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Demography and History in the Kingdom of Kongo, 1550–1750

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

John Thornton
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Extract

It has long been generally supposed that the kingdom of Kongo suffered a severe decline in population due to the civil wars of the seventeenth century and the slave trade. These figures are derived from literary estimates made by travellers and missionaries of the time. New estimates of population can be obtained by combining the statistics of baptisms left by the missionaries who lived in Kongo with a reconstruction of the age structure of the kingdom. Use of these estimates permits more exact calculations for the period 1650–1700, which suggest a much lower population level—about 500,000—than the commonly accepted figure of two million. This discovery suggests that the postulated population disaster did not occur; instead, it seems that levels of population remained relatively stable, growing slightly throughout the period in question. In addition to revising estimates of population, it has been possible to use the available statistics to throw light on the age structure and vital rates that prevailed in Kongo in the late seventeenth century, as well as to examine certain factors that have impinged on population.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , October 1977 , pp. 507 - 530
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

1 Among the writers who have suggested a long decline in the population of Kongo are: Vansina, Jan, Kingdoms of the Savanna, (Madison, 1966), 190–1Google Scholar; Randies, W. G. L., L'ancien royaume de Congo, (Paris, 1968), 146–8Google Scholar; Jadin, Louis, ‘Aperçu de la situation du Congo en 1760 d'après la relation de Rosario dal Parco …’, BIHBR, xxxv (1963), 355–8Google Scholar; Toso, Carlo, ‘Relazioni inedite di P. Cherubino Cassinis da Savona sul “Regnodel Congo e sue Missioni”‘, L'Italia Francescana, l (1974), 102–3Google Scholar; Oliver, Roland and Fage, J. D., A Short History of Africa, (Baltimore, 1962), 125Google Scholar; Stevenson, Robert, Population and Political Organization in Tropical Africa, (New York, 1968), 182, 186.Google Scholar

2 Lopes, Duarte to Sixtus, v (24 Nov. 1588), MMA, iii, 358Google Scholar; APF: SRC I, fol. 9v ‘Come io Fr Giuseppe Ma da Busseto … lo stato delli Missioni Congo …’ (c. 1675) and II, fol. 153v, Manuel de Saa to Propaganda Fide (2 Nov. 1687).

3 AS Parma, Raccolta di Manoscritti, viaggi, busta 49, Angelo Maria da Polinago to Dorotea Sofia di Neuburg (16 Aug. 1733), 3; Toso, , ‘Relazioni inedite’, 102Google Scholar; Jadin, , ‘Aperçu’, 355.Google Scholar

4 Randies has followed this course most literally (L'ancien royaume, 146–8).Google Scholar

5 Jadin and Toso, students of da Savona's writing, have tended to accept his figure, while Georges Balandier (tr. Weaver, H.), Daily Life in the Kingdom of the Kongo, (New York, 1968), 139Google Scholar, rejects it and puts the level at two million, as apparently does Teobaldo Filesi (Toso, , ‘Relazioni inedite’, 103, n. 50).Google Scholar

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8 Cf. Goubert, Pierre, Beauvais et Beauvaisis, (Paris, 1960)Google Scholar; Duby, and Wallon, , HistoireGoogle Scholar; Wrigley, E. A., Population and History (New York and Toronto, 1969)Google Scholar; Laslett, Peter, The World We Have Lost, (London, 1965).Google Scholar

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12 da Montecuccolo, Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi, Istorica Descrizione de’ tre regni, Congo, Matamba ed Angola, (Bologna, 1687), Lib V, para. 58Google Scholar. The only now extant by-name baptismal register of a Kongo population is that compiled by non-Capuchin French missionaries in a colony of people from Sonyo in the hinterland of Kakongo in 1774–5: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Fundo Borgia Latino, 766, fols. 337–54.

