Book II Chapter 4

[47] Of the sack of the City of Loanda by the Dutch various events which occurred at the time are related, & the great hatred Queen Ginga felt for the Portuguese is shown Chap. IV [added later: various barbarous acts she committed against human beings are narrated]

The reasons for inserting (dear readers) the capture of the City of Loanda by the Dutch into this narrative is in order that the reader should have more information about the great hatred Queen Ginga bore the Portuguese, for she allied herself to those people in order to do them damage, and if possible to destroy them. In the year of our salvation MDCXXXI the temporal governor of the City of Loanda & all the fortresses subject to it was the Lord Governor Pietro Cesare di Menese[1], & the spiritual one was Signore Don Francisco Sovverale[2], Canon Regular Bishop of Congo, & Angola, where he had his residence.[3] The good Shep­herd was very zealous for the salvation of the Souls of his sheep, nor did he commit to others the care which he could exercise himself, not caring for sun, wind or rain which are so unfavourable in this black Ethiopia. The good Prelate & Zealous Shepherd was seen, in the time which was spared to him from the occupations of the Church & divine offices which he performed most solicitously & diligently, he was seen, I say, scouring the regions of the City looking for poor infirm people, & so much so was his HOuse that of the rich man like that of the poor man, that to the ones he administered sustenance, necessary to the infirm so that they could recuperate their lost strength, and to the others the Sacrament of love with great effectiveness & devotion, so that the token of the Heavenly Jerusalem & sign of future glory should be raised. His house was the refuge of the poor, & when he did not give it was not through lack of goodwill, but through lack of anything to give, as he had always before his eyes the example of his heavenly Father, & written in his Heart his precept, that it is not the function of a bishop to watch over gold, & throw away from him the hand of the poor man seeking alms. There was no means [48] that he did not use to save Souls redeemed by our loving Christ at the Cost of his most precious blood, for he saw that among the Citizens Charity had cooled, justice was lost, Christ's poor were scorned, the sick abandoned & the doors closed to the needy; that the courts of law operated only in favour of the Rich, and the lawyers favoured those who were ready to spend the money in their purses, and were deaf to the complaints of the poor for whom there was no reason or justice. Among the merchants usury reigned, & deceit through which bad products were sold as good, & such was their state ( so it is said) that they were believed to squeeze the blood of the poor, for not only did they sell dear and buy cheap, but some of them even robbed, & without scruples of any kind sent them across the salt waters, without it being any use for their families or friends to complain, for silence was imposed on them on pain of being sent after the prisoners. There was no vice which was not practised, no evil which was not committed, no cruelty which was not perpetrated; pride was carried to the highest degree among the great, avarice among the rich, lechery was at home everywhere, and people gave way to wrath for very little cause in their own homes; gluttony was favoured by all and abhorred by none, and people gave way to it as much as they liked, & to satisfy it were as diligent as possible, so that there was unlimited expense on banquets, plays, pastimes, feasts & festivities; all these were voices asking blessed God to castigate them because they were preoccupied with everything but that which was needful for the salvation of their Souls, and while they were concerned with Comedies, dreadful tragedies happened to them; envy was common, for everyone envied everyone else's goods, & accumulation of power upon power. The poor envied & desired only what sustenance was necessary to a human being. Sloth also was seen both among lay people and Ecclesiastics; for this reason the Zealous Pastor who desired the salvation of his flock made himself heard as a chosen Vessel from his pulpit, & also scoured the regions of the City, like Jonah at Niniveh, he assigned forty days to the execution of their Punishment, and show of Repentance, through which, by mourning for the sins they had committed, they deserved that their Punishment should be changed to mercy; but the zealous Prelate [49] made himself heard during two years like a trumpet to his flock so that they should bethink themselves of the sins they had committed, but they, deaf to their Prelate's warning voice called with their ingratitude for God's deserved punishment.

