Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/128

 bis breach of promise made before the mountain of Haramat, that he was to levy no taxes upon that province for seven years, (but which he was now doing with the greatest rigour before one had expired) discontented them all.

The return of Welleta Michael and Kefla Yasous from Saraen, with about 6000 men, had considerably strengthened his army; added to this, 2000 more, who came voluntarily, from their love to Kefla Yasous, from Temben, where he was governor; these were picked men, partly musqueteers; there was nothing equal to them in the army.

Gusho was advanced to Minzim. Powussen had his head-quarters at Korreva, not above sixteen miles from Gondar. The whole plain to the lake was covered with troops. The weather was unseasonably cold, and considerable quantities of rain had fallen from the 23d of February to the 29th of March. The rebels had begun to lay waste Dembea, and burnt all the villages in the plain from south to west, making it like a desert between Michael and Fasil, as far as they dared venture to advance towards either. This they did to exasperate Michael, and draw him out from Gondar; for they had most of them great property in the town, and did not wish to be obliged to fight him there. He bore this fight very impatiently, as well as the constant complaints of people flying into the town from the depredations of the enemy, and stripped of every thing.

The king often ascended to the top of the tower of his palace, the only one to which there remains a stair, and there contemplated, with the greatest displeasure, the burning of his rich villages in Dembea. One day while he