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TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA. 
route also was very desolate, but he became soon in- 
sensible to hardship, " fear having entirely en- 
' 6 grossed his mind." It was constantly beset, 
he understood, by the Galla, with the view of 
plundering the numerous caravans which carried 
salt from this plain into the interior of Abyssinia. 
Accordingly, they were soon frozen with horror, 
by seeing on the road the dead bodies of a caravan 
recently massacred. Another troop, they had 
reason to believe, was in search of themselves, 
whom they missed by little more than an hour. 
Happily they escaped all these perils, and arrived 
safely at Fremona, the principal Catholic monastery 
in Abyssinia, where every thing was done to make 
them forget the hardships through which they had 
passed. 
As soon as the missionaries were recruited from 
their fatigues, they began to enter upon their spi- 
ritual functions. They soon arrived at a village 
situated upon a mountain, from the chief of which 
the known favour of the emperor secured them a 
hospitable reception. But scarcely were they seat- 
ed, when the whole neighbourhood began to echo 
with shrieks and lamentations, like those of per- 
sons involved in the most dreadful calamity. On 
inquiry, they learned that their arrival was the sole 
cause of this pitiable affliction. The inhabitants 
firmly believed, it seems, that they were the emis- 
saries of the devil, and would certainly entrap a 
few of their countrymen, whose fate they were 
