Dr. Lacerda Had A Strong Desire To Open Up
Communication With Angola, Which Would Have Been Of Importance Then,
As
Affording a speedier mode of communication with Portugal
than by the way of the Cape; but since the opening of
The overland passage
to India, a quicker transit is effected from Eastern Africa to Lisbon
by way of the Red Sea. Besides Lacerda, Cazembe was visited by Pereira,
who gave a glowing account of that chief's power, which none of my inquiries
have confirmed. The people of Matiamvo stated to me that Cazembe
was a vassal of their chief: and, from all the native visitors
whom I have seen, he appears to be exactly like Shinte and Katema,
only a little more powerful. The term "Emperor", which has been
applied to him, seems totally inappropriate. The statement of Pereira that
twenty negroes were slaughtered in a day, was not confirmed by any one else,
though numbers may have been killed on some particular occasion
during the time of his visit, for we find throughout all the country
north of 20 Deg., which I consider to be real negro, the custom of
slaughtering victims to accompany the departed soul of a chief,
and human sacrifices are occasionally offered, and certain parts of the bodies
are used as charms. It is on account of the existence of such rites,
with the similarity of the language, and the fact that the names of rivers
are repeated again and again from north to south through all that region,
that I consider them to have been originally one family.
The last expedition to Cazembe was somewhat of the same nature as the others,
and failed in establishing a commerce, because the people of Cazembe,
who had come to Tete to invite the Portuguese to visit them, had not been
allowed to trade with whom they might.
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