Extracts from “The Admirable Adventures and Strange Fortunes of Master Antonie Knivet, which went with Master Thomas Candish in his Second Voyage to the South Sea, 1591,” published in Purchas His Pilgrimes, Part IV, lib. vi, c. 7. London, 1625.

Introduction.

ASTER ANTHONY KNIVET joined the second expedition of Thomas Cavendish, which left England in August, 1591. He seems to have served on board the Roebuck, of which vessel one Cocke was captain. Nothing in his narrative enables us to identify this Cocke with the Abraham Cocke of Limehouse, who was “never heard of more” after he parted from Battell on the coast of Brazil in 1590, nor with the Abram Cocke who, according to Knivet, put in at the Ilha Grande in 1598, in the hope of making prizes of some of the richly-laden Spanish vessels returning from the Rio de la Plata. Battell, surely, may be supposed to have been acquainted with the fate of his old shipmate, whilst Knivet gives no hint that the Abram Cocke of the Ilha Grande was the captain of the Roebuck, to whom he was indebted for his life when Cavendish was about to throw him overboard in Magellan’s Strait. It is, however, just possible that there was but one Abraham Cock, who had not been heard of for some time when Battell returned to England about 1610.263

When Cavendish returned from Magellan’s Strait, he put Knivet and nineteen other sick men ashore near St. Sebastian, to shift for themselves. Knivet was ultimately taken by the Portuguese; but they spared his life, and he became the “bond-slave” of Salvador Corrêa de Sá, the Governor of Rio de Janeiro; and apart from the time he spent among the cannibal Indians, and on a voyage to Angola, he remained with his master to the end, and returned with him to Portugal in 1599.

My friend, Colonel G. Earl Church, to whom I applied for an opinion on the trustworthiness of Knivet’s statements with regard to Brazil, writes as follows:—

“Yesterday morning I spent at the R. Geo. Soc., refreshing my memory of Knivet’s extraordinary adventures. One must read them always bearing in mind the romantic spirit of the age in which they were written, and the novel surroundings in which every adventurer found himself in the New World. Giving due weight to all this, I find Knivet’s relation of his voyages singularly truthful, so far as my knowledge of Brazil goes. What he states, excepting in two or three minor particulars, clashes with no geographical, descriptive, or historical point with which I am familiar, and he often throws in a sentence which relates to facts which no man could invent, and which makes his narrative impressive with truthfulness. I utterly discard Cavendish’s opinion of his men and companions for Cavendish appears to have been one of the most cold-blooded freebooters who ever cut a throat or raided a settlement or scuttled a prize.”

I regret not being able to write in terms equally favourable of what Knivet claims to have experienced during his visit to Angola and Kongo. Knivet says that he ran away from bondage on June 27th, 1597, and that he reached the “port of Angola” after a perilous voyage of five months, that is in November. He then sailed up the Kwanza, and reached Masanganu, where he remained three months, when he was arrested in consequence of a requisition of his master and sent back to Brazil, which he must have reached before June, 1598. We should be quite prepared to accept this part of his story if his description of Masanganu did not show that he can never have been there. Knivet, however, is not content with such modest honours, but claims to have resided for some time at the court of the King of Kongo, and to have fallen in the hands of the Portuguese when on his road to Prester John’s country. By them he was carried to Masanganu, where he lived three months. These two accounts are absolutely irreconcilable. As to the author’s astounding geographical misstatements, I refer the reader to the notes appended to his narrative.

First Account (Purchas, pp. 1220-2).

Continually I desired my master to give me leave to get my living, intending to come into my country, but the Governor would not let me go from him. When I saw no means to get leave of my master, I determined to run away to Angola, for to serve the King as a soldier in Massangano till such time that I might pass myself to the King of Anyeca,264 which warreth against the Portugals, and so have come through Prester Johns country into Turkey.

On the seven and twentieth day of June, 1597, I embarked myself unknown to my master, in a small ship of one Emanuell Andrea, for to come for Angola. In this voyage we were driven so near the Cape of Good Hope that we thought all of us should have been cast away, the seas are there so great; and by reason of the current they brake in such sort that no ship is able to endure. There we brake both our main mast and our mizzen. It pleased God to send us the wind Eastward, which brought us to our desired harbour [of] Angola.265 We had been five months in our voyage, and by that means other ships that departed two months after us were there before us.

When I heard that there were ships of the River of Ienero [Rio de Janeiro], I durst not go ashore for fear of being known of some of the Portugals. The next day after that we came into the harbour, there came a great boat aboard us, to ask if we would sell any Cassava meal. We told them we would, and asked them whither they went with their boat. They answered, that they tarried for the tide to go up to the River of Guansa [Kwanza] to Masangano. Then I thought it a fit time for my purpose, and so embarked myself in the bark. The Portugals marvelled to see me go willingly to Masangano; for there men die like chickens, and no man will go thither if he can chose.

Nine days we were going up the River of Guansa [Kwanza], in which time two Portugal soldiers died; the country is so hot that it pierceth their hearts. Three days after I had been in Masangano, Don Francisco de Mendosa Fortado,266 the Governor of the city of Kongo, having received a letter from Salvador Coria de Sasa [Salvador Corrêa de Sá], who was his great friend, sent a Pursuivant for me, who brought me by land through the King of Kongo’s country, and in six days we came to a town called Saint Francis267 (where the Governor was), hard by the kingdom of Manicongo.

When I came before the Governor he used me very kindly in words, and asked me what I meant, to cast myself away wilfully in Masangano. Then I told him how long I had served Salvador Coria de Sasa; and in how many dangers I had been for him and his Son, without ever having any recompence of any of them, and therefore I thought it better to venture my life in the King’s service, than to live his Bond-slave. The Governor commanded me to be carried to Angola, and charged a pair of bolts to be put upon my legs, because I should not run away.

About a fortnight after I was sent back again in a Carvell [caravel] of Francis Lewes, and in two months we arrived in the River of Jenero [Rio de Janeiro], and I was carried with my bolts on my legs before the Governor; when he saw me he began to laugh and to jest with me, saying that I was welcome out of England. So, after many jests he spake, he bade pull off my bolts from my legs, and gave me clothes and used me very well.

Second Account (Purchas, pp. 1233-7).

Angola is a kingdom of itself in Ethiopia, where first the Portugals did begin to inhabit: The country of Angola cometh along the coast; as Portugal doth upon Spain, so doth Angola run upon the Kingdom of Longa [Luangu] and Manicongo.

In Angola the Portugals have a City called the Holy Ghost,268 where they have great store of Merchandise, and the Moors do come thither with all kind of such things as the country yieldeth; some bring elephant’s teeth, some bring negro slaves to sell, that they take from other kingdoms which join hard by them; thus do they use once a week, as we keep markets, so do all the Blackamoors bring hens and hogs, which they call gula,269 and hens they call Sange,270 and a kind of beast that they take in the wilderness, like a dog, which they call ambroa:271 then they have that beast which before I have told you of, called gumbe, which is bigger than a horse.272

The Blackamoors do keep good laws, and fear their King very much; the King is always attended with the nobles of his realm, and whensoever he goeth abroad, he has always at the least two hundred archers in his guard, and ten or twelve more going before him, singing and playing with pipes made of great canes, and four or five young Moors coming after him as his pages. After them follow all his noblemen.

When there falleth out any controversy among them, they crave battle of the King, and then they fight it out before him. They come before the King and fall flat on their breasts; then they rise up and kneel upon their knees, stretching out their arms crying, Mahobeque benge, benge;273 then the King striketh them on the shoulders with a horse-tail; then they go to the camp, and with their bows they fight it out till they kill one another. After the battle is done, if any liveth, he that liveth falleth down before the King in the same manner as he did when he went to the field; and after a long oration made, he taketh the horse-tail from the King’s shoulder, and waveth it about the King’s head, and then layeth it on his shoulder again, and goeth away with great honour, being accompanied with all the nobles of the Court. The Moors of Angola do know that there is a God, and do call God Caripongoa,274 but they worship the sun and the moon.

The country is champaign plain, and dry black earth, and yieldeth very little corn; the most of anything that it yieldeth is plantons [plantains], which the Portugals call baynonas [bananas], and the Moors call them mahonge275 and their wheat they call tumba,276 and the bread anou; and if you will buy any bread of them, you must say, Tala cuna auen tumbola gimbo; that is, Give me some bread, here is money.277 Their money is called gullginbo,278 a shell of a fish that they find by the shore-side; and from Brazil the Portugals do carry great store of them to Angola.

These Moors do esteem very much of red, blue and yellow cloths. They will give a slave for a span of cloth in breadth, I mean, and the length of it, of the breadth of the piece; those pieces of cloth they wear about their middles, and under it they hang the skin of a great weasel before them, and another behind them, and this is all the garments that they wear. A weasel in their language is called puccu.279 You can do a Blackamoor no greater disgrace than to take away his skin from before him, for he will die with grief if he cannot be revenged.

The Portugals do mark them as we do sheep, with a hot iron, which the Moors call crimbo.280 The poor slaves stand all in a row one by another, and sing Mundele que sumbela he Carey ha belelelle,281 and thus the poor rogues are beguiled, for the Portugals make them believe that they that have not the mark is not accounted a man of any account in Brazil or in Portugal, and thus they bring the poor Moors to be in a most damnable bondage under the cover of love.

The country of Angola yieldeth no stone, and very little wood: the Moors do make their houses all covered with earth. These houses are no bigger than a reasonable chamber, and within are many partitions, like the cabins of a ship, in such sort that a man cannot stand upright in them. Their beds are made of great bulrushes sewed together with the rinds of a tree. They do make cloth like spark of velvet (but it is thinner) of the bark of a tree, and that cloth they do call mollelleo.282

The elephants do feed in the evening and in the morning in low marshes, as there be many. The Moors do watch which way they come, and as soon as the elephants are at meat, they dig great holes in the ground, and cover them with sticks, and then they cover the pits with earth; and when they have made all ready they go to the elephants and shoot at them with their arrows; and as soon as the elephants feel themselves hurt, they run at whatsoever they see before them, following after the Blackamores that chase them. Then they fall into the deep pits where, after they are once in, they cannot get out.

