t45 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



This was the firfl battle of Serbraxos, which, though i? 

 contained nothing decifivc, had flill two very material con- 

 fequences, as it fo daunted the fpirits of the Begemder horfe, 

 that many chiefs of that country withdrew their troops, and 

 went home, whilft fiich difcord was fown among the lead- 

 ers, that I believe they never lincerely trufted one another 

 afterwards ; Gufho and Ayabdar, in particular, were known. 

 to correfpond with the king daily. 



On the morrow after the battle, three melTengers arrived 

 from Gulho, Powuffen, and Ayabdar, and each had a fepa- 

 rate audience of the King and Ras» before whom they all 

 three feverallv declared, that their mailers defired to conti- 

 nue in allegiance to him their king, Tecla Haimanout, but 

 ■under this condition only, that Ras Michael fliould be fent 

 to his government of Tigre, never more to return. They 

 endeavoured to perfuade the king alfo to take the fenfe o£ 

 liis army, the majority of which, they aiTerted, were ready to* 

 abandon him. If Michael fliould agree to return to Tigre,. 

 they oifered to carry the king to Gondar, place him in his- 

 palace, and allow him to choofe his own minillers, and go-- 

 vern for the future after his own ideas. This, indeed, was 

 the univerfal wifh, and I did not fee what Ras Michael could; 

 have done, had he adopted it; but fear, or gratitude, or both,, 

 rellrained the young king from fuch a meafure ; and the. 

 melTengers left him after a plain declaration, That they had, 

 endeavoured all in their power to fave him, and he muft. 

 now abide the confequences, for they waflied their hands:; 

 of them. 



The rains were now become more frequent, and an epi- 

 demical fever had Ibcwa itfelf in the rebel army on the 

 I plain;; 



