. Chil- dren born along the coast, on the other hand, had always been pale and sickly. Bonnat, wh? ha~ a brother a priest, so convinced the superiors at Lyons that they once agam Wlth renewed VIgor took up the idea of becoming established in the Gold Coast. Fr. -GuilIon, Procurator, wrote in the name of Fr. Planque who was sick at the time to the missionaries in the Benin Vicariate asking if they had ever heard of Salaga on the Volta. He gave a long account of what Bonnat had said about the climate in Salaga and Kumasi, and expressed the hope that the Holy Ghost Fathers, to whom the Gold Coast Mission belonged, would give them at least Ashanti territory, far in the interior. Fr. Guillon felt convinced that the mission's only hope was in going to the interior. There, he said, the future was secure, and there he believed the results would be most satisfying. On December 20, 1874, he wrote to the superior of the Lagos Mission and asked if he did not agree with, him "). Strictly speaking the Society of African Missions could have begun work imme- diately in Salaga since it lay east of the Volta and hence in their territory. Buahc missionaries from Lagos answered ,that they were not interested in' Salaga. It was too far inland, and Islam was too strong there. More than a year passed before Fr. pianque, on April 29, 1876, laid a big prob- lem of his before Propaganda. His missionaries in South Africa, he said, had told him that once on the scene they felt it had been a mistake to raise the area entrusted to them to the status of an independent mission. All the mission stations but Pella were really nothing else but European settlements and the missionaries were nothing but chaplains. What is more, the settlements of Europeans were so small and the Catholics so few, that there was not even enough work for one man in each station, much less two. And their wise rule, learned from long and sad experience of other missionary societies and approved by Propaganda, demanded that at least two missionaries be assigned to each station. With travel to outlying districts extremely difficult if not well-nigh impossible, the missionaries felt them- selves tied down, felt that they were fairly wasting their time when so many thousands upon thousands of souls elsewhere on the Dark Continent were deprived of even one priest !O). " The very day after the letter containing the above problem was written, April 30, 1876, Bishop Bessieux died in Gabon at the age of seventy-two. During the last few years of his life he had no longer been active, but he had remained at his post, true to his vocation till his dying breath 11). His Coadjutor, Bishop Kobes, \ who had become Vicar Apostolic of Senegambia on February 6, 1863, had died .I , on October II, 1872, at Dakar "). In another quarter of the world, England, the attention of Catholics was called to the Gold Coast in 1877 by The Tablet which printed a "Letter to the Editor" written by James Marshall on June 16th of that year in Lagos. Although the burden of the letter was an appeal for funds for the struggling mission in Lagos, Marshiill said in his introductory paragraph, "I write from a part of the world, ") Archives S.M.A., 1874: Procureur - P., Guillon, 450-453. ") Ibid., Propagande 1: 107f, 179_ U) Aimales De La Propagation De La Foi (1876), 48: 455f. ") Ibid., (1873), 45 : 72f. 133 the West Coast of Africa, in which England now has almost exclusive interest and power, but for which the Catholics of England, clerical and lay, have as yet done nothing ... On the whole of the Gold Coast there is not a single Catholic priest or mission of any nation." ", Marshall, previously stationed in Cape Coast, had arrived in Lagos in January, 1875. He inspired the Lyons missionaries there with new interest in the Gold Coast Mission, telling them ,how zealously and successfully the Protestants were working on the Gold Coast, and how steadily Mohammedan Hausas were pouring into the coastal villages from the north, some coming only to trade, others to stay. Those who stayed, settled in a secluded quarter of the village, erected a mosque, and began imperceptibly to spread their religion IS). , Often Marshall showed himself indignant at what he called neglect and aban- donment on the part of the Catholic Church. He could not understand how the Gold Coast, "ready and open for civilization and improvement," did not yet have a Catholic Mission. "One of the most experienced colonial officers," he said, "has repeatedly said to me how he wished the Jesuit Fathers would come here in force, for he knew of their powers to improve the people by what he had seen in Jamaica." Likewise Major-General Sir Gamet Wolseley, whose task it was to direct the war against Ashanti, late in 1873 expressed his wonder that tnere were no Catholic Missions on the Gold Coast. "And I don't suppose he can have known that I was a Catholic," Marshall said "). James Marshall was a ,convert. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1829, he chose the Anglican ministry in 1852 after taking his degree at Oxford. A model minister he was, bringing the Gospel to the poor and showing sympathy for affliction of every kind. When dark doubts began to harass him all his waking hours, he together with another Anglican clergyman sought an interview with Fr. Edmund Vaughan. "You two will very soon convert one another," Fr. Vaughan told them, seeing that Rev. Marshall refuted all his companion's objections regarding Catholic devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and that the companion refuted all Rev. Marshall's regarding the supremacy of the Pope. And so it was! James Marshall, who had long had a tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin, chose to enter the Church on 'the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, November 21, 1857. Unable to become a Catholic priest because of the loss of his arm at sixteen, he studied law, was called to the bar, and in 1873 was promoted to the office of Chief Magistrate and Judicial Assessor to the Gold Coast trib.es, with residence at British Headquarters in Cape Coast "). .' VhiIe stationed in Cape Coast, Marshall had the consolation of Mass and the Sacraments when the English priest, Fr. A. Wallace, arrived with the troops as voluntary chaplain. Mass was first offered in the home of Mr. MarshaIl and later elsewhere in town. But soon Fr. Wallace had to return to England. Next a regular army chaplain came but he was called away by duty after a short stay. Marshall, knowing there were many Catholic officers and men in the English lS) "Sir James Marshall," in The Gold Coast Catholic Voice (1929), 4:45; Guilcher, Un Ami Des Nair.. (1928), 141. ") "Sir James Manhall," in The Gold Coast Catholic Voice (1928), 3:152f; Ibid., (1929), 4:44. ~e quota?ons are from 4:44 from a letter written by Marshall. See also, Guilcher. Un Arm Des NOIf'S, 208 ; Ward, History oftbe Gold Coast (1948) 267. 15) "Sir James Marshall," in The Gold Coast Catholic Voice d928), 3: 152f. 134 settlements along the coast, could not understand how all these - not to mention the African population - in the face of imminent critical sickness and even death had to go without even one priest ..) . It was Marshall, too, who led the first Gold Coast convert of modem times into the Church. His first contact with the future convert took place on the battlefield during the Ashanti War of 1873. As Judge, Marshall had been brought into direct contact with the Chiefs of Cape Coast and his courtesy and fairness towards them had so won them that in the war against Ashanti he was found to be the only white man they would follow. As he wrote to his· mother, "I found my- seU sitting by their campfires in the pale ghostly light of the moon,. exhorting them to go bravely with me in the morning . .." 27) Bitter fighting had been waged at Aburakrampa, ten miles north of Cape Coast, on the $th and 6th of November, 1873. He arrived with his undisciplined troops the next day, when Ashanti had already been dispersed, to find his friend, Captain Gordon, in posses- sion of a lad who had run away from the Ashanti army in the heat of battle. F!"lUlti- cally waving his arms he had come running across no man's land shouting "Fante, Fante," to signify he really belonged to the Fante Confederation and not to Ashanti, Though both sides fired at him, he was not hit, and was turned over to Captain Gordon. The lad explained that when he was still very small his village had been attacked by Ashanti and he had been carried off to Kumasi as a slave. So he was given the name John Ashanti IS). Whenever Captain Gordon was in Cape Coast, he stayed at the home of his friend, Marshall. Soon John Ashanti was invited over with Captain Gordon and when the Captain finally returned to England, he entrusted the lad to Marshall. Transferred to Lagos in 1875 as Puisne Judge, Marshall took the lad along. There he noticed that the boy was more inclined to books than domestic duties and so placed him in the Catholic school. Eventually he had the happiness of seeing him baptized and on a Holy Thursday receive his First Holy Communion. In baptism John Ashanti took the first name of his contemporary foster father, "James," using with it ever after the family name of his previous foster father, "Gordon." Since Marshall felt that the missionary priests and nuns could better bring up the lad than he hirnseU, he entrusted James Gordon to them with the hope that , the lad's love for the faith and for learning might eventually promote the mission cause !9). . B. ReaslmS jur Starting in Elmina Unknown to Fr. Plan que, Propaganda was becoming more and more interested in the Gold Coast. As usual before making a final decision about undertaking mission work in a new area, Propaganda wished to have a detailed report about the possibilities from someone on the spot, from an experienced missionary. To get this report it asked Fr. Superior General Schwindenharnmer of the Holy Ghost Fathers to send one of his more capable missionaries to the Gold Coast to ") Ibid., (1929), 4:44; Strebler, Notes historiques sur Ie Vicariat de la. COte d'Or (1929) in Archives S.M.A. ") "Sir James Marahall," Ibid., (1928),. 3: 194. ") "Sir James Marshall," in The Gold Coast Catholic Voice (1928), 3: 153; Marshall. "The Story of James Gordon," in The Gold Coast Catholic VOice (1929), 4: 18. U) Marshall, Ibid., 4: 18f. 135 investigate where it would be most advisable to begin rllission work. Fr. Superior General sent Fr. Louis Charles Gommenginger, bead of the Sierra Leone Prefec- ture SO). On May 8, 1878, Fr. Gommenginger landed. at Cape Coast and immediately set out on trek for Kumasi which he reached on May 16th. Europeans from long experience had found that the long trek was too much for their constitutions and so traveled by hammock. But Fr. Gommenginger went the 'whole way on foot, saying be could not afford to pay three francs a day for eight days. He stayed in Kumasi some five days and during that time he was given two private audiences by Paramount Chief Mensa Bonsu. Fr. Gommenginger found him very good- natured and judged him to be about thirty-eight years of age. On May 19th he was given an audience by the Queen-Mother and the next day he took leave of the Paramount Chief. During his audiences he was repeatedly asked to please send some of his mis- . sionaries to Kumasi. Although he would have liked to do so, he felt it would be financially impossible to begin work at once in Kumasi. Not the least problem would be transportation of necessary materials. And the only means of transport was the extremely expensive carriers who could cover the distance only after eight days of stout marching. Another obstacle to beginning there, Fr. Gommenginger said, was the apparent negligence of the people in bringing up their children. The palace of the Paramount Chief as well as the houses of other chiefs were simply filled with boys from their tiniest infancy upwards, and they were left utterly to themselves. They formed a . social class even, ran about pell-mell, and had very special privileges like stealing from the market place without the sell~r being able to hold it against them. The only right the sellers had was to thrash the thieving rascals good and proper if they were caught in the act. There were other points, however, greatly in favor of founding a mission in Ashanti as soon as possible. One was the climate. As soon as Fr. Gommenginger had gotten north of the River Pra in his march toward Kumasi from Cape Coast, he had experienced such exhilaration that he felt more physiCally fit than for many a year. And when he learned that the Ashanti would have nothing to .do with circumcision which is practiced bY-very many African peoples, that they abhorred the Koran and everything else connected with the Mohammedan religion, and that their houses., utensils; tools, and even weapons were effusively ornamented with Greek crosses fashioned in the most fantastic ways, he felt certain the Ashanti must ha\!e been Christian in ages past. Bonnat had noticed the same Greek crosses in Itumasi as well as in Salaga and had come to the same conclusion as Fr. Gom- menginger 31). But what the two men did not know was that the Ashanti had a religion of their own centered ahout the Supreme Being. The Ashanti were proud of it. They despised the Mohammedan religion, not because they themselves had ever been Christian, but because Mohammedanism was the religion of the slaves that came to their lands from the north. Likewise the Greek crosses and lack of circumcision need not be due to Christian influence. An encircled Greek crOSS is a common symbol found in many parts of the world. It may we,ll be that Fr. Gommenginger's ob- _- ) HUck, Erlebnisse und Arbe,iten cines afrikanischen Missionars, (1900), 155. ") Archives 8.M.A., 1874: Procureur - P . Guillon, 452. 