Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 2.djvu/677

Rh de l'Oul at their head, and received the young king Joas from the hands of the Iteghé his grandmother, and proclaimed him king, with the usual formalities, without any opposition or tumult whatever.

A of promotions immediately followed; but it was observed with great discontent by many, that the Iteghé's family and relations were grown now so numerous, that they were sufficient to occupy all the great offices of state without the participation of any of the old families, which were the strength of the crown in former reigns; and that now no preferment was to be expected unless through some relation to the queen-mother.

, son to Michael governor of Tigré; had married Ozoro Altash, the queen's third daughter, almost a child; and long before that, Netcho of Tcherkin had married Ozoro Esther, likewise very young; and Ras Michael, old as he was, had made known his pretensions to Ozoro Welleta Israel, the queen's second daughter, immediately younger than Ozoro Esther. These proposals, from an old man, had been received with great contempt and derision by Welleta Israel, and she persevered so long in the derision of Michael's courtship, that it left strong impressions on the hard heart of that old warrior, which shewed themselves after in very disagreeable consequences to that lady all the time Michael was in power.

first that broke the peace of this new reign was Nanna Georgis, chief of one of the clans of Agows of Damot. Engaged in old feuds with the Galla on the other side of the Nile, the natural enemies of his country, he could