a complaint and required justice for four Portuguese whom the Moors
had killed in the town of Arquiquo, a port of the Red Sea and in his
country; which justice and vengeance he had not chosen to execute or
take by himself, because it was in the Prester’s country, and that he
desired to serve His Highness and not annoy him. We had asked this
justice many times, and had for answer that he regretted very much that
the captain-major Don Luis had not taken vengeance, and killed all the
Moors that were in the town of Arquiquo, and that he valued more one
Portuguese than all the Moors and negroes that were in his country: and
that since he (Don Luis) did not choose to take vengeance himself, that
he would order justice to be done: and he ordered the Chief Justice of
his Court to come before us in front of his tent, and he sent to tell
him by the Cabeata that he was to go with us to the sea, and to take
prisoners all the Moors, Turks, Rumys, and Christians, whom he should
discover to have been in the town of Arquiquo at the time that they
killed these men of Don Luis de Meneses. And those that he found guilty
of the said death, or in not having arrested those who had killed, and
who had raised the brawl, he was to give them up to any captain-major
who came from Portugal, and he might kill them or do justice as he
pleased; killing, beheading, or taking them as captives, either
Christians or Moors, Turks and Roumys; but that the Portuguese were not
to complain any more of this justice, but to take it for themselves.
In this town, and in these days, Prester John determined to send an
ambassador to Portugal, for up to this time he was not sending any
one. He sent to call the ambassador and me, and he said, that he had
determined to send a person with us to the King of Portugal, in order
that his desires might have effect quicker, his representative being
there; and he asked if we thought that Zagazabo would be sufficient
for this journey, inasmuch as he could speak our language, and had
already been to our countries. We answered that Zagazabo was quite
sufficient for this journey, and for being the envoy of His Highness,
because he was a man who got on well with us, and we with him, and
that he had no need of an interpreter: and that now His Highness was
doing what he ought to do, because on his return he would give more
belief to what his own countrymen saw and heard of foreigners, than to
what foreigners said of themselves. They then decided that we should
have him for our companion. The following day he sent us dresses, and
thirty ouquias[230] of gold, and a hundred loaves for the road. Still
we waited a great deal later, and the cause (according to what the
ambassador himself told us later) was because the determination of
Prester John was tardy, this detention was necessary as the ambassador
was not yet despatched, until he had given him the things which he had
to carry for his journey and himself, that is to say, clothes and
gold for his expenses. Also we waited for the Chief Justice who had
to go with us, as has been said. After all we set out without them,
saying that we would go on at a slow pace: this was because we had
often seen his despatch. So we went away and they caught us up on the
road, each in their turn, and we travelled until we reached Barua,
which is near the sea, where our quarters were, which is the chief
town of the country of the Barnagais. We did not find any news of the
Portuguese coming to the port, and we all waited together until the
monsoon had passed. During this time the Chief Justice arrested three
or four gentlemen, and one Xumagali who was at Arquiquo at the time
they killed the men. This Xumagali was soltam,[231] Xumagali means a
small gentleman, like a gentleman without lands. This one was arrested,
because at that time he was justice, and he did not do his duty, and
one Gabri Jesus was arrested because he came there and did nothing; and
Arrais Jacob was arrested, because at that time he ruled the country
of the Barnagais; and one Dafela, who is a great lord, was arrested
because some Moors and Turks took refuge in his lands, and he did not
make them prisoners, though he knew that they were at the death of
Don Luis de Meneses’ men who were killed at Arquiquo. These four were
great gentlemen, and all five were sent as prisoners to the Court by
the Chief Justice, and no one went to accuse them. Although they were
ill treated, they became free. As soon as the Chief Justice arrived
at Court, and gave news to the Prester that the Portuguese had not
arrived, and that we remained without a remedy, the Prester at once
sent a Calacem,[232] ordering us to go to the town of Aquaxumo, where,
as I before said, we had been, and where had been the dwellings of the
Queens of Saba and Candacia. There they ordered us to be given five
hundred loads of wheat, and a hundred cows, and a hundred sheep, and
a hundred jars of honey, and another hundred of butter; and for his
ambassador who came with us, twenty loads of wheat, and twenty cows,
and twenty sheep, and twenty jars of honey, and as many of butter.
