Isx INTRODUCTION. 



and ten men, fo long, and fo eafily, as to enable you to un- 

 dervalue the ufeful character of a phyfician, and leek nei- 

 ther to draw money nor protection from it ? ^nd how came 

 it, that, contrary to the ufage of other travellers, at Gondar 

 you maintained a character of independence and equality, 

 efpecially at court ; inflead of crouching, living out of fight 

 as much as poffible, in continual fear of prieils, under the 

 patronage, or rather as fervant to fome men of power. 



To this fenfible and well-founded doubt I anfwer 

 with great pleafure and readinefs, as I would do to all o- 

 thers of the fame kind, if I could poffibly divine them : — It 

 is not at all extraordinary that aftranger like me, and a parcel 

 of vagabonds like thofe that were with me, mould get them- 

 felves maintained, and find at Gondar a precarious liveli* 

 hood for a limited time. A mind ever fo little poliflied and 

 inftrucled has infinite fuperiority over Barbarians, and it is 

 in circumflances like thefe that a man fees the great ad- 

 vantages of education. All ihe Greeks in Gondar were o- 

 riginally criminals and vagabonds ; they neither had, nor 

 pretended to any profefnon, except Petros the king's cham- 

 berlain, who had been a ilioemaker at Rhodes, which pro- 

 fefnon at his arrival he Carefully concealed. Yet thefe 

 were not only maintained, but by degrees, and without 

 pretending to be phyficians, obtained property, commands, 

 and places. 



Hospitality is the virtue of Barbarians, who are hofpi- 



table in the ratio that they are barbarous, and for obvious 



reafens this virtue fubfides among poliflied nations in the 



fame N proportion. If oa my arrival in Abyflinia I alTumcd 



2 a fpirit 



