15th of April. We said the office and mass for the mother of the
Prester John. We went very early and found a large new white tent
pitched, with its curtains of silk hung in the middle according to
their usage, and very near to his tent. The friar who is now going as
ambassador with other clergy is here, and we at once sung a nocturn
for the deceased and said mass. Before the mass was finished there
arrived two packets of letters which Don Luis de Meneses sent to us;
he had come for us and was remaining at Masua. The packets had come by
different roads and both messengers arrived together. There came in
these packets letters to Prester John begging him to send us at once.
Having seen our letters we found in them that we should set out at
once and come to him to Masua by the 15th of April, as he could not
wait longer: both because the monsoon did not allow of it, and because
he was required in India. These fifteen days had finished this day
when the letters were given to us: and in them came the news how the
King Don Manuel had died. On this account we were all half dead, and
we at once held council as to whether we should be silent about it,
or should tell it: it was agreed that we ought not to keep it secret,
because the Prester knew the news of India more quickly than we did,
by the Moorish merchants who were continually coming from there: and
that it was better that he should learn it from us than from others.
As it is their custom in mourning to shave the head with a razor, and
not the beard, and to dress in black clothes, we began to shave each
other’s heads, and to dress in mourning. During this our food came, and
those who brought it seeing the work we were engaged in, set the food
down on the ground and without speaking returned and told it to the
Prester. He at once sent two friars to know what had happened to us.
The ambassador said that someone should answer the friars, as he could
not for weeping. I declared to them what was the matter, according
to the usage of the country, and with their words, saying: “Tell His
Highness that the stars and the moon have fallen, and the sun has grown
dark and lost its brightness, and we have no one to cover or protect
us; we have neither father nor mother to care for us, except God, who
is the Father of all: the King Don Manuel our Sovereign has departed
from the life of this world, and we remain orphans and unprotected.”
We commenced our lamentation, and the friars went away. In that hour
proclamations were made that all the shops should be shut where bread
and wine and other merchandise were sold, and also that all the offices
should be closed; and this shutting up lasted three days, during which
no tent was opened. At the end of three days he sent to call us, and
the first word he spoke was: “Who inherits the kingdoms of the King my
father?” The ambassador said, “The Prince Don Joam his son.” Hearing
this he said “_Atesia, atesia_”, that is to say, “Do not be
afraid, for you are in a country of Christians, and as the father was
good the son will be good, and I will write to him.” Then we explained
to him how they were waiting for us at the sea, and that also they
wrote to his Highness to say that we begged his leave to go away, and
that now we did not seem to be doing well[222] in his country. He told
us to go and eat, and that next day they would commence despatching
us, and that we should translate the letters which came for him into
his language. And as we already knew the nature of his despatching, on
the Sunday that they gave us the letters, we at once despatched Aires
Diaz, a Portuguese of our company, and with him an Abyssinian, to go
with our letters to the said Don Luis de Meneses; and on the following
day we took the letters to the Prester in his language, and he at once
departed to another place with his Court, and we with him. As we were
travelling on the road they asked me who was carrying for me the church
tent. I replied that the tent was not mine, and that I had not the
care of it, that we had said our mass, and the tent had remained as we
found it. They told me that I had done wrong, that the Prester did not
take back anything he had given, and that the tent with its curtains
was worth more than a hundred ounces of gold, and that if Prester
John ordered mass to be said, and that we told him that we had got no
tent, he would be angry. Withal we travelled three days, and as soon
as we took up quarters we requested our leave and to be despatched.
