THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 



295 



liberation was, that it was with very great regret the good 

 of the commonweal obliged them to leave Tigre to the pro- 

 teftion of Providence alone for a time, and haften to meet 

 the enemy that were then laying Gojam wafte. 



With this view the king left Dobit, and came to the ri- 

 ver Gomara in Foggora. He then palTed the Nile near Da- 

 ra, and came to Selalo, where he heard that the Djawi had 

 pafTed the Nile from Bizamo, and entered Gojam at the op- 

 pofite fide to where he then was. He there left his bag- 

 gage, and, by a forced march, advancing three days journey 

 in one, he came to Bed, upon the river iSadi ; but, inllead of 

 finding the enemy there» he received intelligence from Scla 

 Chriilos, that he had met the Galla immediately after their 

 palling the Nile ; had fought them, and cut their army to 

 pieces, without allowing them time to ravage the coimtry. 



Upon this good news the king turned off on the road to 

 Tchegal and WainadalTa, and ordered Bela Chriftos to slC- 

 femble as great an army as he could, and fall upon the- 

 Djawi and Galla in Walaka and Shoa, as alfo Ras Sela Chri- 

 ftos, to pais the Nile and join him there. 



That general loft no time, but marched ftraight to Am- 

 ca Ohha, or the river Amca, where he found the Edjow, 

 who fled upon his coming, without giving him any oppor- 

 tunity of bringing them to an engagement, abandoning 

 their wives, children, and fubftance, to the mercy of the 

 enemy. Sela Chriftos, having .finished this expedition as he 

 intended, returned to join the king, whom he found en- 

 camped upon the river Suqua, near Debra Werk, guarding 

 tliofe provinces in the abfence of Sela Chrixtos. From this 



Ji the 



