{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_1436/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_1436","id":"gutenberg_1436","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1436","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Travel Writing","Ethiopia -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800","Lobo, Jer\u00f3nimo, 1596?-1678 -- Travel -- Ethiopia"],"text":"This etext was prepared from the 1887 Cassell and Company edition by Les\nBowler, St. Ives, Dorset.\n\n\n\n\n\nA VOYAGE TO ABYSSINIA.\n\n\nBY\nFATHER JEROME LOBO.\n\n_Translated from the French_\nby\nSAMUEL JOHNSON.\n\nCASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:\n_LONDON_, _PARIS_, _NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_.\n1887.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nJeronimo Lobo was born in Lisbon in the year 1593.  He entered the Order\nof the Jesuits at the age of sixteen.  After passing through the studies\nby which Jesuits were trained for missionary work, which included special\nattention to the arts of speaking and writing, Father Lobo was sent as a\nmissionary to India at the age of twenty-eight, in the year 1621.  He\nreached Goa, as his book tells, in 1622, and was in 1624, at the age of\nthirty-one, told off as one of the missionaries to be employed in the\nconversion of the Abyssinians.  They were to be converted, from a form of\nChristianity peculiar to themselves, to orthodox Catholicism.  The\nAbyssinian Emperor Segued was protector of the enterprise, of which we\nhave here the story told.\n\nFather Lobo was nine years in Abyssinia, from the age of thirty-one to\nthe age of forty, and this was the adventurous time of his life.  The\ndeath of the Emperor Segued put an end to the protection that had given\nthe devoted missionaries, in the midst of dangers, a precarious hold upon\ntheir work.  When he and his comrades fell into the hands of the Turks at\nMassowah, his vigour of body and mind, his readiness of resource, and his\nfidelity, marked him out as the one to be sent to the headquarters in\nIndia to secure the payment of a ransom for his companions.  He obtained\nthe ransom, and desired also to obtain from the Portuguese Viceroy in\nIndia armed force to maintain the missionaries in the position they had\nso far won.  But the Civil power was deaf to his pleading.  He removed\nthe appeal to Lisbon, and after narrowly escaping on the way from a\nshipwreck, and after having been captured by pirates, he reached Lisbon,\nand sought still to obtain means of overawing the force hostile to the\nwork of the Jesuits in Abyssinia.  The Princess Margaret gave friendly\nhearing, but sent him on to persuade, if he could, the King of Spain; and\nfailing at Madrid, he went to Rome and tried the Pope.  He was chosen to\ngo to the Pope, said the Patriarch Alfonso Mendez, because, of all the\nbrethren at Goa, the 'Pater Hieronymus Lupus' (Lobo translated into Wolf)\nwas the most ingenious and learned in all sciences, with a mind most\ngenerous in its desire to conquer difficulties, dexterous in management\nof business, and found most able to make himself agreeable to those with\nwhom there was business to be done.  The vigour with which he held by his\npurpose of endeavouring in every possible way to bring the Christianity\nof Abyssinia within the pale of the Catholic Church is in accordance with\nthe character that makes the centre of the story of this book.  Whimsical\ntouches arise out of this strength of character and readiness of\nresource, as when he tells of the taste of the Abyssinians for raw cow's\nflesh, with a sauce high in royal Abyssinian favour, made of the cow's\ngall and contents of its entrails, of which, when he was pressed to\npartake, he could only excuse himself and his brethren by suggesting that\nit was too good for such humble missionaries.  Out of distinguished\nrespect for it, they refrained from putting it into their mouths.\n\nGood Father Lobo gave up the desire of his heart, when it was proved\nunattainable, and returned to India six years after the breaking up of\nhis work in Abyssinia, at the age of forty-seven.  He came to be head of\nthe Provincials of the Jesuit settlement at Goa, and after about ten more\nyears of active duty in the East returned in 1658 to Lisbon, when he died\nin the religious house of St. Roque in 1678, at the age of eighty-five.  A\ncomrade of Father Lobo's, Baltazar Tellez, said that Lobo had travelled\nthirty-eight thousand leagues with no other object before him but the\nwinning of more souls to God.  His years in Abyssinia stood out\nprominently to his mind among all the years of his long life, and he\nwrote an account of them in Portuguese, of which the manuscript is at\nLisbon in the monastery of St. Roque, where he closed his life.\n\nOf that manuscript, then and still unprinted (though use was made of it\nby Baltazar Tellez in his History of 'Ethiopia-Coimbra,' 1660), the Abbe\nLegrand, Prior of Neuville-les-Dames, and of Prevessin, published a\ntranslation into French.  The Abbe Legrand had been to Lisbon as\nSecretary to the Abbe d'Estrees, Ambassador from France to Portugal.  The\nnegotiations were so long continued that M. Legrand was detained five\nyears in Lisbon, and employed the time in researches among documents\nillustrating the Portuguese possessions in India and the East.  He\nobtained many memoirs of great interest, and published from one of them\nan account of Ceylon; but of all the manuscripts he found none interested\nhim so much as that of Father Lobo.  His translation was augmented with\nillustrative dissertations, letters, and a memoir on the circumstances of\nthe death of M. du Roule.  It filled two volumes, or 636 pages of forty\nlines.  This was published in 1728.  It was on the 31st of October, 1728,\nthat Samuel Johnson, aged nineteen, went to Pembroke College, Oxford, and\nLegrand's 'Voyage Historique d'Abissinie du R. P. Jerome Lobo, de la\nCompagnie de Jesus, Traduit du Portugais, continue et augmente de\nplusieurs Dissertations, Lettres et Memoires,' was one of the new books\nread by Johnson during his short period of college life.  In 1735, when\nJohnson's age was twenty-six, and the world seemed to have shut against\nhim every door of hope, Johnson stayed for six months at Birmingham with\nhis old schoolfellow Hector, who was aiming at medical practice, and who\nlodged at the house of a bookseller.  Johnson spoke with interest of\nFather Lobo, whose book he had read at Pembroke College.  Mr. Warren, the\nbookseller, thought it would be worth while to print a translation.\nHector joined in urging Johnson to undertake it, for a payment of five\nguineas.  Although nearly brought to a stop midway by hypochondriac\ndespondency, a little suggestion that the printers also were stopped, and\nif they had not their work had not their pay, caused Johnson to go on to\nthe end.  Legrand's book was reduced to a fifth of its size by the\nomission of all that overlaid Father Lobo's personal account of his\nadventures; and Johnson began work as a writer with this translation,\nfirst published at Birmingham in 1735.\n\nH.M.\n\n\n\n\nTHE PREFACE\n\n\nThe following relation is so curious and entertaining, and the\ndissertations that accompany it so judicious and instructive, that the\ntranslator is confident his attempt stands in need of no apology,\nwhatever censures may fall on the performance.\n\nThe Portuguese traveller, contrary to the general vein of his countrymen,\nhas amused his reader with no romantic absurdities or incredible\nfictions; whatever he relates, whether true or not, is at least probable;\nand he who tells nothing exceeding the bounds of probability has a right\nto demand that they should believe him who cannot contradict him.\n\nHe appears by his modest and unaffected narration to have described\nthings as he saw them, to have copied nature from the life, and to have\nconsulted his senses, not his imagination; he meets with no basilisks\nthat destroy with their eyes, his crocodiles devour their prey without\ntears, and his cataracts fall from the rock without deafening the\nneighbouring inhabitants.\n\nThe reader will here find no regions cursed with irremediable barrenness,\nor blessed with spontaneous fecundity, no perpetual gloom or unceasing\nsunshine; nor are the nations here described either devoid of all sense\nof humanity, or consummate in all private and social virtues; here are no\nHottentots without religion, polity, or articulate language, no Chinese\nperfectly polite, and completely skilled in all sciences: he will\ndiscover, what will always be discovered by a diligent and impartial\ninquirer, that wherever human nature is to be found there is a mixture of\nvice and virtue, a contest of passion and reason, and that the Creator\ndoth not appear partial in his distributions, but has balanced in most\ncountries their particular inconveniences by particular favours.\n\nIn his account of the mission, where his veracity is most to be\nsuspected, he neither exaggerates overmuch the merits of the Jesuits, if\nwe consider the partial regard paid by the Portuguese to their\ncountrymen, by the Jesuits to their society, and by the Papists to their\nchurch, nor aggravates the vices of the Abyssins; but if the reader will\nnot be satisfied with a Popish account of a Popish mission, he may have\nrecourse to the history of the church of Abyssinia, written by Dr.\nGeddes, in which he will find the actions and sufferings of the\nmissionaries placed in a different light, though the same in which Mr. Le\nGrand, with all his zeal for the Roman church, appears to have seen them.\n\nThis learned dissertator, however valuable for his industry and\nerudition, is yet more to be esteemed for having dared so freely in the\nmidst of France to declare his disapprobation of the Patriarch Oviedo's\nsanguinary zeal, who was continually importuning the Portuguese to beat\nup their drums for missionaries, who might preach the gospel with swords\nin their hands, and propagate by desolation and slaughter the true\nworship of the God of Peace.\n\nIt is not easy to forbear reflecting with how little reason these men\nprofess themselves the followers of Jesus, who left this great\ncharacteristic to His disciples, that they should be known by loving one\nanother, by universal and unbounded charity and benevolence.\n\nLet us suppose an inhabitant of some remote and superior region, yet\nunskilled in the ways of men, having read and considered the precepts of\nthe gospel, and the example of our Saviour, to come down in search of the\ntrue church: if he would not inquire after it among the cruel, the\ninsolent, and the oppressive; among those who are continually grasping at\ndominion over souls as well as bodies; among those who are employed in\nprocuring to themselves impunity for the most enormous villainies, and\nstudying methods of destroying their fellow-creatures, not for their\ncrimes but their errors; if he would not expect to meet benevolence,\nengaged in massacres, or to find mercy in a court of inquisition, he would\nnot look for the true church in the Church of Rome.\n\nMr. Le Grand has given in one dissertation an example of great\nmoderation, in deviating from the temper of his religion, but in the\nothers has left proofs that learning and honesty are often too weak to\noppose prejudice.  He has made no scruple of preferring the testimony of\nFather du Bernat to the writings of all the Portuguese Jesuits, to whom\nhe allows great zeal, but little learning, without giving any other\nreason than that his favourite was a Frenchman.  This is writing only to\nFrenchmen and to Papists: a Protestant would be desirous to know why he\nmust imagine that Father du Bernat had a cooler head or more knowledge;\nand why one man whose account is singular is not more likely to be\nmistaken than many agreeing in the same account.\n\nIf the Portuguese were biassed by any particular views, another bias\nequally powerful may have deflected the Frenchman from the truth, for\nthey evidently write with contrary designs: the Portuguese, to make their\nmission seem more necessary, endeavoured to place in the strongest light\nthe differences between the Abyssinian and Roman Church; but the great\nLudolfus, laying hold on the advantage, reduced these later writers to\nprove their conformity.\n\nUpon the whole, the controversy seems of no great importance to those who\nbelieve the Holy Scriptures sufficient to teach the way of salvation, but\nof whatever moment it may be thought, there are not proofs sufficient to\ndecide it.\n\nHis discourses on indifferent subjects will divert as well as instruct,\nand if either in these, or in the relation of Father Lobo, any argument\nshall appear unconvincing, or description obscure, they are defects\nincident to all mankind, which, however, are not too rashly to be imputed\nto the authors, being sometimes, perhaps, more justly chargeable on the\ntranslator.\n\nIn this translation, if it may be so called, great liberties have been\ntaken, which, whether justifiable or not, shall be fairly confessed; and\nlet the judicious part of mankind pardon or condemn them.\n\nIn the first part the greatest freedom has been used in reducing the\nnarration into a narrow compass, so that it is by no means a translation\nbut an epitome, in which, whether everything either useful or\nentertaining be comprised, the compiler is least qualified to determine.\n\nIn the account of Abyssinia, and the continuation, the authors have been\nfollowed with more exactness, and as few passages appeared either\ninsignificant or tedious, few have been either shortened or omitted.\n\nThe dissertations are the only part in which an exact translation has\nbeen attempted, and even in those abstracts are sometimes given instead\nof literal quotations, particularly in the first; and sometimes other\nparts have been contracted.\n\nSeveral memorials and letters, which are printed at the end of the\ndissertations to secure the credit of the foregoing narrative, are\nentirely left out.\n\nIt is hoped that, after this confession, whoever shall compare this\nattempt with the original, if he shall find no proofs of fraud or\npartiality, will candidly overlook any failure of judgment.\n\n\n\n\nPART I--THE VOYAGE TO ABYSSINIA\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\n\nThe author arrives after some difficulties at Goa.  Is chosen for the\nMission of AEthiopia.  The fate of those Jesuits who went by Zeila.  The\nauthor arrives at the coast of Melinda.\n\nI embarked in March, 1622, in the same fleet with the Count Vidigueira,\non whom the king had conferred the viceroyship of the Indies, then vacant\nby the resignation of Alfonso Noronha, whose unsuccessful voyage in the\nforegoing year had been the occasion of the loss of Ormus, which being by\nthe miscarriage of that fleet deprived of the succours necessary for its\ndefence, was taken by the Persians and English.  The beginning of this\nvoyage was very prosperous: we were neither annoyed with the diseases of\nthe climate nor distressed with bad weather, till we doubled the Cape of\nGood Hope, which was about the end of May.  Here began our misfortunes;\nthese coasts are remarkable for the many shipwrecks the Portuguese have\nsuffered.  The sea is for the most part rough, and the winds tempestuous;\nwe had here our rigging somewhat damaged by a storm of lightning, which\nwhen we had repaired, we sailed forward to Mosambique, where we were to\nstay some time.  When we came near that coast, and began to rejoice at\nthe prospect of ease and refreshment, we were on the sudden alarmed with\nthe sight of a squadron of ships, of what nation we could not at first\ndistinguish, but soon discovered that they were three English and three\nDutch, and were preparing to attack us.  I shall not trouble the reader\nwith the particulars of this fight, in which, though the English\ncommander ran himself aground, we lost three of our ships, and with great\ndifficulty escaped with the rest into the port of Mosambique.\n\nThis place was able to afford us little consolation in our uneasy\ncircumstances; the arrival of our company almost caused a scarcity of\nprovisions.  The heat in the day is intolerable, and the dews in the\nnight so unwholesome that it is almost certain death to go out with one's\nhead uncovered.  Nothing can be a stronger proof of the malignant quality\nof the air than that the rust will immediately corrode both the iron and\nbrass if they are not carefully covered with straw.  We stayed, however,\nin this place from the latter end of July to the beginning of September,\nwhen having provided ourselves with other vessels, we set out for Cochin,\nand landed there after a very hazardous and difficult passage, made so\npartly by the currents and storms which separated us from each other, and\npartly by continual apprehensions of the English and Dutch, who were\ncruising for us in the Indian seas.  Here the viceroy and his company\nwere received with so much ceremony, as was rather troublesome than\npleasing to us who were fatigued with the labours of the passage; and\nhaving stayed here some time, that the gentlemen who attended the viceroy\nto Goa might fit out their vessels, we set sail, and after having been\ndetained some time at sea, by calms and contrary winds, and somewhat\nharassed by the English and Dutch, who were now increased to eleven ships\nof war, arrived at Goa, on Saturday, the 16th of December, and the\nviceroy made his entry with great magnificence.\n\nI lived here about a year, and completed my studies in divinity; in which\ntime some letters were received from the fathers in AEthiopia, with an\naccount that Sultan Segued, Emperor of Abyssinia, was converted to the\nChurch of Rome, that many of his subjects had followed his example, and\nthat there was a great want of missionaries to improve these prosperous\nbeginnings.  Everybody was very desirous of seconding the zeal of our\nfathers, and of sending them the assistance they requested; to which we\nwere the more encouraged, because the emperor's letters informed our\nprovincial that we might easily enter his dominions by the way of\nDancala, but unhappily, the secretary wrote Zeila for Dancala, which cost\ntwo of our fathers their lives.\n\nWe were, however, notwithstanding the assurances given us by the emperor,\nsufficiently apprised of the danger which we were exposed to in this\nexpedition, whether we went by sea or land.  By sea, we foresaw the\nhazard we run of falling into the hands of the Turks, amongst whom we\nshould lose, if not our lives, at least our liberty, and be for ever\nprevented from reaching the court of AEthiopia.  Upon this consideration\nour superiors divided the eight Jesuits chosen for this mission into two\ncompanies.  Four they sent by sea and four by land; I was of the latter\nnumber.  The four first were the more fortunate, who though they were\ndetained some time by the Turkish bassa, were dismissed at the request of\nthe emperor, who sent him a zebra, or wild ass, a creature of large size\nand admirable beauty.\n\nAs for us, who were to go by Zeila, we had still greater difficulties to\nstruggle with: we were entirely strangers to the ways we were to take, to\nthe manners, and even to the names of the nations through which we were\nto pass.  Our chief desire was to discover some new road by which we\nmight avoid having anything to do with the Turks.  Among great numbers\nwhom we consulted on this occasion, we were informed by some that we\nmight go through Melinda.  These men painted that hideous wilderness in\ncharming colours, told us that we should find a country watered with\nnavigable rivers, and inhabited by a people that would either inform us\nof the way, or accompany us in it.  These reports charmed us, because\nthey flattered our desires; but our superiors finding nothing in all this\ntalk that could be depended on, were in suspense what directions to give\nus, till my companion and I upon this reflection, that since all the ways\nwere equally new to us, we had nothing to do but to resign ourselves to\nthe Providence of God, asked and obtained the permission of our superiors\nto attempt the road through Melinda.  So of we who went by land, two took\nthe way of Zeila, and my companion and I that of Melinda.\n\nThose who were appointed for Zeila embarked in a vessel that was going to\nCaxume, where they were well received by the king, and accommodated with\na ship to carry them to Zeila; they were there treated by the Check with\nthe same civility which they had met with at Caxume.  But the king being\ninformed of their arrival, ordered them to be conveyed to his court at\nAuxa, to which place they were scarce come before they were thrown by the\nking's command into a dark and dismal dungeon, where there is hardly any\nsort of cruelty that was not exercised upon them.  The Emperor of\nAbyssinia endeavoured by large offers to obtain their liberty, but his\nkind offices had no other effect than to heighten the rage of the king of\nZeila.  This prince, besides his ill will to Sultan Segued, which was\nkept up by some malcontents among the Abyssin nobility, who, provoked at\nthe conversion of their master, were plotting a revolt, entertained an\ninveterate hatred against the Portuguese for the death of his\ngrandfather, who had been killed many years before, which he swore the\nblood of the Jesuits should repay.  So after they had languished for some\ntime in prison their heads were struck off.  A fate which had been\nlikewise our own, had not God reserved us for longer labours!\n\nHaving provided everything necessary for our journey, such as Arabian\nhabits, and red caps, calicoes, and other trifles to make presents of to\nthe inhabitants, and taking leave of our friends, as men going to a\nspeedy death, for we were not insensible of the dangers we were likely to\nencounter, amongst horrid deserts, impassable mountains, and barbarous\nnations, we left Goa on the 26th day of January in the year 1624, in a\nPortuguese galliot that was ordered to set us ashore at Pate, where we\nlanded without any disaster in eleven days, together with a young\nAbyssin, whom we made use of as our interpreter.  While we stayed here we\nwere given to understand that those who had been pleased at Goa to give\nus directions in relation to our journey had done nothing but tell us\nlies.  That the people were savage, that they had indeed begun to treat\nwith the Portuguese, but it was only from fear, that otherwise they were\na barbarous nation, who finding themselves too much crowded in their own\ncountry, had extended themselves to the sea-shore; that they ravished the\ncountry and laid everything waste where they came, that they were man-\neaters, and were on that account dreadful in all those parts.  My\ncompanion and I being undeceived by this terrible relation, thought it\nwould be the highest imprudence to expose ourselves both together to a\ndeath almost certain and unprofitable, and agreed that I should go with\nour Abyssin and a Portuguese to observe the country; that if I should\nprove so happy as to escape being killed by the inhabitants, and to\ndiscover a way, I should either return, or send back the Abyssin or\nPortuguese.  Having fixed upon this, I hired a little bark to Jubo, a\nplace about forty leagues distant from Pate, on board which I put some\nprovisions, together with my sacerdotal vestments, and all that was\nnecessary for saying mass: in this vessel we reached the coast, which we\nfound inhabited by several nations: each nation is subject to its own\nking; these petty monarchies are so numerous, that I counted at least ten\nin less than four leagues.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\n\nThe author lands: The difficulty of his journey.  An account of the\nGalles, and of the author's reception at the king's tent; Their manner of\nswearing, and of letting blood.  The author returns to the Indies, and\nfinds the patriarch of AEthiopia.\n\nOn this coast we landed, with an intention of travelling on foot to Jubo,\na journey of much greater length and difficulty than we imagined.  We\ndurst not go far from our bark, and therefore were obliged to a toilsome\nmarch along the windings of the shore, sometimes clambering up rocks, and\nsometimes wading through the sands, so that we were every moment in the\nutmost danger of falling from the one, or sinking in the other.  Our\nlodging was either in the rocks or on the sands, and even that incommoded\nby continual apprehensions of being devoured by lions and tigers.  Amidst\nall these calamities our provisions failed us; we had little hopes of a\nsupply, for we found neither villages, houses, nor any trace of a human\ncreature; and had miserably perished by thirst and hunger had we not met\nwith some fishermen's boats, who exchanged their fish for tobacco.\n\nThrough all these fatigues we at length came to Jubo, a kingdom of\nconsiderable extent, situated almost under the line, and tributary to the\nPortuguese, who carry on a trade here for ivory and other commodities.\nThis region so abounds with elephants, that though the teeth of the male\nonly are valuable, they load several ships with ivory every year.  All\nthis coast is much infested with ravenous beasts, monkeys, and serpents,\nof which last here are some seven feet in length, and thicker than an\nordinary man; in the head of this serpent is found a stone about the\nbigness of an egg, resembling bezoar, and of great efficacy, as it is\nsaid, against all kinds of poison.  I stayed here some time to inform\nmyself whether I might, by pursuing this road, reach Abyssinia; and could\nget no other intelligence but that two thousand Galles (the same people\nwho inhabited Melinda) had encamped about three leagues from Jubo; that\nthey had been induced to fix in that place by the plenty of provisions\nthey found there.  These Galles lay everything where they come in ruin,\nputting all to the sword without distinction of age or sex; which\nbarbarities, though their numbers are not great, have spread the terror\nof them over all the country.  They choose a king, whom they call Lubo:\nevery eighth year. They carry their wives with them, and expose their\nchildren without any tenderness in the woods, it being prohibited, on\npain of death, to take any care of those which are born in the camp.  This\nis their way of living when they are in arms, but afterwards when they\nsettle at home they breed up their children.  They feed upon raw cow's\nflesh; when they kill a cow, they keep the blood to rub their bodies\nwith, and wear the guts about their necks for ornaments, which they\nafterwards give to their wives.\n\nSeveral of these Galles came to see me, and as it seemed they had never\nbeheld a white man before, they gazed on me with amazement; so strong was\ntheir curiosity that they even pulled off my shoes and stockings, that\nthey might be satisfied whether all my body was of the same colour with\nmy face.  I could remark, that after they had observed me some time, they\ndiscovered some aversion from a white; however, seeing me pull out my\nhandkerchief, they asked me for it with a great deal of eagerness; I cut\nit into several pieces that I might satisfy them all, and distributed it\namongst them; they bound them about their heads, but gave me to\nunderstand that they should have liked them better if they had been red:\nafter this we were seldom without their company, which gave occasion to\nan accident, which though it seemed to threaten some danger at first,\nturned afterwards to our advantage.\n\nAs these people were continually teasing us, our Portuguese one day\nthreatened in jest to kill one of them.  The black ran in the utmost\ndread to seek his comrades, and we were in one moment almost covered with\nGalles; we thought it the most proper course to decline the first impulse\nof their fury, and retired into our house.  Our retreat inspired them\nwith courage; they redoubled their cries, and posted themselves on an\neminence near at hand that overlooked us; there they insulted us by\nbrandishing their lances and daggers.  We were fortunately not above a\nstone's cast from the sea, and could therefore have retreated to our bark\nhad we found ourselves reduced to extremities.  This made us not very\nsolicitous about their menaces; but finding that they continued to hover\nabout our habitation, and being wearied with their clamours, we thought\nit might be a good expedient to fright them away by firing four muskets\ntowards them, in such a manner that they might hear the bullets hiss\nabout two feet over their heads.  This had the effect we wished; the\nnoise and fire of our arms struck them with so much terror that they fell\nupon the ground, and durst not for some time so much as lift up their\nheads.  They forgot immediately their natural temper, their ferocity and\nhaughtiness were softened into mildness and submission; they asked pardon\nfor their insolence, and we were ever after good friends.\n\nAfter our reconciliation we visited each other frequently, and had some\nconversation about the journey I had undertaken, and the desire I had of\nfinding a new passage into AEthiopia.  It was necessary on this account\nto consult their lubo or king: I found him in a straw hut something\nlarger than those of his subjects, surrounded by his courtiers, who had\neach a stick in his hand, which is longer or shorter according to the\nquality of the person admitted into the king's presence.  