Queen Nzinga and Her Successors.
Queen Nzinga, after the return of her General from a raid on the territory of Mbuila (Imbuille), in 1655, whence he brought a miraculous crucifix, felt troubled in her conscience; and on consulting the spirits of five of her ancestors (see p. 166), she learned, to her no small terror, that they were suffering eternal torments, which she could only escape by once more embracing the Christian faith, and seeking the friendship of the Portuguese.492 Upon this advice she acted. The negotiations for a treaty were conducted by Captain Manuel Freis Peixoto and the Capuchin friar Antonio of Gaeta, who came to her Court for that purpose in 1657. Her sister, D. Barbara, was restored to her on payment of a ransom of two hundred slaves,493 and the river Lukala was thenceforth to form the boundary between the Queen’s dominions and those of the Portuguese. No tribute was to be paid by her. Friar Antonio had the honour of once more baptising this ancient lady, then seventy-five years of age, and also of marrying her, legitimately, to a slave-youth, Don Salvatore; while her sister, D. Barbara, allied herself unto D. Antonio Carrasco Nzinga a mona, a foster-brother of the Queen, and the General-in-Chief of her armies. A church, S. Maria de Matamba, was specially built for these interesting ceremonies. This remarkable woman died on December 17th, 1663, after Father Cavazzi had administered to her the last consolations of religion, and was buried in the church of St. Anna, which had been built within the precincts of the Royal palace.
When D. Barbara died, on March 24th, 1666, her husband, D. Antonio Carrasco Nzinga a mona, killed the legitimate heir, D. João Guterres Ngola kanini, and usurped the throne, but was himself slain in a battle against D. Francisco Guterres Ngola kanini, in 1680. The conqueror then attacked the allies of the Portuguese, robbed the pumbeiros, and beheaded the Jaga Kasanji (1682).494 Luiz Lopez de Sequeira at once took the field against him with five hundred and thirty infantry, thirty-seven horse, and ten thousand empacaceiros, and defeated him at Katole, a place within three days of the Royal kabasa. The King himself lost his life, but so did the leader of the Portuguese495 and Vasco de Mello da Cunha. João Antonio de Brito, who took the command after his leader’s death, remained encamped for thirty days on the site of the battle; and finding that the enemies did not return, retired to Mbaka; from which we may judge that the Portuguese, too, suffered heavy losses. D. Veronica (or Victoria) Guterres, the sister of the late King, sued for peace, which was readily granted. Fresh complications threatened in 1689, when the Queen was charged—falsely, it appears—with having stirred up the soba Kahenda to rebel against his Portuguese masters; but matters were arranged through the intervention of bishop D. João Franco de Oliveira. No further trouble seems to have occurred with the successors of Queen Nzinga until 1744, when the Queen496 provoked a war by killing a white trader and robbing pumbeiros: the result of which was the capture of her capital by Bartholomeu Duarte de Sequeira, and the cession of the Kinalunga Islands to Portugal.497