Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Battel, Andrew
BATTEL, ANDREW (fl. 1589–1614), traveller, was born in Essex about 1565. On 20 April 1589 he sailed with Captain Abraham Cocke for Rio de la Plata. After a troublesome voyage they reached the mouth of the river in the autumn, but were forced by hunger and adverse winds to return along the coast of Brazil. Landing at the island of St. Sebastian (the site of the present Rio Janeiro), the crew was separated, and Battel with five companions was carried off by the Indians to the river Janeiro and delivered to the Portuguese. After four months' imprisonment he was transported to St. Paul-de-Loanda, the Portuguese settlement in Angola. He was imprisoned in that town for four months, and then sent 150 miles up the river Quansa and confined in a fort, till, through the death of the Portuguese pilot, he was employed to take the governor's pinnace down to Loanda. After an illness of eight months Battel was sent by the governor of Loanda, Hurtado de Mendoça, to Zaire, on the Congo, in a pinnace to collect ivory, wheat, and palm-tree oil. He was successful, and continued to trade for the Portuguese at Longo, but, attempting to escape on a Dutch vessel, he was thrown into prison for two months and then banished to Massangano in the interior, where he spent six years. After another abortive flight and consequent imprisonment, he was enrolled in a mixed force of Portuguese and natives and sent on an expedition to Elambo. In this campaign, which was successful, Battel received a severe wound in the leg. Afterwards he was employed in trading expeditions along the coast, and on one occasion he was left by the Portuguese as a hostage for two months with the Gagas. He was equipped with a musket, and by his shooting gained the favour of this tribe. He gives a full and striking account of the strange customs and superstitions which he observed among them, particularly of the human sacrifices of which he was an eye-witness. He managed to return to the Portuguese at Massangano, and for his services was made a sergeant. Hearing from some Jesuits that by the accession of James I peace was restored between England and Spain, he obtained the governor's consent to return to England. The promise was retracted, and Battel fled into the woods, resolved to wait for a new governor. At length he fell in with a pinnace belonging to an old messmate; he embarked, and was put down at the port of Longo. Here, by virtue of his shooting, he gained the goodwill of the king. At this point the narrative ends with a full description of the different regions of Longo, their natural features, and the customs of the negroes. After three years spent in this district Battel returned to England, having been absent eighteen years, and settled at Leigh in Essex. His veracity has been questioned, but his narratives have been partly confirmed by the similar account of the Congo district given by the traveller Lopez in 1591. Purchas refers to Battel as his neighbour, and testifies to his intelligence and honesty. He speaks of him as still living in his ‘Pilgrimage,’ the first edition of which was published in 1614.
[The account orally delivered by Battel to Purchas is contained in Purchas's ‘Pilgrimes,’ pt. ii. bk. vii. ch. iii., and reprinted in Pinkerton's ‘Voyages and Travels,’ vol. xvi. The title is ‘The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battel, of Leigh, in Essex, sent by the Portuguese prisoner to Angola, who lived there and in the adjoining regions near eighteen years.’ In the seventh book of his ‘Pilgrimage,’ Purchas frequently cites the authority of Battel for statements concerning Africa.]