The ceremony\nmade use of at the reception of a stranger is somewhat unusual; as soon\nas he enters, all the courtiers strike him with their cudgels till he\ngoes back to the door; the amity then subsisting between us did not\nsecure me from this uncouth reception, which they told me, upon my\ndemanding the reason of it, was to show those whom they treated with that\nthey were the bravest people in the world, and that all other nations\nought to bow down before them.  I could not help reflecting on this\noccasion how imprudently I had trusted my life in the hands of men\nunacquainted with compassion or civility, but recollecting at the same\ntime that the intent of my journey was such as might give me hopes of the\ndivine protection, I banished all thoughts but those of finding a way\ninto AEthiopia.  In this strait it occurred to me that these people,\nhowever barbarous, have some oath which they keep with an inviolable\nstrictness; the best precaution, therefore, that I could use would be to\nbind them by this oath to be true to their engagements.  The manner of\ntheir swearing is this: they set a sheep in the midst of them, and rub it\nover with butter, the heads of families who are the chief in the nation\nlay their hands upon the head of the sheep, and swear to observe their\npromise.  This oath (which they never violate) they explain thus: the\nsheep is the mother of them who swear; the butter betokens the love\nbetween the mother and the children, and an oath taken on a mother's head\nis sacred.  Upon the security of this oath, I made them acquainted with\nmy intention, an intention, they told me, it was impossible to put in\nexecution.  From the moment I left them they said they could give me no\nassurance of either life or liberty, that they were perfectly informed\nboth of the roads and inhabitants, that there were no fewer than nine\nnations between us and Abyssinia, who were always embroiled amongst\nthemselves, or at war with the Abyssins, and enjoyed no security even in\ntheir own territories.  We were now convinced that our enterprise was\nimpracticable, and that to hazard ourselves amidst so many insurmountable\ndifficulties would be to tempt Providence; despairing, therefore, that I\nshould ever come this way to Abyssinia, I resolved to return back with my\nintelligence to my companion, whom I had left at Pate.\n\nI cannot, however, leave this country without giving an account of their\nmanner of blood-letting, which I was led to the knowledge of by a violent\nfever, which threatened to put an end to my life and travels together.\nThe distress I was in may easily be imagined, being entirely destitute of\neverything necessary.  I had resolved to let myself blood, though I was\naltogether a stranger to the manner of doing it, and had no lancet, but\nmy companions hearing of a surgeon of reputation in the place, went and\nbrought him.  I saw, with the utmost surprise, an old Moor enter my\nchamber, with a kind of small dagger, all over rusty, and a mallet in his\nhand, and three cups of horn about half a foot long.  I started, and\nasked what he wanted.  He told me to bleed me; and when I had given him\nleave, uncovering my side, applied one of his horn cups, which he stopped\nwith chewed paper, and by that means made it stick fast; in the same\nmanner he fixed on the other two, and fell to sharpening his instrument,\nassuring me that he would give me no pain.  He then took off his cups,\nand gave in each place a stroke with his poignard, which was followed by\na stream of blood.  He applied his cups several times, and every time\nstruck his lancet into the same place; having drawn away a large quantity\nof blood, he healed the orifices with three lumps of tallow.  I know not\nwhether to attribute my cure to bleeding or my fear, but I had from that\ntime no return of my fever.\n\nWhen I came to Pate, in hopes of meeting with my associate, I found that\nhe was gone to Mombaza, in hopes of receiving information.  He was sooner\nundeceived than I, and we met at the place where we parted in a few days;\nand soon afterwards left Pate to return to the Indies, and in nine-and-\ntwenty days arrived at the famous fortress of Diou.  We were told at this\nplace that Alfonso Mendes, patriarch of AEthiopia, was arrived at Goa\nfrom Lisbon.  He wrote to us to desire that we would wait for him at\nDiou, in order to embark there for the Red Sea; but being informed by us\nthat no opportunities of going thither were to be expected at Diou, it\nwas at length determined that we should meet at Bazaim; it was no easy\nmatter for me to find means of going to Bazaim.  However, after a very\nuneasy voyage, in which we were often in danger of being dashed against\nthe rocks, or thrown upon the sands by the rapidity of the current, and\nsuffered the utmost distress for want of water, I landed at Daman, a\nplace about twenty leagues distant from Bazaim.  Here I hire a catre and\nfour boys to carry me to Bazaim: these catres are a kind of travelling\ncouches, in which you may either lie or sit, which the boys, whose\nbusiness is the same with that of chairmen in our country, support upon\ntheir shoulders by two poles, and carry a passenger at the rate of\neighteen or twenty miles a day.  Here we at length found the patriarch,\nwith three more priests, like us, designed for the mission of AEthiopia.\nWe went back to Daman, and from thence to Diou, where we arrived in a\nshort time.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\n\nThe author embarks with the patriarch, narrowly escapes shipwreck near\nthe isle of Socotora; enters the Arabian Gulf, and the Red Sea.  Some\naccount of the coast of the Red Sea.\n\nThe patriarch having met with many obstacles and disappointments in his\nreturn to Abyssinia, grew impatient of being so long absent from his\nchurch.  Lopo Gomez d'Abreu had made him an offer at Bazaim of fitting\nout three ships at his own expense, provided a commission could be\nprocured him to cruise in the Red Sea.  This proposal was accepted by the\npatriarch, and a commission granted by the viceroy.  While we were at\nDiou, waiting for these vessels, we received advice from AEthiopia that\nthe emperor, unwilling to expose the patriarch to any hazard, thought\nDagher, a port in the mouth of the Red Sea, belonging to a prince\ndependent on the Abyssins, a place of the greatest security to land at,\nhaving already written to that prince to give him safe passage through\nhis dominions.  We met here with new delays; the fleet that was to\ntransport us did not appear, the patriarch lost all patience, and his\nzeal so much affected the commander at Diou, that he undertook to equip a\nvessel for us, and pushed the work forward with the utmost diligence.  At\nlength, the long-expected ships entered the port; we were overjoyed, we\nwere transported, and prepared to go on board.  Many persons at Diou,\nseeing the vessels so well fitted out, desired leave to go this voyage\nalong with us, imagining they had an excellent opportunity of acquiring\nboth wealth and honour.  We committed, however, one great error in\nsetting out, for having equipped our ships for privateering, and taken no\nmerchandise on board, we could not touch at any of the ports of the Red\nSea.  The patriarch, impatient to be gone, took leave in the most tender\nmanner of the governor and his other friends, recommended our voyage to\nthe Blessed Virgin, and in the field, before we went on shipboard, made a\nshort exhortation, so moving and pathetic, that it touched the hearts of\nall who heard it.  In the evening we went on board, and early the next\nmorning being the 3rd of April, 1625, we set sail.\n\nAfter some days we discovered about noon the island Socotora, where we\nproposed to touch.  The sky was bright and the wind fair, nor had we the\nleast apprehension of the danger into which we were falling, but with the\nutmost carelessness and jollity held on our course.  At night, when our\nsailors, especially the Moors, were in a profound sleep (for the\nMohammedans, believing everything forewritten in the decrees of God, and\nnot alterable by any human means, resign themselves entirely to\nProvidence), our vessel ran aground upon a sand bank at the entrance of\nthe harbour.  We got her off with the utmost difficulty, and nothing but\na miracle could have preserved us.  We ran along afterwards by the side\nof the island, but were entertained with no other prospect than of a\nmountainous country, and of rocks that jutted out over the sea, and\nseemed ready to fall into it.  In the afternoon, putting into the most\nconvenient ports of the island, we came to anchor; very much to the\namazement and terror of the inhabitants, who were not used to see any\nPortuguese ships upon their coasts, and were therefore under a great\nconsternation at finding them even in their ports.  Some ran for security\nto the mountains, others took up arms to oppose our landing, but were\nsoon reconciled to us, and brought us fowls, fish, and sheep, in exchange\nfor India calicoes, on which they set a great value.  We left this island\nearly the next morning, and soon came in sight of Cape Gardafui, so\ncelebrated heretofore under the name of the Cape of Spices, either\nbecause great quantities were then found there, or from its neighbourhood\nto Arabia the Happy, even at this day famous for its fragrant products.\nIt is properly at this cape (the most eastern part of Africa) that the\nGulf of Arabia begins, which at Babelmandel loses its name, and is called\nthe Red Sea.  Here, though the weather was calm, we found the sea so\nrough, that we were tossed as in a high wind for two nights; whether this\nviolent agitation of the water proceeded from the narrowness of the\nstrait, or from the fury of the late storm, I know not; whatever was the\ncause, we suffered all the hardships of a tempest.  We continued our\ncourse towards the Red Sea, meeting with nothing in our passage but a\ngelve, or kind of boat, made of thin boards, sewed together, with no\nother sail than a mat.  We gave her chase, in hopes of being informed by\nthe crew whether there were any Arabian vessels at the mouth of the\nstrait; but the Moors, who all entertain dismal apprehensions of the\nFranks, plied their oars and sail with the utmost diligence, and as soon\nas they reached land, quitted their boat, and scoured to the mountains.\nWe saw them make signals from thence, and imagining they would come to a\nparley, sent out our boat with two sailors and an Abyssin, putting the\nships off from the shore, to set them free from any suspicion of danger\nin coming down.  All this was to no purpose, they could not be drawn from\nthe mountain, and our men had orders not to go on shore, so they were\nobliged to return without information.  Soon after we discovered the isle\nof Babelmandel, which gives name to the strait so called, and parts the\nsea that surrounds it into two channels; that on the side of Arabia is\nnot above a quarter of a league in breadth, and through this pass almost\nall the vessels that trade to or from the Red Sea.  The other, on the\nside of AEthiopia, though much larger, is more dangerous, by reason of\nthe shallows, which make it necessary for a ship, though of no great\nburthen, to pass very near the island, where the channel is deeper and\nless embarrassed.  This passage is never made use of but by those who\nwould avoid meeting with the Turks who are stationed on the coast of\nArabia; it was for this reason that we chose it.  We passed it in the\nnight, and entered that sea, so renowned on many accounts in history,\nboth sacred and profane.\n\nIn our description of this famous sea, an account of which may justly be\nexpected in this place, it is most convenient to begin with the coast of\nArabia, on which part at twelve leagues from the mouth stands the city of\nMoca, a place of considerable trade.  Forty leagues farther is the Isle\nof Camaram, whose inhabitants are annoyed with little serpents, which\nthey call basilisks, which, though very poisonous and deadly, do not, as\nthe ancients have told us, kill with their eyes, or if they have so fatal\na power, it is not at least in this place.  Sailing ninety leagues\nfarther, you see the noted port of Jodda, where the pilgrims that go to\nMecca and Medina unlade those rich presents which the zeal of different\nprinces is every day accumulating at the tomb of Mahomet.  The commerce\nof this place, and the number of merchants that resort thither from all\nparts of the world, are above description, and so richly laden are the\nships that come hither, that when the Indians would express a thing of\ninestimable price, they say, \"It is of greater value than a ship of\nJodda.\"  An hundred and eighteen leagues from thence lies Toro, and near\nit the ruins of an ancient monastery.  This is the place, if the report\nof the inhabitants deserves any credit, where the Israelites miraculously\npassed through the Red Sea on dry land; and there is some reason for\nimagining the tradition not ill grounded, for the sea is here only three\nleagues in breadth.  All the ground about Toro is barren for want of\nwater, which is only to be found at a considerable distance, in one\nfountain, which flows out of the neighbouring mountains, at the foot of\nwhich there are still twelve palm-trees.  Near Toro are several wells,\nwhich, as the Arabs tell us, were dug by the order of Moses to quiet the\nclamours of the thirsty Israelites.  Suez lies in the bottom of the Gulf,\nthree leagues from Toro, once a place of note, now reduced, under the\nTurks, to an inconsiderable village, where the miserable inhabitants are\nforced to fetch water at three leagues' distance.  The ancient Kings of\nEgypt conveyed the waters of the Nile to this place by an artificial\ncanal, now so choked with sand, that there are scarce any marks remaining\nof so noble and beneficial a work.\n\nThe first place to be met with in travelling along the coast of Africa is\nRondelo, situate over against Toro, and celebrated for the same\nmiraculous passage.  Forty-five leagues from thence is Cocir.  Here ends\nthat long chain of mountains that reaches from this place even to the\nentrance of the Red Sea.  In this prodigious ridge, which extends three\nhundred leagues, sometimes approaching near the sea, and sometimes\nrunning far up into the land, there is only one opening, through which\nall that merchandise is conveyed, which is embarked at Rifa, and from\nthence distributed through all the east.  These mountains, as they are\nuncultivated, are in some parts shaded with large forests, and in others\ndry and bare.  As they are exceedingly high, all the seasons may be here\nfound together; when the storms of winter beat on one side, on the other\nis often a serene sky and a bright sunshine.  The Nile runs here so near\nthe shore that it might without much difficulty be turned through this\nopening of the mountains into the Red Sea, a design which many of the\nEmperors have thought of putting in execution, and thereby making a\ncommunication between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, but have been\ndiscouraged either by the greatness of the expense or the fear of laying\ngreat part of Egypt under water, for some of that country lies lower than\nsea.\n\nDistant from Rondelo a hundred and thirty leagues is the Isle of Suaquem,\nwhere the Bassa of that country chooses his residence, for the\nconvenience of receiving the tribute with greater exactness, there being\na large trade carried on here with the Abyssins.  The Turks of Suaquem\nhave gardens on the firm land, not above a musket shot from the island,\nwhich supply them with many excellent herbs and fruits, of which I doubt\nwhether there be not a greater quantity on this little spot than on the\nwhole coast of Africa besides, from Melinda to Suez.  For if we except\nthe dates which grow between Suez and Suaquem, the ground does not yield\nthe least product; all the necessaries of life, even water, is wanting.\nNothing can support itself in this region of barrenness but ostriches,\nwhich devour stones, or anything they meet with; they lay a great number\nof eggs, part of which they break to feed their young with.  These fowls,\nof which I have seen many, are very tame, and when they are pursued,\nstretch out their wings, and run with amazing swiftness.  As they have\ncloven feet, they sometimes strike up the stones when they run, which\ngave occasion to the notion that they threw stones at the hunters, a\nrelation equally to be credited with those of their eating fire and\ndigesting iron.  Those feathers which are so much valued grow under their\nwings: the shell of their eggs powdered is an excellent remedy for sore\neyes.\n\nThe burning wind spoken of in the sacred writings, I take to be that\nwhich the natives term arur, and the Arabs uri, which blowing in the\nspring, brings with it so excessive a heat, that the whole country seems\na burning oven; so that there is no travelling here in this dreadful\nseason, nor is this the only danger to which the unhappy passenger is\nexposed in these uncomfortable regions.  There blows in the months of\nJune, July, and August, another wind, which raises mountains of sand and\ncarries them through the air; all that can be done in this case is when a\ncloud of sand rises, to mark where it is likely to fall, and to retire as\nfar off as possible; but it is very usual for men to be taken\nunexpectedly, and smothered in the dust.  One day I found the body of a\nChristian, whom I knew, upon the sand; he had doubtless been choked by\nthese winds.  I recommended his soul to the divine mercy and buried him.\nHe seemed to have been some time dead, yet the body had no ill smell.\nThese winds are most destructive in Arabia the Desert.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\n\nThe author's conjecture on the name of the Red Sea.  An account of the\ncocoa-tree.  He lands at Baylur.\n\nTo return to the description of the coast: sixty leagues from Suaquem is\nan island called Mazna, only considerable for its ports, which make the\nTurks reside upon it, though they are forced to keep three barks\ncontinually employed in fetching water, which is not to be found nearer\nthan at a distance of twelve miles.  Forty leagues from hence is Dalacha,\nan island where many pearls are found, but of small value.  The next\nplace is Baylur, forty leagues from Dalacha, and twelve from Babelmandel.\n\nThere are few things upon which a greater variety of conjectures has been\noffered than upon the reasons that induced the ancients to distinguish\nthis gulf, which separates Asia from Africa, by the name of the Red Sea,\nan appellation that has almost universally obtained in all languages.\nSome affirm that the torrents, which fall after great rains from the\nmountains, wash down such a quantity of red sand as gives a tincture to\nthe water: others tell us that the sunbeams being reverberated from the\nred rocks, give the sea on which they strike the appearance of that\ncolour.  Neither of these accounts are satisfactory; the coasts are so\nscorched by the heat that they are rather black than red; nor is the\ncolour of this sea much altered by the winds or rains.  The notion\ngenerally received is, that the coral found in such quantities at the\nbottom of the sea might communicate this colour to the water: an account\nmerely chimerical.  Coral is not to be found in all parts of this gulf,\nand red coral in very few.  Nor does this water in fact differ from that\nof other seas.  The patriarch and I have frequently amused ourselves with\nmaking observations, and could never discover any redness, but in the\nshallows, where a kind of weed grew which they call gouesmon, which\nredness disappeared as soon as we plucked up the plant.  It is observable\nthat St. Jerome, confining himself to the Hebrew, calls this sea Jamsuf.\nJam in that language signifies sea, and suf is the name of a plant in\nAEthiopia, from which the Abyssins extract a beautiful crimson; whether\nthis be the same with the gouesmon, I know not, but am of opinion that\nthe herb gives to this sea both the colour and the name.\n\nThe vessels most used in the Red Sea, though ships of all sizes may be\nmet with there, are gelves, of which some mention hath been made already;\nthese are the more convenient, because they will not split if thrown upon\nbanks or against rocks.  These gelves have given occasion to the report\nthat out of the cocoa-tree alone a ship may be built, fitted out with\nmasts, sails, and cordage, and victualled with bread, water, wine, sugar,\nvinegar, and oil.  All this indeed cannot be done out of one tree, but\nmay out of several of the same kind.  They saw the trunk into planks, and\nsew them together with thread which they spin out of the bark, and which\nthey twist for the cables; the leaves stitched together make the sails.\nThis boat thus equipped may be furnished with all necessaries from the\nsame tree.  There is not a month in which the cocoa does not produce a\nbunch of nuts, from twenty to fifty.  At first sprouts out a kind of seed\nor capsula, of a shape not unlike the scabbard of a scimitar, which they\ncut, and place a vessel under, to receive the liquor that drops from it;\nthis drink is called soro, and is clear, pleasant, and nourishing.  If it\nbe boiled, it grows hard, and makes a kind of sugar much valued in the\nIndies: distil this liquor and you have a strong water, of which is made\nexcellent vinegar.  All these different products are afforded before the\nnut is formed, and while it is green it contains a delicious cooling\nwater; with these nuts they store their gelves, and it is the only\nprovision of water which is made in this country.  The second bark which\ncontains the water is so tender that they eat it.  When this fruit\narrives to perfect maturity, they either pound the kernel into meal, and\nmake cakes of or draw an oil from it of a fine scent and taste, and of\ngreat use in medicine; so that what is reported of the different products\nof this wonderful tree is neither false nor incredible.\n\nIt is time we should come now to the relation of our voyage.  Having\nhappily passed the straits at the entrance of the Red Sea, we pursued our\ncourse, keeping as near the shore as we could, without any farther\napprehensions of the Turks.  We were, however, under some concern that we\nwere entirely ignorant in what part of the coast to find Baylur, a port\nwhere we proposed landing, and so little known, that our pilots, who had\nmade many voyages in this sea, could give us no account of it.  We were\nin hopes of information from the fishermen, but found that as soon as we\ncame near they fled from us in the greatest consternation; no signals of\npeace or friendship could prevail on them to stay; they either durst not\ntrust or did not understand us.  We plied along the coast in this\nuncertainty two days, till on the first of March having doubled a point\nof land, which came out a great way into the sea, we found ourselves in\nthe middle of a fair large bay, which many reasons induced us to think\nwas Baylur; that we might be farther assured we sent our Abyssin on\nshore, who returning next morning confirmed our opinion.  It would not be\neasy to determine whether our arrival gave us greater joy, or the\ninhabitants greater apprehensions, for we could discern a continual\ntumult in the land, and took notice that the crews of some barks that lay\nin the harbour were unlading with all possible diligence, to prevent the\ncargo from falling into our hands, very much indeed to the\ndissatisfaction of many of our soldiers, who having engaged in this\nexpedition, with no other view than of filling their pockets, were,\nbefore the return of our Abyssin, for treating them like enemies, and\ntaking them as a lawful prize.  We were willing to be assured of a good\nreception in this port; the patriarch therefore sent me to treat with\nthem.  I dressed myself like a merchant, and in that habit received the\nfour captains of gelves which the Chec sent to compliment me, and ordered\nto stay as hostages, whom I sent back, that I might gain upon their\naffections by the confidence I placed in their sincerity; this had so\ngood an effect, that the Chec, who was transported with the account the\nofficers gave of the civilities they had been treated with, came in an\nhour to visit me, bringing with him a Portuguese, whom I had sent ashore\nas a security for his return.  He informed me that the King his master\nwas encamped not far off, and that a Chec who was then in the company was\njust arrived from thence, and had seen the Emperor of AEthiopia's letters\nin our favour; I was then convinced that we might land without scruple,\nand to give the patriarch notice of it ordered a volley of our muskets to\nbe fired, which was answered by the cannon of the two ships that lay at a\ndistance, for fear of giving the Moors any cause of suspicion by their\napproach.  The Chec and his attendants, though I had given them notice\nthat we were going to let off our guns in honour of the King their\nmaster, could not forbear trembling at the fire and noise.  They left us\nsoon after, and next morning we landed our baggage, consisting chiefly of\nthe patriarch's library, some ornaments for the church, some images, and\nsome pieces of calico, which were of the same use as money.  Most of the\nsoldiers and sailors were desirous of going with us, some from real\nprinciples of piety, and a desire of sharing the labours and merits of\nthe mission, others upon motives very different, the hopes of raising a\nfortune.  To have taken all who offered themselves would have been an\ninjury to the owners of the ships, by rendering them unable to continue\ntheir voyage; we therefore accepted only of a few.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\n\nAn account of Dancali.  The conduct of Chec Furt.  The author wounded.\nThey arrive at the court of the King of Dancali.  A description of his\npavilion, and the reception they met with.\n\nOur goods were no sooner landed than we were surrounded with a crowd of\nofficers, all gaping for presents; we were forced to gratify their\navarice by opening our bales, and distributing among them some pieces of\ncalico.  What we gave to the Chec might be worth about a pistole, and the\nrest in proportion.\n\nThe kingdom of Dancali, to which this belongs, is barren, and thinly\npeopled; the king is tributary to the Emperor of Abyssinia, and very\nfaithful to his sovereign.  The emperor had not only written to him, but\nhad sent a Moor and Portuguese as his ambassadors, to secure us a kind\nreception; these in their way to this prince had come through the\ncountries of Chumo-Salamay and Senaa, the utmost confines of Abyssinia,\nand had carried thither the emperor's orders concerning our passage.\n\nOn Ascension Day we left Baylur, having procured some camels and asses to\ncarry our baggage.  The first day's march was not above a league, and the\nothers not much longer.  Our guides performed their office very ill,\nbeing influenced, as we imagined, by the Chec Furt, an officer, whom,\nthough unwilling, we were forced to take with us.  This man, who might\nhave brought us to the king in three days, led us out of the way through\nhorrid deserts destitute of water, or where what we found was so foul,\nnauseous, and offensive, that it excited a loathing and aversion which\nnothing but extreme necessity could have overcome.\n\nHaving travelled some days, we were met by the King's brother, to whom,\nby the advice of Chec Furt, whose intent in following us was to squeeze\nall he could from us; we presented some pieces of Chinese workmanship,\nsuch as cases of boxes, a standish, and some earthenware, together with\nseveral pieces of painted calico, which were so much more agreeable, that\nhe desired some other pieces instead of our Chinese curiosities; we\nwillingly made the exchange.  Yet some time afterwards he asked again for\nthose Chinese goods which he had returned us, nor was it in our power to\nrefuse them.  I was here in danger of losing my life by a compliment\nwhich the Portuguese paid the prince of a discharge of twelve muskets;\none being unskilfully charged too high, flew out of the soldier's hand,\nand falling against my leg, wounded it very much; we had no surgeon with\nus, so that all I could do was to bind it hard with some cloth.  I was\nobliged by this accident to make use of the Chec Furt's horse, which was\nthe greatest service we received from him in all our journey.\n\nWhen we came within two leagues and a half of the King's court, he sent\nsome messengers with his compliments, and five mules for the chief of our\ncompany.  Our road lay through a wood, where we found the ground covered\nover with young locusts, a plague intolerably afflictive in a country so\nbarren of itself.  We arrived at length at the bank of a small river,\nnear which the King usually keeps his residence, and found his palace at\nthe foot of a little mountain.  It consisted of about six tents and\ntwenty cabins, erected amongst some thorns and wild trees, which afforded\na shelter from the heat of the weather.  He received us the first time in\na cabin about a musket shot distant from the rest, furnished out with a\nthrone in the middle built of clay and stones, and covered with tapestry\nand two velvet cushions.  