The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell Part 9

Their reason is that they will not be troubled with education, nor in their flitting wanderings be troubled with such c.u.mbersome burthens.[253]

Once, a secret providence both punisheth the father's wickedness, and preventeth a viperous generation, if that maybe a prevention where there is a succession without generation; and as Pliny saith of the Esseni (lib. v, c. 15), _Gens aeterna est in qua nepto nascitur_. For of the conquered nations they [the Jaga] preserve the boys from ten to twenty years of age, and bring them up as the hope of their succession, like _Negro-azimogli_,[254] with education fitting their designs. These wear a collar about their neck in token of slavery, until they bring an enemy's head slain in battle, and then they are uncollared, free'd, and dignified with the t.i.tle of soldiers; if one of them runs away he is killed and eaten; so that, hemmed in betwixt hope and fear, they grow very resolute and adventurous, their collars breeding shame, disdain, and desperate fury, till they redeem their freedom as you have heard.

Elembe,[255] the great Iagge, brought with him twelve thousand of these cruel monsters from Sierra Liona, and after much mischief and spoil settled himself in Benguele,[256] twelve degrees from the Zone southwards, and there breedeth and groweth into a nation. But Kelandula, sometime his page, proceeds in that beastly life before mentioned, and the people of Elembe, by great troops, run to him and follow his camp in hope of spoil.

[_Human Sacrifices._]

They have no _fetissos_, or idols. The great Iagge, or Prince, is master of all their ceremonies, and a great witch. I have seen this Kelandula (sayth our author) continue a sacrifice from sun to sun, the rites whereof are these: himself sat on a stool, in great pomp, with a cap adorned with peac.o.c.ks' feathers (which fowls, in one country called _Shelambanza_,[257] are found wild; and in one place, empaled about the grave of the king, are fifty kept and fed by an old woman, and are called _Ingilla Mokisso_, that is, Birds of Mokisso).[258] Now, about him thus set, attended forty or fifty women, each of them waving continually a zebra's tail in their hands. There were also certain Gangas, priests or witches. Behind them were many with drums and pipes, and _pungas_[259] (certain instruments made of elephants' teeth, made hollow a yard and a half, and with a hole like a flute, which yield a loud and harsh sound, that may be heard a mile off). These strike and sound, and sing, and the women wave (as is said) till the sun be almost down. Then they bring forth a pot, which is set on the fire with leaves and roots, and the water therein, and with a kind of white powder the witches or Gangas spot themselves, one on the one cheek, the other on the other; and likewise their foreheads, temples, b.r.e.a.s.t.s, shoulders, and bellies, using many enchanting terms, which are holden to be prayers for victory. At sunset a Ganga brings his _Kissengula_,[260] or war-hatchet, to the Prince (this weapon they use to wear at their girdles) and putting the same in his hands bid him to be strong, [that]

their G.o.d goes with him, and he shall have victory. After this they bring him four or five negroes, of which, with a terrible countenance, the great Iagge with his hatchet kills two, and the other two are killed without the fort. Likewise, five kine are slain within, and other five without the fort; and as many goats and as many dogs, after the same manner.

This is their sacrifice, at the end whereof all the flesh is, in a feast, consumed. Andrew Battell was commanded to depart when the slaughter begun, for their devil, or _Mokisso_ (as they said) would then appear and speak to them.[261]

This sacrifice is called _Kissembula_[262] which they solemnise when they undertake any great enterprise. There were few left of the natural Iagges, but of this unnatural brood the present succession was raised.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

APPENDIX I.

ANTHONY KNIVET IN KONGO AND ANGOLA:

BEING

Extracts from "The Admirable Adventures and Strange Fortunes of MASTER ANTONIE KNIVET, which went with MASTER THOMAS CANDISH in his Second Voyage to the South Sea, 1591,"

published in _Purchas His Pilgrimes_, Part IV, lib. vi, c. 7.

London, 1625.

INTRODUCTION.

