PROLOGUE TO THE KING OUR SOVEREIGN. (continued 7)

Cap. cvii.—How two great gentlemen from the Court came to us to make friendship between us, and committed us to the captain-major.

When we left this town of Manadeley, on the way to Barua, as has been said, we travelled through many countries, and Abdenago with us, as he had been ordered to do, and the friar with Jorge d’Abreu. We arrived at a district which is named Abacinete, a large town, and captaincy of people who were not tender hearted, for here at times they wished to throw stones at us, and in effect they did do so. This town is at one end of the kingdom of Tigray. When we were in our quarters there came to us two great lords of the Court, one of them was the Adrugaz, to whom we were at first entrusted at Court, as has been said already many times in this book; and the other was by title the Grageta, and by name Arraz Ambiata, who later was Barnagais, and was Betudete. When they came to us they at once spoke of how Prester John had remained much discontented because the ambassador would not be friendly with Jorge d’Abreu before His Highness, when he begged it of him; and that which had not been done, he now sent to entreat that it should be done, and that they should become friends, and not keep apart before the captain-major, as it appeared to be a very unseemly thing; and also the others who had fought on the road, that they should be friends. Then we made them become friends and meet together. Upon this the said lords gave to each of us his mule as the Prester had ordered. They further said that they had come to present us before the captain-major, and also to see and visit him in the name of Prester John, inasmuch as the Barnagais, who was lord of this country, and other lords, had remained at the Court. When friendship had been established, and the said mules had been given, we all travelled, returning as far as Barua, where we remained until the time of the monsoon had passed, during which they[201] were to come for us. When the time had passed, Don Rodrigo the ambassador did not choose to order any provisions to be given to Jorge d’Abreu, nor to those who were with him. And one day that he sent to ask it of him by Joan Fernandez, who wounded the factor, the ambassador wished to have him beaten, but he ran away. Upon this Jorge d’Abreu sent to ask me to come to a church, and there he told me to tell the ambassador to order provisions to be given for him, and those that were with him. I told him, and soon after returned with the answer that the ambassador said that he would give them to him, but that for those who were with him he would give nothing, as they were traitors to the service of the King of Portugal. Jorge d’Abreu answered, that for himself he did not want it, but for those who were with him, and that if he did not choose to give it that he would take it, and so we separated. Jorge d’Abreu went to the Adrugaz and Grageta to make a complaint to them. At this, those lords sent to call us, and they called all of us, and not to their houses which were large and good, but to a field in front of a church. When we were all assembled, the Adrugaz made a speech to the ambassador, asking why he treated his countrymen so ill, and saying that since he did not give them of that which was given for them, he would sell the horse and mules to maintain them, and this was not usual among grandees, and that he should consider how much displeasure Prester John would feel at his so ill treating his company; and that if he would treat them in another way, he himself would be treated differently, and would be more pleased than he was; and he entreated him to give them their own, and not break the friendship which he had already promised to keep with Jorge d’Abreu. The ambassador replied that he was not going to give it him, and they were traitors to the service of the King of Portugal for which he came. Jorge d’Abreu said that if he did not order it to be given him that he would take it: and so we arose all of us in a bad humour, and each one went to his quarters. As it seemed likely to the factor that Jorge d’Abreu would attack him and take his goods, because he had said that he would take it if a provision was not given him, he went to sleep at the ambassador’s quarters, which were some houses of a gentleman, good and strong according as they are in this country. Whilst we, the clerk of the embassy, and my nephew and I, were lying in bed, late in the night we heard shouts of, “Come this way, go that way”, and then musket shots; and running up, the clerk and I (my nephew remained behind as his eyes were suffering), we saw them knocking down the houses with rams, and firing musket shots, and it seemed to us that those that were inside must be dead, so great was the noise. So we went running to the houses of the Barnagais, where the said lords were lodging, to tell them to come to our assistance; and because the houses had two doors, one at each end, as we entered by one door, the ambassador and his companions entered by the other, and they were bringing with them the crown and letters of Prester John, and what goods they could, and one of the ambassador’s men came wounded by a musket shot in the knee, which made four or five wounds, as they had given others besides that with the bullet.[202] The ambassador and his men had gone out by a back door which the house had, and which the others did not know of. These lords then sent at once to arrest all the others, and the clerk and I went with the people that the lords sent on this errand. We found them still occupied in knocking down the house, thinking that they had caught the people inside. Here they began to ill-treat them with thumps and cudgelling, for they had no more powder, nor withal to defend themselves, and they were all carried off before these noblemen. They were further ill-treated, and it was ordered that they should be taken to another town near this named Gazeleanza, where they were to remain without going out, and they set guards to keep them. Many days passed after this, and because they could not see them,[203] and also because it is the custom of this country that no grandee can leave the Court without licence, nor go to the Court without being summoned to it; these lords, Adrugaz and Grageta, did not know what to do with us, and did not dare to leave us nor to take us away, nor to return themselves, neither could they make peace between us, and at length they took counsel and decided to send us back to the Court, and expose themselves to any punishment which he might please to give them for this.

Cap. cviii.—How they took us on the road to the Court, and how they brought us back to this country.

These noblemen, seeing that the time had gone by for them[204] to come for us, and also that there could be no peace between us, as has been said, took the determination to send us back, and we began to travel, we and the Franks who were coming with us. On arriving at the town of Abacinen, before mentioned, the first town, at once the people put themselves on guard not to receive us, and so many friars came down from a mountain that they seemed like sheep, and all brought bows and their weapons, and it was like a field battle, and there were wounded on both sides. Nevertheless, the field remained in our possession, and we took up our quarters in the town: and those of the place on the mountain, and the men belonging to these lords treated the town like a town of Moors, and plundered everything, both wheat and barley, fowls, capon, sheep, and household furniture, and whatever they found. From this place we departed and travelled our journey in parties, that is to say, Jorge d’Abreu and those that were with him and the friar together, and we with the ambassador and his people, and the Adrugaz and Grageta. Thus we travelled till we reached Manadeley, where they wounded our men, and here we found the Moor who ran away from the ambassador, and yet he was but little afraid of him. When we had passed this town about half a league, we met the Barnagais, who came from the Court and brought a message for the noblemen and for us what we were to do. We all placed ourselves in a tilled field at the foot of a big tree, as many as there was room for there. These noblemen were much reproved by the Barnagais for having brought us without leave, and he also bawled a good deal at the ambassador and at Jorge d’Abreu: and he told the ambassador at once to give up to him the crown of the Prester, and the letters which he was carrying for the King of Portugal and the captain-major. Between the ambassador and Jorge d’Abreu some very ugly words passed. Then the Barnagais told the others to continue on their way to the Court, and there they would have their punishment. He then gave us captains to conduct us separately as we came. So we travelled with him as far as his lands, through the heavy rain which now fell. Those who went with the ambassador’s party he took with him to the town of Barua, where the quarrel happened, which is the chief town of his kingdom, and he put Jorge d’Abreu and his company in Barra, which is the chief town of the captaincy of Ceivel, all belonging to the Barnagais. The Barnagais himself settled in the town of Barra, and he said that he did it in order not to be annoyed by the ambassador: and the distance from one town to the other may be three leagues and a half or four. At this time we were very ill provided with all things; Jorge d’Abreu and his companions were better provided than we were: and our hunting and fishing was of great advantage to us, for we had a river and hunting ground.

Cap. cix.—In what time and day Lent begins in the country of Prester John, and of the great fast and abstinence of the friars, and how at night they put themselves in the tank.

