Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/238

 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 prefented 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 dis-