NARRATIVE
OF THE
PORTUGUESE EMBASSY
TO
ABYSSINIA
DURING THE YEARS 1520–1527.

BY

FATHER FRANCISCO ALVAREZ.

TRANSLATED FROM THE PORTUGUESE,

AND EDITED,

With Notes and an Introduction,

BY

LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEY.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.

MDCCCLXXXI.

T. RICHARDS, PRINTER, 37, GREAT QUEEN STREET.

WORKS ISSUED BY

The Hakluyt Society.

NARRATIVE OF THE PORTUGUESE
EMBASSY TO ABYSSINIA.

No. LXIV.

COUNCIL

OF

THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.

• Colonel H. YULE, C.B., President.
• Admiral C. R. DRINKWATER BETHUNE, C.B. Vice-President.
• Major-General Sir HENRY RAWLINSON, K.C.B. Vice-President.
• W. A. TYSSEN AMHERST, Esq., M.P.
• Rev. G. P. BADGER, D.C.L.
• J. BARROW, Esq.
• WALTER DE GRAY BIRCH, Esq.
• E. A. BOND, Esq.
• E. H. BUNBURY, Esq.
• Admiral Sir R. COLLINSON, K.C.B.
• The Earl of DUCIE.
• AUGUSTUS W. FRANKS, Esq.
• Captain HANKEY, R.N.
• Lieut.-General. Sir J. HENRY LEFROY, C.B., K.C.M.G.
• R. H. MAJOR, Esq.
• Rear-Admiral MAYNE, C.B.
• DELMAR MORGAN, Esq.
• Admiral Sir ERASMUS OMMANNEY, C.B.
• Lord ARTHUR RUSSELL, M.P.
• The Lord STANLEY of Alderley.
• EDWARD THOMAS, Esq.
• Lieut.-General Sir HENRY THUILLIER, C.S.I.
• CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM. C.B., Honorary Secretary.

INTRODUCTION.

The present work on Abyssinia is the earliest extant; for though Pedro de Covilham, the explorer of King John II, who was despatched from Portugal in May 1487, reached Abyssinia more than thirty years before our author, he does not appear to have left any written memorial of his long residence in that country.

This work of Francisco Alvarez has been translated from the original edition printed in black letter by Luis Rodriguez, bookseller of the King, on the 22nd October 1540, the British Museum Catalogue supposes at Coimbra.

The narrative of Alvarez has been translated into several languages, but most of these translations are considerably abridged. The following are a list of the translations:—

“Viaggio fatta nella Ethiopia, Obedienza data a Papa Clemente Settimo in nome del Prete Gianni.” Primo Volume delle navigazione. 1550. Fol.

“Viaggio nella Ethiopia, Ramusio.” 1 vol. 1554.

“Description de l’Ethiopie.” 1556. Fol.

“Historia de las cosas de Etiopia.” Traduzida de Portugues en Castillano, por Thomas de Padilla. Anvers: Juan Steelsio, 1557. 8vo.

“Description de l’Ethiopie.” Translated by J. Bellere, from the Italian version of Ramusio. Anvers: C. Plautin, 1558. 8vo.

“Historia de las cosas de Ethiopia.” By Miguel de Suelves. Printed in black letter. Saragoza, 1561. Fol.

“Warhafftiger Bericht von den Landen ... des Königs in Ethiopien.” Eisslebë, 1566. FOL——Another edition. Eisslebë, 1576. Fol.

“Die Reiss zu dess Christlichen Königs in hohen Ethiopien.” 1576. Fol.

“Historia de las cosas de Ethiopia,” traduzida por M. de Selves. Toledo, 1588. 8vo.

“The Voyage of Sir Francis Alvarez.” Purchas, his Pilgrims, Part II. 1625.

Francisco Alvarez relates in this volume how much he desired, on his return to Portugal, to be sent on a mission to Rome, to present the Prester John’s letters to the Pope, and it appears from the Portuguese Biographical Dictionary of Innocencio da Silva, that he succeeded in going to Rome, and afterwards returned to Lisbon.

Figaniere, and José Carlos Pinto de Souza say, in their Portuguese Bibliographies, that Alvarez was a native of Coimbra.

The utility and good effect of this Portuguese mission to Abyssinia suffered very much by the dissensions and quarrels which arose between Don Rodrigo de Lima, the Ambassador, and Don Jorge d’Abreu, the Secretary of Embassy, quarrels which, as usual in such cases, caused disunion amongst the whole staff of the Embassy. Father Alvarez acted a most useful part as peace-maker on all occasions; but he is very reticent, and has avoided saying upon which side the blame for these quarrels should be laid. It appears from the narrative that the Ambassador was very selfish, and thought too much of his personal interests; his conduct appears all the more blameable, from the account of the very different conduct of Hector da Silveira, who brought away the mission from Africa; but Jorge d’Abreu was very quarrelsome, and carried his quarrels further than can be excused, even by the fact that he could not refer his complaints home to his Government. The conduct of the Ambassador must, however, have been even worse than appears from the narrative, or the Abyssinians would hardly have supported Jorge d’Abreu as much as they did.

The reader is invited to compare the description of the entrance to the mountain in which the Abyssinian Princes were confined at the time of our author’s visit, at pp. 140–144, and the motives for this confinement, with this opening passage of Rasselas, describing the Happy Valley.

“The place which the wisdom or policy of antiquity had destined for the residence of the Abyssinian Princes was a spacious valley in the kingdom of Amhara, surrounded on every side by mountains, of which the summits overhang the middle part. The only passage by which it could be entered, was a cavern that passed under a rock, of which it has long been disputed whether it was the work of nature, or of human industry. The outlet of the cavern was concealed by a thick wood, and the mouth which opened into the valley was closed with gates of iron....

“This lake discharged its superfluities by a stream, which entered a dark cleft of the mountain on the northern side, and fell with dreadful noise from precipice to precipice, till it was heard no more.”

These descriptions agree sufficiently to leave no doubt that Johnson borrowed the idea of Rasselas from actual descriptions of Abyssinia, and from the translation of Alvarez in Purchas’s Pilgrimes, when he wrote that work in 1759; but the matter is proved beyond doubt, by the fact that Johnson’s first literary work was a translation from the French of Lobo’s Voyage to Abyssinia. It was published in 1735, by Bettesworth and Hicks, of Paternoster Row, and for this task Johnson received only five guineas, which he was in want of for the funeral expenses of his mother.

Therefore, whatever frivolous persons in society may have done on insufficient information, Mr. Justin McCarthy, in his History of our Own Times, should have avoided the inaccuracy of writing: “He (Lord Beaconsfield) wound up by proclaiming that ‘the standard of St. George was hoisted upon the mountains of Rasselas’. All England smiled at the mountains of Rasselas. The idea that Johnson actually had in his mind the very Abyssinia of geography and of history, when he described his Happy Valley, was in itself trying to gravity.”

Mr. McCarthy goes on to say that: “When the expedition to Abyssinia is mentioned in any company, a smile steals over some faces, and more than one voice is heard to murmur an allusion to the mountains of Rasselas”.

It is unfortunate that Mr. Justin McCarthy should not have fallen in with those Englishmen who sighed over the excuse for the expedition to Abyssinia, that “it would keep the Bombay army in wind”, or who reprobated the conduct of Lord Napier of Magdala to King Theodore, after having accepted from him a present of cows. But accurate ideas of political morality are not to be expected from an advocate of the most extreme proposals of the Irish Land League.[1]

The reader will find many descriptions of Abyssinian Ritual, and interesting discussions between the Abyssinians and Father Alvarez, who always showed much tact in these arguments.

It appears from this book, that the population of Abyssinia was far larger at that time than at the present; and that the contact of Europeans with the Abyssinians has not been to the advantage of the latter.

An interesting part of the narrative of Alvarez is the description of the churches cut out of the rock; he is very enthusiastic over the beauty of these structures. The style of Alvarez is never very clear; and there was much difficulty in translating this portion of his book, owing to the number of architectural terms, some of which are almost obsolete. No modern traveller has described these churches. Mr. Markham was within a short distance of them, but was unable to visit them.

M. Antoine d’Abbadie visited them, but he has not yet written any account of his long residence in Ethiopia, having been occupied with the publication of his very copious astronomical observations, and being now engaged in printing a dictionary of the Ethiopic language.

M. d’Abbadie is anxious that the work on Ethiopia of the Jesuit Almeida, a MS. of which is in the British Museum, should be translated and published, as he considers it to be the most exact account of that country. I am indebted to M. d’Abbadie for several explanations of Ethiopic words and names which have been given in the notes: many of these were too much disfigured to be recognisable.

On one occasion, the Portuguese performed before Prester John a representation of the Adoration of the Magi, or an Epiphany miracle play. This would probably be similar to one that was found in a thirteenth century Service Book of Strasbourg, and which was published by Mr. Walter Birch in the tenth volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature.

The Abyssinian envoy, Mattheus, who went to Portugal and returned to his country with the Portuguese Embassy, suffered much on his way to Portugal, and also on his return, by reason of the doubts cast upon the authenticity of his mission. What happened to him in India on his way to Portugal, is mentioned at length in Mr. Birch’s translation of the Commentaries of Albuquerque, vol. iii, p. 250. The truth appears to be that he was sent by Queen Helena, the queen-mother.

In several cases, the dates given by Alvarez of the days of the week and the days of the month do not agree, but as these dates refer to the departure from some village, and not to any historical event, I have not thought it worth while to verify and correct these discrepancies.

Mr. Clements Markham has compiled a map of Abyssinia for this volume, extending from Massowah to Shoa.

Some years ago a rather savage criticism of the publications of the Hakluyt Society complained of the excessive length of their Introductions. This one is much shorter than it should have been, not in deference to the critic, but because the researches necessary for doing justice to the work of Alvarez have been interfered with and prevented by other less agreeable occupations; but the delivery of this volume could not be delayed any longer, and the members of the Society are entreated to excuse its brevity.

June 29th, 1881.

TITLES OF THE CHAPTERS.

ERRATA AND NOTES.

Page 36, line 22, for “Rodrigro”, read “Rodrigo”.

„ 84 note, “mancal”. “Baton ferré des deux bouts”.—Roquette’s Dict.

„ 151, line 18, for “sleeep”, read “sleep”.

„ 178, line 28, “a crucifix painted on it”, or perhaps, “a painted crucifix on it”.

„ 186, note. See Grove’s Dictionary of Music for a note on the Monochord.

„ 199, note. “Alaqueca, laqueca, pierre des Indes qui arrête le flux de sang.”—Roquette’s Dict.

„ 228, line 25, for “Bruncaliam”, read “Brancaliam”.

„ 241. Col. Meadows Taylor describes a similar miracle play represented at Aurungabad by the Portuguese monks.—Story of my Life, p. 39.

„ 295, line 2, for “pesons”, read “persons”.

„ 324, last line, for “littlo”, read “little”.

„ 325, “cap. cxvii”, read “cxviii”.

„ 344, line 33, “Cosme, Damiano”, or the church of Saints Cosmo and Damian, martyrs united in the Calendar under 27th September.

„ 408, note, “Tahu.” This is the Tau-cross or T-shaped crutch emblem of St. Anthony, so called from the name of the letter in the Greek alphabet.

PROLOGUE TO THE KING OUR SOVEREIGN.

Very high and very powerful Prince,

Perchance your Highness may judge me to be as ignorant as over bold, since with such weak knowledge, and little capacity, I have desired to offer to you my poor works: but the love which I bear to your service excuses my error, because I have done it with such strenuous daring, as in truth I would do other greater things, if the favour of your Highness should also oblige me as in this work of Prester John of the Indies. Because, besides that the Bishop of Lamego incited me to this, your Highness bade me print it, saying that you would receive much satisfaction from it, which was a great favour to me; I give for it great thanks to God, because with this commencement others came to me with hope of a good end, blessed ends I hope. And if, my Lord, you keep this in your remembrance, I well believe that with a royal mind you will so accept the little, as you will bestow much. For a poor man passing by one day where his King travelled, brought him a little water with both his hands, saying: drink my Lord, for the heat is great. He accepted it gaily from him, not looking to the small quality of that service, but only to the good will with which he offered it. Therefore, though in this same manner I offer to your Highness this small service of the book of Prester John, receive with content its usefulness; for in it are related many notable things; the truth of which is as much shown in the deeds as in the words. Because it is a very important thing for a Prince to recall to memory the examples of profitable lives that have passed away, for a lesson to the living. And as, my Lord, always since I have been yours my desire has been directed to your service in order to derive some fruit by it, even though power may have been wanting to me, good will has not failed: with this I went to Paris to seek for printing types of official letters and other things fitting for printing, which are no less of the best quality than those of Italy, France, and Germany, where this art most flourishes, as your Highness may see by the work which I have established in this city, with no small satisfaction, because it seemed to me that your Highness took pleasure in it, as has been shewn by the favours which you have done to me, and which I hope you will do. Thus, with this confidence, I took this little opportunity of Prester John, which (as the poets say) is not the less to be praised on this account. May your Highness receive with a royal and benignant mind this small service, the first fruits of my small capacity, which may bring profit and recreation from the labours which your great and arduous affairs bring with them. And if your Highness should find in this book any words that do not please you, remember that the men there abroad are lords of the words, and that Princes are lords of deeds and of fortune.

The treatise commences with the entry into the country of Prester John.

Cap. i.—How Diogo Lopez de Sequeira succeeded to the government of India after Lopo Soarez, who was governor before him, and how he brought Mattheus to the port of Maçua.

I say that I came with Duarte Galvan, may God keep him, and this is the truth, and he died in Camaran, an island of the Red sea, and his embassy ceased in the time when Lopo Soarez was Captain General and Governor of the Indies, as I have already written at length, and here I omit to write it as it is not necessary: I shall write that which is necessary. I say that Diogo Lopez de Sequeira succeeding to the government of India after Lopo Soarez, he set to work to do that which Lopo Soarez had not completed, that is to bring Mattheus the ambassador, who went to Portugal as ambassador of Prester John, to the port of Maçua, which is near to Arquiquo, port and country of Prester John. And he fitted out his large and handsome fleet, and we set sail for the said Red sea, and arrived at the said island of Maçua on Monday of the Octave of Easter, the seventh day of April of the year fifteen hundred and twenty, which we found empty, because for about five or six days they had had news of us. The main land is about two crossbow shots, more or less, from the island, and to it the Moors of the island had carried off their goods for safety: this mainland belongs to Prester John. The fleet having come to anchor between the island and the mainland, on the following Tuesday there came to us from the town of Arquiquo a Christian and a Moor: the Christian said that the town of Arquiquo belonged to Christians, and to a lord who was called Barnagais, a subject of Prester John, and that the Moors of this island of Maçua and town of Arquiquo, whenever Turks or Roumys who do them injury came to this port, all fled to the mountains and carried off such of their property as they could carry, and now they had not chosen to fly because they had heard that we were Christians. Hearing this the great captain gave thanks to God for the news, and name of Christians which he had met with, and which greatly favoured Mattheus, who came rather unfavourably: and he ordered a rich garment to be given to the Christian, and to the Moor he showed great favour, and told them that they had done what they ought in not stirring from the town of Arquiquo, since it belonged to Christians, and the Prester, as they said, and that his coming was only for the service and friendship of the Prester John and all his people, and that they might go in peace and be in security.

Cap. ii.—How the Captain of Arquiquo came to visit the Captain General, and also some Friars of Bisam.

The following day, Wednesday of the Octave, the captain of the said town of Arquiquo came to speak to the Captain General, and he brought him a present of four cows: and the Captain General received him with much show and honour, and gave him rich stuffs, and learned from him more details about the Christianity of the country, and how he was already summoned by the Barnagais, the lord of that country, to go there. This captain came in this manner: he brought a very good horse, and he wore a cloak over a rich Moorish shirt, and with him there were thirty horsemen, and quite two hundred men on foot. After the long and agreeable conversation which they held by interpreters, the Captain General speaking Arabic well, the captain of Arquiquo went away with his people much pleased, as it appeared from what they said. At a distance of seven or eight leagues from this town of Arquiquo, in a very high mountain, there is a very noble monastery of friars, which Mattheus talked of a great deal, and which is called Bisan.[3] The friars had news of us, and on Thursday after the Octave there came to us seven friars of the said monastery. The Captain General went out to receive them on the beach with all his people with much pleasure and rejoicing, and likewise the friars showed that they felt much pleasure. They said that for a long time they had been looking forward for Christians, because they had prophecies written in their books, which said that Christians were to come to this port, and that they would open a well in it, and that when this well was opened there would be no more Moors there. They talked of many other things in similar fitting conversations, the ambassador Mattheus being present at all; and the said friars did great honour to Mattheus, kissing his hand and shoulder, because such is their custom, and he also was much delighted with them. These friars said that they kept eight days after the feast of Easter, and that during that time they did not go on a journey or do any other service, but that as soon as they heard say that Christians were in the port, a thing they so much desired, they had begged leave of their superior to come and make this journey in the service of God; and also that news of our arrival had been taken to the Barnagais; but that he would not leave his house except after the eight days after Easter had passed. The conversation with these friars and their reception having been concluded, the Captain General returned to his galleon with his captains, and the friars with him. These friars were received on board with the cross and priests with surplices, giving them the cross to kiss, which they did with great reverence. They were treated with many conserves which the Captain General ordered to be given them, and much conversation passed with them of joy and pleasure over a matter so much desired on both parts. The said friars departed and went to sleep at Arquiquo.

Cap. iii.—How the Captain General ordered mass to be said in the chief mosque of Maçua, and ordered it to be named St. Mary of the Conception, and how he sent to see the things of the Monastery of Bisam.

On Friday after the Octave of Easter, the thirteenth day of the said month of April, very early in the morning, the said friars returned to the beach, and they sent for them with honour; and the governor with his captains passed over with the friars to the island of Maçua, and he ordered mass to be said in the principal mosque, in honour of the five wounds, as it was Friday. At the end of the mass the Captain General said that the mosque should be named St. Mary of the Conception: from that time forward we said mass every day in the said mosque. At the end of that mass, on betaking ourselves to the ships, some of the friars went with Mattheus, others with the Captain General: to all cloths were given for their clothes, that is to say, stuffs of coarse cotton, for that is the stuff which they wear; they also gave them pieces of silk for the monastery, and some pictures and bells for the same monastery. These friars all carried crosses in their hands, for such is their custom, and the laymen wore small crosses of black wood at their necks. Our people in general bought those crosses which the laymen wore, and brought them with them, because they were novelties to which we were not accustomed. Whilst these friars were going about amongst us, the Captain General ordered a man named Fernan Diaz, who knew Arabic, to go and see the monastery; and for greater authority, and for the matter to be better known for it to be written to the King our sovereign, he sent besides the said Fernan Diaz, the licentiate Pero Gomez Teixeira, auditor of the Indies. These each for their own part said that it was a great and good thing, because we ought to give great thanks and praise to the Lord for that we had come from such distant lands and seas, through so many enemies of our faith, and that we here fell in with Christians with a monastery and houses of prayer where God was served. The said auditor brought from the monastery a parchment book written in their writing,[4] to send to the King our sovereign.

Cap. iv.—How the Captain General and the Barnagais saw each other, and how it was arranged that Rodrigo de Lima should go with Mattheus to Prester John.

On Tuesday, the seventeenth day of the said month of April, the Barnagais came to the town of Arquiquo, and sent a message to the Governor of his having come. As it seemed likely to the governor that he would come to speak to him on the beach, he ordered a tent to be pitched and stuffs to be arranged in the best manner possible, and ordered seats to be made for sitting on. When all was done, a message arrived that the Barnagais would not come there: then the same day Antonio de Saldanha went to this town of Arquiquo to speak to the Barnagais, and he brought a message and agreement that they should meet and see one another midway, and so we all got ready to go with the governor: some by sea and some by land, as far as half way where they were to see one another. There the Governor ordered his tents to be pitched and seats to be made. The Barnagais coming first would not come to the place where the tents were spread and the seats made. The Captain General having landed, and learned that the Barnagais would not come to the tents, ordered them to go with the seats and leave the tents; but still he would not stir with his people to where the seats were placed. The Captain General again sent Antonio de Saldanha and the ambassador Mattheus to him: then they agreed that both should approach each other, that is, the Captain General and the Barnagais. So they did, and they saw each other and spoke in a very wide plain, seated on the ground upon carpets. Among many other things that they talked of, the principal one was that both gave thanks to God for their meeting, the Barnagais saying that they had it written in their books, that Christians from distant lands were to come to that port to join with the people of Prester John, and that they would make a well of water, and that there would be no more Moors there: and since God fulfilled this, that they should affirm and swear friendship. They then took a cross which was there for that purpose, and the Barnagais took it in his hand, and said that he swore on that sign of the cross, and on that on which our Lord Jesus Christ suffered, in the name of Prester John and in his own, that he would always favour and help to favour and assist the men and affairs of the king of Portugal and his captains who came to this port, or to other lands where they might be able to give them assistance and favour, and also that he would take the ambassador Mattheus into his safe keeping, and likewise other ambassadors and people, if the Captain General should wish to send them through the kingdoms and lordships of Prester John. The Captain General swore in like manner to do the same for the affairs of Prester John and the Barnagais, wherever he might meet with them, and that the other captains and lords of the kingdom of Portugal would act likewise. The Captain General gave to the Barnagais arms, clothes, and rich stuffs: and the Barnagais gave the Captain General a horse and a mule, both of great price. So they took leave of each other very joyful and contented, the Captain General to the ships, and the Barnagais to Arquiquo.[5] The Barnagais brought with him quite two hundred horsemen, and more than two thousand men on foot. When our gentlemen and captains saw this novelty which God had so provided, and how a path was opened for aggrandising the holy Catholic faith, where they had small hopes of finding such; because they all held Mattheus to be false and a liar, so that there were grounds for putting him on shore and leaving him alone; many then clamoured and asked favour of the Governor, each man for himself to be allowed to go with Mattheus on an embassy to Prester John, and here they all affirmed by what they saw that Mattheus was a true ambassador. Since many asked for it, it was given to Don Rodrigo de Lima; then the Captain General settled who were to go with him. We were the following: First, Don Rodrigo de Lima, Jorge d’Abreu, Lopo da Gama, Joam Escolar, clerk of the embassy, Joam Gonzalvez, its interpreter and factor, Manoel de Mares, player of organs, Pero Lopez, mestre Joam, Gaspar Pereira, Estevan Palharte, both servants of Don Rodrigo; Joam Fernandez, Lazaro d’Andrade, painter, Alonzo Mendez, and I, unworthy priest, Francisco Alvarez.[6] These went in company with Don Rodrigo; the Captain General here said, in the presence of all: Don Rodrigo, I do not send the father Francisco Alvarez with you, but I send you with him, and do not do anything without his advice. There went with Mattheus three Portuguese, one was named Magalhaēs, another Alvarenga, another Diogo Fernandez.

Cap. v.—Of the goods which the Captain sent to Prester John.

They then prepared the present which was to be sent to the Prester: not such as the King our Sovereign had sent by Duarte Galvan, because that had been dispersed in Cochim by Lopo Soarez: and what we now brought was poor enough, and we took for excuse that the goods which we brought had been lost in the ship St. Antonio, which was lost near Dara in the mouth of the straits. These were the goods which we took to Prester John: first, a gold sword with a rich hilt, four pieces of tapestry, some rich cuirasses, a helmet and two swivel guns, four chambers, some balls, two barrels of powder, a map of the world, some organs. With these we set out from the ships to Arquiquo, where we went to present ourselves to the Barnagais. Thence we went to rest about two crossbow shots distance above the town, in a plain at the foot of a mountain. There they soon sent us a cow, and bread and wine of the country. We waited there because they had to send to us, or give us from the country, riding horses and camels for the baggage. This day was Friday, and because in this country they keep Saturday and Sunday, Saturday for the old law and Sunday for the new, therefore we remained thus both the two days. In these days the ambassador Mattheus settled with Don Rodrigo and with all of us, that we should not go with the Barnagais because he was a great lord, and that we should do much better to go to the monastery of Bisam: and that from that place we should get a better equipment than from the Barnagais. Don Rodrigo, doing this at his wish, sent to tell the Barnagais that we were not going with him, and that we were going to Bisam. And the Barnagais, not grieving on this account, went away and left us. And because our equipment had to be made by his order, they gave us eight horses and no more, and thirty camels for the baggage. So we remained discontented, knowing the mistake we were making in leaving Barnagais to please Mattheus.

Cap. vi.—Of the day that we departed and the fleet went out of the port, and where we went to keep the feast, and of a gentleman who came to us.

We departed from this plain close to the town of Arquiquo, on Monday the thirtieth of April. On this day, as soon as we lost sight of the sea, and those of the sea lost sight of us, the fleet went out of the port, although the Captain General had said he would wait there until he saw our message, and knew in what country we had arrived. And we did not go more than half a league from where we departed from, and then rested at a dry channel, which had no water except in a few little pools. We held the midday rest here on account of the great drought of the land: for further on we should not have water, and the heat was very great. We all carried our gourds, and leather ewers, and waterskins of the country, with water. In this dry river bed there were many trees of different species, amongst which were jujube trees, and other trees without fruit. Whilst we were thus resting at the river bed there came to us a gentleman named Frey Mazqual, which in our tongue means servant of the cross. He in his blackness was a gentleman, and said he was a brother-in-law of the Barnagais, a brother of his wife. Before he reached us he dismounted, because such is their custom, and they esteem it a courtesy. The ambassador Mattheus, hearing of his arrival, said he was a robber, and that he came to rob us and told us to take up arms: and he Mattheus took his sword, and put a helmet on his head. Frey Mazqual, seeing this tumult, sent to ask leave to come up to us. Mattheus was still doubtful, and withal he came up to us like a well born man, well educated, and courteous. This gentleman had a very good led horse and a mule on which he came, and four men on foot.

