CHAPTER I

This etext was prepared from the 1887 Cassell and Company edition by Les

Bowler, St. Ives, Dorset.

A VOYAGE TO ABYSSINIA.

BY

FATHER JEROME LOBO.

_Translated from the French_

by

SAMUEL JOHNSON.

CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:

_LONDON_, _PARIS_, _NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_.

1887.

INTRODUCTION.

Jeronimo Lobo was born in Lisbon in the year 1593. He entered the Order

of the Jesuits at the age of sixteen. After passing through the studies

by which Jesuits were trained for missionary work, which included special

attention to the arts of speaking and writing, Father Lobo was sent as a

missionary to India at the age of twenty-eight, in the year 1621. He

reached Goa, as his book tells, in 1622, and was in 1624, at the age of

thirty-one, told off as one of the missionaries to be employed in the

conversion of the Abyssinians. They were to be converted, from a form of

Christianity peculiar to themselves, to orthodox Catholicism. The

Abyssinian Emperor Segued was protector of the enterprise, of which we

have here the story told.

Father Lobo was nine years in Abyssinia, from the age of thirty-one to

the age of forty, and this was the adventurous time of his life. The

death of the Emperor Segued put an end to the protection that had given

the devoted missionaries, in the midst of dangers, a precarious hold upon

their work. When he and his comrades fell into the hands of the Turks at

Massowah, his vigour of body and mind, his readiness of resource, and his

fidelity, marked him out as the one to be sent to the headquarters in

India to secure the payment of a ransom for his companions. He obtained

the ransom, and desired also to obtain from the Portuguese Viceroy in

India armed force to maintain the missionaries in the position they had

so far won. But the Civil power was deaf to his pleading. He removed

the appeal to Lisbon, and after narrowly escaping on the way from a

shipwreck, and after having been captured by pirates, he reached Lisbon,

and sought still to obtain means of overawing the force hostile to the

work of the Jesuits in Abyssinia. The Princess Margaret gave friendly

hearing, but sent him on to persuade, if he could, the King of Spain; and

failing at Madrid, he went to Rome and tried the Pope. He was chosen to

go to the Pope, said the Patriarch Alfonso Mendez, because, of all the

brethren at Goa, the 'Pater Hieronymus Lupus' (Lobo translated into Wolf)

was the most ingenious and learned in all sciences, with a mind most

generous in its desire to conquer difficulties, dexterous in management

of business, and found most able to make himself agreeable to those with

whom there was business to be done. The vigour with which he held by his

purpose of endeavouring in every possible way to bring the Christianity

of Abyssinia within the pale of the Catholic Church is in accordance with

the character that makes the centre of the story of this book. Whimsical

touches arise out of this strength of character and readiness of

resource, as when he tells of the taste of the Abyssinians for raw cow's

flesh, with a sauce high in royal Abyssinian favour, made of the cow's

gall and contents of its entrails, of which, when he was pressed to

partake, he could only excuse himself and his brethren by suggesting that

it was too good for such humble missionaries. Out of distinguished

respect for it, they refrained from putting it into their mouths.

Good Father Lobo gave up the desire of his heart, when it was proved

unattainable, and returned to India six years after the breaking up of

his work in Abyssinia, at the age of forty-seven. He came to be head of

the Provincials of the Jesuit settlement at Goa, and after about ten more

years of active duty in the East returned in 1658 to Lisbon, when he died

in the religious house of St. Roque in 1678, at the age of eighty-five. A

comrade of Father Lobo's, Baltazar Tellez, said that Lobo had travelled

thirty-eight thousand leagues with no other object before him but the

winning of more souls to God. His years in Abyssinia stood out

prominently to his mind among all the years of his long life, and he

wrote an account of them in Portuguese, of which the manuscript is at

Lisbon in the monastery of St. Roque, where he closed his life.

Of that manuscript, then and still unprinted (though use was made of it

by Baltazar Tellez in his History of 'Ethiopia-Coimbra,' 1660), the Abbe

Legrand, Prior of Neuville-les-Dames, and of Prevessin, published a

translation into French. The Abbe Legrand had been to Lisbon as

Secretary to the Abbe d'Estrees, Ambassador from France to Portugal. The

negotiations were so long continued that M. Legrand was detained five

years in Lisbon, and employed the time in researches among documents

illustrating the Portuguese possessions in India and the East. He

obtained many memoirs of great interest, and published from one of them

an account of Ceylon; but of all the manuscripts he found none interested

him so much as that of Father Lobo. His translation was augmented with

illustrative dissertations, letters, and a memoir on the circumstances of

the death of M. du Roule. It filled two volumes, or 636 pages of forty

lines. This was published in 1728. It was on the 31st of October, 1728,

that Samuel Johnson, aged nineteen, went to Pembroke College, Oxford, and

Legrand's 'Voyage Historique d'Abissinie du R. P. Jerome Lobo, de la

Compagnie de Jesus, Traduit du Portugais, continue et augmente de

plusieurs Dissertations, Lettres et Memoires,' was one of the new books

read by Johnson during his short period of college life. In 1735, when

Johnson's age was twenty-six, and the world seemed to have shut against

him every door of hope, Johnson stayed for six months at Birmingham with

his old schoolfellow Hector, who was aiming at medical practice, and who

lodged at the house of a bookseller. Johnson spoke with interest of

Father Lobo, whose book he had read at Pembroke College. Mr. Warren, the

bookseller, thought it would be worth while to print a translation.

Hector joined in urging Johnson to undertake it, for a payment of five

guineas. Although nearly brought to a stop midway by hypochondriac

despondency, a little suggestion that the printers also were stopped, and

if they had not their work had not their pay, caused Johnson to go on to

the end. Legrand's book was reduced to a fifth of its size by the

omission of all that overlaid Father Lobo's personal account of his

adventures; and Johnson began work as a writer with this translation,

first published at Birmingham in 1735.

H.M.

THE PREFACE

The following relation is so curious and entertaining, and the

dissertations that accompany it so judicious and instructive, that the

translator is confident his attempt stands in need of no apology,

whatever censures may fall on the performance.

The Portuguese traveller, contrary to the general vein of his countrymen,

has amused his reader with no romantic absurdities or incredible

fictions; whatever he relates, whether true or not, is at least probable;

and he who tells nothing exceeding the bounds of probability has a right

to demand that they should believe him who cannot contradict him.

He appears by his modest and unaffected narration to have described

things as he saw them, to have copied nature from the life, and to have

consulted his senses, not his imagination; he meets with no basilisks

that destroy with their eyes, his crocodiles devour their prey without

tears, and his cataracts fall from the rock without deafening the

neighbouring inhabitants.

The reader will here find no regions cursed with irremediable barrenness,

or blessed with spontaneous fecundity, no perpetual gloom or unceasing

sunshine; nor are the nations here described either devoid of all sense

of humanity, or consummate in all private and social virtues; here are no

Hottentots without religion, polity, or articulate language, no Chinese

perfectly polite, and completely skilled in all sciences: he will

discover, what will always be discovered by a diligent and impartial

inquirer, that wherever human nature is to be found there is a mixture of

vice and virtue, a contest of passion and reason, and that the Creator

doth not appear partial in his distributions, but has balanced in most

countries their particular inconveniences by particular favours.

In his account of the mission, where his veracity is most to be

suspected, he neither exaggerates overmuch the merits of the Jesuits, if

we consider the partial regard paid by the Portuguese to their

countrymen, by the Jesuits to their society, and by the Papists to their

church, nor aggravates the vices of the Abyssins; but if the reader will

not be satisfied with a Popish account of a Popish mission, he may have

recourse to the history of the church of Abyssinia, written by Dr.

Geddes, in which he will find the actions and sufferings of the

missionaries placed in a different light, though the same in which Mr. Le

Grand, with all his zeal for the Roman church, appears to have seen them.

This learned dissertator, however valuable for his industry and

erudition, is yet more to be esteemed for having dared so freely in the

midst of France to declare his disapprobation of the Patriarch Oviedo's

sanguinary zeal, who was continually importuning the Portuguese to beat

up their drums for missionaries, who might preach the gospel with swords

in their hands, and propagate by desolation and slaughter the true

worship of the God of Peace.

It is not easy to forbear reflecting with how little reason these men

profess themselves the followers of Jesus, who left this great

characteristic to His disciples, that they should be known by loving one

another, by universal and unbounded charity and benevolence.

Let us suppose an inhabitant of some remote and superior region, yet

unskilled in the ways of men, having read and considered the precepts of

the gospel, and the example of our Saviour, to come down in search of the

true church: if he would not inquire after it among the cruel, the

insolent, and the oppressive; among those who are continually grasping at

dominion over souls as well as bodies; among those who are employed in

procuring to themselves impunity for the most enormous villainies, and

studying methods of destroying their fellow-creatures, not for their

crimes but their errors; if he would not expect to meet benevolence,

engaged in massacres, or to find mercy in a court of inquisition, he would

not look for the true church in the Church of Rome.

