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Volume 3, by James Bruce

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Title: Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile. Volume 3
       In the years 1769, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773

Author: James Bruce

Release Date: April 10, 2017 [EBook #54531]

Language: English

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TRAVELS

TO DISCOVER THE

SOURCE OF THE NILE,

In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773.

IN FIVE VOLUMES.

BY JAMES BRUCE OF KINNAIRD, ESQ. F.R.S.

[Illustration: _Heath Sc_]

VOL. III.

  _Nilus in extremum fugit perterritus orbem_,
  _Occuluitque caput, quod adhuc latet._----
                          OVID. Metam.

  EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY J. RUTHVEN, FOR G. G. J. AND J. ROBINSON,
  PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

  M.DCC.XC.




  CONTENTS

  OF THE

  THIRD VOLUME.


  BOOK V.

  ACCOUNT OF MY JOURNEY FROM MASUAH TO GONDAR--TRANSACTIONS
  THERE--MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF
  THE ABYSSINIANS.


  CHAP. I.

  _Transactions at Masuah and Arkeeko_,                              1


  CHAP. II.

  _Directions to Travellers for preserving Health--Diseases
      of the Country--Music--Trade_, &c. _of Masuah--Conferences
      with the Naybe_,                                              31


  CHAP. III.

  _Journey from Arkeeko over the Mountain Taranta, to Dixan_,       64


  CHAP. IV.

  _Journey from Dixan to Adowa, Capital of Tigré_,                  93


  CHAP. V.

  _Arrive at Adowa--Reception there--Visit Fremona--And Ruins
      of Axum--Arrive at Siré_,                                    118


  CHAP. VI.

  _Journey from Siré to Addergey, and Transactions there_,         152


  CHAP. VII.

  _Journey over Lamalmon to Gondar_,                               172


  CHAP. VIII.

  _Reception at Gondar--Triumphal Entry of the King--The
      Author’s first Audience_,                                    197


  CHAP. IX.

  _Transactions at Gondar_,                                        233


  CHAP. X.

  _Geographical Division of Abyssinia into Provinces_,             248


  CHAP. XI.

  _Various Customs in Abyssinia, similar to those in Persia_,
      &c.--_A bloody Banquet described_, &c.                       262


  CHAP. XII.

  _State of Religion--Circumcision--Excision_, &c.                 313


  BOOK VI.

  FIRST ATTEMPT TO DISCOVER THE SOURCE OF THE NILE
  FRUSTRATED--A SUCCESSFUL JOURNEY THITHER, WITH
  A FULL ACCOUNT OF EVERY THING RELATING TO THAT
  CELEBRATED RIVER.


  CHAP. I.

  _The Author made Governor of Ras el Feel_,                       359


  CHAP. II.

  _Battle of Banja--Conspiracy against Michael--The Author
      retires to Emfras--Description of Gondar, Emfras, and
      Lake Tzana_,                                                 373


  CHAP. III.

  _The King encamps at Lamgué--Transactions there--Passes
      the Nile, and encamps at Derdera--The Author follows
      the King_,                                                   389


  CHAP. IV.

  _Pass the River Gomara--Remarkable Accident there--Arrive at
      Dara--Visit the Great Cataract of Alata--Leave Dara, and
      resume our Journey_,                                         405

  CHAP. V.

  _Pass the Nile, and encamp at Tsoomwa--Arrive
      at Derdera--Alarm on approaching the Army--Join
      the King at Karcagna_,                                       432

  CHAP. VI.

  _King’s Army retreats towards Gondar--Memorable Passage of
      the Nile--Dangerous Situation of the Army--Retreat of
      Kefla Yasous--Battle of Limjour--Unexpected Peace with
      Fasil--Arrival at Gondar_,                                   446

  CHAP. VII.

  _King and Army retreat to Tigrè--Interesting Events following
      that Retreat--The Body of Joas is found--Socinios, a new
      King, proclaimed at Gondar_,                                 470

  CHAP. VIII.

  _Second Journey to discover the Source of the Nile--Favourable
      turn of the King’s Affairs in Tigrè--We fall in with
      Fasil’s Army at Bamba_,                                      495

  CHAP. IX.

  _Interview with Fasil--Transactions in the Camp_,                509

  CHAP. X.

  _Leave Bamba, and continue our Journey Southward--Fall in
      with Fasil’s Pagan Galla--Encamp on the Kelti_,              532

  CHAP. XI.

  _Continue our Journey--Fall in with a Party of Galla--Prove
      our Friends--Pass the Nile--Arrive at Goutto, and visit
      the first Cataract_,                                         550

  CHAP. XII.

  _Leave Goutto--Mountains of the Moon--Roguery of Woldo our
      Guide--Arrive at the Source of the Nile_,                    577

  CHAP. XIII.

  _Attempts of the Ancients to discover the Source of the
      Nile--No discovery made in latter Times--No Evidence
      of the Jesuits having arrived there--Kircher’s Account
      fabulous--Discovery completely made by the Author_,          603

  CHAP. XIV.

  _Description of the Sources of the Nile--Of Geesh--Accounts
      of its several Cataracts--Course from its Rise to the
      Mediterranean_,                                              632

  CHAP. XV.

  _Various names of this River--Ancient Opinion concerning
      the Cause of its Inundation--Real Manner by which it
      is effected--Remarkable Disposition of the Peninsula
      of Africa_,                                                  654

  CHAP. XVI.

  _Egypt not the Gift of the Nile--Ancient Opinion
      refuted--Modern Opinion contrary to Proof and Experience_,   672

  CHAP. XVII.

  _The same Subject continued--Nilometer what--How divided
      and measured_,                                               689

  CHAP. XVIII.

  _Inquiry about the Possibility of changing the Course of
      the Nile--Cause of the Nucta_,                               712

  CHAP. XIX.

  _Kind reception among the Agows--Their Number, Trade,
      Character_, &c.                                              726

[Illustration: _PLAN_

_of_

The Island

_and_

Harbour

_of_

MASUAH]




TRAVELS

TO DISCOVER

THE SOURCE OF THE NILE.




BOOK V.

ACCOUNT OF MY JOURNEY FROM MASUAH TO GONDAR--TRANSACTIONS
THERE--MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ABYSSINIANS.




CHAP. I.

_Transactions at Masuah and Arkeeko._


Masuah, which means the port or harbour of the Shepherds, is a small
island immediately on the Abyssinian shore, having an excellent
harbour, and water deep enough for ships of any size to the very edge
of the island: here they may ride in the utmost security, from whatever
point, or with whatever degree of strength, the wind blows. As it takes
its modern, so it received its ancient name from its harbour. It was
called by the Greeks _Sebasticum Os_, from the capacity of its port,
which is distributed into three divisions. The island itself is very
small, scarce three quarters of a mile in length, and about half that
in breadth, one-third occupied, by houses, one by cisterns to receive
the rain-water, and the last is reserved for burying the dead.

Masuah, as we have already observed, was one of those towns on the
west of the Red Sea that followed the conquest of Arabia Felix by
Sinan Basha, under Selim emperor of Constantinople. At that time it
was a place of great commerce, possessing a share of the Indian trade
in common with the other ports of the Red Sea near the mouth of the
Indian Ocean. It had a considerable quantity of exports brought to it
from a great tract of mountainous country behind it, in all ages very
unhospitable, and almost inaccessible to strangers. Gold and ivory,
elephants and buffaloes hides, and, above all, slaves, of much greater
value, as being more sought after for their personal qualities than any
other sort, who had the misfortune to be reduced to that condition,
made the principal articles of exportation from this port. Pearls,
considerable for size, water, or colour, were found all along its
coast. The great convenience of commodious riding for vessels, joined
to these valuable articles of trade, had overcome the inconvenience of
want of water, the principal necessary of life, to which it had been
subjected from its creation.

Masuah continued a place of much resort as long as commerce flourished,
but it fell into obscurity very suddenly under the oppression of the
Turks, who put the finishing-hand to the ruin of the India trade in the
Red Sea, begun some years before by the discovery of the Cape of Good
Hope, and the settlements made by the Portuguese on the continent of
India.

The first government of Masuah under the Turks was by a basha sent from
Constantinople, and from thence, for a time, the conquest of Abyssinia
was attempted, always with great confidence, though never with any
degree of success; so that, losing its value as a garrison, and, at the
same time, as a place of trade, it was thought no longer worth while to
keep up so expensive an establishment as that of a bashalik.

The principal auxiliary, when the Turks conquered the place, was a
tribe of Mahometans called Belowee, shepherds inhabiting the coast of
the Red Sea under the mountains of the Habab, about lat. 14°. In reward
for this assistance, the Turks gave their chief the civil government of
Masuah and its territory, under the title of Naybe of Masuah; and, upon
the basha’s being withdrawn, this officer remained in fact sovereign of
the place, though, to save appearances, he held it of the grand signior
for an annual tribute, upon receiving a firman from the Ottoman Porte.

The body of Janizaries, once established there in garrison, were left
in the island, and their pay continued to them from Constantinople.
These marrying the women of the country, their children succeeded
them in their place and pay as Janizaries; but being now, by their
intermarriages, Moors, and natives of Masuah, they became of course
relations to each other, and always subject to the influence of the
Naybe.

The Naybe finding the great distance he was from his protectors, the
Turks in Arabia, on the other side of the Red Sea, whose garrisons
were every day decaying in strength, and for the most part reduced;
sensible, too, how much he was in the power of the Abyssinians, his
enemies and nearest neighbours, began to think that it was better to
secure himself at home, by making some advances to those in whose
power he was. Accordingly it was agreed between them, that one half of
the customs should be paid by him to the king of Abyssinia, who was
to suffer him to enjoy his government unmolested; for Masuah, as I
have before said, is absolutely destitute of water; neither can it be
supplied with any sort of provisions but from the mountainous country
of Abyssinia.

The same may be said of Arkeeko, a large town on the bottom of the bay
of Masuah, which has indeed water, but labours under the same scarcity
of provisions; for the tract of flat land behind both, called Samhar,
is a perfect desert, and only inhabited from the month of November to
April, by a variety of wandering tribes called Tora, Hazorta, Shiho,
and Doba, and these carry all their cattle to the Abyssinian side of
the mountains when the rains fall there, which is the opposite six
months. When the season is thus reversed, they and their cattle are no
longer in Samhar, or the dominion of the Naybe, but in the hands of
the Abyssinians, especially the governor of Tigré and Baharnagash, who
thereby, without being at the expence and trouble of marching against
Masuah with an army, can make a line round it, and starve all at
Arkeeko and Masuah, by prohibiting any sort of provisions to be carried
thither from their side. In the course of this history we have seen
this practised with great success more than once, especially against
the Naybe Musa in the reign of Yasous I.

The friendship of Abyssinia once secured, and the power of the Turks
declining daily in Arabia, the Naybe began by degrees to withdraw
himself from paying tribute at all to the basha of Jidda, to whose
government his had been annexed by the porte. He therefore received the
firman as a mere form, and returned trifling presents, but no tribute;
and in troublesome times, or a weak government happening in Tigrè, he
withdrew himself equally from paying any consideration, either to the
basha in name of tribute, or to the king of Abyssinia, as share of the
customs. This was precisely his situation when I arrived in Abyssinia.
A great revolution, as we have already seen, had happened in that
kingdom, of which Michael had been the principal author. When he was
called to Gondar and made minister there, Tigré remained drained of
troops, and without a governor.

Nor was the new king, Hatzè Hannes, whom Michael had placed upon the
throne after the murder of Joas his predecessor, a man likely to
infuse vigour into the new government. Hannes was past seventy at his
accession, and Michael his minister lame, so as scarcely to be able
to stand, and within a few years of eighty. The Naybe, a man of about
forty-eight, judged of the debility of the Abyssinian government by
those circumstances, but in this he was mistaken.

Already Michael had intimated to him, that, the next campaign, he would
lay waste Arkeeko and Masuah, till they should be as desert as the
wilds of Samhar; and as he had been all his life very remarkable for
keeping his promises of this kind, the stranger merchants had many
of them fled to Arabia, and others to Dobarwa[1], a large town in the
territories of the Baharnagash. Notwithstanding this, the Naybe had not
shewn any public mark of fear, nor sent one penny either to the king of
Abyssinia or the basha of Jidda.

On the other hand, the basha was not indifferent to his own interest;
and, to bring about the payment, he had made an agreement with an
officer of great credit with the Sherriffe of Mecca. This man was
originally an Abyssinian slave, his name Metical Aga, who by his
address had raised himself to the post of Selictar, or _sword-bearer_,
to the Sherriffe; and, in fact, he was absolute in all his dominions.
He was, moreover, a great friend of Michael governor of Tigré, and had
supplied him with large stores of arms and ammunition for his last
campaign against the king at Gondar.

The basha had employed Metical Aga to inform Michael of the treatment
he had received from the Naybe, desiring his assistance to force him
to pay the tribute, and at the same time intimated to the Naybe, that
he not only had done so, but the very next year would give orders
throughout Arabia to arrest the goods and persons of such Mahometan
merchants as should come to Arabia, either from motives of religion or
trade. With this message he had sent the firman from Constantinople,
desiring the return both of tribute and presents.

Mahomet Gibberti, Metical Aga’s servant, had come in the boat with
me; but Abdelcader, who carried the message and firman, and who was
governor of the island of Dahalac, had sailed at same time with me, and
had been spectator of the honour which was paid my ship when she left
the harbour of Jidda.

Running straight over to Masuah, Abdelcader had proclaimed what he had
seen with great exaggeration, according to the custom of his country;
and reported that a prince was coming, a very near relation to the king
of England, who was no trader, but came only to visit countries and
people.

It was many times, and oft agitated (as we knew afterwards) between
the Naybe and his counsellors, what was to be done with this prince.
Some were for the most expeditious, and what has long been the most
customary method of treating strangers in Masuah, to put them to death,
and divide every thing they had among the garrison. Others insisted,
that they should stay and see what letters I had from Arabia to
Abyssinia, lest this might prove an addition to the storm just ready to
break upon them on the part of Metical Aga and Michael Suhul.

But Achmet, the Naybe’s nephew, said, it was folly to doubt but that a
man, under the description I was, would have protections of every kind;
but whether I had or not, that my very rank should protect me in every
place where there was any government whatever; it might do even among
banditti and thieves inhabiting woods and mountains; that a sufficient
quantity of strangers blood had been already shed at Masuah, for the
purpose of rapine, and he believed a curse and poverty had followed
it; that it was impossible for those who had heard the firing of those
ships to conjecture whether I had letters to Abyssinia or not; that
it would be better to consider whether I was held in esteem by the
captains of those ships, as half of the guns they fired in compliment
to me, was sufficient to destroy them all, and lay Arkeeko and Masuah
as desolate as Michael Suhul had threatened to do; nor could that
vengeance cost any of the ships, coming next year to Jidda, a day’s
sailing out of their way; and there being plenty of water when they
reached Arkeeko at the south-west of the bay, all this destruction
might be effected in one afternoon, and repeated once a-year without
difficulty, danger, or expence, while they were watering.

Achmet, therefore, declared it was his resolution that I should be
received with marks of consideration, till upon inspecting my letters,
and conversing with me, they might see what sort of man I was, and upon
what errand I was come; but even if I was a trader, and no priest or
Frank, such as came to disturb the peace of the country, he would not
then consent to any personal injury being done me; if I was indeed a
priest, or one of those Franks, _Gehennim_, they might send me to hell
if they chose; but he, for his part, would not, even then have any
thing to do with it.

Before our vessel appeared, they came to these conclusions; and though
I have supposed that hoisting the colours and saluting me with guns had
brought me into this danger, on the other hand it may be said, perhaps
with greater reason, they were the means Providence kindly used to
save my life in that slaughter-house of strangers.

Achmet’s father had been Naybe before, and, of course, the sovereignty,
upon the present incumbent’s death, was to devolve on him. And what
made this less invidious, the sons of the present Naybe had all been
swept away by the small-pox; so that Achmet was really, at any rate,
to be considered as his son and successor. Add to this, the Naybe had
received a stroke of the palsy, which deprived him of the use of one of
his sides, and greatly impeded his activity, unless in his schemes of
doing ill; but I could not perceive, when intending mischief, that he
laboured under any infirmity. All this gave Achmet sovereign influence,
and it was therefore agreed the rest should be only spectators, and
that my fate should be left to him.

Achmet was about twenty-five years of age, or perhaps younger; his
stature near five-feet four; he was feebly made, a little bent forward
or stooping, thin, long-faced, long-necked; small, but tolerably
well-limbed, agile and active enough in his motions, though of a
figure by no means athletic; he had a broad forehead, thick black
eye-brows, black eyes, an aquiline nose, thin lips, and fine teeth;
and, what is very rare in that country, and much desired, a thick
curled beard. This man was known to be very brave in his person, but
exceedingly prone to anger. A near relation to the Baharnagash having
said something impertinent to him while he was altering the pin of his
tent, which his servant had not placed to his mind, in a passion he
struck the Abyssinian with a wooden mallet, and killed him on the spot
and although this was in the Abyssinian territory, by getting nimbly
on horseback, he arrived at Arkeeko without being intercepted, though
closely pursued almost to the town.

It was the 19th of September 1769 when we arrived at Masuah, very much
tired of the sea, and desirous to land. But, as it was evening, I
thought it adviseable to sleep on board all night, that we might have
a whole day (as the first is always a busy one) before us, and receive
in the night any intelligence from friends, who might not choose to
venture to come openly to see us in the day, at least before the
determination of the Naybe had been heard concerning us.

Mahomet Gibberti, a man whom we had perfectly secured, and who was
fully instructed in our suspicions as to the Naybe, and the manner we
had resolved to behave to him, went ashore that evening; and, being
himself an Abyssinian, having connections in Masuah, dispatched that
same night to Adowa, capital of Tigrè, those letters which I knew were
to be of the greatest importance; giving our friend Janni (a Greek,
confidential servant of Michael, governor of Tigrè) advice that we
were arrived, had letters of Metical Aga to the Naybe and Ras Michael;
as also Greek letters to him from the Greek patriarch of Cairo, a
duplicate of which I sent by the bearer. We wrote likewise to him in
Greek, that we were afraid of the Naybe, and begged him to send to us
instantly some man of confidence, who might protect us, or at least be
a spectator of what should befal us. We, besides, instructed him to
advise the court of Abyssinia, that we were friends of Metical Aga, had
letters from him to the king and the Ras, and distrusted the Naybe of
Masuah.

Mahomet Gibberti executed this commission in the instant, with all the
punctuality of an honest man, who was faithful to the instructions of
his master, and was independent of every person else. He applied to
Mahomet Adulai, (a person kept by Ras Michael as a spy upon the Naybe,
and in the same character by Metical Aga); and Adulai, that very night,
dispatched a trusty messenger, with many of whom he was constantly
provided. This runner, charged with our dispatches, having a friend and
correspondent of his own among the Shiho, passed, by ways best known to
himself, and was safely escorted by his own friends till the fifth day,
when he arrived at the customhouse of Adowa, and there delivered our
dispatches to our friend Janni.

At Cairo, as I have already mentioned, I met with my friend father
Christopher, who introduced me to the Greek patriarch, Mark. This
patriarch had told me, that there were of his communion, to the number
of about twenty, then in Abyssinia; some of them were good men and
becoming rich in the way of trade; some of them had fled from the
severity of the Turks, after having been detected by them in intimacy
with Mahometan women; but all of them were in a great degree of credit
at the court of Abyssinia, and possessing places under government
greatly beyond his expectation. To these he wrote letters, in the
manner of bulls from the pope, enjoining them, with regard to me,
to obey his orders strictly, the particulars of which I shall have
occasion to speak of afterwards.

Janni, then at Adowa in Tigré, was a man of the first character for
good life and morals. He had served two kings of Abyssinia with great
reputation, and Michael had appointed him to the customhouse at Adowa,
to superintend the affairs of the revenue there, while he himself was
occupied at Gondar. To him the patriarch gave his first injunctions as
to watching the motives of the Naybe, and preventing any ill-usage from
him, before the notice of my arrival at Masuah should reach Abyssinia.

Mahomet Adulai dispatched his messenger, and Mahomet Gibberti repaired
that same night to the Naybe at Arkeeko, with such diligence that
lulled him asleep as to any prior intelligence, which otherwise he
might have thought he was charged to convey to Tigrè; and Mahomet
Gibberti, in his conversation that night with Achmet, adroitly
confirmed him in all the ideas he himself had first started in council
with the Naybe. He told him the manner I had been received at Jidda,
my protection at Constantinople, and the firman which I brought from
the grand signior, the power of my countrymen in the Red Sea and India,
and my personal friendship with Metical Aga. He moreover insinuated,
that the coasts of the Red Sea would be in a dangerous situation if
any thing happened to me, as both the sherriffe of Mecca and emperor
of Constantinople would themselves, perhaps, not interfere, but would
most certainly consider the place, where such disobedience should be
shewn to their commands, as in a state of anarchy, and therefore to be
abandoned to the just correction of the English, if injured.

On the 20th, a person came from Mahomet Gibberti to conduct me on
shore. The Naybe himself was still at Arkeeko, and Achmet therefore had
come down to receive the duties of the merchandise on board the vessel
which brought me. There were two elbow chairs placed in the middle
of the market-place. Achmet sat on one of them, while the several
officers opened the bales and packages before him; the other chair on
his left hand was empty.

He was dressed all in white, in a long Banian habit of muslin, and a
close-bodied frock reaching to his ancles, much like the white frock
and petticoat the young children wear in England. This species of
dress did not, in any way, suit Achmet’s shape or size; but, it seems,
he meant to be in gala. As soon as I came in sight of him, I doubled
my pace; Mahomet Gibberti’s servant whispered to me, not to kiss his
hand; which indeed I intended to have done. Achmet stood up, just as I
arrived within arm’s length of him; when we touched each other’s hands,
carried our fingers to our lips, then laid our hands cross our breasts;
I pronounced the salutation of the inferior _Salam Alicum!_ Peace be
between us; to which he answered immediately, _Alicum Salam!_ There is
peace between us. He pointed to the chair, which I declined; but he
obliged me to sit down.

In these countries, the greater honour that is shewn you at first
meeting, the more considerable present is expected. He made a sign to
bring coffee directly, as the immediate offering of meat or drink is an
assurance your life is not in danger. He began with an air that seemed
rather serious: “We have expected you here some time ago, but thought
you had changed your mind, and was gone to India.”--“Since sailing from
Jidda, I have been in Arabia Felix, the Gulf of Mocha, and crossed last
from Loheia.”--“Are you not afraid,” said he, “so thinly attended,
to venture upon these long and dangerous voyages.”--“The countries
where I have been are either subject to the emperor of Constantinople,
whose firman I have now the honour to present you, or to the regency
of Cairo, and port of Janizaries--here are their letters--or to the
sherriffe of Mecca. To you, Sir, I present the sherriffe’s letters;
and, besides these, one from Metical Aga your friend, who, depending on
your character, assured me this alone would be sufficient to preserve
me from ill-usage so long as I did no wrong: as for the dangers of the
road from banditti and lawless persons, my servants are indeed few, but
they are veteran soldiers, tried and exercised from their infancy in
arms, and I value not the superior number of cowardly and disorderly
persons.”

He then returned me the letters, saying, “You will give these to the
Naybe to-morrow; I will keep Metical’s letter, as it is to me, and will
read it at home.” He put it accordingly in his bosom; and our coffee
being done, I rose to take my leave, and was presently wet to the skin
by deluges of orange flower-water showered upon me from the right and
left, by two of his attendants, from silver bottles.

A very decent house had been provided; and I had no sooner entered,
than a large dinner was sent us by Achmet, with a profusion of lemons,
and good fresh water, now become one of the greatest delicacies in
life; and, instantly after, our baggage was all sent unopened; with
which I was very well-pleased, being afraid they might break something
in my clock, telescopes, or quadrant, by the violent manner in which
they satisfy their curiosity.

Late at night I received a visit from Achmet; he was then in an
undress, his body quite naked, a barracan thrown loosely about him; he
had a pair of calico drawers; a white coul, or cotton cap, upon his
head, and had no sort of arms whatever. I rose up to meet him, and
thank him for his civility in sending my baggage; and when I observed,
besides, that it was my duty to wait upon him, rather than suffer him
to give himself this trouble, he took me by the hand, and we sat down
on two cushions together.

“All that you mentioned,” said he, “is perfectly good and well; but
there are questions that I am going to ask you which are of consequence
to yourself. When you arrived at Jidda, we heard it was a great man,
a son or brother of a king, going to India. This was communicated to
me, and to the Naybe, by people that saw every day the respect paid to
you by the captains of the ships at Jidda. Metical Aga, in his private
letter delivered to the Naybe last night by Mahomet Gibberti, among
many unusual expressions, said, The day that any accident befals this
person will be looked upon by me always as the most unfortunate of my
life. Now, you are a Christian, and he is a Mussulman, and these are
expressions of a particular regard not used by the one when writing of
the other. He says, moreover, that, in your firman, the grand signior
stiles you Bey-Adzé, or Most Noble. Tell me, therefore, and tell me
truly, Are you a prince, son, brother, or nephew of a king? Are you
banished from your own country; and what is it that you seek in our’s,
exposing yourself to so many difficulties and dangers?”

“I am neither son, nor brother of a king. I am a private Englishman. If
you, Sidi Achmet, saw my prince, the eldest, or any son of the king of
England, you would then be able to form a juster idea of them, and that
would for ever hinder you from confounding them with common men like
me. If they were to choose to appear in this part of the world, this
little sea would be too narrow for their ships: Your sun, now so hot,
would be darkened by their sails; and when they fired their terrible
wide-mouthed cannon, not an Arab would think himself safe on the
distant mountains, while the houses on the shore would totter and fall
to the ground as if shaken to pieces by an earthquake. I am a servant
to that king, and an inferior one in rank; only worthy of his attention
from my affection to him and his family, in which I do not acknowledge
any superior. Yet so far your correspondents say well: My ancestors
were the kings of the country in which I was born, and to be ranked
among the greatest and most glorious that ever bore the crown and title
of King. This is the truth, and nothing but the truth. I may now, I
hope, without offence, ask, To what does all this information tend?”

“To your safety,” said he, “and to your honour, as long as I command
in Masuah;--to your certain death and destruction if you go among
the Abyssinians; a people without faith, covetous, barbarous, and
in continual war, of which nobody yet has been able to discover the
reason. But of this another time.”

“Be it so,” said I. “I would now speak one word in secret to you, (upon
which every body was ordered out of the room): All that you have told
me this evening I already know; ask me not how: but, to convince you
that it is truth, I now thank you for the humane part you took against
these bloody intentions others had of killing and plundering me on my
arrival, upon Abdelcader governor of Dahalac’s information that I was a
prince, because of the honour that the English ships paid me, and that
I was loaded with gold.”

Ullah Acbar! (in great surprise) “Why, you was in the middle of the sea
when that passed.”

“Scarcely advanced so far, I believe; but your advice was wise, for
a large English ship will wait for me all this winter in Jidda, till
I know what reception I meet here, or in Abyssinia. It is a 64 gun
ship; its name, the Lion; its captain, Thomas Price. I mention these
particulars, that you may inquire into the truth. Upon the first news
of a disaster he would come here, and destroy Arkeeko, and this island,
in a day. But this is not my business with you at present.

“It is a very proper custom, established all over the east, that
strangers should make an acknowledgement for the protection they
receive, and trouble they are to occasion. I have a present for the
Naybe, whose temper and disposition I know perfectly,--(Ullah Acbar!
repeats Achmet).--I have likewise a present for you, and for the Kaya
of the Janizaries; all these I shall deliver the first day I see the
Naybe; but I was taught, in a particular manner, to repose upon you as
my friend, and a small, but separate acknowledgement, is due to you in
that character. I was told, that your agent at Jidda had been inquiring
everywhere among the India ships, and at the broker of that nation,
for a pair of English pistols, for which he offered a very high price;
though, in all probability, those you would get would have been but
ordinary, and much used; now I have brought you this separate present,
a pair of excellent workmanship; here they are: my doubt, which gave
rise to this long private conversation, was, whether you would take
them home yourself; or, if you have a confidential servant that you can
trust, let him take them, so that it be not known; for if the Naybe”----

“I understand every thing that you say, and every thing that you would
say. Though I do not know men’s hearts that I never saw, as you do, I
know pretty well the hearts of those with whom I live. Let the pistols
remain with you, and shew them to nobody till I send you a man to whom
you may say any thing, and he shall go between you and me; for there is
in this place a number of devils, not men; but, _Ullah Kerim_, God is
great. The person that brings you dry dates in an Indian handkerchief,
and an earthen bottle to drink your water out of, give him the pistols.
You may send by him to me any thing you choose. In the mean time, sleep
sound, and fear no evil; but never be persuaded to trust yourself to
the Cafrs of Habesh at Masuah.”

On the 20th of September a female slave came and brought with her the
proper credentials, an Indian handkerchief full of dry dates, and a pot
or bottle of unvarnished potter’s earth, which keeps the water very
cool. I had some doubt upon this change of sex; but the slave, who was
an Abyssinian girl, quickly undeceived me, delivered the dates, and
took away the pistols destined for Achmet, who had himself gone to his
uncle, the Naybe, at Arkeeko.

On the 21st, in the morning, the Naybe came from Arkeeko. The usual
way is by sea; it is about two leagues straight across the bay, but
somewhat more by land. The passage from the main is on the north side
of the island, which is not above a quarter of a mile broad; there is a
large cistern for rain-water on the land-side, where you embark across.
He was poorly attended by three or four servants, miserably mounted,
and about forty naked savages on foot, armed with short lances and
crooked knives.

The drum beat before him all the way from Arkeeko to Masuah. Upon
entering the boat, the drum on the land-side ceased, and those, in
what is called the Castle of Masuah, began. The castle is a small clay
hut, and in it one swivel-gun, which is not mounted, but lies upon the
ground, and is fired always with great trepidation and some danger.
The drums are earthen jars, such as they send butter in to Arabia; the
mouths of which are covered with a skin, so that a stranger, on seeing
two or three of these together, would run a great risk of believing
them to be jars of butter, or pickles, carefully covered with oiled
parchment.

All the procession was in the same stile. The Naybe was dressed in an
old shabby Turkish habit, much too short for him, and seemed to have
been made about the time of Sultan Selim. He wore also upon his head
a Turkish cowke, or high-cap, which scarcely admitted any part of his
head. In this dress, which on him had a truly ridiculous appearance,
he received the caftan, or investiture, of the island of Masuah; and,
being thereby representative of the grand signior, consented that day
to be called Omar Aga, in honour of the commission.

Two standards of white silk, striped with red, were carried before
him to the mosque, from whence he went to his own house to receive
the compliments of his friends. In the afternoon of that day I went
to pay my respects to him, and found him sitting on a large wooden
elbow-chair, at the head of two files of naked savages, who made an
avenue from his chair to the door. He had nothing upon him but a coarse
cotton shirt, so dirty that, it seemed, all pains to clean it again
would be thrown away, and so short that it scarcely reached his knees.
He was very tall and lean, his colour black, had a large mouth and
nose; in place of a beard, a very scanty tuft of grey hairs upon the
point of his chin; large, dull, and heavy eyes; a kind of malicious,
contemptuous, smile on his countenance; he was altogether of a most
stupid and brutal appearance. His character perfectly corresponded
with his figure, for he was a man of mean abilities, cruel to excess,
avaricious, and a great drunkard.

I presented my firman.--The greatest basha in the Turkish empire would
have risen upon seeing it, kissed it, and carried it to his forehead;
and I really expected that Omar Aga, for the day he bore that title,
and received the caftan, would have shewn this piece of respect to his
master. But he did not even receive it into his hand, and pushed it
back to me again, saying, “Do you read it all to me word for word.”--“I
told him it was Turkish; that I had never learned to read a word of
that language.”--“Nor I either,” says he; “and I believe I never
shall.” I then gave him Metical Aga’s letter, the Sherriffe’s, Ali
Bey’s, and the Janizaries letters. He took them all together in both
his hands, and laid them unopened beside him, saying, “You should
have brought a moullah along with you. Do you think I shall read all
these letters? Why, it would take me a month.” And he glared upon me,
with his mouth open, so like an idiot, that it was with the utmost
difficulty I kept my gravity, only answering, “Just as you please; you
know best.”

He affected at first not to understand Arabic; spoke by an interpreter
in the language of Masuah, which is a dialect of Tigré; but seeing I
understood him in this, he spoke Arabic, and spoke it well.

A silence followed this short conversation, and I took the opportunity
to give him his present, with which he did not seem displeased, but
rather that it was below him to tell me so; for, without saying a
word about it, he asked me, where the Abuna of Habesh was? and why he
tarried so long? I said, The wars in Upper Egypt had made the roads
dangerous; and, it was easy to see, Omar longed much to settle accounts
with him.

I took my leave of the Naybe, very little pleased with my reception,
and the small account he seemed to make of my letters, or of myself;
but heartily satisfied with having sent my dispatches to Janni, now far
out of his power.

The inhabitants of Masuah were dying of the small-pox, so that there
was fear the living would not be sufficient to bury the dead. The whole
island was filled with shrieks and lamentations both night and day.
They at last began to throw the bodies into the sea, which deprived us
of our great support, fish, of which we had ate some kinds that were
excellent. I had suppressed my character of physician, fearing I should
be detained by reason of the multitude of sick.

On the 15th of October the Naybe came to Masuah, and dispatched the
vessel that brought me over; and, as if he had only waited till this
evidence was out of the way, he, that very night, sent me word that
I was to prepare him a handsome present. He gave in a long list of
particulars to a great amount, which he desired might be divided into
three parcels, and presented three several days. One was to be given
him as Naybe of Arkeeko; one as Omar Aga, representative of the grand
signior; and one for having passed our baggage _gratis_ and unvisited,
especially the large quadrant. For my part, I heartily wished he had
seen the whole, as he would not have set great value on the brass and
iron.

As Achmet’s assurance of protection had given me courage, I answered
him, That, having a firman of the grand signior, and letters from
Metical Aga, it was mere generosity in me to give him any present at
all, either as Naybe or Omar Aga, and I was not a merchant that bought
and sold, nor had merchandise on board, therefore had no customs to
pay. Upon this he sent for me to his house, where I found him in a
violent fury, and many useless words passed on both sides. At last he
peremptorily told me, That unless I had 300 ounces of gold ready to pay
him on Monday, upon his landing from Arkeeko, he would confine me in a
dungeon, without light, air, or meat, till the bones came through my
skin for want.

An uncle of his, then present, greatly aggravated this affair. He
presented that the Naybe might do what he pleased with his presents;
but that he could not in any shape give away the present due to the
janizaries, which was 40 ounces of gold, or 400 dollars; and this was
all they contented themselves to take, on account of the letter I
brought from the port of janizaries at Cairo; and in this they only
taxed me the sum paid by the Abuna for his passage through Masuah. I
answered firmly,--“Since you have broken your faith with the grand
signior, the government of Cairo, the basha at Jidda, and Metical Aga,
you will no doubt do as you please with me; but you may expect to see
the English man of war, the Lion, before Arkeeko, some morning by
day-break.”--“I should be glad,” said the Naybe, “to see that man at
Arkeeko or Masuah that would carry as much writing from you to Jidda
as would lie upon my thumb nail; I would strip his shirt off first,
and then his skin, and hang him before your door to teach you more
wisdom.”--“But my wisdom has taught me to prevent all this. My letter
is already gone to Jidda; and if, in twenty days from this, another
letter from me does not follow it, you will see what will arrive. In
the mean time, I here announce it to you, that I have letters from
Metical Aga and the Sherriffe of Mecca, to Michael Suhul governor of
Tigrè, and the king of Abyssinia. I, therefore, would wish that you
would leave off these unmanly altercations, which serve no sort of
purpose, and let me continue my journey.” The Naybe said in a low
voice to himself, “What, Michael too! then go your journey, and think
of the ill that’s before you.” I turned my back without any answer or
salutation, and was scarce arrived at home when a message came from
the Naybe, desiring I would send him two bottles of aquavitæ. I gave
the servant two bottles of cinnamon-water, which he refused till I had
first tasted them; but they were not agreeable to the Naybe, so they
were returned.

All this time I very much wondered what was become of Achmet, who, with
Mahomet Gibberti, remained at Arkeeko: at last I heard from the Naybe’s
servant that he was in bed, ill of a fever. Mahomet Gibberti had kept
his promise to me; and, saying nothing of my skill in physic, or having
medicines with me, I sent, however, to the Naybe to desire leave to go
to Arkeeko. He answered me surlily, I might go if I could find a boat;
and, indeed, he had taken his measures so well that not a boat would
stir for money or persuasion.

On the 29th of October the Naybe came again from Arkeeko to Masuah,
and, I was told, in very ill-humour with me. I soon received a message
to attend him, and found him in a large waste room like a barn, with
about sixty people with him. This was his divan, or grand council,
with all his janizaries and officers of state, all naked, assembled in
parliament. There was a comet that had appeared a few days after our
arrival at Masuah, which had been many days visible in Arabia Felix,
being then in its perihelion; and, after passing its conjunction with
the sun, it now appeared at Masuah early in the evening, receding to
its aphelion. I had been observed watching it with great attention; and
the large tubes of the telescopes had given offence to ignorant people.

The first question the Naybe asked me was, What that comet meant, and
why it appeared? And before I could answer him, he again said, “The
first time it was visible it brought the small-pox, which has killed
above 1000 people in Masuah and Arkeeko. It is known you conversed with
it every night at Loheia; it has now followed you again to finish the
few that remain, and then you are to carry it into Abyssinia. What have
you to do with the comet?”

Without giving me leave to speak, his brother Emir Achmet then said,
That he was informed I was an engineer going to Michael, governor of
Tigré, to teach the Abyssinians to make cannon and gunpowder; that the
first attack was to be against Masuah. Five or six others spoke much
in the same strain; and the Naybe concluded by saying, That he would
send me in chains to Constantinople, unless I went to Hamazen, with
his brother Emir Achmet, to the hot-wells there, and that this was
the resolution of all the janizaries; for I had concealed my being a
physician.

I had not yet opened my mouth. I then asked, If all these were
janizaries; and where was their commanding officer? A well-looking,
elderly man answered, “I am Sardar of the janizaries.”--“If you are
Sardar, then,” said I, “this firman orders you to protect me. The Naybe
is a man of this country, no member of the Ottoman empire.” Upon my
first producing my firman to him, he threw it aside like waste-paper.
The greatest Vizir in the Turkish dominions would have received it
standing, bowed his head to the ground, then kissed it, and put it
upon his forehead. A general murmur of approbation followed, and I
continued,--“Now I must tell you my resolution is, never to go to
Hamazen, or elsewhere, with Emir Achmet. Both he and the Naybe have
shewed themselves my enemies; and, I believe, that to send me to
Hamazen is to rob and murder me out of sight.”--“Dog of a Christian!”
says Emir Achmet, putting his hand to his knife, “if the Naybe was to
murder you, could he not do it here now this minute?”--“No,” says the
man, who had called himself Sardar, “he could not; I would not suffer
any such thing. Achmet is the stranger’s friend, and recommended me
to-day to see no injury done him; he is ill, or would have been here
himself.”

“Achmet,” said I, “is my friend, and fears God; and were I not hindered
by the Naybe from seeing him, his sickness before this would have been
removed. I will go to Achmet at Arkeeko, but not to Hamazen, nor ever
again to the Naybe here in Masuah. Whatever happens to me must befal
me in my own house. Consider what a figure a few naked men will make
the day that my countrymen ask the reason of this either here or in
Arabia.” I then turned my back, and went out without ceremony. “A brave
man!” I heard a voice say behind me, “_Wallah Englese!_ True English,
by G--d!” I went away exceedingly disturbed, as it was plain my affairs
were coming to a crisis for good or for evil. I observed, or thought I
observed, all the people shun me. I was, indeed, upon my guard, and did
not wish them to come near me; but, turning down into my own gateway,
a man passed close by me, saying distinctly in my ear, though in a low
voice, first in Tigré and then in Arabic, “_Fear nothing_, or, Be not
afraid.” This hint, short as it was, gave me no small courage.

I had scarcely dined, when a servant came with a letter from Achmet at
Arkeeko, telling me how ill he had been, and how sorry he was that I
refused to come to see him, as Mahomet Gibberti had told him I could
help him. He desired me also to keep the bearer with me in my house,
and give him charge of the gate till he could come to Masuah himself.

I soon saw the treachery of the Naybe. He had not, indeed, forbid me
to go and see his nephew, but he had forbid any boat to carry me;
and this I told the servant, appealing to the Sardar for what I said
in the divan of my willingness to go to Arkeeko to Achmet, though I
positively refused to go to Hamazen. I begged the servant to stop
for a moment, and go to the Sardar who was in the castle, as I had
been very essentially obliged to him for his interposition at a very
critical time, when there was an intention to take away my life. I sent
him a small present by Achmet’s servant, who delivered the message
faithfully, and had heard all that had passed in the divan. He brought
me back a pipe from the Sardar in return for my present, with this
message, That he had heard of my countrymen, though he had never seen
them; that he loved brave men, and could not see them injured; but
Achmet being my friend, I had no need of him. That night he departed
for Arkeeko, desiring us to shut the door, and leaving us another man,
with orders to admit nobody, and advising us to defend ourselves if any
one offered to force entrance, be they who they would, for that nobody
had business abroad in the night.

I now began to resume my confidence, seeing that Providence had still
kept us under his protection; and it was not long when we had an
opportunity to exercise this confidence. About 12 o’clock at night a
man came to the door, and desired to be admitted; which request was
refused without any ceremony. Then came two or three more, in the
name of Achmet, who were told by the servant that they would not be
admitted. They then asked to speak with me, and grew very tumultuous,
pressing with their backs against the door. When I came to them, a
young man among them said he was son to Emir Achmet, and that his
father and some friends were coming to drink a glass of aracky (so they
call brandy) with me. I told him my resolution was not to admit either
Emir Achmet, or any other person at night, and that I never drank
aracky.

They attempted again to force open the door, which was strongly
barricaded. But as there were cracks in it, I put the point of a sword
through one of them, desiring them to be cautious of hurting themselves
upon the iron spikes. Still they attempted to force open the door,
when the servant told them, that Achmet, when he left him the charge
of that door, had ordered us to fire upon them who offered to force
an entrance at night. A voice asked him, Who the devil he was? The
servant answered, in a very spirited manner, That he had greater reason
to ask who they were, as he took them for thieves, about whose names
he did not trouble himself. “However,” says he, “mine is Abdelcader,
(the son of somebody else whom I do not remember). Now you know who I
am, and that I do not fear you; and you, Yagoube, if you do not fire
upon them, your blood be upon your own head. The Sardar from the castle
will soon be up with the rest.” I ordered then a torch to be brought,
that they might have a view of us through the cracks of the door; but
Abdelcader’s threat being fully sufficient, they retired, and we heard
no more of them.

It was the 4th of November when the servant of Achmet returned in
a boat from Arkeeko, and with him four janizaries. He was not yet
well, and was very desirous to see me. He suspected either that he
was poisoned or bewitched, and had tried many charms without good
effect. We arrived at Arkeeko about eleven, passed the door of the
Naybe without challenge, and found Achmet in his own house, ill of an
intermitting fever, under the very worst of regimens.

He was much apprehensive that he should die, or lose the use of his
limbs as Emir Achmet had done: the same woman, a Shiho, and a witch,
was, he said, the occasion of both. “If Achmet, your uncle, had lost
the use of his tongue, said I, it would have saved him a great deal
of improper discourse in the divan.” His head ached violently, and he
could only say, “Aye! aye! the old miscreant knew I was ill, or that
would not have happened.” I gave Achmet proper remedies to ease his
pains and his stomach, and the next morning began with bark.

This medicine operates quickly here; nay, even the bark that remains,
after the stronger spiritous tincture is drawn from it, seems to answer
the purpose very little worse than did the first. I staid here till the
6th in the morning, at which time he was free from the fever. I left
him, however, some doses to prevent its return; and he told me, on the
7th, he would come to Masuah with boats and men to bring us with our
baggage to Arkeeko, and free us from the bondage of Masuah.

Upon the 6th, in the morning, while at breakfast, I was told that three
servants had arrived from Tigrè; one from Janni, a young man and slave,
who spoke and wrote Greek perfectly; the other two servants were Ras
Michael’s, or rather the king’s, both wearing the red short cloak lined
and turned up with mazarine-blue, which is the badge of the king’s
servant, and is called _shalaka_. Ras Michael’s letters to the Naybe
were very short. He said the king Hatzè Hannes’s health was bad, and
wondered at hearing that the physician, sent to him by Metical Aga from
Arabia, was not forwarded to him instantly at Gondar, as he had heard
of his being arrived at Masuah some time before. He ordered the Naybe,
moreover, to furnish me with necessaries, and dispatch me without loss
of time; although all the letters were the contrivances of Janni, his
particular letter to the Naybe was in a milder stile. He expressed
the great necessity the king had for a physician, and how impatiently
he had waited his arrival. He did not say that he had heard any such
person was yet arrived at Masuah, only wished he might be forwarded
without delay as soon as he came.

To us Janni sent a message by a servant, bidding us a hearty welcome,
acknowledging the receipt of the patriarch’s letter, and advising
us, by all means, to come speedily to him, for the times were very
unsettled, and might grow worse.

In the afternoon I embarked for Masuah. At the shore I received a
message from the Naybe to come and speak to him; but I returned for
answer, It was impossible, as I was obliged to go to Masuah to get
medicines for his nephew, Achmet.




CHAP. II.

_Directions to Travellers for preserving Health--Diseases of the
Country--Music--Trade, &c. of Masuah--Conferences with the Naybe._


We arrived in the island at eight o’clock, to the great joy of our
servants, who were afraid of some stratagem of the Naybe. We got every
thing in order, without interruption, and completed our observations
upon this inhospitable island, infamous for the quantity of Christian
blood shed there upon treacherous pretences.

Masuah, by a great variety of observations of the sun and stars, we
found to be in lat. 15° 35´ 5´´, and, by an observation of the second
satellite of Jupiter, on the 22d of September 1769, we found its
longitude to be 39° 36´ 30´´ east of the meridian of Greenwich: the
variation of the needle was observed at mid-day, the 23d of September,
to be 12° 48´ W. From this it follows, that Loheia, being nearly
opposite, (for it is in lat. 15° 40´ 52´´) the breadth of the Red Sea
between Masuah and Loheia is 4° 10´ 22´´. Supposing, then, a degree to
be equal to 66 statute miles, this, in round numbers, will bring the
breadth to be 276 miles, equal to 92 leagues, or thereabouts.

Again, as the generality of maps have placed the coast of Arabia where
Loheia stands, in the 44°, and it is the part of the peninsula that
runs farthest to the westward, all the west coast of Arabia Felix will
fall to be brought farther east about 3° 46´ 0´´.

Before packing up our barometer at Loheia, I filled a tube with clean
mercury, perfectly purged of outward air; and, on the 30th of August,
upon three several trials, the mean of the results of each trial was,
at six in the morning, 26° 8´ 8´´; two o’clock in the afternoon, 26°
4´ 1´´; and, half past six in the evening, 26° 6´ 2´´, fair, clear
weather, with very little wind at west.

At Masuah, the 4th of October, I repeated the same experiment with the
same mercury and tube; the means were as follow: At six in the morning
25° 8´ 2´´; two o’clock in the afternoon, 25° 3´ 2´´; and, at half past
six in the evening, 25° 3´ 7´´, clear, with a moderate wind at west,
so that the barometer fell one inch and one line at Masuah lower than
it was at Loheia, though it often rose upon violent storms of wind and
rain; and, even where there was no rain, it again fell instantly upon
the storm ceasing, and never arrived to the height it stood last at on
the coast of Arabia. The greatest height I ever observed Fahrenheit’s
thermometer in the shade, at Masuah, was on the 22d of October, at two
in the afternoon, 93°, wind N. E. and by N. cloudy; the lowest was on
the 23d, at four in the morning, 82°, wind west. It was, to sense, much
hotter than in any part of Arabia Felix; but we found no such tickling
or irritation on our legs as we had done at Loheia, probably because
the soil was here less impregnated with salt.

We observed here, for the first time, three remarkable circumstances
shewing the increase of heat. I had carried with me several steel
plates for making screws of different sizes. The heat had so swelled
the pin, or _male_ screw, that it was cut nearly one-third through by
the edge of the female. The sealing-wax, of which we had procured a
fresh parcel from the India ships, was fully more fluid, while lying
in our boxes, than tar. The third was the colour of the spirit in the
thermometer, which was quite discharged, and sticking in masses at
unequal heights, while the liquor was clear like spring-water.

Masuah is very unwholesome, as, indeed, is the whole coast of the Red
Sea from Suez to Babelmandeb, but more especially between the tropics.
Violent fevers, called there _nedad_, make the principal figure in this
fatal list, and generally terminate the third day in death. If the
patient survives till the fifth day, he very often recovers by drinking
water only, and throwing a quantity of cold water upon him, even in his
bed, where he is permitted to lie without attempting to make him dry,
or change his bed, till another deluge adds to the first.

There is no remedy so sovereign here as the bark; but it must be given
in very different times and manners from those pursued in Europe.
Were a physician to take time to prepare his patient for the bark,
by first giving him purgatives, he would be dead of the fever before
his preparation was completed. Immediately when a nausea or aversion
to eat, frequent fits of yawning, straitness about the eyes, and an
unusual, but not painful sensation along the spine, comes on, no
time is then to be lost; small doses of the bark must be frequently
repeated, and perfect abstinence observed, unless from copious draughts
of cold water.

I never dared to venture, or seldom, upon the deluge of water, but am
convinced it is frequently of great use. The second or third dose of
the bark, if any quantity is swallowed, never fails to purge; and,
if this evacuation is copious, the patient rarely dies, but, on the
contrary, his recovery is generally rapid. Moderate purging, then, is
for the most part to be adopted; and rice is a much better food than
fruit.

I know that all this is heterodox in Europe, and contrary to the
practice, because it is contrary to system. For my own part, I am
content to write faithfully what I carefully observed, leaving every
body afterwards to follow their own way at their peril.

Bark, I have been told by Spaniards who have been in South America,
purges always when taken in their fevers. A different climate,
different regimen, and different habit of body or exercise, may surely
so far alter the operation of a drug as to make it have a different
effect in Africa from what it has in Europe. Be that as it may, still
I say bark is a purgative when it is successful in this fever; but
bleeding, at no stage of this distemper, is of any service; and,
indeed, if attempted the second day, the lancet is seldom followed by
blood. Ipecacuanha both fatigues the patient and heightens the fever,
and so conducts the patient more speedily to his end. Black spots are
frequently found on the breast and belly of the dead person. The belly
swells, and the stench becomes insufferable in three hours after death,
if the person dies in the day, or if the weather is warm.

The next common disease in the low country of Arabia, the intermediate
island of Masuah, and all Abyssinia, (for the diseases are exactly
similar in all this tract) is the Tertian fever, which is in nothing
different from our Tertian, and is successfully treated here in the
same manner as in Europe. As no species of this disease (at least
that I have seen) menaces the patient with death, especially in the
beginning of the disorder, some time may be allowed for preparation
to those who doubt the effect of the bark in the country. But
still I apprehend the safest way is to give small doses from the
beginning, on the first intermission, or even remission, though this
should be somewhat obscure and uncertain. To speak plainly; when the
stomach nauseates, the head akes, yawning becomes frequent, and not
an excessive pain in the nape of the neck, when a shivering which
goes quickly off, a coldness down the spine, a more than ordinary
cowardliness and inactivity prevails, (the heat of the climate gives
one always enough of these last sensations); I say, when any number of
these symptoms unite, have recourse to the powder of bark infused in
water; shut your mouth against every sort of food; and, at the crisis,
your disease will immediately decide its name among the class of fevers.

All fevers end in intermittents; and if these intermittents continue
long, and the first evacuations by the bark have not been copious and
constant, these fevers generally end in dysenteries, which are always
tedious and very frequently prove mortal. Bark in small quantities,
ipecacuanha, too, in very small quantities so as not to vomit, water,
and fruit not over ripe, have been found the most successful remedies.

As for the other species of dysentery, which begins with a constant
diarrhœa, when the guts at last are excoriated, and the mucus voided
by the stools, this disease is rarely cured if it begins with the
rainy season. But if, on the contrary, it happen either in the sunny
six months, or the end of the rainy ones immediately next to them,
small doses of ipecacuanha either carry it off, or it changes into an
intermitting fever, which yields afterwards to the bark. And it always
has seemed to me that there is a great affinity between the fevers and
dysenteries in these countries, the one ending in the other almost
perpetually.

The next disease, which we may say is endemial in the countries before
mentioned, is called _hanzeer_, the _hogs_ or the _swine_, and is a
swelling of the glands of the throat, and under the arms. This the
ignorant inhabitants endeavour to bring to a suppuration, but in vain;
they then open them in several places; a sore and running follows, and
a disease very much resembling what is called in Europe the Evil.

THE next (though not a dangerous complaint) has a very terrible
appearance. Small tubercules or swellings appear all over the body, but
thickest in the thighs, arms, and legs. These swellings go and come for
weeks together without pain; though the legs often swell to a monstrous
size as in the dropsy. Sometimes the patients have ulcers in their
noses and mouths, not unlike those which are one of the malignant
consequences of the venereal disease. The small swellings or eruptions,
when squeezed, very often yield blood; in other respects the patient is
generally in good health, saving the pain the ulcers give him, and the
still greater uneasiness of mind which he suffers from the spoiling of
the smoothness of his skin; for all the nations in Africa within the
tropics are wonderfully affected at the smallest eruption or roughness
of the skin. A black of Sennaar will hide himself in the house where
dark, and is not to be seen by his friends, if he should have two
or three pimples on any part of his body. Nor is there any remedy,
however violent, that they will not fly to for immediate relief. Scars
and wounds are no blemishes; and I have seen them, for three or four
pimples on their bracelet arm, suffer the application of a red-hot iron
with great resolution and constancy.

These two last diseases yielded, the first slowly, and sometimes
imperfectly, to mercurials; and sublimate has by no means in these
climates the quick and decisive effects it has in Europe. The second is
completely and speedily cured by antimonials.

The next complaint I shall mention, as common in these countries, is
called Farenteit, a corruption of an Arabic word, which signifies the
worm of Pharaoh; all bad things being by the Arabs attributed to these
poor kings, who seem to be looked upon by posterity as the evil genii
of the country which they once governed.

This extraordinary animal only afflicts those who are in constant habit
of drinking stagnant water, whether that water is drawn out from wells,
as in the kingdom of Sennaar, or found by digging in the sand where it
is making its way to its proper level the sea, after falling down the
side of the mountains after the tropical rains. This plague appears
indiscriminately in every part of the body, but oftenest in the legs
and arms. I never saw it in the face or head; but, far from affecting
the fleshy parts of the body, it generally comes out where the bone has
least flesh upon it.

Upon looking at this worm, on its first appearance, a small black head
is extremely visible, with a hooked beak of a whitish colour. Its
body is seemingly of a white silky texture, very like a small tendon
bared and perfectly cleaned. After its appearance the natives of these
countries, who are used to it, seize it gently by the head, and wrap
it round a thin piece of silk or small bird’s feather. Every day, or
several times a-day, they try to wind it up upon the quill as far as
it comes readily; and, upon the smallest resistance, they give over
for fear of breaking it. I have seen five feet, or something more of
this extraordinary animal, winded out with invincible patience in the
course of three weeks. No inflammation then remained, and scarcely
any redness round the edges of the aperture, only a small quantity
of lymph appeared in the hole or puncture, which scarcely issued out
upon pressing. In three days it was commonly well, and left no scar or
dimple implying loss of substance.

I myself experienced this complaint. I was reading upon a sofa at
Cairo, a few days after my return from Upper Egypt, when I felt in
the fore part of my leg, upon the bone, about seven inches below the
center of my knee-pan, an itching resembling what follows the bite of a
muscheto. Upon scratching, a small tumour appeared very like a muscheto
bite. The itching returned in about an hour afterwards; and, being more
intent upon my reading than my leg, I scratched it till the blood came.
I soon after observed something like a black spot, which had already
risen considerably above the surface of the skin. All medicine proved
useless; and the disease not being known at Cairo, there was nothing
for it but to have recourse to the only received manner of treating it
in this country. About three inches of the worm was winded out upon
a piece of raw silk in the first week, without pain or fever: but it
was broken afterwards through the carelessness and rashness of the
surgeon when changing a poultice on board the ship in which I returned
to France: a violent inflammation followed; the leg swelled so as to
scarce leave appearance of knee or ancle; the skin, red and distended,
seemed glazed like a mirror. The wound was now healed, and discharged
nothing; and there was every appearance of mortification coming on. The
great care and attention procured me in the lazaretto at Marseilles, by
a nation always foremost in the acts of humanity to strangers, and the
attention and skill of the surgeon, recovered me from this troublesome
complaint.

Fifty-two days had elapsed since it first begun; thirty-five of which
were spent in the greatest agony. It suppurated at last; and, by
enlarging the orifice, a good quantity of matter was discharged. I had
made constant use of bark, both in fomentations and inwardly; but I did
not recover the strength of my leg entirely till near a year after, by
using the baths of Poretta, the property of my friend Count Ranuzzi, in
the mountains above Bologna, which I recommend, for their efficacy, to
all those who have wounds, as I do to him to have better accommodation,
greater abundance of, and less imposition in, the necessaries of life
than when I was there. It is but a few hours journey over the mountains
to Pistoia.

The last I shall mention of these endemial diseases, and the most
terrible of all others that can fall to the lot of man, is the
Elephantiasis, which some have chosen to call the Leprosy, or Lepra
Arabum; though in its appearance, and in all its circumstances and
stages, it no more resembles the leprosy of Palestine, (which is,
I apprehend, the only leprosy that we know) than it does the gout
or the dropsy. I never saw the beginning of this disease. During
the course of it, the face is often healthy to appearance; the eyes
vivid and sparkling: those affected have sometimes a kind of dryness
upon the skin of their backs, which, upon scratching, I have seen
leave a mealiness, or whiteness; the only circumstance, to the best
of my recollection, in which it resembled the leprosy, but it has
no scaliness. The hair, too, is of its natural colour; not white,
yellowish, or thin, as in the leprosy, but so far from it that, though
the Abyssinians have very rarely hair upon their chin, I have seen
people, apparently in the last stage of the elephantiasis, with a very
good beard of its natural colour.

The appetite is generally good during this disease, nor does any change
of regimen affect the complaint. The pulse is only subject to the same
variations as in those who have no declared nor predominant illness;
they have a constant thirst, as the lymph, which continually oozes
from their wounds, probably demands to be replaced. It is averred by
the Abyssinians that it is not infectious. I have seen the wives of
those who were in a very inveterate stage of this illness, who had
born them several children, who were yet perfectly free and found from
any contagion. Nay, I do not remember to have seen children visibly
infected with this disease at all; though, I must own, none of them had
the appearance of health. It is said this disease, though surely born
with the infant, does not become visible till the approach to manhood,
and sometimes it is said to pass by a whole generation.

The chief seat of this disease is from the bending of the knee
downwards to the ancle; the leg is swelled to a great degree, becoming
one size from bottom to top, and gathered into circular wrinkles, like
small hoops or plaits; between every one of which there is an opening
that separates it all round from the one above, and which is all raw
flesh, or perfectly excoriated. From between these circular divisions
a great quantity of lymph constantly oozes. The swelling of the leg
reaches over the foot, so as to leave about an inch or little more
of it seen. It should seem that the black colour of the skin, the
thickness of the leg, and its shapeless form, and the rough tubercules,
or excrescences, very like those seen upon the elephant, give the
name to this disease, and form a striking resemblance between the
distempered legs of this unfortunate individual of the human species,
and those of the noble quadruped the elephant, when in full vigour.

An infirmity, to which the Abyssinians are subject, of much worse
consequence to the community than the elephantiasis, I mean lying,
makes it impossible to form, from their relations, any accurate account
of symptoms that might lead the learned to discover the causes of this
extraordinary distemper, and thence suggest some rational method to
cure, or diminish it.

It was not from the ignorance of language, nor from want of
opportunity, and less from want of pains, that I am not able to give a
more distinct account of this dreadful disorder. I kept one of those
infected in a house adjoining to mine, in my way to the palace, for
near two years; and, during that time, I tried every sort of regimen
that I could devise. My friend, Dr Russel, physician at Aleppo, (now
in the East Indies), to whose care and skill I was indebted for my
life in a dangerous fever which I had in Syria, and whose friendship I
must always consider as one of the greatest acquisitions I ever made
in travelling, desired me, among other medical inquiries, to try the
effect of the cicuta upon this disease; and a considerable quantity,
made according to the direction of Dr Storke, physician in Vienna, was
sent me from Paris, with instructions how to use it.

Having first explained the whole matter, both to the king, Ras Michael,
and Azage Tecla Haimanout, chief justice of the king’s bench in
Abyssinia, and told them of the consequences of giving too great a
dose, I obtained their joint permissions to go on without fear, and do
what I thought requisite. It is my opinion, says the Azage, that no
harm that may accidentally befal one miserable individual, now already
cut off from society, should hinder the trial (the only one we ever
shall have an opportunity of making) of a medicine which may save
multitudes hereafter from a disease so much worse than death.

It was soon seen, by the constant administration of many ordinary
doses, that nothing was to be expected from violent or dangerous
ones; as not the smallest degree of amendment ever appeared, either
outwardly or inwardly, to the sensation of the patient. Mercury had no
better effect. Tar-water also was tried; and if there was any thing
that produced any seeming advantage, it was whey made of cow’s milk,
of which he was excessively fond, and which the king ordered him to be
furnished with at my desire, in any quantity he pleased, during the
experiment.

The troubles of the times prevented further attention. Dr Storke’s
cicuta, in several instances, made a perfect cure of the hanzeers
improperly opened, though, in several other cases, without any apparent
cause, it totally miscarried. I scarce ever observed mercury succeed in
any complaint.

It is not for me to attempt to explain what are the causes of these
distempers. Those whose studies lead them to such investigations will
do well to attach themselves, for first principles, to the difference
of climate, and the abuses that obtain under them; after this, to
particular circumstances in the necessaries of life, to which nature
has subjected the people of these countries. Under the first, we may
rank a season of six months rains, succeeded, without interval, by a
cloudless sky and vertical sun; and cold nights which as immediately
follow these scorching days. The earth, notwithstanding the heat of
these days, is yet perpetually cold, so as to feel disagreeably to
the soles of the feet; partly owing to the six months rains, when no
sun appears, and partly to the perpetual equality of nights and days;
the thinnest of the cloathing in the better sort, (a muslin shirt)
while the others are naked, and sleep in this manner exposed, without
covering in the cold nights, after the violent perspiration during the
sultry day. These may be reckoned imprudences, while the constant use
of stagnant putrid water for four months of the year, and the quantity
of salt with which the soil of those countries is impregnated, may be
circumstances less conducive to health; to which, however, they have
been for ever subject by nature.

It will be very reasonably expected, that, after this unfavourable
account of the climate, and the uncertainty of remedies for these
frequent and terrible diseases, I should say something of the regimen
proper to be observed there, in order to prevent what it seems so
doubtful whether we can ever cure.

My first general advice to a traveller is this, to remember well what
was the state of his constitution before he visited these countries,
and what his complaints were, if he had any; for fear very frequently
seizes us upon the first sight of the many and sudden deaths we see
upon our first arrival, and our spirits are so lowered by perpetual
perspiration, and our nerves so relaxed, that we are apt to mistake
the ordinary symptoms of a disease, familiar to us in our own country,
for the approach of one of these terrible distempers that are to hurry
us in a few hours into eternity. This has a bad effect in the very
slightest disorders; so that it hath become proverbial--If you think
you shall die, you shall die.

If a traveller finds, that he is as well after having been some time
in this country as he was before entering it, his best way is to make
no innovation in his regimen, further than in abating something in the
quantity. But if he is of a tender constitution, he cannot act more
wisely than to follow implicitly the regimen of sober, healthy people
of the country, without arguing upon European notions, or substituting
what we consider as succedaneums to what we see used on the spot. All
spirits are to be avoided; even bark is better in water than in wine.
The stomach, being relaxed by profuse perspiration, needs something to
strengthen, but not inflame, and enable it to perform digestion. For
this reason (instinct we should call it, if speaking of beasts) the
natives of all eastern countries season every species of food, even the
simplest, and mildest, rice, so much with spices, especially pepper, as
absolutely to blister a European palate.

These powerful antiseptics Providence has planted in these countries
for this use; and the natives have, from the earliest times, had
recourse to them in proportion to the quantity that they can procure.
And hence, in these dangerous climates, the natives are as healthy as
we are in our northern ones. Travellers in Arabia are disgusted at
this seemingly inflammatory food; and nothing is more common than to
hear them say that they are afraid these quantities of spices will
give them a fever. But did they ever feel themselves heated by ever
so great a quantity of black pepper? Spirits they think, substituted
to this, answer the same purpose. But does not the heat of your skin,
the violent pain in your head, while the spirits are filtering through
the vessels of your brains, shew the difference? and when did any ever
feel a like sensation from black pepper, or any pepper ate to excess in
every meal?

I lay down, then, as a positive rule of health, that the warmest dishes
the natives delight in, are the most wholesome strangers can use in
the putrid climates of the Lower Arabia, Abyssinia, Sennaar, and Egypt
itself; and that spirits, and all fermented liquors, should be regarded
as poisons, and, for fear of temptation, not so much as be carried
along with you, unless as a menstruum for outward applications.

Spring, or running water, if you can find it, is to be your only drink.
You cannot be too nice in procuring this article. But as, on both
coasts of the Red Sea you scarcely find any but stagnant water, the way
I practised was always this, when I was at any place that allowed me
time and opportunity--I took a quantity of fine sand, washed it from
the salt quality with which it was impregnated, and spread it upon a
sheet to dry; I then filled an oil-jar with water, and poured into it
as much from a boiling kettle as would serve to kill all the animalcula
and eggs that were in it. I then sifted my dried sand, as slowly as
possible, upon the surface of the water in the jar, till the sand stood
half a foot in the bottom of it; after letting it settle a night, we
drew it off by a hole in the jar with a spigot in it, about an inch
above the sand; then threw the remaining sand out upon the cloth, and
dried and washed it again.

This process is sooner performed than described. The water is as limpid
as the purest spring, and little inferior to the finest Spa. Drink
largely of this without fear, according as your appetite requires. By
violent perspiration the aqueous part of your blood is thrown off;
and it is not spiritous liquor can restore this, whatever momentary
strength it may give you from another cause. When hot, and almost
fainting with weakness from continual perspiration, I have gone into
a warm bath, and been immediately restored to strength, as upon first
rising in the morning. Some perhaps will object, that this heat should
have weakened and overpowered you; but the fact is otherwise; and the
reason is, the quantity of water, taken up by your absorbing vessels,
restored to your blood that finer fluid which was thrown off, and then
the uneasiness occasioned by that want ceased, for it was the want of
that we called uneasiness.

In Nubia never scruple to throw yourself into the coldest river or
spring you can find, in whatever degree of heat you are. The reason
of the difference in Europe is, that when by violence you have raised
yourself to an extraordinary degree of heat, the cold water in which
you plunge yourself checks your perspiration, and shuts your pores
suddenly. The medium is itself too cold, and you do not use force
sufficient to bring back the perspiration, which nought but action
occasioned; whereas, in these warm countries, your perspiration
is natural and constant, though no action be used, only from the
temperature of the medium; therefore, though your pores are shut, the
moment you plunge yourself in the cold water, the simple condition of
the outward air again covers you with pearls of sweat the moment you
emerge; and you begin the expence of the aqueous part of your blood
afresh from the new stock that you have laid in by your immersion.

For this reason, if you are well, deluge yourself from head to foot,
even in the house, where water is plenty, by directing a servant to
throw buckets upon you at least once a-day when you are hottest; not
from any imagination that the water braces you, as it is called, for
your bracing will last you only a very few minutes; but these copious
inundations will carry watery particles into your blood, though not
equal to bathing in running streams, where the total immersion, the
motion of the water, and the action of the limbs, all conspire to
the benefit you are in quest of. As to cold water bracing in these
climates, I am persuaded it is an idea not founded in truth. By
observation it has appeared often to me, that, when heated by violent
exercise, I have been much more relieved, and my strength more
completely restored by the use of a tepid bath, than by an equal time
passed in a cold one.

Do not fatigue yourself if possible. Exercise is not either so
necessary or salutary here as in Europe. Use fruits sparingly,
especially if too ripe. The musa, or banana, in Arabia Felix, are
always rotten-ripe when they are brought to you. Avoid all sort of
fruit exposed for sale in the markets, as it has probably been gathered
in the sun, and carried miles in it, and all its juices are in a state
of fermentation. Lay it first upon a table covered with a coarse cloth,
and throw frequently a quantity of water upon it; and, if you have an
opportunity, gather it in the dew of the morning before dawn of day,
for that is far better.

Rice and pillaw are the best food; fowls are very bad, eggs are worse;
greens are not wholesome. In Arabia the mutton is good, and, when
roasted, may be eaten warm with safety; perhaps better if cold. All
soups or broths are to be avoided; all game is bad.

I have known many very scrupulous about eating suppers, but, I am
persuaded, without reason. The great perspiration which relaxes the
stomach so much through the day has now ceased, and the breathing of
cooler air has given to its operations a much stronger tone. I always
made it my most liberal meal, if I ate meat at all. While at Jidda, my
supper was a piece of cold, roasted mutton, and a large glass of water,
with my good friend Captain Thornhill, during the dog-days.

After this, the excessive heat of the day being past, covering our
heads from the night-air, always blowing at that time from the east and
charged with watery particles from the Indian Ocean, we had a luxurious
walk of two or three hours, as free from the heat as from the noise
and impertinence of the day, upon a terrassed roof, under a cloudless
sky, where the smallest star is visible. These evening walks have
been looked upon as one of the principal pleasures of the east, even
though not accompanied with the luxuries of astronomy and meditation.
They have been adhered to from early times to the present, and we may
therefore be allured they were always wholesome; they have often been
misapplied and mispent in love.

It is a custom that, from the first ages, has prevailed in the east,
to shriek and lament upon the death of a friend or relation, and cut
their faces upon the temple with their nails, about the breadth of a
sixpence, one of which is left long for that purpose. It was always
practised by the Jews, and thence adopted by the Abyssinians, though
expressly forbidden both by the law and by the prophets[2]. At Masuah,
it seems to be particular to dance upon that occasion. The women,
friends, and visitors place themselves in a ring; then dance slowly,
figuring in and out as in a country-dance. This dance is all to the
voice, no instrument being used upon the occasion; only the drum (the
butter-jar before mentioned) is beat adroitly enough, and seems at once
necessary to keep the dance and song in order. In Abyssinia, too, this
is pursued in a manner more ridiculous. Upon the death of an ozoro, or
any nobleman, the twelve judges, (who are generally between 60 and 70
years of age) sing the song, and dance the figure-dance, in a manner
so truly ridiculous, that grief must have taken fast hold of every
spectator who does not laugh upon the occasion. There needs no other
proof the deceased was a friend.

Mahomet Gibberti married at Arkeeko. For fifteen days afterward, the
husband there is invisible to everybody but the female friends of his
wife, who in that sultry country do every thing they can, by hot and
spiced drinks, to throw the man, stewed in a close room, into a fever.
I do believe that Mahomet Gibberti, in the course of these fifteen
days, was at least two stone lighter. It puts me much in mind of some
of our countrymen sweating themselves for a horse-race with a load
of flannel on. I conceive that Mahomet Gibberti, had it not been for
the spice, would have made a bad figure in the match he was engaged
in. One of these nights of his being sequestered, when, had I not
providentially engaged Achmet, his uncle the Naybe would have cut
our throats. I heard two girls, professors hired for such occasions,
sing alternately verse for verse in reply to each other, in the most
agreeable and melodious manner I ever heard in my life. This gave me
great hopes that, in Abyssinia, I should find music in a state of
perfection little expected in Europe. Upon inquiry into particulars
I was miserably disappointed, by being told these musicians were all
strangers from Azab, the myrrh country, where all the people were
natural musicians, and sung in a better stile than that I had heard;
but that nothing of this kind was known in Abyssinia, a mountainous,
barbarous country, without instrument, and without song; and that it
was the same here in Atbara; a miserable truth, which I afterwards
completely verified. These singers were Cushites, not Shepherds.

I, however, made myself master of two or three of these alternate songs
upon the guitar, the wretched instrument of that country; and was
surprised to find the words in a language equally strange to Masuah
and Abyssinia. I had frequent interviews with these musicians in the
evening; they were perfectly black and woolly-headed. Being slaves,
they spoke both Arabic and Tigrè, but could sing in neither; and, from
every possible inquiry, I found every thing, allied to counterpoint,
was unknown among them. I have sometimes endeavoured to recover
fragments of these songs, which I once perfectly knew from memory only,
but unfortunately I committed none of them to writing. Sorrow, and
various misfortunes, that every day marked my stay in the barbarous
country to which I was then going, and the necessary part I, much
against my will, was for self-preservation forced to take in the ruder
occupations of those times, have, to my very great regret, obliterated
long ago the whole from my memory.

It is a general custom in Masuah for people to burn myrrh and incense
in their houses before they open the doors in the morning; and when
they go out at night, or early in the day, they have always a small
piece of rag highly fumigated with these two perfumes, which they stuff
into each nostril to keep them from the unwholesome air.

The houses in Masuah are, in general, built of poles and bent grass, as
in the towns of Arabia; but, besides these, there are about twenty of
stone, six or eight of which are two storeys each; though the second
seldom consists of more than one room, and that one generally not a
large one. The stones are drawn out of the sea as at Dahalac; and in
these we see the beds of that curious mussel, or shell-fish, found to
be contained in the solid rock at Mahon, called _Dattoli da mare_, or
sea-dates, the fish of which I never saw in the Red Sea; though there
is no doubt but they are to be found in the rocky islands about Masuah,
if they break the rocks for them.

Although Masuah is situated in the very entrance of Abyssinia, a
very plentiful country, yet all the necessaries of life are scarce
and dear. Their quality, too, is very indifferent. This is owing to
the difficulty, expence, and danger of carrying the several articles
through the desert flat country, called Samhar, which lies between
Arkeeko and the mountains of Abyssinia; as well as to the extortions
exercised by the Naybe, who takes, under the name of customs, whatever
part he pleases of the goods and provisions brought to that island; by
which means the profit of the seller is so small, as not to be worth
the pains and risk of bringing it: 20 rotol of butter cost a pataka and
a half, 3½ harf; or, in one term, 45½ harf. A goat is half of a pataka;
a sheep, two-thirds of a pataka; the ardep of wheat, 4 patakas; Dora,
from Arabia, 2 patakas.

    ---- _Venit, vilissima rerum_,
    _Hic aqua._
          Horat. lib. I. Sat. 6. v. 88.

Water is sold for three diwanis, or paras, the 7 gallons. The same sort
of money is in use at Masuah, and the opposite coast of Arabia; and it
is indeed owing to the commercial intercourse with that coast that any
coin is current in this or the western side. It is all valued by the
Venetian sequin. But glass beads, called Contaria, of all kinds and
colours, perfect and broken, pass for small money, and are called, in
their language, Borjooke.


_TABLE of the relative VALUE of MONEY._

  Venetian Sequin,              2¼ Pataka.
  Pataka or Imperial Dollar,   28 Harf.
  1 Harf,                       4 Diwani.
  10 Kibeer,                    1 Diwani.
  1 Kibeer,                     3 Borjooke, or Grains.

The Harf is likewise called Dahab, a word very equivocal, as it means,
in Arabic, gold, and frequently a sequin. The Harf is 120 grains of
beads.

The zermabub, or sequin of Constantinople, is not current here. Those
that have them, can only dispose of them to the women, who hang them
about their temples, to their necklaces, and round the necks of their
children. The fraction of the pataka is the half and quarter, which
pass here likewise.

There is a considerable deal of trade carried on at Masuah,
notwithstanding these inconveniencies, narrow and confined as the
island is, and violent and unjust as is the government. But it is all
done in a slovenly manner, and for articles where a small capital is
invested. Property here is too precarious to risk a venture in valuable
commodities, where the hand of power enters into every transaction.

The goods imported from the Arabian side are blue cotton, Surat
cloths, and cochineal ditto, called Kermis, fine cloth from different
markets in India; coarse white cotton cloths from Yemen; cotton
unspun from ditto in bales; Venetian beads, chrystal, drinking, and
looking-glasses; and cohol, or crude antimony. These three last
articles come in great quantities from Cairo, first in the coffee ships
to Jidda, and then in small barks over to this port. Old copper too is
an article on which much is gained, and great quantity is imported.

The Galla, and all the various tribes to the westward of Gondar, wear
bracelets of this copper; and they say at times, that, near the country
of Gongas and Guba, it has been sold, weight for weight, with gold.
There is a shell likewise here, a univalve of the species of volutes,
which sells at a cuba for 10 paras. It is brought from near Hodeida,
though it is sometimes found at Konfodah and Loheia. There are a few
also at Dahalac, but not esteemed: these pass for money among the Djawi
and other western Galla.

The cuba is a wooden measure, containing, very exactly, 62 cubic inches
of rain water. The drachm is called Casla; there is 10 drachms in their
wakea.

  Gold, 16 patakas _per_ wakea.
  Civet, 1¾ pataka the wakea.
  Elephants teeth, 18 patakas for 35 rotol.
  Wax, 4 patakas the faranzala.
  Myrrh, 3 patakas _per_ ditto.
  Coffee, 1 pataka the 6 rotol.
  Honey, ¼ of a pataka the cuba.

The Banians were once the principal merchants of Masuah; but the number
is now reduced to six. They are silver-smiths, that make ear-rings and
other ornaments for the women in the continent, and are assayers of
gold; they make, however, but a poor livelihood.

As there is no water in Masuah, the number of animals belonging to it
can be but small. The sea fowl have nothing singular in them, and are
the grey and the white gull, and the small bird, called the sea-lark,
or pickerel. The sky-lark is here, but is mute the whole year, till the
first rains fall in November; he then mounts very high, and sings in
the very heat of the day. I saw him in the Tehama, but he did not sing
there; probably for the reason given above, as there was no rain.

There are no sparrows to be seen here, or on the opposite shore, nor
in the islands. Although there were scorpions in abundance at Loheia,
we found none of them at Masuah. Water and greens, especially of the
melon and cucumber kind, seem to be necessary to this poisonous insect.
Indeed it was only after rains we saw them in Loheia, and then the
young ones appeared in swarms; this was in the end of August. They
are of a dull green colour, bordering upon yellow. As far as I could
observe, no person apprehended any thing from their sting beyond a few
minutes pain.

We left Masuah the 10th of November, with the soldiers and boats
belonging to Achmet. We had likewise three servants from Abyssinia, and
no longer apprehended the Naybe, who seemed, on his part, to think no
more of us.

In the bay between Masuah and Arkeeko are two islands, Toulahout and
Shekh Seide; the first on the west, the other on the south. They are
both uninhabited, and without water. Shekh Seide has a marabout, or
saint’s tomb, on the west end. It is not half a mile in length, when
not overflowed, but has two large points of sand which run far out to
the east and to the west. Its west point runs so near to Toulahout, as,
at low-water, scarce to leave a channel for the breadth of a boat to
pass between.

There is a chart, or map of the island of Masuah, handed about with
other bad maps and charts of the Red Sea, (of which I have already
spoken) among our English captains from India. It seems to be of as
old date as the first landing of the Portuguese under Don Roderigo de
Lima, in the time of David III. but it is very inaccurate, or rather
erroneous, throughout. The map of the island, harbour, and bay, with
the soundings, which I here have given, may be depended upon, as being
done on the spot with the greatest attention.

Achmet, though much better, was, however, not well. His fever had left
him, but he had some symptoms of its being followed by a dysentery. In
the two days I rested at his house, I had endeavoured to remove these
complaints, and had succeeded in part; for which he testified the
utmost gratitude, as he was wonderfully afraid to die.

The Naybe had visited him several times every day; but as I was
desirous to see Achmet well before I left Arkeeko, I kept out of the
way on these occasions, being resolved, the first interview, to press
for an immediate departure.

On the 13th, at four o’clock in the afternoon, I waited upon the Naybe
at his own house. He received me with more civility than usual, or
rather, I should have said, with less brutality; for a grain of any
thing like civility had never yet appeared in his behaviour. He had
just received news, that a servant of his, sent to collect money at
Hamazen, had run off with it. As I saw he was busy, I took my leave of
him, only asking his commands for Habesh; to which he answered, “We
have time enough to think of that, do you come here to morrow.”

On the 14th, in the morning, I waited upon him according to
appointment, having first struck my tent and got all my baggage in
readiness. He received me as before, then told me with a grave air,
“that he was willing to further my journey into Habesh to the utmost
of his power, provided I shewed him that consideration which was due to
him from all passengers; that as, by my tent, baggage, and arms, he saw
I was a man above the common sort, which the grand signior’s firman,
and all my letters testified, less than 1000 patakas offered by me
would be putting a great affront upon him; however, in consideration of
the governor of Tigrè, to whom I was going, he would consent to receive
300, upon my swearing not to divulge this, for fear of the shame that
would fall upon him abroad.”

To this I answered in the same grave tone, “That I thought him very
wrong to take 300 patakas with shame, when receiving a thousand would
be more honourable as well as more profitable; therefore he had nothing
to do but put that into his account-book with the governor of Tigrè,
and settle his honour and his interest together. As for myself, I was
sent for by Metical Aga, on account of the king, and was proceeding
accordingly, and if he opposed my going forward to Metical Aga, I
should return; but then again I should expect ten thousand patakas from
Metical Aga, for the trouble and loss of time I had been at, which he
and the Ras would no doubt settle with him.” The Naybe said nothing
in reply, but only muttered, closing his teeth, _sheitan afrit_, that
devil or tormenting spirit.

“Look you, (says one of the king’s servants, whom I had not heard speak
before) I was ordered to bring this man to my master; I heard no talk
of patakas; the army is ready to march against Waragna Fasil, I must
not lose my time here.” Then taking his short red cloak under his arm,
and giving it a shake to make the dust fly from it, he put it upon
his shoulders, and, stretching out his hand very familiarly, said,
“Naybe, within this hour I am for Habesh, my companion will stay here
with the man; give me my dues for coming here, and I shall carry any
answer either of you has to send.” The Naybe looked much disconcerted.
“Besides, said I, you owe me 300 patakas for saving the life of your
nephew Achmet.”--“Is not his life worth 300 patakas?” He looked very
silly, and said, “Achmet’s life is worth all Masuah.” There was no
more talk of patakas after this. He ordered the king’s servant not to
go that day, but come to him to-morrow to receive his letters, and he
would expedite us for Habesh.

Those friends that I had made at Arkeeko and Masuah, seeing the Naybe’s
obstinacy against our departure, and, knowing the cruelty of his
nature, advised me to abandon all thoughts of Abyssinia; for that,
in passing through Samhar, among the many barbarous people whom he
commanded, difficulties would multiply upon us daily, and, either by
accident, or order of the Naybe, we should surely be cut off.

I was too well convinced of the embarrassment that lay behind me if
left alone with the Naybe, and too determined upon my journey to
hesitate upon going forward. I even flattered myself, that his flock
of stratagems to prevent our going, was by this time exhausted, and
that the morrow would see us in the open fields, free from further
tyranny and controul. In this conjecture I was warranted by the visible
impression the declaration of the king’s servant had made upon him.

On the 15th, early in the morning, I struck my tent again, and had my
baggage prepared, to shew we were determined to stay no longer. At
eight o’clock, I went to the Naybe, and found him almost alone, when he
received me in a manner that, for him, might have passed for civil. He
began with a considerable degree of eloquence, or fluency of speech,
a long enumeration of the difficulties of our journey, the rivers,
precipices, mountains, and woods we were to pass; the number of wild
beasts every where to be found; as also the wild savage people that
inhabited those places; the most of which, he said, were luckily under
his command, and he would recommend to them to do us all manner of
good offices. He commanded two of his secretaries to write the proper
letters, and, in the mean time, ordered us coffee; conversing naturally
enough about the king and Ras Michael, their campaign against Fasil,
and the great improbability there was, they should be successful.

At this time came in a servant covered with dust and seemingly
fatigued, as having arrived in haste from afar. The Naybe, with a
considerable deal of uneasiness and confusion, opened the letters,
which were said to bring intelligence, that the Hazorta, Shiho, and
Tora, the three nations who possessed that part of Samhar through
which our road led to Dobarwa, the common passage from Masuah to
Tigrè, had revolted, driven away his servants, and declared themselves
independent. He then, (as if all was over) ordered his secretaries
to stop writing; and, lifting up his eyes, began, with great seeming
devotion, to thank God we were not already on our journey; for,
innocent as he was, when we should have been cut off, the fault would
have been imputed to him.

Angry as I was at so barefaced a farce, I could not help bursting
out into a violent fit of loud laughter, when he put on the severest
countenance, and desired to know the reason of my laughing at such a
time. It is now two months, answered I, since you have been throwing
various objections in my way; can you wonder that I do not give into
so gross an imposition? This same morning, before I struck my tent, in
presence of your nephew Achmet, I spoke with two Shiho just arrived
from Samhar, who brought letters to Achmet, which said all was in
peace. Have you earlier intelligence than that of this morning?

He was for some time without speaking; then said, “If you are weary
of living, you are welcome to go; but I will do my duty in warning
those that are along with you of their and your danger, that, when
the mischief happens, it may not be imputed to me.” “No number of
naked Shiho,” said I, “unless instructed by you, can ever be found
on our road, that will venture to attack us. The Shiho have no fire
arms; but if you have sent on purpose some of your soldiers that have
fire arms, these will discover by what authority they come. For our
part, we cannot fly; we neither know the country, the language, nor
the watering-places, and we shall not attempt it. We have plenty of
different sorts of fire-arms, and your servants have often seen at
Masuah we are not ignorant in the use of them. We, it is true, may lose
our lives, that is in the hand of the Almighty; but we shall not fail
to leave enough on the spot, to give sufficient indication to the king
and Ras Michael, who it was that were our assassins, Janni of Adowa
will explain the rest.”

I then rose very abruptly to go away. It is impossible to give one,
not conversant with these people, any conception what perfect matters
the most clownish and beastly among them are of dissimulation. The
countenance of the Naybe now changed in a moment. In his turn he burst
out into a loud fit of laughter, which surprised me full as much as
mine, some time before, had done him. Every feature of his treacherous
countenance was altered and softened into complacency; and he, for the
first time, bore the appearance of a man.

“What I mentioned about the Shiho, he then said, was but to try you;
all is peace. I only wanted to keep you here, if possible, to cure my
nephew Achmet, and his uncle Emir Mahomet; but since you are resolved
to go, be not afraid; the roads are safe enough. I will give you a
person to conduct you, that will carry you in safety, even if there
was danger; only go and prepare such remedies as may be proper for the
Emir, and leave them with my nephew Achmet, while I finish my letters.”
This I willingly consented to do, and at my return I found every thing
ready.

Our guide was a handsome young man, to whom, though a Christian,
the Naybe had married his sister; his name was Saloomé. The common
price paid for such a conductor is three pieces of blue Surat cotton
cloth. The Naybe, however, obliged us to promise thirteen to his
brother-in-law, with which, to get rid of him with some degree of good
grace, we willingly complied.

Before our setting out I told this to Achmet, who said, that the
man was not a bad one naturally, but that his uncle the Naybe made
all men as wicked as himself. He furnished me with a man to shew me
where I should pitch my tent; and told me he should now take my final
deliverance upon himself, for we were yet far, according to the Naybe’s
intentions, from beginning our journey to Gondar.

Arkeeko consists of about 400 houses, a few of which are built of
clay, the rest of coarse grass like reeds. The Naybe’s house is of
these last-named materials, and not distinguished from any others in
the town; it stands upon the S. W. side of a large bay. There is water
enough for large ships close to Arkeeko, but the bay being open to the
N. E. makes it uneasy riding in blowing weather. Besides, you are upon
a lee-shore; the bottom is composed of soft sand. In standing in upon
Arkeeko from the sea through the canal between Shekh Seide and the main
land, it is necessary to range the coast about a third nearer the main
than the island. The point, or Shekh Seide, stretches far out, and has
shallow water upon it.

The Cape that forms the south-west side of the large bay is called _Ras
Gedem_, being the rocky base of a high mountain of that name, seen a
considerable distance from sea, and distinguished by its form, which is
that of a hog’s back.




CHAP. III.

_Journey from Arkeeko, over the mountain Taranta, to Dixan._


According to Achmet’s desire, we left Arkeeko the 15th, taking our
road southward, along the plain, which is not here above a mile broad,
and covered with short grass nothing different from ours, only that
the blade is broader. After an hour’s journey I pitched my tent at
Laberhey, near a pit of rain-water. The mountains of Abyssinia have a
singular aspect from this, as they appear in three ridges. The first
is of no considerable height, but full of gullies and broken ground,
thinly covered with shrubs; the second, higher and steeper, still more
rugged and bare; the third is a row of sharp, uneven-edged mountains,
which would be counted high in any country in Europe. Far above the top
of all, towers that stupendous mass, the mountain of Taranta, I suppose
one of the highest in the world, the point of which is buried in the
clouds, and very rarely seen but in the clearest weather; at other
times abandoned to perpetual mist and darkness, the seat of lightning,
thunder, and of storm.

Taranta is the highest of a long, steep ridge of mountains, the
boundary between _the opposite seasons_. On its east side, or towards
the Red Sea, the rainy season is from October to April; and, on the
western, or Abyssinian side, cloudy, rainy, and cold weather prevails
from May to October.

In the evening, a messenger from the Naybe found us at our tent at
Laberhey, and carried away our guide Saloomé. It was not till the next
day that he appeared again, and with him Achmet, the Naybe’s nephew.
Achmet made us deliver to him the thirteen pieces of Surat cloth, which
was promised Saloomè for his hire, and this, apparently, with that
person’s good-will. He then changed four of the men whom the Naybe had
furnished us for hire to carry our baggage, and put four others in
their place; this, not without some murmuring on their part; but he
peremptorily, and in seeming anger, dispatched them back to Arkeeko.

Achmet now came into the tent, called for coffee, and, while drinking
it, said, “You are sufficiently persuaded that I am your friend; if you
are not, it is too late now to convince you. It is necessary, however,
to explain the reasons of what you see. You are not to go to Dobarwa,
though it is the best road, the safest being preferable to the easiest.
Saloomé knows the road by Dixan as well as the other. You will be apt
to curse me when you are toiling and sweating ascending Taranta, the
highest mountain in Abyssinia, and on this account worthy your notice.
You are then to consider if the fatigue of body you then suffer in that
passage is not overpaid by the absolute safety you will find yourselves
in. Dobarwa belongs to the Naybe, and I cannot answer for the orders
he may have given to his own servants; but Dixan is mine, although
the people are much worse than those of Dobarwa. I have written to my
officers there; they will behave the better to you for this; and, as
you are strong and robust, the best I can do for you is to send you by
a rugged road, and a safe one.”

Achmet again gave his orders to Saloomé, and we, all rising, said the
fedtah, or _prayer of peace_; which being over, his servant gave him a
narrow web of muslin, which, with his own hands, he wrapped round my
head in the manner the better sort of Mahometans wear it at Dixan. He
then parted, saying, “He that is your enemy is mine also; you shall
hear of me by Mahomet Gibberti.”

This finished a series of trouble and vexation, not to say danger,
superior to any thing I ever before had experienced, and of which
the bare recital (though perhaps too minute a one) will give but an
imperfect idea. These wretches possess talents for tormenting and
alarming, far beyond the power of belief; and, by laying a true sketch
of them before a traveller, an author does him the most real service.
In this country the more truly we draw the portrait of man, the more
we seem to fall into caricature.

On the 16th, in the evening, we left Laberhey; and, after continuing
about an hour along the plain, our grass ended, the ground becoming
dry, firm, and gravelly, and we then entered into a wood of
acacia-trees of considerable size. We now began to ascend gradually,
having Gedem, the high mountain which forms the bay of Arkeeko, on
our left, and these same mountains, which bound the plain of Arkeeko
to the west, on our right. We encamped this night on a rising-ground
called Shillokeeb, where there is no water, though the mountains were
everywhere cut through with gullies and water courses, made by the
violent rains that fall here in winter.

The 17th, we continued along the same plain, still covered thick with
acacia-trees. They were then in blossom, had a round yellow flower, but
we saw no gum upon the trees. Our direction had hitherto been south. We
turned westerly through an opening in the mountains, which here stand
so close together as to leave no valley or plain space between them but
what is made by the torrents, in the rainy season, forcing their way
with great violence to the sea.

The bed of the torrent was our only road; and, as it was all sand,
we could not wish for a better. The moisture it had strongly imbibed
protected it from the sudden effects of the sun, and produced, all
alongst its course, a great degree of vegetation and verdure. Its banks
were full of rack-trees, capers, and tamarinds; the two last bearing
larger fruit than I had ever before seen, though not arrived to their
greatest size or maturity.

We continued this winding, according to the course of the river, among
mountains of no great height, but bare, stony, and full of terrible
precipices. At half past eight o’clock we halted, to avoid the heat of
the sun, under shade of the trees before mentioned, for it was then
excessively hot, though in the month of November, from ten in the
morning till two in the afternoon. We met this day with large numbers
of Shiho, having their wives and families along with them, descending
from the tops of the high mountains of Habesh, with their flocks to
pasture, on the plains below near the sea, upon grass that grows up in
the months of October and November, when they have already consumed
what grew in the opposite season on the other side of the mountains.

This change of domicil gives them a propensity to thieving and
violence, though otherwise a cowardly tribe. It is a proverb in
Abyssinia, “Beware of men that drink _two_ waters,” meaning these, and
all the tribes of _Shepherds_, who were in search of pasture, and who
have lain under the same imputation from the remotest antiquity.

The Shiho were once very numerous; but, like all these nations having
communication with Masuah, have suffered much by the ravages of the
small-pox. The Shiho are the blackest of the tribes bordering upon the
Red Sea. They were all clothed; their women in coarse cotton shifts
reaching down to their ancles, girt about the middle with a leather
belt, and having very large sleeves; the men in short cotton breeches
reaching to the middle of their thighs, and a goat’s skin cross their
shoulders. They have neither tents nor cottages, but either live in
caves in the mountains under trees, or in small conical huts built with
a thick grass like reeds.

This party consisted of about fifty men, and, I suppose, not more than
thirty women; from which it seemed probable the Shiho are Monogam, as
afterwards, indeed, I knew them to be. Each of them had a lance in his
hand, and a knife at the girdle which kept up the breeches. They had
the superiority of the ground, as coming down the mountain which we
were ascending; yet I observed them to seem rather uneasy at meeting
us; and so far from any appearance of’ hostility, that, I believe, had
we attacked briskly, they would have fled without much resistance.
They were, indeed, incumbered with a prodigious quantity of goats and
other cattle, so were not in a fighting trim. I saluted the man that
seemed to be their chief, and asked him if he would sell us a goat.
He returned my salute; but either could not speak Arabic, or declined
further conversation. However, those of our people behind, that were of
a colour nearer to themselves, bought us a goat that was lame, (dearly
they said) for some antimony, four large needles, and some beads. Many
of them asked us for _kisserah_, or bread. This being an Arabic word,
and their having no other word in their language signifying bread,
convinces me they were Icthyophagi; as, indeed, history says all those
Troglydite nations were who lived upon the Red Sea. It could not indeed
be otherwise: the rich, when trade flourished in these parts, would
probably get corn from Arabia or Abyssinia; but, in their own country,
no corn would grow.

At 2 o’clock in the afternoon we resumed our journey through a very
stony, uneven road, till 5 o’clock, when we pitched our tent at a place
called Hamhammou, on the side of a small green hill some hundred yards
from the bed of the torrent. The weather had been perfectly good since
we left Masuah: this afternoon, however, it seemed to threaten rain;
the high mountains were quite hid, and great part of the lower ones
covered with thick clouds; the lightning was very frequent, broad, and
deep tinged with blue; and long peals of thunder were heard, but at a
distance. This was the first sample we had of Abyssinian bad weather.

The river scarcely ran at our passing it; when, all of a sudden, we
heard a noise on the mountains above, louder than the loudest thunder.
Our guides, upon this, flew to the baggage, and removed it to the top
of the green hill; which was no sooner done, than we saw the river
coming down in a stream about the height of a man, and breadth of the
whole bed it used to occupy. The water was thick tinged with red earth,
and ran in the form of a deep river, and swelled a little above its
banks, but did not reach our station on the hill.

An antelope, surprised by the torrent, and I believe hurt by it, was
forced over into the peninsula where we were, seemingly in great
distress. As soon as my companions saw there was no further danger from
the river, they surrounded this innocent comrade in misfortune, and put
him to death with very little trouble to themselves. The acquisition
was not great; it was lean, had a musky taste, and was worse meat than
the goat we had bought from the Shiho. The torrent, though now very
sensibly diminished, still preserved a current till next morning.

Between Hamhammou and Shillokeeb we first saw the dung of elephants,
full of pretty thick pieces of indigested branches. We likewise, in
many places, saw the tracks thro’ which they had passed; some trees
were thrown down from the roots, some broken in the middle, and
branches half-eaten strewed on the ground.

Hamhammou is a mountain of black stones, almost calcined by the
violent heat of the sun. This is the boundary of the district; Samhar,
inhabited by the Shiho from Hamhammou to Taranta, is called Hadassa; it
belongs to the Hazorta.

This nation, though not so numerous as the Shiho, are yet their
neighbours, live in constant defiance of the Naybe, and are of a colour
much resembling new copper; but are inferior to the Shiho in size,
though very agile. All their substance is in cattle; yet they kill none
of them, but live entirely upon milk. They, too, want also an original
word for bread in their language, for the same reason, I suppose, as
the Shiho. They have been generally successful against the Naybe, and
live either in caves, or in cabannes, like cages, just large enough to
hold two persons, and covered with an ox’s hide. Some of the better
sort of women have copper bracelets upon their arms, beads in their
hair, and a tanned hide wrapt about their shoulders.

The nights are cold here--even in summer, and do not allow the
inhabitants to go naked as upon the rest of the coast; however, the
children of the Shiho, whom we met first, were all naked.

The 18th, at half past five in the morning, we left our station on
the side of the green hill at Hamhammou: for some time our road lay
through a plain so thick set with acacia-trees that our hands and faces
were all torn and bloody with the strokes of their thorny branches. We
then resumed our ancient road in the bed of the torrent, now nearly
dry, over stones which the rain of the preceding night had made very
slippery.

