Minor Events , 1624-1641.
Punitive expeditions were frequent. In 1624 the Jaga Kasanji, who had taken advantage of the conflicts between the Portuguese and Queen Nzinga to rob Pumbeiros, was severely punished, and Captain Roque de Miguel returned from this expedition with a large number of captives, who as a matter of course, were sold into slavery. During the provisional governorship of the bishop D. Simão de Mascarenhas479 (1623-4), Lopo Soares Laço meted out punishment to the Jagas Nzenza a ngombe and Bangu-Bangu, and to the irrepressible Kafuche.480 A few years later, in 1631, the captain-major Antonio Bruto waged a successful war against rebellious sobas, and more especially impressed the natives by his victory over the dreaded Mbuila anduwa (Ambuila Dua), who held out for six months in a rocky stronghold deemed impregnable. The invasion of Kongo, in 1622, by order of Governor João Corrêa de Souza, who claimed the surrender of Luandu Island and of all the copper mines, has already been referred to (see p. 123).
Among the very few measures calculated to promote the material or moral interests of the colony may be mentioned the establishment of the three feiras, of Ndondo, Beja, and Lukamba, in 1625; the foundation of a Santa casa da misericordia (Poor-house and hospital) at S. Paulo de Luandu, by the bishop D. Simão de Mascarenhas; the compulsory cultivation of the banks of Mbengu (Bengo), when Luandu was threatened with famine owing to the non-arrival of provision ships from Brazil, in 1629;481 the reform of the administration of the Royal revenue, by Fernão de Souza, in the same year; and the creation of a board of revenue (Junta da fazenda), charged with the collection of the tithes and of the tribute payable by the native chiefs, by Francisco de Vasconcellos da Cunha, in 1638.
The affairs of the missions will be dealt with subsequently, in a comprehensive manner, but a difficulty which arose in 1623 between the Governor, João Corrêa de Souza, and the Jesuits, may be dealt mentioned at once. In 1619, Gaspar Alvares,482 a wealthy merchant of Luandu, placed 20,000 cruzados at the service of the Fathers, in order that they might found a seminary483 for the education of twelve natives. Subsequently he himself became a member of the Society of Loyola, and devoted the whole of his fortune, amounting to 400,000 cruzados, to its purposes. The Governor not unnaturally objected to this sudden enrichment of a Society which had always been a thorn in the side of the government. Alvares himself escaped to S. Salvador, but the Prefect of the Jesuits and three Fathers were sent as prisoners to Lisbon, where they were at once liberated; whilst the Governor himself, who arrived soon afterwards, perhaps with the intention of justifying his hasty proceedings, was thrown into prison, and died in the limoeiro in 1626.