Tcherkin has a market on Saturdays, in which raw cotton, cattle, honey, and coarse cotton cloths are sold. The Shangalla formerly molested Tcherkin greatly, but for thirty years past they had done little damage. The small-pox raged so violently for a number of years among them, that it has greatly diminished their numbers, and consequently their power of troubling their neighbours. At Tcherkin we saw a prodigious quantity of black scorpions, of a very small kind, seldom in the houses, but chiefly hid under stones; several of our people were stung by them, but no other mischief followed, but a small swelling, and a complaint of cold in the part, which went away in a few hours. From the descent of Moura, after leaving Debra Tzai, and Koscam, all was thick woods till we arrived at Tcherkin; the roads very rugged and broken, but the weather was exceedingly pleasant; for though the thermometer was sometimes at 115°, it was always cool in the shade; and by the side of every river there was a fresh gentle breeze from N. E. especially at mid-day. The mornings were always calm, or with little wind at N. E. It regularly changed about nine to N. W. and then fell calm. About four in the afternoon it generally was at west or near it; but two currents were constantly distinguished at night; the lower N. E. veering easterly towards morning; while the white small clouds very thin and high, coming very rapidly from the S. W. shewed the direction and strength of the higher current. The mornings and nights were cloudy from the first of January, but the days perfectly serene. On Wednesday the eighth of January, having rectified my quadrant with great attention, I found the latitude of Tcherkin, by a meridian altitude of the sun, to be 13° 7´ 30´´ N.; and taking a mean between that and the meridian altitude of eleven different stars, the following night, I found the true latitude of Tcherkin Amba to be 13° 7´ 35´´ north. But though from that time I was ready to depart, I could not possibly get disengaged from my friends, but by a composition, which was, that I should stay till the 15th, the day before Ozoro Esther and her company were to set out on their return to Gondar; and that they, on their part, should suffer me to depart on that day, without further perswasion, or throwing any obstacle whatever in my way. The king had recommended to them this sort of agreement, if I was obstinate, and this being settled, we abandoned ourselves to mirth and festivity. CHAP. III. _From Tcherkin to Hor-Cacamoot, in Ras el Feel--Account of it--Transactions there._