268 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



the patriarch from Rome, and the Abuna from Cairo, 

 tho' they differed in their opinion as to the two natures in 

 Chrift, did both heartily agree in the defire of erecting eccle- 

 fiaftical dominion and tyranny upon the ruins of monarchy 

 and civil power, and of effecting a total fubordination of 

 the civil government, either to the chairs of St Mark or St 

 Peter. 



In the winter, during the ceffation from work, , Socinios 

 called Paez from Gorgora to Coga, where he enlarged the 

 territory the Jefuits then had at Fremona. After which 

 he declared to him his refolution to embrace the Catholic 

 religion ; and, as Paez fays, prefented him with two letters, 

 one to the king of Portugal, the other to the pope : the 

 firft dated the ioth of December 1607, the latter the 14th of 

 October of the fame year. Thefe letters fay not a word of 

 his intended converfion, nor of fubmiffion to the fee of 

 Rome ; but complain only of the diforderly ilate of his 

 kingdom, and the conftant inroads of the Galla, earneftly 

 requefting a number of Portuguefe foldiers to free them 

 from their yoke, as formerly, under the conduct of Chrifto- 

 pher de Gama, they had delivered Abyflinia from that of 

 the Moors. 



While thefe things pafled at Coga, two pieces of intelli- 

 gence were brought to the king, both very material in 

 themfelves, but which affected him very differently. The 

 firft was, that the traitor Za Selaffe, while making one of 

 his incurfions into Gojam, had fallen into an ambufli laid 

 for him by the Toluma Galla, guardians of that province 

 on the banks of the Nile, and that thefe Pagans had flain 

 him and cut off his head, which they then prefented to the 



3 kin g> 



