ourselves with other vessels, we set out for Cochim, and landed
there after a very hazardous and difficult passage, made so partly
by the currents and storms which separated us from each other, and
partly by continual apprehensions of the English and Dutch, who were
cruising for us in the Indian seas. Here the viceroy and his
company were received with so much ceremony, as was rather
troublesome than pleasing to us who were fatigued with the labours
of the passage; and having stayed here some time, that the gentlemen
who attended the viceroy to Goa might fit out their vessels, we set
sail, and after having been detained some time at sea, by calms and
contrary winds, and somewhat harassed by the English and Dutch, who
were now increased to eleven ships of war, arrived at Goa, on
Saturday, the 16th of December, and the viceroy made his entry with
great magnificence.

I lived here about a year, and completed my studies in divinity; in
which time some letters were received from the fathers in Aethiopia,
with an account that Sultan Segued, Emperor of Abyssinia, was
converted to the Church of Rome, that many of his subjects had
followed his example, and that there was a great want of
missionaries to improve these prosperous beginnings. Everybody was
very desirous of seconding the zeal of our fathers, and of sending
them the assistance they requested; to which we were the more
encouraged, because the emperor's letters informed our provincial
that we might easily enter his dominions by the way of Dancala, but
unhappily, the secretary wrote Zeila for Dancala, which cost two of
our fathers their lives.

We were, however, notwithstanding the assurances given us by the
emperor, sufficiently apprised of the danger which we were exposed