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
Cavazzi’s Matamba, however, included the whole of Queen Nzinga’s
kingdom, as it existed in his day, whilst the original Matamba, as also
the country known by that name in the present day, had much narrower
limits. It was originally tributary to Kongo, but one of its rulers
assumed the title of _Kambulu_, that is, King, and renounced all
vassalage to his former suzerain. It existed as an independent kingdom
until 1627, when the famous Queen Nzinga took prisoner the dowager
Queen, Muongo Matamba, and incorporated this ancient kingdom in her own
dominions.[393]
It may have been a Ngola kiluanji, described by Cavazzi as the son of
Tumba ria ngola and of a Ngola kiluanji kia Samba, who first invaded
lower Ndongo, and assigned his conquest to one of his sons. But all is
uncertainty, and there exists an inextricable confusion in the names of
the Kings of upper and lower Ndongo as transmitted to us. One thing,
however, is certain, namely, that as early as 1520 the country down to
the sea was held by a king bearing the name or title of Ngola.[394]
THE FIRST EXPEDITION OF PAULO DIAS DE NOVAES, 1560.
In 1556 Ngola Ineve,[395] being threatened by Kongo, sent an ambassador
to Portugal asking for the establishment of friendly relations. This
ambassador arriving in the year of the death of King John III (1557),
action was deferred until 1559, when three caravels were fitted out and
placed under the command of Paulo Dias, a grandson of the discoverer of
the Cape of Good Hope. Dias left Lisbon on December 22nd, 1559, and
called at S. Thomé (where Bishop Gaspar Cão observed that the Jesuits,
who accompanied Dias, would meet with no success as long as commercial
intercourse was prohibited).[396] Dias arrived at the bar of the Kwanza
on May 3rd, and there waited patiently for six months, when Musungu, a
native chief, made his appearance at the head of a crew of painted
warriors, armed with bows and arrows. In his company Dias, accompanied
by the Jesuit fathers and twenty men, travelled up the country for sixty
leagues, when he arrived at the royal residence.[397] The King, not any
longer the Ngola who had asked for missionaries, but his successor,[398]
received his visitors kindly, but would net allow them to depart until
they had helped him against one of his revolted Sobas, called Kiluanji
kia kwangu by Garcia Mendes.[399] Having rendered this service Dias was
dismissed, but the Jesuits remained behind as hostages. Whilst Dias was
absent in Europe, Ngola defeated an army sent against him, and thus
compelled the recognition of the Dande river as his boundary, the
island of Luandu alone, with its productive _njimbu_ fishery, remaining
with Kongo. Ngola ndambi died (in 1568?) before Dias returned.
THE SECOND EXPEDITION OF DIAS, 1574.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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