24 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
Series 4, Volume 65, Supplement II 
Figure 17. Depiction of a crocodile from Cardonega’s Histdria Geral das Guerras Angolanas (Cardonega 1940-1942). 
de Montecuccolo (I62I-I678), who lived in Angola from 1654 to 1667, and wrote the Istorica 
Descrizione de’tre’regni Congo, Matamba et Angola (An historieal deseription of three kingdoms; 
Congo, Matamba, and Angola; Cavazzi 1687) that compiled his observations on Angolan nature, 
culture, and society. 
The arrival of the Italian naturalist Domingos (formerly Domenico) Vandelli (1735-1816) in 
Portugal led to the adoption of Linnaean ideas and methods in the Portuguese scientific communi¬ 
ty. It also led to the creation of the Royal Botanical Garden and Cabinet of Natural History of Ajuda 
(1768) in Lisbon and the Botanical Garden and Cabinet of Natural History of the University of 
Coimbra (1772), and thus marked the beginning of modem natural history studies in the country 
and in the territories under its dominion (Ceriaco in press). Following a plan to study the natural 
resources of the Portuguese colonies, Vandelli and the Portuguese Crown promoted four “philo¬ 
sophical” voyages to Portuguese overseas territories - all carried out by Vandelli’s students (Simon 
1983, Ceriaco in press). One of these “philosophical” voyages was that undertaken by Joaquim 
Jose da Silva (birth and death dates unknown) to Angola, where he was appointed as colonial 
secretary in the territory and entmsted to conduct natural history surveys, shipping back all the 
collected natural history specimens to the Ajuda Cabinet in Lisbon. Silva remained in Angola from 
1783 to 1810, but the difficulties experienced during the field surveys and the time-consuming 
work as colonial secretary prevented him from providing Ajuda with the desired specimens and 
collections. Of the few shipments known to have been dispatched to Ajuda, none included 
herpetological specimens (Ceriaco in press). In 1836, Francisco Assis de Carvalho (1798-1851), 
who was at the time director of the National Museum of Lisbon (the successor of the Ajuda Cabi¬ 
net after 1836), published an instmctional booklet aimed at those who could contribute zoological 
specimens from the overseas territories to the museum (Carvalho 1836). It listed animal specimens 
in the collections that could be found in Angola. Of the few animals cited for Angola (seven mam¬ 
mals, seven birds, one fish), no amphibian or reptile species was listed. During all of the first half 
of the nineteenth century, the only information available about the herpetology of the region 
surrounding Angola, in the Zaire Basin between Congo and northern Angola, was the reference to 
three species of reptiles, ''Tryonyx aegyptiacus'' (currently Trionyx triunguis (Forskal, 1775)), 
''Coluber palmarunC (currently Dasypeltis palmarum (Leach, 1818)), and "Coluber SmythiC (cur¬ 
rently Gray a smithii (Leach, 1818)), that were collected and shipped to Europe by James Kingston 
Tuckey’s (1776-1816) expedition to the area in 1816 (Bocage 1895a). 
However, from the 1850s onwards, several dedicated expeditions to Angola were planned, and 
the flux of colonial officers, merchants and other Europeans to the country established an impor¬ 
tant network between the field and natural history museums in many European capitals, especial¬ 
ly Lisbon (Ceriaco in press). The first main expedition to yield important herpetological results was 
that conducted by the Austrian naturalist Friedrich M. J. Welwitsch (1806-1872). Welwitsch was 
appointed by the Portuguese Government to conduct a botanical expedition to Angola to collect 
