Queen Nzinga , 1623-1636.
Nzinga at once renounced Christianity, and the bloody rites of the Jaga were celebrated when she ascended her throne. She inaugurated her reign by the murder of her brother’s son, of his adherents, and her supposed enemies. Having reduced her own people to subjection, with the aid of the Jaga, she declared war upon Portugal. D. Felippe de Souza Ngola ari, the King of Ndongo recognised by the Portuguese, was at once ordered to defend the frontier, and, if possible, to invade the territories of his kinswoman. On consideration, however, it was thought best, in the interest of trade, to avoid a serious conflict. An officer was sent to the court of the Queen, offering to restore the lost provinces (and thus sacrificing their vassal D. Felippe), on condition of her acknowledging herself a vassal, and paying tribute. These conditions were haughtily rejected, and the war began in earnest.
João de Araujo e Azevedo was placed at the head of the Portuguese invading force.475 He raided the country along the Lukala, and then turned back upon the Kwanza, occupied the islands of Ukole and Kitaka, and came up with the Queen’s camp at Ndangi Island. The Queen, having consulted the spirit of her brother Ngola mbandi,476 declined to risk a battle, and fled into Hako (Oacco). The Portuguese followed in pursuit, passing through Bemba, Malemba and Kipupa, and Little Ngangela (Ganguella); came up with the Queen’s forces in the territory of soba Matima (Mathemo), and inflicted a serious defeat upon them. Among the prisoners taken were the Queen’s sisters, Kambe and Funji, and many Makotas. The pursuit was continued as far as Kina grande in Ngangela, a deep and difficult gorge, into which some of the soldiers and the guerra preta descended by means of ropes. When the Queen fled to the kingdom of Songo, the Portuguese forces retired to the west (1627).477
The two princesses were taken to Luandu, where the Governor, Fernão de Souza, lodged them in his own house. In baptism (1628), they received the names of D. Barbara and D. Engracia.
The Portuguese had no sooner retired than Queen Nzinga returned to Ndangi Island, and having been reinforced by several Jaga, she undertook the conquest of Matamba. At Makaria ka matamba she took prisoner the dowager-queen478 Muongo Matamba, and her daughter. The mother was branded as a slave, and died of grief; but the daughter was taken into favour, and was baptised in 1667.
Having thus destroyed the ancient kingdom of Matamba, the Queen once more invaded Portuguese territory, but she turned back when she heard that the Jaga Kasanji was raiding her recent conquest, upon which he claimed to have prior rights.
At the same time she interfered continually with the commerce of the Portuguese with the interior; and it was only in 1636, when the Governor, Francisco de Vasconcellos da Cunha, sent D. Gaspar Borgia and Father Antonio Coelho on a mission to the Jaga in Little Ngangela, and to the Queen at her Kabasa, in Umba, that peaceable relations were established. The Queen, however, persistently refused to surrender her claims to the provinces of Ndongo which had been occupied by the Portuguese.