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MOCHA.

Alvarez, secretary and chaplain to the mission: and the detail of a journey through Tigré, Lasta, and Amhara, which he has there introduced, contains much geographical and other valuable information.^[1] After staying six years in the country, Alvarez and his companions (with the exception of two, named P. Andred, and J. Bermudez) returned to Europe, bearing letters from the Emperor David to King John of Portugal, accompanied by a native of the country, Zaga Zabo, whose arrival induced the Church of Rome to entertain sanguine hopes of the conversion of Abyssinia, a circumstance which was eagerly laid hold of by the different ecclesiastical societies at that time so formidable in Europe, as a means of extending their respective influence.^[2]

Meantime the country itself became in danger of being over-run by a ferocious Mahomedan chieftain, named Gragné, who ruled the kingdom of Arar or Hurrur, which lies eastward of Shoa, the success of whose incursions induced the Emperor to send one of the Portuguese, named Bermudez, who had been left in Abyssinia, to solicit

↑ Vide Alvarez (Fran.) Verdadeira Informacam das terras do preste Joam das Indias. Lixb. 1540, fol. (British Museum.) His narrative is to be found also in the "Viaggi" of Ramusio, L. i. p. 189, who translated it from a Portuguese manuscript, sent to him by Damiana of Goez, which differs from that published at Lisbon, and is considered as in some respects superior to it. The ground plans of the excavated churches are wanting in the Lisbon edition. I have myself a French edition translated from Ramusio, published at Antwerp, 1558, and I have seen a Spanish copy of the same: an English epitome of it is given in Purchas, (Part II.) 1026.
↑ The convent of St. Stephano was about this time founded for the Abysinians at Rome. Abraham Peritsol, in his Itinera Mundi, seems to allude to the Abyssinian monks, when he says, "Et quoque in Roma est istorum Sacerdotum nigritarum societas una numero fere 30, habitantes in Excelso uno novo quod de novo fundatum est nomini ipsorum." Dr. Hyde, the learned translator of this work, has fallen into a singular error respecting these black priests; for he supposes, that the epithet "nigritarum" was given them on account of their black garments (propter habitum nigrum, in contrarium Sacerdotum Judæorum qui albis indui solebant,) and in enquiring into what society this could be, he conjectures, as the society of Jesuits (Jesuitarum) was not established in 1525, when the book was written, to whom alone he could attribute an interference in Eastern affairs, that it must have been Societas Jesuatorum, of whom he finds a notice in an obscure author, a specimen of criticism worthy of some of the later commentators on Shakespeare.

[1] Vide Alvarez (Fran.) Verdadeira Informacam das terras do preste Joam das Indias. Lixb. 1540, fol. (British Museum.) His narrative is to be found also in the "Viaggi" of Ramusio, L. i. p. 189, who translated it from a Portuguese manuscript, sent to him by Damiana of Goez, which differs from that published at Lisbon, and is considered as in some respects superior to it. The ground plans of the excavated churches are wanting in the Lisbon edition. I have myself a French edition translated from Ramusio, published at Antwerp, 1558, and I have seen a Spanish copy of the same: an English epitome of it is given in Purchas, (Part II.) 1026.

[2] The convent of St. Stephano was about this time founded for the Abysinians at Rome. Abraham Peritsol, in his Itinera Mundi, seems to allude to the Abyssinian monks, when he says, "Et quoque in Roma est istorum Sacerdotum nigritarum societas una numero fere 30, habitantes in Excelso uno novo quod de novo fundatum est nomini ipsorum." Dr. Hyde, the learned translator of this work, has fallen into a singular error respecting these black priests; for he supposes, that the epithet "nigritarum" was given them on account of their black garments (propter habitum nigrum, in contrarium Sacerdotum Judæorum qui albis indui solebant,) and in enquiring into what society this could be, he conjectures, as the society of Jesuits (Jesuitarum) was not established in 1525, when the book was written, to whom alone he could attribute an interference in Eastern affairs, that it must have been Societas Jesuatorum, of whom he finds a notice in an obscure author, a specimen of criticism worthy of some of the later commentators on Shakespeare.

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