The visit of Governor Adrião Acácio da Silveira Pinto to Dona Ana Joaquina's agricultural property in mid-1850, illustrates the support of the Luanda colonial administration to private investors willing to experiment with commercial agriculture. By then, according to Governor Pinto, 'sugar manufacture was well advanced and Mr Freitas hope[d] to be able to manufacture sugar and alcohol later [that] year'. ${ }^{17}$ On 24 May 1852, Carlos José Caldeira, who was in Luanda as part of a commercial expedition, disclosed that Dona Ana Joaquina had been able, the year before, to obtain samples of sugar cane and aguardente from her Bengo sugar mill (Caldeira, 1853, p. 211). Most likely, the aguardente produced in Dona Ana Joaquina's mills was used to acquire legitimate commodities such as orchid weed, as well as captives illegally exported to Brazil (Alexandre and Dias, 1998, p. 391).  
On 6 April 1859, Dona Ana Joaquina headed to Lisbon aboard the Portuguese vessel D. Pedro, for treatment of an illness, with eight enslaved individuals in her service. ${ }^{18}$ However, she did not make it, dying during the Atlantic route (Freudenthal, 2005, p. 305). Following her death, a long legal dispute took place in Luanda. Dona Ana Joaquina had disinherited her only  
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[^0]:    15 BOA, no. 582, 22 November, 1856, pp. 2-3; BOA, no. 254, 10 August, 1850, p. 3; Caldeira, 1853, p. 211.
16 Almanak statistico da província d'Angola e suas dependências para o anno de 1852 (Luanda: Imprensa do Governo, 1851), p. 11; De Almeida Santos, 1990, p. 146.
17 Boletim Oficial do Governo da Povinncia de Angola (BOA), no. 254, 10 August 1850, pp. 2-4. Brazilians played an important role in the transfer of technology related to the production of sugar in Angola (Freudenthal, 2005, pp. 180, 261).
18 BOA, no. 706, 9 April 1859, p. 11; Lopes Cardoso, 1972, p. 7.