■294 
C H E L I C U T. 
descended the precipice before mentioned into the plains inha- 
bited by the Galla. This invasion of their territory produced 
dreadful alarm throughout the country, and Gojee, on the same 
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 Ma- 
homed Kolasse and grandson of Hamed) was a young and hand- 
some 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 ofAngote. 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. This 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 preda- 
tory excursions. 
In the course of these desperate expeditions, scenes of barba- 
rity were occasionally said to have occurred, which appear 
strongly to corroborate an account given by Mr. Bruce respect- 
ing a circumstance that he had witnessed in travelling from 
Axum to the Tacazze,* which, from being too generally discre- 
dited, 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. 
* Vide Vol. IV. pp. 333,4. 
