216 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
them. Above all, they had been ufed to fee the effe& of | 
fire-arms, which they no longer feared as formerly, but 
boldly rufhed in upon the mufqueteers, fometimes without 
giving them time to. fire, or at leaft before they. had time ta. 
charge again.. 
- Ar‘ laft, having previoufly called in allhis out-pofts; on» 
the 13th of May he marched out of. Gondar, taking with. 
him the King and Abuna, as alfo Ozoro Efther, and Ozoro. 
Altafh her fifter, and all the other ladies about court, who. 
were in poffeflion of the great fiefs of the crown, and whom 
he obliged to perfonal attendance, as well as to bring the- 
quota of troops they were bound to by their. refpective . te-- 
nures. ify 
Tue king’s army halted upon the fame ground they had’ 
done on their return to Gondar.. They were then fuppofed | 
to be near 20,c00 foot, belonging to Tigré and its dependent. 
cies, incomparably the beft troops. of thee empire, 6000 of 
which were armed with mufquets, fix. times the number 
that all’ the reft of Abyflimia could furnih, and, confidering ~~ 
they were-all match-locks, very expert in the management. 
of them. The reft of the foot which joined them fince he 
paffed the-Tacazzé were about 10,000, befides. 2c0oo of the : 
king’s houfehold,. 500 of whieh were horfemen ; of thefe, 
few fhort of 200 were his black fervants, armed with coats 
of mail, the horfes with plates of brafs on their cheeks and 
faces, with a fharp iron {pike of about five inches in length, | 
which ftuck out in the middle of their forehead, a very trou- 
_ blefome, ufelefs piece of their armour; their bridles were 
iron chains ;- the body of-the horfe covered witha kind of 
thin quilt fluffed. with cotton, with two openings made 
: above 
