THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 259 



was anxious to keep him always in fight, without regarding 

 the ground through which his eagernefs led him. Several 

 days the two armies marched fide by fide in fight of each 

 other, till they came to Debra Tzait, or the Mountain of 

 Olives. There Jacob halted ; he then advanced a little fur- 

 ther, and feeing Socinios encamped, he did the fame in a low 

 and very difadvantageous poll on the banks of the river 

 Lebart. 



Socinios having now obtained his dcfire, early in the 

 morning of the I oth of March 1607 fell fuddenly upon Ja- 

 ^ob cooped up in a low and narrow place, which gave him 

 no opportunity of availing himfeif of his numbers. Jacob 

 foon found that he was over-reached by the fuperior gene- 

 ralfhip of his enemy. Socinios's troops were fo ftrongly 

 polled, that Jacob's foldiers found thcmfelvcs in a number 

 of ambulhes they had not forcfcen, fo that, fighting or fly- 

 ing being equally dangerous to them, his whole army was 

 nearly dcftroyed in the field, or in the flight, which was 

 moft ardently and vigoioufly followed till -night, with little 

 lofs on the part of Socinios. 



This battle, decifivc enough by the route and difpei-fion 

 of the enemy, became ilill more fo from two circumflan- 

 ces attending it : The firll was the death of his competitor, 

 who fell unknown among a herd of common foldiers in the 

 beginning of the adrion, without having performed, in his 

 own perfon, any thing worthy of the charader he had to 

 fuftain, or that could enable any fpeftator to give an ac- 

 count in what place he fell ; the confequence of which was, 

 that he was thought to be alive many years afterwards. 

 The fecond was the death of the Abuna Petros. This prieft 



K k 2 had 