13 BN Lisbon, Fundo Geral E 2–26, ‘Missione in Pratica dei Pp. Cappucini ne Regni di Congo, Angola, e adiacenti brevemente esposta’ (c. 1750), i, 3, fol. 5v.Google Scholar

14 BE, MS. Italicus 1380, alpha N.9.7, da Modena, Giuseppe Monari, ‘Viaggio al Congo’ (c. 1723), 203, fol. 106.Google Scholar

15 Caltanisetta, da, Diaire, 194.Google Scholar

16 APF: SRC, Africa I, fol. 271, da Pavia, Francesco, ‘Numero delle Anime Battezzate …’ (1701)Google Scholar; Cavazzi, Istorica Descrizione, iii, paras. 118–34Google Scholar; iv, paras. 5–151; v, paras. 43–69; vii, paras. 9–15 and 167–78.

17 On the fate of the archive and a search to find it, see Jadin, Louis, ‘Recherches dans les archives et bibliothèques d'ltalie et du Portugal sur L'ancien Congo’, Bulletin des Séances, Académie royale des sciences coloniales, ii, 6 (1956), 953–5Google Scholar. Some documents from this archive have survived transcribed in APF: see the dossier on the Capuchin-secular clergy dispute in Jadin, L., ‘Le clergé séculier et les Capuchins du Congo et d'Angola aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles’, BIHBR, xxxvi (1964), 320–97, passim.Google Scholar

18 AS Modena, Cancelleria Ducale, Documenti di Stati e Città, busta 105, ‘Missioni del Congo’ (c. 1655).

19 APC Toscana, da Montesarchio, Girolamo, ‘Viaggio del Gongho, cio è Relazione scritta da un nostro Missionario Capuccino…’ (1669), 29Google Scholar; da Montesarchio, to da Sorrento, Bonaventura, 20 Mar. 1650, MMA, x, 486Google Scholar. A translation of Montesarchio's ‘Viaggio’ has been published, but was not available to me. See de Bouveignes, O. and J. Cuvelier, Jérбme de Montesarchio, Apôtre du Vieux Congo (Namur, n.d. (1951).Google Scholar

20 da Sorrento, Girolamo Merolla, Breve e succinta Relatione del Viaggio nel Congo, (Napoli, 1692), 135.Google Scholar

21 da Lucca, Lorenzo's letters translated and edited by Cuvelier, Jean as Relations sur le Congo du P. Laurent de Lucques, (Mémoire de L'lnstitut Royal Colonial Beige, xxxii, 2: Brussels, 1954), 167.Google Scholar

22 da Dicomano, Raimondo, ‘Informaçãao do Reino de Congo’ (1798) in António Brásio, ‘Informação do Reino de Congo de P. Raimondo da Dicomano, 1791–95’, Studia, xxxiv (1972), 24.Google Scholar

23 Ibid. 25.

24 Anonymous (ed. Brásio, António), História do Reino de Congo, (c. 1630) (Lisbon, 1969), 20.Google Scholar

25 APF: SOCG, 249, fols. 336–44, Buenaventura de Corella, ‘Relasion de los ritos gentilicos …’ (c. 1650); Cavazzi, , Istoriea Descrizione, I, paras. 174–204.Google Scholar

26 Francesco da Roma, Giovanni (ed. and tr. Bontinck, F.), Brève Relation de la Fondation de la Mission … (1648) (Paris and Louvain, 1964), 30Google Scholar; Cuvelier, (ed.), Relations, 167.Google Scholar

27 BN Lisbon, Fundo Geral, Vermelho 269, Cordoso, Matteus, Doutrina Christaˇa, (Lisbon, 1624) fols. 3 and 4Google Scholar; BN Centrale, Roma, Fundo Minori 1896, MS. Varia 274 (van Gheel, Joris), ‘Vocabularium Latinum, Hispanicum et Congoese’ (c. 1651), fol. 93v, ‘sacerdos. tis. nganganquissi’.Google Scholar

28 APC Toscana, da Montesarchio, Viaggio, ii; Merolla, , Relatione, 151.Google Scholar

29 Cavazzi, , Istorica Descrizione, v, paras. 23–7.Google Scholar

30 See Chaunu, Pierre, ‘Sur la fin des sorciers au XVIIe siècle’, Annales: Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations, xxiv, 4 (1969)Google Scholar, for a survey of literature on European sorcery and the attitude of the Church in this period.

