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They sailed in December, 1490, under Goncalo de Sousa; they were followed by others, and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the country was fairly over- run by the Propaganda. A future page will enter into more details, and show the results of their labours. The original Padrao was destroyed by the Dutch in 1645, an act of barbarism which is justly called "Vandalica facanha."
In 1484, Diego Cam, a knight of the king's household, set up one of these pillars at the mouth of a large river, which he therefore called the Rio do Padrao; it was called by the natives the Zaire, and is now known as the River Congo.
And first, touching the name of this noble and mysterious stream. Diogo Cam, the discoverer in 1485, called it River of Congo, Martin von Behaim Rio de Padrao, and De Barros "Rio Zaire." The Portuguese discoveries utilized by Dapper thus corrupted to the sonorous Zaire, the barbarous Nzadi applied by the natives to the lower bed. The next process was that of finding a meaning.
The Cabeca de Cobra, or "Margate Head," led to Makula, alias Mangal, or Mangue Grande, lately a clump of trees and a point; now the site of English, American, and Dutch factories. Then hard ahead rose Cape Engano, whose "deceit" is a rufous tint, which causes many to mistake it for Cape or Point Padrao. To-morrow, as the dark-green waters tell us, we shall be in the Congo River.
Twenty miles up stream the high-water mark becomes strongly marked, and further on, as will be seen, it shows even better. If Barbot's map have any claim to correctness, the southern shore has changed greatly since A.D. 1700. A straight line from Cape Padrao to Chapel Point, now Shark Point, was more than double the breadth of the embouchure.
All were re-baptized in 1853, but they show no sign of Christianity save crosses, and they are the only prostitutes on the river. According to others, the inscription mentioned only the date, the king, and the captain. The Padrao of the Congo was especially called from the "Lord of Guinea's favourite saint, de Sao Jorge" sit faustum!
The Journal of Captain Scobell, H.M.S. "Thais," remarks: "In crossing this stream I met several floating islands or broken masses from the banks of that noble river." Historic Point Padrao, the "Mouta Seca," or Dry Bush, of the modern Portuguese, showed no signs of hospitality.
I need hardly point out that upon such a mission the buyer would be much more likely to travel 60 miles than 600 in a single month, and I believe that the natives of the lower river never went beyond Nsundi, or 215 indirect miles from Point Padrao. With truly national tenacity and plausibility Perfervidum Ingenium contended that the Congo or Zaire was the Nigerian debouchure.
Into the Congo River. the Factories. trip to Shark's Point. the Padrao and Pinda. The best preparation for a first glance at the Congo River is to do as all do, to study the quaint description which old Purchas borrowed from the "Chronica da Companhia de Jesus em Portugal."
This cape is called Cape Cross, and here he raised a monument called a padrao or padron in memory of his discovery, which is still standing. On his way back, he visited the King of Congo in his capital, and took back with him an ambassador and numerous suite of natives, who were all baptized, and taught the elements of the Christian religion, which they were to propagate on their return to Congo.
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