34 



TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



feafon, and, having filtered through the loofe earth, has 

 reached the fand and gravel, where it flagnates, or finds 

 flowly its level to the' fea. Here the king was taken dan- 

 geroxilly ill with the fever of the Kolla. •' 



The altercations between Amda Sion and his foldiers,. 

 and the refolutions taken in confequence- of thefe, were 

 faithfully carried to the king of Adel. The march of the 

 king forward at fuch a feafon of the year, the flow pace 

 with which he advanced towards the very heart of the 

 country, the care he took of providing all necefTaries for 

 his army, and his reinforcing it at fuch a feafon, all, mew- 

 ed this was no partial, fudden incurfion, but that it was 

 meant as a decifive blow, fatal to the independence of thefe 

 petty fovereigns and ftates, To this it may be added, that 

 Gimmel-eddin, whom the king had releafecr from prifon, 

 and fet over the Moorifh provinces of Abymnia, conveyed to 

 them, in the moll direcT: manner, that fuch were the king's 

 purpofes. He told them, moreover, this marcrr into their 

 country was not either to increafe their tribute, or for the 

 fake of plunder, or to force them.' to be his fubjects ; that" 

 Amda Sion's main deUgn was againft their religion, which 

 he and his foldiers had vowed they were to deftroy ; that, 

 it was not their time to think of peace or tribute upon any 

 terms ; for, were they even to fell their wives and children, 

 the price would not be accepted, unlefs they forfook the 

 religion of their fathers, and embraced 'Chriftianity. He 

 further added, that his refolution was already taken, that he 

 would die firm in the faith,„a good Mahometan, as he had 

 lived ; not tamely, however, but in the middle of his ene- 

 mies ; and that he was now making every fort of prepara- 

 tion to refift to the lateft breath* 



No 



