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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Voyage to Abyssinia, by Jerome Lobo, Edited
+by Henry Morley, Translated by Samuel Johnson
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: A Voyage to Abyssinia
+
+
+Author: Jerome Lobo
+
+Editor: Henry Morley
+
+Release Date: July 4, 2007  [eBook #1436]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VOYAGE TO ABYSSINIA***
+
+
+
+
+This etext was prepared from the 1887 Cassell and Company edition by Les
+Bowler, St. Ives, Dorset.
+
+
+
+
+
+A VOYAGE TO ABYSSINIA.
+
+
+BY
+FATHER JEROME LOBO.
+
+_Translated from the French_
+by
+SAMUEL JOHNSON.
+
+CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:
+_LONDON_, _PARIS_, _NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_.
+1887.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Jeronimo Lobo was born in Lisbon in the year 1593.  He entered the Order
+of the Jesuits at the age of sixteen.  After passing through the studies
+by which Jesuits were trained for missionary work, which included special
+attention to the arts of speaking and writing, Father Lobo was sent as a
+missionary to India at the age of twenty-eight, in the year 1621.  He
+reached Goa, as his book tells, in 1622, and was in 1624, at the age of
+thirty-one, told off as one of the missionaries to be employed in the
+conversion of the Abyssinians.  They were to be converted, from a form of
+Christianity peculiar to themselves, to orthodox Catholicism.  The
+Abyssinian Emperor Segued was protector of the enterprise, of which we
+have here the story told.
+
+Father Lobo was nine years in Abyssinia, from the age of thirty-one to
+the age of forty, and this was the adventurous time of his life.  The
+death of the Emperor Segued put an end to the protection that had given
+the devoted missionaries, in the midst of dangers, a precarious hold upon
+their work.  When he and his comrades fell into the hands of the Turks at
+Massowah, his vigour of body and mind, his readiness of resource, and his
+fidelity, marked him out as the one to be sent to the headquarters in
+India to secure the payment of a ransom for his companions.  He obtained
+the ransom, and desired also to obtain from the Portuguese Viceroy in
+India armed force to maintain the missionaries in the position they had
+so far won.  But the Civil power was deaf to his pleading.  He removed
+the appeal to Lisbon, and after narrowly escaping on the way from a
+shipwreck, and after having been captured by pirates, he reached Lisbon,
+and sought still to obtain means of overawing the force hostile to the
+work of the Jesuits in Abyssinia.  The Princess Margaret gave friendly
+hearing, but sent him on to persuade, if he could, the King of Spain; and
+failing at Madrid, he went to Rome and tried the Pope.  He was chosen to
+go to the Pope, said the Patriarch Alfonso Mendez, because, of all the
+brethren at Goa, the 'Pater Hieronymus Lupus' (Lobo translated into Wolf)
+was the most ingenious and learned in all sciences, with a mind most
+generous in its desire to conquer difficulties, dexterous in management
+of business, and found most able to make himself agreeable to those with
+whom there was business to be done.  The vigour with which he held by his
+purpose of endeavouring in every possible way to bring the Christianity
+of Abyssinia within the pale of the Catholic Church is in accordance with
+the character that makes the centre of the story of this book.  Whimsical
+touches arise out of this strength of character and readiness of
+resource, as when he tells of the taste of the Abyssinians for raw cow's
+flesh, with a sauce high in royal Abyssinian favour, made of the cow's
+gall and contents of its entrails, of which, when he was pressed to
+partake, he could only excuse himself and his brethren by suggesting that
+it was too good for such humble missionaries.  Out of distinguished
+respect for it, they refrained from putting it into their mouths.
+
+Good Father Lobo gave up the desire of his heart, when it was proved
+unattainable, and returned to India six years after the breaking up of
+his work in Abyssinia, at the age of forty-seven.  He came to be head of
+the Provincials of the Jesuit settlement at Goa, and after about ten more
+years of active duty in the East returned in 1658 to Lisbon, when he died
+in the religious house of St. Roque in 1678, at the age of eighty-five.  A
+comrade of Father Lobo's, Baltazar Tellez, said that Lobo had travelled
+thirty-eight thousand leagues with no other object before him but the
+winning of more souls to God.  His years in Abyssinia stood out
+prominently to his mind among all the years of his long life, and he
+wrote an account of them in Portuguese, of which the manuscript is at
+Lisbon in the monastery of St. Roque, where he closed his life.
+
+Of that manuscript, then and still unprinted (though use was made of it
+by Baltazar Tellez in his History of 'Ethiopia-Coimbra,' 1660), the Abbe
+Legrand, Prior of Neuville-les-Dames, and of Prevessin, published a
+translation into French.  The Abbe Legrand had been to Lisbon as
+Secretary to the Abbe d'Estrees, Ambassador from France to Portugal.  The
+negotiations were so long continued that M. Legrand was detained five
+years in Lisbon, and employed the time in researches among documents
+illustrating the Portuguese possessions in India and the East.  He
+obtained many memoirs of great interest, and published from one of them
+an account of Ceylon; but of all the manuscripts he found none interested
+him so much as that of Father Lobo.  His translation was augmented with
+illustrative dissertations, letters, and a memoir on the circumstances of
+the death of M. du Roule.  It filled two volumes, or 636 pages of forty
+lines.  This was published in 1728.  It was on the 31st of October, 1728,
+that Samuel Johnson, aged nineteen, went to Pembroke College, Oxford, and
+Legrand's 'Voyage Historique d'Abissinie du R. P. Jerome Lobo, de la
+Compagnie de Jesus, Traduit du Portugais, continue et augmente de
+plusieurs Dissertations, Lettres et Memoires,' was one of the new books
+read by Johnson during his short period of college life.  In 1735, when
+Johnson's age was twenty-six, and the world seemed to have shut against
+him every door of hope, Johnson stayed for six months at Birmingham with
+his old schoolfellow Hector, who was aiming at medical practice, and who
+lodged at the house of a bookseller.  Johnson spoke with interest of
+Father Lobo, whose book he had read at Pembroke College.  Mr. Warren, the
+bookseller, thought it would be worth while to print a translation.
+Hector joined in urging Johnson to undertake it, for a payment of five
+guineas.  Although nearly brought to a stop midway by hypochondriac
+despondency, a little suggestion that the printers also were stopped, and
+if they had not their work had not their pay, caused Johnson to go on to
+the end.  Legrand's book was reduced to a fifth of its size by the
+omission of all that overlaid Father Lobo's personal account of his
+adventures; and Johnson began work as a writer with this translation,
+first published at Birmingham in 1735.
+
+H.M.
+
+
+
+
+THE PREFACE
+
+
+The following relation is so curious and entertaining, and the
+dissertations that accompany it so judicious and instructive, that the
+translator is confident his attempt stands in need of no apology,
+whatever censures may fall on the performance.
+
+The Portuguese traveller, contrary to the general vein of his countrymen,
+has amused his reader with no romantic absurdities or incredible
+fictions; whatever he relates, whether true or not, is at least probable;
+and he who tells nothing exceeding the bounds of probability has a right
+to demand that they should believe him who cannot contradict him.
+
+He appears by his modest and unaffected narration to have described
+things as he saw them, to have copied nature from the life, and to have
+consulted his senses, not his imagination; he meets with no basilisks
+that destroy with their eyes, his crocodiles devour their prey without
+tears, and his cataracts fall from the rock without deafening the
+neighbouring inhabitants.
+
+The reader will here find no regions cursed with irremediable barrenness,
+or blessed with spontaneous fecundity, no perpetual gloom or unceasing
+sunshine; nor are the nations here described either devoid of all sense
+of humanity, or consummate in all private and social virtues; here are no
+Hottentots without religion, polity, or articulate language, no Chinese
+perfectly polite, and completely skilled in all sciences: he will
+discover, what will always be discovered by a diligent and impartial
+inquirer, that wherever human nature is to be found there is a mixture of
+vice and virtue, a contest of passion and reason, and that the Creator
+doth not appear partial in his distributions, but has balanced in most
+countries their particular inconveniences by particular favours.
+
+In his account of the mission, where his veracity is most to be
+suspected, he neither exaggerates overmuch the merits of the Jesuits, if
+we consider the partial regard paid by the Portuguese to their
+countrymen, by the Jesuits to their society, and by the Papists to their
+church, nor aggravates the vices of the Abyssins; but if the reader will
+not be satisfied with a Popish account of a Popish mission, he may have
+recourse to the history of the church of Abyssinia, written by Dr.
+Geddes, in which he will find the actions and sufferings of the
+missionaries placed in a different light, though the same in which Mr. Le
+Grand, with all his zeal for the Roman church, appears to have seen them.
+
+This learned dissertator, however valuable for his industry and
+erudition, is yet more to be esteemed for having dared so freely in the
+midst of France to declare his disapprobation of the Patriarch Oviedo's
+sanguinary zeal, who was continually importuning the Portuguese to beat
+up their drums for missionaries, who might preach the gospel with swords
+in their hands, and propagate by desolation and slaughter the true
+worship of the God of Peace.
+
+It is not easy to forbear reflecting with how little reason these men
+profess themselves the followers of Jesus, who left this great
+characteristic to His disciples, that they should be known by loving one
+another, by universal and unbounded charity and benevolence.
+
+Let us suppose an inhabitant of some remote and superior region, yet
+unskilled in the ways of men, having read and considered the precepts of
+the gospel, and the example of our Saviour, to come down in search of the
+true church: if he would not inquire after it among the cruel, the
+insolent, and the oppressive; among those who are continually grasping at
+dominion over souls as well as bodies; among those who are employed in
+procuring to themselves impunity for the most enormous villainies, and
+studying methods of destroying their fellow-creatures, not for their
+crimes but their errors; if he would not expect to meet benevolence,
+engaged in massacres, or to find mercy in a court of inquisition, he would
+not look for the true church in the Church of Rome.
+
+Mr. Le Grand has given in one dissertation an example of great
+moderation, in deviating from the temper of his religion, but in the
+others has left proofs that learning and honesty are often too weak to
+oppose prejudice.  He has made no scruple of preferring the testimony of
+Father du Bernat to the writings of all the Portuguese Jesuits, to whom
+he allows great zeal, but little learning, without giving any other
+reason than that his favourite was a Frenchman.  This is writing only to
+Frenchmen and to Papists: a Protestant would be desirous to know why he
+must imagine that Father du Bernat had a cooler head or more knowledge;
+and why one man whose account is singular is not more likely to be
+mistaken than many agreeing in the same account.
+
+If the Portuguese were biassed by any particular views, another bias
+equally powerful may have deflected the Frenchman from the truth, for
+they evidently write with contrary designs: the Portuguese, to make their
+mission seem more necessary, endeavoured to place in the strongest light
+the differences between the Abyssinian and Roman Church; but the great
+Ludolfus, laying hold on the advantage, reduced these later writers to
+prove their conformity.
+
+Upon the whole, the controversy seems of no great importance to those who
+believe the Holy Scriptures sufficient to teach the way of salvation, but
+of whatever moment it may be thought, there are not proofs sufficient to
+decide it.
+
+His discourses on indifferent subjects will divert as well as instruct,
+and if either in these, or in the relation of Father Lobo, any argument
+shall appear unconvincing, or description obscure, they are defects
+incident to all mankind, which, however, are not too rashly to be imputed
+to the authors, being sometimes, perhaps, more justly chargeable on the
+translator.
+
+In this translation, if it may be so called, great liberties have been
+taken, which, whether justifiable or not, shall be fairly confessed; and
+let the judicious part of mankind pardon or condemn them.
+
+In the first part the greatest freedom has been used in reducing the
+narration into a narrow compass, so that it is by no means a translation
+but an epitome, in which, whether everything either useful or
+entertaining be comprised, the compiler is least qualified to determine.
+
+In the account of Abyssinia, and the continuation, the authors have been
+followed with more exactness, and as few passages appeared either
+insignificant or tedious, few have been either shortened or omitted.
+
+The dissertations are the only part in which an exact translation has
+been attempted, and even in those abstracts are sometimes given instead
+of literal quotations, particularly in the first; and sometimes other
+parts have been contracted.
+
+Several memorials and letters, which are printed at the end of the
+dissertations to secure the credit of the foregoing narrative, are
+entirely left out.
+
+It is hoped that, after this confession, whoever shall compare this
+attempt with the original, if he shall find no proofs of fraud or
+partiality, will candidly overlook any failure of judgment.
+
+
+
+
+PART I--THE VOYAGE TO ABYSSINIA
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+The author arrives after some difficulties at Goa.  Is chosen for the
+Mission of AEthiopia.  The fate of those Jesuits who went by Zeila.  The
+author arrives at the coast of Melinda.
+
+I embarked in March, 1622, in the same fleet with the Count Vidigueira,
+on whom the king had conferred the viceroyship of the Indies, then vacant
+by the resignation of Alfonso Noronha, whose unsuccessful voyage in the
+foregoing year had been the occasion of the loss of Ormus, which being by
+the miscarriage of that fleet deprived of the succours necessary for its
+defence, was taken by the Persians and English.  The beginning of this
+voyage was very prosperous: we were neither annoyed with the diseases of
+the climate nor distressed with bad weather, till we doubled the Cape of
+Good Hope, which was about the end of May.  Here began our misfortunes;
+these coasts are remarkable for the many shipwrecks the Portuguese have
+suffered.  The sea is for the most part rough, and the winds tempestuous;
+we had here our rigging somewhat damaged by a storm of lightning, which
+when we had repaired, we sailed forward to Mosambique, where we were to
+stay some time.  When we came near that coast, and began to rejoice at
+the prospect of ease and refreshment, we were on the sudden alarmed with
+the sight of a squadron of ships, of what nation we could not at first
+distinguish, but soon discovered that they were three English and three
+Dutch, and were preparing to attack us.  I shall not trouble the reader
+with the particulars of this fight, in which, though the English
+commander ran himself aground, we lost three of our ships, and with great
+difficulty escaped with the rest into the port of Mosambique.
+
+This place was able to afford us little consolation in our uneasy
+circumstances; the arrival of our company almost caused a scarcity of
+provisions.  The heat in the day is intolerable, and the dews in the
+night so unwholesome that it is almost certain death to go out with one's
+head uncovered.  Nothing can be a stronger proof of the malignant quality
+of the air than that the rust will immediately corrode both the iron and
+brass if they are not carefully covered with straw.  We stayed, however,
+in this place from the latter end of July to the beginning of September,
+when having provided ourselves with other vessels, we set out for Cochin,
+and landed there after a very hazardous and difficult passage, made so
+partly by the currents and storms which separated us from each other, and
+partly by continual apprehensions of the English and Dutch, who were
+cruising for us in the Indian seas.  Here the viceroy and his company
+were received with so much ceremony, as was rather troublesome than
+pleasing to us who were fatigued with the labours of the passage; and
+having stayed here some time, that the gentlemen who attended the viceroy
+to Goa might fit out their vessels, we set sail, and after having been
+detained some time at sea, by calms and contrary winds, and somewhat
+harassed by the English and Dutch, who were now increased to eleven ships
+of war, arrived at Goa, on Saturday, the 16th of December, and the
+viceroy made his entry with great magnificence.
+
+I lived here about a year, and completed my studies in divinity; in which
+time some letters were received from the fathers in AEthiopia, with an
+account that Sultan Segued, Emperor of Abyssinia, was converted to the
+Church of Rome, that many of his subjects had followed his example, and
+that there was a great want of missionaries to improve these prosperous
+beginnings.  Everybody was very desirous of seconding the zeal of our
+fathers, and of sending them the assistance they requested; to which we
+were the more encouraged, because the emperor's letters informed our
+provincial that we might easily enter his dominions by the way of
+Dancala, but unhappily, the secretary wrote Zeila for Dancala, which cost
+two of our fathers their lives.
+
+We were, however, notwithstanding the assurances given us by the emperor,
+sufficiently apprised of the danger which we were exposed to in this
+expedition, whether we went by sea or land.  By sea, we foresaw the
+hazard we run of falling into the hands of the Turks, amongst whom we
+should lose, if not our lives, at least our liberty, and be for ever
+prevented from reaching the court of AEthiopia.  Upon this consideration
+our superiors divided the eight Jesuits chosen for this mission into two
+companies.  Four they sent by sea and four by land; I was of the latter
+number.  The four first were the more fortunate, who though they were
+detained some time by the Turkish bassa, were dismissed at the request of
+the emperor, who sent him a zebra, or wild ass, a creature of large size
+and admirable beauty.
+
+As for us, who were to go by Zeila, we had still greater difficulties to
+struggle with: we were entirely strangers to the ways we were to take, to
+the manners, and even to the names of the nations through which we were
+to pass.  Our chief desire was to discover some new road by which we
+might avoid having anything to do with the Turks.  Among great numbers
+whom we consulted on this occasion, we were informed by some that we
+might go through Melinda.  These men painted that hideous wilderness in
+charming colours, told us that we should find a country watered with
+navigable rivers, and inhabited by a people that would either inform us
+of the way, or accompany us in it.  These reports charmed us, because
+they flattered our desires; but our superiors finding nothing in all this
+talk that could be depended on, were in suspense what directions to give
+us, till my companion and I upon this reflection, that since all the ways
+were equally new to us, we had nothing to do but to resign ourselves to
+the Providence of God, asked and obtained the permission of our superiors
+to attempt the road through Melinda.  So of we who went by land, two took
+the way of Zeila, and my companion and I that of Melinda.
+
+Those who were appointed for Zeila embarked in a vessel that was going to
+Caxume, where they were well received by the king, and accommodated with
+a ship to carry them to Zeila; they were there treated by the Check with
+the same civility which they had met with at Caxume.  But the king being
+informed of their arrival, ordered them to be conveyed to his court at
+Auxa, to which place they were scarce come before they were thrown by the
+king's command into a dark and dismal dungeon, where there is hardly any
+sort of cruelty that was not exercised upon them.  The Emperor of
+Abyssinia endeavoured by large offers to obtain their liberty, but his
+kind offices had no other effect than to heighten the rage of the king of
+Zeila.  This prince, besides his ill will to Sultan Segued, which was
+kept up by some malcontents among the Abyssin nobility, who, provoked at
+the conversion of their master, were plotting a revolt, entertained an
+inveterate hatred against the Portuguese for the death of his
+grandfather, who had been killed many years before, which he swore the
+blood of the Jesuits should repay.  So after they had languished for some
+time in prison their heads were struck off.  A fate which had been
+likewise our own, had not God reserved us for longer labours!
+
+Having provided everything necessary for our journey, such as Arabian
+habits, and red caps, calicoes, and other trifles to make presents of to
+the inhabitants, and taking leave of our friends, as men going to a
+speedy death, for we were not insensible of the dangers we were likely to
+encounter, amongst horrid deserts, impassable mountains, and barbarous
+nations, we left Goa on the 26th day of January in the year 1624, in a
+Portuguese galliot that was ordered to set us ashore at Pate, where we
+landed without any disaster in eleven days, together with a young
+Abyssin, whom we made use of as our interpreter.  While we stayed here we
+were given to understand that those who had been pleased at Goa to give
+us directions in relation to our journey had done nothing but tell us
+lies.  That the people were savage, that they had indeed begun to treat
+with the Portuguese, but it was only from fear, that otherwise they were
+a barbarous nation, who finding themselves too much crowded in their own
+country, had extended themselves to the sea-shore; that they ravished the
+country and laid everything waste where they came, that they were man-
+eaters, and were on that account dreadful in all those parts.  My
+companion and I being undeceived by this terrible relation, thought it
+would be the highest imprudence to expose ourselves both together to a
+death almost certain and unprofitable, and agreed that I should go with
+our Abyssin and a Portuguese to observe the country; that if I should
+prove so happy as to escape being killed by the inhabitants, and to
+discover a way, I should either return, or send back the Abyssin or
+Portuguese.  Having fixed upon this, I hired a little bark to Jubo, a
+place about forty leagues distant from Pate, on board which I put some
+provisions, together with my sacerdotal vestments, and all that was
+necessary for saying mass: in this vessel we reached the coast, which we
+found inhabited by several nations: each nation is subject to its own
+king; these petty monarchies are so numerous, that I counted at least ten
+in less than four leagues.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+The author lands: The difficulty of his journey.  An account of the
+Galles, and of the author's reception at the king's tent; Their manner of
+swearing, and of letting blood.  The author returns to the Indies, and
+finds the patriarch of AEthiopia.
+
+On this coast we landed, with an intention of travelling on foot to Jubo,
+a journey of much greater length and difficulty than we imagined.  We
+durst not go far from our bark, and therefore were obliged to a toilsome
+march along the windings of the shore, sometimes clambering up rocks, and
+sometimes wading through the sands, so that we were every moment in the
+utmost danger of falling from the one, or sinking in the other.  Our
+lodging was either in the rocks or on the sands, and even that incommoded
+by continual apprehensions of being devoured by lions and tigers.  Amidst
+all these calamities our provisions failed us; we had little hopes of a
+supply, for we found neither villages, houses, nor any trace of a human
+creature; and had miserably perished by thirst and hunger had we not met
+with some fishermen's boats, who exchanged their fish for tobacco.
+
+Through all these fatigues we at length came to Jubo, a kingdom of
+considerable extent, situated almost under the line, and tributary to the
+Portuguese, who carry on a trade here for ivory and other commodities.
+This region so abounds with elephants, that though the teeth of the male
+only are valuable, they load several ships with ivory every year.  All
+this coast is much infested with ravenous beasts, monkeys, and serpents,
+of which last here are some seven feet in length, and thicker than an
+ordinary man; in the head of this serpent is found a stone about the
+bigness of an egg, resembling bezoar, and of great efficacy, as it is
+said, against all kinds of poison.  I stayed here some time to inform
+myself whether I might, by pursuing this road, reach Abyssinia; and could
+get no other intelligence but that two thousand Galles (the same people
+who inhabited Melinda) had encamped about three leagues from Jubo; that
+they had been induced to fix in that place by the plenty of provisions
+they found there.  These Galles lay everything where they come in ruin,
+putting all to the sword without distinction of age or sex; which
+barbarities, though their numbers are not great, have spread the terror
+of them over all the country.  They choose a king, whom they call Lubo:
+every eighth year. They carry their wives with them, and expose their
+children without any tenderness in the woods, it being prohibited, on
+pain of death, to take any care of those which are born in the camp.  This
+is their way of living when they are in arms, but afterwards when they
+settle at home they breed up their children.  They feed upon raw cow's
+flesh; when they kill a cow, they keep the blood to rub their bodies
+with, and wear the guts about their necks for ornaments, which they
+afterwards give to their wives.
+
+Several of these Galles came to see me, and as it seemed they had never
+beheld a white man before, they gazed on me with amazement; so strong was
+their curiosity that they even pulled off my shoes and stockings, that
+they might be satisfied whether all my body was of the same colour with
+my face.  I could remark, that after they had observed me some time, they
+discovered some aversion from a white; however, seeing me pull out my
+handkerchief, they asked me for it with a great deal of eagerness; I cut
+it into several pieces that I might satisfy them all, and distributed it
+amongst them; they bound them about their heads, but gave me to
+understand that they should have liked them better if they had been red:
+after this we were seldom without their company, which gave occasion to
+an accident, which though it seemed to threaten some danger at first,
+turned afterwards to our advantage.
+
+As these people were continually teasing us, our Portuguese one day
+threatened in jest to kill one of them.  The black ran in the utmost
+dread to seek his comrades, and we were in one moment almost covered with
+Galles; we thought it the most proper course to decline the first impulse
+of their fury, and retired into our house.  Our retreat inspired them
+with courage; they redoubled their cries, and posted themselves on an
+eminence near at hand that overlooked us; there they insulted us by
+brandishing their lances and daggers.  We were fortunately not above a
+stone's cast from the sea, and could therefore have retreated to our bark
+had we found ourselves reduced to extremities.  This made us not very
+solicitous about their menaces; but finding that they continued to hover
+about our habitation, and being wearied with their clamours, we thought
+it might be a good expedient to fright them away by firing four muskets
+towards them, in such a manner that they might hear the bullets hiss
+about two feet over their heads.  This had the effect we wished; the
+noise and fire of our arms struck them with so much terror that they fell
+upon the ground, and durst not for some time so much as lift up their
+heads.  They forgot immediately their natural temper, their ferocity and
+haughtiness were softened into mildness and submission; they asked pardon
+for their insolence, and we were ever after good friends.
