SILENT
THUNDER
A LIFE OF PETER
DONDERS, CSSR
By Andrew Costello, CSSR
INTRODUCTION
On
Perhaps you never heard of this
man of perseverance, this man of “silent thunder”, this priest who worked for
over 44 years in
“Donders” means “thunder”. The
word even sounds like it. Those who knew
Peter Donders, knew when he was around — like thunder — but he was silent. He
was a quiet, steady form of God’s love and God’s power to all those he served.
This short life is dedicated to
this remarkable man.
FROM
He was born on
His father, Arnold, had several
tragedies in his life. The script of his life sounds like it is straight out of
the book of Job. His first wife, Jane Van Wanroy died on
They were very poor. At the age
of 12 Peter had to drop out of school to help his dad, who was a weaver.
Around 50 years later, Peter
Donders, looking back on his childhood, wrote that his dream was to become a
priest. “It pleased the good God to give me at any early age, about five or six
years, an ardent desire for the priesthood in order to work for the salvation
of souls so dear to him.”
MINOR SEMINARY
All through his adolescent years,
even though he left school, Peter never lost his dream of one day becoming a
priest.
At the age of 22 he entered St.
Michael’s Minor Seminary – especially because of the encouragement of two of
his parish priests..
Peter Donders will probably end
up as the patron saint we pray to for patience and perseverance. All through
his life he was one of those steady, reliable types. He was the type that never
gives up – the type that keeps
struggling on step by step till the job is done. He must have learned from his
dad the weaver, that thread by thread the cloth is made.
Peter had some tough problems to
cope with in life. Besides his job he had to deal with students who were much
younger, some as much as 10 years. Many were financially and academically better
off. Seeing Peter the servant, seeing that he was shy, awkward and poorly
clothed, some thought themselves better than he. Various nicknames resulted,
for example, “The Scarecrow”.
Once there his teachers didn’t
think he was bright enough, so they let him stay in the seminary as a domestic
servant and maintenance man. This didn’t kill his dream either. Within a year
he was taking courses on the side, continuing his regular job at the seminary.
In the classroom Peter found
himself in what must have seemed a foreign land. He had been away from the
books too long. He often had no idea what his teachers were talking about. When
this caused laughter because of his comments, his teachers got angry at times.
This brought even more jokes from his fellow students.
The different books on Peter
Donders say he took all this in stride. He was not going to allow anything to
block him on the road to the priesthood. But once Peter became known, he became
liked. In modern psychological terms, “Once he became a person to them, most
treated him like one.”
After Donders death, a Father
Odenhoven reported the following. He had heard it from contemporaries of Father
Donders, “He was generally among the lowest in the class; and the lack of time
for his studies is sufficient explanation. Examinations on the Bible were an
exception, as he usually came first or close to the top. The students teased
him but were generally fond of him. They supplied him with writing materials,
books and so on, and they helped him with his lessons, mathematics, history and
the rest “ 1
In the seminary, because of Peter
Donders, the name “Peerke” (Dutch for Peter) became the traditional name at St.
Michael’s given to students of exceptional piety. Those around him began to
know that behind his smile and sense of joy, there was a deep well of holiness
and spirituality.
MAJOR SEMINARY
At the age of 26 Peter was ready
for the major seminary. He had been averaging 80 in his studies. The questions
now were: What seminary should he go to? Who was going to pay for it? His
family couldn’t. His dad had died 2 years earlier. His stepmother had moved
from
The president of the major
seminary at Herlaar, Philip Van de Ven, knew him while he was at St. Michael’s.
He suggested that Peter ask a religious order to accept him. Perhaps the reason
was financial, but it was also well known that Peter wanted to be a missionary
priest. He tried the Jesuits, the Redemptorists, and the Franciscans. All refused. Peter didn’t give up. He went
back to the president of the major seminary. He accepted Peter. Arrangements
were made for Peter to receive financial aid from “grants” established by
benefactors for needy students.
