BOOK III.

ANNALS OF ABYSSINIA,

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL:

CONTAINING THE HISTORY OF THE ABYSSINIANS, FROM THE

RESTORATION OF THE LINE OF SOLOMON TO THE DEATH OF

SOCINIOS, AND THE DOWNFALL OF THE ROMISH RELIGION.

[Illustration]

ICON AMLAC.

From 1268 to 1283.

_Line of Solomon restored under this Prince--He continues the

Royal Residence in Shoa--Tecla Haimanout dies--Reasons for the

Fabrication of the supposed Nicene Canon_.

Although the multiplicity of names assumed by the kings of Abyssinia,

and the confusion occasioned by this custom, has more than once been

complained of in the foregoing sheets, we have here a prince that is

an exception to this practice, otherwise almost general. Icon Amlac

is the only name by which we know this first prince of the race of

Solomon, restored now fully to his dominions, after a long exile his

family had suffered by the treason of Judith. The signification of his

name is, “Let him be made our sovereign,” and is apparently that which

he took upon his inauguration or accession to the throne; and his name

of baptism, and bye-name or popular name given him, are both therefore

lost.

Although now restored to the complete possession of his ancient

dominions, he was too wise all at once to leave his dutiful kingdom of

Shoa and return to Tigré. He continued to make Tegulat, the capital of

Shoa, his seat of the empire, and there reigned fifteen years.

In the 14th year of the reign of this prince, his great benefactor,

Abuna Tecla Haimanout, founder of the Order of Monks of Debra Libanos,

and restorer of the Royal family, died at that monastery in great

reputation and very advanced age. He was the last Abyssinian ordained

Abuna; and this sufficiently shews the date of that canon I have

already spoken of, falsely said to be a canon of the council of Nicea.

Though Le Grande and some others have pretended to be in doubt at what

time, and for what reason, this canon could have been made, I think

the reason very plain, which fixes it to the time of Tecla Haimanout,

as well as shews it to be a forgery of the church of Alexandria,

no doubt with the council and advice of this great statesman Tecla

Haimanout. Egypt was fallen under the dominion of the Saracens; the

Coptic patriarch, and all the Christians of the church of Alexandria,

were their slaves or servants; but the Abyssinians were free and

independent, both in church and state, and a mortal hatred had followed

the conquest from variety of causes, of which the persecution of the

Christians in Egypt was not one of the least. As it was probable that

these reasons would increase daily, the consequence which promised

inevitably to follow was, that the Abyssinians would not apply to

Alexandria, or Cairo, for a metropolitan sent by the Mahometans, but

would choose a head of their own, and so become independent altogether

of the chair of St Mark. As they were cut off from the rest of the

world by seas and deserts almost inaccessible, as they wanted books,

and were every day relaxing in discipline, total ignorance was likely

to follow their separation from their primitive church, and this could

not end but in a relapse into Paganism, or in their embracing the

religion of Mahomet.

This prohibition of making any of their countrymen Abuna, secured them

always a foreigner, and a man of foreign education and attachments, to

fill the place of Abuna, and by this means assured the dependence of

the Abyssinians upon the patriarch of Alexandria. This is what I judge

probable, for I have already invincibly shewn, that it is impossible

this canon could be one of the first general Council; and its being in

Arabic, and conceived in very barbarous terms, sufficiently evinces

that it was forged at this period.

[Illustration]

IGBA SION.

From 1283 to 1312.

_Quick Succession of Princes--Memoirs of these Reigns deficient._

To Icon Amlac succeeded Igba Sion, and after him five other princes,

his brothers, Bahar Segued, Tzenaf Segued, Jan Segued, Haseb Araad,

and Kedem Segued, all in five years. So quick a succession in so few

years seems to mark very unsettled times. Whether it was a civil war

among themselves that brought these reigns to so speedy a conclusion,

or whether it was that the Moorish states in Adel had grown in power,

and sought successfully against them, we do not know. One thing only

we are certain of, that no molestation was offered by the late royal

family of Lasta, who continued in peace, and firm in the observation

of their treaty. I therefore am inclined to think, that a civil war

among the brothers was the occasion of the quick succession of so many

princes; and that in the time when the kingdom was weakened by this

calamity, the states of Adel, grown rich and powerful, had improved

the occasion, and seized upon all that territory from Azab to Melinda,

and cut off the Abyssinians entirely from the sea-coast, and from an

opportunity of trading directly with India from the ports situated upon

the ocean. And my reason is, that, in a reign which speedily follows,

we find the kingdom of Adel increased greatly in power, and Moorish

princes from Arabia established in little principalities, exactly

corresponding with the southern limits of Abyssinia, and placed between

them and the ocean; and we see, at the same time, a rancour and hatred

firmly rooted in the breasts of both nations, one of the causes of

which is constantly alledged by the Abyssinian princes to be, that the

Moors of Adel were anciently their subjects and vassals, had withdrawn

themselves from their allegiance, and owed their present independence

to rebellion only.

To these princes succeeded Wedem Araad, their youngest brother, who

reigned fifteen years, probably in peace, for in this state we find the

kingdom in the days of his successor; but then it is such a peace that

we see it only wanted any sort of provocation from one party to the

other, for both to break out into very cruel, long, and bloody wars.

[Illustration]

AMDA SION.

From 1312 to 1342.

_Licentious beginning of this King’s Reign--His rigorous

Conduct with the Monks of Debra Libanos--His Mahometan Subjects

rebel--Mara and Adel declare War--Are defeated in several

Battles, and submit._

Amda Sion succeeded his father, Wedem Araad, who was youngest brother

of Icon Amlac, and came to the crown upon the death of his uncles.

He is generally known by this his inauguration name; his Christian

name was Guebra Mascal. His reign began with a scene as disgraceful

to the name of Christian as it was new in the annals of Ethiopia,

and which promised a character very different from what this prince

preserved ever afterwards. He had for a time, it seems, privately loved

a concubine of his father, but had now taken her to live with him

publicly; and, not content with committing this sort of incest, he, in

a very little time after, had seduced his two sisters.

Tegulat[1] (the capital of Shoa) was then the royal residence; and

near it the monastery of Debra Libanos, founded by Tecla Haimanout

restorer of the line of Solomon. To this monastery many men, eminent

for learning and religion, had retired from the scenes of war that

desolated Palestine and Egypt. Among the number of these was one

Honorius, a Monk of the first character for piety, who, since, has been

canonized as a saint. Honorius thought it his duty first to admonish,

and then publicly excommunicate the king for these crimes.

It should seem that patience was as little among this prince’s virtues

as chastity, as he immediately ordered Honorius to be apprehended,

stripped naked, and severely whipped through every street of his

capital. That same night the town took fire, and was entirely consumed,

and the clergy lost no time to persuade the people, that it was the

blood of Honorius that turned to fire whenever it had dropt upon the

ground, and so had burnt the city. The king, perhaps better informed,

thought otherwise of this, and supposed the burning of his capital was

owing to the Monks themselves. He therefore banished those of Debra

Libanos out of the province of Shoa. The mountain of Geshen had been

chosen for the prison wherein to guard the princes of the male-line of

the race of Solomon, after the massacre by Esther[2], upon the rock

Damo in Tigré.

Geshen is a very steep and high rock, in the kingdom of Amhara,

adjoining to, and under the jurisdiction of Shoa. Hither the king

sent Philip the Itchegué, chief of the monastery of Debra Libanos,

and he scattered the rest through Dembea, Tigré, and Begemder, (whose

inhabitants were mostly Pagans and Jews), where they greatly propagated

the knowledge of the Christian religion.

This instance of severity in the king had the effect to make all ranks

of people return to their duty; and all talk of Honorius and his

miracles was dropt. The town was rebuilt speedily, more magnificently

than ever, and Amda Sion found time to turn his thoughts to correct

those abuses, to efface the unfavourable impression which they had made

upon the minds of his people at home, and which, besides, had gained

considerable ground abroad.

It has been before mentioned, and will be further inculcated in the

course of this history as a fact, without the remembrance of which

the military expeditions of Abyssinia cannot be well understood, that

two opposite seasons prevail in countries separated by a line almost

imperceptible; that during our European winter months, that is, from

October to March, the winter or rainy season prevails on the coast of

the ocean and Red Sea, but that these rains do not fall in our summer,

(the rainy season in Abyssinia), which was the reason why Amda Sion

said to his mutinous troops, he would lead them to Adel or Aussa, where

it did not rain, as we shall presently observe.

The different nations that dwell along the coast, both of the Red Sea

and of the ocean, live in fixed huts or houses. We shall begin at the

northmost, or nearest Atbara. The first is Ageeg, so named from a small

island on the coast, opposite to the mountains of the Habab, Agag, or

Agaazi, the principal district of the noble or governing Shepherds,

as is before fully explained, different in colour and hair from the

Shepherds of the Thebaid living to the northward. Then follow the

different tribes of these, Tora, Shiho, Taltal, Azimo, and Azabo, where

the Red Sea turns eastward, towards the Straits, all woolly-headed,

the primitive carriers of Saba, and the perfume and gold country. Then

various nations inhabit along the ocean, all native blacks, remnants of

the Cushite Troglodyte, but who do not change their habitations with

the seasons, but live within land in caves, and some of them now in

houses.

In Adel and Aussa the inhabitants are tawny, and not black, and have

long hair; they are called Gibbertis, which some French writers of

voyages into this country say, mean Slaves, from Guebra, the Abyssinian

word for slave or servant. But as it would be very particular that a

nation like these, so rich and so powerful, who have made themselves

independent of their ancient masters the Abyssinians, have wrested so

many provinces from them, and, from the difference of their faith, hold

them in such utter contempt, should nevertheless be content to call

themselves their slaves, so nothing is more true, than that this name

of Gibberti has a very different import. Jabber, in Arabic, the word

from which it is derived, signifies the _faith_, or the _true faith_;

and Gibberti consequently means the _faithful_, or the _orthodox_,

by which name of _honour_ these moors, inhabiting the low country of

Abyssinia, call each other, as being constant in their faith amidst

Christians with whom they are at perpetual war.

There is no current coin in Abyssinia. Gold is paid by weight; all

the revenues are chiefly paid in kind, viz. oxen, sheep, and honey,

which are the greatest necessaries of life. As for luxuries, they are

obtained by a barter of gold, myrrh, coffee, elephants teeth, and a

variety of other articles which are carried over to Arabia; and in

exchange for these is brought back whatever is commissioned.

