of the palace of the King our Sovereign, that day, the vigil of St.
James, the king’s servant caused boats to come alongside to take us,
all those belonging to the embassy, and convey us to Santarem, and also
boats to take our goods with care to the India House. And because I
and my nephew we had there a brother of his, also my nephew, who was
representative of the monastery of Santos o Novo, which was outside in
the parish of Sta. Maria dos Olivaes, he, learning our arrival, came on
board, and we entrusted to him to keep for us some baggage which had
not got to go to the India House, namely, bed clothes, both that on
which we slept at sea, and also new and clean bedding, and dresses of
silk, many new shirts, table napkins, head dresses, and all other small
articles; and he collected it all within the enclosure of the monastery
of Santos, of which he was the representative, in order to come next
day with carts and take it all to his house. And we went on our road in
the boats which had been assigned to us. On the following night that
the said goods remained there, they took away all that was good and
select, and left the old and worn, and even with that I and my nephew
received a loss of more than fifty cruzados. We did not learn this
till many days later, when they told me at Coimbra that a letter of
excommunication had been published for my goods. We went this time in
the boats to Santarem, and there the king’s servant provided us very
good lodgings; he lodged me and the Prester’s ambassador in Alfange,
and Don Rodrigo lodged in Marvila, in houses which had belonged to his
father. We remained six days in this town, during which we dressed
ourselves after the fashion of Portugal, and we bought mules and what
we required because we came battered by the sea. One day we departed
from Santarem at ten o’clock, in the greatest heat I ever saw, and
in order to lodge separately, so we started in a straggling way, the
king’s servant and I went together, and the Prester’s ambassador and
the clerk of the embassy and his friars and servants in a party by
themselves, and Don Rodrigo de Lima with his servants and slaves in
another party. Don Rodrigo brought with him two Moorish pilots, who
had been captured in the ships which Hector da Silveira took, as was
said before in chapter III, who were sent to the King our
Sovereign. And he dressed them in skin jackets, shirts, trousers,
shoes, and caps, to present them to the king. The Prester’s ambassador,
with his company, went in the narrow path half dead with heat. The
king’s servant took me out of the town, and we went to stop at Ponte
d’Almonda, where I expected my death from the heat. The Lord was
pleased that I should find a lodging with much cold water, and a very
good host, who when he saw me thus, began to encourage me and to give
me cucumbers and cool wine, with which he cooled me and drew out the
heat. Upon this, Don Rodrigo arrived galloping on a horse, shouting
and saying, “For the sake of God let them run to me with beasts, for
the Moorish pilots of the king and my slaves have remained half dead
of heat.” There were there some muleteers, who at once went in haste
with four beasts and Don Rodrigo with them, and they brought the said
Moors and slaves, and they came in such a state that one of these
Moors never returned to his senses. It did not profit him to anoint
him with verjuice,[276] and many other remedies which they applied
to him, he died at midnight; and the fever never left the other Moor
until he died. We said with regard to this that they were suffocated
with the clothes which they were not used to. We who were used to them
passed a sufficiently bad time of it. After this the consequence was
the suspicion that arose here whether we had entered Lisbon, and we
all went to take oath, going before the king’s servant who conducted
us, or ordered us to be brought. We gave our testimony that we were
in good health and very sound, and from a very wholesome country: and
that we had not entered Lisbon nor any other infected[277] country,
but that we thought that these Moors, although they belonged to hot
countries with great heats, had not the custom of going clothed, but
wore only a cloth round them from the waist downwards, and above that
their skins to the sun, and so it seemed to us they had been suffocated
in their clothes. Several days later we learned that that day had
been pestiferous, and that many people had died on it of heat; as for
instance, a woman, an inhabitant of the monastery das Celas, in the
olive gardens of Coimbra; coming from the Campo do Bollan, with other
women, from washing her linen, she died of the heat at the entrance of
the oliveyards, at a place named Fontoura. And a friar of Conception
da Veiro, who was a native of Coimbra, going with another friar as was
his custom from Botan, which is two leagues from Coimbra, to Penacova,
which is four leagues from the same city, died close to a village which
is named Gavinhos, of the heat, though he was a young man not more than
twenty-four years old. The night that the first Moor died we went on
to Golegan, which was a league from there, and thence further on from
fear of the heat, and on account of the other Moor that we carried,
who was sick, we travelled very little. From Golegan we went to sleep
at Tomar, and from there to Alnayazare, and from there to Ansiam.