Peter found the major seminary
easier than the minor seminary. Philosophy and theology were easier than Latin
and some of the courses he had trouble with at St. Michael’s.
His reputation for holiness and
zeal grew. This does not mean that Peter was not human. Unfortunately, that’s
how “saints” were often pictured in past centuries. To some “saint” meant an
aloof character on a pedestal far above people — whose job was to take the joy
out of life.
Peter Donders was a quiet
character. He wasn’t a loner, but all through his life many times he had to
deal with being alone. Not the life of the party type, he did enjoy get
togethers and games at the seminary. His biographers tell us that he drank beer
and smoked a pipe. Reading about him, one gets the impression that he was a
person you would experience a feeling of peace with. He was a good listener. He
was one of those persons you would never be scared to ask a favor. He was a “saint” with a smile.
In fact all through his life the
word “saint” was used in regards to Donders — from back in the parish he grew up
in — through the minor and major seminaries — and all through his years in
Surinam. Years later a fellow student said
“While in the seminary Peter was an example of all the virtues; we used
to revere him as a saint.”2 After Donders’ death, another priest, now in
his eighties, spoke about his days in the seminary with Peter, “I must say that
I never met a man more spiritual, a meeker man, a man more God-fearing, or more
charitable toward his neighbor. And I will add that it is well-nigh impossible
to find one who surpasses him in these virtues.”3
Knowing that Peter wanted to go
to the foreign missions, his teacher, guide, and his former parish priest,
Father Van Someren suggested that he go to
And that’s how Peter Donders
ended up going to
In July of 1841 Peter Donders was
ordained a priest. However it wasn’t till the following: year — on
The trip took 46 days. Peter
never returned to
Peter had a rough idea what
Priests were urgently needed.
That was the heart of Groof’s message.
The Amerindians, the slaves, those with leprosy, the blacks, the
colonists, and the various other peoples there all needed priests who could
challenge them to lead a more spiritual life. Groof spoke of the mosquitoes,
the sickness, and the various other hardships of a missionary’s life in
Peter was the only one who
answered his appeal. On
In this opening address that day,
Bishop Groof spoke of an “iron cross” that Father Donders would have to carry.
That’s how he described the demands of the work of a priest in
“Jesus said to all: `Whoever
wishes to be my follower must deny his very self, take up his cross each day,
and follow in my steps. Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever
loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit does he show who gains the
whole world and destroys himself in the process? If a man is ashamed of me and
my doctrine, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory
and that of his Father and his holy angels. I assure you, there are some
standing here who will not taste death until they see the reign of God.” (Luke
9:23-27)
Before his death 44 years later
Peter Donders tasted the reign or the
It was 5 times larger than the
Its population today is around
400,000 – most of whom (160,000) live in the capital,
Three years later Peter Donders
wrote back to Father Van Someren in the seminary the following description of
When Peter arrived,
Like a tourist everything around
him was an “eye opener”. The Cathedral was a wooden construction. It flanked one of the oldest and principal
streets in the city: the “Gravenstraat”. Peter went out each day, walking up
and down streets that were shaded by mahogany trees, streets with Dutch names
like “Herenstraat”, “Wagenwegstraat” and “Keizerstraat”. The better homes were
brightly colored with stilted balconies. He went down to the people in the
markets and to
But Peter was no tourist. He had
come to preach and teach people about the love and will of God. He was surprised by the immorality and vice
in the city and how people seemed to live with little thought of God.
“Come to me, all you who are
weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon your
shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls
will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light”. (Matthew 12:
28-30)
That was exactly what Peter
Donders wanted to do — to bring all people to Christ, so that He could refresh
them and help them carry the burdens of life. He wanted all to see their own
individual value —to help people to step back from their life, to step back
from their sins, to step back from their everyday small talk and pursuits, to
step back in prayer and see the importance of their souls, to hear God’s call
to each person to understand that they will only be happy by doing the Father’s
will.
