try, and Gojee, on the came day, sent a flag of truce, by four prisoners he had taken, to the Ras, to propose terms of surrender, submitting his cause to the arbitration of another powerful chief of the Galla at that time in friendship with the Ras, called Liban. This chief (the son of Mahomed Kolassé and grandson of Hamed) was a young and handsome man, about twenty years of age, who commanded a large tract of country, comprehending a portion of Begemder, the whole of Amhara, and the greater part of an extensive region, which was formerly termed the kingdom of Angote. Soon afterwards the drums were beat, and an order issued throughout the camp, that no one under pain of death should commit any further act of hostility. The truce was, however, of short duration; for, on the following day, some of the soldiers who had gone out in search of forage being killed by the Galla, the drum was again beat and free license given to the Worari to renew their predatory excursions.
In the course of these desperate expeditions, scenes of barbarity were occasionally said to have occurred, which appear strongly to corroborate an account given by Mr. Bruce respecting a circumstance that he had witnessed in travelling from Axum to the Tacazze,[1] which, from being too generally discredited, has drawn upon him much unmerited ridicule and severity of criticism. I shall proceed to relate one of these occurrences which Mr. Pearce himself witnessed.
On the 7th of February, while these transactions were passing, he went out with a party of the Lasta soldiers on one of their marauding expeditions, and in the course of the day they got possession of several head of cattle, with which, towards evening, they made the best of their way back to the camp. They had then fasted for many hours, and still a considerable distance remained for them to travel. Under these circumstances, a soldier attached to the party, proposed "cutting out the shulada" from one of the cows they were driving before them, to satisfy the cravings of their hunger. This "term" Mr. Pearce did not at first understand, but he was not long left in doubt upon the subject; for, the others having assented,
- ↑ Vide Vol. IV. pp. 333, 4.
