226 INTENDED MURDER. 



Gobard, suiting the action to the word, by sawing 

 away at his own throat with the edge of his open 

 hand, and adding, "that then all the letters given 

 to him by the Embassy in Shoa, would be taken 

 from him and carried to Aden by Mahomed 

 Murkee," the man whom he had passed upon 

 me, for Mahomed Allee. It was certainly not 

 very agreeable, to be thus made the confidant 

 of an intended murder, especially when the 

 victim was a man I was inclined to think well 

 of, not judging from the little I had seen of 

 him myself, but from the recommendations he 

 had received from the missionaries, Messrs. 

 Isenberg and Krapf, whom he took up on their 

 first visit to Shoa, and also from the com- 

 mendations I had heard bestowed upon him 

 by Mr. Cruttenden in Taj our ah. I determined 

 therefore that, at all risks, I would exonerate 

 myself from becoming an accomplice before the 

 fact, should the assassination take place, by re- 

 vealing the whole design to Mahomed Allee, and 

 also exert my influence with Lohitu to procure for 

 him a safe passage through the country of the 

 Debenee. It was too late to do anything this 

 night, although Mahomed Allee and his friends 

 were still squatting, a very few yards in front of my 

 hut. Fearing, however, that some attempt was 

 about to be made upon the party by the friends of 

 Ohmed Mahomed, who were also gathering into a 