In this country of Prester John Lent begins on Monday of Sexagesima, which is ten days before our Lent, and after the day of the Purification they observe three days of severe fast, generally, clergy, friars, and laymen. They say that they observe the fast of the city of Niniveh, and they assert that there are many friars here who in these three days do not eat more than once, and do not eat bread but only herbs, and they also say that most of the women do not give milk to their children more than once a day. The general fast of Lent is almost bread and water, because even though they should wish to eat fish, in that country they have not got it. In the sea and in the fresh water, where there are rivers, there is much fish, and yet here there is very little skill in catching them, although some little, but not much, is caught for the great gentlemen. The general food during Lent is bread: at this time there are no vegetables here, for they have not got them except when it rains, from their want of skill, because there is plenty of water for gardens and orchards and other good works, if they would choose to make them. In most of the monasteries the friars have got some cabbages like the kind called “orto”, which they keep taking the leaves off (this all through the year), and they eat them. In the districts where there are grapes and peaches, these come in Lent, because they begin in February and finish at the end of April, so that those who have them have something to eat. What they generally eat is cardamine seed, which they call canfa, and they make with it a sauce and call it tebba, and they soak their bread in it, and it is very hot. They do the same with linseed, which they also eat in sauce, and call it tebba; and so they prepare mustard and call it cenafiche. These three sauces are the general food of Lent: and they do not eat milk or butter, nor drink wine of grapes or honey. The general drink is a beverage made of barley, which they call çanha, and they also make it of Indian corn[205] and of another grain called guza;[206] they also make it of darnel. They do not drink this when it is fresh because it brings a man to the ground, and when it is cold and settled, this is the best drink here. There are many friars who do not eat bread in Lent, and others in the whole year, and others who in all their lives do not eat it, and I will relate what I saw of this. When the ambassador and I were going on the road to the court, in a district which is called Janamora, a friar came to us to go in security from the robbers: and he travelled with us for more than a month, and because he was a friar I kept him near me. This friar brought with him six or seven novices who were going to be ordained, and he carried four large books to sell: he carried the books on a mule. He lodged with me in my tent, and the first day at night I called him to eat, as it was his supper hour; he excused himself, that he did not want to eat; upon this, the novices came with water-cresses,[207] and they gave them a boiling without salt or oil, or anything else, and they ate those cresses without any other addition. I asked the novices about this, and they told me they never ate bread. And because I had often heard say that there were many friars here who did not eat bread, and I doubted this, I watched this friar and looked after him night and day: the whole day he was close to me like my groom, and at night he slept near me on the ground in his habit as he wore it by day; and always, in all this time that this friar was with me, I never saw him eat anything but herbs, that is to say, water-cresses, mallows, water-parsley, where they found them, nettles, and if we passed near any monastery, he sent there to find a cabbage, and not finding herbs, the novices brought him lentils in a gourd of water newly grown with the sprout just out; he ate of those, and I ate them, and it is the coldest food in the world. This friar travelled with us more than a month, and at the court he was in our company three weeks without eating anything except what has been mentioned. Later, I saw this friar in the town of Aquaxumo, where Prester John sent us to for eight months: as soon as he knew that I was there, he came to see me and brought me a few lemons; he was wearing a habit of leather without sleeves, and his arms were bare; and we embraced. I succeeded in putting my hand under his arm, and I found that he was girt with an iron girdle four fingers broad, and I took the friar by the hand and brought him into my room; and I showed that to Pero Lopez, my nephew, and besides we also found that this girdle was lined[208] on both edges on the side towards the skin with points of the size of those of a saw for sawing wood, not sharpened (and all this out of Lent). This friar considered himself aggrieved by this, and he never visited me again, and on my account he went away from that town: later I saw many of these. We also heard tell of many friars here, who, during the whole of Lent, did not sit down, and always remained on foot. I heard that there was one in that condition at a distance of two leagues from where we were in a grotto. As it was Lent, I rode and went to see him, I and others, and we found him standing in a tabernacle of wall the size of himself. This tabernacle was made like a box without a covering, much plastered with clay and dung: and this tabernacle was already old, and others had been there before; and where the hips reached there was a ledge,[209] and the walls were thinner by three inches; and where the elbows reached, for each of them there was another such recess; and in front was a stand in the wall with a book. This friar was clothed with a haircloth woven with the hair of oxtails, and underneath it he had another such iron girdle as that of Aquaxumo. He showed it us of his own will, without our asking him, or knowing that he had got it. In another grotto near this one lodged two friars, young boys who supplied him with food of herbs. These grottoes had been long used for these purposes,[210] because there were tombs in them. This friar became much our friend after this visit, and came to see us often after Lent.

In the town of Barua, during another Lent, we saw two friars in the outer part of the church of that town, in similar tabernacles, one on one side, and the other on the other. They ate the same kind of herbs and sprouted lentils. I used to visit them frequently, and they showed that they rejoiced much at my visitation: and if any day I did not go to visit them, they sent to visit me. These were in their habits; I do not know whether they wore a haircloth or a girdle underneath. I asked if they went outside from there; they told me how they visited one another, and yet they did not sit down; and one of them, the one who showed most friendship towards me, said that he was a relation of Prester John. They remained in this abstinence until Easter; and came out at the mass of the resurrection. We also heard that on the Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent many slept in water up to their necks; and we could not believe it: when we were in Aquaxumo, we heard that we might see this in a great tank, which I have already mentioned when I spoke of this place, and that there was a great function there during Lent. Joam Escolar, clerk of the embassy, and Pero Lopez, my nephew, went one night to this tank, and they came back amazed at the multitude of people who were there, all in the water up to the neck. These were canons and wives of canons, and friars and nuns, because there are here many of all orders, as has been said. Hearing of this wonder on Thursday, I went in the morning to this tank to see how they were: and I found the tank full of stone resting-places along the edge, where it was shallow a stone, and as it increased in depth so the stones increased one above the other, as they sit upon them with the water up to their necks. As they told me that in this place and in the neighbourhood there are at this season hard frosts and cold at night, and after this, seeing Pero de Covilham at a place called Dara, I told him what I had seen. He told me that since he had seen it he had not any doubt about it, and that I should know that this was general in all the country of Prester John, and that here there were many who not only did not eat bread amongst people, but who abode in the large forests, and in the greatest depths and heights of the mountains, where they find any water, and where living people never come. Close to this Dara are some ravines of very great depth, like those before mentioned, and these are without inhabitants in the plains or flat ground. A great river falls into these ravines, and so great is the fall, that the water becomes broken up in the air, and when it reaches the bottom it seems rather a mist than water. Pero de Covilham showed to me in that ravine a grotto, which was scarcely perceptible, and he told me that a friar abode there who was esteemed as a saint, and below this grotto there seemed to be a garden, because something green showed. And on one of the slopes of this ravine he showed me a long way off where had died a white man, who was unknown, and who had lived fully twenty years in that solitude, in another grotto, and they did not know the time of his death, only not perceiving him on the mountain, they went to look at his abode or grotto, and they found it closed up from inside with a good wall, so that no one could enter it or come out of it. They informed Prester John of it, and he ordered that this grotto should not be opened.

Cap. cx.—Of the fast of Lent in the country of Prester John, and of the office of Palms and of the Holy Week.

