Photos by João Sarmento. Written by Marco Ramerini.
The Portuguese Fort São Sebastião, São Tomé, São Tomé e Príncipe. The fort was built in 1575. The fort was occupied by the Dutch on 16 Oct. 1641. The Portuguese recaptured the fort on 15 December 1644.
The Fort São Sebastião is square-shaped with bastions at each corner and now houses the São Tomé and Príncipe National Museum.
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Written by Marco Ramerini, photos and information by James Leese. English text revision by Dietrich Köster.
According to a source dated 1815, this was the situation of the Portuguese forts on the island of Príncipe, in particular in the Bay of San António, where almost all the boats anchored: the two main defenses of the bay were the fortress of Ponta da Mina and the fortress of Santa Ana.
The fortress Ponta da Mina was built on a promontory that forms the southern tip of the port, the importance of this fortification was essential, because nearby were passing and were at anchor the ships arriving in port. From the fortress of Ponta da Mina, which was composed of two batteries (“Bateria Real” and “Bateria do Príncipe”), of which depended the Redoubt “Nazareth”, the low stronghold “Praça Baixa de Nossa Senhora” and the battery “São João”.
The fortress consisted of two batteries, the “Bateria Real”, which was the upper one and the “Bateria do Príncipe” located further down. The “Bateria Real” was situated very high above the harbor about 500 feet high, its shape was semicircular with the convex side facing the sea, it was armed with 16 pieces of bronze artillery of various calibers (from 3 to 14), there was also a small depot of gunpowder and on high ground was the place of residence of the garrison, besides this was a round shaped depot of gunpowder (like a windmill) and of poor construction.
The “Bateria do Príncipe” was west of the “Bateria Real” and was reached by a path that went down in a zig-zag starting from the “Bateria Real”. The “Bateria do Príncipe” was the most important for the defense of the port, because it was only 200 feet above sea level, it was a square shaped and made of stone and lime, 33 palms large and 120 palms long, the height of the inside wall was 9 palms, on the north side were five iron pieces of artillery with a caliber of 6, on the west side were two pieces of the same caliber, and on the south side was a single piece of caliber 4, while in the east was the mountain with the “Bateria Real”.
At 50 toezas east of the “Bateria Real” and on a height of 35 feet above the sea was the redoubt called “Praça Baixa de Nossa Senhora”, this fortification had three pieces of iron artillery of caliber 3 and it was very important for the defense of the port.
On a nearby hill overlooking the fortress of Ponta da Mina on the southwest side (“sudoeste”) was a redoubt called “Nossa Senhora da Nazareth”, who is described as the most interesting military work of the island of Príncipe. It was because of this lack that the French easily conquered the island in 1706 and 1709. The redoubt had two bronze cannons with a caliber of 4 and a moat with a drawbridge.
This redoubt controls all the fortifications of the island: only a shot of espingarda away were the “Bateria Real”, the “Bateria do Príncipe” and the “Praça Baixa de Nossa Senhora”.
A shot of espingarda to the west (“oeste”) from the fortress of Ponta da Mina was another battery called São João, where there were two iron cannons with a caliber of 6.
This description corresponds with what was found by James Leese, who is studying the fortifications of the island. The fort of Ponta da Mina was the main fort of the area and served as the main defense on the sea side, another fort was on the opposite side of the bay at Ponta Santana (Santa Ana). The place was visited by James Leese, and currently there are only visible remains of a stone wall. To confirm the existence of a fort on the Ponta de Santana there is the testimony of some locals that some guns were found on this site.
On the site indicated by the map as Ponta Forte, James Leese has found remains, he presumed to be the premises of a garrison, although there are clear traces that the area was used for the processing of cocoa. During the research in the area of the fort of Ponta da Mina 34 iron guns were found, some of which are ship guns.
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– José Brandão Pereira de Melo “A fortaleza de Santo António da Ponta da Mina na Ilha do Príncipe” 1943
– James Leese “e-mail” to me in 2005 and 2006
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster.
