COVILHAM AND PAIVA.
Maritime discovery had now, by slow and painful degrees, proceeded down the coast of Africa, nearly to the southernmost point, and from thence will soon be curving round in due course to India. But expeditions by sea were not the only modes of discovery undertaken by the Portuguese in the reign of John the Second of Portugal. Pedro de Covilham and Alfonso de Paiva went on an enterprise of discovery mainly by land. The latter died at Cairo, the former made his way to Cananor, Calecut, and Goa, and thence back to Cairo, where he found that his companion had died. He then set out again, and eventually came into the kingdom of Shoa, [5]to the court of "the King of Habbesh," who fulfilled sufficiently in Covilham's eyes, the idea of Prester John, and was accordingly called so. It is a curious coincidence, that an ambassador from the King of Habbesh, called Lucas Marcos, a priest of that country, came about this time to Rome and afterwards to Lisbon, which circumstance gave a new impetus to all the King of Portugal's "hopes, wishes, and endeavours."
[Footnote 5: A country in the south of Abyssinia. Tegulet, the ancient capital of Shoa, is in 38 degrees 40' E. long., and 9 degrees 45' N. lat.]