friar, his ambassador, and I, we set out on the road to that lordship
which the Prester had then given him, and it was the road to where our
people had remained; and we arrived on the beginning of Lent,[261]
that is to say of their Lent, which is ten days earlier than ours,
at the land they had given him. When he had taken possession both of
that which they had newly given him, and of that which they had taken
from him, we made ready to depart. These lordships, that is, the one
they were taking from him, is of eighty houses,[262] and it contains
two churches, and it had been given him in exchange[263] for a small
monastery which he before possessed near them. The lordship which they
have now given him is to be arraz of the chavas, that is head or
captain of the men-at-arms, who are in the lordship of Abrigima, and
these chavas are eight hundred and upwards. About mid Lent we arrived
at where our people were, with a great longing that the Portuguese
might come for us this Easter. When Easter passed, which was the
monsoon, and nobody came, we remained sad as before: and when it was
the month of July and Prester John knew that the Portuguese had not
come, he sent word to his ambassador to go to Abrigima, under the rule
of which are the two above-mentioned lordships, and another lord of
this lordship of Abrigima is named Abive arraz, and he is a great lord
with more than ten thousand vassals, and he is like all the others
in all that the Prester pleases. When this message came, there came
another to us that we were to go with him, and that as the fruits of
the earth which they gave him were already gathered in and they could
not give us what was necessary, that he had ordered us to be given
at that place five hundred loads of wheat, and a hundred cows, and a
hundred sheep, and that his ambassador was to give us honey for wine.
We were in great doubt as to whether we should make this journey or
not, because it removed us a long way from the sea, and by very much
travelling we should not be able to reach the sea from that district
in less than one month, and this with long marches; withal we went
with the intention of not remaining there longer than until we had
received all, and then returning. So we did, for in the middle of
January following we departed from that land by the road to where we
used to be near the sea, and without leave, neither did we wait for
the ambassador, nor inform him, so that he should not embarrass us,
but we went on our own footing. And the said ambassador, as soon as
he knew of our departure, sent two men after us entreating us to take
them with us, and to send one back with any news there might be of the
Portuguese, and that when there was certain news the other should come.
CAP. CXL.--_How the Portuguese came for us, and who was the
captain._
Whilst we Portuguese and the Franks were in the town of Barua waiting
for them to come to us, and having sent two men to the sea in order
that they should bring us the good news that our Portuguese were coming
for us, on Saturday, vigil of Easter day, the 1st of April of 1526,
the said two men whom we had sent to the sea reached us, and they
came half dead and despairing, and they began to say, there are no
Portuguese there, who were coming for us, nor are there in India, for
all are routed and India lost; and they said that they knew this news
by the Moors of three ships which had arrived at the Island of Masua
with much sounding of music and festivity, and very rich merchandize,
and that with much festivity they had disembarked at the said island.
These Moors gave this news because such was their wish, and they
founded themselves in asserting it on the capture of a Portuguese
galley close to Diu, a port of the King of Cambay. These Portuguese
who brought this news came half dead and fainting, and we remained in
like manner with this news so bad for us. The ambassador, Don Rodrigo,
said to me: “Padre, let us say mass to-morrow very early, and commend
ourselves to God.” I answered him that my heart was not quiet, nor in
such rest as to be able to say mass, but that we would go very early
to the chief church and hear mass with the Barnagais. And so we did,
and when the morning became light, and the mass of the resurrection
was finished, the Barnagais invited us to come and dine with him, and
we excused ourselves on account of the feast day, and that each of us
wished to honour his own quarters: and we did this by reason of the
small pleasure we felt. I went with eight Portuguese and Genoese that
I had invited to dinner, and when we had done eating I left them in
the house with my nephew who always accompanied me, and I went alone
up a stream as far as a great rock which made shade on the sand of the
river, and I wept by the way, and with tears and sighs I laid myself
down in that shade for more than an hour; and, desisting from weeping,
I recovered myself, and talking to myself I said: “Now this comes
from God, and He is served by me in this land: the Lord be praised
for ever since it is so. I know this country better than any native
of it does, because I go in pursuit of game, and know its mountains,
and waters, and the land which is good for cultivation, and which will
give all that is planted or sown in it. I have got some good slaves
and fourteen cows, and I have got rams which I will exchange for ewes.
