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I am not exaggerating anything, and I can only repeat, moreover, with Livingstone that one cannot exaggerate when it comes to African slavery; I am only repeating what my own missionaries have written to me about, and what the most trustworthy English and French, Protestant and Catholic explorers have already recounted in part. Never, and now I take up my own reflections, never the world has witnessed so many sacrilegious excesses.

But what a sleep they must have! It doesn’t take much to imagine what the prisoners dream about. Among the young negroes we have been able to rescue from this hell on earth, there are who every night for a long time wake up shouting and screaming. They are reliving in agonising nightmares the dreadful scenes which they have witnessed.

I am living, moreover, in the midst of Muslims. Even if they do not look upon me as their Father, I must, in my capacity as Pastor, look upon them and love them as my sons.

The Church first of all made a frontal attack, through its doctrines, teaching mankind to love one another because they are brothers, sons of the same God.

Recently, our great Pontiff, Leo XIII, borrowed St. Paul’s words in his Encyclical to the Bishops of Brazil. By virtue of the Apostle’s teaching, he condemned slavery saying that its very existence among Christians is a crime.