While we were in this town of Manadeley, half forgetting the friar, there reached us a message that he was coming, and was bringing mules and camels to conduct us. Immediately some of us went out to receive him with joy and pleasure, having forgotten our first meeting. As soon as he arrived we at once departed, and we had not yet gone half a league, and then after another half league had been traversed we did not travel further. We went to sleep at a Beteneguz, which is in a mountain. Next day we travelled a distance of two leagues, and went to sleep at a large town of Christians, which may have near a thousand inhabitants: it is named Farso. There are more than a hundred priests and friars in the church of this town, and as many nuns: they have not got a monastery, they lodge about the town like laywomen. The friars are almost set apart in two courts, in which are a number of cottages, an unsubstantial matter, so great is the number of these friars, priests, and nuns, and the other people who are short of room. In other churches it is always the custom to give the communion before the door of the church, and these priests go and give the communion out of its place, in an open space belonging to the church, in a tent of silk which they pitch there, very well arranged, and there they carry on their solemnity of music with their drums and tambourines, and when they give the communion it is given as they do in other churches, where it is the custom to give it at the church door, and in no other place. Two nights that we slept in this town the nuns came to wash our feet, and drank of the water after they had washed them, and they washed their face with it, saying that we were holy christians of Jerusalem. At this town there is much tillage of all kinds. Here we saw plots of coriander, like those of wheat, and no less of a seed which is called nugo, which is like pampilhos,[77] and with their heads, after they are quite ripe and dry, they make oil. Not this time, but another that we came here, when we had more knowledge of the country, and the people of the country had more knowledge of us, I heard inhabitants of this town say that in that year they had gathered so much crops of all kinds, that if it were not for the worm, it would have been abundance for ten years. And because I was amazed, they said to me: Honoured guest, do not be amazed, because in the years that we harvest little we gather enough for three years’ plenty in the country; and if it were not for the multitude of locusts and the hail, which sometimes do great damage, we should not sow the half of what we sow, because so much remains that it cannot be believed, so it is sowing wheat, or barley, lentils, pulse, or any other seed. And we sow so much with the hope that even if each of those said plagues should come, some would be spoiled, and some would remain, and if all was spoiled the year before is in such manner abundant that we have no scarcity. This town is almost in a valley, and above it are two hills, and here we kept a Saturday and a Sunday. We used to go up to these hills in the afternoons, to see the beautiful herds of cows that were collected on the skirts of the town, and of the hills. Those of our company guessed[78] them at fifty thousand cows. I do not say a larger number, and yet the multitude there is cannot be believed. The language of this country is like that we had passed, and here begins the language of the kingdom of Angote, which is named Angutinha, and the country also. This town is the frontier of the kingdom of the Tigrimahom, as far as the Moors who are named the Dobas. After we had passed twice through this district (as I said above), there happened a good thing in it. It has two high hills, and they always have watchmen on them, because further on from this is country of the Moors. There are great plains, although wooded, and they extend quite two leagues, and then are the mountain ranges in which the Moors live. The watchmen saw the Moors come, and they emptied the place and fled away; the Moors came and plundered the provisions which they found, and took away what they could or chose. The watchmen were ashamed of having run away, and communicated with several neighbouring towns to the effect that if they saw them make signals they should come to their assistance, because they had determined to await the Moors if they should return there. These did not long delay returning, the people of the place made their signals, many people flocked to them, and came into the field against the Moors. God was pleased to assist the Christians, who killed eight hundred Moors, and of the Christians there died five. The Christians cut off the heads of all the Moors, and went and stuck them on trees half a league from there, along the great roads by which all people pass, and they sent the shields and javelins of all the dead Moors to the Prester John (this was whilst we were at court). And on our coming on our return from there we found the heads suspended to the trees along the road, as has been said: and we felt fear and disgust at passing under them. In all this country they make bread of any grain, as with wheat, barley, maize, pulse, peas, lentils, small beans, beans, linseed, and teff; they also make wine from many of these seeds: and the wine of honey is much the best of all. As the common people gave us victuals, since the friar found us, by order of the Prester John, they gave us of this bread, and as it was not of wheat, we could not eat it, also they brought it at unseasonable hours, because in all this country it is the custom to eat only once a day, and that is at night. Besides this their food is raw meat, and they make a sauce for it with cowdung, and that we did not eat: nor of the bread, unless it was of wheat, or at least of peas. Of the flesh we ordered our slaves to prepare food for us, until the friar came to adopt our custom, and to know our wishes, and endeavoured to give us fowls, mutton and beef, boiled or roasted, this done by our slaves.
