THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 445 



rifle being confounded with another, we may hardly con- 

 clude the 9th year of Yafous the Firft to be the year 1689 of 

 Chrift, fuch as our chronology, drawn from the Abyffinian 

 annals, Hates it to be ; or, at leafl, if there is any error, it muft 

 be fo fmall as to be of no fort of confequence to any fort 

 of readers, or influence upon the narrative of any tranfac- 

 tions. 



The loth year began with a fudden and violent alarm, 

 which fpread itfelf in an inftant all over the kingdom 

 without any certain authority. The Galla with an innumer- 

 able army were faid to have entered Gojam, at feveral 

 places, and laid wafte the whole province, and this was the 

 more extraordinary, as the Nile was now in the height of 

 its inundation. On his march, the king learned that this 

 flory arofe merely from a panic ; and this formidable army 

 turned out no more than a fmall band of robbers of that 

 nation, who had paflfed the river in their ufual way, part 

 on horfebaek, while the foot were dragged over, hanging at 

 the horfes tails, or riding on goats fkins blown up with 

 wind. This fmall party had .furprifed fome Vv'cak villages, 

 killed the inhabitants, and immediately returned acrofs the 

 river. But the alarm continued, and there were people at 

 Gondar who were ready to fwear they faw the villages and 

 churches on fire, and a large army of Galla in their march 

 to Ibaba, at the fame time that there was not one Galla on 

 the Gojam fide of the riven 



The king, however, either confidering this fmall body of 



Galla coming at this unfeafonable time, and the panic that 



was fo artificially fpread, as a feint to throw him off liis 



guard when a real invafion might be intended, or with a 



3 view 