They told us not to have any fear, that he had already ordered his
measures. With all our importuning he ordered that Joan Gonzalvez our
factor should go with his and our letters on the way to the sea, and
he at the same time gave him a very good mule and rich dresses and
ten ounces of gold. He ordered that he should go at once, and he set
out immediately with two servants of the Prester. We remained, and
however much we importuned the Prester and made requests to him, he
kept us waiting yet a month and a half, and at the end of that time he
gave us rich dresses, and to four of us he gave gold chains with their
crosses, and to each he gave a mule, and to me he gave a mule from his
own stables, the pace of which was flying; and he gave for all of us
eighty ounces of gold and a hundred loaves for the road, and he gave
us his blessing. We did not travel long before we got a message from
our people whom we had sent to the sea, that Don Luis had been gone a
long time; and we knew well that we should not find him because the
monsoon did not allow of it; nevertheless, we arrived, and we found
much pepper and cloths which he left for our maintenance, and letters
for us and for the Prester. Then there was a council among us what we
should do with that pepper: and although the opinion of some was that
we should take up quarters and eat it, since Don Luis in his letters
ordered that in no way should we go away from the sea coast, because
next year at all events they would come for us, others thought that
only one or two of us should go to the Court to take the letters to
the Prester, and to ask him for justice for the death of four men who
had been killed at Arquiquo. And with this opinion of most of us it
was agreed amongst us that we should send half the pepper to Prester
John and the other half should remain for our maintenance, and that
the factor and I should carry it; and I was to go to read to him the
letters and have them translated into his language; and this having
been settled in one day that the departure should be next morning.
On that morning the ambassador came to me, saying, “Padre, I wish to
give you another companion to go with you to the Court.” When I said,
“Let it be as you command”, he replied to me: “Should you be pleased
with my company, it is I that intend to go with you, and we will take
all the pepper.” And because I opposed him, saying that nothing would
remain for the other people to expend, he said that still he would go
and carry all the pepper. He did this expecting great favours and to
obtain them all himself. So the ambassador did not choose but to carry
all the pepper to the Prester; and we set out at once. I went only
to carry the letters to the Prester and to translate them into his
language. We set out for the Court on the 1st day of September, and
we travelled at a slow pace, with mules and loads; and we reached the
Court at the end of November, and found the Prester in a Kingdom which
is named Fatiguar, which is on the edge of the Kingdom of Adel, to
which kingdom and sovereignty belong Barbora and Zeila; and the king is
great and powerful. They say that he is esteemed and looked upon as a
saint among the Moorish Kings because he continually makes war upon the
Christians; they also say that he receives supplies from the King of
Arabia and the Sheikh of Mekkah, and from other Moorish Kings and lords
he receives horses and weapons for this purpose; and that he sends
every year large offerings to Mekkah of many Abyssinian slaves that
he captures in the wars: and also he makes presents of those slaves
to the King of Arabia and to other princes. Now with respect to the
place or plain where we reached the Prester and where we found him,
it is as they say one day’s journey from the first market town in the
Kingdom of Adel; and there are eight days’ journey from that market to
Zeila. This kingdom of Fatiguar, what we saw of it, both on entering
and leaving it, is all more plain than mountain, that is to say there
are small and low hills all made use of for much tillage of wheat and
barley; and also much cultivated ground and fields, also sown with the
above-mentioned grain; there is also great breeding of all cattle,
cows, sheep, goats, small mares and mules bred from she-asses. There
is a great view of this country, and it seems like a great hill, not a
mountain nor of rocky cliffs, but all wooded and cultivated land. They
say that there are many monasteries and churches in it, and that it is
a very rich country. There is on the highest part of it a lake of an
extent of four leagues, from which there came to the Court an infinite
quantity of fish, and oranges, lemons, and citrons, and Indian figs.
