249 Marginal note with reference to the existence of amazons (Pigafetta, p. 124): “Andr. Battell, which travelled near to these parts [where Amazons are supposed to exist] denieth this report of Lopez as untrue.” The Amazons of Lopez lived in Monomotapa, on the Zambezi.
250 We may presume that Purchas told his friend what was reported by Lopez (Pigafetta, vol. ii, chs. 5, 9) and others about the origin of the Jagas. Battell, upon this, not only rejects the conjecture of Lopez, but also disclaims having any knowledge of their origin himself. Elsewhere, however, Purchas makes his author responsible for the assertion that they came from Sierra Leone (see note, p. 19).
251 The Bangála (akibangála, in Kimbundu Jimbangála, sing. kibangála) are the people of the Jaga of Kasanj. The term merely means “people,” and they have absolutely nothing to do with the Bangala on the middle Kongo, still less with the Galla (see Carvalho, Exp. Port. do Muatianvua, Ethnographia, p. 85).
252 The words within asterisks are obviously a parenthesis of worthy Purchas. He speaks (p. 854) of the Gallæ [our Galla] as a “nationless nation,” either the same as or like in condition to the Giacchi or Iaggés [Jaga], and (p. 857) of the Imbij as “a barbarous nation” near Mombaza. There exists not the slightest justification for identifying the Jagas of Angola with the Sumbas of Sierra Leone, the Mazimbas of the Zambezi, or the Galla. The whole of this question is dealt with in the Appendix.
253 On infanticide, see note, p. 32.
254 In a marginal note Purchas adds: “Azimogli are the children of Christians taken from the parents by the Turke, the spawne of their Ianizaries” It should be Ajem oglan (“inexperienced boys”), the children of Christians who were handed over to Turks to be brought up as Moslims, and trained as recruits for the Yanizaries (Yeni-cheri, new troops) organised by Sultan Urkhan in 1328. This unruly force ceased to exist in 1826.
255 Elembe means pelican.
258 Njilo mukisho, see p. 27.
259 Mpungi, an ivory trumpet.
262 Kuzambula, a soothsayer, diviner. Neves, p. 19, mentions a Mocoa-co-Zambulla as officiating among the Jagas of Cassanje.
264 Masanganu is the famous fort on the Kwanza built by Paulo Dias de Novaes in 1583. Anyeca, elsewhere called Ancica, Angica, Angila and Anguca, is clearly meant for Anzica, that is the country of the Nteke above Stanley Pool.
265 That is, St. Paul de Loanda, the chief town of Angola.
266 João Furtado de Mendonça was Governor of Angola (not Kongo), 1594-1601.
267 I know of no town (or even church) in the whole of Angola dedicated to St. Francis.
268 There is no such city in Angola. It seems to me that Knivet found the name in Linschoten, a translation of whose work appeared in 1698. Linschoten says here of the island of Luandu, which lies in front of the Portuguese town of S. Paul de Loanda, that “there were seven or eight villages upon it, at one of which called ‘Holy Ghost’, resides the Governor of Kongo, who takes care of the right of fishing up shells.” This “Governor” was an officer of the King of Kongo. The island, with its valuable cowrie fishery, was ceded to Portugal in 1649.
269 Ngulu, a hog.
270 Sanji, a hen.
271 I’mboa, or mbwa, dog.
272 Earlier in his narrative he mentions having seen, at the Straits of Magellan, “a kind of beast bigger than horses; they have great eyes about a span long, and their tails are like the tail of a cow; these are very good: the Indians of Brazil call them tapetywason: of these beasts I saw in Ethiopia, in the Kingdom of Manicongo. The Portugals call them gombe” (marginal note by Purchas). The gombe (ngombe) of the Portugals is undoubtedly a cow, whilst the tapetywason, called “taparussu” in a Noticia de Brazil of 1589, and tapyra, in the language of the Tupi Indians, is applied to any large beast, and even to the oxen imported by the Portuguese, which they call tapyra sobay go ara, that is, “foreign beasts,” to distinguish them from their own tapyra caapora or “forest beast.”
273 This account of a “trial by battle” does much credit to the author’s ingenuity. No such custom is referred to by any other visitor to the Kongo. The meaning of “Mahobeque” we cannot discover, but mbenge-mbenge means “principally.”
274 Nkadi, one who is, and mpungu, the highest. The usual word to express the idea of God is nzambi, or nzambi ampungu, God the most high! Nkadi ampemba, according to Bentley, means Satan. The word used in Angola is, Karia-pemba.
