my whole heart to you May our Lord God bring all to an happy Issue and grant your Excellency many years of Life Amen Had the Jesuits been so kind as to have published those Letters of Father Peter that these refer to we might then probably have known the true cause of that Father's having left Za Danguil's Court so abruptly as he did but however that were it is plain from what Athenateus writes of the Father's being acquainted with all his Secrets so as to be able to disclose his whole heart to the Viceroy that they two had been plotting together so that had the Thousand Portugueses Athenateus wrote for so earnestly come it is more than probable that he would have made use of them for his own Service the getting the Ports of Matzua and Arkiko into the hands of the Portugueses and the erecting of Tigre by their Assistance into a Kingdom Independent of that of Ethiopia being a thing the Fathers even when most in favour with the Emperors were continually labouring to bring about For Athenateus was not only never in favour with the Emperor whose name he made use of in these Letters but on the contrary as the Jesuits themselves confess he was reduced by him to the Miserable condition of a probre escudero or poor Waiting-man Neither is it unlikely that it was Athenateus having ruined himself and his Family by intrieguing with the Fathers that made him when he was upon his Death-bed reject their Assistance when they offered themselves to him and that with indignation not caring it is like to have any thing more to do with people that had deceived him so often Tho to do the Fathers Justice it was none of their fault that the Soldiers did not come by the first fair wind after they had promised them But the Habassin Empire notwithstanding all its late great bleedings was too full of bad humours to continue long quiet A Mock Emperor set up and Murthered For Seltam Saged was not well warm in his Throne when a Fellow of base extraction was set up for the Emperor Jacob and though he is said not to have resembled him in the least either in Face or Person yet he acted him so well that he was followed by vast Multitudes This Perkin after having cost Ethiopia a vast quantity of blood was killed at last by some of the Grandees of his own Party being grown weary of maintaining a Mock Prince at so great a charge Father Peter is said to have made himself very Popular on this occasion by having persuaded the Emperor to pardon all the Common People and most of the Nobles that had been engaged in this Rebellion as likewise to Pardon a great herd of Peasants who had provoked him more by their Rudeness and Insolence than by their having taken up Arms against him The Emperor having thus rid his hands of his Sham-Rival removed his Camp from Coja The Emperor and his Brother Ras Cella Christos convinced of Christ having two Natures to a place called Deqhana on the North-Side of the Lake of Dembea which was not far from Gorgora the new Residence of the Jesuits by which means the Fathers had daily opportunities of waiting on him and of Discoursing with him about Matters of Religion The argument of all others that persuaded the Emperor the most effectually of the truth of Christ's having two Natures was the Fathers shewing him a place in his own Hamanot Abea a Book of the same nature with the Bibliotheca Patrum wherein it was affirmed That that Doctrine was believed by all the Ancient Doctors of the Church and that Dioscorus the Patriarch of Alexandria was the first Bishop that had ever denied it Raz Cella Christos a Prince of great heat and who was made Viceroy of Gojam by his Brother the Emperor at this time Cella Christos turns a Zealous Roman Catholick thereupon was likewise convinced of the truth of that Doctrine by the same argument and being once convinced of it nothing would serve him but he would publickly declare himself a Roman Catholick upon it reckoning that the Alexandrians who had so grosly imposed upon him in one particular had Mislead him in every point wherein they differ'd from the Roman Church He would gladly have made his Abjuration and first Confession at the feet of Father Peter but the Father not happening to be in the way when he was called to go against the Gauls who had made a great inroad into his Provinces he would defer the doing of it no longer and so made them at the feet of Father Francis whom for that reason he ever after called his Master Nevertheless after the Expedition was over he made a general Confession of his whole Life to Father Peter and with it a Solemn and Publick Declaration of his resolution to Live and Dye in the Roman Faith His Example is said to have been followed by most of his Officers and by several of the Grandees of the Court. In the year 1607. Father Peter having writ a Letter to the K. of Spain to acquaint him with Seltem Saged being Established in the Throne of Ethiopia and to desire him to send to Congratulate his accession to it and to thank him for his kindness to the Fathers that King complied so far with the Father's request as in the Year 1609 to write the following Letter to the Emperor MOST Powerful Emperor of Ethiopia The King of Spain's Letter to Emperor of Ethiopia I Don Philip by the Grace of God King of Portugal and Algarves Lord of Guinea and of the Conquest Navigation and Commerce of Ethiopia Arabia Persia and India c. Do send you much Health as my Brother whom I love and prize much Now since there has always been a good Correspondence and Amity between the Emperors your Ancestors and the Kings of Portugal to me it seemed just and fitting to write this to you to let you know how much I rejoice at the News of your accession to the Empire and shall always rejoice to hear of your Prosperity being ready as occasions shall offer to satisfy you in all things and accordingly I have recommended your affairs to these my Kingdoms and to my State of India and the Viceroy thereof that they knowing how acceptable it will be to me may be sure to comply with all your desires and that this our Amity may continue I do most passionately desire you to write all your News to me as I shall do mine to you I do earnestly recommend the Friars that are in your Kingdom to you which is my chief Obligation namely Father Peter Pays desiring that they no less than the Portugueses may be Treated as it is reasonable Most Powerful Emperor whom I love and prize as my Brother May our Lord have your Royal Person and State in his holy Protection Written at Madrid the 15th of March 1609. The Emperor is said to have been very proud of this Letter and the
industry to all sorts of people that we may all think so of the Divinity as to pass our lives in hope and without dissention concerning what is true and just Wherefore since we do think fit to extend this our Care to you no less than to the Romans we do enjoin you to maintain the same Doctrines with them in your Churches and to that end to send Bishop Frumentius into Egypt with all possible expedition there to be judged by the most Venerable George and the other Egyptian Prelates in whom is the Supreme Authority of Ordaining and Judging af Bishops For unless you will pretend to be ignorant of what all the world knows you must be sensible that Frumentius was consecrated by Athanasius a man made up of wickedness and who not being able in the least to vindicate himself as to any of the Crimes he stands charged withal was thereupon deposed and has since that turned a Vagabond roving from one Countrey to another as if he hoped to lose his Guilt by shifting his dwelling In case Frumentius should yield a ready obedience and give a full account of the whole Conspiracy so that it shall be certified that he does not dissent from the Ecclesiastical Laws and the Faith that is now established and it doth appear that he is a Person of a Good Life he may then be ordained a Bishop which at present he is not of Right Whereas if he shall seek delays and decline coming to Judgment that will be an undeniable Proof of his having been seduced by the words of the most Profligate Athanasius as also of his acting impiously against God and of his being involved in the same Crimes whereof Athanasius stands convicted In which case if he should be suffered to go on without controul as he will do all that he can to corrupt your People with his Wicked and Impious Words and not only disturb and destroy the Church and belch out Blasphemies against the Supreme God so he will likewise bring Ruin and Destruction upon all Nations Whereas if he could be persuaded to come and converse familiarly with Venerable George and other Learned Men he would reap great Benefits thereby and return to his Bishoprick well instructed in all Ecclesiastical Discipline God preserve you my most dear Brethren As this Letter is a clear demonstration of the greatness of the Arian Rage against the Orthodox which not being satisfied with having Persecuted them with the utmost Barbarities in all parts of the Roman Empire pursued them beyond its bounds so such a boundless Rage was never more conspicuous in Constantius or any other Persecutor of the Professors of the True Faith than it was in a Modern Prince The French King's Rage against Protestants superior to that of the Arians against the Orthodox who not being contented with having harass'd and destroyed several Thousands of Protestant Families within his own Kingdom did within these Ten Years write to all his most dear Brethren the Great Turk not excepted to drive all his Protestant Subjects if they did not presently turn Roman Catholicks out of their Territories or which was worse did by Solemnly withdrawing his Protection from them in Popish Countries leave them at the mercy of the Inquisition Baronius in his Roman Martyrology according to his humour of multiplying Saints has made Two of a single Frumentius for whereas in the Martyrology it is said among the Indians for so the Habassins were called anciently of St. Frumentius who was there first a Captive and afterwards Ordained a Bishop by St. Athanasius and did propagate the Gospel thorough that Countrey the Cardinal in his Notes adds At the same time there lived another Frumentius who was Bishop of Axum in Egypt whereas Axum is in Ethiopia and not in Egypt and was the City Frumentius mentioned in the Martyrology was Bishop of Philostorgius who was himself an Arian speaking of Theophilus Indus having been sent by Constantius on this Embassy insinuates as if the Ethiopians had been turned by him to the Arian Sect. But Philostorgius being the only Historian that insinuates any such thing we have little reason to believe it upon his bare word About the Year 480. Nine Monks come into Ethiopia Nine Monks are said to have been sent from Rome into Ethiopia their Names were Araguai or Michel Alef Gavi Afe Adimata Cuba Garima Saham Lebanos Pantaleon the Patriarch Mendez who quotes the Chronicon Axumense for this truly observes That by Rome here is meant Greece which after the Roman Emperors had fixed their Court in it was called in these remote parts by that name but the Dominicans in their History of Ethiopia of which the Reader will meet with an Epitome in the Appendix will have all these Monks though dead near a Thousand Years before Dominick was born to have been Friers of his Order sent from Old Rome and having turned Adimata whom they call Imata into a Woman they have made her likewise a Holy Sister of their Order that accompanied the Eight Brothers in their Mission Metaphrastes and after him the whole herd of Legendaries do speak of one Elesbean a Christian King of Ethiopia in the time of Justin the Emperor of whom and of his having Vanquished a Jewish Tyrantin Arabia who had been a Cruel Persecutor of his Christian Subjects they have framed a tedious blind Story that is not fit to be offered to any Reader that has not a Legendary Nose But as most Fables have something of History for their foundation so if this of Elisbean has any it must be the following History that is met with in Procopius's Persian War Justinian the Emperor being engaged in a War with the Persians in the Year 530. Justinian sends an Embassy into Ethiopia sent one Julian Embassador to the King of the Axumites or the African Ethiopians and to the King of the Homerites a Nation Inhabiting the Asiatick Coast of the Red-Sea that is opposite to Ethiopia to engage them being Christians to joyn with him against the Persians the common Enemy of their Religion The King of Ethiopia's Name at that time was Hellesteus who a few years before had out of Zeal for Christianity the Christian Homerites having complained to him of their being miserably oppressed by the Jews and Heathens they lived among crossed the Red-Sea with a Numerous Fleet and Army and having in a pitch'd Battel Defeated and Killed the King of the Homerites who had been a Cruel Persecutor of Christians he advanced one Esimetheus an Homerite Christian to the Throne but upon Condition that he and his Successors for ever should pay a yearly Tribute to the Crown of Ethiopia The main thing proposed by the Ambassador to the Ethiopian for the incommoding of the Persians The business of the Embassy was to open a Trade for Silk to the Indies which the Romans who used to buy those Silks of the Persians would promise to take off his Merhants hands But for the Homerites the
the Island of Madera after which he went on discovering more and more yearly The Island of Madera first discovered The Pope gives a Title to the Crown of Portugal to all the New Countries they shall discover until they made the Mountains of Leaena which lie 360 Leagues to the Southward of Ganaria The Infante to encourage the Portugueses to go on with the Discoveries he had so happily begun obtained a Bull from Pope Martin the Vth and which was afterwards confirmed by divers other Popes whereby he gave to the Crown of Portugal a Title to all the Countries that should be discovered by its Subjects from the Promontory of Ganaria to the farthest Indies But notwithstanding this Grant The Discoveries were intermitted and revived again by Alphonso V. after the Infante's Death these Discoveries were for some years at a stand until they were renewed again by Alphonso the Vth whose Captains sailed first beyond the Mountain of Leaena as far as Caboverde and afterwards advanced as far as the Promontory of St. Catherin which is two degrees and an half to the South of the Equator John II. who succeeded Alphonso set his heart extreamly on carrying on those Discoveries and having got some Eminent Mathematicians about him he commanded them to consult together to see whether they could invent any thing that might be of use in long Voyages the most eminent of them were Rodrigo and Josephe his two Physicians and one Martin Bohemo The Astrolabe and Tables of Declination were found out by the Portugues At the River Zaires in the Kingdom of Congo the Portugurses first heard of the Habassins who had been Scholar to Johannes Monteregius These Learned Men after divers Conferences invented the Astrolabe and the Tables of Declination With the help of this Instrument one Canus a famous Sea-Commander carried on the Discoveries as far as the River Zaires in the Kingdom of Congo This River is said to rise in the same Mountains with the Nile and in the Winter to run into the Sea with that violence as to make the Water fresh for 80 miles Here it was the Portugueses first heard of the Habassins and of their being Christians of whom when King John came to be informed he resolved to send some by the way of Egypt to try to get into that Countrey the first that were sent being ignorant of the Arabick Tongue were quickly discouraged who having visited Jerusalem returned home without doing any thing Only to excuse themselves they raised Stories that were enough to have daunted others from attempting that Voyage a second time But the King understanding what it was that had made his first Attempt miscarry and having found two men who were both great Masters of the Arabick Tongue whose names were Petro Cavilham Cavilham and Payo who both understood Arabick are sent by the way of Memphis to find out Habassia and Alphonso Payo he sent them on the same Errand with a strict charge not to come back without an Account of the Scituation and State of the Habassin Empire and Religion promising them great Rewards if they did it effectually They went first to Alexandria and from thence to Memphis and from thence to Medena where being informed of the Indies being on the left hand and Habassia on the right they agreed to part there and having cast lots it fell to Payo's share to go to Habassia and to Cavilham to go to the Indies having appointed to meet at Memphis after they had made all the Discoveries they were able in their several Provinces Payo whose Province was Habassia died by the way before he got thither Cavilham Payo dying by the way goes first to the Indies then to the Southern Coast of Africk and at last enters into Habassia but Cavilham had better luck and arrived safe in the Indies where having observed all the Chief Ports and Commodities of those Countries he made Maps of the one and set down an exact Account of the other which were afterwards of great use to the Portugueses as well as an encouragement to them to go on in their Discoveries After having finished what he had to do in the Indies he failed to the Coast of Africk where having touched at Oramata and the Promontory of Prasus and at Rapti which stands on the Mouth of the River Sengi as also at Melinde Quiloa and Cephala he was there certainly informed by the Merchants and Mariners that there was a passage to the Indies in the Latitude where the Cape of Good Hope was since discovered to be Cavilham being overjoy'd at this Intelligence made all the haste he could to Memphis where being arrived he met with the bad news of Payo's Death and tho he was willing to have returned to Portugal with the Intelligence he had got yet remembring how much the King's heart was set on the discovery of Habassia of which he was able to give him little or no Account he resolved to take a Journey thither which he did having first sent the King in writing an exact Information of all the Discoveries he had made in the Indies and on the Coast of Africk by some Merchants that traded from Memphis to Lisbon In the Year 1490. Cavilham enters into Habassia and was kindly entertained by the King whose Name was Alexander Cavilham first entred into Habassia of which at that time one Escander or Alexander was Emperor who being satisfi'd of the truth of what Cavilham had told him of his having been sent to him by the King of Portugal and of the Greatness of that King he entertained him civilly and was preparing to have sent an Ambassador along with him to Portugal but was prevented from doing it by Death But Nahod who succeeded Alexander He was detained as a Spy by King Nahod was so far from executing what his Father had designed that he would neither send himself nor suffer Cavilham to return home whom he looked upon and treated as a Spy He sends an account of the Country to Portugai by an Habassin Monk Cavilham finding that there was no hopes of his ever getting out of Ethiopia persuaded an Habassin Monk who was going to Jerusalem to take a Journey to Lisbon by whom he sent the King a full Information of the State of the Habassin Church and Empire which coming safe to the King's hand gave him abundant Satisfaction Nahod having reigned 13 Years was succeeded by his Son Lebna Danguil or David who being a Child at his Father's Death the Empire during his Minority was managed by his Grand-mother Helena who had been Wife to the Emperor Beda Mariam and who for her admirable Wisdom and Learning was highly esteemed by all sorts of People She had a great Dowry in the Kingdom of Goiam where she built the most stately Church that had ever been seen in Ethiopia This King had three Names his Baptismal Name was Lebna Danguil his second Name which he took when he assumed the
