The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell, of Leigh, in Angola and the Adjoining RegionsBattell, Andrew
History
The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell, of Leigh, in Angola and the Adjoining Regions
Battell, Andrew
Angola -- Discovery and exploration; Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Discovery and exploration
[35] The River of Congo is known to the natives as “Nzadi,” or “Nzari,”
which merely signifies “great river “(Bentley’s _Dictionary of the Congo
Language_). For Isle de Calabes we ought perhaps to read Ilha das
Calabaças (Calabash Island). The position of this island I am unable to
determine. Perhaps it is the same as an Ilheo dos Cavallos Marinhos
(Hippopotamus Island), described by Pimentel as lying within the Cabo do
Padrão, Congo mouth. Duarte Lopez (_A Report of the Kingdom of Congo,
drawn out of the Writings of Duarte Lopez_, by F. Pigafetta, 1591.
Translated by Margareta Hutchinson. London, 1881) says it was the first
island met with on entering the Zaire, and that, although small, the
Portuguese had a town upon it.
[36] Palm cloth is made from the fronds of the _ntera_, or fan palm
(_Hyphæne Guineensis_).
[37] Dapper (_Africa_, Amsterdam, 1670, p. 520) tells us that the hairs
from an elephant’s tail were highly valued by the natives, who wove them
into necklaces and girdles; fifty of these hairs or bristles were worth
1000 reis! Duarte Lopez (_Kingdom of Congo_, London, 1881, p. 46) says
that one such tail was equal in value to two or three slaves, and that
native hunters followed the elephants up narrow and steep defiles, and
there cut off the desired spoils. Battell himself (see p. 58) bought
20,000 (hairs) which he sold to the Portugals for thirty slaves.
[38] The Egyptians were, of course, Ciganos, or gypsies. They appeared
in Portugal in the beginning of the sixteenth century. A Royal order of
1526 ordered them to leave the kingdom, but appears to have had no more
effect than a law of 1538, which, on account of the thefts of which they
were accused, and their sorceries, threatened them with a flogging and
the confiscation of their goods, if caught within the kingdom. This law
was re-enacted in 1557, when the galleys were substituted for a
flogging; and in 1592 a still more severe law was enacted, which
threatened with death all those who should not quit the kingdom within
four months. Battel’s associates were, no doubt, gipsies who had been
sent as convicts to Angola (see F. A. Coelho, _Os Ciganos de Portugal_,
Lisbon, 1892).
The Moriscoes are the Moors of Morocco. Early Portuguese writers refer
to the men who had fought in Africa (Morocco) as Africanos, and
Battell’s Moriscoes were in all probability Moorish prisoners of war, or
Moors expelled from Portugal.
[39] Mani or Muene, lord and even king, as Muene Putu, King of Portugal,
but also applied to a mere village chief. The _Cabech_ of Battell must
have resided somewhere about Muchima, but on the right bank of the
Coanza.
[40] Battell’s Guinea wheat is _masa-mamputo_, or _grão de Portugal_,
the zea mayz of botanists, which, according to Candolle and Ficalho, was
introduced from America.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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