31 APC Toscana, da Montesarchio, , ‘Viaggio’, 25.Google Scholar

32 APF: SOCG, 249, fols. 336–36v, Corella, de, ‘Relasion’Google Scholar; Cavazzi, , Istorica Descrizione, 1, para. 198Google Scholar; APC Toscana, Montesarchio, da, ‘Viaggio’, 125–35Google Scholar. An excellent modern description is in Van Wing, Joseph, Études Bakongo (second ed., Brussels, 1959), 420–89.Google Scholar

33 See note 32.

34 APC Toscana, da Montesarchio, , ‘Viaggio’, 77.Google Scholar

35 Cavazzi Jstorica Descrizione, i, para. 198.Google Scholar

36 Merolla, , Relatione, 143–4.Google Scholar

37 AS Modena, Cancelleria Ducale, Documenti di Stati e Città, busta 105, ‘Vita, grandezze e parte della Missione del Congo’ (c. 1655); Dicomano, da, ‘Informação’ 24–5.Google Scholar

38 Roma, da (ed. Bontinck), Brève Relation, 119.Google Scholar

39 Caltanisetta, da, Diaire, 79.Google Scholar

40 It should be noted that the overwhelming cause of conflict between missionaries and common people concerned missionary interference with the kimpasi, including the death of Joris van Gheel in 1651: see Hildebrand, Georges, Le Martyr Georges de Gheel, (Antwerp, 1940), 336–40.Google Scholar

41 A typical routine: cf. Zucchelli, , Relazione, 218.Google Scholar

42 For an excellent history of the Kongo Church see Jadin, , ‘Clergé séculier’ (cited in n. 17), 185–271.Google Scholar

43 On early secular churches, see a map of the churches in Kongo, c. 1630, in APF: SOCG, 99, fols. 29–30v. On the staffing of the secular organization in mid-century, see da Soveral, Francisco, ‘De statu omnium ecclesiarum Episcopatus Congensis et Angolensis …’ (22 Sept. 1640), MMA, viii, 442–3Google Scholar. These often helped the first Capuchins when they arrived in 1645–8 (Cavazzi, , Istorica Descrizione, iv, passimGoogle Scholar). The Capuchins began their own schools shortly after: Memorial of da Roma, Giovanni Francesco (1 Feb. 1655), MMA, xi, 429–31.Google Scholar

44 Typical functions for Sonyo: see BE, MS. Italicus 1380, alpha N.9.7, Monari, , ‘Viaggio’, 208–12, fols. 108V–10 and 223–4, fols. 116–16vGoogle Scholar; Zucchelli, , Relazione, 285Google Scholar. For the eastern regions, see APC Toscana, Montesarchio, da, ‘Viaggio’, 28–9Google Scholar. During the later seventeenth century the number of posts constantly manned declined from the mid-century level, and missionary activity had two centres: in the west at Sonyo, and in the east, first at S30 Salvador, but later, after that city's destruction in 1678, at Nkusu. The Capuchins built up their best organizations at these two centres; in fact at Sonyo the Capuchin organization replaced the secular one altogether. In the east, secular and Capuchin organizations co-existed, sometimes in conflict, but each baptizing, teaching and travelling. APF: SRC II, fol. 152–5, Manuel de Saa (2 Nov. 1687); Account of Luis de Mendoza (1722) in Jadin, , ‘Clergé’ séculier’ (cited in n. 17), 371–3Google Scholar; Caltanisetta, da, 19, 53–4, 65, 77–Google Scholar

