714 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



Tellez and le Grande, mentioning the two opinions of 

 the father and the fon upon this fubject, give great praife to 

 the fon at the expence of the father, but without reafon. 



In the firft place, we have feen that the utmofl exertion 

 Don Emanuel could make was to fend 400 men to afiift 

 the king of Abyffinia, whofe country was then almofl: con- 

 quered by the Turks and Moors. It was not then from India 

 we were to expect the execution of fo arduous an underta- 

 king. And as to the fecond, the younger Albuquerque is mif- 

 taken egregio-ufly in point of fact, for there never was a canal 

 between Coffeir and Kenna, the goods from the Red Sea were 

 tranfported by a caravan, and are fo yet. We have feen, in 

 the beginning of this work, the account of my travelling 

 thither from Kenna ; this intercourse probably was often 

 interrupted by the Arabs in the days he mentions, and fo it 

 is ftill ; but it is the caravan, not the canal, that is ftopt by 

 the Arabs, for no canal ever exilted.. 



The fum of all this ftory is, a long and violent persecution 

 followed the conqueft of Egypt by the Saracens, who were ac- 

 euftomed to live in tents, which, with their diHike to the 

 Chriflian churches, made them deftroy all the buildings of 

 flone, as alio perfecute the mafons, whom they considered 

 as being employed in the advancement of idolatry : thefe un- 

 happy workmen, therefore, fled in numbers to Lalibala, an 

 Abyffinian prince of their own religion, who employed 

 them in many flupendous works for diverting the Nile 

 into the Red Sea, or the Indian Ocean, which I have already 

 deferibed, and which exift entire to this day*. 



This 



* Vol.. I. b. ii. cha E . 8. 



