Narrative of the Portuguese Embassy to Abyssinia

In April 1520, a Portuguese fleet anchors off Massawa on the Red Sea, and its captain has Mass said in the great mosque of the island. From there a small embassy climbs into the mountains to reach the court of Prester John, the Christian king whom Europe has sought for centuries.

Its chaplain, Francisco Álvares, keeps the record of six years spent in Ethiopia. He sees Matheus, the embassy's guide, die, shares the bread of the monks of Bisan, watches the sky blacken with locusts, treads the ground of the Queen of Sheba at Axum and descends into the churches that King Lalibela had cut from the rock. He skirts the mountain where the sovereign's sons are held captive.

In Shewa another adventure begins: a court that lives under tents and breaks camp without end, night audiences where the young negus speaks through messengers behind a curtain, and endless questions about Rome, the saints and the Mass. Álvares celebrates Christmas before him, witnesses the great baptism of Epiphany and gathers the story of Pêro da Covilhã, a Portuguese held in the country for decades.

Then come the waiting, the intrigues, the disgraces. Will the travellers ever see Lisbon again?

Printed in Lisbon in 1540, this book remains the first great European testimony on Christian Ethiopia.