XXX 
APPENDIX in. 
tians from undertaking this voyage, except in the month of August, along 
with the Turkish caravan, (composed of more than 100,000 souls,) without 
the protection of which they would certainly lose their lives and property. 
Having passed this dangerous desert on the first of September, we 
entered into the city of Suez, the first port in the Red Sea, where, through 
the recommendation of some Catholic merchants at Cairo, we procured a 
passage on the tenth, having to pay for this first embarkation 70 zequins, 
notwithstanding which we were confined in a place so miserably small, 
that we had scarcely room to lift up our heads. In this way we commenced 
our voyage, passed a lake named Pharovm" on the 14th, and on the 17th 
paid our salutation at a distance to Mount Sinai ; during which time our 
only food was biscuit, and our beverage stinking water full of vermin, for 
which, nauseous and disagreeable as it was, we were obliged to pay eight 
raedines, or baiocchi for a small cupful. 
On the 4th of October we arrived at Jidda, where if we had not been 
warmly recommended by our Greek Catholics to a noble Turkish merchant, 
we should have sustained the most grievous hardships from the Greek schis- 
matics, who by some means or other having discovered our object in 
Ethiopia, excited against us a great deal of murmuring among the Turks, 
having determined, at all hazards; to put a stop to the long journey we had 
undertaken. But that which the hardened malice of false Christians en- 
deavoured to prevent, the divine providence brought about by means of the 
Turks themselves; so that after a short persecution, when we humbly asked 
the Vizier license to proceed to the Island of Lohaia, he, to our great 
delight, not only gave his consent to our departure, but even accompa- 
nied it with a recommendation to the chief commanding that island, 
where we happily arrived on the 2d of November. Here we staid ten days, 
waiting for a passage to Massowa, where finally, after many travails and 
hardships, we got into port on the feast of St. Andrew's day. 
Being desirous of permission from the Emperor of Ethiopia to land, 
without which the Governor of the Island would permit no Christian to enter 
that kingdom, we sent our humble petition, by two expresses, to court, 
and after eighty days journey, they returned with a gracious letter from 
the Emperor, accompanied moreover by two of his oflacers, thirty servants, 
and sixteen mules, to carry our baggage to the royal city of Gondar. 