Every great man in Abyssinia has one of these Gibbertis for his

factor. The king has many, who are commonly the shrewdest and most

intelligent of their profession. These were the first inhabitants of

Abyssinia, whom commerce connected with the Arabians on the other side

of the Straits of Babelmandeb, with whom they intermarry, or with one

another, which preserves their colour and features, resembling both

the Abyssinians and Arabians. In Arabia, they are under the protection

of some of their own countrymen, who being sold when young as slaves,

are brought up in the Mahometan religion, and enjoy all the principal

posts under the Sherriffe of Mecca and the Arabian princes. These are

the people who at particular times have appeared in Europe, and who

have been straightway taken for, and treated as Ambassadors.

More southward and westward are the kingdoms of Mara, Worgla, and

Pagoma, small principalities of fixed habitations by the sea, at times

free, at others dependent upon Adel; and, to the south of these, in the

same flat country, is Hadea, whose capital is Harar, and governed by a

prince, who is a Gibberti likewise; and who, by marrying a Sherriffa,

or female descendant of Mahomet, is now reckoned a Sherriffe or noble

of Mahomet’s family, distinguished by his wearing habits, for the most

part green, and above all a grass-green turban, a mark of hatred to

Christianity.

The Gibbertis, then, are the princes and merchants of this country,

converted to the Mahometan faith soon after the death of Mahomet, when

the Baharnagash (as we have already stated) revolted from the empire

of the Abyssinians, in whose hands all the riches of the country are

centered. The black inhabitants are only their subjects, hewers of wood

and drawers of water, who serve them in their families at home, take

care of their camels when employed in caravans abroad, and who make the

principal part of their forces in the field.

But there are other inhabitants still besides these Gibbertis and

native blacks, whom we must not confound with the indigenous of this

country, how much soever they may resemble them. The first of these are

by the Portuguese historians called _Moors_, who are merchants from

the west of Africa. Many of these, expelled from Spain by Ferdinand

and Isabella, fixed their residence here, and were afterwards joined

by others of their Moorish brethren, either exiles from Spain, or

inhabitants of Morocco, whom the desire of commerce induced first to

settle in Arabia, till the great oppressions that followed the conquest

of Egypt and Arabia, under Selim and Soliman, interrupted their

trade, and scattered them here along the coast. These are the Moors

that Vasques de Gama[3] met at Mombaza, Magadoxa, and Melinda; at all

places, but the last of which, they endeavoured to betray him. These

also were the Moors that he found in India, having no profession but

trade, in every species of which they excelled.

The fourth sort are Arabian merchants, who come over occasionally to

recover their debts, and renew correspondences with the merchants of

this country. These are the richest of all, and are the bankers of the

Gibbertis, who furnish them funds and merchandise, with which they

carry on a most lucrative and extensive trade into the heart of Africa,

through all the mountains of Abyssinia to the western sea, and through

countries which are inaccessible to camels, where the ass, the mule,

and, in some places, oxen, are the only beasts used in carriage.

There is a fifth sort, almost below notice, unless it is for the

mischief they have constantly done their country; they are the

Abyssinian apostates from Christianity, the most inveterate enemies it

has, and who are employed chiefly as soldiers. While in that country

they are not much esteemed, though, when transported to India, they

have constantly turned out men of confidence and trust, and the best

troops those eastern nations have.

There is a sixth, still less in number than even these, and not

known on this Continent till a few years before. These were the

Turks who came from Greece and Syria, and who were under Selim, and

Soliman his son, the instruments of the conquest of Egypt and Arabia;

small garrisons of whom were everywhere left by the Turks in all

the fortresses and considerable towns they conquered. They are an

hereditary kind of militia, who, marrying each other’s daughters,

or with the women of the country, continue from father to son to

receive from Constantinople the same pay their forefathers had from

Selim. These, though degenerate in figure and manners into an exact

resemblance to the natives of the countries in which they since lived,

do still continue to maintain their superiority by a constant skill

and attention to fire-arms, which were, at the time of their first

appearance here, little known or in use among either Abyssinians or

Arabians, and the means of first establishing this preference.

It has been already observed, that the Mahometan Moors and Arabs

possessed all the low country on the Indian Ocean, and opposite to

Arabia Felix; and being, by their religion, obliged to go in pilgrimage

to Mecca, as also by their sole profession, which was trade, they

became, by consequence, the only carriers and directors of the commerce

of Abyssinia. All the country to the east and north of Shoa was

possessed and commanded chiefly by Mahometan merchants appointed by

the king; and they had established a variety of marts or fairs from

Ifat, all the way as far as Adel.

Adel and Mara were two of the most powerful kingdoms which lie on the

Indian Ocean; and, being constantly supported by soldiers from Arabia,

were the first to withdraw themselves from obedience to the king of

Abyssinia, and seldom paid their tribute unless when the prince came

to raise it there with an army. Ifat, Fatigar, and Dawaro, were indeed

originally Christian provinces; but, in weak reigns, having been ceded

to Moorish governors, for sums of money, they, by degrees, renounced

both their religion and allegiance.

From what has been observed, the reader will conceive, that where it

is said the king, from his capital in Shoa, marched down into Dawaro,

Hadea, or Adel, that he then descended from the highest mountains down

to the flat country on the level with the sea. That this country, from

Hadea to Dawaro, having been the seat of war for ages, was, partly

by the soldier for the use of the camp, partly by the husbandman

for the necessaries of life, cleared of wood, where the water stood

constantly in pools throughout the year; and, being all composed of

fat black earth, which the torrents bring down from the rainy country

of Abyssinia, was sown with millet and different kinds of grain in the

driest ground, while, nearer the mountains, they pastured numerous

herds of cattle. Notwithstanding, however, the country was possessed

of these advantages, the climate was intensely hot, feverish, and

unhealthy, and, for the most part, from these circumstances, fatal to

strangers, and hated by the Abyssinians.

Again, when it is said that the king had marched to Samhar, it is meant

that he had passed this fruitful country, and is come to that part of

the zone, or belt, (nearest the sea) composed of gravel; which, though

it enjoys neither the water nor the fruitfulness of the black earth,

is in a great measure free from its attendant diseases, and here the

cities and towns are placed, while the crop, oxen, and cattle, are in

the cultivated part near the mountains, which in the language of the

country is called _Mazaga_, signifying _black mould_.

Lastly, when he hears the army murmuring at being kept during the

rainy season in the Kolla below, he is to remember, that all was

cool, pleasant, and safe in Upper Abyssinia. The soldiers, therefore,

languished for the enjoyment of their own families, without any other

occupation but merriment, festivity, and every species of gratification

that wine, and the free and uncontrouled society of the female-sex,

could produce.

Having now sufficiently explained and described the various names and

inhabitants, the situation, soil, and climate of those provinces about

to be the theatre of the war, I shall proceed to declare the occasion

of it, which was nothing more than the fruit of those prejudices which,

I have already said, the loose behaviour of the king in the beginning

of his reign had produced among his neighbours, and the calamities

which had enfeebled the kingdom in the preceding reigns.

It happened that one of those Moorish factors, whom I have already

described, having in charge the commercial interests of the king,

had been assassinated and robbed in the province of Ifat, when the

King was busied with Honorius and his Monks. Without complaining or

expostulating, he suddenly assembled his troops, having ordered them to

rendezvous at Shugura upon the frontiers, and, to shew his impatience

for revenge, with seven[4] horsemen he fell upon the nearest Mahometan

settlements, who were perfectly secure, and put all he found in his way

to the sword without exception. Then placing himself at the head of his

army, he marched, by a long day’s journey, straight to Ifat, burning

Hungura, Jadai, Kubat, Fadise, Calise, and Argai, towns that lye in

the way, full of all sorts of valuable merchandise, and, finding no

where a force assembled to oppose him, he divided his army into small

detachments, sending them different ways, with orders to lay the whole

countries, where they came, waste with fire and sword, while he himself

remained in the camp to guard the spoil, the women, and the baggage.

The Moors, astonished at this torrent of desolation, which so suddenly

had broken out under a prince whom they had considered as immersed

in pleasure, flew all to arms; and being informed that the king was

alone, and scarcely had soldiers to guard his camp, they assembled

in numbers under the command of Hak-eddin, governor of Ifat, who had

before plundered and murdered the king’s servant. They then determined

to attack Amda Sion early in the morning, but luckily two of his

detachments had returned to the camp to his assistance, and joined him

the very night before.

It was scarcely day when the Moors presented themselves; but, far from

surprising the Abyssinians buried in sleep, they found the king with

his army ranged in battle, who, without giving them time to recover

from their surprise, attacked them in person with great fury; and

singling out Derdar, brother to Hak-eddin, animating his men before

the ranks, he struck him so violently with his lance that he fell

dead among his horse’s feet, in the sight of both armies; whilst the

Abyssinian troops pressing every where briskly forward, the Moors took

to flight, and were pursued with great slaughter into the woods and

fastnesses.

After this victory, the king ordered his troops to build huts for

themselves, at least such as could not find houses ready built. He

ordered, likewise, a great tract of land contiguous to be plowed and

sown, meaning to intimate, that his intention was to stay there with

his army all the rainy season.

The Mahometans, from this measure, if it should be carried into

execution, saw nothing but total extirpation before their eyes;

they, therefore, with one consent, submitted to the tribute imposed

upon them; and the king having removed Hak-eddin, placed his brother

Saber-eddin in his stead, and the rainy season being now begun,

dismissed his army, and returned to Tegulat in Shoa.

Though the personal gallantry of the king was a quality sufficient of

itself to make him a favourite of the soldiers, his liberality was not

less; all the plunder got by his troops in the field was faithfully

divided among those who had fought for him; nor did he ever pretend to

a share himself, unless on occasions when he was engaged in person,

and then he shared upon an equal footing with the principal officers.

When returned to the capital, he shewed the same disinterestedness and

generosity which he had done in the field, and he distributed all he

had won for his share among the great men, whom the necessary duties

of government had obliged to remain at home, as also amongst the poor,

and priests for the maintenance of churches; and, as well by this, as

by his zeal and activity against the enemies of Christianity, he became

the greatest favourite of all ranks of the clergy, notwithstanding the

unpromising appearances at the beginning of his reign.