136 servatio.ns o.n o.ther elements o.f Kumasi culture were also. inexact having been made so. hastily. ' Taking a new route o.n leaving Kumasi, he headed fo.r Accra where he examined the po.ssibilities o.f be~rning establis?ed at both Accra and Christiansbo.rg. Fro.m there he went to. E1mina and then sailed back to. Sierra Leo.ne. Villages and cities fro.m 3,000 up to. 25,000 inhabitants, he wro.te into. his report, were no.t rare. The fo.ur principal co.astal o.nes were Elmina, Cape Coast, Accra and Christiansbo.rg. Other well-kno.wn o.nes were Beyin, Axim, Dixco.ve, Ano.mabu, Ko.rmantin, Winne- ba and Beraku. As fo.r the religio.us life o.f the peo.ple inhabiting these places, he fo.und there were three distinct kinds which he classified as fetishism, Mo.hamme- danism, and Pro.testantism. Fetishism, he said, was very deeply rooted. IndiVidual, family, social and political life were all gro.unded o.n fetishism and co.mpletely saturated with it. Everywhere there were fetish priets who. conducted magical rites and distributed charms. The very chiefs, it seemed, used the fetish priests as tools to. keep them- selves in power. Mo.hammedanism had been brought into. the land by the Hausas, a much taller and mo.re stro.ngly built African than tho.se that lined the co.ast. They were itinerant merchants fro.m the upper Niger who. o.ften remained tosettie in the coastal villages. Protestantism had o.ver twenty settlements alo.ng the coast, with the chief o.ne at Christiansbo.rg. He said that Pro.testants were especially numerous so.me sixty miles inland in the neighborhoodo.f the Vo.lta River. Of the two. types o.f Protestant missio.nary gro.ups, Basel and Wesleyan, tho.se fro.m Basel were by far the stro.nger and were the mo.re energetic, he said. Each church and school o.f theirs had 'its acco.mpanying wo.rksho.p in which the missio.naries tried to. instill habits o.f in" dustry. And each central missio.n statio.n, so he had heard, had its trading ·Po.st which sent pro.duce to. Accra where three sailing vessels in the missio.n's emplo.y transported the goods to. European markets. "I have o.ften heard complaints against this practice," Fr. Go.mmenginger said, "but I fo.r my part find no.thing against it. Just because a man is a missio.nary do.es he have no. right to. run an establishment fo.r the support o.f himself and his church and schools? Are he and his helpers supposed to. live o.n air? Of course, we do. no.t " have the practice in o.ur missio.n. But if we did, h.o.w lo.ud and Io.ng wo.uld be the cries o.f pro.test raised against us!" ") The striking SUC<;e5S o.f the Basel miSsio.naries; he said, was due to. their excellent o.rganizatio.n, large p'erso.nnel and ample funds . ,...:fBut Fr, Gommenginger's chief task had been to. find o.ut' which place was mo.st s-bitable as a starting point fo.r the pro.posed Catho.lic Missio.n. As much as he wo.uld f ha"e liked to. suggest Kumasi; he felt it was o.ut o.f the questio.n principally because I · ~ the Society fo.r the Propagatio.n o.fthe Faith in Lyo.ns wo.uld no.t and eQuid no.t I supply the eno.rmo.us amo.unt o.f funds such an inland statio.n wo.uld entail. Accra, I tho.ugh desirable fo.r its good connectio.ns, he judged unhealthy. And Christians- borg, the co.astal citadel of the Basel missio.naries, wo.uld pro.ve too stony ground al) "Ich habe schon mebrmals gegen dieseo Handel schmihen horeo; meinerseits finde I ich durchaus nichts dagegen einzuwenden. Haben die Missionare etwa nicht auch das Recht fUr ihren Un,terhalt Wld ihre Werke zu sorgen 1 Konnen sie Wld die Ihren aus der Luft leben 1 Wrr freilich beschaftigen uns nicht mit Handel ; aber thaten wir es; Welches Zeter- geschrei wiirde sich nicht erst gegen uns erheben." Huck, Erlel;misse und .Arbciten eines I afrikanischen Missioniirs (1900), 158. 137 l for a nascent Catholic Mission. Cape Coast too was ruled out because in those days it was not a cleanly to·wn. The only other princip;d"coastal town remaining was Elmina which numbered from 5,000 to 6,000 inhabitants and was said to have been the center of Catholic mission work on the ·coast centuries before. At least so Fr. Gommenginger had heard. Other points in its favor were that the people were tidy and industrious, the town was located in a scenic and healthy spot, and connections inland and abroad could be made almost as easily there as elsewhere on the coast. There was no doubt about it in Fr. Gommenginger's mind; Elmina was the place to start. In his report of 1878 he said, "Think of it, we Catholics were the very first ones ... to take root in the Gold Coast, and yet now we have not even a single missionary in the land! The Protestants themselves cannot figure it out. When they saw me arrive, they felt surely the sole purpose of my coming was to open .. Catholic Mission. PersonaIly I am convinced that the opportune moment has arrived. It is time for us to take up again the work begun so propitiously by oUr missionaries of the. .. fifteenth century, and then interrupted so inexorably by the" ascendancy of the Dutch. Conditions have changed and obstacles have in part been removed. God and souls are calling us back to the Gold Coast ")." Fr. Gommenginger dated his report July 16, 1878, and then mailed it to Fr. Schwindenhammer, his Superior General "). It seems that Fr. Planque of the Society of Mrican Missions was informed of the contents of Fr. Gommenginger's report shortly after it reached Fr. Schwinden- hammer, because in September or October, 1878, he wrote to a certain Mr. Hamel at Elmina, the General Consul for Holland on the Gold Coast "). All along Fr. Planque had been under the impression that Accra was the ideal location for a sanatorium. But Fr. Gornmenginger in his report explicitly said that Accra was unhealthy and that Elmina was the healthy place on the coast. But then Fr. Gommenginger had been on the coast barely two months and he may have erred in his judgment. Hamel, on the other hand, had been on the coast for ten years,- and therefore was in a bette. position to pass judgment. To have this problem straightened out, Fr. Planque had written to Mr. Hamel. 11) "Nur wir Katholiken. die doch'am ~rsten . ... an dec Goldkiiste beirnisch waren, haben keinen Miss iooar mehr im Lande. Selbst die Protestanten "sind dariiber erstaunt; auch da sie mich sahen, dacbten sie nk ht anders, also class ich kame, wn eine katholische N iederlassung zu griinden. Nun, ich glaube dass die Stunde geschlagen hat, wo wir das von unseren Missioniiren des .... 15. Jahrhunderts so gliicklich begonnene und durch die holl~discbe Eroberung unterbrocbene Werk wieder aufnerunen mussen. Die Lage hat sich geandert, die Hindemisse sind zum Theil geschwundeo, Gott und die Seelen ru.(en uns an die Gold Kliste zuriick." HUck, Erlebnisse und Arbeiten eines afiikanischeo Missionirs (1900), 159. . H) Fr. Gommeoginger's original report in the Propaganaa Archives will not become avail- able until 1978, and the Secretary General of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost informed me by personal letter of June 15, 1952, that the copy that may have been in their archives must have been lost. I have used the extracts of the report as given by Fr. Huck, Erleboisse und Arbeiten eines afrikaoischen Missionars (1900), 155-165. Other data comes from, Gommenginger, Letter of May 19, 1878, in Les Missions Catholiques (1879), 224. SI) Fr. Planque's letter was answered on February 8, 1879. Allowing three months delay in the post office at Cape Coast plus the time it took the letter to reach the Gold . Coast would place its composition in September or October. There seems not to be a copy of this first or second letter to Mr. Hamel in the Archives of the Society of African Missions. N or is it known how Fr. Planque knew of Mr. Hamel. . 138 ______________________~ ~u But three months passed and he got no answer, so he wrote again. Finally he got an answer dated February 8, 1879. Much to his surprise the reply which he received was written by a Frenchman, not the Dutch Genera! Consul. The ~iter! A. Brun, said that he had been a Papal Zouave for three years, had served "m Axim as one of Bonnat's agents, and two months previous had arrived in Elmina to open a small store. Hamel, sick at the moment, had asked him to answer the two letters which had reached him at nearly the same time. The first, due to negligence on the part of the postal clerk in Cape Coast, had lain in the post office three months. "I believe," the letter went on, "that the best place is right here at Elmina. I know this whole coast and assure you that in no place would you be better off than here. These are my reasons .. . ")" He proceeded to list at least ten. Undoubtedly the most important for Fr. Planque was Brun's conviction that "this district is perhaps the healthiest on the coast and the whites who are here, three or four officers and myself, get along very well "')." His additional reasons made it equally evident that there could be no better place to start: 1. The Elminians still retained some Catholic traditions from Portuguese times. 2. A handful of them would immediately come to the mission's aid, like the chief a mile away who promised to donate whatever land was needed for a farm. 3. The Wesleyans had only a poorly trained Mrican minister in the village who made no impression whatever on the people. 4. The school already in existence there would be no handicap for a Catholic school, because the teachers themselves needed schooling. 5. There would be no opposition from the commanding officer because he was a Catholic. 6. Elmina was beautifully situated. 7. Food was plentiful there, something that could not be said of all other "Villages along the coast. 8. The French were liked by the Elminians. 9. There were less difficulties there than anyplace else for branching out deep into the interior. 10. In case of an uprising one always had protection, something that could " not be said for Lahou and other points farther west along the coast. The only difficulty Brun foresaw was the acute housing shortage. The village, destroyed five years before, was being rebuilt north of the Benya River. But he believed that the missionaries on their arrival could easily manage to help them- selves. He closed with the promise that he would do all in his power to assist the new mission and suggested that Fr. Planque personally visit Elmina to see its advantages for himself. There would be a room in the Dutch Consulate at his dis- posal"). Undoubtedly it would have been better if Hamel could have answered personally because of his ten years experience. He might not have been so enthusiastic about It) ". .. je crois que Ie meilleur point est ici; je connais toute cette cOte, et vous ne pouvez etre mieux qu'ici pour plusieurs raisons." Archives 8.M.A., cate d'Or - 1879, Lettre de Mr Brun au R.P. Planque. 17) "Le pays est peut etre Ie plus sain de cette cate e~ les Blancs.qui 'sont ici, 3 ou 4 officiers et moi, nous nous portons fort bien!' Ibid. ") Archives S.M.A., Cote d'Or -1879, Lettre de Mr Brun au R.P. Planque. 