The Moors of Angola are as black as jet; they are men of good stature; they never take but one wife, whom they call mocasha.283 These Moors do cut long streaks in their faces, that reach from the top of their ears to their chins. The women do wear shells of fishes284 on their arms, and on the small of their legs. The law amongst them is, that if any Moor do lie with another’s wife, he shall lose his ears for his offence. These Moors do circumcise their children, and give them their names, as we do when we baptize.

Angola may very easily be taken, for the Portugals have no forts to defend it of any strength.

The King285 of Congo is the greatest King in all Ethiopia; and doth keep in the field continually sixty thousand soldiers, that do war against the King of Vangala,286 and the King of Angola; this King is a Christian, and his brother-in-law of arms with the King of Spain. His servants of his house are most of them all Portugals, and he doth favour them very much.

The King is of a very liberal condition, and very favourable to all travellers, and doth delight very much to hear of foreign countries. He was in a manner amazed to hear how it was possible Her Majesty [Queen Elizabeth] had lived a maiden Queen so long, and always reigned in peace with her subjects. When I was brought before the King, and told him of my country, what plenty of things we had, if the Portugals had not liked of it, they would interrupt my speech, and the King would show himself very angry, and tell them that every man was best able to speak of his country, and that I had no reason but to tell him that which was true.

The King of Congo, when he goeth to the camp to see his army, rideth upon an elephant in great pomp and majesty; on either side of the elephant he hath six slaves. Two of them were kings, that he himself had taken in the field; all the rest were of noble birth; some of them were brothers to the King of Ancica, and some of them were of the chiefest blood of the great King of Bengala. These noble slaves, at every command of the King of Congo, do fall flat on the ground on their breasts. When the King doth ride, as you have heard, they carry a canopy, as it were a cloth of state, over his head. His two secretaries, the one a nobleman of Spain, the other a Moor, do ride next after him. Before him goeth at the least five hundred archers which are his guard; then there followeth a Moor, which doth nothing but talk aloud in praise of the King, telling what a great warrior he hath been, and praising his wisdom for all things that he hath accomplished very honourably to his great fame of such as knew him.

When this King of Congo cometh to his host, all the soldiers, as he passeth, fall flat on their faces to the ground. He never cometh into his host after any battle, but he dubbeth at the least twenty Knights Portugals, and as many Moors, giving them very great living according to their callings, and the service that they have done. The brother of this King was in Spain at my coming from thence for ambassador from his brother.287

Here the Portugal Captain would have taken me perforce, to have been a common soldier, but the King commanded that they should let me go whither I would, and my determination at that time was to have gone for the country of Prester John [Abyssinia], for I had a great desire to see the River of Nilo and Jerusalem (for I accounted myself as a lost man, not caring into what country or kingdom I came) But it was not the will of God that I should at that time obtain my desire, for travelling through the kingdom of Congo, to have gone to the kingdom of Angila,288 it was my fortune to meet a company of Portugal soldiers that went to a conquest that the King of Spain had newly taken, called Masangana; which place is on the borders of Anguca. Here they made me serve like a drudge, for both day and night I carried some stone and lime to make a fort.

It lyeth right under the Line, and standeth in a bottom in the middle of four hills, and about are many fogges [bogs] but not one river.289 It is the unfirmest country under the sun. Here the Portugals die like chickens. You shall see men in the morning very lusty, and within two hours dead. Others, that if they but wet their legs, presently they swell bigger than their middles;290 others break in the sides with a draught of water. O, if you did know the intolerable heat of the country, you would think yourself better a thousand times dead, than to live there a week. There you shall see poor soldiers lie in troops, gaping like camelians [camels?] for a puff of wind.

Here lived I three months, not as the Portugals did, taking of physick, and every week letting of blood and keeping close in their houses when they had any rain, observing hours, and times to go abroad morning and evening, and never to eat but at such and such times. I was glad when I had got anything at morning, noon, or night; I thank God I did work all day from morning till night; had it been rain or never so great heat, I had always my health as well as I have in England.

This country is very rich. The king had great store of gold291 sent him from this place: the time that I was there, the King of Angica had a great city at Masangana; which city Paulas Dias, Governor of Angola, took and situated there; and finding hard by it great store of gold, fortified it with four forts, and walled a great circuit of ground round about it, and within that wall; now the Portugals do build a city, and from this city every day they do war against the King of Angica, and have burnt a great part of his kingdom.

The Angicas292 are men of goodly stature; they file their teeth before on their upper jaw, and on their under jaw, making a distance between them like the teeth of a dog; they do eat man’s flesh; they are the stubbornest nation that lives under the sun, and the resolutest in the field that ever man saw; for they will rather kill themselves than yield to the Portugals. They inhabit right under the line, and of all kinds of Moors these are the blackest. They do live in the law of the Turks, and honour Mahomet. They keep many concubines, as the Turks do; they wash themselves every morning upwards, falling flat on their faces towards the east. They wear their hair all made in plaits on their heads, as well men as women; they have good store of wheat, and a kind of grain like vetches, of which they make bread: they have great store of hens like partridges, and turkeys, and all their feathers curl on their backs. Their houses are like the other houses of the kingdoms aforenamed.

And thus I end, showing you as brief as I can, all the nations and kingdoms, that, with great danger of my life, I travelled through in twelve years of my best age, getting no more than my travel for my pain. From this kingdom, Angica, was I brought in irons again to my master, Salvador Corea de Sasa, to the City of San Sebastian in Brazil, as you have heard.

APPENDIX II.

A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF KONGO

TO THE

end of the seventeenth century.

The Early History of Kongo.

F traditions may be accepted where written history fails us, the foundation of the Empire of Kongo lies back no further than the middle of the fifteenth century.

The founder of the dynasty and first King of Kongo—Ntotela ntinu nekongo—was Nimi a Lukeni, the son of Nimi a nzima and of Lukeni lua nsanzi, the daughter of Nsa ku ki-lau. His father appears to have been a mere village chief in Kurimba (Corimba),293 a district of the kingdom of Kwangu. He had established himself at a ferry on a great river (nzari), now known to us as the Kwangu, and levied a toll upon all travellers who crossed the stream. One day the young man’s aunt came that way, and claimed exemption on the ground of being the old chief’s sister. Her brother was absent, and not only was the claim denied, but young Nimi a Lukeni, notwithstanding that she was with child, caused her to be disembowelled. The younger members of his clan looked upon this act of brutality as one of bravery, and shielded him against his father’s just wrath. He then placed himself at their head, assumed the title of ntinu (king), and started westward upon a career of conquest.

The country he was about to invade was inhabited by a people kindred to those of Angola and of the country to the north of the Zaire, split up into numerous small clans294 ruled by independent kinglets. This, no doubt, would account for the rapidity and the extent of his conquests, which have been matched however, in our own days, by the Makololo.

Having defeated Mbumbulu mwana Mpangala of Mpemba-kasi, he founded his capital—Mbazi a nkanu—295 upon a rock within that chief’s territory. By degrees he extended his conquests southward to the Kwanza and even beyond, installed his uncle Nsa ku ki-lau as ruler of the important province of Mbata, bestowed large territories upon others of his adherents, and even restored some of their father’s territories to the children of the Mwana Mpangala. His “sons,” attended by the great Nganga Ngoyo, he sent across the Zaire, and they became the founders of the “kingdoms” of Kakongo and Luangu; whilst a third son, by a slave woman, is supposed to be the ancestor of the “counts” of Sonyo or Soyo.296 Anciently the King of Kakongo, before he assumed his kingship, was bound to marry a princess of the blood royal of Kongo, whilst he of Luangu married a princess of Kakongo; yet the ruler of Luangu was highest in rank, for he enjoyed the title of nunu (“aged person”), whilst his brother of Kakongo had to be contented with the inferior title of nkaji (“spouse”). The Kings were elected by the feudal princes, but their choice was limited to the sons of princesses, as in a great part of negro Africa.297

Of the early institutions of Kongo we know next to nothing, though we may presume that the law of succession was originally the same there as in the sister-states to the north, for the first Ntotela was succeeded by two nephews (Nanga kia ntinu and another, whose name has not reached us). But even thus early, and anterior to the introduction of Christianity, the old law of succession was broken through, for Nkuwu a ntinu, the fourth Ntotela, was a son of Ntinu Nimi a Lukeni, and was succeeded by a son of his own, Nzinga a Nkuwa, the first Christian Ntotela, better known in history as John I.

If Dapper may be believed, it was the custom to bury twelve virgins with the earlier kings—a distinction much sought after, as in other parts of Africa; but the people of Kongo have never been charged with cannibalism, nor its rulers with the bloody rites practised by the Jaga.

Cão’s Discovery of the Kongo, 1482.298

It was towards the end of 1482, that the natives at the mouth of the River Kongo for the first time saw rising above the horizon the white wings of a European vessel, ascending, as it were, from the Land of Spirits; and we can imagine their surprise when they for the first time beheld the bleached faces of its inmates. Yet they came on board, offering ivory in exchange for cloth. The interpreters from the Guinea coast who were with Cão naturally failed to make themselves understood, but they learnt from signs that far inland there dwelt a powerful king. Cão at once despatched some Christian negroes in search of this potentate. They were the bearers of suitable presents, and were instructed to assure the King of the friendly intentions of his visitors, whose only desire it was to trade with him.

Before continuing his voyage, Cão set up the first of the stone pillars, or padroes, which he had on board. He then sailed south along the coast, noting its prominent features, but curiously missed the Kwanza or River of Angola, although its clayey waters discolour the sea for ten or fifteen miles. On a low foreland, Cabo do Lobo,299 ten miles beyond the cliffs named by him Castello d’Alter Pedroso, he set up a second pillar, to mark the furthest point reached by him.

On again returning to the Kongo, he was annoyed to find that his messengers had not returned; and as he was naturally anxious to make known in Portugal his discovery of a magnificent river and a powerful kingdom, he left them behind him, and seized instead four unsuspecting visitors to his ship as “hostages;” giving their friends to understand that they should be restored to them after the lapse of fifteen months, when they would be exchanged for his own men. These latter appear to have been treated with distinction at first, but when the King heard of Cão’s high-handed proceedings he refused to admit them any longer to his presence, and even threatened them with death, should his own people not be restored.

