Some Of Our Company Went Into
The Wood To Divert Themselves With Hearing The Birds And Frightening
The Monkeys, Creatures So Cunning That They Would Not Stir If A Man
Came Unarmed, But Would Run Immediately When They Saw A Gun.
At
this place our camel drivers left us, to go to the feast of St.
Michael, which the Aethiopians celebrate the 16th of June.
We
persuaded them, however, to leave us their camels and four of their
company to take care of them.
We had not waited many days before some messengers came to us with
an account that Father Baradas, with the Emperor's nephew, and many
other persons of distinction, waited for us at some distance; we
loaded our camels, and following the course of the river, came in
seven hours to the place we were directed to halt at. Father Manuel
Baradas and all the company, who had waited for us a considerable
time on the top of the mountain, came down when they saw our tents,
and congratulated our arrival. It is not easy to express the
benevolence and tenderness with which they embraced us, and the
concern they showed at seeing us worn away with hunger, labour, and
weariness, our clothes tattered, and our feet bloody.
We left this place of interview the next day, and on the 21st of
June arrived at Fremone, the residence of the missionaries, where we
were welcomed by great numbers of Catholics, both Portuguese and
Abyssins, who spared no endeavours to make us forget all we had
suffered in so hazardous a journey, undertaken with no other
intention than to conduct them in the way of salvation.
PART II - A DESCRIPTION OF ABYSSINIA
Chapter I
The history of Abyssinia. An account of the Queen of Sheba, and of
Queen Candace. The conversion of the Abyssins.
The original of the Abyssins, like that of all other nations, is
obscure and uncertain. The tradition generally received derives
them from Cham, the son of Noah, and they pretend, however
improbably, that from his time till now the legal succession of
their kings hath never been interrupted, and that the supreme power
hath always continued in the same family. An authentic genealogy
traced up so high could not but be extremely curious; and with good
reason might the Emperors of Abyssinia boast themselves the most
illustrious and ancient family in the world. But there are no real
grounds for imagining that Providence has vouchsafed them so
distinguishing a protection, and from the wars with which this
empire hath been shaken in these latter ages we may justly believe
that, like all others, it has suffered its revolutions, and that the
history of the Abyssins is corrupted with fables. This empire is
known by the name of the kingdom of Prester-John. For the
Portuguese having heard such wonderful relations of an ancient and
famous Christian state called by that name, in the Indies, imagined
it could be none but this of Aethiopia. Many things concurred to
make them of this opinion:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 26 of 79
Words from 13127 to 13634
of 41322