+
+After our reconciliation we visited each other frequently, and had some
+conversation about the journey I had undertaken, and the desire I had of
+finding a new passage into AEthiopia.  It was necessary on this account
+to consult their lubo or king: I found him in a straw hut something
+larger than those of his subjects, surrounded by his courtiers, who had
+each a stick in his hand, which is longer or shorter according to the
+quality of the person admitted into the king's presence.  The ceremony
+made use of at the reception of a stranger is somewhat unusual; as soon
+as he enters, all the courtiers strike him with their cudgels till he
+goes back to the door; the amity then subsisting between us did not
+secure me from this uncouth reception, which they told me, upon my
+demanding the reason of it, was to show those whom they treated with that
+they were the bravest people in the world, and that all other nations
+ought to bow down before them.  I could not help reflecting on this
+occasion how imprudently I had trusted my life in the hands of men
+unacquainted with compassion or civility, but recollecting at the same
+time that the intent of my journey was such as might give me hopes of the
+divine protection, I banished all thoughts but those of finding a way
+into AEthiopia.  In this strait it occurred to me that these people,
+however barbarous, have some oath which they keep with an inviolable
+strictness; the best precaution, therefore, that I could use would be to
+bind them by this oath to be true to their engagements.  The manner of
+their swearing is this: they set a sheep in the midst of them, and rub it
+over with butter, the heads of families who are the chief in the nation
+lay their hands upon the head of the sheep, and swear to observe their
+promise.  This oath (which they never violate) they explain thus: the
+sheep is the mother of them who swear; the butter betokens the love
+between the mother and the children, and an oath taken on a mother's head
+is sacred.  Upon the security of this oath, I made them acquainted with
+my intention, an intention, they told me, it was impossible to put in
+execution.  From the moment I left them they said they could give me no
+assurance of either life or liberty, that they were perfectly informed
+both of the roads and inhabitants, that there were no fewer than nine
+nations between us and Abyssinia, who were always embroiled amongst
+themselves, or at war with the Abyssins, and enjoyed no security even in
+their own territories.  We were now convinced that our enterprise was
+impracticable, and that to hazard ourselves amidst so many insurmountable
+difficulties would be to tempt Providence; despairing, therefore, that I
+should ever come this way to Abyssinia, I resolved to return back with my
+intelligence to my companion, whom I had left at Pate.
+
+I cannot, however, leave this country without giving an account of their
+manner of blood-letting, which I was led to the knowledge of by a violent
+fever, which threatened to put an end to my life and travels together.
+The distress I was in may easily be imagined, being entirely destitute of
+everything necessary.  I had resolved to let myself blood, though I was
+altogether a stranger to the manner of doing it, and had no lancet, but
+my companions hearing of a surgeon of reputation in the place, went and
+brought him.  I saw, with the utmost surprise, an old Moor enter my
+chamber, with a kind of small dagger, all over rusty, and a mallet in his
+hand, and three cups of horn about half a foot long.  I started, and
+asked what he wanted.  He told me to bleed me; and when I had given him
+leave, uncovering my side, applied one of his horn cups, which he stopped
+with chewed paper, and by that means made it stick fast; in the same
+manner he fixed on the other two, and fell to sharpening his instrument,
+assuring me that he would give me no pain.  He then took off his cups,
+and gave in each place a stroke with his poignard, which was followed by
+a stream of blood.  He applied his cups several times, and every time
+struck his lancet into the same place; having drawn away a large quantity
+of blood, he healed the orifices with three lumps of tallow.  I know not
+whether to attribute my cure to bleeding or my fear, but I had from that
+time no return of my fever.
+
+When I came to Pate, in hopes of meeting with my associate, I found that
+he was gone to Mombaza, in hopes of receiving information.  He was sooner
+undeceived than I, and we met at the place where we parted in a few days;
+and soon afterwards left Pate to return to the Indies, and in nine-and-
+twenty days arrived at the famous fortress of Diou.  We were told at this
+place that Alfonso Mendes, patriarch of AEthiopia, was arrived at Goa
+from Lisbon.  He wrote to us to desire that we would wait for him at
+Diou, in order to embark there for the Red Sea; but being informed by us
+that no opportunities of going thither were to be expected at Diou, it
+was at length determined that we should meet at Bazaim; it was no easy
+matter for me to find means of going to Bazaim.  However, after a very
+uneasy voyage, in which we were often in danger of being dashed against
+the rocks, or thrown upon the sands by the rapidity of the current, and
+suffered the utmost distress for want of water, I landed at Daman, a
+place about twenty leagues distant from Bazaim.  Here I hire a catre and
+four boys to carry me to Bazaim: these catres are a kind of travelling
+couches, in which you may either lie or sit, which the boys, whose
+business is the same with that of chairmen in our country, support upon
+their shoulders by two poles, and carry a passenger at the rate of
+eighteen or twenty miles a day.  Here we at length found the patriarch,
+with three more priests, like us, designed for the mission of AEthiopia.
+We went back to Daman, and from thence to Diou, where we arrived in a
+short time.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+The author embarks with the patriarch, narrowly escapes shipwreck near
+the isle of Socotora; enters the Arabian Gulf, and the Red Sea.  Some
+account of the coast of the Red Sea.
+
+The patriarch having met with many obstacles and disappointments in his
+return to Abyssinia, grew impatient of being so long absent from his
+church.  Lopo Gomez d'Abreu had made him an offer at Bazaim of fitting
+out three ships at his own expense, provided a commission could be
+procured him to cruise in the Red Sea.  This proposal was accepted by the
+patriarch, and a commission granted by the viceroy.  While we were at
+Diou, waiting for these vessels, we received advice from AEthiopia that
+the emperor, unwilling to expose the patriarch to any hazard, thought
+Dagher, a port in the mouth of the Red Sea, belonging to a prince
+dependent on the Abyssins, a place of the greatest security to land at,
+having already written to that prince to give him safe passage through
+his dominions.  We met here with new delays; the fleet that was to
+transport us did not appear, the patriarch lost all patience, and his
+zeal so much affected the commander at Diou, that he undertook to equip a
+vessel for us, and pushed the work forward with the utmost diligence.  At
+length, the long-expected ships entered the port; we were overjoyed, we
+were transported, and prepared to go on board.  Many persons at Diou,
+seeing the vessels so well fitted out, desired leave to go this voyage
+along with us, imagining they had an excellent opportunity of acquiring
+both wealth and honour.  We committed, however, one great error in
+setting out, for having equipped our ships for privateering, and taken no
+merchandise on board, we could not touch at any of the ports of the Red
+Sea.  The patriarch, impatient to be gone, took leave in the most tender
+manner of the governor and his other friends, recommended our voyage to
+the Blessed Virgin, and in the field, before we went on shipboard, made a
+short exhortation, so moving and pathetic, that it touched the hearts of
+all who heard it.  In the evening we went on board, and early the next
+morning being the 3rd of April, 1625, we set sail.
+
+After some days we discovered about noon the island Socotora, where we
+proposed to touch.  The sky was bright and the wind fair, nor had we the
+least apprehension of the danger into which we were falling, but with the
+utmost carelessness and jollity held on our course.  At night, when our
+sailors, especially the Moors, were in a profound sleep (for the
+Mohammedans, believing everything forewritten in the decrees of God, and
+not alterable by any human means, resign themselves entirely to
+Providence), our vessel ran aground upon a sand bank at the entrance of
+the harbour.  We got her off with the utmost difficulty, and nothing but
+a miracle could have preserved us.  We ran along afterwards by the side
+of the island, but were entertained with no other prospect than of a
+mountainous country, and of rocks that jutted out over the sea, and
+seemed ready to fall into it.  In the afternoon, putting into the most
+convenient ports of the island, we came to anchor; very much to the
+amazement and terror of the inhabitants, who were not used to see any
+Portuguese ships upon their coasts, and were therefore under a great
+consternation at finding them even in their ports.  Some ran for security
+to the mountains, others took up arms to oppose our landing, but were
+soon reconciled to us, and brought us fowls, fish, and sheep, in exchange
+for India calicoes, on which they set a great value.  We left this island
+early the next morning, and soon came in sight of Cape Gardafui, so
+celebrated heretofore under the name of the Cape of Spices, either
+because great quantities were then found there, or from its neighbourhood
+to Arabia the Happy, even at this day famous for its fragrant products.
+It is properly at this cape (the most eastern part of Africa) that the
+Gulf of Arabia begins, which at Babelmandel loses its name, and is called
+the Red Sea.  Here, though the weather was calm, we found the sea so
+rough, that we were tossed as in a high wind for two nights; whether this
+violent agitation of the water proceeded from the narrowness of the
+strait, or from the fury of the late storm, I know not; whatever was the
+cause, we suffered all the hardships of a tempest.  We continued our
+course towards the Red Sea, meeting with nothing in our passage but a
+gelve, or kind of boat, made of thin boards, sewed together, with no
+other sail than a mat.  We gave her chase, in hopes of being informed by
+the crew whether there were any Arabian vessels at the mouth of the
+strait; but the Moors, who all entertain dismal apprehensions of the
+Franks, plied their oars and sail with the utmost diligence, and as soon
+as they reached land, quitted their boat, and scoured to the mountains.
+We saw them make signals from thence, and imagining they would come to a
+parley, sent out our boat with two sailors and an Abyssin, putting the
+ships off from the shore, to set them free from any suspicion of danger
+in coming down.  All this was to no purpose, they could not be drawn from
+the mountain, and our men had orders not to go on shore, so they were
+obliged to return without information.  Soon after we discovered the isle
+of Babelmandel, which gives name to the strait so called, and parts the
+sea that surrounds it into two channels; that on the side of Arabia is
+not above a quarter of a league in breadth, and through this pass almost
+all the vessels that trade to or from the Red Sea.  The other, on the
+side of AEthiopia, though much larger, is more dangerous, by reason of
+the shallows, which make it necessary for a ship, though of no great
+burthen, to pass very near the island, where the channel is deeper and
+less embarrassed.  This passage is never made use of but by those who
+would avoid meeting with the Turks who are stationed on the coast of
+Arabia; it was for this reason that we chose it.  We passed it in the
+night, and entered that sea, so renowned on many accounts in history,
+both sacred and profane.
+
+In our description of this famous sea, an account of which may justly be
+expected in this place, it is most convenient to begin with the coast of
+Arabia, on which part at twelve leagues from the mouth stands the city of
+Moca, a place of considerable trade.  Forty leagues farther is the Isle
+of Camaram, whose inhabitants are annoyed with little serpents, which
+they call basilisks, which, though very poisonous and deadly, do not, as
+the ancients have told us, kill with their eyes, or if they have so fatal
+a power, it is not at least in this place.  Sailing ninety leagues
+farther, you see the noted port of Jodda, where the pilgrims that go to
+Mecca and Medina unlade those rich presents which the zeal of different
+princes is every day accumulating at the tomb of Mahomet.  The commerce
+of this place, and the number of merchants that resort thither from all
+parts of the world, are above description, and so richly laden are the
+ships that come hither, that when the Indians would express a thing of
+inestimable price, they say, "It is of greater value than a ship of
+Jodda."  An hundred and eighteen leagues from thence lies Toro, and near
+it the ruins of an ancient monastery.  This is the place, if the report
+of the inhabitants deserves any credit, where the Israelites miraculously
+passed through the Red Sea on dry land; and there is some reason for
+imagining the tradition not ill grounded, for the sea is here only three
+leagues in breadth.  All the ground about Toro is barren for want of
+water, which is only to be found at a considerable distance, in one
+fountain, which flows out of the neighbouring mountains, at the foot of
+which there are still twelve palm-trees.  Near Toro are several wells,
+which, as the Arabs tell us, were dug by the order of Moses to quiet the
+clamours of the thirsty Israelites.  Suez lies in the bottom of the Gulf,
+three leagues from Toro, once a place of note, now reduced, under the
+Turks, to an inconsiderable village, where the miserable inhabitants are
+forced to fetch water at three leagues' distance.  The ancient Kings of
+Egypt conveyed the waters of the Nile to this place by an artificial
+canal, now so choked with sand, that there are scarce any marks remaining
+of so noble and beneficial a work.
+
+The first place to be met with in travelling along the coast of Africa is
+Rondelo, situate over against Toro, and celebrated for the same
+miraculous passage.  Forty-five leagues from thence is Cocir.  Here ends
+that long chain of mountains that reaches from this place even to the
+entrance of the Red Sea.  In this prodigious ridge, which extends three
+hundred leagues, sometimes approaching near the sea, and sometimes
+running far up into the land, there is only one opening, through which
+all that merchandise is conveyed, which is embarked at Rifa, and from
+thence distributed through all the east.  These mountains, as they are
+uncultivated, are in some parts shaded with large forests, and in others
+dry and bare.  As they are exceedingly high, all the seasons may be here
+found together; when the storms of winter beat on one side, on the other
+is often a serene sky and a bright sunshine.  The Nile runs here so near
+the shore that it might without much difficulty be turned through this
+opening of the mountains into the Red Sea, a design which many of the
+Emperors have thought of putting in execution, and thereby making a
+communication between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, but have been
+discouraged either by the greatness of the expense or the fear of laying
+great part of Egypt under water, for some of that country lies lower than
+sea.
+
+Distant from Rondelo a hundred and thirty leagues is the Isle of Suaquem,
+where the Bassa of that country chooses his residence, for the
+convenience of receiving the tribute with greater exactness, there being
+a large trade carried on here with the Abyssins.  The Turks of Suaquem
+have gardens on the firm land, not above a musket shot from the island,
+which supply them with many excellent herbs and fruits, of which I doubt
+whether there be not a greater quantity on this little spot than on the
+whole coast of Africa besides, from Melinda to Suez.  For if we except
+the dates which grow between Suez and Suaquem, the ground does not yield
+the least product; all the necessaries of life, even water, is wanting.
+Nothing can support itself in this region of barrenness but ostriches,
+which devour stones, or anything they meet with; they lay a great number
+of eggs, part of which they break to feed their young with.  These fowls,
+of which I have seen many, are very tame, and when they are pursued,
+stretch out their wings, and run with amazing swiftness.  As they have
+cloven feet, they sometimes strike up the stones when they run, which
+gave occasion to the notion that they threw stones at the hunters, a
+relation equally to be credited with those of their eating fire and
+digesting iron.  Those feathers which are so much valued grow under their
+wings: the shell of their eggs powdered is an excellent remedy for sore
+eyes.
+
+The burning wind spoken of in the sacred writings, I take to be that
+which the natives term arur, and the Arabs uri, which blowing in the
+spring, brings with it so excessive a heat, that the whole country seems
+a burning oven; so that there is no travelling here in this dreadful
+season, nor is this the only danger to which the unhappy passenger is
+exposed in these uncomfortable regions.  There blows in the months of
+June, July, and August, another wind, which raises mountains of sand and
+carries them through the air; all that can be done in this case is when a
+cloud of sand rises, to mark where it is likely to fall, and to retire as
+far off as possible; but it is very usual for men to be taken
+unexpectedly, and smothered in the dust.  One day I found the body of a
+Christian, whom I knew, upon the sand; he had doubtless been choked by
+these winds.  I recommended his soul to the divine mercy and buried him.
+He seemed to have been some time dead, yet the body had no ill smell.
+These winds are most destructive in Arabia the Desert.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+The author's conjecture on the name of the Red Sea.  An account of the
+cocoa-tree.  He lands at Baylur.
+
+To return to the description of the coast: sixty leagues from Suaquem is
+an island called Mazna, only considerable for its ports, which make the
+Turks reside upon it, though they are forced to keep three barks
+continually employed in fetching water, which is not to be found nearer
+than at a distance of twelve miles.  Forty leagues from hence is Dalacha,
+an island where many pearls are found, but of small value.  The next
+place is Baylur, forty leagues from Dalacha, and twelve from Babelmandel.
+
+There are few things upon which a greater variety of conjectures has been
+offered than upon the reasons that induced the ancients to distinguish
+this gulf, which separates Asia from Africa, by the name of the Red Sea,
+an appellation that has almost universally obtained in all languages.
+Some affirm that the torrents, which fall after great rains from the
+mountains, wash down such a quantity of red sand as gives a tincture to
+the water: others tell us that the sunbeams being reverberated from the
+red rocks, give the sea on which they strike the appearance of that
+colour.  Neither of these accounts are satisfactory; the coasts are so
+scorched by the heat that they are rather black than red; nor is the
+colour of this sea much altered by the winds or rains.  The notion
+generally received is, that the coral found in such quantities at the
+bottom of the sea might communicate this colour to the water: an account
+merely chimerical.  Coral is not to be found in all parts of this gulf,
+and red coral in very few.  Nor does this water in fact differ from that
+of other seas.  The patriarch and I have frequently amused ourselves with
+making observations, and could never discover any redness, but in the
+shallows, where a kind of weed grew which they call gouesmon, which
+redness disappeared as soon as we plucked up the plant.  It is observable
+that St. Jerome, confining himself to the Hebrew, calls this sea Jamsuf.
+Jam in that language signifies sea, and suf is the name of a plant in
+AEthiopia, from which the Abyssins extract a beautiful crimson; whether
+this be the same with the gouesmon, I know not, but am of opinion that
+the herb gives to this sea both the colour and the name.
+
+The vessels most used in the Red Sea, though ships of all sizes may be
+met with there, are gelves, of which some mention hath been made already;
+these are the more convenient, because they will not split if thrown upon
+banks or against rocks.  These gelves have given occasion to the report
+that out of the cocoa-tree alone a ship may be built, fitted out with
+masts, sails, and cordage, and victualled with bread, water, wine, sugar,
+vinegar, and oil.  All this indeed cannot be done out of one tree, but
+may out of several of the same kind.  They saw the trunk into planks, and
+sew them together with thread which they spin out of the bark, and which
+they twist for the cables; the leaves stitched together make the sails.
+This boat thus equipped may be furnished with all necessaries from the
+same tree.  There is not a month in which the cocoa does not produce a
+bunch of nuts, from twenty to fifty.  At first sprouts out a kind of seed
+or capsula, of a shape not unlike the scabbard of a scimitar, which they
+cut, and place a vessel under, to receive the liquor that drops from it;
+this drink is called soro, and is clear, pleasant, and nourishing.  If it
+be boiled, it grows hard, and makes a kind of sugar much valued in the
+Indies: distil this liquor and you have a strong water, of which is made
+excellent vinegar.  All these different products are afforded before the
+nut is formed, and while it is green it contains a delicious cooling
+water; with these nuts they store their gelves, and it is the only
+provision of water which is made in this country.  The second bark which
+contains the water is so tender that they eat it.  When this fruit
+arrives to perfect maturity, they either pound the kernel into meal, and
+make cakes of or draw an oil from it of a fine scent and taste, and of
+great use in medicine; so that what is reported of the different products
+of this wonderful tree is neither false nor incredible.
+
+It is time we should come now to the relation of our voyage.  Having
+happily passed the straits at the entrance of the Red Sea, we pursued our
+course, keeping as near the shore as we could, without any farther
+apprehensions of the Turks.  We were, however, under some concern that we
+were entirely ignorant in what part of the coast to find Baylur, a port
+where we proposed landing, and so little known, that our pilots, who had
+made many voyages in this sea, could give us no account of it.  We were
+in hopes of information from the fishermen, but found that as soon as we
+came near they fled from us in the greatest consternation; no signals of
+peace or friendship could prevail on them to stay; they either durst not
+trust or did not understand us.  We plied along the coast in this
+uncertainty two days, till on the first of March having doubled a point
+of land, which came out a great way into the sea, we found ourselves in
+the middle of a fair large bay, which many reasons induced us to think
+was Baylur; that we might be farther assured we sent our Abyssin on
+shore, who returning next morning confirmed our opinion.  It would not be
+easy to determine whether our arrival gave us greater joy, or the
+inhabitants greater apprehensions, for we could discern a continual
+tumult in the land, and took notice that the crews of some barks that lay
+in the harbour were unlading with all possible diligence, to prevent the
+cargo from falling into our hands, very much indeed to the
+dissatisfaction of many of our soldiers, who having engaged in this
+expedition, with no other view than of filling their pockets, were,
+before the return of our Abyssin, for treating them like enemies, and
+taking them as a lawful prize.  We were willing to be assured of a good
+reception in this port; the patriarch therefore sent me to treat with
+them.  I dressed myself like a merchant, and in that habit received the
+four captains of gelves which the Chec sent to compliment me, and ordered
+to stay as hostages, whom I sent back, that I might gain upon their
+affections by the confidence I placed in their sincerity; this had so
+good an effect, that the Chec, who was transported with the account the
+officers gave of the civilities they had been treated with, came in an
+hour to visit me, bringing with him a Portuguese, whom I had sent ashore
+as a security for his return.  He informed me that the King his master
+was encamped not far off, and that a Chec who was then in the company was
+just arrived from thence, and had seen the Emperor of AEthiopia's letters
+in our favour; I was then convinced that we might land without scruple,
+and to give the patriarch notice of it ordered a volley of our muskets to
+be fired, which was answered by the cannon of the two ships that lay at a
+distance, for fear of giving the Moors any cause of suspicion by their
+approach.  The Chec and his attendants, though I had given them notice
+that we were going to let off our guns in honour of the King their
+master, could not forbear trembling at the fire and noise.  They left us
+soon after, and next morning we landed our baggage, consisting chiefly of
+the patriarch's library, some ornaments for the church, some images, and
+some pieces of calico, which were of the same use as money.  Most of the
+soldiers and sailors were desirous of going with us, some from real
+principles of piety, and a desire of sharing the labours and merits of
+the mission, others upon motives very different, the hopes of raising a
+fortune.  To have taken all who offered themselves would have been an
+injury to the owners of the ships, by rendering them unable to continue
+their voyage; we therefore accepted only of a few.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+An account of Dancali.  The conduct of Chec Furt.  The author wounded.
+They arrive at the court of the King of Dancali.  A description of his
+pavilion, and the reception they met with.
+
+Our goods were no sooner landed than we were surrounded with a crowd of
+officers, all gaping for presents; we were forced to gratify their
+avarice by opening our bales, and distributing among them some pieces of
+calico.  What we gave to the Chec might be worth about a pistole, and the
+rest in proportion.
+
+The kingdom of Dancali, to which this belongs, is barren, and thinly
+peopled; the king is tributary to the Emperor of Abyssinia, and very
+faithful to his sovereign.  The emperor had not only written to him, but
+had sent a Moor and Portuguese as his ambassadors, to secure us a kind
+reception; these in their way to this prince had come through the
+countries of Chumo-Salamay and Senaa, the utmost confines of Abyssinia,
+and had carried thither the emperor's orders concerning our passage.
+
+On Ascension Day we left Baylur, having procured some camels and asses to
+carry our baggage.  The first day's march was not above a league, and the
+others not much longer.  Our guides performed their office very ill,
+being influenced, as we imagined, by the Chec Furt, an officer, whom,
+though unwilling, we were forced to take with us.  This man, who might
+have brought us to the king in three days, led us out of the way through
+horrid deserts destitute of water, or where what we found was so foul,
+nauseous, and offensive, that it excited a loathing and aversion which
+nothing but extreme necessity could have overcome.
+
+Having travelled some days, we were met by the King's brother, to whom,
+by the advice of Chec Furt, whose intent in following us was to squeeze
+all he could from us; we presented some pieces of Chinese workmanship,
+such as cases of boxes, a standish, and some earthenware, together with
+several pieces of painted calico, which were so much more agreeable, that
+he desired some other pieces instead of our Chinese curiosities; we
+willingly made the exchange.  Yet some time afterwards he asked again for
+those Chinese goods which he had returned us, nor was it in our power to
+refuse them.  I was here in danger of losing my life by a compliment
+which the Portuguese paid the prince of a discharge of twelve muskets;
+one being unskilfully charged too high, flew out of the soldier's hand,
+and falling against my leg, wounded it very much; we had no surgeon with
+us, so that all I could do was to bind it hard with some cloth.  I was
+obliged by this accident to make use of the Chec Furt's horse, which was
+the greatest service we received from him in all our journey.
