Not Caring, After This Alarm, To Stay Longer Here, We Set Out On Our
March Back, And In Our Return Passed Through A Village Where Two
Men, Who Had Murdered A Domestic Of The Viceroy, Lay Under An
Arrest.
As they had been taken in the fact, the law of the country
allowed that they might have been
Executed the same hour, but the
viceroy having ordered that their death should be deferred till his
return, delivered them to the relations of the dead, to be disposed
of as they should think proper. They made great rejoicings all the
night, on account of having it in their power to revenge their
relation; and the unhappy criminals had the mortification of
standing by to behold this jollity, and the preparations made for
their execution.
The Abyssins have three different ways of putting a criminal to
death: one way is to bury him to the neck, to lay a heap of
brambles upon his head, and to cover the whole with a great stone;
another is to beat him to death with cudgels; a third, and the most
usual, is to stab him with their lances. The nearest relation gives
the first thrust, and is followed by all the rest according to their
degrees of kindred; and they to whom it does not happen to strike
while the offender is alive, dip the points of their lances in his
blood to show that they partake in the revenge. It frequently
happens that the relations of the criminal are for taking the like
vengeance for his death, and sometimes pursue this resolution so far
that all those who had any share in the prosecution lose their
lives.
I being informed that these two men were to die, wrote to the
viceroy for his permission to exhort them, before they entered into
eternity, to unite themselves to the Church. My request being
granted, I applied myself to the men, and found one of them so
obstinate that he would not even afford me a hearing, and died in
his error. The other I found more flexible, and wrought upon him so
far that he came to my tent to be instructed. After my care of his
eternal welfare had met with such success, I could not forbear
attempting something for his temporal, and by my endeavours matters
were so accommodated that the relations were willing to grant his
life on condition he paid a certain number of cows, or the value.
Their first demand was of a thousand; he offered them five; they at
last were satisfied with twelve, provided they were paid upon the
spot. The Abyssins are extremely charitable, and the women, on such
occasions, will give even their necklaces and pendants, so that,
with what I gave myself, I collected in the camp enough to pay the
fine, and all parties were content.
Chapter VIII
The viceroy is offended by his wife. He complains to the Emperor,
but without redress. He meditates a revolt, raises an army, and
makes an attempt to seize upon the author.
We continued our march, and the viceroy having been advertised that
some troops had appeared in a hostile manner on the frontiers, went
against them. I parted from him, and arrived at Fremona, where the
Portuguese expected me with great impatience. I reposited the bones
of Don Christopher de Gama in a decent place, and sent them the May
following to the viceroy of the Indies, together with his arms,
which had been presented me by a gentleman of Abyssinia, and a
picture of the Virgin Mary, which that gallant Portuguese always
carried about him.
The viceroy, during all the time he was engaged in this expedition,
heard very provoking accounts of the bad conduct of his wife, and
complained of it to the Emperor, entreating him either to punish his
daughter himself, or to permit him to deliver her over to justice,
that, if she was falsely accused, she might have an opportunity of
putting her own honour and her husband's out of dispute. The
Emperor took little notice of his son-in-law's remonstrances; and,
the truth is, the viceroy was somewhat more nice in that matter than
the people of rank in this country generally are. There are laws,
it is true, against adultery, but they seem to have been only for
the meaner people, and the women of quality, especially the ouzoros,
or ladies of the blood royal, are so much above them, that their
husbands have not even the liberty of complaining; and certainly to
support injuries of this kind without complaining requires a degree
of patience which few men can boast of. The viceroy's virtue was
not proof against this temptation. He fell into a deep melancholy,
and resolved to be revenged on his father-in-law. He knew the
present temper of the people, that those of the greatest interest
and power were by no means pleased with the changes of religion, and
only waited for a fair opportunity to revolt; and that these
discontents were everywhere heightened by the monks and clergy.
Encouraged by these reflections, he was always talking of the just
reasons he had to complain of the Emperor, and gave them sufficient
room to understand that if they would appear in his party, he would
declare himself for the ancient religion, and put himself at the
head of those who should take arms in the defence of it. The chief
and almost the only thing that hindered him from raising a
formidable rebellion, was the mutual distrust they entertained of
one another, each fearing that as soon as the Emperor should publish
an act of grace, or general amnesty, the greatest part would lay
down their arms and embrace it; and this suspicion was imagined more
reasonable of the viceroy than of any other. Notwithstanding this
difficulty, the priests, who interested themselves much in this
revolt, ran with the utmost earnestness from church to church,
levelling their sermons against the Emperor and the Catholic
religion; and that they might have the better success in putting a
stop to all ecclesiastical innovations, they came to a resolution of
putting all the missionaries to the sword; and that the viceroy
might have no room to hope for a pardon, they obliged him to give
the first wound to him that should fall into his hands.
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