Mr. Le Grand has given in one dissertation an example of great

moderation, in deviating from the temper of his religion, but in the

others has left proofs that learning and honesty are often too weak to

oppose prejudice. He has made no scruple of preferring the testimony of

Father du Bernat to the writings of all the Portuguese Jesuits, to whom

he allows great zeal, but little learning, without giving any other

reason than that his favourite was a Frenchman. This is writing only to

Frenchmen and to Papists: a Protestant would be desirous to know why he

must imagine that Father du Bernat had a cooler head or more knowledge;

and why one man whose account is singular is not more likely to be

mistaken than many agreeing in the same account.

If the Portuguese were biassed by any particular views, another bias

equally powerful may have deflected the Frenchman from the truth, for

they evidently write with contrary designs: the Portuguese, to make their

mission seem more necessary, endeavoured to place in the strongest light

the differences between the Abyssinian and Roman Church; but the great

Ludolfus, laying hold on the advantage, reduced these later writers to

prove their conformity.

Upon the whole, the controversy seems of no great importance to those who

believe the Holy Scriptures sufficient to teach the way of salvation, but

of whatever moment it may be thought, there are not proofs sufficient to

decide it.

His discourses on indifferent subjects will divert as well as instruct,

and if either in these, or in the relation of Father Lobo, any argument

shall appear unconvincing, or description obscure, they are defects

incident to all mankind, which, however, are not too rashly to be imputed

to the authors, being sometimes, perhaps, more justly chargeable on the

translator.

In this translation, if it may be so called, great liberties have been

taken, which, whether justifiable or not, shall be fairly confessed; and

let the judicious part of mankind pardon or condemn them.

In the first part the greatest freedom has been used in reducing the

narration into a narrow compass, so that it is by no means a translation

but an epitome, in which, whether everything either useful or

entertaining be comprised, the compiler is least qualified to determine.

In the account of Abyssinia, and the continuation, the authors have been

followed with more exactness, and as few passages appeared either

insignificant or tedious, few have been either shortened or omitted.

The dissertations are the only part in which an exact translation has

been attempted, and even in those abstracts are sometimes given instead

of literal quotations, particularly in the first; and sometimes other

parts have been contracted.

Several memorials and letters, which are printed at the end of the

dissertations to secure the credit of the foregoing narrative, are

entirely left out.

It is hoped that, after this confession, whoever shall compare this

attempt with the original, if he shall find no proofs of fraud or

partiality, will candidly overlook any failure of judgment.

PART I--THE VOYAGE TO ABYSSINIA

CHAPTER I

The author arrives after some difficulties at Goa. Is chosen for the

Mission of AEthiopia. The fate of those Jesuits who went by Zeila. The

author arrives at the coast of Melinda.

I embarked in March, 1622, in the same fleet with the Count Vidigueira,

on whom the king had conferred the viceroyship of the Indies, then vacant

by the resignation of Alfonso Noronha, whose unsuccessful voyage in the

foregoing year had been the occasion of the loss of Ormus, which being by

the miscarriage of that fleet deprived of the succours necessary for its

defence, was taken by the Persians and English. The beginning of this

voyage was very prosperous: we were neither annoyed with the diseases of

the climate nor distressed with bad weather, till we doubled the Cape of

Good Hope, which was about the end of May. Here began our misfortunes;

these coasts are remarkable for the many shipwrecks the Portuguese have

suffered. The sea is for the most part rough, and the winds tempestuous;

we had here our rigging somewhat damaged by a storm of lightning, which

when we had repaired, we sailed forward to Mosambique, where we were to

stay some time. When we came near that coast, and began to rejoice at

the prospect of ease and refreshment, we were on the sudden alarmed with

the sight of a squadron of ships, of what nation we could not at first

distinguish, but soon discovered that they were three English and three

Dutch, and were preparing to attack us. I shall not trouble the reader

with the particulars of this fight, in which, though the English

commander ran himself aground, we lost three of our ships, and with great

difficulty escaped with the rest into the port of Mosambique.

This place was able to afford us little consolation in our uneasy

circumstances; the arrival of our company almost caused a scarcity of

provisions. The heat in the day is intolerable, and the dews in the

night so unwholesome that it is almost certain death to go out with one's

head uncovered. Nothing can be a stronger proof of the malignant quality

of the air than that the rust will immediately corrode both the iron and

brass if they are not carefully covered with straw. We stayed, however,

in this place from the latter end of July to the beginning of September,

when having provided ourselves with other vessels, we set out for Cochin,

and landed there after a very hazardous and difficult passage, made so

partly by the currents and storms which separated us from each other, and

partly by continual apprehensions of the English and Dutch, who were

cruising for us in the Indian seas. Here the viceroy and his company

were received with so much ceremony, as was rather troublesome than

pleasing to us who were fatigued with the labours of the passage; and

having stayed here some time, that the gentlemen who attended the viceroy

to Goa might fit out their vessels, we set sail, and after having been

detained some time at sea, by calms and contrary winds, and somewhat

harassed by the English and Dutch, who were now increased to eleven ships

of war, arrived at Goa, on Saturday, the 16th of December, and the

viceroy made his entry with great magnificence.

I lived here about a year, and completed my studies in divinity; in which

time some letters were received from the fathers in AEthiopia, with an

account that Sultan Segued, Emperor of Abyssinia, was converted to the

Church of Rome, that many of his subjects had followed his example, and

that there was a great want of missionaries to improve these prosperous

beginnings. Everybody was very desirous of seconding the zeal of our

fathers, and of sending them the assistance they requested; to which we

were the more encouraged, because the emperor's letters informed our

provincial that we might easily enter his dominions by the way of

Dancala, but unhappily, the secretary wrote Zeila for Dancala, which cost

two of our fathers their lives.

We were, however, notwithstanding the assurances given us by the emperor,

sufficiently apprised of the danger which we were exposed to in this

expedition, whether we went by sea or land. By sea, we foresaw the

hazard we run of falling into the hands of the Turks, amongst whom we

should lose, if not our lives, at least our liberty, and be for ever

prevented from reaching the court of AEthiopia. Upon this consideration

our superiors divided the eight Jesuits chosen for this mission into two

companies. Four they sent by sea and four by land; I was of the latter

number. The four first were the more fortunate, who though they were

detained some time by the Turkish bassa, were dismissed at the request of

the emperor, who sent him a zebra, or wild ass, a creature of large size

and admirable beauty.

As for us, who were to go by Zeila, we had still greater difficulties to

struggle with: we were entirely strangers to the ways we were to take, to

the manners, and even to the names of the nations through which we were

to pass. Our chief desire was to discover some new road by which we

might avoid having anything to do with the Turks. Among great numbers

whom we consulted on this occasion, we were informed by some that we

might go through Melinda. These men painted that hideous wilderness in

charming colours, told us that we should find a country watered with

navigable rivers, and inhabited by a people that would either inform us

of the way, or accompany us in it. These reports charmed us, because

they flattered our desires; but our superiors finding nothing in all this

talk that could be depended on, were in suspense what directions to give

us, till my companion and I upon this reflection, that since all the ways

were equally new to us, we had nothing to do but to resign ourselves to

the Providence of God, asked and obtained the permission of our superiors

to attempt the road through Melinda. So of we who went by land, two took

the way of Zeila, and my companion and I that of Melinda.

Those who were appointed for Zeila embarked in a vessel that was going to

Caxume, where they were well received by the king, and accommodated with

a ship to carry them to Zeila; they were there treated by the Check with

the same civility which they had met with at Caxume. But the king being

informed of their arrival, ordered them to be conveyed to his court at

Auxa, to which place they were scarce come before they were thrown by the

king's command into a dark and dismal dungeon, where there is hardly any

sort of cruelty that was not exercised upon them. The Emperor of

Abyssinia endeavoured by large offers to obtain their liberty, but his

kind offices had no other effect than to heighten the rage of the king of

Zeila. This prince, besides his ill will to Sultan Segued, which was

kept up by some malcontents among the Abyssin nobility, who, provoked at

the conversion of their master, were plotting a revolt, entertained an

inveterate hatred against the Portuguese for the death of his

grandfather, who had been killed many years before, which he swore the

blood of the Jesuits should repay. So after they had languished for some

time in prison their heads were struck off. A fate which had been

likewise our own, had not God reserved us for longer labours!