+
+When we came within two leagues and a half of the King's court, he sent
+some messengers with his compliments, and five mules for the chief of our
+company.  Our road lay through a wood, where we found the ground covered
+over with young locusts, a plague intolerably afflictive in a country so
+barren of itself.  We arrived at length at the bank of a small river,
+near which the King usually keeps his residence, and found his palace at
+the foot of a little mountain.  It consisted of about six tents and
+twenty cabins, erected amongst some thorns and wild trees, which afforded
+a shelter from the heat of the weather.  He received us the first time in
+a cabin about a musket shot distant from the rest, furnished out with a
+throne in the middle built of clay and stones, and covered with tapestry
+and two velvet cushions.  Over against him stood his horse with his
+saddle and other furniture hanging by him, for in this country, the
+master and his horse make use of the same apartment, nor doth the King in
+this respect affect more grandeur than his subjects.  When we entered, we
+seated ourselves on the ground with our legs crossed, in imitation of the
+rest, whom we found in the same posture.  After we had waited some time,
+the King came in, attended by his domestics and his officers.  He held a
+small lance in his hand, and was dressed in a silk robe, with a turban on
+his head, to which were fastened some rings of very neat workmanship,
+which fell down upon his forehead.  All kept silence for some time, and
+the King told us by his interpreter that we were welcome to his
+dominions, that he had been informed we were to come by the Emperor his
+father, and that he condoled the hardships we had undergone at sea.  He
+desired us not to be under any concern at finding ourselves in a country
+so distant from our own, for those dominions were ours, and he and the
+Emperor his father would give us all the proofs we could desire of the
+sincerest affection.  We returned him thanks for this promise of his
+favour, and after a short conversation went away.  Immediately we were
+teazed by those who brought us the mules, and demanded to be paid the
+hire of them; and had advice given us at the same time that we should get
+a present ready for the King.  The Chec Furt, who was extremely ready to
+undertake any commission of this kind, would needs direct us in the
+affair, and told us that our gifts ought to be of greater value, because
+we had neglected making any such offer at our first audience, contrary to
+the custom of that country.  By these pretences he obliged us to make a
+present to the value of about twenty pounds, with which he seemed to be
+pleased, and told us we had nothing to do but prepare to make our entry.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+The King refuses their present.  The author's boldness.  The present is
+afterwards accepted.  The people are forbidden to sell them provisions.
+The author remonstrates against the usage.  The King redresses it.
+
+But such was either the hatred or avarice of this man, that instead of
+doing us the good offices he pretended, he advised the King to refuse our
+present, that he might draw from us something more valuable.  When I
+attended the King in order to deliver the presents, after I had excused
+the smallness of them, as being, though unworthy his acceptance, the
+largest that our profession of poverty, and distance from our country,
+allowed us to make, he examined them one by one with a dissatisfied look,
+and told me that however he might be pleased with our good attentions, he
+thought our present such as could not be offered to a king without
+affronting him; and made me a sign with his hand to withdraw, and take
+back what I had brought.  I obeyed, telling him that perhaps he might
+send for it again without having so much.  The Chec Furt, who had been
+the occasion of all this, coming to us afterwards, blamed us exceedingly
+for having offered so little, and being told by us that the present was
+picked out by himself, that we had nothing better to give, and that what
+we had left would scarce defray the expenses of our journey, he pressed
+us at least to add something, but could prevail no farther than to
+persuade us to repeat our former offer, which the King was now pleased to
+accept, though with no kinder countenance than before.
+
+Here we spent our time and our provisions, without being able to procure
+any more.  The country indeed affords goats and honey, but nobody would
+sell us any, the King, as I was secretly informed, having strictly
+prohibited it, with a view of forcing all we had from us.  The patriarch
+sent me to expostulate the matter with the King, which I did in very warm
+terms, telling him that we were assured by the Emperor of a reception in
+this country far different from what we met with, which assurances he had
+confirmed by his promise and the civilities we were entertained with at
+our first arrival; but that instead of friends who would compassionate
+our miseries, and supply our necessities, we found ourselves in the midst
+of mortal enemies that wanted to destroy us.
+
+The King, who affected to appear ignorant of the whole affair, demanded
+an account of the injuries I complained of, and told me that if any of
+his subjects should dare to attempt our lives, it should cost him his
+own.  We were not, replied I, in danger of being stabbed or poisoned, but
+are doomed to a more lingering and painful death by that prohibition
+which obliges your subjects to deny us the necessaries of life; if it be
+Your Highness's pleasure that we die here, we entreat that we may at
+least be despatched quickly, and not condemned to longer torments.  The
+King, startled at this discourse, denied that he had given any such
+orders, and was very importunate to know the author of our intelligence,
+but finding me determined not to discover him, he sent me away with a
+promise that for the future we should be furnished with everything we
+wanted, and indeed that same day we bought three goats for about a crown,
+and some honey, and found ourselves better treated than before.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+They obtain leave, with some difficulty, to depart from Dancali.  The
+difficulties of their march.  A broil with the Moors.  They arrive at the
+plain of salt.
+
+This usage, with some differences we had with a Moor, made us very
+desirous of leaving this country, but we were still put off with one
+pretence or other whenever we asked leave to depart.  Tired with these
+delays, I applied myself to his favourite minister, with a promise of a
+large present if he could obtain us an audience of leave; he came to us
+at night to agree upon the reward, and soon accomplished all we desired,
+both getting us a permission to go out of the kingdom, and procuring us
+camels to carry our baggage, and that of the Abyssinian ambassadors who
+were ordered to accompany us.
+
+We set out from the kingdom of Dancali on the 15th of June, having taken
+our leave of the King, who after many excuses for everything that had
+happened, dismissed us with a present of a cow, and some provisions,
+desiring us to tell the Emperor of AEthiopia his father that we had met
+with kind treatment in his territories, a request which we did not at
+that time think it convenient to deny.
+
+Whatever we had suffered hitherto, was nothing to the difficulties we
+were now entering upon, and which God had decreed us to undergo for the
+sake of Jesus Christ.  Our way now lay through a region scarce passable,
+and full of serpents, which were continually creeping between our legs;
+we might have avoided them in the day, but being obliged, that we might
+avoid the excessive heats, to take long marches in the night, we were
+every moment treading upon them.  Nothing but a signal interposition of
+Providence could have preserved us from being bitten by them, or
+perishing either by weariness or thirst, for sometimes we were a long
+time without water, and had nothing to support our strength in this
+fatigue but a little honey, and a small piece of cows' flesh dried in the
+sun.  Thus we travelled on for many days, scarce allowing ourselves any
+rest, till we came to a channel or hollow worn in the mountains by the
+winter torrents; here we found some coolness, and good water, a blessing
+we enjoyed for three days; down this channel all the winter runs a great
+river which is dried up in the heats, or to speak more properly, hides
+itself under ground.  We walked along its side, sometimes seven or eight
+leagues without seeing any water, and then we found it rising out of the
+ground, at which places we never failed to drink as much as we could, and
+fill our bottles.
+
+In our march, there fell out an unlucky accident, which, however, did not
+prove of the bad consequence it might have done.  The master of our
+camels was an old Mohammedan, who had conceived an opinion that it was an
+act of merit to do us all the mischief he could; and in pursuance of his
+notion, made it his chief employment to steal everything he could lay
+hold on; his piety even transported him so far, that one morning he stole
+and hid the cords of our tents.  The patriarch who saw him at the work
+charged him with it, and upon his denial, showed him the end of the cord
+hanging from under the saddle of one of his camels.  Upon this we went to
+seize them, but were opposed by him and the rest of the drivers, who set
+themselves in a posture of opposition with their daggers.  Our soldiers
+had recourse to their muskets, and four of them putting the mouths of
+their pieces to the heads of some of the most obstinate and turbulent,
+struck them with such a terror, that all the clamour was stilled in an
+instant; none received any hurt but the Moor who had been the occasion of
+the tumult.  He was knocked down by one of our soldiers, who had cut his
+throat but that the fathers prevented it: he then restored the cords, and
+was more tractable ever after.  In all my dealings with the Moors, I have
+always discovered in them an ill-natured cowardice, which makes them
+insupportably insolent if you show them the least respect, and easily
+reduced to reasonable terms when you treat them with a high hand.
+
+After a march of some days we came to an opening between the mountains,
+the only passage out of Dancali into Abyssinia.  Heaven seems to have
+made this place on purpose for the repose of weary travellers, who here
+exchange the tortures of parching thirst, burning sands, and a sultry
+climate, for the pleasures of shady trees, the refreshment of a clear
+stream, and the luxury of a cooling breeze.  We arrived at this happy
+place about noon, and the next day at evening left those fanning winds,
+and woods flourishing with unfading verdure, for the dismal barrenness of
+the vast uninhabitable plains, from which Abyssinia is supplied with
+salt.  These plains are surrounded with high mountains, continually
+covered with thick clouds which the sun draws from the lakes that are
+here, from which the water runs down into the plain, and is there
+congealed into salt.  Nothing can be more curious than to see the
+channels and aqueducts that nature has formed in this hard rock, so exact
+and of such admirable contrivance, that they seem to be the work of men.
+To this place caravans of Abyssinia are continually resorting, to carry
+salt into all parts of the empire, which they set a great value upon, and
+which in their country is of the same use as money.  The superstitious
+Abyssins imagine that the cavities of the mountains are inhabited by evil
+spirits which appear in different shapes, calling those that pass by
+their names as in a familiar acquaintance, who, if they go to them, are
+never seen afterwards.  This relation was confirmed by the Moorish
+officer who came with us, who, as he said, had lost a servant in that
+manner: the man certainly fell into the hands of the Galles, who lurk in
+those dark retreats, cut the throats of the merchants, and carry off
+their effects.
+
+The heat making it impossible to travel through this plain in the day-
+time, we set out in the evening, and in the night lost our way.  It is
+very dangerous to go through this place, for there are no marks of the
+right road, but some heaps of salt, which we could not see.  Our camel
+drivers getting together to consult on this occasion, we suspected they
+had some ill design in hand, and got ready our weapons; they perceived
+our apprehensions, and set us at ease by letting us know the reason of
+their consultation.  Travelling hard all night, we found ourselves next
+morning past the plain; but the road we were in was not more commodious,
+the points of the rocks pierced our feet; to increase our perplexities we
+were alarmed with the approach of an armed troop, which our fear
+immediately suggested to be the Galles, who chiefly beset these passes of
+the mountains; we put ourselves on the defensive, and expected them,
+whom, upon a more exact examination, we found to be only a caravan of
+merchants come as usual to fetch salt.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+They lose their way, are in continual apprehensions of the Galles.  They
+come to Duan, and settle in Abyssinia.
+
+About nine the next morning we came to the end of this toilsome and
+rugged path, where the way divided into two, yet both led to a well, the
+only one that was found in our journey.  A Moor with three others took
+the shortest, without directing us to follow him; so we marched forwards
+we knew not whither, through woods and over rocks, without sleep or any
+other refreshment: at noon the next day we discovered that we were near
+the field of salt.  Our affliction and distress is not to be expressed;
+we were all fainting with heat and weariness, and two of the patriarch's
+servants were upon the point of dying for want of water.  None of us had
+any but a Moor, who could not be prevailed upon to part with it at less
+than the weight in gold; we got some from him at last, and endeavoured to
+revive the two servants, while part of us went to look for a guide that
+might put us in the right way.  The Moors who had arrived at the well,
+rightly guessing that we were lost, sent one of their company to look for
+us, whom we heard shouting in the woods, but durst make no answer for
+fear of the Galles.  At length he found us, and conducted us to the rest;
+we instantly forgot our past calamities, and had no other care than to
+recover the patriarch's attendants.  We did not give them a full draught
+at first, but poured in the water by drops, to moisten their mouths and
+throats, which were extremely swelled: by this caution they were soon
+well.  We then fell to eating and drinking, and though we had nothing but
+our ordinary repast of honey and dried flesh, thought we never had
+regaled more pleasantly in our lives.
+
+We durst not stay long in this place for fear of the Galles, who lay
+their ambushes more particularly near this well, by which all caravans
+must necessarily pass.  Our apprehensions were very much increased by our
+suspicion of the camel-drivers, who, as we imagined, had advertised the
+Galles of our arrival.  The fatigue we had already suffered did not
+prevent our continuing our march all night: at last we entered a plain,
+where our drivers told us we might expect to be attacked by the Galles;
+nor was it long before our own eyes convinced us that we were in great
+danger, for we saw as we went along the dead bodies of a caravan who had
+been lately massacred, a sight which froze our blood, and filled us with
+pity and with horror.  The same fate was not far from overtaking us, for
+a troop of Galles, who were detached in search of us, missed us but an
+hour or two.  We spent the next night in the mountains, but when we
+should have set out in the morning, were obliged to a fierce dispute with
+the old Moor, who had not yet lost his inclination to destroy us; he
+would have had us taken a road which was full of those people we were so
+much afraid of: at length finding he could not prevail with us, that we
+charged the goods upon him as belonging to the Emperor, to whom he should
+be answerable for the loss of them, he consented, in a sullen way, to go
+with us.
+
+The desire of getting out of the reach of the Galles made us press
+forward with great expedition, and, indeed, fear having entirely
+engrossed our minds, we were perhaps less sensible of all our labours and
+difficulties; so violent an apprehension of one danger made us look on
+many others with unconcern; our pains at last found some intermission at
+the foot of the mountains of Duan, the frontier of Abyssinia, which
+separates it from the country of the Moors, through which we had
+travelled.
+
+Here we imagined we might repose securely, a felicity we had long been
+strangers to.  Here we began to rejoice at the conclusion of our labours;
+the place was cool and pleasant, the water was excellent, and the birds
+melodious.  Some of our company went into the wood to divert themselves
+with hearing the birds and frightening the monkeys, creatures so cunning
+that they would not stir if a man came unarmed, but would run immediately
+when they saw a gun.  At this place our camel drivers left us, to go to
+the feast of St. Michael, which the AEthiopians celebrate the 16th of
+June.  We persuaded them, however, to leave us their camels and four of
+their company to take care of them.
+
+We had not waited many days before some messengers came to us with an
+account that Father Baradas, with the Emperor's nephew, and many other
+persons of distinction, waited for us at some distance; we loaded our
+camels, and following the course of the river, came in seven hours to the
+place we were directed to halt at.  Father Manuel Baradas and all the
+company, who had waited for us a considerable time on the top of the
+mountain, came down when they saw our tents, and congratulated our
+arrival.  It is not easy to express the benevolence and tenderness with
+which they embraced us, and the concern they showed at seeing us worn
+away with hunger, labour, and weariness, our clothes tattered, and our
+feet bloody.
+
+We left this place of interview the next day, and on the 21st of June
+arrived at Fremone, the residence of the missionaries, where we were
+welcomed by great numbers of Catholics, both Portuguese and Abyssins, who
+spared no endeavours to make us forget all we had suffered in so
+hazardous a journey, undertaken with no other intention than to conduct
+them in the way of salvation.
+
+
+
+
+PART II--A DESCRIPTION OF ABYSSINIA
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+The history of Abyssinia.  An account of the Queen of Sheba, and of Queen
+Candace.  The conversion of the Abyssins.
+
+The original of the Abyssins, like that of all other nations, is obscure
+and uncertain.  The tradition generally received derives them from Cham,
+the son of Noah, and they pretend, however improbably, that from his time
+till now the legal succession of their kings hath never been interrupted,
+and that the supreme power hath always continued in the same family.  An
+authentic genealogy traced up so high could not but be extremely curious;
+and with good reason might the Emperors of Abyssinia boast themselves the
+most illustrious and ancient family in the world.  But there are no real
+grounds for imagining that Providence has vouchsafed them so
+distinguishing a protection, and from the wars with which this empire
+hath been shaken in these latter ages we may justly believe that, like
+all others, it has suffered its revolutions, and that the history of the
+Abyssins is corrupted with fables.  This empire is known by the name of
+the kingdom of Prester-John.  For the Portuguese having heard such
+wonderful relations of an ancient and famous Christian state called by
+that name, in the Indies, imagined it could be none but this of AEthiopia.
+Many things concurred to make them of this opinion: there was no
+Christian kingdom or state in the Indies of which all was true which they
+heard of this land of Prester-John: and there was none in the other parts
+of the world who was a Christian separated from the Catholic Church but
+what was known, except this kingdom of AEthiopia.  It has therefore
+passed for the kingdom of Prester-John since the time that it was
+discovered by the Portuguese in the reign of King John the Second.
+
+The country is properly called Abyssinia, and the people term themselves
+Abyssins.  Their histories count a hundred and sixty-two reigns, from
+Cham to Faciladas or Basilides; among which some women are remarkably
+celebrated.  One of the most renowned is the Queen of Sheba, mentioned in
+Scripture, whom the natives call Nicaula or Macheda, and in their
+translation of the gospel, Nagista Azeb, which in their language is Queen
+of the South.  They still show the ruins of a city which appears to have
+been once of note, as the place where she kept her court, and a village
+which, from its being the place of her birth, they call the land of Saba.
+The Kings of AEthiopia draw their boasted pedigree from Minilech, the son
+of this Queen and Solomon.  The other Queen for whom they retain a great
+veneration is Candace, whom they call Judith, and indeed if what they
+relate of her could be proved, there never was, amongst the most
+illustrious and beneficent sovereigns, any to whom their country was more
+indebted, for it is said that she being converted by Inda her eunuch,
+whom St. Philip baptised, prevailed with her subjects to quit the worship
+of idols, and profess the faith of Jesus Christ.  This opinion appears to
+me without any better foundation than another of the conversion of the
+Abyssins to the Jewish rites by the Queen of Sheba, at her return from
+the court of Solomon.  They, however, who patronise these traditions give
+us very specious accounts of the zeal and piety of the Abyssins at their
+first conversion.  Many, they say, abandoned all the pleasures and
+vanities of life for solitude and religious austerities; others devoted
+themselves to God in an ecclesiastical life; they who could not do these
+set apart their revenues for building churches, endowing chapels, and
+founding monasteries, and spent their wealth in costly ornaments for the
+churches and vessels for the altars.  It is true that this people has a
+natural disposition to goodness; they are very liberal of their alms,
+they much frequent their churches, and are very studious to adorn them;
+they practise fasting and other mortifications, and notwithstanding their
+separation from the Roman Church, and the corruptions which have crept
+into their faith, yet retain in a great measure the devout fervour of the
+primitive Christians.  There never were greater hopes of uniting this
+people to the Church of Rome, which their adherence to the Eutichian
+heresy has made very difficult, than in the time of Sultan Segued, who
+called us into his dominions in the year 1625, from whence we were
+expelled in 1634.  As I have lived a long time in this country, and borne
+a share in all that has passed, I will present the reader with a short
+account of what I have observed, and of the revolution which forced us to
+abandon AEthiopia, and destroyed all our hopes of reuniting this kingdom
+with the Roman Church.
+
+The empire of Abyssinia hath been one of the largest which history gives
+us an account of: it extended formerly from the Red Sea to the kingdom of
+Congo, and from Egypt to the Indian Sea.  It is not long since it
+contained forty provinces; but is now not much bigger than all Spain, and
+consists but of five kingdoms and six provinces, of which part is
+entirely subject to the Emperor, and part only pays him some tribute, or
+acknowledgment of dependence, either voluntarily or by compulsion.  Some
+of these are of very large extent: the kingdoms of Tigre, Bagameder, and
+Goiama are as big as Portugal, or bigger; Amhara and Damote are something
+less.  The provinces are inhabited by Moors, Pagans, Jews, and
+Christians: the last is the reigning and established religion.  This
+diversity of people and religion is the reason that the kingdom in
+different parts is under different forms of government, and that their
+laws and customs are extremely various.
+
+The inhabitants of the kingdom of Amhara are the most civilised and
+polite; and next to them the natives of Tigre, or the true Abyssins.  The
+rest, except the Damotes, the Gasates, and the Agaus, which approach
+somewhat nearer to civility, are entirely rude and barbarous.  Among
+these nations the Galles, who first alarmed the world in 1542, have
+remarkably distinguished themselves by the ravages they have committed,
+and the terror they have raised in this part of Africa.  They neither sow
+their lands nor improve them by any kind of culture; but, living upon
+milk and flesh, encamp like the Arabs without any settled habitation.
+They practise no rites of worship, though they believe that in the
+regions above there dwells a Being that governs the world: whether by
+this Being they mean the sun or the sky is not known; or, indeed, whether
+they have not some conception of the God that created them.  This deity
+they call in their language Oul.  In other matters they are yet more
+ignorant, and have some customs so contrary even to the laws of nature,
+as might almost afford reason to doubt whether they are endued with
+reason.  The Christianity professed by the Abyssins is so corrupted with
+superstitions, errors, and heresies, and so mingled with ceremonies
+borrowed from the Jews, that little besides the name of Christianity is
+to be found here; and the thorns may be said to have choked the grain.
+This proceeds in a great measure from the diversity of religions which
+are tolerated there, either by negligence or from motives of policy; and
+the same cause hath produced such various revolutions, revolts, and civil
+wars within these later ages.  For those different sects do not easily
+admit of an union with each other, or a quiet subjection to the same
+monarch.  The Abyssins cannot properly be said to have either cities or
+houses; they live either in tents, or in cottages made of straw and clay;
+for they very rarely build with stone.  Their villages or towns consist
+of these huts; yet even of such villages they have but few, because the
+grandees, the viceroys, and the Emperor himself are always in the camp,
+that they may be prepared, upon the most sudden summons, to go where the
+exigence of affairs demands their presence.  And this precaution is no
+more than necessary for a prince every year engaged either in foreign
+wars or intestine commotions.  These towns have each a governor, whom
+they call gadare, over whom is the educ, or lieutenant, and both
+accountable to an officer called the afamacon, or mouth of the King;
+because he receives the revenues, which he pays into the hands of the
+relatinafala, or grand master of the household: sometimes the Emperor
+creates a ratz, or viceroy, general over all the empire, who is superior
+to all his other officers.
+
+AEthiopia produces very near the same kinds of provisions as Portugal;
+though, by the extreme laziness of the inhabitants, in a much less
+quantity: however, there are some roots, herbs, and fruits which grow
+there much better than in other places.  What the ancients imagined of
+the torrid zone being uninhabitable is so far from being true, that this
+climate is very temperate: the heats, indeed, are excessive in Congo and
+Monomotapa, but in Abyssinia they enjoy a perpetual spring, more
+delicious and charming than that in our country.  The blacks here are not
+ugly like those of the kingdoms I have spoken of, but have better
+features, and are not without wit and delicacy; their apprehension is
+quick, and their judgment sound.  The heat of the sun, however it may
+contribute to their colour, is not the only reason of it; there is some
+peculiarity in the temper and constitution of their bodies, since the
+same men, transported into cooler climates, produce children very near as
+black as themselves.
+
+They have here two harvests in the year, which is a sufficient recompense
+for the small produce of each; one harvest they have in the winter, which
+lasts through the months of July, August, and September, the other in the
+spring; their trees are always green, and it is the fault of the
+inhabitants that they produce so little fruit, the soil being well
+adapted to all sorts, especially those that come from the Indies.  They
+have in the greatest plenty raisins, peaches, sour pomegranates, and
+sugarcanes, and some figs.  Most of these are ripe about Lent, which the
+Abyssins keep with great strictness.