Here the king’s servant separated from us and went to Coimbra; and we
made our journey, and on arriving at Çarnache we found a message from
the king, bidding us take up our quarters there, and remain there till
His Highness sent for us. In our opinion, this was on account of what
his servant told him of the Moor who had died with us: and in order
to allay the suspicion and doubt about his death. We remained there
twenty-eight days. When these were ended the King our Sovereign sent
to call Don Rodrigo and me, and we went to kiss his hand, and give an
account of those things as to which he questioned us; and he ordered,
that two days after that day we should get ready to go all of us to the
city.
CAP. VI.--_How we departed from Çarnache on the way to Coimbra,
and the reception that was made, and how the embassage was
given, and of the welcome which the King our Sovereign gave us._
When we had now been thirty days in Çarnache, well provided with what
we required by order of the king, through his servant who accompanied
us, one day very early in the morning there came to us Diogo Lopez de
Sequeira, chief officer of the household[278] of His Highness, and who
when he was captain-major had taken us to the country of Prester John,
and looked upon this embassy as a thing of his own, and done by his
hand: he came to embrace the ambassador, and the Prester’s ambassador,
and all of us separately, saying that the king had bid him come here,
and that we were to eat heartily, and set out and go with him by the
field road, because all the Court was coming to receive us. Diogo
Lopez de Sequeira had ordered dinner to be prepared here, without
our knowing of it. We all dined with him, and very early, except the
Prester’s ambassador, who said he was not very well. Dinner over we
got ready and set out. On reaching a place called d’Antanhol (which is
a league from the city), we found there many people of the Court, who
came there to meet us or receive us. From this place to San Martinho,
which is half a league from the city, we found the roads full of all
the Bishops and Counts and gentlemen that were at the Court. They
conducted us by the quarter of Rapoula, and we entered by a street
which is called Figueira velha, and thence by the gate of the monastery
of Santa Cruz; and by another street named rua de Coruche, and by the
road passing the gate of Almidina,[279] by the street das Fangas,
the street of Sam Christovam, and by the Cathedral See, house of Our
Lady, until we arrived at the palace of His Highness. The Marquis of
Vilareal led the ambassador of Prester John by the hand until he kissed
the hands of the King and Queen our Sovereigns, and of the Cardinal
and the Princes, and all of us likewise kissed them. The king asked
the ambassador how he had left Prester John his Sovereign, if he was
in health, and likewise the Queen his wife, and his children. The
ambassador answered, that all had remained in good health, and very
desirous to learn and hear good news of His Highness, and of the Queen,
and his brothers. The King our Sovereign said, that he received very
great pleasure by this visitation and embassage, and he hoped that by
it great service would be rendered to the Lord God, and to them as
brothers much honour. His Highness, moreover, asked the ambassador
how he had been by sea and land, and if he had been well provided
for and welcomed since he had been in his dominions, fortresses, and
ships, and also since he had come to his kingdoms. The ambassador
replied, that the blessing of His Highness was so great, that whoever
was comprised in it was in the grace of God. The king said to him that
he had arrived tired, and that he should go in peace to his lodging,
and all of us in company with him, and that we should rest ourselves;
and His Highness would send to call us in order that we might give
complete news of Prester John. Then we went away and mounted, and even
many bishops and lords and gentlemen returned to accompany us, that is
the Prester’s ambassador and all of us, as we had come, as far as the
monastery of St. Dominic, where they gave him his quarters. Two days
after that the Bishops and Dean of the Chapel and some chaplains came
to seek the Prester’s ambassador and us who came with him, and we all
went to the palace. The Prester’s ambassador presented to the King our
Sovereign a crown of gold and silver, with the sides two palms high,
and not very rich, which the Prester sent him; and two letters folded
like books on parchment, each written in three languages, namely,
Abyssinian, Arabic, and Portuguese, and two of each language, because
they came thus in two little bags--they were made for Don Manuel, may
he be in holy glory--and another little bag for the King our Sovereign.
