Angola and the River Congo, vol. 2

by Joachim John Monteiro

One of these expeditions, on its return from chastising the natives of a town on the road to Bembe for robbery, was actually sent to Loanda by road. The Governor-General (Amaral) was then at Ambriz, and being unacquainted with the negro character, and having mistaken humanitarian ideas, gave strict orders that the natives of Mossulo, who had committed several acts of violence, should not be punished, but that speeches should be made to them warning them of future retribution if they continued to misconduct themselves. Their towns and property were not touched, nor were hostages or other security exacted for their future good conduct.

The natural consequence was that this clemency was ascribed by the natives to weakness, and that the Portuguese were afraid of their power, as not a hut had been burnt, a root touched, or a fowl killed, and they consequently, in order to give the white men an idea of their power and invincibility, attacked some American and English factories at Mossulo Bay, the white men there having the greatest difficulty to save their lives and property; a Portuguese man-of-war landed some men, and so enabled the traders to get their goods shipped, but the factories were burnt to the ground. This was in September 1859.

I was at Ambriz when the expedition started, so I determined to join it, and examine the country to Loanda.

The expedition consisted of 150 Portuguese and black soldiers, and as many armed “Libertos,” or slaves, who are freemen after having served the Government for seven years; these “Libertos” dragged a light six-pounder gun. The commander was Major (now General) Gamboa, an officer who had seen upwards of twenty years’ service in Moçambique and Angola, and to whom I was indebted for great friendship during the whole time I was in the country. The major and two officers rode horses; two others and myself were carried in hammocks. We started one afternoon and halted at a small village consisting of only a few huts, at about six miles south of Ambriz. There we supped and slept, and started next morning at daybreak. The start did not occupy much time, as the Portuguese troops and officers in Angola do not make use of tents when on the march, and their not doing so is undoubtedly the cause of a good deal of the sickness and discomfort they suffer. In the evening we arrived at the Bay of Mossulo, where we were hospitably entertained by the English and American traders there established.

The country we passed through on our march was of that strange character that I have described as occurring in the littoral region of Ambriz. In the thickets dotted over the country a jasmine (Corissa sp.) is a principal plant. It grows as a large bush covered with long rigid spines, and bears bunches of rather small white flowers having the scent of the usual jasmine. Also growing in these thickets, and very often over this species, are two creeping jasmines—the “Jasminum auriculatum” (J. tettensis? Kl.) and “Jasminum multipartitum?”

Various kinds of birds abounded, principally doves and the beautiful purple starlings, and on the ground small flocks (from two to four or five) of the bustards Otis ruficrista and Otis picturata were not uncommon, appearing in the distance like snakes, their heads alone being visible over the tops of the short rough grass as they ran along. A small hare is found in abundance, and also several species of ducks in some small marshes near Great Mossulo. Of larger game only some small kinds of antelope are found.

I had gone on some distance ahead of the troops, and on approaching one large town, about a dozen natives armed with muskets stopped my hammock, and told me I must return to Ambriz, as no white man could be allowed to pass. I told them that the soldiers were close behind, and that resistance would be useless, as their town would be taken and burnt if they attempted any; they, however, still persisted in not letting me go forward, so I had to wait for a few minutes till they saw Major Gamboa and the two officers approaching on horseback, when they scampered off into the bush without even saying good-bye, and on our entering the town we found it deserted save by the king and a few other old men, who were all humility, and protested that they would never more insult or ill treat white men.

Major Gamboa was perfectly convinced of the uselessness of only talking to blacks, his intimate knowledge of them telling him that the only safe plan would have been to have burnt the towns on the road and taken the king and old men to Loanda as hostages, but he had to obey his instructions, and the result was that they attacked the factories and killed a number of natives. The Portuguese, however, instead of punishing this outrage, tamely pocketed the affront, and left the Mossulos in undisputed possession of the road.

In these towns were the largest “fetish” houses I have seen in Angola. One was a large hut built of mud, the walls plastered with white, and painted all over inside and out with grotesque drawings, in black and red, of men and animals. Inside were three life-size figures very roughly modelled in clay, and of the most indecent description. Behind this hut was a long court the width of the length of the hut, enclosed with walls about six feet high. A number of figures similar in character to those in the hut were standing in this court, which was kept quite clean and bare of grass. What, if any, were the uses to which these “fetish” houses were applied I could not exactly ascertain. I do not believe that they are used for any ceremonials, but that the “fetishes” or spirits are supposed to live in them in the same manner as in the “fetish” houses in the towns in the Ambriz and Bembe country. At one of the towns we saw a number of the natives running away into the bush in the distance, carrying on their backs several of the dead dry bodies of their relatives. I hunted in all the huts to find a dry corpse to take away as a specimen, but without success; they had all been removed.

Next day we continued our journey, and bivouacked on the sea-shore, not very far from Libongo, and near the large town of Quiembe.