Among the hostages carried off by Cão there was a man of some distinction in his own country, Nsaku (Caçuto) by name, who picked up Portuguese quickly, and much pleased King John by the information he was able to give. He, as well as his companions, were much petted in Portugal, and, in defiance of all sumptuary laws, were dressed in fine cloths and silks.

Cão himself, soon after his arrival, in April, 1484, was appointed a cavalier in the Royal household, granted an annuity of 18,000 reals, and on the 14th of that month he was “separated from the common herd,” and granted a coat-of-arms charged with the two pillars erected by him during this memorable voyage.

Cão’s Second Voyage, 1485-6.

Cão’s departure on a second voyage was much delayed, either because the King’s Council were opposed to these adventures, which strained the resources of a small kingdom like Portugal, or—and this is more likely—because it was desired that a change in the Royal Arms, which was only made in June, 1485, should be recorded on the stone pillars which Cão was to take with him.

Great was the rejoicing when Cão’s “fleet” appeared in the Kongo, and the hostages, loud in praise of the good treatment they had received, were once more among their friends. Cão at once forwarded rich presents to the King, with an invitation to throw aside all fetishes, and to embrace the only true and saving faith; promising that, on his return from a voyage to the south, he would personally visit the capital of his kingdom. This promise Cão was not permitted to fulfil, for having set up a pillar on Monte Negro (15° 40´ S.) and another on Cape Cross (21° 50´),300 he died a short distance beyond. Of the details of his death we know nothing.301 It seems, however, that the loss of their commander induced a speedy return home: for Cão’s vessels must have arrived in Portugal before August, 1487, as in that month Dias sailed on his famous voyage, taking with him the negroes whom Cão had kidnapped to the south of the Kongo, with a view to their learning Portuguese, and being employed as interpreters in future voyages.

Cão, therefore, never saw the King of Kongo; and there are good grounds for believing that Nsaku who was sent by the King to Portugal to ask for priests, masons, carpenters, agricultural labourers, and women to make bread, only reached Europe in one of Dias’s vessels, in December, 1488. Nsaku, most certainly, was first introduced to King John at Beja, in January, 1489, when he and his companions were baptised, the King himself, the Queen, and gentlemen of title acting as sponsors.(312) He was sent back to the Kongo with Don Gonçalo de Sousa, in December, 1490, about two years after he had been baptised.302

The Embassy of 1490-1.303

Don João de Sousa, the ambassador, left Portugal on December 19th, 1490, with a fleet commanded by Gonçalo de Sousa, as captain-major. Among the pilots were Pero d’Alemquer and Pero Escovar, men famous in the maritime history of Portugal. Ten Franciscan Friars304 went out with this fleet, and so did Nsaku, the ambassador of the King of Kongo. The plague was raging at Lisbon at the time, and before the vessels reached the Cape Verde Islands, this dreaded disease had carried off João de Sousa (the ambassador), the captain-major, and many others. Ruy de Sousa, a nephew of the captain-major, was then chosen to take the place of D. João de Sousa.

After a voyage of a hundred days the vessels reached the Kongo, and the Mwana of Sonyo and his son, who had already been instructed in the Christian doctrine by a priest from S. Thomé, were baptised on Easter Sunday, April 3rd, 1491, and were thenceforth known as Don Manuel and Don Antonio da Silva; for it was the practice of the Portuguese, from the very beginning, to bestow Portuguese names and titles upon the negroes who submitted to the sacrament of baptism.

This ceremony performed, Ruy de Sousa started for the King’s capital,305 which he reached on April 29th. The King received him seated on a platform, in a chair inlaid with ivory. He wore a loin-cloth, presented to him by Cão, copper bracelets, and a cap of palm-cloth. A zebra tail depended from his left shoulder—a badge of royalty.306

The King was about to join his son Mbemba a Nzinga, Duke of Nsundi, who had taken the field against the Bateke;307 but before doing so he was anxious to be baptised. The foundations of a church having been laid on Rood Day, May 3rd,308 the King and his Queen were baptised at once by Frei João de Santa Maria, and were named Don João and Donna Leonor, after the King and Queen of Portugal.

The King, marching for the first time under the banner of the Cross, and supported by the firearms of his Portuguese allies, came back a victor to his capital. His eldest son and many nobles were then baptised.

When Ruy de Sousa departed, he left behind him Frei Antonio309 with other priests, and gave instructions for an exploration of the Kongo river above the cataracts, which do not appear to have been acted upon. He also founded a factory near the mouth of the Kongo, where the enterprising people of S. Thomé had already established commercial relations, although formal permission to do so was only granted them by King Manuel on March 26th, 1500. Dom Pedro, a cousin of the King of Kongo, accompanied him, with nine attendants, who, having been taught to read and write, returned to their native country with D. João Soares, early in 1494.310

The missionaries lost no time in preaching the doctrines of their Church; but whilst Don Affonso proved an ardent Christian, who recklessly destroyed all fetishes discovered in his province of Nsundi, the King himself soon grew lukewarm, owing to the priests’ interference with polygamy and other valued social institutions. In the country at large, the heathen still held their ground.

D. Affonso I, 1509-1540.311

And thus it happened that when João I died in 1509, the chiefs favoured his second son, Mpanzu a nzinga,312 a heathen, whilst the dowager queen and the Count of Sonyo took the part of the elder brother. Don Affonso, immediately on hearing of his father’s illness, hurried up to the capital, accompanied by only thirty-six Christians. He found that his father had died. His brother approached with a mighty army, but five flaming swords seen in the heavens on the eve of battle gave courage to his small following, whilst a white cross and the appearance of St. James at the head of the celestial host struck terror into the hearts of the assailants. They fled in a panic.313 Mpanzu himself was taken, wounded, and decapitated.

Order having been restored throughout the country, King Affonso availed himself of the presence of Gonçalo Rodriguez Ribeiro, who had come from Portugal with a number of priests, and was about to return to that country, to send an embassy to Pope Julius II and King Manuel.314 The head of this mission was Don Pedro (de Castro?), a cousin of the King (who was accompanied by his wife), and with him went D. Manuel, a brother of the King, and D. Henrique, a son. The presents conveyed to Portugal included seven hundred copper bracelets, elephant tusks, slaves, parrots, civet cats and other animals, and native cloth. D. Henrique remained behind at Rome, where he was ordained and created Bishop of Utica in 1518.315

The mission sent by King Manuel in return was far-reaching in its effects upon the political development of Kongo.316 Of its magnitude we may judge when we learn that it embarked in five vessels. Its leader, Simão da Silva, dying on the road to S. Salvador, his place was taken by Alvaro Lopes, the Royal factor. In his company were priests, experienced soldiers, masons and carpenters to build churches and a royal palace, and a lawyer (leterado) to explain the law books which figured among the royal gifts, besides horses, mules, cloth, banners, church furniture and images. The ambassador was instructed to explain the management of the royal household in Portugal, and King Affonso quickly learnt the lessons he received, and at once introduced the Portuguese titles of Duke, Marquis, and Count. The ambassador likewise had with him an elaborate coat-of-arms for the King,317 and twenty less ambitious heraldic designs for his principal noblemen; and the monarch himself adopted a title closely imitated from that of his “brother” of Portugal.318 The ambassador was likewise instructed to make inquiries about the origin of the Kongo in a lake, and to bring home cargoes of slaves, copper and ivory.

The King was delighted with all these gifts, not being aware that by accepting them he virtually acknowledged himself to be a vassal of the King of Portugal; and he published a long manifesto to his people, in which he dwelt upon his past career, the blessings of the Christian faith, and the honours now done him. He actually read the six bulky folios, but he told Ruy d’Aguiar (in 1516) that if complicated laws like these were to be introduced in his dominions, not a day would pass without a legal offence of some kind being committed.319

The intercourse between Kongo and Lisbon must have been very active in those days. We learn, for instance, that in 1526 the King asked for physicians and apothecaries, and in 1530 he forwarded to his “brother” Manuel two silver bracelets, which he had received from Matamba. Many young Kongoese were sent to Portugal to be educated; but, to judge from a letter written by the King in 1517, the results were not always very gratifying.320 Nay, he accuses Antonio Viera, to whom he entrusted twenty young relations to be taken to Portugal, of having parted with several among them to Mpanzu-alumbu, his enemy, and of having left others behind him at S. Thomé.321 A second embassy left Kongo in 1540, to do homage to Pope Paul III. It was headed by D. Manuel, a brother of the King, who had been a member of D. Pedro’s mission. King Affonso expected the King of Portugal to pay 3,000 cruzados towards the expenses of this mission, in consideration of the large profits which he derived from the trade with Kongo.322

As a member of the Church militant, King Affonso deserved well of the priesthood. He ruthlessly ordered all fetishes to be destroyed throughout his dominions, but supplied their place with images of saints, crosses, agni dei, and other ecclesiastical paraphernalia, which he held to be more effectual. The clergy were numerous in his day, and in addition to secular priests included Franciscans, Dominicans and Austin Friars. They were wealthy, too, for lands and slaves had been given them, and Christian churches arose even in remote parts of the country. A Franciscan friar, Antonio de Dénis (known in the world as D. Diogo de Vilhegas) had been appointed Bishop of S. Thomé and Kongo,323 and took possession of his see in 1534, on which occasion exceptional honours were shown him. He was a man of energy and much sincerity, but, unhappily for his Church, survived only a few years. On his death-bed he desired that D. Henrique, the King’s son, whom he himself had ordained a priest, when in Rome, and whom the Pope (as already mentioned) had created Bishop of Utica in 1518, should succeed him in the episcopal chair. The Pope, however, before he would consent to the appointment of a native, desired personally to inquire into the matter. D. Henrique went to Rome, but died on the voyage home, in 1539 or earlier.

