THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 179 
cording to his natural inclination (efpecially towards fol- 
diers) he had beftowed them liberally, and I believe im- 
partially. Guebra-Mafcal had not appeared; he was wait- 
ing upon his uncle Ras Michael, looking after his own in- 
tereft, to which no Abyflinian is blind, and expofing thofe 
bloody {poils, which I have juft mentioned, to the Ras, his 
uncle and general, 
I wap been abfent from another motive, the attendance 
on my friend Engedan, to whofe tent I had removed my 
bed, as he complained of great pain in his wound, and 
I had likewife obtained leave of the Ras to fhift my tent 
near that of his, and leave the care of the king’s horfe to 
Laeca Mariam, an old flave and confidential fervant of the 
..~ king.” 
As thefe men were the king’s menial fervants in his pa- 
Jace, a number of them (about a fourth) ftaid at Gondar 
with the horfes, and few more than 100 to 120 could now 
be muftered, from about 200 or 204 which they at firft were : 
the arranging of this, attendance upon Ayto Engedan,and fe- 
- veral delays in getting accefs to the Ras, who had all his 
troops of Tigre round him, made it paft eight o’clock in the 
evening before I could fee the king after he entered the 
camp; he had many times fent in fearchof Sertza Deng- 
hel, but no fuch perfon could-be found; he had been feen 
bravely fighting by Engedan’s fide in the entrance of the 
valley, when that young nobleman was wounded, and he 
had retired with him from the field, but nobody could give 
any account of him, and the king, by his repeated inquiries 
after him, fhewed more anxiety, from the fuppofition he 
was loft, than he had done for Guebra Chriftos his uncle, 
Li 2 or 
