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‹Better GutenbergThe Strange Adventures of Andrew BattellD. Pedro II Affonso, 1622-1624 · 105 of 139Contents›

The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell

by Andrew Battell

105 of 139 · Contents · Download EPUB

D. Pedro II Affonso , 1622-1624.

Bernardo II, a son of Alvaro II, only reigned for a few months, for he was killed by his brother, Alvaro III, and a complaint addressed to him by the Governor of Angola about the admission of heretical Dutchmen to trade in Sonyo was answered by his successor. This Alvaro III, the fratricide, is nevertheless described by Cavazzi as having been “wise, modest, courageous, and above all a zealous Christian.” It was during his reign, in 1619, that the Jesuits founded a college at S. Salvador. A proposed mission of Italian Capuchins came to nothing, for King Philip of Spain, by royal letters of September 22nd, 1620, forbade foreign missionaries to enter Portuguese colonies without first obtaining a royal license.355 Alvaro III died on May 26th, 1622, and was succeeded by D. Pedro II Affonso, whom Cavazzi describes as a son of Alvaro III; whilst a Jesuit canon of S. Salvador,356 who wrote an interesting life of this prince in 1624, makes him out to have been a son of Mbiki a ntumba, Duke of Nsundi, and a descendant, in the female line, of the first King of Kongo. If this biographer can be trusted, he was a man of much promise, and of a mild, forgiving temper; for although the Duke of Mbamba had sought his life, he conferred upon him the marquisate of Wembo. His reign was a short and troubled one. In August, 1622, the Duke of Mbata had been killed by rebels, and his vassal, the King of Kwangu (Ocango), had suffered a defeat. João Corrêa de Souza, the Governor of Angola, summoned him to surrender Luandu Island and all the copper mines; and this being refused, the Portuguese under Luiz Gomez, aided by the Jagas, crossed the Dande at Ikau and invaded Nambu a ngongo, and (in December) also Mbumbi, where the Duke of Mpemba and many others were killed and eaten by the Jagas, in spite of their being Christians. The people of the invaded districts revenged themselves by killing the Portuguese living in their midst, the King vainly endeavouring to protect them. These invaders had scarcely been driven off, when Captain Silvestre Soares, with a body of Jagas, entered Ngombe and Kabanda. But that which gave most pain to the King was the destruction of the kingdom of Bangu, and the murder of its King by the Jagas, with the aid of the King of “Loango,” which was the “trunk and origin of the kingdom of Kongo.”357 In the midst of these afflictions, the King was rejoiced to learn the arrival of D. Simão Mascarenhas at Luanda; but he met with an accident, and died on April 13th, 1624, after a short reign of less than two years, and mourned by six sons and two daughters.358

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