Njinga, sister of the king of Ndongo in what is now Angola, came to Luanda to make peace with the Portuguese governor, João Correia de Sousa. When she entered, she found him seated in a velvet chair, with nothing for her but a mat on the floor, the place for a subject. Without a word, she signalled to one of her attendants, who knelt on all fours, and she sat on his back, eye to eye with the governor, and negotiated as an equal. The story was told by the Portuguese themselves. The words are imagined.