Chapter VII: Part 7

CAP. LVI.--_How the ambassador separated from the friar, and how
those of us who remained with the friar were stoned, and some
captured, and how the ambassador returned, and we were invited
by the Angote raz, and went with him to church, and of the
questions he asked, and dinner he gave us._

On Thursday the 14th of the said month of September our baggage went and stopped at a dry river without any water at all, and it was about a league from where the Angote raz was staying: he is the lord of this Kingdom of Angote. And because it was a dry land, and because the ambassador had no inclination to speak to the Ras of Angote, because we had no need of him, he went on before the baggage a distance of a league and a half, and some of us went on with him, and others remained with the friar and the baggage. The friar told us that we should go with him to a village about a league on one side of the road, and the baggage remained on the road with the country people who carried it. As we were travelling, before we arrived at the village, people of the country shouted, and we thought that they were calling people to bring our baggage. But they collected together to shake us, and they took possession of three hills, and we remained in the hollows. On each hill there were quite a hundred men, most of them with slings, and others with their hands threw stones so thickly that they seemed to rain upon us (well did we think of our deaths). There might be in the company of the friar quite forty persons, that is, captains who accompanied him, and his men, and our slaves. There was not one without a blow of a stone, or a wound; I, and a young man who went with us, named Cafu, and who was sick with sores, God was pleased to protect us that we received no stones: but five or six men of the friar, and a captain of Angote, came out with broken heads, and Mestre Joam the same. Not satisfied with wounding, they took prisoners those who were most wounded, and we, those who escaped, returned to sleep at the baggage, without supper. Each one cried out for the bruises from the stones he had received, except myself and the young man of the sores. Friday, in the morning, I set out in search of the ambassador, who was gone on a league and a half. On reaching him they at once got ready; when I related to him the case which had happened to us, he hurried the saddling, mounting, and departure, saying that he would die for the Portuguese. When he and those that came with him arrived at the baggage, we found there the Ras of Angote, who had come to us, and had brought with him a good number of people. When we came up to where he was, the friar who conducted us was with him, the ambassador said to the interpreter: “Tell the Ras of Angote that I do not come to see him nor that friar who is with him, but I come to seek for the Portuguese whom I have lost in his country.” Whilst the battle was being related, Mestre Joam arrived, who had remained wounded and a prisoner, he was much covered with blood, and had large wounds on the head, and he said that he had escaped. When a long conversation was ended, which the ambassador, and the Ras of Angote, and the friar, held upon this affair, the Has of Angote entreated the ambassador that he and I, and our company, should come and stay Saturday and Sunday in his house. The ambassador having consulted with all of us, and it seeming to us good to accede to his entreaty, he granted him the going, and we all went with him, and it might be a league and a half from where we were to his house: and he ordered us to be lodged very well. Here we kept Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday he sent to call us; we came and found him on his dais, his wife and a few people with him: we had no detention on entering, only what takes place in the house of any man. The pomp, presentation, and welcome all consisted in drinking. He had near him four large jars of very good mead, and with each jar a cup of crystalline glass. We began to drink, and his wife and two other women who were with her assisted as well. They would not leave us until the jars were finished, and such is their custom; each jar held six or seven canadas, and yet he ordered more to be brought. We left him with good excuses, saying we were going away for our necessities.

