The Mbundu kingdoms to the south of the Kongo state were nominally subject to the king of Kongo, but had taken the opportunity of the presence of traders from São Tomé to assert their independence. Fear of the Kongo attacks, however, prompted the ruler of Ndongo (called the Ngola) to seek official Portuguese aid by offering to be baptized. A mission was sent in 1520, which included a Kongolese priest, and which remained in the country until 1526. Eventually, in 1560, a Portuguese embassy consisting of two Jesuit priests, two lay brothers and an ambassador, Paulo Dias de Novais, was sent. After making their way to Ndongo, Paulo Dias and the Jesuits were detained as hostages. It became clear that the intention of the Ngola was to use the hostages to obtain as much in the way of presents and trade goods as possible. Paulo Dias was eventually sent back to Portugal in 1565, but Father Gouveia, on whose letters these extracts are based, died a captive in Ndongo in 1575.

The Jesuits were anxious to obtain their own mission field in Africa, and 1560 was the year in which they sent Gonçalo da Silveira to start a mission on the coast of eastern Africa. The experience of Father Gouveia, who was being held hostage, and Silveira, who was murdered in 1561, convinced the Jesuits that conversion could not be achieved without conquest. […]