y adjoin
with the great sea or ocean towards the Cape of Good Hope, and to the
north are bounded by the great and dangerous _Sea of Sand_, lying
between the great city of Cairo in Egypt and the country of Ethiopia; in
which are many uninhabitable deserts continuing for the space of five
days journey. It is affirmed, if the Christian emperor were not hindered
by the deserts, in which there is great want of provisions and
especially of water, that he would ere now have invaded Egypt. The chief
city of Ethiopia, in which this great emperor resides, is called
_Amacaiz_, being a city of some importance, the inhabitants of which are
of an olive complexion. There are many other cities, such as the city of
_Sava_ on the Nile, where the emperor ordinarily resides during the
summer. There is likewise a great city named _Barbaregaf_ and _Ascon_,
whence the queen of Saba is supposed to have gone for Jerusalem to hear
the wisdom of Solomon[193]. This last city though little is very fair,
and one of the principal cities of Ethiopia. In this province there are
many very high mountains, on which the terrestrial paradise is supposed
to have been situated; and some say that the trees of the sun and moon
which are mentioned by the ancients, are to be found there, but no one
has ever been able to go to them, on account of great deserts extending
to an hundred days journey. Also beyond these mountains is the Cape of
Good Hope.

[Footnote 193: The names of places are so corruptly given as hardly even
to be guessed at. Amacaiz may possibly be meant for Amba Keshem, Sava
for Shoa, Barbaregaf for the Baharnagash, and Ascon for Assab.--E.]

_Journal of the Voyage_.

On the 12th of August 1553, there sailed from Portsmouth two goodly
ships, the Primrose and the Lion, with a pinnace called the Moon, all
well furnished with 140 able bodied men, and with ordnance and victuals
fitting for the voyage. They were commanded by two captains; one of whom
was a foreigner named Antonio Anes Pinteado, a native of Oporto in
Portugal, a wise, discreet, and sober man, who, for his skill in
navigation both as an experienced pilot and prudent commander, was at
one time in such favour with the king of Portugal, that the coasts of
Brazil and Guinea were committed to his care against the French, to whom
he was a terror in these seas. He had been likewise a gentleman of the
household to the king. But as fortune ever flatters when it favours,
ever deceives when it p