Having provided everything necessary for our journey, such as Arabian

habits, and red caps, calicoes, and other trifles to make presents of to

the inhabitants, and taking leave of our friends, as men going to a

speedy death, for we were not insensible of the dangers we were likely to

encounter, amongst horrid deserts, impassable mountains, and barbarous

nations, we left Goa on the 26th day of January in the year 1624, in a

Portuguese galliot that was ordered to set us ashore at Pate, where we

landed without any disaster in eleven days, together with a young

Abyssin, whom we made use of as our interpreter. While we stayed here we

were given to understand that those who had been pleased at Goa to give

us directions in relation to our journey had done nothing but tell us

lies. That the people were savage, that they had indeed begun to treat

with the Portuguese, but it was only from fear, that otherwise they were

a barbarous nation, who finding themselves too much crowded in their own

country, had extended themselves to the sea-shore; that they ravished the

country and laid everything waste where they came, that they were man-

eaters, and were on that account dreadful in all those parts. My

companion and I being undeceived by this terrible relation, thought it

would be the highest imprudence to expose ourselves both together to a

death almost certain and unprofitable, and agreed that I should go with

our Abyssin and a Portuguese to observe the country; that if I should

prove so happy as to escape being killed by the inhabitants, and to

discover a way, I should either return, or send back the Abyssin or

Portuguese. Having fixed upon this, I hired a little bark to Jubo, a

place about forty leagues distant from Pate, on board which I put some

provisions, together with my sacerdotal vestments, and all that was

necessary for saying mass: in this vessel we reached the coast, which we

found inhabited by several nations: each nation is subject to its own

king; these petty monarchies are so numerous, that I counted at least ten

in less than four leagues.

CHAPTER II

The author lands: The difficulty of his journey. An account of the

Galles, and of the author's reception at the king's tent; Their manner of

swearing, and of letting blood. The author returns to the Indies, and

finds the patriarch of AEthiopia.

On this coast we landed, with an intention of travelling on foot to Jubo,

a journey of much greater length and difficulty than we imagined. We

durst not go far from our bark, and therefore were obliged to a toilsome

march along the windings of the shore, sometimes clambering up rocks, and

sometimes wading through the sands, so that we were every moment in the

utmost danger of falling from the one, or sinking in the other. Our

lodging was either in the rocks or on the sands, and even that incommoded

by continual apprehensions of being devoured by lions and tigers. Amidst

all these calamities our provisions failed us; we had little hopes of a

supply, for we found neither villages, houses, nor any trace of a human

creature; and had miserably perished by thirst and hunger had we not met

with some fishermen's boats, who exchanged their fish for tobacco.

Through all these fatigues we at length came to Jubo, a kingdom of

considerable extent, situated almost under the line, and tributary to the

Portuguese, who carry on a trade here for ivory and other commodities.

This region so abounds with elephants, that though the teeth of the male

only are valuable, they load several ships with ivory every year. All

this coast is much infested with ravenous beasts, monkeys, and serpents,

of which last here are some seven feet in length, and thicker than an

ordinary man; in the head of this serpent is found a stone about the

bigness of an egg, resembling bezoar, and of great efficacy, as it is

said, against all kinds of poison. I stayed here some time to inform

myself whether I might, by pursuing this road, reach Abyssinia; and could

get no other intelligence but that two thousand Galles (the same people

who inhabited Melinda) had encamped about three leagues from Jubo; that

they had been induced to fix in that place by the plenty of provisions

they found there. These Galles lay everything where they come in ruin,

putting all to the sword without distinction of age or sex; which

barbarities, though their numbers are not great, have spread the terror

of them over all the country. They choose a king, whom they call Lubo:

every eighth year. They carry their wives with them, and expose their

children without any tenderness in the woods, it being prohibited, on

pain of death, to take any care of those which are born in the camp. This

is their way of living when they are in arms, but afterwards when they

settle at home they breed up their children. They feed upon raw cow's

flesh; when they kill a cow, they keep the blood to rub their bodies

with, and wear the guts about their necks for ornaments, which they

afterwards give to their wives.

Several of these Galles came to see me, and as it seemed they had never

beheld a white man before, they gazed on me with amazement; so strong was

their curiosity that they even pulled off my shoes and stockings, that

they might be satisfied whether all my body was of the same colour with

my face. I could remark, that after they had observed me some time, they

discovered some aversion from a white; however, seeing me pull out my

handkerchief, they asked me for it with a great deal of eagerness; I cut

it into several pieces that I might satisfy them all, and distributed it

amongst them; they bound them about their heads, but gave me to

understand that they should have liked them better if they had been red:

after this we were seldom without their company, which gave occasion to

an accident, which though it seemed to threaten some danger at first,

turned afterwards to our advantage.

As these people were continually teasing us, our Portuguese one day

threatened in jest to kill one of them. The black ran in the utmost

dread to seek his comrades, and we were in one moment almost covered with

Galles; we thought it the most proper course to decline the first impulse

of their fury, and retired into our house. Our retreat inspired them

with courage; they redoubled their cries, and posted themselves on an

eminence near at hand that overlooked us; there they insulted us by

brandishing their lances and daggers. We were fortunately not above a

stone's cast from the sea, and could therefore have retreated to our bark

had we found ourselves reduced to extremities. This made us not very

solicitous about their menaces; but finding that they continued to hover

about our habitation, and being wearied with their clamours, we thought

it might be a good expedient to fright them away by firing four muskets

towards them, in such a manner that they might hear the bullets hiss

about two feet over their heads. This had the effect we wished; the

noise and fire of our arms struck them with so much terror that they fell

upon the ground, and durst not for some time so much as lift up their

heads. They forgot immediately their natural temper, their ferocity and

haughtiness were softened into mildness and submission; they asked pardon

for their insolence, and we were ever after good friends.

After our reconciliation we visited each other frequently, and had some

conversation about the journey I had undertaken, and the desire I had of

finding a new passage into AEthiopia. It was necessary on this account

to consult their lubo or king: I found him in a straw hut something

larger than those of his subjects, surrounded by his courtiers, who had

each a stick in his hand, which is longer or shorter according to the

quality of the person admitted into the king's presence. The ceremony

made use of at the reception of a stranger is somewhat unusual; as soon

as he enters, all the courtiers strike him with their cudgels till he

goes back to the door; the amity then subsisting between us did not

secure me from this uncouth reception, which they told me, upon my

demanding the reason of it, was to show those whom they treated with that

they were the bravest people in the world, and that all other nations

ought to bow down before them. I could not help reflecting on this

occasion how imprudently I had trusted my life in the hands of men

unacquainted with compassion or civility, but recollecting at the same

time that the intent of my journey was such as might give me hopes of the

divine protection, I banished all thoughts but those of finding a way

into AEthiopia. In this strait it occurred to me that these people,

however barbarous, have some oath which they keep with an inviolable

strictness; the best precaution, therefore, that I could use would be to

bind them by this oath to be true to their engagements. The manner of

their swearing is this: they set a sheep in the midst of them, and rub it

over with butter, the heads of families who are the chief in the nation

lay their hands upon the head of the sheep, and swear to observe their

promise. This oath (which they never violate) they explain thus: the

sheep is the mother of them who swear; the butter betokens the love

between the mother and the children, and an oath taken on a mother's head

is sacred. Upon the security of this oath, I made them acquainted with

my intention, an intention, they told me, it was impossible to put in

execution. From the moment I left them they said they could give me no

assurance of either life or liberty, that they were perfectly informed

both of the roads and inhabitants, that there were no fewer than nine

nations between us and Abyssinia, who were always embroiled amongst

themselves, or at war with the Abyssins, and enjoyed no security even in

their own territories. We were now convinced that our enterprise was

impracticable, and that to hazard ourselves amidst so many insurmountable

difficulties would be to tempt Providence; despairing, therefore, that I

should ever come this way to Abyssinia, I resolved to return back with my

intelligence to my companion, whom I had left at Pate.

I cannot, however, leave this country without giving an account of their

manner of blood-letting, which I was led to the knowledge of by a violent

fever, which threatened to put an end to my life and travels together.

The distress I was in may easily be imagined, being entirely destitute of

everything necessary. I had resolved to let myself blood, though I was

altogether a stranger to the manner of doing it, and had no lancet, but

my companions hearing of a surgeon of reputation in the place, went and

brought him. I saw, with the utmost surprise, an old Moor enter my

chamber, with a kind of small dagger, all over rusty, and a mallet in his

hand, and three cups of horn about half a foot long. I started, and

asked what he wanted. He told me to bleed me; and when I had given him

leave, uncovering my side, applied one of his horn cups, which he stopped

with chewed paper, and by that means made it stick fast; in the same

manner he fixed on the other two, and fell to sharpening his instrument,

assuring me that he would give me no pain. He then took off his cups,

and gave in each place a stroke with his poignard, which was followed by

a stream of blood. He applied his cups several times, and every time

struck his lancet into the same place; having drawn away a large quantity

of blood, he healed the orifices with three lumps of tallow. I know not

whether to attribute my cure to bleeding or my fear, but I had from that

time no return of my fever.

