Alvaro IX was succeeded in 1694 by his brother Pedro IV nsanu a mbemba, also known as agoa rosada,[382] who once more returned to the ancient capital. He and D. João of Mbula were the only Kings alive in 1701, when the Capuchin Friar Francisco de Pavia, and his colleague Friar João Maria went throughout the kingdom of Kongo, preaching peace, and calling upon the leading men to recognise D. Pedro as their King; and thus put an end to quarrels which had distracted the country for an entire generation.
A Retrospect.
And if we ask to what extent, and in what manner, have the natives of Kongo been benefited by two centuries of contact with the civilisation of Europe, and of missionary effort, we feel bound to admit that they have not been benefited at all—either materially or morally. On the contrary. There were, no doubt, a few earnest men among the missionaries, and the Church of Rome deserves some credit for the zeal with which she addressed herself to the object of converting the natives. At the same time it cannot be denied that the instruments she employed, the methods she pursued, and the surrounding circumstances, were not favourable to success. And success there has been none—at least, none of an enduring nature—notwithstanding the boastful, if not absolutely mendacious, reports of her missionaries. The assertion that there was a time when the whole of Kongo had become Roman Catholic must raise a smile on the face of those who have attentively studied the missionary reports. There were eleven churches and a crowd of priests at the capital; but the outlying provinces were but poorly attended to. The number of missionaries, even including the native helpers, was never large enough to administer, even to a tithe of the population, those rites and sacraments, which the Roman Catholic Church professes to be of essential importance.[383]
I quite agree with the Rev. J. Leighton Wilson, when he says that the “great spiritual edifice” [raised by the missionaries] has not only “crumbled into the dust, but it has left the unfortunate inhabitants of that country in as deep ignorance and superstition, and perhaps in greater poverty and degradation, than they would have been if Roman Catholicism had never been proclaimed among them.”[384] Father José Antonio de Souza, who resided at S. Salvador from 1881-87, and was subsequently created Bishop of Mozambique, virtually admits this, for he says: “Christianity did not penetrate deeply; it passed over the country like a heavy rain, which scarcely wetted the surface of the land, and left the subsoil absolutely dry and sterile.”[385] He adds significantly: “By the side of the missionary stood the slave-trader.” And surely it was the export slave trade, created by the cupidity of the Portuguese, but shared in by Dutch, French and English, which undermined the prosperity of the country, and decimated its population. And the missionaries never raised a protest against this traffic, although it was against the tenets of their Church,[386] for they profited by it. The only thing which they did for the wretched slaves was to endeavour to secure, as far as possible, that they should not fall into the hands of heretics; so that at least their souls might be saved, whatever became of their bodies.
