ersons of note, who carried servants along with them,
which increased the number considerably.--E.]

* * * * *

Some time before the expedition of De Gama into the Red Sea, Grada Hamed
the Mahometan king of Adel or Zeyla, the country called _Trogloditis_ by
some geographers, submitted himself to the supremacy of the Turkish
empire in order to obtain some assistance of men, and throwing off his
allegiance to the Christian emperor of Abyssinia or Ethiopia,
immediately invaded that country with a numerous and powerful army. On
this occasion he took advantage offered by the sovereign of Abyssinia,
to whom he owed allegiance, being in extreme youth, and made such
progress in the country that the emperor _Atanad Sagad_, otherwise named
_Claudius_, was obliged to retire into the kingdom or province of Gojam,
while his mother, _Saban_ or _Elizabeth_, who administered the
government in his minority, took refuge with the _Baharnagash_ in the
rugged mountains of _Dama_, a place naturally impregnable, which rising
to a prodigious height from a large plain, has a plain on its summit
about a league in diameter, on which is an indifferent town with
sufficient cattle and other provisions for its scanty population. On one
side of this mountain there is a road of difficult ascent to near the
top; but at the last part of the ascent people have to be drawn up and
let down on planks by means of ropes.

While in this helpless condition, the queen got notice that Don Stefano
de Gama was in the Red Sea, and sent the Baharnagash to him, desiring
his assistance against the tyrant, who had overrun the country,
destroyed many ancient churches, and carried off numbers of priests and
monks into slavery. The embassador was favourably listened to; and it
was resolved by the governor-general, in a council of his officers, to
grant the assistance required. Accordingly Don Christopher de Gama,
brother to the governor-general, was named to the command on this
occasion, who was landed with 400 men and eight field-pieces, with many
firelocks and abundance of ammunition. He was accompanied by Don Juan
Bermudez, Patriarch of Ethiopia, whose presence was much desired by the
Abyssinian emperor, on purpose to introduce the ceremonies of the Roman
church.

Don Christopher de Gama and his men set out on their march from Arkiko
under the guidance of the Baharnagash for the interior of Abyssinia, and
the men endured incredible fati