275 Ri-konjo, banana.
276 Mutombo is the flour from which cassava-bread is made.
277 The name for bread, both in Kimbundu and Kishikongo, is mbolo (derived from the Portuguese word for cake or bolo). Anou or auen may stand for mwan, a cassava-pudding; tala means look! kuna, here! The Rev. Thomas Lewis would say, in the Kongo language of Salvador: Umpana mbolo tambula nzimbu; literally, “Give me bread, take or receive money.”
278 The cowrie-shells fished up at Luanda Island (the old “treasury” of the Kings of Kongo) are called njimbu in Angola, but nsungu in Kongo. Njimbu in Kongo means beads, or money generally, and hence the author’s “gullgimbo” evidently stands for ngulu anjimbu, red beads.
279 Npuku, a field mouse.
280 Crimbo (kirimbo) seems to be a corruption of the Portuguese carimbo, a stamp.
281 The Rev. Thomas Lewis suggests: Mundele ke sumbanga ko, kadi wan bele-bele; that is, “The white men do not buy, but they have gone away in a hurry.”
282 Nlele, the general name for European cloth. They do make cloth from the inner bark of the banyan tree (see p. 18, note).
283 Mukaji; wife, woman, concubine.
284 The “fishes” are no doubt molluscs.
285 The King at the time of Knivet’s alleged visit was Alvaro II.
286 The Vangala, spelt Bengala lower down, seems to represent the Imbangolas of Battell, more generally known as Jagas (see p. 84, note)
287 D. Alvaro sent several embassies to Europe, but never a brother of his. The most famous of these ambassadors was Duarte Lopez, who was at Rome in 1590.
288 This certainly seems to be a misprint for Angola, for a party of Portuguese going to Masanganu would never stray so far north as Anzica. On the other hand, if Knivet was really on his way from the capital of Congo to Prester John’s country, that is, Abyssinia, he must have gone in the direction of Anzica.
289 Masanganu actually stands at the confluence of the Rivers Kwanza and Lukala!
290 That is, they suffered from elephantiasis.
291 Gold is often referred to in ancient documents, but its actual discovery (so far in unremunerative quantities) is quite a recent affair. Silver was supposed to exist in the hills of Kambambe above Masanganu, but has not as yet been actually found.
292 These Angicas are certainly identical with the Anziques or Anzicanas of Duarte Lopez, according to whom they eat human flesh and circumcise. The Angolans have at no time been charged with cannibalism.
293 Cavazzi, p. 262, calls Corimba a province of the kingdom of Coango (not Loango, as in Labat’s version) on the Zaire. Cadornega (quoted by Paiva Manso, p. 285) tells us that our river Kwangu (Coango) is called after a lordship of that name, and was known to the people as the “great” Zaire (nzari anene). On the other hand, D. Pedro Affonso II, in a letter of 1624, speaks of Bangu, which had recently been raided by the Jaga, aided by the King of Loango (sic), as the “trunk and origin of Congo” (Paiva Manso, p. 177). But then this Pedro Affonso was not of the original dynasty of Nimi a Lukeni.
294 Collectively known as Ambundu, a term applied in Angola to black men generally, but in Kongo restricted to slaves, i.e., the conquered. Bunda, in Kongo, has the meaning of “combine;” in Lunkumbi (Nogueira, Bol. 1885, p. 246) it means “family.” Cannecatim, in the introduction to his Grammar, says that Kimbundu originated in Kasanj, and that the meaning of Abundo or Bundo is “conqueror.” According to Carvalho (Exp. Port. ao Muatianvua, Ethnographia, p. 123) Kimbundu should be translated “invaders.” The derivations of the word Kongo are quite as fanciful. Bentley seems to favour nkongo, a “hunter.” Cordeiro da Matta translates Kongo by “tribute;” whilst Nogueira says that Kongo (pl. Makongo) denotes a “prisoner of war.”
295 “Palaver place” or “court,” corrupted by European travellers into “Ambasse.” Subsequently this town became known as S. Salvador.
296 Both the Rev. W. H. Bentley and the Rev. Tho. Lewis believe Sonyo to be a corruption, at the mouths of natives, of San Antonio. This is quite possible, for when the old chief was baptised, in 1491, he received the name of Manuel (after the King), whilst his son was thenceforth known as Don Antonio. Images of Sa. Manuela and S. Antonio are still in existence, and are venerated by the natives as powerful fetishes (Bastian, Loangoküste, vol. i, p. 286). Soyo, according to the same author, is the name of a district near the Cabo do Padrão. Yet Garcia de Resende and Ruy de Pina, in their Chronicles of King João II, only know a Mani Sonho, whom João de Barros calls Mani Sono. No hint of the suggested corruption is given by any author.
