dows command a magnificent view of the
great lake Tzana. The palace and contiguous buildings are surrounded by
a stone wall 30 feet high, 1-1/2 miles in circumference. A little way
from Gondar to the north is Koscam, the palace of the iteghe and the
king's other wives. Tecla Haimanout was at this time king, and Suhul
Michael was ras, or prime minister. They were absent at the time of my
arrival.

Petros, an important Greek, who was the only one in Gondar to whom I had
recommendations, came in a state of great dread to me, saying that he
had seen at Michael's encampment, a few miles from Gondar, the stuffed
skin of an intimate friend of his own swinging upon a tree, and drying
in the wind beside the tent of the ras. The iteghe and Ozoro Esther,
wife of Ras Michael, sent for me to the palace at Koscam to attend, as a
medical man, the royal families, because small-pox was then raging in
the city and surrounding districts. I saved the life of Ayto Confu, the
favourite son of Ozoro Esther, and others; and thereafter became
friends of the queen and her suite in the palace.

I rode out on March 8 to meet Ras Michael at Azazo, the scene of a great
battle which had been fought with Fasil, a Galla chief, who had broken
out in rebellion. The first horrid spectacle exhibited by him consisted
of pulling out the eyes of twelve Galla chiefs, who had been taken
prisoners. They were then turned out into the fields to be devoured by
hyenas. Next day the army of 30,000 men marched in triumph into Gondar.
On March 14, I had an interview with the ras, and he said that to
prevent my being murdered for my goods and instruments, and being
bothered by the monks about religious matters, the king, on his
recommendation, had appointed me baalomaal, the commander of the Koccob
Horse.

In the course of the campaign between the king and his rebel governors,
I joined his majesty's forces, and on May 18, 1770, I found myself at
Dara, fourteen miles from the great cataract of the Nile, which I
obtained permission to visit. The shum, or head of the people of the
district, took me to a bridge, which consisted of one arch of
twenty-five feet in breadth, with the extremities firmly based on solid
rock on both sides. The Nile is here confined between two rocks, and
runs in a deep channel with great, roaring, impetuous velocity. The
cataract itself was the most magnificent sight that ever I beheld. Its
height is forty feet. The river had been increased by