Book II Chapter 2

Of Queen Ginga's birth, & of what she did until she became Queen, & ruled (Chapter II) and various things that followed.

In about the year of grace 1582[1] when Gregory IIIX steered the ship of St Peter & Ginga Bande Angola, the eighth King of that Kingdom, reigned in Dongo, was born Queen Ginga, so called by her Father at birth in our language, & in abondo Nginga[2] which was her own name in the libata; that is the city called Cabazzo, the ancient Court of the Kings of Dongo. You should know (dear reader) that among the many beliefs these Ethiopians have about the birth of their children, the most commonly observed are the following. The first is that if the child is born with the hands showing first, they believe this is an evil omen, & the nurse forces him back into his mother's belly, & she does the same every time a baby is not born in the customary way; they call such a child by the name cabinga[3] which means a petitioner, because even when not yet born it wishes to beg & steal. The second belief is that when a child is born & its Father or mother dies, this means that it will be a magician & cause other people to die. The third is that when it is born feet first it is an evil omen because it will be restless & will walk prematurely. The fourth is that when it is born with the sex organs first it is a bad omen. The fifth is that when it is born with its face upturned, & with the umbilical cord from which it received nourishment from the mother's belly round its neck, this is a clear sign that it will be haughty, barbarous, cruel & bloodthirsty, and the do not fail to practise various ceremonies to divert what they call its natural inclination.[4]

Queen Ginga was born with this sign and there was no lack of people running to the newly born Princess, not only Astrologers & Mathematicians to observe the course of the stars & Planets, their position & the hour that predominated, of which there is no lack in this black [21] Ethiopia, but there was also a large number of warlocks & magicians of whom there are many; they ordered various washes, of different herbs & woods mixed up in pots, to bathe the newly born Princess. They did not fail to observe the dreadful sign, without declaring its meaning, but remembering only their usual practices they said the usual words: "ma, ma o aoe aoe"[5] which indicate admiration & wonder, at the thought of what she would be like when she was of age. Haughty, barbarous and inhuman is what she will be to anyone who will see her at that time, & if the day of a man's birth gives a true likeness of what he is to be in life, what forecast could not one give for our Ginga who was born under such a dreadful sign? There was no judgement that one could give, except that she would be haughty, bloodthirsty, an enemy of her own blood relations, & barbarous & cruel to everyone, which is in fact how she turned out, & the prophecy was fulfilled as will be observed in the progress of this narrative.

She was brought up by her nurse with much care & vigilance as was appropriate to a King's daughter, and her Father loved her greatly and placed her before other children he had by various Concubines, & wished to see her often & in his fashion bless her. As she grew in years she also grew in her observation of the laws, rites & customs of her Ancestors; she had for a Nurse not one of the wise women of Greece or the chaste Romans, but an Ethiopian woman without any of the three qualities which women are normally praised for having, that is modesty, Shame & mercy, because they are found rarely or never among these Ethiopian women, especially those who have something Giaga?,? in them as they are normally models of shamelessness, & if there is no-one shameless who is not barbarous & cruel, let everyone judge at leisure, from what he hears about our Ginga and other Ethiopian women, who cannot feel as much shame as we can, if one of them was Nurse to the new-born Princess, dear Reader, if such was the tutor then judge what the pupil will be like? [22] And to show how well she was learning evil knowledge from her teacher she began by banishing the first two virtues, that is modesty & shame, and never wished to have anything to do with the third, nor have any affection or converse with it, & growing in years she also grew in malice, so much so that she let herself be dominated by the evil beast of sensual appetite, became a voluntary slave to it & let herself become prey to all kinds of carnal wickedness, & swore to neglect none of the appetites & delights she could wish for; & for this reason she was not content with a single Concubine but accepted as many as the evil beast of sensual appetite desired. Owing to this unbridled sensual progress she went from vice to vice, adding sin to sin, becoming barbarous & cruel to man who was in the image of the Creator; while she was leading this licentious life her Father Bandi Angola, burdened with many years, grew mortally ill, and finding no Remedy for is infirmities was forced to bow his neck to that which every mortal obeys, & the Author of life bowed his stet?. His death was felt by his Vassals, his neighbours, & by foreigners, & he was given an honourable burial according to the heathen custom in the same Court called Cabazzo where his Fathers were buried, with mourning & the appropriate sacrifice.

