Cap. cxv.—How in the letters of Don Luis it was said that we should require justice for certain men of his who had been killed, and the Prester sent there the Chief Justice of the Court, and Zagazabo in company of Don Rodrigo to Portugal.
In the letters which Don Luis de Meneses sent to Prester John, he made a complaint and required justice for four Portuguese whom the Moors had killed in the town of Arquiquo, a port of the Red Sea and in his country; which justice and vengeance he had not chosen to execute or take by himself, because it was in the Prester’s country, and that he desired to serve His Highness and not annoy him. We had asked this justice many times, and had for answer that he regretted very much that the captain-major Don Luis had not taken vengeance, and killed all the Moors that were in the town of Arquiquo, and that he valued more one Portuguese than all the Moors and negroes that were in his country: and that since he (Don Luis) did not choose to take vengeance himself, that he would order justice to be done: and he ordered the Chief Justice of his Court to come before us in front of his tent, and he sent to tell him by the Cabeata that he was to go with us to the sea, and to take prisoners all the Moors, Turks, Rumys, and Christians, whom he should discover to have been in the town of Arquiquo at the time that they killed these men of Don Luis de Meneses. And those that he found guilty of the said death, or in not having arrested those who had killed, and who had raised the brawl, he was to give them up to any captain-major who came from Portugal, and he might kill them or do justice as he pleased; killing, beheading, or taking them as captives, either Christians or Moors, Turks and Roumys; but that the Portuguese were not to complain any more of this justice, but to take it for themselves. In this town, and in these days, Prester John determined to send an ambassador to Portugal, for up to this time he was not sending any one. He sent to call the ambassador and me, and he said, that he had determined to send a person with us to the King of Portugal, in order that his desires might have effect quicker, his representative being there; and he asked if we thought that Zagazabo would be sufficient for this journey, inasmuch as he could speak our language, and had already been to our countries. We answered that Zagazabo was quite sufficient for this journey, and for being the envoy of His Highness, because he was a man who got on well with us, and we with him, and that he had no need of an interpreter: and that now His Highness was doing what he ought to do, because on his return he would give more belief to what his own countrymen saw and heard of foreigners, than to what foreigners said of themselves. They then decided that we should have him for our companion. The following day he sent us dresses, and thirty ouquias[230] of gold, and a hundred loaves for the road. Still we waited a great deal later, and the cause (according to what the ambassador himself told us later) was because the determination of Prester John was tardy, this detention was necessary as the ambassador was not yet despatched, until he had given him the things which he had to carry for his journey and himself, that is to say, clothes and gold for his expenses. Also we waited for the Chief Justice who had to go with us, as has been said. After all we set out without them, saying that we would go on at a slow pace: this was because we had often seen his despatch. So we went away and they caught us up on the road, each in their turn, and we travelled until we reached Barua, which is near the sea, where our quarters were, which is the chief town of the country of the Barnagais. We did not find any news of the Portuguese coming to the port, and we all waited together until the monsoon had passed. During this time the Chief Justice arrested three or four gentlemen, and one Xumagali who was at Arquiquo at the time they killed the men. This Xumagali was soltam,[231] Xumagali means a small gentleman, like a gentleman without lands. This one was arrested, because at that time he was justice, and he did not do his duty, and one Gabri Jesus was arrested because he came there and did nothing; and Arrais Jacob was arrested, because at that time he ruled the country of the Barnagais; and one Dafela, who is a great lord, was arrested because some Moors and Turks took refuge in his lands, and he did not make them prisoners, though he knew that they were at the death of Don Luis de Meneses’ men who were killed at Arquiquo. These four were great gentlemen, and all five were sent as prisoners to the Court by the Chief Justice, and no one went to accuse them. Although they were ill treated, they became free. As soon as the Chief Justice arrived at Court, and gave news to the Prester that the Portuguese had not arrived, and that we remained without a remedy, the Prester at once sent a Calacem,[232] ordering us to go to the town of Aquaxumo, where, as I before said, we had been, and where had been the dwellings of the Queens of Saba and Candacia. There they ordered us to be given five hundred loads of wheat, and a hundred cows, and a hundred sheep, and a hundred jars of honey, and another hundred of butter; and for his ambassador who came with us, twenty loads of wheat, and twenty cows, and twenty sheep, and twenty jars of honey, and as many of butter.
