Cap. cxxxviii.—Of the officials that Solomon ordained for his son that he had of the Queen Sabba when he sent him to Ethiopia; and how they still draw honour from these offices.
I said that I would relate what I heard of the officials that Solomon gave to his son when he sent him from Jerusalem to Ethiopia to his mother the Queen Sabba. I heard say that to this day these officials or officers are alive in the families of those that came, because they go in succession from father to son. They say first that when Solomon sent his son to the Queen Sabba, his mother, he gave him officials for his house; and he gave an office from each of the twelve tribes, such as chamberlains, porters, overseers, grooms, trumpeters, chief guards, cooks, and other officials necessary for the house of a great king or lord, and that these offices are still in those families descending from them. Thus these officials honour themselves much as Israelites, and gentlemen, and our relations. All of them are in great number, because the sons of the chamberlain and their descendants, all of them are of that office; and so also the other officials all descend in the offices of their fathers and ancestors, except the pages, who usually are the sons of the great gentlemen and lords, and now they are not so. And as has been said, when the Prester sends to summon the grandees, he does not send to tell them why: and when the sons of the grandees served as pages, they used to disclose his secrets, and for this he turned them out, and the captains who are sons of Moorish or Pagan Kings whom they take in their expeditions, serve as confidential pages, and if they see them well disposed they send them to be taught without their entering inside,[260] and if they turn out discreet and good they put them inside, and they serve as pages. And the sons of the great lords serve as outside pages, and also as pages of the halter when they travel, and pages of the kitchen, and they do not enter inside, (as they say) and we saw this. All the canons that they call debeteras also say that they come from the families that came from Jerusalem with the son of Solomon, and on this account they are more honoured than all the rest of the clergy.
Cap. cxxxix.—How the ambassador of Prester John took possession of his lordship, and the Prester gave him a title of all of it, and we departed to the sea.
On the day that Prester John set out for the kingdom of Adea, the friar, his ambassador, and I, we set out on the road to that lordship which the Prester had then given him, and it was the road to where our people had remained; and we arrived on the beginning of Lent,[261] that is to say of their Lent, which is ten days earlier than ours, at the land they had given him. When he had taken possession both of that which they had newly given him, and of that which they had taken from him, we made ready to depart. These lordships, that is, the one they were taking from him, is of eighty houses,[262] and it contains two churches, and it had been given him in exchange[263] for a small monastery which he before possessed near them. The lordship which they have now given him is to be arraz of the chavas, that is head or captain of the men-at-arms, who are in the lordship of Abrigima, and these chavas are eight hundred and upwards. About mid Lent we arrived at where our people were, with a great longing that the Portuguese might come for us this Easter. When Easter passed, which was the monsoon, and nobody came, we remained sad as before: and when it was the month of July and Prester John knew that the Portuguese had not come, he sent word to his ambassador to go to Abrigima, under the rule of which are the two above-mentioned lordships, and another lord of this lordship of Abrigima is named Abive arraz, and he is a great lord with more than ten thousand vassals, and he is like all the others in all that the Prester pleases. When this message came, there came another to us that we were to go with him, and that as the fruits of the earth which they gave him were already gathered in and they could not give us what was necessary, that he had ordered us to be given at that place five hundred loads of wheat, and a hundred cows, and a hundred sheep, and that his ambassador was to give us honey for wine. We were in great doubt as to whether we should make this journey or not, because it removed us a long way from the sea, and by very much travelling we should not be able to reach the sea from that district in less than one month, and this with long marches; withal we went with the intention of not remaining there longer than until we had received all, and then returning. So we did, for in the middle of January following we departed from that land by the road to where we used to be near the sea, and without leave, neither did we wait for the ambassador, nor inform him, so that he should not embarrass us, but we went on our own footing. And the said ambassador, as soon as he knew of our departure, sent two men after us entreating us to take them with us, and to send one back with any news there might be of the Portuguese, and that when there was certain news the other should come.
Cap. cxl.—How the Portuguese came for us, and who was the captain.
