476 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
large force, with a knowledge of all the fords, and mafter of all the inhabitants of the country. Remember how you palled thofe rivers, holding hand in hand, and drawing one another over. Could you have done this with an ene- my behind you, and fuch an enemy as Woodage Afahel ? He would have followed and harrafled you till you took the ford at Goutto, and there was Welleta Yafous waiting to oppofe you with 6000 men on the oppofite bank. When Ras Michael marched by Mariam Net, he found the priefts at their homes. Was that the cafe in any of the other churches we palled ? No ; all were fled for fear of Michael ; yet thefe were more guilty than any by their connections with Fafil ; notwithflanding which, they alone, of all others, flaid, though they knew not why ; an invifible hand held them that they might operate your prefervation. Nothing could have faved the army but the defperate paffage, fo tremendous that it will exceed the belief of man, crofting the Nile that night. Yet if the priefts had croffed before this, not a man would have proceeded to the ford. The priefts would have been Ras Michael's prifoners, and, on the other fide, they never would have fpoken a word whilft in the prefence of Michael. Providence, therefore, kept them with Kefla Yafous ; all was difcovered, and the army faved by the retreat, and his fpeedy palling at the ford of Delakus.
What would have happened to Kefla Yafous, had I-afil marched down to Delakus either before or after the paffage ? Kefla Yafous would have been cut off before Ras Michael had palled the Kelti ; inftead of which, an unknown caufe detained him, moft infatuated-like, beating his kettle- drums behind Bofkon Abbo, while our army under the Ras was
fwimming
