This was the very worst news I could possibly receive according to the resolutions that I had then taken, for I was within about fourteen miles of the great cataract, and it was probable I never again should be so near, were it even always accessible; to pass, therefore, without seeing it, was worse, in my own thoughts, than any danger that could threaten me. Negade Ras Mahomet was a sober plain man, of excellent understanding, and universal good character for truth and integrity; and, as such, very much in the favour both of the King and Ras Michael. I therefore opened my intentions to him without reserve, desiring his advice how to manage this excursion to the cataract. “Unless you had told me you was resolved, says he, with a grave air, though full of openness and candour, I would, in the first place, have advised you not to think of such an undertaking; these are unsettled times; all the country is bushy, wild, and uninhabited, quite to Alata; and though Mahomet, the Shum, is a good man, my friend and relation, and the king reposes trust in him, as he does in me, yet Alata itself is at any time but a bad, straggling place, there are now many strangers, and wild people there, whom Mahomet has brought to his assistance, since Guebra Mehedin made the attack upon him. If, then, any thing was to befal you, what should I answer to the king and the Iteghè? it would be said, the Turk has betrayed him; though, God knows, I was never capable of betraying your dog, and rather would be poor all my life, than the richest man of the province by doing the like wrong, even if the bad action was never to be revealed, or known, unless to my own heart.”