Henrique Mitchell de Paiva Cabral Couceiro (30 December 1861, in Lisbon – 11 February 1944, in Lisbon) was a Portuguese soldier, colonial governor, monarchist politician and counter-revolutionary; he was notable for his role during the colonial occupation of Angola and Mozambique and for his dedication to the Monarchist Cause during the period of the First Portuguese Republic through the founding of the Monarchy of the North.
Early life He was born to José Joaquim de Paiva Cabral Couceiro, a notable engineer in the Portuguese Army and Helena Isabel Teresa Mitchell, an Irish Protestant who converted to Catholicism (after being educated in a convent in France). Following her widowed father's death, the 20-year-old Helena Mitchell worked for a time in Madrid, before taking residence in Portugal as the governess to the Viscount do Torrão's children. It was as the children's teacher that she met the engineer José Couceiro and later married, giving birth to two daughters (Carolina and Conceição) and their only son Henrique.
Helen Mitchell was a militant Catholic, and the young José was raised in a strict authoritarian environment, where he read little of the popular literature, never went to the theater, attended mass daily and similarly read Imitação de Cristo daily in preparation of the "ultimate sacrifice".After returning from a campaign in southern Angola, he had considered joining a religious order; and demonstrated many aspects of puritanical Jansenism, including his indignation with taking communion (Valente, 2010, p. 768) Similarly, his life was quite regimented: he went to sleep at 11 and woke at 6 in the morning, fenced for an hour, went to mass, had two hours training on horseback daily, and regularly shined his boots, brushed his suits and cleaned most of his personal items. Helena Mitchell instilled in her son a religious zeal and military regime; at the age of 11 she gave him a copy of the History of the Crusades, Ivanhoe and he read and re-read a copy of Don Quixote, while fostering ethos of the medieval knight: austerity, valor, abstinence, service to God and to country.Valente, 2010, p. 767
Military academy Destined by family-upbringing to join the military, after concluding his preparatory studies in Lisbon (January 14, 1879), at 17 years of age, he volunteered for service in the 2nd Cavalry's Royal Lancers Regiment, a position that he served in until 1880. At that time he transferred to the 1st Artillery Regiment, and enrolled in the Military Academy at the Escola Politécnica de Lisboa ("Polytechnic University of Lisbon"), where he studied artillery between 1881 and 1884 as an officer candidate.
On June 24, 1881, at 19 years of age, on the eve of being promoted to ensign, he fired five shots from his service revolver wounding Luís Léon de la Torre. The attack, which occurred in the Chiado area of Lisbon, was provoked by a shoulder bump against the defendant which provoked an insulting and offensive profanity to [Couceiro's] dignity. For this simple insult, which in the eyes of Paiva Couceiro was without sufficient reason, he drew his Army revolver and fired five shots (three that actually hit) into the victim. In October, Couceiro responded to the charges of the Council of War to the crimes of attempted murder and the use of a prohibited weapon. In a unanimous decision, the council did not find attempted murder charges had been proven, but yet sentenced him to two years in a military prison, later (on April 7, 1882) to be commuted to six months in addition to time served.Arquivo Histórico Militar, ref AHM/div/3/7/1183, in a document entitled "Nota de assentos que tem no livro de matricula e no registo disciplinar o official abaixo mencionado", Couceiro was jailed attempted murder. On February 22, Paiva Couceiro's father, directly talked to D. Luís and implored that his son be pardoned. Against the wishes of the attorney-general's office, the Council of War, on November 7, 1881, the 1st Council of War of the 1st Military Division commuted this sentence to six months in the same prison, in addition to time served (dated 7 April 1882) He was summarily released from the military prison at the Fort of São Julião da Barra on October 7 and returned to the Military Academy (on October 26, 1882).
The events of his imprisonment did not affect his career; on January 9, 1884, he was promoted to second-lieutenant in artillery and served in the venerable 1st Artillery Regiment in Campolide, Lisbon. While there, he joined a group of young officers who practiced the "military arts" of that period, that included fencing and riding. He was later promoted to second-lieutenant (on January 27, 1886), and finally to captain (on July 4, 1889), wherein he volunteered for a commission in the Portuguese colonies in Africa (a consequence of the Berlin Conference that divided sections of Africa between European states).
