Amongst us we killed five boars, all large ones, in the space of about two hours; one of which measured six feet nine inches; and, though he ran at an amazing speed near two miles, so as to be with difficulty overtaken by the horse, and was struck through and through with two heavy lances loaded at the end with iron, no person dared to come near him on foot, and he defended himself above half an hour, till, having no other arms left, I shot him with a horse-pistol. But the misfortune was, that, after our hunting had been crowned with such success, we did not dare to partake of the excellent venison we had acquired; for the Abyssinians hold pork of all kinds in the utmost detestation; and I was now become cautious, lest I should give offence, being at no great distance from the capital. On the 21st we left Mai-Shum at seven o’clock in the morning, proceeding through an open country, part sown, with teff, but mostly overgrown with wild oats and high grass. We afterwards travelled among a number of low hills, ascending and descending many of them, which occasioned more pleasure than fatigue. The jessamin continued to increase upon us, and it was the common bush of the country. Several new species appeared, with five, nine, eleven petals, and plenty of the agam with four, these being all white. We found also large bushes of yellow, and orange and yellow jessamin, besides fine trees of kummel, and the boha, both of the largest size, beautifully covered with fruit and flowers, which we never before had seen. We now descended into a plain called Selech-lecha, the village of that name being two miles east of us. The country here has an air of gaiety and chearfulness superior to any thing we had ever yet seen. Poncet[13] was right when he compared it to the most beauteous part of Provence. We crossed the plain through hedge-rows of flowering shrubs, among which the honeysuckle now made a principal figure, which is of one species only, the same known in England; but the flower is larger and perfectly white, not coloured on the outside as our honeysuckle is. Fine trees of all sizes were everywhere interspersed; and the vine, with small black grapes of very good flavour, hung in many places in festoons, joining tree to tree, as if they had been artificially twined and intended for arbours. After having passed this plain, we again entered a close country through defiles between mountains, thick covered with wood and bushes. We pitched our tent by the water-side judiciously enough as travellers, being quite surrounded with bushes, which prevented us from being seen in any direction.