45 Almost all accounts of Kongo of any length have much to say about these constant companions of the missionaries.

46 Zucchelli, , Relazione, 218, 300.Google Scholar

47 Libome: 13, Tubii: 37, Bemba: 137, Pambala: 223 (ibid., 300). See Map 2 on p. 521, below.

48 Cuvelier, (ed.), Relations, 88–99.Google Scholar

49 da Troyna, Francesco to Clement, xi (Aug. 1714)Google Scholar in Jadin, Louis, ‘Le Congo et la secte des antoniens …’, BIHBR, xxxiii (1961), 587–8Google Scholar. The process of inferring from Francesco da Troyna's data that he baptized 699 children under two illustrates some of the problems encountered in using this type of source material. Da Troyna did not give annual statistics for each site, but only the total number of baptisms performed at each site, and the number of visits to that site for his entire stay in Sonyo. In order to break this number down I have had to reconstruct his annual itinerary, which is possible using his notes, those of da Lucca (Cuvelier, (ed.), Relations, 178Google Scholar) and the normal procedures and routes as outlined in Zucchelli, , Relazione, 218Google Scholar. The result: 1705: Libome, Tubii, Bemba and Pambala only, as da Troyna arrived only in August and had little time before the rains. 1706: Libome, Tubii, Bemba, Pambala, Kiova, then south through Ntari, Banza (in S. Pambala), Mukoshi, Funta, Museto, returning to the hospice through Kiondo, Mukoshi and Kitombe. 1707: Masongo, Kitombe, Nzala licombe (in Kaenza), Kaenza, Kiondo, Funta, Lusambo (in Mbamba ya Sonyo), Missanui, Ntari, Kiova, Savanna, returning to the hospice through Banza, Mukoshi and Kitombe. Political trouble prevented any work in 1708. (See Map 2 for the approximate location of these places.) Thus da Troyna visited Libome, Tubii, Bemba and Pambala in 1705, the children baptized being all under two, and again in 1706, these children being under one. In all he performed 1,099 baptisms in these locations, and if we take the 400 baptisms that Zucchelli performed in the same area in 1701 as being typical of the size of the under one age group, then we can subtract this from da Troyna's total to get an approximation of those under two: thus 1,099 Xc. 400 = c. 700 children under two. I have grouped these four districts together as they were small and people from one district might well be baptized in another.

50 Zucchelli, , Relazione, 300 (Kiova: 280, Savanna: 172)Google Scholar; Troyna, da to Clement, XI, in Jadin, ‘Le Congo et la secte’, 588Google Scholar. I have used the same procedure as above to disaggregate.

51 Cole, Ansley and Demeny, Paul, Regional Model Life Tables and Stable Populations, (Princeton, 1966)Google Scholar. The introduction provides details on how the tables were generated as well as information on their use.

52 That is, 400÷699 and 452÷1730: see above.

53 I have combined the male and female rates in Coale, and Demeny, , Tables, 468 and 564Google Scholar. While the authors recommend using the ‘West’ model fertility as a first test, and Brass, William, The Demography of Tropical Africa (Princeton, 1968), 113CrossRefGoogle Scholar, recommends the ‘North’ model for Africa, I found that the ‘East’ table fits the two ratios I have far more closely than any other model. I have used linear interpolation, as Coale and Demeny feel it is permissible (Tables, 41).

54 Proportion under one interpolated from combined sexes at the appropriate level. This means that the total population was (100÷35) X 400 = 11,400.

55 APF: SRC Africa, iii, fol. 127, ‘Nota delle Missione che jo fr Antonio Maria da Fiorenza … nel Contea di Sogno … 1704’.

56 Zucchelli, , Relazione, 300. 174 X (100÷3.5) = 4,971Google Scholar. See Burton, Richard, Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo (London, 1876), 203.Google Scholar

57 Cuvelier, (ed.), Relations, 88–91Google Scholar. For a detailed description of the daily travels of the missionary within the Mbanza area, including an hourly timetable, BE, MS. Italicus, 1380, alpha N.9.7, Monari, Viaggio, 186–8, fols. 97v-98v.

58 Lucca, da to Clement, xi (1711) in Jadin, ‘Le Congo et la secte’, 557.Google Scholar

59 BE, MS. Italicus 1380, alpha N.9.7, Monari, , ‘Viaggio’, 393, fol. 201.Google Scholar

60 Zucchelli, , Relazioni, 144.Google Scholar

61 da Gallo, Bernardo, ‘Conto delle villicazione …’ (1710)Google Scholar, translated in Jadin, , ‘Le Congo et la secte’, 466Google Scholar. Da Gallo does not tell us the period of time to which this mortality refers. I have assumed he meant one year, and not his total time there.

