Book: A Voyage to Abyssinia

F >> Father Jerome Lobo >> A Voyage to Abyssinia




The soldiers of Portugal, having lost their chief, resorted to the
Emperor, who, though young, promised great things, and told them
that since their own general was dead, they would accept of none but
himself. He received them with great kindness, and hearing of Don
Christopher de Gama's misfortune, could not forbear honouring with
some tears the memory of a man who had come so far to his succour,
and lost his life in his cause.

The Portuguese, resolved at any rate to revenge the fate of their
general, desired the Emperor to assign them the post opposite to
Mahomet, which was willingly granted them. That King, flushed with
his victories, and imagining to fight was undoubtedly to conquer,
sought all occasions of giving the Abyssins battle. The Portuguese,
who desired nothing more than to re-establish their reputation by
revenging the affront put upon them by the late defeat, advised the
Emperor to lay hold on the first opportunity of fighting. Both
parties joined battle with equal fury. The Portuguese directed all
their force against that part where Mahomet was posted. Peter Leon,
who had been servant to the general, singled the King out among the
crowd, and shot him into the head with his musket. Mahomet, finding
himself wounded, would have retired out of the battle, and was
followed by Peter Leon, till he fell down dead; the Portuguese,
alighting from his horse, cut off one of his ears. The Moors being
now without a leader, continued the fight but a little time, and at
length fled different ways in the utmost disorder; the Abyssinians
pursued them, and made a prodigious slaughter. One of them, seeing
the King's body on the ground, cut off his head and presented it to
the Emperor. The sight of it filled the whole camp with
acclamations; every one applauded the valour and good fortune of the
Abyssin, and no reward was thought great enough for so important a
service. Peter Leon, having stood by some time, asked whether the
King had but one ear? if he had two, says he, it seems likely that
the man who killed him cut off one and keeps it as a proof of his
exploit. The Abyssin stood confused, and the Portuguese produced
the ear out of his pocket. Every one commended the stratagem; and
the Emperor commanded the Abyssin to restore all the presents he had
received, and delivered them with many more to Peter Leon.

I imagined the reader would not be displeased to be informed who
this man was, whose precious remains were searched for by a viceroy
of Tigre, at the command of the Emperor himself. The commission was
directed to me, nor did I ever receive one that was more welcome on
many accounts. I had contracted an intimate friendship with the
Count de Vidigueira, viceroy of the Indies, and had been desired by
him, when I took my leave of him, upon going to Melinda, to inform
myself where his relation was buried, and to send him some of his
relics.

The viceroy, son-in-law to the Emperor, with whom I was joined in
the commission, gave me many distinguishing proofs of his affection
to me, and of his zeal for the Catholic religion. It was a journey
of fifteen days through part of the country possessed by the Galles,
which made it necessary to take troops with us for our security;
yet, notwithstanding this precaution, the hazard of the expedition
appeared so great, that our friends bid us farewell with tears, and
looked upon us as destined to unavoidable destruction. The viceroy
had given orders to some troops to join us on the road, so that our
little army grew stronger as we advanced. There is no making long
marches in this country; an army here is a great city well peopled
and under exact government: they take their wives and children with
them, and the camp hath its streets, its market places, its
churches, courts of justice, judges, and civil officers.

Before they set forward, they advertise the governors of provinces
through which they are to pass, that they may take care to furnish
what is necessary for the subsistence of the troops. These
governors give notice to the adjacent places that the army is to
march that way on such a day, and that they are assessed such a
quantity of bread, beer, and cows. The peasants are very exact in
supplying their quota, being obliged to pay double the value in case
of failure; and very often when they have produced their full share,
they are told that they have been deficient, and condemned to buy
their peace with a large fine.

When the providore has received these contributions, he divides them
according to the number of persons, and the want they are in: the
proportion they observe in this distribution is twenty pots of beer,
ten of mead, and one cow to a hundred loaves. The chief officers
and persons of note carry their own provisions with them, which I
did too, though I afterwards found the precaution unnecessary, for I
had often two or three cows more than I wanted, which I bestowed on
those whose allowance fell short.

