Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/276

254 this, as far as ever I could inform myself, is a great exaggeration. They are exceeding good soldiers when they are pleased with their general, and the cause for which they fight; otherwise, they are easily divided, great many private interests being continually kept alive, as it is thought industriously, by government itself. It is well stocked with cattle of every kind, all very beautiful. The mountains are full of iron-mines; they are not so steep and rocky nor so frequent, as in other provinces, if we except only Lasta, and abound in all sort of wild fowl and game.

south end of the province near Nefas Musa is cut into prodigious gullies apparently by floods, of which we have no history. It is the great barrier against the encroachments of the Galla; and, by many attempts, they have tried to make a settlement in it, but all in vain. Whole tribes of them have been extinguished in this their endeavour.

many provinces of Abyssinia, favour is the only necessary to procure the government; others are given to poor noblemen, that, by fleecing the people, they may grow rich, and repair their fortune. But the consequence of Begemder is so well known to the state, as reaching so near the metropolis, and supplying it so constantly with all sorts of provisions, that none but noblemen of rank, family, and character, able to maintain a large number of troops always on foot, and in good order, are trusted with its government.

next to this is Amhara, between the two rivers Bashilo and Geshen. The length of this country