SFOR T IN ABYSSINIA. 1 2 1 



and tough. The old merchant from whom I bought 

 them was a very communicative person ; he had a 

 large silver ring on his finger which I admired ; he 

 very kindly took it off, and said he would give it to 

 me. I, of course, said no ; but, as he still pressed, I 

 said, well, I would pay him a little more for the shields 

 — which arrangement he seemed to agree to. The rest 

 of the day we spent in reading our letters and dis- 

 cussing the contents of all of them, and also in writing 

 others in return, as there would be no chance of 

 sending messengers to the post after we left Adiaboo. 

 A man named John^ — at least that was the name he 

 went by — had come into our camp from Adowa ; he 

 was said to be the son of an Englishman who had been 

 in the country some time before. He stood about six 

 feet two, and Avould have been rather good-looking 

 but that he was marked with small-pox. He brought 

 a very welcome present to us, and that was some pota- 

 toes. These vegetables are only grown near Adowa, 

 as it is only within a few years that they have been 

 introduced into the country, to which they were 

 brought by a Frenchman, whose name, we hope, will 

 be as immortal as that of Sir Walter Raleigh. The 

 potatoes were very small, in fact, wretched-looking 

 things, but were excellent eating ; and we were very 

 glad to get them, as we had been excessively hard up 

 for vegetables ; in fact, we had had scarcely any since 



