That Prince Would Have
Been No Loser By The Exchange, For So Much Was I Hated By The
Abyssinian Monks
That they would have thought no expense too great
to have gotten me into their hands, that they might have
Glutted
their revenge by putting me to the most painful death they could
have invented. Happily I found means to retire out of this
dangerous place, and was followed by the viceroy almost to Fremona,
who, being disappointed, desired me either to visit him at his camp,
or appoint a place where we might confer. I made many excuses, but
at length agreed to meet him at a place near Fremona, bringing each
of us only three companions. I did not doubt but he would bring
more, and so he did, but found that I was upon my guard, and that my
company increased in proportion to his. My friends were resolute
Portuguese, who were determined to give him no quarter if he made
any attempt upon my liberty. Finding himself once more
countermined, he returned ashamed to his camp, where a month after,
being accused of a confederacy in the revolt of that prince who kept
his father prisoner, he was arrested, and carried in chains to the
Emperor.
The time now approaching in which we were to be delivered to the
Turks, we had none but God to apply to for relief: all the measures
we could think of were equally dangerous. Resolving, nevertheless,
to seek some retreat where we might hide ourselves either all
together or separately, we determined at last to put ourselves under
the protection of the Prince John Akay, who had defended himself a
long time in the province of Bar against the power of Abyssinia.
After I had concluded a treaty with this prince, the patriarch and
all the fathers put themselves into his hands, and being received
with all imaginable kindness and civility, were conducted with a
guard to Adicota, a rock excessively steep, about nine miles from
his place of residence. The event was not agreeable to the happy
beginning of our negotiation, for we soon began to find that our
habitation was not likely to be very pleasant. We were surrounded
with Mahometans, or Christians who were inveterate enemies to the
Catholic faith, and were obliged to act with the utmost caution.
Notwithstanding these inconveniences we were pleased with the
present tranquillity we enjoyed, and lived contentedly on lentils
and a little corn that we had; and I, after we had sold all our
goods, resolved to turn physician, and was soon able to support
myself by my practice.
I was once consulted by a man troubled with asthma, who presented me
with two alquieres - that is, about twenty-eight pounds weight - of
corn and a sheep. The advice I gave him, after having turned over
my books, was to drink goats' urine every morning; I know not
whether he found any benefit by following my prescription, for I
never saw him after.
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