Lived nineteenth century

Amaro José

Lived nineteenth century

Pedro Joâo Baptista and Amaro José were mestizo (part African and part European) frontiersmen from Angola. In the early nineteenth century they were commissioned by Portugal to find a route across the African continent. Not only did they successfully complete this mission, which Portuguese explorers had attempted at least twice before, but Baptista kept a journal that was the only source of information about central Africa for many years.

Expedition leaders

When Baptista and José were appointed to head the expedition in 1802, Portugal had settlements on both coasts of Africa—Angola on the west and Mozambique on the east. The Portuguese had been in Africa since the sixteenth century, and they had long dreamed of signing trade agreements with the central African chiefs and establishing a...