Cap. xliv.—How we went to the town of Dangugui, and Abefete, and how Balgada Robel came to visit us, and the service which he brought, and of the salt which is in the country.
On the 13th of August we set out from this place, where we had kept Saturday and Sunday, and went to stop at a town named Dangugui. In this town there is a well built church, its naves very well constructed upon very thick stone supports, well hewn. The patron of this church is named Quiricos, who amongst us is named Quirici.[69] The town is a very good one, situated close to a pretty river, and they say that it has the privilege that no one may enter it on horseback; but on a mule they may. From here we went to sleep at some very bad villages, and we went to sleep without supper and apart, because we were not able to do otherwise. Next day, in the morning, we set out, and went quickly to a town named Belete, where there was a Beteneguz. Whilst we were there a great gentleman arrived named Robel, and his lordship is named Balgada,[70] and so his appellation and title is Balgada Robel. He brought with him many people on horseback, and mules and horses, and led mules for state and drums. This gentleman is subject to the Tigrimahom. This gentleman sent to beg the ambassador to come and speak to him outside of the Beteneguz and of his lodgings, because he could not go to him there without the Tigrimahom’s being there; because, as I have already written, they respect these Betes very much, which remain with open doors, and no one enters them, saying that it is forbidden under pain of death for any one to enter any Beteneguz without the lord being there who rules the country in the name of the Prester John. When this message arrived, the ambassador sent to tell him that he had come a distance of five thousand leagues, and whoever wished to see him might come to his lodgings, for he was not going to go out of them. Upon this, the gentleman sent a cow and a large jar of honey, white as snow and hard as stone, and sent word that for an interview[71] with the ambassador he would come to the Beteneguz, and that by reason of foreign Christians he would be excused the penalty. On arriving close to the Bete the rain was so heavy that it suited him to enter inside, and he remained talking to the ambassador and with all of us about our coming, and of the Christianity of our countries, which are unknown to them. After that he spoke of the wars that they had with the Moors, who divided with them the countries towards the sea, and that they never ceased warring; and he gave a very good mule for a sword, and the ambassador gave him a helmet. We learned afterwards at court, on the many occasions that we there saw this gentleman, that he was a very great warrior, and was never free from wars, as they related to us, and that he was very fortunate. His lands go to the south along our road, and on the east lie towards the Red Sea, and part of them reach the road by which we were travelling; and they say it is a great lordship. There is in it the best thing there is in Ethiopia, that is the salt, which in all the country is current as money, both in the kingdoms and dominions of the Prester and in the kingdoms of the Moors and Gentiles, and they say that it goes as far as Manicongo. This salt is of stone taken from the mountain (as they say), and it comes in the shape of bricks. Each stone is a span and a half in length, and four fingers in width and three in thickness, and so it goes loaded on beasts like faggots. They say that in the place where the salt is collected a hundred and twenty or a hundred and thirty stones are worth a drachm, and the drachin (as I have already said) is worth three hundred reals, according to our account. Then, at a market which is in our road, at a town named Corcora, which is about a day’s journey from the place where the salt is got, it already is worth five or six stones less, and so it[72] goes on diminishing from market to market. When it arrives at court, six or seven stones are worth a drachm; I have seen them at five to the drachm when it was winter. The salt is very cheap where it is got, and very dear at the court, because it does not travel easily. They say that entering into Damute they get a good slave for three or four stones, and that on reaching the countries of the slaves they say they get a slave for a stone, and almost for a stone its weight in gold. We met on this road three or four hundred animals, in herds, laden with salt, and in the same way others going empty to fetch salt. They say that these belong to great lords, who all send them to make a journey each year for their expenses at court. One meets other files of twenty or thirty beasts (these are like those of muleteers); in other parts one meets men laden with salt, which they carry for themselves, and others in order to make profit from fair to fair. So it is worth and current as money, and whoever carries it finds all that he requires.
