1843.] and the Abyssinian Church. 709 



Catholic doctrine, and refusing to subscribe a similar contract on behalf 

 of his Church, was unscrupulously put to a violent death in a Portuguese 

 prison. 



The first flattering ideas regarding the religion of the country being 

 thus found erroneous, the delusion respecting the extent and power of 

 the mighty empire was next to fall to the ground. The Galla were 

 now streaming in hordes from the interior, and Graigne, the Mahome- 

 dan invader, carrying fire and sword with his army throughout the 

 country. The dying Coptish Patriarch of Abyssinia was prevailed upon 

 to nominate as his successor John Bermudez, a resident Portuguese, 

 and the Romish priest, hurried by the king, proceeded to seek immedi- 

 ate military assistance from the courts of Rome and Lisbon. 



Schemes of ambition flitted over the minds of the first conquerors 

 of India, and an alliance with Ethiopia seemed highly desirable, as a 

 handle for further acquisition in the East. But dilatory measures de- 

 layed the arrival of the Portuguese fleet until the sueing monarch had 

 been gathered to his fathers, and Christopher, the son of the famous 

 Vasco de Gama anchored in the harbour of Massowah, at a time when the 

 new emperor Claudius was sorely pressed to sustain himself upon the 

 throne of his ancestors. The opportunity was not neglected by the 

 Archbishop to reduce the heretic church to the fold of the Roman see ; 

 and a series of attempts were commenced, equally to be deplored, from 

 the mischief which they created, and the unworthy means that were em- 

 ployed during the struggle. 



The signal service rendered by the Portuguese troops during the 

 ensuing wars, the total route of the Galla and Moslem, with the slaugh- 

 ter of their invading leader in the battle, placed Bermudez in a position 

 to demand high terms from the re-instated monarch. The conversion 

 of the emperor to the Roman Catholic faith, and the possession of one- 

 third of the kingdom were imperiously proposed, and scornfully reject- 

 ed. Excommunication was threatened by the proud prelate of the 

 West, and utterly disregarded by king Claudius, who retorted, that the 

 Pope himself was a heretic. Open hostilities broke out, and although 

 the superior discipline of the Europeans for a time gave them the ad- 

 vantage, they were at length separated by a wily stratagem, and hurried 

 to different quarters of the kingdom, and Bermudez being then seized, 

 was conveyed in honorable exile to the rugged mountains of Efat. 



