D. Manuel Pereira Forjaz and Bento Banha Cardoso, 1607-15.
We have already stated that Manuel Cerveira Pereira had many enemies, and when D. Manuel Pereira Forjaz, the new Governor, arrived towards the end of 1607, very serious accusations must have been brought against the former, for he was at once sent back to Lisbon. There, however, we are bound to assume that he refuted these accusations, for otherwise it is not likely that he would have been re-appointed Governor eight years afterwards: unless, indeed, he had friends at court who profited by his delinquencies. Forjaz himself showed to little advantage. He superseded the commandant of Kambambe by one of his own creatures, and the fort would certainly have been taken by the sobas who blockaded it, had not Roque de S. Miguel and Rebello de Aragão hastened to its relief. Forjaz, moreover, is accused of having imposed an annual tax upon the sobas, yielding from twelve to thirteen thousand cruzados, which seem to have found their way into his own pockets, and those of his favourites.448 When he suddenly died in his bed, on April 11th, 1611, the bishop and the leading men called upon the captain-major, Bento Banha Cardoso, to take charge of the government. Cardoso was a man of enterprise, and successful in his undertakings, but cruel. In 1611 he defeated King Ngola. The sobas Kilonga and Mbamba Tungu, who fell into his hands, were beheaded, as were also several of their makotas. To avenge these executions, fourteen sobas of Ngola and Matamba made an attack upon Kambambe in the following year; and although that place was valiantly defended until relieved, it took a year before order was restored in the surrounding district. To keep these sobas in check, a fort (Mbaka) was built on the river Lukala (1614), eight leagues from Masanganu.449 In Kisama, the territory of Nambua ngongo (Nabo angungo) was raided in the same year.