The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell Part 18

Are we to suppose, then, that Captain c.o.c.ke _was_ heard of once more, and that in 1599 he lost five men on the Ilha Grande, just as nine years before he had lost five on the island of San Sebastian? Such a coincidence is possible, but most improbable.

[29] This Thomas Turner, or Torner, subsequently returned to England, and Purchas had speech with him.

[30] So Paulo de Loanda, the capital of Angola, 8 48' S.

[31] The Kwanza, the most important river of Angola, navigable from the sea as far as the rapids of Cambambe. The "town of garrison" was Masanganu, founded in 1582.

[32] Joo Furtado de Mendonca only arrived at Loanda on August 1, 1594.

He remained Governor until early in 1602, when he was succeeded by Joo Rodriguez Coutinho.

[33] That is, the two incisors of the upper jaw, commonly known as "tusks."

[34] Battell's "wheat" is _masa-mamputo_, or zea mayz. Elsewhere he speaks of "Guinea wheat," and this might be sorghum or millet; but as he says that the natives call the grain "mas impoto," there can be no doubt about its ident.i.ty with _masa-mamputo_, the gro de Portugal, or maize, which, according to Ficalho, was imported from America.

[35] The River of Congo is known to the natives as "Nzadi," or "Nzari,"

which merely signifies "great river "(Bentley's _Dictionary of the Congo Language_). For Isle de Calabes we ought perhaps to read Ilha das Calabacas (Calabash Island). The position of this island I am unable to determine. Perhaps it is the same as an Ilheo dos Cavallos Marinhos (Hippopotamus Island), described by Pimentel as lying within the Cabo do Padro, Congo mouth. Duarte Lopez (_A Report of the Kingdom of Congo, drawn out of the Writings of Duarte Lopez_, by F. Pigafetta, 1591.

Translated by Margareta Hutchinson. London, 1881) says it was the first island met with on entering the Zaire, and that, although small, the Portuguese had a town upon it.

[36] Palm cloth is made from the fronds of the _ntera_, or fan palm (_Hyphaene Guineensis_).

[37] Dapper (_Africa_, Amsterdam, 1670, p. 520) tells us that the hairs from an elephant's tail were highly valued by the natives, who wove them into necklaces and girdles; fifty of these hairs or bristles were worth 1000 reis! Duarte Lopez (_Kingdom of Congo_, London, 1881, p. 46) says that one such tail was equal in value to two or three slaves, and that native hunters followed the elephants up narrow and steep defiles, and there cut off the desired spoils. Battell himself (see p. 58) bought 20,000 (hairs) which he sold to the Portugals for thirty slaves.

[38] The Egyptians were, of course, Ciganos, or gypsies. They appeared in Portugal in the beginning of the sixteenth century. A Royal order of 1526 ordered them to leave the kingdom, but appears to have had no more effect than a law of 1538, which, on account of the thefts of which they were accused, and their sorceries, threatened them with a flogging and the confiscation of their goods, if caught within the kingdom. This law was re-enacted in 1557, when the galleys were subst.i.tuted for a flogging; and in 1592 a still more severe law was enacted, which threatened with death all those who should not quit the kingdom within four months. Battel's a.s.sociates were, no doubt, gipsies who had been sent as convicts to Angola (see F. A. Coelho, _Os Ciganos de Portugal_, Lisbon, 1892).

The Moriscoes are the Moors of Morocco. Early Portuguese writers refer to the men who had fought in Africa (Morocco) as Africanos, and Battell's Moriscoes were in all probability Moorish prisoners of war, or Moors expelled from Portugal.

[39] Mani or Muene, lord and even king, as Muene Putu, King of Portugal, but also applied to a mere village chief. The _Cabech_ of Battell must have resided somewhere about Muchima, but on the right bank of the Coanza.

[40] Battell's Guinea wheat is _masa-mamputo_, or _gro de Portugal_, the zea mayz of botanists, which, according to Candolle and Ficalho, was introduced from America.

[41] Kasanza's lake can confidently be identified with the Lalama Lake of modern maps, south of the Rio Bengo, thirty-six miles due east of S.