When I came to Pate, in hopes of meeting with my associate, I found that

he was gone to Mombaza, in hopes of receiving information. He was sooner

undeceived than I, and we met at the place where we parted in a few days;

and soon afterwards left Pate to return to the Indies, and in nine-and-

twenty days arrived at the famous fortress of Diou. We were told at this

place that Alfonso Mendes, patriarch of AEthiopia, was arrived at Goa

from Lisbon. He wrote to us to desire that we would wait for him at

Diou, in order to embark there for the Red Sea; but being informed by us

that no opportunities of going thither were to be expected at Diou, it

was at length determined that we should meet at Bazaim; it was no easy

matter for me to find means of going to Bazaim. However, after a very

uneasy voyage, in which we were often in danger of being dashed against

the rocks, or thrown upon the sands by the rapidity of the current, and

suffered the utmost distress for want of water, I landed at Daman, a

place about twenty leagues distant from Bazaim. Here I hire a catre and

four boys to carry me to Bazaim: these catres are a kind of travelling

couches, in which you may either lie or sit, which the boys, whose

business is the same with that of chairmen in our country, support upon

their shoulders by two poles, and carry a passenger at the rate of

eighteen or twenty miles a day. Here we at length found the patriarch,

with three more priests, like us, designed for the mission of AEthiopia.

We went back to Daman, and from thence to Diou, where we arrived in a

short time.

CHAPTER III

The author embarks with the patriarch, narrowly escapes shipwreck near

the isle of Socotora; enters the Arabian Gulf, and the Red Sea. Some

account of the coast of the Red Sea.

The patriarch having met with many obstacles and disappointments in his

return to Abyssinia, grew impatient of being so long absent from his

church. Lopo Gomez d'Abreu had made him an offer at Bazaim of fitting

out three ships at his own expense, provided a commission could be

procured him to cruise in the Red Sea. This proposal was accepted by the

patriarch, and a commission granted by the viceroy. While we were at

Diou, waiting for these vessels, we received advice from AEthiopia that

the emperor, unwilling to expose the patriarch to any hazard, thought

Dagher, a port in the mouth of the Red Sea, belonging to a prince

dependent on the Abyssins, a place of the greatest security to land at,

having already written to that prince to give him safe passage through

his dominions. We met here with new delays; the fleet that was to

transport us did not appear, the patriarch lost all patience, and his

zeal so much affected the commander at Diou, that he undertook to equip a

vessel for us, and pushed the work forward with the utmost diligence. At

length, the long-expected ships entered the port; we were overjoyed, we

were transported, and prepared to go on board. Many persons at Diou,

seeing the vessels so well fitted out, desired leave to go this voyage

along with us, imagining they had an excellent opportunity of acquiring

both wealth and honour. We committed, however, one great error in

setting out, for having equipped our ships for privateering, and taken no

merchandise on board, we could not touch at any of the ports of the Red

Sea. The patriarch, impatient to be gone, took leave in the most tender

manner of the governor and his other friends, recommended our voyage to

the Blessed Virgin, and in the field, before we went on shipboard, made a

short exhortation, so moving and pathetic, that it touched the hearts of

all who heard it. In the evening we went on board, and early the next

morning being the 3rd of April, 1625, we set sail.

After some days we discovered about noon the island Socotora, where we

proposed to touch. The sky was bright and the wind fair, nor had we the

least apprehension of the danger into which we were falling, but with the

utmost carelessness and jollity held on our course. At night, when our

sailors, especially the Moors, were in a profound sleep (for the

Mohammedans, believing everything forewritten in the decrees of God, and

not alterable by any human means, resign themselves entirely to

Providence), our vessel ran aground upon a sand bank at the entrance of

the harbour. We got her off with the utmost difficulty, and nothing but

a miracle could have preserved us. We ran along afterwards by the side

of the island, but were entertained with no other prospect than of a

mountainous country, and of rocks that jutted out over the sea, and

seemed ready to fall into it. In the afternoon, putting into the most

convenient ports of the island, we came to anchor; very much to the

amazement and terror of the inhabitants, who were not used to see any

Portuguese ships upon their coasts, and were therefore under a great

consternation at finding them even in their ports. Some ran for security

to the mountains, others took up arms to oppose our landing, but were

soon reconciled to us, and brought us fowls, fish, and sheep, in exchange

for India calicoes, on which they set a great value. We left this island

early the next morning, and soon came in sight of Cape Gardafui, so

celebrated heretofore under the name of the Cape of Spices, either

because great quantities were then found there, or from its neighbourhood

to Arabia the Happy, even at this day famous for its fragrant products.

It is properly at this cape (the most eastern part of Africa) that the

Gulf of Arabia begins, which at Babelmandel loses its name, and is called

the Red Sea. Here, though the weather was calm, we found the sea so

rough, that we were tossed as in a high wind for two nights; whether this

violent agitation of the water proceeded from the narrowness of the

strait, or from the fury of the late storm, I know not; whatever was the

cause, we suffered all the hardships of a tempest. We continued our

course towards the Red Sea, meeting with nothing in our passage but a

gelve, or kind of boat, made of thin boards, sewed together, with no

other sail than a mat. We gave her chase, in hopes of being informed by

the crew whether there were any Arabian vessels at the mouth of the

strait; but the Moors, who all entertain dismal apprehensions of the

Franks, plied their oars and sail with the utmost diligence, and as soon

as they reached land, quitted their boat, and scoured to the mountains.

We saw them make signals from thence, and imagining they would come to a

parley, sent out our boat with two sailors and an Abyssin, putting the

ships off from the shore, to set them free from any suspicion of danger

in coming down. All this was to no purpose, they could not be drawn from

the mountain, and our men had orders not to go on shore, so they were

obliged to return without information. Soon after we discovered the isle

of Babelmandel, which gives name to the strait so called, and parts the

sea that surrounds it into two channels; that on the side of Arabia is

not above a quarter of a league in breadth, and through this pass almost

all the vessels that trade to or from the Red Sea. The other, on the

side of AEthiopia, though much larger, is more dangerous, by reason of

the shallows, which make it necessary for a ship, though of no great

burthen, to pass very near the island, where the channel is deeper and

less embarrassed. This passage is never made use of but by those who

would avoid meeting with the Turks who are stationed on the coast of

Arabia; it was for this reason that we chose it. We passed it in the

night, and entered that sea, so renowned on many accounts in history,

both sacred and profane.

In our description of this famous sea, an account of which may justly be

expected in this place, it is most convenient to begin with the coast of

Arabia, on which part at twelve leagues from the mouth stands the city of

Moca, a place of considerable trade. Forty leagues farther is the Isle

of Camaram, whose inhabitants are annoyed with little serpents, which

they call basilisks, which, though very poisonous and deadly, do not, as

the ancients have told us, kill with their eyes, or if they have so fatal

a power, it is not at least in this place. Sailing ninety leagues

farther, you see the noted port of Jodda, where the pilgrims that go to

Mecca and Medina unlade those rich presents which the zeal of different

princes is every day accumulating at the tomb of Mahomet. The commerce

of this place, and the number of merchants that resort thither from all

parts of the world, are above description, and so richly laden are the

ships that come hither, that when the Indians would express a thing of

inestimable price, they say, "It is of greater value than a ship of

Jodda." An hundred and eighteen leagues from thence lies Toro, and near

it the ruins of an ancient monastery. This is the place, if the report

of the inhabitants deserves any credit, where the Israelites miraculously

passed through the Red Sea on dry land; and there is some reason for

imagining the tradition not ill grounded, for the sea is here only three

leagues in breadth. All the ground about Toro is barren for want of

water, which is only to be found at a considerable distance, in one

fountain, which flows out of the neighbouring mountains, at the foot of

which there are still twelve palm-trees. Near Toro are several wells,

which, as the Arabs tell us, were dug by the order of Moses to quiet the

clamours of the thirsty Israelites. Suez lies in the bottom of the Gulf,

three leagues from Toro, once a place of note, now reduced, under the

Turks, to an inconsiderable village, where the miserable inhabitants are

forced to fetch water at three leagues' distance. The ancient Kings of

Egypt conveyed the waters of the Nile to this place by an artificial

canal, now so choked with sand, that there are scarce any marks remaining

of so noble and beneficial a work.

