r
infant, whose mother, evidently a Catholic, cried out to me to save her
child, or at least that if I could not preserve this uncertain and
perishable life, I should give it another certain and permanent. I sent
my servant to fetch water with the utmost expedition, for there was none
near, and happily baptised the child before it expired.

Soon after this I returned to Fremona, and had great hopes of
accompanying the patriarch to the court; but, when we were almost setting
out, received the command of the superior of the mission to stay at
Fremona, with a charge of the house there, and of all the Catholics that
were dispersed over the kingdom of Tigre, an employment very
ill-proportioned to my abilities. The house at Fremona has always been
much regarded even by those emperors who persecuted us; Sultan Segued
annexed nine large manors to it for ever, which did not make us much more
wealthy, because of the expensive hospitality which the great conflux of
strangers obliged us to. The lands in Abyssinia yield but small
revenues, unless the owners themselves set the value upon them, which we
could not do.

The manner of letting farms in Abyssinia differs much from that of other
countries: the farmer, when the harvest is almost ripe, invites the chumo
or steward, who is appointed to make an estimate of the value of each
year's product, to his house, entertains him in the most agreeable manner
he can; makes him a present, and then takes him to see his corn. If the
chumo is pleased with the treat and present, he will give him a
declaration or writing to witness that his ground, which afforded five or
six sacks of corn, did you yield so many bushels, and even of this it is
the custom to abate something; so that our revenue did not increase in
proportion to our lands; and we found ourselves often obliged to buy
corn, which, indeed, is not dear, for in fruitful years forty or fifty
measures, weighing each about twenty-two pounds, may be purchased for a
crown.

Besides the particular charge I had of the house of Fremona, I was
appointed the patriarch's grand-vicar through the whole kingdom of Tigre.
I thought that to discharge this office as I ought, it was incumbent on
me to provide necessaries as well for the bodies as the souls of the
converted Catholics. This labour was much increased by the famine which
the grasshoppers had brought that year upon the country. Our house was
perpetually surrounded by some of those unh