297 On these northern kingdoms, whose connexion with Kongo proper seems never to have been very close, see Proyart, Histoire de Loango, Cacongo, et autres royaumes d’Afrique, Paris, 1776; Degrandpré, Voyage à la côte occidentale d’Afrique, 1786-7, Paris, 1801; and of recent books, R. D. Dennett, Seven Years among the Fjort, London, 1887, Güssfeldt, Falkenstein, and Pechuel-Loesche, Die Loango Expedition, Berlin, 1879-83; and that treasury of ill-digested information, Bastian, Die Deutsche Expedition an der Loangoküste, Jena, 1874-5.
298 On the voyages of Cão and Dias, see my paper in the Geographical Journal, 1900, pp. 625-655.
299 Now Cape St. Mary, 13° 28´ S.
300 The “Cabo do Padrão” of early maps.
301 A legend on the chart of Henricus Martellus Germanus (1489), and the “Parecer” of the Spanish pilots of 1525, are our only authorities on this fact. Cão is not again mentioned in Portuguese documents (see my Essay, Geographical Journal, p. 637).
302 Nsaku was henceforth known as Don João da Silva. See Ruy de Pina, p. 149; Garcia de Resende, c. 69; and De Barros, Asia, t. I, Pt. I, pp. 177, 224.
303 On this embassy, see De Barros, Asia, Dec. I, Liv. 3; Ruy de Pina’s Chronica, pp. 174-179; Garcia de Resende’s Chronice, cc. 155-61; D. Lopez, Bk. II, c. 2; Fr. Luis de Sousa, Historia de S. Domingos, Parte II, Livro vi, c. 8; and Parte IV, Livro iv, c. 16.
304 Not Dominicans, as is usually stated. Garcia de Resende says Franciscans; and P. Fernando da Soledade, Historia Serafica, has proved the documents published by Paiva Manso in favour of the Dominican claim to be forgeries. Compare Eucher, Le Congo, Huy, 1894, p. 64.
305 Mbaji a ekongo, the palaver-place of Kongo. See Index sub San Salvador.
306 The insignia of royalty of the Kings of Kongo are the chair, a bâton, a bow and arrow, and the cap.
307 De Barros calls them Mundequetes, but D. Lopez says they should be called Anziquetes. They are the Anzicanas of later writers, about whose identity with the Bateke there can be no doubt. Their king bore the title of Makoko (Nkaka).
308Hence this, the oldest church of S. Salvador, became known as Egreja da Vera Cruz. In it the Christian kings of Kongo were formerly buried; but when the Devil took up its roof and carried the body of the unbelieving D. Francisco to hell, their coffins were removed to other churches (see post, p. 121). Other churches, subsequently built, are S. Salvador, N. S. do Socorro, S. Jago, S. Miguel, dos Santos, de Misericordia, S. Sebastian.
309 Frei João had died soon after reaching the capital.
310 Paiva Manso, pp. 2-4.
311 Paiva Manso, pp. 6-76, publishes quite a series of letters and documents bearing upon the reign of Affonso, and dated between 1512, and December 15th, 1540. Cavazzi makes him die in 1525, but in letters written between February 15th, 1539, and December 4th, 1540, the King refers to D. Manuel, who was about to go to Rome, as his “brother.” If the letters had been written by his successor Don Pedro II Affonso, Don Manuel would have been an uncle, and not a brother.
312 Cavazzi calls him Mpanzu a kitima; D. Lopez invariably Mpangu.
313 King Affonso, whose account of this battle may be read in Paiva Manso, p. 8, does not mention the flaming swords, but there can be no doubt that they were seen, for they were introduced in the coat-of-arms subsequently granted to the King. D. Lopez (p. 82) substitutes the Virgin for the white cross seen during the battle. Cavazzi (p. 273), and others, down to Father Eucher (Le Congo, Huy, 1894, p. 36), unhesitatingly accept this miracle. The Rev. W. H. Bentley most irreverently suggests a solar halo; but such a phenomenon might account for flaming swords, but not for the Virgin and St. James.
314 On this embassy, see the documents printed by Paiva Manso, and also Damian de Goes, Chron. do Rei D. Emanuel, vol. iii, c. 37.