Government was David his third was Onay Segued he was a Prince of great Courage but as we shall see hereafter was ruined by the vast hopes he had conceived of the Advantages that would accrue to him by his new Alliance with the Portuguese Emanuel succeeding John Emanuel King of Portugal sends Almeida with a great Fleet to take Ormus and some other Sea-Ports in the Indies both in the Kingdom of Portugal and in his heat for carrying on the Discovery of the Indies after the Great Gamas having got thither and entred into Alliances with the several Princes did reckon that there was no security to his Trade in those Parts without getting some of the best and strongest of its Ports into his own Hand he thereupon sent Francisco de Almeida with the greatest Fleet that ever was sent before or since to the Indies to take Adenum Ormus Malaca c. to which and all that he was able to Conquer in those Parts the Popes who pretend to a right to dispose of all Infidel as well as Heretical Kingdoms had given him a Title Almeida sailed from Lisbon with his great Fleet on the 26th of March in the Year 1502. and after a troublesom Voyage arrived at Quiola where he deposed the King and bestowed the Crown upon the most popular Man he could hear of and having found a convenient Scituation for a Castle he run one up in twenty Days and left a good Garison in it which commanded both the Port and the Town from Quiola he sailed to Mombacca which having taken by Assault after having plundered the Town he burnt it to the ground after that he sailed to Cranganor where he likewise built a Castle which commanded both the Port and the Town In the Year 1507. Alphonso Albequerque having plundered most of the Towns upon the Coast of Melinde sailed to the Island of Socatora the Inhabitants whereof are Christians of the Jacobite Sect as the Habassins are where having taken the Fort of Benninum by Storm he entred into the Persian Gulph Albuquerque sends two Envoys to Helena the Governess of Ethiopia and after having destroyed the Ports of Curiate and Mascat and taken Zaor Orfazana and Ormus he sent two Envoys whose Names were Joan Barmudes and Joan Gomez to the Emperor of Habassia who was well-known in those Parts to desire some Troops of him The Empress Helena who was still Governess of that Empire having heard of the great things that had been done by the Portuguese Captains every where in the Indies received those Envoys with great Ceremony and expecting to reap great Advantages from an Alliance with a Nation that was so powerful at Sea she dispatched one Matthew an Armenian Ambassador in her Grand-Son's Name to the King of Portugal joyning an Habassin of some Quality in Commission with him their Business was to conclude a League offensive and defensive betwixt the Crowns of Ethiopia and Portugal and that in order to drive the Turks out of all the Ports they were possessed of on the Coast of the Red-Sea The Ambassadors having got to Goa were there very kindly received by Albuquerque who had taken that City but a little before and were carried to Lisbon by the Fleet that went thither in the Year 1513. where they were splendidly received by the King Matthew besides his Letters of Credence carried a piece of the true Cross from that Empress to the King which had been sent her for Names sake it is like by the Habassin Monks at Jerusalem The Letters of Helena Grand-Mother of David the Precious John to Emanuel King of Portugal written in the Year 1509. In the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost one only God in Three Persons The Health Grace and Benedictions of our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ the Son of the Virgin Mary Born in the House of Bethlem be upon our beloved Brother the most Christian King Emanuel Lord of the Sea and Conqueror of the cruel Infidels the Mahometans THE Lord Prosper you The Empress Helena's Letter to the King of Portugal and give you Victory over all your Enemies and may your Kingdoms and Dominions be spread far and wide by the devout Prayers of the Messengers of Christ our Redeemer the Four Evangelists St. John St. Luke St. Mark and St. Matthew whose Holiness and Prayers preserve you We do certify you most beloved Brother That your two Envoys are arrived at our Court the one is named John who saith he is a Priest the other is named John Gomez upon whose having desired Succour and Provisions of us we sent our Ambassador Matthew a Brother of our Service with the good leave of our Patriarch Mark who gives us Blessing and sends Presbyters to Jerusalem and who is our Father and the Father of our Kingdoms and the Pillar of the Faith of Christ and of the Holy Trinity to your great Captain who fighteth for the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ in India to let him know how ready we are to supply him with what Soldiers and Provisions he stands in need of We are informed that the Prince of Cair is bringing together a great Fleet to go against yours to be revenged on you for the damages he has sustained by your Captains in the Indies whom may God so prosper daily that all Infidels may be brought under the Yoke we have determined to send Forces to your assistance against the said Prince they shall be ordered to the Straits of Mecha namely to Babel or Mendel unless it should be more convenient for your Service that they should be sent to the Ports of Jidda or Thur that so we may drive the Mahometans and Infidels out of the World and that the Gifts and Oblations which are sent to the holy Sepulchre may no longer be devoured by Dogs The promised time which was foretold by Christ to his Mother is now come who said That in the last days a King should rise among the Franks that would destroy the whole Race of Mahometans and Barbarians now this must undoubtedly be that very time Whatever our Ambassader Matthew shall say to you you may give credit to as if it were spoken by us in person he is one of our chief Ministers for which reason we sent him to your Court. We had committed this Message to the Envoys you sent us had we not been afraid lest by that means our Affairs might not have come so perfectly to your knowledge as we desire they should We send you by this our Ambassador Matthew a Cross that is undoubtedly made out of the Cross whereon our Saviour Christ was crucified at Jerusalem She sends the King a piece of the true Cross as it came to her from Jerusalem We made two Crosses out of a piece thereof that was sent to us one whereof we keep to our selves and the other we have sent to you by our Ambassudor the Wood is of a black colour and it hangs by a small Silver Ring
Furthermore If you shall think fit to marry either your Daughters to our Sons or your Sons with our Daughters it will be extreamly acceptable to us She desires a Daughter of Portugal for her Black Prince and will be much for both our Advantages by laying a foundation of a Brotherly Alliance betwixt us Which Marriages we are and shall always be ready to enter into with you What remains is That the Health and Grace of our Redeemer Christ Jesus and of our Holy Lady the Virgin Mary may extend themselves to you your Sons and Daughters and your whole Family Amen We do furthermore certify you That in case you and we join our Forces we shall with God's assistance be strong enough to destroy the Enemies of our Holy Faith for at Sea where by reason of our Empire 's lying so much within Land we are not able to do any thing You praised be God are the most powerful of all Jesus Christ being your Helper for in truth the things done by you in the Indies are miraculous and more than humane If you will set out a Fleet of a 1000 Ships we will take care to furnish them with all Necessaries Upon the Emperor of Habassin's having made this glorious Proposition to him King Emanuel resolved to send a splendid Embassy to his Court named Don Edward Calvam who had been Secretary of State to two Kings and Ambassador at the Courts of Vienna France and Rome and one Rodriguez de Lima and Francis Alverez one of his Chaplains in Ordinary to go Ambassadors sending rich Presents by them both to the Emperor and his Grandmother These Ambassadors with Matthew in their Company went to Goa on the Fleet that carried the Viceroy Lopez Suares by whom they were sent in the Year 1520. with a strong Convoy to Arkiko a Port in the Red-Sea belonging at that time to the Habassins Galvam who was the first in Commission dying by the way in the Island of Camara was succeeded by Lima who having made but a short stay at Arkiko begun his Journey towards the Habassin Court where when he arrived he was received by the Emperor with extraordinary joy and kindness Matthew who died in the way betwixt Arkiko and the Court having been splendidly interr'd by the Ambassadors in the Monastry of Bisoym The Ambassadors who were to have returned to the Indies by the same Fleet they came upon having brought their Negotiation to a speedy issue made what haste they could back to Arkiko where to their great mortification they found the Fleet they were to have embarked upon gone the Moncons or Trade-Winds which in those Seas blow six Months from one Point and six months from the opposite not permitting them to wait any longer for them And to encrease the mortification of this Disappointment they met with Letters which had been left for them by the Admiral that advised them of the Death of King Emanuel the greatest and most fortunate Prince that ever wore the Crown of Portugal The Ambassadors not knowing how long it might be before they should have a Fleet to carry them to Goa and being certain that by reason of the Moncon it must be at least six months before one could possibly come to them they returned to the Court again where they remained four years before any opportunity for Goa offered it self But at the end of four years they embarked upon a Fleet at Arkiko sent on purpose to fetch them carrying an Habassin Ambassador home with them with Letters to the King of Portugal and the Pope The Ambassadors did not arrive at Lisbon before the Year 1527. where the Habassin Ambassador whose name was Zaga Zabo was received with all the marks of friendship and kindness but whatever was the cause of it he was to his great sorrow detained above 10 years in that Court He hath given the World a large Account of the Faith and Customs of the Habassins which though false in abundance of Particulars I shall set down at length having first translated the Habassin Emperor's Letters to the Pope and the King of Portugal The Letters of the most Serene David Emperor of Ethiopia to Emanuel King of Portugal writ in the Year 1521. In the name of God the Father as it was always and who has no beginning In the name of God the only Son who was like unto him before the light of the Stars was seen and before he laid the foundations of the Sea but who in time was conceived in the Womb of a Virgin without Human Seed and without Marriage for after this manner was the knowledge of his Office In the name of the Comforter the Spirit of Holiness who knoweth all Secrets that are or ever were and all the height of Heaven which is sustained and upheld without Pillars and who enlarged the Earth which before was not known nor created from the East to the West and from the South to the North neither are they First and Second but a Trinity join'd in One Eternal Creator and One Council and One Word thorow all Ages Amen THESE Letters are sent by Mani Tinghil that is the Frankincense of the Virgin which was the name that was given me at my Baptism but the name I assumed when I took the Government upon me is David the Beloved of God the Pillar of the Faith of the Race of Judah the Son of David the Son of Solomon the Son of the Pillar of Sion the Son of the Seed of Jacob the Son of the Hand of Mary the Son of Nau by the Flesh Emperor of the Great and High Ethiopia and of Mighty Kingdoms and Provinces King of Xoa and Affate and of Fatigar and of Angote and Bara and of Baaligaura and of Adea and of Vangue and of Goiam where the Nile riseth and of Damarua and of Vaquem Edri Ambea Vagni Tigri Mahon and Sabaym where Queen Saba lived and of Barnagaes and Lord of all the Countries as far as Nubia on the Confines of Egypt These Letters are addressed to the most Potent and Excellent King Emanuel who liveth in the love of God and who continues stedfast in the Catholick Faith the Son of the Apostles Peter and Paul King of Portugal and Algarves the Friend of Christians the Enemy Judge and Conqueror of the Mahometans and Heathens of Africk and Guinea from the Promontory and Island of the Moon to the Red-Sea of Arabia Persia and Ormus and of the whole Indies and of all the Provinces Islands and Lands belonging to them the Destroyer of the Mahometans and of all the mighty Heathens the Lord of Towers and of High Castles and Walls the Propagator of the Faith of Jesus Christ Peace be with you King Emanuel who relying uton God's Assistance do slaughter the Mahometans and with your Fleet and Armies every where drive the Infidels out as Dogs Peace be with the Queen your Wife the Friend of Jesus Christ and the Servant of the Virgin Mary the Mother of the Saviour
Emanuel the Only God who is the God of Heaven and is always the same growing neither older nor younger preserve and protect you The Envoy of those that arrived who was first in Commission was named Rodrigo Lima with whom was joyned one Francis Alvarez who for the singular Piety and Probity of his Life was very dear to me he did also return very proper answers to all the questions I put to him concerning Religion you ought therefore to prefer him and to call him Master and to employ him in the Conversion of the people of Matrua and Zeila and of all the other Islands of the Red-Sea all which are on the Coast of our Empire I have bestowed a Cross and a Staff upon him as Badges of Authority and would have you to do the same and to make him Bishop of those Countries for he well deserves it and is very fit for that Office God be propitious to you that so you may always be Valiant against your Enemies and may bring them all under your Feet God grant you a long life and make you partaker of as good Places in the Kingdom of Heaven as I wish for my self for I have heard many good things of you and have seen with my eyes what I never expected to have seen May God make things succeed from good to better and may your place be over the Tree of Life which is the place of the Saints I as your little Son have done what you Commanded me and if you will send Ambassadors to me I will always obey you that so we may help one another and whenever your Ambassadors shall arrive as these did at Matrua or at Dalacam I will be sure to take that care of them that you desire I should there being nothing I am so ambitious of as that we should be united in Councils and Actions and whensoever your Fleet shall come upon my Coast I shall joyn them immediately with an Army And whereas on my Borders there are no Christians nor Christian Churches I am willing to give all those Provinces which Border upon the Mahometans to your Subjects to Inhabit make haste therefore to execute what you have begun In the mean time I would have you send me some of your Learned Men as also some Gravers of Images of Gold and Silver and some Lead Copper and Iron Smiths as also some Printers that understand our Letters to Print Books for our Churches and some that know how to make Bracelets and how to Gild Metals they shall be all well entertained in my Palace and whenever they shall have a mind to return home they shall be well Rewarded for their Pains and I do Swear by Christ Jesus who is God and the Son of God that they shall have free leave to depart This I do desire and expect from your known Virtue and Goodness being sensible that you have a great kindness for me by your having treated Matthew so Honourably and Liberally and by having sent him back as you did I do most earnestly desire to have all the forementioned Artificers sent hither and do promise that you shall never have any cause to repent of your having sent them for I will take care that they shall all be well rewarded wherefore since a Father ought not to deny what his Son desires of him and you are my Father and I am your Son let us be joyned together as two Bricks are in a Wall that so we may be two with one Heart and may agree in the Love of Christ Jesus who is the Head of the World all that are in him being as Bricks joyned together in a Wall Amen The Letters of the same David Emperor of Ethiopia to King John the IIId of Portugal written in the Year 1524. In the Name of God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things that are made visible and invisible In the Name of God the Son the Council and Prophet of the Father and in the Name of the Holy Ghost the Comforter and living God Who is equal to the Father and the Son and who spoke by the mouth of the Prophets and inspired the Apostles that they might Thank and Praise the Perfect Trinity in Heaven and on Earth and in the Depths always Amen I The Frankincense of the Virgin for that was my Baptismal Name but who with the Scepter of my Kingdom have taken the Name of David The Beloved of God the Pillar of the Faith the Offspring of Judah the Son of David the Son of Solomon Kings of Israel the Son of the Pillar of Sion of the seed of Jacob the Son of the hand of Mary the Son of Nau by the Flesh do send these Letters and this Ambassador to the Greatest most Powerful and High John King of Portugal and Algerves the Son of King Emanuel Peace be with you the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you always Amen When I heard of the Power of the King your Father by whom the Moors the Sons of the filthy Mahomet were subdued I gave great Thanks to God for the Increase and the Greatness of the Crown of Conservation in the House of Christianity I did likewise take great pleasure in the arrival of the Ambassadors who brought that King's words to us because by that means a singular Love Friendship and Correspondence was established betwixt us in order to the Extirpating of all the Wicked Mahometans and the Unbelieving Heathens that lie betwixt our two Kingdoms But while I was full of this Joy before I had sent any Ambassador to him I received the News of your and my Father's Death which turned my Joy suddenly into Sorrow whereof our Court Prelates and Monks and in a word all our Faithful Subjects did deeply partake Our Sorrow upon this News becoming equal to our former Joy Sir From the beginning of my Reign there was no Ambassador nor Envoy sent to me by the King or Kingdom of Portugal but by your Father who sent some of his Captains hither and with them some of his Nobles and Clarks and Deacons who brought with them all the Utensils of a Solemn Mass I must tell you I was overjoyed at their arrival and did receive them with great Affection dismissing them after they had done their Business that so they might return home in Peace and with Honour But being come to the Port of the Red-Sea that is on my Borders they found the Admiral of their Fleet gone who as he certified me himself could wait no longer for them by reason of a Custom that you have of changing your Admiral every Third Year which together with no other Fleets having touched at any of my Ports for some Years after was the cause of your Ambassador's having staid so long at my Court. I do now send what I desire of you by Brother Christopher Licanot whose Baptismal Name is Zaga Zabo that is to say The Grace of the Father who will lay my Demands before
in our Mouths and Memories and that I may be always delighting my self in your Gifts For the same reason I do earnestly intreat you to send me some Learned Men and Artificers namely Carvers of Images Sword-Cutlers and Gunsmiths and Gilders and Carpenters but especially Artificers who knew how to Build Houses with Stone and to cover them with Lead and Copper I should be glad likewise to have some that understand how to make Glass and Musical Instruments and how to play well upon them with some Pipers and Trumpeters These Artificers I desire chiefly from your Holiness but in case you should have none to spare I must intreat you to order some of the Christian Kings your Sons who are all at your Commands to send them unto me Which Artificers when they arrive here shall be treated honourably and rewarded according to their deserts they shall also have good Wages and whenever they shall desire it they shall have free leave to return home and be well rewarded for their pains for I will detain no body against his will how beneficial soever his stay should be to me But to pass to other things I must expostulate with you holy Father Why do you not exhort the Christian Kings your Sons to lay down their Arms as becomes Brethren and to agree among themselves seeing they are all your Sheep and you are their Pastor Your Holiness is not ignorant of the Gospel-Commands and of its having said A kingdom divided against it self cannot stand but will become desolate For if those Kings would but all join together they would quickly destroy all the Mahometans and with ease demolish the Sepulchre of their False Prophet Apply your self therefore to this holy Father that so there may be a firm Peace and Confederacy established among them and exhort them to assist us who are besieged on all sides by Wicked Mahometans and Moors The Turks and Moors can assist one another and their Kings and Rulers do all agree together I have a Mahometan for my Neighbour who is constantly supplied with Arms Horses and all Military Weapons by Princes of his own Sect namely the Kings of India Persia and Egypt this is a great mortification to me to see the Enemies of the Christian Religion enjoy Peace and live together like Brethren and at the same time to see Christian Kings my Brethren not in the least concerned at the Injuries I endure not one of them offering to succour me as becomes a Christian notwithstanding the filthy Sons of Mahomet are always ready to succor one another not that I desire any Soldiers of them for I have enough of my own and to spare but all that I desire of them is only their Prayers and Supplications and your Holiness and my Brethren's Favour The reason why I want your Friendship is that I may be furnished by you with such things as are necessary to terrify the Mahometans the Enemies of the Name of Christ And that my Neighbours may be made sensible of my being favoured by the Christian Kings my Brethren and of their being ready to assist me whenever there shall be occasion which would be much for the honour of all of us that are of the same Faith and Religion and do intend to persist therein God fulfil your Desires to the praise of Jesus Christ and of God our Father who is praised by all thorow all Ages and you my Lord and holy Father with all the Saints of Christ at