Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 2.djvu/459

, as little short of impiety, so mortified Kollè (the kees hatzé,) a great believer in, and protector of the dreamers, that he resigned all his employments, and retired among the hermits into the desert of Werk-leva towards Sennaar, to study the aspects of the stars more accurately, and more at leisure.

we neither pay this comet the superstitious reverence the idle fanatics of Abyssinia shewed it, nor yet treat it with that contempt which this great king's good sense prompted him to do, we shall make some use of it, acknowledging our gratitude to the historian who has recorded it. We shall hereby endeavour to establish our chronology in opposition to that of the catholic writers, relating to the date of some transactions with which they were not cotemporaries, and only relate from hearsay, as happening before the arrival of the missionaries in this country.

the Great, of whom we are now writing, came to the throne upon the death of his father Hannes in 1680; the 9th year of this reign then was 1689.

is the 3d month of the Abyssinians, and answers to part of our November; and the 12th of that month, Hedar, is the feast; of St Michael the archangel, or 8th day of our month November, N. S.

is in lat. 12° 34' 30" N. and in long. 37° 33' 0" E. from the meridian of Greenwich. By the fiery appearance of the nucleus, or body of the comet, it certainly then was "very near the sun, and either was going down upon it to its