The general fast of Lent for most of the friars and nuns, and also some of the clergy, is to eat every second day and always at night. Sundays are not fast days. Some old women also, who are in a way withdrawn from the world, keep this fast; and they say that Queen Helena fasted every day in the whole year, and only ate the said three times a week, on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. In the kingdoms of Tigray, which are those of the Barnagais and Tigrimahom, the people in general during Lent eat meat on Saturdays and Sundays, and in these two days of Lent they kill more cows than in all the year, and more if they should marry their first or second wife on the Thursday before Shrove Tuesday; and they marry on that day because they hold that after marriage they may eat meat for two months, in whatever time of the year it may be, and so those who marry in these two kingdoms eat meat and drink wine, and eat butter all through Lent. I saw this in the kingdom of Barnagais, and heard of it in that of Tigrimahom; and because I say, or a second wife, let it not be supposed, or let it appear that all have more than one wife, because generally they have one as has been said; and whoever has plenty to live upon has two or three, and they are not prohibited to them by the secular justice, but only by the Church, which casts them out, and they are not capable of any benefit, as has been said. I have seen with my eyes, on the above-mentioned Thursday, married men, friends of mine, who brought other wives to their houses, and used and enjoyed this evil privilege. In this district was the commencement of Christianity, and in all the other kingdoms they hold these to be very bad Christians for this bad custom of theirs. In all the rest of the country and other kingdoms and lordships the fast is kept throughout Lent by great and small, men and women, boys and girls, without any breach, and they do almost the same at Advent. On Palm Sunday they celebrate their office in this manner. They begin their matins a little after midnight, and keep up their singing and dancing with all their images and pictures uncovered until it is quite daylight: and at the hour of prime they take the branches which each holds in his hand into the church or to the principal door, because neither women nor laymen come inside. The clergy then enter the church with the boughs, and there sing a great deal and very hurriedly, and they come out with the cross and with the palms, and give to each person his branch, and then they make a procession round the church, with the palms in their hands, and returning to the principal entrance, there go inside the church six or seven, as we go in, and they close the door, and he who has to say mass remains with the cross in his hand; they also sing both inside and outside, as we do; that is to say, in that manner, for their language is not ours, and they say mass according to their custom, and give the communion to all. In holy week mass is not said, except on Thursday and Saturday. It is usual to give salutations among one another, principally the grandees, when they meet once in the day to kiss one another on the shoulders, both together on the right shoulder, and the other remains on the left hand side; and during holy week they do not give this salutation of peace to those they meet, nor do they speak, but pass one another as if they were dumb, and without raising the eyes. And a man of fashion does not dress in this week in white clothes, all go dressed in black or blue. They abstain during this week from all work, and every day they celebrate long offices in the churches (but not with tapers, as we do). On Thursday, at hour of vespers, they perform mandato[211]; that is to say, the office of washing feet, and all the people assemble in the church, and the superior of the church sits on a three-legged stool, with a towel girt round him, and a large basin of water before him, and beginning by washing the feet of the clergy, ends with all of them. When this is finished they begin their chaunt, and they chaunt all the night, and the clergy, friars, and zagonais do not go out of the church any more, and do not eat or drink till Saturday after mass. On Friday at midday they very much decorate the church with hangings, according to their circumstances, because some of them are hung with brocades, coarse brocade, and crimson, and others with whatever they have got, or are able to get. They put their hangings principally before the chief entrance, because that is the station of the people: and before the door they put on the hangings a paper crucifix, that is to say, a print,[212] and above it a small curtain, with which it is covered. They sing all night, and all day they read the passion; when that is concluded, they draw the curtain from off the crucifix, and when it is uncovered they all cast themselves on the ground, and prostrate themselves, and give one another buffets, and they knock their heads against the walls, and also strike themselves with buffets and thumps. This lamentation lasts quite two hours. When this is over, two priests go to each door of the circuit which leads to the churchyard, and in all the churches there are three doors; at each door are two priests, one on each side, and each has in his hand a small scourge with five straps, and all, as many as were standing before the principal church door, go out through these doors stripped from the waist upwards. Passing through them they stoop, and those who stand with the scourges keep striking them as long as they are still. Some pass quickly, and receive few strokes; others wait, and receive many. Old men and old women will remain half an hour, until the blood runs, and then they sleep in the circuit of the church, and when it is midnight they begin their mass, and all receive the communion. On Easter at midnight they begin their matins, and before morning make a procession. When dawn breaks they say mass, and keep all this week until Monday of the Sunday after Easter,[213] so they make sixteen days of observance, that is, from Saturday before Palm Sunday to the Monday after Sunday after Easter.[214]

Cap. cxi.—How we kept a Lent at the Court of the Prester, and we kept it in the country of Gorage, and they ordered us to say mass, and how we did not say it.

We happened to keep a Lent at the Court of Prester John, which we kept at the extremity of a country of pagans, who are named Gorages, a people (as they say) who are very bad, and of these there are no slaves, because they say that they sooner allow themselves to die, or kill themselves than serve Christians. This district in which the Court was situated is outside of the Gorages. As it appears, and as the Abyssinians say, these Gorages dwell underground. All the Court and we were encamped above a great river, which ran through great ravines, and on each side was a plain like that of Çarnache dos alhos[215] in Portugal; and in all parts of the river there were an infinite number of dwellings placed in the cliffs, one above the other, and some of them very high, which had no more door than the mouth of a large vat, through which a man could easily pass, and above these doors, an iron in the stone to which they fastened cords so as by them to know the house; and so they kept them now because in these dwellings many of the lower people of the Court were lodging, and they said that they were so large inside that twenty or thirty persons could find room inside with their baggage. And there was on this river a very strong town, which, on the side towards the river, was a very high scarped rock, and on the side towards the land a very high cave, which had fifteen fathoms in height, and six in width, and on both sides it stood over the river, and inside this cave on both sides there were everywhere dwellings like the above-mentioned; and inside the circuit were small houses of walls and thatched in which Christians now live, and they have in it a very good church. The entrance to this town is of stone, and low, with many turns, so that it seems that neither mules nor cows could enter there; yet they enter into a large portion of it, for the space of the third of a league. Up the stream there is a great rock scarped from top to bottom, and quite at the top it is level. There is nearly in the middle of this rock a monastery of our Lady, and they say that there was the palace of the king of that country and kingdom of Gorages. This rock faces to the rising sun, and they ascend to this monastery by a movable ladder of wood: and they say that they raise it every night from fear of the Gorages, when the Court is not here. After that[216] the ascent is by stone steps to the left hand, and a corridor runs past fifteen cells for friars, all which have windows over the water, and very high; further on are their pantries and refectory, and store rooms for provisions. Turning to the right hand by a dark path a man reaches broad daylight, and the principal door of the monastery, which is not made of the rock itself, only it seems that in ancient times it was a great hall, and the form is of a church with screens:[217] it is very light and spacious, because it has many windows over the river, and there are few friars. Many people of the Court used to come here to receive the communion, as they have much devotion for this house and its friars, because they say that they lead good lives, and suffer much injury from the bad neighbours they have. As the people of the Court and the Court are encamped in such a situation that the left wing, which belongs to the great Betudete, is towards these Gorages, there were few days that it was not said: “Last night the Gorages killed fifteen or twenty persons of the people of the great Betudete;” and they took no measures for this, because it was Lent, and on account of the rigid fast no one fights from the debility and weakness of their bodies, for the fast must not on any account be broken. During holy week, near to Easter, Prester John sent to tell us to be ready to say mass near his tent as he wished to hear it. I sent to tell him that I was ready, and that we were all ready, but that we had no tent, as one that they had given us had become rotten with the rains, and was quite worn out. He sent to say that he would give a tent and order it to be pitched, and also would send to call us for us to be ready and come with all our arrangements. When it was a little past midnight he sent to call us, and we went at once, and they conducted us before the king’s door, which we found in this state. A great part of the fence enclosure was broken and removed, from the great tent of the Prester as far as the church of Holy Cross, and on each side facing one another were more than six thousand lighted candles in very good array, and the length of the lines might be a musket shot, and from face to face of those who held the candles the distance might be fully two games of ball, one in front of the other, and it was all smooth ground. There were more than five thousand persons behind these who held the candles, and those of the candles remained like a wall,[218] and they could not be broken because they had before them canes fastened together, and they held the candles upon them in array. Before the tent of the Prester four gentlemen were riding and caracolling their horses; and they placed us near them. Upon this Prester John came out of the tent upon a black[219] mule like a raven, the size of a large horse, which the Prester holds in great estimation, and this mule always travels when the Prester travels, and if he does not ride upon it he goes on a litter. And he came out in this manner, namely, in a cloak[220] of brocade which almost reached to the ground, and the mule was also caparisoned and covered over; the Prester had his crown on his head and a cross in his hand, and there were on each side two horses with their haunches almost in a line with the head of the mule, but not near, for they went a good distance apart; these horses were so caparisoned and adorned and covered with brocade, that with the light it seemed that they were sewn up in gold; and they had great diadems on their heads, which descended to the bits, and large plumes set in the diadems. As soon as the Prester came out, the four who before that were caracolling their horses between the candles went out, and did not show here again; and when Prester John passed, those who had come to call us placed us behind him, without any one else coming there or passing before the candles, only twenty or thirty gentlemen who went on foot a good bit in front of the Prester. Thus we arrived at the church of Holy Cross, where the Prester went to hear the office of the resurrection, and here he dismounted and entered the church, and at once went inside his curtain, and we remained at the door. Soon after, an immense number of clergy came out from inside, and a great many more joined them who were outside, for there was not room for them in the church, and a great procession was ordered, and they put us at the head of it, with the most honoured dignities of the church, so we walked until the procession returned to the church; and as many as it would hold entered it, and the rest remained in the plain, and they bade us enter, and we were near the curtain till mass was finished. When they were going to give the communion Prester John sent to say that we should go and make ready to say our mass, as the tent was pitched for us, and that he was coming soon. We went with those who had called us and always had accompanied us, and they conducted us to a black tent close to that of the Prester, and we, seeing the black tent, said: “They have pitched this tent for us as a mockery.” Then the ambassador said: “Padre, you will do well not to say mass, because this is done to put us to the proof.” I answered him: “Neither do I wish to say it, let us go to our tents:” and this was when dawn was breaking. We went to our tents, which were in the grove close to the river. Then there came two pages in a great hurry over the rocks to call us, and they called us with anger. We were discussing about not going; however, we went and arrived at Prester John’s tent as the sun was rising. At once there came a message from inside, asking, Why we had omitted to say mass on so great a feast? I answered, that I did not choose to say mass on account of the great affront which had been offered—not to us, but to God and his holy resurrection, as they had pitched a black tent for us to say mass in, such as they do not pitch, except for horses and vagabonds.[221] They returned with another message, asking what tent they were to pitch. I answered that, it must be a white one, to represent the splendour of the resurrection, and the purity of Our Lady, and that a red one might well do, as it would represent the blood which Christ shed for us, and that which the apostles and martyrs had shed for him. With this they went away and returned, saying, that we should send and tell him who were the persons who had pitched the tent, and we should see the justice which he would order to be done. We replied that we did not know who had pitched the tent, neither did we ask him to do justice on any one, as this had not been done to us, but to God, and it grieved us more than any one else, because we could not say mass on so great a feast. They then returned, asking that we should have patience, and that he would punish those who had pitched the tent, and that we should go to it, since it was not to say mass, but to dine. We held council whether we should go to it or not, however we went, and they sent us a very good meal of many good viands, and good wines, among which were grape wines of good flavour, and very red. Pero de Covilham was with us during all that passed that night and day, and he told us at the dinner that he felt such great pleasure such as he had never felt in this country, nor had expected to feel, that we had not said mass in this tent, and at the answer which we had given; and that all this had only been in order to test the estimation we had for the things belonging to God and the Church, and that now they would hold us in esteem as good Christians. All this Lent we were very well provided with food and drink, and plenty of grapes and peaches which there are in this district. At the end of the dinner there came to us the old priest who performed the baptism, and he said that Prester John sent him to say that since to-day we did not say mass, that we should anyhow say it next Sunday, and that he would order a good tent to be given, and that we should celebrate offices after our fashion and usage for the soul of his mother, who had died a year ago, and that they would then do her teskar, that is to say, memorial service. All this we did according to our custom.

