[26] About differences of taste there can be no dispute.
[27] See Polar Seas and Regions, p. 236, Harpers' Family Library.
[28] We had a long conversation with Mr. Coffin on this subject. It ended by our offering him a luncheon, which he ate with great avidity, of raw beefsteaks.
CHAPTER XI.
Bruce resides at Gondar, and gradually raises himself to distinction.
Gondar, the metropolis of Abyssinia, is situated upon the flat summit of a hill of considerable height, and was peopled, in the time of Bruce, by about ten thousand families. The houses are chiefly of clay, with conical roofs, the usual mode of construction within the region of the tropical rains. At the west end of the town stands the king's house, a square building flanked by towers. It was formerly four stories high, and had a magnificent view of the country southward to the great lake Tzana. A part of this palace had been burned, but the lower floors remained entire, the principal audience-chamber being more than a hundred and twenty feet in length.
The palace, as well as the buildings which belonged to it, were surrounded by a stone wall thirty feet high, and broad enough for a parapet and path. The four sides of this wall were about a mile and a half in length.
On the opposite side of the river Angrab stood a large town of Mohammedans, which contained about one thousand houses; and at the north of Gondar was situated Koscam, the palace of the iteghe, or queen-mother.
Bruce was much surprised, on arriving at the river Angrab, that no person had come to him from Petros, Janni's brother; but Petros, frightened by the priests, who told him that a Frank was on his way to Gondar, had fled to the ras to receive his directions on the subject. There was, therefore, no one to whom Bruce could address himself; for, though he had letters both for the king and for Ras Michael, they, as well as the principal Greeks, were absent.