The following Sunday we went to the church, and there we found the Ras of Angote, who came out to receive us with much good grace. Then he began to talk to me about matters of our holy faith; he asked to bring apart with me two friars and our interpreter, and the friar who conducted us as a third person; and they asked me common-place questions.[103] The first was: Where Jesus Christ was born; what road he took to Egypt, and how many years he passed there, and how old he was when his mother, our Lady, lost him, and found him in the temple; and where he made the water into wine, and who was there; on what beast he had ridden into Jerusalem; in what house he had supped in Jerusalem, and if he had a house of his own there, and who washed his feet; and what Peter meant, and what Paul meant. Our Lord was pleased to assist me, that I answered them truly. Our interpreter told me that the friar who conducted us, and was there as a third person, told the others that I was a man who knew much. May God forgive him, but there was little for me to forget. By reason of what this friar thus said, they perforce kissed my feet. From what these friars said of me to the Ras of Angote, he received me with much good will, and kissed my face. This gentleman, who is now Ras of Angote, is one of the good priests that there are in Ethiopia, and at the time of our departure was Barnagais and in gospel orders, who may say mass. At the end of mass he invited us to come and dine with him, which dinner we accepted, and the ambassador ordered our dinner to be taken in as it was; there were very fat roast fowls, and fat beef boiled with good cabbage: and the ambassador ordered this to be taken in because their meals are not like ours. The dinner was in this manner--it should be known how it is in a great house of one story, which is a Beteneguz: before the raised seat, on which he was seated, there were many mats spread out; he descended from the seat, and sat down on the mats, and over the mats they had put dark sheep skins, and upon them two trays for cleaning wheat, which they call _ganetas_; these were large and handsome, and very low, they have only a rim of two inches; the largest of these had sixteen spans circumference, and the other fourteen. These are the tables of the great lords. We all sat round with the Ras of Angote: the water came, and we washed, but no towel came to clean our hands, neither for putting bread upon, except it was put upon the _ganetas_ (trays) themselves; there came bread of different kinds, namely, of wheat, barley, millet, pulse, and taffo. Before we began to eat, the Ras of Angote ordered to be placed before him rolls of that inferior bread, and upon each roll a piece of raw beef, and so he ordered it to be given to the poor who were outside the gate waiting for alms. Upon this we pronounced the blessing according to our usage, at which the Ras of Angote showed much satisfaction. Then came the dainties, and they were these, namely, three sauces or potages, which might well be called sauce of Palmela,[104] one of clove of garlic, and another I know not of what. In these potages there was an admixture of cow dung and of gall, which in this country they consider an esteemed food; and only great personages eat it. These sauces came in small sauce dishes, of a dark clay, and were well made. They put into this sauce the most inferior bread, broken very small, and butter with it. We would not eat of these potages, and the ambassador ordered our victuals to be brought, which he had very well cooked, because we could not eat their viands, neither did they eat ours. The wine was passed round freely.[105] The wife of the Ras of Angote ate close to us, with a curtain betwixt, at a table like ours. She ate her own viands; they also gave her some of ours, I do not know whether she ate them, because the curtain was between her and us. In drinking, she assisted us well. After all the dainties there came a raw breast of beef, and we did not taste it: the Ras of Angote ate some of it, like a person eating cake or other dainties for dessert. So we came to an end of the dinner, and thanks be to God, and we went away to our lodging.

CAP. LVII.--_How the ambassador took leave of the Ras of Angote,
and the friar, with most of us, returned to the place where we
were stoned, and from there we went to a fertile country, and a
church of many canons._

On Monday morning we took leave of the Has of Angote, and the friar who conducted and guided us must needs have us wait for a mule of the Prester John, and an ass with certain baggage, which they had taken from us in the rout of the stone throwing. The ambassador departed with those who had been with him before, and we remained with the friar who had been with him in the hail of stones. On this Monday, near nightfall, they came with the said mule and the ass which had remained there, and the friar at once said that we should start, and that we could still go and sleep where the ambassador was. As it seemed to us it might be so we made ready and departed whilst night was closing in, thinking that we should keep to the road; and he goes and takes us through some bushes, and takes us to where we were stoned, and said he was going to do justice; and there were eight men on mules and fifteen on foot going with us. We went to lodge for the night in the house of one of those chief men who had stoned us, and we found the house and the whole village without people in it. They were all in a mountain which was above the village. We found plenty to eat for ourselves and our mules. As soon as we were in the house those men who came with us left us: certainly we were not without fear, and complained of the friar because he was bringing us to be killed, and because he did not take us on our road. He told us that we came to do justice, and that in the morning we would depart. When morning came he said that we could not go till midday. When we saw this we waited till midday, and when it was midday we required him to start, then he said that we could not go till next day. Seeing these delays, we started and left him. This same day, however, we rejoined the baggage, because it was waiting for us. In the night the friar reached us, because he did not dare to sleep alone among those people who had stoned us, and he brought with him two mules, a cow, and eight pieces of stuff, which they gave him for the blood they had shed. This is their justice, and no other, namely, to take away the goods, which are only mules, cows, and stuffs, from those who can do little. These villages where they stoned us are named, one Angua, and another Mastanho: they said they belonged to the Abima Marcos.