King Affonso deserved his reputation as a zealous Christian, and had certainly proved himself a good friend to the regular and secular clergy who undertook to convert his people. Yet, as early as 1515, he had occasion to call upon the King of Portugal to aid him in suppressing the irregularities of these “unworthy preachers of the Holy Catholic Faith,” whose inordinate desire of power and covetousness brought scandal upon the Church, and promised little for the future.324 Towards the close of his reign, in 1540, one of these priests, Frei Alvaro, actually attempted to assassinate the King, in church, and after Mass!325

The Portuguese living at the time in Kongo were placed under a royal factor and a Corregedor (magistrate), and enjoyed ex-territorial jurisdiction. They had a factory at Mpinda, at the mouth of the Kongo, where the King of Portugal levied heavy duties. The commercial relations do not appear to have been at all times of the most friendly nature. In 1514 the King complained that Fernão de Mello, the Governor of S. Thomé, traded with the Mpangu-lungu326 who were his enemies; and in 1526 he remonstrated against the conduct of the Portuguese slave-merchants. Indeed, so preposterous were the claims put forward by the Portuguese officials, that King Affonso, in 1517, humbly begged to be allowed to employ a ship of his own when trading; or, at least to be exempted from paying the heavy duties exacted by a foreign, albeit suzerain, power upon the outlanders trading in his kingdom. These ill-advised exactions explain, too, why trade gradually deserted the Kongo, and sought more favourable openings to the south, at Luandu, as is shown by an inquiry held in 1548.327

The Portuguese made an effort to exploit the mineral wealth of the country. Ruy Mendes, the “factor of the copper mines,” is stated to have discovered lead; and Gimdarlach (Durlacher?), a German “fundidor,” in 1593 discovered copper, lead, and silver. The King, however, would not allow the mines to be worked, for he feared that such a concession might cost him his kingdom.

Proposals for the exploration of the interior were made, but bore no fruit. Gregòrio de Quadra, who had spent several years as a prisoner among the Arabs, was sent to Kongo in 1520, with instructions to make his way thence to the country of Prester John. The King refused his consent; Quadra returned to Portugal, and died a monk.328 Balthasar de Castro, the companion of Manuel Pacheco in Angola, desired to explore the upper Kongo in 1526; but neither his scheme nor that of Manuel Pacheco himself, who was to have built two brigantines, seems to have been carried out.

Of the domestic wars corned on by the King, we know next to nothing. Angola and Matamba seem to have been virtually independent in his day, though the island of Luandu, with its valuable cowry-fishery, was held by him and his successors until 1649. He conquered, however, Mpanzu-alumbu (Mpangu-lunga?)329 on the lower Kongo, a district inhabited by a predatory tribe.330 That his successes in these “wars” were due to his Portuguese mercenaries and their fire-locks is a matter of course.

Don Affonso died in 1540, or soon afterwards, leaving behind him a son, D. Pedro, who succeeded him, and three daughters.331

D. Pedro and his Successors, 1540-1561.

Pedro I had been educated in Portugal, and is described by Cavazzi as a wise prince who had inherited all the virtues of his father, and was a great friend of the missionaries. His reign was apparently a short one,332 and he was succeeded by a cousin, D. Francisco, who only reigned two or three years, and left the kingdom to a son,333 D. Diogo.334 Duarte Lopez describes this prince as a man of noble mind, witty, intelligent, prudent in council, an upholder of the missionaries, and at the same time a great warrior who, in the course of a few years, conquered many of the neighbouring countries. His “wars” certainly did not enlarge the borders of his kingdom, and the only war we know of ended in disaster. The Portuguese at S. Salvador, jealous of the growing commercial importance of Luandu, had persuaded the King to send an army against Ngola Mbandi, they themselves furnishing an auxiliary corps. The Kongoese, in spite of this, were defeated on the river Dande (about 1556); and Ngola not only appealed to Portugal for protection, but also allied himself with the Jagas, with whose aid he invaded Kongo (in 1558).

Nor were the relations of D. Diogo with the missionaries quite as friendly as Lopez would lead us to believe. As early as 1549, D. Diogo complained of the overbearing conduct of the Jesuits who had arrived in that year in the company of D. João Baptista, the Bishop of S. Thomé;335 the priests, on their side, accused the King of having shown little respect to the bishop, and of having ordered them to be pulled out of their pulpits, when they denounced his vices and those of his people.336 The Jesuits may have been over-zealous in the performance of what they conceived to be their duty, and too prone to meddle in politics; but they seem to have led clean lives, which cannot be said of all of their clerical brethren. When D. Gaspar Cão,337 the Bishop of S. Thomé and Kongo, a man who took the duties of his office seriously, visited S. Salvador, these priests openly defied his authority. But after several of the recalcitrant priests had been deported to Portugal, whilst others had left voluntarily with such wealth as they had been able to amass, discipline was re-established.338

A Reign of Anarchy, 1561-1568.

When Diogo died, about 1561, the Portuguese residents endeavoured to secure the throne for one of their own creatures, and caused the duly elected favourite of the people to be assassinated. As a result, the people of S. Salvador rose upon the Portuguese, many of whom were killed, not even priests being spared. The accounts339 of this period of disorder are too confused to enable us to be certain even of the names of the reigning kings. D. Affonso II, a son (probably illegitimate) of D. Diogo, ascended the throne of his father, but was murdered by his brother, D. Bernardo, who appears to have been the candidate favoured by the Portuguese. He at once sent Father Estevão de Laguos on an embassy to Queen Catherine of Portugal, who, in a letter dated June 26th, 1562,340 congratulated him upon his accession, whilst gently chiding him for the murder of his brother. This King was evidently friendly disposed towards the Portuguese; and Antonio Vieira, a negro, who had visited Portugal as member of an embassy, when writing to Queen Catherine in April 1566,341 suggested that he might be induced to allow the mines of copper and tin to be worked. D. Bernardo is stated by the Duke of Mbamba to have fallen in a war with the Anzicas, “in defence of Christianity and the Fatherland.” He was succeeded by D. Henrique, a brother of D. Diogo, who, after a short and troubled reign, died of a wound received in a battle, either against some revolted vassals,342 or fighting the Anzicanas.343 He was the last king of the original dynasty, for Alvaro I, his successor, was only a step-son.

D. Alvaro I and the Ayaka, 1568-1574.344

D. Alvaro, immediately on his accession, sent an embassy to Portugal, to apologise for the massacre of many Portuguese during the reigns of his predecessors, which he excused on the ground of the vices and abuses of the clergy. These excuses were apparently accepted in Portugal, fortunately for D. Alvaro, for the very next year the dreaded Ayaka345 invaded his kingdom by way of Mbata; and, being worsted, the King fled with his adherents to the Hippopotamus Island,346 on the lower Kongo, where they suffered many hardships, and whence he appealed piteously to the Portuguese for help. This help was not denied him. Francisco de Gouvea, corregedor of S. Thomé, in 1570, hastened to his aid with six hundred Portuguese, expelled the Ayaka, reinstated the King in his capital, and built a wall round S. Salvador for greater security. The King fully recognised the value of the service that had been rendered him, for Paulo Dias de Novaes told Garcia Mendes347 that he acknowledged himself a vassal of Portugal;348 and as neither gold or silver had been discovered in his country, he agreed to pay a tribute in njimbos, which he actually did for a few years.

No sooner was Alvaro once more seated securely upon his throne than he sent the Count of Sonyo against Ngola (1572). Several encounters took place in Musulu and Mbuila (Ambuila); but in the end Ngola was allowed to retain his father’s conquests, the river Dande being fixed upon as the boundary between the two kingdoms. Kongo, however, retained possession of the valuable island of Luandu.

Among other events of this reign we should mention a second visit of D. Gaspar Cão, the bishop, shortly before his death (in 1574); and the scandal caused by the burial of a notorious infídel, D. Francisco Mbula matadi, in the church of S. Cruz, the roof of which was taken off by night, and the body, carried away by the Devil!349

D. Alvaro only enjoyed his prosperity for a short time, for when Paulo Dias landed at Luandu, in 1575, he was already dead.350

D. Alvaro II, 1574-1614.

Alvaro II, a son of Alvaro I, is described by Bishop D. Manuel Baptista as a “zealous Christian, father and friend of all;”351 but it is evident that he looked not with overmuch favour upon the Portuguese residents in his country, and he is charged, in a memoir addressed by Domingos d’Abreu Brito to King Philip I, in 1592 with having plotted with the kings of Ndongo and Matamba against the Portuguese. An army which he sent ostensibly to the aid of the Portuguese in 1583 retired, apparently without striking a blow, whilst he furnished a contingent to the forces of Matamba which invaded Angola in 1590. He hindered, by specious excuses, the completion of a stone fort at Mpinda, which had been commenced in 1609 by Antonio Gonçalves Pitta, until all the workmen had died. He favoured Dutch traders to the great detriment of the Portuguese; and we know from Samuel Braun,352 that an effort was made in 1612 to expel the Dutch from the Kongo, and that it would have been successful, had not the natives sided with these heretical enemies, whose dealings appeared to them to be more generous. Moreover, the King, although he had promised Sebastian da Costa (1580) that he would allow the supposed silver mines to be sought for, eventually refused his consent.353

Turning to Church affairs, we hear of the usual applications for missionaries, and of several episcopal visitations by D. F. Antonio de Goiva (1578), D. Manuel de Ulhoa, D. Miguel Baptista Rangel, and D. Manuel Baptista. D. Manuel de Ulhoa presided over a synod at S. Salvador, in 1585, and laid down statutes for the government of his see. D. Miguel Baptista Rangel was the first Bishop of Kongo, which had been separated from the diocese of S. Thomé by a Bull of May 20th, 1596. His successor, D. Manuel Baptista, resided for several years in Kongo, where he died in 1621; and a letter addressed to King Philip II, in 1612,354 speaks of the results of over a century of missionary effort as insignificant, and describes the people as incurable barbarians, full of vice.