At half past seven we came to the mouth of a narrow valley, through
which a stream of water ran very swiftly over a bed of pebbles. It
was the first clear water we had seen since we left Syria, and gave
us then unspeakable pleasure. It was in taste excellent. The shade of
the tamarind-tree, and the coolness of the air, invited us to rest on
this delightful spot, though otherwise, perhaps, it was not exactly
conformable to the rules of prudence, as we saw several huts and
families of the Hazorta along the side of the stream, with their flocks
feeding on the branches of trees and bushes, entirely neglectful of the
grass they were treading under foot.

The caper-tree here grows as high as the tallest English elm; its
flower is white, and its fruit, though not ripe, was fully as large as
an apricot.

I went some distance to a small pool of water in order to bathe, and
took my firelock with me; but none of the savages stirred from their
huts, nor seemed to regard me more than if I had lived among them all
their lives, though surely I was the most extraordinary sight they had
ever seen; whence I concluded that they are a people of small talents
or genius, having no curiosity.

At two o’clock we continued our journey, among large timber trees, till
half past three, along the side of the rivulet, when we lost it. At
half past four we pitched our tent at Sadoon, by the side of another
stream, as clear, as shallow, and as beautiful as the first; but the
night here was exceedingly cold, though the sun had been hot in the
day-time. Our desire for water was, by this time, considerably abated.
We were everywhere surrounded by mountains, bleak, bare, black, and
covered with loose stones, entirely destitute of soil; and, besides
this gloomy prospect, we saw nothing but the heavens.

On the 19th, at half past six in the morning, we left Sadoon, our road
still winding between mountains in the bed, or torrent of a river,
bordered on each side with rack and sycamore trees of a good size.
I thought them equal to the largest trees I had ever seen; but upon
considering, and roughly measuring some of them, I did not find one 7½
feet diameter; a small tree in comparison of those that some travellers
have observed, and much smaller than I expected; for here every cause
concurred that should make the growth of these large bodies excessive.

At half past eight o’clock, we encamped at a place called Tubbo, where
the mountains are very steep, and broken, very abruptly, into cliffs
and precipices. Tubbo was by much the most agreeable station we had
seen; the trees were thick, full of leaves, and gave us abundance
of very dark shade. There was a number of many different kinds so
closely planted that they seemed to be intended for natural arbours.
Every tree was full of birds, variegated with an infinity of colours,
but destitute of song; others, of a more homely and more European
appearance, diverted us with a variety of wild notes, in a stile of
music still distinct and peculiar to Africa; as different in the
composition from our linnet and goldfinch, as our English language
is to that of Abyssinia: Yet, from very attentive and frequent
observation, I found that the sky-lark at Masuah sang the same notes as
in England. It was observable, that the greatest part of the beautiful
painted birds were of the jay, or magpie kind: nature seemed, by the
fineness of their dress, to have marked them for children of noise
and impertinence, but never to have intended them for pleasure or
meditation.

The reason of the Hazorta making, as it were, a fixed station here at
Tubbo, seems to be the great exuberancy of the foliage of these large
trees. Their principal occupation seemed to be to cut down the branches
most within their reach; and this, in a dry season, nearly stripped
every tree; and, upon failure of these, they remove their flocks,
whatever quantity of grass remained.

The sycamores constitute a large proportion of these trees, and they
are everywhere loaded with figs; but the process of caprification being
unknown to these savages, these figs come to nothing, which else might
be a great resource for food at times, in a country which seems almost
destitute of the necessaries of life.

We left Tubbo at three o’clock in the afternoon, and we wished to leave
the neighbourhood of the Hazorta. At four, we encamped at Lila, where
we passed the night in a narrow valley, full of trees and brushwood,
by the side of a rivulet. These small, but delightful streams, which
appear on the plain between Taranta and the sea, run only after
October. When the summer rains in Abyssinia are ceasing, they begin
again on the east side of the mountains; at other times, no running
water is to be found here, but it remains stagnant in large pools,
whilst its own depth, or the shade of the mountains and trees, prevent
it from being exhaled by the heat of the sun till they are again
replenished with fresh supplies, which are poured into them upon return
of the rainy season. Hitherto we had constantly ascended from our
leaving Arkeeko, but it was very gradually, indeed almost imperceptibly.

On the 20th, at six o’clock in the morning, we left our station at
Lila, and about seven we began to ascend the hills, or eminences, which
serve as the roots or skirts of the great mountain Taranta. The road
was on each side bordered with nabca, or jujeb trees of great beauty,
and sycamores perfectly deprived of their verdure and branches.

We saw to-day plenty of game. The country here is everywhere deprived
of the shade it would enjoy from these fine trees, by the barbarous
axes of the Hazorta. We found everywhere immense flocks of antelopes;
as also partridges of a small kind that willingly took refuge upon
trees; neither of these seemed to consider us as enemies. The antelopes
let us pass through their flocks, only removing to the right or to the
left, or standing still and gazing upon us till we passed. But, as we
were then on the confines of Tigrè, or rather on the territory of the
Baharnagash, and as the Hazorta were in motion everywhere removing
towards the coast, far from the dominions of the Abyssinians to which
we were going, a friend of their own tribe, who had joined us for
safety, knowing how little trust was to be put in his countrymen when
moving in this contrary direction, advised us by no means to fire, or
give any unnecessary indication of the spot where we were, till we
gained the mountain of Taranta, at the foot of which we halted at nine
in the morning.

At half past two o’clock in the afternoon we began to ascend the
mountain, through a most rocky, uneven road, if it can deserve the
name, not only from its incredible steepness, but from the large holes
and gullies made by the torrents, and the huge monstrous fragments of
rocks which, loosened by the water, had been tumbled down into our
way. It was with great difficulty we could creep up, each man carrying
his knapsack and arms; but it seemed beyond the possibility of human
strength to carry our baggage and instruments. Our tent, indeed,
suffered nothing by its falls; but our telescopes, time-keeper, and
quadrant, were to be treated in a more deliberate and tender manner.

Our quadrant had hitherto been carried by eight men, four to relieve
each other; but these were ready to give up the undertaking upon
trial of the first few hundred yards. A number of expedients, such as
trailing it on the ground, (all equally fatal to the instrument) were
proposed. At last, as I was incomparably the strongest of the company,
as well as the most interested, I, and a stranger Moor who had followed
us, carried the head of it for about 400 yards over the most difficult
and steepest part of the mountain, which before had been considered as
impracticable by all.

Yasine was the name of that Moor, recommended to me by Metical Aga,
of whom I have already spoken a little, and shall be obliged to say
much more; a person whom I had discovered to be a man of a most
sagacious turn of mind, firm heart, and strenuous nerves; never more
distinguished for all these qualities than in the hour of imminent
danger; at other times remarkable for quietness and silence, and a
constant study of his Koran.

We carried it steadily up the steep, eased the case gently over the
big stones on which, from time to time, we rested it; and, to the
wonder of them all, placed the head of the three-foot quadrant, with
its double case, in safety far above the stony parts of the mountain.
At Yasine’s request we again undertook the next most difficult
task, which was to carry the iron foot of the quadrant in a single
deal-case, not so heavy, indeed, nor so liable to injury, but still
what had been pronounced impossible to carry up so steep and rugged a
mountain; and refusing then the faint offers of those that stood gazing
below, excusing themselves by foretelling an immediate and certain
miscarriage, we placed the second case about ten yards above the first
in perfect good condition.

Declaring ourselves now without fear of contradiction, and, by the
acknowledgment of all, upon fair proof, the two best men in the
company, we returned, bearing very visibly the characters of such an
exertion; our hands and knees were all cut, mangled, and bleeding,
with sliding down and clambering over the sharp points of the rocks;
our clothes torn to pieces; yet we professed our ability, without any
reproaches on our comrades, to carry the two telescopes and time-keeper
also. Shame, and the proof of superior constancy, so much humbled the
rest of our companions, that one and all put their hands so briskly to
work, that, with infinite toil, and as much pleasure, we advanced so
far as to place all our instruments and baggage, about two o’clock in
the afternoon, near half way up this terrible mountain of Taranta.

There were five asses, two of which belonged to Yasine, and these were
fully as difficult to bring up the mountain as any of our burdens. Most
of their loading, the property of Yasine, we carried up the length of
my instruments; and it was proposed, as a thing that one man could do,
to make the unladen light asses follow, as they had been well taken
care of, were vigorous and young, and had not suffered by the short
journies we had made on plain ground. They no sooner, however, found
themselves at liberty, and that a man was compelling them with a stick
to ascend the mountain, than they began to bray, to kick, and to bite
each other; and, as it were with one consent, not only ran down the
part of the hill we had ascended, but, with the same jovial cries as
before, (smelling, I suppose, some of their companions) they continued
on at a brisk trot; and, as we supposed, would never stop till they
came to Tubbo, and the huts of the Hazorta.

All our little caravan, and especially the masters of these animals,
saw from above, in despair, all our eagerness to pass Taranta defeated
by the secession of the most obstinate of the brute creation. But there
was no mending this by reflection; at the same time, we were so tired
as to make it impossible for the principals to give any assistance.
Bread was to be baked, and supper to be made ready, after this
fatiguing journey.

At length four Moors, one of them a servant of Yasine, with one
firelock, were sent down after the asses; and the men were ordered to
fire at a distance, so as to be heard in case any thing dishonest was
offered on the part of the Hazorta. But luckily the appetite of the
asses returning, they had fallen to eat the bushes, about half way to
Lila, where they were found a little before sun-set.

The number of hyænas that are everywhere among the bushes, had, as we
supposed, been seen by these animals, and had driven them all into a
body. It was probable that this, too, made them more docile, so that
they suffered themselves to be driven on before their masters. The
hyænas, however, followed them step by step, always increasing in
number; and, the men, armed only with lances, began to be fully as
much afraid for themselves as for the asses. At last the hyænas became
so bold, that one of them seized the ass belonging to the poor Moor,
whose cargo was yet lying at the foot of Taranta, and pulled him down,
though the man ran to him and relieved him with lances. This would have
begun a general engagement with the hyænas, had not Yasine’s man that
carried the firelock discharged it amongst them, but missed them all.
However, it answered the purpose; they disappeared, and left the asses
and ass-drivers to pursue their way.

The shot, for a moment, alarmed us all upon the mountain. Every man
ran to his arms to prepare for the coming of the Hazorta; but a
moment’s reflection upon the short time the men had been away, the
distance between us and Tubbo, and the small space that it seemed to
be from where the gun was fired, made us all conclude the man had only
intended by the shot to let us know they were at hand, tho’ it was
not till near midnight before our long-eared companions joined their
masters.

We found it impossible to pitch our tents, from the extreme weariness
in which our last night’s exertion had left us: But there was another
reason also; for there was not earth enough covering the bare sides of
Taranta to hold fast a tent-pin; but there were variety of caves near
us, and throughout the mountain, which had served for houses to the old
inhabitants; and in these found a quiet and not inconvenient place of
repose, the night of the 20th of November.

All this side of the mountain of Taranta, which we had passed, was
thick-set with a species of tree which we had never before seen, but
which was of uncommon beauty and curious composition of parts; its name
is _kol-quall_[3]. Though we afterwards met it in several places of
Abyssinia, it never was in the perfection we now saw it in Taranta.

On the 21st, at half past six in the morning, having encouraged my
company with good words, increase of wages, and hopes of reward, we
began to encounter the other half of the mountain, but, before we set
out, seeing that the ass of the stranger Moor, which was bit by the
hyæna, was incapable of carrying his loading further, I desired the
rest every one to bear a proportion of the loading till we should
arrive at Dixan, where I promised to procure him another which might
enable him to continue his journey.

This proposal gave universal satisfaction to our Mahometan attendants.
Yasine swore that my conduct was a reproach to them all, for that,
though a Christian, I had set them an example of charity to their poor
brother, highly necessary to procure God’s blessing upon their journey,
but which should properly have come first from themselves. After a
great deal of strife of kindness, it was agreed that I should pay
one-third, that the lame ass should go for what it was worth, and the
Moors of the caravan make up the difference.

This being ended, I soon perceived the good effect. My baggage moved
much more briskly than the preceding day. The upper part of the
mountain was, indeed, steeper, more craggy, rugged, and slippery than
the lower, and impeded more with trees, but not embarrassed so much
with large stones and holes. Our knees and hands, however, were cut
to pieces by frequent falls, and our faces torn by the multitude of
thorny bushes. I twenty times now thought of what Achmet had told me
at parting, that I should curse him for the bad road shewn to me over
Taranta; but bless him for the quiet and safety attending me in that
passage.

The middle of the mountain was thinner of trees than the two extremes;
they were chiefly wild olives which bear no fruit. The upper part
was close covered with groves of the oxy cedrus, the Virginia, or
berry-bearing cedar, in the language of the country called Arz. At
last we gained the top of the mountain, upon which is situated a small
village called Halai, the first we had seen since our leaving Masuah.
It is chiefly inhabited by poor servants and shepherds keeping the
flocks of men of substance living in the town of Dixan.

The people here are not black, but of a dark complexion bordering very
much upon yellow. They have their head bare; their feet covered with
sandals; a goat’s skin upon their shoulders; a cotton cloth about their
middle; their hair short and curled like that of a negroe’s in the
west part of Africa; but this is done by art, not by nature, each man
having a wooden stick with which he lays hold of the lock and twists
it round a screw, till it curls in the form he desires[4]. The men
carry in their hands two lances and a large shield of bull’s hide. A
crooked knife, the blade in the lower part about three inches broad,
but diminishing to a point about sixteen inches long, is stuck at their
right side, in a girdle of coarse cotton cloth, with which their middle
is swathed, going round them six times.

All sorts of cattle are here in great plenty; cows and bulls of
exquisite beauty, especially the former; they are, for the most part,
completely white, with large dewlaps hanging down to their knees; their
heads, horns, and hoofs perfectly well-turned; the horns wide like our
Lincolnshire kine; and their hair like silk. Their sheep are large,
and all black. I never saw one of any other colour in the province of
Tigré. Their heads are large; their ears remarkably short and small;
instead of the wool they have hair, as all the sheep within the tropics
have, but this is remarkable for its lustre and softness, without any
bristly quality, such as those in Beja, or the country of Sennaar; but
they are neither so fat, nor is their flesh so good, as that of the
sheep in the warmer country. The goats here, too, are of the largest
size; but they are not very rough, nor is their hair long.

The plain on the top of the mountain Taranta was, in many places, sown
with wheat, which was then ready to be cut down, though the harvest was
not yet begun. The grain was clean, and of a good colour, but inferior
in size to that of Egypt. It did not, however, grow thick, nor was the
stalk above fourteen inches high. The water is very bad on the top of
Taranta, being only what remains of the rain in the hollows of the
rocks, and in pits prepared for it.

Being very tired, we pitched our tent on the top of the mountain.
The night was remarkably cold, at least appeared so to us, whose
pores were opened by the excessive heat of Masuah; for at mid-day the
thermometer stood 61°, and at six in the evening 59°; the barometer, at
the same time, 18½ inches French. The dew began to fall strongly, and
so continued till an hour after sun-set, though the sky was perfectly
clear, and the smallest stars discernible.

I killed a large eagle here this evening, about six feet ten inches
from wing to wing. It seemed very tame till shot. The ball having
wounded it but slightly, when on the ground it could not be prevented
from attacking the men or beasts near it with great force and
fierceness, so that I was obliged to stab it with a bayonet. It was
of a dirty white; only the head and upper part of its wings were of a
light brown.

On the 22d, at eight in the morning, we left our station on the top of
Taranta, and soon after began to descend on the side of Tigré through a
road the most broken and uneven that ever I had seen, always excepting
the ascent of Taranta. After this we began to mount a small hill, from
which we had a distinct view of Dixan.

The cedar-trees, so tall and beautiful on the top of Taranta, and also
on the east side, were greatly degenerated when we came to the west,
and mostly turned into small shrubs and scraggy bushes. We pitched
our tent near some marshy ground for the sake of water, at three
quarters past ten, but it was very bad, having been, for several weeks,
stagnant. We saw here the people busy at their wheat harvest; others,
who had finished theirs, were treading it out with cows or bullocks.
They make no use of their straw; sometimes they burn it, and sometimes
leave it on the spot to rot.

We set out from this about ten minutes after three, descending gently
through a better road than we had hitherto seen. At half past four in
the evening, on the 22d of November, we came to Dixan. Halai was the
first village, so is this the first town in Abyssinia, on the side of
Taranta. Dixan is built on the top of a hill, perfectly in form of a
sugar loaf; a deep valley surrounds it everywhere like a trench, and
the road winds spirally up the hill till it ends among the houses.

This town, with a large district, and a considerable number of
villages, belonged formerly to the Baharnagash, and was one of the
strong places under his command. Afterwards, when his power came to
be weakened, and his office in disrepute by his treasonable behaviour
in the war of the Turks, and civil war that followed it, during the
Portuguese settlement in the reign of Socinios, the Turks possessing
the sea ports, and being often in intelligence with him, it was thought
proper to wink at the usurpations of the governors of Tigrè, who,
little by little, reduced this office to be dependent on their power.

Dixan, presuming upon its strength, declared for independence in the
time the two parties were contending; and, as it was inhabited mostly
by Mahometans, it was secretly supported by the Naybe. Michael Suhul,
however, governor of Tigré, in the reign of king Yasous II. invested it
with a large army of horse and foot; and, as it had no water but what
was in the valley below, the general defect of these lofty situations,
he surrounded the town, encamping upon the edge of the valley, and
inclosed all the water within his line of circumvallation, making
strong posts at every watering-place, defended by fire-arms.

He then sent to them a buffoon, or dwarf, desiring them to surrender
within two hours. The passions of the inhabitants were, however, raised
by expectations of succour from the Naybe; and they detested Michael
above every thing that could be imagined. They, therefore, whipt the
dwarf, and inflicted other marks of contumely upon him. Michael
bore this with seeming indifference. He sent no more summonses, but
strengthened his posts, and ordered them to be continually visited.
Several attacks of no consequence were made by the besieged following
large stones, which were rolled down into the trench, but all to no
purpose. A general attack, however, from the town, was tried the third
day, by which one well was carried, and many relieved their thirst;
many died there, and the rest were forced back into the town. A
capitulation was now offered; but Michael answered, he waited for the
coming of the Naybe. About 700 people are said to have died, during the
siege, with thirst; and at last, there being no prospect of relief,
twelve of the leaders were delivered and hanged up at the wells. The
town surrendered at discretion, and the soldiers finished those whom
thirst had spared.

Michael then farmed Dixan to the Naybe, who repeopled it. There was a
high and low town, divided from each other by a considerable space.
In the lower abode Christians, at least so calling themselves; on the
top of the hill were the Naybe’s party, who had dug for themselves a
scanty well. Saloomé, our guide, was son of the governor for the Naybe.
Achmet was the person the Moors in the low town had confided in; and
the Christian chief was a dependent upon Janni, our Greek friend at
Adowa, who had direction of all the custom-houses in Tigrè, and of that
at Dixan among the rest.

Our baggage had passed the trench, and had reached the low town through
which Saloomè had conducted me, under pretence of getting a speedy
shelter from the heat: but he overacted his part; and Janni, his
servant, who spoke Greek, giving me a hint to go no farther, I turned
short towards the house, and sat down with my firelock upon a stone at
the door. Our baggage quickly followed, and all was put safe in a kind
of a court inclosed with a sufficient stone-wall.

It was not long till Hagi Abdelcader, Achmet’s friend, came to us,
inviting me civilly to his house, and declaring to me the friendly
orders he had received from Achmet concerning me; bringing along with
him also a goat, some butter and honey. I excused myself from leaving
Janni’s friend, the Christian, where I had first alighted; but I
recommended Yasine to him, for he had begun to shew great attachment
to me. In about a quarter of an hour came Saloomé, with about twenty
men, and demanded us, in the name of the Naybe, as his strangers:
he said we owed him money for conducting us, and likewise for the
customhouse dues. In a moment near a hundred men were assembled round
Hagi Abdelcader, all with shields and lances, and we expected to see
a fray of the most serious kind. But Abdelcader, with a switch in his
hand, went gravely up to Saloomè, and, after chiding his party with
great authority, he held up his stick twice over Saloomé’s head, as if
to strike him; then ordered him, if he had any demands, to come to him
in the evening; upon which both parties dispersed, and left us in peace.

The matter was settled in the evening with Saloomé in an amicable
manner. It was proved that thirteen pieces of blue cloth were the hire
agreed on, and that it had been paid by his order to Achmet; and,
though he deserved nothing for his treacherous inclinations towards
us, yet, for Achmet’s sake, and our friend Hagi Abdelcader’s, we made
him a present of three pieces more.

It is true of Dixan as, I believe, of most frontier towns, that the
bad people of both contiguous countries resort thither. The town, as
I before have said, consists of Moors and Christians, and is very
well peopled; yet the only trade of either of these sects is a very
extraordinary one, that of selling of children. The Christians bring
such as they have stolen in Abyssinia to Dixan as to a sure deposit;
and the Moors receive them there, and carry them to a certain market
at Masuah, whence they are sent over to Arabia or India. The priests
of the province of Tigré, especially those near the rock Damo, are
openly concerned in this infamous practice; and some of these have been
licensed by Michael to carry it on as a fair trade, upon paying so many
firelocks for each dozen or score of slaves.

Nothing can elucidate the footing upon which this trade stands better
than a transaction which happened while I was in Ethiopia, and which
reached Gondar by way of complaint from Masuah, and was told me by
Michael himself.

Two priests of Tigrè, whose names I have forgot, had been long intimate
friends. They dwelt near the rock Damo. The youngest was married, and
had two children, both sons; the other was old, and had none. The
old one reproved his friend one day for keeping his children at home
idle, and not putting them to some profession by which they might
gain their bread. The married priest pleaded his poverty and his
want of relations that could assist him; on which, the old priest
offered to place his eldest son with a rich friend of his own, who had
no children, and where he should want for nothing. The proposal was
accepted, and the young lad, about ten years of age, was delivered by
his father to the old priest, to carry him to this friend, who sent the
boy to Dixan and sold him there. Upon the old priest’s return, after
giving the father a splendid account of his son’s reception, treatment,
and prospects, he gave him a piece of cotton cloth, as a present from
his son’s patron.

The younger child, about eight years old, hearing the good fortune of
his elder brother, became so importunate to be allowed to go and visit
him, that the parents were obliged to humour him, and consent. But the
old priest had a scruple, saying he would not take the charge of so
young a boy, unless his mother went with him. This being settled, the
old priest conveyed them to the market at Dixan, where he sold both the
mother and the remaining child.

Returning to the father, the old priest told him, that his wife would
stay only so long, and expected he would then fetch her upon a certain
day, which was named. The day being come, the two priests went together
to see this happy family; and, upon their entering Dixan, it was found
that the old priest had sold the young one, but not to the same Moor
to whom he had sold his family. Soon after, these two Moors, who had
bought the Christians, becoming partners in the venture, the old priest
was to receive forty cotton-cloths, that is, L. 10 Sterling, for the
husband, wife, and children.

The payment of the money, perhaps the resentment of the family
trepanned, and the appearance of equity which the thing itself bore,
suggested to the Moorish merchants that there was some more profit,
and not more risk, if they carried off the old priest likewise. But as
he had come to Dixan, as it were under public faith, in a trade that
greatly interested the town, they were afraid to attempt any thing
against him whilst there. They began then as it were to repent of their
bargain, from a pretended apprehension that they might be stopped and
questioned at going out of town, unless he would accompany them to some
small distance; in consideration of which, they would give him, at
parting, two pieces of cloth to be added to the other forty, which he
was to take back to Tigré with him upon his return.

The beginning of such expeditions is in the night. When all were
asleep, they set out from Dixan; the buyers, the seller, and the family
sold; and, being arrived near the mountain where the way turns off to
the desert, the whole party fell upon the old priest, threw him down,
and bound him. The woman insisted that she might be allowed to cut,
or tear off the little beard he had, in order, as she said, to make
him look younger; and this demand was reckoned too just to be denied
her. The whole five were then carried to Masuah; the woman and her
two children were sold to Arabia; the two priests had not so ready a
market, and they were both in the Naybe’s house when I was at Masuah,
though I did not then know it.

The Naybe, willing to ingratiate himself with Ras Michael at a small
expence, wrote to him an account of the transaction, and offered, as
they were priests, to restore them to him. But the Ras returned for
answer, that the Naybe should keep them to be his chaplains; as he
hoped, some day, he would be converted to the Christian faith himself;
if not, he might send them to Arabia with the rest; they would serve to
be carriers of wood and drawers of water; and that there still remained
at Damo enough of their kind to carry on the trade with Dixan and
Masuah.

This story I heard from Ras Michael himself, at his grand-daughter’s
marriage, when he was feasting, and in great spirits. He, and all the
company, laughed heartily; and although there were in the room at least
two dozen of priests, none of them seemed to take this incident more
seriously than the rest of the company. From this we may guess at the
truth of what the Catholic writers advance, with regard to the respect
and reverence shown to the priesthood by the government and great men
in Abyssinia.

The priest of Axum, and those of the monastery of Abba Garima, are
equally infamous with those of Damo for this practice, which is winked
at by Ras Michael, as contributing to his greatness, by furnishing
fire-arms to his province of Tigré, which gives him a superiority over
all Abyssinia. As a return for this article, about five hundred of
these unfortunate people are exported annually from Masuah to Arabia;
of which three hundred are Pagans, and come from the market at Gondar;
the other two hundred are Christian children, kidnapped by some such
manner as this we have spoken of, and in times of scarcity four times
that number. The Naybe receives six patakas of duty for each one
exported. Dixan is in lat. 14° 57´ 55´´ North, and long. 40° 7´ 30´´
east of the meridian of Greenwich.

From Dixan we discovered great part of the province of Tigrè full of
high dreadful mountains. We, as yet, had seen very little grain, unless
by the way-side from Taranta, and a small flat called Zarai, about four
miles S. S. W. of the town.




CHAP. IV.

_Journey from Dixan to Adowa, Capital of Tigrè._


It was on Nov. 25th, at ten in the morning, we left Dixan, descending
the very steep hill on which the town is situated. It produces nothing
but the Kol-quall tree all around it. We passed a miserable village
called Hadhadid, and, at eleven o’clock, encamped under a daroo tree,
one of the finest I have seen in Abyssinia, being 7½ feet diameter,
with a head spreading in proportion, standing alone by the side of
a river which now ran no more, though there is plenty of fine water
still stagnant in its bed. This tree and river is the boundary of the
territory, which the Naybe farms from Tigré, and stands within the
province of Baharnagash, called Midrè Bahar.

Hagi Abdelcader had attended us thus far before he left us; and the
noted Saloomè came likewise, to see if some occasion would offer of
doing us further mischief; but the king’s servants, now upon their own
ground, began to take upon them a proper consequence. One of them went
to meet Saloomé at the bank of the river, and making a mark on the
ground with his knife, declared that his patience was quite exhausted
by what he had been witness to at Masuah and Dixan; and if now Saloomé,
or any other man belonging to the Naybe, offered to pass that mark,
he would bind him hand and foot, and carry him to a place where he
should be left tied to a tree, a prey to the lion and hyæna. They all
returned, and there our persecution from the Naybe ended. But it was
very evident, from Achmet’s behaviour and discourse, had we gone by
Dobarwa, which was the road proposed by the Naybe, our sufferings would
not have been as yet half finished, unless they had ended with our
lives.

We remained under this tree the night of the 25th; it will be to me a
station ever memorable, as the first where I recovered a portion of
that tranquillity of mind to which I had been a stranger ever since
my arrival at Masuah. We had been joined by about twenty loaded asses
driven by Moors, and two loaded bulls; for there is a small sort of
this kind called Ber, which they make use of as beasts of burden. I
called all these together to recommend good order to them, desiring
every one to leave me that was not resolved to obey implicitly the
orders I should give them, as to the hours and places of encamping,
keeping watch at night, and setting out in the morning. I appointed
Yasine the judge of all disputes between them; and, if the difference
should be between Yasine and any one of them, or, if they should not
be content with his decision, then my determination was to be final.
They all consented with great marks of approbation. We then repeated
the fedtah, and swore to stand by each other till the last, without
considering who the enemy might be, or what his religion was, if he
attacked us.

The 26th, at seven in the morning, we left our most pleasant quarters
under the daroo-tree, and set forward with great alacrity. About a
quarter of a mile from the river we crossed the end of the plain
Zarai, already mentioned. Though this is but three miles long, and
one where broadest, it was the largest plain we had seen since our
passing Taranta, whose top was now covered wholly with large, black,
and very heavy clouds, from which we heard and saw frequent peals of
thunder, and violent streams of lightning. This plain was sown partly
with wheat, partly with Indian corn; the first was cut down, the other
not yet ripe. Two miles farther we passed Addicota, a village planted
upon a high rock; the sides towards us were as if cut perpendicular
like a wall. Here was one refuge of the Jesuits when banished Tigrè by
Facilidas, when they fled to the rebel John Akay. We after this passed
a variety of small villages on each side of us, all on the top of
hills; Darcotta and Embabuwhat on the right, Azaria on the left.

At half an hour past eleven we encamped under a mountain, on the top
of which is a village called Hadawi, consisting of no more than eighty
houses, though, for the present, it is the seat of the Baharnagash. The
present Baharnagash had bought the little district that he commanded,
after the present governor of Tigré, Michael Suhul, had annexed to his
own province what he pleased of the old domains, and farmed the other
part to the Naybe for a larger revenue than he ever could get from any
other tenant. The Naybe had now no longer a naval force to support
him, and the fear of Turkish conquest had ceased in Tigrè. The Naybe
could be reduced within any bounds that the governor of Tigrè might
please to prescribe him; and the Baharnagash was a servant maintained
to watch over him, and starve him into obedience, by intercepting his
provisions whenever the governor of Tigré commanded him.

This nobleman paid me a visit in my tent, and was the first Abyssinian
I had seen on horseback; he had seven attendant horsemen with him, and
about a dozen of others on foot, all of a beggarly appearance, and very
ill-armed and equipped. He was a little man, of an olive complexion,
or rather darker; his head was shaved close, with a cowl, or covering,
upon it; he had a pair of short trousers; his feet and legs were bare;
the usual coarse girdle was wrapt several times about him, in which he
stuck his knife; and the ordinary web of cotton cloth, neither new nor
clean, was thrown about him. His parts seemed to be much upon the level
with his appearance. He asked me, if I had ever seen horses before? I
said, Very seldom. He then described their qualities in such a manner
as would never have given me any idea of the animal if I had seen it
seldom. He excused himself for not having sent us provisions, because
he had been upon an expedition against some rebellious villages, and
was then only just returned.

To judge by his present appearance, he was no very respectable
personage; but in this I was mistaken, as I afterwards found. I gave
him a present in proportion to the first idea, with which he seemed
very well content, till he observed a number of fire-arms tied up to
the pillar in the middle of the tent, among which were two large
ship-blunderbusses. He asked me if there was no danger of their going
off? I said, that it happened every now and then, when their time was
come. A very little after this, he took the cushion upon which he sat,
went out, and placed himself at the door of the tent. There the king’s
servant got hold of him, and told him roundly, he must furnish us with
a goat, a kid, and forty loaves, and that immediately, and write it off
in his deftar, or account-book, if he pleased. He then went away and
sent us a goat and fifty cakes of teff bread.

But my views upon him did not end here. His seven horses were all
in very bad order, though there was a black one among them that
had particularly struck my fancy. In the evening I sent the king’s
servants, and Janni’s, for a check, to try if he would sell that black
horse. The bargain was immediately made for various pieces of goods,
part of which I had with me, and part I procured from my companions
in the caravan. Every thing was fashionable and new from Arabia. The
value was about L. 12. Sterling, forty shillings more than our friend
at Dixan had paid for a whole family of four persons. The goods were
delivered, and the horse was to be sent in the evening, when he proved
a brown one, old, and wanting an eye. I immediately returned the horse,
insisting on the black one; but he protested the black horse was not
his own; that he had returned it to its master; and, upon a little
further discourse, said, that it was a horse he intended as a present
for the king.

My friends treated this with great indifference, and desired their
goods back again, which were accordingly delivered. But they were no
sooner in the tent, when the black horse was sent, and refused. The
whole, however, was made up, by sending us another goat, which I gave,
to Yasine, and two jars of bouza, which we drank among us, promising,
according to the Baharnagash’s request, we would represent him well
at court. We found, from his servants, that he had been upon no
expedition, nor one step from home for three months past.

I was exceedingly pleased with this first acquisition. The horse was
then lean, as he stood about sixteen and a half hands high, of the
breed of Dongola. Yasine, a good horseman, recommended to me one of his
servants, or companions, to take care of him. He was an Arab, from the
neighbourhood of Medina, a superior horseman himself, and well-versed
in every thing that concerned the animal. I took him immediately into
my service. We called the horse Mirza, a name of good fortune. Indeed,
I might say, I acquired that day a companion that contributed always
to my pleasure, and more than once to my safety; and was no slender
means of acquiring me the first attention of the king. I had brought my
Arab stirrups, saddle, and bridle with me, so that I was now as well
equipped as a horseman could be.

On the 27th we left Hadawi, continuing our journey down a very steep
and narrow path between two stony hills; then ascended one still
higher, upon the top of which stands the large village of Goumbubba,
whence we have a prospect over a considerable plain all sown with
the different grain this country produces, wheat, barley, teff, and
tocusso; simsim, (or sesame) and nook; the last is used for oil.

We passed the village of Dergate, then that of Regticat, on the top of
a very high hill on the left, as the other was on our right. We pitched
our tent about half a mile off the village called Barranda, where we
were overtaken by our friend the Baharnagash, who was so well pleased
with our last interview, especially the bargain of the horse, that he
sent us three goats, two jars of honey-wine, and some wheat-flour. I
invited him to my tent, which he immediately accepted. He was attended
by two servants on foot, with lances and shields; he had no arms
himself, but, by way of amends, had two drums beating, and two trumpets
blowing before him, sounding a charge.

He seemed to be a very simple, good-natured man, indeed, remarkably so;
a character rarely found in any degree of men in this country. He asked
me how I liked my horse? said, he hoped I did not intend to mount it
myself? I answered, God forbid; I kept him as a curiosity. He commended
my prudence very much, and gave me a long detail about what horses had
done, and would do, on occasions. Some of the people without, however,
shewed his servants my saddle, bridle, and stirrups, which they well
knew, from being neighbours to the Arabs of Sennaar, and praised me
as a better horseman by far than any one in that country; this they
told to the Baharnagash, who, nothing offended, laughed heartily at
the pretended ignorance I had shewn him, and shook me very kindly by
the hand, and told me he was really poor, or he would have taken no
money from me for the horse. He shewed so much good nature, and open
honest behaviour, that I gave him a present better than the first, and
which was more agreeable, as less expected. Razors, knives, steels for
striking fire, are the most valuable presents in this country, of the
hardware kind.

The Baharnagash now was in such violent good spirits, that he would not
go home till he had seen a good part of his jar of hydromel finished;
and he little knew, at that time, he was in the tent with a man who
was to be his chief customer for horses hereafter. I saw him several
times after at court, and did him some services, both with the king and
Ras Michael. He had a quality which I then did not know: With all his
simplicity and buffoonery, no one was braver in his own person than he;
and, together with his youngest son, he died afterwards in the king’s
defence, fighting bravely at the battle of Serbraxos.

At five o’clock this afternoon we had a violent shower of hailstones.
Nothing is more common than aggravation about the size of hail; but,
stooping to take up one I thought as large as a nutmeg, I received a
blow from another just under my eye, which I imagined had blinded me,
and which occasioned a swelling all the next day.

I had gained the Baharnagash’s heart so entirely that it was not
possible to get away the next day. We were upon the very verge of his
small dominions, and he had ordered a quantity of wheat-flour to be
made for us, which he sent in the evening, with a kid. For my part, the
share I had taken yesterday of his hydromel had given me such a pain in
my head that I scarce could raise it the whole day.

It was the 29th we left our station at Barranda, and had scarcely
advanced a mile when we were overtaken by a party of about twenty
armed men on horseback. The Shangalla, the ancient Cushites, are all
the way on our right hand, and frequently venture incursions into the
flat country that was before us. This was the last piece of attention
of the Baharnagash, who sent his party to guard us from danger in the
plain. It awakened us from our security; we examined carefully the
state of our fire-arms; cleaned and charged them anew, which we had not
done since the day we left Dixan.

The first part of our journey to-day was in a deep gully; and, in half
an hour, we entered into a very pleasant wood of acacia-trees, then
in flower. In it likewise was a tree, in smell like a honeysuckle,
whose large white flower nearly resembles that of a caper. We came out
of this wood into the plain, and ascended two easy hills; upon the
top of these were two huge rocks, in the holes of which, and within a
large cave, a number of the blue fork-tailed swallows had begun their
nests. These, and probably many, if not all the birds of passage, breed
twice in the year, which seems a provision against the losses made by
emigration perfectly consonant to divine wisdom. These rocks are, by
some, said to be the boundaries of the command of the Baharnagash on
this side; though others extend them to the Balezat.

We entered again a straggling wood, so overgrown with wild oats that
it covered the men and their horses. The plain here is very wide. It
reaches down on the west to Serawé, then distant about twelve miles. It
extends from Goumbubba as far south as Balezat. The soil is excellent;
but such flat countries are very rare in Abyssinia. This, which is one
of the finest and widest, is abandoned without culture, and is in a
state of waste. The reason of this is, an inveterate feud between the
villages here and those of Serawé, so that the whole inhabitants on
each side go armed to plow and to sow in one day; and it is very seldom
either of them complete their harvest without having a battle with
their enemies and neighbours.

Before we entered this wood, and, indeed, on the preceding day, from
the time we left Hadawi, we had seen a very extraordinary bird at a
distance, resembling a wild turkey, which ran exceedingly fast, and
appeared in great flocks. It is called Erkoom[5], in Amhara; Abba
Gumba, in Tigrè; and, towards the frontiers of Sennaar, Tier el Naciba,
or, the Bird of Destiny.

Our guides assembled us all in a body, and warned us that the river
before us was the place of the rendezvous of the Serawè horse, where
many caravans had been entirely cut off. The cavalry is the best on
this side of Abyssinia. They keep up the breed of their horses by their
vicinity to Sennaar whence they get supply. Nevertheless, they behaved
very ill at the battle of Limjour; and I cannot say I remember them to
have distinguished themselves any where else. They were on our right at
the battle of Serbraxos, and were beat by the horse of Foggora and the
Galla.

After passing the wood, we came to the river, which was then standing
in pools. I here, for the first time, mounted on horseback, to the
great delight of my companions from Barranda, and also of our own,
none of whom had ever before seen a gun fired from a horse galloping,
excepting Yasine and his servant, now my groom, but neither of these
had ever seen a double-barrelled gun. We passed the plain with all the
diligence consistent with the speed and capacity of our long-eared
convoy; and, having now gained the hills, we bade defiance to the
Serawè horse, and sent our guard back perfectly content, and full of
wonder at our fire-arms, declaring that their master the Baharnagash,
had he seen the black horse behave that day, would have given me
another much better.

We entered now into a close country covered with brushwood, wild oats,
and high bent-grass; in many places rocky and uneven, so as scarce
to leave a narrow part to pass. Just in the very entrance a lion had
killed a very fine animal called Agazan. It is of the goat kind; and,
excepting a small variety in colour, is precisely the same animal I had
seen in Barbary near Capsa. It might be about twelve stone weight, and
of the size of a large ass. (Whenever I mention a stone weight, I would
wish to be understood horseman’s weight, fourteen pound to the stone,
as most familiar to the generality of those who read these Travels.)
The animal was scarcely dead; the blood was running; and the noise of
my gun had probably frightened its conqueror away: every one with their
knives cut off a large portion of flesh; Moors and Christians did the
same; yet the Abyssinians aversion to any thing that is dead is such,
unless killed regularly by the knife, that none of them would lift any
bird that was shot, unless by the point or extreme feather of its wing.
Hunger was not the excuse, for they had been plentifully fed all this
journey; so that the distinction, in this particular case, is to be
found in the manners of the country. They say they may lawfully eat
what is killed by the lion, but not by the tiger, hyæna, or any other
beast. Where they learned this doctrine, I believe, would not be easy
to answer; but it is remarkable, even the Falasha themselves admit this
distinction in favour of the lions.

At noon we crossed the river Balezat, which rises at Ade Shiho, a place
on the S. W. of the province of Tigrè; and, after no very long course,
having been once the boundary between Tigrè and Midré Bahar, (for so
the country of the Baharnagash was called) it falls into the Mareb,
or ancient Astusaspes. It was the first river, then actually running,
that we had seen since we passed Taranta; indeed, all the space is but
very indifferently watered. This stream is both clear and rapid, and
seems to be full of fish. We continued for some time along its banks,
the river on our left, and the mountains on our right, through a narrow
plain, till we came to Tomumbusso, a high pyramidal mountain, on the
top of which is a convent of monks, who do not, however, reside there,
but only come hither upon certain feasts, when they keep open house and
entertain all that visit them. The mountain itself is of porphyry.

There we encamped by the river’s side, and were obliged to stay this
and the following day, for a duty, or custom, to be paid by all
passengers. These duties are called Awides, which signifies _gifts_;
though they are levied, for the most part, in a very rigorous and rude
manner; but they are established by usage in particular spots; and are,
in fact, a regality annexed to the estate. Such places are called Ber,
_passes_; which are often met with in the names of places throughout
Abyssinia, as Dingleber, Sankraber; and so forth.

There are five of these Awides which, like turnpikes, are to be paid at
passing between Masuah and Adowa; one at Samhar, the second at Dixan,
the third at Darghat, the fourth here at Balezat, and the fifth at
Kella. The small village of Sebow was distant from us two miles to the
east; Zarow the same distance to the S. S. E. and Noguet, a village
before us, were the places of abode of these tax-gatherers, who farm
it for a sum from their superior, and divide the profit _pro rata_ of
the sums each has advanced. It is much of the same nature as the caphar
in the Levant, but levied in a much more indiscreet, arbitrary manner.
The farmer of this duty values as he thinks proper what each caravan
is to pay; there is no tariff, or restraint, upon him. Some have on
this account been detained months; and others, in time of trouble or
bad news, have been robbed of every thing: this is always the case upon
the least resistance; for then the villages around you rise in arms;
you are not only stript of your property, but sure to be ill-treated in
your person.

As I was sent for by the king, and going to Ras Michael, in whose
province they were, I affected to laugh when they talked of detaining
me; and declared peremptorily to them, that I would leave all my
baggage to them with great pleasure, rather than that the king’s life
should be in danger by my stay. They were now staggered, and seemed
not prepared for an incident of this kind. As I kept up a high tone,
we were quit with being detained a day, by paying five pieces of
blue Surat cotton cloth, value 3/4 of a pataka each, and one piece
of white, value one pataka. Our companions, rather than stay behind,
made the best bargain they could; and we all decamped, and set forward
together. I was surprised to see, at the small village Zarow, several
families as black as perfect negroes, only they were not woolly-headed,
and had prominent features. I asked if they descended from slaves,
or sons of slaves? They said, No; their particular families of that
and the neighbouring village Sebow, were of that colour from time
immemorial; and that this did not change, though either the father or
mother were of another colour.

On the 1st of December we departed from Balezat, and ascended a steep
mountain upon which stands the village Noguet, which we passed about
half an hour after. On the top of the hill were a few fields of teff.
Harvest was then ended, and they were treading out the teff with oxen.
Having passed another very rugged mountain, we descended and encamped
by the side of a small river, called Mai Kol-quall, from a number of
these trees growing about it. This place is named the Kella, or Castle,
because, nearly at equal distances, the mountains on each side run for
a considerable extent, straight and even, in shape like a wall; with
gapes at certain distances, resembling embrasures and bastions. This
rock is otherwise called Damo, anciently the prison of the collateral
heirs-male of the royal family.

The river Kol-quall rises in the mountains of Tigrè, and, after a
course nearly N. W. falls into the Mareb. It was at Kella we saw,
for the first time, the roofs of the houses made in form of cones; a
sure proof that the tropical rains grow more violent as they proceed
westward.

About half a mile on the hill above is the village Kaibara, wholly
inhabited by Mahometan Gibbertis; that is, native Abyssinians of that
religion. Kella being one of these bers, or passages, we were detained
there three whole days, by the extravagant demands of these farmers of
the Awide, who laughed at all the importance we gave ourselves. They
had reasons for our reasons, menaces for our menaces, but no civilities
to answer ours. What increased the awkwardness of our situation was,
they would take no money for provisions, but only merchandise by way of
barter. We were, indeed, prepared for this by information; so we began
to open shop by spreading a cloth upon the ground, at the sight of
which, hundreds of young women poured down upon us on every side from
villages behind the mountains which we could not see. The country is
surprisingly populous, notwithstanding the great emigration lately made
with Michael. Beads and antimony are the standard in this way-faring
commerce; but beads are a dangerous speculation. You lose sometimes
every thing, or gain more than honestly you should do; for all depends
upon fashion; and the fancies of a brown, or black beauty, there, gives
the _ton_ as decisively as does the example of the fairest in England.

To our great disappointment, the person employed to buy our beads at
Jidda had not received the last list of fashions from this country; so
he had bought us a quantity beautifully flowered with red and green,
and as big as a large pea; also some large oval, green, and yellow
ones; whereas the _ton_ now among the beauties of Tigré were small
sky-coloured blue beads, about the size of small lead shot, or seed
pearls; blue bugles, and common white bugles, were then in demand, and
large yellow glass, flat in the side like the amber-beads formerly
used by the better sort of the old women-peasants in England. All
our beads were then rejected, by six or seven dozen of the shrillest
tongues I ever heard. They decried our merchandize in such a manner,
that I thought they meant to condemn them as unsaleable, to be
confiscated or destroyed.

Let every man, travelling in such countries as these, remember, that
there is no person, however mean, who is in his company, that does not
merit attention, kindness, and complacency. Let no man in travelling
exalt himself above the lowest, in a greater degree than he is able to
do superior service; for many that have thought themselves safe, and
been inattentive to this, have perished by the unsuspected machinations
of the lowest and meanest wretch among them. Few have either made
such long or such frequent journies of this kind as I, and I scarcely
recollect any person so insignificant that, before the end of a
moderate journey, had not it in his power to return you like for like
for your charity or unkindness, be the difference of your quality and
condition what it would.

Of all the men in our company, none had any stock of the true small
sky-blue beads, and no one had one grain of the large yellow-glass
ones, but the poor Moor, whose ass was bit by the hyæna near Lila,
and whose cargo, likely to be left behind at the foot of Taranta,
I had distributed among the rest of the asses of the caravan; and,
leaving the wounded one for the price he would fetch, had next day
bought him another at Halai, with which, since that time, he continued
his journey. That fellow had felt the obligation in silence; and not
one word, but Good-day, and Good-e’en, had passed between us since
conferring the favour. Understanding now what was the matter, he called
Yasine, and gave him a large package, which he imprudently opened, in
which was a treasure of all the beads in fashion, all but the white and
blue bugles, and these Yasine himself furnished us with afterwards.

A great shout was set up by the women-purchasers, and a violent
scramble followed. Twenty or thirty threw themselves upon the parcel,
tearing and breaking all the strings as if they intended to plunder
us. This joke did not seem to be relished by the servants. Their
hard-heartedness before, in professing they would let us starve rather
than give us a handful of flour for all our unfashionable beads, had
quite extinguished the regard we else would have unavoidably shewn to
the fair sex. A dozen of whips and sticks were laid unmercifully upon
their hands and arms, till each dropped her booty. The Abyssinian men
that came with them seemed to be perfectly unconcerned at the fray,
and stood laughing without the least sign of wishing to interfere in
favour of either side. I believe the restitution would not have been
complete, had not Yasine, who knew the country well, fired one of the
ship-blunderbusses into the air behind their backs. At hearing so
unexpectedly this dreadful noise, both men and women fell flat on their
faces; the women were immediately dragged off the cloth, and I do not
believe there was strength left in any hand to grasp or carry away a
single bead. My men immediately wrapped the whole in the cloth, so for
a time our market ended.

For my part, at the first appearance of the combat I had withdrawn
myself, and sat a quiet spectator under a tree. Some of the women were
really so disordered with the fright, that they made but very feeble
efforts in the market afterwards. The rest beseeched me to transfer the
market to the carpet I sat on under the tree. This I consented to; but,
growing wise by misfortune, my servants now produced small quantities
of every thing, and not without a very sharp contest and dispute,
somewhat superior in noise to that of our fish-women. We were, however,
plentifully supplied with honey, butter, flour, and pumpkins of an
exceeding good taste, scarcely inferior to melons.

Our caravan being fully victualled the first and second day, our market
was not opened but by private adventurers, and seemingly savoured more
of gallantry than gain. There were three of them the most distinguished
for beauty and for tongue, who, by their discourse, had entertained me
greatly. I made each of them a present of a few beads, and asked them
how many kisses they would give for each? They answered very readily,
with one accord, “Poh! we don’t sell kisses in this country: Who would
buy them? We will give you as many as you wish for nothing.” And there
was no appearance but, in that bargain, they meant to be very fair and
liberal dealers.

The men seemed to have no talent for marketing; nor do they in this
country either buy or sell. But we were surprised to see the beaux
among them come down to the tent, the second day after our arrival,
with each of them a single string of thin, white bugles tied about
their dirty, black legs, a little above their ancle; and of this they
seemed as proud as if the ornament had been gold or jewels.

I easily saw that so much poverty, joined to so much avarice and
pride, made the possessor a proper subject to be employed. My young
favourite, who had made so frank an offer of her kindness, had brought
me her brother, begging that I would take him with me to Gondar to
Ras Michael, and allow him to carry one of my guns, no doubt with an
intention to run off with it by the way. I told her that was a thing
easily done; but I must first have a trial of his fidelity, which was
this, That he would, without speaking to anybody but me and her, go
straight to Janni at Adowa, and carry the letter I should give him,
and deliver it into his own hand, in which case I would give him a
large parcel of each of these beads, more than ever she thought to
possess in her lifetime. She frankly agreed, that my word was more to
be relied upon than either her own or her brother’s; and, therefore,
that the beads, once shewn to them both, were to remain a deposit in
my hand. However, not to send him away wholly destitute of the power
of charming, I presented him the single string of white bugles for
his ancle. Janni’s Greek servant gave him a letter, and he made such
diligence that, on the fourth day, by eight o’clock in the morning, he
came to my tent without ever having been missed at home.

At the same time came an officer from Janni, with a violent mandate,
in the name of Ras Michael, declaring to the person that was the
cause of our detention, That, was it not for ancient friendship, the
present messenger should have carried him to Ras Michael in irons;
discharging me from all awides; ordering him, as Shum of the place,
to furnish me with provisions; and, in regard to the time he had
caused us to lose, fixing the awides of the whole caravan at eight
piasters, not the twentieth part of what he would have exacted. One
reason of this severity was, that, while I was in Masuah, Janni had
entertained this man at his own house; and, knowing the usual vexations
the caravans met with at Kella, and the long time they were detained
there at considerable expence, had obtained a promise from the Shum,
in consideration of favours done him, that he should let us pass
freely, and, not only so, but should shew us some little civility. This
promise, now broken, was one of the articles of delinquency for which
he was punished.

Cohol, large needles, goats skins, coarse scissars, razors, and steels
for striking fire, are the articles of barter at Kella. An ordinary
goat’s skin is worth a quart of wheat-flour. As we expected an order
of deliverance, all was ready upon its arrival. The Moors with their
asses, grateful for the benefit received, began to bless the moment
they joined us; hoping, in my consideration, upon our arrival at the
customhouse of Adowa, they might meet with further favour.

Yasine, in the four days we had staid at Kella, had told me his whole
history. It seems he had been settled in a province of Abyssinia,
near to Sennaar, called Ras el Feel; had married Abd el Jilleel, the
Shekh’s daughter; but, growing more popular than his father-in-law,
he had been persecuted by him, and obliged to leave the country. He
began now to form hopes, that, if I was well received, as he saw, in
all appearance, I was to be, he might, by my interest, be appointed
to his father-in-law’s place; especially if there was war, as every
thing seemed to indicate. Abd el Jilleel was a coward, and incapable
of making himself of personal valued to any party. On the contrary,
Yasine was a tried man, an excellent horseman, strong, active, and
of known courage, having been twice with the late king Yasous in
his invasions of Sennaar, and both times much wounded there. It was
impossible to dispute his title to preferment; but I had not formed
that idea of my own success that I should be able to be of any use or
assistance to him in it. Kella is in lat. 14° 24´ 34´´ North.

It was in the afternoon of the 4th that we set out from Kella; our
road was between two hills covered with thick wood. On our right was a
cliff, or high rock of granite, on the top of which were a few houses
that seemed to hang over the cliff rather than stand upon it. A few
minutes after three o’ clock we passed a rivulet, and a quarter of
an hour afterwards another, both which run into the Mareb. We still
continued to descend, surrounded on all sides with mountains covered
with high grass and brushwood, and abounding with lions. At four, we
arrived at the foot of the mountain, and passed a small stream which
runs there.

We had seen no villages after leaving Kella. At half past four o’clock
we came to a considerable river called Angueah, which we crossed, and
pitched our tent on the farther side of it. It was about fifty feet
broad and three in depth. It was perfectly clear, and ran rapidly over
a bed of white pebbles, and was the largest river we had yet seen in
Habesh. In summer there is very little plain ground near it but what is
occupied by the stream; it is full of small fish, in great repute for
their goodness.

This river has its name from a beautiful tree, which covers both its
banks. This tree, by the colour of its bark and richness of its flower,
is a great ornament to the banks of the river. A variety of other
flowers fill the whole level plain between the mountain and the river,
and even some way up the mountains. In particular, great variety of
jessamin, white, yellow, and party-coloured. The country seemed now to
put on a more favourable aspect; the air was much fresher, and more
pleasant, every step we advanced after leaving Dixan; and one cause was
very evident; the country where we now passed was well-watered with
clear running streams; whereas, nearer Dixan, there were few, and all
stagnant.

The 5th, we descended a small mountain for about twenty minutes, and
passed the following villages, Zabangella, about a mile N. W.; at a
quarter of an hour after, Moloxito, half a mile further S. E.; and
Mansuetemen, three quarters of a mile E. S. E. These villages are all
the property of the Abuna; who has also a duty upon all merchandise
passing there; but Ras Michael had confiscated these last villages on
account of a quarrel he had with the last Abuna, _Af-Yagoube_.

We now began first to see the high mountains of Adowa, nothing
resembling in shape to those of Europe, nor, indeed, any other country.
Their sides were all perpendicular rocks, high like steeples, or
obelisks, and broken into a thousand different forms.

At half past eight o’clock we left the deep valley, wherein runs the
Mareb W. N. W.; at the distance of about nine miles above it is the
mountain, or high hill, on which stands Zarai, now a collection of
villages, formerly two convents built by Lalibala; though the monks
tell you a story of the queen of Saba residing there, which the reader
may be perfectly satisfied she never did in her life.

The Mareb is the boundary between Tigré and the Baharnagash, on this
side. It runs over a bed of soil; is large, deep, and smooth; but, upon
rain falling, it is more dangerous to pass than any river in Abyssinia,
on account of the frequent holes in its bottom. We then entered the
narrow plain of Yeeha, wherein runs the small river, which either gives
its name to, or takes it from it. The Yeeha rises from many sources in
the mountains to the west; it is neither considerable for size nor its
course, and is swallowed up in the Mareb.

The harvest was in great forwardness in this place. The wheat was
cut, and a considerable share of the teff in another part; they were
treading out this last-mentioned grain with oxen. The Dora, and a small
grain called telba, (of which they make oil) was not ripe.

At eleven o’clock we rested by the side of the mountain whence the
river falls. All the villages that had been built here bore the marks
of the justice of the governor of Tigré. They had been long the most
incorrigible banditti in the province. He surrounded them in one night,
burnt their houses, and extirpated the inhabitants; and would never
suffer any one since to settle there. At three o’clock in the afternoon
we ascended what remained of the mountain of Yeeha; came to the plain
upon its top; and, at a quarter before four, passed the village of
that name, leaving it to the S. E. and began the most rugged and
dangerous descent we had met with since Taranta.

At half past five in the evening we pitched our tent at the foot of the
hill, close by a small, but rapid and clear stream, which is called
Ribieraini. This name was given it by the banditti of the villages
before mentioned, because from this you see two roads; one leading from
Gondar, that is, from the westward; the other from the Red Sea to the
eastward. One of the gang that used to be upon the out-look from this
station, as soon as any caravan came in sight, cried out, Ribieraini,
which in Tigrè signifies _they are coming this way_; upon which notice
every one took his lance and shield, and stationed himself properly
to fall with advantage upon the unwary merchant; and it was a current
report, which his present greatness could not stifle, that, in his
younger days, Ras Michael himself frequently was on these expeditions
at this place. On our right was the high, steep, and rugged mountain
of Samayat, which the same Michael, being in rebellion, chose for his
place of strength, and was there besieged and taken prisoner by the
late king Yasous.

The rivulet of Ribieraini is the source of the fertility of the country
adjoining, as it is made to overflow every part of this plain, and
furnishes a perpetual store of grass, which is the reason of the
caravans chusing to stop here. Two or three harvests are also obtained
by means of this river; for, provided, there is water, they sow in
Abyssinia in all seasons. We perceived that we were now approaching
some considerable town, by the great care with which every small piece
of ground, and even the steep sides of the mountains, were cultivated,
though they had ever so little soil.

On Wednesday the 6th of December, at eight o’clock in the morning, we
set out from Ribieraini; and in about three hours travelling on a very
pleasant road, over easy hills and through hedge-rows of jessamin,
honey-suckle, and many kinds of flowering shrubs we arrived at Adowa,
where once resided Michael Suhul, governor of Tigrè. It was this day we
saw, for the first time, the small, long-tailed green paroquet, from
the hill of Shillodee, where, as I have already mentioned, we first
came in sight of the mountains of Adowa.




CHAP. V.

_Arrive at Adowa--Reception there--Visit Fremona and Ruins of
Axum--Arrive at Siré._


Adowa is situated on the declivity of a hill, on the west side of a
small plain surrounded everywhere by mountains. Its situation accounts
for its name, which signifies _pass_, or _passage_, being placed on the
flat ground immediately below Ribieraini; the pass through which every
body must go in their way from Gondar to the Red Sea.

This plain is watered by three rivulets which are never dry in the
midst of summer; the Assa, which we cross just below the town when
coming from the eastward; the Mai Gogua, which runs below the hill
whereon stands the village of the same name formerly, though now it
is called Fremona, from the monastery of the Jesuits built there;
and the Ribieraini, which, joining with the other two, falls into
the river Mareb, about 22 miles below Adowa. There are fish in
these three streams, but none of them remarkable for their size,
quantity, or goodness. The best are those of Mai Gogua, a clear and
pleasant rivulet, running very violently and with great noise. This
circumstance, and ignorance of the language, has misled the reverend
father Jerome, who says, that the water of Mai Gogua is called so
from the noise that it makes, which, in common language, is called
_guggling_. This is a mistake, for Mai Gogua signifies _the river of
owls_.

There are many agreeable spots to the south-east of the convent, on the
banks of this river, which are thick-shaded with wood and bushes. Adowa
consists of about 300 houses, and occupies a much larger space than
would be thought necessary for these to stand on, by reason that each
house has an inclosure round it of hedges and trees; the last chiefly
the wanzey. The number of these trees so planted in all the towns,
screen them so, that, at a distance, they appear so many woods. Adowa
was not formerly the capital of Tigré, but has accidentally become
so upon the accession of this governor, whose property, or paternal
estate, lay in and about it. His mansion-house is not distinguished
from any of the others in the town unless by its size; it is situated
upon the top of the hill. The person who is Michael’s deputy, in his
absence, lives in it. It resembles a prison rather than a palace; for
there are in and about it above three hundred persons in irons, some
of whom have been there for twenty years, mostly with a view to extort
money from them; and, what is the most unhappy, even when they have
paid the sum of money which he asks, do not get their deliverance from
his merciless hands; most of them are kept in cages like wild beasts,
and treated every way in the same manner.

But what deservedly interested us most was, the appearance of our kind
and hospitable landlord, Janni. He had sent servants to conduct us
from the passage of the river, and met us himself at the outer-door of
his house. I do not remember to have seen a more respectable figure.
He had his own short white hair, covered with a thin muslin turban, a
thick well-shaped beard, as white as snow, down to his waist. He was
clothed in the Abyssinian dress, all of white cotton, only he had a
red silk sash, embroidered with gold, about his waist, and sandals
on his feet; his upper garment reached down to his ancles. He had a
number of servants and slaves about him of both sexes; and, when I
approached him, seemed disposed to receive me with marks of humility
and inferiority, which mortified me much, considering the obligations
I was under to him, the trouble I had given, and was unavoidably still
to give him. I embraced him with great acknowledgments of kindness and
gratitude, calling him father; a title I always used in speaking either
to him or of him afterwards, when I was in higher fortune, which he
constantly remembered with great pleasure.

He conducted us through a court yard planted with jessamin, to a
very neat, and, at the same, time, large room, furnished with a silk
sofa; the floor was covered with Persian carpets and cushions. All
round, flowers and green leaves were strewed upon the outer yard;
and the windows and sides of the room stuck full of evergreens, in
commemoration of the Christmas festival that was at hand. I stopt at
the entrance of this room; my feet were both dirty and bloody; and
it is not good-breeding to show or speak of your feet in Abyssinia,
especially if any thing ails them, and, at all times, they are
covered. He immediately perceived the wounds that were upon mine. Both
our cloaths and flesh were torn to pieces at Taranta, and several other
places; but he thought we had come on mules furnished us by the Naybe.
For the young man I had sent to him from Kella, following the genius
of his countrymen, tho’ telling truth was just as profitable to him as
lying, had chosen the latter, and seeing the horse I had got from the
Baharnagash, had figured in his own imagination, a multitude of others,
and told Janni that there were with me horses, asses, and mules in
great plenty; so that when Janni saw us passing the water, he took me
for a servant, and expected, for several minutes, to see the splendid
company arrive, well mounted upon horses and mules caparisoned.

He was so shocked at my saying that I performed this terrible journey
on foot, that he burst into tears, uttering a thousand reproaches
against the Naybe for his hard heartedness and ingratitude, as he had
twice, as he said, hindered Michael from going in person and sweeping
the Naybe from the face of the earth. Water was immediately procured to
wash our feet. And here began another contention, Janni insisted upon
doing this himself; which made me run out into the yard, and declare
I would not suffer it. After this, the like dispute took place among
the servants. It was always a ceremony in Abyssinia, to wash the feet
of those that come from Cairo, and who are understood to have been
pilgrims at Jerusalem.

This was no sooner finished, than a great dinner was brought,
exceedingly well dressed. But no consideration or intreaty could
prevail upon my kind landlord to sit down and partake with me. He
would stand, all the time, with a clean towel in his hand, though
he had plenty of servants; and afterwards dined with some visitors,
who had come out of curiosity, to see a man arrived from so far.
Among these was a number of priests; apart of the company which I
liked least, but who did not shew any hostile appearance. It was long
before I cured my kind landlord of these respectful observances, which
troubled me very much; nor could he wholly ever get rid of them, his
own kindness and good heart, as well as the pointed and particular
orders of the Greek patriarch, Mark, constantly suggesting the same
attention.

In the afternoon, I had a visit from the governor, a very graceful man,
of about sixty years of age, tall and well favoured. He had just then
returned from an expedition to the Tacazzè, against some villages of
Ayto Tesfos[6], which he had destroyed, slain 120 men, and driven off
a number of cattle. He had with him about sixty musquets, to which,
I understood, he had owed his advantage. These villages were about
Tubalaque, just as you ascend the farther bank of the Tacazzé. He said
he doubted much if we should be allowed to pass through Woggora, unless
some favourable news came from Michael; for Tesfos of Samen, who kept
his government after Joas’s death, and refused to acknowledge Michael,
or to submit to the king, in conjunction with the people of Woggora,
acted now the part of robbers, plundering all sorts of people, that
carried either provisions, or any thing else, to Gondar, in order to
distress the king and Michael’s Tigré soldiers, who were then there.

The church of Mariam is on the hill S. S. W. of the town, and east
of Adowa; on the other side of the river, is the other church,
called Kedus Michael. About nine miles north, a little inclined to
the east, is Bet Abba Garima, one of the most celebrated monasteries
in Abyssinia. It was once a residence of one of their kings; and
it is supposed that, from this circumstance ill understood, former
travellers[7], have said the metropolis of Abyssinia was called Germè.

Adowa is the seat of a very valuable manufacture of coarse cotton
cloth, which circulates all over Abyssinia instead of silver money;
each web is sixteen peek long of 1¾ width, their value a pataka; that
is, ten for the ounce of gold. The houses of Adowa are all of rough
stone, cemented with mud instead of morter. That of lime is not used
but at Gondar, where it is very bad. The roofs are in the form of
cones, and thatched with a reedy sort of grass, something thicker than
wheat straw. The Falasha, or Jews, enjoy this profession of thatching
exclusively; they begin at the bottom, and finish at the top.

Excepting a few spots taken notice of as we came along from Ribieraini
to Adowa, this was the only part of Tigrè where there was soil
sufficient to yield corn; the whole of the province besides is one
entire rock. There are no timber trees in this part of Tigrè unless a
daroo or two in the valleys, and wanzeys in towns about the houses.

At Adowa, and all the neighbourhood, they have three harvests annually.
Their first seed time is in July and August; it is the principal one
for wheat, which they then sow in the middle of the rains. In the same
season they sow tocusso, teff, and barley. From the 20th of November
they reap first their barley, then their wheat, and last of all their
teff. In room of these they sow immediately upon the same ground,
without any manure, barley, which they reap in February; and then often
sow teff, but more frequently a kind of veitch, or pea, called Shimbra;
these are cut down before the first rains, which are in April. With all
these advantages of triple harvests, which cost no fallowing, weeding,
manure, or other expensive processes, the farmer in Abyssinia is always
poor and miserable.

In Tigré it is a good harvest that produces nine after one, it scarcely
ever is known to produce ten; or more than three after one, for peas.
The land, as in Egypt, is set to the highest bidder yearly; and like
Egypt it receives an additional value, depending on the quantity of
rain that falls and its situation more or less favourable for leading
water to it. The landlord furnishes the seed under condition to receive
half the produce; but I am told he is a very indulgent master that does
not take another quarter for the risk he has run; so that the quantity
that comes to the share of the husbandman is not more than sufficient
to afford sustenance for his wretched family.

The soil is white clay, mixed with sand, and has as good appearance as
any I have seen. I apprehend a deficiency of the crop is not from the
barrenness of the soil, but from the immense quantity of field-rats and
mice that over-run the whole country, and live in the fissures of the
earth. To kill these, they set fire to their straw, the only use they
make of it.

The cattle roam at discretion through the mountains. The herdsmen
set fire to the grass, bent, and brushwood, before the rains, and an
amazing verdure immediately follows. As the mountains are very steep
and broken, goats are chiefly the flocks that graze upon them.

The province of Tigré is all mountainous; and it has been said, without
any foundation in truth, that the Pyrenees, Alps, and Apennines, are
but mole-hills compared to them. I believe, however, that one of the
Pyrenees above St John Pied de Port, is much higher than Lamalmon;
and that the mountain of St Bernard, one of the Alps, is full as high
as Taranta, or rather higher. It is not the extreme height of the
mountains in Abyssinia that occasions surprise, but the number of
them, and the extraordinary forms they present to the eye. Some of
them are flat, thin, and square, in shape of a hearth-stone, or slab,
that scarce would seem to have base sufficient to resist the action of
the winds. Some are like pyramids, others like obelisks or prisms, and
some, the most extraordinary of all the rest, pyramids pitched upon
their points, with their base uppermost, which, if it was possible, as
it is not, they could have been so formed in the beginning, would be
strong objections to our received ideas of gravity.

They tan hides to great perfection in Tigré, but for one purpose only.
They take off the hair with the juice of two plants, a species of
solanum, and the juice of the kol-quall; both these are produced in
abundance in the province. They are great novices, however, in dyeing;
the plant called Suf produces the only colour they have, which is
yellow. In order to obtain a blue, to weave as a border to their cotton
clothes, they unravel the blue threads of the Marowt, or blue cloth of
Surat, and then weave them again with the thread which they have dyed
with the suf.

It was on the 10th of January 1770 I visited the remains of the
Jesuits convent of Fremona. It is built upon the even ridge of a
very high hill, in the middle of a large plain, on the opposite side
of which stands Adowa. It rises from the east to the west, and ends
in a precipice on the east; it is also very steep to the north, and
slopes gently down to the plain on the south. The convent is about
a mile in circumference, built substantially with stones, which are
cemented with lime-morter. It has towers in the flanks and angles; and,
notwithstanding the ill-usage it has suffered, the walls remain still
entire to the height of twenty-five feet. It is divided into three,
by cross walls of equal height. The first division seems to have been
destined for the convent, the middle for the church, and the third
division is separated from this by a wall, and stands upon a precipice.
It seems to me as if it was designed for a place of arms. All the walls
have holes for muskets, and, even now, it is by far the most defensible
place in Abyssinia. It resembles an ancient castle much more than a
convent.

I can scarce conceive the reason why these reverend fathers
misrepresent and misplace this intended capital of Catholic Abyssinia.
Jerome Lobo calls this convent a collection of miserable villages.
Others place it fifty miles, when it is but two, from Adowa to the
north-east. Others say it is only five miles from the Red Sea, while it
is an hundred. It is very extraordinary, that these errors should occur
in the situation of a place built by their own hands, and where their
body long had its residence; and, what makes it more extraordinary
still, it was the domicil which they first occupied, and quitted last.

The kindness, hospitality, and fatherly care of Janni never ceased a
moment. He had already represented me in the most favourable light to
the Iteghè, or queen-mother, (whose servant he had long been) to her
daughter Ozoro Esther, and Ozoro Altash; and, above all, to Michael,
with whom his influence was very great; and, indeed, to every body
he had any weight with; his own countrymen, Greeks, Abyssinians, and
Mahometans; and, as we found afterwards, he had raised their curiosity
to a great pitch.

A kind of calm had spread itself universally over the country, without
apparent reason, as it has been in general observed to do immediately
before a storm. The minds of men had been wearied rather than amused,
by a constant series of new things, none of which had been foreseen,
and which generally ended in a manner little expected. Tired of
guessing, all parties seemed to agree to give it over, till the success
of the campaign should afford them surer grounds to go upon. Nobody
loved Michael, but nobody neglected their own safety so much as to do
or say any thing against him, till he either should lose or establish
his good fortune, by the gain or loss of a battle with Fasil.

This calm I resolved to take advantage of, and to set out immediately
for Gondar. But the 17th of January was now at hand, on which the
Abyssinians celebrate the feast of the Epiphany with extraordinary
rejoicings, and as extraordinary ceremonies, if we believe what their
enemies have said about their yearly repetition of baptism. This I
was resolved to verify with my own eyes; and as Alvarez, chaplain to
the embassy from Don Emanuel, king of Portugal, to king David III.
says he was likewise present at it, the public will judge between two
eye-witnesses which is likeliest to be true, when I come to give an
account of the religious rites of this people. Adowa is in lat. 14° 7´
57´´ north.

On the 17th, we set out from Adowa, resuming our journey to Gondar;
and, after passing two small villages Adega Net, and Adega Daid, the
first about half a mile on our left, the second about three miles
distant on our right, we decamped at sun set near a place called Bet
Hannes, in a narrow valley, at the foot of two hills, by the side of a
small stream.

On the 8th, in the morning, we ascended one of these hills, through a
very rough stony road, and again came into the plain, wherein stood
Axum, once the capital of Abyssinia, at least as it is supposed. For
my part, I believe it to have been the magnificent metropolis of the
trading people, or Troglodyte Ethiopians called properly Cushites, for
the reason I have already given, as the Abyssinians never built any
city, nor do the ruins of any exist at this day in the whole country.
But the black, or Troglodyte part of it, called in the language of
scripture Cush, in many places have buildings of great strength,
magnitude, and expence, especially at Azab, worthy the magnificence and
riches of a state, which was from the first ages the emporium of the
Indian and African trade, whose sovereign, though a Pagan, was thought
an example of reproof to the nations, and chosen as an instrument to
contribute materially to the building of the first temple which man
erected to the true God.

The ruins of Axum are very extensive; but, like the cities of ancient
times, consist altogether of public buildings. In one square, which
I apprehend to have been the center of the town, there are forty
obelisks, none of which have any hieroglyphics upon them[8]. There is
one larger than the rest still standing, but there are two still larger
than this fallen. They are all of one piece of granite; and on the top
of that which is standing there is a patera exceedingly well carved
in the Greek taste. Below, there is the door-bolt and lock, which
Poncet speaks of, carved on the obelisk, as if to represent an entrance
through it to some building behind. The lock and bolt are precisely the
same as those used at this day in Egypt and Palestine, but were never
seen, as far as I know, in Ethiopia, or at any time in use there.

I apprehend this obelisk, and the two larger that are fallen, to be
the works of Ptolemy Evergetes. There is a great deal of carving upon
the face of the obelisk in a Gothic taste, something like metopes,
triglyphs, and guttæ, disposed rudely, and without order, but there are
no characters or figures. The face of this pyramid looks due south;
has been placed with great exactness, and preserves its perpendicular
position till this day. As this obelisk has been otherwise described as
to its ornaments, I have given a geometrical elevation of it servilely
copied, without shading or perspective, that all kind of readers may
understand it.

After passing the convent of Abba Pantaleon, called in Abyssinia,
Mantilles, and the small obelisk situated on a rock above, we proceed
south by a road cut in a mountain of red marble, having on the left a
parapet-wall about five feet high, solid, and of the same materials.
At equal distances there are hewn in this wall solid pedestals, upon
the tops of which we see the marks where stood the Colossal statues of
Syrius the Latrator Anubis, or Dog Star. One hundred and thirty-three
of these pedestals, with the marks of the statues I just mentioned,
are still in their places; but only two figures of the dog remained
when I was there, much mutilated, but of a taste easily distinguished
to be Egyptian. These are composed of granite, but some of them appear
to have been of metal. Axum, being the capital of Siris, or Sirè, from
this we easily see what connection this capital of the province had
with the dog-star, and consequently the absurdity of supposing that
the river derived its name from a Hebrew word[9], signifying _black_.

[Illustration: _Obelisk at Axum._

_London Publish’d Dec^r. 1^{st}. 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]

There are likewise pedestals, whereon the figures pf the Sphinx have
been placed. Two magnificent flights of steps, several hundred feet
long, all of granite, exceedingly well-fashioned, and still in their
places, are the only remains of a magnificent temple. In the angle of
this platform where that temple stood, is the present small church of
Axum, in the place of a former one destroyed by Mahomet Gragné, in the
reign of king David III.; and which was probably remains of a temple
built by Ptolemy Evergetes, if not the work of times more remote.

The church is a mean, small building, very ill kept, and full of
pigeons dung. In it are supposed to be preserved the ark of the
covenant, and copy of the law which Menilek son of Solomon is said, in
their fabulous legends, to have stolen from his father Solomon in his
return to Ethiopia, and these were reckoned as it were the palladia of
this country. Some ancient copy of the Old Testament, I do believe, was
deposited here, probably that from which the first version was made.
But whatever this might be, it was destroyed, with the church itself,
by Mahomet Gragnè, though pretended falsely to subsist there still.
This I had from the king himself.

There was another relique of great importance that happened to escape
from being burnt, by having, in time, been transferred to a church in
one of the islands in the lake Tzana, called Selé Quarat Rasou. It is
a picture of Christ’s head crowned with thorns, said to be painted by
St Luke, which, upon occasions of the utmost importance, is brought
out and carried with the army, especially in a war with Mahometans
and Pagans. We have just seen, it was taken, upon Yasous’s defeat
at Sennaar, and restored afterwards upon an embassy sent thither on
purpose, no doubt, for a valuable consideration.

Within the outer gate of the church, below the steps, are three small
square inclosures, all of granite, with small octagon pillars in the
angles, apparently Egyptian; on the top of which formerly were small
images of the dog-star, probably of metal. Upon a stone, in the middle
of one of these, the king sits, and is crowned, and always has been
since the days of Paganism; and below it, where he naturally places his
feet, is a large oblong slab like a hearth, which is not of granite,
but of free stone. The inscription, though much defaced, may safely be
restored.

    ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ ΕΥΕΡΓΕΤΟΥ
         ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ

Poncet has mistaken this last word for Basilius; but he did not pretend
to be a scholar, and was ignorant of the history of this country.

Axum is watered by a small stream, which flows all the year from a
fountain in the narrow valley, where stand the rows of obelisks. The
spring is received into a magnificent bason of 150 feet square, and
thence it is carried, at pleasure, to water the neighbouring gardens,
where there is little fruit, excepting pomegranates, neither are these
very excellent.

The present town of Axum stands at the foot of the hill, and may have
about six hundred houses. There are several manufactures of coarse
cotton cloth; and here too the best parchment is made of goats skins,
which is the ordinary employment of the monks. Every thing seemed later
at Axum, and near it, than at Adowa; the teff was standing yet green.

On the 19th of January, by a meridian altitude of the sun, and a mean
of several altitudes of stars by night, I found the latitude of Axum to
be 14° 6´ 36´´ north.

The reader will have observed, that I have taken great pains in
correcting the geography of this country, and illustrating the accounts
given us by travellers, as well ancient as modern, and reconciling them
to each other. There are, however, in a very late publication, what I
must suppose to be errors, at least they are absolutely unintelligible
to me, whether they are to be placed to the account of Jerome Lobo,
the original, or to Dr Johnson the translator, or to the bookseller,
is what I am not able to say. But as the book itself is ushered in by
a very warm and particular recommendation of so celebrated an author
as Dr Johnson, and as I have in the course of this work spoke very
contemptibly of that Jesuit, I must, in my own vindication, make some
observations upon the geography of this book, which, introduced into
the world by such authority, might else bring the little we know of
this part of Africa into confusion, from which its maps are as yet very
far from being cleared.

Caxume[10] is said to mean Axum, to be a city in Africa, capital of
the kingdom of Tigrè Mahon in Abyssinia. Now, long ago, Mr Ludolf had
shewn, from the testimony of Gregory the Abyssinian, that there was no
such place in Abyssinia as Tigrè Mahon. That there was, indeed, a large
province called Tigrè, of which Axum was the capital; and Le Grande,
the first publisher of Jerome Lobo, has repeatedly said the same. And
Ludolf has given a very probable conjecture, that the first Portuguese,
ignorant of the Abyssinian language, heard the officer commanding that
province called Tigrè Mocuonen, which is governor of Tigré, and had
mistaken the name of his office for that of his province. Be that as it
will, the reader may rest assured there is no such kingdom, province,
or town in all Abyssinia.

There still remains, however, a difficulty much greater than this, and
an error much more difficult to be corrected. Lobo is said to have
sailed from the peninsula of India, and, being bound for Zeyla, to have
embarked in a vessel going to Caxume, or Axum, capital of Tigrè, and
to have arrived there safely,and been well accommodated. Now Zeyla,
he says, is a city in the kingdom of Adel, at the mouth of the Red
Sea[11]; and Axum, being two hundred miles inland, in the middle of
the kingdom of Tigrè, a ship going to Axum must have passed Zeyla 300
miles, or been 300 miles to the westward of it. Zeyla is not a city,
as is said, but an island. It is not in the kingdom of Adel, but in
the bay of Tajoura, opposite to a kingdom of that name; but the island
itself belongs to the Imam of Sana, sovereign of Arabia Felix; so that
it is inexplicable, how a ship going to Zeyla should choose to land 300
miles beyond it; and still more so, how, being once arrived at Axum,
they should seek a ship to carry them back again to Zeyla, 300 miles
eastward, when they were then going to Gondar, not much above a hundred
miles west of Axum. This seems to me absolutely impossible to explain.

Still, however, another difficulty remains; Tigré is said, by the
Jesuits, and by M. Le Grande their historian, to be full of mountains,
so high that the Alps and Apennines were very inconsiderable in
comparison. And suppose it was otherwise, there is no navigable river,
indeed no river at all, that runs through Tigré into the Red Sea, and
there is the desert of Samhar to pass, where there is no water at all.
How is it possible a ship from the coast of Malabar should get up 200
miles from any sea among the mountains of Tigré? I hope the publisher
will compare this with any map he pleases, and correct it in his
_errata_, otherwise his narrative is unintelligible, unless all this
was intended to be placed to the account of miracles--Peter walked upon
the water, and Lobo the Jesuit sailed upon dry land.

Dr Johnson, or his publisher, involves his reader in another strange
perplexity. “Dancala is a city of Africa in Upper Ethiopia, upon the
Nile, in the tract of Nubia, of which it is the capital;” and the
emperor wrote, “that the missionaries might easily enter his dominions
by the way of Dancala[12].” It is very difficult to understand how
people, in a ship from India, could enter Abyssinia by the way of
Dancala, if that city is upon the Nile; because no where, that I know,
is that river in Abyssinia within 300 miles of any sea; and, still
more so, how it could be in Nubia, and yet in Upper Ethiopia. Dongola
is, indeed, the capital of Nubia; it is upon the Nile in 20° north
latitude; but then it cannot be in Upper Ethiopia, but certainly in the
Lower, and is not within a hundred miles of the Red Sea, and certainly
not the way for a ship from India to get to Abyssinia, which, sailing
down the Red Sea, it must have passed several hundred miles, and gone
to the northward: Dongola, besides, is in the heart of the great desert
of Beja, and cannot, with any degree of propriety, be said to be
easily accessible to any, no, not even upon camels, but impossible to
shipping, as it is not within 200 miles of any sea. On the other hand,
Dancali, for which it may have been mistaken, is a small kingdom on
the coast of the Red Sea, reaching to the frontiers of Abyssinia; and
through it the patriarch Mendes entered Abyssinia, as has been said in
my history; but then Dancali is in lat. 12°, it is not in Nubia, nor
upon the Nile, nor within several hundred miles of it.

Again, Lobo has said, (p. 30. 31.) “that a Portuguese galliot was
ordered to set him ashore at Paté, whose inhabitants were man-eaters.”
This is a very whimsical choice of a place to land strangers in, among
man-eaters. I cannot conceive what advantage could be proposed by
landing men going to Abyssinia so far to the southward, among a people
such as this, who certainly, by their very manners, must be at war,
and unconnected with all their neighbours. And many ages have passed
without this reproach having fallen upon the inhabitants of the east
coast of the peninsula of Africa from any authentic testimony; and I
am confident, after the few specimens just given of the topographical
knowledge of this author, his present testimony will not weigh much,
from whatever hand this performance may have come.

M. de Montesquieu, among all his other talents a most excellent and
accurate geographer, observes, that man-eaters were first mentioned
when the southern parts of the east coast of the peninsula of Africa
came to be unknown. Travellers of Jerome Lobo’s cast, delighting in the
marvellous, did place these unsociable people beyond the promontory
of Prassum, because nobody, at that time, did pass the promontory of
Prassum.

Above 1200 years, these people were unknown, till Vasques de Gama
discovered their coast, and called them the civil or kind nation. By
some lucky revolution in that long period, when they were left to
themselves, they seem most unaccountably to have changed both their
diet and their manners. The Portuguese conquered them, built towns
among them, and, if they met with conspiracies and treachery, these all
originated in a mixture of Moors from Spain and Portugal, Europeans
that had settled among them, and not among the natives themselves. No
man-eaters appeared till after the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope,
when that of the new world, which followed it, made the Portuguese
abandon their settlements in the old; and this coast came as unknown to
them as it had been to the Romans, when they traded only to Raptum and
Prassum, and made Anthropophagi of all the rest. One would be almost
tempted to believe that Jerome Lobo was a man-eater himself, and had
taught this custom to these savages. They had it not before his coming;
they have never had it since; and it must have been with some sinister
intention like this, that a stranger would voluntarily seek a nation
of man-eaters. It is nonsense to say, that a traveller could propose,
as Lobo did, going into a far distant country, such as Abyssinia, under
so very questionable a protection as a man-eater.

I will not take up my own, or the reader’s time, in going through the
multitude of errors in geography to be found in this book of Lobo’s;
I have given the reader my opinion of the author from the original,
before I saw the translation. I said it was a heap of fables, and full
of ignorance and presumption; and I confess myself disappointed that it
has come from so celebrated a hand as the translator, so very little
amended, if indeed it can be said to be amended at all.

Dr Johnson, in the preface to the book, expresses himself in these
words:--“The Portuguese traveller (Jerome Lobo, his original) has
amused his reader with no romantic absurdities, or incredible fictions.
He seems to have described things as he saw them; to have copied nature
from the life; and to have consulted his senses, not his imagination.
He meets with no basilisks that destroy with their eyes; and his
cataracts fall from the rock, without deafening the neighbouring
inhabitants.”

At first reading this passage, I confess I thought it irony. As to what
regards the cataract, one of the articles Dr Johnson has condescended
upon as truth, I had already spoken, while composing these memoirs in
Abyssinia, long before this new publication saw the light; and, upon a
cool revisal of the whole that I have said, I cannot think of receding
from any part of it, and therefore recommend it to the reader’s
perusal. What we have now only to note, is the fidelity of Jerome Lobo,
so strongly vouched in the words I have just cited, in the article
of basilisks, or serpents, which Dr Johnson has chosen as one of the
instances of his author’s adhering to fact, contrary to the custom of
other writers on such subjects.

“In crossing a desert, which was two days journey over, I was in
great danger of my life; for, as I lay on the ground, I perceived
myself seized with a pain which forced me to rise, and saw, about four
yards from me, one of those serpents that _dart their poison from a
distance_. Although I rose before he came very near me, I yet felt the
effects of his poisonous breath; and, if I had lain a little longer,
had certainly died. I had recourse to bezoar, a sovereign remedy
against those poisons, which I always carried about me. These serpents
are not long, but have a body short and thick, their bellies speckled
with brown, black, and yellow. They have a wide mouth, with which they
draw in a great quantity of air, and, having retained it some time,
eject it with such force, that they kill at four yards distance. I only
escaped by being somewhat farther from him.” (Chap. xii. p. 124.)

Now, as this is warranted, by one of such authority as Dr Johnson, to
be neither imagination nor falsehood, we must think it a new system of
natural philosophy, and consider it as such; and, in the first place, I
would wish to know from the author, who seems perfectly informed, what
species of serpent it is that he has quoted as darting their poison
at a distance. Again, what species it is that, at the distance of 12
feet, kills a man by breathing on his back; also, what they call that
species of serpent that, drawing in the same outward air which Jerome
Lobo breathed, could so far pervert its quality as with it to kill at
the distance of four yards. Surely such a serpent, if he had no other
characteristic in the world, would be described by a naturalist as the
serpent with the foul stomach.--I never saw a poisonous serpent in
Abyssinia whose belly is not white; so this one being speckled, brown,
black, and yellow, will be a direction when any such is found, and
serve as a warning not to come near him, at least within the distance
of four yards.

Jerome Lobo continues, “that this danger was not to be much regarded
in comparison of another his negligence brought him into. As he was
picking up a skin that lay upon the ground, he was stung by a serpent
that left its sting in his finger; he picked out an extraneous
substance about the bigness of an hair, which he imagined was the
sting. This slight wound he took little notice of, till his arm grew
inflamed all over; his blood was infected; he fell into convulsions,
which were interpreted as the signs of inevitable death.” (Chap. xii.
p. 125.)

Now, with all submission to Jerome Lobo, the first serpent had brought
him within a near view of death; the second did no more, for it did not
kill him; how comes it that he says the first danger was nothing in
comparison to the second? The first would have certainly killed him, by
blowing upon his back, if he had been nearer than 12 feet. The other
had nearly killed him by a sting. Death was the end of them both. I
cannot see the difference between the two dangers.

The first serpent was of a new species, that kills a man at the
distance of 12 feet by breathing upon him. The second was also new,
for he killed by a sting. We know of no such power that any of the
serpent kind have. If Dr Johnson believes this, I will not say that it
is the most improbable thing he ever gave credit to, but this I will
say, that it is altogether different from what at this day is taught
us by natural philosophy. We easily see, by the strain in which these
stories are told, that all these fables of Lobo would have passed
for miracles, had the conversion of Abyssinia followed. They were
preparatory steps for receiving him as confessor, had his merit not
been sufficient to have entitled him to a higher place in the kalendar.
Rainy, miry, and cold countries, are not the favourite habitation of
serpents. Abyssinia is deluged with six months rain every year while
the sun is passing over it. It only enjoys clear weather when the sun
is farthest distant from it in the southern hemisphere; the days and
nights are always nearly equal. Vipers are not found in a climate like
this. Accordingly, I can testify, I never saw one of the kind in the
high country of Abyssinia all the time I lived there; and Tigré, where
Jerome Lobo places the scene of his adventures, by being one of the
highest provinces in the country, is surely not one of the most proper.

It was the 20th of January, at seven o’clock in the morning, we left
Axum; our road was at first sufficiently even, thro’ small vallies and
meadows; we began to ascend gently, but through a road exceedingly
difficult in itself, by reason of large stones standing on edge,
or heaped one upon another; apparently the remains of an old large
causeway, part of the magnificent works about Axum.

The last part of the journey made ample amends for the difficulties
and fatigue we had suffered in the beginning. For our road, on every
side, was perfumed with variety of flowering shrubs, chiefly different
species of jessamin; one in particular of these called Agam (a small
four-leaved flower) impregnated the whole air with the most delicious
odour, and covered the small hills through which we passed, in such
profusion, that we were, at times, almost overcome with its fragrance.
The country all round had now the most beautiful appearance, and this
was heightened by the finest of weather, and a temperature of air
neither too hot nor too cold.

Not long after our losing sight of the ruins of this ancient capital of
Abyssinia, we overtook three travellers driving a cow before them; they
had black goat skins upon their shoulders, and lances and shields in
their hands, in other respects were but thinly cloathed; they appeared
to be soldiers. The cow did not seem to be fatted for killing, and it
occurred to us all that it had been stolen. This, however, was not our
business, nor was such an occurrence at all remarkable in a country so
long engaged in war. We saw that our attendants attached themselves in
a particular manner to the three soldiers that were driving the cow,
and held a short conversation with them. Soon after, we arrived at the
hither most bank of the river, where I thought we were to pitch our
tent. The drivers suddenly tript up the cow, and gave the poor animal
a very rude fall upon the ground, which was but the beginning of her
sufferings. One of them sat across her neck, holding down her head
by the horns, the other twisted the halter about her forefeet, while
the third, who had a knife in his hand, to my very great surprise, in
place of taking her by the throat got astride upon her belly before
her hind-legs, and gave her a very deep wound in the upper part of her
buttock.

From the time I had seen them throw the beast upon the ground, I had
rejoiced, thinking, that when three people were killing a cow, they
must have agreed to sell part of her to us; and I was much disappointed
upon hearing the Abyssinians say, that we were to pass the river to
the other side, and not encamp where I intended. Upon my proposing
they should bargain for part of the cow, my men answered what they
had already learned in conversation, that they were not then to kill
her, that she was not wholly theirs, and they could not sell her. This
awakened my curiosity; I let my people go forward, and staid myself,
till I saw, with the utmost astonishment, two pieces, thicker, and
longer than our ordinary beef steaks, cut out of the higher part of the
buttock of the beast. How it was done I cannot positively say, because
judging the cow was to be killed from the moment I saw the knife drawn,
I was not anxious to view that catastrophe, which was by no means an
object of curiosity; whatever way it was done, it surely was adroitly,
and the two pieces were spread upon the outside of one of their shields.

One of them still continued holding the head, while the other two
were busied in curing the wound. This too was done not in an ordinary
manner; the skin which had covered the flesh that was taken away was
left entire, and flapped over the wound, and was fastened to the
corresponding part by two or more small skewers, or pins. Whether they
had put any thing under the skin between that and the wounded flesh I
know not, but at the river side where they were, they had prepared a
cataplasm of clay, with which they covered the wound; they then forced
the animal to rise, and drove it on before them, to furnish them with a
fuller meal when they should meet their companions in the evening.

I could not but admire a dinner so truly soldier-like, nor did I ever
see so commodious a manner of carrying provisions along on the road as
this was. I naturally attributed this to necessity, and the love of
expedition. It was a liberty, to be sure, taken with Christianity; but
what transgression is not warranted to a soldier when distressed by
his enemy in the field? I could not as yet conceive that this was the
ordinary banquet of citizens, and even of priests, throughout all this
country. In the hospitable, humane house of Janni, these living feasts
had never appeared. It is true we had seen raw meat, but no part of an
animal torn from it with the blood. The first shocked us as uncommon,
but the other as impious.

When first I mentioned this in England, as one of the singularities
which prevailed in this barbarous country, I was told by my friends
it was not believed. I asked the reason of this disbelief, and was
answered, that people who had never been out of their own country, and
others well acquainted with the manners of the world, for they had
travelled as far as France, had agreed the thing was impossible, and
therefore it was so. My friends counselled me further, that as these
men were infallible, and had each the leading of a circle, I should by
all means obliterate this from my journal, and not attempt to inculcate
in the minds of my readers the belief of a thing that men who had
travelled pronounced to be impossible. They suggested to me, in the
most friendly manner, how rudely a very learned and worthy traveller
had been treated for daring to maintain that he had eat part of a lion,
a story I have already taken notice of in my introduction. They said,
that, being convinced by these connoisseurs his having eat any part of
a lion was _impossible_, he had abandoned this assertion altogether,
and after only mentioned it in an appendix; and this was the farthest I
could possibly venture.

Far from being a convert to such prudential reasons, I must for ever
profess openly, that I think them unworthy of me. To represent as truth
a thing I know to be a falsehood, not to avow a truth which I know I
ought to declare; the one is fraud, the other cowardice; I hope I am
equally distant from them both; and I pledge myself never to retract
the fact here advanced, that the Abyssinians do feed in common upon
live flesh, and that I myself have, for several years, been partaker of
that disagreeable and beastly diet. On the contrary, I have no doubt,
when time shall be given to read this history to an end, there will
be very few, if they have candour enough to own it, that will not be
ashamed of ever having doubted.

At 11 o’clock of the 20th, we pitched our tent in a small plain, by the
banks of a quick clear running stream; the spot is called Mai-Shum.
There are no villages, at least that we saw, here. A peasant had made a
very neat little garden on both sides of the rivulet, in which he had
sown abundance of onions and garlic, and he had a species of pumpkin,
which I thought was little inferior to a melon. This man guessed by our
arms and horses that we were hunters, and he brought us a present of
the fruits of his garden, and begged our assistance against a number
of wild boars, which carried havoc and desolation through all his
labours, marks of which were, indeed, too visible everywhere. Such
instances of industry are very rare in this country, and demanded
encouragement. I paid him, therefore, for his greens; and sent two of
my servants with him into the wood, and got on horseback myself. Mirza,
my horse, indeed, as well as his master, had recruited greatly during
our stay at Adowa, under the hospitable roof of our good friend Janni,.

Amongst us we killed five boars, all large ones, in the space of about
two hours; one of which measured six feet nine inches; and, though he
ran at an amazing speed near two miles, so as to be with difficulty
overtaken by the horse, and was struck through and through with two
heavy lances loaded at the end with iron, no person dared to come near
him on foot, and he defended himself above half an hour, till, having
no other arms left, I shot him with a horse-pistol. But the misfortune
was, that, after our hunting had been crowned with such success, we did
not dare to partake of the excellent venison we had acquired; for the
Abyssinians hold pork of all kinds in the utmost detestation; and I
was now become cautious, lest I should give offence, being at no great
distance from the capital.

On the 21st we left Mai-Shum at seven o’clock in the morning,
proceeding through an open country, part sown, with teff, but mostly
overgrown with wild oats and high grass. We afterwards travelled among
a number of low hills, ascending and descending many of them, which
occasioned more pleasure than fatigue. The jessamin continued to
increase upon us, and it was the common bush of the country. Several
new species appeared, with five, nine, eleven petals, and plenty of the
agam with four, these being all white. We found also large bushes of
yellow, and orange and yellow jessamin, besides fine trees of kummel,
and the boha, both of the largest size, beautifully covered with fruit
and flowers, which we never before had seen.

We now descended into a plain called Selech-lecha, the village of that
name being two miles east of us. The country here has an air of gaiety
and chearfulness superior to any thing we had ever yet seen. Poncet[13]
was right when he compared it to the most beauteous part of Provence.
We crossed the plain through hedge-rows of flowering shrubs, among
which the honeysuckle now made a principal figure, which is of one
species only, the same known in England; but the flower is larger and
perfectly white, not coloured on the outside as our honeysuckle is.
Fine trees of all sizes were everywhere interspersed; and the vine,
with small black grapes of very good flavour, hung in many places in
festoons, joining tree to tree, as if they had been artificially twined
and intended for arbours.

After having passed this plain, we again entered a close country
through defiles between mountains, thick covered with wood and bushes.
We pitched our tent by the water-side judiciously enough as travellers,
being quite surrounded with bushes, which prevented us from being seen
in any direction.

As the boha was the principal tree here, and in great beauty, being
then in flower, I let the caravan pass, and alighted to make a proper
choice for a drawing, when I heard a cry from my servants, “Robbers!
Robbers!” I immediately got upon my mule to learn what alarm this might
be, and saw, to my great surprise, part of my baggage strewed on the
ground, the servants running, some leading, others on foot driving
such of their mules as were unloaded before them; in a word, every
thing in the greatest confusion possible. Having got to the edge of
the wood, they faced about, and began to prepare their fire-arms; but
as I saw the king’s two servants, and the man that Janni sent with us,
endeavouring all they could to pitch the tent, and my horse standing
peaceably by them, I forbade our fugitives to fire, till they should
receive orders from me. I now rode immediately up to the tent, and in
my way was saluted from among the bushes with many stones, one of which
gave me a violent blow upon the foot. At the same instant I received
another blow with a small unripe pumpkin, just upon the belly, where I
was strongly defended by the coarse cotton cloth wrapped several times
about me by way of sash or girdle. As robbers fight with other arms
than pumpkins, when I saw this fall at my feet I was no longer under
apprehension.