The rainy season in Abyssinia generally puts an end to the active part

of war, as every one retires then to towns and villages to screen

themselves from the inclemency of the climate, deluged now with daily

rain. The soldier, the husbandman, and, above all, the women, dedicate

this season to continued festivity and riot. These villages and

towns are always placed upon the highest mountains. The valleys that

intervene are soon divided by large and rapid torrents. Every hollow

foot-path becomes a stream, and the valleys between the hills become

so miry as not to bear horse; and the waters, both deep and violent,

are too apt to shift their direction to suffer any one on foot to

pass safely. All this season, and this alone, people sleep in their

houses in safety; their lances and shields are hung up on the sides of

their hall, and their saddles and bridles taken off their horses; for

in Abyssinia, at other times, the horses are always bridled, and are

accustomed to eat and drink with this incumbrance. It is not, indeed,

the same sort of bridle they use in the field, but a small bit of iron

like our hunting-bridles, on purpose merely to preserve them in this

habit. The court, and the principal officers of government, retire to

the capital, and there administer justice, make alliances, and prepare

the necessary funds and armaments, which the present exigencies of the

state require on the return of fair weather.

Amda Sion was no sooner returned to Tegulat, than the Moors again

entered into a conspiracy against him. The principal were Amano king

of Hadea, Saber-eddin, whom the king had made governor of Fatigar,

and privately, without any open declaration, Gimmel-eddin governor in

Dawaro. But this conspiracy could not be hid from a prince of Amda

Sion’s vigilance and penetration. He concealed, however, any knowledge

of the matter, lest it should urge the Moors to commence hostilities

too early. He continued, therefore, with diligence, and without

ostentation of any particular design, to make the ordinary preparations

to take the field on the approaching season. This, however, did not

impose upon the enemy. Whether from intelligence, or impatience of

being longer inactive, Saber-eddin began the first hostilities, by

surprising some Christian villages, and plundering and setting fire to

the churches before the rains had yet entirely ceased.

Those that have written accounts of Abyssinia seem to agree in

extolling the people of that country for giving no belief to the

existence or reality of witchcraft or sorcery. Why they have fixed on

this particular nation is hard to determine. But, as for me, I have no

doubt in asserting, that there is not a barbarous or ignorant people

that I ever knew of which this can be truly said; but certainly it

never was less true than when said of Abyssinians. There is scarce a

monk in any lonely monastery, (such as those in the hot and unwholesome

valley of Waldubba), not a hermit of the many upon the mountains, not

an old priest who has lived any time sequestered from society, that

does not pretend to possess charms offensive and defensive, and several

methods by which he can, at will, look into futurity. The Moors are

all, to a man, persuaded of this: their arms and necks are loaded with

amulets against witchcraft. Their women are believed to have all the

mischievous powers of fascination; and both sexes a hundred secrets of

divination. The Falasha are addicted to this in still a greater degree,

if possible. It is always believed by every individual Abyssinian,

that the number of hyænas the smell of carrion brings into the city of

Gondar every night, are the Falasha from the neighbouring mountains,

transformed by the effect and for the purposes of inchantment. Even the

Galla, a barbarous and stranger nation, hostile to the Abyssinians, and

differing in language and religion, still agree with them in a hearty

belief of the possibility of practising witchcraft, so as to occasion

sickness and death at a very great distance, to blast the harvests,

poison the waters, and render people incapable of propagating their

species.

Amano, king of Hadea, had one of these conjurers, who, by his knowledge

of futurity, was famous among all the Mahometans of the low country.

The king of Hadea himself had gone no further than to determine to

rebel; but whether he was to go up to fight with Amda Sion in Shoa, or

whether greater success would attend his expecting him in Hadea, this

was thought a doubt wholly within the province of the conjurer, who

assured Amano, his master, that if he did remain below, and wait for

Amda Sion, in Hadea, that prince would come down to him, and in one

battle lose his kingdom and his life.

The king, whose principal view was to prevent the conjunction of the

confederates, and, if possible, to fight them separately, did not stay

till his whole army was assembled, but, as soon as he got together a

body of troops sufficient to make head against any one of the rebels,

he sent that body immediately on the service it was destined for, in

order to disappoint the general combination.

A large number of horse and foot (whose post was in the van of the

royal army when the king marched at the head of it) was the first

ready, and, without delay, was sent against Amano into Hadea, under

the command of the general of the cavalry. This officer executed the

service on which he was sent with the greatest diligence possible,

having the best horses, and strongest and most active men in the army;

by long marches, he came upon the king of Hadea, surprised him before

his troops were all assembled, gave him an entire defeat, and made him

prisoner. However ill the conjurer had provided for the king’s safety,

he seems to have been more attentive to his own; great search was made

for him by order of Amda Sion, but he was not to be found, having very

early, upon the first sight of the king’s troops, fled and hid himself

in Ifat.

The next detachment was sent against Saber-eddin in Fatigar. The

governor of Amhara commanded this, with orders to lay the whole

country waste, and by all means provoke Saber-eddin to risk a battle,

either before or after the junction of the troops which were to march

thither from Hadea. But when the king was thus busy with the Moors,

news were brought him that the Falasha had rebelled, and were in arms,

in very great numbers. The king ordered Tzaga Christos, governor of

Begemder, to assemble his troops with those of Gondar, Sacalta, and

Damot, and march against these rebels before they had time to ruin the

country; and having thus made provision against all his enemies, Amda

Sion proceeded with the remainder of his army to Dawaro.

Hydar was governor in this province for the king, who, though he shewed

outwardly every appearance of duty and fidelity, was, notwithstanding,

deep in the conspiracy with Saber-eddin, and had close correspondence

with the king of Adel, whose capital, Aussa, was not at a great

distance from him.

The king kept his Easter at Gaza, immediately upon the verge of the

desert; and, being willing to accustom his troops to action and

hardship, he left his tents and baggage behind with the army; and,

secretly taking with him but twenty-six horsemen, he made an incursion

upon Samhar, destroying all before him, and staying all night, tho’ he

had no provisions, in the middle of his enemies, without so much as

lying down to sleep, slacking his belt, or taking off any part of his

armour.

The king was no sooner gone than the army missed him, and was all in

the greatest uproar. But, having finished his expedition, he joined

them in the morning, and encamped again with them. On his arrival, he

found waiting for him a messenger from Tzaga Christos, with accounts

that he had fought successfully with the Falasha, entirely defeated

them, slain many, and forced the rest to hide themselves in their

inaccessible mountains. Immediately after this intelligence, Tzaga

Christos, with his victorious army, joined the king also.

These good tidings were followed by others equally prosperous from

Hadea and Fatigar. They were, that the king’s army in those parts had

forced Saber-eddin to a battle, and beaten him, taken and plundered his

house, and brought his wife and children prisoners; and that the troops

had found that country full of merchandise and riches of all kinds;

that they were already laden and incumbered with the quantity to such a

degree, that they were all speaking of disbanding and retiring to their

houses with riches sufficient for the rest of their lives, although a

great part of the country remained as yet untouched, and, therefore,

it was requested of the king in all diligence to enter it on his side

also, and march southward till both armies met. Immediately upon this

message, the king, having refreshed his troops, and informed them of

the good prospects that were before them, decamped with his whole army,

and entered the province of Ifat.

When Saber-eddin saw the king’s forces were joined, that he had

no allies, and that it was, in the situation of his army, equally

dangerous to stay or to fly, he took a resolution of submitting himself

to the king’s mercy; but, first, he endeavoured to soften his anger,

and obtain some assurances through the mediation of the queen. The

king, however, having publicly reproved the queen for offering to

intermeddle in such matters, and growing more violent and inflexible

upon this application, there remained no alternative but that of

surrendering himself at discretion. Whereupon Saber-eddin threw himself

at the king’s feet. The soldiers and by-standers, far from being moved

at such a sight, with one voice earnestly besought the king, that the

murderer of so many priests, and the profaner and destroyer of so many

Christian churches, should instantly meet the death his crimes had

merited. The king, however, whose mercy seems to have been equal to his

bravery, after having reproved him with great asperity, and upbraided

him with his cruelty, presumption, and ingratitude, ordered him only to

be put in irons, and committed to a close prison. At the same time, he

displaced Hydar, governor of the province of Dawaro, of whose treason

he had been long informed; and he invested Gimmel-eddin, Saber-eddin’s

brother, with the government of the Mahometan provinces, who, as he

pretended, had not been present at the beginning of the war, but had

preserved his allegiance to the king, and dissuaded his brother from

the rebellion.

While the king was thus settling the government of the rebellious

provinces, he received intelligence that the kings of Adel and Mara had

resolved to march after him into Shoa when he returned, and give him

battle.

At this time the king was encamped on the river Hawash, at the head

of the whole army, now united. This news of the hostile intentions of

the kings of Adel and Mara, so exasperated him, that he determined

to enlarge his scheme of vengeance beyond the limits he had first

prescribed to it. With this view, he called the principal officers

of his army together, while he himself stood upon an eminence, the

soldiers surrounding him on all sides. Near him, on the same eminence,

was a monk, noted for his holiness, in the habit in which he celebrated

divine service. The king, in a long speech pronounced with unusual

vehemence, described the many offences committed against him by the

Mahometan states on the coast. The ringleaders of these commotions,

he declared, were the kings of Adel and Mara. He enumerated various

instances of cruelty, of murder, and sacrilege, of which they had been

guilty; the number of priests that they had slain, the churches that

they had burned, and the Christian women and children that they had

carried into slavery, which was now become a commerce, and a great

motive of war. They, and they only, had stirred up his Mahometan

subjects to infest the frontiers both in peace and war. He said, that,

considering the immense booty which had been taken, it might seem that

avarice was the motive of his being now in arms, but this, for his

own part, he totally disclaimed. He neither had nor would apply the

smallest portion of the plunder to his own use, but considered it as

unlawful, as being purchased with the blood and liberty of his subjects

and brethren, the meanest of whom he valued more than the blood and

riches of all the infidels in Adel. He, therefore, called them together

to be witnesses that he dedicated himself a soldier to Jesus Christ;

and he did now swear upon the holy eucharist, that, though but twenty

of his army should join with him, he would not turn his back upon Adel

or Mara, till he had either forced them to tribute and submission, or

extirpated them, and annihilated their religion.

He then entered the tent-door, and took the sacrament from the hands

of the monk, in presence of the whole army. All the principal officers

did the same, and every individual of the army, with repeated shouts,

declared, that they acceded to, and were bound by, the oath the king

then had made. A violent fury spread in this instant through the whole

army; they considered that part of the king’s speech as a reproach,

which mentioned the spoils they had taken to have been bought by the

blood of Christians, their brethren. Every hand laid hold of a torch,

and, whether the plunder was his own or his fellow-soldiers, each

man set fire, without interruption, to the merchandise that was next

him. The whole riches of Ifat and Hadea, Fatigar and Dawaro, were

consumed in an instant by these fanatics, who, satisfied now that they

were purged from the impurity which the king had attributed to their

plunder, returned poor to their standards, but convinced in their own

conscience of having now, by their sacrament and expiation, become the

soldiers of Christ, they thirsted no longer after any thing but the

blood of the inhabitants of Adel and Mara.