The Abyssins are not only obliged to maintain the troops in their
march, but to repair the roads, to clear them, especially in the
forests, of brambles and thorns, and by all means possible to
facilitate the passage of the army. They are, by long custom,
extremely ready at encamping. As soon as they come to a place they
think convenient to halt at, the officer that commands the vanguard
marks out with his pike the place for the King's or viceroy's tent:
every one knows his rank, and how much ground he shall take up; so
the camp is formed in an instant.



Chapter VII



They discover the relics. Their apprehension of the Galles. The
author converts a criminal, and procures his pardon.


We took with us an old Moor, so enfeebled with age that they were
forced to carry him: he had seen, as I have said, the sufferings
and death of Don Christopher de Gama; and a Christian, who had often
heard all those passages related to his father, and knew the place
where the uncle and nephew of Mahomet were buried, and where they
interred one quarter of the Portuguese martyr. We often examined
these two men, and always apart; they agreed in every circumstance
of their relations, and confirmed us in our belief of them by
leading us to the place where we took up the uncle and nephew of
Mahomet, as they had described. With no small labour we removed the
heap of stones which the Moors, according to their custom, had
thrown upon the body, and discovered the treasure we came in search
of. Not many paces off was the fountain where they had thrown his
head, with a dead dog, to raise a greater aversion in the Moors. I
gathered the teeth and the lower jaw. No words can express the
ecstasies I was transported with at seeing the relics of so great a
man, and reflecting that it had pleased God to make me the
instrument of their preservation, so that one day, if our holy
father the Pope shall be so pleased, they may receive the veneration
of the faithful. All burst into tears at the sight. We indulged a
melancholy pleasure in reflecting what that great man had achieved
for the deliverance of Abyssinia, from the yoke and tyranny of the
Moors; the voyages he had undertaken; the battles he had fought; the
victories he had won; and the cruel and tragical death he had
suffered. Our first moments were so entirely taken up with these
reflections that we were incapable of considering the danger we were
in of being immediately surrounded by the Galles; but as soon as we
awoke to that thought, we contrived to retreat as fast as we could.
Our expedition, however, was not so great but we saw them on the top
of a mountain ready to pour down upon us. The viceroy attended us
closely with his little army, but had been probably not much more
secure than we, his force consisting only of foot, and the Galles
entirely of horse, a service at which they are very expert. Our
apprehensions at last proved to be needless, for the troops we saw
were of a nation at that time in alliance with the Abyssins.

Not caring, after this alarm, to stay longer here, we set out on our
march back, and in our return passed through a village where two
men, who had murdered a domestic of the viceroy, lay under an
arrest. As they had been taken in the fact, the law of the country
allowed that they might have been executed the same hour, but the
viceroy having ordered that their death should be deferred till his
return, delivered them to the relations of the dead, to be disposed
of as they should think proper. They made great rejoicings all the
night, on account of having it in their power to revenge their
relation; and the unhappy criminals had the mortification of
standing by to behold this jollity, and the preparations made for
their execution.

The Abyssins have three different ways of putting a criminal to
death: one way is to bury him to the neck, to lay a heap of
brambles upon his head, and to cover the whole with a great stone;
another is to beat him to death with cudgels; a third, and the most
usual, is to stab him with their lances. The nearest relation gives
the first thrust, and is followed by all the rest according to their
degrees of kindred; and they to whom it does not happen to strike
while the offender is alive, dip the points of their lances in his
blood to show that they partake in the revenge. It frequently
happens that the relations of the criminal are for taking the like
vengeance for his death, and sometimes pursue this resolution so far
that all those who had any share in the prosecution lose their
lives.

I being informed that these two men were to die, wrote to the
viceroy for his permission to exhort them, before they entered into
eternity, to unite themselves to the Church. My request being
granted, I applied myself to the men, and found one of them so
obstinate that he would not even afford me a hearing, and died in
his error. The other I found more flexible, and wrought upon him so
far that he came to my tent to be instructed. After my care of his
eternal welfare had met with such success, I could not forbear
attempting something for his temporal, and by my endeavours matters
were so accommodated that the relations were willing to grant his
life on condition he paid a certain number of cows, or the value.
Their first demand was of a thousand; he offered them five; they at
last were satisfied with twelve, provided they were paid upon the
spot. The Abyssins are extremely charitable, and the women, on such
occasions, will give even their necklaces and pendants, so that,
with what I gave myself, I collected in the camp enough to pay the
fine, and all parties were content.



