wooded site of Ankober occupying a central position in a horseshoe
crescent of mountains, still high above which enclose a magnificent
amphitheatre of ten miles in diameter. This is clothed throughout
with a splendid vigorous, and varied vegetation."

The embassy now halted, waiting for permission to enter the capital, and
taking up their quarters in a town three thousand feet above Furri, on the
frontier. The escort of the troop fired a salute on entering, and, as they
marched along, performed the war dance. A veteran capered before the ranks
with a drawn sword between his teeth, and the martial song was chorused by
three hundred Christian throats. The prospect from this elevated point
naturally struck the travellers with astonishment and admiration. The site
of the town is only one of the thousand cones into which the mountain side
is broken as it approaches the plain. The prospect over the plain was
boundless, and countless villages met the eye upon the mountain slope.
Wherever the plough could go, all was cultivated. Wheat, barley, Indian
corn, beans, peas, cotton, and oil plant, throve luxuriantly round every
hamlet. The regularly marked fields mounted in terraces to the height of
three or four thousand feet, becoming, in their boundaries, more and more
indistinct, until totally lost in the shadowy green side of Mamrat (the
Mother of Grace.)

This mountain is a wonder, shrouded in clouds whilst all was sunshine
below. It is clothed with a dense forest, and ascends to an elevation of
13,000 feet above the sea. Here are collected, for security, the treasures
of the monarch which have been amassing since the re-establishment of the
kingdom, one hundred and fifty years since.

After remaining some time in the market-place, the governor of the town
appeared, and conducted the mission to the house of an old Moslem woman,