139 the olimate as Brun was. He might have called Fr. Planque'~ attention to the startling fact that from 1637 to 1872, the period Holland had Governors stationed in Elmina Castle, thirty-seven out of seventy had died in office "). For one to live longer than three years or four, was the exception to). Nevertheless, as every mis- sion superior receiving a report such as that written by Brun, Fr.Planque was highly pleased and decided beyond a doubt that the new mission should begin at Elmina. He had both Fr. Gommenginger's and Brun's word for it now. On the very sarne day that Brun wrote from Elmina, February 8, 1879, Fr. Planque wrote to Propaganda. It was at least his sixth letter in two-and-a-half years that expressed dissatisfaction with the Prefecture Apostolic in South Africa. The reason was that his was a Missionary Society and in his eyes the Pref~cture was not a mission nor did it offer the hope of ever becoming such. In a lener of December 26th previous, he had contrasted it with the populous Gold Coast which as yet had not a single missionary. Propaganda knew well that he was most anxious to give up the South Mrican Prefecture and transfer his men to the Gold Coast or to some other real mission .n). J "Some other rea! mission" had been promised him, but at the last moment this was changed and Propaganda wrote that he would receive "another corresponding region someplace else." In his letter of February 8, 1879, Fr. Planque said, "May your Eminence allow me to insist that I be informed as soon as possible of the narne of this 'other corresponding region someplace else' that you intend to give us U)." . This other "corresponding region someplace e~e" turned out to be the Gold Coast. Two months after receiving Fr.Planque's letter Propaganda decreed on April 28, 1879, the erection of the Prefecture Apostolic of the Gold Coast, separating it from the Vicariat~ApostolicofUpperandLowerGuinea. Thejurisdiction of the Prefecture was to reach from the Volta River on the east to the Cava!ly River on the west and to embrace besides all territory between the Vicariate Apostolic of Sierra Leony and the Vicariate Apostolic of Benin, that is, almost all of what we today know as the Gold Coast and the Ivory Coast. On May 7th of that year Pope Leo XIII approved of Propaganda's decree, confirmed it and ordered it publiShed. In ex- change for this extensive mission field that was being taken off theu, hands, the Holy Ghost Fathers were given' by Propaganda the relatively small mission in South Mrica till then staffed by the Society of Mrican Missions. On September 27, 1879, Propaganda's decree was published, making the erection of the Gold Coast Prefecture Apostolic officia! "). _ Fr. Planque was overjoyed! So much had happened since his first fetter of November 2, 1870, requesting that the Gold Coast be assigned to his Society so he might establish a proposed sanatorium at Accra or Cape Coast. Now at last, -after nine full years of waiting, he could take practical measures in that direction. He would -make Elmina the centra! station of the new mission, for Elmina and not Accra or Cape Coast had the best cliinate. From there the mission would spread. U) Hadeler, Gescruchte der hollindischen Kolonien auf dec GoldkUste (1904), 46. 40) Reindorf, The History of the Gold Coast And Asante (1950,or 1951), 336f. U) Archives 8.M.A., Propagande 1: 116, 120, 134, 138, 145, 149. . n) "Votre Em. me permettra d'insister pour savoir Ie plus tot: possible queUe est cette (altra corrispondente regione in punto ,diverso' qu'Elle a l'intention de nous donner ..." ." Archives S.M.A., Propagande t : 152. U) Archjves 8.M.A., Decree of Erection, Papier:s de -Rome 353f. 140 But in the months that followed there was a bit of hesitation, a bit of fear, a bit of mistrust. Had his nine years of work perhaps been in vain? Had he gotten nothing else but a further extension of the deadly roast his missionaries in the Vicariate of Benin knew so well? On February 2, 1880, even before any of his missionaries had reached the Gold Coast, he wrote to Propaganda about the Benin Vicariate and said, "I hope the Gold Coast will 'be less deadly, but I bave my doubts. It is this that makes me ask for a mission in a region where one can live" )." Was it his further study of Protestant mission history on the Gold Coast that gave rise to these doubts? ' "- The next step was to staff the mission. As Fr. Planque 'had intended alI along, he began to arrange for the transfer of his missionaries from South Mrica to the Gold Coast. The mission method he wanted to use was an intensive educational plan, for it was a maxim with him that a mission without schools is a mission without a future .~). With particular stress on that method, he hoped to convert the Gold Coast. Back in the year 1846 Fr. Libermann had envisioned the erection of this inde- pendent Gold Coast Mission. It was the last of alI those he had proposed that became independent. Fortunately the Society of African Missions found itself better able to supply the area with personnel, the only guarantee of a nascent mission's endurance . .It was a new respons,ibility for the Society of Mri_can MisSions, a burden it has not shirked with the passage of years. U) "Ie desire que la U3te d'Or soit moins meurtnere, mais j 'en doute et c'est pour cela que je demande une mission dans un pays ou l'on vive." Archives 8.M.A., Propagande 1: 161. ' . ") Guilcher, Un Ami Des Nom (1928), 225. 141 ,-. CHAPTER VIII. LINKS WITH THE PAST DISCOVERED IN ELMINA Frs. Auguste Moreau and Eugene Murat were the first two priests of the Society '" ofA frican Missions to reach the Gold Coast. On May 18, 1880, Pentecost Tuesday, they were set ashore at Elnllna. A British ship called the "Dwarf" had brought them from the Island of Saint Helena which was part of the Society's South African mission' ). They found Mr. Brun on hand, true to his word, and he did all he could to help them get settled. It was through his help that they succeeded in getting two rooms in a boarding house run by George Amite Amissang. The house was in poor ", condition but the Fathers took it in stride. They unpacked their few belongings, set up a simple altar in their rooms, and on the following days offered up the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass once again as other missionaries had in centuries gone by'). Bonnat had by then returned to the Gold Coast after his short stay in France, and the Fathers could only marvel at the fluency with which he spoke the Fante language. He acted as their interpreter as they went about from house to house those first few days, visiting the Chief, elders, councilors, sub-chiefs and other folk of Elmina. On every side they were asked, When will you open your school? The Chief of Accra even sent a special messenger four days after their arrival, saying that if they planned to teach French in Elmina, he would send some students from his village to leam it. Before a week was over, the Gold Coast Governor, Herbert Taylor Ussher, paid an unexpected visit to Elmina and gave the missionaries an hour-long audience. He encouraged them to go ahead with their two-fold plan of opening a grammar' school and an agricultural school. While still in Saint Helena Fr. Moreau had seen in a magazine that gardeners were wanted on the Gold Coast - the Governor had even written to China to get some but in vain - and this no doubt had influenced the plan he proposed to the Governor .). When Fr. Moreau took time out on Trinity Sunday, May 23, to write and tell his Superior General about the first days spent in the new Gold Coast Mission, he made special mention of the 01« worn statues which he and Fr. Murat had found in the houses of the pagans while out visiting with Bonnat. Unfamiliar with previous Gold Coast mission history, Fr. Moreau felt that these ancient relics were a sound hasis for the report lie so often heard repeated about the whole coast having been Catholic in Portuguese times. And what was his surprise on Friday past, he wrote, to learn of the "Santa Mariafo" who that day had performed a special rite which people said they practiced every Friday'). [- The members of the "Santa Mariafo" of course were pagans, and on Fridays '"'- they went about the village dressed in long white gowns carrying candles and chanting something over and over again. The only intelligible words they uttered I) Archives S.M .A. , COte d'Or - 1880, Letter of Fr. Moreau, May 23, 1880. " t) Archives S.MA. , Cbte d'Or - 1880, Letter of Fr. Moreau, May 23, 1880; "HistoriCal Sketch of the Gold Coast Catholic Mission," in The Gold Coast Catholic Voice (1929), 4: 53 . •) Archives Ibid. In this letter the Accra Chief is named Cocan; in an edited version of the letter the name is given as K wekue, t) Archives 8.M.A., COte d'Or - 1880, Letter of Fr. Moreau, May 23, 1880. 142 were "Santa Maria", "Santa Maria." For this reason, Elminians will tell you, they were narned the "Santa Mariafo." "1:0" means "people" or "group." Portuguese Catholicism of the 16th and 17th centuries was replete with pro- cessions, and· every big feast had to be celebrated with a procession. No procession, no feast 1 In the procession not only one statue was carried, that of the one whose feast was ~ing ceiebratedJ but all the statues in the churchrA separate group called "irmandade ... confraternity" was placed in charge of each statue, and it was their privilege and duty to decorate the portable platform and to carry the statue on it in procession. During processions the various confraternities wore distinctive gowns which reached to their knees. No matter how few such confraternities there were, there was always a Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, called in Portuguese,. "Irmandade de Santa Maria." In Brazil today where Portuguese Catholicism as practiced in the 16th and 17th centuries has not died out, as it has at Elmina, every parish has its "Irmandade de Santa Maria." In the very frequent processions held during the year the members wear a knee-lengt,h gown and their distinctive color is usually white, like that worn by E1mina's "Santa Mariafo." It may well be that "Irmandade de Santa Mari.a" was substituted by an expression meaning exactly the same thing in the local language, "Santa Mariafo." "Santa Maria," the words mumbled over and over by this group, are the first two words in the second half of the Hail Mary as prayed in Portuguese, the part answered by the people in procession. What lends credence to this view is the fact that the pagan "Santa Mariafo" at the time of Fr. Moreau's arrival was in possession of a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, called by them Santa Maria in imitation of the Portuguese. Since they had always been in charge of the statue for processions, it was only natUral when the Portuguese were driven out by the Dutch in 1637 that they should be entrusted with it until the Portuguese would return. No one else would dare claim any right over the statue; custom provided for that! i True to their charge, they and their children after them preserved the statue certainly until 1928 and perhaps even to this day. Whenever one of the members of the "Santa Mariafo" died, the body was laid out, three bUrning candles were f placed around it, and a small cross was placed on the person's breast. The statue I of s...an~ Maria was set on a table nearby ,vith a burning candle on either side of it. There was also a dish of water at hand with a small branch lying in it, which would be used to sprinkle the corpse. All this, learned from the Portuguese priests, had been passed on from generation to generation. An Elminian who recorded the traditions of his village in 1928 had himself heard an old woman, a pagan, say, "Amanfu belongs to Santa Maria; lighted candles must be placed near his deathbed when he gives up the ghost 0)." They believed-too that the soul of the departed ascended into heaven f). Still today Portuguese Catholics as well as those of other nations light a candle blessed on Candlemas Day in the room of a dying person. Just as the "Santa Mariafo" retained much of Christian practice that had to do with Christian death and burial, so too it retained some externals of entrance into ') Ankunam, "The Statue of St. Anthony of E1mina," in The Gold Coast Catholic Voice (1928),3:107. ') Wartemberg, Silo JorgeD'El Mina (1951), 152. 