On the 25th of May, early in the morning, I went to Gusho. When I arrived near his tent I dismounted my mule, and, as the king had commanded me, bared myself to below the breasts, the sign of being bearer of the king's orders. Four men were now sent from the tent, who, two and two, supported each arm, and introduced me in this state immediately to Gusho. He was sitting on a kind of bed, covered with scarlet cloth, and edged with a deep gold fringe. As soon as I came near him, I began, "Hear what the king says to you." In a moment he rose, and, stripping himself bare to the waist, he bowed with his forehead on the scarlet cloth, but did not, as was his duty, stand on the ground, and touch it with his forehead, tho' there was a good Persian carpet, as pride and newly-acquired independence had released him from those forms, in the observance of which he had been brought up from his childhood.
On seeing him attentive, I continued, "The king sends you word by me, and I declare to you from my own skill as a physician, that the fever now amongst you will soon become mortal; as the rains increase, you will die; consequently, being out of your allegiance, God only knows what will happen to you afterwards. The king therefore wishes you to preserve your health, by going home to Amhara, taking Powussen, and all the rest along with you who are ill likewise, and the sooner the better, as he heartily wishes to be rid of you all at once, without your leaving any of your friends behind you." It was with difficulty I kept my gravity in the course of my harangue; it did not seem to be less so on his part, as at the end he broke out in a great fit of laughter. "Aye, Aye, Yagoube, says he, I see you are still the old man; but tell the king from me, that if I were to do what you just now desire of me, it was then I should be afraid to die, it was then I should be out of my duty; assure the king, continued Gusho, I will do him better service. Were I to go home and leave Michael with him, I, who am no physician, declare, the Ras would prove in the end a much more dangerous disease to him than all the fevers in Dembea."
I then introduced his relation, Tecla Mariam, who stood with the people behind; and, as he had on his monk's dress, Gusho at first did not know him. He had been well informed, however, of his having saved the king, and of the blow that he had received from him. He said every thing in commendation of the young man, and his honourable action, adding, that the preservation of kings was a gift of Providence particularly reserved for the people of Amhara. He then ordered new cloaths to be brought and put upon Tecla Mariam, who scrupled to take off his cowl; on which Gusho violently tore it from his head, dashed it on the floor, stamped twice on it with his foot, and then threw it behind the back of the sofa. At parting, Gusho ordered him five ounces of gold, a large present for one that loved money as Gusho did, commanding him strictly to return to his duty and profession, and ordering me to carry him to the king, and see him reinstated in his office in the palace.
I then desired his permission to visit the sick, and left ipecacuanha and bark with Antonio, (his Greek servant,) and directions how to administer them. One of his nephews, (Ayto Aderesson) the young man who had lost Gusho's horse, had the small-pox, upon which I warned Gusho seriously of the danger to which he exposed all his army if that disease broke out amongst them, and advised him to send his nephew forthwith to the church of Mariam, under the care of the priests, which he did accordingly.
The tent being cleared, he asked me if I had seen Welleta Selassé; if I was with her when she died; and who was said to have poisoned her, Ras Michael or herself, or if I had ever heard that it was Ozoro Esther? I told him her friends had sent for me from the camp, but missed me, not knowing I was at Koscam with Ayto Confu, who had been wounded; but that I could have been of little service to her if they had found me sooner: That she had scarce any signs of life when I entered her room, and died soon after: That she confessed she had taken arsenic herself, and named a black servant of hers, a Mahometan, from whom she had bought it; and the reason was, her fears that her grandfather, Ras Michael, whom she had always looked upon as the murderer of her father, should force her when he returned to Gondar. He seemed exceedingly attentive to all I said, and mused for a couple of minutes after I had done speaking.
