ed’ by a high outer-wall, which may have above an Engliih
mile o f circumference. This outer precindt is all occupied
>by foldiers, labourers, and out-door fervants; wnhm this
is another large court inclofed by walls likewife, in this the
-apartments are but o f one ftorey, appropriated to the principal
officers, priefts, and fervants. In this alfo is the church,
built by the prefent lteghe herfelf, and reckoned the rich-
eft in Abyffinia. They have large croffes o f gold for their
proceffionsr and.kettle-drums.of filver. The altar is all covered
with gold, plates, all the g ift o f their m agnificent pa-
trone'fs. The priefts, too, were all rich, till Ras Michael
feized, and applied part o f their revenue to his own ufe.and
that o f the ftate, and thereby reduced them to a condition
much more agreeable to the vows o f poverty, which froni
pride they had made, than was their former one.
'T h s third, or inner courq'is refervedfor the queen’s own
apartments, and fuch o f the noble women as are her attendants,
are unmarried, and make up her court. Behind the
¡palace, higher up the hill, are houfes o f people o f quality,
-chiefly her own relations. Above thefe the mountain nfes
v e r y regularly, in form o f a cone, covered with herbage to
-the very to p ; on the eaft fide is the road from Wa lka yt; on
the weft from Kuara, and Ras el F e e l; fhat is all the low
country, or north o f Abyffinia, bordering upon the Shan-
gdlla, through which lies the road to Sennaar.
It was the i6th o f December 1.771, at one o’clock in the
afternoon, that I left Gondar. I had purpofed to fet out early
in the m orning, but was detained by the importunity o f my
friends. The k in g had delayed my fetting out, by feveral
«orders fent me in the evening each day ; and I plainly faw
_2 there
there was fome meaning in this, and that he was wiih ing to
throw difficulties in the way, till fome accident, or fudden
•emergency (never wanting in that country) ihould make it
abfolutely impoffible for metò leave Abyffinia. When therefore
the laft meflage came to Kofcam on the 27th, at night,
I returned my refpeftful duty to his majefty, put him in
mind o f his promife, and, fomewhat peevilhly i believe,
intreated him to leave me to my fortune 7 that my fervants
were already gotte, and I was refolved to fet out next
adorning.
In thè morning early, I was furprifed at the arrival o f a
y ou n g nobleman, lately made one o f his bed-chamber,
w ith fifty light hbrfe. As I was fatisfied that leaving A b y ffinia,
without parade, as privately as poffible, was the only
way to pafs through Sennaar, and had therefore infilled
upon none o f my friends accompanying me, I begged to decline
this efcort ; affigning for my reafon, that, as the count
r y between this and Ras e l Feel belonged firft to the Iteghc,
and then to Ayto Goaifft, none o f the inhabitants could pof-
fibW injure me in paffing. It took a long time to fettle
¡this, and it Was now, as I have faid, one o’clock before we
fe t out by the Weft fide o f Debra Tzai, having the mountain
on our right hand. From the top o f that afcent, we
faw the plain and fiat country below, black, and, in its appearance,
one thick wood, which fome authors have called
lately, the Shumeta *, òr Nubian foreft. But o f the meanin
g o f Shumeta I profefs my felf entirely ignorant ; no
V ol. IV. M m fuch
* See a chart o f the Arabian G iilf pubHOied at London is 1..7S1 by L . S . Dela Itttchette.-