The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell Part 27

[436] However, there are two sides to this dispute, and it may well be doubted whether the natives would not have been better off under a Jesuit theocracy than they were under an utterly corrupt body of civil officials. See P. Guerreiro, _Relaco anual de_ 1605, p. 625, and Lopes de Lima, p. xviii.

[437] Erroneously called Adenda by most authors. Battell is the first to give the correct name.

[438] Garcia Mendes, p. 24.

[439] They were "converts" from the Casa Pia founded by D. Maria, the queen of D. Manuel-not reformed criminals, but converted Jewesses.

[440] Battell gives some account of this campaign. See also Garcia Mendes, p. 11. Ngombe a Mukiama, one of the Ndembu to the north of the Mbengu, may be a descendant of this Ngombe (see Luis Simplico Fonseca's account of "Dembos" in _An. do conselho ultram._, ii, p. 86).

[441] Upon this Spaniard was conferred the habit of the Order of Christ, he was granted a pension of 20,000 reis, and appointed "marcador dos esclavos," an office supposed to yield I,000 cruzados a year (Rebello de Arago, p. 23).

[442] Luciano Cordeiro (_Terras e Minas_, p. 7), says that, according to local tradition, the first presidio of that name was at Kasenga, a village which we are unable to discover on any map.

[443] See Battell's account of this campaign, p. 37.

[444] See note, p. 37.

[445] See Glossary, _Museke_.

[446] Others call him Paio d'Araujo.

[447] Estabelecimentos, 1607.

[448] A. Beserra Fajardo, in _Produccoes commercio e governo do Congo e de Angola_, 1629, one of the doc.u.ments published by Luciano Cordeiro in 1881.

[449] Near where the railway now crosses that river.

[450] Rebello de Arago, p. 15.

[451] It seems that the explorer considers Kambambe to lie eighty leagues inland (P. Guerreiro-_Rel. an._, 1515, f. 126-estimated the distance from S. Paulo to Kafuchi's at sixty leagues). Accepting this gross over-estimate in calculating his further progress, and a.s.suming him to have gone to the south-east, which was not only the shortest route to Chikovo and Mwanamtapa, but also avoided the country of the hostile Ngola, he cannot even have got as far as Bie. As to a "big lake," he heard no more than other travellers have heard since, only to be disappointed. The natives certainly never told him that one of the rivers flowing out of that lake was the Nile. This bit of information he got out of a map. His expedition _may_ have taken place in 1607-he himself gives no date. Perhaps Forjaz had given the instructions, which were only carried out in 1612, when Kambambe was in reality threatened by the natives.

[452] Rebello de Arago, p. 14, calls him Manuel da Silveira.

[453] A Kakulu Kabasa still lives to the north-east of Masanganu, in 9 4' S., 14 9' E.

[454] The territory of a chief of that name is on the upper Mbengu, to the north of Mbaka. The _Catalogo_ calls him Kakulu Kahango.

[455] See _Benguella e seu serto_, 1617-22, by an anonymous writer, published by Luciano Cordeiro in 1881.

[456] This bay is known by many aliases, such as S. Maria, S. Antonio, do Sombreiro, and da Torre.

[457] The anonymous MS. already cited by us is, however, silent on this subject.

[458] Antonio Diniz, who wrote in 1622 (_Producces do Congo e de Angola_, Lisbon, 1881, p. 14), charges Pereira with having sent, without the King's knowledge, three s.h.i.+ploads of salt to Luandu, which he exchanged for "Farinha de guerra" (Commissariat flour), with which to feed his men.

[459] That is a _district_ called Kakonda, for the old fort of that name (Caconda velha), sixty miles from the coast, was only built in 1682.

Letters from Pereira, dated September 9th, 1620, and January 23rd, 1621, in _Egerton MS. 1133_ (British Museum), ff. 357-361.

[460] I do not know whether oxen were employed as beasts of burthen (_bois cavallos_) in these early days.

[461] Reckoning the cruzado at 2_s._ 8_d._

[462] Published by Luciano Cordeiro.

[463] Dapper, p. 592, regrets that these exactions ceased on the occupation of the country by the Dutch (not from love of the native, we may be sure), and that, as a consequence, his countrymen were little respected.

[464] Antonio Diniz, _Produccoes, commercio e governo do Congo e de Angola_, 1516-19, published by Luciano Cordeiro in 1881.