Master Anthony Knivet joined the second expedition of Thomas Cavendish, which left England in August, 1591. He seems to have served on board the _Roebuck_, of which vessel one c.o.c.ke was captain. Nothing in his narrative enables us to identify this c.o.c.ke with the Abraham c.o.c.ke of Limehouse, who was "never heard of more" after he parted from Battell on the coast of Brazil in 1590, nor with the Abram c.o.c.ke who, according to Knivet, put in at the Ilha Grande in 1598, in the hope of making prizes of some of the richly-laden Spanish vessels returning from the Rio de la Plata. Battell, surely, may be supposed to have been acquainted with the fate of his old s.h.i.+pmate, whilst Knivet gives no hint that the Abram c.o.c.ke of the Ilha Grande was the captain of the _Roebuck_, to whom he was indebted for his life when Cavendish was about to throw him overboard in Magellan's Strait. It is, however, just possible that there was but one Abraham c.o.c.k, who had not been heard of for some time when Battell returned to England about 1610.[263]

When Cavendish returned from Magellan's Strait, he put Knivet and nineteen other sick men ash.o.r.e near St. Sebastian, to s.h.i.+ft for themselves. Knivet was ultimately taken by the Portuguese; but they spared his life, and he became the "bond-slave" of Salvador Correa de Sa, the Governor of Rio de Janeiro; and apart from the time he spent among the cannibal Indians, and on a voyage to Angola, he remained with his master to the end, and returned with him to Portugal in 1599.

My friend, Colonel G. Earl Church, to whom I applied for an opinion on the trustworthiness of Knivet's statements with regard to Brazil, writes as follows:-

"Yesterday morning I spent at the R. Geo. Soc., refres.h.i.+ng my memory of Knivet's extraordinary adventures. One must read them always bearing in mind the romantic spirit of the age in which they were written, and the novel surroundings in which every adventurer found himself in the New World. Giving due weight to all this, I find Knivet's relation of his voyages singularly truthful, so far as my knowledge of Brazil goes. What he states, excepting in two or three minor particulars, clashes with no geographical, descriptive, or historical point with which I am familiar, and he often throws in a sentence which relates to facts which no man could invent, and which makes his narrative impressive with truthfulness. I utterly discard Cavendish's opinion of his men and companions for Cavendish appears to have been one of the most cold-blooded freebooters who ever cut a throat or raided a settlement or scuttled a prize."

I regret not being able to write in terms equally favourable of what Knivet claims to have experienced during his visit to Angola and Kongo.

Knivet says that he ran away from bondage on June 27th, 1597, and that he reached the "port of Angola" after a perilous voyage of five months, that is in November. He then sailed up the Kwanza, and reached Masanganu, where he remained three months, when he was arrested in consequence of a requisition of his master and sent back to Brazil, which he must have reached before June, 1598. We should be quite prepared to accept this part of his story if his description of Masanganu did not show that he can never have been there. Knivet, however, is not content with such modest honours, but claims to have resided for some time at the court of the King of Kongo, and to have fallen in the hands of the Portuguese when on his road to Prester John's country. By them he was carried to Masanganu, where he lived three months. These two accounts are absolutely irreconcilable. As to the author's astounding geographical misstatements, I refer the reader to the notes appended to his narrative.

FIRST ACCOUNT (_Purchas_, pp. 1220-2).

Continually I desired my master to give me leave to get my living, intending to come into my country, but the Governor would not let me go from him. When I saw no means to get leave of my master, I determined to run away to Angola, for to serve the King as a soldier in Ma.s.sangano till such time that I might pa.s.s myself to the King of Anyeca,[264]

which warreth against the Portugals, and so have come through Prester Johns country into Turkey.

On the seven and twentieth day of June, 1597, I embarked myself unknown to my master, in a small s.h.i.+p of one Emanuell Andrea, for to come for Angola. In this voyage we were driven so near the Cape of Good Hope that we thought all of us should have been cast away, the seas are there so great; and by reason of the current they brake in such sort that no s.h.i.+p is able to endure. There we brake both our main mast and our mizzen. It pleased G.o.d to send us the wind Eastward, which brought us to our desired harbour [of] Angola.[265] We had been five months in our voyage, and by that means other s.h.i.+ps that departed two months after us were there before us.

When I heard that there were s.h.i.+ps of the River of Ienero [Rio de Janeiro], I durst not go ash.o.r.e for fear of being known of some of the Portugals. The next day after that we came into the harbour, there came a great boat aboard us, to ask if we would sell any Ca.s.sava meal. We told them we would, and asked them whither they went with their boat.

They answered, that they tarried for the tide to go up to the River of Guansa [Kwanza] to Masangano. Then I thought it a fit time for my purpose, and so embarked myself in the bark. The Portugals marvelled to see me go willingly to Masangano; for there men die like chickens, and no man will go thither if he can chose.

