xxxYi APPENDIX IIL 
to those souls, we determined to return ; and to this determination we Were 
more particularly led by receiving a letter from our superior at Cairo, from 
which we learned that it was the wish of our most illustrious and most 
reverend Monsignor the Secretary of the Propaganda, that if we could not 
have the free exercise of our religion in that kingdom, and saw no hope of 
converting the King, his family, or more especially the monks, we should 
not remain from vain motives ; as that people (the Abyssinians) have been 
always esteemed inconstant and faithless. 
By this letter, then, being fully informed of the intentions and wishes of 
the Sacred Council, as obedient sons, we announced at once, in the name 
of the Lord, our intention of quitting the country ; when lo ! the Emperor 
issued an order to arrest by force the Father Antonio of Aleppo, for the 
purpose of setting him to write a Pentateuch in Arabic, As I neither chose 
nor was empowered to give my consent to this, I sent the said Father to 
the Emperor, to say that it would be neither just nor feasible that one 
should stay alone without a companion. To which the Emperor suddenly 
with anger and rage answered,/' I know that your Superior (for unworthy 
as I was I acted in this capacity) " wishes to take you with him ; but I 
will never consent to it ; nay, I swear that if he attempt to take you by 
force, 1 will send after him my servants, and cause hira to be arrested, 
together with his companion and you, and bring you back to me either with 
your wills or against your wills." In consequence of this I left Father An - 
tonio at Gondar, but under the condition and royal promise, that when his 
book should be written, he should be released, and sent in safety to Grand 
Cairo, where I believe him now happily arrived. 
I, thereupon, and my companion. Brother Martino de Bohemia, turned 
ourselves afresh to the passage of the steep mountains and impracticable 
woods of Ethiopia, suffering in this new and most laborious journey the 
severest inconveniences, dangers, and fatigue ; so that being in a manner 
stripped naked, and robbed of every thing most necessary to us, we became 
objects of pity and contempt even to Mahomedans. 
Having got to Messava, the Governor demanded thirty scudes (dollars j 
for leave to depart; but seeing and proving by examination our actual 
poverty and misery, he contented himself with fifteen. Hence we crossed 
the Red Sea and went to Mocha, where we found several French merchant 
