them. Above, ;aH, they- had been ufed to, fee the; effefl o f
fire-arms;: which they no longer feared as formerly,' but
boldly rallied in upon the mufqueteers^ fometimes without
giv ing them time to fire, or at leaifcbefore they- had time to
charge again.
At laft, having previoully called in all. his out-pofls, on
the 13th o f May he marched, out o f Gondar, taking with
him the King and Abuna, as alfo Ozoro Efther,-and Ozoro
Altalh her filler, , and all the other ladies about court, who
were in polTellion o f the great fiefs o f the crown, and whom
he obliged to perfonal attendance, as well as to bring the;
quota o f troops they were.boundro by their refpeftive t e -
nur.es..
T he kin g’ s army halted upon the fatoe; ground they h a il
done on their return to Gondar.. They were then fuppofed:
to be near 20,000 foot, belonging to T igre and its dependencies,
incomparably the beft troops of. the empire, 6000 o f
w hich were armed with mufquets, fix times the number
that all the reft'of Abyflinia couid fuxmih, and, confidefing;
they w e r e all matchdocks, very expert .in the management
o f them;' T h e re ft o f the foot which, joined them fince. he
patted the -Taeazze were about 10,000,- befides 2000 of-the
king's houfchokl, 300 o f w hich were horfemen ;. o f thefe,,
few Ihort o f 200 were his black: fervants, armed with coats
o f mail, the-horfies with plates o f brafs on their cheeks and
faces, with a fliarp iron fpike o f about five inehes in length,
w hich ftuck out in the middle o f their forehead, a very trou-
hlefome, ufelefs piece o f their a rmour;; their bridles were
iron chains the body o f the horfe covered with a kind o f
thin quilt fluffed: with cotton, with two openings made
above
above the flaps o f the faddle, into which the horfeman put
his- thighs and legs, and which covered him from his hip
(where his ihirt o f mail ended) down to a little above his
ancle; his feet were covered with flippers o f thin leather,
without heels, and his ftirrups were o f the Turkifh or
Mooriih form, into which his whole foot entered, and, be--
in g hung very ihort, he eould raife himfelf, and ftarid as
firmly as i f he was, upon plain ground. T h e faddles were
in the Mooriih form likewife, high before and behind ;. a
ftrorig lace made fait to the coat o fm a il.b y the one end, .the
other, palled through a final! hole in the back o f the faddle,
kept it elofe down,,fo that the baek was never expofed by the
coat o f mail riling over the hinder part o f the faddle. Each
had a fmall ax in the furcingle o f his faddle, and a pike
about fourteen feet-.Iong, the weapon with which he charged
; it was made of-very light wood, brought from the banks
o f ,the Nile, with a fmall four-edged-head, and the butt
end balanced by a long fpike o f iro n ; this entered a leather
cafe fattened by a thong to the faddle, and was retted,
fometimes.below the thigh, and-fometimes above, and guided
by the right hand at the height the point was-intended
to ftrike at. The horfeman’s head was covered with a helmet
o f copper, or block tin, much like thole, o f our light,
horfe,,with large crefts o f black horfe tail..
T he oflicers were dlftinguilhed from the foldiers by locks;
o f hair dyed yellow, intqrfperfed with the black, Upon the
fron t o f each, helmet was a filv e r ftar, at leaft.a white-metal
one, and. before the face,.down to the top of-the nofe, a flap
o f iron chain, made in the fame manner as the coat o f mail,
But only lighter, w hich ferved as a vizier. This was the
njo-ft troublefome part o f the whole, it was hot and heavy,,
1 and;