THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 203 



the Abyffinians, from their repeated quarrels and difputes, 

 heartily hated them all. 



The armies were drawn up and ready to engage, when 

 the chief prieft of Debra Libanos came to the king to tell 

 him a dream, or vifion, which warned him not to fight ; 

 but the Moors were then advancing, and the king on horfe- 

 back made no reply, but marched brifkly forward to the 

 enemy. The cowardly Abyffinians, upon the firft fire, fled, 

 leaving the king engaged in the middle of the Moorifh ar- 

 my with twenty horfe and eighteen Portuguefe mufque- 

 teers, who were all flain around his perfon ; and he him- 

 felf fell, after fighting manfully, and receiving twenty 

 wounds. His head was cut off, and by Nur delivered to 

 Del Wumbarea, who directed it to be tied by the hair to 

 the branch of a tree before her door, that fhe might keep 

 it conftantly in fight. Here it remained three years, till 

 it was purchafed from her by an Armenian merchant, 

 her firft grief, having, it is probable, fubfided upon the ac- 

 quifition of a new hufband. The merchant carried the 

 head to Antioch, and buried it there in the fepulchre of a 

 faint of the fame name. 



Thus died king Claudius in the 19th year of his reign, 

 who, by his virtues and capacity, might hold a firft place 

 among any feries of kings we have known, victorious in 

 every action he fought, except in that one only in which he 

 died. A great flaughter was made after this among the 

 routed, and many of the firft nobility were flain in endea- 

 vouring to efcape ; among the reft, the dreamer from De- 

 bra Lebanos, his vifion, by which he knew the king's 

 death, not having extended fo far as to reveal his own. 



Cca The 



