arms, with which, until that time, he had been unacquainted, placed me about his person, both in the palace and in the field, for his own amusement, and I may say instruction, and for my safety; and this advice has proved so good, that I have never once deviated from it but my life has been in danger. The first attempt I made to go to the cataract, Guebra Mehedin way-laid and intended to murder me. When the king was in Tigrè, Woodage Asahel designed to do me the same favour by the Galla he sent from Samseen; and so did Coque Abou Barea at Degwassa, by the hands of Welleta Selassè. No safety, therefore, then remained to me but in adhering closely to the king, as I have ever since done, and was advised from the first to do, which indispensibly brought me to Serbraxos, or wherever he was in person. You cannot think it is from a motive of choice that a white man like myself runs the risk of losing his life, or limbs, so far from home, and where there is so little medical assistance, in a war where he has no motive that can concern him." "Do not mistake me, Yagoube, says Gusho, your behaviour at Serbraxos does you honour, and will never make you an enemy, so does the like affair with Kefla Yasous; there is no man you can so properly connect yourself with as Kefla Yasous; all I wanted to observe to you is, that it is said Woodage Asahel would have escaped safely from the mountain if you had not shot him, and that yours was the only musquet that was fired at him; which is thought invidious in you, being a stranger, as he is the head of the Edjow Galla, the late king's guards; they may yet return to Gondar, and will look upon you as their enemy, because a leaden bullet was found in Woodage Asahel's body fired at him by you."--"Sir, said I, it is very seldom a man in such a case as this can have the power of vindicating himself to conviction, but that I now happily can do. All the Greeks in the king's army, their sons and families, all Mahometans, who have been in Arabia, India, or Egypt, use leaden bullets. The man who shot Woodage Asahel is well known to you. He is the king's old cook, Sebastos, a man past seventy, who could not be able to kill a sheep till somebody first tied its legs. He himself informed the king of what he had done, and brought witnesses in the usual form, claiming a reward for his action, which he obtained. It was said that I, too, killed the man who carried the red flag of Theodorus at Serbraxos, though no leaden bullet, I believe, was found in him. A soldier picked up this flag upon the field, and brought it to me. I paid him, indeed, for his pains; and, when I presented the flag to the king, told him what I had seen, that the bearer of it had fallen by a shot from Guebra Mascal. I had not a gun in my hand all that day at Serbraxos, nor all that other day when Woodage Asahel was slain. I saw him pass within less than ten yards where I was standing behind the king, in great health and spirits,