143 Christian life. Regularly seven days after birth the baby in a special ceremony was presented with a crucifix and a lighted candle. ') And before the ceremonial was over, water was sprinkled on the baby three dillerent times. The above ritual was practiced at the time the two missionaries arrived in 1880. And this in spite of absolute lack of contact with Catholicism since 1637 '). This conservatism may be .surprising, but it is not unique. In the year 1701 as Fr. Godefroy Loyer, O.P., was on his way to the Assinie Mission, he 'carne across something similar in a village south of modem Dakar. The people there .carried . a large rosary around their necks, recited some Portuguese prayers among them- selves, baptized their own children and passed on to them the little they knew of the doctrines of Christianity, not having a chapel, not having a priest or catechists to instruct them '). . James Marshall in the 1870's discovered some of the Elminians using the word "Catholic:' Knowing that they had had no contact with Catholics for almost two- and- a-half centuries, he asked them how they knew the word. They answered that it had been handed down. to them by their ancestors 10). A Dutch explorer by the name of Muller found a large bell six days inland (rom the coast in 1890 11). It may well have been the bell that once hung in the belfry I of St. George Church at Elmina "). ! To this day in many of the pagan homes in Banturna, the name given to the 1 remnant of old Edina west of the fort, there are small shrines in one of the rooms: a table or shelf covered with a cloth on which stand vases of flowers and two candles. But instead of a holy picture or statuette, a fetish receives t the honor II). 89mething else that very soon struck Frs. Mqreau and Murat was the very strong devotion they found among the pagans of Elmina to St. Anthony of Padua. \ TNh is dBevotioBn was centered aroundd Na pag";,, temple calIefd then thas ipt is today, . tona uw. uw means temp le , an tona IS a corrupted orm 0 f ~ ortuguese name, Ant6nio. The form Ntona is easily explained because the Portuguese them- 1 selves from whom the people learned the name often pronounced it more like Nt6nio, .than Ant6nio l4). Ntona Buw is said to contain pieces of a broken statue of , Nana Ntona. Nana is a term of respect on the Gold Coast like our "honorable," "reverend," or "venerable.', ~ I This "Antonio T emple" in the pages of mission history has time and again been called the remnant of a St. Anthony Church supposedly built in the midst of ry The time was probably determined"b y the village's naming cereD;lOOY which "takes . place on the eighth day after the birth of the baby prior to taking it outdoon, when presents I are offered to the newborn baby by merobera of the family. " Ibid., 123. 'I .) I have given the practices of this group as "recorded by an Elroinian named J. M . . Rhule in his letter of August 31, 1903, in Archives 8.M.A., COte d'Or - Notes Historiques. .j .) Lo~er, Relation Du Royaume D 'Issyny (1714 /1935), 138. -U) Marshall, Reminiscences of Mrica and its Missions, 5, cited in Strebler, Notes historiques sur Ie (1 ?29), 8, in Archives, 8.M.A. 11) Strebler. 11) A ske.tcb . Mine, tel qu'il estoit du temps des Portugais (1484)" shows La ,Ronciere. La Decouverte De L'Afrique, Planche ") if) The today. 144 Edina during the Portuguese era 15). Some believe the church was erected by Portuguese Franciscans in the year 1481 "). . In the first quarter of. this century, evidently in answer to Pope Pius Xl's clfcular letter of 1923 asking for contributions of mission interest for the Vatican Mission Exposition to be held two years later, a stone was -removed from the Antonio Temp!e and sent to Rome. The stone was put on display after being labeled as commg from a church built by the F~ciscans in 1481 in honor of St. Anthony of Padua at E1mina on the Gold Coast "). But is Antonio Temple in Bantuma really the remnant of what once was a Catholic church? If so, it certainly was not built in 1481, and almost just as certainly it was not the Frailciscans who built it. Not in 1481, because the very first Mass eVer to be celebrated on the Gold Coast, January 20, 1482, was not celebrated in a chapel at E1mina but in the shade of a tree on the spot where St. George Fort stands today. An eyewitness says St. George Fort, first built in 1482, was the very first building ever to be built by Europeans on that entire coast U). Nor is there the least trace of historical evidence that the Franciscans ever were active on the Gold f Coast prior to 1637, the year the Capuchins arrived. Elmina was from the beginning , in charge of secular priests, even while the Augustinians lent their assistsnce in r the 1570's )0). j E1mina did have a church from 1482 onwllfds, but that Was the Church of St. ! George built on the spot where the first Mass had been offered. It was inside the J fortress palisade. Barroo,.who had all the documen~ at hand to tell the world what the Portuguese were doing for the ChristiaI)ization of the Mricans of Edina when he wrote his book in the early 1550's, says only that St. George Church was P1.\t at the disposal of Mricans who had been baptized !O). St. James Church or Santiago U) Authors holding this view are: Peter, "Mission De La. <:ate D'Or," in J,..'ECho Des Missions Africain. . (1905), 4:123 ; Wartemberg, Sao Jorge D'EI Mina (1951),152; Wilson, "Nana Ntona," in St. Augustine's Messenger (1952),30:249. >0) Lemmens Geschichte der Franziskanermissionen (1929),-191 ; Lemmens, "L'Ordine Dei Minori E Le Missioni," in Rivista Illustrata Della Esposiziooe Missionaria Vatica.na (1925), 303; Habig, Catholic Missions in the Later Middle ~ (1948), 51; . Cuvelier, b'Ancien Royaume De Congo (1946), 254. Both Bishop Cuvelier and Fr. HabIg use Fr. ~ens as their authority. BiShop Cuvelier merely presep.ts Fr. ~ens' view, neither assenting to it nor denying it. 1') "Nell'A frica occidentale si trovano i Fran~cani portoghesi gia fin dal "",:,,10 XV e ne fa testimonianza all'Esposizione Vaticana la lapide di una cbjesa da 1000 edificata nel 1481 in onore di S . Antonio in Elmina sulla Costa d'Oro." Lemmens, "I./Ordine .. .. " lli~ . ") Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, in MMA (1506/1952),1:4. Barros, AsIa, Ibid., (1552/1952), 1:20. U) "Ignoro em que se baseou 0 P. Lemmens para dizer que em 1481 ~s Franciscanos tinham construJdo igreja na Mina. Julgo tal afirma~o completamente dest1tul~ de fund:,- mento hist6rico. Pelo menos, nao encontro documento portugues a confirmA-la. Dlas DlIllS, Personal Letter, February 8, 1953. . . In Portuguese times Elmina was a "regiao, em que a parte religlOsa esteve cqnfiada, habitualmente, a sacerdotes seculares, denominados Vigarios OU Cap.elaes da feitoria." Ibid. "F . h Le Missioni Cattoliche (1950), 113, states withQut giving sources: I rancescaru portog e- si avevano pOsto piede nella Costa d'Oro fin dal 1482 . . . n The source was probably Fr. Lemmens' book. _ -) Barros, Asia, in MMA (1552/1952), 1: 28. 10 145 Church oil St. Jago Hill was not in Edina but in Efutu territory and may have already ceased to exist. Had the idyllic St. Anthony Church existed in Edina, Barros undoubtedly would have said so "). The existence of a St. Anthony Church within Edina itself is based upon the assumption that Catholic life flourished among the people of Edina from the earliest Portuguese times. Actually very little was done in a missionary way for Edina. By 1505 there were only a few in that village who had accepted baptism "), and by the year 1572 the percentage was only one in twenty. All during that time, so it was reported from the spot on September 29, 1572, no one had ever 'insisted that those who were baptized be married before the priest, nor were there serious continued attempts to increase th~ number of Christians, nor did those of Edina who claimed the name of Christian really know what it meant to be one. As a result, Christians married pagans according to the pagan rite, and not a single mar- riage was known to be valid. With no shepherd taking real and continued interest in the flock - the vicar and chaplains in the fort were always being renewed like the garrison - it was not surprising that the Edina Christian community was very lax "). As was seen earlier in this book, a decided change took place in the Catholic' life of Edina in 1572 with the arrival of the Augustinian missionaries who worked right in the village. Before September 29th of that year they already had a huge cross set up with an altar at its base. There Mass was celebrated at a definite time every day"). It was the custom then, as it still is the custom in Brazil today, to set up a huge cross on the spot chosen for the building of a church. Since the Au- gustinians continued their intensive missionary work in Edina for at least four more years, they undoubtedly finished their church on the spot where the cross was. This may well be .the earliest beginnings of the temple, repeatedly rebuilt, that has come down to our own day. But was the Augustinians' church named after St. Anthony of Padua? It could have been. Being Portuguese, they would have had a great devotion to this Fran- ciscan Saint, since he was a native son of Lisbon. But it seems more probable th:it they would name the church after one of their own Saints, perhaps St. Nicholas of Tolentine. Actually they, almost intmediately founded the Confraternity of U) It seems Fr. Lemmens had no other testimony for his view but the stone he saw at the Vatican Mission ExpQsition, for in his documented work, Geschichte def Franzi"s- kaneI-missionen, he gives no other source. n) Scritture Rifente 103 :85 . .. ~ . . . alguiis delles sam fectos christaaos .. !' Pacheco'Pereira, Esmeralda de Si~ Orbis. in MMA (1506 f\ 952), 1: 5. • . ny· . ... elles sao gente froxa e descuidacla ... Ha entre estes negros christios hiia gran- dissima tyugidade, a que se podia par muito pelor nome, que casa christio com gentia e christi com gentio, a seu modo de gentiosj e nenhum ha casado como 0 manqa nossa Santa Madre Igreia. E he cousa que me ha espantado summamente que, em noventa,e t antos annos que (segundo dizem) ha que a Mina he descuberta, Dao se haia dado ordem a que se casem in fa.cie Eccksiae, e pera fazer ooais christios e que os que dizem que 0 sao enteDdao que he sella . .. . he grandissimo incoDveniente estar hum christio entre vinte gentios, donde todos " me parece que vivem gentilicamente .... assi os bautizados como os que 0 nio sio." Jnforma~o cia Mina, an6nima. dati datada a 29 de Setembro de 1572. Biblioteca Naclonal de Lisboa, Fundo Geral, C6dice n. 8. 457, fls. 10lr. e v. e 107v., ms. inedito, em c6pia do sec. XVII, cited in Dias Dims, Personal Letter, February 8, 1953. If) "F~lgo de ,~e ~r em effeito dizeremlhe missa a certa hora e ensinare.ffiselhe as ora~ no CNZeJ.ro . .. Ibid. 146 St. Nicholas of Tolentine in Edina, and through the intercession of this Saint many miracles were performed which did much to promote conversions among the people of Edina and of villages roundabout "). In Bantuma there seems to be a remnant of this church of the Augustinians. It is another pagan temple called "Damo Buw." Buw, as before, means Temple. And Domo? An old Catholic of Bantuma told a missionary that his old father had informed him that "Domo" was the Latin word which the Portuguese of long ago, especially the Portuguese priests, had used for "Church" H). The Latin word really would have been "Domus," that is, "House," but the rules of Fante pronunciation would demand that the word be pronounced by an E1minian as "Domo" "). And so we have a building called "House Temple," or "Church Temple," one word being foreign, one being in ·the vernacular. Now it is altogether unlikely that the people of Edina of long ago would attach a word they had learned from the Portuguese to one of their own temples. On the other hand, it is very likely that they would attach one of their own words to the rem- nant of a Portuguese church. And that seems to be what happened here. Of course, those of non-Mrican stock are tempted to mistrust Elminian tradition, hesitating to believe what does not exist in some old document black on white. In this case, fortunately, ·there is corroboration black on white. ' An old document in the Propaganda A:rchives written in the months preceding July 2, 1641, says that the French Capuchin missionaries in the year 1638 built a church for the village folk ofAxim, which is just west of Elmina on the Gold Coast. The mission- aries who built the church testified that the only name the Mricansin this Portuguese village used for it was "Domus Christi ... . House of Christ" t8). Tradition in Elmina today actually identifies "Domo Buw" with a chapel or church that was built in the old village of Edina for the Christian community ." ). After a few years the Augustinian mission died out and then the spiritual state of Ediita declined to the stage in which it was prior to their arrival. And so it apparently remained until 1637 when the Portuguese lost their possessions to the Dutch. In this period, therefore, a St. Anthony Church hardly would have been built in Edina. What, then, is the origin of "Ntona Buw," "Antonio Temple" ? " The following hypothesis seems to fit best with the circumstances SO). When St. George Castle fell to the Dutch, the priests being Portuguese had to evacuate the castle with the rest of the garrison and were transported on Dutch ships to the island of Sao Thome. Confident, no doubt, that they would be back, the priests had entrusted all the goods in St. George Church - candles, vestments, statues, ") Crusenius, Pars Tertia Monastici Augustiniani (1890), 1: 621£. -) van Heesewyk, Personal Letter, February 18, 1953. IT/, "The F~te language, a special dialect of which the Elminians speak, has the special characteristic of ending its words in vowels rather than in consonants. The only consonants on which a Fante word may end are the vocal ones. viz. M, N , and R. (L did not exist in the tongue before its introduction with European words, even then the tendency was to make R's of the L's.)" Amissah, Personal Letter, Marcb 16, 1953. It) « •••• nec alio sacellum nomine quain Christi domwn appellandam censent." Scritture Riferite 83: 387r. -) Wartemberg, Silo Jorge D'El Mina (1951),152. . -) It is also the opinion of Fr. van Heesewyk that this is the best explanation. van Heese- wyk, Personal Letter, September 16, 1952. 