176 THROUGH ANGOLA 



Their discovery of Brazil and the Indies so 

 absorbed the Portuguese, that neither of their 

 great navigators, Bartholomew Diaz nor Vasco da 

 Gama, visited any ports in the Congo or Angola 

 in their voyage round the African coasts. These 

 colonies were left to lesser expeditions from 

 Portugal ; to Catholic missions and the merchants 

 who had long plied a trade between San Thome 

 and the Congo ports, and turned their attention 

 to the Angolan port of Loanda at the beginning 

 of the sixteenth century. The King of the Congo, 

 who was overlord of Angola, jealous of the growing- 

 power of his vassal, tried hard to prevent this 

 trade but the Angolan Chief replied by sending 

 his ambassador to the Portuguese to beg for 

 protection and the teaching of the Christian faith. 



Catherine of Portugal sent out Paulo Diaz 

 with three ships to Angola, where they arrived 

 in 1560, after visiting San Thome to fetch a 

 Catholic mission from that island. After a friendly 

 reception from the people, Diaz with twenty of 

 his men went inland from the mouth of the River 

 Coanza, where they had landed, to the native 

 capital, bidding his ship's company sail aw^ay if 

 they failed to return in a brief space. The 

 Angolan chief tried to detain the Portuguese, but 

 a native rebellion helped him to return to his ship 

 and to Lisbon. 



Diaz returned to Angola in 1575 with f350 men, 

 and landed on the island of Loanda. welcomed 

 by its King and people and some forty Portuguese 

 who had emigrated from the Congo to Loanda, 

 where they built a church. After living in amity 



