-earth from about them, had foiled down from the mountain
above. Both fides o f the defile are covered thick with
wood and buflies, efpecially that deteftable thorn the kan-
tuffa, fo ju ftly reprobated in Abyflinia.
Having extricated ourfelves fuccefsfully from this pafs,
•our fpirits were fo elated, that we began to think our journey
now at an end, not refiefting how many pafles, fu ll o f
real danger, were ftill before us. At three quarters pail
e ight we came to W erkleva, a village o f Mahometans. Above
this, too, is Armatchiko, a famous hermitage, and around
it huts inhabited by a number o f m onks. Thefe, and their
brethren o f Magwena, are capital performers in all difor-
ders o f the ftate; all prophets and diviners, keeping up the
fpirit o f riot, anarchy, and tumult, by their fanatical inventions
and pretended vjfions,
Having refted a few minutes at TabaretWunze, a wretched
village, compofed o f miferable huts, on the banks o f a
fmall brook, at a quarter after two we pafied the Coy, a
large river, which falls into the Mahaanah. From Mai
Lumi to this place the country was but indifferent in appearance
; the foil, indeed, exceedingly good, but a wild-
nefs and look o f defolation covered the whole o f it, The
grafs was growing high, the country extenfive, and almoit
without habitation, whilft the few huts that were to be feen
feemed more than ordinarily miferable, and were hid in re-
cefles, or in the edge o f valleys overgrown with wood. The
inhabitants feemed to have come there by Health, with a
defire to live concealed and unknown.
On the 31 ft o f December we left our ftation a t die head:
o f a difficult pafs called Coy Gulgulet, or the Defcent o f
Coy, at the foot o f which runs the river Coy, one o f the
largeft we had yet feen, but I did not difcerm any fiili in it.
Here we refted a little to refrefh ourfelves and our beafts,
after the fatigues w e had met with in defcending through
this pafs.
A t h a lf after eight We came to the banks o f the Germa,
w hich winds along the valley, and falls into the Angrab.
After having continued fome time b y the fide o f the Germa,
dnd croffed it going N. W. we, at ten, paifed the fmall river
Idola; and h alf an hour after came to Deber, a houfe o f A.y-
to Confu, on the top o f a mountain, b y the fide o f a fmall
river o f that name.. The country here is partly in wood,
and partly in plantations o f dora. It is very well watered^
and feems to produce abundant crops; but it is not beaut
ifu l ; the foil is red earth, and the bottoms o f all the ri-
-vers foft and earthy, the water heavy, and generally ill-tafted,
even in.the large rivers, fuch as the Coy and the Germa. I
imagine there is fome mineral in the red earth, with a
proportion Of which the water is impregnated.
At Deber, I obferved the following bearings from the
mountains; Ras el Feel was weft, T cherkin N. N. W. Debra
Haria, north. We found nobody at Deber that could give
us the leaft account o f Ay to Confu. We left it, therefore, on
the morning o f the tft o f January 1772. At h a lf paft ten
o’clock we pafied a fmall village called Dembic, and about
mid-day came to the large river Tchema, which falls into
the larger river Dwang,-below, to the weft ward. About
an hour after, we came to the Mogetch, a river not fo large