A Curious and Exact Account of a Voyage to Congo, in the Years 1666-1667 and A Voyage to Congo, and several other countries chiefly in Southern-Africk.

Catholic Capuchin Missionaries in the Congo

(i) A Curious and Exact Account of a Voyage to Congo, in the Years 1666-1667 by R. R. F. F. Michael Angelo of Gattina, and Denis de Carli of Piacenza, Capuchins, and Apostolick Missioners into the said Kingdom of Congo bound together with (ii) A Voyage to Congo, and several other countries chiefly in Southern-Africk. By Father Jerom Merolla da Sorrento, a Capuchin and Apostolick Missioner in the year 1682. Made English from the Italian. Contiguous texts, complete in themselves, extracted from CHURCHILL, AWNSHAM, and JOHN: A Collection of Voyages and Travels (vol 1). Printed, by assignment from Messrs Churchill, for John Walthoe, over-against the Royal-Exchange, in Cornhill and others, London, 1732.

(i) title-page, pages numbered 554-589, [blank] ; (ii) title-page, [blank], pages numbered 593-686 (including 1 page of Congolese words explained), [2, original end-papers].

Michael Angelo of Gattina and Denis de Carli were both Capuchin missionaries (an order of Roman Catholic friars). Angelo died shortly after his arrival in the Congo leaving a manuscript of their experiences in the hands of de Carli who, on his return to Italy, wrote an account of his own experiences in the Congo which he published at Rhegio in 1672 together with Angelo's text.

Father Jerom Merolla da Sorrento was also a Capuchin missionary. An account of his travels was first published in Naples in 1692.

Both voyages entailed sailing to Africa via Brazil, and are rich in descriptions of the journeys taken, local social structures and customs, wildlife and the dangers thereof, relations with indigenous populations and observations on their customs, as well as the missionary activities of the main protagonists. There is also some detail of Merolla's attempts to have the slave trade curbed – at least that trade involving English "hereticks".

Extracted from the 1732 2nd edition of Churchill's Voyages.

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