Letter of Brother André Mottais from Algeria, 1840

In 1840 Basil Moreau sent four brothers and three priests to the country of Algeria. It was his first missionary venture. Brother André Mottais had been the first Brother of St. Joseph to persevere (he entered in 1820) and for seventeen years served as novice master and teacher-supervisor for the Brothers. His health broke in Algeria, so he returned to Le Mans in 1843 and died there in 1844 at the age of 44. This letter was written to his parents in Larchamp, France. Translated by George Klawitter, CSC.

Moustapha, near Algiers       July 11, 1840

My very dear parents,

What I told you when in Auvergne has been realized: I've been in Africa since May 27 with three of our Brothers and two of our Holy Cross priests, Fr. Le Boucher and Fr. Drouelle; you saw the letter at the Larchamp mission.   Fr. Le Boucher is superior and heads the Algiers seminary.   This seminary is three quarters of a league from the town.   We others, with our orphans, are lodged in buildings adjacent to the seminary.   A single kitchen furnishes food for the two establishments, which is very practical; the same chapel and the same Mass also suffice for everyone.

Your letter, which just found me 400 leagues away in a corner of the earth, brings me a joy I can hardly express.   Opening it eagerly, I read in it that you all enjoy good health.   That put me among the angels.

For your enjoyment, I'm going to give you a complete description of my trip and of the country of Africa.   Then I'll return to your letter to give you some heartfelt sentiments.

You were undoubtedly a little surprised, my dear parents, at my long silence.   It's not entirely my fault.   The bishop of Algiers waited for us in this big town, and when we came close to him on May 4, his business was not yet over in order to leave France.   He put us, while awaiting him, in a charity house where we were busy caring for 250 insane and sick people.   The said religious of St. John of God, who head the place, did much for us and we were edified by their conduct and devotion so we could speak of it only with admiration: we are in a community of prayers with them; we gained much there for our African mission.   One sees in Lyons all sorts of establishments, enterprises, and good works for the glory of God, the salvation of souls, and the good of humanity in toto; all needs are attended to and all miseries relieved.   One finds there a crowd of pious and holy souls in the best sense of the term, who spare themselves in no other way and who sacrifice everything for God.

I'd like to have the leisure to talk to you in detail about the towns and vast rural areas that we've encountered on our trip from Le Mans to Toulon, the differences that exist in people's language and clothing, their way of life and cultivating the earth, building of houses, etc.   I would tell you about the vestiges we have seen with our eyes that history attributes to ancient pagans, some Romans, some holy martyrs, councils and popes, etc.   And which are moreover authentic proofs of the truth of religious traditions.   We left Lyons on Thursday, May 21 [1840] and arrived at Toulon on Saturday.

Sunday morning we made our devotions as best we could, then we mounted the sea in a steamship (of the government), and at ten o'clock we left.   There were about 300 people, both military and civilian.

Sea sickness, which consists of head and heart aches accompanied by vomiting, soon hit many, among others our three Brothers and our two priests; you can judge how sad I was when I found myself alone in the evenings for supper.   All six of us slept in a small cabin or room; the four beds like boards from an armoire were not large; I gave up my part to my dear sick comrades who could not stand up.   I slept in the open air on the bridge wrapped in a cloak among the soldiers.   Eventually, the sick were restored on the third day.

During the crossing, which was calm and happy, we saw a school of porpoises, fish as big as calves, leaping and running together on the surface of the water.   We also saw sea birds of various species.   The islands of Minorca and Majorca, belonging to Spain, being on our route, we passed by the city of Mahon, which sent out a small boat to take dispatches to our building.   We stopped only for an instant.   Tuesday at noon we perceived in the distance Mount Atlas of the African territory; we arrived at the port of Algiers in the evening at 8:30, and we debarked the following morning.   Entering the city, we met the princes (two sons of Louis Philippe) who were going back to France after the expedition which had just taken place against the enemies.   I will not speak here about the business of the African war: I'll say a few words later on.

