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
Maffudi was not backward to present himself; nor was the combat longer
than might be expected from two such willing champions. Gabriel
Andreas, seeing his opportunity, with a two-handed sword struck Maffudi
between the lower part of the neck and the shoulder, so violently, that
he nearly divided his body into two, and felled him dead to the ground.
He then cut his head off, and threw it at the king’s feet, saying,
“There is the Goliath of the Infidels.”
This expression became instantly the word of battle, or signal to
charge. The king, at the head of his troops, rushed upon the Moorish
army, and, throwing them into disorder, drove them back upon Betwudet,
who, with his fresh troops, forced them again back to the king.
Seeing no hopes of relief, they dispersed to the mountains, and were
slaughtered, and hunted like wild beasts by the peasants, or driven
to perish with thirst and hunger. About 12,000 of the Mahometan army
are said to have been slain upon the field, with no very considerable
loss on the side of the conquerors. The green standard of Mahomet was
taken, as also the black velvet tent embroidered with gold; which
last, we shall see, the king gave to the Portuguese ambassador some
time afterwards, to consecrate and say mass in. A vast number of
cattle was taken, and with them much rich merchandise of the Indies.
Nor did the king content himself with what he had got in battle. He
advanced and encamped at a place where was held the first market of
Adel[26]. The next day he proceeded to a town where was a house of the
king, and, going up to the door, and finding it locked, he struck the
door with his lance, and nobody answering, he prohibited the soldiers
from plundering it, and retired with his army home, leaving his lance
sticking in the door as a sign of his having been there, and having had
it in his power.
Though the king was received on his return amidst the greatest
acclamations of his subjects, as the saviour of his country, the eyes
of the whole nation and army were first fixed on Andreas, whose bravery
had at last delivered them from that constant and inveterate scourge,
Maffudi. Every body pressed forward to throw flowers and green branches
in his way; the women celebrating him with songs, putting garlands on
his head, and holding out the young children to see him as he passed.
The battle was fought in the month of July 1516; and, the same day,
the island of Zeyla, in the mouth of the Red Sea, was taken, and its
town burned by the Portuguese armament, under Lopez Suarez Alberguiera.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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