Soon after, Amda Sion heard that the Moors had attacked his army in

Ifat two several nights, and that his troops had suffered greatly, and

with difficulty been able to maintain themselves in their camp. The

king was then upon his march when he heard these disagreeable news; he

hastened, therefore, immediately to their relief, and encamped at night

in an advantageous post, short of his main army, with a view of taking

advantage of this situation, if the Moors, as he expected, renewed

their attack that night for the third time.

The Abyssinians, to a man, are fearful of the night, unwilling to

travel, and, above all, to fight in that season, when they imagine

the world is in possession of certain genii, averse to intercourse

with men, and very vindictive, if even by accident they are ruffled or

put out of their way by their interference. This, indeed, is carried

to so great a height, that no man will venture to throw water out

of a bason upon the ground, for fear that, in ever so small a space

the water should have to fall, the dignity of some elf, or fairy,

might be violated. The Moors have none of these apprehensions, and

are accustomed in the way of trade to travel at all hours, sometimes

from necessity, but often from choice, to avoid the heat. They laugh,

moreover, at the superstitions of the Abyssinians, and not unfrequently

avail themselves of them. A verse of the Koran, sewed up in leather,

and tied round their neck or their arms, secures them from all

these incorporeal enemies; and, from this known advantage, if other

circumstances are favourable, they never fail to fight the Abyssinians

at or before the dawn of the morning, for in this country there is no

twilight.

The Moors did not, in this instance, disappoint the king’s expectation;

as they, with all possible secrecy, marched to the attack of the camp,

while the king, having refreshed his troops, put himself in motion

to intercept them; and they were now arrived, and engaged in several

places with very great vigour. The camp was in apparent danger, though

vigorously defended. At this moment the king, with his fresh troops,

fell violently upon their rear; and, it being known to the Moors that

this was the king, they withdrew their army with all possible speed,

carrying with them a very considerable booty.

The success which had followed these night expeditions, above all,

the small loss that had attended the pursuit, even after they were

defeated, from the perfect knowledge they had of the country, inspired

them with a resolution to avoid pitched battles, but to distress and

harrass the king’s army every night. They accordingly brought their

camp nearer than usual to the king’s quarters. This began to be felt by

the army, which was prevented from foraging at a great distance; but

provisions could not be dispensed with. The king, therefore, detached

a large body of horse and foot that had not been engaged or fatigued.

The greatest part of the foot he ordered to return with the cattle

they should have taken, but the horse, with each a foot-soldier behind

him, he directed to take post in a wood near a pool of water, where

the Moorish troops, after an assault in the night, retired, and took

refreshments and sleep by the time the sun began to be hot. The Moors

again appeared in the night, attacked the camp in several places, and

alarmed the whole army; but, by the bravery and vigour of the king, who

every where animated his troops by his own example, they were obliged

to retreat a little before morning, more fatigued, and more roughly

handled, than they had hitherto been in any such expedition.

The king, as if equally tired, followed them no further than the

precincts of his camp; and the Moors, scarcely comforted by this

forbearance after so great a loss, retreated to receive succour of

fresh troops as usual, and enjoy their repose in the neighbourhood of

shade and water. They had, however, scarce thrown aside their arms,

disposed of their wounded in proper places, and begun to assuage their

thirst after the toils of the assault, when the Abyssinian horse,

breaking through the covert, came swiftly upon them, unable either to

fight or to fly, and the whole body of them was cut to pieces without

one man escaping.

The king, upon return of his troops, began to consider, and, by

combining various circumstances in his mind, to suspect strongly, that,

from the Moors attacking him, as they had for some time lately done,

always in the most unfavourable circumstances, there must be some

intelligence between his camp and that of the enemy. Upon examining

more particularly into the grounds of this suspicion, three men of

Harar (who had long attended the army as spies) were discovered, and

being convicted, were carried out, and their heads cut off at the

entrance of the camp; after which the king, who now found himself

without an enemy in these parts, struck his tents, and returned to Gaza

in Dawaro.

This movement of Amda Sion’s had more the appearance of opening a

campaign than the closing of one, and occasioned great discontent among

the soldiers, who had done their business, and were without an enemy,

just at that time that the rains fall so heavy, and the country becomes

so unwholesome as to make it unadvisable to keep the field. They,

therefore, remonstrated by their officers to the king, that they must

return to their houses for the several months of winter which were to

follow; and that, after the fatigues, dangers, and hardships they had

undergone for so many months, to persist in staying longer at such a

season in this country was equal to the condemning them to death.

Gimmel-eddin, moreover, the new-appointed governor, insisted with

Amda Sion, that he was able enough himself to keep all the tributary

provinces in peace, and true allegiance to the king; but if, on the

contrary, the king chose to eat them up with a large army living

constantly among them, as well as upon every pretence laying them

waste with the sword in the manner he was now doing, he could not be

answerable for, nor did he believe they would be able to pay him,

the tribute he expected from them. But the king, who saw the motives

both of his officers and of the Moorish governor, continued firm in

his resolutions. He sharply reproved both Gimmel-eddin and his army

for their want of discipline, and desire of idleness, and ordered the

officers to acquaint their men, that, if they were afraid of rains,

he would carry them to _Adel_, where there were _none_; that, for his

part, he made a resolution, which he would keep most steadily, never

to leave his camp and the field while there was one village in his own

dominions that did not acknowledge him for its sovereign.

Accordingly on the 13th day of June 1316, immediately after this

declaration, he struck his tents, and marched into Samhar, to

disappoint, if possible, the confederacy that some of the principal

Moorish states had entered into against him, which were agreed, one by

one, to harrass his camp by night, and, after having obliged him to

retreat to Shoa in disorder, to give him battle there before he had

time to refresh his troops. The authors of this conspiracy were seven

in number, Adel, Mara, Tico, Agwama, Bakla[5], Murgar, and Gabula,

and they had already collected a considerable army. The king, who saw

they persisted in their nightly attacks, rode out, thinly accompanied,

to choose a post for an encampment that was to give him the greatest

advantage over his enemy; and, whilst thus occupied, he was suddenly

surrounded by a body of troops of Adel lying in ambush for him. A

soldier (in appearance an Abyssinian) came so close to the king as to

strike him with his sword on the back with such violence that it cut

his belt in two, and, having wounded him thro’ his armour, was ready to

repeat the blow, when the king pierced him through the forehead with

his lance, upon which his party fled.

But the Moors, for five successive nights, did not fail in their

attempts upon his camp, which wearied and greatly contributed to

discontent his men; and the more so, because the enemy declined coming

to any general engagement, though the king frequently offered it to

them. Amda Sion, therefore, decamped the 28th of June, and, leaving

this disadvantageous station, advanced a day’s march nearer Mara,

pointing, as it were, to the very center of that kingdom. But here,

again, he was stopt by the discontent of his soldiers, who absolutely

refused to go farther, or spend the whole season in arms, in this

inclement climate, while the rest of his subjects, in full enjoyment of

health and plenty, were rioting at home.

This disposition of his army was no sooner known to the king than he

called the principal of them together, and, planting himself on a

rising ground, he began to harangue his soldiers with so much eloquence

and force of reasoning, that they who before had only learned to

admire their king as a soldier, were obliged to confess that, as an

orator, he as much excelled every man in his state, as he did the

lowest man of his kingdom in dignity. He put his soldiers in mind,

“that this was not a common expedition, like those of his predecessors,

marching through the country for the purpose of levying their revenue;

that the intention of the present war was to avenge the blood of so

many innocent Christians slain in security and full peace, from no

provocation but hatred of their religion: that they were instruments

in the hand of God to revenge the death of so many priests and monks

who had been wantonly offered as sacrifices upon their own altars: that

they were not a common army, but one confederated upon oath, having

sworn upon the sacrament, at the passage of the river Hawash, that they

would not return into Abyssinia till they had beat down and ruined the

strength of the Mahometans in those kingdoms; so that now, when every

thing had succeeded to their wishes, when every Mahometan army had

been defeated as soon as it presented itself, and the whole country

lay open to the chastisements they pleased to inflict, to talk of a

retreat or forbearance was to make a mockery at once of their oath, and

the motive of their expedition. He shewed, by invincible reasonings,

the great hardships and danger that would attend his retreat through a

country already wasted and unable to maintain his army; what an alarm

it would occasion in Shoa, to find him returning with an enemy at his

heels, following him to his very capital; that such, however, must be

the consequence; for it was plain, that, though the enemy declined

fighting, yet there was no possibility of hindering them from following

him so near as to give his retreat every appearance of flight, and to

bring an expedition, begun with success, to an ignominious and a fatal

end.

“He upbraided them with his own example, that early their prophets had

foretold he was a prince fond of luxury and ease, which, in the main,

he did not deny, but confessed that he was so; and that they all should

have an attachment to their pleasures and enjoyments, he thought but

reasonable. He desired, however, in this, they would do as much as he

did, and only suspend their love of ease and rest as long as their duty

to God, to their country, and their murdered brethren, required; for,

till these duties were fulfilled, ease and enjoyment to a Christian,

and especially to them bound by oath to accomplish a certain purpose,

was, in his eyes, little short of apostacy.” A loud acclamation now

followed from the whole army. They declared again, that they renewed

their sacrament taken at the passage of the Hawash, that they were

Christ’s soldiers, and would follow their sovereign unto death.

Though the great personal merit of the king, and the grace, force,

and dignity with which he spoke, had, of themselves, produced a very

sudden change in the mind of the soldiers, yet, to the increase of this

good disposition it had very much contributed, that a monk, of great

holiness and austerity of manners, living in a cell on the point of

a steep rock, had come down from Shoa to the camp, declaring that he

had found it written in the Revelation of St John, that this year the

religion of Mahomet was to be utterly extirpated throughout the world.

Full of this idea, on the feast of Ras Werk, in the month of July,

the army passed the Yass, a large river of the kingdom of Mara, and

encamped there. The troops were alarmed, the night after their arrival,

by a piece of intelligence which proved a falsehood.

A woman, whose father had been a Christian, said, that she had very

lately left the Moorish camp; that the enemy were at no great distance,

and only waited a night of storm and rain to make a general attack

upon the king’s army; and the clouds threatening then a night of

foul weather, it was not doubted but the engagement was thereupon

immediately to follow. It blew, then, so violent a storm, that the

king’s tent, and most of those in the camp, were thrown down, and the

soldiers were in very great confusion, imagining, every moment, the

Moors ready to fall on them. But whether the story was a falsehood, or

the storm too great for the Moors to venture out, nothing happened that

night, nor, indeed, during their stay in that station.

