Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/568

 3 i4 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER

forerunner of death; and adjured me, by every claim of .friendfhip that me had upon me, to return ere it would be too late, She, moreover, pledged hcrfelf that her nephew, .Aylo of Gojam, fhould immediately carry me to the head of the Nile the moment me was recovered. Upon clofer inter- rogation, I found that, being abandoned as it were entirely to Fafil's difcretion, by the retreat of Gufho and PowufTen her friends, and the abfence of her hufband Ras Michael, me dreaded falling into the hands of Fafil, who, fhe well knew, was acquainted how active me had been in mitigating Mi- chael to avenge the blood of her late hufband Mariam Barca, by the effufion of that of every Galla unfortunate enough to fall into his hands. Befides, the part her mother the Iteghe had acted in fettling that wretch Socinios upon the throne, gave her the very belt-founded apprehenfions that Michael's refentment would have no bounds ; and he had de- clared fo by frequent mefTages, (the laft a very brutal one) that he would hang Socinios, and her mother the Iteghe, with their heads downmoft, upon the fame tree, before the king's houfe, the very day that he entered Gondar. It was well known, befides, to his wife Ozoro Either, and to the whole kingdom, that his performance upon thefe occafions never fell fhort of his threatnings. From all this, and a great fen- fibility of mind, Ozoro Either, worn out by her late ficknefs, and by want of fleep, exercife, and nourifhment, had fallen into a very dangerous fituation, and of a very difficult cure, even though the caufe was perfectly known.

I shall not trouble the reader with what pafTed in my

mind at this juncture. I do believe the purfuit I was then

engaged in was the only one which I would not have in-

ftantly abandoned upon fuch a fummons. Befides the fin-

2 cere