+
+After the vegetable products of this country, it seems not improper to
+mention the animals which are found in it, of which here are as great
+numbers, of as many different species, as in any country in the world: it
+is infested with lions of many kinds, among which are many of that which
+is called the lion royal.  I cannot help giving the reader on this
+occasion a relation of a fact which I was an eye-witness of.  A lion
+having taken his haunt near the place where I lived, killed all the oxen
+and cows, and did a great deal of other mischief, of which I heard new
+complaints every day.  A servant of mine having taken a resolution to
+free the country from this destroyer, went out one day with two lances,
+and after he had been some time in quest of him, found him with his mouth
+all smeared with the blood of a cow he had just devoured; the man rushed
+upon him, and thrust his lance into his throat with such violence that it
+came out between his shoulders; the beast, with one dreadful roar, fell
+down into a pit, and lay struggling, till my servant despatched him.  I
+measured the body of this lion, and found him twelve feet between the
+head and the tail.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+The animals of Abyssinia; the elephant, unicorn, their horses and cows;
+with a particular account of the moroc.
+
+There are so great numbers of elephants in Abyssinia that in one evening
+we met three hundred of them in three troops: as they filled up the whole
+way, we were in great perplexity a long time what measures to take; at
+length, having implored the protection of that Providence that
+superintends the whole creation, we went forwards through the midst of
+them without any injury.  Once we met four young elephants, and an old
+one that played with them, lifting them up with her trunk; they grew
+enraged on a sudden, and ran upon us: we had no way of securing ourselves
+but by flight, which, however, would have been fruitless, had not our
+pursuers been stopped by a deep ditch.  The elephants of AEthiopia are of
+so stupendous a size, that when I was mounted on a large mule I could not
+reach with my hand within two spans of the top of their backs.  In
+Abyssinia is likewise found the rhinoceros, a mortal enemy to the
+elephant.  In the province of Agaus has been seen the unicorn, that beast
+so much talked of, and so little known: the prodigious swiftness with
+which this creature runs from one wood into another has given me no
+opportunity of examining it particularly, yet I have had so near a sight
+of it as to be able to give some description of it.  The shape is the
+same with that of a beautiful horse, exact and nicely proportioned, of a
+bay colour, with a black tail, which in some provinces is long, in others
+very short: some have long manes hanging to the ground.  They are so
+timorous that they never feed but surrounded with other beasts that
+defend them.  Deer and other defenceless animals often herd about the
+elephant, which, contenting himself with roots and leaves, preserves
+those beasts that place themselves, as it were, under his protection,
+from the rage and fierceness of others that would devour them.
+
+The horses of Abyssinia are excellent; their mules, oxen, and cows are
+without number, and in these principally consists the wealth of this
+country.  They have a very particular custom, which obliges every man
+that hath a thousand cows to save every year one day's milk of all his
+herd, and make a bath with it for his relations, entertaining them
+afterwards with a splendid feast.  This they do so many days each year,
+as they have thousands of cattle, so that to express how rich any man is,
+they tell you he bathes so many times.  The tribute paid out of their
+herds to the King, which is not the most inconsiderable of his revenues,
+is one cow in ten every three years.  The beeves are of several kinds;
+one sort they have without horns, which are of no other use than to carry
+burthens, and serve instead of mules.  Another twice as big as ours which
+they breed to kill, fattening them with the milk of three or four cows.
+Their horns are so large, the inhabitants use them for pitchers, and each
+will hold about five gallons.  One of these oxen, fat and ready to be
+killed, may be bought at most for two crowns.  I have purchased five
+sheep, or five goats with nine kids, for a piece of calico worth about a
+crown.
+
+The Abyssins have many sort of fowls both wild and tame; some of the
+former we are yet unacquainted with: there is one of wonderful beauty,
+which I have seen in no other place except Peru: it has instead of a
+comb, a short horn upon its head, which is thick and round, and open at
+the top.  The feitan favez, or devil's horse, looks at a distance like a
+man dressed in feathers; it walks with abundance of majesty, till it
+finds itself pursued, and then takes wing, and flies away.  But amongst
+all their birds there is none more remarkable than the moroc, or honey-
+bird, which is furnished by nature with a peculiar instinct or faculty of
+discovering honey.  They have here multitudes of bees of various kinds;
+some are tame, like ours, and form their combs in hives.  Of the wild
+ones, some place their honey in hollow trees, others hide it in holes in
+the ground, which they cover so carefully, that though they are commonly
+in the highway, they are seldom found, unless by the moroc's help, which,
+when he has discovered any honey, repairs immediately to the road side,
+and when he sees a traveller, sings, and claps his wings, making many
+motions to invite him to follow him, and when he perceives him coming,
+flies before him from tree to tree, till he comes to the place where the
+bees have stored their treasure, and then begins to sing melodiously.  The
+Abyssin takes the honey, without failing to leave part of it for the
+bird, to reward him for his information.  This kind of honey I have often
+tasted, and do not find that it differs from the other sorts in anything
+but colour; it is somewhat blacker.  The great quantity of honey that is
+gathered, and a prodigious number of cows that is kept here, have often
+made me call Abyssinia a land of honey and butter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+The manner of eating in Abyssinia, their dress, their hospitality, and
+traffic.
+
+The great lords, and even the Emperor himself, maintain their tables with
+no great expense.  The vessels they make use of are black earthenware,
+which, the older it is, they set a greater value on.  Their way of
+dressing their meat, an European, till he hath been long accustomed to
+it, can hardly be persuaded to like; everything they eat smells strong
+and swims with butter.  They make no use of either linen or plates.  The
+persons of rank never touch what they eat, but have their meat cut by
+their pages, and put into their mouths.  When they feast a friend they
+kill an ox, and set immediately a quarter of him raw upon the table (for
+their most elegant treat is raw beef newly killed) with pepper and salt;
+the gall of the ox serves them for oil and vinegar; some, to heighten the
+delicacy of the entertainment, add a kind of sauce, which they call
+manta, made of what they take out of the guts of the ox; this they set on
+the fire, with butter, salt, pepper, and onion.  Raw beef, thus relished,
+is their nicest dish, and is eaten by them with the same appetite and
+pleasure as we eat the best partridges.  They have often done me the
+favour of helping me to some of this sauce, and I had no way to decline
+eating it besides telling them it was too good for a missionary.
+
+The common drink of the Abyssins is beer and mead, which they drink to
+excess when they visit one another; nor can there be a greater offence
+against good manners than to let the guests go away sober: their liquor
+is always presented by a servant, who drinks first himself, and then
+gives the cup to the company, in the order of their quality.
+
+The meaner sort of people here dress themselves very plain; they only
+wear drawers, and a thick garment of cotton, that covers the rest of
+their bodies: the people of quality, especially those that frequent the
+court, run into the contrary extreme, and ruin themselves with costly
+habits.  They wear all sorts of silks, and particularly the fine velvets
+of Turkey.
+
+They love bright and glaring colours, and dress themselves much in the
+Turkish manner, except that their clothes are wider, and their drawers
+cover their legs.  Their robes are always full of gold and silver
+embroidery.  They are most exact about their hair, which is long and
+twisted, and their care of it is such that they go bare-headed whilst
+they are young for fear of spoiling it, but afterwards wear red caps, and
+sometimes turbans after the Turkish fashion.
+
+The ladies' dress is yet more magnificent and expensive; their robes are
+as large as those of the religious, of the order of St. Bernard.  They
+have various ways of dressing their heads, and spare no expense in ear-
+rings, necklaces, or anything that may contribute to set them off to
+advantage.  They are not much reserved or confined, and have so much
+liberty in visiting one another that their husbands often suffer by it;
+but for this evil there is no remedy, especially when a man marries a
+princess, or one of the royal family.  Besides their clothes, the
+Abyssins have no movables or furniture of much value, or doth their
+manner of living admit of them.
+
+One custom of this country deserves to be remarked: when a stranger comes
+to a village, or to the camp, the people are obliged to entertain him and
+his company according to his rank.  As soon as he enters a house (for
+they have no inns in this nation), the master informs his neighbours that
+he hath a guest; immediately they bring in bread and all kinds of
+provisions; and there is great care taken to provide enough, because, if
+the guest complains, the town is obliged to pay double the value of what
+they ought to have furnished.  This practice is so well established that
+a stranger goes into a house of one he never saw with the same
+familiarity and assurance of welcome as into that of an intimate friend
+or near relation; a custom very convenient, but which gives encouragement
+to great numbers of vagabonds throughout the kingdom.
+
+There is no money in Abyssinia, except in the eastern provinces, where
+they have iron coin: but in the chief provinces all commerce is managed
+by exchange.  Their chief trade consists in provisions, cows, sheep,
+goats, fowls, pepper, and gold, which is weighed out to the purchaser,
+and principally in salt, which is properly the money of this country.
+
+When the Abyssins are engaged in a law-suit, the two parties make choice
+of a judge, and plead their own cause before him; and if they cannot
+agree in their choice, the governor of the place appoints them one, from
+whom there lies an appeal to the viceroy and to the Emperor himself.  All
+causes are determined on the spot; no writings are produced.  The judge
+sits down on the ground in the midst of the high road, where all that
+please may be present: the two persons concerned stand before him, with
+their friends about them, who serve as their attorneys.  The plaintiff
+speaks first, the defendant answers him; each is permitted to rejoin
+three or four times, then silence is commanded, and the judge takes the
+opinions of those that are about him.  If the evidence be deemed
+sufficient, he pronounces sentence, which in some cases is decisive and
+without appeal.  He then takes the criminal into custody till he hath
+made satisfaction; but if it be a crime punishable with death he is
+delivered over to the prosecutor, who may put him to death at his own
+discretion.
+
+They have here a particular way of punishing adultery; a woman convicted
+of that crime is condemned to forfeit all her fortune, is turned out of
+her husband's house, in a mean dress, and is forbid ever to enter it
+again; she has only a needle given her to get her living with.  Sometimes
+her head is shaved, except one lock of hair, which is left her, and even
+that depends on the will of her husband, who has it likewise in his
+choice whether he will receive her again or not; if he resolves never to
+admit her they are both at liberty to marry whom they will.  There is
+another custom amongst them yet more extraordinary, which is, that the
+wife is punished whenever the husband proves false to the marriage
+contract; this punishment indeed extends no farther than a pecuniary
+mulct, and what seems more equitable, the husband is obliged to pay a sum
+of money to his wife.  When the husband prosecutes his wife's gallant, if
+he can produce any proofs of a criminal conversation, he recovers for
+damages forty cows, forty horses, and forty suits of clothes, and the
+same number of other things.  If the gallant be unable to pay him, he is
+committed to prison, and continues there during the husband's pleasure,
+who, if he sets him at liberty before the whole fine be paid, obliges him
+to take an oath that he is going to procure the rest, that he may be able
+to make full satisfaction.  Then the criminal orders meat and drink to be
+brought out, they eat and drink together, he asks a formal pardon, which
+is not granted at first; however, the husband forgives first one part of
+the debt, and then another, till at length the whole is remitted.
+
+A husband that doth not like his wife may easily find means to make the
+marriage void, and, what is worse, may dismiss the second wife with less
+difficulty than he took her, and return to the first; so that marriages
+in this country are only for a term of years, and last no longer than
+both parties are pleased with each other, which is one instance how far
+distant these people are from the purity of the primitive believers,
+which they pretend to have preserved with so great strictness.  The
+marriages are in short no more than bargains, made with this proviso,
+that when any discontent shall arise on either side, they may separate,
+and marry whom they please, each taking back what they brought with them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+An account of the religion of the Abyssins.
+
+Yet though there is a great difference between our manners, customs,
+civil government, and those of the Abyssins, there is yet a much greater
+in points of faith; for so many errors have been introduced and ingrafted
+into their religion, by their ignorance, their separation from the
+Catholic Church, and their intercourse with Jews, Pagans, and
+Mohammedans, that their present religion is nothing but a kind of
+confused miscellany of Jewish and Mohammedan superstitions, with which
+they have corrupted those remnants of Christianity which they still
+retain.
+
+They have, however, preserved the belief of our principal mysteries; they
+celebrate with a great deal of piety the passion of our Lord; they
+reverence the cross; they pay a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin, the
+angels, and the saints; they observe the festivals, and pay a strict
+regard to the Sunday.  Every month they commemorate the assumption of the
+Virgin Mary, and are of opinion that no Christians beside themselves have
+a true sense of the greatness of the mother of God, or pay her the
+honours that are due to her.  There are some tribes amongst them (for
+they are distinguished like the Jews by their tribes), among whom the
+crime of swearing by the name of the Virgin is punished with forfeiture
+of goods and even with loss of life; they are equally scrupulous of
+swearing by St. George.  Every week they keep a feast to the honour of
+the apostles and angels; they come to mass with great devotion, and love
+to hear the word of God.  They receive the sacrament often, but do not
+always prepare themselves by confession.  Their charity to the poor may
+be said to exceed the proper bounds that prudence ought to set it, for it
+contributes to encourage great numbers of beggars, which are a great
+annoyance to the whole kingdom, and as I have often said, afford more
+exercise to a Christian's patience than his charity; for their insolence
+is such, that they will refuse what is offered them if it be not so much
+as they think proper to ask.
+
+Though the Abyssins have not many images, they have great numbers of
+pictures, and perhaps pay them somewhat too high a degree of worship.  The
+severity of their fasts is equal to that of the primitive church.  In
+Lent they never eat till after sunset; their fasts are the more severe
+because milk and butter are forbidden them, and no reason or necessity
+whatsoever can procure them a permission to eat meat, and their country
+affording no fish, they live only on roots and pulse.  On fast-days they
+never drink but at their meat, and the priests never communicate till
+evening, for fear of profaning them.  They do not think themselves
+obliged to fast till they have children either married or fit to be
+married, which yet doth not secure them very long from these
+mortifications, because their youths marry at the age of ten years, and
+their girls younger.
+
+There is no nation where excommunication carries greater terrors than
+among the Abyssins, which puts it in the power of the priests to abuse
+this religious temper of the people, as well as the authority they
+receive from it, by excommunicating them, as they often do, for the least
+trifle in which their interest is concerned.
+
+No country in the world is so full of churches, monasteries, and
+ecclesiastics as Abyssinia; it is not possible to sing in one church or
+monastery without being heard by another, and perhaps by several.  They
+sing the psalms of David, of which, as well as the other parts of the
+Holy Scriptures, they have a very exact translation in their own
+language; in which, though accounted canonical, the books of the
+Maccabees are omitted.  The instruments of music made use of in their
+rites of worship are little drums, which they hang about their necks, and
+beat with both their hands; these are carried even by their chief men,
+and by the gravest of their ecclesiastics.  They have sticks likewise,
+with which they strike the ground, accompanying the blow with a motion of
+their whole bodies.  They begin their concert by stamping their feet on
+the ground, and playing gently on their instruments; but when they have
+heated themselves by degrees, they leave off drumming, and fall to
+leaping, dancing, and clapping their hands, at the same time straining
+their voices to the utmost pitch, till at length they have no regard
+either to the tune or the pauses, and seem rather a riotous than a
+religious assembly.  For this manner of worship they cite the psalm of
+David, "O clap your hands all ye nations."  Thus they misapply the sacred
+writings to defend practices yet more corrupt than those I have been
+speaking of.
+
+They are possessed with a strange notion that they are the only true
+Christians in the world; as for us, they shunned us as heretics, and were
+under the greatest surprise at hearing us mention the Virgin Mary with
+the respect which is due to her, and told us that we could not be
+entirely barbarians since we were acquainted with the mother of God.  It
+plainly appears that prepossessions so strong, which receive more
+strength from the ignorance of the people, have very little tendency to
+dispose them to a reunion with the Catholic Church.
+
+They have some opinions peculiar to themselves about purgatory, the
+creation of souls, and some of our mysteries.  They repeat baptism every
+year, they retain the practice of circumcision, they observe the Sabbath,
+they abstain from all those sorts of flesh which are forbidden by the
+law.  Brothers espouse the wives of their brothers, and to conclude, they
+observe a great number of Jewish ceremonies.
+
+Though they know the words which Jesus Christ appointed to be used in the
+administration of baptism, they have without scruple substituted others
+in their place, which makes the validity of their baptism, and the
+reality of their Christianity, very doubtful.  They have a few names of
+saints, the same with those in the Roman martyrology, but they often
+insert others, as Zama la Cota, the Life of Truth; Ongulari, the
+Evangelist; Asca Georgi, the Mouth of Saint George.
+
+To bring back this people into the enclosure of the Catholic Church, from
+which they have been separated so many ages, was the sole view and
+intention with which we undertook so long and toilsome a journey, crossed
+so many seas, and passed so many deserts, with the utmost hazard of our
+lives; I am certain that we travelled more than seven thousand leagues
+before we arrived at our residence at Fremona.
+
+We came to this place, anciently called Maigoga, on the 21st of June, as
+I have said before, and were obliged to continue there till November,
+because the winter begins here in May, and its greatest rigour is from
+the middle of June to the middle of September.  The rains that are almost
+continually falling in this season make it impossible to go far from
+home, for the rivers overflow their banks, and therefore, in a place like
+this, where there are neither bridges nor boats, are, if they are not
+fordable, utterly impassable.  Some, indeed, have crossed them by means
+of a cord fastened on both sides of the water, others tie two beams
+together, and placing themselves upon them, guide them as well as they
+can, but this experiment is so dangerous that it hath cost many of these
+bold adventurers their lives.  This is not all the danger, for there is
+yet more to be apprehended from the unwholesomeness of the air, and the
+vapours which arise from the scorched earth at the fall of the first
+showers, than from the torrents and rivers.  Even they who shelter
+themselves in houses find great difficulty to avoid the diseases that
+proceed from the noxious qualities of these vapours.  From the beginning
+of June to that of September it rains more or less every day.  The
+morning is generally fair and bright, but about two hours after noon the
+sky is clouded, and immediately succeeds a violent storm, with thunder
+and lightning flashing in the most dreadful manner.  While this lasts,
+which is commonly three or four hours, none go out of doors.  The
+ploughman upon the first appearance of it unyokes his oxen, and betakes
+himself with them into covert.  Travellers provide for their security in
+the neighbouring villages, or set up their tents, everybody flies to some
+shelter, as well to avoid the unwholesomeness as the violence of the
+rain.  The thunder is astonishing, and the lightning often destroys great
+numbers, a thing I can speak of from my own experience, for it once
+flashed so near me, that I felt an uneasiness on that side for a long
+time after; at the same time it killed three young children, and having
+run round my room went out, and killed a man and woman three hundred
+paces off.  When the storm is over the sun shines out as before, and one
+would not imagine it had rained, but that the ground appears deluged.
+Thus passes the Abyssinian winter, a dreadful season, in which the whole
+kingdom languishes with numberless diseases, an affliction which, however
+grievous, is yet equalled by the clouds of grasshoppers, which fly in
+such numbers from the desert, that the sun is hid and the sky darkened;
+whenever this plague appears, nothing is seen through the whole region
+but the most ghastly consternation, or heard but the most piercing
+lamentations, for wherever they fall, that unhappy place is laid waste
+and ruined; they leave not one blade of grass, nor any hopes of a
+harvest.
+
+God, who often makes calamities subservient to His will, permitted this
+very affliction to be the cause of the conversion of many of the natives,
+who might have otherwise died in their errors; for part of the country
+being ruined by the grasshoppers that year in which we arrived at
+Abyssinia, many, who were forced to leave their habitations, and seek the
+necessaries of life in other places, came to that part of the land where
+some of our missionaries were preaching, and laid hold on that mercy
+which God seemed to have appointed for others.
+
+As we could not go to court before November, we resolved, that we might
+not be idle, to preach and instruct the people in the country; in
+pursuance of this resolution I was sent to a mountain, two days' journey
+distant from Maigoga.  The lord or governor of the place was a Catholic,
+and had desired missionaries, but his wife had conceived an implacable
+aversion both from us and the Roman Church, and almost all the
+inhabitants of that mountain were infected with the same prejudices as
+she.  They had been persuaded that the hosts which we consecrated and
+gave to the communicants were mixed with juices strained from the flesh
+of a camel, a dog, a hare, and a swine; all creatures which the Abyssins
+look upon with abhorrence, believing them unclean, and forbidden to them,
+as they were to the Jews.  We had no way of undeceiving them, and they
+fled from us whenever we approached.  We carried with us our tent, our
+chalices, and ornaments, and all that was necessary for saying mass.  The
+lord of the village, who, like other persons of quality throughout
+AEthiopia, lived on the top of a mountain, received us with very great
+civility.  All that depended upon him had built their huts round about
+him; so that this place compared with the other towns of Abyssinia seems
+considerable; as soon as we arrived he sent us his compliments, with a
+present of a cow, which, among them, is a token of high respect.  We had
+no way of returning this favour but by killing the cow, and sending a
+quarter smoking, with the gall, which amongst them is esteemed the most
+delicate part.  I imagined for some time that the gall of animals was
+less bitter in this country than elsewhere, but upon tasting it, I found
+it more; and yet have frequently seen our servants drink large glasses of
+if with the same pleasure that we drink the most delicious wines.
+
+We chose to begin our mission with the lady of the village, and hoped
+that her prejudice and obstinacy, however great, would in time yield to
+the advice and example of her husband, and that her conversion would have
+a great influence on the whole village, but having lost several days
+without being able to prevail upon her to hear us on any one point, we
+left the place, and went to another mountain, higher and better peopled.
+When we came to the village on the top of it, where the lord lived, we
+were surprised with the cries and lamentations of men that seemed to
+suffer or apprehend some dreadful calamity; and were told, upon inquiring
+the cause, that the inhabitants had been persuaded that we were the
+devil's missionaries, who came to seduce them from the true religion,
+that foreseeing some of their neighbours would be ruined by the
+temptation, they were lamenting the misfortune which was coming upon
+them.  When we began to apply ourselves to the work of the mission we
+could not by any means persuade any but the lord and the priest to
+receive us into their houses; the rest were rough and untractable to that
+degree that, after having converted six, we despaired of making any
+farther progress, and thought it best to remove to other towns where we
+might be better received.
+
+We found, however, a more unpleasing treatment at the next place, and had
+certainly ended our lives there had we not been protected by the governor
+and the priest, who, though not reconciled to the Roman Church, yet
+showed us the utmost civility; the governor informed us of a design
+against our lives, and advised us not to go out after sunset, and gave us
+guards to protect us from the insults of the populace.
+
+We made no long stay in a place where they stopped their ears against the
+voice of God, but returned to the foot of that mountain which we had left
+some days before; we were surrounded, as soon as we began to preach, with
+a multitude of auditors, who came either in expectation of being
+instructed, or from a desire of gratifying their curiosity, and God
+bestowed such a blessing upon our apostolical labours that the whole
+village was converted in a short time.  We then removed to another at the
+middle of the mountain, situated in a kind of natural parterre, or
+garden; the soil was fruitful, and the trees that shaded it from the
+scorching heat of the sun gave it an agreeable and refreshing coolness.
+We had here the convenience of improving the ardour and piety of our new
+converts, and, at the same time, of leading more into the way of the true
+religion: and indeed our success exceeded the utmost of our hopes; we had
+in a short time great numbers whom we thought capable of being admitted
+to the sacraments of baptism and the mass.
+
+We erected our tent, and placed our altar under some great trees, for the
+benefit of the shade; and every day before sun-rising my companion and I
+began to catechise and instruct these new Catholics, and used our utmost
+endeavours to make them abjure their errors.  When we were weary with
+speaking, we placed in ranks those who were sufficiently instructed, and
+passing through them with great vessels of water, baptised them according
+to the form prescribed by the Church.  As their number was very great, we
+cried aloud, those of this rank are named Peter, those of that rank
+Anthony.  And did the same amongst the women, whom we separated from the
+men.  We then confessed them, and admitted them to the communion.  After
+mass we applied ourselves again to catechise, to instruct, and receive
+the renunciation of their errors, scarce allowing ourselves time to make
+a scanty meal, which we never did more than once a day.
