Emana Christos answered, “That though he rebelled with Julius, and at

the same time, yet it was not as a follower of Julius, nor against

the king; but that he took up arms in defence of the ancient faith

of his country, which was now, without reason, trodden under foot in

favour of a religion, which was a false one if they understood it, and

an useless one if they did not. He said he was satisfied of his own

danger; but neither his connection with the king, nor his being related

to Sela Christos, could weigh with him against his duty to God and

his country. The king and his brother might be right in embracing the

Romish religion, because they were convinced of the truth of it: he had

used, however, the same means, and the same application, had heard the

arguments of the same fathers, which, unluckily for him, had convinced

him their religion was not a true, but a false one. For the same

reasons he continued to be an Alexandrian, which his brother alledged

had made him a Roman. He, therefore, begged Af Christos to consider,

by a review of things since David III.‘s time, how much blood the

change would cost to the kingdom by the attempt, whether it succeeded

or not; and whether, after that consideration, it was worth trying the

experiment.”

This artful and sensible message, sent by a man of the capacity and

experience of Emana Christos, easily convinced Af Christos that it was

not by argument Emana Christos was to be brought to his duty; but, like

a good officer, he kept up correspondence with him, that he might be

master of the intelligence to what place he retired.

Soon after Sela Christos had left Gojam to join the king, by forced

marches he surrounded Melca Amba, where Emana Christos was, and had

assembled a number of troops to descend into the plain and create a

diversion in favour of Julius. The mountain had neither water in it nor

food for such a number of men, nor had Emana Christos forces enough to

risk a battle with an officer of the known experience of Af Christos,

who had chosen the ground at his full leisure, and with complete

knowledge of it.

Three days the army within the mountain held out without complaining;

but, in the evening of the third day, some monks and hermits

(_holy men_, the abettors of this rebellion) came to Af Christos

to remonstrate, that there were several convents and villages in

the mountain, also small springs, and barley enough to answer the

necessities of the ordinary inhabitants, but were not enough for such

an additional number which had taken forcible possession of the wells,

and drank up all the water, to the immediate danger of the whole

inhabitants perishing with thirst.

To this Af Christos answered, That the reducing the mountain, and the

taking Emana Christos, was what was given him in commission by the

king, to attain which end he would carefully improve all the means in

his power. He was sorry, indeed, for the distress of the convents in

the mountain, but could not help it; nor would he suffer one of them to

remove or come down into the plain, nor would he discontinue blockading

the mountain while Emana Christos was there and alive. No other

alternative, therefore, remained but the delivering up Emana Christos.

His army would have fought for him against a common enemy, but against

thirst their shields and swords were useless.

Af Christos, with his prisoner, forthwith proceeded to join the king,

and passed the Nile into Begemder. At crossing the river Bashilo, they

were informed of the defeat and death of Julius and the Abuna. The

messenger had also letters for Emana Christos, whom the king did not

know to be yet prisoner: among these was one from Sela Christos, in

which he upbraided his brother with his unnatural treason, and assured

him speedily of a fate like that of Julius. Emana Christos received

this intelligence almost dead with fear, for never was a prophecy made

which seemed to have needed less time to accomplish than this of his

brother’s.

Af Christos surrendered his prisoner to the king at Dancaz, who

immediately assembled a full convocation of judges of all degrees;

and the prisoner being ordered to answer to his charge concerning the

rebellion of Julius and his conspiracy against the king’s life, he took

the part he had been advised, and palliated the whole of his actions,

without positively denying any one of them, and submitted to the

king’s mercy. The judges, considering the defence, unanimously found

him guilty of death; but the king, whose last vote, when sitting in

judgment, supersedes and overturns all the rest, reprieved, and sent

him prisoner to Amhara.

Hitherto the king had contented himself with fixing two points in

favour of the Roman church, in contradiction to that of Alexandria.

The first denounced punishment to every one who did not believe that

there are two natures in Christ, and that he is perfect God and perfect

man, without confusion of persons. The second was rather a point of

discipline than of faith; yet it was urged as such, by declaring it to

be unlawful to observe Saturday, the ancient Jewish sabbath. The first

of these, if it was not the cause, had been assumed as the pretext for

the rebellion of Julius. The second produced that of Jonael governor of

Begemder, of which we are now to speak. But thus far only the king had

gone. He had not openly joined the church of Rome, nor as yet renounced

that of Alexandria, nor forced any one else to do so.

The first prelude to Jonael’s rebellion was an anonymous letter

written to the king, in which all the stale and lame arguments of

the Alexandrians were raked together, and stated with a degree of

presumption worthy of the ignorance and obstinacy of those from

whom they came. This, though ridiculous, and below notice in point

of argument, offended greatly both the king and the Jesuits, by the

asperity of its terms, and the personal applications contained in it.

The king was treated as another Dioclesian, thirsting after Christian

blood, and for this devoted to hell; as were also the Jesuits, whom

they called relations of Pilate, in allusion to their origin from Rome.

The king, grievously offended, added this injunction to the former

proclamation, “That all out-door work, such as plowing and sowing,

should be publicly followed by the husbandman on the Saturday, under

penalty of paying a web of cotton cloth, for the first omission, which

cloth was to be of five shillings value; and the second offence, was

to be punished by a confiscation of moveables, and the crime not to be

pardoned for seven years;”--the greatest punishment for misdemeanors in

Abyssinia. To this Socinios added, _vivâ-voce_, from his throne, that

he never _abolished_, but _explained_ and established their religion,

which always taught, as their own books could testify, that Christ

was perfect God and perfect man, two distinct natures united in one

hypostasis of the eternal word; neither was it in compliance with the

Jesuits that he abrogated the observation of the Jewish sabbath, but

in obedience to the council of Chalcedon, which was founded in the

holy scriptures, for which he was ready at all times to lose his life,

though he should endeavour first to inflict that punishment on such as

were its enemies.

In order to shew that he did not mean to trifle, he ordered the tongue

of a monk (called Abba Af Christos) to be cut out, for denying the

two natures in Christ; and Buco, one of the principal generals of his

court (who afterwards died a zealous Catholic) he ordered to be beaten

with rods, and degraded from his employment, for observing the Jewish

sabbath.

The king, having given these public, unequivocal testimonies of his

resolution, put himself at the head of his army, and marched against

Jonael; but that rebel, not daring to meet his offended sovereign,

retired into the mountains; whereupon the king laid waste the country

of the Galla, who had protected him. This occasioned a division among

the Galla themselves. One party declaring for the king, apprehended

Jonael with intention to deliver him up; but he was soon rescued out of

their hands by the contrary party, enemies to Socinios. His protectors

being once known, the manner of working his destruction was soon

known likewise. The king’s presents made their way to that faithless

people, the only barbarians with whom the right of hospitality is not

established. Upon receiving the king’s bribe, they murdered Jonael, cut

his head off, and sent it to the king.

The rebellion in Damot was not so easily quelled. Sela Christos,

a zealous Catholic, was sent against the rebels to inforce the

proclamation with regard to the sabbath. But as his connections

were very considerable among them, he chose first to endeavour, by

fair means, to induce the ignorant savages to return to reason and

obedience. With this view, he sent to expostulate with them; and to

beg that, in articles of faith, they would suffer themselves to be

examined and instructed by men of learning and good life; not by those

monks, ignorant like themselves, from whom they only could learn vice,

blasphemy, and rebellion. To this the Damots answered, as one man,

That, if his friendship for them and good intentions were real, he

should give them, for proof, the immediate burning of all the Latin

books which had been translated into the Ethiopian language, and that,

then, he should hang those Jesuits who were with him upon a high tree.

We are not, however, to consider this was really from a conviction or

persuasion of the Damots, who inhabit a province bordering upon the

Agows and Gongas, and their Christianity much upon a par with that

of either of these nations. But the fact was, that the fanatics and

zealots for the Alexandrian faith had retired in great numbers to

Damot, as to a province the worst affected to the king, from the recent

violence of Julius, who, in an expedition against the Shangalla, by

order of the king had driven off the cattle of the peaceable Damots,

who had been then guilty of no offence. And as these were ready

to rebel for a quarrel merely their own, it was very easy for the

schismatical monks to add this religious grievance to the sum of the

preceding.

Sela Christos had with him about 7000 men, most of them Catholics and

veteran soldiers; and among these 40 Portuguese, partly on foot, armed

with musquets, the others on horseback, clad in coats of mail. Very

different was the army of Damots. They were superior in number for they

exceeded 12000 men, and among these were 400 monks, well armed with

swords, lances, and shields, earnestly bent upon the obtaining a crown

of martyrdom in defence of their religion, from the innovation proposed

by Socinios. At the head of these was a fanatical monk (one Batacu) who

promised them armies of angels, with flaming swords, who should slay

their enemies, but render them invulnerable, as he declared himself to

be, either by sword or lance.

The battle was fought at the foot of the mountains of Amid Amid, on the

6th of October 1620. Sela Christos, sure of victory, and unwilling to

slaughter a people he had been used to protect, began first to shew his

superiority in slight skirmishes. After which, desiring a parley, he

sent messengers to them, begging them to consider their own danger, and

offering them a general amnesty upon their submission. These messengers

were not allowed to approach, for showers of arrows that were poured

upon them; so the battle began with great animosity on both sides. The

Damots were soon broken and put to flight by the superiority of Sela

Christos’s soldiers. But the 400 monks, already mentioned, fought most

desperately in defiance of numbers, nor did they seek their safety

by a flight. One hundred and eighty of them were killed on the place

they occupied, valiantly fighting to the very last. A rare example,

and seldom found in history, that fanatics like these, always ready to

rebel, should persist and sacrifice their lives to the follies of their

own preaching.

As for their celestial auxiliaries, whose assistance they were promised

as far as could be discovered, they neither did harm nor good. We may

suppose they stood neuter. But Batacu the hermit, ringleader of this

sedition, whose body was so miraculously armed, that neither sword

nor spear could make any impression upon it, was unfortunately thrust

through with a lance in the very beginning of the engagement, which

greatly served to discredit these supernatural aids.

It was in this year 1620, that Socinios marched into Begemder against

Jonael. At which time Peter Paez was employed at Gorgora in building

the church there. The king returned immediately to Dancaz after the

defeat of Jonael, and passed his winter at that place.

It was on the 16th of January 1621, that the dedication of the church

of Gorgora was made by Peter Paez; and at that time the king was in

Begemder. Upon his return to Dancaz he met Paez at Gorgora for the

first time. He remained at Gorgora till the 3d of October of that year,

when the news of the defeat of the Damots by Sela Christos arrived,

which he received in presence of that priest at Gorgora. In this, both

the Jesuits and Abyssinian annals agree. It is not then possible that

Peter Paez could have been with the king at Sacala, or Geesh, in the

country of the Agows on the 21st of March 1621[57]; for both Peter Paez

and Socinios were at that time in Gorgora.

