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
The Portuguese had no sooner retired than Queen Nzinga returned to
Ndangi Island, and having been reinforced by several Jaga, she undertook
the conquest of Matamba. At Makaria ka matamba she took prisoner the
dowager-queen[478] Muongo Matamba, and her daughter. The mother was
branded as a slave, and died of grief; but the daughter was taken into
favour, and was baptised in 1667.
Having thus destroyed the ancient kingdom of Matamba, the Queen once
more invaded Portuguese territory, but she turned back when she heard
that the Jaga Kasanji was raiding her recent conquest, upon which he
claimed to have prior rights.
At the same time she interfered continually with the commerce of the
Portuguese with the interior; and it was only in 1636, when the
Governor, Francisco de Vasconcellos da Cunha, sent D. Gaspar Borgia and
Father Antonio Coelho on a mission to the Jaga in Little Ngangela, and
to the Queen at her Kabasa, in Umba, that peaceable relations were
established. The Queen, however, persistently refused to surrender her
claims to the provinces of Ndongo which had been occupied by the
Portuguese.
MINOR EVENTS, 1624-1641.
Punitive expeditions were frequent. In 1624 the Jaga Kasanji, who had
taken advantage of the conflicts between the Portuguese and Queen Nzinga
to rob Pumbeiros, was severely punished, and Captain Roque de Miguel
returned from this expedition with a large number of captives, who as a
matter of course, were sold into slavery. During the provisional
governorship of the bishop D. Simão de Mascarenhas[479] (1623-4), Lopo
Soares Laço meted out punishment to the Jagas Nzenza a ngombe and
Bangu-Bangu, and to the irrepressible Kafuche.[480] A few years later,
in 1631, the captain-major Antonio Bruto waged a successful war against
rebellious sobas, and more especially impressed the natives by his
victory over the dreaded Mbuila anduwa (Ambuila Dua), who held out for
six months in a rocky stronghold deemed impregnable. The invasion of
Kongo, in 1622, by order of Governor João Corrêa de Souza, who claimed
the surrender of Luandu Island and of all the copper mines, has already
been referred to (see p. 123).
Among the very few measures calculated to promote the material or moral
interests of the colony may be mentioned the establishment of the three
_feiras_, of Ndondo, Beja, and Lukamba, in 1625; the foundation of a
_Santa casa da misericordia_ (Poor-house and hospital) at S. Paulo de
Luandu, by the bishop D. Simão de Mascarenhas; the compulsory
cultivation of the banks of Mbengu (Bengo), when Luandu was threatened
with famine owing to the non-arrival of provision ships from Brazil, in
1629;[481] the reform of the administration of the Royal revenue, by
Fernão de Souza, in the same year; and the creation of a board of
revenue (_Junta da fazenda_), charged with the collection of the tithes
and of the tribute payable by the native chiefs, by Francisco de
Vasconcellos da Cunha, in 1638.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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