Here we entered into a very pretty country between very high mountains, the feet of which were very thickly peopled with large towns and noble churches. This country is laid out in large tillage fields of all sorts. Here there is an infinite quantity of figs, those of India, many lemons, oranges, and citrons, and extensive pastures of cattle. And on another occasion when I returned here with this friar, who then called himself an ambassador, we came and stayed a Saturday and a Sunday in the house of an honourable debetera, that is, canon, and these two days we went with him to the church: because there were a great number of canons in that church, we asked him how many there might be in it. He told us that there were five thousand three hundred canons, and we asked what revenues they had. He said that they were very little for so many; and we said, since the revenues are so small, why were there so many canons. He told us that at the beginning of that church there were not many, but that afterwards they had increased, because all the sons of canons, and as many as descended from them, remained canons, and the fathers each taught their sons, and so they had been increased in number, and that this happened in the King’s churches, and that frequently Prester John diminished them, when he set up a church in a new country, and sent to fetch canons from these churches, as he had ordered two hundred canons to be taken away to the church of Machan Celace,[106] and that in this valley there were eight churches, and there would be in them fully four thousand canons, and that the Prester took canons from here for the new churches, and also for the churches at court, because otherwise they would eat one another up.

CAP. LVIII.--_Of the mountain in which they put the sons of the
Prester John, and how they stoned us near it._

The above mentioned valley reaches to the mountain where they put the sons of the Prester John. These are like banished men; as it was revealed to King Abraham, before spoken of, to whom the angels for forty years administered bread and wine for the sacrament, that all his sons should be shut up in a mountain, and that none should remain except the first born, the heir, and that this should be done for ever to all the sons of the Prester of the country, and his successors: because if this was not so done there would be great difficulty in the country, on account of its greatness, and they would rise up and seize parts of it, and would not obey the heir, and would kill him. He being frightened at such a revelation, and reflecting where such a mountain could be found, it was again told him in revelation to order his country to be searched, and to look at the highest mountains, and that mountain on which they saw wild goats on the rocks, looking as if they were going to fall below, was the mountain on which the princes were to be shut up. He ordered it to be done as it had been revealed to him, and they found this mountain, which stands above this valley, to be the one which the revelation mentioned, round the foot of which a man has to go a journey of two days; and it is of this kind: a rock cut like a wall, straight from the top to the bottom; a man going at the foot of it and looking upwards, it seems that the sky rests upon it. They say that it has three entrances or gates, in three places, and no more; I saw one of these here in this country, and I saw it in this manner. We were going from the sea to the court, and a young man, a servant of the Prester, whom they call a calacem, was guiding us, and he did not know the country well; and we wished to lodge in a town, and they would not receive us; this belonged to a sister of Prester John. The night had not yet advanced much, and he began travelling, telling us to follow him, and that he would get us lodgings. And because he travelled fast on a mule, and on a small path, I told one Lopo da Gama to ride in sight of the calacem, and that I would keep him in sight, and the ambassador and the other people would ride in sight of me. And the night closed in when we were quite a league from the road towards the mountain of the princes, and there came forth from all the villages so many people throwing stones at us, that they were near killing us, and they made us disperse in three or four directions. The ambassador had remained in the rear, and he turned back, and others who were about in the middle of the party started off in another direction; and some one there was who dismounted from his mule and fled in panic.[107] Lopo da Gama and I could not turn back, so we went forward and reached another town, which was still better prepared, on account of the noise which they heard behind in the other towns. Here many stones rained upon us, and the darkness was like having no eyes. In order that they might not throw stones at me by hearing the mule’s steps, I dismounted and gave the mule to my slave. God was pleased that an honourable man came up to me, and asked me who I was. I told him that I was a _gaxia neguz_, that is to say, a king’s stranger. This man was very tall, and I say honourable, because he treated me well; and he took my head under his arm, for I did not reach any higher, and so he conducted me like the bellows of a bagpipe player, saying, _Atefra, atefra_, which means “Do not be afraid, do not be afraid.” He took me with the mule and the slave, until he brought me into a vegetable garden which surrounded his house. Inside this garden he had a quantity of poles stuck up one against another, and in the midst of these poles he had a clean resting place like a hut, into which he put me. As it seemed to me that I was in safety, I ordered a light to be lit; and when they saw the light they rained stones on the hut, and when I put out the light the stone throwing ceased. The host, as soon as he left me, returned at the noise, and then remained an hour without coming. Whilst he was away, Lopo da Gama heard me, and broke through the bushes,[108] and came to me. On this the host came and said, “Be quiet, do not be afraid,” and ordered a candle to be lit, and to kill two fowls; and he gave us bread and wine and a hospitable welcome, according to his power. Next day, in the morning, the host took me by the hand and led me to his house, as far as a game of ball, where there were many trees of an inferior kind, and very thick, by which it was concealed as by a wall; and between them was a door, which was locked; and before this door was an ascent to the cliff. This host said to me: “Look here; if any of you were to pass inside this door, there would be nothing for it but to cut off his feet and his hands, and put out his eyes, and leave him lying there; and you must not put the blame on those who would do this, neither would you be in fault, but those who brought you hither: we, if we did not do this, we should pay with our lives, because we are the guardians of this door.” Lopo da Gama, I, and the calacem then at once mounted and rode down to the road, which was below us, a good league off, and we found that none of our party had passed by; and vespers were over, and yet we had not come together.