Over against him stood his horse with his\nsaddle and other furniture hanging by him, for in this country, the\nmaster and his horse make use of the same apartment, nor doth the King in\nthis respect affect more grandeur than his subjects.  When we entered, we\nseated ourselves on the ground with our legs crossed, in imitation of the\nrest, whom we found in the same posture.  After we had waited some time,\nthe King came in, attended by his domestics and his officers.  He held a\nsmall lance in his hand, and was dressed in a silk robe, with a turban on\nhis head, to which were fastened some rings of very neat workmanship,\nwhich fell down upon his forehead.  All kept silence for some time, and\nthe King told us by his interpreter that we were welcome to his\ndominions, that he had been informed we were to come by the Emperor his\nfather, and that he condoled the hardships we had undergone at sea.  He\ndesired us not to be under any concern at finding ourselves in a country\nso distant from our own, for those dominions were ours, and he and the\nEmperor his father would give us all the proofs we could desire of the\nsincerest affection.  We returned him thanks for this promise of his\nfavour, and after a short conversation went away.  Immediately we were\nteazed by those who brought us the mules, and demanded to be paid the\nhire of them; and had advice given us at the same time that we should get\na present ready for the King.  The Chec Furt, who was extremely ready to\nundertake any commission of this kind, would needs direct us in the\naffair, and told us that our gifts ought to be of greater value, because\nwe had neglected making any such offer at our first audience, contrary to\nthe custom of that country.  By these pretences he obliged us to make a\npresent to the value of about twenty pounds, with which he seemed to be\npleased, and told us we had nothing to do but prepare to make our entry.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\n\nThe King refuses their present.  The author's boldness.  The present is\nafterwards accepted.  The people are forbidden to sell them provisions.\nThe author remonstrates against the usage.  The King redresses it.\n\nBut such was either the hatred or avarice of this man, that instead of\ndoing us the good offices he pretended, he advised the King to refuse our\npresent, that he might draw from us something more valuable.  When I\nattended the King in order to deliver the presents, after I had excused\nthe smallness of them, as being, though unworthy his acceptance, the\nlargest that our profession of poverty, and distance from our country,\nallowed us to make, he examined them one by one with a dissatisfied look,\nand told me that however he might be pleased with our good attentions, he\nthought our present such as could not be offered to a king without\naffronting him; and made me a sign with his hand to withdraw, and take\nback what I had brought.  I obeyed, telling him that perhaps he might\nsend for it again without having so much.  The Chec Furt, who had been\nthe occasion of all this, coming to us afterwards, blamed us exceedingly\nfor having offered so little, and being told by us that the present was\npicked out by himself, that we had nothing better to give, and that what\nwe had left would scarce defray the expenses of our journey, he pressed\nus at least to add something, but could prevail no farther than to\npersuade us to repeat our former offer, which the King was now pleased to\naccept, though with no kinder countenance than before.\n\nHere we spent our time and our provisions, without being able to procure\nany more.  The country indeed affords goats and honey, but nobody would\nsell us any, the King, as I was secretly informed, having strictly\nprohibited it, with a view of forcing all we had from us.  The patriarch\nsent me to expostulate the matter with the King, which I did in very warm\nterms, telling him that we were assured by the Emperor of a reception in\nthis country far different from what we met with, which assurances he had\nconfirmed by his promise and the civilities we were entertained with at\nour first arrival; but that instead of friends who would compassionate\nour miseries, and supply our necessities, we found ourselves in the midst\nof mortal enemies that wanted to destroy us.\n\nThe King, who affected to appear ignorant of the whole affair, demanded\nan account of the injuries I complained of, and told me that if any of\nhis subjects should dare to attempt our lives, it should cost him his\nown.  We were not, replied I, in danger of being stabbed or poisoned, but\nare doomed to a more lingering and painful death by that prohibition\nwhich obliges your subjects to deny us the necessaries of life; if it be\nYour Highness's pleasure that we die here, we entreat that we may at\nleast be despatched quickly, and not condemned to longer torments.  The\nKing, startled at this discourse, denied that he had given any such\norders, and was very importunate to know the author of our intelligence,\nbut finding me determined not to discover him, he sent me away with a\npromise that for the future we should be furnished with everything we\nwanted, and indeed that same day we bought three goats for about a crown,\nand some honey, and found ourselves better treated than before.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\n\nThey obtain leave, with some difficulty, to depart from Dancali.  The\ndifficulties of their march.  A broil with the Moors.  They arrive at the\nplain of salt.\n\nThis usage, with some differences we had with a Moor, made us very\ndesirous of leaving this country, but we were still put off with one\npretence or other whenever we asked leave to depart.  Tired with these\ndelays, I applied myself to his favourite minister, with a promise of a\nlarge present if he could obtain us an audience of leave; he came to us\nat night to agree upon the reward, and soon accomplished all we desired,\nboth getting us a permission to go out of the kingdom, and procuring us\ncamels to carry our baggage, and that of the Abyssinian ambassadors who\nwere ordered to accompany us.\n\nWe set out from the kingdom of Dancali on the 15th of June, having taken\nour leave of the King, who after many excuses for everything that had\nhappened, dismissed us with a present of a cow, and some provisions,\ndesiring us to tell the Emperor of AEthiopia his father that we had met\nwith kind treatment in his territories, a request which we did not at\nthat time think it convenient to deny.\n\nWhatever we had suffered hitherto, was nothing to the difficulties we\nwere now entering upon, and which God had decreed us to undergo for the\nsake of Jesus Christ.  Our way now lay through a region scarce passable,\nand full of serpents, which were continually creeping between our legs;\nwe might have avoided them in the day, but being obliged, that we might\navoid the excessive heats, to take long marches in the night, we were\nevery moment treading upon them.  Nothing but a signal interposition of\nProvidence could have preserved us from being bitten by them, or\nperishing either by weariness or thirst, for sometimes we were a long\ntime without water, and had nothing to support our strength in this\nfatigue but a little honey, and a small piece of cows' flesh dried in the\nsun.  Thus we travelled on for many days, scarce allowing ourselves any\nrest, till we came to a channel or hollow worn in the mountains by the\nwinter torrents; here we found some coolness, and good water, a blessing\nwe enjoyed for three days; down this channel all the winter runs a great\nriver which is dried up in the heats, or to speak more properly, hides\nitself under ground.  We walked along its side, sometimes seven or eight\nleagues without seeing any water, and then we found it rising out of the\nground, at which places we never failed to drink as much as we could, and\nfill our bottles.\n\nIn our march, there fell out an unlucky accident, which, however, did not\nprove of the bad consequence it might have done.  The master of our\ncamels was an old Mohammedan, who had conceived an opinion that it was an\nact of merit to do us all the mischief he could; and in pursuance of his\nnotion, made it his chief employment to steal everything he could lay\nhold on; his piety even transported him so far, that one morning he stole\nand hid the cords of our tents.  The patriarch who saw him at the work\ncharged him with it, and upon his denial, showed him the end of the cord\nhanging from under the saddle of one of his camels.  Upon this we went to\nseize them, but were opposed by him and the rest of the drivers, who set\nthemselves in a posture of opposition with their daggers.  Our soldiers\nhad recourse to their muskets, and four of them putting the mouths of\ntheir pieces to the heads of some of the most obstinate and turbulent,\nstruck them with such a terror, that all the clamour was stilled in an\ninstant; none received any hurt but the Moor who had been the occasion of\nthe tumult.  He was knocked down by one of our soldiers, who had cut his\nthroat but that the fathers prevented it: he then restored the cords, and\nwas more tractable ever after.  In all my dealings with the Moors, I have\nalways discovered in them an ill-natured cowardice, which makes them\ninsupportably insolent if you show them the least respect, and easily\nreduced to reasonable terms when you treat them with a high hand.\n\nAfter a march of some days we came to an opening between the mountains,\nthe only passage out of Dancali into Abyssinia.  Heaven seems to have\nmade this place on purpose for the repose of weary travellers, who here\nexchange the tortures of parching thirst, burning sands, and a sultry\nclimate, for the pleasures of shady trees, the refreshment of a clear\nstream, and the luxury of a cooling breeze.  We arrived at this happy\nplace about noon, and the next day at evening left those fanning winds,\nand woods flourishing with unfading verdure, for the dismal barrenness of\nthe vast uninhabitable plains, from which Abyssinia is supplied with\nsalt.  These plains are surrounded with high mountains, continually\ncovered with thick clouds which the sun draws from the lakes that are\nhere, from which the water runs down into the plain, and is there\ncongealed into salt.  Nothing can be more curious than to see the\nchannels and aqueducts that nature has formed in this hard rock, so exact\nand of such admirable contrivance, that they seem to be the work of men.\nTo this place caravans of Abyssinia are continually resorting, to carry\nsalt into all parts of the empire, which they set a great value upon, and\nwhich in their country is of the same use as money.  The superstitious\nAbyssins imagine that the cavities of the mountains are inhabited by evil\nspirits which appear in different shapes, calling those that pass by\ntheir names as in a familiar acquaintance, who, if they go to them, are\nnever seen afterwards.  This relation was confirmed by the Moorish\nofficer who came with us, who, as he said, had lost a servant in that\nmanner: the man certainly fell into the hands of the Galles, who lurk in\nthose dark retreats, cut the throats of the merchants, and carry off\ntheir effects.\n\nThe heat making it impossible to travel through this plain in the day-\ntime, we set out in the evening, and in the night lost our way.  It is\nvery dangerous to go through this place, for there are no marks of the\nright road, but some heaps of salt, which we could not see.  Our camel\ndrivers getting together to consult on this occasion, we suspected they\nhad some ill design in hand, and got ready our weapons; they perceived\nour apprehensions, and set us at ease by letting us know the reason of\ntheir consultation.  Travelling hard all night, we found ourselves next\nmorning past the plain; but the road we were in was not more commodious,\nthe points of the rocks pierced our feet; to increase our perplexities we\nwere alarmed with the approach of an armed troop, which our fear\nimmediately suggested to be the Galles, who chiefly beset these passes of\nthe mountains; we put ourselves on the defensive, and expected them,\nwhom, upon a more exact examination, we found to be only a caravan of\nmerchants come as usual to fetch salt.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\n\nThey lose their way, are in continual apprehensions of the Galles.  They\ncome to Duan, and settle in Abyssinia.\n\nAbout nine the next morning we came to the end of this toilsome and\nrugged path, where the way divided into two, yet both led to a well, the\nonly one that was found in our journey.  A Moor with three others took\nthe shortest, without directing us to follow him; so we marched forwards\nwe knew not whither, through woods and over rocks, without sleep or any\nother refreshment: at noon the next day we discovered that we were near\nthe field of salt.  Our affliction and distress is not to be expressed;\nwe were all fainting with heat and weariness, and two of the patriarch's\nservants were upon the point of dying for want of water.  None of us had\nany but a Moor, who could not be prevailed upon to part with it at less\nthan the weight in gold; we got some from him at last, and endeavoured to\nrevive the two servants, while part of us went to look for a guide that\nmight put us in the right way.  The Moors who had arrived at the well,\nrightly guessing that we were lost, sent one of their company to look for\nus, whom we heard shouting in the woods, but durst make no answer for\nfear of the Galles.  At length he found us, and conducted us to the rest;\nwe instantly forgot our past calamities, and had no other care than to\nrecover the patriarch's attendants.  We did not give them a full draught\nat first, but poured in the water by drops, to moisten their mouths and\nthroats, which were extremely swelled: by this caution they were soon\nwell.  We then fell to eating and drinking, and though we had nothing but\nour ordinary repast of honey and dried flesh, thought we never had\nregaled more pleasantly in our lives.\n\nWe durst not stay long in this place for fear of the Galles, who lay\ntheir ambushes more particularly near this well, by which all caravans\nmust necessarily pass.  Our apprehensions were very much increased by our\nsuspicion of the camel-drivers, who, as we imagined, had advertised the\nGalles of our arrival.  The fatigue we had already suffered did not\nprevent our continuing our march all night: at last we entered a plain,\nwhere our drivers told us we might expect to be attacked by the Galles;\nnor was it long before our own eyes convinced us that we were in great\ndanger, for we saw as we went along the dead bodies of a caravan who had\nbeen lately massacred, a sight which froze our blood, and filled us with\npity and with horror.  The same fate was not far from overtaking us, for\na troop of Galles, who were detached in search of us, missed us but an\nhour or two.  We spent the next night in the mountains, but when we\nshould have set out in the morning, were obliged to a fierce dispute with\nthe old Moor, who had not yet lost his inclination to destroy us; he\nwould have had us taken a road which was full of those people we were so\nmuch afraid of: at length finding he could not prevail with us, that we\ncharged the goods upon him as belonging to the Emperor, to whom he should\nbe answerable for the loss of them, he consented, in a sullen way, to go\nwith us.\n\nThe desire of getting out of the reach of the Galles made us press\nforward with great expedition, and, indeed, fear having entirely\nengrossed our minds, we were perhaps less sensible of all our labours and\ndifficulties; so violent an apprehension of one danger made us look on\nmany others with unconcern; our pains at last found some intermission at\nthe foot of the mountains of Duan, the frontier of Abyssinia, which\nseparates it from the country of the Moors, through which we had\ntravelled.\n\nHere we imagined we might repose securely, a felicity we had long been\nstrangers to.  Here we began to rejoice at the conclusion of our labours;\nthe place was cool and pleasant, the water was excellent, and the birds\nmelodious.  Some of our company went into the wood to divert themselves\nwith hearing the birds and frightening the monkeys, creatures so cunning\nthat they would not stir if a man came unarmed, but would run immediately\nwhen they saw a gun.  At this place our camel drivers left us, to go to\nthe feast of St. Michael, which the AEthiopians celebrate the 16th of\nJune.  We persuaded them, however, to leave us their camels and four of\ntheir company to take care of them.\n\nWe had not waited many days before some messengers came to us with an\naccount that Father Baradas, with the Emperor's nephew, and many other\npersons of distinction, waited for us at some distance; we loaded our\ncamels, and following the course of the river, came in seven hours to the\nplace we were directed to halt at.  Father Manuel Baradas and all the\ncompany, who had waited for us a considerable time on the top of the\nmountain, came down when they saw our tents, and congratulated our\narrival.  It is not easy to express the benevolence and tenderness with\nwhich they embraced us, and the concern they showed at seeing us worn\naway with hunger, labour, and weariness, our clothes tattered, and our\nfeet bloody.\n\nWe left this place of interview the next day, and on the 21st of June\narrived at Fremone, the residence of the missionaries, where we were\nwelcomed by great numbers of Catholics, both Portuguese and Abyssins, who\nspared no endeavours to make us forget all we had suffered in so\nhazardous a journey, undertaken with no other intention than to conduct\nthem in the way of salvation.\n\n\n\n\nPART II--A DESCRIPTION OF ABYSSINIA\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\n\nThe history of Abyssinia.  An account of the Queen of Sheba, and of Queen\nCandace.  The conversion of the Abyssins.\n\nThe original of the Abyssins, like that of all other nations, is obscure\nand uncertain.  The tradition generally received derives them from Cham,\nthe son of Noah, and they pretend, however improbably, that from his time\ntill now the legal succession of their kings hath never been interrupted,\nand that the supreme power hath always continued in the same family.  An\nauthentic genealogy traced up so high could not but be extremely curious;\nand with good reason might the Emperors of Abyssinia boast themselves the\nmost illustrious and ancient family in the world.  But there are no real\ngrounds for imagining that Providence has vouchsafed them so\ndistinguishing a protection, and from the wars with which this empire\nhath been shaken in these latter ages we may justly believe that, like\nall others, it has suffered its revolutions, and that the history of the\nAbyssins is corrupted with fables.  This empire is known by the name of\nthe kingdom of Prester-John.  For the Portuguese having heard such\nwonderful relations of an ancient and famous Christian state called by\nthat name, in the Indies, imagined it could be none but this of AEthiopia.\nMany things concurred to make them of this opinion: there was no\nChristian kingdom or state in the Indies of which all was true which they\nheard of this land of Prester-John: and there was none in the other parts\nof the world who was a Christian separated from the Catholic Church but\nwhat was known, except this kingdom of AEthiopia.  It has therefore\npassed for the kingdom of Prester-John since the time that it was\ndiscovered by the Portuguese in the reign of King John the Second.\n\nThe country is properly called Abyssinia, and the people term themselves\nAbyssins.  Their histories count a hundred and sixty-two reigns, from\nCham to Faciladas or Basilides; among which some women are remarkably\ncelebrated.  One of the most renowned is the Queen of Sheba, mentioned in\nScripture, whom the natives call Nicaula or Macheda, and in their\ntranslation of the gospel, Nagista Azeb, which in their language is Queen\nof the South.  They still show the ruins of a city which appears to have\nbeen once of note, as the place where she kept her court, and a village\nwhich, from its being the place of her birth, they call the land of Saba.\nThe Kings of AEthiopia draw their boasted pedigree from Minilech, the son\nof this Queen and Solomon.  The other Queen for whom they retain a great\nveneration is Candace, whom they call Judith, and indeed if what they\nrelate of her could be proved, there never was, amongst the most\nillustrious and beneficent sovereigns, any to whom their country was more\nindebted, for it is said that she being converted by Inda her eunuch,\nwhom St. Philip baptised, prevailed with her subjects to quit the worship\nof idols, and profess the faith of Jesus Christ.  This opinion appears to\nme without any better foundation than another of the conversion of the\nAbyssins to the Jewish rites by the Queen of Sheba, at her return from\nthe court of Solomon.  They, however, who patronise these traditions give\nus very specious accounts of the zeal and piety of the Abyssins at their\nfirst conversion.  Many, they say, abandoned all the pleasures and\nvanities of life for solitude and religious austerities; others devoted\nthemselves to God in an ecclesiastical life; they who could not do these\nset apart their revenues for building churches, endowing chapels, and\nfounding monasteries, and spent their wealth in costly ornaments for the\nchurches and vessels for the altars.  It is true that this people has a\nnatural disposition to goodness; they are very liberal of their alms,\nthey much frequent their churches, and are very studious to adorn them;\nthey practise fasting and other mortifications, and notwithstanding their\nseparation from the Roman Church, and the corruptions which have crept\ninto their faith, yet retain in a great measure the devout fervour of the\nprimitive Christians.  There never were greater hopes of uniting this\npeople to the Church of Rome, which their adherence to the Eutichian\nheresy has made very difficult, than in the time of Sultan Segued, who\ncalled us into his dominions in the year 1625, from whence we were\nexpelled in 1634.  As I have lived a long time in this country, and borne\na share in all that has passed, I will present the reader with a short\naccount of what I have observed, and of the revolution which forced us to\nabandon AEthiopia, and destroyed all our hopes of reuniting this kingdom\nwith the Roman Church.\n\nThe empire of Abyssinia hath been one of the largest which history gives\nus an account of: it extended formerly from the Red Sea to the kingdom of\nCongo, and from Egypt to the Indian Sea.  It is not long since it\ncontained forty provinces; but is now not much bigger than all Spain, and\nconsists but of five kingdoms and six provinces, of which part is\nentirely subject to the Emperor, and part only pays him some tribute, or\nacknowledgment of dependence, either voluntarily or by compulsion.  Some\nof these are of very large extent: the kingdoms of Tigre, Bagameder, and\nGoiama are as big as Portugal, or bigger; Amhara and Damote are something\nless.  The provinces are inhabited by Moors, Pagans, Jews, and\nChristians: the last is the reigning and established religion.  This\ndiversity of people and religion is the reason that the kingdom in\ndifferent parts is under different forms of government, and that their\nlaws and customs are extremely various.\n\nThe inhabitants of the kingdom of Amhara are the most civilised and\npolite; and next to them the natives of Tigre, or the true Abyssins.  The\nrest, except the Damotes, the Gasates, and the Agaus, which approach\nsomewhat nearer to civility, are entirely rude and barbarous.  Among\nthese nations the Galles, who first alarmed the world in 1542, have\nremarkably distinguished themselves by the ravages they have committed,\nand the terror they have raised in this part of Africa.  They neither sow\ntheir lands nor improve them by any kind of culture; but, living upon\nmilk and flesh, encamp like the Arabs without any settled habitation.\nThey practise no rites of worship, though they believe that in the\nregions above there dwells a Being that governs the world: whether by\nthis Being they mean the sun or the sky is not known; or, indeed, whether\nthey have not some conception of the God that created them.  This deity\nthey call in their language Oul.  In other matters they are yet more\nignorant, and have some customs so contrary even to the laws of nature,\nas might almost afford reason to doubt whether they are endued with\nreason.  The Christianity professed by the Abyssins is so corrupted with\nsuperstitions, errors, and heresies, and so mingled with ceremonies\nborrowed from the Jews, that little besides the name of Christianity is\nto be found here; and the thorns may be said to have choked the grain.\nThis proceeds in a great measure from the diversity of religions which\nare tolerated there, either by negligence or from motives of policy; and\nthe same cause hath produced such various revolutions, revolts, and civil\nwars within these later ages.  For those different sects do not easily\nadmit of an union with each other, or a quiet subjection to the same\nmonarch.  The Abyssins cannot properly be said to have either cities or\nhouses; they live either in tents, or in cottages made of straw and clay;\nfor they very rarely build with stone.  Their villages or towns consist\nof these huts; yet even of such villages they have but few, because the\ngrandees, the viceroys, and the Emperor himself are always in the camp,\nthat they may be prepared, upon the most sudden summons, to go where the\nexigence of affairs demands their presence.  And this precaution is no\nmore than necessary for a prince every year engaged either in foreign\nwars or intestine commotions.  These towns have each a governor, whom\nthey call gadare, over whom is the educ, or lieutenant, and both\naccountable to an officer called the afamacon, or mouth of the King;\nbecause he receives the revenues, which he pays into the hands of the\nrelatinafala, or grand master of the household: sometimes the Emperor\ncreates a ratz, or viceroy, general over all the empire, who is superior\nto all his other officers.\n\nAEthiopia produces very near the same kinds of provisions as Portugal;\nthough, by the extreme laziness of the inhabitants, in a much less\nquantity: however, there are some roots, herbs, and fruits which grow\nthere much better than in other places.  What the ancients imagined of\nthe torrid zone being uninhabitable is so far from being true, that this\nclimate is very temperate: the heats, indeed, are excessive in Congo and\nMonomotapa, but in Abyssinia they enjoy a perpetual spring, more\ndelicious and charming than that in our country.  The blacks here are not\nugly like those of the kingdoms I have spoken of, but have better\nfeatures, and are not without wit and delicacy; their apprehension is\nquick, and their judgment sound.  The heat of the sun, however it may\ncontribute to their colour, is not the only reason of it; there is some\npeculiarity in the temper and constitution of their bodies, since the\nsame men, transported into cooler climates, produce children very near as\nblack as themselves.\n\nThey have here two harvests in the year, which is a sufficient recompense\nfor the small produce of each; one harvest they have in the winter, which\nlasts through the months of July, August, and September, the other in the\nspring; their trees are always green, and it is the fault of the\ninhabitants that they produce so little fruit, the soil being well\nadapted to all sorts, especially those that come from the Indies.  They\nhave in the greatest plenty raisins, peaches, sour pomegranates, and\nsugarcanes, and some figs.  Most of these are ripe about Lent, which the\nAbyssins keep with great strictness.\n\nAfter the vegetable products of this country, it seems not improper to\nmention the animals which are found in it, of which here are as great\nnumbers, of as many different species, as in any country in the world: it\nis infested with lions of many kinds, among which are many of that which\nis called the lion royal.  I cannot help giving the reader on this\noccasion a relation of a fact which I was an eye-witness of.  A lion\nhaving taken his haunt near the place where I lived, killed all the oxen\nand cows, and did a great deal of other mischief, of which I heard new\ncomplaints every day.  A servant of mine having taken a resolution to\nfree the country from this destroyer, went out one day with two lances,\nand after he had been some time in quest of him, found him with his mouth\nall smeared with the blood of a cow he had just devoured; the man rushed\nupon him, and thrust his lance into his throat with such violence that it\ncame out between his shoulders; the beast, with one dreadful roar, fell\ndown into a pit, and lay struggling, till my servant despatched him.  I\nmeasured the body of this lion, and found him twelve feet between the\nhead and the tail.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\n\nThe animals of Abyssinia; the elephant, unicorn, their horses and cows;\nwith a particular account of the moroc.