Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps
- Preface
- Portuguese possessions in Morocco
- The north-east Atlantic
- Senegambia region
- Upper Guinea
- Sierra Leone region
- Gulf of Guinea
- Kongo and Angola
- Introduction
- 1 The Portuguese in Morocco
- 2 The early voyages to west africa
- 3 The Atlantic Islands
- 4 The Upper Guinea Coast and Sierra Leone
- 5 Elmina and Benin
- 6 Discovery of the Kingdom of Kongo
- 7 Angola, Paulo Dias and the founding of Luanda
- 8 The slave trade
- 9 Conflict in the kingdom of Kongo in the 1560s
- 10 Christianity in the Kongo
- 11 The Angolan wars
- 12 People and places
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
12 - People and places
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps
- Preface
- Portuguese possessions in Morocco
- The north-east Atlantic
- Senegambia region
- Upper Guinea
- Sierra Leone region
- Gulf of Guinea
- Kongo and Angola
- Introduction
- 1 The Portuguese in Morocco
- 2 The early voyages to west africa
- 3 The Atlantic Islands
- 4 The Upper Guinea Coast and Sierra Leone
- 5 Elmina and Benin
- 6 Discovery of the Kingdom of Kongo
- 7 Angola, Paulo Dias and the founding of Luanda
- 8 The slave trade
- 9 Conflict in the kingdom of Kongo in the 1560s
- 10 Christianity in the Kongo
- 11 The Angolan wars
- 12 People and places
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
THE TOWN OF CACHEU IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Manuel Álvares SJ, Etiópia Menor e Descrição Geografica da Provincia da Serra Leoa, A Teixeira da Mota and Luís de Matos eds., chapter 4 (unpublished).
The manuscript is located in the Biblioteca da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa.
Translation by P. E. H. Hair; revised by Malyn Newitt.
This description of Cacheu, probably written sometime around 1615, provides a vivid picture of an Afro-Portuguese trading town, a number of which existed along the coast of upper Guinea. Such towns were gateways to the interior and for the Africans a port through which to access the Atlantic world. Cacheu was situated on the left bank of the São Domingos River (later called the Cacheu River) in the Papel state of Cacanda. The name first occurs early in the sixteenth century, but the Portuguese town appears only to have come into existence after about 1560. The settlement was raided by John Hawkins in 1567 and, as French interlopers became increasingly active along the coast, the Portuguese sought permission to fortify their town. Once inside their fortifications, the Portuguese began to assert their independence from the Papel and it was this that led to the attack on the settlement in 1590, which is described in such triumphal terms by Álvares.
Early in the seventeenth century, it was made the ‘capital’ of the Guinea settlements. The Portuguese population was largely made up of people of mixed race and settlers who came over from Cape Verde, along with their clients and slaves. […]
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- Information
- The Portuguese in West Africa, 1415–1670A Documentary History, pp. 205 - 230Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010