Whilst we Portuguese and the Franks were in the town of Barua waiting for them to come to us, and having sent two men to the sea in order that they should bring us the good news that our Portuguese were coming for us, on Saturday, vigil of Easter day, the 1st of April of 1526, the said two men whom we had sent to the sea reached us, and they came half dead and despairing, and they began to say, there are no Portuguese there, who were coming for us, nor are there in India, for all are routed and India lost; and they said that they knew this news by the Moors of three ships which had arrived at the Island of Masua with much sounding of music and festivity, and very rich merchandize, and that with much festivity they had disembarked at the said island. These Moors gave this news because such was their wish, and they founded themselves in asserting it on the capture of a Portuguese galley close to Diu, a port of the King of Cambay. These Portuguese who brought this news came half dead and fainting, and we remained in like manner with this news so bad for us. The ambassador, Don Rodrigo, said to me: “Padre, let us say mass to-morrow very early, and commend ourselves to God.” I answered him that my heart was not quiet, nor in such rest as to be able to say mass, but that we would go very early to the chief church and hear mass with the Barnagais. And so we did, and when the morning became light, and the mass of the resurrection was finished, the Barnagais invited us to come and dine with him, and we excused ourselves on account of the feast day, and that each of us wished to honour his own quarters: and we did this by reason of the small pleasure we felt. I went with eight Portuguese and Genoese that I had invited to dinner, and when we had done eating I left them in the house with my nephew who always accompanied me, and I went alone up a stream as far as a great rock which made shade on the sand of the river, and I wept by the way, and with tears and sighs I laid myself down in that shade for more than an hour; and, desisting from weeping, I recovered myself, and talking to myself I said: “Now this comes from God, and He is served by me in this land: the Lord be praised for ever since it is so. I know this country better than any native of it does, because I go in pursuit of game, and know its mountains, and waters, and the land which is good for cultivation, and which will give all that is planted or sown in it. I have got some good slaves and fourteen cows, and I have got rams which I will exchange for ewes. I will go near to some water, and will have a strong bush fence made to keep off the wild beasts, and I will pitch my tent in which to take refuge with my servants, and I will arrange a hermitage within, and each day I will say mass, and commend myself to God, since the Lord is pleased that I should be here. I will order the bushes to be cut to make gardens, and I will sow grain of all sorts: and with my harvests and hunting I will maintain myself and servants and slaves.” With this I remained consoled, as though good news had come to me; and I arose and returned down stream to my house, where I found the ambassador Don Rodrigo and the Portuguese and Genoese, and all our company, playing and enjoying themselves. As soon as I approached them, Don Rodrigo said to me: “Padre, what shall we do? my opinion is that we write to the Court to our friends to say to Prester John that he should bid us return to the Court.” I answered him: “Do not do it, and I shall never come from it if I go there.” And when he said to me, “What shall we do if the Prester orders us to go?” I answered, “If His Highness sends to say that the Portuguese should come, and does not say let Padre Francisco come, as he always says, I shall not go: and if he names me I will go, even though I should regret it.” And when he asked what I would do if I did not go, I gave him an account how I had gone after dinner up stream as far as the said shade and had lain down; and of the thoughts I had had, and the determination I had taken, and that I had come away consoled. All that were there arose and embraced me except the ambassador, who did not agree to this; and all of them said, and each one separately: “This is a thing which comes from God, and we will all go with you, and we will bring our wives and sons and slaves; we have got very good mules, and we very well know the sea and the land markets, and some of us will remain with you, and others will go and trade, and we will enrich ourselves, and we will make a place of our own in which we will breed cattle, and we will make large tilled fields.” When the ambassador heard this he answered nothing, and said: “You, Padre, have got much game and good things to eat, let us all sup here if you bid us, and to-morrow we will also dine here with you, and after dinner we will go with your snares after game, and we will go and sup at my house.” This pleased me very much, and we all supped this Easter and dined on Monday. After that, we rode out to hunt, and killed many hares and three or four ...,[264] and went to sup at the house of the ambassador. All the Portuguese and white men of other nations being very firm in the agreement before come to through me, when it was already night, after supper, and all of us going home to our quarters, and all with me to conduct me to mine, there came up to us on the road a servant of mine named Abetay, a married man of the country. And he came running so fast that he could not speak from fatigue: and he began to say: “Sir, Sir, the Portuguese on the sea.” I asked him: “Abetay, who told you this?” he replied, “A man said it who has now arrived from the sea and is with the Barnagais.” I said to him: “Abetay, if this is true, of nine mules that I have got, five mine and four of my nephew’s, excepting the one the Prester gave me, on which you cannot ride, I will give you the best, and I will not sleep until I see this man.” Then I took leave of my companions and went to the gates of the Barnagais’ palace, and they would not open them to me; and I waited at the gate with the said man until the cocks crew, and the man came out, to whom I at once said: “Are you the man who saw the Portuguese on the sea?” He replied: “I did not see them with my eyes, but I heard with my ears, in the morning of Easter, firing of cannon at Dalaqua, and I bring this message from the Sultan[265] of Arquiquo to the Barnagais.” I made my calculations, as it was not new moon, for at sight of it the Moors make great rejoicing, who could these be who were firing, whether they could be Rumys, Moors, or Christians. I gave this news to all our company who came to me for it on the Tuesday morning to ask, as they knew that I had gone to seek the man who had come from the sea. As I said before, that the Prester’s ambassador had sent after us two of his men for them to bring him in great haste any news of the Portuguese that we might hear, in that hour we despatched one to him, and he was one of his men, and another of this country to go night and day and take this message to the ambassador, so that he might make ready, we having some hope of good, for we had no other contrariety, except that two men of ours had brought the news from the sea that India was lost, and they could not believe in the coming of the Portuguese; on the contrary, they said this firing of bombards was rejoicing of the Moors, on being certified of the injury to India. This Tuesday, in the night, while we were thus neither believing nor disbelieving either the good or the bad news, there reached us a letter from Hector da Silveira, captain-major of the Indian sea, who had come for us, and remained in Masua. Here I do not know what to say of how great was the pleasure of all of us, except that we went out of our senses, so great was the joy. Don Rodrigo, the ambassador, returning to us said that we should start, and at once, next morning; some said that that was good. I said that it did not seem to me good; because, up to this time we had been held to be Christians, and if we travelled on such great feast days, they would say that we were not so, and that we should keep the octaves until Monday. Then that night we despatched a Portuguese, and a man of the sea coast, with our letter to Hector da Silveira; and to the Prester’s ambassador we sent his man who was still with us, with another man of the country, and they were to travel day and night and take him this certain news, and the ambassador was to do the same, and travel day and night by some other shorter road along the sea on the way to Arquiquo.
Cap. cxli.—How the Barnagais made ready, and we travelled with him on the road to the sea.