Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/46

30

CHAP. II.

Fasil's insidious Behaviour — Arrival at Gondar — King pases the Takeazze — Iteghe and Socinios fly from Gondar

now resume the history of Abyssinia itself, so far as I was concerned in it, or had an opportunity of knowing, and this I shall follow as closely as possible, till I begin my return home through those dreary and hitherto unknown deserts of Sennaar, though not the most entertaining, yet by far the most dangerous and most difficult part of the voyage.

was about the 20th of October that Woodage Asahel came with a strong body of horse into the neighbourhood of Gondar, and cut off all communication between the capital and those provinces to the southward of it. This occasioned a temporary famine, as his troops plundered all those they met on the road carrying provisions to the market. At first he refused to tell what his real errand was;