CAP. LIX.--_Of the greatness of the mountain in which they
put the sons of Prester John, and of its guards, and how his
kingdoms are inherited._

The manner they have of shutting up these sons of the kings. Until this King David Prester John, all had five or six wives, and they had sons of them or of most of them. By the death of the Prester, the eldest born inherited; others say that he who appeared to the Prester the most apt, and of most judgment, inherited: others say that he inherited who had the most adherents. Of this matter I will say what I know by hearing it from many. The King Alexander, the uncle of this David, died without a son, and he had daughters, and they went to the mountain and brought out from it Nahu his brother, who was father of this David. This Nahu brought with him from the mountain a legitimate son, who was, they say, a handsome youth, and a good gentleman, but of a strong temper. After that Nahu was in the kingdoms, he had other wives, of whom he had sons and daughters, and at his death they wished to make king that eldest son who had come from the mountain with his father; and some said that he was strong in temper, and would ill-treat the people. Others said that he could not inherit because he had been born as in captivity, and outside of the inheritance. So they set up as king this David who now reigns, and who at that time was a boy of eleven years of age. The Abima Martos told me that he and the Queen Helena made him king, because they had all the great men in their hands. Thus it appears to me, that beyond primogeniture, adherence enters into the question. Other sons of Nahu, who were infants, remained with the eldest who had come from the mountain with his father, and they took them all back to the said mountain, and so they do with all the sons of the Prester from the time of that King Abraham until now. They say that this mountain is cold and extensive, and they also say that the top of it is round, and that it takes fifteen days to go round it;[109] and it seems to me that may be so, because on this side, where our road lay, we travelled at the foot of it for two days; and so it reaches to the kingdoms of Amara and of Bogrimidi, which is on the Nile, and a long way from here. They say that there are on the top of this mountain yet other mountains which are very high and contain valleys: and they say that there is a valley there between two very steep mountains, and that it is by no means possible to get out of it, because it is closed by two gates, and that in this valley they place those who are nearest to the king, that is to say, those who are still of his own blood, and who have been there a short time, because they keep them with more precaution. Those who are sons of sons, and grandsons, and already almost forgotten are not so much watched over. Withal, this mountain is generally guarded by great guards, and great captains; and a quarter of the people who usually live at the court are of the guards of this mountain and their captains. These captains and guards of the mountain who are at court, lodge apart by themselves, and no one approaches them, nor do they go near others, so that no one may have an opportunity of learning the secrets of the mountain. And when they approach the door of the Prester, and he has to receive a message or speak to them, they make all the people go away, and all other affairs cease whilst they are speaking of this.

CAP. LX.--_Of the punishment that was given to a friar, and also
to some guards, for a message which he brought from some princes
to the Prester; and how a brother of the Prester and his uncle
fled, and of the manner in which they dealt with them._

With regard to the matter of these princes, I saw this: they brought here a friar who was about thirty years old, and with him quite two hundred men. They said that this friar had brought a letter to the Prester John from one of the princes of the mountain, and these two hundred men were guards of the same mountain. They flogged this friar every two days, and they also flogged these men, distributing them in two parties. On the day they flogged the friar, they flogged half of the guards, and they always began with the friar, then all the others were always in sight of one another, and each time they put questions to the friar, who gave him that letter, for whom, and if he had brought more letters, and what monastery he belonged to, and where he had become a friar, and where he had been ordained for mass? The wretched friar said that it was sixteen years since he had come out of the mountain, and that they had then given him that letter, and that he had never returned there, nor had dared to give the letter except now; that sin had caught him (and this might be the truth, because in this country they are not accustomed to put in a letter the year, nor the month, nor the day). To the guards they did not put any other question, except how had they let this friar get out. The manner of flogging is this: they throw the man on his stomach, and fasten his hands to two stakes, and a rope to both feet, and two men both pulling at the rope; there are also two as executioners to strike one at one side and the other at the other; and they do not always strike the flogged man, many blows fall on the ground, because if they hit him every time, he would die there, so severe is the flogging, and of this company I saw a man taken away from the flogging, and before they could cover him with a cloth he died. Immediately they informed the Prester John of it, because these justices are done before his tents, and he ordered the dead man to be taken back to where he had been flogged, and those who were to be flogged afterwards he ordered to put their heads on the feet of the dead man. This justice lasted two weeks, for this regularity of flogging the friar every two days never ceased, and half the guards after him; except Saturdays and Sundays, on which days justice was not done. It was the common fame and report through all the court that this friar had brought letters to the Portuguese from the princes of the mountain that we might take them out of it, and we were innocent of this, and I believe the friar was in the same case.