Nine days we were going up the River of Guansa [Kwanza], in which time two Portugal soldiers died; the country is so hot that it pierceth their hearts. Three days after I had been in Masangano, Don Francisco de Mendosa Fortado,[266] the Governor of the city of Kongo, having received a letter from Salvador Coria de Sasa [Salvador Correa de Sa], who was his great friend, sent a Pursuivant for me, who brought me by land through the King of Kongo's country, and in six days we came to a town called Saint Francis[267] (where the Governor was), hard by the kingdom of Manicongo.

When I came before the Governor he used me very kindly in words, and asked me what I meant, to cast myself away wilfully in Masangano. Then I told him how long I had served Salvador Coria de Sasa; and in how many dangers I had been for him and his Son, without ever having any recompence of any of them, and therefore I thought it better to venture my life in the King's service, than to live his Bond-slave. The Governor commanded me to be carried to Angola, and charged a pair of bolts to be put upon my legs, because I should not run away.

About a fortnight after I was sent back again in a Carvell [caravel] of Francis Lewes, and in two months we arrived in the River of Jenero [Rio de Janeiro], and I was carried with my bolts on my legs before the Governor; when he saw me he began to laugh and to jest with me, saying that I was welcome out of England. So, after many jests he spake, he bade pull off my bolts from my legs, and gave me clothes and used me very well.

SECOND ACCOUNT (_Purchas_, pp. 1233-7).

Angola is a kingdom of itself in Ethiopia, where first the Portugals did begin to inhabit: The country of Angola cometh along the coast; as Portugal doth upon Spain, so doth Angola run upon the Kingdom of Longa [Luangu] and Manicongo.

In Angola the Portugals have a City called the Holy Ghost,[268] where they have great store of Merchandise, and the Moors do come thither with all kind of such things as the country yieldeth; some bring elephant's teeth, some bring negro slaves to sell, that they take from other kingdoms which join hard by them; thus do they use once a week, as we keep markets, so do all the Blackamoors bring hens and hogs, which they call gula,[269] and hens they call Sange,[270] and a kind of beast that they take in the wilderness, like a dog, which they call ambroa:[271]

then they have that beast which before I have told you of, called gumbe, which is bigger than a horse.[272]

The Blackamoors do keep good laws, and fear their King very much; the King is always attended with the n.o.bles of his realm, and whensoever he goeth abroad, he has always at the least two hundred archers in his guard, and ten or twelve more going before him, singing and playing with pipes made of great canes, and four or five young Moors coming after him as his pages. After them follow all his n.o.blemen.

When there falleth out any controversy among them, they crave battle of the King, and then they fight it out before him. They come before the King and fall flat on their b.r.e.a.s.t.s; then they rise up and kneel upon their knees, stretching out their arms crying, _Mahobeque benge, benge_;[273] then the King striketh them on the shoulders with a horse-tail; then they go to the camp, and with their bows they fight it out till they kill one another. After the battle is done, if any liveth, he that liveth falleth down before the King in the same manner as he did when he went to the field; and after a long oration made, he taketh the horse-tail from the King's shoulder, and waveth it about the King's head, and then layeth it on his shoulder again, and goeth away with great honour, being accompanied with all the n.o.bles of the Court. The Moors of Angola do know that there is a G.o.d, and do call G.o.d _Caripongoa_,[274] but they wors.h.i.+p the sun and the moon.

The country is champaign plain, and dry black earth, and yieldeth very little corn; the most of anything that it yieldeth is plantons [plantains], which the Portugals call _baynonas_ [bananas], and the Moors call them _mahonge_[275] and their wheat they call _tumba_,[276]

and the bread _anou_; and if you will buy any bread of them, you must say, _Tala cuna auen tumbola gimbo_; that is, _Give me some bread, here is money_.[277] Their money is called _gullginbo_,[278] a sh.e.l.l of a fish that they find by the sh.o.r.e-side; and from Brazil the Portugals do carry great store of them to Angola.

These Moors do esteem very much of red, blue and yellow cloths. They will give a slave for a span of cloth in breadth, I mean, and the length of it, of the breadth of the piece; those pieces of cloth they wear about their middles, and under it they hang the skin of a great weasel before them, and another behind them, and this is all the garments that they wear. A weasel in their language is called _puccu_.[279] You can do a Blackamoor no greater disgrace than to take away his skin from before him, for he will die with grief if he cannot be revenged.

