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 ( 252 ) CHAPTER VIII.

FROM the preceding narrative of affairs it will appear, that, on my former journey I had entertained an erroneous opinion respecting the character of the Ras; as, at that time, I conceived that he owed his elevation more "to his cunning than to his strength of character." In this I was undoubtedly mistaken; since he is distinguished still more for his intrepidity and firmness than by the policy with which he has uniformly ruled the country under his command; having been successfully engaged in upwards of forty battles, and having evinced on these occasions even too great a disregard of his own personal safety in action.

At the time of Mr. Bruce's arrival in the country, in 1770, Ras Welled Selassé was a young man of some consequence about the court; so that, considering him at that time to have been three or four and twenty, his age must, at the period of my last visit to the country, have amounted to about sixty-four; a point somewhat difficult of proof from the extreme delicacy which existed of making any inquiries of this description among his followers. The first situation he held of any