Cap. xlviii.—How we departed from the town of Farso, well prepared, because we had to pass the skirt of the country of the Moors.
We set out from this town, and travelled through thick maize fields, as high as large cane brakes, and we went to sleep at no great distance, at the foot of a hill close to a church, because at night we were always away from the road, and near the towns, on account of the food which they gave us. Here the friar told us not to scatter ourselves, and all to keep close together, with our arms ready, and all the goods in front, because we had to pass a very dangerous country of Moors, who are always hostile. From this road which we were now travelling, which is towards the sea, and towards the South, all are Moors, who are named Dobas, because the country is named Doba, and it is not a kingdom. They say that there are twenty-four captaincies, and that at times twelve of them are at peace, and the others always at war. In our time we saw them all at war, and we saw the twelve captains who are used to be at peace at times, all at the court, for they had made a rising, and were come to make peace. When they came near the tent of Prester John each of these captains carried a stone upon his head, holding it with both his hands. They said that this was a sign of peace, and that they came to sue for mercy. These captains were received with honour, and they brought with them more than a hundred men, and very good led horses and mules, because they entered on foot with the stones on their heads. They may have stayed at court more than two months: they gave them each day beef, mutton, honey, and butter. At the conclusion of peace the Prester John ordered them to be banished from their country more than a hundred leagues, and ordered the captains and people they brought with them to be placed in the kingdom of Damute, with numerous guards. As soon as the people of these captains learned that their lords had been banished they made other captains, and raised the whole country in war. And another time that we were travelling by this road we had to keep Twelfth-day in this country, and it was on a Friday, so we rested Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. At this time, on account of the rising of these captains, the Prester John sent thither many gentlemen, captains of the country, and they went and pitched their camp on a mountain which showed from where we were halting, and we saw the smoke which they made there. The ambassador arranged to send thither two Portuguese to visit those captains and lords, on his part: and they brought back six cows which the captains sent us, and these Portuguese told us that some very great lords were there as captains, and that they had there more than fifteen thousand men, placed in a very large enclosure of thorny bushes, and they name this enclosure catamar;[79] and the Portuguese said that they had water outside of the enclosure, and that they did not dare go for it, nor take the horses and mules to drink, except with a large force, because if the Moors saw only a small number they rushed upon them and killed them. They also related that every Saturday and Sunday the Moors came and affronted them, because the Christians do not fight on those days. It is said that this war and ill-feeling is with this Prester John, more than with his predecessors, inasmuch as they are tributaries of the Prester. The preceding Presters, until the father of this one who now reigns, always had five or six wives, and they had them from the daughters of the neighbouring Moorish Kings, and from the Pagans; and from the captains of these lordships or captaincies they had one or two, if they found them suitable; and from the King of Dancali another; and from the King of Adel, and the King of Adea. And at the present times known to us there arrived for this David who now reigns, a daughter of the King of Adea, before he had any other wife, and because she had large front teeth, when he saw her he did not like her. And because he had already ordered her to be made a Christian, and she could not return to her father, he gave her in marriage to a great lord; and he did not choose to take any other daughter of a Moorish King, nor of these lordships, and married the daughter of a Christian, and would not have more than one wife, saying that he would follow the law of the gospel. He asks for the tribute from these Kings, his tributaries, which their predecessors were obliged to pay him. They did not bring him this tribute on account of the marriage, and for that reason make this war, which is being continually waged. They also say in this country that these Dobas are such great warriors, that they have a law amongst them that they cannot take a wife without a man’s being able to certify that he has killed twelve Christians. No one passes here by this road except in a cafila, which they call a negada.[80] This assemblage passes twice a week, once in coming, and another time returning, or to express it better, one goes and the other comes; and there always pass a thousand persons and upwards, with a captain of the negadas, who awaits them in certain places. There are two captains, because the negada commences in two parts, and they set out from one end and from the other. These negadas have their origin in two fairs, that is to say, in Manadeley and in Corcora of Angote; and yet, even with these negadas and assemblages, many people are killed in the passage. I know this, because a nephew of mine, a gentleman of the household of the King our sovereign, and a servant of the ambassador of Portugal, Don Rodrigo, determined to pass with this negada; and they told us that the Doba Moors had attacked the van, and had killed twelve persons before the people could put themselves on guard. It is a great peril traversing this evil pass, because it is a two days’ journey, all through level ground and very large woods, and very high and dense thickets of thorn bushes; and in these two marches, besides that the road is flat and very long, and that they frequently cut them, that is, the thorn bushes near the road, and set fire to them, yet they do not burn, except those that are cut and dried, and some that have withered at the roots, because the thorn bushes which are standing remain in their strength. It is about two leagues from this road to the district of the Dobas, at the commencement of the mountain range, and the ground is flat throughout these thorn thickets. There are in these lands or mountains an infinite number of elephants and other animals, as in the other mountains.
