4 3o TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



fence of his king, taken forcibly from the chancellor of- 

 the nation *, and made a Mahometan before their eyes. 



The Abyfiinian embafly then demanded from France, 

 and recommended to M. de Maillet, was a prefumptuous, 

 vain, impracticable chimera, which mult have ended in dif- 

 appointment, and which never could have clofed more in- 

 nocently than it did. 



I shall pafs over all that happened during Poncet's flay- 

 at Gondar, as he did not underftand the language, and mufl 

 therefore have been very liable to miftake. But as for 

 what he fays of armies of 300,000 men ; of the king's drefs 

 at his audience; of his mourning in purple; of the quantity 

 of jewels he had, and wore; of his having but one wife; and 

 of large Hone-crofTes being erected on the corners of the 

 palace at Gondar ; thefe, and feveral other things, feem to 

 me to have been fuperadded afterwards. Nor do I think 

 what is faid of the churches and Chriflians remaining in 

 the kingdom of Dongola, nor the monftrous lie about the 

 golden rod fufpended in the air in the convent of Bifan f, 

 is at all the narrative of Poncet, but of fome fanatic, lying 

 friar, into whofe pofTefTion Poncet's manufcript might have 

 fallen. The journey itfelf, fuch as I have reftored it, is cer- 

 tainly genuine; and, as I believe it defcribes the bell and fa- 

 fell way into Abyflinia, I have reclined fome of the few er- 

 rors it had, and now recommend it "to all future travellers, 

 and to the public. 



This 



* By Chancellor of the Nation is meant the officer immediately next the conful, who keeps 

 the records, and has a department abfolutely independent of the Conful. 

 f Vid. Poncet. 



