76 
DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. 
to be worn on the neck, similar to those used by 
the commanders of the order of St John. With- 
out these ensigns, the people did not conceive they 
had a rightful king, or one that was properly a 
king at all. During the whole stay of the ambas* 
sador, the Ogane himself was kept up as a holy 
thing, and was never seen by any one, having con- 
stantly a silk curtain drawn before him ;^-only, at 
the time the ambassador took leave, a foot appear- 
ed from behind the curtain, " to which foot they 
did homage as to a holy thing." The ambassa- 
dor was then presented with a small cross, similar 
to that which was sent for the use of the king. On 
receiving these details, the Portuguese monarch 
sent for all his cosmographers, who having spread 
cut before them the map of Ptolemy, calculated 
that the reported distance ought to reach across the 
continent to the dominions of Prester John, and 
that this Ogane must consequently be Prester John.* 
This, however, did not lead to any new expedi- 
tion of discovery into the interior, but only im- 
pelled the king to press the voyage by the Cape of 
Good Hope, which boundary of Africa had al- 
* Major Rennell conceives the Ogane to be the sovereign 
of Gana, at one time the chief Mahometan state on the Ni- 
ger. A late learned writer rather supposes him to be the 
Emperor of Abyssinia ; an opinion supported by pretty strong . 
probabilities ; though the distance seems rather too great. 