The first place to be met with in travelling along the coast of Africa is

Rondelo, situate over against Toro, and celebrated for the same

miraculous passage. Forty-five leagues from thence is Cocir. Here ends

that long chain of mountains that reaches from this place even to the

entrance of the Red Sea. In this prodigious ridge, which extends three

hundred leagues, sometimes approaching near the sea, and sometimes

running far up into the land, there is only one opening, through which

all that merchandise is conveyed, which is embarked at Rifa, and from

thence distributed through all the east. These mountains, as they are

uncultivated, are in some parts shaded with large forests, and in others

dry and bare. As they are exceedingly high, all the seasons may be here

found together; when the storms of winter beat on one side, on the other

is often a serene sky and a bright sunshine. The Nile runs here so near

the shore that it might without much difficulty be turned through this

opening of the mountains into the Red Sea, a design which many of the

Emperors have thought of putting in execution, and thereby making a

communication between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, but have been

discouraged either by the greatness of the expense or the fear of laying

great part of Egypt under water, for some of that country lies lower than

sea.

Distant from Rondelo a hundred and thirty leagues is the Isle of Suaquem,

where the Bassa of that country chooses his residence, for the

convenience of receiving the tribute with greater exactness, there being

a large trade carried on here with the Abyssins. The Turks of Suaquem

have gardens on the firm land, not above a musket shot from the island,

which supply them with many excellent herbs and fruits, of which I doubt

whether there be not a greater quantity on this little spot than on the

whole coast of Africa besides, from Melinda to Suez. For if we except

the dates which grow between Suez and Suaquem, the ground does not yield

the least product; all the necessaries of life, even water, is wanting.

Nothing can support itself in this region of barrenness but ostriches,

which devour stones, or anything they meet with; they lay a great number

of eggs, part of which they break to feed their young with. These fowls,

of which I have seen many, are very tame, and when they are pursued,

stretch out their wings, and run with amazing swiftness. As they have

cloven feet, they sometimes strike up the stones when they run, which

gave occasion to the notion that they threw stones at the hunters, a

relation equally to be credited with those of their eating fire and

digesting iron. Those feathers which are so much valued grow under their

wings: the shell of their eggs powdered is an excellent remedy for sore

eyes.

The burning wind spoken of in the sacred writings, I take to be that

which the natives term arur, and the Arabs uri, which blowing in the

spring, brings with it so excessive a heat, that the whole country seems

a burning oven; so that there is no travelling here in this dreadful

season, nor is this the only danger to which the unhappy passenger is

exposed in these uncomfortable regions. There blows in the months of

June, July, and August, another wind, which raises mountains of sand and

carries them through the air; all that can be done in this case is when a

cloud of sand rises, to mark where it is likely to fall, and to retire as

far off as possible; but it is very usual for men to be taken

unexpectedly, and smothered in the dust. One day I found the body of a

Christian, whom I knew, upon the sand; he had doubtless been choked by

these winds. I recommended his soul to the divine mercy and buried him.

He seemed to have been some time dead, yet the body had no ill smell.

These winds are most destructive in Arabia the Desert.

CHAPTER IV

The author's conjecture on the name of the Red Sea. An account of the

cocoa-tree. He lands at Baylur.

To return to the description of the coast: sixty leagues from Suaquem is

an island called Mazna, only considerable for its ports, which make the

Turks reside upon it, though they are forced to keep three barks

continually employed in fetching water, which is not to be found nearer

than at a distance of twelve miles. Forty leagues from hence is Dalacha,

an island where many pearls are found, but of small value. The next

place is Baylur, forty leagues from Dalacha, and twelve from Babelmandel.

There are few things upon which a greater variety of conjectures has been

offered than upon the reasons that induced the ancients to distinguish

this gulf, which separates Asia from Africa, by the name of the Red Sea,

an appellation that has almost universally obtained in all languages.

Some affirm that the torrents, which fall after great rains from the

mountains, wash down such a quantity of red sand as gives a tincture to

the water: others tell us that the sunbeams being reverberated from the

red rocks, give the sea on which they strike the appearance of that

colour. Neither of these accounts are satisfactory; the coasts are so

scorched by the heat that they are rather black than red; nor is the

colour of this sea much altered by the winds or rains. The notion

generally received is, that the coral found in such quantities at the

bottom of the sea might communicate this colour to the water: an account

merely chimerical. Coral is not to be found in all parts of this gulf,

and red coral in very few. Nor does this water in fact differ from that

of other seas. The patriarch and I have frequently amused ourselves with

making observations, and could never discover any redness, but in the

shallows, where a kind of weed grew which they call gouesmon, which

redness disappeared as soon as we plucked up the plant. It is observable

that St. Jerome, confining himself to the Hebrew, calls this sea Jamsuf.

Jam in that language signifies sea, and suf is the name of a plant in

AEthiopia, from which the Abyssins extract a beautiful crimson; whether

this be the same with the gouesmon, I know not, but am of opinion that

the herb gives to this sea both the colour and the name.

The vessels most used in the Red Sea, though ships of all sizes may be

met with there, are gelves, of which some mention hath been made already;

these are the more convenient, because they will not split if thrown upon

banks or against rocks. These gelves have given occasion to the report

that out of the cocoa-tree alone a ship may be built, fitted out with

masts, sails, and cordage, and victualled with bread, water, wine, sugar,

vinegar, and oil. All this indeed cannot be done out of one tree, but

may out of several of the same kind. They saw the trunk into planks, and

sew them together with thread which they spin out of the bark, and which

they twist for the cables; the leaves stitched together make the sails.

This boat thus equipped may be furnished with all necessaries from the

same tree. There is not a month in which the cocoa does not produce a

bunch of nuts, from twenty to fifty. At first sprouts out a kind of seed

or capsula, of a shape not unlike the scabbard of a scimitar, which they

cut, and place a vessel under, to receive the liquor that drops from it;

this drink is called soro, and is clear, pleasant, and nourishing. If it

be boiled, it grows hard, and makes a kind of sugar much valued in the

Indies: distil this liquor and you have a strong water, of which is made

excellent vinegar. All these different products are afforded before the

nut is formed, and while it is green it contains a delicious cooling

water; with these nuts they store their gelves, and it is the only

provision of water which is made in this country. The second bark which

contains the water is so tender that they eat it. When this fruit

arrives to perfect maturity, they either pound the kernel into meal, and

make cakes of or draw an oil from it of a fine scent and taste, and of

great use in medicine; so that what is reported of the different products

of this wonderful tree is neither false nor incredible.

It is time we should come now to the relation of our voyage. Having

happily passed the straits at the entrance of the Red Sea, we pursued our

course, keeping as near the shore as we could, without any farther

apprehensions of the Turks. We were, however, under some concern that we

were entirely ignorant in what part of the coast to find Baylur, a port

where we proposed landing, and so little known, that our pilots, who had

made many voyages in this sea, could give us no account of it. We were

in hopes of information from the fishermen, but found that as soon as we

came near they fled from us in the greatest consternation; no signals of

peace or friendship could prevail on them to stay; they either durst not

trust or did not understand us. We plied along the coast in this

uncertainty two days, till on the first of March having doubled a point

of land, which came out a great way into the sea, we found ourselves in

the middle of a fair large bay, which many reasons induced us to think

was Baylur; that we might be farther assured we sent our Abyssin on

shore, who returning next morning confirmed our opinion. It would not be

easy to determine whether our arrival gave us greater joy, or the

inhabitants greater apprehensions, for we could discern a continual

tumult in the land, and took notice that the crews of some barks that lay

in the harbour were unlading with all possible diligence, to prevent the

cargo from falling into our hands, very much indeed to the

dissatisfaction of many of our soldiers, who having engaged in this

expedition, with no other view than of filling their pockets, were,

before the return of our Abyssin, for treating them like enemies, and

taking them as a lawful prize. We were willing to be assured of a good

reception in this port; the patriarch therefore sent me to treat with

them. I dressed myself like a merchant, and in that habit received the

four captains of gelves which the Chec sent to compliment me, and ordered

to stay as hostages, whom I sent back, that I might gain upon their

affections by the confidence I placed in their sincerity; this had so

good an effect, that the Chec, who was transported with the account the

officers gave of the civilities they had been treated with, came in an

hour to visit me, bringing with him a Portuguese, whom I had sent ashore

as a security for his return. He informed me that the King his master

was encamped not far off, and that a Chec who was then in the company was

just arrived from thence, and had seen the Emperor of AEthiopia's letters

in our favour; I was then convinced that we might land without scruple,

and to give the patriarch notice of it ordered a volley of our muskets to

be fired, which was answered by the cannon of the two ships that lay at a

distance, for fear of giving the Moors any cause of suspicion by their

approach. The Chec and his attendants, though I had given them notice

that we were going to let off our guns in honour of the King their

master, could not forbear trembling at the fire and noise. They left us

soon after, and next morning we landed our baggage, consisting chiefly of

the patriarch's library, some ornaments for the church, some images, and

some pieces of calico, which were of the same use as money. Most of the

soldiers and sailors were desirous of going with us, some from real

principles of piety, and a desire of sharing the labours and merits of

the mission, others upon motives very different, the hopes of raising a

fortune. To have taken all who offered themselves would have been an

injury to the owners of the ships, by rendering them unable to continue

their voyage; we therefore accepted only of a few.

