I had violent threatenings of the ague, and had gone to bed full of reflections on extraordinary events that, in a few hours, had as it were crowded upon one another. I had appointed Fasil’s servants to come to my tent in the evening. I understood a council had been called, to which Welleta Kyrillos, the king’s historiographer, had been sent for, and instructed how to give an account of this campaign of Maitsha, the passage of the Nile, and the meeting with Fasil at Limjour. Kefla Yasous’s march to Delakus, and passage there, were ordered to be written in gold letters, and so was Fasil’s appointment to Damot and Maitsha. From this authentic copy, and what I myself heard or observed, I formed these notes of the campaign. On the 30th of May nothing material happened, and, in a few days, we arrived at Gondar. The day before we entered, being encamped on the river Kemona, came two messengers from Gusho and Powussen, with various excuses why they had not joined. They were very ill received by the Ras, and refused an audience of the king. Their present, which is always new clothes to some value, was a small piece of dark-blue Surat cloth, value about half-a-crown, intended as an affront; they were not suffered to sleep in the camp, but forwarded to Fasil where they were going. The 3d of June the army encamped on the river Kahha, under Gondar. From the time we left Dingleber, some one or other of the Ras’s confidential friends had arrived every day. Several of the great officers of state reached us at the Kemona, many others met us at Abba Samuel. I did not perceive the news they brought increased the spirits either of the King or the Ras; the soldiers, however, were all contented, because they were at home; but the officers, who saw farther, wore very different countenances, especially those that were of Amhara. I, in particular, had very little reason to be pleased; for, after having undergone a constant series of fatigues, dangers, and expences, I was returned to Gondar disappointed of my views in arriving at the source of the Nile, without any other acquisition than a violent ague. The place where that river rises remained still as great a secret as it had been ever since the catastrophe of Phaeton:-- _Nilus in extremum fugit perterritus orbem, Occuluitque caput, quod adhuc latet._---- OVID. METAM. lib. ii. CHAP. VII. _King and Army retreat to Tigré--Interesting Events following that Retreat--The Body of Joas is found--Favourable Turn of the King’s Affairs--Socinios, a new King, proclaimed at Gondar._