The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell Part 26

[392] _Kabasa_, according to Cordeiro da Matta's _Diccionario_, simply means "capital;" but J. V. Carneiro (_An. do cons. ultram._, vol. ii, p.

172, 1861) would have us distinguish between a Mbanza ia Kabasa and a Mbanza ia Kakulu; the former meaning "second," the latter "first,"

capital. This "first" or original capital of the kings of Ndongo was undoubtedly in the locality of Queen Nzinga's kabasa; the second capital was at Pungu a ndongo.

[393] Cavazzi, pp. 9, 621. The Queen was branded as a slave (a practice learnt from the Portuguese; see Marcador in the Index), and died of grief; but her daughter was received into favour, and was baptized in 1667.

[394] Lopes de Lima (_Ensaio_, vol. iii, _parte segundo_), is very severe upon Cavazzi, whom he charges with having "falsified" history, but does nothing himself to throw light upon the vexed question of the names of the kings of Matamba and Ndongo. The following is a summary of Cavazzi's very copious information (where Antonio of Gaeta gives different names, these are added within brackets). _Ngola_, the smith, or _musuri_ (_Ngola b.u.mb.u.mbula_), was the founder of the kingdom of Ndongo. Having no sons, he was succeeded by his daughter, _Nzunda ria ngola_, and then by another daughter, _Tumba ria ngola_, who married a _Ngola kiluanji kia Samba_, a great warrior. Their son, _Ngola kiluanji_, was succeeded by _Ndambi ngola_. Then followed _Ngola kiluanji kia ndambi_, another great warrior, who advanced to within ten leagues of the sea, and planted a _nzanda_ tree (_Insandeira_), on the northern bank of the Kwanza, a short distance above Tombo, to mark the furthest point reached by his conquering hosts. _Nzinga ngola kilombo kia kasende_ (_Ngola kiluanji_) followed next; then came _Mbandi ngola kiluanji_, the father, and _Ngola mbandi_, the brother, of the famous Queen _Nzinga (Jinga) mbandi ngola_ (born 1582, acceded 1627, died 1663), since whose day the upper part of Ndongo, including Matamba; has been known as Nzinga or Ginga. The great queen was succeeded by her sister, _D. Barbara da Silva_, who married _D. Antonio Carrasco nzinga a mina_ (she died 1666). Then followed in succession _D. Joo Guterres Ngola kanini_, _D. Francisco Guterres Ngola kanini_ (1680-81), and _D.

Victoria_, whom Cadornega calls _Veronica_.

According to Lopez de Lima, it was a Jaga of Matamba, _Ngola a nzinga_, who conquered Ndongo, and gave it as an appanage to his son, _Ngola mbandi_. It was this _Ngola mbandi_ who invited the Portuguese in 1556, and a son of his, bearing the same name or t.i.tle, who received Dias in 1560.

Cadornega (Paiva Manso, p. 281) gives the following names as the "Kings of Angola" since the arrival of the Portuguese: Ngola a kiluanji, Ngola mbandi, Ngola a kiluanji II, Queen Nzinga D. Anna de Sousa, D. Antonio Carrasco Nzinga a mina, D. Barbara da Silva, his wife; D. Joo Guterres Ngola kanini, D. Luis, D. Francisco Guterres Ngola kanini, D. Veronica, the wife of D. Francisco.

[395] Called Ngola mbandi by Lopes de Lima.

[396] Paiva Manso, p. 112.

[397] The Jesuit fathers (Francisco de Gouvea and Garcia Simes) date their letters from _Angoleme_, and call the King's capital Glo-amba Coamba, evidently a misprint. Sixty leagues would carry us far beyond the later capital, Pungu a ndongo, perhaps as far as the Anguolome aquitambo (Ngwalema a kitambu) of Garcia Mendes, in the district known as Ari. Another Angolome (Ngolome) lived less than twenty leagues from the coast, on the northern side of the Kwanza, and near him a soba, Ngola ngoleme a kundu. Neves (_Exped. de Ca.s.sange_) says the old name of Pungu a ndongo is Gongo a mboa. For the Jesuit letters of that time, see (_Boletim_, 1883, pp. 300-344).

[398] He is referred to as Ngola Mbandi or Ngola ndambi.

[399] Lopes de Lima, _Ensaios_, p. ix, calls him Kiluanji kia samba, an ancestor of the chief residing near the presidio of Duque de Braganca.

V. J. Duarte (_Annaes do cons. ultramar._, vol. ii, p. 123), the commandant of that presidio in 1847, confirms that it occupies the site of a former chief of that name, who was, however, quite an insignificant personage.

[400] Domingos d'Abreu de Brito, in a MS. of 1592, quoted by Lima, _Ensaios_, p. x. Garcia Mendes mentions seven hundred men, but these probably included the crews of the vessels.

[401] F. Garcia Simes, S.J., informs us that a few days before the arrival of Dias four men had been killed at a village only six leagues from Luandu, and eaten.-_Boletim_, 1883.

[402] Domingos d'Abreu de Brito, quoted by Paiva Manso, p. 139, informs us that in 1592 it was governed by a Muene Mpofo, M. Luandu and M.