At this time the Ethiopic memoirs of Socinios’s reign interrupted their

continual topics of rebellion and bloodshed, to record a very trifling

anecdote; which, however, I insert, as it serves to give some idea of

the simplicity and ignorance of those times.

The historian says, that this year there was brought into Abyssinia,

a bird called _Para_, which was about the bigness of a hen, and spoke

all languages; Indian, Portuguese, and Arabic. It named the king’s

name: although its voice was that of a man, it could likewise neigh

like a horse, and mew like a cat, but did not sing like a bird. It was

produced before the assembly of judges, of the priests, and the azages

of court, and there it spoke with great gravity. The assembly, after

considering circumstances well, were unanimously of opinion, that the

evil spirit had no part in endowing it with these talents. But to be

certain of this, it was thought most prudent to take the advice of Ras

Sela Christos, then in Gojam, who might, if he thought fit, consult the

superior of Mahebar Selassé; to them it was sent, but it died on the

road. The historian closes his narrative by this wise reflection on the

parrot’s death; “Such is the lot of all flesh.”

The king, immediately after his victory over Jonael, had resolved to

throw off the mask, and openly to profess the Catholic religion. The

success of Sela Christos against the Damots had confirmed him. He had

passed the rainy season, as I have before observed, between Gorgora

and Dancaz; and, in the usual time, in the month of November, marched

to Foggora, a narrow stripe of plain country, reaching from Emfras to

Dara, bounded on one side by the lake Dembea, and on the other by the

mountains of Begemder.

For this purpose he sent to Peter Paez, his ordinary confessor, to

come to him; and, having told him his resolution, he declared, that,

in proof of the sincerity of his conversion, he had put away all his

wives (of whom he had several of the first quality, and many children

by them) and retained only his first, by whom he had the eldest of his

sons, destined to succeed him in the empire.

Paez, having received his confession, and public renunciation of the

Alexandrian faith, returned to Gorgora singing his _nunc dimittis_,

as if the great end of his mission was now completed; nor was he

deceived in his prognostication. For, having too much heated himself

with zeal in travelling, he was, upon his arrival, taken with a violent

fever; and, tho’ every sort of remedy was administered to him by

Antonio Fernandes, yet he died on the third of May 1623, with great

demonstrations of piety and resignation, and firm conviction, that he

had done his duty in an active, innocent, and well-spent life.

He had been seven years a captive in Arabia in the hands of the Moors,

and nineteen years missionary in Abyssinia, in the worst of times, and

had always extricated himself from the most perilous situations, with

honour to himself and advantage to his religion. In person, he was very

tall and strong; but lean from continual labour and abstinence. He was

red faced; which, Tellez says, proceeded from the religious _warmth_ of

his heart. He had a very good understanding, which he had cultivated,

every hour of his life, by study or practice.

Besides possessing universal knowledge in scholastic divinity, and the

books belonging to his profession, he understood Greek, Latin, and

Arabic well, was a good mathematician, an excellent mechanic, wrought

always with his own hands, and in building was at once a careful,

active labourer, and an architect of refined taste and judgment. He

was, by his own study and industry, painter, mason, carver, carpenter,

smith, farrier, quarrier, and was able to build convents and palaces,

and furnish them without calling one workman to his assistance; and in

this manner he is said to have furnished the convent at Collela, as

also the palace and convent at Gorgora.

With all these accomplishments, he was so affable, compassionate, and

humble in his nature, that he never had opportunity of conversing, even

with heretics, without leaving them his friends. He was remarkably

chearful in his temper; and the most forward always in promoting

innocent mirth, of that puerile species which we in England call _fun_,

in great request among the young men in Abyssinia, who spend much

of their time in this sort of conversation, whether in the city or

the camp. Above all, he was a patient, diligent instructor of youth;

and the greatest part of his disciples died in the persecution that

soon followed, resolutely maintaining the truths of that religion

their preceptor first had taught them. In a word, he was the hinge

upon which the Catholic religion turned. He had found the seeds of it

sown in the country for a hundred years before his time, which had

borne little fruit, and was then apparently on the decline. Nineteen

years of this most active missionary, and the death of three kings,

had advanced it only so far as to be embraced publicly by one of

them; after Paez’s death, in six years it fell, though supported most

strenuously by a king prodigal of the blood of his subjects in this

cause, by a patriarch sent from Rome, and by above 20 very zealous and

active missionaries; and, as far as my foresight can carry me, it is

so entirely fallen, that, unless by a special miracle of Providence

wrought for that purpose, it never will rise again.

The king’s renunciation of the Alexandrian faith was followed by a

very strong, or rather violent manifesto, and we need not be at a loss

to guess whom he employed to draw it up. It begins by asserting the

supremacy of the church of Rome, as the see of St Peter; it mentions

the three first general councils, which condemned Arius, Macedonius,

and Nestorius; next quotes the council of Chalcedon, as the fourth

general council, as having justly condemned Dioscurus; but says not

a word of the council of Ephesus, which the Abyssinians receive

instead of that of Chalcedon; insists largely upon the two natures in

Christ; then, leaving the patriarchs of Alexandria, it attacks not

the doctrine, but the morals of the Abunas, sent from Alexandria into

Abyssinia, accuses the ecclesiastics in general of simony and paying

money to the Abuna for their ordination, (a well-founded part of the

charge) which I fear continues to this day.

The Abuna Marcus was, it is there said, convicted by Socinios, or

Melec Segued, of a crime of such turpitude that the name of it should

never stain paper. He was degraded and banished to the island of Dek.

His successor Christodulus had many concubines. Abuna Petros, who

succeeded, took the wife of a poor Egyptian, and lived with her; he

then excommunicated his sovereign Jacob, after he had reigned seven

years, and died in battle in the actual commission of treason, fighting

against the prince.

Simon, the last Abuna, besides living in adultery with the wife of an

Egyptian called Matti, kept several young women with him as concubines;

and being detected in having a daughter by one of them, with a view to

conceal it, he caused the child to be exposed to be devoured by the

hyæna. After living in constant disobedience to God’s law, he joined

the crime of rebellion to the repeated breach of every command in the

decalogue; and appearing in battle, and excommunicating his sovereign,

God (says the manifesto) delivered him into our victorious hands, and

he was slain by a common soldier in the very commission of his crime.

It must be owned, we cannot have a worse picture of any Christian

church than that here given of the bishop’s church of Alexandria.

Charity should induce us to hope some exaggeration had crept into it.

Yet when we consider that the facts mentioned were all within the space

of forty years, and consequently must have been within the knowledge,

not only of Socinios, but of many people then alive and at court, we

cannot, with the impartiality of an historian, deny our apprehensions,

that these charges were but too-well founded.

However this may be, neither the king’s example, nor his manifesto,

had the effect he desired. A rebel, whom the annals call the son of

Gabriel, declared himself against the king in Amhara, just at the time

that Socinios, misled by the enemies of Sela Christos, had begun

to entertain suspicion of his loyalty, and had deprived him of the

government of Gojam and the Agows. Finding, after an examination, there

was no person that was qualified to bring this affair to a happy issue

but Sela Christos, he replaced him in his government of Gojam, giving

him, at the same time, orders to march against the son of Gabriel, into

Amhara.

This command of the king, Ras Sela Christos soon complied with, and,

upon his first appearance in that province, the rebel retired to a

high mountain which he made his place of arms, the top producing both

provisions and water sufficient to maintain a large garrison.

The Ras, seeing that force availed nothing, had recourse to the usual

trap these rebels fall into. Weary of confinement on the mountain,

sensible that he was by himself too weak to leave it, while such

an enemy expected him below, he accepted the friendship of the

neighbouring Galla, who offered to join him in such numbers as to

enable him to descend from the mountain, and try his fortune in a

battle. The treaty was concluded, and the junction no sooner effected,

than the faithless Galla, before gained by the Ras, fell upon the son

of Gabriel with their clubs, and killed him on the spot, having so

mangled his body that scarce a piece was reserved to send to his enemy.

The joy this victory occasioned at court met with a great addition

by the arrival of the Romish patriarch. It has been before observed,

that the king had himself wrote letters to the pope and king of

Spain, declaring his intentions to turn Catholic. Peter Paez, Antonio

Fernandes, and the other priests, had given a much more favourable

prospect of religious affairs than had as yet been conveyed to Rome;

the wiser part of the conclave, however, had doubted. But now, the king

had voluntarily made his recantation, it was no longer thought time for

delay, and accordingly Alphonso Mendez, a Jesuit doctor of divinity, a

man of great learning, by birth a Portuguese, was ordained at Lisbon

the 25th of May 1624.

From thence he proceeded to India by the way of Goa, attended by

several fresh missionaries; and finding there letters from Socinios,

and a passport from the king of Dancali, a Mahometan prince in alliance

with the Abyssinians, he arrived at Bilur, an open bay in the small and

barren state of Dancali, on the second of May 1625, and was received,

by the brother of the reigning prince, with every token of friendship

that so poor a state and sovereign could afford; the king of Dancali

himself was at the distance of six days journey, in a place where there

was greater plenty of water and provisions. The following day the king

sent four mules for the fathers to join him, and received them in a

room of a round figure, surrounded and covered with bundles of straw,

but so low they scarce could raise themselves after having made their

bows.

In this miserable kingdom, which I shall not describe, as, since that

period, it has been conquered by the Galla, the patriarch and fathers

staid almost in want of necessaries for sixteen days. At last they

set out, having, with much difficulty, mustered sufficient beasts of

burden to carry their baggage. The road lay through part of the country

wherein are the mines of fossile-salt, hot, barren, and absolutely

without water, and exposed greatly to the incursions of the Galla.

After two days journey, they arrived in the morning of the third, at

the foot of Senaffé, where there was water. It is the frontier (as the

name imports) of the province of Enderta, now united to the government

of Tigré. It is part of that ridge of mountains which separates the

seasons, occasioning summer on the one side, while rain and cold

prevail on the other.

On the night before they came to the mountain, while dubious of

their way, a star of more than ordinary magnitude, and of surprising

brightness, appeared over the patriarch, giving so strong a light

that it illuminated the heavens down to the horizon. It was not,

in its place or manner of appearing, like a common star, but stood

stationary, in the way leading to Senaffé, for above six minutes, and

disappeared[58]. This star, the patriarch and his followers modestly

say, was probably the same that conducted the Magi to the cradle of

Christ, and was now sent to shew them the way into Abyssinia.

While they were at the foot of this mountain, the Muleteers, all

Mahometans, thought the occasion a proper one to plunder them, by

obliging them to pay an additional hire for their beasts, which they

pretended were not able to ascend so steep a mountain. The camels

certainly could not pass; but mules and asses have a more practicable

road, for the sake of carrying the salt. They insisted to leave the

company till they should bring them fresh mules. The caravan consisted

of the patriarch and six ecclesiastics, priests, and friars, and

thirteen laymen, three of whom were musicians. It was very probably

their intention to have sent to them people who would very soon have

put a fatal period to the mission, had not Emanuel Baradas, with

a number of Abyssinians, and officers, and plenty of all things

necessary, joined the patriarch on the 16th of June 1625; while their

late conductors, conscious of misbehaviour, fled without seeking their

hire.