CAP. CXVI.--_How Zagazabo the ambassador returned to the Court,
and I with him, for business which concerned him, and how they
flogged the Chief Justice and two friars, and why._
Whilst we were in this town of Aquaxumo there came a message to the
ambassador of the Prester that a small lordship belonging to him had
been taken from him; then he begged me to go with him to the Court to
ask for justice. I went, and we discovered there that his adversary was
the principal page of Prester John, who was Abdenaguo, captain of the
pages, because there is no service here, but what it has one person
over all the others. As all the messages went to the Prester through
the pages we had no remedy in putting in our word, so then we sought
succour from an Ajaze, who is a great lord; and although he was a great
friend of Abdenaguo our adversary, yet for the sake of justice he made
known to the Prester how we had come and for what. Then there came a
message asking me what I had come to Court for. I gave an account of
all, and said that the injury and unreasonable thing done to Zagazabo,
was done rather to the King of Portugal and to us Portuguese than to
him, since he was absent from his land and lordship for the service of
the King of Portugal and the company of us Portuguese, by the order
of His Highness, and that his land should be confirmed to him, and
not usurped and forcibly taken from him: and that in our parts those
who went in the service of kings, not only themselves, but moreover
their servants, factors, majordomos, property, revenues, and lordships
were much favoured and guarded. And so it was hoped that His Highness
would favour his ambassador and order justice to be done, and that
he should be restored to his lordship. At once there came an answer
saying, who was the person that had caused us vexation, and had taken
the lordship of the said Zagazabo. We replied that it was Abdenaguo
the head of the pages who had ordered this act of force to be done by
his stewards and factors, and that we asked His Highness to give us
judges above suspicion, and that he should order the pages to carry to
him any message that might be necessary upon this business. Soon four
pages came to us saying that their lord commanded them that whatever
thing should be requested of him by us in this business, that they
were to do it with free will and without fear of anybody. The judges
in this suit were the Ajaze Daragote and the Ajaze Ceyte, to whom we
were to address ourselves. We went to them soon, and they appointed
a time that such an hour of the sun we should come to such a place.
We went, and there were present the representative of Abdenaguo and
the ambassador in person: and they argued on both sides, and brought
forward reasons until a conclusion was come to verbally, because here
there is no writing in the tribunals, and all was verbal, and the
sentence is given verbally. The judges concluded with the sentence that
the land and fief[233] which Zagazabo claimed was very small, and that
it was subject to another land of great extent and of a great lordship
of which Abdenaguo was the lord, and that it was of right that the
great wind enters in all the land; and thus the entry could not be
taken away from Abdenaguo, great lord as he was. Then we went away to
complain, having remained struck down by this sentence. We complained
to the King. He sent to tell us to go to our quarters, and not to be
vexed, that all would turn out well, and that next day we should go and
plead to the Chief Justice, and he would do us justice. With that we
went away. Next day we went to wait for the Chief Justice in the road
to the Prester’s tent: he received us with good will, saying that he
had already received the king’s instructions for the despatch of our
business, and that we were to wait at the tent of justice, as he was
going to speak to the king, and that then he would despatch us. All the
same we went further on with him as far as where he separated from the
people to go and speak to the king. While we remained thus expecting
our despatch from the good will we had seen in him, when he came out
from the tent there came out with him two pages, who accompanied him to
the place where they flog men, and there they called the executioners,
and they had him stripped and thrown down and tied, as I have already
described, that is they threw him down on his stomach and made fast his
hands to two stakes, and his feet tied together with a leather cord,
and two men to pull at it, and he was bare from the waist upwards.
