Instructions and Travel Diary That Governor Francisco Joze De Lacerda E Almeida Wrote About His Travel to the Center of Africa, Going to the River of Sena, In the Year of 1798. (Instruçoens E Diario De Viagem Q' Fez Ao Centro D'África, O Governador ...

Old map of Angola, Mozambique.

98) describes Almeida's journey into the interior of southern Africa in 1798. Almeida was born in Brazil, studied at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, and rose to the position of royal astronomer. In 1780, he returned to Brazil as part of a commission established to determine the borders between Spanish and Portuguese territories in South America under the recently concluded Treaty of San Ildefonso (1777). He spent ten years in Brazil, where he discovered new species of plants and animals, along with Indian tribes previously unknown to Europeans. Following his return to Portugal, he published a journal describing his travels. In 1797, he began planning a new journey, to the interior of Africa, in hopes of establishing a trade route between Portuguese holdings in Angola and Mozambique. He died in 1798, shortly after arriving in the capital of the Kazembe kingdom (in present-day Zambia), where he planned to begin negotiations with the king on a trade route. The chaplain on the trip took custody of Almeida's diary of the journey, which later was published in Portugal by Almeida's nephew.

Created by Francisco José De Lacerda E Almeida in 1798.

• Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
• Original resource extent: 1 pen-and-ink and watercolor manuscript atlas (34 pages, 23 maps) ; 35 centimeters.
• Original resource at: National Library of Brazil.
• Content in Portuguese.
• Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Map Tags

1798

Angola

Description And Travel

Diaries

Francisco José De Lacerda E Almeida

Map

Mozambique

Zambezi River