their own provinces to terrify the reft o f their clans by the
mangled appearance they then bore • for this was Ras Mi-
shaeFs intention in disfiguring them, and yet leaving
them alive ; to prevent therefore the fuccefs o f this fcheme,
Eafil put them to death in their way before they reached
their own country. I confefs I was ftruck at the fineiîè
w hich completed Waragna Fafil’s char after in my mind.
What, faid I» k ill his own people taken prifoners whilft
fighting for him, merely becaufe their enemies had cruel*,
ly deprived them o f their fight! indeed,Woldo, .that is
not credible. O ho, fays he, but it is true ; your Galla
are not like ocher men, they do not talk about what is
cruel and what is not ; they do juft what .is fo r their
Own good, what is reafonable, and think no more o f
the matter. Ras Michael, lays he, would make an excellent
Gâlla ; and do not you believe that, he would do any cruel
aftion which my mailer Eafil would not perpetrate on the
fame provocation, and to anfwer- the fame purpofe !
I t now occurred to me why the three G alla,whom I had
maintained at Gondar, had conftantly refufed to return into
their own country with die many fafe opportunities
w hich at times had prefented to them, efpecially fince
the k in g ’s retreat to Tigré ; neither had I obferved any defire
in Fafil’s fervants, who occafionally came to Gondar
o f helping to reftore thefe unfortunate men to their country,
becaufe they knew the fate that awaited them.
A lth o u g h the Lamb, and the o ther Galla his foldiers, paid
ve ry little attention, as I have faid, to us, it was remarkable
to fee the refpeft they Ihewed Fafil’s horfe ; the greateft
part o f them, one by one, gave,him handfuls o f barley, and
the
the Lamb himfelf had a long and ferious converfatiqn with
him ; Woldo told me it was all fpentin regretting thehorfe’s
ill-fortune, and Fafil’s cruelty, in having beftowed him upo
n a w hite man, who would not feed him, or ever let him
return to Bizamo. Bizamo is a country o f Galla fouth o f
the Nile, after it makes its fouthmoft turn, and has fur-
rounded the kingdom o f Gojam. -I was better pleafed with
this genuine mark o f kindnefs to the horfe, than all the
proofs o f humanity Woldo had attributed to his chieftain
for not frequently putting to death pregnant women. When
I remarked this, Bad m en ! bad men! all o f them, fays Woldo
but your Ras Michael w ill be among them one o f thefe
days, and pull all their eyes out again; and f® much the better.
A t R o o we left the direft road which leads to Bure, the
refidence o f the governor o f Damot, towards which place
the route o f the army was direfted; fo I took leave, as I hoped,
fo r ever o f my brethren the Galla, but ftill continued to
drive the horfe before me. We turned our face now direftly
upon the fountains o f the Nile, which la y S. E. by S. accord
ing to the compafs. At a quarter before noon we faw
the high lharp-pointed mountain o f Temhua, Handing
fingle in -the form o f a cone, at about 18 miles diftance/and
behind this the mountain o f Banja, the place where Faid
almoft exterminated th e Agows in a battle foon after his
■return to Bure, and to revenge which the k in g ’s laft fatal
campaign was undertaken in Maitiha, terminated by his
retreat to Tigre.
Here Strates, whilft amuftng h im fe lf in the wood in fearch
o f new birds and beafts for ou r colleftion o f natiiral hif-
-tory, fired his gun at one o f the former, diftinguiihecl by
4 A 2 the