64 
TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA. 
to ; that the cross is a mere badge of their profes- 
sion, and possesses no virtue in itself ; that, though 
St Peter was the chief of the apostles, his succes- 
sors at Rome enjoy no authority over the rest of 
the church ; that the apostles and martyrs are to 
be reverenced along with the angels, but not 
to be prayed to, nor their merits imputed to us ; 
and that priests may be lawfully married, provided 
it be to one wife only. From these specimens, we 
may judge how far the religion of Abyssinia would 
have been improved by the introduction of the 
Catholic faith. 
In 1698, the emperor of Abyssinia being ex- 
tremely indisposed, sent a message, accompanied 
with liberal promises, to Poncet, an eminent phy- 
sician at Cairo, requesting that he would come and 
afford him the benefit of his medical advice. Poncet 
accepted the invitation ; and the opportunity being 
judged favourable for making a new attempt to es- 
tablish the Catholic religion, Xavier de Brevedent, 
a Jesuit missionary, went along with him. On the 
2d October, they set out from Siout with the Sen- 
naar caravan. Poncet felt an extraordinary emo- 
tion at entering this desert of moving sand, where 
the slightest breeze raised a cloud that darkened 
the air. The danger is here imminent, of separat- 
ing even for the smallest space from the rest of the 
caravan, as in this case it is scarcely possible ever 
to rejoin it, or to avoid being lost in these immense 
