Andraos gave in; and having been duly anointed
and consecrated Bishop of Abyssinia, under the title of Abouna
Salama, with all the pomps and ceremonies proper to the occasion,
started shortly afterwards in an English man-of-war, reaching
Massowah in the beginning of 1841.
Dejatch Oubie received him with great honours; added numerous
villages and large districts to those the hereditary possession of
the bishops, and made every endeavour to attach him to his cause.
He succeeded even beyond his expectations. Abouna Salama, instead
of needing the persuasions of Oubie to join him in the overthrow
of Ras Ali, proposed the attempt. Through his influence Oubie
concluded an alliance with Goscho Beru, the ruler of Godjam. The
two chiefs agreed to march on Debra Tabor, attack Ras Ali, wrest
from him the power he had usurped, and divide the government of
Abyssinia, confirming the Bishop's alleged rights to a third of the
revenue of the land.
Oubie and Goscho Beru kept to their engagements, offered battle
to Ras Ali near Debra Tabor, and utterly routed his army; Ras Ali
with difficulty escaping from the field with a small body of well-mounted
followers. It so happened, however, that Oubie celebrated his
success in potations too many and deep. Some of the fugitive soldiers
of Ras Ali accidentally entered Oubie's tent, found their master's
conqueror in the condition known as dead drunk, and availed themselves
of his helpless condition to make him their prisoner.
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