But in the days and time that we were there, a brother of the Prester John, a youth (as they said) of sixteen years of age, fled from the mountain, and came to the house of his mother, a queen, who had been wife of Prester John, and on account of the pain of death that here falls on whoever takes in a prince from the mountain, the mother would not take in her son, but had him arrested and taken to Prester John.[110] They said that he asked his brother why he fled, and that he answered that he was dying of hunger, and that he had not come except for the purpose of relating this to him, since no one would bring this message to him. They said that the Prester John dressed him richly, and gave him much gold, and silk stuffs, and ordered him to return to the mountain. They also said generally in this court that he only fled in order to go away with the Portuguese. With regard to this individual who thus fled and was sent back to the mountain, when we, and this ambassador who is going to Portugal, were at Lalibela, where the rock churches are, and he was going to take possession of the lordship of Abrigima, which Prester John gave him, there came that way a calacem with many people, and he brought as a prisoner this brother of the Prester; and he and his mule were covered with dark cloths, so that nothing of him appeared, and the mule only showed its eyes and ears. The messengers said that this man had run away in the habits of a friar in company with a friar, and that this friar, his companion, had discovered him the day on which they left the lands of Prester John, and had caused him to be arrested, and so the friar himself brought him a prisoner. They did not allow any person to approach or speak to this brother of Prester John, except two men, who went close to the mule. Everybody said that he would die, or that they would put out his eyes. I do not know what became of him. Of another we heard say (and he is still alive) that he had attempted to fly from the mountain, and that in order to get away he had made himself into a bush, that is, covered himself with many boughs; and some cultivators who were at their tillage saw the said bush move, and went to see what it was, and finding a man they took him prisoner, and the guards, as soon as they had him in their power, put out his eyes. They say that he is still alive, and that he is an uncle of this Prester John. They relate that there are in this mountain a great multitude of these people, and they call them Ifflaquitas, or sons of this Israel, or sons of David, like the Prester John, because all are of one race and blood. There are in this country (as they say) many churches, monasteries, priests, and friars.[111]

CAP. LXI.--_In what estimation the relations of the Prester are
held, and of the different method which this David wishes to
pursue with his sons, and of the great provisions applied to the
mountain._

In this country Prester John has no relation of his own, because those on the mother’s side are not held or reckoned or named as relations; and those on the father’s side are shut up and held to be dead, and although they marry and have children, as they say that they have an infinite number of sons and daughters, yet none of them ever comes out of the mountain, except, as has been mentioned before, if the Prester dies without an heir, then they bring out from it his nearest relation, and the most fit and proper. It is said that some women go out to be married outside, and they are not held to be relations, nor daughters nor sisters of the Prester, although they are so: they are honoured so long as their father or brother lives, and as soon as these die they are like any other ladies. I saw, and we all saw, at the court, a lady who was daughter of an uncle of this Prester, and although she still went about with an umbrella,[112] she was much neglected. We knew a son of hers who was as ill-treated as any servant, so that in a short time his lineage died and remained without any mention of being related to the king. This King David Prester who now reigns, had at our departure two sons; they said that he gave them large settled estates or dotations[113] of large revenues assigned to them. They showed to me in what part one of them had extensive lands. But the general voice was that as soon as the father should close his eyes, and that one of them should be made king, that the others would go to the mountain like their predecessors, without taking anything with them except their bodies. I also heard say that the third part of the expenses of the Prester were made for these princes and Ifflaquitas, and that this Prester dealt better with them than his predecessor had ever done; and that, beside the large revenues which were appropriated to them, he sent them much gold and silks and other fine cloths, and much salt, which in these kingdoms is current as money. And when we arrived and gave him much pepper, we learned for certain that he sent them the half of it; and he sent word to them to rejoice that the King of Portugal, his father, had ordered a visit to be paid to him, and had sent him that pepper. We also knew for certain, and by seeing it in many parts, that Prester John has in most of his kingdoms large tillages and lands, like the King’s lands[114] in our parts. These lands, or king’s patrimony, are ploughed and sown by his slaves, with his own oxen. These have their provisions and clothes from the king, and they are more free than any other people, and they are married, and they proceed originally[115] from slaves, and they intermarry. Of all the tillage that is near the mountain, most of it goes there, and the rest to monasteries, churches, poor people, and principally to poor and old gentlemen who once have held lordships and no longer hold them: and he twice ordered some of this bread to be given to us Portuguese, that is to say, once in Aquaxumo five hundred loads, and another time another five hundred in Aquate, and of this tillage he has nothing for himself, neither is any of it sold, and all is spent and given, as has been said.

