THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 17^ 



cording to his natural inclination (efpecially towards fol- 

 diers) he had beflowed them liberally, and I believe im- 

 partially. Guebra Mafcal had not appeared ; he was wait- 

 ing upon his uncle Ras Michael, looking after his own in- 

 tereft, to which no Abyffinian is blind, and expofmg thofe 

 bloody fpoils, which I have juft mentioned, to the Ras, his 

 uncle and general. 



I HAD been abfent from another motive, the attendance 

 on my friend Engedan, to whofe tent I had removed my 

 bed, as he complained of great pain in his wound, and 

 I had likewife obtained leave of the Ras to fliift my tent 

 near that of his, and leave the care of the king's horfc to 

 Laeca Mariam, an old Have and confidential fervant of the 

 king. 



As thefe men were the king's menial fervants in his pa- 

 lace, a number of them (about a foiu'th) {laid at Gondar 

 with the horfes, and few more than 100 to 120 could now 

 be muftered, from about 200 or 204 which they at firft were : 

 the arranging of this, attendance upon Ayto Engedan, and fe*- 

 veral delays in getting accefs to the Ras, who had all his 

 troops of Tigre round him, made it pafl eight o'clock in the 

 evening before I could fee the king after he entered the 

 camp ; he had many times fent in fearch of Sertza Deng- 

 hel, but no fuch perfon could be found ; he had been fcen 

 bravely fighting by Engedan's fide in the entrance of the 

 valley, when that young nobleman was wounded, and he 

 had retired with him from the field, but nobody could give 

 any account of him, and the king, by his repeated inquiries 

 after him, fliewed more anxiety, from the fuppolttion he 

 was loll:, than he had done for Guebra Chrifios his uncle, 



Z 2 or 



