406 CULTURE OF INDIGO. 



subject which he said was of great interest to the 

 Negoos, who had been talking to him respecting it 

 for the last two days. This w T as the production of in- 

 digo in Shoa, seeds of which plant had been received 

 from Gondah, and the Negoos desired me to point 

 out the situation I considered to be most favourable 

 for their cultivation. Judging from the character of 

 the country bordering upon the Ganges, its probable 

 elevation above the sea, and its geographical posi- 

 tion, I had no hesitation in stating, from the com- 

 parison, that many of the little islands of the finest 

 alluvial soil, situated in the bed of the Dinkee 

 river, where it extends in broad valleys in the neigh- 



the greater part of them took to themselves wives, and upon what 

 little they had saved lived near me in Aim Amha. Three of them^ 

 however (Hadjji Ohmed, Mahudee, and the Indian boy), were 

 induced to attempt a passage to the sea-coast. The Kanlah they 

 accompanied was attacked on the eastern hank of the Hawash by 

 the Takalee tribe. The Indian boy was slain, but Hadjji Ohmed 

 and Mahudee, being mounted, fled different ways ; the former 

 fortunately found protection and shelter for more than a month 

 with Omah Batta's sub-division of the Sidee Ahbreu tribe, whilst 

 Mahudee contrived to reach a much more distant portion of Ada], 

 the country of Chur-Chur, on the road to Hurrah from Shoa. Here 

 he also remained several weeks, receiving the greatest attention 

 and kindness, and finally was restored, as was also Hadjji Ohmed, 

 to the Negoos of Shoa, who rewarded their Adal entertainers for 

 their hospitality to British subjects. 



It may be naturally supposed that the author of the " Highlands 

 of Ethiopia" was ignorant of these facts, but this is impossible, 

 for Mahudee, who had visited Chur-Chur, was reinstated in his 

 situation as horsekeeper to Major Harris himself, in return for the 

 interesting information it was supposed he could give of the little • 

 known country where he had been living. 