The language of
The language of sermons
everywhere was this “pigeon English”, but in the Cathedral of Paramaribo, it
was Dutch. It wasn’t till
Peter’s first 55 days were not
all spent in
Peter, during those first 55
days, experienced what he was to experience for the next 44 years — visiting
the sick, preaching, taking care of the people in the city, and seeing the
people in the interior – especially the poorest and most abandoned.
PARISH PRIEST
Donders’ daily schedule at
He would aim to get back to the
rectory by
At seven in the evening he would
give adult instructions. For the remainder of the evening he would sit around
and chat with the other priests — often far into the night. Once Bishop Schaap asked Donders, “Tell me, Father,
how on earth did you become such a heavy smoker?” His answer about his pipe smoking was “Oh, ever since I used to sit up late – often
till
Groof realized pretty quickly
that he had an amazing priest with him
— besides a friend who would talk with him late into the night. Two
months after Donders arrived, Bishop Groof wrote to the Procurator of the
During those 14 years in
Paramaribo Donders saw his friend Groof changed to Java. He was appointed Vicar
Apostolic there. This was a severe blow to
After Peter died many witnesses
gave story after story in the
In 1874, looking back on his 14
years in Paramaribo, Donders wrote, “It was God who fired me with an intense
desire to save souls; He Himself satisfied that desire by heaping apostolic
work upon me . . . In all my trials He never denied me His gifts of patience or
submission to His holy will.”9
THE PLANTATIONS
During those first 14 years as a
parish priest in
In the chronicles of the Surinam
mission we read, “Father Donders was the first priest who, on taking up his
residence in Paramaribo, undertook the systematic visitation of the plantations
on the Lower Surinam and, on the Commewijne, and often also of those on the
Upper Surinam and the Saramacca. Other
priests, indeed, visited individual plantations, but the fact remains that
Father Donders was the first to take an energetic initiative in this important
work and to ensure its stability.”10
In 1843, his second year in
The plantations were located
along the rivers that make up much of
Peter was shocked at the living
and working conditions of these people. Father Oomen, who worked with Donders
and also in visiting the plantations, said that Father Donders was horrified at
the condition of the slaves and his earnest wish was to see the practice
abolished.11
In his book about slavery, The Shameful Trade, F. George Kay said,
“The purchase or capture of some fifty million human beings month in and month
out for a period of four centuries was perhaps the greatest crime against
humanity ever perpetrated by Christendom, not least because those responsible
for the most part saw no moral evil in treating men, women, and children as
merchandise.”12
Instead of the word “merchandise”
Donders used the word “cattle”. He wrote
back to
Like Donders, a Rev. John Newton
also used the word “cattle” when he described what the slave trade did to those
who were in it. He had first hand experience, because before his conversion, he
was a captain of a slave ship. He said that it “renders most of those who are
engaged in it too indifferent to the sufferings of their fellow creatures and that
the necessity of treating the Negroes as like cattle gradually brings a
numbness upon the heart.”14
What it did to the “slaves” was
much worse. Many died on their forced “passage” from inside
Besides the uprooting and the
passage to
Besides the desire to improve their
physical situation, Donders preached the good news of Jesus Christ to
them. Their owners might be Christians
in name; Donders tried to help the “slaves” become Christians in fact. The
theology and theory of missions in past centuries has been criticized in
various ways, for example, on the issue of “rice Christians” or one Christian
denomination trying to get more converts than another Christian denomination or
Protestant and Catholic missionaries at odds with each other. With regards to
the slavery issue, there has been mention at times of Catholic nations
justifying slavery on the grounds that it was a way “these people” could now
become Christians. For example, the Portuguese are mentioned for making a big
point to baptize slaves before taking them aboard ships to
Why did Peter Donders want to get
into the plantations? Was it just to baptize people and make them Catholics? He
wanted to bring them into the Catholic Church because he saw that as the road
to their happiness. The fact that priests were so often refused into the
plantations is a good sign. In his life of Donders, Kronenburg writes, “A
refusal, and a blunt one at that, often resulted; and this for the simple
reason that many of the slave-owners hated the Catholic religion, in which they
saw a menace to their cruelty and greed, and especially to their immorality.”17
Donders was a match for them. He
patiently kept coming back and back, over and over again, till the owners and
public officials made improvements. He wore people down. And once he got his
“foot in the door,” he moved fast. He would go to a plantation by boat and ask
to speak to the “slaves”. If the man in charge said yes, Kronenburg tells us
what happened next. “If the required permission was granted, he lost no time in
availing himself of it. With the help of his men, he got his Mass-kit ashore,
tidied up a hut, a shed, a loft – pulled in benches, fixed up an altar, and –
the church was ready. Then the Bastiaan
blew the horn to cease work, and the Negroes could be seen making their way
along numerous paths and slowly massing in front of the improvised chapel.