Cap. vii.—How Mattheus made us leave the road, and travel through the mountain in a dry river bed.

We departed from this resting place all together, with many other people who had been resting there; and this gentleman went with us on his mule, leading his horse: and he approached the ambassador, Don Rodrigo, and caused the interpreter we had with us to approach, and they went for a good distance talking and conversing. He was in his speech, conversation, questions, and answers, a well informed and courteous man, and the ambassador Mattheus could not bear him, saying that he was a robber. And while we were going by a very good wide and flat road, by which were travelling all the people who had rested with us at the rest, and many others who were travelling behind, Mattheus, who was in front, left this road and entered some bushes and hills without any road, and made the camels go that way, and all of us with them, saying that he knew the country better than anyone else, and that we should follow him. When Frey Mazqual saw this he said that we were out of any road, and that he did not know why that man did this. We all began to cry out at him, because he was taking us through the rough ground to lose and break what we carried with us, leaving the highroads, and that we were travelling where the wolves went. Mattheus, perceiving our outcry, and that we were all against him, took a turn, and we went round some mountains to the road, more than two leagues before reaching it. And before we reached it Mattheus had a fainting fit, during which we thought he was dead for more than an hour. When he came to himself we put him on a mule, and two men on each side to assist him. So we went, all accompanying and looking after him, and Frey Mazqual with us, until we arrived at the road, which was a long way off. When we reached it we found a very large cafila of camels and many people who were coming to Arquiquo, because they only travel in cafilas for fear of robbers. These were all amazed at the road we had travelled. We all slept at a hill where there was water and a certain place for cafilas to halt at, and Frey Mazqual also. We all slept, we and the two cafilas keeping good watch all night. From here we set out next morning, always travelling by dry river beds, and on either side very high mountain ridges, with large woods of various kinds of trees, most of them without fruit: for among them are some very large trees which give a fruit which they call tamarinds, like clusters of grapes, which are much prized by the Moors, for they make vinegar with them, and sell them in the markets like dried raisins. The dry channels and road by which we went showed very deep clefts, which are made by the thunder storms: they do not much impede travelling, as they told us, and as we afterwards saw similar ones. All that is necessary is to turn aside and wait for two hours the overflow of the storm, they then set out travelling again. However great these rivers may be with the waters of these storms, as soon as they issue forth from the mountains and reach the plains, they immediately spread out and are absorbed, and do not reach the sea: and we could not learn that any river of Ethiopia enters into the Red sea, all waste away when they come to the flat plains. In these mountains and ridges there are many animals of various kinds, such as lions, elephants, tigers, ounces, wolves, boars, stags, deer,[7] and all other kinds which can be named in the world, except two which I never saw nor heard tell that there are any of them here, bears and rabbits. There are birds of all kinds that can be named, both of those known to us and of those not known, great and small: two kinds of birds I did not see nor hear say that there are, these are magpies and cuckoos; the other herbs of these mountains and rivers are basil and odorous herbs.

Cap. viii.—How Mattheus again took us out of the road, and made us go to the monastery of Bisam.

When it was the hour for resting ourselves, Mattheus was still determined on taking us out of the high road, and taking us to the monastery of Bisam, through mountain ridges and bushes,[8] and we took counsel with frey Mazqual, who told us that the road to the monastery was such that baggage could not go there on men’s backs, and that the road we were leaving was the high road by which travelled the caravans of Christians and Moors, where no one did them any harm, and that still less would they do harm to us who were travelling in the service of God and of Prester John. Nevertheless, we followed the will and fancy of Mattheus. At the halt,[9] where we slept, there were great altercations as to the said travelling, and as to whether we should turn back to the high road which we had left. Seeing this, Mattheus begged of me to entreat the ambassador Don Rodrigo and all the others to be pleased to go to the monastery of Bisam, because it was of great importance to him, and that he would not remain there more than six or seven days (he remained there for ever, for he died there); and that when those seven or eight days were passed, in which he would trade in what belonged to him, we should be welcome to go on our road. At my request all determined to do his wish, since it was important to him, saying that we would remain at a village at the foot of the monastery. We departed from this halt by much more precipitous ground and channels than those of the day before, and larger woods. We on foot and the mules unridden in front of us, we could not travel; the camels shrieked as though sin was laying hold of them. It seemed to all that Mattheus was bringing us here to kill us; and all turned upon me because I had done it. There was nothing for it but to call on God, for sins were going about in those woods: at midday the wild animals were innumerable and had little fear of people. Withal we went forward, and began to meet with country people who kept fields of Indian corn, and who come from a distance to sow these lands and rocky ridges which are among these mountains: there are also in these parts very beautiful flocks, such as cows and goats. The people that we found here are almost naked, so that all they had showed, and they were very black. These people were Christians, and the women wore a little more covering, but it was very little. Going a little further in another forest which we could not pass on foot, and the camels unladen, there came to us six or seven friars of the monastery of Bisam, among whom were four or five very old men, and one more so than all the rest, to whom all showed great reverence, kissing his hand. We did the same, because Mattheus told us that he was a bishop; afterwards we learned that he was not a bishop, but his title was David, which means guardian, and besides, in the monastery there is another above him, whom they call Abba, which means father: and this father is like a provincial. From their age and from their being thin and dry like wood, they appear to be men of holy life. They go into the forests collecting their millet, both that grown by their own labour, and the produce of the dues paid to them by those who sow in these mountains and forests. The clothes which they wear are old yellow cotton stuffs, and they go barefooted. From this place we went forward until the camels had taken rest, and in the space of a quarter of a league we arrived at the foot of a tree with all our baggage, and Mattheus with his, and frey Mazqual with us, also the friars, particularly the old ones, were there with us: and the oldest, whom Mattheus called a Bishop, gave us a cow, which we at once killed for supper. We were here in doubt by what way we could get out, and as there was no help for it we all slept here together, ambassadors, friars and frey Mazqual, ready to start.

Cap. ix.—How we said mass here, and Frey Mazqual separated from us, and we went to a monastery where our people fell sick.

The following day was Holy Cross of May; we said mass at the foot of a tree in honour of the true cross, that it might please to direct us well, entreating our Portuguese to make this petition with much devotion to our Lord, that like as He had opened a way to Saint Helena to find it, so He would open a road for our salvation which we saw to be so closed up. Mass being ended we dined, and the ambassador Mattheus ordered his baggage to be loaded on the backs of negroes, and taken to a small monastery which was half a league from where we were, and they name the patron of it St. Michael, and they call the site of the monastery Dise. Joam Escolar, the clerk of the Embassy, and I, went with this baggage on foot, as it was not ground or a road fit for mules. We went to see what country it was there, and whether we should go to that monastery, or whether we should turn back. Here frey Mazqual departed from us. With the journey we made, the clerk and I, we were almost dead when we arrived at the monastery, both from the precipitous path and steep ascent, and the great heat. After having taken rest, and seen the said monastery, and seen that it had buildings in which to lodge our goods, and ourselves also, the clerk returned to the company, and I remained at the monastery. On the following day, fourth of May, all our people came with the goods we were bringing with us, and which had remained at the foot of this mountain, all being carried on the backs of negroes. And on the night on which our people remained and slept there, Satan did not cease from weaving his wiles, and caused strife to arise among our people, and this on account of the ambassador’s carrying out that which he had to do, and ought to do for the service of God and the King, and for the safety of our lives and honour: and one said that there were men in the company who were not going to do all that seemed fit to him, upon this they came to using their spears. God be praised that no one was wounded. As soon as we were all at the monastery I made them good friends, blaming them for using such words, since he was our captain, and that which was for the service of God and the King was an advantage to us all, and that we ought not to do anything without mature deliberation. We lodged in this monastery of St. Michael under the impression that we should depart at the end of seven or eight days, as Mattheus had said, and they gave us very good lodgings. Upon this Mattheus came and told us that he had written to the court of Prester John, and to Queen Helena, and to the patriarch, and that the answer could not come in less than forty days, and that we could not depart without this answer, because from there mules had to be sent for us and for the baggage. And he did not stop at this, but went on to say that the winter was beginning, which would last three months, and that we could not travel during that time, and that we should buy provisions for the winter. Besides, he said that we should wait for the Bishop of Bisam, who was coming from the court, and that he would give us equipment. This one that he called Bishop is not one, but is the Abba or provincial of Bisam. In this matter of the winter, and the coming of this provincial, the friars of this monastery concerted with Mattheus, and they did not lie, for nobody in this country travels for three months, that is, from the middle of June, July, August, to middle of September, and the winter is general: also as to the coming of him they called Bishop, he did not delay much. A few days after our arrival the people fell sick, both the Portuguese and also our slaves, few or none remained who were not affected, and many in danger of death from much bloodletting and purging. Among the first mestre Joam fell sick, and we had no other remedy. The Lord was pleased that purging and bloodletting came to him of itself, and he regained his health. After that the sickness attacked others with all its force, among them the ambassador Mattheus fell sick, and many remedies were used for him. And thinking that he was already well, and as though delighted and pleased, he ordered his baggage to be got ready and sent to a village of Bisam named Jangargara, which is half way between this monastery and Bisam. In that village are friars of the said monastery, who keep their cows there, and there are many good houses in it. He had his baggage taken there, and went with it, and two days after his arrival he sent to call the mestre, for he had fallen ill again. He left all the sick people and went, and we did not wait long after him, the ambassador, Don Rodrigo, and I, but went to visit him, and we found him very suffering. Don Rodrigo returned, and I remained with him three days, and I confessed him and gave him the sacraments, and at the end of the three days he died, on the 23rd of May 1520; and he made his will in the Portuguese language by means of mestre Francisco Gonzalves, his spiritual father, and also in the Abyssinian language by a friar of the said monastery. As soon as he was dead there came thither at once the ambassador, and Jorge d’Abreu, and Joam Escolar the clerk, and a great number of the friars of Bisam. We took him with great honour to bury him at the said monastery, and did the office for the dead after our custom, and the friars after their custom. In the same night that Mattheus died, Pereira, servant of Don Rodrigo, died. When the burial of Mattheus was done, the ambassador, Don Rodrigo, and Jorge d’Abreu, and Joam Escolar, clerk, and certain friars of the monastery, returned to the village where Mattheus died, and where his goods remained. And it was intended to make an inventory of his goods, in order that they should be correctly sent to the person whom he named, by Francisco Mattheus, his servant, whom the King of Portugal, our Sovereign, had given him and had set free, because before he was a Moorish slave, and the goods were in his keeping. The said Francisco Mattheus took it into his head not to choose that the inventory should be made: and the friars for their part hoping to get a share of the goods. Seeing this, Don Rodrigo left them to their devices and came away in peace; and Francisco Mattheus and the friars took these goods to the monastery of Bisam, and thence sent them to the court of the Prester for them to be given to the Queen Helena, to whom he, Mattheus, ordered them to be given.

Cap. x.—How Don Rodrigo sent to ask the Barnagais for equipment for his departure.

As we were thus without any remedy, and had been waiting for a month and no message came, and we did not know what to do, and Mattheus having died, we determined on sending to ask the Barnagais to send us some equipment for our departure, so that we might not remain here for our destruction. Knowing this the friars grieved much at it, and pressed Don Rodrigo not to send, and to wait for the arrival of the said provincial, as he would be at the monastery within ten days, and that if he did not come that they would provide the means for our departure. And because these people are unconfiding they would not trust in the ambassador, although he had promised it them; and they took an oath from all of us on a crucifix that we would wait for the said ten days, and they also swore to fulfil that which they had promised. And in order that we might not be disappointed on one side or the other, or in case both should take effect, we might choose the best, Don Rodrigo arranged to send Joam Gonzalves, interpreter and factor, and Manoel de Mares and two other Portuguese to the Barnagais to ask him to remember the oath which he swore and promised to the Captain General of the King of Portugal, which was to favour and take into his keeping the affairs of the King, and to be pleased to give us an equipment for our travelling. When the ten days were ended the factor sent one of the Portuguese that went with him with a good message, and with him came a man from the Barnagais saying that he came to give us oxen for the baggage and mules for ourselves. On the part of the friars nothing came.

Cap. xi.—Of the fashion and situation of the monasteries and their customs, first this of St. Michael.

The manner of these monasteries as to their sites and customs: all are situated on the greatest and highest cliffs, or the deepest they can find. This one of St. Michael is situated on a very steep rock at the foot of another very high rock, where no one can ascend. The stone of which these rocks consist is of the grain of the walls of the port of Portugal.[10] They are very great rocks. The land around these rocks is all covered with very great forests, and besides wild olive trees and high grass between them, in which there is much basil. The trees which are not wild olive trees are not trees known to us; all are without fruit. In the narrow valleys which belong to this monastery there are orange trees, lemon trees, citron trees, pear trees and fig trees of all kinds, both of Portugal and India; peach trees, cabbages, coriander, cardamine, wormwood,[11] myrtle and other sweet-smelling and medicinal herbs, all ill profited by because they are not good working men: and the earth produces these like wild plants, and it would produce whatever was planted and sown in it. The monastery house looks quite like a church building, constructed like ours. It has around it a circuit like a cloister, covered above in the same manner as the body of the monastery. It has three entrances, as ours are, one principal one, and two side ones. The roof of the church and of its cloisters is of wild straw, which lasts a man’s life: the body of the church is built with naves very well constructed, and their arches are very well closed; all appears to be vaulted. The church has a chancel and a transept, in the centre transept are curtains from end to end; and there are other curtains before the side doors, from wall to wall. They are curtains of silk: the entrance through these curtains is in three places, they are open in the middle, and they reach one to another, also they can be entered close to the walls. In the said three entrances there are little bells suspended to the curtains themselves, and nobody can enter by any part without these bells ringing. Here there is not more than one altar, which is in the chancel: this has a stand on four props, and the altar reaches to these four props. This stand is covered over above as though with a vault, and there is an altar stone which they call tabuto. Upon this altar stone there is a basin of copper, very large and flat below, and with low sides. This basin also reaches to the supports of the stand, which are disposed in a square. Within this large basin there is another smaller one. This stand has curtains hanging down from it to the ground, that is, at the back and sides, which screen the altar, except that in front it is open. One can go all round the altar. The bells are of stone, and in this manner: long thin stones, suspended by cords passed through them, and they strike them with sticks made for the purpose, and they make a sound as of cracked bells heard at a distance. Also at festivals they take the basins from the altar and strike them with sticks, and they help to make a sound. They have also other iron bells, not round, but with two sides, they have a clapper which strikes first on one side and then on the other, and it makes a noise as of helving a mattock. They also have other small ill-made bells, which they carry in their hands at processions, and they ring the whole of them at the festivals. On other days the bells of stones and iron are used. In all churches and monasteries they ring for matins two hours before dawn. They say the prayers by heart and without light, except in the lamps or chandeliers, for they have not got lamps. They burn butter in these chandeliers, for they have not got oil. They pray or chaunt very loud, without art of singing, and they do not recite (alternate) verses, but all sing straight on. Their prayers are psalms, and on feast days besides psalms they recite prose, according as the feast is so is the prose. They always stand in the churches; at matins they only say one single lesson: this is said by a priest or a friar, rather shouted than intoned, and he reads this lesson before the principal entrance. When this lesson is finished, on Saturdays, Sundays, and feast days, they make a procession with four or five crosses on their poles, and a cross not so much raised as carried like a stick in the left hand, because they carry a thurible in the right hand, since as many as carry a cross carry a thurible, there are always as many thuribles as crosses. They wear some silk cloaks, not well made, because they are not wider than the width of a piece of damask, or other silk from top to bottom. Before the breast, a cross piece to the flanks on each side, of any other stuff and of any colour, even though it should not match the principal part, and of this principal part a good ell hangs behind dragging on the ground. They make this procession through the circuit, which is like a cloister. This being ended, on the said Saturdays, Sundays, and feasts, he who has to say mass enters with two others into the chancel; they bring out an effigy of Our Lady, which they have in ancient pictures in all churches and monasteries. He who has to say mass places himself in the centre of the transept with his face towards the principal entrance, and the image in his hands held before his breast: and those who stand by his sides hold lighted candles in their hands, and all the others commence a chaunt like prose, and all walk, shouting and leaping as if dancing[12] they hold hands and go round, before the image,[13] and at the sound of that chaunt or prose which they sing, they also ring the little bells and sound the cymbals to the same tune. Each time that they pass before the image they make a great reverence to it. Certainly it has a good appearance and causes devotion, from being a thing done for the praise of the Lord God. There also proceed crosses and thuribles in this feast as in the procession. When this is ended, which lasts a good while, they put by the picture and go to a small building which is on the North side, and of the gospel according to our mass; and outside the covered circuit, where they make the bread which they call corbom, and we hostia. They carry cross, thurible, and bell, and bring thence the bread of wheat flour, and without leaven, made at that moment, very white and nice, of the size and roundness of a patena, in this monastery in which are few people. In other monasteries and churches, where there are many people, they make large loaves, and many of them according to the people, because all are communicants who go to the church. According to the width of the bread they make its thickness, from half a finger’s breadth to an inch, or larger. They bring this loaf in a small vase, which is one of those of the altar, covered with a cloth, and with the cross and thurible, sounding a bell. Behind the church, that is, behind the chancel,[14] in that circuit which is like a cloister, nobody must remain unless he were in holy orders, and all the others must be before the principal entrance in another large circuit, which all the churches have; for near this, which is like a cloister, anybody who likes may stand. Whilst bringing the bread, as many as are in the church or in its circuit, when they hear the bell, bow their heads until the bell is silent, which is when they place the wafer on the altar with the small vase in which they brought it. They place this vase in the other larger one, and cover the bread with a dark cloth, after the fashion of a corporale. They have a silver chalice in this monastery, and so in all honourable churches and monasteries there are silver chalices, some have them of gold: in poor churches, which they call churches of Balgues, that is, of rustics, there are copper chalices. The vases are very wide and ill made, and they have not got patenas. They put into the chalice wine of raisins, in large quantities, because as many as partake of the communion of the body also partake of the blood. He who has to say mass begins it with Hallelujah in a loud voice, rather shouted than sung; all respond and continue the chaunt. He of the mass is silent and continues his benedictions, which he does with his small cross, which he holds in his hand. Those who are outside sing as well as those who are inside the church and cloister, up to a certain distance. Here one of those who is at the altar, takes a book and goes to read the epistle at the principal door of the church. When it is ended, he who read it at once begins a chaunt as a response; those who are at the altar, or in the church, follow him. This ended, he who says the mass takes a book from the altar; and gives it to him who has to read the gospel, and he bows his head and begs a blessing. After he has received it he goes to the place where the epistle was read, and with him two others, one with a cross and thurible, the other with a bell. They read the gospel, and likewise the epistle, fast and loud, as much so as the tongue can speak and the voice be raised. Returning to the altar, on the way another chaunt commences, and those that accompany them join in it. On reaching the altar they give the book to kiss to him who says the mass, and they deposit the book in its place; because at the altar they say nothing from a book. Then he who says mass takes the thurible, or they give it into his hand, and he incenses the altar above it, and then takes several turns round it, giving incense. When these circuits and incensing are ended, he turns to the altar and gives many blessings with the cross, and then uncovers the bread which was covered up, and which is for the sacrament: they take it with both hands, and let go the right hand and it remains in the left hand: with the thumb of the right hand he makes five marks like little hollows, that is to say, one in the upper part, one in the middle, another at the lower part, another on the left, and another on the right hand, and then he consecrates in his language, and with our own very words, and does not elevate it. He does as much with the chalice, and says over it our own very words, in his language: and again covers it, and takes the sacrament of the bread in his hands and divides it in the middle, and of the part which remains in his left hand, from the top of it he takes a very small portion, and places the other pieces one upon another. The priest takes this small portion for himself, and also takes a portion of the sacrament of the blood. After that he takes the vase with the sacrament covered up and gives it to him who read the gospel, and likewise takes the chalice with the sacrament and gives it to him who read the epistle. He then administers the communion to the priests who are near the altar, taking the sacrament in very small portions from the vase which the deacon holds in his right hand, and as often as he administers it the sub-deacon takes of the blood with a spoon of gold, or silver, or copper, according to the church, and gives a very small quantity to the person who has received the body. There is also on one side another priest with a ewer of holy water, and the person who has received the communion puts out the palm of his hand and he pours some of that holy water, and with it he washes his mouth and swallows it. This being done all go to the altar with this sacrament before the first curtain, and in this manner they give the communion to those that are there, and thence to those who are at the other curtain, and thence to the secular people who are at the principal door, both men and women, if it is a church to which women come. At the giving of the communion, and likewise at all the offices of the church, all are standing up. When they come to receive the communion, all come with their hands raised before their shoulders, and the palms forward. As soon as each one receives the sacrament of the blood he takes the said water as has been said, and so generally as many as are communicants. Before mass they wash their hands with the water which is in all the churches and monasteries. The priest who said the mass, and those who stood with him at the altar, when the communion is ended, return to the altar, and wash the vase in which the sacrament was, with the water which remains in the ewer, which they say is blessed, this water they pour into the chalice, and the priest who said mass takes it all. This done, one of these ministers of the altar takes a cross and a bell, and beginning a low chaunt goes to the principal entrance, where the epistle and gospel were read, and the administering the communion ended, and as many as are in the church, and outside of it, bow their heads, and go away in peace. They say this is the blessing, without this no one goes away. On Saturdays and Sundays, and feast days, in all the churches and monasteries, blessed bread is distributed. The method which they have in this small monastery, which will not have more than 20 or 25 friars, is that which is followed in all the monasteries and churches, great and small. The office of the mass, exclusive of the processions, is short; and the mass on week days is quickly finished.

Cap. xii.—Where and how the bread of the Sacrament is made, and of a Procession they made, and of the pomp with which the mass is said, and of entering into the church.

The making of this sacramental bread is in this manner. The building in which it is made, in all churches and monasteries, is, as I said above, on the gospel side, outside of the church and its circuit, which is like a cloister, in the space contained by the other outer circuit, which is not covered in, which space serves for a churchyard. All the churches and monasteries have such a building, and it does not contain anything else except what is requisite for this purpose; that is to say, a mortar for pounding wheat, a machine for making very clean flour, and such as is required for such a purpose, for they do not prepare this sacrament from flour or wheat on which women have laid their hands. They have pots for preparing the paste, which they make thicker than ours. They have a furnace, as for distilling water, and upon it a plate of iron, and in some churches of copper, and in other poor churches of clay. This plate is round and of a good size; they place fire underneath it, and when it is hot clean it with a waxed cloth, pour on it a portion of paste, and spread it out with a wooden spoon of such size as they intend to make the bread, and they make it very round. When it is set they take it off and place it on end, then they make another in the same way. When this second one is set, they take the first and place it upon it, that is to say, the side of the first which was uppermost they put upon the top of the other, fresh with fresh, and so the bread remains one whole one, and they do nothing more than make it round and turn it from one side to the other, and move it about on the plate, that it may bake on both sides and on the circumference. In this manner they make one or as many as they wish. In this same house are the raisins from which the wine is made, and a machine for pressing. In this same house the blessed bread is made which is given away on Saturdays and Sundays and feast days; and on great feasts, such as Christmas, Easter, Our Lady of August, etc., they carry this bread of the sacrament with a pallium,[15] bell, and cross devoutly. Before they enter the church with it they go round the church by the circuit like a cloister; when it is not a feast they enter the church at once and without the pallium. On a Saturday before Ascension these friars made a procession, and from being in a new country it seemed to us very good, and they did it in this way. They took crosses, and the altar stone covered with a silk cloth, a friar carried it on his head, which was also covered with the said cloths; and they carried books and bells, and thuribles, and holy water; and all went chaunting to some millet fields: there they made their devotions and cries after the fashion of litanies, and with this procession they returned to the monastery. We asked why they did that, and they said that the animals ate their millet, and so they went to pour out holy water and pray God to drive them out. In this country he that says the mass has no other difference from the deacon and sub-deacon in his vestments than a long stole with an opening in the middle to allow the head to pass through; before and behind it reaches to the ground. The friars say mass with hair on their heads; the priests do not wear hair, and are shaven and so say mass. Also, both friars and priests say mass barefooted, nobody enters the church with his feet shod, and they allege for this what God said to Moses: “Take off thy shoes from off thy feet, for thou art on holy ground.”

Cap. xiii.—How in all the churches and monasteries in the country of Prester John only one mass is said each day; and of the situation of the monastery of Bisam where we buried Mattheus; and of the fast of Lent.

