TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA. 
61 
treating at length of the grandeur and importance 
of the Nile, he concludes : " This secret, with di- 
" vers others of many parts of the world, and their 
" discovery, was reserved for the indefatigable in- 
" dustry of the Portuguese, who have seen with 
" their eyes, what many have desired, but could 
* not obtain." 
In 1655, art Italian gentleman, Sig. Giacomo 
Baratti, undertook a journey to the east, and ar- 
rived at Cairo. He met here with the Abuna, 
who was about to depart, in ,order to exercise his 
ecclesiastical functions in Abyssinia. The advan- 
tage of travelling with a person of such distinction, 
appeared to Baratti a sufficient motive to give this 
direction to his wandering inclinations. They set 
out for Suez, intending to sail down the Red Sea, 
but the dread of the Turkish pirates induced them 
to take the very tedious and difficult route by land. 
It was rendered easier, however, by their joining 
the retinue of an ambassador from the Grand Sig- 
nior to the king of Abyssinia. The route lay 
chiefly over craggy mountains, where they saw on- 
ly wild beasts, entirely different from those of Eu- 
rope. They met a few straggling tents of Ara- 
bians, distinguished for nothing but " poverty and 
" misery." Their food was roots, or such wild 
beasts as they could kill ; their clothing merely the 
large leaves of a particular species of tree which 