+
+After some time had been spent here, we removed to another town not far
+distant, and continued the same practice.  Here I was accosted one day by
+an inhabitant of that place, where he had found the people so prejudiced
+against us, who desired to be admitted to confession.  I could not
+forbear asking him some questions about those lamentations, which we
+heard upon our entering into that place.  He confessed with the utmost
+frankness and ingenuity that the priests and religious have given
+dreadful accounts both of us and of the religion we preached; that the
+unhappy people were taught by them that the curse of God attended us
+wheresoever we went; that we were always followed by the grasshoppers,
+that pest of Abyssinia, which carried famine and destruction over all the
+country; that he, seeing no grasshoppers following us when we passed by
+their village, began to doubt of the reality of what the priests had so
+confidently asserted, and was now convinced that the representation they
+made of us was calumny and imposture.  This discourse gave us double
+pleasure, both as it proved that God had confuted the accusations of our
+enemies, and defended us against their malice without any efforts of our
+own, and that the people who had shunned us with the strongest
+detestation were yet lovers of truth, and came to us on their own accord.
+Nothing could be more grossly absurd than the reproaches which the
+Abyssinian ecclesiastics aspersed us and our religion with.  They had
+taken advantage of the calamity that happened the year of our arrival:
+and the Abyssins, with all their wit, did not consider that they had
+often been distressed by the grasshoppers before there came any Jesuits
+into the country, and indeed before there were any in the world.
+
+Whilst I was in these mountains, I went on Sundays and saints' days
+sometimes to one church and sometimes to another.  One day I went out
+with a resolution not to go to a certain church, where I imagined there
+was no occasion for me, but before I had gone far, I found myself pressed
+by a secret impulse to return back to that same church.  I obeyed the
+influence, and discovered it to proceed from the mercy of God to three
+young children who were destitute of all succour, and at the point of
+death.  I found two very quickly in this miserable state; the mother had
+retired to some distance that she might not see them die, and when she
+saw me stop, came and told me that they had been obliged by want to leave
+the town they lived in, and were at length reduced to this dismal
+condition, that she had been baptised, but that the children had not.
+After I had baptised and relieved them, I continued my walk, reflecting
+with wonder on the mercy of God, and about evening discovered another
+infant, whose mother, evidently a Catholic, cried out to me to save her
+child, or at least that if I could not preserve this uncertain and
+perishable life, I should give it another certain and permanent.  I sent
+my servant to fetch water with the utmost expedition, for there was none
+near, and happily baptised the child before it expired.
+
+Soon after this I returned to Fremona, and had great hopes of
+accompanying the patriarch to the court; but, when we were almost setting
+out, received the command of the superior of the mission to stay at
+Fremona, with a charge of the house there, and of all the Catholics that
+were dispersed over the kingdom of Tigre, an employment very
+ill-proportioned to my abilities.  The house at Fremona has always been
+much regarded even by those emperors who persecuted us; Sultan Segued
+annexed nine large manors to it for ever, which did not make us much more
+wealthy, because of the expensive hospitality which the great conflux of
+strangers obliged us to.  The lands in Abyssinia yield but small
+revenues, unless the owners themselves set the value upon them, which we
+could not do.
+
+The manner of letting farms in Abyssinia differs much from that of other
+countries: the farmer, when the harvest is almost ripe, invites the chumo
+or steward, who is appointed to make an estimate of the value of each
+year's product, to his house, entertains him in the most agreeable manner
+he can; makes him a present, and then takes him to see his corn.  If the
+chumo is pleased with the treat and present, he will give him a
+declaration or writing to witness that his ground, which afforded five or
+six sacks of corn, did you yield so many bushels, and even of this it is
+the custom to abate something; so that our revenue did not increase in
+proportion to our lands; and we found ourselves often obliged to buy
+corn, which, indeed, is not dear, for in fruitful years forty or fifty
+measures, weighing each about twenty-two pounds, may be purchased for a
+crown.
+
+Besides the particular charge I had of the house of Fremona, I was
+appointed the patriarch's grand-vicar through the whole kingdom of Tigre.
+I thought that to discharge this office as I ought, it was incumbent on
+me to provide necessaries as well for the bodies as the souls of the
+converted Catholics.  This labour was much increased by the famine which
+the grasshoppers had brought that year upon the country.  Our house was
+perpetually surrounded by some of those unhappy people, whom want had
+compelled to abandon their habitations, and whose pale cheeks and meagre
+bodies were undeniable proofs of their misery and distress.  All the
+relief I could possibly afford them could not prevent the death of such
+numbers that their bodies filled the highways; and to increase our
+affliction, the wolves having devoured the carcases, and finding no other
+food, fell upon the living; their natural fierceness being so increased
+by hunger, that they dragged the children out of the very houses.  I saw
+myself a troop of wolves tear a child of six years old in pieces before I
+or any one else could come to its assistance.
+
+While I was entirely taken up with the duties of my ministry, the viceroy
+of Tigre received the commands of the Emperor to search for the bones of
+Don Christopher de Gama.  On this occasion it may not be thought
+impertinent to give some account of the life and death of this brave and
+holy Portuguese, who, after having been successful in many battles, fell
+at last into the hands of the Moors, and completed that illustrious life
+by a glorious martyrdom.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+The adventures of the Portuguese, and the actions of Don Christopher de
+Gama in AEthiopia.
+
+About the beginning of the sixteenth century arose a Moor near the Cape
+of Gardafui, who, by the assistance of the forces sent him from Moca by
+the Arabs and Turks, conquered almost all Abyssinia, and founded the
+kingdom of Adel.  He was called Mahomet Gragne, or the Lame.  When he had
+ravaged AEthiopia fourteen years, and was master of the greatest part of
+it, the Emperor David sent to implore succour of the King of Portugal,
+with a promise that when those dominions were recovered which had been
+taken from him, he would entirely submit himself to the Pope, and resign
+the third part of his territories to the Portuguese.  After many delays,
+occasioned by the great distance between Portugal and Abyssinia, and some
+unsuccessful attempts, King John the Third, having made Don Stephen de
+Gama, son of the celebrated Don Vasco de Gama, viceroy of the Indies,
+gave him orders to enter the Red Sea in pursuit of the Turkish galleys,
+and to fall upon them wherever he found them, even in the Port of Suez.
+The viceroy, in obedience to the king's commands, equipped a powerful
+fleet, went on board himself, and cruised about the coast without being
+able to discover the Turkish vessels.  Enraged to find that with this
+great preparation he should be able to effect nothing, he landed at Mazna
+four hundred Portuguese, under the command of Don Christopher de Gama,
+his brother.  He was soon joined by some Abyssins, who had not yet forgot
+their allegiance to their sovereign; and in his march up the country was
+met by the Empress Helena, who received him as her deliverer.  At first
+nothing was able to stand before the valour of the Portuguese, the Moors
+were driven from one mountain to another, and were dislodged even from
+those places, which it seemed almost impossible to approach, even
+unmolested by the opposition of an enemy.
+
+These successes seemed to promise a more happy event than that which
+followed them.  It was now winter, a season in which, as the reader hath
+been already informed, it is almost impossible to travel in AEthiopia.
+The Portuguese unadvisedly engaged themselves in an enterprise, to march
+through the whole country, in order to join the Emperor, who was then in
+the most remote part of his dominions.  Mahomet, who was in possession of
+the mountains, being informed by his spies that the Portuguese were but
+four hundred, encamped in the plain of Ballut, and sent a message to the
+general that he knew the Abyssins had imposed on the King of Portugal,
+which, being acquainted with their treachery, he was not surprised at,
+and that in compassion of the commander's youth, he would give him and
+his men, if they would return, free passage, and furnish them with
+necessaries; that he might consult upon the matter, and depend upon his
+word, reminding him, however, that it was not safe to refuse his offer.
+
+The general presented the ambassador with a rich robe, and returned this
+gallant answer: "That he and his fellow-soldiers were come with an
+intention to drive Mahomet out of these countries, which he had
+wrongfully usurped; that his present design was, instead of returning
+back the way he came, as Mahomet advised, to open himself a passage
+through the country of his enemies; that Mahomet should rather think of
+determining whether he would fight or yield up his ill-gotten
+territories, than of prescribing measures to him; that he put his whole
+confidence in the omnipotence of God and the justice of his cause, and
+that to show how just a sense he had of Mahomet's kindness, he took the
+liberty of presenting him with a looking-glass and a pair of pincers."
+
+This answer, and the present, so provoked Mahomet, who was at dinner when
+he received it, that he rose from table immediately to march against the
+Portuguese, imagining he should meet with no resistance; and indeed, any
+man, however brave, would have been of the same opinion; for his forces
+consisted of fifteen thousand foot, beside a numerous body of cavalry,
+and the Portuguese commander had but three hundred and fifty men, having
+lost eight in attacking some passes, and left forty at Mazma, to maintain
+an open intercourse with the viceroy of the Indies.  This little troop of
+our countrymen were upon the declivity of a hill near a wood; above them
+stood the Abyssins, who resolved to remain quiet spectators of the
+battle, and to declare themselves on that side which should be favoured
+with victory.
+
+Mahomet began the attack with only ten horsemen, against whom as many
+Portuguese were detached, who fired with so much exactness, that nine of
+the Moors fell, and the tenth with great difficulty made his escape.  This
+omen of good fortune gave the soldiers great encouragement; the action
+grew hot, and they came at length to a general battle; but the Moors,
+dismayed by the advantages our men had obtained at first, were half
+defeated before the fight.  The great fire of our muskets and artillery
+broke them immediately.  Mahomet preserved his own life not without
+difficulty, but did not lose his capacity with the battle: he had still a
+great number of troops remaining, which he rallied, and entrenched
+himself at Membret, a place naturally strong, with an intention to pass
+the winter there, and wait for succours.
+
+The Portuguese, who were more desirous of glory than wealth, did not
+encumber themselves with plunder, but with the utmost expedition pursued
+their enemies, in hopes of cutting them entirely off.  This expectation
+was too sanguine: they found them encamped in a place naturally almost
+inaccessible, and so well fortified, that it would be no less than
+extreme rashness to attack them.  They therefore entrenched themselves on
+a hill over against the enemy's camp, and though victorious, were under
+great disadvantages.  They saw new troops arrive every day at the enemy's
+camp, and their small number grew less continually; their friends at
+Mazna could not join them; they knew not how to procure provisions, and
+could put no confidence in the Abyssins; yet recollecting the great
+things achieved by their countrymen, and depending on the Divine
+protection, they made no doubt of surmounting all difficulties.
+
+Mahomet on his part was not idle; he solicited the assistance of the
+Mahometan princes, pressed them with all the motives of religion, and
+obtained a reinforcement of two thousand musketeers from the Arabs, and a
+train of artillery from the Turks.  Animated with these succours, he
+marched out of his trenches to enter those of the Portuguese, who
+received him with the utmost bravery, destroyed prodigious numbers of his
+men, and made many sallies with great vigour, but losing every day some
+of their small troops, and most of their officers being killed, it was
+easy to surround and force them.
+
+Their general had already one arm broken, and his knee shattered with a
+musket-shot, which made him unable to repair to all those places where
+his presence was necessary to animate his soldiers.  Valour was at length
+forced to submit to superiority of numbers; the enemy entered the camp
+and put all to the sword.  The general with ten more escaped the
+slaughter, and by means of their horses retreated to a wood, where they
+were soon discovered by a detachment sent in search of them, and brought
+to Mahomet, who was overjoyed to see his most formidable enemy in his
+power, and ordered him to take care of his uncle and nephew, who were
+wounded, telling him he should answer for their lives; and, upon their
+death, taxed him with hastening it.  The brave Portuguese made no
+excuses, but told him he came thither to destroy Mahometans, and not to
+save them.  Mahomet, enraged at this language, ordered a stone to be put
+on his head, and exposed this great man to the insults and reproaches of
+the whole army.  After this they inflicted various kinds of tortures on
+him, which he endured with incredible resolution, and without uttering
+the least complaint, praising the mercy of God who had ordained him to
+suffer in such a cause.
+
+Mahomet, at last satisfied with cruelty, made an offer of sending him to
+the viceroy of the Indies, if he would turn Mussulman.  The hero took
+fire at this proposal, and answered with the highest indignation that
+nothing should make him forsake his heavenly Master to follow an
+impostor, and continued in the severest terms to vilify their false
+prophet, till Mahomet struck off his head.
+
+Nor did the resentment of Mahomet end here; he divided his body into
+quarters, and sent them to different places.  The Catholics gathered the
+remains of this glorious martyr, and interred them.  Every Moor that
+passed by threw a stone upon his grave, and raised in time such a heap,
+as I found it difficult to remove when I went in search of those precious
+relics.
+
+What I have here related of the death of Don Christopher de Gama I was
+told by an old man, who was an eye-witness of it: and there is a
+tradition in the country that in the place where his head fell, a
+fountain sprung up of wonderful virtue, which cured many diseases
+otherwise past remedy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Mahomet continues the war, and is killed.  The stratagem of Peter Leon.
+
+Mahomet, that he might make the best use of his victory, ranged over a
+great part of Abyssinia in search of the Emperor Claudius, who was then
+in the kingdom of Dambia.  All places submitted to the Mahometan, whose
+insolence increased every day with his power; and nothing after the
+defeat of the Portuguese was supposed able to put a stop to the progress
+of his arms.
+
+The soldiers of Portugal, having lost their chief, resorted to the
+Emperor, who, though young, promised great things, and told them that
+since their own general was dead, they would accept of none but himself.
+He received them with great kindness, and hearing of Don Christopher de
+Gama's misfortune, could not forbear honouring with some tears the memory
+of a man who had come so far to his succour, and lost his life in his
+cause.
+
+The Portuguese, resolved at any rate to revenge the fate of their
+general, desired the Emperor to assign them the post opposite to Mahomet,
+which was willingly granted them.  That King, flushed with his victories,
+and imagining to fight was undoubtedly to conquer, sought all occasions
+of giving the Abyssins battle.  The Portuguese, who desired nothing more
+than to re-establish their reputation by revenging the affront put upon
+them by the late defeat, advised the Emperor to lay hold on the first
+opportunity of fighting.  Both parties joined battle with equal fury.  The
+Portuguese directed all their force against that part where Mahomet was
+posted.  Peter Leon, who had been servant to the general, singled the
+King out among the crowd, and shot him into the head with his musket.
+Mahomet, finding himself wounded, would have retired out of the battle,
+and was followed by Peter Leon, till he fell down dead; the Portuguese,
+alighting from his horse, cut off one of his ears.  The Moors being now
+without a leader, continued the fight but a little time, and at length
+fled different ways in the utmost disorder; the Abyssinians pursued them,
+and made a prodigious slaughter.  One of them, seeing the King's body on
+the ground, cut off his head and presented it to the Emperor.  The sight
+of it filled the whole camp with acclamations; every one applauded the
+valour and good fortune of the Abyssin, and no reward was thought great
+enough for so important a service.  Peter Leon, having stood by some
+time, asked whether the King had but one ear? if he had two, says he, it
+seems likely that the man who killed him cut off one and keeps it as a
+proof of his exploit.  The Abyssin stood confused, and the Portuguese
+produced the ear out of his pocket.  Every one commended the stratagem;
+and the Emperor commanded the Abyssin to restore all the presents he had
+received, and delivered them with many more to Peter Leon.
+
+I imagined the reader would not be displeased to be informed who this man
+was, whose precious remains were searched for by a viceroy of Tigre, at
+the command of the Emperor himself.  The commission was directed to me,
+nor did I ever receive one that was more welcome on many accounts.  I had
+contracted an intimate friendship with the Count de Vidigueira, viceroy
+of the Indies, and had been desired by him, when I took my leave of him,
+upon going to Melinda, to inform myself where his relation was buried,
+and to send him some of his relics.
+
+The viceroy, son-in-law to the Emperor, with whom I was joined in the
+commission, gave me many distinguishing proofs of his affection to me,
+and of his zeal for the Catholic religion.  It was a journey of fifteen
+days through part of the country possessed by the Galles, which made it
+necessary to take troops with us for our security; yet, notwithstanding
+this precaution, the hazard of the expedition appeared so great, that our
+friends bid us farewell with tears, and looked upon us as destined to
+unavoidable destruction.  The viceroy had given orders to some troops to
+join us on the road, so that our little army grew stronger as we
+advanced.  There is no making long marches in this country; an army here
+is a great city well peopled and under exact government: they take their
+wives and children with them, and the camp hath its streets, its market
+places, its churches, courts of justice, judges, and civil officers.
+
+Before they set forward, they advertise the governors of provinces
+through which they are to pass, that they may take care to furnish what
+is necessary for the subsistence of the troops.  These governors give
+notice to the adjacent places that the army is to march that way on such
+a day, and that they are assessed such a quantity of bread, beer, and
+cows.  The peasants are very exact in supplying their quota, being
+obliged to pay double the value in case of failure; and very often when
+they have produced their full share, they are told that they have been
+deficient, and condemned to buy their peace with a large fine.
+
+When the providore has received these contributions, he divides them
+according to the number of persons, and the want they are in: the
+proportion they observe in this distribution is twenty pots of beer, ten
+of mead, and one cow to a hundred loaves.  The chief officers and persons
+of note carry their own provisions with them, which I did too, though I
+afterwards found the precaution unnecessary, for I had often two or three
+cows more than I wanted, which I bestowed on those whose allowance fell
+short.
+
+The Abyssins are not only obliged to maintain the troops in their march,
+but to repair the roads, to clear them, especially in the forests, of
+brambles and thorns, and by all means possible to facilitate the passage
+of the army.  They are, by long custom, extremely ready at encamping.  As
+soon as they come to a place they think convenient to halt at, the
+officer that commands the vanguard marks out with his pike the place for
+the King's or viceroy's tent: every one knows his rank, and how much
+ground he shall take up; so the camp is formed in an instant.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+They discover the relics.  Their apprehension of the Galles.  The author
+converts a criminal, and procures his pardon.
+
+We took with us an old Moor, so enfeebled with age that they were forced
+to carry him: he had seen, as I have said, the sufferings and death of
+Don Christopher de Gama; and a Christian, who had often heard all those
+passages related to his father, and knew the place where the uncle and
+nephew of Mahomet were buried, and where they interred one quarter of the
+Portuguese martyr.  We often examined these two men, and always apart;
+they agreed in every circumstance of their relations, and confirmed us in
+our belief of them by leading us to the place where we took up the uncle
+and nephew of Mahomet, as they had described.  With no small labour we
+removed the heap of stones which the Moors, according to their custom,
+had thrown upon the body, and discovered the treasure we came in search
+of.  Not many paces off was the fountain where they had thrown his head,
+with a dead dog, to raise a greater aversion in the Moors.  I gathered
+the teeth and the lower jaw.  No words can express the ecstasies I was
+transported with at seeing the relics of so great a man, and reflecting
+that it had pleased God to make me the instrument of their preservation,
+so that one day, if our holy father the Pope shall be so pleased, they
+may receive the veneration of the faithful.  All burst into tears at the
+sight.  We indulged a melancholy pleasure in reflecting what that great
+man had achieved for the deliverance of Abyssinia, from the yoke and
+tyranny of the Moors; the voyages he had undertaken; the battles he had
+fought; the victories he had won; and the cruel and tragical death he had
+suffered.  Our first moments were so entirely taken up with these
+reflections that we were incapable of considering the danger we were in
+of being immediately surrounded by the Galles; but as soon as we awoke to
+that thought, we contrived to retreat as fast as we could.  Our
+expedition, however, was not so great but we saw them on the top of a
+mountain ready to pour down upon us.  The viceroy attended us closely
+with his little army, but had been probably not much more secure than we,
+his force consisting only of foot, and the Galles entirely of horse, a
+service at which they are very expert.  Our apprehensions at last proved
+to be needless, for the troops we saw were of a nation at that time in
+alliance with the Abyssins.
+
+Not caring, after this alarm, to stay longer here, we set out on our
+march back, and in our return passed through a village where two men, who
+had murdered a domestic of the viceroy, lay under an arrest.  As they had
+been taken in the fact, the law of the country allowed that they might
+have been executed the same hour, but the viceroy having ordered that
+their death should be deferred till his return, delivered them to the
+relations of the dead, to be disposed of as they should think proper.
+They made great rejoicings all the night, on account of having it in
+their power to revenge their relation; and the unhappy criminals had the
+mortification of standing by to behold this jollity, and the preparations
+made for their execution.
+
+The Abyssins have three different ways of putting a criminal to death:
+one way is to bury him to the neck, to lay a heap of brambles upon his
+head, and to cover the whole with a great stone; another is to beat him
+to death with cudgels; a third, and the most usual, is to stab him with
+their lances.  The nearest relation gives the first thrust, and is
+followed by all the rest according to their degrees of kindred; and they
+to whom it does not happen to strike while the offender is alive, dip the
+points of their lances in his blood to show that they partake in the
+revenge.  It frequently happens that the relations of the criminal are
+for taking the like vengeance for his death, and sometimes pursue this
+resolution so far that all those who had any share in the prosecution
+lose their lives.
+
+I being informed that these two men were to die, wrote to the viceroy for
+his permission to exhort them, before they entered into eternity, to
+unite themselves to the Church.  My request being granted, I applied
+myself to the men, and found one of them so obstinate that he would not
+even afford me a hearing, and died in his error.  The other I found more
+flexible, and wrought upon him so far that he came to my tent to be
+instructed.  After my care of his eternal welfare had met with such
+success, I could not forbear attempting something for his temporal, and
+by my endeavours matters were so accommodated that the relations were
+willing to grant his life on condition he paid a certain number of cows,
+or the value.  Their first demand was of a thousand; he offered them
+five; they at last were satisfied with twelve, provided they were paid
+upon the spot.  The Abyssins are extremely charitable, and the women, on
+such occasions, will give even their necklaces and pendants, so that,
+with what I gave myself, I collected in the camp enough to pay the fine,
+and all parties were content.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+The viceroy is offended by his wife.  He complains to the Emperor, but
+without redress.  He meditates a revolt, raises an army, and makes an
+attempt to seize upon the author.
+
+We continued our march, and the viceroy having been advertised that some
+troops had appeared in a hostile manner on the frontiers, went against
+them.  I parted from him, and arrived at Fremona, where the Portuguese
+expected me with great impatience.  I reposited the bones of Don
+Christopher de Gama in a decent place, and sent them the May following to
+the viceroy of the Indies, together with his arms, which had been
+presented me by a gentleman of Abyssinia, and a picture of the Virgin
+Mary, which that gallant Portuguese always carried about him.
+
+The viceroy, during all the time he was engaged in this expedition, heard
+very provoking accounts of the bad conduct of his wife, and complained of
+it to the Emperor, entreating him either to punish his daughter himself,
+or to permit him to deliver her over to justice, that, if she was falsely
+accused, she might have an opportunity of putting her own honour and her
+husband's out of dispute.  The Emperor took little notice of his son-in-
+law's remonstrances; and, the truth is, the viceroy was somewhat more
+nice in that matter than the people of rank in this country generally
+are.  There are laws, it is true, against adultery, but they seem to have
+been only for the meaner people, and the women of quality, especially the
+ouzoros, or ladies of the blood royal, are so much above them, that their
+husbands have not even the liberty of complaining; and certainly to
+support injuries of this kind without complaining requires a degree of
+patience which few men can boast of.  The viceroy's virtue was not proof
+against this temptation.  He fell into a deep melancholy, and resolved to
+be revenged on his father-in-law.  He knew the present temper of the
+people, that those of the greatest interest and power were by no means
+pleased with the changes of religion, and only waited for a fair
+opportunity to revolt; and that these discontents were everywhere
+heightened by the monks and clergy.  Encouraged by these reflections, he
+was always talking of the just reasons he had to complain of the Emperor,
+and gave them sufficient room to understand that if they would appear in
+his party, he would declare himself for the ancient religion, and put
+himself at the head of those who should take arms in the defence of it.
+The chief and almost the only thing that hindered him from raising a
+formidable rebellion, was the mutual distrust they entertained of one
+another, each fearing that as soon as the Emperor should publish an act
+of grace, or general amnesty, the greatest part would lay down their arms
+and embrace it; and this suspicion was imagined more reasonable of the
+viceroy than of any other.  Notwithstanding this difficulty, the priests,
+who interested themselves much in this revolt, ran with the utmost
+earnestness from church to church, levelling their sermons against the
+Emperor and the Catholic religion; and that they might have the better
+success in putting a stop to all ecclesiastical innovations, they came to
+a resolution of putting all the missionaries to the sword; and that the
+viceroy might have no room to hope for a pardon, they obliged him to give
+the first wound to him that should fall into his hands.
