482 
MOCHA. 
and undaunted perseverance, but whose disposition appears not to 
have been very well adapted for conciliatory measures, which ap- 
pear at that time to have been peculiarly called for to insure the 
adherence of the Abyssinians to the new established faith. In 
1628, the Catholic influence was considered at its highest pitch, no 
less than nineteen priests of the society of the Jesuits having fixed 
their residence in the country. Their power, however, was of 
short duration, for the injudicious conduct of the patriarch, and 
the intemperate zeal of their great patron. Has Sela Christos, 
brought on a rebellious commotion in the country, which soon 
destroyed all their projects. The Emperor Socinius was himself 
compelled to abjure the Roman Catholic doctrines, and his son, 
who shortly afterwards succeeded to the crown, in 1632 expelled 
the patriarch and his whole iiock from the country ; two only, 
who were daring enough to stay behind, having been publicly 
executed in 1640.* 
The whole period of this persevering attempt to convert the 
Abyssinians to the Roman Catholic faith may be considered as 
having occupied a space of one hundred and fourteen years,t 
depuis I'ann^e 1629. Envoy6 au Pere Viteleschi, &c. Tradiiite du Portugais, p. B. Cordose 
Med. A Lille, 1633. (British Museum.) Ludolf in his Commentaries erroneously 
V^marks, verum ista historia lucem non vidit," which proves, at least, the scarcity of 
the work. Jerome Lobo, whose work is well known, attended in the suite of this|. 
patriarch. The translations qf his work by Le Grand and Johnson have been before 
referred to; the original is not known to he extant. 
* An English ship visited Suakin in 1648, where three of the fathers of the Minor! 
Reformati di S. Francesco, sent by the Propaganda, attempting to" penetrate into the 
country, had been executed j and three more were discovered in Abyssinia in 1674, who 
had conve rted Oustas, styled the Usurper, who were all put to death. 
t Oi the letters written during the above period, which have been separately published, 
I have met with the following only : 
1st. Nuove e curiose lettere del ^Ethiopia annualmente al Rev. P. N, Viteleschi, &c. d^ 
