Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/307

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THE SOURCE OF THE NILE.
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good services he had done, previous to this, the only offence which he had committed, ordered him to be pardoned.

The Persian king, in all expeditions, was attended by judges. We find in Herodotus[1], that, in the expedition of Cambyses, ten of the principal Egyptians were condemned to die by these judges for every Persian that had been slain by the people of Memphis. Six judges always attend the king of Abyssinia to the camp, and, before them, rebels taken on the field are tried and punished on the spot.

People that the king distinguished by favour, or for any public action, were in both kingdoms presented with gold chains, swords, and bracelets[2]. These in Abyssinia are understood to be chiefly rewards of military service; yet Poncet received a gold chain from Yasous the Great. The day before the battle of Serbraxos, Ayto Engedan received a silver bridle and saddle, covered with silver plates, from Ras Michael; and the night after that battle I was myself honoured with a gold chain from the king upon my reconciliation with Guebra Mascal, who, for his behaviour that day, had a large revenue most deservedly assigned to him, and a considerable territory, consisting of a number of rich villages, a present known to be more agreeable to him than a mere mark of honour.

A stranger of fashion, particularly recommended as I was, not needy in point of money, nor depending from day to day upon government for subsistence, is generally provi-ded


  1. Herod. lib. iii.
  2. Xenoph. lib. i. Xenoph. lib. viii.