Our French troops, the number of which grows daily, guard the country. We were surrounded by camps of war; cannons had open mouths on all sides, ready to crack the enemy Arabs, but they aren't about to strike them.   We are at the door of the large camp of Moustapha, half a league from the camp of Conba; between the two we see near us the great fort of the emperor, Fort Babazon near Algiers, on the sea, and the fort of the square house on the plain; besides that, there are barracks and endless guard corps; everywhere it's just troops.   A cannon shot at 4 AM announces the beginning of the day; another at 8 PM announces the end--that's the sound of the Angelus in Africa.   At the seminary if we wished, we'd lack neither arms nor ammunition: the military from the camp have often offered us some.   God keep us from putting our hope in earthly shields when we can put it in Divine Providence which led us here in so admirable a manner.

In this country they speak all languages, patois, and jargon, while French dominates and is beginning to extend more or less almost to everyone. Arabic is the language of all Africans, and it's important for us to know it, but it is difficult: students at the seminary receive lessons in it and we are beginning to know it--they sing every evening the litany of the Blessed Virgin in Arabic.   The French government protects equally all religions in Algiers; it will be necessary for ours to shine in everything more beautifully so this multitude, which hasn't been baptized and which ignores almost all truth, comes to queue up under the extended arms of Jesus Christ.   With this in mind, the bishop spares nothing to make the pomp of our ceremonies shine in their eyes; thus since we arrived, he has laid the first stone of a church at El-hébraïm, a village two leagues from here.   He preached and said the Mass in open air and under the burning sun because the walls of the church are barely off the ground.   The local authorities and the prefect of Algiers were at this ceremony which became very touching because there were people of all countries there, united under the banner of Jesus Christ.   The bishop blessed an organ for the cathedral.   It's a marvel for Africa perhaps because they've never had any.   A hundred children made their first communion, and he confirmed them eight days later.   He carried the Blessed Sacrament in procession to a magnificent repository set up on the plaza.   It was protected by a great number of soldiers bearing arms.   We had large tapers in our hands.   It was magnificent.   The bishop came to the seminary about fifteen days ago to preside over communion for children.    He preached three times with an eloquence capable of enthralling everyone, because he's truly an apostolic man, full of the Holy Spirit, and whose words are full of fire.

Finally to finish the day, in our vast garden we had a procession of the Blessed Sacrament according to custom, at which many people from the area assisted, even soldiers from the camp.   Under the olive and fig trees, we made two rather nice repositories.   What goodness we felt in our hearts!   Singing beautiful French hymns, and seeing the triumph of Our Lord on territory where he had not been carried for a long time.   Yes, this one event made up greatly for the sacrifices that we made in leaving our homeland.   Our Congregation has found for itself a very important work for the establishment of religion in Africa, because the young ecclesiastics being formed in the seminary are learning Arabic and will be able to preach in that language.   The orphans confided to us will stay in the establishment up to the age of twenty and will learn how to cultivate a garden and farmland under master gardeners.   We should be able to make good gardeners, a very necessary thing here where the best land is not worked.   That's not all.   Our two establishments form the center of a parish the faithful of which come in a great number to all our Sunday services.   The religious of the Sacred Heart will arrive around October to establish themselves near us.   They will staff an orphanage.   There is every indication that they will have as chaplain one of our priests.   Without doubt God has wished to use the least of us so that his power will show to more advantage.

The bishop will receive five Jesuit priests in September for the province of Constantine.   This part of the diocese is about seventy leagues from Algiers.   The people there are well disposed to accept our holy religion.   Thus Divine Providence prepares everything favorably for a nation seated in the shadows of death.   First there are the Europeans, who came here with neither priests nor sacraments, will profit from the good things of religion.   The Arabs lack nothing yet, so they seem affable and well disposed to us.   It will be a stroke of grace to lead them into the bosom of the Church.   Let's pray God unceasingly, my dear parents, for the conversion of these poor people.   I wish I could beg all of France to unite behind us with their prayers and to thus come to the help of Africa.   Our holy bishop never stops recommending this holy salvo of frequent and fervent prayers that will give birth and will make the African church faithful.