In the monastery of St. Michael, where we were staying, we said mass each day, not in the monastery, but in the circuit which is like a cloister. In this country they do not say more than one mass in each church or monastery. The friars came to our mass with great devotion, as it appeared; and they supplied a thurible and incense, because we had not brought any with us, and they do not think mass is properly said without incense; and they said that they approved of all, except that we had only one priest to say mass; because among them not less than three, five, or seven stand at the altar to say mass. They also were surprised at our coming into the church with our shoes on, and still more at our spitting in it. In this manner we said mass every day up to Trinity Sunday, and when we intended to say mass on the following Monday they did not allow us to say it, at which we were much scandalised and aggrieved, and it seemed to us that they had some evil suspicion of us, not knowing why they so acted. Later we learned how they preserved some things of the Old Law together with the New; such as that of the fast of Lent, which they began on Monday after Sexagesima Sunday, that is, ten days before the beginning of our Lent; and so they make fifty days of Lent. They say they take these days in anticipation for the Saturdays when they do not keep the fast. When they fast they eat at night, and because all fast they say mass at night, because all have to take the communion. Likewise, as they take fifty days’ fast in Lent, so they take as many days after Easter which are not fast days. Then, when there is no fast, they say mass in the morning. This secret we did not know, and we had no one to explain it to us: as soon as their liberty not to fast had ended, their mass could not be said, except at night, and so they did not consent to our saying it; thus we felt aggrieved without cause. This time having ended and Trinity passed by, all priests and friars are obliged to fast every day except Saturdays and Sundays. They keep this fast up to Christmas Day, and as all fast they say mass at night. They allege for this the supper of Christ, when He consecrated His true Body, having been a fast time, and almost night. The general people, that is secular men and women, are obliged to fast from Trinity to Advent, Wednesdays and Fridays of each week, and from Christmas day to the Purification of Our Lady, which they call the feast of Simeon,[16] they have no fast. The first three days after the Purification, not being Saturday or Sunday, are great fast days for priests, friars, and laymen. They say that in these three days they do not eat more than once: it is called the penitence of Niniveh. At the end of these three days, up to the beginning of Lent, they again fast as from after Trinity. During Advent and the whole of Lent, priests, friars, lay friars, men and women, small and great, sound and sick, all fast. Thus from Easter to Trinity, and from Christmas to the Purification, they say mass in the morning, because there is no fast, and all the other time at night, because they are fasting. Where we buried Mattheus is a great and honourable monastery, which is named Bisam, and its patron, Jesus. From the monastery where we stayed to this is a league of very precipitous country. It is on a very high rock, and looking round all sides of it there appear like the depths of hell. The monastery house is very large in bulk, and larger in revenues, and this monastery is very well fitted. The fashion of this house is of three large and beautiful naves, with their arches and vaulted roofs. They appear to be of wood, and because all is painted, it is not certain whether it is stone or wood. It has two sets of cloisters round the body of the church, both covered in, and much painted with figures of apostles, patriarchs, prophets, and many things of the Old Law, and many angels, and St. George on horseback, who is in all the. churches. This monastery also possesses a great cloth, like a piece of tapestry, on which is the crucifix and effigy of Our Lady and the apostles, and other figures of patriarchs and prophets, and each one has his Latin name written, so that no man of the country made it. It has many small and ancient pictures, not well made, and they are not upon the altars, for it is not their custom: they keep them in a sacristy, mixed up with many books, and they bring them out on feast days. There is in this monastery a very large kitchen and bakehouse, also a very large refectory, in which they eat. They mostly eat three and three[17] in a large dish, it is not deep, but flat like a tray, and their food is very poor. The bread is of maize and barley, and other grain which they call taffo,[18] a small black grain. They make this bread round, and of the size and roundness of a citron,[19] and they give three of these to each friar: to the novices they give three loaves to two of them, it is a matter of amazement how they can maintain themselves. They also give them a few vegetables, without salt or oil. Of this food they send to a great many old pensioners, who do not come to the refectory. Besides seeing these things when we buried Mattheus, I saw them many times, because I came there to pass time with the friars, principally on feast days, when we were near there. In this way I learned about them and their property, and revenues and customs. In my opinion there were generally always a hundred friars in this monastery, most of them old men of great age, and as dry as wood; very few young men. This monastery is entirely surrounded by a wall, and this wall is closed with two gates, which are always locked.

Cap. xiv.—How the monastery of Bisan is the head of six monasteries, of the number of the brothers, and ornaments, of the “castar”[20] which they do to Philip, whom they call a Saint.

This monastery is the head of six monasteries, which are around it in these mountains; the furthest off is at a distance of three leagues from it, and all are subject to it, and are governed and ruled by it. In each of them is a David, that is a guardian appointed by the Abbot or provincial of this monastery, who is also David under the Abba. I always heard say that there were in this monastery three thousand friars, and because I doubted it much I came here to keep the feast of our Lady of August, in order to see if they would come together. Certainly I rejoiced to see the riches of this monastery, and the procession which they made: in my judgment the friars did not exceed three hundred, and most of them were very old. There is a circuit to this monastery which surrounds the two which are like cloisters covered in, and this one which is not covered in was on that occasion all covered in with brocades and inferior brocades, and velvets of Mekkah, all long pieces, sewn one to another in order that they might shelter the whole circuit. They made a very beautiful procession through this canopied circuit; all wore cloaks of the same stuffs, brocades, and velvets of Mekkah, badly made as I mentioned above. They carried fifty small crosses of silver, of bad workmanship, and as many thuribles of copper. When mass was said, I saw a great gold chalice and gold spoon, with which they administered the communion. Of the three hundred friars who came to this monastery, very few were those that I knew as belonging to it: and I asked some of my friends how it was, that with so large a number of friars in the monastery as they said, they were not present at such a feast. They told me that even though there were more than they had said, that they were scattered about in these monasteries and churches, and markets, to seek for their living, because that could not be in the monastery whilst they were young men; and when they were old men, and could not walk, they came to die in the monastery. On that day I saw the habit put on seventeen young men. There is a tomb in this monastery which they say is of an Abba or provincial of this monastery who is named Philip, and they give him the merits of a Saint, saying that there was a King Prester John who commanded that Saturday should not be observed in his kingdoms and lordships, and this Abba Philip went to that King Prester with his friars, and undertook to show how God had commanded that Saturday should be kept, and that whoever did not keep it should die by stoning, and that he would maintain this before all the fathers of Ethiopia: and he made it good before the King. Therefore they say that he was a Saint for making Saturday to be kept, and they treat him as a Saint, and they hold a feast for him every year, in the month of July, which they call Castar Philip, which means funeral or memorial of Philip.[21] On this account the people of this monastery are the most Judaizing of all the kingdoms of Prester John. I came twice to this Castar of Philip, at which they did me much honour, and they kill many cows at this feast. In one year they killed thirty, and in another year twenty-eight, and in each of the years that I came there they gave me two quarters of the fattest cow that was killed. This flesh is distributed amongst the people who come to the Castar, and the friars have none because they do not eat meat. And these cows are all brought as offerings by their breeders in the district, who vow them to Philip. This monastery, and the others that are subject to it, have this rule in addition, that no females enter them, that is to say, neither women, nor she-mules, nor cows, nor hens, nor anything else that is female. And these cows which they kill are killed a long way from the wall, and when I came there they came to the distance of a crossbow shot to take my mule, and they took her away to their farm of Jamgargara, where Mattheus died.

Cap. xv.—Of the agriculture of this country, and how they preserve themselves from the wild beasts, and of the revenues of the monastery.

The friars of this monastery, and of the other monasteries subject to it, might do good works by planting trees and vines, and making gardens and orchards for their exercise; and they do nothing. The country is ready to produce everything, as is seen from that which is uncultivated: they do not plant or grow anything except millet and beehives. When it is night, neither they nor anybody else go out from their houses from fear of the wild beasts that are in the country, and those who watch the millet have very high resting places upon the trees, in which they sleep at night. In the district of this monastery there are, in the valleys between the mountains, very large herds of cows, kept by Arab Moors, and there go with each herd forty or fifty Moors, with their wives and children: and their headman is a Christian, because the cows that they keep belong to Christian gentlemen of the country of the Barnagais. These Moors have nothing else for their labour than the milk and butter which they get from the cows, and with this they maintain themselves and their wives and children. On some occasions it happened to us to sleep near these Arabs, they accosted us to ask if we wished to buy cows, and for the price allowed us to choose them. They say that these Moors, and headmen who go with them, are all robbers under the favour of the lords to whom the cows belong, and so only large caravans travel. The revenues of this monastery are very large; those which I saw and heard of are, chiefly, this mountain in which the monastery is situated, of an extent of ten leagues, in which they sow much millet, barley, rye, and all these pay dues to the monastery, and they are also paid on the herds. On the skirts of this mountain there are many large villages, and most of them belong to the monastery, and at a distance of one or two days’ journey an infinite number of places belonging to the monastery, and are called Gultus of the monastery, which means coutos or celeiros,[22] according to our Portugal. Don Rodrigo the ambassador and I were going on the road to the Court, a good five days’ journey from this monastery, and arriving at a town which is named Caina we kept Saturday and Sunday in a small village which might contain twenty people, and they told us they belonged to the monastery of Bisan. Besides that town there were a hundred villages all belonging to the monastery, and that in which we halted was one of them. We were also shown many of the others, and they told us that every three years they paid a horse to the monastery, and that each village did this, which makes thirty-three horses every year. And in order to be certain of this I went to ask it of the Alicaxi of the monastery, which means the auditor or major-domo, because he receives, and does justice: he told me that it was true that they paid the said horses. I asked why the monastery wanted so many horses, since they did not ride on them. He told me that they were obliged to pay horses, but that they did not give him horses, but paid fifty cows for each horse, and that this due of horses was so because these were villages of the King which paid him this due, and as he had endowed the monastery with these villages, between the monastery and the villagers this due of horses had been transmuted into cows. And over and above these dues of cows they also pay dues on fruits. Besides, at fifteen days’ journey from the monastery, in the kingdom of Tigre mahom, there is a very large town belonging to the monastery named Aadete, which may be a large dukedom. This pays every year sixty horses, and an infinite number of dues and customs. In this district there are always more than a thousand friars of the monastery, because there are many churches in it, and the monastery is much favoured there. Of these friars some are very good, honourable, and devout, and others are not such. Besides these dues of horses paid to this monastery and to others, there are many villages belonging to the King which pay dues of the said horses, because this is always his due, and there are villages neighbouring to Egypt in which are large and good horses, and others near Arabia in which they are very good, but not so much so as those of Egypt.

Cap. xvi.—How the friars impeded our departure, and of what happened to us on the road.

Returning therefore to our journey; whilst we were still at the monastery of St. Michael there arrived the man sent by the Barnagais to take us away, and with him two of our Portuguese, on the fourth day of the month of June; and he brought a few oxen and men to carry our baggage. The said man who had thus come went off at once to the mountains to fetch more oxen and people, and he came back with them. Whilst our baggage was out in the road for our departure, and the men and oxen ready, the friars came and talked so much to the people without their understanding us that they disarranged our departure, so that we again took in our baggage, and the ambassador again sent another time to the Barnagais, and Joan Escolar the clerk went thither with the man of the Barnagais, and they remained there six days. They came with orders and equipment for our departure, that is to say, that they were to conduct us and our goods, and to give us as many oxen and mules as we had need of. Even then the friars were set on impeding us greatly, as though they wished us evil. We left this monastery of St. Michael on the 15th day of June, and because there was detention in loading the baggage, on account of the oxen only coming in a few at a time, and there not being mules enough for all of us, and some having to go on foot, and also because there were few people to carry the baggage which could not go on the oxen where the country was precipitous, the bombards and four barrels of powder remained behind. Not very far from the monastery, half a league at most, the ambassador came up, and those that had remained with him, and we found all the baggage unloaded. Not being able to understand the cause for their having done it, we made them load it again; and not having yet started it all, a rumour arose amongst the negroes who were carrying our baggage, and they said that there were robbers there who were waiting for us in the road. Nevertheless we did not on that account desist from making the baggage go on in front through the bushes, because the road was narrow. The ambassador and all those that were with him determined to die upon the King’s goods. The negroes were much amazed at the courage of ten or twelve men, who did not fear passing such steep mountains, where it was said that there were multitudes of robbers. Thus we went away, divided, with the oxen and negroes, with their burdens in front of us, going forward on our course. We travelled through very wild mountains, over ascents and descents, and very bad stony road. Most of the woods of these mountains are very large wild olive trees, from which good olive trees could be made. Issuing from these mountain ranges we entered into dry channels, which in winter time are great rivers, that is to say, as long as the showers last. As soon as the shower is finished the river is dry. These channels have on each side of them very high mountains, as rugged as those we had left behind. In these river beds there are large clumps of unknown trees, amongst which, near the rivers, there are a few wild palm trees. We slept this night in a river bed with little water in it.

Cap. xvii.—How we passed a great mountain in which there were many apes, on a Saturday, and on the following Sunday we said mass in a village called Zalote.

On the following day we again crossed another very high and rugged mountain ridge, over which we could not make our way, either on the mules or on foot. In this mountain there are many animals of different species, and an infinite quantity of apes in herds: and they are not generally spread over the mountain, but only where there are clefts and holes in the rock; they are not found in quantities less than two or three hundred, and beyond that number. If there is any flat ground above these precipices, that is their promenade, and no stone remains that they do not turn, and they scrape the earth so that it looks as though it were tilled. They are very large, the size of sheep, and from the middle upwards hairy like lions. We passed the mountain, and went to sleep at the foot of a village called Zalote. There will be about four or five leagues from this place to the monastery from which we set out. We halted by a running river of very good water, and when our baggage had been unloaded we went to the said village to see a very honourable gentleman, the headman of it—a very old man, who was lodged here very honourably. He gave us a very hospitable reception, giving us many fowls cooked in butter, and much mead, and he sent us a very large fat cow to the place of our halt. On the following day, which was Sunday, we went to say our mass at the church of the village, which is called St. Michael, a poor church, both the fabric and the ornaments. There are in this church three married priests and three others, deacons[23] that is to say, of the gospel, and all are necessary, for no less can say mass. This honourable captain I met with later as a friar in the monastery of Bisan, and he left his condition and revenues to his sons, who were honourable persons; and I saw him stand at the gate outside, and he did not enter within the monastery, and there he received the communion with the novices, and when the offices of the church were ended he remained in honour with the provincial. On this Sunday we set out again in the afternoon, because the country people who conducted us wished it so. Here we began to travel through flat country fallows and tillage, in the fashion of Portugal, and the bushes which are between the tilled lands are all wild olives, without other trees. We slept by some running streams, between many good villages.

Cap. xviii.—How we arrived at the town of Barua, and how the Ambassador went in search of the Barnagais, and of the manner of his state.

We reached the town of Barua,[24] which will be three leagues from the village of Zalote, on the 28th day of June. This town is the chief place of the country and kingdom of the Barnagais, in which are his principal palaces, which they call Beteneguz,[25] which means house of the king. On this day that we arrived here the Barnagais departed hence, before our arrival, to another town, the chief place of another district, which is named Barra, and the town is called Çeruel. It seemed to us that his departure was in order not to have to receive us, and some told us that he had gone away with pain in his eyes. We were very well lodged for this country, in good large houses of one story, terraced above. On the third day of our arrival, Don Rodrigo the ambassador determined on going to see the Barnagais; and we went with him, five of us on mules, and reached the place where he was staying at vespers. The distance to this place from that at which we were halting might be three and a half or four leagues, and we went to dismount before his palace, close to the door of a church, where we offered our prayers. Then we went our way to the palace, or Beteneguz, as they call it, thinking that we should at once speak to him; and they did not allow us to enter, saying that he was sleeping. And although we waited a good bit we had no means of speaking to him. We went to rest in a goat shed, in which we barely found room; and they gave us two ox-hides with the hair on to sleep upon, and for supper bread, and wine of the country in abundance, and a sheep. On the following day we waited a long time for them to call us, and a message came for us to come. Then in the outer gate we found three men like porters, each one with his whip[26] in his hand, and they would not let us enter, saying that we should give them some pepper, and they kept us for a good while at the gate. Passing through this gate we arrived at another, at which stood three other porters who seemed more honourable persons; these made us wait more than half an hour standing on a little straw, and the heat was so great it killed us. Upon this the ambassador sent to say that he should bid us come in or he would return to his abode. Then the message went by one who seemed to be of higher position, and word came that we should enter. The Barnagais was in this manner, in a large house of one story (for in this country there are not houses of several stories), sitting on a bedstead, as is their custom, fitted with poor curtains; he had sore eyes, and his wife was sitting at the head of the bedstead. Having made our obeisance, the ambassador offered him a master to cure him; and he said that he had no need of him, as though he did not thank him for it. Upon this the ambassador asked him as a favour, and required on the part of Prester John, that he should order equipment to be given us for our journey, assuring him how much service he would be doing in this way to the king of Portugal, which would be well repaid to him by the King and by his Captain-major; and he, the ambassador, would tell Prester John the honour and favour which he received from him. The Barnagais asking what it was that we required, the ambassador said he wanted oxen and asses for baggage, and mules for the Portuguese. To this the Barnagais replied that he could not give any mules, and that we might buy them ourselves; that he would give orders for the rest, and would send a son of his with us to the court of Prester John, and with that he gave us our dismissal.

Cap. xix.—How they gave us to eat in the house of the Barnagais, and how in this country the journeys are not reckoned by leagues.

When we were out of the house where the Barnagais was, they made us sit down in the receiving room of another house on mats on the ground, and they brought here a large trencher of barley meal, but little kneaded, and a horn of mead. And, since we had not seen such food, we would not eat it; but when we were more accustomed to the country we ate it readily. Without eating of this, we arose and came to our resting-place and then set out. This might be at two hours before midday. Having gone on our road half a league or more there came to us a man running and telling us to wait; that the mother of the Barnagais was sending us food, and took it as a misfortune our coming away without eating and not accepting the food they gave us, which was that customary in the country. We waited, and the food came to us, that is to say, five large rolls of wheat bread and a horn of mead. Let not anyone be amazed who hears of a horn of wine, because for the great lords and Prester John cows’ horns are their cups for wine, and there are horns holding five or six canadas.[27] Besides this, the mother of the Barnagais sent us some of the same kneaded flour, and now we ate some of it. This meal is of parched barley, made into flour, and they mix it up with very little water, and so eat it. After this banquet we made our way to the town of Barua, where our goods and companions had remained. In this country, and in all the kingdoms of Prester John, there are no leagues, and if you ask how far it is from this place to such a place, they say: If you depart in the morning at sunrise, you will arrive when the sun is in such a place; and if you travel slowly you will arrive there when they shut up the cows, that is at night. And if it is distant they say, you will arrive in a sambete, that is a week, and so they define it according to the distances. When I said that from Barua to Barra there were from three and a half up to four leagues, that was according to our opinion, and it would not be more. We afterwards travelled there many times, and we started from one town and dined at the other, and did our business and returned to the town we had started from by daylight. The people of the country reckon this as a day’s journey, because they travel very slowly. Between these two towns there is very remarkable country, tilled fields of wheat, barley, millet, pulse, lentils, and all other sorts of vegetables which the country possesses unknown to us. From the road from one place to the other more than fifty towns are to be seen: I say large towns and very good ones, all on heights. In these plains and fields there are herds of wild cattle, forty or fifty in a herd. It is a chase that is very pleasant for the Portuguese, but the country people are able to do them little hurt, although they receive from them much injury to their crops.

Cap. xx.—Of the town of Barua, and of the women and their traffic, and of the marriages which are made outside of the churches.

This town of Barua in which we were staying, and where later we passed more time, may have three hundred hearths and more, a great part of them belonging to women, because this is like a court in many respects. One is that people of the Prester’s court never go from here, and as many as come are not without wives. The other is because this is the residence and seat of the Barnagais, and there are continually in his house three hundred mounted men and upwards, and as many more who come every day for business of petitions, and few are without wives. This causes many single women to live here, and when they are old they have another resource, for in this town every Tuesday there is a great market or fair at which three or four hundred persons are brought together; and all the old women and some young ones have measures to measure wheat and salt, and they go to the market to measure and gain their living; they give hospitality to those that sleep there that day, and also take care for them of what remains to be sold for the next market day. There is another reason why there are many women in this town, it is because the men who have plenty of food to eat keep two or three wives; and this is not forbidden to them by the King nor by their magistrates, only by the Church. Every man who has more than one wife does not enter the church, nor does he receive any sacrament: and they hold him to be excommunicated. For a year and a half a nephew of mine and I lodged in the house of a man named Ababitay, and he had three wives still alive and acquaintances of ours, friends in honourable friendship: they said that he had had seven wives and thirty children of them. Nobody forbade them, except the Church, as has been said, which did not give them the benefit of the sacraments; and before our departure, he put away from him, and from intercourse with him, two wives, and remained with one, that is to say, the one he had last, who was the youngest, and already they gave him the sacraments, and he entered the church like anybody else, and as though he had not had more than one wife. On this account there are many women in this town, because the men are well off and are like courtiers: and they take two or three, or more if it pleases them. In this country marriages are not fixed, because they separate for any cause. I saw people married, and was at a marriage which was not in a church, and it was done in this manner. On the open space before some houses they placed a bedstead; and seated upon it the bridegroom and the bride, and there came thither three priests, and they began a chaunt with Hallelujah, and then continued the chaunt, the three priests walking three times round the bedstead on which the couple were seated. Then they cut a lock of hair from the head of the bridegroom, and another from the head of the bride. They wetted these locks with mead, and placed the hair of the bridegroom on the head of the bride, and that of the bride on the head of the bridegroom, on the place from which they had cut them, and then sprinkled them with holy water: after that they kept their festivities and wedding feasts. At night they put them in a house, and for a month from that time no one saw the bride, except one man only whom they call the best man,[28] who remains all this month with the married couple, and when this month is ended the man or best friend goes away. If she is an honourable woman she does not go out of the house for five or six months, nor remove a black veil from her face: and if before that she becomes pregnant she removes the veil. When these months are ended, even though she is not pregnant, she removes the veil.

Cap. xxi.—Of their marriages and benedictions, and of their contracts, and how they separate from their wives, and the wives from them, and it is not thought strange.

I saw the Abima Marcos, whom they call Pope, giving blessings in the church, that is to say, before the principal door; the bride and bridegroom were also seated on a bedstead, and the Abima walked round them with incense and cross, and laid his hands on their heads, telling them to observe that which God had commanded in the gospel; and that they were no longer two separate persons, but two in one flesh; and that so in like manner should their hearts and wills be. There they remained until mass had been said, and he gave them the communion, and bestowed on them the blessing. And this I saw done in the town of Dara, in the Kingdom of Xoa.[29] I saw another performed in the town of Çequete, in the Kingdom of the Barnagais. When they make these marriages they enter into contracts, as for instance: If you leave me or I you, that one that causes the separation shall pay such a penalty. And they set the penalty according to the persons, so much gold or silver, or so many mules, or cloths, or cows, or goats, or so many measures of wood. And if either of them separate, that one immediately seeks a cause of separation for such and such reasons, so that few incur the penalty, and so they separate when they please, both the husbands and the wives. If there are any that observe the marriage rule, they are the priests, who never can separate, and cultivators, who have an affection for their wives because they help them to bring up their sons, and to harrow and weed their tillage, and at night when they come to their house they find a welcome reception: thus in effect or perforce they are married for the whole of their lives. As I said that they imposed penalties at marriages, the first Barnagais that we knew, whose name was Dori, separated from his wife, and paid her the penalty of a hundred gold ounces, which were a thousand cruzados, and he married another woman. And the wife that he separated from married a noble gentleman who was named Aaron, a brother of the said Barnagais. Both the brothers had sons, known to us, of this woman, and these were, or are, great lords, both are brothers of the mother of Prester John, whom all of us knew. All of us who were there knew Romana Orque[30] sister of the Prester John, who is a noble lady married to a great lord, a noble young gentleman. In our time she separated from this husband and married a man more than forty years of age, who is one of the great lords of the court; the title of this one whom she married is Abuquer, and his father Cabeata. This is the greatest lord there is in the court. Thus I saw and knew many of these separations; I have named these because they are of great personages. And because I said that Aaron married the wife of his brother, let not him that reads it be amazed, because it is the usage of the country. They do not think it strange for a brother to sleep with the wife of his brother. This Aaron moreover had sons of her who had been the wife of his brother, and he left her and married another to whom he is now married.

Cap. xxii.—Of the manner of baptism and circumcision, and how they carry the dead to their burial.

Circumcision is done by anybody without any ceremony, only they say that so they find it written in the books, that God commanded circumcision. And let not the reader of this be amazed—they also circumcise the females as well as the males, which was not in the Old Law. Baptism they do in this manner: they baptize males at forty days, and females at sixty days after their birth, and if they die before they go without baptism. I, many times and in many places, used to tell them that they committed a great error, and went against what the Gospel says: Quod natum est ex carne caro est; et quod natum est ex spiritu spiritus est. They answered me many times that the faith of their mother sufficed for them, and the communion which she received whilst in a state of pregnancy.[31] They perform this baptism in the church, with water which they keep in a vase, and which they bless, and they put oil on the forehead and on the breasts and shoulder-blades. They do not put ointment,[32] nor do they have it, nor the oil of extreme unction. This office of catechism which they celebrate seems to me to be much the same form as the Roman, and at the time of pouring the water on the child they do it in this way. One who is the godfather takes the child from the hands of the woman that has it and raises it, holding it under the arms, and holds it suspended; and the priest who baptizes, with one hand holds the vase and pours the water over the child, and with the other washes it all over, saying in his language the words which we say, that is: I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. They always perform this office on a Saturday or a Sunday, and it is done in the morning at mass, because every child that receives baptism receives the communion, and they give it in very small quantities, and cause it to be swallowed by means of water. With regard to this, also, I used to tell them that this communion was very dangerous, and in no wise necessary. As I said that they put oil on the forehead, you should know that every child comes to baptism shaved with a razor, and the scars or marks which they bear on the nose, between the eyes, and at the corners of the eyes, are not made by fire nor for anything of Christianity, but with cold iron for ornament, and because they say that it is good for the sight. There are here women who are very skilful at making these marks. They make them in this manner: they take a clove of garlic, large and moist, and place it on the corner of the eye; with a sharp knife they cut round the garlic, and then with the fingers widen the cut, and put upon it a little paste of wax, and over the wax another paste of dough, and press it down for one night with a cloth, and there remains for ever a mark which appears like a burn, because their colour is dark. On the occasion of death, I never saw great personages borne away; but of small people, and of others rather better, an infinite number. Their burials are in this manner. They do not use candles after death, but much incense. They carry them away wrapped up[33] in a shroud, and some of the more honoured have over the shroud tanned ox-hides, and are placed on trestles. The priests come for them, and pray shortly, and then set out at once with them on the way to the church, with cross, thurible, and holy water, running so that a man cannot catch them up. They do not bring the dead man into the church, but place him close to the grave; they do not use our office for him, nor do they recite psalms, neither do they say anything from the Book of Job. I asked what it was that they prayed; they told me that they read the Gospel of St. John all complete. And so they give him to the grave with their incense and holy water, and they do not say mass for the defunct, nor of devotion for any living person, nor more than one mass a day in each church; and all are communicants, as many as go to it.