Mb.u.mbi.

[403] The King, after his defeat, is stated to have ordered the Makotas who had given him this evil counsel to be killed (Lopes de Lima, p.

xiii).

[404] Lima, _Ensaios_, vol. xi, suggests that this S. Cruz became subsequently known as Kalumbu, and that its church was dedicated to S.

Jose. To me it seems more likely that it occupied the site of Tombo, and was subsequently abandoned.

[405] This "Penedo" seems subsequently to have been named after Antonio Bruto, a captain-major.

[406] Garcia Mendes, p. 19, describes Kanzele as lying half-way between the rivers Kwanza and Mbengu.

[407] According to Antonio of Gaeta two leagues below Masanganu. Garcia Mendes calls this place Mak.u.mbe.

[408] See his account of this battle in _Boletim_, 1883, p. 378. The story in the _Catalogo_, that Dias sent loads of cut-off noses to S.

Paulo, is hardly credible.

[409] So says Garcia Mendes, p. 25; whilst Duarte Lopez, p. 34, says they were sent, but being defeated on the river Mbengu, retired again to the north.

[410] Diogo Rodrigues dos Colos brought three hundred men in 1584; Jacome da Cunha, nine hundred in 1586. Two hundred Flemings, who arrived in 1587, nearly all died soon after they had been landed.

[411] Garcia Mendes, p. 24.

[412] In 1809 his remains were transferred to the Jesuit Church at Luandu.

[413] This place is said to be eighty leagues from Masanganu, a gross exaggeration. Vicente Jose, who was the commander of Duque de Braganca in 1848, mentions a Ngolema Aquitamboa among the chiefs of Haire da cima (_An. do Conselho ultram._, vol. ii, p. 123).

[414] Garcia Mendes mentions the Kindas as if they were a tribe. To me they seem to be the people of the Jaga Kinda (Chinda of the Italian Capuchins), one of the chiefs killed by the famous Queen Nzinga. See Cavazzi, p. 636, and Antonio de Gaeta's narrative in _La maravigliosa conversione delle Regina Singa escritta dal. P. F. Francesco Maria Gioia da Napoli_. Naples, 1669, p. 233. Emilio, a son of Count Laudati, was born in 1615; he lived a few years as a knight of Malta, and then entered a monastery of Capuchins, a.s.suming the name of Antonio of Gaeta.

He landed at Luandu in November, 1650, and died there, after an active life as a missionary, in July, 1662.

[415] Called Kakalele in the _Catalogo_.

[416] Douville, _Voyage au Congo_, Paris, 1832, vol. ii, p. 375; Bowdich, _On the Bunda Language_, p. 138, note 2.

[417] See note, p. 84.

[418] _Breve Relaco da embaixada_, etc., Lisbon, 1565. Reprint of 1875, p. 98.

[419] It will be remembered that Battell, p. 25, writes Gaga as an alternative form for Jaga. May Agau stand for Agaga, the Jagas collectively?

[420] _Relaco anuel_, 1602-3. Lisbon, 1605.

[421] Ginde (p.r.o.nounced Jinde) may be derived from _njinda_, the meaning of which is fury, hostility.

[422] See p. 83.

[423] _Expedico Portuguesa: Ethnographia_, p. 56.

[424] _Expedico a Ca.s.sange_, Lisbon, 1854.

[425] Perhaps Manuel Cerveira Pereira, who founded the Presidio of Kambambe in 1604. The first DON Manuel, however, is D. Manuel Pereira Forjaz (1607-11). But as the Jaga offered to fight Queen Nzinga, who only acceded in 1627, this Don Manuel may have been D. Manuel Pereira Coutinho (1630-34).

[426] A "feira" was established at Lukamba, near Mbaka, in 1623. The Kamueji is perhaps the Fumeji of Capello and Ivens.

[427] The list of Neves, p. 108, begins with Kinguri kia bangala, who was succeeded by Kasanje kaimba, Kasanje kakulachinga, Kakilombo, Ngonga-nbande, etc.

[428] Capello and Ivens, _Benguella to Iacca_, vol. i, p. 239, include Mahungo and Kambolo among the family of Ngongo, and Mb.u.mba among that of Kulachinga.

[429] _Reisen in Sud-Afrika_, Pest, 1869, p. 264.

[430] From _Mpakasa_, a buffalo, and the meaning of the word is therefore originally "buffalo-hunter," but it was subsequently applied to natives employed by government, as soldiers, etc. Capello and Ivens, _From Benguella to the Yacca_, vol. ii, p. 215, deny that they ever formed a secret society for the suppression of cannibalism.

[431] _Kichile_, transgression.

[432] See Cavazzi, pp. 182-205.

[433] It is to him we owe several memoirs, referred to p. xviii. He did excellent service; but whilst Joo Velloria and others were made Knights of the Order of Christ, and received other more substantial rewards, his merits seem not to have been recognised.

[434] This important MS., dated 1592, still awaits publication.

[435] Lopes de Lima, _Ensaios_, p. 147.