Cap. xlix.—How the people of Janamora have the conquest of these Doba Moors, and of the great storm of rain that came upon us during our halt in a river channel.
The conquest[81] of these Moors of Doba is of a great captain named Xuum Janamora, that is captain of the country. The captaincy is named Janamora, which is a large district, with many people subject to it, and all of it mountainous. They say that they are good warriors, and so they ought to be, for they always keep an eye over their shoulder. In the lands and mountains where they dwell, the Moors come to burn the houses and churches, and carry off the cows from the yards. In this country I saw a priest with poisoned arrows; and I opposed him on account of its being ill done, as he was a priest. He answered me: Look that way, and you will see the church burnt by the Moors, and close to it they carried off from me fifty cows, and also they burned my beehives, which were my livelihood; for that reason I carry this poison,[82] to kill him who has killed me. I did not know what to answer him, with the sorrowfulness which I saw in his countenance, and perceived in his heart. We set out from this halt, and travelled by the said flat road, alongside the hills which are on the side of the Christians, and all peopled by these Janamoras, and we crossed rivers which descend from the said mountains, and close to one of them we went to take our midday rest in some good shade of willow trees. It was very hot, and the sun and day were very bright, and the river did not bring water enough to irrigate a garden. We were divided into two parties, on each side of the water, at speaking distance. During this there began thunder a long way off, and we said that these were thunderstorms such as there are sometimes in India. Being in security, without there being here any wind or rain, and the said thunder having ceased, we commenced collecting the baggage to set out; and there was a tent where we dined and reposed ourselves. The halt having ended, one of our Portuguese, that is, Mestre Joam, went sauntering along the river up stream, and immediately returned running, and calling out with loud shouts: Take care, take care. We all looked in the direction from which he came shouting, and we saw water coming, of the height of a lance (without any doubt), and quite straight and square: and we could not take care sufficiently to prevent its carrying away part of our goods. And it would have carried away both us and our goods if we had still been staying in the tent where we had dined. From me, amongst other things, it carried off a breviary and a bottle full of wine which I carried for celebrating the masses; and so, likewise, it carried off a portion from each of us. From one it took a cloak, from another a hat, from another a sword; another, in escaping, fell in such a manner, that on the one hand it was a fearful thing, and on the other a matter for laughter. It pleased God that I had got the silver chalice put in the skin of a kid and hung up at the height of a man on the trunk of a willow tree; and a man of the country ran to it, and saved the chalice, for he climbed up the willow tree with it, and remained there until the water went down. This river came from among very high mountains, among which it had overflowed, and out of them came this water in a mass. This river brought down stones as big as barrels of twelve almudes,[83] and from the noise made by these stones it seemed that the earth was being overwhelmed, and that the heavens were falling. It was a thing not to be believed; and as this water came suddenly, so also it passed away in a short space of time, for even this day we crossed over it, and we did not see in it the rocks which we had before seen, and we saw others newly come which had descended from the mountains. We went to sleep at some poor houses, or near them, where they received us throwing stones at us, and we slept without supper, and under heavy rains which fell in the night, with thunderstorms in the flat land, as there had been by day in the mountains.