Cap. xxiii.—Of the situation of the town of Barua, chief place of the kingdom of the Barnagais, and of his hunting.

This town of Barua is very good, and it is situated on a very high rock above a river, upon which are situated the king’s houses, which they call Beteneguz, which means houses of the king. They are well situated in the manner of a fortress. All the rest is a great plain and an infinite number of large villages at the extremities of the fields. There is much breeding of all sorts of flocks, cows, goats, and sheep, and of much game of all sorts. In the river there is much fish, and many wild ducks of different kinds,[34] and on land much game of all kinds, such as wild cattle; in the plains hares in great quantity, so that every day we killed twenty or thirty of a morning, and that without dogs, but caught with nets. There are partridges of three kinds, which do not differ from ours, except in size and the colour of their legs. There are partridges like big capons of the same colour and fashion as ours, except that their beaks and feet are yellow. There are others the size of hens; these have red beaks and feet like ours. There are others the size of ours, not different in colour or in anything else, except that their beaks and feet are grey. To the taste all are very good partridges, as they are good in colour. They do not frighten them to the earth.[35] Wild hens cover the ground, quails are in infinite numbers, and so of all other birds that can be mentioned, such as parrots and other birds not known to us, great and small, and of many shapes and colours; birds of prey, such as royal eagles, falcons, hawks, sparrow hawks, blue herons, and river cranes, and all other sorts that can be mentioned. In the mountains are many hogs, stags, antelopes, gazelles, deer. It will be said, how is it that there is so much game on the land and fish in the river, when the country is so populous? I say that nobody hunts or fishes, nor have they engines nor devices, nor the will to do it; on this account the game is very easy to kill, because it is not pursued by the people. There are many wild beasts—lions, ounces, tigers, wolves, foxes, jackals, and other animals not known to us. I never heard that these wild beasts did any harm, although the people are in great fear of them; only in one place which is called Camarua, and which is about half a league from this town of Barua, a man was lying asleep at night at the door of his enclosure, and his little son was with him, keeping his cows, and a lion came and killed this man without anyone perceiving it, and he ate his nose and opened his heart, without touching the child. The people of the country were greatly afraid, and said that he would remain with a taste for man’s flesh,[36] and that no one would escape from him. The Lord was pleased that he never did any more harm. We used to go hunting at that time near this place, and we never found any lion, but we found ounces and tigers; we did them no harm, neither did they do us any.

Cap. xxiv.—Of the lordship of the Barnagais, and of the lords and captains who are at his orders and commands, and of the dues which they pay.

The lordship of the Barnagais is in this manner: its title is that of King, because nagais means King, and bar means sea, so Barnagais means King of the Sea. When they give him the rulership they give it him with a crown of gold on his head, but it does not last longer than what the Prester John pleases. For in our time, which was a stay of six years, there were here four Barnagais, that is to say, when we arrived Dori was Barnagais; he died, and at his death the crown came to Bulla, his son, a youth of ten or twelve years of age, by order of the Prester John. When they crowned him he was at once summoned to court, and while he was at the court Prester John took away his sovereignty and gave it to a noble gentleman, who was named Arraz anubiata. This man held it two years, and they took from him this lordship and made him the greatest lord of the court, which is Betudete,[37] and the lordship of Barnagais was given to another lord, who was named Adiby, who was now Barnagais. Beneath the Barnagais are some great lords whom they call Xuums, which means captains; and these are, first, Xuum Cire, a very great captaincy, he is now married to a sister of Prester John. We never went to this country and Xuumeta because it is distant and out of the way. There is another Xuumeta named Ceruil. We knew this lordship, and they say that its Xuum brings into the field fifteen thousand spearmen with shields and archers. Also Xuum Cama, and Buno Xuum, and Xuum bono. These Xumetas had been one, and on account of its being large, and the Prester having misgivings that they might set themselves up against the Barnagais, he made it into two, and even yet each of them is very large. They say that this lordship which is now two was the dominion of Queen Candace, without having been larger in her time. She was the first Christian that there was in this country, and whom the Lord called powerful. Also two other captaincies, one is named Dafilla, the other Canfila; these two border on Egypt, and their captains are like lords of the marches. All these captains before mentioned are of kettledrums, which nobody except great lords can carry: and all these serve with the Barnagais in wars when he goes to them, and wherever he may go. They have other great gentlemen under their command who are called Arraz,[38] which means heads. We knew one of these, who was named Arraz Aderaan, he is head over fifteen thousand men at arms, whom they name chavas. I saw this Arraz Aderaan twice at the court, both times I saw him before the gate of the Prester John going without a shirt, and from his waist downwards a very good silk cloth, and on his shoulders the skin of a lion, in his right hand a spear, and in his left hand a shield. I asked how it was so great a lord went about in that manner, they told me that the greatest honour he had, since he was Arraz of the Chaufas, that is, head or captain of the men at arms, was to go about like a man at arms. In the fashion that he went, there followed behind him twenty or thirty men with spears and bucklers, so that he goes about the court like a provost with his men. I knew another Arraz Tagale, and Arraz Jacob, lords of large lands, and many other Xuums, lords of lands, but without titles. Thus the Barnagais is the lord of many lords, and of many lands and people, and so he and all these lords that have been mentioned are subject to the Prester John, and he removes and appoints them as he pleases: so they pay to him large dues. As all these lords and their lordships are on the side of Egypt and Arabia, from whence come the good horses, and the brocades and the silks, they pay in these same goods: that is to say, horses, brocades, and other silks. They come to the Barnagais with all these dues, and the Barnagais to Prester John, and pays for himself and for the others, in each year, a hundred and fifty horses; as to the brocades and silks, it cannot be known how much they amount to, only I heard say that they were many; I also heard that they pay a large sum of cotton cloths from India for the customs which they levy in the port of Arquiquo.

Cap. xxv.—Of their method of guarding their herds from wild beasts, and how there are two winters in this country: and of two churches that are in the town of Barua.

The settlement of this town of Barua and of those adjoining it, is this. There are ten, twelve, or fifteen houses, and one walled and closed yard, served by a gate: in this yard they shut up their domestic cows which they use for their milk and butter, and also small flocks, and mules and asses. They keep the gate well fastened, and a great fire, and men who sleep there to watch, from fear of the animals that roam about the villages all night: and if they did not keep this watch nothing alive would remain which they would not devour. The people who go to sow millet in the mountains of Bisan belong to this country and the neighbouring towns. The reason why they go and do it is this. Here there are very numerous grain crops of every kind and nature that can be mentioned, as I have already said; and because it is near to the sea, by which go all the provisions for Arabia, Mekkah, Zebid, Jiddah, and Toro,[39] and other parts; and they carry the provisions to the sea to sell them. And because in this country the winters are divided into seasons, and the seed crops do not grow except with the rains, they go to sow these millet fields at the mountain of Bisan, where it is winter in the months of February, March, and April. There is this same winter in a mountain called Lama, in this kingdom of the Barnagais, which is fully eight days’ journey from the mountain of Bisan. In another country, which is named Doba, and which is quite a month’s journey from this lordship of Lama, there is winter in these same months. As for these millet fields, they require rains, and as these winters happen out of season, they go and sow them where it rains, and so profit by both winters. In this town of Barua are two churches with many priests, one close to the other, one is for men, the other for women. The men’s church is called St. Michael, that of the women is named after the apostles Peter and Paul. They say that a great lord, who was then Barnagais, built the men’s church, and gave it the privilege that no woman should enter it, except only the wife of the Barnagais, with one damsel, whenever she went to take the communion, and even she does not now enter the church, but takes the communion at the door in the inner circuit with the laity, and so the other women do in the church of the apostles, who take it in its place. I always saw the women of the Barnagais go to the women’s church to take the communion with the other women, and I did not see them use the privilege which they say they have, of taking the communion, with one damsel, in the church of the men. The circuits of the churchyards join to one another; they are of very high walls. They make the sacramental bread for both churches in one building, and they say the masses in both churches at the same time, and the priests who serve in one church serve also in the other; that is two thirds of the priests in the men’s church, and one third in the women’s church, and so they are distributed. These churches have not got tithes, but they have got much land belonging to the priests, and they put it out to profit and divide the revenues of the lands among themselves: the Barnagais gives what is necessary to the churches, such as ornaments, wax, butter, incense in sufficient quantity, and he supplies them with everything. There may be in these churches twenty priests and always twenty-two friars. I never saw a church of priests which had not got friars, nor a monastery of friars which had got priests; because the friars are so numerous that they cover the world, both in the monasteries as also in the churches, roads, and markets: they are in every place.

Cap. xxvi.—How the priests are, and how they are ordained, and of the reverence which they pay to the churches and their churchyards.

The priests are married to one wife, and they observe the law of matrimony better than the laity: they live in their houses with their wives and children. If their wife should die they do not marry again; neither can the wife, but she may become a nun or remain a widow as she pleases. If a priest sleeps with another woman whilst his wife is alive he does not enter the church any more, nor does he enjoy its goods, and remains as a layman. And this I know from having seen a priest accused before the patriarch of having slept with a woman, and I saw that the priest confessed the offence, and the patriarch commanded him not to carry a cross in his hand, nor to enter a church, nor to enjoy the liberties of the church, and to become a layman. If any priests after becoming widowers marry, they remain laymen. As it happened to Abuquer, who married Romana Orque, sister of Prester John, who I have already said was a priest, chief chaplain of Prester John, and he was disordained[40] and made a layman. He no longer enters the church, and receives the communion at the door of the church as a layman, and among the women. The sons of the priests are for the most part priests, because in this country there are no schools, nor studies, nor masters to teach, and the clergy teach that little that they know to their sons: and so they make them priests without more legitimisation, neither does it seem to me that they require it, since they are legitimate sons. All are ordained by the Abima Markos, for in all the kingdoms of Ethiopia there is no other bishop or person who ordains. The orders are given in two stages, as I will relate further on. I with my own eyes saw them given many times. In all this country the churchyards are inclosed by very strong walls, that the wild beasts may not disinter the dead bodies. They show them great reverence, no man riding on a mule passes before a church, even though he is going in a great hurry, without dismounting, until he has passed the church and churchyard a good bit.

Cap. xxvii.—How we departed from Barua, and of the bad equipment we had until we arrived at Barra.

We were at Barua the first time, without their giving us equipment for our departure, for eleven days; we departed on the 28th day of June 1520, joyful and contented, because we were travelling on our way; and those that conducted us went with our baggage a distance of half a league, saying that their bounds went no further, and that another town had to take us further on. As I said, it was in June, in the force of the winter of this country, and they set us down, and our goods, in a plain, and very heavy rain. The ambassador and three of us went on the road to Barra to speak to the Barnagais, the factor and clerk and the other Portuguese remaining with our goods. As soon as we arrived we went to the palace of the Barnagais to tell him what his vassals were doing to us. They did not give us an opportunity to speak to him that day. On the following day we did not sleep in the morning, and went to speak to him: as soon as we spoke to him he told us he would at once send for the goods. He ordered it to be brought a distance of a league and a half, in which it passed through three districts, by reason of the great population which is in that country, and they came and placed the baggage in another plain, where they let it remain four days in the rain and storms. In these days the ambassador and those that were with him were not quiet: at one time we went to the baggage, which was a league and a half off from us, at other times at our resting place, at others in the house of the Barnagais, to require him to send for these goods which belonged to the King, and were going to Prester John, or to tell us that he did not choose, and we would have it set on fire, and go our way disembarrassed. His speech was always fair, but the fruits of it never came. When four days were completed he sent for the goods.

Cap. xxviii.—How the goods arrived at the town of Barra, and of the bad equipment of the Barnagais.

On the 3rd day of July of the said year, ’20, our baggage arrived at the town of Barra, where we were. We hoped to start at once, and went to speak to the Barnagais requiring him to despatch us. We met with good words from him. On the following day a gentleman from the court of Prester John arrived, and the Barnagais gave him such a reception that he forgot us. When this gentleman arrived the Barnagais went out of the town to receive him at a small hill near the houses; and there went out with him many people, and he was naked from the waist upwards. The gentleman placed himself on the highest spot above the rest, and his first words were: the King sends to salute you. At these words all went with their hand upon the ground, which is the courtesy and reverence of this country. After that, he spoke the message which he had brought, and when he had finished hearing it the Barnagais clothed himself with rich garments, and took the gentleman to his house. It is the usage of this country to hear the words which the Prester sends outside the house, and on foot, and he to whom they are sent has to be naked above the waist until they have been delivered, and if the message is one of satisfaction on the part of Prester John, as soon as it is given he at once dresses himself: if it expresses his dissatisfaction, he remains naked as when he heard it. This Barnagais is brother of the mother of Prester John. After this the ambassador, and we with him, came to speak to the Barnagais, and he sent us away saying that for the love of God we should leave him, that he was sick. When we came they did not allow us to enter, saying that he was sleeping. So much passed of this sort that the ambassador said that he ill remembered what he had sworn and promised to the Captain-major of the King of Portugal, that is to say, to assist us and order equipment to be given us for our journey, that he forgot all this, and also that he was not mindful of the friendship which they had established and sworn, since he did so little for the affairs of the King of Portugal. Neither on this account did he make any more haste, but always excused himself with his guest, and with being ill. On the 6th of July seven or eight horsemen arrived, very gaily caparisoned, these were Moors, and seemed to be honourable persons, they came from other countries, and brought many very beautiful horses, which they were bringing to pay as tribute which they owed to Prester John and the Barnagais. As the arrival of the Moors redounded to his profit, neither his guests nor his sickness impeded him. The great reception and honour which the Barnagais paid to these Moors gave us great trouble. The ambassador had told him that he wanted twelve mules, and asked him to order them to be lent: he said that he could not lend them, and that we should buy them. When we wished to buy these mules which the people of the country were selling to us, the servants of the Barnagais came and interrupted the purchase, telling the vendors not to sell them, and that if they sold them they would be punished, and the gold would be taken away from them, for in this country money is not current. This happened in such manner that the rumour of it spread throughout the country, and the people told us that even if they wished to sell to us they did not dare, from fear of the Barnagais, because he wished to sell his own mules, and therefore forbade their selling them. (He has another method with the people of his country.) In all the kingdoms of Prester John money is not current, but only gold by weight, and the principal weight is called ouquia,[41] and this, which is an ounce, makes in weight ten cruzados, and for change there is a half ouquia, and from twelve drachms to ten make an ouquia. This Barnagais forbade the people in his country having any other weights except his own, and they had to ask the Barnagais or his factors for the weights whenever they had to sell or receive gold, so that he had knowledge of what was in the country, and he takes it when he pleases, according to what his country people say, who must know it well.

Cap. xxix.—Of the church of the town of Barra, and its ornaments, and of the fair there, and of the merchandise, and costumes of the friars, nuns, and priests.

In this town of Barra there is a church of Our Lady, large, new, very well painted and well built, and handsomely ornamented with many brocades, crimson silks, and Mekkah velvets, and red camlets. The church in this town is served like that at Barua, only that the offices are more solemnized because the Barnagais resides here, and because here there are more clergy and an infinite number of friars. The church is managed by priests. I saw them make a procession round the church in the greater circuit, which is of the churchyard. In it there were many priests, friars, and men and women, because in this church the women receive the communion in the place where the laity do so. In that procession I saw the ornaments which I have mentioned: they must have taken quite thirty turns round the church chaunting like a litany, and sounding many drums and cymbals, as they sound them when they make a procession before the effigy of Our Lady on Sundays and feast days; and they sing and celebrate a feast; and likewise when they give the communion on feast days. They said that this procession was made in supplication to God for rain for their sowing. The bells are of stone, like those of other churches, and the bells badly made. In this town there is a great fair like that of Barua, and so likewise in all the places which are chief towns of districts, every week. The fairs consist of bartering one thing for another, as for instance, an ass for a cow, and that which is of least value gives to the other two or three measures of bread. By means of bread they buy stuffs, and with stuffs they buy mules and cows, and whatever they want, for salt, incense, pepper, myrrh, camphor, and other small articles.[42] They buy fowls and capons, and whatever they need or want to buy is all to be found at these fairs in exchange for others, for there is no current money. The principal merchants at these fairs are priests, friars, and nuns. The friars are decent in their habits, which are full, and reaching to the ground. Some wear yellow habits of coarse cotton stuff, others habits of tanned goat skins like wide breeches,[43] also yellow. The nuns also wear the same habits; the friars wear, besides, capes of the fashion of Dominican friars, of the same yellow skins or stuffs, they wear hats; and the nuns wear neither capes nor hats, but only the habit, and are shaven with a razor; and they wear a leather strap wound or fastened round the head. When they are old women they wear fillets[44] round their heads over their tonsures. These nuns are not cloistered, nor do they live together in convents, but in villages, and in the monasteries of the friars, on account of belonging to those houses and order. The order is all one, and the nuns give obedience where they receive their habits. With regard to entering churches and monasteries, the nuns do not enter except as other women do. There is a great multitude of nuns, as well as of friars; they say that some of them are very holy women, and others are not so. The priests show very little difference from the laity in their dress, because all wear a good cloth wrapped round, like smart men, and their difference is that they carry a cross in their hand, and are shaven, and the laity wear long hair. The priests also have this, that they do not cut their beard, and the laity shave below the chin and the throat. There are other priests, whom they call Debeteraas, which means canons; these belong to great churches, which are like their cathedrals or collegiate churches, and are not monasteries. These are very well dressed, and at once appear as what they are: these do not go to the fairs and markets.

Cap. xxx.—Of the state of the Barnagais and manner of his house, and how he ordered a proclamation to be made to go against the Nobiis,[45] and the method of his justice.

The service of this Barnagais is very poor in state, although he is a great lord and has the title of king. As many times as we spoke to him we always found him seated on a bedstead beneath a coverlid, and himself covered with hairy cotton cloths which they name basutos; they are good for the country, and there are some here of a high price. Behind the sides of the bedstead, walls, without anything except four swords hung each on a pole, and two great books, also suspended on poles. In front of the bedstead, mats on the floor, upon which sit those who come; the houses rarely swept, his wife always seated on a mat near the head of the bedstead, many people always before him, the great people seated on mats. In sight of his bedstead stand four horses, one always saddled, and the others covered, not caparisoned for war, but as horses are in the stables. In these houses of his are two inclosures, and each one has its gate, and in it porters with whips in their hands, and in the one nearest to him are smarter porters. Between these gates, the inner one and the outer one, is always his Alicaxi, which means his judge, hearing causes and administering justice. If the cause is important, he hears the parties until he has determined upon it, and then he goes and relates the cause to the Barnagais, who gives the sentence: if it is a small cause, or if the parties wish it, the Alicaxi gives sentence, and the cause is concluded. Moreover, in all judgments, whether the Barnagais or the Alicaxi judges, there must be present an honourable man, whom they call by the name of his office Malaganha, who is like a tabellion or notary of Prester John, and if either of the parties wishes to appeal, he requires from this man the certifying of the cause for Prester John and his judges. All the lords of the countries of any of the kingdoms of Prester John have an Alicaxi and a Malaganha appointed by the Prester; so also have the captains subject to the Barnagais and to the other great lords. The gentlemen who are about the house of the Barnagais, and other grandees who come on business, have this manner of coming from their abodes. Whilst at the place he is living at he mounts his mule, seven, eight, or ten men on foot go before him as far as the first gate, and there he dismounts. If he is a person of greater importance, he takes seven, eight, or ten mules, or else three or four, according as the person is. So he dismounts at the first gate, and arrives at the second, after that, if they are bidden at once to enter, they go in, if not, they sit outside like beehives in the sun, without any other pastime. All these honourable persons wear sheep skins at their necks or on their shoulders, and he who wears the skin of a lion, tiger, or ounce, is more honourable. When they come before the lord they take off the skin, as we take off our caps. Whilst we were in this town of Barra on a market day, they made a solemn proclamation that the Barnagais intended to make war on the Nobiis, five or six days’ journey from the limits of his country, towards Egypt, neighbouring to the countries of Canfilla and Dafolha,[46] which are subject to the Barnagais, as I have before mentioned. These Nobiis are neither Moors, nor Jews, nor Christians. It is said that they had been Christians, and had lost their faith, and are thus without any faith. They say that there is among these Nobiis much fine gold. They said that but a short time ago they had killed a son of the Barnagais, and that he wished to go and avenge his death. I heard say that in the frontier districts of these Nobiis there were four or five hundred horsemen, very great warriors, and that it is a country very well supplied with provisions, and it cannot be otherwise because it is on this and the further side of the Nile, which they say is a very fertile country. The proclamation said that he would set out in fifty days from that time: but up to this there had been no muster nor movement of arms. This would be because in the country there are not many, and few people possess them except the Chavas, who are the men at arms. These men have javelins, bows and arrows. These great lords have a few swords, hangers, and shirts of mail (not many of them). On the occasion of this little revolt, the Barnagais asked the ambassador for swords, and the ambassador gave him his own, which he wore on the road, and which was very good, and he still persistently begged another rich sword with ornaments which he carried with him, saying he wanted it for the war he was going to make, and the ambassador not being able to excuse himself, it suited him to buy another from his companions with gilt ends and a velvet scabbard, which he gave him instead of his own. And in the house where we kept our goods, and where our Portuguese slept, which was a house without doors, on the following night they stole from them two swords and a helmet. All this would be on account of the war.

Cap. xxxi.—How we departed from Barra to Temei, and of the quality of the town.

Here we bought mules for our own riding, and the Barnagais gave us three camels, and with great fatigue we set out from this place, amidst heavy rains and storms, which harassed us very much; for in this time the winter was in force; it begins the 15th of June, a little sooner or later, and ends the 15th of September; whatever it takes more in one month it gives up in the other. In all this time they do not travel, and yet we were hurrying on our journey, for we did not know the usage of the country, nor the danger we were running into. So we began our journey with a part of our goods, for the rest of them remained at the said town, and our factor with it. We went and halted at a town which is named Temeisom, belonging to the district of Maiçada, and which is about four leagues from the town of Barra, from which we had set out. We got over this distance in three days on account of the severe storms; everything that we carried with us getting spoiled. In this town of Temei, where we arrived, there dwelt a Xuum of this district of Maiçada, who was first cousin of the Barnagais, a very honourable man, who used to show us great honour, and who was also a brother of the mother of Prester John. They say that there are in his Xumeta or captaincy twenty towns and no more, for this is (as they say) the smallest district and Xumeta which there is in the kingdom of the Barnagais. This town is on a high eminence (without rocks), but all tilled land and plains with small hollows: and on three sides it has a view over fourteen or fifteen leagues, but on the other, at the distance of a league, there commence great declivities which descend to a great river, and in the neighbourhood of this river appear more than a hundred large villages. It seems to me that in the world there is not so populous a country, and so abundant in crops, and breeding of infinite herds, game of all kinds and of the wildest. There is nothing here but tigers, wolves, foxes, jackals, and other game. Let not this amaze any one who hears or reads this: that there should be game in a plain country with so much population: because, as I said before, they neither kill nor are able to kill anything except some partridges, which they kill with arrows. Many other kinds of game they do not kill because they do not eat them, others because they do not know how, and have no devices for that purpose. So they breed because they do not kill them. All the game is almost tame, because it is not pursued. Without dogs we killed and carried away twenty hares with nets in an hour, and as many partridges with springes, just like piping goats to a fold, or hens to the roost: so we killed the game that we wanted.

Cap. xxxii.—Of the multitude of locusts which are in the country, and of the damage they do, and how we made a procession, and the locusts died.