Cap. xlv.—How we departed, and our baggage before us, and how a captain of the Tigrimahom who conducted us was frightened by a friar who came in search of us.
We departed from this Beteneguz to some very vile places in a mountain named Benacel; and the next day we set out, and our baggage went on in front, and we found it set down in the middle of a plain where there was much water. When we arrived, it grieved us to see our goods thus. Whilst we were thus at our wits’ end, there came up four or five men on mules, and ten or twelve men on foot with them; amongst them came a friar, and as soon as this friar came up he at once seized the captain by the head, who had charge of our baggage, and gave him buffets. We, on seeing this, all ran up to him to know for what reason he did that. The ambassador, seeing the captain covered with blood, laid hold of the friar by the breast, and was going to strike him, and I do not know whether he did strike him. I and all those who came up with him carried their arms ready, and almost at the breast of the friar. It availed him that he spoke a little Italian, because Jorge d’Abreu was there who understood it a little; and if this had not been the case, and I, who saw his hood and said that he was a friar, he would not have got off well. This matter having been pacified, the friar told how he had come by order of the Prester John to cause our luggage to be carried, and that he had been amazed at that captain, and what he had done to him he did it on account of the bad equipment which he was giving us. The ambassador answered that those buffets had not been given to the captain, but to him, since he had given them in his presence, and that he felt it much. All having been restored to peace, the friar said that he had to go forward on the road by which we had been travelling, to the house of the Balgada Robel, the gentleman we had left behind, and that from him and from his house he would bring mules and camels to carry our baggage, and that we should go and wait for him at a Beteneguz which was at a distance of half a day’s journey from this place. (This is the friar who is going as ambassador to Portugal.) We departed on our way, and went to sleep at a small village where there is a good church; its patron is Quercos. At night we thought we should have been eaten by the tigers. On the following day we went forward little more than half a league to the Beteneguz which the friar had told us of: this is at a town called Corcora, with very good houses for resting in, and a very good church. Here we remained Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, waiting for the friar. They told us that to the eastward from this place there was a large monastery named Nazareth; they say it is one of large revenues and many friars, and that there are in it abundance of grapes, peaches, and other fruits; and they brought us small nuts from it. They say that to the westward, which is towards the Nile, there are great mines of silver, and that they do not know how to get it out, nor to profit by it.
Cap. xlvi.—How we departed from the town of Corcora, and of the luxuriant country through which we travelled, and of another which was rough, in which we lost one another at night, and how the tigers fought us.
On the morning of Tuesday, seeing that the friar did not come, we commenced our journey for the space of two leagues up a river which was very pretty with verdure, and trees without fruit; on either side were very high slopes of mountains, with much tillage of wheat and barley, and beautiful wild olive trees which looked like new olive trees, because they are frequently pruned and cut to allow of wheat and barley growing. In the middle of this valley is a handsome church, house of Our Lady. It has around it small houses for the priests, and twelve cypress trees, the highest and thickest that could be mentioned, and many other trees. Close to the principal door there is a very graceful fountain, and around the church large fields (but all irrigated), which are sown all the year round with all sorts of seed, that is to say, wheat, barley, millet, grain, lentils, peas, beans, tafo, daguza,[73] and as many other vegetables as there are in the country, some sown, others green, others ripe, others reaped, and others threshed. At the head of this valley there is a very high ascent, and before sighting it there is a church which has no other population except a very few houses for the priests; it is a very dry country. In sight of it is an old wall, in which is the form of a portal, as though in former times it guarded that pass, which guards itself by the wildness of the mountain ridge, for the people of the country say that for more than twenty leagues there is not another pass from one side to the other: it fully appears to be so from the many people who flock hither. Descending this mountain by another descent, such as was the ascent, we came at last to a great plain of much extensive tillage of seed crops for all the year (like those behind), and much pasture grass. At the entrance of this plain there is a large and handsome church, its patron Quercos, accompanied by good houses for the