Although, therefore, the Royal prisoners did not enjoy life in a valley of delight, they certainly did not drag out a miserable existence upon the hill of despair. This would have been adding unnecessary cruelty to an exigency of State policy; an evil that would, I am convinced, have long before corrected itself, by the frequent escapes that would have been attempted, especially in a place that afforded such opportunities for obtaining personal freedom. An Abyssinian Baron Trenck would only have to wrench open the thin bar of soft iron which constitutes fetters in that country, and by three successive jumps through, not over, as many fences of rotten sticks, he would be as free as the wildest Galla, into whose country a walk of a few hours would take him. I did not show any lucifer matches, for I recollected that the Portuguese traveller Bermudez, had been confined in this very prison, and I did not know whether an act of incendiarism might not at a future time be available as a means of escape; for, it must be understood, at the time of this visit I had been threatened if I attempted to leave Shoa with the Embassy on their return to Aden, to be confined in Guancho, so desirous was the Negoos of detaining me with him. Guancho, the State prisoners, nor the anxiety of his Majesty that I should remain in his service, can be entered into now; this is anticipating the occurrence of events, the relation of which must be excused from the increasing contraction of my limits, that prevents me from holding but a little more pleasant converse with my reader, who, I hope, so far has been conducted with an amused interest through the scenes of Dankalli and Abyssinia life, in which I was a participator during my sojourn in those countries.