THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 571
come, and we mall prefently fee how very dexteroufly he pro- longed it.
We arrived, with thefe delays, pretty late at Goutto, (the village fo called) and took up our lodgings in the houfe of a confiderable perfon, who had abandoned it upon our ap- proach, thinking us part of FafilV army. Though this ha- bitation was of ufe in protecting us from the poor, yet it hurt us by alarming, and fo depriving us of the affiftance of the opulent, fuch as the prefent owner, who, if he had known we were itrangers from Gondar, would have willing- ly ftaid and entertained us, being a relation and friend cf Shalaka Welled Amlac.
As we heard diftinctly the noife of the cataract, and had ftill a full hour and a half of light, while they were in fearch of a cow to kill, (the cattle having been all driven a- way or concealed) 1 determined to vifit the water- fall, left I ihould be thereby detained the next morning. As Fafil's horfe was frefh, by not being rode, I mounted him inftead of driving him before me, and took a fervant of my own, and a man of the village whom Woldo procured for us, as I would not allow him to go himfelf. Being well armed, I thus fet out, with the peafant on foot, for the cataract ; and, after riding through a plain, hard country, in fome parts very ftony, and thick-covered with trees, in fomething more than half an hour's eafy galloping all the' way, my fervant and I came ftraight to the cataract, conducted there by the noife of the fall, while our guide remained at a confider- able diilance behind, not being able to overtake us.
4 C i This-