CAP. LXII.--_Of the end of the kingdom of Angote, and beginning
of the kingdom of Amara[116], and of a lake and the things there
are in it, and how the friar wished to take the ambassador to a
mountain, and how we went to Acel, and of its abundance._

We return to our journey and road[117]. We went along the mountains and by a river, and above it a very pretty country, with much millet and other grains of the country, and yet they had not wheat. There was much population on the skirts of the mountains on either side of the river, and coming to the end of the valley, we left the river, and began to find a country of thickets and stones: not mountainous, but of small valleys, and other lands of much wheat, barley, and the other vegetables which the country produces. Here the kingdom of Augote ends, and the kingdom of Amara begins. Here towards the East, and in the kingdom of Amara, there is a great lake where we halted, and this lake or lagoon is quite three leagues long, and more than a league wide. This lake has in the middle a small island, on which is a monastery of St. Stephen with many friars. This monastery has many lemons, oranges, and citrons. They go to and from this monastery with a boat of reeds, with four large calabashes,[118] because they do not know how to build boats. These which I call reeds are bulrushes[119] with which they make mats in Portugal. This boat or ferrying is conducted in this manner: they take four pieces of wood and place them around those bulrushes, which are well arranged, and other four planks upon the bulrushes at right angles to the others, and they separate them well, and at each corner they place a great calabash, and so pass over on it. This lake does not run except in winter with the excess of water: they say that it pours out at two ends. There are in this lake very large animals which they call in this country _gomaras_;[120] they say that they are sea horses. There is also a fish, properly a conger, and it is very large. It has the ugliest head that could be described, and formed like a large toad, and the skin on its head looks like the skin of dog-fish:[121] the body is very smooth like the conger, and it is the fattest and most savoury fish that could be found in the world. This lake has large villages all round, and all of them come down to the water. It is said that there are round this lake fifteen Shumats or captaincies, all within a space of two or three leagues. There are around good lands of wheat and barley. Of these lakes we saw many in this country, and this is the largest I saw.

From here we travelled quite four leagues through bushes and muddy places, a country of much millet, and well watered. At the end of the journey and much overtired, the friar wished to take the ambassador to some very high mountains to halt and sleep. The ambassador answered him, that he had not come to go all round countries, but to travel by straight roads; and that with regard to food, that he brought enough to buy it, either with gold or silver, or pepper, and cloths of the King of Portugal, which his captain-major had given us, and that on the roads where we halted outside the towns they brought us provisions, if he, the friar, did not take them by force from those that brought them, and from fear of him they did not bring them. We remained on the road halted in the open air, and the friar with his men went up the mountain; and at midnight he sent us bread and wine. Friday we set out from the place where we slept thus, and the friar did not come nor any message from him, nor people for the baggage, When we had gone the distance of a league, a servant of the friar reached us, and said that we should not go beyond the first town which was a good one for halting at Saturday and Sunday: and this we did. As soon as we arrived at this first town, and saw that it was good, we did not wish to pass it. This town is named the Acel; it is situated on a small hill between two rivers and is good land, there were here many millet fields, and all other grain crops and wheat. It is a very good town, and they hold a great fair in it. Beyond one of the rivers there is a large town of Moors, rich with great trade of slaves, silks and all other kinds of merchandise. It is like the town of Manadeley in the territory of Tigrimahom. The Moors of this place also say that they pay to the Prester very heavy tribute like the others. Here there is great intercourse between the Christians and Moors, because the Christians and Christian women carry water to the Moors and wash their clothes. The Christian women go to the town of the Moors, which is separate and alone, from which we formed a bad opinion. We stayed Saturday and Sunday in a field at the foot of the town, where our people were all night with their lances, keeping off the tigers which fought with us energetically, that is to say, with the mules, and our people did not sleep all night. Here there were disputes between Jorge d’Abreu and the ambassador about a very small matter.

