" He then seized the salt and mules, sent all the merchants
into an empty house, had it surrounded with dry wood, put guards
at the door, and set fire to it.
The peasants of Gahinte, to whom Theodore offered an amnesty,
declined to accept it; on three occasions he issued a proclamation
offering them a free pardon should they return to him. At last,
however, they sent him some priests to see what terms he would make;
he received the priests well, and told them that he would not enter
Gahinte: he only required a few supplies; but to prove to him their
sincerity they must send from each village a person of influence
to reside in his camp until he left Begemder. Luckily for them, the
peasants declined to comply with his demands; Theodore was too
prudent to venture into their valleys, and contented himself by
plundering at a short distance from his camp; burning alive, before
he left, a few poor wretches who had been simple enough to rely on
the faith of his proclamation.
Theodore arrived at the foot of the steep ascent that leads from
Begemder to Checheo on the 22nd of November. Up to that spot the
road was not bad; but now an almost perpendicular height stood
before him, and he was obliged to blast enormous rocks, cut a road
through basalt, to enable him to bring his waggons, guns, and mortars
on the Zebite plains above.
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