Notwithstanding this disagreeable reception, I advanced towards them,
crying out, We were friends, and Ras Michael’s friends; and desired
only to speak to them, and would give them what they wanted. A few
stones were the only answer, but they did no hurt. I then gave Yasine
my gun, thinking that might have given offence. The top of the tent
being now up, two men came forward making great complaints, but of
what I did not understand, only that they seemed to accuse us of having
wronged them. In short, we found the matter was this; one of the Moors
had taken a heap of straw which he was carrying to his ass but the
proprietor, at seeing this, had alarmed the village. Every body had
taken lances and shields, but, not daring to approach for fear of
the fire-arms, they had contented themselves with showering stones
at us from their hiding-places, at a distance from among the bushes.
We immediately told them, however, that though, as the king’s guest,
I had a title to be furnished with what was necessary, yet, if they
were averse to it, I was very well content to pay for every thing they
furnished, both for my men and beasts; but that they must throw no
stones, otherwise we would defend ourselves.

Our tent being now pitched, and every thing in order, a treaty soon
followed. They consented to sell us what we wanted, but at extravagant
prices, which, however, I was content to comply with. But a man of the
village, acquainted with one of the king’s servants, had communicated
to him, that the pretence of the Moor’s taking the straw was not really
the reason of the uproar, for they made no use of it except to burn;
but that a report had been spread abroad, that an action had happened
between Fasil and Ras Michael, in which the latter had been defeated,
and the country no longer in fear of the Ras, had indulged themselves
in their usual excesses, and; taking us for a caravan of Mahometans
with merchandise, had resolved to rob us.

Welleta Michael, grandson to Ras Michael, commanded this part of the
province; and being but thirteen years of age, was not with his
grandfather in the army, nor was he then at home, but at Gondar.
However, his mother, Ozoro Welleta Michael, was at home, and her house
just on the hill above. One of the king’s servants had stolen away
privately, and told her what had happened. The same evening, a party
was sent down to the village, who took the ringleaders and carried them
away, and left us for the night. They brought us a present also of
provisions, and excuses for what had happened, warning us to be upon
our guard the rest of the way, but they gave us positive assurance,
at the same time, that no action had happened between Fasil and Ras
Michael; on the contrary, it was confidently reported, that Fasil had
left Buré, and retired to Metchakel, where, probably, he would repass
the Nile into his own country, and stay there till the rains should
oblige Michael to return to Gondar.

On the 22d, we left Selech-lecha at seven o’clock in the morning, and,
at eight, passed a village two hundred yards on our left, without
seeing any one; but, advancing half a mile further, we saw a number of
armed men from sixty to eighty, and we were told they were resolved to
oppose our passage, unless their comrades, taken the night before, were
released. The people that attended us on the part of Welleta Michael,
as our escort, considered this as an insult, and advised me by all
means to turn to the left to another village immediately under the
hill, on which the house of Welleta Michael, mother to Welleta Gabriel
their governor, was situated; as there we should find sufficient
assistance to force these opponents to reason. We accordingly turned
to the left, and marching through thick bushes, came to the top of the
hill above the village, in sight of the governor’s house, just as
about twenty men of the enemy’s party reached the bottom of it.

The governor’s servants told us, that now was the time if they advanced
to fire upon them, in which case they would instantly disperse, or
else they would cut us off from the village. But I could not enter
into the force of this reasoning, because, if this village was strong
enough to protect us, which was the cause of our turning to the left
to seek it, these twenty men, putting themselves between us and the
village, took the most dangerous step for themselves possible, as they
must unavoidably be destroyed; and, if the village was not strong
enough to protect us, to begin with bloodshed was the way to lose our
lives before a superior enemy. I therefore called to the twenty men
to stop where they were, and send only one of their company to me;
and, upon their not paying any attention, I ordered Yasine to fire a
large blunderbuss over their heads, so as not to touch them. Upon the
report, they all fled, and a number of people flocked to us from other
villages; for my part, I believe some who had appeared against us came
afterwards and joined us. We soon seemed to have a little army, and, in
about half an hour, a party came from the governor’s house with twenty
lances and shields, and six firelocks, and, presently after, the whole
multitude dispersed. It was about ten o’clock when, under their escort,
we arrived at the town of Sirè, and pitched our tent in a strong
situation, in a very deep gully on the west extremity of the town.




CHAP. VI.

_Journey from Siré to Addergey, and Transactions there._


The province of Siré, properly so called, reaches from Axum to
the Tacazzé. The town of Sirè is situated on the brink of a very
steep, narrow valley, and through this the road lies which is almost
impassable. In the midst of this valley runs a brook bordered with
palm-trees, some of which are grown to a considerable size, but bear no
fruit; they were the first we had seen in Abyssinia.

The town of Sirè is larger than that of Axum; it is in form of a
half-moon fronting the plain, but its greatest breadth is at the
west end; all the houses are of clay, and thatched; the roofs are in
form of cones, as, indeed, are all in Abyssinia. Sirè is famous for
a manufacture of coarse cotton cloths, which pass for current money
through all the province of Tigré, and are valued at a drachm, the
tenth-part of a wakea of gold, or near the value of an imperial dollar
each; their breadth is a yard and quarter. Besides these, beads,
needles, cohol, and incense at times only, are considered as money. The
articles depend greatly on chance, which or whether any are current for
the time or not; but the latter is often not demanded; and, for the
first, there are modes and fashions among these barbarians, and all,
except those of a certain colour and form, are useless. We have already
spoken of the fashions, such as we have found them, at Kella, and we
heard they were the same here at Siré. But these people were not of a
humour to buy and sell with us. They were not perfectly satisfied that
Michael was alive, and waited only a confirmation of the news of his
defeat, to make their own terms with all strangers unfortunate enough
to fall into their hands. On the other hand, we were in possession of
superior force, and, knowing their inclinations, we treated them pretty
much in the manner they would have done us.

On the 22d of January, at night, I observed the passage of many stars
over the meridian, and, after that, of the sun on the 23d at noon;
taking a medium of all observations, I determined the latitude of Siré
to be 14° 4´ 35´´ north. The same evening, I observed an immersion of
the first satellite of Jupiter, by which I concluded its longitude to
be 38° 0´ 15´´ east of the meridian of Greenwich.

Although Sirè is situated in one of the finest countries in the world,
like other places it has its inconveniencies. Putrid fevers, of the
very worst kind, are almost constant here; and there did then actually
reign a species of these that swept away a number of people daily. I
did not think the behaviour of the inhabitants of this province to me
was such as required my exposing myself to the infection for the sake
of relieving them; I, therefore, left the fever and them to settle
accounts together, without anywise interfering.

At Siré we heard the good news that Ras Michael, on the 10th of this
month, had come up with Fasil at Fagitta, and entirely dispersed his
army, after killing 10,000 men. This account, though not confirmed by
any authority, struck all the mutinous of this province with awe; and
every man returned to his duty for fear of incurring the displeasure of
this severe governor, which they well knew would instantly be followed
by more than an adequate portion of vengeance, especially against those
that had not accompanied him to the field.

On the 24th, at seven o’clock in the morning, we struck our tent at
Siré, and passed through a vast plain. All this day we could discern no
mountains, as far as eye could reach, but only some few detached hills,
standing separate on the plain, covered with high grass, which they
were then burning, to produce new with the first rains. The country to
the north is altogether flat, and perfectly open; and though we could
not discover one village this day, yet it seemed to be well-inhabited,
from the many people we saw on different parts of the plain, some at
harvest, and some herding their cattle. The villages were probably
concealed from us on the other side of the hills.

At four o’clock, we alighted at Maisbinni at the bottom of a high,
steep, bare cliff of red marble, bordering on purple, and very hard.
Behind this is the small village of Maisbinni; and, on the south,
another still higher hill, whose top runs in an even ridge like a
wall. At the bottom of this cliff, where our tent was pitched, the
small rivulet Maisbinni rises, which, gentle and quiet as it then was,
runs very violently in winter, first north from its source, and then
winding to S. W. it falls in several cataracts, near a hundred feet
high, into a narrow valley, through which it makes its way into the
Tacazzé. Maisbinni, for wild and rude beauties, may compare with any
place we had ever seen.

This day was the first cloudy one we had met with, or observed this
year. The sun was covered for several hours, which announced our being
near the large river Tacazzè.

On the 25th, at seven in the morning, leaving Maisbinni, we continued
on our road, shaded with trees of many different kinds. At half an
hour after eight we passed the river, which at this place runs west;
our road this day was thro’ the same plain as yesterday, but broken
and full of holes. At ten o’clock we rested in a large plain called
Dagashaha; a hill in form of a cone stood single about two miles north
from us; a thin straggling wood was to the S. E.; and the water, rising
in spungy, boggy, and dirty ground, was very indifferent; it lay to the
west of us.

Dagashaha is a bleak and disagreeable quarter; but the mountain
itself, being seen far off, was of great use to us in adjusting our
bearings; the rather that, taking our departure from Dagashaha, we came
immediately in sight of the high mountain of Samen, where Lamalmon, one
of that ridge, is by much the most conspicuous; and over this lies the
passage, or high road, to Gondar. We likewise see the rugged, hilly
country of Salent, adjoining to the foot of the mountains of Samen. We
observed no villages this day from Maisbinni to Dagashaha; nor did we
discern, in the face of the country, any signs of culture or marks of
great population. We were, indeed, upon the frontiers of two provinces
which had for many years been at war.

On the 26th, at six o’clock in the morning, we left Dagashaha. Our road
was through a plain and level country, but, to appearance, desolated
and uninhabited, being overgrown with high bent grass and bushes, as
also destitute of water. We passed the solitary village Adega, three
miles on our left, the only one we had seen. At eight o’clock we came
to the brink of a prodigious valley, in the bottom of which runs the
Tacazzè, next to the Nile the largest river in Upper Abyssinia. It
rises in Angot (at least its principal branch) in a plain champain
country, about 200 miles S. E. of Gondar, near a spot called Souami
Midre. It has three spring heads, or sources, like the Nile; near it is
the small village Gourri[14].

Angot is now in possession of the Galla, whose chief, Guangoul, is
the head of the western Galla, once the most formidable invader of
Abyssinia. The other branch of the Tacazzé rises in the frontiers of
Begemder, near Dabuco; whence, running between Gouliou, Lasta, and
Belessen, it joins with the Angot branch, and becomes the boundary
between Tigré and the other great division of the country called
Amhara. This division arises from language only, for the Tacazzé passes
nowhere near the province of Amhara; only all to the east of the
Tacazzè is, in this general way of dividing the country, called Tigrè,
and all to the westward, from the Tacazzé to the Nile, Gojam, and
the Agows, is called Amhara, because the language of that province is
there spoken, and not that of Tigré or Geez. But I would have my reader
on his guard against the belief that no languages but these two are
spoken in these divisions; many different dialects are spoken in little
districts in both, and, in some of them, neither the language of Tigrè
nor that of Amhara is understood.

I have already sufficiently dwelt upon the ancient history, the names,
manners, and people that inhabit the banks of this river. It was the
Siris (or river of the dog-star) whilst that negro, uncivilized people,
the Cushites of the island of Meroë, resided upon its banks. It was
then called the Tan-nush Abay, or the lesser of two rivers that swelled
with the tropical rains, which was the name the peasants, or unlearned,
gave it, from comparison with the Nile. It was the Tacazzè in Derkin
or the dwelling of the Taka, before it joined the Nile in Beja, and it
was the Astaboras of those of the ancients that took the Nile for the
Siris. It is now the Atbara, giving its name to that peninsula, which
it incloses on the east as the Nile does on the west, and which was
formerly the island of Meroë; but it never was the Tekesel, as authors
have called it, deriving the name from the Ethiopic word Taka, which
undoubtedly signifies, fear, terror, distress, or sadness; I mean, this
was never the derivation of its name. Far from this idea, our Tacazzé
is one of the pleasantest rivers in the world, shaded with fine lofty
trees, its banks covered with bushes inferior in fragrance to no garden
in the universe; its stream is the most limpid, its water excellent,
and full of good fish of great variety, as its coverts are of all sorts
of game.

It must be confessed, that, during the inundation, these things wear a
contrary face. It carries in its bed near one-third of all the water
that falls in Abyssinia; and we saw the mark the stream had reached the
preceding year, eighteen feet above the bottom of the river, which we
do not know was the highest point that it arrived at. But three fathoms
it certainly had rolled in its bed; and this prodigious body of water,
passing furiously from a high ground in a very deep descent, tearing
up rocks and large trees in its course, and forcing down their broken
fragments scattered on its stream, with a noise like thunder echoed
from a hundred hills, these very naturally suggest an idea, that, from
these circumstances, it is very rightly called the _terrible_. But then
it must be considered, that all rivers in Abyssinia at the same time
equally overflow; that every stream makes these ravages upon its banks;
and that there is nothing in this that peculiarly affects the Tacazzè,
or should give it this special name: at least, such is my opinion;
though it is with great willingness I leave every reader in possession
of his own, especially in etymology.

At half an hour past eight we began a gradual descent, at first easily
enough, till we crossed the small brook called Maitemquet, or, _the
water of baptism_. We then began to descend very rapidly in a narrow
path, winding along the side of the mountain, all shaded with lofty
timber-trees of great beauty. About three miles further we came to the
edge of the stream at the principal ford of the Tacazzé, which is very
firm and good; the bottom consists of small pebbles, without either
sand or large stones. The river here at this time was fully 200 yards
broad, the water perfectly clear, and running very swiftly; it was
about three feet deep. This was the dry season of the year, when most
rivers in Abyssinia ran now no more.

In the middle of the stream we met a deserter from Ras Michael’s army,
with his firelock upon his shoulder, driving before him two miserable
girls about ten years old, stark-naked, and almost famished to death,
the part of the booty which had fallen to his share in laying waste the
country of Maitsha, after the battle. We asked him of the truth of this
news, but he would give us no satisfaction; sometimes he said there had
been a battle, sometimes none. He apparently had some distrust, that
one or other of the facts, being allowed to be true, might determine
us as to some design we might have upon him and his booty. He had not,
in my eyes, the air of a conqueror, but rather of a coward that had
sneaked away, and stolen these two miserable wretches he had with him.
I asked where Michael was? If at Buré? where, upon defeat of Fasil,
he naturally would be. He said, No; he was at Ibaba, the capital of
Maitsha; and this gave us no light, it being the place he would go to
before, while detachments of his army might be employed in burning and
laying waste the country of the enemy he had determined to ruin, rather
than return to it some time after a battle. At last we were obliged to
leave him. I gave him some flour and tobacco, both which he took very
thankfully; but further intelligence he would not give.

The banks of the Tacazzé are all covered, at the water’s edge, with
tamarisks; behind which grow high and straight trees, that seem to have
gained additional strength from having often resisted the violence of
the river. Few of these ever lose their leaves, but are either covered
with fruit, flower, or foliage the whole year; indeed, abundantly with
all three during the six months fair weather. The Bohabab, indeed,
called, in the Amharic language, Dooma, loses its leaf; it is the
largest tree in Abyssinia; the trunk is never high; it diminishes very
regularly from the top to the bottom, but not beautifully; it has
the appearance of a large cannon, and puts out a multitude of strong
branches, which do not fall low, or nearly horizontal, but follow a
direction, making all of them smaller angles than that of 45°. The
fruit is of the shape of a melon, rather longer for its thickness;
within are black seeds in each of the cells, into which it is divided,
and round them a white substance, very like fine sugar, which is sweet,
with a small degree of very pleasant acid. I never saw it either in
leaf or flower; the fruit hang dry upon the branches when they are
deprived of both. The wood of this tree is soft and spungy, and of no
use. The wild bees perforate the trunk, and lodge their honey in the
holes made in it; and this honey is preferred to any other in Abyssinia.

Beautiful and pleasant, however, as this river is, like every thing
created, it has its disadvantages. From the falling of the first rains
in March till November it is death to sleep in the country adjoining to
it, both within and without its banks; the whole inhabitants retire and
live in villages on the top of the neighbouring mountains; and _these_
are all robbers and assassins, who descend from their habitations on
the heights to lie in wait for, and plunder the travellers that pass.
Notwithstanding great pains have been taken by Michael, his son, and
grandson, governors of Tigré and Siré, this passage had never been so
far cleared but, every month, people are cut off.

The plenty of fish in this river occasions more than an ordinary number
of crocodiles to resort hither. These are so daring and fearless, that
when the river swells, so as to be passable only by people upon rafts,
or skins blown up with wind, they are frequently carried off by these
voracious and vigilant animals. There are also many hippopotami, which,
in this country, are called Gomari. I never saw any of these in the
Tacazzè; but at night we heard them snort, or groan, in many parts of
the river near us. There are also vast multitudes of lions and hyænas
in all these thickets. We were very much disturbed by them all night.
The smell of our mules and horses had drawn them in numbers about our
tent, but they did us no further harm, except obliging us to watch. I
found the latitude of the ford, by many observations, the night of the
26th, taking a medium of them all, to be 13° 42´ 45´´ north.

The river Tacazzè is, as I have already said, the boundary of the
province of Sirè. We now entered that of Samen, which was hostile to
us, being commanded by Ayto Tesfos, who, since the murder of Joas, had
never laid down his arms, nor acknowledged his neighbour, Michael, as
Ras, nor Hannes the king, last made, as sovereign. He had remained on
the top of a high rock called _the Jews Rock_, about eight miles from
the ford. For these reasons, as well as that it was the most agreeable
spot we had ever yet seen, we left our station on the Tacazzè with
great regret.

On the 27th of January, a little past six in the morning, we continued
some short way along the river’s side, and, at forty minutes past
six o’clock, came to Ingerohha, a small rivulet rising in the plain
above, which, after a short course through a deep valley, joins the
Tacazzè. At half past seven we left the river, and began to ascend the
mountains, which forms the south side of the valley, or banks of that
river. The path is narrow, winds as much, and is as steep as the other,
but not so woody. What makes it, however, still more disagreeable is,
that every way you turn you have a perpendicular precipice into a deep
valley below you. At half past eight we arrived at the top of the
mountain; and, at half past nine, halted, at Tabulaqué, having all the
way passed among ruined villages, the monuments of Michael’s cruelty
or justice; for it is hard to say whether the cruelty, robberies,
and violence of the former inhabitants did not deserve the severest
chastisement.

We saw many people feeding cattle on the plain, and we again opened a
market for flour and other provisions, which we procured in barter for
cohol, incense, and beads. None but the young women appeared. They were
of a lighter colour, taller, and in general more beautiful than those
at Kella. Their noses seemed flatter than those of the Abyssinians we
had yet seen. Perhaps the climate here was beginning that feature so
conspicuous in the negroes in general, and particularly of those in
this country called Shangalla, from whose country these people are not
distant above two days journey. They seemed inclined to be very hard in
all bargains but those of one kind, in which they were most reasonable
and liberal. They all agreed, that these favours ought to be given and
not sold, and that all coyness and courtship was but loss of time,
which always might be employed better to the satisfaction of both.
These people are less gay than those at Kella, and their conversation
more rough and peremptory. They understood both the Tigrè language and
Amharic, although we supposed it was in compliance to us that they
conversed chiefly in the former.

Our tent was pitched at the head of Ingerohha, on the north of the
plain of Tabulaqué. This river rises among the rocks at the bottom of
a little eminence, in a small stream, which, from its source, runs
very swiftly, and the water is warm. The peasants told us, that, in
winter, in time of the rains, it became hot, and smoked. It was in
taste, however, good; nor did we perceive any kind of mineral in it.
Tabulaqué, Anderassa, and Mentesegla belong to the Shum of Addergey,
and the viceroy of Samen, Ayto Tesfos. The large town of Hauza is about
eight miles south-and-by-east of this.

On the 28th, at forty minutes past six o’clock in the morning, we
continued our journey; and, at half past seven, saw the small village
Motecha on the top of the mountain, half a mile south from us. At
eight, we crossed the river Aira; and, at half past eight, the river
Tabul, the boundary of the district of Tabulaqué thick covered with
wood, and especially a sort of cane, or bamboo, solid within, called
there Shemale, which is used in making shafts for javelins, or light
darts thrown from the hand, either on foot or on horseback, at hunting
or in war.

We alighted on the side of Anderassa, rather a small stream, and which
had now ceased running, but which gives the name to the district
through which we were passing. Its water is muddy and ill-tasted,
and falls into the Tacazzè, as do all the rivers we had yet passed.
Dagashaha bears N. N. E. from this station. A great dew fell this
night; the first we had yet observed.

The 29th, at six o’clock in the morning, we continued our journey from
Anderassa, through thick woods of small trees, quite overgrown, and
covered with wild oats, reeds, and long grass, so that it was very
difficult to find a path through them. We were not without considerable
apprehension, from our nearness to the Shangalla, who were but two
days journey distant from us to the W. N. W. and had frequently made
excursions to the wild country where we now were. Hauza was upon a
mountain south from us; after travelling along the edge of a hill, with
the river on our left hand, we crossed it: it is called the Bowiha, and
is the largest we had lately seen.

At nine o’clock we encamped upon the small river Angari, that gives its
name to a district which begins at the Bowiha where Anderassa ends. The
river Angari is much smaller than the Bowiha: it rises to the westward
in a plain near Mentesegla; after running half a mile, it falls down
a steep precipice into a valley, then turns to the N. E. and, after a
course of two miles and a half farther, joins the Bowiha a little above
the ford.

The small village Angari lies about two miles S. S. W. on the top of a
hill. Hauza (which seems a large town formed by a collection of many
villages) is six miles south, pleasantly situated among a variety
of mountains, all of different and extraordinary shapes; some are
straight like columns, and some sharp in the point, and broad in the
base, like pyramids and obelisks, and some like cones. All these, for
the most part inaccessible, unless with pain and danger to those that
know the paths, are places of refuge and safety in time of war, and are
agreeably separated from each other by small plains producing grain.
Some of these, however, have at the top water and small flats that can
be sown, sufficient to maintain a number of men, independent of what
is doing below them. Hauza signifies _delight_, or _pleasure_, and,
probably, such a situation of the country has given the name to it. It
is chiefly inhabited by Mahometan merchants, is the _entre-pot_ between
Masuah and Gondar, and there are here people of very considerable
substance.

The 30th, at seven in the morning, we left Angari, keeping along the
side of the river. We then ascended a high hill covered with grass and
trees, through a very difficult and steep road; which ending, we came
to a small and agreeable plain, with pleasant hills on each side; this
is called Mentesegla. At half past seven we were in the middle of three
villages of the same name, two to the right and one on the left, about
half a mile distance. At half past nine we passed a small river called
Daracoy, which serves as the boundary between Addergey and this small
district Mentesegla. At a quarter past ten, we incamped at Addergey,
near a small rivulet called Mai-Lumi, the river of limes, or lemons, in
a plain scarce a mile square, surrounded on each side with very thick
wood in form of an amphitheatre. Above this wood, are bare, rugged,
and barren mountains. Midway in the cliff is a miserable village, that
seems rather to hang than to stand there, scarce a yard of level
ground being before it to hinder its inhabitants from falling down the
precipice. The wood is full of lemons and wild citrons, from which it
acquires its name. Before the tent, to the westward, was a very deep
valley, which terminated this little plain in a tremendous precipice.

The river Mai-Lumi, rising above the village, falls into the wood, and
there it divides itself in two; one branch surrounds the north of the
plain, the other the south, and falls down a rock on each side of the
valley, where they unite, and, after having run about a quarter of a
mile further, are precipitated into a cataract of 150 feet high, and
run in a direction south-west into the Tacazzé. The river Mai-Lumi was,
at this time, but small, although it is violent in winter; beyond this
valley are five hills, and on the top of each is a village. The Shum
resides in the one that is in the middle. He bade us a seeming hearty
welcome, but had malice in his heart against us, and only waited to
know for certainty if it was a proper time to gratify his avarice. A
report was spread about with great confidence, that Ras Michael had
been defeated by Fasil; that Gondar had rebelled, and Woggora was all
in arms; so that it was certain loss of life to attempt the passage of
Lamalmon.

For our part, we conceived this story to be without foundation, and
that, on the contrary, the news were true which we had heard at Siré
and Adowa, _viz._ That Michael was victorious, and Fasil beaten; and we
were, therefore, resolved to abide by this, as well knowing, that, if
the contrary had happened, every place between the Tacazzè and Gondar
was as fatal to us as any thing we were to meet with on Lamalmon
could be; the change of place made no difference; the dispositions
of the people towards Michael and his friends we knew to be the same
throughout the kingdom, and that our only safety remained on certain
and good news coming from the army, or in the finishing our journey
with expedition, before any thing bad happened, or was certainly known.

The hyænas this night devoured one of the best of our mules. They are
here in great plenty, and so are lions; the roaring and grumbling
of the latter, in the part of the wood nearest our tent, greatly
disturbed our beasts, and prevented them from eating their provender. I
lengthened the strings of my tent, and placed the beasts between them.
The white ropes, and the tremulous motion made by the impression of the
wind, frightened the lions from coming near us. I had procured from
Janni two small brass bells, such as the mules carry. I had tied these
to the storm-strings of the tent, where their noise, no doubt, greatly
contributed to our beasts safety from these ravenous, yet cautious
animals, so that we never saw them; but the noise they made, and,
perhaps, their smell, so terrified the mules, that, in the morning,
they were drenched in sweat as if they had been a long journey.

The brutish hyæna was not so to be deterred. I shot one of them dead on
the night of the 31st of January, and, on the 2d of February, I fired
at another so near, that I was confident of killing him. Whether the
balls had fallen out, or that I had really missed him with the first
barrel, I know not, but he gave a snarl and a kind of bark upon the
first shot, advancing directly upon me as if unhurt. The second shot,
however, took place, and laid him without motion on the ground. Yasine
and his men killed another with a pike; and such was their determined
coolness, that they stalked round about us with the familiarity of a
dog, or any other domestic animal brought up with man.

But we were still more incommoded by a lesser animal, a large, black
ant, little less than an inch long, which, coming out from under the
ground, demolished our carpets, which they cut all into shreds, and
part of the lining of our tent likewise, and every bag or sack they
could find. We had first seen them in great numbers at Angari, but here
they were intolerable. Their bite causes a considerable inflammation,
and the pain is greater than that which arises from the bite of a
scorpion; they are called _gundan_.

On the 1st of February the Shum sent his people to value, as he said,
our merchandise, that we might pay custom. Many of the Moors, in our
caravan, had left us to go a near way to Hauza. We had at most five
or six asses, including those belonging to Yasine. I humoured them
so far as to open the cases where were the telescopes and quadrant,
or, indeed, rather shewed them open, as they were not shut from the
observation I had been making. They could only wonder at things they
had never before seen.

On the 2d of February the Shum came himself, and a violent altercation
ensued. He insisted upon Michael’s defeat: I told him the contrary news
were true, and begged him to beware lest it should be told to the Ras
upon his return that he had propagated such a falsehood. I told him
also we had advice that the Ras’s servants were now waiting for us at
Lamalmon, and insisted upon his suffering us to depart. On the other
hand, he threatened to send us to Ayto Tesfos. I answered, “Ayto Tesfos
was a friend to Ayto Aylo, under whose protection I was, and a servant
to the Iteghé, and was likelier to punish him for using me ill, than
to approve of it, but that I would not suffer him to send me either to
Ayto Tesfos, or an inch out of the road in which I was going.” He said,
“That I was mad;” and held a consultation with his people for about
half an hour, after which he came in again, seemingly quite another
man, and said, he would dispatch us on the morrow, which was the 3d,
and would send us that evening some provisions. And, indeed, we now
began to be in need, having only flour barely sufficient to make bread
for one meal next day. The miserable village on the clift had nothing
to barter with us; and none from the five villages about the Shum had
come near us, probably by his order. As he had softened his tone, so
did I mine. I gave him a small present, and he went away repeating his
promises. But all that evening passed without provision, and all next
day without his coming, so we got every thing ready for our departure.
Our supper did not prevent our sleeping, as all our provision was gone,
and we had tasted nothing all that day since our breakfast.

The country of the Shangalla lies forty miles N. N. W. of this, or
rather more westerly. All this district from the Tacazzé is called, in
the language of Tigré, Salent, and Talent in Amharic. This probably
arises from the name being originally spelled with (Tz), which has
occasioned the difference, the one language omitting the first letter,
the other the second.

At Addergey, the 31st day of January, at noon, I observed the meridian
altitude of the sun, and, at night, the passage of seven different
stars over the meridian, by a medium of all which, I found that the
latitude of Addergey is 13° 24´ 56´´ North. And on the morning of the
1st of February, at the same place, I observed an immersion of the
second satellite of Jupiter, by which I concluded the longitude of
Addergey to be 37° 57´ east of the meridian of Greenwich.

On the 4th of February, at half past nine in the morning, we left
Addergey: hunger pressing us, we were prepared to do it earlier, and
for this we had been up since five in the morning; but our loss of a
mule obliged us, when we packed up our tent, to arrange our baggage
differently. While employed at making ready for our departure, which
was just in the dawn of day, a hyæna, unseen by any of us, fastened
upon one of Yasine’s asses, and had almost pulled his tail away. I was
busied at gathering the tent-pins into a sack, and had placed my musket
and bayonet ready against a tree, as it is at that hour, and the close
of the evening, you are always to be on guard against banditti. A boy,
who was servant to Yasine, saw the hyæna first, and flew to my musket.
Yasine was disjoining the poles of the tent, and, having one half of
the largest in his hand, he ran to the assistance of his ass, and in
that moment the musket went off, luckily charged with only one ball,
which gave Yasine a flesh wound between the thumb and forefinger of his
left hand. The boy instantly threw down the musket, which had terrified
the hyæna and made him let go the ass; but he stood ready to fight
Yasine, who, not amusing himself with the choice of weapons, gave him
so rude a blow with the tent-pole upon his head, that it felled him to
the ground; others, with pikes, put an end to his life.

We were then obliged to turn our cares towards the wounded. Yasine’s
wound was soon seen to be a trifle; besides, he was a man not easily
alarmed on such occasions. But the poor ass was not so easily
comforted. The stump remained, the tail hanging by a piece of it, which
we were obliged to cut off. The next operation was actual cautery; but,
as we had made no bread for breakfast, our fire had been early out. We,
therefore, were obliged to tie the stump round with whip-cord, till we
could get fire enough to heat an iron.

What sufficiently marked the voracity of these beasts, the hyænas, was,
that the bodies of their dead companions, which we hauled a long way
from us, and left there, were almost entirely eaten by the survivors
the next morning; and I then observed, for the first time, that the
hyæna of this country was a different species from those I had seen in
Europe, which had been brought from Asia or America.




CHAP. VII.

_Journey over Lamalmon to Gondar._


It was on account of these delays that we did not leave Addergey till
near ten o’clock in the forenoon of the 4th of February. We continued
our journey along the side of a hill, through thick wood and high
grass; then descended into a deep, narrow valley, the sides of which
had been shaded with high trees, but in burning the grass the trees
were consumed likewise; and the shoots from the roots were some of
them above eight feet high since the tree had thus suffered that same
year. The river Angueah runs through the middle of this valley; after
receiving the small streams, before mentioned, it makes its way into
the Tacazzé. It is a very clear, swift-running river, something less
than the Bowiha.

When we had just reached the river-side, we saw the Shum coming from
the right hand across us. There were nine horsemen in all, and
fourteen or fifteen beggarly foot-men. He had a well-dressed young man
going before him carrying his gun, and had only a whip in his own hand;
the rest had lances in theirs; but none of the horsemen had shields.
It was universally agreed, that this seemed to be a party set for us,
and that he probably had others before appointed to join him, for we
were sure his nine horse would not venture to do any thing. Upon the
first appearance, we had stopped on this side of the river; but Welleta
Michael’s men, who were to accompany us to Lamalmon, and Janni’s
servant, told us to cross the river, and make what speed we could, as
the Shum’s government ended on this side.

Our people were now all on foot, and the Moors drove the beasts before
them. I got immediately upon horseback, when they were then about five
hundred yards below, or scarcely so much. As soon as they observed us
drive our beasts into the river, one of their horsemen came galloping
up, while the others continued at a smart walk. When the horseman
was within twenty yards distance of me, I called upon him to stop,
and, as he valued his life, not approach nearer. On this he made no
difficulty to obey, but seemed rather inclined to turn back. As I saw
the baggage all laid on the ground at the foot of a small round hill,
upon the gentle ascent of which my servants all stood armed, I turned
about my horse, and with Yasine, who was by my side, began to cross
the river. The horseman upon this again advanced; again I cried to him
to stop. He then pointed behind him, and said, “The Shum!” I desired
him peremptorily to stop, or I would fire; upon which he turned round,
and the others joining him, they held a minute’s counsel together,
and came all forward to the river, where they paused a moment as if
counting our number, and then began to enter the stream. Yasine now
cried to them in Amharic, as I had done before in Tigré, desiring them,
as they valued their lives, to come no nearer. They stopt, a sign of no
great resolution; and, after some altercation, it was agreed the Shum,
and his son with the gun, should pass the river.

The Shum complained violently that we had left Addergey without his
leave, and now were attacking him in his own government upon the
high-road. “A pretty situation,” said I, “was ours at Addergey, where
the Shum left the king’s stranger no other alternative but dying with
hunger, or being ate by the hyæna.”

“This is not your government,” says Janni’s servant; “you know my
master, Ayto Aylo, commands here.”--“And who is attacking you on
the road?” says the Sirè servant. “Is it like peaceable people, or
banditti, to come mounted on horseback and armed as you are? Would not
your mules and your foot-servants have been as proper? and would not
you have been better employed, with the king and Ras Michael, fighting
the Galla, as you gave your promise, than here molesting passengers on
the road?”--“You lie,” says the Shum, “I never promised to go with your
Ras;” and on this he lifted up his whip to strike Welleta Michael’s
servant; but that fellow, though quiet enough, was not of the kind to
be beaten. “By G--d! Shum,” says he, “offer to strike me again, and I
will lay you dead among your horse’s feet, and my master will say I did
well. Never call for your men; you should have taken the red slip off
your gun before you came from home to-day to follow us. Why, if you
was to shoot, you would be left alone in our hands, as all your fellows
on the other side would run at the noise even of your own gun.

“Friends, said I, you understand one another’s grievances better than
I do. My only business here is to get to Lamalmon as soon as possible.
Now, pray, Shum, tell me what is your business with me? and why have
you followed me beyond your government, which is bounded by that
river?”--He said, “That I had stolen away privately, without paying
custom.”--“I am no merchant, replied I; I am the king’s guest, and pay
no custom; but as far as a piece of red Surat cotton cloth will content
you, I will give it you, and we shall part friends.”--He then answered,
“That two ounces of gold were what my dues had been rated at, and would
either have that, or he would follow me to Debra Toon.”--“Bind him and
carry him to Debra Toon, says the Siré servant, or I shall go and bring
the Shum of Debra Toon to do it. By the head of Michael, Shum, it shall
not be long before I take you out of your bed for this.”

I now gave orders to my people to load the mules. At hearing this,
the Shum made a signal for his company to cross; but Yasine, who was
opposite to them, again ordered them to stop. “Shum, said I, you intend
to follow us, apparently with a design to do us some harm. Now we are
going to Debra Toon, and you are going thither. If you chuse to go
with us, you may in all honour and safety; but your servants shall not
be allowed to join you, nor you join them; and if they but attempt to
do us harm, we will for certain revenge ourselves on you. There is a
piece of ordnance,” continued I, shewing him a large blunderbuss, “a
cannon, that will sweep fifty such fellows as you to eternity in a
moment. This shall take the care of them, and we shall take the care of
you; but join you shall not till we are at Debra Toon.”

The young man that carried the gun, the case of which had never been
off, desired leave to speak with his father, as they now began to
look upon themselves as prisoners. The conversation lasted about five
minutes; and our baggage was now on the way, when the Shum said, he
would make a proposal:--“Since I had no merchandise, and was going to
Ras Michael, he would accept of the red cloth, its value being about
a crown, provided we swore to make no complaint of him at Gondar, nor
speak of what had happened at Debra Toon; while he likewise would
swear, after having joined his servants, that he would not again pass
that river.” Peace was concluded upon these terms. I gave him a piece
of red Surat cotton cloth, and added some cohol, incense, and beads for
his wives. I gave to the young man that carried the gun two strings
of bugles to adorn his legs, for which he seemed most wonderfully
grateful. The Shum returned, not with a very placid countenance; his
horsemen joined him in the middle of the stream, and away they went
soberly together, and in silence.

Hauza was from this S. E. eight miles distant. Its mountains, of so
many uncommon forms, had a very romantic appearance. At one o’clock we
alighted at the foot of one of the highest, called Debra Toon, about
half way between the mountain and village of that name, which was on
the side of the hill about a mile N. W. Still further to the N. W. is
a desert, hilly district, called Adebarea, the country of the slaves,
as being the neighbourhood of the Shangalla, the whole country between
being waste and uninhabited.

The mountains of Waldubba, resembling those of Adebarea, lay north of
us about four or five miles. Waldubba, which signifies _the Valley
of the Hyæna_, is a territory entirely inhabited by the monks, who,
for mortification’s sake, have retired to this unwholesome, hot, and
dangerous country, voluntarily to spend their lives in penitence,
meditation, and prayer. This, too, is the only retreat of great men
in disgrace or in disgust. These first shave their hair, and put on a
cowl like the monks, renouncing the world for solitude, and taking vows
which they resolve to keep no longer than exigencies require; after
which they return to the world again, leaving their cowl and sanctity
in Waldubba.

These monks are held in great veneration; are believed by many to have
the gift of prophecy, and some of them to work miracles, and are very
active instruments to stir up the people in time of trouble. Those that
I have seen out of Waldubba in Gondar, and about Koscam, never shewed
any great marks of abstinence; they ate and drank every thing without
scruple, and in large quantities too. They say they live otherwise in
Waldubba, and perhaps it may be so. There are women, also, whom we
should call Nuns, who, though not residing in Waldubba, go at times
thither, and live in a familiarity with these saints, that has very
little favour of spirituality; and many of these, who think the living
in community with this holy fraternity has not in it perfection enough
to satisfy their devotion, retire, one of each sex, a hermit and a nun,
sequestering themselves for months, to eat herbs together in private
upon the top of the mountains. These, on their return, are shewn as
miracles of holiness,--lean, enervated, and exhausted. Whether this is
wholly to be laid to the charge of the herbs, is more than I will take
upon me to decide, never having been at these retirements of Waldubba.

Violent fevers perpetually reign there. The inhabitants are all of the
colour of a corpse; and their neighbours, the Shangalla, by constant
inroads, destroy many of them, though lately they have been stopped, as
they say, by the prayers of the monks. I suppose their partners, the
nuns, had their share in it, as both of them are said to be equally
superior in holiness and purity of living to what their predecessors
formerly were. But, not to derogate from the efficaciousness of their
prayers, the _natural cause_ why the Shangalla molest them no more, is
the small-pox, which has greatly reduced their strength and number, and
extinguished, to a man, whole tribes of them.

The water is both scarce and bad at Debra Toon, there being but one
spring, or fountain, and it was exceedingly ill-tasted. We did not
intend to make this a station; but, having sent a servant to Hauza to
buy a mule in room of that which the hyæna had eaten, we were afraid
to leave our man, who was not yet come forward, lest he should fall in
with the Shum of Addergey, who might stop the mule for our arrears of
customs.

The pointed mountain of Dagashaha continued still visible; I set it
this day by the compass, and it bore due N. E. We had not seen any
cultivated ground since we passed the Tacazzè.

The 5th, at seven o’clock in the morning, we left Debra Toon, and came
to the edge of a deep valley bordered with wood, the descent of which
is very steep. The Anzo, larger and more rapid than the Angueah, runs
through the middle of this valley; its bed is full of large, smooth
stones, and the sides composed of hard rock, and difficult to descend;
the stream is equally clear and rapid with the other. We ascended
the valley on the other side, through the most difficult road we had
met with since that of the valley of Sirè. At ten o’clock we found
ourselves in the middle of three villages, two to the right, and one on
the left; they are called Adamara, from Adama a mountain, on the east
side of which is Tchober. At eleven o’clock we encamped at the foot of
the mountain Adama, in a small piece of level ground, after passing a
pleasant wood of no considerable extent. Adama, in Amharic, signifies
_pleasant_; and nothing can be more wildly so than the view from this
station.

Tchober is close at the foot of the mountain, surrounded on every side,
except the north, by a deep valley covered with wood. On the other side
of this valley are the broken hills which constitute the rugged banks
of the Anzo. On the point of one of these, most extravagantly shaped,
is the village Shahagaanah, projecting as it were over the river; and,
behind these, the irregular and broken mountains of Salent appear,
especially those around Hauza, in forms which European mountains never
wear; and still higher, above these, is the long ridge of Samen, which
run along in an even stretch till they are interrupted by the high
conical top of Lamalmon, reaching above the clouds, and reckoned to be
the highest hill in Abyssinia, over the steepest part of which, by
some fatality, the reason I do not know, the road of all caravans to
Gondar must lie.

As soon as we passed the Anzo, immediately on our right is that part of
Waldubba, full of deep valleys and woods, in which the monks used to
hide themselves from the incursions of the Shangalla, before they found
out the more convenient defence by the prayers and superior sanctity
of the present saints. Above this is Adamara, where the Mahometans
have considerable villages, and, by their populousness and strength,
have greatly added to the safety of the monks, perhaps not altogether
completed yet by the purity of their lives. Still higher than these
villages is Tchober, where we now encamped.

On the left hand, after passing the Anzo, all is Shahagaanah, till you
come to the river Zarima. It extends in an east and west direction,
almost parallel to the mountains of Samen, and in this territory are
several considerable villages; the people are much addicted to robbery,
and rebellion, in which they were engaged at this time. Above Salent
is Abbergalè, and above that Tamben, which is one of the principal
provinces in Tigrè, commanded at present by Kefla Yasous, an officer of
the greatest merit and reputation in the Abyssinian army.

On the 6th, at six o’clock in the morning, we left Tchober, and passed
a wood on the side of the mountain. At a quarter past eight we crossed
the river Zarima, a clear stream running over a bottom of stones. It
is about as large as the Anzo. On the banks of this river, and all
this day, we passed under trees larger and more beautiful than any we
had seen since leaving the Tacazzé. After having crossed the Zarima,
we entered a narrow defile between two mountains, where ran another
rivulet: we continued advancing along the side of it, till the valley
became so narrow as to leave no room but in the bed of the rivulet
itself. It is called Mai-Agam, or the water or brook of jessamin and
falls into the Zarima, at a small distance from the place wherein we
passed it. It was dry at the mouth, (the water being there absorbed
and hid under the sand) but above, where the ground was firmer, there
ran a brisk stream of excellent water, and it has the appearance of
being both broad, deep, and rapid in winter. At ten o’clock we encamped
upon its banks, which are here bordered with high trees of cummel, at
this time both loaded with fruit and flowers. There are also here a
variety of other curious trees and plants; in no place, indeed, had we
seen more, except on the banks of the Tacazzé. Mai-Agam consists of
three villages; one, two miles distant, east-and-by-north, one at same
distance, N. N. W.; the third at one mile distance, S. E. by south.

On the 7th, at six o’clock in the morning, we began to ascend the
mountain; at a quarter past seven the village Lik lay east of us.
Murass, a country full of low but broken mountains, and deep narrow
valleys, bears N. W. and Walkayt in the same direction, but farther
off. At a quarter past eight, Gingerohha, distant from us about a mile
S. W. it is a village situated upon a mountain that joins Lamalmon. Two
miles to the N. E. is the village Taguzait on the mountain which we
were ascending. It is called Guza by the Jesuits, who strangely say,
that the Alps and Pyreneans are inconsiderable eminences to it. Yet,
with all deference to this observation, Taguzait, or Guza, though
really the base of Lamalmon, is not a quarter of a mile high.

Ten minutes before nine o’clock we pitched our tent on a small plain
called Dippebaha, on the top of the mountain, above a hundred yards
from a spring, which scarcely was abundant enough to supply us with
water, in quality as indifferent as it was scanty. The plain bore
strong marks of the excessive heat of the sun, being full of cracks and
chasms, and the grass burnt to powder. There are three small villages
so near each other that they may be said to compose one. Near them is
the church of St George, on the top of a small hill to the eastward,
surrounded with large trees.

Since passing the Tacazzé we had been in a very wild country, left so,
for what I know, by nature, at least now lately rendered more so by
being the theatre of civil war. The whole was one wilderness without
inhabitants, unless at Addergey. The plain of Dippebaha had nothing of
this appearance; it was full of grass, and interspersed with flowering
shrubs, jessamin, and roses, several kinds of which were beautiful, but
only one fragrant. The air was very fresh and pleasant; and a great
number of people, passing to and fro, animated the scene.

We met this day several monks and nuns of Waldubba, I should say
_pairs_, for they were two and two together. They said they had been at
the market of Dobarké on the side of Lamalmon, just above Dippebaha.
Both men and women, but especially the latter, had large burdens of
provisions on their shoulders, bought that day, as they said, at
Dobarkè, which shewed me they did not wholly depend upon the herbs of
Waldubba for their support. The women were stout and young, and did
not seem, by their complexion, to have been long in the mortifications
of Waldubba. I rather thought that they had the appearance of healthy
mountaineers, and were, in all probability, part of the provisions
bought for the convent; and, by the sample, one would think the monks
had the first choice of the market, which was but fit, and is a custom
observed likewise in Catholic countries. The men seemed very miserable,
and ill-clothed, but had a great air of ferocity and pride in their
faces. They are distinguished only from the laity by a yellow cowl, or
cap, on their head. The cloth they wear round them is likewise yellow,
but in winter they wear skins dyed of the same colour.

On the 8th, at three quarters past six o’clock in the morning, we left
Dippebaha, and, at seven, had two small villages on our left; one on
the S. E. distant two miles, the other on the south, one mile off.
They are called Wora, and so is the territory for some space on each
side of them; but, beyond the valley, all is Shahagaanah to the root
of Lamalmon. At a quarter past seven, the village of Gingerohha was
three miles on our right; and we were now ascending Lamalmon, through
a very narrow road, or rather path, for it scarcely was two feet wide
any where. It was a spiral winding up the side of the mountain, always
on the very brink of a precipice. Torrents of water, which in winter
carry prodigious stones down the side of this mountain, had divided
this path into several places, and opened to us a view of that dreadful
abyss below, which few heads can (mine at least could not) bear to
look down upon. We were here obliged to unload our baggage, and, by
slow degrees, crawl up the hill, carrying them little by little upon
our shoulders round these chasms where the road was intersected. The
mountains grow steeper, the paths narrower, and the breaches more
frequent as we ascend. Scarce were our mules, though unloaded, able
to scramble up, but were perpetually falling; and, to increase our
difficulties, which, in such cases, seldom come single, a large number
of cattle was descending, and seemed to threaten to push us all into
the gulf below. After two hours of constant toil, at nine o’clock we
alighted in a small plain called Kedus, or St Michael, from a church
and village of that name, neither beast nor man being able to go a step
further.

The plain of St Michael, where we now were, is at the foot of a
steep cliff which terminates the west side of Lamalmon. It is here
perpendicular like a wall, and a few trees only upon the top of the
cliff. Over this precipice flow two streams of water, which never are
dry, but run in all seasons. They fall into a wood at the bottom of
this cliff, and preserve it in continual verdure all the year, tho’
the plain itself below, as I have said, is all rent into chasms, and
cracked by the heat of the sun. These two streams form a considerable
rivulet in the plain of St Michael, and are a great relief both to men
and cattle in this tedious and difficult passage over the mountain.

The air on Lamalmon is pleasant and temperate. We found here our
appetite return, with a chearfulness, lightness of spirits, and agility
of body, which indicated that our nerves had again resumed their wonted
tone, which they had lost in the low, poisonous, and sultry air on the
coast of the Red Sea. The sun here is indeed hot, but in the morning a
cool breeze never fails, which increases as the sun rises high. In the
shade it is always cool. The thermometer, in the shade, in the plain of
St Michael, this day, was 76°, wind N. W.

Lamalmon, as I have said, is the pass through which the road of all
caravans to Gondar lies. It is here they take an account of all baggage
and merchandise, which they transmit to the Negadé Ras, or chief
officer of the customs at Gondar, by a man whom they send to accompany
the caravan. There is also a present, or awide, due to the private
proprietor of the ground; and this is levied with great rigour and
violence, and, for the most part, with injustice; so that this station,
which, by the establishment of the customhouse, and nearness to the
capital, should be in a particular manner attended to by government, is
always the place where the first robberies and murders are committed
in unsettled times. Though we had nothing with us which could be
considered as subject to duty, we submitted every thing to the will
of the robber of the place, and gave him his present. If he was not
satisfied, he seemed to be so, which was all we wanted.

We had obtained leave to depart early in the morning of the 9th, but it
was with great regret we were obliged to abandon our Mahometan friends
into hands that seemed disposed to shew them no favour. The king was in
Maitsha, or Damot, that is to say, far from Gondar, and various reports
were spread abroad about the success of the campaign; and these people
only waited for an unfavourable event to make a pretence for robbing
our fellow-travellers of every thing they had.

The persons whose right it was to levy these contributions were two, a
father and son; the old man was dressed very decently, spoke little,
but smoothly, and had a very good carriage. He professed a violent
hatred to all Mahometans, on account of their religion, a sentiment
which seemed to promise nothing favourable to our friend Yasine and
his companions: but, in the evening, the son, who seemed to be the
active man, came to our tent, and brought us a quantity of bread and
bouza, which his father had ordered before. He seemed to be much taken
with our fire-arms, and was very inquisitive about them. I gave him
every sort of satisfaction, and, little by little, saw I might win his
heart entirely; which I very much wished to do, that I might free our
companions from bondage.

The young man it seems was a good soldier; and, having been in several
actions under Ras Michael, as a fusileer, he brought his gun, and
insisted on shooting at marks. I humoured him in this; but as I used
a rifle, which he did not understand, he found himself overmatched,
especially by the greatness of the range, for he shot straight enough.
I then shewed him the manner we shot flying, there being quails in
abundance, and wild pigeons, of which I killed several, on wing,
which left him in the utmost astonishment. Having got on horseback,
I next went through the exercise of the Arabs, with a long spear and
a short javelin. This was more within his comprehension, as he had
seen something like it; but he was wonderfully taken with the fierce
and fiery appearance of my horse, and, at the same time, with his
docility, the form of his saddle, bridle, and accoutrements. He threw
at last the sandals off his feet, twisted his upper garment into
his girdle, and set off at so furious a rate, that I could not help
doubting whether he was in his sober understanding.

It was not long till he came back, and with him a man-servant carrying
a sheep and a goat, and a woman carrying a jar of honey-wine. I had
not yet quitted the horse; and when I saw what his intention was, I
put Mirza to a gallop, and, with one of the barrels of the gun, shot
a pigeon, and immediately fired the other into the ground. There was
nothing after this that could have surprized him, and it was repeated
several times at his desire; after which he went into the tent, where
he invited himself to my house at Gondar. There I was to teach him
every thing he had seen. We now swore perpetual friendship; and a
horn or two of hydromel being emptied, I introduced the case of our
fellow-travellers, and obtained a promise that we should have leave to
set out together. He would, moreover, take no awide, and said he would
be favourable in his report to Gondar.

Matters were so far advanced, when a servant of Michael’s arrived, sent
by Petros, (Janni’s brother) who had obtained him from Ozoro Esther.
This put an end to all our difficulties. Our young soldier also kept
his word, and a mere trifle of awide was given, rather by the Moor’s
own desire than from demand, and the report of our baggage, and dues
thereon, were as low as could be wished. Our friend likewise sent his
own servant to Gondar with the billet to accompany the caravan. But
the news brought by his servant were still better than all this. Ras
Michael had actually beaten Fasil, and forced him to retire to the
other side of the Nile, and was then in Maitsha, where it was thought
he would remain with the army all the rainy season. This was just what
I could have wished, as it brought me at once to the neighbourhood of
the sources of the Nile, without the smallest shadow of fear or danger.

On the 9th of February, at seven o’clock, we took leave of the friends
whom we had so newly acquired at Lamalmon, all of us equally joyful
and happy at the news. We began to ascend what still remained of
the mountain, which, though steep and full of bushes, was much less
difficult than that which we had passed. At a quarter past seven we
arrived at the top of Lamalmon, which has, from below, the appearance
of being sharp-pointed. On the contrary, we were much surprised to find
there a large plain, part in pasture, but more bearing grain. It is
full of springs, and seems to be the great reservoir from whence arise
most of the rivers that water this part of Abyssinia. A multitude of
streams issue from the very summit in all directions; the springs boil
out from the earth in large quantities, capable of turning a mill. They
plow, sow, and reap here at all seasons; and the husbandman must blame
his own indolence, and not the soil, if he has not three harvests. We
saw, in one place, people busy cutting down wheat; immediately next to
it, others at the plough; and the adjoining field had green corn in the
ear; a little further, it was not an inch above the ground.

Lamalmon is on the N. W. part of the mountains of Samen. That of
Gingerohha, with two pointed tops, joins it on the north, and ends
these mountains here, and is separated from the plain of St Michael by
a very deep gully. Neither Lamalmon nor Gingerohha, though higher than
the mountains of Tigré, are equal in height to some of those of Samen.
I take those to the S. E. to be much higher, and, above all, that
sharp-pointed hill Amba Gideon, the present residence of the governor
of Samen, Ayto Tesfos. This is otherwise called the _Jews-Rock_, famous
in the history of this country for the many revolts of the Jews against
the Abyssinian kings.

The mountain is everywhere so steep and high, that it is not enough
to say against the will, but without the assistance of those above,
no one from below can venture to ascend. On the top is a large plain,
affording plenty of pasture, as well as room for plowing and sowing
for the maintenance of the army; and there is water, at all seasons,
in great plenty, and even fish in the streams upon it; so that,
although the inhabitants of the mountain had been often besieged for
a considerable time together, they suffered little inconvenience from
it, nor ever were taken unless by treason; except by Christopher de
Gama and his Portuguese, who are said, by their own historians, to have
stormed this rock, and put the Mahometan garrison to the sword. No
mention of this honourable conquest is made in the annals of Abyssinia,
though they give the history of this campaign of Don Christopher in the
life of Claudius, or Atzenaf Segued.

On the top of the cliff where we now were, on the left hand of the road
to Gondar, we filled a tube with quick-silver, and purged it perfectly
of outward air; it stood this day at 20⅞ English inches. Dagashaha
bears N. E. by E. from our present station upon Lamalmon. The language
of Lamalmon is Amharic; but there are many villages where the language
of the Falasha is spoken. These are the ancient inhabitants of the
mountains, who still preserve the religion, language, and manners of
their ancestors, and live in villages by themselves. Their number
is now considerably diminished, and this has proportionally lowered
their power and spirit. They are now wholly addicted to agriculture,
hewers of wood and carriers of water, and the only potters and masons
in Abyssinia. In the former profession they excel greatly, and, in
general, live better than the other Abyssinians; which these, in
revenge, attribute to a skill in magic, not to superior industry. Their
villages are generally strongly situated out of the reach of marching
armies, otherwise they would be constantly rifled, partly from hatred,
and partly from hopes of finding money.

On the 10th, at half past seven in the morning, we continued along
the plain on the top of Lamalmon; it is called Lama; and a village of
the same name bore about two miles east from us. At eight o’clock we
passed two villages called Mocken, one W. by N. at one mile and a half,
the other S. E. two miles distant. At half past eight we crossed the
river Macara, a considerable stream running with a very great current,
which is the boundary between Woggora and Lamalmon. At nine o’clock we
encamped at some small villages called Macara, under a church named
Yasous. On the 11th of February, by the meridian altitude of the sun at
noon, and that of several fixed stars proper for observation, I found
the latitude of Macara to be 13° 6´ 8´´. The ground was everywhere
burnt up; and, though the nights were very cold, we had not observed
the smallest dew since our first ascending the mountain. The province
of Woggora begins at Macara; it is all plain, and reckoned the granary
of Gondar on this side, although the name would denote no such thing,
for Woggora signifies the _stony_, or _rocky province_.

The mountains of Lasta and Belessen bound our view to the south; the
hills of Gondar on the S. W.; and all Woggora lies open before us to
the south, covered, as I have said before, with grain. But the wheat
of Woggora is not good, owing probably to the height of that province.
It makes an indifferent bread, and is much less esteemed than that of
Foggora and Dembea, low, flat provinces, sheltered with hills, that lie
upon the side of the lake Tzana.

On the 12th we left Macara at seven in the morning, still travelling
through the plain of Woggora. At half past seven saw two villages
called Erba Tensa, one of them a mile distant, the other half a mile
on the N. W. At eight o’clock we came to Woken, five villages not two
hundred yards distant from one another. At a quarter past eight we saw
five other villages to the S. W. called Warrar, from one to four miles
distant, all between the points of east and south. The country now
grows inconceivably populous; vast flocks of cattle of all kinds feed
on every side, having large and beautiful horns, exceedingly wide, and
bosses upon their backs like camels; their colour is mostly black.

At a quarter past eight we passed Arena, a village on our left. At
nine we passed the river Girama, which runs N. N. W. and terminates
the district of Lamalmon, beginning that of Giram. At ten the church
of St George remained on our right, one mile from us; we crossed a
river called Shimbra Zuggan, and encamped about two hundred yards from
it. The valley of that name is more broken and uneven than any part
we had met with since we ascended Lamalmon. The valley called also
Shimbra Zuggan, is two miles and a half N. by E. on the top of a hill
surrounded with trees. Two small brooks, the one from S. S. E. the
other from S. E. join here, then fall into the rivulet.

The 13th, at seven in the morning, we proceeded still along the plain;
at half past seven came to Arradara; and afterwards saw above twenty
other villages on our right and left, ruined and destroyed from the
lowest foundation by Ras Michael in his late march to Gondar. At half
past eight the church of Mariam was about a hundred yards on our left.
At ten we encamped under Tamamo. The country here is full of people;
the villages are mostly ruined, which, in some places, they are
rebuilding. It is wholly sown with grain of different kinds, but more
especially with wheat. For the production of this, they have everywhere
extirpated the wood, and now labour under a great scarcity of fuel.
Since we passed Lamalmon, the only substitute for this was cows and
mules dung, which they gather, make into cakes, and dry in the sun.
From Addergey hither, salt is the current money, in large purchases,
such as sheep or other cattle; cohol, and pepper, for smaller articles,
such as flour, butter, fowls, &c. At Shimbra Zuggan they first began to
inquire after red Surat cotton cloth for which they offered us thirteen
bricks of salt; four peeks of this red cloth are esteemed the price of
a goat. We began to find the price of provisions augment in a great
proportion as we approached the capital.

This day we met several caravans going to Tigré, a certain sign
of Michael’s victory; also vast flocks of cattle driven from the
rebellious provinces, which were to pasture on Lamalmon, and had been
purchased from the army. Not only the country was now more cultivated,
but the people were cleanlier, better dressed, and apparently better
fed, than those in the other parts we had left behind us. Indeed, from
Shimbra Zuggan hither, there was not a foot, excepting the path on
which we trode, that was not sown with some grain or other.

On the 14th, at seven o’clock in the morning, we continued our journey.
At ten minutes past seven, we had five villages of Tamamo three miles
on our left; our road was through gentle rising hills, all pasture
ground. At half past seven, the village of Woggora was three miles on
our right; and at eight, the church of St George a mile on our left,
with a village of the same name near it; and, ten minutes after, Angaba
Mariam, a church dedicated to the virgin, so called from the small
territory Angaba, which we are now entering. At fifty minutes past
eight, we came to five villages called Angaba, at small distances from
each other. At nine o’clock we came to Kossogué, and entered a small
district of that name. The church is on a hill surrounded with trees.
On our left are five villages all called Kossoguè, and as it were on a
line, the farthest at 3 miles distance; near ten we came to the church
of Argiff, in the midst of many ruined villages. Three miles on our
left hand are several others, called Appano.

After having suffered, with infinite patience and perseverance, the
hardships and danger of this long and painful journey, at forty
minutes past ten we were gratified, at last, with the sight of Gondar,
according to my computation about ten miles distant. The king’s palace
(at least the tower of it) is distinctly seen, but none of the other
houses, which are covered by the multitude of wanzey-trees growing
in the town, so that it appears one thick, black wood. Behind it is
Azazo, likewise covered with trees. On a hill is the large church of
Tecla Haimanout, and the river below it makes it distinguishable; still
further on is the great lake Tzana, which terminates our horizon.

At forty-five minutes past ten we began to ascend about two miles
through a broken road, having on our right, in the valley below,
the river Tchagassa; and here begins the territory of that name. At
fifty-five minutes past ten, descending still the hill, we passed
a large spring of water, called Bambola, together with several
plantations of sugar-canes which grow here _from the seed_. At eleven
o’clock the village Tchagassa was about half a mile distant from us
on our right, on the other side of the river. It is inhabited by
Mahometans, as is Waalia, another small one near it. At twelve o’clock
we passed the river Tchagassa over a bridge of three arches, the middle
of which is Gothic, the two lesser Roman. This bridge, though small, is
solid and well cemented, built with stone by order of Facilidas, who
probably employed those of his subjects who had retained the arts of
the Portuguese, but not their religion.

The Tchagassa has very steep, rocky banks: It is so deep, though
narrow, that, without this bridge, it scarce would be passable. We
encamped at a small distance from it, but nearer Gondar. Here again
we met with trees, (small ones indeed) but the first we had seen since
leaving Lamalmon, excepting the usual groves of cedars. It is the
Virginia cedar, or oxy-cedros, in this country called _Arz_, with which
their churches are constantly surrounded.

On the 15th, at ten minutes past seven, we began to ascend the
mountain; and, at twenty minutes after seven, passed a village on
our left. At seven and three quarters we passed Tiba and Mariam, two
churches, the one on our right, the other on our left, about half
a mile distant; and near them several small villages, inhabited by
Falasha, masons and thatchers of houses, employed at Gondar. At half
past eight we came to the village Tocutcho, and, in a quarter of an
hour, passed the river of that name, and in a few minutes rested on the
river Angrab, about half a mile from Gondar.

Tchacassa is the last of the many little districts which, together,
compose Woggora, generally understood to be dependent on Samen,
though often, from the turbulent spirit of its chiefs, struggling
for independency, as at the present time, but sure to pay for it
immediately after. In fact, though large, it is too near Gondar to be
suffered to continue in rebellion; and, being rich and well cultivated,
it derives its support from the capital, as being the mart of its
produce. It is certainly one of the fruitfulest provinces in Abyssinia,
but the inhabitants are miserably poor, notwithstanding their threefold
harvests. Whereas, in Egypt, beholden to this country alone for its
fertility, one moderate harvest gives plenty everywhere.

Woggora is full of large ants, and prodigious swarms of rats and
mice, which consume immense quantities of grain; to these plagues may
be added still one, the greatest of them all, bad government, which
speedily destroys all the advantages they reap from nature, climate,
and situation.




CHAP. VIII.

_Reception at Gondar--Triumphal Entry of the King--The Author’s first
Audience._


We were much surprised at arriving on the Angrab, that no person had
come to us from Petros, Janni’s brother. We found afterwards, indeed,
that he had taken fright upon some menacing words from the priests,
at hearing a Frank was on his way to Gondar, and that he had, soon
after, set out for Ibaba, where the Ras was, to receive his directions
concerning us. This was the most disagreeable accident could have
happened to me. I had not a single person to whom I could address
myself for any thing. My letters were for the king and Ras Michael, and
could be of no use, as both were absent; and though I had others for
Petros and the Greeks, they, too, were out of town.

Many Mahometans came to the Angrab to meet the caravan. They all
knew of my coming perfectly, and I soon explained my situation. I
had Janni’s letters to Negadé Ras Mahomet, the chief of the Moors at
Gondar, and principal merchant in Abyssinia, who was absent likewise
with the army. But one of his brethren, a sagacious, open-hearted
man, desired me not to be discouraged; that, as I had not put off my
Moorish dress, I should continue it; that a house was provided for
Mahomet Gibberti, and those that were with him, and that he would put
me immediately into possession of it, where I might stay, free from
any intercourse with the priests, till Petros or the Ras should return
to Gondar. This advice I embraced with great readiness, as there
was nothing I was so much afraid of as an encounter with fanatical
priests before I had obtained some protection from government, or the
great people in the country. After having concerted these measures, I
resigned myself to the direction of my Moorish friend Hagi Saleh.

We moved along the Angrab, having Gondar on our right situated upon a
hill, and the river on our left, proceeding down till its junction with
a smaller stream, called the Kahha, that joins it at the Moorish town.
This situation, near running water, is always chosen by the Mahometans
on account of their frequent ablutions. The Moorish town at Gondar may
consist of about 3000 houses, some of them spacious and good. I was
put in possession of a very neat one, destined for Mahomet Gibberti.
Flour, honey, and such-like food, Mahometans and Christians eat
promiscuously, and so far I was well situated. As for flesh, although
there was abundance of it, I could not touch a bit of it, being killed
by Mahometans, as that communion would have been looked upon as equal
to a renunciation of Christianity.

By Janni’s servant, who had accompanied us from Adowa, his kind and
friendly master had wrote to Ayto Aylo, of whom I have already spoken.
He was the constant patron of the Greeks, and had been so also of all
the Catholics who had ventured into this country, and been forced
after to leave it. Though no man professed greater veneration for the
priesthood, no one privately detested more those of his own country
than he did; and he always pretended that, if a proper way of going to
Jerusalem could be found, he would leave his large estates, and the
rank he had in Abyssinia, and, with the little money he could muster,
live the remaining part of his days among the monks, of whom he had
now accounted himself one, in the convent of the holy sepulchre. This
perhaps was, great part of it, imagination; but, as he had talked
himself into a belief that he was to end his days either at Jerusalem,
which was a pretence, or at Rome, which was his inclination, he
willingly took the charge of white people of all communions who had
hitherto been unhappy enough to stray into Abyssinia.

It was about seven o’clock at night, of the 15th, when Hagi Saleh was
much alarmed by a number of armed men at his door; and his surprise
was still greater upon seeing Ayto Aylo, who, as far as I know, was
never in the Moorish town before, descend from his mule, and uncover
his head and shoulders, as if he had been approaching a person of the
first distinction. I had been reading the prophet Enoch, which Janni
had procured me at Adowa; and Wemmer’s and Ludolf’s dictionaries were
lying upon it. Yasine was sitting by me, and was telling me what news
he had picked up, and he was well acquainted with Ayto Aylo, from
several commissions he had received for his merchants in Arabia. A
contention of civilities immediately followed. I offered to stand till
Aylo was covered, and he would not sit till I was seated. This being
got over, the first curiosity was, What my books were? and he was very
much astonished at seeing one of them was Abyssinian, and the European
helps that I had towards understanding it. He understood Tigrè and
Amharic perfectly, and had a little knowledge of Arabic, that is, he
understood it when spoken, for he could neither read nor write it, and
spoke it very ill, being at a loss for words.

The beginning of our discourse was in Arabic, and embarrassed enough,
but we had plenty of interpreters in all languages. The first
bashfulness being removed on both sides, our conversation began in
Tigré, now, lately since Michael had become Ras, the language most
used in Gondar. Aylo was exceedingly astonished at hearing me speak
the language as I did, and said after, “The Greeks are poor creatures;
Peter does not speak Tigré so well as this man.” Then, very frequently,
to Saleh and the by-standers, “Come, come, he’ll do, if he can speak;
there is no fear of him, he’ll make his way.”

He told us that Welled Hawaryat had come from the camp ill of a fever,
and that they were afraid it was the small pox: that Janni had informed
them I had saved many young people’s lives at Adowa, by a new manner
of treating them; and that the Iteghé desired I would come the next
morning, and that he should carry me to Koscam and introduce me to her.
I told him that I was ready to be directed by his good advice; that
the absence of the Greeks, and Mahomet Gibberti at the same time, had
very much distressed me, and especially the apprehensions of Petros. He
said, smiling, That neither Petros nor himself were bad men, but that
unfortunately they were great cowards, and things were not always so
bad as they apprehended. What had frightened Petros, was a conversation
of Abba Salama, whom they met at Koscam, expressing his displeasure
with some warmth, that a Frank, meaning me, was permitted to come to
Gondar. “But,” says Ayto Aylo, “we shall hear to-morrow, or next day.
Ras Michael and Abba Salama are not friends; and if you could do any
good to Welled Hawaryat his son, I shall answer for it, one word of his
will stop the mouths of a hundred Abba Salamas.” I will not trouble
the reader with much indifferent conversation that passed. He drank
capillaire and water, and sat till past midnight.

Abba Salama, of whom we shall often speak, at that time filled the
post of Acab Saat, or guardian of the fire. It is the third dignity
of the church, and he is the first religious officer in the palace.
He had a very large revenue, and still a greater influence. He was
a man exceedingly rich, and of the very worst life possible; though
he had taken the vows of poverty and chastity, it was said he had at
that time, above seventy mistresses in Gondar. His way of seducing
women was as extraordinary as the number seduced. It was not by gifts,
attendance, or flattery, the usual means employed on such occasions;
when he had fixed his desires upon a woman, he forced her to comply,
under pain of _excommunication_. He was exceedingly eloquent and bold,
a great favourite of the Iteghè’s, till taken in to be a counsellor
with Lubo and Brulhè. He had been very instrumental in the murder of
Kasmati Eshté, of which he vaunted, even in the palace of the queen his
sister. He was a man of a pleasing countenance, short, and of a very
fair complexion; indifferent, or rather averse to wine, but a monstrous
glutton, nice in what he had to eat, to a degree scarcely before known
in Abyssinia; a mortal enemy to all white people, whom he classed under
the name of Franks, for which the Greeks, uniting their interests at
favourable times, had often very nearly overset him.

The next morning, about ten o’clock, taking Hagi Saleh and Yasine with
me, and dressed in my Moorish dress, I went to Ayto Aylo, and found him
with several great plates of bread, melted butter, and honey, before
him, of one of which he and I ate; the rest were given to the Moors,
and other people present. There was with him a priest of Koscam, and we
all set out for that palace as soon as we had ate breakfast. The rest
of the company were on mules. I had mounted my own favourite horse.
Aylo, before his fright at Sennaar, was one of the first horsemen in
Abyssinia; he was short, of a good figure, and knew the advantage of
such make for a horseman; he had therefore a curiosity to see a tall
man ride; but he was an absolute stranger to the great advantage of
Moorish furniture, bridles, spurs, and stirrups, in the management
of a violent, strong, high-mettled horse. It was with the utmost
satisfaction, when we arrived in the plain called Aylo Meydan, that I
shewed him the different paces of the horse. He cried out with fear
when he saw him stand upright upon his legs, and jump forward, or
aside, with all four feet off the ground.

We passed the brook of St Raphael, a suburb of Gondar, where is the
house of the Abuna; and upon coming in sight of the palace of Koscam,
we all uncovered our heads, and rode slowly. As Aylo was all-powerful
with the Iteghé, indeed her first counsellor and friend, our admittance
was easy and immediate. We alighted, and were shewn into a low room in
the palace. Ayto Aylo went immediately to the queen to inquire about
Welled Hawaryat, and his audience lasted two long hours. He returned to
us with these news, that Welled Hawaryat was much better, by a medicine
a saint from Waldubba had given him, which consisted in some characters
written with common ink upon a tin plate, which characters were washed
off by a medicinal liquor, and then given him to drink. It was agreed,
however, that the complaint was the small-pox, and the good it had done
him was, he had ate heartily of _brind_, or raw beef after it, tho’ he
had not ate before since his arrival, but called perpetually for drink.
Aylo said he was to remain at Koscam till towards evening, and desired
me to meet him at his own house when it turned dark, and to bring
Petros with me, if he was returned.

Petros was returned when I arrived, and waited for me at Hagi Saleh’s
house. Although he shewed all the signs of my being welcome, yet it was
easy to read in his countenance he had not succeeded according to his
wish, in his interview with Michael, or that he had met something that
had ruffled and frightened him anew. And, indeed, this last was the
case, for going to the Ras’s tent, he had seen the stuffed skin of the
unfortunate Woosheka, with whom he was well acquainted, swinging upon a
tree, and drying in the wind. He was so terrified, and struck with such
horror, at the sight, that he was in a kind of hysteric fit, cried,
started, laughed hideously, and seemed as if he had in part lost his
senses.

I was satisfied by the state I saw him in, though he had left Ibaba
three days, that, as the first sight of Woosheka’s stuffed skin must
have been immediately before he went to the Ras, he could not have had
any distinct or particular conversation with him on my account; and
it turned out after, that he had not spoken one word upon the subject
from fear, but had gone to the tent of Negadè Ras Mahomet, who carried
him to Kefla Yasous; that they, too, seeing the fright he was in, and
knowing the cause, had gone without him to the Ras, and told him of my
arrival, and of the behaviour of Abba Salama, and my fear thereupon,
and that I was then in the house of Hagi Saleh, in the Moorish town.
The Ras’s answer was, “Abba Salama is an ass, and they that fear him
are worse. Do I command in Gondar only when I stay there? My dog is of
more consequence in Gondar than Abba Salama.” And then, after pausing a
little, he said, “Let Yagoube stay where he is in the Moors town; Saleh
will let no priests trouble him there.” Negadé Ras Mahomet laughed,
and said, “We will answer for that;” and Petros set out immediately
upon his return, haunted night and day with the ghost of his friend
Woosheka, but without having seen Ras Michael.

I thought, when we went at night to Ayto Aylo, and he had told the
story distinctly, that Aylo and he were equally afraid, for he had not,
or pretended he had not, till then heard that Woosheka had been flayed
alive. Aylo, too, was well acquainted with the unfortunate person, and
only said, “This is Esther, this is Esther; nobody knew her but I.”
Then they went on to inquire particulars, and after, they would stop
one another, and desire each other to speak no more; then they cried
again, and fell into the same conversation. It was impossible not to
laugh at the ridiculous dialogue. “Sirs,” said I, “you have told me all
I want; I shall not stir from the Moors town till Ras Michael arrives;
if there was any need of advice, you are neither of you capable of
giving it; now I would wish you would shew me you are capable of taking
mine. You are both extremely agitated, and Peter is very tired; and
will besides see the ghost of Woosheka shaking to and fro all night
with the wind; neither of you ate supper, as I intend to do; and I
think Peter should stay here all night, but you should not lie both
of you in the same room, where Woosheka’s black skin, so strongly
impressed on your mind, will not fail to keep you talking all night in
place of sleeping. Boil about a quart of gruel, I will put a few drops
into it; go then to bed, and this unusual operation of Michael will not
have power to keep you awake.”

The gruel was made, and a good large doze of laudanum put into it.
I took my leave, and returned with Saleh; but before I went to the
door Aylo told me he had forgot Welled Hawaryat was very bad, and the
Iteghè, Ozoro Altash, his wife, and Ozoro Esther, desired I would come
and see him to-morrow. One of his daughters, by Ozoro Altash, had been
ill some time before his arrival, and she too was thought in great
danger. “Look,” said I, “Ayto Aylo, the small-pox is a disease that
will have its course; and, during the long time the patient is under
it, if people feed them and treat them according to their own ignorant
prejudices, my seeing him, or advising him, is in vain. This morning
you said a man had cured him by writing upon a tin plate; and to try if
he was well, they crammed him with raw beef. I do not think the letters
that he swallowed will do him any harm, neither will they do him any
good; but I shall not be surprised if the raw beef kills him, and his
daughter Welleta Selassé, too, before I see him to-morrow.”

On the morrow Petros was really taken ill, and feverish, from a cold
and fatigue, and fright. Aylo and I went to Koscam, and, for a fresh
amusement to him, I shewed him the manner in which the Arabs use their
firelocks on horseback; but with this advantage of a double-barrelled
gun, which he had never before seen. I shot also several birds from the
horse; all which things he would have pronounced impossible if they had
been only told him. He arrived at Koscam full of wonder, and ready to
believe I was capable of doing every thing I undertook.

We were just entering into the palace-door, when we saw a large
procession of monks, with the priests of Koscam at their head, a large
cross and a picture carried with them, the last in a very dirty,
gilt frame. Aylo turned aside when he saw these; and, going into the
chamberlain’s apartment, called Ayto Heikel, afterwards a great friend
and companion of mine. He informed us, that three great saints from
Waldubba, one of whom had neither ate nor drank for twenty years of
his life, had promised to come and cure Welled Hawaryat, by laying a
picture of the Virgin Mary and the cross upon him, and therefore they
would not wish me to be seen, or meddle in the affair. “I assure you,
Ayto Aylo,” said I, “I shall strictly obey you. There is no sort of
reason for my meddling in this affair with such associates. If they can
cure him by a miracle, I am sure it is the easiest kind of cure of any,
and will not do his constitution the least harm afterwards, which is
more than I will promise for medicines in general; but, remember what
I say to you, it will, indeed, be a miracle, if both the father and
the daughter are not dead before to-morrow night.” We seemed all of us
satisfied in one point, that it was better he should die, than I come
to trouble by interfering.

After the procession was gone, Aylo went to the Iteghè, and, I suppose,
told her all that happened since he had seen her last. I was called in,
and, as usual, prostrated myself upon the ground. She received that
token of respect without offering to excuse or to decline it. Aylo
then said, “This is our gracious mistress, who always gives us her
assistance and protection. You may safely say before her whatever is in
your heart.”

Our first discourse was about Jerusalem, the Holy Sepulchre, Calvary,
the City of David, and the Mountain of Olives, with the situations of
which she was perfectly well acquainted. She then asked me to tell her
truly if I was not a Frank? “Madam,” said I, “if I was a Catholic,
which you mean by Frank, there could be no greater folly than my
concealing this from you in the beginning, after the assurance Ayto
Aylo has just now given; and, in confirmation of the truth I am now
telling, (she had a large bible lying on the table before her, upon
which I laid my hand), I declare to you, by all those truths contained
in this book, that my religion is more different from the Catholic
religion than your’s is: that there has been more blood shed between
the Catholics and us, on account of the difference of religion, than
ever was between you and the Catholics in this country; even at this
day, when men are become wiser and cooler in many parts of the world,
it would be full as safe for a Jesuit to preach in the market-place
of Gondar, as for any priest of my religion to present himself as a
teacher in the most civilized of Frank or Catholic countries.”--“How is
it then,” says she, “that you don’t believe in miracles?”

“I see, Madam,” said I, “Ayto Aylo has informed you of a few words
that some time ago dropt from me. I do certainly believe the miracles
of Christ and his apostles, otherwise I am no Christian; but I do
not believe these miracles of latter times, wrought upon trifling
occasions, like sports, and jugglers tricks.”--“And yet,” says she,
“our books are full of them.”--“I know they are,” said I, “and so are
those of the Catholics: but I never can believe that a saint converted
the devil, who lived, forty years after, a holy life as a monk; nor
the story of another saint, who, being sick and hungry, caused a brace
of partridges, ready-roasted, to fly upon his plate that he might eat
them.”--“He has been reading the Synaxar,” says Ayto Aylo. “I believe
so,” says she, smiling; “but is there any harm in believing too much,
and is not there great danger in believing too little?”--“Certainly,”
continued I; “but what I meant to say to Ayto Aylo was, that I did not
believe laying a picture upon Welled Hawaryat would recover him when
delirious in a fever.” She answered, “There was nothing impossible with
God.” I made a bow of assent, wishing heartily the conversation might
end there.

I returned to the Moors town, leaving Aylo with the queen. In the
afternoon I heard Welleta Selassé was dead; and at night died her
father, Welled Hawaryat. The contagion from Masuah and Adowa had spread
itself all over Gondar. Ozoro Ayabdar, daughter of Ozoro Altash, was
now sick, and a violent fever had fallen upon Koscam. The next morning
Aylo came to me and told me, the faith in the saint who did not eat or
drink for twenty years was perfectly abandoned since Welled Hawaryat’s
death: That it was the desire of the queen, and Ozoro Esther, that I
should transport myself to Koscam to the Iteghé’s palace, where all
their children and grandchildren, by the different men the queen’s
daughters had married, were under her care. I told him, “I had some
difficulty to obey them, from the positive orders I had received from
Petros to stay in the Moors town with Hagi Saleh till the Ras should
arrive; that Koscam was full of priests, and Abba Salama there every
day; notwithstanding which, if Petros and he so advised me, I would
certainly go to do any possible service to the Iteghé, or Ozoro Esther.”

He desired half an hour’s absence before he gave me an answer, but did
not return till about three hours afterwards, and, without alighting,
cried out at some distance, “Aya, come, you must go immediately.” “I
told him, that new and clean clothes in the Gondar fashion had been
procured for me by Petros, and that I wished they might be sent to
his house, where I would put them on, and then go to Koscam, with a
certainty that I carried no infection with me, for I had attended a
number of Moorish children, while at Hagi Saleh’s house, most of whom
happily went on doing well, but that there was no doubt there would
be infection in my clothes.” He praised me up to the skies for this
precaution, and the whole was executed in the manner proposed. My hair
was cut round, curled, and perfumed, in the Amharic fashion, and I was
thenceforward, in all outward appearance, a perfect Abyssinian.

My first advice, when arrived at Koscam, was, that Ozoro Esther, and
her son by Mariam Barea, and a son by Ras Michael, should remove from
the palace, and take up their lodging in a house formerly belonging to
her uncle Basha Eusebius, and give the part of the family that were yet
well a chance of escaping the disease. Her young son by Mariam Barea,
however, complaining, the Iteghè would not suffer him to remove, and
the resolution was taken to abide the issue all in the palace together.

Before I entered upon my charge, I desired Petros (now recovered)
Aylo, Abba Christophorus, a Greek priest who acted as physician before
I came to Gondar, and Armaxikos priest of Koscam, and favourite of
the Iteghè, to be all present. I stated to them the disagreeable task
now imposed upon me, a stranger without acquaintance or protection,
having the language but imperfectly, and without power or controul
among them. I professed my intention of doing my utmost, although the
disease was much more serious and fatal in this country than in mine,
but I insisted one condition should be granted me, which was, that
no directions as to regimen or management, even of the most trifling
kind, as they might think, should be suffered, without my permission
and superintendence, otherwise I washed my hands of the consequence,
which I told before them would be fatal. They all assented to this,
and Armaxikos declared those excommunicated that broke this promise;
and I saw that, the more scrupulous and particular I was, the more
the confidence of the ladies increased. Armaxikos promised me the
assistance of his prayers, and those of the whole monks, morning and
evening; and Aylo said lowly to me, “You’ll have no objection to this
saint, I assure you he eats and drinks heartily, as I shall shew you
when once these troubles are over.”

I set the servants all to work. There were apartments enough. I opened
all the doors and windows, fumigating them with incense and myrrh,
in abundance, washed them with warm water and vinegar, and adhered
strictly to the rules which my worthy and skilful friend Doctor Russel
had given me at Aleppo.

The common and fatal regimen in this country, and in most parts in the
east, has been to keep their patient from feeling the smallest breath
of air; hot drink, a fire, and a quantity of covering are added in
Abyssinia, and the doors shut so close as even to keep the room in
darkness, whilst this heat is further augmented by the constant burning
of candles.

Ayabdar, Ozoro Altash’s remaining daughter, and the son of Mariam
Barea, were both taken ill at the same time, and happily recovered.
A daughter of Kasmati Boro, by a daughter of Kasmati Eshtès, died,
and her mother, though she survived, was a long time ill afterwards.
Ayabdar was very much marked, so was Mariam Barea’s son.

At this time, Ayto Confu, son of Kasmati Netcho by Ozoro Esther, had
arrived from Tcherkin, a lad of very great hopes, though not then
fourteen. He came to see his mother without my knowledge or her’s, and
was infected likewise. Last of all the infant child of Michael, the
child of his old age, took the disease, and though the weakest, of all
the children, recovered best. I tell these actions for brevity’s sake
altogether, not directly in the order they happened, to satisfy the
reader about the reason of the remarkable attention and favour shewed
to me afterwards upon so short an acquaintance.

The fear and anxiety of Ozoro Esther, upon smaller occasions, was
excessive, and fully in proportion in the greater that now existed;
many promises of Michael’s favour, of riches, greatness, and
protection, followed every instance of my care and attention towards
my patients. She did not eat or sleep herself; and the ends of her
fingers were all broke out into pustules, from touching the several
sick persons. Confu, the favourite of all the queen’s relations,
and the hopes of their family, had symptoms which all feared would
be fatal, as he had violent convulsions, which were looked upon as
forerunners of immediate death; they ceased, however, immediately on
the eruption. The attention I shewed to this young man, which was
more than overpaid by the return he himself made on many occasions
afterwards, was greatly owing to a prepossession in his favour, which I
took upon his first appearance. Policy, as may be imagined, as well as
charity, alike influenced me in the care of my other patients; but an
attachment, which providence seemed to have inspired me with for my own
preservation, had the greatest share in my care for Ayto Confu.

Though it is not the place, I must not forget to tell the reader, that,
the third day after I had come to Koscam, a horseman and a letter had
arrived from Michael to Hagi Saleh, ordering him to carry me to Koscam,
and likewise a short letter written to me by Negadè Ras Mahomet, in
Arabic, as from Ras Michael, very civil, but containing positive orders
and _command_, as if to a servant, that I should repair to the Iteghè’s
palace, and not stir from thence till future orders, upon any pretence
whatever.

I cannot say but this positive, peremptory dealing, did very much shock
and displease me. I shewed the letter to Petros, who approved of it
much; said he was glad to see it in that stile, as it was a sign the
Ras was in earnest. I shewed it to Ayto Aylo, who said not much to it
either the one way or the other, only he was glad that I had gone to
Koscam before it came; but he taxed Ozoro Esther with being the cause
of a proceeding which might have been proper to a Greek or slave,
but was not so to a free man like me, who came recommended to their
protection, and had, as yet, received no favour, or even civility.
Ozoro Esther laughed heartily at all this, for the first time she had
shewn any inclination to mirth; she confessed she had sent a messenger
every day, sometimes two, and sometimes three, ever since Welled
Hawaryat had died, and by every one of them she had pressed the Ras to
enjoin me not to leave Koscam, the consequence of which was the order
above mentioned; and, in the evening, there was a letter to Petros from
Anthulé, Janni’s son-in-law, a Greek, and treasurer to the king, pretty
much to the same purpose as the first, and in no softer terms, with
direction, however, to furnish me with every thing I should want, on
the king’s account.

One morning Aylo, in presence of the queen, speaking to Ozoro Esther
of the stile of the Ras’s letter to me, she confessed her own anxiety
was the cause, but added, “You have often upbraided me with being, what
you call, an unchristian enemy, in the advices you suppose I frequently
give Michael; but now, if I am not as good a friend to Yagoube, who has
saved my children, as I am a steady enemy to the Galla, who murdered
my husband, say then Esther is not a Christian, and I forgive you.”
Many conversations of this kind passed between her and me, during the
illness of Ayto Confu. I removed my bed to the outer door of Confu’s
chamber, to be ready whenever he should call, but his mother’s anxiety
kept her awake in his room all night, and propriety did not permit
me to go to bed. From this frequent communication began a friendship
between Ozoro Esther and me, which ever after subsisted without any
interruption.

Our patients, being all likely to do well, were removed to a large
house of Kasmati Eshté, which stood still within the boundaries of
Koscam, while the rooms underwent another lustration and fumigation,
after which they all returned; and I got, as my fee, a present of
the neat and convenient house formerly belonging to Basha Eusebius,
which had a separate entry, without going through the palace. Still I
thought it better to obey Ras Michael’s orders to the letter, and not
stir out of Koscam, not even to Hagi Saleh’s or Ayto Aylo’s, though
both of them frequently endeavoured to persuade me that the order had
no such strict meaning. But my solitude was in no way disagreeable to
me. I had a great deal to do. I mounted my instruments, my thermometer
and barometer, telescopes and quadrant. Again all was wonder. It
occasioned me many idle hours before the curiosity of the palace was
satisfied. I saw the queen once every day at her levee, sometimes in
the evening, where many priests were always present. I was, for the
most part, twice a-day, morning and evening, with Ozoro Esther, where I
seldom met with any.

One day, when I went early to the queen, that I might get away in
time, having some other engagements about noon, just as I was taking
my leave, in came Abba Salama. At first he did not know me from the
change of dress; but, soon after recollecting me, he said, as it were,
passing, “Are you here? I thought you was with Ras Michael.” I made him
no answer, but bowed, and took my leave, when he called out, with an
air of authority, Come back, and beckoned me with his hand.

Several people entered the room at that instant, and I stood still in
the same place where I was, ready to receive the Iteghé’s orders: she
said, “Come back, and speak to Abba Salama.” I then advanced a few
paces forward, and said, looking to the Iteghé, “What has Abba Salama
to say to me?” He began directing his discourse to the queen, “Is he a
priest? Is he a priest?” The Iteghè answered very gravely, “Every good
man is a priest to himself; in that sense, and no other, Yagoube is a
priest.”--“Will you answer a question that I will ask you?” says he to
me, with a very pert tone of voice. “I do not know but I may, if it is
a discreet one,” said I, in Tigrè. “Why don’t you speak Amharic?” says
he to me in great haste, or seeming impatience. “Because I cannot speak
it well,” said I. “Why don’t you, on the other hand, speak Tigré to
me? it is the language the holy scriptures are written in, and you, a
priest, should understand it.”--“That is Geez,” says he; “I understand
it, though I don’t speak it.”--“Then,” replied I, “Ayto Heikel,” the
queen’s chamberlain, who stood behind me, “shall interpret for us; he
understands all languages.”

“Ask him, Heikel,” says he, “how many Natures there are in Christ.”
Which being repeated to me, I said, “I thought the question to be put
was something relating to my country, travels, or profession, in which
I possibly could instruct him; and not belonging to his, in which
he should instruct me. I am a physician in the town, a horseman and
soldier in the field. Physic is my study in the one, and managing my
horse and arms in the other. This I was bred to; as for disputes and
matters of religion, they are the province of priests and schoolmen.
I profess myself much more ignorant in these than I ought to be.
Therefore, when I have doubts I propose them to some holy man like
you, Abba Salama, (he bowed for the first time) whose profession these
things are. He gives me a rule and I implicitly follow it.” “Truth!
truth!” says he; “by St Michael, prince of angels, that is right; it
is answered well; by St George! he is a clever fellow. They told me he
was a Jesuit. Will you come to see me? Will you come to see me? You
need not be afraid when you come to _me_.” “I trust,” said I, bowing,
“I shall do no ill, in that case shall have no reason to fear.” Upon
this I withdrew from among the crowd, and went away, as an express then
arrived from Ras Michael.

It was on the 8th or 9th of March I met him at Azazo. He was dressed in
a coarse dirty cloth, wrapt about him like a blanket, and another like
a table-cloth folded about his head: He was lean, old, and apparently
much fatigued; sat stooping upon an excellent mule, that carried him
speedily without shaking him; he had also sore eyes. As we saw the
place where he was to light by four cross lances, and a cloth thrown
over them like a temporary tent, upon an eminence, we did not speak to
him till he alighted. Petros and the Greek priest, besides servants,
were the only people with me, Francis[15] had joined us upon our
meeting the Ras.

We alighted at the same time he did, and afterwards, with anxiety
enough we deputed the Greek priest, who was a friend of Michael, to
tell him who I was, and that I was come to meet him. The soldiers made
way, and I came up, took him by the hand, and kissed it. He looked me
broad in the face for a second, repeated the ordinary salutation in
Tigrè. “How do you do? I hope you are well;” and pointed to a place
where I was to sit down. A thousand complaints, and a thousand orders
came immediately before him, from a thousand mouths, and we were
nearly smothered; but he took no notice of me, nor did he ask for one
of his family. In some minutes after came the king, who passed at
some distance to the left of him; and Michael was then led out of the
shelter of his tent to the door, where he was supported on foot till
the king passed by, having first pulled off the towel that was upon his
head, after which he returned to his seat in the tent again.

The king had been past about a quarter of a mile, when Kefla Yasous
came from him with orders to the Ras, or rather, as I believe, to
receive orders from him. He brought with him a young nobleman, Ayto
Engedan, who, by his dress, having his upper garment twisted in a
particular manner about his waist, shewed that he was carrier of a
special message from the king. The crowd by this time had shut us quite
out, and made a circle round the Ras, in which we were not included.
We were upon the point of going away, when Kefla Yasous, who had seen
Francis, said to him, “I think Engedan has the king’s command for you,
you must not depart without leave.” And, soon after, we understood
that the king’s orders were to obtain leave from the Ras, to bring me,
with Engedan, near, and in sight of him, without letting me know, or
introducing me to him. In answer to this, the Ras had said, “I don’t
know him; will people like him think this right? Ask Petros; or why
should not the king call upon him and speak to him; he has letters to
him as well as to me, and he will be obliged to see him to-morrow.”

Engedan went away on a gallop to join the king, and we proceeded after
him, nor did we receive any other message either from the king or the
Ras. We returned to Koscam, very little pleased with the reception
we had met with. All the town was in a hurry and confusion; 30,000
men were encamped upon the Kahha; and the first horrid scene Michael
exhibited there, was causing the eyes of twelve of the chiefs of
the Galla, whom he had taken prisoners, to be pulled out, and the
unfortunate sufferers turned out to the fields, to be devoured at night
by the hyæna. Two of these I took under my care, who both recovered,
and from them I learned many particulars of their country and manners.

The next day, which was the 10th, the army marched into the town
in triumph, and the Ras at the head of the troops of Tigrè. He was
bareheaded; over his shoulders, and down to his back, hung a pallium,
or cloak, of black velvet, with a silver fringe. A boy, by his right
stirrup, held a silver wand of about five feet and a half long, much
like the staves of our great officers at court. Behind him all the
soldiers, who had slain an enemy and taken the spoils from them, had
their lances and firelocks ornamented with small shreds of scarlet
cloth, one piece for every man he had slain.

Remarkable among all this multitude was Hagos, door-keeper of the
Ras, whom we have mentioned in the war of Begemder. This man, always
well-armed and well-mounted, had followed the wars of the Ras from his
infancy, and had been so fortunate in this kind of single combat, that
his whole lance and javelin, horse and person, were covered over with
the shreds of scarlet cloth. At this last battle of Fagitta, Hagos
is said to have slain eleven men with his own hand. Indeed there is
nothing more fallacious than judging of a man’s courage by these marks
of conquest. A good horseman, armed with a coat of mail, upon a strong,
well-fed, well-winded horse, may, after a defeat, kill as many of these
wretched, weary, naked fugitives, as he pleases, confining himself to
those that are weakly, mounted upon tired horses, and covered only with
goat’s-skins, or that are flying on foot.

Behind came Gusho of Amhara, and Powussen, lately made governor of
Begemder for his behaviour at the battle of Fagitta, where, as I have
said, he pursued Fasil and his army for two days. The Ras had given him
also a farther reward, his grand-daughter Ayabdar, lately recovered
from the small-pox, and the only one of my patients that, neither by
herself, her mother, nor her husband, ever made me the least return.
Powussen was one of the twelve officers who, after being delivered to
Lubo by the Galla, together with Mariam Barea, had fled to Michael’s
tent, and were protected by him.

One thing remarkable in this cavalcade, which I observed, was the
head-dress of the governors of provinces. A large broad fillet was
bound upon their forehead, and tied behind their head. In the middle of
this was a horn, or a conical piece of silver, gilt, about four inches
long, much in the shape of our common candle extinguishers. This is
called _kirn_, or horn, and is only worn in reviews or parades after
victory. This I apprehend, like all other of their usages, is taken
from the Hebrews, and the several allusions made in scripture to it
arise from this practice:--“I said unto fools, Deal not foolishly; and
to the wicked, Lift not up the horn”--“Lift not up your horn on high;
speak not with a stiff neck[16]”--“For promotion cometh,” &c.--“But
my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn”--“And the horn
of the righteous shall be exalted with honour.” And so in many other
places throughout the Psalms.

Next to these came the king, with a fillet of white muslin about three
inches broad, binding his forehead, tied with a large double knot
behind, and hanging down about two feet on his back. About him were the
great officers of state, such of the young nobility as were without
command; and after these, the household troops.

Then followed the Kanitz Kitzera, or executioner of the camp, and his
attendants; and, last of all, amidst the King’s and the Ras’s baggage,
came a man bearing the stuffed skin of the unfortunate Woosheka upon a
pole, which he hung upon a branch of the tree before the king’s palace
appropriated for public executions.

Upon their arrival at Gondar, all the great men had waited both upon
the Ras and the King. Aylo had been with them, and Ozoro Esther was
removed to Gondar; but, by my advice, had left the child at Koscam. Her
son Confu, though recovered of the small-pox, had evident signs of a
dysentery, and took no care of himself in point of regimen, or avoiding
cold.

It was now the 13th of March,and I had heard no word from Ozoro Esther,
or the Ras, though removed to a house in Gondar near to Petros. I had
gone every day once to see the children of Koscam; at all which times I
had been received with the greatest cordiality and marks of kindness by
the Iteghé, and orders given for my free admittance upon all occasions
like an officer of her household. As to the rest, I never was in
appearance more neglected, than in this present moment, by all but the
Moors. These were very grateful for the successful attention I had
shewed their children, and very desirous to have me again among them.
Hagi Saleh, in particular, could not satiate himself with cursing the
ingratitude of these cafers, and infidels, the Christians. He knew what
had passed at Koscam, he saw what he thought likely to happen now, and
his anger was that of an honest man, and which perhaps many former
instances which he had been witness of might have justified, but in the
present one he was mistaken.

In the evening, Negadè Ras Mahoment came to my house; he said Mahomet
Gibberti was arrived, had been twice on private business with the Ras,
but had not yet delivered him his presents; and he had not informed
me of this, as he thought I was still at Koscam, and that Saleh his
brother knew nothing of it, as he had not seen him since he came home.
He also informed me that Ayto Aylo was with the Ras twice the day after
he entered Gondar, and once with Mahomet Gibberti: all this was about
me; and that, at Ayto Aylo’s proposal, it was agreed that I should be
appointed Palambaras, which is master of the king’s horse. It is a very
great office, both for rank, and revenue, but has no business attending
it; the young Armenian had before enjoyed it. I told Mahomet, that,
far from being any kindness to me, this would make me the most unhappy
of all creatures; that my extreme desire was to see the country, and
its different natural productions; to converse with the people as a
stranger, but to be nobody’s master nor servant; to see their books;
and, above all, to visit the sources of the Nile; to live as privately
in my own house, and have as much time to myself as possible; and
what I was most anxious about at present, was to know when it would be
convenient for them to admit me to see the Ras, and deliver my letters
as a stranger.

Mahomet went away, and returned, bringing Mahomet Gibberti, who told
me, that, besides the letter I carried to Ras Michael from Metical
Aga his master, he had been charged with a particular one, out of the
ordinary form, dictated by the English at Jidda, who, all of them,
and particularly my friends Captain Thornhill, and Capt. Thomas Price
of the Lyon, had agreed to make a point with Metical Aga, devoted to
them for his own profit, that his utmost exertion of friendship and
interest, should be so employed in my recommendation, as to engage
the attention of Ras Michael to provide in earnest for my safety and
satisfaction in every point.

