1514 mission to Benin

20-11-1514 King Manuel: to the Oba of Benin on sending priests

The powerful and noble King of Benin: We, Dom Manuel, by the grace of God King of Portugal, of the Algarves, at home and abroad, in Africa, Lord of Guinea and of the conquest, of the navigation and commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia and India. We inform you that we have learned from Dom Jorge, your embassador, all that you require of us. His coming to us has helped us very much to appreciate the good will you declare to have for the things of our service. We were very pleased with all that he told us about your good will.
Certainly, since we desire that all your affairs prosper, you are right in doing what helps our affairs and service, just as if they were your own. For never, thanks be God, I know of no king, whether in Guinea or India or more distant places, who has regretted having friendship with us; rather they have always continued and do continue to nourish it the more and preserve it themselves along with us, with the good actions which we do for them, just as we will be pleased to do with you, if with regard to our affairs you do what you should as a king who is a friend of ours, as we believe that your are, given the fact that in past years we have had different information and we saw it in action.

Yet it is never our will to refuse to receive our friends and servants into our friendship and service when they admit their errors with fidelity and truth and they turn to us, after the example of what our almighty Lord God always does to those who wander and go against him [....] We have sent our men and arms to other places much further away in order to serve God our Lord by spreading his holy Faith, which obliges us more than any other thing in this world, and by helping the souls of those who are deprived of knowledge of his holy Faith. For all those souls who do not receive the faith of Jesus Christ our Lord will be forever lost in the fire of Hell, whereas those who die with the knowledge of the Faith will live forever in glory and the happiness of Paradise.
Therefore with much good will we send you the priests that you sent for. They are bringing all the things that are necessary to teach you and your people the knowledge of our Faith. We hope that our Lord will give you his grace to understand it and be saved by it for the things of this world all pass away, while those of the other world last forever. I urge you strongly to continue to receive the teachings of the Faith of Chrisitians, as we count on you to do as a king who is our dear friend. For when we see that in the affairs of Christianity you act as a good and faithful Christian, there is nothing in our realms that we will not continue to put at your disposition, whether arms or canons or other instruments of war against your enemies, since we have so many such things, as your embassador Dom Jorge will tell you. We are not sending them now, although he requested them, because the law of God forbids giving them as long as you are [an unbeliever...]
We urge you strongly to keep your markets open and allow free trade, as has always been the case, and to let goods come in and out freely with their ships, as we expect of you and of your friendship. We will very willingly see to it that, as you do so, nothing will come to your or to your land except what is good and profitable. Our secretary, who is very devoted to our service, will always place all your requirements before us, and we will see that they are taken care of.
Written in Allmeirim, on 20 November 1514.

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