Ras, who died only two days before. Two or three hundred people were at this time assembled, celebrating the 'toscar' or 'feast for the dead;' and most of them had their faces torn and their heads shaven, in order to express their sorrow for the loss of the deceased. Mr. Coffin was conducted into the midst of this assemblage, and placed at the head of the room. Soon afterwards Mr. Pearce arrived from Antalo, and on the following morning, they proceeded together to that place, where Mr. Coffin had an immediate interview with the Ras.
"On the following day, my letter being read, the Ras, in compliance with its contents, ordered Mr. Pearce, Ayto Debib, and one of his chief men of business, Hadjee Hamood, to prepare for a journey to Massowa; and the two former immediately set out with Mr. Coffin on mules, by way of Amba Haramat (while the Hadjee, with about a hundred of the Ras's people, was to follow by easier stages through Adowá.) The first party had reached Massowa on the day previous to my arrival."
This journal I received verbally from Mr. Coffin immediately on his return, assisted by short notes, which he had set down on paper as the circumstances occurred. The geographical information deduced from the bearings and computed distances observed during this journey, which will be found in the map, is of considerable consequence, and being confirmed by a journey of Mr. Pearce through the same districts, may, I think, be depended upon as accurate. I have been since more fully satisfied of this, by a comparison of it with a route given by Jerome Lobo through the same country;[1] by a reference to which it will be seen, that two centuries have produced no great alteration in the situation of affairs, though by the subsequent chain of events the natives have been broken into distinct tribes, and their consequence much depressed.
There also exists another and better account of this route in the Travels of the Jesuits by Tellez,[2] written by the patriarch Alphonzo Mendez, with whom Jerome Lobo
