that the Portuguese might not know where they had landed. They travelled the whole night and the next day without finding water, so that the second night they were scarcely able to proceed, being obliged to dig up the roots of plants and suck them to moisten their mouths. On the third day they met an old negro, whom they compelled to serve as guide to the lake of Kasansa. Fearing pursuit, they travelled during the heat of the day, which in that climate is almost insupportable. They proceeded so far towards the east, that they reached the mountains, which on that side form the boundary of the kingdom of Congo. They now discovered that they were misled by their negro guides; and had hardly extricated themselves from this difficulty, when they found themselves surrounded by their Portuguese pursuers and a multitude of negroes. Battel came forward from the thicket where he had concealed himself, and declared his resolution to sell his life dearly. The Portuguese officer, engaging that his life should be safe, induced him to surrender. Notwithstanding this guarantee, he narrowly escaped being hanged when carried to St. Paul, where he lay for three months with a heavy collar of iron on his neck and bolts on his legs.

But the necessity which the Portuguese felt of mustering an imposing force of white men, again saved his life. He was sent up to the country of Elambo with 400 Portuguese criminals, condemned to serve for life in the wars with the negroes. In the course of his military service here he received a wound in the leg, in consequence of which he was sent back to the city of St. Paul to procure surgical assistance. His skill as a pilot was again brought into requisition, and he was ordered to conduct a ship to the Bahia das Vaccas or the Bay of Cows, where the Portuguese purchased from the natives the cattle with which they supplied their colonies.

In the second voyage made by Battel to this part of the coast, when the ship came opposite to the river Cova

a considerable army was seen encamped along its banks. A boat was sent ashore for intelligence, and brought back word that these were the Giagas or Gindes, who had marched from Sierra Leone, over-running the country of Congo. The great Giaga, their chief, came to the water side to look at the Portuguese, having never seen white men before. On hearing that they came to trade, he encouraged them to land and to produce their merchandise. As prisoners were numerous in the Giagas' camp, the Portuguese loaded their ship with slaves, which they procured at an advantageous rate; 66 purchasing for a real apiece slaves which, in the city, were worth twelve milreas." They also assisted the Giagas in crossing the river to the country of Benguela, where they intended to continue their devastations. At daybreak the great Giaga beat his gongo, an instrument of war sounding like a bell, and in a loud oration declared that he would destroy the Benguelas. The Portuguese kindly aided him to fulfil his humane intentions. As soon as the Giagas had crossed the river, they commenced an indiscriminate slaughter among the inhabitants. "The prisoners," says Battel,

were brought into the camp alive, and the dead bodies eaten by the Giagas, who are the greatest cannibals in the world, delighting in man's flesh, though they have plenty of cattle." The Portuguese, from conformity of interest or sentiment, conceived a strong attachment to these terrific savages, and carried on a brisk trade with them for five months; but at the end of that time the Giagas marched towards Bamballa in the interior. The Portuguese, finding their friends gone, resolved to follow them, and proceeded two days' march up the country, being guided in their course by the desolation that attended the march of the Giagas. On arriving at the town of a native chieftain, they sent to him a negro slave whom they had purchased of the Giagas, with instructions to say that he was sent to conduct the chieftain to the Giaga camp. But the crafty negro prince penetrated this attempt to ensnare him into captivity, and

he retorted it on its contrivers: for hearing that the Giagas had left the country, he compelled the Portuguese to remain and serve him in his wars; and having conquered his enemies by their assistance, he would not permit them to depart without leaving a hostage for their return.

When it came to be decided by the Portuguese who was to be the devoted person, (for, as they really had no intention of returning, the death of the hostage seemed inevitable,) Battel, as an Englishman, and, consequently, disliked, was at once selected. They left him with a musket and plenty of ammunition, engaging to return in two months with a reinforcement of a hundred men. As soon as this period had expired without the arrival of the Portuguese, Battel was led forth for execution; and though respited by the interference of the prince, yet he was so cruelly treated, and so harassed by the daily expectation of his fate, that he gladly seized an opportunity of escaping to the Giagas' camp. He hoped that they would travel so far to the west as to arrive at the seaside, where he might have the chance of meeting with some ship. With them he journeyed through the mountains of Kashindkabar, which, he says, are prodigiously high, and full of great mines of copper. country round the Gonza he found extremely fruitful, and abounding in wild peacocks: a hundred tame peacocks were there kept at the grave of an old chieftain, and were esteemed sacred, being dedicated to his genius. Having arrived within three days' journey of Massangano, he contrived to escape from the Giagas, after having served with them eighteen months, during which time he was treated with the greatest honour, on account of his service with his musket.