+
+As I was the nearest, and by consequence the most exposed, an order was
+immediately issued out for apprehending me, it being thought a good
+expedient to seize me, and force me to build a citadel, into which they
+might retreat if they should happen to meet with a defeat.  The viceroy
+wrote to me to desire that I would come to him, he having, as he said, an
+affair of the highest importance to communicate.
+
+The frequent assemblies which the viceroy held had already been much
+talked of; and I had received advice that he was ready for a revolt, and
+that my death was to be the first signal of an open war.  Knowing that
+the viceroy had made many complaints of the treatment he received from
+his father-in-law, I made no doubt that he had some ill design in hand;
+and yet could scarce persuade myself that after all the tokens of
+friendship I had received from him he would enter into any measures for
+destroying me.  While I was yet in suspense, I despatched a faithful
+servant to the viceroy with my excuse for disobeying him; and gave the
+messenger strict orders to observe all that passed, and bring me an exact
+account.
+
+This affair was of too great moment not to engage my utmost endeavours to
+arrive at the most certain knowledge of it, and to advertise the court of
+the danger.  I wrote, therefore, to one of our fathers, who was then near
+the Emperor, the best intelligence I could obtain of all that had passed,
+of the reports that were spread through all this part of the empire, and
+of the disposition which I discovered in the people to a general
+defection; telling him, however, that I could not yet believe that the
+viceroy, who had honoured me with his friendship, and of whom I never had
+any thought but how to oblige him, could now have so far changed his
+sentiments as to take away my life.
+
+The letters which I received by my servant, and the assurances he gave
+that I need fear nothing, for that I was never mentioned by the viceroy
+without great marks of esteem, so far confirmed me in my error, that I
+went from Fremona with a resolution to see him.  I did not reflect that a
+man who could fail in his duty to his King, his father-in-law, and his
+benefactor, might, without scruple, do the same to a stranger, though
+distinguished as his friend; and thus sanguine and unsuspecting continued
+my journey, still receiving intimation from all parts to take care of
+myself.  At length, when I was within a few days' journey of the viceroy,
+I received a billet in more plain and express terms than anything I had
+been told yet, charging me with extreme imprudence in putting myself into
+the hands of those men who had undoubtedly sworn to cut me off.
+
+I began, upon this, to distrust the sincerity of the viceroy's
+professions, and resolved, upon the receipt of another letter from the
+viceroy, to return directly.  In this letter, having excused himself for
+not waiting for my arrival, he desired me in terms very strong and
+pressing to come forward, and stay for him at his own house, assuring me
+that he had given such orders for my entertainment as should prevent my
+being tired with living there.  I imagined at first that he had left some
+servants to provide for my reception, but being advertised at the same
+time that there was no longer any doubt of the certainty of his revolt,
+that the Galles were engaged to come to his assistance, and that he was
+gone to sign a treaty with them, I was no longer in suspense what
+measures to take, but returned to Fremona.
+
+Here I found a letter from the Emperor, which prohibited me to go out,
+and the orders which he had sent through all these parts, directing them
+to arrest me wherever I was found, and to hinder me from proceeding on my
+journey.  These orders came too late to contribute to my preservation,
+and this prince's goodness had been in vain, if God, whose protection I
+have often had experience of in my travels, had not been my conductor in
+this emergency.
+
+The viceroy, hearing that I was returned to my residence, did not
+discover any concern or chagrin as at a disappointment, for such was his
+privacy and dissimulation that the most penetrating could never form any
+conjecture that could be depended on, about his designs, till everything
+was ready for the execution of them.  My servant, a man of wit, was
+surprised as well as everybody else; and I can ascribe to nothing but a
+miracle my escape from so many snares as he laid to entrap me.
+
+There happened during this perplexity of my affairs an accident of small
+consequence in itself, which yet I think deserves to be mentioned, as it
+shows the credulity and ignorance of the Abyssins.  I received a visit
+from a religious, who passed, though he was blind, for the most learned
+person in all that country.  He had the whole Scriptures in his memory,
+but seemed to have been at more pains to retain them than understand
+them; as he talked much he often took occasion to quote them, and did it
+almost always improperly.  Having invited him to sup and pass the night
+with me, I set before him some excellent mead, which he liked so well as
+to drink somewhat beyond the bounds of exact temperance.  Next day, to
+make some return for his entertainment, he took upon him to divert me
+with some of those stories which the monks amuse simple people with, and
+told me of a devil that haunted a fountain, and used to make it his
+employment to plague the monks that came thither to fetch water, and
+continued his malice till he was converted by the founder of their order,
+who found him no very stubborn proselyte till they came to the point of
+circumcision; the devil was unhappily prepossessed with a strong aversion
+from being circumcised, which, however, by much persuasion, he at last
+agreed to, and afterwards taking a religious habit, died ten years after
+with great signs of sanctity.  He added another history of a famous
+Abyssinian monk, who killed a devil two hundred feet high, and only four
+feet thick, that ravaged all the country; the peasants had a great desire
+to throw the dead carcase from the top of a rock, but could not with all
+their force remove it from the place, but the monk drew it after him with
+all imaginable ease and pushed it down.  This story was followed by
+another, of a young devil that became a religious of the famous monastery
+of Aba Gatima.  The good father would have favoured me with more
+relations of the same kind, if I had been in the humour to have heard
+them, but, interrupting him, I told him that all these relations
+confirmed what we had found by experience, that the monks of Abyssinia
+were no improper company for the devil.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+The viceroy is defeated and hanged.  The author narrowly escapes being
+poisoned.
+
+I did not stay long at Fremona, but left that town and the province of
+Tigre, and soon found that I was very happy in that resolution, for
+scarce had I left the place before the viceroy came in person to put me
+to death, who, not finding me, as he expected, resolved to turn all his
+vengeance against the father Gaspard Paes, a venerable man, who was grown
+grey in the missions of AEthiopia, and five other missionaries newly
+arrived from the Indies; his design was to kill them all at one time
+without suffering any to escape; he therefore sent for them all, but one
+happily being sick, another stayed to attend him; to this they owed their
+lives, for the viceroy, finding but four of them, sent them back, telling
+them he would see them all together.  The fathers, having been already
+told of his revolt, and of the pretences he made use of to give it
+credit, made no question of his intent to massacre them, and contrived
+their escape so that they got safely out of his power.
+
+The viceroy, disappointed in his scheme, vented all his rage upon Father
+James, whom the patriarch had given him as his confessor; the good man
+was carried, bound hand and foot, into the middle of the camp; the
+viceroy gave the first stab in the throat, and all the rest struck him
+with their lances, and dipped their weapons in his blood, promising each
+other that they would never accept of any act of oblivion or terms of
+peace by which the Catholic religion was not abolished throughout the
+empire, and all those who professed it either banished or put to death.
+They then ordered all the beads, images, crosses, and relics which the
+Catholics made use of to be thrown into the fire.
+
+The anger of God was now ready to fall upon his head for these daring and
+complicated crimes; the Emperor had already confiscated all his goods,
+and given the government of the kingdom of Tigre to Keba Christos, a good
+Catholic, who was sent with a numerous army to take possession of it.  As
+both armies were in search of each other, it was not long before they
+came to a battle.  The revolted viceroy Tecla Georgis placed all his
+confidence in the Galles, his auxiliaries.  Keba Christos, who had
+marched with incredible expedition to hinder the enemy from making any
+intrenchments, would willingly have refreshed his men a few days before
+the battle, but finding the foe vigilant, thought it not proper to stay
+till he was attacked, and therefore resolved to make the first onset;
+then presenting himself before his army without arms and with his head
+uncovered, assured them that such was his confidence in God's protection
+of those that engaged in so just a cause, that though he were in that
+condition and alone, he would attack his enemies.
+
+The battle began immediately, and of all the troops of Tecla Georgis only
+the Galles made any resistance, the rest abandoned him without striking a
+blow.  The unhappy commander, seeing all his squadrons broken, and three
+hundred of the Galles, with twelve ecclesiastics, killed on the spot, hid
+himself in a cave, where he was found three days afterwards, with his
+favourite and a monk.  When they took him, they cut off the heads of his
+two companions in the field, and carried him to the Emperor; the
+procedure against him was not long, and he was condemned to be burnt
+alive.  Then imagining that, if he embraced the Catholic faith, the
+intercession of the missionaries, with the entreaties of his wife and
+children, might procure him a pardon, he desired a Jesuit to hear his
+confession, and abjured his errors.  The Emperor was inflexible both to
+the entreaties of his daughter and the tears of his grand-children, and
+all that could be obtained of him was that the sentence should be
+mollified, and changed into a condemnation to be hanged.  Tecla Georgis
+renounced his abjuration, and at his death persisted in his errors.
+Adero, his sister, who had borne the greatest share in his revolt, was
+hanged on the same tree fifteen days after.
+
+I arrived not long after at the Emperor's court, and had the honour of
+kissing his hands; but stayed not long in a place where no missionary
+ought to linger, unless obliged by the most pressing necessity: but being
+ordered by my superiors into the kingdom of Damote, I set out on my
+journey, and on the road was in great danger of losing my life by my
+curiosity of tasting a herb, which I found near a brook, and which,
+though I had often heard of it, I did not know.  It bears a great
+resemblance to our radishes; the leaf and colour were beautiful, and the
+taste not unpleasant.  It came into my mind when I began to chew it that
+perhaps it might be that venomous herb against which no antidote had yet
+been found, but persuading myself afterwards that my fears were merely
+chimerical, I continued to chew it, till a man accidentally meeting me,
+and seeing me with a handful of it, cried out to me that I was poisoned;
+I had happily not swallowed any of it, and throwing out what I had in my
+mouth, I returned God thanks for this instance of his protection.
+
+I crossed the Nile the first time in my journey to the kingdom of Damote;
+my passage brought into my mind all that I had read either in ancient or
+modern writers of this celebrated river; I recollected the great expenses
+at which some Emperors had endeavoured to gratify their curiosity of
+knowing the sources of this mighty stream, which nothing but their little
+acquaintance with the Abyssins made so difficult to be found.  I passed
+the river within two days' journey of its head, near a wide plain, which
+is entirely laid under water when it begins to overflow the banks.  Its
+channel is even here so wide, that a ball-shot from a musket can scarce
+reach the farther bank.  Here is neither boat nor bridge, and the river
+is so full of hippopotami, or river-horses, and crocodiles, that it is
+impossible to swim over without danger of being devoured.  The only way
+of passing it is upon floats, which they guide as well as they can with
+long poles.  Nor is even this way without danger, for these destructive
+animals overturn the floats, and tear the passengers in pieces.  The
+river horse, which lives only on grass and branches of trees, is
+satisfied with killing the men, but the crocodile being more voracious,
+feeds upon the carcases.
+
+But since I am arrived at the banks of this renowned river, which I have
+passed and repassed so many times; and since all that I have read of the
+nature of its waters, and the causes of its overflowing, is full of
+fables, the reader may not be displeased to find here an account of what
+I saw myself, or was told by the inhabitants.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+A description of the Nile.
+
+The Nile, which the natives call Abavi, that is, the Father of Waters,
+rises first in Sacala, a province of the kingdom of Goiama, which is one
+of the most fruitful and agreeable of all the Abyssinian dominions.  This
+province is inhabited by a nation of the Agaus, who call, but only call,
+themselves Christians, for by daily intermarriages they have allied
+themselves to the Pagan Agaus, and adopted all their customs and
+ceremonies.  These two nations are very numerous, fierce, and
+unconquerable, inhabiting a country full of mountains, which are covered
+with woods, and hollowed by nature into vast caverns, many of which are
+capable of containing several numerous families, and hundreds of cows.  To
+these recesses the Agaus betake themselves when they are driven out of
+the plain, where it is almost impossible to find them, and certain ruin
+to pursue them.  This people increases extremely, every man being allowed
+so many wives as he hath hundreds of cows, and it is seldom that the
+hundreds are required to be complete.
+
+In the eastern part of this kingdom, on the declivity of a mountain,
+whose descent is so easy that it seems a beautiful plain, is that source
+of the Nile which has been sought after at so much expense of labour, and
+about which such variety of conjectures hath been formed without success.
+This spring, or rather these two springs, are two holes, each about two
+feet diameter, a stone's cast distant from each other; the one is but
+about five feet and a half in depth--at least we could not get our
+plummet farther, perhaps because it was stopped by roots, for the whole
+place is full of trees; of the other, which is somewhat less, with a line
+of ten feet we could find no bottom, and were assured by the inhabitants
+that none ever had been found.  It is believed here that these springs
+are the vents of a great subterraneous lake, and they have this
+circumstance to favour their opinion, that the ground is always moist and
+so soft that the water boils up under foot as one walks upon it.  This is
+more visible after rains, for then the ground yields and sinks so much,
+that I believe it is chiefly supported by the roots of trees that are
+interwoven one with another; such is the ground round about these
+fountains.  At a little distance to the south is a village named Guix,
+through which the way lies to the top of the mountain, from whence the
+traveller discovers a vast extent of land, which appears like a deep
+valley, though the mountain rises so imperceptibly that those who go up
+or down it are scarce sensible of any declivity.
+
+On the top of this mountain is a little hill which the idolatrous Agaus
+have in great veneration; their priest calls them together at this place
+once a year, and having sacrificed a cow, throws the head into one of the
+springs of the Nile; after which ceremony, every one sacrifices a cow or
+more, according to their different degrees of wealth or devotion.  The
+bones of these cows have already formed two mountains of considerable
+height, which afford a sufficient proof that these nations have always
+paid their adorations to this famous river.  They eat these sacrifices
+with great devotion, as flesh consecrated to their deity.  Then the
+priest anoints himself with the grease and tallow of the cows, and sits
+down on a heap of straw, on the top and in the middle of a pile which is
+prepared; they set fire to it, and the whole heap is consumed without any
+injury to the priest, who while the fire continues harangues the standers
+by, and confirms them in their present ignorance and superstition.  When
+the pile is burnt, and the discourse at an end, every one makes a large
+present to the priest, which is the grand design of this religious
+mockery.
+
+To return to the course of the Nile: its waters, after the first rise,
+run to the eastward for about a musket-shot, then turning to the north,
+continue hidden in the grass and weeds for about a quarter of a league,
+and discover themselves for the first time among some rocks--a sight not
+to be enjoyed without some pleasure by those who have read the fabulous
+accounts of this stream delivered by the ancients, and the vain
+conjectures and reasonings which have been formed upon its original, the
+nature of its water, its cataracts, and its inundations, all which we are
+now entirely acquainted with and eye-witnesses of.
+
+Many interpreters of the Holy Scriptures pretend that Gihon, mentioned in
+Genesis, is no other than the Nile, which encompasseth all AEthiopia; but
+as the Gihon had its source from the terrestrial paradise, and we know
+that the Nile rises in the country of the Agaus, it will be found, I
+believe, no small difficulty to conceive how the same river could arise
+from two sources so distant from each other, or how a river from so low a
+source should spring up and appear in a place perhaps the highest in the
+world: for if we consider that Arabia and Palestine are in their
+situation almost level with Egypt; that Egypt is as low, if compared with
+the kingdom of Dambia, as the deepest valley in regard of the highest
+mountain; that the province of Sacala is yet more elevated than Dambia;
+that the waters of the Nile must either pass under the Red Sea, or take a
+great compass about, we shall find it hard to conceive such an attractive
+power in the earth as may be able to make the waters rise through the
+obstruction of so much sand from places so low to the most lofty region
+of AEthiopia.
+
+But leaving these difficulties, let us go on to describe the course of
+the Nile.  It rolls away from its source with so inconsiderable a
+current, that it appears unlikely to escape being dried up by the hot
+season, but soon receiving an increase from the Gemma, the Keltu, the
+Bransu, and other less rivers, it is of such a breadth in the plain of
+Boad, which is not above three days' journey from its source, that a ball
+shot from a musket will scarce fly from one bank to the other.  Here it
+begins to run northwards, deflecting, however, a little towards the east,
+for the space of nine or ten leagues, and then enters the so much talked
+of Lake of Dambia, called by the natives Bahar Sena, the Resemblance of
+the Sea, or Bahar Dambia, the Sea of Dambia.  It crosses this lake only
+at one end with so violent a rapidity, that the waters of the Nile may be
+distinguished through all the passage, which is six leagues.  Here begins
+the greatness of the Nile.  Fifteen miles farther, in the land of Alata,
+it rushes precipitately from the top of a high rock, and forms one of the
+most beautiful water-falls in the world: I passed under it without being
+wet; and resting myself there, for the sake of the coolness, was charmed
+with a thousand delightful rainbows, which the sunbeams painted on the
+water in all their shining and lively colours.  The fall of this mighty
+stream from so great a height makes a noise that may be heard to a
+considerable distance; but I could not observe that the neighbouring
+inhabitants were at all deaf.  I conversed with several, and was as
+easily heard by them as I heard them.  The mist that rises from this fall
+of water may be seen much farther than the noise can be heard.  After
+this cataract the Nile again collects its scattered stream among the
+rocks, which seem to be disjoined in this place only to afford it a
+passage.  They are so near each other that, in my time, a bridge of
+beams, on which the whole Imperial army passed, was laid over them.
+Sultan Segued hath since built here a bridge of one arch in the same
+place, for which purpose he procured masons from India.  This bridge,
+which is the first the Abyssins have seen on the Nile, very much
+facilitates a communication between the provinces, and encourages
+commerce among the inhabitants of his empire.
+
+Here the river alters its course, and passes through many various
+kingdoms; on the east it leaves Begmeder, or the Land of Sheep, so called
+from great numbers that are bred there, beg, in that language, signifying
+sheep, and meder, a country.  It then waters the kingdoms of Amhara,
+Olaca, Choaa, and Damot, which lie on the left side, and the kingdom of
+Goiama, which it bounds on the right, forming by its windings a kind of
+peninsula.  Then entering Bezamo, a province of the kingdom of Damot, and
+Gamarchausa, part of Goiama, it returns within a short day's journey of
+its spring; though to pursue it through all its mazes, and accompany it
+round the kingdom of Goiama, is a journey of twenty-nine days.  So far,
+and a few days' journey farther, this river confines itself to Abyssinia,
+and then passes into the bordering countries of Fazulo and Ombarca.
+
+These vast regions we have little knowledge of: they are inhabited by
+nations entirely different from the Abyssins; their hair is like that of
+the other blacks, short and curled.  In the year 1615, Rassela Christos,
+lieutenant-general to Sultan Segued, entered those kingdoms with his army
+in a hostile manner; but being able to get no intelligence of the
+condition of the people, and astonished at their unbounded extent, he
+returned, without daring to attempt anything.
+
+As the empire of the Abyssins terminates at these deserts, and as I have
+followed the course of the Nile no farther, I here leave it to range over
+barbarous kingdoms, and convey wealth and plenty into Egypt, which owes
+to the annual inundations of this river its envied fertility.  I know not
+anything of the rest of its passage, but that it receives great increases
+from many other rivers; that it has several cataracts like the first
+already described, and that few fish are to be found in it, which
+scarcity, doubtless, is to be attributed to the river-horses and
+crocodiles, which destroy the weaker inhabitants of these waters, and
+something may be allowed to the cataracts, it being difficult for fish to
+fall so far without being killed.
+
+Although some who have travelled in Asia and Africa have given the world
+their descriptions of crocodiles and hippopotamus, or river-horse, yet as
+the Nile has at least as great numbers of each as any river in the world,
+I cannot but think my account of it would be imperfect without some
+particular mention of these animals.
+
+The crocodile is very ugly, having no proportion between his length and
+thickness; he hath short feet, a wide mouth, with two rows of sharp
+teeth, standing wide from each other, a brown skin so fortified with
+scales, even to his nose, that a musket-ball cannot penetrate it.  His
+sight is extremely quick, and at a great distance.  In the water he is
+daring and fierce, and will seize on any that are so unfortunate as to be
+found by him bathing, who, if they escape with life, are almost sure to
+leave some limb in his mouth.  Neither I, nor any with whom I have
+conversed about the crocodile, have ever seen him weep, and therefore I
+take the liberty of ranking all that hath been told us of his tears
+amongst the fables which are only proper to amuse children.
+
+The hippopotamus, or river-horse, grazes upon the land and browses on the
+shrubs, yet is no less dangerous than the crocodile.  He is the size of
+an ox, of a brown colour without any hair, his tail is short, his neck
+long, and his head of an enormous bigness; his eyes are small, his mouth
+wide, with teeth half a foot long; he hath two tusks like those of a wild
+boar, but larger; his legs are short, and his feet part into four toes.
+It is easy to observe from this description that he hath no resemblance
+of a horse, and indeed nothing could give occasion to the name but some
+likeness in his ears, and his neighing and snorting like a horse when he
+is provoked or raises his head out of water.  His hide is so hard that a
+musket fired close to him can only make a slight impression, and the best
+tempered lances pushed forcibly against him are either blunted or
+shivered, unless the assailant has the skill to make his thrust at
+certain parts which are more tender.  There is great danger in meeting
+him, and the best way is, upon such an accident, to step aside and let
+him pass by.  The flesh of this animal doth not differ from that of a
+cow, except that it is blacker and harder to digest.
+
+The ignorance which we have hitherto been in of the original of the Nile
+hath given many authors an opportunity of presenting us very gravely with
+their various systems and conjectures about the nature of its waters, and
+the reason of its overflows.
+
+It is easy to observe how many empty hypotheses and idle reasonings the
+phenomena of this river have put mankind to the expense of.  Yet there
+are people so bigoted to antiquity, as not to pay any regard to the
+relation of travellers who have been upon the spot, and by the evidence
+of their eyes can confute all that the ancients have written.  It was
+difficult, it was even impossible, to arrive at the source of the Nile by
+tracing its channel from the mouth; and all who ever attempted it, having
+been stopped by the cataracts, and imagining none that followed them
+could pass farther, have taken the liberty of entertaining us with their
+own fictions.
+
+It is to be remembered likewise that neither the Greeks nor Romans, from
+whom we have received all our information, ever carried their arms into
+this part of the world, or ever heard of multitudes of nations that dwell
+upon the banks of this vast river; that the countries where the Nile
+rises, and those through which it runs, have no inhabitants but what are
+savage and uncivilised; that before they could arrive at its head, they
+must surmount the insuperable obstacles of impassable forests,
+inaccessible cliffs, and deserts crowded with beasts of prey, fierce by
+nature, and raging for want of sustenance.  Yet if they who endeavoured
+with so much ardour to discover the spring of this river had landed at
+Mazna on the coast of the Red Sea, and marched a little more to the south
+than the south-west, they might perhaps have gratified their curiosity at
+less expense, and in about twenty days might have enjoyed the desired
+sight of the sources of the Nile.
+
+But this discovery was reserved for the invincible bravery of our noble
+countrymen, who, not discouraged by the dangers of a navigation in seas
+never explored before, have subdued kingdoms and empires where the Greek
+and Roman greatness, where the names of Caesar and Alexander, were never
+heard of; who have demolished the airy fabrics of renowned hypotheses,
+and detected those fables which the ancients rather chose to invent of
+the sources of the Nile than to confess their ignorance.  I cannot help
+suspending my narration to reflect a little on the ridiculous
+speculations of those swelling philosophers, whose arrogance would
+prescribe laws to nature, and subject those astonishing effects, which we
+behold daily, to their idle reasonings and chimerical rules.  Presumptuous
+imagination! that has given being to such numbers of books, and patrons
+to so many various opinions about the overflows of the Nile.  Some of
+these theorists have been pleased to declare it as their favourite notion
+that this inundation is caused by high winds which stop the current, and
+so force the water to rise above its banks, and spread over all Egypt.
