408 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
true that Begemder and Amhara were in rebellion, young, 
wild, and worthlefs people, like Guebra Mehedin and 
Confu, could never be thofe pitched upon for the refpecta- 
ble office of Fit-Auraris. ‘The worft that could be, as they 
conceived, was, that fome mifunderftanding might fubfitt 
between Ras Michael and the governors above named, but 
Fafil was undoubtedly the enemy of them all. They ima- 
gined therefore that this difguft, if any, would be foon got 
over, and concluded that it was highly abfurd, in any cafe, 
to attack me, as they certainly knew that the queen, Powuflen, 
and, Gufho, would be full as ill-pleafed with it as the king 
or Ras Michael. It therefore appeared to them, as it alfo 
did to me, that thefe wild, young men, had taken the firft 
furmife of a rebellion, as a pretence for robbing all that 
came in their way, and that I, unfortunately, had been the 
firft. 
We were in the middle of this converfation when the 
parties appeared. They had, perhaps, an hundred horfe, and 
were {cattered about a large plain, fkirmifhing, playing, 
purfuing one another, fhrieking and hooping like fo many 
fiantic people. They ftopt, however, upon coming nearer, 
feeing the refpectable figure that we made, juit ready 
to pais the ford, which alone divided us. Our fervants had 
neither feen Netcho nor Adigo, when they went in the mor- 
ning, though they knew Adigo was expected, and thefe 
marauders hoped to have intercepted me, thinly accom- 
panied, as they had done my baggage. 
Guesra Mrueonin and his brother approached nearer the 
banks than the reft, and a fervant was fent from them, who 
crofled the riser to us, upbraiding Ayto Adigo with pro- 
2 tecting 
