Thomas Turner,1 although he furnished Samuel Purchas with a few notes on Brazil, never placed on record what happened to him whilst in Portuguese Africa. Towres was sent to prison at Rio de Janeiro for the heinous offence of eating meat on a Friday; he attempted an escape, was retaken, and condemned to spend the rest of his captivity in Angola. He died at Masanganu, as we learn from Knivet. Knivet himself has left us an account of his adventures in Angola and Kongo; but this account contains so many incredible statements that it was with some hesitation we admitted it into this volume, as by doing so we might be supposed to vouch for the writer’s veracity.
Andrew Battell, fortunately, has left behind him a fairly circumstantial record of what he experienced in Kongo and Angola. His narrative bears the stamp of truth, and has stood the test of time. It is unique, moreover, as being the earliest record of travels in the interior of this part of Africa; for, apart from a few letters of Jesuit missionaries, the references to Kongo or Angola printed up to Battell’s time, were either confined to the coast, or they were purely historical or descriptive. Neither F. Pigafetta’s famous Relatione del Reame di Congo, “drawn out of the writings and discourses of Duarte Lopez,” and first published at Rome in 1591, nor the almost equally famous Itinerarium of Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, of which an English translation appeared as early as 1598, can be classed among books of travel.2 Samuel Braun, of Basel, who served as barber-surgeon on board Dutch vessels which traded at Luangu and on the Kongo, 1611–13, never left the coast.3 Nor did Pieter van der Broeck, who made three voyages to the Kongo between 1607 and 1612 as supercargo of Dutch vessels, penetrate inland.4 Nay, we are even able to claim on behalf of Battell that he travelled by routes not since trodden by European explorers.
Of Andrew Battell’s history we know nothing, except what may be gathered from his “Adventures,” and an occasional reference to him by his friend, neighbour, and editor, the Rev. Samuel Purchas. He seems to have been a native of Leigh, in Essex, at the present day a mere fishing village by the side of its populous upstart neighbour Southend, but formerly a place of considerable importance. As early as the fifteenth century it could boast of its guild of pilots, working in harmony with a similar guild at Deptford Strond, the men of Leigh taking charge of inward bound ships, whilst Deptford provided pilots to the outward bound. Henry VIII incorporated both guilds as the “Fraternity of the Most Glorious and Indivisible Trinity and of St. Clement;” and in the venerable church of St. Clement, at Leigh, and the surrounding churchyard may still be seen monuments erected in honour of contemporaries of Battell who were Brethren of the Trinity House; among whom are Robert Salmon (born 1567, died 1661) and Robert Chester (died 1632). But there is no tombstone in memory of Andrew Battell; and if a memorial tablet was ever dedicated to him, it must have been removed when the church was renovated in 1837. Nor do the registers of the church afford a clue to Battell’s death, for the earliest of these documents only dates back to the year 1684. At the present time no person of the name of Battell lives at Leigh.
Samuel Purchas was Vicar of Eastwood, a small village two miles to the north of Leigh, from 1604 to 1613. Battell returned to Leigh about 1610, bringing with him a little negro boy, who claimed to have been kept a captive by a gorilla (see p. 55). Purchas had many conferences with Battell, and the information obtained in this manner was incorporated by him in Purchas His Pilgrimage, the first edition of which was published in 1613,5 and will be found in this volume, pp. 71–87. Battell’s papers, however, only reached Purchas after the author’s death, and were first published by him in Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas His Pilgrimes, in 1625.6 There is reason to fear that Purchas did not perform his duties as editor, as such duties are understood at the present day. As an instance, we notice that Battell distinctly told his editor in private conference (see p. 83) that in his day nothing was known about the origin of the Jagas, expressly denying that Duarte Lopez could have any information about it; yet, elsewhere (p. 19), Battell is made responsible for the statement that they came from Sierra Leone. Nor is it likely that Battell ever mentioned a lake Aquelunda (p. 74), for no such lake exists; and Purchas’s authority for its supposed existence is once more Duarte Lopez or Pigafetta.
Moreover, there is some ground for supposing that Purchas abridged portions of the MS.; as, for instance, the account of the overland trading trip to Kongo and Mbata. Perhaps he likewise rearranged parts of his MS., thus confusing the sequence of events, as will be seen when we come to inquire into the chronology of Battell’s travels.
There exists no doubt as to the object with which Abraham Cocke sailed for the Plate River in 1589. Philip of Spain had acceded to the throne of Portugal in 1580, and that prosperous little kingdom thus became involved in the disaster which overtook the Armada, which sailed out of Lisbon in May, 1588. English skippers therefore felt justified in preying upon Portuguese trade in Brazil, and intercepting Spanish vessels on their way home from the Rio de la Plata. We do not think, however, that we do Abraham Cocke an injustice when we assume him to have been influenced in his hazardous enterprise quite as much by the lust of gain as by patriotism.
The determination of the chronology of Battell’s adventures presents some difficulty, as his narrative contains but a single date, namely, that of his departure from England on May 7th, 1589. There are, however, incidental references to events the dates of which are known; and these enable us to trace his movements with a fair amount of confidence, thus:—
1. Having left Plymouth in May, 1589, we suppose Battell to have reached Luandu in June, 1590.
2. His journey up to Masanganu, his detention there for two months, and return to Luandu, where he “lay eight months in a poor estate” (p. 7), would carry us to the end of June, 1591.
3. Battell tells us that the Governor, D. João Furtado de Mendonça, then employed him during two years and a half trading along the coast. This, however, is quite impossible: for Mendonça only assumed office in August, 1594; but, as he is the only Governor of Battell’s day who held office for a longer period than two and a half years—his term of office extending to 1602—and as Battell is not likely to have forgotten the name of an employer who gave him his confidence, we assume that he really did make these trading trips, but at a subsequent period. Purchas may be responsible for this transposition.
4. He made a first attempt to escape (in a Dutch vessel), but was recaptured, and sent to Masanganu, where he spent “six miserable years,” 1591–96.
5. Second attempt to escape, and detention for three months in irons at Luandu, up to June, 1596.
6. Campaign in Lamba and Ngazi (see p. 13, note). After a field service of over three years, Battell was sent back to Luandu, wounded. This would account for his time up to 1598 or 1599.
7. I am inclined to believe that, owing to the confidence inspired by his conduct in the field, the Governor now employed him on the trading ships referred to above.
9. Trading trips to Benguella in 1600 or 1601.
10. Battell joins the Jagas, and spends twenty-one months with them. Incidentally he mentions that the chief, Kafuche, had been defeated by the Portuguese seven years before that time (he was actually defeated in April, 1594).
11. Battell was at Masanganu when João Rodrigues Coutinho was Governor (Coutinho assumed office in 1602).
12. Battell was present at the building of the presidio of Kambambe by Manuel Cerveira Pereira in 1604; and stayed there till 1606, when news was received of the death of Queen Elizabeth, and he was promised his liberty. The Queen died March 24th, 1603.
13. A journey to Mbamba, Kongo, etc., may have taken up six months.
14. The Governor having “denied his word,” and a new Governor being daily expected, Battell secretly left the city, spent six months on the Dande, and was ultimately landed at Luangu. (The new Governor expected was only appointed in August, 1607; and his arrival was actually delayed.)
15. In Luangu, Battell spent