THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 165 



iiorting him to be wife, and make his peace in time, which 

 he fhould have upon the condition of giving him his daugh- 

 ter in marriage, and he would then withdraw his army, 

 otherwife he would never leave Abyflinia till he had redu- 

 ced it to a condition of producing nothing but grafs. But 

 the king, nothing daunted, returned him for anfwer, That 

 he was an infidel, and a blafphemer, ufed as an inflrument 

 to chaflife him and his people for their many fins ; that it 

 was his duty to bear the correction patiently; but that it 

 would foon happen, when this juft purpofe was anfwered, 

 that he would be deftroyed, and all thofe with him, as fuch 

 wicked inflruments had always been ; that he the king, and: 

 Abyflinia his kingdom, would be preferred as a monument, 

 of the mercy of God, who never entirely forfook his people^ 

 though he might chaflife them. 



Indeed, the conditionof the country was now fuch that 

 a total deflruction feemed to be at hand ; for a famine and' 

 plague, its conflant companion, raged in Abyflinia, carrying: 

 off thofe that the fword had fpared. 



Gideon and'Judith, king and queen of the Jews, in the 

 high country of Samen, after having fuffered much from 

 Gragne, had at lafl rebelled and joined him ; and the king ? 

 who it feems continued to mew an inclination to the Catho- 

 lic church, which he had imbibed during the embafly of: 

 Don Roderigo, by this had occaiioned many to fall off from ■ 

 him, he and the court obferving Eafler according to the 

 Roman kalendar, while the reft of the clergy and kingdom 

 continued firm to that of Alexandria, 



te At 



