The Campaign of 1602-3. 443
A new Governor, João Rodrigues Coutinho, arrived early in 1602. He was acceptable to the Jesuits, and soon won the hearts of the people by his liberality. He had been authorised by the King to bestow five habits of the Order of Christ, dub five knights, and appoint thirty King’s chamberlains (moços da camara). Seven years’ receipts of the export duty on slaves were to be devoted to the building of forts at the salt mines (Ndemba), Kambambe, and in Benguela.
Six months after his arrival, the Governor took the field against the powerful chief Kafuche. His force was the most formidable that had ever been at the disposal of a Governor, numbering no less than eight hundred Portuguese. It was joined at Songo by a portion of the garrison of Masanganu. Unhappily, the Governor died before coming in contact with the enemy, and appointed Manuel Cerveira Pereira as his successor. Battell calls this man an “upstart,” and he certainly had many enemies; but he is well spoken of by the Jesuits, and was an able soldier. On August 10th, 1603, he inflicted a crushing defeat upon Kafuche, at Agoakaiongo,444 on the very spot where, seven years before, the Portuguese had met with a great disaster. Overcoming the stout resistance of the chiefs of the Museke,445 he arrived at the head of the navigation of the Kwanza, and there, at Kambambe, he founded the Presidio da N.S. do Rozario (1604). Having punished several of the neighbouring chiefs, including Shila mbanza (Axilambanza), the father-in-law of King Ngola, and left João de Araujo e Azevedo446 in command of the new presidio, Pereira returned to the coast.
S. Paulo de Luandu had by that time grown into a fine town, where commerce flourished. Unfortunately for the lasting prosperity of the colony, human beings constituted the most valuable article of export, and the profits yielded by this slave trade attracted Dutch and French interlopers, notwithstanding a royal decree of 1605, which excluded all foreign vessels from the vast territories claimed by Portugal. In 1607 there were four “Presidios” or forts in the interior, namely Muchima, Agoakaiongo, Masanganu, and Kambambe.447