670 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



Michael condu6led him into the prefence of the khig, 

 where, in a manner unbecoming a fovercign, and which 

 Joas's fucceiTor would not have permitted, he killed the 

 pTound, and declared himfelf a vaffal of Abyiiinia. The 

 king affigned him a large revenue, and put him in pof- 

 fefTion of the government of Ras el Feel upon the frontier 

 of Sennaar, where Ras Welled de I'Oul advifed him to wait 

 patiently till the dilTcnfions that then prevailed at court 

 were quieted, when Michael Ihould have orders to rein- 

 ftate him in his kingdom. This was a wife counfcl, but 

 he to whom it was given was not wife, and therefore did 

 not follow it. After fome fhort flay at Ras el Feel he was 

 decoyed from this place of refuge by the intrigues of Adc- 

 lan, and brought to truft himfelf in Atbara, where he was 

 betrayed and taken prifoncr by Welled HafTen, Shekh of 

 Teawa, and murdered by him in Teawa privately, as we 

 lliall hereafter fee, two years after his flight from Gondar. 



At this time, Ras Welled de TOul's death was a fignal for 

 all parties to engage. Nothing had withheld them but his 

 prudence and authority; and from that time began a 

 fcenc of civil blood, which has continued ever fmce, was in 

 its full vigour at the time when I was in Abyiiinia, and 

 without any profpedl that it would ever have an end. 



The great degree of power to which the brothers and 

 their Galla arrived ; the great affe6tion the king fhewcd 

 to them, owing to their ha\'ing early infet^cd him with 

 their bloody and faithlcfs principles, gave great alarm to 

 the queen and her relations, whofe influence they were 

 every day diminifhing. The laft llroke, the death of Wel- 

 led de I'Oul, fcemed to be a fatal one, and to threaten the 

 I entire 



