In this kingdom there is no kind of tame cattle but goats, for none other cattle will live here. Oxen and kine have been brought hither, but they presently die. The hens in this place do so abound that a man may buy thirty for the worth of sixpence in beads.[191]
[Wild Birds.]
Here is store of pheasants, and great plenty of partridges and wild fowl. Here is a kind of fowl that lives in the land bigger than a swan, and they are like a heron, with long legs and long necks, and it is white or black, and hath in her breast a bare place without feathers, where she striketh with her beak. This is the right Pelican, and not those sea-birds which the Portugals call pelicans, which are white and as big as geese, and these abound in this country also.
[The Zebra.]
Here is also the zevera or zebra, which is like a horse, but that his mane, his tail, his strakes and divers colours down his sides and legs do make a difference. These zeveras are all wild and live in great herds, and will suffer a man to come within shot of them, and let them shoot three or four times at them before they will run away.[192]
[The Hippopotamus.]
Moreover, there are great store of sea or river horses, which feed always on the land, and live only by grass, and they be very dangerous in the water. They are the biggest creature in this country, except the elephant. They have great virtue in the claws of their left forefoot, and have four claws on every foot, like the claws of an ox. The Portugals make rings of them, and they are a present remedy for the flux.
[Portuguese dealings with the Natives.]
The Portugals make war against the negroes in this manner. They have out of Congo a nobleman, which is known to be a good Christian and of good behaviour. He bringeth out of Congo some one hundred negroes that are his followers. This Macicongo [mwishi-Kongo]is made Tandala,[193] or general over the black camp, and hath authority to kill, to put down Lords and make Lords, and hath all the chief doings with the negroes. And when any Lord cometh to obey he first cometh to Tandala and bringeth his present, as slaves, kine and goats. Then the Tandala carrieth him before the Portugal Governor, and bringeth two slaves for the Governor’s page, before he goeth in. Then he must have a great gift for the Governor, which is sometimes thirty or forty slaves, besides cattle. But when he cometh before the Governor he kneeleth down and clappeth his hands, and falleth down with his face upon the ground, and then he riseth and saith: “I have been an enemy, and now I protest to be true, and never more to lift my hand against you.” Then the Governor calleth a soldier, which hath deserved a reward, and giveth the Lord to him. This soldier seeth that he have no wrong; and the Lord acknowledgeth him to be his master, and he doth maintain the soldier and maketh him rich. Also, in the wars he commandeth his master’s house to be built before his own, and whatsoever he hath taken that day in the wars, he passeth [divideth] with his master. So that there is no Portugal soldier of any account, but hath his negro sova, or Lord.[194]