This letter I had myself read at Jidda; it informed Michael of the
power and riches of our nation, and that they were absolute masters of
the trade on the Red Sea, and strictly connected with the Sherriffe,
and in a very particular manner with him, Metical Aga; that any
accident happening to me would be an infamy and disgrace to him, and
worse than death itself, because, that knowing Michael’s power, and
relying on his friendship, he had become security for my safety, after
I arrived in his hands; that I was a man of consideration in my own
country, servant to the king of it, who, though himself a Christian,
governed his subjects Mussulmen and Pagans, with the same impartiality
and justice as he did Christians. That all my desire was to examine
springs and rivers, trees and flowers, and the stars in the heavens,
from which I drew knowledge very useful to preserve man’s health and
life; that I was no merchant, and had no dealings whatever in any sort
of mercantile matters; and that I had no need of any man’s money, as he
had told Mahomet Gibberti to provide for any call I might have in that
country, and for which he would answer, let the sum be what it would,
as he had the word of my countrymen to repay it, which he considered
better than the written security of any other people in the world.
He then repeated very nearly the same words used in the beginning of
the letter; and, upon this particular request, Metical Aga had sent
him a distinct present, not to confound it with other political and
commercial affairs, in which they were concerned together.

Upon reading this letter, Michael exclaimed, “Metical Aga does not
know the situation of this country. Safety! where is that to be found?
I am obliged to fight for my own life every day. Will Metical call
this safety? Who knows, at this moment, if the king is in safety, or
how long I shall be so? All I can do is to keep him with me. If I
lose my own life, and the king’s, Metical Aga can never think it was
in my power to preserve that of his stranger.”--“No, no,” says Ayto
Aylo, who was then present, “you don’t know the man; he is a devil on
horseback; he rides better, and shoots better, than any man that ever
came into Abyssinia; lose no time, put him about the king, and there
is no fear of him. He is very sober and religious; he will do the king
good.” “Shoot!” says Michael, “he won’t shoot at me as the Armenian
did; will he? will he?” “Oh,” continued Aylo, “you know these days are
over. What is the Armenian? a boy, a slave to the Turk. When you see
this man, you’ll not think of the Armenian.” It was finally agreed,
that the letters the Greeks had received should be read to the king;
that the letters I had from Metical Aga to the Ras should be given to
Mahomet Gibberti, and that I should be introduced to the King and the
Ras immediately after they were ready.

The reader may remember that, when I was at Cairo, I obtained
letters from Mark, the Greek patriarch, to the Greeks at Gondar; and
particularly one, in form of a bull, or rescript, to all the Greeks
in Abyssinia. In this, after a great deal of pastoral admonition, the
patriarch said, that, knowing their propensity to lying and vanity,
and not being at hand to impose proper penances upon them for these
sins, he exacted from them, as a proof of their obedience, that they
would, with a good grace, undergo this mortification, than which there
could be no gentler imposed, as it was only to speak the truth. He
ordered them in a body to go to the king, in the manner and time they
knew best, and to inform him that I was not to be confounded with the
rest of white men, such as Greeks, who were all subject to the Turks,
and slaves; but that I was a free man, of a free nation; and the best
of them would be happy in being my servant, as one of their brethren,
Michael, then actually was. I will not say but this was a bitter pill;
for they were high in office, all except Petros, who had declined all
employment after the murder of Joas his master, whose chamberlain he
was. The order of the patriarch, however, was fairly and punctually
performed; Petros was their spokesman; he was originally a shoemaker at
Rhodes, clever, and handsome in his person, but a great coward, though,
on such an occasion as the present, forward and capable enough.

I think it was about the 14th that these letters were to be all read.
I expected at the ordinary hour, about five in the afternoon, to be
sent for, and had rode out to Koscam with Ayto Heikel, the queen’s
chamberlain, to see the child, who was pretty well recovered of all
its complaints, but very weak. In the interim I was sent for to the
Ras, with orders to dispatch a man with the king’s present, to wait for
me at the palace, whither I was to go after leaving Michael. It was
answered, That I was at Koscam, and the errand I had gone on mentioned;
which disappointment, and the cause, did no way prejudice me with the
Ras. Five in the evening was fixed as the hour, and notice sent to
Koscam. I came a little before the time, and met Ayto Aylo at the door.
He squeezed me by the hand, and said, “Refuse nothing, it can be all
altered afterwards; but it is very necessary, on account of the priests
and the populace, you have a place of some authority, otherwise you
will be robbed and murdered the first time you go half a mile from
home: fifty people have told me you have chests filled with gold, and
that you can make gold, or bring what quantity you please from the
Indies; and the reason of all this is, because you refused the queen
and Ozoro Esther’s offer of gold at Koscam, and which you must never do
again.”

We went in and saw the old man sitting upon a sofa; his white hair was
dressed in many short curls. He appeared to be thoughtful, but not
displeased; his face was lean, his eyes quick and vivid, but seemed
to be a little sore from exposure to the weather. He seemed to be
about six feet high, though his lameness made it difficult to guess
with accuracy. His air was perfectly free from constraint, what the
French call _degageé_. In face and person he was liker my learned and
worthy friend, the Count de Buffon, than any two men I ever saw in the
world. They must have been bad physiognomists that did not discern his
capacity and understanding by his very countenance. Every look conveyed
a sentiment with it: he seemed to have no occasion for other language,
and indeed he spoke little. I offered, as usual, to kiss the ground
before him; and of this he seemed to take little notice, stretching out
his hand and shaking mine upon my rising.

I sat down with Aylo, three or four of the judges, Petros, Heikel the
queen’s chamberlain, and an Azage from the king’s house, who whispered
something in his ear, and went out; which interruption prevented me
from speaking as I was prepared to do, or give him my present, which
a man held behind me. He began gravely, “Yagoube, I think that is
your name, hear what I say to you, and mark what I recommend to you.
You are a man, I am told, who make it your business to wander in the
fields in search after trees and grass in solitary places, and to sit
up all night alone looking at the stars of the heavens: Other countries
are not like this, though this was never so bad as it is now. These
wretches here are enemies to strangers; if they saw you alone in your
own parlour, their first thought would be how to murder you; though
they knew they were to get nothing by it, they would murder you for
mere mischief.” “The devil is strong in them,” says a voice from a
corner of the room, which appeared to be that of a priest. “Therefore,”
says the Ras, “after a long conversation with your friend Aylo, whose
advice I hear you happily take, as indeed we all do, I have thought
that situation best which leaves you at liberty to follow your own
designs, at the same time that it puts your person in safety; that you
will not be troubled with monks about their religious matters, or in
danger from these rascals that may seek to murder you for money.”

“What are the monks?” says the same voice from the corner; “the monks
will never meddle with such a man as this.”--“Therefore the king,”
continued the Ras, without taking any notice of the interruption,
“has appointed you Baalomaal, and to command the Koccob horse, which
I thought to have given to Francis, an old soldier of mine; but he is
poor, and we will provide for him better, for these appointments have
honour, but little profit.” “Sir,” says Francis, who was in presence,
but behind, “it is in much more honourable hands than either mine or
the Armenian’s, or any other white man’s, since the days of Hatzè
Menas, and so I told the king to-day.” “Very well, Francis,” says the
Ras; “it becomes a soldier to speak the truth, whether it makes for
or against himself. Go then to the king, and kiss the ground upon
your appointment. I see you have already learned this ceremony of
our’s; Aylo and Heikel are very proper persons to go with you. The
king expressed his surprise to me last night he had not seen you; and
there too is Tecla Mariam, the king’s secretary, who came with your
appointment from the palace to-day.” The man in the corner, that I
took for a priest, was this Tecla Mariam, a scribe. Out of the king’s
presence men of this order cover their heads, as do the priests, which
was the reason of my mistake.

I then gave him a present, which he scarce looked at, as a number of
people were pressing in at the door from curiosity or business. Among
these I discerned Abba Salama. Every body then went out but myself,
and these people were rushing in behind me, and had divided me from
my company. The Ras, however, seeing me standing alone, cried, “Shut
the door;” and asked me, in a low tone of voice, “Have you any thing
private to say?” “I see you are busy, Sir,” said I; “but I will speak
to Ozoro Esther.” His anxious countenance brightened up in a moment.
“That is true,” says he, “Yagoube, it will require a long day to settle
that account with you: Will the boy live?” “The life of man is in the
hand of God,” said I, “but I should hope the worst is over;” upon which
he called to one of his servants, “Carry Yagoube to Ozoro Esther.”

It is needless for me to take up the reader’s time with any thing but
what illustrates my travels; he may therefore guess the conversation
that flowed from a grateful heart on that occasion. I ordered her
child to be brought to her every forenoon, upon condition she returned
him soon after mid-day. I then took a speedy leave of Ozoro Esther,
the reason of which I told her when she was following me to the door.
She said, “When shall I lay my hands upon that idiot Aylo? The Ras
would have done any thing; he had appointed you Palambaras, but, upon
conversing with Aylo, he had changed his mind. He says it will create
envy, and take up your time. What signifies their envy? Do not they
envy Ras Michael? and where can you pass your time better than at
court, with a command under the king.” I said, “All is for the best,
Aylo did well; all is for the best.” I then left her unconvinced, and
saying, “I will not forgive this to Ayto Aylo these seven years.”

Aylo and Heikel had gone on to the palace, wondering, as did the whole
company, what could be my private conference with Michael, which, after
playing abundantly with their curiosity, I explained to them next day.

I went afterwards to the king’s palace, and met Aylo and Heikel at
the door of the presence-chamber. Tecla Mariam walked before us to
the foot of the throne; after which I advanced and prostrated myself
upon the ground. “I have brought you a servant,” says he to the king,
“from so distant a country, that if you ever let him escape, we shall
never be able to follow him, or know where to seek him.” This was said
facetiously by an old familiar servant; but the king made no reply, as
far as we could guess, for his mouth was covered, nor did he shew any
alteration of countenance. Five people were standing on each side of
the throne, all young men, three on his left, and two on his right. One
of these, the son of Tecla Mariam, (afterwards my great friend) who
stood uppermost on the left hand, came up, and taking hold of me by the
hand, placed me immediately above him; when seeing I had no knife in my
girdle, he pulled out his own and gave it to me. Upon being placed, I
again kissed the ground.

The king was in an alcove; the rest went out of sight from where the
throne was, and sat down. The usual questions now began about Jerusalem
and the holy places--where my country was? which it was impossible to
describe, as they knew the situation of no country but their own--why
I came so far?--whether the moon and the stars, but especially the
moon, was the same in my country as in theirs?--and a great many such
idle and tiresome questions. I had several times offered to take my
present from the man who held it, that I might offer it to his Majesty
and go away; but the king always made a sign to put it off, till, being
tired to death with standing, I leaned against the wall. Aylo was fast
asleep, and Ayto Heikel and the Greeks cursing their master in their
heart for spoiling the good supper that Anthulè his treasurer had
prepared for us. This, as we afterwards found out, the king very well
knew, and resolved to try our patience to the utmost. At last, Ayto
Aylo stole away to bed, and every body else after him, except those
who had accompanied me, who were ready to die with thirst, and drop
down with weariness. It was agreed by those that were out of sight, to
send Tecla Mariam to whisper in the king’s ear, that I had not been
well, which he did, but no notice was taken of it. It was now past ten
o’clock, and he shewed no inclination to go to bed.

Hitherto, while there were strangers in the room, he had spoken to
us by an officer called Kal Hatzè, _the voice or word of the king_;
but now, when there were nine or ten of us, his menial servants,
only present, he uncovered his face and mouth, and spoke himself.
Sometimes it was about Jerusalem, sometimes about horses, at other
times about shooting; again about the Indies; how far I could look
into the heavens with my telescopes: and all these were deliberately
and circumstantially repeated, if they were not pointedly answered. I
was absolutely in despair, and scarcely able to speak a word, inwardly
mourning the hardness of my lot in this my first preferment, and
sincerely praying it might be my last promotion in this court. At last
all the Greeks began to be impatient, and got out of the corner of the
room behind the alcove, and stood immediately before the throne. The
king seemed to be astonished at seeing them, and told them he thought
they had all been at home long ago. They said, however, they would not
go without me; which the king said could not be, for one of the duties
of my employment was to be charged with the door of his bed-chamber
that night.

I think I could almost have killed him in that instant. At last Ayto
Heikel, taking courage, came forward to him, pretending a message from
the queen, and whispered him something in the ear, probably that the
Ras would take it ill. He then laughed, said he thought we had supped,
and dismissed us.




CHAP. IX.

_Transactions at Gondar._


We went all to Anthuse’s house to supper in violent rage, such anger
as is usual with hungry men. We brought with us from the palace three
of my brother Baalomaals, and one who had stood to make up the number,
though he was not in office; his name was Guebra Mascal, he was a
sister’s son of the Ras, and commanded one third of the troops of
Tigré, which carried fire-arms, that is about 2000 men. He was reputed
the best officer of that kind that the Ras had, and was a man about 30
years of age, short, square, and well made, with a very unpromising
countenance; flat nose, wide mouth, of a very yellow complexion, and
much pitted with the small-pox; he had a most uncommon presumption upon
the merit of past services, and had the greatest opinion of his own
knowledge in the use of fire-arms, to which he did not scruple to say
Ras Michael owed all his victories. Indeed it was to the good opinion
that the Ras had of him as a soldier that he owed his being suffered
to continue at Gondar; for he was suspected to have been familiar with
one of his uncle’s wives in Tigré, by whom it was thought he had a
child, at least the Ras put away his wife, and never owned the child to
be his.

This man supped with us that night, and thence began one of the most
serious affairs I ever had in Abyssinia. Guebra Mascal, as usual,
vaunted incessantly his skill in fire-arms, the wonderful gun that he
had, and feats he had done with it. Petros said, laughing, to him,
“You have a genius for shooting, but you have had no opportunity to
learn. Now, Yagoube is come, he will teach you something worth talking
off.” They had all drank abundantly, and Guebra Mascal had uttered
words that I thought were in contempt of me. I believe, replied I
peevishly enough, Guebra Mascal, I should suspect, from your discourse,
you neither knew men nor guns; every gun of mine in the hands of my
servants shall kill twice as far as yours, for my own, it is not worth
my while to put a ball in it: When I compare with you, the end of a
tallow-candle in my gun shall do more execution than an iron ball in
the best of yours, with all the skill and experience you pretend to.

He said I was a Frank, and a liar, and, upon my immediately rising up,
he gave me a kick with his foot. I was quite blind with passion, seized
him by the throat, and threw him on the ground stout as he was. The
Abyssinians know nothing of either wrestling or boxing. He drew his
knife as he was falling, attempted to cut me in the face, but his arm
not being at freedom, all he could do was to give me a very trifling
stab, or wound, near the crown of the head, so that the blood trickled
down over my face. I had tript him up, but till then had never struck
him. I now wrested the knife from him with a full intention to kill
him; but Providence directed better. Instead of the point, I struck
so violently with the handle upon his face as to leave scars, which
would be distinguished even among the deep marks of the small-pox. An
adventure so new, and so unexpected, presently overcame the effects
of wine. It was too late to disturb anybody either in the palace or
at the house of the Ras. A hundred opinions were immediately started;
some were for sending us up to the king, as we were actually in the
precincts of the palace, where lifting a hand is death. Ayto Heikel
advised that I should go, late as it was, to Koscam; and Petros, that
I should repair immediately to the house of Ayto Aylo, while the two
Baalomaals were for taking me to sleep in the palace. Anthulè, in
whose house I was, and who was therefore most shocked at the outrage,
wished me to stay in his house, where I was, from a supposition that I
was seriously wounded, which all of them, seeing the blood fall over
my eyes, seemed to think was the case, and he, in the morning, at
the king’s rising, was to state the matter as it happened. All these
advices appeared good when they were proposed; for my part, I thought
they only tended to make bad worse, and bore the appearance of guilt,
of which I was not conscious.

I now determined to go home, and to bed in my own house. With that
intention, I washed my face and wound with vinegar, and found the
blood to be already staunched. I then wrapt myself up in my cloak, and
returned home without accident, and went to bed. But this would neither
satisfy Ayto Heikel nor Petros, who went to the house of Ayto Aylo,
then past midnight, so that early in the morning, when scarce light, I
saw him come into my chamber. Guebra Mascal had fled to the house of
Kefla Yasous his relation; and the first news we heard in the morning,
after Ayto Aylo arrived, were, that Guebra Mascal was in irons at the
Ras’s house.

Every person that came afterwards brought up some new account; the
whole people present had been examined, and had given, without
variation, the true particulars of my forbearance, and his insolent
behaviour. Every body trembled for some violent resolution the Ras was
to take on my first complaint. The town was full of Tigrè soldiers, and
nobody saw clearer than I did, however favourable a turn this had taken
for me in the beginning, it might be my destruction in the end.

I asked Ayto Aylo his opinion. He seemed at a loss to give it me; but
said, in an uncertain tone of voice, he could wish that I would not
complain of Guebra Mascal while I was angry, or while the Ras was
so inveterate against him, till some of his friends had spoken, and
appeared, at least, his first resentment. I answered, “That I was of a
contrary opinion, and that no time was to be lost: remember the letter
of Mahomet Gibberti; remember his confidence yesterday of my being
safe where he was; remember the influence of Ozoro Esther, and do not
let us lose a moment.” “What, says Aylo to me in great surprise, are
you mad? Would you have him cut to pieces in the midst of 20,000 of
his countrymen? Would you be dimmenia, that is, guilty of the blood
of all the province of Tigrè, through which you must go in your way
home?” “Just the contrary, said I, nobody has so great a right over
the Ras’s anger as I have, being the person injured; and, as you and I
can get access to Ozoro Esther when we please, let us go immediately
thither, and stop the progress of this affair while it is not yet
generally known. People that talk of my being wounded expect to see me,
I suppose, without a leg or an arm. When they see me so early riding
in the street, all will pass for a story as it should do. Would you
wish to pardon him entirely?”--“That goes against my heart, too, says
Aylo, he is a bad man.”--“My good friend, said I, be in this guided by
me, I know we both think the same thing. If he is a bad man, he was
a bad man before I knew him. You know what you told me yourself of
the Ras’s jealousy of him. What if he was to revenge his own wrongs,
under pretence of giving me satisfaction for mine? Come, lose no time,
get upon your mule, go with me to Ozoro Esther, I will answer for the
consequences.”

We arrived there; the Ras was not sitting in judgment, he had drank
hard the night before, on occasion of Powussen’s marriage, and was not
in bed when the story of the fray reached him. We found Ozoro Esther
in a violent anger and agitation, which was much alleviated by my
laughing. On her asking me about my wound, which had been represented
to her as dangerous, “I am afraid, said I, poor Guebra Mascal is worse
wounded than I.” “Is he wounded too? says she; I hope it is in his
heart.” “Indeed, replied I, Madam, there are no wounds on either side.
He was very drunk, and I gave him several blows upon the face as he
deserved, and he has already got all the chastisement he ought to have;
it was all a piece of folly.” “Prodigious! says she; is this so?” “It
is so, says Aylo, and you shall hear it all by-and-by, only let us
stop the propagation of this foolish story.”

The Ras in the instant sent for us. He was naked, sitting on a stool,
and a slave swathing up his lame leg with a broad belt or bandage. I
asked him calmly and pleasantly if I could be of any service to him?
He looked at me with a grin, the most ghastly I ever saw, as half
displeased. “What! says he, are you all mad? Aylo, what is the matter
between him and that miscreant Guebra Mascal?”--“Why, said I, I am
come to tell you that myself; why do you ask Ayto Aylo? Guebra Mascal
got drunk, was insolent, and struck me. I was sober, and beat him, as
you will see by his face; and I have now come to you to say I am sorry
that I lifted my hand against your nephew; but he was in the wrong, and
drunk; and I thought it was better to chastise him on the spot, than
trust him to you, who perhaps might take the affair to heart, for we
all know your justice, and that being your relation is no excuse when
you judge between man and man.” “I order you, Aylo, says Michael, as
you esteem my friendship, to tell me the truth, really as it was, and
without disguise or concealment.”

Aylo began accordingly to relate the whole history, when a servant
called me out to Ozoro Esther. I found with her another nephew of
the Ras, a much better man, called Welleta Selassé, who came from
Kefla Yasous, and Guebra Mascal himself, desiring I would forgive and
intercede for him, for it was a drunken quarrel without malice. Ozoro
Esther had told him part. “Come in with me, said I, and you shall see
I never will leave the Ras till he forgive him.” “Let him punish him,
says Welleta Selassé, he is a bad man, but don’t let the Ras either
kill or maim him.” “Come, said I, let us go to the Ras, and he shall
neither kill, maim, nor punish him, if I can help it. It is my first
request; if he refuses me I will return to Jidda; come and hear.”

Aylo had urged the thing home to the Ras in the proper light--that
of my safety. “You are a wise man, says Michael, now perfectly cool,
as soon as he saw me and Welleta Selassé. It is a man like you that
goes far in safety, which is the end we all aim at. I feel the affront
offered you more than you do, but will not have the punishment
attributed to you; this affair shall turn to your honour and security,
and in that light only I can pass over his insolence.” “Welleta
Selassé, says he, falling into a violent passion in an instant, What
sort of behaviour is this my men have adopted with strangers? and _my
stranger_, too, and in the king’s palace, and the king’s servant? What!
am I dead? or become incapable of governing longer?” Welleta Selassé
bowed, but was afraid to speak, and indeed the Ras looked like a fiend.

“Come, says the Ras, let me see your head.” I shewed him where the
blood was already hardened, and said it was a very slight cut. “A cut,
continued Michael, over that part, with one of our knives, is mortal.”
“You see, Sir, said I, I have not even clipt the hair about the wound;
it is nothing. Now give me your promise you will set Guebra Mascal at
liberty; and not only that, but you are not to reproach him with the
affair further than that he was drunk, not a crime in this country.”
“No, truly, says he, it is not; but that is, because it is very rare
that people fight with knives when they are drunk. I scarce ever heard
of it, even in the camp.” “I fancy, said I, endeavouring to give a
light turn to the conversation, they have not often wherewithal to get
drunk in your camp.” “Not this last year, says he, laughing, there were
no houses in the country.” “But let me only merit, said I, Welleta
Selassé’s friendship, by making him the messenger of good news to
Guebra Mascal, that he is at liberty, and you have forgiven him.” “At
liberty! says he, Where is he?” “In your house, said I, somewhere, in
irons.” “That is Esther’s intelligence, continued the Ras; these women
tell you all their secrets, but when I remember your behaviour to them
I do not wonder at it, and that consideration likewise obliges me to
grant what you ask. Go, Welleta Selassé, and free that dog from his
collar, and direct him to go to Welleta Michael, who will give him his
orders to levy the meery in Woggora; let him not see my face till he
returns.”

Ozoro Esther gave us breakfast, to which several of the Greeks came.
After which I went to Koscam, where I heard a thousand curses upon
Guebra Mascal. The whole affair was now made up, and the king was
acquainted with the issue of it. I stood in my place, where he shewed
me very great marks of favour; he was grave, however, and sorrowful, as
if mortified with what had happened. The king ordered me to stay and
dine at the palace, and he would send me my dinner. I there saw the
sons of Kasmati Eshté, Aylo, and Engedan, and two Welleta Selassés;
one the son of Tecla Mariam, the other the son of a great nobleman
in Goiam, all young men, with whom I lived ever after in perfect
familiarity and friendship. The two last were my brethren Baalomaal, or
gentlemen of the king’s bed-chamber.

They all seemed to have taken my cause to heart more than I wished
them to do, for fear it should be productive of some new quarrel.
For my own part, I never was so dejected in my life. The troublesome
prospect before me presented itself day and night. I more than twenty
times resolved to return by Tigrè, to which I was more inclined by
the loss of a young man who accompanied me through Barbary, and
assisted me in the drawings of architecture which I made for the king
there, part of which he was still advancing here, when a dysentery,
which had attacked him in Arabia Felix, put an end to his life[17] at
Gondar. A considerable disturbance was apprehended upon burying him
in a church-yard. Abba Salama used his utmost endeavours to raise the
populace and take him out of his grave; but some exertions of the Ras
quieted both Abba Salama and the tumults.

I began, however, to look upon every thing now as full of difficulty
and danger; and, from this constant fretting and despondency, I found
my health much impaired, and that I was upon the point of becoming
seriously ill. There was one thing that contributed in some measure
to dissipate these melancholy thoughts, which was, that all Gondar
was in one scene of festivity. Ozoro Ayabdar, daughter of the late
Welled Hawaryat, by Ozoro Altash, Ozoro Esther’s sister, and the
Iteghè’s youngest daughter, consequently grand-daughter to Michael, was
married to Powussen, now governor of Begemder. The king gave her large
districts of land in that province, and Ras Michael a large portion
of gold, muskets, cattle, and horses. All the town, that wished to
be well-looked upon by either party, brought something considerable
as a present. The Ras, Ozoro Esther, and Ozoro Altash, entertained
all Gondar. A vast number of cattle was slaughtered every day, and
the whole town looked like one great market; the common people, in
every street, appearing loaded with pieces of raw beef, while drink
circulated in the same proportion. The Ras insisted upon my dining with
him every day, when he was sure to give me a headache with the quantity
of mead, or hydromel, he forced me to swallow, a liquor that never
agreed with me from the first day to the last.

After dinner we slipt away to parties of ladies, where anarchy
prevailed as complete as at the house of the Ras. All the married women
ate, drank, and smoaked like the men; and it is impossible to convey
to the reader any idea of this bacchanalian scene in terms of common
decency. I found it necessary to quit this riot for a short time, and
get leave to breathe the fresh air of the country, at such a distance
as that, once a day, or once in two days, I might be at the palace, and
avoid the constant succession of those violent scenes of debauchery of
which no European can form any idea, and which it was impossible to
escape, even at Koscam.

Although the king’s favour, the protection of the Ras, and my obliging,
attentive, and lowly behaviour to every body, had made me as popular as
I could wish at Gondar, and among the Tigrans fully as much as those of
Amhara, yet it was easy to perceive, that the cause of my quarrel with
Guebra Mascal was not yet forgot.

One day, when I was standing by the king in the palace, he asked,
in discourse, “Whether I, too, was not drunk in the quarrel with
Guebra Mascal, before we came to blows?” and, upon my saying that I
was perfectly sober, both before and after, because Anthulè’s red
wine was finished, and I never willingly drank hydromel, or mead, he
asked with a degree of keenness, “Did you then soberly say to Guebra
Mascal, that an end of a tallow candle, in a gun in your hand, would
do more execution than an iron bullet in his?”--“Certainly, Sir, I did
so.”--“And why did you say this?” says the king dryly enough, and in a
manner I had not before observed. “Because, replied I, it was truth,
and a proper reproof to a vain man, who, whatever eminence he might
have obtained in a country like this, has not knowledge enough to
entitle him to the trust of cleaning a gun in mine.”--“O! ho! continued
the king; as for his knowledge I am not speaking of that, but about his
gun. You will not persuade me that, with a tallow candle, you can kill
a man or a horse.”--“Pardon me, Sir, said I, bowing very respectfully,
I will attempt to persuade you of nothing but what you please to be
convinced of: Guebra Mascal is my equal no more, you are my master,
and, while I am at your court, under your protection, you are in place
of my sovereign, it would be great presumption in me to argue with you,
or lead to a conversation against an opinion that you profess you are
already fixed in.”--“No, no, says he, with an air of great kindness,
by no means, I was only afraid you would expose yourself before bad
people; what you say to me is nothing.”--“And what I say to you, Sir,
has always been as scrupulously true as if I had been speaking to the
king my native sovereign and master. Whether I can kill a man with
a candle, or not, is an experiment that should not be made. Tell me,
however, what I shall do before you that you may deem an equivalent?
Will piercing the table, upon which your dinner is served, (it was of
sycamore, about three quarters of an inch thick), at the length of this
room, be deemed a sufficient proof of what I advanced?”

“Ah, Yagoube, says the king, take care what you say. That is indeed
more than Guebra Mascal will do at that distance; but take great
care; you don’t know these people; they will lie themselves all day;
nay, their whole life is one lie; but of you they expect better, or
would be glad to find worse; take care.” Ayto Engedan, who was then
present, said, “I am sure if Yagoube says he can do it, he will do
it; but how, I don’t know. Can you shoot through my shield with a
tallow candle?”--“To you, Ayto Engedan, said I, I can speak freely;
I could shoot thro’ your shield if it was the strongest in the army,
and kill the strongest man in the army that held it before him. When
will you see this tried?”--“Why now, says the king; there is _nobody
here_.”--“The sooner the better, said I; I would not wish to remain for
a moment longer under so disagreeable an imputation as that of lying,
an infamous one in my country, whatever it may be in this. Let me send
for _my_ gun; the king will look out at the window.”--“_Nobody_, says
he, knows any thing of it; _nobody will come_.”

The king appeared to be very anxious, and, I saw plainly, incredulous.
The gun was brought; Engedan’s shield was produced, which was of
strong buffalo’s hide. I said to him, “This is a weak one, give me one
stronger.” He shook his head, and said, “Ah, Yagoube, you’ll find it
strong enough; Engedan’s shield is known to be no toy.” Tecla Mariam
brought such a shield, and the Billetana Gueta Tecla another, both of
which were most excellent in their kind. I loaded the gun before them,
first with powder, then upon it slid down one half of what we call a
farthing candle; and, having beat off the handles of three shields,
I put them close in contact with each other, and set them all three
against a post.

“Now, Engedan, said I, when you please say--Fire! but mind you have
taken leave of your good shield for ever.” The word was given, and the
gun fired. It struck the three shields, neither in the most difficult
nor the easiest place for perforation, something less than half way
between the rim and the boss. The candle went through the three shields
with such violence that it dashed itself to a thousand pieces against a
stone-wall behind it. I turned to Engedan, saying very lowly, gravely,
and without exultation or triumph, on the contrary with absolute
indifference, “Did not I tell you your shield was naught?” A great
shout of applause followed from about a thousand people that were
gathered together. The three shields were carried to the king, who
exclaimed in great transport, I did not believe it before I saw it, and
I can scarce believe it now I have seen it. Where is Guebra Mascal’s
confidence now? But what do either he or we know? “We know nothing.” I
thought he looked abashed.

“Ayto Engedan, said I, we must have a touch at that table. It was said,
the piercing that was more than Guebra Mascal could do. We have one
half of the candle left still; it is the thinnest, weakest half, and I
shall put the wick foremost, because the cotton is softest.” The table
being now properly placed, to Engedan’s utmost astonishment the candle,
with the wick foremost, went through the table, as the other had gone
through the three shields. “By St Michael! says Engedan, Yagoube,
hereafter say to me you can raise my father Eshté from the grave, and
I will believe you.” Some priests who were there, though surprised
at first, seemed afterward to treat it rather lightly, because they
thought it below their dignity to be surprised at any thing. They said
it was done (mucktoub) by writing, by which they meant magic. Every
body embraced that opinion as an evident and rational one, and so the
wonder with them ceased. But it was not so with the king: It made the
most favourable and lasting impression upon his mind; nor did I ever
after see, in his countenance, any marks either of doubt or diffidence,
but always, on the contrary, the most decisive proofs of friendship,
confidence, and attention, and the most implicit belief of every thing
I advanced upon any subject from my own knowledge.

The experiment was twice tried afterwards in presence of Ras Michael.
But he would not risk his good shields, and always produced the
table, saying, “Engedan and those foolish boys were rightly served;
they thought Yagoube was a liar like themselves, and they lost their
shields; but I believed him, and gave him my table for curiosity only,
and so I saved mine.”

As I may now say I was settled in this country, and had an opportunity
of being informed of the manners, government, and present state of
it, I shall here inform the reader of what I think most worthy his
attention, whether ancient or modern, while we are yet in peace,
before we are called out to a campaign or war, attended with every
disadvantage, danger, and source of confusion.




CHAP. X.

_Geographical Division of Abyssinia into Provinces._


At Masuah, that is, on the coast of the Red Sea, begins an imaginary
division of Abyssinia into two, which is rather a division of language
than strictly to be understood as territorial. The first division is
called _Tigré_, between the Red Sea and the river Tacazzé. Between that
river and the Nile, westward, where it bounds the Galla, it is called
_Amhara_.

Whatever convenience there maybe from this division, there is neither
geographical nor historical precision in it, for there are many little
provinces included in the first that do not belong to Tigré; and, in
the second division, which is Amhara, that which gives the name is but
a very small part of it.

Again, in point of language, there is a variety of tongues spoken in
the second division besides that of Amhara. In Tigrè, however, the
separation as to languages holds true, as there is no tongue known
there but Geez, or that of the Shepherds.

Masuah, in ancient times, was one of the principal places of residence
of the Baharnagash, who, when he was not there himself, constantly left
his deputy, or lieutenant. In summer he resided for several months in
the island of Dahalac, then accounted part of his territory. He was,
after the King and Betwudet, the person of the greatest consideration
in the kingdom, and was invested with sendick and nagareet, the
kettle-drum, and colours, marks of supreme command.

Masuah was taken, and a basha established there soon after, as we have
seen in the history, in the reign of Menas, when the Baharnagash, named
Isaac, confederated with the Turkish basha, and ceded to him a great
territory, part of his own government, and with it Dobarwa, the capital
of his province, divided only by the river Mareb from Tigré. From
this time this office fell into disrepute in the kingdom. The sendick
and nagareet, the marks of supreme power, were taken from him, and he
never was allowed a place in council, unless specially called on by the
king. He preserves his privilege of being crowned with gold; but, when
appointed, has a cloak thrown over him, the one side white, the other a
dark blue, and the officer who crowns him admonishes him of what will
befal him if he preserves his allegiance, which is signified by the
white side of the cloak; and the disgrace and punishment that is to
attend his treason, and which has fallen upon his predecessors, which
he figures to him by turning up the colour of mourning.

Besides the dignity attending this office, it was also one of the most
lucrative. Frankincense, myrrh, and a species of cinnamon, called by
the Italians Cannella, with several kinds of gums and dyes, all very
precious, from Cape Gardefan to Bilur, were the valuable produce of
this country: but this territory, though considerable in length, is not
of any great breadth; for, from south of Hadea to Masuah, it consists
in a belt seldom above forty miles from the sea, which is bounded by a
ridge of very high mountains, running parallel to the Indian Ocean and
the Red Sea, as far as Masuah.

After Azab begin the mines of fossile salt, which, cut into square,
solid bricks of about a foot long, serve in place of the silver
currency in Abyssinia; and from this, as from a kind of mint, great
benefit accrues also.

From Masuah the same narrow belt continues to Suakem; nay, indeed,
though the rains do not reach so far, the mountains continue to the
Isthmus of Suez. This northern province of the Baharnagash is called
the Habab, or the land of the Agaazi, or Shepherds; they speak one
language, which they call Geez, or the language of the Agaazi. From the
earliest times, they have had letters and writing among them; and no
other has ever been introduced into Abyssinia, to this day, as we have
already observed.

Since the expulsion of the Turks from Dobarwa and the continent of
Abyssinia, Masuah has been governed by a Naybe, himself one of the
Shepherds, but Mahometan. A treaty formerly subsisted, that the king
should receive half of the revenue of the customhouse in Masuah; in
return for which he was suffered to enjoy that small stripe of barren,
dry country called Samhar, inhabited by black shepherds called Shiho,
reaching from Hamazen on the north to the foot of the mountain Taranta
on the south; but, by the favour of Michael, that is, by bribery and
corruption, he has possessed himself of two large frontier towns, Dixan
and Dobarwa, by lease, for a trifling sum, which he pays the king
yearly; this must necessarily very much weaken this state, if it should
ever again have war with the Turks, of which indeed there is no great
probability.

The next province in Abyssinia, as well for greatness as riches,
power, and dignity, and nearest Masuah, is Tigrè. It is bounded by the
territory of the Baharnagash, that is, by the river Mareb on the east,
and the Tacazzè upon the west. It is about one hundred and twenty miles
broad from E. to W. and two hundred from N. to S. This is its present
situation. The hand of usurping power has abolished all distinction on
the west-side of the Tacazzè; besides, many large governments, such as
Enderta and Antalow, and great part of the Baharnagash, were swallowed
up in this province to the east.

What, in a special manner, makes the riches of Tigré, is, that it
lies nearest the market, which is Arabia; and all the merchandise
destined to cross the Red Sea must pass through this province, so
that the governor has the choice of all commodities wherewith to make
his market. The strongest male, the most beautiful female slaves, the
purest gold, the largest teeth of ivory, all must pass through his
hand. Fire-arms, moreover, which for many years have decided who is
the most powerful in Abyssinia, all these come from Arabia, and not one
can be purchased without his knowing to whom it goes, and after his
having had the first refusal of it.

Siré, a province about twenty-five miles broad, and not much more
in length, is reckoned as part of Tigré also, but this is not a new
usurpation. It lost the rank of a province, and was united to Tigré for
the misbehaviour of its governor Kasmati Claudius, in an expedition
against the Shangalla in the reign of Yasous the Great. In my time,
it began again to get into reputation, and was by Ras Michael’s own
consent disjoined from his province, and given first to his son Welled
Hawaryat, together with Samen, and, after his death, to Ayto Tesfos,
a very amiable man, gallant soldier, and good officer; who, fighting
bravely in the king’s service at the battle of Serbraxos, was there
wounded and taken prisoner, and died of his wounds afterwards.

After passing the Tacazzè, the boundary between Sirè and Samen, we come
to that mountainous province called by the last name. A large chain of
rugged mountains, where is the Jews Rock, (which I shall often mention
as the highest), reaches from the south of Tigré down near to Waldubba,
the low, hot country that bounds Abyssinia on the north. It is about 80
miles in length, in few places 30 broad, and in some much less. It is
in great part possessed by Jews, and _there_ Gideon and Judith, king
and queen of that nation, and, as they say, of the house of Judah,
maintain still their ancient sovereignty and religion from very early
times.

On the N. E. of Tigré lies the province of Begemder. It borders upon
Angot, whose governor is called Angot Ras; but the whole province now,
excepting a few villages, is conquered by the Galla.

It has Amhara, which runs parallel to it, on the south, and is
separated from it by the river Bashilo. Both these provinces are
bounded by the river Nile on the west. Begemder is about 180 miles
in its greatest length, and 60 in breadth, comprehending Lasta, a
mountainous province, sometimes depending on Begemder, but often in
rebellion. The inhabitants are esteemed the best soldiers in Abyssinia,
men of great strength and stature, but cruel and uncivilized; so that
they are called, in common conversation and writing, the peasants, or
barbarians of Lasta; they pay to the king 1000 ounces of gold.

Several small provinces are now dismembered from Begemder, such as
Foggora, a small stripe reaching S. and N. about 35 miles between
Emfras and Dara, and about 12 miles broad from E. to W. from the
mountains of Begemder to the lake Tzana. On the north end of this
are two small governments, Dreeda and Karoota, the only territory in
Abyssinia that produces wine, the merchants trade to Caffa and Narea,
in the country of the Galla. We speak of these territories as they are
in point of right; but when a nobleman of great power is governor of
the province of Begemder, he values not lesser rights, but unites them
all to his province.

Begemder is the strength of Abyssinia in horsemen. It is said, that,
with Lasta, it can bring out 45,000 men; but this, as far as ever
I could inform myself, is a great exaggeration. They are exceeding
good soldiers when they are pleased with their general, and the cause
for which they fight; otherwise, they are easily divided, great many
private interests being continually kept alive, as it is thought
industriously, by government itself. It is well stocked with cattle of
every kind, all very beautiful. The mountains are full of iron-mines;
they are not so steep and rocky nor so frequent, as in other provinces,
if we except only Lasta, and abound in all sort of wild fowl and game.

The south end of the province near Nefas Musa is cut into prodigious
gullies apparently by floods, of which we have no history. It is the
great barrier against the encroachments of the Galla; and, by many
attempts, they have tried to make a settlement in it, but all in vain.
Whole tribes of them have been extinguished in this their endeavour.

In many provinces of Abyssinia, favour is the only necessary to procure
the government; others are given to poor noblemen, that, by fleecing
the people, they may grow rich, and repair their fortune. But the
consequence of Begemder is so well known to the state, as reaching so
near the metropolis, and supplying it so constantly with all sorts of
provisions, that none but noblemen of rank, family, and character, able
to maintain a large number of troops always on foot, and in good order,
are trusted with its government.

Immediately next to this is Amhara, between the two rivers Bashilo
and Geshen. The length of this country from E. to W. is about 120
miles, and its breadth something more than 40. It is a very mountainous
country, full of nobility; the men are reckoned the handsomest in
Abyssinia, as well as the bravest. With the ordinary arms, the lance
and shield, they are thought to be superior to double the number of any
other soldiers in the kingdom. What, besides, added to the dignity of
this province, was the high mountain of Geshen, or the grassy mountain,
whereon the king’s sons were formerly imprisoned, till surprised and
murdered there in the Adelan war.

Between the two rivers Geshen and Samba, is a low, unwholesome,
though fertile province, called Walaka; and southward of that is
Upper Shoa. This province, or kingdom, was famous for the retreat it
gave to the only remaining prince of the house of Solomon, who fled
from the massacre of his brethren by Judith, about the year 900, upon
the rock of Damo. Here the royal family remained in security, and
increased in number, for near 400 years, till they were restored.
From thenceforward, as long as the king resided in the south of
his dominions, great tenderness and distinction was shewn to the
inhabitants of this province; and when the king returned again to
Tigrè, he abandoned them tacitly to their own government.

Amha Yasous, prince at this day, and lineal descendant of the governor
who first acknowledged the king, is now by connivance sovereign of that
province. In order to keep himself as independent and separate from
the rest of Abyssinia as possible, he has sacrificed the province of
Walaka, which belonged to him, to the Galla, who, by his own desire,
have surrounded Shoa on every side. But it is full of the bravest,
best horsemen, and best accoutred beyond all comparison of any in
Abyssinia, and, when they please, they can dispossess the Galla. Safe
and independent as the prince of Shoa now is, he is still the loyalist,
and the friend to monarchy he ever was; and, upon any signal distress
happening to the king, he never failed to succour him powerfully with
gold and troops, far beyond the quota formerly due from his province.
This Shoa boasts, likewise, the honour of being the native country of
Tecla Haimanout, restorer of the line of Solomon, the founder of the
monastery and Order of the monks of Debra Libanos, and of the power and
wealth of the Abuna, and the clergy in general, of Abyssinia.

Gojam, from north-east to south-east, is about 80 miles in length, and
40 in breadth. It is a very flat country, and all in pasture; has few
mountains, but these are very high ones, and are chiefly on the banks
of the Nile, to the south, which river surrounds the province; so that,
to a person who should walk round Gojam, the Nile would be always on
his left hand, from where it went south, falling out of the lake Tzana,
till it turns north through Fazuclo into the country of Sennaar and
Egypt.

Gojam is full of great herds of cattle, the largest in the high parts
of Abyssinia. The men are in the lowest esteem as soldiers, but the
country is very populous. The Jesuits were settled in many convents
throughout the province, and are no where half so much detested. The
monks of Gojam are those of St Eustathius, which may be called the Low
Church of Abyssinia. They are much inclined to turbulence in religious
matters, and are, therefore, always made tools by discontented people,
who have no religion at all.

On the south-east of the kingdom of Gojam is Damot. It is bounded by
the Temci on the east, by the Gult on the west, by the Nile on the
south, and by the high mountains of Amid Amid on the north. It is about
40 miles in length from north to south, and something more than 20 in
breadth from east to west. But all this peninsula, surrounded with the
river, is called Gojam, in general terms, from a line down through the
south end of the lake to Miné, the passage of the Nile in the way to
Narea.

It is surprising the Jesuits, notwithstanding their long abode in
Gojam, have not known where this neighbouring country of Damot was
situated, but have placed it south of the Nile. They were often,
however, in Damot, when Sela Christos was attempting the conquest and
conversion of the Agows.

On the other side of Amid Amid is the province of the Agows, bounded
by those mountains on the east; by Burè and Umbarma, and the country
of the Gongas, on the west; by Damot and Gafat upon the south, and
Dingleber on the north.

All those countries from Abbo, such as Goutto, Aroosi, and Wainadega,
were formerly inhabited by Agows; but, partly by the war with the
Galla beyond the Nile, partly by their own constant rebellions, this
territory, called Maitsha, which is the flat country on both sides of
the Nile, is quite uninhabited, and at last hath been given to colonies
of peaceable Galla, chiefly Djawi, who fill the whole low country to
the foot of the mountains Aformasha, in place of the Agows, the first
occupiers.

Maitsha, from the flatness of the country, not draining soon after the
rains, is in all places wet, but in many, miry and marshy; it produces
little or no corn, but depends entirely upon a plant called Ensete[18],
which furnishes the people both with wholesome and delicate food
throughout the year. For the rest, this province abounds in large fine
cattle, and breeds some indifferent horses.

Upon the mountains, above Maitsha, is the country of the Agows, the
richest province still in Abyssinia, notwithstanding the multitude
of devastations it has suffered. They lie round the country above
described, from Aformasha to Quaquera, where are the heads of two large
rivers, the Kelti and Branti. These are called the Agows of Damot, from
their nearness to that province, in contradistinction to the Agows of
Lasta, who are called Tcheratz-Agow, from Tchera, a principal town,
tribe, and district near Lasta and Begemder.

The Gafats, inhabiting a small district adjoining to the Galla, have
also distinct languages, so have the Galla themselves, of whom we have
often spoken; they are a large nation.

From Dingleber all along the lake, below the mountains bounding Guesgué
and Kuara, is called Dembea. This low province on the south of Gondar,
and Woggora the small high province on the east, are all sown with
wheat, and are the granaries of Abyssinia. Dembea seems once to have
been occupied entirely by the lake, and we see all over it marks that
cannot be mistaken, so that this large extent of water is visibly
upon the decrease; and this agrees with what is observed of stagnant
pools in general throughout the world. Dembea is called Atté-Kolla,
_the king’s food_, or maintenance, its produce being assigned for the
supplying of the king’s household. It is governed by an officer called
Cantiba; it is a lucrative post; but he is not reckoned one of the
great officers of the empire, and has no place in council.

South from Dembea is Kuara, a very mountainous province confining upon
the Pagan blacks, or Shangalla, called Gongas and Guba, the Macrobii
of the ancients. It is a very unwholesome province, but abounding in
gold, not of its own produce, but that of its neighbourhood, these
Pagans--Guba, Nuba, and Shangalla. Kuara signifies the sun, and Beja
(that is Atbara, and the low parts of Sennaar, the country of the
Shepherds, adjoining) signifies the _moon_, in the language of these
Shangalla. These names are some remains of their ancient superstitions.
Kuara was the native country of the Iteghè, or queen-regent, of Kasmati
Eshté, Welled de l’Oul, Gueta, Eusebius, and Palambaras Mammo.

In the low country of Kuara, near to Sennaar, there is a settlement of
Pagan blacks called Ganjar. They are mostly cavalry, and live entirely
by hunting and plundering, the Arabs of Atbara and Fazuclo. Their
origin is this: Upon the invasion of the Arabs after the coming of
Mahomet, the black slaves deserted from their masters, the Shepherds,
and took up their habitation, where they have not considerably
multiplied, otherwise than by the accession of vagrants and fugitives,
whom they get from both kingdoms. They are generally under the command
of the governor of Kuara, and were so when I was in Abyssinia, though
they refused to follow their governor Coque Abou Barea to fight against
Michael, but whether from fear or affection I know not; I believe the
former.

The governor of Kuara is one of the great officers of state, and, being
the king’s lieutenant-general, has absolute power in his province, and
carries _sendick_ and _nagareet_. His kettle-drums are silver, and his
privilege is to beat these drums even in marching through the capital,
which no governor of a province is permitted to do, none but the king’s
nagareets or kettle-drums being suffered to be beat there, or any where
in a town where the king is; but the governor of Kuara is intitled to
continue beating his drums till he comes to the foot of the outer stair
of the king’s palace. This privilege, from some good behaviour of the
first officer to whom the command was given, was conferred upon the
post by David II. called Degami Daid, who conquered the province from
the _Shepherds_, its old inhabitants.

Nara, and Ras el Feel, Tchelga, and on to Tcherkin, is a frontier
wholly inhabited by Mahometans. Its government is generally given
to a stranger, often to a Mahometan, but one of that faith is
always deputy-governor. The use of keeping troops here is to defend
the friendly Arabs and Shepherds, who remain in their allegiance
to Abyssinia, from the resentment of the Arabs of Sennaar, their
neighbours; and, by means of these friendly Arabs and Shepherds,
secure a constant supply of horses for the king’s troops. It is a
barren stripe of a very hot, unwholesome country, full of thick woods,
and fit only for hunting. The inhabitants, fugitives from all nations,
are chiefly Mahometans, but very bold and expert horsemen, using no
other weapon but the broad sword, with which they attack the elephant
and rhinoceros.

There are many other small provinces, which occasionally are annexed,
and sometimes are separated, such as Guesgué, to the eastward of Kuara;
Waldubba, between the rivers Guangue and Angrab; Tzegadé and Walkayt
on the west side of Waldubba; Abergalè and Selawa in the neighbourhood
of Begemder; Temben, Dobas, Giannamora, Bur, and Engana, in the
neighbourhood of Tigré, and many others: Such at least was the state
of the country in my time, very different in all respects from what
it has been represented. As to the precedency of these provinces we
shall further speak, when we come to mention the officers of state and
internal government in this country.




CHAP. XI.

_Various Customs in Abyssinia similar to those in Persia, &c.--A bloody
Banquet described, &c._


For the sake of regularity, I shall here notice what might clearly
be inferred from what is gone before. The crown of Abyssinia is
hereditary, and has always been so, in one particular family, supposed
to be that of Solomon by the queen of Saba, Negesta Azab, or queen of
the south. It is nevertheless elective in this line; and there is no
law of the land, nor custom, which gives the eldest son an exclusive
title to succeed to his father.

The practice has indeed been quite the contrary: when, at the death
of a king, his sons are old enough to govern, and, by some accident,
not yet sent prisoners to the mountain, then the eldest, or he that is
next, and not confined, generally takes possession of the throne by the
strength of his father’s friends; but if no heir is then in the low
country, the choice of the king is always according to the will of the
minister, which passes for that of the people; and, his inclination
and interest being to govern, he never fails to choose an infant
whom thereafter he directs, ruling the kingdom absolutely during the
minority, which generally exhausts, or is equal to the term of his life.

From this flow all the misfortunes of this unhappy country. This very
defect arises from a desire to institute a more than ordinary perfect
form of government; for the Abyssinians first position was, “Woe be
to the kingdom whose king is a child;” and this they know must often
happen when succession is left to the course of nature. But when there
was a choice to be made out of two hundred persons all of the same
family, all capable of reigning, it was their own fault, they thought,
if they had not always a prince of proper age and qualification to rule
the kingdom, according to the necessities of the times, and to preserve
the succession of the family in the house of Solomon, agreeable to the
laws of the land. And indeed it has been this manner of reasoning,
good at first view, though found afterwards but too fallacious, which
has ruined their kingdom in part, and often brought the whole into the
utmost hazard and jeopardy.

The king is anointed with plain oil of olives, which, being poured upon
the crown of his head, he rubs into his long hair indecently enough
with both his hands, pretty much as his soldiers do with theirs when
they get access to plenty of butter.

The crown is made in the shape of a priest’s mitre, or head-piece; it
is a kind of helmet, covering the king’s forehead, cheeks, and neck. It
is lined with blue taffety; the outside is half gold and half silver,
of the most beautiful filligrane work.

The crown, in Joas’s time, was burnt, with part of the palace, on that
day when Ras Michael’s dwarf was shot in his own house before him.
The present was since made by the Greeks from Smyrna, who have large
appointments here, and work with very great taste and elegance, though
they have not near so much encouragement as formerly.

Upon the top of the crown was a ball of red glass, or chrystal, with
several bells of different colours within it. It seems to me to have
formerly been no better than part of the stopper of a glass-decanter.
Be that as it may, it was lost in Yasous’s time at the defeat of
Sennaar; It was found, however, by a Mahometan, and brought by
Guangoul, chief of the Bertuma Galla, to the frontiers of Tigrè, where
Michael, governor of that province, went with an army in great ceremony
to receive it, and, returning with it, gave it to king Yasous, making
thereby a great advance towards the king’s favour.

Some people[19], among the other unwarranted things they have advanced,
have said, That, at the king’s coronation, a gold ear-ring is put into
his ears, and a drawn sword into his hand, and that all the people fall
down and worship him; but there is no such ceremony in use, and
exhibitions of this kind, made by the king in public, at no period seem
to have suited the genius of this people. Formerly his face was never
seen, nor any part of him, excepting sometimes his foot. He sits in a
kind of balcony, with lattice-windows and curtains before him. Even
yet he covers his face on audiences or public occasions, and when in
judgment. On cases of treason, he sits within his balcony, and speaks
through a hole in the side of it, to an officer called Kal-Hatzè,
the “voice or word of the king,” by whom he sends his questions,
or any thing else that occurs, to the judges who are seated at the
council-table.

[Illustration:

  1  _Crown_

  2  _Standard_

  3 _Shield outside_

  4 _Shield inside_

  5 _Javelins_

  6 _Ornament after victory of all Kasmatis_

  7 _Silver disc worn on festivals by
  soldiers of quality._

London. Publish’d Dec{^r.} 1{^st.} 1789 by G. Robinson & Co.]

The king goes to church regularly, his guards taking possession of
every avenue and door through which he is to pass, and nobody is
allowed to enter with him, because he is then on foot, excepting two
officers of his bed-chamber who support him. He kisses the threshold
and side-posts of the church-door, the steps before the altar, and then
returns home: sometimes there is service in the church, sometimes there
is not; but he takes no notice of the difference. He rides up stairs
into the presence-chamber on a mule, and lights immediately on the
carpet before his throne; and I have sometimes seen great indecencies
committed by the said mule in the presence-chamber, upon a Persian
carpet.

An officer called Serach Massery, with a long whip, begins cracking
and making a noise, worse than twenty French postillions, at the door
of the palace before the dawn of day. This chases away the hyæna and
other wild beasts; this, too, is the signal for the king’s rising, who
sits in judgment every morning fasting, and after that, about eight
o’clock, he goes to breakfast.

There are six noblemen of the king’s own choosing, who are called
Baalomaal[20], or gentlemen of his bed-chamber; four of these are
always with him. There is a seventh, who is the chief of these, called
Azeleffa el Camisha, groom of the robe, or stole. He is keeper of
the king’s wardrobe, and the first officer of the bed-chamber. These
officers, the black slaves, and some others, serve him as menial
servants, and are in a degree of familiarity with him unknown to the
rest of the subjects.

When the king sits to consult upon civil matters of consequence, he is
shut up in a kind of box opposite to the head of the council table.
The persons that deliberate sit at the table, and, according to their
rank, give their voices, the youngest or lowest officer always speaking
first. The first that give their votes are the Shalaka, or colonels
of the household-troops. The second are the great butlers, men that
have the charge of the king’s drink. The third is the Badjerund, or
keeper of that apartment in the palace called the _lion’s house_; and
after these the keeper of the banqueting-house. The next is called
Lika Magwass, an officer that always goes before the king to hinder
the pressure of the crowd. In war, when the king is marching, he rides
constantly round him at a certain distance, and carries his shield, and
his lance; at least he carries a silver shield, and a lance pointed
with the same metal, before such kings as do not choose to expose their
person. That, however, was not the case in my time, as the king carried
the shield himself, black and unadorned, of good buffalo’s hide, and
his spear sharp-pointed with iron. His silver ornaments were only used
when the campaign was over, when these were carried by this officer.
Great was the respect shewed formerly to this king in war, and even
when engaged in battle with rebels, his own subjects.

No prince ever lost his life in battle till the coming of the Europeans
into Abyssinia, when both the excommunicating and murdering of their
sovereigns seem to have been introduced at the same time. The reader
will see, in the course of this history, two instances of this respect
being still kept up: the one at the battle of Limjour, where Fasil,
pretending that he was immediately to attack Ras Michael, desired that
the king might be dressed in his insignia, lest, not being known, he
might be slain by the stranger Galla. The next was after the battle
of Serbraxos, where the king was thrice in one day engaged with the
Begemder troops for a considerable space of time. These insignia, or
marks of royalty, are a white horse, with small silver bells at his
head, a shield of silver, and a white fillet of fine silk or muslin,
but generally the latter, some inches broad, which is tied round the
upper part of the head over his hair, with a large double or bow-knot
behind, the ends hanging down to the small of his back, or else flying
in the air.

After the Lika Magwass comes the Palambaras; after him the Fit-Auraris;
then the Gera Kasmati, and the Kanya Kasmati, their names being derived
from their rank or order in encamping, the one on the right, the other
on the left of the king’s tent; Kanya and Gera signifying _the right_
and _the left_; after them the Dakakin Billetana Gueta, or the under
chamberlain; then the secretary[21] for the king’s commands; after
him the right and left Azages, or generals; after them Rak Massery,
after him the basha, after him Kasmati of Damot, then of Samen, then
Amhara, and, last of all, Tigrè, before whom stands a golden cup upon a
cushion, and he is called Nebrit, as being governor of Axum, or keeper
of the book of the law supposed to be there.

After the governor of Tigrè comes the Acab Saat, or guardian of the
fire, and the chief ecclesiastical officer of the king’s household.
Some have said that this officer was appointed to attend the king at
the time of eating, and that it was his province to order both meat and
drink to be withdrawn whenever he saw the king inclined to excess. If
this was really his office, he never used it in my time, nor, as far
as I could learn, for several reigns before. Besides, no king eats in
public, or before any person but slaves; and he never would chuse that
time to commit excess, in which he might be controuled by a subject,
even if it was that subject’s right to be present when the king eats,
as it is not.

After the Acab Saat comes the first master of the household; then the
Betwudet, or Ras; last of all the king gives his sentence, which is
final, and sends it to the table, from the balcony where he is then
sitting, by the officer called, as aforementioned, Kal-Hatzè.

We meet in Abyssinia with various usages, which many have hitherto
thought to be peculiar to those ancient nations in which they were
first observed; others, not so learned, have thought they originated in
Abyssinia. I shall first take notice of those that regard the king and
court.

The kings of Persia[22], like these we are speaking of, were eligible
in one family only, that of the Arsacidæ, and it was not till that race
failed they chose Darius. The title of the king of Abyssinia is, _King
of Kings_; and such Daniel[23] tells us was that of Nebuchadnezzar. The
right of primogeniture does not so prevail in Abyssinia as to exclude
election in the person of the younger brothers, and this was likewise
the case in Persia[24].

In Persia[25] a preference was understood to be due to the king’s
lawful children; but there were instances of the natural child being
preferred to the lawful one. Darius, tho’ a bastard, was preferred
to Isogius, Xerxes’s lawful son, and that merely by the election of
the people. The same has always obtained in Abyssinia. A very great
part of their kings are adulterous bastards; others are the issue of
concubines, as we shall see hereafter, but they have been preferred to
the crown by the influence of a party, always under name of the Voice
of the People.

Although the Persian kings[26] had various palaces to which they
removed at different times in the year, Pasagarda, the metropolis
of their ancient kings, was observed as the only place for their
coronation; and this, too, was the case of Abyssinia with their
metropolis of Axum.

The next remarkable ceremony in which these two nations agreed, is that
of adoration, inviolably observed in Abyssinia to this day, as often as
you enter the sovereign’s presence. This is not only kneeling[27], but
an absolute prostration. You first fall upon your knees, then upon the
palms of your hands, then incline your head and body till your forehead
touch the earth; and, in case you have an answer to expect, you lie in
that posture till the king, or somebody from him, desires you to rise.
This, too, was the custom of Persia; Arrian[28] says this was first
instituted by Cyrus, and this was precisely the posture in which they
adored God, mentioned in the book of Exodus.

Though the refusal of this ceremony would, in Abyssinia and Persia, be
looked upon as rebellion or insult, yet it seems in both nations to
have met with a mitigation with regard to strangers, who have refused
it without giving any offence. I remember a Mahometan being twice
sent by the prince of Mecca into Abyssinia during my stay there, who,
neither time, would go farther than to put his hands across upon his
breast, with no very great inclination of his head; and this I saw was
not thought so extraordinary as to give offence, as it was all he did
to his own sovereign and master.

We read, indeed, of a very remarkable instance of the dispensing with
that ceremony being indirectly, yet plainly, refused in Persia to
strangers. Conon[29], the Athenian, had occasion for an interview with
Artaxerxes, king of Persia, upon matters of great concern to both
states; “You shall be introduced to the king by me, says the Persian
minister to Conon, without any delay; do you only first consider with
yourself, whether it is really of any consequence that you should
speak with the king yourself, or whether it would not be as well
for you to convey to him, by letter, any thing you have to say; for
it is absolutely necessary, if you are introduced into the king’s
presence, that you fall down upon your face and worship him. If this
is disagreeable or offensive to you, your business shall nevertheless
be equally well and quickly done by me.” To which Conon very sensibly
replied, “For my part, it never can be offensive _to me_ to shew every
degree of respect possible to the person of a king. I only am afraid
that this salutation may be misinterpreted by my citizens, who, being
themselves a sovereign state, may look upon this submission of their
ambassador as a reproach to themselves, and inconsistent with their
independency.” Conon, therefore, desired to wave his introduction, and
that his business might be done by letters, which was complied with
accordingly.

I have already mentioned transiently the circumstance of the king not
being seen when sitting in council. The manner of it is this: When
he had business formerly, he sat constantly in a room of his palace,
which communicated with the audience and council by two folding doors
or large windows, the bottom of which were about three steps from
the ground. These doors, or windows, were latticed with cross bars of
wood like a cage, and a thin curtain, or veil of taffety silk was hung
within it; so that, upon darkening the inner chamber, the king saw
every person in the chamber without, while he himself was not seen at
all. Justin[30] tells us, that the person of the king of Persia was hid
to give a greater idea of his majesty; and under Deioces, king of the
Medes, a law was made that nobody might look upon the king; but the
constant wars in which Abyssinia has been engaged, since the Mahometans
took possession of Adel, have occasioned this troublesome custom to
be wholly laid aside, unless on particular public occasions, and at
council, when they are still observed with the ancient strictness. And
we find, in the history of Abyssinia, that the army and kingdom have
often owed their safety to the personal behaviour and circumstance of
the king distinguishing and exposing himself in battle, which advantage
they must have lost had the ancient custom been observed. However, to
this day, when he is abroad riding, or sitting in any of his apartments
at home where people are admitted, his head and forehead are perfectly
covered, and one of his hands covers his mouth, so that nothing but his
eyes are seen; his feet, too, are always covered.

We learn from Apuleus, that this was a custom in Persia; and this gave
an opportunity to the magi to place Oropastus, the brother of Cambyses,
upon the throne, instead of Merdis who should have succeeded; but the
covering of the face made the difference pass unperceived.

It is the constant practice in Abyssinia to beset the king’s doors and
windows within his hearing, and there, from early morning to night, to
cry for justice as loud as possible, in a distressed and complaining
tone, and in all the different languages they are masters of, in order
to their being admitted to have their supposed grievances heard. In a
country so ill governed as Abyssinia is, and so perpetually involved
in war, it may be easily supposed there is no want of people, who have
real injuries and violence to complain of: But if it were not so,
this is so much the constant usage, that when it happens (as in the
midst of the rainy season) that few people can approach the capital,
or stand without in such bad weather, a set of vagrants are provided,
maintained, and paid, whose sole business it is to cry and lament,
as if they had been really very much injured and oppressed; and this
they tell you is for the king’s honour, that he may not be lonely by
the palace being too quiet. This, of all their absurd customs, was the
most grievous and troublesome to me; and, from a knowledge that it was
so, the king, when he was private, often permitted himself a piece of
rather odd diversion to be a royal one.

There would sometimes, while I was busy in my room in the rainy season,
be four or five hundred people, who all at once would begin, some
roaring and crying, as if they were in pain, others demanding justice,
as if they were that moment suffering, or if in the instant to be put
to death; and some groaning and sobbing as if just expiring; and this
horrid symphony was so artfully performed that no ear could distinguish
but that it proceeded from real distress. I was often so surprised as
to send the soldiers at the door to bring in one of them, thinking him
come from the country, to examine who had injured him; many a time he
was a servant of my own, or some other equally known; or, if he was a
stranger, upon asking him what misfortune had befallen him, he would
answer very composedly, Nothing was the matter with him; that he had
been sleeping all day with the horses; that hearing from the soldiers
at the door I was retired to my apartment, he and his companions had
come to cry and make a noise under my window, to do me _honour_ before
the people, for fear I should be melancholy, by being too quiet when
alone; and therefore hoped that I would order them drink, that they
might continue with a little more spirit. The violent anger which this
did often put me into did not fail to be punctually reported to the
king, at which he would laugh heartily; and he himself was often hid
not far off, for the sake of being a spectator of my heavy displeasure.

These complaints, whether real or feigned, have always for their
burden, _Rete O Jan boi_, which, repeated quick, very much resembles
Prete Janni, the name that was given to this prince, of which we never
yet knew the derivation; its signification is, “Do me justice, O my
king!”

Herodotus[31] tells us, that in Persia, the people, in great crowds and
of both sexes, come roaring and crying to the doors of the palace; and
Intaphernes is also said to come to the door of the king making great
lamentations.

I have mentioned a council of state held in Abyssinia in time of danger
or difficulty, where the king sitting invisible, though present, gives
his opinion by an officer called Kal-Hatzè. Upon his delivering the
sentence from the king the whole assembly rise, and stand upon their
feet; and this they must have done the whole time the council lasted
had the king appeared there in person. According to the circumstances
of the time, the king goes with the majority, or not; and if, upon
a division, there is a majority against him, he often punishes the
majority on the other side, by sending them to prison for voting
against his sentiments; for tho’ it is understood, by calling of the
meeting, that the majority is to determine as to the eligibility of the
measure, the king, by his prerogative, supersedes any majority on the
other side, and so far, I suppose, has been an encroachment upon the
original constitution. This I understand was the same in Persia.

Xerxes[32], being about to declare war against the Greeks, assembled
all the principal chiefs of Asia in council. “That I may not, says
he, be _thought_ to _act_ only by my own judgment, I have called you
together. At the same time, I think proper to intimate to you, that it
is your duty to obey my will, rather than enter into any deliberation
or remonstrances of your own.”

We will now compare some particulars, the dress and ornaments of the
two kings. The king of Abyssinia wears his hair long; so did the
ancient kings of Persia. We learn this circumstance from Suetonius
and Aurelius Victor[33]. A comet had appeared in the war with Persia,
and was looked upon by the Romans as a bad omen. Vespasian laughed at
it, and said, if it portended any ill it was to the king of Persia,
because, _like him_, it wore long hair.

The diadem was, with the Persians, a mark of royalty, as with the
Abyssinians, being composed of the same materials, and worn in the
same manner. The king of Abyssinia wears it, while marching, as a
mark of sovereignty, that does not impede or incommode him, as any
other heavier ornament would do, especially in hot weather. This
fillet surrounds his head above the hair, leaving the crown perfectly
uncovered. It is an offence of the first magnitude for any person, at
this time, to wear any thing upon his head, especially white, unless
for Mahometans, who wear caps, and over them a large white turban; or
for priests, who wear large turbans of muslin also.

This was the diadem of the Persians, as appears from Lucian[34], who
calls it a white fillet about the forehead. In the dialogue between
Diogenes and Alexander, the head is said to be tied round with a white
fillet[35]; and Favorinus, speaking of Pompey, whose leg was wound
round with a white bandage, says, It is no matter on what part of the
body he wears a diadem. We read in Justin[36], that Alexander, leaping
from his horse, by accident wounded Lysimachus in the forehead with
the point of his spear, and the blood gushed out so violently that it
could not be stanched, till the king took the diadem from his head, and
with it bound up the wound; which at that time was looked upon as an
omen that Lysimachus was to be king, and so it soon after happened.

The kings of Abyssinia anciently sat upon a gold throne, which is a
large, convenient, oblong, square seat, like a small bed-stead, covered
with Persian carpets, damask, and cloth of gold, with steps leading up
to it. It is still richly gilded; but the many revolutions and wars
have much abridged their ancient magnificence. The portable throne
was a gold stool, like that curule stool or chair used by the Romans,
which we see on medals. It was, in the Begemder war, changed to a very
beautiful one of the same form inlaid with gold. Xerxes is said to have
been spectator of a naval fight sitting upon a gold stool[37].

It is, in Abyssinia, high-treason to sit upon any seat of the king’s;
and he that presumed to do this would be instantly hewn to pieces,
if there was not some other collateral proof of his being a madman.
The reader will find, in the course of my history, a very ridiculous
accident on this subject, in the king’s tent, with Guangoul, king of
the Bertuma Galla.

It is probable that Alexander had heard of this law in Persia, and
disapproved of it; for one day, it being extremely cold, the king,
sitting in his chair before the fire, warming and chaffing his legs,
saw a soldier, probably a Persian, who had lost his feeling by extreme
numbness. The king immediately leaped from his chair, and ordered
the soldier to be set down upon it. The fire soon brought him to his
senses, but he had almost lost them again with fear, by finding himself
in the king’s seat. To whom Alexander said, “Remember, and distinguish,
how much more advantageous to man my government is than that of the
kings of Persia[38]. By sitting down on my seat, you have saved your
life; by sitting on theirs, you would infallibly have lost it.”

In Abyssinia it is considered as a fundamental law of the land, that
none of the royal family, who has any deformity or bodily defect, shall
be allowed to succeed to the crown; and, for this purpose, any of the
princes, who may have escaped from the mountain of Wechnè, and who are
afterwards taken, are mutilated in some of their members, that thus
they may be disqualified from ever succeeding. In Persia the same was
observed. Procopius[39] tells us, that Zames, the son of Cabades, was
excluded from the throne because he was blind of one eye, the law of
Persia prohibiting any person that had a bodily defect to be elected
king.

The kings of Abyssinia were seldom seen by their subjects. Justin[40]
says, the Persians hid the person of their king to increase their
reverence for his majesty. And it was a law of Deioces[41], king of
the Medes, that nobody should be permitted to see the king; which
regulation was as ancient as the time of Semiramis, whose son, Ninyas,
is said to have grown old in the palace, without ever having been known
by being seen out of it.

This absurd usage gave rise to many abuses. In Persia[42] it produced
two officers, who were called the king’s eyes, and the king’s ear, and
who had the dangerous employment, I mean dangerous for the subject, of
seeing and hearing for their sovereign. In Abyssinia, as I have just
said, it created an officer called the king’s mouth, or voice, for,
being seen by nobody, he spoke of course in the third person, “_Hear
what the king says to you_”, which is the usual form of all regal
mandates in Abyssinia; and what follows has the force of law. In the
same stile, Josephus thus begins an edict of Cyrus king of Persia,
“Cyrus the king says[43],”--And speaking of Cambyses’s rescript,
“Cambyses the _king says thus_,”--And Esdras also, “Thus saith Cyrus
king of Persia[44],”--And Nebuchadnezzar says to Holofernes, “Thus
saith the Great King, Lord of the whole earth[45];”--and this was
probably the origin of _edicts_, when writing was little used by
sovereigns, and little understood by the subject.

Solemn hunting-matches were always in use both with the kings of
Abyssinia and those of Persia[46]. In both kingdoms it was a crime for
a subject to strike the game till such time as the king had thrown his
lance at it. This absurd custom was repealed by Artaxerxes Longimanus
in one kingdom[47], and by Yasous the Great in the other, so late as
the beginning of the last century.

The kings of Abyssinia are above all laws. They are supreme in all
causes ecclesiastical and civil; the land and persons of their subjects
are equally their property, and every inhabitant of their kingdom is
born their slave; if he bears a higher rank it is by the king’s gift;
for his nearest relations are accounted nothing better. The same
obtained in Persia. Aristotle calls the Persian generals and nobles,
slaves of the great king[48]. Xerxes, reproving Pytheus the Lydian
when seeking to excuse one of his sons from going to war, says, “You
that are my slave, and bound to follow me with your wife and all your
family[49].”--And Gobryas[50] says to Cyrus, “I deliver myself to you,
at once your companion and your slave.”

There are several kinds of bread in Abyssinia, some of different
sorts of teff, and some of tocusso, which also vary in quality. The
king of Abyssinia eats of wheat bread, though not of every wheat, but
of that only that grows in the province of Dembea, therefore called
the king’s food. It was so with the kings of Persia, who ate wheat
bread, Herodotus says, but only of a particular kind, as we learn from
Strabo[51].

I have shewn, in the course of the foregoing history, that it always
has been, and still is the custom of the kings of Abyssinia, to marry
what number of wives they choose; that these were not, therefore,
all queens; but that among them there was one who was considered
particularly as queen, and upon her head was placed the crown, and she
was called Iteghè.

Thus, in Persia, we read that Ahasuerus loved Esther[52], who had found
grace in his sight more than the other virgins, and he had placed a
golden crown upon her head. And Josephus[53] informs us, that, when
Esther[54] was brought before the king, he was exceedingly delighted
with her, and made her his lawful wife, and when she came into the
palace he put a crown upon her head: whether placing the crown upon the
queen’s head had any civil effect as to regency in Persia as it had in
Abyssinia, is what history does not inform us.

I have already observed, that there is an officer called Serach
Massery, who watches before the king’s gate all night, and at the
dawn of day cracks a whip to chace the wild beasts out of the town.
This, too, is the signal for the king to rise, and sit down in his
judgment-seat. The same custom was observed in Persia. Early in the
morning an officer entered the king’s chamber, and said to him “Arise,
O king! and take charge of those matters which Oromasdes has appointed
you to the care of.”

The king of Abyssinia never is seen to walk, nor to set his foot
upon the ground, out of his palace; and when he would dismount from
the horse or mule on which he rides, he has a servant with a stool,
who places it properly for him for that purpose. He rides into the
anti-chamber to the foot of his throne, or to the stool placed in the
alcove of his tent. We are told by Athenaeus[55], such was the practice
in Persia, whose king never set his foot upon the ground out of his
palace.

The king of Abyssinia very often judges capital crimes himself. It is
reckoned a favourable judicature, such as, Claudian says, that of a
king in person should be, “_Piger ad pœnas, ad præmia velox_.” No man
is condemned by the king in person to die for the first fault, unless
the crime be of a horrid nature, such as parricide or sacrilege. And,
in general, the life and merits of the prisoner are weighed against
his immediate guilt; so that if his first behaviour has had more merit
towards the state than his present delinquency is thought to have
injured it, the one is placed fairly against the other, and the accused
is generally absolved when the sovereign judges alone.

Herodotus[56] praises this as a maxim of the kings of Persia in capital
judgments, almost in the very words that I have just now used; and he
gives an instance of it:--Darius had condemned Sandoces, one of the
king’s judges, to be crucified for corruption, that is, for having
given false judgment for a bribe. The man was already hung up on the
cross, when the king, considering with himself how many good services
he had done, previous to this, the only offence which he had committed,
ordered him to be pardoned.

The Persian king, in all expeditions, was attended by judges. We find
in Herodotus[57], that, in the expedition of Cambyses, ten of the
principal Egyptians were condemned to die by these judges for every
Persian that had been slain by the people of Memphis. Six judges always
attend the king of Abyssinia to the camp, and, before them, rebels
taken on the field are tried and punished on the spot.

People that the king distinguished by favour, or for any public
action, were in both kingdoms presented with gold chains, swords, and
bracelets[58]. These in Abyssinia are understood to be chiefly rewards
of military service; yet Poncet received a gold chain from Yasous the
Great. The day before the battle of Serbraxos, Ayto Engedan received a
silver bridle and saddle, covered with silver plates, from Ras Michael;
and the night after that battle I was myself honoured with a gold chain
from the king upon my reconciliation with Guebra Mascal, who, for
his behaviour that day, had a large revenue most deservedly assigned
to him, and a considerable territory, consisting of a number of rich
villages, a present known to be more agreeable to him than a mere mark
of honour.

A stranger of fashion, particularly recommended as I was, not needy
in point of money, nor depending from day to day upon government for
subsistence, is generally provided with one or more villages to
furnish him with what articles he may need, without being obliged to
have recourse to the king or his ministers for every necessary. Amha
Yasous, prince of Shoa, had a large and a royal village, Emfras, given
him to supply him with food for his table; he had another village in
Karoota for wine; a village in Dembea, the king’s own province, for his
wheat; and another in Begemder for cotton cloths for his servants; and
so of the rest. After I was in the king’s service I had the villages
that belonged to the posts I occupied; and one called Geesh, in which
arises the sources of the Nile, a village of about 18 houses, given me
by the king at my own request; for I might have had a better to furnish
me with honey, and confirmed to me by the rebel Waragna Fasil, who
never suffered me to grow rich by my rents, having never allowed me to
receive but two large jars, so bitter with lupines that they were of no
sort of use to me. I was a gentle master, nor ever likely to be opulent
from the revenues of that country; and more especially so, as I had
under me, as my lieutenant[59], an officer commanding the horse, whose
thoughts were much more upon Jerusalem and the holy sepulchre than any
gains he could get in Abyssinia by his employments.

Thucydides[60] informs us, that Themistocles had received great gifts
from Artaxerxes king of Persia, when settled at Magnesia; the king
had given him that city for bread, Lampsacus for wine, and Myuns
to furnish him with victuals. To these Athenaeus adds two more,
Palæscepsis and Percope, to yield him clothing and furniture. This
precisely, to this day, is the Abyssinian idea, when they conceive
they are entertaining men of rank; for strangers, that come naked
and vagabond among them, without name and character, or means of
subsistence, such as the Greeks in Abyssinia, are always received as
beggars, and neglected as such, till hunger sets their wits to work to
provide for the present exigency, and low intrigues and practices are
employed afterwards to maintain them in the little advancements which
they have acquired, but no honour or confidence follows, or very rarely.

In Abyssinia, when the prisoner is condemned in capital cases, he
is not again remitted to prison, which is thought cruel, but he is
immediately carried away, and the sentence executed upon him. I have
given several instances of this in the annals of the country. Abba
Salama, the Acab Saat, was condemned by the king the morning he
entered Gondar, on his return from Tigré, and immediately hanged, in
the garment of a priest, on a tree at the door of the king’s palace.
Chremation, brother to the usurper Socinios, was executed that same
morning; Guebra Denghel, Ras Michael’s son-in-law, was likewise
executed that same day, immediately after judgment; and so were
several others. The same was the practice in Persia, as we learn from
Xenophon[61], and more plainly from Diodorus[62].

The capital punishments in Abyssinia are the cross. Socinios[63] first
ordered Arzo, his competitor, who had fled for assistance and refuge
to Phineas king of the Falasha, to be crucified without the camp. We
find the same punishment inflicted by Artaxerxes upon Haman[64], who
was ordered to be affixed to the cross till he died. And Polycrates of
Samos, Cicero tells us[65], was crucified by order of Orætis, prætor of
Darius.

The next capital punishment is flaying alive. That this barbarous
execution still prevails in Abyssinia is already proved by the fate of
the unfortunate Woosheka, taken prisoner in the campaign of 1769 while
I was in Abyssinia; a sacrifice made to the vengeance of the beautiful
Ozoro Esther, who, kind and humane as she was in other respects, could
receive no atonement for the death of her husband. Socrates[66] says,
that Manes the heretic was flayed alive by order of the king of Persia,
and his skin made into a bottle. And Procopius[67] informs us, that
Pacurius ordered Basicius to be flayed alive, and his skin made into a
bottle and hung upon a high tree. And Agathias[68] mentions, that the
same punishment was inflicted upon Nachorages _more majorum_, according
to ancient custom.

Lapidation, or stoning to death, is the next capital punishment in
Abyssinia. This is chiefly inflicted upon strangers called _Franks_,
for religious causes. The Catholic priests in Abyssinia that have
been detected there, in these latter days, have been stoned to death,
and their bodies lie still in the streets of Gondar, in the squares or
waste-places, covered with the heaps of stones which occasioned their
death by being thrown at them. There are three of these heaps at the
church of Abbo, all covering Franciscan friars; and, besides them, a
small pyramid over a boy who was stoned to death with them, about the
first year of the reign of David the IV.[69] This boy was one of four
sons that one of the Franciscan friars had had by an Abyssinian woman
in the reign of Oustas. In Persia we find, that Pagorasus (according
to Ctesias[70]) was stoned to death by the order of the king; and the
same author says, that Pharnacyas, one of the murderers of Xerxes, was
stoned to death likewise.

Among capital punishments may be reckoned likewise the plucking out of
the eyes, a cruelty which I have but too often seen committed in the
short stay that I made in Abyssinia. This is generally inflicted upon
rebels. I have already mentioned, that, after the slaughter of the
battle of Fagitta, twelve chiefs of the Pagan Galla, taken prisoners
by Ras Michael, had their eyes torn out, and were afterwards abandoned
to starve in the valleys below the town. Several prisoners of another
rank, noblemen of Tigré, underwent the same misfortune; and, what is
wonderful, not one of them died in the operation, nor its consequences,
though performed in the coarsest manner with an iron forceps, or
pincers. Xenophon[71] tells us, that this was one of the punishments
used by Cyrus. And Ammianus Marcellinus[72] mentions, that Sapor king
of Persia banished Arsaces, whom he had taken prisoner to a certain
castle, after having pulled out his eyes.

The dead bodies of criminals slain for treason, murder, and violence,
on the high-way at certain times, are seldom buried in Abyssinia. The
streets of Gondar are strewed with pieces of their carcases, which
bring the wild beasts in multitudes into the city as soon as it becomes
dark, so that it is scarcely possible for any to walk in the night.
Too many instances of this kind will be found throughout my narrative.
The dogs used to bring pieces of human bodies into the house, and
court-yard, to eat them in greater security. This was most disgustful
to me, but so often repeated, that I was obliged to leave them in
possession of such fragments. We learn from Quintus Curtius[73], that
Darius having ordered Charidamus to be put to death, and finding
afterwards that he was innocent, endeavoured to stop the executioner,
though it was too late, as they had already cut his throat; but, in
token of repentance, the king allowed him the liberty of burial.

I have taken notice, up and down throughout my history, that the
Abyssinians never fight in the night. This too was a rule among the
Persians[74].

Notwithstanding the Abyssinians were so anciently and nearly connected
with Egypt, they never seem to have made use of paper, or papyrus,
but imitated the practice of the Persians, who wrote upon skins, and
they do so this day. This arises from their having early been Jews.
In Parthia, likewise, Pliny[75] informs us, the use of papyrus was
absolutely unknown; and though it was discovered that papyrus grew
in the Euphrates, near Babylon, of which they could make paper, they
obstinately rather chose to adhere to their ancient custom of weaving
their letters on cloth of which they made their garments. The Persians,
moreover, made use of parchment for their records[76], to which all
their remarkable transactions were trusted; and to this it is probably
owing we have so many of their customs preserved to this day. Diodorus
Siculus[77], speaking of Ctesias, says, he verified every thing from
the royal parchments themselves, which, in obedience to a certain law,
are all placed in order, and afterwards were communicated to the Greeks.

From this great resemblance in customs between the Persians and
Abyssinians following the fashionable way of judging about the origin
of nations, I should boldly conclude that the Abyssinians were a colony
of Persians, but this is very well known to be without foundation.
The customs, mentioned as only peculiar to Persia, were common to all
the east; and they were lost when those countries were over-run and
conquered by those who introduced barbarous customs of their own. The
reason why we have so much left of the Persian customs is, that they
were written, and so not liable to alteration; and, being on parchment,
did also contribute to their preservation. The history which treats of
those ancient and polished nations has preserved few fragments of their
manners entire from the ruins of time; while Abyssinia, at war with
nobody, or at war with itself only, has preserved the ancient customs
which it enjoyed in common with all the east, and which were only lost
in other kingdoms by the invasion of strangers, a misfortune Abyssinia
has never suffered since the introduction of letters.

Before I finish what I have to say upon the manners of this nation,
having shewn that they are the same people with the ancient Egyptians,
I would inquire, whether there is the same conformity of rules in the
dietetique regimen, between them and Egypt, that we should expect to
find from such relation? This is a much surer way of judging than by
resemblance of external customs.

The old Egyptians, as we are told by sacred scripture, did not eat with
strangers; but I believe the observation is extended farther than ever
scripture meant. The instance given of Joseph’s brethren not being
allowed to eat with the Egyptians was, because Joseph had told Pharaoh
that his brethren[78], and Jacob his father, were shepherds, that he
might get from the Egyptians the land of Goshen, a land, as the name
imports, of pasturage and grass, which the Nile never overflowed, and
it was therefore in possession of the shepherds. Now the shepherds, we
are told, were the direct natural enemies of the Egyptians who lived
in towns. The shepherds also sacrificed the god whom the Egyptians
worshipped. We cannot (says Moses[79]) sacrifice in this land the
abomination of the Egyptians, lest they stone us. If the Egyptians
did not eat with them, so neither would they with the Egyptians; but
it is a mistake that the Egyptians did not eat flesh as well as the
shepherds, it was only the flesh of certain animals they differed on,
and did not eat.

The Egyptians worshipped the cow[80], and the shepherds lived upon
her flesh, which made them a separate people, that could not eat nor
communicate together; and the very knowledge of this was, as we are
informed by scripture, the reason why Joseph told Pharaoh, when he
asked him what profession his brethren were of, “Your servants, says
Joseph, are shepherds, and their employment the feeding of cattle;”
and this was given out, that the land of Goshen might be allotted to
them, and so they and their descendents be kept separate from the
Egyptians, and not exposed to mingle in their abominations. Or, though
they had abstained from these abominations, they could not kill cattle
for sacrifice or for food. They would have raised ill-will against
themselves, and, as Moses says, would have been stoned, and so the end
of bringing them to Goshen would have been frustrated, which was to
nurse them in a plentiful land, in peace and security, till they should
attain to be a mighty people, capable of subduing and filling the land
to which, at the end of their captivity, God was to lead them.

The Abyssinians neither eat nor drink with strangers, though they have
no reason for this; and it is now a mere prejudice, because the old
occasion for this regulation is lost. They break, or purify, however,
every vessel a stranger of any kind shall have ate or drank in. The
custom then is copied from the Egyptians, and they have preserved it,
tho’ the Egyptian reason does no longer hold.

Some historians say, the Egyptian women anciently enjoyed a full
liberty of intercourse with the males, which was not the case in the
generality of eastern nations; and we must, therefore, think it was
derived from Abyssinia; for there the women live, as it were, in
common, and their enjoyments and gratification have no other bounds but
their own will. They, however, pretend to have a principle, that, if
they marry, they should be wives of one husband; and yet this principle
does not bind, but, like most of the other duties, serves to reason
upon, and to laugh at, in conversation. Herodotus tells it was the same
with the Egyptians[81].

The Egyptians made no account of the mother what her state was; if the
father was free, the child followed the condition of the father. This
is strictly so in Abyssinia. The king’s child by a negro-slave, bought
with money, or taken in war, is as near in succeeding to the crown, as
any one of twenty children that he has older than that one, and born of
the noblest women of the country.

The men in Egypt[82] did neither buy nor sell; the same is the case
in Abyssinia at this day. It is infamy for a man to go to market to
buy any thing. He cannot carry water or bake bread; but he must wash
the cloaths belonging to both sexes, and, in this function, the women
cannot help him. In Abyssinia the men carried their burdens on their
heads, the women on their shoulders, and this difference, we are told,
obtained in Egypt[83]. It is plain, that this buying, in the public
market, by women, must have ended whenever jealousy or sequestration of
that sex began; for this reason it ended early in Egypt, but, for the
opposite reason, it subsists in Abyssinia to this day.

It was a sort of impiety in Egypt to eat a calf; and the reason was
plain, they worshipped the cow. In Abyssinia, to this day, no man eats
veal, although every one very willingly eats a cow. The Egyptian[84]
reason no longer subsists as in the former case, but the prejudice
remains, though they have forgot the reason.

The Abyssinians eat no wild or water-fowl, not even the goose, which
was a great delicacy in Egypt. The reason of this is, that, upon their
conversion to Judaism, they were forced to relinquish their ancient
municipal customs, as far as they were contrary to the Mosaical law;
and the animals, in their country, not corresponding in form, kind, nor
name, with those mentioned in the Septuagint, or original Hebrew, it
has followed, that there are many of each class that know not whether
they are clean or not; and a wonderful confusion and uncertainty has
followed through ignorance or mistake, being unwilling to violate the
law in any one instance through not understanding it.

The abhorrence of the old Egyptians for the bean is well known, and
many silly reasons have been assigned for it; but that which has most
met the approbation of the most learned men is, in my humble opinion,
the weakest of them all. They say, the aversion to the bean arose from
its resembling the phallus; but the crux ansata, or the cross with the
handle to it, which is put in the hand of every Egyptian hieroglyphic
of Isis, Osiris, or whatever the priests have called them, is likewise
agreed by the learned to represent the phallus; and the figure of these
nudities, without vail or concealment, is plain in all their statues.
Now, I would ask, What is the reason why they abhor a bean because it
represents these parts which, at the same time, by their own option
or choice, are exposed in the hand or person of every figure which
they exhibit to public view? The bean, however, is not cultivated in
Abyssinia, neither is it in Egypt; lupines grow up in both, and lupines
in both are eradicated like a weed, and lupines were what is called
_faba Ægyptiaca_.

Though I cannot pretend to know the true reason of this, yet I will
venture to give a guess:--The origin of great part of religious
observances of Egypt began with the worship of the Nile, and probably
at the head of it. The country of the Agows, as well where the Nile
rises as in parts more distant, is all a honey country; not only their
whole sustenance, but their trade, their tribute to the king, and
the maintenance of a great part of the capital, depends upon honey
and butter, the common food of the better sort of people when they do
not eat flesh; it composes their drink also in mead or hydromel. Now,
this country, when uncultivated, naturally produces lupines, and the
blossoms of these becoming food for the bees, gives the honey such a
bitterness that no person will eat it, or use it any way in food or
for drink.--After the king had bestowed the village of Geesh upon me,
though with the consent of Fasil its governor, that egregious shuffler,
to make the present of no use to me, sent me, indeed, the tribute of
the honey in very large jars, but it all tasted so much of the lupines
that it was of no earthly use whatever. Their constant attention is
to weed out this bitter plant; and, when any of those countries are
desolated by war, we may expect a large crop of lupines immediately
to follow, and, for a time, plenty of bad honey in consequence. It
is, then, this destructive bean that Pythagoras, who, it is said, ate
no flesh, regarded as an object of detestation; it was equally so
among the Abyssinians and Egyptians for the same reason. Both nations,
moreover, have an aversion to hogs flesh, and both avoid the touch of
dogs.

It is here I propose to take notice of an unnatural custom which
prevails universally in Abyssinia, and which in early ages seems to
have been common to the whole world. I did not think that any person of
moderate knowledge in profane learning could have been ignorant of this
remarkable custom among the nations of the east. But what still more
surprised me, and is the least pardonable part of the whole, was the
ignorance of part of the law of God, the earliest that was given to
man, the most frequently noted, insisted upon, and prohibited. I have
said, in the course of the narrative of my journey from Masuah, that,
a small distance from Axum, I overtook on the way three travellers,
who seemed to be soldiers, driving a cow before them. They halted at a
brook, threw down the beast, and one of them cut a pretty large collop
of flesh from its buttocks, after which they drove the cow gently on
as before. A violent outcry was raised in England at hearing this
circumstance, which they did not hesitate to pronounce _impossible_,
when the manners and customs of Abyssinia were to them utterly unknown.
The Jesuits, established in Abyssinia for above a hundred years, had
told them of that people eating, what they call raw meat, in every
page, and yet they were ignorant of this. Poncet, too, had done the
same, but Poncet they had not read; and if any writer upon Ethiopia had
omitted to mention it, it was because it was one of those facts too
notorious to be repeated to swell a volume.

It must be from prejudice alone we condemn the eating of raw flesh; no
precept, divine or human, that I know, forbids it; and if it is true,
as later travellers have discovered, that there are nations ignorant of
the use of fire, any law against eating raw flesh could never have been
intended by God as obligatory upon mankind in general. At any rate, it
is certainly not clearly known, whether the eating raw flesh was not
an earlier and more general practice than by preparing it with fire; I
think it was.

Many wise and learned men have doubted whether it was at first
permitted to man to eat animal food at all. I do not pretend to give
any opinion upon the subject, but many topics have been maintained
successfully upon much more slender grounds. God, the author of life,
and the best judge of what was proper to maintain it, gave this regimen
to our first parents--“Behold, I have given you every herb bearing
seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the
which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed: to you it shall be for
meat[85].” And though, immediately after, he mentions both beasts and
fowls, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth, he does not say
that he has designed any of these as meat for man. On the contrary,
he seems to have intended the vegetable creation as food for both man
and beast--“And to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the
air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein _there
is life_, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so[86].”
After the flood, when mankind began to repossess the earth, God gave
Noah a much more extensive permission--“Every moving thing that liveth
shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all
things[87].”

As the criterion of judging of their aptitude for food was declared
to be their _moving_ and having _life_, a danger appeared of
misinterpretation, and that these creatures should be used living;
a thing which God by no means intended, and therefore, immediately
after, it is said, “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood
thereof, shall you not eat[88];” or, as it is rendered by the best
interpreters, ‘Flesh, or members, torn from living animals having the
blood in them, thou shalt not eat.’ We see then, by this prohibition,
that this abuse of eating living meat, or part of animals while yet
alive, was known in the days of Noah, and forbidden after being so
known, and it is precisely what is practised in Abyssinia to this day.
This law, then, was prior to that of Moses, but it came from the same
legislator. It was given to Noah, and consequently obligatory upon
the whole world. Moses, however, insists upon it throughout his whole
law; which not only shews that this abuse was common, but that it was
deeply rooted in, and interwoven with, the manners of the Hebrews. He
positively prohibits it four times in one chapter in Deuteronomy[89],
and thrice in one of the chapters of Leviticus[90]--“Thou shalt not eat
the blood, for the blood is the life; thou shalt pour it upon the earth
like water.”

Although the many instances of God’s tenderness to the brute creation,
that constantly occur in the Mosaical precepts, and are a very
beautiful part of them, and tho’ the barbarity of the custom itself
might reasonably lead us to think that humanity alone was a sufficient
motive for the prohibition of eating animals alive, yet nothing can
be more certain, than that greater consequences were annexed to the
indulging in this crime than what was apprehended from a mere depravity
of manners. One[91] of the most learned and sensible men that ever
wrote upon the sacred scriptures observes, that God, in forbidding
this practice, uses more severe certification, and more threatening
language, than against any other sin, excepting idolatry, with which
it is constantly joined. God declares, “I will set my face against
him that eateth blood, in the same manner as I will against him that
sacrificeth his son to Moloch; I will set my face against him that
eateth flesh with blood, till I cut him off from the people.”

We have an instance in the life of Saul[92] that shews the propensity
of the Israelites to this crime. Saul’s army, after a battle, _flew_,
that is, fell voraciously upon the cattle they had taken, and threw
them upon the ground to cut off their flesh, and eat them raw, so that
the army was defiled by eating blood, or living animals. To prevent
this, Saul caused roll to him a great stone, and ordered those that
killed their oxen to cut their throats upon that stone. This was the
only lawful way of killing animals for food; the tying of the ox and
throwing it upon the ground was not permitted as equivalent. The
Israelites did probably in that case as the Abyssinians do at this
day; they cut a part of its throat, so that blood might be seen upon
the ground, but nothing mortal to the animal followed from that wound.
But, after laying his head upon a large stone, and cutting his throat,
the blood fell from on high, or was poured on the ground like water,
and sufficient evidence appeared the creature was dead before it was
attempted to eat it. We have seen that the Abyssinians came from
Palestine a very few years after this; and we are not to doubt that
they then carried with them this, with many other Jewish customs, which
they have continued to this day.

The author I last quoted says, that it is plain, from all the books of
the eastern nations, that their motive for eating flesh with the life,
or limbs of living animals cut off with the blood, was from motives
of religion, and for the purposes of idolatry, and so it probably had
been among the Jews; for one of the reasons given in Leviticus for
the prohibition of eating blood, or living flesh, is, that the people
may no longer offer sacrifices to devils, after whom they have gone
a-whoring[93]. If the reader chooses to be further informed how very
common this practice was, he need only read the Halacoth Gedaloth, or
its translation, where the whole chapter is taken up with instances of
this kind.

That this practice likewise prevailed in Europe, as well as in Asia
and Africa, may be collected from various authors. The Greeks had
their bloody feasts and sacrifices where they ate living flesh; these
were called Omophagia. Arnobius[94] says, “Let us pass over the
horrid scenes presented at the Bacchanalian feast, wherein, with a
counterfeited fury, though with a truly depraved heart, you twine a
number of serpents around you, and, pretending to be possessed with
some god, or spirit, you tear to pieces, with bloody mouths, the
bowels of living goats, which cry all the time from the torture they
suffer.” From all this it appears, that the practice of the Abyssinians
eating live animals at this day, was very far from being new, or,
what was nonsensically said, _impossible_. And I shall only further
observe, that those of my readers that wish to indulge a spirit of
criticism upon the great variety of customs, men and manners, related
in this history, or have those criticisms attended to, should furnish
themselves with a more decent stock of reading than, in this instance,
they seem to have possessed; or, when another example occurs of that
kind, which they call _impossible_, that they would take the truth of
it upon my word, and believe what they are not sufficiently qualified
to investigate.

Consistent with the plan of this work, which is to describe the manners
of the several nations through which I passed, good and bad, as I
observed them, I cannot avoid giving some account of this Polyphemus
banquet, as far as decency will permit me; it is part of the history of
a barbarous people; whatever I might wish, I cannot decline it.

In the capital, where one is safe from surprise at all times, or in the
country or villages, when the rains have become so constant that the
valleys will not bear a horse to pass them, or that men cannot venture
far from home through fear of being surrounded and swept away by
temporary torrents, occasioned by sudden showers on the mountains; in a
word, when a man can say he is safe at home, and the spear and shield
is hung up in the hall, a number of people of the best fashion in the
villages, of both sexes, courtiers in the palace, or citizens in the
town, meet together to dine between twelve and one o’clock.