+Others pretend a subterraneous communication between the ocean and the
+Nile, and that the sea being violently agitated swells the river.  Many
+have imagined themselves blessed with the discovery when they have told
+us that this mighty flood proceeds from the melting of snow on the
+mountains of AEthiopia, without reflecting that this opinion is contrary
+to the received notion of all the ancients, who believed that the heat
+was so excessive between the tropics that no inhabitant could live there.
+So much snow and so great heat are never met with in the same region; and
+indeed I never saw snow in Abyssinia, except on Mount Semen in the
+kingdom of Tigre, very remote from the Nile, and on Namera, which is
+indeed not far distant, but where there never falls snow sufficient to
+wet the foot of the mountain when it is melted.
+
+To the immense labours and fatigues of the Portuguese mankind is indebted
+for the knowledge of the real cause of these inundations so great and so
+regular.  Their observations inform us that Abyssinia, where the Nile
+rises and waters vast tracts of land, is full of mountains, and in its
+natural situation much higher than Egypt; that all the winter, from June
+to September, no day is without rain; that the Nile receives in its
+course all the rivers, brooks, and torrents which fall from those
+mountains; these necessarily swell it above the banks, and fill the
+plains of Egypt with the inundation.  This comes regularly about the
+month of July, or three weeks after the beginning of a rainy season in
+AEthiopia.  The different degrees of this flood are such certain
+indications of the fruitfulness or sterility of the ensuing year, that it
+is publicly proclaimed in Cairo how much the water hath gained each
+night.  This is all I have to inform the reader of concerning the Nile,
+which the Egyptians adored as the deity, in whose choice it was to bless
+them with abundance, or deprive them of the necessaries of life.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+The author discovers a passage over the Nile.  Is sent into the province
+of Ligonus, which he gives a description of.  His success in his mission.
+The stratagem of the monks to encourage the soldiers.  The author
+narrowly escapes being burned.
+
+When I was to cross this river at Boad, I durst not venture myself on the
+floats I have already spoken of, but went up higher in hopes of finding a
+more commodious passage.  I had with me three or four men that were
+reduced to the same difficulty with myself.  In one part seeing people on
+the other side, and remarking that the water was shallow, and that the
+rocks and trees which grew very thick there contributed to facilitate the
+attempt, I leaped from one rock to another, till I reached the opposite
+bank, to the great amazement of the natives themselves, who never had
+tried that way; my four companions followed me with the same success: and
+it hath been called since the passage of Father Jerome.
+
+That province of the kingdom of Damot, which I was assigned to by my
+superior, is called Ligonus, and is perhaps one of the most beautiful and
+agreeable places in the world; the air is healthful and temperate, and
+all the mountains, which are not very high, shaded with cedars.  They sow
+and reap here in every season, the ground is always producing, and the
+fruits ripen throughout the year; so great, so charming is the variety,
+that the whole region seems a garden laid out and cultivated only to
+please.  I doubt whether even the imagination of a painter has yet
+conceived a landscape as beautiful as I have seen.  The forests have
+nothing uncouth or savage, and seem only planted for shade and coolness.
+Among a prodigious number of trees which fill them, there is one kind
+which I have seen in no other place, and to which we have none that bears
+any resemblance.  This tree, which the natives call ensete, is
+wonderfully useful; its leaves, which are so large as to cover a man,
+make hangings for rooms, and serve the inhabitants instead of linen for
+their tables and carpets.  They grind the branches and the thick parts of
+the leaves, and when they are mingled with milk, find them a delicious
+food.  The trunk and the roots are even more nourishing than the leaves
+or branches, and the meaner people, when they go a journey, make no
+provision of any other victuals.  The word ensete signifies the tree
+against hunger, or the poor's tree, though the most wealthy often eat of
+it.  If it be cut down within half a foot of the ground and several
+incisions made in the stump, each will put out a new sprout, which, if
+transplanted, will take root and grow to a tree.  The Abyssins report
+that this tree when it is cut down groans like a man, and, on this
+account, call cutting down an ensete killing it.  On the top grows a
+bunch of five or six figs, of a taste not very agreeable, which they set
+in the ground to produce more trees.
+
+I stayed two months in the province of Ligonus, and during that time
+procured a church to be built of hewn stone, roofed and wainscoted with
+cedar, which is the most considerable in the whole country.  My continual
+employment was the duties of the mission, which I was always practising
+in some part of the province, not indeed with any extraordinary success
+at first, for I found the people inflexibly obstinate in their opinions,
+even to so great a degree, that when I first published the Emperor's
+edict requiring all his subjects to renounce their errors, and unite
+themselves to the Roman Church, there were some monks who, to the number
+of sixty, chose rather to die by throwing themselves headlong from a
+precipice than obey their sovereign's commands: and in a battle fought
+between these people that adhered to the religion of their ancestors, and
+the troops of Sultan Segued, six hundred religious, placing themselves at
+the head of their men, marched towards the Catholic army with the stones
+of the altars upon their heads, assuring their credulous followers that
+the Emperor's troops would immediately at the sight of those stones fall
+into disorder and turn their backs; but, as they were some of the first
+that fell, their death had a great influence upon the people to undeceive
+them, and make them return to the truth.  Many were converted after the
+battle, and when they had embraced the Catholic faith, adhered to that
+with the same constancy and firmness with which they had before persisted
+in their errors.
+
+The Emperor had sent a viceroy into this province, whose firm attachment
+to the Roman Church, as well as great abilities in military affairs, made
+him a person very capable of executing the orders of the Emperor, and of
+suppressing any insurrection that might be raised, to prevent those
+alterations in religion which they were designed to promote: a farther
+view in the choice of so warlike a deputy was that a stop might be put to
+the inroads of the Galles, who had killed one viceroy, and in a little
+time after killed this.
+
+It was our custom to meet together every year about Christmas, not only
+that we might comfort and entertain each other, but likewise that we
+might relate the progress and success of our missions, and concert all
+measures that might farther the conversion of the inhabitants.  This year
+our place of meeting was the Emperor's camp, where the patriarch and
+superior of the missions were.  I left the place of my abode, and took in
+my way four fathers, that resided at the distance of two days' journey,
+so that the company, without reckoning our attendants, was five.  There
+happened nothing remarkable to us till the last night of our journey,
+when taking up our lodging at a place belonging to the Empress, a
+declared enemy to all Catholics, and in particular to the missionaries,
+we met with a kind reception in appearance, and were lodged in a large
+stone house covered with wood and straw, which had stood uninhabited so
+long, that great numbers of red ants had taken possession of it; these,
+as soon as we were laid down, attacked us on all sides, and tormented us
+so incessantly that we were obliged to call up our domestics.  Having
+burnt a prodigious number of these troublesome animals, we tried to
+compose ourselves again, but had scarce closed our eyes before we were
+awakened by the fire that had seized our lodging.  Our servants, who were
+fortunately not all gone to bed, perceived the fire as soon as it began,
+and informed me, who lay nearest the door.  I immediately alarmed all the
+rest, and nothing was thought of but how to save ourselves and the little
+goods we had, when, to our great astonishment, we found one of the doors
+barricaded in such a manner that we could not open it.  Nothing now could
+have prevented our perishing in the flames had not those who kindled them
+omitted to fasten that door near which I was lodged.  We were no longer
+in doubt that the inhabitants of the town had laid a train, and set fire
+to a neighbouring house, in order to consume us; their measures were so
+well laid, that the house was in ashes in an instant, and three of our
+beds were burnt which the violence of the flame would not allow us to
+carry away.  We spent the rest of the night in the most dismal
+apprehensions, and found next morning that we had justly charged the
+inhabitants with the design of destroying us, for the place was entirely
+abandoned, and those that were conscious of the crime had fled from the
+punishment.  We continued our journey, and came to Gorgora, where we
+found the fathers met, and the Emperor with them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+The author is sent into Tigre.  Is in danger of being poisoned by the
+breath of a serpent.  Is stung by a serpent.  Is almost killed by eating
+anchoy.  The people conspire against the missionaries, and distress them.
+
+My superiors intended to send me into the farthest parts of the empire,
+but the Emperor over-ruled that design, and remanded me to Tigre, where I
+had resided before.  I passed in my journey by Ganete Ilhos, a palace
+newly built, and made agreeable by beautiful gardens, and had the honour
+of paying my respects to the Emperor, who had retired thither, and
+receiving from him a large present for the finishing of a hospital, which
+had been begun in the kingdom of Tigre.  After having returned him
+thanks, I continued my way, and in crossing a desert two days' journey
+over, was in great danger of my life, for, as I lay on the ground, I
+perceived myself seized with a pain which forced me to rise, and saw
+about four yards from me one of those serpents that dart their poison at
+a distance; although I rose before he came very near me, I yet felt the
+effects of his poisonous breath, and, if I had lain a little longer, had
+certainly died; I had recourse to bezoar, a sovereign remedy against
+these poisons, which I always carried about me.  These serpents are not
+long, but have a body short and thick, and their bellies speckled with
+brown, black, and yellow; they have a wide mouth, with which they draw in
+a great quantity of air, and, having retained it some time, eject it with
+such force that they kill at four yards' distance.  I only escaped by
+being somewhat farther from him.  This danger, however, was not much to
+be regarded in comparison of another which my negligence brought me into.
+As I was picking up a skin that lay upon the ground, I was stung by a
+serpent that left his sting in my finger; I at least picked an extraneous
+substance about the bigness of a hair out of the wound, which I imagined
+was the sting.  This slight wound I took little notice of, till my arm
+grew inflamed all over; in a short time the poison infected my blood, and
+I felt the most terrible convulsions, which were interpreted as certain
+signs that my death was near and inevitable.  I received now no benefit
+from bezoar, the horn of the unicorn, or any of the usual antidotes, but
+found myself obliged to make use of an extraordinary remedy, which I
+submitted to with extreme reluctance.  This submission and obedience
+brought the blessing of Heaven upon me; nevertheless, I continued
+indisposed a long time, and had many symptoms which made me fear that all
+the danger was not yet over.  I then took cloves of garlic, though with a
+great aversion, both from the taste and smell.  I was in this condition a
+whole month, always in pain, and taking medicines the most nauseous in
+the world.  At length youth and a happy constitution surmounted the
+malignity, and I recovered my former health.
+
+I continued two years at my residence in Tigre, entirely taken up with
+the duties of the mission--preaching, confessing, baptising--and enjoyed
+a longer quiet and repose than I had ever done since I left Portugal.
+During this time one of our fathers, being always sick and of a
+constitution which the air of Abyssinia was very hurtful to, obtained a
+permission from our superiors to return to the Indies; I was willing to
+accompany him through part of his way, and went with him over a desert,
+at no great distance from my residence, where I found many trees loaded
+with a kind of fruit, called by the natives anchoy, about the bigness of
+an apricot, and very yellow, which is much eaten without any ill effect.
+I therefore made no scruple of gathering and eating it, without knowing
+that the inhabitants always peeled it, the rind being a violent
+purgative; so that, eating the fruit and skin together, I fell into such
+a disorder as almost brought me to my end.  The ordinary dose is six of
+these rinds, and I had devoured twenty.
+
+I removed from thence to Debaroa, fifty-four miles nearer the sea, and
+crossed in my way the desert of the province of Saraoe.  The country is
+fruitful, pleasant, and populous; there are greater numbers of Moors in
+these parts than in any other province of Abyssinia, and the Abyssins of
+this country are not much better than the Moors.
+
+I was at Debaroa when the prosecution was first set on foot against the
+Catholics.  Sultan Segued, who had been so great a favourer of us, was
+grown old, and his spirit and authority decreased with his strength.  His
+son, who was arrived at manhood, being weary of waiting so long for the
+crown he was to inherit, took occasion to blame his father's conduct, and
+found some reason for censuring all his actions; he even proceeded so far
+as to give orders sometimes contrary to the Emperor's.  He had embraced
+the Catholic religion, rather through complaisance than conviction or
+inclination; and many of the Abyssins who had done the same, waited only
+for an opportunity of making public profession of the ancient erroneous
+opinions, and of re-uniting themselves to the Church of Alexandria.  So
+artfully can this people dissemble their sentiments that we had not been
+able hitherto to distinguish our real from our pretended favourers; but
+as soon as this Prince began to give evident tokens of his hatred, even
+in the lifetime of the Emperor, we saw all the courtiers and governors
+who had treated us with such a show of friendship declare against us, and
+persecute us as disturbers of the public tranquillity, who had come into
+AEthiopia with no other intention than to abolish the ancient laws and
+customs of the country, to sow divisions between father and son, and
+preach up a revolution.
+
+After having borne all sorts of affronts and ill-treatments, we retired
+to our house at Fremona, in the midst of our countrymen, who had been
+settling round about us a long time, imagining we should be more secure
+there, and that, at least during the life of the Emperor, they would not
+come to extremities, or proceed to open force.  I laid some stress upon
+the kindness which the viceroy of Tigre had shown to us, and in
+particular to me; but was soon convinced that those hopes had no real
+foundation, for he was one of the most violent of our persecutors.  He
+seized upon all our lands, and, advancing with his troops to Fremona,
+blocked up the town.  The army had not been stationed there long before
+they committed all sorts of disorders; so that one day a Portuguese,
+provoked beyond his temper at the insolence of some of them, went out
+with his four sons, and, wounding several of them, forced the rest back
+to their camp.
+
+We thought we had good reason to apprehend an attack; their troops were
+increasing, our town was surrounded, and on the point of being forced.
+Our Portuguese therefore thought that, without staying till the last
+extremities, they might lawfully repel one violence by another, and
+sallying out to the number of fifty, wounded about three score of the
+Abyssins, and had put them to the sword but that they feared it might
+bring too great an odium upon our cause.  The Portuguese were some of
+them wounded, but happily none died on either side.
+
+Though the times were by no means favourable to us, every one blamed the
+conduct of the viceroy; and those who did not commend our action made the
+necessity we were reduced to of self-defence an excuse for it.  The
+viceroy's principal design was to get my person into his possession,
+imagining that if I was once in his power, all the Portuguese would pay
+him a blind obedience.  Having been unsuccessful in his attempt by open
+force, he made use of the arts of negotiation, but with an event not more
+to his satisfaction.  This viceroy being recalled, a son-in-law of the
+Emperor's succeeded, who treated us even worse than his predecessor had
+done.
+
+When he entered upon his command, he loaded us with kindnesses, giving us
+so many assurances of his protection that, while the Emperor lived, we
+thought him one of our friends; but no sooner was our protector dead than
+this man pulled off his mask, and, quitting all shame, let us see that
+neither the fear of God nor any other consideration was capable of
+restraining him when we were to be distressed.  The persecution then
+becoming general, there was no longer any place of security for us in
+Abyssinia, where we were looked upon by all as the authors of all the
+civil commotions, and many councils were held to determine in what manner
+they should dispose of us.  Several were of opinion that the best way
+would be to kill us all at once, and affirmed that no other means were
+left of re-establishing order and tranquillity in the kingdom.
+
+Others, more prudent, were not for putting us to death with so little
+consideration, but advised that we should be banished to one of the isles
+of the Lake of Dambia, an affliction more severe than death itself.  These
+alleged in vindication of their opinions that it was reasonable to
+expect, if they put us to death, that the viceroy of the Indies would
+come with fire and sword to demand satisfaction.  This argument made so
+great an impression upon some of them that they thought no better
+measures could be taken than to send us back again to the Indies.  This
+proposal, however, was not without its difficulties, for they suspected
+that when we should arrive at the Portuguese territories, we would levy
+an army, return back to Abyssinia, and under pretence of establishing the
+Catholic religion revenge all the injuries we had suffered.  While they
+were thus deliberating upon our fate, we were imploring the succour of
+the Almighty with fervent and humble supplications, entreating him in the
+midst of our sighs and tears that he would not suffer his own cause to
+miscarry, and that, however it might please him to dispose of our
+lives--which, we prayed, he would assist us to lay down with patience and
+resignation worthy of the faith for which we were persecuted--he would
+not permit our enemies to triumph over the truth.
+
+Thus we passed our days and nights in prayers, in affliction, and tears,
+continually crowded with widows and orphans that subsisted upon our
+charity and came to us for bread when we had not any for ourselves.
+
+While we were in this distress we received an account that the viceroy of
+the Indies had fitted out a powerful fleet against the King of Mombaza,
+who, having thrown off the authority of the Portuguese, had killed the
+governor of the fortress, and had since committed many acts of cruelty.
+The same fleet, as we were informed, after the King of Mombaza was
+reduced, was to burn and ruin Zeila, in revenge of the death of two
+Portuguese Jesuits who were killed by the King in the year 1604.  As
+Zeila was not far from the frontiers of Abyssinia, they imagined that
+they already saw the Portuguese invading their country.
+
+The viceroy of Tigre had inquired of me a few days before how many men
+one India ship carried, and being told that the complement of some was a
+thousand men, he compared that answer with the report then spread over
+all the country, that there were eighteen Portuguese vessels on the coast
+of Adel, and concluded that they were manned by an army of eighteen
+thousand men; then considering what had been achieved by four hundred,
+under the command of Don Christopher de Gama, he thought Abyssinia
+already ravaged, or subjected to the King of Portugal.  Many declared
+themselves of his opinion, and the court took its measures with respect
+to us from these uncertain and ungrounded rumours.  Some were so
+infatuated with their apprehensions that they undertook to describe the
+camp of the Portuguese, and affirmed that they had heard the report of
+their cannons.
+
+All this contributed to exasperate the inhabitants, and reduced us often
+to the point of being massacred.  At length they came to a resolution of
+giving us up to the Turks, assuring them that we were masters of a vast
+treasure, in hope that after they had inflicted all kinds of tortures on
+us, to make us confess where we had hid our gold, or what we had done
+with it, they would at length kill us in rage for the disappointment.  Nor
+was this their only view, for they believed that the Turks would, by
+killing us, kindle such an irreconcilable hatred between themselves and
+our nation as would make it necessary for them to keep us out of the Red
+Sea, of which they are entirely masters: so that their determination was
+as politic as cruel.  Some pretend that the Turks were engaged to put us
+to death as soon as we were in their power.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+The author relieves the patriarch and missionaries, and supports them.  He
+escapes several snares laid for him by the viceroy of Tigre.  They put
+themselves under the protection of the Prince of Bar.
+
+Having concluded this negotiation, they drove us out of our houses, and
+robbed us of everything that was worth carrying away; and, not content
+with that, informed some banditti that were then in those parts of the
+road we were to travel through, so that the patriarch and some
+missionaries were attacked in a desert by these rovers, with their
+captain at their head, who pillaged his library, his ornaments, and what
+little baggage the missionaries had left, and might have gone away
+without resistance or interruption had they satisfied themselves with
+only robbing; but when they began to fall upon the missionaries and their
+companions, our countrymen, finding that their lives could only be
+preserved by their courage, charged their enemies with such vigour that
+they killed their chief and forced the rest to a precipitate flight.  But
+these rovers, being acquainted with the country, harassed the little
+caravan till it was past the borders.
+
+Our fathers then imagined they had nothing more to fear, but too soon
+were convinced of their error, for they found the whole country turned
+against them, and met everywhere new enemies to contend with and new
+dangers to surmount.  Being not far distant from Fremona, where I
+resided, they sent to me for succour.  I was better informed of the
+distress they were in than themselves, having been told that a numerous
+body of Abyssins had posted themselves in a narrow pass with an intent to
+surround and destroy them; therefore, without long deliberation, I
+assembled my friends, both Portuguese and Abyssins, to the number of
+fourscore, and went to their rescue, carrying with me provisions and
+refreshments, of which I knew they were in great need.  These glorious
+confessors I met as they were just entering the pass designed for the
+place of their destruction, and doubly preserved them from famine and the
+sword.  A grateful sense of their deliverance made them receive me as a
+guardian angel.  We went together to Fremona, and being in all a
+patriarch, a bishop, eighteen Jesuits, and four hundred Portuguese whom I
+supplied with necessaries, though the revenues of our house were lost,
+and though the country was disaffected to us, in the worst season of the
+year.  We were obliged for the relief of the poor and our own subsistence
+to sell our ornaments and chalices, which we first broke in pieces, that
+the people might not have the pleasure of ridiculing our mysteries by
+profaning the vessels made use of in the celebration of them, for they
+now would gladly treat with the highest indignities what they had a year
+before looked upon with veneration.
+
+Amidst all these perplexities the viceroy did not fail to visit us, and
+make us great offers of service in expectation of a large present.  We
+were in a situation in which it was very difficult to act properly; we
+knew too well the ill intentions of the viceroy, but durst not complain,
+or give him any reason to imagine that we knew them.  We longed to
+retreat out of his power, or at least to send one of our company to the
+Indies with an account of persecution we suffered, and could without his
+leave neither do one nor the other.
+
+When it was determined that one should be sent to the Indies, I was at
+first singled out for the journey, and it was intended that I should
+represent at Goa, at Rome, and at Madrid the distresses and necessities
+of the mission of AEthiopia; but the fathers reflecting afterwards that I
+best understood the Abyssinian language, and was most acquainted with the
+customs of the country, altered their opinions, and, continuing me in
+AEthiopia either to perish with them or preserve them, deputed four other
+Jesuits, who in a short time set out on their way to the Indies.
+
+About this time I was sent for to the viceroy's camp to confess a
+criminal, who, though falsely, was believed a Catholic, to whom, after a
+proper exhortation, I was going to pronounce the form of absolution, when
+those that waited to execute him told him aloud that if he expected to
+save his life by professing himself a Catholic, he would find himself
+deceived, and that he had nothing to do but prepare himself for death.
+The unhappy criminal had no sooner heard this than, rising up, he
+declared his resolution to die in the religion of his country, and being
+delivered up to his prosecutors was immediately dispatched with their
+lances.
+
+The chief reason of calling me was not that I might hear this confession:
+the viceroy had another design of seizing my person, expecting that
+either the Jesuits or Portuguese would buy my liberty with a large
+ransom, or that he might exchange me for his father, who was kept
+prisoner by a revolted prince.  That prince would have been no loser by
+the exchange, for so much was I hated by the Abyssinian monks that they
+would have thought no expense too great to have gotten me into their
+hands, that they might have glutted their revenge by putting me to the
+most painful death they could have invented.  Happily I found means to
+retire out of this dangerous place, and was followed by the viceroy
+almost to Fremona, who, being disappointed, desired me either to visit
+him at his camp, or appoint a place where we might confer.  I made many
+excuses, but at length agreed to meet him at a place near Fremona,
+bringing each of us only three companions.  I did not doubt but he would
+bring more, and so he did, but found that I was upon my guard, and that
+my company increased in proportion to his.  My friends were resolute
+Portuguese, who were determined to give him no quarter if he made any
+attempt upon my liberty.  Finding himself once more countermined, he
+returned ashamed to his camp, where a month after, being accused of a
+confederacy in the revolt of that prince who kept his father prisoner, he
+was arrested, and carried in chains to the Emperor.
+
+The time now approaching in which we were to be delivered to the Turks,
+we had none but God to apply to for relief: all the measures we could
+think of were equally dangerous.  Resolving, nevertheless, to seek some
+retreat where we might hide ourselves either all together or separately,
+we determined at last to put ourselves under the protection of the Prince
+John Akay, who had defended himself a long time in the province of Bar
+against the power of Abyssinia.
+
+After I had concluded a treaty with this prince, the patriarch and all
+the fathers put themselves into his hands, and being received with all
+imaginable kindness and civility, were conducted with a guard to Adicota,
+a rock excessively steep, about nine miles from his place of residence.
+The event was not agreeable to the happy beginning of our negotiation,
+for we soon began to find that our habitation was not likely to be very
+pleasant.  We were surrounded with Mahometans, or Christians who were
+inveterate enemies to the Catholic faith, and were obliged to act with
+the utmost caution.  Notwithstanding these inconveniences we were pleased
+with the present tranquillity we enjoyed, and lived contentedly on
+lentils and a little corn that we had; and I, after we had sold all our
+goods, resolved to turn physician, and was soon able to support myself by
+my practice.