After his death his son Ngolambandi, son of guenguella Cangombe & blood brother of our Ginga, was proclaimed, although the government did not fall to his share. [marg.: as you have heard in Chap. i.c.16 above,[6] because he was the son of a slave, & not a free woman, & there was a legitimate heir according to their laws, I say, the son of the principal Concubine, & because he was not Canonically elected, that is not with the votes of the great men of the Court according to their custom, but as he caused the legitimate successor to be killed with his followers & relations, he was able to retain the power to govern without any suspicion of difficulty.] He began to govern with a great appearance of prudence & stability, & appeared to wish to follow the ways of his late father; but this Course did not last long because it was not natural to him, as he was by nature inconstant & unstable as is the custom in Ethiopia & among its inhabitants.[ added in margin: as has been observed in the first book in Chap. Ix c 89 ][7] To this nature he returned suddenly, because it reappeared and put into his Brain ambitious thoughts which so troubled his mind, that he despised not only his father's [23] warlike actions, but also those of his ancestors. and called them cowards * poltroons who let themselves be conquered by the Portuguese & other enemies. Being ambitious to Immortalise his name he girded himself for future victories without reflecting that the good & evil fortunes of war depend on divine mercy. He gathered people together & formed an army, & set out against the Portuguese by whom he was defeated several times, & lost two of his sisters, one called Cambo & the other fungi,[8] & also his chief wife, & suffered great misfortunes & tribulations, as did his Vassals; let everyone judge for himself, at his leisure, I only mention the loss of goods, wife, sisters, & part of his Kingdom. He spent some time in these afflictions, & seeing that his ambitions appeared to be in ruins, he reduced them to such an extent that instead of wishing to subdue everyone as at first, he managed to grow more humble, more from fear of further ruin than by his own will, making a virtue of necessity, & sent a petition to the Governor of Angola asking for his wife & two sisters, promising to remain on friendly terms with the Portuguese, redeem slaves, & also restore those who had fled from them?. The Governor sent the King his two sisters & his wife immediately, and he celebrated their return & fulfilled his promises except for the restoration of the slaves, for which he gave various reasons, & alleging various difficulties which prevented him from keeping his promise. Finally there came the new governor who normally comes every three years, & this was Il Signore Cavagliero Giovanni Correa de Sa[9] who came to govern the Kingdom of Angola, and who was very well qualified to do so. For some Years our Ginga had not been in friendly correspondence with her brother the King, & the reason was that when she bore a son by one of her Concubines the King ordered him to be killed in order to ensure that he himself would rule, following the example of Zundo Riangola, who was the first King after the King who murdered her late Father; and when he had observed this barbarous Custom of these Ethiopian nations the King's hatred did not end there, for, so as to be sure no other child would be born, they say that he ordered oil to be boiled with various herbs, & had it thrown while boiling onto the bellies [24] of his sisters, so that, from the shock. fear & pain, they should be forever unable to give birth; and this came about, for it is not known that any of them ever gave birth again. Our Ginga's feelings cannot be believed, & she was also angry on the others' behalf without being able to avenge herself; when the King saw his sister's Feelings which she expressed in her voice, her words & her face, & knowing how barbarous & cruel she was & that she would not lose the opportunity for revenge, he wished to pacify her before her anger could turn to deeds, & wipe the bitterness from her Heart; but how hard it is to suffer by the hand of someone who thinks to bring Consolation. Ginga felt such hatred for children after the death of her own, that she never wanted to see any others, perhaps to avoid reminding herself of her own childbearing, like the Goddess tomala. The King, being afraid of fresh trouble with the new government, determined to send his sister Ginga Bande as an Ambassadress to the City of Loanda to the new Governor Giovann'Correa de Sousa[10] with a great present of Slaves, (The City of Loanda is about a hundred leagues from the Court of Dongo, & it is the Capital & the place of royal Government, & give orders with all the Portuguese fortresses in the interior of the country) to negotiate for the peace & quiet of the Kingdom. She was somewhat consoled by the honour her brother was doing her and although her feelings were mingled with sorrow, she cleverly & prudently dissembled & appeared with a happy face & willingness to do whatever was to his taste & in the interest of the Kingdom. The King prepared her an honourable Escort, & all that was necessary for the journey, & entrusted the conduct of the negotiation for the peace & quiet of the Kingdom to her skill & prudence, & before she left gave her a new name, & called her Ginga Bande Gambole, meaning referee, which is the name Cambolle,[11] & also ordered her to be baptised if she was exhorted to be baptised, as he knew how much they wished for this conversion and even in this was prepared to submit to their convenience; he conceded various privileges & did her various kindnesses before she left.