A long table is set in the middle of a large room, and benches beside
it for a number of guests who are invited. Tables and benches the
Portugueze introduced amongst them; but bull hides, spread upon the
ground, served them before, as they do in the camp and country now. A
cow or bull, one or more, as the company is numerous, is brought close
to the door, and his feet strongly tied. The skin that hangs down under
his chin and throat, which I think we call the dew-lap in England, is
cut only so deep as to arrive at the fat, of which it totally consists,
and, by the separation of a few small blood-vessels, six or seven drops
of blood only fall upon the ground. They have no stone, bench, nor
altar upon which these cruel assassins lay the animal’s head in this
operation. I should beg his pardon indeed for calling him an assassin,
as he is not so merciful as to aim at the life, but, on the contrary,
to keep the beast alive till he be totally eat up. Having satisfied
the Mosaical law, according to his conception, by pouring these six or
seven drops upon the ground, two or more of them fall to work; on the
back of the beast, and on each side of the spine they cut skin-deep;
then putting their fingers between the flesh and the skin, they begin
to strip the hide of the animal half way down his ribs, and so on to
the buttock, cutting the skin wherever it hinders them commodiously to
strip the poor animal bare. All the flesh on the buttocks is cut off
then, and in solid, square pieces, without bones, or much effusion of
blood; and the prodigious noise the animal makes is a signal for the
company to sit down to table.

There are then laid before every guest, instead of plates, round
cakes, if I may so call them, about twice as big as a pan-cake, and
something thicker and tougher. It is unleavened bread of a sourish
taste, far from being disagreeable, and very easily digested, made of a
grain called teff. It is of different colours, from black to the colour
of the whitest wheat-bread. Three or four of these cakes are generally
put uppermost, for the food of the person opposite to whose seat they
are placed. Beneath these are four or five of ordinary bread, and of a
blackish kind. These serve the master to wipe his fingers upon; and
afterwards the servant, for bread to his dinner.

Two or three servants then come, each with a square piece of beef in
their bare hands, laying it upon the cakes of teff, placed like dishes
down the table, without cloth or any thing else beneath them. By this
time all the guests have knives in their hands, and their men have the
large crooked ones, which they put to all sorts of uses during the time
of war. The women have small clasped knives, such as the worst of the
kind made at Birmingham, sold for a penny each.

The company are so ranged that one man sits between two women; the
man with his long knife cuts a thin piece, which would be thought a
good beef-steak in England, while you see the motion of the fibres
yet perfectly distinct, and alive in the flesh. No man in Abyssinia,
of any fashion whatever, feeds himself, or touches his own meat. The
women take the steak and cut it length-ways like strings, about the
thickness of your little finger, then crossways into square pieces,
something smaller than dice. This they lay upon a piece of the teff
bread, strongly powdered with black pepper, or Cayenne pepper, and
fossile-salt, they then wrap it up in the teff bread like a cartridge.

In the mean time, the man having put up his knife, with each hand
resting upon his neighbour’s knee, his body stooping, his head low and
forward, and mouth open very like an idiot, turns to the one whose
cartridge is first ready, who stuffs the whole of it into his mouth,
which is so full that he is in constant danger of being choked. This is
a mark of grandeur. The greater the man would seem to be, the larger
piece he takes in his mouth; and the more noise he makes in chewing
it, the more polite he is thought to be. They have, indeed, a proverb
that says, “Beggars and thieves only eat small pieces, or without
making a noise.” Having dispatched this morsel, which he does very
expeditiously, his next female neighbour holds forth another cartridge,
which goes the same way, and so on till he is satisfied. He never
drinks till he has finished eating; and, before he begins, in gratitude
to the fair ones that fed him, he makes up two small rolls of the same
kind and form; each of his neighbours open their mouths at the same
time, while with each hand he puts their portion into their mouths. He
then falls to drinking out of a large handsome horn; the ladies eat
till they are satisfied, and then all drink together, “Vive la Joye et
la Jeunesse!” A great deal of mirth and joke goes round, very seldom
with any mixture of acrimony or ill-humour.

All this time, the unfortunate victim at the door is bleeding indeed,
but bleeding little. As long as they can cut off the flesh from his
bones, they do not meddle with the thighs, or the parts where the
great arteries are. At last they fall upon the thighs likewise; and
soon after the animal, bleeding to death, becomes so tough that the
canibals, who have the rest of it to eat, find very hard work to
separate the flesh from the bones with their teeth like dogs.

In the mean time, those within are very much elevated; love lights all
its fires, and every thing is permitted with absolute freedom. There is
no coyness, no delays, no need of appointments or retirement to gratify
their wishes; there are no rooms but one, in which they sacrifice both
to Bacchus and to Venus[95]. The two men nearest the vacuum a pair have
made on the bench by leaving their seats, hold their upper garment
like a skreen before the two that have left the bench; and, if we may
judge by sound, they seem to think it as great a shame to make love in
silence as to eat.--Replaced in their seats again, the company drink
the happy couple’s health; and their example is followed at different
ends of the table, as each couple is disposed. All this passes without
remark or scandal, not a licentious word is uttered, nor the most
distant joke upon the transaction.

These ladies are, for the most part, women of family and character,
and they and their gallants are reciprocally distinguished by the
name _Woodage_, which answers to what in Italy they call Cicisbey;
and, indeed, I believe that the name itself, as well as the practice,
is Hebrew; _schus chis beiim_, signifies _attendants_ or _companions
of the bride_, or _bride’s man_, as we call it in England. The only
difference is, that in Europe the intimacy and attendance continues
during the marriage, while, among the Jews, it was permitted only the
few days of the marriage ceremony. The aversion to Judaism, in the
ladies of Europe, has probably led them to the _prolongation_ of the
term.

It was a custom of the ancient Egyptians to purge themselves monthly
for three days; and the same is still in practice in Abyssinia. We
shall speak more of the reason of this practice in the botanical part
of our work, where a drawing of a most beautiful tree[96], used for
this purpose, is given.

Although we read from the Jesuits a great deal about marriage and
polygamy, yet there is nothing which may be averred more truly than
that there is no such thing as marriage in Abyssinia, unless that
which is contracted by mutual consent, without other form, subsisting
only till dissolved by dissent of one or other, and to be renewed or
repeated as often as it is agreeable to both parties, who, when they
please, cohabit together again as man and wife, after having been
divorced, had children by others, or whether they have been married, or
had children with others or not. I remember to have once been at Koscam
in presence of the Iteghè, when, in the circle, there was a woman of
great quality, and seven men who had all been her husbands, none of
whom was the happy spouse at that time.

Upon separation they divide the children. The eldest son falls to the
mother’s first choice, and the eldest daughter to the father. If there
is but one daughter, and all the rest sons, she is assigned to the
father. If there is but one son, and all the rest daughters, he is
the right of the mother. If the numbers are unequal after the first
election, the rest are divided by lot. There is no such distinction as
legitimate and illegitimate children from the king to the beggar; for
supposing any one of their marriages valid, all the issue of the rest
must be adulterous bastards.

One day Ras Michael asked me, before Abba Salama, (the Acab Saat)
Whether such things as these promiscuous marriages and divorces were
permitted and practised in my country? I excused myself till I was no
longer able; and, upon his insisting, I was obliged to answer, That
even if scripture had not forbid to us as Christians, as Englishmen the
law restrained us from such practices, by declaring polygamy felony, or
punishable by death.

The king in his marriage uses no other ceremony than this:--He sends an
Azage to the house where the lady lives, where the officer announces to
her, It is the king’s pleasure that she should remove instantly to the
palace. She then dresses herself in the best manner, and immediately
obeys. Thenceforward he assigns her an apartment in the palace, and
gives her a house elsewhere in any part she chuses. Then when he
makes her Iteghé, it seems to be the nearest resemblance to marriage;
for, whether in the court or the camp, he orders one of the judges to
pronounce in his presence, That he, the king, has chosen his hand-maid,
naming her for his queen; upon which the crown is put upon her head,
but she is not anointed.

The crown being hereditary in one family, but elective in the person,
and polygamy being permitted, must have multiplied these heirs very
much, and produced constant disputes, so that it was found necessary
to provide a remedy for the anarchy and effusion of royal blood, which
was otherwise inevitably to follow. The remedy was a humane and gentle
one, they were confined in a good climate upon a high mountain, and
maintained there at the public expence. They are there taught to read
and write, but nothing else; 750 cloths for wrapping round them, 3000
ounces of gold, which is 30,000 dollars, or crowns, are allowed by the
state for their maintenance. These princes are hardly used, and, in
troublesome times, often put to death upon the smallest misinformation.
While I was in Abyssinia their revenue was so grossly misapplied, that
some of them were said to have died with hunger and of cold by the
avarice and hard-heartedness of Michael neglecting to furnish them
necessaries. Nor had the king, as far as ever I could discern, that
fellow-feeling one would have expected from a prince rescued from that
very situation himself; perhaps this was owing to his fear of Ras
Michael.

However that be, and however distressing the situation of those
princes, we cannot but be satisfied with it when we look to the
neighbouring kingdom of Sennaar, or Nubia. There no mountain is trusted
with the confinement of their princes, but, as soon as the father dies,
the throats of all the collaterals, and all their descendents that
can be laid hold of, are cut; and this is the case with all the black
states in the desert west of Sennaar, Dar Fowr, Selé, and Bagirma.

Great exaggerations have been used in speaking of the military force of
this kingdom. The largest army that ever was in the field (as far as I
could be informed from the oldest officers) was that in the rebellion
before the battle of Serbraxos. I believe, when they first encamped
upon the lake Tzana, the rebel army altogether might amount to about
50,000 men. In about a fortnight afterwards, many had deserted; and
I do not think (I only speak by hearsay) that, when the king marched
out of Gondar, they were then above 30,000. I believe when Gojam
joined, and it was known that Michael and his army were to be made
prisoners, that the rebel army increased to above 60,000 men; cowards
and brave, old and young, veteran soldiers and blackguards, all came
to be spectators of that desirable event, which many of the wisest had
despaired of living to see. I believe the king’s army never amounted to
26,000 men; and, by desertion and other causes, when we retreated to
Gondar, I do not suppose the army was 16,000, mostly from the province
of Tigré. Fasil, indeed, had not joined; and putting his army of 12,000
men, (I make no account of the wild Galla beyond the Nile) I do not
imagine that any king of Abyssinia ever commanded 40,000 effective men
at any time, or upon any cause whatever, exclusive of his household
troops.

Their standards are large staves, surmounted at the top with a hollow
ball; below this is a tube in which the staff is fixed; and immediately
below the ball, a narrow stripe of silk made forked, or swallow-tailed,
like a vane, and seldom much broader. In the war of Begemder we
first saw colours like a flag hoisted for king Theodorus. They were
red, about eight feet long and near three feet broad; but they never
appeared but two days; and the success that attended their first
appearance was such that did not bid fair to bring them into fashion.

The standards of the infantry have their flags painted two colours
crossways--yellow, white, red, or green. The horse have all a lion upon
their flag[97], some a red, some a green, and some a white lion. The
black horse have a yellow lion, and over it a white star upon a red
flag, alluding to two prophecies, the one, “Judah is a young lion,”
and the other, “There shall come a star out of Judah.” This had been
discontinued for want of cloth till the war of Begemder, when a large
piece was found in Joas’s wardrobe, and was thought a certain omen of
his victory, and of a long and vigorous reign. This piece of cloth was
said to have been brought from Cairo by Yasous II. for the campaign of
Sennaar, and, with the other standards and colours, was surrendered to
the rebels when the king was made prisoner.

The king’s household troops should consist of about 8000 infantry, 2000
of which carry firelocks, and supply the place of archers; bows have
been laid aside for near a hundred years, and are only now used by the
Waito Shangalla, and some other barbarous inconsiderable nations.

These troops are divided into four companies, each under an officer
called Shalaka, which answers to our colonel. Every twenty men have
an officer, every fifty a second, and every hundred a third; that is,
every twenty have one officer who commands them, but is commanded
likewise by an officer who commands the fifty; so that there are three
officers who command fifty men, six command a hundred, and thirty
command five hundred, over whom is the Shalaka; and this body they
call Bet, which signifies a _house_, or _apartment_, because each of
them goes by the name of one of the king’s apartments. For example,
there is an apartment called Anbasa Bet, or the _lion’s house_, and a
regiment carrying that name has the charge of it, and their duty is
at that apartment, or that part of the palace where it is; there is
another called Jan Bet, or the _elephant’s house_, that gives the name
to another regiment; another called Werk Sacala, or the _gold house_,
which gives its name to another corps; and so on with the rest; as for
the horse, I have spoken of them already.

There are four regiments, that seldom, if ever, amounted to 1600 men,
which depend alone upon the king, and are all foreigners, at least
the officers; these have the charge of his person while in the field.
In times when the king is out of leading-strings, they amount to
four or five thousand, and then oppress the country, for they have
great privileges. At times when the king’s hands are weak, they are
kept incomplete out of fear and jealousy, which was the case in my
time;--these have been already sufficiently described.

Three proclamations are made before the king marches. The first is,
“Buy your mules, get ready your provision, and pay your servants, for,
after such a day, they that seek me here shall not find me.” The second
is about a week after, or according as the exigency is pressing; this
is, “Cut down the kantuffa in the four quarters of the world, for I do
not know where I am going.” This kantuffa is a terrible thorn which
very much molests the king and nobility in their march, by taking hold
of their long hair, and the cotton cloth they are wrapped in. The
third and last proclamation is, “I am encamped upon the Angrab, or
Kahha; he that does not join me there, I will chastise him for seven
years.” I was long in doubt what this term of seven years meant, till I
recollected the jubilee-year of the Jews, with whom seven years was a
prescription of offences, debts, and all trespasses.

The rains generally cease the eighth of September; a sickly season
follows till they begin again about the 20th of October; they then
continue pretty constant, but moderate in quantity, till Hedar St
Michael, the eighth of November. All epidemic diseases cease with the
end of these rains, and it is then the armies begin to march.




CHAP. XII.

_State of Religion--Circumcision, Excision, &c._


There is no country in the world where there are so many churches as
in Abyssinia. Though the country is very mountainous, and consequently
the view much obstructed, it is very seldom you see less than five or
six churches, and, if you are on a commanding ground, five times that
number. Every great man that dies thinks he has atoned for all his
wickedness if he leaves a fund to build a church, or has built one
in his lifetime. The king builds many. Wherever a victory is gained,
there a church is erected in the very field stinking with the putrid
bodies of the slain. Formerly this was only the case when the enemy was
Pagan or Infidel; now the same is observed when the victories are over
Christians.

The situation of a church is always chosen near running water, for the
convenience of their purifications and ablutions, in which they observe
strictly the Levitical law. They are always placed upon the top of some
beautiful, round hill, which is surrounded entirely with rows of the
oxy-cedrus, or Virginia cedar, which grows here in great beauty and
perfection, and is called Arz[98]. There is nothing adds so much to the
beauty of the country as these churches and the plantations about them.

In the middle of this plantation of cedars is interspersed, at proper
distances, a number of those beautiful trees called Cusso, which grow
very high, and are all extremely picturesque.

All the churches are round, with thatched roofs; their summits are
perfect cones; the outside is surrounded by a number of wooden pillars,
which are nothing else than the trunks of the cedar-tree, and are
placed to support the edifice, about eight feet of the roof projecting
beyond the wall of the church, which forms an agreeable walk, or
colonade, around it in hot weather, or in rain. The inside of the
church is in several divisions, according as is prescribed by the law
of Moses. The first is a circle somewhat wider than the inner one;
here the congregation sit and pray. Within this is a square, and that
square is divided by a veil or curtain, in which is another very small
division answering to the holy of holies. This is so narrow that none
but the priests can go into it. You are bare-footed whenever you enter
the church, and, if bare-footed, you may go through every part of it,
if you have any such curiosity, provided you are pure, _i. e._ have
not been concerned with women for twenty-four hours before, or touched
carrion or dead bodies, (a curious assemblage of ideas) for in that
case you are not to go within the precincts, or outer circumference of
the church, but stand and say your prayers at an awful distance among
the cedars.

All persons of both sexes, under Jewish disqualifications, are obliged
to observe this distance; and this is always a place belonging to
the church, where, unless in Lent, you see the greatest part of
the congregation; but this is left to your own conscience, and, if
there was either great inconvenience in the one situation, or great
satisfaction in the other, the case would be otherwise.

When you go to the church you put off your shoes before your first
entering the outer precinct; but you must leave a servant there with
them, or else they will be stolen, if good for any thing, by the
priests and monks before you come out of the church. At entry you
kiss the threshold, and two door-posts, go in and say what prayer you
please, that finished, you come out again, and your duty is over.
The churches are full of pictures, painted on parchment, and nailed
upon the walls, in a manner little less slovenly than you see paltry
prints in beggarly country ale-houses. There has been always a sort of
painting known among the scribes, a daubing much inferior to the worst
of our sign-painters. Sometimes, for a particular church, they get a
number of pictures of saints, on skins of parchment, ready finished
from Cairo, in a stile very little superior to these performances of
their own. They are placed like a frize, and hung in the upper part
of the wall. St George is generally there with his dragon, and St
Demetrius fighting a lion. There is no choice in their saints, they are
both of the Old and New Testament, and those that might be dispensed
with from both. There is St Pontius Pilate and his wife; there is St
Balaam and his ass; Samson and his jaw-bone; and so of the rest. But
the thing that surprised me most was a kind of square-miniature upon
the front of the head-piece, or mitre, of the priest, administering the
sacrament at Adowa, representing Pharaoh on a white horse plunging in
the Red Sea, with many guns and pistols swimming upon the surface of it
around him.

Nothing embossed, nor in relief, ever appears in any of their churches;
all this would be reckoned idolatry, so much so that they do not wear a
cross, as has been represented, on the top of the ball of the sendick,
or standard, because it casts a shade; but there is no doubt that
pictures have been used in their churches from the very earliest age of
Christianity.

The Abuna is looked upon as the patriarch of the Abyssinian church, for
they have little knowledge of the coptic patriarch of Alexandria. We
are perfectly ignorant of the history of these prelates for many years
after their appointment. The first of these mentioned is Abuna Tecla
Haimanout, who distinguished himself by the restoration of the royal
family, and the regulations he made both in church and state, as we
have seen in the history of those times: a very remarkable, but wise
regulation was then made, that the Abyssinians should not have it in
their power to choose one of their own countrymen as Abuna.

Wise men saw the fallen state of literature among them; and unless
opportunity was given, from time to time, for their priests to go
abroad to Jerusalem for their instruction, and for the purpose of
bringing the Abuna, Tecla Haimanout knew that very soon no set of
people would be more shamefully ignorant than those priests, even in
the most common dogmas of their profession. He hoped therefore, by a
considerable stipend, to tempt some men of learning to accept of this
place, to give his countenance to learning and religion among them.

The Arabic canon[99], which is preserved by the Abyssinian church,
and said to be of the council of Nice, should certainly be attributed
to this Abuna, and is a forgery in, or very soon after, his time; for
it is plain this canon took place about the year 1300, that it was
lawful to elect an Abuna, who was a native of Abyssinia before this
prohibition, otherwise it would not have applied. Abuna Tecla Haimanout
was an Abyssinian by birth, and he was Abuna; the prohibition therefore
had not then taken place: but, as no Abyssinian was afterwards chosen,
it must certainly be a work of his time, for it is impossible a canon
should be made by the council of Nice, settling the rank of a bishop in
a nation which, for above 200 years after that general council, were
not Christians.

As the Abuna very seldom understands the language, he has no share of
the government, but goes to the palace on days of ceremony, or when
he has any favour to ask or complaint to make. He is much fallen
in esteem from what he was formerly, chiefly from his own little
intrigues, his ignorance, avarice, and want of firmness. His greatest
employment is in ordinations. A number of men and children present
themselves at a distance, and there stand, from humility, not daring to
approach him. He then asks who these are? and they tell him that they
want to be deacons. On this, with a small iron cross in his hand, after
making two or three signs, he blows with his mouth twice or thrice
upon them, saying, “Let them be deacons.” I saw once all the army of
Begemder made deacons, just returned from shedding the blood of 10,000
men, thus drawn up in Aylo Meidan, and the Abuna standing at the church
of St Raphael, about a quarter of a mile distant from them. With these
were mingled about 1000 women, who consequently, having part of the
same blast and brandishment of the cross, were as good deacons as the
rest.

The same with regard to monks. A crowd of people, when he is riding,
will assemble within 500 yards of him, and there begin a melancholy
song. He asks who these men with beards are? they tell him they want
to be ordained monks. After the same signs of the cross, and three
blasts with his mouth, he orders them to be monks. But in ordaining
priests, they must be able to read a chapter of St Mark, which they
do in a language he does not understand a word of. They then give the
Abuna a brick of salt, to the value of perhaps sixpence, for their
ordination; which, from this present given, the Jesuits maintained to
be Simoniacal.

The Itchegué is the chief of the monks in general, especially those
of Debra Libanos. The head of the other monks, called those of St
Eustathius, is the superior of the convent of Mahebar Selassé, on the
N. W. corner of Abyssinia, near Kuara, and the Shangalla, towards
Sennaar and the river Dender. All this tribe is grossly ignorant, and
through time, I believe, will lose the use of letters entirely.

The Itcheguè is ordained by two chief priests holding a white cloth,
or veil, over him, while another says a prayer; and they then lay all
their hands on his head, and join in psalms together. He is a man,
in troublesome times, of much greater consequence than the Abuna.
There are, after these, chief priests and scribes, as in the Jewish
church: the last of these, the ignorant, careless copiers of the holy
scriptures.

The monks here do not live in convents, as in Europe, but in separate
houses round their church, and each cultivates a part of the property
they have in land. The priests have their maintenance assigned to them
in kind, and do not labour. A steward, being a layman, is placed among
them by the king, who receives all the rents belonging to the churches,
and gives to the priests the portion that is their due; but neither the
Abuna, nor any other churchman, has any business with the revenues of
churches, nor can touch them.

The articles of the faith of the Abyssinians have been inquired into
and discussed with so much keenness in the beginning of this century,
that I fear I should disoblige some of my readers were I to pass this
subject without notice.

Their first bishop, Frumentius, being ordained about the year 333, and
instructed in the religion of the Greeks of the church of Alexandria by
St Athanasius, then sitting in the chair of St Mark, it follows that
the true religion of the Abyssinians, which they received on their
conversion to Christianity, is that of the Greek church; and every rite
or ceremony in the Abyssinian church may be found and traced up to its
origin in the Greek church while both of them were orthodox.

Frumentius preserved Abyssinia untainted with heresy till the day
of his death. We find, from a letter preserved in the works of St
Athanasius, that Constantius, the heretical Greek emperor, wished St
Athanasius to deliver him up, which that patriarch refused to do:
indeed at that time it was not in his power.

Soon after this, Arianism, and a number of other heresies, each in
their turn, were brought by the monks from Egypt, and infected the
church of Abyssinia. A great part of these heresies, in the beginning,
were certainly owing to the difference of the languages in those times,
and especially the two words Nature and Person, than which no two words
were ever more equivocal in every language in which they have been
translated. Either of these words, in our own language, is a sufficient
example of what I have said; and in fact we have adopted them from the
Latin. If we had adopted the signification of these words in religion
from the Greek, and applied the Latin words of Person and Nature to
common and material cases, perhaps we had done better. Neither of
them hath ever yet been translated into the Abyssinian, so as to be
understood to mean the same thing in different places. This for a time
was, in a certain degree, remedied, or understood, by the free access
they had, for several ages, both to Cairo and Jerusalem, where their
books were revised and corrected, and many of the principal orthodox
opinions inculcated. But, since the conquest of Arabia and Egypt by
Sultan Selim, in 1516, the communication between Abyssinia and these
two countries hath been very precarious and dangerous, if not entirely
cut off; and now as to doctrine, I am perfectly convinced they are
in every respect to the full as great heretics as ever the Jesuits
represented them. And I am confident, if any Catholic missionaries
attempt to instruct them again, they will soon lose the use of letters,
and the little knowledge they yet have of religion, from prejudice
only, and fear of incurring a danger they are not sufficiently
acquainted with to follow the means of avoiding it.

The two natures in Christ, the two persons, their unity, their
equality, the inferiority of the manhood, doctrines, and definitions
of the time of St Athanasius, are all wrapt up in tenfold darkness,
and inextricable from amidst the thick clouds of heresy and ignorance
of language. Nature is often mistaken for person, and person for
nature; the same of the human substance. It is monstrous to hear their
reasoning upon it. One would think, that every different monk, every
time he talks, purposely broached some new heresy. Scarce one of them
that ever I conversed with, and those of the very best of them, would
suffer it to be said, that Christ’s body was perfectly like our’s. Nay,
it was easily seen that, in their hearts, they went still further, and
were very loth to believe, if they did believe it at all, that the body
of the Virgin Mary and St Anne were perfectly human.

Not to trouble the reader further with these uninteresting particulars
and distinctions, I shall only add, that the Jesuits, in the account
they give of the heresies, ignorance, and obstinacy of the Abyssinian
clergy, have not misrepresented them, in the imputations made against
them, either in point of faith or of morals. Whether, this being the
case, the mission they undertook of themselves into that country, gave
them authority to destroy the many with a view to convert the few, is a
question to be resolved hereafter; I believe it did not; and that the
tares and the wheat should have been suffered to grow together till a
hand of more authority, guided by unerring judgment, pulled them, with
that portion of safety he had pre-ordained for both.

The Protestant writers again unfairly triumph over their adversaries,
the Catholics, by asking, Why all that noise about the two natures in
Christ? It is plain, say they, from passages in the Haimanout Abou, and
their other tracts upon orthodox belief, that they acknowledge that
Christ was perfect God and perfect man, of a rational soul and human
flesh subsisting, and that all the confessions of unity, co-equality,
and inferiority, are there expressed in the clearest manner as received
in the Greek church. What necessity was there for more; and what need
of disputing upon these points already so fully settled?

This, I beg leave to say, is unfair; for though it is true that, at the
time of collecting the Haimanout Abou, and at the time St Athanasius,
St Cyril, and St Chrysostom wrote, the explanation of these points was
uniform in favour of orthodoxy, and that while access could easily
be had to Jerusalem or Alexandria, then Greek and Christian cities,
difficulties, if any arose, were easily resolved; yet, at the time
the Jesuits came, those books were very rare in the country, and the
contents of them so far from being understood, that they were applied
to the support of the grossest heresies, from the misinterpretation of
the ignorant monks of these latter times. That the Abyssinians _had
been_ orthodox availed nothing: they _were then_ become as ignorant of
the doctrines of St Athanasius and St Cyril, as if those fathers had
never wrote; and it is their religion at this period which the Jesuits
condemn, not that of the church of Alexandria, when in its purity under
the first patriarchs; and, to complete all their misfortunes, no access
to Jerusalem is any longer open to them, and very rarely communication
with Cairo.

On the other hand, the Jesuits, who found that the Abyssinians were
often wrong in some things, were resolved to deny that they could
be right in any thing; and, from attacking their tenets, they fell
upon their ceremonies received in the Greek church at the same time
with Christianity; and in this dispute they shewed great ignorance
and malevolence, which they supported by the help of falsehood and
invention. I shall take notice of only one instance in many, because it
has been insisted upon by both parties with unusual vehemence, and very
little candour.

It was settled by the first general council, that one baptism only was
necessary for the regeneration of man, for freeing him from the sin of
our first parents, and lifting him under the banner of Christ,--“I
confess one baptism for the remission of sins,” says the Symbol. Now it
was maintained by the Jesuits, that in Abyssinia, once every year, they
baptised all grown people, or adults. I shall, as briefly as possible,
set down what I myself saw while on the spot.

The small river, running between the town of Adowa and the church,
had been dammed up for several days; the stream was scanty, so that
it scarcely overflowed. It was in places three feet deep, in some,
perhaps, four, or little more. Three large tents were pitched the
morning before the feast of the Epiphany; one on the north for the
priests to repose in during intervals of the service, and beside this
one to communicate in; on the south there was a third tent for the
monks and priests of another church to rest themselves in their turn.
About twelve o’clock at night the monks and priests met together, and
began their prayers and psalms at the water-side, one party relieving
each other. At dawn of day the governor, Welleta Michael, came thither
with some soldiers to raise men for Ras Michael, then on his march
against Waragna Fasil, and far down on a small hill by the water-side,
the troops all skirmishing on foot and on horseback around them.

As soon as the sun began to appear, three large crosses of wood were
carried by three priests dressed in their sacerdotal vestments,
and who, coming to the side of the river, dipt the cross into the
water, and all this time the firing, skirmishing, and praying went on
together. The priests with the crosses returned, one of their number
before them carrying something less than an English quart of water in a
silver cup or chalice; when they were about fifty yards from Welleta
Michael, that general stood up, and the priest took as much water as
he could hold in his hands and sprinkled it upon his head, holding the
cup at the same time to Welleta Michael’s mouth to taste; after which
the priest received it back again, saying, at the same time, “Gzier
y’barak,” which is simply, “May God bless you.” Each of the three
crosses were then brought forward to Welleta Michael, and he kissed
them. The ceremony of sprinkling the water was then repeated to all the
great men in the tent, all cleanly dressed as in gala. Some of them,
not contented with aspersion, received the water in the palms of their
hands joined, and drank it there; more water was brought for those that
had not partaken of the first; and, after the whole of the governor’s
company was sprinkled, the crosses returned to the river, their bearers
singing _hallelujahs_, and the skirmishing and firing continuing.

Janni, my Greek friend, had recommended me to the priest of Adowa;
and, as the governor had placed me by him, I had an opportunity, for
both these reasons, of being served among the first. My friend the
priest sprinkled water upon my head, and gave me his blessing in
the same words he had used to the others; but, as I saw it was not
necessary to drink, I declined putting the cup to my lips, for two
reasons; one, because I knew the Abyssinians have a scruple to eat or
drink after strangers; the other, because I apprehended the water was
not perfectly clean; for no sooner had the crosses first touched the
pool, and the cup filled from the clean part for the governor, than
two or three hundred boys, calling themselves _deacons_, plunged in
with only a white cloth, or rag, tied round their middle; in all other
respects they were perfectly naked. All their friends and relations
(indeed everybody) went close down to the edge of the pool, where
water was thrown upon them, and first decently enough by boys of the
town, and those brought on purpose as deacons; but, after the better
sort of people had received the aspersion, the whole was turned into
a riot, the boys, muddying the water, threw it round them upon every
one they saw well-dressed or clean. The governor retreated first, then
the monks, and then the crosses, and left the brook in possession of
the boys and blackguards, who rioted there till two o’clock in the
afternoon.

I must, however, observe, that, a very little time after the governor
had been sprinkled, two horses and two mules, belonging to Ras Michael
and Ozoro Esther, came and were washed. Afterwards the soldiers went
in and bathed their horses and guns; those who had wounds bathed them
also. I saw no women in the bath uncovered, even to the knee; nor did I
see any person of the rank of decent servants go into the water at all
except with the horses. Heaps of platters and pots, that had been used
by Mahometans or Jews, were brought thither likewise to be purified;
and thus the whole ended.

I saw this ceremony performed afterwards at Kahha, near Gondar, in
presence of the king, who drank some of the water, and was sprinkled by
the priests; then took the cup in his hand, and threw the rest that was
left upon Amha Yasous[100], saying, “I will be your deacon;” and this
was thought a high compliment, the priest giving him his blessing at
the same time, but offering him no more water.

I shall now state, in his own words, the account given of this by
Alvarez, chaplain to the Portuguese embassy, under Don Roderigo de Lima.

The king had invited Don Roderigo de Lima, the Portuguese ambassador,
to be present at the celebration of the festival of the Epiphany. They
went about a mile and a half from their former station, and encamped
upon the side of a pond which had been prepared for the occasion.
Alvarez says, that, in their way, they were often asked by those they
met or overtook, “Whether or not they were going to be baptized?” to
which the chaplain and his company answered in the negative, as having
been already once baptized in their childhood.

“In the night, says he, a great number of priests assembled about the
pond, roaring and singing with a view of blessing the water. After
midnight the baptism began. The Abuna Mark, the king and queen, were
the first that went into the lake; they had each a piece of cotton
cloth about their middle, which was just so much more than the rest of
the people had. At the sun-rising the baptism was most thronged; after
which, when Alvarez[101] _came_, the lake was full of holy water, into
which they had poured oil.”

It should seem, from this outset of his narrative, that he was not
at the lake till the ceremony was half over, and did not see the
benediction of the water at all, nor the curious exhibition of
the King, Queen, and Abuna, and their cotton cloths. As for the
circumstance of the oil being poured into the water, I will not
positively contradict it, for, though I was early there, it might
have escaped me if it was done in the dark. However, I never heard it
mentioned as part of the ceremony; and it is probable I should, if any
such thing was really practised; neither was I in time to have seen it
at Kahha.

“Before the pond a scaffold was built, covered round with planks,
within which sat the king looking towards the pond, his face covered
with blue taffeta, while an old man, who was the king’s tutor, was
standing in the water up to the shoulders, naked as he was born, and
half dead with cold, for it had _frozen_ violently in the night. All
those that came near him he took by the head and plunged them in the
water, whether men or women, saying, in his own language, I baptize
thee in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”

Now Shoa, where the king was then, is in lat. 8° N. and the sun was
in 22° south declination, advancing northward, so the sun was, on the
day of the Epiphany, within 30° of the zenith of the bathing-place.
The thermometer of Fahrenheit rises at Gondar about that time to 68°,
so in Shoa it cannot rise to less than 70°, for Gondar is in lat. 12°
N. that is 4° farther northward, so it is not possible water should
freeze, nor did I ever see ice in Abyssinia, not even on the highest
or coldest mountains. January is one of the hottest months in the
year, day and night the sky is perfectly serene, nor is there there a
long disproportioned winter night. At Shoa the days are equal to the
nights, at least as to sense, even in the month of January.

The baptism, Alvarez says, began at midnight, and the old tutor dipt
every person under water, taking him by the head, saying, ‘I baptise
thee in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ It
was most thronged at sun-rise, and ended about nine o’clock; a long
time for an old man to stand in frozen water.

The number (as women were promiscuously admitted) could not be
less than 40,000; so that even the nine hours this baptist-general
officiated, he must have had exercise enough to keep him warm, if
40,000, (many of them naked beauties) passed through _his hands_.

The women were stark naked before the men, not even a rag about them.
Without some such proper medium as frozen water, I fear it would not
have contributed much to the interests of religion to have trusted
a priest (even an old one) among so many bold and naked beauties,
especially as he had the first six hours of them in the dark.

The Abuna, the king, and queen, were the three first baptised, all
three being absolutely naked, having only a cotton cloth round their
middle. I am sure there never could be a greater deviation from the
manners of any kingdom, than this is from those of Abyssinia. The king
is always covered; you seldom see any part of him but his eyes. The
queen and every woman in Abyssinia, in public and private, (I mean
where nothing is intended but conversation) are covered to the chin.
It is a disgrace to them to have even their feet seen by strangers;
and their arms and hands are concealed even to their nails. A curious
circumstance therefore it would have been for the king to be so liberal
of his queen’s charms, while he covers his own face with blue taffeta;
but to imagine that the Abuna, a coptish monk bred in the desert of
St Macarius, would expose himself naked among naked women, contrary
to the usual custom of the celebration he observes in his own church,
is monstrous, and must exceed all belief whatever. As the Abuna Mark
too was of the reasonable age of 110 years, he might, I think, have
dispensed at that time of life with a bathing gown, especially as it
was _frost_.

The old man in the pond repeated the formula, “I baptise you in
the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” in his
own language; and Alvarez, it is plain, understood not one word of
Abyssinian. Yet, on the other hand, he speaks Latin to the king, who
wonderfully understands him, and answers as decisively on the merits
of the dispute as if he had been educated in the Sorbonne. “Confiteor
unum baptizma” says Alvarez[102], was a constitution of the Nicene
council under Pope Leo. Right, says the king, whose church, however,
anathematized Leo and the council he presided at, which both the king
and Alvarez should have known was not the Nicene council, though the
words of the symbol quoted are thought to be part of a confession
framed by that assembly.

“Qui crediderit et baptizatus fuerit salvus erit,” says Alvarez. “You
say right, answers the king, as to baptism; these are the words of our
Saviour; but this present ceremony was lately invented by a grandfather
of mine, in favour of such as have turned Moors, and are desirous again
of becoming Christians.”

I should think, in the first place, this answer of the king, should
have let Alvarez see no baptism was intended there; or, if it was a
re-baptism, it only took place in favour of those who had turned Moors,
and must therefore have been but partial. If this was really the case,
what had the king, queen, and Abuna to do in it? Sure they had neither
apostatized nor was the company of apostates a very creditable society
for them.

Alvarez, to persuade us this is real baptism, says that oil was thrown
into the pond before he came. He will not charge himself with having
seen this, and it is probably a falsehood. But he knew it was an
essential in baptism in all the churches in the east; so indeed is
salt, which he should have said was here used likewise: then he would
have had all the materials of Greek baptism, and this salt might have
contributed to cooling the water, that had frozen under the rays of a
burning sun.

Alvarez must have seen, that not only men and women go to be washed in
the pool, but horses, cows, mules, and a prodigious number of asses.
Are these baptised? I would wish to know the formula the reverend
baptist-general used on their occasion.

There is but one church where I ever saw sacred rites, or something
like baptism, conferred upon asses; it is, I think, at Rome on St
Andrew’s or St Patrick’s day. It should be St Balaam’s, if he was in
the Roman kalendar as high as he is in the Abyssinian. In that church
(it is I think on Monte Cavallo) all sorts of asses, about and within
Rome, are gathered together, and showers of holy water and blessings
rained by a priest upon them. What is the formula I do not know;
although it is a joke put upon strangers, especially of one nation, to
assemble them there; or whether the two churches of Rome and Abyssinia
differ so much in this as in other points of discipline, I am not
informed; but the rationality and decency of such a ceremony being the
same in all churches, the service performed at the time should be the
same likewise.

I will not then have any scruple to say, that this whole account of
Alvarez is a gross fiction; that no baptism, or any thing like baptism,
is meant by the ceremony; that a man is no more baptised by keeping the
anniversary of our Saviour’s baptism, than he is crucified by keeping
his crucifixion. The commemoration of our Saviour’s baptism on the
epiphany, and the blessing the waters that day, is an old observance
of the eastern church, formerly performed in public in Egypt as now in
Ethiopia. Since that of Alexandria fell into the hands of Mahometans,
the fear of insult and profanation has obliged them to confine this
ceremony, and all other processions, within the walls of their
churches, in each of which there is constantly a place devoted to this
use. Those that cannot attend the ceremony of aspersion in the church,
especially sick or infirm people, have the water sent to them, and a
large contribution is made for the patriarch, or bishop; yet nobody
ever took it into their heads to tax either Greek or Armenian with a
repetition of baptism.

Monsieur de Tournefort[103], in his travels through the Levant, gives
you a figure of the Greek priest, who blesses the water in a peculiar
habit, with a pastoral staff in his hand.

But, besides this, various falsehoods have likewise been propagated
about the manner of baptism practiced in Abyssinia, all in order to
impugn the validity of it, and to excuse the rash conduct of the
Jesuits for re-baptising all the Abyssinians, as if they had been
a Jewish and Pagan people that never had been baptised at all. The
violation of this article of the creed, or confession of Nice, was a
cause of great offence to the Abyssinians, and of the misfortunes that
happened afterwards. The whole of the Abyssinian service of baptism is
in their liturgy. The Jesuits had plenty of copies in their hands, and
could have pointed out the part of the service that was heretical, if
they had pleased; they did not pretend, however, to do this, and their
silence condemns them.

As for the idle stories that are told of the words pronounced, such
as,--“I baptize you in the name of the Holy Trinity,”--“In the name
of Peter and Paul,”--“I baptize you in the water of Jordan,”--“May
God baptise you,”--“May God wash you,” and many others, they are
all invented by the Jesuits, to excuse the repetition of baptism in
Abyssinia, which there was no sort of occasion for, as they might
have examined the words and form in the liturgies, which are in every
church; and I must here only observe, that if, as the chaplain of
Alvarez says, the priest in the pool, on the festival of the Epiphany,
was so fond of the proper words as even, at that time, to say, “I
baptise you in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost,” the words he quotes to shew this immersion in water on the
Epiphany, is a real baptism, I cannot comprehend why they should vary
them to other words, when nothing but baptism is meant. But this I can
bear evidence of, that, in no time when I was present, as I have above
a hundred times been at the baptism both of adults and infants, aye,
and of apostates too, I never heard other words pronounced than the
orthodox baptismal ones, “I baptize thee in the name of the Father, of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” immerging the child in pure water,
into which they first pour a small quantity of oil of olives, in the
form of a cross.

The Abyssinians receive the holy sacrament in both kinds in unleavened
bread, and in the grape bruised with the husk together as it grows,
so that it is a kind of marmalade, and is given in a flat spoon:
whatever they may pretend, some mixture seems necessary to keep it from
fermentation in the state that it is in, unless the dried cluster is
fresh bruised just before it is used, for it is little more fluid than
the common marmalade of confectioners; but it is perfectly the grape as
it grew, bruised stones and skin together. Some means, however, have
been used, as I suppose, to prevent fermentation, and make it keep;
and, though this is constantly denied, I have often thought I tasted a
flavour that was not natural to the grape itself.

It is a mistake that there is no wine in Abyssinia, for a quantity of
excellent strong wine is made at Dreeda, south-west from Gondar about
thirty miles, which would more than supply the quantity necessary for
the celebration of the eucharist in all Abyssinia twenty times over.
The people themselves are not fond of wine, and plant the vine in one
place only; and in this they have been imitated by the Egyptians,
their colony; but a small black grape, of an excellent flavour, grows
plentifully wild in every wood in Tigré.

Large pieces of bread are given to the communicants in proportion to
their quality; and I have seen great men, who, though they open their
mouths as wide as conveniently a man can do, yet from the respect the
priest bore him, such a portion of the loaf was put into his mouth that
water ran from his eyes, from the incapacity of chewing it, which,
however, he does as indecently, and with full as much noise, as he eats
at table.

After receiving the sacrament of the eucharist in both kinds, a pitcher
of water is brought, of which the communicant drinks a large draught;
and well he needs it to wash down the quantity of bread he has just
swallowed. He then retires from the steps of the inner division upon
which the administering priest stands, and, turning his face to the
wall of the church, in private says some prayer with seeming decency
and attention.

The Romanists doubt of the validity of the Abyssinian consecration of
the elements, because in their liturgy it is plainly said, “Lord, put
thy hand upon this cup, and bless it, and sanctify it, and purify it,
that in it may be made thy holy blood;” and of the bread they say,
“Bless this saucer, or plate, that in it may be made thy holy body.”
And in their prayer they say, “Change this bread that it may be made
thy pure body which is joined with this cup of thy precious blood.” The
Jesuits doubt of the validity of this consecration, because it is said,
“this _bread_ is my body,” and over the wine, “this _cup_ is my blood;”
whereas, to operate a true transubstantiation, they should say over the
bread, “this is my body.”

For my own part, I leave it to the reverend fathers, who are
the best judges, what is necessary to operate this miracle of
transubstantiation. The reality of the thing itself is denied by
all Protestant churches, has been often doubted by others, has been
ridiculed by lay-writers, and can never be a matter, I believe, of
thorough conviction, much less of proof to any. The dignity of the
subject, on which it touches nearly, as well as tenderness for our
brethren on the continent, an article of whose faith it is, should
always screen it from being treated with pleasantry, whatever we
believe, or whether we believe it or not.

M. Ludolf thinks, that the words I have set down are a proof the
Abyssinians do not believe in transubstantiation. For my part, from
those very words, I cannot think any thing is clearer than that they
do; the bread is upon the plate; they pray that that plate may be
blessed, “That in it the bread may be made God’s holy body[104];”
and of the wine they say, “That it may be made thy holy blood:” and
in their prayer they say, “Change this bread that it may be made thy
body;” and again, “May the Holy Ghost shine upon this bread, that
it may be made the body of Christ our God, and that this cup may be
changed and become the blood, not the _symbol_, of the blood of Christ
our God.” With all respect to Mr Ludolf’s opinion, I must think that,
though the benediction prayed upon the patine, spoon, and chalice,
is but an aukward expression, yet, if I understand the language,
“converte” and “immutetur” are literal translations of the Ethiopic,
and seem to pray for a transubstantiation as directly as words will
admit, whether they believe in it or not; nor, as far as I know, can
any stronger or more expressive be found to substitute in their place.

I shall finish this subject (which is not of my province, and which I
have mentioned, because I know it is a matter which some of my readers
desire information upon) by an anecdote that happened a few months
before my coming into Abyssinia, as it was accidentally told me by the
priest of Adowa the very day of the Epiphany, and which Janni vouched
to be true, and to have seen.

The Sunday before Ras Michael’s departure for Gondar from Adowa, he
went to church in great pomp, and there received the sacrament. There
happened to be such a crowd to see him, that the wine, part of the
consecrated elements, was thrown down and spilt upon the steps whereon
the communicants stood at receiving. Some straw or hay was instantly
gathered and sprinkled upon it to cover it, and the communicants
continued the service till the end, treading that grass under foot.

This giving great offence to Janni, and some few priests that lived
with him, it was told Michael, who, without explaining himself, said
only, “As to the fact of throwing the hay, they are a parcel of hogs,
and know no better.” These few words had stuck in the stomach of the
priest of Adowa, who, with great secrecy, and as a mark of friendship,
begged I would give him my opinion what he should have done, or rather,
what would have been done in my country? I told him, “That the answer
to his question depended upon two things, which, being known, his
difficulties would very easily be solved. If you do believe that the
wine spilt by the mob upon the steps, and trod under foot afterwards,
was really the blood of Jesus Christ, then you was guilty of a most
horrid crime, and you should cry upon the mountains to cover you; and
ages of atonement are not sufficient to expiate it. You should, in the
mean time, have railed the place round with iron, or built it round
with stone, that no foot, or any thing else but the dew of heaven,
could have fallen upon it, or you should have brought in the river upon
the place that would have washed it all to the sea, and covered it
ever after from sacrilegious profanation. But if, on the contrary, you
believe, (as many Christian churches do) that the wine (notwithstanding
consecration) remained in the cup nothing more than wine, but was only
the symbol, or type, of Christ’s blood of the New Testament, then the
spilling it upon the steps, and the treading upon it afterwards, having
been merely accidental, and out of your power to prevent, being so far
from your wish that you are heartily sorry that it happened, I do not
reckon that you are further liable in the crime of sacrilege, than if
the wine had not been consecrated at all. You are to humble yourself,
and sincerely regret that so irreverent an accident happened in your
hands, and in your time, but as you did not intend it, and could
not prevent it; the consequence of an accident, where inattention is
exceedingly culpable, will be imputed to you, and nothing further.”

The priest declared to me, with great earnestness, that he never
did believe that the elements in the eucharist were converted by
consecration into the real body and blood of Christ. He said, however,
that he believed this to be the Roman Catholic faith, but it never
was his; and that he conceived the bread was bread, and the wine was
wine, even after consecration. From this example, which occurred merely
accidentally, and was not the fruit of interrogation or curiosity,
it appears to me, whatever the Jesuits say, some at least among the
Abyssinians do not believe the real presence in the eucharist; but
further I am not enough informed to give a positive opinion. To follow
this investigation more curiously would have been attended with a
considerable degree of danger; and therefore I have stated my only
means of knowledge, and leave my readers entirely to the freedom of
their own opinion, and to after inquiry and information.

The Abyssinians are not all agreed about the state of souls before
the resurrection of the body. The opinion which generally prevails
is, that there is no third state; but that, after the example of the
thief, the souls of good men enjoy the beatific vision immediately
upon the separation from the body. But I must here observe, that their
practice and books do both contradict this; for, as often as any person
dies, alms are given, and prayers are offered for the souls of those
departed, which would be vain did they believe they were already in
the presence of God, and in possession of the greatest bless possible,
wanting nothing to complete it. “Remember, (says their liturgy) O Lord!
the souls of thy servants, our father Abba Matthias, and the rest of
our saints, Abba Salama, and Abba Jacob.” In another place, “Remember,
O Lord! the kings of Ethiopia, Abreha, and Atzbeha, Caleb, and Guebra
Mascal.” And again, “Release, O Lord! our father Antonius, and Abba
Macarius.” If this is not directly acknowledging a separate state, it
can have no meaning at all.

I have already said, that the Agaazi, the predecessors of those people
that settled in Tigrè from the mountains of the Habab, were shepherds
adjoining to the Red Sea; that they speak the language _Geez_, and
are the only people in Abyssinia in possession of letters; that these
are all circumcised, both men and women. The former term, as applied
to men, is commonly known to every one the least acquainted with the
Jewish history. The latter is, as far as I know, a rite merely Gentile,
although in Africa, at least that part adjoining to Egypt and the Red
Sea, it is much more known and more universally practised than the
other. This I shall call _excision_, that I may express this uncommon
operation by as decent a word as possible. The Falasha likewise submit
to both.

These nations, however they agree in their rite, differ in their
accounts of the time they received this ceremony, as well as the manner
of performing it. The Abyssinians of Tigré say, that they received it
from Ishmael’s family and his descendants, with whom they were early
connected in their trading voyages. They say also, that the queen
of Saba, and all the women of that coast, had suffered excision at
the usual time of life, before puberty, and before her journey to
Jerusalem. The Falasha again declare, that their circumcision was that
commonly practised at Jerusalem in the time of Solomon, and in use
among them when they left Palestine, and came into Abyssinia.

The circumcision of the Abyssinians is performed with a sharp knife, or
razor. There is no laceration with the nails, no formula or repetition
of words, nor any religious ceremony at the time of the operation, nor
is it done at any particular age, and generally it is a woman that is
the surgeon. The Falasha say, they perform it sometimes with the edge
of a sharp stone; sometimes with a knife or razor, and at other times
with the nails of their fingers; and for this purpose they have the
nails of their little fingers of an immoderate length: at the time of
the operation the priest chants a hymn, or verse, importing, “Blessed
art thou, O Lord, who hast ordained circumcision!” This is performed
on the eighth day, and is a religious rite, according to the first
institution by God to Abraham.

The Abyssinians pretend theirs is not so; and, being pressed for the
reason, they tell you it is because Christ and the apostles were
circumcised, though they do not hold it necessary to salvation. But
it is the objection they constantly make against eating out of the
same plate, or drinking out of the same cup with strangers, that they
are uncircumcised, while, with the Egyptians or the Cophts, though
equally strangers, they make no such difficulty. In the time of the
Jesuits, when the Roman Catholic religion was abolished, and liberty
given them to return to their old worship, their priests proclaimed
a general circumcision; and the populace, in the first days of their
fury, or triumph, murdered many Catholics, by stabbing them with a
lance in that part, as they met them, repeating in derision the
Jewish hymn, or ejaculation, “Blessed is the Lord that hath ordained
circumcision!” so that, I believe, their indifference in this article
is rather owing to not being contradicted; just as they are careless
about every other parts of religion, unless such as have been revived
in their minds by disputes with the Jesuits, and kept up since in part
among their clergy. But none of them pretend that circumcision arises
from necessity of any kind, or from any obstruction or impediment to
procreation, or that it becomes necessary for cleanliness, or from the
heat of climate.

None of these reasons, constantly alledged in Europe, are ever to be
heard of here, nor do I believe they have the smallest foundation
any where; and this, I think, should weigh strongly in favour of the
account scripture gives of it. Examining the origin of this ceremony,
independent of this revelation, I will never believe that man, or
nations of men, rashly submitted to a disgraceful, sometimes dangerous,
and always painful operation, unless there had been proposed, as a
consequence, some reward for submitting to, or some punishment for
refusing it, which balanced in their minds the pain and danger, as well
as disgrace, of that operation.

All the inhabitants of the globe agree in considering it shameful to
expose that part of their body, even to men; and in the east, where,
from climate, you are allowed, and from respect to your superiors, the
generality of men are forced to go naked, all agree in covering their
waist, which is called their _nakedness_, though it is really the only
part of their body that is covered. We see even that there was a
curse[105] attended the mere seeing that part of the body of a parent,
and not instantly throwing a covering over it.

I do not propose discussing at large the arguments for or against the
time of the beginning to circumcise. The scripture has given such an
account of it, that, when weighed with the promise so exactly kept to
the end, seems to me to be a very rational one. But, considering all
revelation out of the question, I think there is no room to institute
any free or fair inquiry. I give no pre-eminence to Moses nor his
writings. I suppose him a profane author; but, till those that argue
against his account, and maintain circumcision was earlier than
Abraham, shall shew me another profane writer as old as Moses, as
near the time they say it began as Moses was to the time of Abraham,
I will not argue with them in support of Moses against Herodotus,
nor discuss who Herodotus’s Phenicians, and who his Egyptians
were that circumcised. Herodotus knew not Abraham nor Moses, and,
compared to their days, he is but as yesterday. Those Phenicians and
Egyptians might, for any thing he knew at his time, have received
circumcision from Abraham or Ishmael, or some of their posterity, as
the Abyssinians or Ethiopians, whom he refers to, actually say they
did, which Herodotus did not know, it is plain, though he mentions
they were circumcised. This tradition of the Abyssinians merits some
consideration from what they say of it themselves, that they were, in
the earliest time, circumcised before they left their native country,
and settled in Tigrè. From this they derive no honour, nor do they
pretend to any. It would have been otherwise, if the æra fixed upon
had been the reign of Menilek, son of Solomon, when they first embraced
Judaism under a monarch. This would have made a much more brilliant
epoch in their history, whilst it was probable that they adopted
circumcision under the countenance of Azarias, the son of Zadok, the
high priest, and the representatives of the twelve tribes who came with
him at that time from Jerusalem.

It seems to me very extraordinary, that, if circumcision was originally
a Jewish invention, all those nations to the south should be absolutely
ignorant of it, while others to the northward were so early acquainted
with it; for none of those nations up the Nile (excepting the
Shepherds) either know or practise it to this day; though, ever since
the 1400th year before Christ, they have been in the closest connection
with the Jews. This would rather make me believe, that the rite of
circumcision went northward from the plain of Mamrè, for it certainly
made no progress southward from Egypt. We see it obtained in Arabia, by
Zipporah[106], Moses’s wife, circumcising her son upon their return to
Egypt. Her great anxiety to have that operation immediately performed,
shews that her’s was a Judaical circumcision; there was no sin that
attended the omission of this operation in Egypt, but God had said to
Abraham[107], “The soul that is not circumcised shall be cut off from
Israel.”

The Tcheratz Agows, who live between Lasta and Begemder, in an
exceedingly fertile country, are not circumcised; and, therefore, if
this nation left Palestine upon Joshua passing Jordan, circumcision
was not known there, for the Agows to this day are uncircumcised. The
same may be said of the Agows of Damot, who are settled at the head
of the Nile. It will be seen by the two specimens of their different
languages that they are different nations, as I have alledged. Next
to these are the Gafat, in a plain open country, who do not use
circumcision; none of them were ever converted to Judaism, and but few
of them to Christianity. The next are the people of Amhara who did not
use circumcision, at least few of them, till after the massacre of the
princes by Judith in the year 900, when the remaining princes of the
line of Solomon fled to Shoa, and the court was established there. The
last of these nations that I shall mention are the Galla, who are not
circumcised; of this nation we have said enough.

On the north, a black, woolly-headed nation, called the Shangalla,
already often mentioned, bounds Abyssinia, and serves like a string to
the bow made by these nations of Galla. Who they are we know perfectly,
being the Cushite Troglodytes of Sofala, Saba, Axum and Meroë; shut up,
as I have already mentioned, in those caves, the first habitations of
their more polished ancestors. Neither do these circumcise, though they
immediately bordered upon Egypt, while the Cushite, adjoining to the
peninsula of Africa certainly did. As then so many nations contiguous
to Egypt never received circumcision from it, it seems an invincible
argument, that this was no endemial rite or custom among the Egyptians,
and I have before observed, that it was of no use to this nation,
as the reasons mentioned by Philo, and the rest, of cleanliness and
climate, are absolute dreams, and now, exploded; and that they are so
is plain, because, otherwise, the nations more to the southward would
have adopted it, as they have universally done another custom, which I
shall presently speak of.

Circumcision, then, having no natural cause or advantage, being in
itself repugnant to man’s nature, and extremely painful, if not
dangerous, it could never originate in man’s mind wantonly and out
of free-will. It might have done so indeed from imitation, but with
Abraham it had a cause, as God was to make his private family in a few
years numerous, like the sands of the sea. This mark, which separated
them from all the world, was an easy way to shew whether the promise
was fulfilled or not. They were going to take possession of a land
where circumcision was not known, and this shewed them their enemy
distinct from their own people. And it would be the grossest absurdity
to send Samson to bring, as tokens of the slain, so many foreskins or
prepuces of the Philistines, if, as Herodotus says, the Philistines had
cut off their prepuces a thousand years before.

I must here take notice that this custom, filthy and barbarous as it
is, has been adopted by the Abyssinians of Tigrè, who have always been
circumcised, from a knowledge that the nations about them were not
circumcised at all. It is true they do not content themselves with the
foreskin, and I doubt very much if this was not the case with the Jews
likewise. On the contrary, in place of the foreskin they cut the whole
away, scrotum and all, and bring this to their superiors, as a token
they have killed an enemy.

Although it then appears that the nations which had Egypt between
Abraham and them, that is, were to the southward, did not follow the
Egyptians in the rite of circumcision, yet in another, of excision,
they all concurred. Strabo[108] says, the Egyptians circumcised both
men and women, _like the Jews_. I will not pretend to say that any
such operation ever did obtain among the Jewish women, as scripture
is silent upon it; and indeed it is nowhere ever pretended to have
been a religious rite, but to be introduced from necessity, to avoid
a deformity which nature has subjected particular people to, in
particular climates and countries.

We perceive among the brutes, that nature, creating the animal with
the same limbs or members all the world over, does yet indulge itself
in a variety, in the proportion of such limbs or members. Some are
remarkable for the size of their heads, some for the breadth and
bigness of the tail, some for the length of their legs, and some for
the size of their horns. There is a district in Abyssinia, within the
perpetual rains, where cows, of no greater size than ours, have horns,
each of which would contain as much water as the ordinary water-pail
used in England does; and I remember on the frontiers of Sennaar, near
the river Dender, to have seen a herd of many hundred cows, everyone of
which had the apparent construction of their parts almost similar with
that of the bull; so that, for a considerable time, I was persuaded
that these were oxen, their udders being very small, until I had seen
them milked.

This particular appearance, or unnecessary appendage, at first made me
believe that I had found the real cause of circumcision from analogy,
but, upon information, this did not hold. It is however otherwise in
the excision of women. From climate, or some other cause, a certain
disproportion is found generally to prevail among them. And, as the
population of a country has in every age been considered as an object
worthy of attention, men have endeavoured to remedy this deformity by
the amputation of that redundancy. All the Egyptians, therefore, the
Arabians, and nations to the South of Africa, the Abyssinians, Gallas,
Agows, Gafats, and Gongas, make their children undergo this operation,
at no fixed time indeed, but always before they are marriageable.

When the Roman Catholic priests first settled in Egypt, they did not
neglect supporting their mission by temporal advantages, and small
presents given to needy people their proselytes; but mistaking this
excision of the Coptish women for a ceremony performed upon Judaical
principles, they forbade, upon pain of excommunication, that excision
should be performed upon the children of parents who had become
Catholics. The converts obeyed, the children grew up, and arrived at
puberty; but the consequences of having obeyed the interdict were, that
the man found, by chusing a wife among Catholic Cophts, he subjected
himself to a very disagreeable inconveniency, to which he had conceived
an unconquerable aversion, and therefore he married a heretical wife,
free from this objection, and with her he relapsed into heresy.

The missionaries therefore finding it impossible that ever their
congregation could increase, and that this accident did frustrate all
their labours, laid their case before the College of Cardinals _de
propaganda fide_, at Rome. These took it up as a matter of moment,
which it really was, and sent over visitors skilled in surgery, fairly
to report upon the case as it stood; and they, on their return,
declared, that the heat of the climate, or some other natural cause,
did, in that particular nation, invariably alter the formation so as to
make a difference from what was ordinary in the sex in other countries,
and that this difference did occasion a disgust, which must impede the
consequences for which matrimony was instituted. The college, upon this
report, ordered that a declaration, being first made by the patient and
her parents that it was not done from Judaical intention, but because
it disappointed the ends of marriage, “Si modo matrimonii fructus
impediret id omnino tollendum esset:” that the imperfection was, by
all manner of means, to be removed; so that the Catholics, as well as
the Cophts, in Egypt, undergo excision ever since. This is done with a
knife, or razor, by women generally when the child is about eight years
old[109].

There is another ceremony with which I shall close, and this regards
the women also, and I shall call it _incision_. This is an usage
frequent, and still retained among the Jews, though positively
prohibited by the law: “Thou shalt not cut thy face for the sake of,
or on account of the dead[110].” As soon as a near relation dies in
Abyssinia, a brother or parent, cousin-german or lover, every woman in
that relation, with the nail of her little finger, which she leaves
long on purpose, cuts the skin of both her temples, about the size of a
sixpence; and therefore you see either a wound or a scar in every fair
face in Abyssinia; and in the dry season, when the camp is out, from
the loss of friends they seldom have liberty to heal till peace and the
army return with the rains.

The Abyssinians, like the ancient Egyptians, their first colony,
in computing their time, have continued the use of the solar year.
Diodorus Siculus says, “They do not reckon their time by the moon, but
according to the sun; that thirty days constitute their month, to which
they add five days and the fourth part of a day, and this completes
their year.”

These five days were, by the Egyptians, called Nici, and, by the
Greeks, Epagomeni, which signifies, days added, or superinduced, to
complete a sum. The Abyssinians add five days, which they call Quagomi,
a corruption from the Greek Epagomeni, to the month of August, which
is their Nahaassé. Every fourth year they add a sixth day. They begin
the year, like all the eastern nations, with the 29th or 30th day of
August, that is the kalends of September, the 29th of August being the
first of their month Mascaram.

It is uncertain whence they derived the names of their months; they
have no signification in any of the languages of Abyssinia. The name of
the first month among the old Egyptians has continued to this day. It
is Tot, probably so called from the first division of time among the
Egyptians, from observation of the helaical rising of the dog-star. The
names of the months retained in Abyssinia are possibly in antiquity
prior to this; they are probably those given them by the Cushite,
before the Kalendars at Thebes and Meroë, their colony, were formed.

The common epoch which the Abyssinians make use of is from the creation
of the world; but in the quantity of this period they do not agree with
the Greeks, nor with other eastern nations, who reckon 5508 years from
the creation to the birth of Christ. The Abyssinians adopt the even
number of 5500 years, casting away the odd eight years; but whether
this was first done for ease of calculation, or some better reason,
there is neither book nor tradition that now can teach us. They have,
besides this, many other epochs, such as from the council of Nice and
Ephesus. There is likewise to be met with in their books a portion of
time, which is certainly a cycle; the Ethiopic word is kamar, which,
literally interpreted, is an arch, or circle. It is not now in use
in civil life among the Abyssinians, and therefore was mentioned as
containing various quantities from 100 years to 19; and there are
places in their history where neither of these will apply, nor any even
number whatever.

They make use of the golden number and epact constantly in all their
ecclesiastic computations: the first they call Matqué, the other
Abacté. Scaliger, who has taken great pains upon this confused subject,
the computation of time in the church of Abyssinia, without having
succeeded in making it much clearer, tells us, that the first use
or invention of epacts was not earlier than the time of Dioclesian;
but this is contrary to the positive evidence of Abyssinian history,
which says expressly, that the epact was invented by Demetrius[111],
patriarch of Alexandria. “Unless, says the poet in their liturgy,
Demetrius had made this revelation by the immediate influence of the
Holy Ghost, how, I pray you, was it possible that the computation of
time, called Epacts, could ever have been known?” And, again, “When you
meet, says he, you shall learn the computation by epacts, which was
taught by the Holy Ghost to father Demetrius, and by him revealed to
you.” Now Demetrius was the twelfth patriarch of Alexandria, who was
elected about the 190th year of Christ, or in the reign of the emperor
Severus, consequently long before the time of Dioclesian.

It seems the reputation the Egyptians had from very old time for their
skill in computation and the division of time, remained with them
late in the days of Christianity. Pope Leo the Great, writing to the
emperor Marcian, confesses that the fixing the time of the moveable
feasts was always an exclusive privilege of the church of Alexandria;
and therefore, says he, in his letter about reforming the kalendar,
the holy fathers endeavoured to take away the occasion of this error,
by delegating the whole care of this to the bishop of Alexandria,
because the Egyptians, from old times, seem to have had this gift of
computation given them; and when these had signified to the apostolic
See the days upon which the moveable feasts were to happen, the church
of Rome then notified this by writing to churches at a greater distance.

We are not to doubt that this privilege, which the church of Alexandria
had been so long in possession of, contributed much to inflame the
minds of the Abyssinians against the Roman Catholic priests, for
altering the time of keeping Easter, by appointing days of their own;
for we see violent commotions to have arisen every year upon the
celebration of this festival.

The Abyssinians have another way of describing time peculiar to
themselves; they read the whole of the four evangelists every year in
their churches. They begin with Matthew, then proceed to Mark, Luke,
and John, in order; and, when they speak of an event, they write and
say it happened in the days of Matthew, that is, in the first quarter
of the year, while the gospel of St Matthew was yet reading in the
churches.

They compute the time of the day in a very arbitrary, irregular
manner. The twilight, as I have before observed, is very short, almost
imperceptible, and was still more so when the court was removed
farther to the southward in Shoa. As soon as the sun falls below the
horizon, night comes on, and all the stars appear. This term, then,
the twilight, they choose for the beginning of their day, and call it
Naggé, which is the very time the twilight of the morning lasts. The
same is observed at night, and Meset is meant to signify the instant
of beginning the twilight, between the sun’s falling below the horizon
and the stars appearing. Mid-day is by them called _Kater_, a very old
word, which signifies _culmination_, or a thing’s being arrived or
placed at the middle or highest part of an arch. All the rest of times,
in conversation, they describe by pointing at the place in the heavens
where the sun then was, when what they are describing happened.

I shall conclude what further I have to say on this subject, by
observing, that nothing can be more inaccurate than all Abyssinian
calculations. Besides their absolute ignorance in arithmetic, their
excessive idleness and aversion to study, and a number of fanciful,
whimsical combinations, by which every particular scribe or monk
distinguishes himself, there are obvious reasons why there should be a
variation between their chronology and ours. I have already observed,
that the beginning of our years are different; ours begin on the 1st
of January, and theirs on the 1st day of September, so that there are
8 months difference between us. The last day of August may be the year
1780 with us, and 1779 only with the Abyssinians. And in the reign of
their kings they very seldom mention either month or day beyond an even
number of years. Supposing, then, it is known that the reign of ten
kings extended from such to such a period, where all the months and
days are comprehended, when we come to assign to each of these an equal
number of years, without the correspondent months and days, it is plain
that, when all these separate reigns come to be added together, the
one sum-total will not agree with the other, but will be more or less
than the just time which that prince reigned. This, indeed, as errors
compensate full as frequently as they accumulate, will seldom amount to
a difference above three years; a space of time too trivial to be of
any consequence in the history of barbarous nations.

However, it will occur that even this agreement is no positive evidence
of the exactness of the time, for it may so happen that the sum-totals
may agree, and yet every particular sum constituting the whole may be
false, that is, if the quantity of errors which are too much exactly
correspond with the quantity of errors that are too little; to obviate
this as much as possible, I have considered three eclipses of the sun
as recorded in the Abyssinian annals. The first was in the reign of
David III. the year before the king marched out to his first campaign
against Maffudi the Moor, in the unfortunate war with Adel. The year
that the king marched into Dawaro was the 1526, after having dispatched
the Portuguese ambassador Don Roderigo de Lima, who embarked at Masuah
on the 26th of April on board the fleet commanded by Don Hector de
Silveyra, who had come from India on purpose to fetch him; and the
Abyssinian annals say, that, the year before the king marched, a
remarkable eclipse of the sun had happened in the Ethiopic month Ter.
Now, in consulting our European accounts, we find that, on the second
of January, answering to the 18th day of Ter, there did happen an
eclipse of the sun, which, as it was in the time of the year when the
sky is cloudless both night and day, must have been visible all the
time of its duration. So here our accounts do agree precisely.

The second happened on the 13th year of the reign of Claudius, as the
Abyssinian account states it. Claudius succeeded to the crown in the
1540, and the 13th year of his reign will fall to be on the 1553. Now
we find this eclipse did happen in the same clear season of the year,
that is, on the 24th of January 1553, so in this second instance our
chronology is perfectly correct.

The third eclipse of the sun happened in the 7th year of the reign of
Yasous II. in Magabit, the seventh month of the Abyssinians. Now Yasous
came to the crown in 1729, so that the 7th year of his reign will be
in 1736, and on the 4th day of October, answering to the 8th day of
the month Tekemt, N. S. in that year, we see this eclipse observed in
Europe.

As a further confirmation of this, we have dated the particulars of a
comet which, the Abyssinian annals say, appeared at Gondar in the month
of November, in the 9th year of the reign of Yasous I. and as this
comet was observed in Europe to have come to its perihelion in December
1689, and as that year, according to our account, was really the 9th of
that king’s reign, no further proof of the exactness of our chronology
can possibly be required. By means of these observations, counting
backward to the rime of Icon Amlac, and again forward to the death of
Joas, which happened in 1768, and assigning to each prince the number
of years that his own historians say he reigned, I have, in the most
unexceptionable manner that I can devise, settled the chronology of
this country; and the exact agreement it hath with all the remarkable
events, regularly and sufficiently vouched, plainly shews the accuracy
of this method. If, therefore, in a few cases, I differ two or three
years from the Jesuits in their first account of this country, I do
not in any shape believe the fault to be mine, because there are,
at all these periods, errors in point of fact, both in Alvarez and
Tellez, much more material and unaccountable than the mistake of a few
years; and these errors have been adopted with great confidence in the
Hispania Illustrata, and some of the best books of Portuguese history
which have made mention of this country.




TRAVELS

TO DISCOVER

THE SOURCE OF THE NILE.




BOOK VI.

FIRST ATTEMPT TO DISCOVER THE SOURCE OF THE NILE FRUSTRATED--A
SUCCESSFUL JOURNEY THITHER, WITH A FULL ACCOUNT OF EVERY THING RELATING
TO THAT CELEBRATED RIVER.




CHAP. I.

_The Author made Governor of Ras el Feel._


I soon received an instance of kindness from Ayto Confu which gave me
great pleasure on several accounts. On the south part of Abyssinia, on
the frontiers of Sennaar, is a hot, unwholesome, low stripe of country,
inhabited entirely by Mahometans, divided into several small districts,
known by the general name of Mazaga. Of this I have often before
spoken, and shall have further occasion in the sequel.

The Arabs of Sennaar that are on bad terms with the governor of
Atbara, fly hither across the desert to avoid the rapine and violence
of that cruel tyrant. The arrival of these produces in an instant the
greatest plenty at Ras el Feel; markets are held everywhere; cattle
of all kinds, milk, butter, elephants teeth, hides, and several other
commodities, are sold to a great amount.

The Arabs are of many different tribes; the chief are the Daveina,
then the Nile. These, besides getting a good market, and food for
their cattle and protection for themselves, have this great additional
advantage, they escape the Fly, and consequently are not pillaged, as
the rest of the Arabs in Atbara are, when changing abodes to avoid the
havock made by that insect. In return for this, they constantly bring
horses from Atbara, below Sennaar, for the king’s own use, and for such
of his cavalry who are armed with coats of mail, no Abyssinian horse,
or very few at least, being capable of that burden.

Ayto Confu had many districts of land from his father Kasmati Netcho,
as well as some belonging to his mother Ozoro Esther, which lay
upon that frontier; it was called Ras el Feel, and had a sendick
and nagareet, but, as it was governed always by a deputy who was a
Mahometan, it had no rank among the great governments of the state.
Besides these lands, the patrimony of Confu, Ras Michael had given
him more, and with them this government, young as he was, from favour
to his mother Ozoro Esther. This Mahometan deputy was named Abdel
Jelleel, a great coward, who had refused to bring out his men, tho’
summoned, to join the king when marching against Fasil. He had also
quarrelled with the Daveina, and robbed them, so that they traded no
more with Ras el Feel, brought no more horses, and the district was
consequently nearly ruined, whilst a great outcry was raised against
Abdel Jelleel by the merchants who used to trade at that market, not
having now money enough to pay the _meery_.

Ammonios, his Billetana Gueta, was the person Ayto Confu had destined
to go to Ras el Feel to reduce it to order, and displace Abdel Jelleel;
but Ras Michael had put him as a man of trust over the black horse
under me, so he was employed otherwise. Confu himself was now preparing
to go thither to settle another deputy in the place of Abdel Jelleel,
and he had asked the assistance of troops from the king, by which this
came to my knowledge.

The first time I saw Ozoro Esther, I told her, that, unless she had a
mind to have her son die speedily, she should, by every means in her
power, dissuade him from his journey to Ras el Feel, being a place
where the bloody flux never ceased to rage; and this complaint had
never perfectly left him since he had had the small-pox, but had wore
him to a shadow. There could be no surer way therefore of destroying
him than letting him go thither as he proposed. He had been for some
time indeed taking bark, which had done him great service. His mother
Ozoro Esther, the Iteghè, whose first favourite he was, and all his
friends, now took the alarm, upon which the Ras forbade him positively
to go.

Negade Ras Mahomet, of whom we have already spoken, brother to Hagi
Saleh, who had procured me my first lodging at Gondar, was head of all
the Mahometans in that capital, nay, I may say, in Abyssinia. He, too,
was a favourite of the Ras, and shewed the same attachment to me, on
account of Metical Aga, as had his brother Saleh. This man came to me
one morning, and told me, that Yasine, whom I had brought with me to
Abyssinia, and was recommended to me by Metical Aga, had married Abdel
Jelleel’s daughter, and that a son of Saleh had married a daughter of
Yasine’s. He said there was not a man in Abyssinia that was a braver
soldier and better horseman than Yasine; that he had no love for money,
but was a man of probity and honour, as indeed I had always found him;
that the people of Ras el Feel, to a man, wished to have him for their
governor in the room of Abdel Jelleel; and that all the Arabs, as well
as Shekh Fidele, governor of Atbara, for Sennaar, wished the same.

Mahomet did not dare to speak for fear of Ozoro Esther, who was thought
to favour Abdel Jelleel, but he promised, that, if Ayto Confu would
appoint him instead of Abdel Jelleel, he would give him 50 ounces
of gold, besides what Yasine should allow upon his settlement, and
would manage the affair with Michael when he had leave so to do. He
added, that his brother Saleh should furnish Yasine with 200 men from
the Mahometans at Gondar, completely armed with their firelocks, and
commanded by young Saleh in person.

I was not at this time any judge of the expediency of the measure; but
one resolution I had made, and determined to keep, that I never would
accept a post or employment for myself, or solicit any such for others.
My reader will see, that, for my own safety, most unwillingly I had
been obliged to break the first of these resolutions almost as soon as
it was formed, and I was now deliberating whether it was not better
that I should break the other for the same reason. Two things weighed
with me extremely, the experience of Yasine’s prudence and attachment
to me during the whole journey, and my determination to return by
Sennaar, and never trust myself more in the hands of that bloody
assassin the Naybe of Masuah, who I understood had, at several times,
manifested his bad intentions towards me when I should return by that
island.

I flattered myself, that great advantage would accrue to me by Yasine’s
friendship with the Arabs and the Shekh of Atbara; and, having
consulted Ayto Aylo first, I made him propose it to Ozoro Esther.
I found, upon speaking to that princess, that there was something
embroiled in the affair. She did not answer directly, as usual, and I
apprehended that the objection was to Yasine. I was no longer in doubt
of this, when Ozoro Esther told me Abba Salama had strongly espoused
the cause of Abdel Jelleel, who had bribed him. Notwithstanding this,
I resolved to mention it myself to Confu, that I might have it in my
power to know where the objection lay, and give a direct answer to
Yasine.

I saw Confu soon after at Koscam. His bark being exhausted, I brought
him more, and he seemed to be much better, and in great spirits. The
time was favourable in all its circumstances, and I entered into the
matter directly. I was very much surprised to hear him say gravely,
and without hesitation, “I have as good an opinion of Yasine as you can
have; and I have as bad a one of Abdel Jelleel as any man in Gondar,
for which, too, I have sufficient reason, as it is but lately the king
told me peevishly enough, I did not look to my affairs, (which is true)
as he understood that the district was ruined by having been neglected.
But I am no longer governor of Ras el Feel, I have resigned it. I hope
they will appoint a wiser and better man; let him choose for his deputy
Yasine, or who else he pleases, for I have sworn by the head of the
Iteghè, I will not meddle or make with the government of Ras el Feel
more.”

Tecla Mariam, the king’s secretary, came in at that instant with a
number of other people. I wanted to take Confu aside to ask him further
if he knew who this governor was, but he shuffled among the crowd,
saying, “My mother will tell you all; the man who is appointed is your
friend, and I think Yasine may be the deputy.” I now lost no time in
going to Ozoro Esther to intercede for the government of Ras el Feel
for Yasine.

Among the crowd I met first Tecla Mariam, the king’s secretary, who
taking me by the hand, said, with a laughing countenance, “O ho, I
wish you joy; this is like a man; you are now no stranger, but one of
us; why was not you at court?” I said I had no particular business
there, but that I came hither to see Ayto Confu, that he might speak
in favour of Yasine to get him appointed deputy of Ras el Feel. “Why
don’t you appoint him yourself? says he; what has Confu to do with the
affair now? You don’t intend always to be in leading strings? You may
thank the king for yourself, but I would never advise you to speak one
word of Yasine to him; it is not the custom; you may, if you please,
to Confu, he knows him already. His estate lies all around you, and he
will enforce your orders if there should be any need.”

“Pardon me, Tecla Mariam, said I, if I do not understand you. I came
here to solicit for Yasine, that Confu or his successor would appoint
him their deputy, and you answer that you advise me to appoint him
myself.”--“And so I do, replies Tecla Mariam: Who is to appoint him but
you? You are governor of Ras el Feel; are you not?” I stood motionless
with astonishment. “It is no great affair, says he, and I hope you will
never see it. It is a hot, unwholesome country, full of Mahometans; but
its gold is as good as any Christian gold whatever. I wish it had been
Begemder with all my heart, but there is a good time coming.”

After having recovered myself a little from my surprise, I went to Ayto
Confu to kiss his hand as my superior, but this he would by no means
suffer me to do. A great dinner was provided us by the Iteghé; and
Yasine being sent for, was appointed, cloathed, that is invested, and
ordered immediately to Ras el Feel to his government, to make peace
with the Daveina, and bring all the horses he could get with him from
thence, or from Atbara. I sent there also that poor man who had given
us the small blue beads on the road, as I have already mentioned. The
having thus provided for those two men, and secured, as I thought, a
retreat to Sennaar for myself, gave me the first real pleasure that I
had received since landing at Masuah; and that day, in company with
Heikel, Tecla Mariam, Engedan, Aylo, and Guebra Denghel, all my great
friends and the hopes of this country, I for the first time, since my
arrival in Abyssinia, abandoned myself to joy.

My constitution was, however, too much weakened to bear any excesses.
The day after, when I went home to Emfras, I found myself attacked
with a slow fever, and, thinking that it was the prelude of an ague,
with which I was often tormented, I fell to taking bark, without any
remission, or, where the remission was very obscure, I shut myself up
in the house, upon my constant regimen of boiled rice, with abundant
draughts of cold water.

I was at this time told that there was a great commotion at Gondar;
that a monk of Debra Libanos, a favourite of the Iteghè and of the
king too, had excommunicated Abba Salama in a dispute about religion
at the Itchegué’s house; and, the day after, Hagi Mahomet, one of Ras
Michael’s tent-makers, who lived in the town below, through which the
high road from Gojam passes, came to tell me, that many monks from
Gojam had passed through the low town, and expressed themselves very
much dissatisfied by hearing that a frank (meaning me) was in the town
above. He said that when they came in sixes and sevens at a time, there
was no fear; but when they returned altogether (as Michael sometimes
made them do) they were like so many madmen; therefore, if I resolved
to stay at Emfras, he wished I would order him send me some Mahometan
soldiers, who would strictly act as I commanded them.

At the same time I received news that my great friend, Tecla Mariam,
and his daughter of the same name, the most beautiful woman in
Abyssinia after Ozoro Esther, were both ill at Gondar. There needed
no more for me to repair instantly thither. I muffled my head up as
great officers generally do when riding near the capital. I passed
at different times above twenty of these fanatics on the road, six
and seven together; but either they did not know me, or at least, if
they did, they did not say any thing; I came to Ayto Aylo’s, who was
sitting, complaining of sore eyes, with the queen’s chamberlain, Ayto
Heikel.

After the usual salutation, I asked Aylo what was the matter in town?
and if it was true that Sebaat Gzier had excommunicated Abba Salama?
and told him that I had conceived these disputes about faith had been
long ago settled. He answered with an affected gravity, “That it was
not so; that this was of such importance that he doubted it would throw
the country into great convulsions; and he would not advise me to be
seen in the street.”--“Tell me, I beseech you, said I, what it is
about. I hope not the old story of the Franks?”--“No, no, says he, a
great deal worse than that, it is about Nebuchadnezzar:”--and he broke
out in a great fit of laughter. “The monk of Debra Libanos says, that
Nebuchadnezzar is a saint; and Abba Salama says that he was a Pagan,
Idolater, and a Turk, and that he is burning in hell fire with Dathan
and Abiram.”--“Very well, said I, I cannot think he was a Mahometan
if he was a Pagan and Idolater; but I am sure I shall make no enemies
upon this dispute.”--“You are deceived, says he; unless you tell your
opinion in this country you are reckoned an enemy to both parties.
Stay, therefore, all night, and do not appear on the streets;” and,
upon my telling them I was going to Tecla Mariam’s, who was ill, they
rose with me to go thither, for the strictest friendship subsisted
between them. We met there with Ozoro Esther, who was visiting the
beautiful Tecla Mariam in her indisposition. Seeing Aylo, Heikel, and
me together at that time of night, she insisted that the young lady
and I should be married, and she declared roundly she would see it
done before she left the house. As neither of my patients were very
ill, a great deal of mirth followed. Ozoro Esther sat late; there was
no occasion for the compliment of seeing her home, she had above three
hundred men with her.

After she was gone the whole discourse turned upon religion, what we
believed or did not believe in our country, and this continued till
day-light, when we all agreed to take a little sleep, then breakfast,
and go to court. We did so, but Aylo went to Koscam, and Tecla Mariam
to the Ras, so I met none of them with the king. When I went in he was
hearing a pleading upon a cause of some consequence, and paying great
attention. One of the parties had finished, the other was replying with
a great deal of graceful action, and much energy and eloquence.--They
were bare down to their very girdle, and would seem rather prepared for
boxing than for speaking.

This being over, the room was cleared, and I made my prostration. “I
do demand of you, says the king abruptly, Whether Nebuchadnezzar is
a saint or no?” I bowed, saying, “Your majesty knows I am no judge
of these matters, and it makes me enemies to speak about them.”--“I
know, says he gravely, that you will answer my question when I ask it;
let me take care of the rest.”--“I never thought, said I, Sir, that
Nebuchadnezzar had any pretensions to be a saint. He was a scourge in
God’s hand, as is famine or the plague, but that does not make either
of them a wholesome visitation.”--“What! says he, Does not God call him
his servant? Does he not say that he did his bidding about Tyre, and
that he gave him Egypt to plunder for his recompence? Was not it by
God’s command he led his people into captivity? and did not he believe
in God, when Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego escaped from the fiery
furnace? Surely he must be a saint.”--“I am perfectly satisfied, said
I, and give my consent to his canonization, rather than either your
majesty, or Abba Salama, should excommunicate me upon the question.” He
now laughed out, and seemed greatly diverted, and was going to speak,
when Tecla Mariam, and a number of others, came in. I withdrew to the
side with respect, as the secretary had a small piece of paper in his
hand. He staid about two minutes with the king, when the room filled,
and the levee began. I wished Tecla Mariam might not be the worse for
last night’s sitting up. “The better, the better, says he, much the
better. You see we are becoming all good, day and night we are busy
about religion.”--“Are you upon Nebuchadnezzar to-day, friend? said I;
the king says to me he is a saint.”--“Just such a saint, I suppose,
says he, as our Ras Michael, who, I believe, is jealous of him, for
he is going himself to decide this dispute immediately. Go to the
Ashoa[112] and you will hear it.”

There was a number of people in the outer court of the king’s house,
crying very tumultuously for a convocation of the church. At twelve
o’clock there was no word of Michael at the palace; but I saw the
members of the council there, and expected he was coming. Instead
of this, the large kettle-drum, or nagareet, called _the lion_, was
carried to the king’s gate, which occasioned great speculation. But
presently proclamation was made in these words, given me by Tecla
Mariam himself:--“Hear! hear! hear! they that pretend they do not
hear this, will not be the last punished for disobeying:--Whereas
many disorderly and idle persons have flocked to this capital for
some days past, and brought no provisions for themselves or others,
and have frightened the country people from coming to market, whereby
all degrees of men, in this capital, are threatened with famine, and
scarcity is already begun; this is, therefore, to give notice, That if
any such people, after twelve o’clock to-morrow, be found in this city,
or in the roads adjoining thereto, they shall be punished like rebels
and robbers, and their fault not prescribed for seven years.”

And, in about ten minutes afterwards, another proclamation was
made:--“The king orders four hundred Galla of his troops to patrole
the streets all the night, and disperse summarily all sorts of people
that they shall find gathered together; commands thirty horse to
patrole between Debra Tzai and Kolla, thirty on the road to Woggora,
and thirty on that to Emfras, to protect our subjects coming to market,
and going about their other lawful business: They that are wise will
keep themselves well when they are so.” There was no need of a second
proclamation. The monks were all wise, and returned in an instant every
man to his home. The Galla were mentioned to terrify only, for they did
not exist, Ozoro Esther having cleared the palace of that nation; but
the monks knew there would be found people in their place every bit as
bad as Galla, and did not choose to risk the trial of the difference.

At this time a piece of bad news was circulated at Gondar, that Kasmati
Boro, whom the Ras had left governor at Damot, had been beaten by
Fasil, and obliged to retire to his own country in Gojam, to Stadis
Amba, near the passage of the Nile, at Minè; and that Fasil, with a
larger army of stranger Galla than that he had brought to Fagitta, had
taken possession of Burè, the usual place of his residence. This being
privately talked of as true, I asked Kefla Yasous in confidence what he
knew of it. Upon its being confirmed, I could not disguise my sorrow,
as I conceived that unexpected turn of affairs to be an invincible
obstacle to my reaching the source of the Nile. “You are mistaken, says
Kefla Yasous to me, it is the best thing can happen to you. Why you
desire to see those places I do not know, but this I am sure of, you
never will arrive there with any degree of safety while Fasil commands.
He is as perfect a Galla as ever forded the Nile; he has neither word,
nor oath, nor faith that can bind him; he does mischief for mischief’s
sake, and then laughs at it.”

“Michael, after the battle of Fagitta, proposed to his army to pass the
rainy season at Buré, and quarter the troops in the towns and villages
about. He would have staid a year with them, to shew that Fasil could
not help them, but he was over-ruled. At Hydar Michael (that is, in
November next) all Abyssinia will march against him, and he will not
stay for us, and this time we shall not leave his country till we
have eaten it bare; and then, at your ease, you will see every thing,
defend yourself by your own force, and be beholden to nobody; and
remember what I say, peace with Fasil there never will be, for he does
not desire it; nor, till you see his head upon a pole, or Michael’s
army encamped at Burè, will you (if you are wise) ever attempt to pass
Maitsha.” Memorable words! often afterwards reflected upon, though they
were not strictly verified in the extent they were meant when spoken.




CHAP. II.

_Battle of Banja--Conspiracy against Michael--The Author retires to
Emfras--Description of Gondar, Emfras, and Lake Tzana._


After Fasil’s defeat at Fagitta, and the affront he received at Assoa
in the heart of his own country, he had continued his route to Burè, a
district of the Agows, where was his constant residence. After this he
had crossed the Nile into the country of Bizamo, and Boro de Gago had
taken up his residence at Buré, when Michael returned to Gondar; but no
sooner had he heard of his arrival in those parts than he marched with
a number of horse, and forced his rival to retire to Gojam.

The Agows were all loyalists in their hearts, had been forced to join
Fasil, but, immediately after his defeat, had declared for Michael. The
first thing, therefore, Fasil did, when returned to Burè, was to attack
the Agows on every side; a double advantage was sure to follow this
victory, the famishing his enemies at Gondar, and converting so rich a
territory to his own use, by extirpating the Agows, and laying it open
to be possessed by his countrymen, the Galla, from Bizamo.

A very obstinate battle was fought at Banja, one of their principal
settlements, in which the Agows were entirely defeated, seven of their
chiefs killed, all men of great consequence, among whom was Ayamico, a
very near relation of the king. The news were first brought by a son of
Nanna Georgis, chief of the Agows, who escaped from the battle. Michael
was at dinner, and I was present. It was one of his carousals for the
marriage of Powussen, when young Georgis came into the room, in a torn
and dirty habit, unattended, and almost unperceived, and presented
himself at the foot of the table. Michael had then in his hand a cup of
gold, it being the exclusive privilege of the governor of the province
of Tigré to drink out of such a cup; it was full of wine; before a word
was spoke, and, upon the first appearance of the man, he threw the cup
and wine upon the ground, and cried out, I am guilty of the death of
these people. Every one arose, the table was removed, and Georgis told
his misfortune, that Nanna Georgis his father, Zeegam Georgis, the next
in rank among them, Ayamico the king’s relation, and four other chiefs,
were slain at Banja, and their race nearly extirpated by a victory
gained with much bloodshed, and after cruelly pursued in retaliation
for that of Fagitta.

A council was immediately called, where it was resolved, that, though
the rainy season was at hand, the utmost expedition should be made
to take the field; that Gusho and Powussen should return to their
provinces, and increase their army to the utmost of their power; that
the king should take the low road by Foggora and Dara, there to join
the troops of Begemder and Amhara, cross the Nile at the mouth of the
lake, above the second cataract, as it is called, and march thence
straight to Buré, which, by speedy marches, might be done in five or
six days. No resolution was ever embraced with more alacrity; the cause
of the Agows was the cause of Gondar, or famine would else immediately
follow. The king’s troops and those of Michael were all ready, and had
just refreshed themselves by a week’s festivity.

Gusho and Powussen, after having sworn to Michael that they never would
return without Fasil’s head, decamped next morning with very different
intentions in their hearts; for no sooner had they reached Begemder
than they entered into a conspiracy in form against Michael, which
they had long meditated; they had resolved to make peace with Fasil,
and swear with him a solemn league, that they were but to have one
cause, one council, and one interest, till they had deprived Michael of
his life and dignity. The plan was, that, in hopes to join with them,
the army should pass by Dara and the mouth of the lake, as aforesaid,
between that lake, called the lake of Dembea, on the north side, and
another small lake, which seems formerly to have been part of the great
one, and is called Court-ohha; on the south is the village of Derdera,
and the church of St Michael. Here was to be the scene of action; as
soon as Michael advanced to Derdera, Gusho and Powussen were to close
him behind on the north; Fasil, from Maitsha, was to appear on his
front from the south, whilst, between Court-ohha and the lake, in the
midst of these three armies, Michael was to lose his liberty or his
life. The secret was profoundly kept, though known by many; but every
one was employed in preparations for the campaign on the king’s part,
and no suspicion entertained, for nothing costs an Abyssinian less than
to dissemble.

It had been agreed by Gusho and Powussen before parting, in order to
deceive Michael, that, should Fasil retire from Buré at their approach,
and pass the Nile into his own country, the King, Ras Michael, and part
of the army should remain at Burè all the rainy season; that, upon the
return of the fair weather, they were all again to assemble at Buré,
cross the Nile into Bizamo, and lay waste the country of the Galla,
that the vestige of habitation should not be seen upon it.

All this time I found myself declining in health, to which the
irregularities of the last week had greatly contributed. The King and
Ras had sufficiently provided tents and conveniencies for me, yet
I wanted to construct for myself a tent, with a large slit in the
roof, that I might have an opportunity of taking observations with my
quadrant, without being inquieted by troublesome or curious visitors.
I therefore obtained leave from the king to go to Emfras, a town about
twenty miles south from Gondar, where a number of Mahometan tent-makers
lived. Gusho had a house there, and a pleasant garden, which he very
willingly gave me the use of, with this advice, however, which at the
time I did not understand, rather to go on to Amhara with him, for I
should there sooner recover my health, and be more in quiet than with
the King or Michael. As the king was to pass immediately under this
town, and as most of those that loaded and unloaded his tents and
baggage were Mahometans, and lived at Emfras, I could not be better
situated, or more at my liberty and ease, than there.

After having taken my leave of the king and the Ras, I paid the same
compliment to the Iteghè at Koscam: I had not for several days been
able to wait upon her, on account of the riots during the marriage,
where the Ras required my attendance, and would admit of no excuse.
That excellent princess endeavoured much to dissuade me from leaving
Gondar. She treated the intention of going to the source of the Nile as
a fantastical folly, unworthy of any man of sense or understanding, and
very earnestly advised me to stay under her protection at Koscam, till
I saw whether Ras, Michael and the king would return, and then take the
first good opportunity of returning to my own country through Tigré,
the way that I came, before any evil should overtake me.

I excused myself the best I could. It was not easy to do it with any
degree of conviction, to people utterly unlearned, and who knew nothing
of the prejudice of ages in favour of the attempt I was engaged in. I
therefore turned the discourse to professions of gratitude for benefits
that I had every day received from her, and for the very great honour
that she then did me, when she condescended to testify her anxiety
concerning the fate of a poor unknown traveller like me, who could
not possibly have any merit but what arose from her own gracious and
generous sentiments, and universal charity, that extended to every
object in proportion as they were helpless. “See, see, says she, how
every day of our life punishes us with proofs of the perverseness and
contradiction of human nature; you are come from Jerusalem, through
vile Turkish governments, and hot, unwholesome climates, to see a
river and a bog, no part of which you can carry away were it ever so
valuable, and of which you have in your own country a thousand larger,
better, and cleaner, and you take it ill when I discourage you from
the pursuit of this fancy, in which you are likely to perish, without
your friends at home ever hearing when or where the accident happened.
While I, on the other hand, the mother of kings who have sat upon the
throne of this country more than thirty years, have for my only wish,
night and day, that, after giving up every thing in the world, I could
be conveyed to the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and beg
alms for my subsistence all my life after, if I could only be buried in
the street within sight of the gate of that temple where our blessed
Saviour once lay.” This was said in the most melancholy tone possible,
an unusual gloom hanging upon her countenance. Her desiring me,
however, to stay at Koscam, till I knew whether the king and Michael
would return or not, considering the large army they were to lead to
the field, and the feebleness of the so often defeated Fasil, made me
from that instant apprehend that there was something behind with which
I was yet unacquainted.

Gold, and orders for cattle and provisions while at Emfras, followed
this conversation with the queen; this, indeed, had never failed at
other times, which, by Ayto Aylo’s advice, I never more refused. Here
I cannot help observing the different manner in which three people
did the same thing. When I received gold from Michael, it was openly
from his hand to mine, without compliment, as he paid the rest of the
king’s servants. When I received it from the king, it was likewise
from his own hand; it was always when alone, with a fear expressed
that I suffered myself to be straitened rather than ask, and that I
did not levy, with sufficient severity, the money the several places
allotted to me were bound to pay, which, indeed, was always the case.
The queen, on the other hand, from whom I received constant donations,
never either produced gold herself, nor spoke of it before or after,
but sent it by a servant of hers to a servant of mine, to employ it for
the necessaries of my family.

I confess I left the queen very much affected with the disposition I
had found her in, and, if I had been of a temper to give credit to
prognostics, and a safe way had been opened through Tigré, I should
at that time, perhaps, have taken the queen’s advice, and returned
without seeing the fountains of the Nile, in the same manner that all
the travellers of antiquity, who had ever as yet endeavoured to explore
them, had been forced to do; but the prodigious bustle and preparation
which I found was daily making in Gondar, and the assurances everybody
gave me that, safe in the middle of a victorious army, I should see,
at my leisure, that famous spot, made me resume my former resolutions,
awakened my ambition, and made me look upon it as a kind of treason
done to my country, in which such efforts were then making for
discoveries, to renounce, now it was in my power, the putting them in
possession of that one which had baffled the courage and perseverance
of the bravest men in all ages. The pleasure, too, of herborising in an
unknown country, such as Emfras was, of continuing to do so in safety,
and the approaching every day to the end of my wishes, chased away all
those gloomy apprehensions which I imbibed from the appearance and
discourse of the queen, and of which I now began to be ashamed.

Gondar, the metropolis of Abyssinia, is situated upon a hill of
considerable height, the top of it nearly plain, on which the town is
placed. It consists of about ten thousand families in times of peace;
the houses are chiefly of clay, the roofs thatched in the form of
cones, which is always the construction within the tropical rains. On
the west end of the town is the king’s house, formerly a structure
of considerable consequence; it was a square building, flanked with
square towers; it was formerly four storeys high, and, from the top of
it, had a magnificent view of all the country southward to the lake
Tzana. Great part of this house is now in ruins, having been burnt at
different times; but there is still ample lodging in the two lowest
floors of it, the audience-chamber being above one hundred and twenty
feet long.

A succession of kings have built apartments by the side of it of clay
only, in the manner and fashion of their own country; for the palace
itself was built by masons from India, in the time of Facilidas, and by
such Abyssinians as had been instructed in architecture by the Jesuits
without embracing their religion, and after remained in the country,
unconnected with the expulsion of the Portuguese, during this prince’s
reign.

The palace, and all its contiguous buildings, are surrounded by a
substantial stone wall thirty feet high, with battlements upon the
outer wall, and a parapet roof between the outer and inner, by which
you can go along the whole and look into the street. There appears to
have never been any embrasures for cannon, and the four sides of this
wall are above an English mile and a half in length.

The mountain, or hill, on which the town is situated, is surrounded on
every side by a deep valley, which has three outlets; the one to the
south to Dembea, Maitsha, and the Agows; the second to the north-west
towards Sennaar, over the high mountain Debra Tzai, or the Mountain
of the Sun, at the root of which Koscam, the palace of the Iteghé, is
situated, and the low countries of Walkayt and Waldubba; the third is
to the north to Woggora, over the high mountain Lamalmon, and so on
through Tigré to the Red Sea. The river Kahha, coming from the Mountain
of the Sun, or Debra Tzai, runs through the valley, and covers all
the south of the town; the Angrab, falling from Woggora, surrounds it
on the N. N. E. These rivers join at the bottom of the hill, about a
quarter of a mile south of the town.

