The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell Part 1

The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell.

by Andrew Battell.

INTRODUCTION.

Four Englishmen are known to have visited Angola towards the close of the sixteenth century, namely, Thomas Turner, Andrew Towres, Anthony Knivet and Andrew Battell. All four were taken by the Portuguese out of English privateers in South-American waters, and spent years of captivity as prisoners of war; happy, no doubt, in having escaped the fate of many of their less fortunate companions, who atoned with their lives for the hazardous proceedings in which they had engaged.

Thomas Turner,[1] although he furnished Samuel Purchas with a few notes on Brazil, never placed on record what happened to him whilst in Portuguese Africa. Towres was sent to prison at Rio de Janeiro for the heinous offence of eating meat on a Friday; he attempted an escape, was retaken, and condemned to spend the rest of his captivity in Angola. He died at Masanganu, as we learn from Knivet. Knivet himself has left us an account of his adventures in Angola and Kongo; but this account contains so many incredible statements that it was with some hesitation we admitted it into this volume, as by doing so we might be supposed to vouch for the writer's veracity.

Andrew Battell, fortunately, has left behind him a fairly circ.u.mstantial record of what he experienced in Kongo and Angola. His narrative bears the stamp of truth, and has stood the test of time. It is unique, moreover, as being the earliest record of travels in the _interior_ of this part of Africa; for, apart from a few letters of Jesuit missionaries, the references to Kongo or Angola printed up to Battell's time, were either confined to the coast, or they were purely historical or descriptive. Neither F. Pigafetta's famous _Relatione del Reame di Congo_, "drawn out of the writings and discourses of Duarte Lopez," and first published at Rome in 1591, nor the almost equally famous _Itinerarium_ of Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, of which an English translation appeared as early as 1598, can be cla.s.sed among books of travel.[2] Samuel Braun, of Basel, who served as barber-surgeon on board Dutch vessels which traded at Luangu and on the Kongo, 1611-13, never left the coast.[3] Nor did Pieter van der Broeck, who made three voyages to the Kongo between 1607 and 1612 as supercargo of Dutch vessels, penetrate inland.[4] Nay, we are even able to claim on behalf of Battell that he travelled by routes not since trodden by European explorers.

Of Andrew Battell's history we know nothing, except what may be gathered from his "Adventures," and an occasional reference to him by his friend, neighbour, and editor, the Rev. Samuel Purchas. He seems to have been a native of Leigh, in Ess.e.x, at the present day a mere fis.h.i.+ng village by the side of its populous upstart neighbour Southend, but formerly a place of considerable importance. As early as the fifteenth century it could boast of its guild of pilots, working in harmony with a similar guild at Deptford Strond, the men of Leigh taking charge of inward bound s.h.i.+ps, whilst Deptford provided pilots to the outward bound. Henry VIII incorporated both guilds as the "Fraternity of the Most Glorious and Indivisible Trinity and of St. Clement;" and in the venerable church of St. Clement, at Leigh, and the surrounding churchyard may still be seen monuments erected in honour of contemporaries of Battell who were Brethren of the Trinity House; among whom are Robert Salmon (born 1567, died 1661) and Robert Chester (died 1632). But there is no tombstone in memory of Andrew Battell; and if a memorial tablet was ever dedicated to him, it must have been removed when the church was renovated in 1837.

Nor do the registers of the church afford a clue to Battell's death, for the earliest of these doc.u.ments only dates back to the year 1684. At the present time no person of the name of Battell lives at Leigh.

Samuel Purchas was Vicar of Eastwood, a small village two miles to the north of Leigh, from 1604 to 1613. Battell returned to Leigh about 1610, bringing with him a little negro boy, who claimed to have been kept a captive by a gorilla (see p. 55). Purchas had many conferences with Battell, and the information obtained in this manner was incorporated by him in _Purchas His Pilgrimage_, the first edition of which was published in 1613,[5] and will be found in this volume, pp. 71-87.

Battell's papers, however, only reached Purchas after the author's death, and were first published by him in _Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas His Pilgrimes_, in 1625.[6] There is reason to fear that Purchas did not perform his duties as editor, as such duties are understood at the present day. As an instance, we notice that Battell distinctly told his editor in private conference (see p. 83) that in his day nothing was known about the origin of the Jagas, expressly denying that Duarte Lopez could have any information about it; yet, elsewhere (p. 19), Battell is made responsible for the statement that they came from Sierra Leone. Nor is it likely that Battell ever mentioned a lake Aquelunda (p. 74), for no such lake exists; and Purchas's authority for its supposed existence is once more Duarte Lopez or Pigafetta.

