THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 



419 



marched a little farther, he changed his order of battle ; he 

 drew up the body of troops which he commanded, toge- 

 ther with the king, on a fiat, large hill, with two valleys 

 running parallel to the fides of it like trenches. Beyond 

 thefe trenches were two higher ridges of hills that ran along 

 the fide of them, about half a mufket-fhot from him ; the 

 valleys were foft ground which yet could bear horfes, and 

 thefe hills, on his right and on his left, advanced about 100 

 yards on each fide farther than the line of his front. The 

 grofs of thefe fide-divifions occupied the height ; but a line 

 of foldiers from them came down to the edge of the valleys 

 like wings. In the plain ground, about three hundred yards 

 directly in his front, he had placed all the cavalry, except 

 the king's body-guards drawn up before him, commanded 

 by an old officer of Mariam Barea. As prince George was 

 in the cavalry, he flrongly folicited the Ras at leafl to let 

 him remain with them, and fee them engage ; but the Ras, 

 confidering his extreme youth and natural rafhnefs, called 

 him back, and placed him befide me before the king. It. 

 was not long before the Fit-Auraris's two meffengers arri- 

 ved, running like deer along the plain, which was not abfo- 

 lutely flat, but floped gently down towards us, declining, as 

 I fhould guefs, not a fathom in fifteen. 



Their account was, that they had fallen in with Fafil's 

 Fit-Auraris ; that they had attacked him fmartly, and, though 

 the enemy were greatly fuperior, being all horfe, except a few 

 mufqueteers, had killed four of them. The Ras having firft 

 heard the meffage of the Fit-Auraris alone, he fent a man 

 to report it to the king ; and, immediately after this, he or- 

 dered two horfemen to go full gallop along the eafl fide of 

 the hill, the low road to Wainadega, to warn Kefla Yafous 



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