VICTORY AND DISASTER 185 



Assumption Day), Bcnevidcs drove the Duteh out 

 of Benguella, Penda, and Loango, defeated and 

 punished the Congo King and the Angolan Chiefs 

 who had sided with the Duteh, and returned to 

 Brazil in 1650. 



On New Year's Day, 1G66, a great battle 

 occurred between 400 Portuguese and 6000 native 

 auxiliaries, with two cannons, on the one side, and 

 a mighty host of many thousands of the natives 

 on the other. The victory which the Portuguese 

 obtained on this day is commemorated in a 

 painting in the church at Loanda. 



Four years later a disaster almost as great as 

 this victory was sustained by the Portuguese 

 under Joao dc Almeida, who in endeavouring to 

 attack the native chief of Sonho Avas ambushed 

 and his force practically destroyed. 



Sequcira, the hero of the 1666 victory, again 

 came to the assistance of the Portuguese in 1671, 

 and leading an expedition against the capital 

 of the Angolan King, the reputedly impregnable 

 Pedras de Pungo Andongo, captured it and de- 

 stroyed the King of Angola's army. The King 

 in despair threw himself from a high rock, and his 

 family and possessions were definitely forfeited to 

 the Portuguese Crown. 



Between 1671 and the end of the seventeenth 

 century the little colony of Angola suffered from 

 a series of revolts, not only from the natives of 

 Quissama and Ambuilla, but also from among 

 the Portuguese colonial troops, whose indiscipline, 

 shown by the assassination of their splendid 

 leader Luiz de Sequcira during a battle against 



