The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume XVI, No. 6 [‎352v] (57/232)

630 THE VOYAGES OF DIOGO CAO AND BARTHOLOMEU DIAS, 1482-88.
with the natives. Physically, they resembled the negroes of Guinea,
but the interpreters whom Cao had with him failed to make themselves
understood. The natives came freely on board to barter cloth in ex
change for ivory, and gave their visitors to understand by signs that far
in the interior there lived a powerful king. Cao at once despatched
some Christian negroes to this king as his ambassadors. 1 hey were, as
a matter of course, the bearers of suitable presents,* and were instructed
to assure the king of the friendly intentions of his visitors from Portugal,
and of their desire to trade. The native guides promised to bring
these messengers back within a certain number of days.
Before leaving the Congo for the south, Cao set up tbe first of his
padroes, emphatically called “ the first ” on Canerio’s chart. It stood on
Shark point (and not on Padron point of our chart), and was dedicated
to S. Jorge, a saint for whom King John felt a
“ singular devotion.” We learn from Fathers Ca-
vazzi and Merollaf that the Dutch, when they
occupied the Congo in 1642, wantonly destroyed
this memorial of Portuguese enterprise. Merolla,
who saw the fragments in 1682, was able to trace
the royal arms and an inscription, of which un
fortunately he made no copy. A tall wooden cross
was subsequently erected on the spot where the
pillar stood, and an oratory built near it where
masses might be said.|
Tbe fragments of the padrao were appropriated
jorge. by native priests, who looked upon them as most
potent fetishes. Sr. Sori saw them in 1859; §
Burton visited the locality in 1863 ;|j and Baron Schwerin, guided by
Sr. F. J. de Franga, did so in April, 1887. The baron caused the
bandages in which the fragments were wrapped up to be removed, in
honour of which event the Massebi, a Portuguese gunboat, fired a salute. * * * §
* The damask petticoat which the king wore when he received Euy de Sousa in 1491
is said to have been given him by Cao (Barros, ‘ Asia,’ t. I. i. p. 231).
t Cavazzi, ‘ Istorica descrizione de tre’ regni Congo,’ etc. (Bologna, 1687), p. 319;
Merolla, ‘ Relatione del viaggio nel regno di Congo ’ (Napoli, 1692).
x This plain statement disposes of the absurd story told by the Portuguese in 1859,
according to which the padrao was broken by cannon-balls fired from an English ship’
and that its fragments would have found their way to the British Museum had not the
boat in which they were being conveyed on board capsized. (L. Cordeiro, Boletim
Lisbon Geogr. Soc., 1892, p. 152; and Transactions South African Philos Soc 1898
p. 298.) ’
§ Sr. Sori’s ‘ Descobrimentos dos Portuguezes nos Seculos, xv. e xvi.,’ wo were
unable to obtain, and we take this information, together with our illustration, from
Castilho’s ‘ Os Padroes ’ (Lisbon, 1869), p. 17.
|| Burton, ‘ Two Trips to Gorilla Land’ (London, 1876), i. p. 59 .