TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA. 
vailed upon him to nominate, as his successor, John 
Bermudez, a Romish priest, then resident in that 
country. Bermudez accepted it, subject to the 
approbation of the Pope, which was easily obtained. 
The secret motive of the honour thus lavished up- 
on Bermudez is not long of appearing. The king, 
who was hard pressed in war with Zeila, made an 
anxious application to obtain aid from the Portu- 
guese, with whose military superiority he had be- 
come acquainted. Bermudez himself set out for 
Goa, to second this application by all the powers 
of his eloquence. The viceroy, Don Stephen de 
Gama, shewed little disposition to embark in the 
enterprise, and expressed a doubt, if the hundred 
thousand crowns which would be necessary to ex- 
pend on it, would ever be recovered. Bermudez 
hereupon assured him, that this was a mere trifle 
compared to the wealth of Prester John, in whose 
inexhaustible treasury the expenditure of a mil- 
lion would effect no perceptible diminution. This 
hyperbolical estimate produced an entire revolution 
in the mind of the governor; he, without delay, 
fitted out an expedition, and even resolved to com- 
mand it in person. On arriving at Massuah, how- 
ever, he placed the military force under the com- 
mand of his brother Christopher, and returned 
himself to India. Christopher rendered signal ser- 
vices to the king in his wars with Adel ; and 
though he himself, in an unsuccessful battle, was 
taken and beheaded, his troops continued to 