D. Pedro II Affonso, 1622-1624.

Bernardo II, a son of Alvaro II, only reigned for a few months, for he was killed by his brother, Alvaro III, and a complaint addressed to him by the Governor of Angola about the admission of heretical Dutchmen to trade in Sonyo was answered by his successor. This Alvaro III, the fratricide, is nevertheless described by Cavazzi as having been “wise, modest, courageous, and above all a zealous Christian.” It was during his reign, in 1619, that the Jesuits founded a college at S. Salvador. A proposed mission of Italian Capuchins came to nothing, for King Philip of Spain, by royal letters of September 22nd, 1620, forbade foreign missionaries to enter Portuguese colonies without first obtaining a royal license.355 Alvaro III died on May 26th, 1622, and was succeeded by D. Pedro II Affonso, whom Cavazzi describes as a son of Alvaro III; whilst a Jesuit canon of S. Salvador,356 who wrote an interesting life of this prince in 1624, makes him out to have been a son of Mbiki a ntumba, Duke of Nsundi, and a descendant, in the female line, of the first King of Kongo. If this biographer can be trusted, he was a man of much promise, and of a mild, forgiving temper; for although the Duke of Mbamba had sought his life, he conferred upon him the marquisate of Wembo. His reign was a short and troubled one. In August, 1622, the Duke of Mbata had been killed by rebels, and his vassal, the King of Kwangu (Ocango), had suffered a defeat. João Corrêa de Souza, the Governor of Angola, summoned him to surrender Luandu Island and all the copper mines; and this being refused, the Portuguese under Luiz Gomez, aided by the Jagas, crossed the Dande at Ikau and invaded Nambu a ngongo, and (in December) also Mbumbi, where the Duke of Mpemba and many others were killed and eaten by the Jagas, in spite of their being Christians. The people of the invaded districts revenged themselves by killing the Portuguese living in their midst, the King vainly endeavouring to protect them. These invaders had scarcely been driven off, when Captain Silvestre Soares, with a body of Jagas, entered Ngombe and Kabanda. But that which gave most pain to the King was the destruction of the kingdom of Bangu, and the murder of its King by the Jagas, with the aid of the King of “Loango,” which was the “trunk and origin of the kingdom of Kongo.”357 In the midst of these afflictions, the King was rejoiced to learn the arrival of D. Simão Mascarenhas at Luanda; but he met with an accident, and died on April 13th, 1624, after a short reign of less than two years, and mourned by six sons and two daughters.358

D. Pedro’s successors, 1624-1641.

Garcia, the eldest son of D. Pedro, when elected was only twenty years of age, He was succeeded by D. Ambrosio, in October, 1626, whose reign, up till March, 1631, was one continuous warfare with his powerful vassals. The country became unsafe, and the Portuguese retired for a time from S. Salvador. Alvaro IV, a son of Alvaro III, made himself master of the kingdom, and retained possession until his death, February 25th, 1636. He was succeded by his son, Alvaro V, who, doubting the loyalty of his half-brothers, the Duke of Mbamba and the Marquis of Kiowa, made war upon them, was defeated and taken prisoner, but liberated. Unmindful of the generosity of his opponents, he once more tried the fortune of battle, was taken again, and executed (in August, 1636). The Duke of Mbamba was unanimously elected in his place, and reigned, as Alvaro VI, until his death on February 22nd, 1641. He waged two unsuccessful wars against the Count of Sonyo, in 1636 and again in 1637; and was obliged to surrender the district of Makuta (Mocata) to his adversary.

Garcia II Affonso, o Kimbaku, 1641-1663,359

the half-brother and old companion in arms of Alvaro VI, took possession of the throne at a critical time; for in August of the year of his accession, the Dutch captured Luandu, and the fortunes of the Portuguese were at the lowest ebb. The Dutch lost no time in sending an embassy to Kongo (1642),360 and these new allies lent him their assistance in a small war against Mwana Nsala, who had defied the royal authority.361 But they declined to give effective help against a more powerful vassal, the Count of Sonyo, as it might have interfered with their trade interests on the Lower Kongo.362 The King’s army was defeated twice on April 29th, 1645, when Affonso, the King’s son, was taken prisoner, and again in July 1648, in the forest of Mfinda angulu. Meanwhile the Dutch had broken the padrão set up by Cão at the mouth of the Kongo; they had re-named S. Antonio’s Bay after their river Pampus at Amsterdam; had gone to S. Salvador; and at least one of them, Johan Herder,363 had travelled far inland, and visited the Mwana Nkundi on the Kwangu. The heretical tracts and books which they liberally distributed were in due course burnt by the Capuchin friars.

Portugal was, moreover, irritated by the admission of Italian and Castilian Capuchins, a batch of whom, headed by P. Bonaventura of Alessano,364 arrived at S. Salvador, on September 2nd, 1645, without having previously called at Lisbon. This first mission was followed by three others in 1648, 1651 and 1654,365 and mission stations were established in Mbata, in Nkusu, Nsundi, Mpemba, Mbwela, and Wembo (Ovando).366 Among the more noteworthy missionary travels of the time was that of P. Girolamo of Montesarchio, who visited Konko a bele (Concobello), in 1652.367

Even greater offence was given to Portugal by a mission which the King despatched to Rome in 1646, and which arrived there, by way of Holland, in May, 1648. P. Angelo de Valenza, the head of this mission, had been instructed to beg the Pope to appoint three bishops for Kongo, Matamba and the Makoko’s country, without reference to the claims of Portugal. This the Pope declined to do; but to show his pleasure at receiving this mission, he had a medal struck in memory of its visit, with the inscription “Et Congo agnovit Pastorem,” and sent the King a Royal crown blessed by himself. The King, however, when his mission returned (1651), and when he heard that the Pope had refused to change Kongo from an elective into a hereditary monarchy, grew wroth. He openly renounced Christianity, forbade the Capuchins to preach the word of God, and recalled his native ngangas. But when some bags containing relics and ornaments, which the King had taken out of the churches, were miraculously spared by a fire which broke out in his palace, he reconsidered his position. A reconciliation with the Capuchins was effected, and soon afterwards the King, in penitential robes, actually marched at the head of a procession which had been organised to turn away a threatened plague of locusts; he allowed himself to be crowned by P. Giannuario of Nola, in the name of his Holiness, and took an active part in the celebration of the Pope’s jubilee.368

Meanwhile the Portuguese had recovered Luandu, and the King was called upon to pay the penalty for having made friendship with the Dutch heretics, and admitted foreigners as missionaries. Bartholomeu de Vasconcellos invaded Kongo. The King at once sent P. Domingos Cardoso, a Jesuit, and the Capuchin Friar Bonaventura Sardo, to Luandu, where they had an interview with the Governor (on February 19th, 1649), and preliminary terms of peace were arranged.369 The treaty was reported upon by the Conselho Ultramarino, and confirmed in 1651 at Lisbon, whither Friar Bonaventura370 of Sorrento had gone to do homage to the King of Portugal, on behalf of the Prefect of the Capuchins, as also to plead the cause of his Order in reference to the proposed treaty. The terms of this treaty, as modified, were as follows:—Castilians or Dutchmen not to be permitted to reside or travel in Kongo nor their ships to be admitted, unless provided with a Portuguese passport; the Capuchin friars to communicate with Rome only by way of Luandu or Lisbon, and no Castilians to be admitted among them; the Kings of Kongo and Portugal to mutually assist each other if attacked by an enemy; an ambassador of the King of Kongo to take up his residence at Luandu, as also a royal prince, as hostage, or in his absence two or three men of rank; compensation to be granted for all the losses suffered by the Portuguese since the arrival of the Dutch, and fugitive slaves to be surrendered; Portuguese merchants to be exempted from the payment of tolls; a site to be granted at the mouth of the Kongo for a fortress; all gold and silver mines to be ceded to the crown of Portugal, and the country to the south of the river Dande to be ceded absolutely; and finally the King of Kongo to acknowledge himself a “tributario” of Portugal.

The King seems to have long hesitated before he ratified this treaty, for in 1656, Diogo Gomes de Morales was ordered to invade Kongo to enforce it, and was on the point of crossing the river Loje into Mbamba, when he was recalled, as envoys from the King had arrived at Luandu, definitely to arrange the terms of peace.

During the later years of his life, D. Garcia once more fell away from his Christian teachers, whom he accused of being influenced by political motives. Suspecting the Duke of Mpemba of a desire to deprive his son of the succession, he had him executed; and when the native diviners accused his eldest son, Affonso, of aiming at his life, he had his second son elected as his successor. He died in 1663.

D. Antonio I, 1663-66.

D. Antonio had been enjoined by his dying father to avenge the humiliation forced upon him by the Portuguese. He inaugurated his reign by killing his own brother and other relatives, whom he suspected of disloyalty. The warnings of heaven—fiery balls, an earthquake, which destroyed part of his capital, a plague, which decimated the population—were disregarded by him.

He very soon found himself involved in a war with the Portuguese, who claimed possession of the mines which had been promised by treaty, and complained of raids made upon friendly chiefs. On July 13th, 1665, the King called upon his people to rise in defence of their country and liberty.371 His diviners had promised him an easy victory. The Portuguese had recently been reinforced from Brazil, yet the army which they were able to put into the field only numbered four hundred Europeans, with two field guns and six thousand negroes. It was commanded by Luiz Lopez de Sequeira, the captain-major, with whom were Manuel Rebello de Brito, Diogo Rodriguez de Sá, Simão de Matos and Antonio Araujo Cabreira, the serjeant-major. The hostile forces met on January 1st, 1666, at Ulanga, near the Pedras de Ambuilla.372 Antonio, seeing the small force opposed to him, hoped to gain an easy victory; but the Portuguese, formed in square, resisted the onslaught of his hosts for six hours. At last the King left the ranks, desirous of a personal encounter with Lopez de Sequeira; but he was shot down, his head was cut off, and stuck upon a pike. His followers fled in dismay. The missionaries assert that the Virgin Mary, with her Child, was seen to stand by the side of the Portuguese leader, directing the battle, and that a fiery rain fell upon the idolaters.373

The Governor of Angola, in commemoration of this victory, built the chapel of N.S. da Nazareth at Luandu, whilst the King of Portugal amply rewarded the victors.

A Time of Anarchy, after 1666.