So in the year 1641, as blessed God wished to castigate the Kingdom of Angola, he moved the dutch nation to form an Army,[4] & cross the vast Ocean as far as the Ethiopian Sea on whose coast is situated the City of Loanda 82 degrees [nine][5] above the Antarctic pole, a landing-place for Vessels which come from all parts to buy slaves to take to new Spain.[6] It is the chief of all the fortresses that there are in the Kingdom of Angola where the Royal Governor resides, & the chamber with the Royal ministers through which the fortresses of the interior are governed. So the Dutch Armada of 22 Vessels appeared and saw the City of Loanda, & captured it by force of Arms as the Citizens could not resist their enemies, and were constrained with their Pastor to leave it with gold, iron & silver without being able to take with them anything except what came to hand & what they could carry on their shoulders, while there was not a Father or mother who carried his son to save him; now, kind reader, consider at leisure the Cause and the consequence, & form judgement; for me it is enough to present the picture of the old Prelate, almost a sexagenarian, leaving the City leaning on a pilgrim's staff, and guiding his flock to safety from the hellish plague of war & from the heresy of the enemies of our holy faith,[7] without finding anyone who was willing to carry him. Then the white nation began to feel the rigour of punishment, & the barbarous acts committed by the black people against their Lords.

When the Governor saw he was outside the City, & that it was in the power of the enemies not only of his King but also of Religion, he was overtaken by great melancholy which saddened everyone very much, and finally having Recovered from this as he saw it was necessary for their preservation, he gathered together all the soldiers except (?) the Captains and assigned to each the posts he was to watch; the first [50] was broken and defeated by the enemy, and seeing the enemy's intentions he though of retreating to Massangano, a Garrison[8] 40 leagues from Loanda and situated on the Coanza river, & to Lucala, a fortified place that could be defended because of its situation on an Eminence above two rivers; so he retreated to Massangano, and having retreated there, lost many people, soldiers, other men, & sick women, and many were left buried in islands where there was malaria;[9] everyone can imagine what happens in such a case, and I will only say that this part of inner Ethiopia is very unhealthy, & wherever a person goes he will suddenly feel the effects, & there are few who go there without paying the tribute; of this vexation the end and extremity of the afflicted proceed.[?] It happened that a certain trader committed a crime worthy of the death penalty, to which he was condemned, and when he had been led to the gibbet, the ropes were broken twice, & as it seemed to the Governor that it must be the result of something he wore; he ordered him to be undressed & when this was done they found he was wearing round his Neck the habit or scapular of Our Lady the Virgin of Camina, which was removed, & justice was done as the crime was serious.[10] Many black people barbarously killed their Lords thinking that the Portuguese and white nation must perish.[11] So while they remained sadly & sorrowfully in Massangano the good Pastor & Father did not fail to comfort them all with fatherly words & to exhort them to amend their lives; but as blessed God had determined to castigate the inhabitants of Angola he took away the comfort they had from their Father & Pastor & called him to eternal rest, the prize & guerdon which our loving Christ is accustomed to give to those who work in the service of the salvation of Souls. His death was greatly felt by all and mourned as it was fitting for the Father of the poor, the consolation of the disconsolate, the Refuge of the afflicted, the protector of orphans & widows, the pattern of humility, the model of Charity, the example of Chastity, the enemy of vainglory who in order to avoid it would devote himself by night to secret prayers & penitential exercises & works of charity, & even went so far as to give to the poor the bed whereon he slept, throwing it out of the window so as not to be observed, & such was the virtue of compassion towards Christ's poor in this Zealous Prelate that when he was walking through the City and a poor man asked [51] for Alms & he had nothing to give, he removed from his back his Bishop's embroidered cape, & gave it to the poor man. In his life he did not fail to imitate his Holy Father, follow his footsteps & his virtues, & so to hope [two illegible words in superscript] that it should be conceded to him to enjoy everlasting glory because he who was the companion of the passion will also be that of the resurrection, and this was the end of this Zealous Pastor.

God even wished to increase the punishment, & take away the spiritual consolation for the poor amends they had made, because at the same time he called to eternal rest the Father Minister of St. Gioseph, superior of the third order of our Seraphic Father Saint Francis & the Father Rector of the Company of Jesus, both Religious of great virtue,[12] & now what could one say on seeing these pillars of the edifice fall ? what, except that it would all fall, & be ruined ? Feelings ran high but the punishment did not end because their lives were not amended. Holy week came, dedicated to the Passion of our loving Christ, & while they were at divine service, present in body if not in spirit, & when the reader came to the end of the first lamentation when the Prophet Jeremiah exhorts Jerusalem to be converted to God,[13] at the same time as these words there arose such a storm of wind that it put all the people into great confusion & was such that the roofs of both Churches rose into the air, particularly that of the Church of S. Benedict which remained suspended in mid-air three times, & God was served because it returned to its place without injuring anyone; I say it was such a storm that everyone thought it was the end of the world, but our God is not so much rigorous as merciful, for seeing some signs of repentance & penitence he is pacified; they opened the Ark where the Sacrament of Love is kept, & genuflecting to it they recited the penitential Psalms, & at the sight of the Sacred Lord the punishment disappeared, & they continued with the divine service. These were signs from Heaven & earth which were shown to mortals, & will precede the tremendous Judgement.

