THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 73 



All the people prefent, moft of them veteran foldiers, 

 and confequently inured to blood, appeared fliocked and 

 difgufted at this wanton piece of cruelty. For my part, a 

 kind of faintilhnefs, or feeblenefs, had taken poireUion of 

 my heart, ever fmce the execution of the two men on our 

 march about the kantuffa ; and this fecond act of cruelty 

 occaiioned fuch a horror, joined with an abfence of mind, 

 that I found myfelf unable to give an immediate anfwer, 

 though the king had fpoken twice to me. 



It was about nine o'clock in the morning when we en<- 

 tered Gondar ; every perfon we met on the itreet wore the 

 countenance of a condemned malcfador; the Ras went 

 immediately to the palace with the king, who retired, as 

 ufual, to a kind of cage or lattice-window, where he always 

 fits unfeen when in counciL We were then in the council- 

 chamber, and four of the judges feated ; none of the go- 

 vernors of provinces were prefent but Ras Michael, and * 

 Kafmati Tcsfos of Sire. Abba Salama was brought to the 

 foot of the table without irons, at perfe(fl: liberty. The 

 accufer for the king (it is a port in this country in no 

 great eflimation) began the charge againft him with great 

 force and eloquence: he ftated, one by one, the crimes com- 

 mitted by him at different periods, the fum of which a- 

 mounted to prove Salama to be the gjreateft monfter upon 

 earth : among thefe were various kinds of murder, efpe- 

 cially by poifon ; inceft, v/ith every degree collateral and ; 

 defcendant. He concluded this black, horrid lift, with t!ie 

 charge of high treafon, or curfing the king, and abfolving 

 iiis fubjec5ts from their allegiance, which he ftated as the ■ 

 greateft crime human nature was capable of, as involving .; 

 in its confequences all forts of other crimes. x'\bba Salama, .. 

 Vol. IV. K - though ^ 