A plentiful breakfast was then brought us, and many of his officers sat down to it. I observed likewise some people of Gondar, who had formerly fled to Fasil at Michael's first coming. He said he wished me to bleed him before I went away, which I assured him I would by no means do, for if he was well, as I then saw he was, the unnecessary bleeding him might occasion sickness; and, if he was dangerously ill, he might die, when the blame would be laid upon me, and expose me to mischief afterwards. "No, says he, I could certainly trust you, nor would any of my people believe any harm of you; but I am glad to see you so prudent, and that you have a care of my life, for the reason I shall give you afterwards." I bowed, and he made me then tell him all that passed in my visit to Fasil, which I did, without concealing any circumstance. All the company laughed, and he more than any, only saying, "Fasil, Fasil, thou wast born a Galla, and a Galla thou shalt die."
Breakfast being over, the tent was cleared, and we were again left alone, when he put on a very serious countenance. "You know, says he, you are my old acquaintance. I saw you with Michael after the battle of Fagitta, as also the presents you brought, and heard the letters read, both those that came from Metical Aga, and those of Ali Bey from Cairo. All the Greeks here who have considerable posts, and are proud and vain enough, have yet declared to us several times, (as Antonio my servant did to me last night) that, in their own country, the best of them are not higher in rank than your servants; and that those who hitherto have come into this country were no better. We know then, and the king is sensible, that in your own country you are equal to the best of us, and perhaps superior, and as such, even in these bad times, you have been treated. Now, this being the case, you are wrong to expose yourself like a common soldier. We all know, and have seen, that you are a better horseman, and shoot better than we; your gun carries farther, because you use leaden bullets; so far is well; but then you should manage this so as never to act alone, or from any thing that can have the appearance of a private motive[11]." "Sir, said I, you know that when I first came recommended, as you say, into this country, Ayto Aylo, the most peaceable, as well as the wisest man in it, the Ras, and I believe yourself, but certainly many able and considerable men who were so good as to patronize me, did then advise the putting me into the king's service and household, as the only means of keeping me from robbery and insult. You said that I could not be safe one instant after the king left Gondar, being a single man, who was supposed to have brought money with him; that therefore I must connect myself with young noblemen, officers of consequence about court, whose authority and friendship would keep ill-disposed people in awe. The king observing in me a facility of managing my horse and 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, with two other attendants; but, so far from firing at him, I was very anxious in my own mind that he should get as safely out of the camp as he had gallantly, though imprudently, forced himself into it. It is not a custom known in my country for officers to be employed to pick out distinguished men at such advantage, nor would it be considered there as much better than murder: certainly no honour would accrue from it. But when means are necessary to keep officers of the enemy at a proper distance, for consequences that might otherwise follow, there are common soldiers chosen for that purpose, and for which they are not the more esteemed. This, however, I will confess to you, that when either the king's horses or mine went down to Deg-Ohha to water, and never but then, I sat upon the rock above, and did all in my power to protect them, and the men who were with them, and to terrify the enemy who came to molest them, by shewing the extensive range of our rifle guns; and that very day when Ayto Tesfos arrived, some of his troops having driven off the mules, among which were two of mine, I did, I confess, with my own hand shoot four of them from the rock, and at last obliged the rest to keep at a greater distance; but as for Woodage Asahel, I disown having had arms in my hand the day he entered the camp, or having been absent, till late in the evening, from the king's person."
"Now, all this is very well, continued Gusho; who killed Theodorus, or the man at Serbraxos; who killed Ayto Tesfos's men, is no object of inquiry; Deg-Ohha was within the line of the king's camp, and they that wanted to deprive him of this possession, or the use of it, did it at their peril. If you had shot Ayto Tesfos himself, attempting to deprive you of water for the camp, no man in all Amhara would have said you did wrong; but I am very much pleased with what you tell me of Woodage Asahel. The short, yellow man, who breakfasted with you, was one of those two who accompanied Woodage Asahel when he was shot, and is a friend of mine; he brought word that he was killed by a frank, and the leaden bullet fix'd it upon you."