THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. m5 
Aix the people prefent, moft of them veteran foldiers, 
and confequently inured to blood, appeared fhocked and 
difguited at this wanton piece of cruelty. For my part, a 
kind of faintifhnefs, or feeblenefs, had taken pofleflion of 
my heart, ever fince the execution of the two men on our 
march about the kantuffa; and this fecond act of cruelty 
occafioned fuch a horror, joined ‘with an abfence of mind, 
that I found myfelf unable to give an immediate anfwer, 
Si the king had a mae twice to me. 
IT was alee nine o’clock in the morning’ when we en-- 
‘tered Gondar ; every perfon we met on the {treet wore the 
countenance of a condemned malefactor; the Ras went 
immediately to the palace with the king, who retired, as 
ufual, to a kind of cage or lattice-window, where he always 
fits unfeen when in council. We were then imthe council- 
chamber, and four of the judges feated; none of the» go - 
vernors of provinces were prefent but Ras Michael, and. 
- Kafmati Tesfos of Siré.. Abba Salama was brought to the 
foot of the table without irons, at perfect liberty. ‘The 
accufer for the king (it is a poft in this country in no 
great eftimation) began the charge againft him with great 
force and eloquence: he ftated, one by one,.the crimes com-- 
mitted by him-at. different periods, the fum of which a- 
mounted to prove Salama to be the greatef{ monfter upon . 
earth: among thefe were variousykinds of murder, efpe- 
cially by poifon ;:inceft, with every degree’ collateral and. 
defcendant.. He concluded this black, horrid lft, with the 
charge of high treafon, or curfing the king, and abfolving 
his fubjects from their allegiance, which he ftated as the 
greateft crime human nature was capable of, as involving: 
im its confequences all forts of other crimes. Abba alanis 3 
VoL. se K. though: 