So the new Ambassadress left Cabazzo, Court of the King her brother, & went to Loanda where ther? above‑named Lord was Governor; when he heard word of the coming of Ginga he sent

to meet her as it was fitting with much festivity & mirth [25] & when she arrived in the square she was received with a discharge of Artillery & musketry, & with the sound of various instruments both abbondi[12] & European, & after due welcome she was given lodgings in the house of a Citizen called Paij d'Araguso,[13] & was there given much to eat & drink both by the Lord Governor and the Citizens, particularly of the liquor which Noah drank and which is so esteemed by Ethiopians that to taste it a Father will sell not only his slave but his son, as I have seen more than once, A they will drink deeply of this liquor in a short space of time without any ill effect, but with much pleasure and comfort, without suffering from loss of consciousness or palpitations of the heart. [Marginal note, apparently at end of paragraph] The following case has been told me by several people, and having known and frequented Queen Ginga I have no difficulty in believing it, or even making others believe it, and on that account it will be described in the course of her story; all that I have experienced she has applied to others, but let it be as it may and let the consequences be as they may, for she does not lack great powers of observation and curiosity and what follows from them.]

Observe, dear readers, remembering the proud sign under which our Ginga was born, how on the day of the public audience she appeared dressed in a remarkable way according to the custom of black people, accompanied by a good number of pages & waiting women,[14] and entered the State chamber in the presence of the Governor & Ministers of State, among whom she complied with the ceremonies normal on such occasions. For her to sit on a carpet had been prepared with a Cushion on the ground according to the custom of black people, but when she saw she was not given a magnificent & showy Chair she called one of her waiting‑women, & sat on her as if she had been a Chair, rising & sitting down as necessary, & explained her Embassy with much acuteness and intelligence of mind; she gave her political reasons which, although she was a black Ethiopian, were well founded, as if she had been a Semiramis, a Zenobia, or the Queen of the Amazons, and excused her brother's youthful acts, asking for peace & quiet in the Kingdom, etc. Her proposals were heard, and the Governor's Chamber sat in council over them, & answered that they must live in peace with the Portuguese, lay down their Arms, be be? Friends of their Friends & enemies of their enemies, & pay an annual tribute to the King of Portugal recognising him as Supreme Lord, & there were other conditions which were all accepted except for the payment of the annual tribute, on the grounds that he who is born free should maintain himself in freedom, and not submit to others, & so lose freedom which is so esteemed by all, as there is nothing worse nor more abhorred than slavery, & by paying tribute [26] her King would lose that which was so precious, & would become slave instead of free; so she excluded this & accepted the other conditions with the consent of the Governor's Chamber.[15] Having to leave the audience, she left the chair on which she was sitting, which was her waiting‑woman, which made the bystanders laugh, & when she realised this she answered that it was not a mistake, but because her King's Ambassador was not accustomed to sitting the second time where he had sat before, being rich in such Chairs, & she left that one, there being no lack of someone else to take her place, and this gave everyone cause to realise Ginga's pride & ambition. The Governor, seeing her & how courteously she behaved to him, gave her banquets, & invited her to dine with him; she accepted the invitation, the banquet took place with the festivity & gaiety which was fitting, & with a splendour more appropriate to the host than the Guest. While the Princess remained in Loanda enjoying everyone's hospitality the Governor, Zealous for the saving of souls, did not fail to exert all his force to remove Ginga from the heathen state in which she lived, explaining to her the perils of persisting in it, & the spiritual wealth to be gained by leaving it, & even the worldly glory that would as a result she would acquire in everybody's opinion; but above all the Heaven which is prepared for those who from their Hearts abandon idolatry & embrace the Holy Catholic faith; moved by these cogent reasons of the Zealous Governor & already having the King her brother's permission she yielded like wax to flame, & freely gave her consent to receiving the Catholic faith; she had at once assigned to her someone experienced in the abbomdo language, to instruct her in our Holy faith; when she was instructed all that was necessary for that solemn function was prepared, and at the age of forty she was baptised in the Cathedral Church of the City of Loanda with the name of Donna Anna, the Lord Governor serving as her Godfather, & Donna Anna de Silva as her Godmother,[16] & as the black people do not usually have a Family name she took the surname of her Godfather, & was called Donna Anna de Souza & also that day?[17] (crossed out) kept it until death. Great festivity & joy [27] took place to celebrate the spiritual birth of our Princess, and there was no lack of the appropriate Presents. She was finally seen off by her Godfather the Governor & her godmother, & others also, & an honourable escort assigned to her, with many Presents also for her brother the King, nor was there lack of Citizens who not only Bestowed on her things to eat & drink, but also gold & silver, trusting that the new christian woman would be equal to their kindness.

So she left Loanda for Cabazzo, Court of the King, accompanied by some Portuguese assigned to her by the Governor;[18] I say she left with all signs of being a true christian, with many promises, but before she had gone very far she forgot them, & when those who were escorting her had turned back, she returned to her usual behaviour & actions, and did not fail to perform various heathen Ceremonies in order to have a successful journey back to the King's court, & removing the christian weapons with which she went armed and which she kept in their repositories, she armed herself with the satanic Relics customarily used by these Ethiopians and sold by their priests. She proceeded with the journey she had begun, showing cruelty to her servants and castigating them even for small errors most severely, showing in this way that she had lost her right to the honourable? Epithet "merciful & compassionate" appropriate to women. She finally reached the Court of the King her brother, who received her with festivity & joy; she showed the King what she had brought back from her Embassy, not failing to live up to the name that she had taken from the King, the word Gambelle meaning referendary, & she also gave him the various Presents that she had received on his behalf from the Governor and the Citizen, and which were very gratefully received, particularly the liquor which Noah drank and which is so much esteemed by the descendants of his son Cain; he was also grateful for what she had done to his benefit & that of the Kingdom.

