Note 296 — 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.

Both the Rev. W. H. Bentley and the Rev. Tho. Lewis believe Sonyo to be a corruption, at the mouths of natives, of San Antonio. This is quite possible, for when the old chief was baptised, in 1491, he received the name of Manuel (after the King), whilst his son was thenceforth known as Don Antonio. Images of Sa. Manuela and S. Antonio are still in existence, and are venerated by the natives as powerful fetishes (Bastian, Loangoküste, vol. i, p. 286). Soyo, according to the same author, is the name of a district near the Cabo do Padrão. Yet Garcia de Resende and Ruy de Pina, in their Chronicles of King João II, only know a Mani Sonho, whom João de Barros calls Mani Sono. No hint of the suggested corruption is given by any author.