Heaven showed yet another sign to bring about the amendment of the sins they had committed, & suddenly in the direction of Lubolo from Quissama[14] there appeared a dense cloud of [52] red Colour which covered the mountains, a marvellous thing to see, & what was more they grew into Locusts of Extraordinary size with great Red wings & saw-like teeth, like those which were said to appear over the City of Lisbon in the year [year blank].[15] They came in their might over Massangano, which moved all the people to ask for pardon & mercy to blessed God, being certain that the end of all things was at hand; they covered the air, & the HOuses, & spread over more than three leagues and spoiled everything they found. A procession was formed & on its arrival at the Gate of Saint Benedict various Exorcisms were conducted as a result of which those animals left & seemed to be a cloud of fire; the Most Clement Lord did not wish the punishment to be as if it had not been, either among the people or among plants.[16] There followed a great plague among the black people, & many were left without anyone to serve them; there were also various infirmities among the whites from which many died, more from lack of the necessaries of life than from anything else, although the rich did not fail to exercise Charity, because they spent two thousand ducats on hens alone, one hen being worth One hundred and fifty Reis, which are worth little less than a lira, a half of bolognini modenesi, I leave you to imagine how fast it ran away, & a flask of wine came to be worth 30 Ducats, & it was a great mercy to be able to find one.[17]

It happened that a Religious of great virtue, belongingto the third order of our Father Saint Francis, was going to visit & administer communion to some invalids, to the last of whom he gave the Bread of the Angels, and as soon as he had received it it caused him to vomit, and the good Religious had no time to do anything or any Remedy, except to put the Chalice to the mouth of the invalid, and into it came the Sacred host with the vomit; seeing this, the Priest who was worshipping the Chalice on his knees swallowed it with great spirit without any nausea, which moved everyone to great admiration & to give thanks to the Creator &c.

There then appeared a Comet above that place in the form of a serpent with a tail, & arose, & stopped in view of all in the Midst of the air and then disappeared.

[53] There was also to be heard a great noise of Artillery caused by a great globe of fire which passed from the west to the east, nor was there lack of precedents & consequences of these prodigies, for when the Governor went forth against the Dutch they were broken & captured, & the same Governor remained a prisoner of war;[18] everyone can imagine what they suffered from their enemies who were also those of Religion. some were oppressed by labouring in trenches and on parapets, others drew the Cart that they had always seen drawn by oxen, & to their labour was added lack of food & bad, even vile words & blows; nor did the Punishment abate in vigour because these enemies of their King & of Religion, to extinguish the Portuguese nation, united themselves with many titled Lords to increase the forces of their army, & reach their goal more easily. When Queen Ginga learned of the Dutch plan & aim which was the same as hers, she held great feasts & festivities, & determined to unite herself with them to avenge the preceding wars, & if possible extinguish the enemy or at least chase them from the Kingdom, as it is in the nature of hatred that it is not satisfied until it sees everything avenged & ruined, & in order to see what would be the result she did not resort like a Christian to Blessed God nor to the House of prayers, nor yet to the priests of the true God, but like a Giaga & renegade she had resort to the devil & his ministers, who to show the Queen the result of the negotiation caused two cocks to appear, naturally proud animals, one of which was white and signified the Portuguese, & the other black, signifying the black people and the Queen. These two proud animals began to fight a duel which on the third day resulted in a victory for the black one. Now, dear reader, one cannot describe the feasting & revelry shown by these mad Priests & foolish ignorant blacks, & the Present the Queen made to her soothsaying wizards, & they even rewarded the cock with cries & clapping of hands according to the black people's custom. A white Portuguese was present at this comedy, who said he conformed to their behaviour in order to behave in Rome as the Romans do but inside himself said "O vain comedy which will turn to tragedy." The Queen & the great people had victory in their hands, were already dividing the spoils of the Portuguese, the Lord [54] was taking possession of the Gold & silver & giving their possessions to his Vassals, the Necklaces & bracelets to the ladies, the Arms to the Soldiers & clothes; but cursed is the man who trusts in men, observe how the Queen's victory ended, in the first war she was defeated & lost her two sisters Cambo & Fungi, & she fled on Horseback, losing many people & goods.[19] However, she did not lose Heart at this result but on the contrary her heart blazed even more with anger & hatred towards the Portuguese, & she gathered together fresh forces with which she advanced on the Portuguese, & who were making war on one of her former Vassals & fought a most cruel battle, & destroyed the Portuguese army, killing some & taking other prisoner.[20] Having grown even prouder as a result of this, & eager for fresh glory, she and her army placed themselves near the Fortress of Massangano in order to give more encouragement to the Dutch & strike more fear into the Portuguese, & from this place sent a troupe of warriors to make some expeditions near Embaqua where she lost nine hundred people, nor was she deterred by the consideration that one white person is worth more than twenty black ones. They were also waging war in the Provinces of Lubolo to resist the expeditions of the Giaghi, who had news of whatever was happening among the Dutch, & the Portuguese. They arranged a betrayal in which they were killed, & this was as prophesied by the Locusts who came from that region; similar things happened to other regiments of the Army without anyone being given quarter, & these events were followed by three others which were suffered by the Dutch & their followers.

