Purchas did not perform his duties as editor, as such duties are understood at the present day. As an instance, we notice that Battell distinctly told his editor in private conference (see p. 83) that in his day nothing was known about the origin of the Jagas, expressly denying that Duarte Lopez could have any information about it; yet, elsewhere (p. 19), Battell is made responsible for the statement that they came from Sierra Leone. Nor is it likely that Battell ever mentioned a lake Aquelunda (p. 74), for no such lake exists; and Purchas’s authority for its supposed existence is once more Duarte Lopez or Pigafetta.

Moreover, there is some ground for supposing that Purchas abridged portions of the MS.; as, for instance, the account of the overland trading trip to Kongo and Mbata. Perhaps he likewise rearranged parts of his MS., thus confusing the sequence of events, as will be seen when we come to inquire into the chronology of Battell’s travels.

There exists no doubt as to the object with which Abraham Cocke sailed for the Plate River in 1589. Philip of Spain had acceded to the throne of Portugal in 1580, and that prosperous little kingdom thus became involved in the disaster which overtook the Armada, which sailed out of Lisbon in May, 1588. English skippers therefore felt justified in preying upon Portuguese trade in Brazil, and intercepting Spanish vessels on their way home from the Rio de la Plata. We do not think, however, that we do Abraham Cocke an injustice when we assume him to have been influenced in his hazardous enterprise quite as much by the lust of gain as by patriotism.

The determination of the chronology of Battell’s adventures presents some difficulty, as his narrative contains but a single date, namely, that of his departure from England on May 7th, 1589. There are, however, incidental references to events the dates of which are known; and these enable us to trace his movements with a fair amount of confidence, thus:—

1. Having left Plymouth in May, 1589, we suppose Battell to have reached Luandu in June, 1590.

2. His journey up to Masanganu, his detention there for two months, and return to Luandu, where he “lay eight months in a poor estate” (p. 7), would carry us to the end of June, 1591.

3. Battell tells us that the Governor, D. João Furtado de Mendonça, then employed him during two years and a half trading along the coast. This, however, is quite impossible: for Mendonça only assumed office in August, 1594; but, as he is the only Governor of Battell’s day who held office for a longer period than two and a half years—his term of office extending to 1602—and as Battell is not likely to have forgotten the name of an employer who gave him his confidence, we assume that he really did make these trading trips, but at a subsequent period. Purchas may be responsible for this transposition.

4. He made a first attempt to escape (in a Dutch vessel), but was recaptured, and sent to Masanganu, where he spent “six miserable years,” 1591-96.

5. Second attempt to escape, and detention for three months in irons at Luandu, up to June, 1596.

6. Campaign in Lamba and Ngazi (see p. 13, note). After a field service of over three years, Battell was sent back to Luandu, wounded. This would account for his time up to 1598 or 1599.

7. I am inclined to believe that, owing to the confidence inspired by his conduct in the field, the Governor now employed him on the trading ships referred to above.

9. Trading trips to Benguella in 1600 or 1601.

10. Battell joins the Jagas, and spends twenty-one months with them. Incidentally he mentions that the chief, Kafuche, had been defeated by the Portuguese seven years before that time (he was actually defeated in April, 1594).

11. Battell was at Masanganu when João Rodrigues Coutinho was Governor (Coutinho assumed office in 1602).

12. Battell was present at the building of the presidio of Kambambe by Manuel Cerveira Pereira in 1604; and stayed there till 1606, when news was received of the death of Queen Elizabeth, and he was promised his liberty. The Queen died March 24th, 1603.

13. A journey to Mbamba, Kongo, etc., may have taken up six months.

14. The Governor having “denied his word,” and a new Governor being daily expected, Battell secretly left the city, spent six months on the Dande, and was ultimately landed at Luangu. (The new Governor expected was only appointed in August, 1607; and his arrival was actually delayed.)

15. In Luangu, Battell spent two years and a half—say up to 1610.

Great pains have been taken by me with the maps illustrating this volume; and, if the outcome of my endeavour does not differ in its broad features from the maps furnished by M. d’Anville, in 1732, to Labat’s Relation Historique de l’Éthiopie Occidentale, this should redound to the credit of the great French geographer, but should not be accounted a proof of lack of industry on my own part. Still, my maps exhibit an advance in matters of detail, for our knowledge of the country has increased considerably since the days of d’Anville. They would have proved still more satisfactory had the Portuguese thought it worth while to produce a trustworthy map of a colony of which they had claimed possession during four centuries. It seems almost incredible that even now many of the routes followed by the Conquistadores and missionaries of old cannot be laid down upon a modern map for lack of information. Sonyo, for instance, through which led the high road followed by soldiers, traders, and missionaries going up to San Salvador (the present route leaves the Kongo River at Matadi), is almost a terra incognita. I am almost ashamed to confess that I have even failed to locate the once-famous factory of Mpinda; all I can say is, that it cannot have occupied the site assigned to it on some Portuguese maps.

I need hardly say that modern research lends no support to the extravagant claims of certain geographers as to the knowledge of Inner Africa possessed by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. Pigafetta’s fantastic map, with its elaborate system of lakes and rivers, merely proves the utter incapacity of its author to deal with questions of critical geography. This has long since been recognised. The map which accompanies Isaac Vossius’s De Nili et aliorum Fluminum Origine (Hagae Com., 1659) only shows one lake in Inner Africa, which borders on “Nimeamaie vel Monemugi,” and may without hesitation be identified with our Nyasa: for the Monemugi (Muene Muji) is the chief of the Maravi or Zimbas. The “Iages, gens barbara et inculta,” are placed right in the centre of Africa. The “Fungeni,” which are shown as neighbours of the “Macoco,” ought to have been placed to the west of Abyssinia, as they are the Funj, or Fung, of the Egyptian Sudan. If Ludolfus had carried out his intention of compiling a map of the whole of Africa (in 1681), these extravagancies of early map-makers would have been exposed more fully long since.7

In collecting materials for the maps and for the notes illustrating Battell’s narrative, I felt bound to consult all accessible literary sources dealing with the history and geography of Kongo and Angola. Whilst ploughing my way through this mass of material, it struck me that a concise history of these African countries, from the time of their discovery to the end of the seventeenth century, might form an acceptable appendix to Battell’s Adventures, and at the same time increase the bulk of the volume dedicated to him to