Cap. cxii.—How Don Luis de Meneses wrote to the ambassador to depart, and how they did not find him at Court, and how the King Don Manuel had died.

Sunday, the octave of Easter, when they told us to say mass, was the 15th of April. We said the office and mass for the mother of the Prester John. We went very early and found a large new white tent pitched, with its curtains of silk hung in the middle according to their usage, and very near to his tent. The friar who is now going as ambassador with other clergy is here, and we at once sung a nocturn for the deceased and said mass. Before the mass was finished there arrived two packets of letters which Don Luis de Meneses sent to us; he had come for us and was remaining at Masua. The packets had come by different roads and both messengers arrived together. There came in these packets letters to Prester John begging him to send us at once. Having seen our letters we found in them that we should set out at once and come to him to Masua by the 15th of April, as he could not wait longer: both because the monsoon did not allow of it, and because he was required in India. These fifteen days had finished this day when the letters were given to us: and in them came the news how the King Don Manuel had died. On this account we were all half dead, and we at once held council as to whether we should be silent about it, or should tell it: it was agreed that we ought not to keep it secret, because the Prester knew the news of India more quickly than we did, by the Moorish merchants who were continually coming from there: and that it was better that he should learn it from us than from others. As it is their custom in mourning to shave the head with a razor, and not the beard, and to dress in black clothes, we began to shave each other’s heads, and to dress in mourning. During this our food came, and those who brought it seeing the work we were engaged in, set the food down on the ground and without speaking returned and told it to the Prester. He at once sent two friars to know what had happened to us. The ambassador said that someone should answer the friars, as he could not for weeping. I declared to them what was the matter, according to the usage of the country, and with their words, saying: “Tell His Highness that the stars and the moon have fallen, and the sun has grown dark and lost its brightness, and we have no one to cover or protect us; we have neither father nor mother to care for us, except God, who is the Father of all: the King Don Manuel our Sovereign has departed from the life of this world, and we remain orphans and unprotected.” We commenced our lamentation, and the friars went away. In that hour proclamations were made that all the shops should be shut where bread and wine and other merchandise were sold, and also that all the offices should be closed; and this shutting up lasted three days, during which no tent was opened. At the end of three days he sent to call us, and the first word he spoke was: “Who inherits the kingdoms of the King my father?” The ambassador said, “The Prince Don Joam his son.” Hearing this he said “Atesia, atesia”, that is to say, “Do not be afraid, for you are in a country of Christians, and as the father was good the son will be good, and I will write to him.” Then we explained to him how they were waiting for us at the sea, and that also they wrote to his Highness to say that we begged his leave to go away, and that now we did not seem to be doing well[222] in his country. He told us to go and eat, and that next day they would commence despatching us, and that we should translate the letters which came for him into his language. And as we already knew the nature of his despatching, on the Sunday that they gave us the letters, we at once despatched Aires Diaz, a Portuguese of our company, and with him an Abyssinian, to go with our letters to the said Don Luis de Meneses; and on the following day we took the letters to the Prester in his language, and he at once departed to another place with his Court, and we with him. As we were travelling on the road they asked me who was carrying for me the church tent. I replied that the tent was not mine, and that I had not the care of it, that we had said our mass, and the tent had remained as we found it. They told me that I had done wrong, that the Prester did not take back anything he had given, and that the tent with its curtains was worth more than a hundred ounces of gold, and that if Prester John ordered mass to be said, and that we told him that we had got no tent, he would be angry. Withal we travelled three days, and as soon as we took up quarters we requested our leave and to be despatched. They told us not to have any fear, that he had already ordered his measures. With all our importuning he ordered that Joan Gonzalvez our factor should go with his and our letters on the way to the sea, and he at the same time gave him a very good mule and rich dresses and ten ounces of gold. He ordered that he should go at once, and he set out immediately with two servants of the Prester. We remained, and however much we importuned the Prester and made requests to him, he kept us waiting yet a month and a half, and at the end of that time he gave us rich dresses, and to four of us he gave gold chains with their crosses, and to each he gave a mule, and to me he gave a mule from his own stables, the pace of which was flying; and he gave for all of us eighty ounces of gold and a hundred loaves for the road, and he gave us his blessing. We did not travel long before we got a message from our people whom we had sent to the sea, that Don Luis had been gone a long time; and we knew well that we should not find him because the monsoon did not allow of it; nevertheless, we arrived, and we found much pepper and cloths which he left for our maintenance, and letters for us and for the Prester. Then there was a council among us what we should do with that pepper: and although the opinion of some was that we should take up quarters and eat it, since Don Luis in his letters ordered that in no way should we go away from the sea coast, because next year at all events they would come for us, others thought that only one or two of us should go to the Court to take the letters to the Prester, and to ask him for justice for the death of four men who had been killed at Arquiquo. And with this opinion of most of us it was agreed amongst us that we should send half the pepper to Prester John and the other half should remain for our maintenance, and that the factor and I should carry it; and I was to go to read to him the letters and have them translated into his language; and this having been settled in one day that the departure should be next morning. On that morning the ambassador came to me, saying, “Padre, I wish to give you another companion to go with you to the Court.” When I said, “Let it be as you command”, he replied to me: “Should you be pleased with my company, it is I that intend to go with you, and we will take all the pepper.” And because I opposed him, saying that nothing would remain for the other people to expend, he said that still he would go and carry all the pepper. He did this expecting great favours and to obtain them all himself. So the ambassador did not choose but to carry all the pepper to the Prester; and we set out at once. I went only to carry the letters to the Prester and to translate them into his language. We set out for the Court on the 1st day of September, and we travelled at a slow pace, with mules and loads; and we reached the Court at the end of November, and found the Prester in a Kingdom which is named Fatiguar, which is on the edge of the Kingdom of Adel, to which kingdom and sovereignty belong Barbora and Zeila; and the king is great and powerful. They say that he is esteemed and looked upon as a saint among the Moorish Kings because he continually makes war upon the Christians; they also say that he receives supplies from the King of Arabia and the Sheikh of Mekkah, and from other Moorish Kings and lords he receives horses and weapons for this purpose; and that he sends every year large offerings to Mekkah of many Abyssinian slaves that he captures in the wars: and also he makes presents of those slaves to the King of Arabia and to other princes. Now with respect to the place or plain where we reached the Prester and where we found him, it is as they say one day’s journey from the first market town in the Kingdom of Adel; and there are eight days’ journey from that market to Zeila. This kingdom of Fatiguar, what we saw of it, both on entering and leaving it, is all more plain than mountain, that is to say there are small and low hills all made use of for much tillage of wheat and barley; and also much cultivated ground and fields, also sown with the above-mentioned grain; there is also great breeding of all cattle, cows, sheep, goats, small mares and mules bred from she-asses. There is a great view of this country, and it seems like a great hill, not a mountain nor of rocky cliffs, but all wooded and cultivated land. They say that there are many monasteries and churches in it, and that it is a very rich country. There is on the highest part of it a lake of an extent of four leagues, from which there came to the Court an infinite quantity of fish, and oranges, lemons, and citrons, and Indian figs. Pero de Covilham told me that this hill was of a circumference of eight days’ journey round its foot; and he also made the conjecture of the size of the lake at four leagues. When the Court left this plain in which we were, we travelled two days and a half until we reached the foot of the hill, and having approached near, it seemed much higher and more fruitful, as it was said to be. There come forth from it many streams, which contain much fish. We travelled across the foot of this hill a day and a half, and then left the hill and kingdom of Fatiguar, and entered that of Xoa; where we presented the pepper and the letters translated into Abyssinian, and we got no answer whatever. Prester John was going this road to make some partition of lands between himself and his sisters, that is to say, two who were sisters both of father and mother, because his father had five wives. And these partitions were of the lands and property which had remained after the death of his mother. Here we remained four days, and in these they sorted the lands, which were divided into three parts, which Pero de Covilham said were lands of more than ten days’ journey. And the Prester gave to each of his sisters her share, and one part for himself, and he then ordered his part to be divided into two, and he gave them to his two infant daughters; and cows, mares, sheep, and goats which covered the hills and fields and valleys, all were in the same partition, and they were divided in the same way as the lands. The Prester would not travel from this place and go to other partitions, as the lands were many and far apart, and he gave orders that they should be divided like these, and that his share should be divided between his daughters. We heard say that the gold and silk of this division was uncounted; and as to the silks, they said that the Prester ordered that his share should be given to the churches and monasteries which were situated in the lands which had belonged to his mother. We travelled to the town of Dara, where Pero de Covilham showed me the thickets in which the friars led a rigid life, and the white man died in the grotto which they found walled up.[223]

