The town of Sirè is larger than that of Axum; it is in form of a half-moon fronting the plain, but its greatest breadth is at the west end; all the houses are of clay, and thatched; the roofs are in form of cones, as, indeed, are all in Abyssinia. Sirè is famous for a manufacture of coarse cotton cloths, which pass for current money through all the province of Tigré, and are valued at a drachm, the tenth-part of a wakea of gold, or near the value of an imperial dollar each; their breadth is a yard and quarter. Besides these, beads, needles, cohol, and incense at times only, are considered as money. The articles depend greatly on chance, which or whether any are current for the time or not; but the latter is often not demanded; and, for the first, there are modes and fashions among these barbarians, and all, except those of a certain colour and form, are useless. We have already spoken of the fashions, such as we have found them, at Kella, and we heard they were the same here at Siré. But these people were not of a humour to buy and sell with us. They were not perfectly satisfied that Michael was alive, and waited only a confirmation of the news of his defeat, to make their own terms with all strangers unfortunate enough to fall into their hands. On the other hand, we were in possession of superior force, and, knowing their inclinations, we treated them pretty much in the manner they would have done us. On the 22d of January, at night, I observed the passage of many stars over the meridian, and, after that, of the sun on the 23d at noon; taking a medium of all observations, I determined the latitude of Siré to be 14° 4´ 35´´ north. The same evening, I observed an immersion of the first satellite of Jupiter, by which I concluded its longitude to be 38° 0´ 15´´ east of the meridian of Greenwich. Although Sirè is situated in one of the finest countries in the world, like other places it has its inconveniencies. Putrid fevers, of the very worst kind, are almost constant here; and there did then actually reign a species of these that swept away a number of people daily. I did not think the behaviour of the inhabitants of this province to me was such as required my exposing myself to the infection for the sake of relieving them; I, therefore, left the fever and them to settle accounts together, without anywise interfering. At Siré we heard the good news that Ras Michael, on the 10th of this month, had come up with Fasil at Fagitta, and entirely dispersed his army, after killing 10,000 men. This account, though not confirmed by any authority, struck all the mutinous of this province with awe; and every man returned to his duty for fear of incurring the displeasure of this severe governor, which they well knew would instantly be followed by more than an adequate portion of vengeance, especially against those that had not accompanied him to the field.