Immediately upon the bank opposite to Gondar, on the other side of the
river, is a large town of Mahometans of about a thousand houses. These
are all active and laborious people; great part of them are employed in
taking care of the king’s and nobility’s baggage and field-equipage,
both when they take the field and when they return from it. They pitch
and strike their tents with surprising facility and expedition; they
load and conduct the mules and the baggage, and are formed into a body
under proper officers, but never suffered, nor do they chuse, to fight
on either side.

Gondar, by a number of observations of the sun and stars made by day
and night, in the course of three years, with an astronomical quadrant
of three feet radius, and two excellent telescopes, and by a mean of
all their small differences, is in lat. 12° 34´ 30´´; and by many
observations of the satellites of Jupiter, especially the first, both
in their immersions and emersions during that period, I concluded its
longitude to be 37° 33´ 0´´ east from the meridian of Greenwich.

It was the 4th of April 1770, at eight o’clock in the morning, when
I set out from Gondar. We passed the Kahha, and the Mahometan town,
and, about ten in the morning, we came to a considerable river called
the Mogetch, which runs in a deep, rugged bed of flakey blue stones.
We crossed it upon a very solid, good bridge of four arches, a
convenience seldom to be met with in passing Abyssinian rivers, but
very necessary on this, as, contrary to most of their streams, which
become dry, or stand in pools, on the approach of the sun, the Mogetch
runs constantly, by reason that its sources are in the highest hills of
Woggora, where clouds break plentifully at all seasons of the year. In
the rainy months it rolls a prodigious quantity of water into the lake
Tzana, and would be absolutely unpassable to people bringing provision
to the market, were it not for this bridge built by Facilidas; yet it
is not judiciously placed, being close to the mountain’s foot, in the
face of a torrent, where it runs strongest, and carries along with it
stones of a prodigious size, which luckily, as yet, have injured no
part of the bridge. The water of the river Mogetch is not wholesome,
probably from the minerals, or stony particles it carries along with
it, and the slatey strata over which it runs. We have many rivers of
this quality in the Alps, especially between mount Cenis and Grenoble.

Delivered now from the strait and rugged country on the banks of the
Mogetch, we entered into a very extensive plain, bounded on the east
side by the mountains, and on the west by the large lake of Dembea,
otherwise called the lake Tzana, or Bahar Tzana, the Sea of Tzana,
which geographers have corrupted into the word Barcena. Rejoiced at
last that I had elbow-room, I began the most laborious search for
shrubs and herbs all over the plain, my servants on one side and I on
the other, searching the country on each side of the road. It appeared
to our warm imaginations, that the neighbourhood of such a lake, in
so remote a part of the world, ought infallibly to produce something
perfectly beautiful, or altogether new. In this, however, we were
disappointed, as indeed we always were in meadows, and where grass grew
so exuberantly as it did all over this plain.

At eleven o’clock we crossed the river Tedda; here the road divides:
that branch to the east leads to Wechnè, in the wild, uncultivated
territory of Belessen, famous for no production but that of honey.

We continued along the other branch of the road, which led south to
Emfras. One mile distant on our left is the church of St George. About
one o’clock we halted at the church Zingetch Mariam; and a few minutes
after, we passed the river Gomara, a considerable stream rising in
Belessen, which stands in pools during the dry weather, but had now
begun to run; its course N. E. and S. W. across the plain, after which
it falls into the lake Tzana.

At two we halted at Correva, a small village, beautifully situated on
a gentle-rising ground, through which the road passes in view of the
lake, and then again divides; one branch continuing south to Emfras,
and so on to Foggora and Dara; the other to Mitraha, two small islands
in the lake, lying S. W. from this at the distance of about four hours
journey. The road from Correva to Emfras, for the first hour, is all in
the plain; for the second, along the gentle slope of a mountain of no
considerable height; and the remainder is upon a perfect flat, or along
the lake Tzana.

The 5th of April, at five in the morning, we left our present station
at Correva, where, though we had employed several hours in the search,
we found very little remarkable of either plants or trees, being mostly
of the kind we had already seen. We continued our road chiefly to the
south, through the same sort of country, till we came to the foot of
a mountain, or rather a hill, covered with bushes and thorny trees,
chiefly the common acacia, but of no size, and seeming not to thrive.
I pitched my tent here to search what that cover would produce. There
were a great quantity of hares, which I could make no use of, the
Abyssinians holding them in abhorrence, as thinking them unclean; but
to make amends, I found great store of Guinea fowls, of the common grey
kind we have in Europe, of which I shot, in a little time, above a
score; and these, being perfectly lawful food, proved a very agreeable
variety from the raw beef, butter, and honey, which we had lived upon
hitherto, and which was to be our diet (it is not an unpleasant one,
at least a part of it) till we reached Emfras.

At eight in the morning I passed through Tangouri, a considerable
village. About a hundred yards on the right from this we have a finer
prospect of the lake than even from Correva itself. This village is
chiefly inhabited by Mahometans, whose occupation it is to go in
caravans far to the south, on the other side of the Nile, through
the several districts of Galla, to whom they carry beads and large
needles, cohol, or Stibium, myrrh, coarse cloths made in Begemder,
and pieces of blue cotton cloths from Surat, called Marowti. They are
generally nearly a year absent, and bring in return slaves, civet,
wax, hides, and cardomum in large beautiful pods; they bring likewise
a great quantity of ginger, but that is from farther south, nearer
Narea. It appears to me to be a poor trade, as far as I could compute
it, considering the loss of time employed in it, the many accidents,
extortions, and robberies these merchants meet with. Whether it would
be ever worth while to follow it on another footing, and under another
government, is what I am not qualified enough to say.

On the left of Tangouri, divided from it by a plain of about a mile
in breadth, stands a high rock called Amba Mariam, with a church upon
the very summit of it. There is no possibility of climbing this rock
but at one place, and there it is very difficult and rugged; here the
inhabitants of the neighbouring villages retreat upon any sudden alarm
or inroad of an enemy.

At nine o’clock, after passing a plain, with the lake Tzana all the way
on our right, in length about three miles, we came to the banks of the
river Gorno, a small but clear stream; it rises near Wechnè, and has a
bridge of one arch over it about half a mile above the ford. Its course
is north and south nearly, and loses itself in the lake between Mitraha
and Lamguè. A mile farther we arrived at Emfras, after a very pleasant,
though not interesting excursion.

The town is situated on a steep hill, and the way up to it is almost
perpendicular like the ascent of a ladder. The houses are all placed
about the middle of the hill, fronting the west, in number about 300.
Above these houses are gardens, or rather fields, full of trees and
bushes, without any sort of order, up to the very top. Emfras commands
a view of the whole lake, and part of the country on the other side. It
was once a royal residence. On a small hill is a house of Hatzè Hannes,
in form of a square tower, now going fast to ruin.

Emfras is in lat. 12° 12´ 38´´ N. and long. 37° 38´ 30´´ E. of the
meridian of Greenwich. The distances and directions of this journey
from Gondar were carefully observed by a compass, and computed by
a watch of Ellicot’s, after which these situations were checked by
astronomical observations of latitude and longitude in every way that
they could be taken, and it was very seldom in a day’s journey that we
erred a mile in our computation.

The lake of Tzana is by much the largest expanse of water known in
that country. Its extent, however, has been greatly exaggerated. Its
greatest breadth is from Dingleber to Lamguè, which, in a line nearly
east and west, is 35 miles; but it decreases greatly at each extremity,
where it is not sometimes above ten miles broad. Its greatest length is
from Bab Baha to a little S. W. and by W. of that part, where the Nile,
after having crossed the end of it by a current always visible, turns
towards Dara in the territory of Alata, which is 49 miles from north
to south, and which extent this lake has in length. In the dry months,
from October to March, the lake shrinks greatly in size; but after that
all those rivers are full which are on every side of it, and fall into
the lake, like radii drawn to a center, then it swells, and extends
itself into the plain country, and has of course a much larger surface.

There are forty-five inhabited islands in the lake, if you believe the
Abyssinians, who, in every thing, are very great liars. I conceive
the number may be about eleven: the principal is Dek, or Daka, or
Daga[113], nearly in the middle of the lake; its true extent I cannot
specify, never having been there. Besides Dek, the other islands are
Halimoon, nearer Gondar; Briguida, nearer Gorgora, and still farther
in Galila. All these islands were formerly used as prisons for the
great people, or for a voluntary retreat, on account of some disgust or
great misfortune, or as places of security to deposit their valuable
effects during troublesome times. When I was in Abyssinia, a few weeks
after what I have been relating, 1300 ounces of gold, confided by the
queen to Welleta Christos, her governor of Dek, a man of extraordinary
sanctity, who had fasted for forty years, was stolen away by that
priest, who fled and hid himself; nor would the queen ever suffer him
to be searched after or apprehended.




CHAP. III.

_The King encamps at Lamgué--Transactions there--Passes the Nile, and
encamps at Derdera--The Author follows the King._


On the 12th of May we heard the king had marched to Tedda. Messengers
from Begemder, and from Gusho of Amhara, had been constantly passing to
and from his majesty, pressing Ras Michael to take the field as soon as
possible, to prevent the utter destruction of the Agows, which Fasil
every day was striving to accomplish. They put him, moreover, in mind,
that the rains were begun; that, in Fasil’s country, they were already
sufficient to swell the many rivers they had to pass before they
arrived at Burè; they desired him to reflect, that, with the armies
they were bringing to his assistance, it was more necessary to save
time than stay for a number of troops; lastly, that it was absolutely
useless to wait for any reinforcement from Tigrè, but that he should
rather march by Emfras, Foggora, and Dara, cross the Nile where it
comes out of the lake; while they, with their united armies, passed
at the bridge near the second cataract, sixteen miles below, burnt
and laid waste Woodage, Asahel’s country, and joined him at Derdera,
between Court-ohha and the lake. This was precisely what Ras Michael
himself had planned; it embraced the whole country of his enemy,
and made his scheme of vengeance complete; hitherto not a word had
transpired that could raise the smallest suspicion of treachery.

The 13th, by day-break, Netcho, Fit-Auraris to Ras Michael, passed in
great haste below the town towards Foggora. The king had made a forced
march from Tedda, and was that night to encamp at a house of Gusho’s,
near Lamguè. This was great expedition, and sufficiently marked the
eagerness with which it was undertaken. The effects of the approach of
the army were soon seen. Every one hid what was best in his house, or
fled to the mountains with it. Emfras in a few hours was left quite
empty: Ras Michael, advancing at the head of an army, spread as much
terror as would the approach of the day of judgment. It was then

    ----Destruction in a monarch’s voice
    Cried havock, and let slip the dogs of war.

For, strict and just as he was in time of peace, or in preserving the
police, the security of the ways, and the poor from the tyranny of the
rich, he was most licentious and cruel the moment he took the field,
especially if that country which he entered had ever shewn the least
tincture of enmity against him.

About 11 o’clock in the morning the king’s Fit-Auraris passed. He was
a near relation of Ayamico, one of the chiefs of the Agows who was a
relation of the king, as I have before mentioned, and slain by Fasil
at the battle of Banja. With him I had contracted a great degree
of friendship; he had about 50 horse and 200 foot: as he passed at
several places he made proclamation in name of the king, That nobody
should leave their houses, but remain quiet in them without fear, and
that every house found empty should be burnt. He sent a servant as
he passed, telling me the king was that night to lie at Lamgué, and
desiring me to send him what spirits I could spare, which I accordingly
did, upon his providing a man who could protect the houses adjoining
mine from the robbery and the violence of which the inhabitants were in
hourly fear.

About the close of the evening we heard the king’s kettle-drums.
Forty-five of these instruments constantly go before him, beating all
the way while he is on his march. The Mahometan town near the water
was plundered in a minute; but the inhabitants had long before removed
every thing valuable. Twenty different parties of stragglers came up
the hill to do the same by Emfras. Some of the inhabitants were known,
others not so, but their houses had nothing in them; at last these
plunderers all united in mine, demanding meat and drink, and all sort
of accommodation. Our friend, left with us by the Fit-Auraris, resisted
as much as one man could do with sticks and whips, and it was a scuffle
till mid-night; at last, having cleared ourselves of them, luckily
without their setting fire to the town, we remained quiet for the rest
of the night.

On the 14th, at day-break, I mounted my horse, with all my
men-servants, leaving the women-servants and an old man to take care
of the house. It was very unsafe to travel in such company at such an
hour. We crossed the river Arno, a little below Emfras, before we got
into the plain; after which we went at a smart gallop, and arrived at
Lamgué between eight and nine o’clock.

Early as it was, the king was then in council, and Ras Michael, who
had his advisers assembled also in his tent, had just left it to go to
the king’s. There was about 500 yards between their tents, and a free
avenue is constantly left, in which it is a crime to stand, or even
to cross, unless for messengers sent from the one to the other. The
old general dismounted at the door of the tent; and though I saw he
perceived us, and was always at other times most courteous, he passed
us without taking the least notice, and entered the tent of the king.

Although my place in the household gave me free access to wherever the
king was, I did not choose, at that time, to enter the back tent, and
place myself behind his chair, as I might have done; I rather thought
it better to go to the tent of Ozoro Esther, where I was sure at least
of getting a good breakfast: Nor was I disappointed. As soon as I
shewed myself at the door of the tent of that princess, who was lying
upon a sofa, the moment she cast her eyes upon me, cried out, There is
Yagoube! there is the man I wanted! The tent was cleared of all but
her women, and she then began to enumerate of several complaints which
she thought, before the end of the campaign, would carry her to her
grave. It was easy to see they were of the slightest kind, though it
would not have been agreeable to have told her so, for she loved to be
thought ill, to be attended, and flattered; she was, however, in these
circumstances, so perfectly good, so conversable, so elegant in all her
manners, that her physician would have been tempted to wish never to
see her well.

She was then with child by Ras Michael; and the late festival, upon her
niece’s marriage with Powussen of Begemder, had been much too hard for
her constitution, always weak and delicate since her first misfortunes,
and the death of Mariam Barea. After giving her my advice, and
directing her women how to administer what I was to send her, the doors
of the tent were thrown open; all our friends came flocking round us,
when we presently saw that the interval employed in consultation had
not been spent uselessly, for a most abundant breakfast was produced
in wooden platters upon the carpet. There were excellent stewed fowls,
but so inflamed with Cayenne pepper as almost to blister the mouth;
fowls dressed with boiled wheat, just once broken in the middle, in the
manner they are prepared in India, with rice called _pillaw_, this,
too, abundantly charged with pepper; Guinea hens, roasted hard without
butter, or any sort of sauce, very white, but as tough as leather;
above all, the never-failing _brind_, for so they call the collops of
raw beef, without which nobody could have been satisfied; but, what was
more agreeable to me, a large quantity of wheat-bread, of Dembea flour,
equal in all its qualities to the best in London or Paris.

The Abyssinians say, you must plant first and then water; nobody,
therefore, drinks till they have finished eating; after this the
glass went chearfully about; there was excellent red wine, but strong,
of the nature of cote-roti, brought from Karoota, which is the wine
country, about six miles south-east from the place where we then were;
good new brandy; honey-wine, or hydromel, and a species of beer called
Bouza, both of which were fermented with herbs, or leaves of trees,
and made very heady; they are disagreeable liquors to strangers. Our
kind landlady, who never had quitted her sofa, pressed about the glass
in the very briskest manner, reminding us that our time was short, and
that the drum would presently give the signal for striking the tents.
For my part, this weighed exceedingly with me the contrary way to her
intentions, for I began to fear I should not be able to go home, and I
was not prepared to go on with the army; besides, it was indispensibly
necessary to see both the king and Ras Michael, and that I by no means
chose to do when my presence of mind had left me; I therefore made my
apology to Ozoro Esther, by a message delivered by one of her women,
and slipt out of the tent to wait upon the king.

I thought to put on my most sedate appearance, that none of my
companions in the king’s tent should see that I was affected with
liquor; tho’ intoxication in Abyssinia is neither uncommon nor a
reproach, when you are not engaged in business or attendance. I
therefore went on as composedly as possible, without recollecting that
I had already advanced near a hundred yards, walking on that forbidden
precinct or avenue between the king’s tent and Ras Michael’s, where
nobody interrupted me. The ease with which I proceeded, among such a
crowd and bustle, soon brought my transgression to my mind, and I
hurried out of the forbidden place in an instant.

I met several of my acquaintance, who accompanied me to the king’s
tent. It was now noon; a plentiful dinner or breakfast was waiting,
which I had absolutely refused to partake of till I had seen the king.
Thinking all was a secret that had passed at Ozoro Esther’s, I lifted
the curtain behind the king’s chair, and coming round till nearly
opposite to him, I was about to perform the usual prostration, when in
the very instant the young prince George, who was standing opposite to
me on the king his brother’s right hand, stept forward and laid his
hand across my breast as if to prevent me from kneeling; then turning
to the king, who was sitting as usual in his chair in the alcove, Sir,
says he, before you allow Yagoube to kneel, you should first provide
two men to lift him up again, for Ozoro Esther has given him so much
wine that he will never be able to do it himself.

Though it was almost impossible to avoid laughing, it was visible the
king constrained himself, and was not pleased. The drink had really
this good effect, that it made me less abashed than I otherwise
should have been at this unexpected sally of the young prince. I was,
however, somewhat disconcerted, and made my prostration perhaps less
gracefully than at another time, and this raised the merriment of those
in waiting, as attributing it to intoxication. Upon rising, the king
most graciously stretched out his hand for me to kiss. While I was
holding his hand, he said to his brother, coldly, Surely if you thought
him drunk, you must have expected a reply; in that case, it would
have been more prudent in you, and more civil, not to have made your
observation.

The prince was much abashed. I hastened across the carpet, and took
both his hands and kissed them; the laughers did not seem much at
their ease, especially when I turned and stood before the king. He was
kind, sensible, composed, and condescending; he complained that I had
abandoned him; asked if I had been well-used at Emfras, and doubted
that I had wanted every thing; but I sent you nothing on purpose, says
he, because you said fasting would do you good after too much feasting
at Gondar, and I knew that hunger would bring you soon back again to
us. If your majesty, said I, takes the prince’s word, I have been
carousing to-day in your camp more than ever I did at Gondar; and, I
do assure your majesty, prince George’s reflections were not without
foundation.

Come, come, says the king, Georgis is your firm and fast friend, and so
he ought, he owes it to you that he is so able a horseman and so good a
marksman, without which he could never be more than a common soldier.
He has commanded a division of the army to-day;--“Of 500 horse, cries
out the prince in extacy; and, when the king my brother to-morrow
leads the van, you shall be my Fit-Auraris, if you please, when we
pass the Nile, and with my party I shall scour Maitsha.” I should be
very unhappy, prince, said I, to have a charge of that importance,
for which I know myself to be totally unqualified; there are many
brave men who have a title to that office, and who will fill it with
honour to themselves and safety to your person. So you will not trust
yourself, says the prince, with me and my party when we shall cross
the Nile? Are you angry with me, Yagoube, or are you afraid of Woodage
Asahel? Were you in earnest, prince, in what you now say, replied I,
you suppose two things, both greater reproaches than that of being
overtaken with wine. Assure yourself I am, and always shall be, your
most affectionate and most faithful servant; and that I shall think
it an honour to follow you in Maitsha, or elsewhere, even as a common
horseman, though, instead of one, there were in it ten thousand Woodage
Asahels. O ho! says the king, then you are all friends; and I must tell
you one thing, Georgis is more drunk with the thoughts of his command
to-day than any soldier in my camp will be to-night with bouza. And
this, indeed, seemed to be the case, for he was else a prince rather
reserved and sparing of words, especially before his brother.

Tell me, Yagoube, continues the king, and tell me truly--at that very
instant came in a messenger from Ras Michael, who, going round the
chair without saluting, spoke to the king, upon which the room was
cleared; but I after learned, that news were received from Begemder,
that Powussen and his troops were ready to march, but that two of
Gusho’s nephews had rebelled, whom it had taken some time to subdue;
that another messenger was left behind, but had fallen sick at Aringo,
who, however, would come forward as soon as possible with his master’s
message, and would be probably at the camp that night. He brought also
as undoubted intelligence, that Fasil, upon hearing Ras Michael’s
march, was preparing to repass the Nile into the country of the Galla.
This occasioned very great doubts, because dispatches had arrived from
Nanna Georgis’s son, the day before at Tedda, which declared that
Fasil had decamped from Buré that very day the messenger came away,
advancing northward towards Gondar, but with what intention he could
not say; and this was well known to be intelligence that might be
strictly and certainly relied upon.

On the 15th, the king decamped early in the morning, and, as prince
George had said the night before, led the van in person; a flattering
mark of confidence that Ras Michael had put in him now for the first
time, of which the king was very sensible. The Ras, however, had given
him a dry nurse[114], as it is called, in Billetana Gueta Welleta
Michael, an old and approved officer, trained to war from his infancy,
and surrounded with the most tried of the troops of Tigré. The king
halted at the river Gomara, but advanced that same night to the passage
where the Nile comes out of the lake Tzana, and resumes again the
appearance of a river.

The king remained the 15th and 16th encamped upon the Nile. Several
things that should have given umbrage, and begot suspicion, happened
while they were in this situation. Aylo, governor of Gojam, had been
summoned to assist Ras Michael when Powussen and Gusho should march
to join him with their forces of Begemder and Amhara, and his mother
Ozoro Welleta Israel, then at Gondar, had promised he should not fail.
This lady was younger sister to Ozoro Esther; both were daughters of
the Iteghé. She was as beautiful as Ozoro Esther, but very much her
inferior in behaviour, character, and conduct: she had refused the old
Ras, who asked her in marriage before he was called from Tigrè to
Gondar, and a mortal hatred had followed her refusal. It was therefore
reported, that he was heard to say, he would order the eyes of Welleta
Israel to be pulled out, if Aylo her son did not join him. It must have
been a man such as Ras Michael that could form such a resolution, for
Welleta Israel’s eyes were most captivating. She was then in the camp
with her sister.

A single small tent had appeared the evening of the 15th on the other
side of the Nile, and, on the morning of the 16th, Welleta Israel and
the tent were missing: she boldly made her escape in the night. The
tent had probably concealed her son Aylo, or some of his friends, to
show her the passage; for the Nile there was both broad and deep,
rolling along a prodigious mass of water, with large, black, slippery
stones at the bottom. It was therefore a very arduous, bold undertaking
for soldiers and men accustomed to pass rivers in the day-time; but
for a woman, and in the night, too, with all the hurry that the fear
of being intercepted must have occasioned, it was so extraordinary as
to exceed all belief. But she was conducted by an intrepid leader, for
with her deserted Ayto Engedan son of Kasmati Eshté, and consequently
nephew to Ozoro Welleta Israel; but their own inclinations had given
them still a nearer relation than the degree received from their
parents, or decency should have permitted. All the camp had trembled
for Welleta Israel; and every one now rejoiced that so bold an attempt
had been attended with the success it merited. It was necessary,
however, to dissemble before Michael, who, intent upon avenging the
Agows against Fasil, carried his reflections at that time no further;
for Aylo’s not coming was attributed to the influence of Fasil, whose
government of Damot joins Gojam, and it was even said, that Welleta
Israel, his mother, had been the occasion of this, from her hatred to
Michael and her attachment to Fasil; the first cause was sufficiently
apparent, the last had formerly been no less so.

On the 17th, after sun-rise, the king passed the Nile, and encamped
at a small village on the other side, called Tsoomwa, where his
Fit-Auraris had taken post early in the morning. I have often mentioned
this officer without explanation, and perhaps it may now be right to
state his duty. The Fit-Auraris is an officer depending immediately
upon the commander in chief, and corresponding with him directly,
without receiving orders from any other person. He is always one of
the bravest, most robust, and most experienced men in the service; he
knows, with the utmost exactness, the distance of places, the depth of
rivers, the state of the fords, the thickness of the woods, and the
extent of them; in a word, the whole face of the country in detail. His
party is always adapted to the country in which the war is; sometimes
it is entirely composed of horse, sometimes of foot, but generally
of a mixture of both. He has the management of the intelligence and
direction of the spies. He is likewise limited to no number of troops;
sometimes he has 1000 men, sometimes 200. In time of real danger he has
generally about 300, all picked from the whole army at his pleasure; he
had not now about 50 horse, as it was not yet thought to be the time of
real business or danger.

As the post of Fit-Auraris is a place of great trust, so it is endowed
with proportionable emoluments. The king’s Fit-Auraris has territories
assigned him in every province that he ever passes through, so has
that of the Ras, if he commands in chief. Every governor of a province
has also an officer of this name, who has a revenue allowed him
within his own province. It is a place of great fatigue. Their post
is at different distances from the van of the army, according to the
circumstances of the war; sometimes a day’s march, sometimes four or
six hours. As he passes on he fixes a lance, with a flag upon it, in
the place where the king’s tent is to be pitched that night, or where
he is to halt that day. He has couriers, or light runners, through
which he constantly corresponds with the army; whenever he sees the
enemy, he sends immediate advice, and falls back himself, or advances
farther, according as his orders are.

From Tsoomwa the king marched on, a short day’s march, to Derdera,
and encamped near the church of St Michael. Derdera, was a collection
of small villages, between the lake Dembea and Court-ohha, where, it
will be remembered, the agreement was the confederates should inclose
Michael, and give him battle; but he had now lost all patience, as
there was no appearance of either Gusho or Powussen; and being,
besides, in an enemy’s country, he began to proceed in his usual
manner, by giving orders to lay waste the whole adjacent territory with
fire and sword. The whole line of march, two day’s journey in breadth
from the lake, was set on fire; the people who could not escape were
slain, and every wanton barbarity permitted.

The king’s passage of the Nile was the signal given for me to set out
to join him. It was the 18th of May, at noon, I left Emfras, my course
being southward whilst in the plain of Mitraha. At three o’clock we
entered among a few hills of no consideration, and, soon after, began
to coast close along the side of the lake Tzana; we saw this day a
great number of hippopotami; some swimming in the lake at a small
distance, some rising from feeding on the high grass in the meadows,
and walking, seemingly at great leisure, till they plunged themselves
out of sight. They are exceeding cautious and shy while on land,
and not to be approached near enough to do execution with the best
rifle-gun. At four in the afternoon we halted, and passed the night at
Lamgué, a village situated a few paces from the side of the lake.

On the 19th of May we left Lamguè about six in the morning, our course
south and by west, and at eight we found ourselves in the middle of
twenty-five or thirty villages called Nabca, stretching for the length
of seven or eight miles; a few minutes afterwards we came to the river
Reb, which falls into the lake a little north-west of the place where
we now were. Close by where the Reb joins the lake is a small village
of Pagans, called Waito, who live quite separate from the Abyssinians,
and are held by them in utter abhorrence, so that to touch them, or any
thing that belongs to them, makes a man unclean all that day till the
evening, separates him from his family and friends, and excludes him
from the church and all divine service, till he is washed and purified
on the following day. Part of this aversion is certainly owing to their
manner of feeding; for their only profession is killing the crocodile
and hippopotamus, which they make their daily sustenance. They have
a most abominable stench, are exceedingly wan, or ill-coloured, very
lean, and die often, as is said, of the lousy disease. There are,
indeed, no crocodiles in the lake Tzana, owing, as it is said, to the
cataracts, which they cannot get up. However, as they are amphibious
animals, and walk very well on shore, I think they might surmount this
difficulty as easily as the hippopotamus; I rather think the cause is
the coldness of the water and climate, which does not agree with the
crocodile, but much with the river-horse.

The Waito speak a language radically different from any of those in
Abyssinia; but though I have often endeavoured to get some insight into
this, their religion, and customs, I could never so far succeed as to
be able to give the public any certain information. A false account in
such cases is certainly worse than no account at all. I once desired
the king to order that one of them might be brought to Gondar. Two
men, an old and a young one, were accordingly brought from the lake,
but they would neither answer nor understand any questions; partly, I
believe, through fear, partly from obstinacy. The king at this became
so angry that he ordered them both to be hanged; they seemed perfectly
unconcerned, and it was with some difficulty I procured their release;
I never therefore made an experiment of that kind afterwards. The
Abyssinians believe they are sorcerers, can bewitch with their eyes,
and occasion death by their charms even at a considerable distance. It
is likely, if that had been so, these two would have tried their power
upon me, of which I do not recollect to have ever been sensible.

We passed the Reb at nine o’clock in the morning. It rises high in the
mountains of Begemder, and is one of those rivers that continue running
the whole year, and has a tolerable ford, although it was visibly
increased by rain. We continued our journey in sight of many villages
till, three quarters after twelve, we came to the river Gomara, where
we staid in search of trees and herbs the rest of the day. At night we
received a message from Ayto Adigo, Shum, or governor, of Karoota. He
was an officer of confidence of the Iteghé’s; had been a great friend
of Mariam Barea’s, one of whose vassals he was, and in his heart an
inveterate enemy to Ras Michael and the new succession. Ever since the
murder of Joas he had not ventured to Gondar. When I first came there
the Ras had given his house, as that of an outlaw, to me. Afterwards,
as soon as he returned, I offered immediately to surrender it to him;
but he would not by any means accept it, but asked leave to pitch his
tent in one of the courts surrounded with walls, for it was a spacious
building. Perhaps it was the best situation he could have chosen, for
we did him great service by the means of Ozoro Esther, as he was but
very ill-looked upon, and was rich enough to be considered as an object
of Ras Michael’s rapacity and avarice. Our neighbourhood occasioned
us to pass many evenings together, and we contracted a friendship,
the rather because he was a servant of the Iteghè, and we were known
favourites of Ozoro Esther.




CHAP. IV.

_Pass the River Gomara--Remarkable Accident there--Arrive at
Dara--Visit the great Cataract of Alata--Leave Dara, and resume our
Journey._


On the 20th of May, between six and seven in the morning, as Adigo was
not arrived, I sent the baggage and tents that we had with us forward
with Strates, a Greek, who was an avowed enemy to all learned inquiries
or botanical researches. My orders were to encamp at Dara, in some
convenient place near the house of Negadé Ras Mahomet. In the mean time
I staid expecting Ayto Adigo’s arrival; he came near eleven o’clock.
As a temporary shelter from the sun, a cloak upon cross sticks was set
up, instead of a tent, to save time. We sat down together to such fare
as Adigo had brought along with him; it was a soldier’s dinner, coarse
and plentiful. Adigo told me Kasmati Ayabdar, an uncle of Gusho, had
left his house the night before, accompanied by the men of Foggora, the
country where we then were of which he was governor, and had taken the
high road to join the forces of Begemder.

Netcho, a near relation of the old queen, arrived from Kuara just as
we were sitting down to dinner. He had about 50 horse and 200 foot,
all bad troops, and ill armed; he was, however, a respectable, tried
veteran, who having had many opportunities of becoming rich, gave the
whole to his soldiers, and those of his dependents that lived with
him; on which account he was extremely beloved, and it was hoped that,
if the issue of this campaign was favourable, Ras Michael would make
him governor of Kuara, in room of Coque Abou Barea, a man of a very
different character, who had intruded himself into that province by the
power of Fasil, and after maintained himself in it by open rebellion.

The mules that had hitherto carried my quadrant and telescopes being
bad, I had luckily kept them behind, in hopes that either Adigo or
Netcho would supply me with better; and I had now placed them upon
the fresh mules I had obtained, and had not sent them on with the
servants, and we were then taking a friendly glass. It was, I suppose,
about noon, when we saw our servants coming back, and Strates also
among the rest, stript of every thing that he had, except a cotton
night-cap, which he wore on his head. The servants swam over the Gomara
immediately, nor was Strates interrupted, but passed at the ford. They
told us that Gusho and Powussen were in rebellion against the king, and
confederated with Fasil, that they were advancing fast to cut off the
Ras’s retreat to Gondar, and that Guebra Mehedin, and Confu, Powussen’s
Fit-Auraris, had fallen in with our servants; and plundered them, as
belonging to the king and the Ras.

I was, for some minutes, in the utmost astonishment at this torrent
of bad news. Whether the others knew more than I, it is impossible to
say; dissimulation, in all ranks of these people, is as natural as
breathing. Guebra Mehedin and Confu were the Iteghé’s two nephews,
sons of Basha Eusebius her brother, a worthless man, and his sons no
better. They were young men, however, whom I saw continually at the
queen’s palace, and to whom I should have gone immediately without
fear, if I had known their houses had been in my way, and they happened
to be near Lebec at the hot wells; notwithstanding their rank, they
were of such dissipated manners, that they were of no account, but
treated as castaways in the house of the queen their aunt, and never,
as far as I knew, had entered into the presence of the king. I had
often ate and drank with them, however, in the house of Ayto Engedan,
their cousin-german, who was gone off with Welleta Israel his aunt, at
the passage of the Nile as before mentioned. They had beat Strates,
who was their intimate acquaintance, violently; as also two others of
my servants, to make them confess in what package the gold was. They
had taken from them also a large blunderbuss, given me by the Swedish
consul, Brander, at Algiers; a pair of pistols, a double-barrelled gun,
and a Turkish sword mounted with silver, which, as there was then no
prospect of their being immediately needed, were sent forward with the
baggage.

Netcho and Adigo, and all present, agreed that the whole was a
fiction, and that, supposing the account to be true that Begemder
and Amhara were in rebellion, young, wild, and worthless people, like
Guebra Mehedin and Confu, could never be those pitched upon for the
respectable office of Fit-Auraris. The worst that could be, as they
conceived, was, that some misunderstanding might subsist between Ras
Michael and the governors above named, but Fasil was undoubtedly the
enemy of them all. They imagined therefore that this disgust, if any,
would be soon got over, and concluded that it was highly absurd, in any
case, to attack me, as they certainly knew that the queen, Powussen,
and Gusho, would be full as ill-pleased with it as the king or Ras
Michael. It therefore appeared to them, as it also did to me, that
these wild, young men, had taken the first surmise of a rebellion,
as a pretence for robbing all that came in their way, and that I,
unfortunately, had been the first.

We were in the middle of this conversation when the parties appeared.
They had, perhaps, an hundred horse, and were scattered about a large
plain, skirmishing, playing, pursuing one another, shrieking and
hooping like so many frantic people. They stopt, however, upon coming
nearer, seeing the respectable figure that we made, just ready to pass
the ford, which alone divided us. Our servants had neither seen Netcho
nor Adigo, when they went in the morning, though they knew Adigo was
expected, and these marauders hoped to have intercepted me, thinly
accompanied, as they had done my baggage.

Guebra Mehedin and his brother approached nearer the banks than the
rest, and a servant was sent from them, who crossed the river to us,
upbraiding Ayto Adigo with protecting a Frank proscribed by the laws
of their country, and also with marching to the assistance of Ras
Michael, the murderer of his sovereign, offering at the same time to
divide the spoil with him if he would surrender me and mine to him.
Servants here, who carry messages in time of war between the contending
parties, are held sacred like heralds. They are sent even with insults
and defiances; but it is constantly understood that their errand
protects them from suffering any harm, whether on the road, or when in
words they perform these foolish, useless commissions.

Adigo and Netcho were above observing this punctilio with robbers.
Some were for cutting the servant’s ears off, and some for carrying
him bound to Ras Michael; I begged they would let him go: and Netcho
sent word by him to Guebra Mehedin to get the goods and mules he had
robbed us of together, for he was coming over to share them with him.
The servants having given the messenger a severe drubbing with sticks,
torn the cloth from about his middle, and twisted it about his neck
like a cord, in that plight sent him back to Guebra Mehedin, and we all
prepared to take the ford across the river. Guebra Mehedin, who saw
his servant thus disgraced returning towards him, and a considerable
motion among the troops, advanced a few steps with two or three more of
his company, stretching forth his hand and crying out, but still at a
distance that we could not hear. He was distinguished by a red sash of
silk twisted about his head. I, with my servants and attendants, first
passed the river at the ford, and I had no sooner got up the bank, and
stood upon firm ground, than I fired two shots at him; the one, from a
Turkish rifle, seemed to have given him great apprehensions, or else to
have wounded him, for, after four or five of his people had flocked
about him, they galloped all off across the plain of Foggora towards
Lebec.

Netcho had passed the Gomara close after me, crying upon me to let
him go first, but Adigo declared his resolution to go no farther. He
hated Ras Michael; was a companion of Powussen and Gusho, as well
as a neighbour, and wished for a revolution with all his heart. He,
therefore, returned to Emfras and Karoota, and with him I sent five of
my servants, desiring him to escort my quadrant, clock, and telescopes
into the island of Mitraha, and deliver them to Tecla Georgis, the
king’s servant, governor of that island. Adigo, being left alone by
the servants, could not be persuaded but some great treasure was hid
in those boxes. He, therefore, carried them to his house, and used
the servants well, but opened and examined every one of the packages.
Surprised to find nothing but iron and rusty brass, he closed them
again, and delivered them safely to Tecla Georgis, there to be kept for
that campaign.

Delivered now from the embarrassment of my baggage by the industry of
Guebra Mehedin, and of my cases and boxes by my own inclination, we
set out with Netcho to take up our quarters with Negadè Ras Mahomet at
Dara, where we arrived in the afternoon, having picked up one of our
mules in the way, with a couple of carpets and some kitchen furniture
upon it, all the rest being carried off.

The object which now first presented itself, and called our attention,
was Strates in a night-cap, in other respects perfectly naked, with
a long gun upon his shoulder, without powder or shot, but prancing
and capering about in a great passion, and swearing a number of Greek
oaths, which nobody there understood a word of but myself. This
spectacle was rather diverting for some minutes; at last Netcho, though
I believe he was not over-well provided, gave him an upper cloak to
wrap round him. It was not then warm, indeed, but it was not very
cold. After recovering the mule, he got on between the panniers, and I
advised him to put the smallest carpet about him, which he soon after
did; he had not yet spoke a word to me from sullenness.

“Strates, said I, my good friend, lay aside that long gun, for you will
fall and break it, besides, it hath not been charged since it was fired
at Guebra Mehedin. If you carry it to strike terror, it is altogether
unnecessary; for, if we had dressed you as you are now accoutred, when
we sent you forward with the baggage to Dara, there is not a thief in
all Begemder would have ventured to come near you.” He looked at me
with a countenance full of anger and contempt, though he said nothing;
but, in Greek, pronounced anathemas against the father of Guebra
Mehedin, according to the Greek form of cursing. “Curse himself and his
brother, said I, and not his father, for he has been dead these twenty
years.”--“I will curse whom I please, says he, in a great passion, I
curse his father, himself, and his brother, the Ras, and the king, and
everybody that has brought me into such a scrape as I have been to-day.
I have been stripped naked, and within an inch of having my throat
cut, besides being gelded; and well may you laugh now at the figure I
make. If you had seen those damned crooked knives, with their black
hands, all begging, as if it had been for charity, to be allowed to
do my business, you would have been glad for my making no worse figure
to-night than I do with this carpet upon my head.”

“My dear Strates, said I, it is the fortune of war, and many princes
and great men, who, at this moment I am speaking to you, live in the
enjoyment of every thing they can desire, before a month expires,
perhaps, will be stretched on the cold ground, a prey to the birds and
wild beasts of the field, without so much as a carpet to cover them
such as you have. You as yet are only frightened; though, it is true,
a man may be as well killed as frightened to death.” “Sir, says he, in
a violent rage, that I deny, it is not the same? a man that is killed
feels no more, but he that is frightened to death, _as I have been
to-day_, suffers ten thousand times more than if he had been killed
outright.”--“Well, said I, Strates, I will not dispute with you; I
believe they suffer much the same after they are dead; but you, I thank
God, have only lost your cloaths, and you are now most comfortably,
though not ornamentally, wrapped up in my carpet; as soon as we get to
Dara, you shall be dressed from head to foot, by Negadé Ras Mahomet,
at the expence of the king, in better cloaths than you ever wore in
your life, at least since I knew you; only give me your gun till your
passion is allayed; you know it is a valuable one; which I never quit.”

He then gave me the gun sullenly enough; and I continued, “I will
this very night present you with one of the handsomest Turkish sashes
that Mahomet has to sell. I saw him in the king’s house, with many
new ones that he had procured, a little before I went to Emfras.”
I cannot pretend to say whether his visage cleared up, for he was
still perfectly hid with the carpet, as it began to grow cool as well
as dark; but the sight of the lights in the houses of Dara, and the
promise of the new cloaths and the sash, had very much softened his
voice and expressions.

“Sir, says he, bringing his mule close up to mine, now, _you are not in
a passion_, one may speak to you. Do you not think that it is tempting
Providence to come so far from your own country to seek these d--n’d
weeds and flowers, at the risk of having your throat cut every hour of
the day, and, what is _worse_, my throat cut too, and of being gelded
into the bargain? Are there no weeds, and bogs, and rivers in your own
country? what have you to do with that d--n’d Nile, where he rises, or
whether he rises at all, or not? What will all those trees and branches
do for you when these horrid blacks have done your business, as they
were near doing mine? He then made a sign towards his girdle with his
fingers, which made me understand what he meant--“Nile, says he, curse
upon his father’s head the day that he was born.”

“Strates, replied I gravely, he has no father, and was never _born_.
_Fertur sine teste creatus_, says the poet.”--“There’s your Latin
again; the poet is an ass and a blockhead, let him be who he will,
continued Strates; and I do maintain, whether you be angry or not, that
at Stanchio and Scio there are finer trees than ever you saw, or will
see in Abyssinia. There is a tree, says he, that fifty men like you,
spreading all your hands round about, would not be able to grasp it.
Nay, it is not a tree, it is but half a tree; it is as old, I believe,
as Methuselah: Did you ever see it?”--“I tell you, friend Strates,
said I, I never was at Scio in my life, and, therefore, could not
see it.”--“Nor at Stanchio?”--Yes, I have been at Stanchio, and have
seen the large plane-tree there. I believe it may be about eighteen
or twenty feet in circumference.”--“Galen and Hippocrates lived, adds
he, there together, 2000 years before our Saviour: Did you ever hear
that?”--“I have read, said I, Strates, that, about 500 years before
Christ, Hippocrates did live there; but Galen was not born till 200
years after Christ. I do not recollect if he was ever at Stanchio; but,
surely, never lived there with Hippocrates.”

Strates was in the middle of a declaration, that those were all
falsehoods of Latins and Papists; and we were ascending, composedly
enough, through a narrow, rocky road, thick-covered with high trees and
bushes, when, just before our entrance into the village of Dara, a gun
was fired, and the ball distinctly heard passing through the leaves
among the branches. This occasioned a great alarm to our disputant, who
immediately supposed that Guebra Mehedin, and all his robbers, were
there expressly waiting for us; nor was he the only person that felt
uneasily. Netcho, myself, and the generality of his officers, thought
this was more than probable; we all therefore dismounted, loaded our
fire-arms, halted till all our stragglers came up, and consulted what
we were to do.

Strates, though tired and naked, found it was better to go back under
his carpet, and, if possible, overtake Ayto Adigo, than take possession
of his new cloaths from Negadé Ras Mahomet, with the risk of meeting
Guebra Mehedin there. In vain I remonstrated to him, that he, of all
others, had nothing to lose but Netcho’s old cloak and the carpet.
His fears, however, made him think otherwise, nor could he banish
his apprehensions of the crooked knives, and, what he called, _the
operation_. Netcho having ordered and conversed with his men in his own
language, which I did not understand, said after, with great composure
and firm tone of voice, That he had come to lodge in the market-place
of Dara that night, and would not be put out of his quarters by boys of
the character of Mehedin and Confu; that, in his present circumstances,
with the few troops he had, he did not seek to fight, but even
with this force, such as it was, if attacked, he would not decline
it.--Whatever country, or whatever distance of time and place heroes
live at, their hearts are always in unison, and speak the same language
on similar and great occasions. There old Netcho, without having ever
heard of Shakespeare, repeated the very words that, 300 years ago, our
great king Henry V. did before the battle of Agincourt:--

    The sum of all my answer is but this,
    We would not seek a battle as we are;
    Yet, as we are, we say we will not shun it.
    So tell your master----
                             SHAKESPEARE.

We had not advanced but a few paces, before two of the town came to
us; the noise of our approach had been heard, and all the dogs had
been barking for half an hour. Soon after, arrived a son of Negadé Ras
Mahomet, who assured us all was in peace; that they had been expecting
us and Ayto Adigo with us; that he heard nothing of Guebra Mehedin,
only that he had retreated with great precipitation homewards across
the plain, as they apprehended, from fear of the approach of our party.
He had, indeed, for some days, been guilty of great irregularities;
had slain two men, and wounded the son of Mahomet, the Shum, or chief
of Alata, in attempting to take from him the revenue due from that
territory to the king; after which they had been beat back by Mahomet
without their booty, and nothing more was known of them.

This brought us to Negadè Ras Mahomet’s house, who killed a cow for
Netcho, or rather allowed him to kill one for himself; for it is
equal to a renunciation of Christianity to eat meat when the beast is
slaughtered by a Mahometan. Strates, who from his infancy, in his own
country, had fared on nothing else, was not so scrupulous, though he
concealed it; he therefore had a very hearty supper privately with
Negadé Ras Mahomet and his family, who very willingly promised to get
his new cloaths ready by the next morning.

As I was myself, however, full of thoughts upon the difficulties and
dangers I was already engaged in, and of the prospect of still greater
before me, I had no stomach for either of their suppers, but ordered
some coffee, and went to bed. After I lay down I desired Negadè Ras
Mahomet to come to me, and, when we were alone, I interrogated him if
he knew any thing of the rebellion in Begemder. At first he declared
he did not; he laughed at the notion of Guebra Mehedin and Confu being
Fit-Auraris to Gusho and Powussen, and said, that either of these
generals would hang them the first time they came into their hands. He
told me, however, that Woodage Asahel had been assembling troops, and
had committed some cruelties upon the king’s servants in Maitsha; but
this, he imagined, was at the instigation of Fasil, for he never was
known to have been connected either with Powussen or Gusho. He told
me after, under the seal of secrecy, that Ras Michael had halted two
days at Derdera; that, upon a message he had received from Begemder,
he had broke out into violent passions against Gusho and Powussen,
calling them liars and traitors, in the openest manner; that a council
had been held at Derdera, in presence of the king, where it was in
deliberation whether the army should not turn short into Begemder, to
force that province to join them; but that it was carried, for the sake
of the Agows, to send Powussen a summons to join him for the last time:
that, in the mean while, they should march straight with the greatest
diligence to meet Fasil, and give him battle, then return, and reduce
to proper subordination both Begemder and Amhara.

This was the very worst news I could possibly receive according to the
resolutions that I had then taken, for I was within about fourteen
miles of the great cataract, and it was probable I never again should
be so near, were it even always accessible; to pass, therefore, without
seeing it, was worse, in my own thoughts, than any danger that could
threaten me.

Negade Ras Mahomet was a sober plain man, of excellent understanding,
and universal good character for truth and integrity; and, as such,
very much in the favour both of the King and Ras Michael. I therefore
opened my intentions to him without reserve, desiring his advice how
to manage this excursion to the cataract. “Unless you had told me you
was resolved, says he, with a grave air, though full of openness and
candour, I would, in the first place, have advised you not to think
of such an undertaking; these are unsettled times; all the country is
bushy, wild, and uninhabited, quite to Alata; and though Mahomet, the
Shum, is a good man, my friend and relation, and the king reposes trust
in him, as he does in me, yet Alata itself is at any time but a bad,
straggling place, there are now many strangers, and wild people there,
whom Mahomet has brought to his assistance, since Guebra Mehedin made
the attack upon him. If, then, any thing was to befal you, what should
I answer to the king and the Iteghè? it would be said, the Turk has
betrayed him; though, God knows, I was never capable of betraying your
dog, and rather would be poor all my life, than the richest man of the
province by doing the like wrong, even if the bad action was never to
be revealed, or known, unless to my own heart.”

“Mahomet, said I, you need not dwell on these professions; I have lived
twelve years with people of your religion, my life always in their
power, and I am now in your house, in preference to being in a tent out
of doors with Netcho and his Christians. I do not ask you whether I am
to go or not, for that is resolved on; and, tho’ you are a Mahometan,
and I a Christian, no religion teaches a man to do evil. We both agree
in this, that God, who has protected me thus far, is capable to protect
me likewise at the cataract, and farther, if he has not determined
otherwise, for my good; I only ask you as a man who knows the country,
to give me your best advice, how I may satisfy my curiosity in this
point, with as little danger, and as much expedition as possible,
leaving the rest to heaven.”--“Well, says he, I shall do so. I think,
likewise, for your comfort, that, barring unforeseen accidents, you
may do it at this time, without great danger. Guebra Mehedin will
not come between this town and Alata, because we are all one people,
and the killing two men, and wounding Mahomet’s son, makes him a
_dimmenia_[115]. At Alata he knows the Shum is ready to receive him as
he deserves, and he is himself afraid of Kasmati Ayabdar, with whom
he is as deep in guilt as with us, and here he well knows he dare not
venture for many reasons.” “Ayabdar, said I, passed the Karoota three
days ago.” “Well, well, replied Mahomet, so much the better. Ayabdar
has the leprosy, and goes every year once, sometimes twice, to the hot
wells at Lebec; they must pass near one another, and that is the reason
Guebra Mehedin has assembled all these banditti of horse about him. He
is a beggar, and a spendthrift; a fortnight ago he sent to me to borrow
twenty ounces of gold. You may be sure I did not lend it him; he is too
much in my debt already; and I hope Ras Michael will give you his head
in your hand before winter, for the shameful action he has been guilty
of to you and yours this day.”

“Woodage Asahel, said I, what say you of him?”--“Why, you know, replied
Mahomet, nobody can inform you about his motions, as he is perpetually
on horseback, and never rests night nor day; however, he has no
business on this side of the water, the rather that he must be sure Ras
Michael, when he passed here, took with him all the king’s money that
I had in my hands. When day-light is fairly come, for we do not know
the changes a night may produce in this country, take half a dozen of
your servants; I will send with you my son and four of my servants;
you will call at Alata, go down and see the cataract, but do not stay,
return immediately, and, _Ullah Kerim_, God is merciful.”

I thanked my kind landlord, and let him go; but recollecting, called
him again, and asked, “What shall I do with Netcho? how shall I rejoin
him? my company is too small to pass Maitsha without him.”--“Sleep in
peace, says he, I will provide for that. I tell you in confidence, the
king’s money is in my hands, and was not ready when the Ras passed;
my son is but just arrived with the last of it this evening, tired to
death; I send the money by Netcho, and my son too, with forty stout
fellows well armed, who will die in your service, and not run away
like those vagabond Christians, in whom you must place no confidence
if danger presents itself, but immediately throw yourself among the
Mahometans. Besides, there are about fifty soldiers, most of them from
Tigré, Michael’s men, that have been loitering here these two days. It
was one of these that fired the gun just before you came, which alarmed
Netcho; so that, when you are come back in safety from the cataract,
they shall be, by that time, all on their march to the passage. My son
shall mount with you; I fear the Nile will be too deep, but when once
you are at Tsoomwa, you may set your mind at rest, and bid defiance to
Woodage Asahel, who knows his enemy always before he engages him, and
at this time will not venture to interrupt your march.”

As I have mentioned the name of this person so often, it will be
necessary to take notice, that he was by origin a Galla, but born in
Damot, of the clan Elmana, or Densa, two tribes settled there in the
time of Yasous I. that he was the most intrepid and active partizan in
his time, and had an invincible hatred to Ras Michael, nor was there
any love lost betwixt them. It is impossible to conceive with what
velocity he moved, sometimes with 200 horse, sometimes with half that
number. He was constantly falling upon some part of Michael’s army,
whether marching or encamped; the blow once struck, he disappeared in
a minute. When he wanted to attempt something great, he had only to
summon his friends and acquaintance in the country, and he had then a
little army, which dispersed as soon as the business was done. It was
Ras Michael’s first question to the spies; Where was Woodage Asahel
last night? a question they very seldom could answer with certainty.
He was in his person too tall for a good horseman, yet he was expert
in this qualification by constant practice. His face was yellow, as
if he had the jaundice, and much pitted with the small-pox; his eyes
staring, but fiery; his nose as it were broken, his mouth large, his
chin long and turned up at the end; he spoke very fast, but not much,
and had a very shy, but ill-designing look. In his character, he was
avaricious, treacherous, inexorable, and cruel to a proverb; in short,
he was allowed to be the most merciless robber and murderer that age
had produced in all Abyssinia.

Wearied with thinking, and better reconciled to my expedition, I fell
into a sound sleep. I was awakened by Strates in the morning, (the
21st of May) who, from the next room, had heard all the conversation
between me and Negadé Ras, and began now to think there was no safety
but in the camp of the king. I will not repeat his wise expostulations
against going to the cataract. We were rather late, and I paid little
regard to them. After coffee, I mounted my horse, with five servants
on horseback, all resolute, active, young fellows, armed with lances
in the fashion of their country. I was joined that moment by a son of
Mahomet, on a good horse, armed with a short gun, and pistols at his
belt, with four of his servants, Mahometans, stout men, each having his
gun, and pistols at his girdle, and a sword hung over his shoulder,
mounted upon four good mules, swifter and stronger than ordinary
horses. We galloped all the way, and were out of sight in a short
time. We then pursued our journey with diligence, but not in a hurry;
we went first to a hilly and rocky country, full of trees, mostly of
unknown kinds, and all of the greatest beauty possible, having flowers
of a hundred different colours and forms upon them, many of the trees
were loaded with fruit, and many with both fruit and flowers. I was
truly sorry to be obliged to pass them without more distinct notice;
but we had no time, as the distance to the cataract was not absolutely
certain, and the cataract then was our only object.

After passing the plain, we came to a brisk stream which rises in
Begemder, passes Alata, and throws itself into the Nile below the
cataract. They told me it was called Mariam Ohha; and, a little
farther, on the side of a green hill, having the rock appearing in
some parts of it, stands Alata, a considerable village, with several
smaller, to the south and west. Mahomet, our guide, rode immediately
up to the house where he knew the governor, or Shum, resided, for
fear of alarming him; but we had already been seen at a considerable
distance, and Mahomet and his servants known. All the people of the
village surrounded the mules directly, paying each their compliments to
the master and the servants; the same was immediately observed towards
us; and, as I saluted the Shum in Arabic, his own language, we speedily
became acquainted. Having overshot the cataract, the noise of which
we had a long time distinctly heard, I resisted every entreaty that
could be made to me to enter the house to refresh myself. I had imbibed
part of Strates’s fears about the unsettledness of the times, and all
the kind invitations were to no purpose; I was, as it were, forced to
comply to refresh our horses.

I happened to be upon a very steep part of the hill full of bushes; and
one of the servants, dressed in the Arabian fashion, in a burnoose,
and turban striped white and green, led my horse, for fear of his
slipping, till it got into the path leading to the Shum’s door. I heard
the fellow exclaiming in Arabic, as he led the horse, “Good Lord! to
see you here! Good God! to see you here!”--“I asked him who he was
speaking of, and what reason he had to wonder to see me there.”--“What!
do you not know me!” “I said I did not.”--“Why, replied he, I was
several times with you at Jidda. I saw you often with Capt. Price and
Capt. Scott, with the Moor Yasine, and Mahomet Gibberti. I was the
man that brought your letters from Metical Aga at Mecca, and was to
come over with you to Masuah, if you had gone directly there, and had
not proceeded to Yemen or Arabia Felix. I was on board the Lion, with
the Indian nokeda (so they call the captain of a country ship) when
your little vessel, all covered with sail, passed with such briskness
through the English ships, which all fired their cannon; and everybody
said, there is a poor man making great haste to be assassinated among
those wild people in Habesh; and so we all thought. He concluded,
Drink! no force! Englishman! very good! G--d damn, drink!” We had just
arrived, while my friend was uttering these exclamations, at the place
where the Shum and the rest were standing. The man continued repeating
the same words, crying as loud as he could, with an air of triumph,
while I was reflecting how shameful it was for us to make these
profligate expressions by frequent repetition, so easily acquired by
strangers that knew nothing else of our language.

The Shum, and all about him, were in equal astonishment at seeing the
man, to all appearance, in a passion, bawling out words they did not
understand; but he, holding a horn in his hand, began louder than
before, drink! very good! Englishman! shaking the horn in the Shum his
master’s face. Mahomet of Alata was a very grave, composed man; “I do
declare, says he, Ali is become mad: Does anybody know what he says or
means?”--“That I do, said I, and will tell you bye-and-bye; he is an
old acquaintance of mine, and is speaking English; let us make a hasty
meal, however, with any thing you have to give us.”

Our horses were immediately fed; bread, honey, and butter served: Ali
had no occasion to cry, drink; it went about plentifully, and I would
stay no longer, but mounted my horse, thinking every minute that I
tarried might be better spent at the cataract. The first thing they
carried us to was the bridge, which consists of one arch of about
twenty-five feet broad, the extremities of which were strongly let
into, and rested on the solid rock on both sides; but fragments of the
parapets remained, and the bridge itself seemed to bear the appearance
of frequent repairs, and many attempts to ruin it; otherwise, in its
construction, it was exceedingly commodious. The Nile here is confined
between two rocks, and runs in a deep trough, with great roaring and
impetuous velocity. We were told no crocodiles were ever seen so high,
and were obliged to remount the stream above half a mile before we came
to the cataract, through trees and bushes of the same beautiful and
delightful appearance with those we had seen near Dara.

The cataract itself was the most magnificent sight that ever I beheld.
The height has been rather exaggerated. The missionaries say the fall
is about sixteen ells, or fifty feet. The measuring is, indeed, very
difficult, but, by the position of long sticks, and poles of different
lengths, at different heights of the rock, from the water’s edge, I may
venture to say that it is nearer forty feet than any other measure. The
river had been considerably increased by rains, and fell in one sheet
of water, without any interval, above half an English mile in breadth,
with a force and noise that was truly terrible, and which stunned and
made me, for a time, perfectly dizzy. A thick fume, or haze, covered
the fall all round, and hung over the course of the stream both above
and below, marking its track, though the water was not seen. The river,
though swelled with rain, preserved its natural clearness, and fell, as
far as I could discern, into a deep pool, or bason, in the solid rock,
which was full, and in twenty different eddies to the very foot of the
precipice, the stream, when it fell, seeming part of it to run back
with great fury upon the rock, as well as forward in the line of its
course, raising a wave, or violent ebullition, by chaffing against each
other.

Jerome Lobo pretends, that he has sat under the curve, or arch, made by
the projectile force of the water rushing over the precipice. He says
he sat calmly at the foot of it, and looking through the curve of the
stream, as it was falling, saw a number of rainbows of inconceivable
beauty in this extraordinary prism. This however I, without hesitation,
aver to be a downright falsehood. A deep pool of water, as I mentioned,
reaches to the very foot of the rock, and is in perpetual agitation.
Now, allowing that there was a seat, or bench, which there is not, in
the middle of the pool, I do believe it absolutely impossible, by any
exertion of human strength, to have arrived at it. Although a very
robust man, in the prime and vigour of life, and a hardy, practised,
indefatigable swimmer, I am perfectly confident I could not have got
to that seat from the shore through the quietest part of that bason.
And, supposing the friar placed in his imaginary seat under the curve
of that immense arch of water, he must have had a portion of firmness,
more than falls to the share of ordinary men, and which is not likely
to be acquired in a monastic life, to philosophise upon optics in such
a situation, where every thing would seem to his dazzled eyes to be in
motion, and the stream, in a noise like the loudest thunder, to make
the solid rock (at least as to sense) shake to its very foundation, and
threaten to tear every nerve to pieces, and to deprive one of other
senses besides that of hearing. It was a most magnificent sight, that
ages, added to the greatest length of human life, would not deface or
eradicate from my memory; it struck me with a kind of stupor, and a
total oblivion of where I was, and of every other sublunary concern.
It was one of the most magnificent, stupendous sights in the creation,
though degraded and vilified by the lies of a groveling, fanatic
peasant.

I was awakened from one of the most profound reveries that ever I
fell into, by Mahomet, and by my friend _Drink_, who now put to me a
thousand impertinent questions. It was after this I measured the fall,
and believe, within a few feet, it was the height I have mentioned; but
I confess I could at no time in my life less promise upon precision;
my reflection was suspended, or subdued, and while in sight of the
fall I think I was under a temporary alienation of mind; it seemed
to me as if one element had broke loose from, and become superior to
all laws of subordination; that the fountains of the great deep were
extraordinarily opened, and the destruction of a world was again begun
by the agency of water.

It was now half an hour past one o’clock, the weather perfectly good;
it had rained very little that day, but threatened a showery evening;
I peremptorily refused returning back to Alata, which our landlord
importuned us to. He gave us a reason that he thought would have
weight with us, that he, too, had his meery, or money, to send to the
king, which would be ready the next morning as early as we pleased.
The mention of to-morrow morning brought all my engagements and their
consequences into my mind, and made me give a flat refusal, with some
degree of peevishness and ill-humour. I had soon after found, that he
had otherwise made up this affair with Mahomet our guide; but being
resolute, and, a moment after, taking leave of our kind Shum, we were
joined by Seide his eldest son, and our _English friend Drink_, each
upon a mule, with two servants on foot, his father, as he said, being
unwilling to spare more people, as the whole inhabitants of Alata,
their neighbours and friends, intended soon to surprise Guebra Mehedin,
if a feasible opportunity offered.

Though we went briskly, it was past five before we arrived at Dara.
Netcho had not stirred, and had procured another cow from Mahomet, of
which all the strangers, and soldiers who remained, partook. Mahomet,
I believe, out of kindness to me, had convinced them of the necessity
of taking along with them the Shum of Alata’s money; and Netcho well
knew that those who brought any part of the revenue to Ras Michael were
always received kindly; and he was not interested enough in the cause
to make more haste than necessary to join the king.

Strates was completely cloathed, and received his sash upon my arrival.
He feigned to be wonderfully hurt at my having left him behind in my
excursion to the cataract. At supper I began to question him, for
the first time, what had happened to him with Guebra Mehedin. “Sure,
Strates, said I, you two were once friends; I have dined with you
together many a time at Ayto Engedan’s, and often seen you with him
in Gondar.”--“Gondar! says he, I have known him these fourteen years,
when he was a child in his father Basha Eusebius’s house; he was always
playing amongst us at his uncle Kasmati Eshté’s; he was just one of us;
nay, he is not now twenty-six.”

Strates proceeded--“We were crossing the plain below Dara, and not
being inclined to go into the town without you, we made to a large
daroo-tree, and sat down to rest ourselves till you should come up.
As the ground was somewhat elevated, we saw several horses in the
bed of a torrent where there was no water running, and, when these
were pulled up the bank, their masters got immediately upon them. I
conceived the one with the red sash upon his head was Guebra Mehedin,
and presently eight or ten naked people, armed with lances and shields,
came out of the hole nearest me. I was surprised, and thought they
might be robbers, and, kneeling down upon one knee, I presented the
large blunderbuss at them. On this they all ran back to their hole, and
fell flat on their faces; and they did well; I should have given them
a confounded peppering.”--“Certainly, said I, there is little doubt of
that.”--“You may laugh, continued Strates, but the first thing I saw
near me was Confu and Guebra Mehedin, the one with a red, the other a
kind of white fillet tied round his forehead. O ho! friend, says Guebra
Mehedin, where are you going? and held out his hand to me as kindly,
familiarly, and chearfully as possible. I immediately laid down my
blunderbuss, and went to kiss his hand. You know they are the good old
queen’s nephews; and I thought if their house was near we should have
good entertainment, and some merriment that night. I then saw one of
their servants lift the blunderbuss from the ground, but apparently
with fear, and the rest took possession of the mules and baggage. I
began to ask Guebra Mehedin what this meant? and said accidentally,
_ente you!_ instead of speaking it _entow_, as you know they pronounce
it to great people. Without further provocation he gave me a lash with
his whip across the eyes, another behind took hold of your sword that
was flung upon my shoulders, and would have strangled me with the cord
if I had not fallen backwards; they all began then to strip me. I
was naked in a minute as I was the hour I was born, having only this
night-cap; when one of them, a tall black fellow, drew a crooked knife,
and proposed to pay me a compliment that has made me shudder every time
I have since thought of it. I don’t know what would have been the end
of it, if Confu had not said, Poh! he is a _white_ man, and not worth
the _scarifying_: Let us seek his master, says Guebra Mehedin, he will
by this have passed the Gomara; he has always plenty of gold both from
the king and Iteghé, and is a real Frank, on which account it would be
a sin to spare him. On this away they went skirmishing about the plain.
Horsemen came to join them from all parts, and every one that passed me
gave me a blow of some kind or other. None of them hurt me very much,
but, no matter; I may have my turn: we shall see what figure he will
make before the Iteghé some of these days, or, what is better, before
Ras Michael.”

“That you shall never see, says Negadé Ras Mahomet, who entered the
room in the instant, for there is a man now without who informs us
that Guebra Mehedin is either dead or just a-dying. A shot fired at
him, by one of you at the Gomara, cut off part of his cheek-bone; the
next morning he heard that Kasmati Ayabdar was going to the hot waters
at Lebec with servants only, and the devil to whom he belonged would
not quit him; he would persist, ill as he was, to attack Ayabdar, who
having, unknown to him, brought a number of stout fellows along with
him, without difficulty cut his servants to pieces. In the fray, Tecla
Georgis, a servant who takes care of Ayabdar’s horse, coming up with
Guebra Mehedin himself, hurt as he was, struck him over the skull with
a large crooked knife like a hatchet, and left him mortally wounded on
the field, whence he was carried to a church, where he is now lying
a miserable spectacle, and can never recover.” Strates could hold no
longer. He got up and danced as if he had been frantic, sometimes
singing Greek songs, at another time pronouncing ten thousand curses,
which he wished might overtake him in the other world. For my part,
I felt very differently, for I had much rather, considering whose
nephew he was, that he should have lived, than to have it said that he
received his first wound, not a mortal one, but intended as such, from
my hand.




CHAP. V.

_Pass the Nile and encamp at Tsoomwa--Arrive at Derdera--Alarm on
approaching the Army--Join the King at Karcagna._


On the 22d of May we were all equally desirous to resume our journey.
We set out accordingly at six o’clock in the morning, ascending some
hills covered, as the former ones, with trees and shrubs, utterly
unknown to me, but of inexpressible beauty, and many of extraordinary
fragrance. We continued ascending about three miles, till we came to
the top of the ridge within sight of the lake. As we rose, the hills
became more bare and less beautiful. We afterwards descended towards
the passage, partly over steep banks which had been covered with
bushes, all trodden down by the army, and which had made the access
to the river exceedingly slippery. Here we saw the use of Mahomet’s
servants, three of whom, each with a lance in one hand, holding that of
his companion in the other, waded across the violent stream, sounding
with the end of their lances every step they took. The river was very
deep, the current, I suppose, fifty yards broader than it was at the
cataract; but the banks were, for a great way on each side, almost
perfectly level, though much obstructed with black stones. In the
middle it was very deep, and the stream smooth, so that it was apparent
our horses must swim. For my part I did not like the smooth stones
at the bottom, as a fall there would have been irrecoverable; and my
horse was shod with iron, which is not usual in Abyssinia. I therefore
resolved to swim where I could not wade, and, wrapping my cloaths in a
bundle, I gave them to a servant, who carried them over on his head. I
then waded in, and found the water unexpectedly cold. Mahomet rode on
a mule by my side, sometimes swimming, sometimes walking. I attempted
to sound up towards the lake, and found it deeper there. I returned,
therefore, being unwilling to try experiments, and, committing myself
to the stream, swam to the other side, much comforted by the assurance
that no crocodile passed the cataract.

The beasts having got over, the men followed much quicker; many women,
going to join the army, swam over, holding the tails of the horses, and
we were all on the other side before twelve o’clock, the beasts a good
deal tired with the passage, the steepness of the access to it, and the
still greater depth on the other side. For my part, I thought we could
not have gone on to Tsoomwa, but it was carried against me. Tsoomwa is
about twelve miles distant; and I suppose it was not much past three
o’clock when we arrived there, which was very fortunate, as we had
scarcely pitched our tents before a most terrible storm of rain, wind,
and thunder overtook us. My tent was happily placed in one respect,
being on a flat on the lee-side of a hill, and sheltered from the
storm; but, on the other hand, the water ran so plentifully from above
as quite to overflow it on the inside till a trench was dug to carry it
off.

Ras Michael had burnt nothing at Tsoomwa, though there was a house of
Powussen’s in the place, built by his father. But that dissembler, to
prevent the worst, and carry on the farce to the uttermost, had sent
many bags of flour for the use of the King and the Ras, which were to
be distributed to the army in case they wanted.

From the passage to Tsoomwa, all the country was forsaken; the houses
uninhabited, the grass trodden down, and the fields without cattle.
Every thing that had life and strength fled before that terrible
leader, and his no less terrible army; a profound silence was in the
fields around us, but no marks as yet of desolation. We kept strict
watch in this solitude all that night. I took my turn till twelve, as I
was the least fatigued of any. Netcho had picquets about a quarter of a
mile on every side of us, with fire-arms to give the alarm.

On the 23d, about three in the morning, a gun was heard on the side
towards the passage. This did not much alarm us, though we all turned
out. In a few minutes came Ayto Adigo, (not the Shum of Karoota,
already mentioned, who left us at the Gomara,) but a young nobleman
of Begemder of great hopes, one of the gentlemen of the king’s
bed-chamber, and consequently my colleague. He intended to have brought
four horses to the king, one of which he had drowned, or rather, as
I afterwards understood, throttled in passing the Nile at the mouth
of the lake; and two men, the king’s servants, had perished there
likewise. He came in great hurry, full of the news from Begemder,
and of the particulars of the conspiracy, such as have been already
stated. With Ayto Adigo came the king’s cook, Sebastos, an old Greek,
near seventy, who had fallen sick with fatigue. After having satisfied
his inquiries, and given him what refreshment we could spare, he left
Sebastos with us, and pursued his journey to the camp.

On the 24th, at our ordinary time, when the sun began to be hot, we
continued our route due south, through a very plain, flat country,
which, by the constant rains that now fell, began to stand in large
pools, and threatened to turn all into a lake. We had hitherto lost
none of our beasts of carriage, but we now were so impeded by streams,
brooks, and quagmires, that we despaired of ever bringing one of them
to join the camp. The horses, and beasts of burthen that carried the
baggage of the army, and which had passed before us, had spoiled
every ford, and we saw to-day a number of dead mules lying about the
fields, the houses all reduced to ruins, and smoking like so many
kilns; even the grass, or wild oats, which were grown very high, were
burnt in large plots of a hundred acres together; every thing bore the
marks that Ras Michael was gone before, whilst not a living creature
appeared in those extensive, fruitful, and once well-inhabited plains.
An awful silence reigned everywhere around, interrupted only at times
by thunder, now become daily, and the rolling of torrents produced
by local showers in the hills, which ceased with the rain, and were
but the children of an hour. Amidst this universal silence that
prevailed all over this scene of extensive desolation, I could not
help remembering how finely Mr Gray paints the passage of such an army,
under a leader like Ras Michael--

    Confusion in his van with flight combin’d,
    And Sorrow’s faded form, and Solitude behind.

At Derdera we saw the church of St Michael, the only building which,
in favour of his own name, the Ras had spared. It served us then for a
very convenient lodging, as much rain had fallen in the night, and the
priests had all fled or been murdered. We had this evening, when it
was clear, seen the mountain of Samseen. Our next stage from Derdera
was Karcagna, a small village near the banks of the Jemma, about two
miles from Samseen. We knew the king had resolved to burn it, and we
expected to have seen the clouds of smoke arising from its ruins, but
all was perfectly cool and clear, and this very much surprised us,
considering the time he had to do this, and the great punctuality and
expedition with which his army used to execute orders of this kind. As
we advanced, we had seen a great number of dead mules and horses, and
the hyænas so bold as only to leave the carcase for a moment, and snarl
as if they had regretted at seeing any of us pass alive.

Since passing the Nile I found myself more than ordinarily depressed;
my spirits were sunk almost to a degree of despondency, and yet nothing
had happened since that period more than was expected before. This
disagreeable situation of mind continued at night while I was in bed.
The rashness and imprudence with which I had engaged myself in so
many dangers without any necessity for so doing; the little prospect
of my being ever able to extricate myself out of them, or, even if
I lost my life, of the account being conveyed to my friends at home;
the great and unreasonable presumption which had led me to think that,
after every one that had attempted this voyage had miscarried in it,
I was the only person that was to succeed; all these reflections upon
my mind, when relaxed, dozing, and half oppressed with sleep, filled
my imagination with what I have heard other people call the _horrors_,
the most disagreeable sensation I ever was conscious of, and which I
then felt for the first time. Impatient of suffering any longer, I
leaped out of bed, and went to the door of the tent, where the outward
air perfectly awakened me, and restored my strength and courage. All
was still, and at a distance I saw several bright fires, but lower
down, and more to the right than I expected, which made me think I was
mistaken in the situation of Karcagna. It was then near four in the
morning of the 25th. I called up my companions, happily buried in deep
sleep, as I was desirous, if possible, to join the king that day. We
accordingly were three or four miles from Derdera when the sun rose;
there had been little rain that night, and we found very few torrents
on our way; but it was slippery, and uneasy walking, the rich soil
being trodden into a consistence like paste.

About seven o’clock we entered upon the broad plain of Maitsha, and
were fast leaving the lake. Here the country is, at least a great part
of it, in tillage, and had been, in appearance, covered with plentiful
crops, but all was cut down by the army for their horses, or trodden
under foot, from carelessness or vengeance, so that a green blade
could scarcely be seen. We saw a number of people this day, chiefly
straggling soldiers, who, in parties of threes and fours, had been
seeking, in all the bushes and concealed parts of the river, for the
miserable natives, who had hid themselves thereabouts; in this they had
many of them been successful. They had some of them three, some of them
four women, boys and girls, who, though Christians like themselves,
they nevertheless were carrying away into slavery to sell them to the
Turks for a very small price.

A little before nine we heard a gun fired that gave us some joy, as the
army seemed not to be far off; a few minutes after, we heard several
dropping shots, and, in less than a quarter of an hour’s time, a
general firing began from right to left, which ceased for an instant,
and then was heard again as smart as ever, about the occasion of which
we were divided in opinion.

Netcho was satisfied that Woodage Asahel, from Samseen, had fallen upon
Ras Michael at Karcagna, to prevent his burning it, and that Fasil had
strongly reinforced him that he might be able to retard the army’s
march. On the other hand, having been informed by Ayto Adigo, that news
were come to Gondar that Fasil had left Buré, and that Derdera was the
place agreed on by Gusho and Powussen to shut up Michael on the rear,
I thought that it was Fasil, to make good his part of his promise, who
had crossed the Nile at Goutto, and attacked Ras Michael before he
suffered him to burn Samseen. Indeed we all agreed that both opinions
were likely to be true, and that Fasil and Woodage Asahel would both
attack the king at the same time. The firing continued much in the same
way, rather slacker, but apparently advancing nearer us; a sure sign
that our army was beaten and retreating. We, therefore, made ourselves
ready, and mounted on horseback, that we might join them. Yet it was
a thing appeared to us scarcely possible, that Fasil should beat Ras
Michael so easily, and with so short a resistance.

We had not gone far in the plain before we had a sight of the enemy,
to our very great surprise and no small comfort. A multitude of deer,
buffaloes, boars, and various other wild beasts, had been alarmed by
the noise and daily advancing of the army, and gradually driven before
them. The country was all overgrown with wild oats, a great many of
the villages having been burnt the year before the inhabitants had
abandoned them; in this shelter the wild beasts had taken up their
abodes in very great numbers. When the army pointed towards Karcagna to
the left, the silence and solitude on the opposite side made them turn
to the right to where the Nile makes a semi-circle, the Jemma being
behind them, and much overflowed. When the army, therefore, instead of
marching south and by east towards Samseen, had turned their course
north-west, their faces towards Gondar, they had fallen in with these
innumerable herds of deer and other beasts, who, confined between the
Nile, the Jemma, and the lake, had no way to return but that by which
they had come. These animals, finding men in every direction in which
they attempted to pass, became desperate with fear, and, not knowing
what course to take, fell a prey to the troops. The soldiers, happy
in an occasion of procuring animal food, presently fell to firing
wherever the beasts appeared; every loaded gun was discharged upon
them, and this continued for very near an hour. A numerous flock of the
largest deer met us just in the face, and seemed so desperate, that
they had every appearance of running us down; and part of them forced
themselves through, regardless of us all, whilst others turned south to
escape across the plain.

The king and Ras Michael were in the most violent agitation of mind:
though the cause was before their eyes, yet the word went about that
Woodage Asahel had attacked the army; and this occasioned a great panic
and disorder, for everybody was convinced with reason that he was not
far off. The firing, however, continued, the balls flew about in every
direction, some few were killed, and many people and horses were hurt;
still they fired, and Ras Michael, at the door of his tent, crying,
threatening, and tearing his grey locks, found, for a few minutes, the
army was not under his command. At this instant, Kasmati Netcho, whose
Fit-Auraris had fallen back on his front, ordered his kettle-drums,
to be beat before he arrived in the king’s presence; and this being
heard, without it being known generally who we were, occasioned another
panic; great part of the army believed that Powussen and Gusho were
now at hand to keep their appointment with Fasil, and that Netcho and
I were his Fit-Auraris. The king ordered his tent to be pitched, his
standard to be set up, his drums to beat, (the signal for encamping)
and the firing immediately ceased. But it was a long while before all
the army could believe that Woodage Asahel had not been engaged with
some part of it that day. Happily, if near at hand, he did not lay hold
of this favourable opportunity; for I am convinced, if, just before our
arrival, he had attacked Michael on the Samseen side, with 500 horse,
our whole army had fled without resistance, and dispersed all over the
country.

Here I left Kasmati Netcho, and was making my way towards the king’s
tent, when I was met by a servant of confidence of Kefla Yasous, who
had that day commanded the rear in the retreat, a very experienced
officer, brave even to a fault, but full of mildness and humanity, and
the most sensible and affable man in the army. He sent to desire that
I would come to him alone, or that I would send one of the Greeks that
followed me. I promised to do so, after having answered most of the
questions that he bade his servant ask of me. After this I searched for
Strates and Sebastos, who had been sick upon the road.

I soon came up with them, and was more surprised than I had been for
several days, to see them both lie extended on the ground; Strates
bleeding at a large wound in his forehead, speaking Greek to himself,
and crying out his leg was broken, whilst he pressed it with both his
hands below the knee, seemingly regardless of the gash in his head,
which appeared to me a very ugly one, so that I, of course, thought his
leg was still worse. Sebastos was lying stretched along the ground,
scarcely saying any thing, but sighing loudly. Upon my asking him
whether his arm was broken? he answered feebly, that he was a dying
man, and that his legs, his arms, and his ribs were broken to pieces.
I could not for my life conceive how this calamity had happened so
suddenly, for I had not been half an hour absent talking to Kefla
Yasous’s servant; and, what seemed to me still stranger, every body
around them were bursting out into fits of laughter.

Ali Mahomet’s servant, who was the only person that I saw concerned,
upon my asking, told me that it was all owing to prince George, who
had frightened their mules. I have already hinted that this prince was
fond of horsemanship, and rode with saddle, bridle, and stirrups, like
an Arab; and, though young, was become an excellent horseman, superior
to any in Abyssinia. The manner that two Arabs salute one another, when
they meet, is, the person inferior in rank, or age, presents his gun at
the other, about 500 yards distance, charged with powder only; he then,
keeping his gun always presented, gallops these 500 yards as fast as he
can, and, being arrived close, lowers the muzzle of his gun, and pours
the explosion just under the other’s stirrups, or horse’s belly. This
they do, sometimes twenty at a time, and you would often think it was
impossible somebody should escape being bruised or burnt.

The prince had learned this exercise from me, and was very perfect at
the performance of it. We had procured him a short gun, with a lock and
flint instead of a match, and he shot not only justly, but gracefully
on horseback. He had been out after the deer all the morning; and
hearing that I was arrived, and seeing the two Greeks riding on their
mules, he came galloping furiously with his gun presented, and, not
seeing me, he fired a shot under the belly of Strates’s mule, upon the
ground, and wheeling as quick as lightning to the left, regardless of
the mischief he had occasioned, was out of sight in a moment, before he
knew the consequences.

Never was compliment worse timed or relished. Strates had two panniers
upon his mule, containing two great earthen jars of hydromel for the
king; Sebastos had also some jars and pots, and three or four dozen of
drinking-glasses, likewise for the king; each of the mules was covered
with a carpet, and also the panniers; and upon the pack-saddle, between
these panniers, did Strates and Sebastos ride. The mules as well as the
loading belonged to the king, and they only were permitted to ride them
because they were sick. Strates went first, and, to save trouble, the
halter of Sebastos’s mule was tied to Strates’s saddle, so the mules
were fastened to and followed one another. Upon firing the gun so near
it, Strates’s mule, not used to compliments of this kind, started, and
threw him to the ground; it then trampled upon him, began to run off,
and wound the halter around Sebastos behind, who fell to the ground
likewise amongst some stones. Both the mules then began kicking at
each other, till they had thrown off the panniers and pack-saddles,
and broke every thing that was brittle in them. The mischief did not
end here, for, in struggling to get loose, they fell foul of the mule
of old Azage Tecla Haimanout, one of the king’s criminal judges, a
very old, feeble man, and threw him upon the ground, and broke his
foot, so that he could not walk alone for several months afterwards.
As soon as I had pitched a tent for the wounded, and likewise dressed
Tecla Haimanout’s foot, I went to Kefla Yasous, while the two Mahomets
proceeded to the Ras with their money.

The moment I came into the tent, Kefla Yasous rose up and embraced
me. He was sitting alone, but with rather a chearful than a dejected
countenance; he told me they were all in great concern, till Ayto
Adigo’s arrival, at a report which came from Gondar that we had fought
with Guebra Mehedin, and had all been slain. I informed him every thing
I knew, or had heard, but he had better intelligence than I in every
article but this last, fresh news having arrived the night before
by way of Delakus. He said, the rebellion of Gusho and Powussen was
certain; that the King and Ras knew every circumstance of it, and that
Court-ohha was the place appointed with Fasil to meet and cut them off;
he had not heard of Woodage Asahel’s march, but seemed to give full
credit to it; he said it was certain, likewise, that Fasil had advanced
towards Maitsha; but where his quarters were he did not know, probably
they were not at a great distance. He complained violently of his
march, and of the number of beasts which they had lost; he wished also
that Fasil would be induced to give battle where they were encamped, as
his horse would probably be of little use to him among so many torrents
and rivers, and must suffer considerably in their advancing hither.

I asked him whither they were now marching? He said, that, as soon
as the news of the conspiracy were known, a council was held, where
it was the general opinion they should proceed, briskly forward, and
attack Fasil alone at Buré, then turn to Gondar to meet the other two;
but then they had it upon the very best authority that great rain had
fallen to the southward; that the rivers, which were so frequent in
that part of the country, were mostly impassable, so there would be
great danger in meeting Fasil with an army spent and fatigued with the
difficulty of the roads. It was, therefore, determined, and the Ras was
decidedly of that opinion, that they should keep their army entire for
a better day, and immediately cross the Nile, and march back to Gondar;
that they had accordingly wheeled about, and that day was the first of
their proceeding, which had been interrupted by the accident of the
firing. Kefla Yasous offered me all sorts of refreshments, and I dined
with him; he sent also great abundance for my servants to my tent,
lest I should not have yet got my appointments from the king. I then
went directly to my own tent, where I found all that belonged to me
had arrived safe, under the care of Francisco; and having now procured
clothes, instead of those taken from me by Guebra Mehedin, I waited
upon the king, and staid a considerable time with him, asking much the
same questions Kefla Yasous had done. I would have paid my respects to
the Ras also, but missed him, for he was at council.




CHAP. VI.

_King’s Army retreats towards Gondar--Memorable Passage of the
Nile--Dangerous Situation of the Army--Retreat of Kefla Yasous--Battle
of Limjour--Unexpected Peace with Fasil--Arrival at Gondar._


It was on the 26th of May, early in the morning, that the army marched
towards the Nile. In the afternoon we encamped, between two and three,
on the banks of the river Coga, the church Abbo being something more
than half a mile to the north-west of us.

Next morning, the 27th, we left the river Coga, marching down upon the
Nile; we passed the church of _Mariam-Net_, as they call the church of
St Anne. Here the superior, attended by about fifty of his monks, came
in procession to welcome Ras Michael; but he, it seems, had received
some intelligence of ill-offices the people of this quarter had done
to the Agows by Fasil’s direction; he therefore ordered the church to
be plundered, and took the superior, and two of the leading men of the
monks, away with him to Gondar; several of the others were killed and
wounded, without provocation, by the soldiers, and the rest dispersed
through the country.

Prince George had sent immediately in the morning to put me in mind
that I had promised, in the king’s tent at Lamgué, under Emfras,
to ride with him in his party when in Maitsha. He commanded about
two hundred and fifty chosen horse, and kept at about half a mile’s
distance on the right flank of the army. I told the king the prince’s
desire; who only answered, dryly enough, “Not till we pass the Nile;
we do not yet know the state of this country.” Immediately after this,
he detached the horse of Siré and Serawé, and commanded me with his
own guards to take possession of the ford where the Fit-Auraris had
crossed, and to suffer no mule or horse to pass till their arrival.

There were two fords proposed for our passage; one opposite to the
church Boskon Abbo, between the two rivers Kelti and Aroossi, (on the
west of the Nile,) and the Coga and Amlac Ohha from the east; it was
said to be deep, but passable, though the bottom was of clay, and very
soft; the other ford proposed was higher up, at the second cataract of
Kerr. It was thought of consequence to chuse this ford, as the Kelti,
(itself a large and deep river) joined by the Branti, which comes from
the westward of Quaquera, brings, in the rainy season, a prodigious
accession of water to the Nile; yet, below this, the guides had advised
the Ras to pass, and many found it afterwards a sound bottom, very
little deeper, with level ground on both sides. We arrived about four
on the banks of the Nile, and took possession in a line of about 600
yards of ground.

From the time we decamped from Coga it poured incessantly the most
continued rain we ever had yet seen, violent claps of thunder followed
close one upon another, almost without interval, accompanied with
sheets of lightning, which ran on the ground like water; the day
was more than commonly dark, as in an eclipse; and every hollow, or
foot-path, collected a quantity of rain, which fell into the Nile
in torrents. It would have brought into the dullest mind Mr Hume’s
striking lines on my native Carron--

    Red ran the river down, and loud and oft
    The angry spirit of the water shriek’d.
                               DOUGLAS.

The Abyssinian armies pass the Nile at all seasons. It rolls with it
no trees, stones, nor impediments; yet the sight of such a monstrous
mass of water terrified me, and made me think the idea of crossing
would be laid aside. It was plain in the face of every one, that they
gave themselves over for lost; an universal dejection had taken place,
and it was but too visible that the army was defeated by the weather,
without having seen an enemy. The Greeks crowded around me, all forlorn
and despairing, cursing the hour they had first entered that country,
and following these curses with fervent prayers, where fear held the
place of devotion. A cold and brisk gale now sprung up at N. W. with a
clear sun; and soon after four, when the army arrived on the banks of
the Nile, these temporary torrents were all subsided, the sun was hot,
and the ground again beginning to become dry.

Netcho, Ras Michael’s Fit-Auraris, with about 400 men, had passed
in the morning, and taken his station above us in little huts like
bee-hives, which the soldiers, who carry no tents, make very speedily
and artificially for themselves, of the long, wild oats, each straw of
which is at least eight feet long, and near as thick as an ordinary
man’s little finger. He had sent back word to the king, that his men
had passed swimming, and with very great difficulty; that he doubted
whether the horses, or loaded mules, could cross at any rate; but,
if it was resolved to make the trial, they should do it immediately,
without staying till the increase of the river. He said both banks were
composed of black earth, slippery and miry, which would become more so
when horses had puddled it; he advised, above all, the turning to the
right immediately after coming ashore, in the direction in which he had
fixed poles, as the earth there was hard and firm, besides having the
advantage of some round stones which hindered the beasts from slipping
or sinking. Instead, therefore, of resting there that night, it was
resolved that the horse should cross immediately.

The first who passed was a young man, a relation of the king, brother
to Ayamico killed at the battle of Banja; he walked in with great
caution, marking a track for the king to pass. He had gone upon rather
solid ground, about twice the length of his horse, when he plunged
out of his depth, and swam to the other side. The king followed him
immediately with a great degree of haste, Ras Michael calling to him to
proceed with caution, but without success. Afterwards came the old Ras
on his mule, with several of his friends swimming both with and without
their horses on each side of him, in a manner truly wonderful. He
seemed to have lost his accustomed calmness, and appeared a good deal
agitated; forbade, upon pain of death, any one to follow him directly,
or to swim over, as their custom is, holding their mules by the tail.
As soon as these were safely ashore, the king’s household and black
troops, and I with them, advanced cautiously into the river, and swam
happily over, in a deep stream of reddish-coloured water, which ran
without violence almost upon a level.

Each horseman had a mule in his hand, which swam after him, or by his
side, with his coat of mail and head-piece tied upon it. My horse was
a very strong one, and in good condition, and a servant took charge
of my mule and coat of mail, so that, being unembarrassed, I had the
happiness to get safe and soon over, and up the path to the right
without great difficulty, so had most others of the cavalry who swam
along with us; but the ground now began to be broken on both sides of
the passage, and it was almost as difficult to get in, as it was to
scramble up the bank afterwards.

    _Quis cladem illius noctis, quis funera fando,
    Temperet a lachrymis._----
                                          VIRG.

It is impossible to describe the confusion that followed; night was
hard upon us, and, though it increased our loss, it in great measure
concealed it; a thousand men had not yet passed, though on mules and
horses; many mired in the muddy landing-place, fell back into the
stream, and were carried away and drowned. Of the horse belonging to
the king’s household, one hundred and eighty in number, seven only were
missing; with them Ayto Aylo, vice-chamberlain to the queen, and Tecla
Mariam the king’s uncle, a great friend of Ras Michael’s, both old men.

The ground on the west side was quite of another consistence than was
that upon the east, it was firm, covered with short grass, and rose
in small hills like the downs in England, all sloping into little
valleys which carried off the water, the declivity being always towards
the Nile. There was no baggage (the tent of the Ras and that of the
king excepted) which had as yet come over, and these were wet, being
drenched in the river. The Fit-Auraris had left, ready made, two rafts
for Ozoro Esther, and the other two ladies, with which she might have
easily been conducted over, and without much danger; but the Ras had
made Ozoro Esther pass over in the same manner he had crossed himself,
many swimming on each side of her mule. She would have fain staid on
the east side, but it was in vain to remonstrate. She was with child,
and had fainted several times; but yet nothing could prevail with
the Ras to trust her on the other bank till morning. She crossed,
however, safely, though almost dead with fright. It was said he had
determined to put her to death if she did not pass, from jealousy of
her falling into the hands of Fasil; but this I will by no means vouch,
nor do I believe it. The night was cold and clear, and a strong wind
at north-west had blown all the afternoon. Guebra Mascal, and several
of Ras Michael’s officers, had purposely tarried behind for gathering
in the stragglers. The river had abated towards mid-night, when,
whether from this cause, or, as they alledged, that they found a more
favourable ford, all the Tigré infantry, and many mules lightly loaded,
passed with less difficulty than any of the rest had done, and with
them several loads of flour; luckily also my two tents and mules, to my
great consolation, came safely over when it was near morning. Still the
army continued to pass, and those that could swim seemed best off. I
was in the greatest distress for the good Ammonios, my lieutenant, who
was missing, and did not join us till late in the morning, having been
all night busy in seeking Ayto Aylo, the queen’s chamberlain, and Tecla
Mariam, who were his great companions, drowned probably at the first
attempt to pass, as they were never after heard of.

The greatest part of the foot, however, crossed in the night; and
many were of opinion that we had mistaken the passage altogether, by
going too high, and being in too great a haste; the banks, indeed,
were so steep, it was very plain that this could never have been an
accustomed ford for cavalry. Before day-light the van and the center
had all joined the king; the number, I believe, that had perished was
never distinctly known, for those that were missing were thought to
have remained on the other side with Kefla Yasous, at least for that
day. Kefla Yasous, indeed, with the rear and all the baggage of the
army, had remained on the other side, and, with very few tents pitched,
waited the dawn of the morning.

It happened that the priests of the church of Mariam Net, in the
confusion, had been left unheeded, chained arm to arm, in the rear
with Kefla Yasous, and they had began interceding with him to procure
their pardon and dismission. He was a man, as I said, of the greatest
affability and complacency, and heard every one speak with the utmost
patience. These priests, terrified to death lest Michael should pull
their eyes out, or exercise some of his usual cruelties upon them,
which was certainly his intention by bringing them with him to Gondar,
frankly declared to Kefla Yasous what they apprehended. They said that
they had never known a ford there before, though they had lived many
years in the neighbourhood, nor had ever heard of one at Kerr, the
first cataract, which the guides had persuaded the rather of the two;
they did believe, therefore, that Michael’s guides had deceived him on
purpose, and that they intended the same thing by him to-morrow, if he
attempted to pass at Kerr. They told him further, that, about three
days before Michael had arrived in the neighbourhood of Samseen, they
had heard a nagareet beat regularly every evening at sun-set, behind
the high woody hill in front, whereon was the church of Boikon Abbo;
that they had seen also a man the day before who had left Welleta
Yasous, Fasil’s principal officer and confident, at Goutto, waiting the
arrival of some more troops to pass the Nile there, whence they doubted
not that there was treachery intended.

The sagacious and prudent Kefla Yasous weighed every word of this
in his mind, and, combining all the circumstances together, was
immediately convinced that there had been a snare laid by Fasil
for them. Entering further into conversation with the priests, and
encouraging them with assurances of reward instead of punishment, he
inquired if they certainly knew any better ford below. They answered
him they knew of no ford but the common one of Delakus, about eight
miles below; that it was true it was not good, and it was deeper than
ordinary, as the rainy season had begun early, but that it was so
perfectly fordable that all the country people had gone with asses
loaded with butter and honey, and other provisions, for the market of
Gondar last week; from whence they inferred that he could easily ford
it, and safely, even with loaded mules. They advised him farther, as
the night was dry, and the rain fell generally in the day, to lose
no time, but to collect his troops, weary as they were, as soon as
possible, and send the heavy baggage before; that there was no river
or torrent in their way, but Amlac Ohha, which, at that time of night,
was at its lowest, and they might then pass it at their leisure, while
he covered them with his troops behind; that in such case they might
all be safe over the ford by the time the sun became to be hot in the
morning, about which hour they did not doubt he would be attacked by
Welleta Yasous. They said farther, that, though they could claim little
merit, being prisoners, by offering to be his guides, yet he might
perhaps find his use in the measure, and would thereby prove their
faith and loyalty to the king.

Although all this bore the greatest shew of probability, and the lives
of the informers were in his hands, that cautious general would not
undertake a step of so much consequence, as to separate the rear of
the army from the king, without further inquiry. There was then in
his camp, waiting the event of next day, two of the guides who had
brought them to this ford; a third had gone over the river with Ras
Michael. There was likewise in his camp a servant of Nanna Georgis,
who had arrived some days before with information to Ras Michael. The
two guides pretended to be Agows, consequently friends to the king. He
called these into his presence, and ordered them to be put in irons,
and then sent for the servant of Nanna Georgis. This man immediately
knew the one to be his countryman, but declared the other was a Galla,
both of them servants of Fasil, and then living in Maitsha.

Kefla Yasous immediately ordered the Kanitz Kitzera (the executioner
of the camp) to attend, and having exhorted them to declare the truth
for fear of what would speedily follow, and no satisfactory answer
being given, he directed the eyes of the eldest, the Galla, to be
plucked out; and he continuing still obstinate, he delivered him to the
soldiers, who hewed him to pieces with their large knives in presence
of his companion. In the mean time the priests had been very earnest
with the young one, the Agow, to confess, with better success; but
this execution, to which he had been witness, was more prevailing than
all their arguments. Upon promise of life, liberty, and reward, he
declared that he had left Fasil behind a hill, which he then shewed,
about three miles distant, in front of the king’s army, and had gone
down to Welleta Yasous, who was waiting at Goutto ready to pass the
Nile: that they were sent forward to decoy the king to that passage,
under the name of a ford, where they expected great part of the army
would perish if they attempted to pass: that Fasil was to attack such
part of the king’s army as should have passed as soon as it appeared
upon the heights above the river, but not till, by the firing on the
east side, he knew that Welleta Yasous was engaged with the rear, or
part of the army, which should still remain on that side separated by
the river: that they did not imagine Ras Michael could have passed
that night, but that to-morrow he would certainly be attacked by Fasil,
as his companion, who had crossed with Ras Michael, was to go directly
to Fasil and inform him of the situation of the King, the Ras, and the
army.

Kefla Yasous sent two of his principal officers, with a distinct detail
of this whole affair, to the king. It being now dark, they swam the
river on horseback, with much more difficulty and danger than we had
done, and they found Ras Michael and the king in council, to whom they
told their message with every circumstance, adding, that Kefla Yasous,
as the only way to preserve the army, quite spent with fatigue, and
encumbered with such a quantity of baggage, had struck his tent, and
would, by that time, be on his march for the ford of Delakus, which he
should cross, and, after leaving a party to guard the baggage and sick,
he should with the freshest of his men join the army. The spy that had
passed with Michael and the king was now sought for, but he had lost no
time, and was gone off to Fasil at Boskon Abbo. Kefla Yasous, having
seen all the baggage on their way before him, did, as his last act,
perhaps not strictly consistent with justice, hang the poor unfortunate
informer, the Agow, upon one of the trees at the ford, that Welleta
Yasous, when he passed in the morning, might see how certainly his
secret was discovered, and that consequently he was on his guard.

On the 28th he crossed Amlac Ohha with some degree of difficulty, and
was obliged to abandon several baggage-mules. He advanced after this
with as great diligence as possible to Delakus, and found the ford,
though deep, much better than he expected. He had pitched his tent on
the high road to Gondar, before Welleta Yasous knew he was decamped,
and of this passage he immediately advised Michael refreshing his
troops for any emergency.

About two in the afternoon Welleta Yasous appeared with his horse on
the other side of the Nile, but it was then too late. Kefla Yasous
was so strongly posted, and the banks of the river so guarded with
fire-arms, down to the water-edge, that Fasil and all his army would
not have dared to attempt the passage, or even approach the banks of
the river.

