We Carried With Us Our Tent, Our Chalices, And
Ornaments, And All That Was Necessary For Saying Mass.
The lord of
the village, who, like other persons of quality throughout
Aethiopia, lived on the top of a mountain, received us with very
great civility.
All that depended upon him had built their huts
round about him; so that this place compared with the other towns of
Abyssinia seems considerable; as soon as we arrived he sent us his
compliments, with a present of a cow, which, among them, is a token
of high respect. We had no way of returning this favour but by
killing the cow, and sending a quarter smoking, with the gall, which
amongst them is esteemed the most delicate part. I imagined for
some time that the gall of animals was less bitter in this country
than elsewhere, but upon tasting it, I found it more; and yet have
frequently seen our servants drink large glasses of if with the same
pleasure that we drink the most delicious wines.
We chose to begin our mission with the lady of the village, and
hoped that her prejudice and obstinacy, however great, would in time
yield to the advice and example of her husband, and that her
conversion would have a great influence on the whole village, but
having lost several days without being able to prevail upon her to
hear us on any one point, we left the place, and went to another
mountain, higher and better peopled. When we came to the village on
the top of it, where the lord lived, we were surprised with the
cries and lamentations of men that seemed to suffer or apprehend
some dreadful calamity; and were told, upon inquiring the cause,
that the inhabitants had been persuaded that we were the devil's
missionaries, who came to seduce them from the true religion, that
foreseeing some of their neighbours would be ruined by the
temptation, they were lamenting the misfortune which was coming upon
them. When we began to apply ourselves to the work of the mission
we could not by any means persuade any but the lord and the priest
to receive us into their houses; the rest were rough and untractable
to that degree that, after having converted six, we despaired of
making any farther progress, and thought it best to remove to other
towns where we might be better received.
We found, however, a more unpleasing treatment at the next place,
and had certainly ended our lives there had we not been protected by
the governor and the priest, who, though not reconciled to the Roman
Church, yet showed us the utmost civility; the governor informed us
of a design against our lives, and advised us not to go out after
sunset, and gave us guards to protect us from the insults of the
populace.
We made no long stay in a place where they stopped their ears
against the voice of God, but returned to the foot of that mountain
which we had left some days before; we were surrounded, as soon as
we began to preach, with a multitude of auditors, who came either in
expectation of being instructed, or from a desire of gratifying
their curiosity, and God bestowed such a blessing upon our
apostolical labours that the whole village was converted in a short
time. We then removed to another at the middle of the mountain,
situated in a kind of natural parterre, or garden; the soil was
fruitful, and the trees that shaded it from the scorching heat of
the sun gave it an agreeable and refreshing coolness. We had here
the convenience of improving the ardour and piety of our new
converts, and, at the same time, of leading more into the way of the
true religion: and indeed our success exceeded the utmost of our
hopes; we had in a short time great numbers whom we thought capable
of being admitted to the sacraments of baptism and the mass.
We erected our tent, and placed our altar under some great trees,
for the benefit of the shade; and every day before sun-rising my
companion and I began to catechise and instruct these new Catholics,
and used our utmost endeavours to make them abjure their errors.
When we were weary with speaking, we placed in ranks those who were
sufficiently instructed, and passing through them with great vessels
of water, baptised them according to the form prescribed by the
Church. As their number was very great, we cried aloud, those of
this rank are named Peter, those of that rank Anthony. And did the
same amongst the women, whom we separated from the men. We then
confessed them, and admitted them to the communion. After mass we
applied ourselves again to catechise, to instruct, and receive the
renunciation of their errors, scarce allowing ourselves time to make
a scanty meal, which we never did more than once a day.
After some time had been spent here, we removed to another town not
far distant, and continued the same practice. Here I was accosted
one day by an inhabitant of that place, where he had found the
people so prejudiced against us, who desired to be admitted to
confession. I could not forbear asking him some questions about
those lamentations, which we heard upon our entering into that
place. He confessed with the utmost frankness and ingenuity that
the priests and religious have given dreadful accounts both of us
and of the religion we preached; that the unhappy people were taught
by them that the curse of God attended us wheresoever we went; that
we were always followed by the grasshoppers, that pest of Abyssinia,
which carried famine and destruction over all the country; that he,
seeing no grasshoppers following us when we passed by their village,
began to doubt of the reality of what the priests had so confidently
asserted, and was now convinced that the representation they made of
us was calumny and imposture.
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