I will go near to some water, and will have a strong bush fence made
to keep off the wild beasts, and I will pitch my tent in which to take
refuge with my servants, and I will arrange a hermitage within, and
each day I will say mass, and commend myself to God, since the Lord is
pleased that I should be here. I will order the bushes to be cut to
make gardens, and I will sow grain of all sorts: and with my harvests
and hunting I will maintain myself and servants and slaves.” With this
I remained consoled, as though good news had come to me; and I arose
and returned down stream to my house, where I found the ambassador Don
Rodrigo and the Portuguese and Genoese, and all our company, playing
and enjoying themselves. As soon as I approached them, Don Rodrigo
said to me: “Padre, what shall we do? my opinion is that we write to
the Court to our friends to say to Prester John that he should bid us
return to the Court.” I answered him: “Do not do it, and I shall never
come from it if I go there.” And when he said to me, “What shall we
do if the Prester orders us to go?” I answered, “If His Highness sends
to say that the Portuguese should come, and does not say let Padre
Francisco come, as he always says, I shall not go: and if he names me
I will go, even though I should regret it.” And when he asked what I
would do if I did not go, I gave him an account how I had gone after
dinner up stream as far as the said shade and had lain down; and of the
thoughts I had had, and the determination I had taken, and that I had
come away consoled. All that were there arose and embraced me except
the ambassador, who did not agree to this; and all of them said, and
each one separately: “This is a thing which comes from God, and we
will all go with you, and we will bring our wives and sons and slaves;
we have got very good mules, and we very well know the sea and the
land markets, and some of us will remain with you, and others will go
and trade, and we will enrich ourselves, and we will make a place of
our own in which we will breed cattle, and we will make large tilled
fields.” When the ambassador heard this he answered nothing, and said:
“You, Padre, have got much game and good things to eat, let us all sup
here if you bid us, and to-morrow we will also dine here with you, and
after dinner we will go with your snares after game, and we will go and
sup at my house.” This pleased me very much, and we all supped this
Easter and dined on Monday. After that, we rode out to hunt, and killed
many hares and three or four ...,[264] and went to sup at the house
of the ambassador. All the Portuguese and white men of other nations
being very firm in the agreement before come to through me, when it was
already night, after supper, and all of us going home to our quarters,
and all with me to conduct me to mine, there came up to us on the road
a servant of mine named Abetay, a married man of the country. And he
came running so fast that he could not speak from fatigue: and he began
to say: “Sir, Sir, the Portuguese on the sea.” I asked him: “Abetay,
who told you this?” he replied, “A man said it who has now arrived from
the sea and is with the Barnagais.” I said to him: “Abetay, if this is
true, of nine mules that I have got, five mine and four of my nephew’s,
excepting the one the Prester gave me, on which you cannot ride, I will
give you the best, and I will not sleep until I see this man.” Then I
took leave of my companions and went to the gates of the Barnagais’
palace, and they would not open them to me; and I waited at the gate
with the said man until the cocks crew, and the man came out, to whom I
at once said: “Are you the man who saw the Portuguese on the sea?” He
replied: “I did not see them with my eyes, but I heard with my ears, in
the morning of Easter, firing of cannon at Dalaqua, and I bring this
message from the Sultan[265] of Arquiquo to the Barnagais.” I made my
calculations, as it was not new moon, for at sight of it the Moors make
great rejoicing, who could these be who were firing, whether they could
be Rumys, Moors, or Christians. I gave this news to all our company who
came to me for it on the Tuesday morning to ask, as they knew that I
had gone to seek the man who had come from the sea. As I said before,
that the Prester’s ambassador had sent after us two of his men for them
to bring him in great haste any news of the Portuguese that we might
hear, in that hour we despatched one to him, and he was one of his men,
and another of this country to go night and day and take this message
to the ambassador, so that he might make ready, we having some hope of
good, for we had no other contrariety, except that two men of ours had
brought the news from the sea that India was lost, and they could not
believe in the coming of the Portuguese; on the contrary, they said
this firing of bombards was rejoicing of the Moors, on being certified
of the injury to India. This Tuesday, in the night, while we were thus
neither believing nor disbelieving either the good or the bad news,
there reached us a letter from Hector da Silveira, captain-major of the
Indian sea, who had come for us, and remained in Masua. Here I do not
know what to say of how great was the pleasure of all of us, except
that we went out of our senses, so great was the joy. Don Rodrigo, the
ambassador, returning to us said that we should start, and at once,
next morning; some said that that was good. I said that it did not seem
to me good; because, up to this time we had been held to be Christians,
and if we travelled on such great feast days, they would say that we
were not so, and that we should keep the octaves until Monday. Then
that night we despatched a Portuguese, and a man of the sea coast, with
our letter to Hector da Silveira; and to the Prester’s ambassador we
sent his man who was still with us, with another man of the country,
and they were to travel day and night and take him this certain news,
and the ambassador was to do the same, and travel day and night by some
other shorter road along the sea on the way to Arquiquo.