Cap. cxvi.—How Zagazabo the ambassador returned to the Court, and I with him, for business which concerned him, and how they flogged the Chief Justice and two friars, and why.
Whilst we were in this town of Aquaxumo there came a message to the ambassador of the Prester that a small lordship belonging to him had been taken from him; then he begged me to go with him to the Court to ask for justice. I went, and we discovered there that his adversary was the principal page of Prester John, who was Abdenaguo, captain of the pages, because there is no service here, but what it has one person over all the others. As all the messages went to the Prester through the pages we had no remedy in putting in our word, so then we sought succour from an Ajaze, who is a great lord; and although he was a great friend of Abdenaguo our adversary, yet for the sake of justice he made known to the Prester how we had come and for what. Then there came a message asking me what I had come to Court for. I gave an account of all, and said that the injury and unreasonable thing done to Zagazabo, was done rather to the King of Portugal and to us Portuguese than to him, since he was absent from his land and lordship for the service of the King of Portugal and the company of us Portuguese, by the order of His Highness, and that his land should be confirmed to him, and not usurped and forcibly taken from him: and that in our parts those who went in the service of kings, not only themselves, but moreover their servants, factors, majordomos, property, revenues, and lordships were much favoured and guarded. And so it was hoped that His Highness would favour his ambassador and order justice to be done, and that he should be restored to his lordship. At once there came an answer saying, who was the person that had caused us vexation, and had taken the lordship of the said Zagazabo. We replied that it was Abdenaguo the head of the pages who had ordered this act of force to be done by his stewards and factors, and that we asked His Highness to give us judges above suspicion, and that he should order the pages to carry to him any message that might be necessary upon this business. Soon four pages came to us saying that their lord commanded them that whatever thing should be requested of him by us in this business, that they were to do it with free will and without fear of anybody. The judges in this suit were the Ajaze Daragote and the Ajaze Ceyte, to whom we were to address ourselves. We went to them soon, and they appointed a time that such an hour of the sun we should come to such a place. We went, and there were present the representative of Abdenaguo and the ambassador in person: and they argued on both sides, and brought forward reasons until a conclusion was come to verbally, because here there is no writing in the tribunals, and all was verbal, and the sentence is given verbally. The judges concluded with the sentence that the land and fief[233] which Zagazabo claimed was very small, and that it was subject to another land of great extent and of a great lordship of which Abdenaguo was the lord, and that it was of right that the great wind enters in all the land; and thus the entry could not be taken away from Abdenaguo, great lord as he was. Then we went away to complain, having remained struck down by this sentence. We complained to the King. He sent to tell us to go to our quarters, and not to be vexed, that all would turn out well, and that next day we should go and plead to the Chief Justice, and he would do us justice. With that we went away. Next day we went to wait for the Chief Justice in the road to the Prester’s tent: he received us with good will, saying that he had already received the king’s instructions for the despatch of our business, and that we were to wait at the tent of justice, as he was going to speak to the king, and that then he would despatch us. All the same we went further on with him as far as where he separated from the people to go and speak to the king. While we remained thus expecting our despatch from the good will we had seen in him, when he came out from the tent there came out with him two pages, who accompanied him to the place where they flog men, and there they called the executioners, and they had him stripped and thrown down and tied, as I have already described, that is they threw him down on his stomach and made fast his hands to two stakes, and his feet tied together with a leather cord, and two men to pull at it, and he was bare from the waist upwards. There were two executioners on each side of him, and most times they strike the ground with the scourge. And when orders come from the king to strike, the blow reaches the bones, and of these blows they gave him three. Reckoning this time, I have seen the Chief Justice flogged three times, and after that, two days later, return to his office, because they do not hold it to be a dishonour; rather they say the king is fond of him, because he remembers him, and a short time after does him favours and bestows lordships. And when they now thus flogged the Chief Justice, there were there sixty friars, all