A Voyage to Abyssinia | Page 7

and be for ever
prevented from reaching the court of Aethiopia. Upon this
consideration our superiors divided the eight Jesuits chosen for this
mission into two companies. 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