Paulo de Loanda. _Ka_ is a diminitive; _nsanza_ means village.

[42] The river of Bengo or Nzenza, which enters the sea ten miles north-east of Loanda.

[43] Mani Bangono's district is not mentioned elsewhere. It cannot have been far from the sea.

[44] Mus.h.i.+ or Mwis.h.i.+kongo, a Congo-man: plural, Es.h.i.+-Kongo.

[45] Bamba, or rather Mbamba, the south-west province of Congo, extending to the lower Coanza.

[46] Lamba, or Hamba, is bounded by the Bengo in the north, and by the Coanza and its tributary the Lucalla on the south. The "Governor" here referred to is Joo Furtado de Mendonca. Battell seems to have been among the reinforcements despatched after the disastrous campaign in the spring of 1596. The "General" of Battell was Joo de Velloria, a Spaniard, who was Capitao mor do Campo.

[47] The route followed by Battell is approximately indicated upon the map. Sowonso may be the same as Dapper's Chonso or Douville's Quionso, beyond Icolo. As to the other places along the route, I can suggest no identifications. Namba Calamba certainly has nothing to do with the Portuguese Fort Calumbu on the Coanza, built in 1571.

[48] k.u.mba ria Kaiangu?

[49] _Outeiro_ (Portuguese), a hill.

[50] Battell's Ingasia is undoubtedly the Angazi or Engase of Duarte Lopez, a Bunda district subject to Bamba, which in Pigafetta's map lies to the south of the river Bengo. Mendez de Castellobranco, p. 11, mentions Engombe (Ngombe). The name survives perhaps in the Ndembu Ngombe a Muquiama on the northern bank of the Bengo, who, according to J. V. Carneiro (_An. do conselho ultramar._, vol. ii, pp. 172 to 179, 1861), was in olden times dependent upon Congo. The name Ngombe ("ox") is, however, a very common one.

[51] The Pete, more correctly called _Puita_, or _Kipuita_, is a musical instrument described by Monteiro (_Angola_, vol. ii, p. 140), and in Cordeiro da Matta's _Diccionario_, p. 29. It consists of a hollow wooden cylinder, one end of which is covered with sheepskin. A wooden stick is pa.s.sed through the centre of this sheepskin, and a most hideous noise is produced by moving this stick to and fro.

[52] The Pongo (_mpunga_) is an ivory trumpet.

[53] Engeriay seems to be a misprint, perhaps for the _Ogheghe_ of Duarte Lopez, which Ficalho identifies with Mung'eng'e (_Spondias lutea_) of Angola, called _Gego_ by Lopez de Lima (_Ensaios_, vol. iii, p. 15). Dr. Welwitsch found the tree growing wild in the mountains of Benguella, whence it was transplanted to Loanda. It is valued for its wood, the shade it affords, and its fruit, which resembles a yellow plum, is of delicious flavour and esteemed as a remedy against bile (Ficalho, _Plantas uteis_, p. 126; Monteiro, _Angola_, vol. ii, p. 298).

Purchas, in a marginal note, Bk. VII, c. 4, says that the _Ogheghe_ "bears a fruit which is like a yellow plumme and is very good to eat, and hath a very sweet smell withall." This information was given by Battell.

[54] Pome-water, a kind of apple, called _malus carbonaria_ by Coles (Nares's _Glossary_).

[55] _Margarita_ is the Portuguese (and Latin) for pearl. Purchas may have suggested the word, whilst Battell simply referred to the _cowrie_ currency of the country, or to a more valuable sh.e.l.l such as Cavazzi (p.

12) says was found near Cambambe, a collar of which had the value of a slave; or to a crystal found in Shela, and called "thunder-stone" by the natives. Mr. R. C. Phillips writes: "I have found that some kind of stone used to pa.s.s as money in the old slave times, say in 1850 or 1860, but I never saw one. These stones were of great value, and I have a vague idea they were called 'agang.'"

[56] The author's "wheat" is maize (see p. 7).

