466 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



matician. He feems indeed to mc to have been a copy of 

 the famous Peter Paez, who firft gave an appearance of ftar 

 bihty to the Portuguefe converfion of AbyfTuiia ; hke him 

 he was a Jefuit, but of a better nation, and born in a better 

 age. 



I MUST here Hkewife take notice of wha": I have ah-eady- 

 hintcd, that in Abyilinia the character of ambalTador is not 

 known. They have no treaties of peace -or commerce with 

 any nation in the world : But, for purpofes ah-eady men- 

 tioned, factors are employed; and, Abyilinia being every- 

 where furrounded by Mahometans, ihcfe of courfe have the 

 preference; and, as they carry letters from their mafters, the 

 cuftom of the Eait obliges them to accompany thefe with 

 prefents to the fovereigns of the refpe^ftive kingdoms 

 through which they pafs, and this circumftance dignifies 

 them with the title of ambafTador in the feveral courts at 

 which they have bufmefs. Such was Mufa, a faiftor of the 

 king, whom we have feen detained, and afterwards deliver- 

 ed by the Naybe of Mafuah, not many years before, in this 

 king's reign ; and fuch alfo was Hagi Ali, then upon his 

 mailer s bufmefs at Cairo, when M. de Maillet was conful 

 there, and had received his inflrudfions from father Fleuriau 

 at Paris, to bring about this enibafiy from Abyffinia. 



Bestdes his other bufmefs, Hagi Ali had orders to bring 

 with him a phyfician, if poilible, from Cairof; for Yafous 

 and his eldell fon were both of a fcorbutic habir, which 

 threatened to turn into a leprofy. Hagi Ali, in former 

 voyages, had been acquainted with a capuchin friar Pafchal ; 

 and, having received medicines from him before, lie now 

 applied to Pafchal to return with him into Ab)llinia,. 



and 