Father Donders awaited them with a smiling countenance and had a kindly word of
welcome for them all. Notwithstanding the heat, he set to work at once. He
instructed, exhorted, settled disputes, reconciled enemies, heard confessions,
blessed marriages, baptized – and all this he did within the narrow compass of
the stuffy cabin or loft.”18
Many excellent reports about this
side of his work were given after Donders’ death. They are from doctors,
non-Catholics, catechists, plantation owners, former slaves, boatmen, other
priests, and others. They all mentioned his love and compassion and worry about
the people enslaved on the plantations. He made lasting impressions on people.
The boatmen tell of his long hours of prayer late into the night. They tell of
his giving them his bread and wine. When a young boy, Gilbert Rups, was
traveling with them, he cried out in his sleep, “Mamma, give me some water!”
Peter naturally got up and gave him some water.19
“I
was hungry and you gave me food,
I
was thirsty and you gave me drink.
I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked
and you clothed me.
I
was ill and you comforted me,
in
prison and you came to visit me”
(Matthew 26:35-36).
APOSTLE TO THOSE WITH LEPROSY
Peter Donders is best know for
his work with those who had leprosy.
At dinner one day in 1856, the
Vicar Apostolic, Bishop Schepers asked his missionaries, “Which of you would
like to volunteer for
Father Donders was the perfect
man for the job. It needed a “saint” with patience and compassion. Peter was to
work there for close to 30 years. When he became a Redemptorist he left for a
short time so as to make his novitiate. And in 1882 Bishop Schaap transferred
him from
Around 1825, a Father
Vanderweyden worked in
Donders was able to handle the
job and was excellent. An eyewitness, Laurence Doel said, “Father Donders was
always with us in
We know a lot more about leprosy
today than they did in 1856 when Peter Donders went to
It wasn’t till 1874 – when Peter
Donders was 64 years of age and working in
And today people are not isolated
as they once were to places like
In 1948, the International
Congress of Leprosy passed a resolution to drop the word “leper” because it
carries a definite stigma. They resolved to use the term “leprosy patient” for
a person having this disease.
Much of this was not known when
Peter was working with leprosy patients. It must have been a horrible
experience to be classified “a leper” and then sent to a place like
THE REDEMPTORISTS
In July of 1865 the “mission” of
On
In 1865, the Dutch Provincial,
Father Swinkels, was appointed Vicar Apostolic and was consecrated a bishop. On
One month later Peter was able to
go to the capital to pay his respects to the new bishop and also to seek
admission into the Redemptorists. Swinkels gave himself and Peter a few days to
think it over. The bishop asked around about Donders and found out that he was
a “saint”. A few days later he admitted Donders into the Redemptorists as a
postulant.
