MISSION TO BATTA. 
83 
building a church $ so that, after spending some 
time in vain hope, they were obhged to hire ne- 
groes to construct, with branches of wood, a kind 
of large cottage, in which, with much indignation, 
they began to celebrate the mysteries of the 
Catholic faith. The people now began to resort 
thither ; and even the duke attended, though 
somewhat irregularly. The fathers now con- 
ceived it necessary to touch upon the domestic 
state of the people ; not one of whom, they ob- 
serve, had a lawful wife, but all herds of concu- 
bines, the duke being more amply provided than 
any other. The first proposition made upon this 
subject was treated by that prince in the most in- 
dignant manner. It appeared to him an unheard- 
of presumption in a handful of foreigners, newly 
arrived, and ignorant of the country, to attempt 
to subvert the longest established customs, and to 
abridge human life of its most indispensible rights 
and comforts. Yet, in a short time, without its 
being fully explained how, he changed his views, 
—dismissed all his seraglio, — and was married, ac- 
cording to the rules of the church, to a princess of 
Congo. Some symptoms of frailty soon made their 
appearance ; but the missionaries succeeded, while 
they remained at Batta, in preserving him from 
any serious relapse. Finding every thing prosper- 
ous in the capital, they determined to make a tour 
through the country districts. They did not find 