We are indebted to Pedro Mendes for an account of the history of Kongo from the death of D. Antonio in 1666 to the beginning of the eighteenth century.374 During that time, according to this authority, there were fourteen Kings of Kongo, of whom four were beheaded (or killed) by the Musurongo, five by the Ezikongo, three died a natural death, and two were survivors when he wrote, namely, D. Pedro IV, at Salvador, and D. João at Mbula.375 At one time there were actually three kings in the field.

Alvaro VII, a royal prince who had passed his early life in retirement, but who, on being raised to the throne, turned out a monster of iniquity, was killed by his own subjects, abetted by the Count of Sonyo (1666), under whose auspices took place the election of his successor, D. Alvaro VIII (1666-70), who was in turn removed by the Marquis of Mpemba. Alvaro VIII376 had allowed the Portuguese to search for gold, but this search turned out as fruitless as the search for silver at Kambambe. Meanwhile D. Affonso III Affonso had been proclaimed at Kibangu, the new capital (1667), whilst D. Pedro III nsukia ntamba was put up as an opposition King in Mbula. The latter defeated his rival, who fled beyond the Mbiriji (Ambriz), and died there (of poison?). His widow, D. Anna, a daughter of a former King, Garcia, retired to Nkondo (Mucondo), and survived her husband until 1680. The people proclaimed D. Garcia III nenganga mbemba377 his successor, whilst the opposition, at the old capital (S. Salvador), declared D. Daniel de Guzman, descendant of Mpanzu (Alvaro I), to be the rightful King. D. Daniel took the field against D. Garcia III, but, before he reached the residence of that King, he was overtaken by D. Pedro of Mbula; his army was dispersed, and himself beheaded. His children sought refuge with the Count of Sonyo, and by treachery they succeeded in getting D. Pedro into their power, and killed him. The people of Mbula thereupon raised his brother, D. João, to the throne, who survived until after 1710. S. Salvador, after D. Daniel had deserted it, became the haunt of wild beasts.

Meanwhile D. Rafael, Marquis of Mpemba, who had been proclaimed King some time anterior to this, had been obliged to seek refuge among the Portuguese, and his reinstatement was one of the objects of the disastrous expedition of 1670,378 by which it was sought to punish Count Estevão da Silva of Sonyo for his desecration of Christian churches and the ill-treatment of Portuguese traders: or, rather, his dealings with heretic competitors.

João Soares de Almeida, the commander of this expedition, had with him five hundred Portuguese, supported by a strong force of native allies, among whom was a Jaga Kalandula. He won a battle, in which Estevão was killed; but Pedro, the brother of the unfortunate Count, rallied the forces of Sonyo, unexpectedly fell upon the Portuguese near the Mbiriji (Ambriz),and scarcely a man among them escaped. Count Pedro then expelled the Italian Capuchins, who were supposed to be friendly to Portugal, and invited in their stead Belgian members of the same Order, who arrived in September, 1673, under the lead of P. Wouters. But, having been accused of stopping the rain, and having in reply excommunicated the Count, they were speedily expelled.379 Peace between Sonyo and Portugal was only restored in 1690, when the former promised to abolish idolatry and to sell no slaves to heretics.

It was about this period (between 1669 and 1675) that Francisco do Murça, the captain-major of Dande, visited S. Salvador, and proceeded thence to Mbata and the Kwangu, where he was told that this river flowed through the kingdom of the Makoko, and entered the sea at Mpinda, a fact long before known to the missionaries. These latter had not quite abandoned the Kongo, notwithstanding these troubles, and in 1668 the Capuchins still occupied their monasteries at the capital of Mbamba and at Mpembu;380 whilst Girolamo Merolla (1682-88) and Antonio Zucchelli steadily laboured (1700-02) in Sonyo and Luangu.381

D. Andre succeeded D. Garcia, but died after a short reign. D. Manuel nzinga elenge, a descendant of Mpanzu, was duly elected, but expelled by the sons of the late D. Garcia, who raised Alvaro IX to the throne in his stead. This prince was never recognised by the Count of Sonyo, who looked upon D. Manuel, who had sought refuge with him, as the legitimate King. He was reinstated by him for a time, but ultimately fell into the power of his enemies, and was beheaded.

Alvaro IX was succeeded in 1694 by his brother Pedro IV nsanu a mbemba, also known as agoa rosada,382 who once more returned to the ancient capital. He and D. João of Mbula were the only Kings alive in 1701, when the Capuchin Friar Francisco de Pavia, and his colleague Friar João Maria went throughout the kingdom of Kongo, preaching peace, and calling upon the leading men to recognise D. Pedro as their King; and thus put an end to quarrels which had distracted the country for an entire generation.

A Retrospect.

And if we ask to what extent, and in what manner, have the natives of Kongo been benefited by two centuries of contact with the civilisation of Europe, and of missionary effort, we feel bound to admit that they have not been benefited at all—either materially or morally. On the contrary. There were, no doubt, a few earnest men among the missionaries, and the Church of Rome deserves some credit for the zeal with which she addressed herself to the object of converting the natives. At the same time it cannot be denied that the instruments she employed, the methods she pursued, and the surrounding circumstances, were not favourable to success. And success there has been none—at least, none of an enduring nature—notwithstanding the boastful, if not absolutely mendacious, reports of her missionaries. The assertion that there was a time when the whole of Kongo had become Roman Catholic must raise a smile on the face of those who have attentively studied the missionary reports. There were eleven churches and a crowd of priests at the capital; but the outlying provinces were but poorly attended to. The number of missionaries, even including the native helpers, was never large enough to administer, even to a tithe of the population, those rites and sacraments, which the Roman Catholic Church professes to be of essential importance.383

I quite agree with the Rev. J. Leighton Wilson, when he says that the “great spiritual edifice” [raised by the missionaries] has not only “crumbled into the dust, but it has left the unfortunate inhabitants of that country in as deep ignorance and superstition, and perhaps in greater poverty and degradation, than they would have been if Roman Catholicism had never been proclaimed among them.”384 Father José Antonio de Souza, who resided at S. Salvador from 1881-87, and was subsequently created Bishop of Mozambique, virtually admits this, for he says: “Christianity did not penetrate deeply; it passed over the country like a heavy rain, which scarcely wetted the surface of the land, and left the subsoil absolutely dry and sterile.”385 He adds significantly: “By the side of the missionary stood the slave-trader.” And surely it was the export slave trade, created by the cupidity of the Portuguese, but shared in by Dutch, French and English, which undermined the prosperity of the country, and decimated its population. And the missionaries never raised a protest against this traffic, although it was against the tenets of their Church,386 for they profited by it. The only thing which they did for the wretched slaves was to endeavour to secure, as far as possible, that they should not fall into the hands of heretics; so that at least their souls might be saved, whatever became of their bodies.

APPENDIX III.

A LIST OF THE KINGS OF KONGO.

(NTOTELA NTINU MAKONGO.)

1. Ntinu mini a lukeni.

2. Nanga kia ntinu, his nephew or cousin.

3. — —

4. Nkuwu a ntinu, son of No. 1.

5. João I Nzinga a nkuwu, son of No. 4, baptised May 3rd, 1491, died 1509.

6. Mpanzu a nzinga (Mpanzu a kitima?), second son of No. 5, 1509.

7. Affonso I Mbemba a nzinga (Mbemba nelumbu), eldest son of No. 5, 1509-40.

8. Pedro I Nkanga a mbemba, son of No. 7, 1540-44.

9. Francisco Mpudi a nzinga, 1544-46.

10. Diogo Nkumbi a mpudi, son of No. 9, 1546-61.

11. Affonso II Mpemba a nzinga, an illegitimate son of No. 10? 1561.

12. Bernardo I, (bastard) son of No. 10, 1561-67.

13. Henrique (Nerika) a mpudi, son of No. 9, 1567-68.

14. Alvaro I o Mpanzu, Mini a lukeni lua mbamba, stepson of No. 12, 1568-74.

15. Alvaro II Nempanzu a Mini, son of No. 14, 1574-1614.

16. Bernardo II Nenimi a mpanzu, son of No. 15, 1615.

17. Alvaro III Mbiki a mpanzu, Duke of Mbamba, son of No. 15, 1615 to May 26th, 1622.

18. Pedro II Affonso Nkanga a mbiki, son of Mbiki an tumbo, Duke of Nsundi, grandson of a daughter of No. 7, 1622 to April 13th, 1624.

19. Garcia I Mbemba a nkanga, Duke of Mbamba, son of No. 18, April 1624, to June 26th, 1626.

20. Ambrosio I, October 10th, 1626, to March, 1631.

21. Alvaro IV, son of No. 17, 1631 to February 25th, 1636.

22: Alvaro V, son of No. 21, 1636-38.

23. Alvaro VI, Duke of Mbamba, August, 1638, to February 22nd, 1641.

24. Garcia II o kimbaku, (Nkanga a lukeni), Marquis of Kiwa, 1641-63.

25. Antonio I Nevita a nkanga, mwana mulaza, son of No. 24, 1663-66.

26. Alvaro VII Nepanzu a masundu, 1666-67.

27. Pedro III Nsukia ntamba of Mbula, 1667-79.

28. Alvaro VIII, 1667-78.

29. Affonso III Affonso, 1667-69.

30. Garcia III Nenganga mbemba, 1669-78.

31. Rafael I, marquis of Mpemba, 1669-75.

32. Daniel de Guzman Nemiala nia gimbuilla (?), a descendant of No. 14, 1678-80.

33. João of Mbula, brother of No. 27, 1679—(He was alive in 1710).

34. André mulaza, a descendant of No. 25, 1679.

35. Manuel Nzinga elenge, a descendant of No. 14, 1680-16—.

36. Alvaro IX Nenimi a mbemba, a descendant both of No. 14 and of No. 25.

37. Pedro IV, Nsanu a mbemba (Agoa rosada), brother of No. 36, acceded 1694, and was alive in 1710.

38. Pedro Constantino Kibangu. He was executed in 1709.

The dates given for Nos. 26-38, are for the most part very uncertain: Nos. 26, 28, 31, and 32 I believe to have resided at S. Salvador; Nos. 29, 30, 34, 35, 36 and 37, at Kibangu; Nos. 27 and 33, in Mbula.