CHAPTER V

An account of Dancali. The conduct of Chec Furt. The author wounded.

They arrive at the court of the King of Dancali. A description of his

pavilion, and the reception they met with.

Our goods were no sooner landed than we were surrounded with a crowd of

officers, all gaping for presents; we were forced to gratify their

avarice by opening our bales, and distributing among them some pieces of

calico. What we gave to the Chec might be worth about a pistole, and the

rest in proportion.

The kingdom of Dancali, to which this belongs, is barren, and thinly

peopled; the king is tributary to the Emperor of Abyssinia, and very

faithful to his sovereign. The emperor had not only written to him, but

had sent a Moor and Portuguese as his ambassadors, to secure us a kind

reception; these in their way to this prince had come through the

countries of Chumo-Salamay and Senaa, the utmost confines of Abyssinia,

and had carried thither the emperor's orders concerning our passage.

On Ascension Day we left Baylur, having procured some camels and asses to

carry our baggage. The first day's march was not above a league, and the

others not much longer. Our guides performed their office very ill,

being influenced, as we imagined, by the Chec Furt, an officer, whom,

though unwilling, we were forced to take with us. This man, who might

have brought us to the king in three days, led us out of the way through

horrid deserts destitute of water, or where what we found was so foul,

nauseous, and offensive, that it excited a loathing and aversion which

nothing but extreme necessity could have overcome.

Having travelled some days, we were met by the King's brother, to whom,

by the advice of Chec Furt, whose intent in following us was to squeeze

all he could from us; we presented some pieces of Chinese workmanship,

such as cases of boxes, a standish, and some earthenware, together with

several pieces of painted calico, which were so much more agreeable, that

he desired some other pieces instead of our Chinese curiosities; we

willingly made the exchange. Yet some time afterwards he asked again for

those Chinese goods which he had returned us, nor was it in our power to

refuse them. I was here in danger of losing my life by a compliment

which the Portuguese paid the prince of a discharge of twelve muskets;

one being unskilfully charged too high, flew out of the soldier's hand,

and falling against my leg, wounded it very much; we had no surgeon with

us, so that all I could do was to bind it hard with some cloth. I was

obliged by this accident to make use of the Chec Furt's horse, which was

the greatest service we received from him in all our journey.

When we came within two leagues and a half of the King's court, he sent

some messengers with his compliments, and five mules for the chief of our

company. Our road lay through a wood, where we found the ground covered

over with young locusts, a plague intolerably afflictive in a country so

barren of itself. We arrived at length at the bank of a small river,

near which the King usually keeps his residence, and found his palace at

the foot of a little mountain. It consisted of about six tents and

twenty cabins, erected amongst some thorns and wild trees, which afforded

a shelter from the heat of the weather. He received us the first time in

a cabin about a musket shot distant from the rest, furnished out with a

throne in the middle built of clay and stones, and covered with tapestry

and two velvet cushions. Over against him stood his horse with his

saddle and other furniture hanging by him, for in this country, the

master and his horse make use of the same apartment, nor doth the King in

this respect affect more grandeur than his subjects. When we entered, we

seated ourselves on the ground with our legs crossed, in imitation of the

rest, whom we found in the same posture. After we had waited some time,

the King came in, attended by his domestics and his officers. He held a

small lance in his hand, and was dressed in a silk robe, with a turban on

his head, to which were fastened some rings of very neat workmanship,

which fell down upon his forehead. All kept silence for some time, and

the King told us by his interpreter that we were welcome to his

dominions, that he had been informed we were to come by the Emperor his

father, and that he condoled the hardships we had undergone at sea. He

desired us not to be under any concern at finding ourselves in a country

so distant from our own, for those dominions were ours, and he and the

Emperor his father would give us all the proofs we could desire of the

sincerest affection. We returned him thanks for this promise of his

favour, and after a short conversation went away. Immediately we were

teazed by those who brought us the mules, and demanded to be paid the

hire of them; and had advice given us at the same time that we should get

a present ready for the King. The Chec Furt, who was extremely ready to

undertake any commission of this kind, would needs direct us in the

affair, and told us that our gifts ought to be of greater value, because

we had neglected making any such offer at our first audience, contrary to

the custom of that country. By these pretences he obliged us to make a

present to the value of about twenty pounds, with which he seemed to be

pleased, and told us we had nothing to do but prepare to make our entry.

CHAPTER VI

The King refuses their present. The author's boldness. The present is

afterwards accepted. The people are forbidden to sell them provisions.

The author remonstrates against the usage. The King redresses it.

But such was either the hatred or avarice of this man, that instead of

doing us the good offices he pretended, he advised the King to refuse our

present, that he might draw from us something more valuable. When I

attended the King in order to deliver the presents, after I had excused

the smallness of them, as being, though unworthy his acceptance, the

largest that our profession of poverty, and distance from our country,

allowed us to make, he examined them one by one with a dissatisfied look,

and told me that however he might be pleased with our good attentions, he

thought our present such as could not be offered to a king without

affronting him; and made me a sign with his hand to withdraw, and take

back what I had brought. I obeyed, telling him that perhaps he might

send for it again without having so much. The Chec Furt, who had been

the occasion of all this, coming to us afterwards, blamed us exceedingly

for having offered so little, and being told by us that the present was

picked out by himself, that we had nothing better to give, and that what

we had left would scarce defray the expenses of our journey, he pressed

us at least to add something, but could prevail no farther than to

persuade us to repeat our former offer, which the King was now pleased to

accept, though with no kinder countenance than before.

Here we spent our time and our provisions, without being able to procure

any more. The country indeed affords goats and honey, but nobody would

sell us any, the King, as I was secretly informed, having strictly

prohibited it, with a view of forcing all we had from us. The patriarch

sent me to expostulate the matter with the King, which I did in very warm

terms, telling him that we were assured by the Emperor of a reception in

this country far different from what we met with, which assurances he had

confirmed by his promise and the civilities we were entertained with at

our first arrival; but that instead of friends who would compassionate

our miseries, and supply our necessities, we found ourselves in the midst

of mortal enemies that wanted to destroy us.

The King, who affected to appear ignorant of the whole affair, demanded

an account of the injuries I complained of, and told me that if any of

his subjects should dare to attempt our lives, it should cost him his

own. We were not, replied I, in danger of being stabbed or poisoned, but

are doomed to a more lingering and painful death by that prohibition

which obliges your subjects to deny us the necessaries of life; if it be

Your Highness's pleasure that we die here, we entreat that we may at

least be despatched quickly, and not condemned to longer torments. The

King, startled at this discourse, denied that he had given any such

orders, and was very importunate to know the author of our intelligence,

but finding me determined not to discover him, he sent me away with a

promise that for the future we should be furnished with everything we

wanted, and indeed that same day we bought three goats for about a crown,

and some honey, and found ourselves better treated than before.

CHAPTER VII

They obtain leave, with some difficulty, to depart from Dancali. The

difficulties of their march. A broil with the Moors. They arrive at the

plain of salt.

This usage, with some differences we had with a Moor, made us very

desirous of leaving this country, but we were still put off with one

pretence or other whenever we asked leave to depart. Tired with these

delays, I applied myself to his favourite minister, with a promise of a

large present if he could obtain us an audience of leave; he came to us

at night to agree upon the reward, and soon accomplished all we desired,

both getting us a permission to go out of the kingdom, and procuring us

camels to carry our baggage, and that of the Abyssinian ambassadors who

were ordered to accompany us.

We set out from the kingdom of Dancali on the 15th of June, having taken

our leave of the King, who after many excuses for everything that had

happened, dismissed us with a present of a cow, and some provisions,

desiring us to tell the Emperor of AEthiopia his father that we had met

with kind treatment in his territories, a request which we did not at

that time think it convenient to deny.

