Yet Are They Great Sorcerers, And Can Enchant The Most
Venomous Serpents, So As To Do No Harm, Though Their Venom Is So
Powerful As To Kill Only By Touching.
They are likewise of wonderful
agility, and are astonishingly expert in vaulting, running, leaping,
swimming, tumbling, walking on ropes, and such other feats of activity.
SECTION XII.
_Navigation of the Author to Ethiopia, and return to Europe by Sea._
Those who engage to write any history, ought to keep in mind what they
have promised, lest after all their pains and trouble they only reap
shame and reproach. Wherefore, having in the beginning of this
performance engaged to write concerning the navigation of Ethiopia, I
shall now make an end of my long travels and peregrinations, by a
description of this voyage, in which I shall speak of such things as I
saw by the way, on my return from India to my long wished-for country,
along with the Portuguese.
Leaving India on the 7th of December[115], we directed our course to
Ethiopia[116]; and having sailed across the great gulf we came to the
island of _Monzambrick_, or Mozambique, which is under the dominion of
the king of Portugal. But before our arrival there, we saw many towns
and fortresses by the way, belonging to the Portuguese, in the kingdoms
of Melinda and Mombaza. They have also some strong fortresses in
Mozambique and Sofala. Were I to enlarge upon the memorable deeds of the
valiant Tristran de Cunna, on his return from India, I should enter upon
a subject far beyond my powers, being such as would rather require the
pen of a Homer or a Virgil:
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