the army, were always ready to contribute as far as poflibie,
to promote what they thought or faw was the objeft o f my
purfuits or entertainment.
I shall only here mention what palled at the ‘laft interview
I had with the Iteghe, two days before my departure.'
Tenfa Chriftos, who was one o f the chie f priefts o f
Gondar, was a native o f Gojam, and confequently o f the
low church, or a follower o f Abba Euftathius, in other
words, as great an enemy as poflibie to the Catholic, or as
they w ill call it, the religion o f the Franks. He was, however, reputed
a perfonof great probity and fanXity o f manners, and
had been on all occafioris rather civil and friendly to me
when we met, though evidently not defirous o f any intimate
connexions or friendlhip; and as I, on my part, expected
little advantage from connecting myfelf with a man o f
his principles, I very w illin gly kept at all poflibie diftance ;
that I might run no rifk ©f jdifobliging him was m y only
aim.
T his prieft came often to the Iteghfi’s and Ayto Aylo’s,
with both o f whom he was much in favour, and here I
now happened to meet him, when I was taking m y leave
in the evening. I beg o f you, fays he, Yagoube, as a favour,
to tell me, now you are immediately going away from this
country, and you can anfwer me without fear, Are you
really a Frank, or are you not ? Sir, faid I, I do not know
what you mean by fe a r ; I fhould as little decline anfwer-
in g you any queftion you have to afk had I ten years to
flay, as now I am to quit this country to-morrow : I came
recommended, and was well received by the k in g and Ras
Micha e l: I neither taught nor preached; no man ever
i heard
’heard me fay a word about my particular mode o f worfliip;
and as often-as m y duty has called me, I have never failed
to attend divine fervice as it is eftabliihed in this country.
What is the ground o f fear that I ihould have, while under
the king)s protedlion,-and when I conform in every fhape
to. the laws, religion, and cuftoms o f Abyflinia? True, fays
Tenfa Chriftos, I do not fay you ihould be alarmed; Whatever
your faith is I would defend you myfelf.; the Iteghe
knows I always fpoke well o f you, but w ill you gratify an
old man’s curiofity, in telling me whether or-not you real-
4 7 are a Frank, Catholic, or Jciuit ?
I HAvfe too’great a regard;replied I, to requeft o f a man, fo
tru ly good and virtuous as you, not to have anfwered you
the queftion at whatever time you could have aiked m e ;
and I do now declare to you, >by the word o f a Chriftian,
»that my countrymen and I are more diftant in mat ters o f religion,"
from thefe you call Catholics, Jefuks, or Franks, than
you and your Abyflimans are ; and that a prieft o f my-religion,
preaching in any country fubjeX to thofe Franks,
would as certainly be brought to the gallows as if he had
committed murder, and juft as fpeedily as you would ftone-
a Catholic prieft preaching here in the midft o f Gondar,
They dop recifely by us as you do by them, fo they have
no reafon to complain. And, fays he, don’t you do the fame
to them ? No, replied I ; every man in our country is allowed
to ferve God in his own way-; and as lo n g as their
teachers confine themfelves to what the facred books have
told them, they can teach no ill, and therefore deferve no
puniihment. No religion, indeed, teaches a man evil, but,
when forgetting this, they preach agai’nft government,
CUrfe the king, abfolve his fubjeXs from allegiance,'or in-
Y o l . IV. L 1 citft