147 missal, chalices - to the Edina Catholics when they foresaw that the fort would fall OJ). In the minds of Edina Catholics the principal object of all was the statu~ of St. Anthony of Padua. How often had they seen it carried in procession I How often had the prayers of the Catholic priest been answered when he begged God for rain through the intercession of this Saint. And what numberless wonders had the Saint performed, like the time he appeared in the woods to one of the Edin.a elite, cured him of his madness, told him to forsake his idols and go to the church of Mina and there ask the priest for baptism. Instinctive reverence for the sacred and powerful made the Edina Catholics treat this particular statue en- trusted to them with special.care. Nor was there any quarrel as to who should take charge of it. The Confraternily of St. Anthony, or, as the Portuguese had called it, the Irrnandadede Santo Ant6nio, took charge. Like the Santa Mariafo, so too this group, the Santonafo or Antonifo, had had the privilege of carrying the statue of St. Anthony in the frequent annual proccssions, while dressed in their knee-length distinctive gowns "). The next step was very logical and very simple: give the powerful Saint a shrine of his own where the statue could be honored secretly in case the Dutch proved hostile to the devotion. Contrary to expectation, the Dutch considered it to their adva"tage to be tolerant of the local religioua practices. In fact, they even went so far as to support the fetish priests I ") AIl years and generations passed, the veneration paid to the Saint degenerated more and more, and the once zealous confraternity slipped back into the pagan religious system of their countrymen who had never been baptized. But the shrine and statue remained. T he Santonafo had elected one of their members to take charge of the statue, something that very soon led to a new type of priesthood in the village. Benya, tutelar deity of th~ town, had its own temple and its own priests. But before long Denya had to take second place in popularity, even among the strict pagans, giving first place to Nana Ntona. Every year, just as in Portuguese times, the statue hact to be ceremoniously washed "). The necessity for washing in Portuguese times was easily understandahle because the little and big hands that day in and day out touched the statue as it stood in St. George Church were not always immaculately clean . The water used in cleansing tlle statue was thought to have some special power. The annual procession held in honor of St. Anthony on his feast in the pagan rite became an annunl festival caJled Kotobun Kese. Part of the ceremonial de- manded that the pagan priest take the water that had been used to cleanse the statue and in the dead of night sprinkle it about in the most important parts of the town. This was to cleanse the town or to scare off evil spirits. During the II) Archives S.M.A., Rhule, Letter of August 31,1903. It is here recorded that tmditjon soys tho abovo WM nctuoJ ly thc case. U) Although the POrtuguC9c write SAAro Ant6nio J they pronounce the nnmc Sant-Ant6nio. . 'Tho Elminiaos controctcd it to 811ntonn~fo or Antoni-fo. , n) ArchiVC8 8 .M.A., Rhule, Lc.ttc.r of August 31, 1903. The support was continued until ELminn pnssed into Dritish hllnds in 1872. When the British decided not to give suPportJ tho people did. . II) Still today in IgunpcJ BrnziI, the descendants of Portuguese Catholics, still Catholic, ycnrly wMh the statue of Born Gcsus, cnnying it co.remoniously to the river's bank. Such onnuol wMhings are of frequent occurrence in Brozil . In some plncea evon entire churches [\ N wMhcd once n year. 148 p~ocession guns had to be shot off, just as in Port;,guese times, for a procession WIthout gunfire was then unthinkable "). An involved cult ~as built up al'ound this statue and exists even today though ~e statue broke to. pte,:"" long ago. No .one seems to know just how or just when tt broke. Some ~ tt happened dunng the annual washings; others think it happened at the ttme old Edina west of the fort was leveled to the ground in the bombardment of June, 1873. In any event, the pieces seem to have been gathered together, daubed with white chalk, and preserved in a large calabash inside the temple. Today Ntona Buw is guarded by an old woman. Back in 1906 Sr. Basile was admitted to the Ntona Buw and Fr. Chades Onimus was admitted in 1924. They saw an altar inside and what they judged to be large fragments of the statue, painted white like fetishes usually are. Sr. Basile was told that the statue had been sent there at the time the Portuguese priests departed. Around 1890 Fr. Pellat was inside and saw an ancient missal as well as the last shreds of what appeared to be a cope or chasuble "). In our own day Mrs. Eva Meyerowitz gained entrance. She describes the contents of the calabash which is said to contain the statue fragments as "large oblong stones chalked white and various small objects beneath them 87)." Elmina chiefs in the enstoolment (enthronement) ceremonies must visit Ntona Buw. It is the first sacred place they visit after the ceremonial bath which takes place before dawn. A fetish priest performs a special ritual, and as the new chief comes out of the temple he is cheered by the throng and steps directly into a waiting palanquin. A procession through the town follows ..) . In the course of a year an endless amount of ceremonies occurred in connection with this temple. One was an annual procession to the fortress and back. The fetish priest, whose chief duty was to pray for the nation in time of war and epidem- ic, along with a select group, would assemble in Ntona Temple. Only he and his assistants were allowed into the ·part of the temple near the altar; ordinary people had to stay in the body of the church. The white skullcap he wore was never removed except when passing the altar and when retiring at night. The procession formed outside the temple. First carne a leader with an iron cross fastened to a long pole, then the people, and last of all the fetish priest surrounded by his ~istants. Some 150 white skins had previously l?een spread out carpet-like before the castle entrance which faced Bantuma. Over these the priest would wa1k, pray for the "Yankufion Embahina" (Servants of God) buried outside the castle walls, and then return to the temple the same way, sprinkling the crowds to the right and the left. His aspergi11um was a branch which he dipped repeatedly into a copper basin of water carried at his side on a wooden stand. All this and more was still practiced in 1903 ..) . at) For the ritual in connection with this feast, see Wartemberg, Sao Jorge D 'EI Mina (1951), 152f. Gunfire is indispensable for processions in Brazil, tradition rules. As to wells where statues have been washed, many have come to be regarded as sacred, and the water is believed to have a special power. ") Archives S.M.A., Strebler, Notes historiques sur Ie Vicari,t de 10 COte d 'Or (1929), 7-10. ") Meyerowitz, Akan Traditions of Origin (1952), 72. U) Wartemberg, Silo Jorge D'EI Min, (1951), 98. ") Archives S.M.A., Rhule, Letter of August 31, 1903. 149 Another privilege of the temple was that of asylum. Anyone who reached the priest's courtyard was freed of all crime. The Portuguese most probably had practiced that very thing in their time because then it was common in Europe. The Elminians, however, may have had this custom even before the arrival of the ' Portuguese because asylum is found in cultures that have not undergone Christian influence. Ntona Temple has repeatedly collapsed or been destroyed, but it has always been rebuilt. A missionary in the district says, "A number of years ago this house collapsed . .. However, the Bantama people hastily constructed another but much smaller building somewhat back from the road. It was completed in one night and everything stored there. As far as I can gather there is certainly the remains of a statue, some very old candles, some broken bits of church ornaments, candle- sticks, etc., and recently I have heard talk of a 'silver cup,' which may mean a chalice or, ciborium" <0). .' As for the broken statue really having been that of St. Anthony of Padua, there seems to be no doubt. The missionaries in Elmina in the 1890's seeing that ,the people simply could not or would not break away from the hold Ntona had on them, tried to direct this devotion into the channel from which it had centuries before run riot. Long sermons were used to bring home the fact that a statue in itself has no power, that a statue is only a reminder of a person who has lived a saintly life, whose virtues we should imitate, and whose intercession with God we should confidently call upon in time of need. Bishop Albert in 1898 blessed the first statue of St. Anthony of Padua for the Catholic Mission. Word spread like wildfire, and the Bantuma priests in charge of Ntona Buw came and asked if they could see the statue too. When they were admitted, . they looked at the statue in surprise and excitedly said, "Look, 'it is he, just like our fathers described him!" Their joy knew no bounds, and they asked the favor of getting a similar statue for their own temple <1). Every year all the pagan chiefs in the vicinity of Elmina must ceme to Elmina'to pay honor to Nana Ntona on a special day. Libations are poured over the remnants of the statue, no doubt to give the Ntona deity new vigor and new power for good. And just as the feast of St. Anthony in Portuguese times never went by without a procession being held in his honor and the statue being carried along on a beauti- fully decorated platform, so too Ntona's yearly feast is bound up with a procession. But it does not occur any more on Iune 13th, the Saint's feast. Ntona was considered the best rain-giver, and rain was especially needed when the Elmina women went ,out'to plant groundnuts in the fields that their husbands had cultivated for them. When there was no rain, the women contributed a generous share of yams and eggs to the fetish priest in charge of Nana Ntona, asking him in return to beg Ntona for rain. The priest hardly completed his prayers, so says the tradition passed from generation to generation, when the rain began coming down in torrents. Perhaps seeing that the feast at this time of the year was of more advantage to him, the fetish priest began anticipating it at groundnut time. *) O'NeiU, Personal Letter, December 7;1952 . • 1) "e 'est bien Lui, disent ils, il est comme nos peres nousl'ontdepemt." Archives S.MA., Peter. St. ~toine ou une page d'histoire de la mission d'Elmina (1904--1907), fo1. 3. See the printed version in Peter, "Saint Antoine : Page d'Histoire de In Mission d'Ehnina (COte "d'Or) ," in L'Echo D es Missions Africaines De Lyon (1904) , 91-96. 