In five days they came to Fremona, where they staid till November; and,

in December, arrived at Gorgora, where they were introduced to the

king in his palace. Socinios ordered the patriarch to be placed on a

seat equal in height to his own, on his right hand; and at that very

audience, which was on the 11th of February 1626, it was settled that

the king should take an oath of submission to the see of Rome.

This useless, vain, ridiculous ceremony, was accordingly celebrated

on the 11th of February, with all the pageantry of a heathen festival

or triumph. The palace was adorned with all the pomp and vanity that

the church of Rome, and especially that part of it, the Order of

the Jesuits, had solemnly abjured. The patriarch, as a mark of his

superiority over the Abunas, preached a sermon in the Portuguese

language upon the primacy of the chair of St Peter, full of Latin

quotations, which is said to have had a wonderful effect upon the king

and Sela Christos, neither of whom understood one word either of Latin

or Portuguese.

That part of the patriarch’s discourse, which was applicable to

Socinios’s conversion, was answered by Melca Christos, governor

of Samen, (himself a schismatic) in the language of Amhara, which

neither the patriarch nor his retinue understood, and concluded with

these words, “That as the king thought himself obliged to fulfil

those promises of submitting himself to the see of Rome which his

predecessors had made, the time was now come in which he should do

that, if such was his pleasure. These last words of the orator seem not

to have satisfied the zeal of Socinios. He interrupted Melca Christos

by saying, that it was not now, but a long time since, that he had

submitted to the church of Rome, as true successor of St Peter; and

the present occasion was only a confirmation of what he had formerly

professed.”

The patriarch answered by a few words, prudently and sensibly, I

suppose to save time, seeing that, short or long, his discourse would

not be understood. But proceeding to facts, he opened a new testament,

while Socinios, upon his knees, took the following oath: “We, sultan

Segued, emperor of Ethiopia, do believe and confess that St Peter,

prince of the apostles, was constituted, by Christ our Lord, head of

the whole Christian church, and that he gave him the principality and

dominion over the whole world, by saying to him, _You are Peter, and

upon this rock will I build my church; and I will give you the keys of

the kingdom of heaven_. And again when he said, _Keep my sheep_. Also

we believe and confess, that the pope of Rome, lawfully elected, is the

true successor of St Peter the apostle, in government; that he holdeth

the same power, dignity, and primacy, in the whole Christian church:

and to the holy father Urban VIII. of that name, by the mercy of God,

pope, and our lord, and to his successor in the government of the

church, we do promise, offer, and swear true obedience, and subject,

with humility at his feet, our person and empire: so help us God and

these holy gospels before us.”--After this, each man swore personal

obedience, officers, priests, and monks, according to their several

orders or conditions.

The prince royal Facilidas, purely and simply in the form prescribed,

took this oath, without any addition or alteration. But Ras Sela

Christos, heated with zeal, after repeating the formula, drawing his

sword in violent passion, uttered these words, “What has passed let it

be past; but, from this day forward, he that falls from his duty this

shall be his judge[59].”

This hasty speech, not well understood, was thought by some to reflect

on those he had discovered to be in the confederacy with the rebel son

of Gabriel. As the court was full of parties and discontent, every one

applied the threat to himself, and all joined in a league to undo Sela

Christos, who had so wantonly declared himself the leader and champion

of persecution.

To this oath of obedience to the pope, he likewise added one to the

king, and to the prince his successor, Facilidas, with a strange

clause, or qualification, which made what he said formerly still

worse:--“I likewise swear to the prince, as heir of his father in this

empire, as long as he shall hold favour, and defend the holy Catholic

faith; and if he shall fail in this, I hereby swear to be his greatest

enemy.” This extravagant addition he insisted should be imposed

upon all the officers of state, and of the army then at court, and

therefore did most deservedly seal his own condemnation and punishment,

which overtook him in the end, though it did not follow till long

afterwards.

To these violent proceedings were added others still more violent. A

solemn excommunication was pronounced against all such as did not keep

that oath, and a proclamation was forthwith made, “That all people, in

the line of being ordained priests, should first embrace the Catholic

religion upon pain of death; that all should observe the form of the

church of Rome in the celebration of Easter and Lent, under the same

penalty; and with that the ceremonies of the day ended.”

_Tempus erit cum magno optaverit emptum,_

_Intactum Pallanta._

It was a day ever to be marked with black, not only in the annals of

Ethiopia, but in those of Rome.

Although the arrival of the patriarch at Bilur had been happily

effected, both as to himself and those that attended him, it was not

so with some of his brethren sent to assist him in that mission. Two

Jesuits, Francisco Machado and Bernard Pereira, had received the king’s

letters in India for their safe conduct to Bilur in Dancali. Whether by

malice, or inadvertency, the king’s secretary, instead of Bilur, had

mentioned Zeyla in the letter.

Zeyla, an island belonging to the king of Adel, was of all other

places that where the people were most inveterate against the Catholic

religion. No sooner did the Shekh know the quality and errand of these

missionaries, than he confined them to close prison, where, after

great suffering, they were both put to death; and, to aggravate this,

a letter was written to Socinios stigmatizing him with the name of

apostate from the religion of his forefathers, and applying to him many

opprobrious names.

This letter, at another time, would not have failed to have been

followed by the chastisement it deserved. But Adel, formerly a

flourishing and commercial kingdom, was now fallen, and reduced to

a multitude of banditti. Trade had left it. A garrison of nominal

janizaries, since the reign of Sultan Selim, had kept the little island

of Zeyla for the pretended purpose of a customhouse; but, in fact, it

was a post of robbers, who only maintained themselves there for the

sake of plundering merchants who came by sea; while the Galla poured in

numbers upon the prince from the continent, and of the ancient kingdom

of Adel, had left him nothing but Aussa the capital, a town situated

upon a rock, on the banks of the river Hawash, Azab, and Raheeta, and

a few other miserable villages upon the sea; and even part of these

were daily falling into the hands of that enemy, destined very soon to

over-run them all. This abject state to which they had been reduced, we

may suppose, was the only reason that protected them from the vengeance

of a high-spirited prince, such as Socinios certainly was.

This violent conduct of Socinios in his abjuration was followed by that

of the patriarch Alphonso Mendes, perfectly in the same spirit. The

clergy were re-ordained, their churches consecrated anew, grown men

as well as children again baptised, the moveable feasts and festivals

reduced to the forms and times of the church of Rome; circumcision,

polygamy, and divorce were abrogated for ever; and the many questions

that thereupon arose, and which were understood to belong to the civil

judge, the patriarch called to his own tribunal exclusively.

All the tenets of the church of Alexandria, whether of faith or

discipline, were rejected; and it was not known how far the patriarch

intended to subject the civil jurisdiction of the judges to the

ecclesiastical power. Two steps that he took, the one immediately after

the other, seemed to give great reason of fear upon this head.

In order to understand the first of these cases, it will be necessary

to know, that it is a fundamental constitution of the monarchy of

Ethiopia, that all lands belong to the king; and that there is no such

thing as church-lands in this country. Those that the king has given

for the maintenance of churches or monasteries are resumed every day,

at the instance of, and for the convenience of individuals, and new

ones granted in their stead sometimes of a greater value, sometimes of

a less. Nor have the priests or monks any property in these lands. A

lay-officer, appointed by the king, divides to each monk or priest, his

quota of the revenue, applying any overplus to other uses, which is, we

may suppose, often putting it into his own pocket.

There was a nobleman of great distinction for his family and rank at

court, for his age, and the merit of his service; he had occupied some

of the lands belonging to a monk who happened to be a Catholic. This

man, had he been an Alexandrian, could have had no recourse to the

Abuna his patriarch, and the cause must have been tried before the

civil judge. But Mendes was of another opinion. He ordered the nobleman

to make his defence before the ecclesiastical tribunal; and, upon his

refusing this as a novelty to which he was not bound, he condemned him

immediately to restore the lands to the monk. This, too, was refused on

the part of the present possessor, who being one day attending the king

at church, the patriarch, without preamble, pronounced against him a

formal sentence of excommunication, by which he gave him over, soul and

body, to the devil.

Such procedure was, till then, unknown in Abyssinia. The nobleman,

though otherwise brave, was so much affected with the terms of his

sentence as to faint, imagining himself already in the clutches of

Satan, and it was with difficulty he was recovered, the king making

intercession with the patriarch to take off this censure, or rather

this curse.

Sudden as it was, however, in the inflicting, and easy in the removal,

it made very lasting and serious impressions on the minds of men of all

ranks, greatly to the disadvantage of the patriarch and the professors

of his new religion, in the exercise of which they did not discover

that degree of charity, meekness, mercy, and long-suffering, that they

had been taught were the very essentials of it.

The next instance was this: There had been an Itchegué, that is, the

superior of the monks of Debra Libanos, an Order instituted by Abba

Tecla Haimanout, the last Abyssinian Abuna, not more celebrated by the

church than the state, as being the restorer of the line of Solomon,

for many years banished to Shoa; and this superior, besides the dignity

of his office, was remarkable for an innocent, pious, and holy life.

It happened that a Catholic monk officiated in a church where this

Itchegué had been buried under the altar; the patriarch declared the

church defiled by the burial of that heretic and schismatic, and

suspended the celebration of divine service till the body was raised

and thrown out of the church in a most indecent manner. Universal

discontent seized the minds of all men; and, from that time, it seemed

the friends of the old religion began again to recover strength, and

the Catholics to be looked upon, if not with hatred, yet with terror.

And every trifle now contributed towards the one or the other.

The Jesuits, following practices or customs of their own, had thought

fit to exhibit a kind of religious plays or farces. The devil in these

pieces is always the buffoon; he plays harlequin and slight-of-hand

tricks, fires squibs and gun-powder, very little consistent with the

decency of the other persons who compose the drama. This continued

to be practised in several Catholic countries in Europe, while that

learned company existed[60]. It happened to be necessary to introduce

figures of this kind blacked all over, and in masks, with cloven feet,

&c. The first exhibition of these figures so surprised and terrified

the Abyssinian audience, that they fled immediately upon their

appearance, crying out, Alas! alas! these Franks have brought devils

into our country with them!

This great extension of civil jurisdiction, and the large strides it

took to annihilate the civil power, the encroachments it made upon the

prerogative of the king, till now supreme in all causes ecclesiastical

and civil, the more than regal, the more, if possible, than papal

pride of the patriarch, began to be felt universally, and it was seen

to be intended to lessen every order of government, from the king to

the lowest officer in the province. From this time, therefore, we date

the decline of the Catholic interest in Abyssinia. The first blow was

given it by the king himself, not with a view to destroy it, for he

was a sincere Catholic upon principle, but to controul and keep it

within some bounds, as he found there was no order could otherwise be

maintained.

