and placed Amha. Yafous befide. him : it was eafyto. fee his
Blind was otherwife occupied, and as eafy to perceive by his
look, that he g^ve me credit fo r my heiiaviour. When.they
were all feated, “ Well, fays he, in great good humour,
w h a t now, what is the matter ? what can 1 do for you, Y>a-
goube ? are the women in your country as idle and fooh
ifh as thefe? has- Ozoro Efther chofen a w ife fo r you,?
Ihe dial! give you your dinne r: 1 w ill give her a portion
; and as you are a horfeman, the king, with Am,
ha Yafous’s leave, faid he bowing, fhail give y o u the com,
m a n d o f the Shoahorfe; I h ave feen them ; the men I think
are almoft as white as yourfel£’r Amha: Yafous bowed
in return, and &id, “ Sir, i f the k in g beftows them ffo w o »
thily, 1 promife to bring another thoufand as good as thefe
to join them after th e rains, before n est Epiphany.”— “ And
I, lays GzoroEfther, for my part, I have long had a w ife for
him, but this is not theprefent bufinefs, we know your time
is precious, Guangoul is without, and deiires an audience
o f you.”— Pohi fays the Ras, Guangoul is gone to Guihos
at Minziro, and there is lik e to be a pretty ftory : here are
accounts- come from Tigre, that he: has- committed great
barbarities in his journey, laid wafte fome villages, killed
the p e o p l e , for not fumifhin g him. with provifions :: here in
Belefffn he alfo burnt a chu rch and a village belonging to
the Iteghe, andk illedmany poor people; I do not kn ow what
he- means; I hope they w ill keep h im where he,is, and not
fend him home-again through Tigré..
A c o m m u n i c a t i o n o f this kind; very uncommon from
the Ras, occafioned a ferious appearance in the whole com,
pany ; but he had no foqner done with fpeaking, than in
comes Doho upon his. cow : neither man nor woman , that
4 . had
had yet feen him, ever laughed fo heartily as the old Ras ;
he humoured the thing entirely ; welcomed Doho in Galla
language, and faw the whole farce, finiihed by his flight to
the door, with the utmoft good humour. Then taking
Amha Yafous with him, and feveral great officers who had
come in the interim, he returned by a private paflàge to his
own apartments.
As I ihall have no occafion for further mention o f this
chieftain, I will here finifh his ftory, though not in the order
’ o f time. Guflio and Powuflen had gained Guangoul,
and perfuaded him to make an irruption with his Galla
into the province o f Tigré, to create a diverfion againfl:
Michael, and, for that purpofe, they had fent him home
nearly the way he had come through that province. From
this encouragement he had begun to conduit him fe lf ftill
worfe than formerly. Ras Michael, fufpedting what would
happen, privately difpatched A yto Confu after him with 6oo
hprfe. That young foldier, happy in a command that highly
gratified his mother, and guided by the pries o f the people,
followed with the utmoft diligence, and came up with
him in the neighbourhood o f Lafta, and there, after little
refiftance, Guangoul and his troops were cut to pieces,
thofe that had efcaped being all flain by the exafperated
peafants. Confu returned to Gondar the night o f the fifth
day, together with the bloody trophies o f his conqueft over
Guangoul and h is Galla.
-I h â v e before mentioned that this ch ie f had brought
with him a quantity o f large horns for the k in g ’s fervice.
Some o f this fort having been feen in India filled with civet,
have given occafion to thofe travellers who faw them
V ol. IV. O there