[288] This certainly seems to be a misprint for Angola, for a party of Portuguese going to Masanganu would never stray so far north as Anzica. On the other hand, if Knivet was really on his way from the capital of Congo to Prester John’s country, that is, Abyssinia, he must have gone in the direction of Anzica.
[289] Masanganu actually stands at the confluence of the Rivers Kwanza and Lukala!
[290] That is, they suffered from elephantiasis.
[291] Gold is often referred to in ancient documents, but its actual discovery (so far in unremunerative quantities) is quite a recent affair. Silver was supposed to exist in the hills of Kambambe above Masanganu, but has not as yet been actually found.
[292] These Angicas are certainly identical with the Anziques or Anzicanas of Duarte Lopez, according to whom they eat human flesh and circumcise. The Angolans have at no time been charged with cannibalism.
[293] Cavazzi, p. 262, calls Corimba a province of the kingdom of Coango (not Loango, as in Labat’s version) on the Zaire. Cadornega (quoted by Paiva Manso, p. 285) tells us that our river Kwangu (Coango) is called after a lordship of that name, and was known to the people as the “great” Zaire (nzari anene). On the other hand, D. Pedro Affonso II, in a letter of 1624, speaks of Bangu, which had recently been raided by the Jaga, aided by the King of Loango (sic), as the “trunk and origin of Congo” (Paiva Manso, p. 177). But then this Pedro Affonso was not of the original dynasty of Nimi a Lukeni.
[294] Collectively known as Ambundu, a term applied in Angola to black men generally, but in Kongo restricted to slaves, i.e., the conquered. Bunda, in Kongo, has the meaning of “combine;” in Lunkumbi (Nogueira, Bol. 1885, p. 246) it means “family.” Cannecatim, in the introduction to his Grammar, says that Kimbundu originated in Kasanj, and that the meaning of Abundo or Bundo is “conqueror.” According to Carvalho (Exp. Port. ao Muatianvua, Ethnographia, p. 123) Kimbundu should be translated “invaders.” The derivations of the word Kongo are quite as fanciful. Bentley seems to favour nkongo, a “hunter.” Cordeiro da Matta translates Kongo by “tribute;” whilst Nogueira says that Kongo (pl. Makongo) denotes a “prisoner of war.”
[295] “Palaver place” or “court,” corrupted by European travellers into “Ambasse.” Subsequently this town became known as S. Salvador.
[296] Both the Rev. W. H. Bentley and the Rev. Tho. Lewis believe Sonyo to be a corruption, at the mouths of natives, of San Antonio. This is quite possible, for when the old chief was baptised, in 1491, he received the name of Manuel (after the King), whilst his son was thenceforth known as Don Antonio. Images of Sa. Manuela and S. Antonio are still in existence, and are venerated by the natives as powerful fetishes (Bastian, Loangoküste, vol. i, p. 286). Soyo, according to the same author, is the name of a district near the Cabo do Padrão. Yet Garcia de Resende and Ruy de Pina, in their Chronicles of King João II, only know a Mani Sonho, whom João de Barros calls Mani Sono. No hint of the suggested corruption is given by any author.
[297] On these northern kingdoms, whose connexion with Kongo proper seems never to have been very close, see Proyart, Histoire de Loango, Cacongo, et autres royaumes d’Afrique, Paris, 1776; Degrandpré, Voyage à la côte occidentale d’Afrique, 1786-7, Paris, 1801; and of recent books, R. D. Dennett, Seven Years among the Fjort, London, 1887, Güssfeldt, Falkenstein, and Pechuel-Loesche, Die Loango Expedition, Berlin, 1879-83; and that treasury of ill-digested information, Bastian, Die Deutsche Expedition an der Loangoküste, Jena, 1874-5.