Lord of Darkness

  The capital city of this kingdom was named Mbanza, which in their tongue only means “the city” or “the royal court,” and when the Portugals settled here they named it São Salvador de Mbanza, which is how it is called now. Though it was somewhat fallen from its greatest days, owing to the Jaqqa invasion of thirty years ago and other calamities, yet was it still a grand sight as we came upon it, traveling as we had through thick forest, past marsh and swamp, over ravines and rivers, to the highland on which it is seated, about one hundred fifty miles from the sea.

  It is upon a great and high mountain that the Portugals call Outeiro, being almost all of rock, but yet having a vein of iron in it, whereof they have very great use in their housing. This mountain has in the top of it a great plain, very fertile and furnished with houses and villages, containing in circuit about ten miles, where there do dwell and live the number of one hundred thousand persons. The soil is fruitful, and the air fresh, wholesome, and pure: there are great store of springs of good water, and of all sorts of cattle great abundance.

  This town of São Salvador has neither enclosure nor wall, except a little on the south side, which the first king built and afterwards gave to the Portugals to inhabit. Also enclosed are the royal palace and the houses of the nobility. In the midst between the Portuguese district and the royal compound is a great space, where the principal church is set, with a fair marketplace beyond it. The walls of the Portuguese town and the king’s are very thick, but the gates are not shut in the night time, neither is there any watch or ward kept therein. The buildings of the great men are of chalk and stone, but all the rest are of straw, very neatly wrought: the lodgings, dining-rooms, galleries, and other apartments, are hung after the European manner, with mats of an exquisite curiosity. Within the innermost courts are gardens, pleasantly stored with variety of herbs, and planted with several sorts of trees. There are ten or eleven churches, in honor of various saints, and a Jesuit college, and schools where youths are brought up and taught the Latin and Portuguese tongues.

  We called first at the court of the king. This monarch’s name was Don Alvaro II, though his private name was Nempanzu a Mini, but it was an offense to call him that, it not being Christian. He had already been king more than thirty years and was said to be a zealous Christian, but not fond of the Portugals. Cabral told me that he had given favor lately to Dutch merchants, of whom many now abounded in the Kongo; and I knew already that this king had leagued himself several times with the King of Angola and other enemies of the Portugals during the wars.

  Yet did he receive us graciously enough, and in high pomp. When we came upon him, amid a great noise of trumpets, fifes, drums, and cornets, we found him clad with a scarlet cloak and gold buttons, and white buskins upon carnation silk stockings. Cabral remarked that he has new clothes every day, which I could hardly believe in a country where fine stuffs and good tailors are scarce. Before him went twenty-four young blacks, all sons of dukes or marquises of this kingdom, who wore about their middles a handkerchief of palm-cloth dyed black, and a cloak of blue European cloth hanging down to the ground, but all of them bareheaded and barefooted.

  Near to his majesty was an official who carried his sun-shade of silk, of a fire-color laced with gold, and another who carried a chair of carnation velvet, with gold nails, and the wood all gilt. Two others clad in red coats carried his red hammock, but I know not whether it was silk, or dyed cotton. We bowed and saluted His Majesty, who spoke with us in passing good Portuguese, and asked me if I was a Dutchman.

  I said I was English, and he found that worth noting, saying, “There has never been an Englishman to this court. Come closer, and let me see you near.”

  Which I did, whereupon he spied the Jaqqa markings on my face, and said, “What are these, and how did you come by them?”

  “They were placed on me by the man-eaters, when I was captive among them.”

  At that he made the sign of the cross, and told me how when he was a child the Jaqqas had come into this city, and slaughtered thousands and driven his father to take refuge on the Hippopotamus Island in the Zaire River. All this I already knew, but I listened most attentively. Then he asked me if I had seen with mine own eyes, in my sojourn with those folk, the great Jaqqa Imbe Calandola.

  “That I did,” said I, “and a most frightsome being he is.”

  “Then he is real, and not just a tale told to frighten boys?”

  “He is as real as is Your Majesty, by my faith!”

  “And he is a monster?”

  “He is most frightsome,” I did say again, and nothing more, not wishing to speak of the feasts and other secret things that I had shared with the Lord Imbe-Jaqqa.

  King Alvaro closed his eyes, and seemed to brood inward; and then after a time he said, “It is fated that the Jaqqas will eat the world, and bring us all unto judgment, but that Christ will rise upon the last and overthrow them. I hope that warfare is long yet in the coming.”

  “As do I, most fervently, Your Majesty,” I responded, thinking that this was a most strange kind of Christianity that had the gentle Savior doing battle with the terrible Imbe-Jaqqa at the end of the world. But I did not say it. I think these people are very fine Christians indeed, that obey their priests and go to Mass and all the rest, but I do quietly suspect that mixed into their catechism is a very great store of encrusted pagan belief, that would give high surprise to the men of the Vatican if they did but know. Yet that is no business of mine, if these good black Romans have stirred a few mokissos into their creed, and have made an Antichrist out of Calandola. For all faiths are true faiths, and if the Imbe-Jaqqa be not an Archfiend he is something very close upon it.

