108 Or uno D. Lara
sioners of audit and judges had been quarreling about land and possessions
since the time of the last donee, Joäo de Melo (sentenced in 1522). What is
more, from 1567 on, foreign pirates, mainly French, then Dutch, began to
harass (apoquentar) Portuguese shipping. At the end of the century the first
Dutch attacks struck a hard blow at the island's trade. In 1599, a Dutch
squadron attacked and plundered the city of Sao Tomé. In 1641, the Dutch
took possession of the island and destroyed more than sixty engenhos de
acucara Their squadron then ruled the whole of the west coast of Africa, where
the Sao Tomé merchants traded, and made things very difficult for them.
It was in this situation of internal disorder and disturbances due to
foreign competition that the insurrection of the Angolese developed. A number
of documents discovered by chance in the course of research at Torre do Tombo
in the boxes of uncatalogued archives throw light on the tumultuous events
which attented these Negro revolts.
For instance, it would appear that 1616 marked the end of one insurrec-
tion and 1617 the beginning of another. Negro maquis existed at a distance
of three leagues from the city throughout the century. The year 1693 witnessed
a dramatic episode referred to as 'the rape of the Sabine women'. Wives of
moradores were carried off by the Angolese, who attacked the engenhos. A
foray {entrada) organized by the planters to recover their wives was unsuccess-
ful. Most of the women carried off into the woods and taken into the quilombos
were coloured, if the traditional story is to be believed.
The eighteenth century began with a violent uprising of the Negro
maquis in 1709 and it is mentioned in the documents that the Mina Negroes
actively participated. Whenever the privateers attacked the homesteads, the
Negroes took advantage of the situation and attacked too. In 1709, the Angolese
went into action during the invasion of French privateers and unchained slaves
from Mina. Garrison mutinies in 1734 and 1736 also favoured these slave
revolts.
The Angolese, who were still a constant worry to the population, obtained
letters patent giving them a certain autonomy. Their chieftain and his represen-
tatives were respected. When Mateus Sampaio climbed to the top of the Pico
de Säo Tomé in 1880 the island began to be 'rediscovered'. From 1884 on,
the Angolese started abandoning their difficult existence in the kilombos.
Anthropometric studies were carried out in 1950 and 1954 by the Anthropo-
biological Mission of Angola and the Ethno-sociological Brigade of Säo Tomé
respectively.
In 1895, the Angolese formed a community of 2,000 people spread over
the area extending from Vila de Santa Cruz to Vila das Neves on the west coast
of the island.