A tribe of about sixty families came to seek refuge in the plain near the Moustapha camp to flee bad treatment from enemy Arabs.   They are living in tents.   Each tent is made of three or four pieces of brown cloth joined together, held up in the middle by wood or reeds standing up, and attached to the earth with small stakes so that a tent looks like a dung cart thrown into the camp.   They enter them only to sleep.   A similar dwelling shows something sad and shows complete poverty, but regardless that's the way all the rural people live in Africa, except around Algiers which has houses.   It takes a tribe only two hours to load up and go live one or two leagues away.   They don't know about carts.   The backs of camels suffice to transport the movables, which consist of some pitchers and earthenware pots.   That's about all we see in the tents, out of which come lots of children, pretty much naked, to ask us for a "soldi," that is a sou.   Some of them wear only a shirt.   Others wear a big old piece of cloth that wraps them up from the head to the feet, etc.   In and around the tents the men and the women stay and sit or sleep on the ground.   Horses, camels, sheep, dogs, goats, and cows ramble around if they aren't feeding on the plain.   The Arab needs no bed.   He sleeps on the ground wrapped in his big drapery that he carries all over.   Nor a table: he eats on the ground.   He drinks only water.   He eats so little that a European eats as much as five Arabs.   The Arab is slightly built.   He works little.   In fact you see these people most often sleeping or sitting along the roads or in their houses.

A tribe of about sixty families came to seek refuge in the plain near the Moustapha camp to flee bad treatment from enemy Arabs.   They are living in tents.   Each tent is made of three or four pieces of brown cloth joined together, held up in the middle by wood or reeds standing up, and attached to the earth with small stakes so that a tent looks like a dung cart thrown into the camp.   They enter them only to sleep.   A similar dwelling shows something sad and shows complete poverty, but regardless that's the way all the rural people live in Africa, except around Algiers which has houses.   It takes a tribe only two hours to load up and go live one or two leagues away.   They don't know about carts.   The backs of camels suffice to transport the movables, which consist of some pitchers and earthenware pots.   That's about all we see in the tents, out of which come lots of children, pretty much naked, to ask us for a "soldi," that is a sou.   Some of them wear only a shirt.   Others wear a big old piece of cloth that wraps them up from the head to the feet, etc.   In and around the tents the men and the women stay and sit or sleep on the ground.   Horses, camels, sheep, dogs, goats, and cows ramble around if they aren't feeding on the plain.   The Arab needs no bed.   He sleeps on the ground wrapped in his big drapery that he carries all over.   Nor a table: he eats on the ground.   He drinks only water.   He eats so little that a European eats as much as five Arabs.   The Arab is slightly built.   He works little.   In fact you see these people most often sleeping or sitting along the roads or in their houses.

Before the French conquered Algiers, it had neither roads nor carts.   Even building stones were carried on the backs of donkeys.   Meanwhile working class Arabs began to take work to heart, above all the blacks.   It is they who carry all the burdens, who make the deals, who keep troop numbers in the army, who serve as masons, and in private homes do the most troublesome work, content to earn a few sous.   They eat almost nothing, a piece of bread as large as a hand baked over coals, or a little rice, or some fruit is sufficient for them.   But in case of scarcity or need Barbary figs suffice for two months out of the year.   They grow in hedges.   Raw grass, roots of thistles are enough for their plate.

Africans are hearty: their legs are naked up to the knees and their arms to the elbows.   Jews wear black.   Mohammedans wear white and have their head shaved like their beard, except that they leave a small tuft of hair on the top of the head which is always covered with a skull-cap if the person is a boy and with a turban if he is married; with all that a red or white belt wrapped four or five times around the top of the pants like a pocket.   I forgot the shirt, the undershirt, and drapery: the rich carry that on their arm.   Working men are bare foot and wear only a shirt, shorts, and some rags they never wash.   Others wear only a shirt.   I can't get used to these indecencies.

My Brothers and I went up on top of the house to say our rosary while looking all over.   The land here is so good that it produces without dung, if one cultivates it carefully.   It grows grass as high as a man, and moreover if they need dung, they could get for nothing from the military two hundred carts of it since they are forced to throw it in the ocean.   Crops come in at the end of May.   The grains of the country are: wheat, barley, and oats.   It doesn't rain from the end of April until October; thus all the days are sunny during this time.   The sun is very hot; the heat is not unbearable because we have a little ocean breeze which is refreshing.   We had the sirocco wind only once: it's a burning wind which comes from the desert.   Potatoes do well: they sow them in December and harvest them in February or March.   There is never a winter here, never a frost: thus they get from the earth many vegetables and things in the coldest season.

