Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/147

 chael the archangel; he saw him still before he surprised the mountain Haramat, but neither at Gondar, nor since he passed the Tacazze, and this makes him sorrowful. The spirit has been afraid to catch cold, said I, by wetting his feet in that cold fiver. I doubt so, answered Confu; but the liar of a monk, who my mother supposes never eats nor drinks, told him he was to see him at Serbraxos.

At this time we heard the noise of horses, and could discern (as we thought) three men that passed the bridge of Mogetch briskly before us. As they seemed to avoid us, six or eight of Confu's men pursued them at full gallop, but lost them in the darkness. They, however, were found to be soldiers of Kasmati Sanuda, who hearing Woodage Asahel had been engaged with Ayto Confu, had come out with the unworthy purpose of collecting some filthy trophies, by mangling the dead or wounded, though these must have been their own companions, the soldiers of Ayto Confu, who had been slain; for the whole of Woodage Asahel's men had already undergone what Strates emphatically called the operation, by the knives of Confu's soldiers. We now arrived at Koscam without any adventure, and Confu was laid to repose, after taking a little food: in obedience to the orders of Ozoro Esther, I lay down by him in the same apartment.

Early next morning I was sent for by a servant of Ozoro Esther, to attend Welleta Selasse, who I was told was at the point of death. I repaired immediately to the house of Ras Michael, where she then was, but found her without possibility of recovery, having already lost her speech. She expired a few minutes afterwards, apparently in violent ago-