The revolt of Amador, named after the slave who led it, is the most important attempt of rebellion that has ever happened on the island of São Tomé. The revolt of the slaves of the island began on July 9, 1595. The leader of this revolt was from the beginning a black slave named Amador (who was owned by Bernardo Vieira).
The first group of rebels, which amounted to about 200 people attacked the church of Santa Trindade, a parish outside the city, where they killed some whites who were in the church while waiting for the Mass. In the days following this first event the revolt spread and many sugar factories and farms in the areas of Dalengue, Uba Ubundo and Praia Preta were burnt by rioters.
On 11 July 1595 the rebels attacked the city, where in the old market an indecisive battle with the Portuguese took place. The next day they burnt sugar factories and other farms in the areas of Água, Sabão and Dalhmanhe. The number of rebels had continued to increase. The sources report of around 2,000 people in their ranks.
On 14 July there was a great battle near the town that ended with the withdrawal of the rebels, who were defeated and suffered heavy losses. According to sources out of 800 attacking rebels more than 300 were killed. Despite this heavy defeat the rebels did not give up as losers. They divided their forces and attempted to attack the city from several sides. But this attempt also failed prompting an intervention by the Portuguese.
The rebels, however, continued to keep the city under siege. On 23 July the Portuguese attempted a break-out to remove the siege. This action provoked a harsh reaction from the rebels, who tried in the days following the final conquest of the city. The battle that decided the fate of the rebellion began at dawn on 28 July 1595, when 5,000 rebels stormed the city.
The attack lasted about four hours. The attackers, who were in superior numbers compared to the defenders, however, were rejected by the artillery and the trenches that in the meantime the Portuguese had built. According to documents the rebels lost 200 to 500 men in the clash. But the most important thing that they lost was the belief of being able to continue the revolt successfully. The very next day there were the first defections in the ranks of the rebels. In a short time about 4,000 rebels asked for forgiveness, leaving the leader of the revolt Amador only with a few diehards behind. He took refuge in the forest, but was captured in mid-August and then killed. The revolt left the island’s economy devastated. It seems that a total of about 60 sugar factories were destroyed.
Source of this story is the story of the revolt of Amador narrated by Father Manuel de Rosario Pinto in chapter XXV of his “Historia da Ilha de São Tomé” in 1732 and published on pages 304-310 of Appendix II of the book by Robert Garfield “A history of São Tomé Island, 1470-1655. The key to Guinea” San Francisco, 1992.
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster.
Shortly after the Union of Spain and Portugal, Philip II imposed the ban on the Dutch to trade and use the Iberian ports, this act was the result of the Dutch rebellion against the Spanish king, and it suddenly kept the Dutch away from the supply of goods from the rich colonies of these two countries.
Philip II believed by doing so he would give a final and hard blow to the ambitions of the Dutch, but the ban had the opposite effect. In fact the Dutch traders were encouraged to attack the overseas possessions of the Iberian monarchy in order to bypass the blockade imposed on them and with the risky but ambitious goal of controlling the commercial overseas market themselves instead of their enemy Philip II.
Owing to this fact the first Dutch expeditions along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea took place. In 1596 an expedition equipped by the Zeeland commercial house Moucheron attacked, without success, the Castle of São Jorge da Mina on the Gold Coast (now Ghana), being the main base of the Portuguese in the area.
The Dutch traders, who had begun to frequent the area of the Gulf of Guinea, making fierce competition to the Portuguese traders, were able to exclude them from trade in gold, ivory, wax and pepper after about 15 years. Only the slave trade was for the time being under the control of the Portuguese, but only because the Dutch were not interested in this trade at that time.
The Dutch, after the failed attack on the main Portuguese fort of São Jorge da Mina, thought that the island of Príncipe could be a useful base of support in the area, and organized for this purpose an expedition against the island.