Chapter VIII



The viceroy is offended by his wife. He complains to the Emperor,
but without redress. He meditates a revolt, raises an army, and
makes an attempt to seize upon the author.


We continued our march, and the viceroy having been advertised that
some troops had appeared in a hostile manner on the frontiers, went
against them. I parted from him, and arrived at Fremona, where the
Portuguese expected me with great impatience. I reposited the bones
of Don Christopher de Gama in a decent place, and sent them the May
following to the viceroy of the Indies, together with his arms,
which had been presented me by a gentleman of Abyssinia, and a
picture of the Virgin Mary, which that gallant Portuguese always
carried about him.

The viceroy, during all the time he was engaged in this expedition,
heard very provoking accounts of the bad conduct of his wife, and
complained of it to the Emperor, entreating him either to punish his
daughter himself, or to permit him to deliver her over to justice,
that, if she was falsely accused, she might have an opportunity of
putting her own honour and her husband's out of dispute. The
Emperor took little notice of his son-in-law's remonstrances; and,
the truth is, the viceroy was somewhat more nice in that matter than
the people of rank in this country generally are. There are laws,
it is true, against adultery, but they seem to have been only for
the meaner people, and the women of quality, especially the ouzoros,
or ladies of the blood royal, are so much above them, that their
husbands have not even the liberty of complaining; and certainly to
support injuries of this kind without complaining requires a degree
of patience which few men can boast of. The viceroy's virtue was
not proof against this temptation. He fell into a deep melancholy,
and resolved to be revenged on his father-in-law. He knew the
present temper of the people, that those of the greatest interest
and power were by no means pleased with the changes of religion, and
only waited for a fair opportunity to revolt; and that these
discontents were everywhere heightened by the monks and clergy.
Encouraged by these reflections, he was always talking of the just
reasons he had to complain of the Emperor, and gave them sufficient
room to understand that if they would appear in his party, he would
declare himself for the ancient religion, and put himself at the
head of those who should take arms in the defence of it. The chief
and almost the only thing that hindered him from raising a
formidable rebellion, was the mutual distrust they entertained of
one another, each fearing that as soon as the Emperor should publish
an act of grace, or general amnesty, the greatest part would lay
down their arms and embrace it; and this suspicion was imagined more
reasonable of the viceroy than of any other. Notwithstanding this
difficulty, the priests, who interested themselves much in this
revolt, ran with the utmost earnestness from church to church,
levelling their sermons against the Emperor and the Catholic
religion; and that they might have the better success in putting a
stop to all ecclesiastical innovations, they came to a resolution of
putting all the missionaries to the sword; and that the viceroy
might have no room to hope for a pardon, they obliged him to give
the first wound to him that should fall into his hands.

As I was the nearest, and by consequence the most exposed, an order
was immediately issued out for apprehending me, it being thought a
good expedient to seize me, and force me to build a citadel, into
which they might retreat if they should happen to meet with a
defeat. The viceroy wrote to me to desire that I would come to him,
he having, as he said, an affair of the highest importance to
communicate.

The frequent assemblies which the viceroy held had already been much
talked of; and I had received advice that he was ready for a revolt,
and that my death was to be the first signal of an open war.
Knowing that the viceroy had made many complaints of the treatment
he received from his father-in-law, I made no doubt that he had some
ill design in hand; and yet could scarce persuade myself that after
all the tokens of friendship I had received from him he would enter
into any measures for destroying me. While I was yet in suspense, I
despatched a faithful servant to the viceroy with my excuse for
disobeying him; and gave the messenger strict orders to observe all
that passed, and bring me an exact account.

