before I die!"

Another of those fearful displays of barbarian plunder and havoc took
place at the end of September. Twenty thousand warriors, headed by the
king, made an inroad on the Galla. Those unfortunate people were so little
prepared, that they seem to have been slaughtered without resistance.
Between four and five thousand were butchered, and forty-three thousand
head of cattle were driven off. A thousand captives, chiefly women and
children, were marched in triumph to the capital; but they were soon
liberated, apparently on the remonstrance of the British mission.

But a terrible disaster was to befall the palace and the people. The
dweller amongst mountains must be always exposed to their dilapidation;
and a season of unusual rain, continuing to a much later period than usual,
produced an earth-avalanche.

"As the evening of an eventful night (Dec. 6th) closed in, not a
single breath of wind disturbed the thick fog which brooded over the
mountain. A sensible difference was perceptible in the atmosphere;
but the rain again began to descend, and for hours pelted like the
dischage of a waterspout. Towards morning, a violent thunder storm
careered along the crest of the range, and every rock and cranny
re-echoed from the crash of the thunder. Deep darkness again settled
on the mountains, and a heavy rumbling noise, like the passage of
artillery wheels, as followed by the shrill cry of despair. The earth,
saturated with moisture, had slidden from their steep slopes, houses
and cottages were engulfed in the debris, or shattered to fragments
by the descending masses, and daylight presented a strange scene of
ruin. Perched on the apex of the conical peak, the palace buildings
were now stripped of their palisades, or overwhelmed: the roads along