\n\nThere are so great numbers of elephants in Abyssinia that in one evening\nwe met three hundred of them in three troops: as they filled up the whole\nway, we were in great perplexity a long time what measures to take; at\nlength, having implored the protection of that Providence that\nsuperintends the whole creation, we went forwards through the midst of\nthem without any injury.  Once we met four young elephants, and an old\none that played with them, lifting them up with her trunk; they grew\nenraged on a sudden, and ran upon us: we had no way of securing ourselves\nbut by flight, which, however, would have been fruitless, had not our\npursuers been stopped by a deep ditch.  The elephants of AEthiopia are of\nso stupendous a size, that when I was mounted on a large mule I could not\nreach with my hand within two spans of the top of their backs.  In\nAbyssinia is likewise found the rhinoceros, a mortal enemy to the\nelephant.  In the province of Agaus has been seen the unicorn, that beast\nso much talked of, and so little known: the prodigious swiftness with\nwhich this creature runs from one wood into another has given me no\nopportunity of examining it particularly, yet I have had so near a sight\nof it as to be able to give some description of it.  The shape is the\nsame with that of a beautiful horse, exact and nicely proportioned, of a\nbay colour, with a black tail, which in some provinces is long, in others\nvery short: some have long manes hanging to the ground.  They are so\ntimorous that they never feed but surrounded with other beasts that\ndefend them.  Deer and other defenceless animals often herd about the\nelephant, which, contenting himself with roots and leaves, preserves\nthose beasts that place themselves, as it were, under his protection,\nfrom the rage and fierceness of others that would devour them.\n\nThe horses of Abyssinia are excellent; their mules, oxen, and cows are\nwithout number, and in these principally consists the wealth of this\ncountry.  They have a very particular custom, which obliges every man\nthat hath a thousand cows to save every year one day's milk of all his\nherd, and make a bath with it for his relations, entertaining them\nafterwards with a splendid feast.  This they do so many days each year,\nas they have thousands of cattle, so that to express how rich any man is,\nthey tell you he bathes so many times.  The tribute paid out of their\nherds to the King, which is not the most inconsiderable of his revenues,\nis one cow in ten every three years.  The beeves are of several kinds;\none sort they have without horns, which are of no other use than to carry\nburthens, and serve instead of mules.  Another twice as big as ours which\nthey breed to kill, fattening them with the milk of three or four cows.\nTheir horns are so large, the inhabitants use them for pitchers, and each\nwill hold about five gallons.  One of these oxen, fat and ready to be\nkilled, may be bought at most for two crowns.  I have purchased five\nsheep, or five goats with nine kids, for a piece of calico worth about a\ncrown.\n\nThe Abyssins have many sort of fowls both wild and tame; some of the\nformer we are yet unacquainted with: there is one of wonderful beauty,\nwhich I have seen in no other place except Peru: it has instead of a\ncomb, a short horn upon its head, which is thick and round, and open at\nthe top.  The feitan favez, or devil's horse, looks at a distance like a\nman dressed in feathers; it walks with abundance of majesty, till it\nfinds itself pursued, and then takes wing, and flies away.  But amongst\nall their birds there is none more remarkable than the moroc, or honey-\nbird, which is furnished by nature with a peculiar instinct or faculty of\ndiscovering honey.  They have here multitudes of bees of various kinds;\nsome are tame, like ours, and form their combs in hives.  Of the wild\nones, some place their honey in hollow trees, others hide it in holes in\nthe ground, which they cover so carefully, that though they are commonly\nin the highway, they are seldom found, unless by the moroc's help, which,\nwhen he has discovered any honey, repairs immediately to the road side,\nand when he sees a traveller, sings, and claps his wings, making many\nmotions to invite him to follow him, and when he perceives him coming,\nflies before him from tree to tree, till he comes to the place where the\nbees have stored their treasure, and then begins to sing melodiously.  The\nAbyssin takes the honey, without failing to leave part of it for the\nbird, to reward him for his information.  This kind of honey I have often\ntasted, and do not find that it differs from the other sorts in anything\nbut colour; it is somewhat blacker.  The great quantity of honey that is\ngathered, and a prodigious number of cows that is kept here, have often\nmade me call Abyssinia a land of honey and butter.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\n\nThe manner of eating in Abyssinia, their dress, their hospitality, and\ntraffic.\n\nThe great lords, and even the Emperor himself, maintain their tables with\nno great expense.  The vessels they make use of are black earthenware,\nwhich, the older it is, they set a greater value on.  Their way of\ndressing their meat, an European, till he hath been long accustomed to\nit, can hardly be persuaded to like; everything they eat smells strong\nand swims with butter.  They make no use of either linen or plates.  The\npersons of rank never touch what they eat, but have their meat cut by\ntheir pages, and put into their mouths.  When they feast a friend they\nkill an ox, and set immediately a quarter of him raw upon the table (for\ntheir most elegant treat is raw beef newly killed) with pepper and salt;\nthe gall of the ox serves them for oil and vinegar; some, to heighten the\ndelicacy of the entertainment, add a kind of sauce, which they call\nmanta, made of what they take out of the guts of the ox; this they set on\nthe fire, with butter, salt, pepper, and onion.  Raw beef, thus relished,\nis their nicest dish, and is eaten by them with the same appetite and\npleasure as we eat the best partridges.  They have often done me the\nfavour of helping me to some of this sauce, and I had no way to decline\neating it besides telling them it was too good for a missionary.\n\nThe common drink of the Abyssins is beer and mead, which they drink to\nexcess when they visit one another; nor can there be a greater offence\nagainst good manners than to let the guests go away sober: their liquor\nis always presented by a servant, who drinks first himself, and then\ngives the cup to the company, in the order of their quality.\n\nThe meaner sort of people here dress themselves very plain; they only\nwear drawers, and a thick garment of cotton, that covers the rest of\ntheir bodies: the people of quality, especially those that frequent the\ncourt, run into the contrary extreme, and ruin themselves with costly\nhabits.  They wear all sorts of silks, and particularly the fine velvets\nof Turkey.\n\nThey love bright and glaring colours, and dress themselves much in the\nTurkish manner, except that their clothes are wider, and their drawers\ncover their legs.  Their robes are always full of gold and silver\nembroidery.  They are most exact about their hair, which is long and\ntwisted, and their care of it is such that they go bare-headed whilst\nthey are young for fear of spoiling it, but afterwards wear red caps, and\nsometimes turbans after the Turkish fashion.\n\nThe ladies' dress is yet more magnificent and expensive; their robes are\nas large as those of the religious, of the order of St. Bernard.  They\nhave various ways of dressing their heads, and spare no expense in ear-\nrings, necklaces, or anything that may contribute to set them off to\nadvantage.  They are not much reserved or confined, and have so much\nliberty in visiting one another that their husbands often suffer by it;\nbut for this evil there is no remedy, especially when a man marries a\nprincess, or one of the royal family.  Besides their clothes, the\nAbyssins have no movables or furniture of much value, or doth their\nmanner of living admit of them.\n\nOne custom of this country deserves to be remarked: when a stranger comes\nto a village, or to the camp, the people are obliged to entertain him and\nhis company according to his rank.  As soon as he enters a house (for\nthey have no inns in this nation), the master informs his neighbours that\nhe hath a guest; immediately they bring in bread and all kinds of\nprovisions; and there is great care taken to provide enough, because, if\nthe guest complains, the town is obliged to pay double the value of what\nthey ought to have furnished.  This practice is so well established that\na stranger goes into a house of one he never saw with the same\nfamiliarity and assurance of welcome as into that of an intimate friend\nor near relation; a custom very convenient, but which gives encouragement\nto great numbers of vagabonds throughout the kingdom.\n\nThere is no money in Abyssinia, except in the eastern provinces, where\nthey have iron coin: but in the chief provinces all commerce is managed\nby exchange.  Their chief trade consists in provisions, cows, sheep,\ngoats, fowls, pepper, and gold, which is weighed out to the purchaser,\nand principally in salt, which is properly the money of this country.\n\nWhen the Abyssins are engaged in a law-suit, the two parties make choice\nof a judge, and plead their own cause before him; and if they cannot\nagree in their choice, the governor of the place appoints them one, from\nwhom there lies an appeal to the viceroy and to the Emperor himself.  All\ncauses are determined on the spot; no writings are produced.  The judge\nsits down on the ground in the midst of the high road, where all that\nplease may be present: the two persons concerned stand before him, with\ntheir friends about them, who serve as their attorneys.  The plaintiff\nspeaks first, the defendant answers him; each is permitted to rejoin\nthree or four times, then silence is commanded, and the judge takes the\nopinions of those that are about him.  If the evidence be deemed\nsufficient, he pronounces sentence, which in some cases is decisive and\nwithout appeal.  He then takes the criminal into custody till he hath\nmade satisfaction; but if it be a crime punishable with death he is\ndelivered over to the prosecutor, who may put him to death at his own\ndiscretion.\n\nThey have here a particular way of punishing adultery; a woman convicted\nof that crime is condemned to forfeit all her fortune, is turned out of\nher husband's house, in a mean dress, and is forbid ever to enter it\nagain; she has only a needle given her to get her living with.  Sometimes\nher head is shaved, except one lock of hair, which is left her, and even\nthat depends on the will of her husband, who has it likewise in his\nchoice whether he will receive her again or not; if he resolves never to\nadmit her they are both at liberty to marry whom they will.  There is\nanother custom amongst them yet more extraordinary, which is, that the\nwife is punished whenever the husband proves false to the marriage\ncontract; this punishment indeed extends no farther than a pecuniary\nmulct, and what seems more equitable, the husband is obliged to pay a sum\nof money to his wife.  When the husband prosecutes his wife's gallant, if\nhe can produce any proofs of a criminal conversation, he recovers for\ndamages forty cows, forty horses, and forty suits of clothes, and the\nsame number of other things.  If the gallant be unable to pay him, he is\ncommitted to prison, and continues there during the husband's pleasure,\nwho, if he sets him at liberty before the whole fine be paid, obliges him\nto take an oath that he is going to procure the rest, that he may be able\nto make full satisfaction.  Then the criminal orders meat and drink to be\nbrought out, they eat and drink together, he asks a formal pardon, which\nis not granted at first; however, the husband forgives first one part of\nthe debt, and then another, till at length the whole is remitted.\n\nA husband that doth not like his wife may easily find means to make the\nmarriage void, and, what is worse, may dismiss the second wife with less\ndifficulty than he took her, and return to the first; so that marriages\nin this country are only for a term of years, and last no longer than\nboth parties are pleased with each other, which is one instance how far\ndistant these people are from the purity of the primitive believers,\nwhich they pretend to have preserved with so great strictness.  The\nmarriages are in short no more than bargains, made with this proviso,\nthat when any discontent shall arise on either side, they may separate,\nand marry whom they please, each taking back what they brought with them.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\n\nAn account of the religion of the Abyssins.\n\nYet though there is a great difference between our manners, customs,\ncivil government, and those of the Abyssins, there is yet a much greater\nin points of faith; for so many errors have been introduced and ingrafted\ninto their religion, by their ignorance, their separation from the\nCatholic Church, and their intercourse with Jews, Pagans, and\nMohammedans, that their present religion is nothing but a kind of\nconfused miscellany of Jewish and Mohammedan superstitions, with which\nthey have corrupted those remnants of Christianity which they still\nretain.\n\nThey have, however, preserved the belief of our principal mysteries; they\ncelebrate with a great deal of piety the passion of our Lord; they\nreverence the cross; they pay a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin, the\nangels, and the saints; they observe the festivals, and pay a strict\nregard to the Sunday.  Every month they commemorate the assumption of the\nVirgin Mary, and are of opinion that no Christians beside themselves have\na true sense of the greatness of the mother of God, or pay her the\nhonours that are due to her.  There are some tribes amongst them (for\nthey are distinguished like the Jews by their tribes), among whom the\ncrime of swearing by the name of the Virgin is punished with forfeiture\nof goods and even with loss of life; they are equally scrupulous of\nswearing by St. George.  Every week they keep a feast to the honour of\nthe apostles and angels; they come to mass with great devotion, and love\nto hear the word of God.  They receive the sacrament often, but do not\nalways prepare themselves by confession.  Their charity to the poor may\nbe said to exceed the proper bounds that prudence ought to set it, for it\ncontributes to encourage great numbers of beggars, which are a great\nannoyance to the whole kingdom, and as I have often said, afford more\nexercise to a Christian's patience than his charity; for their insolence\nis such, that they will refuse what is offered them if it be not so much\nas they think proper to ask.\n\nThough the Abyssins have not many images, they have great numbers of\npictures, and perhaps pay them somewhat too high a degree of worship.  The\nseverity of their fasts is equal to that of the primitive church.  In\nLent they never eat till after sunset; their fasts are the more severe\nbecause milk and butter are forbidden them, and no reason or necessity\nwhatsoever can procure them a permission to eat meat, and their country\naffording no fish, they live only on roots and pulse.  On fast-days they\nnever drink but at their meat, and the priests never communicate till\nevening, for fear of profaning them.  They do not think themselves\nobliged to fast till they have children either married or fit to be\nmarried, which yet doth not secure them very long from these\nmortifications, because their youths marry at the age of ten years, and\ntheir girls younger.\n\nThere is no nation where excommunication carries greater terrors than\namong the Abyssins, which puts it in the power of the priests to abuse\nthis religious temper of the people, as well as the authority they\nreceive from it, by excommunicating them, as they often do, for the least\ntrifle in which their interest is concerned.\n\nNo country in the world is so full of churches, monasteries, and\necclesiastics as Abyssinia; it is not possible to sing in one church or\nmonastery without being heard by another, and perhaps by several.  They\nsing the psalms of David, of which, as well as the other parts of the\nHoly Scriptures, they have a very exact translation in their own\nlanguage; in which, though accounted canonical, the books of the\nMaccabees are omitted.  The instruments of music made use of in their\nrites of worship are little drums, which they hang about their necks, and\nbeat with both their hands; these are carried even by their chief men,\nand by the gravest of their ecclesiastics.  They have sticks likewise,\nwith which they strike the ground, accompanying the blow with a motion of\ntheir whole bodies.  They begin their concert by stamping their feet on\nthe ground, and playing gently on their instruments; but when they have\nheated themselves by degrees, they leave off drumming, and fall to\nleaping, dancing, and clapping their hands, at the same time straining\ntheir voices to the utmost pitch, till at length they have no regard\neither to the tune or the pauses, and seem rather a riotous than a\nreligious assembly.  For this manner of worship they cite the psalm of\nDavid, \"O clap your hands all ye nations.\"  Thus they misapply the sacred\nwritings to defend practices yet more corrupt than those I have been\nspeaking of.\n\nThey are possessed with a strange notion that they are the only true\nChristians in the world; as for us, they shunned us as heretics, and were\nunder the greatest surprise at hearing us mention the Virgin Mary with\nthe respect which is due to her, and told us that we could not be\nentirely barbarians since we were acquainted with the mother of God.  It\nplainly appears that prepossessions so strong, which receive more\nstrength from the ignorance of the people, have very little tendency to\ndispose them to a reunion with the Catholic Church.\n\nThey have some opinions peculiar to themselves about purgatory, the\ncreation of souls, and some of our mysteries.  They repeat baptism every\nyear, they retain the practice of circumcision, they observe the Sabbath,\nthey abstain from all those sorts of flesh which are forbidden by the\nlaw.  Brothers espouse the wives of their brothers, and to conclude, they\nobserve a great number of Jewish ceremonies.\n\nThough they know the words which Jesus Christ appointed to be used in the\nadministration of baptism, they have without scruple substituted others\nin their place, which makes the validity of their baptism, and the\nreality of their Christianity, very doubtful.  They have a few names of\nsaints, the same with those in the Roman martyrology, but they often\ninsert others, as Zama la Cota, the Life of Truth; Ongulari, the\nEvangelist; Asca Georgi, the Mouth of Saint George.\n\nTo bring back this people into the enclosure of the Catholic Church, from\nwhich they have been separated so many ages, was the sole view and\nintention with which we undertook so long and toilsome a journey, crossed\nso many seas, and passed so many deserts, with the utmost hazard of our\nlives; I am certain that we travelled more than seven thousand leagues\nbefore we arrived at our residence at Fremona.\n\nWe came to this place, anciently called Maigoga, on the 21st of June, as\nI have said before, and were obliged to continue there till November,\nbecause the winter begins here in May, and its greatest rigour is from\nthe middle of June to the middle of September.  The rains that are almost\ncontinually falling in this season make it impossible to go far from\nhome, for the rivers overflow their banks, and therefore, in a place like\nthis, where there are neither bridges nor boats, are, if they are not\nfordable, utterly impassable.  Some, indeed, have crossed them by means\nof a cord fastened on both sides of the water, others tie two beams\ntogether, and placing themselves upon them, guide them as well as they\ncan, but this experiment is so dangerous that it hath cost many of these\nbold adventurers their lives.  This is not all the danger, for there is\nyet more to be apprehended from the unwholesomeness of the air, and the\nvapours which arise from the scorched earth at the fall of the first\nshowers, than from the torrents and rivers.  Even they who shelter\nthemselves in houses find great difficulty to avoid the diseases that\nproceed from the noxious qualities of these vapours.  From the beginning\nof June to that of September it rains more or less every day.  The\nmorning is generally fair and bright, but about two hours after noon the\nsky is clouded, and immediately succeeds a violent storm, with thunder\nand lightning flashing in the most dreadful manner.  While this lasts,\nwhich is commonly three or four hours, none go out of doors.  The\nploughman upon the first appearance of it unyokes his oxen, and betakes\nhimself with them into covert.  Travellers provide for their security in\nthe neighbouring villages, or set up their tents, everybody flies to some\nshelter, as well to avoid the unwholesomeness as the violence of the\nrain.  The thunder is astonishing, and the lightning often destroys great\nnumbers, a thing I can speak of from my own experience, for it once\nflashed so near me, that I felt an uneasiness on that side for a long\ntime after; at the same time it killed three young children, and having\nrun round my room went out, and killed a man and woman three hundred\npaces off.  When the storm is over the sun shines out as before, and one\nwould not imagine it had rained, but that the ground appears deluged.\nThus passes the Abyssinian winter, a dreadful season, in which the whole\nkingdom languishes with numberless diseases, an affliction which, however\ngrievous, is yet equalled by the clouds of grasshoppers, which fly in\nsuch numbers from the desert, that the sun is hid and the sky darkened;\nwhenever this plague appears, nothing is seen through the whole region\nbut the most ghastly consternation, or heard but the most piercing\nlamentations, for wherever they fall, that unhappy place is laid waste\nand ruined; they leave not one blade of grass, nor any hopes of a\nharvest.\n\nGod, who often makes calamities subservient to His will, permitted this\nvery affliction to be the cause of the conversion of many of the natives,\nwho might have otherwise died in their errors; for part of the country\nbeing ruined by the grasshoppers that year in which we arrived at\nAbyssinia, many, who were forced to leave their habitations, and seek the\nnecessaries of life in other places, came to that part of the land where\nsome of our missionaries were preaching, and laid hold on that mercy\nwhich God seemed to have appointed for others.\n\nAs we could not go to court before November, we resolved, that we might\nnot be idle, to preach and instruct the people in the country; in\npursuance of this resolution I was sent to a mountain, two days' journey\ndistant from Maigoga.  The lord or governor of the place was a Catholic,\nand had desired missionaries, but his wife had conceived an implacable\naversion both from us and the Roman Church, and almost all the\ninhabitants of that mountain were infected with the same prejudices as\nshe.  They had been persuaded that the hosts which we consecrated and\ngave to the communicants were mixed with juices strained from the flesh\nof a camel, a dog, a hare, and a swine; all creatures which the Abyssins\nlook upon with abhorrence, believing them unclean, and forbidden to them,\nas they were to the Jews.  We had no way of undeceiving them, and they\nfled from us whenever we approached.  We carried with us our tent, our\nchalices, and ornaments, and all that was necessary for saying mass.  The\nlord of the village, who, like other persons of quality throughout\nAEthiopia, lived on the top of a mountain, received us with very great\ncivility.  All that depended upon him had built their huts round about\nhim; so that this place compared with the other towns of Abyssinia seems\nconsiderable; as soon as we arrived he sent us his compliments, with a\npresent of a cow, which, among them, is a token of high respect.  We had\nno way of returning this favour but by killing the cow, and sending a\nquarter smoking, with the gall, which amongst them is esteemed the most\ndelicate part.  I imagined for some time that the gall of animals was\nless bitter in this country than elsewhere, but upon tasting it, I found\nit more; and yet have frequently seen our servants drink large glasses of\nif with the same pleasure that we drink the most delicious wines.\n\nWe chose to begin our mission with the lady of the village, and hoped\nthat her prejudice and obstinacy, however great, would in time yield to\nthe advice and example of her husband, and that her conversion would have\na great influence on the whole village, but having lost several days\nwithout being able to prevail upon her to hear us on any one point, we\nleft the place, and went to another mountain, higher and better peopled.\nWhen we came to the village on the top of it, where the lord lived, we\nwere surprised with the cries and lamentations of men that seemed to\nsuffer or apprehend some dreadful calamity; and were told, upon inquiring\nthe cause, that the inhabitants had been persuaded that we were the\ndevil's missionaries, who came to seduce them from the true religion,\nthat foreseeing some of their neighbours would be ruined by the\ntemptation, they were lamenting the misfortune which was coming upon\nthem.  When we began to apply ourselves to the work of the mission we\ncould not by any means persuade any but the lord and the priest to\nreceive us into their houses; the rest were rough and untractable to that\ndegree that, after having converted six, we despaired of making any\nfarther progress, and thought it best to remove to other towns where we\nmight be better received.\n\nWe found, however, a more unpleasing treatment at the next place, and had\ncertainly ended our lives there had we not been protected by the governor\nand the priest, who, though not reconciled to the Roman Church, yet\nshowed us the utmost civility; the governor informed us of a design\nagainst our lives, and advised us not to go out after sunset, and gave us\nguards to protect us from the insults of the populace.\n\nWe made no long stay in a place where they stopped their ears against the\nvoice of God, but returned to the foot of that mountain which we had left\nsome days before; we were surrounded, as soon as we began to preach, with\na multitude of auditors, who came either in expectation of being\ninstructed, or from a desire of gratifying their curiosity, and God\nbestowed such a blessing upon our apostolical labours that the whole\nvillage was converted in a short time.  We then removed to another at the\nmiddle of the mountain, situated in a kind of natural parterre, or\ngarden; the soil was fruitful, and the trees that shaded it from the\nscorching heat of the sun gave it an agreeable and refreshing coolness.\nWe had here the convenience of improving the ardour and piety of our new\nconverts, and, at the same time, of leading more into the way of the true\nreligion: and indeed our success exceeded the utmost of our hopes; we had\nin a short time great numbers whom we thought capable of being admitted\nto the sacraments of baptism and the mass.\n\nWe erected our tent, and placed our altar under some great trees, for the\nbenefit of the shade; and every day before sun-rising my companion and I\nbegan to catechise and instruct these new Catholics, and used our utmost\nendeavours to make them abjure their errors.  When we were weary with\nspeaking, we placed in ranks those who were sufficiently instructed, and\npassing through them with great vessels of water, baptised them according\nto the form prescribed by the Church.  As their number was very great, we\ncried aloud, those of this rank are named Peter, those of that rank\nAnthony.  And did the same amongst the women, whom we separated from the\nmen.  We then confessed them, and admitted them to the communion.  After\nmass we applied ourselves again to catechise, to instruct, and receive\nthe renunciation of their errors, scarce allowing ourselves time to make\na scanty meal, which we never did more than once a day.\n\nAfter some time had been spent here, we removed to another town not far\ndistant, and continued the same practice.  Here I was accosted one day by\nan inhabitant of that place, where he had found the people so prejudiced\nagainst us, who desired to be admitted to confession.  I could not\nforbear asking him some questions about those lamentations, which we\nheard upon our entering into that place.  He confessed with the utmost\nfrankness and ingenuity that the priests and religious have given\ndreadful accounts both of us and of the religion we preached; that the\nunhappy people were taught by them that the curse of God attended us\nwheresoever we went; that we were always followed by the grasshoppers,\nthat pest of Abyssinia, which carried famine and destruction over all the\ncountry; that he, seeing no grasshoppers following us when we passed by\ntheir village, began to doubt of the reality of what the priests had so\nconfidently asserted, and was now convinced that the representation they\nmade of us was calumny and imposture.  