Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/239

 tance, for consequences that might other wise 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."