Rome embrace me and let all my Subjects and all that dwell in Ethiopia be received with the same Embraces and let thanks be returned to Christ with your Spirit These Letters your Holiness will receive from my Brother John King of Portugal the most Powerful Son of King Emanuel who will send them to you by our Ambassador Francisco Alvarez A Second Letter of David Emperor of Ethiopia to the Roman Pontiff written in the Year 1524. HAppy and holy Father who art made by God the Conservator of the Nations and who dost sit in the Chair of St. Peter To thee are given the keys of the kingdom of heaven so that whatsoever thou binded or loosest on earth is bound and loose in heaven according to what Christ hath said in St. Matthew 's Gospel I the King at whose Name the Lyons tremble who at my Baptism was called Atami Tinghil that is the Frankincense of the Virgin but who when I took the Administration of my Empire upon me assumed the Names of David the Beloved of God the Pillar of Faith the Prince of Judah the Son of Solomon the Son of the Pillar of Sion the Son of Zara Jacob the Son of the Hand of Mary the Son of Nau by the Flesh Emperor of the Great and High Ethiopia and of vast Kingdoms and Dominions King of Xoa and Caffate and Fatigar Angot Baru Baaltinganze Adea Vanga and Mahon and Saba from whence the Queen of Saba went and Barnagays the Lord of all Nubia to the Confines of Egypt All which Countries and a great many more not here mentioned are under our Dominion neither have I mentioned the fore-named out of Pride or Vaingloy or for any other reason but that the Great God may be the more praised who of his singular bounty has been pleased to bestow the foresaid Christian Empires upon my Ancestors and who hath likewise been gracious to me after a special manner that I might constantly do service to his Religion making me Lord of Adel and the Scourge of the Mahometans and Gentiles who do worship Idols I do after the manner of other Christian Kings my Brethren to whom I am no-ways inferior either in Power or Religion send to kiss your Holiness's Feet Within my own Territories I am the Fillar of Faith neither am I assisted with any Foraign Succors but I do place my whole trust and confidence in God as my Ancestors did before me who have all been sustained and governed by him ever since his Angel spoke to Philip who instructed the Eunuch of the powerful Queen Candace Empress of Ethiopia in the Faith as he was coming from Jerusalem to Gaza Philip then baptized the Eunuch and the Eunuch afterwards baptized the Queen with the greatest part of her Court and People who from that day to this have continued Christians and strong in the Faith My Ancesters without any other than Divine Assistance have propagated the Faith thorow vast Regions which I likewise labour daily to do being fixed between the large Borders of my Kingdoms as a Lyon encompassed within a Wood and strongly fortified against the Mahometans and other Nations that are Enemies to the Christian Faith and who will not give ear to the Word of God and my Exhortation For which reason I with my Sword girt about me do persecute them and will by degrees expel them relying on the Divine Assistance which is never wanting to me which is more than all Christan Kings can say who if they would but agree together might with
not to be in the least suspected by any of them of being a Christian The Ship being arrived at her Port Sylva the first time he went ashoar made the best of his way for Ethiopia and having got to Deboraa was entertained there with great joy by the Portugueses who had been for some years without a Priest of their own Religion The Jesuits that nothing might seem to have been done towards the reduction of Ethiopia without their having had some hand in it will have the Archbishop to have sent Sylva thither at their request But this was not all that Archbishop Menezes did in this matter for having received advice of Sylva's being arrived in Ethiopia he thereupon writ a Letter not only to the Roman Catholicks but to the Abuna likewise The Archbishop of Goa writes to the Abuna to submit himself to the Pope after the example of the Patriarch of Alexandria The Alexandrian submission he refers to was a mere trick exhorting him to submit himself and his Church to the Pope and among other Arguments he made use of to persuade him to such a submission he sent him a rich present together with the solemn submission of the Alexandrian Patriarch of himself and his whole Church to Pope Clement the VIIIth as it is pompously published by Baronius in an Appendix to the Sixth Tome of his Ecclesiastical Annals Conjuring him to follow the example of that great Prelate whom his Church had so long owned for her Head But this Alexandrian submission notwithstanding Baronius was in such haste to make a flourish with it that he clapt the History thereof to the end of the Fifth Century was a mēre imposture for whereas it is said to have been made by Gabriel Patriarch of Alexandria the Patriarch of Alexaandria 's Name at the time when that submission is reported to have have been made was not Gabriel but Mark. So little pains are the hungry Eastern Monks who come to Rome with their mock submissions at to make their Impostures look probable The Learned Father Simon speaking of Archbishop Menezes having made use of this submission to persuade the Abuna of Ethiopia after the example of his Patriarch to submit himself to the Pope saith The Archbishop was not it seems sensible that the Church of Rome had been imposed on in that matter and that Baronius was too credulous in publishing the acts of that submission under the Name of the Patriarch of Alexandria and of the Catholick Church And Thomas a Jesu a Carmelite Friar speaking of the same in his Sixth Book de Conversione omnium Gentium procuranda saith In the time of Clement the VIIIth a Fictitious Embassy of the Alexandrian Church was brought to the Roman Pontiff Wherein Mark the Patriarch and with him all the Provinces of Egypt and the parts adjoyning to it did acknowledge the Pope to be the Head and Universal Pastor of the Church as Baronius writes at large at the end of his Sixth Tome but the matter thereof coming afterwards to be more diligently looked into it was found to be a lie and the fiction of one Barton an Impostor And yet notwithstanding this discovery the History of that submission continues to vapour still in all the Editions of Baronius 's Annals that have come out since The Archbishop sent the Abuna likewise a Confession of his own Faith telling him withal That in case he would submit himself to the Pope as he was in duty bound that affair would be managed much to his advantage by the Portugueses he writ also to Clement the VIIIth desiring him to lay his Commands on the Patriarch of Alexandria who was now under his Obedience to oblige the Habassin Abuna to follow his Example He writ also to Belchior da Sylva to send some Habassin Boys to Goa to be instructed in the Roman Faith and Rites And last of all he writ to Philip the IId for a yearly Pension for the Portugueses that were in Ethiopia of whom he obtained 1500 Cruzado's which were to be paid to them yearly out of the Royal Revenues of the Indies to which he himself added 300 Pardaos and prevailed with the Misericordia at Goa to give the same Sum Of all which there is not one syllable to be met with in any of the Jesuits Histories whereas had this Archbishop been of their Order as he was of the Austin the world would have had whole Volumes in Praise of his great Zeal and Industry in this Affair The Jesuits being desirous to recover the Habassin Mission which both the Pope and the Archbishop seemed to have taken out of their hands did in order thereunto labour hard to have a College for their Friars at Dio and having got some Benefactors to contribute towards the building and endowing thereof they sent Father Gasper Suares from Goa to Dio to begin the Work But the Baneans The Jesuits erect a College at Dio. of which Dio is full knowing that the Jesuits where-ever they setled did turn Traders did strongly oppose their having a College there pretending That it would certainly ruin the Trade of the Port by which Pretence and great Bribes they so far influenced the Viceroy that he put a full stop to it of which the Jesuits of Goa Lisbon and Madrid made such Tragical Exclamations that the King wrote a very angry Letter to the Viceroy about it Commanding him to shut his hands against the Bribes of the Baneans and not to be frighted from pious Works by suggestions that they would tend to the ruin of Trade since the reason why he sent Viceroys into India was not to encrease his Revenue but to advance Christianity The Viceroy and Baneans were so mortified by this severe Letter that they did not only give way to but did contribute largely towards the building of the said College which by that means was finished in a short time The King had writ likewise to the Viceroy To furnish the Jesuits with six Ships to conveigh their Missionaries into Ethiopia but they having but three Friars to send thither who were Father Peter who had been ransomed a year or two before and Father Anthony de Angelis a Neopolitan and Father Anthony Fernandes a Portuguese the Viceroy reckoning that two Ships were sufficient to carry three Friars and that six would not be enough to fight the Turks if they happened to meet with them sent but two to them to Dio where they were now setled in their new College one of which was forced back by a Storm to Damon the other getting to Dio but much damaged both in her Hulk and Rigging Father Peter having during his seven years Captivity in Arabia made himself a perfect Master of the Arabick Tongue did converse much at Dio where he passed for an Armenian Christian with the Mahometans that came to trade there but chiefly with a Servant of the Bashaws of Suaqhem whose name was Recuam Aga with whom he contracted an intimate familiarity This Aga happening
more because it was writ before the King had received the Letter he is said to have sent to him in the year 1607. In the year 1611 the Emperor received the following Letter from the Pope in answer to that he is said to have writ to him in the year 1607. Paul the Vth 's Letter to the Emperor of Ethiopia To our most dear Son in Christ Health ad Apostolical Benediction WE give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ The Pope's Letter to the same Emperor for having been so merciful to you as to restore you to your Royal Throne as you write he has done We do Congratulate your success and do commend you mightily for your Zeal in Defence of the Christian Faith for which as we understand by your first and second Letters you are very fervent We have according to your desires recommended the necessity of your Kingdoms to our most dear Son in Christ Philip the Catholick and Powerful King of Spain who we hope will be induced by his Magnanimity and Zeal for the Christian Faith to assist you powerfully having order'd our Apostolical Nuncio that is with his Catholick Majesty to sollicit what you have desired with great diligence What remains dear Son is to exhort you to persevere constantly and immoveably in the fear of God and Stoutly and Zealously to defend the Christian name and to continue always devoted to the holy Roman Catholick and Apostolick Church your most loving Mother as we in our Prayers which we make to God before the Most holy Bodies of the Apostles for our Sons the Christian Kings and Catholick Princes shall always be sure to remember you and to beg of him from whom all good things do proceed that he would so enlighten your Understanding with the Light of his holy Spirit that you may do his will and from the inward Bowels of our Charity we do most tenderly give our Blessing to your Majesty Written at Rome at St. Peter's under the Ring of the Fisherman on the 4th of January in the Year 1611 and in the Sixth year of our Pontificate It is plain from this Letter that the Popes do not stand so much upon their Punctilio's with remote Heretick Princes The Popes are civiler to remote Hereticks than Domestick ones as they do with those in Europe they reckon to be Hereticks Paul in this Letter calling a Prince who was a Professed Euâ—ychian Heretick his most dear Son in Christ a Title neither Urban would bestow upon King James nor Gregory the Fifteenth upon the Prince of Wales in their answers to the unhappy Letters wherein those Princes had been so civil as to give them the title of The most blessed Father The Emperor growing every day more and more inclinable to the Roman Church for which his Brother Cella Christos had declared himself openly a Champion suffering none to be about him that were not either actually of her Communion or that appeared not to be well disposed for it did upon the Receipt of this kind Letter from the Pope begin to think of Professing himself a Roman Catholick too but being sensible that that could not be done without raising such a storm in his Empire as it would not be possible for him to weather without Portuguese Troops Embassadors are sent from Ethiopia to Partugel He is said to have resolved to send an Embassy to the King of Spain to Sollicit that Affair by the way of Melinde and Goa The persons named for this Employment were Father Anthony Fernandes and one Tecur Egzy an Habassin of Quality by whom the following Letters were sent to the Pope The Emperor's Letter to the Pope The Letter of the Emperor Seltem Saged cometh with the Peace of the good Pastor Jesus to the Holy Roman Pope Paul the Vth. the Head and Pastor of the Universal Church Holy and Loving Father WE have received your Letter of January 1611 The Emperor's Letter to the Pope which is full of that love wherewith a tender Father is inflamed when he receives a penitent Prodigal Son and not having been able by reason of the sudden departure of the India Ships to return you an answer so soon as we desired we have now determined to do it by another way which we hope God will open unto us and to that end we have sent Father Antonio Fernandes of the Society of Jesus who has for some time resided at our Court and with him our Embassador Tecur Egzy desiring that your Holiness may have speedy notice of our being brought by the preaching of the Fathers of the Society who are resident in our Empire to the Knowledge of the truth of the faith of the Chair of the Blessed St. Peter and of our being resolved to embrace the same and to yield obedience to your Holiness as the Head of the Universal Church so as for the future to be governed by a Patriarch of your sending and that we may be put into a condition of yielding this obedience publickly it will be necessary for us to have some Troops from Don Philip the Powerful King of Portugal without which we shall never be able to do it openly We do therefore most humbly beseech your Holiness that since as you have writ to us you have been pleased to order your Apostolick Nuncio residing at his Catholick Majesty's Court to sollicit this Affair with great diligence that you will renew your Orders to him that so they may be both effectually and speedily executed and so good an occasion may not be lost and that in our days and during his happy years our Empire may find this necessary remedy And since you are the Father of all Catholick Kings hold us in the number of such and as you offer Prayers to God for them before the most holy Bodies of the Apostles do the same for us your humble Son Written at our Court of Dembea on the 13th of January 1613. But as the Emperor's Brother Ras Cella Christos was the chief promoter of this Embassy so he likewise writ a Letter to the Pope by it which was as followeth The Letter of Cella Christos Viceroy of Gojam cometh with the Peace of the Eternal Father to the Holy Father Paul the Vth. the chief Pontiff the Successor of St. Peter and Head of the Church Most Beloved Father IF according to the Holy Scriptures Cella Christos's Letter to the Pope they who were far off are come near I who was at a vast distance am now brought near by the Preaching of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus that reside in this Empire for I having been commanded by my Brother Seltem Saged my Lord the Emperor to be present at several Conferences between the Fathers and our Learned men I came at last to the Knowledge of the Truth of the Faith of the Chair of St. Peter and of that Chair's being the Head of the Universal Church which faith I thereupon embraced and obliged my Brother the
to the North of Tigre and reacheth to Amhara and to the Banks of Nile it is about 60 Leagues in length and at present not above 20 in breadth several Provinces having lately been torn from it which when united made its breadth to be near equal to its length The Kingdom of Gojam is 50 Leagues in length and 30 in breadth and is in a manner encompassed by the River Nile whose Head is near the middle of it in a Countrey called Sacabala it is either the Island of Meroe so much celebrated by the Ancients or else there was never any such place The Head of Nile The original of Nile which was so long reckoned among the Chief Secrets of Nature is now known certainly to be in a Lake in this Kingdom of Gojam the Lake which gives birth to it is not above a Stones throw over and so full of Bushes that in the Summer one may step upon them to two deep and clear Fountains which are near the midde of it and not 40 yards from one another the Streams of which Fountains as is visible from the Verdure of the Herbage doth run under ground for near half a mile where they break out and being join'd do make a good large Brook and then bending Northward after a Course of 15 Leagues the River Jama runs into it after which Conjunction it bends its course towards the East and is presently joined by two Rivers more whose names are Kelti and Branti after this it runs directly East till it enters the great Lake of Dembea which is about 20 Leagues distant from its Head in a right Line and without intermixing its water with those of the Lake runs into the Channel it hath opened to it self on the North side of it This Lake A Description of the Lake of Dembea which the Habassins call the Sea of Dembea lieth in the Latitude of 13 Degrees and a half and on its South-shore is about 20 Leagues in length and on its North 35 not reckoning its windings which make it a great deal more near its middle and where it is deepest it may be about 10 or 12 Leagues over Its Waters are very clear and wholsom it abounds with Fish of all sorts and has great herds of Sea-Horses which come ashore daily and graze on the Plains but for Snakes and Crockodiles it is as free from them as it is from Tritans and Mermaids by which it has been reported to be inhabited Divers great Rivers beside the Nile discharge themselves into this Lake which is the common Receptacle of all the Prodigious Flouds of Rain which in the Winter Months do tumble down from the high Mountains of Dembea and this Lake having no other source for this vast body of Water but the Channel of the Nile it makes bold with that and thereby increaseth its Stream prodigiously The Lake of Dembea is adorned with One and twenty Islands Islands in the Lake of Dembea some of which are pretty large namely that of Dek which contains as much Arable Land as 40 Yoke of Oxen can plough there are several Monasteries in seven or eight of these Islands which were anciently very great they do all abound with Oranges and other delicious Fruits Even within Habassia the Nile has some Cataracts its first is near a place called Depeqem which is about 9 or 10 Leagues above the Lake of Dembea the second is 6 or 7 Leagues below it in the Kingdom of Begamder at which it makes a prodigious noise the fall of the first is about 50 Palms and that of the second about twice or thrice as much The cause of the rising and falling of the Thames at Oxford The true Cause of the rising of Nile is not more certainly known than that of the Nile in Egypt is now for the Winter in Ethiopia which is one continued Storm of Rain being in the Months of June July and August by sending a vast body of water into the Lake of Dembea which has no other vent for its Waters than the Channel of the Nile doth swell that River to a prodigious heighth all which Torrent of water being kept together by steep Mountains on both sides until it comes down into Egypt which is a flat open Countrey it there expands it self impregnating the Land thereof with its Mud which was hindred from subsiding before by the unconceivable rapidity of that River while it was pent in on all sides by high Mountains This is the true Cause of the rising of the Nile which though the world would not It was known by the Ancients Strab. lib. 15. Plin. lib. 5. c. 9. it seems believe was told by Nearchus Pliny Strabo and others neither is their calling them the Summer-Rains any Argument at all of those Learned Men having been ignorant of the time of the Year when they fell but rather the contrary for notwithstanding the Habassins upon the account of those great Rains do reckon June July and August their Winter Months yet in Egypt and all other Places without the Northern Tropick they are reckoned Summer Besides the Nile Several great Rivers besides the Nile have their Fountains in Ethiopia there are several other great Rivers that rise in Habassia namely Pacaza whose Head is in the Mountain of Axgua in the Kingdom of Angot and the River Zabee which is much bigger and swifter than the Nile it riseth in the Kingdom of Narea and taking its Course Southward falls into the Sea at Momboca Haoa is likewise bigger than the Nile it riseth in the Kingdom of Zaoa and running North-East doth the same good office to the parched and thirsty Countries of Adeld and Zegla that the Nile does to Egypt and as the River Maceb which riseth within Two Leagues of Fremona in the Kingdom of Tigre does to the dry Province of Derqhem Now that Countries wherein it seldom or never rains should have that great want thus supplied by the overflowing of Rivers is a clear evidence both of the Goodness and Wisdom of Providence Habassia is reported by the Jesuits to abound with pure Gold which we have reason to think was represented by them to be much finer and more plentiful than it really is on purpose to prevent the Kings of Portugal and Spain growing weary of the great Charges of their Missions Where the Land is Arable it is said to produce good Wheat and Barley and in several places to have Three Harvests in a year It produceth likewise Silk which is gathered off the Bushes as it is in India and in some places extraordinary Sugar Canes Its Horses and Cows with which it is said to be well stock'd are much larger than the Europeans It has also great store of Lyons and Elephants and those of the best Cast but the Wild Beast that is the most remarkable in it is the Giratacahem that is to say the Smooth-head which is reported to be so tall that a Man on Horseback may ride under its
