to send a letter to Janni at Adowa, by bribing one of the natives. At the same time came an officer from Janni, with a violent mandate, in the name of Ras Michael, declaring to the person that was the cause of our detention, that were it not for ancient friendship, the present messenger should have carried him to Ras Michael in irons; discharging me from all awides; ordering him as Shum of the place, to furnish me with provisions; and, in regard to the time he had caused us to lose, fixing the awides of the whole caravan at eight piasters, not the twentieth part of what he would have exacted. The Moors, with their asses, grateful for this benefit received, began to bless the moment they joined us; hoping, on my consideration, upon our arrival at the custom-house of Adowa, they might meet with further favour.

Yasine, in the four days we had stayed at Kella, had told me his whole history. It appeared he had been settled in a province of Abyssinia, near to Sennaar, called Ras el Feel; had married Abd-el-Jilleel, the Shekh's daughter; but, growing more popular than his father-inlaw, he had been persecuted by him, and obliged to leave the country. He began now to form hopes that, if I was well received, as he saw, in all appearance, I was to be, he might by my interest be appointed to his father-in-law's place, espe

cially if there was war, as everything seemed to indicate. Abdel-Jileel was a coward. Yasine was a tried man, an excellent horseman, strong, active, and of known courage, having been twice with the late king Yasous in his invasions of Sennaar, and both times much wounded there. It was impossible to dispute his title to preferment; but I had not formed that idea of my own success that I should be able to be of any use or assistance to him in it.

It was on the afternoon of the 4th that we set out from Kella; our road was between two hills covered with thick wood. On our right was a cliff or high rock of granite, on the top of which were a few houses that seemed to hang over the cliff rather than stand upon it.

We passed two hamlets, and at half-past four o'clock we came to a considerable river, called Angueah, which we crossed, and pitched our tent on the farther side of it. It was about fifty feet broad, and three in depth; it was perfectly clear, and ran rapidly over a bed of white pebbles, and was full of small fish. This river has its name from a beautiful tree, which covers both its banks. This tree, by the colour of its bark and richness of its flower, is a great ornament to the banks of the river. A variety of other flowers fill the whole level plain between the mountain and the river, and even some way up the mountain ; in

mine, white, yellow, and particoloured. The country seemed now to put on a more favourable aspect; the air was much fresher, and more pleasant, every step we advanced the country was well watered with clear running streams.

We now first began to see the high mountains of Adowa, nothing resembling in shape those of Europe, nor, indeed, any other country. Their sides were all perpendicular rocks, high, like steeples, or obelisks, and broken into a thousand different forms.

On the evening of the 5th we pitched our tent at the foot of the hill, close by a small, but rapid and clear stream, called Ribieraini, and on Wednesday, the 6th of December, we set out from Ribieraini; and, in about three hour's travelling on a very pleasant road, over easy hills and through hedge-rows of jessamine, honey-suckle, and many kinds of flowering shrubs, we arrived at Adowa, where once resided Michael Suhul, governor of Tigré.

CHAPTER VII.

From Adowa to Gondar.

ADOWA is situated on the declivity of a hill, on the west side of a small plain surrounded everywhere by mountains, and watered by three rivulets, which are never dry in the midst of

Adowa consists of about 300 houses, and occupies a much larger space than would be thought necessary for these to stand on, by reason that each house has an enclosure round it of hedges and trees. The mansion of Ras Michael is not distinguished from any of the others in the town unless by its size; it is situated upon the top of the hill. The person, who is Michael's deputy, in his absence lives in it. It resembles a prison rather than a palace; for there are, in and about it, above three hundred persons in irons, some of whom have been there for twenty years, mostly with a view to extort money from them. Most of them are kept in cages like wild beasts, and treated every way in the same manner. kind and hospitable landlord, Janni, had sent servants to conduct us from the passage of the river, and met us himself at the outer door of his house. I do not remember to have seen a more respectable figure. He had his own short white hair, covered with a thin muslin turban, a thick well-shaped beard, as white as snow, down to his waist. He was clothed in the Abyssinian dress, all of white cotton, only he had a red silk sash, embroidered with gold, abou

Our

feet; his upper garment reached down to his ankles. He had a number of servants and slaves about him of both sexes; and, when I approached him, seemed disposed to receive me with marks of humility and inferiority, which mortified me much, considering the obligations I was under to him, the trouble I had given, and was unavoidably still to give him. I embraced him with great acknowledgments of kindness and gratitude, calling him father; a title I always used in speaking either to him or of him afterwards, when I was in higher fortune, which he constantly remembered with great plea

sure.

He conducted us through a court-yard planted with jessamine, to a very neat, and, at the same time, large room, furnished with a silk sofa; the floor was covered with Persian carpets and cushions. All round, flowers and green leaves were strewed upon the outer yard; and the windows and sides of the room stuck full of evergreens, in commemoration of the Christmas festival that was at hand. I stopt at the entrance of this room; my feet were both dirty and bloody.

He was so shocked at my saying that I had performed this terrible journey on foot, that he burst into tears, uttering a thousand reproaches against the Naybe for his hardheartedness and ingratitude, as

dered Michael from going in person, and sweeping the Naybe from the face of the earth. Water was immediately procured to wash our feet. Janni insisted upon doing this himself; which made me run out into the yard, and declare I would not suffer it. This was no sooner finished, than a great dinner was brought, exceedingly well dressed. But no consideration or entreaty could prevail upon my kind landlord to sit down and partake with me. He would stand, all the time, with a clean towel in his hand, though he had plenty of servants. It was long before I cured my kind landlord of these respectful observances, nor could he ever wholly get rid of them, his own kindness and good heart, as well as particular orders of the Greek patriarch, Mark, constantly suggesting the same attention.

