112 TRAVELS OF THE JESUITS. 



easier than the one to Massoah." This opinion 

 we find still farther confirmed when the Embassy 

 arrived at Narea, for there the Bonero, or Governor, 

 determined the party should not proceed "by the 

 way they designed, which was the best, lest the 

 Portuguese should become acquainted with it." 

 These native authorities, however, are deemed of 

 no value by Tellez, who thus decides the matter at 

 once, " Now, to deal plainly, the way the father 

 (Fernandez) proposed through Cafah was no better 

 than this (the road back again to the north and 

 east); because, proceeding south from Narea, there 

 is no coming to the sea without travelling many 

 hundred leagues to the Cape of Good Hope, as 

 may appear by all modern maps, so that the whole 

 project had nothing of likelihood." 



Father Antonio Fernandez himself does not 

 appear, in Tellez, to have kept any regular account 

 of the journey ; and yet there is internal evidence 

 in what is given to the reader in the " Travels of 

 the Jesuits," that in reality the greatest attention 

 was paid to every subject of interest; and as we 

 must conceive that the first object of the Govern- 

 ment, who supported and encouraged the Jesuits 

 in Abyssinia, was to obtain correct geographical 

 knowledge of that part of Africa, I cannot but 

 believe that this was particularly attended to by 

 their agents ; but that when afterwards the travels 

 were published to satisfy public curiosity, it 

 was found convenient to suppress the most im- 



