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The International Prester John Project: How A Global Legend Was Created Across Six Centuries

Portuguese Embassy to Ethiopia (1515)

In response to the letter brought to Portugal by Matthew the Armenian, understood to be the envoy of Prester John, King Manoel organized an embassy to Ethiopia.

Manoel sent numerous fine gifts to the Ethiopian emperor, including outfits of silk and damask, suits of armor inlaid with silver and gold, swords, shields, and a canopied bed, among several other lavish gifts. All were lost on the voyage.

The original embassy, headed by Duarte Galvão, who was accompanied by Matthew, Lopo de Vilalobos, Father Francisco Álvares, and Lourenço de Cosmo, landed in Goa late in 1515. The voyage began under the care of Lopo Soares de Albergaria, who had succeeded Afonso de Albequerque as Portuguese viceroy.

Lopo Soares treated the party disdainfully, and by 1517 Duarte and Lourenço were dead, and Matthew, Lopo de Vilalobos, and Francisco Álvares were stranded in India. Lopo Soares was replaced in 1518 by Diogo Lopes de Sequeira. Lopo de Vilalobos returned to Portugal and Diogo was able to land Matthew and Franciso on the Ethiopian shore later in 1518. The rest of their arduous journey is painstakingly detailed in A True Relation of the Lands of Prester John.

This page is referenced by:

The Embassy of the great Emperor of the Indians, Prester John, to Manuel, King of Portugal
Legatio magni Indorum imperatoris Presbyteri Ioannis ad Emanuelem Lusitaniae regem, anno Domini M.D.XIII (1532)

Damião de Góis' treatise was thought to be one of the earliest European treatments of Ethiopian Christianity. A Latin translation of a work originally written in his native Portuguese (and subsequently banned by the Portuguese Inquisition), the Legatio was then quickly translated into English by fellow Erasmian John More as The Christian Empire of Prester John.

Damião's account includes a description of the Ethiopian embassy to Portugal in 1513 as well as the version of the Letter of Prester John attributed to Ethiopian Queen Eleni (1509).

The Legatio was published in 1532 on the heels of the recent Portuguese embassy to Abyssinia (1520-1526) (led by Diogo Lopes de Sequeira and recorded by Francisco Álvares).

As Blackburn (p. 40) details:
Goes begins the story of Prester John with an important historical document, the so-called "letter of Prester John", which is really the letter of Queen Helena, regent for the twelve-year-old Lebna Dengel, Dawitt II (David II), who became the Prester John of Ethiopia in 1508.
As Silverberg (p. 299) points out, Góis's text, which only covered Matthew's journey to Portgual, should have been obselete now that Álvares had returned to Portgual from Ethiopia, but the account of Álvares's journey would not be published for another eight years.

Góis, ultimately aware of the limitations of his translated text, sought the counsel of Saga za Ab, another Ethiopian ambassador, now stranded in Portugal. Unlike Matthew, who was a non-native Ethiopian layman, Saga za Ab was both a native Ethiopian and a theologian, and ultimately helped Góis correct some of the factual errors of the Legatio. Góis ultimately translated Saga's account into a text published in 1540 and known as the Faith, Religion, and Manners of the Ethiopians.
Francisco Álvares Born near Coimbra, Portugal, Francisco Álvares (1465-1541) was an explorer and missionary who traveled with Diogo Lopes de Sequeira to Ethiopia, serving as chaplain for the King Manoel's Portuguese embassy to Ethiopian Emperor (nəgusä nägäst) Lebna Dengel from 1520-1526.

Most centrally, upon arriving to Ethiopia, Álvares meets Pêro da Covilhã, whose (mis)adventures after 25 years in Ethiopia he records. Of Covilhã, he writes (qtd. in Silverberg, p. 205):
This Pero da Covilha is a man of great wit and intelligence and there is no one else like him at court; he is one who knows all the languages that can be spoken, both of Christians, Moors, Ethiopians, and heathens, and who got to know all the things for which he was sent; he gives an account of them as though he had them present before him. For this reason he is much liked by the Prester and all the court.
The account of his journey, compiled as A True Relation of the Lands of Prester John of the Indies was published in Portugal in 1540 by Luis Rodriguez, shortly after the death of Álvares.

Baldridge's monograph offers a detailed and engaging account of Friar Álvares' journey to Ethiopia along with rich discussion of the legend and the substantial role it played in the ideology, politics, and maritime activity of 16th century Portugal.

Baldridge (p. 16) introduces the journey thusly:
In the spring of 1520 he found himself aboard a ship of his nation preparing to disembark upon a beach in Ethiopia, a kingdom where he, and many other Europeans, believed that Prester John would at last be found alive.
Diogo Lopes de Sequeira Born in Alandroal, Portugal, Diogo Lopes de Sequeira (1465-1530) was a traveler, fidalgo and, viceroy of Portuguese India (1518-1522). His 1509 travels to Malacca, Malaysia-- the first undertaken by a European-- paved the way for the later expedition of Afonso de Albuquerque, whose footsteps he later followed in by becoming viceroy of India in 1518, replacing Lopo de Soares.

In 1518, Diogo replaced Lopo de Soares as the man in charge of a mission to find Prester John, deemed the king of Abyssinia, and to create an alliance with this king. The result was the first Portuguese embassy to Ethiopia, which took place over the years 1520-1526. This undertaking is documented in the Letters of Diogo Lopes de Sequeira.