Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east.... traveler and a Marrano
Marrano
Marranos or secret Jews were Sephardi who were forced to adopt Christianity under threat of expulsion but who continued to practice Judaism secretly, thus preserving their Jewish identity.... Sephardic Jew who in 1644 persuaded Menasseh Ben Israel
Menasseh Ben Israel
Manoel Dias Soeiro , better known by his Hebrew language name Menasseh Ben Israel , was a Spanish and Portuguese Jews rabbi, Kabbalah, scholar, writer, diplomat, printer and publisher, founder of the first Hebrew printing press in Amsterdam in 1626.... , the chief rabbi of Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the Capital of the Netherlands and List of cities in the Netherlands with over 100,000 people of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands of North Holland in the west of the country.... , that he had found one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel living in the jungles of the "Quito Province" (that is, the Pichincha Province
Pichincha Province
Pichincha is a province of Ecuador located in the northern sierra region; its capital and largest city is Quito. It is bordered by Imbabura Province & Esmeraldas Province to the north, Cotopaxi Province & Santo Domingo de Los Ts?chilas Province, Ecuador to the south, Napo Province & Sucumb?os Province to the east, and Esmeraldas Province & Sa... ) of Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the , literally, "Republic of the equator") is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, by Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west.... . This supposed discovery gave a new impulse to Menasseh's Messianic
Messianic
Messianic primarily means of the Messiah.Messianic may also mean:*Messianic Complex, a psychological state of mind*Messianic democracy, democracy by force... hopes. Menasseh wrote a book about this narrative, The Hope of Israel. The book caused great controversy and polemics in England.
