The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell Part 23

[251] The Bangala (_akibangala_, in Kimbundu _Jimbangala_, sing.

_kibangala_) are the people of the Jaga of Kasanj. The term merely means "people," and they have absolutely nothing to do with the Bangala on the middle Kongo, still less with the Galla (see Carvalho, _Exp. Port. do Muatianvua, Ethnographia_, p. 85).

[252] The words within asterisks are obviously a parenthesis of worthy Purchas. He speaks (p. 854) of the Gallae [our Galla] as a "nationless nation," either the same as or like in condition to the Giacchi or Iagges [Jaga], and (p. 857) of the Imbij as "a barbarous nation" near Mombaza. There exists not the slightest justification for identifying the Jagas of Angola with the Sumbas of Sierra Leone, the Mazimbas of the Zambezi, or the Galla. The whole of this question is dealt with in the Appendix.

[253] On infanticide, see note, p. 32.

[254] In a marginal note Purchas adds: "_Azimogli_ are the children of Christians taken from the parents by the Turke, the sp.a.w.ne of their _Ianizaries_". It should be _Ajem oglan_ ("inexperienced boys"), the children of Christians who were handed over to Turks to be brought up as Moslims, and trained as recruits for the _Yanizaries_ (_Yeni-cheri_, new troops) organised by Sultan Urkhan in 1328. This unruly force ceased to exist in 1826.

[255] _Elembe_ means pelican.

[256] See notes, pp. 19, 28.

[257] See note, p. 26.

[258] _Njilo mukisho_, see p. 27.

[259] _Mpungi_, an ivory trumpet.

[260] See note, p. 34.

[261] See note, p. 33.

[262] _Kuzambula_, a soothsayer, diviner. Neves, p. 19, mentions a _Mocoa-co-Zambulla_ as officiating among the Jagas of Ca.s.sanje.

[263] See pp. 1 and 6.

[264] Masanganu is the famous fort on the Kwanza built by Paulo Dias de Novaes in 1583. Anyeca, elsewhere called Ancica, Angica, Angila and Anguca, is clearly meant for Anzica, that is the country of the Nteke above Stanley Pool.

[265] That is, St. Paul de Loanda, the chief town of Angola.

[266] Joo Furtado de Mendonca was Governor of Angola (not Kongo), 1594-1601.

[267] I know of no town (or even church) in the whole of Angola dedicated to St. Francis.

[268] There is no such city in Angola. It seems to me that Knivet found the name in Linschoten, a translation of whose work appeared in 1698.

Linschoten says here of the island of Luandu, which lies in front of the Portuguese town of S. Paul de Loanda, that "there were seven or eight villages upon it, at one of which called 'Holy Ghost', resides the Governor of Kongo, who takes care of the right of fis.h.i.+ng up sh.e.l.ls."

This "Governor" was an officer of the King of Kongo. The island, with its valuable cowrie fishery, was ceded to Portugal in 1649.

[269] _Ngulu_, a hog.

[270] _Sanji_, a hen.

[271] _I'mboa_, or _mbwa_, dog.

[272] Earlier in his narrative he mentions having seen, at the Straits of Magellan, "a kind of beast bigger than horses; they have great eyes about a span long, and their tails are like the tail of a cow; these are very good: the Indians of Brazil call them _tapetywason_: of these beasts I saw in Ethiopia, in the Kingdom of Manicongo. The Portugals call them _gombe_" (marginal note by Purchas). The gombe (_ngombe_) of the Portugals is undoubtedly a cow, whilst the _tapetywason_, called "taparussu" in a _Noticia de Brazil_ of 1589, and _tapyra_, in the language of the Tupi Indians, is applied to any large beast, and even to the oxen imported by the Portuguese, which they call _tapyra sobay go ara_, that is, "foreign beasts," to distinguish them from their own _tapyra caapora_ or "forest beast."

[273] This account of a "trial by battle" does much credit to the author's ingenuity. No such custom is referred to by any other visitor to the Kongo. The meaning of "Mahobeque" we cannot discover, but _mbenge-mbenge_ means "princ.i.p.ally."

[274] _Nkadi_, one who is, and _mpungu_, the highest. The usual word to express the idea of G.o.d is _nzambi_, or _nzambi ampungu_, G.o.d the most high! _Nkadi ampemba_, according to Bentley, means Satan. The word used in Angola is, _Karia-pemba_.

[275] _Ri-konjo_, banana.

[276] _Mutombo_ is the flour from which ca.s.sava-bread is made.

[277] The name for bread, both in Kimbundu and Kis.h.i.+kongo, is _mbolo_ (derived from the Portuguese word for cake or _bolo_). _Anou_ or _auen_ may stand for _mwan_, a ca.s.sava-pudding; _tala_ means look! _kuna_, here! The Rev. Thomas Lewis would say, in the Kongo language of Salvador: _Umpana mbolo tambula nzimbu_; literally, "Give me bread, take or receive money."