Cap. cxiii.—Of the battle which the Prester had with the King of Adel, and how he defeated Captain Mahomed.

I return to the relation of what I heard of the Kingdom of Adel and of a great captain there was in it, and of the death which he died (and this I heard from many and above all from Pero de Covilham). It was most certain that there was in this Kingdom of Adel a great Moorish captain who was named Mahfudi,[224] whom the people of this Court still sing of when they travel. They say that this captain entered the lands of the Prester during every Lent for twenty-five years, because during Lent the great fast breaks the people’s strength and they are not able to fight. He entered so far into them that many times he reached to a distance of twenty leagues. One year he would enter the kingdom of Amara or of Xoa, another the kingdom of Fatiguar, and he entered sometimes at one place sometimes at another. He began to make these incursions in the lifetime of King Alexander, who was uncle of this king, and he continued them during twelve years of his life; and because he died without children, Nahum his brother, the father of this king, succeeded him, and Mahfud did the same during his time. This David who now reigns, commenced to reign at the age of twelve years, and until he was seventeen years old Mahfud did not cease these incursions and warfare during Lent. They say that he made such great incursions and forays that in one he carried off captive nineteen[225] Abyssinians, and that he sent them all as an offering to the house of Mekkah, and as presents to the Moorish kings: and they say that there they become great Moors, because they escape from the great severity of the fast, and enter into the abundance and luxury of the Moors. He also carried off a great multitude of all sorts of flocks. On the twenty-fourth year of his incursions, on his entry into the kingdom of Fatiguar all the people fled and took refuge in the before-mentioned hill, and Mahfud followed them; and they say that he entered the hill and burned all the churches and monasteries there. I have before related that in all the countries of the Prester there are chavas, who are men-at-arms, because in these kingdoms the cultivators do not go to the wars, and that there were in these kingdoms many chavas, and those who took refuge on the hill were cultivators and chavas, that is, men-at-arms who had fled. Mahfud took them all prisoners, and he ordered the cultivators to be separated from the men-at-arms, and he ordered the cultivators to go in peace, and to sow for next year much wheat and barley against he came, so that he and his people might find enough to eat for themselves and their horses. And he said to the men-at-arms: “Knaves who eat the king’s bread, and guard his lands so ill, all of you to the sword;” and he ordered fifteen men-at-arms to be killed; and returned with a great troop, and without any opposition whatever. Prester John being greatly vexed at this, principally at the burning of the monasteries and churches, ordered spies to go into the kingdom of Adel to learn in what part this Mafude would determine to enter. And he learned how the king of Adel would enter in person, and Mahfud with him, and great forces, and that they would enter this same kingdom of Fatiguar and that they were coming out of Lent in the time when the wheat and barley were young to destroy them all, and during Lent would go to another part. On knowing this, Prester John determined to wait for them on the road, and they say that he was much opposed by all his people and by the grandees of the Court, who said that he was a youth of seventeen and that it was not well that he should go to such a war, and that the Betudetes and captains of his kingdoms were sufficient there. They say that he said that he needs must go in person to avenge the injuries which had been done to his uncle Alexander and to his father Nahum, and to himself for six years, and that he trusted in God to avenge it all. So he set out with his people and Court without ordering men to come from distant lands, so as not to be heard of; and they say that he travelled day and night, and one night before dawn he went and pitched his camp over where the first fair of the kingdom of Adel is held, one day’s journey from where we found the Prester when we brought him the pepper. They say there is here a great pass which the King of Adel had passed the day before, and he was encamped about the distance of half a league in the Prester’s country, and off the road: and the Prester was encamped in the country of Adel. When it was clear daylight they saw each other, and they say that as soon as Mahfud saw the camp of the Prester, and saw the red tents which are only pitched for great festivals or receptions, he said to the King of Adel, “Sire, the Negus of Ethiopia is here in person, to-day is the day of our deaths, do what you can to save yourself, for I shall die here.” They say that the king escaped with four horsemen, and of these four one was the son of a Betudete, who was with the King of Adel, and is now with the Prester in his Court, because here they think nothing of joining the Moors and becoming Moors, and if they wish to return, they get baptised again, and remain pardoned and Christians as before. This one gave the account of what took place among them. As soon as the King of Adel had put himself in safety, which was very early in the morning, Prester John, as they relate, who did not know of the king’s flight, ordered that all should receive the communion and commend themselves to God, and get their breakfasts, and make ready: and at the hour of tierce they began to set their battle array, and go out to fight with the Moors, leaving their tents pitched. They say that as soon as the Moors saw them in motion, Mahfud came out to speak to the Christians, asking if there was among them any knight who was willing to fight with him to the death. A friar of the name of Gabri-Andreas came forth for this purpose, and he killed Mahfud, and cut off his head. He is still alive and is a man who is much honoured at the Court. There was then a general onset on the Moors, who had nowhere to escape, because the Prester’s tents were pitched opposite the principal pass, and the other pass which was further off, by which the king had fled, was already taken possession of. When the Moors were routed and killed, Prester John returned to his tents to rest, and the following day he marched into the kingdom of Adel until he arrived at a rich palace of the King of Adel, which he found without any inhabitant. The Prester came up to the doors of this palace and with his lance struck the doors three times, and he did not choose that anyone else should strike them, nor enter nor approach them, that it might not be said that he went to plunder, and that if he had found the king there, or many other people, he would have been the first to enter in person, because he was going in fair and open warfare; and since he found nobody, nobody should enter. So they turned back again. This battle was in the month of July and they asserted that it was on the same day that Lopo Soarez destroyed and burned Zeila,[226] at which destruction I was present: and the Moors who were taken prisoners there said that the chief captain of Zeila was with the King of Adel in wars with the Negus of Ethiopia. Several times the Prester ordered us to be shewn four or five bundles of short swords with silver hilts, not very well made, saying that they had taken all those and others in the war with the Sultan of Adel, and also the tent which he gave us of common brocade and Mekka velvet was taken in that war, and belonged to the king himself, and on that account he had sent to tell us to bless it before saying mass in it, in case the Moor had sinned in it. The head of Mahfud was going about the Court of the Prester more than three years before that passed in our going or arrival in it; and every Saturday and Sunday and days of observance, the common people and boys and girls made great festivity with it, and at this day it is about the Court, and it seems to me that it will be there for ever, so enamoured are they of it. Gabri-Andreas (as I have said) is a friar and a very honourable person, and a gentleman of great revenues, and (according to fame) he is very eloquent, and is a friend of the Portuguese, and he understands Church matters well, and enjoyed talking about them. He has not got more than half his tongue, and the end cut off, because King Nahum ordered it to be cut off because he talked a great deal.

