484 
MOCHA 
time of Yasous* the Second, where they rose into great favour 
with that Emperor, as well as with the Queen-mother or Iteghe,t 
and many of the principal noblemen about the court. The ac- 
count of this mission is contained in the MS. of an Italian journal, 
now in the possession of Lord Valentia. On first meeting with 
this narrative, I was led to doubt of its authenticity from not 
having seen any notice of such a mission either in Mr. Bruce's 
travels or elsewhere, but I have subsequently ascertained several 
circumstances which seem to place its credit beyond dispute ; 
these consist of the correct mention of the names which the two 
Emperors, BacufFa and Yasous, assumed on their coming to the 
crown, the notice of the Queen-mother, and other trifling facts, 
which could not easily have been fabricated, and, lastly, of an 
observation in Mr. Bruce's original memoranda, Appendix 
Vol. VII. p. 65, which proves that his great friend Ayto Aylo 
had actually been won over to the Roman faith by one of these 
very monks ; it being there incidentally noticed that he (Ayto 
Aylo) had been converted hy Father Antonio, a Franciscan, in 
1550.*'J This observation, which, for evident reasons, had been 
kept back in the original travels, affords so convincing a proof 
* The Emperor Yasous reigned from 29 to 53, as is rightly stated in Mr. Bruce, 
Vol. IV. Mr. Murray's has, by mistake, fixed his death to 6'th June, 1745, which 
is incorrect. 
t This was the Itegh^ Welleta Georgis, who afterwards proved herself so great a 
friend to Mr. Bruce during his stay in the country. Bruce himself notices in Vol. IV. 
p. 101, " that she hada warm attachment to the Catholic religion in her hefirt and there 
appears to be a confused account of the disturbance occasioned by the arrival of these 
priests in Vol. IV. p. 111-117, where the event is evidently misdated. 
X The mistake of one year in the date, as Mr. Bruce received his information from oral 
testimony, cannot in any degree invalidate the fact. It may be noticed as a farther con- 