150 No fetis.h priest, while seemingly possessed, was allowed inside the temple because long ago It h~d been learned that inside the temple fetish priests were simply helpless. Even~they be~ their magical rite o."tside and then entered th':temple in the course o~ th~ ;'te, the mmu.te they stepped mside they ceased to ~~possessed and lost the mVlslbl~ force which see,?ed to make them unconsciously dance, sing and gyrate. It did not take the pnests long to learn their lesson. Still today not one of them dares to enter the temple for the performance of magical rites "). Knowing the mentality of the West African, one does not find it difficult to understand how the Wonder Worker of Padua managed to capture their hearts. As a Gold Coast African explains similar phenomena, a person learns "from the tradition of his ancestors of some extraordinary experience or a phenomenon which was beyond the range of their ken and which they felt constrained to regard as an object of worship ... ")" Although, as far as Elmina missionaries know, there exists no tradition among Elminians which tells of the miraculous cure by St. Anthony of Padua of the man gone mad "), in its day it certainly gave impetus to the cult of the Saint. The origins of the, Ntona cult probably lie in the strong devotion toward the Saint which the Elminians of old noticed in the Portuguese, and in the repeated striking ways in which the Elminians had seen the prayers of the Portuguese to this Saint, as well as their own, answered. Then there were ,t he honors accorded the statue of the .S aint during processions. All this, like the apparent miracle of the man cured in the woods, served to engrain in the Elmina soul - and through Elmina in the Gold Coast's soul - the Saint's special cult. Succeeding generations had similar experiences to keep alive the traditions of Ntona's power. It was not the statue, a piece of wood, they trusted in. Nor again was it Saint Anthony of Padua as present in Heaven to whom their prayers were directed. For they considered the statue neither the reminder of the Saint nor the direct object of worship. The direct object of worship was - and is today - the deified personality called Ntona who was thought to reside in and be confined by the statue of the Saint. Consequently today, although the statue is broken, the pieces or their substitute are still preserved and Ntona is still conceived as being contained within them 45). " Is it surprising then that today the name Anthony is one of the most common Christian names in the Gold Coast")? It is not pronounced as in English, but rather as in Portuguese, with the accent on the second syllable: Ant6nio or Ant6ny. An this is ,not unique! 'The missionaries who returned to Africa's Lower Congo in the last century and in this century found similar traces of missionary work carried on during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. There were .crucifixes, statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of St. Anthony of Padua, church bells, medals and even a kind of crosier. At Ngongo Mbata they came across a skeleton rather well conserved six feet underground. On its chest lay a cross made of copper; suspended from a copper chain which hung ' around the neck. On the outside of ") Ankunam, "The Statue Of St. Anthony Of Elmina," in The Gold Coast Catholic Voice (1928), 3;106-108; O'Neill, Personal Letter, December 7, 1952. ") Wartemberg, Silo Jorge D'EI Mina (1951), 151. ..) van Heesewyk, Per.lonal Letter, September 16, 1952. ") Wartemberg, Siio Jorge D'EI Mina (1951), 152. ") O'Neill, Personal Letter, December 7, 1952. 151 the casket, at the head end, was a copper crucifix f7). Among the various statues of St. Anthony of Padua, there is one carved in ivory by a Congolese. The artist gave St. Anthony typical Mrican features ..) . Frs. Moreau and Murat, of course, had no such comprehensive view of the endless traces of Catholicism extant in Elmina at the end of their first week there"). Nevertheless they did notice some and they counted much on them forme mission's future. But closer observation and study made it clear that much if not all was distorted and needed patient rectification. What once had been Catholic ceremonial was now completely absorbed into village fertility rites, initiation rites, and other ceremonial under the direction of the fetish priest. All these 1inks with the past, however, were to be found in only one town on the Gold Coast, Edina or Elmina, where the Portuguese had had their principal base before they were forever driven out by the Dutch in 1637. From that time until the arrival of the Society of Mrican Missions in 1880, the E1minians had had no contact with Catholic missionaries. Nevertheless for 250 years they handed down from generation to generation as much as they could remember of the cere- monial and doctrine taught them by their Portuguese priests. Ten days had not yet passed when Fr. Moreau was advised by the doctor to take a sea voyage because of his fever and persistent feeling of fatigue . On May 26, 1880, he and Fr. Murat left for Lagos aboard the French frigate "Venus," hoping to profit also from the contact with their experienced brother priests there. In Lagos they met James Gordon, the Gold Coast youth brought there by Marshall. Since he spoke Fante, and since their mission lay in Fante territory, they invited him to return with them to Elmina. He thought it a good idea and went to Elmina with them a month later to be their language instructor, catechist and teacher. In the succeeding weeks James Gordon. performed his task of interpreter well as the missionaries paid visits to oudying villages .o). Then came August 6th and Fr. Moreau, broken-hearted, sat down to pen those awful lines to Fr. Planque: "Yesterday evening at five o'clock I performed the first public functions of my ministry - alas I it was the burial of good Fr. Murat ... 51)" As he penned those lines his own brow was burning with fever. Nevertheless, he said, he had kept at his language studies in spite of it, convinced -that without a perfect knowledge of the language his apostolate would not be lasting or fruitful. But again on doctor's orders he had to take a sea voyage, this tiroe leaving Elmina on August 15th for Freetown, Sierra Leone. There he visited and tried to comfort , Kobina Edjan, Chief of Elmina, who was being kept prisoner in a windowless hut and lived poorer than Job since his deportation from Elmina in 1873. On Septem- ~hlh~w_~inElmin~~~ - Unfortunately the "Dwarf" had desposited them at Elmina at the height of the deadly rainy season. Not only did the whites take sick and die, but the Mricans "') Cuvelier, L'Ancien Royaume De Congo (1946). 335, 337. opposite p. 225. &8) Ibid., opposite p . 209. U) Le Missioni Cattoliche (1950), 113, not cognizant of these facts. states : "The Dutch succeeded in wip~g out every trace of Catholicism. - Olandesi .... riuscirono 8 sradica.re ogni traccia ldenen. Zeitalter (Paulinus Verlag, Trier, 1947), 24 x 17, 333pp. The author of this nch1y documented work has Doctorates in . Philosophy, Theology, and Political Science. Bilek (Th.), Erlebnisse und Arbeiten eines afrikanischen Missionars : P . Ludwig Karl Gornmenginger (Rixheim, 1900), 20 x 13, xv & 454 & 3Opp. Ius Pontificium De Propaganda Fide: Complectens Bullas Brevia Acta S.S. A Con- gregationis Institutione Ad Praesens Iuxta Temporis Seriem Disposita, edited ': . by Raphael De Martinis (Ex Typographia Polyglotta, Rornae, 1888), Pars la, Vol. I, 31 x 21, xv & 484pp. Jattin, C.S.Sp. aoseph), Le Clerge colonial de 1815 a 1850 (H. Basuyau & Co., Toulouse, 1935), 23 x 14, 421pp. Jann, O.F.M.Cap. (Adeillelm), Die kstholischen Missionen m Indien, China und Japan: Ihre Organisation und ! 25 Cnnstaller Gollann G.) 110 carpenter 118 Cllristianity 86, 144f carrien. 136 Christians 128, 136, 143£, 146£, 151, Cartagena 94 154 Casa de Guine 17 Cllristiansborg (Castle) 64, 106£, 109- Castel Del Mina 53, 56f, 61 (see. Castle 111, 113, 125, 132, 137, map: 33 of Sao Jorge) Christmas 49, 74f, 109, 117, 129, 153 Castile 57, 59 Christ's College 108 Castle of Sao Jorge 1, 5, 7, 8f (see enurcn 2, 8-14,17, 23,46, 49,52,55, sao Jorge, St. George) 70, 75-77, 79, 89, 116, 134f, 137, CastracaIll (Alessandro) 31, 99 143, 145-149, 153-155 sie Castro (Agostinho) 21 Churen of England 108 catecheticaJ instructions 21 Cicognani 1040, 105n catechism 57, 115, in native hmguage: circumcision 136 58 city 10, 137, 153 catechist 75, 8"8, 108, 112, 114, 122, Civil War 105 1240, 144, 152 civilization 134 catecnumen 65, 83 Claridge 320, 520, 53n, 88n Catllolic 11,31, 65, 93, 111,114-116, Clarkson (Thomas) 104 121f, 128, 133-135, 137-139, 142- cleanliness of · enuren 17 148, 152-155 Clement VIII 36 The Catllolic Cnurcn and Soutllern cleric 119 Africa 132n climate 18, 122, 126, 136, 140, 152 Caurnels (Gabriel-Pierre) 80, 81n Clocne (Antonio) 72, 76, 81 Cavally River 121, 126, 14{l, map: 120 coadjutor 124f, 133 Cavazzi (Gio. Antonio) 560, 570 coat of arms 39 celestin de Bruxelles 60-66, 70f Cocan 142n censures 4, 98, 103£ Coine (Colonel) 52f ceremonial 152 colic 81 ceremonies 149 Collectanea 101n-l05n Cess River 88 Collector nf Portugal 26-32, 51 Ceuta 1, 8n Collegio eli Propaganda Fide 47 cllalice 25, 1Jl,-"t 48, 150 Collins G.) 109 . chalk 149 - ';'. Colombin de Nantes 240, 32-35, 360, Cllarnbery n ;}f21 37n, 38-51, 54f, 88, 95n cIlapel8, 42.:.(;t;:52, 61f, 83,-112, 116£, Colonial Goverrunent 76 ~ , 119, 144(..147 colonies 85, 94, 117 Cllapel of tile Motller of God 8 colonists 110, 122 cIlaplain 1, 8f, 16-18, 24f, 27f, 32, 75, colony 108£, 132 79, 108f, 133f, 146 . Columbia 94 Cllarleston 115 Columbus (CltristopbeT) 1, 11, 19 cIlarrns . 137 Combaluzier 27n cllarter 132 Commedo (see Komeoda) cIlasuble 149 . commerce 127 Cbjef 6f, 10-15, 29, 38-42, 45, 55 , 57, Commissary General 76, 81 62£, 65, 67-71, 73-80, 82n, 85 -90, concubinage 101 92£, 107, 109;112£, 115, 125, 127f, confession 29 135-137, 139, 142, 149£, 152; 154 Coru=tion faculties 25f Chief Magistrate 134 confraternity 23, 143 . 168 Confraternity of St. Anthony 148 79, 80n,82, 85-89, 91, various forms : Confraternity of St. Nicholas of To- 67n lentine 1"46£ Danes 64, 67, 79f, 95, 104, 100f, 109, . .{ Congo II, Hf, 19 .. 93, 121 113, 125, 127 , Congo Diocese 117 Danish Guinea Company 107 ""Congo River I, map: 120 Daniah West India Company 107 Congolese 152 Dapper 9n congregations ( of nuns) 154 Dark Continent 133 Congregation of African Sisters of dauphin 83 Mary Immaculate 154 Dauphine 80n Congress Park 154 deacon 118 . Conraadsborg Fort 13, 54, 79 deaconess 114 conservatism 144 death 5, 8, 54f, 124, 126, 130£, 133, Constitution "Populis" 10 3 135, 140£, 143,' 152£, causes of .consulate 139 death: 123 consumption 108 debts 85 conversions 147 decrees 102, 104 convert 134f, 153n deity 148 .f cope 149 Delafosse 600 r Copenhagen 100f, 109 Denmark (see Danes) copper 149, 151 Desgenettes 117 corpse 33, 153 Despont 117n Correia (Fe mao) 15 Desroches 73£ Corsica 103 devil 29f, 34, 81 C6te d 'Or 32 (see Gold Coast) Devil'.s Mountain 34 cotton 110, 114 Dias .(Bartolomeu) 19: Coucoumy 60 dichotomic system 69 Cougeoie 67n dictionary 11 0, 112£ Council of Trent 25, 28 Dieppe 61 Courdioux 131 difficulty 139 cowries 96 DirUs (Dias) 14n, 21n, 145n, 149n Creator 89 diocese 109 Crevecoeur Fort 106 disease 45, 50, 119 crinl~ 98f, 150 dispensaries 154 Croissant 35£, 41 dissatisfaction 140 crosier 151 ' Divine Providence 82 'Cross 2, 22, 39, 75, 136, 143 , 146, 149, Divine Word Missionaries 154 151 Dixcove 77n, 108, 111£, 127, 137;. crosses (wooden markers) 2 IUap: 33 crucifix 34, 144, 151£ doctor 109,117-119,130,152 Crusenius (Nicolaus) 21n, 23n, 147n doctrine 152 da Cruz (Atana.sio) 23 Domanasi 112 cult 151 DomirUca 154n culture 137 DomirU"""," 67, 70, 71n, 72, 76, 80-82, Cuvelier G.) 15n, 145n, 152n 85,88, 92 Cyrille d'Ancenis 35, 39, 41-43, 47f Domo Buw 147 domus Christi 147 . D Du Casse 13n, 24n, 36n, 600, 67n-7On, Dahomey 57, 59, 62,69,71, 112, 121 , 72n, 73, 74n, 75n, 77-79, 8On; 95n, 126, 128f 100n Dakar 119-126, 133, 144, map: 120 Duchess of Anciro 100 damnation 97£ Dunwell Goseph R.) 11 1 -Damon 37n, 41n, 67-69, 71n, 74n, 77, Du Plessis G.) 107n-109n, 112n-114n 12 169 Dutch 13, 30-32, 36, 45n, 51-54, 56f, Esperance 36 59-62, 67-70, 75, 77, 79f, 91f, 95, Etapa 90n 106f, 110, .125, 127, 138-140, 143f, ethics 98 147f, 152 Ethiopia (name for West Mrica) 5n, Dutch Republic (founded) 51 1030 Dutch West India Company 61, 91, Etiosika 870 106 etiquette 21, 74n Dwarf 142, 152 Eucharistic Congress 154 Eugene IV 8 E Europe (see Europeans) . East India Company 52 Europeans 8, 65, 80, 95f, 103f, 106, East Indies 29, 35 112, 122-124, 127f, 130£, 133, 136f, Easter 56 145, 147n, 150 ecclesiastical province 153, 155 evil spirits 148 Edenafo 4:0 Ewe 59, 113f, map: 33 Edina In, 2-4, 6f, 10-12, 15f, 21-24, Ewe Presbyterian Church. 114 27, 29f, 48, 52f, 60, 68f, 79f, 144- excommunication 4, 10, 28, 36, 73, 76, 149, 152, various froms: 3n, map: 99, 102 . 3 (see Elmina, Mina) explorer 144 Edinburgh 134 Edjan (Kobina) 152 educational program 15-17, 21f, 62- F 64, 122, 141 Fabe Oean) 118 Efies 36, 68 Fabien de Nantes 45 Efutu 3, 12f, 15, 23f, 29, 68f, 146, faculties 25, 28, 35, 72, 81 various forms: 24n, map: 3 faith 155 Eguafo 24, 68, 77, 80 Fante 95, 135, 142, 147, 152 Ehoutile 36, 68 Fante Confederation 127f, 135 elections 69 Fanti 108, 112, 116, map:33 Elmina 1, 3, 4n, 19.n, 20, 27n, 45n, Faria (Manoel) 22n 48, 53,61l-70, 77-79, 93, 106, 110, farm 122, 139 116, 125-128, 135,137-140, 142-145, fatigue 152 147, 148n, 149-153, origin of name: Faucon Anglais 84 53n, map : 3 and 13 (see· Edina, feast 150 Mina, Sao J orger fertility rites 152 Elminians (see Elmina) . fetish 89f, 137, 144, 149 da Encarnal'lio 0 er6nimo) 21 "- fetish priest 110, 113, 137, 148-152 England (see ·English) fetish worship 22 England Oohn) 115 feud 68 English 36, 50, 62, 67f, 78, 95, 104-112, fever 107, 109, 118, 152 114-, 117, 121 , 123,125, 127f, 133- uFidelium Deus, omnium;'; 9 .