Ambassador desired Esimethus who was their King at that time to enter into a League Offensive and Defensive with their Neighbours the Madaans who were Sarazens and having joined their Armies for to invade Persia The Kings did both promise to do what the Romans had desired of them but when they came to execution they found their parts not to be feasible the Silks that were brought by the Indians being all constantly bought up by the Persian Merchants who lay much nearer to them than the Ethiopians and for the Homerites the vast Deserts they were to pass thorough before they could come at the Persians discouraged them at this time from attempting it though King Abraham did attempt it afterwards but with no success But as it is the common Fate of Nations The Homerites conquered by the Ethiopians their Deliverers that invite their Neighbours into their Countrey to be conquered by their Deliverers so it fared with the Homerites at this time for the Servants and Thieving part of the Ethiopian Army finding Arabia a much better Country than their own they resolved to remain where they were and not being long contented to live among the Homerites as Inmates they set up to be their Masters and having by force of Arms deposed Esimetheus Esimetheus made King of the Homerites deposed by the Habassine Army which put Abraham in his place they bestowed the Crown upon one Abraham a Christian but who had formerly been a Slave to a Roman Merchant that resided at the Port of Adel in Ethiopia Hellenesteus having received Advice of the Pranks his Subjects that remained in Arabia were playing dispatched 3000 Soldiers thither to chastise their Insolence and restore his Creature Esimetheus to his Royal Dignity which those Troops were so far from doing that having been corrupted by some Emissaries sent among them by Abraham so soon as they landed when they came to engage the Rebels after having slain their Chief Commander who was a Prince of the Blood they all went over to them with a Resolution to stand by Abraham to the last Hellenestens being much troubled at this Loss sent a greater Army than the former against Abraham which coming to blows was totally routed by him after which Hellenesteus growing weary of the Charge of the War gave it over leaving the unfortunate Esimetheus to his unkind Stars Elmicinus in his Sarazen History reports The Ethiopians send an Ambassador to the Patriarch of Alexandria That in the 39th year of the Hegira which is 659 of Our Lord an Ambassador was sent from Ethiopia to Simon Syrus the Jacobite Patriarch of Alexandria to intreat him to ordain them a Bishop and some Presbyters which the Patriarch having I know not for what reason deny'd to do the Ambassador complained of him to Adulmelius the Sarazen King of Egypt who commanded the Patriarch to ordain him as many as he desired but the Ambassador did so highly resent Symon's denial that when he offered him his Service he would not make use of him but employed another Bishop which was the cause of great Disturbances in the Church In the 561st year of Diocletian James the Abuna of Ethiopia deposed by the Queen and restored by the King afterwards which is the 845th of our Lord saith the same Historian there was a Bishop in Ethiopia whose name was James whom the Queen taking advantage of her Husband's absence in the Wars banished Ethiopia substituting another Bishop in his room for which the Kingdom was plagued with a great Drought and Pestilence but the King returning home and being much dissatisfied with the Queen for what she had done sent to the Patriarch of Egypt whither the deposed Prelate was retired to command him back to his Province which the Patriarch did and the Bishop when he return'd was received with the general joy of the whole People In the Eighth year of Chalifatus Mutamidi or as others will have it A Tribute laid on the Patriarch of Alexandria by the Calif of Egypt in his Seventh year which was the 265th year of the Hegira one Michael being Patriarch of the Alexandrian Jacobites he had a Tribute of 20000 Crowns laid upon him for the advancing of which Sum he was obliged to sell to the Jews the fourth part of all the Churches in Alexandria and the Lands belonging to him in Habassia as also the Church in the Neighbourhood of Malaca in Cosvoim in the City of Misra and to tax every Christian at a Kirati yearly all which amounted to but half the Sum of the Tribute In the 807th year of the Martys The Nile diverted from coming down to Egypt and turned into its old Channel again upon the Intercession of the Bishop of Alexandria which is the 1165th of Christ the Nile being extreamly low in Egypt the King thereof whose name was Mustausirus sent the Patriarch Michael with rich Presents to the King of Ethiopia who having received the Patriarch with great respect did at his request order the Nile to be turned into its old Channel again out of which he had diverted it whereupon the Nile rose in one night to its usual heighth in Egypt to the great joy of the King and the whole Countrey who when the Patriarch returned home did him great honours Paulus Venetus reports that in the year 1258. an Habassin King having been hindered by his Councellors from going in person to Jerusalem did send a Bishop thither The King of Habassia victorious over the King of Aden with rich Offerings who was not only robbed of all he had as he passed thorough the Kingdom of Aden but upon his refusal to turn Mahometan was sent home with a mark of infamy upon his Body at which barbarous Treatment the Habassin was so much incensed that having got together a great Army he marched against that Sarazen Tyrant and having beat him in a pitched Battel and made great Desolations in his Countrey for some Weeks he returned home laden with Spoils and Honours Haiton Armenus in his Directions to the Christians how to recover the Holy Land adviseth them to write to the King of the Nubians meaning the Habassins to invade Egypt with a numerous Army which would divert the Sarazens from coming with their whole force against them into Syria When or wheresoever the Arabick Canons falsly attributed to the first Council of Nice were made the 36th of them relates wholly to the Bishop of Ethiopia and runs as follows THE Ethiopians have no power to create or chuse a Patriarch The 7th place in a General Council given to the Abuna of Ethiopia by the Arabick Canons of the Council of Nice whose Prelate must be rather under the Jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Alexandria or in case they should come at any time to have one among them in the place of Patriarch and who should be stiled Catholicus he shall not notwithstanding that have a right to ordain Archbishops as other Patriarchs have having neither the
you I do likewise send Francis Alvarez to the Pope to yeild Obedience to him in my Name as it is just I should O Lord my Brother King attend and apply your self to the Friendship that was begun betwixt us by your Father and do not neglect to send Letters and Ambassadors to us frequently for I am extremely desirous to receive them from you as from my Brother And since we are both Christians and the Mahometans though Wicked are still in Peace with all of their own Sect it is fit it should be the same betwixt us And I do declare That for the future I will receive no Embassy from the King of Egypt nor from any of those Kingdoms which have formerly sent Ambassadors to us nor from no other King but only from your Highness from whom I do earnestly desire to have them come for the Mahometan Kings by reason of the difference that is betwixt us in Religion do never look upon me as their Friend and do only pretend to have a Kindness for me that they may Trade with the more conveniency and security within my Dominions from whence they draw great Profit exporting Yearly great Quantities of Gold whereof they are extremely Covetons while at the same time they have no real Friendship for me for which reason I take no pleasure in their Gain but this having been a Custom of my Ancestors was to be endured though after all the only thing that hinders me from making War upon them and Confounding them is the fear of provoking them thereby to violate and destroy the Temple of Jerusalem where the Sepulchre of Christ is which God hath been pleased to leave in the hands of those filthy Mahometans and to demolish the Churches that are in Egypt and Syria this is the only cause why I do not Invade and Conquer them which I am sorry I am not at liberty to do O King I can by no means rejoyce in the Christian Kings of Europe who as I am informed do not agree in one heart but are at War one with another be you all Unanimous and in Friendship one with another for my own part had I a Christian King in my Neighbourhood I would never be absent from him I do not know what to say of these matters nor what to do since God seems to have ordained things to be as they are My Lord let me have Ambassadors from you frequently for when I see your Letters I think I behold your face there being a greater Friendship betwixt those that live far asunder than betwixt Neighbours by reason of the stronger desire they have one for another for he that has hid his Treasure thinks the oftner of it and loves it the more for not seeing it according to what Christ saith in his Gospel Where your treasure is there will your hearts be also my heart is therefore with you because you are my Treasure and you ought also to make me your Treasure so as sincerely to joyn your Heart with ours O Lord and Brother observe this word for I am told you are very Wise and in Wisdom like your Father of which when I was informed I returned Thanks to God for it and throwing away Sorrow did put on Joy and said Blessed be the Son that is Wise and who has a great Head the Son of King Emanuel who sits upon the Throne of his Kingdoms Sir Have a care you do not grow weary since you are no less Valiant than your Father and do not discover your self to be Weak against the Mahometans and Gentiles whom with God's Assistance you may easily Conquer and have a care how you say The Forces left me by my Father are small for they are abundantly sufficient and God will always help you I have Men Gold and Provisions like the Sand of the Sea and the Stars of Heaven so that we two being United may with ease destroy the whole Barbarous Race of Mahometans I desire nothing of you but Experienced Officers to Discipline and Command my Soldiers O King thou art of a just Age whereas Solomon took the Government upon himself when he was but 12 years old and notwithstanding that had great Power and was wiser than his Father I also when Nau my Father died was but 11 years of Age and have notwithstanding that with God's assistance acquired more Power and Riches since I sate on the Throne of my Father than ever he had having conquered all the Neighbouring Nations and Kingdoms we have both cause therefore to thank God for so singular a benefit Hearken to me Brother and Lord for there is one thing I must request of you which is That you would send me some of your Learned Men as also some Artificers that understand how to make Images and how to Print Books and to make Swords and all sorts of Military Weapons with some Masons Carpenters and Physicians and Surgeons and some who skill to beat Gold and gild and how to work in Mines I would also have some that know how to cover Houses with Lead and to make Tile in a word all sorts of Artificers shall be welcom to me namely such as make Pistols Help me I beseech you to all these things as one Brother ought to help another and then God will help you out of your Troubles The Lord hear your Prayers and Petitions as he has received holy Sacrifices at all times namely the Sacrifices of Abel and of Noah when he was in the Ark and that of Abraham when he was in the Land of Madiam and of Isaac when he went from the Trench of the Oak and of Jacob in the House of Bethlem and that of Moses in Egypt and of Aaron in the Mount and of Joshua the Son of Nun in Galgala and of Gideon on the Rock of Sampson when he was in a dry and thirsty Land and of Samuel in Rama of the Prophets and of David in Naceea and of Solomon in the City of Gabeon and of Elias in Mount Carmel when he raised the Daughter of the Widow over the Pit to life and of Jehosaphet in Battail and of Manasses when he turned to God after having sinned and of Daniel in the Den of Lions and of the three Companions Sidrach Mesack and Abednego in the fiery Furnace and of Hannah before the Altar and of Nehemiah who together with Zerobabel built the Walls and of Matathias with his Sons on the fourth part of the Earth and of Esau upon the Blessed In the same manner may God receive your Sacrifices and Supplications and assist you and be on your side against all wickedness at all times Peace be with you I do embrace you with the Arms of Holiness as I do also your whole Council and all your Archbishops Bishops Priests and Deacons and all Men and Women the Grace of God and the Blessing of the Virgin Mary the Mother of God be with you and with all People Amen The Letter of David Emperor of Ethiopia to
the Roman Pontiff in the Year 1524. In the name of God the Father Almghty maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible in the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God who was the same with him from the beginning of the World and who is Light of Light and very God of very God and in the name of God the Holy Ghost who is true God and proceedeth from the Father I The King at whose Name the Lyons do tremble who am by the Grace of God called Achami Tinghil that is the Frankincense of the Virgin the Son of King David the Son of Solomon the Son of the Hand of Mary the Son of Nau by the Flesh and by Grace the Son of St. Peter and St. Paul do send these Letters Peace be with you O Just Lord and holy powerful pure and sacred Father who art the head of all Bishops and fearest no-body because there is none that hath power to curse thee who art the most watchful Curate of all Souls and the Friend of Pilgrims and the sacred Master and Preacher of the Faith and the Enemy of every thing that offends the Conscience and the lover of all good Manners and a holy Person whom all do bless and praise O happy and holy Father I do obey you with reverence because you are the peace of all and do deserve whatsoever is good so that it is but just that according to the divine Commands of the Apostles all should yield obedience to you This belongs to you but they have likewise commanded us to reverence all Bishops Archbishops and Prelates and to love you as a Father and to reverence you as a King and to believe in you as a God For which cause I do humbly with bended knees and with a sincere heart tell you holy Father That you are my Father and I am your Son Holy and most mighty Father Why have you never sent any Nuncio's to us to be informed of our health for since you are our Pastor and we are your Sheep you ought not to have been unmindful of us nor ought you to have reckoned us to have been too remote from your Territories for your Nuncio's to have visited us seeing from the most remote Kingdom of the Earth that is Portugal your Son King Emanuel has commodiously sent his Ambassadors to us so that if God had deferred calling him to Heaven the things he and I were treating about had undoubtedly had a happy Issue before this time I should be glad to hear healthful things from you by certain Nuncio's having never had a word from your Holiness nor heard of you by any other way but by some of our vowed Pilgrims who neither carried Letters from us to you nor brought any from you to us and who therefore when we enquired of them could only tell us That going from Jerusalem after they had performed their Vows there to visit the Thresholds of the Apostles at Rome they had seen you giving us a general Account of your Affairs I took great pleasure in their Relations beholding in them the Image of your holy Countenance which appeared to me to be like that of an Angel and I must own that I do love and reverence you Nevertheless it would be much more grateful to me devoutly to contemplate your Words and Letters I must therefore beg it of you that you would send a Nuncio to me to exhilerate my heart with your Blessing for since we agree in Faith and Religion that is the thing of the World that I desire most and that my Friendship may be as the Ring you wear on your Finger or as the Gold Chain that is about your Neck that so I may be always in your heart and memory Friendship being much increased by greateful Words and Letters when holy Peace from which all human Joy doth flow naturally embraceth them For as one that is very thirsty is extreamly desirous of cold water as the Scripture has it so Nuncio's and Letters coming to me from remote parts either from your Holiness or any Christian King will fill my heart with extraordinary Pleasures such as theirs are filled with who after a Victory come to gather rich Spoils All this may be done with great ease now the King of Portugal has opened a way to it who some times since sent Ambassadors with other Persons of Quality to us which was a thing had never been done by any Christian King or Pope before to any of our Ancestors Only in the Archives of our Great Grandfather Zera Jacob who was King of all the Kings of Ethiopia and a most Formidable Prince the Copies of some Letters to him from Eugenius the Roman Pontiff are still preserved the purport whereof is as followeth EUgenius the Roman Pontiff to our beloved Son King Zara Jacob the King of all the Kings of Ethiopia and who is mightily dreaded He goes on and tells him That his Son John Paleologus who had been dead two years the King of the Kings of the Romans had been called by him to celebrate a holy Synod to which he came accompanied by Joseph the Patriarch of Constantinople and a great many other Archbishops Bishops and Prelates as also with the Procurators of the Patriarchs of Antioch Alexandria and Jerusalem who had all united themselves to him in the love of the holy Faith and Religion So that now the Unity of the Church was re-established and all the old Controversies thorow God's assistance were ended and whatever was erroneous and contrary to Religion dissipated and right Order restored which had filled all People with joy We do here send you that Letter of Eugenius which has been preserved entire and would likewise have sent you the whole Order and Power of the Pontifical Benediction had it not been so large a Volume it being bigger than the Book of Paul to the Gentiles the Nuncio's that brought these Papers from the Pope hither were Theodore Peter Didimus and George the Servants of Jesus Christ You would do well holy Father to command your Papers to be looked over among which it is like you will meet with some Records of these Matters You may see by this holy Father that if you should be pleased to write any thing to us the memory thereof will be preserved in our Archives thorough all Ages And happy is the Man whose Memory is preserved in the Records of the holy City of Rome the Chair of St. Peter and St. Paul who are the Lords of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Judges of the World and my believing them to be so was the cause of my writing these Letters to your Holiness that I may obtain your Favour and that of your holy Conclave and therewithal all sorts of Blessings and the increase of all good things I do furthermore supplicate your Holiness to send us the Images of some Saints namely that of the blessed Virgin Mary that by that means your Holiness may be frequent