Pero de Covilham told me that this hill was of a circumference of eight
days’ journey round its foot; and he also made the conjecture of the
size of the lake at four leagues. When the Court left this plain in
which we were, we travelled two days and a half until we reached the
foot of the hill, and having approached near, it seemed much higher
and more fruitful, as it was said to be. There come forth from it many
streams, which contain much fish. We travelled across the foot of this
hill a day and a half, and then left the hill and kingdom of Fatiguar,
and entered that of Xoa; where we presented the pepper and the letters
translated into Abyssinian, and we got no answer whatever. Prester John
was going this road to make some partition of lands between himself
and his sisters, that is to say, two who were sisters both of father
and mother, because his father had five wives. And these partitions
were of the lands and property which had remained after the death of
his mother. Here we remained four days, and in these they sorted the
lands, which were divided into three parts, which Pero de Covilham said
were lands of more than ten days’ journey. And the Prester gave to
each of his sisters her share, and one part for himself, and he then
ordered his part to be divided into two, and he gave them to his two
infant daughters; and cows, mares, sheep, and goats which covered the
hills and fields and valleys, all were in the same partition, and they
were divided in the same way as the lands. The Prester would not travel
from this place and go to other partitions, as the lands were many and
far apart, and he gave orders that they should be divided like these,
and that his share should be divided between his daughters. We heard
say that the gold and silk of this division was uncounted; and as to
the silks, they said that the Prester ordered that his share should be
given to the churches and monasteries which were situated in the lands
which had belonged to his mother. We travelled to the town of Dara,
where Pero de Covilham showed me the thickets in which the friars led
a rigid life, and the white man died in the grotto which they found
walled up.[223]
CAP. CXIII.--_Of the battle which the Prester had with the King
of Adel, and how he defeated Captain Mahomed._
I return to the relation of what I heard of the Kingdom of Adel and of
a great captain there was in it, and of the death which he died (and
this I heard from many and above all from Pero de Covilham). It was
most certain that there was in this Kingdom of Adel a great Moorish
captain who was named Mahfudi,[224] whom the people of this Court
still sing of when they travel. They say that this captain entered the
lands of the Prester during every Lent for twenty-five years, because
during Lent the great fast breaks the people’s strength and they are
not able to fight. He entered so far into them that many times he
reached to a distance of twenty leagues. One year he would enter the
kingdom of Amara or of Xoa, another the kingdom of Fatiguar, and he
entered sometimes at one place sometimes at another. He began to make
these incursions in the lifetime of King Alexander, who was uncle of
this king, and he continued them during twelve years of his life; and
because he died without children, Nahum his brother, the father of
this king, succeeded him, and Mahfud did the same during his time.
This David who now reigns, commenced to reign at the age of twelve
years, and until he was seventeen years old Mahfud did not cease these
incursions and warfare during Lent. They say that he made such great
incursions and forays that in one he carried off captive nineteen[225]
Abyssinians, and that he sent them all as an offering to the house of
Mekkah, and as presents to the Moorish kings: and they say that there
they become great Moors, because they escape from the great severity
of the fast, and enter into the abundance and luxury of the Moors.
He also carried off a great multitude of all sorts of flocks. On the
twenty-fourth year of his incursions, on his entry into the kingdom of
Fatiguar all the people fled and took refuge in the before-mentioned
hill, and Mahfud followed them; and they say that he entered the hill
and burned all the churches and monasteries there. I have before
related that in all the countries of the Prester there are chavas, who
are men-at-arms, because in these kingdoms the cultivators do not go
to the wars, and that there were in these kingdoms many chavas, and
those who took refuge on the hill were cultivators and chavas, that
is, men-at-arms who had fled. Mahfud took them all prisoners, and he
ordered the cultivators to be separated from the men-at-arms, and he
ordered the cultivators to go in peace, and to sow for next year much
wheat and barley against he came, so that he and his people might find
enough to eat for themselves and their horses. And he said to the
men-at-arms: “Knaves who eat the king’s bread, and guard his lands so
ill, all of you to the sword;” and he ordered fifteen men-at-arms to
be killed; and returned with a great troop, and without any opposition
whatever. Prester John being greatly vexed at this, principally at the
burning of the monasteries and churches, ordered spies to go into the
kingdom of Adel to learn in what part this Mafude would determine to
enter. And he learned how the king of Adel would enter in person, and
Mahfud with him, and great forces, and that they would enter this same
kingdom of Fatiguar and that they were coming out of Lent in the time
when the wheat and barley were young to destroy them all, and during
Lent would go to another part. On knowing this, Prester John determined
to wait for them on the road, and they say that he was much opposed
by all his people and by the grandees of the Court, who said that he
was a youth of seventeen and that it was not well that he should go to
such a war, and that the Betudetes and captains of his kingdoms were
sufficient there. They say that he said that he needs must go in person
to avenge the injuries which had been done to his uncle Alexander
and to his father Nahum, and to himself for six years, and that he
trusted in God to avenge it all. So he set out with his people and
Court without ordering men to come from distant lands, so as not to be
heard of; and they say that he travelled day and night, and one night
before dawn he went and pitched his camp over where the first fair of
the kingdom of Adel is held, one day’s journey from where we found
the Prester when we brought him the pepper. They say there is here a
great pass which the King of Adel had passed the day before, and he was
encamped about the distance of half a league in the Prester’s country,
and off the road: and the Prester was encamped in the country of Adel.