There were two executioners on each side of him, and most times they
strike the ground with the scourge. And when orders come from the king
to strike, the blow reaches the bones, and of these blows they gave
him three. Reckoning this time, I have seen the Chief Justice flogged
three times, and after that, two days later, return to his office,
because they do not hold it to be a dishonour; rather they say the king
is fond of him, because he remembers him, and a short time after does
him favours and bestows lordships. And when they now thus flogged the
Chief Justice, there were there sixty friars, all clothed in new yellow
habits according to their usage. When they had done flogging the Chief
Justice, they took an old friar, who was very venerable and the head
of the others, and they flogged him in the above mentioned manner, and
they did not once touch this friar. When they had done with him they
brought another friar who might be a little more than forty years old,
and he looked respectable, and they flogged him like the others, and
this one was touched twice. When it was over I asked the cause of it,
and what sin the friars had committed. Then they related to me that
the friar who had been last flogged had been married to a daughter of
the Prester, that is of Alexander, uncle of this David, and he had
separated from her, and he had married a sister of this Prester, who
did what she pleased, and the husband did not dare to meddle with this
from fear of the Prester, and also because in this country the faults
of women are not looked at with much surprise, and he left this second
wife and returned to the first. And Prester John ordered that he should
return to his sister. When this order came he did not choose to do it,
and went and became a friar: and on this account the Prester ordered
these friars to come before the Chief Justice for him to see whether
this man was rightly a friar. He judged that he had lawfully taken the
habit, and because he had judged thus the Prester had ordered him to
be flogged. And the Padre or guardian had been flogged because he had
given the habit to the other. And the third man was flogged because he
had received the habit; and they commanded him at once to leave the
habit and to return to the Prester’s sister. With this we remained
without being heard this time, nor till fifteen days later, on account
of things which happened in the monastery, which I will relate.
CAP. CXVII.--_How, after the death of Queen Helena, the great
Betudete went to collect the dues of her kingdom, and what they
were, and how the Queen of Adea came to ask assistance, and what
people came with her on mules._
It might be eight or nine months after the death of Queen Helena, who
reigned over the greater part of the kingdom of Gojame, that still as
many as newly came to the Court, went to weep before her tent, which
still remains pitched in its place; and we also did this when we came.
After her death Prester John sent the great Betudete to the said
kingdom of Gojame to collect the _Gibre_[234] which is paid to the
King each year as dues, and in these days the said Betudete arrived
with the gibre, which amounted to three thousand mules, three thousand
horses, and three thousand basutos--these are some cloths which the
great people have upon their beds, they are of cotton and fleecy like
carpets and not so close worked, and as to price, those that are least
valuable are not less than an ouquia, and they are worth from two,
three, four up to five ouquias; besides thirty thousand cotton cloths
of small value, which are worth two of them a drachm, and sometimes
less. They also said that they brought thirty thousand ouquias of gold;
it is already known that an ouquia weighs eleven cruzados. At the
presentation of this gibre, I saw with my eyes all the gold which came
covered up on trays,[235] and they said that it was a great quantity,
and it all came in this manner. The Betudete in front, stripped from
the waist upwards, and with a crown wound round his head, like the
head gear of a Castilian muleteer,[236] and when within hearing from
where he could be heard at the Prester’s tent, he said three times,
with a very small interval between each cry, “Aalto,” which in our
language is like Sire: and they answered him from within the tent twice
in their language, “Who are you?” He, in their language, replied, “I
who call, am the smallest of your house, and am he who saddles your
mules and puts the head stalls on your baggage mules, I serve in what
other business you command, I bring to you, Sire, what you commanded
me.” All this was said three times, and when that was done, the voice
from inside said “Pass on, pass forward.” And he went on and made
his bow before the tent and passed on. Behind him immediately came
the horses, one behind the other, each horse had a man or boy at the
halter. The foremost thirty were saddled, they were reasonably good,
but of the others that followed behind, the best was not worth two
drachms, and many of them were not worth a drachm; I saw them later
given for less, and these would be quite three thousand. After these
sorry nags came the mules after the manner of the nags, that is thirty
good ones saddled, and all the others small young mules, but better
than the nags. There were male and female mules of a year and over,
and two year old and three, and none more than that except the saddled
ones; for none of the others were fit for riding. These would be quite
three thousand, and they passed by as had done the Betudete and the
