Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 12, 2025
Atayda receiving favourably those propositions of the prince of Momoya, the prince came in person to Ternate, and desired baptism; taking then, the name of John, in honour of John III., king of Portugal. At his return to Momoya, he took along with him a Portuguese priest, called Simon Vaz, who converted many idolaters to the faith.
It appeared, from his story, that intelligence had just been received of the successful conclusion of a great slave-hunting raid into the interior by a certain King Olomba, who had recently returned in triumph to his town of Olomba, on the left bank of the Fernan Vaz river, bringing with him nearly three thousand negroes, of whom over two thousand were males, all in prime condition.
This latter island was only inhabited within the last twenty-four years, when the prince appointed two of his gentlemen to be its governors. Tristan Vaz having the government of that half of the island in which the port of Monchrico is situated; and the other district of the island, in which Fonzal, Fonchial, or Funchal stands, is under the government of John Gonzales Zarcho.
The 26th they were in lat. 6° 25' S. and continued their course mostly to the south all the rest of that month, till they were in lat 10° 30' S. The 1st September they had the sun at noon to the north; and in the afternoon of the 3d they had sight of the isle of Ascension, in 20° S. otherwise called the island of Martin Vaz, where the compass was observed to vary 12° to the east of north.
One night in that year he is thought to have had a dream of promise, for on the ensuing morning he suddenly ordered two vessels to be got ready forthwith, and to be placed under the command of two gentlemen of his household, Joham Gonçalvez Zarco and Tristam Vaz, whom he ordered to proceed down the Barbary coast on a voyage of discovery.
Joao Vaz Cortereal was the natural son of a gentleman named Vasco Annes da Costa, who had received the soubriquet of Cortereal from the King of Portugal, on account of the magnificence of his house and followers. Devoted like so many other gentlemen of this period to sea-faring adventure, Joao Vaz had carried off in Gallicia a young girl named Maria de Abarca, who became his wife.
Vaz immediately entered into the opinions of the father, and his zeal carried him to pass himself into Portugal, in a vessel which was just ready to set sail. Xavier praised God for those good intentions; and wrote a letter by him to King John the Third, the beginning of which I have here transcribed:
Who should be his guide through those thick entangled forests, where the greatest part of them were lodged like so many wild beasts; and when, by rare fortune, he should atchieve the taming of them, and even convert them, how long would that conversion last? at the longest, but while he continued with them: That no man would venture to succeed him in his apostleship to those parts, for that was only to be exposed to a certain death; and that the blood of Simon Vaz was yet steaming.
The saint, after this beginning, gave the king to understand the good intentions of Michael Vaz, and the ill conduct of the Portuguese, who were in the government of the Indies.
After having landed the different animals and seeds which had been sent out by Don Henry, and seeing them properly distributed, Perestrello returned into Portugal to make a report to the prince, and Zarco and Vaz remained to superintend the infant colony.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking