Cap. lxvii.—How we travelled for three days through plains, and of the curing of infirmities and of the sight of the people.
Monday, the 9th of October, we travelled through plains like the preceding ones, both of grass and tilled land, and we went to sleep at a place named Anda. Here we ate barley bread very badly made. So also we travelled on Tuesday through plains like those of the days before, and we slept close to some small villages. On Wednesday we now fell in with better land and tillage of wheat and barley, that is, crops all the year round, one gathered and another sown. This country is called Tabaguy; it is a very populous country, with large towns and great breeding of all sorts of animals. There were in this country many sick people, as of fevers, and all is left to nature, for they do not apply any other remedy, only if they have a headache they bleed the head itself: and if they have a stomach ache or pain in the back or shoulders, they apply fire, as to the beasts. For fevers they do not apply any remedy. On this Wednesday we had sight of the tents and camp of the Prester John, and we went to sleep off the road, as we were accustomed. On Thursday we travelled a short distance, and also we travelled little on Friday, and went to stay Saturday and Sunday at a small town which has a new church not yet painted, because all are painted, but not with good work. This church is named Auriata,[139] which means of the apostles, and they said that it was a king’s church. The tents are about three or four leagues from here, and from this town it is little more than half a league to the church where the Abima Marcos was lodged. On this Saturday and Sunday that we remained here there came to us three mariners, who had fled from our fleet in the port of Masua, and the friar who conducted us learning that the mariners had come to see us, was in great ill humour at it, saying, that it was not the usage of the country, when strange people came, for them to have conversation with any one before speaking to the King; and with this ill humour he returned to his tent and to his lodging. This same Saturday the friar went to see the Abigima Marcos, and brought to us from there a tray of raisins and a jar of very good grape wine. On the following Sunday one of the said mariners came again to see us, and because the friar had complained the day before of his coming, the ambassador told the mariner to go first and speak to the friar, and to tell him that he did not come for any bad purpose, but only from the great friendship that he had always had with us. The friar when he saw him ordered him to be seized and arrested, and they wanted to put him in irons if the ambassador and we had not gone to take him out of their hands, and with rough words, and above all the said friar said very complainingly that we were not to speak to any one until we had spoken to the Prester John, because such is their custom when new people arrived.
Cap. lxviii.—How a great lord of title was given to us as a guard, and of the tent which he sent us.
On Monday, the 17th of October, we set out, thinking that we should this day reach the court and camp, because we had gone to halt at a league from it. Then it seemed to us that they intended to take us there next day very early. While we were in this hope, there came to us a great lord, who is called by title Adugraz, which means chief major domo, he said that he was come to protect us and give us what we had need of. This gentleman told us to mount at once and come with him. We got ready, as it appeared that he was going to take us to the court: he took a turn backwards, not by the road we had come by, but he turned with us round some hills and we returned back more than a league, he telling us not to be in any ill humour, as the Prester was coming in that direction where we were going, and indeed six or seven horsemen were going in front of us on very good horses, skirmishing and amusing themselves, and a great many mules. They conducted us behind some hills, and the gentleman lodged himself in his tent, and ordered us to be lodged near him in our poor tent, such as we had brought for the journey, and ordered us to be provided with all that was necessary, and we were much put out of the way;[140] and the Prester was coming to halt near where we were. On Wednesday in the morning they brought us a large round tent, saying that the Prester John sent us that tent, and that nobody had a tent such as that except him, and the churches, and that his tent belonged to him when he was on a journey. So we remained till Friday without knowing what we were to do. The captain who guarded us and the friar warned us to look well after our goods, as there were many thieves in the country, and the Franks[141] who were in the country also told us so: they further told us that there were agents and captains of thieves, and that they paid dues of what they stole.
Cap. lxix.—How the ambassador, and we with him, were summoned by order of the Prester, and of the order in which we went, and of his state.