The Dutch & the Queen their ally tried as hard as they could to extinguish even the name of the Portuguese; they had sent 122 soldiers to repress some expeditions and they too were killed, except for 12 who were taken prisoner, nor did the fury and hate of the enemy stop there, for on disembarking at the mouth of the river Dande while under a verbal truce 30 Portuguese & a Carmelite Religious were delivered by the Dutch to black mociconghi, who gave them a most cruel [55] death, & the Dutch not only celebrated this but gave presents to the assassins to excite them to still greater cruelty & barbarity, & they showed themselves not lazy but agile & skilful, & barbarously killed a few people who had remained in their own lands for reasons of friendship or family, & even cut open the women's living bodies & drew out their hearts, or else their unborn children. Much of the guilt for these acts of cruelty was that of the King of Manicongo who, seeing Loanda in the power of the Dutch, is said to have ordered the Portuguese in his Kingdom to be killed. The strictest observers of the Royal order were the Lords Manimoteme, who with barbarous cruelty ordered all those, not a few of them, who were in his Lands to be killed; & others did the same and made themselves Lords of their property; but the common proverb says that who does a thing will have it done to him, and the authors of these deaths received their due punishment, because when Loanda was recaptured from the Dutch, the King of Congo had to pay the King of Portugal nine hundred slaves or their value in compensation for the deaths & stolen goods, reveal the gold mines, & give up some of the salt mines that are in the Duchy of Bamba, to make amends for the sins he had committed. In that calamitous time there was not an Ethiopian who did not make a show of barbarous acts, sparing neither sex nor age.[21]

What most excited Queen Ginga to anger & hate towards the Portuguese was that while she allied herself with the dutch against them, they found that her sister called Donna gracia, and by her local name Fungi, was making deals with the Dutch & with her sister Ginga to betray the Portuguese. While she was their prisoner, & had many black slaves of her own with her, she hated the Portuguese so much that she ordered as many of their slaves as she could to be killed & thrown into the Coanza river. She was barbarous & cruel, & the result of her cruelty was that when her treachery was discovered she was thrown into the Coanza river where she had sent others to be thrown, in punishment for her sins.[22]

