LOBO, Ieronimo (1593-1678), a Jesuit missionary, was born in Lisbon in 1593, and entered the Order of Jesus at the age of sixteen. In 1621 he was ordered to repair as a missionary to India, and in 1622 he arrived at Goa. With the intention of proceeding to Abyssinia as a missionary, he left India in 1624, but after disembarking on the coast of Mombas, and attempting to reach his destination by land, through the Galla country, was forced to return. Repeating the attempt in the ensuing year, in concert with Mendez, the newly-appointed patriarch of Ethiopia, and eight missionaries, Lobo landed on the coast of the Red Sea, and settled down in Abyssinia as superintendent of the missions in the state of Tigre, travelling about a good deal over the country, and thus obtaining much valuable information on its geography and people. He remained at his post for some years, until death deprived the Catholics of their protector, the emperor Segued. Forced by persecution to leave the kingdom, in 1634 Lobo fell, along with his companions, into the hands of the Turks at Massowah, and was sent by them to India to procure a ransom for his imprisoned fellow-missionaries. This object he gained, and at the same time he endeavoured, though without avail, to persuade the Portuguese viceroy to send an armament against Abyssinia. Intent upon accomplishing this cherished project, he embarked for Portugal, and after he had been shipwrecked on the coast of Natal, and captured by pirates, arrived at Lisbon. Neither at this city, however, nor at Madrid and Rome, was any countenance given to Lobo’s plan for Christianizing Abyssinia by the aid of arms. He accordingly returned to India in 1640, and was elected rector, and afterwards provincial, of the Jesuits at Goa. After some years he returned to ...