4o3 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



true that Begemder and Amhara were in rebellion, young, 

 wild, and worthlefs people, like Guebra Mehedin and 

 Confu, could never be thofe pitched upon for the refpec.a- 

 ble office of Fit-Auraris. The worft that could be, as tfiey 

 conceived, was, that fome mimnderftanding might fubfift 

 between Ras Michael and the governors above named, but 

 Fafil was undoubtedly the enemy of them all. They ima- 

 gined therefore that this -difguft, if any, would be foon got 

 over, and concluded that it was highly abfurd, in any cafe, 

 to attack me, as they certainly knew that the queen, Powuffen, 

 and Guflio, would be full as ill-pleafed with it as the king 

 or Ras Michael. It therefore appeared to them, as it alfo 

 did to me, that thefe wild, young men, had taken the firft 

 furmife of a rebellion, as a pretence for robbing all that 

 came in their way, and that I, unfortunately, had been the 

 firft. 



We were in the middle of this converfation when the 

 parties appeared. They had, perhaps, an hundred horfe, and 

 were fcattered about a large plain, fkirmifhing, playing, 

 purfuing one another, fhrieking and hooping like fo many 

 frantic people. They ftopt, however, upon coming nearer, 

 feeing the refpeftable figure that we made, juft ready 

 to pais the ford, which alone divided us. Our fervants had 

 neither feen Netcho nor Adigo, when they went in the mor- 

 ning, though they knew Adigo was expecled, and thefe 

 marauders hoped to have intercepted me, thinly accom- 

 panied, as they had done my baggage. 



Guebra Mehedin and his brother approached nearer the 

 banks than the reft, and a fcrvant was fent from them, who 

 Crofted the river to us, upbraiding Ayto Adigo with pro- 



,2 tecting 