[278] The cowrie-sh.e.l.ls fished up at Luanda Island (the old "treasury"

of the Kings of Kongo) are called _njimbu_ in Angola, but _nsungu_ in Kongo. _Njimbu_ in Kongo means beads, or money generally, and hence the author's "gullgimbo" evidently stands for _ngulu anjimbu_, red beads.

[279] _Npuku_, a field mouse.

[280] Crimbo (_kirimbo_) seems to be a corruption of the Portuguese _carimbo_, a stamp.

[281] The Rev. Thomas Lewis suggests: _Mundele ke sumbanga ko, kadi wan bele-bele_; that is, "The white men do not buy, but they have gone away in a hurry."

[282] _Nlele_, the general name for European cloth. They do make cloth from the inner bark of the banyan tree (see p. 18, _note_).

[283] _Mukaji_; wife, woman, concubine.

[284] The "fishes" are no doubt molluscs.

[285] The King at the time of Knivet's alleged visit was Alvaro II.

[286] The Vangala, spelt Bengala lower down, seems to represent the Imbangolas of Battell, more generally known as Jagas (see p. 84, _note_)

[287] D. Alvaro sent several emba.s.sies to Europe, but never a brother of his. The most famous of these amba.s.sadors was Duarte Lopez, who was at Rome in 1590.

[288] This certainly seems to be a misprint for Angola, for a party of Portuguese going to Masanganu would never stray so far north as Anzica.

On the other hand, if Knivet was really on his way from the capital of Congo to Prester John's country, that is, Abyssinia, he must have gone in the direction of Anzica.

[289] Masanganu actually stands at the confluence of the Rivers Kwanza and Lukala!

[290] That is, they suffered from elephantiasis.

[291] Gold is often referred to in ancient doc.u.ments, but its actual discovery (so far in unremunerative quant.i.ties) is quite a recent affair. Silver was supposed to exist in the hills of Kambambe above Masanganu, but has not as yet been actually found.

[292] These Angicas are certainly identical with the Anziques or Anzicanas of Duarte Lopez, according to whom they eat human flesh and circ.u.mcise. The Angolans have at no time been charged with cannibalism.

[293] Cavazzi, p. 262, calls Corimba a province of the kingdom of Coango (not Loango, as in Labat's version) on the Zaire. Cadornega (quoted by Paiva Manso, p. 285) tells us that our river Kw.a.n.gu (Coango) is called after a lords.h.i.+p of that name, and was known to the people as the "great" Zaire (_nzari anene_). On the other hand, D. Pedro Affonso II, in a letter of 1624, speaks of Bangu, which had recently been raided by the Jaga, aided by the King of Loango (_sic_), as the "trunk and origin of Congo" (Paiva Manso, p. 177). But then this Pedro Affonso was not of the original dynasty of Nimi a Lukeni.

[294] Collectively known as Ambundu, a term applied in Angola to black men generally, but in Kongo restricted to slaves, _i.e._, the conquered.

Bunda, in Kongo, has the meaning of "combine;" in Lunk.u.mbi (Nogueira, _Bol._ 1885, p. 246) it means "family." Cannecatim, in the introduction to his Grammar, says that Kimbundu originated in Kasanj, and that the meaning of Abundo or Bundo is "conqueror." According to Carvalho (_Exp.

Port. ao Muatianvua, Ethnographia_, p. 123) Kimbundu should be translated "invaders." The derivations of the word Kongo are quite as fanciful. Bentley seems to favour _nkongo_, a "hunter." Cordeiro da Matta translates Kongo by "tribute;" whilst Nogueira says that Kongo (_pl._ Makongo) denotes a "prisoner of war."

[295] "Palaver place" or "court," corrupted by European travellers into "Amba.s.se." Subsequently this town became known as S. Salvador.

[296] 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, _Loangokuste_, vol. i, p. 286). Soyo, according to the same author, is the name of a district near the Cabo do Padro. Yet Garcia de Resende and Ruy de Pina, in their Chronicles of King Joo II, only know a Mani Sonho, whom Joo de Barros calls Mani Sono. No hint of the suggested corruption is given by any author.

[297] On these northern kingdoms, whose connexion with Kongo proper seems never to have been very close, see Proyart, _Histoire de Loango, Cacongo, et autres royaumes d'Afrique_, Paris, 1776; Degrandpre, _Voyage a la cote occidentale d'Afrique_, 1786-7, Paris, 1801; and of recent books, R. D. Dennett, _Seven Years among the Fjort_, London, 1887, Gussfeldt, Falkenstein, and Pechuel-Loesche, _Die Loango Expedition_, Berlin, 1879-83; and that treasury of ill-digested information, Bastian, _Die Deutsche Expedition an der Loangokuste_, Jena, 1874-5.