ards it the less painfully, and doth accustom us
not to despair on account of the difficulty of the journey. For even
as with a man that would tread a hard and difficult path; by
exhortation and encouragement one may scarce win him to essay it, but
rather by pointing to the many who have already completed the course,
and at the last have arrived safely. So I too, "walking by this rule,"
and heedful of the danger hanging over that servant who, having
received of his lord the talent, buried it in the earth, and hid out of
use that which was given him to trade withal, will in no wise pass over
in silence the edifying story that hath come to me, the which devout
men from the inner land Of the Ethiopians, whom our tale calleth
Indians, delivered unto me, translated from trustworthy records. It
readeth thus.

I.

The country of the Indians, as it is called, is vast and populous,
lying far beyond Egypt. On the side of Egypt it is washed by seas and
navigable gulphs, but on the mainland it marcheth with the borders of
Persia, a land formerly darkened with the gloom of idolatry, barbarous
to the last degree, and wholly given up to unlawful practices. But
when "the only-begotten Son of God, which is in the bosom of the
Father," being grieved to see his own handiwork in bondage unto sin,
was moved with compassion for the same, and shewed himself amongst us
without sin, and, without leaving his Father's throne, dwelt for a
season in the Virgin's womb for our sakes, that we might dwell in
heaven, and be re-claimed from the ancient fall, and freed from sin by
receiving again the adoption of sons; when he had fulfilled every stage
of his life in the flesh for our sake, and endured the death of the
Cross, and marvellously united earth and heaven; when he had risen
again from the dead, and had been received up into heaven, and was
seated at the right hand of the majesty of the Father, whence,
according to his promise, he sent down the Comforter, the Holy Ghost,
unto his eyewitnesses and disciples, in the shape of fiery tongues, and
despatched them unto all nations, for to give light to them that sat in
the darkness of ignorance, and to baptize them in the Name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, whereby it fell to the
lot of some of the Apostles to travel to the far-off East and to some
to journey to the West-ward, while others traversed the regions North
and South, fulfilling their appointed tasks then it w