CAP. CXLI.--_How the Barnagais made ready, and we travelled with
him on the road to the sea._
On Monday after the octaves of Easter, the 9th of April, we set out
from Barua, the Barnagais and we Portuguese, and the other three white
men who were with us, on the road to Arquiquo. The Barnagais and his
gentlemen and two that he sent for may have taken with them a thousand
men on mules, and a large number on foot. This day we went to sleep
at a distance of two leagues from Barua, at a place called Dinguil,
encamped in a plain in which every Monday at night, and Tuesday in the
morning, people assemble who are going to the fair of Arquiquo, and
they go together in a caravan, because this road is not travelled over
except by a great assemblage, from fear of the Arabs and wild beasts.
Here there joined us fully two thousand persons who were going to the
said fair, and they said that there were few people, and that they had
failed to come from fear of want of water. With the people who came
with the Barnagais and those who came from this place, Dinguil, we set
out and went to sleep at the place of scanty water. And in the distance
that there may be from Barua, whence we started with the Barnagais,
to Arquiquo, of fourteen leagues or fifteen at most, we passed all
the week till Saturday morning, and we took up our quarters close to
the town of Arquiquo, not approaching our ships because the Barnagais
had to present us, and his people were not yet assembled, because
besides the people who came with him from Barua, he was expecting men
and captains who were to go against Suaquem, which is towards Egypt.
These men did not arrive till the Monday following. At night, and we
at liberty, we went to see our people, and they us. On account of the
heats, which were great and insupportable, the Barnagais and captains
ordered dwellings to be made of wood and tall bushes, and they also
ordered dwellings to be made for us Portuguese to sleep in, covered
with sails above, as there was no man could endure the heat of the
country from the great multitude of people and the suffocation of tents
and huts. The Portuguese who came for us had made their dwellings over
the sea where there was always a breeze; others lodged in good terraced
houses, which were in the island. On Tuesday, in the morning, the
Barnagais and his captains and me with him, he conducted us to where
Hector da Silveira was, and delivered us up to him with much pleasure
and joy. He ordered fifty cows and many sheep, fowls, and fish to be
given him for the ships. On the Thursday following, Prester John’s
ambassador reached us, he had travelled day and night, and as soon as
the first message which we sent was given him he ordered mules to be
put in readiness, in order that if a positive message came, he might
travel day and night, which he did as soon as the message was given
him. We Portuguese went to wait for him at the town of Arquiquo, to
come with him, and the Barnagais also came to deliver him up. While we
were thus waiting for the monsoon, that is, wind for departure, which
always comes from the 26th and 27th of April till the 3rd or 4th of
May, and if one does not go out with this monsoon there is no other
till the end of August; on the 21st of April there reached us four
_calacems_, that is, four messengers from Prester John to say that
he had news by Zeila of the Portuguese fleet having entered the Red
Sea, and that they thought they came for us; and since it was a long
time that we had left his Court, and we might be sad, that we should
at once return to him, and he would give us much gold and clothes, and
would send us joyful and contented to the King of Portugal his brother.
