21^ TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



Menas was a prince of a very morofe and violent difpo- 

 fition, but very well adapted to the time- in which he hved-; 

 brave in his perfon, adive and attentive to the affairs of 

 government. He was fober, and an enemy to all forts of 

 pieafure ; frugal, and, in his drefs or ftile of living, littife' 

 different from any foldier in his army. 



These qualities made him feared by the great, without 

 being beloved by the common foldiers accuftomed to the 

 liberality and magnificence of Claudius ; and this want of 

 popularity gave theRomifli priells an opportunity to blacken 

 his charadter beyond what in truth he deferved. Thus, they 

 fay, that he had changed his religion during his imprifon- 

 ment, and turned Mahometan, and that it. was from tlie 

 Moors he learned that ferocity of manners. But to this the 

 anfwer is eafy,That the manners of his own countrymen, that 

 is of mountaineers without any profeillon but war and blood, 

 in which they had been exercifed for centuries, were, pro- 

 bably of themfelves, much more fierce and barbarous than 

 any he could learn among the people of Adel, occupied 

 from time immemorial in commerce and the purfuit of 

 riches, and ncceffarily engaged in an honeft intercourfe,"and 

 pracftice of hofpitality, with all the various nations that tra- 

 ded with them. Befides, were this otherwife, he never had 

 any fociety with thefe Moors. Baiiifhment to the top of a 

 mountain* would have been his fate in Abyffmia, had he 

 lived a few years earlier or later than he did. Yet the 

 mountain upon which the royal family was conilncd hid 

 not yet produced one of fuch favage manners ; and it is not 



probable . 



* To GeQien or Wecline. 



