8vo. xxxvi, 417 pp., frontis. 9 plates hors text, 4 maps, cloth in slightly rubbed d/w, index, edited by M. G. Da Costa, introduction & notes by C. F. Beckingham, copy inside clean & in very good condition, The Hakluyt Society, second series, No. 162. London, 1984.

Synopsis

Jeronimo Lobo was the last survivor of the small band of Jesuit Father who tried, with a measure of success, to reconcile Ethiopia to the Church of Rome. His life was long and adventurous. Chosen to serve in India when still a novice, he was ordained with extreme haste and embarked on a ship which was force to turn back in the Gulf of Guinea. He reached India in the next year after being involved in a naval fight against the Dutch and English off Mozambique. He was selected for the Ethiopian mission and made a remarkable attempt to reach the country from the Somali coast. After his unsurprising failure in this he returned to India and eventually made his way to Bailul in the Red Sea and across the Danakil desert. He spent nine years in Ethiopia, part of the time in the neighbourhood of the source of the Blue Nile.