Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/459

 THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 431

Turkey, and Arabia, where I learned it ; but I have Hkewife often fpoken it in Abyffinia, where Greek, Turkilh, and fe- veral other languages, were ufed." He faid, " Impoilible ? he did not think they knew any thing of languages, except- ing their own, in Abyffinia."

There were fitting in the fide of the room, oppofite to him, four men drefiTed in white cotton fliirts, with a white fhaul covering their heads and part of their face, by which it was known they were religious men, or men of learning, or of the law. One of thefe anfwered the king's doubt of the Abyffinians knowledge in languages. " They have languages enough; and you know that Habefli is called the paradife of afTes." During this converfation, I took the llierrifFe of Mecca's letter, alfo one from the king of Abyffinia; I gave him the king's firfl, and then the flierriiFe's. He took them both as I gave them, but laid afide the king's upon a cufhion, till he had read the fher- riffe's. After this he read the king's, and called immediate- ly again for an Abyffinian interpreter ; upon which I faid no- thing, fuppofmg, perhaps, he might chufe to make him de- liver feme meflage to me in private, which he woidd not have his people hear. But it was pure confufion and ab- fence of mind, for he never fpoke a word to him when he came. " You are a phyfician and a foldier," fays the king. " Both, in time of need," faid I. " But the flierrifTe's letter tells me alfo, that you are a nobleman in the fcrvice of a great king that they call Englife-man, who is mafter of all the Indies, and who has Mahometan as well as Chriflian fubjccfls, and allows them all to be governed by their own laws."—" Though I never faid fo to the flier- riiTe, replied I, yet it is true ; I am as noble as any inchVi-

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