mountain height, all through fields of wheat and thin barley. We met
with another lake like the former one, although not so large, and yet
it was about a league in length, and half a league in breadth. This
lake has a small stream flowing out of it, and no water entering it
except that from the hills when it rains. It seems to be of great
depth, surrounded by strong rushes. We went to sleep in a great field
of grass, where the mosquitoes were near killing us. These fields are
not taken advantage of except for pasture, as they are rather marshy,
and the people do not know how to draw off the water at the feet of the
mountains from the tilled lands. There were many and large towns, and
much tillage of wheat and barley. From here we took our road through
very large valleys, and yet they had very poor cultivation of wheat and
barley; some were yellow, as though dying from the water, and others
which were dying of drought, and so we were confused with the perishing
of these crops. We began to enter here into a country where by day
there was great heat, and at night great cold. In this country ordinary
men wear round them a strip of ox-hide; these ordinary persons are
nearly all of them, and very few are the special ones: and the women
likewise wear a cloth a little bit bigger than that of the men, and
here cover what they can of what God has given them; the rest shows.
The women wear their hair in two parts or in two lengths; with the one
the hair comes down to the shoulders, with the other it is brought
over the ears to the top of the head. They say that these lands belong
to the Prester’s trumpeters. A little apart from the road there is on
the right hand side a large grove at the foot of a mountain, and there
there is a large church of many canons; it is said that it was built
by a king who lies there. Passing through great mountain ranges this
day, we went to sleep outside of all of them at the entrance of some
beautiful plains. On the 26th of September in the morning we travelled
through these plains a distance of a league; we arrived at a very large
church, which is named Macham[122] Selasem which means the Trinity. We
came later to this church with the Prester John to transfer there the
bones of his father. This church is surrounded by two enclosures, one
of a well built high wall, and another of palisades of strong wood.
This which is of palisades is outside, and of the circumference of half
a league. We were going very joyfully to see this church which the
friar vaunted very much, and we slept here to carry out our desire, but
we did not see it because they did not let us enter, and it was in this
way. When we were a good crossbow shot from the stockade enclosure,
there came to us men in great haste telling us to dismount; this we
did at once, knowing that it is their custom to dismount when they are
near churches, and out of reverence for this which is a great one, it
appeared to us that they dismounted further off. Going on foot and
arriving close to the door of the wooden enclosure, there were there a
great many men who would not let us go in. Not only us, but also the
friar who brought us, for they put their hands on his breast, saying
that they had not leave to let us come in. It did not avail us to say
that we were Christians, the tumult was so great, that it almost came
to a fight. We went away from them, and mounted and went our way: and
when we were already a good way from the church, they came running
after us, asking us to turn back, and that they would let us enter, as
they now had got leave. Then we did not choose to turn back, so this
time we did not see the church or its construction. The plain in which
this church stands and its situation are as follows: its enclosures
are on an open hill, and all round is a plain; on one side it is a
league in extent, in another direction the plain extends two leagues,
in another three, and in another direction below, which is towards
the south, four or five leagues: it is a wonderful country, there is
not a span that is not made use of, and sown with all sorts of seed,
except millet, which they have not got. This plain has fresh crops all
the year round, one gathered in and another sown. At the back of this
church runs a pretty river, open and without any trees, and water
comes from it to irrigate a great part of the tilled lands. Other
conduits of water descend from the mountains, so that these fields are
all irrigated. In these plains there are many large houses standing
apart, like farm houses, and there are small villages, and in them
churches, because, though there is a king’s church, the cultivators are
not deprived of churches.
