ABSTRACT
Soon after I left Dambiâ for Tigrê, Abeitahûn {Suzeneôs [Suzniôs]} <Suzneôs> entered the kingdom of Gojâm with many warriors and sent word to Erâz Athanatêus, who was the viceroy, to go forth and receive him. He did so at once, either because he had plotted with him in secret, or because he had not the strength to stand against him, which was the reason he himself gave later. With all the captains and soldiers of Gojâm gathered there, they proclaimed him emperor, and he took the name Malâc Çaguêd and they held great celebrations. Afterwards, he wrote to Za Celacê and the other governors that God had now given him the empire of his forefathers and that he had decided to go straight to Dambiâ, and that if they made ready to receive him without any dispute, he would do them favours. On hearing this they were very afraid and, after taking counsel with the great men, they replied that he should wait until June and that, if their lord Iacob had not come by then, they would give the emperorship to nobody but him. He replied to this letter that he would not give up the sceptre that God had given him or take off the crown that they had put on his head just because his cousin Iacob might come or even if Emperor Malâc Çaguêd, who was the greatest of all, were raised from the dead. And with this message he sent a monk and a great man to persuade them courteously to accept his intention. When they arrived, however, they apprehended them and sent the great man under guard to a {very} rugged and secure mountain.
