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 food was biscuit, and our beverage stinking water full of vermin, for which, nauseous and disagreeable as it was, we were obliged to pay eight medines, or baiocchi for a small cupful. On the 4th of October we arrived at Jidda, where if we had not been warmly recommended by our Greek Catholics to a noble Turkish merchant, we should have sustained the most grievous hardships from the Greek schismatics, who by some means or other having discovered our object in Ethiopia, excited against us a great deal of murmuring among the Turks, having determined, at all hazards, to put a stop to the long journey we had undertaken. But that which the hardened malice of false Christians endeavoured to prevent, the divine providence brought about by means of the Turks themselves; so that after a short persecution, when we humbly asked the Vizier license to proceed to the Island of Lohaia, he, to our great delight, not only gave his consent to our departure, even accompanied it with a recommendation to the chief commanding that island, where we happily arrived on the 2d of November. Here we staid ten days, waiting for a passage to Massowa, where, finally, after many travails and hardships, we got into port on the feast of St. Andrew's day. Being desirous of permission from the Emperor of Ethiopia to land, without which the Governor of the Island would permit no Christian to enter that kingdom, we sent our humble petition, by two expresses, to court; and after eighty days journey, they returned with a gracious letter from the Emperor, accompanied, moreover, by two of his officers, thirty servants, and sixteen mules, to carry our baggage to the royal city of Gondar. The letter of the Emperor was as follows: "Praise be to God alone—from the presence of the Negush-Negashi, from the Emperor of the Christians and Turks, Successor of the Lord of the World, who is constituted for the affairs of this world and for the affairs of the Faith, as concerned with the business of the creature, by which God hath adjusted and put into good order men, and hath enlightened the land and the provinces. He is brave in council, perfect in prudence, and profitable; on which account he hath left a memory that is spread abroad over the whole earth, and on account of his justice, goodness, and beneficence, he is dwelling in the empire of the antiquity of time, having the generation of his father, grandfather, and great grandfather. He is the metal of liberty, beneficence, and bounty. Our Lord, the supreme Emperor and honourable King now happily reigning, is the hill of the Creature through the magnificence by which they are distinguished in particular and in general; bearing such and so great marks of his favour, that they exceed in numbers the stars themselves, and the multitude or density of the clouds. He is adorned with so many qualifications, that scarcely any one who breathes this air can equal him, in respect of which all other men would appear vile. He is of such sublime eminence, that all Kings would be eager to imitate him, but would not be able to attain it; because they would find him of all the princes of Christendom the most noble, and truly he is the graatest of all the princes of the Nazarene faith, and the most