Restoration of Portuguese Authority.
No time was lost in restoring the authority of Portugal throughout the colony. The King of Kongo was compelled to accept a treaty by which Luandu Island and the whole of the country to the south of the Dande river were unconditionally surrendered, and other advantages held out (p. 128). Queen Nzinga, although she declined the overtures of Captain Ruy Pegado490 for a formal treaty, retired inland, and gave no trouble for a number of years. As to the sobas of Lamba, Kisama, Lubolo, and the Modiku islands, they were visited by punitive expeditions commanded by Antonio Teixeira de Moraes, Diogo Mendes de Morales, Vicente Pegado de Pontes, and Francisco de Aguiar.
Order having been restored, the Governor, Salvador Corrêa de Sá, caused the ruined buildings to be repaired, and granted crownland to the inhabitants for houses and gardens. In a very short time prosperity returned, and the trade of Luandu was as flourishing as ever it had been.491
But although the Portuguese were masters on shore, the Dutch, and occasionally also French or English “pirates” frequented the coast. In 1650 Alvaro d’Aguiar defeated five of these interlopers, who had made prizes of two ships on a voyage from Brazil; in 1651 João Duque was killed in an action with Dutch men-of-war; in 1652 João de Araujo drove away the Dutch from Mpinda and Luangu; in 1658 the same officer made a prize of a English slaver off Benguella. A second English slaver was captured in 1659 by João Cardoso, who also captured a Dutch vessel off the Kongo in 1661. In 1662 the definite treaty of peace between Portugal and Holland was signed, and “pirates” are no longer heard of; although Dutch vessels provided with passes, or favoured by the Governors, seem to have been admitted to Portuguese ports.