Peter had to go back to
The last remaining secular priest
in
Peter Donders had been reading
the life of the founder of the Redemptorists, St. Alphonsus Liguori. Alphonsus
had the dream of one day going to the foreign missions to serve the poorest and
most abandoned. He never fulfilled that dream, but his priests have. Moreover
that was exactly Peter Donders’ vision and that was what he was already doing:
serving the poorest and most abandoned on the foreign missions.
On
Their novice master, Bishop
Swinkels, soon discovered that he had 2 very holy men with him — priests who
had a deep sense of the need for work, sacrifice and prayer. In fact Swinkels
wrote to the Redemptorist superior in
After their profession on
Donders was now a member of a
religious order — an order who had earlier refused him. It made quite a
difference in his life — giving him companionship, traditions, and a greater
meaning in his life. Various letters that he wrote bring out the joy he felt in
becoming a Redemptorist.
In 1874 he wrote to his
Redemptorist Provincial, “From the day on which, by God’s grace, I was received
into the Congregation, I did not think I ever passed a day, or even an hour,
without experiencing great joy in my holy vocation and in common life ...
except for an odd trial or temptation which I got over, by God’s grace.”27
In May of 1875, 8 years after
becoming a Redemptorist, he wrote, “I can never thank God enough for having
called me to the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. May the God of all
bounty grant me the grace to live as a true Redemptorist and to persevere until
death. Daily I ask for this from His mercy, through the intercession of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, our beloved Mother.”28
Kronenburg says that he wrote
many letters in this vein to the Redemptorists back in
Father Oomen, the Redemptorist Provincial,
in his notes from the canonical visitation to
THE INDIANS AND THE BUSH NEGROES
Besides taking care of those with
leprosy in
The vision of Isaiah, Jesus and
also Alphonsus, was his vision,
“The
spirit of the Lord is upon me;
therefore, he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring glad tidings
to
the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives,
Recovery of sight to the blind
and release to prisoners,
To announce a year of favor for the Lord”
(Luke 4:18-19).
When the Europeans began settling
in
Many blacks also escaped into the
interior. In his book, Black Cargoes,
Daniel Mannix writes, “There were insurrections in
The various biographies of Peter
Donders tell of his many trips into the jungles in search of these Indians and
bush Negroes. He was almost 60 when he began this work in a much more organized
way. Because he had more nurses, catechists, and now another priest at
In the
He describes the Caribs as the
least civilized of the three. But he
also writes, “The Caribs, then with God’s help, without which we can do
nothing, we could make something out of them.”33
Today they are all Catholics due to work of people like Donders.
Some of the trips took 25 to 30
hours and more. He and his helpers had to travel hundreds of miles, through
swamps, rivers, with bugs, snakes, and all kinds of dangers surrounding them.
Donders was not only strong, but
he was fearless. Often he stood up to threats of death. He challenged the
people of the jungle whenever he saw superstition, alcoholism, and other
problems that break down life. He baptized, preached, instructed, married, and
helped people all through the bush.
In John Kronenburg’s life of
Donders, we have the following portion of a letter written by Bishop Schaap to
Mgr. Capri, the Internuncio at
Earlier, Bishop Schaap, had asked
Father Donders about his hopes and plans for the Indians. He copied out Donders
response to these 2 questions that he asked him: “First, are there well-founded
hopes for the conversion of the Indians of Surinam?” and “Secondly, in the
event of such hopes existing, what methods are best calculated to bring about
their realization?”
Donders answered the first
question this way, “After having weighed everything before God and asked His
light in a matter of such moment, I think I am justified in giving the
following answer: Yes, there does exist a well-founded hope, inasmuch as there
does not exist the slightest doubt, as far as the Arrowakkas are concerned.
For, after all, these people are nearly all baptized and married; we have
already fifty communicants among them, and nearly all are leading good lives.
The Caribs also give me grounds for hoping that they will improve.”
