DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. 11? 
readily obtained the sanction of the Holy See, and 
was allowed to take with him Jerome Merolla 
of Sorrento, a person animated with similar zeal. 
After a residence of several years, Merolla return- 
ed to Europe, and published a narrative of his ad- 
ventures and observations. # He is very far from 
being an enlightened traveller ; in credulity and 
superstition, indeed, he is equal to any of his pre- 
decessors. His narrative, however, contains some 
information, and presents curious pictures of the 
manners, and, above all, of the superstitions which 
prevail in this part of Africa. 
Merolla, after touching at Brazil, and at the 
Cape of Good Hope, arrived at the mouth of the 
Zaire. Here the vessel encountered so violent a 
swell, as placed the missionary in extreme dread of 
falling a sacrifice to the watery element. Some 
fishermen indeed were seen on the shore, ap- 
parently ready to assist, and only waiting to be 
called upon. The missionary, however, suspect- 
ing that these were pagans, who by their sorceries 
might increase the fury of the tempest, shunned all 
aid from such a quarter. After infinite difficulty, 
he at length found himself in the channel of the 
river, when " his soul soon began to revive.'' The 
stream resembled a crystal causeway, and the 
shore on both sides seemed to be strewed with 
* Originally published in Italian. A translation follow/3 
that of Carli in Churchill and Pinkerton. 