On Monday we travelled over flat country between mountains which were very populous and much cultivated, for a distance of two leagues. We ascended a very high mountain without cliffs or stones or bushes, all taken advantage of for tillage; and on the summit of this mountain we passed our midday rest, separated from one another, on account of the quarrels which had taken place in Acel, at the foot of some small bushes. From this place one could see much land at a great distance; there sat down with me ten or twelve respectable men, and the interpreter, was with us, and the talk was about the height of this mountain on which we were, and of the many countries we saw. They showed me the mountain where the princes were, and which I have mentioned before; it seemed to be three or four leagues from here: its scarped rock, like that further back, ran to such a length towards the Nile, that we could not sight the end of it. And the mountain where we were was so high that that of the princes seemed to be commanded by it. Here they related to me more fully the numerous guards and restrictions over these princes, and the great abundance they had of provisions and clothes. And because from here one could discern a very extensive view as far as the eyes could see towards the West, I asked what countries went in that direction, and if they all belonged to Prester John. They told me that for a month’s journey in that direction were the dominions of the Prester; after that, one entered mountains and deserts, and after them very wretched people, very black and very bad. In his opinion, these lasted for a distance of fifteen days’ journey, and when these were finished, there appeared white Moors of the kingdom of Tunis. (And I am not surprised, because it is from Tunis that the Kafilas come to Cairo and to this country of the Prester.) They bring white burnooses, but not good ones, and other merchandise. They also told me that on this mountain was divided the country of the millet from that of the wheat, and that further on we should not find more millet, but wheat and barley.

CAP. LXIII.--_How we came to another lake, and from there to the
church of Macham Celacem, and how they did not let us enter it._

Here we travelled for three leagues on level roads, always on this mountain height, all through fields of wheat and thin barley. We met with another lake like the former one, although not so large, and yet it was about a league in length, and half a league in breadth. This lake has a small stream flowing out of it, and no water entering it except that from the hills when it rains. It seems to be of great depth, surrounded by strong rushes. We went to sleep in a great field of grass, where the mosquitoes were near killing us. These fields are not taken advantage of except for pasture, as they are rather marshy, and the people do not know how to draw off the water at the feet of the mountains from the tilled lands. There were many and large towns, and much tillage of wheat and barley. From here we took our road through very large valleys, and yet they had very poor cultivation of wheat and barley; some were yellow, as though dying from the water, and others which were dying of drought, and so we were confused with the perishing of these crops. We began to enter here into a country where by day there was great heat, and at night great cold. In this country ordinary men wear round them a strip of ox-hide; these ordinary persons are nearly all of them, and very few are the special ones: and the women likewise wear a cloth a little bit bigger than that of the men, and here cover what they can of what God has given them; the rest shows. The women wear their hair in two parts or in two lengths; with the one the hair comes down to the shoulders, with the other it is brought over the ears to the top of the head. They say that these lands belong to the Prester’s trumpeters. A little apart from the road there is on the right hand side a large grove at the foot of a mountain, and there there is a large church of many canons; it is said that it was built by a king who lies there. Passing through great mountain ranges this day, we went to sleep outside of all of them at the entrance of some beautiful plains. On the 26th of September in the morning we travelled through these plains a distance of a league; we arrived at a very large church, which is named Macham[122] Selasem which means the Trinity. We came later to this church with the Prester John to transfer there the bones of his father. This church is surrounded by two enclosures, one of a well built high wall, and another of palisades of strong wood. This which is of palisades is outside, and of the circumference of half a league. We were going very joyfully to see this church which the friar vaunted very much, and we slept here to carry out our desire, but we did not see it because they did not let us enter, and it was in this way. When we were a good crossbow shot from the stockade enclosure, there came to us men in great haste telling us to dismount; this we did at once, knowing that it is their custom to dismount when they are near churches, and out of reverence for this which is a great one, it appeared to us that they dismounted further off. Going on foot and arriving close to the door of the wooden enclosure, there were there a great many men who would not let us go in. Not only us, but also the friar who brought us, for they put their hands on his breast, saying that they had not leave to let us come in. It did not avail us to say that we were Christians, the tumult was so great, that it almost came to a fight. We went away from them, and mounted and went our way: and when we were already a good way from the church, they came running after us, asking us to turn back, and that they would let us enter, as they now had got leave. Then we did not choose to turn back, so this time we did not see the church or its construction. The plain in which this church stands and its situation are as follows: its enclosures are on an open hill, and all round is a plain; on one side it is a league in extent, in another direction the plain extends two leagues, in another three, and in another direction below, which is towards the south, four or five leagues: it is a wonderful country, there is not a span that is not made use of, and sown with all sorts of seed, except millet, which they have not got. This plain has fresh crops all the year round, one gathered in and another sown. At the back of this church runs a pretty river, open and without any trees, and water comes from it to irrigate a great part of the tilled lands. Other conduits of water descend from the mountains, so that these fields are all irrigated. In these plains there are many large houses standing apart, like farm houses, and there are small villages, and in them churches, because, though there is a king’s church, the cultivators are not deprived of churches.

