against them, never to be effaced by marriages. She was, however, brought to Gondar, christened by the name of Betsabee, and married to Yasous: By her he had a son, named Joas, who succeeded his father.

JOAS.

From 1753 to 1769.

This Prince, a favourer of the Galla, his relationsGreat Dissensions on bringing them to court--War of Begemder-Ras Michael brought to GondarDefeats Ayto Mariam Barea-Refuses to be accessary to his Death—King favours Waragna Fasil -Battle of Azazo-King assassinated in his palace.

UPON the first news of the death of Yasous, the old officers and servants of the crown, remembering the tumults and confusion that happened in Gondar at his accession, repaired to the palace from their different governments, each with a small well-regulated body of troops, sufficient to keep order, and strengthen the hands of Ras Welled de l'Oul, whom they all considered as the father of his country. The first who arrived was Waragna Kasmati of Damot, then Ayo of Begemder; and, very soon after, though from much the greatest distance, Suhul Michael, governor of Tigre. These three entered the palace, with Welled de l'Oul at their head, received the young king, Joas, from the hands of the Iteghe, his grandmother, and proclaimed him, with the usual formalities, without any opposition or tumult whatever.

A number of promotions immediately followed; but it was observed with great discontent by many,

that the Iteghe's family and relations were grown so numerous, that they were sufficient to occupy all the great offices of state without the participation of any of the old families, which were the strength of the crown in former reigns; and that no preferment was now to be expected unless through some relation to the queen-mother.

Welled Hawaryat, son to Michael, governor of Tigre, had married Ozoro Altash, the queen's third daughter, almost a child; and long before that, Netcho of Tcherkin had married Ozoro Esther, likewise very young. Ras Michael, old as he was, had made known his pretensions to Ozoro Welletta Israel, the queen's second daughter, immediately younger than Ozoro Esther. These proposals, from an old man, had been received with great contempt and derision by Welletta Israel, and she persevered so long in the derision of Michael's courtship, that it left strong impressions on the hard heart of that old warrior, which shewed themselves after in very disagreeable consequences to that lady all the time Michael was in power.

The first that broke the peace of the new reign was Nanna Georgis, chief of one of the clans of the Agows of Damot. Engaged in old feuds with the Galla on the other side of the Nile, the natural enemies of his country, he could not see, but with great displeasure, a Galla, such as Kasmati Waragna, however worthy, governor of Damot, and capable, therefore, of over-running the whole province in a moment, by calling his Pagan countrymen from the other side.

Waragna, though this was in his power, knew the measure was unpopular. Kasmati Eshte was the queen's brother, and governor of Ibaba, a royal residence, which has a large territory and salary annexed to it. When, therefore, at council, he had complained of the injury done to him by Nanna Georgis, he

refused the taking upon him the redressing these injuries, and punishing the Agows, unless Kasmati Eshte was joined with him in the commission.

The reason of this was, as I have often before observed, that, as the Agows are those that pay the greatest tribute in gold to the king, and furnish the capital with all sorts of provisions, any calamity happening in their country is severely felt by the inhabitants of Gondar; and the knowledge of this occasions a degree of presumption and confidence in the Agows, of which they have been very often the dupes. This, indeed, happened at this very instant. For Waragna and Eshte marched from Gondar, and with them a number of veteran troops of the king's household of Maitsha, depending on Ibaba; and this army, without bringing one Galla from the other side of the Nile, gave Nanna Georgis and his Agows such an overthrow that his clan was nearly extirpated, and many of the principal people of that nation slain.

Nanna Georgis, who chiefly was aimed at as the author of this revolt, escaped, with great difficulty, wounded, from the field; and the feud which had long subsisted between Waragna's family and the race of the Agows, received very great addition that day, and came down to their posterity, as we shall soon see by what happened in Waragna's son's time, at the bloody and fatal battle of Banja.

The next affair that called the attention of government, was a complaint brought by the monks of Magwena, a ridge of rocks of small extent, not far from Tcherkin, the estate of Kasmati Netcho. These mountains, for a great part of the year, almost calcined under a burning sun, have, in several months, violent and copious showers of raîn, which, received in vast caves and hollows of the mountain, and out of the reach of evaporation, are the means of creating and maintaining all sorts of verdure, and all scenes of pleasure,

in the hot season of the year, when the rains do not fall elsewhere; and, as the rocks have a considerable elevation above the level of the plain, they are at no season infected with those feverish disorders that lay the low country waste.

Netcho was a man of pleasure, and thought, since the monks, by retiring to rocks and deserts, meant to subject themselves to hardship and mortification, that these delightful and flowery scenes, the groves of Magwena, were much more suited to the enjoyment of happiness with the young and beautiful Ozoro Esther, than for any set of men, who, by their austerities, were at constant war with the flesh. Upon these principles, which it would be very difficult for the monks themselves to refute, he took possession of the mountain Magwena, and of those bowers that, though in possession of saints, did not seem to have been made for the solitary pleasure of one sex only. This piece of violence was, by the whole body of monks, called sacrilege. Violent excommunications, and denunciations of divine vengeance, were thundered out against Kasmati Netcho. An army was sent against him; he was defeated, and taken prisoner, and confined upon a mountain in Walkayt, where, soon after, he died, but not before the Iteghe had shewn her particular mark of displeasure, by taking her daughter, Ozoro Esther, his wife, from him, that she too, and her only son, Confu, might not be involved in the excommunications, and the imputed crime of sacri

lege.

At this time died Kasmati Waragna, full of years and glory, having, though a stranger, preserved his allegiance to the last, and more than once saved the state by his wisdom, bravery, and activity. He is almost a single example in Abyssinian history, of a great officer, governor of a province, that never was