sinians, as well as by his own countrymen; his death proving an irreparable loss to the cause which he had supported.[1] In December, 1623, Father Emanuel D'Almeyda and some other priests reached Massowa, and travelled up by way of Adegada, where they were met by a company of six hundred armed men; and thence they proceeded across the plain of Serawé, and partly along the course of the Mareb, until they arrived at Fremona. A very interesting account of this journey is to be met with in a work subsequently compiled by Father Almeyda, of which there at present remains only an abridgment by Tellez.[2] Father Almeyda continued ten years in the country, during which period he seems to have been employed chiefly in collecting materials for his history.
The next and last patriarch sent into Abyssinia was Don Alfonzo Mendez,[3] who arrived in 1625; a man of
- ↑ Peter Paez left behind him an ample account of the affairs of Ethiopia, a MS. of which is said to exist at Rome in the secretary's office of the crown of Portugal, reaching from 1555 to 1622. P. Bal. Tellez has made great use of it in his celebrated work: and some valuable extracts from it are to be found in the Œdipus Ægypt, by Kircher, giving an exact description of the sources of the Nile, which he visited in 1618.
- ↑ Vide Historia Geral de Ethiopia a alta ou Preste Joam edo que nella obraram os padres da companhia de Jesus composta na mesma Ethiopia pelo padre Manoel D'Almeyda, &c. Abbreviada com nova releuçam e methedo pelo padre Balthazar Tellez, &c. a Coimbra, 1660; to be found in the British Museum. A translation or rather abridgment of this was published in English under the title of "The Travels of the Jesuits in Ethiopia," in "A new Collection of Voyages and Travels," Vol. II. London, by Knapton, &c. 1711. An extract from this book was also published by Thevenot under title of Histoire de la haute Ethiopie, écrite sur les lieux, par le R. P. Manoel D'Almeida, Jesuite. The abridgment of Tellez above mentioned is undoubtedly the most valuable work now existing on Abyssinian affairs: and there are said to be only three copies of it in England.
- ↑ He also published an account of Abyssinia, the only copy which, that I have seen, is a French translation, entitled "Relation du Reverendissime Patriarche D'Ethiopie Dom Alphonze Mendez, touchant la conversion des ames qui s'est faite en cet empire depuis l'année 1629. Envoyé au Pere Viteleschi, &c. Traduite du Portugais, p. B. Cordose Med. A Lille, 1633. (British Museum.) Ludolf in his Commentaries erroneously remarks, "verum ista historia lucem non vidit," which proves, at least, the scarcity of the work. Jerome Lobo, whose work is well known, attended in the
