Note 226 — NEGROLAND divided into Nations.

Labat (Rel. Hist. de l’Ethiopie Occidentale, II. p. 90), copying, but not faithfully, Cavazzi de Montecucoli, states, with surprising coolness, as matter of history, the supposed origin of the Jagas in the country of the Monoemugi (Monomoézi). The country of the Jagas, that is to say, of the chieftains so entitled, lies immediately behind Angola, perhaps not above 250 miles from the sea coast, and there is nothing in the history of their followers calculated to show that they come from the remote interior. Andrew Battel, who was seized on the coast and carried off by the Jagas, with whom he spent above a year, says (Purchas’ Pilgrims, II. p. 973), that they told him they come from Sierra Leone. This absurd statement shows that Battel had got into his head some of the geographical speculations of his day. The Jesuit Sandoval (Hist. de Ethiop. p. 48) thus abridges the information of the missionaries: “About ninety years back, a nation called in their own country Gangedes, in Congo, Jagas, in Angola, Guindes, in India (Eastern Africa), Zimbas, in Ethiopia (Abyssinia), Gallas, and in Sierra Leone, Zumbas (Cumbas, in Jarric, probably for Çumbas), which name they changed for Manes, and who lived on human flesh, issued forth,” &c. Finally, Anguiano (Epitome Historial &c. del Imp. Abyss. 1706, p. 8), speaking of the Agows, assures us that the names Agáo, Agag, and Giagos, or Giacos, are all the same.