The affairs of the missions will be dealt with subsequently, in a comprehensive manner, but a difficulty which arose in 1623 between the Governor, João Corrêa de Souza, and the Jesuits, may be dealt mentioned at once. In 1619, Gaspar Alvares,[482] a wealthy merchant of Luandu, placed 20,000 cruzados at the service of the Fathers, in order that they might found a seminary[483] for the education of twelve natives. Subsequently he himself became a member of the Society of Loyola, and devoted the whole of his fortune, amounting to 400,000 cruzados, to its purposes. The Governor not unnaturally objected to this sudden enrichment of a Society which had always been a thorn in the side of the government. Alvares himself escaped to S. Salvador, but the Prefect of the Jesuits and three Fathers were sent as prisoners to Lisbon, where they were at once liberated; whilst the Governor himself, who arrived soon afterwards, perhaps with the intention of justifying his hasty proceedings, was thrown into prison, and died in the limoeiro in 1626.
The Dutch in Angola.
When Philip of Spain seized upon the crown of Portugal in 1580, that unfortunate country became at once involved in the troubles between Spain and the United Netherlands. No sooner had the destruction of the Armada, in 1588, enabled the Dutch to take the offensive on sea, than they began to compete for a share in the trade of the Portuguese possessions. The Dutch at first kept on the defensive, but in 1598 they and the Portuguese came into hostile collision near the Ilha do Principe; and all efforts to exclude these noxious heretics from sharing in the trade of the Kongo proved futile, more especially as the natives themselves preferred their Dutch visitors to the masterful Portuguese.[484]
An armistice concluded in 1609 expired in 1621. The Dutch West-India Company was founded in that very year, and thenceforth the Dutch proceeded aggressively. In 1623 they burnt several patachos off the mouth of the Kwanza; in 1629 a Dutch squadron cruised during three months off the coast of Benguella and captured four Portuguese merchantmen, but failed to force their way into the harbour of Luandu. In 1633 two Dutch vessels menaced S. Felippe de Benguella, but were driven off by Lopo Soares Laço, after a stout fight, on November 15th. In 1637, Bartholomeu de Vasconcellos da Cunha, the Governor’s brother, captured a Dutch man-of-war of 24 guns. At that time the coast was being regularly patrolled by Portuguese men-of-war,[485] and in 1638 the foundations of the Fort S. Miguel were laid on the Morro de S. Paulo, the original site of the city of S. Paulo.
When Portugal recovered her independence, in December, 1640, D. João IV of Bragança at once sent Tristão de Mendoza Furtado to the Hague, with instructions to demand a suspension of hostilities. The West-India Company, which profited largely from a state of war, declared in favour of a definite treaty of peace, but objected to the conclusion of an armistice. The Portuguese envoy had no authority to sign such a treaty; but after protracted negotiations an armistice for ten years was signed on June 23rd, 1641, which was to take force outside Europe as soon as it became known there.
Meantime, the directors of the West-Indian Company had instructed Count John Moritz of Nassau to take advantage of the momentary weakness of Portugal, after her war of liberation, to seize all he could before the terms of the treaty became known.[486] Count Moritz, being desirous to increase the supply of slaves for the plantations in Brazil, determined to seize upon Luandu. A fleet of twenty-one vessels was at once fitted out at Pernambuco, and placed under the command of Cornelis Cornelissen Jol, surnamed Houtebeen, or “Wooden leg.” It was manned by nine hundred sailors, and had on board two thousand troops, commanded by Jeems Hindersen. This formidable armament left Pernambuco in June 30th, 1641, sighted Cabo Negro on August 5th, and having captured the Jesus Maria, on a voyage from Madeira, was by her piloted into the harbour of Luandu. On August 24th the Dutch fleet unexpectedly appeared off S. Paulo, surprising its inhabitants in the midst of their rejoicings at the accession of the “liberator king.” S. Paulo, at that time, was a city of twenty thousand inhabitants, including three thousand Portuguese; but the Governor, Pedro Cezar de Menezes, though he was at the head of nine hundred white troops, offered only a feeble resistance; and, accompanied by many of the citizens, he withdrew to the river Mbengu, and subsequently to Masanganu. The booty which fell into the hands of the Dutch included thirty ships and ninety-eight cannon.
They lost no time in gaining the goodwill of the neighbouring sobas, sent an embassy to the King of Kongo (see p. 125), and entertained offers of alliance from Queen Nzinga. Aki musanu (Aca mochana) and Nambu a ngongo (Nabo a ngongo), who had risen upon the Portuguese, were joined by one hundred and fifty Dutchmen, and thus enabled to overcome their enemies, whose leaders, André da Costa and João Vieira, they killed (1642).
In the following year (1643) information was received that the truce had been signed, but the Dutch director very naturally declined to surrender the town. He agreed, however, to suspend hostilities. Pedro Cezar had been instructed by his government to avail himself of the first opportunity to recover the city,[487] and it was evidently with a view to this eventuality that he established a camp on the river Mbengu. The Dutch suspected his treacherous design, and at dawn on May 26th, 1643, they surprised his force. Many Portuguese were killed (including Antonio Bruto), while Pedro Cezar himself, Bartholomeu de Vasconcellos da Cunha, and one hundred and eighty seven soldiers were taken prisoner. The remainder escaped to Masanganu. The forces assembled there under the captain-major, Antonio de Miranda, were unable to retrieve this disaster, but the Governor, aided by friends, managed soon afterwards to escape.
But though unequal to meeting the Dutch in the field, the Portuguese were still able to enforce their authority upon the natives; and in 1645 Diogo Gomes de Morales led an expedition into Lubolo and Mbalundu (Bailundo), and reduced the kolombos of thirty “Jagas” to obedience.