twenty-five; they were, Cameron and his European servants, the Basle
mission, the Scottish mission, the missionaries of the London Society
for the Conversion of the Jews, and some adventurers.

In 1855 Dr. Krapf, accompanied by Mr. Flad, entered Abyssinia as
pioneers for a mission which Bishop Gobat desired to establish in
that country. The lay missionaries he intended to send were to be
workmen, who would receive a small salary, if necessary, but were
supposed to support themselves by their work: they were also to
open schools, and seize every opportunity to preach the Word of
God. Mr. Flad made several journeys backwards and forwards, and,
at the time of the first trouble that befell the Europeans since
the beginning of Theodore's reign, the lay missionaries, who had
been joined by a few adventurers,--the whole of them better known
by natives and Europeans under the name of the "Gaffat people" (on
account of the name of the village they usually resided in), amounted
to eight. Mr. Flad had some time previously abandoned the Basle
Mission for the London Mission for the Conversion of the Jews.

The "Gaffat people" played an important part in all the transactions
that, from 1863, took place between his Abyssinian Majesty and the
Europeans residing in the country. Their position was not an enviable
one; they had not only to please his Majesty, but, in order to keep
themselves free from imprisonment or chains, to forestall his wishes,
and to keep his fickle nature always interested in their work by
devising some new toy suited to please his childish love for novelty.
On their first arrival in the country they did their best to fulfil
the instructions of their patron, the Bishop of Jerusalem. But on
Theodore learning that these men were able workmen, he sent for
them one day and told them, "I do not want teachers in my country,