132 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



It appears clearly from thefe letters, that they were the 

 joint compofitions of Covillan, who knew perfectly the man- 

 ner of correfponding with his court upon dangerous fub- 

 iedls, and of the fimple Abyffinian confidents of the emprefs 

 Helena, who, unacquainted with embaffies or correfpon- 

 dence with princes, or the ill confequence that thefe letters 

 would be of to their ambaflador and his errand, if they hap- 

 pened to be intercepted by an enemy, told plainly all they 

 defired and wilhed to execute by the afliflance of the Portu- 

 guefe. Thus, in the firft part of the letter, (which we fliall 

 fuppofe didated by Covillan) the emprefs remits the defcrip- 

 tion of her wants, and what is the fubje(St of the embaffy, 

 to Matthew her ambaflador, whom flae qualifies as her con- 

 fidential fer^-ant, inllru6led in her moil fecret intentions ; 

 dcfiring the king of Portugal to believe what he Ihall re- 

 port from her to him in private, as if they were her own 

 words uttered immediately from her to him in perfon. So 

 far was prudent; fuch a condudl as we fliould expeft from 

 a man like Covillan, long accuftomed to be trufled with the; 

 fecret negociations of his fovereign» 



But the latter end of his difpatches (the work, we flip- 

 pofe, of Abyfiinian ftatcfmcn) divulges the whole fecret. U 

 explains the motives of this embafly in the cleareft manner,, 

 ^efiring the king of Portugal to fend a fuffieient force to de^ 

 ftroy Mecca and Medina ; to afilft them with a fuffieient 

 number of fliips, and to annihilate the Turkifli power by 

 fea ; v/hik they, by land, Ihould extirpate all the Mahome^ 

 tans on their borders ; and it lligmatizes thefe Mahometans,, 

 both Turks and Moors, with the moll opprobrious names it: 

 was poflible to dcvifc* 



With 



