Cacongo (Viscount of)

This titled nobleman was not born in Madeira, but he regards it as his adopted homeland. He is bound to the island by ties of kinship, settled here many years ago and is one of the wealthiest landowners among us. He follows closely every matter that concerns the prosperity of this archipelago, and his shrewd counsel and authoritative opinion have helped to resolve many problems closely bearing on the economy of the district. The Viscount of Cacongo is a devoted protector of those whom fortune has left unprotected, whom he helps generously, and he never refuses his ample contribution to any work of philanthropy and charity organised among us. Among the services he has rendered to this land, his valuable part in founding the Manicómio Câmara Pestana (Câmara Pestana Asylum) and in building a quay in the parish (freguesia) of Faial, which bears his name, stands out.

The Viscount of Cacongo became a benefactor of his country through the notable services he rendered in Africa, where he lived for many years. On his work in our province of Angola, we shall transcribe the following passages from volume IX of the Encyclopedia Portuguesa Illustrada, by Maximiliano de Lemos:

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The prestige and great ascendancy he won among the local people, through the kind and just way in which he always treated them, is clearly shown by what happened in 1883, when Cacongo and Massabi were occupied.

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It was in that year that Rodrigues Leitão, seeing that France intended to take possession of the whole coast from its colony of Gabon to the northern bank of the Zaire, having already occupied Loango and Ponta Negra despite the protests of the commanders of the Portuguese warships, resolved to oppose this plan.

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To achieve this, he asked the then governor-general of Angola, Councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) Ferreira do Amaral, to order the occupation of Cacongo and Massabi. It was owing to his repeated entreaties that the governor sent the corvette Rainha de Portugal to Luanda to carry it out, under the command of the distinguished officer Guilherme de Brito Capelo, then a lieutenant-commander.

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For the occupation to take place, the Black inhabitants had to request our protectorate, and it was Rodrigues Leitão’s enormous prestige that induced them to do so in the most solemn manner.

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To him, therefore, is owed the occupation of Cacongo and Massabi and, as a consequence, Portugal’s possession of the enclave of Cabinda, north of the Zaire, which the Congress of Berlin granted us because Cacongo was already Portuguese. ‘For this great service to his country he was awarded the title of Viscount of Cacongo, by royal letter (carta régia) of 1 August 1884.

The Viscount of Cacongo was born in 1843 in Ponte da Barca, the son of Manuel António Rodrigues Leitão and Dona Maria Joaquina de Oliveira. He came to Madeira at a very young age with his uncle, João José Rodrigues Leitão, who had a banking house in this city, and it was from here that he set out for West Africa, where he made a great fortune. He died in Funchal on 15 June 1925.