THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. E& 



ed Galvan, who had died upon the road, ambafTador to his 

 highnefs, he had fent with him prefents to the value of 

 1 00,000 ducats, confulting his own greatnefs, but not 

 confidering himfelf as under any obligation to fend any 

 prefents at all ; and as to the many fcandalous afperfions 

 that had been thrown upon him by mean people, which the 

 king had given credit to, and were made conitantly part of 

 his difcourfe, he wifhed his highnefs, from the perufal of 

 the letters which he had brought from the general of the 

 Indies, to learn, that the Portuguefe were not accuftomed to 

 ufe lying and dimmulation in their converfations, but to tell 

 the naked truth ; to whichhe the ambafTador had ftricHy con- 

 fined himfelf in every circumflance he had related to his 

 highnefs, if he pleafed to believe him ; if not, that he was 

 very welcome to do jull whatever he thought better in his 

 own eyes. Yet he would, once for all, have his highnefs to 

 know, that, though he came only as ambafTador from the 

 general of the Indies, he could, as fuch, have prefented him- 

 felf before the greatefl fovereign upon earth, without being 

 fubjected to hear fuch converfation as he had been daily 

 expofed to from his highnefs, which he, as a Portuguefe 

 nobleman and a foldier, though he had been no ambafTador 

 at all, was not any way difpofed to fufTer, and therefore he 

 clefired his immediate difmifiion." 



Upon this the king faid, " That the diftine'tion, he had 

 mewn him was fuch as he would never have met with 

 from any of his predecefTors, having brought no prefent of 

 any value." To which the ambafTador replied in great 

 warmth, "That he had received no diftinclion in this coun- 

 try whatever, but only injuries and wrongs ; that he mould 

 think he became a martyr if he died in this country where 



U 2 he 