CAP. LXIV.--_How the Presters endowed this kingdom with
churches, and how we went to the village of Abra, and from there
to some great dykes._
We continued our journey through these plains, which appeared as I
have described, and issuing from them, that is, from those we had
seen, we entered into others still wider, and yet not so well provided
with tillage: they appeared to be soaked with water like marshes;[123]
there are great pastures in them, and also great lakes, and from
them overflow the waters which make the marshes. There are very many
herds, both cows and sheep (there are no goats here). There are very
many villages distant from the road, and in all of them churches. We
travelled through these plains quite ten or twelve leagues towards
the East,[124] where they showed us a great church, which they said
was of St. George, in which lies the grandfather of this Prester John
(I will speak of it). When we were in it they said that the former
kings coming from the kingdoms of the Barnagais and Tigrimahom, where
their origin was, increasing their dominions in these countries of the
gentiles, and coming through the kingdom of Angote to this kingdom of
Amara, made a great stay and residence in it. And they made in it a
great establishment of churches for their tombs, and endowed each one
with large revenues. To that church which King Nahu built, the father
of this Prester who now lives, he ended by giving as an endowment
the whole of this kingdom, without one span remaining which does not
belong to churches, and he ended by giving it to the church of Macham
Selasem, and he began and his son ended. These churches of the kings do
not prevent those of the cultivators, which are in infinite number. A
man may travel fully fifteen days through the lands of Macham Selasem,
and there is not in all this kingdom a single monastery that we saw
or heard speak of, after all the number of them in the countries left
behind, but all are churches of canons, and those of the cultivators
of priests. This kingdom now has no lordship; it used to have its
title, and it was Amara tafila, which means King of Amara, like as also
Xoa tafila means King of Xoa. There was this lordship here until the
remains of Nahu were removed to the church of Macham Selacem, at which
the Portuguese were present; then the going and confirming the dotation
to the church was concluded, and the Prester set aside the Amara tafila
that there was till then, and gave the lordships to the churches, that
is to say, to the ancient ones as they had held them. As his father
had left them to this church of Macham Selasem, all the canons and
priests of these churches and of all the others of the other kingdoms
and lordships left behind, and further on, serve the Prester in all
services except in wars. And the administration of justice is all one,
both of canons and of priests and friars. So the friar who conducted us
bore himself with one and all, as to carrying our baggage, and so they
one and all obeyed him, (as has been said) and he ordered priests and
friars to be flogged. Going through these great plains, when nothing
else appeared in sight, it seemed to us that we were now at sea[125]
and out of the mountains. We came to stay Saturday and Sunday, which
was the last day of September, at a small village of Our Lady, very
poor and ill kept, close to which church towards the east commence
most wild mountains and deep fosses descending to the greatest abysses
men ever saw; nor could their depth be believed, like as the mountains
where the Israelites live are scarped from the top, so are these. Below
they are of great width, in some places of four leagues, in others
five, in others about three. (This in our opinion.) They say that these
dykes run to the Nile, which is very far from here, and higher up we
know well that they reach the country of the Moors; they say that in
the parts of the Moors they are not so precipitous. At the bottom of
these dykes there are many dwellings and an infinite number of apes,
hairy like lions from the breast upwards.
CAP. LXV.--_How we came to some gates and deep passes difficult
to travel, and we went up to the gates, at which the kingdom
begins which is named Xoa._
On Monday the 1st of October 1520, we travelled on our road through
level country of lakes and large pastures for a distance of three or
four leagues, all along these dykes, and we went to sleep near them
where we had to cross these depths. Tuesday morning we began to travel
for half a league, and we arrived at some gates on a rock which divided
two valleys,[126] one to the right, the other to the left hand, and so
narrow near the gates that they might hold one cart and no more; with
small buttresses, between which the gates shut and close from slope
to slope. Going through this gate one enters at once as into a deep
valley, with shale[127] on either side raised more than the height of
a lance, as if the edge of the sword had made this, these slopes, and
this valley. The height of these walls has a length of two games of
quoits[128] of such narrowness that a man cannot go on horseback, and
the mules go scraping the stirrups on both sides, and so steep that
a man descends with his hands and feet, and this seems to be made
artificially. Coming out of this narrow pass one travels through a
loophole[129] which is about four spans wide, and from one end to the
other these clefts are all shale; it is not to be believed, and I would
not have believed it, if I had not seen it: and if I had not seen our
mules and people pass, I would affirm that goats could not pass there
in security. So we set our mules going there as if one was sending them
to destruction, and we after them with hands and feet down the rock,
without there being any other road. This great roughness lasts for a
crossbow shot, and they call these here _aqui afagi_, which means
death of the asses. (Here they pay dues.) We passed these gates many
times, and we never passed them without finding beasts and oxen dead,
which had come from below upwards and had not been able to get up the
ascent. Leaving this pass, there still remains quite two leagues of
road sufficiently steep and rocky, and difficult to travel over. In the
middle of this descent there is a rock hollowed out at the bottom, and
water falls from the top of it (there are always many beggars in this
cave). Thus we descended fully two leagues until reaching a great river
which is named Anecheta, which contains many fish and very large ones.
From here we travelled, ascending for quite a league, until reaching
a passage which sights another river, at which are other gates which
now are not used; and yet the gates are there still. Those who pass
these dykes and clefts come to sleep here, because they cannot go in
one day from one end to the other. At this halting place[130] the friar
who conducted us committed a great cruelty, as though he were not a
Christian, or had done it to Moors. Because a Xuum or captain of some
villages which are on a hill above the place where we were resting,
did not come up so quickly with the people who lived there, he sent
some men of his, and those who carried our baggage, to go and destroy
for them some great bean fields which they had by the side of their
houses. These men who went there brought to where we were more than a
_moio_[131] of beans, which were their provisions in this country,
because in these valleys they have nothing except millet and beans. It
was a pity to see such destruction; and because we opposed him, he said
that such was the justice of the country, and also each day he ordered
many of those who carried our baggage to be flogged, and he took from
them mules, cows, and stuffs, saying that so should be treated whoever
served ill.