Cap. l.—How we departed from this poor place, and of the fright they gave us, and how we went to sleep Saturday and Sunday at a river named Sabalete.
We set out from this place, we and the Portuguese, because there was nothing to eat, for the country is very sterile; and we left the friar with all our goods which could not travel, and we had not got people to carry it. Before we started they caused us more fear than we had before, telling us that, besides the Moors, there were there many robbers, who went about among the thickets, and killed travellers with poisoned arrows; and because we had generally seen them carried we had more fear. So they told us to go all together, and with our weapons ready. The road which we travelled this day was flat, like that behind, and with larger thickets; the road was wider, because every year they cut the bushes. We always travelled alongside the mountains, as we did the day before, and further off from the mountains of the Moors, because every step we left them further off. With all this, they said that there was greater danger here, and that there were wider passages of dry rivers and thick woods, where bad people might lie in wait. They also inspired us with fear, telling us not to sleep on the low ground, nor to rest near the water, because the country was very unwholesome, and that we ought to ascend to the high ground as much as possible. Thus, we travelled without our baggage all that day, and came to sleep at a large river named Sabalete, at which river the kingdom of Tigrimahom ends, and the kingdom of Angote begins. On a very high hill to the westward of this river is a church of St. Peter, which is called in our language San Pedro d’Angote; and they say that it is the head of this kingdom, and that it is the church of the kings, and that when this kingdom is bestowed they come here to take possession of it. And on the eastern side, on another very high mountain, which is two or three leagues from this road (and now it is not a country of the Moors), is a monastery which they say is large and of much revenue and many friars. However, we saw nothing of it, except the trees. At this river we remained Saturday and Sunday, and on Sunday night, at the first sleep, the tigers attacked us, with all the fires we had burning, and a great part of the mules got loose, and we at once caught most of them. One mule and an ass escaped, and we thought they had been devoured. Next day, in the morning, they came from a village to tell us that in the night two runaway beasts had come there, and that we should see if they were ours, and go there and fetch them. On Monday, the 3rd of October of 1520, we set out on our way, and travelled for two leagues along a very flat road, and from that spot the friar, who was now with us with the goods, took us by some very rough roads over mountains, to sleep at some pinnacles, saying that the low grounds were sickly. The goods could not ascend, and remained on the road. On account of this night’s halt, we were all discontented with the friar, and told him not to bring us and our mules up such mountain ridges; that we were not afraid of sickness, and if he did it for the sake of eating, that we were bringing the goods of the King of Portugal, to provide ourselves withal, and to be able to give him food also. Here he said that he would not again bring us out of the road, and that he would go wherever we pleased, and that we should be satisfied. On Tuesday we descended from the said pinnacle, and came back to the road where the baggage had remained, close to a large church of Our Lady. Here we had our midday rest. This church has many priests, and friars, and nuns, and it is directed by the priests. This town is named Corcora of Angote. It is different from Corcora[84] of the Tigrimahom, where on Wednesday of every week there is a great market or fair. At this church we left the camels, with a large part of the goods, because[85] they could not go any further over the rough mountains that we had to pass; and this afternoon we crossed a mountain with great labour, for in many places we went on foot, and with both feet and hands, like cats. We passed this bad road over a mountain ridge, still between other ridges. There are two hills almost level ground, between which lies a valley of great pastures and tillage of all sorts of seeds, which grow all the year round, because we passed by here several times, and we always found wheat just sown, and other wheat springing up, and other in grass, other in the ear, other ripe, and other reaped or threshed on the threshing floor; and so with other seeds of this country, for in the same manner as it is with the wheat, so it is with all other things. This land is not irrigated, because it is almost marshy; and all the land of this nature, or which is capable of irrigation, gives crops all through the year; when one is got in another is sown. In this country, on both sides, on all the slopes, there are an infinite number of towns, and all have their churches; it is a very good country. For a man to know where the churches are, they have around them large trees; by that they are known, even before they are reached.