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A Voyage to Abyssinia by Jeronimo Lobo
page 81 of 135 (60%)
head, with a dead dog, to raise a greater aversion in the Moors. I
gathered the teeth and the lower jaw. No words can express the
ecstasies I was transported with at seeing the relics of so great a
man, and reflecting that it had pleased God to make me the
instrument of their preservation, so that one day, if our holy
father the Pope shall be so pleased, they may receive the veneration
of the faithful. All burst into tears at the sight. We indulged a
melancholy pleasure in reflecting what that great man had achieved
for the deliverance of Abyssinia, from the yoke and tyranny of the
Moors; the voyages he had undertaken; the battles he had fought; the
victories he had won; and the cruel and tragical death he had
suffered. Our first moments were so entirely taken up with these
reflections that we were incapable of considering the danger we were
in of being immediately surrounded by the Galles; but as soon as we
awoke to that thought, we contrived to retreat as fast as we could.
Our expedition, however, was not so great but we saw them on the top
of a mountain ready to pour down upon us. The viceroy attended us
closely with his little army, but had been probably not much more
secure than we, his force consisting only of foot, and the Galles
entirely of horse, a service at which they are very expert. Our
apprehensions at last proved to be needless, for the troops we saw
were of a nation at that time in alliance with the Abyssins.

Not caring, after this alarm, to stay longer here, we set out on our
march back, and in our return passed through a village where two
men, who had murdered a domestic of the viceroy, lay under an
arrest. As they had been taken in the fact, the law of the country
allowed that they might have been executed the same hour, but the
viceroy having ordered that their death should be deferred till his
return, delivered them to the relations of the dead, to be disposed
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