ANGOLA, an extensive coast and territory of Western Africa, extending to the south of the river Congo or Zaire. According to Degrandpré, the name is given to he whole coast, from Cape Lopez Gonsalvo, in 0.44. to St Phelipe de Bengal, in lat. 12.14.S., a range of nearly 12 degrees, or about 800 miles. The country strictly called Angola, however, occupies only the middle part of this pace between Congo on the north and Benguela on the south, being watered by the large rivers Conan and Dando, to the former of which especially, the Portuguese maps assign a very long course through the interior; but neither of these rivers has been ascended to any considerable height.

From the early Portuguese accounts, it would appear that Angola or Ngola was a title assumed by the kings, and transmitted by one to another from the original founder of their dynasty. The first Ngola was reported by tradition to have been raised to distinction by the skill with which he exercised the occupation of a smith; and though this mode of elevation may be somewhat foreign to our ideas, yet this trade is in its products so important to a warlike people, and in the infancy of art is attended with such difficulty, that among the nations of Africa generally it is held in peculiar honour. Ngola seems also ♭ have secured the attachment of his countrymen by various benefits, particularly by forming a store of grain, from which, during periods of scarcity, he supplied their necessities. Among his successors, several were fierce nd warlike; one, in particular, named Chilivagni Angola, ready extended the boundaries of the kingdom, making it comprehend Matamba and great part of Benguela. His successor Bandi Angola, however, being hard pressed by the Giagas, a fierce and wandering tribe from the interior, applied for aid to the king of Congo, and was aided by a body of Portuguese, who were then established in that territory. Through their valour and discipline Bandi was enabled to repel the invaders, and was thus induced for some time to lavish on the strangers the highest honours. Becoming, however, jealous of their power, and perhaps disgusted with their haughty deportment, he formed a scheme to cut them off, which they escaped only partially, and by a very hasty flight. Returning to Portugal, they recommended very strongly Angola as a theatre both of commerce and conquest,—an advice highly accordant with the enterprising and ambitious views by which that court was then actuated.

The river Congo had in 1484 been discovered, and in some degree explored, by Diego Cam; but his successors, Bartholomew Diaz and Vasco de Gama, when sailing along the coast to the southward, were solely intent on reaching and passing the dangerous cape which formed the utmost boundary of the African continent. After the splendid discoveries and settlements attempted to be formed on the coast of India, the Almeidas and the Al-buquerques pushed onwards to that region without allowing themselves to be detained by undertaking any settlements on this barbarous coast. The king, however, about the middle of the 16th century, sent out an armament under Paulo de Diaz, a descendant of Bartholomew, constituting him viceroy of all the territories which he should conquer in this part of Africa. Diaz landed, and established the Portuguese headquarters at a place which he called Loando St Paul, near the mouth of the Coanza; then proceeded with an armament up that river, and erected a fort on its banks, whence his troops began to spread over the surrounding country. The king, unable to brook such rivals to his power, assembled an army, which, with absurd exaggeration, is represented as exceeding 100,000 men. It was probably, indeed, much superior in numbers to the handful which the Portuguese could oppose to it; but such’was their superiority in arms and discipline, that both the king, and his son, who soon succeeded him, were beaten in successive encounters. At length there arrived, as ambassadress at the camp of the Portuguese, no less a person than the king’s sister, Zingha Bandi, whose manners and address struck them with surprise and a sort of admiration. They relate, that on being introduced to Don John, who had succeeded to the rank of viceroy, and seeing no chair provided for her, without making any complaint, she caused her attendant to bend down on her hands and knees, and made use of her back as a seat. A demand being made of vassalage and tribute, she rejected it with indignation; and it was finally agreed that both parties should remain in their present position, and a mutual exchange of prisoners take place,—terms which leave much room to doubt if the successes of the Portuguese were so decided as they chose to represent. Zingha, on the whole highly pleased with her reception, remained with them a considerable time, during which she became a convert to Christianity, and finally parted on the most friendly terms.

