THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. iGy 



Rorting him to be wife, and make his peace in time, which 

 he fliould have upon the condition of giving him his daugh- 

 ter in marriage, and he w^ould then withdraw his army, 

 otherwife he would never leave Abyflinia till he had redu- 

 ced it to a condition of producing nothing but grafs. But 

 the king, nothing daunted, returned him for anfwer. That 

 he was an infidel, and a blafphemer, ufed as an inftrument 

 to chaflife him and his people for their many fins ; that it 

 was his duty to bear the correcTiion patiently; but that it 

 would foon happen, when this juft purpofe was anfwered, 

 that he would be dcftroyed, and all thofe with him, as fuch 

 wicked inftruments had always been ; that he the king, and 

 Abyfiinia his kingdom, would be preferved as a monument 

 of the mercy of God, who never entirely forfook his people,, 

 tliough he might chaftifc them. 



Indeed, the condition of the country was now fuch that* 

 a total dcftruc^ion feemed to be at hand ; for a famine and' 

 plague, its conftant companion, raged in Abyllmia, carrying., 

 off thofe that the fword had fpared. 



Gideon and Judith, king and queen of the Jews, in the 

 high country of Samen, after having fufiTcrcd much from 

 Gragne, had at laft rebelled and joined him ; and the king,:, 

 who it feems continued to fhew an inclijiation to the Catho- 

 lic church, which he had imbibed during tlie embafly of ■ 

 Don Rodcrigo, by this had occafioned many to fall off from.: 

 him, he and the court obferving Eader according to the; 

 Roman kalendar, while the reft of the clergy and kingdom - 

 continued firm to that of Alexandria, 



4, ATI 