So while the enemies of the name of Christ were prospering, they aspired to the conquest of the fortresses on dry land and marched on the fortress of Mozhima situated [56] on the bank of the Coanza river in the Quissama region with 600 hundred soldiers, six pieces of artillery & more than 6000 m. blacks. It was built on a small hill, not of marble or of ordinary stone, but the walls & bulwarks consisted of a fence of palings planted around it with a little excavation & not much fortification except that which it derived naturally from the eminence of the Site. By order of the Governor they had removed the artillery because they thought the enemy was sure to take possession; the paid soldiers, auxiliaries & inhabitants were only 44 in number and only 26 could handle their weapons. Determined to defend the fortress, they at once retired into it as far as possible, and fired on the Houses so that the enemy should have no place to recover, & burned everything except the Church dedicated to our Lady the Virgin which was situated at the foot of the Hill where the fortress was.[23] When the enemy saw the resolution of the besieged people, he disposed artillery all round the fortress, thinking that at the first shots it would surrender; but the besieged, small in number but great in strength, considering how this was their native land, & that here they had wives & children, laughed at the enemy because they were resolved to lose their lives in its defence; they erected an altar in the middle of the fortress on which they placed a most beautiful statue of our Lady the Virgin 8 palms in height, [six[ with a very rich Crown on her head, dressed in cloth of gold. When the enemies saw that tall [elevated] tower, that strong breastplate, they directed the artillery towards it assuming that it was in a prominent prosition in order to encourage the besieged in battle and to enable them to observe the enemy's progress. They fired four salvos of Artillery at it one after the other, of twelve pounds each, which all landed around the Altar on which was the Statue of our Lady the most holy Virgin without hurting anyone, and when the besieged people saw the miracle they raised their voices giving infinite thanks to her who had liberated them, & making many vows to her, and scorned the enemy's determination to hurt them, by which they were not hurt. The enemy barricaded themselves inside the Church without it being possible to prevent them; the door [57] faced towards the river and they had already opened it by firing with artillery & muskets; but, o divine virtue, the mother of mercy did not allow her House to become a shelter for the enemies of our Holy Religion to the offence of her devoted followers, because there suddenly arose a great wind which, cleaving the burning air others served as soldiers, others did martha's office, & all the women together did that of Magdalen before our Lady the Virgin, nor were their prayers in vain; in times of need fear, slow or rapid, makes feet hurry in preserve the human individual's safety, & they were well paid for their diligence, as you have heard.[24]

It happened that two people went from helping each other to quarrelling for a very trivial reason; anger awoke in the Heart of each and showed in their faces, their words, & even their deeds for one pierced the other through; the injured man retired to the place where there was the Holy Statue of our Lady the Virgin, before whom on his knees he prayed for forgiveness of the blows struck, & if his health, through her beloved son, [58] was saved he promised to forgive his enemy, and his prayers were not blown away by the wind; they were heard by the mother of mercy in her pity, so that in eight days' time he found himself in good health and gave infinite thanks to our Lady the Virgin and heartily forgave his enemy; when this was seen by all, they all raised their voices giving thanks to blessed God & his most holy mother; nor was there lack of other effects of past prophecies, and of the many barbarous & cruel acts committed by the black Ethiopians against the white people, as you will see from what follows.

There followed a horrendous case during the time of these enemies of our Holy Christian Faith; there was a rumour among the blacks that the name of the Portuguese would shortly be extinguished in Angola, and for this reason everyone tried to make himself known through some heroic deed against them. The slave rebelled against his Master & treated him badly; he walked along with his hat on his Head, & the Master with a load on his shoulders [Beside him]; others showed pity for their Masters and mercifully accompanied them out of their dwelling-places, putting loads on them, and then made them work & walk against their will, & took particular care not to carry loads themselves. Charity was lost in the Ethiopian nation, fidelity note? was broken, & only cruelty & barbarity, daughter of wrath* reigned. There was a Titled man who had a Church & Chaplain in his Court, & had been a christian for many years, and who not only did not want to be inferior to others, but wanted to surpass them as he was Lord of the others, and committed the following barbarous act towards his Father & Pastor, besides the many others he had committed. One day during his usual practices he sent for the Chaplain, who guessing the barbarian's intentions put on his Clerical alb, & armed his breast with a Holy Crucifix; when he arrived the barbarian caused his to be denuded at once not only of the Clerical ornament & holy Crucifix, but of his clothes, & had him tortured alive like St. Bartholomew, and if he imitated him in martyrdom we may believe that because of his constancy he was associated with him in the Celestial Zion; not content with this, the barbarian ordered his chair of state to be upholstered with his skin, & made a drinking-vessel of his head, & ate his body [59]. He also caused many Portuguese, sons of the land, to be killed at the same time; but when the City of Loanda was freed from the power of the Dutch he was captured in war, & when interrogated as to where he had buried the Priest answered by showing his belly in which he had buried him. This answer was for him a sentence of death, for the General at once ordered that he should be killed, nor did the delegated delay in showing those present his quartered body, & so he paid the price of his cruelty, for he who lives by the sword shall perish by the sword; & even today, among the officers who administer that Lordly seat, there are always deaths, wars & discord, for blessed God does not permit anyone to persevere in sin without punishment & expiation for the excesses he has committed, as was shown in the year 1663 when the place was devastated. They say that there was a great Cross planted in front of the Court, & that two lions came and uprooted it with their claws & threw it to the ground; further, that land which at first was fertile & abundant has become so sterile that it no longer provides sustenance, as if it had been Excommunicated.

