THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 2S5 



lieard me fay a word about my particular mode of worfliip; 

 and as often as my duty has called me, I have never failed 

 to attend divine fervicc as it is eftablifhed in this country. 

 What is the ground of fear that I Ihould have, while under 

 the king's protedlion, and when I conform in every fhapc 

 . to the laws, religion, and cuftoms of AbyfUnia ? True, fays 

 Tenfa Chriftos, I do not fay you fhould be alarmed ; what- 

 ever your faith is I would defend you myfelf ; the Iteghe 

 knows I always fpoke well of you, but will you gratify an 

 old man's curiofity, in telling me whether or not you real- 

 ly are a Frank, Catholic, or Jefuit ? 



I HAVE too great a regard, replied I, to requefl; oF a man, fo 

 -truly good and virtuous as you, not to have anfwered you 

 the queflion at whatever time you could have afked me; 

 and I do now declare to you, by the word of a Chriftian, 

 that my countrymen and I are more diftant in matters of re- 

 ligion, from thefe you call Catholics, Jefuits, or Franks, than 

 you and your AbylTinians are ; and that a prieft of my reli- 

 gion, preaching in any country fubjed: to thofe Franks, 

 would as certainly be brought to the gallows as if he had 

 committed murder, and jull as fpeedily as you would ftone 

 a Catholic prieft preaching here in the midft of Gondar. 

 They do precifely by us as you do by them, fo they have 

 no reafon to complain. And, fays he, don't you do the fame 

 to them ? No, replied I ; every man in our country is al- 

 lowed to ferve God in his own way ; and as long as their 

 teachers confme themfelves to what the facred books have 

 told them, they can teacli no ill, and therefore deferve no 

 punifhment. No religion, indeed, teaches a man evil, but 

 when forgetting this, they preach againft government, 

 curfe the king, abfolve his fubjeds from allegiance, or in- 

 Vqu IV. L 1 cit<; 