These calacems said that they had been sent in such haste that in each
town they had taken fresh mules from the captains, and had travelled
night and day, and they requested us very earnestly not to do anything
else there except turn back: and they required the same of Alicacanate,
the Prester’s ambassador, to return with us, and we with him: they
moreover requested Hector da Silveira to send us because Prester John
would feel displeasure at our going away vexed. Hector da Silveira
answered, and we with him, to the said calacems, that by no means could
we turn back, nor could he wait, nor did the monsoon allow of it, and
that if we did not go away now at once, other ships would never come
for us, and that his ambassador might return if he liked. This was
told to the ambassador of Prester John, and he replied that by no means
would he return without us, because he would order him to be thrown to
the lions. So we all remained with great pleasure; and the calacems
discontented because their labour had been in vain.
LAUS DEO.
IN NOMINE DN̄I, AMEN.
IN THIS PART IS RELATED THE JOURNEY
WHICH WAS MADE FROM THE COUNTRY OF
THE PRESTER JOHN TO PORTUGAL.
CAP. I.--_Of how we departed from the port and island of Masua
until arriving at Ormuz._
On the 28th day of April, of 1526, we set sail, the whole fleet
together; it consisted of five sail, namely three royal galloons and
two carvels. We reached the island of Camaran the 1st day of May, and
there the wind wearied us. We were there three days, and whilst waiting
I remembered how we had there buried Duarte Galvam, the ambassador to
Prester John, who was sent by the king our sovereign. I was present at
his decease, and I went to his burial, and with the licentiate Pero
Gomez Teixeira, who was then judge, we marked the grave, so that if
at any time any of his relations or friends came, they might know it,
to remove his remains to a country of Christians if they chose. And
I went with a slave of mine to where we had left him buried, and I
ordered him to be dug up, and to dispose all his bones in order; but
we did not find more than three teeth, and I put them in a small box,
and we brought his remains to the galloon St. Leon, in which I went,
without anyone knowing of it except one Gaspar de Saa, factor of the
said fleet, and who was of his household. As soon as we had got the
said remains on board the galloon, the wind changed to a stern wind,
and that hour we set sail, and this factor said to me: “Certainly,
as Duarte Galvam was a good man and ended his days in the service of
God, so God gives us a good wind for him.” And we had the same wind
till the 10th of May, when we were opposite Aden, and already in the
open sea,[266] and the winter weather from India was facing us, and we
facing it. The storm was so great that the second night we passed in
it, what with the great darkness and high wind, we lost one another
and were separated without seeing each other again, or knowing what
course each ship was making. This galloon St. Leon, in which I went,
had a large boat made fast astern with three ropes, and in it was a
ship boy, a Frenchman by nation, who steered it. In the fourth night
that we passed in this storm, the sea was so wild and high that we
all thought we should be lost; and at midnight a little more or less,
all three ropes of the boat broke, and the galloon gave so many and
so great lurches, that we thought we should go to the bottom of the
sea. The master of the galloon sounded his whistle and gave out a
_Paternoster_ through the ship to all hands[267] for the soul of
the ship boy who was in the boat. On the following day an auction was
held, that is, a valuation and sale of the pieces and things which the
ship boy had with him, and with them and a slave of his a hundred and
twenty pardaos[268] were made. We sailed with this storm[269] until
we got to the strait of Ormuz, and on the 28th of May we reached the
port of Mazquate, which belongs to the Kingdom of Ormuz, and pays
tribute to the King of Portugal our sovereign. There we found one of
the carvels of our convoy and fleet, which gave an account of the
storm which it had passed, and three days after that the other carvel,
companion of the first, arrived; and the same day a galloon arrived,
and each related the storms. Ten days after our arrival at this port
of Mazquate, they saw tacking about on the sea the galloon Sam Donis,
the flagship of the fleet, and she could not fetch the port: two
Portuguese fustas, which guarded the strait of the port of Mazquate,
went out to her, and as soon as they reached the galloon they turned
back, and with great haste they took provisions and water to succour
the galloon and her crew, who were lost with hunger and thirst, more
with thirst than hunger. The fustas passed the night there; and next
day, in the early morning, all our boats and the town boats set out
from the town to fetch the galloon, and they did bring her and arrived
with her in the port in the afternoon. Here they related the great
straits and danger in which they found themselves, saying that they
had run before the storm which caught them at the entrance of the
strait,[270] and they went as far as the bay of Cambay, from which they
could not come out: and the Lord was pleased that the storm should
not cease, by which the sea was secure from enemies. They also said
that for three days they had not eaten, from being short of water.