CAP. LXIV.--_How the Presters endowed this kingdom with
churches, and how we went to the village of Abra, and from there
to some great dykes._

We continued our journey through these plains, which appeared as I have described, and issuing from them, that is, from those we had seen, we entered into others still wider, and yet not so well provided with tillage: they appeared to be soaked with water like marshes;[123] there are great pastures in them, and also great lakes, and from them overflow the waters which make the marshes. There are very many herds, both cows and sheep (there are no goats here). There are very many villages distant from the road, and in all of them churches. We travelled through these plains quite ten or twelve leagues towards the East,[124] where they showed us a great church, which they said was of St. George, in which lies the grandfather of this Prester John (I will speak of it). When we were in it they said that the former kings coming from the kingdoms of the Barnagais and Tigrimahom, where their origin was, increasing their dominions in these countries of the gentiles, and coming through the kingdom of Angote to this kingdom of Amara, made a great stay and residence in it. And they made in it a great establishment of churches for their tombs, and endowed each one with large revenues. To that church which King Nahu built, the father of this Prester who now lives, he ended by giving as an endowment the whole of this kingdom, without one span remaining which does not belong to churches, and he ended by giving it to the church of Macham Selasem, and he began and his son ended. These churches of the kings do not prevent those of the cultivators, which are in infinite number. A man may travel fully fifteen days through the lands of Macham Selasem, and there is not in all this kingdom a single monastery that we saw or heard speak of, after all the number of them in the countries left behind, but all are churches of canons, and those of the cultivators of priests. This kingdom now has no lordship; it used to have its title, and it was Amara tafila, which means King of Amara, like as also Xoa tafila means King of Xoa. There was this lordship here until the remains of Nahu were removed to the church of Macham Selacem, at which the Portuguese were present; then the going and confirming the dotation to the church was concluded, and the Prester set aside the Amara tafila that there was till then, and gave the lordships to the churches, that is to say, to the ancient ones as they had held them. As his father had left them to this church of Macham Selasem, all the canons and priests of these churches and of all the others of the other kingdoms and lordships left behind, and further on, serve the Prester in all services except in wars. And the administration of justice is all one, both of canons and of priests and friars. So the friar who conducted us bore himself with one and all, as to carrying our baggage, and so they one and all obeyed him, (as has been said) and he ordered priests and friars to be flogged. Going through these great plains, when nothing else appeared in sight, it seemed to us that we were now at sea[125] and out of the mountains. We came to stay Saturday and Sunday, which was the last day of September, at a small village of Our Lady, very poor and ill kept, close to which church towards the east commence most wild mountains and deep fosses descending to the greatest abysses men ever saw; nor could their depth be believed, like as the mountains where the Israelites live are scarped from the top, so are these. Below they are of great width, in some places of four leagues, in others five, in others about three. (This in our opinion.) They say that these dykes run to the Nile, which is very far from here, and higher up we know well that they reach the country of the Moors; they say that in the parts of the Moors they are not so precipitous. At the bottom of these dykes there are many dwellings and an infinite number of apes, hairy like lions from the breast upwards.

CAP. LXV.--_How we came to some gates and deep passes difficult
to travel, and we went up to the gates, at which the kingdom
begins which is named Xoa._