Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/36

16 of the world, this little sea would be too narrow for their ships: Your sun, now so hot, would be darkened by their sails; and when they fired their terrible wide-mouthed cannon, not an Arab would think himself safe on the distant mountains, while the houses on the shore would totter and fall to the ground as if shaken to pieces by an earthquake. I am a servant to that king, and an inferior one in rank; only worthy of his attention from my affection to him and his family, in which I do not acknowledge any superior. Yet so far your correspondents say well: My ancestors were the kings of the country in which I was born, and to be ranked among the greatest and most glorious that ever bore the crown and title of King. This is the truth, and nothing but the truth. I may now, I hope, without offence, ask, To what does all this information tend?"

" your safety," said he, "and to your honour, as long as I command in Masuah;—to your certain death and destruction if you go among the Abyssinians; a people without faith, covetous, barbarous, and in continual war, of which nobody yet has been able to discover the reason. But of this another time."

" it so," said I. "I would now speak one word in secret to you, (upon which every body was ordered out of the room): All that you have told me this evening I already know; ask me not how: but, to convince you that it is truth, I now thank you for the humane part you took against these bloody intentions others had of killing and plundering me on my arrival, upon Abdelcader governor of Dahalac's information that I was a prince, because of the