• 135, 142, 148n, 151 Figueiredo Ooaa) 15 _ English Mrican Company 61 Findlay and Holdsworth l11n, 112n English Channel 6 f Finley (Robert) 115 enstoolment 149 fire 77, 90 enthronement 149 First National Eucharistic Co·ngress Ephesians 96 154 epidemic 149 fiscal agent 56 Epiphany 77 fish 27, 80 episcopal sees 153 Bag 53 , 77, 89 Erickszoon (Barent) 51 , 95 Flanders 60 d'Ervault 78n Flanders-Belgium Province 62, 64 de Escobar (pedro) 2· flowers 144 170 Fomena 132 Goa 19n food 62, 71, 139 Goarnisson 45n, 46n fort, I, 6f, 10, 52, 68, 77, 84, 86.89, God 5, 71, 75, 84f, 88, 102, 104, 107, -91£, 95, 106· 108, 112, 119, 127f, 116, 118, 131, 138, 148, ISO, 155 144·146, 148f godfather 83, 153 fortifications 73 gods 96f foster father 135 Gois (Darniao) 14n Fraisse 78f, 82n gold 2·4, 6.8, 15f, 18; 32, 36, 51, 59, France (see French) 62, 65 , 67. 70, 73·75, 85, 93, 95 Francesco da Monteleone 71 Gold Coast 1£, 4n, 6·8, 9n, 14, 19f, Franciscan Missionaries of Mary 154 22,32,36,48, 49n, 52·55, 58f, 64, 67f, Franciscans 48, 145f 70·73, 74n, 77, 79f, 84, 92f, 95, Franciscans Minor of the Reformed 97, 102, 103n, 105. 110, 112, 114·116, Observance 100 120, 127.135, 138, 140·142, 144f, FranciscG de Mota 97n 147, 151.155, origin of name: 32n, Fran9Qis (Gonzalez) 62n, 67, 68n, 70· map: . 33 82, 84f, 91, various fonns :67n Gold Coast Observer 6n freedom of religion 46, 55, 74, 79, 86 golden rose 100· Freeman (Thomas B.) 111£ Goliath 96n Freetown 152, map: 120 Gomes (Fernao) 2, 4 French 8, 9n, 32, 35f, 42, 46, 49. 51, Gornmenginger (Louis C.) 128, 136· 54,60·62,64-68, 7On, 71 · 89, 91f, 95, 138, 140 104, 106, 115.119, 121 . 123, 125, Gon\'alvez (Martim) 21 127f, 130, 132, 139, 142, 147, 152 Gonsalvez (Antiio) 93 French Bastion 9n, 36 Gordon (Captain) 135 French Colonial Minister 117 G ordon Games) 135, 152 French Equatorial Mrica 32 Goree Island 117, 119 French West Indies 67, 72, 80 Gorju 74n Friday ritual 90 Gospel 8, 37, 134 Friedensborg Fort 107 governor IS, 19, 23, 27.30, 36, 48, frigate 152 52, 54, 56f, 69, 71 , 77f, 108f, 117, Funchal14 140, 142 Funchal Diocese (division of) 17 . gowns 142f, 148 funds 116, 130, 133, 137 . da Gra~ (pedro) 21 , 23f future life 90 de Graft (William) 111 Graglia (Giuseppe) 47n G grammars 22, 110, 112f Ga 106, 110, map:33 Grand Bassam 117·119, 125 Gabon 117.119, 121, 125f, 129, 133, Grand Master 10 map: 120 grave 33, 130 Gabon illver 121, 123 Graviere Gerome) 120, 121n da Gama (Estevao) 15, 18 Great Kornenda 24, 68 (see Eguafo da Gama (Vasco) 19 and Komenda) Gambia illver 84, 121 , 123 Great Saint 30 gardeners 142 Grebo 115 garrison 92, 107· 109, 146f Greek 136 Gartland 119n Gregory XIII 103 G~ 59n Gregory XV 25 , 129n General Consul 138f Gregory XVI lOS , 115f Genicot (Eduardus) 97n, 102n Grenada 81 Georgia liS, 119n Grentrup (Theodorus) 36n, 125n Germans 67f, 95 , 113 Grimley (Thomas) 129, 131 Ghana (see the Introduction) de Grosbois 92 171 Grotefend 1n , 88n Holy Eucharist 29, 43, 135 groundnuts 150 H:oly Father 31, 56, 100 (see Pope) Guadeloupe 59, 81 Holy Ghost Fathers 123, 126-128, Guardian Angels 62 132f, 135, 138n, 140 Guianas 59 Holy Ghost Missionary Sisters 154 Guilcher (Rene) 128n, 134n, 141n Holy Office (Sacred Congregation) 35, Guillon 133 72, 97n, l00f Guinea 9, 18, 20, 32, 35, 62, 64, 70n, Holy Spirit 9, 39, 72 81-85, 96f, 116, 119, 126, map: 120 Holy Thursday 135 Guinea Coast 24, 27, 34, 38, 42, 48n, holy water 29, 143f, 148 59-61 , 63n, 64f, 71n, 72, 80, 82, hospital 154 119, map: 120 House of Christ 43 Guinea Company 65, 67, 72f, 75, 79, housing shortage 139 82-85, 88 Houtebeen (Admiral) 54 Guinea Gulf, 6, 59 Huck 127n, 128n, 136n-138n Guinea Mission 47, 49-52, 54f Huere 71. Guinea worm 45f, 90n Huguenots 50 guns 69, 106, 110, 128, 149 Hugues d' Ancenis 4S, SS Guy's Hospital 108 Hukuff (Henrick) 106 Gwato 93 human rights 100 Gyoumray 68, 92, various forms: 86n human sacrifice 34 humidity 109 H hut 152 Habig (Marion A.) 145n. hydrography 32 Hadeler (Nicolaus) . 45n, 52n, 54n, 93n, 95n, 140n Hague 127 idols 46, 49, 81, 148 Hail Mary 143 Iguape 148n Haiti 59, 81, 117 Immaculate Heart of Mary 117 Half Assini 37n, 68, 74n, map: 33 Immaculate Heart of Mary Congre- Hamburg 113f gation 126 Hamel 138f " In Coena Domini" 44 hammock 136 India 8, 13, 19, 2On, 25 , 26n, 102n, handshake 6, 7n, 74 115, used for Africa: 25 and 99n Hannibal 84 Indians (see India) Hanno the Carthaginian 1n indulgence ' (plenary) 5, definition: 5n Harold (R.) 109 " inferiority of natives 96 Hausas 134, 137 Ingoli (Francesco) 26 Havre 79 initiation rjtes 152 headquarters 118 Innocent XI 100 healthy 41 , 125, 129f, 132, 138f Innocent XII 80n, 81f, 85n h.eaven 89f, 151 , 153 insanity 48 hell 90 interdict 31 Hennig (Richard) In, 9n Internuncio 11 S Hentique (Bishop) 14f interpellation 103 Henry the Navigator If, 9f interpreter 42,56,70, 74n, 79, 89, 112, Heimits of St. Augustine 20 115, 142, 152 Herodotus 1 n intoxicating drinks 11 0 Hermhut 106f Ireland 115, 118 hierarchy i20 irmandade 143 Ho 113f, 127, map: 33 ·· Irmandade de Santa Maria 143 Hoffner Sn, I In, 96n, 97n, 102n Irmandade de Santo Ant6nio 148 Holland (see Dutch) Islam 4, 133 (see Mohammedans and 172 Saracens) islands 74 Komenda 3, 12, IS, 23f, 29, 33, 4lf, Islington 108 45-47, 5lf, 55, 59; 60f, 64-66, 68f, Israel 96n 71, 73, 75n, 77-80, 127, various Italians 30, 71 forms: 24n and 77n, map: 3 and 33 Komfo 29n . ivory 152 , Konfo 29n Ivory Coast 17, 48n, 67, 140, 153 Koran 136 Kormantin 36, 95, 127, 137, map: 33 J Kotobun Kese 148 Jamaica 134 Krinjabo 86n, 125 Jamaicans 109f Krobo 110 James Fort 108 Kumasi 45n, Illf, 121, 126-128, 132f, Janin Gooeph) 122n 135-137, 153f, map: 33 and 120 J ann (Adelhehn) 8n Kwekue 142n Japan 153n Jaquin 58 L Jaricot (Pauline) 116 Labat 60n Javouhey (Anne-Marie) 122 Labouret and Rivet 58n, 59n, 70n Jean 69 de Lagny Gean Baptiste) 75f, 78n, 83 Jean de Combourg 54 Lagos 112, 129f, 132-135, 152 Jerusalem In Lahou 139 Jesuits 18-20, 59, 115, 134 lambs 30 Jesus Christ 38, 40, 50, 63, 74, 102 La Neuville 117, 124 }eux 67 de Langle (Fleuriot) ·74n, 119 }oao II 4f, 14, 93 language 125 }oao III 14-16, 18, 20f, 25, 69, 94 language study 40, 58f, 110-113, liS, }oao IV 54 128, 142, 152 Job 152 Lanteri 21n John Francis 45 de Larey (Briant) 36 J oinville Fort 74n, 119 La Rochelle 61, 65-67, 7On, 73, 75, Jolly 61n; 75, 77-79, 82n 78n, 80, Mf, 92 Jone 103n La Ronciere (Charles de) 9n, I In, 36n, J ong-he and SimaI' 71 n 144n Judaism 117 La Salle (Gadifer de) 9n ' Judicial Assessor 134 Late 110 Ius Pontificium 99n, 102n Latin 46, 122, 147 Justos 16 Laubach technique 22 de Laval de Bois Daufin (Henri Marie) 65 . K laxity 146 . Kelly Gohn) 115f, 118 lay apostles 11 Sf, 118 Kemp (Dennis) 95n Lee (G.) 117n Kenrick (Francis P.) 116 Lefebvre 67n, 70 Keta 113f, 153, map: 33 legate 154 Kibi l1Of, map: 33 legislation 127 Kilger (Laurenz) 26n, 48n, 57n, 93n Lemmens. 145n, 146n king ISS Leo X 14 King (title for Chiefs) 82n Leo XIII 94n, 104, 140 King of Portugal 98 Uogane 81 Knights of Christ 8-10, 17 Leo1UU"d Gohn) 132 Knights of tIle Star of Our Lady · 84 letter 11, 18-20, 25, 29, 41, .64, 7Sf, ·Knops 8n 83, 138-140 . Kobes (Aloyse) I 24f, 133 Lettere Volgari 26n, 28n, 31n, 48n 173 letters patent 35 Mass: "I, 6, 8, servers: 44 Uzart 36 mass education courses 22 libations 22, 90, 150 masters 96, 101 LiDeria 32, 78n, 88, 115,121 , map: 120 materialists 90 . Libennann (FranlX'is) 117-129, 141, matrilineal system 87 154 . Mauny (Raymond) I n Libreville 121 Mbanza Nsuodi 14 Lisbon 2, 5, 8, 13f, 17-19, 29, 31, 36, Meaux (Bishop of) 83f 46, 48, 59, 92, 98-100, 104, 146 medals 151 Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary 44 Meder Gak6b) 107 Little Flower (St. Therese) 20 medical care 117 Little Komenda 24 (see Komenda) Medical Mission Sisters 154 Little Sisters of the Sacred Heart 154 medicine 153 Loenem (Raymond J.) nn, 73n, 80n M enton 154 London 108 merchants 97-100, 102-105, 107, 137 Loretto 56 (see slave traders) Louis X IV 59f, 65 , 73, 80, 83-86 Mercier 81n, 92n Louis Aniaba (see Aruaba) Mercure Galant 84 Louisiana 115 Merrick (Edward R.) 83n Lower Congo 151 Messina 65 Lower Guinea 120 (map) Metal Cross Fort 108 LOyer (Godefroy) 36n, 37ri, 45n, 68n, Methodist 104 740, 80-82, 85, 86n, 87n, 88-92, Methodist Missionary Society 114 95n, 119, 144, 154n Meyerowitz (Eva) 3n, 4n, 6n, 24n, 149 Ludewig (Hennan E.) 58 Michault 59f lunatic 49 Michel de Fremay 54 Luther (Martin) 106 middleman 95, 97f, 101, 104 Lyons 85, 116, 127-1 29, 131, 133f, 137 M ilitary Orders 8n M ina 3-6, 1O f, 14f, 17-20, 23-25,27-32, M · 36, 45, 47-49, 5 If, 530, 690, 93, Madeira Is lands 14 145n, 146n, 148, Portuguese name m adman 48 for the Gold Coast: 3, map: 3 m adness 148 M ina Coast (see Mina) M adrid 58 M ina Island 25f magic 29f, 151 "- mine 2, 3n, 94 Major (Richard H enry) 8n, 9n M inerva n Major Orders 124n M inister of the Colonies 123 Manuel I 10-12, 14, 93 ministers 108, 112, 114, 116~ 132, 134, de Marees (Pieter) 33n, 52 I~ . ]l4argl:y 8n, 9n Minor Orders 124n markets 137 miracle 48, 147, 151 M arquart 96n Miron (Diego) 18 m arriage 21, 102, 146 missal 148f Marseilles 118 mission history 141 M arshall Games) 133-1 35, 144, 152 Mission "Procurator 60f Martinique 59, 67, 80f mission stations 125, 129, 133, 137, Mary (Blessed Virgin) 2, 9, 34, 44, 48, 58, 140, 153 84, 134, 143, 151, Missionary Committee lllf Maryland 115 missionary program 15 Mascarenez (pedro) 29n, 48 Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Mass 9f, 39-42, 62, 73 , 75, 8On, 92, Africa 154 100, 115-117, 134, 142, 145, . 146, MiSsionary S isters Servants of the daily : 22 and 44, fi rst Gold Coast Holy Ghost 154 174 missionary work 16 (regulations) Ndoufou (Amon) 119 Missioni Cattoliche 117n, 132n, 145n; Nebuchadnezzar In 152n Negro apostolate 117 Missionsgriisse von der Goldl.'iiste Negro Bishops 14, 154 153n Negro priests 14, 64, 154 Mississippi 115 Negroes 16, 18, 34, 48, 52, 91, 97, Mohammedans 134, ' 136f (see Islam, l00f, 108f, 111, 131 Saracens, Muslim) Netherland (see Dutch) Moisset 76f New Guinea 34f Monobaha 87n New Jersey 108, 115 de Monroy (Antoine) 72 New World 94 Monticone 129n New Year's Day 77 Monumenta Historica Societatis J esu New York 108, 115, 154n 20n Ngongo Mbata 151 Monumenta Missionaria Mricana· ln, Nicholas V 100-102 5n, 9n-lln, 13n-18n, 24n, 94n· Nicolas du Mans 47 de Moraes Oose) 21 Nicolio (Girolamo) 27n Moravian Church 106 Niger River 121, 128f, 137, map:120 Moreau (Auguste) 142-144, 152f Nigeria 56, 71, 93, 112f, 13On, 132 Morocco In, 120 Nile River 60, 64 Morras (Domingo Garcia) 58 Nimegue 77 Moses 34, 63 Niort 66 mosque 1, 134 Nkran 4n de Mota (Mendo) 23 de Noailles (Cardinal) 84 Mother of God Chapel 8 Noe 63 Mouezy 7n, 8n, 36n, 86n, 11% North German Missionary Society Mouri 36, 52f, 95, 127, map: 33 113f Mozambique 19f, 29 Northern Territories 155 mulattoes 21, 106, 108 Notre-Dame de Paris 83f Muller 144 Notre-Dame des Victoires 116f, 124 MUlIer (Gustav) 113n, 114n Ntona 144, 147-151 MUlIer (Karl) 106n, 107n Ntona Buw 144, 147, 149f munitions 6 Nubia 60, 64 MUnter (Bishop) 109 nude 70 MUnzer (Hieronymus) 14n nun 135, 153f Murat (Eugene) 142, 144, 152f Nuncio (of P.ortugal) 97-100 mhsicians 6 . . , Nuncio (of Spain) 26 Muslim 94 (see Islam, Mohammedans, Nungwa 67n, 107; map: 33 Saracens) nursing school 154 Nyarnke 87-89, various forms : 86n N Nagasaki 153n o names (baptism;il) 22 oaths 90 Nana 6, 144, 148 obedience 73 Nana Ntona 150f (see Ntona) obstacles 93, 103, 1:e2f Nantes 32 obstacles to conversion 98f Nassau Fort 5-3, 57n Odasu 127 National Church of Denmark 109 Odonko 96 native priest 64 Odumase 110, map: 33 native rulers 69 officers 127, 134, 139 Nativity of the Blessed Vfrgin Mary Ofnon 90 116 Oguaa 4n navy 105 Old Guinea Hf, 59 175 O'Neill (patrick) 144n, 15On, 151n Peki 113f, map: 33 Onimus (Charles) 149 Pella 133 Orange River 117, 121 Pellat 149 Order of the Knights of Christ 8-10,17 penance 43, 98 organization 120, 137 peninsula 69 orgies 30 Pennsylvania 115 orphans 97 Pentecost t 42 Ortiz (Diogo) 18 Pereira (Duarte Pacheco) 2n, 15, 145n, Ortiz de Retez (Yil igo) 34 146n Osu 109 Pernambuco 52, 54f Ouidah 56f, 6On, 62-64, 67, 69-71, 74, personnel 64, 137, 141, 154 78-80, 89, 92, 112, 12.5, 128, various Peru 58 forms: 62n, map : 120 pest 35 Our Father 10 Peter (Eugene) 145n, 150n Our Lady 84, 116 . (see Mary) Philadelphia 115f, 119, 154 Owerri 71 Philip II 51, 54 Orlord 134 Philip III 54 Philip IV, 54, 57 p Philippe I 51 ·P. 19n philologist 110 P.D.M.52n philosophy 122 Padre 44 Phoenician 1) 95 Padua 151 Piazza Barberini 55n pagan 97, 99, t08, 142-144, 146-148, Piazza di Spagna 47 150 Picardy 84 paganiSm 98, 111 , 113 Picot (T.R.) 112 iii painting 84 Pina In, 6n-8n, IOn-12n Paiva Manso 18n, l04n Pindar (Denis) 11 5, 118 palace 136 Pinheiro (Didaco) 14 palanquin 149 _ pioneer 85 Palatinate War 80 pirate 68, 84 palm oil 110, 114 Piua II 102 palm wine 40£, 90 Pius IX 121 , 124 papal decrees 99 Pius XI 145 Papal Zouave 139 Pius XII 154 Papuans 35 "- Planque (Augustin) 128-133, 135,138- Paramount Chief 23 141 , 152-154 Paris 50, 60, 65f, 72, 76, 82-85, 115- plantation 94, 110 117, 119, 124f plenary indulgence 5 ' p,aris.' ,F:oreign Mission . Society 83 .poison sOn pansh 143 Polanco Guan de) 19, 94n Pascoe (C.F.). 