As soon as Ras Michael received the intelligence, he dispatched the
Fit-Auraris, Netcho, to take post upon the ford of the Kelti, a large
river, but rather broad than deep, about three miles off. He himself
followed early in the morning, and passed the Kelti just at sun-rise,
without halting; he then advanced to meet Kefla Yasous, as the army
began to want provisions, the little flour that had been brought over,
or which the soldiers had taken with them, being nearly exhausted
during that night and the morning after. It was found, too, that the
men had but little powder, none of them having recruited their quantity
since the hunting of the deer; but what they had was in perfect good
order, being kept in horns and small wooden bottles, corked in such
a manner as to be secured from water of any kind. Kefla Yasous,
therefore, being in possession of the baggage, the powder, and the
provisions, a junction with him was absolutely necessary, and they
expected to effect this at Wainadega, about twenty miles from their
last night’s quarters. The ground was all firm and level between Kelti
and the Avoley, a space of about 15 miles.

Ras Michael halted after passing the Kelti, and sent on the Fit-Auraris
about five miles before him; he then ordered what quantity of flour,
or provisions of any kind could be found, to be distributed among the
men, and directed them to refresh themselves for an hour before they
again began their march, because they might expect soon to engage
with Fasil. The day being clear, and the sun hot, those that the cold
affected, from the passage of last night, began to recover their former
health and agility; their clothes were now all dry, clean washed, and
comfortable; and had it not been for the fatigue that remained from
the two last days, and the short allowance to which they were reduced,
perhaps there were few occasions wherein the army was fitter for an
engagement. Being now disembarrassed from dangerous rivers, they were
on dry solid ground, which they had often marched over before in
triumph, and where all the villages around them, lying in ruins, put
them in mind of many victorious campaigns, and especially the recent
one at Fagitta over this same Fasil. Add to all this, they were on
their way home to Gondar, and that alone made them march with a tenfold
alacrity. Gondar, they thought, was to be the end of all their cares, a
place of relaxation and ease for the rest of the rainy season.

It was between twelve and one we heard the Fit-Auraris engaged, and
there was sharp firing on both sides, which soon ceased. Michael
ordered his army immediately to halt; he and the king, and Billetana
Gueta Tecla, commanded the van; Welleta Michael,and Ayto Tesfos of
Siré, the rear. Having marched a little farther, he changed his order
of battle; he drew up the body of troops which he commanded, together
with the king, on a flat, large hill, with two valleys running parallel
to the sides of it like trenches. Beyond these trenches were two
higher ridges of hills that ran along the side of them, about half a
musket-shot from him; the valleys were soft ground which yet could bear
horses, and these hills, on his right and on his left, advanced about
100 yards on each side farther than the line of his front. The gross
of these side-divisions occupied the height; but a line of soldiers
from them came down to the edge of the valleys like wings. In the
plain ground, about three hundred yards directly in his front, he had
placed all the cavalry, except the king’s body-guards drawn up before
him, commanded by an old officer of Mariam Barea. As prince George
was in the cavalry, he strongly solicited the Ras at least to let him
remain with them, and see them engage; but the Ras, considering his
extreme youth and natural rashness, called him back, and placed him
beside me before the king. It was not long before the Fit-Auraris’s two
messengers arrived, running like deer along the plain, which was not
absolutely flat, but sloped gently down towards us, declining, as I
should guess, not a fathom in fifteen.

Their account was, that they had fallen in with Fasil’s Fit-Auraris;
that they had attacked him smartly, and, though the enemy were greatly
superior, being all horse, except a few musqueteers, had killed four of
them. The Ras having first heard the message of the Fit-Auraris alone,
he sent a man to report it to the king; and, immediately after this, he
ordered two horsemen to go full gallop along the east side of the hill,
the low road to Wainadega, to warn Kefla Yasous of Fasil’s being near
at hand; he likewise directed the Fit-Auraris to advance cautiously
till he had seen Fasil, and to pursue no party that should retreat
before him.

The King, the Ras, and the whole army, began to be in pain for Kefla
Yasous; and we should have changed our ground, and marched forward
immediately, had we not heard the alarm-guns fired by Fit-Auraris
Netcho, and presently he and his party came in, the men running, and
the horses at full gallop. Ras Michael had given his orders, and
returned to the presence of the king on his mule; he could not venture
among horse, being wounded in the middle of the thigh, and lame in that
leg, but always charged on a mule among the musquetry. He said shortly
to the king, “No fear, Sir, stand firm; Fasil is lost if he fights
to-day on this ground.”

Fasil appeared at the top of the hill. I have no guess about the
number of such large bodies of troops, but, by those more used to such
computations, it is said he had about 3000 horse. It was a fine sight,
but the evening was beginning to be overcast. After having taken a
full view of the army, they all began to move slowly down the hill,
beating their kettle-drums. There were two trees a little before the
cavalry, that were advanced beyond our front. Fasil sent down a party
to skirmish with these, and he himself halted after having made a few
paces down the hill. The two bodies of horse met just half way at
the two trees, and mingled together, as appeared at least, with very
decisive intention; but whether it was by orders or from fear, (for
they were not overmatched in numbers) our horse turned their backs
and came precipitately down, so that we were afraid they would break
in upon the foot. Several shots were fired from the center at them by
order of the Ras, who cried out aloud in derision, “Take away these
horses and send them to the mill.” They divided, however, to the right
and left, into the two grassy valleys under cover of the musquetry, and
a very few horse of Fasil’s were carried in along with them, and slain
by the soldiers on the side of the hill. On the king’s side no man of
note was missing but Welleta Michael, nephew of Ras Michael, whose
horse falling, he was taken prisoner and carried off by Fasil.

A few minutes after this, arrived a messenger from Fasil, a dwarf,
named Doho, a man always employed on errands of this kind; it is an
intercourse which is permitted, and the messenger not only protected,
but rewarded, as I have before observed; it is a singular custom, and
none but shrewd fellows are sent, very capable of making observations,
and Doho was one of these. He told the Ras to prepare immediately, for
Fasil intended to attack him as soon as he had brought his foot up:
Doho further added a request from his master, as a mark of his duty,
that the king might not change his dress that day, lest he might fall
into the hands of some of the stranger troops of Galla, who might not
know him otherwise, or shew the proper respect to his person. The
Ras, I was told afterwards, for he was too far before us to hear him,
laughed violently at this compliment. “Tell Fasil, says he, to wait but
a few minutes where he now is, and I promise him that the king shall
dress in any way he pleases.” When Doho’s message was told to the king,
he sent back answer to Ras Michael, “Let Doho tell Fasil from me, that,
if I had known those two trees had been where they are, I would have
brought Welleta Gabriel, Ozoro Esther’s steward, to him; by which he
very archly alluded to the battle of Fagitta, where that drunkard,
shooting from behind a tree, and killing one Galla, made all the rest
fly for fear of the zibib.”

Doho being thus dismissed, the whole army advanced immediately at a
very brisk pace, hooping and screaming, as is their custom, in a most
harsh and barbarous manner, crying out Hatzé Ali! Michael Ali! But
Fasil, who saw the forward countenance of the king’s troops, and that
a few minutes would lay him under necessity of risking a battle, which
he did not intend, withdrew his troops at a smart trot over the smooth
downs, returning towards Boskon Abbo. It seems, as we heard afterwards,
he was in as great anxiety about the fate of Welleta Yasous, of whom
he had no intelligence, as we had been for that of Kefla Yasous; and
he had got as yet no intelligence till he had taken Welleta Michael
prisoner; he had heard no firing, nor did he consequently know
whether Kefla Yasous had passed the Nile with the Ras or not; he had,
therefore, left his camp, and marched with his horse only to take a
view of Michael, but had no sort of intention to give him battle; and
he was now very much exasperated against both Gusho and Powussen, by
whom he saw plainly that he had been betrayed.

This is what was called the battle of Limjour, from a village burnt by
Ras Michael last campaign, which stood where the two trees are; the
name of a battle is surely more than it deserves. Had Fasil been half
as willing as the Ras, it could not have failed being a decisive one.
The Ras, who saw that Fasil would not fight, easily penetrated his
reasons, and no sooner was he gone, and his own drums silent, than he
heard a nagareet beat, and knew it to be that of Kefla Yasous. This
general encamped upon the river Avoley, leaving his tents and baggage
under a proper guard, and had marched with the best and freshest of
his troops to join Michael before the engagement. All was joy at
meeting, every rank of men joined in extolling the merit and conduct
of their leaders; and, indeed, it may be fairly said, the situation of
the king and the army was desperate at that instant, when the troops
were separated on different sides of the Nile; nor could they have
been saved but by the speedy resolution taken by Kefla Yasous to march
without loss of time and pass at the ford of Delakus, and the diligence
and activity with which he executed that resolution.

Although a good part of Kefla Yasous’s soldiers were left at the
Avoley, the Ras, as a mark of confidence, gave him the command of the
rear. We were retreating before an enemy, and it was, therefore, the
post of honour, where the Ras would have been himself, had not Kefla
Yasous joined us. We soon marched the five miles, or thereabout, that
remained to the Avoley, and arrived just as the sun was setting, and
there heard from the spies that Welleta Yasous with his troops had
retired again to Goutto, after having been joined by Woodage Asahel.
There again were fresh rejoicings, as every one recovered their baggage
and provisions, many rejoined their friends they had given over as lost
at the passage, and the whole army prepared their supper. All but Ras
Michael seemed to have their thoughts bent upon sleep and rest; whilst
he, the most infirm and aged of the army, no sooner was under cover of
his tent than he ordered the drum to beat for assembling a council.
What passed there I did not know; I believe nothing but a repetition
of the circumstances that induced Kefla Yasous to advance to Delakus,
for, after supper, just before the king went to bed in the evening, a
man from Kefla Yasous brought the four priests of Mariam Net, who had
been the guides to the ford at Delakus. The king ordered meat to be set
before them, but they had done very well already with Kefla Yasous,
and, therefore, only took a small piece of bread and a cup of bouza,
the eating and drinking in presence of the king being an assurance that
their life was safe and pardon real. They had then five ounces of gold,
and several changes of clothes given to each of them, and the king took
them to Gondar with him, to provide for them there, out of the reach of
the revenge of Fasil, and placed them in the church of Hamar Noh[116].

The army marched next day to Dingleber, a high hill, or rock,
approaching so close to the lake as scarcely to leave a passage
between. Upon the top of this rock is the king’s house. As we arrived
very early there, and were now out of Fasil’s government, the king
insisted upon treating Ras Michael and all the people of consideration.
A great quantity of cattle had been sent thither from Dembea by those
who had estates in the neighbourhood, out of which he gave ten oxen to
Ras Michael, ten to Kefla Yasous, the same number to several others,
and one to myself, with two ounces of gold for Strates and Sebastos to
buy mules; but they had already provided themselves; for, besides the
two they rode upon of mine, they and my servants had picked up four
others in very good condition, whose masters had probably perished in
the river, for they were never claimed afterwards.

Just as the king sat down to dinner an accident happened that
occasioned great trepidation among all his servants. A black eagle[117]
was chased into the king’s tent by some of the birds of prey that hover
about the camp; and it was after in the mouth of every one the king
would be dethroned by a man of inferior birth and condition. Every
body at that time looked to Fasil: the event proved the application
false, though the omen was true. Powussen of Begemder was as low-born
as Fasil, as great a traitor, but more successful, to whom the ominous
presage pointed; and, though we cannot but look upon the whole as
accident, it was but too soon fulfilled.

In the evening of the 29th arrived at Dingleber two horsemen from
Fasil, clad in habits of peace, and without arms; they were known to be
two of his principal servants, were grave, genteel, middle-aged men;
this message had nothing of Doho’s buffoonery. They had an audience
early after their coming, first of the Ras, then of the King. They
said, and said truly, that Fasil had repassed the Kelti, was encamped
on the opposite side, and was not yet joined by Welleta Yasous. Their
errand was, to desire that the Ras might not fatigue his men by
unnecessarily hurrying on to Gondar, because he might rest secured of
receiving no further molestation from Fasil their master, as he was
on his march to Burè. They told the Ras the whole of the conspiracy,
as far as it regarded him, and the agreement that Powussen and Gusho
had made with their master to surround him at Derdera: they mentioned,
moreover, how sensible Fasil was of their treason towards him; that,
instead of keeping their word, they had left him to engage the King and
the Ras’s whole force at a time when they knew the greatest part of
his Galla troops were retired to the other side of the Nile, and could
be assembled with difficulty: That if the Ras by chance had crossed
at Delakus, as Kefla Yasous had done, instead of embarrassing his
army among the rivers of Maitsha, and crossing the Nile at that most
dangerous place near Amlac-Ohha, (a passage never before attempted in
the rainy season) the consequence would have been, that he must have
either fought at great disadvantage with an inferior army against the
Ras, or have retired to Metchakel, leaving his whole country to the
mercy of his enemies. Fasil declared his resolution never again to
appear in arms against the king, but that he would hold his government
under him, and pay the accustomed taxes punctually: he promised
also, that he would renounce all manner of connection with Gusho and
Powussen, as he had already done, and he would take the field against
them next season with his whole force, whenever the king ordered him.
The messengers concluded, with desiring the Ras to give Fasil his
grand-daughter, Welleta Selassé, in marriage, and that he would then
come to Gondar without distrust.

At the audience they had of the king the same night, they added, That
Fasil could not trust Ras Michael, he broke his word so often, and had
so many reservations and evasions in his promises.

The Ras, though he did not believe all this, made no difficulty
in agreeing to every thing that they desired. He promised the
grand-daughter; and, as an earnest of his believing the rest, the
king’s two nagareets were brought to the door of the tent, where, to
our very great surprise, we heard it proclaimed, “Fasil is governor
of the Agow, Maitsha, Gojam, and Damot; prosperity to him, and long
may he live a faithful servant to the king our master!”--This was an
extraordinary revolution in so small a space of time. It was scarce 43
hours since Fasil had laid a scheme for drowning the greater part of
the army in the Nile, and cutting the throats of the residue on both
sides of it; it was not twenty-four hours, since he had met us to fight
in open field, and now he was become the king’s lieutenant-general in
four of the most opulent provinces of Abyssinia. This was produced,
however, by the necessity of the times, and both parties were playing
at the same game who should over-reach the other. Fasil’s messengers
were magnificently cloathed, and it was first intended they should
have gone back to him; but, after reflection, another person was sent,
these two chusing to go to Gondar with the king to remain hostages for
Fasil’s word, and to bring back his investiture from thence to Burè.
The whole camp abandoned itself to joy.

Late in the evening Ozoro Esther came to the king’s tent. She had been
ill, and alarmed, as she well might, at the passage of the Nile, which
had given her a more delicate look than ordinary; she was dressed
all in white, and I thought I seldom had seen so handsome a woman.
The king, as I have mentioned, had sent ten oxen to Ras Michael, but
he had given twenty to Ozoro Esther; and it was to thank him for
this extraordinary mark of favour that she had come to visit him in
his tent. I had for some time past, indeed, thought they were not
insensible to the merit of each other. Upon her thanking the king
for the distinction he had shewn her, Madam, said he, your husband
Ras Michael is intent upon employing, in the best way possible for
my service, those of the army that are strong and vigorous; you, I
am told, bestow your care on the sick and disabled, and, by your
attention, they are restored to their former health and activity; the
strong active soldier eats the cows that I have sent to the Ras; the
enfeebled and sick recover upon yours, for which reason I sent you a
double portion, that you may have it in your power to do double good.
After this the room was cleared; and she had an audience alone for half
an hour. I doubt very much whether Ras Michael had any share in the
conversation; the king was in the very gayest humour, and went to rest
about twelve. The Ras loved Ozoro Esther, but was not jealous.

I had violent threatenings of the ague, and had gone to bed full of
reflections on extraordinary events that, in a few hours, had as it
were crowded upon one another. I had appointed Fasil’s servants to come
to my tent in the evening. I understood a council had been called, to
which Welleta Kyrillos, the king’s historiographer, had been sent for,
and instructed how to give an account of this campaign of Maitsha,
the passage of the Nile, and the meeting with Fasil at Limjour. Kefla
Yasous’s march to Delakus, and passage there, were ordered to be
written in gold letters, and so was Fasil’s appointment to Damot and
Maitsha. From this authentic copy, and what I myself heard or observed,
I formed these notes of the campaign.

On the 30th of May nothing material happened, and, in a few days,
we arrived at Gondar. The day before we entered, being encamped on
the river Kemona, came two messengers from Gusho and Powussen, with
various excuses why they had not joined. They were very ill received by
the Ras, and refused an audience of the king. Their present, which is
always new clothes to some value, was a small piece of dark-blue Surat
cloth, value about half-a-crown, intended as an affront; they were not
suffered to sleep in the camp, but forwarded to Fasil where they were
going.

The 3d of June the army encamped on the river Kahha, under Gondar. From
the time we left Dingleber, some one or other of the Ras’s confidential
friends had arrived every day. Several of the great officers of state
reached us at the Kemona, many others met us at Abba Samuel. I did not
perceive the news they brought increased the spirits either of the King
or the Ras; the soldiers, however, were all contented, because they
were at home; but the officers, who saw farther, wore very different
countenances, especially those that were of Amhara.

I, in particular, had very little reason to be pleased; for, after
having undergone a constant series of fatigues, dangers, and expences,
I was returned to Gondar disappointed of my views in arriving at the
source of the Nile, without any other acquisition than a violent ague.
The place where that river rises remained still as great a secret as it
had been ever since the catastrophe of Phaeton:--

    _Nilus in extremum fugit perterritus orbem,
    Occuluitque caput, quod adhuc latet._----
                    OVID. METAM. lib. ii.




CHAP. VII.

_King and Army retreat to Tigré--Interesting Events following that
Retreat--The Body of Joas is found--Favourable Turn of the King’s
Affairs--Socinios, a new King, proclaimed at Gondar._


The king had heard that Gusho and Powussen, with Gojam under Ayto Aylo,
and all the troops of Belessen and Lasta, were ready to fall upon him
in Gondar as soon as the rains should have swelled the Tacazzé, so
that the army could not retire into Tigré; and it was now thought to
be the instant this might happen, as the king’s proclamation in favour
of Fasil, especially the giving him Gojam, it was not doubted, would
hasten the motion of the rebels. Accordingly that very morning, after
the king arrived, the proclamation was made at Gondar, giving Fasil
Gojam, Damot, the Agow, and Maitsha; after which his two servants were
again magnificently cloathed, and sent back with honour.

As I had never despaired, some way or other, of arriving at the
fountains of the Nile, from which we were not fifty miles distant when
we turned back at Karcagna, so I never neglected to improve every means
that held out to me the least probability of accomplishing this end.
I had been very attentive and serviceable to Fasil’s servants while
in the camp. I spoke greatly of their master, and, when they went
away, gave each of them a small present for himself, and a trifle also
for Fasil. They had, on the other hand, been very importunate with
me as a physician to prescribe something for a cancer on the lip, as
I understood it to be, with which Welleta Yasous, Fasil’s principal
general, was afflicted.

I had been advised, by some of my medical friends, to carry along
with me a preparation of hemlock, or cicuta, recommended by Dr Stork,
a physician at Vienna. A considerable quantity had been sent me from
France by commission, with directions how to use it. To keep on the
safe side, I prescribed small doses to Welleta Yasous, being much more
anxious to preserve myself from reproach than warmly solicitous about
the cure of my unknown patient. I gave him positive advice to avoid
eating raw meat; to keep to a milk diet, and drink plentifully of whey
when he used this medicine. They were overjoyed at having succeeded
so well in their commission, and declared before the king, That Fasil
their master would be more pleased with receiving a medicine that
would restore Welleta Yasous to health, than with the magnificent
appointments the king’s goodness had bestowed upon him. “If it is so,
said I, in this day of grace, I will ask two favours.”--“And that’s a
rarity, says the king; come, out with them; I don’t believe anybody is
desirous you should be refused; I certainly am not; only I bar one of
them, you are not to relapse into your usual despondency, and talk of
going home.”--“Well, Sir, said I, I obey, and that is not one of them.
They are these--You shall give me, and oblige Fasil to ratify it, the
village Geesh, and the source where the Nile rises, that I may be from
thence furnished with honey for myself and servants; it shall stand me
instead of Tangouri, near Emfras, and, in value, it is not worth so
much. The second is, That, when I shall see that it is in his power to
carry me to Geesh, and shew me those sources, Fasil shall do it upon my
request, without fee or reward, and without excuse or evasion.”

They all laughed at the easiness of the request; all declared that
this was nothing, and wished to do ten times as much. The king said,
“Tell Fasil I do give the village of Geesh, and those fountains he is
so fond of, to Yagoube and his posterity for ever, never to appear
under another’s name in the deftar, and never to be taken from him,
or exchanged, either in peace or war. Do you swear this to him in the
name of your master.” Upon which they took the two fore fingers of my
right hand, and, one after the other, laid the two fore fingers of
their right hand across them, then kissed them; a form of swearing used
there, at least among those that call themselves Christians. And as
Azage Kyrillos, the king’s secretary and historian, was then present,
the king ordered him to enter the gift in the deftar, or revenue-book,
where the taxes and revenue of the king’s lands are registered. “I will
write it, says the old man, in letters of gold, and, poor as I am, will
give him a village four times better than either Geesh or Tangouri,
if he will take a wife and stay amongst us, at least till my eyes
are closed.” It will be easily guessed this rendered the conversation
a chearful one. Fasil’s servants retired to set out the next day,
gratified to their utmost wish, and, as soon as the king was in bed, I
went to my apartment likewise.

But very different thoughts were then occupying Michael and his
officers. They could not trust Fasil, and, besides, he could do them no
service; the rain was set in, and he was gone home; the western part
of the kingdom was ready to rise upon them; Woggora, to the north,
immediately in his way, was all in arms, and impatient to revenge the
severities they had suffered when Michael first marched to Gondar.
The Tacazzé, which separates Tigrè from Woggora, and runs at the
foot of the high mountains of Samen, was one of the largest and most
rapid rivers in Abyssinia, and, though not the first to overflow,
was, when swelled to its height, impassable by horse or foot, rolling
down prodigious stones and trees with its current. Dangerous as the
passage was, however, there was no safety but in attempting it:
Michael, therefore, and every soldier with him, were of opinion that,
if they must perish, they should rather meet death in the river, on the
confines of their own country, than fall alive into the hands of their
enemies in Amhara. For this, preparation had been making night and day,
since Ras Michael entered Gondar, and probably before it.

There was in Belessen, on the nearest and easiest way to a ford of the
Tacazzè, a man of quality called Adero, and his son Zor Woldo. To these
two Ras Michael used to trust the care of the police of Gondar when
he was absent upon any expedition; they were very active and capable,
but had fallen from their allegiance, and joined Powussen and Gusho,
at least in councils. The Ras, immediately upon arriving at Gondar,
dissembling what he knew of their treason, had sent to them to prepare
a quantity of flour for the troops that were to pass their way; to
get together what horses they could as quietly as possible; to send
him word what state the ford was in; and also, if Powussen had made
any movement forward; or if Ayto Tesfos, governor of Samen, had shewn
any disposition to dispute the passage through Woggora into Tigré.
Word was immediately returned by the traitor Adero, that the ford was
as yet very passable; that it was said Powussen was marching towards
Maitsha; that Ayto Tesfos was at home upon his high rock, the seat of
his government, and that no time was to be lost, as he believed he
had already flour enough to suffice; he added also, that it would be
dangerous to collect more, for it would give the alarm. This was all
received as truth, and a messenger sent back with orders, that Zor
Woldo should leave the flour in small bags at Ebenaat, and that he
should himself and his father wait the Ras at the ford, with what horse
they had, the fourth day from that, in the evening.

The next morning the whole army was in motion. I had the evening before
taken leave of the king in an interview which cost me more than almost
any one in my life. The substance was, That I was ill in my health,
and quite unprepared to attend him into Tigré; that my heart was set
upon completing the only purpose of my coming into Abyssinia, without
which I should return into my own country with disgrace; that I hoped,
through his majesty’s influence, Fasil might find some way for me to
accomplish it; if not, I trusted soon to see him return, when I hoped
it would be easy; but, if I then went to Tigré, I was fully persuaded
I should never have the resolution to come again to Gondar.

He seemed to take heart at the confidence with which I spoke of his
return. “You, Yagoube, says he, in a humble, complaining tone, could
tell me, if you pleased, whether I shall or not, and what is to befal
me; those instruments and those wheels, with which you are constantly
looking at the stars, cannot be for any use unless for prying into
futurity.”--“Indeed, said I, prince, these are things by which we guide
ships at sea, and by these we mark down the ways that we travel by
land; teach them to people that never passed them before, and, being
once traced, keep them thus to be known by all men for ever. But of the
decrees of Providence, whether they regard you or myself, I know no
more than the mule upon which you ride.”--“Tell me then, I pray, tell
me, what is the reason you speak of my return as certain?”--“I speak,
said I, from observation, from reflections that I have made, much more
certain than prophecies and divinations by stars. The first campaign of
your reign at Fagitta, when you was relying upon the dispositions that
the Ras had most ably and skillfully made, a drunkard, with a single
shot, defeated a numerous army of your enemies. Powussen and Gusho
were your friends, as you thought, when you marched out last, yet they
had, at that very instant, made a league to destroy you at Derdera;
and nothing but a miracle could have saved you, shut up between two
lakes and three armies. It was neither you nor Michael that disordered
their councils, and made them fail in what they had concerted. You
was for burning Samseen, whilst Woodage Asahel was there in ambush
with a large force, with a knowledge of all the fords, and master
of all the inhabitants of the country. Remember how you passed those
rivers, holding hand in hand, and drawing one another over. Could you
have done this with an enemy behind you, and such an enemy as Woodage
Asahel? He would have followed and harrassed you till you took the
ford at Goutto, and there was Welleta Yasous waiting to oppose you
with 6000 men on the opposite bank. When Ras Michael marched by Mariam
Net, he found the priests at their homes. Was that the case in any of
the other churches we passed? No; all were fled for fear of Michael;
yet these were more guilty than any by their connections with Fasil;
notwithstanding which, they alone, of all others, staid, though they
knew not why; an invisible hand held them that they might operate your
preservation. Nothing could have saved the army but the desperate
passage, so tremendous that it will exceed the belief of man, crossing
the Nile that night. Yet if the priests had crossed before this, not
a man would have proceeded to the ford. The priests would have been
Ras Michael’s prisoners, and, on the other side, they never would have
spoken a word whilst in the presence of Michael. Providence, therefore,
kept them with Kefla Yasous; all was discovered, and the army saved by
the retreat, and his speedy passing at the ford of Delakus.”

What would have happened to Kefla Yasous, had Fasil marched down to
Delakus either before or after the passage? Kefla Yasous would have
been cut off before Ras Michael had passed the Kelti; instead of
which, an unknown cause detained him, most infatuated-like, beating
his kettle-drums behind Boskon Abbo, while our army under the Ras
was swimming that dangerous river, and most of us passing the night,
naked, without tents, provision, or powder. Nor did he ever think of
presenting himself till we had warmed ourselves by an easy march in a
fine day, when we were every way his superiors, and Kefla Yasous in
his rear. From all these special marks of the favour of an over-ruling
Providence, I do believe stedfastly that God will not leave his work
half finished. “He it is who, governing the whole universe, has yet
reserved specially to himself the department of war; he it is who has
stiled himself the God of Battles.” The king was very much moved,
and, as I conceived, persuaded. He said, “O Yagoube, go but with me
to Tigrè, and I will do for you whatever you desire me.”--“You do,
Sir, said I, whatever I desire you, and more. I have told you my
reasons why that cannot be; let me stay here a few months, and wait
your return.” The king then advised me to live entirely at Koscam with
the Iteghé, without going out unless Fasil came to Gondar, and to
send him punctually word how I was treated. Upon this we parted with
inexpressible reluctance. He was a king worthy to reign over a better
people; my heart was deeply penetrated with those marks of favour and
condescension which I had uniformly received from him ever since I
entered his palace.

On the 5th of June, while Powussen, Adero, and the conspirators were
waiting his passage through Belessen, (that is to the S. W.) the king’s
army marched towards Koscam, over the mountain Debra Tzai towards
Walkayt, and the low, hot provinces of Abyssinia which lie to the N. E.
so that the distance between them increased every day in the greatest
proportion possible.

The queen ordered her gates at Koscam to be shut. A little before the
Ras mounted his mule, Ozoro Esther and her servants took refuge with
her mother the Iteghè; Gondar was like a town which had been taken by
an enemy; every one that had arms in his hands did just what he pleased.

Two very remarkable things were said to have happened the night
before Michael left the city. He had always pretended, that, before
he undertook an expedition, a person, or spirit, appeared to him, who
told him the issue and consequence of the measures he was then taking;
this he imagined to be St Michael the archangel, and he presumed very
much upon this intercourse. In a council that night, where none but
friends were present, he had told them that his spirit had appeared
some nights before, and ordered him, in his retreat, to surprise the
mountain of Wechné, and either slay or carry with him to Tigré the
princes sequestered there. Nebrit Tecla, governor of Axum, with his
two sons, (all concerned in the late king’s murder) were, it is said,
strong advisers of this measure; but Ras Michael, (probably satiated
with royal blood already) Kefla Yasous, and all the more worthy men of
any consequence, acting on principle, absolutely refused to consent to
it. It was upon this the passage by Belessen was substituted instead of
the attempt on Wechné, and it was determined to conceal it.

The next advice which, the Ras said, this devil, or angel, gave him,
was, that they should set fire to the town of Gondar, and burn it to
the ground, otherwise his good fortune was to leave him there for ever;
and for this there was a great number of advocates, Michael seeming
to lean that way himself. But, when it was reported to the king,
that young prince put a direct negative upon it, by declaring that
he would rather stay in Gondar, and fall by the hands of his enemies,
than either conquer them, or escape from them, by the commission of so
enormous a crime. When this was publicly known, it procured the king
universal good-will, as was experienced afterwards, when he and Michael
were finally defeated, and taken prisoners, upon their march in return
to Gondar.

The army advanced rapidly towards Walkayt. Being near the Tacazzé, they
turned short upon Mai-Lumi, (the River of Limes) the governor of which,
as I have already said, in our journey from Masuah, detained us several
days at Addergey with a view to rob us, upon a report prevailing that
Ras Michael was defeated at Fagitta. This thief the king surprised and
made prisoner, set fire to his house after having plundered it, and
carried him as hostage to Tigré, for the payment of a sum which he laid
upon every village to save them from being set on fire.

Being now safely arrived on the banks of the Tacazzè, the first
province beyond which is that of Sirè, Michael sent before him Ayto
Tesfos the governor, a man exceedingly beloved, to assemble all
sort of assistance for passing the river. Every one flocked to the
stream with the utmost alacrity; the water was deep, and the baggage
wet in crossing, but the bottom was good and hard; they passed both
expeditiously and safely, and were received in Siré, and then in Tigré,
with every demonstration of joy.

Michael, now arrived in his government, set himself seriously to
unite every part under his own jurisdiction. It was now the rainy
season; there was no possibility of taking the field, and a rebellion
prevailed in two different districts of his province. The sons of
Kasmati Woldo, whose father Ras Michael put to death, had declared
for themselves, in their paternal government of Enderta, and Netcho
who married Ras Michael’s daughter, had taken possession of the
mountain Aromata, commonly called Haramat, an ancient strong-hold of
his father’s, of which Michael had made himself master, while yet a
young man, after besieging it fifteen years. Netcho had also united
himself with Za Menfus Kedus, a man of great property in that and the
neighbouring country. Enderta is a flat, fertile territory, in the very
south-east of Abyssinia, depending on Tigré, and the mountain Aromata
is situated near the middle of that province; before taking the field,
Michael had directed the two Woldos to be assassinated during a feast
at Enderta, and their party dispersed of itself without farther effort.

The mountain shewed a better countenance, and seemed to promise
employment for a long time; it was garrisoned by old and veteran troops
who had served under Ras Michael. Netcho was the son of his hereditary
enemy, anciently governor of that mountain, whom he had reconciled
by giving him his daughter in marriage; notwithstanding which he had
now rebelled, just as the Ras marched to Maitsha against Fasil, by
the persuasion of Gusho and Powussen, purposely that he might form a
diversion in Tigré, and for this reason he had little hopes of mercy,
if ever he fell into the hands of Ras Michael. I had seen him often,
and knew him; he was a tall, thin, dull man, of a soft temper, and
easily imposed upon. Za Menfus, the other chief in the mountain, was a
very active, resolute, enterprising man, of whom Michael was afraid.
He had a large property all around the mountain; had been put in irons
by Michael, and had escaped; besides, on his return to Tigré, he had
slain the father of Guebra Mascal, Michael’s nephew by marriage, who
was commander in chief of all the musquetry Michael had brought from
Tigrè, so that he feared nothing so much as falling into Ras Michael’s
hands.

Ras Michael saw the danger of leaving an enemy so prepared and so
situated behind him; he therefore, before the rainy season was yet
finished, ordered the whole mountain to be surrounded with barracks,
or huts, for his soldiers; he also erected three houses for himself,
the principal officers, and the king. The country people were called in
to plow and sow the ground in the neighbourhood, so that his intention
was plainly never to rise from thence till he had reduced the mountain
of Aromata for the second time, after having once before succeeded in
taking it, after fifteen years siege, from Netcho’s father. There we
shall leave him at this siege, and return to Gondar.

It was on the 10th of June that Gusho and Powussen entered Gondar,
and next day, the 11th, waited upon the queen; they both beseeched
her to return from Koscam to the capital, and take into her hands the
reins of government for the interim: this she positively refused,
unless peace was first made with Fasil. She said, that Fasil was the
only person who had endeavoured to avenge his master Joas’s death;
that he had continued till that day in arms in that quarrel; and,
notwithstanding all the offers that could be made her, she never would
come to Gondar, nor take any part in public business, without this
condition. Fasil, moreover, informed her by a messenger, that there was
no trust to be put either in Gusho or Powussen; that they had failed
in their engagement of following and fighting Ras Michael in Maitsha,
and had purposely staid at home till a superior army should fall upon
him singly, and ravage his country: That they had broken their word a
second time by entering into Gondar without him; whereas the agreement
was, that they all three should have done this at once, to settle the
form of government by their joint deliberation. Many days passed in
these negociations; Fasil always promising to come upon some condition
or other, but never keeping his word, or stirring from Buré.

On the 20th, the queen’s servants, who had gone to offer terms of
reconciliation to Fasil on the part of Gusho and Powussen, returned
to their homes. The same day he ordered it to be proclaimed in the
market-place, That Ayto Tesfos should be governor of Samen, and that
whoever should rob on that road, or commit any violence, should suffer
death. This was an act of power, purposely intended to affront Powussen
and Gusho, and seemed to be opening a road for a correspondence with
Ras Michael; but, above all, it shewed contempt for their party and
their cause, and that he considered his own as very distinct from
theirs; for Tesfos had taken arms in the late king’s lifetime, at the
same time, and upon the same principles and provocation, as Fasil, and
had never laid down his arms, or made peace with Ras Michael, but kept
his government in defiance of him.

On the 24th, for fear of giving umbrage, I waited upon Gusho and
Powussen at Gondar. I saw them in the same room where Ras Michael used
to sit. They were both lying on the floor playing at draughts, with
the figure of a draught-table drawn with chalk upon the carpet; they
offered no other civility or salutation, but, shaking me each by the
hand, they played on, without lifting their heads, or looking me in the
face.

Gusho began by asking me, “Would it not have been better if you had
gone with me to Amhara, as I desired you, when I saw you last at
Gondar? you would have saved yourself a great deal of fatigue and
trouble in that dangerous march through Maitsha.” To this I answered,
“It is hard for me, who am a stranger, to know what is best to be
done in such a country as this. I was, as you may have heard, the
king’s guest, and was favoured by him; it was my duty therefore to
attend him, especially when he desired it; and such I am informed has
always been the custom of the country; besides, Ras Michael laid his
commands upon me.” On this, says Powussen, shaking his head, “You see
he cannot forget Michael and the Tigré yet.”--“Very naturally, added
Gusho, they were good to him; he was a great man in their time; they
gave him considerable sums of money, and he spent it all among his
own soldiers, the king’s guard, which they had given him to command
after the Armenian. Yagoube taught him and his brother George to
ride on horseback like the Franks, and play tricks with guns and
pikes on horseback; folly, all of it to be sure, but I never heard
he meddled in affairs, or that he spoke ill of any one, much less
did any harm, like those rascals the Greeks when they were in favour
in Joas’s time, for it was not their fault they did not direct every
thing.”--“I hope I never did, said I; sure I am I never so intended,
nor had I any provocation. I have received much good usage from every
one; and the honour, if I do not forget, of a great many professions
and assurances of friendship from you, said I, turning to Gusho. He
hesitated a little, and then added very superciliously, “Aye, aye, we
were, as I think, always friends.”--“You have had, says Powussen, a
devilish many hungry bellies since we left Gondar.”--“You will excuse
me, Sir, replied I, as to that article; I at no time ever found any
difference whether you was in Gondar or not.”--“There, says Gusho, by
St Demetrius, there is a truth for you, and you don’t often hear that
in Begemder. May I suffer death if ever you gave a jar of honey to any
white man in your life.”--“But I, says Powussen, sitting upright on the
floor, and leaving off play, will give you, Yagoube, a present better
than Gusho’s paultry jars of honey. I have brought with me, addressing
himself to me, your double-barrelled gun, and your sword, which I took
from that son of a wh--e Guebra Mehedin: by St Michael, continued
Powussen, if I had got hold of that infidel I would have hanged him
upon the first tree in the way for daring to say that he was one of
my army when he committed that unmanly robbery upon your people. The
Iteghé, your friend, would yesterday have given me ten loads of wheat
for your gun, for she believes I am to carry it back to Begemder again,
and do not mean to give it you, but come to my tent to-morrow and you
shall have it.” I very well understood his meaning, and that he wanted
a present; but was happy to recover my gun at any rate.

I arose to get away, as what had passed did not please me; for before
the king’s retreat to Tigré, Gusho had sat in my presence uncovered to
the waist, in token of humility, and many a cow, many a sheep, and jar
of honey he had sent me; but my importance was now gone with the king;
I was fallen! and they were resolved, I saw, to make me sensible of it.
I told the queen, on my return, what had passed. They are both brutes,
said she; but Gusho should have known better.

The next morning, being the 25th, about eight o’clock, I went to
Powussen’s tent. His camp was on the Kahha, near the church of Ledata,
or the Nativity. After waiting near an hour, I was admitted; two women
sat by him, neither handsome nor cleanly dressed; and he returned me my
gun and sword, which was followed by a small present on my part. This,
says he, turning to the women, is a man who knows every thing that is
to come; who is to die, and who is to live; who is to go to the devil,
and who not; who loves her husband, and who cuckolds him.”--“Tell me
then, Yagoube, says one of the women, will Tecla Haimanout and Michael
ever come to Gondar again?”--“I do not know who you mean, Madam, said
I; is it the king and the Ras you mean?”--“Call him the King, says the
other woman in half a whisper; he loves the king.”--“Well, aye, come,
let it be the king then, says she; will the King and Ras Michael ever
come to Gondar?”--“Surely, said I, the king is king, and will go to any
part of his dominions he pleases, and when he pleases; do you not hear
he is already on his way?”--“Aye, aye, by G--d, says Powussen, no fear
he’ll come with a vengeance, therefore I think it is high time that I
was in Begemder.” He then shrugged up his shoulders, and rose, upon
which I took my leave. He had kept me standing all the time; and when
I came to Koscam I made my report as usual to the Iteghé, who laughed
very heartily, though the king’s arrival, which was prophecied, was
likely to be a very serious affair to her.

That very day, in the evening, came a servant from Ras Michael, with
taunts and severe threats to the queen, to Powussen, and Gusho; he said
he was very quickly bringing the king back to Gondar, and being now
old, intended to pass the rest of his life in Tigré; he, therefore,
hoped they would await the king’s coming to Gondar, and chuse a Ras for
his successor from among themselves, as he understood they were all
friends, and would easily agree, especially as it was to _oblige him_.

On the 27th, Gusho and Powussen waited upon the queen to take their
leave. They declared it was not their intention to stay at Gondar,
merely to be alternately the subject of merriment and scoffing to
Michael and to Fasil, and upon this they immediately set out on their
way home, without drum or trumpet, or any parade whatever.

Immediately after, arrived another servant from Fasil to the queen,
desiring that Powussen and Gusho might halt at Emfras, adding, that
he had just then begun his march from Buré, and would be at Gondar in
a few days. Gusho and Powussen did accordingly halt there, and were
detained for the space of six weeks, amused by false pretences and
messages, in very uncomfortable quarters, till their armies disbanded,
the soldiers, from hunger and constant rains, deserted their leaders,
and went every man to his home.

In the beginning of August the queen came to Gondar, and sat on the
throne all day. She had not been there these three years, and I
sincerely wished she had not gone then. It was in meditation that day
to chuse a new king; she was present at that deliberation, and her
intention was known to place a son of Aylo, Joas’s brother, a mere
infant, upon the throne. All those that were in fear of Michael, and
it was very general at that time, cried out against an infant king at
such a critical period; but, old as that princess was, the desire of
reigning had again returned.

Upon the return of the Iteghé that night to Koscam, Sanuda held a
council of the principal officers that had remained at Gondar, and
fixed upon one Welleta Girgis, a young man of about 24 years of age,
who had, indeed, been reputed Yasous’s son, but his low life and
manners had procured him safety and liberty by the contempt they had
raised in Ras Michael. His mother, indeed, was of a noble origin, but
so reduced in fortune as to have been obliged to gain her livelihood by
carrying jars of water for hire. The mother swore this son was begot by
Yasous, and as that prince was known not to have been very nice in his
choice of mistresses, or limited in their number, it was, perhaps, as
likely to be true as not, that Welleta Girgis was his son. He took the
name of Socinios. On the morning after, the new king came to Koscam,
attended by Sanuda and his party, with guards, and all the ensigns
of royalty. He threw himself at the Iteghé’s feet, and begged her
forgivenness if he had vindicated the rights of his birth, without her
leave or participation; he declared his resolution to govern entirely
by her advice, and begged her to grant his request and come to Gondar,
and again take possession of her place as Iteghé, or regent of the
kingdom.

It was about the 10th of August that an accident happened, which it
was generally thought would have determined Fasil to come to Gondar. A
common woman, wife of a Galla at Tchelga, a town upon the frontiers
of Sennaar, being at variance with her husband, upbraided him with
being the person that, with his own hand, had assassinated the late
king Joas. This Galla was immediately seized and sent to Gondar, and
was examined before the queen, where I was present. He, with very
little hesitation, declared, That, on a night immediately after the
battle of Azazo, he was sent for to Ras Michael, who gave him some
money and large promises, on condition that he would undertake to
murder the king that night. The persons present were Laeca Netcho, and
his two sons, Nebrit Tecla and his two sons, Shalaka Becro relation
to the present king, and Woldo Hawaryat a monk of Tigré The prisoner
said, he was afraid, if he should refuse, they would murder him for
the sake of secrecy. He further said, that they had given him spirits
to drink till he was intoxicated, and then delivered to him the keys
of the apartments where Joas was confined, and they all went with him
to the palace; they found the unfortunate king alone, walking in his
apartment, very pensive, and, though at the late hour of twelve at
night, dressed in his usual habit. Two of Laeca Netcho’s sons attempted
to put a cord round his neck, but the king, being young and strong,
shewed a disposition to defend himself, and wrested the cord out of the
murderers hands; upon which Zor Woldo (the name of the Galla) struck
him a violent blow with a bludgeon on the head, which felled him to the
ground: The others then, with a short cord, strangled him, the monk,
Woldo Hawaryat, crying, dispatch him quickly; after this they carried
the body to the neighbouring church of St Raphael, where a grave, or
rather hole, was ready, into which they threw it with the clothes just
as he was. The prisoner said, That, when they were carrying the king’s
body out of the palace into the church-yard, over a breach in the
church-yard wall, they were challenged by a person, who asked them what
they were about? to which they replied, Burying a stranger who died
that day of a pestilential fever.

Immediately upon this confession, the Galla was carried out and hanged
upon the daroo-tree before the king’s gate. Many condemned this hasty
execution, but many likewise thought it prudent; for he had already
named a great part of the people about the queen as accessary to the
death of her son.

I have said his name was Zor Woldo; he was of the race of Galla,
called Toluma, on the borders of Amhara; he had been formerly a
servant to Kasmati Becro; was of small stature, thin and lightly made;
his complexion a yellowish black, and singularly ill-favoured. When
under the tree, he acknowledged the murder of the king with absolute
indifference; nor did he desire any favour, or shew any fear of death.
Zor Woldo’s examination and declaration were sent immediately to Fasil,
who, as usual, promised to come to Gondar quickly. The body of Joas was
raised also, and laid in the church (in his clothes, just as he was dug
up) upon a little straw; his features were easily distinguishable, but
some animal had ate part of his cheek.

The day after, I went from Koscam to Gondar without acquainting the
Iteghé, and took a Greek called Petros with me; he had been chamberlain
to Joas. We went about eleven o’clock in the forenoon to the church
of St Raphael, expecting to have seen many as curious as ourselves,
but, by reason of the atrociousness of the act, now for the first
time known to be true, and the fear of Ras Michael threatening Gondar
every day, not a living soul was there but a monk belonging to the
church itself, who kept the key. It was thought criminal to know what
it was apparent Michael had wished to conceal. Petros no sooner saw his
master’s face than, saying, It is he! he ran off with all the speed
possible: for my part, I was shocked at the indecent manner in which
the body was exposed; it affected me more than the murder itself, for
it appeared as if it had been thrown down upon the ground, the head,
arms, and legs lying in all sorts of directions, and great part of
his haunch and thigh bare. I desired the monk to lock the door, and
come along with me to Petros’s house. Petros was a merchant who sold
carpets, and such sort of goods used in the country, which he brought
from Cairo. It was full an hour before we could make him behave
sensibly, or deliver me a small Persian carpet, such as Mahometans use
to pray upon, that is about seven feet long and four feet broad, and
a web of coarse muslin, which I bought of him. I told the priest (for
Petros absolutely refused to return to the church) how to lay the body
decently upon the carpet, and to cover his face and every part with
the muslin cloth, which might be lifted when any body came to see the
corpse.

The priest received the carpet with great marks of satisfaction, and
told me it was he who had challenged the murderers when carrying the
body over the wall; that he knew them well, and suspected they had been
about some mischief; and, upon hearing the king was missing the next
day, he was firmly convinced it was his body that had been buried. Upon
going also to the place early in the morning, he had found one of the
king’s toes, and part of his foot, not quite covered with earth, from
the haste the murderers were in when they buried him; these he had
put properly out of sight, and constantly ever after, as he said, had
watched the place in order to hinder the grave from being disturbed, or
any other person being buried there.

About the beginning of October, Guebra Selassé, a servant of the king
and one of the porters in the palace, came on a message to the queen.
It was a laconic one, but very easily understood.--“Bury your boy,
now you have got him; or, when I come, I will bury him, and some of
his relations with him.” Joas, upon this, was privately buried. As
this Selassé was a favourite of mine, who took care of my shoes when
I pulled them off to go into the audience-room, I waited impatiently
for this messenger’s coming to my apartment, which he did late in the
evening. I was alone, and he advanced so softly that I did not at first
hear or know him; but, when the door was shut, he began to give two
or three capers; and, pulling out a very large horn, “Drink! drink!
G--d d--n! repeating this two or three times, and brandishing his horn
over his head. Selassé, said I, have you lost your senses, or are you
drunk? you used to be a sober man.”--“And so I am yet, says he, I have
not tasted a morsel since noon; and, being tired of running about on
my affairs, I am now come to you for my supper, as I am sure you’ll
not poison me for my master’s sake, nor for my own either, and I have
now enemies enough in Gondar.”--“I then asked, How is the king?”--“Did
not you hear, said he--Drink!--the king told me to say this to you
that you might know me to be a true messenger.” And an Irish servant
of mine, opening the door in the instant, thinking it was I that
called _drink_! Selassé adroitly continued, “He knows you are curious
in horns, and sent you this, desiring me first to get it filled at the
Iteghé’s with good red wine, which I have done; and now, Hallo! Drink!
Englishman!” He then added in a whisper, when the servant had shut the
door, “I’ll tell it you all after supper, when the house is quiet, for
I sleep here all night, and go to Tigré to-morrow morning.”

The time being come, he informed me Ras Michael and Fasil had made
peace; Welleta Michael, the Ras’s nephew, taken by Fasil at the battle
of Limjour, had been the mediator; that the king and Michael, by their
wise behaviour, had reconciled Tigré as one man, and that the Ras
had issued a proclamation, remitting to the province of Tigré their
whole taxes from the day they passed the Tacazzé till that time next
year, in consideration of their fidelity and services; and this had
been solemnly proclaimed in several places by beat of drum. The Ras
declared, at the same time, that he would, out of his own private
fortune, without other assistance, bear the expence of the campaign
till he seated the king on his throne in Gondar. A kind of madness, he
said, had seized all ranks of people to follow their sovereign to the
capital; that the mountain Haramat still held out; but that all the
principal friends, both of Za Menfus and Netcho, had been up with the
governors of that fortress offering terms of peace and forgivenness,
and desiring they would not be an obstacle in the king’s way, and a
hinderance to his return, but that all terms had been as yet refused;
however, says he, you know the Ras as well as I, he will play them a
trick some of these days, winking with his eye, and then crying out,
Drink!

I asked him if any notice had been taken of the carpet I had procured
to cover the body of Joas, and hoped it had given no umbrage. He said,
“No; none at all; on the contrary, the king had said twenty kind things
upon it; that he was present also when a priest told it to Ras Michael,
who only observed, Yagoube, who is a stranger in this country, is
shocked to see a man taken out of his grave, and thrown like a dog upon
the bare floor. This was all Michael said, and he never mentioned a
word on the subject afterwards;” nor did he, or the king, ever speak of
it to me upon their return to Gondar.

The Iteghé, too, had much commended me, so did all the nobility, more
than the thing deserved; for surely common humanity dictated thus much,
and the fear of Michael, which I had not, was the only cause that so
proper an action was left in a stranger’s power. Even Ozoro Esther,
enemy to Joas on account of the death of her husband Mariam Barea,
after I had attended her one Sunday from church to the house of the
Iteghé, and when she was set down at the head of a circle of all those
that were of distinction at the court, called out aloud to me, as I was
passing behind, and pointing to one of the most honourable seats in the
room, said, Sit down there, Yagoube; God has exalted you above all in
this country, when he has put it in your power, though but a stranger,
to confer charity upon the king of it. All was now acclamation,
especially from the ladies; and, I believe, I may safely say, I had
never in my life been a favourite of so many at one time.

I dispatched Guebra Selassé with a message to the king, that I was
resolved now to try once more a journey to the head of the Nile; that
I thought I should have time to be there, and return to Gondar, before
the Tacazzé was fordable, soon after which I expected he would cross
it, and that nothing but want of health would prevent me from joining
him in Belessen, or sooner, if any opportunity should offer.

Before I took my last resolutions I waited upon the queen. She was
exceedingly averse to the attempt; she bade me remember what the last
trial had cost me; and begged me to defer any further thoughts of it
till Fasil arrived in Gondar; that she would then deliver me into his
hands, and procure from him sure guides, together with a safe conduct.
She bade me beware also of troops of Pagan Galla which were passing
and repassing to and from his army, who, if they fell in with me,
would murder me without mercy. She added, that the priests of Gojam
and Damot were mortal enemies to all men of my colour, and, with a
word, would raise the peasants against me. This was all true; but then
many reasons, which I had weighed well, concurred to shew that this
opportunity, dangerous as it was, might be the only time in which my
enterprise could be practicable; for I was confident a speedy rupture
between Fasil and Michael would follow upon the king’s return to
Gondar. I determined therefore to set out immediately without farther
loss of time.




CHAP. VIII.

_Second Journey to discover the Source of the Nile--Favourable Turn of
the King’s Affairs in Tigré--We fall in with Fasil’s Army at Bamba._


Though the queen shewed very great dislike to my attempting this
journey at such a time, yet she did not positively command the
contrary; I was prepared, therefore, to leave Gondar the 27th of
October 1770, and thought to get a few miles clear of the town, and
then make a long stretch the next day. I had received my quadrant,
time-keeper, and telescopes from the island of Mitraha, where I had
placed them after the affair of Guebra Mehedin, and had now put them in
the very best order.

But, about twelve o’clock, I was told a message from Ras Michael had
arrived with great news from Tigré. I went immediately to Koscam as
fast as I could gallop, and found there Guebra Christos, a man used
to bring the jars of bouza to Ras Michael at his dinner and supper:
low men are always employed on such errands, that they may not, from
their consequence excite a desire of vengeance. The message that he
brought was to order bread and beer to be ready for 30,000 men who were
coming with the king, as he had just decamped from before the mountain
Haramat, which he had taken, and put Za Menfus to the sword, with every
man that was in it: this message struck the queen with such a terror
that she was not visible the whole day.

After asking the messenger if he had any word from the king to me, he
said, “Very little;” that the king had called him to tell me he should
soon begin his march by Belessen; and that he would send for me to meet
him when he should arrive at Mariam-Ohha; he told me besides, that the
king had got a stone for me with writing upon it of old times, which he
was bringing to me; that it had been dug up at Axum, and was standing
at the foot of his bed, but that he did not order him to tell me this,
and had only learned it from the servants. My curiosity was very much
raised to know what this stone could be, but I soon saw it was in vain
to endeavour to learn any thing from Guebra Christos; he answered in
the affirmative to every inquiry: when I asked if it was blue, it was
blue; and if black, it was black; it was round, and square, and oblong,
just as I put my question to him: all he knew about it at last, he
said, was, that it cured all sort of sickness; and, if a man used it
properly, it made him invulnerable and immortal: he did not, however,
pretend to warrant this himself, but swore he had the account from
a priest of Axum who knew it. I was perfectly satisfied all further
inquiry was unnecessary; he had got a very plentiful portion of bouza
from his friends, and was, I saw, fast engaged in the pursuit of more,
so I gave him a small present for his good news, and took my leave, my
mind being full of reflections upon the king’s goodness, who, after
such an absence, and in so critical a situation as he then was, still
remembered the trifling pursuits in which he had seen me often engaged.

In the afternoon I received a message from Ozoro Esther, as brought
to her by a servant of Ras Michael. It seems the giving up the king’s
revenue due from Tigré, and all sort of taxes upon the inhabitants,
had interested the whole province so strongly, that all of them, as
one man, endeavoured to remove the obstacle which stood in the way of
the king’s return: Michael, moreover, offered peace and pardon to the
rebels, certain compensations, and an amnesty of all that was past. All
the friends, both of Netcho and Za Menfus, and the other leaders upon
the mountain, endeavoured to persuade them to accept the terms offered,
whilst all the priests and hermits, eminent for sanctity, became as
mediators between them and Ras Michael: this intercourse, though it had
no effect upon Za Menfus, had seduced Netcho, and opened a large field
for treachery.

In the midst of this treaty, Kefla Yasous, with a detachment of chosen
men, in a very stormy night, was appointed to ascend up a private path
to that part of the mountain where Netcho kept the principal guard,
and being admitted, found the garrison mostly asleep; he surprised and
obliged them to surrender, with very little bloodshed; Za Menfus was
taken prisoner, and, while Kefla Yasous conducted him to the camp,
was met by Guebra Mascal, who thrust him through with a lance, as a
retaliation for his father’s death. Netcho and the rest of the garrison
being pardoned, all joined Ras Michael’s army. I looked upon these news
as a good omen, and experienced a degree of confidence and composure of
mind to which I for a long time had been a stranger. I slept sound that
night, and it was not till half after nine in the morning that I was
ready for my journey.

In the evening before, I had endeavoured to engage my old companion
Strates to accompany me on this attempt as he had done, on the former;
but the recollection of past dangers and sufferings was not yet
banished from his mind; and upon my asking him to go and see the head
of this famous river, he coarsely, according to his stile, answered,
Might the devil fetch him if ever he sought either his head or his tail
again.

It was on the 28th of October, at half past nine in the morning, that
we left Gondar, and passed the river Kahha at the foot of the town;
our route was W. S. W. the road a little rugged upon the side of a
hill, but the day was fair, with sunshine; and a small breeze from
the north had risen with the sun, and made the temperature of the air
perfectly agreeable. We left the church of Ledeta about a mile on the
right, and passed by several poor villages called Abba Samuel; thence
we came to the small river Shimfa, then to the Dumaza, something
larger. Upon the banks of this river, very pleasantly situated, is
Azazo, a country-house built by the late king Yasous, who often retired
here to relax himself with his friends. It is surrounded, I may say
covered, with orange-trees, so as to be scarcely seen; the trees are
grown very large and high; they are planted without order, the only
benefit expected from them being the shade. At some small distance is
the village Azazo, originally built for the accommodation of the king’s
servants while he resided there, but now chiefly occupied by monks
belonging to the large church of Tecla Haimanout, which is on a little
hill adjoining. Azazo, though little, is one of the most chearful
and pleasant villages in the neighbourhood of Gondar. The lemon-tree
seems to thrive better and grow higher than the orange; but the house
itself is going fast to ruin, as the kings of this country have a fixed
aversion to houses built by their predecessors.

The Dumaza is a very clear and pleasant stream, running briskly over a
small bed of pebbles: both this river and the Shimfa come from Woggora
on the N. W. they pass the hill of Koscam, called Debra Tzai, join
below Azazo, and, traversing the flat country of Dembea, they meet the
Angrab, which passes by Gondar, and with it fall into the Tacazzè, or
Atbara.

At noon we passed a small rivulet called Azzargiha, and, soon after,
the Chergué, where there began a most violent storm of rain, which
forced us, much against our will, into the village, one of the most
miserable I ever entered; it consisted of small hovels built with
branches of trees, and covered with thatch of straw. These rains that
fall in the latter season are what the natives very much depend upon,
and without which they could not sow the latter crops; for, though it
rains violently every day from May to the beginning of September, by
the end of October the ground is so burnt that the country would be
unfit for culture.

Our quarters here were so bad that we were impatient to depart,
but came to a water just below Chergué, which quickly made us wish
ourselves back in the village; this is a torrent that has no springs in
the hills, but only great basons, or reservoirs, of stone; and, though
it is dry all the year else, yet, upon a sudden, violent shower, as
this was, it swells in an instant, so that it is impassable for man or
horse by any device whatever. This violence is of short duration; we
waited above half an hour, and then the peasants shewed us a place,
some hundred yards above, where it was shallower; but even here we
passed with the utmost difficulty, from the impetuosity of the stream,
after getting all possible assistance from four people of the village;
but we stood very much in need of some check to our impatience, so
eager were we to get forward and finish our journey before some
revolution happened.

We had not many minutes been delivered from this torrent, before
we passed two other rivers, the one larger, the other smaller. All
these rivers come from the north-west, and have their sources in the
mountains a few miles above, towards Woggora, from which, after a short
course on the side of the hills, they enter the low, flat country of
Dembea, and are swallowed up in the Tzana.

We continued along the side of the hill in a country very thinly
inhabited; for, it being directly in the march of the army, the
peasants naturally avoided it, or were driven from it. Our road was
constantly intersected by rivers, which abound, in the same space,
more than in any other country in the world. We then came to the river
Derma, the largest and most rapid we had yet met with, and soon after
a smaller, called Ghelghel Derma. In the afternoon, at a quarter past
three, we passed another river, called Gavi-Corra; these, like the
others, all point as radii to the center of the lake, in which they
empty themselves. A little before four o’clock we encamped on the
side of the river Kemona. Upon the hill, on the other side of the
river, stands the village of that name; it was full of cattle, very
few of which we had seen during the fore-part of the journey; we had
all that day travelled six hours and a quarter, which we computed not
to exceed 14 miles: the reason of this slowness was the weight of my
quadrant, which, though divided into two, required four men to carry
it, tied upon bamboo, as upon two chair-poles. The time-keeper and two
telescopes employed two men more. We pitched our tent on the side of
the river, opposite to the village, and there passed the night.

On the 29th of October, at seven in the morning, we left our station,
the river Kemona; our direction was W. S. W. after, about an hour, we
came to a church called Abba Abraham, and a village that goes by the
same name; it is immediately upon the road on the left hand. At the
distance of about a mile are ten or twelve villages, all belonging to
the Abuna, and called Ghendi, where many of his predecessors have been
buried. The low, hot, unwholesome, woody part of the Abyssinian Kolla,
and the feverish, barren province of Walkayt, lay at the distance of
about fourteen or sixteen miles on our right. We had been hitherto
ascending a gentle rising-ground in a very indifferent country, the
sides of the hill being skirted with little rugged wood, and full of
springs, which join as they run down to the low country of Walkayt. We
saw before us a small hill called Guarré, which is to the south-west.
At half past ten we rested under the before-mentioned hill; it stands
alone in the plain, in shape like a sugar-loaf, and seems almost as
regular as if it had been a work of art. At a quarter past eleven we
resumed our journey, our course always nearly west south-west; we
passed the small village of Bowiha, at the distance of about a mile;
and, on the left, about six miles, is Gorgora, a peninsula that runs
into the lake Tzana for several miles.

There was one of the first and most magnificent churches and
monasteries of the Portuguese Jesuits, in the time of their mission to
convert this country: Socinios, then king, gave them the grounds, with
money for the expence; they built it with their own hands, and lined
it elegantly with cedar. The king, who was a zealous Roman Catholic,
chose afterwards a country-house for himself there, and encouraged them
much by his presents and by his charity; it is one of the pleasantest
situations in the world; the vast expanse of the lake is before you;
Dembea, Gojam, and Maitsha, flat and rich countries all round, are in
view; and the tops of the high hills of Begemder and Woggora close the
prospect.

The lake here, I am told, has plenty of fish, which is more than can
be said for many of the other parts of it; the fish are of two kinds,
both of them seemingly a species of what the English call _bream_. I
never could make them to agree with me, which I attribute to the drug
with which they are taken; it is of the nature of _nux vomica_, pounded
in a morter, and thrown into streams, where they run into the lake;
the fish, feeding there, are thus intoxicated and taken; however, it
would admit of a doubt of this being the reason, because the queen
and all the great people in Gondar eat them in Lent without any bad
consequences.

The great elevation of the peninsula of Gorgora makes it one of the
healthiest, as well as beautiful parts of the country; for, out of this
neck of land, at several different seasons of the year, the inhabitants
of the flat country suffer from malignant fevers. From Gondar hither we
had always been edging down to the lake.

At a quarter before noon we halted to rest upon the banks of a small
river called Baha; the country was rich, and cultivated; great part
of it, too, was laid out in pasture, and flocked with an immense
quantity of cattle. At one o’clock we resumed our journey, going west
south-west as before; we were apparently turning the north end of the
lake as short as possible, to set our face due south to the country of
the Agows. At a quarter before three we pitched our tents at Bab Baha,
after having travelled five hours and three quarters, which we computed
to be equal to twelve miles. The first part of our journey this day was
not like that of the day before; the road was, indeed, rough, burled
through very agreeable valleys and gentle-rising hills; it appeared,
on the whole, however, that we had ascended considerably since we left
Gondar.

The country about Bab Baha is the richest in Abyssinia; this on the
south, and Woggora on the north, are the two granaries that supply
the rest of the kingdom. Bab Baha is a parcel of small villages, more
considerable in number and strength than those at Kemona, and is near
the lake Tzana. The queen and many of her relations have here their
houses and possessions, and these, therefore, being respected by
Michael, had not been involved in the devastation of the late war.
The villages are all surrounded with Kol-quall trees, as large at the
trunk as those we met on the side of the mountain of Taranta, when we
ascended it on our journey from Masuah to enter into the province of
Tigré; but the tree wants much of the beauty of those of Tigré; the
branches are fewer in number, less thorny, and less indented, which
seems to prove that this is not the climate for them.

The 30th of October, at six in the morning, we continued our journey
from Bab Baha still rounding the lake at W. S. W. and on the very brink
of it: the country here is all laid out in large meadows of a deep,
black, rich soil, bearing very high grass, through the midst of which
runs the river Sar-Ohha, which, in English, is the Grassy River; it is
about forty yards broad and not two feet deep, has a soft clay bottom,
and runs from north to south into the lake Tzana.

We turned out of the road to the left at Bab Baha, and were obliged
to go up the hill; in a quarter of an hour we reached the high road
to Mescala Christos. At seven o’clock we began to turn more to the
southward, our course being S. W.; three miles and a half on our right
remained the village of Tenkel; and four miles and a half that of
Tshemmera to the N. N. W.; we were now close to the border of the
lake, whose bottom here is a fine sand. Neither the fear of crocodiles,
nor other monsters in this large lake, could hinder me from swimming
in it for a few minutes. Though the sun was very warm, the water was
intensely cold, owing to the many fresh streams that pour themselves
continually into the lake Tzana from the mountains. The country here is
sown with dora, which is maize, or millet; and another plant, not to
be distinguished from our marigold either in size, shape, or foliage;
it is called Nook[118], and furnishes all Abyssinia with oil for the
kitchen, and other uses.

At a quarter past nine we rested a little at Delghi Mariam; the village
called simply Delghi, adjoining to it, is but small, and on the S. W.
is the hill of Goy Mariam, where the queen-mother has a house. All the
habitations in this country were burnt by Ras Michael in his return
to Gondar after the battle of Fagitta. The mountain Debra Tzai above
Koscam, was seen this day at N. E. and by E. from us.

At a quarter past ten we again set out, our route being S. W. at eleven
we left the small village Arrico, about two miles on our right. At a
quarter past eleven we halted to rest our men; we passed the church of
St Michael on our right, and at a quarter past one we passed two small
islands in the lake, called Kedami Aret; and, half an hour after, we
passed a small river, and came to Mescala Christos, a large village
upon a high mountain, the summit of which it occupies entirely; it
is surrounded on both sides by a river, and the descent is steep and
dangerous. We thought to have staid here all night; but, after mounting
the hill with great fatigue and trouble, we found the whole village
abandoned, on intelligence that Waragna Fasil was on his march to
Gondar, and not far distant.

This intelligence, which came all at once upon us, made us lay aside
the thoughts of sleeping that night; we descended the hill of Mescala
Christos in great haste, and with much difficulty, and came to the
river Kemon below it, clear and limpid, but having little water,
running over a bed of very large stones. This river, too, comes from
the north-west, and falls into the lake a little below; we rested on
its banks half an hour, the weather being very sultry; from this place
we had a distinct view of the Nile, where, after crossing the lake, it
issues out near Dara, the scene of our former misfortunes; we set it
carefully by the compass, and it bore nearly S. W.

We began our journey again at three quarters after two, and at half
after three we passed a river, very clear, with little water, the name
of which I have forgot; by the largeness of its bed it seemed to be
a very considerable stream in winter; at present it had very little
water, but a fine gravelly bottom; here we met multitudes of peasants
flying before the army of Fasil, many of whom, seeing us, turned out
of the way; one of these was a servant of Guebra Ehud, brother to Ayto
Aylo, my most intimate friend: he told us it was very possible that
Fasil would pass us that night, advised us not to linger in the front
of such an army, but fall in as soon as possible with his Fit-Auraris,
rather than any other of his advanced posts; he was carrying a message
to his master’s brother at Gondar. I told him I had rather linger in
the front of such an army than in the rear of it, and should be very
sorry to be detained long, even in the middle of it; that I only wished
to salute Fasil, and procure a pass and recommendations from him to
Agow Midre.

Ayto Aylo’s servant, who was with me, presently made acquaintance
with this man, and I trusted him to learn from him as much as he knew
about Fasil; the result was, that Fasil pretended to be in a violent
hurry, from what motive was not known; but that he, at the same time,
marched very slowly, contrary to his usual custom; that his speech and
behaviour promised peace, and that he had hurt nobody on the way, but
proclaimed constantly, that all people should keep their houses without
fear; that Ayto Woldo of Maitsha, a great robber, was his Fit-Auraris,
and never distant from him more than three miles; that the troops of
Agow, Maitsha, and Damot, were with him, and with some Galla of Gojam
and Metchakel composed the van and center of his army, whilst his rear
consisted of wild lawless Galla, whom he had brought from the other
side of the Nile from Bizamo, his own country, and were commanded by
Ayto Welleta Yasous, his great confident; that these Galla were half a
day generally behind him, and there was some talk that, the same day,
or the next, he was to send these invaders home; that he marched as if
he was in fear; always took strong posts, but had received every body
that came to him, either from the country or Gondar, affably and kindly
enough, but no one knew any thing of his intentions.

About half past four o’clock we fell in with Woldo, his Fit-Auraris,
whom I did not know. Ayto Aylo’s servant, however, was acquainted with
him; we asked him some questions about his master, which he answered
very candidly and discreetly; on his part he made no inquiry, and
seemed to have little curiosity about us; he had taken his post, and
was advancing no farther that night. I made him a little present at
taking my leave, which he seemed surprised at; and, very much contrary
to my expectations, had some difficulty about receiving, saying, he
was ashamed that he had not any return for us; that he was a soldier,
and had nothing but the lance in his hand and the goat’s skin on his
shoulders, neither of which he could be sure to possess for twenty-four
hours; he then told us that Fasil had, by that time, pitched his tent
at Bamba, within a mile of us, and was to dispatch the wild Galla from
thence to their own country: he gave us a man who, he said, would take
care of us, and desired us not to dismiss him till we had seen Fasil,
and not to pitch our tent, but rather to go into one of the empty
houses of Bamba, as all the people had fled. We now parted equally
contented with each other; at the same time I saw he sent off another
man, who went swiftly on, probably to carry advice of us to Fasil: we
had staid with him something less than half an hour.




CHAP. IX.

_Interview with Fasil--Transactions in the Camp._


We found Bamba a collection of villages, in a valley now filled with
soldiers. We went to the left with our guide, and got a tolerable
house, but the door had been carried away. Fasil’s tent was pitched
a little below us, larger than the others, but without further
distinction: it was easily known, however, by the lights about it,
and by the nagareet, which still continued beating: he was then just
alighting from his horse. I immediately sent Ayto Aylo’s servant, whom
I had with me, to present my compliments, and acquaint him of my being
on the road to visit him. I thought now all my difficulties were over:
for I knew it was in his power to forward us to our journey’s end; and
his servants, whom I saw at the palace near the king, when Fasil was
invested with his command, had assured me, not only of an effectual
protection, but also of a magnificent reception if I chanced to find
him in Maitsha.

It was now, however, near eight at night of the 30th before I received
a message to attend him. I repaired immediately to his tent. After
announcing myself, I waited about a quarter of an hour before I was
admitted; he was sitting upon a cushion with a lion’s skin upon it,
and another stretched like a carpet before his feet, and had a cotton
cloth, something like a dirty towel, wrapped about his head; his
upper cloak, or garment, was drawn tight about him over his neck and
shoulders, so as to cover his hands; I bowed, and went forward to kiss
one of them, but it was so entangled in the cloth that I was obliged
to kiss the cloth instead of the hand. This was done either as not
expecting I should pay him that compliment, (as I certainly should not
have done, being one of the king’s servants, if the king had been at
Gondar) or else it was intended for a mark of disrespect, which was
very much of a-piece with the rest of his behaviour afterwards.

There was no carpet or cushions in the tent, and only a little straw,
as if accidentally, thrown thinly about it. I sat down upon the ground,
thinking him sick not knowing what all this meant; he looked stedfastly
at me, saying, half under his breath, Endett nawi? bogo nawi? which, in
Amharic, is, How do you do? Are you very well? I made the usual answer,
Well, thank God. He again stopt, as for me to speak; there was only one
old man present, who was sitting on the floor mending a mule’s bridle.
I took him at first for an attendant, but observing that a servant
uncovered held a candle to him, I thought he was one of his Galla, but
then I saw a blue silk thread, which he had about his neck, which is a
badge of Christianity all over Abyssinia, and which a Galla would not
wear. What he was I could not make out; he seemed, however, to be a
very bad cobler, and took no notice of us.

Ayto Aylo’s servant, who stood behind me, pushed me with his knee, as
a sign that I should speak, which I accordingly began to do with some
difficulty. “I am come, said I, by your invitation, and the king’s
leave, to pay my respects to you in your own government, begging that
you would favour my curiosity so far as to suffer me to see the country
of the Agows, and the source of the Abay, or Nile, part of which I have
seen in Egypt.” “The source of the Abay! exclaimed he, with a pretended
surprise, do you know what you are saying? Why, it is, God knows where,
in the country of the Galla, wild, terrible people. The source of the
Abay! Are you raving! repeats he again: Are you to get there, do you
think, in a twelvemonth, or more, or when?” “Sir, said I, the king
told me it was near Sacala, and still nearer Geesh; both villages of
the Agows, and both in your government.” “And so you know Sacala and
Geesh? says he, whistling and half angry[119].” “I can repeat the names
that I hear, said I; all Abyssinia knows the head of the Nile.”--“Aye,
says he, imitating my voice and manner, but all Abyssinia won’t carry
you there, that I promise you.” “If you are resolved to the contrary,
said I, they will not; I wish you had told the king so in time, then
I should not have attempted it; it was relying upon you alone I came
so far, confident, if all the rest of Abyssinia could not protect me
there, that your word singly could do it.”

He now put on a look of more complacency. “Look you, Yagoube, says he,
it is true I can do it; and, for the king’s sake who recommended it to
me, I would do it; but the Acab Saat, Abba Salama, has sent to me, to
desire me not to let you pass further; he says it is against the law of
the land to permit Franks like you to go about the country, and that he
has dreamed something ill will befal me if you go into Maitsha.” I was
as much irritated as I thought it possible for me to be. “So so, said
I, the time of priests, prophets, and dreamers is coming on again.” “I
understand you, says he laughing for the first time; I care as little
for priests as Michael does, and for prophets too, but I would have you
consider the men of this country are not like yours; a boy of these
Galla would think nothing of killing a man of your country. You white
people are all effeminate; you are like so many women; you are not
fit for going into a province where all is war, and inhabited by men,
warriors from their cradle.”

I saw he intended to provoke me; and he had succeeded so effectually
that I should have died, I believe, imprudent as it was, if I had not
told him my mind in reply. “Sir, said I, I have passed through many of
the most barbarous nations in the world; all of them, excepting this
clan of yours, have some great men among them above using a defenceless
stranger ill. But the worst and lowest individual among the most
uncivilized people never treated me as you have done to-day under your
own roof, where I have come so far for protection.” He asked, “How?”
“You have, in the first place, said I, publicly called me Frank, the
most odious name in this country, and sufficient to occasion me to be
stoned to death without further ceremony, by any set of men wherever
I may present myself. By Frank you mean one of the Romish religion,
to which my nation is as adverse as yours; and again, without having
ever seen any of my countrymen but myself, you have discovered, from
that specimen, that we are all cowards and effeminate people, like,
or inferior to, your boys or women. Look you, Sir, you never heard
that I gave myself out as more than an ordinary man in my own country,
far less to be a pattern of what is excellent in it. I am no soldier,
though I know enough of war to see yours are poor proficients in that
trade. But there are soldiers, friends and countrymen of mine, (one
presents himself to my mind at this instant[120],) who would not
think it an action in his life to vaunt of, that with 500 men he had
trampled all yon naked savages into dust. On this Fasil made a feigned
laugh, and seemed rather to take my freedom amiss. It was, doubtless,
a passionate and rash speech. As to myself, continued I, unskilled in
war as I am, could it be now without further consequence, let me but
be armed in my own country-fashion on horseback, as I was yesterday,
I should, without thinking myself overmatched, fight the two best
horsemen you shall choose from this your army of famous men, who are
warriors from their cradle; and if, when the king arrives, you are not
returned to your duty, and we meet again, as we did at Limjour, I will
pledge myself, with his permission, to put you in mind of this promise.
This did not make things better.”

He repeated the word _duty_ after me, and would have replied, but my
nose burst out in a stream of blood; and, that instant, Aylo’s servant
took hold of me by the shoulder to hurry me out of the tent. Fasil
seemed to be a good deal concerned, for the blood streamed out upon
my clothes. The old man likewise assisted me when out of the tent; I
found he was Guebra Ehud, Ayto Aylo’s brother, whose servant we had
met on the road. I returned then to my tent, and the blood was soon
staunched by washing my face with cold water. I sat down to recollect
myself, and the more I calmed, the more I was dissatisfied at being put
off my guard; but it is impossible to conceive the provocation without
having proved it. I have felt but too often how much the love of our
native soil increases by our absence from it; and how jealous we are
of comparisons made to the disadvantage of our countrymen by people
who, all proper allowances being made, are generally not their equals,
when they would boast themselves their superiors. I will confess
further, in gratification to my critics, that I was, from my infancy,
of a sanguine, passionate disposition; very sensible of injuries
that I had neither provoked nor deserved; but much reflection, from
very early life, continual habits of suffering in long and dangerous
travels, where nothing but patience would do, had, I flattered myself,
abundantly subdued my natural proneness to feel offences, which, common
sense might teach me, I could only revenge upon myself.

However, upon further consulting my own breast I found there was
another cause had co-operated strongly with the former in making me
lose my temper at this time, which, upon much greater provocation, I
had never done before. I found now, as I thought, that it was decreed
decisively my hopes of arriving at the source of the Nile were for
ever ended; all my trouble, all my expences, all my time, and all my
sufferings for so many years were thrown away, from no greater obstacle
than the whimsies of one barbarian, whose good inclinations, I thought,
I had long before sufficiently secured; and, what was worse, I was
now got within less than forty miles of the place I so much wished to
see; and my hopes were shipwrecked upon the last, as well as the most
unexpected, difficulty I had to encounter.

I was just going to bed when Ayto Welleta Michael, Ras Michael’s
nephew, taken at Limjour, and a prisoner with Fasil, though now at
large, came into the tent. I need not repeat the discourse that passed
between us, it was all condolence upon the ill-usage I had met with. He
cursed Fasil, called him a thousand opprobrious names, and said, Ras
Michael one day would shew me his head upon a pole: he hinted, that he
thought Fasil expected a present, and imagined that I intended to pass
the king’s recommendation on him in the place of it. I have a present,
said I, and a very handsome one, but I never thought that, while his
nagareet was still beating, and when he had scarcely pitched his tent
when he was tired, and I no less so, that it was then a time to open
baggage for this purpose; if he had waited till to-morrow, he should
have had a gratification which would have contented him.

Well, well, said Welleta Michael, as for your journey I shall undertake
for that, for I heard him giving orders about it when I came away, even
though he expects no present; what does the gratifying your curiosity
cost him? he would be ashamed to refuse you permission; his own vanity
would hinder him. This assurance, more than all the quieting draughts
in the world, composed my mind, and brought me to myself. I went to
bed, and falling into a sound sleep, was waked near mid-night by two
of Fasil’s servants, who brought each of them a lean live sheep; they
said they had brought the sheep, and were come to ask how I was, and to
stay all night to watch the house for fear of the thieves in the army;
they likewise brought their master’s order for me to come early in the
morning to him, as he wanted to dispatch me on my journey before he
gave the Galla liberty to return. This dispelled every doubt, but it
raised my spirits so much, that, out of impatience for morning, I slept
very little more that night.

It was a time of year when it is not broad day till after six o’clock;
I went to the camp and saw Guebra Ehud, who confirmed what Welleta
Michael had said, and that Fasil had given orders for bringing several
of his own horses for me, to choose which he was to present me with;
in effect there were about twelve horses all saddled and bridled,
which were led by a master-groom. I was very indifferent about these
horses, having a good one of my own, and there was none of these that
would in this country have brought 7l. at a market; the servant, who
seemed very officious, pitched upon a bright-bay poney, the fattest of
the whole, but not strong enough in appearance to carry me; he assured
me, however, the horse had excellent paces, was a great favourite of
Fasil’s, but too _dull_ and _quiet_ for him, and desired me to mount
him, though he had no other furniture but the wooden part of a saddle
covered with thin, brown leather, and, instead of stirrups, iron rings.
All the Abyssinians, indeed, ride bare-footed and legged, and put only
their great toe into the iron ring, holding it betwixt their great and
second toe, as they are afraid of being entangled by the stirrup if
their horse falls, should they put their foot into it.

I consented to try him very willingly. A long experience with the
Moors in Barbary put me above fear of any horse, however vicious,
which I had no reason to think this was; besides, I rode always with a
Barbary bridle, broad stirrups, and short stirrup-leathers, after their
fashion; the bridle is known to every scholar in horsemanship, and
should be used by every light-horseman or dragoon, for the most vicious
horse cannot advance a yard against this bridle, when in a strong hand.
I ordered the seis, or groom, to change the saddle and bridle for mine,
and I had on a pair of spurs with very long and sharp rowels. I saw
presently the horse did not like the bit, but that I did not wonder at;
my saddle was what is called a war saddle, high behind and before, so,
unless the horse fell, it was impossible to throw the rider. I had also
a thick, knotty stick, or truncheon, of about three feet long, instead
of a whip, and well was it for me I was so prepared for him.

For the first two minutes after I mounted I do not know whether I was
most on the earth or in the air; he kicked behind, reared before,
leaped like a deer, all four off the ground, and it was some time
before I recollected myself; he then attempted to gallop, taking the
bridle in his teeth, but got a check which staggered him; he, however,
continued to gallop; and, finding I slacked the bridle on his neck,
and that he was at ease, he set off and ran away as hard as he could,
flinging out behind every ten yards; the ground was very favourable,
smooth, soft, and up-hill. We passed the post of the Fit-Auraris like
lightning, leaving him exceedingly surprised at seeing me make off
with his master’s horse. He was then going to the head-quarters, but
said nothing at passing; we went down one hill aukwardly enough; and,
when we got to a small plain and a brook below, the horse would have
gone easily enough either a trot or walk up the other, but I had only
to shake my stirrups to make him set off again at a violent gallop,
and when he stopt he trembled all over. I was now resolved to gain a
victory, and hung my upper cloak upon a tree, the attempting which
occasioned a new battle; but he was obliged to submit. I then between
the two hills, half up the one and half up the other, wrought him so
that he had no longer either breath or strength, and I began to think
he would scarce carry me to the camp.

I now found that he would walk very quietly; that a gentle touch of the
spur would quicken him, but that he had not strength or inclination to
gallop; and there was no more rearing or kicking up behind. I put my
cloak, therefore, about me in the best manner possible, just as if it
had never been ruffled or discomposed by motion, and in this manner
repassing the Fit-Auraris’ quarters, came in sight of the camp, where a
large field sown with teff, and much watered, was in front. I went out
of the road into this field, which I knew was very soft and deep, and
therefore favourable for me. Coming near Fasil’s tent, the horse stopt
upon gently straitening the bridle, as a horse properly broke would
have done, on which my servant took the saddle and bridle, and returned
the groom his own.

The poor beast made a sad figure, cut in the sides to pieces, and
bleeding at the jaws; and the seis, the rascal that put me upon him,
being there when I dismounted, he held up his hands upon seeing the
horse so mangled, and began to testify great surprise upon the supposed
harm I had done. I took no notice of this, only said, Carry that horse
to your master; he may venture to ride him now, which is more than
either he or you dared to have done in the morning.

As my own horse was bridled and saddled, and I found myself violently
irritated, I resolved to ride to compose myself a little before another
interview, for I thought this last piece of treachery, that might
have cost me my legs and arms, was worse than what passed in the tent
the night before; it seemed to be aimed at my life, and to put a very
effectual stop to the continuing my journey. My servant had in his
hand a short double-barrelled gun loaded with shot for killing any
uncommon bird we might see by the way. I took the gun and my horse,
and went up the side of the green hill about half way, in fair view
of the camp, and considerably above it, I galloped, trotted, and made
my horse perform every thing he was capable of. He was excellent in
his movements, and very sufficiently trained; this the Galla beheld at
once with astonishment and pleasure; they are naturally fond of horses,
sufficiently perfect in the useful part of horsemanship, to be sensible
of the beauty of the ornamental.

There was then, as there always is, a vast number of kites following
the camp, which are quite familiar and live upon the carrion;
choosing two gliding near me, I shot first one on the right, then
one on the left; they both fell dead on the ground; a great shout
immediately followed from the spectators below, to which I seemingly
paid no attention, pretending absolute indifference, as if nothing
extraordinary had been done. I then dismounted from my horse, giving
him and my gun to my servant, and, sitting down on a large stone, I
began to apply some white paper to staunch a small scratch the first
horse had given me on the leg, by rubbing it against a thorn tree:
as my trowsers, indeed, were all stained with the blood of the first
horse, much cut by the spur, it was generally thought I was wounded.

Fasil on this sent for me to come immediately to him, having just got
up from a sleep after a whole night’s debauch. He was at the door
of the tent when I began riding my own horse, and, having seen the
shots, ordered the kites immediately to be brought him: his servants
had laboured in vain to find the hole where the ball, with which I
had killed the birds, had entered; for none of them had ever seen
small-shot, and I did not undeceive them. I had no sooner entered his
tent than he asked me, with great earnestness, to shew him where the
ball had gone through. I gave him no explanation; but, if you have
really an inclination to kill me, said I, you had better do it here,
where I have servants that will bury me, and tell the King and the
Iteghé the kind reception you have given strangers whom they have
recommended. He asked what I meant? What was the matter now? and I was
going to answer, when Welleta Michael told him the whole story, greatly
in my favour, indeed, but truly and plainly as to the trick about the
horse. The Fit-Auraris Woldo said something to him in Galla, which
plainly made the matter worse. Fasil now seemed in a terrible fury,
and said three words to the Fit-Auraris in Galla, who immediately went
out; and, as my servants told me afterwards, after sending for the
seis, or groom, who had brought me the horse, the first salutation that
he gave him was a blow over the head with a bludgeon, which felled him
to the ground, then a dozen more strokes, and ordered him to be put in
irons, after which he returned into the tent.

Fasil, who heard I was hurt, and saw the quantity of blood upon my
trowsers, held up his hands with a shew of horror and concern, which
plainly was not counterfeited: he protested, by every oath he could
devise, that he knew nothing about the matter, and was asleep at the
time; that he had no horses with him worth my acceptance, except the
one that he rode, but that any horse known to be his, driven before me,
would be a passport, and procure me respect among all the wild people
whom I might meet, and for that reason only he had thought of giving
me a horse. He repeated his protestations that he was innocent, and
heartily sorry for the accident, which, indeed, he appeared to be: he
told me the groom was in irons, and that, before many hours passed, he
would put him to death. I was perfectly satisfied with his sincerity.
I wished to put an end to this disagreeable conversation: “Sir, said
I, as this man has attempted my life, according to the laws of the
country, it is I that should name the punishment.” “It is very true,
replied Fasil, take him, Yagoube, and cut him in a thousand pieces, if
you please, and give his body to the kites.” “Are you really sincere
in what you say, said I, and will you have no after excuses.” He swore
solemnly he would not. “Then, said I, I am a Christian: the way my
religion teaches me to punish my enemies is by doing good for evil;
and therefore I keep you to the oath you have sworn, and desire my
friend the Fit-Auraris to set the man at liberty, and put him in the
place he held before, for he has not been undutiful to you.”

I need not say what were the sentiments of the company upon the
occasion; they seemed to be most favourable to me; old Guebra Ehud
could not contain himself, but got out of the dark corner, and squeezed
both of my hands in his; and turning to Fasil, said, “Did not I tell
you what my brother Aylo thought about this man?” Welleta Michael
said, “He was just the same all through Tigrè.” Fasil, in a low voice,
replied, “A man that behaves as he does may go thro’ any country.”
They then all begged that I would take care of my wound, looking at
the blood upon my trowsers. I told them it was already staunched; and
turning to Fasil, said, “We white people, you see, are not so terrified
at seeing our own blood as you supposed we were.” He then desired that
the tent might be cleared for a short time, and we all went out.

About ten minutes after, I was called in to partake of a great
breakfast; honey and butter, and raw beef in abundance, as also some
stewed dishes that were very good. I was very hungry, having tasted
nothing since dinner the day before; and I had had much exercise of
body as well as of mind. We were all very chearful, every one saying
something about the Agows, or of the Nile; and Fasil declaring, if it
was peace, he would carry me to his country across the Nile as far
as the kingdom of Narea. I thanked him. “You are at peace, said I,
with the King and the Ras, and going to meet them at Gondar.”--“At
Gondar, says he, no; I hope not this time; the Ras has work enough on
his hands for the rest of his life.” “What work? said I.” “Why, the
mountain,” replies he. “The mountain Aromata!” “The same, says he; you
never saw such a place; Lamalmon, and all the mountains of Abyssinia,
are nothing to it: he was, when at the prime of life, fifteen years
in taking it from this Netcho’s father.” “But he has been luckier
this time, replied I, by fourteen years.” “How!” says he, with some
amasement. “Pardon me, said I, if I have unawares told you unwelcome
news; but the mountain is taken, the garrison put to the sword, and
Za Menfus, after surrendering, slain, in cold blood by Guebra Mascal,
in revenge for the death of his father.” Fasil had in his hand a blue
cut-glass goblet, gilt round the edges with gold. I had bought it at
Cairo, with several other articles of the same kind, from a merchant
who procured them from Trieste. I had given it to the king, who drank
out of it himself, and had sent it as an honourable token to Fasil from
Dingleber, the day when they made peace, after the battle of Limjour.
Upon hearing what I said, he threw it violently upon the ground, and
broke it into a thousand pieces. “Take care what you say, Yagoube, says
he, take care this be not a lie; tell it me again.” I told him the
whole circumstances from beginning to end; how the news had come to the
Iteghé--who had brought the intelligence--how it had come from the Ras
to Ozoro Esther--and how Kefla Yasous had surprised the mountain by
treachery, having first lulled the besieged asleep by a negociation,
and a proposed mediation of the priests and hermits. On this Fasil
observed, it was the very way Michael took it last time; and, putting
his forefinger in his mouth, bit it very hard, crying, Fool, fool, was
he not warned? We all were again dismissed from the tent, and staid
out about a quarter of an hour, when we were again called in.

I cannot say but I enjoyed heartily the fright I had visibly given him;
it seemed to me that Aylo’s brother, Guebra Ehud, was the only person
whom he consulted, for it was he alone that remained with him in his
tent when we entered; he had changed his dress; a man was combing his
hair, and perfuming it; and he had a new, white, fine cotton cloth
thrown about his middle loosely, which covered his legs and feet, his
breasts, neck, and shoulders, being quite naked; he rose half up from
his seat when I came in, made me sit down on a cushion beside him, and
was going to speak, when I resolved to have the first word, for fear
he should engage me in more discussions. “Your continual hurry, said
I, all the times I have seen you, has put it out of my power till now
to make you the acknowledgment it is ordinary for strangers to present
when they visit great men in their own country, and ask favours of
them.” I then took a napkin, and opened it before him; he seemed to
have forgot the present altogether, but from that moment I saw his
countenance changed, he was like another man. “O Yagoube, says he, a
present to me! you should be sensible that is perfectly needless; you
were recommended to me by the King and the Ras; you know, says he, we
are friends, and I would do twenty times as much for yourself, without
recommendation from either; besides, I have not behaved to you like a
great man.”

It was not a very hard thing to conquer these scruples; he took the
several pieces of the present one by one in his hands, and examined
them; there was a crimson silk sash, made at Tunis, about five yards
long, with a silk fringe of the same colour; it was as beautiful a
web of silk as ever I saw; it had a small waved pattern wrought in
it; the next was a yellow, with a red narrow border, or stripe, and a
silver-wrought fringe, but neither so long nor so thick as the other;
the next were two Cyprus manufactured sashes, silk and cotton, with
a sattin stripe, the one broader than the other, but five yards long
each; the next was a Persian pipe, with a long pliable tube, or worm,
covered with Turkey leather, with an amber mouth-piece, and a chrystal
vase for smoking tobacco through water, a great luxury in the eastern
countries; the next were two blue bowls, as fine as the one he had just
then broken, and of the same sort. He shoved them from him, laughing,
and said, “I will not take them from you, Yagoube; this is downright
robbery; I have done nothing for this, which is a present for a
king.”--“It is a present to a friend, said I, often of more consequence
to a stranger than a king; I always except your king, who is the
stranger’s best friend.”--“Though he was not easily disconcerted, he
seemed, at this time, to be very nearly so.”--“If you will not receive
them, continued I, such as they are offered, it is the greatest affront
ever was put upon me; I can never, you know, receive them again.”

By this he was convinced. More feeble arguments would indeed have
satisfied him, and he folded up the napkin with all the articles,
and gave them to an officer; after which the tent was again cleared
for consultation; and, during this time, he had called his man of
confidence, whom he was to send with us, and instructed him properly.
I saw plainly that I had gained the ascendant; and, in the expectation
of Ras Michael’s speedily coming to Gondar, he was as willing to be on
his journey the one way, as I was the other. I had ordered my servants
and baggage to set out on the road to Dingleber before me, sending Ayto
Aylo’s servant along with them, leaving me only my horse and a common
Abyssinian servant to follow them: all had been ready since early in
the morning, and they had set out accordingly with very great alacrity.

It was about one o’clock, or after it, when I was admitted to Fasil:
he received me with great complacency, and would have had me sit down
on the same cushion with himself, which I declined. “Friend Yagoube,
says he, I am heartily sorry that you did not meet me at Buré before
I set out; there I could have received you as I ought, but I have
been tormented with a multitude of barbarous people, who have turned
my head, and whom I am now about to dismiss. I go to Gondar in peace,
and to keep peace there, for the king on this side the Tacazzé has no
other friend than me; Powussen and Gusho are both traitors, and so Ras
Michael knows them to be. I have nothing to return you for the present
you have given me, for I did not expect to meet a man like you here in
the fields; but you will quickly be back; we shall meet on better terms
at Gondar; the head of the Nile is near at hand; a horseman, express,
will arrive there in a day. I have given you a good man, well known in
this country to be my servant; he will go to Geesh with you, and return
you to a friend of Ayto Aylo’s and mine, Shalaka Welled Amlac; he has
the dangerous part of the country wholly in his hands, and will carry
you safe to Gondar; my wife is at present in his house: fear nothing, I
shall answer for your safety: When will you set out? to-morrow?”

I replied, with many thanks for his kindness, that I wished to proceed
immediately, and that my servants were already far off, on the way. You
are going to dismiss those wild people, I would wish to be as clear of
them as possible; I intend to travel long journies, till we part (as I
understand we shall do) from the rout that they are taking.

You are very much in the right, says Fasil, it was only in the idea
that you was hurt with that accursed horse that I would have wished you
to stay till to-morrow; but throw off these bloody clothes, they are
not decent, I must give you new ones, you are my vassal. I bowed. The
king has granted you Geesh, where you are going, and I must invest you.
A number of his servants hurried me out; Guebra Ehud, Welleta Michael,
and the Fit-Auraris, attended me. I presently threw off my trowsers,
and my two upper garments, and remained in my waistcoat; these were
presently replaced by new ones, and I was brought back in a minute to
Fasil’s tent, with only a fine loose muslin under garment or cloth
round me, which reached to my feet. Upon my coming back to the tent,
Fasil took off the one that he had put on himself new in the morning,
and put it about my shoulders with his own hand, his servants throwing
another immediately over him, saying at the same time to the people,
“Bear witness, I give to you, Yagoube, the Agow Geesh, as fully and
freely as the king has given it me.” I bowed and kissed his hand, as is
customary for feudatories, and he then pointed to me to sit down.

“Hear what I say to you, continued Fasil; I think it right for you
to make the best of your way now, for you will be the sooner back at
Gondar. You need not be alarmed at the wild people you speak of, who
are going after you, tho’ it is better to meet them coming this way,
than when they are going to their homes; they are commanded by Welleta
Yasous, who is your friend, and is very grateful for the medicines
you sent him at Gondar: he has not been able to see you, being so
much busied with those wild people; but he loves you, and will take
care of you, and you must give me more of that physic when we met at
Gondar.” I again bowed, and he continued,--“Hear me what I say; you
see those seven people (I never saw more thief-like fellows in my
life),--these are all leaders and chiefs of the Galla--savages, if you
please; they are all your brethren.” I bowed. “You may go through their
country as if it were your own, without a man hurting you: you will be
soon related to them all; for it is their custom that a stranger of
distinction, like you, when he is their guest, sleeps with the sister,
daughter, or near relation of the principal men among them. I dare say,
says he archly, you will not think the customs of the Galla contain
greater hardships than those of Amhara.” I bowed, but thought to myself
I shall not put them to the trial. He then jabbered something to them
in Galla which I did not understand. They all answered by the wildest
howl I ever heard, and struck themselves upon the breast, apparently
assenting.

“When Ras Michael, continued he, came from the battle of Fagitta, the
eyes of forty-four, brethren and relations of these people present,
were pulled out at Gondar, the day after he arrived, and they were
exposed upon the banks of the river Angrab to starve, where most, I
believe, were devoured by the hyæna; you took three of them up to your
house; nourished, cloathed, protected, and kindly treated them.” “They
are now in good health, said I, and want nothing: the Iteghé will
deliver them to you. The only other thing I have done to them was, I
got them baptised: I do not know if that will displease them; I did it
as an additional protection to them, and to give them a title to the
charity of the people of Gondar.” “As for that, says he, they don’t
care the least about baptism; it will neither do them good nor harm;
they don’t trouble themselves about these matters; give them meat and
drink, and you will be very welcome to baptise them all from morning
to night; after such good care these Galla are all your brethren, they
will die for you before they see you hurt.” He then said something to
them in Galla again, and they all gave another assent, and made a shew
of kissing my hand.

They sat down; and, I must own, if they entertained any good-will
to me, it was not discernible in their countenances. “Besides this,
continued Fasil, you was very kind and courteous to my servants while
at Gondar, and said many favourable things of me before the king; you
sent me a present also, and above all, when Joas my master’s body was
dug up from the church-yard of St Raphael, and all Gondar were afraid
to shew it the least respect, dreading the vengeance of Ras Michael,
you, a stranger, who had never seen him, nor received benefit from
him, at your own expence paid that attention to his remains which
would have better become many at Gondar, and me in particular, had
I been within reach, or had intelligence of the matter: now, before
all these men, ask me any thing you have at heart, and, be it what it
may, they know I cannot deny it you.” He delivered this in a tone and
gracefulness of manner, superior, I think, to any thing I had ever
before seen, although the Abyssinians are all orators, as, indeed,
are most barbarians. “Why then, said I, by all those obligations you
are pleased to mention, of which you have made a recital so truly
honourable to me, I ask you the greatest favour that man can bestow
upon me--send me, as conveniently as possible, to the head of the Nile,
and return me and my attendants in safety, after having dispatched
me quickly, and put me under no constraint that may prevent me from
satisfying my curiosity in my own way.” “This, says he, is no request,
I have granted it already; besides, I owe it to the commands of the
king, whose servant I am. Since, however, it is so much at your heart,
go in peace, I will provide you with all necessaries. If I am alive,
and governor of Damot, as you are, we all know, a prudent and sensible
man, unsettled as the state of the country is, nothing disagreeable can
befal you.”