62 APF: SRC Africa, III, fol. 127; BE, MS. Italicus 1380, alpha N.9.7, Monari, , ‘Viaggio’, 186–8, fols. 97v-98v.Google Scholar

63 On the high birth rate, see Zucchelli, , Relazione, 50Google Scholar, and da Piacenza, Dionigio Carli, ‘Relation nouvelle et curieuse d'un voyage au Congo …’, in Jean-Baptiste Labat, Relation historique de L'Éthiopie Occidentale (Paris, 1732), v, 132Google Scholar. For the birthrate in the rural areas of their Venetian homeland, see Beltrami, Daniele, Storia della popolazione di Venezia dalla fine del secolo XVI alia caduta della Rcpubblica (Padua, 1954), 158.Google Scholar

64 Reinhard, Marcel, Armengaud, André and Dupaquier, Jacques, Histoire générate de la population mondiale (second ed., Paris, 1968), 146–73.Google Scholar

65 Branco, Garcia Mendes Castello, ‘Relação tocante ao Reyno de Congo’ (16 Jan. 1620), MMA, vi, 440.Google Scholar

66 For Sonyo, see Ouman, Pieter Zengers, ‘Brève relation concernant L'état…’ (1643)Google Scholar in Jadin, Louis, ‘Rivalités luso-néerlandaises au Soyo, Congo …’ BIHBR, xxxvii (1966), 240Google Scholar; Zucchelli, , Relazione, 199Google Scholar; AS Parma, Raccolta di Manoscritti, viaggi, busta 49, da Polinago to di Neuburg, 2 May 1733, 1. For the rest of Kongo (two harvests), see Roma, da (ed. Bontinck), Brhèe relation, 88–9Google Scholar; da Piacenza, Carli, ‘Relation curieuse’, 160Google Scholar; APF: SRC Africa, III, fol. 268, da Pavia, Francesco (1701).Google Scholar

67 Ouman, in Jadin, , ‘Rivalités’, 240.Google Scholar

68 ‘Attestation du P. Bonaventura d'Alessano et ses compagnons, 13 juin 1645’, in da Roma (ed. Bontinck, ), Brève Relation, 141Google Scholar; d'Alessano, Bonaventura to Mgr. Ingoli, 4 June 1645, MMA, ix, 272.Google Scholar

69 That is, (100÷13.7) X 2000 = 14,600.

70 BE, MS. Italicus 1380, alpha N.9.7, Monari, , ‘Viaggio’, 147, fol. 78.Google Scholar

71 Merolla, , Relatione, 121–7.Google Scholar

72 AS Parma, Raccolta di MSS., viaggi, busta 49, da Polinago to di Neuburg, 2 Mar. 1733, 2.

73 da Ceriana, Bonaventura to Fide, Propaganda (19 May 1794)Google Scholar in Toso, Carlo, ‘Relazioni inedite di Bonaventura da Ceriana sulla missione “ne' regni di Congo Angola e luoghi adiacenti”‘, Laurentianum, xiv, 2 (1973), 327–8Google Scholar. (100÷3.5) x 1000 = 28,571 and 3,374 X (100÷11.2) = 30,125. The last priest to visit Sonyo before him was Stefano Maria da Castelleto: APF: SRC Africa V, fol. 383v, 6 May 1777.

74 30,000 people lived in an area of some 500 sq. km. I have calculated surface areas throughout this research by tracing the outlines of the areas in question from the map of Kongo in da Lucca (ed. Cuvelier, ), Relations, facing p. 52Google Scholar (drawn by Cuvelier to a scale of 1:20,000,000) on to graph paper divided into 5x5 mm squares (1 square representing 36 sq. km). While I have used Cuvelier's map for features and scale, I have redrawn many political boundaries, in accordance with my own research.