They spoke of the great virtue and compassion of Hector da Silveira,
captain-major of this fleet, and they said that he was the first to
leave off drinking, and that with tears in his eyes and a little water
in his hand he went about distributing it among the sick: and after
the time that they found themselves in these straits, he did not any
more sleep in nor enter his cabin, that it might not be supposed that
he went to fill himself with water and left the crews to suffer. So
they said it was true that on the day when they sighted land and we
succoured them, there was not a single drop of water in the galloon,
nor had either the sound or the sick tasted it: and that they had
sight that day miraculously of the land and port, and we of them;
because they already despaired of their lives. I heard this from the
ambassadors, Don Rodrigo de Lima who went to the Prester John, and
Alicacanate, the ambassador of the Prester, who is going to Portugal;
and generally all said it who were in the galloon. All the people
landed to refresh themselves and recover from the fatigue of the
sea. We were few days in this port of Mazquate, and from there our
fleet sailed together, God be praised, and with us certain fustas of
those which guard this port and strait. We went to the city of Ormuz,
a fortress of the king our sovereign, and found there Lopo Vaz de
Sampayo, captain-major and governor of the Indies for his Highness.
When we reached the port, all the gentlemen and captains of the ships,
carvels, galleys, and fustas, and all the other people, both of the
fortress and of the fleet and company of the captain-major, came out
to receive us on the beach; and the captain-major was on the beach in
front of the fortress, and there they gave us our welcome. Then we went
together to the church which is inside the fort, and the captain-major
came down there to embrace the ambassadors, and me with them, and some
others of our embassy. Then we went each to his quarters. The following
day we all came to hear mass and to speak to the captain-major, and to
give him a letter from Prester John, which we had brought for Diogo
Lopez de Sequeira, who had been captain-major and governor of the
Indies, and who took us to the country of the Prester: and we gave the
letter to Lopo Yaz de Sampayo, as he had succeeded to the said charge.
Besides, we gave him a silk robe with five gold plates before and other
five behind, and one on each shoulder, which in all made twelve. Each
one was the size of the palm of the hand, and Prester John sent it to
Diogo Lopez. The governor, Lopo Vaz de Sampayo, gave the favour of two
hundred pardaos to Don Rodrigo de Lima, the ambassador who had gone
to the Prester, and another two hundred to the Prester’s ambassador,
and to me he gave the favour of a hundred pardaos. Hector da Silveira
remained few days at Ormuz, and soon returned with his fleet to wait
for the ships which come from Jiddah to Dio, and come out with the
monsoon with which we came, and they pass the winter at Aden, and with
the first wind make their voyage; and we remained until being certain
that the winter had passed.
CAP. II.--_Of the translation of the letter which Prester John
sent to Diogo Lopez, and which was given to Lopo Vaz de Sampayo._
“In the name of God the Father, Who always was, to Whom no beginning is
found. In the name of the Son, one only, who is like Him without being
seen, light of the stars from the beginning, before the foundations of
the ocean were founded. In another time He was conceived in the womb
of the Virgin without seed of man, or marriage. So was the knowledge
of His office, in the name of the Paraclete, spirit of holiness, who
knows all secrets, where He was first in the heights of heaven, which
is sustained without props or supports, and extended the earth, without
its being from the beginning, nor was it known nor created from the
east to the west, and from north to south; neither is He the first
nor the second, but the Trinity joined together in one Creator of all
things for ever, with one sole counsel and one sole word for ever and
ever. Amen.
“The king of the great and very high city of Ethiopia sends this
writing and embassage: the king incense of the Virgin, whose name is
his by baptism: now that he has become king he is named David, the head
of his kingdoms, loved of God, prop of the faith, a relation of the
lineage of Judah, son of David, son of Solomon, son of the column of
Sion, son of the seed of Jacob, son of the hand of Mary, son of Nahum
in the flesh.
“This goes to Diogo Lopez de Sequeira, captain-major of the Indies.