no picture of the flag of this kingdom, which 

 he calls Gotonie, and designates as "one of the 

 largest in the world," but describes the device 

 as "some yellow sashes on a spear." His nar- 

 rative continues : 



"I departed from this Kingdom of Gotonie 

 (Soudan and Senegambia) and arrived at a 

 gulf connected with the sea, and in the gulf 

 there are three islands. I crossed this gulf 

 until I came to a great city called Amenuan 

 (Miniana and Amina, regions north of the 

 Kong Mountains). It is a very great and 

 populous kingdom, with a land supplying all 

 that is good, but the people are heathens and 

 believe in idols. The kingdom contains eight 

 great cities, one of which is Amenuan, in which 

 the king always resides and is crowned. The 

 king has a white flag with an idol (1094). 



"In this Kingdom of Emenuan there enters 

 a branch of the river Euf rates (Niger — the 

 friar does not confuse this with the Mesopo- 

 tamian Euphrates, but assumes two rivers with 

 the same name). This river forms three 

 branches, one entering the middle of the King- 

 dom of Amenuan and the other branches flow- 

 ing round the whole kingdom, the width in 

 some places being two days' journey. When I 

 crossed this great river I first made a long 

 journey along its banks, which are very popu- 

 lous (referring evidently to the river Benue, 

 a tributary of the Niger). 



A MYTHICAL MONARCH 



"I came to a great city called Graciona, 

 which is the head of the Empire of Ardeselib, 

 a word meaning 'Servant of the Cross.' The 

 Ardeselib is defender of the Church of Nubia 

 and Ethiopia, and he defends Preste Juan 

 (Prester John), who is Patriarch of Nubia and 

 Abyssinia." 



Prester John, to whom the Franciscan re- 

 fers, was a mythical Christian potentate, whose 

 name appears many times in the chronicles of 

 the Middle Ages, and he is endowed with many 

 attributes of greatness, wisdom, and magic. 

 Originally he was supposed to be a monarch 

 of Asia, his capital being somewhere in India. 

 During the fourteenth century, however, the 

 mythical Prester John's domain was trans- 

 ferred to Africa, and he then became the Chris- 

 tian king of Abyssinia. 



"Preste Juan rules over very great lands and 

 many cities of Christians. But they are ne- 

 groes as to their skins and burn the sign of 

 the cross with fire in recognition of baptism. 

 But although these men are negroes they are 

 still men of intelligence, with good brains, and 

 they have understanding and knowledge. Their 

 land is well supplied with all good things, and 

 excellent water of that which comes from the 

 Antarctic Pole, where, it is said, is the earthly 

 paradise. They told me that the Genoese 

 whose galley was wrecked at Amenuan and 

 who were saved were brought here. It was 

 never known what became of the other galley 

 which escaped. The Emperor of Abdeselib 

 has for his device a white flag with a black 

 cross like this" (1095). 



The friar's reference to the Genoese galley 

 relates to the voyage of Vadino and Guido de 

 Vivaldo, navigators who set sail in 1821 in an 

 attempt to reach India. One of them reached 



a city in Ethiopia called Menam, where the 

 crew was imprisoned and none ever returned. 



"I departed from Graciona and traveled over 

 many lands and through many cities, arriving 

 at the city of Malsa (Melee, or Melli?), where 

 the Preste Johan (Prester John) always re- 

 sides. 



"This is a well-peopled and well-supplied 

 land. From the time I came to Malsa I heard 

 and saw marvelous things every day. I in- 

 quired what the terrestrial paradise was like, 

 and wise men told me that it consisted of 

 mountains so high that they came near to the 

 circuit of the moon. No man has been able to 

 see it all, for of twenty men who went not 

 more than three ever saw it, and that they had 

 never heard tell of any man who had ascended 

 the mountains. 



"They further told me that these mountains 

 were surrounded by very deep seas, and that 

 from the water of those seas come four rivers 

 which are the largest in the world." 



Perhaps this is a vague reference, based on 

 hearsay, to those noble lakes which constitute 

 the reservoirs of the Nile and Congo basins — 

 Albert Edward, Tanganyika, Nyassa, and Vic- 

 toria Nyanza. It was not until centuries later 

 that these lakes were definitely located. In 

 fact, Victoria Nyanza, which, next to Lake Su- 

 perior, is the largest fresh-water lake in the 

 world, was not discovered until 1858, by J. H. 

 Speke, while seeking the source of the Nile. 



"The waters which descend by these rivers 

 make so great a noise that it can be heard at a 

 distance of two days' journey. All the men 

 who live near it are deaf and cannot hear each 

 other, owing to the great noise of the waters. 



"In all time the sun in those mountains is 

 there day and^ night, either on one side or the 

 other. This is because half those mountains 

 are over the horizon and the other half are 

 over the horizon, so that on the top of the 

 mountains it is never either cold nor dark, nor 

 hot nor dry, nor moist, but an equable tem- 

 perature. All things, whether animal or veg- 

 etable, can never decay nor die. 



"They told me many other secrets of the 

 stars both as regards judgments and magical 

 virtues ; also concerning herbs, plants, and 

 minerals, and I saw several marvelous things. 

 The Greeks call this place Ortodoxis, and the 

 Jews Ganheden, and the Latins Paraiso Ter- 

 renal, because there is always a good tempera- 

 ture. The device of Preste Johan is a white 

 flag with a black cross (1096). I departed 

 from Malsa and took an eastern route." 



The Franciscan was the first writer to locate 

 the mysterious Prester John in Abyssinia. 



"I went for a very long distance, meeting 

 with people of many beliefs and with strange 

 manners and customs which it would take long 

 to describe, until I came to a gulf of the Sea 

 of India which enters into the land fifty days' 

 journey. In this gulf there are three very 

 large islands, called Zanzibar (probably an 

 error of the copyist for Acibar), Alcubil (Ku- 

 ria Muria), and Aden (peninsula), which is 

 the largest and the most populous. It lies 

 against Arabia, and here the Red Sea begins, 

 and penetrates the land westward forty days' 

 journey.' On its shores are many cities, towns, 

 and villages. 



395 



