r. While we stayed here we
were given to understand that those who had been pleased at Goa to give
us directions in relation to our journey had done nothing but tell us
lies. That the people were savage, that they had indeed begun to treat
with the Portuguese, but it was only from fear, that otherwise they were
a barbarous nation, who finding themselves too much crowded in their own
country, had extended themselves to the sea-shore; that they ravished the
country and laid everything waste where they came, that they were man-
eaters, and were on that account dreadful in all those parts. My
companion and I being undeceived by this terrible relation, thought it
would be the highest imprudence to expose ourselves both together to a
death almost certain and unprofitable, and agreed that I should go with
our Abyssin and a Portuguese to observe the country; that if I should
prove so happy as to escape being killed by the inhabitants, and to
discover a way, I should either return, or send back the Abyssin or
Portuguese. Having fixed upon this, I hired a little bark to Jubo, a
place about forty leagues distant from Pate, on board which I put some
provisions, together with my sacerdotal vestments, and all that was
necessary for saying mass: in this vessel we reached the coast, which we
found inhabited by several nations: each nation is subject to its own
king; these petty monarchies are so numerous, that I counted at least ten
in less than four leagues.

CHAPTER II

The author lands: The difficulty of his journey. An account of the
Galles, and of the author's reception at the king's tent; Their manner of
swearing, and of letting blood. The author returns to the Indies, and
finds the patriarch of AEthiopia.

On this coast we landed, with an intention of travelling on foot to Jubo,
a journey of much greater length and difficulty than we imagined. We
durst not go far from our bark, and therefore were obliged to a toilsome
march along the windings of the shore, sometimes clambering up rocks, and
sometimes wading through the sands, so that we were every moment in the
utmost danger of falling from the one, or sinking in the other. Our
lodging was either in the rocks or on the sands, and even that incommoded
by continual apprehensions of being devoured by lions and tigers. Amidst
all these calamities our provisions failed us; we had little hopes of a
supply, for we found neither villages, houses, nor any trace of a huma