Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 2 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773Bruce, James
History
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 2 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773
Bruce, James
Egypt -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- History; Natural history -- Ethiopia; Nile River
Thus died king Claudius in the 19th year of his reign, who, by his
virtues and capacity, might hold a first place among any series of
kings we have known, victorious in every action he fought, except
in that one only in which he died. A great slaughter was made after
this among the routed, and many of the first nobility were slain in
endeavouring to escape; among the rest, the dreamer from Debra Libanos,
his vision, by which he knew the king’s death, not having extended so
far as to reveal his own. The Abyssinians immediately transferred the
name of this prince into their catalogue of Saints, and he is called St
Claudius in that country to this day. Though endowed with every other
virtue that entitled him to his place in the kalendar, he seems to have
wanted one--that of dying in charity with his enemies.
This battle was fought on the 22d March 1559; and the victory gained
by Nur was a complete one. The king and most of his principal officers
were slain; great part of the army taken prisoners, the rest dispersed,
and the camp plundered; so that no Moorish general had ever returned
home with the glory that he did. But afterwards, in his behaviour, he
exhibited a spectacle more memorable, and that did him more honour
than the victory itself; for, when he drew near to Adel, he clothed
himself in poor attire like a common soldier, and bare-headed, mounted
on an ordinary mule, with an old saddle and tattered accoutrements, he
forbade the songs and praise with which it is usual to meet conquerors
in that country when returning with victory from the field. He declined
also all share in the success of that day, declaring that the whole of
it was due to God alone, to whose mercy and immediate interposition he
owed the destruction of the Christian army.
The unworthy and unfortunate John Bermudes having arrived in Portugal
from India, continued there till his death; and, in the inscription
over his tomb, is called only _Patriarch of Alexandria_. Yet it is
clear, from the history of these times, that he was first ordained by
the old patriarch Marcus; and that the pope, Paul III. only confirmed
the ordination of this heretical schismatical prelate, though we
have stated that he was ordained by the pope, according to his own
assertion, to be patriarch of Alexandria, Abyssinia, and the Sea.
Bermudes lived many years after this, and never resigned any of his
charges.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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