Moreover, there is some ground for supposing that Purchas abridged portions of the MS.; as, for instance, the account of the overland trading trip to Kongo and Mbata. Perhaps he likewise rearranged parts of his MS., thus confusing the sequence of events, as will be seen when we come to inquire into the chronology of Battell's travels.

There exists no doubt as to the object with which Abraham c.o.c.ke sailed for the Plate River in 1589. Philip of Spain had acceded to the throne of Portugal in 1580, and that prosperous little kingdom thus became involved in the disaster which overtook the Armada, which sailed out of Lisbon in May, 1588. English skippers therefore felt justified in preying upon Portuguese trade in Brazil, and intercepting Spanish vessels on their way home from the Rio de la Plata. We do not think, however, that we do Abraham c.o.c.ke an injustice when we a.s.sume him to have been influenced in his hazardous enterprise quite as much by the l.u.s.t of gain as by patriotism.

The determination of the chronology of Battell's adventures presents some difficulty, as his narrative contains but a single date, namely, that of his departure from England on May 7th, 1589. There are, however, incidental references to events the dates of which are known; and these enable us to trace his movements with a fair amount of confidence, thus:-

1. Having left Plymouth in May, 1589, we suppose Battell to have reached Luandu in June, 1590.

2. His journey up to Masanganu, his detention there for two months, and return to Luandu, where he "lay eight months in a poor estate" (p. 7), would carry us to the end of June, 1591.

3. Battell tells us that the Governor, D. Joo Furtado de Mendonca, then employed him during two years and a half trading along the coast. This, however, is quite impossible: for Mendonca only a.s.sumed office in August, 1594; but, as he is the only Governor of Battell's day who held office for a longer period than two and a half years-his term of office extending to 1602-and as Battell is not likely to have forgotten the name of an employer who gave him his confidence, we a.s.sume that he really did make these trading trips, but at a subsequent period. Purchas may be responsible for this transposition.

4. He made a first attempt to escape (in a Dutch vessel), but was recaptured, and sent to Masanganu, where he spent "six miserable years,"

1591-96.

5. Second attempt to escape, and detention for three months in irons at Luandu, up to June, 1596.

6. Campaign in Lamba and Ngazi (see p. 13, _note_). After a field service of over three years, Battell was sent back to Luandu, wounded.

This would account for his time up to 1598 or 1599.

7. I am inclined to believe that, owing to the confidence inspired by his conduct in the field, the Governor now employed him on the trading s.h.i.+ps referred to above.

9. Trading trips to Benguella in 1600 or 1601.

10. Battell joins the Jagas, and spends twenty-one months with them.

Incidentally he mentions that the chief, Kafuche, had been defeated by the Portuguese seven years before that time (he was actually defeated in April, 1594).

11. Battell was at Masanganu when Joo Rodrigues Coutinho was Governor (Coutinho a.s.sumed office in 1602).

12. Battell was present at the building of the presidio of Kambambe by Manuel Cerveira Pereira in 1604; and stayed there till 1606, when news was received of the death of Queen Elizabeth, and he was promised his liberty. The Queen died March 24th, 1603.

13. A journey to Mbamba, Kongo, etc., may have taken up six months.

14. The Governor having "denied his word," and a new Governor being daily expected, Battell secretly left the city, spent six months on the Dande, and was ultimately landed at Luangu. (The new Governor expected was only appointed in August, 1607; and his arrival was actually delayed.)

15. In Luangu, Battell spent two years and a half-say up to 1610.

Great pains have been taken by me with the maps ill.u.s.trating this volume; and, if the outcome of my endeavour does not differ in its broad features from the maps furnished by M. d'Anville, in 1732, to Labat's _Relation Historique de l'ethiopie Occidentale_, this should redound to the credit of the great French geographer, but should not be accounted a proof of lack of industry on my own part. Still, my maps exhibit an advance in matters of detail, for our knowledge of the country has increased considerably since the days of d'Anville. They would have proved still more satisfactory had the Portuguese thought it worth while to produce a trustworthy map of a colony of which they had claimed possession during four centuries. It seems almost incredible that even now many of the routes followed by the Conquistadores and missionaries of old cannot be laid down upon a modern map for lack of information.

Sonyo, for instance, through which led the high road followed by soldiers, traders, and missionaries going up to San Salvador (the present route leaves the Kongo River at Matadi), is almost a _terra incognita_. I am almost ashamed to confess that I have even failed to locate the once-famous factory of Mpinda; all I can say is, that it cannot have occupied the site a.s.signed to it on some Portuguese maps.

