In This Same Year 1519 Diego Gomez Went To Erect A Fort At The Principal
Island Of The Maldives; But Behaved Himself With So Much Arrogance That
The Moors Lulled Ten Or Twelve Of His Men.
This is the chief of a
thousand isles which lie in clusters in that sea, and such is the
signification of Male-dive.
They resemble a long ridge of mountains,
the sea between being as valleys and serving for communications from
isle to isle; and about the middle of the group is the large island, in
which the king resides. The natives of these islands are gentiles, but
the government is in the hands of the Moors. They are so close together,
that in many of the channels the yard-arms of ships passing through rub
against the shores, or on the trees on both sides. Their chief product
is cocoa-nut trees, the kernel of these nuts producing a pleasant and
nutritive fruit, while the outer rhind or husk is useful for making
cables. There is another sort of these trees growing at the bottom of
the sea, having larger fruit than the land cocoa-nut, and which is a
more powerful antidote against poison than even the Bezoar stone[149].
[Footnote 149: This submarine cocoa-nut tree is utterly inexplicable.
- E.]
During this same year 1519, a fleet of 14 ships was sent from Portugal
to India, which was dispersed to several parts. Some fell in with the
coast of Brazil, where fifty men were slain; and Don Luis de Guzman, one
of the captains, turned pirate and became very rich, but afterwards met
with his deserts. Six staid at Mozambique. George de Albuquerque the
admiral reached India with only four sail. One was driven back to
Lisbon. Another watering at Matira lost some men, and six more at
Oja, whom the king long kept with kind entertainment; but their ship
which left them was lost on a sand bank off Quiloa, and the Moors of
that place and of Monfia and Zanzibar slew them all except one man.
After Sequeira had dispatched the homeward bound trade of the season,
under the command of Fernan Perez de Andrada, he sailed on the 13th of
February 1520, from Goa with 24 sail of ships of various sizes, having
on board 1800 Portuguese soldiers, and about an equal number of Malabars
and Canarins, bound for the Red Sea. Off the coast of Aden his ship
struck on a rock and split in pieces; but the men were all saved, and
Sequeira the governor went into the galleon of Pedro de Faria. A Moorish
ship was taken at the entrance into the Red Sea, from which they learnt
that there were six Turkish gallies at Jiddah with 1200 men, intending
to proceed against Aden.. The weather prevented the Portuguese from
going in quest of the Turkish squadron, and in fact it would have been
to no purpose; as on hearing that the Portuguese were in these seas, the
Turks hauled their gallies on shore. While Sequeira was on his voyage
for Massua, a small black flag was seen on the disk of the sun towards
evening on the 9th of April being Easter Sunday. On arriving at Massua
they found all the inhabitants had fled, yet they found some vessels in
the port which they captured. The inhabitants of Massua had fled to the
neighbouring port of Arkiko in the dominions of Prester John, and
the governor of the town sent a messenger with a letter to Sequeira
desiring that he would make peace with the people who had fled to him
for protection; at the same time he asked nothing for the town where he
commanded, because they were all Christians, and because they had a
prophecy among them which foretold the coming of Christians to settle a
correspondence with them, and which he now believed to be fulfilled on
seeing the Christian colours. Sequeira sent a courteous answer, and drew
nearer the shore, on which several Christians came on board. They told
him that their prince had sent several years before an ambassador named
Mathew, to a king at the other end of the world whose fleet had
conquered India, on purpose to become acquainted with these remote
Christians and to demand succour against the Moors; but that the
ambassador had never returned. On hearing this, Sequeira was satisfied
that they dealt ingeniously with him, as he had actually brought that
ambassador along with him, and had orders from the king of Portugal to
land him safe in the dominions of Prester John. On this, the
ambassador of whom they spoke of was brought before them, to their great
mutual joy, as he had been ten years absent from his country. Next day
ten monks came from a neighbouring convent of the Vision to visit
Mathew, and were received in great ceremony by the priests of the fleet
dressed in their surplices. Great rejoicings were made on occasion of
this meeting between two such distant nations agreeing in the same
faith; and the consequence of this meeting was, that those who from the
beginning had not acknowledged the supremacy of the Roman pontiff, now
submitted to his authoritye[150].
[Footnote 150: The submission of the Abyssinian church to the Roman
pontiff was a mere pretence, which afterwards produced long and bloody
civil wars, and ended in the expulsion of the Portuguese from the
country. - E.]
The kingdom of Prester John, now first visited by Sylveira, is mostly
known by this appellation but improperly, as its right name is the
empire of Abyssinia, Abassia, Habesh, or the higher Ethiopia. It
received the former appellation from the great king Jovarus, who came
to it from the Christians of Tartary, having a cross carried before him
like our bishops, and carrying a cross in his hand, with the title of
Defender of the Faith, as being a Jacobite Christian[151]. The
dominions of this prince are situated between the rivers Nile,
Astabora, and Astapus.
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