315 Alguns Documentos, p. 419.
316 On this mission, see Alguns documentos, pp. 277-289, for the instructions given to Simão da Silva; Paiva Manso, pp. 5-12, or King Manuel’s letter, and D. Affonso’s manifesto; and also Damian de Goes, Chronica, vol. iii, cc. 38-39.
317 This coat-of-arms is fully described by King Affonso himself (Paiva Manso, p. 11), as follows:—The field gules, and the chief of the coat azure, quartered by a cross-fleury argent. Each quarter of the chief charged with two shells, or, on a foot argent, bearing a shield azure, charged with the five plates of Portugal. The field gules is charged with five arms holding swords, or. An open helmet, or, with a royal crown surmounts the coat. Crest: the five swords. Supporters: two idols, decapitated, with their heads at their feet. The coats figured on Pigafetta’s map and by Cavazzi, p. 274, are much less elaborate, but are both charged with five swords. The arrow in the latter is one of the royal insignia.
318 In the formal documents addressed to his “brother” of Portugal, he claims to be “By the Grace of God, King of Kongo, Ibumgu, Kakongo, Ngoyo this side and beyond Zari, lord of the Ambundus, of Ngola, Aquisyma (Ptolemy’s Agisymba) Muswalu, Matamba, Muyilu and Musuku, and of the Anzicas (Bateke), and the Conquest of Mpanzu-alumbu,” &c.
319 D. de Goes, Chronica, vol. iv, c. 3.
320 Paiva Manso, pp. 15, 17.
321 Paiva Manso, p. 71. Concerning Mpanzu-alumbu, see below.
322 On this mission, see Paiva Manso, pp. 69-74.
323 On the bishops of Kongo, see Add. MS. 15183 (British Museum), and R. J. da Costa Mattos, Corographia Historica das Ilhas S. Thomé, etc. Oporto, 1842.
324 Paiva Manso, p. 31.
325 For King Affonso’s account of this event, as also for an account of a second conspiracy, apparently planned by Fernão Rodrigues Bulhão, see Paiva Manso, pp. 76-80.
326 For Mpangu-lungu, see Index and Glossary.
327 The minutes of this inquiry are printed by Paiva Manso, p. 84.
328 D. de Goes, Chron. de Rei D. Em., iv, c. 54.
330 See Paiva Manso, pp. 60, 69. Later sovereigns claimed also to be kings of the Matumbulas, i.e., the spirits of their dead ancestors buried at S. Salvador, whom they pretended to be able to consult, and who were dreaded as fetishes.
331 According to a Jesuit canon, who wrote in 1624 (Paiva Manso, p. 174), these daughters were: (1) Nzinga a mbembe, the mother of D. Diego, Affonso II, and Bernardo; (2) D. Isabel Lukeni lua mbemba, the mother of Alvaro I, Alvaro II, Alvaro III, and Bernardo II; (3) D. Anna Tumba a mbemba, the mother of D. Affonso Mbikia ntumba, Duke of Nsundi, whose son was Pedro II. This genealogy does not seem to be quite trustworthy.
332 Several authors say that he came to the throne in 1525 or 1532, but the letters written by D. Affonso, and published by Paiva Manso, conclusively show that this is impossible (see supra).
333 His native name proves him to have been a son of D. Francisco. He is, however, generally described as a cousin or grandson of D. Pedro.
334 The earliest published letter of D. Diogo is dated April 25th, 1547. His death is mentioned in a letter dated November 4th, 1561 (Paiva Manso, pp. 81, 113). He may, however, have died a considerable time before that date. Lopez de Lima (An. Mar. 1845, p. 101) makes him die in 1552, after a reign of nine years.
335 This bishop was a Dominican. He entered upon his charge in 1549. The four Jesuits going in his company were Christovão Ribeira, Jacome Dias, Jorge Vaz, and Diogo de Soveral.
336 See letters in Paiva Manso, pp. 91-93.
337 He was appointed bishop in 1554, and died at S. Thomé in 1574.
338 For the minutes of an inquiry into a conspiracy planned by one D. Pedro ka nguanu of Mbemba, in 1550, see Paiva Manso, pp. 101, 110.
339 Compare D. Lopez, p. 93; Cavazzi, p. 276; a list of kings given by the Duke of Mbamba to the bishop D. Manuel Baptista in 1617 (Paiva Manso, p. 166), the statement of a Jesuit canon of S. Salvador made in 1624 (ibid., p. 174), and Christovão Dorte de Sousa’s letter to Queen Catherine of Portugal, dated (Luandu) November 4th, 1561 (ibid., p. 113); also a letter by P. Rodrigues de Pias, 1565 (Eucher, Le Congo, p. 70).
