but charged theiRas with every fort o f enormity, and upon
his refufal fent him a defiance;
T h e ' fame evening came an exprefs from Shoa, which
moil punctually brought the book I fo much wiihed for,
containing the lives o f the firft kings that lived at Shoa ;
a fair and fine copy, wrote upon parchment in a large quarto
fize, in the pure ancient languag e o f Geez. The author
was nearly contemporary with the annals which he writes.
I ihewed it to the k in g, who till then had never feen it,,
and who only faid, I fear, Yagoube, you are carrying home
thefe books only to make your kings lau gh at ours. The
fatis faCtion I received upon the acquifition o f this book was
greatly diminiihed by the lofs o f the donor, Amha Yafous,
who fet out the 20th o f February, attended- with about a
hundred men, his own fervants, and followed by the regret
and the good wifhes o f all that had known him, mine in
particular, having been, from the firfl: time I faw him, very
much attached to him..
B e f o r e hfs departure he had two long conferences with'
the k in g upon the contents o f the difpatches fent by his
father from Shoa. ' The fubftance he frank ly told me was,
that he did not intend to meddle with the quarrels o f Ras
Michael, nor thofe o f Falil’; that they ihould fettle thefe in
their own w a y ; but i f either attempted any thing againft
the king, fet up any ufurpers, as they had done in the perfon
o f Socinios, and continued fo far againft their allegiance to
Tecla Haimanout as to withhold his whole revenue, and
not to pay him wherewithal to fupport his ftate, that he
yvould confider himfelf as proteCior o f the royal family ®f
Solomon, as the governors o f Shoa had always been.—»
I t
It was believed very generally, by Amha Yafous coming in
perfon, that a treaty between fome o f the great men in
both fides, begun, at his inftance, would bring every man
that could mount a horfe from as far fouth as Gingiro, to
over-run both the provinces o f Begemder and Amhara, and
either difplace the two governors, or at leaft force them to
their duty; and it was owing to this, in all probability, that
Gulho aCted with fuch moderation as he did in the campaign
that foon followed.
C H A P *