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Updated: May 19, 2025
In February 1520, Diego Lopez de Sequeira, governor of India, sailed by the strait of Mecca , carrying with him the ambassador of Prester John and Roderigo de Lima, who was sent ambassador to that prince. They came to the island of Maçua or Massoua, on the African shore of the Red Sea, in lat. 17° N. where the ambassadors and their Portuguese attendants were set on shore.
Being protected by so powerful an escort, Temujin's party were not molested on their journey, and they all arrived safely at the court of Vang Khan. Karakatay. Vang Khan's dominions. The cruel fate of Mergus. His wife's stratagem. Nawr. He falls into the snare. Armed men in ambuscade. Death of Nawr. Credibility of these tales. Early life of Vang Khan. Reception of Temujin. Prester John.
The coast Indians were understood to say that among the mountains dwelt a chief whom they called a saint, who wore a flowing robe of white and never spoke aloud, ordering his subjects by signs. This was surely Prester John, the shadowy king of a shadowy kingdom, of whom much was said and written a few centuries ago.
Fray Ignatio was ready oh, ready! His liquid dark eyes had an unearthly look. Gifts were being sorted out. There were aboard rich things, valued in any land of ours, for gifts to the Grand Khan and his ministers, or the Emperor of Cipango and his. For Queens and Empresses and Ladies also. And there was a wondrous missal for Prester John did we find him!
For a time he was baffled in his attempt to round the Cape by the strong south-easterly winds, which blow there continually during the summer season; but at last he commenced coasting along the eastern shores of Africa, and at every suitable spot he landed some of his sailors to make inquiries about Covilham and the court of Prester John.
Of the Prester John of India we have reports furnished by William Ruysbrook, commonly called Rubruquis, a Franciscan friar sent by Louis IX, about the middle of the thirteenth century, to convert the Grand Khan. According to him, Prester John was originally a Nestorian priest, who on the death of the sovereign made himself king of the Naymans, all Nestorian Christians.
They are, moreover, informed that he and his subjects very much wish to hear news from Spain, and send therefore their Admiral, Christopher Columbus, who will tell them that they are in good health and perfect prosperity." Prester John, who was still considered to be ruling in some mystical fashion over an imaginary country, might have welcomed this species of circular communication.
He went through Turkey, Persia, and from thence to Carthage; he next went into the country of Prester John, who rides upon a white elephant, and has kings to wait on him.
Lesser Africa, in which stood the noble city of Carthage, has Numidia on the west and Cyrenaica on the east. On the east side of Africa, to the west of the Red Sea, are the dominions of the great and mighty Christian king or emperor Prester John, well known to the Portuguese in their voyages to Calicut.
An early account, communicated probably by travelling merchants, of a Lama or spiritual chief among the Tartars, seems to have occasioned in Europe the report of a Presbyter or Prester John, a Christian pontiff resident in Upper Asia.
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