lyo TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



The meafure of David's misfortunes feems to have been 

 now full, and he died accordingly this very year 1540. 



It will be neceflary here to remind the reader, that Al- 

 varez, the chaplain and hiftorian of the firfl Portuguefe em- 

 baffy, was (as he faid) on his return appointed by king Da- 

 vid to make his fiibmiffion to the pope. Leaving Zaga 

 Zaab, therefore, in Portugal, he proceeded to Bologna, where 

 the emperor Charles V. was then in perfon, before whom 

 and the pope himfelf he delivered his credentials framed 

 by Peter Covillan, and afterwards, in a long fpeech, the rea^ 

 fons of his embalTy. 



The pope received this fubmiffion of David with infinite 

 pleafure, at a time when fo many kingdoms in the weft 

 were revolting from his fupremacy. He confidered it as a 

 thing of the greateft moment to be courted before the em- 

 peror by fo powerful a prince in Africa. But as for the 

 emperor himfelf, though he was then preparing for an ex- 

 pedition againft the Mahometans, and though it was his fa- 

 vourite war, he feems to have been perfectly indifferent 

 either to the embafTy itfelf, or to the perfon that lent it ; 

 a great proof that he believed there was nothing real in 

 it. 



Many other people have doubted whether this embaffy, 

 or that of John Bermudes, adlually came from the Abyffi- 

 nian court, as the king would fcarcely have abandoned the 

 form of the Alexandrian church in which he had been 

 brought up by Abuna Mark, then alive. Abuna Mark, 

 moreover, could fcarcely be believed to have promoted em- 

 baflies which were intended to ftrike at the root of his own 



3 relagion, 