the help of your Blessing easily enlarge the Bounds of their Empires of which Blessing I do partake Among our Books there being Letters which were sent by Pope Eugenius with his Blessing to Zera Jacob which Blessing having descended to me I do now enjoy it and rejoyce in it mainly The Holy Temple of Jerusalem is a place I have great Veneration for and do frequently send Oblations to it by our Pilgrims and I would send both more and greater were I not Besieged on all sides by Mahometans and Infidels who besides that they Rifle our Messengers will not allow them a free passage whereas if the ways were but once opened I should then be able to Correspond with the Roman Church as well as other Christians to whom as to the Christian Religion I am nothing inferior for as they believe One Right Faith and One Church so I do profess the same and do most sincerely believe in the Holy Trinity and in One God and in the Virginity of our Lady the Virgin Mary I do also hold all the Articles of the Christian Faith and do keep them as they were writ by the Apostles And now that our good God has been pleased by the hand of the most Potent and Christian King Emanuel to open a way by which we may Correspond by Amdassadors since we are joyned in the Faith let us likewise with all other Christians joyn together in the service of God During the time the Ambassadors of that King were at our Court we received the News of his Death and of his Son and my Brother John having Succeeded to the Crown and as I was extremely afflicted at the News of the Death of the Father so I did very much rejoyce to hear of his Son 's having succeeded him for I do hope that by joyning our forces we shall be able to open a passage both by Sea and Land thorow the Regions of the Wicked Mahometans and to terrifie them to that degree as to drive them quite out of those Countries so that Christians may go to and return from Jerusalem without any molestation and I do most vehemently desire to partake of the Divine Love in the Temple of the Apostles Peter und Paul I do likewise desire to receive the most Holy Blessing of Christ's Vicar which your Holiness is undoubtedly And as the things I hear of your Holiness by our Pilgrims which go from hence to Jerusalem and from thence to Rome and that not without a Miracle do fill me with incredible Joy and Pleasure so there is nothing I would rejoyce in so much as to have a shorter way found out for my Ambassadors that so I might hear from you before I die which I trust in God I shall do by some means or other I beseech God to preserve you in Health and and Holiness I Kiss your holy Feet and do humbly beg your Blessing Your Holiness will receive these Letters from our Brother John King of Portugal who will send them to you by our Ambassador Francis Alvarez We may judge what mean thoughts King John had of these Letters and Ambassadors to the Pope The Habassin Embassy to the Pope little regarded by their lying unregarded Five Years at Lisbon before they were sent to Rome and by his sending them at last only to do Honour to his Nehpew Don Martin de Portugal when he sent him Ambassador to that Court with the following Letter To the most Holy Father in Christ and the most Blessed Lord Pope Clement the IIId by Divine Providence presiding over the whole Church To the most Holy Father in Christ and the most Blessed Lord the most devout Son of the same Holiness John by the Grace of God King of Portugal and Algarves on this side and the other side of the Sea of Africk Lord of Guinea and of the Conquests Navigation and Commerce of Ethiopia Arabia Persia and India After having most humbly kissed your Holy feet MOST Holy Father in Christ After having lain five years neglected at Lisbon it was sent to Rome only as an honourable Appendixto a Portuguese Embassy and most Blessed Lord The King my Lord and Father being sensible how acceptable it would be to God that the most remote Regions of Ethiopia and India which in these parts had been only heard of by a doubtful fame should be Sailed to by the industrious Navigation of Christians did at the beginning of his Reign send divers of his Captains and Subjects with great Fleets to discover the Coasts of those Countries which he did to that end that the Mahometans and Heathens of those Climates might be brought to acknowledge the Truth of the Christian Faith not knowing but that some Nations which were Christians already for such there were reported to be might be found out in the Course of such Discoveries thus thorough the Divine Direction the whole Country of Guinea was travelled over in which the King of Manicongo with vast numbers of his Subjects was Baptized as were several other Nations in India Persia and Arabia by the Industry and Piety of our Subjects and even those Provinces which were not forward at first to embrace Christianity do now begin to follow the Example of their Neighbours who notwithstanding the great Losses he sustained in his Ships Captains Nobles and other Subjects was not as becomes a Pious Christian discouraged thereby so as to give over those Voyages in the Progress whereof our Fleets have penetrated into the Red-Sea in which no Christian Ship had ever been before that Sea being wholly in the hands of the Turks and did after a long and sharp War discover the Coasts of the most Potent King of Ethiopia who is commonly called Pretegya and who with all his Subjects is a Worshipper of Christ to which King our Father immediately dispatched an Ambassador with an intention to reduce him to the Obedience of the Holy Apostolical See by certifying him That your Holiness sits in the Chair of St. Peter and are the only Vicar of Christ upon Earth to whom all Christian Kings do with great Veneration use to yield Obedience And not long after the said King of Ethiopia sent two Ambassadors in Company with ours when they returned home one of which was his Natural-born Subject and the other a Stranger during which time God was pleased to take our Father's Soul to himself and we having succeeded him in the Throne did without delay endeavour by our Captains that were in India to certify the said King of Ethiopia of our Father's Death and of our Resolution to carry on and finish what he had so gloriously begun for the Service of Christianity This our Declaration having been highly extolled by the said King he thereupon dispatched an Ambassador to us who is still Resident at our Court and with him our Chaplain Francis Alvarez who was one of the Ambassadors sent into Ethiopia by our Father This Francis Alvarez is now sent by the said King to Rome
unhappily lost in the Voyage So that what I set down was what occurred to my Memory which I have done with great Fidelity Farewell my most beloved Son in Christ Lisbon the 24th of April in the year of our salvation 1534. After having writ this I called to mind the passage wherein I had affirmed That Christ had descended into the lower parts for the sake of Adam's Soul and his own which he receiv'd from his Mother the holy Virgin Mary Of the truth whereof we have a certain Testimony in the Books of Government as we call them which Books were delivered by our Lord Jesus Christ to his Apostles and they are likewise the Mystery of Doctrines insomuch that their Testimony is admitted as infallible among us The Portuguese Divines are of Opinions that are contrary to those Writings but that does not hinder that from being true which these Books affirm viz. That the Souls of men are derived from Adam that is to say As our Flesh is derived from the Flesh of Adam so our Soul as a Burning Light is derived likewise from the Soul of Adam which makes us to be all of the Seed of Adam both as to Body and Soul In this large Confession of Faith A Censure on Zaga Zaba's Confession of Faith albeit Zaga Zaba discovers himself to have been piqued by the Portuguese Clergy having teaz'd him as they did about his Religion and to have disputed himself into some warmth upon several Ceremonial Points yet as to the Doctrines wherein the Roman Church was at that time contradicted by the Reformers namely the Three great ones of the Pope's Supremacy Transubstantiation and Purgatory it is visible that to ingratiate himself with the Pope and King of Portugal and to make his Court the better he did both stretch his Conscience and sacrifice his Resentments to the Publick Character he bore Those Doctrines having never been at any time the Doctrines of the Habassin Church Which Charge of Infidelity is justified both by the Jesuits and his Countreyman Gregory who never spoke of him but with detestation calling him commonly a Beast of the Field And as to his saying that his Emperor's Name was Precious and not Prestor John it was a plain Trick in him designing by such a slight Correction of that word to establish the opinion of his Master being the Prince was meant by Prestor John in Europe For whereas the present Emperor's Name was David so I do not find that there was one of the Name of John in the whole Line of those Princes Neither is there any colour for its having been a constant Title among them But while David's Ambassador was thus detained at Lisbon The Emperor David brings a terrible storm upon himself by seeking to enter into an alliance with the Portugueses disputing Whether it was lawful to eat Black-Puddings he himself continued involved in a rude and cruel War brought upon him by his new Correspondence with the Portugueses whose Name at that time was become very formidable all over the East For whereas the Habassin as is plain from his own Letters did expect nothing less from his new Alliance than the utter extirpation of all his Infidel Neighbours Heathens and Mahometans so natural it is for people to overvalue any new and untry'd advantage and to expect much more from it than it is capable of yielding so his Infidel Neighbours and particularly the Mahometans apprehending that an Alliance betwixt the Habassins and Portugueses might prove a thing of dangerous consequence to them did all conspire to interrupt it by disabling the Habassin before any Portuguese Troops could come to his assistance In prosecution of which Design Granhe a Mahometan Prince obtains several Victories over David one Ahamed whose Nick-name was Granhe or Left Hand a Mahometan Prince having joined his Forces with those of the King of Adel upon whom the Habassin had begun a War he marched against David resolving to give him Battel before he was reinforced by the Portuguese Troops which though they did not come in several years after were expected by every Moncon David being flushed by some former Victories and having an Army superior in number to that of Granhe and Adel joined together was so far from declining to fight that he marched directly towards the Infidels The two Armies no sooner met than they came to blows and after a long and bloody Fight the Habassins were totally routed most of them being either killed or taken Prisoners David having narrowly escaped He drives him at last in a manner out of his Empire retired to the Mountains where he sculked about for Two Years with a small flying Body During which time Granhe made himself Master of all the best Provinces of that Empire burning down the Churches or prophaning them by converting them into Mosques whereever he came David seeing his Empire in imminent danger of being totally conquered David sends one John Bermudes a Portuguese after having given him a Title to succeed the Abuna when he died to Rome and Lisbon to solicite and hasten some Succors dispatched one John Bermudes a Portuguese who had been in Ethiopia ever since the Empress Helena her Government to Rome and Lisbon to acquaint those Courts with the Ill Circumstances he was in and to conjure them as they had any regard to the Preservation of a great Christian Empire to send him some considerable Succors with all possible Expedition for otherwise the Habassin Church and Empire would be speedily lost beyond recovery And in order to make his Court the better with the Pope and that King he obliged the Abuna Mark not only to consecrate the said Bermudes who till then was a pure Layman a Bishop but to declare him also his Successor in the See of Ethiopia Bermudes being thus consecrated a Bishop John Bermudes before he went was consecrated a Bishop by the Abuna His Habassin Ordination by a single Euâ—ychian Bishop was allowed to be valid by the Pope when he came to Rome and declared Successor to the Abuna began his Journey for Rome over land and being arrived at that Court in the year 1538 was graciously received by Paul the IIId who did not only allow his Habassin Orders to be valid but did furthermore confirm his Nomination to the Patriarchate of Ethiopia So that whatever it is that hinders the Popes from allowing the Orders of the Church of England to be good unless their Infallibilities will contradict one another it cannot be what they pretend to wit either the Heresy of her first reformed Bishops or their not having been three to consecrate since in this case the Consecration of a Bishop by a single Heretical Bishop was allowed by the Pope to be valid But England is England and Ethiopia is Ethiopia and Policy may not allow that they should be both treated alike Bermudes having dispatched his own Business at Rome Bermudes having got his title to the Abunaship of Ethiopia
confirmed by the Pope goes from Rome to Lisbon which was all that was to be done at that Court which seldom or never takes the expence of any Missions or holy Wars upon it self further than its Blessings will go He began his Journey for Lisbon and being arrived there he was kindly entertained by the King to whom the Pope had left the honour of the whole expence and trouble of succoring Ethiopia and was acknowledged by him and the whole Court as Habassin Patriarch in Possession and not in Reversion and as such though I cannot learn for what Misdemeanor Where he acted as the Habassin Abuna he threw the Ambassador Zaga Zaba into Prison loading him with Chains in which he intended to carry him home had not the King interceeded for his Liberty The Patriarch Bermudes having as it is said He returns to Goa having as it is said obtained an Order for 400 Soldiers obtained an Order from the King to the Viceroy of the Indies for four or five hundred Portuguese Musketeers embarked upon the Fleet that was bound for Goa where he arrived in the Year 1539. but however the King's Orders were if there were ever any it was two years after his landing at Goa before any Portuguese Succors set their Feet in Ethiopia During this time David by some means or other is said to have got so considerable an Army together as to have ventured with it out of his Fastnesses and to have beat Granhe in a pitched Battel but however this were in the progress of the War which lasted from the Year 1528. until the Year 1540. in which David died it is certain he was driven by Granhe out of the greatest part of his Empire he having no other Countries left him at his death but such as defended themselves purely by their barrenness and inaccessibleness such Countries being the common Receptacles of all conquered Nations that have the conveniency of them David died in the 47th year of his Age David dies and is succeeded by his Son Claudius and the 36th of his Reign leaving his Son Claudius a broken and distressed Empire and all Princes an Example of the folly of depending upon remote Foreign Succors and of being encouraged by the hopes of them to provoke their Neighbours or to make them jealous of them Upon Claudius's coming to the Crown Claudius has some success in the beginning but was quickly after obliged to retire to the Mountains the Empire as if its Ill Genius had departed with David began to revive a little For he having got a small Army together marched from among the Mountains and having surprized a Mahometan Prince whose name was Amirizmon and defeated him in a pitced Battel he recovered the Province that Infidel had in the late Scramble made himself master of But the Joy of this Success lasted not long for Amirizmon having recruited his Army with Mahometan Auxiliaries obliged Claudius to come to a Battel wherein he beat him to that degree that he forced him to retire to a remote mountainous Countrey called Zaa only with 70 men in his Company Cabelo Oanguel the Queen-Mother The Queen Mother leaving of a Portuguese Fleet being in the Red-Sea sends two Envoys to the Admiral to implore some Succors The Envoys meet the Portuguese Fleet at Matzua taking sanctuary at the same time in an impregnable Mountain that was at no great distance from the Red-Sea where she had not been long before she received advice of a great Portuguese Fleet being come into those Seas whereupon she dispatched two Envoys who were Bahurnagays and the Grandee Robel to the Portuguese Admiral to beseech him if they met with him to spare her Son some Troops and a Train of Artillery to drive the Mahometans out of Ethiopia of which they were in a manner become absolute Masters The Envoys not knowing any place where they were so like to meet with the Portuguese Fleet as at Matzua repaired thither to wait for it and the Fleet not having been able to execute the Design that had brought it into those Seas which was to have burnt the Turkish Gallies in the Port of Sues happened for it does not appear that it was by Order to touch as they were returning home at Matzua to the great joy of the Habassin Envoys Who having waited on the Admiral and delivered the Empress's Letters to him told him plainly That if he did not spare them a good Body of Troops and a Train of Artillery Ethiopia was for ever a lost Empire adding That the Fortune of a great Christian Empire was now entirely in his hands and as it would be for his immortal honour to save it and the rather because it was nothing so much as its new Correspondence with the Portuguese that had brought this dreadful Storm upon it from all Quarters so they were certain his Master would not thank him for suffering it to be utterly lost when it was so much in his power for to have saved it Upon these Passionate Remonstrances of the Empress and her Envoys the Admiral called a general Council of War to consult what was best to be done in so important an Affair and after some Debates it was unanimously agreed That something must be done to preserve a sinking Empire and the rather because it was visible its new Alliance with Portugal had brought this great storm upon it The Council of War having come to this Resolution They obtain 400 Soldiers of the Portuguese Admiral which were commanded by Don Christopher da Gama several Persons of Quality offered themselves voluntarily to command the Troops that were to be employed in the Expedition as to give the Portuguese Gentlemen their due they are seldom or never backward to go whither their honour calls them The Person that was named to command in Chief was Don Christopher da Gama Brother to the then Viceroy Don Stephen da Gama and Son to the Famous Don Vasvo da Gama the Discoverer of the Indies The Portugueses say The Council of War agreed to send a 1000 Men under Gama but the Envoy would not hear of so great a number Bahurnagays having generously declared That he would never be guilty of carrying Brave Men into a Countrey to starve them that for 400 sufficient Provisions would be found but not for more but whether this was so or not the Portuguese Historians have made the 400 that were sent to have done the work of 4000 Stout men the common fault both of the Portuguese and Spanish Writers who by their Romantick way of magnifying the Feats of their Countreymen do render the truth of the whole of them suspicious On the 9th of July 1541. Gama enters into Ethiopia with his Troops and the Roman Patriarch Gama with his 400 Select Men and a small Train of Artillery were put ashore at Arkiko having the Habassin Envoys and the Patriarch Bermudes in their Company they had a tiresome March over Rocks and Mountains
