th a letter to Sequeira
desiring that he would make peace with the people who had fled to him
for protection; at the same time he asked nothing for the town where he
commanded, because they were all Christians, and because they had a
prophecy among them which foretold the coming of Christians to settle a
correspondence with them, and which he now believed to be fulfilled on
seeing the Christian colours. Sequeira sent a courteous answer, and drew
nearer the shore, on which several Christians came on board. They told
him that their prince had sent several years before an ambassador named
Mathew, to a king at the other end of the world whose fleet had
conquered India, on purpose to become acquainted with these remote
Christians and to demand succour against the Moors; but that the
ambassador had never returned. On hearing this, Sequeira was satisfied
that they dealt ingeniously with him, as he had actually brought that
ambassador along with him, and had orders from the king of Portugal to
land him safe in the dominions of _Prester John_. On this, the
ambassador of whom they spoke of was brought before them, to their great
mutual joy, as he had been ten years absent from his country. Next day
ten monks came from a neighbouring convent of _the Vision_ to visit
Mathew, and were received in great ceremony by the priests of the fleet
dressed in their surplices. Great rejoicings were made on occasion of
this meeting between two such distant nations agreeing in the same
faith; and the consequence of this meeting was, that those who from the
beginning had not acknowledged the supremacy of the Roman pontiff, now
submitted to his authoritye[150].

[Footnote 150: The submission of the Abyssinian church to the Roman
pontiff was a mere pretence, which afterwards produced long and bloody
civil wars, and ended in the expulsion of the Portuguese from the
country.--E.]

The kingdom of _Prester John_, now first visited by Sylveira, is mostly
known by this appellation but improperly, as its right name is the
empire of Abyssinia, Abassia, Habesh, or the higher Ethiopia. It
received the former appellation from the great king _Jovarus_, who came
to it from the Christians of Tartary, having a cross carried before him
like our bishops, and carrying a cross in his hand, with the title of
_Defender of the Faith_, as being a Jacobite Christian[151]. The
dominions of this prince are situated between the rivers _Nile,
Astabora_, and _Astapus_. To th