Matewos (14?- May 23, 1520), or Matthew, was a merchant of Armenian descent, born in Cairo, who, in 1512, was sent to Portugal on an ambassadorial mission by the Empress-Regent Eleni he subsequently played a key role in the development of relations between Ethiopia and Portugal.
Matewos was selected for his task by Eleni because he had lived in Ethiopia and married an Ethiopian, and also because he was widely travelled. Upon leaving on his mission in 1512, he took with him Eleni’s letters to the King of Portugal in response to the Portuguese mission to Ethiopia of 1508.
He travelled from Zayla, the port on the Gulf of Aden, to Portugal via Goa, then a Portuguese colony in India. At first he was arrested; because he was not an Ethiopian, some Portuguese suspected Matewos of being a Turkish spy, and his peevish nature further increased misunderstanding.
Then the governor of Portuguese India, Afonso de Albuquerque (term of office 1508-1515), welcomed Matewos and sent him to Lisbon with favourable comments addressed to King Manuel (reigned 1495-1521) about the political and economic benefits likely to result from an Ethiopian-supported invasion of Arabia and the capture of Makkah (Mecca).
After a difficult voyage, Matewos was received by King Manuel with all the honour due to an ambassador to Europe from the long-sought empire of Prester John (q. v.). Matewos successfully conveyed to the king promises of Ethiopia help against Portugal’s Muslim rivals in the India trade.
His inaccurate information on the Ethiopian chuch, however, led Manuel and Pope Leo X (reigned 1513-1521) to think that the empress and the Ethiopian church might easily be led to recognize papal authority.
Matewos left for Ethiopia in 1515, accompanied by Duarte Galvao, Manuel’s ambassador to Ethiopia, and an ardent advocate of a crusade against the Turks. But Galvao died on Kamaran Island in the Red Sea in 1517, and did not reach Ethiopia. Matewos stayed in India until February 8, 1520, and returned to Ethiopia on April 9, landing at Massawa with the embassy of Rodrigo de Lima, whose chaplain was Francisco Alvares. Matewos, however, died at Bizan six weeks after landing.
MERID WOLDE AREGAY
