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TWEE SOURCE'‘OF THE NILE. 26 
‘heard me fay a word about my particular mode of worfhip; 
and.as often as my duty has called me, I have never failed 
to attend divine fervice as it is eftablifhed in this country. 
What is ‘the ground of'fear that I fhould have, while under. 
"the king’s protection, and when I conform in every fhape 
to the laws, religion, and cuftoms of Abyflinia? True, fays - 
Tenfa Chriftos, I do not fay you fhould be alarmed; what- 
ever your faith is I would defend ‘you myfelf; the Iteghé 
knows I always {poke well of you, but will you gratify an 
old man’s curiofity, in telling me whether or-not you real 
Jy are a Frank, Catholic, or Jefuit? 
I HAVE too great a regard, replied I, to requeft of a man, fo 
truly good and virtuous as you, not to have anfwered you 
the queftion at whatever time you could have afked me; 
and I do now declare to you, by the word of a Chriftian, 
that my countrymen and I are more diftant in matters of re- 
ligion, from thefe you call Catholics , Jefuits, or Franks, than 
you and your Abyflinians are ; and that a prieft of my réli- 
gion, preaching in any country fubject to thofe Franks, 
would as certainly be brought to’the gallows as if he had 
committed murder, and juft as fpeedily as you would ftone 
a Catholic priett preaching here in the midf of Gondar. — 
They do'precifely by us as you do by them, fo they have 
no reafon ‘to complain. And, fays he, don’t you do the fame 
to them? No, replied1; every man in our country is al- 
lowed to ferve God in his own way}; and:as long as their 
teachers confine themfelves to what the facred books have 
told them, they can teach no ill, and therefore deferve no 
punifhment. No religion, indeed, teaches a man evil, but, 
when forgetting this, they preach againft government, 
curfe the king, abfolve his fubjects from allegiance, or in- 
Vor. IV. ! Li Cite 