On Tuesday the 2nd of October we took our road through many steep
rocks (as before) between which we passed very narrow and bad paths,
and dangerous passes; both on one side and on the other scarped rock,
a thing not to be credited. We reached the other river, a good league
from where we slept; this river is great, and is named Gemaa; it also
contains much fish. They say that both these rivers join together and
go to the river Nile. We began to travel and ascend as great cliffs
as we had descended the day before. In this ascent there will be two
leagues; at the end of it are other gates, and another pass such
as from aqui afagi. These gates are always shut, and all who pass
through them pay dues. Neither above nor below is there any other way
or passage. Outside of these gates we went to sleep at a plain which
is about half a league from the gates. Already when there, nothing
showed of the dykes, clefts, and cliffs which we had traversed; on the
contrary, all appeared to be a plain on this side and on the further
side, without there being anything in the middle, and there were five
long leagues from one set of gates to the other. The kingdoms of Amara
and Shoa are divided by these gates and ravines. These gates are called
Badabaxa, which means new land. In these ravines and cliffs there are
numerous tribes of birds, and we could not determine where they breed,
nor how they could bring up their young without their fulling down from
the rocks: because whoever saw it would not judge otherwise than that
it was an impossible thing, according to its greatness.
CAP. LXVI.--_How the Prester John went to the burial of Janes
Ichee of the monastery of Brilibanos, and of the election of
another Ichee, who was a Moor._
On Wednesday, the 3rd of October, we travelled through plains not
very far removed from the edge of the rocks and ravines, and we went
to sleep on the rock itself opposite the monastery which is named
Brilibanos.[132] I saw the Prester John go to this monastery three
times. The first was to the burial of the head[133] of the monastery,
who was named Janes, in our language Joannes, and the title of his
prelacy was Ichee.[134] This Ichee of this monastery is the greatest
prelate there is in these kingdoms, exclusive of the Abima Marcos, who
is over all. And the Prester also went in the month in which they hold
the funereal memorial which they call tescar.[135] He also went there
at the end of forty days after the death of the said Ichee to choose
and appoint another. They said that the deceased was a holy man, and
that in life he had worked miracles, and therefore the Prester went to
his burial and funereal memorial. There was among us a Portuguese, a
native of Lisbon, by name Lazaro d’Andrade, who was a painter, and he
lost his sight; the Prester sent to tell him to go to the tomb of this
deceased man, and to wash with good faith, and that he would receive
health: he went there and returned as he went. He whom they made Ichee
was also held to be a man of holy life, and he had been a Moor. As he
was much my friend, he related to me all his life, and told me that
when he was in his sect he heard a revelation, which said to him: You
are not following the path; go to the Abima Marcos, who is head of the
priests of Ethiopia, and he will teach you another path. Then he came
to the Abima Marcos, and related to him what he had heard, and the
Abima Marcos had made him a Christian, and had taught him, and held him
as a son: and therefore the Prester took this friar who had been a Moor
for governor of this monastery, and he bears the name of Jacob. This
Jacob also acquired the Portuguese language, and we both understood one
another very well, and he wrote in his own handwriting the Gloria of
the Mass, and the Creed, and Paternoster, and Ave Maria, and Apostles’
Creed, and the Salve Regina, and he knew it in Latin as well as I did.
He also wrote out the Gospel of St. John, and all very well ornamented.
This Jacob now remained Ichee in this monastery. Ichee means prior or
abbot, and in the Tigray language, which is in the kingdoms of the
Barnagais and of Tigrimahom, they say Abba for the principal father;
and for the prior of the cloister who is below him, they say that there
was (as I have before written) in this language a prior of the cloister
who is called Gabez.[136] In the time when this happened, it was not
when we were travelling, but another time when the court came here and
stayed at a distance of a league and a half from the said monastery in
a very large plain, because the monastery lies in the very deep ravine
where we passed through the gates.
