ABSTRACT
When the emperor returned from that war, two of us fathers went to visit him and we did not <[f. 388v/377v]> tell him anything about what was happening in Tigrê until we had spoken to the viceroy, so that he would have no reason at all to complain. And so we went to visit him and told him what his governor had done, to which he coldly replied that he would command him to return what he had taken. We said that it was not right that such a serious matter should remain unpunished and asked His Lordship for permission to take him to justice. He replied that there was no need for any justice, because he had commanded him to do it. ‘We only expected many {[f. 435]} favours from Your Lordship’, we said, ‘and not such great wrongs. But since that is the case, we are obliged to seek justice from the emperor.’ He then said to one of the emperor’s sisters who was there, ‘The whole of Tigrê is going over to their Church and leaving ours.’ She replied with great vexation, ‘Let it be proclaimed at once that none of our people may join it any more.’ The viceroy turned to us again and said, ‘I shall take counsel and give you a reply.’ With that we left and went at once to talk to Erâz Athanatêus and, although he was in a church, he moved aside from those who were with him and listened to us very carefully, and then he said that he was very sorry for what the viceroy had done, but that we should not be troubled because he would arrange everything as we wished. From there we went to another great man who was both very close to the emperor and a friend of ours, who was called Macabô, and when we told him what was happening he was very angry and said, ‘Who has given this man the right to interfere in matters of faith? He cannot even read. I shall go to the emperor tomorrow and tell him everything, and the viceroy shall not come out of this well.’ We tried to talk to the emperor as well, before the viceroy depicted the matter to him in his own way, but we were not able to because it was already nearly nightfall and nobody was allowed in. Nonetheless, we left the Portuguese captain there to see whether he could get in, and it was God’s will that a lord who was a friend of his went past and told the emperor that he was there, and so he sent word for him to enter. When he told him what the viceroy had done, the emperor was very sorry and said that he would reprimand him and he would not interfere in our affairs again.