In these parts and in all the dominions of Prester John there is a very great plague of locusts which destroy the fresh crops in a fearful manner. Their multitude, which covers the earth and fills the air, is not to be believed; they darken the light of the sun. I say again that it is not a thing to be believed by any one who has not seen them. They are not general in all the kingdoms every year, for if they were so, the country would be a desert in consequence of the destruction they cause: but one year they are in one part, and another year in another; as if we said, speaking in Portugal and Spain, one year they are in the parts of Galicia, another in Entre Douro and Minho, in Traz os Montes, another year in Beira, another in Estremadura, another in Andalucia, another in Old Castile, and another in Aragon. Sometimes they are in two or three parts of these confines. Wherever they come the earth remains as though it had been set on fire. These locusts are like large grasshoppers, they are yellow in the wings; when they are on the way it is known a day before, not because the people see them, but because they see the sun yellow, and the earth yellow, that is, the shadow which they cast. Then the people are dismayed, saying we are lost because the Ambatas are coming, and this is their name among them. I will relate what I saw on three occasions. The first was in the town of Barua, we had then been three years in this country, and many times we had heard say, such a kingdom, such a country is destroyed by the Ambatas; while we were there, we saw this sign: the sun became yellow, and the shadow on the earth likewise, and the people were all dismayed. Next day, it was a thing not to be believed, for they spread over a width of eight leagues, according to what we learned later: and when this plague was close by, most of the priests of the town came to ask me to give them some remedy for it. I answered them that I did not know of any remedy, except to commend ourselves to God, and pray Him to drive the plague out of the country. Upon this, I went to the ambassador to tell him that it seemed to me well that we should make a procession with the people of the country, and that it might please the Lord to hear us. This seemed good to the ambassador, and next day in the morning we caused the people of the country to come together, and all the priests, and we took our altar stone, and those of the town theirs after their usage, and our cross and theirs, and singing our litany we went out from the church, all the Portuguese and the greater part of the townspeople. I told them not to go in silence, but to cry out like us, saying in their language, Zio marenos,[47] which means in our language, Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon us. With this cry and litany we went through a plain of fields of wheat for the space of a third of a league to a small eminence, and there made an admonition which I had brought already written out that night with a requisition and admonition of excommunication[48] on it, that within three hours they should begin to set out on their way, and go to the sea, or to the country of the Moors, or to mountains of no profit to the Christians: and should they not do so, it called upon and invoked the birds of the air and the animals of the earth, and the stones and tempests to disperse and break and devour their bodies. For this, I commanded to catch a quantity of the locusts, and thus made this admonition to those present, in their names, and those of the absent ones, and ordered them to be let go in peace. It pleased the Lord to hear the sinners. When we were returning to the town, because their road was to the sea from whence they came, there were so many coming after us, that it seemed as though they would break our ribs and heads driving against us, such were the thumps they inflicted on us. When we arrived at the town, we found all the men, women, and children who had remained in it, placed on the top of the terraces of the houses, giving thanks to God for the manner in which the locusts went flying before us, and others coming after us. Meanwhile a great storm arose from the sea, which met them, confronting them with violent rain and hail, which lasted quite three hours. The river and streams swelled very much, and when they had ended running off, it was a wonderful thing that they measured two ells deep of their dead bodies, on the brink of the water of the great river, and likewise at the little brooks, a great multitude dead on the edges. The next day in the morning there was not a single one alive in the whole country. The people of the towns all round whence the locusts had arrived, hearing of this, came to see what had happened; some said: These Portuguese are holy, and by the power of God they have cast out the Ambatas. Others, and chiefly the priests and friars of the neighbourhood (not those of this town) said: Rather they are sorcerers, and by sorcery have cast out the Ambatas; and so they have no fear of the lions and other animals, on account of the sorceries they work. Sixteen days after this, there came to me a Xuum, that is, captain of a town, named Coiberia,[49] with men and priests and friars, to entreat us for the love of God to succour them, for they were all ruined by the Ambatas. This town is fully eight leagues and more from Barua towards the sea. They reached us at the hour of vespers. That same hour we set out, five Portuguese, and we travelled all night, and arrived an hour after sunrise. Already the people of the town were collected, and those of other towns around (in which also there were locusts), to beg us for the love of God to go there. This town is on a high hill, from which a great extent of country and many villages were in view, all yellow with locusts. The church is at the foot of the town; we went to it, and with our procession went to the town and took a turn round it, and in four directions and in four villages we made an admonition, having caught some locusts and letting them loose as we had done the other time. When the procession was ended, we went to eat, and having finished eating and gone out of the house, in all the country not a single one showed itself. The people of the country would not leave us alone, and insisted that by all means we should go to their villages, and they would give us whatever we wished for. It did not avail me to say that they were gone, and that it was not necessary. They persisted in importuning us to go and give them the blessing, as they were afraid of their returning. So the people went away in peace, and on the following day we returned to our resting-place. Here they began to affirm more strongly, that through devotion and prayer the locusts went away.

Cap. xxxiii.—Of the damage which we saw in another country caused by the locusts in two places.

Another time we saw the locusts in another country called Abrigima, whence the Prester ordered provisions to be given us, in the kingdom of Angote. This country is distant from Barua, from which place we were thirty days in travelling the journey. While we were in this country I went with the ambassador who came from Portugal, and five Genoese with us, towards a country named Aagao. We travelled five days through country entirely depopulated, and through maize canes as thick as canes for propping vines, it cannot be told how they were all cut and bitten, as if bitten by asses, all done by the locusts. The wheat, barley, and tafo, as though they had never been sown there, the trees without any leaves, and the tender twigs all eaten, there was no memory of grass of any sort, and if we had not been prepared with mules laden with barley and provisions for ourselves, we and the mules would have perished. This country was entirely covered with locusts without wings, and they said these were the seed of those which had been there and destroyed the country, and they said that as soon as they had wings they would at once go and seek their country. I am silent as to the multitude of these without wings, because it is not to be believed, and it is right that I should relate what more I saw in this country. I saw men, women, and children, seated horror-struck amongst these locusts. I asked them: Why do you remain there dying, why do you not kill these animals, and revenge yourselves for the damage which their parents did you, and at least the dead ones will do you no further harm. They answered that they had not the heart to resist the plague which God gave them for their sins. The people were going away from this country, and we found the roads full of men, women, and children, on foot, and some in their arms, with their little bundles on their heads, removing to a country where they might find provisions (it was a pitiful sight to see them). When we were in this lordship of Abrigima, in a town named Aquate, there came travelling thither such a multitude of locusts as cannot be told, and they began to arrive there one day about the hour of tierce, and till night they did not cease, and as they arrived they settled to rest. Next day, at the hour of prime, they began to depart, and at midday there was not one there; and not a leaf remained upon a tree. At that moment others began to arrive, and they remained like the others till next day at the same hour, and these did not leave any crop with a husk, nor a green blade. In this way they did for five days, one after the other; and the people said these were the children going in search of their fathers. They showed the way for the others who had not got wings. After these had passed we learned the width of the passage of these locusts, and saw the destruction they had caused. The breadth of this exceeded three leagues, in which there did not remain a husk or a tree, and the country did not looked burned, but much snowed with the whiteness of the sticks and dryness of the grass. God was pleased that the fruits had already been gathered in. We did not know whence they came, because they came from towards the sea of the kingdom of Dandali, which is of hostile Moors; neither did we learn where was the end of their journey.

Cap. xxxiv.—How we arrived at Temei, and the ambassador went in search of Tigrimahom, and sent to call us.

Let us return to our journey: two days after our arrival at this town of Temei, before our baggage arrived which had remained in Barra, the ambassador, Don Rodrigo, set out with six men riding, on his way to the Tigrimahom’s residence. He has the title of King of extensive countries, and has very great lords under his orders and rule. Don Rodrigo went to ask him to give us equipment for our journey, as soon as we should enter his lands. We remained in this town of Temei, Joam Escolar and I, and two other Portuguese: in this time the factor arrived with the baggage which had remained in Barra; and so we brought it all together in this town of Temei, where we had a very hospitable reception from the first Xuum of the district, who is a brother of the Barnagais. On the 28th July of the said year of 1520 there came a message to us from the ambassador, to go with the goods to where he was staying in the house of the Tigrimahom,[50] with the Portuguese who had accompanied him. We were still waiting two days for the people of the country to carry our goods, and then a Xuum arrived who gave us assistance (and this with heavy squalls, storms, and rains); we travelled the space of a league through plains, and then began to descend a very steep road and a very deep descent for the distance of another league, and we went to sleep within the circuit of a church from fear of the tigers, and much vexed by the storms. The following day we went through mountains, both rocky ridges and forests of trees without fruit, until we came to a very large river, which, as it was winter, we found very large for passing over: this is the river on which the town of Barua is situated, and it runs to the Nile, where[51] the kingdom of the Barnagais ends, and that of Tigrimahom begins. From where we slept to this river will be two leagues, a little more or less, and, notwithstanding the mountains and woods, all peopled.

Cap. xxxv.—How the Tigrimahom sent a captain in search of our goods, and of the buildings which are in the first town.

On reaching the river, the men who came with us unloaded the baggage, and from the other side of the river we heard drums and a noise of people: we asked what it was, and they said that a captain of Tigrimahom had come for us. We passed over without our goods to the other side of the river with a good deal of difficulty, on account of the strong body of water: we found a fine body of people come to fetch us; they might be five or six hundred men to carry our goods. There was at once uncertainty between the people of either side of the river. Those of the country of Tigrimahom said that they had not got to take the baggage except in their country; and those of the Barnagais, that they had no obligation except to place it on the shore close to the water in their country; and they engaged in great shouting and obstinacy upon this matter. As the water was running high, they concluded upon passing over the baggage together, in a brotherly way, so that it should not remain out of doors on one or the other bank, but that which was just should be done. As soon as the baggage had been got across, and taken up by the people of Tigrimahom, they travelled with the baggage as fast as we did with our mules. We still travelled on, this portion of the day, through mountains like those we had left behind. On this road we saw herds of wild swine; some passed of fifty hogs; partridges and other birds covered the ground and the trees. Here, also, it was said there was every kind of animals, and according to what the mountains are it could not be otherwise. This night we slept in the open air, surrounded by fires from fear of the animals. Here the people began to change, also the country and the trees, and the costume of the people. Principally here we began to enter amongst very high peaks, which appear to rise up to the sky, so high are they; the space at their feet is not extensive, and all are separate one from another, and they are in a line, and not very wide at the base. All those that can be ascended, even though there is danger in it, have chapels on them, most of them of Our Lady. On many of these peaks we saw chapels, and we could not determine by what way people could go to them. We went this day to sleep at a town between the peaks called Abafazem, in which town is a very good church of Our Lady, well built, with the middle nave raised on two sides or walls, with its windows very well constructed, and all the church vaulted.[52] We had not seen any of this fashion in this country: in Portugal, in Entre Douro, and Minho, there are monasteries of this fashion. Close to the said church is a very large and handsome tower, both for its height and the good workmanship of the walls, and for its width, it is already getting damaged, and yet it has all the look of a regal building, all of well hewn stone: we have not seen such another building. This tower is surrounded by houses, which match well with it, with both good walls and terraces above, like residences of great lords. They said that these edifices belonged to Queen Candace, and because her house where she became a christian is very near here, this would be the truth. This town, church, and country, are situated between these peaks, in very pretty fields, all irrigated by conduits of water descending from the highest peaks, artificially made with stone. The sowings which they irrigate here are wheat, barley, beans, pulse, peas, garlic, onions, garden rue, much mustard; in the water conduits, many good water cresses. In this town there are many priests, and well dressed; they seemed to be good men, and they told us that in the commencement of christianity in this country seven churches had been built, and that this was one of them: and there is much appearance of its being so, because christianity commenced very near here, that is, in the town of Aquaxumo.

Cap. xxxv.[53]—How we departed from Bafazem, and went to the town called Houses of St. Michael.

We departed from this town as we had come, and also the people of the country who carried our baggage (this carrying is called Elfa), and we went to sleep at another town called St. Michael. On arriving at this town they did not give us lodging, saying that the town was privileged; and on account of the rain we went to the circuit of the church, and in the outer circuit, which serves as a churchyard, we put our mules, because there was plenty of grass on account of the winter rains. In this country it is not the custom to give victuals more than once a day, and it is the custom to do that at night, in all the kingdoms and lordships of Prester John. Having arrived thus, and not having had quarters given us, so also they did not give us anything to eat, according to their custom, and we were hungry. Our factor said to me: Father let us eat. I replied, What shall we eat? He said to me, I have brought two fowls cooked, let us eat them. Our clerk and I were horrified at eating meat without bread, but nevertheless we accompanied him. After this repast we many times ate meat without bread, and bread without meat, and bread without salt, because it is not usual in the country; and bread soaked in water, and pepper, so that we forgot our first amazement. In the night they sent us food, and as we were sleeping in the cloister of the church, for greater cleanliness we went to the place where they give, or used to give, the communion. Whilst we were there with light some pigeons began to stir; as soon as we heard them we rushed to the doors, for the rest was closed, not one escaped us, nor the young pigeons which we found in the holes: and we filled a bag with them. Later we returned to halt in this town, and we were received without their bringing forward their privileges, that we might not kill the pigeons of the church, which was now again peopled with them. The difference which there is between the people of this country and that of the Barnagais, is in their clothes and dress. The men wear girt round them some small skirts, some of stuff, some of tanned leather, like large breeches, also plaited, like those of the women of our country, and their extent is not more than two spans; when they are walking it seems that they spread them out so that they cover their nakedness, but if they stoop or sit down, or if there is wind, it shows. The married women wear very little covering, and the single women, who have neither husbands nor friends, have less shame. The beads which other women wear round their necks these wear girt round their bodies, and a large quantity of beads over their private parts, and whoever can get a hawk’s bell, or a small bell, wears it there; and some of these women (not married) wear a sheep’s skin at their neck, which covers one side and not more, because they wear it loose, and only one foot and one fore foot of the sheep is tied and suspended to the neck. The[54] road which is taken in this country of the Prester as soon as one arrives from the Red sea, or comes from Egypt to Çuaquem, is at once to turn one’s back on the North, and travel to the South until arriving at the gates of Badabaje; this is because a few hours from here they go in one direction, others in another, asking where the court may be, in a straight line, or to the East or to the West, according to the country where the Prester is staying. At these passages are separated the kingdoms of Amara and Xoa, and because we went about in these countries for six years, sometimes to one part, at others to another, going out of the road and then again returning to it, according as it seemed to us that that was a better arrangement.

Cap. xxxvi.—Which speaks of the town of Aquaxumo, and of the gold which the Queen Saba took to Solomon for the temple, and of a son that she had of Solomon.

Amongst these peaks where we were still going, in the parts to the West are wonderful lands and very great lordships, among which is a very good town named Aquaxumo, and it is two days’ journey from the town of St. Michael, always between these peaks. We stayed in it for eight months, by order of the Prester John. This town was the city, chamber, and abode (as they say) of the Queen Saba, who took the camels laden with gold to Solomon, when he was building the temple of Jerusalem. There is in this town a very noble church, in which we found a very great chronicle written in the language of the country, and it stated in its commencement how it had been written first in Hebrew, and afterwards put into Greek, and from Greek into Chaldee, and from Chaldee into the Abyssinian tongue, in which it now is, and it begins thus. How the Queen Sabaas hearing related the great and rich works which Solomon had begun in Jerusalem, she determined to go and see them; and she loaded certain camels with gold to give for these works. And on arriving near the city, and being about to cross a lake, which they passed by some bridges,[55] she dismounted and worshipped the beams and said: “Please God my feet shall not touch the timber on which the Saviour of the world has to hang.” And she made a circuit of the lake, and went to see Solomon, and induced him to withdraw those beams from there, and she came to the works, and offered her gifts and said: “These works are not such as they told me in richness and beauty, because their beauty and richness has no equal, so that they are greater than what was related to me, so much so that the tongues of men cannot tell their nobility and richness, and much I grieve for the small gift which I brought; I will return to my countries and lordships, and I will send whatever abounds for the works, of gold, and blackwood to inlay.” Whilst she was at Jerusalem Solomon had intercourse with her, and she became pregnant of a son, and remained at Jerusalem until she brought him forth. After she was able to travel she left her son, and returned to her country, and sent from it much gold and blackwood to inlay the works. And her son grew up to the age of seventeen years, and among the many other sons that Solomon had this one was so proud that he outraged[56] the people of Israel, and all the country of Judæa. And the people came to Solomon and said to him: “We are not able to maintain so many Kings as you have got, for all your sons are Kings, especially this one of Queen Saba; she is a greater lady than you, send him to his mother, for we are not able to maintain him.” Then Solomon sent him very honourably, giving him the officers that are usual in a King’s household (as I will relate in its place), and besides, he gave him, in order that he might rest on the road, the country of Gazaā, which is in the land of Egypt, and he made his journey to the country of his mother, where he was a very great ruler. The chronicle says that he ruled from sea to sea, and that he had sixty ships in the Indian sea. This book of chronicles is very large, and I only took from it the beginnings.

Cap. xxxvii.—How St. Philip declared a prophecy of Isaiah to the eunuch of Queen Candace, through which she and all her kingdom were converted, and of the edifices of the town of Aquaxumo.

In this town of Aquaxumo was the principal residence of the Queen Candace,[57] who was the beginning of the Christianity of this country. Her birth (as they say) was half a league from here, in a very small village, which now is entirely of blacksmiths. Her commencement of Christianity was this. According to what they say in their books the angel said to St. Philip: Rise and go towards the South, by the road which goes from Jerusalem to Gaza in the desert. St. Philip went, and met with a man who was an eunuch, and he was major-domo of the Queen Candace, ruler of Ethiopia. In the country of Gaza, which Solomon had given to his son, this man was the keeper of all the riches of the Queen, and he had been to Jerusalem and was returning to his house, and he was going on a chariot. St. Philip came up to him, and heard him sing a prophecy of Isaiah, and asked him how he understood what he was singing. He replied that he did not know, unless some other man taught him. St. Philip mounted into the chariot, and went on explaining to him that prophecy, and converted him, and baptized and instructed him in the faith. Then the Spirit snatched away St. Philip, and he remained informed. They say that here was fulfilled the prophecy which David spoke: “Ethiopia shall arise, and stretch forth her hands to God.” Thus they say they were the first Christians in the world. The eunuch at once set out very gaily on the road to Ethiopia, to the house of his mistress, and converted her and all her household, and baptized them in consequence of what he related to them. And the Queen caused all her kingdom of Buno to be baptized. This Buno is towards the east from the town of Aquaxumo, in the kingdom of the Barnagais, and it is now two lordships. In this town of Aquaxumo, where she became Christian, she built a very noble church, the first there was in Ethiopia: it is named St. Mary of Syon. They say that it is so named because its altar stone came from Sion. In this country (as they say) they have the custom always to name the churches by the altar stone, because on it is written the name of the patron saint. This stone which they have in this church, they say that the Apostles sent it from Mount Sion. This church is very large; it has five naves of a good width and of a great length, vaulted above, and all the vaults covered up, the ceiling and sides all painted. Below, the floor of the church is well worked with handsome cut stone. It has seven chapels, all with their backs to the east, and their altars well placed. It has a choir after our fashion, except that it is low, and they reach the vaulted roof with their heads; and the choir is also over a vault, and they do not use it. This church has a very large circuit, paved with flagstones like gravestones. This consists of a very high wall, and it is not covered over like those of the other churches, but it is left open. This church has a large enclosure, and it is also surrounded by another larger enclosure, like the wall of a large town or city. Within this enclosure are handsome habitations of terraced buildings, and all spout out their water by strong figures of lions and dogs of stone. Inside this large enclosure there are two palaces, one on the right hand and the other on the left, which belong to two rectors of the church; and the other houses are of canons and friars. In the large enclosure, at the gate nearest to the church, there is a large ruin, built in a square, which in other times was a house, and it has at each angle large stone pillars, squared and wrought. This house is called Ambazabete, which means house of lions. They say that in this house were the captive lions, and there are still some always, and there go before the Prester John four captive lions. Before the gate of this great enclosure there is a large court, and in it a large tree, which they call Pharaoh’s fig tree,[58] and at each end of it there are some very cool platforms of well worked masonry, merely laid down. Where they reach near the foot of the fig tree, they are injured by the roots, which raise them up. There are, on the top of these platforms, twelve stone chairs, as well made with stone as though they were of wood, with their seats and rests for the feet. They are not made out of a block of stone, but each one with pieces of of stone. They say these belong to the twelve judges who at this time serve in the court of Prester John. Outside of this enclosure there is a large assemblage of very good houses, such as there are not in the whole of Ethiopia, and very good wells of water, of wrought masonry, and also in most of the houses the before-mentioned ancient figures of lions and dogs and birds, all well made in stone. At the back of this great church is a very handsome tank of masonry, and upon this masonry are as many other chairs of stone, such as those in the enclosure of the church. This town is situated at the head of a beautiful plain, and almost between two hills, and the rest of this plain is almost all full of these old buildings, and among them many of these chairs, and high monumental stones with inscriptions. Above this town there are many stones standing up, and others on the ground, very large and beautiful, and wrought with handsome designs, among which is one raised upon another, and worked like an altar stone, except that it is of very great size, and it is set in the other as if inchased. This raised stone is sixty-four ells in length, and six wide; and the sides are three ells wide. It is very straight and well worked, made with arcades below, as far as a head made like a half moon; and the side which has this half moon is towards the south. There appear in it five nails, which do not show more on account of the rust; and they are like fives of dice in compass. And that it may not be said, How could so high a stone be measured? I have already said how it was all in arcades as far as the foot of the half moon, and these are all of one size; and we measured those we could reach to, and by those reckoned up the others, and we found sixty ells, and we gave four to the half moon, although it would be more, and so it made sixty-four ells. This very long stone, on its south side, and where the nails in the half moon are, at the height of a man, has the form of a portal carved in the stone itself, with a bolt and a lock, as if it were shut up.[59] The stone on which it is set up has an ell in thickness, and is well worked; it is placed on other large stones, and surrounded by other smaller stones, and no man can tell how much of it enters the other stone, or if it reaches to the ground. There are other stones raised above the ground, and very well worked; some of them will be quite forty ells long, and others thirty. There are more than thirty of these stones, and they have no patterns on them; most of them have large inscriptions, which the country people cannot read, neither could we read them; according to their appearance, these characters must be Hebrew. There are two of these stones, very large and beautiful, with designs of large arcades, and ornaments of good size, which are lying on the ground entire, and one of them is broken into three pieces, and each of these exceeds eighty ells, and is ten ells in width. Close to them are stones, in which these had to be, or had been let in, which were bored and very well worked.

Cap. xxxvii.—Of the buildings which are around Aquaxumo, and how gold is found in it, and of the Church of this town.

Above this town, on a hill which overlooks much land, and far away, and which is about a mile, that is the third of a league, from the town, there are two houses under the ground, into which men do not enter without a lamp. These houses are not vaulted, but of very good straight masonry, both the walls and the upper part; the walls may be twelve ells high; the stones inside and out are set in the wall so close one to the other, that it all looks like one stone. One of these houses is much divided into chambers and granaries; in the doorways are holes for the bars and for the sockets of the doors. In one of these chambers are two very large chests, each one four ells in length, and one and a half broad, and as much in height and inside, and in the upper part on the inner side they are hollowed at the edge, as though they had lids of stone, as the chests also are of stone. (They say that these were the treasure chests of Queen Saba.) The other house, which is longer, has only got a portico and one room. From the entrance of one house to that of the other will be a distance of a game of manqual,[60] and above them is a field. There were in our company some Genoese and Catalans, who had been prisoners of the Turks, and they affirmed and swore that they had seen Troy, and the granary of Joseph in the Kingdom of Egypt, and that their buildings were very large, but that these of this town were and are, in a great manner, larger, and it seemed to us that the Prester John had sent us here, in order that we should see these edifices, and we had rejoiced at seeing them, as they are much grander than what I write. In this town, and in its plains, which are all sown in their season with all kinds of seed, when there come thunderstorms, and they are over, there do not remain in the town women or men, boys or children, who are old enough, who do not come out to look for gold among the tillage, for they say the rains lay it bare, and that they find a good deal. So they go by all the roads seeking the water-courses, and raking with sticks. Seeing this, and hearing it said how much gold they found, both in the town and in the tilled lands, I determined on making a washing-board, such as I had seen in Portugal, at Foz darouca,[61] and in Ponte de Mucela. When it was done, I began to wash earth, and set up two boards, and did not find any gold. I do not know whether I did not know how to wash, or whether I did not know it when washed, or whether there was not any here: the report was, that there was a great deal. As they say that the church of Aquaxumo is the most ancient, so likewise they hold it to be the most honoured of all Ethiopia: and the offices are well done in it. In this church there are a hundred and fifty canons, and as many friars. It has two head men, one is named Nebrete[62] of the canons, which means master of instruction, and the other, Nebrete of the friars. These two heads reside in the palaces which are within the great inclosure and circuit of the church; and the Nebrete of the canons lodges at the right hand, and he is the principal one, and the most honoured. He does justice for the canons and for the laity of all this country: and the Nebrete of the friars only hears and rules the friars. Both use kettledrums and trumpets. They have very large revenues, and besides their revenues they have every day a collation which they call Maabar[63] of bread and wine of the country, when mass is finished. The friars have this for themselves, and the canons also, and this Maabar is such, that the friars seldom eat other food than that. They have this every day except Friday of the Passion, because on that day no one eats or drinks. The canons do not make their Maabar within the circuit of the church, and are seldom there, except at fixed hours, neither is the Nebrete in his palace, except at some chance time when he goes to hear causes. This is because they are married, and live with their wives and children in their houses, which are very good and which are outside. Neither women nor laymen enter into the inclosure of this church, and they do not enter to receive the communion. On account of their being married, and that the women do not enter this circuit, they make their Maabar outside, so that their wives and children may enjoy it.

Cap. xxxix.—How close to Aquaxumo there are two churches on two peaks, where lie the bodies of two saints.

Not very far from this town are two hills, one at one end and the other at the other, one to the east and the other to the west. At that which is to the west there is a good bit of ascent, and at the top there is quite half a league of a smiling plain which has some very good villages, and delightful vineyards. On this hill, towards the town of Aquaxumo, and in sight of it, there is a very handsome edifice, it is a tower of very fine masonry: and much of this tower is cast down, and with its masonry a church has been built of St. Michael, to which come many people from the town of Aquaxumo to take the communion on Saturdays and Sundays, on account of its devotion. On the hill which is to the east, on its peak there is another church which is named Abbalicanos, and this saint lies here, and they say that he was confessor of Queen Candace. This church is like an annex of the great church of Aquaxumo, and it is served by its canons. This house and church of Abbalicanos is one of great devotion amongst them, there come to it also many people from the town to hear the offices and take the communion. This church also has a large village at the foot of the hill which is its parish. Further on than this church, about a third of a league, there is a peak which is slender from its base, and appears to mount up to the sky: it is ascended by three hundred steps winding round it. On the top of it there is a very elegant small church of much devotion, which has no more than a small nave, and around it a circuit of well-wrought masonry of the height of a man’s breast, and men are afraid to look down over it. There is not more width from this wall to the church than what three men can cover together holding hands. This church has no cloister nor circuit, nor space where it could be made. This church is named Abbapantalian, and his body lies here: it possesses large revenues, and has fifty canons or debeteras, according to their names, and they have a Nebrete like those of Aquaxumo. As the church of Aquaxumo was the beginning of Christianity in Ethiopia, so this one is surrounded by the sepulchres of Saints like Braga in Portugal.