little horses. After the mules came the basutos, and each man carried a
basuto, for he could not carry more from their great volume. After the
basutos came the cloths, each man with a bundle of them; they said that
each man carried ten cloths, and there would be quite three thousand
men with the basutos, and three thousand with the cloths, and all these
were from the said kingdom of Gojame, who were obliged to bring the
gibre.[237] Behind the cloths came three men, each with a trencher[238]
on their heads, of those in which they eat: they were covered with
large green and red cloths of tafetan. Behind these trays came all the
men of the Betudete, and they passed in turn as did the Betudete. They
said that the gold went in those trays; and they ordered him to go to
his quarters with all the gibre, and so he did. Ten days from prime
till after vespers were spent in this passing by of the dues. It was
fifteen days since a Moorish Queen had come to this Court; she was the
wife of the King of Adea, and sister of one that came to be the wife of
the Prester John, and he rejected her because she had two large front
teeth, that is to say, long ones. And he married her to a great lord
who was Barnagais, and now is Betudete.[239] This Queen came to the
Prester to ask him for assistance, saying that a brother of her husband
had risen against her and was taking the kingdom. This queen came quite
like a queen, and brought with her fully fifty honourable Moors on
mules and a hundred men on foot, and six women on good mules; they are
not very dark people. She was received with great honour, and the third
day of her arrival was called and came before the tent of the Prester,
and she came with a black canopy.[240] She was dressed twice that day,
once at the hour of prime, and the other time at hour of vespers: both
dresses were of brocade and velvet and Moorish shirts from India. They
said that the Prester sent word to her to rest herself and not be
vexed, and that he would go as she desired, and that he was waiting for
the Barnagais and the Tigrimahom, and as soon as they came he would at
once set out. Eighteen days after this Queen’s arrival, she received
dresses. On the following day Tigrimahom arrived, and the day after
that Barnagais arrived. Both brought the gibri which they are obliged
to pay to the king, and with them came the _chauas_ of their
lands, that is the men-at-arms; and also many lords came with them.
When these lords were assembled, before they presented their gibris,
Prester John commanded that the Betudete should come and present the
gibri of Gojame which had already passed before him, as has been
said. As this was on Friday, and the holydays of Saturday and Sunday
were following, the Betudete came on Monday following with the gibri,
and with the same formalities as before; and this in the presence of
Barnagais and Tigrimahom and many other gentlemen who had come with
them. He spent the whole day, from morning till night, in presenting
it and its reception. The following day, after the hour of prime,
Barnagais began to give his gibri, and he began with very handsome
horses; there were a hundred and fifty, and what with running and
making them jump, he passed the day without doing anything else. The
day after they said that he presented many silks and much thin stuffs
from India; I did not see him present these, as I was unwell. When
this was presented the following day very early, Tigrimahom began to
present his gibri. He also began with horses, which were two hundred,
larger and more handsome than those of the Barnagais, because they came
from a less distance; and of one set and of the other most came from
Egypt, and others from Arabia. This day nothing was done but horses.
The next day they presented more silks than ever I had seen together,
and the whole day passed in presenting, counting and receiving. On
the following Tuesday, at the hour of midday, Balgada Robel, a great
gentleman, subject to Tigrimahom, came to present his gibri separately.
It was thirty horses, all from Egypt, the size of elephants, and very
fat, each horse with a Xumagali, that is a gentleman without title,
and eight of these Xumagali were dressed in some very good cuirasses
of ours, and some of them placed on velvet, and others on soft leather
and gilt studs. These eight wore some of our helmets on their heads.
Balgada Robel was counted among these eight, and the twenty-two all
wore coats of mail with full sleeves and fitting close to the body. All
the thirty carried two azagays and several knives like Turks: and all
had small red caps with large ends, which fluttered in the wind. Before
them came two little negroes dressed in red and yellow livery, each
upon a camel covered with the same livery, and sounding kettledrums.
As soon as they reached near the tent of the Prester, they set aside
the horses at one end and did not cease from their music and the
Xumagalis from skirmishing: they did it in such a way that the Prester
ordered other horses to be brought of those given by the Barnagais and
Tigrimahom, that they should play also. This lasted till sunset. This
Balgada Robel is a gentleman to whom on our coming Don Rodrigo gave a
helmet, and sold him a sword for a mule. They said that he was always
fighting with the Moors, and so he has at Court the reputation of a
great warrior and good knight.
CAP. CXVIII.--_How assistance was given to the Queen of Adea,
and how the Prester ordered the great Betudete to be arrested,
and why, and how he became free, and also he ordered other lords
to be arrested._