The Portuguese were not long in receiving very unfavourable tidings of their new convert. By the murder of her brother and his son, she paved her way to the sovereignty; and then began, equally with her predecessors, to feel deep dissatisfaction at the great extent of valuable territory possessed by this foreign nation. Unable to hope for its recovery by fair means, she formed alliances with the neighbouring states, and even with the ferocious and formerly hostile tribe of Giagas; after which she commenced war, and for many years carried it on with the utmost fury, putting to death, amid the most cruel tortures, all Europeans who fell into her hands. The Portuguese boast of their numerous victories over Zingha; yet admit that they were often very hard pressed, and had at one time their whole force cooped up and closely besieged on an island in the Coanza. They were at the same time involved in war with the Dutch, who in 1641 took their principal settlement of St Paul de Loando, which was recovered, however, by an expedition sent thither on the 15th August 1648. As Zingha rejected all terms of peace which did not include the entire restoration of the conquered country, the Portuguese endeavoured to set up in opposition to her two successive members of the royal family, whom they called John I. and II.; but these phantom monarchs never enjoyed any weight with the people in general. At length the queen, haviňg attained to an advanced age, being no longer seconded by the Dutch, and finding all her efforts to expel the Portuguese abortive, listened to overtures of peace. She indignantly rejected any demand of homage, or of the most trifling tribute; and the treaty was concluded altogether on equal terms, except that she paid a high ransom for one of her sisters, who had fallen into the hands of the Portuguese. Permission was then obtained to send missionaries to her coast, who persuaded her to resume the profession of Christianity, which she had renounced during her long period of enmity; and, on the 15th July 1662, her union with the church of Rome was celebrated with extraordinary pomp.

Zingha died at the age of eighty, and the crown then devolved on her sister’s husband Mona Zingha, who commenced[7:3:152] a violent war against the Europeans, which was in a ' few years terminated by his death. Since that time the affairs of the Portuguese have been involved in that mystery which they studiously throw over all their colonial transactions; but it is not believed that they now occupy more than a very limited range of territory around their ports of St Paul de Loando and St Phelipe de Benguela, which they maintain for the purpose of carrying on the slave-trade.

The whole of this coast, according to Degrandpré, to whom we are indebted for the only recent account of it, has been singularly favoured by nature. The soil consists generally of a rich black loam, fitted for yielding in the utmost luxuriance all the productions of tropical climates. In its present uncultivated state, it is covered with dense and varied vegetation. The forests reach to the top of the hills, and their trunks are often washed by the waves. This vegetation bears generally the same character as in other parts of tropical Africa. Some of the trees, under the influence of heat and moisture on a rich soil, arrive at the most extraordinary dimensions. Mention is made of the mapou, which seems to be the same species with the calabash of Adanson, and whose trunk it has required a boat’s crew, with arms extended, to embrace. This huge production of nature is unfortunately incapable of being applied to any use whatever: the wood, moist and spongy, is fitted neither for carpentry nor even fuel; the fruit is small and unpalatable; the foliage too scanty to afford any grateful shade. On the other hand, the family of the palms are profusely distributed, and minister to the most important uses of human life. The cocoa-palm, in particular, serves almost every economical purpose.. Its juices afford both food and drink; its wood is hard and durable; its filaments form strong ropes; the leaves afford a roofing which resists the rain; even the rind of the fruit is made into vessels for domestic purposes. The date-palm exists, but the soil is too moist to produce it in abundance. The culinary vegetables of Europe, when planted, grow to an extraordinary size, but soon degenerate in a soil which appears foreign to their nature. Cultivation is confined to small spots resembling gardens, in the immediate vicinity of the towns and villages, leaving all the open country in a state of nature. Its efforts are chiefly bestowed on the manioc, plantations of which surround all the villages; and the root, ground down by a species of mill, and then dried in little furnaces, affords the bread generally used in the country.

The animal races are numerous, all wild, and of the same species which generally prevail throughout Africa. Elephants are less numerous than in some other quarters; but hyaenas, ounces, and tiger-cats people the forests; and there are all the various species of antelope. Apes and monkeys of various and often peculiar· species fill all the woods; and some are distinguished by a remarkable share of intelligence. It seems chiefly in this quarter of the continent that the orang-outang, called by the natives Iŵmpezey, sometimes, though rarely, makes his appearance. Degrandpré saw one on board a slave-vessel four feet two inches high, of a mixed red and black colour, and which seemed almost to make an approach to the intellect as well as the form of humanity. It assisted the sailors in drawing the ropes, and was employed to heat the oven, giving notice to the baker exactly at the time when it was fit to receive the bread. Here also are found in great numbers those remarkable insects, the termites or white ants, with their conical structures raised three feet from the ground, and which often destroy in a short time the slight habitations of the natives, with every thing they contain. The inhabitants of this coast rank below those of the rest of the continent, in not having succeeded in taming any description of domestic animals. They have neither horses, asses, oxen, nor sheep, of which last two species such large herds are in the possession of the most barbarous among the other African tribes. The Portuguese reared them in great numbers round their settlement of Loando, whence individuals occasionally strayed into the bordering districts; but no care having been taken to preserve them, they were soon either killed by the natives, or devoured by wild beasts.

The mineral character of this region seems not without interest, though very little explored. Little scope is indeed afforded for geological observation, the surface being everywhere covered with a deep stratum of clay, from beneath which, even on the highest hills, no trace of rock is discoverable; nor have petrifactions or marine remains been anywhere observed. The metallic products, however, are supposed to be of importance, though neither examined nor turned to account. The indications of iron are very widely diffused; but the Angolans are supplied by European powers with all they require. Copper, to the utmost extent of their wants, is found on the surface of the ground. The Portuguese are said to work goldmines of considerable value in the vicinity of Loando; but the nature and amount of these is studiously conceded, and perhaps exaggerated.