He desired the patriarch to permit the use of the ancient liturgies of

Ethiopia, altered by himself in every thing where they did not agree

with that of the church of Rome. With this the patriarch was obliged to

comply, because there was in it an appearance of reason that men should

pray to God in a language that they understood, and which was their

own, rather than a foreign tongue of which they did not understand

one word. This was thought so obvious in Ethiopia as not to admit

any doubt. But the order and practice of the church of Rome was just

the contrary; and this wound was a mortal one; for no sooner was the

permission given to use their own liturgies, than all the Abyssinians

embraced them to a man, and went on in their old prayers and services

without any of the patriarch’s alterations.

To these events, not important in themselves, but only from the effect

they had upon the minds of mankind, succeeded tragedies of a more

serious nature. I have already observed, in speaking of the Galla,

that they were divided into three principal divisions, those on the

east of Abyssinia were called Bertuma Galla, those on the south called

Toluma, and those on the west Boren Galla; each of these were divided

into seven, and these again subdivided into a number of tribes. Each

of these seven nations choose a king once in seven years called Lubo;

and it is usually the first act of the new king’s reign to over-run the

neighbouring provinces of Abyssinia, laying every thing waste with fire

and sword for this year, even if they had no provocation, but had been

at peace for several years before.

The Abyssinians remained long in ignorance of this cause of these

invasions, and, while that was the case, they could take no measures to

be prepared against, and resist them. But after, when the customs of

the Galla were better known, their periodical invasions were watched

and provided against, so that though they were still continued, they

were generally repelled with the slaughter and defeat of the invaders.

It happened that the present year, 1627, was the season of electing

the king, and of the invasion. Though the time of the expedition

was known, no intelligence had been given of the manner in which it

was to be executed. In past times, the nations, or tribes of Galla,

assaulted each the opposite province in whose frontiers they were

settled; but this year it was agreed among them to choose one province,

Gojam, which, by uniting their whole force, they were to devote to

destruction, or, if possible, keep possession of it.

Buco was governor of Gojam; the king had sent Sela Christos to his

assistance, and was intending to follow with another army himself. In

the mean time, the passes through which the Galla used to enter were

all lined with men, and every preparation made to receive them.

These barbarians advanced to the Nile in multitudes never seen before;

and, finding the province perfectly on its guard, they feigned a panic,

or disagreement among themselves, retired in seeming confusion, and

dispersed, some, as it was said, to their own homes, and some to an

expedition against Narea. This in reality had often happened; but now

it was only a stratagem; for they all assembled in their own country

Bizamo, of which the Abyssinians had no intelligence. Buco, thinking he

was free of them for that year, disbanded his troops, or detached them

to other services; Sela Christos did the same; neither did Socinios

advance with his army.

In that interval of weakness, news were sent to Buco that the Galla had

passed the Nile. Upon which he advanced with 1000 foot and 200 horse,

believing that it was some small part of that army which he thought

had some time before been dispersed. After hearing mass with great

devotion, and receiving the sacrament, in passing through a thick wood

he was assaulted by the Galla. Being a man, brave in his own person,

and exceedingly well-trained to arms, he fought so successfully, and

so encouraged his men by his example, that he cut that body of Galla

entirely to pieces; and, as he thought the whole matter then at an

end, he ordered his drums to beat, and his trumpets to sound, in token

of victory.

The rest of the Galla, who were now dispersed through the province,

but at no great distance, burning and destroying, as their custom is,

and who left this body behind them only to secure their retreat across

the river, returned all to their colours, upon hearing the drums and

trumpets of Kasmati Buco, whom they did not know to be so near; and, as

soon as he came in sight, despising his small number, they surrounded

them on every side. Buco immediately saw that he was a lost man; but,

considering the multitude of the enemy, and the unprepared state of the

province, he thought his own life and those of his followers could not

be better employed than by obstinately fighting to disable the enemy,

so as to put it out of their power to pursue the ruin of the country

further; throwing himself furiously into the thickest of the Galla, he,

at first onset, killed four of the most forward of their leaders, and

made himself a lane through the troops opposing him; and he was now got

without their circle, when some of his officers seeing him, cried to

him to make the best of his way, as affairs were desperate, and not to

add by his death to the misfortunes of that day.

Upon this he paused, as recollecting himself for a moment; but,

disdaining to survive the loss of his army, he threw himself again

among the Galla, where his men were still fighting, carrying victory

wherever he went. His horse was at last wounded, and, being otherwise

young and untrained, became ungovernable. It was necessary to quit him,

when, drawing his sword, and leaping upon the ground, he continued the

fight with the same degree of courage, till the Galla, who did not dare

to approach him near, killed him by a number of javelins thrown at a

distance.

The news of the defeat and death of Buco reached Sela Christos, then in

march to join him; nor did the misfortune that had already happened,

nor the bad prospect of his own situation, alter his resolution of

attacking the enemy: But he first wrote to the king his brother,

telling him his situation, and the probable consequences of doing his

duty as he had determined, laying all the blame upon the malice of

his enemies, who, to gratify their own private malice, had left him

without assistance, and occasioned misfortunes so detrimental to the

common-weal.

Sela Christos passed this night upon a rising ground, and in the

morning early descended into the plain, with a view of attacking the

Galla, when, to his great surprise, that barbarous people, content with

the slaughter of Kasmati Buco and his army, and not willing to risk a

large quantity of plunder with which their whole army was loaded, had

repassed the Nile, and returned home.

Tecla Georgis was son-in-law to Socinios, and then governor of Tigré,

but at variance with his father-in-law upon some quarrel with his wife.

Determined on this account to rebel, he associated with some noblemen

of the first rank and power in Tigré, particularly Guebra Mariam and

John Akayo, declaring to them, that he would no longer suffer the Roman

religion, but defend the ancient church of Alexandria to the utmost

of his power. And, to convince all the Abyssinians of his sincerity,

he tore off the figures of crucifixes, and all church-ornaments and

images of saints that were in relief, and burned them publicly, to make

his reconciliation with the king impossible. He then called before

him Abba Jacob his Catholic chaplain, and, having stripped him of his

pontificals, killed him with his own hand. There was no method he could

devise of bringing his quarrel sooner to an issue than this which he

had adopted. But he did not seem to have taken equal pains to provide

for his defence, as he had done to give provocation.

Socinios, upon the first intelligence of this murder and treason,

ordered Keba Christos to march against him with the troops that he had

at hand. This general, equally a good soldier, subject, and Catholic,

being convinced of the necessity of punishing speedily so monstrous

a crime, passed by forced marches through Siré to Axum, thence to

Fremona; and, having appointed Gaspar Paez to meet him there, he

confessed himself, and received the sacrament from that Jesuit’s hands.

From Fremona he continued with the same speed, making three ordinary

days marches in one, being desirous of preventing the possibility of

Tecla Georgis’s collecting troops, and taking refuge on a mountain

called _Masba_, which he heard to be his design.

It was the 12th of December 1628 that news were brought him of the

situation of the enemy; upon which he ordered his baggage to be left

behind, and every soldier to carry two loaves, and to march without

resting till he came up with Tecla Georgis.

In the morning of the day following, two horsemen, on the scout before

him, discovered five of the rebel soldiers upon the look-out likewise.

These, upon seeing Keba Christos’s horsemen, returned immediately to

their master, and told him that they had seen armed men, and conceived

them to be the soldiers of Keba Christos. To this intelligence Tecla

Georgis answered, That Keba Christos was in the king’s palace at Dancaz

the 15th of November, and that it was impossible he then could be so

near with an army, if he had even wings to fly; but that the men they

had seen were probably reinforcements that he expected.

Keba Christos, on the contrary, hearing that the enemy was at hand,

drew up his army in three divisions. The first consisted of his own

household, the second of a body of horse of the king’s household,

called _the Koccob Horse_, or _Star Cavalry_, from a silver star which

each of them wears on the front of his helmet; and the third, of the

people of Tigré who had joined him. In this order he came in sight

of his enemy posted upon a small height, divided only from him by a

narrow plain. Tecla Georgis, convinced now that it was Keba Christos,

formed his army into two divisions; the one composed of a body called

_Tcheraguas_, the other of a body called _Sultan ba Christos_; with

these was a large corps of Galla which had lately joined them.

Keba Christos, now turning to his troops, briefly said, “My children,

I will not waste my time nor yours in discourse, or in telling you

what you are to do. You have all arms in your hands; you are good

Christians; and I can positively assure you there is not before you one

of your enemies that is not also an enemy to Christ.” Then, placing

himself before the Koccob horse, he pulled off his helmet and gave it

to his servant, saying, “By my naked face you shall know me to-day,

that I am not going in the midst of you as general or commander, but

foot for foot along with you like a common soldier.”

Upon having uncovered his head, he was quickly known by Tecla Georgis,

from whose troops a number of muskets was fired at him. But this had

so little effect upon this gallant officer, that, changing his place,

(which then was at the head of the second division) he placed himself

still nearer the enemy in the front of his own household troops, which

were the first; and the Galla charging them in that instant, he slew

their leader with his own hand. Upon the death of their commander,

these barbarians immediately fled, as is their custom, while Keba

Christos endeavoured to make his way to where Tecla Georgis was

employed keeping his troops from following so bad an example. But so

soon as that rebel saw his enemy approach him, he and his whole army

joined the Galla in their flight; tho’ he narrowly escaped, by the

swiftness of his horse, a light javelin, thrown by Keba Christos, which

struck him behind, but so feebly, by reason of the distance, that it

did not pierce his armour.

The king’s troops pursued vigorously, and soon brought to their general

the mule, the sword, and helmet of Tecla Georgis, with the heads of

300 slain in the battle, most of them Gallas, and with them 12 heads

of the most turbulent rebellious monks of Tigré. With these they also

brought Adera, sister to Tecla Georgis, wounded in the throat, who

had instigated him very strongly to commit the violences against the

professors of the Catholic religion. Tafa, too, his master of the

household, was taken prisoner; and it being made known to Keba Christos

that this man had assisted at the murder of Abba Jacob, he ordered him

directly to be put to death.

Tecla Georgis, aided by the strength of his horse and knowledge of

the country, escaped and concealed himself from his pursuers for four

days; but, on the Saturday that followed the victory, he was found in a

cavern with his great confidents, Woldo Mariam, and a schismatic monk

whose name was Sebo Amlac. Tecla Georgis was carried alive to Keba

Christos, who sent him to the king, his two companions being slain as

soon as found, and their heads accompanied their living master, which,

on their arrival at Dancaz, the king ordered to be hung upon a tree.

