26 
TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA. 
the same strange and odious light throughout 
Abyssinia, that Jews are among Europeans. 
Our author, in this administration, does not ap- 
pear to have borne his faculties very meekly. He 
mentions, as a specimen, that one of the Abyssi- 
nian captains having displeased him, he caused 
him to be seized, tied hand and foot, and buffet- 
ed ; then making some discharges of musquetry 
over his head, the Portuguese amused themselves 
with the paroxysms of terror into which he was 
thrown. This entertainment being found agree- 
able, they betook themselves to firing a number of 
pieces at random among the multitude, who fled 
with all the terror and precipitation that could be 
wished ; but, by mischance, two of them were shot 
dead. These amusements of the patriarch do 
not seem to have been approved by the Abyssi- 
nian monarch ; as, soon after, we find him order- 
ing Bermudez to be exposed on the top of a pre- 
cipitous mountain, from which, however, he was 
rescued by the bravery of his countrymen. A sort 
of compromise then took place ; Bermudez, though 
stripped of all power, was allowed an ample portion 
of lands for his subsistence, and to remain patri- 
arch of the Portuguese, while another held that 
office in regard to the Abyssinians. 
Bermudez spent also some time in the provinces 
of Bali and Doaro, (Dawaro,) bordering on Zeila, 
though he does not give any particular description 
1 
