Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/378

 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. 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.

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