Not less horrendous and frightening was the second event, because Queen ginga, having allied herself with the dutch to avenge herself on the Portuguese more easily, engaged with them in battle, & great slaughter followed on both sides, & among the Portuguese dead was their Chaplain, whose body was captured by the enemy and divided into more parts than the conspirators did that of King osiris?, which were 26. They cooked them & ate them with much gusto & pleasure, but as there is no rose without a thorn, nor winter which is not followed by summer, so there is no pleasure which is not preceded or followed by bitterness, and so it happened to them who ate this, because on the following night they all burst, & those who drank out of the sacred Chalice, vessel of the true Sacrifice, paid for their daring because their mouths were turned backwards as a punishment for their sin;[25] & so the dutch and Queen Ginga showed their ill will towards the Portuguese, not only by cruelly killing them, but also by [60] cruel treatment of the prisoners of war, making them work from morning till night with little food. There was no lack of slaves who tied up their Lords & cruelly whipped them, & cut others in pieces while still alive, & roasted the flesh before their eyes, & ate it dancing & jumping about; others made them do base offices, such as one man who made a Lady act as his Cook, & even to clean their dirty homes; but what greater barbarity was there than that of some slaves towards their Lord who was infirm & could not walk or bear Arms to defend himself, and they put him in a wooden vessel they call longaramuzza,[26] & there stamped on him with their feet until he gave up his soul to the Creator; everyone can think what shouts & cries the poor man uttered, & the suffering he underwent from those people he had brought up and given bread to, & even freed from service to the devil by means of the Sacred baptismal water. Every Ethiopian observed that worldly & devilish law of giving to him to whom one owes a slap on the face not one blow with a knife, but as many blows as one could, & if this is seen in every dominated nation's behaviour towards those who dominate it was much more obvious here as they who dominated were so much greater, & believed to be barbarous & cruel by those who were bought & sold by them & sent over the salt sea; & wanting only to make them into dust, their fat into oil & their bones into dust; & this is the cause & origin of so much deep-seated hatred of the whites their Masters, although at present they do not fail to realise how deceitful & untrue this is; but like a miserable bird living in a gloomy Valley, they do not realise the good that is being done both to their bodies and their souls that bear hatred for their rugged land, home of wild beasts, & sending them to where the name piar? is resplendent & our Holy Faith is growing &?, & the aids to their own salvation are not lacking. The slaves of a priest were so cruel to him that they gave him a painful death, & then threw his body into the river, & others did the same. The denuded another man of his clothes, & made him walk naked, & then killed him, & they were all not only praised by the Dutch, but rewarded, in order to incite them to more Cruelty & barbarous acts towards the Portuguese.

