I need not trouble the reader with the attention shewed me upon my accident; all that was great and noble at court, from the king downwards, seemed to be as sensible of it as if it had happened to one of their own family; the Ras very particularly so; and I must own, above all, Guebra Mascal shewed himself a sincere convert, by a concern and friendship that had every mark of sincerity. Ozoro Esther was several times the next day at my tent, and with her the beautiful Tecla Mariam, whose sympathy and kindness would more than have compensated a greater misfortune; for, saving that it had occasioned an inflammation in my eyes, the hurt was of the slightest kind.
Many people came to-day from the several camps with proposals of peace, which ended in nothing, though it was visible enough to everyone that a treaty of some kind was not only on foot, but already far advanced. In the evening a party of 400 foot and 50 horse, which went to Dembea to forage for the king, was surprised by Coque Abou Barea, and cut to pieces; after which that general encamped with Gusho, and brought with him about 3000 men.
Provisions were now become scarce in the camp, and there was a prospect that they would be every day scarcer; and, what was still worse, Deg-Ohha, which long had stood in pools, was now almost dry, and, from the frequent use made of it by the number of beasts, began to have both an offensive smell and taste; whilst, every time we attempted to water at the Mariam river, a battle was to be fought with Tesfos's horse in the valley. On the other hand, an epidemical fever raged in the rebels camp on the plain, especially in that of Gusho and Ayabdar. The rain, moreover, was now coming on daily, and something decisive became necessary for all parties.
On the 24th, in the morning, a message arrived from Gusho to the king, desiring I might have liberty to come and bring medicines with me, for his whole family were ill of the fever. The king answered, that I had been wounded in the head, and was ill; nor did he believe I could be able to come; but, if I was, he should send me in the morning.
A little before noon the drums in the plain beat to arms. Heraclius, Mammo, and Tesfos on the side of the valley, Coque Abou Barea and Asahel Woodage on the side of the plain, with fresh troops, had obtained leave from Gusho and Powussen to try to storm our camp, without any assistance from the main army, in order to bring the whole to a speedy conclusion. There had been a time when such an undertaking would not have been thought a prudent one to much better men than any of those who now were parties in it; but our spirits were greatly fallen, our number, too, much decreased; above all, a relaxation of discipline (and desertion, the consequence of it) began to prevail among us to an alarming degree. This was generally said to be owing to the despondency of the Tigrè troops upon the arrival of Tesfos; but it required little penetration to discern, that all sorts of men were weary of constant fighting and hardships, for no other end but unjustly maintaining Michael in a post in which he governed at discretion, to the terror of the whole kingdom, and ruin of the constitution.
The hill of Serbraxos, when we first took post on it, was rugged and uneven, full of acacia and other ill-thriving trees, and various stumps of these had been broken by the wind, or undermined by the torrents. The great need the soldiers had of fuel to roast the miserable pittance of barley, (which was all their food) had cleared away these incumbrances from the side of the hill, and the constant resort of men going up and down, had rendered the surface perfectly smooth and slippery; so that our camp did not appear as placed so high, nor nearly so inaccessible as it was at first. For this reason, Ras Michael had ordered the soldiers to gather all the stones on the hill, and range them in small walls, at proper places, in a kind of zig-zag, under which the soldiers lay concealed, and with their fire-arms protected the mules which went down to drink. Michael had lined all these little fortifications with musquetry, from the bottom of the hill to the door of his tent and the king's.
Plan
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The Third Battle
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Serbraxos,
Fought 23d. May,
1772.
THIRD BATTLE.
Explanation.