Barbot here shows a "toll-house to collect the customs,"
and at the southern extremity a star-shaped "Fort Fernand."
This island was the earliest of Portuguese conquests on this part
of the coast. The Conquistador Paulo Dias de Novaes, a grandson
of Bartholomeo Dias, was sent a second time, in A.D. 1575, to
treat with the king of "Dongo," who caused trouble to trade.
Accompanied by 700 Portuguese, he reached the Cuanza River,
coasted north, and entered by the Barra de Corimba, then
accessible to caravels. He landed without opposition amongst a
population already Christianized, and, after occupying for a few
months the island, which then belonged to Congo, he founded,
during the next year, the Villa de Sao Paulo de Loanda on the
mainland.
The importance of the island arose from its being the great money
bank of the natives, who here collected the zimbo, buzio, cowrie,
or cypraea moneta. Ample details concerning this industry are
given by the old writers. The shell was considered superior to
the "impure or Braziles," brought from the opposite Bahia (de
Todos os Santos), though much coarser than the small Indian, and
not better than the large blue Zanzibar.
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