+
+I was once consulted by a man troubled with asthma, who presented me with
+two alquieres--that is, about twenty-eight pounds weight--of corn and a
+sheep.  The advice I gave him, after having turned over my books, was to
+drink goats' urine every morning; I know not whether he found any benefit
+by following my prescription, for I never saw him after.
+
+Being under a necessity of obeying our acoba, or protector, we changed
+our place of abode as often as he desired it, though not without great
+inconveniences, from the excessive heat of the weather and the faintness
+which our strict observation of the fasts and austerities of Lent, as it
+is kept in this country, had brought upon us.  At length, wearied with
+removing so often, and finding that the last place assigned for our abode
+was always the worst, we agreed that I should go to our sovereign and
+complain.
+
+I found him entirely taken up with the imagination of a prodigious
+treasure, affirmed by the monks to be hidden under a mountain.  He was
+told that his predecessors had been hindered from discovering it by the
+demon that guarded it, but that the demon was now at a great distance
+from his charge, and was grown blind and lame; that having lost his son,
+and being without any children except a daughter that was ugly and
+unhealthy, he was under great affliction, and entirely neglected the care
+of his treasure; that if he should come, they could call one of their
+ancient brothers to their assistance, who, being a man of a most holy
+life, would be able to prevent his making any resistance.  To all these
+stories the prince listened with unthinking credulity.  The monks,
+encouraged by this, fell to the business, and brought a man above a
+hundred years old, whom, because he could not support himself on
+horseback, they had tied on the beast, and covered him with black wool.
+He was followed by a black cow (designed for a sacrifice to the demon of
+the place), and by some monks that carried mead, beer, and parched corn,
+to complete the offering.
+
+No sooner were they arrived at the foot of the mountain than every one
+began to work: bags were brought from all parts to convey away the
+millions which each imagined would be his share.  The Xumo, who
+superintended the work, would not allow any one to come near the
+labourers, but stood by, attended by the old monk, who almost sang
+himself to death.  At length, having removed a vast quantity of earth and
+stones, they discovered some holes made by rats or moles, at sight of
+which a shout of joy ran through the whole troop: the cow was brought and
+sacrificed immediately, and some pieces of flesh were thrown into these
+holes.  Animated now with assurance of success, they lose no time: every
+one redoubles his endeavours, and the heat, though intolerable, was less
+powerful than the hopes they had conceived.  At length some, not so
+patient as the rest, were weary, and desisted.  The work now grew more
+difficult; they found nothing but rock, yet continued to toil on, till
+the prince, having lost all temper, began to inquire with some passion
+when he should have a sight of this treasure, and after having been some
+time amused with many promises by the monks, was told that he had not
+faith enough to be favoured with the discovery.
+
+All this I saw myself, and could not forbear endeavouring to convince our
+protector how much he was imposed upon: he was not long before he was
+satisfied that he had been too credulous, for all those that had so
+industriously searched after this imaginary wealth, within five hours
+left the work in despair, and I continued almost alone with the prince.
+
+Imagining no time more proper to make the proposal I was sent with than
+while his passion was still hot against the monks, I presented him with
+two ounces of gold and two plates of silver, with some other things of
+small value, and was so successful that he gratified me in all my
+requests, and gave us leave to return to Adicora, where we were so
+fortunate to find our huts yet uninjured and entire.
+
+About this time the fathers who had stayed behind at Fremona arrived with
+the new viceroy, and an officer fierce in the defence of his own
+religion, who had particular orders to deliver all the Jesuits up to the
+Turks, except me, whom the Emperor was resolved to have in his own hands,
+alive or dead.  We had received some notice of this resolution from our
+friends at court, and were likewise informed that the Emperor, their
+master, had been persuaded that my design was to procure assistance from
+the Indies, and that I should certainly return at the head of an army.
+The patriarch's advice upon this emergency was that I should retire into
+the woods, and by some other road join the nine Jesuits who were gone
+towards Mazna.  I could think of no better expedient, and therefore went
+away in the night between the 23rd and 24th of April with my comrade, an
+old man, very infirm and very timorous.  We crossed woods never crossed,
+I believe, by any before: the darkness of the night and the thickness of
+the shade spread a kind of horror round us; our gloomy journey was still
+more incommoded by the brambles and thorns, which tore our hands; amidst
+all these difficulties I applied myself to the Almighty, praying him to
+preserve us from those dangers which we endeavoured to avoid, and to
+deliver us from those to which our flight exposed us.  Thus we travelled
+all night, till eight next morning, without taking either rest or food;
+then, imagining ourselves secure, we made us some cakes of barley-meal
+and water, which we thought a feast.
+
+We had a dispute with our guides, who though they had bargained to
+conduct us for an ounce of gold, yet when they saw us so entangled in the
+intricacies of the wood that we could not possibly get out without their
+direction, demanded seven ounces of gold, a mule, and a little tent which
+we had; after a long dispute we were forced to come to their terms.  We
+continued to travel all night, and to hide ourselves in the woods all
+day: and here it was that we met the three hundred elephants I spoke of
+before.  We made long marches, travelling without any halt from four in
+the afternoon to eight in the morning.
+
+Arriving at a valley where travellers seldom escape being plundered, we
+were obliged to double our pace, and were so happy as to pass it without
+meeting with any misfortune, except that we heard a bird sing on our left
+hand--a certain presage among these people of some great calamity at
+hand.  As there is no reasoning them out of superstition, I knew no way
+of encouraging them to go forward but what I had already made use of on
+the same occasion, assuring them that I heard one at the same time on the
+right.  They were happily so credulous as to take my word, and we went on
+till we came to a well, where we stayed awhile to refresh ourselves.
+Setting out again in the evening, we passed so near a village where these
+robbers had retreated that the dogs barked after us.  Next morning we
+joined the fathers, who waited for us.  After we had rested ourselves
+some time in that mountain, we resolved to separate and go two and two,
+to seek for a more convenient place where we might hide ourselves.  We
+had not gone far before we were surrounded by a troop of robbers, with
+whom, by the interest of some of the natives who had joined themselves to
+our caravan, we came to a composition, giving them part of our goods to
+permit us to carry away the rest; and after this troublesome adventure
+arrived at a place something more commodious than that which we had
+quitted, where we met with bread, but of so pernicious a quality that,
+after having ate it, we were intoxicated to so great a degree that one of
+my friends, seeing me so disordered, congratulated my good fortune of
+having met with such good wine, and was surprised when I gave him an
+account of the whole affair.  He then offered me some curdled milk, very
+sour, with barley-meal, which we boiled, and thought it the best
+entertainment we had met with a long time.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+They are betrayed into the hands of the Turks; are detained awhile at
+Mazna; are threatened by the Bassa of Suaquem.  They agree for their
+ransom, and are part of them dismissed.
+
+Some time after, we received news that we should prepare ourselves to
+serve the Turks--a message which filled us with surprise, it having never
+been known that one of these lords had ever abandoned any whom he had
+taken under his protection; and it is, on the contrary, one of the
+highest points of honour amongst them to risk their fortunes and their
+lives in the defence of their dependants who have implored their
+protection.  But neither law nor justice was of any advantage to us, and
+the customs of the country were doomed to be broken when they would have
+contributed to our security.
+
+We were obliged to march in the extremity of the hot season, and had
+certainly perished by the fatigue had we not entered the woods, which
+shaded us from the scorching sun.  The day before our arrival at the
+place where we were to be delivered to the Turks, we met with five
+elephants, that pursued us, and if they could have come to us would have
+prevented the miseries we afterwards endured, but God had decreed
+otherwise.
+
+On the morrow we came to the banks of a river, where we found fourscore
+Turks that waited for us, armed with muskets.  They let us rest awhile,
+and then put us into the hands of our new masters, who, setting us upon
+camels, conducted us to Mazna.  Their commander, seeming to be touched
+with our misfortunes, treated us with much gentleness and humanity; he
+offered us coffee, which we drank, but with little relish.  We came next
+day to Mazna, in so wretched a condition that we were not surprised at
+being hooted by the boys, but thought ourselves well used that they threw
+no stones at us.
+
+As soon as we were brought hither, all we had was taken from us, and we
+were carried to the governor, who is placed there by the Bassa of
+Suaquem.  Having been told by the Abyssins that we had carried all the
+gold out of AEthiopia, they searched us with great exactness, but found
+nothing except two chalices, and some relics of so little value that we
+redeemed them for six sequins.  As I had given them my chalice upon their
+first demand, they did not search me, but gave us to understand that they
+expected to find something of greater value, which either we must have
+hidden or the Abyssins must have imposed on them.  They left us the rest
+of the day at a gentleman's house, who was our friend, from whence the
+next day they fetched us to transport us to the island, where they put us
+into a kind of prison, with a view of terrifying us into a confession of
+the place where we had hid our gold, in which, however, they found
+themselves deceived.
+
+But I had here another affair upon my hands which was near costing me
+dear.  My servant had been taken from me and left at Mazna, to be sold to
+the Arabs.  Being advertised by him of the danger he was in, I laid claim
+to him, without knowing the difficulties which this way of proceeding
+would bring upon me.  The governor sent me word that my servant should be
+restored to me upon payment of sixty piastres; and being answered by me
+that I had not a penny for myself, and therefore could not pay sixty
+piastres to redeem my servant, he informed me by a renegade Jew, who
+negotiated the whole affair, that either I must produce the money or
+receive a hundred blows of the battoon.  Knowing that those orders are
+without appeal, and always punctually executed, I prepared myself to
+receive the correction I was threatened with, but unexpectedly found the
+people so charitable as to lend me the money.  By several other threats
+of the same kind they drew from us about six hundred crowns.
+
+On the 24th of June we embarked in two galleys for Suaquem, where the
+bassa resided.  His brother, who was his deputy at Mazna, made us promise
+before we went that we would not mention the money he had squeezed from
+us.  The season was not very proper for sailing, and our provisions were
+but short.  In a little time we began to feel the want of better stores,
+and thought ourselves happy in meeting with a gelve, which, though small,
+was a much better sailer than our vessel, in which I was sent to Suaquem
+to procure camels and provisions.  I was not much at my ease, alone among
+six Mahometans, and could not help apprehending that some zealous pilgrim
+of Mecca might lay hold on this opportunity, in the heat of his devotion,
+of sacrificing me to his prophet.
+
+These apprehensions were without ground.  I contracted an acquaintance,
+which was soon improved into a friendship, with these people; they
+offered me part of their provisions, and I gave them some of mine.  As we
+were in a place abounding with oysters--some of which were large and good
+to eat, others more smooth and shining, in which pearls are found--they
+gave me some of those they gathered; but whether it happened by trifling
+our time away in oyster-catching, or whether the wind was not favourable,
+we came to Suaquem later than the vessel I had left, in which were seven
+of my companions.
+
+As they had first landed, they had suffered the first transports of the
+bassa's passion, who was a violent, tyrannical man, and would have killed
+his own brother for the least advantage--a temper which made him fly into
+the utmost rage at seeing us poor, tattered, and almost naked; he treated
+us with the most opprobrious language, and threatened to cut off our
+heads.  We comforted ourselves in this condition, hoping that all our
+sufferings would end in shedding our blood for the name of Jesus Christ.
+We knew that the bassa had often made a public declaration before our
+arrival that he should die contented if he could have the pleasure of
+killing us all with his own hand.  This violent resolution was not
+lasting; his zeal gave way to his avarice, and he could not think of
+losing so large a sum as he knew he might expect for our ransom: he
+therefore sent us word that it was in our choice either to die, or to pay
+him thirty thousand crowns, and demanded to know our determination.
+
+We knew that his ardent thirst of our blood was now cold, that time and
+calm reflection and the advice of his friends had all conspired to bring
+him to a milder temper, and therefore willingly began to treat with him.
+I told the messenger, being deputed by the rest to manage the affair,
+that he could not but observe the wretched condition we were in, that we
+had neither money nor revenues, that what little we had was already taken
+from us, and that therefore all we could promise was to set a collection
+on foot, not much doubting but that our brethren would afford us such
+assistance as might enable us to make him a handsome present according to
+custom.
+
+This answer was not at all agreeable to the bassa, who returned an answer
+that he would be satisfied with twenty thousand crowns, provided we paid
+them on the spot, or gave him good securities for the payment.  To this
+we could only repeat what we had said before: he then proposed to abate
+five thousand of his last demand, assuring us that unless we came to some
+agreement, there was no torment so cruel but we should suffer it, and
+talked of nothing but impaling and flaying us alive; the terror of these
+threatenings was much increased by his domestics, who told us of many of
+his cruelties.  This is certain, that some time before, he had used some
+poor pagan merchants in that manner, and had caused the executioner to
+begin to flay them, when some Brahmin, touched with compassion,
+generously contributed the sum demanded for their ransom.  We had no
+reason to hope for so much kindness, and, having nothing of our own,
+could promise no certain sum.
+
+At length some of his favourites whom he most confided in, knowing his
+cruelty and our inability to pay what he demanded, and apprehending that,
+if he should put us to the death he threatened, they should soon see the
+fleets of Portugal in the Red Sea, laying their towns in ashes to revenge
+it, endeavoured to soften his passion and preserve our lives, offering to
+advance the sum we should agree for, without any other security than our
+words.  By this assistance, after many interviews with the bassa's
+agents, we agreed to pay four thousand three hundred crowns, which were
+accepted on condition that they should be paid down, and we should go on
+board within two hours: but, changing his resolution on a sudden, he sent
+us word by his treasurer that two of the most considerable among us
+should stay behind for security, while the rest went to procure the money
+they promised.  They kept the patriarch and two more fathers, one of
+which was above fourscore years old, in whose place I chose to remain
+prisoner, and represented to the bassa that, being worn out with age, he
+perhaps might die in his hands, which would lose the part of the ransom
+which was due on his account; that therefore it would be better to choose
+a younger in his place, offering to stay myself with him, that the good
+old man might be set at liberty.
+
+The bassa agreed to another Jesuit, and it pleased Heaven that the lot
+fell upon Father Francis Marquez.  I imagined that I might with the same
+ease get the patriarch out of his hand, but no sooner had I begun to
+speak but the anger flashed in his eyes, and his look was sufficient to
+make me stop and despair of success.  We parted immediately, leaving the
+patriarch and two fathers in prison, whom we embraced with tears, and
+went to take up our lodging on board the vessel.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+Their treatment on board the vessel.  Their reception at Diou.  The
+author applies to the viceroy for assistance, but without success; he is
+sent to solicit in Europe.
+
+Our condition here was not much better than that of the illustrious
+captives whom we left behind.  We were in an Arabian ship, with a crew of
+pilgrims of Mecca, with whom it was a point of religion to insult us.  We
+were lodged upon the deck, exposed to all the injuries of the weather,
+nor was there the meanest workman or sailor who did not either kick or
+strike us.  When we went first on board, I perceived a humour in my
+finger, which I neglected at first, till it spread over my hand and
+swelled up my arm, afflicting me with the most horrid torture.  There was
+neither surgeon nor medicines to be had, nor could I procure anything to
+ease my pain but a little oil, with which I anointed my arm, and in time
+found some relief.  The weather was very bad, and the wind almost always
+against us, and, to increase our perplexity, the whole crew, though
+Moors, were in the greatest apprehension of meeting any of those vessels
+which the Turks maintain in the strait of Babelmandel; the ground of
+their fear was that the captain had neglected the last year to touch at
+Moca, though he had promised.  Thus we were in danger of falling into a
+captivity perhaps more severe than that we had just escaped from.  While
+we were wholly engaged with these apprehensions, we discovered a Turkish
+ship and galley were come upon us.  It was almost calm--at least, there
+was not wind enough to give us any prospect of escaping--so that when the
+galley came up to us, we thought ourselves lost without remedy, and had
+probably fallen into their hands had not a breeze sprung up just in the
+instant of danger, which carried us down the channel between the mainland
+and the isle of Babelmandel.  I have already said that this passage is
+difficult and dangerous, which, nevertheless, we passed in the night,
+without knowing what course we held, and were transported at finding
+ourselves next morning out of the Red Sea and half a league from
+Babelmandel.  The currents are here so violent that they carried us
+against our will to Cape Guardafui, where we sent our boats ashore for
+fresh water, which we began to be in great want of.  The captain refused
+to give us any when we desired some, and treated us with great insolence,
+till, coming near the land, I spoke to him in a tone more lofty and
+resolute than I had ever done, and gave him to understand that when he
+touched at Diou he might have occasion for our interest.  This had some
+effect upon him, and procured us a greater degree of civility than we had
+met with before.
+
+At length after forty days' sailing we landed at Diou, where we were met
+by the whole city, it being reported that the patriarch was one of our
+number; for there was not a gentleman who was not impatient to have the
+pleasure of beholding that good man, now made famous by his labours and
+sufferings.  It is not in my power to represent the different passions
+they were affected with at seeing us pale, meagre, without clothes--in a
+word, almost naked and almost dead with fatigue and ill-usage.  They
+could not behold us in that miserable condition without reflecting on the
+hardships we had undergone, and our brethren then underwent, in Suaquem
+and Abyssinia.  Amidst their thanks to God for our deliverance, they
+could not help lamenting the condition of the patriarch and the other
+missionaries who were in chains, or, at least, in the hands of professed
+enemies to our holy religion.  All this did not hinder them from
+testifying in the most obliging manner their joy for our deliverance, and
+paying such honours as surprised the Moors, and made them repent in a
+moment of the ill-treatment they had shown us on board.  One who had
+discovered somewhat more humanity than the rest thought himself
+sufficiently honoured when I took him by the hand and presented him to
+the chief officer of the custom house, who promised to do all the favours
+that were in his power.
+
+When we passed by in sight of the fort, they gave us three salutes with
+their cannon, an honour only paid to generals.  The chief men of the
+city, who waited for us on the shore, accompanied us through a crowd of
+people, whom curiosity had drawn from all parts of our college.  Though
+our place of residence at Diou is one of the most beautiful in all the
+Indies, we stayed there only a few days, and as soon as we had recovered
+our fatigues went on board the ships that were appointed to convoy the
+northern fleet.  I was in the admiral's.  We arrived at Goa in some
+vessels bound for Camberia: here we lost a good old Abyssin convert, a
+man much valued in his order, and who was actually prior of his convent
+when he left Abyssinia, choosing rather to forsake all for religion than
+to leave the way of salvation, which God had so mercifully favoured him
+with the knowledge of.
+
+We continued our voyage, and almost without stopping sailed by Surate and
+Damam, where the rector of the college came to see us, but so sea-sick
+that the interview was without any satisfaction on either side.  Then
+landing at Bazaim we were received by our fathers with their accustomed
+charity, and nothing was thought of but how to put the unpleasing
+remembrance of our past labours out of our minds.  Finding here an order
+of the Father Provineta to forbid those who returned from the missions to
+go any farther, it was thought necessary to send an agent to Goa with an
+account of the revolutions that had happened in Abyssinia and of the
+imprisonment of the patriarch.  For this commission I was made choice of;
+and, I know not by what hidden degree of Providence, almost all affairs,
+whatever the success of them was, were transacted by me.  All the coasts
+were beset by Dutch cruisers, which made it difficult to sail without
+running the hazard of being taken.  I went therefore by land from Bazaim
+to Tana, where we had another college, and from thence to our house of
+Chaul.  Here I hired a narrow light vessel, and, placing eighteen oars on
+a side, went close by the shore from Chaul to Goa, almost eighty leagues.
+We were often in danger of being taken, and particularly when we touched
+at Dabal, where a cruiser blocked up one of the channels through which
+ships usually sail; but our vessel requiring no great depth of water, and
+the sea running high, we went through the little channel, and fortunately
+escaped the cruiser.  Though we were yet far from Goa, we expected to
+arrive there on the next morning, and rowed forward with all the
+diligence we could.  The sea was calm and delightful, and our minds were
+at ease, for we imagined ourselves past danger; but soon found we had
+flattered ourselves too soon with security, for we came within sight of
+several barks of Malabar, which had been hid behind a point of land which
+we were going to double.  Here we had been inevitably taken had not a man
+called to us from the shore and informed us that among those
+fishing-boats there, some crusiers would make us a prize.  We rewarded
+our kind informer for the service he had done us, and lay by till night
+came to shelter us from our enemies.  Then putting out our oars we landed
+at Goa next morning about ten, and were received at our college.  It
+being there a festival day, each had something extraordinary allowed him;
+the choicest part of our entertainments was two pilchers, which were
+admired because they came from Portugal.
+
+The quiet I began to enjoy did not make me lose the remembrance of my
+brethren whom I had left languishing among the rocks of Abyssinia, or
+groaning in the prisons of Suaquem, whom since I could not set at liberty
+without the viceroy's assistance, I went to implore it, and did not fail
+to make use of every motive which could have any influence.
+
+I described in the most pathetic manner I could the miserable state to
+which the Catholic religion was reduced in a country where it had lately
+flourished so much by the labours of the Portuguese; I gave him in the
+strongest terms a representation of all that we had suffered since the
+death of Sultan Segued, how we had been driven out of Abyssinia, how many
+times they had attempted to take away our lives, in what manner we had
+been betrayed and given up to the Turks, the menaces we had been
+terrified with, the insults we had endured; I laid before him the danger
+the patriarch was in of being either impaled or flayed alive; the
+cruelty, insolence and avarice of the Bassa of Suaquem, and the
+persecution that the Catholics suffered in AEthiopia.  I exhorted, I
+implored him by everything I thought might move him, to make some attempt
+for the preservation of those who had voluntarily sacrificed their lives
+for the sake of God.  I made it appear with how much ease the Turks might
+be driven out of the Red Sea, and the Portuguese enjoy all the trade of
+those countries.  I informed him of the navigation of that sea, and the
+situation of its ports; told him which it would be necessary to make
+ourselves masters of first, that we might upon any unfortunate encounter
+retreat to them.  I cannot deny that some degree of resentment might
+appear in my discourse; for, though revenge be prohibited to Christians,
+I should not have been displeased to have had the Bassa of Suaquem and
+his brother in my hands, that I might have reproached them with the ill-
+treatment we had met with from them.  This was the reason of my advising
+to make the first attack upon Mazna, to drive the Turks from thence, to
+build a citadel, and garrison it with Portuguese.
+
+The viceroy listened with great attention to all I had to say, gave me a
+long audience, and asked me many questions.  He was well pleased with the
+design of sending a fleet into that sea, and, to give a greater
+reputation to the enterprise, proposed making his son commander-in-chief,
+but could by no means be brought to think of fixing garrisons and
+building fortresses there; all he intended was to plunder all they could,
+and lay the towns in ashes.
+
+I left no art of persuasion untried to convince him that such a
+resolution would injure the interests of Christianity, that to enter the
+Red Sea only to ravage the coasts would so enrage the Turks that they
+would certainly massacre all the Christian captives, and for ever shut
+the passage into Abyssinia, and hinder all communication with that
+empire.  It was my opinion that the Portuguese should first establish
+themselves at Mazna, and that a hundred of them would be sufficient to
+keep the fort that should be built.  He made an offer of only fifty, and
+proposed that we should collect those few Portuguese who were scattered
+over Abyssinia.  These measures I could not approve.
+
+At length, when it appeared that the viceroy had neither forces nor
+authority sufficient for this undertaking, it was agreed that I should go
+immediately into Europe, and represent at Rome and Madrid the miserable
+condition of the missions of Abyssinia.  The viceroy promised that if I
+could procure any assistance, he would command in person the fleet and
+forces raised for the expedition, assuring that he thought he could not
+employ his life better than in a war so holy, and of so great an
+importance, to the propagation of the Catholic faith.
+
+Encouraged by this discourse of the viceroy, I immediately prepared
+myself for a voyage to Lisbon, not doubting to obtain upon the least
+solicitation everything that was necessary to re-establish our mission.
+
+Never had any man a voyage so troublesome as mine, or interrupted with
+such variety of unhappy accidents; I was shipwrecked on the coast of
+Natal, I was taken by the Hollanders, and it is not easy to mention the
+danger which I was exposed to both by land and sea before I arrived at
+Portugal.
+
+
+
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