66 
DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. 
were able to converse with some degree of fluency, 
and gratified the king much by the inteUigent an- 
swers which they returned to his inquiries. As 
the termination of the appointed period approach- 
ed, Diego again set sail, in order to fulfil punctu- 
ally his engagement. On arriving at the bar of 
the river of Congo, great was his joy to discover 
his countrymen whom he had left as hostages, and 
who had been treated in the very best manner 
during his absence. He now sailed forward two 
hundred leagues along the coast of Congo, and 
planted two pillars, one at Cape St Augustin, the 
other at a cape, which, from this circumstance, 
was called Cabo do Padrao. On his return from 
this voyage, he visited the sovereign of Congo, 
who was so much gratified by the treatment which 
his subjects had experienced, and by the whole 
conduct of the Portuguese, that he knew not how 
to load him with sufficient honours. In the course 
of the conversations which this commander held, 
the Holy Spirit is said to have begun to operate, 
so that the monarch not only became himself a 
convert to Christianity, but took measures for the 
general conversion of his subjects. He proposed, 
both that priests should be sent from Europe, and 
that several young men of rank in his country 
should go over to be baptized and instructed ; 
who might thus form the most advantageous me- 
dium for diffusing religious knowledge among 
! 
