Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:50:07.066Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Angola's Eastern Hinterlands in the 1750s: A Text Edition and Translation of Manoel Correia Leitão's “Voyage” (1755–1756)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Evà Sebestyén  and
Jan Vansina
Evà Sebestyén
Affiliation:
Eötvös Lorànd Tudomànyegyetem
Jan Vansina
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In 1754 the newly-arrived governor of Angola, António Alvares da Cunha, announced to the court in Lisbon that, inspired by plans his uncle had made in 1725, he had decided to revive the old attempt to find a way overland to link Angola and Mozambique. He was initiating this enterprise by sending, at his own expense, an expedition to the fair of Cassange, the farthest known point eastwards of Luanda, to gather information about the lands between Angola and Mozambique. The governor's envoy was Manoel Correia Leitão— an experienced trader, but one who had never been to Cassange— accompanied by a pilot, António Roiz Grizante, whose task was to fix the latitude of Cassange.

A suspicious reader could conclude with the subsequent governor António de Vasconcelos, that this venture was a slave trading expedition by Leitão to recover some debts. But it was financed by the governor and one suspects that the whole enterprise was in fact a joint business venture, disguised as an exploration, because governors were forbidden to trade. Be that as it may, the reaction from Lisbon to this news was unexpected. The governor was ordered to abandon his plans and to recall his envoys because this enterprise was too “delicate.” Knowledge about it was to be shrouded in absolute secrecy and a report about this was to be treated as top-secret. Whereupon the governor recalled Leitão.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 26 , January 1999 , pp. 299 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1999

