e danger made us look on
many others with unconcern; our pains at last found some intermission at
the foot of the mountains of Duan, the frontier of Abyssinia, which
separates it from the country of the Moors, through which we had
travelled.

Here we imagined we might repose securely, a felicity we had long been
strangers to. Here we began to rejoice at the conclusion of our labours;
the place was cool and pleasant, the water was excellent, and the birds
melodious. Some of our company went into the wood to divert themselves
with hearing the birds and frightening the monkeys, creatures so cunning
that they would not stir if a man came unarmed, but would run immediately
when they saw a gun. At this place our camel drivers left us, to go to
the feast of St. Michael, which the AEthiopians celebrate the 16th of
June. We persuaded them, however, to leave us their camels and four of
their company to take care of them.

We had not waited many days before some messengers came to us with an
account that Father Baradas, with the Emperor's nephew, and many other
persons of distinction, waited for us at some distance; we loaded our
camels, and following the course of the river, came in seven hours to the
place we were directed to halt at. Father Manuel Baradas and all the
company, who had waited for us a considerable time on the top of the
mountain, came down when they saw our tents, and congratulated our
arrival. It is not easy to express the benevolence and tenderness with
which they embraced us, and the concern they showed at seeing us worn
away with hunger, labour, and weariness, our clothes tattered, and our
feet bloody.

We left this place of interview the next day, and on the 21st of June
arrived at Fremone, the residence of the missionaries, where we were
welcomed by great numbers of Catholics, both Portuguese and Abyssins, who
spared no endeavours to make us forget all we had suffered in so
hazardous a journey, undertaken with no other intention than to conduct
them in the way of salvation.

PART II--A DESCRIPTION OF ABYSSINIA

CHAPTER I

The history of Abyssinia. An account of the Queen of Sheba, and of Queen
Candace. The conversion of the Abyssins.

The original of the Abyssins, like that of all other nations, is obscure
and uncertain. The tradition generally received derives them from Cham,
the son of Noah, and they pretend, however improbably, that from his time
till now the legal succession