The nations on the coast of Angola seem to rank lower in the scale of improvement than almost any other native African race, except the Hottentots. Their habitations are formed merely of straw, or rather dried leafy plants, cemented by a frame-work of wooden stakes. Containing no aperture for the admission of light, they form not so properly houses, as dark dens for sleeping in, while the tenants spend the day and receive company in an open space in front, covered with a slight roof. The abodes of the grandees are in no respect superior, except that they consist of a number of these hovels grouped together, and inclosed by a hedge or earthen wall. Á village or town consists merely of a cluster of these inclosures, separated by narrow and winding footpaths, and leaving extensive open spaces, which serve for markets or for scenes of recreation. Loango, which seems to be the largest native town, though four leagues in circuit, is not supposed to contain above 15,000 inhabitants. A town in this country at a little distance resembles a wood, from the multitude of trees with which it is filled; but on a near approach its nature is soon detected by the fetid odour exhaling from its precincts.

The people on this coast, like most rude nations in a tropical climate, wear scarcely any clothes, yet studiously load their persons with ornaments. Even the rich wear only a cotton cloth round the middle, hanging down to the knee; but their legs and arms are profusely covered with rings of iron or copper, while strings of beads or coral are fastened round the neck, or hang down the breast. Peculiar pride is felt when they can procure a cast-off European suit, covered with gaudy colours and tarnished embroidery. This they display in triumph for several days, when, becoming tired, they bestow it on one of their inferiors.

The natives here, like other unenlightened tribes, are deeply addicted to superstition; and it is remarked as a singular circumstance, that their idols do not present at all the negro visage, but one more nearly approaching to the European. From the slight description that is given, we should suspect the face to be Copt; nor does it seem improbable that the superstitions of Egypt may have found their way throughout the continent. The priests pretend to bestow rain, favourable winds, and various other blessings, upon those who have propitiated them by liberal gifts. Much use is made in criminal cases, of what our [7:3:153] ancestors called “the judgments of God.” The accused is made to swallow poison, to plunge into water, or to take in his hand burning coals, and, unless he escapes unhurt ʹ from these trials, is at once pronounced guilty. It seems reasonably concluded, that the priests who administer these tests contrive to secure immunity to their favourites, or to those who bestow upon them liberal donations. Μ. Degrandpré considers it as marvellous that such a coincidence should exist between the customs of Africa and those of Europe during the middle ages; but both are derived from the same principle in human nature; and indeed nothing can appear more probable to the uncultivated mind, which has made little observation on the actual course of nature, than the idea that a special interposition will take place in favour of innocence.

The government of these countries seems established oh a species of feudal polity. Each town or village has a sovereign of its own, in whose family the dignity is hereditary; but a number of these princes pay homage and perform certain services to a general head of the nation. Most of the great capitals are situated at some distance in the interior. The succession is transmitted exclusively in the female line. The son of a prince has no dignity above the rest of the nation. The son of a princess alone is a prince by birth, or capable of succeeding to the crown. This is a custom not without example in rude states; and the dissolute manners prevalent and sanctioned in this country seem to afford otherwise no security that the offspring will be of royal blood.

The only employment carried on with any activity throughout these countries seems to be the trade in slaves. The personage next in dignity to the sovereign is the Masook, who conducts all the royal sales, levies the duties, and regulates all the transactions of the private merchants. The engagement entered into by Portugal not to practise this odious traffic to the north of the line does not extend to this coast, where it appears to be carried on still on an immense scale. The slaves imported into Brazil in the year 1828 are said to have amounted to 46,000, who, with the exception of 3000 or 4000 from Mosambique, must all have been drawn from Angola. St Paul de Loando is supposed by Malte-Brun to contain 3000 white inhabitants, besides a much greater number of negroes. An abundant supply of provisions is drawn from the surrounding country, but the water is bad. The Portuguese hold also St Phelipe de Benguela.

Vessels destined for the coast of Angola, after reaching Cape Verde, have two routes by which they may proceed. They may take the short route by steering directly along the African coast, through the Gulf of Benin. If favoured by winds and currents, they may make this voyage very speedily; but in the event of these circumstances proving adverse, they are liable to great detention; and the navigation has even occupied eleven months. The other, called the long route, is performed by proceeding due south, and even south-west, till they pass the 20th degree of latitude, when a favourable wind and tide carries them directly eastward to the African coast. This route necessarily. occupies a considerable time; but it is liable to no vicissitude, and the period may be calculated almost to a day.