clothed in new yellow habits according to their usage. When they had done flogging the Chief Justice, they took an old friar, who was very venerable and the head of the others, and they flogged him in the above mentioned manner, and they did not once touch this friar. When they had done with him they brought another friar who might be a little more than forty years old, and he looked respectable, and they flogged him like the others, and this one was touched twice. When it was over I asked the cause of it, and what sin the friars had committed. Then they related to me that the friar who had been last flogged had been married to a daughter of the Prester, that is of Alexander, uncle of this David, and he had separated from her, and he had married a sister of this Prester, who did what she pleased, and the husband did not dare to meddle with this from fear of the Prester, and also because in this country the faults of women are not looked at with much surprise, and he left this second wife and returned to the first. And Prester John ordered that he should return to his sister. When this order came he did not choose to do it, and went and became a friar: and on this account the Prester ordered these friars to come before the Chief Justice for him to see whether this man was rightly a friar. He judged that he had lawfully taken the habit, and because he had judged thus the Prester had ordered him to be flogged. And the Padre or guardian had been flogged because he had given the habit to the other. And the third man was flogged because he had received the habit; and they commanded him at once to leave the habit and to return to the Prester’s sister. With this we remained without being heard this time, nor till fifteen days later, on account of things which happened in the monastery, which I will relate.
Cap. cxvii.—How, after the death of Queen Helena, the great Betudete went to collect the dues of her kingdom, and what they were, and how the Queen of Adea came to ask assistance, and what people came with her on mules.
It might be eight or nine months after the death of Queen Helena, who reigned over the greater part of the kingdom of Gojame, that still as many as newly came to the Court, went to weep before her tent, which still remains pitched in its place; and we also did this when we came. After her death Prester John sent the great Betudete to the said kingdom of Gojame to collect the Gibre[234] which is paid to the King each year as dues, and in these days the said Betudete arrived with the gibre, which amounted to three thousand mules, three thousand horses, and three thousand basutos—these are some cloths which the great people have upon their beds, they are of cotton and fleecy like carpets and not so close worked, and as to price, those that are least valuable are not less than an ouquia, and they are worth from two, three, four up to five ouquias; besides thirty thousand cotton cloths of small value, which are worth two of them a drachm, and sometimes less. They also said that they brought thirty thousand ouquias of gold; it is already known that an ouquia weighs eleven cruzados. At the presentation of this gibre, I saw with my eyes all the gold which came covered up on trays,[235] and they said that it was a great quantity, and it all came in this manner. The Betudete in front, stripped from the waist upwards, and with a crown wound round his head, like the head gear of a Castilian muleteer,[236] and when within hearing from where he could be heard at the Prester’s tent, he said three times, with a very small interval between each cry, “Aalto,” which in our language is like Sire: and they answered him from within the tent twice in their language, “Who are you?” He, in their language, replied, “I who call, am the smallest of your house, and am he who saddles your mules and puts the head stalls on your baggage mules, I serve in what other business you command, I bring to you, Sire, what you commanded me.” All this was said three times, and when that was done, the voice from inside said “Pass on, pass forward.” And he went on and made his bow before the tent and passed on. Behind him immediately came the horses, one behind the other, each horse had a man or boy at the halter. The foremost thirty were saddled, they were reasonably good, but of the others that followed behind, the best was not worth two drachms, and many of them were not worth a drachm; I saw them later given for less, and these would be quite three thousand. After these sorry nags came the mules after the manner of the nags, that is thirty good ones saddled, and all the others small young mules, but better than the nags. There were male and female mules of a year and over, and two year old and three, and none more than that except the saddled ones; for none of the others were fit for riding. These would be quite three thousand, and they passed by as had done the Betudete and the little horses. After the mules came the basutos, and each man carried a basuto, for he could not carry more from their great volume. After the basutos came the cloths, each man with a bundle of them; they said that each man carried ten cloths, and there would be quite three thousand men with the basutos, and three thousand with the cloths, and all these were from the said kingdom of Gojame, who were obliged to bring the gibre.