Even this expedition was sent by the commercial Zeelandese house Moucheron, which saw the conquest of the island of Príncipe as a springboard for further expansion in the Gulf of Guinea and the next possible conquest of the rich sugar island of São Tomé, which was the main objective. According to these plans a fortress was to be built on the island of Príncipe.
The expedition, which consisted of five ships under the command of Cornelis van Moucheron, arrived on Príncipe island in August 1598 and with a surprise attack the Dutch occupied the island. Once occupied the island, the necessary construction material for the fortress was brought ashore. It had been specially brought along from Holland. Under the command of Cornelis van Moucheron, who was appointed governor of the island, had begun the construction work. Unfortunately for the Dutch, who apparently were rather unfamiliar with the area: The rainy season had begun. This led to unhealthy air. So many men of the expedition became ill and some died of marshfever. The bad weather and attacks from the Portuguese of São Tomé forced the Dutch to abandon the island of Príncipe after about three months of occupation.
Despite this fiasco the following year in October 1599 a new larger expedition arrived this time on the island of São Tomé. The new navy force was composed of 36/40 ships commanded by Pieter van der Does. Partly it was equipped by Moucheron, too.
São Tomé was defended by a militia formed by the inhabitants and slaves and by a small fort, Fort São Sebastião that could not provide adequate protection to the people and the city, it was equipped with little artillery, only six small guns and two mortars, had little gunpowder and lacked a garrison of professionals. According to Portuguese sources the only professional soldier of the entire island was a sergeant-major.
On 18 October 1599, early in the morning, the Dutch fleet came in sight of São Tomé, despite the fact that the Portuguese had known for a few weeks of the arrival of the Dutch fleet it seems that little had been done to improve the island’s defenses. Dutch ships arrived in the port and began to bombard the city. By mid-morning it was evacuated by the Portuguese, who hid inside the island. But a small contingent of about 20 people – including the Portuguese governor Fernando de Meneses – were trapped in the fort resisting the Dutch for another three hours and then surrendered. Finally the Dutch took over the fort.
Meanwhile the Portuguese fled from the city, got reorganized under the command of João Barbosa da Cunha and tried a counterattack on October 20. According to Portuguese sources the attack was done to force the Dutch to withdraw. On the other hand according to Dutch sources the reason for the failure of the Dutch expedition was to be found in the unhealthy climate of São Tomé. In fact also this time the Dutch had chosen the most unfavourable season being the beginning of the rainy season (lasting from October to June) with regular equatorial rains, which caused disease among the Dutch troops. In a few days about 1,200 men died, including the commander of the expedition Pieter van der Does. After two weeks the rest of the expedition abandoned São Tomé, but not before setting fire to the town and having pillaged and destroyed the fort and burned churches and farms of the island.
The Dutch attack was a blow to the island’s economy, because it was preceded by some events that had already undermined the prosperity of the island: in 1574 there was an onslaught of “Angolares”¹ against the north of the island, when several sugar cane plantations and many farms were destroyed. In 1585 a fire devastated the city of São Tomé and in July-August 1595 a major slave revolt occurred, which was led by a certain Amador, who set fire to the island for several weeks.
End of part one. Soon to be followed by a second part.
NOTES: ¹Angolares: Bantu Negro race, coming from Angola, who lived in the forests and mountains in the south of the island. There are several theories about their origin: some say it were black slaves who had escaped from the plantations, but others argued that they were slaves on board a slave ship wrecked off the coast of the island and who had managed to escape from the wreck, then there are those who think that they were the first settlers, who had reached the island before the arrival of the Portuguese.
– Garfield, Robert “A history of São Tomé Island, 1470-1655. The key to Guinea” San Francisco, 1992
– Ratelband, Klaas “Nederlanders in West-Afrika (1600-1650). Angola, Kongo en São Tomé” Portuguese edition: “Os Holandeses no Brasil e na costa africana. Angola, Congo e São Tomé (1600-1650)” Lisboa, 2003.