Returning to our journey; Thursday and Friday, we also travelled
through plains, and not at any distance from those ravines; and we
came to stop at some small houses almost under the ground. They make
them in that way on account of the winds; because it is all a plain
without any shelter, they also make the cattle folds underground, that
the cows may be sheltered from the wind. Here there live dirty and ill
clad people, they breed numerous cows, mares, mules, and fowls. Around
these hamlets were the strongest and best crops of barley that we had
yet seen, but there were few of them. In the tilled fields, in many
places they sow three or four bushels[137] of seed in a tillage, and
at the distance of a crossbow shot from there a similar quantity, and
so the land is divided,[138] and all the villages had their sowed land
scattered. There were not as much as six alqueires of sowing for any
one cultivator or inhabitant, though the land is the best that could
be mentioned, because there is no one to put it to profit. There are
many birds in these plains, such as storks, wild ducks, water fowl, and
birds of many kinds, because there are many lagoons, and no one knows
how to catch them. This mountain is named Huaguida.
CAP. LXVII.--_How we travelled for three days through plains,
and of the curing of infirmities and of the sight of the people._
Monday, the 9th of October, we travelled through plains like the
preceding ones, both of grass and tilled land, and we went to sleep at
a place named Anda. Here we ate barley bread very badly made. So also
we travelled on Tuesday through plains like those of the days before,
and we slept close to some small villages. On Wednesday we now fell
in with better land and tillage of wheat and barley, that is, crops
all the year round, one gathered and another sown. This country is
called Tabaguy; it is a very populous country, with large towns and
great breeding of all sorts of animals. There were in this country
many sick people, as of fevers, and all is left to nature, for they do
not apply any other remedy, only if they have a headache they bleed
the head itself: and if they have a stomach ache or pain in the back
or shoulders, they apply fire, as to the beasts. For fevers they do
not apply any remedy. On this Wednesday we had sight of the tents and
camp of the Prester John, and we went to sleep off the road, as we
were accustomed. On Thursday we travelled a short distance, and also
we travelled little on Friday, and went to stay Saturday and Sunday at
a small town which has a new church not yet painted, because all are
painted, but not with good work. This church is named Auriata,[139]
which means of the apostles, and they said that it was a king’s church.
The tents are about three or four leagues from here, and from this
town it is little more than half a league to the church where the
Abima Marcos was lodged. On this Saturday and Sunday that we remained
here there came to us three mariners, who had fled from our fleet in
the port of Masua, and the friar who conducted us learning that the
mariners had come to see us, was in great ill humour at it, saying,
that it was not the usage of the country, when strange people came, for
them to have conversation with any one before speaking to the King; and
with this ill humour he returned to his tent and to his lodging. This
same Saturday the friar went to see the Abigima Marcos, and brought to
us from there a tray of raisins and a jar of very good grape wine. On
the following Sunday one of the said mariners came again to see us,
and because the friar had complained the day before of his coming, the
ambassador told the mariner to go first and speak to the friar, and to
tell him that he did not come for any bad purpose, but only from the
great friendship that he had always had with us. The friar when he saw
him ordered him to be seized and arrested, and they wanted to put him
in irons if the ambassador and we had not gone to take him out of their
hands, and with rough words, and above all the said friar said very
complainingly that we were not to speak to any one until we had spoken
to the Prester John, because such is their custom when new people
arrived.
CAP. LXVIII.--_How a great lord of title was given to us as a
guard, and of the tent which he sent us._
On Monday, the 17th of October, we set out, thinking that we should
this day reach the court and camp, because we had gone to halt at a
league from it. Then it seemed to us that they intended to take us
there next day very early. While we were in this hope, there came to
us a great lord, who is called by title Adugraz, which means chief
major domo, he said that he was come to protect us and give us what
we had need of. This gentleman told us to mount at once and come with
him. We got ready, as it appeared that he was going to take us to the
court: he took a turn backwards, not by the road we had come by, but
he turned with us round some hills and we returned back more than a
league, he telling us not to be in any ill humour, as the Prester was
coming in that direction where we were going, and indeed six or seven
horsemen were going in front of us on very good horses, skirmishing and
amusing themselves, and a great many mules. They conducted us behind
some hills, and the gentleman lodged himself in his tent, and ordered
us to be lodged near him in our poor tent, such as we had brought for
the journey, and ordered us to be provided with all that was necessary,
and we were much put out of the way;[140] and the Prester was coming to
halt near where we were. On Wednesday in the morning they brought us a
large round tent, saying that the Prester John sent us that tent, and
that nobody had a tent such as that except him, and the churches, and
that his tent belonged to him when he was on a journey. So we remained
till Friday without knowing what we were to do. The captain who guarded
us and the friar warned us to look well after our goods, as there
were many thieves in the country, and the Franks[141] who were in the
country also told us so: they further told us that there were agents
and captains of thieves, and that they paid dues of what they stole.
CAP. LXIX.--_How the ambassador, and we with him, were summoned
by order of the Prester, and of the order in which we went, and
of his state._