Cap. xl.—Of the countries and lordships that are to the west and to the north of Aquaxumo, where there is a monastery, named Hallelujah, and of two other monasteries to the east.

In the country to the west of Aquaxumo, which is towards the Nile, there are extensive lands and lordships, as they say. And in these countries and parts is the land of Sabaim, whence the Queen Saba took her name and title, and where the black wood is found which she sent to Solomon to make inlaid work in the temple. From this town of Aquaxumo to the beginning of the country of Sabaim there are two days’ journey. This lordship is now subject to the kingdom of the Tigrimahom, and a brother-in-law of the Prester John is lord and captain of it: they say it is a great and good lordship. On the north side there lies another lordship named Torate, a country of mountainous ridges; there is a distance of four leagues to these mountains and lordship of Torate. It is on a great and high mountain, and at its foot and on the top of it is a flat space of half a league, with large trees, and a monastery with great revenues (as they say) named Hallelujah, containing many friars. They say that it bears this name, because in the commencement of Christianity in this country, when St. Mary of Syon was built in Aquaxumo, this monastery was built next. They say that they did not know then what they ought to pray or to chaunt, and that there was here a devout father who kept vigils, and commended himself to God at night, and this devout man affirmed that he heard the angels in heaven, who sung Hallelujah, and that from this the custom remained in this country that all the masses commenced with Hallelujah, and so this monastery is called by name Hallelujah. And if in that time that friar was good and devout, now, those who are here, have the reputation of being great robbers. The hill and range on which this monastery stands is entirely surrounded by dry channels, which only have water after the thunder showers for a space of two or three leagues. In another mountain in the same lordship of Torate, is another great monastery, but not so great as that of Hallelujah, and they say that it has good friars, they also say that they are not good friends with the others, because they have a bad reputation. Returning to our road, at a distance of three leagues from the town of Aquaxumo, there is another monastery on another hill, this is named St. John. Further on, a distance of two leagues, there is another monastery which is named Abbagarima. They say that this Abbagarima was king of Greece, and that he left his kingdom, and came to do penance, and there ended his life in sanctity. There is behind his chapel a cave very convenient for doing penance, and they say that he abode there. They say that this king works many miracles: we came here on the day of his feast, and there were here more than three thousand cripples, blind men and lepers. This monastery is between three peaks, almost on the side of one of them, and it seems as though it would fall into the hollow where they say he did penance. They descend into it by a ladder, and bring out of it earth like gravel, or soft stone, and they carry it away and hang it to the necks of the sick in rags. (They say that some have received health.) I asked about the revenue of this monastery, the friars told me it had a revenue of sixteen horses, and besides, some endowments of provisions. It is a small monastery of few friars and small revenues, and at the foot of it they sow much garlic; there are between the peaks, large tilled fields, and it has an infinite number of very good vineyards, they make much raisins of them: they come in very early, they begin in January and end in March.

Cap. xli.—How we departed from the church and houses of St. Michael, and went to Bacinete, and from there to Maluc; and of the monasteries which are near it.

We went away from the Church of St. Michael, with the country people who carried our baggage, and went to sleep at a town named Angueha, at a Beteneguz, which means a king’s house, as I have already said various times. And already in other towns we had halted in houses like these: no one uses them, except the lords of the country who at times hold the authority of the Prester John. They respect these houses so much that their doors are always open, and no one touches anything there, nor enters within, except when the lord is there; and when he goes away nothing remains inside except the open doors, and sleeping couches ready for use,[64] and the place for making a fire. We departed from this place with our baggage, and travelled three or four leagues, and went to sleep on a high hill, and above a large river, which is named Abacinete,[65] and so the country and lordship is named. They said that this lordship belonged to the grandmother of the Prester John; and whilst we were there it was taken away from her, because she was on bad terms with the country. This lordship lies in the kingdom of Tigrimahom, and it is a very populous country in all parts, and fertile, a country of mountains and rivers; all the towns are on heights, and away from the roads: this they do on account of the travellers, who take from them by force whatever they have. The people who carried our baggage made a great fence of thorny bushes for us, and for the mules, which was to defend us from the wild beasts; however, we neither heard nor perceived anything at night. We set out from this place, and went to sleep at a town which is named Maluche, which may be two leagues from where we had slept. This town was surrounded by very beautiful tilled fields of wheat, barley, and millet, the best and thickest we had seen yet. Close to this town is a very high mountain, not very broad at the foot, for it is as broad at the top as it is at the bottom, for it is all scarped like a wall, of sheer cliff, all bare, without any crops or verdure of anything. It makes like three divisions; two at the ends are pointed, that of the middle flat. In one of the pointed divisions, that is, ascending to the summit from the bottom, there is a monastery of Our Lady, named Abbamata. They say that they are friars leading a good life. The order of friars is all one and the same in all the dominions of Prester John. It is all of St. Anthony of the Wilderness, and from this proceeds another order, which they name estefarruz.[66] These hold the others as bad, and say that they burn many on account of there being many heresies among them, such as their not adoring the cross. These are the people who make the crosses which all the clergy and friars carry in their hands, and the laity at their necks, and their opinion is that we have only one cross to adore, and that it is that on which Jesus Christ suffered, and that the crosses which they make, and which other men make, are not to be adored, because they are the work of men’s hands; and there are other heresies which they say, hold, and do. Looking at this monastery where it appears in sight, it seems like a league. I wished to go there; they told me not to go, as it was a day’s journey, and that they could not go there except by clinging on with the hands, and otherwise it was not possible to go there. On the hill in the middle, which is like a table, there is another house of Our Lady, to which they say much devout visitation is made. On the other peak is a house of Holy Cross; it is a further distance of a league and a half or two leagues. On another hill, which is also scarped, like that of Abbamata, there is another monastery, which is named St. John. There is nothing on the top of this hill but the monastery and houses of the friars, without any verdure, as it appears to sight from below; and its officials live at the foot of the hill in fertile lands, and send thence what is necessary to those who live in the monastery. Already in these lands a great difference is seen from the lands left behind. In the countries and kingdom of the Barnagais, and in the commencement of that of the Tigrimahom, there are many beggars, cripples, blind men, and poor people; in this country there are not so many. The men wear different costumes; so also the women who are married or living with men. Here they wear wrapped round them dark coloured woollen stuffs, with large fringes of the same stuff, and they do not wear diadems[67] on their heads like those of the Barnagais. The girls go from bad to worse; there are women of twenty or twenty-five years old, who have the breasts coming to their waists, and their body bare and gaily covered with little beads. Some of the women of full size and age wear a sheep skin suspended to their shoulder, without its covering more than one side. In the parts of Portugal and Spain people marry for love, and on account of seeing beautiful faces, and the things inside are hidden from them; in this country they can well marry on account of seeing everything quite certain.

Cap. xlii.—Of the animals which are in the country, and how we turned back to where the ambassador was.

There are in this country tigers and other animals, which at night kill the cows, mules and asses, in the closed towns, which they did not do in the kingdom of the Barnagais which we had left behind. We departed from this place[68] on the 6th of August of 1520, and returned back to where we had left the ambassador, who was lodged by order of the Tigrimahom, and much to his satisfaction, with all the Portuguese who had started with him from Temei, a country in the kingdom of the Barnagais. In the said place a great lord was lodged, by order of the Tigrimahom, in order to protect and provide for the ambassador; and likewise other gentlemen were lodged in towns within sight of this, and many others who accompanied the Tigrimahom. He was lodged in a Beteneguz, and the ambassador was at the distance of a league from that place. On the day that we arrived the Tigrimahom sent to summon the ambassador; and he went at once, and all the Portuguese went with him. When we arrived at the Beteneguz where he was, they told us that he was in the church, he and his wife, to receive the Communion; and this was an hour before sunset, which is the hour for saying mass on fast days. We went towards the church, and met with him on the way. Each came on his mule, with very good state, like great gentlemen as they are; so they came accompanied by many great lords. This Tigrimahom is an old man, of a good and reverend presence: his wife came entirely covered up with blue cotton stuffs; we did not see either her face or her body, because it was all covered up. As soon as we came up to him, he asked me for a cross which I carried in my hand, and he kissed it and ordered it to be given to his wife to kiss it; she kissed it through her wrapper, and received us with a good welcome. This Tigrimahom keeps a very large household, both of men and women, and great state, in a great measure grander than the Barnagais. The ambassador and those that were with him told us that they had received great honour and hospitable reception from the Tigrimahom, both in favour and provisions. It is but a short time that this Tigrimahom has held this lordship, and as yet, he has not finished visiting all his lands which are under his orders and rule, and also those who have the title of kings, as well as the others underneath them in rank. The Prester John deposes them and appoints them whenever he pleases, with or without cause; and on this account there is no ill humour here, and if there is any it is secret, because in this period that we remained in this country I saw great lords turned out of their lordships, and others put into them, and I saw them together, and they appeared to be good friends. (God knows their hearts.) And in this country, whatever happens to them, of good fortune or of loss, they say of all of it, that God does it. These great lords, who are like kings, are all tributaries of the Prester John; those of this kingdom in horses, and those of the Barnagais in brocades, silks, and some cotton cloths; and those further on from this place (as they say) are tributaries in gold, silk, mules, cows, and plough oxen, and other things which there are at court. The lords who are beneath these, even though they hold their lordships from the hand of Prester John, pay their tribute to the other lords; and they account for all on delivering it to the Prester. The lands are so populous that the revenues cannot but be large; and these lords, even though they receive their revenues, eat at the cost of the people and the poor.

Cap. xliii.—How the Tigrimahom being about to travel, the ambassador asked him to despatch him, and it was not granted to him, and the ambassador sent him certain things, and he gave him equipment, and we went to a monastery, where the friars gave thanks to God.

As the Tigrimahom was about to set out for other countries we went to take leave of him, and ask him to give us a good equipment for our journey, and to this he answered us saying: that the goods which we were taking to the Prester John he would have them taken to him, and that our own goods which were our clothes, and pepper and cloths for our provisions, that we should take charge of them, and with this he dismissed us and went his way, and we went to where we were lodged. Seeing that we could not travel with so much baggage, we agreed to send again to the Tigrimahom, and Jorge D’Abreu and Mestre Joam went and took to him certain goods, that is to say, a rich dagger and a sword furnished with a velvet scabbard and gilt ends. There came a message that they should carry all our goods, and that in all his lands they should give us bread, wine, and meat to eat. As soon as this message arrived, the same day we departed, which was the 9th of August. We went to sleep at some small hamlets, fenced in like those we had passed from fear of the tigers. On the night that we slept here, when it was about two hours of the night, a little more or less, on two men of the country going outside of a yard the tigers attacked them, and wounded one of them in the leg. God protected him and we who hastened to him, because certainly they would have killed him, as they are such pestilent animals. In this country there are villages of Moors, separated from the Christians; they say that they pay much tribute to the lords of the country in gold and silk stuffs. They do not serve in the general services like the Christians; they have not got mosques, because they do not allow them to build or possess them. All these countries are great pasture lands, like those left behind, but not less of tilled land and mountain ridges (not very high), but rather undulating plains. From these small villages we went a distance of four leagues to sleep at another small village, and a little before coming to it we saw on the left hand on a high hill much green grass and woods, in which is another monastery of St. John, like the one seen before. They say that it is a monastery of many friars and much revenue. Close to the village where we halted is a church of St. George, a very well arranged building, almost in the fashion of our churches, small and vaulted, its paintings very well executed, that is, of apostles, patriarchs, prophets, Elias and Enoch. Ten priests and friars officiate in it. Up to this time we have not met with a church ruled by clergy, in which there are not friars, and in monasteries no priest. In truth the friars behave more honestly in their habits, and the priests behave as laymen, except that their lives are more honest. In the fairs priests and friars are all the same, and they are the merchants. Across this church of St. George, towards the east, at the foot of a mountain about a league from this church, there is a monastery on a river, named Paraclitos, which amongst us means Holy Ghost. There will be in it twenty or twenty-five friars, the house is very devout, and so the friars appear to be. When we came there, they gave great thanks to God for their having seen Christians of another country and language who had never come before: they showed us all their affairs. The house of the monastery is vaulted and small, and well painted, its cloisters and cells very well arranged, better than we had yet seen in this country. It has very good vegetable gardens, with many cabbages, garlic, onions, and other species of vegetables, many lemons, limes, citrons, peaches, grapes, figs, common nuts, and figs of India; many tall cypresses, and many other fruit trees and plants. After we had seen all, the friars were at their wits’ end, because it was Saturday, and they could not gather anything to give us, asking us to pardon them, and that they would give us of what they had in the house. Then they gave us dry garlic and lemons; last of all they took us to the refectory, and there gave us to eat boiled cabbage of the day before, hashed and salted, and mixed with garlic, without any other sauce, only boiled with water and salt. They gave us, besides, two rolls, one of wheat, the other of barley, and a jar of the beverage of the country, which they call cana, and it is made of millet. They gave it all with great good will, and we likewise received it in the same manner, giving thanks to God as they did. At a distance of two leagues from this place where we halted, there is a town named Agroo, where the Tigrimahom has a Beteneguz, to which we went on various occasions. Here there is a house of Our Lady, made in a rock, hewn and wrought with the pickaxe, very well constructed, with three naves, and their supports made of the rock itself. The principal chapel, the sacristy, and the altar, all is of the rock itself, and the principal doorway, with its supports, which could not be better if made of pieces. It has not got side doors, because both sides are of hewn rock, or of living rock. It is a beautiful thing, and to be rejoiced at to see, and hear the chaunt in it and the grand tone it gives. Mention of bells may be dispensed with, since they are all of stone, drums and cymbals generally and specially.

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.

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.

Cap. li.—Of the church of Ancona, and how in the kingdom of Angote iron and salt are current for money, and of a monastery which is in a cave.

On the following Wednesday we travelled (not a long way), and began to descend through a large and beautiful valley and lowland, where there were large fields of millet and beans. This vale is named the country of Ancona. At the head of this vale is a very noble church named St. Mary of Ancona (as they say), of great revenues. This church has many canons, and an Alicanate over them. Besides these canons it has many priests and friars. All the large churches here and further on are named King’s churches, all have canons, whom they call Debeteras, and in all an Alicanate, who is like a prior. This church has two small bells, badly made, and they are low down near the ground, and as yet we had not seen any others in all the country that we had gone through. We remained in this town till Thursday, because there is then a great market, which they call gabeja.[86] In this country, and in all the kingdom of Angote, iron is current as money. It is made like a shovel, and this shape is of no advantage for anything, except for making something else with it. Of these pieces of iron, ten, eleven, and sometimes twelve, are worth a drachm, which in our Portugal, or in India, would be worth a cruzado (as has been said). Salt also is current as money, because it is current in all the country: here six or seven blocks of salt are worth one piece of iron. From here there lies almost opposite to the westward, a large country named Abrigima: it is a country of very high mountains, and very cold. On the top of this mountain there is much matting grass,[87] and they say that it is very good. I brought some of it to the Genoese who were with us, and they said that they had never seen so good, and that it was better than that of Alicante. The provisions of these mountains are all barley in the low ground, and wheat in the valleys, the best that can be named among many other good wheats. The flocks, both cows, sheep, and goats, are very small, as in the country of Maia, between Douro and Minho, in Portugal. They call this country Abime raz, it is under Angote raz, which is the kingdom of Angote. This country of Abrigima is six days’ journey in length, and three in breadth. They say that after the country of Aquaxumo became christian with its neighbourhood, this country followed next after it. In this country the Kings had their tribunal, as the Queens had in Aquaxumo. Whilst this country is so sterile, and at first sight sad, there are in it the edifices which I saw. First, in a very high mountain, there is a very great cave, and within it is a handsome monastery, house of Our Lady, named Iconoamelaca,[88] which means: God gives it plenty; and the spot of land is named Acate. The house is not so large, as is its elegance. It has not got large revenues, yet it has a great number of friars and nuns. The friars have their dwelling above the cavern, entirely enclosed, and they go down to the monastery by a single path. The nuns have their dwelling below the cavern, they are not enclosed, they live upon the slope of the mountain. All these friars and nuns dig and prune in this country, and they sow wheat and barley, which they eat, for the monastery gives them little. The affection which they bear to this country, and to the monastery, makes them dwell there. This monastery is inside this cavern, and well built in a cross, well contained in the cave, so that they go freely with their procession round the building. In front of the door of this house there is a wall ten or twelve fathoms long, and as high as the edge of the cave, and between the wall and door of the monastery, for there are no churches within the enclosure of the cave, there is a space of five fathoms, here the nuns stand to hear the offices, and here they receive the communion. This station of the nuns lies to the south, because the church lies east and west, and the station is on the side of the epistle.[89] Above this cave, descending from the mountain, a river runs during the whole year, and the water falls on the right hand of this monastery, near the place where the nuns are, much beyond the wall which shelters them. The friars, even if they were much more numerous than they are, would find room in the cave around the church, although they do not enter it. The monastery, or body of the church, has three doors, that is, one principal, and two side doors, as though it were in the open air, and one is wide. And because I say that it is in the form of a cross, it is in this manner, namely, of the form and size of a monastery of San Frutuoso, which is close to the city of Braga, in the kingdom of Portugal.

Cap. lii.—Of a church of canons who are in another cave in this same lordship, in which lie a Prester John and a Patriarch of Alexandria.

This monastery before mentioned possesses, at two days’ journey to the west, a large and rich church in another cave; according to my judgment three large ships with their masts would find room in this cave. The entrance to it is not larger than to allow two carts with their side rails[90] to enter. Above this cave the mountain continues to rise for quite two leagues. I walked over them, and was near dying in them from the great ascent, and with the great cold there was. God protected me. And I was fastened to a cord, and a strong slave to pull it, who assisted me to ascend, and another behind who drove the mules, because I did not send them in front for fear of their falling upon me. We started before morning, and at midday we had not finished ascending the ground. This church which is in this cave is very large, like a cathedral, with its large naves, very well wrought, and well vaulted: it has three very rich chapels, and well adorned altars. The entrance of this cave is to the east, and the backs of the chapels are that way, and if one goes at the hour of tierce[91] there is no seeing in the church, all the offices are done with lamps. There are in this church (as they say) two hundred canons or debeteras, according to their language; I saw an infinite number, they have not got friars; they have an alicanate, a very noble prior; he is over all of them, as has been said before. They say that it has much revenue. These canons are like well-to-do and honourable men. This church is named Imbra Christus, which means the path of Christ. Entering this cave a man faces the chapels, and on the right hand when one enters are two painted chambers, which belonged to a King who lived in this cave, and who ordered this church to be built. On the epistle side are three honoured sepulchres, and as yet we had not seen others such in Ethiopia. This principally is high, and has five steps all around it. The tombs are in this manner. This tomb is covered with a large cloth of brocade, and velvet of Mekkah, one cloth of one stuff, and another of the other, which on both sides reach the ground. It was covered over, because it was the day of its great festival. They say that this tomb belongs to the King who lived here, whose name was Abraham. And the other two sepulchres are of the same fashion, except that one of them has four steps, and the other three: and all are in the middle of the cave. They say that the largest of these two belongs to a Patriarch of Alexandria, who came to see this King, having heard of his sanctity, and he died here. The smallest and the lowest belongs they say to a daughter of this King. They also say that this King was a mass priest for forty years, and that after he withdrew himself he said mass in this church each day: and this is written in a large and ancient book, which I saw with my eyes and had in my hands, quite like a chronicle or life of this King, and they went over part of it with me during two days that I was there at leisure. Among other miracles which they related of this King, and which they read to me in this book, is that when he wished to celebrate the angels administered to him what was requisite, that is, bread and wine, and this was in those forty years that he was in retreat. In the beginning of this book this King is painted with the state of a priest before the altar, and from a window in the same painting there comes out a hand with a roll and a little pitcher of wine, as though it brought bread and wine; and so it is painted in the principal chapel. (I say that I heard and saw it read in the book.) And besides that the canons told me that the stone of which this church was built had come from Jerusalem, and that it is like the stone of Jerusalem, which is dark and of a fine grain. And going on the mountain above, where my slave led me or assisted me, at the top of the mountain I found an ancient quarry, with great excavations and many pieces of stone, and very large stones with ancient wedges.[92] I looked at these stones with great care, and this stone is of the same colour and grain as that of the church, because I broke off some pieces of it, and examined it well, and knew that it was the same stone, and that the stone for the church had been brought from here, and had not come from Jerusalem as they had told me. It is also written in the said book that during the whole life of this King he had not taken dues from his vassals, and if anyone brought them to him, that he ordered them to be distributed among the poor; and his maintenance was from the great tillage which he used to order to be made. It is also written that to this King it was revealed that there ought not to be any relations of the King in his dominions, that all of them should be shut up, except only the eldest son, the heir, as will be related further on. I saw this church the day of its feast, in order to see that which I had heard of it. There came to it that day fully twenty persons, and all as many as come to it in pilgrimage have to receive the communion. This feast was on a Sunday, and they said mass very quickly, and then they commenced giving the communion at all the three doors of the church, and they finished after nightfall. This I saw because I was at the beginning, and I went away to dinner, and I returned and remained until they finished with torches.

Cap. liii.—Of the great church edifices that there are in the country of Abuxima, which King Lalibela built, and of his tomb in the church of Golgotha.

At a day’s journey from this church of Imbra Christo are edifices, the like of which and so many, cannot, as it appears to me, be found in the world, and they are churches entirely excavated in the rock, very well hewn. The names of these churches are these: Emanuel, St. Saviour, St. Mary, Holy Cross, St. George, Golgotha, Bethlehem, Marcoreos, the Martyrs. The principal one is Lalibela. This Lalibela, they say, was a King in this same country for eighty years, and he was King before the one before mentioned who was named Abraham. This King ordered these edifices to be made. He does not lie in the church which bears his name, he lies in the church of Golgotha, which is the church of the fewest buildings here. It is in this manner: all excavated in the stone itself, a hundred and twenty spans in length, and seventy-two spans in width. The ceiling of this church rests on five supports, two on each side, and one in the centre, like fives of dice, and the ceiling or roof is all flat like the floor of the church, the sides also are worked in a fine fashion, also the windows, and the doors with all the tracery, which could be told, so that neither a jeweller in silver, nor a worker of wax in wax, could do more work. The tomb of this King is in the same manner as that of Santiago of Galicia, at Compostella, and it is in this manner: the gallery which goes round the church is like a cloister, and lower than the body of the church, and one goes down from the church to this gallery; there are three windows on each side, that is to say, at that height which the church is higher than the gallery, and as much as the body of the church extends, so much is excavated below, and to as much depth as there is height above the floor of the church. And if one looks through each of these windows which is opposite the sun, one sees the tomb at the right of the high altar. In the centre of the body of the church is the sign of a door like a trap door, it is covered up with a large stone, like an altar stone, fitting very exactly in that door. They say that this is the entrance to the lower chamber, and that no one enters there, nor does it appear that that stone or door can be raised. This stone has a hole in the centre which pierces it through, its size is three palms.[93] All the pilgrims put their hands into this stone (which hardly find room), and say that many miracles are done here. On the left hand side, when one goes from the principal door before the principal chapel, there is a tomb cut in the same rock as the church, which they say is made after the manner of the sepulchre of Christ in Jerusalem. So they hold it in honour and veneration and reverence, as becomes the memory to which it belongs. In the other part of the church are two great images carved in the wall itself, which remain in a manner separated from it. They showed me these things as though I should be amazed at seeing them. One of the images is of St. Peter, the other of St. John: they give them great reverence. This church also possesses a separate chapel, almost a church; this has naves on six supports, that is, three on each side. This is very well constructed, with much elegance: the middle nave is raised and arched, its windows and doorways are well wrought, that is, the principal door, and one side door, for the other gives entrance to the principal church. This chapel is as broad as it is long, that is, fifty-two spans broad, and as many in length. It has another chapel, very high and small, like a pinnacle,[94] with many windows in the same height: these also have as much width as length, that is, twelve spans. This church and its chapels have their altars and canopies, with their supports, made of the rock itself, it also has a very great circuit cut out of the rock. The circuit is on the same level as the church itself, and is all square: all its walls are pierced with holes the size of the mouth of a barrel. All these holes are stopped up with small stones, and they say that they are tombs, and such they appear to be, because some have been stopped up since a long time, others recently. The entrance of this circuit is below the rock, at a great depth and measure of thirteen spans, all artificially excavated, or worked with the pickaxe, for here there is no digging, because the stone is hard, and for great walls like the Porto in Portugal.

Cap. liv.—Of the fashion of the church of San Salvador, and of other churches which are in the said town, and of the birth of King Lalibela, and the dues of this country.

The church of St. Saviour stands alone, cut out of a rock; it is very large. Its interior is two hundred spans in length, and a hundred and twenty in width. It has five naves, in each one seven square columns; the large one has four, and the walls of the church have as much. The columns are very well worked, with arches which hang down a span below the vaulted roof. The vaulted roofs are very well worked, and of great height, principally the centre one, which is very high. It is of a handsome height; most of the ends are lower, all in proportion. In the principal height of these naves there is much tracery, such as ...,[95] or keystones, or roses, which they put on the vaults, on which they make roses and other graceful works. On the sides it has very pretty windows, with much tracery, long and narrow in the middle. Within and without, these are long, like the loopholes[96] of a wall, narrow without and wide within; these are wide both within and without, and narrow in the middle, with arches and tracery. The principal chapel is very high, and the canopy over the altar is very high, with a support at each corner. All this is made from the rock itself. In the other naves they do not deck the chapels and altars with canopies like the high altar in its grandeur. The principal door has at each side many and large buttresses, and the door commences with very large arches, and goes on narrowing with other arches until they reach a small door, which is not more than nine spans high and four and a half wide. The side doors are in this manner, only that they do not commence with so much width, and they end with the width of the principal door. On the outside part of this church are seven buttresses with arches,[97] which are twelve palms distant from the wall of the church, and from buttress to buttress an arch, and above the church, on these arches, a vault constructed in such manner that if it were built of pieces and soft stone it could not be straighter nor better constructed, nor with more work about it. These arches outside may be about the height of two lances. There is not any variation in the whole of this rock in which this church stands; it all looks like one block of marble. The court or cloister which the church has round it is all worked with the same stone. It is sixty palms wide at each end, and in front of the principal church door quite a hundred palms. Above this church, where it should be roofed, there are on each side nine large arches, like cloisters, which descend from the top to the bottom, to the tombs along the sides,[98] as in the other church. The entrance to this church is by a descent through the rock itself, eighty steps cut artificially in the stone, of a width that ten men can go side by side, and of the height of a lance or more. This entrance has four holes above, which give light to the passage above the edges. From this rock to the enclosure of the church is like a field; there are many houses, and they sow barley in it.

