In This Strait It Occurred To Me That
These People, However Barbarous, Have Some Oath Which They Keep With
An Inviolable Strictness; The Best Precaution, Therefore, That I
Could Use Would Be To Bind Them By This Oath To Be True To Their
Engagements.
The manner of their swearing is this:
They set a
sheep in the midst of them, and rub it over with butter, the heads
of families who are the chief in the nation lay their hands upon the
head of the sheep, and swear to observe their promise. This oath
(which they never violate) they explain thus: the sheep is the
mother of them who swear; the butter betokens the love between the
mother and the children, and an oath taken on a mother's head is
sacred. Upon the security of this oath, I made them acquainted with
my intention, an intention, they told me, it was impossible to put
in execution. From the moment I left them they said they could give
me no assurance of either life or liberty, that they were perfectly
informed both of the roads and inhabitants, that there were no fewer
than nine nations between us and Abyssinia, who were always
embroiled amongst themselves, or at war with the Abyssins, and
enjoyed no security even in their own territories. We were now
convinced that our enterprise was impracticable, and that to hazard
ourselves amidst so many insurmountable difficulties would be to
tempt Providence; despairing, therefore, that I should ever come
this way to Abyssinia, I resolved to return back with my
intelligence to my companion, whom I had left at Pate.
I cannot, however, leave this country without giving an account of
their manner of blood-letting, which I was led to the knowledge of
by a violent fever, which threatened to put an end to my life and
travels together. The distress I was in may easily be imagined,
being entirely destitute of everything necessary. I had resolved to
let myself blood, though I was altogether a stranger to the manner
of doing it, and had no lancet, but my companions hearing of a
surgeon of reputation in the place, went and brought him. I saw,
with the utmost surprise, an old Moor enter my chamber, with a kind
of small dagger, all over rusty, and a mallet in his hand, and three
cups of horn about half a foot long. I started, and asked what he
wanted. He told me to bleed me; and when I had given him leave,
uncovering my side, applied one of his horn cups, which he stopped
with chewed paper, and by that means made it stick fast; in the same
manner he fixed on the other two, and fell to sharpening his
instrument, assuring me that he would give me no pain. He then took
off his cups, and gave in each place a stroke with his poignard,
which was followed by a stream of blood. He applied his cups
several times, and every time struck his lancet into the same place;
having drawn away a large quantity of blood, he healed the orifices
with three lumps of tallow. I know not whether to attribute my cure
to bleeding or my fear, but I had from that time no return of my
fever.
When I came to Pate, in hopes of meeting with my associate, I found
that he was gone to Mombaza, in hopes of receiving information. He
was sooner undeceived than I, and we met at the place where we
parted in a few days; and soon afterwards left Pate to return to the
Indies, and in nine-and-twenty days arrived at the famous fortress
of Diou. We were told at this place that Alfonso Mendes, patriarch
of Aethiopia, was arrived at Goa from Lisbon. He wrote to us to
desire that we would wait for him at Diou, in order to embark there
for the Red Sea; but being informed by us that no opportunities of
going thither were to be expected at Diou, it was at length
determined that we should meet at Bazaim; it was no easy matter for
me to find means of going to Bazaim. However, after a very uneasy
voyage, in which we were often in danger of being dashed against the
rocks, or thrown upon the sands by the rapidity of the current, and
suffered the utmost distress for want of water, I landed at Daman, a
place about twenty leagues distant from Bazaim. Here I hire a catre
and four boys to carry me to Bazaim: these catres are a kind of
travelling couches, in which you may either lie or sit, which the
boys, whose business is the same with that of chairmen in our
country, support upon their shoulders by two poles, and carry a
passenger at the rate of eighteen or twenty miles a day. Here we at
length found the patriarch, with three more priests, like us,
designed for the mission of Aethiopia. We went back to Daman, and
from thence to Diou, where we arrived in a short time.
Chapter III
The author embarks with the patriarch, narrowly escapes shipwreck
near the isle of Socotora; enters the Arabian Gulf, and the Red Sea.
Some account of the coast of the Red Sea.
The patriarch having met with many obstacles and disappointments in
his return to Abyssinia, grew impatient of being so long absent from
his church. Lopo Gomez d'Abreu had made him an offer at Bazaim of
fitting out three ships at his own expense, provided a commission
could be procured him to cruise in the Red Sea. This proposal was
accepted by the patriarch, and a commission granted by the viceroy.
While we were at Diou, waiting for these vessels, we received advice
from Aethiopia that the emperor, unwilling to expose the patriarch
to any hazard, thought Dagher, a port in the mouth of the Red Sea,
belonging to a prince dependent on the Abyssins, a place of the
greatest security to land at, having already written to that prince
to give him safe passage through his dominions.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 6 of 41
Words from 5099 to 6121
of 41322