  When we had paid our respects, and met other members of the court and certain sons of the king, both true ones and bastards (for so were they introduced to us) we were free to go about our trading. Cabral had brought to this land all manner of useful commodities, such things as chamber pots and shaving bowls and iron kettles and blankets of Flanders and Portugal and French linen and dyed caps and much else, which we took into the marketplace. Here we found fine brass ware and pottery, and splendid woven mats, and elephanto teeth, and the skins of leopards and other handsome beasts, and carved staffs of a most beautiful design, and other such produce of the land, which we were able to buy at a most advantageous exchange, so eager were the Kongo folk for our foreign goods. Let it only be made in Europe and they will rush to own it, however humble an object it may be.

  Also did I acquire two young Negro boys to be my servants, they being offered at a good price and I feeling the need of their aid with my baggage.

  Now had we turned enough of a profit to see me safe aboard a ship to Spain, but I was not ready to halt in my trading, nor was Nicolau Cabral. We went on deeper into Kongo to Ngongo and to Bata, where they had great heathen images set up. Then, having sold most of our commodities, we brought ourselves back to the coast at the mouth of the Zaire. Here a pinnace was waiting for Cabral, to bring our goods south, but here also was another ship of the Dutch bound northward, and I proposed to sail with them a little way, leaving our merchandise with Cabral. This shows you how much faith I had in that man, that he would not cheat me of my share; and that faith for once was not misplaced. We parted most warmly and I journeyed up the coast a few days with the Dutchmen.

  I tarried briefly in the province of Mayombe, which is all woods and groves, so overgrown that a man may travel twenty days in the shadow, without any sun or heat. Here they have great store of elephanto flesh, which they greatly esteem, and many kinds of wild beasts; and great store of fish. The woods are covered with baboomas, monkeys, apes, and parrots, that it will fear any man to travel in them alone. But the Jaqqas are not feared in this land, indeed are scarce known among them except as some sort of distant menace.

  Here dwell two other kinds of monsters of which I had once heard from my dear friend Barbosa of blessed memory, that are apes, the pongo and the engeco. This pongo is in all proportions like a man, but t
hat he is more like a giant in stature than a man; for he is very tall, and has a man’s face, hollow-eyed, with long hair upon his brows. His face and ears are without hair, and his hands also. His body is full of hair, but not very thick, and it is of a dunnish color. He differs not from a man but in his legs, for they have no calf. He goes always upon his legs, and carries his hands clasped upon the nape of his neck when he goes upon the ground. They sleep in the trees, and build shelters from the rain. They feed upon fruit they find in the woods and upon nuts, for they eat no kind of flesh. They cannot speak, and have no more understanding than a beast. I saw these creatures now and again, but always from a great distance, they being very shy.

  The people of the country, when they travel in the woods, make fires when they sleep in the night. And in the morning, when they are gone, the pongos will come and sit about the fire till it goes out, for they have no understanding to lay the wood together. They go many together, and kill many Negroes that travel in the woods. Many times they fall upon the elephantos, which come to feed where they be, and so beat them with their clubbed fists and pieces of wood that they will run roaring away from them.

  Those pongos are never taken alive, because they are so strong that ten men cannot hold one of them, but yet they take many of their young ones with poisoned arrows. The young pongo hangeth on to his mother’s belly, with his hands clasped fast about her, so that when the country people kill any of the females, they take the young one which hangeth fast to her. I did much desire to purchase a young pongo, that I might take it back to England with me as a curiosity to present it to King James, but I could not obtain one. This being a great pity, for I am sure no such monstrous ape has ever been seen in that land.

  The engeco is much different, being smaller, to the height of a boy of twelve years, and covered with coarse dark hair. It walks upon its legs, that are bandy and have bright pink feet, and its face is most comic, like unto that of a mummer’s or buffoon’s. They also eat no flesh, or very little, and are said to be much quicker of wit than the pongo. Here also did I attempt to obtain this creature for England, and in the city of Mani Mayombe one was brought for me that was no more than a babe, and most piteous, being like a little very hairy human person, with sad eyes and a great ugly yawning mouth. I think the King would have made me a knight had I given him that creature, but I did not have the purchase of it, for it died of yearning for its mother soon after.

  There is another lord to the eastward of the town of Mani Mayombe, which is called Mani Kesock, and he is eight days’ journey from Mayombe. Here I was with my two Negro boys to buy elephanto hairs and tails. And in a month I bought twenty thousand, which I later sold to the Portugals for thirty slaves, so that I was again a wealthy man. From this place I sent one of my Negro boys to the prince Mani Sette with a looking-glass. He did esteem it much, and sent me four elephanto teeth of great size by his own men, which did further increase my wealth.

  To the northeast of Mani Kesock are a kind of little people called Matimbas, which are no bigger than boys of twelve years old, but are very sturdy, and live only upon flesh, which they kill in the woods with their bows and darts. They pay tribute to Mani Kesock, and bring all their elephanto teeth and tails to him. The women carry bows and arrows, as well as the men, and one of these will walk in the woods alone, and kill the pongos with their poisoned arrows.

