r m } 
CHAPTER VIII. 
From the preceding narrative of affairs it will appear, that, on 
my former jom'ney * I had entertained an erroneous opinion re- 
specting the character of the Ras, as, at that time, I conceived 
that he owed his elevation more to his cunning than to his 
strength of character/* In this I was undoubtedly mistaken ; 
since he is distinguished still more for his intrepidity and firmness 
than by the policy with which he has uniformly ruled the country 
under his command ; having been successfully engaged in up- 
wards of forty battles, and having evinced on these occasions 
even too great a disregard of his own personal safety in action. 
At the time of Mr. Bruce's arrival in the country, in 1770, Ras 
Welled Selasse was a young man of some consequence about the 
court,t so that, considering him at that time to have been three 
or four and twenty, his age must, at the period of my last visit 
to the country, have amounted to about sixty-four ; a point some- 
what difh cult of proof from the extreme delicacy which existed of 
making any inquiries of this description among his followers. 
The first situation he held of aiiy importance, and which un- 
doubtedly led to his greatness, was that of Balgudda, or protector 
of the salt caravans, which come up from the plains of AssaDurwa ; 
* Vide Vol. III. of Lord Valentia's Travels, p. 155. 
t Vide Mr, Bruce s Travels, Vol, IV. p. 430. 
