He Wrote To Us To
Desire That We Would Wait For Him At Diou, In Order To Embark There
For
The Red Sea; but being informed by us that no opportunities of
going thither were to be expected at Diou,
It was at length
determined that we should meet at Bazaim; it was no easy matter for
me to find means of going to Bazaim. However, after a very uneasy
voyage, in which we were often in danger of being dashed against the
rocks, or thrown upon the sands by the rapidity of the current, and
suffered the utmost distress for want of water, I landed at Daman, a
place about twenty leagues distant from Bazaim. Here I hire a catre
and four boys to carry me to Bazaim: these catres are a kind of
travelling couches, in which you may either lie or sit, which the
boys, whose business is the same with that of chairmen in our
country, support upon their shoulders by two poles, and carry a
passenger at the rate of eighteen or twenty miles a day. Here we at
length found the patriarch, with three more priests, like us,
designed for the mission of Aethiopia. We went back to Daman, and
from thence to Diou, where we arrived in a short time.
Chapter III
The author embarks with the patriarch, narrowly escapes shipwreck
near the isle of Socotora; enters the Arabian Gulf, and the Red Sea.
Some account of the coast of the Red Sea.
The patriarch having met with many obstacles and disappointments in
his return to Abyssinia, grew impatient of being so long absent from
his church. Lopo Gomez d'Abreu had made him an offer at Bazaim of
fitting out three ships at his own expense, provided a commission
could be procured him to cruise in the Red Sea. This proposal was
accepted by the patriarch, and a commission granted by the viceroy.
While we were at Diou, waiting for these vessels, we received advice
from Aethiopia that the emperor, unwilling to expose the patriarch
to any hazard, thought Dagher, a port in the mouth of the Red Sea,
belonging to a prince dependent on the Abyssins, a place of the
greatest security to land at, having already written to that prince
to give him safe passage through his dominions. We met here with
new delays; the fleet that was to transport us did not appear, the
patriarch lost all patience, and his zeal so much affected the
commander at Diou, that he undertook to equip a vessel for us, and
pushed the work forward with the utmost diligence. At length, the
long-expected ships entered the port; we were overjoyed, we were
transported, and prepared to go on board. Many persons at Diou,
seeing the vessels so well fitted out, desired leave to go this
voyage along with us, imagining they had an excellent opportunity of
acquiring both wealth and honour. We committed, however, one great
error in setting out, for having equipped our ships for
privateering, and taken no merchandise on board, we could not touch
at any of the ports of the Red Sea.
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