This discourse gave us double\npleasure, both as it proved that God had confuted the accusations of our\nenemies, and defended us against their malice without any efforts of our\nown, and that the people who had shunned us with the strongest\ndetestation were yet lovers of truth, and came to us on their own accord.\nNothing could be more grossly absurd than the reproaches which the\nAbyssinian ecclesiastics aspersed us and our religion with.  They had\ntaken advantage of the calamity that happened the year of our arrival:\nand the Abyssins, with all their wit, did not consider that they had\noften been distressed by the grasshoppers before there came any Jesuits\ninto the country, and indeed before there were any in the world.\n\nWhilst I was in these mountains, I went on Sundays and saints' days\nsometimes to one church and sometimes to another.  One day I went out\nwith a resolution not to go to a certain church, where I imagined there\nwas no occasion for me, but before I had gone far, I found myself pressed\nby a secret impulse to return back to that same church.  I obeyed the\ninfluence, and discovered it to proceed from the mercy of God to three\nyoung children who were destitute of all succour, and at the point of\ndeath.  I found two very quickly in this miserable state; the mother had\nretired to some distance that she might not see them die, and when she\nsaw me stop, came and told me that they had been obliged by want to leave\nthe town they lived in, and were at length reduced to this dismal\ncondition, that she had been baptised, but that the children had not.\nAfter I had baptised and relieved them, I continued my walk, reflecting\nwith wonder on the mercy of God, and about evening discovered another\ninfant, whose mother, evidently a Catholic, cried out to me to save her\nchild, or at least that if I could not preserve this uncertain and\nperishable life, I should give it another certain and permanent.  I sent\nmy servant to fetch water with the utmost expedition, for there was none\nnear, and happily baptised the child before it expired.\n\nSoon after this I returned to Fremona, and had great hopes of\naccompanying the patriarch to the court; but, when we were almost setting\nout, received the command of the superior of the mission to stay at\nFremona, with a charge of the house there, and of all the Catholics that\nwere dispersed over the kingdom of Tigre, an employment very\nill-proportioned to my abilities.  The house at Fremona has always been\nmuch regarded even by those emperors who persecuted us; Sultan Segued\nannexed nine large manors to it for ever, which did not make us much more\nwealthy, because of the expensive hospitality which the great conflux of\nstrangers obliged us to.  The lands in Abyssinia yield but small\nrevenues, unless the owners themselves set the value upon them, which we\ncould not do.\n\nThe manner of letting farms in Abyssinia differs much from that of other\ncountries: the farmer, when the harvest is almost ripe, invites the chumo\nor steward, who is appointed to make an estimate of the value of each\nyear's product, to his house, entertains him in the most agreeable manner\nhe can; makes him a present, and then takes him to see his corn.  If the\nchumo is pleased with the treat and present, he will give him a\ndeclaration or writing to witness that his ground, which afforded five or\nsix sacks of corn, did you yield so many bushels, and even of this it is\nthe custom to abate something; so that our revenue did not increase in\nproportion to our lands; and we found ourselves often obliged to buy\ncorn, which, indeed, is not dear, for in fruitful years forty or fifty\nmeasures, weighing each about twenty-two pounds, may be purchased for a\ncrown.\n\nBesides the particular charge I had of the house of Fremona, I was\nappointed the patriarch's grand-vicar through the whole kingdom of Tigre.\nI thought that to discharge this office as I ought, it was incumbent on\nme to provide necessaries as well for the bodies as the souls of the\nconverted Catholics.  This labour was much increased by the famine which\nthe grasshoppers had brought that year upon the country.  Our house was\nperpetually surrounded by some of those unhappy people, whom want had\ncompelled to abandon their habitations, and whose pale cheeks and meagre\nbodies were undeniable proofs of their misery and distress.  All the\nrelief I could possibly afford them could not prevent the death of such\nnumbers that their bodies filled the highways; and to increase our\naffliction, the wolves having devoured the carcases, and finding no other\nfood, fell upon the living; their natural fierceness being so increased\nby hunger, that they dragged the children out of the very houses.  I saw\nmyself a troop of wolves tear a child of six years old in pieces before I\nor any one else could come to its assistance.\n\nWhile I was entirely taken up with the duties of my ministry, the viceroy\nof Tigre received the commands of the Emperor to search for the bones of\nDon Christopher de Gama.  On this occasion it may not be thought\nimpertinent to give some account of the life and death of this brave and\nholy Portuguese, who, after having been successful in many battles, fell\nat last into the hands of the Moors, and completed that illustrious life\nby a glorious martyrdom.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\n\nThe adventures of the Portuguese, and the actions of Don Christopher de\nGama in AEthiopia.\n\nAbout the beginning of the sixteenth century arose a Moor near the Cape\nof Gardafui, who, by the assistance of the forces sent him from Moca by\nthe Arabs and Turks, conquered almost all Abyssinia, and founded the\nkingdom of Adel.  He was called Mahomet Gragne, or the Lame.  When he had\nravaged AEthiopia fourteen years, and was master of the greatest part of\nit, the Emperor David sent to implore succour of the King of Portugal,\nwith a promise that when those dominions were recovered which had been\ntaken from him, he would entirely submit himself to the Pope, and resign\nthe third part of his territories to the Portuguese.  After many delays,\noccasioned by the great distance between Portugal and Abyssinia, and some\nunsuccessful attempts, King John the Third, having made Don Stephen de\nGama, son of the celebrated Don Vasco de Gama, viceroy of the Indies,\ngave him orders to enter the Red Sea in pursuit of the Turkish galleys,\nand to fall upon them wherever he found them, even in the Port of Suez.\nThe viceroy, in obedience to the king's commands, equipped a powerful\nfleet, went on board himself, and cruised about the coast without being\nable to discover the Turkish vessels.  Enraged to find that with this\ngreat preparation he should be able to effect nothing, he landed at Mazna\nfour hundred Portuguese, under the command of Don Christopher de Gama,\nhis brother.  He was soon joined by some Abyssins, who had not yet forgot\ntheir allegiance to their sovereign; and in his march up the country was\nmet by the Empress Helena, who received him as her deliverer.  At first\nnothing was able to stand before the valour of the Portuguese, the Moors\nwere driven from one mountain to another, and were dislodged even from\nthose places, which it seemed almost impossible to approach, even\nunmolested by the opposition of an enemy.\n\nThese successes seemed to promise a more happy event than that which\nfollowed them.  It was now winter, a season in which, as the reader hath\nbeen already informed, it is almost impossible to travel in AEthiopia.\nThe Portuguese unadvisedly engaged themselves in an enterprise, to march\nthrough the whole country, in order to join the Emperor, who was then in\nthe most remote part of his dominions.  Mahomet, who was in possession of\nthe mountains, being informed by his spies that the Portuguese were but\nfour hundred, encamped in the plain of Ballut, and sent a message to the\ngeneral that he knew the Abyssins had imposed on the King of Portugal,\nwhich, being acquainted with their treachery, he was not surprised at,\nand that in compassion of the commander's youth, he would give him and\nhis men, if they would return, free passage, and furnish them with\nnecessaries; that he might consult upon the matter, and depend upon his\nword, reminding him, however, that it was not safe to refuse his offer.\n\nThe general presented the ambassador with a rich robe, and returned this\ngallant answer: \"That he and his fellow-soldiers were come with an\nintention to drive Mahomet out of these countries, which he had\nwrongfully usurped; that his present design was, instead of returning\nback the way he came, as Mahomet advised, to open himself a passage\nthrough the country of his enemies; that Mahomet should rather think of\ndetermining whether he would fight or yield up his ill-gotten\nterritories, than of prescribing measures to him; that he put his whole\nconfidence in the omnipotence of God and the justice of his cause, and\nthat to show how just a sense he had of Mahomet's kindness, he took the\nliberty of presenting him with a looking-glass and a pair of pincers.\"\n\nThis answer, and the present, so provoked Mahomet, who was at dinner when\nhe received it, that he rose from table immediately to march against the\nPortuguese, imagining he should meet with no resistance; and indeed, any\nman, however brave, would have been of the same opinion; for his forces\nconsisted of fifteen thousand foot, beside a numerous body of cavalry,\nand the Portuguese commander had but three hundred and fifty men, having\nlost eight in attacking some passes, and left forty at Mazma, to maintain\nan open intercourse with the viceroy of the Indies.  This little troop of\nour countrymen were upon the declivity of a hill near a wood; above them\nstood the Abyssins, who resolved to remain quiet spectators of the\nbattle, and to declare themselves on that side which should be favoured\nwith victory.\n\nMahomet began the attack with only ten horsemen, against whom as many\nPortuguese were detached, who fired with so much exactness, that nine of\nthe Moors fell, and the tenth with great difficulty made his escape.  This\nomen of good fortune gave the soldiers great encouragement; the action\ngrew hot, and they came at length to a general battle; but the Moors,\ndismayed by the advantages our men had obtained at first, were half\ndefeated before the fight.  The great fire of our muskets and artillery\nbroke them immediately.  Mahomet preserved his own life not without\ndifficulty, but did not lose his capacity with the battle: he had still a\ngreat number of troops remaining, which he rallied, and entrenched\nhimself at Membret, a place naturally strong, with an intention to pass\nthe winter there, and wait for succours.\n\nThe Portuguese, who were more desirous of glory than wealth, did not\nencumber themselves with plunder, but with the utmost expedition pursued\ntheir enemies, in hopes of cutting them entirely off.  This expectation\nwas too sanguine: they found them encamped in a place naturally almost\ninaccessible, and so well fortified, that it would be no less than\nextreme rashness to attack them.  They therefore entrenched themselves on\na hill over against the enemy's camp, and though victorious, were under\ngreat disadvantages.  They saw new troops arrive every day at the enemy's\ncamp, and their small number grew less continually; their friends at\nMazna could not join them; they knew not how to procure provisions, and\ncould put no confidence in the Abyssins; yet recollecting the great\nthings achieved by their countrymen, and depending on the Divine\nprotection, they made no doubt of surmounting all difficulties.\n\nMahomet on his part was not idle; he solicited the assistance of the\nMahometan princes, pressed them with all the motives of religion, and\nobtained a reinforcement of two thousand musketeers from the Arabs, and a\ntrain of artillery from the Turks.  Animated with these succours, he\nmarched out of his trenches to enter those of the Portuguese, who\nreceived him with the utmost bravery, destroyed prodigious numbers of his\nmen, and made many sallies with great vigour, but losing every day some\nof their small troops, and most of their officers being killed, it was\neasy to surround and force them.\n\nTheir general had already one arm broken, and his knee shattered with a\nmusket-shot, which made him unable to repair to all those places where\nhis presence was necessary to animate his soldiers.  Valour was at length\nforced to submit to superiority of numbers; the enemy entered the camp\nand put all to the sword.  The general with ten more escaped the\nslaughter, and by means of their horses retreated to a wood, where they\nwere soon discovered by a detachment sent in search of them, and brought\nto Mahomet, who was overjoyed to see his most formidable enemy in his\npower, and ordered him to take care of his uncle and nephew, who were\nwounded, telling him he should answer for their lives; and, upon their\ndeath, taxed him with hastening it.  The brave Portuguese made no\nexcuses, but told him he came thither to destroy Mahometans, and not to\nsave them.  Mahomet, enraged at this language, ordered a stone to be put\non his head, and exposed this great man to the insults and reproaches of\nthe whole army.  After this they inflicted various kinds of tortures on\nhim, which he endured with incredible resolution, and without uttering\nthe least complaint, praising the mercy of God who had ordained him to\nsuffer in such a cause.\n\nMahomet, at last satisfied with cruelty, made an offer of sending him to\nthe viceroy of the Indies, if he would turn Mussulman.  The hero took\nfire at this proposal, and answered with the highest indignation that\nnothing should make him forsake his heavenly Master to follow an\nimpostor, and continued in the severest terms to vilify their false\nprophet, till Mahomet struck off his head.\n\nNor did the resentment of Mahomet end here; he divided his body into\nquarters, and sent them to different places.  The Catholics gathered the\nremains of this glorious martyr, and interred them.  Every Moor that\npassed by threw a stone upon his grave, and raised in time such a heap,\nas I found it difficult to remove when I went in search of those precious\nrelics.\n\nWhat I have here related of the death of Don Christopher de Gama I was\ntold by an old man, who was an eye-witness of it: and there is a\ntradition in the country that in the place where his head fell, a\nfountain sprung up of wonderful virtue, which cured many diseases\notherwise past remedy.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\n\nMahomet continues the war, and is killed.  The stratagem of Peter Leon.\n\nMahomet, that he might make the best use of his victory, ranged over a\ngreat part of Abyssinia in search of the Emperor Claudius, who was then\nin the kingdom of Dambia.  All places submitted to the Mahometan, whose\ninsolence increased every day with his power; and nothing after the\ndefeat of the Portuguese was supposed able to put a stop to the progress\nof his arms.\n\nThe soldiers of Portugal, having lost their chief, resorted to the\nEmperor, who, though young, promised great things, and told them that\nsince their own general was dead, they would accept of none but himself.\nHe received them with great kindness, and hearing of Don Christopher de\nGama's misfortune, could not forbear honouring with some tears the memory\nof a man who had come so far to his succour, and lost his life in his\ncause.\n\nThe Portuguese, resolved at any rate to revenge the fate of their\ngeneral, desired the Emperor to assign them the post opposite to Mahomet,\nwhich was willingly granted them.  That King, flushed with his victories,\nand imagining to fight was undoubtedly to conquer, sought all occasions\nof giving the Abyssins battle.  The Portuguese, who desired nothing more\nthan to re-establish their reputation by revenging the affront put upon\nthem by the late defeat, advised the Emperor to lay hold on the first\nopportunity of fighting.  Both parties joined battle with equal fury.  The\nPortuguese directed all their force against that part where Mahomet was\nposted.  Peter Leon, who had been servant to the general, singled the\nKing out among the crowd, and shot him into the head with his musket.\nMahomet, finding himself wounded, would have retired out of the battle,\nand was followed by Peter Leon, till he fell down dead; the Portuguese,\nalighting from his horse, cut off one of his ears.  The Moors being now\nwithout a leader, continued the fight but a little time, and at length\nfled different ways in the utmost disorder; the Abyssinians pursued them,\nand made a prodigious slaughter.  One of them, seeing the King's body on\nthe ground, cut off his head and presented it to the Emperor.  The sight\nof it filled the whole camp with acclamations; every one applauded the\nvalour and good fortune of the Abyssin, and no reward was thought great\nenough for so important a service.  Peter Leon, having stood by some\ntime, asked whether the King had but one ear? if he had two, says he, it\nseems likely that the man who killed him cut off one and keeps it as a\nproof of his exploit.  The Abyssin stood confused, and the Portuguese\nproduced the ear out of his pocket.  Every one commended the stratagem;\nand the Emperor commanded the Abyssin to restore all the presents he had\nreceived, and delivered them with many more to Peter Leon.\n\nI imagined the reader would not be displeased to be informed who this man\nwas, whose precious remains were searched for by a viceroy of Tigre, at\nthe command of the Emperor himself.  The commission was directed to me,\nnor did I ever receive one that was more welcome on many accounts.  I had\ncontracted an intimate friendship with the Count de Vidigueira, viceroy\nof the Indies, and had been desired by him, when I took my leave of him,\nupon going to Melinda, to inform myself where his relation was buried,\nand to send him some of his relics.\n\nThe viceroy, son-in-law to the Emperor, with whom I was joined in the\ncommission, gave me many distinguishing proofs of his affection to me,\nand of his zeal for the Catholic religion.  It was a journey of fifteen\ndays through part of the country possessed by the Galles, which made it\nnecessary to take troops with us for our security; yet, notwithstanding\nthis precaution, the hazard of the expedition appeared so great, that our\nfriends bid us farewell with tears, and looked upon us as destined to\nunavoidable destruction.  The viceroy had given orders to some troops to\njoin us on the road, so that our little army grew stronger as we\nadvanced.  There is no making long marches in this country; an army here\nis a great city well peopled and under exact government: they take their\nwives and children with them, and the camp hath its streets, its market\nplaces, its churches, courts of justice, judges, and civil officers.\n\nBefore they set forward, they advertise the governors of provinces\nthrough which they are to pass, that they may take care to furnish what\nis necessary for the subsistence of the troops.  These governors give\nnotice to the adjacent places that the army is to march that way on such\na day, and that they are assessed such a quantity of bread, beer, and\ncows.  The peasants are very exact in supplying their quota, being\nobliged to pay double the value in case of failure; and very often when\nthey have produced their full share, they are told that they have been\ndeficient, and condemned to buy their peace with a large fine.\n\nWhen the providore has received these contributions, he divides them\naccording to the number of persons, and the want they are in: the\nproportion they observe in this distribution is twenty pots of beer, ten\nof mead, and one cow to a hundred loaves.  The chief officers and persons\nof note carry their own provisions with them, which I did too, though I\nafterwards found the precaution unnecessary, for I had often two or three\ncows more than I wanted, which I bestowed on those whose allowance fell\nshort.\n\nThe Abyssins are not only obliged to maintain the troops in their march,\nbut to repair the roads, to clear them, especially in the forests, of\nbrambles and thorns, and by all means possible to facilitate the passage\nof the army.  They are, by long custom, extremely ready at encamping.  As\nsoon as they come to a place they think convenient to halt at, the\nofficer that commands the vanguard marks out with his pike the place for\nthe King's or viceroy's tent: every one knows his rank, and how much\nground he shall take up; so the camp is formed in an instant.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\n\nThey discover the relics.  Their apprehension of the Galles.  The author\nconverts a criminal, and procures his pardon.\n\nWe took with us an old Moor, so enfeebled with age that they were forced\nto carry him: he had seen, as I have said, the sufferings and death of\nDon Christopher de Gama; and a Christian, who had often heard all those\npassages related to his father, and knew the place where the uncle and\nnephew of Mahomet were buried, and where they interred one quarter of the\nPortuguese martyr.  We often examined these two men, and always apart;\nthey agreed in every circumstance of their relations, and confirmed us in\nour belief of them by leading us to the place where we took up the uncle\nand nephew of Mahomet, as they had described.  With no small labour we\nremoved the heap of stones which the Moors, according to their custom,\nhad thrown upon the body, and discovered the treasure we came in search\nof.  Not many paces off was the fountain where they had thrown his head,\nwith a dead dog, to raise a greater aversion in the Moors.  I gathered\nthe teeth and the lower jaw.  No words can express the ecstasies I was\ntransported with at seeing the relics of so great a man, and reflecting\nthat it had pleased God to make me the instrument of their preservation,\nso that one day, if our holy father the Pope shall be so pleased, they\nmay receive the veneration of the faithful.  All burst into tears at the\nsight.  We indulged a melancholy pleasure in reflecting what that great\nman had achieved for the deliverance of Abyssinia, from the yoke and\ntyranny of the Moors; the voyages he had undertaken; the battles he had\nfought; the victories he had won; and the cruel and tragical death he had\nsuffered.  Our first moments were so entirely taken up with these\nreflections that we were incapable of considering the danger we were in\nof being immediately surrounded by the Galles; but as soon as we awoke to\nthat thought, we contrived to retreat as fast as we could.  Our\nexpedition, however, was not so great but we saw them on the top of a\nmountain ready to pour down upon us.  The viceroy attended us closely\nwith his little army, but had been probably not much more secure than we,\nhis force consisting only of foot, and the Galles entirely of horse, a\nservice at which they are very expert.  Our apprehensions at last proved\nto be needless, for the troops we saw were of a nation at that time in\nalliance with the Abyssins.\n\nNot caring, after this alarm, to stay longer here, we set out on our\nmarch back, and in our return passed through a village where two men, who\nhad murdered a domestic of the viceroy, lay under an arrest.  As they had\nbeen taken in the fact, the law of the country allowed that they might\nhave been executed the same hour, but the viceroy having ordered that\ntheir death should be deferred till his return, delivered them to the\nrelations of the dead, to be disposed of as they should think proper.\nThey made great rejoicings all the night, on account of having it in\ntheir power to revenge their relation; and the unhappy criminals had the\nmortification of standing by to behold this jollity, and the preparations\nmade for their execution.\n\nThe Abyssins have three different ways of putting a criminal to death:\none way is to bury him to the neck, to lay a heap of brambles upon his\nhead, and to cover the whole with a great stone; another is to beat him\nto death with cudgels; a third, and the most usual, is to stab him with\ntheir lances.  The nearest relation gives the first thrust, and is\nfollowed by all the rest according to their degrees of kindred; and they\nto whom it does not happen to strike while the offender is alive, dip the\npoints of their lances in his blood to show that they partake in the\nrevenge.  It frequently happens that the relations of the criminal are\nfor taking the like vengeance for his death, and sometimes pursue this\nresolution so far that all those who had any share in the prosecution\nlose their lives.\n\nI being informed that these two men were to die, wrote to the viceroy for\nhis permission to exhort them, before they entered into eternity, to\nunite themselves to the Church.  My request being granted, I applied\nmyself to the men, and found one of them so obstinate that he would not\neven afford me a hearing, and died in his error.  The other I found more\nflexible, and wrought upon him so far that he came to my tent to be\ninstructed.  After my care of his eternal welfare had met with such\nsuccess, I could not forbear attempting something for his temporal, and\nby my endeavours matters were so accommodated that the relations were\nwilling to grant his life on condition he paid a certain number of cows,\nor the value.  Their first demand was of a thousand; he offered them\nfive; they at last were satisfied with twelve, provided they were paid\nupon the spot.  The Abyssins are extremely charitable, and the women, on\nsuch occasions, will give even their necklaces and pendants, so that,\nwith what I gave myself, I collected in the camp enough to pay the fine,\nand all parties were content.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\n\nThe viceroy is offended by his wife.  He complains to the Emperor, but\nwithout redress.  He meditates a revolt, raises an army, and makes an\nattempt to seize upon the author.\n\nWe continued our march, and the viceroy having been advertised that some\ntroops had appeared in a hostile manner on the frontiers, went against\nthem.  I parted from him, and arrived at Fremona, where the Portuguese\nexpected me with great impatience.  I reposited the bones of Don\nChristopher de Gama in a decent place, and sent them the May following to\nthe viceroy of the Indies, together with his arms, which had been\npresented me by a gentleman of Abyssinia, and a picture of the Virgin\nMary, which that gallant Portuguese always carried about him.\n\nThe viceroy, during all the time he was engaged in this expedition, heard\nvery provoking accounts of the bad conduct of his wife, and complained of\nit to the Emperor, entreating him either to punish his daughter himself,\nor to permit him to deliver her over to justice, that, if she was falsely\naccused, she might have an opportunity of putting her own honour and her\nhusband's out of dispute.  The Emperor took little notice of his son-in-\nlaw's remonstrances; and, the truth is, the viceroy was somewhat more\nnice in that matter than the people of rank in this country generally\nare.  There are laws, it is true, against adultery, but they seem to have\nbeen only for the meaner people, and the women of quality, especially the\nouzoros, or ladies of the blood royal, are so much above them, that their\nhusbands have not even the liberty of complaining; and certainly to\nsupport injuries of this kind without complaining requires a degree of\npatience which few men can boast of.  The viceroy's virtue was not proof\nagainst this temptation.  He fell into a deep melancholy, and resolved to\nbe revenged on his father-in-law.  He knew the present temper of the\npeople, that those of the greatest interest and power were by no means\npleased with the changes of religion, and only waited for a fair\nopportunity to revolt; and that these discontents were everywhere\nheightened by the monks and clergy.  Encouraged by these reflections, he\nwas always talking of the just reasons he had to complain of the Emperor,\nand gave them sufficient room to understand that if they would appear in\nhis party, he would declare himself for the ancient religion, and put\nhimself at the head of those who should take arms in the defence of it.\nThe chief and almost the only thing that hindered him from raising a\nformidable rebellion, was the mutual distrust they entertained of one\nanother, each fearing that as soon as the Emperor should publish an act\nof grace, or general amnesty, the greatest part would lay down their arms\nand embrace it; and this suspicion was imagined more reasonable of the\nviceroy than of any other.  Notwithstanding this difficulty, the priests,\nwho interested themselves much in this revolt, ran with the utmost\nearnestness from church to church, levelling their sermons against the\nEmperor and the Catholic religion; and that they might have the better\nsuccess in putting a stop to all ecclesiastical innovations, they came to\na resolution of putting all the missionaries to the sword; and that the\nviceroy might have no room to hope for a pardon, they obliged him to give\nthe first wound to him that should fall into his hands.