This affair was of too great moment not to engage my utmost
endeavours to arrive at the most certain knowledge of it, and to
advertise the court of the danger. I wrote, therefore, to one of
our fathers, who was then near the Emperor, the best intelligence I
could obtain of all that had passed, of the reports that were spread
through all this part of the empire, and of the disposition which I
discovered in the people to a general defection; telling him,
however, that I could not yet believe that the viceroy, who had
honoured me with his friendship, and of whom I never had any thought
but how to oblige him, could now have so far changed his sentiments
as to take away my life.

The letters which I received by my servant, and the assurances he
gave that I need fear nothing, for that I was never mentioned by the
viceroy without great marks of esteem, so far confirmed me in my
error, that I went from Fremona with a resolution to see him. I did
not reflect that a man who could fail in his duty to his King, his
father-in-law, and his benefactor, might, without scruple, do the
same to a stranger, though distinguished as his friend; and thus
sanguine and unsuspecting continued my journey, still receiving
intimation from all parts to take care of myself. At length, when I
was within a few days' journey of the viceroy, I received a billet
in more plain and express terms than anything I had been told yet,
charging me with extreme imprudence in putting myself into the hands
of those men who had undoubtedly sworn to cut me off.

I began, upon this, to distrust the sincerity of the viceroy's
professions, and resolved, upon the receipt of another letter from
the viceroy, to return directly. In this letter, having excused
himself for not waiting for my arrival, he desired me in terms very
strong and pressing to come forward, and stay for him at his own
house, assuring me that he had given such orders for my
entertainment as should prevent my being tired with living there. I
imagined at first that he had left some servants to provide for my
reception, but being advertised at the same time that there was no
longer any doubt of the certainty of his revolt, that the Galles
were engaged to come to his assistance, and that he was gone to sign
a treaty with them, I was no longer in suspense what measures to
take, but returned to Fremona.

Here I found a letter from the Emperor, which prohibited me to go
out, and the orders which he had sent through all these parts,
directing them to arrest me wherever I was found, and to hinder me
from proceeding on my journey. These orders came too late to
contribute to my preservation, and this prince's goodness had been
in vain, if God, whose protection I have often had experience of in
my travels, had not been my conductor in this emergency.

The viceroy, hearing that I was returned to my residence, did not
discover any concern or chagrin as at a disappointment, for such was
his privacy and dissimulation that the most penetrating could never
form any conjecture that could be depended on, about his designs,
till everything was ready for the execution of them. My servant, a
man of wit, was surprised as well as everybody else; and I can
ascribe to nothing but a miracle my escape from so many snares as he
laid to entrap me.

There happened during this perplexity of my affairs an accident of
small consequence in itself, which yet I think deserves to be
mentioned, as it shows the credulity and ignorance of the Abyssins.
I received a visit from a religious, who passed, though he was
blind, for the most learned person in all that country. He had the
whole Scriptures in his memory, but seemed to have been at more
pains to retain them than understand them; as he talked much he
often took occasion to quote them, and did it almost always
improperly. Having invited him to sup and pass the night with me, I
set before him some excellent mead, which he liked so well as to
drink somewhat beyond the bounds of exact temperance. Next day, to
make some return for his entertainment, he took upon him to divert
me with some of those stories which the monks amuse simple people
with, and told me of a devil that haunted a fountain, and used to
make it his employment to plague the monks that came thither to
fetch water, and continued his malice till he was converted by the
founder of their order, who found him no very stubborn proselyte
till they came to the point of circumcision; the devil was unhappily
prepossessed with a strong aversion from being circumcised, which,
however, by much persuasion, he at last agreed to, and afterwards
taking a religious habit, died ten years after with great signs of
sanctity. He added another history of a famous Abyssinian monk, who
killed a devil two hundred feet high, and only four feet thick, that
ravaged all the country; the peasants had a great desire to throw
the dead carcase from the top of a rock, but could not with all
their force remove it from the place, but the monk drew it after him
with all imaginable ease and pushed it down. This story was
followed by another, of a young devil that became a religious of the
famous monastery of Aba Gatima. The good father would have favoured
me with more relations of the same kind, if I had been in the humour
to have heard them, but, interrupting him, I told him that all these
relations confirmed what we had found by experience, that the monks
of Abyssinia were no improper company for the devil.



Chapter IX



The viceroy is defeated and hanged. The author narrowly escapes
being poisoned.