I need hardly say that modern research lends no support to the extravagant claims of certain geographers as to the knowledge of Inner Africa possessed by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. Pigafetta's fantastic map, with its elaborate system of lakes and rivers, merely proves the utter incapacity of its author to deal with questions of critical geography. This has long since been recognised. The map which accompanies Isaac Vossius's _De Nili et aliorum Fluminum Origine_ (Hagae Com., 1659) only shows one lake in Inner Africa, which borders on "Nimeamaie vel Monemugi," and may without hesitation be identified with our Nyasa: for the Monemugi (Muene Muji) is the chief of the Maravi or Zimbas. The "Iages, gens barbara et inculta," are placed right in the centre of Africa. The "Fungeni," which are shown as neighbours of the "Macoco," ought to have been placed to the west of Abyssinia, as they are the Funj, or Fung, of the Egyptian Sudan. If Ludolfus had carried out his intention of compiling a map of the whole of Africa (in 1681), these extravagancies of early map-makers would have been exposed more fully long since.[7]

In collecting materials for the maps and for the notes ill.u.s.trating Battell's narrative, I felt bound to consult all accessible literary sources dealing with the history and geography of Kongo and Angola.

Whilst ploughing my way through this ma.s.s of material, it struck me that a concise history of these African countries, from the time of their discovery to the end of the seventeenth century, might form an acceptable appendix to Battell's _Adventures_, and at the same time increase the bulk of the volume dedicated to him to more respectable proportions. Much material of use for such a purpose has seen the light since the publication of J. J. Lopes de Lima's historical sketches. Yet I am bound to confess that the result of all this tedious labour is disappointing. I may have been able to rectify a few dates and facts; but much remains to be done before we can claim to be in possession of a trustworthy history of that part of Africa. Possibly my little sketch may rouse a Portuguese into taking up the work of the late Luciano Cordeiro. Many doc.u.ments not yet published should be discoverable in the archives of Portugal, Spain, and Luandu.[8]

The spelling of the proper names mentioned by Battell is retained, as a matter of course; but it is obvious that in the historical appendices the various ways in which native names are spelt had to be reduced to a common system. Much might be said in favour of accepting the Portuguese manner of spelling, but after due consideration I decided to adopt the system now generally followed (even by a few Portuguese writers), viz., that all vowels should be sounded as in Italian, and the consonants as in English, with the only exception that the letter _g_ should always be hard. I therefore write Sonyo, instead of Sonho, Sogno, or Sonjo, as the name of that district is spelt according to the nationality of the writer. In transcribing the native names I have had the unstinted a.s.sistance, among others, of the Rev. Thomas Lewis, of the Baptist Missionary Society; yet I am fully aware that the spelling adopted for many names is at least doubtful, if not absolutely incorrect. This arises quite as much from a defective hearing on the part of my authorities, as from the illegibility of many early ma.n.u.scripts or the carelessness of copyists. All such doubtful cases are dealt with in the GLOSSARY and INDEX.

In conclusion, I feel bound to acknowledge with grat.i.tude the kindly a.s.sistance rendered me by Mr. R. E. Dennett, who is spending a life-time in Luangu; Mr. R. C. Phillips, who is thoroughly acquainted with the Lower Kongo; the Rev. Thomas Lewis, of the Baptist Missionary Society; Captain Binger, of the French Foreign Office; and last, not least, our ever-obliging Secretary, Mr. William Foster.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Only the t.i.tles of a few books cited merely by the author's name, or by abbreviated references, are included in this list.

_How cited:_

ALGUNS DOC.-Alguns doc.u.mentos do archivo nacional da Torre do Tombo acerca das navegaces e conquistas Portuguezas. Lisboa (Impr. nac.), 1892.

A Collection of doc.u.ments, 1416-1554, edited by Jose Ramos-Coelho. See Index _sub_ Angola, Kongo, Manicongo.

PAIVA MANSO.-Historia do Congo, obra posthuma do (Dr. Levy) Visconde de Paiva Manso. Lisboa (Typ. da Acad.), 1877.

A collection of doc.u.ments, 1492-1722.

BOLETIM.-Boletim da Sociedade de Geographia de Lisboa.

The volume for 1883 contains doc.u.ments now in the Bibliotheque Nationale (instructions given to B. Dias, 1559; Letters of F.

Garcia Simes, F. Balthasar Barretta, and other Jesuits).