75 Kiova: 280 X (100÷3.5) = 8,000; area: 1,600 sq. km.

Savanna: 172 X (100÷3.5) = 4,914; area: 1,000 sq. km.

76 The above reconstruction of population distribution in southern Sonyo is based on the baptismal notes of Francesco da Troyna. In order to use these notes, we must ascertain the actual number of baptisms performed in a visit, and the age-group of those baptized.

Da Troyna visited Kiondo, Funta and Museto twice (in 1706 and 1707) and left only a single, lump-sum figure for each area. Since, however, Lorenzo da Lucca visited the same areas in 1705, we may infer that during each of his visits da Troyna was baptizing children under one. Assuming that the number of children under one was reasonably constant from year to year, we can halve da Troyna's figure to obtain the number of children under one in each year. Da Troyna only visited Masongo, Kitombe and Kaenza once, and the only problem presented by this set of baptismal figures is the age-group of the children. Since Masongo and Kitombe were within a day's journey of the hospice (cf. da Lucca, ed. Cuvelier, , Relations, 165Google Scholar), they were probably baptized in 1706 by one of the priests of the hospice, and da Troyna's baptisms of 1707 represent children under one. Kaenza, further to the south, was out of range of the hospice, but as da Lucca visited Kaenza in 1705, da Troyna's figure for 1707 may be taken to represent children under two. According to the appropriate life-table, it may be assumed that this age-group constituted 6.1 per cent of the total population. The other baptismal figures shown below represent the population under one, and are therefore taken to be 3.5 per cent of the total in each area (cf. p. 517 above).

77 Zucchelli, , Relazione, 218–32, passim.Google Scholar

78 AS Parma, Raccolta di MSS., viaggi, busta 49, da Polinago to di Neuburg, 6 Aug. ‘733. 2. Another letter in this folder, dated 2 Mar. 1733, indicates that the last priest visited Sonyo three years before; hence we may calculate as follows:

79 André Cordeiro, ‘Relation de la révolte de Dom AfFonso …’ (24 Jan. 1622), in Jadin, Louis, ‘Relations sur le Congo et L'Angola tirées des archives de la Compagnie de Jésus’ BIHBR, xxxix (1968), 365.Google Scholar

80 BN Madrid, MS. 3533, de Teruel, Antonio, ‘Descripcion Narrativa de la Mission Serafica … en el Reyno de Congo’ (c. 1664), 78–9Google Scholar; APC Toscana, Montesarchio, da, ‘Viaggio’, 26–35.Google Scholar

81 Jorge Vaz, (i Aug. 1548), MMA, i, 184Google Scholar; Dias, Jacome (1 Aug. 1548), MMA, i, 182.Google Scholar

82 Area: 300 sq. km.

83 Pigafetta, Filippo, Relatione del Reame di Congo et delle circonvicine Contrade, (Rome, 1591). 39–40.Google Scholar

84 Veriera, Antonio (witness), ‘Interrogatoria de Statu Regni Congoensis’ (1595), MMA, iii, 502Google Scholar; de Cacegas, Luis and de Sousa, Luís, História de São Domingos, (Lisbon, 1662) in MMA, v, 610.Google Scholar

85 Cacegas, de and Sousa, de, História, MMA, v, 608–10Google Scholar; Cordoso, Matteus, ‘Relaçāo da 2a ida de P Matteus Cordoso …’ (1625), MMA, vii, 377–80.Google Scholar

86 Cavazzi, , Istorica Descrizione, ii, para. 83Google Scholar. The area of densest settlement was the royal district, which as Pigafetta explained extended a radius of twenty Italian miles (c. 28 km) from the centre of the city (Relatione, 39).Google Scholar

87 Mendes, Pedro (2 Jan. 1710)Google Scholar in Manso, Pavia, Historia do Reino do Congo (Documentos) Lisbon, 1877), 351Google Scholar; APF: SOCG 495, fol. 168, Paolo da Varazze to Propaganda Fide (1682).