was for Destruction and not for Edification There were two things one would think might have been some rubs in the way of this promotion though we do not find they were in the least The first was That there was a Patriarch and one of the Pope's own Confirming then living in Ethiopia of whom we shall hear more hereafter The second was the Vow that is taken by the Jesuits never directly nor indirectly to seek after any Ecclesiastical Promotion either within or without their Order which they had violated with a witness in seeking after a Mission of this nature which was not to be performed without some high Prelates Neither do we any where read that Ignatius when he laboured so hard to get his Friars employed therein did desire only the Ministry of it for them leaving the Prelacy thereof to such as were under no Vows to the contrary But however the Clergy stood affected the King was extreamly pleased with this Promotion and presented the Patriarch with extraordinary rich Vestments and with a noble set of Plate for his own Altar all which upon this Mission miscarrying was afterwards given by King Sebastian to the Jesuits College at Goa where the Patriarch had lodged it The Patriarch by reason of his Bulls not having come till some days after the India Fleet departed was obliged to wait a year for the next Fleet The King of Portugal wisely suspecting that things were not so ripe in Ethiopia as they were reported to be sends an Envoy for true Intelligence during which time he lived for the most part at St. Rocks the House of the professed Jesuits at Lisbon of whose Chappel he laid the first Stone But notwithstanding it was generally believed both at Rome and Lisbon that the Habassin Church and Empire were as good as reconciled to the Pope yet there did not want some sober Heads at Lisbon who doubted whether all things were so well in Ethiopia as they were reported to be and as it is plain the Pope and Ignatius thought they were the former in his Bull calling the Emperor his Beloved Son and the latter calling him his Lord in Christ in his long Letter that he writ to him and in a style as if he had been a second Pope of Rome This Letter of Ignatius is set down at length by Maffeus and all the other Writers of his Life in which there are but two things that are remarkable the one is his quoting the First Council of Constantinople and the Council of Chalcedon for the Authoritative Supremacy of the Pope whereas those Councils do place the Pope's primacy of Order which was all they allowed him on a bottom that quite destroys the Florentine Supremacy founding it purely upon the Secular consideration of Old Rome being the first City in the Roman Empire And the second is his proving from Pope Marcellus's Decretal Epistle which is acknowledged by all Learned Roman-Catholicks to have been a Spurious Brat of the Eighth or Ninth Century That God did expresly command St. Peter to fix his See at Rome But to return to the thread of my Story The King having been made jealous by some of his Ministers that Ethiopia might not be altogether so well disposed to submit it self to the Pope as was commonly believed gave Orders to Don Peter Mascarenhas who Commanded the Fleet that Sailed for the Indies four days before the coming of the Pope's Bulls to Lisbon so soon as he arrived at Goa to dispatch an Envoy thither to bring certain tidings of the present state of its Affairs who accordingly so soon as he was arrived at Goa sent one James Dias Oprestes joyning Father Gancalre Rodriguez a Jesuit with him into Ethiopia to bring Intelligence how matters stood there this Jesuits chief if not only business in Ethiopia as we shall see hereafter was if he found the Patriarch Bermudes alive to fetch him off to make a clear stage for his Successor since it would not have looked well to have had two Popish Patriarchs together in Ethiopia These Envoys sailed from Goa in February 1555 and in 30 days landed safe at Arkiko where having rested themselves for some time they continued their Journey by Land till they came to the place where their old Friend Bahurnagays resided who having received them with great kindness sent them with a good Convoy to the Court But The Jesuit Rodriguez having given the World a very particular relation of all this Negotiation at the Habassin Court I shall set it down word for word as he reports it On the 26th Rodriguez the Jesuit who went with the Envoy into Ethiopra his account of their Voyage and Negotiation of May we came to the King of Ethiopia's Court which is nothing but a Camp full of Tents the King was pleased to give us a publick Audience the second day after our Arrival into whose presence when we were introduced we found him seated in a Chair hung round with Silk Curtains as indeed the whole Tent was the Floor of the Room being covered with a rich Carpet James Dias having delivered our Letters to the King he Commanded them to be Read in the hearing of all the Portugueses that belonged the Court who were all permitted to be present at the Ceremony In which Letters our Lord the King having acquainted him with his intention of sending one of his Courtiers with a certain number of Friars of Good lives and found Doctrine next year to him the King when he heard that was all of a sudden in a great disorder and had his thoughts so taken up with it that when we spoke to him he never returned us any answer that was to the purpose but dismissed us to return to our Tents Within two or three days after this Audience the King took a Progress to visit his Grandmother who lived at a place that was Eight or Ten days Journey from the Camp in which he left us without having given any order about our Entertainment and without sending us so much as any thing of a Complement So that I do not know what would have become of us had not an honourable Portuguese carried us to his House which was Two or Three Leagues from the Camp and Entertained us there till the King returned which he did not in a Month. During that time I composed a Treatise of the Errors of Ethiopia and of the Truth of our Holy Faith with an intention to have presented it to the King who as I was told by a Potuguese that was much in his Favour had no kindness for the Roman Pontiff and had said openly That he stood in no need of the Friars the King of Portugal was so forward to send him being fully resolved never to submit himself to the Roman Church I was informed likewise by all the Portugueses of the Court That several of the Grandees had been heard to say An expression of the greatness of the Habassin Zeal against Popery That they
young a man to have attained to so great a stock of Learning I was told likewise that he read my Treatise over and that after he had once read it it was seldom out of his Hand and that he was still shewing it to his Mother and Brothers and the Grandees of the Court and that upon the Abuna's having denounced an Excommunication against all that should read it the King had sent to him for leave to read it again and was put into such a Passion by the Abuna's having deny'd it to him that he called him Mahometan and Heretick saying He would read the Alcoran of Mahomet himself and at the same time not give him leave to read a godly Book commanding him thereupon since he was their Abuna to answer a Book that was written by a poor Clerk who had no Dignity To which the Abuna's answer was That he did not come into Ethiopia to dispute but to confer holy Orders The Court however being divided about this Affair some seeming to favour the Roman but most and especially the Queen-Mother and all her Creatures stickling for the Alexandrian Faith the King resolved to call together some of the most Learned among his Monks to have their Opinion in the matter and in order thereunto he commanded my Treatise to be Translated into Habassin leaving out those Passages he was displeased with when he first looked into it namely that where I spoke of the Pope St. Leo and of Dioscorus Patriarch of Alexandria whom they reckon a Saint as they do Leo to be Excommunicated and Accursed and for whom they have such a detestation that they cannot endure so much as to have him named rejecting the Council of Calcedon and its Decrees which they say erred in the Faith in condemning St. Dioscorus as they unjustly Stile him Since which time they have always been separated from the Roman Church having now for 1067 years been involved in the Heresy of Sergius Paulus and Pyrhus who were all condemned in the Sixth Council of Constantinople and in that of Eutyches likewise which holds that there is but one nature in Christ The time being come when I was to receive the King's Answer I sent to know when I should wait upon him he sent me back word his Father's Embassador waited Ten years in Portugal before he could be dispatched I understood by this the King was for entertaining me with delays on purpose to keep me from returning with the Fleet which waited for us for fear least we might discover the weakness of his Empire to them and so when I went to have my Conge from him in order to my returning to Debora he commanded one to tell me That so great a man as I was and who had come so far was not to be dismissed quickly Besides that I could go no where where I could do so much good as where I was in confessing the Portugueses nevertheless if I was resolved not to remain in Ethiopia he would then desire me only to wait a month longer for his Answer and if I did not receive it then I might look upon my self as dismissed Presently after this he removed his Camp to a place that was two days journey from the place where it was we followed the Camp and being in the Field on Saturday and Sunday we set up an Altar whereon we said Mass on both those days where I was visited by three Monks who desired to have some Discourse with me about Matters of Religion One of them who was a Scholar told me That all that we did appeared well to him excepting that of our not observing Saturday and that of our cating Hare and Swine's Flesh Nevertheless after this he disgorged several Errors in Faith namely That the Souls when they leave the Body cannot presently behold the Divine Essence but are placed in a Terrestrial Paradise That the Holy Spirit does not proceed from the Son but from the Father only That the Son as to his Humanity was equal to the Father That none but Mahometans and Infidels were damned eternally in Hell I returned answers to all these Errors and declared the contrary Truths to him both from Scripture and Reason with which he was so fully satisfied that whispering me in the Ear that the two other Monks who were illiterate might not hear him he said What I had told him was the truth and that he believed it to be so in his heart The Month being expired I went to wait upon the King for his Answer and for leave to return home he bid me go in a good hour and as for the Fathers the King of Portugal designed to send to him he said He had appointed one to wait at Matrua to receive them when they landed being desirous to hear what they had to say to him With this I took my leave of him and passing thorough the Countries where divers of the Portugueses lived I confessed them and their Families and Married several of them to their Concubines having first reduced them to our holy Faith There was one among them who was nearly related to the King And whereas the Churches of that Countrey besides that they belong to Schismaticks have no Altars accommodated to our Service whereever we went we carried an Altar with us to celebrate on While I was in one of these places I received a Complement from a Prelate of a great Monastery of Monks of the Order of St. Anthony and one likewise from the Prelate of a Nunnery which were two Leagues off This Monastery of Monks is one of the biggest in Ethiopia it is called Debra Libanus and is of such Credit that all the Faith of Ethiopia depends upon it in a manner for which reason the Prelate thereof is in high Esteem I went to give him a Visit being attended by all the Portugueses of the place but he happened to be from home we nevertheless took a view of the Monastery which is no ways like ours neither as to Building nor as to their way of living every Monk having his distinct Dwelling-House and Land belonging to it which he cultivates with his own Hands so that the Habassin Monasteries look like Villages the Monks having their Houses on one side of the Street and the Nuns theirs on the other but not being kept asunder the Nuns are frequently troubled with Great Bellies These Monks are neither of the Order of St. Francis No mention of Rodriguez having seen the old Patriarch tho his chief business in Ethiopia was to fetch him from thence if he found him alive nor St. Austin but were founded by one Tecla Haymanot that is The Plant of the Faith who was of the Order of St. Anthony This Haymanot is a great Saint among them and is said to have killed a prodigious Serpent that was worshipped by the Heathens as a God whom he converted by that means to the Faith that is still taught in Ethiopia Thus much of Rodriguez's Relation the Jesuits have thought
to him as a thing not feisable The Pope who at that time was Pius the Vth. believing what the Cardinal had writ to him in the Name of the King of Portugal dispatched the following Letters of Revocation to the Patriarch which the Cardinal took care to forward with all possible expedition To our Venerable Brother Andrew Oviedo Patriarch of Ethiopia Venerable Brother Health and Apostolical Benenediction c. BY Letters from our Beloved Son Sebastian The Pope's Letters of Revocation the Illustrious King of Portugal his Ambassador resident at our Court and by other Persons of good Credit we are informed That you having been sent by this Apostolical See into Ethiopia to reduce the People thereof to the knowledge of the Orthodox Faith have not after having spent several years therein been able by reason of the hardness of their hearts and their obstinacy in their ancient Errors to reap that fruit which might justly have been expected of your pious Labours whereas if you were employed in the Island of Japan on the Province of China Countries inhabited by Heathens and who at this time seem well disposed to receive the Faith of Christ it is to be hoped that with God's Assistance your Labours would be profitable in those parts where the Harvest is great and the Labourers are few We having been thus informed and being moved by brotherly Charity suffering together with you since there is no likelihood of your reaping that fruit where you are which might justly be expected from your great Labours and so long a Peregrination and finding our selves placed though without our Merits in this holy See and being sensible of our being debtors to all and by our Office bound to promote the Glory and Honour of Almighty God and the Salvation of Souls saluting you with the Charity of a Brother and having received ample testimonies of your Zeal and Affection to promote the Catholick Religion we do exhort you in the Lord and in virtue of holy Obedience and the remission of all your Sins Command you by the first opportunity you shall have of Sailing after the receipt of these our Letters to depart forthwith to the Island of Japan or China there to Preach the word of God according to the Doctrine of the Holy Roman Church who is the Mother and Mistress of all the Faithful and there to administer all the Sacraments which do properly belong to the Episcopal Function so as trusting in the Divine Mercy to endeavour to gain all the Souls you can to God and in order to the enabling you thereunto we do by our Apostolical Authority give you free leave and full power to exercise all Episcopal Offices in those parts or any other that have not a proper Bishop So as to moke use of all those Faculties and Indults which were granted to you by Pope Julius the IIId of happy Memory or by any other Roman Bishop our Predecessors with relation to the Kingdom of Ethiopia And we do likewise by the same Authority dispense with you so far that you may without any scruple of Conscience live and remain in the aforesaid parts unless there should happen to be more hopes of reducing Ethiopia to the Union of the Catholick Faith than there is at present Dated at Rome in St. Peter's and Signed with the Seal of the Fisherman on the 1st of February 1560. The Patriarch though Sick of Ethiopia The Patriarch is unwilling to return to the Indies yet seems to have had no great stomach for the China or Japan Mission which to speak the Truth was a hard imposition upon one of his years And so though in his Answer which is here subjoined he assures the Pope of his readiness to submit to all his Commands yet he sufficiently intimates that he was as willing to resign his Dignity and serve him or the Jesuits in their Kitchens as to keep it and carry it to China or Japan in which affair it is to be feared that the Patriarch's being a Spaniard was of no advantage to him it being the custom of the Portugueses when they have got any Foreign Friars among them in the Indies to put them upon the forlorn of all dangerous Missions as they did Oviedo on this and Father Peter who was likewise a Spaniard on that of the Second Habassin Mission as we shall see hereafter The Patriarch's Answer to the Pope Andrew d'Oviedo to Pope Pius the Vth. Most Blessed Father IN this present year 1567 His Answer to the Pope with some Letters from the College of St. Paul at Goa a Copy of an Apostolical Brief from your Holiness to me came to my hands wherein among other pious devout and holy things are these words We do exhort you in the Lord and in virtue of holy Obedience and Remission of your Sins do command you by the first opportunity you shall have of sailing after the receit of these our Letters to depart for the Island of Japan or the Kingdom of China And a little lower there are these words We do furthermore by the same Apostolical Authority dispense with you so that in case there is no hopes of reducing Ethiopia to the Church you may go into those parts and there remain without any s … ple of Conscience To which Apostolical L … no less than if I had received their original I prepared my self to yield obedience as it is fit just and healthful that we should at all times and in whole and in part obey your Holiness for in obeying you Most Holy Father we obey Christ the only begotten Son of God in whose place you are upon earth our Head and Father and the Master of all faithful Christians all the Indulgence Order and Power of the Church of Christ being derived from you to all others The holy Mother-Church of Rome whose Faith never did nor never will fail and who is the Mother and Mistress of all the Churches in the world and of all faithful Christians being continued in your Pontificate As to your having commanded me to go to the Island of Japan by the first convenience I have had no opportunity since I received your Commands and so am excused for not being gone neither in truth can I embark here with any safety there being a thousand Turkish Ships and not one Christian in the Port of Matzua at this time As to what is said of having any hopes of the reducing of Ethiopia I should quickly have such hopes could we but have Five or Six hundred Portugueses sent hither from the Indies according to what was agreed before I left Goa upon the advice they had received there of the obstinacy of the King of Ethiopia and which we have been now long expecting Were this once done I should not only hope to see Ethiopia quickly reduced but should be infallibly certain of it With which Troops we should not only be able to convert all this Empire but innumerable multitudes of Heathens also into whose
Countries they might march from hence without crossing any Sea Which Heathens being a simple sort of people and not much addicted to Idolatry might be converted with great ease We have been told that great numbers of them have petitioned the King of Ethiopia to be made Christians but have been denied out of temporal respects the Ethiopians reckoning that after they are Christians it is not lawful to make them Slaves as they do now in vast numbers The Heathens that desired this were of Damut a Countrey that abounds with Pure Gold and is said to reach to the King of Portugal 's Territories which are about Mosambique and Sefalia There are Heathens likewise in another Countrey called Sinaxi which is also full of Fine Gold and who about three years ago offered to a Prince who is nearly related to the King of Ethiopia if he would but desist from the War he had begun upon them both to turn Christians and to pay him a Yearly Tribute It is from among these Heathens but chiefly those of Dambut that the Mahometan Merchants who are in great numbers in these parts do daily buy vast numbers of Slaves which they sell to the Moors and Turks These Heathens would turn Christians with all their hearts for they cry and take on lamentably when they are carried to the Ships to which they are driven in such herds that I am persuaded that the Turks have had at least an Hundred thousand of them who make them all Mahometans and who afterwards are known by experience to become stout Soldiers and to do the Saracens great Service both by Sea and Land All which mischiefs Five or Six hundred Portuguese Soldiers if we had them here would remedy and would do extraordinary service to the state of India and to all the Christians thereof for if the Turks should once make themselves Masters of Ethiopia it would be of fatal consequence to the Portuguese Interest in the Indies there being divers things in this Countrey that would be serviceable to them in reference to their Galleys as Slaves Iron and other Provisions The King that first began to persecute our Holy Faith and all his Ministers are now in their Graves and his Son who now reigns is not Absolute the Royal Authority having been much shaken and impaired of late God in his Justice having so ordered things that he that refused to obey him and submit himself to the Roman Church from which all that have separated themselves obstinately have been destroyed and have fallen under the yoke of Infidels should not be obeyed by his own Subjects The people here are all in pieces and are so cowed by the devastations the Turks have made among them that they think of nothing but how to live and keep their Estates But tho the late King and his Ministers were possessed with a strange Rage against the Catholick Faith and us Catholicks the common people and some others seemed to be well enough disposed towards it For our part we have not been sparing of our pains to preach to them and besides divers Conferences and Disputations both private and publick that we have had with them we have written divers Treatises against their Errors and have got them translated into Habassin so that all the Doctrines of Faith have been sufficiently promulgated to them if they could but be persuaded to embrace them not but that there are great numbers of them who are satisfied of the truth of our Faith but who either out of shame or fear of punishment are afraid to profess it For which reason there are several that would be glad to see some Portuguese Troops here to defend them in the Faith after they have professed it out of which by reason of their being but weak therein they are now easily terrified as a great many have been tho there are some who notwithstanding all the contradiction they have met withal do continue stedfast therein It is a common Tradition here That the Portugueses are to come among them to make them of the same Faith with themselves and they say further and we believe it to be true That this distracted Empire will never be in peace or any tolerable order until they come which though they should and with an intention of offering Violence would give no offence to any body not to Catholicks to be sure there being no reason why they should be offended at it no nor the Habassins neither for I am persuaded that if such a number of Portuguese Troops were here their name without striking a stroke would do the work so that they would look more like Friends than Enemies and I am certain that if they had come when we expected them this whole Empire had been in the Obedience of the Roman Church before this time and it will be the same thing if they should come now Wherefore most holy Father since all these things do belong to your Office who are the Universal Pastor feed these your sheep with wholsome food and provide a necessary remedy for them by writing to the most Serene King of Portugal for some Troops and by acquainting his Ambassador at your Court with the necessity there is of sending them hither for to tell your Holiness my mind frankly I am of opinion That Ethiopia ought not to be deserted But after all if there is no persuading the King of Portugal to send a body of Soldiers hither for which for the good of Ethiopia let me beg it of your Holiness a second time to write to him he must then be desired to send a good Fleet hither to carry off the Catholicks for should it be such a one as is talked of it would not be able to carry one of them to the Indies the Turks being very strong at present in Matzua and all these Sea-ports and whatever is done let us not lose any of the Catholicks that are here by leaving them in the hands of Hereticks and Infidels who after the Heads of their Families and Priests who are mortal as well as other men are dead will be in danger of being lost Finally I desire to be advised of what your Holiness would have done and as to what concerns my own Person most holy Father I am by God's Grace prepared to Obey your Will by either continuing where I am or by going to Japan or to the Turks if your Holiness should Command me or by laying down my Patriarchal Dignity to serve my Fathers the Jesuits or your Holiness in your Kitchen or in any other post And if it shall seem good to your Holiness I do beg some Indulgences of you for the remission of our Sins Farewel great Father From Ethiopia the 15th of June 1566. Andrew Patriarch of Ethiopia This Letter of the Patriarch's gives the Reader a clear view of the true temper of the Roman Missionaries and of the methods they are for making use of in the Conversion of Heretical Kingdoms to the Roman Church it discloseth