[57] This is undoubtedly the bay upon which Manuel Cerveira Pereira, in 1617, founded the city of S. Filippe de Benguella. The bay at that time was known as Bahia da Torre, or de S. Antonio. By its discoverers it seems to have been named Golfo de S. Maria. The "torre" is, of course, the Ponta do Sombreiro or S. Philip's bonnet. Pimentel (_Arte de Navegar_, 1762, p. 276) locates a Bahia da Torre fifty miles to the south of Benguella Bay, which therefore corresponds to the Elephant Bay of modern maps, with its "mesa," or table-mountain rising to a height of a thousand feet.

[58] Cacongo (_recte_ Kikongo), according to Welwitsch, is the wood of _Tarchonanthes camphoratus_. It is hard, of a greyish olive colour, and has the perfume of camphor. Its powder is esteemed as a tonic (Ficalho, _Plantas uteis_, p. 206).

[59] Carraca, a vessel, generally of considerable burthen, and such as could be profitably employed in the Brazilian and Indian trade.

[60] Ndalabondo seems to be the name of a person. The people in the interior of Benguella are known as Bi'nbundo.

[61] Neither Mr. Dennett nor Mr. Phillips knows a bead of that name.

_Mpinda_ (plur. _Zimpinda_) means ground nut.

[62] For an account of Dombe, which lies to the south of St. Filip de Benguella, see Capello and Ivens, _From Benguella to the Territory of Yacca_, London, 1882, vol. i, p. 308; and Serpa Pinto, _How I Crossed Africa_, London, 1881, vol. i, p. 46. Copper ore abounds in the district, and a mine, four miles inland, was recently worked by the Portuguese (Monteiro, _Angola_, London, 1875, vol. ii, p. 198).

[63] That is, bark-cloth made of the inner bark of the _nsanda_, Banyan or wild fig-tree, or _Ficus Lutata_ (see Pechuel Loesche, _Loango Exped._, vol. iii, p. 172).

[64] Purchas spells indifferently Gaga, Iagge, Giagas, etc. The correct spelling is Jaga or Jaka. For a sketch of the history of these military leaders, see Appendix.

[65] The Morro, or bluff, of Old Benguella, in lat. 10 48' S., is a conspicuous headland, presenting a perpendicular cliff towards the sea, its summit being covered with cactus trees. Here Antonio Lopez Peixoto, a nephew of Paulo Dias, in 1587, had built a presidio, which was soon afterwards abandoned.

[66] The river Cuvo (Kuvu) enters the sea in 10 52' S.

[67] In a note to Bk. VII, c. iv, -- 8 (Hartwell's translation of Pigafetta), Battell is made to say that "the Iagges came from Sierre Liona. But they dispersed themselves as a general pestilence and common scourge through most parts of Ethiopia." But see p. 83, where Battell denies the statements made by Lopez.

Walkenaer (_Histoire des Voyages_, vol. xiii), says that Dapper's Sierra Leone cannot be the place usually known by that name. The only locality in that part of Africa named in honour of a lion, as far as I know, are the Pedras de Encoge, or more correctly _del nkos.h.i.+_ (which means Lion).

[68] Ndongo is the name of the kingdom of Ngola (Angola). Its old capital was at Pungu-a-Ndongo, a remarkable group of rocks, popularly known as Pedras Negras.

[69] Ngongo (plural Jingongo), in Kimbundu, means twin, and hence _Ngong'e_, a double bell, such as is described by Monteiro (_Angola_, vol. i, p. 203); in Lunda it is called _rubembe_ (Carvalho, _Exp.

Port._, _Ethnographia_, p. 369). See also note, p. 80.

[70] "Gingado," elsewhere spelt "Iergado," is evidently a misprint for _Jangada_, a Portuguese word meaning "raft." Such a raft is called _Mbimba_, and is made of the wood of the _bimba_ (_Herminiera Elaphroxylon_, Guill. et. Perr.), which is identical with the _Ambaj_ of the Nile, and grows abundantly on the swampy banks of the rivers.

Battell himself, at a critical point of his career, built himself such a _jangada_ (Ficalho, _Plantas uteis da Africa_, 1884, p. 33).