rj4 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



long ago, MrLudolf had flicwn, from the teftimony of Gre- 

 gory the Abyfiinian, that there was no fuch place in Abyf- 

 finia as Tigre Mahon. That there was, indeed, a large pro- 

 vince called Tigre, of which Axum was the capital ; and 

 Le Grande, the firft publifher of Jerome Lobo, has repeatedly 

 faid the fame. And Ludolf has given a very probable con- 

 jecture, that the firft Portuguese, ignorant of the Abyfli- 

 nian language, heard the officer commanding that province 

 called Tigre Mocuonen, which is governor of Tigre, and 

 had miflaken the name of his office for that of his province. 

 Be that as it will, the reader may reft afTured there is no 

 fuch kingdom, province, or town in all Abyflinia. 



There ftill remains, however, a difficulty much greater 

 than this, and an error much more difficult to be corrected. 

 Lobo is faid to have failed from the peninfula of India, and, 

 being bound for Zeyla, to have embarked in a veflel going 

 to Caxumc, or Axum, capital of Tigre, and to have arrived 

 there fafely,and been well accommodated. NowZeyla,he fays, 

 is a city in the kingdom of Adel, at the mouth of the Red 

 Sea * ; and Axum, being two hundred miles inland, in the 

 middle of the kingdom of Tigre, a fhip going to Axum muft 

 have pafTed Zeyla 300 miles, or been 300 miles to the weft- 

 ward of it. Zeyla is not a city, as is faid, but an ifland. It is 

 not in the kingdom of Adel, but in the bay of Tajoura, oppo- 

 fite to a kingdom of that name ; but the ifland itfelf belongs 

 to the Imam of Sana, fovereign of Arabia Felix ; fo that it is 

 inexplicable, how a fhip going to Zeyla fhould choofe to 

 land 300 miles beyond it; and ftill more fo, how, being once 



arrived 



See page 28. 



