loyment to steal everything he could lay
hold on; his piety even transported him so far, that one morning he stole
and hid the cords of our tents. The patriarch who saw him at the work
charged him with it, and upon his denial, showed him the end of the cord
hanging from under the saddle of one of his camels. Upon this we went to
seize them, but were opposed by him and the rest of the drivers, who set
themselves in a posture of opposition with their daggers. Our soldiers
had recourse to their muskets, and four of them putting the mouths of
their pieces to the heads of some of the most obstinate and turbulent,
struck them with such a terror, that all the clamour was stilled in an
instant; none received any hurt but the Moor who had been the occasion of
the tumult. He was knocked down by one of our soldiers, who had cut his
throat but that the fathers prevented it: he then restored the cords, and
was more tractable ever after. In all my dealings with the Moors, I have
always discovered in them an ill-natured cowardice, which makes them
insupportably insolent if you show them the least respect, and easily
reduced to reasonable terms when you treat them with a high hand.

After a march of some days we came to an opening between the mountains,
the only passage out of Dancali into Abyssinia. Heaven seems to have
made this place on purpose for the repose of weary travellers, who here
exchange the tortures of parching thirst, burning sands, and a sultry
climate, for the pleasures of shady trees, the refreshment of a clear
stream, and the luxury of a cooling breeze. We arrived at this happy
place about noon, and the next day at evening left those fanning winds,
and woods flourishing with unfading verdure, for the dismal barrenness of
the vast uninhabitable plains, from which Abyssinia is supplied with
salt. These plains are surrounded with high mountains, continually
covered with thick clouds which the sun draws from the lakes that are
here, from which the water runs down into the plain, and is there
congealed into salt. Nothing can be more curious than to see the
channels and aqueducts that nature has formed in this hard rock, so exact
and of such admirable contrivance, that they seem to be the work of men.
To this place caravans of Abyssinia are continually resorting, to carry
salt into all parts of the empire, which they set a great value upon, and
which in their country is of the same use as money. The superstitious