[61] It is clearly seen from what follows that charity sometimes reigns even among the enemies of Religion. While these enemies of the name of Christ were lords of Loanda they scoured the region of the coast towards Binguella, where they found a small Portuguese ship from which four of our Capuchin friars of the Province of Genoa had disembarked, sent by the Sacra Congregatione de Propaganda Fide to the Kingdom of Congo; they were taken prisoner & led to Loanda, [marginal note: this is noted in the Life of P. Bonaventura da Sardegna in vol. 2 of the mission, chap. 5, car 52][27] & their captors took the ship; when the news of the arrival of the Religious in Loanda was known, the King at once sent his confessor? & Father Buonaventura? da Sardegna to facilitate the new missionaries' journey through the Congo; but they arrived late, for the Religious had already re-embarked, & had not observed the documents of the capitulation signed during their friendship. The Directors had already shared out the spoils of the ship; one of the Directors received a Holy Picture of the Most Holy Conception & one of the B. Felice, & placed them in the Hall of his House. It happened that Father Bunoventura? had had a great quarrel with the said Director so that when going later to his house for the purpose of his Mission he saw those sacred Pictures and was filled with consolation by the sight, and suddenly determined to ask the heretic for them, but it held him back that he was very miserly & what was more of low condition, & that he was nicknamed the great miser; for all these reasons he took heart, & without thinking of the past quarrel, or of the man's avarice, he put his request in writing & presented it to the wife of the man who had changed from being a heretic and freely gave up the two holy Pictures & watched over and repaired them as well as possible, so that they suffered no harm or damage. The Religious man was greatly consoled by this success, & on returning to the Congo was called by the blessed God he had served to eternal rest. That Most Holy Picture was then taken to the fortress at Massangano which was called our Lady of Victory, & was there placed on the high Altar of the Church of our hospice where it is adored & revered by the people not only of the settlement, but by those of the district too.[28]

[62] It happened at the same time that the Portuguese had retreated into the fortress of Massangano a black Ethiopian called Suquequo, for them second & last Messiah, arose. He was a great magician of the Giaga nation, who drew all the black people to him, committing many evil deeds, & enjoying great credit among all the people, many of whom idolised him as he was the most lax of all in the quixille he gave out, & allowed every kind of lechery, as if he had been the master of Sodom, & disciple of Muhammad? Mafamede, & everyone made him great offerings; he was feared, honoured & revered, & drew all the black people to him. When the Governor of the place had news of this, he was afraid of some new disturbance & schism, & suspected that the sorcerer had sworn not to associate with any white person but held them also to be enemies, & that he,?,? would be more esteemed for this by the black people because of the natural antipathy all black Ethiopians have towards the white nation. The prudent Governor, to draw this minister of Avernus into the net, pretended to be very ill, & sent for a Lord who was friendly with Suquequo, & having captivated him with various Presents asked him if he could arrange for Suquequo to come to treat him, or at least inform him of his illness; the Lord, although he knew the medicine men's opinion, felt this was an occasion not to be missed for his own honour & interest, and also for the money he expected to make, hastened to lead the medicine man into the trap, not understanding the Governor's need for the black man.? He came with great pride because the Governor had asked for him. The Lord Who had been given the task of bringing him came to give notice of where he was, and the Governor at once sent people to accompany him but not as he had expected, for he was put in Chains & led to the same settlement at Massangano where after the Case was examined he was condemned to be burned alive. A great number of Ethiopians had come to see the happening. When the proud Suquequo heard the sentence of death he began to laugh & mock at everyone. He began to threaten the Portuguese that they would no longer be called men, but lions & beasts [63] of the woods, & that that was what they would turn into; that the rivers would dry up, & the Sky would not give forth Rain, & everything would be changed & ruined. The black Ethiopians were happy, believing firmly that everything would happen as he said; but the contrary took place, because when he was placed in the fire he perished miserable without wishing to be converted, & to show that what he had said was false blessed God permitted that before he died there came a great rain, & that rains should come at their appointed time, & the Year was one of abundant harvest, through which many people realised the errors of the Messiah Suquequo, & were converted to blessed God.[29]

Queen Ginga conversed with these enemies of the Christian Religion until she grew more perfect in her wicked intentions and inclination to evil, as was shown on the occasions when she was able to do harm & pursue her barbarous acts towards the whites[crossed out or added: there were so many and of such a kind that a Portuguese Author related the following, although it is hostile to the Portuguese]

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[1]. Pedro Cezar de Meneses, governor, 1639-43. He arrived 18 October 1639 with military reinforcements, including Cadornega. Cadornega, Historia 1: 205.

[2]. Francisco do Soveral, bishop of Congo and Angola, 1628 until his death in November 1642. Although the seat of this see had been established in Sao Salvador (Kongo) by his day it was effectively in Luanda. He accomplished Portuguese forses into the interior after the Dutch took Luanda in 1641, Leguzzano, Descricao, 2: 411.

