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( 207 ) CHAPTER VII.

IN the course of our journey to Chelicut I had partly ascertained, in conversation with Mr. Pearce and Debib, the impracticability of proceeding to Gondar, as I had proposed, on account of the distracted state of the interior provinces, and the enmity subsisting between Ras Welled Selassé and a chief named Guxo, who at this time held the command of some of the most important districts eastward of the river Tacazze. In a conference which I had with the Ras on the 16th of March, when a long discussion took place relative to the subject of my mission, the difficulties above mentioned were not only strongly confirmed by him, but he also