TJFE SOURCE OF THE MILE. 377 



ftone, which ftruck him to the ground. Two of the moun- 

 taineers immediately came up to him, one of whom 

 did not know him, and contented himfelf with ftripping 

 the body; but the other remembering his face, cut his 

 head off, and carried it to the rebel Melca Chriftos. 



The misfortune was followed by another in Gbjam, great 

 to the nation in general, and greater ilill to the Catholic 

 caufe in particular. At the time that Sela Chriftos was in 

 Begemder with prince Facilidas, the Galla from Bizamo, 

 fuppoiing the province of Damot without defence, pafied the 

 Nile, laying the whole province wafte before them. Fecur 

 Egzie, lieutenant-general under Sela Chriftos, although he 

 had with him only a fmall number of troops, did not hefi- 

 tate to march againft thofe favages, to endeavour, if poffible, 

 to ftop their ravages. The Galla, furprifed at this, thought 

 it was Sela Chriftos, and fled before him. He had now pur- 

 fued them almoft alone, and lighted in a low meadow to 

 give grafs to his horfe, when he was furrounded and {lain 

 by a number of the enemy that lay hid among the bu£hes $ 

 and difcovered how ill he was attended. 



He was reputed a man of the beft underftanding, and the 

 moil liberal fentiments of any in Ethiopia ; a great orator, ex- 

 celling both in the gracefulnefs of manner and copioufnefs 

 and purity of his language. He was among the firft that 

 embraced the Catholic religion, even before the king or Sela 

 Chriftos, and was the principal promoter of the tranllations 

 of the Portuguefe books into Ethiopic, amfted by the Jefuit 

 Antonio de Angelis. We have feen, in the year 1613, the 

 great efforts he made in the embafly to India by the coaft of 

 Melinda. He was an excellent horfeman, but more violent 



Vol. II. 3 B and 



