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See also: Covilha in See also: Beira
.
In early See also: life he had gone to See also: Castile and entered the service of See also: Alphonso, duke of Seville; later, when war broke out between Castile and See also: Portugal, he returned to his own country, and attached himself, first as a " See also: groom," then as a " See also: squire," to See also: King Alphonso V. and his successor
See also: John II
.
On the 7th of May 1487, he was despatched, in
See also: company with Alphonso de Payva, on a See also: mission of exploration in the See also: Levant and adjoining regions of See also: Asia and See also: Africa, with the See also: special See also: object of learning where " See also: cinnamon and other spices could be found," as well as of discovering the See also: land of Prester John, by " overland " routes
.
Bartholomeu Diaz, at this very See also: time, went out to find the Prester's country, as well as the termination of the See also: African continent and the ocean route to See also: India, by See also: sea
.
See also: Covilham and Payva were provided with a " letter of See also: credence for all the countries of the See also: world" and with a " map for navigating, taken from the map of the world" and compiled by See also: Bishop Calcadilha, and doctors Rodrigo and Moyses
.
The first two of these were prominent members of the commission which advised the Portuguese See also: government to reject the proposals, of See also: Columbus, The explorers started from See also: Santarem and travelled by See also: Barcelona to Naples, where their bills of See also: exchange were paid by the sons of Cosimo de' See also: Medici; thence they passed to Rhodes, where they lodged with two other Portuguese, and so to Alexandria and Cairo, where they posed as merchants
.
In company with certain Moors from See also: Fez and See also: Tlemcen they now went by way of Tor to See also: Suakin and See also: Aden, where (as it was now monsoon time) they parted, Covilham proceeding to India and Payva to Ethiopia—the two companions agreeing to meet again in Cairo
.
Covilham thus arrived at See also: Cannanore and See also: Calicut, whence he retraced his course to See also: Goa and Ormuz, the Red Sea and Cairo, making an excursion on his way down the See also: East African See also: coast to See also: Sofala, which he was probably the first See also: European to visit
.
At Cairo he heard of Payva's See also: death, and met with two Portuguese Jews—Rabbi Abraham of Beja, and See also: Joseph, a shoe-maker of Lamegowho had been sent by King John with letters for Covilham and Payva
.
By Joseph of See also: Lamego Covilham replied with an account of his See also: Indian and African journeys, and of his observations on the cinnamon, See also: pepper and clove See also: trade at Calicut, together with advice as to the ocean way to India
.
This he truly represented as quite practicable: " to this they (of Portugal) could navigate by their coast and the seas of See also: Guinea." The first See also: objective in the easterly ocean, he added, was Sofala or the
See also: Island of the See also: Moon, our Madagascar—" from each of these lands one can fetch the coast of Calicut." With this information Joseph returned to Portugal, while Covilham, with Abraham of Beja, again visited Aden and Ormuz
.
At the latter he See also: left the See also: rabbi; and himself came back to Jidda, the See also: port of the Arabian See also: holy land, and penetrated (as he told See also: Alvarez many years later) even to See also: Mecca and See also: Medina
.
Finally, by See also: Mount See also: Sinai, Tor and the Red Sea, he reached Zeila, whence he struck inland to the See also: court of Prester John (i.e
.
See also: Abyssinia)
.
Here he was honourably received; lands and lordships were bestowed upon him; but he was not permitted to leave
.
When the Portuguese See also: embassy under Rodrigo de See also: Lima, including See also: Father Francisco Alvarez, entered Abyssinia in 1520, Covilham wept with joy at the sight of his See also: fellow-countrymen
.
It was then See also: forty years since he had left Portugal, and over See also: thirty since he had been a prisoner of See also: state in " Ethiopia." Alvarez, who professed to know him well, and to have heard the See also: story of his life, both " in confession and out of it," praises his power of vivid description " as if things were See also: present before him," and his extraordinary knowledge of " all spoken See also: languages of Christians, Moors and Gentiles." His services as an interpreter were valuable to Rodrigo de Lima's
embassy; but he never succeeded in escaping from Abyssinia
.
See Francisco Alvarez, Verdadera Informacam das terras do Preste Joam, esp. chs
.
73, 89, 98, 102-103, 105 (pp
.
177, 224, 254, 264, 265-270, 275, of the See also: Hakluyt Society's See also: English edition, The Portuguese Embassy to Abyssinia
.
.
.
1520-1727, See also: London, 1881); an abstract of this, with some inaccuracies, is given in Major's See also: Prince See also: Henry the Navigator (London, 1868), pp
.
339-340
.
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