The Moorish Ship From Aden In Which Covilham Had Embarked, Landed Him At
Cananor On The Coast Of Malabar, Whence,
After some stay, he went to
Calicut and Goa, being the first of the Portuguese nation who had
navigated the
Indian ocean; having seen pepper and ginger, and heard of
cloves and cinnamon. From India he went by sea to Sofala on the eastern
coast of Africa, where he is said to have examined the gold mines, and
where he procured some information respecting the great island of
Madagascar, called by the Moors the _Island of the Moon_. With the
various and valuable information he had now acquired, relative to the
productions of India and their marts, and of the eastern coast of Africa,
he now determined to return to Egypt, that he might be able to
communicate his intelligence to Portugal. At Cairo he was met by
messengers from King John, informing him that Payva had been murdered,
and directing him to go to Ormuz and the coast of Persia, in order to
increase his stock of commercial knowledge. The two messengers from the
king of Portugal whom Covilham met with at Cairo, were both Jewish rabbis,
named Abraham of Beja and Joseph of Lamego. The latter returned into
Portugal with letters from Covilham, giving an account of his
observations, and assuring his master that the ships which sailed to the
coast of Guinea, might be certain of finding a termination of the African
Continent, by persisting in a southerly course; and advising, when they
should arrive in the _eastern ocean_, to inquire for Sofala and the
Island of the Moon.
Covilham and Rabbi Abraham went from Cairo, probably by sea, to Ormuz and
the coast of Persia, whence they returned in company to Aden. From that
place, Abraham returned by the way of Cairo to Portugal with the
additional information which had been collected in their voyage to the
Gulf of Persia; though some authors allege that Joseph was the companion
of this voyage, and that he returned from Bassora by way of the desert to
Aleppo, and thence to Portugal.
From Aden, Covilham crossed the straits of Babelmandeb to the south-
eastern coast of Abyssinia, where he found Alexander the king, or negus,
at the head of an army, levying tribute or contributions from his
rebellious subjects of the southern provinces of his dominions. Alexander
received Covilham with kindness, but more from motives of curiosity than
for any expectations of advantage that might result from any connection
or communication with the kingdom of Portugal. Covilham accompanied the
king to Shoa, where the seat of the Abyssinian government was then
established; and from a cruel policy, which subsists still in Abyssinia,
by which strangers are hardly ever permitted to quit the country,
Covilham never returned into Europe. Though thus doomed to perpetual
exile in a strange and barbarous land, Covilham was well used. He married,
and obtained ample possessions, enjoying the favour of several successive
kings of Abyssinia, and was preferred to some considerable offices in the
government.
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