THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. y s 



with his family, endeavouring, if poffible, to reach Adel ; 

 and having come the length of Bawa Amba, a high moun- 

 tain, where is one of the narrower! and moil difficult panes 

 between the high country and the Kolla, here he flrowed 

 about, in different places, all the riches that he had brought 

 along with him, in hopes that his purfuers, wearied by the 

 time they came there, mould, by the difficulty of the ground, 

 and the booty everywhere to be found, be induced to pro- 

 ceed no further. But this ftratagem did not fucceed ; for 

 he was fo clofely followed that he was overtaken and flain, 

 his head, hands, and feet were cut off, and immediately fent 

 to the king, who, after public rejoicings, gave the govern- 

 ment of Gadai to the perfon who firft informed him of Mi- 

 hicO"s confpiracy, and confirmed the governor of Bomo in 

 the province of Hadea likewife, which he made hereditary 

 in his family. In order alfo to be more in readinefs to fup- 

 prefs fuch infurrections for the future, he gave his Chri- 

 ftian foldiers lands adjacent to each other, forming a line 

 all along the frontiers of the Mahometan provinces of Ba*° 

 li, Fatigar, Wadge, and Hadea, that they might be ready 

 at an inflant to fupprefs any tumult in the provinces them- 

 felves,, or refill any incurfions from the kingdom of Adel. 



The king now fet about fulfilling another duty of his 

 reign, that of repairing the feveral churches in Abyflinia 

 which had been deftroyed in the late war by the Mahome- 

 tans, and of building new ones, which it is their conftant 

 cuftom to vow and to erect where victories had been ob- 

 tained over an infidel enemy. While thus employed, news 

 were fent him from the patriarch of Alexandria, that the 

 church of the Virgin had been deftroyed at that city by 

 fsre. Full, therefore, of grief for this misfortune, he imme- 



K 2 diatelv 



