prince had formerly alleged that one of his reasons for not becoming a
Christian was the fear of disgusting his followers; but, being in
Portugal, that reason no longer held good, and he became a convert, being
baptized as Don John Bemoin, having King John for a godfather. Twenty-four
of Bemoin's gentlemen received baptism after him. This is the account of
his reception. "Bemoin, because he was a man of large size and fine
presence, about forty years old, with a long and well-arranged beard,
appeared indeed not like a barbarous pagan, but as one of our own princes,
to whom all honour and reverence were due. With equal majesty and gravity
of demeanour he commenced and finished his oration, using such inducements
to make men bewail his sad fortune in exile, that only seeing these
natural signs of sorrow, people comprehended what the interpreter
afterwards said. Having finished the statement of his case as a good
orator would, in declaring that his only remedy and only hope was in the
greatness and generosity of the king, with whom he spoke aside for a short
time, he was answered by the king in few words, so much to his
satisfaction that immediately it made a change in his whole look, spirits,
and bearing, rendering him most joyous. Taking leave of the king, he went
to kiss the queen's hand, and then that of the prince, to whom he said a
few words, at the end of which he prayed the prince that he would
intercede in his favour with the king. And thence he was conducted to his
lodgings by all the nobility that had accompanied him."

After this, Bemoin had many conversations with the king, and always
acquitted himself well. Amongst other things, he gave information
respecting various African nations, and especially of the king of a Jewish
people, who in many things resembled Christians. Here again the Portuguese
monarch was delighted at finding himself upon the traces of Prester John.