When the King saw his Sister a Christian, & that she had received so much honour from the Portuguese, he conceived an ardent wish to become a christian too, & to that effect sent word to the City of Loanda to ask the Governor to send him a Priest to baptise him.[19][28] He was not lazy, for he showed eagerness in everything, but sent him at once a priest, a local man, whose name was Don Dionisio de Faria, who knew the Abbondo language, & with him a Captain who was to be the King's Godfather. They were both received courteously with a great display of joy & festivity, because of the great desire he felt to receive the Sacred ablution. The Priest began to Catechise him to make him worthy of such a Sacrament and did not find him opposed to the renunciation of any pagan practice, such as the great number of Concubines he kept. The only difficulty that arose was in seeking for the new name he was to receive, as the Priest wanted him to take his own, & the Captain himself wanted it too. They said, in the hearing of his Vassals, & particularly Ginga, that it was not fitting that she should receive the baptismal water from a Clergyman who was the son of one of their slaves, nor to have a Godfather who was also born of a slave, but he should take the name of a white person, & the Godparents should also be white.[20] Having heard the opposing arguments of the King, the Vassals & his sister, he said that he had thought about the name he should take, and the following night while he was asleep he heard beating at the Cavazzera?, & heard clearly the voice of a friar who told him he should call himself Francesco which was his own name. When he awoke, without realising Phoebus had risen, he went in great joy to the Clergyman's House, & told him he already knew his name, & told him what he had heard.[21] The Priest did not fail to point out to him who was the friar who had spoken to him, so that he recognized the great grace that God was granting to him, and so as not to delay in carrying out what he wished to do, he answered that he was ready for everything, but that the ceremony could not be performed by his own hands because he was the son of a slave, but that he would send for a white Priest & Godfather. The Priest felt this resolution deeply, but it behove him to be patient because there were other worldly difficulties which made it impossible for the soul of the King to Carry out his pious wish & eager determination. He sent the Captain with whom he also sent his two sisters Cambo & Fungi to be baptised. The Captain set off with the King's two sisters, & having reached Loanda he [29] presented them to the Governor who sent them to be baptised with much display, festivity & revelry, Cambo calling herself Donna Barbara, her Godfather & Godmother being Paij d'Araguso & Barbara da Silva. As a surname, she took that of Souza, as Ginga had. Fungi called herself Donna Valeria ferreri, whose surname she also took.[22] When they were baptised the Governor sent them back to the King accompanied by a Captain, & this was in the year 1625,[23] & their sister Ginga's baptism was in the year 1622. Then the Governor sent the King a great present, the carrier of which behaved with much prudence as it deserved the most careful dispatch, & brought back to the Governor the requisite answer to the present which he had sent him, the King making it public what he had agreed with the Portuguese, & that he wished for peace & quiet in his Kingdom, & to enjoy in peace what he had gained in previous wars, & he appeared to wish to keep his promise; but this promise did not last long as his observance of it a novelty for him and was STET, as is