after having been
detained some time at sea, by calms and contrary winds, and somewhat
harassed by the English and Dutch, who were now increased to eleven ships
of war, arrived at Goa, on Saturday, the 16th of December, and the
viceroy made his entry with great magnificence.

I lived here about a year, and completed my studies in divinity; in which
time some letters were received from the fathers in AEthiopia, with an
account that Sultan Segued, Emperor of Abyssinia, was converted to the
Church of Rome, that many of his subjects had followed his example, and
that there was a great want of missionaries to improve these prosperous
beginnings. Everybody was very desirous of seconding the zeal of our
fathers, and of sending them the assistance they requested; to which we
were the more encouraged, because the emperor's letters informed our
provincial that we might easily enter his dominions by the way of
Dancala, but unhappily, the secretary wrote Zeila for Dancala, which cost
two of our fathers their lives.

We were, however, notwithstanding the assurances given us by the emperor,
sufficiently apprised of the danger which we were exposed to in this
expedition, whether we went by sea or land. By sea, we foresaw the
hazard we run of falling into the hands of the Turks, amongst whom we
should lose, if not our lives, at least our liberty, and be for ever
prevented from reaching the court of AEthiopia. Upon this consideration
our superiors divided the eight Jesuits chosen for this mission into two
companies. Four they sent by sea and four by land; I was of the latter
number. The four first were the more fortunate, who though they were
detained some time by the Turkish bassa, were dismissed at the request of
the emperor, who sent him a zebra, or wild ass, a creature of large size
and admirable beauty.

As for us, who were to go by Zeila, we had still greater difficulties to
struggle with: we were entirely strangers to the ways we were to take, to
the manners, and even to the names of the nations through which we were
to pass. Our chief desire was to discover some new road by which we
might avoid having anything to do with the Turks. Among great numbers
whom we consulted on this occasion, we were informed by some that we
might go through Melinda. These men painted that hideous wilderness in
charming colours, told us that we should find a country watered with
navigable rivers, and inhabited by a people that would either