I did not stay long at Fremona, but left that town and the province
of Tigre, and soon found that I was very happy in that resolution,
for scarce had I left the place before the viceroy came in person to
put me to death, who, not finding me, as he expected, resolved to
turn all his vengeance against the father Gaspard Paes, a venerable
man, who was grown grey in the missions of Aethiopia, and five other
missionaries newly arrived from the Indies; his design was to kill
them all at one time without suffering any to escape; he therefore
sent for them all, but one happily being sick, another stayed to
attend him; to this they owed their lives, for the viceroy, finding
but four of them, sent them back, telling them he would see them all
together. The fathers, having been already told of his revolt, and
of the pretences he made use of to give it credit, made no question
of his intent to massacre them, and contrived their escape so that
they got safely out of his power.

The viceroy, disappointed in his scheme, vented all his rage upon
Father James, whom the patriarch had given him as his confessor; the
good man was carried, bound hand and foot, into the middle of the
camp; the viceroy gave the first stab in the throat, and all the
rest struck him with their lances, and dipped their weapons in his
blood, promising each other that they would never accept of any act
of oblivion or terms of peace by which the Catholic religion was not
abolished throughout the empire, and all those who professed it
either banished or put to death. They then ordered all the beads,
images, crosses, and relics which the Catholics made use of to be
thrown into the fire.

The anger of God was now ready to fall upon his head for these
daring and complicated crimes; the Emperor had already confiscated
all his goods, and given the government of the kingdom of Tigre to
Keba Christos, a good Catholic, who was sent with a numerous army to
take possession of it. As both armies were in search of each other,
it was not long before they came to a battle. The revolted viceroy
Tecla Georgis placed all his confidence in the Galles, his
auxiliaries. Keba Christos, who had marched with incredible
expedition to hinder the enemy from making any intrenchments, would
willingly have refreshed his men a few days before the battle, but
finding the foe vigilant, thought it not proper to stay till he was
attacked, and therefore resolved to make the first onset; then
presenting himself before his army without arms and with his head
uncovered, assured them that such was his confidence in God's
protection of those that engaged in so just a cause, that though he
were in that condition and alone, he would attack his enemies.

The battle began immediately, and of all the troops of Tecla Georgis
only the Galles made any resistance, the rest abandoned him without
striking a blow. The unhappy commander, seeing all his squadrons
broken, and three hundred of the Galles, with twelve ecclesiastics,
killed on the spot, hid himself in a cave, where he was found three
days afterwards, with his favourite and a monk. When they took him,
they cut off the heads of his two companions in the field, and
carried him to the Emperor; the procedure against him was not long,
and he was condemned to be burnt alive. Then imagining that, if he
embraced the Catholic faith, the intercession of the missionaries,
with the entreaties of his wife and children, might procure him a
pardon, he desired a Jesuit to hear his confession, and abjured his
errors. The Emperor was inflexible both to the entreaties of his
daughter and the tears of his grand-children, and all that could be
obtained of him was that the sentence should be mollified, and
changed into a condemnation to be hanged. Tecla Georgis renounced
his abjuration, and at his death persisted in his errors. Adero,
his sister, who had borne the greatest share in his revolt, was
hanged on the same tree fifteen days after.

I arrived not long after at the Emperor's court, and had the honour
of kissing his hands; but stayed not long in a place where no
missionary ought to linger, unless obliged by the most pressing
necessity: but being ordered by my superiors into the kingdom of
Damote, I set out on my journey, and on the road was in great danger
of losing my life by my curiosity of tasting a herb, which I found
near a brook, and which, though I had often heard of it, I did not
know. It bears a great resemblance to our radishes; the leaf and
colour were beautiful, and the taste not unpleasant. It came into
my mind when I began to chew it that perhaps it might be that
venomous herb against which no antidote had yet been found, but
persuading myself afterwards that my fears were merely chimerical, I
continued to
chew it, till a man accidentally meeting me, and seeing me with a
handful of it, cried out to me that I was poisoned; I had happily
not swallowed any of it, and throwing out what I had in my mouth, I
returned God thanks for this instance of his protection.

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