common in this black people of western or Inner Ethiopia, & not long afterwards there were clear signs of it, because he forgot the vision he had had & abandoned his desire to be baptised. Proud & ambitious thoughts that he would be called a coward if he let the Portuguese enjoy in peace not only what they had taken from him, but also from his late Father, sprang into his head, and he did not think of his sister's agreement, nor the peace & quiet of his Kingdom, nor the loss of his possessions; to gain power over what others held, he went into the field, & in spite of himself broke his peace with the Portuguese, & thinking to regain what he had lost he lost what he had, & the common proverb was verified, that he who covets all loses all, because he was defeated by the Portuguese, & chased from the ancient Court of his Royal predecessors, & he fled to the Islands in the river Coanza called the Islands of Chindonga, six days' journey away, & there formed a new Court with the same name of Cabazzo & gathered together the soldiers who had fled from the Portuguese Armies.[24] Ginga felt her brother's instability deeply, in that she had [30] negotiated in Loanda & the King her brother had followed this by changing to hate & anger towards the Portuguese; but before going on I shall demonstrate how her deeds corresponded to the haughty sign under which she was born: when one of the King's officials saw how many cruel deeds she committed in person & ordered to be done, (while the King was still ruling) without fear or shame, (in fact she gloried in being haughty & ambitious) making it a point of honour and glory to show herself barbarous & cruel; foreseeing the great damage which this could do to the Kingdom & the Royal personages, he tried to advise her humbly observing due respect & courtesy, as to what befitted her as a sister of his King; having therefore awaited a suitable occasion, one day when speaking to her he said: "My Lady, I, your & the King's slave, hold that I must advise you of something of great moment, which in time could do great damage to the Kingdom & the Royal personages." Having heard, she raised her Eyebrows & listened attentively, & said that he must speak as he felt. He loosened his tongue, & without any fear told her that the barbarous deeds she fearlessly & boldly committed would destroy the Kingdom & its Vassals. Having heard these mortifying words, she did not let him come near, but said she wished to reward him for his advice (listen, dear readers) & this cruel Tigress & raging harpy sent orders that a little son he had with him should be killed. When the Father heard that cruel sentence, knowing that at the tribunal of wrath there is no appeal admitted, even to mercy, because wrath must have its vent, he asked on his knees not for his son's life, but only that he might be the first to die rather than feel such grief; but barbarous Ginga for the same reason [...fold] said the son must die first, & then made the afflicted [...fold] stretch his Neck out above him as if he had been a trunk, & his Head was cut off; nor did her barbarity end here because when others offended her she ordered [31] their beards to be pulled out (piece missing here) to their great pain & suffering, & many, many other very painful and heavy punishments if she did not take their lives at the least she made it impossible for such people to hold the offices fitting to them, & even today among these Ethiopians [...] the memory of such barbarities is preserved and there were many others which I leave aside for reasons of brevity [added later]: in this place, because many are found elsewhere, treated at greater length.

