96 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



king. Whether this was true or not I can.iot fay, but that 

 this, or fomething fimilar, was the cafe, feemed to be more 

 than probable from the behaviour of Gufho afterwards, dur- 

 ing the whole campaign. Amha Yafous did not come to 

 take part in the war, he only brought, in imitation of old 

 times, a tribute to the king as a teftimony of the loyalty of 

 the faithful province of Shoa ; but he was fo interelled for 

 the king, after being admitted into intimacy with him, and 

 fo pleafcd with the fociety of the young noblemen at court, 

 that he determined to come back with the command of 

 the troops of his father, and in his way force Gufho to re- 

 turn to his duty, if he was not already determined. 



He had heard, while at Shoa, from fome priefls of Debra 

 Libanos, that there was a ftrange white man in favour with 

 the king at Gondar, who could do every thing but raife the 

 dead ; it was among his firft requefts to the kmg, to make 

 him acquainted with me. The king therefore ordered me 

 to wait upon him every morning, and I, on my part, did not 

 let flip that opportunity. Infenfibly we came to be infepar- 

 able companions. Our converfation fell one day to be upon 

 the Abyflinian kings who firft lived at Shoa at the time 

 when the kingdom of Add was a great mart for the Eaft 

 Indian trade, before the difcovery of the Cape of Good Hope. 

 He faid that a book containing their hiftory, he believed, 

 was in fome of the churches in Shoa, and that he would 

 immediately fend for it. Although I could not help teftify- 

 ing my defire of having a book which I had fought for in 

 vain through the reft of the provinces of Abyflinia, yet I 

 thought it unreafonable to defire a man to fend 300 miles 

 merely for the purpofe of getting it ; I therefore did not 

 prefs it, being fatisfied with his promife ; but as my work 



would 



