quainted with the country, harassed the little
caravan till it was past the borders.

Our fathers then imagined they had nothing more to fear, but too soon
were convinced of their error, for they found the whole country turned
against them, and met everywhere new enemies to contend with and new
dangers to surmount. Being not far distant from Fremona, where I
resided, they sent to me for succour. I was better informed of the
distress they were in than themselves, having been told that a numerous
body of Abyssins had posted themselves in a narrow pass with an intent to
surround and destroy them; therefore, without long deliberation, I
assembled my friends, both Portuguese and Abyssins, to the number of
fourscore, and went to their rescue, carrying with me provisions and
refreshments, of which I knew they were in great need. These glorious
confessors I met as they were just entering the pass designed for the
place of their destruction, and doubly preserved them from famine and the
sword. A grateful sense of their deliverance made them receive me as a
guardian angel. We went together to Fremona, and being in all a
patriarch, a bishop, eighteen Jesuits, and four hundred Portuguese whom I
supplied with necessaries, though the revenues of our house were lost,
and though the country was disaffected to us, in the worst season of the
year. We were obliged for the relief of the poor and our own subsistence
to sell our ornaments and chalices, which we first broke in pieces, that
the people might not have the pleasure of ridiculing our mysteries by
profaning the vessels made use of in the celebration of them, for they
now would gladly treat with the highest indignities what they had a year
before looked upon with veneration.

Amidst all these perplexities the viceroy did not fail to visit us, and
make us great offers of service in expectation of a large present. We
were in a situation in which it was very difficult to act properly; we
knew too well the ill intentions of the viceroy, but durst not complain,
or give him any reason to imagine that we knew them. We longed to
retreat out of his power, or at least to send one of our company to the
Indies with an account of persecution we suffered, and could without his
leave neither do one nor the other.

When it was determined that one should be sent to the Indies, I was at
first singled out for the journey, and it was intended that I should
represent at Goa, at Rome, and at Ma