At this time a number of priests and others came out of curiosity to

see their king making conquests of provinces and people till then

unknown to them even by name: several large detachments of fresh troops

from Abyssinia also arrived, and joined the army. Upon this, Amda Sion

advanced a day’s journey farther into Mara, and took a strong post,

resolving to maintain himself there, and, by detachments, lay the whole

country desolate. This place is called _Dassi_. There was neither

river, however, nor spring near it, but only water procured by digging

in the sand, being what comes down from the sides of the mountains in

the rainy season, and, having filtered through the loose earth, has

reached the sand and gravel, where it stagnates, or finds slowly its

level to the sea. Here the king was taken dangerously ill with the

fever of the Kolla.

The altercations between Amda Sion and his soldiers, and the

resolutions taken in consequence of these, were faithfully carried to

the king of Adel. The march of the king forward at such a season of

the year, the slow pace with which he advanced towards the very heart

of the country, the care he took of providing all necessaries for his

army, and his reinforcing it at such a season, all shewed this was no

partial, sudden incursion, but that it was meant as a decisive blow,

fatal to the independence of these petty sovereigns and states. To this

it may be added, that Gimmel-eddin, whom the king had released from

prison, and set over the Moorish provinces of Abyssinia, conveyed to

them, in the most direct manner, that such were the king’s purposes. He

told them, moreover, this march into their country was not either to

increase their tribute, or for the sake of plunder, or to force them

to be his subjects; that Amda Sion’s main design was against their

religion, which he and his soldiers had vowed they were to destroy;

that it was not their time to think of peace or tribute upon any terms;

for, were they even to sell their wives and children, the price would

not be accepted, unless they forsook the religion of their fathers,

and embraced Christianity. He further added, that _his_ resolution was

already taken, that he would die firm in the faith, a good Mahometan,

as he had lived; not tamely, however, but in the middle of his enemies;

and that he was now making every sort of preparation to resist to the

latest breath.

No sooner was this intelligence from Gimmel-eddin published, than a

kind of frenzy seized the people of Adel; they ran tumultuously to

arms, and, with shrieks and adjurations, demanded to be led immediately

against the Abyssinians, for they no longer desired to live upon such

terms.

There was among the leading men of the Moors one Saleh, chief of a

small district called Cassi, by birth a Sherriffe, _i. e._ one of the

race of Mahomet, and who, to the nobility of his birth, joined the

holiness of his character. He was _Imam_, as it is called, or _high

priest_ of the Moors, and, for both these reasons, held in the greatest

estimation among them. This man undertook, by his personal influence,

to unite all the Moorish states in a common league. For it is to be

observed, that, though religion was very powerful in uniting these

Moors against the Christians, yet the love of gain, and jealousies of

commerce, perpetually kept a party alive that favoured the king for

their own interest, in the very heart of the Moorish confederacies and

councils. To overcome this was the object of Saleh, and he succeeded

beyond expectation, as sixteen kings brought 40,000 men into the field

under their several leaders; but the chief command was given to the

king of Adel.

I MUST put the reader in mind that I am translating an Abyssinian

historian. These, then, whom this chronicle stiles Kings, must be

considered as being only hereditary and independent chiefs, not

tributary to Abyssinia. Their names are Adel, Mara, Bakla, Haggara,

Fadise, Gadai, Nagal, Zuba, Harlar, Hobal, Hangila, Tarshish, Ain,

Ilbiro, Zeyla, and Eftè. Now, when we consider that these sixteen kings

brought only 40,000 men, and that they were commanded under these

sixteen by 2712 leaders, or governors of districts, all which are set

down by name, we must have a very contemptible opinion of the extent

and populousness of these newly-erected kingdoms.

It appears to me unnecessary to repeat, after my historian, the names

of each of these villages, which probably do not now exist, and are,

perhaps, utterly unknown. I shall only observe in passing, that here

we find Tarshis, or Tarshish, a kingdom on the coast of the ocean,

directly in the way to Sofala; another strong presumption that Sofala

and Ophir were the same, and that this is the Tarshish where Solomon’s

fleet stopt when going to Ophir.

Amda Sion’s fever hindering him to march forward, and being unwilling

to risk a battle where he was not able himself to command, he continued

close in his strong camp at Dassi, waiting his recovery; but, in the

mean time, he made considerable detachments on all sides to lay the

country waste around him, till he should be able to advance farther

into it.

Of all the royal army, as it stood upon the establishment, the king had

only with him the troops from the provinces of Amhara, Shoa, Gojam,

and Damot, and these were what composed the rear, when the whole,

called the royal army, was assembled; all his troops were regularly

paid, well armed, and cloathed, and were not only provided with every

necessary, but were become exceedingly rich, and, therefore, the more

careless of discipline, and difficult to manage, on account of the

repeated conquests that had followed one another ever since the king

had crossed the river Hawash, and come into the desert kingdom of

Mara, unfruitful in its soil, but flourishing by trade, and rich in

India commodities. The soldiers had here so loaded themselves with

spoils and merchandise, that they began rather to think of returning

home, and enjoying what they had got, than of pushing their conquests

still farther to the destruction of Adel and Mara. The putrid state of

the water, in this sultry and unwholesome climate, had afflicted the

king with the fever of the country, which he thought not by any means

to remedy or prevent. No consideration could keep him from exposing

himself to the most violent sun-beams, and to the more noxious vapours

of the night; and it was now the seventh day his fever had been

increasing, although he neither ate nor drank. The army expecting, from

the king’s illness, a speedy order to return, conversed of nothing else

within their camp, with that kind of security as if they had already

received orders to return home.

The Mahometan army had assembled, and no news had been brought of it

to the king. Saleh’s influence had united them all; and the king’s

sickness had made this easier than it otherwise would have been. It

happened, then, that, the king’s fever abating the ninth day, he sent

out to procure himself venison, with which this country abounds, and

which is believed, by people of all ranks in Abyssinia, to be the

only proper food and restorative after sickness. After having killed

sufficiently for the king’s immediate use, the huntsmen returned; two

only remained, who continued the pursuit of the game through the woods,

till they were four days journey distant from their camp, when, being

in search of water for their dogs, they met a Moor engaged in the

same business with themselves, who shewed them his army encamped at

no considerable distance, and in very great numbers. Upon this they

returned in all haste to the king to apprize him of his danger, and

he sent immediately some horse to discover the number, situation, and

designs of the enemy; above all, if possible, to take a prisoner, for

the huntsmen had put theirs to death, that he might be no incumbrance

to them upon their return.

The king’s fever was now gone, but his strength was not returned; and,

the necessity of the case requiring it, he attempted to rise from his

bed and put on his armour, but, fainting, fell upon his face with

weakness, while his servant was girding his sword.

The horse now returned, and confirmed the tidings the huntsmen had

brought; they had found the Moorish army in the same place it was

first discovered, by the water-side; but the account of their number

and appearance was such that the whole army was struck with a panic.

The king’s wives (as the historian says, by which it should appear he

had more than one) endeavoured to persuade him not to risk a battle

in the weak state of health he then was, but to retire from this

low, unwholesome country, and occupy the passes that lead into Upper

Abyssinia, so as to make it impossible for the enemy to follow him into

Shoa.

The king having washed and refreshed himself, with a countenance full

of confidence, sat down at the door of his tent: whilst officers and

soldiers crowded about him, he calmly, in the way of conversation, told

them,--“That, being men of experience as they were, he was surprised

they should be liable, at every instant, to panic and despondency,

totally unworthy the character of a veteran army. You know,” said he,

“that I came against the king of Adel, and to recover that province,

one of the old dependencies of my crown. And though it has happened

that, in our march, you have loaded yourselves with riches, which I

have permitted, as well out of my love to you, as because it distresses

the enemy, yet my object was not to plunder merchants. If in battle

to-morrow I be beaten, for God forbid that I should decline it when

offered, I shall be the first to set you the example how to die like

men in the middle of your enemies. But while I am living, it never

shall be said that I suffered the standard of Christ to fly before

the profane ensigns of infidels. As to what regards our present

circumstances, my sickness, and the number of the Moorish troops, these

make no alteration in my good hopes that I shall tread upon the king

of Adel’s neck to-morrow. For as it was never my opinion that it was

my own strength and valour, or their want of it, which has so often

been the means of preserving me from their hands, so I do not fear at

present that my accidental weakness will give them any advantage over

me, as long as I trust in God’s strength as much as ever I have done.”

The army, hearing with what confidence and firmness the king spake,

began to look upon his recovery as a miracle. They all, therefore,

with one accord, took to their arms, and desired to be led forward to

the enemy, without waiting till they should come to them. They only

beseeched the king that he would not expose his person as usual, but

trust to the bravery of his troops, eager for action, without being

lavish of that life, the loss of which would be to the Mahometans

a greater victory than the regaining all he had conquered. The king

hereon, bidding his troops to be of good courage, take rest and

refreshment, sent away the women, children, and other incumbrances, to

a small convent on the side of the mountain, called _Debra Martel_[6];

and, being informed of the situation of the country in general, and

the particular posts where he could get water in greater plenty, he

advanced with his army by a slow march towards the enemy.

The next day he received intelligence by a Moor, that the Mahometans

had not only thrown poison into all the wells, but had also corrupted

all the water in the front of the army by various spells and

inchantments; that they were not advancing, but were waiting for troops

from some of the small districts of Adel that had not yet joined the

army. Hereupon the king ordered his Fit-Auraris to advance a day

before him, and sent a priest, called _Tecla Sion_, with him, that he

might bless and consecrate the water, and thereby free it from the

inchantments of the Moors. He himself followed with his army, and sat

down by a small river a short way distant from the enemy.

The Fit-Auraris is an officer that commands a party of men, who go

always advanced before the front of an Abyssinian army, at a greater or

smaller distance, according as circumstances require. His office will

be described more at large in the sequel.

The king being arrived at the river, the army began to bathe

themselves, their mules, and their horses, in the same manner as is

usual throughout all Abyssinia on the feast of the Epiphany. This

lustration was in honour of Tecla Sion, who had consecrated the water,

broken all the magic spells, and changed its name to that of the river

Jordan. But, while they were thus employed, the Fit-Auraris had come

up with a large party of the enemy, and, with them, a number of women,

provided with drugs to poison and inchant the water; and this numerous

body of fanatics had fallen so rudely on the Fit-Auraris that it beat

him back on the main body, to whom he brought the news of his own

defeat.