Military
Angolan campaign (1889–1891) Paiva Couceiro arrived in Luanda, Angola on September 1, 1889,Valente, 2010, pp. 770, 785 and was immediately appointed commander of the Irregular Cavalry Squadron in the village of Humpata (which was originally created by Artur de Paiva to combat bands of guerrillas along the plain of Moçâmedes). He did not remain at this outpost for long; apparently he was unsatisfied with his subordinates, their methods and inferior level of discipline, but was able to utilize them in a campaign to retrieve missing cattle, instead of hiring local Boer mercenaries, which had been the custom. By January he was in the village of Belmonte, in Bié, on a mission that took him along the Cuando River, to Cuito and then to the Lialui along the Zambezi River (a trek of thousands of kilometers across savannah), in order to negotiate with Lewanika, chief of the Barotze tribe. The growth of the Portuguese occupation force in the Angolan interior was part of the administration's attempted to implement their Pink Map to explore and expand their serfdom over the peoples of the central-African interior. After some resistance, the colonial administration began a military campaign to pacify groups that had resisted initial token gestures of friendship and gifts,This was mostly a symbolic act initiated by colonial European states that attempted to impose their sovereignty over African peoples: they would send emissaries with presents and national flag which, if accepted, would be a sign that the European power had occupied their territory. If they were not accepted, then it was likely that the local residents were eliminated and the land taken by force. a process that Paiva Couceiro participated in energetically. For the chief's recognition of Portuguese sovereignty over his territories, Paiva Couceiro brought with him a colonels tunic and sword, textiles, gold, velvet, boxes of Porto wine and arms, which were to be delivered in 300 crates when the Governor of Angola canceled the project.
This was a consequence of the 1890 British Ultimatum that removed all Portuguese imperial illusions to sovereignty in south-central Africa, and made the trip dangerous and useless. Couceiro himself dropped the use of "Mitchell" from his name out of spite. Meanwhile, he visited the Vila Teixeira da Silva, colonial outpost in Bailundo, site of two Protestant missions (one English, the other American) and where the Portuguese explorer António da Silva Porto lived. Arriving with 40 heavily armed soldiers from Mozambique he constructed an outpost and intimidated the local tribe (fearful of them constructing a fort in the area). After some time, unimpressed with Couceiro's reasons and mindful of the existing hostility between England and Portugal, the chief Dunduma sent Couceiro his own ultimatum. Familiar with the local tribes, the explorer Silva Porto was convinced to defuse the tensions. But his personal failure to resolve the conflict, and suffering from a loss of dignity and honor from the confrontation with the chief, and from a general pessimism associated with the British Ultimatum, caused Silva Porto to wrap himself in a Portuguese flag and attempt suicide by lighting several barrels of explosives.
After Silva Porto's death, Paiva Couceiro and his troops installed themselves briefly in Belmonte, but surrounded by forces of the chief of Bié, he was forced to withdraw to Bailundo. After remaining along the road to Cambane, he received orders from Governor General Guilherme de Brito Capelo to follow the Angolan arm of the Okavango River to Mucusso (a trip of 2,600 km over uncharted lands), determine the navigability of the river and enforce the sovereignty of Portugal (which was under threat from English forces). His caravan began its journey on April 30, 1890, and included an interpreter (Joaquim Guilherme Gonçalves), ten Mozambican soldiers, three quartermasters and 90 attendants, who traveled into areas occupied by 16 chiefs with different cultures and in environmentsUsing his instruments, he was able to record temperatures (maximums and minimums), the topography, type of soils, vegetation, culture, costumes or traditions of the peoples in the areas he covered. (Valente, 2010, p. 772) that had, until then, not been visited by Europeans. There voyage ended on July 30 in the village of the chief of the Mucusso tribe. But, they resolved to continue their exploration to the islands of Gomar, 65 kilometers away, and returned by river until the Fort of Princesa Amélia, in Bié (arriving on October 14 after five months). His expedition earned him the title of Knight of the Order of the Tower and Sword on December 18, 1890.
On returning to Bié, he joined with Artur de Paiva's Irregular Cavalry Squadron in the punitive expedition to arrest chief Dunduma (or N’Dunduma), who had given him the ultimatum six months earlier.The death of Silva Porto became the pretext for the Governor-General, Guilherme de Brito Capelo decision to organize an expedition to obtain revenge and to reestablish the prestige of Portugal. On November 1, 1890, the first battle occurred along the River Cuquema, followed on November 22 by an insurrection in Bié and Ecovongo. On December 4, chief Dunduma is captured and deported to Mozambique, and replaced by chief Kapoco who was loyal to Portugal. Artur Paiva brought with him 300 indigenous tribesmen, 70 Boer mercenaries, Portuguese volunteers and a group of auxiliaries made up of Zulu and Damaran peoples. After 30 days of bombardments and attacks, in which Couceiro noted "Portuguese justice was imposed", the Barotze surrendered their chief. On terminating this operation he was charged with subjugation of the region of Caranganja and to explore the deposits of salt along the eastern margin of the Cuanza River (wherein he produced detailed reports on the 12-day 453-kilometer expedition).
At the end of this campaign he returned to Belmonte, with a fever. Owing to his condition, on February 17, 1891, the Minister of the Navy terminated his commission and ordered him to return to Lisbon. In honor of his service, the people of the region of Belmonte-Cuito-Benguela gave him a diamond-studded replica of his Order of the Tower and Sword knighthood.The replica disappeared when his home was robbed during the revolt of May 14, 1915. Received in Lisbon, he was honored for his military activities and for opening up the Angolan interior, for which he received the title of Grand Officer in the Order of the Tower and Sword (on May 29, 1891).
Mozambique campaign (1891–1896)