5 o6 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



St Athanafms, who was himfelf ordained to that See about 

 the year 326. Therefore, any account, prior to this ordina- 

 tion and converfion, mufl be falfe, and this converiion and 

 ordination muft have therefore happened about the year 330, 

 or poflibly fome few years later ; for Socrates * fays, that 

 St Athanafms himfelf was then but newly elected to the Sec 

 of Alexandria. 



In order to clear our way of difficulties, before we begin 

 the narrative of the converfion, we fliall obferve, in this 

 place, the reafon I juft hinted at, why fome ecclefiaftical 

 writers had attributed the converfion of Abyflinia to the 

 Apoftles. There was found, or pretended to be found in 

 Alexandria, a canon, of a council faid to be that of Nice, and 

 this canon had never before been known, nor ever feen in 

 any other place, or in any language, except the Arabic ; and, 

 from inflection, I may add, that it is fuch Arabic that fcarce 

 will convey the meaning it was intended. Indeed, if it be 

 conftrued according to the ftricT. rule of grammar, it will 

 not convey any fenfe at all. This canon regulated the pre- 

 cedency of the Abuna of Ethiopia in all after councils, and 

 it places him immediately after the prelate of Seleucia. 

 This moft honourable antiquity was looked upon and boaft- 

 ed of for their own purpofes by the Jefuits, as a difcovery of 

 infinite value to the church of Ethiopia. 



I shall only make one other obfervation to obviate a dif- 

 ficulty which will occur in reading what is to follow. The 

 Abyffmian hiftory plainly and pofitively fays, that when 



Frumentius 



■'* L'jdolf, vol. ; lib, iiL caj\ :"., 



