• Book Beginning
  • Acknowledgments
  • Sources & Bibliography
  • Mary Ames Mitchell

Overland Route East to Abyssinia

While King João II waited for Diogo Cão to return from his sea venture, he enacted a backup plan for redirecting trade from the Indies and the Spice Islands away from the Muslims. Following Marco Polo’s geographic information, João sent a party of emissaries to investigate whether or not a route could be found to the Spice Islands through Prester John’s Abyssinia [Ethiopia].

The emissaries were instructed to sail east through the Mediterranean to Jerusalem, then travel by land through Egypt to the Red Sea, then take a boat through the Red Sea to the port of Zerla in Abyssinia.

But the emissaries got no farther than Jerusalem. They could not enter Egypt because none of them spoke Arabic. When word got back to João II, he recruited a former-Muslim, Arabic-speaking Negro who had been converted to Christianity. That man’s name was Bemoim. Bemoim was famous for his oratory skills and powers of persuasion. He planned to serve as a guide and interpreter for the emissaries as they journeyed along the fertile valleys of the Niger River. There were rumors that a Christian king was giving out small Christian crosses to the people there. Bemoim promised to convert all Muslims along the way to his new faith. His departure from Lisbon caused a big celebration. But as he sailed to Africa on the Portuguese ship, he got in a brawl and was killed.

The emissaries in Jerusalem returned to Portugal. They had not reached Abyssinia or Prester John, but they did obtain some crucial information about Christians living in Ethiopia and the geography of East Africa. This information would suffice to cause King João II to send another expedition via the Mediterranean a few years later.

Meanwhile, a sea captain and cartographer from Genoa named Cristóal Colón [Christopher Columbus], who claimed he was Portuguese because he had married a Portuguese woman, wanted an audience with King João II.

Next Article: Christopher Columbus

Contents

Welcome
Notes on Discussing Time
Knowledge Ancient World
Technology Migrates West
The Romans and Latin
Iberia, Brittania, Fall of Rome
Judaism
Christianity
600s The Rise of Islam
800s Christian Europe
County of Portugal

980s The Vikings
1000s Fight for Jerusalem
1143 Portugal’s Independence
1147 Second Crusade
1154 Al-Idrisi’s World Map
1170 Prince Madog of Wales
1187 Third to Fifth Crusades
1200s Mongolian Empire
The Silk Road
Herbs and Spices
Legend of Prester John
1271 Marco Polo
Volta do Mar
Mythical Atlantic Islands
Real Atlantic Islands
Ancient Texts Resurface
Through the Pillars of Hercules
Rise of Portuguese
The Order of Christ
Pedro and Inês
Black Death
1303 Knights Templar in America
14th Century Maps
Rihlas & Travelogues

Portugal, Castile, or England
The House of Avis
1400s Henry the Navigator
Age of Discovery Begins
Henry’s Navigation Center
Chinese Treasure Fleets
Royal Distractions
Cape Bojador
The Caravel
Tools for Navigation
The Astrolabe
1440s Beginning of Slave Trade
Western Land Sightings
1450 Fra Mauro Mappa Mundi
Claiming the Azores
Constantinople
Dinheiro – Portuguese Money
The Guinea Trade
Crossing the Equator
Polo & Toscanelli
Treaty of Alcáçovas-Toledo
The Carrack
Diogo Cão Reaches the Congo
The Rule of the Sun
Overland to Abyssinia
Christopher Columbus
Columbus’ Calculations
1480 Alonso Sanchez of Huelva

c1485 Columbus Leaves Portugal
1486 Pushing West from Azores
1487-88 Bartolomeu Dias
Portuguese Reach Calicut
1487 Columbus in Spain
Conquest of Granada
Columbus’ New Proposal
1492 Columbus’ 1st Voyage
Treaty of Tordesillas
1493 Columbus’ 2nd Voyage
Calculating Longitude
1495 King Manoel I
John Cabot
Nuremberg Connection
Cabot in England
1497-98
Cabot’s 1st & 2nd Voyages

1497-98 Vasco da Gama
Cabot’s Return
1498 Cabot’s 3rd Voyage
1498 Columbus’ 3rd Voyage
1499 William Weston
1499 The Corte-Reals
1500 Fernão Alvares Cabral
1502 Columbus’ 4th Voyage
Maps After Columbus
Loose Ends
Mysterious Dighton Rock

We invite your feedback. If you have any comments, suggestions, or corrections, please email them to Mary.
Please tell me to which page you are referring. Thanks.

©2015 Mary Ames Mitchell. All rights reserved.
Book Beginning | Acknowledgments | Sources & Bibliography | Mary Ames Mitchell

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