708 Report on Shoa [No. 140. 



Abunas flows quietly through the dull pages of Abyssinian record, from 

 the time of Frumentius the First until the days of the venerable Simeon, 

 who whilst gallantly defending the faith of his fathers, was barbarously 

 murdered by the European partizans of the Italian Jesuit. It was not 

 until the commencement of the sixteenth century, that any further 

 mention was made of the Abyssinian Church, which during the dark- 

 ness of the middle ages had fallen into complete oblivion ; but rumours 

 about that period were whispered abroad of a Christian monarch and 

 a Christian nation established in the centre of Africa, and the happy 

 news was first brought to the court of Portugal, that a Christian Church 

 still existed, which had for ages successfully resisted, among the lofty 

 mountains of Abyssinia, the fierce attacks of the sanguinary Saracen. 



In the year 1499, Pedro Cavilham succeeded in reaching Shoa, where 

 he was received with that favor which novelty usually secures ; and 

 although the stranger was prevented by the ancient laws of the king- 

 dom from leaving the land, the quest had been successfully performed ; 

 the first link re-established of a chain, which had been broken for ages, 

 and shortly afterwards the glories of Prester John and his Christian court 

 were fully disclosed to abate the intense anxiety that reigned in the 

 heart of every inhabitant of the West. 



In due time, an Abyssinian ambassador made his appearance in Por- 

 tugal; unbounded delight was experienced by king Emanuel and his court, 

 and every honor was lavished upon Matthew, the merchant of Shoa. 

 All believed that the Abyssinians were devout Catholics, and that a vast 

 empire, estimated at four times its actual extent, was about to fall 

 under the dominion of the Roman Church. A mission on a great scale 

 was fitted out, the journey was safely accomplished, and excited fancy 

 rioted for a time in the description of palaces and fountains which never 

 existed, and pomp, riches, and regal power utterly unknown in the 

 land. 



Missions continued from either court during the succeeding forty 

 years. An alliance was formed. Men learned in the arts and sciences 

 were despatched to settle in Abyssinia. Zaga Zaba arrived in Lisbon, 

 invested with full powers to satisfy the interests of both countries, 

 temporal as well as spiritual. But the difference of faith was now for 

 the first time understood. The bitter enmity of the Roman creed stood 

 prominently to view, and the envoy, after studying the details of the 



