lI. Separate Fields of Labor

1. Africa: The Christianity which was planted in the fifteenth century in the coast region by the Portuguese through 1. West the Dominicans and Franciscans rapidly Africa. declined with the downfall of the Por tuguese power, and only slight traces remain of it, obscurely intermixed with the older heathenism. In the eighteenth century, in con nection with the French possessions in Senegambia, the Roman Catholic mission was resumed. It first became active when the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (founded by Father Liebermann, who was stimulated by the success of the Evangelical mission) took up the work in the apostolic vicariate constituted in 1842.

In the apostolic vicariate of Senegambia, with the apostolic prefecture of Senegal, the preparatory work of teaching and the care of orphans occupied the leading place In one seminary, natives are educated as priests; besides this, some translations are made into the languages of the country and the institution does its own printing. The results seem slight, since in 1886 the number of Roman Catholics was given at a higher figure (12,000) than at present. The apostolic prefecture of Guinea, in the south, was established in 1897. For a long time previous the Evangelical mission on the Rio Pongas had worked in this field. In the vicariate of Sierra Leone the converts are mostly from the already evangelized population of the English colony. The vicariate of the Ivory Coast, founded in 1895 by separation from the foregoing, is still in its beginnings. The prefecture of the Gold Coast has been for a long time a successful Evangelical mission field. In 1879 the Fathers of the Holy Spirit entered it and later it was ceded to the Lyons Seminary. The prefecture of Togo, in the German Protectorate,'

e an old Evangelical missionary field, but since 1892 the Steyl 5i ission House has sent missionaries there. The prefecture of Dahomey embraces the French protectorate, and was founded in 1882. The vicariate of Benin includes, since 1889, Lagos and the hinterland, where from the middle of the nineteenth century the Church Missionary Society has been very successful. The prefecture on the Lower Niger and that on the Upper Niger (Lokoja) are both in older English fields of labor. The prefecture of Iramerun was founded in 1890 in the German protectorate, where was an old field of the English Baptista, which was transferred to the Basel Mission. The totals for this region are: 73 stations (237), 185 priests (216), 7 native priests (252), 112 lay brothers, 226 sisters, 169 schools (729), 11,687 scholars (42,869), among these about 3,000 girls (15,440), 51,725 Roman Catholics (170,705 Christians). In 37 orphan asylums and 24 other institutions, there are over 1,300 children, many of whom have been freed by purchase.