212 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



Menas was a prince of a very morofe and violent difpo- 

 fition, but very well adapted to the time in which he lived; 

 brave in his perfon, active and attentive to the affairs o£ r 

 government. He was fober, and an enemy to all forts of 

 pleafnre ; frugal, and, in his drefs or ftile of living, little 

 different from any foldier in his army* 



These qualities made him feared by the great, without 

 being beloved by the common foldiers accuftomed to the 

 liberality and magnificence" of Claudius ; and this want of 

 popularity gave the Romifh priefls an opportunity to blacken 

 his character beyond what in truth he deferved. Thus, they 

 fay, that he had changed his religion during his imprifon- 

 ment, and turned Mahometan, and that it was from the 

 Moors he learned that ferocity of manners. But to this the 

 anfwer is eafy,That the manners of his own countrymen, that 

 is of mountaineers without any profeflion but war and blood; 

 in which they had been exercifed for centuries, were, pro^ 

 bably of themfelves, much more fierce and barbarous than 

 any he could learn among the people of Adel^. occupied 

 from time immemorial in commerce and the purfuit of 

 riches, and neceffarily engaged in an honefl intercourfe, and 

 practice of hofpitality, with all the various nations that tra*. 

 ded with them. Befides, were this otherwife, he never had 

 any fociety with thefe Moors. Banifhment to the top of a 

 mountain * would have been his fate in Abyflinia, had he 

 lived a few years earlier or later than he did. Yet the 

 mountain upon which the royal family was confined had 

 not yet produced one of fueh favage manners ; and it is not 



probable 



*ToGeQienorWechae. 