To the second question Donders
answered, “By getting them together as much as possible and then having them
instructed by good catechists or schoolmasters. It would be their business to
inculcate on them the practice of their religious duties, and, in particular,
that of prayer. They would likewise teach Catechism and accustom them to
sanctify the Sunday, both morning and evening. They would also prepare the
children for confession and communion, and do the same for the adults. In the
Tibiti district, for instance, where the catechist or schoolmaster has been at
work only for the past seven or eight months, I have baptized and shall have
still to baptize more children and adults than I had to baptize for the past
three years; about thirty children are under instruction there; even old men
attend the school, and yet the Caribs on the Tibiti are the worst of all and
are as different from the Arrowakkas as chalk from cheese. The Caribs on the
Wayombo also are crying out for a teacher, and, in the hope of getting one,
those amongst them who are scattered are now willing to live together. Even men
of advanced years and old men are beginning to join up with the rest, and
numbers of them are anxious to be instructed. If only instruction could be
given in this way, we should have a well grounded hope of working with much
fruit and of one day winning them all for God. The greater number – five
hundred, exclusive of a few individuals — are already baptized; about sixty
couples are married, and there are fifty communicants, not counting those
baptized by Father Romme. With God’s help we may one day be able to establish
one or two stations. This is what I think, before God, I should write to you on
the subject. Moreover, the main point is
to pray much for their conversion. P.
Donders, C.SS.R.”35
In October of 1886, at the age of
76, Peter Donders made his last trip to see the Indians and bush Negroes. It
was a journey of 19 days. He was stationed back in
HIS DEATH
During his last few years,
besides being stationed at
In his last sermon before he left
in 1883 he told his people “We are all
under the Bishop’s authority and must obey. However, even though the Bishop is
taking me away from here, I promise you in God’s name that I shall die among
you. In the day of resurrection I shall be among the lepers to face God’s
judgment.”36
In 1885 he was stationed back in
In his excellent and valuable
collection of material and documents on Peter Donders, Samuel Boland, C.SS.R.,
tells us that `according to the necrology written by Father Bossers, the
trouble was in his kidneys, and it gradually became worse, making it clear to
everyone that the end had come.” Samuel
Boland then gives this excerpt from the necrology, “During the night of 5th-6th
January he himself asked for the Holy Sacraments, and Father John (Bakker) at
once did as he asked. On this occasion he made two requests of his confrere,
first in his name to ask the pardon of the people if he had offended them in
any way, and secondly to tell them how sad he was at the sinful lives of many
of them in spite of his repeated pleading. Rev. Father John fulfilled this
charge with great emotion during the Mass of the Epiphany. Apart from that
occasion Father Donders spoke very little during the illness, never
complaining, always satisfied with whatever was given him. In this way, fully
resigned to God’s Will and with his thoughts filled with his Jesus and the
things of heaven, he continued to suffer without losing consciousness until
3:30 in the afternoon of Friday, 14th January 1887. In that moment
the good, zealous, devout and exemplary old man gave up his soul into the hands
of his heavenly Father.”37
“The next day,” according to the
same necrology by Father Bossers, “his body, clothed in the habit, lay in the
church during Mass, which was attended by the faithful. In the afternoon he was
buried with as much ceremony as was possible in the presence of the entire
population of
Then he adds, “Whoever knew the
saintly man called him blessed. Would that our end be like this. His body was
buried beside the grave of Rev. G. Heininnk, who had died in
CONCLUSION
Peter Donders’ body remained in
that cemetery till
After his death, the story of
this holy man, who lived 77 years, 2 months, and 13 days slowly spread. First
it was by word of mouth. Then like the gospel stories, incidents from his life
were written down. Slowly veneration and pilgrimages were made to both
The process for his beatification
began in 1900. The decree for the introduction of his cause was signed in
POSTSCRIPT
In his life of Peter Donders,
Nicola Ferrante, C.SS.R., presents 5 of the 40 or 50 favors and miracles that
were presented in the official record of Donders’ Cause. The fifth cure, that
of Louis John Westland, was the one that the Sacred Congregation for the Causes
of the Saints approved and the one declared miraculous by Pope John Paul II on
Father Ferrante describes the
case as follows:
The Instantaneous and Complete
Cure of an Acute Osteomyelitis of the distal Metaphisis of the Right Femur.
