THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 



^95 



liberation was, that it was with very great regret the good 

 of the commonweal obliged them to leave Tigre to the pro- 

 tection of Providence alone for a time, and haften to meet 

 the enemy that were then laying Gojam wafle. 



With this view the king left Dobit, and came to the ri- 

 ver Gomara in Foggora. He then palled the Nile near Da- 

 ra, and came to Selalo, where he heard that the Djawi had 

 pafTed the Nile from Bizamo, and entered Goj am at the op- 

 polite fide to where he then was. He there left his bag- 

 gage, and, by a forced march, advancing three days journey 

 in one, he came to Bed, upon the river Sadi ; but, inftead of 

 finding the enemy there, he received intelligence from Sela 

 €hriftos, that he had met the Galla immediately after their 

 pafling the Nile ; had fought them, and cut their army to 

 pieces, without allowing them time to ravage the country. 



Upon this good news the king turned off on the road to- 

 Tchegal and WainadalTa, and ordered Bela Chriftos to af- 

 femble as great an army as he could, and fall upon the 

 Djawi and Galla in Walaka and Shoa, as aifo Ras Sela Chri- 

 ftos, to pafs the Nile and join him there. 



That general loft no time, but marched ftraight to Am- 

 ^Ohha, or the river Amca, where he found the Edjow, 

 who fled upon his coming, without giving him any oppor- 

 tunity of bringing them to an engagement, abandoning 

 their wives, children, and fubftance, to the mercy of the 

 enemy. Sela Chriftos, having fmifhed this expedition as he 

 intended, returned to join the king, whom he found en- 

 eamped upon the river Suqua, near Debra Werk, guarding 

 thofe provinces in the abfence of Sela Chriftos. From this 



i the 



V 