88 APC Toscana, Montesarchio, da, ‘Viaggio’, 153–4.Google Scholar

89 Cavazzi, , htorica Descrizione, I, para. 154Google Scholar; APF: SOCG 495, fol. 168; Mendes, Pedro, in Manso, Pavia, Hisódria, 351.Google Scholar

90 da Gallo, Bernardo, ‘Relazione delL' ultime guerre civili…’ (12 Dec. 1710)Google Scholar, in Filesi, Teobaldo, ‘Nazionalismo e religione nel Congo alL'inizio del 1700’, Africa (Rome), ix, 2 (1971), 475Google Scholar; da Dicomano, Raimondo, ‘Informação’, 41Google Scholar; APF: SRC Africa, VI, fol. 370, da Bene, Pietro Paulo, ‘Relazione dello stato in che attualmente …’ (20 Aug. 1820).Google Scholar

91 APC Toscana, Montesarchio, da, ‘Viaggio’, 33–4.Google Scholar

92 BN Centrale, Roma, Fundo Generale 1896, MS. Varia 274, ‘Vocabularium’, fols. 138–38v; Cavazzi, , Istorica Descrizione, v, para. 45Google Scholar. Hildebrand, (Le Martyr, 300–7)Google Scholar has worked out his itinerary on the map.

93 Cavazzi, , Istorica Descrizione, vii, para. 178Google Scholar. The last priest to visit the area was Girolamo da Montesarchio in 1668: APC Toscana, Montesarchio, da, ‘Viaggio’, 153–4Google Scholar, and APF: SOCG, 422, fol. 425, Alvaro VIII to Propaganda Fide (20 June 1668); the area was 4,250 sq. km.

94 Caltanisetta, da, Diaire, 45–57Google Scholar. Population: 929 X (100÷3.5) = 26,570; area: 6,700 sq. km.

95 Carli da Piacenza, Dionigio, ‘Relation curieuse’, as cited in n. 63, and idem, ii Moro trasportado nelL'inclita Citta di Venetia, (Bassano, 1687), passim.Google Scholar

96 Lucca, da (ed. Cuvelier), Relations, 207–13.Google Scholar

97 Letter of Diego de Santissimo Santo, 14 Dec. 1584, MMA, iii, 304Google Scholar; area: 45 leagues (225 km) X 5 km for areas visited along the road.

98 Pero Tavares to Jesuit Superior (1 Mar. 1635), in Jadin, Louis, ‘Pero Tavares, missionaire jésuite, ses travaux apostoliques au Congo …’ BIHBR, xxxvii (1967), 374.Google Scholar

99 da Massafra, Francesco to Monari, Giuseppe (26 Feb. 1723)Google Scholar, in Jadin, , ‘Clergé séculier’, 351Google Scholar. 2177 baptized (total 2,183 ‘ess 6 baptisms done in Mbanza Mbamba) under one year old = total population of 62,600.

100 por 1650, figures for some 9,400 sq. km; for 1700, figures for 33,400 sq. km.

101 Estimates have been obtained by multiplying areas by an assumed uniform density known either by baptismal statistics or by interpolating between densities known at other dates. Hence, for Sonyo I have built up the 1700 estimate from the statistics given in notes 69, 75 and 76. Some regions have no statistics, and I have assumed densities from adjacent areas, thus I have used a density of 4 per sq. km for Pambala and Mukoshi and 3.5 per sq. km for Ntari, Missanui and Mbamba ya Sonyo. To obtain the 1650 figure I have reduced the 1700 figure for all areas but Mbanza Sonyo by 20 per cent, a growth rate assumed from the observed rate in Matari. For Mbanza Sonyo I have used the known figure of 14,600 for 1650 (from n. 69). For Mbamba, I have used a density of 3.1 per sq. km for 1650 and 3.5 per sq. km for 1700 based on interpolation between the densities of 1548, 1635 and 1722 (see nn. 97–9). For the centre and east I have used a density of 3.5 per sq. km for 1650 (see nn. 91 and 92) and X 4.0 per sq. km for 1700 (n. 94) for all areas except a 1,500 sq. km region which comprised Sao Salvador. For 1650 I have estimated the Sao Salvador region as containing 60,000 people (n. 86), while for 1700 only 6,000 (that is 1,500 sq. km X 4.0 per sq. km).