Whatever we had suffered hitherto, was nothing to the difficulties we

were now entering upon, and which God had decreed us to undergo for the

sake of Jesus Christ. Our way now lay through a region scarce passable,

and full of serpents, which were continually creeping between our legs;

we might have avoided them in the day, but being obliged, that we might

avoid the excessive heats, to take long marches in the night, we were

every moment treading upon them. Nothing but a signal interposition of

Providence could have preserved us from being bitten by them, or

perishing either by weariness or thirst, for sometimes we were a long

time without water, and had nothing to support our strength in this

fatigue but a little honey, and a small piece of cows' flesh dried in the

sun. Thus we travelled on for many days, scarce allowing ourselves any

rest, till we came to a channel or hollow worn in the mountains by the

winter torrents; here we found some coolness, and good water, a blessing

we enjoyed for three days; down this channel all the winter runs a great

river which is dried up in the heats, or to speak more properly, hides

itself under ground. We walked along its side, sometimes seven or eight

leagues without seeing any water, and then we found it rising out of the

ground, at which places we never failed to drink as much as we could, and

fill our bottles.

In our march, there fell out an unlucky accident, which, however, did not

prove of the bad consequence it might have done. The master of our

camels was an old Mohammedan, who had conceived an opinion that it was an

act of merit to do us all the mischief he could; and in pursuance of his

notion, made it his chief employment to steal everything he could lay

hold on; his piety even transported him so far, that one morning he stole

and hid the cords of our tents. The patriarch who saw him at the work

charged him with it, and upon his denial, showed him the end of the cord

hanging from under the saddle of one of his camels. Upon this we went to

seize them, but were opposed by him and the rest of the drivers, who set

themselves in a posture of opposition with their daggers. Our soldiers

had recourse to their muskets, and four of them putting the mouths of

their pieces to the heads of some of the most obstinate and turbulent,

struck them with such a terror, that all the clamour was stilled in an

instant; none received any hurt but the Moor who had been the occasion of

the tumult. He was knocked down by one of our soldiers, who had cut his

throat but that the fathers prevented it: he then restored the cords, and

was more tractable ever after. In all my dealings with the Moors, I have

always discovered in them an ill-natured cowardice, which makes them

insupportably insolent if you show them the least respect, and easily

reduced to reasonable terms when you treat them with a high hand.

After a march of some days we came to an opening between the mountains,

the only passage out of Dancali into Abyssinia. Heaven seems to have

made this place on purpose for the repose of weary travellers, who here

exchange the tortures of parching thirst, burning sands, and a sultry

climate, for the pleasures of shady trees, the refreshment of a clear

stream, and the luxury of a cooling breeze. We arrived at this happy

place about noon, and the next day at evening left those fanning winds,

and woods flourishing with unfading verdure, for the dismal barrenness of

the vast uninhabitable plains, from which Abyssinia is supplied with

salt. These plains are surrounded with high mountains, continually

covered with thick clouds which the sun draws from the lakes that are

here, from which the water runs down into the plain, and is there

congealed into salt. Nothing can be more curious than to see the

channels and aqueducts that nature has formed in this hard rock, so exact

and of such admirable contrivance, that they seem to be the work of men.

To this place caravans of Abyssinia are continually resorting, to carry

salt into all parts of the empire, which they set a great value upon, and

which in their country is of the same use as money. The superstitious

Abyssins imagine that the cavities of the mountains are inhabited by evil

spirits which appear in different shapes, calling those that pass by

their names as in a familiar acquaintance, who, if they go to them, are

never seen afterwards. This relation was confirmed by the Moorish

officer who came with us, who, as he said, had lost a servant in that

manner: the man certainly fell into the hands of the Galles, who lurk in

those dark retreats, cut the throats of the merchants, and carry off

their effects.

The heat making it impossible to travel through this plain in the day-

time, we set out in the evening, and in the night lost our way. It is

very dangerous to go through this place, for there are no marks of the

right road, but some heaps of salt, which we could not see. Our camel

drivers getting together to consult on this occasion, we suspected they

had some ill design in hand, and got ready our weapons; they perceived

our apprehensions, and set us at ease by letting us know the reason of

their consultation. Travelling hard all night, we found ourselves next

morning past the plain; but the road we were in was not more commodious,

the points of the rocks pierced our feet; to increase our perplexities we

were alarmed with the approach of an armed troop, which our fear

immediately suggested to be the Galles, who chiefly beset these passes of

the mountains; we put ourselves on the defensive, and expected them,

whom, upon a more exact examination, we found to be only a caravan of

merchants come as usual to fetch salt.

CHAPTER VIII

They lose their way, are in continual apprehensions of the Galles. They

come to Duan, and settle in Abyssinia.

About nine the next morning we came to the end of this toilsome and

rugged path, where the way divided into two, yet both led to a well, the

only one that was found in our journey. A Moor with three others took

the shortest, without directing us to follow him; so we marched forwards

we knew not whither, through woods and over rocks, without sleep or any

other refreshment: at noon the next day we discovered that we were near

the field of salt. Our affliction and distress is not to be expressed;

we were all fainting with heat and weariness, and two of the patriarch's

servants were upon the point of dying for want of water. None of us had

any but a Moor, who could not be prevailed upon to part with it at less

than the weight in gold; we got some from him at last, and endeavoured to

revive the two servants, while part of us went to look for a guide that

might put us in the right way. The Moors who had arrived at the well,

rightly guessing that we were lost, sent one of their company to look for

us, whom we heard shouting in the woods, but durst make no answer for

fear of the Galles. At length he found us, and conducted us to the rest;

we instantly forgot our past calamities, and had no other care than to

recover the patriarch's attendants. We did not give them a full draught

at first, but poured in the water by drops, to moisten their mouths and

throats, which were extremely swelled: by this caution they were soon

well. We then fell to eating and drinking, and though we had nothing but

our ordinary repast of honey and dried flesh, thought we never had

regaled more pleasantly in our lives.

We durst not stay long in this place for fear of the Galles, who lay

their ambushes more particularly near this well, by which all caravans

must necessarily pass. Our apprehensions were very much increased by our

suspicion of the camel-drivers, who, as we imagined, had advertised the

Galles of our arrival. The fatigue we had already suffered did not

prevent our continuing our march all night: at last we entered a plain,

where our drivers told us we might expect to be attacked by the Galles;

nor was it long before our own eyes convinced us that we were in great

danger, for we saw as we went along the dead bodies of a caravan who had

been lately massacred, a sight which froze our blood, and filled us with

pity and with horror. The same fate was not far from overtaking us, for

a troop of Galles, who were detached in search of us, missed us but an

hour or two. We spent the next night in the mountains, but when we

should have set out in the morning, were obliged to a fierce dispute with

the old Moor, who had not yet lost his inclination to destroy us; he

would have had us taken a road which was full of those people we were so

much afraid of: at length finding he could not prevail with us, that we

charged the goods upon him as belonging to the Emperor, to whom he should

be answerable for the loss of them, he consented, in a sullen way, to go

with us.

The desire of getting out of the reach of the Galles made us press

forward with great expedition, and, indeed, fear having entirely

engrossed our minds, we were perhaps less sensible of all our labours and

difficulties; so violent an apprehension of one danger made us look on

many others with unconcern; our pains at last found some intermission at

the foot of the mountains of Duan, the frontier of Abyssinia, which

separates it from the country of the Moors, through which we had

travelled.

Here we imagined we might repose securely, a felicity we had long been

strangers to. Here we began to rejoice at the conclusion of our labours;

the place was cool and pleasant, the water was excellent, and the birds

melodious. Some of our company went into the wood to divert themselves

with hearing the birds and frightening the monkeys, creatures so cunning

that they would not stir if a man came unarmed, but would run immediately

when they saw a gun. At this place our camel drivers left us, to go to

the feast of St. Michael, which the AEthiopians celebrate the 16th of

June. We persuaded them, however, to leave us their camels and four of

their company to take care of them.

We had not waited many days before some messengers came to us with an

account that Father Baradas, with the Emperor's nephew, and many other

persons of distinction, waited for us at some distance; we loaded our

camels, and following the course of the river, came in seven hours to the

place we were directed to halt at. Father Manuel Baradas and all the

company, who had waited for us a considerable time on the top of the

mountain, came down when they saw our tents, and congratulated our

arrival. It is not easy to express the benevolence and tenderness with

which they embraced us, and the concern they showed at seeing us worn

away with hunger, labour, and weariness, our clothes tattered, and our

feet bloody.

We left this place of interview the next day, and on the 21st of June

arrived at Fremone, the residence of the missionaries, where we were

welcomed by great numbers of Catholics, both Portuguese and Abyssins, who

spared no endeavours to make us forget all we had suffered in so

hazardous a journey, undertaken with no other intention than to conduct

them in the way of salvation.

PART II--A DESCRIPTION OF ABYSSINIA

CHAPTER I

The history of Abyssinia. An account of the Queen of Sheba, and of Queen

Candace. The conversion of the Abyssins.

