Chapter XIV: Part 14

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

CAP. CXIII.--_Of the battle which the Prester had with the King
of Adel, and how he defeated Captain Mahomed._

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

CAP. CXIV.--_How the Prester sent us a map of the world which
we had brought him, for us to translate the writing into
Abyssinian, and what more passed, and of the letters for the
Pope._

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

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

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

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

CAP. CXVI.--_How Zagazabo the ambassador returned to the Court,
and I with him, for business which concerned him, and how they
flogged the Chief Justice and two friars, and why._

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

CAP. CXVII.--_How, after the death of Queen Helena, the great
Betudete went to collect the dues of her kingdom, and what they
were, and how the Queen of Adea came to ask assistance, and what
people came with her on mules._

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

CAP. CXVIII.--_How assistance was given to the Queen of Adea,
and how the Prester ordered the great Betudete to be arrested,
and why, and how he became free, and also he ordered other lords
to be arrested._