conuenient, and so came backe againe vnto Congo, and to the king of that countrey:
An ambassadour from the king of Congo. who thereupon sent an ambassadour and men of credite into Portugall.
Pepper of Benin. In the next yeere or the second following, one Iohn Alonso d'Aueiro came from the kingdome of Benin, and brought home pepper with a taile; which was the first of that kinde seene in Portugall.
In the yeere 1487. king Iohn sent to discouer India ouer land.[1]
Pedro de Couillan and Alfonso de Payua sent to discouer India. In which iourney went one Pedro de Couillan a seruant of the kings, and Alfonso de Payua, because they could speake the Arabian Toong. They went out in the moneth of May, and the same yeere they tooke shipping at Naples, and arriued in the Isle of Rhodes, and lodged in the house that was prouided for the Portugall knights of that order: from thence they went to Alexandria, and so to Cayro, and thence to the hauen of Toro in the companie of the Carauans or carriers which were Moores. There they tooke shipping, and being on the Red sea they arriued at the citie of Aden, and there they seperated themselues: for Alfonso de Payua went towards Æthiopia, and Pedro de Couillan into India. Who came vnto the cities of Cananot and Calicut, and came backe vnto Goa: where he tooke shipping vnto Sofala, being on the coast of Africa in the southerne latitude of 20. degrees, to see the mines that were of so great name. From Sofala he turned backe to Mosambique, and vnto the cities of Quiloa, Mombaza, and Melinde, till he came backe againe vnto the citie of Aden: where he and Alfonso de Payua deuided themselues: and thence he sailed againe through the Red sea vnto the citie of Cayro, where he thought to haue met with his companion: but there he heard that he was dead by the letters that he receiued from king Iohn his master; in which letters he was farther commanded to trauaile into the countrey and dominions of Presbytery Iohn.
The voiage of Pedro de Couillan vnto the countrey of Prete Ianni. Vpon this commandement he prouided for his farther iourney, and from Cairo went backe againe to the hauen of Toro, and from thence to Aden, where he had been twise before: and there hearing of the fame of the citie of Ormuz, he determined to goe thither; and therefore went along the coast of Arabia vnto
- ↑ Barros decad. I. lib. 3. cap. 5.