The

On his return to the Portuguese colony, Battel was well received by the new governor, by whom he was promoted to the rank of sergeant. He served two years on the river Coanza, where the Portuguese had opened some silver mines, which were found afterwards to be not worth the trouble of working. At length, in 1602,

in the twelfth year of Battel's captivity, news was brought of the peace ratified between Spain and England. Battel accordingly petitioned for leave to return home: his request was granted at first, but afterwards refused. When the triennial change of governors approached, Battel thought fit to absent himself for some days in the woods, in order that he might be included in the general pardon usually granted by a new governor to all fugitives. He stole from the town with his musket and ammunition and two negro boys, and concealed himself in the woods on the wayside for some days, till he should receive some tidings respecting the arrival of the new governor. He was informed, however, that no change was to take place that year; so that now he had no alternative left but to continue wandering in the woods, or else to return and suffer death, for this was his third time of deserting. He travelled to the lake of Kasansa, "where," he says, "is the greatest store of wild beasts of any place in Angola." Here he lived during six months on the flesh of buffaloes, deer, and other animals. He dried the flesh as he had seen practised by the Giagas, on a hurdle raised three feet from the ground, making a great fire underneath, and placing the flesh on green boughs and leaves, which keep down the smoke and heat. He at length grew weary of his solitary life, and exerted his ingenuity to contrive means of escape. In the lake of Kasansa were many small islands full of trees, called Memba, the wood of which is as soft and as light as cork. Of these trees he built a flat-bottomed boat, fastened together with wooden pegs. Of his blanket he made a sail; and, purchasing a knife from the negroes for his dried flesh, he fashioned three rude oars. Thus equipped, he embarked on the river Bengo, by which the lake discharges itself into the sea. When he reached the bar, the surf had nearly proved fatal to his ill-constructed boat. He escaped this danger, however, got out to sea, and was next day picked up by a pinnace, the master of which proved to be an old friend, with whom he had formerly made a voyage as mate.

Battel was left by him at the port of Loango, where he remained three years; being in great favour with the king, from his expertness in the chase. On his return to England he lived at Leigh in Essex, the place of his birth, and was a near neighbour of Purchas, who published the narrative of his singular adventures.

The Giagas, who are styled by Battel "the greatest cannibals in the world," are described by travellers in such horrid colours, that it is hard to give credit to the fidelity of the picture, notwithstanding the harmony which exists among the principal witnesses. They seem to be a nation living as outlaws, and who have formed into a sort of religious code the commission of all the atrocities most revolting to human nature. As war is their only occupation, they never rear their children, which are in consequence murdered as soon as born. Their tribes are recruited from the youth of the conquered nations, who soon grow enamoured of a wandering life and the indulgence of their fiercest passions.

Zingha, sister to the king of Matamba, a kingdom partially tinged with the character of the Giagas, came to Angola in 1622, to negotiate a treaty between her brother and the Portuguese government She excited admiration, and even astonishment, at the strength of her understanding, and the dignity of her demeanour. While at Angola, she became, apparently at least, a con, vert to Christianity: but, on her return home, the dissensions of her family afforded her an opportunity of ascending the throne of Matamba; and finding that an attachment to her new religion would weaken her influence over her subjects, she embraced the system of the Giagas, whose friendship she cultivated; zealously endeavoured to surpass them in barbarity; imposed on them by a pretence of supernatural powers; and finally succeeded in being elected their queen. At the head of this fierce nation she was, for eight and twenty years, the terror of western Africa; yet, during all this time, she assured the missionaries that she was a Christian at heart, and that she conformed to the Giaga customs