Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 2.djvu/298

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

trust to me, 20,000 ounces of Tigrè iron shall crown you better; if more is wanted, I will bestow it upon your enemies with pleasure till they are satisfied;" meaning the iron balls with which his soldiers loaded their musquets.

After the coronation was over, the king passed the March, desiring to finish his campaign by the death of his competitor Jacob; but that impostor knew too well the superiority of his rival, and hid himself in the inmost recesses, without other attendants than a few goats, who furnished him with their milk, as well as their society.

Socinios left the affair of the rebel Jacob to be ended by Amsala Christos, an officer of great prudence, whom he made governor of Tigré; and, taking his brother Ras Sela Christos along with him, returned to Coga[1]. Amsala Christos being seized with a grievous sickness, saw how vain it was for him to pursue the suppression of a rebellion conduced by such a head as this impostor Jacob, and therefore secretly applied to two young men, Zara Johannes and Amha Georgis, brothers, and sons of the Shum Welled Georgis, who had committed murder, and were outlawed by Socinios, and, keeping hid in the mountains, had joined in fellowship with the impostor Jacob,

These, gained by the promise of pardon given them by Amsala Christos, chose an opportunity which their intimacy, gave them, and, falling upon Jacob unawares in his retire-

  1. Then the metropolis upon the Lake Tzana.