35 6 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



The fecond happened on the 13th year^>f the reign of 

 Claudius, as the Abyflinian account ftates it. Claudius fuc- 

 ceeded to the crown in the 1540, and the 13th vear of his 

 reign will fall to be on the 1553. Now we find f-u S eclipfe 

 did happen in the fame clear feafon of the year, ti^t is, on 

 the 24th of January 1553, lb in this fecond inlta^ ce our 

 chronology is perfectly correct. 



The thir^ eclipfe of the fun happened in the 7th year c£ 

 the reign of Yafous II. in ivu^abit, the feventh month of ttu. 

 Abvflinians. Now Yafous came to the crown in 1729, fo 

 that the 7th year of his reign will be in 1736, and on the 

 4th day of Odtober, anfwering to the 8th day of the month 

 Tekemt, N. S. in that year, we fee this eclipfe obferved in 

 Europe. 



As a further confirmation of this, we have ftated the par- 

 ticulars of a comet which, the Abyflinian annals fay, ap- 

 peared at Gondar in the month of November, in the 9th 

 year of the reign of Yafous I. and as this comet was ob- 

 ferved in Europe to have come to its perihelion in Decem- 

 ber 1689, and as that year, according to our account, was 

 really the 9 th of that king's reign, no further proof of the 

 exadnefs of our chronology can pollibly be required. By 

 means of thefe obfervations, counting backward to the rime 

 of Icon Amlac, and again forward to the death of Joas, 

 which happened in 1768, and affigning to each prince the 

 number of years that his own hiftorians fay he reigned, I 

 have, in the molt unexceptionable manner that I can devife, 

 fettled the chronology of this country; and the exacl: agree- 

 ment it hath with all the remarkable events, regularly and 

 iumciently vouched, plainly fhewsthe accuracy of this me- 



2 thod. 



