Returning From Sofala, He Went To Ormus, And
Thence To Cairo, Where He Learnt That Alonso De Payva Was Dead, And Meant
To Have Returned To Portugal.
He chanced to meet at Cairo two Spanish
jews, Rabbi Abraham, a native of Viseo, and Joseph, born in
Lamego; who,
after the departure of Covillian and Payva from Portugal, had told the
king that they had been in Cairo, where they had received much
information concerning Ormus, and of its trade with the Indies. From
these Jews Covillian received letters from the king, directed to him and
Payva, ordering them to return along with the Jews, if they had seen all
that he had given them in charge. If they had not executed all his
original instructions, they were now directed to send by the Jews an
exact account of all the knowledge they had acquired, and to use their
utmost efforts to visit Presbyter John, and to give all the information
in their power respecting Ormus, to Rabbi Abraham, who had sworn by his
law not to return to Portugal without visiting that place.
On receiving these letters, Covillian changed his intention of returning
into Portugal, and dispatched Joseph there with letters to the king,
giving an account of all that he had seen and learnt in India and Sofala,
and transmitted the chart on which he had inserted all the places he had
visited. In these letters he informed the king that the emperor of
Ethiopia was assuredly the same with Presbyter John; but my opinion is
that this is an error, as this sovereign has no such name in his own
dominions, as I shall more clearly shew hereafter.
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