THE SOURCEOF THE NILE. 285 



"backs, the fatteft and bed of all the pigeon kind Waalia 

 lies due N. W. from Gondar. 



HAviNG'finifhed our dinner, or rather fupper, about feven, 

 for we made but one meal a- day, after taking care of our 

 beads, we entered into confultation what was next to be 

 done. I told tliem, the firft ftep we were to take was to fend 

 and call the Shum of one of the villages, and after him an- 

 other, and if, knowing me to be the king's ftranger, feeing 

 the fmallnefs of our number, and being informed that we 

 were going to Tcherkin, to the houfe of Ay to Confu, their 

 mailer, they did not tell us there were dangers on the road, 

 we might be fure the intelligence we had received was 

 void of foundation. " Sir, fays one of the llrangers that drove 

 the alTes, it is a lie. No man but Ayto Confu, not even Ay- 

 to Confu himfelf, could raife 500 men in this country; no 

 not even 300, Pagans, Mahometans, and Chriflians altogether. 

 Where is he to get his Pagans r unlefs he means his own 

 Chriftian fort, who, indeed, are more Pagans than any thing 

 elfe, and capabk of every mifchief ; but there is not a Ma- 

 hometan on this road that does not know who you are, and 

 that you was Yafme's mailer, and gave him Ras el Feel. Stay 

 here but a few days till I fend to Ras el Feel, and to 7cher- 

 kin, and if you do not take the houfes and v/ives, and all that 

 thefe five hundred men have in the world from them, with 

 the helpyou may find atWaalia, fpit upon me for a liar, ormy 

 name is not Abdullah" " Abdullah, faid I, you are a fenfi- 

 ble fellow, though I did not know you was fo well ac- 

 quainted with me, nor do I wifli that you fpeak of me in 

 that manner publickly. But what convinces me of the 

 truth of what you fay is, that the man on foot had no more 

 time but to fay to me, in Arabic, while pafiing, that his com- 



N n 2 panion 