Cap. cxiv.—How the Prester sent us a map of the world which we had brought him, for us to translate the writing into Abyssinian, and what more passed, and of the letters for the Pope.

While we were at the town of Dara, Prester John sent us a map of the world, which we had brought to him four years ago, and which Diogo Lopez de Sequeira had sent him, with a message that if the letters on the map said what the countries were that we should put his letters at the foot of them that he might know what these countries were. We at once set to work, the friar who is going to Portugal and I, he wrote and I read, and beneath our writing he placed theirs. And because our Portugal is mixed with Castile in a small space, and Seville is very near Lisbon and near to Corunna, I put Seville for Spain,[227] and Lisbon for Portugal, and Corunna for Galicia. When the whole of the map was finished and nothing remained they took it away. The following day he sent to call the ambassador and all of us that were with him, and immediately in the first conversation he sent to say that the King of Portugal and the King of Castile were sovereigns of few lands, and that the King of Portugal would not be strong enough to defend the Red Sea from the power of the Turks and Rumys; and that it would be well if he was to write to the King of Spain that he should order a fortress to be built in Zeila, and the King of Portugal should order one to be built in Masua, and the King of France order one to be made in Suaquem; and all three, with the forces of the Prester, would be able to guard the Red Sea and take Jiddah and Mekkah and Cairo, and the holy house, and go through all the countries they chose. The ambassador replied to this that His Highness was deceived or ill informed, and if any one had told him so, that he had not told him the truth; and that if he judged of it by looking at the map of the world, that he would not acquire a right knowledge of the countries, because Portugal and Spain are in the map of the world as things that are well known, and not as things requiring to be known: and that he should look in the map how the cities and castles and monasteries were, and also how Venice, Jerusalem, and Rome were, like things well-known and in small spaces, and let him look at his Ethiopia, how it was an unknown thing, very large and much spread out, full of mountains, and lions and elephants and many other animals, and also many mountain ridges, without the map showing any city, town, or castle; His Highness should know that the King of Portugal, by means of his captains, was powerful enough to defend and guard the Red Sea against all the power of the great Sultan and of the great Turk, and to make war upon them even to the holy house; and that he had made greater conquests in the parts of Africa with the King of Fez and Morocco, and many other kings, subjugating all the Indies and making all their kings his tributary subjects, as His Highness well knew from the adversaries of the King of Portugal, who were the Moorish merchants from India trading at his Court. To this there did not come any answer, and there was another question, and he dismissed us, sending to us plenty to eat and drink; and so he did every day whilst we went with the Court.

Four or five days after the map of the world, the Prester sent to call us, and he sent to say that he wished to write to the Pope of Rome, whom they name Rumea Negus lique papaz: which means the King of Rome and Head of the Popes: and he desired that I should write the beginning of the letter, because they were not accustomed to write, and did not know how to write to the Pope. Don Rodrigo the ambassador answered that we had not come to write, nor was there any one among us who could write to the Pope. I said that I would tell him the beginning, and after that they could continue with whatever he had in his heart to write or to request. There came a message that we should go and dine, and afterwards come back, the friar and I, and that I should bring all my books to prepare the letters; and so we did. When we came we found all those whom they hold to be most learned, assembled together with many books; and they at once asked me for my books. I replied that books were not necessary, but only to know the intentions of His Highness, and by that we should be ruled. Then a man who was the principal one there in rank and learning, and whose title is Abuquer, which means chief chaplain, told the Prester’s intention to the friar, and he told it to me. Then I set to writing and shortly made a small beginning, which was at once taken in my handwriting to His Highness, and was brought back at once, and in that hour we put it into their language and sent it back again. There was no delay with it, for the page came back at once, saying that the king was much pleased with the writing, and amazed because it had not been taken out of books: and he ordered that it should at once be written in clean writing and in two letters; and he ordered that his learned priests should study in their books the most they could to search for what more could be put in the letters.[228] When the friar and I were coming to our tents, the ambassador came out and said to me: “Padre, I regret very much what I said to-day to Prester John that there was no one among us who knew how to write to the Pope, because he will hold us for men of little knowledge, I entreat of you to put all your efforts in this, and do for him all you know.” I answered him, “that whether it was strong or weak, it was done to the best of my knowledge, and that he would see here what I had done”. As soon as he saw it he rejoiced much (according to what he showed), and the minute[229] of the letter which I drew up goes in a separate letter and is smaller; it begins “Blessed Holy Father”.[228] They employed three days in preparing the other letter, and they spent fifteen days in making a small gold cross, which weighs a hundred cruzados, and which is also going to the Pope.

Cap. cxv.—How in the letters of Don Luis it was said that we should require justice for certain men of his who had been killed, and the Prester sent there the Chief Justice of the Court, and Zagazabo in company of Don Rodrigo to Portugal.