In the afternoon, I had a visit from the governor, a very graceful man, of about sixty years of age, tall and wellfavoured. He had just then returned from an expedition to the Tacazze, against some villages of Ayto Tesfos which he had destroyed, slain 120 men, and driven off a number of cattle. He said he doubted much if we should be allowed to pass through Wogara, unless some favourable news came from Michael; for Tesfos of Samen, who kept his government after Joas's death, and re

fused to acknowledge Michael, | or to submit to the king, acted now the part of robbers, plundering all sorts of people, that carried either provisions, or anything else, to Gondar, to distress the king and Michael's Tigré soldiers, who were then there. The church of Mariam is on a hill s.s.w. of the town, and east of Adowa; on the other side of the river is the church, called Kedus Michael.

Adowa is the seat of a very valuable manufacture of coarse cotton cloth, which circulates all over Abyssinia instead of silver money. The houses of Adowa are all of rough stone, cemented with mud instead of mortar. That of lime is not used but at Gondar, where it is very bad. The roofs are in the form of cones, and thatched with a reedy sort of grass, something thicker than wheat straw. The Jews enjoy this profession of thatching exclusively.

Throughout the neighbourhood, they have three harvests annually. Their first seed-time is in July and August; it is the principal one for wheat, which they then sow in the middle of the rains. In the same season they sow tocusso, teff, and barley. From the 20th of November they reap first their barley, then their wheat, and last of all, their teff. In room of these, they sow immediately upon the same ground, without any manure, barley, which they reap in February; and then often sow teff, but more frequently a kind of

vetch, or pea, called Shimbra; these are cut down before the first rains, which are in April. With all these advantages of triple harvests, which cost no fallowing, weeding, manure, or other expensive processes, the farmer in Abyssinia is always poor and miserable.

The province of Tigré is all mountainous; but it is not the extreme height of the mountains in Abyssinia that occasion surprise, but the number of them, and the extraordinary forms they present to the eye. Some of them are flat, thin, and square, in shape of a hearthstone, or slab, that scarce would seem to have base sufficient to resist the winds. Some are like pyramids, others like obelisks or prisms, and some, the most extraordinary of all the rest, pyramids pitched upon their points, with their base uppermost.

It was on the 10th of January 1770 I visited the remains of the Jesuits' convent of Fremona. It is built upon the even ridge of a very high hill, in the middle of a large plain, on the opposite side of which stands Adowa. It rises from the east to the west, and ends in a precipice on the east; it is also very steep to the north, and slopes gently down to the plain on the south. The convent is about a mile in circumference, built substantially with stones, which are cemented with lime-mortar. It has towers in the flanks and angles, and, not

withstanding the ill-usage it has suffered, the walls remain still entire to the height of twentyfive feet. All the walls have holes for muskets, and even now it is by far the most defensible place in Abyssinia. It resembles an ancient castle much more than a convent.

A kind of calm had at this time spread itself universally over the country, and this calm I resolved to take advantage of, and to set out immediately for Gondar; and, accordingly, on the 17th, we set out from Adowa, resuming our journey to Gondar. On the 18th, in the morning, we ascended one of these hills through a very rough stony road, and again came into the plain wherein stood Axum, once the capital of Abyssinia, at least as it is supposed. For my part, I believe it to have been the magnificent metropolis of the trading people, or Troglodyte Ethiopians, called properly Cushites.

The ruins of Axum1 are very extensive, but, like the cities of ancient times, consist altogether of public buildings. In one square, which I apprehend to have been the centre of the town, there are forty obelisks, none of which have any hieroglyphics upon them. There is

1 Axum, the ancient capital of Habbesh,

appears to have been much adorned, if not founded, by the Ptolemies. The ruins are in the Egyptian style, but the want of hieroglyphics seems to indicate, that the city was built by Egyptian artists rather than peopled obscurest parts of Abyssinian history which

by an Egyptian colony. It is one of the

relates to the building and desertion of this city.

one larger than the rest still standing, but there are two still larger than this fallen. They are all of one piece of granite, and, on the top of that which is standing, there is a patera exceedingly well carved in the Greek taste. After passing the convent of Abba Pantaleon, called in Abyssinia, Mantilles, and the small obelisk situated on a rock above, we proceed south by a road cut in a mountain of red marble, having on the left a parapet-wall above five feet high, solid, and of the same materials. At equal distances there are hewn in this wall solid pedestals, upon the tops of which we see the marks where stood the colossal statues of Syrius, the Latrator Anubis, or Dog Star. One hundred and thirtythree of these pedestals, with the marks of the statues I just mentioned, are still in their places; but only two figures of the dog remained when I was there, much mutilated, but of a taste easily distinguished to be Egyptian. These are composed of granite, but some of them appear to have been of metal. There are likewise pedestals whereon the figures of the Sphinx have been placed. Two magnificent flights of steps, several hundred feet long, all of granite, still in their places, are the only exceedingly well-fashioned, and remains of a magnificent temple. The church is a mean, small building, very ill kept, and full of pigeons' dung. In it are supposed to be preserved the ark