A violent panic immediately seized the whole Abyssinian army, and they

refused to advance a step farther. The tents had been left standing

on the side of the river they first came to, and they then passed to

the other side. But, upon sight of the Fit-Auraris, they returned to

the tents, that, having the river on their front, they might fight the

enemy with more advantage if they came to attack them. They did not

continue long in this resolution; the greatest part of them were for

leaving their tents, and retiring to Abyssinia for assistance, and,

when the numbers should be more upon an equality, return to fight the

enemy. The Moorish army at this instant coming in sight, increased the

number of converts to this opinion.

The king, in the utmost agony, galloping through the ranks, continued

to use all manner of arguments with his mutinous soldiers. He told

them, that retiring to their camp was to put themselves in prison;

that, being mostly composed of horse, their advantage was in a plain

like that before them; that retreating to join the main body, at such a

distance, was a vain idea, as the enemy was so close at their heels.

Finally, all he desired of them was, that those who would not fight

should only stand as spectators, but not leave their places. As no sign

of content or conviction was returned, the king, seeing that all was

lost if they disbanded, the enemy being just ready to engage, ordered

his master of the horse, and five others, to attack the left wing of

the enemy, while he, with a small part of his servants and household,

did the same on the right.

The Abyssinian history, seldom just to the memory of individuals, hath

yet, in this instance, (almost a single one), preserved the names of

these brave men. The first was Zana Asferi; the second, Tecla; the

third, Wanag Araad; the fourth, Saif Segued, (one of the king’s sons;)

the fifth, Badel Waliz; and the sixth, Kedami. These, as is supposed

with their attendants and servants, (though history is silent but as to

the six) fell furiously on the left of the Mahometan army.

The king, at the first onset, killed, with his own hand, the two

leaders of the right wing; and his son, Saif Segued, having also slain

another considerable officer on the left, a panic seized both these

bodies of Moors, and the army apparently began, at one and the same

time, to waver: On which the Abyssinians, now ashamed of their conduct,

and perceiving the king’s danger, with a great shout fell furiously

upon the enemy. The whole Moorish army having, by this time, joined,

the battle was fought with great obstinacy on both sides, till first

the center, then the left wing of the Moors, was broken and dispersed;

but the right, consisting chiefly of strangers from Arabia, kept

together, and, not knowing the country, retired into a narrow deep

valley surrounded by steep perpendicular rocks, covered thick with

wood.

The Abyssinian army, thinking all at an end by the flight of the

Moors, began, after their usual custom, to plunder, by stripping and

mangling the bodies of the killed and wounded. But the king, who,

from the mistake of the Arabians, saw the destruction of this right

wing certain, if immediately pursued, ordered it every where to be

proclaimed through the field, that the whole army should repair to

the royal standard, which he had set up on an eminence, and give over

plundering, under pain of death. Finding this order, however, slackly

obeyed, he himself, scouring the field at the head of a few horse,

with his own hand slew two of his soldiers whom he found stripping the

dead without regard to his proclamation. This example from a prince,

exceedingly sparing of the blood of his soldiers, had the effect to

recal them all to the royal standard displayed on a rising ground.

He then separated his army into two divisions; all the foot, and those

of his horse that had principally suffered in the severe engagement of

the day, he led up to the mouth of the valley where the right wing of

the Arabians had shut themselves up; and, having beset all access to

the entrance of it, he ordered the foot to climb up through the woods,

and on every side surround the valley above the heads of those unhappy

people thus devoted to certain destruction.

While this was doing, the king ordered those of the cavalry that had

suffered least in the fatigue of the day, to refresh themselves and

their horses. He knew no time was lost by this, as the Moorish army

that escaped from the engagement, worn out with fatigue, thirst, and

hunger, would only retire a short day’s march to the water, where,

finding themselves not pursued, and incumbered with the number of their

wounded, they would necessarily rest themselves; and this was precisely

the situation, in which his huntsmen first found them by the side of a

large pool of water.

The king gave the command of this part of his army to the master of

the horse, with orders to pursue them one day farther; whilst he,

having taken a short refreshment, began to attack the right wing of

the Arabians shut up in the valley. The king, dismounting, led the

attack against the front of the Arabians, who, seeing their situation

now desperate, began to make every effort to get from the valley into

the plain. But they did not know yet upon what disadvantageous ground

they were engaged, till the soldiers from the rocks above, every way

surrounding them, rolled down immense stones which passed through them

in all directions. Pressed, therefore, violently, by the king in their

front, and in the rear destroyed by an enemy they neither could see

nor resist, they fell immediately into confusion, and were, to a man,

slaughtered upon the spot; upon which the king, giving to his troops

orders for a general plunder, retired himself to his camp, and in his

tent received from the master of the horse an account of his expedition.

This officer had proceeded slowly, spreading his troops as wide as

possible upon the tract of the retreating enemy, to give a smaller

chance for any to escape. All directed their flight towards the pool

of water, and were there destroyed without mercy, till a little after

sun-set. The pursuers had then advanced to the ground where Saleh king

of Mara had gathered the scattered remains of his once powerful army,

but now overcome with heat, dispirited by their defeat, and worn out

by the fatigues of a long and obstinate engagement, all that remained

of these unfortunate troops were strowed upon the ground, lapping

water like beasts, their only comfort that remained, equally incapable

of fighting or flying. The master of the horse, in great vigour and

strength from his late refreshments and recent victory, had no trouble

with these unfortunate people but to direct their execution, and this

was performed by the soldiers with all the rage and cruelty that a

difference of religion could possibly inspire. For, after the king’s

speech of the 9th of June, in which he upbraided them with breach of

their oath, and that they were slow in avenging the blood of their

brethren and priests wantonly slain by the Moors, every man in the army

measured the exactness with which he acquitted himself of the sacrament

at the Hawash, only by the quantity of blood that he could shed. Weary

at last with butchery, a few were taken prisoners, and among these was

Saleh king of Mara. It was evening before the king returned from the

slaughter of the right wing; and it was night when the soldiers, as

fatigued with plundering as with fighting, returned to the camp.

The next morning, he heard of the success of his cavalry under the

master of the horse, who joined him before mid-day. The unfortunate

Saleh was, in sight of the whole army, brought before the king,

cloathed in the distinguished habit and marks of his dignity in which

he had fought the day before at the head of his troops; gold chains

were about his arms, and a gold collar, enriched with precious stones

about his neck. The king scarcely deigned to speak to him, whilst the

royal prisoner likewise observed a profound silence. When the army had

satisfied their curiosity with the sight of this prince, (once the

object of their fear), the king, by a motion of his hand, ordered him

to be hanged upon a tree at the entrance of the camp, with all the

ornaments he had upon him. After this the queen of Mara, concerning

whom so many surprising stories had been told of her poisoning the

waters by drugs and inchantments, was, notwithstanding the known

partiality of this king for the fair sex, ordered to be hewn in pieces

by the soldiers, and her body given to the dogs.

Amda Sion then dispatched a messenger with the news of his victory to

the queens his wives, and the rest of the ladies he had left with the

main army at Debra Martel, when the monks of the convent immediately

began a solemn procession and thanksgiving, attended by the exercise of

every sort of work of charity and piety.

It was now the end of July, when the rains in Abyssinia become both

constant and violent, that the king called a council of the principal

nobility, officers, and priests, to determine whether he should go

straight home, or send their wives, children, and baggage before them

the direct road, when the light and unincumbered army should take a

compass, and lay waste a part of the kingdom of Adel they had already

invaded, and return in another direction. The majority of the army, and

the priests above all, were for the first proposal; but the king and

principal officers thought the advantages gained by so much blood were

to be followed, and not deserted, till they should either have reduced

the Mahometans to a state of weakness that should make them no longer

formidable to Abyssinia, or, if prosperous fortune still attended them

further, extirpate the people and religion together.--This opinion

prevailed.

The king, therefore, dismissed his baggage, his women, children,

servants, and useless people. He retained an army of veteran soldiers

only, more formidable than six times the number that could be brought

against them; and, trusting now to the country into which he marched

for support, he advanced, and entered a town called Zeyla, and there

took up his quarters. He had scarce taken possession of the town, when

that very night he sent a detachment to surprise a large and rich

village called Taraca, where he put all the men to the sword, making

the women slaves for the service of the army, instead of those whom he

had sent home.

The king’s views, by such small expeditions, were to accustom his

soldiers to fight out of his presence, and wean them from a persuasion,

now become general, that victory could not be obtained but where he

commanded.

On the 10th of July, the king continued his march, without opposition,

to Darbè, whence, the next morning, he sent different parties to the

right and left, to burn and destroy the country. They accordingly laid

waste all the province of Gassi, slaying Abdullah the Sherriffe, who

was the governor and son of Saruch the Imam, author of the conspiracy

against him. From thence he fell suddenly upon Abalgé and Talab, a

large district belonging to the king of Adel.

This prince, hearing that Amda Sion, instead of returning, as was

usual in the rainy season, into Abyssinia, had determined to continue

to ravage his whole country, had not, on his part, been remiss in

preparing means to resist him; and he had assembled, from every

province, all the forces they could raise, to make one last effort

against their common enemy.

Amda Sion, therefore, had scarcely retired from the destruction of

Talab, when the king of Adel (become now desperate by being so long a

spectator of the ruin of his kingdom) marched hastily to meet him, with

much less precaution than his own situation, and the character of his

enemy, required. Amda Sion, whose whole wish was to bring the Moors to

an engagement as often as occasion presented, left off his plundering

upon the first news that the king of Adel had taken the field, and,

allowing him to choose the ground on which he was to fight, the next

day he marched against him, having (as sure of victory) first detached

bodies of horse to intercept those of the Moors that should fly when

defeated; For no general was more provident than this king for the

destruction of his enemy. He then led his troops against the king of

Adel, and, spurring his horse, was already in the midst of the Moorish

army before the most active of his soldiers had time to follow him. The

Abyssinians, as usual, threw themselves like madmen upon the Moors,

at the sight of the king’s danger. The king of Adel was defeated with

little resistance: that unfortunate prince himself was slain upon the

spot, and the greatest part of his army destroyed (after they thought

themselves safe) by the ambushes of fresh horse the king had placed in

their rear before the battle.