\n\nAs I was the nearest, and by consequence the most exposed, an order was\nimmediately issued out for apprehending me, it being thought a good\nexpedient to seize me, and force me to build a citadel, into which they\nmight retreat if they should happen to meet with a defeat.  The viceroy\nwrote to me to desire that I would come to him, he having, as he said, an\naffair of the highest importance to communicate.\n\nThe frequent assemblies which the viceroy held had already been much\ntalked of; and I had received advice that he was ready for a revolt, and\nthat my death was to be the first signal of an open war.  Knowing that\nthe viceroy had made many complaints of the treatment he received from\nhis father-in-law, I made no doubt that he had some ill design in hand;\nand yet could scarce persuade myself that after all the tokens of\nfriendship I had received from him he would enter into any measures for\ndestroying me.  While I was yet in suspense, I despatched a faithful\nservant to the viceroy with my excuse for disobeying him; and gave the\nmessenger strict orders to observe all that passed, and bring me an exact\naccount.\n\nThis affair was of too great moment not to engage my utmost endeavours to\narrive at the most certain knowledge of it, and to advertise the court of\nthe danger.  I wrote, therefore, to one of our fathers, who was then near\nthe Emperor, the best intelligence I could obtain of all that had passed,\nof the reports that were spread through all this part of the empire, and\nof the disposition which I discovered in the people to a general\ndefection; telling him, however, that I could not yet believe that the\nviceroy, who had honoured me with his friendship, and of whom I never had\nany thought but how to oblige him, could now have so far changed his\nsentiments as to take away my life.\n\nThe letters which I received by my servant, and the assurances he gave\nthat I need fear nothing, for that I was never mentioned by the viceroy\nwithout great marks of esteem, so far confirmed me in my error, that I\nwent from Fremona with a resolution to see him.  I did not reflect that a\nman who could fail in his duty to his King, his father-in-law, and his\nbenefactor, might, without scruple, do the same to a stranger, though\ndistinguished as his friend; and thus sanguine and unsuspecting continued\nmy journey, still receiving intimation from all parts to take care of\nmyself.  At length, when I was within a few days' journey of the viceroy,\nI received a billet in more plain and express terms than anything I had\nbeen told yet, charging me with extreme imprudence in putting myself into\nthe hands of those men who had undoubtedly sworn to cut me off.\n\nI began, upon this, to distrust the sincerity of the viceroy's\nprofessions, and resolved, upon the receipt of another letter from the\nviceroy, to return directly.  In this letter, having excused himself for\nnot waiting for my arrival, he desired me in terms very strong and\npressing to come forward, and stay for him at his own house, assuring me\nthat he had given such orders for my entertainment as should prevent my\nbeing tired with living there.  I imagined at first that he had left some\nservants to provide for my reception, but being advertised at the same\ntime that there was no longer any doubt of the certainty of his revolt,\nthat the Galles were engaged to come to his assistance, and that he was\ngone to sign a treaty with them, I was no longer in suspense what\nmeasures to take, but returned to Fremona.\n\nHere I found a letter from the Emperor, which prohibited me to go out,\nand the orders which he had sent through all these parts, directing them\nto arrest me wherever I was found, and to hinder me from proceeding on my\njourney.  These orders came too late to contribute to my preservation,\nand this prince's goodness had been in vain, if God, whose protection I\nhave often had experience of in my travels, had not been my conductor in\nthis emergency.\n\nThe viceroy, hearing that I was returned to my residence, did not\ndiscover any concern or chagrin as at a disappointment, for such was his\nprivacy and dissimulation that the most penetrating could never form any\nconjecture that could be depended on, about his designs, till everything\nwas ready for the execution of them.  My servant, a man of wit, was\nsurprised as well as everybody else; and I can ascribe to nothing but a\nmiracle my escape from so many snares as he laid to entrap me.\n\nThere happened during this perplexity of my affairs an accident of small\nconsequence in itself, which yet I think deserves to be mentioned, as it\nshows the credulity and ignorance of the Abyssins.  I received a visit\nfrom a religious, who passed, though he was blind, for the most learned\nperson in all that country.  He had the whole Scriptures in his memory,\nbut seemed to have been at more pains to retain them than understand\nthem; as he talked much he often took occasion to quote them, and did it\nalmost always improperly.  Having invited him to sup and pass the night\nwith me, I set before him some excellent mead, which he liked so well as\nto drink somewhat beyond the bounds of exact temperance.  Next day, to\nmake some return for his entertainment, he took upon him to divert me\nwith some of those stories which the monks amuse simple people with, and\ntold me of a devil that haunted a fountain, and used to make it his\nemployment to plague the monks that came thither to fetch water, and\ncontinued his malice till he was converted by the founder of their order,\nwho found him no very stubborn proselyte till they came to the point of\ncircumcision; the devil was unhappily prepossessed with a strong aversion\nfrom being circumcised, which, however, by much persuasion, he at last\nagreed to, and afterwards taking a religious habit, died ten years after\nwith great signs of sanctity.  He added another history of a famous\nAbyssinian monk, who killed a devil two hundred feet high, and only four\nfeet thick, that ravaged all the country; the peasants had a great desire\nto throw the dead carcase from the top of a rock, but could not with all\ntheir force remove it from the place, but the monk drew it after him with\nall imaginable ease and pushed it down.  This story was followed by\nanother, of a young devil that became a religious of the famous monastery\nof Aba Gatima.  The good father would have favoured me with more\nrelations of the same kind, if I had been in the humour to have heard\nthem, but, interrupting him, I told him that all these relations\nconfirmed what we had found by experience, that the monks of Abyssinia\nwere no improper company for the devil.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\n\nThe viceroy is defeated and hanged.  The author narrowly escapes being\npoisoned.\n\nI did not stay long at Fremona, but left that town and the province of\nTigre, and soon found that I was very happy in that resolution, for\nscarce had I left the place before the viceroy came in person to put me\nto death, who, not finding me, as he expected, resolved to turn all his\nvengeance against the father Gaspard Paes, a venerable man, who was grown\ngrey in the missions of AEthiopia, and five other missionaries newly\narrived from the Indies; his design was to kill them all at one time\nwithout suffering any to escape; he therefore sent for them all, but one\nhappily being sick, another stayed to attend him; to this they owed their\nlives, for the viceroy, finding but four of them, sent them back, telling\nthem he would see them all together.  The fathers, having been already\ntold of his revolt, and of the pretences he made use of to give it\ncredit, made no question of his intent to massacre them, and contrived\ntheir escape so that they got safely out of his power.\n\nThe viceroy, disappointed in his scheme, vented all his rage upon Father\nJames, whom the patriarch had given him as his confessor; the good man\nwas carried, bound hand and foot, into the middle of the camp; the\nviceroy gave the first stab in the throat, and all the rest struck him\nwith their lances, and dipped their weapons in his blood, promising each\nother that they would never accept of any act of oblivion or terms of\npeace by which the Catholic religion was not abolished throughout the\nempire, and all those who professed it either banished or put to death.\nThey then ordered all the beads, images, crosses, and relics which the\nCatholics made use of to be thrown into the fire.\n\nThe anger of God was now ready to fall upon his head for these daring and\ncomplicated crimes; the Emperor had already confiscated all his goods,\nand given the government of the kingdom of Tigre to Keba Christos, a good\nCatholic, who was sent with a numerous army to take possession of it.  As\nboth armies were in search of each other, it was not long before they\ncame to a battle.  The revolted viceroy Tecla Georgis placed all his\nconfidence in the Galles, his auxiliaries.  Keba Christos, who had\nmarched with incredible expedition to hinder the enemy from making any\nintrenchments, would willingly have refreshed his men a few days before\nthe battle, but finding the foe vigilant, thought it not proper to stay\ntill he was attacked, and therefore resolved to make the first onset;\nthen presenting himself before his army without arms and with his head\nuncovered, assured them that such was his confidence in God's protection\nof those that engaged in so just a cause, that though he were in that\ncondition and alone, he would attack his enemies.\n\nThe battle began immediately, and of all the troops of Tecla Georgis only\nthe Galles made any resistance, the rest abandoned him without striking a\nblow.  The unhappy commander, seeing all his squadrons broken, and three\nhundred of the Galles, with twelve ecclesiastics, killed on the spot, hid\nhimself in a cave, where he was found three days afterwards, with his\nfavourite and a monk.  When they took him, they cut off the heads of his\ntwo companions in the field, and carried him to the Emperor; the\nprocedure against him was not long, and he was condemned to be burnt\nalive.  Then imagining that, if he embraced the Catholic faith, the\nintercession of the missionaries, with the entreaties of his wife and\nchildren, might procure him a pardon, he desired a Jesuit to hear his\nconfession, and abjured his errors.  The Emperor was inflexible both to\nthe entreaties of his daughter and the tears of his grand-children, and\nall that could be obtained of him was that the sentence should be\nmollified, and changed into a condemnation to be hanged.  Tecla Georgis\nrenounced his abjuration, and at his death persisted in his errors.\nAdero, his sister, who had borne the greatest share in his revolt, was\nhanged on the same tree fifteen days after.\n\nI arrived not long after at the Emperor's court, and had the honour of\nkissing his hands; but stayed not long in a place where no missionary\nought to linger, unless obliged by the most pressing necessity: but being\nordered by my superiors into the kingdom of Damote, I set out on my\njourney, and on the road was in great danger of losing my life by my\ncuriosity of tasting a herb, which I found near a brook, and which,\nthough I had often heard of it, I did not know.  It bears a great\nresemblance to our radishes; the leaf and colour were beautiful, and the\ntaste not unpleasant.  It came into my mind when I began to chew it that\nperhaps it might be that venomous herb against which no antidote had yet\nbeen found, but persuading myself afterwards that my fears were merely\nchimerical, I continued to chew it, till a man accidentally meeting me,\nand seeing me with a handful of it, cried out to me that I was poisoned;\nI had happily not swallowed any of it, and throwing out what I had in my\nmouth, I returned God thanks for this instance of his protection.\n\nI crossed the Nile the first time in my journey to the kingdom of Damote;\nmy passage brought into my mind all that I had read either in ancient or\nmodern writers of this celebrated river; I recollected the great expenses\nat which some Emperors had endeavoured to gratify their curiosity of\nknowing the sources of this mighty stream, which nothing but their little\nacquaintance with the Abyssins made so difficult to be found.  I passed\nthe river within two days' journey of its head, near a wide plain, which\nis entirely laid under water when it begins to overflow the banks.  Its\nchannel is even here so wide, that a ball-shot from a musket can scarce\nreach the farther bank.  Here is neither boat nor bridge, and the river\nis so full of hippopotami, or river-horses, and crocodiles, that it is\nimpossible to swim over without danger of being devoured.  The only way\nof passing it is upon floats, which they guide as well as they can with\nlong poles.  Nor is even this way without danger, for these destructive\nanimals overturn the floats, and tear the passengers in pieces.  The\nriver horse, which lives only on grass and branches of trees, is\nsatisfied with killing the men, but the crocodile being more voracious,\nfeeds upon the carcases.\n\nBut since I am arrived at the banks of this renowned river, which I have\npassed and repassed so many times; and since all that I have read of the\nnature of its waters, and the causes of its overflowing, is full of\nfables, the reader may not be displeased to find here an account of what\nI saw myself, or was told by the inhabitants.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\n\nA description of the Nile.\n\nThe Nile, which the natives call Abavi, that is, the Father of Waters,\nrises first in Sacala, a province of the kingdom of Goiama, which is one\nof the most fruitful and agreeable of all the Abyssinian dominions.  This\nprovince is inhabited by a nation of the Agaus, who call, but only call,\nthemselves Christians, for by daily intermarriages they have allied\nthemselves to the Pagan Agaus, and adopted all their customs and\nceremonies.  These two nations are very numerous, fierce, and\nunconquerable, inhabiting a country full of mountains, which are covered\nwith woods, and hollowed by nature into vast caverns, many of which are\ncapable of containing several numerous families, and hundreds of cows.  To\nthese recesses the Agaus betake themselves when they are driven out of\nthe plain, where it is almost impossible to find them, and certain ruin\nto pursue them.  This people increases extremely, every man being allowed\nso many wives as he hath hundreds of cows, and it is seldom that the\nhundreds are required to be complete.\n\nIn the eastern part of this kingdom, on the declivity of a mountain,\nwhose descent is so easy that it seems a beautiful plain, is that source\nof the Nile which has been sought after at so much expense of labour, and\nabout which such variety of conjectures hath been formed without success.\nThis spring, or rather these two springs, are two holes, each about two\nfeet diameter, a stone's cast distant from each other; the one is but\nabout five feet and a half in depth--at least we could not get our\nplummet farther, perhaps because it was stopped by roots, for the whole\nplace is full of trees; of the other, which is somewhat less, with a line\nof ten feet we could find no bottom, and were assured by the inhabitants\nthat none ever had been found.  It is believed here that these springs\nare the vents of a great subterraneous lake, and they have this\ncircumstance to favour their opinion, that the ground is always moist and\nso soft that the water boils up under foot as one walks upon it.  This is\nmore visible after rains, for then the ground yields and sinks so much,\nthat I believe it is chiefly supported by the roots of trees that are\ninterwoven one with another; such is the ground round about these\nfountains.  At a little distance to the south is a village named Guix,\nthrough which the way lies to the top of the mountain, from whence the\ntraveller discovers a vast extent of land, which appears like a deep\nvalley, though the mountain rises so imperceptibly that those who go up\nor down it are scarce sensible of any declivity.\n\nOn the top of this mountain is a little hill which the idolatrous Agaus\nhave in great veneration; their priest calls them together at this place\nonce a year, and having sacrificed a cow, throws the head into one of the\nsprings of the Nile; after which ceremony, every one sacrifices a cow or\nmore, according to their different degrees of wealth or devotion.  The\nbones of these cows have already formed two mountains of considerable\nheight, which afford a sufficient proof that these nations have always\npaid their adorations to this famous river.  They eat these sacrifices\nwith great devotion, as flesh consecrated to their deity.  Then the\npriest anoints himself with the grease and tallow of the cows, and sits\ndown on a heap of straw, on the top and in the middle of a pile which is\nprepared; they set fire to it, and the whole heap is consumed without any\ninjury to the priest, who while the fire continues harangues the standers\nby, and confirms them in their present ignorance and superstition.  When\nthe pile is burnt, and the discourse at an end, every one makes a large\npresent to the priest, which is the grand design of this religious\nmockery.\n\nTo return to the course of the Nile: its waters, after the first rise,\nrun to the eastward for about a musket-shot, then turning to the north,\ncontinue hidden in the grass and weeds for about a quarter of a league,\nand discover themselves for the first time among some rocks--a sight not\nto be enjoyed without some pleasure by those who have read the fabulous\naccounts of this stream delivered by the ancients, and the vain\nconjectures and reasonings which have been formed upon its original, the\nnature of its water, its cataracts, and its inundations, all which we are\nnow entirely acquainted with and eye-witnesses of.\n\nMany interpreters of the Holy Scriptures pretend that Gihon, mentioned in\nGenesis, is no other than the Nile, which encompasseth all AEthiopia; but\nas the Gihon had its source from the terrestrial paradise, and we know\nthat the Nile rises in the country of the Agaus, it will be found, I\nbelieve, no small difficulty to conceive how the same river could arise\nfrom two sources so distant from each other, or how a river from so low a\nsource should spring up and appear in a place perhaps the highest in the\nworld: for if we consider that Arabia and Palestine are in their\nsituation almost level with Egypt; that Egypt is as low, if compared with\nthe kingdom of Dambia, as the deepest valley in regard of the highest\nmountain; that the province of Sacala is yet more elevated than Dambia;\nthat the waters of the Nile must either pass under the Red Sea, or take a\ngreat compass about, we shall find it hard to conceive such an attractive\npower in the earth as may be able to make the waters rise through the\nobstruction of so much sand from places so low to the most lofty region\nof AEthiopia.\n\nBut leaving these difficulties, let us go on to describe the course of\nthe Nile.  It rolls away from its source with so inconsiderable a\ncurrent, that it appears unlikely to escape being dried up by the hot\nseason, but soon receiving an increase from the Gemma, the Keltu, the\nBransu, and other less rivers, it is of such a breadth in the plain of\nBoad, which is not above three days' journey from its source, that a ball\nshot from a musket will scarce fly from one bank to the other.  Here it\nbegins to run northwards, deflecting, however, a little towards the east,\nfor the space of nine or ten leagues, and then enters the so much talked\nof Lake of Dambia, called by the natives Bahar Sena, the Resemblance of\nthe Sea, or Bahar Dambia, the Sea of Dambia.  It crosses this lake only\nat one end with so violent a rapidity, that the waters of the Nile may be\ndistinguished through all the passage, which is six leagues.  Here begins\nthe greatness of the Nile.  Fifteen miles farther, in the land of Alata,\nit rushes precipitately from the top of a high rock, and forms one of the\nmost beautiful water-falls in the world: I passed under it without being\nwet; and resting myself there, for the sake of the coolness, was charmed\nwith a thousand delightful rainbows, which the sunbeams painted on the\nwater in all their shining and lively colours.  The fall of this mighty\nstream from so great a height makes a noise that may be heard to a\nconsiderable distance; but I could not observe that the neighbouring\ninhabitants were at all deaf.  I conversed with several, and was as\neasily heard by them as I heard them.  The mist that rises from this fall\nof water may be seen much farther than the noise can be heard.  After\nthis cataract the Nile again collects its scattered stream among the\nrocks, which seem to be disjoined in this place only to afford it a\npassage.  They are so near each other that, in my time, a bridge of\nbeams, on which the whole Imperial army passed, was laid over them.\nSultan Segued hath since built here a bridge of one arch in the same\nplace, for which purpose he procured masons from India.  This bridge,\nwhich is the first the Abyssins have seen on the Nile, very much\nfacilitates a communication between the provinces, and encourages\ncommerce among the inhabitants of his empire.\n\nHere the river alters its course, and passes through many various\nkingdoms; on the east it leaves Begmeder, or the Land of Sheep, so called\nfrom great numbers that are bred there, beg, in that language, signifying\nsheep, and meder, a country.  It then waters the kingdoms of Amhara,\nOlaca, Choaa, and Damot, which lie on the left side, and the kingdom of\nGoiama, which it bounds on the right, forming by its windings a kind of\npeninsula.  Then entering Bezamo, a province of the kingdom of Damot, and\nGamarchausa, part of Goiama, it returns within a short day's journey of\nits spring; though to pursue it through all its mazes, and accompany it\nround the kingdom of Goiama, is a journey of twenty-nine days.  So far,\nand a few days' journey farther, this river confines itself to Abyssinia,\nand then passes into the bordering countries of Fazulo and Ombarca.\n\nThese vast regions we have little knowledge of: they are inhabited by\nnations entirely different from the Abyssins; their hair is like that of\nthe other blacks, short and curled.  In the year 1615, Rassela Christos,\nlieutenant-general to Sultan Segued, entered those kingdoms with his army\nin a hostile manner; but being able to get no intelligence of the\ncondition of the people, and astonished at their unbounded extent, he\nreturned, without daring to attempt anything.\n\nAs the empire of the Abyssins terminates at these deserts, and as I have\nfollowed the course of the Nile no farther, I here leave it to range over\nbarbarous kingdoms, and convey wealth and plenty into Egypt, which owes\nto the annual inundations of this river its envied fertility.  I know not\nanything of the rest of its passage, but that it receives great increases\nfrom many other rivers; that it has several cataracts like the first\nalready described, and that few fish are to be found in it, which\nscarcity, doubtless, is to be attributed to the river-horses and\ncrocodiles, which destroy the weaker inhabitants of these waters, and\nsomething may be allowed to the cataracts, it being difficult for fish to\nfall so far without being killed.\n\nAlthough some who have travelled in Asia and Africa have given the world\ntheir descriptions of crocodiles and hippopotamus, or river-horse, yet as\nthe Nile has at least as great numbers of each as any river in the world,\nI cannot but think my account of it would be imperfect without some\nparticular mention of these animals.\n\nThe crocodile is very ugly, having no proportion between his length and\nthickness; he hath short feet, a wide mouth, with two rows of sharp\nteeth, standing wide from each other, a brown skin so fortified with\nscales, even to his nose, that a musket-ball cannot penetrate it.  His\nsight is extremely quick, and at a great distance.  In the water he is\ndaring and fierce, and will seize on any that are so unfortunate as to be\nfound by him bathing, who, if they escape with life, are almost sure to\nleave some limb in his mouth.  Neither I, nor any with whom I have\nconversed about the crocodile, have ever seen him weep, and therefore I\ntake the liberty of ranking all that hath been told us of his tears\namongst the fables which are only proper to amuse children.\n\nThe hippopotamus, or river-horse, grazes upon the land and browses on the\nshrubs, yet is no less dangerous than the crocodile.  He is the size of\nan ox, of a brown colour without any hair, his tail is short, his neck\nlong, and his head of an enormous bigness; his eyes are small, his mouth\nwide, with teeth half a foot long; he hath two tusks like those of a wild\nboar, but larger; his legs are short, and his feet part into four toes.\nIt is easy to observe from this description that he hath no resemblance\nof a horse, and indeed nothing could give occasion to the name but some\nlikeness in his ears, and his neighing and snorting like a horse when he\nis provoked or raises his head out of water.  His hide is so hard that a\nmusket fired close to him can only make a slight impression, and the best\ntempered lances pushed forcibly against him are either blunted or\nshivered, unless the assailant has the skill to make his thrust at\ncertain parts which are more tender.  There is great danger in meeting\nhim, and the best way is, upon such an accident, to step aside and let\nhim pass by.  The flesh of this animal doth not differ from that of a\ncow, except that it is blacker and harder to digest.\n\nThe ignorance which we have hitherto been in of the original of the Nile\nhath given many authors an opportunity of presenting us very gravely with\ntheir various systems and conjectures about the nature of its waters, and\nthe reason of its overflows.\n\nIt is easy to observe how many empty hypotheses and idle reasonings the\nphenomena of this river have put mankind to the expense of.  Yet there\nare people so bigoted to antiquity, as not to pay any regard to the\nrelation of travellers who have been upon the spot, and by the evidence\nof their eyes can confute all that the ancients have written.  It was\ndifficult, it was even impossible, to arrive at the source of the Nile by\ntracing its channel from the mouth; and all who ever attempted it, having\nbeen stopped by the cataracts, and imagining none that followed them\ncould pass farther, have taken the liberty of entertaining us with their\nown fictions.\n\nIt is to be remembered likewise that neither the Greeks nor Romans, from\nwhom we have received all our information, ever carried their arms into\nthis part of the world, or ever heard of multitudes of nations that dwell\nupon the banks of this vast river; that the countries where the Nile\nrises, and those through which it runs, have no inhabitants but what are\nsavage and uncivilised; that before they could arrive at its head, they\nmust surmount the insuperable obstacles of impassable forests,\ninaccessible cliffs, and deserts crowded with beasts of prey, fierce by\nnature, and raging for want of sustenance.  Yet if they who endeavoured\nwith so much ardour to discover the spring of this river had landed at\nMazna on the coast of the Red Sea, and marched a little more to the south\nthan the south-west, they might perhaps have gratified their curiosity at\nless expense, and in about twenty days might have enjoyed the desired\nsight of the sources of the Nile.\n\nBut this discovery was reserved for the invincible bravery of our noble\ncountrymen, who, not discouraged by the dangers of a navigation in seas\nnever explored before, have subdued kingdoms and empires where the Greek\nand Roman greatness, where the names of Caesar and Alexander, were never\nheard of; who have demolished the airy fabrics of renowned hypotheses,\nand detected those fables which the ancients rather chose to invent of\nthe sources of the Nile than to confess their ignorance.  I cannot help\nsuspending my narration to reflect a little on the ridiculous\nspeculations of those swelling philosophers, whose arrogance would\nprescribe laws to nature, and subject those astonishing effects, which we\nbehold daily, to their idle reasonings and chimerical rules.  Presumptuous\nimagination! that has given being to such numbers of books, and patrons\nto so many various opinions about the overflows of the Nile.  Some of\nthese theorists have been pleased to declare it as their favourite notion\nthat this inundation is caused by high winds which stop the current, and\nso force the water to rise above its banks, and spread over all Egypt.\nOthers pretend a subterraneous communication between the ocean and the\nNile, and that the sea being violently agitated swells the river.  Many\nhave imagined themselves blessed with the discovery when they have told\nus that this mighty flood proceeds from the melting of snow on the\nmountains of AEthiopia, without reflecting that this opinion is contrary\nto the received notion of all the ancients, who believed that the heat\nwas so excessive between the tropics that no inhabitant could live there.