Negro resistance to slavery and the Atlantic
slave trade from Africa to Black America107was a serious threat to the inhabitants of the city since, feeling that events
were likely to be precipitated, he mentioned in a letter the possibility of the
colony as a whole embarking with the forces at its disposal. It is not known
what turn the situation took after this first insurrection, which lasted more
than a year.
In 1574 the Angolese Negroes, who had then taken refuge in the matos
(forests) in the south of the island, in the present Pico de Cabumbê, came out
of their kilombos and fell upon the engenhos, pillaging and burning them. They
next made for the city of Povoaçoa, where they were repulsed by firearms.
However, they occupied the whole island and Negroes employed in the engenhos
joined them. They had their headquarters on the mountain in the centre of the
island, the Pic de Mocambo.
The terrified inhabitants found themselves faced with an enemy enjoying
the protection of a hostile natural environment enabling it to launch surprise
attacks and then withdraw into the forest whose unexplored paths made retreat
easy. The cane fields and the engenhos, which were so vulnerable, had to be
defended, so a long guerra de mato had to be waged, a war of attrition which
adversely affected the prosperity of the island.
For years, the Negroes in revolt held the maquis all around the home-
steads, 'at a distance of three leagues around the town', and from time to time
they attacked a roça (village) and lit a few fires which devastated a district, caused
a disturbance in the town and frightened the colonists still more. When Father
Baltazar Antonio visited the island in 1577, the war was still going on, if it
can be called a war with an elusive enemy moving through the woods and on
the mountain and attacking when and where it willed. He noted that : ' os mais
dos moradores della sao pretos, porque os broncos sao poucos [most of the
residents are black; there are few whites]'. The exodus had already begun.
Father Diogo de Costa, who reached Sao Tomé in June 1584 after a four
months' voyage from Lisbon, sailed with 'ten quintals of powder and harque-
buses to arm some 70 to 80 soldiers '. Little indeed to defend the population
against those Angolese devils!^12 So it is not surprising under the circumstances
that in 1595-96 the Angolese succeeded in taking the city under the leadership
of the legendary chieftain Amador, who assumed the title of King of the Island.
The Portuguese, with their backs against the wall, managed to capture him
by means of a ruse and mete out retribution. The Angolese then left the city
for their kilombos in the forests, whence they continued to threaten the terror-
stricken colonists.
To explain the economic decline which began at the end of the sixteenth
century, it is customary to refer to the sugar-cane disease^13 and the promising
start of Brazilian development. However, there are other internal factors pecu-
liar to the island of Sao Tomé which must not be overlooked, such as the disor-
ganization and permanent political instability.^14 Governors, bishops, commis-