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481 
universally lamented bj the Abjssinians, as well as by his own 
countrymen ; his death proving an irreparable loss to the cause 
which he had supported.* In December, 1623, Father Emanuel 
D' Almeyda and some other priests reached Massowa, and travelled 
up by way of Adegada, where they were met by a company of 
six hundred armed men, and thence they proceeded across the 
plain of Serawe and partly along the course of the Mareb until 
they arrived at Fremona. A very interesting account of this 
journey is to be met with in a work subsequently compiled by 
Father Almeyda, of which there at present remains only an 
abridgment by Tellez.| Father Almeyda continued ten years in 
the country, during which period he seems to have been employed 
chiefly in collecting materials for his history. 
The next and last patriarch sent into Abyssinia was Don 
Alfonzo Mendezj$ who arrived in 1625, a man of singular courage 
* Peter Paez left behind him an ample account of the affairs of Ethiopia, a MS, of 
which is said to exist at Rome in the secretaries office of the crown of Portugal, reaching 
from 1555 to 1622. P. Bal. Tellez has made great use of it in his celebrated work, and 
some valuable extracts from it are to be found in the CEdipus -^gypt. by Kircher, giving 
an exact description of the sources of the Nile, which he visited in 1618. 
f Vide Historia Geral de Ethiopia a alta ou Preste Joam edo que nella obraram os 
padres da companhia de Jesus composta na mesma Ethiopia pelo padre Manoel D'Almeyda, 
&c. Abbreviada com nova releu§am e methodo pelo padre Balthazar Tellez, &c, ^ 
Coimbra, 1660j to be found in the British Museum. A translation or rather abridgment 
of this was published in English under the title of " The Travels of the Jesuits in 
Ethiopia," in " A new Collection of Voyages and Travels," Vol. IE. London, by Knapton, 
&c. 1711. An extract from this book was also published by Thevenot under the title of 
Histoire de la haute Ethiopie ^crlte sur les lieux, par le R. P. Manoel D'Almeida, Jesuite, 
The abridgment of Tellez above mentioned is undoubtedly the mo&t valuable work now 
existing on Abyssinian affairs, and there are said to be only three copies of it in England. 
X He also published an account of Abyssinia, the only copy of which, that I have seen,, 
is a French translation entitled Relation du Reverendissime Fatriarche D'Ethiopie 
l>om Alphonze Mendez touchant la conversion des ames qui s'est faite en cet empire 
