Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/318

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310
ADOWA.

casion, in the war of Hamazen, having been surprised by about a thousand of the enemy, he had beaten them off with only two hundred men, at the same time lamenting, that he had been reduced to so very disagreeable an alternative. These traits of character, as might be expected in the existing state of society in Abyssinia, had gained him the admiration and good will of the greater part of his countrymen.

On the 8th we took leave of our friendly host, and proceeded forwards to Adowa. On crossing one of the highest tracts of ground in the morning, we gained a very clear view of the mountains of Samen, bearing at that time S. W., and could plainly distinguish the snow lying in large masses on the tops of Béyeda and Amba Hai. The road to Adowa passes over several ridges of hills, and is in parts extremely difficult of ascent. In the middle of the day we stopped for an hour under a grove of daro trees, where I shot a beautiful species of Upupa, nearly allied to the Erythrynotos. At one o'clock we reached Adowa. At this place I was surprised to find that an Englishman had arrived from the coast only a few days before, which, on enquiry, proved to be Mr. Stuart. He had failed, in a great measure, in accomplishing the plan which I had proposed, of his going to Hurrur, owing to circumstances which will be hereafter detailed; and, on his return to Mocha, having met with an opportunity of crossing over to Massowa, had thought it right to come and join me, for the purpose of clearly reporting the events which had prevented his success. I could not help feeling greatly disappointed at his failure; but, on hearing Mr. Stuart's statements, I was persuaded that it had not been in his power to obviate the difficulties which he had had to encounter. I also received the unpleasant intelligence, that two packets of letters which I had dispatched to Captain Weatherhead from Chelicut, by the different routes of Massowa and Amphila, had not reached their destination; so that it became probable that the ship might not arrive on the coast by the time we should get down.

On our arrival at Adowa, we had taken up our residence in the house of the Ras, by his particular desire, where we found a lady residing, named Ozoro Sehen,