Tecla Georgis being convicted of sacrilege as well as murder, having

burnt the crucifixes and images of the saints, was condemned to be

burnt alive, and a lime-kiln was immediately prepared in which he was

to suffer. Upon hearing this, he desired a Catholic confessor, as

wishing to be reconciled to the church of Rome, and for this purpose

he sent a request to the patriarch, who was at three leagues distance,

and who dispatched Antonio Fernandes with full powers to absolve from

all manner of sins, and at the same time gave him orders to intercede

strongly with the king to pardon the criminal. Tecla Georgis confessed

publicly at the door of the church, and abjured the errors of the

church of Alexandria.

After this, the father Fernandes applied to the king, pleading strongly

for his pardon. To which the king answered, “Many reasons there are why

I should desire to pardon Tecla Georgis. To say no more, he has been

married to two of my daughters, and he has by them two sons, both good

soldiers and horsemen, who actually ride before me, and accompany me

in battle. I have therefore pardoned him all the affronts and injuries

he has done to me. But, were I to take upon myself to pardon the

affronts and insults he has offered the Divine Majesty, I should turn

the punishment of his sins upon myself, my family, and kingdom; and,

therefore, I refuse your petition, and order you to return forthwith to

Gorgora.”

After the departure of the father, in consideration that Tecla Georgis

had again embraced the Catholic religion, the king altered his sentence

of being burnt, into that of being hanged privately in the house where

he was then in prison; and, for that purpose, the executioner had

brought with him the cord with which Tecla had ordered the feet of Abba

Jacob to be tied. No sooner did he perceive that there were no hopes of

pardon, by their beginning to tie his hands, than he again, with a loud

voice, renounced his confession, declaring that he died an Alexandrian,

and that there was but one nature in Christ. The executioner

endeavoured to stop his further blasphemies, by drawing him up on the

beam in the room; but he resisted so strongly, that there was time to

inform Socinios of his abjuration: upon which the king ordered that

he should be hanged publicly upon a pine-tree; and he was accordingly

taken down, half-strangled, from the beam in the house, and hung upon

the tree before the palace.

Adera, his sister, was next examined; and it being clearly proved

that she had been a very active agent in the murder of Abba Jacob,

she likewise was condemned to be hanged upon the same tree with her

brother, fifteen days afterwards.

All that interval, the queen and ladies at court employed their utmost

interest with the king to pardon Adera, for they looked upon it as a

disgraceful thing, both to their sex and quality, that a woman of her

family should be thus publicly executed. All the ladies of the court

having joined, therefore, in a public petition to the king while on

his throne, he is said to have answered them by the following short

parable:--

“There was once an old woman, who being told of the death of an infant,

said, with great indifference, Children are but tender; it is no wonder

that they die, for any thing will kill a child. Being told of a youth

dying, she observed, Young people are forward and rash; they are always

in the way of some disaster; no wonder they die; it is impossible it

should be otherwise. But being told an old woman was dead, she began to

tear her hair, and lament, crying, Now the world is at an end if old

women begin to die, fearing that her turn might be the next. In this

manner all of you have seen Tecla Georgis die, and also several of his

companions, and you have not said a word. But now it is come to the

hanging of one woman, you are all alarmed, and the world is at an end.

Do not then deceive yourselves, but be assured that the same cord which

tied the feet of Abba Jacob, still remains sufficient to hang that sow

Adera, and all those that shall be so wicked as to behave like her, to

the disgrace of your sex, and their own rank and quality.”

The effects of these ostentatious acts of reformation soon produced

consequences which troubled their joy. The Agows of Lasta, called

Tcheratz Agow, who live at the head of the Tacazzé, rebelled. The

country they occupy is not extensive, but exceedingly populous, and was

supposed at that time to be able to bring into the field above 50,000

fighting men, besides leaving behind a sufficient number to defend

the passes and strong-holds of their country, which are by much the

most difficult and inaccessible of any in Abyssinia. They are divided

into five clans, Waag, Tettera, Dehaanah, Gouliou, and Louta, each

having an independent chief. They are exceedingly warlike; and, though

the country be so rude and rocky, they have a considerable number of

good horses; and are in general reckoned among the bravest and most

barbarous soldiers in Abyssinia. Their province abounds with all sorts

of provisions, and they rarely can be forced to pay any thing to

government in the name of tax, or tribute.

Tecla Georgis was now dead, but the cause of the rebellion still

subsisted. While governor of Begemder, he had connived at many abuses

of his officers who occupied the posts nearest to Lasta. These being

young men, from wantonness only, without provocation, had made many

different inroads, driving away cattle, and committing many other

excesses. The Agows carried their complaints to the governor, who, far

from hearing or redressing their wrongs, justified the conduct of his

officers, by making inroads himself immediately after; but coming to an

action in person with that people, he was shamefully beat, and a great

part of his army left dead upon the field.

This misfortune very much affected Socinios. Nor did the Agows

themselves doubt, but that a speedy chastisement was to follow this

victory over Tecla Georgis.

There was a youth descended of the royal family, who, to preserve the

freedom of his person, lived among the Galla, in expectation of better

times. His name was Melca Christos. To him the Agows applied, that,

with this prince of the house of Solomon at their head, they might wipe

off the odium of being reputed rebels, and appear as fighting under a

lawful sovereign for reformation of abuses. The renunciation of the

Alexandrian faith, forcibly obtruded upon them by Socinios, served

as cause of complaint. The Roman Catholic writers in the history of

this mission, say this was but a pretext, in which I conceive they are

right. I have lived among the Agows of Lasta, and in intimacy with

many of them, who are not, to this day, so anxious about Christianity

as to ascend one of their hills for the difference between that and

Paganism; and I am satisfied, for these 300 years last past there has

been scarcely a common layman in Lasta that has known the distinction

between the Alexandrian and the Roman church.

In the beginning of February 1629 the king marched from Dancaz

towards Gojam, where he collected an army of 30,000 men, which, with

the baggage, servants, and attendants, at that time very great and

numerous, amounted to above 80,000 men.

Socinios detached a number of small parties to enter Lasta at different

places. On the other hand, Melca Christos assembled his troops on the

most inaccessible rocks; whence, when he spied occasion, he came

suddenly down and surprised the enemy below. Among all the rude, high,

and tremendous mountains of which this country consists, there is one

especially, called by the name of _Lasta_. It is in the territory of

Waag, strongly surrounded with inaccessible precipices, having a large

plain on the top, abounding with every thing necessary, and watered by

a fine stream that never fails.

The manner in which the Agows remained secure in this strong post was

misconstrued into fear by the king’s army, which, in two divisions,

advanced to the attack of the mountain. That on the right had with some

difficulty scrambled up without opposition; but, being now arrived to

the steep part of the rock, such a number of large stones was rolled

down upon them from above, that this division of the army was entirely

destroyed. The number of stones on the brink of the precipices was

inexhaustible; and, once put in motion, pursued the scattered troops

with unavoidable speed, even down to the plains below. Among the slain

was Guebra Christos, the king’s son-in-law, dashed to pieces by the

fragment of a rock. The left division was upon the point of suffering

the same misfortune, had not Keba Christos come to their relief and

drawn them off, just before the enemy had begun to discharge this

irresistible artillery against them.

The king, thus shamefully beaten, retired to Dancaz, leaving the

entrances from Lasta strongly defended, lest these mountaineers should,

by way of retaliation, fall upon the province of Begemder. But the

late ill-fortune had dispirited the troops, and caused an indifference

about duty, a want of obedience, and a relaxation in discipline in the

whole army. Each of the detachments, therefore, one after the other,

left their post from different excuses, and returned home. The bad

consequence of this was now experienced. The Agows entered Begemder

spreading desolation everywhere. Melca Christos, no longer sculking

among the rocks of Lasta, planted his standard upon the plain, within

five days march of the capital where the king was residing.

The jealousies that had arisen between Socinios and his brother-in-law

Sela Christos, had been so much aggravated since the oath administered

by the patriarch, that the king had again deprived him of Gojam,

suffering him to live in obscurity in Damot, and among the Agows,

occupied, as the Jesuits say, in the conversion of that Pagan people,

by destroying their idols, which they represent to be a species of

cane or bamboo[61], and in forbidding the ceremonies of adoration and

devotion, which at stated times they paid to the river.

No remedy could be proposed, but the presence of Sela Christos, who,

upon the first warning, joined the king, and coming suddenly upon the

army of Lasta occupied in laying waste the low country of Begemder,

gave them such an overthrow that sufficiently compensated the first

loss of the king, and forced them again to take refuge among their

strong-holds in Lasta.

A misfortune of another kind followed this victory: Laeca Mariam, a

near relation to the king, was appointed governor of Begemder; but

no sooner did he see himself vested with that government, than he

meditated shaking off his allegiance to Socinios.

The king, after his last battle with the Agows, had named his son

Facilidas commander in chief of his forces; and, to secure him a

powerful and able assistant, he had first restored Sela Christos to his

government of Gojam, then sent him with an army to join Facilidas, and

command under him.

The success was answerable to the prudence of the measure; for,

immediately upon their arrival, they obliged Laeca Mariam to seek for

refuge in the mountains of Amhara, and, without giving him time to

recollect himself there, forced their way to the mountain to which he

had retired, and from which he and his followers had no way to escape,

but by venturing down a steep precipice; in attempting this, Laeca

Mariam fell, and was dashed to pieces, as were many others of his

followers; the rest were slain by the army that pursued them.

At this time, Facilidas began to attract the eyes of the nation in

general. Besides personal bravery, he had shewn great military talents

in the former campaign of Lasta. Though young, he was in capacity and

resolution equal to his father, but less warm, more reserved in his

temper and discourse. He was thought to be an enemy to the Catholic

religion, because he did not promote it, and neither exceeded nor fell

short of what his father commanded him. Yet, he lived with the Jesuits

on such an even footing, that they confess they did not know whether he

was their friend or enemy: he kept one of their number, called Father

Angelis, constantly in his household, where he was much favoured, and

constantly in his presence. He was thought to be an enemy to Sela

Christos, though he never had shewn it.

Facilidas received a flattering message from Urban VIII. but did not

answer it; nor does it appear his father ever desired him; for, through

the whole course of the life of Socinios, as his enemies are forced to

confess, he paid to his father’s will, the most passive obedience in

every thing. The tyranny, however, of church-government began to appear

unmasked; and it is probable that the king, though resolved to die a

Roman Catholic from principles of conscience, was indifferent about

forging for his son the chains he had himself worn with pain.

However this may be, the last step of placing Facilidas at the head

of the army was construed as another stroke of humiliation to the

Catholics, especially as it was followed with the removal of Keba

Christos (the support of that religion) from court, where he had been

appointed Billetana Gueta. It is true he was removed by what, in other

times, would have been called preferment; but things had now changed

their qualities, and places were not estimated, as formerly, by the

consequence they gave in the empire, but by the opportunities they

afforded of constant access to the king, and occasion of joining in

councils with him, and defeating those of their enemies.

