22i TRAVELS TO DISCOVER- 



young in court, when their fathers fled, after the murder 

 of the late king their mailer, were better Chriftians and 

 better foldiers than any Abyflinians we had. 



It is not a matter of fmall curiofity to know what is their 

 food, that is fo eafy of carriage as to enable them to traverfe 

 immenfe deferts, that they may, without warning, fall up- 

 on the towns and villages inthe cultivated country of Abyf- 

 finia. This is nothing but coffee roafled, till it can be.puL- 

 verifed, and then mixed with butter to a confiftency that 

 will fuffer it to be rolled up in balls, and put in a leather 

 bag. A ball of this compofition, between the circumferr- 

 ence of a milling and half-a-crown, about the iize of a 

 billiard-ball, keeps them, they fay, in ftrength and fpirits 

 during a whole day's fatigue, better than a loaf of bread, or 

 a meal of meat. Its, name in. Arabia and Abyffinia is Bun, 

 but I apprehend its true name is Caffe, from Caffe the fouth 

 province of Narea, whence it is firft faid to have come ; it is 

 white in the bean. The coffee-tree is the wood of the 

 country, produced fpontaneoufly everywhere in great a*- 

 bundance, from Caffa to the banks of the Nile. 



Thus much for- this remarkable nation, whole language 

 is perfectly different from any in Abyffinia, and is the fame 

 throughout all the tribes, with very little variation, of diar 

 left. This is a nation that has conquered fome of the fineft 

 provinces of Abyffinia, and of whofe inroads we mail hem- 

 after have oc canon to fpeak continually ; and it is very dif- 

 ficult to fay how far they might not. have accomplifhed-the 

 conqueil of the whole, had not providence interpofed in a 

 manner little expected, but more efficacious than a thoufand 

 ?jrmies,, and all the inventions of man. 



TH2 



