d be able to effect nothing, he landed at Mazna
four hundred Portuguese, under the command of Don Christopher de Gama,
his brother. He was soon joined by some Abyssins, who had not yet forgot
their allegiance to their sovereign; and in his march up the country was
met by the Empress Helena, who received him as her deliverer. At first
nothing was able to stand before the valour of the Portuguese, the Moors
were driven from one mountain to another, and were dislodged even from
those places, which it seemed almost impossible to approach, even
unmolested by the opposition of an enemy.

These successes seemed to promise a more happy event than that which
followed them. It was now winter, a season in which, as the reader hath
been already informed, it is almost impossible to travel in AEthiopia.
The Portuguese unadvisedly engaged themselves in an enterprise, to march
through the whole country, in order to join the Emperor, who was then in
the most remote part of his dominions. Mahomet, who was in possession of
the mountains, being informed by his spies that the Portuguese were but
four hundred, encamped in the plain of Ballut, and sent a message to the
general that he knew the Abyssins had imposed on the King of Portugal,
which, being acquainted with their treachery, he was not surprised at,
and that in compassion of the commander's youth, he would give him and
his men, if they would return, free passage, and furnish them with
necessaries; that he might consult upon the matter, and depend upon his
word, reminding him, however, that it was not safe to refuse his offer.

The general presented the ambassador with a rich robe, and returned this
gallant answer: "That he and his fellow-soldiers were come with an
intention to drive Mahomet out of these countries, which he had
wrongfully usurped; that his present design was, instead of returning
back the way he came, as Mahomet advised, to open himself a passage
through the country of his enemies; that Mahomet should rather think of
determining whether he would fight or yield up his ill-gotten
territories, than of prescribing measures to him; that he put his whole
confidence in the omnipotence of God and the justice of his cause, and
that to show how just a sense he had of Mahomet's kindness, he took the
liberty of presenting him with a looking-glass and a pair of pincers."

This answer, and the present, so provoked Mahomet, who was at dinner when
he received it, that he rose fr