The three children of the king of Adel, and his brother, who had all

been in the engagement, seeing the great inferiority of their troops,

and terrified at the approaching fate of their country, loading

themselves with the most valuable of their effects, (which, in token

of humility, they carried upon their heads, shoulders, and in their

hands,) came with these presents before the king, who was sitting armed

at the door of his tent, and, without further apology, or assurance

given, threw themselves, as is the custom of Abyssinia, at his feet,

with their foreheads in the dust, intreating pardon for what had

hitherto been done amiss; submitting to him as his subjects, professing

their readiness to obey all his commands, provided only that he would

proceed no further, nor waste and destroy their country, but spare what

still remained, which was, for the most part, the property of Arabian

merchants who had done him no injury.

But the king seemed little disposed to credit these assurances. He told

them plainly, “That they, and all Ethiopia, knew the time was when they

were under his dominion, paid him the same tribute, and owed him the

same allegiance with the rest of his subjects; that neither he, nor

his predecessors, at that time, had ever oppressed them, but returned

them present for present, gold for gold, apparel for apparel, and

dismissed them contentedly home whenever they came to pay their duty

to them: That lately, from supposed weakness in him, when he was young

in the beginning of his reign, and encouraged by the great addition

of their brethren, who flocked to them from Arabia, they had, without

provocation, thrown off their allegiance to him, upbraiding him as a

eunuch, fit only to take care of the women of their seraglio, with many

such taunting messages, equally unworthy the majesty and memory of a

prince like him: That, could this be passed over, still there was a

crime that all the blood of Adel could not atone for: They had, without

provocation, murdered his priests, burnt their churches, and destroyed

his defenceless people in their villages, merely from a vain belief

that they were too far to be under his protection: That, to punish them

for this, he was now in the midst of their country, and, if his life

was spared, never would he turn his back upon Adel while he had ten men

with him capable of drawing their swords. He, therefore, ordered them

to return, and expect the approach of his army.”

The two eldest children and the brother were so struck with the fierce

manner and countenance with which the king spoke, that they remained

perfectly silent. But the youngest son (a youth of great spirit, and

who, with the utmost difficulty, had been forced by his parents to fly

after the battle) answered the king with great resolution:--

“It is a truth known to the whole kingdom, that Adel has never belonged

to any sovereign on earth but to ourselves. Violence and power, which

destroy and set up kingdoms, have at times done so with ours; but that

you are not otherwise, than by these means, king of our country, our

colour, stature[7], and complexion sufficiently shew. We have been

free, and were conquered; we now have attempted to regain our freedom,

and we have failed: We have not been inferior to you in every kind of

civility, receiving you and your predecessors when you came into our

country, singing before you, and rejoicing, because we knew that you

had always among you men of great worth and bravery.

“As to the accusation against us, that we robbed the Christians,

you yourself see the riches of our country, which we get by our own

industry and commerce, whilst the Abyssinians were naked shepherds and

robbers. In the days of your predecessors, a handful of us would have

chased an army of them, and it would be so now, were it not for the

personal valour and conduct of you their prince. But you, better than

any one, can be the judge of this; and I can appeal to you, how often

they have been upon the point of deserting you, in return for all the

victories and riches they have shared with you; while there is not a

Moor in Adel but would have willingly died in the presence of such a

prince as you. It is then _you_, not your army, that we fear; we know

perfectly the value of both. You have already enjoyed all the merit

and profit of conquest; but utterly destroying defenceless people is

unworthy of any king, and still more of a prince of your character.”

The king, without any sign of displeasure at the freedom of this

speech, answered him calmly: “Words and resolutions like these

occasioned your father to lose his life in battle. I come not to argue

with you what you are to do, nor did I send for you to preach to you;

but if the queen your mother, the rest of your father’s family, and the

principal people who, after your father’s death, are now to govern

Adel, do not, by to-morrow evening, surrender themselves to me at my

tent-door, as you have done, I will lay the province of Adel waste,

from the place where I now sit, to the borders of the ocean.”

This unpromising interview with the king was faithfully communicated by

the young princes to their mother, earnestly desiring her to trust the

king’s mercy, and to throw herself at his feet the next morning without

reserve. But those who had been the persuaders of the war (for the late

king of Adel was but a weak prince) reckoned themselves in much greater

danger with Amda Sion than was the royal family. They, therefore,

agreed to try their fortune again in battle, binding themselves to

live and die with each other, by mutual oaths and promises. They also

sent to the princes this resolution, by an old enemy of Amda Sion,

persuading them to make their escape as soon as possible, and come and

head their forces that were then raised, and ready to conquer or die

together, when the family should be out of the enemy’s hands.

The king, well informed of what had passed, decamped immediately from

the station where he was, exceedingly irritated; and, having passed

the great river called Aco, he took post in the town of Marmagab;

and the next day, dividing his army, he sent two bodies by different

routes into the enemy’s territories, with a strict command to leave

nothing undestroyed that had the breath of life; he himself, with the

third division, burning and laying waste the whole country before him,

proceeded straight to the place where he heard the chiefs of Adel were

assembling an army. There he found some troops, mostly infantry, who

kept a good countenance, and seemed perfectly prepared and disposed

to engage him. But an immense multitude of useless people covered the

plain, old men, women, and children, with the parents, wives, and

families of those he had already slain; and these were determined, with

the remnant of their countrymen, to conquer this invader, or to perish.

The king, upon perceiving this strange mixture, halted for a time in

great surprise and astonishment. He could not penetrate into the motive

of assembling such an army; and sending a party of horse, as it were,

to disperse them, he found everywhere a stout resistance; soldiers

well provided with swords and shields, and a multitude of archers, who

rained showers of arrows upon him, while the women, with clubs, poles,

stakes, and stones, damped the ardour of his soldiers, who, when they

first charged, scarcely expected resistance. The king, seeing the

battle every minute become more doubtful, and having but few troops,

began to repent that he had weakened his army by detachments; he

instantly dispatched orders to them to advance, and fall upon the enemy

in the nearest direction possible. At the same time, he himself made an

extraordinary effort with his horse, but all in vain; and he found, on

every side, people who presented themselves willingly to death, but who

would not quit their station while they had power to defend themselves

in it.

Conspicuous above all these for his dress, his youth, his many acts

of valour, and his graceful figure, was the young king of Wypo, who,

encouraging his troops, presented himself wherever Amda Sion was in

person. The remarkable resistance that this young prince made, soon

drew the attention of the king of Abyssinia; who, sheathing his

sword, took a bow in his hand, and, as my historian says, choosing the

broadest arrow he could find, struck this young hero through the middle

of his neck, so that, half being cut through, his head inclined to one

shoulder, and soon after he fell dead among his horse’s feet.

This sight was one just calculated to strike such an army as this with

terror. They immediately turned their backs, and, unluckily falling in

with the two detachments marching to the king’s relief, they were all

cut to pieces to the number of 5000; a great proportion of which were

women and aged persons, unskilled in war, further than as they were

prompted by a long sufferance of injuries, accumulated now to a mass,

that made them weary of life. My historian further says, that three

only of the Moorish army escaped. On the king’s side many principal

officers were killed; and there was scarce one horseman that was not

wounded. Amda Sion, therefore, when speaking of this campaign, after

his return, among his nobility at Shoa, used to say, “Deliver me from

fighting with old women;” alluding to this battle, where he was in

the greatest danger. The fate of the unfortunate king of Wypo was

particularly hard. He had lately married the king of Adel’s daughter;

and it was the staying for him, and his marriage, that lost the

favourable opportunity of fighting the Abyssinians, when the army was

in despondency upon the king’s being taken ill of the fever.

The next campaign the king began, by a march first to Sassogade, where

he assisted at the celebration of the feast of St John the Baptist; and

he gave orders, that day, to raze all the Mahometan mosques to the

ground, to destroy all the grain, burn the villages, and put the people

to the sword, which was executed accordingly. The king then decamped

the fourth of July; and, passing the great river (Zorat) came to the

country of the Oritii, and took up his quarters there. The people of

this province were in the very worst reputation for cruelty, and hatred

of the Christian name. They were perpetually making incursions into the

Christian villages, and those that fell alive into their hands, they

either castrated, cut off their nose or ears, or otherwise mangled them.

The king, to vindicate the severity he was about to exercise, ordered

all those people, who had suffered in this manner, to be collected and

brought before him. The number appeared very considerable; and, having

inquired in what occupations they had been employed, they answered,

that their business was to cut down wood, draw and fetch water, and

some of them to take care of the Moorish women. Violently affected with

this, he called his principal officers, and commanded them, that, when

he decamped with his army the next day, small parties should remain

in ambush on each side of the town. The king, early in the morning,

marched out with sound of trumpet; and the Moors, thinking the army

gone, returning to their houses, were set upon by the parties, and

destroyed.

The next place the king came to was Haggara, where he staid eight

days, and celebrated there the feast of the Cross; surrounding his

camp with palisades, as if he was to stay there a considerable time.

Here he made his soldiers deposit all their plunder, leaving it under

the care of a weak guard, and marched out with sound of trumpet, as

if he was going upon some expedition. There was a large body of troops

in ambush, and the Moors, concealed in woods, and hiding-places,

attacked the intrenchment as soon as the king was gone, and had forced

the palisades, when they were every where surrounded by the parties

left behind, and were all cut to pieces, excepting the old men and

women, whose noses and lips the king ordered to be cut off, by way of

retaliation, and then dismissed them. Great store of bows, good arms

and cloathing, were taken here, lately brought from Arabia for the use

of the confederates.

The king now turned his face homewards, marched off in seven days to

Begul in the Sahara, and thence sent a message to the governor of Ifat,

commanding him to send to him all those Christians who had apostatized

from their faith in his or his brother’s time; with notice, that, if

he did not comply, he would put him and all his family to death, and

give his command to another family. The king ordered these apostates,

when delivered, to be severely whipped, and, fettering them with heavy

irons, imprisoned them.

From Begul the army marched to Waz, thence to Gett, and from Gett to

Harla, still laying waste the country. From Harla they marched five

days to Delhoya, being determined to make a severe example of this

place, because the inhabitants had killed the governor the king had

left with them, and, making large fires for the purpose, had burnt and

tormented the Christians residing there. He came, therefore, upon this

town, and surrounded it in the night; and, after putting men, women,

and children to the sword, he razed it to the ground.

From Delhoya he proceeded to Degwa, from thence to Warga, which he

treated in the same manner as Delhoya, and then entered the province

of Dawaro, where he understood that Hydar, governor of that province,

with Saber-eddin, and a very valuable convoy coming to him, under their

conduct, from Shoa, were intercepted by Hydar’s people, and their

guard cut to pieces. Instead, therefore, of proceeding to Shoa, as

his intention was, he encamped at Bahalla, and there kept the feast

of Christmas, laying the whole province, by parties, under military

execution; and hearing there that Joseph, governor of Serca, was in

understanding with those of Dawaro, he put him in prison, carrying

off all his horses, asses, mules, and a prodigious quantity of other

cattle, which he drove before him, and ended his expedition by his

entry into Shoa.

