Don João de Sousa, the ambassador, left Portugal on December 19th, 1490, with a fleet commanded by Gonçalo de Sousa, as captain-major. Among the pilots were Pero d’Alemquer and Pero Escovar, men famous in the maritime history of Portugal. Ten Franciscan Friars[304] went out with this fleet, and so did Nsaku, the ambassador of the King of Kongo. The plague was raging at Lisbon at the time, and before the vessels reached the Cape Verde Islands, this dreaded disease had carried off João de Sousa (the ambassador), the captain-major, and many others. Ruy de Sousa, a nephew of the captain-major, was then chosen to take the place of D. João de Sousa.
After a voyage of a hundred days the vessels reached the Kongo, and the Mwana of Sonyo and his son, who had already been instructed in the Christian doctrine by a priest from S. Thomé, were baptised on Easter Sunday, April 3rd, 1491, and were thenceforth known as Don Manuel and Don Antonio da Silva; for it was the practice of the Portuguese, from the very beginning, to bestow Portuguese names and titles upon the negroes who submitted to the sacrament of baptism.
This ceremony performed, Ruy de Sousa started for the King’s capital,[305] which he reached on April 29th. The King received him seated on a platform, in a chair inlaid with ivory. He wore a loin-cloth, presented to him by Cão, copper bracelets, and a cap of palm-cloth. A zebra tail depended from his left shoulder—a badge of royalty.[306]
The King was about to join his son Mbemba a Nzinga, Duke of Nsundi, who had taken the field against the Bateke;[307] but before doing so he was anxious to be baptised. The foundations of a church having been laid on Rood Day, May 3rd,[308] the King and his Queen were baptised at once by Frei João de Santa Maria, and were named Don João and Donna Leonor, after the King and Queen of Portugal.
The King, marching for the first time under the banner of the Cross, and supported by the firearms of his Portuguese allies, came back a victor to his capital. His eldest son and many nobles were then baptised.
When Ruy de Sousa departed, he left behind him Frei Antonio[309] with other priests, and gave instructions for an exploration of the Kongo river above the cataracts, which do not appear to have been acted upon. He also founded a factory near the mouth of the Kongo, where the enterprising people of S. Thomé had already established commercial relations, although formal permission to do so was only granted them by King Manuel on March 26th, 1500. Dom Pedro, a cousin of the King of Kongo, accompanied him, with nine attendants, who, having been taught to read and write, returned to their native country with D. João Soares, early in 1494.[310]
The missionaries lost no time in preaching the doctrines of their Church; but whilst Don Affonso proved an ardent Christian, who recklessly destroyed all fetishes discovered in his province of Nsundi, the King himself soon grew lukewarm, owing to the priests’ interference with polygamy and other valued social institutions. In the country at large, the heathen still held their ground.
D. Affonso I, 1509-1540.[311]
And thus it happened that when João I died in 1509, the chiefs favoured his second son, Mpanzu a nzinga,[312] a heathen, whilst the dowager queen and the Count of Sonyo took the part of the elder brother. Don Affonso, immediately on hearing of his father’s illness, hurried up to the capital, accompanied by only thirty-six Christians. He found that his father had died. His brother approached with a mighty army, but five flaming swords seen in the heavens on the eve of battle gave courage to his small following, whilst a white cross and the appearance of St. James at the head of the celestial host struck terror into the hearts of the assailants. They fled in a panic.[313] Mpanzu himself was taken, wounded, and decapitated.
Order having been restored throughout the country, King Affonso availed himself of the presence of Gonçalo Rodriguez Ribeiro, who had come from Portugal with a number of priests, and was about to return to that country, to send an embassy to Pope Julius II and King Manuel.[314] The head of this mission was Don Pedro (de Castro?), a cousin of the King (who was accompanied by his wife), and with him went D. Manuel, a brother of the King, and D. Henrique, a son. The presents conveyed to Portugal included seven hundred copper bracelets, elephant tusks, slaves, parrots, civet cats and other animals, and native cloth. D. Henrique remained behind at Rome, where he was ordained and created Bishop of Utica in 1518.[315]