Now let us return to the new Court called Cabazzo and situated in the Coanza river where the King & his sister remained, full of anger & hatred towards the Portuguese who had driven them away not only from the Court of their ancestors but from almost all their Kingdom, because the new Court was an Island in the Coanza river, one mile long & a swivel-gun musket? shot wide, surrounded entirely by water, as the river was divided at the beginning of the island & reunited again at the other end which was shaped like a pyramid. This in their language they call Dangij meaning root, from which derive all other islands,? fifteen in number, that are subject to our Ginga, & it is fortified by the water and the various rocks that are there, round which can be seen sea Horses of enormous size and Crocodiles 25 & 30 feet in length, which terrify not only strangers but also the inhabitants, who cannot safely fetch water by hand for fear of being preyed on by these savage Animals who are so amazingly strong, but they fetch water with the aid of a stick on the end of which they tie a Gourd, & if this is wondrous to hear, what can it be like to see it with one's own eyes? Once one of these strong Animals carried off eleven people at a time, forming a chain, because when it had snatched the first the force of ten others was not sufficient to hold it, but it pulled them all into its Home & lair, and another time five people, & another seven; I say this to show the force & ferocity of this animal, and merely to see it lying on the ground one can conjecture what its strength is, as its back is covered with [...] strong? scales, so that to kill it it must be struck hard in the weakest parts such as its flanks,[...] or its belly, or near its ears.

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[1]. Cavazzi probably figured the date of her birth from her supposed age at the time of her baptism in 1622, at age 40.

[2]. Abondo = Kimbundu. Although Cavazzi normally writes her name "Ginga", here he provides a more careful spelling which confirms its spelling in modern Kimbundu would be "Njinga". a similar carefully spelling is given in da Gaeta, Maravigliosa conversione, p. 145-6 (his normal spelling is "Singa").

[3]. Cabinga = Kabinga

[4]. Da Gaeta, Maravigliosa conversione, p. 146 gives a nearly identical explanation. Simoes Brando, "Ritos gentilicos" (ed. D'Assumpcao) p. 317 also gives a list of names (including "Nginga") for babies born in particular ways, but he does not link it to the famous queen who had reigned 45 years before he wrots.

[5]. See also Book 1, p. 120 and note 288.

[6]. It is, in fact, found on pp. 14-5 above. This may be a reference to the proper citation in an earlier draft, as several drafts of the opening pages are found in the front matter.

[7]. Probably a reference to his section on instability, Book 1, Chapter VI, pp. 64-68. Page 89 of the present draft refers to activities of a xingula and bear no obvious relation to what is written here, again perhaps a reference to an earlier draft.

