DISTURBANCES IN CONGO. 
narch to such indignation, that he withdrew the 
revenue which had been allotted to the prince, and 
even took measures against his life. Some of Al- 
fonso's friends, however, endeavoured to make him 
sensible of the injustice of these suspicions, and 
even proposed a plan for putting them to the test. 
A person was employed to wait secretly upon one 
of the principal wives, carrying a fetiche wrapt up 
in a cloth. This, he pretended, was sent by Don 
Alfonso, to protect her and her companions from 
the punishment of death, meditated by the king, 
on account of their nocturnal flights to Cabo del 
Reyno. The princess indignantly rejected the 
present, declaring her total ignorance of the fact 
alluded to ; and having afterwards seen the king, 
satisfied him that his information, as to these 
nightly excursions, was entirely unfounded. The 
violence of his resentment was thus appeased ; 
but a coolness continued till his death, which hap- 
pened soon after. Panso Aquitimo then took 
advantage of being on the spot, and of the fa- 
vour of his heathen countrymen, to seize the va- 
cant throne, without regard to the rights of his 
elder brother. Alfonso, on receiving the intelH- 
gence, repaired to a post near the capital, where 
he was only able to collect thirty-six Christians ; 
while the cries of his brother's troops, heard from 
a prodigious distance, announced the numerous 
army by whom he was supported. Alfonso, how* 