APPENDIX IV.

A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF ANGOLA

TO THE

END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

Early Portuguese Visitors.

The inhabitants of S. Thomé were granted permission in 1500387 to trade as far as the Kongo river; but it is just possible that long before that time, and notwithstanding an interdict of 1504, they had felt their way southward along the coast, and had discovered that a profitable trade, not hampered by the presence of royal officials or “farmers,” might be carried on at Luandu, and up a river which, after the King of the country, was called the river of Ngola (Angola).

Several years afterwards, a representative of this Ngola, whilst on a visit at S. Salvador, suggested that missionaries should be sent to convert his master. King Manuel was nothing loth to act upon this suggestion, and entrusted Manuel Pacheco and Balthasar de Castro, both of whom were old residents in Kongo, with an expedition, whose main object was to report on the missionary and commercial prospects in Ngola’s country, to inquire into the existence of reputed silver mines, and, eventually, to explore the coast as far as the Cape of Good Hope. On arriving at the bar of Ngola’s river (the Kwanza), B. de Castro was to go to the King’s court, where, if circumstances were favourable, he was to be joined by a priest. Pacheco himself was to return to Portugal, with a cargo of slaves, ivory, and silver.388

No report of this mission has hitherto seen the light; but we know that B. de Castro actually reached Ngola’s residence, and that he was retained there as a prisoner, until released in 1526, through the intervention of the King of Kongo. He reported that he never saw silver or precious stones anywhere in Angola.389

The Early History of Ndongo (Angola).

Ndongo is the original name of the vast territory now known as Angola, from the name or title of its ruler (Ngola) when first the Portuguese became acquainted with it. The early history of this region is involved in obscurity, but it seems that its chiefs at one time owed allegiance to the King of Kongo, whose authority was finally shaken off about the middle of the sixteenth century, the King only keeping possession of Luandu island and its valuable njimbu fishery.

Cavazzi, Antonio Laudati of Gaeta, Cadornega, and others, have published long lists of Kings of “Angola;” but nearly all the names they give are not those of the Kings, but the titles which they assumed,390 and by which they were generally known. The full title of the King of Ndongo was Ngola kiluanji kia Samba,391 and that title is still borne by the present ruler, who claims to be a descendant of the kings of old, and whose Kabasa392 on the River Hamba (Va-umba or Umba) still occupies the locality assigned by the missionaries to Queen Nzinga’s Kabasa, where they built the church of S. Maria of Matamba.

Cavazzi’s Matamba, however, included the whole of Queen Nzinga’s kingdom, as it existed in his day, whilst the original Matamba, as also the country known by that name in the present day, had much narrower limits. It was originally tributary to Kongo, but one of its rulers assumed the title of Kambulu, that is, King, and renounced all vassalage to his former suzerain. It existed as an independent kingdom until 1627, when the famous Queen Nzinga took prisoner the dowager Queen, Muongo Matamba, and incorporated this ancient kingdom in her own dominions.393

It may have been a Ngola kiluanji, described by Cavazzi as the son of Tumba ria ngola and of a Ngola kiluanji kia Samba, who first invaded lower Ndongo, and assigned his conquest to one of his sons. But all is uncertainty, and there exists an inextricable confusion in the names of the Kings of upper and lower Ndongo as transmitted to us. One thing, however, is certain, namely, that as early as 1520 the country down to the sea was held by a king bearing the name or title of Ngola.394

The First Expedition of Paulo Dias de Novaes, 1560.

In 1556 Ngola Ineve,395 being threatened by Kongo, sent an ambassador to Portugal asking for the establishment of friendly relations. This ambassador arriving in the year of the death of King John III (1557), action was deferred until 1559, when three caravels were fitted out and placed under the command of Paulo Dias, a grandson of the discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope. Dias left Lisbon on December 22nd, 1559, and called at S. Thomé (where Bishop Gaspar Cão observed that the Jesuits, who accompanied Dias, would meet with no success as long as commercial intercourse was prohibited).396 Dias arrived at the bar of the Kwanza on May 3rd, and there waited patiently for six months, when Musungu, a native chief, made his appearance at the head of a crew of painted warriors, armed with bows and arrows. In his company Dias, accompanied by the Jesuit fathers and twenty men, travelled up the country for sixty leagues, when he arrived at the royal residence.397 The King, not any longer the Ngola who had asked for missionaries, but his successor,398 received his visitors kindly, but would net allow them to depart until they had helped him against one of his revolted Sobas, called Kiluanji kia kwangu by Garcia Mendes.399 Having rendered this service Dias was dismissed, but the Jesuits remained behind as hostages. Whilst Dias was absent in Europe, Ngola defeated an army sent against him, and thus compelled the recognition of the Dande river as his boundary, the island of Luandu alone, with its productive njimbu fishery, remaining with Kongo. Ngola ndambi died (in 1568?) before Dias returned.

The Second Expedition of Dias, 1574.

After a considerable delay, Dias was sent out as “Conquistador” of the territory recently visited by him. He left Lisbon on October 23rd, 1574, with seven vessels and three hundred and fifty men, most of them cobblers, tailors, and tradesmen.400 Among his officers were Pedro da Fonseca, his son-in-law, Luis Serrão, André Ferreira Pereira, and Garcia Mendes Castellobranco, all of whom subsequently won distinction as “Conquistadores.” Three Jesuit fathers (with P. Balthasar Barreira as superior), and three Dominicans accompanied him. These latter, however, not finding the country to their liking, soon sought more comfortable quarters in Kongo. Dias was authorised to grant estates (including full seignorial rights) to all such among his companions as were prepared to build a small fort at their own expense.

In February, 1575, the fleet sighted the coast near the Kwanza, and passing over the bar of Kurimba cast anchor in the fine bay of Luandu, and on February 20th Dias laid the foundations of a church.401 The island, at that time, was inhabited by forty Portuguese who had come from Kongo, and a considerable number of native Christians. Its cowry fisheries yielded great profit to its owner, the King of Kongo, who was represented by a governor.402 Not finding the site originally chosen for his capital to be suitable, Dias, in 1576, removed to what is now known as the Morro de S. Miguel, and he named the new colony “Reino de Sebaste na conquista de Ethiopia,” in honour of the King who fell gloriously at Al Kasr el Kebir, and its capital S. Paulo de Luandu.

Meanwhile the customary presents were exchanged with the King, whose name or title seems to have been Ngola a kiluanji. The King’s gifts included slaves, cattle, copper and silver bracelets, and aromatic Kakongo wood. The Cardinal King D. Henrique (1578-80) converted the silver bracelets into a chalice, which he presented to the church of Belem.

Friendly relations continued for three years. The King had been duly helped against his rebellious sobas; Pedro da Fonseca lived at the King’s residence as “ministro conservador” of the Portuguese, and a brisk trade seems to have sprung up with the new town of S. Paulo de Luandu, when it was insinuated to the King that the Portuguese ultimately intended to take possession of his country, and to sell his subjects abroad as slaves. The Catalogo traces these insinuations to the jealousy of a Portuguese trader “inspired by the Devil,” and although neither Garcia Mendes nor Abreu de Brito alludes to this infamy, their not doing so does not disprove the positive statement of the Catalogo.403 Moreover, whether the King’s mind was influenced by envoys from Kongo, or by a traitorous Portuguese, it must be admitted that the intentions of the Portuguese were not altogether misrepresented.

At all events, the results were immediately disastrous, for twenty Portuguese traders, who were at the King’s kabasa at the time, were murdered, together with one thousand slaves, and their merchandise was confiscated.

Dias in the Field, 1578-89.

Dias, before this happened, had already (in 1577) built the fort of S. Cruz,404 ten leagues up the Kwanza, and was at the time at a stockade on the Penedo de S. Pedro, still higher up on the river.405 When there, he was warned not to advance any further, and, suspecting treachery, he retired with his one hundred and fifty men to Kanzele (Anzele),406 where he entrenched himself (in 1578). Twenty days later he received news of the massacre. Dias at once hastened back to Luandu for reinforcements, the serjeant-major, Manuel João, meanwhile valiantly defending the stockade and raiding the neighbourhood.

In September, 1580, Dias again left Luandu with three hundred men. Slowly he proceeded along the Kwanza by land and in boats, punished the sobas Muchima, Kitangombe, and Kizua, in Kisama, and defeated the King’s army at Makunde,407 where he had his headquarters for two years, during which time his subordinates, João Serrão, Manuel João, and others, established his authority among the sobas of Kisama and Lamba (Ilamba).

In 1582 he removed to Masanganu, at the “meeting of the waters” of the Lukala and Kwanza. Determined to capture the reputed silver mines of Kambambe, he set out with Luiz Serrão, eighty Portuguese, and a “guerra preta” of thirty thousand men. During his forward march he defeated the soba Mbamba Tungu; and at an entrenched camp at Teka ndungu, on February 2nd, 1584, he inflicted a crushing defeat upon the King’s forces; the Jesuit Father Balthasar Barreiro claiming no little credit for having contributed to this victory by his prayers.408 As a result of this success, many of the sobas declared in favour of Portugal, but so inconsiderable were the forces at the command of Dias that he could do no more than maintain his position at Masanganu. An army under the Duke of Mbamba, which had been promised to him, was never sent.409 Reinforcements, however, arrived in the course of 1584 and 1586,410 and Dias fought a battle on the Lukala. But his subordinates did not always meet with a like success; and João Castanhosa Vellez, with one hundred Portuguese, was completely routed by the soba Ngola Kalungu.411

As an incident of the governorship of Paulo Dias may be mentioned the building of a fort at Benguella velho, by his nephew, Antonio Lopes Peixoto, in 1587. Unhappily, fifty men of the garrison ventured abroad, unarmed, and fell in an ambush; and of the twenty who had remained in the fort, and who offered a stout resistance, only two escaped. As a matter of fact, the losses of human life in these native wars were very considerable.

Paulo Dias died in the midst of preparations for a fresh expedition against Ngola, in October, 1589, and was buried in the church of N. S. da Victoria, which he himself had built at Masanganu.412

His soldiers elected Luiz Serrão, the captain-major, to succeed him.

