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RICHARD GRAY 423 chin miss.ion would soon be sailing, but already in Madrid the Council of Por– tugal had decided to prevent its departure 47 • The Missio Antiqua of the Capuchins would have to wait two decades be– fore finally being able to arrive in Kongo. As a result, however, of its African origins, of the initiatives and appeals of the two African Christian kingdoms, the mission went not primarily to convert the heathens but to bring the sacra– ments and papal support to what seemed in Rome to be a very notable and sig– nificant addition to the ranks of Catholic kingdoms. Doubtless, many other considerations also influenced Gregory XV's decision in 1622 to establish on exceptionally firm foundations the Sacred Congregation of. Propaganda Fide, but the appeals from Ethiopia and the sacrificial death of the first Kongolese ambassador had also played their part. 47 L. Jadin, L'oeuvre missionnaire en Afrique noire, in J. Metzler (ed.), Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide Memoria Rerum, I/2, Rome 1971, 432.