The original of the Abyssins, like that of all other nations, is obscure

and uncertain. The tradition generally received derives them from Cham,

the son of Noah, and they pretend, however improbably, that from his time

till now the legal succession of their kings hath never been interrupted,

and that the supreme power hath always continued in the same family. An

authentic genealogy traced up so high could not but be extremely curious;

and with good reason might the Emperors of Abyssinia boast themselves the

most illustrious and ancient family in the world. But there are no real

grounds for imagining that Providence has vouchsafed them so

distinguishing a protection, and from the wars with which this empire

hath been shaken in these latter ages we may justly believe that, like

all others, it has suffered its revolutions, and that the history of the

Abyssins is corrupted with fables. This empire is known by the name of

the kingdom of Prester-John. For the Portuguese having heard such

wonderful relations of an ancient and famous Christian state called by

that name, in the Indies, imagined it could be none but this of AEthiopia.

Many things concurred to make them of this opinion: there was no

Christian kingdom or state in the Indies of which all was true which they

heard of this land of Prester-John: and there was none in the other parts

of the world who was a Christian separated from the Catholic Church but

what was known, except this kingdom of AEthiopia. It has therefore

passed for the kingdom of Prester-John since the time that it was

discovered by the Portuguese in the reign of King John the Second.

The country is properly called Abyssinia, and the people term themselves

Abyssins. Their histories count a hundred and sixty-two reigns, from

Cham to Faciladas or Basilides; among which some women are remarkably

celebrated. One of the most renowned is the Queen of Sheba, mentioned in

Scripture, whom the natives call Nicaula or Macheda, and in their

translation of the gospel, Nagista Azeb, which in their language is Queen

of the South. They still show the ruins of a city which appears to have

been once of note, as the place where she kept her court, and a village

which, from its being the place of her birth, they call the land of Saba.

The Kings of AEthiopia draw their boasted pedigree from Minilech, the son

of this Queen and Solomon. The other Queen for whom they retain a great

veneration is Candace, whom they call Judith, and indeed if what they

relate of her could be proved, there never was, amongst the most

illustrious and beneficent sovereigns, any to whom their country was more

indebted, for it is said that she being converted by Inda her eunuch,

whom St. Philip baptised, prevailed with her subjects to quit the worship

of idols, and profess the faith of Jesus Christ. This opinion appears to

me without any better foundation than another of the conversion of the

Abyssins to the Jewish rites by the Queen of Sheba, at her return from

the court of Solomon. They, however, who patronise these traditions give

us very specious accounts of the zeal and piety of the Abyssins at their

first conversion. Many, they say, abandoned all the pleasures and

vanities of life for solitude and religious austerities; others devoted

themselves to God in an ecclesiastical life; they who could not do these

set apart their revenues for building churches, endowing chapels, and

founding monasteries, and spent their wealth in costly ornaments for the

churches and vessels for the altars. It is true that this people has a

natural disposition to goodness; they are very liberal of their alms,

they much frequent their churches, and are very studious to adorn them;

they practise fasting and other mortifications, and notwithstanding their

separation from the Roman Church, and the corruptions which have crept

into their faith, yet retain in a great measure the devout fervour of the

primitive Christians. There never were greater hopes of uniting this

people to the Church of Rome, which their adherence to the Eutichian

heresy has made very difficult, than in the time of Sultan Segued, who

called us into his dominions in the year 1625, from whence we were

expelled in 1634. As I have lived a long time in this country, and borne

a share in all that has passed, I will present the reader with a short

account of what I have observed, and of the revolution which forced us to

abandon AEthiopia, and destroyed all our hopes of reuniting this kingdom

with the Roman Church.

The empire of Abyssinia hath been one of the largest which history gives

us an account of: it extended formerly from the Red Sea to the kingdom of

Congo, and from Egypt to the Indian Sea. It is not long since it

contained forty provinces; but is now not much bigger than all Spain, and

consists but of five kingdoms and six provinces, of which part is

entirely subject to the Emperor, and part only pays him some tribute, or

acknowledgment of dependence, either voluntarily or by compulsion. Some

of these are of very large extent: the kingdoms of Tigre, Bagameder, and

Goiama are as big as Portugal, or bigger; Amhara and Damote are something

less. The provinces are inhabited by Moors, Pagans, Jews, and

Christians: the last is the reigning and established religion. This

diversity of people and religion is the reason that the kingdom in

different parts is under different forms of government, and that their

laws and customs are extremely various.

The inhabitants of the kingdom of Amhara are the most civilised and

polite; and next to them the natives of Tigre, or the true Abyssins. The

rest, except the Damotes, the Gasates, and the Agaus, which approach

somewhat nearer to civility, are entirely rude and barbarous. Among

these nations the Galles, who first alarmed the world in 1542, have

remarkably distinguished themselves by the ravages they have committed,

and the terror they have raised in this part of Africa. They neither sow

their lands nor improve them by any kind of culture; but, living upon

milk and flesh, encamp like the Arabs without any settled habitation.

They practise no rites of worship, though they believe that in the

regions above there dwells a Being that governs the world: whether by

this Being they mean the sun or the sky is not known; or, indeed, whether

they have not some conception of the God that created them. This deity

they call in their language Oul. In other matters they are yet more

ignorant, and have some customs so contrary even to the laws of nature,

as might almost afford reason to doubt whether they are endued with

reason. The Christianity professed by the Abyssins is so corrupted with

superstitions, errors, and heresies, and so mingled with ceremonies

borrowed from the Jews, that little besides the name of Christianity is

to be found here; and the thorns may be said to have choked the grain.

This proceeds in a great measure from the diversity of religions which

are tolerated there, either by negligence or from motives of policy; and

the same cause hath produced such various revolutions, revolts, and civil

wars within these later ages. For those different sects do not easily

admit of an union with each other, or a quiet subjection to the same

monarch. The Abyssins cannot properly be said to have either cities or

houses; they live either in tents, or in cottages made of straw and clay;

for they very rarely build with stone. Their villages or towns consist

of these huts; yet even of such villages they have but few, because the

grandees, the viceroys, and the Emperor himself are always in the camp,

that they may be prepared, upon the most sudden summons, to go where the

exigence of affairs demands their presence. And this precaution is no

more than necessary for a prince every year engaged either in foreign

wars or intestine commotions. These towns have each a governor, whom

they call gadare, over whom is the educ, or lieutenant, and both

accountable to an officer called the afamacon, or mouth of the King;

because he receives the revenues, which he pays into the hands of the

relatinafala, or grand master of the household: sometimes the Emperor

creates a ratz, or viceroy, general over all the empire, who is superior

to all his other officers.

AEthiopia produces very near the same kinds of provisions as Portugal;

though, by the extreme laziness of the inhabitants, in a much less

quantity: however, there are some roots, herbs, and fruits which grow

there much better than in other places. What the ancients imagined of

the torrid zone being uninhabitable is so far from being true, that this

climate is very temperate: the heats, indeed, are excessive in Congo and

Monomotapa, but in Abyssinia they enjoy a perpetual spring, more

delicious and charming than that in our country. The blacks here are not

ugly like those of the kingdoms I have spoken of, but have better

features, and are not without wit and delicacy; their apprehension is

quick, and their judgment sound. The heat of the sun, however it may

contribute to their colour, is not the only reason of it; there is some

peculiarity in the temper and constitution of their bodies, since the

same men, transported into cooler climates, produce children very near as

black as themselves.

They have here two harvests in the year, which is a sufficient recompense

for the small produce of each; one harvest they have in the winter, which

lasts through the months of July, August, and September, the other in the

spring; their trees are always green, and it is the fault of the

inhabitants that they produce so little fruit, the soil being well

adapted to all sorts, especially those that come from the Indies. They

have in the greatest plenty raisins, peaches, sour pomegranates, and

sugarcanes, and some figs. Most of these are ripe about Lent, which the

Abyssins keep with great strictness.

After the vegetable products of this country, it seems not improper to

mention the animals which are found in it, of which here are as great

numbers, of as many different species, as in any country in the world: it

is infested with lions of many kinds, among which are many of that which

is called the lion royal. I cannot help giving the reader on this

occasion a relation of a fact which I was an eye-witness of. A lion

having taken his haunt near the place where I lived, killed all the oxen

and cows, and did a great deal of other mischief, of which I heard new

complaints every day. A servant of mine having taken a resolution to

free the country from this destroyer, went out one day with two lances,

and after he had been some time in quest of him, found him with his mouth

all smeared with the blood of a cow he had just devoured; the man rushed

upon him, and thrust his lance into his throat with such violence that it

came out between his shoulders; the beast, with one dreadful roar, fell

down into a pit, and lay struggling, till my servant despatched him. I

measured the body of this lion, and found him twelve feet between the

head and the tail.