Ah 
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 283 
backs, the fatteft and beft of all the pigeon kind. Waalia 
lies due N. W. from Gondar. 
Havine finithed our dinner, or rather fupper, about feven, 
for we made but one meal a-day, after taking care of our 
beafts, we entered into confultation what was next to be 
done. I told them, the firft ftep we were to take was to fend - 
and call the Shum of one of the villages, and after him an- 
other, and if, knowing me to be the king’s ftranger, feeing 
the fmallnefs of our number, and being informed that we 
were going to Tcherkin, to the houfe of Ayto Confu, their 
matter, they did not tell us there were dangers on the road, 
we might be fure the intelligence we had received was 
void of foundation. “Sir, fays one of the ftrangers that drove 
the affes, itis alie. No man but Ayto Confu, not even Ay- 
to Confu himfelf, could raife s00 men in this country; no 
‘noteven 300, Pagans, Mahometans, and Chriftians altogether. 
Where is he to get his Pagans? unlefs he means his own 
Chriftian fort, who, indeed, are more Pagans than any thing 
elfe, and capable of every mifchief; but there is not a Ma- 
hometan on this road that does not know who you are, and 
that ‘you was Yafine’s mafter, and gave him Ras el Feel. Stay 
here but a few days till I fend to Ras el Feel, and to Tcher- 
kin, and if you do not take the houfes and wives, and all that 
thefe-five hundred men have in the world from them, with 
the helpyou may find atWaalia, {pit upon me for a liar, ormy 
name is not Abdullah.” “Abdullah, faid I, you are a fenf- 
ble fellow, though I did not know you was fo well ac- 
quainted with me, nor do I wifh that you {peak of me in 
that manner publickly. But what convinces me of the 
truth of what you fay is, that the man on foot had no more 
time but to fay to me, in Arabic, while pafling, that his com- 
Nna2 ‘panion 