\nSo much snow and so great heat are never met with in the same region; and\nindeed I never saw snow in Abyssinia, except on Mount Semen in the\nkingdom of Tigre, very remote from the Nile, and on Namera, which is\nindeed not far distant, but where there never falls snow sufficient to\nwet the foot of the mountain when it is melted.\n\nTo the immense labours and fatigues of the Portuguese mankind is indebted\nfor the knowledge of the real cause of these inundations so great and so\nregular.  Their observations inform us that Abyssinia, where the Nile\nrises and waters vast tracts of land, is full of mountains, and in its\nnatural situation much higher than Egypt; that all the winter, from June\nto September, no day is without rain; that the Nile receives in its\ncourse all the rivers, brooks, and torrents which fall from those\nmountains; these necessarily swell it above the banks, and fill the\nplains of Egypt with the inundation.  This comes regularly about the\nmonth of July, or three weeks after the beginning of a rainy season in\nAEthiopia.  The different degrees of this flood are such certain\nindications of the fruitfulness or sterility of the ensuing year, that it\nis publicly proclaimed in Cairo how much the water hath gained each\nnight.  This is all I have to inform the reader of concerning the Nile,\nwhich the Egyptians adored as the deity, in whose choice it was to bless\nthem with abundance, or deprive them of the necessaries of life.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\n\nThe author discovers a passage over the Nile.  Is sent into the province\nof Ligonus, which he gives a description of.  His success in his mission.\nThe stratagem of the monks to encourage the soldiers.  The author\nnarrowly escapes being burned.\n\nWhen I was to cross this river at Boad, I durst not venture myself on the\nfloats I have already spoken of, but went up higher in hopes of finding a\nmore commodious passage.  I had with me three or four men that were\nreduced to the same difficulty with myself.  In one part seeing people on\nthe other side, and remarking that the water was shallow, and that the\nrocks and trees which grew very thick there contributed to facilitate the\nattempt, I leaped from one rock to another, till I reached the opposite\nbank, to the great amazement of the natives themselves, who never had\ntried that way; my four companions followed me with the same success: and\nit hath been called since the passage of Father Jerome.\n\nThat province of the kingdom of Damot, which I was assigned to by my\nsuperior, is called Ligonus, and is perhaps one of the most beautiful and\nagreeable places in the world; the air is healthful and temperate, and\nall the mountains, which are not very high, shaded with cedars.  They sow\nand reap here in every season, the ground is always producing, and the\nfruits ripen throughout the year; so great, so charming is the variety,\nthat the whole region seems a garden laid out and cultivated only to\nplease.  I doubt whether even the imagination of a painter has yet\nconceived a landscape as beautiful as I have seen.  The forests have\nnothing uncouth or savage, and seem only planted for shade and coolness.\nAmong a prodigious number of trees which fill them, there is one kind\nwhich I have seen in no other place, and to which we have none that bears\nany resemblance.  This tree, which the natives call ensete, is\nwonderfully useful; its leaves, which are so large as to cover a man,\nmake hangings for rooms, and serve the inhabitants instead of linen for\ntheir tables and carpets.  They grind the branches and the thick parts of\nthe leaves, and when they are mingled with milk, find them a delicious\nfood.  The trunk and the roots are even more nourishing than the leaves\nor branches, and the meaner people, when they go a journey, make no\nprovision of any other victuals.  The word ensete signifies the tree\nagainst hunger, or the poor's tree, though the most wealthy often eat of\nit.  If it be cut down within half a foot of the ground and several\nincisions made in the stump, each will put out a new sprout, which, if\ntransplanted, will take root and grow to a tree.  The Abyssins report\nthat this tree when it is cut down groans like a man, and, on this\naccount, call cutting down an ensete killing it.  On the top grows a\nbunch of five or six figs, of a taste not very agreeable, which they set\nin the ground to produce more trees.\n\nI stayed two months in the province of Ligonus, and during that time\nprocured a church to be built of hewn stone, roofed and wainscoted with\ncedar, which is the most considerable in the whole country.  My continual\nemployment was the duties of the mission, which I was always practising\nin some part of the province, not indeed with any extraordinary success\nat first, for I found the people inflexibly obstinate in their opinions,\neven to so great a degree, that when I first published the Emperor's\nedict requiring all his subjects to renounce their errors, and unite\nthemselves to the Roman Church, there were some monks who, to the number\nof sixty, chose rather to die by throwing themselves headlong from a\nprecipice than obey their sovereign's commands: and in a battle fought\nbetween these people that adhered to the religion of their ancestors, and\nthe troops of Sultan Segued, six hundred religious, placing themselves at\nthe head of their men, marched towards the Catholic army with the stones\nof the altars upon their heads, assuring their credulous followers that\nthe Emperor's troops would immediately at the sight of those stones fall\ninto disorder and turn their backs; but, as they were some of the first\nthat fell, their death had a great influence upon the people to undeceive\nthem, and make them return to the truth.  Many were converted after the\nbattle, and when they had embraced the Catholic faith, adhered to that\nwith the same constancy and firmness with which they had before persisted\nin their errors.\n\nThe Emperor had sent a viceroy into this province, whose firm attachment\nto the Roman Church, as well as great abilities in military affairs, made\nhim a person very capable of executing the orders of the Emperor, and of\nsuppressing any insurrection that might be raised, to prevent those\nalterations in religion which they were designed to promote: a farther\nview in the choice of so warlike a deputy was that a stop might be put to\nthe inroads of the Galles, who had killed one viceroy, and in a little\ntime after killed this.\n\nIt was our custom to meet together every year about Christmas, not only\nthat we might comfort and entertain each other, but likewise that we\nmight relate the progress and success of our missions, and concert all\nmeasures that might farther the conversion of the inhabitants.  This year\nour place of meeting was the Emperor's camp, where the patriarch and\nsuperior of the missions were.  I left the place of my abode, and took in\nmy way four fathers, that resided at the distance of two days' journey,\nso that the company, without reckoning our attendants, was five.  There\nhappened nothing remarkable to us till the last night of our journey,\nwhen taking up our lodging at a place belonging to the Empress, a\ndeclared enemy to all Catholics, and in particular to the missionaries,\nwe met with a kind reception in appearance, and were lodged in a large\nstone house covered with wood and straw, which had stood uninhabited so\nlong, that great numbers of red ants had taken possession of it; these,\nas soon as we were laid down, attacked us on all sides, and tormented us\nso incessantly that we were obliged to call up our domestics.  Having\nburnt a prodigious number of these troublesome animals, we tried to\ncompose ourselves again, but had scarce closed our eyes before we were\nawakened by the fire that had seized our lodging.  Our servants, who were\nfortunately not all gone to bed, perceived the fire as soon as it began,\nand informed me, who lay nearest the door.  I immediately alarmed all the\nrest, and nothing was thought of but how to save ourselves and the little\ngoods we had, when, to our great astonishment, we found one of the doors\nbarricaded in such a manner that we could not open it.  Nothing now could\nhave prevented our perishing in the flames had not those who kindled them\nomitted to fasten that door near which I was lodged.  We were no longer\nin doubt that the inhabitants of the town had laid a train, and set fire\nto a neighbouring house, in order to consume us; their measures were so\nwell laid, that the house was in ashes in an instant, and three of our\nbeds were burnt which the violence of the flame would not allow us to\ncarry away.  We spent the rest of the night in the most dismal\napprehensions, and found next morning that we had justly charged the\ninhabitants with the design of destroying us, for the place was entirely\nabandoned, and those that were conscious of the crime had fled from the\npunishment.  We continued our journey, and came to Gorgora, where we\nfound the fathers met, and the Emperor with them.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\n\nThe author is sent into Tigre.  Is in danger of being poisoned by the\nbreath of a serpent.  Is stung by a serpent.  Is almost killed by eating\nanchoy.  The people conspire against the missionaries, and distress them.\n\nMy superiors intended to send me into the farthest parts of the empire,\nbut the Emperor over-ruled that design, and remanded me to Tigre, where I\nhad resided before.  I passed in my journey by Ganete Ilhos, a palace\nnewly built, and made agreeable by beautiful gardens, and had the honour\nof paying my respects to the Emperor, who had retired thither, and\nreceiving from him a large present for the finishing of a hospital, which\nhad been begun in the kingdom of Tigre.  After having returned him\nthanks, I continued my way, and in crossing a desert two days' journey\nover, was in great danger of my life, for, as I lay on the ground, I\nperceived myself seized with a pain which forced me to rise, and saw\nabout four yards from me one of those serpents that dart their poison at\na distance; although I rose before he came very near me, I yet felt the\neffects of his poisonous breath, and, if I had lain a little longer, had\ncertainly died; I had recourse to bezoar, a sovereign remedy against\nthese poisons, which I always carried about me.  These serpents are not\nlong, but have a body short and thick, and their bellies speckled with\nbrown, black, and yellow; they have a wide mouth, with which they draw in\na great quantity of air, and, having retained it some time, eject it with\nsuch force that they kill at four yards' distance.  I only escaped by\nbeing somewhat farther from him.  This danger, however, was not much to\nbe regarded in comparison of another which my negligence brought me into.\nAs I was picking up a skin that lay upon the ground, I was stung by a\nserpent that left his sting in my finger; I at least picked an extraneous\nsubstance about the bigness of a hair out of the wound, which I imagined\nwas the sting.  This slight wound I took little notice of, till my arm\ngrew inflamed all over; in a short time the poison infected my blood, and\nI felt the most terrible convulsions, which were interpreted as certain\nsigns that my death was near and inevitable.  I received now no benefit\nfrom bezoar, the horn of the unicorn, or any of the usual antidotes, but\nfound myself obliged to make use of an extraordinary remedy, which I\nsubmitted to with extreme reluctance.  This submission and obedience\nbrought the blessing of Heaven upon me; nevertheless, I continued\nindisposed a long time, and had many symptoms which made me fear that all\nthe danger was not yet over.  I then took cloves of garlic, though with a\ngreat aversion, both from the taste and smell.  I was in this condition a\nwhole month, always in pain, and taking medicines the most nauseous in\nthe world.  At length youth and a happy constitution surmounted the\nmalignity, and I recovered my former health.\n\nI continued two years at my residence in Tigre, entirely taken up with\nthe duties of the mission--preaching, confessing, baptising--and enjoyed\na longer quiet and repose than I had ever done since I left Portugal.\nDuring this time one of our fathers, being always sick and of a\nconstitution which the air of Abyssinia was very hurtful to, obtained a\npermission from our superiors to return to the Indies; I was willing to\naccompany him through part of his way, and went with him over a desert,\nat no great distance from my residence, where I found many trees loaded\nwith a kind of fruit, called by the natives anchoy, about the bigness of\nan apricot, and very yellow, which is much eaten without any ill effect.\nI therefore made no scruple of gathering and eating it, without knowing\nthat the inhabitants always peeled it, the rind being a violent\npurgative; so that, eating the fruit and skin together, I fell into such\na disorder as almost brought me to my end.  The ordinary dose is six of\nthese rinds, and I had devoured twenty.\n\nI removed from thence to Debaroa, fifty-four miles nearer the sea, and\ncrossed in my way the desert of the province of Saraoe.  The country is\nfruitful, pleasant, and populous; there are greater numbers of Moors in\nthese parts than in any other province of Abyssinia, and the Abyssins of\nthis country are not much better than the Moors.\n\nI was at Debaroa when the prosecution was first set on foot against the\nCatholics.  Sultan Segued, who had been so great a favourer of us, was\ngrown old, and his spirit and authority decreased with his strength.  His\nson, who was arrived at manhood, being weary of waiting so long for the\ncrown he was to inherit, took occasion to blame his father's conduct, and\nfound some reason for censuring all his actions; he even proceeded so far\nas to give orders sometimes contrary to the Emperor's.  He had embraced\nthe Catholic religion, rather through complaisance than conviction or\ninclination; and many of the Abyssins who had done the same, waited only\nfor an opportunity of making public profession of the ancient erroneous\nopinions, and of re-uniting themselves to the Church of Alexandria.  So\nartfully can this people dissemble their sentiments that we had not been\nable hitherto to distinguish our real from our pretended favourers; but\nas soon as this Prince began to give evident tokens of his hatred, even\nin the lifetime of the Emperor, we saw all the courtiers and governors\nwho had treated us with such a show of friendship declare against us, and\npersecute us as disturbers of the public tranquillity, who had come into\nAEthiopia with no other intention than to abolish the ancient laws and\ncustoms of the country, to sow divisions between father and son, and\npreach up a revolution.\n\nAfter having borne all sorts of affronts and ill-treatments, we retired\nto our house at Fremona, in the midst of our countrymen, who had been\nsettling round about us a long time, imagining we should be more secure\nthere, and that, at least during the life of the Emperor, they would not\ncome to extremities, or proceed to open force.  I laid some stress upon\nthe kindness which the viceroy of Tigre had shown to us, and in\nparticular to me; but was soon convinced that those hopes had no real\nfoundation, for he was one of the most violent of our persecutors.  He\nseized upon all our lands, and, advancing with his troops to Fremona,\nblocked up the town.  The army had not been stationed there long before\nthey committed all sorts of disorders; so that one day a Portuguese,\nprovoked beyond his temper at the insolence of some of them, went out\nwith his four sons, and, wounding several of them, forced the rest back\nto their camp.\n\nWe thought we had good reason to apprehend an attack; their troops were\nincreasing, our town was surrounded, and on the point of being forced.\nOur Portuguese therefore thought that, without staying till the last\nextremities, they might lawfully repel one violence by another, and\nsallying out to the number of fifty, wounded about three score of the\nAbyssins, and had put them to the sword but that they feared it might\nbring too great an odium upon our cause.  The Portuguese were some of\nthem wounded, but happily none died on either side.\n\nThough the times were by no means favourable to us, every one blamed the\nconduct of the viceroy; and those who did not commend our action made the\nnecessity we were reduced to of self-defence an excuse for it.  The\nviceroy's principal design was to get my person into his possession,\nimagining that if I was once in his power, all the Portuguese would pay\nhim a blind obedience.  Having been unsuccessful in his attempt by open\nforce, he made use of the arts of negotiation, but with an event not more\nto his satisfaction.  This viceroy being recalled, a son-in-law of the\nEmperor's succeeded, who treated us even worse than his predecessor had\ndone.\n\nWhen he entered upon his command, he loaded us with kindnesses, giving us\nso many assurances of his protection that, while the Emperor lived, we\nthought him one of our friends; but no sooner was our protector dead than\nthis man pulled off his mask, and, quitting all shame, let us see that\nneither the fear of God nor any other consideration was capable of\nrestraining him when we were to be distressed.  The persecution then\nbecoming general, there was no longer any place of security for us in\nAbyssinia, where we were looked upon by all as the authors of all the\ncivil commotions, and many councils were held to determine in what manner\nthey should dispose of us.  Several were of opinion that the best way\nwould be to kill us all at once, and affirmed that no other means were\nleft of re-establishing order and tranquillity in the kingdom.\n\nOthers, more prudent, were not for putting us to death with so little\nconsideration, but advised that we should be banished to one of the isles\nof the Lake of Dambia, an affliction more severe than death itself.  These\nalleged in vindication of their opinions that it was reasonable to\nexpect, if they put us to death, that the viceroy of the Indies would\ncome with fire and sword to demand satisfaction.  This argument made so\ngreat an impression upon some of them that they thought no better\nmeasures could be taken than to send us back again to the Indies.  This\nproposal, however, was not without its difficulties, for they suspected\nthat when we should arrive at the Portuguese territories, we would levy\nan army, return back to Abyssinia, and under pretence of establishing the\nCatholic religion revenge all the injuries we had suffered.  While they\nwere thus deliberating upon our fate, we were imploring the succour of\nthe Almighty with fervent and humble supplications, entreating him in the\nmidst of our sighs and tears that he would not suffer his own cause to\nmiscarry, and that, however it might please him to dispose of our\nlives--which, we prayed, he would assist us to lay down with patience and\nresignation worthy of the faith for which we were persecuted--he would\nnot permit our enemies to triumph over the truth.\n\nThus we passed our days and nights in prayers, in affliction, and tears,\ncontinually crowded with widows and orphans that subsisted upon our\ncharity and came to us for bread when we had not any for ourselves.\n\nWhile we were in this distress we received an account that the viceroy of\nthe Indies had fitted out a powerful fleet against the King of Mombaza,\nwho, having thrown off the authority of the Portuguese, had killed the\ngovernor of the fortress, and had since committed many acts of cruelty.\nThe same fleet, as we were informed, after the King of Mombaza was\nreduced, was to burn and ruin Zeila, in revenge of the death of two\nPortuguese Jesuits who were killed by the King in the year 1604.  As\nZeila was not far from the frontiers of Abyssinia, they imagined that\nthey already saw the Portuguese invading their country.\n\nThe viceroy of Tigre had inquired of me a few days before how many men\none India ship carried, and being told that the complement of some was a\nthousand men, he compared that answer with the report then spread over\nall the country, that there were eighteen Portuguese vessels on the coast\nof Adel, and concluded that they were manned by an army of eighteen\nthousand men; then considering what had been achieved by four hundred,\nunder the command of Don Christopher de Gama, he thought Abyssinia\nalready ravaged, or subjected to the King of Portugal.  Many declared\nthemselves of his opinion, and the court took its measures with respect\nto us from these uncertain and ungrounded rumours.  Some were so\ninfatuated with their apprehensions that they undertook to describe the\ncamp of the Portuguese, and affirmed that they had heard the report of\ntheir cannons.\n\nAll this contributed to exasperate the inhabitants, and reduced us often\nto the point of being massacred.  At length they came to a resolution of\ngiving us up to the Turks, assuring them that we were masters of a vast\ntreasure, in hope that after they had inflicted all kinds of tortures on\nus, to make us confess where we had hid our gold, or what we had done\nwith it, they would at length kill us in rage for the disappointment.  Nor\nwas this their only view, for they believed that the Turks would, by\nkilling us, kindle such an irreconcilable hatred between themselves and\nour nation as would make it necessary for them to keep us out of the Red\nSea, of which they are entirely masters: so that their determination was\nas politic as cruel.  Some pretend that the Turks were engaged to put us\nto death as soon as we were in their power.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\n\nThe author relieves the patriarch and missionaries, and supports them.  He\nescapes several snares laid for him by the viceroy of Tigre.  They put\nthemselves under the protection of the Prince of Bar.\n\nHaving concluded this negotiation, they drove us out of our houses, and\nrobbed us of everything that was worth carrying away; and, not content\nwith that, informed some banditti that were then in those parts of the\nroad we were to travel through, so that the patriarch and some\nmissionaries were attacked in a desert by these rovers, with their\ncaptain at their head, who pillaged his library, his ornaments, and what\nlittle baggage the missionaries had left, and might have gone away\nwithout resistance or interruption had they satisfied themselves with\nonly robbing; but when they began to fall upon the missionaries and their\ncompanions, our countrymen, finding that their lives could only be\npreserved by their courage, charged their enemies with such vigour that\nthey killed their chief and forced the rest to a precipitate flight.  But\nthese rovers, being acquainted with the country, harassed the little\ncaravan till it was past the borders.\n\nOur fathers then imagined they had nothing more to fear, but too soon\nwere convinced of their error, for they found the whole country turned\nagainst them, and met everywhere new enemies to contend with and new\ndangers to surmount.  Being not far distant from Fremona, where I\nresided, they sent to me for succour.  I was better informed of the\ndistress they were in than themselves, having been told that a numerous\nbody of Abyssins had posted themselves in a narrow pass with an intent to\nsurround and destroy them; therefore, without long deliberation, I\nassembled my friends, both Portuguese and Abyssins, to the number of\nfourscore, and went to their rescue, carrying with me provisions and\nrefreshments, of which I knew they were in great need.  These glorious\nconfessors I met as they were just entering the pass designed for the\nplace of their destruction, and doubly preserved them from famine and the\nsword.  A grateful sense of their deliverance made them receive me as a\nguardian angel.  We went together to Fremona, and being in all a\npatriarch, a bishop, eighteen Jesuits, and four hundred Portuguese whom I\nsupplied with necessaries, though the revenues of our house were lost,\nand though the country was disaffected to us, in the worst season of the\nyear.  We were obliged for the relief of the poor and our own subsistence\nto sell our ornaments and chalices, which we first broke in pieces, that\nthe people might not have the pleasure of ridiculing our mysteries by\nprofaning the vessels made use of in the celebration of them, for they\nnow would gladly treat with the highest indignities what they had a year\nbefore looked upon with veneration.\n\nAmidst all these perplexities the viceroy did not fail to visit us, and\nmake us great offers of service in expectation of a large present.  We\nwere in a situation in which it was very difficult to act properly; we\nknew too well the ill intentions of the viceroy, but durst not complain,\nor give him any reason to imagine that we knew them.  We longed to\nretreat out of his power, or at least to send one of our company to the\nIndies with an account of persecution we suffered, and could without his\nleave neither do one nor the other.\n\nWhen it was determined that one should be sent to the Indies, I was at\nfirst singled out for the journey, and it was intended that I should\nrepresent at Goa, at Rome, and at Madrid the distresses and necessities\nof the mission of AEthiopia; but the fathers reflecting afterwards that I\nbest understood the Abyssinian language, and was most acquainted with the\ncustoms of the country, altered their opinions, and, continuing me in\nAEthiopia either to perish with them or preserve them, deputed four other\nJesuits, who in a short time set out on their way to the Indies.\n\nAbout this time I was sent for to the viceroy's camp to confess a\ncriminal, who, though falsely, was believed a Catholic, to whom, after a\nproper exhortation, I was going to pronounce the form of absolution, when\nthose that waited to execute him told him aloud that if he expected to\nsave his life by professing himself a Catholic, he would find himself\ndeceived, and that he had nothing to do but prepare himself for death.\nThe unhappy criminal had no sooner heard this than, rising up, he\ndeclared his resolution to die in the religion of his country, and being\ndelivered up to his prosecutors was immediately dispatched with their\nlances.\n\nThe chief reason of calling me was not that I might hear this confession:\nthe viceroy had another design of seizing my person, expecting that\neither the Jesuits or Portuguese would buy my liberty with a large\nransom, or that he might exchange me for his father, who was kept\nprisoner by a revolted prince.  That prince would have been no loser by\nthe exchange, for so much was I hated by the Abyssinian monks that they\nwould have thought no expense too great to have gotten me into their\nhands, that they might have glutted their revenge by putting me to the\nmost painful death they could have invented.  Happily I found means to\nretire out of this dangerous place, and was followed by the viceroy\nalmost to Fremona, who, being disappointed, desired me either to visit\nhim at his camp, or appoint a place where we might confer.  I made many\nexcuses, but at length agreed to meet him at a place near Fremona,\nbringing each of us only three companions.  I did not doubt but he would\nbring more, and so he did, but found that I was upon my guard, and that\nmy company increased in proportion to his.  My friends were resolute\nPortuguese, who were determined to give him no quarter if he made any\nattempt upon my liberty.  Finding himself once more countermined, he\nreturned ashamed to his camp, where a month after, being accused of a\nconfederacy in the revolt of that prince who kept his father prisoner, he\nwas arrested, and carried in chains to the Emperor.\n\nThe time now approaching in which we were to be delivered to the Turks,\nwe had none but God to apply to for relief: all the measures we could\nthink of were equally dangerous.  Resolving, nevertheless, to seek some\nretreat where we might hide ourselves either all together or separately,\nwe determined at last to put ourselves under the protection of the Prince\nJohn Akay, who had defended himself a long time in the province of Bar\nagainst the power of Abyssinia.\n\nAfter I had concluded a treaty with this prince, the patriarch and all\nthe fathers put themselves into his hands, and being received with all\nimaginable kindness and civility, were conducted with a guard to Adicota,\na rock excessively steep, about nine miles from his place of residence.\nThe event was not agreeable to the happy beginning of our negotiation,\nfor we soon began to find that our habitation was not likely to be very\npleasant.  We were surrounded with Mahometans, or Christians who were\ninveterate enemies to the Catholic faith, and were obliged to act with\nthe utmost caution.  Notwithstanding these inconveniences we were pleased\nwith the present tranquillity we enjoyed, and lived contentedly on\nlentils and a little corn that we had; and I, after we had sold all our\ngoods, resolved to turn physician, and was soon able to support myself by\nmy practice.\n\nI was once consulted by a man troubled with asthma, who presented me with\ntwo alquieres--that is, about twenty-eight pounds weight--of corn and a\nsheep.  The advice I gave him, after having turned over my books, was to\ndrink goats' urine every morning; I know not whether he found any benefit\nby following my prescription, for I never saw him after.