In 1487, some three hundred years after the accession of the Ayyubite Sultans over Aden, a period of continued strife, we find the place visited by a Portuguese by name John Pedro de Covilham. This expedition was organised to explore that quarter of the globe after an ambassador had been sent to Florence by the Christian King of Abyssinia whom we have learned to know by the name of Prester John. Covilham eventually ended his days at Shoa, at the Court of Iskander, or Alexander, the then reigning prince. From the next European, however, who visited Aden we have a more succinct account, though unfortunately his work upon the subject of his travels[33] is so taken up with personal narrative, and his names are so unreliable, that it is with some difficulty that historical events are recognised. I refer to Ludovico de Barthema, known also as Vertomanus, who travelled in Arabia about the year 1504. Albuquerque’s attack upon Aden forms one of the most interesting items in its history, and short notice must be taken of it here. The sovereign of Abyssinia at this epoch was a Christian, Queen Helena by name, who, wishing to obtain assistance by which to keep off the Arab invasions into her own country, sent an Armenian envoy to the Court of Lisbon. After wandering about in a somewhat vague way for several years—he went _viâ_ India, where he was detained twenty-three months—he at length, in 1513, arrived at Lisbon. He found on his arrival that an expedition was already organised to carry out the proposals he was bringing from his queen, and in command of which Alphonso de Albuquerque left India in February of the same year with two thousand five hundred men, two-thirds of them Portuguese, the rest Indians. On Easter eve they arrived at Aden, and at once attacked the place. After a siege of four days further efforts were found to be useless; and bombarding the town, and destroying the native shipping, the Portuguese flotilla sailed for the Red Sea. A second attempt on the part of Albuquerque to take Aden the following spring again failed, owing to the fact that it had meanwhile been refortified. A few years later, in 1516 A.D., Aden was again besieged, this time by an expedition sent from Egypt under Raïs Suleiman; but the city was again found to be impregnable, and the attacking force suffered very considerable loss. However, so weakened had the fortifications been by these repeated attacks, that when Soarez arrived shortly afterwards, the governor surrendered the place into his hands; but on the Portuguese attempting to follow and capture Suleiman’s fleet, the governor made haste to repair the fortifications, and on Soarez’s return he found himself baffled, and Aden more firmly in the hands of the Amir Morjaun than ever.