  Here ends my recitation of the wonders of this province, for I had now acquired such riches, by God’s grace, that I needed no more, and I did return to the coast, where in good time the Dutch traders did call for me and carry me back to São Paulo de Loanda. It had now become Anno 1607 and I was well ready to begin my passage at last back to England: as ready as I could be, though still I feared somewhat the entry into that placid sweet land out of this realm of nightmare. For I had not shaken free, in the inwardness of myself, of the grasp of this land. I dreamed sometimes still of Imbe Calandola, shouting and raging and marching to and fro with blood dripping from his jowls, and into my mind at untoward moments came images out of the death of Dona Teresa, and other such horrors, and now and again some loathly coccodrillo would drag its scaly huge form through my slumber’s repose. Yet I told me that if I waited for such matters to escape themselves from my mind before I set forth for home, I would dwell in this land to the end of my days. If one goes among devils, one must expect certain dregs of deviltry to crust the borders of one’s soul forever, said I to myself. And so I resolved to take me to England now that I had the funds for it, and complete my healing there. But as usual I was too hopeful of a happy outcome.

  THREE

  NICOLAU CABRAL indeed did not betray me, for he had turned the value of our trading mission into gold, and my share was waiting for me. That and the sale of my thirty slaves gave me such wealth as any man could desire, so the voyage that I had begun eighteen years previous had resulted, after many a turn and twisting, in the fortune I sought.

  And now for England!

  I purposed to have shipped myself for Spain, and thence homewards, there now being peace between Spain and England. But for that I needed the writ of Governor Cerveira Pereira, and I went before him, saying, “You gave me license to go, and now it is my time to depart, and I would have the paper from you.”

  This little man, who was so dark and gaunt, with a black beard that came to a point, did shuffle and shove the documents before him for long moments, making me no answer. Then at length he looked up to me where I stood uneasy, and said, “It may not be.”

  “What, and you deny your word?”

  This angered him. High color came into his face, and he rose, he being half my height, and cried out loudly at me, “I will let you go when I will let you go! But at this time you may not go, for you are needed.”

  “God’s eyes, am I to hear that again? For close on twenty years you Portugals have needed me! Why am I so everlasting useful for you? Aye, and must I be a pilot again, or what? Shall I cut paths in the forest for you? Shall I caulk decks, and sweep away dust? In Jesu name, how can you ask more of me?” And I cried this forth, you may imagine, in no smooth flattering way, for I was bubbling with surprise and wrath and a fury that was close to a killing one.

  “It is the Jaqqas that are once more upon Kambambe, almost,” said he, “and they must be driven back, and we know you are the match for them. So we are to begin the conquest, and you must aid us. I command you to go up to the wars, two days hence.”

  God’s death, but I came close to striking him down!

  Two days, and then I was to resume the wars? And they would take me out to do battle with the Jaqqas? Nay, nay, I would not, it was beyond all conceiving! In my long travail I had learned much philosophy of the Stoic kind, to be strong and all-withstanding, and bide my time and quietly pursue my purposes; but this was far too much, this went beyond the bounds, and there was no philosophy honeyed enough to help me swallow so prickly a lump.

  At the least I was philosopher enough to take my leave of Governor Pereira without making any mayhem upon him. But it was close, aye, it was parlous close, and were I not a man of temperance I would have left him disjointed on the floor, fit for a Jaqqa stew and nothing more.

  But I choked back my fury and got me out of there, though a red mist was in my eyes. Two days, to go off to the conquest! It would not be. Here was I determined not to yield.

  But what now, what now?

  There were Dutchmen in the harbor, that would give little heed to the writs and decrees of that coxcomb Portugal. I could go to one, as I had long before to Cornelis van Warwyck, and beg him to give me secret passage, and reward him freely with my gold. But what if the scheme miscarried? I bethought me how my dealings with Warwyck had ended, bringing me near to a sentence of death, and I knew it was not the part of wisdom to try the like again under Cerveira Pereira. He would not have the mercy on me that Don João de Mendoça had had.

  But a much more easy solution offered itself that night, as I sat most morose in a tavern of the town, and heard som
e Portugals saying that a new governor had been sent out from Portugal, and would arrive in two or three days, or at most six. For I knew that Cerveira Pereira had no royal commission, but only served by vote of the soldiers, and he had had three years and more of that. Now was a rightful man, whose name was Manoel Pereira Forjaz, to arrive.

  So my way was clear. I determined to absent myself for ten or twenty days, till the other governor came, and then to come to the city again. For every governor that comes does make proclamation for all men that be absent, to come with free pardon. And I felt certain this Pereira Forjaz would give me the writ to go home, I being of no use or significance to him.

  The same day, at night, I departed from São Paulo de Loanda with my two Negro boys that I had, which carried my musket and six pounds of powder, and a hundred bullets, and what little provision of victuals that I could make. In the morning I was some twenty miles from the city, up along the river Mbengu, and there I stayed certain days, and then passed Mbengu and came to the River Dande, which is northward.

  Here I was near the highway of Kongo, that I had taken the year before on my venture with Nicolau Cabral, and merchants passed it every day. I sent forth one of my Negroes to inquire of those that went by, what news was in the city.

  The boy returned soon, saying, “There is no news.”