tle the brave monk, Andreas[1], much advanced in years, was, slain, behaving with the greatest gallantry, unwilling to survive the ruin of his country.
The Moors now found it unnecessary to keep together an army. They divided into small parties, that they might more effectually and speedily ruin the country. Part of Gragne's army was detached to burn Axum; the other under Simeon continued in Amhara to watch the king's motions; and, while he attempted to relieve Axum, dispersed his army, on which the town was burnt, and with it many, of the richest churches in Abyssinia, Hallelujah, Banquol, Gafo, Debra Kerbe, and many others. And, on the 7th of April, Saul, son of Tesfo Yasous, fought another detachment of the Moorish army, and was cut to pieces,
The 28th year of his reign, 1536, the king crossed the Tacazze, and had many disastrous encounters with the people of Sire and Serawe. Tesfo l'Oul, who commanded in, this latter province for the king, surprised a Turkish party, under Adli, whom he flew, and met with the same fate; himself from Abbas, Moorish governor of Serawe, when a great many of the principal people of that province were there slain. Galila, a large island in the lake Tzana, was plundered, and the convent upon it burnt. It was one of the principal places where the Abyssinians hid their treasure, and a great booty was found there.
In the following year, Gragné, in a message represented to him, that he might see he was fighting against God, ex-
- ↑ It was he who, as we have seen, slew the Moor Maffudi in single combat in the beginning of his reign.