102 I have laid these areas out on the map primarily according to the agricultural regions as described in Diniz, A. Castanho, As Characteristicas Mesologicas de Angola (Nova Lisboa, 1973), 16–77Google Scholar. Sonyo is roughly equal to region 2, the centre and east to regions 4, 5 and 6, and Mbamba to regions 3 and 7–8. I have used the 1000 mm rainfall line to separate Mbamba from the centre and east.

103 Boone, Olga, Carte ethnique de la Répvblique du Zaïre, (Tervuren, 1973), 50Google Scholar, citing unpublished ethnic census of 1948; Morgado, Nuno Alves, Aspectos da EvoliifSo Demografica da Populaçpão da Antiga Provincia do Congo (Lisbon, 1959), 34.Google Scholar

104 Boone, , Carte, 50Google Scholar; Morgado, , Aspectos, 62.Google Scholar

105 For example, Affonso I to João III (18 Oct. 1526), MMA, i, 460.Google Scholar

106 Birmingham, David, Trade and Conflict in Angola, (London, 1966), 26–8.Google Scholar

107 Ibid., 131–2.

108 Merolla, , Relatione, 209.Google Scholar

109 Birmingham, , Trade and Conflict, 136–41Google Scholar; Dapper, Olifert (tr. von Moers, Jacob), Umbeständliche und Eigentliche Beschreibung von Africa (Amsterdam, 1670), 556 (reprinted, New York, 1967)Google Scholar; Capelle, F. to de Nassau, J. M. (Mar. 1642) in Jadin, ‘Rivalités’, 226.Google Scholar

110 APC: SOCG, 250, fols. 26–26V, ‘Nelli schiavi che si cõprano e vendero …’ (c. 1653).

111 APC Toscana, da Firenze, Filippo Bernardi, ‘Ragguagli del Congo, cioè Viaggi fatti da’ Missionarij … a’ Regni del Congo …’ (1711), 620.Google Scholar

112 Zucchelli, , Relazione, 337–8Google Scholar; da Lucca, (ed. Cuvelier, ), Relations, 212, 279.Google Scholar

113 Zucchelli, , Relazione, 144, 197–9.Google Scholar

114 Locusts came in 1642, 1643, 1649, 1652, 1653, 1654, 1658, 1662 and 1664: Cavazzi, , Istorica Descrizione, 11, para, no, v, para. 23Google Scholar; APC Toscana, Montesarchio, da, ‘Viaggio’, 11Google Scholar; da Cortona, Serafino to Fide, Propaganda, 12 May 1653, MMA, xi, 306.Google Scholar

115 APC Toscana, Montesarchio, da, ‘Viaggio’, 83–4Google Scholar. Note that the plague struck Nsundi but not Mbata, just a few dozen kilometers to the south.

116 Droughts are recorded for the following years: 1638–9 (F. Capelle to J. M. de Nassau, in Jadin, , ‘Rivalités’, 216–7Google Scholar); 663 (Cavazzi, , Istorica Descrizione, v, para. 56)Google Scholar; 1673–4 (APF: SOCG 457, fol. 371, Andrea da Buti to Propaganda Fide); 1683 (Merolla, , Relatione, 112Google Scholar); 1691–2 (APC Toscana, Bernardi, , ‘Ragguagli’, 623Google Scholar); 1702 (da Lucca, ed. Cuvelier, , Relations, 42)Google Scholar 11717 (Biblioteca Públics de Evora, Códice CXX/2–3, 28, da Torano, Giuseppe to Governor of Angola, 8 Jan. 1717).Google Scholar

117 The total population for 1706 was approximately 3700 people, according to the calculation made in note 76 above. The population under 14, according to the table, made up 32 per cent of the total, and 32 per cent of 3,700 is roughly 1,200.

118 APC Toscana, Bernardi, , ‘Ragguagli’, 623.Google Scholar