[237] Behind the cloths came three men, each with a trencher[238] on their heads, of those in which they eat: they were covered with large green and red cloths of tafetan. Behind these trays came all the men of the Betudete, and they passed in turn as did the Betudete. They said that the gold went in those trays; and they ordered him to go to his quarters with all the gibre, and so he did. Ten days from prime till after vespers were spent in this passing by of the dues. It was fifteen days since a Moorish Queen had come to this Court; she was the wife of the King of Adea, and sister of one that came to be the wife of the Prester John, and he rejected her because she had two large front teeth, that is to say, long ones. And he married her to a great lord who was Barnagais, and now is Betudete.[239] This Queen came to the Prester to ask him for assistance, saying that a brother of her husband had risen against her and was taking the kingdom. This queen came quite like a queen, and brought with her fully fifty honourable Moors on mules and a hundred men on foot, and six women on good mules; they are not very dark people. She was received with great honour, and the third day of her arrival was called and came before the tent of the Prester, and she came with a black canopy.[240] She was dressed twice that day, once at the hour of prime, and the other time at hour of vespers: both dresses were of brocade and velvet and Moorish shirts from India. They said that the Prester sent word to her to rest herself and not be vexed, and that he would go as she desired, and that he was waiting for the Barnagais and the Tigrimahom, and as soon as they came he would at once set out. Eighteen days after this Queen’s arrival, she received dresses. On the following day Tigrimahom arrived, and the day after that Barnagais arrived. Both brought the gibri which they are obliged to pay to the king, and with them came the chauas of their lands, that is the men-at-arms; and also many lords came with them. When these lords were assembled, before they presented their gibris, Prester John commanded that the Betudete should come and present the gibri of Gojame which had already passed before him, as has been said. As this was on Friday, and the holydays of Saturday and Sunday were following, the Betudete came on Monday following with the gibri, and with the same formalities as before; and this in the presence of Barnagais and Tigrimahom and many other gentlemen who had come with them. He spent the whole day, from morning till night, in presenting it and its reception. The following day, after the hour of prime, Barnagais began to give his gibri, and he began with very handsome horses; there were a hundred and fifty, and what with running and making them jump, he passed the day without doing anything else. The day after they said that he presented many silks and much thin stuffs from India; I did not see him present these, as I was unwell. When this was presented the following day very early, Tigrimahom began to present his gibri. He also began with horses, which were two hundred, larger and more handsome than those of the Barnagais, because they came from a less distance; and of one set and of the other most came from Egypt, and others from Arabia. This day nothing was done but horses. The next day they presented more silks than ever I had seen together, and the whole day passed in presenting, counting and receiving. On the following Tuesday, at the hour of midday, Balgada Robel, a great gentleman, subject to Tigrimahom, came to present his gibri separately. It was thirty horses, all from Egypt, the size of elephants, and very fat, each horse with a Xumagali, that is a gentleman without title, and eight of these Xumagali were dressed in some very good cuirasses of ours, and some of them placed on velvet, and others on soft leather and gilt studs. These eight wore some of our helmets on their heads. Balgada Robel was counted among these eight, and the twenty-two all wore coats of mail with full sleeves and fitting close to the body. All the thirty carried two azagays and several knives like Turks: and all had small red caps with large ends, which fluttered in the wind. Before them came two little negroes dressed in red and yellow livery, each upon a camel covered with the same livery, and sounding kettledrums. As soon as they reached near the tent of the Prester, they set aside the horses at one end and did not cease from their music and the Xumagalis from skirmishing: they did it in such a way that the Prester ordered other horses to be brought of those given by the Barnagais and Tigrimahom, that they should play also. This lasted till sunset. This Balgada Robel is a gentleman to whom on our coming Don Rodrigo gave a helmet, and sold him a sword for a mule. They said that he was always fighting with the Moors, and so he has at Court the reputation of a great warrior and good knight.