It is now necessary for us to acquaint the reader with what Mgr. Lavigerie did for the work he had so much at heart–the evangelisation of Africa itself, and of the lands which lay beyond the bounds of the colony. Here, as we have seen, his freedom of action was too often hampered, and the execution of his plans retarded, by popular prejudice and official opposition. Already, five years previously, in 1868, when casting his eye over the fields white for the harvest, and looking round for labourers whom he could send to gather it in, he had felt the necessity of founding a congregation of priests who should devote themselves exclusively to the work of the Apostolate. The clergy under his rule barely sufficed for the needs of the colony. Impressed as they had been from their youth up with the idea that to hold any intercourse, or establish any relations, even those of simple charity, with the natives, would draw down on them the displeasure of the authorities, they had never attempted to acquire such mastery of their language as would render intercourse with them possible. In fact, after the famine of 1867, Mgr. Lavigerie was unable to find a single priest in his diocese who was able and willing to take the direction of the Arab orphanages.