[465] Luiz de Figuerido Falco, _Livro em que se contem toda a Fazenda_, etc. Lisbon, 1855, p. 26. I reckon 400 reis to a cruzado worth 2_s._ 8_d._

[466] The Capito-mor do Campo, who was the chief officer next to the Governor, was paid 67; the ouvidor (or judge), 34; the sergeant-major, 34; the princ.i.p.al financial officer (provedor da Fazenda), 27: a captain of infantry, 40; a private, 18. There was a "marcador dos esclavos," who branded the slaves. He received no pay but levied fees which brought him in 140 a year (see _Estabelecimentos_, p. 21).

In 1721 the Governor's salary was raised to 15,000 cruzados (2,000), but he was forbidden to engage any longer in trade.

[467] Called Nzinga mbandi ngola, or Mbandi Ngola kiluanji, by Cavazzi, pp. 28, 601; Ngola akiluanji by Cadornega; and Nzinga mbandi, King of Ndongo and Matamba, in the _Catalogo_.

[468] Called Ngola mbandi by Cavazzi, Cadornega, and in the _Catalogo_; Ngola-nzinga mbandi by Lopes de Lima, _Ensaios_, p. 95.

[469] This removal seems to have taken place immediately after the Governor's arrival. The site chosen was that of the Praca velha of modern maps, to the south of the present Ambaca.

[470] D. Joo de Souza Ngola ari was the first King of Angola (Ndongo) recognised by the Portuguese. He only survived a few days, and was succeeded by D. Felippe de Souza, who died in 1660; and by D. Joo II, the last of the line, who was executed as a traitor in 1671.

[471] Livingstone, _Missionary Travels_, 1857, p. 371, calls this a law dictated by motives of humanity.

[472] He was appointed April 7th, 1621, took possession in September 1621, and left in 1623 (see _Add. MS._ 15, 183, I. 5).

[473] Literally "mother priest." It is thus the natives of Angola call the Roman Catholic priests, because of their long habits, to distinguish them from their own _Nganga_.

[474] Ndangi (Dangi), with the royal sepultures (_Mbila_), was two leagues from Pungu a ndongo (according to Cavazzi, p. 20).

[475] Bento de Benha Cardozo was originally given the command, but died before operations were begun.

[476] The Queen was in the habit of consulting the spirits of the Jagas Kasa, Kasanji, Kinda, Kalandu and Ngola mbandi, each of whose _Mbila_ (pl. _Jimbila_), or sepulture, was in charge of a soothsayer or _s.h.i.+ngiri_ (Cavazzi, p. 656).

[477] The _Catalogo_ is provokingly obscure with respect to the pursuit of the Queen. Malemba (Lemba) is known to be above Hako, to the west of the Kwanza, whilst Ngangela (Ganguella) is a nickname applied by the Binbundo to the tribes to the east of them. "Little Ngangela," according to Cavazzi, is identical with the country of the Bangala, or Kasanji, of modern maps. Kina (quina) simply means "sepulture" or "cavern," and A.

R. Neves (p. 103) tells us that Kasanji, on first arriving in the country where subsequently he settled permanently, took up his quarters at Kina kia kilamba ("Sepulture of the exorcist"). The mountain mentioned by Cavazzi (p. 770), as abounding in caverns full of the skulls of Kasanji's victims, may be identical with this Kina.

[478] Cavazzi, pp. 9, 622. In one place he calls her the dowager-queen, in the other the daughter of Matamba Kalombo, the last King of Matamba.

J. V. Carneiro (_An. do cons. ultram._ 1861), a.s.serts that Matamba was the honorary t.i.tle of the great huntsman of Ngola.

[479] D. Simo de Mascarenhas had been appointed bishop of Kongo on November 15th, 1621, and provisionally a.s.sumed the office of Governor at the urgent request of the captain-major Pedro de Souza Coelho. He was a native of Lisbon and a Franciscan. On the arrival of his successor, Ferno de Souza, in 1624, he proceeded to his See at S. Salvador, and died there in the following year under mysterious circ.u.mstances. Under his successor, D. Francisco Soveral (1628, d. 1642) the See was transferred to S. Paulo de Luandu. (_Add. MS._ 15,183). The dates given by Lopes de Lima (_Ensaio_, iii, p. 166a) are evidently corrupt.

[480] This Kafuche appears to have been a descendant of the warlike soba of that name. Another Kafuche, likewise in Kisama, asked to be baptised in 1694 (see Paiva Manso, p. 332).

[481] Dapper, p. 579. This first attempt to cultivate the soil was undertaken very reluctantly, but the profits derived therefrom soon converted both banks of the Mbengu into flouris.h.i.+ng gardens.

[482] The _Catalogo_, p. 366, calls him Alvares, but Paiva Manso, p.

182, Gaspar Goncalves (see also Eucher, p. 83).