boone and his wife faced many challenges in the congo. as a religious leader, boone worked to prevent the congolese from driving him and other evangelists away. their royal rulers had led many of the people to catholicism in the 16th century after their own conversion under the influence of portuguese missionaries. catholic natives burnt down the schoolhouse built by boone and his followers. when the americans appealed to the king's private congo authorities for help, the latter said that the kongo people must be allowed to decide if they wanted to follow catholicism or protestantism. most of the villagers settled on protestantism and gradually agree to rebuild the school.