Returning From The
Gulf Of Persia To The Red Sea, He Passed Over To The Realm Of The
Abyssinians, Which Is Commonly Called The Kingdom Of Presbyter John, Or
Ethiopia, Where He Was Detained Till 1520, When The Ambassador, Don
Roderigo De Lima, Arrived In That Country.
This Pedro de Covillan was the
first of the Portuguese who had ever visited the Indies and the adjacent
seas and islands.
In the year 1490, the king sent Gonzalo de Sosa to Congo with three ships,
carrying back with him the ambassador of the king of Congo, who had been
brought over to Portugal in 1484, by Diego Caon. During his residence in
Portugal, this ambassador and others of his company had been instructed
in the Christian religion, and baptized. Gonzalo de Sosa died during the
outward-bound voyage; and Ruy de Sosa, his nephew, was chosen to the
command of the expedition in his stead. Arriving in Congo, the king of
that country received them with much joy, and soon yielded himself and
the greater part of his subjects to be baptized; to the infinite
satisfaction of the Portuguese, who by these means converted so many
infidels from paganism to Christianity.
[1] The only quotations used in this Section in the original translation
by Hakluyt, are from the Asia of John de Barros, Decade 1. which it
has not been deemed necessary to refer to here more particularly. - E.
[2] It is singular that a Portuguese should not be more correct.
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