Luiz Serrão and the Battle of 1590.

Luiz Serrão, having completed his preparations, started with an army numbering one hundred and twenty eight Portuguese musketeers (with three horses), and fifteen thousand native allies armed with bows. With this utterly insufficient force he crossed the Lukala, and then advanced to the east. On Friday, December 25th, 1590, when at Ngwalema a kitambu (Anguolome aquitambo) in Ari,413 he found himself face to face with the King of Matamba, whose army had been reinforced by Ngola, the King of Kongo, the Jaga Kinda,414 and others. Serrão desired to retire before this overwhelming host, but his subordinate officers, André Ferreira Pereira and Francisco de Sequeira, persuaded him to attack the enemy. He did so, on Monday, December 28th, 1590, and was defeated. The retreat was effected in good order. The vanguard of forty musketeers was led by João de Velloria, then came the “guerra preta,” whilst Serrão himself commanded the rear, and fought almost daily with his pursuers. The camp at Lukanza, with its valuable contents, had to be abandoned. At length, on reaching Akimbolo,415 many leagues to the rear, the fugitives met Luiz Mendez Rapozo, who had come up from Luandu with seventy-eight men. At last they reached the old presidio of Mbamba Tungu and Masanganu; Manuel Jorge d’Oliveira was at once sent down to Luandu for reinforcements, and on their arrival the siege was raised. L. Serrão survived this disaster only for a month; and when he died, his officers elected Luiz Ferreira Pereira, the captain-major, to take his place. The sobas all around, and in Lamba and Ngulungu, headed by one Muzi Zemba (Muge Asemba), were in the field, but they were held in check by Pereira, and the Portuguese name continued to be respected.

The Jaga.

Jaga or Jaka is a military title,416 and by no means the name of a people. The predatory man-eating bands at whose head they invaded the agricultural districts towards the sea coast, included elements of all kinds, not unlike the bands of the “Zulu” of our own time; and hence, one of the names by which they became known in Angola was Bangala.417 I have already stated that I do not think that these military leaders, or Jaga, have anything to do with the tribe of the Ayaka to the east of Kongo. Still less can we adopt the monstrous notion that the various inland tribes who, in the course of the sixteenth century, descended upon the coast of the most opposite parts of Africa, are to be identified with our Jaga. It was João Bermudes418 who first identified the Galla of Abyssinia with the Sumba, who raided the coast of Guinea about 1570. Duarte Lopez (pp. 66, 67) would have us believe that the Jaga came out of Moenemuge (Mwene muji), and called themselves Agag.419 But the people of Mwene muji, or the land of the Maravi, are in reality the Zimbas, who raided Kilwa and Mombasa in 1589, whilst “Agag” looks to me like a corruption of Agau, which is the name of an Abyssinian tribe.420 And hence arises this absurd confusion of Father Guerreiro, who expects us to believe that the Jaga are known in Kongo as Iacas, in Angola as Gindes,421 in “India” (that is, on the East coast of Africa) as Zimbas, in Prester John’s country as Gallas, and in Sierra Leone as Sumbas! Battell, who reports facts and leaves hypotheses alone, confesses that in his day nothing was known about the origin of this dreaded people.422

We have already met with Jaga in Kongo, as allies of Ngola. In 1590 they were fighting Luiz Serrão as the allies of Matamba, and by 1600 they appear to have advanced as far as the coast of Benguella, where Battell joined them, and had an opportunity of gaining an intimate knowledge of their daily life, not enjoyed by any other traveller. H. D. de Carvalho423 and A. R. Neves424 have been at the trouble of collecting such information on their origin as it is possible to gather after the lapse of three centuries. Entrusting ourselves to the guidance of the former of these authors, we learn that Kinguri, the son of the chief of the Bungo, in Lunda, was excluded by his father from the succession, in favour of his sister Lueji. Gathering around him his adherents, he left his native land to found a “state” elsewhere. He first settled in Kioko, then crossed the Upper Kwanza into Kimbundu (Binbundu of Bié), and reached Lubolo, where he made friends with the chief, Ngongo, whose daughter Kulachinga he married. He then crossed the Kwanza above Kambambe, entered into friendly relations with the Portuguese, visited the Governor, D. Manuel,425 and offered to fight on the side of the Portuguese. He was granted land at Lukamba,426 on the river Kamueji. Being dissatisfied with this land, on account of its sterility, he again turned to the eastward, and, crossing the Lui, finally settled in the country still occupied by his successors, who (according to Carvalho), were Kasanje, Ngonga ka mbanda, Kalunga ka kilombo, Kasanje ka Kulachinga, etc.427 Having settled down, Kinguri invited his father-in-law to join him, and his forces were subsequently increased by some discontented subjects of Queen Nzinga, led by Kalungu. His followers, being thus a mixture of many tribes, the Jagas were thenceforth chosen alternately among the three leading families of Kulachinga (Kinguri’s wife), Ngongo and Kalunga.428

It is perfectly clear from this information, collected in Lunda and Kasanje, that it throws no light upon the original Jaga, although it may explain the origin of the Jaga still ruling at Kasanje.

The account given by Ladislaus Magyar429 evidently refers to the same leader. According to him, a Jaga Kanguri settled in the country now occupied by the Sonyo three hundred years ago. His people were cannibals, but the more intelligent among them saw that this practice would ultimately lead to the destruction of the subject tribes upon whom they depended for support, and they founded the secret society of the Empacaceiros430 for the suppression of cannibalism. Being worsted in a civil war, they crossed the upper Kwanza into Bié, whilst Kanguri turned to the north-west and settled in Kasanje.

Cavazzi seems to go further back, for he tells us that Zimbo, who was the first chief of the Jaga (Aiacca), invaded Kongo, whilst one of his chiefs, “Dongij” (Ndongo?), invaded Matamba, and that the bloody “kichile,”431 or customs, were introduced by Musasa the wife, and Tembandumba the daughter, of this “Dongij.” The daughter married Kulambo, whom she poisoned; he was succeeded by Kinguri, who was killed during an invasion of Angola, Kulachimbo a great warrior, Kassanje, and many others; the last of whom, Kassanje ka nkinguri, was baptised in 1657.432

I confess my inability to evolve the truth out of these conflicting statements, and can only suppose that the title of “Jaga” was assumed by the leaders of predatory hordes of very diverse origin, in order to inspire terror in the hearts of peaceful tribes; just, as in more recent times, certain tribes in East Africa pretend to be Zulu for a like reason.

D. Francisco and D. Jeronymo d’Almeida, 1592-1594.

The new Governor, D. Francisco d’Almeida, arrived at S. Paulo, on June 24th, 1592, accompanied by four hundred foot-soldiers and fifty African horse, all picked men. Among the volunteers attending him were his brother, D. Jeronymo, Luis Lopez de Sequeira and Balthasar Rebello de Aragõa;433 and perhaps also Domingos d’Abreu de Brito, who, in a “Summario e descripção do Reino de Angola,” presented to King Philip I, proposed an expedition across Africa, and the protection of the road to be opened by a chain of forts.434

The new Governor, immediately on his arrival, found himself face to face with a religious difficulty. The Jesuits, ever since the days of Dias, expected to be consulted in all government business. They desired to be appointed “preceptors” (amos) of the native chiefs, their aim being evidently to create a theocratic government, such as they established subsequently in Paraguay. They “used their spiritual influence to induce the conquered sobas to refuse obedience to the civil powers;” and when d’Almeida made use of the authority conferred upon him at Madrid in order to crush this “nascent theocracy,” he was excommunicated.435 He certainly was unequal to cope with these domineering priests. Disheartened, he threw up a charge to which he felt unequal, and took ship for Brazil (April 8th, 1593).436

D. Jeronymo, at the urgent request of the Camara, took up the reins of government, and being of a more conciliatory nature than his brother, made peace with the Jesuits, and was thus able to take the field. He started with four hundred men and twenty horses, and received the submission of the sobas of Kisama, excepting the most powerful among them. On reaching the salt mines of Ndemba437 he founded a “presidio,” and garrisoned it with one hundred men. On his way to the silver-mines of Kambambe he was struck down with fever, and returned to Luandu, leaving Balthasar d’Almeida de Sousa and Pedro Alvares Rebello in command of the troops. They were imprudent, and on April 22nd, 1594, fell into an ambush prepared for them by the powerful chief Kafuche kabara (Cafuxe cambara). Only the captain-major, thanks to the swiftness of his horse, and a few men, escaped this disaster.438

João Furtado de Mendonça, 1594-1602.

D. Jeronymo was on the point of hurrying up with reinforcements when João Furtado de Mendonça arrived at Luandu (August 1st, 1594). He brought with him, not only four hundred men with thirty horses, but also twelve European women,439 the first ever seen in Luandu, in whose honour the town was decorated.

One of the most memorable events of his governorship was a campaign which he conducted up the river Mbengu. Starting at the worst time of the year (in March, 1496), he quickly lost two hundred men by fever. Having brought up fresh recruits from Luandu, he avenged himself for a disaster brought about by his own ignorance, by an exceptional severity in his treatment of the “rebels,” many of whom were blown from guns. This expedition kept the field for several years, and proceeded as far as Ngazi (Ingasia), the chief of which district was called Ngombe—the bullock.440

Meanwhile, João de Velloria,441 the captain-major, had severely punished the rebellious sobas of Lamba. Masanganu was once more blockaded by the King Ngola (1597), until relieved by Balthasar Rebello de Aragão. On again descending the Kwanza, he built a presidio in the territory of the chief Muchima, in Kisama (1559).442

The Campaign of 1602-3.443

A new Governor, João Rodrigues Coutinho, arrived early in 1602. He was acceptable to the Jesuits, and soon won the hearts of the people by his liberality. He had been authorised by the King to bestow five habits of the Order of Christ, dub five knights, and appoint thirty King’s chamberlains (moços da camara). Seven years’ receipts of the export duty on slaves were to be devoted to the building of forts at the salt mines (Ndemba), Kambambe, and in Benguela.