infested with lions of many kinds, among which are many of that which
is called the lion royal. I cannot help giving the reader on this
occasion a relation of a fact which I was an eye-witness of. A lion
having taken his haunt near the place where I lived, killed all the oxen
and cows, and did a great deal of other mischief, of which I heard new
complaints every day. A servant of mine having taken a resolution to
free the country from this destroyer, went out one day with two lances,
and after he had been some time in quest of him, found him with his mouth
all smeared with the blood of a cow he had just devoured; the man rushed
upon him, and thrust his lance into his throat with such violence that it
came out between his shoulders; the beast, with one dreadful roar, fell
down into a pit, and lay struggling, till my servant despatched him. I
measured the body of this lion, and found him twelve feet between the
head and the tail.

CHAPTER II

The animals of Abyssinia; the elephant, unicorn, their horses and cows;
with a particular account of the moroc.

There are so great numbers of elephants in Abyssinia that in one evening
we met three hundred of them in three troops: as they filled up the whole
way, we were in great perplexity a long time what measures to take; at
length, having implored the protection of that Providence that
superintends the whole creation, we went forwards through the midst of
them without any injury. Once we met four young elephants, and an old
one that played with them, lifting them up with her trunk; they grew
enraged on a sudden, and ran upon us: we had no way of securing ourselves
but by flight, which, however, would have been fruitless, had not our
pursuers been stopped by a deep ditch. The elephants of AEthiopia are of
so stupendous a size, that when I was mounted on a large mule I could not
reach with my hand within two spans of the top of their backs. In
Abyssinia is likewise found the rhinoceros, a mortal enemy to the
elephant. In the province of Agaus has been seen the unicorn, that beast
so much talked of, and so little known: the prodigious swiftness with
which this creature runs from one wood into another has given me no
opportunity of examining it particularly, yet I have had so near a sight
of it as to be able to give some description of it. The shape is the
same with that of a beautiful horse, exact and nicely proportioned, of a
bay colour, with a black tail, which