They are coming up by the Salt Plain. Why did
they not take a better road? The one by the Salt Plain is very
unhealthy."
Flad explained to him that for troops arriving from India, that
road was the best, as they would in three or four days reach the
highlands of Agam. Theodore said, "We are making roads with great
difficulty; for them it will only be play to make roads everywhere.
It seems to me that it is the will of God that they should come.
If He who is above does not kill me, none will kill me, and if He
says, 'You must die,' none can save me: remember the history of
Hezekiah and Sennacherib." Theodore appeared very calm and composed
during that conversation. Two days afterwards he said to some of
his workmen, "I long for the day I shall have the pleasure of seeing
a disciplined European army. I am like Simeon; he was old, but
before he died he rejoiced his heart by holding the Saviour in his
arms. I am old, too; but I hope God will spare me to see them before
I die. My soldiers are nothing compared to a disciplined army,
where thousands obey the command of one man." Evidently he still
entertained some vague hope that the coming event might turn to his
advantage, as on another occasion he said to Mr. Waldmeier, "We
have a prophecy in our country that a European king will meet an
Abyssinian one, and that afterwards a king will reign in Abyssinia
greater than any before him.
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