THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 409 



the true faith ; and in this expectation they were not long 

 difappointed, all thofe who were left in Abyflinia having 

 loft their lives by violent deaths, moil of them on a gibbet, 

 by order of Facilidas, the laft of whom was Bernard No- 

 geyra. 



Facilidas, weary of the obftinacy of thefe miffionaries, 

 uneafy alfo at the fufpicions they created, that a number of 

 Portuguefe troops would be poured in upon his country by 

 the viceroy of India, concluded a treaty with the bafhas of 

 Mafuah and Suakem, for preventing any Portuguefe palling 

 into Abyffinia, by fhutting thefe ports againft them. Not 

 above eight years before, that is, in the year 1624, Soci- 

 nios had fent a zebra, and feveral other curious articles, as 

 prefents to the bafha of Suakem, with a requeft to him 

 not to obftrucl, as the Turks had ufed to do, the entrance of 

 any Portuguefe into his dominions. But thofe times were 

 now.fo changed, that both nations, Turks and Abyffinians, 

 had refolved, with one confent, to exclude them all, for 

 their mutual fafety, peace, and advantage. 



This treaty with the Turks, made by Facilidas, probably 

 gave rife to that calumny of the Jefuits, that, for fear of a 

 return of the Portuguefe, that prince had embraced the Ma- 

 hometan religion, and fent for preceptors from Mocha to 

 inftruct him in their tenets. This, I fay, if not founded up- 

 on the treaty I mention, was deftitute of the leaft Ihadow of 

 truth ; but, like other calumnies then propagated in great 

 number, arofe folely from the rage, malice, and heated ima- 

 ginations of defperate fanatics. 



Vol. II. 3 F Amidst 



