Several Were Of Opinion That The Best Way Would Be
To Kill Us All At Once, And Affirmed That No Other Means Were Left
Of Re-Establishing Order And Tranquillity In The Kingdom.
Others, more prudent, were not for putting us to death with so
little consideration, but advised that we should be banished to one
of the isles of the Lake of Dambia, an affliction more severe than
death itself.
These alleged in vindication of their opinions that
it was reasonable to expect, if they put us to death, that the
viceroy of the Indies would come with fire and sword to demand
satisfaction. This argument made so great an impression upon some
of them that they thought no better measures could be taken than to
send us back again to the Indies. This proposal, however, was not
without its difficulties, for they suspected that when we should
arrive at the Portuguese territories, we would levy an army, return
back to Abyssinia, and under pretence of establishing the Catholic
religion revenge all the injuries we had suffered. While they were
thus deliberating upon our fate, we were imploring the succour of
the Almighty with fervent and humble supplications, entreating him
in the midst of our sighs and tears that he would not suffer his own
cause to miscarry, and that, however it might please him to dispose
of our lives - which, we prayed, he would assist us to lay down with
patience and resignation worthy of the faith for which we were
persecuted - he would not permit our enemies to triumph over the
truth.
Thus we passed our days and nights in prayers, in affliction, and
tears, continually crowded with widows and orphans that subsisted
upon our charity and came to us for bread when we had not any for
ourselves.
While we were in this distress we received an account that the
viceroy of the Indies had fitted out a powerful fleet against the
King of Mombaza, who, having thrown off the authority of the
Portuguese, had killed the governor of the fortress, and had since
committed many acts of cruelty. The same fleet, as we were
informed, after the King of Mombaza was reduced, was to burn and
ruin Zeila, in revenge of the death of two Portuguese Jesuits who
were killed by the King in the year 1604. As Zeila was not far from
the frontiers of Abyssinia, they imagined that they already saw the
Portuguese invading their country.
The viceroy of Tigre had inquired of me a few days before how many
men one India ship carried, and being told that the complement of
some was a thousand men, he compared that answer with the report
then spread over all the country, that there were eighteen
Portuguese vessels on the coast of Adel, and concluded that they
were manned by an army of eighteen thousand men; then considering
what had been achieved by four hundred, under the command of Don
Christopher de Gama, he thought Abyssinia already ravaged, or
subjected to the King of Portugal. Many declared themselves of his
opinion, and the court took its measures with respect to us from
these uncertain and ungrounded rumours. Some were so infatuated
with their apprehensions that they undertook to describe the camp of
the Portuguese, and affirmed that they had heard the report of their
cannons.
All this contributed to exasperate the inhabitants, and reduced us
often to the point of being massacred. At length they came to a
resolution of giving us up to the Turks, assuring them that we were
masters of a vast treasure, in hope that after they had inflicted
all kinds of tortures on us, to make us confess where we had hid our
gold, or what we had done with it, they would at length kill us in
rage for the disappointment. Nor was this their only view, for they
believed that the Turks would, by killing us, kindle such an
irreconcilable hatred between themselves and our nation as would
make it necessary for them to keep us out of the Red Sea, of which
they are entirely masters: so that their determination was as
politic as cruel. Some pretend that the Turks were engaged to put
us to death as soon as we were in their power.
Chapter XIII
The author relieves the patriarch and missionaries, and supports
them. He escapes several snares laid for him by the viceroy of
Tigre. They put themselves under the protection of the Prince of
Bar.
Having concluded this negotiation, they drove us out of our houses,
and robbed us of everything that was worth carrying away; and, not
content with that, informed some banditti that were then in those
parts of the road we were to travel through, so that the patriarch
and some missionaries were attacked in a desert by these rovers,
with their captain at their head, who pillaged his library, his
ornaments, and what little baggage the missionaries had left, and
might have gone away without resistance or interruption had they
satisfied themselves with only robbing; but when they began to fall
upon the missionaries and their companions, our countrymen, finding
that their lives could only be preserved by their courage, charged
their enemies with such vigour that they killed their chief and
forced the rest to a precipitate flight. But these rovers, being
acquainted with the country, harassed the little caravan till it was
past the borders.
Our fathers then imagined they had nothing more to fear, but too
soon were convinced of their error, for they found the whole country
turned against them, and met everywhere new enemies to contend with
and new dangers to surmount. Being not far distant from Fremona,
where I resided, they sent to me for succour. I was better informed
of the distress they were in than themselves, having been told that
a numerous body of Abyssins had posted themselves in a narrow pass
with an intent to surround and destroy them; therefore, without long
deliberation, I assembled my friends, both Portuguese and Abyssins,
to the number of fourscore, and went to their rescue, carrying with
me provisions and refreshments, of which I knew they were in great
need.
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