The Portugals do mark them as we do sheep, with a hot iron, which the Moors call _crimbo_.[280] The poor slaves stand all in a row one by another, and sing _Mundele que sumbela he Carey ha belelelle_,[281] and thus the poor rogues are beguiled, for the Portugals make them believe that they that have not the mark is not accounted a man of any account in Brazil or in Portugal, and thus they bring the poor Moors to be in a most d.a.m.nable bondage under the cover of love.

The country of Angola yieldeth no stone, and very little wood: the Moors do make their houses all covered with earth. These houses are no bigger than a reasonable chamber, and within are many part.i.tions, like the cabins of a s.h.i.+p, in such sort that a man cannot stand upright in them.

Their beds are made of great bulrushes sewed together with the rinds of a tree. They do make cloth like spark of velvet (but it is thinner) of the bark of a tree, and that cloth they do call _mollelleo_.[282]

The elephants do feed in the evening and in the morning in low marshes, as there be many. The Moors do watch which way they come, and as soon as the elephants are at meat, they dig great holes in the ground, and cover them with sticks, and then they cover the pits with earth; and when they have made all ready they go to the elephants and shoot at them with their arrows; and as soon as the elephants feel themselves hurt, they run at whatsoever they see before them, following after the Blackamores that chase them. Then they fall into the deep pits where, after they are once in, they cannot get out.

The Moors of Angola are as black as jet; they are men of good stature; they never take but one wife, whom they call _mocasha_.[283] These Moors do cut long streaks in their faces, that reach from the top of their ears to their chins. The women do wear sh.e.l.ls of fishes[284] on their arms, and on the small of their legs. The law amongst them is, that if any Moor do lie with another's wife, he shall lose his ears for his offence. These Moors do circ.u.mcise their children, and give them their names, as we do when we baptize.

Angola may very easily be taken, for the Portugals have no forts to defend it of any strength.

The King[285] of Congo is the greatest King in all Ethiopia; and doth keep in the field continually sixty thousand soldiers, that do war against the King of Vangala,[286] and the King of Angola; this King is a Christian, and his brother-in-law of arms with the King of Spain. His servants of his house are most of them all Portugals, and he doth favour them very much.

The King is of a very liberal condition, and very favourable to all travellers, and doth delight very much to hear of foreign countries. He was in a manner amazed to hear how it was possible Her Majesty [Queen Elizabeth] had lived a maiden Queen so long, and always reigned in peace with her subjects. When I was brought before the King, and told him of my country, what plenty of things we had, if the Portugals had not liked of it, they would interrupt my speech, and the King would show himself very angry, and tell them that every man was best able to speak of his country, and that I had no reason but to tell him that which was true.

The King of Congo, when he goeth to the camp to see his army, rideth upon an elephant in great pomp and majesty; on either side of the elephant he hath six slaves. Two of them were kings, that he himself had taken in the field; all the rest were of n.o.ble birth; some of them were brothers to the King of Ancica, and some of them were of the chiefest blood of the great King of Bengala. These n.o.ble slaves, at every command of the King of Congo, do fall flat on the ground on their b.r.e.a.s.t.s. When the King doth ride, as you have heard, they carry a canopy, as it were a cloth of state, over his head. His two secretaries, the one a n.o.bleman of Spain, the other a Moor, do ride next after him. Before him goeth at the least five hundred archers which are his guard; then there followeth a Moor, which doth nothing but talk aloud in praise of the King, telling what a great warrior he hath been, and praising his wisdom for all things that he hath accomplished very honourably to his great fame of such as knew him.

When this King of Congo cometh to his host, all the soldiers, as he pa.s.seth, fall flat on their faces to the ground. He never cometh into his host after any battle, but he dubbeth at the least twenty Knights Portugals, and as many Moors, giving them very great living according to their callings, and the service that they have done. The brother of this King was in Spain at my coming from thence for amba.s.sador from his brother.[287]

Here the Portugal Captain would have taken me perforce, to have been a common soldier, but the King commanded that they should let me go whither I would, and my determination at that time was to have gone for the country of Prester John [Abyssinia], for I had a great desire to see the River of Nilo and Jerusalem (for I accounted myself as a lost man, not caring into what country or kingdom I came) But it was not the will of G.o.d that I should at that time obtain my desire, for travelling through the kingdom of Congo, to have gone to the kingdom of Angila,[288] it was my fortune to meet a company of Portugal soldiers that went to a conquest that the King of Spain had newly taken, called Masangana; which place is on the borders of Anguca. Here they made me serve like a drudge, for both day and night I carried some stone and lime to make a fort.