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Fou Kia { ?} July 12th 1893

My dear Father Athanasius

Scarcely a few weeks have elapsed, and again I have to send you a letter.
At that time we hoped for a better harvest, but our hopes have vanished. The
scourge of famine has with all its vigor and misery our province. When
our now bishop came to this diocese, he found at his disposal only $700,
where from he had to feed a thousand people for 5 months. We leave about 700
orphan children in our asylums. Owing to this our bishop immediately had to
close the seminary and the schools, and even the most necessary expenses had to
be reduced. We would have been able to get along, if we had had only a good harvest
of rice. But now our best hopes are gone, the crops are dried up and not a
single bushel of rice can be gathered from the most fertile land. Last years
crop was small on account of to little rain; but this year we had no rain
whatever. We commenced long ago to say the prayers prescribed by our holy
church ad petendam pluviam, but no rain came. We made in community
since that time the stations of the way of the cross, but our prayers until
now were not heard. We are in the greatest misery. Whole families leave their
houses, towns are abandoned, and their inhabitants are wandering around forcing
those who have something left to divide. Crowds of hundreds are begging
at the doors of the richer class, asking for food and money. It is impossible to
import from neighbor provinces, first because in some of them the same
famine prevails, and secondly because starving beggars will rob everything. The
only thing wherewith thousands still their hunger, is a very thin rice soup.