6 
TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA. 
kingdom, and was now arrived at the mature age 
of eighty-six. The embassy was sent with the In- 
dia fleet, which, under the command of Lopez 
Suarez, sailed directly for the Red Sea. It touch- 
ed first at the island of Camaran, where Galvan, 
who was evidently at too advanced an age for such 
an expedition, fell a sacrifice to the climate. Here 
also Suarez loitered through the winter, without 
any attempt to fulfil the object of his mission. 
He was succeeded, however, in the spring by 
Lopez de Sequeira, who sailed direct for Massuah, 
where he arrived on the 16th April 1620, He 
there landed the embassy, at the head of which 
was Rodriguez de Lima, accompanied, among 
others, by Francisco Alvarez, who acted as se- 
cretary, and who afterwards wrote a narrative 
of the incidents and observations which occur- 
red during a residence of six years in Abys- 
sinia.* His work deserves notice, as containing 
the first detailed narrative of travels in that coun- 
try, and as he visited the southern provinces of 
Amhara, Shoa, and Angot, which have not been 
reached by recent travellers. The embassy was 
well received by the inhabitants of Massuah, and 
* Published originally in Portuguese, Lisbon, 1540. There 
is a Spanish translation, Antwerp, 1557 ; an Italian transla- 
tion in Ramusio, and an English one in Purchas ; also 
French translation, 155S. 