References

“Acto de obediencia… Holo-Ria-Quibalacace e Quienda,” Annaes do Cancelho ultramarino (parte não oficial) 1(1858), 523–24Google Scholar
“Auto de undamento…como abaixo se declara,” Annaes do Concelho ultramarino, ser. 2(1860), 133–34Google Scholar
Albuquerque, Luis de, ed. Dicionàrio de História dos Descobrimentos Portugueses (2 vols.: Lisbon, 1994), 463–64Google Scholar
Atkins, Guy, “An Outline of Hungu grammar,” Garcia de Orta 2/2(1954), 145–64Google Scholar
Bandeira, Sà da, Viscount, , and Leal, Fernando da Costa, “Carta de… Angola.” Reproduced in part in Randles, Ancien royaume.Google Scholar
Birmingham, David, Trade and Conflict in Angola: the Mbundu and Their Neighbours Under the Influence of the Portuguese, 1483-1790 (Oxford, 1966)Google Scholar
Cadornega, António de Oliveira de, História geral das guerras angolanas (1680), ed. Delgado, José Matías (Lisbon, 1940)Google Scholar
Campos, Fernando, “A data da morte da Rainha Jinga D. Verónica I” Africa (Sāo Paulo) 4(1981), 79–103; 5(1982), 72-104Google Scholar
Capello, H. and Ivens, R., From Benguella to the Territory of Yacca (London 1882)Google Scholar
Carvalho, Henrique Augusto Dias de, Descripção da viagem à Mussumba do Muatiânvua (Lisbon, 1890)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carvalho, Henrique Augusto Dias de, O Jagado de Cassange na Proinncia de Angola (Lisbon, 1898)Google Scholar
Cavazzi de Montecucculo, J. A., Descrição histórica dos très reinos de Congo, Matamba e Angola. Trans. Leguzzano, Graciano Maria de (Lisbon, 1965).Google Scholar
Ceyssens, J. H. C., Pouvoir et parenté chez les Kongo-Dinga du Zaire (Meppel, 1984)Google Scholar
Chatelain, Heli, Folktales of Angola (Boston, 1894)Google Scholar
Coimbra, Carlos Dias de, ed. Livros de Ofícios para o Reino…, 1726-1801 (Luanda, 1959)Google Scholar
Corrêa, Elias Alexandre da Silva, História de Angola, ed. Múrias, Manuel (Lisbon, 1937)Google Scholar
Couto, Carlos, Os capitães-mores em Angola no século XVIII (Luanda, 1972)Google Scholar
Dias, Gastão Sousa, ed. “Uma viagem a Cassange nos meados do século XVIII” Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa 56(1938), 3–30Google Scholar
“Documentos relativos à viagem de Angola para rios de Senna,” Annaes maritimos e coloniaes 3, 5/6(1843), 162–90, 223–40, 278–97, 423–39, 493–506, 538–52Google Scholar
Furtado, L. C. C. Pinheiro, Carta geographica da Costa occidental de Africa… em 1790 (Paris 1825). Reproduction in Cadomega 3, dates from 1786.Google Scholar
Heintze, Beatrix, ed. Fontes para a historia de Angola do sàculo XVII: transcrição dos documentos em colaboração com Maria Adelia de Carvalho Mendes (Wiesbaden, 1985)Google Scholar
Heintze, Beatrix, Studien zur Geschichte Angolas im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert: Ein Lesebuch (Köln, 1996)Google Scholar
Hilton, Anne, The Kingdom of Kongo (Oxford, 1985)Google Scholar
Hoover, Jeffrey J. “The Seduction of Ruwej: Reconstructing Ruund History” (PhD, Yale, 1978)Google Scholar
Kiepert, Richard, Otto Schütt's Aufnahmen und Erkundigungen im Südwestlichen Becken des Congo 1878-1879 Blatt 1. See Schüft.Google Scholar
Koelle, Sigismund Wilhelm, Poliglotta Africana, ed. Hair, P. E. H. (Graz, 1963)Google Scholar
Lacroix, W. G. L., Het binnenland van Afrika in de zestiende eeuw (Delft, 1992)Google Scholar
Langworthy, Harry W., “Chewa or Malawi Political Organization in the Precolonial Era” in The Early History of Malawi, ed. Pachai, Briglal (Evanston, 1972), 104–22Google Scholar
“Ligação entre Angola e Moçambique,” Arquivo das colonias 1(1917), 40–43, 49–53Google Scholar
Livingstone, David, ed. Schapera, Isaac, African Journal, 1853-1856 (London, 1963)Google Scholar
Maesen, Albert “Les Holo du Kwango,” Reflets du Monde 9(1956), 3–16Google Scholar
Magalhães, Afonso Alexandre de, “Origem dos Basongos,” Mensario Administrativo 8(1948), 33–38Google Scholar
Milheiros, Màrio, Ofícios para o Reino, 3e volume. Códices 11 e 12, 1824-1835 (Luanda, 1971)Google Scholar
Miller, Joseph C., Kings and Kinsmen: Early Mbundu States in Angola (Oxford, 1976)Google Scholar
Miller, Joseph C., “Kings, Lists, and History in Kasanje,” HA 6(1979), 51–96Google Scholar
Miller, Joseph C., Way of Death: Merchant Capitalism and the Angolan Slave Trade, 1730-1830 (Madison, 1988)Google Scholar
Mossamedes, Barão de, “De S. Ex.a para o Potentado Iaga Cassangi, com a Embaixada que lheu enviou,” Arquivos de Angola 1/2(1936), 567–70Google Scholar
Mota, Avelino Teixeira da, A Cartografia antiga da Africa central e a travessia entre Angola e Moçambique, 1500-1860 (Lourenço Marques, 1964)Google Scholar
Neves, António Rodrigues, Memoria da expediçào à Cassange… de 1850 (Lisbon, 1854)Google Scholar
Plancquaert, M., Les Yaka: Essai d'histoire (Tervuren, 1971)Google Scholar
La pratique missionaire… 1747, ed. Nothomb, Jacques (Louvain, 1831) [published anonymously; author was Bernardino d'Asti]Google Scholar
Randles, W. G. L., L'ancien royaume du Congo des origines à la fin du XIXe siècle (Paris, 1968)Google Scholar
Redinha, José, Distribuição étnica da Província de Angola (Luanda, 1969)Google Scholar
Saccardo, Graziano, Congo e Angola (3 vols.: Venezia-Mestre, 1982–1983)Google Scholar
Salazar, Sigurd von Willer, “Bondos e Bângalas: Subsídios etnogràficos sobre as duas tribos” (Dissertação para o acto de licenciatura pelo I.S.C.S.P.U., n.d.)Google Scholar
Saldanha da Gaina, António de, Memoria sobre as colonias de Portugal… 1814 (Paris, 1839)Google Scholar
Schütt, Otto H.Reisen im südwestlichen Becken des Congo (Berlin, 1881)Google Scholar
Thissen, P. See Plancquaert, map #4.Google Scholar
Thornton, John K., The Kingdom of Kongo: Civil War and Transition, 1641-1718 (Madison, 1983)Google Scholar
Van Roy, Hubert, Les Byambvu du Moyen-Kwango: histoire du royaume luwa-yaka (Berlin, 1988)Google Scholar
Vansina, Jan, Geschiedenis van de Kuba van ongeveer 1500 tot 1904 (Tervuren, 1963)Google Scholar
Vellut, Jean-Luc, “Lunda et la frontière luso-africaine,” Etudes d'histoire africaine 3(1972), 61–166Google Scholar
Vellut, Jean-Luc, “Relations internationales du Moyen-Kwango et de l'Angola dans la deuxième moitié du XVIIIe s.” Etudes d'histoire africaine 1(1970), 75–135Google Scholar
Venâncio, José Carlos, “A economia de Luanda e hinterland no século XVIII: um estudio de etnologia hístorica” (PhD, Universität Mainz, 1983)Google Scholar