THE SOURCE OF THE NILE, 475 
would be eafy; but, if I then went to Tigré, I was fully 
perfuaded I fhould never have the refolution to come again 
to Gondar. | 
He feemed to take heart at the confidence with which | 
{poke of his return. “ You, Yagoube, fays he, in a humble, 
complaining tone, could tell me, if you pleafed, whether 
I fhall or not, and what is to befal me; thofe inftruments 
and thofe wheels, with which you are conftantly looking 
at the ftars, cannot be for any ufe unlefs for prying into 
futurity.”—* Indeed, faid I, prince, thefe are things by 
which we guide fhips at fea, and by thefe we mark down 
the ways that we travel by land; teach them to people that 
never paffed them before, and, being once traced, keep them, 
thus to be known by all men for ever. But of the decrees 
of Providence, whether they regard you or myfelf, 1 know 
no more than the mule upon which you ride.”—“ Tell me 
then, I pray, tell me, what is the reafon you {peak of my re- 
turn as certain ?’—“ I {peak, faid I, from obfervation, from 
reflections that I have made, much more certain than pro- 
phecies and divinations by ftars. The firft campaign of your 
reign at Fagitta, when you was relying upon the difpofitions 
that the Ras had moft ably and fkillfully made, a drunk- 
ard, with a fingle fhot, defeated a numerous army of your 
enemies. _Powuffen and Gufho were your friends, as you 
thought, when you marched out laft, yet they had, at that 
very inftant, made a league to deftroy you at Derdera ; and 
nothing but a miracle could have faved you, {hut up be- 
tween two lakes and three armies. It was neither you nor 
Michael that difordered their councils, and made them fail 
in what they had concerted. You was for burning Sam- 
feen, whilft Woodage Afahel was there in ambufh with a 
302 large 