340 Printed by Paiva Manso, p. 114.
341 His letter is printed by Paiva Manso, p. 116. It was during the reign of this king, in 1563, that a “missionary” is stated to have crossed Africa (Garcia d’Orta, Coloquios dos simples e drogos. Goa, 1567).
342 Lopez de Lima, An. Mar., 1845, p. 101.
343 Duarte Lopez, p. 93.
344 Alvaro, according to Cavazzi, came to the throne in 1542 and died in 1587, whilst Lopez de Lima, quite arbitrarily, puts off his accession to 1552. These figures are absolutely incorrect, as may be seen from the date of the letter of Queen Catherine to D. Bernardo. D. Alvaro cannot possibly have ascended the throne anterior to 1568.
345 The Ayaka still inhabit a large stretch of country along the Kwangu, and are generally considered to be identical with the Jagas (Cavazzi speaks of them as Jaga, or Aiaka), an opinion which I do not share. See post, p. 149.
346 I imagine the account given by Duarte Lopez, p. 96, is much exaggerated.
347 Garcia Mendes, p. 9.
348 As a proof of vassalage we may mention that the King was denied the title of Alteza (Highness), which would have implied sovereign rights, and was only allowed that of Senhoria (lordship).
349 Duarte Lopez, p. 9. Originally, the Christian kings of Kongo were buried in this church, but upon this desecration their bodies were removed to other churches.
350 Our information concerning the reign of this king is exceedingly scanty. We think we have shown satisfactorily that he cannot have reigned from 1542 to 1587, but are unable to vouch either, for the date of the invasion of his country by the Ayaka, or for that of his death.
351 In a letter of September 15th, 1617 (Paiva Manso, p. 166).
352 Samuel Braun, who visited the Kongo in 1612, says that the fort built near the Padrão, and another on an uninhabited island, had been razed.
353 Sebastian da Costa had been sent to Kongo to announce the accession of Philip I, in 1580. He was given a letter by D. Alvaro, but died on the voyage, and Duarte Lopez, upon whose writings and discourses Pigafetta based his work on the Kongo (see p. 19), was appointed in his stead. For an account of this embassy, see Duarte Lopez, pp. 101-108.
354 Printed by Paiva Manso, p. 158.
355 This order was, as a matter of course, issued at the instance of the Council of Regency at Lisbon.
356 Paiva Manso, pp. 174-177.
357 We confess that this is unintelligible to us. Perhaps we ought to read Coango (Kwangu), instead of Loango. There is, of course, the “kingdom” of Kwangu beyond the Kwangu river, within which lies the district of Kurimba, the birthplace of the first King of Kongo (see p. 102). Bangu is evidently the district on the river Mbengu. It may have been the home of the King’s ancestors; and the Kwangu here referred to may be a neighbouring district of that name (see Index).
358 It was during the reign of this King that five Portuguese merchants crossed the Kwangu and fell into the hands of the Makoko, who made slaves of them. But upon this, his kingdom was visited by plague and famine, and his armies were beaten; and these “miracles” only ceased when, acting on the advice of his diviners, he had sent back his prisoners to S. Salvador, richly compensated for their sufferings (Cavazzi, p. 281).
359 For documents referring to the reign of this king, see Paiva Manso, pp. 187-237.
360 Whether the Dutch ambassadors prostrated themselves when presented to the king, as shown on one of Dapper’s plates, may be doubted.
361 The auxiliary force of thirty Dutchmen was commanded by Captain Tihman (Dapper, p. 541).
362 They sent, indeed, a vessel to remonstrate, but the Duke defied them to land, and they retired humbly.
363 Dapper, p. 572. Perhaps the itinerary on one of Dapper’s maps from Mpinda, by way of Mbamba, S. Salvador, Mbata and Nsundi, is supplied by Herder. The names conso, canda, quing and ensor of the map are corruptions of the names of the four week-days (konso, nkanda, nkenga and nsona), and designate places where markets are held on those days.
364 He died at S. Salvador in 1651, when about to start for Abyssinia, and was succeded by P. Giovanni Francisco of Valenza, as Prefect. For a full account of the missions of 1645 and 1648, see Pellicer de Tovar, Mission Evangelica al Reyno de Congo, Madrid, 1649; and P. Francisco Fragio, Breve Relazione, Rome, 1648.