This is the Abyssinian account of the reign of their prince Amda Sion,

a little abridged, and made more conformable to the manner of writing

English history. The historian, contrary to the usual practice, gives

no account of himself; but he seems to have lived in the time of Zara

Jacob, the third reign after this. Though he wrote in Shoa, his book is

in pure Geez, there being scarcely an Amharic word in it.

There are three things which I would now observe; not because they are

single instances, but, on the contrary, because, though first mentioned

here, they are uniformly confirmed throughout the whole Abyssinian

history.

The first is, that the king of Abyssinia is, in all matters

ecclesiastical and civil, supreme; that he punishes all offences

committed by the clergy in as absolute and direct a manner as if these

offences were committed by a layman. Of this the treatment of Honorius

is an example, who made use only of spiritual weapons against offences,

that surely deserved the censure of all churches.

With whatever propriety this sentence might have been inflicted upon

individuals, and, perhaps, without any bad consequence to the public in

general, the law of the land, in Abyssinia, could not suffer this to be

inflicted on their king, because very bad effects must have followed it

towards the common-weal; for excommunication there is really a capital

punishment if executed with rigour. It is a kind of _interdictio aquæ

et ignis_, for you yourself are expressly prohibited from kindling a

fire, and every body else is laid under a prohibition from supplying

either fire or water. No one can speak, eat, or drink with you, enter

your house, or suffer you to enter theirs. You cannot buy nor sell, nor

recover debts. If under this situation you should be violently slain by

robbers, no inquisition is made into the cause of your death, and your

body is not suffered to be buried.

I would submit now to the judgment of any one, what sort of government

there would be in Abyssinia, if a priest was suffered to lay the king

under such interdict or restriction. The kings of that country do

not pretend to be saints; indeed, it may be said, they are the very

contrary, leading very free lives. Pretences are never wanting, and it

is only necessary to find a fanatic priest (which, God knows, is not a

rarity in that country) to unhinge government perpetually, and throw

all into anarchy and confusion. But nothing of this kind occurs in

their history, though the bigotted Le Grande, and some of the Jesuits,

less bigotted than him, have asserted, that such a practice prevailed

in the Abyssinian church, to shew its conformity with the church

of Rome; which we shall see, however, contradicted almost in every

prince’s reign.

The second thing I shall observe is, that there is no ground for that

prejudice, so common in the writers concerning this country, who say

that these people are Nomades, perpetually roving about in tents. If

they had ever so little reflected upon it, there is not a country in

the world where this is less possible than in Abyssinia, a country

abounding with mountains, where every flat piece of ground is, once

a-day, during six months rain, cut through by a number of torrents,

sweeping cattle, trees, and every thing irresistibly before them; where

no field, unless it has some declivity, can be sown, nor even passed

over by a traveller, without some danger of being swept away, during

the hours of the day when the rain is most violent; in such a country

it would be impossible for 30 or 40,000 men to encamp from place to

place, and to subsist without some permanent retreat. Accordingly they

have towns and villages perched upon the pinnacles of sharp hills and

rocks, and which are never thought safe if commanded by any ground

above them; in these they remain, as we do in cities, all the rainy

season: Nor is there a private person (not a soldier) who hath a tent

more than in Britain. In the fair season, the military encamp in all

directions cross the country, either to levy taxes, or in search of

their enemy; but nothing in this is particular to Abyssinia; in most

parts of Africa and Asia they do the same.

The third particular to be observed here is, that, in this prince’s

reign, the king’s sons were not imprisoned in the mountain. For Saif

Araad was present with his father at the defeat of Saleh king of Mara,

and yet the mountain of Geshen was then set apart as a prison. For

the Itchegué of Debra Libanos was banished there; from which I infer,

that after the massacre of the royal family by Judith, on the mountain

of Damo, and the flight of the prince Del Naad, to Shoa, the king’s

children were not confined, nor yet till long after their restoration

and return to Tigré, as will appear in the sequel.

Amda Sion died of a natural death at Tegulat in Shoa, after a reign of

30 years, which were but a continued series of victories, no instance

being recorded of his having been once defeated.

[Illustration]

SAIF ARAAD.

From 1342 to 1370.

_This Prince enjoys a peaceable Reign--Protects the Patriarch of Cophts

at Cairo from the Persecution of the Soldan._

Saif Araad succeeded his father Amda Sion; and it should seem that,

in his time, all was peaceable on the side of Adel, as nothing is

mentioned relative to that war. Indeed, if the increase of trade and

power in that corner of Abyssinia arose from the troubles and want of

security which the merchants laboured under in Arabia, we cannot but

suspect, from a parity of reasoning, that the violent manner in which

war had been carried on by Amda Sion, must have occasioned a great many

inhabitants to repass the Straits, and return to their own homes.

At this time, news were brought from Cairo, that the Soldan had thrown

the Coptic patriarch, Marcus, into prison. There was then a constant

trade carried on between Cairo and Abyssinia, through the desert; and

also from Cairo and Suakem on the Red Sea. Besides, great caravans,

formerly composed of Pagans, now of Mahometans, passed from west to

east, in the same manner as in ancient times, to buy and disperse India

goods through Africa. Saif Araad, not having it in his power to give

the patriarch other assistance, seized all the merchants from Cairo,

and sent horse to interrupt and terrify the caravans. As the cause of

this was well known, and that the patriarch was in prison for the sake

only of extorting money from him, people on all sides cried out upon

the bad policy of the Soldan, who thereupon ordered Abuna Marcus to be

set at liberty, without any other condition, than that he should make

peace with Saif Araad on the part of Egypt, which was done through the

mediation of that prelate.

[Illustration]

WEDEM ASFERI.

From 1370 to 1380.

_Memoirs of this and the following Reign defective._

We know nothing of this prince, only that he succeeded his father Saif

Araad, and reigned ten years; yet his name, which signifies _lover

of war_, seems to indicate an active reign. It is remarkable, that

in this reign is first mentioned an æra of Abyssinian chronology,

which has very much puzzled several learned writers, and the origin

of which is not, perhaps, yet fully known. This is that epoch, called

that of Maharat, or Mercy, which Scaliger and Ludolf have called the

æra of grace. Scaliger says, he has toiled much before he found out

what it was; and I doubt his toil has not been blessed with all the

success we could wish. That it is not the æra of redemption, is plain

upon a hundred trials, nor of the conversion, nor of Dioclesian. What

it alludes to we know not, but it is first quoted in the Abyssinian

history in this reign, and answers to the year 1348 of Christ; but

from what event it had its origin we cannot positively say, nor

further, than that all which Scaliger has said concerning it is merely

visionary.

[Illustration]

DAVID II.

From 1380 to 1409.

Wedem Asferi was succeeded by his brother David, Saif Araad’s second

son. This prince’s reign is remarkable in the annals of the church of

Abyssinia, because, at this time, a piece of the true cross, on which

our Saviour died, was brought hither from Jerusalem; and, in memory of

this great event, the king ordered the sacerdotal vest, or capa, which

was before plain, to be embroidered with flowers.

This king, after reigning twenty-nine years, one day viewing a

favourite, but vicious horse, received so violent a kick upon his head

that it fractured his skull, so that he died upon the spot, and was

buried in the great island of Dek in the lake Dembea, or Tzana.

[Illustration]

THEODORUS.

From 1409 to 1412.

_Memoirs of this Reign, though held in great Esteem in Abyssinia,

defective; probably mutilated by the Ecclesiastics._

David was succeeded by his eldest son Theodorus. He is called Son of

the Lion, by the poet, in the Ethiopic encomium upon him, still extant

in the liturgy. A miracle is mentioned to have happened, (which would

lead us to suspect that he was a saint), during the celebration of

his festival, by his mother, who is called Mogessa[8]. This lady had

contented herself with providing great quantity of flesh for the feast;

but, to make it more complete, the heavens in a shower supplied it with

store of fine fish, ready roasted.

He was buried in the church of Tedba Mariam in Amhara, after having

reigned three years. There must have been something very brilliant

that happened under this prince, for though the reign is so short,

it is before all others the most favourite epoch in Abyssinia. It is

even confidently believed, that he is to rise again, and to reign in

Abyssinia for a thousand years, and in this period all war is to cease,

and every one, in fulness, to enjoy happiness, plenty, and peace.

Foolish as these legends are, and distant the time, this one was the

source of great trouble and personal danger to me, as will be seen in

the sequel. What we know certain in this prince’s history is, that he

abrogated the treaty of partition made by Icon Amlac in favour of the

Abuna Tecla Haimanout and his successors, by which one third of the

kingdom of Abyssinia was for ever to be set apart as a revenue for the

Abuna. This wise prince modified so excessive a provision, reserving to

the Abuna for his maintenance a sufficient territory in every province

of the kingdom. It is still judged immoderate, and has suffered many

defalcations under later princes, who, perhaps, not acting upon the

principles of Theodorus, have not been commended by posterity in the

manner he has been.

[Illustration]

ISAAC.

From 1412 to 1429.

_No Annals of this nor the four following Reigns._

Theodorus was succeeded by Isaac his brother, second son of David.

In his reign the Falasha, who, since their overthrow in the time of

Amda Sion, had been quiet, broke out into rebellion. We do not know

the particulars, but apprehend some injustice was at that time done,

or attempted, against the Jews; for 24 Judges, 12 from Shoa and 12

from Tigré, (the number having been doubled when there were two kings

reigning[9]), were of a different opinion, and would not comply with

the king’s will, who thereupon deprived them all of their office. The

king, coming upon the army of the Falasha in Woggora, entirely defeated

them at Kossogué, and, in memory thereof, built a church on the place,

and called it Debra Isaac, which remains there to this day.

Isaac reigned near 17 years, was a prince of great piety and courage.

The annals of his reign, probably during the troublesome time that

followed, have been lost, and with them great part of his atchievements.

[Illustration]

ANDREAS I. OR AMDA SION.

Isaac was succeeded by his son Andreas, who reigned only seven months,

and they were both buried at Tedba Mariam.

[Illustration]

TECLA MARIAM, OR HASEB NANYA.

From 1429 to 1433.

This prince was third son of David, and succeeded his nephew. He

reigned four years, and took for his inauguration name, Haseb Nanya.

[Illustration]