[3]. The See of Congo and Angola was created in 1596 at the request of king Alvaro II (reigned 1587 - 1613) of Kongo, Teobaldo Filesi, "Le relazioni tra il regno del Congo e la Sede Apostolica nel XVI secolo," Africa (Rome) 22 (1967): 413-60 and idem, "Duarte Lopez ambasciatire dei Re di Congo presso Sisto V nel 1588," ibid 23 (1968): 423-69. The bishops removed themselves from Sao Salvador to Luanda after 1624, although the switch of seats was only formalized in 1684, Louis Jadin, "Le clerge seculier et less Capucins au Congo. Conflits de jurisdiction." Bulletin, Institute Historique Belge de Rome

[4]. On this episode, see C. R. Boxer, Salvador de Sa.

[5]. Luanda is almost exactly nine degrees south latitude.

[6]. Slaves from Angola probably went just as often to Brazil as to (New) Spain, although Portuguese regularly held the asiento (license) do deliver slaves to Spanish America, Frederick Bowser, The African slave in Colonial Peru (Stanford, 1974).

[7]. The Catholic clergy, such as Cavazzi, normally considered Calvinists to be heretics.

[8]. The Portuguese withdrawl up from Luanda was more complex than indicated here, see Boxer, Salvador de Sa, pp. and Birmingham, Trade and Conflict, pp. 104-107 for details.

[9]. Cavazzi notes that this place was near the Nzenza river on the nothern side of the Portuguese conquest, Istorica Descrizione, Book 1, no. 141. He also mentions an Icole River in Matamba, which is probably not this place, ibid, Book 1, no. 16.

[10]. A reference to the custom of allowing a man whose rope breaks during his hanging to go free, as the breaking is considered an act of God. On similar incidents in Angola and Brazil, see C. R. Boxer, Portuguese Society in the Tropics.

[11]. The Dutch invasion was the occasion for a considerable rebellion against Portuguese authorities by local rulers, see Birmingham, Trade and Conflict, pp. 104-111.

[12]. The bishop, Francisco do Several, died with the Portuguese forces in Massangano in November, 1642, see note 125 above.

[13]. I have been unable to determine the exact dates of the deaths of these two figures, presumably in the 1642-6 period.

[14]. That is, the region south of the Kwanza from the sea to near its great southern bend.

[15]. Cavazzi's chronicle in MSB is full of references to such heavenly signs.

[16]. On grasshopper (locust) invasions in central Africa, see Thorton, Kingdom of Kongo, pp. Presumably any one of the several locust invasions of the 1640's is indicated.

[17]. The Dutch siezure of Angola cut off the Portuguese from regular supplies of European goods, hence the rise in prices. See Cadorenga, Historia 1:

[18]. Dutch forces temporarily captured governor Pedro Cezar de Meneses on 17 May 1643 and held him until late the same year, Cadorenga, Historia 1: 296-8, 336-40.

[19]. This rout took place in May 1646 in the Ndembu region, the campaign and battle are described in minute detail by Cadornega, who was a participant, Historia 1: 404-28.

[20]. This siege took place in 1644, and is also described in Cadorenga, Historia 1:

[21]. On these massacres and some acrimonious discussion concerning them see Boxer, Salvador de Sa The massacre at Bengo, the most serious, took place in 1643. Much of what Cavazzi here was probably gleaned from local rumor and a documented history does not always mention it.

[22]. The Portuguese discovered documents on her activities in Njinga's archives, which they captured in 1646, and on that basis she was executed by drowning, Cadornega, Historia 1: 507.

[23]. The fortifications of Muxima are descrived in minute detail by Cadornega, who participated in its defense, Historia 1:

[24]. Cadornega also tells the story of the miraculous survival of the statue, Historia 1: 509-10.

[25]. All these stories are the product of local rumor, and many may not have been true. In general, Njinga's treatment of priests seems to have been good, and we can easily doubt the one of her eating one, see p. 64 above.

[26]. Longaramuzza = longa dia musa. This was apparently a large capacity vessel for holding liquids, see below p.180.

[27]. This reference does not refer to any locatable place and is presumably a survival from his reference to an earlier draft in which missionary biographies and narrative history were mixed together.

[28]. For an account of this mission, Teobaldo Filesi, La Missio Antiquo dei Cappuccini nel regno di Congo, 1645 - 1835 (Rome, 1978) pp.

[29]. Susquequo = Sukwekwo or Sukeko. Cadornega relates the story in detail, Historia 1: 367-73.