In the letters which Don Luis de Meneses sent to Prester John, he made a complaint and required justice for four Portuguese whom the Moors had killed in the town of Arquiquo, a port of the Red Sea and in his country; which justice and vengeance he had not chosen to execute or take by himself, because it was in the Prester’s country, and that he desired to serve His Highness and not annoy him. We had asked this justice many times, and had for answer that he regretted very much that the captain-major Don Luis had not taken vengeance, and killed all the Moors that were in the town of Arquiquo, and that he valued more one Portuguese than all the Moors and negroes that were in his country: and that since he (Don Luis) did not choose to take vengeance himself, that he would order justice to be done: and he ordered the Chief Justice of his Court to come before us in front of his tent, and he sent to tell him by the Cabeata that he was to go with us to the sea, and to take prisoners all the Moors, Turks, Rumys, and Christians, whom he should discover to have been in the town of Arquiquo at the time that they killed these men of Don Luis de Meneses. And those that he found guilty of the said death, or in not having arrested those who had killed, and who had raised the brawl, he was to give them up to any captain-major who came from Portugal, and he might kill them or do justice as he pleased; killing, beheading, or taking them as captives, either Christians or Moors, Turks and Roumys; but that the Portuguese were not to complain any more of this justice, but to take it for themselves. In this town, and in these days, Prester John determined to send an ambassador to Portugal, for up to this time he was not sending any one. He sent to call the ambassador and me, and he said, that he had determined to send a person with us to the King of Portugal, in order that his desires might have effect quicker, his representative being there; and he asked if we thought that Zagazabo would be sufficient for this journey, inasmuch as he could speak our language, and had already been to our countries. We answered that Zagazabo was quite sufficient for this journey, and for being the envoy of His Highness, because he was a man who got on well with us, and we with him, and that he had no need of an interpreter: and that now His Highness was doing what he ought to do, because on his return he would give more belief to what his own countrymen saw and heard of foreigners, than to what foreigners said of themselves. They then decided that we should have him for our companion. The following day he sent us dresses, and thirty ouquias[230] of gold, and a hundred loaves for the road. Still we waited a great deal later, and the cause (according to what the ambassador himself told us later) was because the determination of Prester John was tardy, this detention was necessary as the ambassador was not yet despatched, until he had given him the things which he had to carry for his journey and himself, that is to say, clothes and gold for his expenses. Also we waited for the Chief Justice who had to go with us, as has been said. After all we set out without them, saying that we would go on at a slow pace: this was because we had often seen his despatch. So we went away and they caught us up on the road, each in their turn, and we travelled until we reached Barua, which is near the sea, where our quarters were, which is the chief town of the country of the Barnagais. We did not find any news of the Portuguese coming to the port, and we all waited together until the monsoon had passed. During this time the Chief Justice arrested three or four gentlemen, and one Xumagali who was at Arquiquo at the time they killed the men. This Xumagali was soltam,[231] Xumagali means a small gentleman, like a gentleman without lands. This one was arrested, because at that time he was justice, and he did not do his duty, and one Gabri Jesus was arrested because he came there and did nothing; and Arrais Jacob was arrested, because at that time he ruled the country of the Barnagais; and one Dafela, who is a great lord, was arrested because some Moors and Turks took refuge in his lands, and he did not make them prisoners, though he knew that they were at the death of Don Luis de Meneses’ men who were killed at Arquiquo. These four were great gentlemen, and all five were sent as prisoners to the Court by the Chief Justice, and no one went to accuse them. Although they were ill treated, they became free. As soon as the Chief Justice arrived at Court, and gave news to the Prester that the Portuguese had not arrived, and that we remained without a remedy, the Prester at once sent a Calacem,[232] ordering us to go to the town of Aquaxumo, where, as I before said, we had been, and where had been the dwellings of the Queens of Saba and Candacia. There they ordered us to be given five hundred loads of wheat, and a hundred cows, and a hundred sheep, and a hundred jars of honey, and another hundred of butter; and for his ambassador who came with us, twenty loads of wheat, and twenty cows, and twenty sheep, and twenty jars of honey, and as many of butter.

Cap. cxvi.—How Zagazabo the ambassador returned to the Court, and I with him, for business which concerned him, and how they flogged the Chief Justice and two friars, and why.

Whilst we were in this town of Aquaxumo there came a message to the ambassador of the Prester that a small lordship belonging to him had been taken from him; then he begged me to go with him to the Court to ask for justice. I went, and we discovered there that his adversary was the principal page of Prester John, who was Abdenaguo, captain of the pages, because there is no service here, but what it has one person over all the others. As all the messages went to the Prester through the pages we had no remedy in putting in our word, so then we sought succour from an Ajaze, who is a great lord; and although he was a great friend of Abdenaguo our adversary, yet for the sake of justice he made known to the Prester how we had come and for what. Then there came a message asking me what I had come to Court for. I gave an account of all, and said that the injury and unreasonable thing done to Zagazabo, was done rather to the King of Portugal and to us Portuguese than to him, since he was absent from his land and lordship for the service of the King of Portugal and the company of us Portuguese, by the order of His Highness, and that his land should be confirmed to him, and not usurped and forcibly taken from him: and that in our parts those who went in the service of kings, not only themselves, but moreover their servants, factors, majordomos, property, revenues, and lordships were much favoured and guarded. And so it was hoped that His Highness would favour his ambassador and order justice to be done, and that he should be restored to his lordship. At once there came an answer saying, who was the person that had caused us vexation, and had taken the lordship of the said Zagazabo. We replied that it was Abdenaguo the head of the pages who had ordered this act of force to be done by his stewards and factors, and that we asked His Highness to give us judges above suspicion, and that he should order the pages to carry to him any message that might be necessary upon this business. Soon four pages came to us saying that their lord commanded them that whatever thing should be requested of him by us in this business, that they were to do it with free will and without fear of anybody. The judges in this suit were the Ajaze Daragote and the Ajaze Ceyte, to whom we were to address ourselves. We went to them soon, and they appointed a time that such an hour of the sun we should come to such a place. We went, and there were present the representative of Abdenaguo and the ambassador in person: and they argued on both sides, and brought forward reasons until a conclusion was come to verbally, because here there is no writing in the tribunals, and all was verbal, and the sentence is given verbally. The judges concluded with the sentence that the land and fief[233] which Zagazabo claimed was very small, and that it was subject to another land of great extent and of a great lordship of which Abdenaguo was the lord, and that it was of right that the great wind enters in all the land; and thus the entry could not be taken away from Abdenaguo, great lord as he was. Then we went away to complain, having remained struck down by this sentence. We complained to the King. He sent to tell us to go to our quarters, and not to be vexed, that all would turn out well, and that next day we should go and plead to the Chief Justice, and he would do us justice. With that we went away. Next day we went to wait for the Chief Justice in the road to the Prester’s tent: he received us with good will, saying that he had already received the king’s instructions for the despatch of our business, and that we were to wait at the tent of justice, as he was going to speak to the king, and that then he would despatch us. All the same we went further on with him as far as where he separated from the people to go and speak to the king. While we remained thus expecting our despatch from the good will we had seen in him, when he came out from the tent there came out with him two pages, who accompanied him to the place where they flog men, and there they called the executioners, and they had him stripped and thrown down and tied, as I have already described, that is they threw him down on his stomach and made fast his hands to two stakes, and his feet tied together with a leather cord, and two men to pull at it, and he was bare from the waist upwards. There were two executioners on each side of him, and most times they strike the ground with the scourge. And when orders come from the king to strike, the blow reaches the bones, and of these blows they gave him three. Reckoning this time, I have seen the Chief Justice flogged three times, and after that, two days later, return to his office, because they do not hold it to be a dishonour; rather they say the king is fond of him, because he remembers him, and a short time after does him favours and bestows lordships. And when they now thus flogged the Chief Justice, there were there sixty friars, all clothed in new yellow habits according to their usage. When they had done flogging the Chief Justice, they took an old friar, who was very venerable and the head of the others, and they flogged him in the above mentioned manner, and they did not once touch this friar. When they had done with him they brought another friar who might be a little more than forty years old, and he looked respectable, and they flogged him like the others, and this one was touched twice. When it was over I asked the cause of it, and what sin the friars had committed. Then they related to me that the friar who had been last flogged had been married to a daughter of the Prester, that is of Alexander, uncle of this David, and he had separated from her, and he had married a sister of this Prester, who did what she pleased, and the husband did not dare to meddle with this from fear of the Prester, and also because in this country the faults of women are not looked at with much surprise, and he left this second wife and returned to the first. And Prester John ordered that he should return to his sister. When this order came he did not choose to do it, and went and became a friar: and on this account the Prester ordered these friars to come before the Chief Justice for him to see whether this man was rightly a friar. He judged that he had lawfully taken the habit, and because he had judged thus the Prester had ordered him to be flogged. And the Padre or guardian had been flogged because he had given the habit to the other. And the third man was flogged because he had received the habit; and they commanded him at once to leave the habit and to return to the Prester’s sister. With this we remained without being heard this time, nor till fifteen days later, on account of things which happened in the monastery, which I will relate.