The house or church of Our Lady is not so large as that of St. Saviour, but it is very well constructed. It has three naves, and the centre one is very high, with large loops and roses very ingeniously carved in the rock itself. Each nave has five columns, and upon them their arches and vaults, very high pitched,[99] and well made. It has, besides, a high column in the cross of the transept, on which is placed a canopy which from its fretted work looks as if it were stamped in wax. At the head of each nave there is a chapel, with its altar like those of St. Saviour; only it has, besides, altars at each of the doors, which are of the size and fashion of those of St. Saviour. It has six buttresses on the exterior; two on each side are adhering to the wall, and four are distant from it, and well made arches spring from one to the other of them, and upon them are very well constructed canopies, which are very high and like a portico, over the doors. These canopies are all of one size, as broad as they are long. It has a very high and graceful circuit, and behind, as well as at the sides and in front, all round of the height of the church. This church is eighty spans in length and sixty-four in width. This church, also, has in front of its principal door, made out of the rock itself, a large house, in which they give food to the poor; and the way out of the church is through this house to the outside, or they enter the church through it underneath the rock a good distance. On each side of this church, in front of the side doors, are two churches each at its end. This church of Our Lady is the head of all the other churches of this place. It has an infinite quantity of canons, and the church which is on the side of the epistle is as long and as wide as that of Our Lady. It has three naves, and in each nave three columns well wrought of level work. It has not got more than one chapel, and one altar, made like those of other churches. Its principal door is very well worked; it does not face outwards, but to a corridor below the rock, which comes like a path to the house of Our Lady. This corridor comes from a distance; where it begins they ascend to it by fifteen steps of the rock itself. This is a very dark entrance. On the side towards the church of Our Lady, this church has a very pretty side door and two very elegant windows, and behind and on the other side all hewn rock and very rough, without having any work whatever. This church is called the Martyrs, and the church which is on the gospel side of the church of Our Lady, is called Holy Cross. It is small, it is sixty-eight spans in length, it has not got naves, it has three columns in the middle, which appear to have their tops above (the roof), very well made and vaulted; inside all is smooth work. On the side of Our Lady’s church it has a very handsome side door and two well made windows; it has a single altar, like others; the principal door is well wrought. It has not got a court nor faces outwards, only to a corridor like a path, which goes outside, underneath the rock, very long and very dark.

The church of Emanuel is well wrought, both inside and out, it is small. It is forty-two spans in length inside, and twenty in width. It has three naves, the middle one very high and with domed[100] vaults: the side naves are not vaulted, and are flat underneath, that is, the ceiling is like the floor of the church. These naves are upon five supports: the breadth and thickness of these supports are of four spans from corner to corner, and the wall of the church has four others. It has very well worked doors, both the side and principal doors, and all of the same size, that is to say, nine spans high, and four wide. It is all enclosed; on the outside there is a space[101] of three steps, which go all round it, except at the doors, which each have a wide court, each with five steps above those which surround the church. It is all of the rock itself, without a piece or fault. This church also has what none of the others have, that is, a choir, to which they ascend by a spiral staircase: it is not large, for a tall man with a span more would knock his head against the ceiling, which is flat, like the floor of the church, and so also over the naves and sides, large as they are; they go to small cells by doors from one to another, and from the choir itself doors open to these little rooms or cells. They do not make use of this choir except for keeping there chests of vestments and church ornaments. These chests must have been made inside this choir, because they could not enter by any way, I do not know how they could come in even in pieces. The outside walls of this church, also, have what others have not, that is to say, like tiers of walls, one bends outwards and another turns inwards two inches, another, again, turns outwards and another goes inwards, and so it is from the commencement of the steps to the top of the church; and the tier of stone which goes outwards is two spans wide, and that going inwards one span, and in this fashion and width they cover the whole wall, and reckoning up the spans, this wall is 52 spans high. The church has its circuit cut like a wall outside, and inside of the rock itself, and this wall is entered by three good doors like small gates of a city or walled town.

The church of St. George is a good bit lower down than the others, almost separated from the place; it is in the rock, like the others. The entrance to it is under the rock or cliff: there are eight steps to ascend, and when they are ascended one enters into a large house, with a bench which goes all round it on the inside, for outside it is rough rock. In this house alms are given to the poor, who seat themselves on these benches. Entering from this house one comes at once to the church circuit, which is made in the form of a cross. The church also is in the form of a cross, and the distance from the principal door to the chancel is the same as that from one side door to the other, all of one compass. The doors are very well worked outside. I did not go inside, as it was locked. In the circuit of the church, entering from outside, to the right hand, for it is all rough rock, without more than one entrance, there is, at the height of a man or a little more, placed in the wall, a kind of ark full of water. They go up to it by steps; and they say that this water springs there, but it does not flow out: they carry it away for intermittent fevers, and say that it is good for them. All this enclosure is full of tombs, like the other churches. On the top of this church is a large double cross, that is, one within the other, like the crosses of the order of Christ. Outside the circuit the rock is higher than the church, and on this rock are cypresses and wild olive trees. It wearied me to write more of these works, because it seems to me that they will not believe me if I write more, and because as to what I have already written they may accuse me of untruth, therefore I swear by God, in whose power I am, that all that is written is the truth, and there is much more than what I have written, and I have left it that they may not tax me with its being falsehood. And because no other Portuguese went to these works except myself, and I went twice to see them from what I had heard of them. This place is on a slope of the mountain, and from the peak of the mountain to this is a day and a half’s journey of descent. This slope or mountain seems to be quite separate from the other mountain, yet it is subject to it, and from this town to the bottom there is still a great descent, and at the end of it a view over four or five leagues, and many great plains which they say are two days’ journey distant. (It seemed to me that one could go in one.) They say that there are in these plains other such edifices as those of Aquaxumo, such as stone chairs and other buildings, and that the residences of the Kings were there, like the other buildings of the Queens, and this is in the direction of the Nile. I did not go there, and I relate on hearsay a thing at which I was more amazed. They told me that the works of these churches were done in twenty-four years, and that this is written, and that they were done by Gibetas, that is, white men, for they well know that they do not know how to do any well executed work. They say that King Lalibela ordered this to be done; this name of Lalibela means miracle. They say that he took, or that they gave him, this name, because when he was born he was covered with bees, and that the bees cleaned him without doing him any hurt. They also say that he was not the son of the King, but son of a sister of the King, and that the King died without having a son, and the nephew, the sister’s son, inherited the kingdom. They say that he was a saint, and that he did many miracles, and so there is much pilgrimage to this place.

This lordship of Abrigima was given by the Prester John, before our departure, to the ambassador whom he sends to Portugal; and as I say that I came twice to see these churches and edifices, the second time that I came to see them I came with the ambassador, who came to take possession of his lordship. And whilst we were thus going about the country there came to us two calaces, which means messengers or word from the King: these calaces said to the ambassador who was taking the lordship of Abrigima, that the Prester John sent to tell him to send him the gibir, that is to say, the dues which were owing by his predecessor, for he did not owe anything yet, as he was then taking possession. And what they said was owing was this, namely, a hundred and fifty plough oxen, thirty dogs, thirty assagays, and thirty shields. The new captain gave for answer that he would at once send to know what property was belonging to his predecessor, and that he would pay out of it. In this manner they paid in these kingdoms, as in other places. I have said that those towards Egypt and Arabia pay horses and silks, and so the other lands and lordships pay each their own produce, according to their quality and breed.

Cap. lv.—How we departed from Ancona, and went to Ingabelu, and how we returned to seek the baggage.

We departed from the church and fair of Ancona, and having gone a distance of three leagues we reached some villages with all the goods; in these they would not receive us nor carry our baggage, saying that these villages belonged to the mother of Prester John, and that they did not obey any one except her. And they desired to beat the friar who conducted us, and they did give a beating to one of his men. We left the baggage here, and went to sleep at a large town of good houses named Ingabelu. Its situation is on a hill in the midst of extensive cultivated lands between very high mountains, the skirts of which are studded with an infinite number of towns, the largest number and the greatest that we had yet seen: it seems to me that these towns exceed a hundred. This town has pretty rivers on each side of it. They were building here a pretty church of masonry, of good workmanship; and that it may not appear to be a lie that so many towns could be seen from this Ingabelu, I say that all were not in sight from there, but we saw them from the mountains by which we passed. Those which might be furthest off from this town would be a league and a half. We found in this town an infinite quantity of fowls, which, if not in a hurry,[102] could be bought a hundred, if one wanted so many, in exchange for a little pepper. In this place there are many lemons and citrons: we remained here Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday night the tigers sprung into the town, and fell in with a boy and carried him off. From that place they attacked a large farm where we were lodging, and there broke loose from us a mule and an ass, which already once before had escaped at the river of Sabalete: they got away from the farm house, the mule jumped into a cow yard and so escaped, and the ass was devoured. On the morning of Monday the 11th day of September, we set out from the said town, turning back to where the baggage had remained, and on the road we met many people, half peacably inclined, the other half hostile (these were they who would not receive the baggage), and their arms were cudgels; they received us with welcome, and we did likewise to them, and that night we slept in their town, and they made amends for the past, for they gave us very good food. On the following day we set out on our road, a distance of two leagues or three, and again slept without our goods. On the Thursday we turned back again in search of it, and when we found it we still travelled straight on a good three leagues, all of it crossing mountains and passing valleys as before, and the whole of it seemed to be mountains. This Kingdom of Angote is almost all of it valleys and mountains, and the tilled land has little wheat and little barley, yet it gives much millet, taffo, and dagusha, pulse, peas, lentils, beans, many figs, garlic, and onions, and great abundance of all vegetables. Iron is current as money in this country, as has been said.

Cap. lvi.—How the ambassador separated from the friar, and how those of us who remained with the friar were stoned, and some captured, and how the ambassador returned, and we were invited by the Angote raz, and went with him to church, and of the questions he asked, and dinner he gave us.

On Thursday the 14th of the said month of September our baggage went and stopped at a dry river without any water at all, and it was about a league from where the Angote raz was staying: he is the lord of this Kingdom of Angote. And because it was a dry land, and because the ambassador had no inclination to speak to the Ras of Angote, because we had no need of him, he went on before the baggage a distance of a league and a half, and some of us went on with him, and others remained with the friar and the baggage. The friar told us that we should go with him to a village about a league on one side of the road, and the baggage remained on the road with the country people who carried it. As we were travelling, before we arrived at the village, people of the country shouted, and we thought that they were calling people to bring our baggage. But they collected together to shake us, and they took possession of three hills, and we remained in the hollows. On each hill there were quite a hundred men, most of them with slings, and others with their hands threw stones so thickly that they seemed to rain upon us (well did we think of our deaths). There might be in the company of the friar quite forty persons, that is, captains who accompanied him, and his men, and our slaves. There was not one without a blow of a stone, or a wound; I, and a young man who went with us, named Cafu, and who was sick with sores, God was pleased to protect us that we received no stones: but five or six men of the friar, and a captain of Angote, came out with broken heads, and Mestre Joam the same. Not satisfied with wounding, they took prisoners those who were most wounded, and we, those who escaped, returned to sleep at the baggage, without supper. Each one cried out for the bruises from the stones he had received, except myself and the young man of the sores. Friday, in the morning, I set out in search of the ambassador, who was gone on a league and a half. On reaching him they at once got ready; when I related to him the case which had happened to us, he hurried the saddling, mounting, and departure, saying that he would die for the Portuguese. When he and those that came with him arrived at the baggage, we found there the Ras of Angote, who had come to us, and had brought with him a good number of people. When we came up to where he was, the friar who conducted us was with him, the ambassador said to the interpreter: “Tell the Ras of Angote that I do not come to see him nor that friar who is with him, but I come to seek for the Portuguese whom I have lost in his country.” Whilst the battle was being related, Mestre Joam arrived, who had remained wounded and a prisoner, he was much covered with blood, and had large wounds on the head, and he said that he had escaped. When a long conversation was ended, which the ambassador, and the Ras of Angote, and the friar, held upon this affair, the Has of Angote entreated the ambassador that he and I, and our company, should come and stay Saturday and Sunday in his house. The ambassador having consulted with all of us, and it seeming to us good to accede to his entreaty, he granted him the going, and we all went with him, and it might be a league and a half from where we were to his house: and he ordered us to be lodged very well. Here we kept Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday he sent to call us; we came and found him on his dais, his wife and a few people with him: we had no detention on entering, only what takes place in the house of any man. The pomp, presentation, and welcome all consisted in drinking. He had near him four large jars of very good mead, and with each jar a cup of crystalline glass. We began to drink, and his wife and two other women who were with her assisted as well. They would not leave us until the jars were finished, and such is their custom; each jar held six or seven canadas, and yet he ordered more to be brought. We left him with good excuses, saying we were going away for our necessities.

The following Sunday we went to the church, and there we found the Ras of Angote, who came out to receive us with much good grace. Then he began to talk to me about matters of our holy faith; he asked to bring apart with me two friars and our interpreter, and the friar who conducted us as a third person; and they asked me common-place questions.[103] The first was: Where Jesus Christ was born; what road he took to Egypt, and how many years he passed there, and how old he was when his mother, our Lady, lost him, and found him in the temple; and where he made the water into wine, and who was there; on what beast he had ridden into Jerusalem; in what house he had supped in Jerusalem, and if he had a house of his own there, and who washed his feet; and what Peter meant, and what Paul meant. Our Lord was pleased to assist me, that I answered them truly. Our interpreter told me that the friar who conducted us, and was there as a third person, told the others that I was a man who knew much. May God forgive him, but there was little for me to forget. By reason of what this friar thus said, they perforce kissed my feet. From what these friars said of me to the Ras of Angote, he received me with much good will, and kissed my face. This gentleman, who is now Ras of Angote, is one of the good priests that there are in Ethiopia, and at the time of our departure was Barnagais and in gospel orders, who may say mass. At the end of mass he invited us to come and dine with him, which dinner we accepted, and the ambassador ordered our dinner to be taken in as it was; there were very fat roast fowls, and fat beef boiled with good cabbage: and the ambassador ordered this to be taken in because their meals are not like ours. The dinner was in this manner—it should be known how it is in a great house of one story, which is a Beteneguz: before the raised seat, on which he was seated, there were many mats spread out; he descended from the seat, and sat down on the mats, and over the mats they had put dark sheep skins, and upon them two trays for cleaning wheat, which they call ganetas; these were large and handsome, and very low, they have only a rim of two inches; the largest of these had sixteen spans circumference, and the other fourteen. These are the tables of the great lords. We all sat round with the Ras of Angote: the water came, and we washed, but no towel came to clean our hands, neither for putting bread upon, except it was put upon the ganetas (trays) themselves; there came bread of different kinds, namely, of wheat, barley, millet, pulse, and taffo. Before we began to eat, the Ras of Angote ordered to be placed before him rolls of that inferior bread, and upon each roll a piece of raw beef, and so he ordered it to be given to the poor who were outside the gate waiting for alms. Upon this we pronounced the blessing according to our usage, at which the Ras of Angote showed much satisfaction. Then came the dainties, and they were these, namely, three sauces or potages, which might well be called sauce of Palmela,[104] one of clove of garlic, and another I know not of what. In these potages there was an admixture of cow dung and of gall, which in this country they consider an esteemed food; and only great personages eat it. These sauces came in small sauce dishes, of a dark clay, and were well made. They put into this sauce the most inferior bread, broken very small, and butter with it. We would not eat of these potages, and the ambassador ordered our victuals to be brought, which he had very well cooked, because we could not eat their viands, neither did they eat ours. The wine was passed round freely.[105] The wife of the Ras of Angote ate close to us, with a curtain betwixt, at a table like ours. She ate her own viands; they also gave her some of ours, I do not know whether she ate them, because the curtain was between her and us. In drinking, she assisted us well. After all the dainties there came a raw breast of beef, and we did not taste it: the Ras of Angote ate some of it, like a person eating cake or other dainties for dessert. So we came to an end of the dinner, and thanks be to God, and we went away to our lodging.

Cap. lvii.—How the ambassador took leave of the Ras of Angote, and the friar, with most of us, returned to the place where we were stoned, and from there we went to a fertile country, and a church of many canons.

On Monday morning we took leave of the Has of Angote, and the friar who conducted and guided us must needs have us wait for a mule of the Prester John, and an ass with certain baggage, which they had taken from us in the rout of the stone throwing. The ambassador departed with those who had been with him before, and we remained with the friar who had been with him in the hail of stones. On this Monday, near nightfall, they came with the said mule and the ass which had remained there, and the friar at once said that we should start, and that we could still go and sleep where the ambassador was. As it seemed to us it might be so we made ready and departed whilst night was closing in, thinking that we should keep to the road; and he goes and takes us through some bushes, and takes us to where we were stoned, and said he was going to do justice; and there were eight men on mules and fifteen on foot going with us. We went to lodge for the night in the house of one of those chief men who had stoned us, and we found the house and the whole village without people in it. They were all in a mountain which was above the village. We found plenty to eat for ourselves and our mules. As soon as we were in the house those men who came with us left us: certainly we were not without fear, and complained of the friar because he was bringing us to be killed, and because he did not take us on our road. He told us that we came to do justice, and that in the morning we would depart. When morning came he said that we could not go till midday. When we saw this we waited till midday, and when it was midday we required him to start, then he said that we could not go till next day. Seeing these delays, we started and left him. This same day, however, we rejoined the baggage, because it was waiting for us. In the night the friar reached us, because he did not dare to sleep alone among those people who had stoned us, and he brought with him two mules, a cow, and eight pieces of stuff, which they gave him for the blood they had shed. This is their justice, and no other, namely, to take away the goods, which are only mules, cows, and stuffs, from those who can do little. These villages where they stoned us are named, one Angua, and another Mastanho: they said they belonged to the Abima Marcos.

Here we entered into a very pretty country between very high mountains, the feet of which were very thickly peopled with large towns and noble churches. This country is laid out in large tillage fields of all sorts. Here there is an infinite quantity of figs, those of India, many lemons, oranges, and citrons, and extensive pastures of cattle. And on another occasion when I returned here with this friar, who then called himself an ambassador, we came and stayed a Saturday and a Sunday in the house of an honourable debetera, that is, canon, and these two days we went with him to the church: because there were a great number of canons in that church, we asked him how many there might be in it. He told us that there were five thousand three hundred canons, and we asked what revenues they had. He said that they were very little for so many; and we said, since the revenues are so small, why were there so many canons. He told us that at the beginning of that church there were not many, but that afterwards they had increased, because all the sons of canons, and as many as descended from them, remained canons, and the fathers each taught their sons, and so they had been increased in number, and that this happened in the King’s churches, and that frequently Prester John diminished them, when he set up a church in a new country, and sent to fetch canons from these churches, as he had ordered two hundred canons to be taken away to the church of Machan Celace,[106] and that in this valley there were eight churches, and there would be in them fully four thousand canons, and that the Prester took canons from here for the new churches, and also for the churches at court, because otherwise they would eat one another up.

Cap. lviii.—Of the mountain in which they put the sons of the Prester John, and how they stoned us near it.

The above mentioned valley reaches to the mountain where they put the sons of the Prester John. These are like banished men; as it was revealed to King Abraham, before spoken of, to whom the angels for forty years administered bread and wine for the sacrament, that all his sons should be shut up in a mountain, and that none should remain except the first born, the heir, and that this should be done for ever to all the sons of the Prester of the country, and his successors: because if this was not so done there would be great difficulty in the country, on account of its greatness, and they would rise up and seize parts of it, and would not obey the heir, and would kill him. He being frightened at such a revelation, and reflecting where such a mountain could be found, it was again told him in revelation to order his country to be searched, and to look at the highest mountains, and that mountain on which they saw wild goats on the rocks, looking as if they were going to fall below, was the mountain on which the princes were to be shut up. He ordered it to be done as it had been revealed to him, and they found this mountain, which stands above this valley, to be the one which the revelation mentioned, round the foot of which a man has to go a journey of two days; and it is of this kind: a rock cut like a wall, straight from the top to the bottom; a man going at the foot of it and looking upwards, it seems that the sky rests upon it. They say that it has three entrances or gates, in three places, and no more; I saw one of these here in this country, and I saw it in this manner. We were going from the sea to the court, and a young man, a servant of the Prester, whom they call a calacem, was guiding us, and he did not know the country well; and we wished to lodge in a town, and they would not receive us; this belonged to a sister of Prester John. The night had not yet advanced much, and he began travelling, telling us to follow him, and that he would get us lodgings. And because he travelled fast on a mule, and on a small path, I told one Lopo da Gama to ride in sight of the calacem, and that I would keep him in sight, and the ambassador and the other people would ride in sight of me. And the night closed in when we were quite a league from the road towards the mountain of the princes, and there came forth from all the villages so many people throwing stones at us, that they were near killing us, and they made us disperse in three or four directions. The ambassador had remained in the rear, and he turned back, and others who were about in the middle of the party started off in another direction; and some one there was who dismounted from his mule and fled in panic.[107] Lopo da Gama and I could not turn back, so we went forward and reached another town, which was still better prepared, on account of the noise which they heard behind in the other towns. Here many stones rained upon us, and the darkness was like having no eyes. In order that they might not throw stones at me by hearing the mule’s steps, I dismounted and gave the mule to my slave. God was pleased that an honourable man came up to me, and asked me who I was. I told him that I was a gaxia neguz, that is to say, a king’s stranger. This man was very tall, and I say honourable, because he treated me well; and he took my head under his arm, for I did not reach any higher, and so he conducted me like the bellows of a bagpipe player, saying, Atefra, atefra, which means “Do not be afraid, do not be afraid.” He took me with the mule and the slave, until he brought me into a vegetable garden which surrounded his house. Inside this garden he had a quantity of poles stuck up one against another, and in the midst of these poles he had a clean resting place like a hut, into which he put me. As it seemed to me that I was in safety, I ordered a light to be lit; and when they saw the light they rained stones on the hut, and when I put out the light the stone throwing ceased. The host, as soon as he left me, returned at the noise, and then remained an hour without coming. Whilst he was away, Lopo da Gama heard me, and broke through the bushes,[108] and came to me. On this the host came and said, “Be quiet, do not be afraid,” and ordered a candle to be lit, and to kill two fowls; and he gave us bread and wine and a hospitable welcome, according to his power. Next day, in the morning, the host took me by the hand and led me to his house, as far as a game of ball, where there were many trees of an inferior kind, and very thick, by which it was concealed as by a wall; and between them was a door, which was locked; and before this door was an ascent to the cliff. This host said to me: “Look here; if any of you were to pass inside this door, there would be nothing for it but to cut off his feet and his hands, and put out his eyes, and leave him lying there; and you must not put the blame on those who would do this, neither would you be in fault, but those who brought you hither: we, if we did not do this, we should pay with our lives, because we are the guardians of this door.” Lopo da Gama, I, and the calacem then at once mounted and rode down to the road, which was below us, a good league off, and we found that none of our party had passed by; and vespers were over, and yet we had not come together.

Cap. lix.—Of the greatness of the mountain in which they put the sons of Prester John, and of its guards, and how his kingdoms are inherited.

The manner they have of shutting up these sons of the kings. Until this King David Prester John, all had five or six wives, and they had sons of them or of most of them. By the death of the Prester, the eldest born inherited; others say that he who appeared to the Prester the most apt, and of most judgment, inherited: others say that he inherited who had the most adherents. Of this matter I will say what I know by hearing it from many. The King Alexander, the uncle of this David, died without a son, and he had daughters, and they went to the mountain and brought out from it Nahu his brother, who was father of this David. This Nahu brought with him from the mountain a legitimate son, who was, they say, a handsome youth, and a good gentleman, but of a strong temper. After that Nahu was in the kingdoms, he had other wives, of whom he had sons and daughters, and at his death they wished to make king that eldest son who had come from the mountain with his father; and some said that he was strong in temper, and would ill-treat the people. Others said that he could not inherit because he had been born as in captivity, and outside of the inheritance. So they set up as king this David who now reigns, and who at that time was a boy of eleven years of age. The Abima Martos told me that he and the Queen Helena made him king, because they had all the great men in their hands. Thus it appears to me, that beyond primogeniture, adherence enters into the question. Other sons of Nahu, who were infants, remained with the eldest who had come from the mountain with his father, and they took them all back to the said mountain, and so they do with all the sons of the Prester from the time of that King Abraham until now. They say that this mountain is cold and extensive, and they also say that the top of it is round, and that it takes fifteen days to go round it;[109] and it seems to me that may be so, because on this side, where our road lay, we travelled at the foot of it for two days; and so it reaches to the kingdoms of Amara and of Bogrimidi, which is on the Nile, and a long way from here. They say that there are on the top of this mountain yet other mountains which are very high and contain valleys: and they say that there is a valley there between two very steep mountains, and that it is by no means possible to get out of it, because it is closed by two gates, and that in this valley they place those who are nearest to the king, that is to say, those who are still of his own blood, and who have been there a short time, because they keep them with more precaution. Those who are sons of sons, and grandsons, and already almost forgotten are not so much watched over. Withal, this mountain is generally guarded by great guards, and great captains; and a quarter of the people who usually live at the court are of the guards of this mountain and their captains. These captains and guards of the mountain who are at court, lodge apart by themselves, and no one approaches them, nor do they go near others, so that no one may have an opportunity of learning the secrets of the mountain. And when they approach the door of the Prester, and he has to receive a message or speak to them, they make all the people go away, and all other affairs cease whilst they are speaking of this.

