Garcia Mendes Castellobranco, in a memoir[462] addressed to the King in 1620, is equally outspoken with regard to the treatment of the native chiefs, who, he maintains, ought not to be taxed more heavily than at the time when they were still subjects of a native king. He, too, refers to the salt mines as a source of revenue, recommends the levying of a toll at river crossings, and the expropriation of the uncultivated territory around S. Paulo.[463]
Many of these abuses may, no doubt, be traced to the demoralising influence of the slave-trade and the insufficient pay of the officials. A slave costing £3 7s. in the interior (or nothing, if taken in the course of one of the frequent slave raids) was sold for more than double that sum on the coast; and whilst money could be made thus easily the great natural resources of the country were neglected and the population—which, on the arrival of the Portuguese, is said to have been very considerable—shrank from year to year.[464]
The export duties on slaves and ivory were farmed out in 1607 to one Duarte Dias Enriques for twenty million reis annually (about £6,600).[465]
S. Paulo and Masanganu enjoyed municipal institutions at that time, but all outside these cities was ruled by military adventurers. The Governor (in 1607) was paid a salary of £267, but the other officials were decidedly underpaid; and thus, almost of necessity, were driven to increase their incomes by illegitimate means.[466]
The War with Ngola nzinga mbandi.
Luiz Mendes de Vasconcellos, the new Governor, arrived in November, 1617, and almost immediately found himself involved in a war with the King of Ndongo. Nzinga mbandi ngola kiluanji,[467] a great tyrant, had been “removed” by his indignant subjects shortly before the arrival of the new Governor. He left behind him three daughters, one of whom, born in 1582, became famous as Queen D. Anna de Souza Nzinga, and two sons, one by a legitimate wife, the other by a slave woman. It was the latter, Ngola nzinga mbandi,[468] whom his partisans raised to the throne, which he reached through rivers of blood, among his victims being his own brother, a son of his sister, and many of the trusted councillors of his father. In 1618 the usurper took the field, intending to expel the Portuguese, who seem to have given provocation by shifting the old presidio of Mbaka (Ambaca) to a site much higher up the Lukala.[469] The Governor, ably supported by his captain-major, Pedro de Souza Coelho, not only defeated the King, but also captured his queen and many other persons of consideration. The King sued for peace, but as he failed to surrender the Portuguese whom he had taken prisoner, the war was renewed in 1619. His allies fared no better than the King himself. His vice-king of lower Ndongo, Ngola ari,[470] was compelled to pay a tribute of one hundred slaves annually (in 1620); and while the Governor raided the territories of Kahibalongo, Ndonga, and Kasa, his lieutenant, Lopo Soares Laço, destroyed the kilombos of the sobas Ngunza a ngombe and Bangu.
It had been recognised by this time that many of these punitive expeditions were provoked by the lawless conduct of white traders, mulattoes and negros calçados (that is, shoe-wearing negroes), who went inland on slaving expeditions; and only Pumbeiros descalços, that is, native agents or traders not yet sufficiently civilised to wear shoes, should be permitted to do so in future.[471]
When King Ngola nzinga mbandi heard of the arrival of João Corrêa de Souza, the new Governor, in September, 1621,[472] he at once sent his sister to Luandu to arrange terms of peace. This woman, then about forty years of age, proved an excellent diplomatist. When the Governor alluded to the payment of tribute, she declared that tribute could only be demanded from a conquered people, and the treaty ultimately signed was one of reciprocity: fugitive slaves were to be surrendered, and assistance to be given against common enemies.
Before this able ambassadress left Luandu, she was received into the bosom of Holy Mother Church, being baptised as D. Anna de Souza (1622); and on her return home she persuaded her brother to apply for the services of a priest, or Mamaganga.[473] A priest was sent, but he was a native, who had been ordained at Luandu, and one of the King’s own subjects. The King looked upon this as an insult; he treated the priest with great indignity, and once more invaded the Portuguese territory. Thrice beaten, and deserted by his vassals, he fled to the island of Ndangi,[474] in the Kwanza river, where he died of poison administered by his own sister Nzinga, who thus avenged the murder of her son (1623).