by two poles, and carry a passenger at the rate of
eighteen or twenty miles a day. Here we at length found the patriarch,
with three more priests, like us, designed for the mission of AEthiopia.
We went back to Daman, and from thence to Diou, where we arrived in a
short time.

CHAPTER III

The author embarks with the patriarch, narrowly escapes shipwreck near
the isle of Socotora; enters the Arabian Gulf, and the Red Sea. Some
account of the coast of the Red Sea.

The patriarch having met with many obstacles and disappointments in his
return to Abyssinia, grew impatient of being so long absent from his
church. Lopo Gomez d'Abreu had made him an offer at Bazaim of fitting
out three ships at his own expense, provided a commission could be
procured him to cruise in the Red Sea. This proposal was accepted by the
patriarch, and a commission granted by the viceroy. While we were at
Diou, waiting for these vessels, we received advice from AEthiopia that
the emperor, unwilling to expose the patriarch to any hazard, thought
Dagher, a port in the mouth of the Red Sea, belonging to a prince
dependent on the Abyssins, a place of the greatest security to land at,
having already written to that prince to give him safe passage through
his dominions. We met here with new delays; the fleet that was to
transport us did not appear, the patriarch lost all patience, and his
zeal so much affected the commander at Diou, that he undertook to equip a
vessel for us, and pushed the work forward with the utmost diligence. At
length, the long-expected ships entered the port; we were overjoyed, we
were transported, and prepared to go on board. Many persons at Diou,
seeing the vessels so well fitted out, desired leave to go this voyage
along with us, imagining they had an excellent opportunity of acquiring
both wealth and honour. We committed, however, one great error in
setting out, for having equipped our ships for privateering, and taken no
merchandise on board, we could not touch at any of the ports of the Red
Sea. The patriarch, impatient to be gone, took leave in the most tender
manner of the governor and his other friends, recommended our voyage to
the Blessed Virgin, and in the field, before we went on shipboard, made a
short exhortation, so moving and pathetic, that it touched the hearts of
all who heard it. In the evening we went on board, and early the next
morning being the 3rd of April, 1625, we set sail.

After some