When Diogo Cam returned from the Congo in 1485 he brought back with him a few Congo natives, who were baptized, and who returned some years later to the Congo with Diogo Cam and a large number of proselytizing priests. This Portuguese expedition arrived at the mouth of the Congo in 1491 and there encountered a vassal chief of the king of Kongo[58] who ruled the riverain province of Sonyo. This chief received them with a respect due to demi-gods, and allowed himself to be at once converted to Christianity—a conversion which was sincere and durable. The Portuguese proceeded under his guidance to the king’s capital about 200 miles from the coast, which they named São Salvador. Here the king and queen were baptized with the names of the then king and queen of Portugal, João and Leonora, while the Crown Prince was called Affonso. Christianity made surprising progress amongst these fetish worshippers, who readily transferred their adoration to the Virgin Mary and the saints, and discarded their indigenous male and female gods. Early in the 16th century the Kongo kingdom was visited by the Bishop of São Thomé, an island off the Guinea coast, which, together with the adjoining Prince’s Island, had been settled by the Portuguese soon after their discovery of the West coast of Africa. The Bishop of São Thomé, being unable to take up his residence in the kingdom of Kongo, procured the consecration of a native negro as Bishop of the Congo. This man, who was a member of the Kongo royal family, had been educated in Lisbon, and was, I believe, the first negro bishop known to history. But he was not a great success, nor was the next bishop, in whose reign in the middle of the 16th century great dissensions arose in the Kongo church among the native priesthood, which led to a considerable lessening of Christian fervour. After the death of the King, Dom Diego, a civil war broke out; and one by one the males of the royal house were all killed except “Dom Henrique,” the king’s brother. This latter also died soon after succeeding to the throne, and left the state to his son, “Dom Alvares.” During this civil war many of the Portuguese, whom the kings of Kongo had invited to settle in the country as teachers, mechanics and craftsmen, were killed or expelled as the cause of the troubles which European intervention had brought on the Kongo kingdom; but Dom Alvares, who was an enlightened man, gathered together all that remained, and for a time Portuguese civilization continued to advance over the country. But a great stumbling-block had arisen in the way of Christianity being accepted by the bulk of the people—that stumbling-block which is still discussed at every Missionary conference, polygamy. A relation of the king Dom Alvares renounced Christianity and headed a reactionary party.