PRESTER JOHN. 335 



possibly be Christians, as they could not keep Lent, 

 having no fish or vegetables in their country, it 

 was hoped that Prester John, as the myth was 

 called, might be found elsewhere. Certain pil- 

 grims were met with at Jerusalem who were almost 

 negroes in appearance. Their baptism was of three 

 kinds — of fire, of water, and of blood : they were 

 sprinkled, they were circumcised, they were seared on 

 the forehead with a red-hot iron in the form of a 

 cross. Their king, they said, was a good Christian 

 and a hater of the Moslems, and was descended from 

 the Queen of Sheba. This swarthy king, the ancestor of 

 Theodore, could be no other than Prester John ; and 

 Covilham felt it his duty to bear him the greetings of 

 his master before he went home to enjoy that reputa- 

 tion which he had so gloriously earned, and to take a 

 part in the great discoveries that were soon to be made. 



But the King of Abyssinia wanted a tame white 

 man. He gave his visitor wife and lands ; he 

 treated him with honour ; but he would not let him 

 go. This kind of complimentary captivity is a danger 

 to which African travellers are always exposed. It is 

 the glory and pride of a savage king to have a white 

 man at his court. And so Covilham was detained, 

 and he died in Abyssinia. But he lived to hear that 

 Portugal had risen in a few years to be one of the 

 great European powers, and that the flag he loved 

 was waving above those castles and cities which 

 he had been the first of his nation to behold. His 

 letter arrived at the same time as the ship of Dias, 

 who had doubled the Cape. The king determined 

 that a final expedition should be sent, and that India 

 should be reached by sea. 



It was a fete day in Lisbon. The flags were flying 