Cap. cxvii.—How, after the death of Queen Helena, the great Betudete went to collect the dues of her kingdom, and what they were, and how the Queen of Adea came to ask assistance, and what people came with her on mules.

It might be eight or nine months after the death of Queen Helena, who reigned over the greater part of the kingdom of Gojame, that still as many as newly came to the Court, went to weep before her tent, which still remains pitched in its place; and we also did this when we came. After her death Prester John sent the great Betudete to the said kingdom of Gojame to collect the Gibre[234] which is paid to the King each year as dues, and in these days the said Betudete arrived with the gibre, which amounted to three thousand mules, three thousand horses, and three thousand basutos—these are some cloths which the great people have upon their beds, they are of cotton and fleecy like carpets and not so close worked, and as to price, those that are least valuable are not less than an ouquia, and they are worth from two, three, four up to five ouquias; besides thirty thousand cotton cloths of small value, which are worth two of them a drachm, and sometimes less. They also said that they brought thirty thousand ouquias of gold; it is already known that an ouquia weighs eleven cruzados. At the presentation of this gibre, I saw with my eyes all the gold which came covered up on trays,[235] and they said that it was a great quantity, and it all came in this manner. The Betudete in front, stripped from the waist upwards, and with a crown wound round his head, like the head gear of a Castilian muleteer,[236] and when within hearing from where he could be heard at the Prester’s tent, he said three times, with a very small interval between each cry, “Aalto,” which in our language is like Sire: and they answered him from within the tent twice in their language, “Who are you?” He, in their language, replied, “I who call, am the smallest of your house, and am he who saddles your mules and puts the head stalls on your baggage mules, I serve in what other business you command, I bring to you, Sire, what you commanded me.” All this was said three times, and when that was done, the voice from inside said “Pass on, pass forward.” And he went on and made his bow before the tent and passed on. Behind him immediately came the horses, one behind the other, each horse had a man or boy at the halter. The foremost thirty were saddled, they were reasonably good, but of the others that followed behind, the best was not worth two drachms, and many of them were not worth a drachm; I saw them later given for less, and these would be quite three thousand. After these sorry nags came the mules after the manner of the nags, that is thirty good ones saddled, and all the others small young mules, but better than the nags. There were male and female mules of a year and over, and two year old and three, and none more than that except the saddled ones; for none of the others were fit for riding. These would be quite three thousand, and they passed by as had done the Betudete and the little horses. After the mules came the basutos, and each man carried a basuto, for he could not carry more from their great volume. After the basutos came the cloths, each man with a bundle of them; they said that each man carried ten cloths, and there would be quite three thousand men with the basutos, and three thousand with the cloths, and all these were from the said kingdom of Gojame, who were obliged to bring the gibre.[237] Behind the cloths came three men, each with a trencher[238] on their heads, of those in which they eat: they were covered with large green and red cloths of tafetan. Behind these trays came all the men of the Betudete, and they passed in turn as did the Betudete. They said that the gold went in those trays; and they ordered him to go to his quarters with all the gibre, and so he did. Ten days from prime till after vespers were spent in this passing by of the dues. It was fifteen days since a Moorish Queen had come to this Court; she was the wife of the King of Adea, and sister of one that came to be the wife of the Prester John, and he rejected her because she had two large front teeth, that is to say, long ones. And he married her to a great lord who was Barnagais, and now is Betudete.[239] This Queen came to the Prester to ask him for assistance, saying that a brother of her husband had risen against her and was taking the kingdom. This queen came quite like a queen, and brought with her fully fifty honourable Moors on mules and a hundred men on foot, and six women on good mules; they are not very dark people. She was received with great honour, and the third day of her arrival was called and came before the tent of the Prester, and she came with a black canopy.[240] She was dressed twice that day, once at the hour of prime, and the other time at hour of vespers: both dresses were of brocade and velvet and Moorish shirts from India. They said that the Prester sent word to her to rest herself and not be vexed, and that he would go as she desired, and that he was waiting for the Barnagais and the Tigrimahom, and as soon as they came he would at once set out. Eighteen days after this Queen’s arrival, she received dresses. On the following day Tigrimahom arrived, and the day after that Barnagais arrived. Both brought the gibri which they are obliged to pay to the king, and with them came the chauas of their lands, that is the men-at-arms; and also many lords came with them. When these lords were assembled, before they presented their gibris, Prester John commanded that the Betudete should come and present the gibri of Gojame which had already passed before him, as has been said. As this was on Friday, and the holydays of Saturday and Sunday were following, the Betudete came on Monday following with the gibri, and with the same formalities as before; and this in the presence of Barnagais and Tigrimahom and many other gentlemen who had come with them. He spent the whole day, from morning till night, in presenting it and its reception. The following day, after the hour of prime, Barnagais began to give his gibri, and he began with very handsome horses; there were a hundred and fifty, and what with running and making them jump, he passed the day without doing anything else. The day after they said that he presented many silks and much thin stuffs from India; I did not see him present these, as I was unwell. When this was presented the following day very early, Tigrimahom began to present his gibri. He also began with horses, which were two hundred, larger and more handsome than those of the Barnagais, because they came from a less distance; and of one set and of the other most came from Egypt, and others from Arabia. This day nothing was done but horses. The next day they presented more silks than ever I had seen together, and the whole day passed in presenting, counting and receiving. On the following Tuesday, at the hour of midday, Balgada Robel, a great gentleman, subject to Tigrimahom, came to present his gibri separately. It was thirty horses, all from Egypt, the size of elephants, and very fat, each horse with a Xumagali, that is a gentleman without title, and eight of these Xumagali were dressed in some very good cuirasses of ours, and some of them placed on velvet, and others on soft leather and gilt studs. These eight wore some of our helmets on their heads. Balgada Robel was counted among these eight, and the twenty-two all wore coats of mail with full sleeves and fitting close to the body. All the thirty carried two azagays and several knives like Turks: and all had small red caps with large ends, which fluttered in the wind. Before them came two little negroes dressed in red and yellow livery, each upon a camel covered with the same livery, and sounding kettledrums. As soon as they reached near the tent of the Prester, they set aside the horses at one end and did not cease from their music and the Xumagalis from skirmishing: they did it in such a way that the Prester ordered other horses to be brought of those given by the Barnagais and Tigrimahom, that they should play also. This lasted till sunset. This Balgada Robel is a gentleman to whom on our coming Don Rodrigo gave a helmet, and sold him a sword for a mule. They said that he was always fighting with the Moors, and so he has at Court the reputation of a great warrior and good knight.

Cap. cxviii.—How assistance was given to the Queen of Adea, and how the Prester ordered the great Betudete to be arrested, and why, and how he became free, and also he ordered other lords to be arrested.