When it was clear daylight they saw each other, and they say that as
soon as Mahfud saw the camp of the Prester, and saw the red tents which
are only pitched for great festivals or receptions, he said to the King
of Adel, “Sire, the Negus of Ethiopia is here in person, to-day is the
day of our deaths, do what you can to save yourself, for I shall die
here.” They say that the king escaped with four horsemen, and of these
four one was the son of a Betudete, who was with the King of Adel, and
is now with the Prester in his Court, because here they think nothing
of joining the Moors and becoming Moors, and if they wish to return,
they get baptised again, and remain pardoned and Christians as before.
This one gave the account of what took place among them. As soon as the
King of Adel had put himself in safety, which was very early in the
morning, Prester John, as they relate, who did not know of the king’s
flight, ordered that all should receive the communion and commend
themselves to God, and get their breakfasts, and make ready: and at
the hour of tierce they began to set their battle array, and go out to
fight with the Moors, leaving their tents pitched. They say that as
soon as the Moors saw them in motion, Mahfud came out to speak to the
Christians, asking if there was among them any knight who was willing
to fight with him to the death. A friar of the name of Gabri-Andreas
came forth for this purpose, and he killed Mahfud, and cut off his
head. He is still alive and is a man who is much honoured at the Court.
There was then a general onset on the Moors, who had nowhere to escape,
because the Prester’s tents were pitched opposite the principal pass,
and the other pass which was further off, by which the king had fled,
was already taken possession of. When the Moors were routed and killed,
Prester John returned to his tents to rest, and the following day he
marched into the kingdom of Adel until he arrived at a rich palace of
the King of Adel, which he found without any inhabitant. The Prester
came up to the doors of this palace and with his lance struck the doors
three times, and he did not choose that anyone else should strike them,
nor enter nor approach them, that it might not be said that he went
to plunder, and that if he had found the king there, or many other
people, he would have been the first to enter in person, because he
was going in fair and open warfare; and since he found nobody, nobody
should enter. So they turned back again. This battle was in the month
of July and they asserted that it was on the same day that Lopo Soarez
destroyed and burned Zeila,[226] at which destruction I was present:
and the Moors who were taken prisoners there said that the chief
captain of Zeila was with the King of Adel in wars with the Negus of
Ethiopia. Several times the Prester ordered us to be shewn four or five
bundles of short swords with silver hilts, not very well made, saying
that they had taken all those and others in the war with the Sultan
of Adel, and also the tent which he gave us of common brocade and
Mekka velvet was taken in that war, and belonged to the king himself,
and on that account he had sent to tell us to bless it before saying
mass in it, in case the Moor had sinned in it. The head of Mahfud was
going about the Court of the Prester more than three years before that
passed in our going or arrival in it; and every Saturday and Sunday and
days of observance, the common people and boys and girls made great
festivity with it, and at this day it is about the Court, and it seems
to me that it will be there for ever, so enamoured are they of it.
Gabri-Andreas (as I have said) is a friar and a very honourable person,
and a gentleman of great revenues, and (according to fame) he is very
eloquent, and is a friend of the Portuguese, and he understands Church
matters well, and enjoyed talking about them. He has not got more than
half his tongue, and the end cut off, because King Nahum ordered it to
be cut off because he talked a great deal.