\n\nBeing under a necessity of obeying our acoba, or protector, we changed\nour place of abode as often as he desired it, though not without great\ninconveniences, from the excessive heat of the weather and the faintness\nwhich our strict observation of the fasts and austerities of Lent, as it\nis kept in this country, had brought upon us.  At length, wearied with\nremoving so often, and finding that the last place assigned for our abode\nwas always the worst, we agreed that I should go to our sovereign and\ncomplain.\n\nI found him entirely taken up with the imagination of a prodigious\ntreasure, affirmed by the monks to be hidden under a mountain.  He was\ntold that his predecessors had been hindered from discovering it by the\ndemon that guarded it, but that the demon was now at a great distance\nfrom his charge, and was grown blind and lame; that having lost his son,\nand being without any children except a daughter that was ugly and\nunhealthy, he was under great affliction, and entirely neglected the care\nof his treasure; that if he should come, they could call one of their\nancient brothers to their assistance, who, being a man of a most holy\nlife, would be able to prevent his making any resistance.  To all these\nstories the prince listened with unthinking credulity.  The monks,\nencouraged by this, fell to the business, and brought a man above a\nhundred years old, whom, because he could not support himself on\nhorseback, they had tied on the beast, and covered him with black wool.\nHe was followed by a black cow (designed for a sacrifice to the demon of\nthe place), and by some monks that carried mead, beer, and parched corn,\nto complete the offering.\n\nNo sooner were they arrived at the foot of the mountain than every one\nbegan to work: bags were brought from all parts to convey away the\nmillions which each imagined would be his share.  The Xumo, who\nsuperintended the work, would not allow any one to come near the\nlabourers, but stood by, attended by the old monk, who almost sang\nhimself to death.  At length, having removed a vast quantity of earth and\nstones, they discovered some holes made by rats or moles, at sight of\nwhich a shout of joy ran through the whole troop: the cow was brought and\nsacrificed immediately, and some pieces of flesh were thrown into these\nholes.  Animated now with assurance of success, they lose no time: every\none redoubles his endeavours, and the heat, though intolerable, was less\npowerful than the hopes they had conceived.  At length some, not so\npatient as the rest, were weary, and desisted.  The work now grew more\ndifficult; they found nothing but rock, yet continued to toil on, till\nthe prince, having lost all temper, began to inquire with some passion\nwhen he should have a sight of this treasure, and after having been some\ntime amused with many promises by the monks, was told that he had not\nfaith enough to be favoured with the discovery.\n\nAll this I saw myself, and could not forbear endeavouring to convince our\nprotector how much he was imposed upon: he was not long before he was\nsatisfied that he had been too credulous, for all those that had so\nindustriously searched after this imaginary wealth, within five hours\nleft the work in despair, and I continued almost alone with the prince.\n\nImagining no time more proper to make the proposal I was sent with than\nwhile his passion was still hot against the monks, I presented him with\ntwo ounces of gold and two plates of silver, with some other things of\nsmall value, and was so successful that he gratified me in all my\nrequests, and gave us leave to return to Adicora, where we were so\nfortunate to find our huts yet uninjured and entire.\n\nAbout this time the fathers who had stayed behind at Fremona arrived with\nthe new viceroy, and an officer fierce in the defence of his own\nreligion, who had particular orders to deliver all the Jesuits up to the\nTurks, except me, whom the Emperor was resolved to have in his own hands,\nalive or dead.  We had received some notice of this resolution from our\nfriends at court, and were likewise informed that the Emperor, their\nmaster, had been persuaded that my design was to procure assistance from\nthe Indies, and that I should certainly return at the head of an army.\nThe patriarch's advice upon this emergency was that I should retire into\nthe woods, and by some other road join the nine Jesuits who were gone\ntowards Mazna.  I could think of no better expedient, and therefore went\naway in the night between the 23rd and 24th of April with my comrade, an\nold man, very infirm and very timorous.  We crossed woods never crossed,\nI believe, by any before: the darkness of the night and the thickness of\nthe shade spread a kind of horror round us; our gloomy journey was still\nmore incommoded by the brambles and thorns, which tore our hands; amidst\nall these difficulties I applied myself to the Almighty, praying him to\npreserve us from those dangers which we endeavoured to avoid, and to\ndeliver us from those to which our flight exposed us.  Thus we travelled\nall night, till eight next morning, without taking either rest or food;\nthen, imagining ourselves secure, we made us some cakes of barley-meal\nand water, which we thought a feast.\n\nWe had a dispute with our guides, who though they had bargained to\nconduct us for an ounce of gold, yet when they saw us so entangled in the\nintricacies of the wood that we could not possibly get out without their\ndirection, demanded seven ounces of gold, a mule, and a little tent which\nwe had; after a long dispute we were forced to come to their terms.  We\ncontinued to travel all night, and to hide ourselves in the woods all\nday: and here it was that we met the three hundred elephants I spoke of\nbefore.  We made long marches, travelling without any halt from four in\nthe afternoon to eight in the morning.\n\nArriving at a valley where travellers seldom escape being plundered, we\nwere obliged to double our pace, and were so happy as to pass it without\nmeeting with any misfortune, except that we heard a bird sing on our left\nhand--a certain presage among these people of some great calamity at\nhand.  As there is no reasoning them out of superstition, I knew no way\nof encouraging them to go forward but what I had already made use of on\nthe same occasion, assuring them that I heard one at the same time on the\nright.  They were happily so credulous as to take my word, and we went on\ntill we came to a well, where we stayed awhile to refresh ourselves.\nSetting out again in the evening, we passed so near a village where these\nrobbers had retreated that the dogs barked after us.  Next morning we\njoined the fathers, who waited for us.  After we had rested ourselves\nsome time in that mountain, we resolved to separate and go two and two,\nto seek for a more convenient place where we might hide ourselves.  We\nhad not gone far before we were surrounded by a troop of robbers, with\nwhom, by the interest of some of the natives who had joined themselves to\nour caravan, we came to a composition, giving them part of our goods to\npermit us to carry away the rest; and after this troublesome adventure\narrived at a place something more commodious than that which we had\nquitted, where we met with bread, but of so pernicious a quality that,\nafter having ate it, we were intoxicated to so great a degree that one of\nmy friends, seeing me so disordered, congratulated my good fortune of\nhaving met with such good wine, and was surprised when I gave him an\naccount of the whole affair.  He then offered me some curdled milk, very\nsour, with barley-meal, which we boiled, and thought it the best\nentertainment we had met with a long time.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\n\nThey are betrayed into the hands of the Turks; are detained awhile at\nMazna; are threatened by the Bassa of Suaquem.  They agree for their\nransom, and are part of them dismissed.\n\nSome time after, we received news that we should prepare ourselves to\nserve the Turks--a message which filled us with surprise, it having never\nbeen known that one of these lords had ever abandoned any whom he had\ntaken under his protection; and it is, on the contrary, one of the\nhighest points of honour amongst them to risk their fortunes and their\nlives in the defence of their dependants who have implored their\nprotection.  But neither law nor justice was of any advantage to us, and\nthe customs of the country were doomed to be broken when they would have\ncontributed to our security.\n\nWe were obliged to march in the extremity of the hot season, and had\ncertainly perished by the fatigue had we not entered the woods, which\nshaded us from the scorching sun.  The day before our arrival at the\nplace where we were to be delivered to the Turks, we met with five\nelephants, that pursued us, and if they could have come to us would have\nprevented the miseries we afterwards endured, but God had decreed\notherwise.\n\nOn the morrow we came to the banks of a river, where we found fourscore\nTurks that waited for us, armed with muskets.  They let us rest awhile,\nand then put us into the hands of our new masters, who, setting us upon\ncamels, conducted us to Mazna.  Their commander, seeming to be touched\nwith our misfortunes, treated us with much gentleness and humanity; he\noffered us coffee, which we drank, but with little relish.  We came next\nday to Mazna, in so wretched a condition that we were not surprised at\nbeing hooted by the boys, but thought ourselves well used that they threw\nno stones at us.\n\nAs soon as we were brought hither, all we had was taken from us, and we\nwere carried to the governor, who is placed there by the Bassa of\nSuaquem.  Having been told by the Abyssins that we had carried all the\ngold out of AEthiopia, they searched us with great exactness, but found\nnothing except two chalices, and some relics of so little value that we\nredeemed them for six sequins.  As I had given them my chalice upon their\nfirst demand, they did not search me, but gave us to understand that they\nexpected to find something of greater value, which either we must have\nhidden or the Abyssins must have imposed on them.  They left us the rest\nof the day at a gentleman's house, who was our friend, from whence the\nnext day they fetched us to transport us to the island, where they put us\ninto a kind of prison, with a view of terrifying us into a confession of\nthe place where we had hid our gold, in which, however, they found\nthemselves deceived.\n\nBut I had here another affair upon my hands which was near costing me\ndear.  My servant had been taken from me and left at Mazna, to be sold to\nthe Arabs.  Being advertised by him of the danger he was in, I laid claim\nto him, without knowing the difficulties which this way of proceeding\nwould bring upon me.  The governor sent me word that my servant should be\nrestored to me upon payment of sixty piastres; and being answered by me\nthat I had not a penny for myself, and therefore could not pay sixty\npiastres to redeem my servant, he informed me by a renegade Jew, who\nnegotiated the whole affair, that either I must produce the money or\nreceive a hundred blows of the battoon.  Knowing that those orders are\nwithout appeal, and always punctually executed, I prepared myself to\nreceive the correction I was threatened with, but unexpectedly found the\npeople so charitable as to lend me the money.  By several other threats\nof the same kind they drew from us about six hundred crowns.\n\nOn the 24th of June we embarked in two galleys for Suaquem, where the\nbassa resided.  His brother, who was his deputy at Mazna, made us promise\nbefore we went that we would not mention the money he had squeezed from\nus.  The season was not very proper for sailing, and our provisions were\nbut short.  In a little time we began to feel the want of better stores,\nand thought ourselves happy in meeting with a gelve, which, though small,\nwas a much better sailer than our vessel, in which I was sent to Suaquem\nto procure camels and provisions.  I was not much at my ease, alone among\nsix Mahometans, and could not help apprehending that some zealous pilgrim\nof Mecca might lay hold on this opportunity, in the heat of his devotion,\nof sacrificing me to his prophet.\n\nThese apprehensions were without ground.  I contracted an acquaintance,\nwhich was soon improved into a friendship, with these people; they\noffered me part of their provisions, and I gave them some of mine.  As we\nwere in a place abounding with oysters--some of which were large and good\nto eat, others more smooth and shining, in which pearls are found--they\ngave me some of those they gathered; but whether it happened by trifling\nour time away in oyster-catching, or whether the wind was not favourable,\nwe came to Suaquem later than the vessel I had left, in which were seven\nof my companions.\n\nAs they had first landed, they had suffered the first transports of the\nbassa's passion, who was a violent, tyrannical man, and would have killed\nhis own brother for the least advantage--a temper which made him fly into\nthe utmost rage at seeing us poor, tattered, and almost naked; he treated\nus with the most opprobrious language, and threatened to cut off our\nheads.  We comforted ourselves in this condition, hoping that all our\nsufferings would end in shedding our blood for the name of Jesus Christ.\nWe knew that the bassa had often made a public declaration before our\narrival that he should die contented if he could have the pleasure of\nkilling us all with his own hand.  This violent resolution was not\nlasting; his zeal gave way to his avarice, and he could not think of\nlosing so large a sum as he knew he might expect for our ransom: he\ntherefore sent us word that it was in our choice either to die, or to pay\nhim thirty thousand crowns, and demanded to know our determination.\n\nWe knew that his ardent thirst of our blood was now cold, that time and\ncalm reflection and the advice of his friends had all conspired to bring\nhim to a milder temper, and therefore willingly began to treat with him.\nI told the messenger, being deputed by the rest to manage the affair,\nthat he could not but observe the wretched condition we were in, that we\nhad neither money nor revenues, that what little we had was already taken\nfrom us, and that therefore all we could promise was to set a collection\non foot, not much doubting but that our brethren would afford us such\nassistance as might enable us to make him a handsome present according to\ncustom.\n\nThis answer was not at all agreeable to the bassa, who returned an answer\nthat he would be satisfied with twenty thousand crowns, provided we paid\nthem on the spot, or gave him good securities for the payment.  To this\nwe could only repeat what we had said before: he then proposed to abate\nfive thousand of his last demand, assuring us that unless we came to some\nagreement, there was no torment so cruel but we should suffer it, and\ntalked of nothing but impaling and flaying us alive; the terror of these\nthreatenings was much increased by his domestics, who told us of many of\nhis cruelties.  This is certain, that some time before, he had used some\npoor pagan merchants in that manner, and had caused the executioner to\nbegin to flay them, when some Brahmin, touched with compassion,\ngenerously contributed the sum demanded for their ransom.  We had no\nreason to hope for so much kindness, and, having nothing of our own,\ncould promise no certain sum.\n\nAt length some of his favourites whom he most confided in, knowing his\ncruelty and our inability to pay what he demanded, and apprehending that,\nif he should put us to the death he threatened, they should soon see the\nfleets of Portugal in the Red Sea, laying their towns in ashes to revenge\nit, endeavoured to soften his passion and preserve our lives, offering to\nadvance the sum we should agree for, without any other security than our\nwords.  By this assistance, after many interviews with the bassa's\nagents, we agreed to pay four thousand three hundred crowns, which were\naccepted on condition that they should be paid down, and we should go on\nboard within two hours: but, changing his resolution on a sudden, he sent\nus word by his treasurer that two of the most considerable among us\nshould stay behind for security, while the rest went to procure the money\nthey promised.  They kept the patriarch and two more fathers, one of\nwhich was above fourscore years old, in whose place I chose to remain\nprisoner, and represented to the bassa that, being worn out with age, he\nperhaps might die in his hands, which would lose the part of the ransom\nwhich was due on his account; that therefore it would be better to choose\na younger in his place, offering to stay myself with him, that the good\nold man might be set at liberty.\n\nThe bassa agreed to another Jesuit, and it pleased Heaven that the lot\nfell upon Father Francis Marquez.  I imagined that I might with the same\nease get the patriarch out of his hand, but no sooner had I begun to\nspeak but the anger flashed in his eyes, and his look was sufficient to\nmake me stop and despair of success.  We parted immediately, leaving the\npatriarch and two fathers in prison, whom we embraced with tears, and\nwent to take up our lodging on board the vessel.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\n\nTheir treatment on board the vessel.  Their reception at Diou.  The\nauthor applies to the viceroy for assistance, but without success; he is\nsent to solicit in Europe.\n\nOur condition here was not much better than that of the illustrious\ncaptives whom we left behind.  We were in an Arabian ship, with a crew of\npilgrims of Mecca, with whom it was a point of religion to insult us.  We\nwere lodged upon the deck, exposed to all the injuries of the weather,\nnor was there the meanest workman or sailor who did not either kick or\nstrike us.  When we went first on board, I perceived a humour in my\nfinger, which I neglected at first, till it spread over my hand and\nswelled up my arm, afflicting me with the most horrid torture.  There was\nneither surgeon nor medicines to be had, nor could I procure anything to\nease my pain but a little oil, with which I anointed my arm, and in time\nfound some relief.  The weather was very bad, and the wind almost always\nagainst us, and, to increase our perplexity, the whole crew, though\nMoors, were in the greatest apprehension of meeting any of those vessels\nwhich the Turks maintain in the strait of Babelmandel; the ground of\ntheir fear was that the captain had neglected the last year to touch at\nMoca, though he had promised.  Thus we were in danger of falling into a\ncaptivity perhaps more severe than that we had just escaped from.  While\nwe were wholly engaged with these apprehensions, we discovered a Turkish\nship and galley were come upon us.  It was almost calm--at least, there\nwas not wind enough to give us any prospect of escaping--so that when the\ngalley came up to us, we thought ourselves lost without remedy, and had\nprobably fallen into their hands had not a breeze sprung up just in the\ninstant of danger, which carried us down the channel between the mainland\nand the isle of Babelmandel.  I have already said that this passage is\ndifficult and dangerous, which, nevertheless, we passed in the night,\nwithout knowing what course we held, and were transported at finding\nourselves next morning out of the Red Sea and half a league from\nBabelmandel.  The currents are here so violent that they carried us\nagainst our will to Cape Guardafui, where we sent our boats ashore for\nfresh water, which we began to be in great want of.  The captain refused\nto give us any when we desired some, and treated us with great insolence,\ntill, coming near the land, I spoke to him in a tone more lofty and\nresolute than I had ever done, and gave him to understand that when he\ntouched at Diou he might have occasion for our interest.  This had some\neffect upon him, and procured us a greater degree of civility than we had\nmet with before.\n\nAt length after forty days' sailing we landed at Diou, where we were met\nby the whole city, it being reported that the patriarch was one of our\nnumber; for there was not a gentleman who was not impatient to have the\npleasure of beholding that good man, now made famous by his labours and\nsufferings.  It is not in my power to represent the different passions\nthey were affected with at seeing us pale, meagre, without clothes--in a\nword, almost naked and almost dead with fatigue and ill-usage.  They\ncould not behold us in that miserable condition without reflecting on the\nhardships we had undergone, and our brethren then underwent, in Suaquem\nand Abyssinia.  Amidst their thanks to God for our deliverance, they\ncould not help lamenting the condition of the patriarch and the other\nmissionaries who were in chains, or, at least, in the hands of professed\nenemies to our holy religion.  All this did not hinder them from\ntestifying in the most obliging manner their joy for our deliverance, and\npaying such honours as surprised the Moors, and made them repent in a\nmoment of the ill-treatment they had shown us on board.  One who had\ndiscovered somewhat more humanity than the rest thought himself\nsufficiently honoured when I took him by the hand and presented him to\nthe chief officer of the custom house, who promised to do all the favours\nthat were in his power.\n\nWhen we passed by in sight of the fort, they gave us three salutes with\ntheir cannon, an honour only paid to generals.  The chief men of the\ncity, who waited for us on the shore, accompanied us through a crowd of\npeople, whom curiosity had drawn from all parts of our college.  Though\nour place of residence at Diou is one of the most beautiful in all the\nIndies, we stayed there only a few days, and as soon as we had recovered\nour fatigues went on board the ships that were appointed to convoy the\nnorthern fleet.  I was in the admiral's.  We arrived at Goa in some\nvessels bound for Camberia: here we lost a good old Abyssin convert, a\nman much valued in his order, and who was actually prior of his convent\nwhen he left Abyssinia, choosing rather to forsake all for religion than\nto leave the way of salvation, which God had so mercifully favoured him\nwith the knowledge of.\n\nWe continued our voyage, and almost without stopping sailed by Surate and\nDamam, where the rector of the college came to see us, but so sea-sick\nthat the interview was without any satisfaction on either side.  Then\nlanding at Bazaim we were received by our fathers with their accustomed\ncharity, and nothing was thought of but how to put the unpleasing\nremembrance of our past labours out of our minds.  Finding here an order\nof the Father Provineta to forbid those who returned from the missions to\ngo any farther, it was thought necessary to send an agent to Goa with an\naccount of the revolutions that had happened in Abyssinia and of the\nimprisonment of the patriarch.  For this commission I was made choice of;\nand, I know not by what hidden degree of Providence, almost all affairs,\nwhatever the success of them was, were transacted by me.  All the coasts\nwere beset by Dutch cruisers, which made it difficult to sail without\nrunning the hazard of being taken.  I went therefore by land from Bazaim\nto Tana, where we had another college, and from thence to our house of\nChaul.  Here I hired a narrow light vessel, and, placing eighteen oars on\na side, went close by the shore from Chaul to Goa, almost eighty leagues.\nWe were often in danger of being taken, and particularly when we touched\nat Dabal, where a cruiser blocked up one of the channels through which\nships usually sail; but our vessel requiring no great depth of water, and\nthe sea running high, we went through the little channel, and fortunately\nescaped the cruiser.  Though we were yet far from Goa, we expected to\narrive there on the next morning, and rowed forward with all the\ndiligence we could.  The sea was calm and delightful, and our minds were\nat ease, for we imagined ourselves past danger; but soon found we had\nflattered ourselves too soon with security, for we came within sight of\nseveral barks of Malabar, which had been hid behind a point of land which\nwe were going to double.  Here we had been inevitably taken had not a man\ncalled to us from the shore and informed us that among those\nfishing-boats there, some crusiers would make us a prize.  We rewarded\nour kind informer for the service he had done us, and lay by till night\ncame to shelter us from our enemies.  Then putting out our oars we landed\nat Goa next morning about ten, and were received at our college.  It\nbeing there a festival day, each had something extraordinary allowed him;\nthe choicest part of our entertainments was two pilchers, which were\nadmired because they came from Portugal.\n\nThe quiet I began to enjoy did not make me lose the remembrance of my\nbrethren whom I had left languishing among the rocks of Abyssinia, or\ngroaning in the prisons of Suaquem, whom since I could not set at liberty\nwithout the viceroy's assistance, I went to implore it, and did not fail\nto make use of every motive which could have any influence.\n\nI described in the most pathetic manner I could the miserable state to\nwhich the Catholic religion was reduced in a country where it had lately\nflourished so much by the labours of the Portuguese; I gave him in the\nstrongest terms a representation of all that we had suffered since the\ndeath of Sultan Segued, how we had been driven out of Abyssinia, how many\ntimes they had attempted to take away our lives, in what manner we had\nbeen betrayed and given up to the Turks, the menaces we had been\nterrified with, the insults we had endured; I laid before him the danger\nthe patriarch was in of being either impaled or flayed alive; the\ncruelty, insolence and avarice of the Bassa of Suaquem, and the\npersecution that the Catholics suffered in AEthiopia.  I exhorted, I\nimplored him by everything I thought might move him, to make some attempt\nfor the preservation of those who had voluntarily sacrificed their lives\nfor the sake of God.  I made it appear with how much ease the Turks might\nbe driven out of the Red Sea, and the Portuguese enjoy all the trade of\nthose countries.  I informed him of the navigation of that sea, and the\nsituation of its ports; told him which it would be necessary to make\nourselves masters of first, that we might upon any unfortunate encounter\nretreat to them.  I cannot deny that some degree of resentment might\nappear in my discourse; for, though revenge be prohibited to Christians,\nI should not have been displeased to have had the Bassa of Suaquem and\nhis brother in my hands, that I might have reproached them with the ill-\ntreatment we had met with from them.  This was the reason of my advising\nto make the first attack upon Mazna, to drive the Turks from thence, to\nbuild a citadel, and garrison it with Portuguese.\n\nThe viceroy listened with great attention to all I had to say, gave me a\nlong audience, and asked me many questions.  He was well pleased with the\ndesign of sending a fleet into that sea, and, to give a greater\nreputation to the enterprise, proposed making his son commander-in-chief,\nbut could by no means be brought to think of fixing garrisons and\nbuilding fortresses there; all he intended was to plunder all they could,\nand lay the towns in ashes.\n\nI left no art of persuasion untried to convince him that such a\nresolution would injure the interests of Christianity, that to enter the\nRed Sea only to ravage the coasts would so enrage the Turks that they\nwould certainly massacre all the Christian captives, and for ever shut\nthe passage into Abyssinia, and hinder all communication with that\nempire.  It was my opinion that the Portuguese should first establish\nthemselves at Mazna, and that a hundred of them would be sufficient to\nkeep the fort that should be built.  He made an offer of only fifty, and\nproposed that we should collect those few Portuguese who were scattered\nover Abyssinia.  These measures I could not approve.\n\nAt length, when it appeared that the viceroy had neither forces nor\nauthority sufficient for this undertaking, it was agreed that I should go\nimmediately into Europe, and represent at Rome and Madrid the miserable\ncondition of the missions of Abyssinia.  The viceroy promised that if I\ncould procure any assistance, he would command in person the fleet and\nforces raised for the expedition, assuring that he thought he could not\nemploy his life better than in a war so holy, and of so great an\nimportance, to the propagation of the Catholic faith.\n\nEncouraged by this discourse of the viceroy, I immediately prepared\nmyself for a voyage to Lisbon, not doubting to obtain upon the least\nsolicitation everything that was necessary to re-establish our mission.\n\nNever had any man a voyage so troublesome as mine, or interrupted with\nsuch variety of unhappy accidents; I was shipwrecked on the coast of\nNatal, I was taken by the Hollanders, and it is not easy to mention the\ndanger which I was exposed to both by land and sea before I arrived at\nPortugal.","title":"A Voyage to Abyssinia","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":41231}