108n, 109n Poli 85f Passagtie 36 political system 69 Pastor (Ludwig von) 26n, 31 n, 35n, polygamy 63 sOn, 94n, lOOn, 100n Pont d'Or 83 Pater- 44 . pope 5, 8, 27, 50, 102, 104, 134 patron 79, 153 Popo 70 Pauillac 118 population 154 Paul III 17, 102 " Populis" 103 Paul V 36 Port-au-Ptince 81 Pauline Privilege 102£ Portiuncula 39 Pedro II 97, 100 portrait 83 de Peiresc (Nicolas) 35 Portugal (see Portuguese) · 176 Portuguese 1-11, 14, 16f, 21, i6, 3Of, puisne judge 135 36, 42f, 46, 48, 50-54, 57, 59, 61f, pupils 16 64, 68f, 71, 82n, 89, 92-95, 97f, Puy72 l00f, 103f, 116f, 139, 142-152, 155 pyromancy 29 Portuguese Congo 19 Portuguese Guinea 103 Q post office 139 ' Quaker 104 postal clerk 139 Quaqua Coast 48n Pot (G.) 34n, 44n "'Quaque (Philip) 108 Poulallion (Antonin) 73, 78, 80 Queen of France 83 Pra River 6, 136, map: 33 Queen of Heaven 56 pray 16, 89, .149 Queen-Mother 136 Prefect Apostolic 80, 82, 100, 115f; 119f, 123, 128f, 140, 153 ' R Prefecture Apostolic of the Central raft 92 District of the Cape of Good Hope rain 148, 150, 152 132 rainy season i 17 Prefecture Apostolic of the Gold Ramseyer (Friedrich) 111, 127 Coast 140 Raphael de Nantes 32, 34f, 36n, 42n, Prefecture Apostolic of Sierra Leone 46-51 136 Rattray (R.S.) 96n, 99n ' Prempeh II 154 Raynaldus (Odoricus) lOOn, lOIn Presbyterian 115 reading 14, 16, 20-22, 63, 83 Presbyterian Church of the Gold Recife 52, 54 Coast 114 regent 82, 84 Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Regulations of the City of Sao Jorge Mary 134 17f presents 44, 60, 74, 92, 144n Reindorf (Carl C.) 140n priest (Catholic) 1, 8-10, 12-18, 21, religion 136 24f, 27-32, 42, 49, 52f, 75, 79, 88; religious freedom 46, 55, 74, 79, 86 : 90, 94, 108f, 116, 118-120, 122f, religious instruction 75 l 126, 132-135, 143-149, 152-154 renaissance SO priest (fetish) 110, 113, 137, 148-152 Rennes 85 prince 85 Republic of Liberia 32', 780, 88, 115, Prince of Orange 54 121, map: 120 , Principe Island 57 restitution 91, Prior 76, 92 , retreats 123 prisoner 56f, 127f, 152 Rhule {J.M:) 53n, l.44n, 148n, 149n procession 23, 142f, 148-150 Richelieu (Major de) 109 ' procurator 133 rifles 68, ' , progress 153 Riis (Andreas) 199f Propag8nda Fide (Sacred Congrega- Robinson (Charles H.) 109n , tion de) 25-28, 30-32, 34f, 37, 44, Rocco da Cesinale 57n, 97n, lOOn, 45n, 46f, 49-51, 55, 57-59, 71f, 81f, 100n 96,98-100,103, 115f, 119, 121-125, rocks 30, sacred: 7 128-133, 135, 138n, 140£, 147, 154 Rodez 81n protection 139 Roman Catholic (see Catholic) Protestant 62, 93, 104, 106, 111, 114- Roman Law 96, 102 116, 121, '132, 134, 137f, 141 Rome 5, lOf, 14f, 19, 29-31, 34, 53n, Protten (Christian) 106, 107n 55,70, 72,81,85,96f, 99, lOOn, 102, Provence 35, 67 105, 116, 119, 121, 129n, 131f, 145 Pro-Vicar 121, 124, 126, 129 rosary 73, 144 Prunaut ae han) 8n, 9n Rouen 36 177 Rougerie (Gabriel) 36n, 85n, 87n, 90n St. Paul 96 Roussier (Paul) 26n, 33n, 53n, 60n, St. Peter 83 65n. 71n, 73n, 74n, 77n, 8On, 82n- St. Peter Claver 94 85n, 87n, 88n, 94n, 119n St. Peter's Cathedral 154 Royal African Company 60-62 64f, St. Sebastian Fort 6,54,78 (see Shama) 108 St. Thomas Island 80, 106 rubrics 10 Saints 146 Ryswick 80, 82 SS. Fabian and Sebastian I, 6 SS. Peter and' Paul 79 S Salaga 132f, 136 Saboe tribe 57n salary 117 sacraments 98, 134 Salmon (George A.) 153 Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office Saltpond 4n 97n., l00f Samuel de Carnpbon 35, 39n, 41 . Sacred Congregation de Propaganda sanatorium 127f, 130£, 138, 140, 153 Fide (see Propaganda Fide) Sande (Manuel de) 15 sacred place 149 Santa Maria 143 sacrifice 153 de Santa Maria (Domingo) 23 sailors 52 de Santa Maria (Francisco) 14n St. Agatha's Church 116 Santa Maria of Africa 2 St. Anthony Church 144, 146f Santa Maria Sopra Minerva 72 St. Anthony of Padua 48f, 51, 144-146, Santa Mariafo 142f, 148 148, 150-152 Santarem Goao de) 2 St. Augustine (Order of Hermits of) 20 Santiago (Cape Verde Islands) 26 St. Brigid 115 Santiago Chapel (see St. James Chapel) Saint Croix 81 Santiago Hill (also St. J ago Hill) 52, St. Francis of Assi,i 34, 48f, 51 '54,69,79,146, map: 3 (see St. James) St. Francis Xavier 18-20, Castle: 64 Santo Domingo 60 St. George (Sao Jorge) 7, 8n, 9n, 10- Santo Eloi (Monastery of) 14 16, 18-21, 24, 27, .29-31, 36, 45n, Santonafo 148 48f,. 52£, 59, 69n, 78f, 93-95. 106n. Sao Antonio Fort 42 127, 128n, 145, 147, map : 3 (see Sao Jorge Church (see St. George Edina, Elrnina) Church) St. George Church (Sao Jorge Church) Silo Jorge da Mina (see Edina, Elrnina, 8, 17f, 22, 27, 49, 52n, 144f, 148 St. George) map: 3 Saint Helen Island 142 Sao J orge Monastery 23 . St. Ignatius Loyola 18f Sao Salvador 52 . St. Jago (see Santiago, St. James) Sao Sebastiao Fort6,54, 78 (see Shama) St. J ames Chapel (Santiago Chapel, St. Sao Thome 14f, 26f, 46, 48, 50£, 53f, J ago' Chapel) I2f, 145, map: 3 71, 92-94, 147, map: 120 pt. John the Baptist 52 Sao Thome Diocese 17, 28 St. John's Church 115 Saracens 1, 5, 8. (see Islam, Mohamme- Saint-Louis (ship) 67-69, 71, 73, 75n, dans, Muslim) 77f, 82n Sasaxy 12 Saint-Louis Fort 74n, 89, 91 Sassandra River 17, 68 Saint-Louis Island 117, 123, map: 120 Satan 50 (see devil) Saint-Malo 32, 34-36, 39, 41', 49, 54 Saturday 9f Saint-Malo Company 36 Savannah 119n Saint-Martin 35n Savoie 121 St. Mary Church 108 Saxony 106 St. Nicholas of Tolentine 23, l46f Schiedt 110 St. Onofrio (Cardinal of) 47, 49-51 , Schlatter (Wilhelm) lQ9n-ll1n, 127n., 55 (see Barberini) 132n 178 Schlegel (Bernhard) 113 Sisters of St. Louis 154 school 16, 20£, 43, 62-64, 71, 79, 89, Sinus IV 4f, 8 108, 110-116, 121-123, 135, 137, skeleton 1 51 139, 141f, 153f skins 149 school directors 64 skullcap 149 Schurhammer 20n Skunde 4n Schwindenhammer (Ignace) 119, 124, slave 52f, 59, 62, 65, 67-70, 73, 83, 128, 135, 138 85-87, 90-104, 110, 113, 115, 135f, science 122, 154 153n (see Bill of Rights) Scotland 134 Slave Coast 70-73, 79 scourging 56 slave trade 59, 93, 96, 100-105 (see Scritture Riferite (all footnotes) 3, 7, merchants) 10, 23-25, 27-32, 34-38, 41-51, 53- slavery 62, 91, 107, penalty: 99 (see 57, 59, 71f, 80-82, 85, 97, 104, slave) 115-117, 119, 121-125, 129, 146f social class 136 SebastiAo (King) 21 Society of African Missions (see Mri- Second Provincial Council of Baltimore can Mission Society) 115 Society of Jesus (see Jesuits) Secretary General 138n Society for the Propagation of the Secretary of State for the Colonies 117 Faith 116, 122, 129f, 137 Sekondi 4n, 112, 127 Society for the Propagation of the self-supporting 122 Gospel in Foreign Parts 108f, 114 seminarians 130 Sofo 29n seminary 83, 122, 155 soldiers 5f, 27, 52, 86, 128 Senecal 36 sortilege 29 Senegal 9n, 61, 122 soul 5, 143 Senegal River 117, 121, 123, map:120 South Mrica 130f, 133, 140-142 Senegambia 121, 123f, 126, 133, map: South Ainerica 58 120 South Carolina 115 Serizier (Henri) 73-75 Spain (see Spaniards) server (at Mass) 44 Spaniards 8n, 11, 26, 48n, 51, 57f, Severin de Morlaix 50f 61, 65, 97n, 100, 116, 118 Sey (Gregoire) 118 Spellman (Francis Cardinal) 154n Shama 2f, 4n, 6f, 27, 54, 56, 78, var- . spokesman 87, 89 ious forms: 57n, map: 33 Stanley 117 &hearer (S.) 96n Star of Our Lady (Order of the) 84 Shipman 112 Star of the Sea 84 shipwreck 92, 120 station 126, 140 shrine 144, 148 statistics 154, 155n Sicily 65 statue 23, 43f, 48f, 52f, 142-144, .147- sickness 54, 92, 113, 133, 135, 152f 151 Sierra Leone 2, 36, 76, 97n, 100, 112, statuette 74 118, 121, 126-128, 132, 136f, 140, stealing 90, 136 152 Steinhauser 110 Sierra Leone River 65, 70n, 71 stipend 9f ~ilver cup 1 SO stool 6 silver mark 9 The Story 154n silver star 84 Stowe (Harriet Beecher) 105 sin 5, 96 Strasbourg 124 singing 16 Strebler Ooseph) 59, 135n, 1441'1, 149n Sisters 149, 153f Streit-Dindinger 14n, 18 Sisters of the Holy Child 154 students 142, 154 Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles 154 sugar 94, plantations: 52 and 95 179 Sugar Land 5 I 106-108, II0f, 114 superintendent 112 trading station 36, 65, 74, 84, 86, 93, superior 126, 130, 140 107, 137 - Superior General 128, 135, 138, 142 tradition 139, 147, 151 superstition 29, 31, 97, 116 Tramollo (Lorenzo) 26, 31 - support 82 transportation 136, 153 Supreme Being 136 treasury 5, 100 survey 125 treaty 73, 127 Swedes 95 treaty of Fomena 132 Sweet River 127 trek 136, 153 Swerts 77 Trent 25,28 swine 30 tribes 134 Switzerland 109 Trinity Sunday 142 Trivulzio (Cardinal) 26 T troops 106, 134f The Tablet 133 Truffet Gean-Benoit) 121', 124 Tabo 22 TUesday (day of rest) 34 taboo 90 Tutu 113 Tacitus 30 Twi 110£, map: 33 Takoradi 55-57, various forms : 56n, map: 33 U Takuechue 85f Tamale Diocese 153f Uncle Tom's Cabin 105 Tano River 88n, 121, map : 33 unhealthy 137 Tapa 90 United Brethren l06f 69 Uniteq States 80n, 105, 108, 115f, 118f tax teacher 115, 122, 139, 152, native : 2\. Upper Guinea 115, map: 120 teacher training college 155 uprising 139 teaching 116 - Urban VIn 25f, 31 , 35, 37, 47, 99, -103 technical schools 116 Ursulines 50 Te Deum 89 Ussher (Herbert To) 142 Temp~te 73, 77-79, 82n Utica (Bishop of) 14 temple 144, 147, 149-151 Tendo Lagoon 90n, map: 33 V de T eITon (Colbert) 60 Vacher (Melchior) 73, 78 Teschitel (Giuseppe) 19n "- Valence 80n theology 122 Valignano (Allessandro) 19n, .20n Thomer 8, 14 Van Heesewyk Gohn) 3n. 4n, 20n, Thomas of Royan 68, 73 24n, 37n. . 46n, 147n, 151n Thompson (George) 109f Van Nassau (Maurits) 52 ' Thompson (Thomas) 108 Van Wing 19n Tibierge 83f, 87, 88n, 9On, 91 Vatican 125n Tisserant (Nicolas-Eugene) 119 'Vatican Mission Exposition 145, 146n tithes 27 Vatican Museum 53n tobacco 95 Vaughan (Edmund) 134 Tomas Gregorio 57 Velay 72 TO_ITes (pedro) 26n Veni Creator Spiritus 39 T oulouse 72, 'Sln Venus 152 Toxonu 57f Verazzano (Girolamo) 53n " trade 2, 4, 15, 32, 38, 41, 44, 58, 65, vernacular 108, 147 73, 77, 79, 89, 95, 122, 134- . vessels 137, _ traders 58, 60£, 70, 73 , 75, 77f,. 80 ... 91 vestrne.nts 147 (, . trad1ng company 2, 4, 32, 34f, 95, veto 69 180 Welch (Sidney R.) 9n, lin, 19n, 69n, vicar 42, 94n, " 49, Werner (0.)' 126n Vicar Wesleyans 110, 139 _______ 132f Wesleyan Methodist Mi~,?-I)~~ Vi~ General 115 . ciety 111 , 114, 137 Vicariate Apostolic 116, 121, 123, 153 West (William) 112 Vicariate Apostolic of Benin Coast 128, West Mrica 2, 5, 8-10, 56f, 76, 83, 130, 133, 140£ 85, 93f, 96-101, 103-105, 110, 115, Vicariate Apostolic of Dahomey 128 117, 122, 134, 151, map: 120 Vicariate Apostolic of Sierra Leooe14O West Africans (see West Mrica) Vicariate Apostolic of the Two Guin- West Coast (see West Mrica) eas 124-126, 129£, 140 West Equatorial Africa 109 ¥icariate Apostolic of Upper and Low- West Indian Company 60, 67 er Guinea 140 West Indies 59, 70, 76, 82, 94f, 99£, Vicariate APostolic of the Western Dis- 102, 111,154n trict of the Cape of Good Hope 131£ Westmann U.E.) 107 vice 109 White Fathers 154 Viguier 73, 75, 78, 820 White Man's Grave 122, 153 vilIllge 137, 139, 153 White Sisters 154 Village of Two Parts 68 Wicki Uoseph) 200 Villard Uacques) 85 , 88f, 92 Widmann 109f Virgin Islands 80, 106 wife 57, 63, 106, 109-112, 114, 127 Virginia 95 Wilberforce (William) 104 -vocational director 130 will 10 Volta River 110f, 113, 121, 125f, 129, Wilson 145n 132f, 137, 140, map: 33, 120 wine 62 Vosinus (Cardinal) 59 Winoeba 4, 6, 34, 112, 137, map: 33 votive Mass on Saturday 9£ Wittenberg 106 voyage 152 Wolf (Lorenz) 113 Wolseley (Gamet) 134 W workshop 137 W . l05n World Christian Handbook 114n Wadding (Luca) 102n worm (Guinea) 45f, 900 Wallace (A.) 134 writing 14, 16, 20£, 63., 83 war 36,83,87, 92, .95f, 101£, 111-114, ',..1 27f, 132, 134f, 149 X Ward (W.E.F.) (all footnotes) 4, 6f, Xeryfe 12 32; 36, 52f, 64, 69, 74, 93-95, 104, y 107, 127f, 132, 134 Yimgemeni 40 wareh'ouse 75, 89 Yankufio;" Embahina 149 Wartemberg U. Sylvanus) 4n, 96n, yellow fever H 9n . 1430, 145n, 147n, 149n, 151n washing 148 Z Waya 113f, map: 33 Zimmermann Uohann) 110 Wegbe 113f, map: 33 Zinzendorf (Nikolaus) 106f BURSAR. CATHOLIC MISSION P. O. BOX .247. ACCRA 181