priests, almost like an enclosed monastery, and then a Beteneguz, and a large town above it. This plain or valley is about two leagues in length, and half a league wide, and on either side very high mountain ranges. At the feet of the hills, on both sides, there are many small towns and churches in them. Among these churches there are two monasteries, one at one end, the other at the other. One is of Holy Cross, the other of St. John. Both are small, and of few friars, each has no more than ten or twelve friars. In this plain we began to change to a new feature of the country, entering a mountain range not so much high as deep. We passed part of the night separated from one another. In the party where the ambassador went there were four, and I was with them, in the other there were two, and the baggage was amongst those cliffs, as it pleased God, with one man alone. In the direction in which I was going we saw fire outside of the valleys,[74] and as it was night it seemed to be near, it was more than two leagues off. While we were going in its direction so many tigers followed us that it was a thing not to be believed, and if we approached near any bushes they came so close to us that at close quarters[75] one might have struck them with a lance. In our company there was not more than one lance, all the others carried their swords drawn, and I, who did not bear any, went in the midst of them. Following the fire we arrived close to a wood, and we said, if we enter the wood we shall be devoured by these tigers, let us turn back to the tilled land, and sleep there. So we halted on the cleanest place we found, in the middle of a ploughed field, and fastened the mules all together. The companions, of their goodness, said to me: Father do you sleep, and we will watch over the mules with drawn swords; and so they did. On the next day, at two hours after midday, we all came together again with the ambassador; and even then not all, and we came together in a town which was about two leagues from where we slept, which is called Manadel. This town is one of about a thousand inhabitants, all Moors tributary to Prester John. At one end, as if apart, there live twenty or thirty Christians, who abide here with their wives, and these Christians receive dues as toll. And because I said that the nature of the country had changed, I say that it was two months since we began to travel, and it was always winter, but in this country which we were entering, and where we lost ourselves, it was not winter; rather indeed it was a hot summer. This is one of the countries, that is to say, of the three that I named before in Chapter XXV, where it is winter in February, March, and April, and this country is named Dobaa. These lands which have the winter season changed are low lands lying beneath the mountains. The size of this country of Dobaa is five long days’ journey in length; I do not know what its width may be, because it enters far into the country of the Moors, so that I could not learn it. In this country there are very beautiful cows, which cannot be numbered or reckoned, and of the largest that can be found in the world. Before we reached this town of Manadeley, on an uncultivated mountain, we heard great shouts: we went up to the bushes and found there many Christian people, with their tents pitched, and on our asking them why they were there, they replied that they were entreating the mercy of God that He might give them water, for they were losing their flocks, and were not sowing their millet nor any other seed, with the drought. Their cry was “Zio mazera Christus”,[76] which means: “Christ God have mercy upon us.” This town of Manadeley is a town of very great trade, like a great city or seaport. Here they find all kinds of merchandise that there is in the world, and merchants of all nations, also all the languages of the Moors, from Giada, from Morocco, Fez, Bugia, Tunis, Turks, Roumys, Greeks, Moors of India, Ormuz, and Cairo, also they bring merchandise from all parts. While we were in this country the Moors, inhabitants of this town, were complaining, saying that the Prester John had by force levied upon them a thousand ouquias of gold, saying that he borrowed them to trade with, and that each year they were to give him another thousand ouquias profit, and that his own thousand should always remain alive. The natives and dwellers in the city said that if it were not for the breeding of flocks they would go away from the country. (Foreigners have nothing to do with this.) They also say that besides this if the Prester John took away from them the Tigrimahom to whom this country belonged he would give them another plunderer. So they complain that they are unable to live (according as they say). In this town a great fair is held on Tuesday of each week, of as many things as can be named, and of an infinite number of people from the neighbouring districts; and it is a fair every day in the square, for all that merchants require to do.
Cap. xlvii.—How the friar reached us in this town, and then we set out on our way to a town named Farso: of the crops which are gathered in it, and of the bread they eat, and wine they drink.