It Plainly Appears That Prepossessions So Strong, Which
Receive More Strength From The Ignorance Of The People, Have Very
Little Tendency To Dispose Them To A Reunion With The Catholic
Church.
They have some opinions peculiar to themselves about purgatory, the
creation of souls, and some of our mysteries.
They repeat baptism
every year, they retain the practice of circumcision, they observe
the Sabbath, they abstain from all those sorts of flesh which are
forbidden by the law. Brothers espouse the wives of their brothers,
and to conclude, they observe a great number of Jewish ceremonies.
Though they know the words which Jesus Christ appointed to be used
in the administration of baptism, they have without scruple
substituted others in their place, which makes the validity of their
baptism, and the reality of their Christianity, very doubtful. They
have a few names of saints, the same with those in the Roman
martyrology, but they often insert others, as Zama la Cota, the Life
of Truth; Ongulari, the Evangelist; Asca Georgi, the Mouth of Saint
George.
To bring back this people into the enclosure of the Catholic Church,
from which they have been separated so many ages, was the sole view
and intention with which we undertook so long and toilsome a
journey, crossed so many seas, and passed so many deserts, with the
utmost hazard of our lives; I am certain that we travelled more than
seven thousand leagues before we arrived at our residence at
Fremona.
We came to this place, anciently called Maigoga, on the 21st of
June, as I have said before, and were obliged to continue there till
November, because the winter begins here in May, and its greatest
rigour is from the middle of June to the middle of September. The
rains that are almost continually falling in this season make it
impossible to go far from home, for the rivers overflow their banks,
and therefore, in a place like this, where there are neither bridges
nor boats, are, if they are not fordable, utterly impassable. Some,
indeed, have crossed them by means of a cord fastened on both sides
of the water, others tie two beams together, and placing themselves
upon them, guide them as well as they can, but this experiment is so
dangerous that it hath cost many of these bold adventurers their
lives. This is not all the danger, for there is yet more to be
apprehended from the unwholesomeness of the air, and the vapours
which arise from the scorched earth at the fall of the first
showers, than from the torrents and rivers. Even they who shelter
themselves in houses find great difficulty to avoid the diseases
that proceed from the noxious qualities of these vapours. From the
beginning of June to that of September it rains more or less every
day. The morning is generally fair and bright, but about two hours
after noon the sky is clouded, and immediately succeeds a violent
storm, with thunder and lightning flashing in the most dreadful
manner. While this lasts, which is commonly three or four hours,
none go out of doors. The ploughman upon the first appearance of it
unyokes his oxen, and betakes himself with them into covert.
Travellers provide for their security in the neighbouring villages,
or set up their tents, everybody flies to some shelter, as well to
avoid the unwholesomeness as the violence of the rain. The thunder
is astonishing, and the lightning often destroys great numbers, a
thing I can speak of from my own experience, for it once flashed so
near me, that I felt an uneasiness on that side for a long time
after; at the same time it killed three young children, and having
run round my room went out, and killed a man and woman three hundred
paces off. When the storm is over the sun shines out as before, and
one would not imagine it had rained, but that the ground appears
deluged. Thus passes the Abyssinian winter, a dreadful season, in
which the whole kingdom languishes with numberless diseases, an
affliction which, however grievous, is yet equalled by the clouds of
grasshoppers, which fly in such numbers from the desert, that the
sun is hid and the sky darkened; whenever this plague appears,
nothing is seen through the whole region but the most ghastly
consternation, or heard but the most piercing lamentations, for
wherever they fall, that unhappy place is laid waste and ruined;
they leave not one blade of grass, nor any hopes of a harvest.
God, who often makes calamities subservient to His will, permitted
this very affliction to be the cause of the conversion of many of
the natives, who might have otherwise died in their errors; for part
of the country being ruined by the grasshoppers that year in which
we arrived at Abyssinia, many, who were forced to leave their
habitations, and seek the necessaries of life in other places, came
to that part of the land where some of our missionaries were
preaching, and laid hold on that mercy which God seemed to have
appointed for others.
As we could not go to court before November, we resolved, that we
might not be idle, to preach and instruct the people in the country;
in pursuance of this resolution I was sent to a mountain, two days'
journey distant from Maigoga. The lord or governor of the place was
a Catholic, and had desired missionaries, but his wife had conceived
an implacable aversion both from us and the Roman Church, and almost
all the inhabitants of that mountain were infected with the same
prejudices as she. They had been persuaded that the hosts which we
consecrated and gave to the communicants were mixed with juices
strained from the flesh of a camel, a dog, a hare, and a swine; all
creatures which the Abyssins look upon with abhorrence, believing
them unclean, and forbidden to them, as they were to the Jews. We
had no way of undeceiving them, and they fled from us whenever we
approached.
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