68 DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. 
which the country afforded. He then stated that 
liis instructions were to conduct them immediately 
to the king ; but petitioned that he himself should 
be immediately baptized, as being at an age so ad- 
vanced, that he might otherwise not survive to 
have the ceremony performed. A large house 
was therefore formed, and branches of trees cut 
by the prince's servants ; and three altars with 
rich ornaments were erected. The sons of Mani 
Sono, arid the whole train of attendants, expressed 
an earnest wish to have the same ceremony per- 
formed upon them ; but he represented that this 
was a task which the king wished to reserve to him- 
self ; and that, unless in his own particular instance, 
such a wish ought to be implicitly obeyed. After 
the ceremony, this monarch, says the historian, 
was so deeply impressed with the instructions of 
the Portuguese, and fired with so holy a zeal, 
that, hearing a noise made by some of his people 
at the door of the church, he ordered them to be 
immediately put to death. The missionaries, how- 
ever, very prudently interposed in their behalf, on 
account, as they state, of the scandal which might 
have arisen in consequence of so furious a zeaL 
Meantime, the mission which had been sent to 
the king to announce their arrival, returned with 
an invitation to repair to Ambassi, the city at 
which that monarch resided. The party set out, 
accompanied by upwards of two hundred ne- 
