038840engo 2

Portuguese research on the slave trade 255

for purposes of appraisal, that during the slave-trade period the clandestine
shipments may have totalled roughly 50 per cent of the legal traffic entered in
the customs records (plus the slaves taken by other nations engaged in the
African slave trade) it is probable that a further 1,974,019 adults were shipped,
giving a total of at least 5,822,060 slaves (adults and children).
Up until 1578, the slaves taken from Angola (Luanda and Benguela
and to a certain extent from Loango and other river areas) were assembled on
the island of Sao Tomé from where they were exported to Brazil and the
Spanish West Indies. Subsequently, the slaves were shipped directly from Pinda,
Luanda and Benguela to Central and South America (particularly Brazil).
Spanish domination (after 1580)—particularly in the seventeenth century—
resulted in the shipments of slaves to the River Plate (Montevideo and Buenos
Aires) being stepped up in view of the better prices and the fact that the tran-
sactions were settled in silver coinage (pataca and peso), whereas at most other
destinations they were bartered for goods (cloth, beads, ornaments, iron bars,
guns, spirits, etc.).
In all the sectors (besides omitting the ethnic origins of the slaves) the
records generally fail to indicate embarkation and destination ports. This
makes it difficult to arrive at specific figures. In other instances, there is con-
siderable confusion over the names of the ports of disembarkation. Alongside
these irregularities, we must also consider the fact that vessels often made out
their papers for a certain port and then diverted their consignments to other
ports where the prices were higher. These diversions were justified by 'protests'
stating that they were forced to put into port.
Other questions which need to be clarified, particularly in relation to
Angola, are : the organization of the markets where slaves and produce were
sold, which date from the early seventeenth century at least; and the activities
of the Pumbeiros, Aviados, Fuñantes and others involved in slave trading in the
backlands, who sometimes acted as allies and other times as enemies of the
captains and majors. The same applies to the role of these agents in setting off"
tribal wars with the aim of buying up prisoners and shipping them into slavery.
These aspects are dealt with in Angola—daEscravaturaaoTrabalhoLivre{\911).
Table 1 gives a clearer picture of the development of the slave trade in
these three sectors.

Archive materials

Public archives

Generally speaking, the public archives in Lisbon are badly organized and in
some cases to not have the catalogues and index-cards which would facilitate
research work. In some archives, the documentation is arranged somewhat