any opportunity of a passage for Ethiopia did offer during which time they went but little abroad and when they did it was always in a Turkish Habit in which they had so disguised themselves that Monserrate was pelted with stones in the street by the Boys for a Turk and Father Peter had like to have been shot by a Centinel for walking too near the Ordnance But at last a Mahometan Pilot being spoke to by the Governor of Mascate whither the Fathers went from Dio did undertake to put them both ashoar at the Port of Zeyla whereupon they embarked on the 6th of December and after a few days Sail meeting with a violent storm They were discovered and made Slaves in Arabia were driven ashoar on the Coasts of Arabia where being discovered to be Christian Priests they were both sent by the Governor of Defar to his Master the King of Zeal who keeps his Court in a City of Arabia Felix called Tarim wherein they were both kept Slaves Seven years The Superiors at Goa having received advice of this named one Abraham de Georgys a Maronite Jesuit and James Gonsalves A Maronite Jesuit is sent in disguise to Ethiopiá to go into Ethiopia but Father Abraham when he came to Goa from Malabar instead of Father James who was a Portuguese had an Habassin Youth given him for his Companion The Maronite and Habassin being arrived at Dio found a Ship belonging to the Baneans ready to set Sail for Matzua whereon they embarked as Turks and when they landed at Matzua were kindly received as true Musselmen by the Governor who himself was a Christian Renegado These are the Inventions as the Viceroy Albuquerque told Father Abraham at Goa when he first saw him in his Turkish Habit wherewith the Jesuits seek to serve God and to bring Souls to their Creator The Governor not having the least suspicion of Father Abraham being a Christian and much less a Priest gave him leave to go into Ethiopia at the first word but being told by the Skipper that brought him He is discovered and put to death for having professed himself a Mahometan that he had some reason to think that he was a Portuguese Priest he sent a hue and cry after him which having overtook him before he was got to Arkiko brought him back to Matzua the Governor when Abraham was brought before him being in a great rage at him for his having imposed upon him as he had done after he had given him a great many hard words asked him Whether he was a Musselman or a Christian Abraham not thinking fit to dissemble any longer told him boldly he was a Christian Are you so said the Governor then by the Great God if you do not turn Mahometan immediately you shall lose your head for having pretended to be one Abraham made answer My Life it is true is in your Power but to make me turn Mahometan is not neither will I ever do it Whereupon the Governor with a Renegado fury commanded him to be tortured which being done he ordered his head to be Chopped off but without raising a spring of fresh water for that would have been a great benefit to the Island which is much incommoded for want of it but instead thereof a prodigious Fire was seen for Forty Nights together over the place where his Body was Buried Gregory the XIIIth having been informed of the great want the Portugueses that were in Ethiopia were in of a Priest did order one John Baptista an Italian to be Consecrated a Bishop The Pope sends an Italian Bishop to Ethiopia with an intention of sending him to them This John Baptista had been sent by Gregory before with Letters to Amba John Patriarch of Alexandria to persuade him to submit himself to the Roman Church as he was afterwards by Sixtus the Vth. to Gabriel Patriarch of the said See on the same errand it is not said whether Bishop Baptista returned to Rome with Gabriel's answer to Sixtus or having delivered his Letters at Cayr and finding all the Avenues to Ethiopia by Land stopped by the Turks did go to Goa for a Passage but certain it is that he got thither and that he had not been there long before the Viceroy Don Edward de Menezes embarked him upon a small Portuguese Vessel which had orders to put him ashoar somewhere in Ethiopia but the Ship he was upon happening to touch at the Island of Camera and it being discovered there that Baptista was a Christian Bishop bound for Ethiopia Who being discocovered was Murthered by the Turks he was thereupon Murthered by the Turks But though the Jesuits do not in any of their Histories that I have seen so much as mention this Bishop's Name not caring it 's like that it should be known that any that was not of their Order was employed in this Mission yet I hope his not having been a Jesuit nor sent by their Superiors did no ways contribute to his end his being sent to Habassia at that time The Archbishop of Goa sends one Sylva a Secular Priest into Ethiopia and after such a manner being a thing that does not look very well In the year 1597. Dom Alexo de Menezes the most politick Prelate that ever was in those parts looking upon himself now there was no Patriarch of Ethiopia as the ordinary Prelate thereof as he was Primate of the Indies did take the Habassin Affair into his own hands and having cast about how to have Intelligence from thence and to supply the Portugueses that were there with a Priest he did at last fall upon the following expedient There was one Belchior de Sylva a Converted Bramen who was Vicar of the Church of St. Ann in Goa whom the Archbishop after he had determined to send him into Ethiopia ordered upon some Informations he pretended to have received against him to be thrown into Prison threatening him with severe Censures if what he was accused of should be proved having at the same time so concerted the matter with Sylva that he was to break Jayl on a certain night and come to him in a disguise at a place called Bardez which he was then going to visit being in the mean time to let his Hair and Beard grow the better to disguise himself When the night agreed upon was come Sylva having broke Jayl went directly to Bardez where the Archbishop kept him private and to blind the matter the more seemed to be very angry at his having made his escape and to use extraordinary diligence to catch him again Sylva having received his Instructions Sylva under the disguise of a Banean Sailor gets into Ethiopia and being put into a Turkish Habit with Pendants in his Ears was sent privately by the Archbishop to Dio where he remained Incognito till a Ship offered for Ethiopia on board which he listed himself a Sailer and during the whole Voyage he behaved himself so among the Mariners as
been Emperor himself for Seven years and that with the Approbation of the People who had also restored him after he had been Deposed for some time neither was his being a Bastard any bar to him since according to the Natural and Civil Law a Bastard may succeed his Father as John the First of Portugal did his Fathor Don Peter besides Suseneus was a Bastard no less than Jacob. On the other side saith Tellez it may be alledged That Jacob having been deposed to make room for Za Danguil who was both the true Heir and was chosen by the Grandees and People upon Danguil 's death the Throne became void and the Election of an Emperor out of the Royal Family devolved to the Commonwealth whereupon Suseneus who was the Grandson of an Infante was chosen Emperor by the Army upon Jacob 's having delayed coming to them Concluding That whatever Princes Titles or Pretences in such cases may be in Speculation according to the Practice of the World he has the best Title that â—â—s the longest Sword But to return to the Fathers who having staid at Court till Winter obtained leave to go to Gorgora to fix a Residence there but they had not been gone a Month before the Emperor writ to them to come to Court again declaring that he could not be without their Company any longer The Fathers obey'd the summons and repaired to Coga a place near the Lake of Dembea where the Emperor at that time had his Camp They were no sooner arrived but the Emperor gave them an Audience and after that was over ordered them to Dine with him that is in the same Room though not at the same Table The Portugueses give a tedious account of the particulars of this Entertainment the main of which are That the Emperor does not feed himself but has his Meat put into his Mouth by his Pages that his Diet was plain and without any thing of Cookery and that he had neither Knife Spoon Table-Cloth nor Napkin and had Bread for his Trencher and never Drank till he had done Eating Father Peter and his Companions never missed the Emperor's Levee the Emperor taking great delight to discourse with them about Religion and the difference that is between the Habassin and Roman Churches which Conferences having continued for some time The Emperor offers to write to the King of Portugal and the Pope and is encouraged by Father Peter to do it the Emperor sent one day to Father Peter to come to him alone and being come he told him That nowithstanding he was convinced that he ought to submit himself and his Empire to the Pope yet it would not be safe for him to attempt it before he had some assurance that the King of Portugal would assist him against those who would oppose him in doing of it That he intended therefore to write a Letter to the Pope and another to the King about it The Father having extolled his good intentions encouraged him to write those Letters assuring him of as good an Answer to them as he could desire The Emperor Seltem Saged's Letter to the Pope THE Letter of the Emperor of Ethiopia The Emperor's Letter to the Pope Malac Eguet cometh to the holy Pope of Rome with the Peace of our Lord Christ who loved us and washed us from our Sins in his blood and hath made us a Kingdom and a Priesthood to God the Father May this Peace be always with your Holiness and the Catholick Church of Christ Amen We have for a long time had a great affection for the Christians of your parts upon the account of the benefits this Empire received from them when it was formerly rescued by the Portugueses out of the hands of Mahometans and restored by them to its ancient estate and quiet most of whose Race died in our Father's Reign who was willing they should enjoy what his Ancestors had given them whereupon so soon as through God's Grace I took the Government of the Empire upon me I determined to renew our Alliance with the Faithful People of Christ in order to remedy the manifest distractions our Empire of late years has been put into by the Mahometans for notwithstanding we have subdued most of our Domestick Enemies we have Enemies still that are much more Powerful that is the Infidel Gauls who have Conquered a great part of our Empire and destroyed many of our Churches and which is worst of all are daily Invading us and exercising unheard-of Cruelties on Old Men Widows and Children whom we are not able to protect without being assisted by our Brother the Emperor of Portugal We do therefore implore his aid as our Ancestors did that of his Predecessors formerly and that there may be no failure we resolved to intreat your Holiness who is the Father and Pastor of all faithful Christians to write to our Brother to grant us what we desire of him before the Gauls grow stronger upon us As to the landing of the Succors he shall send it will be done without any danger they that are the Masters of our Coast being at this time very weak at Sea so being assured that your Holiness will assist us according to our necessities we will trouble you with no more words but shall refer the relation of the state of our Empire and of the kindness wherewith we Treat those of the Portuguese race and of the care we take of the Fathers and their Churches to Father Peter Pays to whom I have recommended the doing of it and to whose account I desire you to give the same credit as you do to this Letter We conclude praying that our Lord Christ would preserve your Holiness for many Years for the good of the Catholick Church Written in Ethiopia on the 14th of October 1607. The Emperor's Letter to the King of Spain THE Letter sent by the Emperor Malac Eguet His Letters to the King of Spain cometh to the Emperor of Spain the Holy Land of St. Peter the Prince of the Doctors and of the Catholick Church of our Lord of which the Apostle St. Paul said I have betrothed thee to one man to present thee a chast Virgin to Christ To whom be glory and in imitation of the most pure Messenger St. Gabriel who saluting our Lady the Virgin said The Lord save thee and of Christ our Lord who on the Evening of the Lord's-day after his Resurrection said to his Apostles being assembled together Peace be among you and as St. Paul writes in all his Epistles The Peace of our Lord be with your Majesty our Brother in the Faith that was preached by St. Peter at the time when our Lord Christ commanded his Apostles to go all over the world and preach the Gospel to all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost How is your Majesty and how is your Empire we are in health thorough the Intercession of St. Peter your and our
Popery which was slackened so much of late I shall nevertheless set them down as they are published by the Jesuits leaving them to the censure of the judicious Reader Pope Urban the VIIIth To Seltem Saged Emperor of Ethiopia Health and Apostolical Benediction MOST dear Son in Christ The Stream of the River Nile doth at this time make glad the City of God Fruits fit for the Banquets of Angels being brought from the thirsty Land of Ethiopia to the Palace of St. Peter there being nothing that the Mother of Riches or that Africk which is so fruitful of Monsters can bring to Rome the Mother of Christianity that is so Precious and wonderful as your Majesty's Letters addressed to Gregory the XVth of happy Memory to whose place though unworthy of it the Holy Spirit has been pleased to call us when we read them we could not forbear weeping for joy to hear that the vast Empire of Ethiopia had submitted it self to the Laws of the Roman Pontificate O happy Prince who after having Conquered divers Nations and triumphed over all your Enemies have been able to exalt the Trophies of the Cross of Christ upon the Towers of your Provinces For you do really plant Heaven in your Empire so long as the favour of so great a King is sought after by the making a profession of the Catholick truth Go on my Dear Son since God favours you and Rome by its applauses exalts you to the Society of those Princes who for having propogated the Kingdom of Heaven have an immortal memory in the praises of Mankind for notwithstanding your Majesty's Empire is beyond the anciently known ways of the Sun the Apostolical Senate which comprehends all the Nations of the Christian Commonwealth beholdeth all your Heroick Actions giving manifold applauses on the Theatre of the world to your Majesty and to all that are employed by you in suppressing the rashness of Rebels and in breaking the horns of Fiends We the Vicar of the Almighty Majesty in this Throne which all Christians do with bended knees adore have turned the eyes of our Apostolical solicitude towards your Majesty praying that the most exalted Arbiter of Princes may send his Angels to be Soliders in your Triumphant Armies we are not ignorant of what some people drive at for we behold whole Legions of Devils fighting against the Scepter of Christ which is the strength of your Majesty's Right-arm we know the Professors of false Doctrines do likewise whet their Tongues as a Sword that so they may with the poison of their Impiety infect the Bread of Life Assume a courage therefore worthy of the Race of David in whom the House of Ethiopia glories as in their Ancestor who when such people placed their Camps against him did put his trust in God and so found by Experience that the name of the Lord was the Tower of David guarded by aâ— heavenly Host and praised by a victorious Army My most dear Son it is undoubtedly as you write that the Pests of their Countrey and the Disturbers of the people shall not God assisting you be suffered to reign We do most affectionately impart our Apostolical Benediction to your self and your best Brother and to all your Royal Family and faithful People and shall pray continually that you may always have the Arms of light from the Sanctuary of the Divinity and we do here with the keys of the Pontiff open unto you the Treasure of the heavenly Indulgence with whose healthful riches we do at this time bless the Ethiopick Church we shall likewise be always mindful to sollicit the most Powerful King of Spain to grant you all that you shall desire of the Austrian House Most Dear Son we do embrace you in the arms of our Apostolical Charity and carrying you in our hearts we shall always adorn you with the Patronage of our Pontificate and while you do with a Royal Piety venerate the Patriarch of Ethiopia and his Coadjutors you give Examples to others to honour the Priesthood and do whet the sollicitude of holy Prelates to labour in Ethiopia we wish you joy of the obedience of your people who so long as a Religious King fights under the standard of Christ do never Desert him Dated at Rome at St. Peter's under the Ring of the Fisherman this First of February 1627. in the Fourth Year of our Pontificate Pope Urban the VIIIth's Letter to the Prince Our Most Beloved Son in Christ Health and Apostolical Benediction THE Wealth of Nile floweth to the glory of your Name Urban's Letter to the Prince and you the Son of the Ethiopick Empire do grow up in the hopes of a most powerful Principality you do nevertheless understand God having taught you how miserable you had been had you not drank of the streams of the Gospel out of the Fountain of the Catholick Church and if you had not by adoring St. Peter in the Roman Pontificate been made the Son of God whose Possession and Workmanship the whole frame of Heaven and Earth is in the Roman Church The holy Quire of Reigning Priests and of Obedient Nations do applaud the Heir that is to rule in Ethiopia with Christian Virtue rejoicing that a Kingdom is prepared for you out of which your triumphant Father the Scepter of whose Empire is the Rod of Direction do's thorough the Divine Assistance extirpate the Synagogue of Satan you having been Educated in the Domestick imitation of such splendid virtues and being in a Post that draws the eyes of Heaven and Earth upon you Such Councils are expected from your Wisdom as are to be like the lights of the Holy Spirit and the Thunderbolts of the Divine Vengeance And being it is thus beloved Son you must not think of living at ease in your Father's Palace before you have made all Ethiopia throw it self at the feet of St. Peter that so they may find Heaven in the Vatican For the Doctrines of the Pope will not be only the hope of Salvation to you but they will be also the Anchor of quietness and the safety of your Dominions We do embrace you most Dear Son with the Arms of Apostolical Charity and do wish you an obedient people and favourable Angels amidst the Trophies of your Arms and the Joys of your Prosperity and we do from the bottom of our heart impart our fatherly Benediction to you Dated at Rome at St. Peter's under the Ring of the Fisherman the Twenty Eighth of December 1630. in the Seventh Year of our Pontificate Now besides that the Phrase of these Letters do very much resemble that of the Patriarch Mendez who affected a Tinsil Oratory in every thing he writ That to the Prince bears Date the same Month of the same Year when it was deliver'd This Jubilee The Emperor's Zeal revived by this Letter and a Jabilee notwithstanding it was Laughed at by the Habassins who asked by what Authority the Pope pretended to forgive Sins is said to have warmed
