THE DISCOVERY OF ANGOLA 171 



authority, took possession of tin* Coast, and assumed 

 the title of Lord of Guinea. 



Joao the Second bade his sea captains " erect 

 in prominent places, pillars of the height of two 

 men, bearing the escutcheon of the Royal House 

 of Portugal, and on each side of this crest one 

 inscription in Portuguese and another in Latin, 

 to state which King of Portugal had sent them, 

 and when and by which navigator the pillar had 

 been erected." Each pillar was to be surmounted 

 by a stone cross affixed to it in lead. 



So it was that the Portuguese passed from 

 explorers to conquerors ; and the first of these 

 pillars of discovery and sovereignty, which were 

 later to be placed in many parts of Africa and 

 India, was erected by Diego Cao in 1485, when 

 he entered the River Congo, and negotiated a 

 treaty of commerce with the ruler of the country 

 whose vassal states were Loango and Angola. 



Dapper, the Dutch historian of Africa, who 

 wrote in 1C68, and Cavazzi, the Italian monk, 

 who wrote in 1687, have described this mighty 

 kingdom, whifh comprised much of what is now 

 the French, Portuguese, and Belgian Congo and 

 the province of Angola, ruled by the Mani Congo, 

 who, to quote Dapper, was Lord of the Congo 

 and overlord of Angola and numerous other states, 

 Monarch of the Ambundo, and Lord of the Mighty 

 River Zaire (the Congo). The ruling class was of 

 Bantu stock, who had invaded the country within 

 recent times, from the east, overcoming the 

 original negroid peoples, whom they had conquered 

 and enslaved. 



