134 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
long ago, Mr Ludolf had fhewn, from the teftimony of Gre- 
gory the Abyflinian, that there was no fuch place im Abyf- 
finiaas Tigre Mahon. That there was, indeed, a large pro- 
vince called Tigre, of which Axum was the capital; and 
Le Grande, the firft publifher of Jerome Lobo, has repeatedly 
faid the fame. And Ludolf has given a very probable con- 
jecture, that the firft Portuguefe, ignorant of the Abyfii- 
nian language, heard the officer commanding that province 
called Tigré Mocuonen, which is governor of Tigré, and 
had miftaken the name of his office for that of his province. 
Be that as it will, the reader may reft affured there is no 
fuch kingdom, province, or town in all Abyfiinia. 
‘Tuere ftill remains, however, a difficulty much greater 
than this, and an error much more difficult to be corrected. 
Lobo is faid to have failed from the peninfula of India, and, 
being bound for Zeyla, to have embarked in a veflel going 
to Caxume, or Axum, capital of Tigre, and to have arrived 
therefafely,and been well accommodated. Now Zeyla,he fays, 
is a city in the kingdom of Adel, at the mouth of the Red 
Sea *; and Axum, being two hundred miles inland, in the 
middle of the kingdom of Tigré,a fhip going to Axum mutt 
have pafled Zeyla 300 miles, or been 300 miles to the weft- 
ward of it. Zeylais not a city, as is faid, but an ifland. Itis 
not in the kingdom of Adel, but in the bay of Tajoura, oppo- 
fite to a kingdom of that name ; but the ifland itfelf belongs 
to the Imam of Sana, fovereign of Arabia Felix ; fo that it is 
inexplicable, how a fhip going to Zeyla fhould choofe to 
land 300 miles beyond it; and {till more fo, how, being once 
arrived 