Cap. lx.—Of the punishment that was given to a friar, and also to some guards, for a message which he brought from some princes to the Prester; and how a brother of the Prester and his uncle fled, and of the manner in which they dealt with them.

With regard to the matter of these princes, I saw this: they brought here a friar who was about thirty years old, and with him quite two hundred men. They said that this friar had brought a letter to the Prester John from one of the princes of the mountain, and these two hundred men were guards of the same mountain. They flogged this friar every two days, and they also flogged these men, distributing them in two parties. On the day they flogged the friar, they flogged half of the guards, and they always began with the friar, then all the others were always in sight of one another, and each time they put questions to the friar, who gave him that letter, for whom, and if he had brought more letters, and what monastery he belonged to, and where he had become a friar, and where he had been ordained for mass? The wretched friar said that it was sixteen years since he had come out of the mountain, and that they had then given him that letter, and that he had never returned there, nor had dared to give the letter except now; that sin had caught him (and this might be the truth, because in this country they are not accustomed to put in a letter the year, nor the month, nor the day). To the guards they did not put any other question, except how had they let this friar get out. The manner of flogging is this: they throw the man on his stomach, and fasten his hands to two stakes, and a rope to both feet, and two men both pulling at the rope; there are also two as executioners to strike one at one side and the other at the other; and they do not always strike the flogged man, many blows fall on the ground, because if they hit him every time, he would die there, so severe is the flogging, and of this company I saw a man taken away from the flogging, and before they could cover him with a cloth he died. Immediately they informed the Prester John of it, because these justices are done before his tents, and he ordered the dead man to be taken back to where he had been flogged, and those who were to be flogged afterwards he ordered to put their heads on the feet of the dead man. This justice lasted two weeks, for this regularity of flogging the friar every two days never ceased, and half the guards after him; except Saturdays and Sundays, on which days justice was not done. It was the common fame and report through all the court that this friar had brought letters to the Portuguese from the princes of the mountain that we might take them out of it, and we were innocent of this, and I believe the friar was in the same case.

But in the days and time that we were there, a brother of the Prester John, a youth (as they said) of sixteen years of age, fled from the mountain, and came to the house of his mother, a queen, who had been wife of Prester John, and on account of the pain of death that here falls on whoever takes in a prince from the mountain, the mother would not take in her son, but had him arrested and taken to Prester John.[110] They said that he asked his brother why he fled, and that he answered that he was dying of hunger, and that he had not come except for the purpose of relating this to him, since no one would bring this message to him. They said that the Prester John dressed him richly, and gave him much gold, and silk stuffs, and ordered him to return to the mountain. They also said generally in this court that he only fled in order to go away with the Portuguese. With regard to this individual who thus fled and was sent back to the mountain, when we, and this ambassador who is going to Portugal, were at Lalibela, where the rock churches are, and he was going to take possession of the lordship of Abrigima, which Prester John gave him, there came that way a calacem with many people, and he brought as a prisoner this brother of the Prester; and he and his mule were covered with dark cloths, so that nothing of him appeared, and the mule only showed its eyes and ears. The messengers said that this man had run away in the habits of a friar in company with a friar, and that this friar, his companion, had discovered him the day on which they left the lands of Prester John, and had caused him to be arrested, and so the friar himself brought him a prisoner. They did not allow any person to approach or speak to this brother of Prester John, except two men, who went close to the mule. Everybody said that he would die, or that they would put out his eyes. I do not know what became of him. Of another we heard say (and he is still alive) that he had attempted to fly from the mountain, and that in order to get away he had made himself into a bush, that is, covered himself with many boughs; and some cultivators who were at their tillage saw the said bush move, and went to see what it was, and finding a man they took him prisoner, and the guards, as soon as they had him in their power, put out his eyes. They say that he is still alive, and that he is an uncle of this Prester John. They relate that there are in this mountain a great multitude of these people, and they call them Ifflaquitas, or sons of this Israel, or sons of David, like the Prester John, because all are of one race and blood. There are in this country (as they say) many churches, monasteries, priests, and friars.[111]

Cap. lxi.—In what estimation the relations of the Prester are held, and of the different method which this David wishes to pursue with his sons, and of the great provisions applied to the mountain.

In this country Prester John has no relation of his own, because those on the mother’s side are not held or reckoned or named as relations; and those on the father’s side are shut up and held to be dead, and although they marry and have children, as they say that they have an infinite number of sons and daughters, yet none of them ever comes out of the mountain, except, as has been mentioned before, if the Prester dies without an heir, then they bring out from it his nearest relation, and the most fit and proper. It is said that some women go out to be married outside, and they are not held to be relations, nor daughters nor sisters of the Prester, although they are so: they are honoured so long as their father or brother lives, and as soon as these die they are like any other ladies. I saw, and we all saw, at the court, a lady who was daughter of an uncle of this Prester, and although she still went about with an umbrella,[112] she was much neglected. We knew a son of hers who was as ill-treated as any servant, so that in a short time his lineage died and remained without any mention of being related to the king. This King David Prester who now reigns, had at our departure two sons; they said that he gave them large settled estates or dotations[113] of large revenues assigned to them. They showed to me in what part one of them had extensive lands. But the general voice was that as soon as the father should close his eyes, and that one of them should be made king, that the others would go to the mountain like their predecessors, without taking anything with them except their bodies. I also heard say that the third part of the expenses of the Prester were made for these princes and Ifflaquitas, and that this Prester dealt better with them than his predecessor had ever done; and that, beside the large revenues which were appropriated to them, he sent them much gold and silks and other fine cloths, and much salt, which in these kingdoms is current as money. And when we arrived and gave him much pepper, we learned for certain that he sent them the half of it; and he sent word to them to rejoice that the King of Portugal, his father, had ordered a visit to be paid to him, and had sent him that pepper. We also knew for certain, and by seeing it in many parts, that Prester John has in most of his kingdoms large tillages and lands, like the King’s lands[114] in our parts. These lands, or king’s patrimony, are ploughed and sown by his slaves, with his own oxen. These have their provisions and clothes from the king, and they are more free than any other people, and they are married, and they proceed originally[115] from slaves, and they intermarry. Of all the tillage that is near the mountain, most of it goes there, and the rest to monasteries, churches, poor people, and principally to poor and old gentlemen who once have held lordships and no longer hold them: and he twice ordered some of this bread to be given to us Portuguese, that is to say, once in Aquaxumo five hundred loads, and another time another five hundred in Aquate, and of this tillage he has nothing for himself, neither is any of it sold, and all is spent and given, as has been said.

Cap. lxii.—Of the end of the kingdom of Angote, and beginning of the kingdom of Amara[116], and of a lake and the things there are in it, and how the friar wished to take the ambassador to a mountain, and how we went to Acel, and of its abundance.

We return to our journey and road[117]. We went along the mountains and by a river, and above it a very pretty country, with much millet and other grains of the country, and yet they had not wheat. There was much population on the skirts of the mountains on either side of the river, and coming to the end of the valley, we left the river, and began to find a country of thickets and stones: not mountainous, but of small valleys, and other lands of much wheat, barley, and the other vegetables which the country produces. Here the kingdom of Augote ends, and the kingdom of Amara begins. Here towards the East, and in the kingdom of Amara, there is a great lake where we halted, and this lake or lagoon is quite three leagues long, and more than a league wide. This lake has in the middle a small island, on which is a monastery of St. Stephen with many friars. This monastery has many lemons, oranges, and citrons. They go to and from this monastery with a boat of reeds, with four large calabashes,[118] because they do not know how to build boats. These which I call reeds are bulrushes[119] with which they make mats in Portugal. This boat or ferrying is conducted in this manner: they take four pieces of wood and place them around those bulrushes, which are well arranged, and other four planks upon the bulrushes at right angles to the others, and they separate them well, and at each corner they place a great calabash, and so pass over on it. This lake does not run except in winter with the excess of water: they say that it pours out at two ends. There are in this lake very large animals which they call in this country gomaras;[120] they say that they are sea horses. There is also a fish, properly a conger, and it is very large. It has the ugliest head that could be described, and formed like a large toad, and the skin on its head looks like the skin of dog-fish:[121] the body is very smooth like the conger, and it is the fattest and most savoury fish that could be found in the world. This lake has large villages all round, and all of them come down to the water. It is said that there are round this lake fifteen Shumats or captaincies, all within a space of two or three leagues. There are around good lands of wheat and barley. Of these lakes we saw many in this country, and this is the largest I saw.

From here we travelled quite four leagues through bushes and muddy places, a country of much millet, and well watered. At the end of the journey and much overtired, the friar wished to take the ambassador to some very high mountains to halt and sleep. The ambassador answered him, that he had not come to go all round countries, but to travel by straight roads; and that with regard to food, that he brought enough to buy it, either with gold or silver, or pepper, and cloths of the King of Portugal, which his captain-major had given us, and that on the roads where we halted outside the towns they brought us provisions, if he, the friar, did not take them by force from those that brought them, and from fear of him they did not bring them. We remained on the road halted in the open air, and the friar with his men went up the mountain; and at midnight he sent us bread and wine. Friday we set out from the place where we slept thus, and the friar did not come nor any message from him, nor people for the baggage, When we had gone the distance of a league, a servant of the friar reached us, and said that we should not go beyond the first town which was a good one for halting at Saturday and Sunday: and this we did. As soon as we arrived at this first town, and saw that it was good, we did not wish to pass it. This town is named the Acel; it is situated on a small hill between two rivers and is good land, there were here many millet fields, and all other grain crops and wheat. It is a very good town, and they hold a great fair in it. Beyond one of the rivers there is a large town of Moors, rich with great trade of slaves, silks and all other kinds of merchandise. It is like the town of Manadeley in the territory of Tigrimahom. The Moors of this place also say that they pay to the Prester very heavy tribute like the others. Here there is great intercourse between the Christians and Moors, because the Christians and Christian women carry water to the Moors and wash their clothes. The Christian women go to the town of the Moors, which is separate and alone, from which we formed a bad opinion. We stayed Saturday and Sunday in a field at the foot of the town, where our people were all night with their lances, keeping off the tigers which fought with us energetically, that is to say, with the mules, and our people did not sleep all night. Here there were disputes between Jorge d’Abreu and the ambassador about a very small matter.

On Monday we travelled over flat country between mountains which were very populous and much cultivated, for a distance of two leagues. We ascended a very high mountain without cliffs or stones or bushes, all taken advantage of for tillage; and on the summit of this mountain we passed our midday rest, separated from one another, on account of the quarrels which had taken place in Acel, at the foot of some small bushes. From this place one could see much land at a great distance; there sat down with me ten or twelve respectable men, and the interpreter, was with us, and the talk was about the height of this mountain on which we were, and of the many countries we saw. They showed me the mountain where the princes were, and which I have mentioned before; it seemed to be three or four leagues from here: its scarped rock, like that further back, ran to such a length towards the Nile, that we could not sight the end of it. And the mountain where we were was so high that that of the princes seemed to be commanded by it. Here they related to me more fully the numerous guards and restrictions over these princes, and the great abundance they had of provisions and clothes. And because from here one could discern a very extensive view as far as the eyes could see towards the West, I asked what countries went in that direction, and if they all belonged to Prester John. They told me that for a month’s journey in that direction were the dominions of the Prester; after that, one entered mountains and deserts, and after them very wretched people, very black and very bad. In his opinion, these lasted for a distance of fifteen days’ journey, and when these were finished, there appeared white Moors of the kingdom of Tunis. (And I am not surprised, because it is from Tunis that the Kafilas come to Cairo and to this country of the Prester.) They bring white burnooses, but not good ones, and other merchandise. They also told me that on this mountain was divided the country of the millet from that of the wheat, and that further on we should not find more millet, but wheat and barley.

Cap. lxiii.—How we came to another lake, and from there to the church of Macham Celacem, and how they did not let us enter it.

Here we travelled for three leagues on level roads, always on this mountain height, all through fields of wheat and thin barley. We met with another lake like the former one, although not so large, and yet it was about a league in length, and half a league in breadth. This lake has a small stream flowing out of it, and no water entering it except that from the hills when it rains. It seems to be of great depth, surrounded by strong rushes. We went to sleep in a great field of grass, where the mosquitoes were near killing us. These fields are not taken advantage of except for pasture, as they are rather marshy, and the people do not know how to draw off the water at the feet of the mountains from the tilled lands. There were many and large towns, and much tillage of wheat and barley. From here we took our road through very large valleys, and yet they had very poor cultivation of wheat and barley; some were yellow, as though dying from the water, and others which were dying of drought, and so we were confused with the perishing of these crops. We began to enter here into a country where by day there was great heat, and at night great cold. In this country ordinary men wear round them a strip of ox-hide; these ordinary persons are nearly all of them, and very few are the special ones: and the women likewise wear a cloth a little bit bigger than that of the men, and here cover what they can of what God has given them; the rest shows. The women wear their hair in two parts or in two lengths; with the one the hair comes down to the shoulders, with the other it is brought over the ears to the top of the head. They say that these lands belong to the Prester’s trumpeters. A little apart from the road there is on the right hand side a large grove at the foot of a mountain, and there there is a large church of many canons; it is said that it was built by a king who lies there. Passing through great mountain ranges this day, we went to sleep outside of all of them at the entrance of some beautiful plains. On the 26th of September in the morning we travelled through these plains a distance of a league; we arrived at a very large church, which is named Macham[122] Selasem which means the Trinity. We came later to this church with the Prester John to transfer there the bones of his father. This church is surrounded by two enclosures, one of a well built high wall, and another of palisades of strong wood. This which is of palisades is outside, and of the circumference of half a league. We were going very joyfully to see this church which the friar vaunted very much, and we slept here to carry out our desire, but we did not see it because they did not let us enter, and it was in this way. When we were a good crossbow shot from the stockade enclosure, there came to us men in great haste telling us to dismount; this we did at once, knowing that it is their custom to dismount when they are near churches, and out of reverence for this which is a great one, it appeared to us that they dismounted further off. Going on foot and arriving close to the door of the wooden enclosure, there were there a great many men who would not let us go in. Not only us, but also the friar who brought us, for they put their hands on his breast, saying that they had not leave to let us come in. It did not avail us to say that we were Christians, the tumult was so great, that it almost came to a fight. We went away from them, and mounted and went our way: and when we were already a good way from the church, they came running after us, asking us to turn back, and that they would let us enter, as they now had got leave. Then we did not choose to turn back, so this time we did not see the church or its construction. The plain in which this church stands and its situation are as follows: its enclosures are on an open hill, and all round is a plain; on one side it is a league in extent, in another direction the plain extends two leagues, in another three, and in another direction below, which is towards the south, four or five leagues: it is a wonderful country, there is not a span that is not made use of, and sown with all sorts of seed, except millet, which they have not got. This plain has fresh crops all the year round, one gathered in and another sown. At the back of this church runs a pretty river, open and without any trees, and water comes from it to irrigate a great part of the tilled lands. Other conduits of water descend from the mountains, so that these fields are all irrigated. In these plains there are many large houses standing apart, like farm houses, and there are small villages, and in them churches, because, though there is a king’s church, the cultivators are not deprived of churches.

Cap. lxiv.—How the Presters endowed this kingdom with churches, and how we went to the village of Abra, and from there to some great dykes.

We continued our journey through these plains, which appeared as I have described, and issuing from them, that is, from those we had seen, we entered into others still wider, and yet not so well provided with tillage: they appeared to be soaked with water like marshes;[123] there are great pastures in them, and also great lakes, and from them overflow the waters which make the marshes. There are very many herds, both cows and sheep (there are no goats here). There are very many villages distant from the road, and in all of them churches. We travelled through these plains quite ten or twelve leagues towards the East,[124] where they showed us a great church, which they said was of St. George, in which lies the grandfather of this Prester John (I will speak of it). When we were in it they said that the former kings coming from the kingdoms of the Barnagais and Tigrimahom, where their origin was, increasing their dominions in these countries of the gentiles, and coming through the kingdom of Angote to this kingdom of Amara, made a great stay and residence in it. And they made in it a great establishment of churches for their tombs, and endowed each one with large revenues. To that church which King Nahu built, the father of this Prester who now lives, he ended by giving as an endowment the whole of this kingdom, without one span remaining which does not belong to churches, and he ended by giving it to the church of Macham Selasem, and he began and his son ended. These churches of the kings do not prevent those of the cultivators, which are in infinite number. A man may travel fully fifteen days through the lands of Macham Selasem, and there is not in all this kingdom a single monastery that we saw or heard speak of, after all the number of them in the countries left behind, but all are churches of canons, and those of the cultivators of priests. This kingdom now has no lordship; it used to have its title, and it was Amara tafila, which means King of Amara, like as also Xoa tafila means King of Xoa. There was this lordship here until the remains of Nahu were removed to the church of Macham Selacem, at which the Portuguese were present; then the going and confirming the dotation to the church was concluded, and the Prester set aside the Amara tafila that there was till then, and gave the lordships to the churches, that is to say, to the ancient ones as they had held them. As his father had left them to this church of Macham Selasem, all the canons and priests of these churches and of all the others of the other kingdoms and lordships left behind, and further on, serve the Prester in all services except in wars. And the administration of justice is all one, both of canons and of priests and friars. So the friar who conducted us bore himself with one and all, as to carrying our baggage, and so they one and all obeyed him, (as has been said) and he ordered priests and friars to be flogged. Going through these great plains, when nothing else appeared in sight, it seemed to us that we were now at sea[125] and out of the mountains. We came to stay Saturday and Sunday, which was the last day of September, at a small village of Our Lady, very poor and ill kept, close to which church towards the east commence most wild mountains and deep fosses descending to the greatest abysses men ever saw; nor could their depth be believed, like as the mountains where the Israelites live are scarped from the top, so are these. Below they are of great width, in some places of four leagues, in others five, in others about three. (This in our opinion.) They say that these dykes run to the Nile, which is very far from here, and higher up we know well that they reach the country of the Moors; they say that in the parts of the Moors they are not so precipitous. At the bottom of these dykes there are many dwellings and an infinite number of apes, hairy like lions from the breast upwards.

Cap. lxv.—How we came to some gates and deep passes difficult to travel, and we went up to the gates, at which the kingdom begins which is named Xoa.

On Monday the 1st of October 1520, we travelled on our road through level country of lakes and large pastures for a distance of three or four leagues, all along these dykes, and we went to sleep near them where we had to cross these depths. Tuesday morning we began to travel for half a league, and we arrived at some gates on a rock which divided two valleys,[126] one to the right, the other to the left hand, and so narrow near the gates that they might hold one cart and no more; with small buttresses, between which the gates shut and close from slope to slope. Going through this gate one enters at once as into a deep valley, with shale[127] on either side raised more than the height of a lance, as if the edge of the sword had made this, these slopes, and this valley. The height of these walls has a length of two games of quoits[128] of such narrowness that a man cannot go on horseback, and the mules go scraping the stirrups on both sides, and so steep that a man descends with his hands and feet, and this seems to be made artificially. Coming out of this narrow pass one travels through a loophole[129] which is about four spans wide, and from one end to the other these clefts are all shale; it is not to be believed, and I would not have believed it, if I had not seen it: and if I had not seen our mules and people pass, I would affirm that goats could not pass there in security. So we set our mules going there as if one was sending them to destruction, and we after them with hands and feet down the rock, without there being any other road. This great roughness lasts for a crossbow shot, and they call these here aqui afagi, which means death of the asses. (Here they pay dues.) We passed these gates many times, and we never passed them without finding beasts and oxen dead, which had come from below upwards and had not been able to get up the ascent. Leaving this pass, there still remains quite two leagues of road sufficiently steep and rocky, and difficult to travel over. In the middle of this descent there is a rock hollowed out at the bottom, and water falls from the top of it (there are always many beggars in this cave). Thus we descended fully two leagues until reaching a great river which is named Anecheta, which contains many fish and very large ones. From here we travelled, ascending for quite a league, until reaching a passage which sights another river, at which are other gates which now are not used; and yet the gates are there still. Those who pass these dykes and clefts come to sleep here, because they cannot go in one day from one end to the other. At this halting place[130] the friar who conducted us committed a great cruelty, as though he were not a Christian, or had done it to Moors. Because a Xuum or captain of some villages which are on a hill above the place where we were resting, did not come up so quickly with the people who lived there, he sent some men of his, and those who carried our baggage, to go and destroy for them some great bean fields which they had by the side of their houses. These men who went there brought to where we were more than a moio[131] of beans, which were their provisions in this country, because in these valleys they have nothing except millet and beans. It was a pity to see such destruction; and because we opposed him, he said that such was the justice of the country, and also each day he ordered many of those who carried our baggage to be flogged, and he took from them mules, cows, and stuffs, saying that so should be treated whoever served ill.

On Tuesday the 2nd of October we took our road through many steep rocks (as before) between which we passed very narrow and bad paths, and dangerous passes; both on one side and on the other scarped rock, a thing not to be credited. We reached the other river, a good league from where we slept; this river is great, and is named Gemaa; it also contains much fish. They say that both these rivers join together and go to the river Nile. We began to travel and ascend as great cliffs as we had descended the day before. In this ascent there will be two leagues; at the end of it are other gates, and another pass such as from aqui afagi. These gates are always shut, and all who pass through them pay dues. Neither above nor below is there any other way or passage. Outside of these gates we went to sleep at a plain which is about half a league from the gates. Already when there, nothing showed of the dykes, clefts, and cliffs which we had traversed; on the contrary, all appeared to be a plain on this side and on the further side, without there being anything in the middle, and there were five long leagues from one set of gates to the other. The kingdoms of Amara and Shoa are divided by these gates and ravines. These gates are called Badabaxa, which means new land. In these ravines and cliffs there are numerous tribes of birds, and we could not determine where they breed, nor how they could bring up their young without their fulling down from the rocks: because whoever saw it would not judge otherwise than that it was an impossible thing, according to its greatness.

Cap. lxvi.—How the Prester John went to the burial of Janes Ichee of the monastery of Brilibanos, and of the election of another Ichee, who was a Moor.

On Wednesday, the 3rd of October, we travelled through plains not very far removed from the edge of the rocks and ravines, and we went to sleep on the rock itself opposite the monastery which is named Brilibanos.[132] I saw the Prester John go to this monastery three times. The first was to the burial of the head[133] of the monastery, who was named Janes, in our language Joannes, and the title of his prelacy was Ichee.[134] This Ichee of this monastery is the greatest prelate there is in these kingdoms, exclusive of the Abima Marcos, who is over all. And the Prester also went in the month in which they hold the funereal memorial which they call tescar.[135] He also went there at the end of forty days after the death of the said Ichee to choose and appoint another. They said that the deceased was a holy man, and that in life he had worked miracles, and therefore the Prester went to his burial and funereal memorial. There was among us a Portuguese, a native of Lisbon, by name Lazaro d’Andrade, who was a painter, and he lost his sight; the Prester sent to tell him to go to the tomb of this deceased man, and to wash with good faith, and that he would receive health: he went there and returned as he went. He whom they made Ichee was also held to be a man of holy life, and he had been a Moor. As he was much my friend, he related to me all his life, and told me that when he was in his sect he heard a revelation, which said to him: You are not following the path; go to the Abima Marcos, who is head of the priests of Ethiopia, and he will teach you another path. Then he came to the Abima Marcos, and related to him what he had heard, and the Abima Marcos had made him a Christian, and had taught him, and held him as a son: and therefore the Prester took this friar who had been a Moor for governor of this monastery, and he bears the name of Jacob. This Jacob also acquired the Portuguese language, and we both understood one another very well, and he wrote in his own handwriting the Gloria of the Mass, and the Creed, and Paternoster, and Ave Maria, and Apostles’ Creed, and the Salve Regina, and he knew it in Latin as well as I did. He also wrote out the Gospel of St. John, and all very well ornamented. This Jacob now remained Ichee in this monastery. Ichee means prior or abbot, and in the Tigray language, which is in the kingdoms of the Barnagais and of Tigrimahom, they say Abba for the principal father; and for the prior of the cloister who is below him, they say that there was (as I have before written) in this language a prior of the cloister who is called Gabez.[136] In the time when this happened, it was not when we were travelling, but another time when the court came here and stayed at a distance of a league and a half from the said monastery in a very large plain, because the monastery lies in the very deep ravine where we passed through the gates.

Returning to our journey; Thursday and Friday, we also travelled through plains, and not at any distance from those ravines; and we came to stop at some small houses almost under the ground. They make them in that way on account of the winds; because it is all a plain without any shelter, they also make the cattle folds underground, that the cows may be sheltered from the wind. Here there live dirty and ill clad people, they breed numerous cows, mares, mules, and fowls. Around these hamlets were the strongest and best crops of barley that we had yet seen, but there were few of them. In the tilled fields, in many places they sow three or four bushels[137] of seed in a tillage, and at the distance of a crossbow shot from there a similar quantity, and so the land is divided,[138] and all the villages had their sowed land scattered. There were not as much as six alqueires of sowing for any one cultivator or inhabitant, though the land is the best that could be mentioned, because there is no one to put it to profit. There are many birds in these plains, such as storks, wild ducks, water fowl, and birds of many kinds, because there are many lagoons, and no one knows how to catch them. This mountain is named Huaguida.

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.