and seeing resistance vain, capitulated, and was pardoned on the intercession of the noblemen attending the king. In a war with Sennaar, in which Yasous subsequently engaged to wipe off the disgrace of his previous defeat, Michael rendered good service; and from this period it became evident that he was a rising man.

Yasous II. died in 1753, and was succeeded by Joas, his son by his second wife, Wobit, who was a Galla. The marriage of Yasous with this woman was a thing entirely unprecedented in Abyssinia. Between the Galla and the Abyssinians there existed an implacable enmity, intensified by numberless acts of violence and bloodshed on either side. The marriage, therefore, was not one which gave much satisfaction to the Abyssinians. When the young king began to call his Galla relatives to court, and to promote them to positions of influence, great dissensions broke out. The removal of Mariam Barea, a nobleman of high rank, from the government of the province of Begemder, to make way for Kasmati Brulhé, an uncle of the king, led to a rebellion in that district. Brulhé perished in battle, while attempting to establish himself in his government. King Joas, hearing of this calamity, which was attended with the slaughter of a large number of Galla soldiers, declared that there was no safety but in Suhul Michael, who was immediately sent for, and invested with the dignity of Ras, or prime minister, with supreme power, both civil and military. Michael had foreseen this result, and was prepared for it. He at once marched to Gondar, where, by his vigorous measures, he succeeded in re-establishing order and public confidence. In the expedition against Begemder, which was thoroughly successful, he acted with a freedom and a disregard to the wishes and opinions of Joas, which highly offended that weak ruler. Mariam Barea was slain; and his wife cast

herself at the feet of Michael, offering him her hand, and asking his protection for her children from the ferocity of the Galla. Michael at once marshalled his troops, and, sending for a priest, was married at the door of his tent, amid the acclamations of the whole army, to Ozoro Esther, the newly-made widow. The shouts of the soldiers were the first intimation to the king of what had happened; and he expressed his displeasure in very strong language, which was officiously reported to Michael, and served to make him only the more resolved upon carrying out his schemes. The breach between the king and Michael gradually widened. Joas, who had taken as his confidential adviser Waragna Fasil, a Galla chieftain, sent peremptory orders to Michael to return to Tigré. Michael refused, declaring that he was now governor of the whole realm, called to prevent the ruin of the country, which the king could not do. Fasil, who refused to submit to Michael's authority, was declared by the judges guilty of rebellion, and deprived of his offices. After a long private audience with the king, Fasil withdrew with his troops, and took up a position where he could intercept the supplies coming to Gondar from the south. The king secretly took part with Fasil, though he openly held aloof. A battle was fought at Azazo, in which Fasil was completely defeated; and among the prisoners taken were some of the king's slaves, who said that they and a considerable body of household troops had been ordered by the king to join Fasil's army. This sealed the fate of Joas, who was assassinated the same evening.

Hannes, a man past seventy, brother to Bacuffa, succeeded. He had not reigned six months when Michael, finding that the old man positively refused to march with the army against Fasil, had him removed out of the way by poison.

Tecla Haimanout succeeded his father, and entered heartily into Michael's views, marching against Fasil, who was now stronger than ever, and signally defeating him at Fagitta, on the 9th of December 1769.

While these last-mentioned events were occurring, I was on my way from Masuah to Gondar.

CHAPTER VII.

Manners and Customs of the Abyssinians.

THE
HE crown of Abyssinia is hereditary, and has always been

so, in one particular family, supposed to be that of Solomon, by the Queen of Sheba. It is, nevertheless, elective in that line ; and there is no law or custom which gives the eldest son an exclusive title to succeed his father. The practice, indeed, has been quite the contrary. When, at the death of a king, his sons are old enough to govern, and, by some accident, not yet sent prisoners to the mountain, then the eldest generally takes possession of the throne, by the strength of his father's friends. But if no heir is then in the low country, the choice of the king is always according to the will of the minister, which passes for that of the people; and, his inclination and interest being to govern, he seldom fails to choose an infant, during whose minority he enjoys absolute authority over the kingdom. From this flow all the misfortunes of this unhappy country. This very defect arises from the desire to institute a more than ordinarily perfect form of government; for the first position laid down by the Abyssinians was, "Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child!"* and this they knew must often happen, when succession is left to the course of nature. But when there was a choice to be made out of 200 persons, all of the same family, all capable Eccles. x. 16.

of reigning, it was their own fault, they thought, if they had not always a prince of proper age and qualifications to rule the kingdom. This reasoning, good at the first view, has been found fallacious, and the consequences of it have been often ruinous.

The king is anointed with plain oil of olives. The crown is made in the shape of a priest's mitre or head-piece, and, like a helmet, covers the king's forehead, cheeks, and neck. It is lined with blue taffety; the outside is beautiful filigree work of gold and silver. The king goes regularly to church, his guards taking possession of every avenue and door through which he has to pass, and nobody is allowed to enter with him, because he is then on foot, excepting two officers of his bed-chamber, who support him. He kisses the threshold and side-posts of the church door, and the steps before the altar, and then returns home. Sometimes there is service in the church, and sometimes there is not; but he takes no notice of the difference. He rides up-stairs, into the presence-chamber, on a mule, and alights on the carpet before his throne.

An officer, bearing the title of Serach Massery, begins cracking a long whip, making a noise worse than that of twenty French postilions, before the palace, every morning before dawn. This chases away the hyenas and other wild beasts, and is a signal for the king's rising. The first thing the king does is to sit in judgment, which he does fasting. About eight o'clock he goes to breakfast.

There are seven noblemen who act as lords-in-waiting, or gentlemen of the bed-chamber, to the king, and are in a degree of familiarity with him, unknown to the rest of his subjects. The chief of them is styled, Azeleffa el Camisha, or groom of the robe.

When the king sits, to consult upon civil matters of consequence,