THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. s 



great fucccfs more than once, e Specially againft the Nay be 

 Mula in the reign of Yaibus I. 



The friendship of Abyffinia once fecured, and the power 

 of the Turks declining daily in Arabia, the Naybe began 

 by degrees to withdraw himfelf from paying tribute at all 

 to the bafha of Jidda, to whofe government his had been 

 annexed by the porte. He therefore received the firman as a 

 mere form, and returned trifling prefents,but no tribute; and 

 in troublefome times, or a weak government happening in 

 Tigre, he withdrew himfelf equally from paying any con- 

 sideration, either to the balha in name of tribute, or to the 

 king of Abyffinia, as marc of the cultoms. This was pre- 

 cisely his iituation when I arrived in Abyffinia. A great re- 

 volution, as we have already feen, had happened in that king- 

 dom, of which Michael had been the principal author. 

 When he was called to Gondar and made minister there, 

 Tigre remained drained of troops, and without a governor. 



Nor was the new king, Hatze Hannes, whom Michael 

 had placed upon the throne after the murder of Joas his 

 predeceffor, a man likely to infufe vigour into the new go- 

 vernment. Hannes was paft feventy at his acceffion, and 

 Michael his minifter lame, fo as fcarcely to be able to Hand, 

 and within a few years of eighty. The Naybe, a man of about 

 forty-eight, judged of the debility of the Abyffinian govern- 

 ment by thofe circumstances, but in this lie was mistaken. - 



Already Michael had intimated to him, that, the next 

 campaign, he would lay wafte Arkeeko and Mafuah, till 

 they mould be as defert as the wilds of Samhar ; and as he 

 had been all his life very remarkable for keeping his promi- 



2 . fes 