Trees here are not the same as in France.   You see olive trees in great quantity; the ordinary [giguer] grows better, the palma-christi, the carob tree, which produces beans in great quantity good to eat, the wild cotton tree, the acacia, the elm, the banana tree, the palm, the cypress, the orange tree, the citrus tree, the pomegranate, the Barbary fig which covers the hedges and the fruit of which is rather good and found in large quantities; the leaves are covered with nettles.   That covers the fields as well as aloes, a fat plant, also nastily nettled.   They say in France that they can flourish only a hundred years; here after only five years they have a stem like that of a tree.   We're still eating grapes.   Two months ago they ate fresh almonds.   Orange apples, which are as fat here as your fattest apples, will ripen around January and will be worth a farthing. It's difficult to get milk in this country because the Arab cows don't have much; they are too small and often thin.   For a good reason they brag that small Arab horses walk swiftly: in fact they go faster than the wind.   The camel is an ugly beast that is half as high as a house.   It has a great hump in the middle of its back; it can carry the baggage of two or three horses, and when it has had a good meal, you can lead it along for five or six days without drinking or eating.   The sea is always under our eyes here: we see all the ships when they leave for France and when they come here.   Along the sea shore is a beautiful plain which meets the declivity of the mountain, all along the ocean.   On top of this mountain or coast you find a beautiful plain, very fertile, that extends for the length of the chain of Atlas mountains, that we see from here as if they were only six leagues away whereas they are thirty leagues away.   That's what they call the [     ] of Algiers.   It may have a length of 150 to 200 leagues.   After the Atlas mountains is the desert which is immense.   It is not French.   You ought to be bored by now with all this.

There are many sick people in Algiers and in the army. I myself, my dear parents, found myself suffering so much for several days, sometimes on getting up, sometimes on going to bed, I wrote this letter with a hand so feeble and trembling that I almost dropped the pen from my fingers. At last I have almost recovered, after about two weeks of suffering which Our Lord wished to send me. Your dear letter, which I received as if it were a gift from heaven, gave me a thousand plans to respond: I'm upset with myself therefore for having delayed giving you my news, but what troubled me was having to tell you that I was sick; God finally had pity on my humiliation: he sent me health.   Help me to thank Him.   I'm happy to learn the happy outcome of your harvest; the fruit should really make you joyful about the economy of the household.   Let's always hope that the good God will stop the drought and that your vegetables and summer grain will not be lost.   The war makes everything very expensive here: a pound of meat costs 18 or 20 sous, a dozen eggs 3 francs.   Only 15 months ago meat cost under a pound, eggs 8 sous a dozen.   We hope that things will return to that point.   I'm going to pray hard for you, especially my sister.   I'm happy that she is pleased with her household duties.   Fr. Drouelle was touched at your remembrances: he told me to tell you that and the men at Larchamp the most obliging things.   I will always think about the brave inhabitants of that area.

I'm tired of this letter because of its length.   Nevertheless I beg you to believe that I intended to revive your spirits by telling you the thousand things it contains.   As long as it is, I beg Brother Basil to transcribe it exactly and to send the copy to the very dear Brothers Leonard and Stanislaus as soon as possible.   Please bring it to him.   As for me, I count on his good wishes and above all on his great charity to do this good thing for his confreres or better yet for religion, to make known its state and needs in this country here.   Finally I dare yet beg my dear Brother Basil, to whom I vow an eternal friendship, to also bring a copy of my letter to Brothers Vincent and Leopold when they leave Le Mans for the retreat.

You will then be able to send it to the parish priest, to the vicar, and to Mr. Laury.   Offer them please my respects as well as to Marraine, to Mrs. Laury, and to my whole family: I do not forget a single one of my relatives, hoping that all pray for me and for our African mission.   For you, my dear parents-- father, mother, brother, sister, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law, nephews and nieces--I hold you in my heart, but it is in Jesus' heart that we need to be united forever.   Write to me from time to time.   It's the greatest consolation that you can give to your unworthy son.   I will also give you news from time to time.   Accept all my feelings.

Yours, totally devoted in Our Lord,

Brother André

The image of Brother Andre Mottais as imagined by artist Harold Ruplinger, CSC. We have no actual photo or painting of Brother André Mottais.

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