Keba Christos being sent governor to Tigré, was to enter Lasta from

that quarter on the N. E. He is said to have received his appointment

with a great degree of concern, and to have told his friends, that he

foresaw he never was to return from that expedition, which he did not

regret, because he was convinced, by living much longer, it would be

made his duty to assist at the fall of the Catholic religion.

After having performed his devotions at Fremona, this general advanced

through Gouliou, a territory mostly inhabited by Galla, and destitute

of any sort of provisions; after which he took possession of the

mountains of Lasta, with a view to cover the march of the young prince

Facilidas, whom he every day expected. But that prince not appearing in

time, and provisions becoming scarce, no measure remained but making

his retreat to Tigré; and, although he formed the best disposition for

that purpose, the people of Lasta observing his intention in time, on

his first movement attacked his rear-guard while he was descending the

mountain, and put it to flight; being thereby masters of the higher

ground, they had the command of the cowardly soldiers below them, who

could not insure their destruction more certainly than by the indecent

manner in which they were flying.

Keba Christos, deserted by all except a few servants, continued

courageously fighting; and, although it was very possible for him to

have escaped, he disdained to survive the loss of his army. Receiving

at that time a wound from a javelin, which passed through his belly,

and judging the stroke to be mortal, he gave up all further resistance,

fell upon his knees to prayer, and was again wounded by a stone, which

struck him to the ground. Two of the mountaineers immediately came

up to him, one of whom did not know him, and contented himself with

stripping the body; but the other remembering his face, cut his head

off, and carried it to the rebel Melca Christos.

The misfortune was followed by another in Gojam, great to the nation

in general, and greater still to the Catholic cause in particular. At

the time that Sela Christos was in Begemder with prince Facilidas, the

Galla from Bizamo, supposing the province of Damot without defence,

passed the Nile, laying the whole province waste before them. Fecur

Egzie, lieutenant-general under Sela Christos, although he had with him

only a small number of troops, did not hesitate to march against those

savages, to endeavour, if possible, to stop their ravages. The Galla,

surprised at this, thought it was Sela Christos, and fled before him.

He had now pursued them almost alone, and lighted in a low meadow to

give grass to his horse, when he was surrounded and slain by a number

of the enemy that lay hid among the bushes, and discovered how ill he

was attended.

He was reputed a man of the best understanding, and the most liberal

sentiments of any in Ethiopia; a great orator, excelling both in the

gracefulness of manner and copiousness and purity of his language. He

was among the first that embraced the Catholic religion, even before

the king or Sela Christos, and was the principal promoter of the

translations of the Portuguese books into Ethiopic, assisted by the

Jesuit Antonio de Angelis. We have seen, in the year 1613, the great

efforts he made in the embassy to India by the coast of Melinda. He was

an excellent horseman, but more violent and rash in battle than could

have been expelled from a man of such mild manners.

There happened at this time another novelty. The king brought the

patriarch from Gorgora to Dancaz this year, at Easter, to hear that

feast celebrated, with the Ethiopic service amended, of which we have

already spoken abundantly. This countenance, so unnecessarily given

to an innovation that produced every day such very bad effects to the

Catholic interest, joined to many other circumstances, seemed clearly

to indicate a change in that prince’s mind.

The patriarch having made but a short stay at Dancaz, it was currently

reported a disagreement had happened, and that the king had sent

him prisoner to Gorgora; and this false report affected greatly the

weight the Catholics were supposed before to have had at court. But

the transaction that followed was of a nature to promise much more

consequences.

Socinios had a daughter called _Ozoro Wengelawit_, which means the

Evangelical, a name she certainly deserved not from her manners. This

lady was first married to Bela Christos, a man of rank at court, from

whom she had been divorced. She was next married to another, and then

(her two former husbands being still alive) to Tecla Georgis, who had

before married her sister, another of the king’s daughters. During this

marriage she had openly lived in adultery with Za Christos, who had

been married to her sister, a third daughter of the king. Za Christos

had been happy enough in preserving this lady’s esteem longer than

any other of her husbands, and nothing would content her now but a

marriage with her lover solemnly and publicly. For which purpose she

applied to the patriarch to dispense with the affinity between her and

Za Christos, arising from his having been married before to her sister.

It is not to be supposed that the patriarch would have resisted,

if nothing had stood in the way except the affinity: but weighty

impediments presented themselves besides; for either the first marriage

was valid, or it was not. If it was valid, then Wengelawit could not

marry Za Christos or any one else, because her husband was alive; nor

could she marry her second, nor Tecla Georgis, her third. If the first

marriage was not valid, then the second was, which husband was still

alive; and, in this case, a licence to marry was giving her liberty of

having three husbands at one time. The patriarch, for these reasons,

refused his authority to this manifold adultery and incest; nor could

he, notwithstanding the intercession of the whole court, ever be

brought to comply. His firmness (however commendable) greatly increased

the hatred to his person, and aversion to the church of Rome.

One day when the king was sitting in his apartment, a monk entered the

room, crying with a loud voice, “Hear the ambassador of God and of the

Virgin Mary!” The king, upon first sight of the man, expecting some

improper liberty might be taken, ordered his attendants to turn him out

at the door, and, being removed from his presence, to bring word what

he had to say, which was to this effect: “It is three days since I rose

from the dead. One day when I was standing in paradise, God called me,

and sent me with this message to you:--O emperor! says God, it is now

many years that I hoped you would amend of the great sin, the having

forsaken the faith of your ancestors. All this time the Virgin Mary was

kneeling before her blessed Son, beseeching him to pardon you; and,

upon the whole, it was agreed, that, unless you repent in a fortnight’s

time, you should be punished in such a manner that you will not forget

it presently.”

Socinios desired them to ask the man, “How it was possible that,

having so lately left the grave, his body should have so little of

the emaciated appearance of one long buried, and be now in such good

case, fat and fair?” To this he answered, “That, in paradise, he

thanked God there was abundance of every thing; and people were very

well used there, for he had lived upon good bread, and plenty of good

wine, biskets, and sweetmeats.” To which Socinios answered, “Tell him,

after the pains he had taken, it would be wrong in me to keep him long

from so good a place as this his paradise. Let him go and acquaint the

person who sent him, I shall live and die in the Roman Catholic faith;

and, in order that he may deliver the message quickly in the other

world, speed him instantly out of this, by hanging him upon the tree

before the palace-gate.”

The love of the wine, sweetmeats, and other celestial food, seemed to

have forsaken the ambassador. Upon hearing this message he recanted,

and was pardoned at the joint petition of those of the court that were

present, who concurred with the monk in thinking, that the message of

the emperor was an indecent one, and ought not to be delivered; that

having been in paradise once, was as much as fell to the lot of any

one man, and that he should therefore remain upon earth. The intended

catastrophe, then, of this singular ambassador was remitted; but the

truth of his mission was believed by the populace, and raised great

scruples in every weak mind.

The many misfortunes that had lately befallen the troops of the

king were accounted as so much increase of power to the rebel Melca

Christos, who, encouraged by the correspondence he held with the chiefs

of the Alexandrian religion, began now to take upon him the state and

office of a king. His first essay was to send, as governor to the

province of Tigré, a son of that great rebel Za Selassé, whose manifold

treasons, we have already seen, occasioned the death of two kings, Za

Denghel and Jacob.

Asca Georgis was then governor of Tigré for Socinios, a man of merit

and valour, but poor, and though related to the king himself, had very

few soldiers to be depended on, excepting his own servants, and two

bodies of troops which the king had sent him to maintain his authority,

and to keep his province in order.

The new governor, sent by the rebel Melca Christos, had with him a

considerable army; and, knowing the weakness of Asca Georgis, he

paraded through the province in the utmost security.

One Saturday which, in defiance of the king’s edict, he was to

solemnize as a festival equal to Sunday, he had resolved on a party

of pleasure in a valley, where, much at his ease, he was preparing an

entertainment for his troops and friends, and such of the province as

came to offer their obedience. Intelligence of this party came to

three Shum’s, commanders of small districts, two of them sons-in-law

of the king, the third a very loyal subject. These three sent to Asca

Georgis, to propose that, at a stated time, they should, each with his

own men, fall separately upon the son of Za Selassé, and interrupt his

entertainment.

This was executed with great order and punctuality. In the height of

the festival, the rebels were surrounded by an unexpected enemy. To

think of fighting was too late, nor was there time for flight. The

greatest part of the army was cut to pieces with little resistance.

The new governor saved himself among the rest by the goodness of his

horse, leaving Billetana Gueta, or chief master of the household of the

rebel Melca Christos, dead upon the spot, with about 4000 of his men.

Among the plunder were taken 32 kettle-drums, which alone were evidence

sufficient of the greatness of the slaughter.

Although the happy turn Socinios’s affairs had taken had given him

leisure to pass this winter at home, and in greater quiet than he had

done in former ones, yet the calm which it had produced was of very

short duration. The people of Lasta, perceiving some of the prince’s

army busy in destroying their harvest when almost ripe, came down

suddenly upon them from the mountain, and put them to flight with

very great slaughter. The blame of this was laid upon Sela Christos,

who might have prevented the calamity; and this accusation, with many

others, were brought against him to the king by Lesana Christos.

This man had been condemned to die for an offence, some time before, by

Ras Sela Christos; but having fled to the king, who heard his cause,

the sentence was reversed. Some time after this he fell into the hands

of the Ras, who put him to death upon his former sentence, without

regarding the late pardon of the king. This violent act became the

foundation upon which his enemies built many accusations, mostly void

of truth.

The king upon this took from him the government of Gojam, and gave

it to a young nobleman whose name was Serca Christos, supposed to be

a friend and dependent upon the prince Facilidas. Serca Christos was

no sooner arrived in his government than he resolved to rebel, and

privately solicited the young prince Facilidas to take up arms and

make a common cause against the king his father, in favour of the

Alexandrian church. At the time that the young man departed to his

government, Socinios had earnestly recommended to him, and he had most

solemnly promised, to protect the Catholic religion in his province,

and seemingly for this purpose he had taken with him a Jesuit named

Francisco de Carvalho.

Another affair which the king particularly charged him with was, the

care of a caravan which once a-year came from Narea. This, besides many

other valuable articles for the merchant, brought 1000 wakeas of gold

as tribute to the king, equal to about 10,000 dollars, or crowns of

our money: its whole way was through barbarous and lawless nations of

Galla till they arrived at the Nile; then through Gafats and Gongas,

immediately after having passed it.

Serca Christos, in his march, was come to a settlement of those

last-mentioned savages, where Gafats, Agows, and Damots, all in peace,

pastured immense flocks of cattle together. There are no where, I

believe, in the world, cattle so beautiful as those of the Gafats, nor

in such numbers. Large plains, for many days journey, are filled so

full of these that they appear as one market.

