126 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
both thefe are produced in abundance in the province. They 
are great novices, however, in dyeing ; the plant called Suf 
produces the only colour they have, which is yellow. In 
order to obtain a blue, to weave as a border to their cotton 
clothes, they unravel the blue threads of the Marowt, or 
blue cloth of Surat, and then weave them again with the 
thread which they have dyed with the fuf. 
Tr was on the roth of January 17 7ol vifited the remains 
of the Jefuits convent of Fremona. It is built upon the even 
ridge of a very high hill, in the middle of a large plain, on 
the oppofite fide of which ftands Adowa. It rifes from the 
eaft to the weft, and ends in a precipice on the eaft; it is 
alfo very fteep to the north, and flopes gently down to the ~ 
plain on the fouth. The convent is about a mile in circum- 
ference, built fubftantially with ftones, which are cemented 
with lime-morter. It has towers in the flanks and angles; 
and, notwithftanding the ill-ufage it has fuffered, the 
walls remain ftill entire to the height of twenty-five feet. 
It is divided into three, by crofs walls of equal height. The 
firft divifion feems to have been deflined for the convent, 
the Middle for the church, and the third divifion is {epara- 
ted from this by a wall, and ftands upon a precipice. It 
feems to me as if it was defigned for a place of arms. All 
the walls have holes fer mufkets,; and, even now, it is by 
far the moft defenfible place in Abyffinia. It refembles an 
ancient caftle much more than a convent. 
T can fcarce conceive the reafon whythefe reverend fathers 
mufreprefent and mifplace this intended capital of Catholic ~ 
Abyffinia. Jerome Lobo calls this convent a colleCtion of 
miferable villages. Others place it fifty miles, when it is 
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