Departure from Gondar—Bivouac in the Field—Morning in the Tropics—A Sabbath Congregation—An Epicure's Repast —The Youthful Students—A pert Woman—Benighted in the Jungle—A new Version of Man's Creation—Interview with the FalashaHigh-Priest—Affecting Prayer—Appalling Passage—The Domain of the Aboona—Magic Powers

We had now been nineteen days at Gondar, and not thinking it advisable to protract our stay, we set out again on our missionary journey. Our route was west-south-west across the hills which, like Cyclopean embattlements, encompass Gondar .At Assaso, a suburb, an hour’s distance from the metropolis, there are still some gardens and a church which remind the vain Abyssinian of the superiority of the Franks, who saved Ethiopia from the yoke of Islam-ism, but injudiciously endeavoured to impose on her the no less detested manacles of Popery. We here re-arranged our books, which pressed heavily on the saddleless backs of our mules, and then through a steep and narrow defile pushed on to Maneger Gabriel, a hamlet hidden in a forest of acacias, wanza, worka, and other tropical trees and plants. We had some difficulty in extricating our feet from the rank weeds and tangled parasites, which every-where barred our onward progress. Bruised and bleeding, we reached the Shum’s hut, and there in a field of pumpkins, we cleared a small space for our tent. After a supper of excellent milk, and an abundance of vegetables, a luxury we had not enjoyed for many weeks, we retired to rest, and, reclining on soft grass and aromatic herbs, slept, in defiance of mosquitoes and hyenas, quite as soundly in the African wilderness as we could have done in the most luxurious chamber in the heart of civilized Europe.