Luiz Serrão and the Battle of 1590.
Luiz Serrão, having completed his preparations, started with an army numbering one hundred and twenty eight Portuguese musketeers (with three horses), and fifteen thousand native allies armed with bows. With this utterly insufficient force he crossed the Lukala, and then advanced to the east. On Friday, December 25th, 1590, when at Ngwalema a kitambu (Anguolome aquitambo) in Ari,413 he found himself face to face with the King of Matamba, whose army had been reinforced by Ngola, the King of Kongo, the Jaga Kinda,414 and others. Serrão desired to retire before this overwhelming host, but his subordinate officers, André Ferreira Pereira and Francisco de Sequeira, persuaded him to attack the enemy. He did so, on Monday, December 28th, 1590, and was defeated. The retreat was effected in good order. The vanguard of forty musketeers was led by João de Velloria, then came the “guerra preta,” whilst Serrão himself commanded the rear, and fought almost daily with his pursuers. The camp at Lukanza, with its valuable contents, had to be abandoned. At length, on reaching Akimbolo,415 many leagues to the rear, the fugitives met Luiz Mendez Rapozo, who had come up from Luandu with seventy-eight men. At last they reached the old presidio of Mbamba Tungu and Masanganu; Manuel Jorge d’Oliveira was at once sent down to Luandu for reinforcements, and on their arrival the siege was raised. L. Serrão survived this disaster only for a month; and when he died, his officers elected Luiz Ferreira Pereira, the captain-major, to take his place. The sobas all around, and in Lamba and Ngulungu, headed by one Muzi Zemba (Muge Asemba), were in the field, but they were held in check by Pereira, and the Portuguese name continued to be respected.