Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 2.djvu/553

Rh "defiled by the entrance of so many Pagans, and no longer fit for Christian worship, that they should therefore immediately put fire to it, and he would build a nobler one in its place." The soldiers obeyed without further hesitation; and, with cotton wads wrapt about the balls of their guns, they set fire to the thatch, with which every church in Abyssinia is covered. The whole was instantly consumed, and every creature within it perished. Many principal officers and men of the best families on the king's side, Billetana Gueta, Sana Denghel, and Billetana Gueta Kirubel, Ayto Stephenous, son of Ozoro Salla of Nara, all men of great consideration, were slain that day. What came of the rebel prince was never known. Tigi, with his two sons, fled from the field; but they were met by a peasant, who took them prisoners first; and, after discovering who they were, put them all three to death, and brought their heads to the king.

so severe a rebuke, the Galla, on both sides of the Nile, seemed disposed to be quiet, and the king thereupon returned to Gondar amidst the acclamations of his soldiers and subjects; but scarce had he arrived in the capital when he was taken ill of a fever, and died on the 2d of September, and was buried at Tedda, after a reign of three years and three months.