4o3 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
true that Begemder and Amhara were in rebellion, young, wild, and worthlefs people, like Guebra Mehedin and Confu, could never be thofe pitched upon for the refpec.a- ble office of Fit-Auraris. The worft that could be, as tfiey conceived, was, that fome mimnderftanding might fubfift between Ras Michael and the governors above named, but Fafil was undoubtedly the enemy of them all. They ima- gined therefore that this -difguft, if any, would be foon got over, and concluded that it was highly abfurd, in any cafe, to attack me, as they certainly knew that the queen, Powuffen, and Guflio, would be full as ill-pleafed with it as the king or Ras Michael. It therefore appeared to them, as it alfo did to me, that thefe wild, young men, had taken the firft furmife of a rebellion, as a pretence for robbing all that came in their way, and that I, unfortunately, had been the firft.
We were in the middle of this converfation when the parties appeared. They had, perhaps, an hundred horfe, and were fcattered about a large plain, fkirmifhing, playing, purfuing one another, fhrieking and hooping like fo many frantic people. They ftopt, however, upon coming nearer, feeing the refpeftable figure that we made, juft ready to pais the ford, which alone divided us. Our fervants had neither feen Netcho nor Adigo, when they went in the mor- ning, though they knew Adigo was expecled, and thefe marauders hoped to have intercepted me, thinly accom- panied, as they had done my baggage.
Guebra Mehedin and his brother approached nearer the banks than the reft, and a fcrvant was fent from them, who Crofted the river to us, upbraiding Ayto Adigo with pro-
,2 tecting
