THE SOURCE OF THE NILE $73 
who were hid in an \unfufpected bye-place, one of which 
being detected was killed without mercy. 
Ir was now, | thought, the proper time to give Woldo a 
leffon as to the manner in which I was refolved to behave 
among the Agows, who I knew had been reduced to abfo- 
lute poverty by Fafil after the battle of Banja. I told him, 
that fince the king had given me the {mall territory of Geeth, 
I was refolved to take up.my abode there for fome time; 
and alfo, to make my coming more agreeable, it was my in- 
tention for that year to difcharge them of any taxes which 
they paid the king, or their fuperior Fafil, in whofe places I 
then ftood. “ Stay, fays Woldo, don’t be in fuch a hurry, fee 
firft how they behave.”—* No, faid I, I will begin by teaching 
them how to behave; I will not wait till their prefent mifery 
prompts them to receive ill (as they very naturally will do) 
a man who comes, as they may think, wantonly for curiofity 
only, to take from them and their ftarved families the little 
Fafil has left them: the queftion.I afk you then is briefly 
this, Do you conceive yourfelf obliged to obey me, as to 
what I fhall judge neceflary to dire you to do, during my 
journey to Geefh and back again?” He anfwered, By all 
means, or he could never elfe return to his mafter Fafil. 
“ This, then, faid I, is the line of conduct I mean to purfue 
while I am among the Agows; you fhall have money to buy 
every thing; you {hall have money, or prefents, or both, to — 
- pay thofe that ferve us, or that fhew us any kindnefs, and 
when we {hall join your mafter Fafil (as 1 hope we fhall do 
together) you thall tell him that I have received his maje- 
fty’s rent of the Agows of Geefh, and I will enter a receipt 
for it in the king’s deftar, or revenue-book at Gondar, if 
we fee him there, as I.expect we fhall, upon my return. I, 
3 : moreover, 