[8]. These sisters, Kambu and Funji were not "lost" during the reign of Ngola A Mbande, according to Cavazzi or any other source, though Queen Njinga did lose and regain them several times during her reign. See Heintze, "Ende", pp. 218-24 for an interpretation grounded on contemporary documents.

[9]. Giovanni Correa de Sa, probably Joao Correia de Sousa, governor from 14 October 1621 to 2 May 1623, Heintze, "Ende" pp. 210-17, see p. 24 below.

[10]. Corrects the name of Joao Correia de Sousa (note 72 and p. 23 above).

[11]. Gambolle = Gambole. On p. 27 below he gives a definition of the term as "envoy".

[12]. Abbondi = Italian plural of abondo, or mbundu (kimbundu).

[13]. Paif d'Araguso, Payo de Araujo de Azevedo, whose wife was probably Njinga's godmother upon her baptism in 1622, Heintze, "Ende" p. 211, note 84 and 212.

[14]. The idea of a ruler sitting on the backs of one of his or her subjects as an attribute of power is so widespread in central Africa (of Miller, Kings and Kinsmen, p. 139) that this story ought not be taken seriously.

[15]. Cavazzi is the only source to discuss the actual terms of the treaty that Njinga negotiated in Luanda, see Heintze, "Ende" p. 216 on the contemporary documentation.

[16]. On various versions of her name, see Heintze, "Ende", pp. 211 note 84 and 212.

[17]. The words "until the present" suggest that this part of the MS was written originally befor 17 October 1663, the date of Njinga's death, especially in the light of the correct usage, "until her death".

[18]. Njinga left Luanda in 1622 accompanied by the Portuguese captain Bento Rebelo Visasboas, who had most recently served in Angola as (among other things), Escrivao das causas do mar, auditor do campo and ouridor e provedor dos defuntos e ausentes, Heintze, "Ende", p. 211 and note 85.

[19]. Contemporary documents, especially the Fernao de Sousa collection studied by Heintze reveal a different version than this one given by Cavazzi. According to these records, Njinga's embassy was as a result of the visit of a Portuguese mission led by Manuel Dias, a long serving soldier and the local (filho da terra) priest Dionisio de Faria Baretto, after working out some details, Ngola a Mbande then sent a mission which completed the treaty, Heintze, "Ende", p. 210 and notes 79-80.

83. Elsewhere in this section, Cavazzi (p. 28) suggests this priest was of whole or partial African ancestry, as "filho da terra" only indicates Angolan birth, not race or color. He was well regarded by Fernao de Sousa, although Bento Ferras had him imprisioned and deported in 1626, Heintze, "Ende", p. 210, note 79.

[21]. Contemporary documents do not mention the naming incident, although the second mission, with the royal sisters (including Njinga) did take place to greet the new governor, Pedro de Sousa Coelho who arrived on 2 May 1623. The other two didters were baptized in 1622 along with Njinga, Heitze,"Ende", pp. 211, 218. Dionisio de Faria Baretto's departure was precipitated by the breakdown in relations between Ndongo and Portugal, and was not simply his decision, ibid, pp. 219, 221.

[22]. On the names, see the well documented discussion in Heintze, "Ende", pp. 210-11.

[23]. The second embassy was in 1623, not 1625, ibid, p. 218.

[24]. The Portuguese attack on kabasa, their victory over Ngola a Mbande, and his withdrawl, first to Samba a Quinenzele in eastern Ngongo, then to the Kwanza Islands (Kindongo) took place during the rule of Luis Mendes de Vasconceles (26 July 1617-14 October 1621). The Portuguese tried, unsuccessfully, to establish a puppet king named Antonio Correia Samba a Ntumba after this victory, and then, in late 1621 or 1622 initiated the peace talks with Ngola a Mbande. Heintze, "Ende", pp. 203, 208-9, 211.