“This is the case submitted to
the Sacred Congregation of the Causes cf. Saint: for the beatification of
Venerable Donders. It concerns a baby, Louis John Westland, born in
“In the morning of November 7 the
parents awoke to find the baby already standing in its crib — the bandage off
to one side and the tube on the other. The wound was closed and dry. In the
father’s words: `We tried every way we could to see if our child had any pain —
pressing and pinching, twisting and turning the leg, but he showed no pain or
discomfort at all. In fact he slipped out of my hands and scampered away from
me.’
“Within seven or eight hours an
open inch-long wound had completely closed — a feat normally requiring six to
eight days. Further, a bone fragment was eliminated which normally required an
operation or the passage of considerable time.
“Louis’ parents have always
attributed his cure to Father Donders’ intercession. Actually the father had
promised that if the child were cured he would permit him to follow in Donders’
missionary footsteps.”39
1 Samuel Boland,
C.SS.R “Peter Donders As His
Contemporaries Saw Him” in Spicilegium
Historicum, Congregationis SSmi Redemptoris, Annus XXVII, 1979, Fasc. 2,
(Rome, Collegium S. Alfonsi de Urbe), pp. 381.
2 Nicholas
Govers, C.SS.R., Life of the Venerable
Peter Donders, translated from the Dutch by Rev. Anthony Nuyten, (New York,
1925), p. 12. I have what appears a
personal translation of this book and it is located at the Provincial House,
Shore Road, Brooklyn.
3 Govers, p. 12.
4 John Carr,
C.SS.R., A Fisher of Men, The Venerable
Peter Donders, C.SS.R., (Fresno,
California, Academy Library Guild, 1953) pp. 43 - 44.
5 John Baptist Kronenburg,
C.SS.R., An Apostle of the Lepers, The
Ven. Peter Donders, C.SS.R., translated from the French Version of Leon
Roelandts, C.SS.R., by John Carr,
C.SS.R., (London: Sands and Company, 1930), pp. 51 - 52.
6 Kronenburg,
p. 60
7 Kronenburg,
p. 60.
8 Nicola
Ferrante, C.SS.R., Peter Donders, Apostle
to the Lepers, translated from the Italian by William Nayden, C.SS.R. This is in the hands of W. Nayden, p. 18.
9 Ferrante,
p. 18
10
Kronenburg, pp. 88 - 89.
11 Boland, p.
385.
12 F. George
Kay, The Shameful Trade, (South
Brunswick and New York, A.S. Barns and Company, 1967) p. 1.
13 Govers, p.
37.
14 Daniel P.
Mannix, in collaboration with Malcolm Cowley, Black Cargoes: A History of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1518-1865 .
(Penguin Books, NY, 1962) p. x
15 Counter,
“The African Bush People in South America,” in The Washington Post, January 2, 1982, p. C 6.
16 Mannix, p.
xiii.
17
Kronenburg, p. 82.
19
Kronenburg, p. 82.
20 Carr, p.
130.
21 Boland, p.
386.
22 Boland, p.
386.
23
Kronenburg, pp. 96 - 97.
25 Boland, p.
389.
26 Boland, p.
412.
27
Kronenburg, p. 116.
28
Kronenburg, p. 116.
29
Kronenburg, p. 116.
30
Kronenburg, p. 117.
31
Mannix, pp. 53 - 54.
32 John
Blassingame, The Slave Community,
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1972) pp. 124 - 125.
33 Boland,
pp. 420 - 421.
34
Kronenburg, pp. 220 - 221.
36 Boland, p.
390.
37 Boland, p.
394.
38 Boland, p.
414.
39 Ferrante,
pp. 51 - 52.