CAP. CXIV.--_How the Prester sent us a map of the world which
we had brought him, for us to translate the writing into
Abyssinian, and what more passed, and of the letters for the
Pope._
While we were at the town of Dara, Prester John sent us a map of the
world, which we had brought to him four years ago, and which Diogo
Lopez de Sequeira had sent him, with a message that if the letters on
the map said what the countries were that we should put his letters at
the foot of them that he might know what these countries were. We at
once set to work, the friar who is going to Portugal and I, he wrote
and I read, and beneath our writing he placed theirs. And because our
Portugal is mixed with Castile in a small space, and Seville is very
near Lisbon and near to Corunna, I put Seville for Spain,[227] and
Lisbon for Portugal, and Corunna for Galicia. When the whole of the
map was finished and nothing remained they took it away. The following
day he sent to call the ambassador and all of us that were with him,
and immediately in the first conversation he sent to say that the King
of Portugal and the King of Castile were sovereigns of few lands, and
that the King of Portugal would not be strong enough to defend the Red
Sea from the power of the Turks and Rumys; and that it would be well if
he was to write to the King of Spain that he should order a fortress
to be built in Zeila, and the King of Portugal should order one to be
built in Masua, and the King of France order one to be made in Suaquem;
and all three, with the forces of the Prester, would be able to guard
the Red Sea and take Jiddah and Mekkah and Cairo, and the holy house,
and go through all the countries they chose. The ambassador replied
to this that His Highness was deceived or ill informed, and if any
one had told him so, that he had not told him the truth; and that if
he judged of it by looking at the map of the world, that he would not
acquire a right knowledge of the countries, because Portugal and Spain
are in the map of the world as things that are well known, and not
as things requiring to be known: and that he should look in the map
how the cities and castles and monasteries were, and also how Venice,
Jerusalem, and Rome were, like things well-known and in small spaces,
and let him look at his Ethiopia, how it was an unknown thing, very
large and much spread out, full of mountains, and lions and elephants
and many other animals, and also many mountain ridges, without the map
showing any city, town, or castle; His Highness should know that the
King of Portugal, by means of his captains, was powerful enough to
defend and guard the Red Sea against all the power of the great Sultan
and of the great Turk, and to make war upon them even to the holy
house; and that he had made greater conquests in the parts of Africa
with the King of Fez and Morocco, and many other kings, subjugating all
the Indies and making all their kings his tributary subjects, as His
Highness well knew from the adversaries of the King of Portugal, who
were the Moorish merchants from India trading at his Court. To this
there did not come any answer, and there was another question, and he
dismissed us, sending to us plenty to eat and drink; and so he did
every day whilst we went with the Court.
Four or five days after the map of the world, the Prester sent to call
us, and he sent to say that he wished to write to the Pope of Rome,
whom they name Rumea Negus lique papaz: which means the King of Rome
and Head of the Popes: and he desired that I should write the beginning
of the letter, because they were not accustomed to write, and did not
know how to write to the Pope. Don Rodrigo the ambassador answered
that we had not come to write, nor was there any one among us who could
write to the Pope. I said that I would tell him the beginning, and
after that they could continue with whatever he had in his heart to
write or to request. There came a message that we should go and dine,
and afterwards come back, the friar and I, and that I should bring
all my books to prepare the letters; and so we did. When we came we
found all those whom they hold to be most learned, assembled together
with many books; and they at once asked me for my books. I replied
that books were not necessary, but only to know the intentions of
His Highness, and by that we should be ruled. Then a man who was the
principal one there in rank and learning, and whose title is Abuquer,
which means chief chaplain, told the Prester’s intention to the friar,
and he told it to me. Then I set to writing and shortly made a small
beginning, which was at once taken in my handwriting to His Highness,
and was brought back at once, and in that hour we put it into their
language and sent it back again. There was no delay with it, for the
page came back at once, saying that the king was much pleased with the
writing, and amazed because it had not been taken out of books: and
he ordered that it should at once be written in clean writing and in
two letters; and he ordered that his learned priests should study in
their books the most they could to search for what more could be put in
the letters.[228] When the friar and I were coming to our tents, the
ambassador came out and said to me: “Padre, I regret very much what I
said to-day to Prester John that there was no one among us who knew
how to write to the Pope, because he will hold us for men of little
knowledge, I entreat of you to put all your efforts in this, and do for
him all you know.” I answered him, “that whether it was strong or weak,
it was done to the best of my knowledge, and that he would see here
what I had done”. As soon as he saw it he rejoiced much (according
to what he showed), and the minute[229] of the letter which I drew
up goes in a separate letter and is smaller; it begins “Blessed Holy
Father”.[228] They employed three days in preparing the other letter,
and they spent fifteen days in making a small gold cross, which weighs
a hundred cruzados, and which is also going to the Pope.
CAP. CXV.--_How in the letters of Don Luis it was said that
we should require justice for certain men of his who had been
killed, and the Prester sent there the Chief Justice of the
Court, and Zagazabo in company of Don Rodrigo to Portugal._