8o TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



him, his principal friend Meherata Chriftos, to be loaded 

 with irons, and baniflied to the top of a mountain; 

 and it is hard to fay where this punifliment would have 

 ended, had not the monks of Debra Koflb and Debra Li- 

 banos, and all thofe of the defert, (who thought themfelves 

 in fome meafure accomplices with his mother), by exhorta- 

 tions, pretended prophecies, dreams and vifions, convinced 

 the king, that Providence had decreed unalterably, that 

 none but his fon, Bxda Mariam, fhould fucceed him. To 

 this ordinance the old king bowed, as it gave him a pro- 

 fpedt of the long continuance of his family on the throne of 

 Abyflinia. 



Zara Jacob was no fooner dead, than his fon, Basda Ma- 

 riam, who fucceeded him, began to apply himfelf ferioully 

 to the affairs of government. From the reign of Judith, (in 

 the tenth century), when fo many of the princes of the royal 

 family were malTacred, the cuftom of fending the royal 

 children to confinement on the top of a mountain had been 

 difcontinued. Thefe children all lived at home with their 

 refpeiflive fathers and mothers, like private perfons; and 

 the kings feemed to connive at abolifhing their former prac- 

 tice, for no mountain had been yet chofen as a fubftitute 

 to the unfortunate Damo. The difagreement between Zara 

 Jacob and his queen, with the caufe of it, and the prince's 

 franknefs and refolution, feemed to point out the necefTity 

 of reviving the falutary feverity of the ancient laws. Bscda 

 Mariam gave orders, therefore, to arreft all his brethren, and 

 fend them prifbners for life to the high mountain of Gcfien^ 

 on the confines of Amhara and Begemder, which ever after 

 l^ontinued the ilate-prifon for the royal children, till a 



flaughter. 



