historian Miriam Eliav-Feldon aptly describes and analyzes as European “cre-
dulity.”^64 Outside Europe, on the Red Sea, there was also a reasonably active
trail of spies, merchants, and messengers of all sorts. Like other projects
related to the quest for Prester John, it was a scene that constantly bred
rumors.^65
The Portuguese were by now able to monitor significant sectors of traffic
in the Indian Ocean, but could not gain control of Aden. And “control over
[Aden] was crucial to the maintenance of Portuguese presence in the Indian
Ocean and beyond.”^66 This rendered Ethiopia central to Portuguese plans.
With Ethiopian supplies and armies, they could lay a much more effective
siege on Aden. In 1510 , the Ethiopian queen Eleni, wife of Zra’a Ya’ecop, sent a
letter to the king of Portugal, Manuel I ( 1469 – 1521 ). On behalf of her son, she
wrote: “I wish that finally and totally, the vermin of infidel Moors be wiped
off the face of the earth.... If we combine our... military powers, we shall
have... sufficient forces to destroy and eradicate [them].” She offered precisely
what the Portuguese most needed: large numbers of ground troops and
logistical support for a fleet operating far from home.
An envoy working for the Ethiopian court and carrying Queen Eleni’s
letter slowly made his way to meet the Portuguese. An Armenian merchant
based in Cairo, as an Ottoman subject he was able to move freely in Muslim
lands. This Matheus headed east to Zeila en route to India. Disguised as a
Muslim, he was hoping to meet the Portuguese in their newly acquired post
in the Arabian Sea and sail to India. In 1513 , after many troubles, Matheus
arrived in India, where he finally met Afonso de Albuquerque in Goa. Afonso
promptly sent the man to Lisbon, where he arrived in February 1514.
Matheus was well received in both Goa and Lisbon: “Catholic Europe and
the Portuguese Court were excited by this appearance.” Soon after, the Portu-
guese king, Dom Manuel, was publicly endorsed by Pope Leo X to spearhead
Christendom’s war against Islam and was promised all future spoils from
infidel lands—this just after Manuel dutifully informed the pope that an
“ambassador” from Prester John had arrived in his court. King Manuel
ended up sending two delegations to Ethiopia following Matheus’s appearance
in Lisbon;^67 one of them finally arrived in Ethiopia in 1520 (without Matheus,
who died en route) and spent six years there before its members were dis-
patched back to Lisbon. Thus, shortly before David’s “embassy,” a Prester John
“equivalent” was really in motion.
References to Matheus as a “liar” who took advantage of both the Ethio-
pians and the Portuguese occur several times in Alvares’s narrative. The
Ethiopian emperor first disavowed Matheus, then changed his mind and, in
a letter to Dom Manuel, acknowledged that it was Queen Eleni who had sent
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