Serca Christos halted here to give grass to his horses; and, while this

was doing, it entered into his young head, that making prize of the

cattle was of much greater consequence than protecting the caravan of

Narea. Assembling then his cavalry, he fell upon the poor Gafats and

Damots, who feared no harm; and, having soon put them all to flight, he

drove off their cattle in such numbers, that, at Dancaz, it was said,

above 100,000 had reached that market.

The king, much shocked at this violent robbery, ordered Serca Christos

to give up the cattle, and surrender himself as prisoner. This message

of the king he answered in terms of duty and obedience; but, in the

mean time, went to the prince, and proposed to him to declare himself

king and champion of the church of Alexandria. Facilidas received him

with sharp reproofs, and he returned home much discontented. However,

as he had now declared himself, he resolved to put the best face upon

the matter; and, in order to make it generally believed that the prince

and he understood each other, he sent him publicly word, “I have

done what your highness ordered me; come and take possession of your

kingdom.” Upon which the prince ordered his messenger to be put in

irons, and sent to Dancaz to the king his father.

After this, Serca Christos ordered proclamation to be made that prince

Facilidas was king, at the palace of the governor of Gojam, which Sela

Christos had built near the convent of Collela. As one article of it

was the abolishing the Roman faith, the fathers ran precipitately into

the convent, and shut the doors upon themselves, fearing they should be

insulted by the army of schismatics: but a number of the Portuguese,

who lived in the neighbourhood, being brought into the church with

them, and there having been loop-holes made in the walls, and abundance

of fire-arms left there in deposit by Sela Christos, the rebel governor

did not choose to attempt any thing against them at that time. On the

contrary, he sent them word that he was in his heart a Roman Catholic,

and only, for the present, obliged to dissemble; but he would protect

them to the utmost, desiring them to send him the fire-arms left there

by Sela Christos, which they absolutely refused to do.

Serca Christos, apprehending that his army (if not acting under some

chief of the royal family) would forsake him on the first appearance of

the prince, had recourse to a child of the blood-royal, then living in

obscurity among his female relations, and this infant he made king, in

hopes, if he succeeded, to govern during his minority. There were many

who expected the prince would reconcile him to the king, especially

as he had yet preserved a shadow of respect for the Jesuits, and this

he imagined was one cause why the schismatics had not joined him in

the numbers necessary. In order to shew them that he designed no

reconciliation with the king, and to make such agreement impossible, he

adopted the same sacrilegious example that had so ill succeeded with

Tecla Georgis.

Za Selasse, a priest of Selalo, had been heard to say, when Serca

Christos was appointed to the government of Gojam, “There is an end

of the Catholic faith in this province.” Being now called before the

governor, he was forbid to say mass according to the forms of the

church of Rome. This the priest submitted to; but, being ordered to

deny the two natures in Christ, he declared this was a point of faith

which he would never give up, but always confess Christ was perfect God

and perfect man. Upon this Serca Christos ordered him to be slain; and

he was accordingly thrust through with many lances, repeating these

words, God and man! God and man! till his last breath.

Serca Christos had now drawn the sword, and thrown away the scabbard.

Upon receiving the news, the king ordered the prince, who waited

but his command, to march against him. The murder of Za Selassé had

procured an accession of fanatics and monks, but very few soldiers; so

that as soon as he heard with what diligence the prince was advancing,

he left his whole baggage, and fled into those high and craggy

mountains that form the banks of the Nile in Damot.

The prince pressed closely upon him, notwithstanding the difficulty of

the ground; so that no safety remained for him but to pass the Nile

into the country of the Galla, where he thought himself in safety. In

this, however, he was mistaken. He had to do with a general of the most

active kind, in the person of Facilidas, who crossed the Nile after

him, and, the third day, forced him to a battle on such ground as the

prince had chosen, who was likewise much his superior in number of

troops. But there was no longer any remedy; Serca Christos made the

best that he could of this necessity, and fought with great obstinacy,

till his men being for the most part slain, he was forced, with the few

that remained, to take refuge on a high hill, whence the prince obliged

him to deliver himself up to his mercy without condition.

Facilidas immediately dispatched news of his victory to court, and

fifteen days after, he followed himself, bringing Serca Christos,

with six of his principal officers and counsellors, loaded with heavy

chains. Being interrogated by the judges, What he had to answer for

his treasons? the prisoner denied that he had any occasion to answer,

because he had already received pardon from the prince. This excuse

was not admitted, the prince having disowned it absolutely. Upon which

he was sentenced to death; and, though he appealed to the king, his

sentence was confirmed.

It was too late to execute the sentence that night, but next morning

the seven prisoners were put to death. One of the principal servants

of Serca Christos being asked to confess and turn Catholic, abandoned

himself to great rage, uttering many curses and blasphemies against the

king, who, therefore, ordered him to be fastened upon a hook of iron,

where he continued his curses till at last he was slain by lances.

Serca Christos, cousin to Socinios, was treated with more respect. He,

with seeming candour, declared, that he would die a Catholic; and the

king, very desirous of this, gave orders to Diego de Mattos, a priest,

to attend him constantly in prison. After which, one night he sent five

of his confidential servants, who killed him privately, to prevent his

recantation.

Socinios had again taken Gojam from Sela Christos; which last disgrace

so affected him, that he desired to retire and live as a private man in

that province.

The king, having now no other enemy, all his attention was employed in

preparing for a campaign against Melca Christos of Lasta. But, as he

found his army full of disaffection, it was proposed to him, before he

took the field, to content them so far as to indulge the Alexandrians

in some rites of the old church; and a proclamation was accordingly

made by the king, “That those who chose to observe the Wednesday

as a fast, instead of Saturday, might do it;” and some other such

indulgences as these were granted, which were understood to affect the

faith.

As soon as this came to the ears of the patriarch, he wrote a very

sharp letter to the king, reproving him for the proclamation that

he had made; adding, that it was an encroachment upon the office of

the priesthood, that he, a layman, should take upon him to direct in

matters merely ecclesiastical. He warned the king, moreover, that God

would call him to the very strictest account for this presumption,

and reminded him of the words of Azarias the chief priest to king

Uzziah, and of the punishment of leprosy that followed the king’s

encroachment on the ecclesiastical function; and insisted upon Socinios

contradicting his proclamation by another.

Socinios so far complied, that the alteration made by the last

proclamation was confined to three articles. First, that no liturgy,

unless amended by the patriarch, was to be used in divine service.

Secondly, that all feasts, excepting Easter and those that depended

upon it, should be kept according to the ancient computation of time.

And, thirdly, that, whoever chose, might fast on Wednesday, rather than

on the Saturday.

At the same time, the king expressed himself as greatly offended at

the freedom of the application of the story of Azarias and Uzziah to

him. He told the patriarch plainly, that it was not by his sermons,

nor those of the fathers, nor by the miracles they wrought, nor by the

desire of the people, but by his edicts alone, that the Roman religion

was introduced into Ethiopia; and, therefore, that the patriarch had

not the least reason to complain of any thing being altered by the

authority that first established it. But, from this time, it plainly

appears, that Socinios began to entertain ideas, at least of the church

discipline and government, very opposite to those he had when he first

embraced the Romish religion.

The king now set out in his campaign for Lasta with a large army, which

he commanded himself, and under him his son, the prince Facilidas. Upon

entering the mountain, he divided his army into three divisions. The

first commanded by the prince, and under him Za Mariam Adebo his master

of the household, was ordered to attack, scale, and lodge themselves

on the highest part of the mountain. The second he gave to Guebra

Christos, governor of Begemder; and in this he placed the regiment, or

body of troops, called Inaches, veteran soldiers of Sela Christos, and

a small, but brave body of troops containing the sons of Portuguese:

These he directed to occupy the valleys and low ground. In the center

the king commanded in person.

The rebel chief and his mountaineers remained in a state of security;

for they neither thought to be so speedily attacked, nor that Socinios

could have raised so large an army. They abandoned, therefore, the

lower ground, and all took posts upon the heights. The prince advanced

to the first entrance, and ordered Damo, his Billetana Gueta, to force

it with four companies of good soldiers, who ascended the mountain with

great perseverance; and, notwithstanding the obstinate defence of the

rebels, made themselves master of that post, having killed two of the

bravest officers Melca Christos had, the one named Billene, the other

Tecla Mariam, sirnamed _defender of the faith_, because he was the

first that brought Galla to the assistance of Melca Christos.

There were likewise slain, at the same time, four priests and five

monks, after a desperate resistance; one of whom, calling the king’s

troops Moors, forbade them to approach for fear of defiling him, and

then, with a book in his hand, threw himself over the rock, and was

dashed to pieces in the plain below. Here the prince met with an enemy

he did not expect: The cold was so excessive, that above fifty persons

were frozen to death.

The top of the mountain, which was the second entry into Lasta, was

occupied by a still larger body of rebels, and, therefore, necessary

to be immediately stormed, else those below were in imminent danger

of being dashed to pieces by the large stones rolled down upon them.

The prince divided his army into two parties, exhorting them, without

loss of time, to attack that post; but the rebels, seeing the good

countenance with which they ascended, forsook their station and fled;

so that this second mountain was gained with much less loss and

difficulty than the first.

Behind this, and higher than all the rest, appeared the third, which

struck the assailants at first with terror and despair. This was

carried with still less loss on the part of the prince, because he was

assisted by the Inaches and Portuguese, who cut off the communication

below, and hindered one mountain from succouring the other. Here they

found great store of arms, offensive and defensive; coats of mail,

mules, and kettle drums; and they penetrated to the head-quarters

of Melca Christos, which was a small mountain, but very strong in

situation, where a Portuguese captain seized the seat which served as a

throne to the rebel; and, had not they lost time by falling to plunder,

they would have taken Melca Christos himself, who with difficulty

escaped, accompanied by ten horse.

To this last mountain Socinios repaired with the prince, and they were

joined by the governors of Amhara and Tigré, who had forced their way

in from the opposite side.

Hitherto all had gone well with the king; but when he had detached

Guebra Christos, governor of Begemder, with the Inaches and Portuguese,

who were at some distance, to destroy the crop, the mountaineers, again

assembled on a high hill above them, saw their opportunity, and fell

suddenly upon the spoilers, and cut all the soldiers of Begemder to

pieces. A considerable part of the Inaches fell also; but the rest,

joining themselves with the Portuguese in one body, made good their

retreat to the head-quarters.

The destruction of the corn everywhere around them, and the

impossibility of bringing provisions there, as they were situated in

the midst of their enemies, obliged the king to think of returning

before the rebels should collect themselves, and cut off his retreat.

And it was with great difficulty, and still greater loss, he

accomplished this, and retired to Dancaz, abandoning Lasta as soon as

he had subdued it, but leaving Begemder almost a prey to the rebels

whom he had conquered in Lasta.

