The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell Part 11

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 a.s.sa.s.sinate the King, in church, and after Ma.s.s![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 Ferno de Mello, the Governor of S. Thome, traded with the Mpangu-lungu[326] 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 s.h.i.+p 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. Gregrio 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 n.o.ble 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 furnis.h.i.+ng 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. Joo Baptista, the Bishop of S.

Thome;[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 p.r.o.ne 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 Co,[337] the Bishop of S. Thome 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 ama.s.s, 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 a.s.sa.s.sinated. As a result, the people of S. Salvador rose upon the Portuguese, many of whom were killed, not even priests being spared. The accounts[339] 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 Estevo de Laguos on an emba.s.sy 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 emba.s.sy, 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 va.s.sals,[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 emba.s.sy to Portugal, to apologise for the ma.s.sacre 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 Ayaka[345]

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 hards.h.i.+ps, and whence he appealed piteously to the Portuguese for help. This help was not denied him. Francisco de Gouvea, corregedor of S. Thome, 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 Mendes[347] that he acknowledged himself a va.s.sal 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 Co, the bishop, shortly before his death (in 1574); and the scandal caused by the burial of a notorious infidel, 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 Goncalves 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. Thome 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 va.s.sal, the King of Kw.a.n.gu (Ocango), had suffered a defeat. Joo Correa 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 Mb.u.mbi, 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. Simo 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 va.s.sals. 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 emba.s.sy to Kongo (1642),[360] and these new allies lent him their a.s.sistance 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 va.s.sal, 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 padro set up by Co 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 Kw.a.n.gu. 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 G.o.d, 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 friends.h.i.+p 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 Bonaventura[370] 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 s.h.i.+ps to be admitted, unless provided with a Portuguese pa.s.sport; 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 a.s.sist each other if attacked by an enemy; an amba.s.sador 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 b.a.l.l.s, 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 Sa, Simo 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 a.s.sert 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.

Joo at Mbula.[375] At one time there were actually three kings in the field.

ALVARO VII, a royal prince who had pa.s.sed 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 VIII[376] 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.