Léon des Avanchers, Père (born Michel Rey-Golliet), explorer and missionary (1825-1879). Autograph letter signed ("F. Léon des Avanchers, religieux capucin, Missionnaire apostolique aux Gallas [Affrique centrale]").

€ 2,000.00

Long, interesting and unpublished letter, closely written over four pages, to the French minister Gustav Armand Henri, Comte de Reiset (1821-1905). The twenty-five-year-old missionary, writing from the south-western tip of the Arabian peninsula, describes himself as "perdu au milieu des déserts et dont toute l'imagination est absorbée par l'étude des langues". The capucin friar travelled along the coast of the Red Sea, visiting Tor, Yambo, Medina and Jeddah; the settlements he encounters are wretched hamlets on the edge of the desert. "À Gedda les musulmans font voir le tombeau de notre grande mère Ève. Selon eux, nos premiers parens après leurs chutes vinrent faire pénitence de leurs fautes à La Mecque. Ève mourut à Gedda. La tête de notre première mère repose sur une montagne et ses deux pieds sur deux autres collines voisines et sur son nombril ils ont élevé une pyramide [...]". Léon writes that he feared he would end up eaten by the fish, but finally did arrive in Abyssinia after a 20-day voyage. He continues to describe a beautiful mountaineous landscape peopled by a few Bedouin tribes and evokes their hard life, the cry of the jackals, and the devastation of crops by soldiers and by apes. He states the price of wheat, horses, and farming animals, describes the mining of gold, silver and iron and summarizes the situation in Abyssinia, since the former empire was overthrown by "la lance du farouche Gallas". He describes the savage manners of a country at war: the enslavement of women and children, the emasculation of men, and the rampant diseases. He also explains how the country first seized by the Turks passed to France, and provides his minister with first-hand geopolitical intelligence: "L'Anglais travaille ce pays. Un consul britannique y rôde en tout sens. Mais les Anglais y sont détestés à cause de leur religion. Mais cependant que l'on y fasse attention. L'Abyssinie plutôt que de vouloir subir le joug turke se mettra à la disposition de la première puissance qui voudra l'exploiter. La Sardaigne a envoyé ici un ancien missionnaire pour déterminer Oubié ou un roi de l'Abyssinie à lui donner une partie de la côte pour y colliniser fiat lux [...]".

Léon des Avanchers, friend of the French explorer Antoine d'Abadie, was a missionary in Abyssinia, a geographer, cartographer and explorer of East Africa, and a correspondent of the Società Geografica Italiana. He is known to have bought many slaves to free them and was the founder of the first Catholic church in the Seychelles. - Some original corrections and insertions. Traces of original folds. Well-preserved.