Socinios being now determined upon another campaign against Lasta,

and for the relief of Begemder, ordered his troops to hold themselves

in readiness to march as soon as the weather should permit. But an

universal discontent had seized the whole army. They saw no end to this

war, nor any repose from its victories obtained with great bloodshed,

without spoil, riches, or reward; no territory acquired to the king,

nor nation subdued; but the time, when they were not actually in the

field, filled up with executions and the constant effusion of civil

blood, that seemed to be more horrid than war itself. They, therefore,

positively refused to march against Lasta; and the prince was deputed

by them to inform the king, that they did not say the Roman faith was

a bad one, as they did not understand it, nor desire to be instructed;

that this was an affair which entirely regarded themselves, and no one

would pretend to say there was any merit in professing a religion

they did not understand or believe: that they were ready, however, to

march and lay down their lives for the king and common-weal, provided

he restored them their ancient religion, without which they would have

no concern in the quarrel, nor even wish to be conquerors. Whether

the king was really in the secret or not, I shall not say; but it is

expressly mentioned in the annals of his reign, that Socinios did

promise by his son to the army, that he would restore the Alexandrian

faith if he should return victorious over Lasta; and the sudden manner

in which he executed this must convince every other person that it was

so.

The army now marched from Dancaz, upon intelligence arriving that the

rebels had left their strong-holds in Lasta, and were in their way to

the capital to give the king battle there. It was the 26th of July

1631 the king discovered, by his scouts, that the rebel Melca Christos

was at hand, having with him an army of about 25,000 men. Upon this

intelligence he ordered his troops to halt, and hear mass from Diego de

Mattos; and, having chosen his ground, he halted again at mid-day, and

confessed, according to the rite of the church of Rome, and then formed

his troops in order of battle.

It was not long till the enemy came in sight, but without shewing that

alacrity and desire of engaging they used to do when in their native

mountains. The king, at the head of the cavalry, fell so suddenly and

so violently upon them, that he broke through the van-guard commanded

by Melca Christos, and put them to flight before his foot could come

up. The rest of the army followed the example of the leader, and the

enemy were everywhere trodden down and destroyed by the victorious

horse, till night put an end to the pursuit.

Melca Christos, in the beginning of the engagement, saved himself by

the swiftness of his horse; but 8000 of the mountaineers were slain

upon the spot, among whom was Bicané, general to Melca Christos, an

excellent officer both for council and the field, and several other

considerable persons, as well inhabitants of Lasta as others, who had

taken that side from dislike to the king and his measures.

Next morning the king went out with his son to see the field of battle,

where the prince Facilidas is said to have spoke to this effect in name

of the army: “These men, whom you see slaughtered on the ground, were

neither Pagans nor Mahometans at whose death we should rejoice--they

were Christians, lately your subjects and your countrymen, some of them

your relations. This is not victory which is gained over ourselves. In

killing these you drive the sword into your own entrails. How many men

have you slaughtered? How many more have you to kill? We are become a

proverb even among the Pagans and Moors for carrying on this war, and

for apostatizing, as they say, from the faith of our ancestors.”--The

king heard this speech without reply, and returned manifestly

disconsolate to Dancaz; though many times before he had feasted and

triumphed for the gaining of a lesser victory.

After his arrival at Dancaz, he had a conference with the patriarch

Alphonso Mendes, who, in a long speech, upbraided him with having

deserted the Catholic faith at the time when the victory obtained by

their prayers gave him an opportunity of establishing it. The king

answered, with seeming indifference, that he had done every thing

for the Catholic faith in his power; that he had shed the blood of

thousands, and as much more was to be shed; and still he was uncertain

if it would produce any effect; but that he should think of it, and

send him his resolutions to-morrow.

The next day Socinios made a declaration by Za Mariam to the patriarch,

to this purport: “When we embraced the faith of Rome, we laboured for

it with great diligence, but the people shewed no affection for it.

Julius rebelled out of hatred against Sela Christos, under pretence of

being defender of the ancient faith, and was slain, together with many

of his followers. Gabriel did the same. Tecla Georgis, likewise, made a

league to die for the Alexandrian faith, which he did, and many people

with him. The same did Serca Christos the preceding year; and those

peasants of Lasta fight for the same cause at this day. The faith of

Rome is not a bad one; but the men of this country do not understand

it. Let those that like it remain in that faith, in the same way as the

Portuguese did in the time of Atzenaf Segued; let them eat and drink

together, and let them marry the daughters of Abyssinians. As for those

that are not inclined to the Roman faith, let them follow their ancient

one as received from the church of Alexandria.”

Upon this declaration, delivered by Za Mariam, the patriarch inquired

if it came from the king. Being answered that it did; after a little

pause, he returned this answer by Emanuel Almeyda, “That the patriarch

understood that both religions should be permitted in the kingdom, and

that the Alexandrians were to have every indulgence that could be

wished by them, without violating the purity of the Catholic faith;

that, therefore, he had no difficulty of allowing the people of Lasta

to live in the faith of their ancestors without alteration, as they had

never embraced any other; but as for those that had sworn to persist

in the Catholic faith, and had received the communion in that church,

by no means, without a grievous sin, could it be granted to them to

renounce that faith in which they had deliberately sworn to live and

die.”

The king, upon this answer, which he understood well, and expected,

only replied, “What is to be done? I have no longer the power of

government in my own kingdom;”--and immediately ordered a herald to

make the following proclamation:--

“Hear us! hear us! hear us! First of all we gave you the Roman Catholic

faith, as thinking it a good one; but many people have died fighting

against it, as Julius, Gabriel, Tecla Georgis, Serca Christos, and,

lastly, these rude peasants of Lasta. Now, therefore, we restore to

you the faith of your ancestors; let your own priests say their mass

in their own churches; let the people have their own altars for the

sacrament, and their own liturgy, and be happy. As for myself, I am now

old and worn out with war and infirmities, and no longer capable of

governing; I name my son Facilidas to reign in my place.”

Thus, in one day, fell the whole fabric of the Roman Catholic faith,

and hierarchy of the church of Rome, in Abyssinia; first regularly

established, as I must always think, by Peter Paez, in moderation,

charity, perseverance, long-suffering, and peace; extended and

maintained afterwards by blood and violence beyond what could be

expected from heathens, and thrown down by an exertion of the civil

power in its own defence, against the encroachments of priesthood

and ecclesiastical tyranny, which plainly had no other view than,

by annihilating the constitution under its native prince, to reduce

Abyssinia to a Portuguese government, as had been the case with so many

independent states in India already.

This proclamation was made on the 14th of June 1632. After this

Socinios took no care of public affairs. He had been for a long time

afflicted with various complaints, especially since the last campaign

in Lasta; and affairs were now managed by prince Facilidas in his

father’s place, though he did not take upon him the title of King.

Emana Christos, brother of Sela Christos, a steady Alexandrian, and

Guebra Christos, were then made governors of Lasta and Begemder; but no

steps were taken in this interval against the Jesuits.

On the 7th of September the king died, and was buried with great

pomp, by his son Facilidas, in the church of Ganeta Jesus, which he

himself had built, professing himself a Roman Catholic to the last.

The Portuguese historians deny both his resignation of the crown, and

his perseverance in the Roman Catholic faith to his death, but this

apparently for their own purposes.

He was a prince remarkable for his strength of body; of great courage

and elevation of mind; had early learned the exercise of arms,

patience, perseverance, and every military virtue that could be

acquired; and had passed the first of his life as a private person, in

the midst of hardships and dangers.

He is celebrated to this day in Abyssinia for a talent, which seems to

be the gift of nature, that of choosing upon the first view the proper

ground for the camp or battle, and embracing, in his own mind in a

moment, all the advantages and disadvantages that could result from any

particular part of it. This talent is particularly recorded in several

short proverbs, or military adages, such as the following: “Blind him

first, or you shall never beat him.” This most material qualification

seemed to have been in part transmitted to Ras Michael, the great

general in my time, descended from Socinios by his mother; and, by this

superiority alone over the other commanders opposed to him, he is said

to have been victorious in forty-three pitched battles.

Socinios embraced the Catholic religion from conviction, and studied it

with great application, as far as his narrow means of instruction would

allow him; and there can be no doubt that, under the moderate conduct

of Peter Paez, who converted him, he would have died a martyr for that

religion; and there seems as little reason to doubt, conscientious as

he was, if he had been a young man he would have quitted it for the

good of his country, and from his inability to suffer the tyranny of

the patriarch Alphonso Mendes, and his continual encroachment upon

civil government. Being, in the last years of his life, left without

one soldier to draw his sword for the Catholic cause, he kept his

religion, and abandoned his crown; and having been, it should seem, for

some time convinced that the government of the church of Rome, in such

hands as he left it, was incompatible with monarchy, he took no pains

to change Facilidas’s known sentiments, or to render him favourable to

the Roman faith, or to name another of his sons to succeed him whom he

found to be more so.

The Jesuits, considering only the catastrophe, and unmindful of the

strenuous efforts made to establish their religion during his whole

reign, have traduced his character as that of an apostate, for giving

way to the universal demand of his people to have their ancient form

of worship restored when his army had deserted him, and he himself was

dying of old age. But every impartial man will admit, that the step he

took, of abdicating his sovereignty over a people who had abjured the

religion he had introduced among them, was, in his circumstances, the

noblest action of his life, and just the reverse of apostacy.

This resignation of the crown, and his tenacious persevering in the

Catholic faith, together with the moderation of his son, the prince

Facilidas, in appointing a regency to govern, rather than to mount

the throne himself during his father’s life, are three facts which we

know to be true from the Abyssinian annals, and which the Jesuits have

endeavoured to suppress, that they might the more easily blacken the

character both of the father and the son.

They have pretended that it was the queen, and other ladies at court,

who by their influence seduced the king from the Catholic religion.

But Socinios was then past seventy, and the queen near sixty, and he

had no other wives or mistresses. To judge, moreover, by his behaviour

in the affair of Adera, sister to Tecla Georgis, the voice of the

women at court seems to have had no extraordinary weight with him. In a

word, he never varied in his religion after he embraced that of Rome,

but stedfastly adhered to it, when the pride and bad conduct of the

Jesuits, its professors, had scarcely left another friend to it in the

whole kingdom; and, therefore, the charge of apostacy is certainly an

unmerited falsehood.

As it is plain the Portuguese, from the beginning, believed their

religion could only be established by force, and were persuaded such

means were lawful, the blame of so much bloodshed for so many years,

and the total miscarriage of the whole scheme at last, lay at the

door of their sovereign, the king of Spain and Portugal; who, having

succeeded to his wish in his conquest of India, seems not to have had

the same anxiety the patriarch had for the conversion of Abyssinia,

nor even to have thought further of sending a body of troops with

his priests to the succour of Socinios, whom he left to the prayers

of Urban VIII. the merit of Ignatius Loyola, and the labours of his

furious and fanatic disciples.

TRAVELS

TO DISCOVER

THE SOURCE OF THE NILE.