TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA, 
fices in the kingdom, and was now arrived at the 
mature age of eighty-six. The embassy was sent 
with the India fleet, which, under the command 
of Lopez Suarez, sailed directly for the Red Sea. 
It touched first at the island of Camaran, where 
^Galvan, who was evidently at too advanced an 
age for such an expedition, fell a sacrifice to the 
climate. Here also Suarez loitered through the 
winter, without any attempt to fulfil the object of 
his mission. He was succeeded, however, in the 
spring by Lopez de Sequeira, w^ho sailed direct 
for Massuah, where he arrived on the l6th April 
16^0. He there landed the embassy, at the head 
/ of which was Rodriguez de Lima, accompanied, 
among others, by Francisco Alvarez, who acted 
as secretary, and who afterwards wrote a narra- 
tive of the incidents and observations w^hich oc- 
curred during a residence of six years in Abyssi- 
nia.* His work deserves notice, as containing 
the first detailed narrative of travels in that coun- 
try, and as he visited the southern provinces of 
Amhara, Shoa, and Angot, which have not been 
reached by recent travellers. The embassy was 
well received by the inhabitants of Massuah, and 
* Published m'iginally in Portuguese, Lisbon, 1540. There 
is a Spanish translation, Antwerp, 1557 ; an Italian translation 
in Ramusio, and an English one in Purchas ; also a French ^ 
translation, 1558. 