Licacanate, the ambassador of Prester John, then said to the king: “The
King David, my Sovereign, sent this crown with these letters to the
king your father, may he be in holy glory; and he sent to tell him that
a crown never went from son to father, but that it comes from father
to son, and that by the sign of this crown he, King David, was known,
loved, feared, and obeyed in his kingdoms and lordships; and being a
son he sent to the king his father this crown, in order that he might
be assured that his kingdoms, lordships, and peoples were for whatever
His Highness might command; and when he was certain that the king his
father had died, he said, the crown and letters which he was sending
to his father Don Manuel, are going to my brother the King Don Joan,
with other letters which I will write to him”: and thus he presented to
him the said crown and letters. And he gave all into the hands of His
Highness. His Highness gave the crown and letters to Antonio Carneiro
his secretary: and as His Highness was very gay and showed that he
rejoiced much with this embassy, the said ambassador Licacanate and
I presented to His Highness two little bags of brocade with letters
inside, and a small cross of gold, which he sent to the Holy Father
of Rome, telling His Highness how the Prester had ordered that these
letters and cross should be delivered to His Highness, and should be
given by the hand of His Highness to me, Francisco Alvarez, to take
them to His Holiness. These His Highness took in his hands, letters and
cross, and kissed them and gave them to his secretary Antonio Carneiro,
saying, that he gave great thanks to the Lord that for the intercession
of the King his sovereign and father such service was done to the Lord
God; and that he trusted in the Lord to complete it very soon. He sent
us away to our quarters very happy. And as up to this time we all ate
as we travelled, the king ordered a regular maintenance and animals for
riding to be given to the ambassador, namely, three mules, one for him,
and two for two friars who came with him; and two cruzados each day for
his table, that is, sixty cruzados a month, and one testoon every day
for fodder for the mules; and a rich bed and bedding for him to sleep
on, silver vessels for his table, napkins, and all that was necessary
for him, and a steward, by name Francisco Piriz, to take charge of the
silver, bed and tapestry, for he ordered everything to be given him.
He also gave him one Francisco de Lemos, a gentleman of His Highness’s
guard, as Arabic interpreter to speak for him, and to receive his
maintenance, and do what might be necessary for him.
CAP. VII.--_Of the translation of the letter which the Prester
sent to Don Manuel._
“In the name of God the Father, as always was, in Whom we find no
beginning. In the name of God the Son, one only, who is like Him
without being seen: light of the stars, from the first before the
foundations of the ocean sea were founded: who in former time was
conceived in the womb of the Virgin without seed of man, or making
of 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 the
north to the south; neither is the first nor the second, but the
Trinity joined together in one Creator of all things, for ever by one
sole counsel and one word for ever and ever. Amen.
“This writing and embassage is sent by the Incense of the Virgin, for
that is his name by baptism, and when he became king he was named King
David, the head of his kingdoms, beloved 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; emperor of the high Ethiopia, and of great
kingdoms, lordships, and lands, King of Xoa, of Cafate, of Fatiguar, of
Angote, of Barua, of Baliganje, of Adea, and of Vangue, King of Gojame,
of Amara, of Bagamidri, of Dambea, and of Vague, and of Tigrimahom, and
of Sabaim, where was the Queen Saba, and of Barnagais, lord as far as
Egypt. This letter goes to the very powerful and most excellent King
Don Manuel, who always conquers, and who lives in the love of God, and
firm in the Catholic faith, son of Peter and Paul, King of Portugal and
the Algarves, a friend of the Christians, an enemy of the Moors and
Gentiles; Lord of Africa and Guinea, and of the mountains and island of
the moon, and of the Red Sea, and of Arabia, Persia, and Ormuz, and of
the great Indies, and of all its towns and islands; Judge and conqueror
of the Moors, and strong Pagans, lord of the Moors and very high lands.
Peace be with you King Manuel, strong in the faith, assisted by our
Lord Jesus Christ to kill the Moors, and without lance or buckler you
drive and cast them out like dogs. Peace be with your wife, the friend
of Jesus Christ, the servant of our Lady the Virgin, mother of the
Saviour of the world. Peace be with your sons at this hour, as to the
flowers and fresh lily at your table. Peace to your daughters, who are
provided with clothes like good palaces. Peace be with your relations,
seed of the saints, as the Scriptures say, the sons of the Saints are
blessed and great in graces in their house. Peace to those of your
council and offices, and to the lords of your jurisdiction. Peace to
your great captains of the camps and frontiers of strong places. Peace
to all your people and populations who are in Christ. Peace to your
great cities, and to all those that are within them who are not Jews
or Moors, only to those who are Christians. Peace to all the parishes
which are in Christ, and to your faithful grandees. Amen.