54<5 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



the- -capital was not equal to it. A dangerous con{\)iracy 

 was already forming at Gondar by thofe very people who 

 had perfuaded him to mount the throne, and whom he 

 had left at home, from a perfuafion that they only were to 

 be trufted with the fupport of his intereft and the govern- 

 ment in his abfence. 



Upon the firft intelligence, the king, with a chofen body 

 of troops, entered Gondar in the night, and furprifed the 

 confpirators while actually fitting in council. Ras Hezekias, 

 his prime minifter, and Heraclides, mailer of his houfehold, 

 and five others of the principal confederates, loft their ears 

 and nofes, and were thrown into prifon in fuch circum- 

 ftanccs that they could not live. Benaia Bafilc, one of the 

 principal traitors, and the moft obnoxious to the king, e- 

 fcaped for a time, having had already intelligence of Ouf- 

 tas's coming. 



The king having quieted every thing at Gondar, being 

 at peace with all his neighbours, and having no other way 

 to amufe his troops and keep them employed, fet out to 

 join the remainder of his young nobility whom he had lefc 

 in the Kolla to attack the Shangalla. 



The Shangalla were formerly a very numerous people, 

 divided into diftincl: tribes, or, as it is called, different na- 

 tions, living each fcparately in diftind territories, each un- 

 der the government of the chief of its own name, and each 

 family of that name under the jurifdidion of its ov/n chief, 

 or head. 



These 



