Four They Sent By Sea
And Four By Land; I Was Of The Latter Number.
The four first were
the more fortunate, who though they were detained some time by the
Turkish bassa, were dismissed at the request of the emperor, who
sent him a zebra, or wild ass, a creature of large size and
admirable beauty.
As for us, who were to go by Zeila, we had still greater
difficulties to struggle with: we were entirely strangers to the
ways we were to take, to the manners, and even to the names of the
nations through which we were to pass. Our chief desire was to
discover some new road by which we might avoid having anything to do
with the Turks. Among great numbers whom we consulted on this
occasion, we were informed by some that we might go through Melinda.
These men painted that hideous wilderness in charming colours, told
us that we should find a country watered with navigable rivers, and
inhabited by a people that would either inform us of the way, or
accompany us in it. These reports charmed us, because they
flattered our desires; but our superiors finding nothing in all this
talk that could be depended on, were in suspense what directions to
give us, till my companion and I upon this reflection, that since
all the ways were equally new to us, we had nothing to do but to
resign ourselves to the Providence of God, asked and obtained the
permission of our superiors to attempt the road through Melinda. So
of we who went by land, two took the way of Zeila, and my companion
and I that of Melinda.
Those who were appointed for Zeila embarked in a vessel that was
going to Caxume, where they were well received by the king, and
accommodated with a ship to carry them to Zeila; they were there
treated by the check with the same civility which they had met with
at Caxume. But the king being informed of their arrival, ordered
them to be conveyed to his court at Auxa, to which place they were
scarce come before they were thrown by the king's command into a
dark and dismal dungeon, where there is hardly any sort of cruelty
that was not exercised upon them. The Emperor of Abyssinia
endeavoured by large offers to obtain their liberty, but his kind
offices had no other effect than to heighten the rage of the king of
Zeila. This prince, besides his ill will to Sultan Segued, which
was kept up by some malcontents among the Abyssin nobility, who,
provoked at the conversion of their master, were plotting a revolt,
entertained an inveterate hatred against the Portuguese for the
death of his grandfather, who had been killed many years before,
which he swore the blood of the Jesuits should repay. So after they
had languished for some time in prison their heads were struck off.
A fate which had been likewise our own, had not God reserved us for
longer labours!
Having provided everything necessary for our journey, such as
Arabian habits, and red caps, calicoes, and other trifles to make
presents of to the inhabitants, and taking leave of our friends, as
men going to a speedy death, for we were not insensible of the
dangers we were likely to encounter, amongst horrid deserts,
impassable mountains, and barbarous nations, we left Goa on the 26th
day of January in the year 1624, in a Portuguese galliot that was
ordered to set us ashore at Pate, where we landed without any
disaster in eleven days, together with a young Abyssin, whom we made
use of as our interpreter. While we stayed here we were given to
understand that those who had been pleased at Goa to give us
directions in relation to our journey had done nothing but tell us
lies. That the people were savage, that they had indeed begun to
treat with the Portuguese, but it was only from fear, that otherwise
they were a barbarous nation, who finding themselves too much
crowded in their own country, had extended themselves to the sea-
shore; that they ravished the country and laid everything waste
where they came, that they were man-eaters, and were on that account
dreadful in all those parts. My companion and I being undeceived by
this terrible relation, thought it would be the highest imprudence
to expose ourselves both together to a death almost certain and
unprofitable, and agreed that I should go with our Abyssin and a
Portuguese to observe the country; that if I should prove so happy
as to escape being killed by the inhabitants, and to discover a way,
I should either return, or send back the Abyssin or Portuguese.
Having fixed upon this, I hired a little bark to Jubo, a place about
forty leagues distant from Pate, on board which I put some
provisions, together with my sacerdotal vestments, and all that was
necessary for saying mass: in this vessel we reached the coast,
which we found inhabited by several nations: each nation is subject
to its own king; these petty monarchies are so numerous, that I
counted at least ten in less than four leagues.
Chapter II
The author lands: The difficulty of his journey. An account of the
Galles, and of the author's reception at the king's tent; Their
manner of swearing, and of letting blood. The author returns to the
Indies, and finds the patriarch of Aethiopia.
On this coast we landed, with an intention of travelling on foot to
Jubo, a journey of much greater length and difficulty than we
imagined. We durst not go far from our bark, and therefore were
obliged to a toilsome march along the windings of the shore,
sometimes clambering up rocks, and sometimes wading through the
sands, so that we were every moment in the utmost danger of falling
from the one, or sinking in the other. Our lodging was either in
the rocks or on the sands, and even that incommoded by continual
apprehensions of being devoured by lions and tigers.
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