or fliield, and only two naked fervants with h im ; did not
I tell you what was the-meaning o f the news f” Though
this was ipoken in a language <rf whichat was impoffible Am-
lac could know a fyllable,1 yet he prefently apprehended in
part what I would fay. “ I fee, fays he, you believe what
I told you laft night .to be falfe,.and invented only to get
from you a prefent:' but you fh a llfe e ; and i f : this ,day we
do not meet Welled Aragawi and his foldiers, you are then
in the .righ t ; it is. as you imagine.”.— “ You do me wrong,
faid I, and have not underftood me, for how fhould you.
Thofe white people believe too well all you told them, and
are only apprehenfive o f your not being able to defend us,
being without arms, and followers. All, I faid was, that where
you were, armed or unarmed, there was no danger.”— “ True,
fays he, you are now in Maitiha, and not in my..country,
which is GouttO:; you are now in. the word country in
all Abyflinia,- where the brother kills his brother for a
lo a f Of bread, o f which he has no ¡need: you are in a
country o f Pagans, or dogs, Galla, and worfe than Galla ; i f
ever, you meet an oldmanherc, he is a ftrangery .all that are
natives die b y the lance young ; and yet, though :thefatwo
chieftains I mentioned fight to-day, unarmed as 1 am, (as
you well faid) you are in no danger w h ile I am with you.
Thefe people o f Maitiha, fhut up between the Jemma, the
N le, and the lake, have no where .but from the A gows ;.to
get what they w a n t ; they come to the fame market with
us here in Goutto ; the.fords rafcthfe Jemma, they know, are
in -my hands ; and did they offer au injury to a friend; o f
mine, Were it but to whiftle as he paffed them, they know
I am not, g en tle ; -though not a Galla, they are fenfible,
gne day or other, I fhould call them to account, though it
were in the bed-chamber o f their mailer Faiil.”
a •“ YoffR
" Y our maftér, Welled ; Amlac, with your leave, faid. I.?’
•* Yes, mine too, faid hé, by force, but he never ihall be my
mailer by inclination, after murdering Kafraati Eihté. He
calls me his brother, and believes me his friend, You faw
one o f his wives, w h om he leayes at my houfe, laft
night, but I hope ftill to-, fee him; and his Galla Slaughtered
as the cow in my houfe was yefterday.” “ I am
furprifed, faid I, your houfe was fpared, and that. Ras
Michael did not burn , it in either of. his paffages through
Maitiha.”—■“ In 1769, replied he; I was not with .Fafil at Fa-
gitta, and the Ras paffed the Nile above this far beyond thé
Ke lti;' after w hich Freturned with- him to Gondar. In Gin-
bot *, Faiil informed us that Amhara and Begemder were
come over to him. When*then a ll Maitiha joined Eafil, I went
w ith my people to meet Michael at Derdera, as I knew he
muft pafs the Nile here oppofite to Abbo; and Begemder
and Amhara would then be behind him, or' elfe try to crofs
at Delakus, which was then fwollen with rain, and unford-
able : : but I apprehenfive left, marching ftill higher' up--
along the Nile to find a ford, he might burn. my. houfe in
his way, I myfelf joined h im the n ight before, he knew o f
Powuflen’s revolt, and he .had iethen-in contemplation to
burn Samfeen. The next morning .was that o f his retreat,
and he chofe me to accompany him acrofs the Nile, ftill con-
fidering me as his friend, and therefore, perhaps, he would
have done no harm to my houfe.”— “ So it was you; faid I , .
that led us that day into that curfed clay-holê, which you
call a ford, .where fo many people and beafts were maimed
and loft ?”— He replied, “ It was Fafil’s fpies that firft perfuad- -
ed;
**The~ift o f G in b o tis the-26th ofour April.