Scheeps-togt van Pedro da Nhaya na Oost-Indien, met een vloot van 8 scheepen, in het jaar 1505 en vervolg...

1505

Description of a Lake Zaire.

" lake the ancient writers have greatly sought to know,
" because it is the source of the Nile, flowing from
" the same even today is the Zaire, being the renowned
" stream of the Congo.

From which several rivers flow.

" From this lake, which lies closer to the Western than
" the Eastern Ocean, these 6 renowned rivers flow,
" besides several others without names,
" through the Kingdom of Congo, as being Bancane,
" Vamba, Cuylu, Bibi, Maria Maria, and Zan-
" culo, which are all so full of water that they make
" a completely navigable sea, where they come to-
" gether in this lake, besides an island on which more
" than 30,000 people can live, and who are in
" continuous war against those of the mainland. One of the 3 main

The Nile the most important of these three.

" streams taking its beginning from this lake and
" flowing into the sea, though each in a separate
" corner of the world, is the Nile, called Tacuy by
" the Abyssinians. Into this fall again 2 others of
" no less importance, namely the Astabora and Astapus,
" called by Ptolemy, otherwise Tacazy and Abanhi.
" Although this Abanhi in the local language is called
" Father of the Waters, it takes its origin from another large
" lake called Barcena or Coloa, which also

Several monasteries on an island.

" has an island on which several monasteries
" are founded, it is nevertheless not to be compared
" with the one of which we speak here, since this one
" is more than 300 miles in circumference, according
" to reports from the inhabitants of Congo. From this
" aforementioned lake also runs that river which
" embraces Sofala, whose one branch empties into the sea
" at Cabo das Correntes, and the other 60 miles lower
" toward the Cape of Good Hope. This latter branch is much more violent in water

A river 750 miles navigable.

" than the first, and is navigable for 750 miles,
" being enlarged along the way by the rivers Panhames,
" Luamguoa, Arruya, Manjouo, Inadire and Rue-
" nia, which all belong to the Kingdom of Benomotapa,