No sooner was Alvaro once more seated securely upon his throne than he sent the Count of Sonyo against Ngola (1572). Several encounters took place in Musulu and Mbuila (Ambuila); but in the end Ngola was allowed to retain his father’s conquests, the river Dande being fixed upon as the boundary between the two kingdoms. Kongo, however, retained possession of the valuable island of Luandu.
Among other events of this reign we should mention a second visit of D. Gaspar Cão, the bishop, shortly before his death (in 1574); and the scandal caused by the burial of a notorious infídel, D. Francisco Mbula matadi, in the church of S. Cruz, the roof of which was taken off by night, and the body, carried away by the Devil![349]
D. Alvaro only enjoyed his prosperity for a short time, for when Paulo Dias landed at Luandu, in 1575, he was already dead.[350]
D. Alvaro II, 1574-1614.
Alvaro II, a son of Alvaro I, is described by Bishop D. Manuel Baptista as a “zealous Christian, father and friend of all;”[351] but it is evident that he looked not with overmuch favour upon the Portuguese residents in his country, and he is charged, in a memoir addressed by Domingos d’Abreu Brito to King Philip I, in 1592 with having plotted with the kings of Ndongo and Matamba against the Portuguese. An army which he sent ostensibly to the aid of the Portuguese in 1583 retired, apparently without striking a blow, whilst he furnished a contingent to the forces of Matamba which invaded Angola in 1590. He hindered, by specious excuses, the completion of a stone fort at Mpinda, which had been commenced in 1609 by Antonio Gonçalves Pitta, until all the workmen had died. He favoured Dutch traders to the great detriment of the Portuguese; and we know from Samuel Braun,[352] that an effort was made in 1612 to expel the Dutch from the Kongo, and that it would have been successful, had not the natives sided with these heretical enemies, whose dealings appeared to them to be more generous. Moreover, the King, although he had promised Sebastian da Costa (1580) that he would allow the supposed silver mines to be sought for, eventually refused his consent.[353]
Turning to Church affairs, we hear of the usual applications for missionaries, and of several episcopal visitations by D. F. Antonio de Goiva (1578), D. Manuel de Ulhoa, D. Miguel Baptista Rangel, and D. Manuel Baptista. D. Manuel de Ulhoa presided over a synod at S. Salvador, in 1585, and laid down statutes for the government of his see. D. Miguel Baptista Rangel was the first Bishop of Kongo, which had been separated from the diocese of S. Thomé by a Bull of May 20th, 1596. His successor, D. Manuel Baptista, resided for several years in Kongo, where he died in 1621; and a letter addressed to King Philip II, in 1612,[354] speaks of the results of over a century of missionary effort as insignificant, and describes the people as incurable barbarians, full of vice.
D. Pedro II Affonso, 1622-1624.
Bernardo II, a son of Alvaro II, only reigned for a few months, for he was killed by his brother, Alvaro III, and a complaint addressed to him by the Governor of Angola about the admission of heretical Dutchmen to trade in Sonyo was answered by his successor. This Alvaro III, the fratricide, is nevertheless described by Cavazzi as having been “wise, modest, courageous, and above all a zealous Christian.” It was during his reign, in 1619, that the Jesuits founded a college at S. Salvador. A proposed mission of Italian Capuchins came to nothing, for King Philip of Spain, by royal letters of September 22nd, 1620, forbade foreign missionaries to enter Portuguese colonies without first obtaining a royal license.[355] Alvaro III died on May 26th, 1622, and was succeeded by D. Pedro II Affonso, whom Cavazzi describes as a son of Alvaro III; whilst a Jesuit canon of S. Salvador,[356] who wrote an interesting life of this prince in 1624, makes him out to have been a son of Mbiki a ntumba, Duke of Nsundi, and a descendant, in the female line, of the first King of Kongo. If this biographer can be trusted, he was a man of much promise, and of a mild, forgiving temper; for although the Duke of Mbamba had sought his life, he conferred upon him the marquisate of Wembo. His reign was a short and troubled one. In August, 1622, the Duke of Mbata had been killed by rebels, and his vassal, the King of Kwangu (Ocango), had suffered a defeat. João Corrêa de Souza, the Governor of Angola, summoned him to surrender Luandu Island and all the copper mines; and this being refused, the Portuguese under Luiz Gomez, aided by the Jagas, crossed the Dande at Ikau and invaded Nambu a ngongo, and (in December) also Mbumbi, where the Duke of Mpemba and many others were killed and eaten by the Jagas, in spite of their being Christians. The people of the invaded districts revenged themselves by killing the Portuguese living in their midst, the King vainly endeavouring to protect them. These invaders had scarcely been driven off, when Captain Silvestre Soares, with a body of Jagas, entered Ngombe and Kabanda. But that which gave most pain to the King was the destruction of the kingdom of Bangu, and the murder of its King by the Jagas, with the aid of the King of “Loango,” which was the “trunk and origin of the kingdom of Kongo.”[357] In the midst of these afflictions, the King was rejoiced to learn the arrival of D. Simão Mascarenhas at Luanda; but he met with an accident, and died on April 13th, 1624, after a short reign of less than two years, and mourned by six sons and two daughters.[358]
D. Pedro’s successors, 1624-1641.
Garcia, the eldest son of D. Pedro, when elected was only twenty years of age, He was succeeded by D. Ambrosio, in October, 1626, whose reign, up till March, 1631, was one continuous warfare with his powerful vassals. The country became unsafe, and the Portuguese retired for a time from S. Salvador. Alvaro IV, a son of Alvaro III, made himself master of the kingdom, and retained possession until his death, February 25th, 1636. He was succeded by his son, Alvaro V, who, doubting the loyalty of his half-brothers, the Duke of Mbamba and the Marquis of Kiowa, made war upon them, was defeated and taken prisoner, but liberated. Unmindful of the generosity of his opponents, he once more tried the fortune of battle, was taken again, and executed (in August, 1636). The Duke of Mbamba was unanimously elected in his place, and reigned, as Alvaro VI, until his death on February 22nd, 1641. He waged two unsuccessful wars against the Count of Sonyo, in 1636 and again in 1637; and was obliged to surrender the district of Makuta (Mocata) to his adversary.