Description | This volume contains correspondence, mainly relating to St Aidan's College, Grahamstown, and the Dunbrody mission but references are made to many other contemporary mission stations in South Africa and what is today Zimbabwe. The volume primarily contains letters from Frs Alfred Weld SJ, Alphonse Daignault SJ, and Reginald Colley SJ, occasionally with inserts of accounts. These letters provide details of the organisation and logistics behind missions in the Zambesi region, including day-to-day running costs and descriptions of difficulties relating to finances, poor postal communications, personnel shortages, sickness, impact of weather, husbandry issues and sources of tension with local people and other religious orders. References are made to the eminent political figures of the day including Lobengula, Umzila [Mzila], Dr Jameson, Cecil Rhodes and Courtney Selous and the political situation in southern Africa including the Boer War. There is also a tranche of letters regarding Fr Law's disappearance and eventual death after several months of confusion surrounding his fate.
Please contact the Jesuits in Britain Archives for a copy of the calendar of this volume. |