On Friday, the 20th of October, at the hour of tierce, the friar came to us in great haste, for the Prester John had sent to call us, and that we should bring what we had brought for him, and also all our baggage, as he wished to see it. The ambassador ordered all that to be loaded which the captain-major had sent for him, and no more. We dressed ourselves and arranged ourselves very well, God be praised; and many people came to accompany us. So we went in order from the place we started from as far as a great entrance, where we saw the tents pitched in a great plain, that is, certain white tents, and, in front of the white ones, one very large red tent pitched, which they say is set up for great feasts or receptions. In front of these pitched tents were set up two rows of arches covered with white and red cotton cloths, that is, an arch covered with red and the next with white: not covered but rolled round the arch, like a stole on the pole of a cross, and so these arches were continued to the end; there may have been quite twenty arches in each row, and in width and height they were like the small arches of a cloister. One row may have been apart from the other about the distance of a game of quoits.[142] There were many people collected together; so many that they would exceed twenty thousand persons. All these people were in a semicircle, and removed a good way off on each side; the smartest people were standing much nearer to the arches. Among these smarter people were many canons and church people with caps like mitres, but with points upwards of coloured silk stuffs, and some of them of scarlet cloth: and there were other people very well dressed. In front of these well-dressed people were four horses, that is, two on one side and two on the other, saddled and caparisoned with rich brocade coverings; what armour-plating or arms were underneath I do not know. These horses had diadems high above their ears, they came down to the bits[143] of the bridle, with large plumes on them. Below these were many other good horses saddled but not arrayed like these four, and all the heads of all of them were on a level, making a line like the people. Then, in a line behind these horses (because the crowd was much and thick), there were honourable men, who were not clothed except from the waist downwards, with many thin white cotton cloths, and crowded, standing one before the other.[144] It is the custom, before the King and before the great lords who rule, to have men who carry whips of a short stick and a long thong, and when they strike in the air they make a great noise, and make the people stand off. Of these a hundred walked before us, and with their noise a man could not be heard. The people riding horses and mules, who came with us, dismounted a long way off, and we still rode on a good distance, and then dismounted at about a crossbow-shot from the tent, or the distance of a game of mancal. Those who conducted us did us a courtesy and we to them, for we had been already taught, and this courtesy is to lower the right hand to the ground. In this space of a crossbow-shot there came to us fully sixty men like courtiers or mace-bearers, and they came half-running, because they are accustomed so to run with all the messages of the Prester. These came dressed in shirts and good silk cloths, and over their shoulders or shoulder, and below, they were covered with grey skins with much hair on them; it was said they were lion skins. These men wore above the skins collars of gold badly wrought, and other jewels and false stones, and rich pieces round their necks. They also wore girdles of silk coloured ribands, in width and weaving like horse-girths, except that they were long and had long fringes reaching to the ground. These men came as many on one side as on the other, and accompanied us as far as the first row of arches, for we did not pass these. Before we arrived at these arches, there were four captive lions where we had to pass, and in fact passed. These lions were bound with great chains. In the middle of the field, in the shade of these first arches, stood four honourable men, among whom was one of the two greatest lords that are in the court of the Prester, and who is called by title Betudete.[145] Of these there are two, one serves on the right hand, the other on the left hand. They said that he of the right hand was at war with the Moors, and he of the left hand was this one here. The other three who stood here were great men. Before these four we did as did those who conducted us. On reaching them we remained a good while without speaking to them, nor they to us. On this there came an old priest, who they say is a relation and the confessor of the Prester, with a cloak of white Indian cloth[146] of the fashion of a burnoose, and a cap like those of the others who stood apart. The title of this man is Cabeata, and he is the second person in these kingdoms. This priest came out of the said tent which would yet be two casts of quoits from the arches. Of the four men who were with us at the arches, three went half way to receive him, and the Betudete, who was the greatest lord of them, remained with us; and when the others came up he also advanced three or four steps, and so all five came to us. On reaching him, the Cabeata asked the ambassador what he wanted and where he came from. The ambassador answered that he came from India, and was bringing an embassage to the Prester John, from the captain-major and governor of the Indies for the King of Portugal. With this he returned to the Prester, and with these questions, and ceremonious courtesies, he came three times. Twice the ambassador answered him in the same manner, and the third time he said, I do not know what to say of it. The Cabeata said: Say what you want and I will tell it to the King. The ambassador replied that he would not give his embassage except to his Highness, and that he would not send to say anything except that he and his company sent to kiss his hands, and that they gave great thanks to God for having fulfilled their desires and having brought Christians together with Christians, and for their being the first. With this answer the Cabeata returned and came back directly with another message, when the above-mentioned persons went to receive him as before: and on reaching us he said that Prester John sent to say that we should deliver to him what the great captain had sent him. Then the ambassador asked us what he ought to do, and that each of us should say whatever he thought of it. We all said that we thought that he should give him what was sent. Then the ambassador delivered it to him piece by piece, and, besides, four bales of pepper which were for our own expenses. When it was received it was all carried to the tents, and all afterwards brought back to the arches where we were. And they came and stretched the tent cloths which we had given on the arches, and so with the other stuffs. Having set everything in sight of the people, they caused silence to be made, and the chief justice of the court made a speech in a very loud voice, declaring, piece by piece, all the things which the captain-major had sent to the Prester John, and that all were to give thanks to the Lord because Christians had come together with Christians, and that if there were here any whom it grieved, that they might weep, and any that rejoiced at it, that they might sing. And the great crowd of people who were near by gave a great shout as in praise of God, and it lasted a good while; and with that they dismissed us. We went to lodge at the distance of a long gunshot from the tents of the Prester, where they had already pitched the tent which they had sent us, and there we remained and also the goods which remained to us.
Cap. lxx.—Of the theft which was done to us when the baggage was moved, and of the provisions which the Prester sent us, and of the conversation the friar had with us.