which loss was in short as followeth The Governor of the Citadel of Momboca a place saith our Historian that seemed to have Tyrannical Governors entailed upon it having upon some pretence or other in the year 1614. put the King of that Countrey who was a Mahometan to death he sent the Prince his eldest Son who was but a Boy with his Father's Head to Goa where being put into the hands of the Austin Friars he was Converted by them and Christened by the Name of Hierom and after Thirteen years residence among them was Married to a Portuguese Lady and having solemnly Submitted himself and his Kingdom to the Pope was sent home with his Queen with a promise of having his Crown restored to him again But the Governor of Momboca though he allowed Don Hierom the Title of King treated him much more like a Slave than a Prince not suffering him to exercise the least Authority nor to have a hand in any publick business The Royal Title without any thing of Power making Don Hierom uneasie and having nothing else to do he stole frequently by night to the place where his Father's Corps lay buried where after having bitterly bewailed his unfortunate end he still performed some Mahometan Ceremonies to his Ghost which having been observed one night by a Portuguese he went presently and acquainted the Governor therewith who concluding from thence as well he might that Don Hierom though he professed himself a Christian was a Mahometan in his heart intended to have him apprehended in order to send him to the Inquisition of Goa as an Apostate But the King having by some way or other had advice of what the Governor intended resolved to be beforehand with him and either to send him to the Inquisition of Heaven next morning to answer for his Tyranny or to lose his Life in the Attempt which knowing what the Inquisition of Goa was he reckoned to be preferable to being lodged in it and having in pursuance of this resolution by night with great secrecy got Three hundred of the stoutest and faithfullest of the Caffrees together in a Body he surprized the Citadel betimes next Morning where having Killed the Governor Peter Leytam de Gambaa with his own hand he put the whole Garison not sparing the Governor's Lady and Daughter to the Sword and having done his work in the Citadel he Marched into the Town and before night had not left one Portuguese Ecclesiastick or Laick alive that he could lay his hands on So soon as the Massacre was over he went to the Lady Church where having mounted the Pulpit and commanded all the Natives who had turned Christians to be brought before him he made the following Discourse to them The King of Momboca's Speech to his Subjects after he had Massacred all the Portuguese that were in the City THE High Ala hath for many years suffered the Insults of Men but the time appointed for their period being come he would endure them no longer having now in one hour revenged the Crimes of several Ages The Portugueses came from the dark shades of the day into this Countrey where the true light shines who after having destroyed great numbers of African and Asiatick Kingdoms and having been Pyrates in both Seas had the impudence to pretend that they had no other business with us but to teach us Policy for the Earth and to instruct us in the way to Heaven As if either Divine or Human Laws did direct the destroying and robbing of men on purpose to bring them to embrace true Doctrines is not this wonderful Doctrine to put a Cross into our Hands that they may take our Scepters out of them and our Crowns from off our Heads and to rob us as they have done all other Nations of our Liberty Their coming at first into these Parts though drawn hither by nothing else but their unsatiable covetousness and desiring to have a Trade with us was well enough but to force us to it whether we would or not and instead of helping us to Goods and Honour to encourage us to trade with them to fleece us to our very Souls if we did it or refused it is such an Heavenly or earthly Law as I must own I do not understand Let us for once grant them That we are as they say without the Knowledge of the True God What then Can there be any such God as shall command us to be Robbed of our Lands Crowns Lives and Liberties and of our Wives Children Brethren and Kinsfolk that so we may be brought to the Knowledge of him No most certain it is that there can be no such God since to be God is to be Just So that the Robberies which we of Africk and Asia do daily suffer at the hands of these enormous Strangers are Injustices which will infallibly be punished at his Divine Tribunal for the very Men that do plunder us do at the same time teach us That when the Son of God sent his Ministers to Preach his new Law over the World that one of his Instructions to them was that they should propose it to the Gentiles and if some refused to hear them that they should go then and tender it to others For had this work been to have been done by Viclence their Master was sufficiently able to have done one of these two things for his Ministers either to have endued them with such a Divine Power as could not be resisted but must have obliged all People to have surrendred themselves to them or have given them Armies to have forced the World to a submission Whereas it is most certain that those Ministers had no order to take any thing from any body or to compel any to receive their Doctrines Which makes me wonder how the Portugueses who pretend to be such Singular Ministers of those Doctrines should first force us by War to embrace them and after we have embraced them should Rob us What shall I call such People as these The Preachers of the Divine Law or the Doctors of Human Covetousness Who call us Barbarians before we hear them and after we have heard them make us their Slaves With what plausible pretenees did they first come ashoar here And how did they afterwards make themselves so far Masters of this City as to oblige my Ancestors to accept of their own Crown from their hands and who after they had served them faithfully were rewarded by them with Reproaches Treachery Violence and Death But to pass over what is ancient and to go no higher than my Father Who among you though your Bowels were nests of Scorpions or of worse creatures if there be any do not lament the Memory of what he suffered at their hands even to the taking away of his life by barbarous and tyrannical Methods I have a thousand times and a thousand to that visited the Tomb of my good but unhappy Father and I never did it once but I heard his blood crying
to be imparted to your Grace Which I here do in their Name and in their Presence with great chearfulness as I do also offer you my own Service beseeching Christ to prosper you Your Grace's most Affectionate Brother Aloysius Cadinalis Caponias At Rome the 14th of October 1647. This Letter though very civil did not answer the Patriarch's design in his Present for notwithstanding there is mention in it of an Habassin Mission there is not one syllable of restoring it to the Jesuits In the year 1648. Father Torquato is sent by the Patriarch to Suaqhem for to bring him Intelligence the Patriarch who continued still at Goa sufficiently mortified by the Congregation de Propaganda fide reflecting so much upon his Conduct as to take the business of his Church out of the hands both of his Order and Countrey notwithstanding he had complied so far with what was ordered at Rome as not to send a Portuguese yet he ventured to send an Italian Jesuit to Suaqhem to try if he could get into Ethiopia to send him intelligence how matters stood there Father Torquato which was the Jesuit's name that was sent having put himself into the habit of a Merchant embarked upon an English Ship at Surat that was bound for Suaqhem which having touched at Moqha the Father who was sent to Ethiopia chiefly for Intelligence pretended to meet with the News there of Basilides having declared himself a Mahometan and of his having sent into Arabia for Priests of that Sect to come and instruct his people therein This News put Father Torquato into such a passion that he resolved without using any precautions Father Torquate meets with the News at Moqua of Basilides being turned Mahometan to run presently into Ethiopia to confound those Infidel Priests before they had time to spread their contagion there But being on the wrong side of the Sea and fearing that he had not Faith enough to cross it upon his Coat as many a Friar had done a greater Sea and when they had not half so much business he resolved when he came to Matzua to be governed by Father Anthony the French Capuchin whom he expected to have found there as to his going on that Errand But whether there were any colour at that time for this story of Basilides being about to turn Mahometan if he was not turned already it is no news for Monks and Friars to throw such scandals on Princes that have any ways vexed them witness their stories of the Iconaclasts Emperors being sometime turned Jews and sometimes Mahometans and of our King John having offered the Emperor of Morocco if he would assist him to be of his Religion and of Charles Martel's Soul being some years after his Death seen in Hell for his Sacrilege On the 6th of May the English Ship the Father was on Board sailed from Moqua and on the 12th touched at Dela the biggest Island in the Red-Sea it being Twelve Leagues in Length from whence they sailed directly to Suaqhem where being come to an Anchor the Master sent ashoar for pratick which he had sent to him at first word with a Present of fresh Provisions from the Governor The Father who walked upon the Deck as if he had been the Supercargo having enquired of the Watermen that came aboard How the Christians that were in Suaqhem did At Suaqhem he hears of the three Capuchins having been Murthered They made Answer That they knew of none that were there some that were there formerly being gone into Ethiopia Next day the Father went ashoar with the Master to enquire farther about the Friars but was not able to learn any thing concerning them only he was told by some of the Baneans That the Fathers that were there had been for some time dead But the Master of the Ship having observed that the Father was much troubled that he could learn nothing of his Brethren told him He needed not enquire any farther after them for he could assure him they had been all Three Murthered by the Order of the Bashaw which was afterwards confirmed to him by a Banean who told him farther That the Bashaw had strictly forbid all People to speak of it The Father being now satisfied that the Friars were all Murthered his next business was to get their Bodies or some part of them at least to carry with him to Goa which with the story of Basilides being turned Mahometan he reckoned would make him welcome there but here he was at a greater loss than he was before considering the hatred say the Jesuits that the English Hereticks have for all Sacred Relicks nevertheless being resolved to carry something home besides his Moqha News for I do not find that it was confirmed at Suaqhem he ventured to speak to an English Sailer the Master having forbid him to go any more ashoar for fear of bringing the Ship into trouble to go to a certain Island that lay but a little way off and if he found any dead bodies there to bring them to him promising to pay him well for his pains the honest Sailer told him he would do his best and going ashoar he picked up Two Skulls and a Bone and having brought them privately aboard delivered them to the Father who though he had never seen any of the Friars knew the Skulls at first sight to be the Heads of the Two Italians that came last He is fortunate in finding the Skulls of the two Italian Friars and a Bone of the French and which was altogether as difficult he knew the Bone to be the Bone of Father Antony's right Arm which was as lucky as could be for had it happened to have belonged to either of the Skulls which were both visibly Italian he must then have either sent his Sailer ashoar again to have busked for more Bones which was not to be done without danger or which would have been a sad thing he must have gone home without a Relick of the French Friar With this rich Treasure and his Moqha News Father Torquato returned well satisfied to Goa where he was made welcome by the Patriarch and was reckoned by all but especially the Capuchins of that City to have made a good coasting Voyage The Patriarch having paid his devotion to the Relicks did contrary to the custom of his Order to encourage the Capuchins in their New Mission part with this noble Treasure to them but upon condition that if the Congregation de Propaganda fide should at any time demand what Evidences they had of their being true The Patriarch is so kind as to give these Sacred Reliques to the Capuchins of Goa that they should remit an exact information thereof to it The Patriarch hoping it is like by this means to satisfie the Congregation that the Jesuits for all their having represented the Capuchin Conduct in the Habassin Mission to have been one continued blunder were so far from their being displeased with their being solely employed
dead before his nomination arrived the Patriarch was nominated by the King of Portugal to the Archbishoprick of Goa which Dignity he did not live to take possession of having departed this life on the Twenty ninth of June before the arrival of the Fleet by which the nomination was sent He died in the Seventy Seventh Year of his Age having been Sixty Three Years a Friar of the Society of whom though his Brethren the Jesuits have wrote great things the poor Ethiopick Church might justly apply to him what Moses's Ethiopick Wife said to him in a passion Thou hast been an Husband of blood to me Basilides having by a total extirpation of Popery out of his Empire Basilides having extirpated Popery recovers most of his lost Provinces quieted the minds of his Subjects set about recovering the Provinces his Infidel Neighbours had during the Habassin broils about Religion tore from his Predecessors and was so prosperous in his Wars as to regain most of them having if Morad the Habassin Ambassador at Batavia did not stretch extended his Empire Northward to the confines of Nubia and Southward to Hadea the people of which Kingdom were converted by him to the Christian Faith Basilides having Reign'd Two and Thirty Years After a happy Reign of Thirty Two years is succeeded by his Son Aelaf Saged was after his Death succeeded by his Son Aelaf Saged in the Year 1665. Aelaf swayed the Ethiopick Scepter Fifteen Years without doing any thing that was Memorable only having heard of the greatness of the Dutch power in the Indies he sent one Morad an Armenian his Ambassador in the Year 1672 to the Governor of Batavia Aelaf dying in the Year 1681 Aelaf is succeeded by his Son Adjam Saged the present Emperor of Ethiopia was succeeded by his Son Jaso Adian Saged who sent Morad a Second time to the Governor of Batavia in the Year 1689. The account Morad gave of his Master was That he was exceeding tall of Stature had a fierce Countenance and was very brave and wise and of indefatigable application to business and as to his affairs both at home and abroad he affirmed them to be in a most flourishing condition The Letters of those Embassies together with the Dutch Governors answers to them are published by the great Mr. Ludolphus at the end of his Commentaries as are also the Answers which were given by the said Ambassador to the Questions which that Learned Person had sent some Years before to the Indies for which I refer the curious Reader to that Learned Book A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE Dominican History of Ethiopia Composed by Father Lewis De Uuretta a Dominican and Printed at Valentia in the Year 1610. IN the Year 1316 Eight Dominican Friars with a Holy Sister Santer'd from Rome to Jerusalem where having Visited the Holy Sepulcher taking Bethlehem in their way they went down into Egypt and from thence to Ethiopia and having there Learned the Language of the Countrey perfectly in a few days they begun to preach to the Astonishment of that whole Empire confirming the truth of all they taught by Miracles Prester John the Emperor hearing of those wonderful Preachers sent to bid them welcome into his Empire and to let them know they had free liberty to build Convents enough therein to hold all Europe and to exercise their power of Inquisitors upon all his Subjects and that he would allow them all the same Privileges and Immunities that they enjoy in the Latin Church The Fathers overjoy'd at this news begun presently to make use of the liberty that was granted them and having penetrated Six Hundred Leagues into Ethiopia they came at last to the Lake of Cafates on the other side of the Equinoctial where the head of the River Nile riseth where upon the Mountains of the Moon and in the Kingdom of Gojam and among the Caffres and in the Provinces bordering on the Cape of Goodhope they built several Convents filling them all presently with Friars of their own Order most of which came afterwards to be as famous for their Learning and Piety as they were for their Miracles but the topping man of all those Novices was one Tecla Haymonot the only Child of King Sacasab and Queen Sarah who having wrought divers Miracles in his Infancy when he came to be a Man preferred the Dominican habit to a Crown and came afterwards to be the Chief Glory of his Order having had the Honour done him whenever he said Mass to have the Wafer and the Wine brought down from Heaven to him by an Angel and whenever he went to any City to Preach he was constantly attended by all the Lyons Tygers Wolves Snakes and Serpents in the Neighbourhood who never left him till he dismissed them with the blessing for which they all expressed themselves very thankful and who having founded a Monastery for Nine thousand Dominican Friars obliged the Devil to do all the servile work thereof for Seven Years which he did alone so exactly that the Convent has never been so well served since which made an Emperor when he was told of it say That Tecla Hamonot was to blame for not having made the Devil serve the Convent as long as it stood While the Friars were thus employed the Holy Sister was not idle who as if she had intended to have taken the Emperor at his word built a Monastery wherein she placed Five Hundred Dominican Benta's of the third Rule This great Nunnery was at first called Bado Nagh but at this time Santa Clara the History of all which Convents is to this day curiously Painted in the Cloisters of the Plurimanos whither any who are so unreasonable as to doubt of the truth of them may go and be satisfied The Monastery of Plurimanos in which there are Nine thousand Dominican Friars was founded by Tecla Haymonot It is four Leagues in Compass and hath Eighty Dormitories which have all the great Church at one end and the Refectory at the other Some of these Dormitories have One hundred and twenty some One hundred and fifty and some Two hundred Cells Every Dormitory has a particular Chappel and Library belonging to it The great Church is Six hundred paces long and so it had need since all the Friars repair to it together on Sundays and Holidays The Second great Dominican Convent in Ethiopia is that of the Allelujah which was built by Bartholomew de Tiroli a Dominican Friar who was Consecrated Bishop of the City of Dangola at Rome it has but Seven thousand Friars who on high Days Dine all together in the Refectory From these two Convents there are vast numbers of Missionaries sent once a year to Arabia Bengala Siam Pegu and China as also to Congo Monopatata and the Cape of Goodhope by some of which Missionaries the King of Congo and Angola was Baptized in the Year 1580. These Missionaries do all return home at Whitsuntide and our Historian being sensible that