244 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



After thefe appointments, which were not difputed with 

 him, though otherwife very much againft the king's incU- 

 nation, Fafil retired with his army to Maitiha. 



In the mean time, Gufho fet every thing to fale, content 

 with the money the offices produced, and what he could 

 fqueeze from people who had crimes, real or alledged, to 

 compound for. He did not perceive that fteps were taking 

 by his enemies which would foon deprive him of all the ad- 

 vantages he enjoyed. Inllead of attending to this, he amu- 

 fed himlelf with mortifying the Iteghe,whofe daughter,Wel- 

 leta Ifrael, he had formerly married, but who had long left 

 him by the perfuafion of her mother. He thought it was an 

 affront to his dignify that the king had pardoned Likaba 

 Beecho, and Palambaras Mammo, the very day after he had 

 forbid them to enter the town ; and, what was ftill ftronger, 

 that the king, without his confent, had fent an invitation to 

 the Iteghc to return to Gondar, and govern, as his mother, 

 to the extent Ihe did in the time of Joas ; he refolved there- 

 fore to attempt the creating a mifunderftanding between 

 the king and queen, a matter not very difficult in itfelf to 

 bring about. 



Gdsho had confifcated, in the name of the king, all the 

 queen's villages, which made her believe that this offer of 

 the king to bring her to Gondar was an iniidious one. In 

 order to make the breach the wider, he had alfo prevailed 

 upon the king's mother to come to Gondar, and infill with 

 her fon to be crowned, and take the title and fcate of Iteghp. 

 The king was prevailed upon to gratify his mother, under 

 pretence that the Iteghe had refufed to come upon his in- 

 vitation ; but this, as it was a pretence only, fo it was ex- 



prefsly 



