Although the Portuguese discovered the coast of Angola in 1490, they did not attempt to settle in that country until 1574, when, in answer to an appeal of the chief of Angola (a vassal of the king of Kongo), an expedition was sent thither under the command of Paulo Diaz[60]. This expedition landed at the mouth of the Kwanza river, and found that the chief of Angola who had appealed to the king of Portugal was dead. His successor received Diaz with politeness, but compelled him to assist the Angolese in local wars which had not much interest for the Portuguese. Diaz found in the interior of Angola many evidences of Christian worship, which showed that missionaries from the Congo had preceded his own expedition. When Diaz was at last allowed to return to Portugal, the king (Dom Sebastião) sent him back as “Conqueror, Colonizer, and Governor of Angola” with seven ships and 700 men. His passage out from Lisbon in the year 1574 occupied three and a half months—not a long time at that period for sailing-vessels. Diaz took possession of a sandy island in front of the bay which is now known as the harbour of São Paulo de Loanda. Here he was joined by 40 Portuguese refugees from the Kongo kingdom. Eventually he built on the mainland of Loanda the fort of São Miguel, and founded the city of São Paulo, which became and remains the capital of the Portuguese possessions in South-west Africa. For six years perfect peace subsisted between the Portuguese and the natives; then, afraid that the Portuguese would eventually seize the whole country, the king of Angola enticed 500 Portuguese soldiers into a war in the interior where he massacred them. But this massacre only served to show the splendid quality of Paulo Diaz, who was a magnificent representative of the old Portuguese type of Conquistador. Leaving Loanda with 150 soldiers—nearly all that remained—he marched against the king’s forces near the Kwanza river, and routed them with great loss, being of course greatly helped in securing this victory by the possession of muskets and cannon. The Angolese were defeated repeatedly before they gave up the struggle; but at length in 1597 the Portuguese had established themselves strongly on both banks of the river Kwanza. In that year 200 Flemish colonists were sent out by the king of Spain and Portugal. In a very short time all were dead from fever. In spite of many reverses, however, the Portuguese slowly mastered the country south of the Kwanza nearly as far as Benguela. Portuguese traders and missionaries probably travelled inland up the Congo as far as the Bateke country or Stanley Pool. In 1606 an interesting but unsuccessful attempt was made to open up communication across south-central Africa between the Kwanza and the Zambezi settlements.