He then turned again to his seven chiefs, who all got up, himself and
I, Guebra Ehud, Welleta Michael, and the Fit-Auraris; we all stood
round in a circle, and raised the palm of our hands, while he and
his Galla together repeated a prayer about a minute long; the Galla
seemingly with great devotion. Now, says Fasil, go in peace, you are
a Galla; this is a curse upon them, and their children, their corn,
grass, and cattle, if ever they lift their hand against you or yours,
or do not defend you to the utmost, if attacked by others, or endeavour
to defeat any design they may hear is intended against you. Upon this I
offered to kiss his hand before I took my leave, and we all went to the
door of the tent, where there was a very handsome grey horse bridled
and saddled. “Take this horse, says Fasil, as a present from me; it is
not so good as your own, but, depend upon it, it is not of the kind
that rascal gave you in the morning; it is the horse which I rode upon
yesterday, when I came here to encamp; but do not mount it yourself,
drive it before you saddled and bridled as it is; no man of Maitsha
will touch you when he sees that horse; it is the people of Maitsha
whose houses Michael has burnt that you have to fear, and not your
friends the Galla.”

I then took the most humble and respectful leave of him possible,
and also of my new-acquired brethren the Galla, praying inwardly
I might never see them again. I recommended myself familiarly and
affectionately to the remembrance of Welleta Michael, the Ras’s nephew,
as well as Guebra Ehud; and turning to Fasil, according to the custom
of the country to superiors, asked him leave to mount on horseback
before him, and was speedily out of sight. Shalaka Woldo (the name of
my guide) did not set out with me, being employed about some affairs of
his own, but he presently after followed, driving Fasil’s horse before
him.




CHAP. X.

_Leave Bamba, and continue our Journey southward--Fall in with Fasil’s
Pagan Galla--Encamp on the Kelti._


At Bamba begins a valley full of small hills and trees, all brush-wood,
none of them high enough for timber. On the right hand of the valley
the hills slope gently up, the ground is firm, and grass short like
sheep pasture; the hills on the left are steeper and more craggy,
the lower part of the valley had been cleared of wood, and sown with
different sorts of grain, by the industry of the inhabitants of the
village of that name--industry that had served them to very little
purpose, as the encampment of this wild army destroyed in one night
every vestige of culture they had bestowed upon it.

Shalaka Woldo was not, to all appearance, a man to protect a stranger
in the middle of a retreating army, disbanded as this was, and
returning to very distant countries, perhaps never to be assembled
again; yet this man was chosen by one that perfectly knew he was above
all others capable of the trust he had reposed in him; he was about 55
years of age, was by birth an Agow, and had served Fasil’s father from
his infancy, when Kasmati Eshté succeeded to the government of Damot,
upon old Fasil’s death[121]; he had been his servant likewise, as had
young Fasil, so they were both at one time fellow-domestics of Kasmati
Eshté.

When Fasil had slain this nobleman, and succeeded to his father’s
government of Damot, Shalaka Woldo was taken into his service as an
old servant of his father; it seemed his merit had not entitled him
to further advancement; he had no covering on his head, except long,
bushy, black hair, which just began to be mingled with grey, but no
beard, the defect of all his countrymen. He had a cotton cloth thrown
about his shoulders in many different forms, occasionally as his fancy
suggested to him; but, unless at night, laid it generally upon one
of the mules, and walked himself, his body naked, his shoulders only
covered with a goat’s skin in form of what the women call a tippet; he
had also a pair of coarse cotton trowsers that reached to the middle
of his thigh, and these were fastened at the waistband by a coarse
cotton sash, or girdle, which went six or seven times about his waist,
and in which he stuck a crooked knife, the blade about ten inches
long, and three inches where broadest, which was the only weapon he
wore, and served him to cut his meat, rather than for any weapon
of offence or defence; for a man of consequence, as he was, could
not suppose a possibility of danger while he was in the territory of
his master. Sometimes he had a long pipe in his hand, being a great
smoker; at other times, a stick of about three feet long, something
thicker than one’s thumb, with which he dealt about him very liberally,
either to man, woman, or beast, upon the slightest provocation; he
was bare-legged and footed, and without any mule, but kept up with
us easily at whatever pace we went. With all this he was exceedingly
sagacious and cunning, and seemed to penetrate the meaning of our
discourse, though spoke in a language of which he did not understand a
syllable.

As for Shalaka Welled Amlac, he was a man whom I shall hereafter
mention as having been recommended to me by Ayto Aylo soon after my
coming to Gondar. I did not, however, choose to let Fasil know of this
connection, for fear he might lead him to some gainful imposition for
his own account in the course of my journey through Maitsha.

At a quarter past two o’clock of the 31st of October we halted for a
little on the banks of the river Chergué, a small and not very rapid
stream, which coming from the south-west, runs N. E. and loses itself
in the lake Tzana. At three o’clock in the afternoon we passed the
small river of Dingleber, and in a quarter of an hour after came to
a village of that name situated upon the top of a rock, which we
ascended; here the road comes close to the end of the lake, and between
it and the rock is a very narrow pass through which all provisions
from the Agows and Maitsha must go; when, therefore, there is any
disturbance in the south part of the kingdom, this pass is always
occupied to reduce Gondar to famine.

The village itself belongs to the office of Betwudet, and, since that
office has been discontinued, it makes part of the revenue of the Ras;
the language here is Falasha, though only used now by the Jews who go
by that name: it was anciently the language of all the province of
Dembea, which has here its southern boundary. The air of Dingleber is
excellent, and the prospect one of the most beautiful in Abyssinia; on
the one side you have a distinct view of the lake Tzana and all its
islands; on the north, the peninsula of Gorgora, the former residence
of the Jesuits, where too are the ruins of the king’s palace. On the
north of the lake you have a distant prospect of Dara, and of the Nile
crossing that lake, preserving distinctly the tract of its stream
unmixed with the rest of the water, and issuing out to form what is
called the second cataract at Alata, all places fixed in our mind by
the memory of former distresses. On the south-east, we have a distant
view of the flat country of Maitsha, for the most part covered with
thick trees, and black like a forest; farther on the territory of
Sacala, one of the districts of the Agows, near which are the fountains
of the Nile, the object of all my wishes; and close behind this, the
high mountains of Amid Amid, which surrounded them in two semicircles
like a new moon, or amphitheatre, and seem by their shape to deserve
the name of mountains of the moon, such as was given by antiquity to
mountains, in the neighbourhood of which the Nile was supposed to rise.

At Dingleber I overtook my servants, who were disposed to stop there
for that night. They had been very much oppressed by troops of wild
Galla, who never having seen white men, could not refrain indulging
a troublesome curiosity, without indeed doing any harm, or shewing
any signs of insolence; this, however, did not hinder my servants
from being terrified, as neither I nor any protector was near them. I
resolved to avoid the like inconvenience, by proceeding further, as
I knew the next day the main body of these savages would be up with
us at Dingleber; and I rather wished to be at the point where our two
roads separated, than pass a whole day in such company. It is true,
I was under no sort of apprehension, for I perceived Fasil’s horse
driven before us commanded all necessary respect, and Zor Woldo had no
occasion to exert himself at all.

At four o’clock in the afternoon we left Dingleber, and at seven passed
a great river; at eight in the evening we crossed two inconsiderable
streams, and came to a collection of small villages, called Degwassa:
here we entered into some narrow defiles between mountains, covered to
the very top with herbage, and brushwood; it was a delightful night,
and we were resolved to make the most of it. On every side of us we
heard Guinea fowls, of which the woods here are full. At half past nine
we halted a little, just leaving the narrow passes, and entering upon
the plain. The district is called Sankraber. I found myself exceedingly
fatigued, and slept a good half hour upon the ground.

At half past ten we began our journey anew, passing immediately the
small village of Wainadega, famous for the decisive battle fought
between king Claudius and the Moor Gragnè, where the latter was slain,
and an end, for a time, put to the most disastrous war that ever
Abyssinia was engaged in. At half after eleven we passed Guanguera on
our left hand; it is a collection of many villages, at about ten miles
distance; and at mid-night we had Degwassa on our right, and Guanguera
on our left. At half past twelve we again rested at the side of a small
river, of which I know not the name: we were now in the flat country
of Maitsha, descending very gently southward. At three quarters past
one in the morning of the first of November I alighted at two small
villages, whose huts were but just finished, about 500 yards from the
two trees that were in the front of our army, when, after passing the
Nile at that dangerous ford near the Jemma, we offered Fasil battle at
Limjour, which was the place we were now again come to, but in better
health and spirits than before.

Shalaka Woldo, upon my observing to him that I was happy to see the
people again raising their houses which Michael had destroyed, said,
with a barbarous kind of smile, “Aye, and so am I too; for if those two
villages had not been built, we should have had no fire-wood at Kelti
to-night;” by which he meant, that the Galla, who were behind him, and
whose next station was the banks of the river Kelti, would pull down
all the new-built houses, in order to carry fire-wood along with them;
and indeed we saw traces of some houses which had been newly built,
and still as newly destroyed, the wood of which, partly kindled, and
partly lying on the ground, served us for our fire that night at Kelti.
I found myself exceedingly indisposed, and could scarcely force on a
couple of hours further, when we came to the banks of the river Kelti,
at a quarter after six in the morning.

The Kelti here is a large river; at the ford it was four feet deep,
though now the dry season: it is here called the Kelti Branti, because
some miles higher up it is joined by a considerable river called the
Branti, which rises to the westward in the high lands of the Agow’s
Quaquera, and both these streams, when united, fall into the Nile
a little below. The banks of this river are exceedingly steep and
dangerous, the earth loose, falling in great lumps down into the
stream; it is a red bole of a soapy quality; the bottom, too, and
the ascent on the other side are soft; the water, though troubled
and muddy, is sweet and well-tasted. We saw lights and fires on the
opposite bank, and had begun to unloose the tent, when we received a
message by two Galla on foot, armed with lances and shields, that we
should not encamp there, as our horses and mules would probably be
stolen, but desiring us to pass the river forth-with, and pitch our
tent among them.

I asked Shalaka Woldo who these were? He said, they were an advanced
post of Welleta Yasous, who had taken up that ground for the
head-quarters to-morrow; that they were all Galla, under a famous
partisan, a robber, called the _Jumper_; and, by the bye, he added,
speaking softly in my ear, that there was not a greater thief or
murderer in all the country of the Galla. I paid him my compliments
upon the judicious choice he had made of a companion and a protector
for us: to which he answered, laughing, The better, the better; you
shall see how it is the better. As it was necessary to load the mules
again, the tent and baggage having been taken off before we could pass
the river, we all set to work with very ill will, being excessively
fatigued with a long journey and want of sleep. No sooner had Shalaka
Woldo perceived this, than by two whistles upon his fingers, and a
yell, he brought above fifty people to our assistance; the baggage was
passed in one moment, and in another my two tents were pitched; which
is a work these people are very dexterous at, and well acquainted with.

As soon as we had encamped, we found that the reason we were not left
alone on the other side of the river was, that those of the Galla who
returned pulled down all the villages for fire-wood, and plundered the
houses, though they were Galla like themselves, and of Fasil’s party;
and these again, driven from their houses, robbed of all they had
except their lance and shield, followed the stragglers, and wreaked
their vengeance upon those whom they could surprise, or were not too
numerous for them.

I was scarcely laid down to sleep, when a servant, and with him Zor
Woldo, were sent to me from the Jumper: they brought us a bull of an
enormous size, but not very fat; though we were all pretty keen in
point of appetite, the stock of provision sent us seemed to defy our
utmost endeavours, but we were sure of assistants enough; so the bull
was immediately killed and skinned. In the mean time, I took a short,
but very refreshing sleep, being resolved to resume my journey with the
same diligence till we had got to the point where we might separate
from the army, which is at a place called Roo, where a large market is
kept by the Agows, in whose country it is, and resorted to by all the
neighbouring inhabitants.

About ten o’clock I waited upon our commander in chief the Jumper; he
seemed very much embarrassed at the visit, was quite naked, having only
a towel about his loins, and had been washing himself in the Kelti, to
very little purpose as I thought, for he was then rubbing his arms and
body over with melted tallow; his hair had been abundantly anointed
before, and a man was then finishing his head-dress by plaiting it with
some of the long and small guts of an ox, which I did not perceive had
ever been cleaned; and he had already put about his neck two rounds
of the same, in the manner of a necklace, or rather a solitaire, one
end of them hanging down to the pit of his stomach, Our conversation
was neither long nor interesting; I was overcome with the disagreeable
smell of blood and carrion: he did not understand one word of Amharic,
Geez, or any other language but Galla; he asked no questions, and
shewed no sort of curiosity. Woldo, on the other hand, informed himself
from him of every thing he wanted to know.

This Jumper was tall and lean, very sharp faced, with a long nose,
small eyes and prodigious large ears; he never looked you in the face,
but was rolling his eyes constantly round and round, and never fixing
them upon any thing: he resembled very much a lean keen greyhound;
there was no sternness nor command in his countenance, but a certain
look that seemed to express a vacancy of mind, like that of an idiot.
With this he was allowed on all hands to be the most cruel, merciless
murderer and spoiler of all the Galla. He was very active on horseback,
and very indifferent about food or sleep. I made him a small present,
which he took with great indifference; only told Woldo, that if I meant
it to pay for the bull he had sent me, it was needless, for it was
given me by Fasil’s order, and cost him nothing.

There we learned, that on our way we should meet a party of about 200
men, who had been sent by Fasil to take possession of a post before
we came to Roo, left, having intelligence of us, some of the Maitsha
people, whose houses had been destroyed, might follow us when we were
parted from the army. The jumper told us that his brother had the
command of that party, that they were all Galla of Fasil’s own nation,
under his brother, who was called the Lamb, and who was just such a
murderer and robber as himself. I was just rising to go out of his tent
when Zor Woldo, who was sitting behind me, informed me, there were news
from Gondar. I asked him how he knew that? He said, he heard the people
say so from without. A sudden trepidation now seized me, as I was
afraid of some new trick, or obstacle, which might impede the journey,
the accomplishment of which I so much longed for.

Upon going towards my tent I was met by Strates, and another Greek,
with a servant of Ozoro Esther, with whom I was well acquainted: they
had left Fasil at Bamba, whose wild Galla were not yet all dismissed,
and he himself seemed not determined whether he should go to Gondar
or not. They told me that all was in confusion at Gondar; that Gusho
of Amhara, and Powussen of Begemder, had been there, and brought some
trifle of money, for a mere pretence, to that wretch Socinios, whom
the Iteghé unadvisedly had consented to make king; having called
Fasil, Gusho, and Powussen together to reconcile them, that, united,
they might attack Michael. The queen herself had been reconciled to
Socinios, who led the life of a drunkard, a ruffian, and a profligate,
but her chief fears were that Michael should return, the probability of
which increased daily.

As for Fasil, he had hitherto answered the queen’s invitation to Gondar
evasively, sometimes by complaining that Gusho and Powussen had come to
Gondar before him, and that Gusho was made Ras; at other times sending
peremptorily to them to leave Gondar, and return to their provinces, or
he would burn the town about their ears: and the last message, the day
before they left the capital was, that he was then on his march towards
Gondar, and consented to Gusho and Powussen’s staying; but as these
two chiefs had great reason to suspect that he was in correspondence
with the king and Ras Michael in Tigré, as it was known to them that he
had fomented disturbances both in Begemder and Amhara, they had gone
with Socinios to Koscam, without drums beating, or any sort of parade
whatever, and, after taking leave, had the next day set out to their
respective provinces. Upon another message from Fasil, they had agreed
to return to Gondar, and leave their army at Emfras; but their troops,
finding themselves so near, had disbanded, and returned to their homes,
leaving Gusho and Powussen attended only by their household servants,
who, finding themselves in danger, and that Fasil was actually
advancing secretly, left Gondar and separated.

Ozoro Esther’s servant (Guebra Mariam) likewise told me, that Michael,
as he believed, waited for nothing but some arrangement with Fasil,
for that he had no enemy remaining on the east of the Tacazzé; that
his intention was to return by the way of Lasta, not willing to risk
the many difficult passages in Woggora, a country full of hardy
troops, inveterate enemies to the Ras, and where Ayto Tesfos of Samen
had occupied all the defiles, and was resolved to dispute every post
with him; it was well known, however, that the passes through the
mountain of Lasta, were more dangerous and difficult than those of
Woggora and Lamalmon; in a word, Guigarr, chief of the clan of Lasta
(called Waag) possessed a strong-hold in those mountains, where many an
Abyssinian army had perished, and where it was absolutely impossible
to proceed but with the consent and connivance of that clan, or tribe;
and tho’ this Guigarr had been Michael’s enemy ever since the war of
Mariam Barea, peace was now concluded between them, the Ras having set
Guigarr’s brother at liberty, who had been some time a prisoner, and
was taken in an incursion which the people of Waag had made into Tigré:
excepting this pass in the mountains of Lasta, all the ground was even
from thence to Tigré; the territory of Gouliou, indeed, through which
the army was to march for four days, was very ill-provided with water;
it was inhabited by Galla, whom Michael had suffered to settle there,
to be as a barrier between Tigré, Lasta, and Begemder; but this clan
was perfectly at his command, so all was easy and secure if Guigarr
only remained faithful.

After giving time to Guebra Mariam to refresh himself, I took him alone
into the tent to hear Ozoro Esther’s message: she had been ailing after
my leaving Gondar, had had a slow fever, which very much affected her
nerves, and was now alarmed at a symptom which was but the effect of
weakness, startling, or involuntary contraction of her legs and arms,
or a kind of convulsion, which frequently awakened her out of her
sleep. This she thought was a sure forerunner of death; and adjured
me, by every claim of friendship that she had upon me, to return ere
it would be too late, She, moreover, pledged herself that her nephew,
Aylo of Gojam, should immediately carry me to the head of the Nile
the moment she was recovered. Upon closer interrogation, I found
that, being abandoned as it were entirely to Fasil’s discretion, by
the retreat of Gusho and Powussen her friends, and the absence of her
husband Ras Michael, she dreaded falling into the hands of Fasil, who,
she well knew, was acquainted how active she had been in instigating
Michael to avenge the blood of her late husband Mariam Barea, by the
effusion of that of every Galla unfortunate enough to fall into his
hands. Besides, the part her mother the Iteghé had acted in settling
that wretch Socinios upon the throne, gave her the very best-founded
apprehensions that Michael’s resentment would have no bounds; and he
had declared so by frequent messages, (the last a very brutal one)
that he would hang Socinios, and her mother the Iteghé, with their
heads downmost, upon the same tree, before the king’s house, the very
day that he entered Gondar. It was well known, besides, to his wife
Ozoro Esther, and to the whole kingdom, that his performance upon these
occasions never fell short of his threatenings. From all this, and a
great sensibility of mind, Ozoro Esther, worn out by her late sickness,
and by want of sleep, exercise, and nourishment, had fallen into a very
dangerous situation, and of a very difficult cure, even though the
cause was perfectly known.

I shall not trouble the reader with what passed in my mind at this
juncture. I do believe the pursuit I was then engaged in was the only
one which I would not have instantly abandoned upon such a summons.
Besides the sincere attachment I had myself to her, as one of the most
lovely and amiable women in the world; she was the mother of my most
intimate friend Ayto Confu, and the wife of Ras Michael, over whom
she had every day more and more influence, and I had long suspected
that the young king, my constant benefactor, had contracted a decided
tenderness for her. To have returned, would have been nothing had the
danger or trouble been much greater; but it was obviously impossible
another opportunity should offer: the country was now on the point
of being plunged into a degree of disorder greater than that which
had occasioned the retreat of the king to Tigré. I therefore resolved
to run the risk of continuing for a time under the imputation of the
foulest and basest of all sins, that of ingratitude to my benefactors;
and I am confident, had it been the will of heaven that I had died in
that journey, the consideration of my lying with apparent reason under
that imputation would have been one of the most bitter reflections of
my last moments. Having, therefore, taken my resolution, I acquainted
Guebra Mariam that an immediate return was absolutely impossible; but
that I should endeavour, with the utmost of my power, to make a speedy
one; in the mean time, I sent word to the Greek priest (who was a sort
of physician) how he was to proceed in the interim during my absence.

We had now left Maitsha by crossing the river Kelti. I shall only add,
to what I have already said, that it is a very fruitful country, but
so flat that the water with difficulty runs off after the tropical
rains, and this occasions its being for several months unhealthy.
Several tribes of Galla, from the south of the Nile, were settled
here by Yasous the Great, and his son David, as a defence for the
rich countries of the Agows, Damot, Gojam, and Dembea, against the
desolations and inroads of the wild Galla their countrymen, from whom
they had revolted; they consist of ninety-nine families; and it is a
common saying among them, that the devil holds the hundreth part for
his own family, as there is nowhere else to be found a family of men
equal to any of the ninety-nine. It has been sometimes connected with
Gojam, oftener with Damot and the Agows, who were at this time under
the government of Fasil.

The houses in Maitsha are of a very singular construction: the first
proprietor has a field, which he divides into three or four, as he
pleases, (suppose four) by two hedges made of the thorny branches of
the acacia-tree. In the corner, or intersection of the two hedges, he
begins his low hut, and occupies as much of the angle as he pleases.
Three other brothers, perhaps, occupy each of the three other angles;
behind these their children place their house, and inclose the end of
their father’s by another, which they make generally shorter than the
first, because broader. After they have raised as many houses as they
please, they surround the whole with a thick and almost impenetrable
abbatis, or thorny hedge, and all the family are under one roof, ready
to assist each other on the first alarm; for they have nothing to do
but every man to look out at his own door, and they are close in a body
together, facing every point that danger can possibly come from. They
are, however, speedily destroyed by a stronger enemy, as we easily
found, for we had only to set the dry hedge, and the canes that grew
round it, on fire, which communicated at once to the houses, chiefly
consisting of dry straw. Such is their terror of the small-pox, which
comes here seldom more frequently than once in fifteen or twenty years;
that when one of these houses is tainted with the disease, their
neighbours, who know it will infect the whole colony, surround it in
the night, and set fire to it, which is consumed in a minute, whilst
the unfortunate people belonging to it (who would endeavour to escape)
are unmercifully thrust back with lances and forks into the flames by
the hands of their own neighbours and relations, without an instance of
one ever being suffered to survive. This to us will appear a barbarity
scarcely credible: it would be quite otherwise if we saw the situation
of the country under that dreadful visitation of the small-pox; the
plague has nothing in it so terrible.

The river Kelti has excellent fish, though the Abyssinians care not for
food of this kind; the better people eat some species in the time of
Lent, but the generality of the common sort are deterred by passages
of scripture, and distinctions in the Mosaic law, concerning such
animals as are clean and unclean, ill understood; they are, besides,
exceedingly lazy, and know nothing of nets; neither have they the
ingenuity we see in other savages of making hooks or lines: in all
the time I staid, I never saw one Abyssinian fisher engaged in the
employment in any river or lake.

At Kelti begins the territory of Aroossi: it is in fact the southmost
division of Maitsha, on the west-side of the Nile: it is not inhabited,
however, by Galla, but by Abyssinians, a kindred of the Agow. When
therefore we passed the river Kelti, we entered into the territory of
Aroossi, bounded on the north by that river, as it is on the south by
the Assar, the Aroossi running through the midst of that district.

My anxiety to lose no time in this journey had determined me to set
out this afternoon. I had for this purpose dispatched Ozoro Esther’s
servant, but when we began to strike our tents, we were told neither
beast nor man was capable of going farther that day; in a word, the
forced march that we had made of 29 miles without rest, and with but
little food, had quite jaded our mules; our men, too, who carried the
quadrant, declared, that, without a night’s rest, they could proceed
no farther; we were then obliged to make a virtue of necessity, and
to confess, that, since we could go no farther, we were in the most
convenient halting place possible, having plenty of both food and
water, and as to protection, we had every reason to be satisfied that
we were masters of the country in which we were encamped. It was
generally agreed therefore to relax that day. I set aside an hour to
put these memoirs in order, and then joined our servants, who, on such
occasions, are always our companions, and who had provided a small horn
full of spirits, and a jar full of beer, or bouza, by offering some
trifling present to our commandant _the Jumper_, who was much more
tenacious of his drink than his meat: we swam and dabbled with great
delight in the Kelti, where are neither crocodiles nor gomari; slept a
little afterwards, and retired into the tent to a supper, which would
have been a chearful one could I have forgot that Ozoro Esther was
suffering.

We now began to discuss the motive that had induced our friend Strates
again to tempt the danger of the ways. This singular fellow, as we
learned from Guebra Mariam, as well as from his own confession,
repented of his resolution as soon as we were gone, and had determined
on foot to follow us, when he heard of this opportunity of Ozoro
Esther’s servant being sent on a message, and that princess was so well
pleased with his anxiety that she gave him a mule that he might not
retard her servant.

This Greek had known Fasil intimately, both when he was a private
man in Kasmati Eshté’s time, and afterwards, when he was governor of
Damot, for he was a servant in the palace when Joas was king, as all
the Greeks were; had a company of fusileers, and one or two other small
appointments, all of which were taken from him, and from most of the
other Greeks, upon the death of the dwarf, who, I before mentioned,
was shot on the side of Ras Michael by an unknown hand upon his first
arrival at Gondar. He now lived upon the charity of the queen-mother,
and what he picked up by his buffoonery among the great men at court.
We found that in Shalaka Woldo we had got a man of more understanding
than our friend Strates, but much about his equal in mimicry and
buffoonery.




CHAP. XI.

_Continue our Journey_--_Fall in with a Party of Galla_--_Prove our
Friends_--_Pass the Nile_--_Arrive at Goutto, and visit the first
Cataract_.


On the second of November, at seven in the morning we pursued our
journey in a direction southward, and passed the church of Boskon Abbo;
ever memorable to us as being the station of Fasil in May, when he
intended to cut us off after our passage of the Nile. This brought on a
conversation with our guide Woldo, who had been present with Fasil at
his camp behind this church, and afterwards when Michael offered him
battle at Limjour, he was there attending his master. He said, that
the army of Welleta Yasous was above 12,000 strong; that they were
intending to attack the king at the ford, and had no doubt of doing it
successfully, as they imagined the King and Ras Michael, with part of
both horse and foot, would pass early, but the rest with difficulty and
danger; it was at that instant Welleta Yasous was to fall upon those
that remained with Kefla Yasous, on the other side of the Nile, in that
confusion in which they necessarily must be. Fasil then, with above
3000 horse, and a large body of foot, was ready to inclose both Ras
Michael and the King, and to have taken them prisoners; nothing could
fall out more exactly, as it was planned, than this did; the king’s
black horse, and the other horse of his household, had taken possession
of the ford, till the King, the Ras, and the greatest part of the Tigré
musqueteers, under Guebra Mascal, had passed.

On the other hand, Kefla Yasous, who had the charge of the rear, and
the passing the mules, tents, and baggage, finding so many stragglers
constantly coming in, had determined to wait on that side till
day-light: this was the moment that would have decided the fate of
our army; all was fatigue and despondency; but Welleta Yasous having
lingered with the army of execution, and in the mean time the priests
having been examined, and the spies detected, the moment Kefla Yasous
began his march to Delakus, the favourable instant was lost to Fasil,
and all that followed was extremely dangerous to him; for, before
Welleta Yasous arrived, Kefla Yasous had passed the Nile, and was
strongly posted with his musquetry, so that Welleta Yasous durst not
approach him, and this gave Kefla Yasous an opportunity of detaching
the best or freshest of his troops to reinforce Michael, whom Fasil
found already an overmatch for him at Limjour, when he was forced to
retreat before the king, who very willingly offered him battle: add to
this, that Welleta Yasous was not acquainted how near this junction
of Kefla Yasous with Ras Michael might be, nor where Fasil was, or
whether or not he had been beaten. Woldo pretended to know nothing of
the spy whom we had left hanging on the tree at the ford when Kefla
Yasous marched; but he laid all the blame upon the priests, of whose
information he was perfectly instructed.

At three quarters after ten in the morning we passed the small river
Aroossi, which either gives its name to, or receives it from the
district through which it passes: it falls into the Nile about four
miles below; is a clear, small, brisk stream; its banks covered with
verdure not to be described. At half an hour before noon we came to
Roo; it is a level space, shaded round with trees in a small plain,
where the neighbouring people of Goutto, Agow, and Maitsha hold a
market for hides, honey, butter, and all kinds of cattle. Gold too is
brought by the Agows from the neighbouring Shangalla; all the markets
in Abyssinia are held in such places as this in the open fields, and
under the shade of trees: every body, while he is there, is safe under
the protection of the government where that market is kept, and no
feuds or private animosities must be resented there; but they that have
enemies must take care of themselves in coming and going, for then they
are at their own risk.

In the dry bed of a river, at the foot of a small wood before you
ascend the market-place at Roo, we found the _Lamb_, our friend the
_Jumper’s_ brother, concealed very much like a thief in a hole, where
we might easily have passed him unnoticed; we gave him some tobacco, of
which he was very fond, and a few trifles. We asked him what questions
we pleased about the roads, which he answered plainly, shortly, and
discreetly; he assured us no Maitsha people had passed, not even to the
market, and this we found afterwards was strictly true; for such as had
intelligence that he and his party were on that road, did not venture
from home with their goods, so that the day before, which had been that
of the market, no one chose to run the risk of attending it.

Woldo was very eloquent in praise of this officer the _Lamb_; he said
he had a great deal more humanity than his brother, and when he made
an inroad into Gojam, or any part of Abyssinia, he never murdered any
women, not even those that were with child; a contrary custom it seems
prevailing among all the Galla. I congratulated him upon this great
instance of his humanity, which he took very gravely, as if really
intended; he told me that it was he that attacked Michael’s horse at
Limjour; and added, that, had it been any other, Ayto Welleta Michael’s
life would not have been spared when he was taken prisoner. That want
of curiosity, inattention, and absolute indifference for new objects,
which was remarkable in the Jumper, was very plainly discernible in
this chieftain likewise, and seems to be a characteristic of the nation.

I asked Woldo what became of those 44 Galla who had their eyes pulled
out, after the battle of Fagitta, by Michael, on his return to Gondar.
Not one of them, said he, ever came into his own country. It was
reported the hyæna ate them upon the Angrab, where they were turned
out to starve. I saved three of them, said I. Yes, answered he, and
others might have been saved too: and then added, in a low voice, the
hyænas eating them at the Angrab was a story contrived for the Galla;
but we that are Fasil’s servants know they were made away with by
his order in Maitsha and the Agow country, that none of them might
be seen in their own provinces to terrify the rest of their clans
by the mangled appearance they then bore; for this was Ras Michael’s
intention in disfiguring them, and yet leaving them alive; to prevent
therefore the success of this scheme, Fasil put them to death in their
way before they reached their own country. I confess I was struck at
the finesse which completed Waragna Fasil’s character in my mind.
What, said I, kill his own people taken prisoners whilst fighting for
him, merely because their enemies had cruelly deprived them of their
sight! indeed, Woldo, that is not credible. O ho, says he, but it is
true; your Galla are not like other men, they do not talk about what is
cruel and what is not; they do just what is for their own good, what
is reasonable, and think no more of the matter. Ras Michael, says he,
would make an excellent Galla; and do not you believe that he would do
any cruel action which my master Fasil would not perpetrate on the same
provocation, and to answer the same purpose?

It now occurred to me why the three Galla, whom I had maintained at
Gondar, had constantly refused to return into their own country with
the many safe opportunities which at times had presented to them,
especially since the king’s retreat to Tigré; neither had I observed
any desire in Fasil’s servants, who occasionally came to Gondar, of
helping to restore these unfortunate men to their country, because they
knew the fate that awaited them.

Although the _Lamb_, and the other Galla his soldiers, paid very little
attention, as I have said, to us, it was remarkable to see the respect
they shewed Fasil’s horse; the greatest part of them, one by one, gave
him handfuls of barley, and the _Lamb_ himself had a long and serious
conversation with him; Woldo told me it was all spent in regretting
the horse’s ill-fortune, and Fasil’s cruelty, in having bestowed him
upon a white man, who would not feed him, or ever let him return to
Bizamo. Bizamo is a country of Galla south of the Nile, after it makes
its southmost turn, and has surrounded the kingdom of Gojam. I was
better pleased with this genuine mark of kindness to the horse, than
all the proofs of humanity Woldo had attributed to his chieftain for
not frequently putting to death pregnant women. When I remarked this,
Bad men! bad men! all of them, says Woldo; but your Ras Michael will be
among them one of these days, and pull all their eyes out again; and so
much the better.

At Roo we left the direct road which leads to Buré, the residence of
the governor of Damot, towards which place the route of the army was
directed; so I took leave, as I hoped, for ever of my brethren the
Galla, but still continued to drive the horse before me. We turned
our face now directly upon the fountains of the Nile, which lay S. E.
by S. according to the compass. At a quarter before noon we saw the
high sharp-pointed mountain of Temhua, standing single in the form of
a cone, at about 18 miles distance, and behind this the mountain of
Banja, the place where Fasil almost exterminated the Agows in a battle
soon after his return to Buré, and to revenge which the king’s last
fatal campaign was undertaken in Maitsha, terminated by his retreat to
Tigrè.

Here Strates, whilst amusing himself in the wood in search of new
birds and beasts for our collection of natural history, fired his gun
at one of the former, distinguished by the beauty and variety of its
plumage. I stopt to make a rough sketch of it, which might be finished
at more leisure: this was scarcely done, and we again moving forwards
on our journey, when we heard a confusion of shrill, barbarous cries,
and presently saw a number of horsemen pouring down upon us, with
their lances lifted up in a posture ready to attack us immediately.
The ground was woody and uneven, so they could not make the speed
they seemed to desire, and we had just time to put ourselves upon our
defence with our firelocks, musquets, and blunderbusses in our hands,
behind our baggage. Woldo ran several paces towards them, knowing them
by the cry to be friends, even before he had seen them, which was,
Fasil ali, Fasil ali--_there is none but Fasil that commands here_.
Upon seeing us without any marks of discomposure, they all stopt with
Woldo, and by him we learned that this was the party we had passed
commanded by the _Lamb_, who, after we had left him, had heard that
five Agow horsemen had passed between the army and his party, and from
the shot he had feared they might have attempted something against us,
and he had thereupon come to our assistance with all the speed possible.

Thus did we see that this man, who, according to our ideas, seemed
in understanding inferior to most of the brute creation, had yet, in
executing his orders, a discernment, punctuality, activity, and sense
of duty, equal to any Christian officer who should have had a like
commission; he now appeared to us in a quite different light than when
we first had met him; and his inattention, when we were with him,
was the more agreeable, as it left us at our entire liberty, without
teazing or molesting us, when he could be of no real service, as every
Amharic soldier would have done. On the other hand, his alacrity and
resolution, in the moment he thought us in danger, exhibited him to
our view as having on both occasions just the qualities we could have
desired. We now, therefore, shewed him the utmost civility, spread a
table-cloth on the ground by the brook, mixed our honey and liquid
butter together in a plate, and laid plenty of teff bread beside it.
We invited the Lamb to sit down and breakfast with us, which he did,
each of us dipping our hand with pieces of bread alternately into the
dish which contained the honey; but Strates, whose heart was open, for
he felt very gratefully the Lamb’s attention to save him from being
murdered by the Agows, pulled out a large piece of raw beef, part of
the bullock we killed at Kelti, which he had perfectly cleared from all
incumbrance of bones, this he gave to the Lamb, desiring him to divide
it among his men, which he did, keeping a very small proportion to
himself, and which he ate before us. Drink we had none, but the water
of the brook that ran by, for my people had finished all our other
liquors at Kelti after I was in bed, when they were taking their leave
of Guebra Mariam, Ozoro Esther’s servant.

It was now time to pursue our journey; and, to shew our gratitude
for the real service this Lamb intended to have rendered us, I gave
him four times the quantity of tobacco he had got before, and so in
proportion of every other trifle; all these he took with absolute
indifference as formerly, much as if it had been all his own; he
expressed no sort of thanks either in his words or in his countenance;
only while at breakfast said, that he was very much grieved that it
had been but a false alarm, for he heartily desired that some robbers
really had attacked us, that he might have shewn us how quickly and
dexterously he would have cut them to pieces though there had been a
hundred of them. I mentioned to Woldo my obligations to the Lamb for
his good wishes, but that things were quite as well as they were;
that I had no sort of curiosity for such exhibitions, which I did not
however doubt he would have performed most dexterously.

We were now taking leave to proceed on our journey, and my servant
folding up the table-cloth, when the Lamb desired to speak to Woldo,
and for the first time ventured to make a request, which was a very
extraordinary one; he begged that I would give him the table-cloth
to cover his head, and keep his face from the sun. I could not help
laughing within myself at the idea of preserving that beautiful
complexion from sun-burning; but I gave him the cloth very readily,
which he accordingly spread upon his head, till it covered half his
face; he then got upon his horse and rode quietly away. Before he went,
he detached fifteen men, Woldo said he did not know where, but by
what he had gathered, and the route they had taken, he was sure that
detachment was meant for our service, and to protect us on the right
of our route, not having yet sufficiently quieted his own mind about
the five Agows that passed between the army and his post the night we
were at Kelti; these, however, being poorly mounted and armed, would
not have found their account in meddling with us, though we had no
wishes to shew our dexterity in destroying them, as our friend the Lamb
was so desirous of doing, and we after discovered they were not quite
so despicable as they were represented, nor were they Agows. All this
passed in much less time than it is told. We were on horseback again in
little more than half an hour; our friends were, like us, willing to
meet and willing to part, only I ordered Strates to suspend his firing
for that day, lest it should procure us another interview, which we by
no means courted.

We had halted by the side of a small river which falls into the Assar;
and a little before one o’clock we came to the Assar itself. The Assar,
as I have already said, is the southern boundary of Aroossi, as Kelti
is the northern; and as Aroossi is the southern district of Maitsha on
the west side of the Nile, it follows that the Assar is the southern
boundary of Maitsha.

On the other side of this river begins the province of Goutto, which,
according to the ancient rules of government before Ras Michael
destroyed all distinctions, depended on the province of Damot;
whereas Maitsha belonged to the office of Betwudet since Fasil had
appropriated both to himself by force, as well as the whole country
of the Agows, which he had possessed by the same title ever since the
battle of Banja: the inhabitants of Goutto are the ancient natives of
that country; they are not Galla as those of Maitsha, but much more
civilized and better governed. The language of the Agow and the Amharic
are the two chiefly spoken in Goutto, though there are distant places
towards the Jemma on the side of the Nile, where they speak that of the
Falasha likewise. The people in Goutto are richer and better lodged
than those of the neighbouring Maitsha; their whole country is full
of cattle of the largest size, exceedingly beautiful, and of all the
different colours; there are some places likewise where their honey is
excellent, equal to any in the country of the Agows, but the greatest
quantity of it is of low price and of little esteem, owing to the
lupine flowers on which the bees feed, and of which a great quantity
covers the whole face of the country; this gives a bitterness to the
greatest part of the honey, and occasions, as they believe, vertigo’s,
or dizzinesses, to those that eat it: the same would happen with the
Agows, did they not take care to eradicate the lupines throughout their
whole country.

All this little territory of Aroossi is by much the most pleasant that
we had seen in Abyssinia, perhaps it is equal to any thing the east
can produce; the whole is finely shaded with acacia-trees, I mean the
acacia vera, or the Egyptian thorn, the tree which, in the sultry
parts of Africa, produces the gum-arabic. These trees grow seldom
above fifteen or sixteen feet high, then flatten and spread wide at
the top, and touch each other, while the trunks are far asunder, and
under a vertical sun, leave you, many miles together, a free space to
walk in a cool, delicious shade. There is scarce any tree but this in
Maitsha; all Guanguera and Wainadega are full of them; but in these
last-mentioned places, near the capital, where the country grows
narrower, being confined between the lake and the mountains, these
trees are more in the way of the march of armies, and are thinner, as
being constantly cut down for fuel, and never replanted, or suffered to
replace themselves, which they otherwise would do, and cover the whole
face of the country, as once apparently they did. The ground below
those trees, all throughout Aroossi, is thick covered with lupines,
almost to the exclusion of every other flower; wild oats also grow up
here spontaneously to a prodigious height and size, capable often of
concealing both the horse and his rider, and some of the stalks being
little less than an inch in circumference. They have, when ripe, the
appearance of small canes. The inhabitants make no sort of use of this
grain in any period of its growth: the uppermost thin hulk of it is
beautifully variegated with a changeable purple colour; the taste is
perfectly good. I often made the meal into cakes in remembrance of
Scotland.

The Abyssinians never could relish these cakes, which they said were
bitter, and burnt their stomachs, as also made them thirsty. I do,
however, believe this is the oat in its original state, and that it
is degenerated everywhere with us. The soil of this country is a fine
black mould, in appearance like to that which composes our gardens.
The oat seems to delight in a moist, watery soil; and, as no underwood
grows under the shadow of the trees, the plough passes without
interruption. As there is likewise no iron in their plough, (for is it
all composed of wood) the furrow is a very slight one, nor does the
plough reach deep enough to be entangled with the roots of trees; but
it is the north part of Maitsha, however, that is chiefly in culture;
south of the Kelti all is pasture; a large number of horses is bred
here yearly, for it is the custom among the Galla to be all horsemen or
graziers.

All Aroossi is finely watered with small streams, though the Assar is
the largest river we had seen except the Nile; it was about 170 yards
broad and two feet deep, running over a bed of large stones; though
generally through a flat and level country, it is very rapid, and after
much rain scarcely passable, owing to the height of its source in the
mountains of the Agows; its course, where we forded it, is from south
to north, but it soon turns to the north-east, and, after flowing five
or six miles, joins the Nile and loses itself in that river.

Immediately below this ford of the Assar is a magnificent cascade, or
cataract. I computed the perpendicular height of the fall to be above
20 feet, and the breadth of the stream to be something more than 80;
but it is so closely covered with trees or bushes, and the ground so
uneven, that it needs great perseverance and attention to approach it
nearly with safety; the stream covers the rock without leaving any part
of it visible, and the whole river falls uninterrupted down with an
incredible violence and noise, without being anyway broken or divided;
below this cataract it becomes considerably narrower, and, as we have
said, in this state runs on to join the Nile.

The strength of vegetation which the moisture of this river produces,
supported by the action of a very warm sun, is such as one might
naturally expect from theory, though we cannot help being surprised at
the effects when we see them before us, trees and shrubs covered with
flowers of every colour, all new and extraordinary in their shapes,
crowded with birds of many uncouth forms, all of them richly adorned
with variety of plumage, and seeming to fix their residence upon the
banks of this river, without a desire of wandering to any distance
in the neighbouring fields: But as there is nothing, though ever so
beautiful, that has not some defect or imperfection, among all these
feathered beauties there is not one songster; and, unless of the rose,
or jessamin kind, none of their flowers have any smell; we hear indeed
many squalling noisy birds of the jay kind, and we find two varieties
of wild roses, white and yellow, to which I may add jessamin (called
Leham) which becomes a large tree; but all the rest of the birds or
flowers may be considered as liable to the general observation, that
the flowers are destitute of odour, and the birds of song.

After passing the Assar, and several villages belonging to Goutto, our
course being S. E. we had, for the first time, a distinct view of the
high mountain of Geesh, the long-wished-for end of our dangerous and
troublesome journey. Under this mountain are the fountains of the Nile;
it bore from us S. E. by S. about thirty miles, as near as we could
conjecture, in a straight line, without counting the deviations or
crookedness of the road.

Ever since we had passed the Assar we had been descending gently
through very uneven ground, covered thick with trees, and torn up by
the gullies and courses of torrents. At two o’clock in the afternoon of
the second of November we came to the banks of the Nile; the passage
is very difficult and dangerous, the bottom being full of holes made
by considerable springs, light sinking sand, and, at every little
distance, large rocky stones; the eastern side was muddy and full of
pits, the ground of clay: the Nile here is about 260 feet broad, and
very rapid; its depth about four feet in the middle of the river, and
the sides not above two. Its banks are of a very gentle, easy descent;
the western side is chiefly ornamented with high trees of the salix, or
willow tribe, growing straight, without joints or knots, and bearing
long pointed pods full of a kind of cotton. This tree is called, in
their language, Ha; the use they have for it is to make charcoal for
the composition of gunpowder; but on the eastern side, the banks, to a
considerable distance from the river, are covered with black, dark,
and thick groves, with craggy-pointed rocks, and overshaded with some
old, tall, timber trees going to decay with age; a very rude and awful
face of nature, a cover from which our fancy suggested a lion should
issue, or some animal or monster yet more savage and ferocious.

The veneration still paid in this country for the Nile, such as
obtained in antiquity, extends to the territory of Goutto, and I
believe very little farther; the reason is, I apprehend, that to this,
and no lower, the country has remained under its ancient inhabitants.
Below, we know Maitsha has been occupied within these few ages by Pagan
Galla, transplanted here for political purposes; at Goutto, however,
and in the provinces of the Agows, the genuine indigenæ have not
emigrated, and with these the old superstition is more firmly rooted
in their hearts than is the more recent doctrine of Christianity; they
crowded to us at the ford, and they were, after some struggle, of great
use in passing us, but they protested immediately with great vehemence
against any man’s riding across the stream, mounted either upon horse
or mule: they, without any sort of ceremony, unloaded our mules, and
laid our baggage upon the grass, insisting that we should take off our
shoes, and making an appearance of stoning those who attempted to wash
the dirt off their cloaks and trowsers in the stream. My servants were
by this provoked to return rudeness for rudeness, and Woldo gave them
two or three significant threats, while I sat by exceedingly happy
at having so unexpectedly found the remnants of veneration for that
ancient deity still subsisting in such full vigour. They after this
allowed us, as well as our horses and mules, to drink, and conducted me
across the river, holding me on each side very attentively for fear
of the holes; but the want of shoes was very inconvenient, the pointed
rocks and stones at the bottom giving me several deep cuts on the soles
of my feet; after this the beasts were led all to the same side with
myself, also one servant was passed with the greatest care by these
poor people. Woldo had tipt me the wink to cross as they desired me:
except my single gun, all the fire-arms and servants remained with the
baggage and Woldo; and now we soon saw what was his intention, and how
well he understood that the country he was in belonged to Fasil his
master.

There were between twenty and thirty of the Agows, old and young, some
of them armed with lances and shields, and all of them with knives.
Woldo took his small stick in one hand, sat down upon a green hillock
by the ford with his lighted pipe in the other; he ranged my people
behind him, leaving the baggage by itself, and began gravely to exhort
the Agows to lose no time in carrying over our baggage upon their
shoulders. This proposal was treated with a kind of ridicule by the
foremost of the Agows, and they began plainly to insinuate that he
should first settle with them a price for their trouble. He continued,
however, smoaking his pipe in seeming leisure, and much at his ease,
and, putting on an air of great wisdom, in a tone of moderation he
appealed to them whether they had not of their own accord insisted on
our crossing the river on foot, had unloaded our baggage, and sent the
mules to the other side without our consent. The poor people candidly
declared that they had done so, because none are permitted in any
other manner to cross the Nile, but that they would likewise carry our
baggage safely and willingly over for pay; this word was no sooner
uttered, when, apparently in a most violent passion, he leapt up, laid
by his pipe, took his stick, and ran into the midst of them, crying
out with violent execrations, And who am I? and who am I then? a girl,
a woman, or a Pagan dog like yourselves? and who is Waragna Fasil;
are you not his slaves? or to whom else do you belong, that you are
to make me pay for the consequences of your devilish idolatries and
superstitions? but you want payment, do ye? here is your payment: he
then tuckt his clothes tight about his girdle, began leaping two or
three feet high, and laying about him with his stick over their heads
and faces, or wherever he could strike them.

After this Woldo wrested a lance from a long, aukward fellow that was
next him, standing amazed, and levelled the point at him in a manner
that I thought to see the poor peasant fall dead in an instant: the
fellow fled in a trice, so did they all to a man; and no wonder, for in
my life I never saw any one play the furious devil so naturally. Upon
the man’s running off, he cried out to my people to give him a gun,
which made these poor wretches run faster and hide themselves among the
bushes: lucky, indeed, was it for Woldo that my servants did not put
him to the trial, by giving him the gun as he demanded, for he would
not have ventured to fire it, perhaps to have touched it, if it had
been to have made him master of the province.

I, who sat a spectator on the other side, thought we were now in a
fine scrape, the evening coming on at a time of the year when it is
not light at six, my baggage and servants on one side of the river,
myself and beasts on the other, crippled absolutely in the feet by
the stones, and the river so full of pits and holes, that, had they
been all laden on the other side and ready, no one could have been bold
enough to lead a beast through without a guide: the difficulty was
not imaginary, I had myself an instant before made proof of it, and
all difficulties are relative, greater or less, as you have means in
your hands to overcome them. I was clearly satisfied that Woldo knew
the country, and was provided with a remedy for all this; I conceived
that this pacific behaviour, while they were unloading the mules, and
driving them across the river, as well as his fury afterwards, was part
of some scheme, with which I was resolved in no shape to interfere;
and nothing convinced me more of this than his resolute demand of a
gun, when no persuasion could make him stay within ten yards of one
if it was discharged, even though the muzzle was pointed a contrary
direction. I sat still, therefore, to see the end, and it was with some
surprise that I observed him to take his pipe, stick, and my servants
along with him, and cross the river to me as if nothing had happened,
leaving the baggage on the other side, without any guard whatsoever;
he then desired us all to get on horseback, and drive the mules before
us, which we did accordingly; and I suppose we had not advanced about
a hundred yards before we saw a greater number of people than formerly
run down to where our baggage was lying, and, while one crossed the
river to desire us to stay where we were, the rest brought the whole
over in an instant.

This, however, did not satisfy our guide; he put on a sulky air, as if
he had been grievously injured; he kept the mules where they were, and
would not send one back to be loaded at the river-side, alledging it
was unlucky to turn back upon a journey; he made them again take the
baggage on their shoulders, and carry it to the very place where our
mules had halted, and there lay it down. On this they all flocked about
him, begging that he would not report them to his master, as fearing
some fine, or heavy chastisement, would fall upon their villages. The
guide looked very sulky, said but very little, and that all in praise
of himself, of his known mildness and moderation; as an instance of
which he appealed (impudently enough) to his late behaviour towards
them. If such a one, says he, naming a man that they knew, had been in
my place, what a fine reckoning he would have made with you; why, your
punishment would not have ended in seven years. They all acknowledged
the truth of his observation, as well as his moderation, gave him great
commendations, and, I believe, some promises when he passed there on
his return.

Here I thought our affair happily ended to the satisfaction of all
parties. I mounted my horse, and Woldo went to a large silk bag, or
purse, which I had given him full of tobacco, and he had his match and
pipe in his hand, just as if he was going to fill it before he set
out; he then unloosed the bag, felt it on the outside, putting first
his three fingers, then his whole hand, pinching and squeezing it both
withinside and without; at last he broke out in a violent transport of
rage, crying that _his gold_ was gone, and that they had robbed him of
it. I had not till this spoke one word: I asked him what he meant by
his gold. He said he had two ounces (value about 5l.) in his tobacco
purse, and that some person had laid hold of them when the baggage
lay on the other side of the water; that the Agows had done it, and
that they must pay him for it. The despair and anguish that he had
counterfeited quickly appeared in true and genuine colours in the faces
of all the poor Agows; for his part, he disdained to speak but in
monosyllables--So, so, and very well, and no matter, you shall see--and
shook his head. We now proceeded on our journey; but two of the eldest
among the Agows followed him to our quarters at night, where they made
their peace with Woldo, who, I doubt not, dealt with them according to
his usual mildness, justice, and moderation; a specimen of which we
have already seen.

I confess this complicated piece of roguery, so suddenly invented, and
so successfully carried into execution, gave me, for the first time,
serious reflections upon my own situation, as we were in fact entirely
in this man’s hand. Ayto Aylo’s servant, indeed, continued with me, but
he was now out of his knowledge and influence, and, from many hints he
had given, very desirous of returning home: he seemed to have no great
opinion of Woldo, and, indeed, had been in low spirits, and disgusted
with our journey, since he had seen the reception I first met with from
Fasil at Bamba; but I had use for him till we should arrive at the
house of Shalaka Welled Amlac, which was in the middle of Maitsha, and
in the way by which we were to return. I had therefore been very kind
to him, allowing him to ride upon one of my mules all the way. I had
given him some presents likewise, and promised him more, so that he
continued with me, though not very willingly, observing every thing,
but saying little; however, to me it was plain that Woldo stood in awe
of him, for fear probably of his master Fasil, for Aylo had over him
a most absolute influence, and Guebra Ehud (Aylo’s brother) had been
present, when Aylo’s servant set out with us from Bamba under charge of
this Woldo.

To Woldo, too, I had been very attentive: I had anticipated what I saw
were his wishes, by small presents and more considerable promises. I
had told him plainly at Bamba, in presence of Fasil’s Fit-Auraris and
Ayto Welleta Michael, (Ras Michael’s nephew) that I would reward him
in their sight according to his behaviour; that I scarcely thanked him
for his being barely faithful, for so he was accountable to his master,
whose honour was pledged for my safety; but that I expected he would
not attempt to impose upon me, nor suffer others to do so, nor terrify
me unnecessarily upon the road, nor obstruct me in my pursuits, be
sulky, or refuse to answer the inquires that I made about the countries
through which we were to pass. All this was promised, repromised, and
repeatedly sworn to, and the Fit-Auraris had assured me that he knew
certainly this man would please me, and that Fasil was upon honour
when he had chosen him to attend me, although he had then use for him
in other business; and it is not less true, that, during the whole of
our journey hitherto, he had behaved perfectly to the letter of his
promise, and I had omitted no opportunity to gratify him by several
anticipations of mine.

I had upon me a large beautiful red-silk sash, which went six or seven
times round, in which I carried my crooked knife and two pistols;
he had often admired the beauty of it, inquired where it was made,
and what it might have cost. I had answered often negligently and at
random, and I had thought no more of it, as his inquiries had gone no
further. The time which he had fixed upon was not yet come, and we
shall presently see how very dexterously he prolonged it.

We arrived, with these delays, pretty late at Goutto, (the village so
called) and took up our lodgings in the house of a considerable person,
who had abandoned it upon our approach, thinking us part of Fasil’s
army. Though this habitation was of use in protecting us from the poor,
yet it hurt us by alarming, and so depriving us of the assistance of
the opulent, such as the present owner, who, if he had known we were
strangers from Gondar, would have willingly staid and entertained us,
being a relation and friend of Shalaka Welled Amlac.

As we heard distinctly the noise of the cataract, and had still a full
hour and a half of light, while they were in search of a cow to kill,
(the cattle having been all driven away or concealed) I determined
to visit the water-fall, lest I should be thereby detained the next
morning. As Fasil’s horse was fresh, by not being rode, I mounted
him instead of driving him before me, and took a servant of my own,
and a man of the village whom Woldo procured for us, as I would not
allow him to go himself. Being well armed, I thus set out, with the
peasant on foot, for the cataract; and, after riding through a plain,
hard country, in some parts very stony, and thick-covered with trees,
in something more than half an hour’s easy galloping all the way, my
servant and I came straight to the cataract, conducted there by the
noise of the fall, while our guide remained at a considerable distance
behind, not being able to overtake us.

This, known by the name of the First Cataract of the Nile, did not by
its appearance come up to the idea we had formed of it, being scarce
sixteen feet in height, and about sixty yards over; but in many places
the sheet of water is interrupted, and leaves dry intervals of rock.
The sides are neither so woody nor verdant as those of the cataract
of the Assar; and it is in every shape less magnificent, or deserving
to be seen, than is the noble cataract at Alata before described,
erroneously called the Second Cataract; for below this there is a
water-fall, nearly west of the church of Boskon Abbo, not much above
the place where we swam our horses over in May, and less than this
first cataract of which I am speaking, and nearer the source; there is
another still smaller before the Nile joins the river Gumetti, after
falling from the plains of Sacala; and there are several still smaller
between the fountains and the junction of the Nile with the river
Davola; these last mentioned, however, are very insignificant, and
appear only when the Nile is low: in the rainy season, when the river
is full, they scarcely are distinguished by ruffling the water as it
passes.

Having satisfied my curiosity at this cataract, I galloped back the
same road that I had come, without having seen a single person since I
left Goutto. Fasil’s horse went very pleasantly, he did not like the
spur, indeed, but he did not need it. On our arrival we found a cow
upon the point of being killed; there was no appearance of any such
to be found when I set out for the cataract, but the diligence and
sagacity of Woldo had overcome that difficulty. By a particular manner
of crying through his hands applied to his mouth, he had contrived to
make some beasts answer him, who were hid in an unsuspected bye-place,
one of which being detected was killed without mercy.

It was now, I thought, the proper time to give Woldo a lesson as to
the manner in which I was resolved to behave among the Agows, who I
knew had been reduced to absolute poverty by Fasil after the battle of
Banja. I told him, that since the king had given me the small territory
of Geesh, I was resolved to take up my abode there for some time;
and also, to make my coming more agreeable, it was my intention for
that year to discharge them of any taxes which they paid the king, or
their superior Fasil, in whose places I then stood. “Stay, says Woldo,
don’t be in such a hurry, see first how they behave.”--“No, said I, I
will begin by teaching them how to behave; I will not wait till their
present misery prompts them to receive ill (as they very naturally will
do) a man who comes, as they may think, wantonly for curiosity only,
to take from them and their starved families the little Fasil has left
them; the question I ask you then is briefly this, Do you conceive
yourself obliged to obey me, as to what I shall judge necessary to
direct you to do, during my journey to Geesh and back again?” He
answered, By all means, or he could never else return to his master
Fasil. “This, then, said I, is the line of conduct I mean to pursue
while I am among the Agows; you shall have money to buy every thing;
you shall have money, or presents, or both, to pay those that serve
us, or that shew us any kindness, and when we shall join your master
Fasil (as I hope we shall do together) you shall tell him that I have
received his majesty’s rent of the Agows of Geesh, and I will enter
a receipt for it in the king’s deftar, or revenue-book at Gondar, if
we see him there, as I expect we shall, upon my return. I, moreover,
undertake, that we shall gain more by this than by any other method
we could have pursued.” “There is one thing, however, says Woldo, you
would not surely have me free them the dues paid by every village where
a king’s servant is employed to conduct strangers, as I am you.” “No,
no, I do not go so near as that; we shall only buy what you would have
otherwise taken by force for my use.”

“Some years ago, says Woldo, when I was a young man, in king Yasous’s
time, a white man, called Negadé Ras Georgis, had both Geesh and Sacala
given him by the king; he went there twice a-year, and staid a month
or more at a time; he was a great hunter and drinker, and a devil for
the women; he not only spent what he got from the village, but all the
money he brought from Gondar into the bargain; it was a jovial time,
as I have heard; all was merriment: The first day he came there, some
of the men of Sacala, out of sport, disputing with three of the Agows
of Zeegam, fell to it with their knives and lances, and four men were
killed in an instant upon the spot; fine stout fellows, every one like
a lion; good men all of them; there are no such days seen now, unless
they come about when you are there, and then I shall have my share of
every thing”. “Woldo, said I, with all my heart; I shall be otherwise
employed; but you shall be at perfect liberty to partake of every
sport, always excepting the diversion of killing four men.” But I had
observed this day, with some surprise, that he doubted several times
whether we were on the way to the fountains of the Nile or not; and I
did not think this prospect of entertainment which I held out to him
was received with such joy as I expected, or as if he meant to partake
of it.

Strates had refused to go to the first cataract, having so violent an
appetite that he could not abandon the cow; and, after my arrival, it
was his turn to watch that night. When I was lain down to rest in a
little hovel like a hog’s sty, near where they were sitting, I heard a
warm dispute among the servants, and, upon inquiry, found Strates was
preparing steaks on a gridiron to make an entertainment for himself
while the rest were sleeping; these, on the other hand, were resolved
to play him a trick to punish his gluttony. When the steaks were spread
upon the gridiron, Woldo had undertaken to pour some fine dust, or
sand, through the hole in the roof, which served as a chimney; and this
he had done with success as often as Strates went to any distance from
the fire. Not content, however, with the position in which he then
was, but desirous to do it more effectually, he attempted to change
his place upon the roof where he stood, thinking it all equally strong
to bear him; but in this he was mistaken; the part he was removing to
suddenly gave way, and down he came upon the floor, bringing half the
roof and part of the wall, together with a prodigious dust, into the
fire.

The surprise and sight of his own danger made Woldo repeat some
ejaculation to himself in Galla. My servants, who were waiting the
success of the scheme, cried, The Galla! the Galla! and Strates, who
thought the whole army of wild Galla had surrounded the house, fell
upon his face, calling Maruni! Maruni!--Spare me! spare me!--I was in
a profound sleep when roused by the noise of the roof, the falling of
the man, and the cry of Galla! Galla! I started up, and laid hold of
a musket loaded with slugs, a bayonet at the end of it, and ran to
the door, when the first thing I saw was Woldo examining his hurts,
or burns, but without any arms. A laugh from without made me directly
suppose what it was, and I was presently fully satisfied by the figure
Strates and Woldo made, covered with dirt and dust from the roof; but,
while they were entertaining themselves with this foolish trick, the
thatch that had fallen upon the fire began to flame, and it was with
the utmost difficulty we extinguished it, otherwise the whole village
might have been burnt down.--I heard distinctly the noise of the
cataract all this night.




CHAP. XII.

_Leave Goutto--Mountains of the Moon--Roguery of Woldo our
Guide--Arrive at the Source of the Nile._


It was the 3d of November, at eight o’clock in the morning, that we
left the village of Goutto, and continued, for the first part of the
day, through a plain country full of acacia-trees, and a few of other
sorts; but they were all pollards, that is, stunted, by having their
tops cut off when young, so that they bore now nothing but small twigs,
or branches; these, too, seemed to have been lopped yearly. As there
appeared no doubt that this had been done purposely, and for use, I
asked, and was informed, that we were now in the honey country, and
that these twigs were for making large baskets, which they hung upon
trees at the sides of their houses, like bird-cages, for the bees to
make their honey in them during the dry months; all the houses we
passed afterwards, and the trees near them, were furnished with these
baskets, having numerous hives of bees at work in them; the people
themselves seemed not to heed them, but they were an excessive plague
to us by their stings during the day, so that it was only when we were
out in the fields, or at night in the house, that we were free from
this inconvenience.

The high mountain of Berfa now bore south from us about ten miles
distant; it resembles, in shape, a gunner’s wedge, and towers up to the
very clouds amidst the lesser mountains of the Agow. Sacala is south
south-east. The country of the Agows extends from Berfa on the south
to the point of due west, in form of an amphitheatre, formed all round
by mountains, of which that of Banja lies south south-west about nine
miles off. The country of the Shangalla, beyond the Agows, lies west
north-west. From this point all the territory of Goutto is full of
villages, in which the fathers, sons, and grandsons live together; each
degree, indeed, in a separate house, but near or touching each other,
as in Maitsha, so that every village consists of one family.

At three quarters past eight we crossed a small, but clear river,
called Dee-ohha, or the River Dee. It is singular to observe the
agreement of names of rivers in different parts of the world, that have
never had communication together. The Dee is a river in the north of
Scotland. The Dee runs through Cheshire likewise in England; and Dee is
a river here in Abyssinia. Kelti is the name of a river in Monteith;
Kelti, too, we found in Maitsha. Arno is a well-known river in Tuscany;
and we found another Arno, below Emfras, falling into the lake Tzana.
Not one of these rivers, as far as I could observe, resemble each other
in any one circumstance, nor have they a meaning or signification in
any one language I know.

The church of Abbo is a quarter of a mile to our right, and the church
of Eion Mariam bears east by south half a mile. We resumed our journey
at half past nine, and, after advancing a few minutes, we came in
light of the ever-memorable field of Fagitta. At a quarter past ten
we were pointing to the south-east, the two great clans of the Agow,
Zeegam and Dengui, being to the south-west; the remarkable mountain
Davenanza is about eight miles off, bearing south-east by south, and
the course of the Nile is east and west. Eastward still from this is
the high mountain of Adama, one of the ridges of Amid Amid, which form
the entrance of a narrow valley on the east side, as the mountains of
Litchambara do on the west. In this valley runs the large river Jemma,
rising in the mountains, which, after passing thro’ part of Maitsha,
falls below into the Nile. The mountains from this begin to rise high,
whereas at Samseen they are very low and inconsiderable. Adama is about
ten miles from our present situation, which is also famous for a battle
fought by Fasil’s father, while governor of Damot, against the people
of Maitsha, in which they were totally defeated.

We now descended into a large plain full of marshes, bounded on the
west by the Nile, and at ten and three quarters we crossed the small
river Diwa, which comes from the east and runs to the westward: though
not very broad, it was by much the deepest river we had passed; the
banks of earth being perpendicular and infirm, and the bottom foul and
clayey, we were obliged to dismount ourselves, unload the mules, and
carry our baggage over. This was a troublesome operation, though we
succeeded at last. I often regretted to Woldo, that he could not here
find some of the good people like the Agows at the ford of the Nile;
but he shook his head, saying, These are another sort of stuff; we may
be very thankful if they let us pass ourselves: in the flat country I
do not wish to meet one man on this side the mountain Aformasha.

In this plain, the Nile winds more in the space of four miles than,
I believe, any river in the world; it makes above a hundred turns in
that distance, one of which advances so abruptly into the plain that
we concluded we must pass it, and were preparing accordingly, when we
saw it make as sharp a turn to the right, and run far on in a contrary
direction, as if we were never to have met it again: the Nile is not
here above 20 feet broad, and is nowhere above a foot deep. The church
of Yasous was above three quarters of a mile to the west.

At one o’clock we ascended a ridge of low hills which terminates this
plain to the south. The mountains behind them are called Attata; they
are covered thick with brushwood, and are cut through with gullies and
beds of torrents. At half past one we were continuing S. E.; in a few
minutes after we passed a clear but small stream, called Minch, which
signifies the Fountain. At two o’clock we arrived at the top of the
mountain of Attata, and from this discovered the river Abola coming
from the S. S. E. and in a few minutes passed another small river
called Giddili, which loses itself immediately in a turn, or elbow,
which the river Abola makes here below. At half past two we descended
the mountain of Attata, and immediately at the foot of it crossed a
small river of the same name, which terminates the territory of Attata;
here, to the south, it is indeed narrow, but very difficult to pass
by reason of its muddy bottom. The sun all along the plain of Goutto
had been very hot till now, and here so excessively, that it quite
overcame us: what was worse, Woldo declared himself so ill, that he
doubted if he could go any farther, but believed he should die at the
next village. Though I knew too much of the matter to think him in any
danger from real disease, I saw easily that he was infected with a
counterfeit one, which I did not doubt was to give me as much trouble
as a real one would have done.

At three o’clock, however, we pushed on towards the S. E. and began to
enter into the plain of Abola, one of the divisions of the Agow. The
plain, or rather valley, of Abola, is about half a mile broad for the
most part, and nowhere exceeds a mile. The mountains that form it on
the east and west side are at first of no considerable height, and are
covered with herbage and acacia-trees to the very top; but as they run
south, they increase in height, and become more rugged and woody. On
the top of these are most delightful plains, full of excellent pasture;
the mountains to the west are part of, or at least join the mountain of
Aformasha, where, from a direction nearly S. E. they turn south, and
inclose the villages and territory of Sacala, which lie at the foot of
them, and still lower, that is more to the westward, the small village
of Geesh, where are the long-expected fountains of the Nile.

These mountains are here in the form of a crescent; the river runs
in the plain along the foot of this ridge, and along the side of it
Kasmati Fasil passed after his defeat at Fagitta. The mountains which
form the east side of this plain run parallel to the former in their
whole course, and are part of, or at least join the mountains of
Litchambara, and these two, when behind Aformasha, turn to the south,
and then to the S. W. taking the same form as they do, only making a
greater curve, and inclosing them likewise in the form of a crescent,
the extremity of which terminates immediately above the small lake
Gooderoo, in the plain of Assoa, below Geesh, and directly at the
fountains of the Nile.

The river Abola comes out of the valley between these two ridges of
mountains of Litchambara and Aformasha, but does not rise there; it
has two branches, one of which hath its source in the western side of
Litchambara, near the center of the curve where the mountains turn
south; the other branch rises on the mountain of Aformasha, and the
east side of our road as we ascended to the church of Mariam. Still
behind these are the mountains of Amid Amid, another ridge which begin
behind Samseen, in the S. W. part of the province of Maitsha, though
they become high only from the mountain of Adama, but they are in shape
exactly like the former ridges, embracing them in a large curve in the
shape of a crescent.

Between Amid Amid and the ridge of Litchambara is the deep valley now
known by the name of St George; what was its ancient, or Pagan name,
I could not learn. Through the middle of this valley runs the Jemma,
a river equal to the Nile, if not larger, but infinitely more rapid:
after leaving the valley, it crosses that part of Maitsha on the east
of the Nile, and loses itself in that river below Samseen, near the
ford where our army passed in the unfortunate retreat of the month of
May: its sources or fountains are three; they rise in the mountains of
Amid Amid, and keep on close to the east side of them, till the river
issues out of the valley into Maitsha.

This triple ridge of mountains disposed one range behind the other,
nearly in form of three concentric circles, seem to suggest an idea
that they are the Mountains of the Moon, or the _Montes Lunæ_ of
antiquity, at the foot of which the Nile was said to rise; in fact,
there are no others. Amid Amid may perhaps exceed half a mile in
height, they certainly do not arrive at three quarters, and are greatly
short of that fabulous height given them by Kircher. These mountains
are all of them excellent soil, and everywhere covered with fine
pasture; but as this unfortunate country had been for ages the theatre
of war, the inhabitants have only ploughed and sown the top of them
out of the reach of enemies or marching armies. On the middle of the
mountain are villages built of a white sort of grass, which makes them
conspicuous at a great distance; the bottom is all grass, where their
cattle feed continually under their eye; these, upon any alarm, they
drive up to the top of the mountains out of danger. The hail lies often
upon the top of Amid Amid for hours, but snow was never seen in this
country, nor have they a word[122] in their language for it. It is also
remarkable, though we had often violent hail at Gondar, and even when
the sun was vertical, it never came but with the wind blowing directly
from Amid Amid.

At ten minutes past three o’clock we crossed the small river Iworra,
in the valley of Abola; it comes from the east, and runs westward
into that river. At a quarter after four we halted at a house in
the middle of the plain, or valley. This valley is not above a mile
broad, the river being distant about a quarter, and runs at the foot
of the mountains. This village, as indeed were all the others we
had seen since our crossing the Nile at Goutto, was surrounded by
large, thick plantations, of that singular plant the Ensete, one of
the most beautiful productions of nature, as well as most agreeable
and wholesome food of man. It is said to have been brought by the
Galla from Narea, first to Maitsha, then to Goutto, the Agows, and
Damot, which last is a province on the south side of the mountains of
Amid Amid. This plant, and the root, called Denitch, (the same which
is known in Europe by the name of the Jerusalem artichoke, a root
deserving more attention than is paid to it in our country,) supply all
these provinces with food.

We were but seldom lucky enough to get the people of the villages
to wait our arrival; the fears of the march of the Galla, and the
uncertainty of their destination, made them believe always we were
detachments of that army, to which the presence of Fasil’s horse driven
constantly before us very much contributed: we found the village where
we alighted totally abandoned, and in it only an earthen pot, with a
large slice of the Ensete plant boiling in it; it was about a foot in
length, and ten inches broad, and was almost ready for eating: we had
fortunately meat with us, and only wanting vegetables to complete our
dinner. We appropriated to ourselves, without scruple, this ensete;
and, by way of reparation, I insisted upon leaving, at parting, a
brick, or wedge of salt, which is used as small money in Gondar, and
all over Abyssinia; it might be in value about a shilling.

On the 4th of November, at eight o’clock we left our small village
on the plain of Abola, without having seen any of the inhabitants;
however, we were sure there were among them some who were curious
enough to wish to look at us, for, in walking late at night, I heard
several voices speaking low among the ensete-trees and canes. It was
not possible to collect what they said in the low tone in which they
spoke; and I should not probably have been much wiser, had they spoken
louder, as their language was that of their country, the Agow, of which
I did not understand one word; however, I thought I could distinguish
they were women, the men apprehending we were enemies having probably
taken refuge in the mountains above. I did every thing possible to
surround or surprise one or two of these people, that, by good-usage
and presents, we might reconcile them to us, and get the better of
their fear; but it was all to no purpose; they fled much quicker than
we could pursue them, as they knew the country, and it was not safe to
follow them far into the wilderness, lest we might stumble upon people
who might misinterpret our intentions.

I was determined to try whether, by taking away that scare-crow,
Fasil’s horse, from before us, and riding him myself, things would
change for the better: this I distinctly saw, that Woldo would have
wished the horse to have gone rather without a rider, and this I had
observed the night I went to the cataract from Goutto. Sitting on the
king’s saddle, or in his seat at Gondar, is high-treason; and Woldo
thought, at all times, but now especially, that his master was inferior
to no king upon earth. I even attributed to that last expedition at
Goutto his silence and apparent sickness ever since; but in this last
circumstance I found afterwards that I was mistaken: be that as it
would, my plan was very different from Woldo’s as to the horse, he was
become a favourite, and I was resolved, in the course of my journey, to
improve his talents so, that he should make a better appearance on his
return to Gondar, than he did when I received him from Fasil at Bamba.
I compounded, as I conceived, with Woldo’s scruples, by laying aside
Fasil’s saddle, which was a very uneasy one, besides, that it had iron
rings instead of stirrups; in short, as this horse was very beautiful,
(as many of the Galla horses are) and all of one colour, which was of
lead, without any spot of white, I hoped to make him an acceptable
present to the king, who was passionately fond of horses. Here it
may not be improper to observe, that all very great men in Abyssinia
choose to ride horses of one colour only, which have no distinguishing
mark whereby they may be traced in retreats, flights, or such unlucky
expeditions: It is the king alone in battle who rides upon a horse
distinguished by his marks, and that on purpose that he may be known.

There were many villages in this valley which seemed to have escaped
the havock of war, nor had they that air of poverty and misery so
apparent in all the other habitations we had seen. We were pointing
nearly east south-east, when we passed the small river Googueri,
which, like all the others on this side of the mountain, falls into
the Abola. We then left the valley of Abola on our right, and began
to travel along the sides of the mountains on the west. At three
quarters after eight we passed a violent torrent called Karnachiuli,
which falls from north-east into the Abola. At nine we again descended
into the valley, and, a few minutes after, came to the banks of the
Caccino, which flows from the north just above, and joins the Abola.
Here we halted for a little to rest our men, and to adjust thoroughly
the minutes of our journey, that the whole might appear in a distinct
manner in the map that I intended to make on my return to Gondar.

At half past nine we again set out, and, a few minutes after, passed
the river Abola, which gives its name to the valley into which we had
descended, and receives many lesser streams, and is of considerable
breadth. I could discover no traces of fish either in it or in any
river since we left the Assar, from which circumstance I apprehend,
that, in these torrents from the mountains, almost dry in summer, and
which run with vast rapidity in winter, the spawn and fish are both
destroyed in different seasons by different causes.

After coasting some little time along the side of the valley, we
began to ascend a mountain on the right, from which falls almost
perpendicularly a small, but very violent stream, one of the principal
branches of the Abola, which empties itself into the Nile, together
with the other branch, a still more considerable stream, coming from
east south-east along the valley between Litchambara and Aformasha.
At eleven o’clock our course was south by east, and we passed near
a church, dedicated to the Virgin, on our left. The climate seemed
here most agreeably mild, the country covered with the most lively
verdure, the mountains with beautiful trees and shrubs, loaded with
extraordinary fruits and flowers. I found my spirits very much raised
with these pleasing scenes, as were those of all my servants, who were,
by our conversation, made geographers enough to know we were near
approaching to the end of our journey. Both Strates and I, out of the
_Lamb’s_ hearing, had shot a variety of curious birds and beasts. All
but Woldo seemed to have acquired new strength and vigour. He continued
in his air of despondency, and seemed every day to grow more and more
weak. At a quarter past eleven we arrived at the top of the mountain,
where we, for the first time, came in sight of Sacala, which extends in
the plain below from west to the point of south, and there joins with
the village of Geesh.

Sacala, full of small low villages, which, however, had escaped the
ravages of the late war, is the eastermost branch of the Agows, and
famous for the best honey. The small river Kebezza, running from the
east, serves as a boundary between Sacala and Aformasha; after joining
two other rivers, the Gometti and the Googueri, which we presently came
to, after a short course nearly from S. E. to N. W. it falls into the
Nile a little above its junction with the Abola.

At three-quarters past eleven we crossed the river Kebezza, and
descended into the plain of Sacala; in a few minutes we also passed the
Googueri, a more considerable stream than the former; it is about sixty
feet broad, and perhaps eighteen inches deep, very clear and rapid,
running over a rugged, uneven bottom of black rock. At a quarter
past twelve we halted on a small eminence, where the market of Sacala
is held every Saturday. Horned cattle, many of the greatest beauty
possible, with which all this country abounds; large asses, the most
useful of all beasts for riding or carriage; honey, butter, ensete
for food, and a manufacture of the leaf of that plant, painted with
different colours like Mosaic work, are here exposed to sale in great
plenty; the butter and honey, indeed, are chiefly carried to Gondar,
or to Buré; but Damot, Maitsha, and Gojam likewise take a considerable
quantity of all these commodities.

At a quarter after one o’clock we passed the river Gumetti, the
boundary of the plain: we were now ascending a very steep and rugged
mountain, the worst pass we had met on our whole journey. We had no
other path but a road made by the sheep or the goats, which did not
seem to have been frequented by men, for it was broken, full of holes,
and in other places obstructed with large stones that seemed to have
been there from the creation. It must be added to this, that the whole
was covered with thick wood, which often occupied the very edge of
the precipices on which we stood, and we were everywhere stopt and
entangled by that execrable thorn the kantussa, and several other
thorns and brambles nearly as inconvenient. We ascended, however, with
great alacrity, as we conceived we were surmounting the last difficulty
after the many thousands we had already overcome. Just above this
almost impenetrable wood, in a very romantic situation, stands St
Michael, in a hollow space like a nitch between two hills of the same
height, and from which it is equally distant. This church has been
unfrequented for many years; the excuse they make is, that they cannot
procure frankincense, without which, it seems, their mass or service
cannot be celebrated; but the truth is, they are still Pagans; and the
church, having been built in memory of a victory over them above a
hundred years ago, is not a favourite object before their eyes, but a
memorial of their inferiority and misfortune. This church is called St
Michael Sacala, to distinguish it from another more to the southward,
called St Michael Geesh.

At three quarters after one we arrived at the top of the mountain,
whence we had a distinct view of all the remaining territory of Sacala,
the mountain Geesh, and church of St Michael Geesh, about a mile and
a half distant from St Michael Sacala, where we then were. We saw,
immediately below us, the Nile itself, strangely diminished in size,
and now only a brook that had scarcely water to turn a mill. I could
not satiate myself with the sight, revolving in my mind all those
classical prophecies that had given the Nile up to perpetual obscurity
and concealment. The lines of the poet came immediately into my mind,
and I enjoyed here, for the first time, the triumph which already, by
the protection of Providence, and my own intrepidity, I had gained over
all that were powerful, and all that were learned, since the remotest
antiquity:--

    _Arcanum natura caput non prodidit ulli,
     Nec licuit populis parvum te, Nile, videre;
     Amovitque sinus, et gentes maluit ortus
     Mirari, quam nôsse tuos._----
                                     LUCAN.

I was awakened out of this delightful reverie by an alarm that we
had lost Woldo our guide. Though I long had expected something from
his behaviour, I did not think, for his own sake, it could be his
intention to leave us. The servants could not agree when they last
saw him: Strates and Aylo’s servant were in the wood shooting, and we
found by the gun that they were not far from us; I was therefore in
hopes that Woldo, though not at all fond of fire-arms, might be in
their company; but it was with great dissatisfaction I saw them appear
without him. They said, that, about an hour before, they had seen
some extraordinary large, rough apes, or monkeys, several of which
were walking upright, and all without tails; that they had gone after
them thro’ the wood till they could scarce get out again; but they
did not remember to have seen Woldo at parting. Various conjectures
immediately followed; some thought he had resolved to betray and rob
us; some conceived it was an instruction of Fasil’s to him, in order
to our being treacherously murdered; some again supposed he was slain
by the wild beasts, especially those apes or baboons, whose voracity,
size, and fierce appearance were exceedingly magnified, especially by
Strates, who had not the least doubt, if Woldo had met them, but that
he would be so entirely devoured, that we might seek in vain without
discovering even a fragment of him. For my part, I began to think that
he had been really ill when he first complained, and that the sickness
might have overcome him upon the road; and this, too, was the opinion
of Ayto Aylo’s servant, who said, however, with a significant look,
that he could not be far off; we therefore sent him, and one of the men
that drove the mules, back to seek after him; and they had not gone
but a few hundred yards when they found him coming, but so decrepid,
and so very ill, that he said he could go no farther than the church,
where he was positively resolved to take up his abode that night. I
felt his pulse, examined every part about him, and saw, I thought
evidently, that nothing ailed him. Without losing my temper, however,
I told him firmly, That I perceived he was an impostor; that he should
consider that I was a physician, as he knew I cured his master’s first
friend, Welleta Yasous: that the feeling of his hand told me as plain
as his tongue could have done, that nothing ailed him; that it told
me likewise he had in his heart some prank to play, which would turn
out very much to his disadvantage. He seemed dismayed after this, said
little, and only desired us to halt for a few minutes, and he should be
better; for, says he, it requires strength in us all to pass another
great hill before we arrive at Geesh.

“Look you, said I, lying is to no purpose; I know where Geesh is as
well as you do, and that we have no more mountains or bad places to
pass through; therefore, if you choose to stay behind, you may; but
to-morrow I shall inform Welleta Yasous at Buré of your behaviour.”
I said this with the most determined air possible, and left them,
walking as hard as I could down to the ford of the Nile. Woldo remained
above with the servants, who were loading their mules; he seemed to be
perfectly cured of his lameness, and was in close conversation with
Ayto Aylo’s servant for about ten minutes, which I did not choose to
interrupt, as I saw that man was already in possession of part of
Woldo’s secret. This being over, they all came down to me, as I was
sketching a branch of a yellow rose-tree, a number of which hang over
the ford.

The whole company passed without disturbing me; and Woldo, seeming to
walk as well as ever, ascended a gentle-rising hill, near the top of
which is St Michael Geesh. The Nile here is not four yards over, and
not above four inches deep where we crossed; it was indeed become a
very trifling brook, but ran swiftly over a bottom of small stones,
with hard, black rock appearing amidst them: it is at this place
very easy to pass, and very limpid, but, a little lower, full of
inconsiderable falls; the ground rises gently from the river to the
southward, full of small hills and eminences, which you ascend and
descend almost imperceptibly. The whole company had halted on the north
side of St Michael’s church, and there I reached them without affecting
any hurry.

It was about four o’clock in the afternoon, but the day had been very
hot for some hours, and they were sitting in the shade of a grove of
magnificent cedars, intermixed with some very large and beautiful
cusso-trees, all in the flower; the men were lying on the grass, and
the beasts fed, with the burdens on their backs, in most luxuriant
herbage. I called for my herbary[123], to lay the rose-branch I had in
my hand smoothly, that it might dry without spoiling the shape; having
only drawn its general form, the pistil and stamina, the finer parts of
which (though very necessary in classing the plant) crumble and fall
off, or take different forms in drying, and therefore should always be
secured by drawing while green. I just said indifferently to Woldo in
passing, that I was glad to see him recovered; that he would presently
be well, and should fear nothing. He then got up, and desired to
speak with me alone, taking Aylo’s servant along with him. “Now, said
I, very calmly, I know by your face you are going to tell me a lie. I
do swear to you solemnly, you never, by that means, will obtain any
thing from me, no not so much as a good word; truth and good behaviour
will get you every thing; what appears a great matter in your sight is
not perhaps of such value in mine; but nothing except truth and good
behaviour will answer to you; now I know for a certainty you are no
more sick than I am.”--“Sir, said he, with a very confident look, you
are right; I did counterfeit; I neither have been, nor am I at present
any way out of order; but I thought it best to tell you so, not to be
obliged to discover another reason that has much more weight with me
why I cannot go to Geesh, and much less shew myself at the sources of
the Nile, which I confess are not much beyond it, though I declare to
you there is still a _hill_ between you and those sources.”--“And pray,
said I calmly, what is this mighty reason? have you had a dream, or a
vision in that trance you fell into when you lagged behind below the
church of St Michael Sacala?” “No, says he, it is neither trance, nor
dream, nor devil either; I wish it was no worse; but you know as well
as I, that my master Fasil defeated the Agows at the battle of Banja.
I was there with my master, and killed several men, among whom some
were of the Agows of this village Geesh, and you know the usage of this
country, when a man, in these circumstances, falls into their hands,
his blood must pay for their blood.”

I burst out into a violent fit of laughter which very much disconcerted
him. “There, said I, did not I say to you it was a lie that you was
going to tell me? do not think I disbelieve or dispute with you the
vanity of having killed men; many men were slain at that battle;
somebody must, and you may have been the person who slew them; but do
you think that I can believe that Fasil, so deep in that account of
blood, could rule the Agows in the manner he does, if he could not put
a servant of his in safety among them 20 miles from his residence;
do you think I can believe this?” “Come, come, said Aylo’s servant
to Woldo, did you not hear that truth and good behaviour will get
you every thing you ask? Sir, continues he, I see this affair vexes
you, and what this foolish man wants will neither make you richer nor
poorer; he has taken a great desire for that crimson silk-sash which
you wear about your middle. I told him to stay till you went back to
Gondar; but he says he is to go no farther than to the house of Shalaka
Welled Amlac in Maitsha, and does not return to Gondar; I told him to
stay till you had put your mind at ease, by seeing the fountains of the
Nile, which you are so anxious about. He said, after that had happened,
he was sure you would not give it him, for you seemed to think little
of the cataract at Goutto, and of all the fine rivers and churches
which he had shewn you; except the head of the Nile shall be finer than
all these, when, in reality, it will be just like another river, you
will then be dissatisfied, and not give him the sash.”

I thought there was something very natural in these suspicions of
Woldo; besides, he said he was certain that, if ever the sash came into
the sight of Welled Amlac, by some means or other he would get it into
his hands. This rational discourse had pacified me a little; the sash
was a handsome one; but it must have been fine indeed to have stood
for a minute between me and the accomplishment of my wishes. I laid
my hand then upon the pistols that stuck in my girdle, and drew them
out to give them to one of my suite, when Woldo, who apprehended it was
for another purpose, ran some paces back, and hid himself behind Aylo’s
servant. We were all diverted at this fright, but none so much as
Strates, who thought himself revenged for the alarm he had given him by
falling through the roof of the house at Goutto. After having taken off
my sash, “Here is your sash, Woldo, said I; but mark what I have said,
and now most seriously repeat to you, Truth and good behaviour will get
any thing from me; but if, in the course of this journey, you play one
trick more, though ever so trifling, I will bring such a vengeance upon
your head that you shall not be able to find a place to hide it in,
when not the sash only will be taken from you, but your skin also will
follow it: remember what happened to the seis at Bamba.”

He took the sash, but seemed terrified at the threat, and began to
make apologies. “Come, come, said I, we understand each other; no more
words; it is now late, lose no more time, but carry me to Geesh, and
the head of the Nile directly, without preamble, and shew me the hill
that separates me from it. He then carried me round to the south side
of the church, out of the grove of trees that surrounded it, “This is
the hill, says he, looking archly, that, when you was on the other
side of it, was between you and the fountains of the Nile; there is no
other; look at that hillock of green sod in the middle of that watery
spot, it is in that the two fountains of the Nile are to be found:
Geesh is on the face of the rock where yon green trees are: if you go
the length of the fountains pull off your shoes as you did the other
day, for these people are all Pagans, worse than those that were at
the ford, and they believe in nothing that you believe, but only in
this river, to which they pray every day as if it were God; but this
perhaps you may do likewise.” Half undressed as I was by loss of my
sash, and throwing my shoes off, I ran down the hill towards the little
island of green sods, which was about two hundred yards distant; the
whole side of the hill was thick grown over with flowers, the large
bulbous roots of which appearing above the surface of the ground, and
their skins coming off on treading upon them, occasioned two very
severe falls before I reached the brink of the marsh; I after this came
to the island of green turf, which was in form of an altar, apparently
the work of art, and I stood in rapture over the principal fountain
which rises in the middle of it.”

It is easier to guess than to describe the situation of my mind at that
moment--standing in that spot which had baffled the genius, industry,
and inquiry of both ancients and moderns, for the course of near three
thousand years. Kings had attempted this discovery at the head of
armies, and each expedition was distinguished from the last, only by
the difference of the numbers which had perished, and agreed alone in
the disappointment which had uniformly, and without exception, followed
them all. Fame, riches, and honour, had been held out for a series of
ages to every individual of those myriads these princes commanded,
without having produced one man capable of gratifying the curiosity
of his sovereign, or wiping off this stain upon the enterprise and
abilities of mankind, or adding this desideratum for the encouragement
of geography. Though a mere private Briton, I triumphed here, in my own
mind, over kings and their armies; and every comparison was leading
nearer and nearer to presumption, when the place itself where I stood,
the object of my vain-glory, suggested what depressed my short-lived
triumphs. I was but a few minutes arrived at the sources of the Nile,
through numberless dangers and sufferings, the least of which would
have overwhelmed me but for the continual goodness and protection of
Providence; I was, however, but then half through my journey, and
all those dangers which I had already passed, awaited me again on my
return. I found a despondency gaining ground fast upon me, and blasting
the crown of laurels I had too rashly woven for myself. I resolved
therefore to divert, till I could on more solid reflection overcome its
progress.

I saw Strates expecting me on the side of the hill. “Strates, said I,
faithful squire, come and triumph with your Don Quixote at that island
of Barataria where we have wisely and fortunately brought ourselves;
come and triumph with me over all the kings of the earth, all their
armies, all their philosophers, and all their heroes.”--“Sir, says
Strates, I do not understand a word of what you say, and as little what
you mean: you very well know I am no scholar; but you had much better
leave that bog, come into the house, and look after Woldo; I fear he
has something further to seek than your sash, for he has been talking
with the old devil-worshipper ever since we arrived.”--“Did they speak
secretly together, said I?”--“Yes, Sir, they did, I assure you.”--“And
in whispers, Strates!”--“As for that, replied he, they need not have
been at the pains; they understand one another, I suppose, and the
devil their master understands them both; but as for me I comprehend
their discourse no more than if it was Greek, _as they say_. Greek!
says he, I am an ass; I should know well enough what they said if they
spoke Greek.”--“Come, said I, take a draught of this excellent water,
and drink with me a health to his majesty king George III. and a long
line of princes.” I had in my hand a large cup made of a cocoa-nut
shell, which I procured in Arabia, and which was brim-full. He drank
to the king speedily and chearfully, with the addition of, “Confusion
to his enemies,” and tossed up his cap with a loud huzza. “Now friend,
said I, here is to a more humble, but still a sacred name, here is
to--Maria!” He asked if that was the Virgin Mary? I answered, “In
faith, I believe so, Strates.” He did not speak, but only gave a humph
of disapprobation.

The day had been very hot, and the altercation I had with Woldo had
occasioned me to speak so much that my thirst, without any help from
curiosity, led me to these frequent libations at this long sought-for
spring, the most ancient of all altars. “Strates, said I, here is to
our happy return. Come, friend, you are yet two toasts behind me; can
you ever be satiated with this excellent water?”--“Look you, Sir,
says he very gravely, as for king George I. drank to him with all my
heart, to his wife, to his children, to his brothers and sisters, God
bless them all! Amen;--but as for the Virgin Mary, as I am no Papist,
I beg to be excused from drinking healths which _my church_ does not
drink. As for our happy return, God knows, there is no one wishes it
more sincerely than I do, for I have been long weary of this beggarly
country. But you must forgive me if I refuse to drink any more water.
They say these savages pray over that hole every morning to the devil,
and I am afraid I feel his horns in my belly already, from the great
draught of that hellish water I drank first.”--It was, indeed, as
cold water as ever I tasted. “Come, come, said I, don’t be peevish, I
have but one toast more to drink.”--“Peevish, or not peevish, replied
Strates, a drop of it never again shall cross my throat: there is no
humour in this; no joke; shew us something pleasant as you used to do;
but there is no jest in meddling with devil-worshippers, witchcraft,
and inchantments, to bring some disease upon one’s self here, so far
from home in the fields. No, no, as many toasts in wine as you please,
or better in brandy, but no more water for Strates. I am sure I have
done myself harm already with these follies--God forgive me!”--“Then,
said I, I will drink it alone, and you are henceforward unworthy of the
name of Greek; you do not even deserve that of a Christian.” Holding
the full cup then to my head, “Here is to Catharine, empress of all the
Russias, and success to her heroes at Paros; and hear my prediction
from this altar to-day, Ages shall not pass, before this ground,
whereon I now stand, will become a flourishing part of her dominions.”

He leaped on this a yard from the ground. “If the old gentleman has
whispered you this, says he, out of the well, he has not kept you long
time waiting; tell truth and shame the devil, is indeed the proverb,
but truth is truth, wherever it comes from; give me the cup, I will
drink that health though I should die.” He then held out both his
hands. “Strates, said I, be in no such haste; remember the water is
inchanted by devil-worshippers; there is no jesting with these, and
you are far from home, and in the fields, you may catch some disease,
especially if you drink the Virgin Mary; God forgive you. Remember the
horns the first draught produced; they may with this come entirely
through and through.”--“The cup, the cup, says he, and--fill it full;
I defy the devil, and trust in St George and the dragon.--Here is to
Catharine, empress of all the Russias, confusion to her enemies, and
damnation to all at Paros.”--“Well, friend, said I, you was long in
resolving, but you have done it at last to some purpose; I am sure
I did not drink damnation to all at Paros.”--“Ah, says he, but _I
did_, and will do it again--Damnation to all at Paros, and Cyprus,
and Rhodes, Crete, and Mytilene into the bargain: Here it goes, with
all my heart. Amen, so be it.”--“And who do you think, said I, are at
Paros?”--“Pray, who should be there, says he, but Turks and devils, the
worst race of monsters and oppressors in the Levant; I have been at
Paros myself; was you ever there?”--“Whether I was ever there or not
is no matter, said I; the empress’s fleet, and an army of Russians,
are now possibly there; and here you, without provocation, have drank
damnation to the Russian fleet and army who have come so far from home,
and are at this moment sword in hand to restore you to your liberty,
and the free exercise of your religion; did not I tell you, you was no
Greek, and scarcely deserved the name of Christian?”--“No, no, Sir,
cries Strates, for God’s sake do not say so, I would rather die. I
did not understand you about Paros; there was no malice in my heart
against the Russians. God will bless them, and my folly can do them no
harm--Huzza, Catharine, and victory!” whilst he tossed his cap into the
air.

A number of the Agows had appeared upon the hill, just before the
valley, in silent wonder what Strates and I were doing at the altar.
Two or three only had come down to the edge of the swamp, had seen the
grimaces and action of Strates, and heard him huzza; on which they
had asked Woldo, as he entered into the village, what was the meaning
of all this? Woldo told them, that the man was out of his senses, and
had been bit by a mad dog; which reconciled them immediately to us.
They, moreover, said, he would be infallibly cured by the Nile; but the
custom, after meeting with such a misfortune, was to drink the water in
the morning fasting. I was very well pleased both with this turn Woldo
gave the action, and the remedy we stumbled upon by mere accident,
which discovered a connection, believed to subsist at this day, between
this river and its ancient governor the dog-star.




CHAP. XIII.

_Attempts of the Ancients to discover the Source of the Nile--No
Discovery made in latter Times--No Evidence of the Jesuits having
arrived there--Kircher’s Account fabulous--Discovery completely made by
the Author._


Far in antiquity as history or tradition can lead us, farther still
beyond the reach of either, (if we believe it was the first subject of
hieroglyphics) begins the inquiry into the origin, cause of increase,
and course, of this famous river. It is one of the few phænomena
in natural history that ancient philosophers employed themselves
in investigating, and people of all ranks seemed to have joined in
the research with a degree of perseverance very uncommon; but still
this discovery, though often attempted under the most favourable
circumstances, has as constantly miscarried; it has baffled the
endeavours of all ages, and at last come down, as great a secret as
ever, to these latter times of bold and impartial inquiry.

Though Egypt was not created by the Nile, it was the first part that
received benefit from it; it was there, in the time of its overflowing,
that it appeared in all its beauty, and Egypt measured its prosperity
or desolation by the abundance or scantiness of this stream. It was
not, however, in Egypt the inquiries into the time and cause of its
inundation began; all these were settled and reduced to rule before a
city was built within the reach of the inundation.

Man, that knew not the cause, was also ignorant of the limits of that
inundation, having only in his mind a tradition of deluges that had
destroyed the earth, traces of which appeared on every hill. He was
with reason astonished to see, that, wild and wide as the torrent
appeared, it was subject to the controul of some power that prohibited
it from irregularity in the time of its coming, and forbade it to
destroy the land it was destined to enrich; they saw it subside within
its banks, and overflow no more after it had afforded to husbandry the
utmost advantage it could receive. But what the controuling power was
they knew not, consequently could never divine whether this regularity
was transitory or perpetual; whether it was not liable, at some time,
to break its bonds, and sweep both man and his labours together into
the ocean.

Whether the Nile was constant to its time of rising, whether it did
not revolve in some cycle or period, or whether, arrived at a certain
number of inundations, it was not to stop and overflow no more, was
what could only be determined by the investigation of the cause, and
the observations of a series of years. Before this was thoroughly
settled and known, the farmer might perhaps cultivate the plain of
Egypt, but would not build there; he would fix his dwelling on the
mountain in defiance of the flood; and that this was so, is evident
from what we saw at Thebes, which the Aborigines did not build, as we
see thousands of caves dug out of solid rock that were the dwellings of
the first inhabitants, the Troglodytes, beyond Meroë.

The philosophers of _Meroë_ seem therefore to have been the first that
undertook the compiling a series of observations, which should teach
their posterity the proper times in which they could settle in, and
cultivate Egypt, without fear of danger from the Nile. That island,
full of flocks and shepherds, under a sky perpetually cloudless,
having a twilight of short duration, was placed between the Nile and
Astaboras, where the two rivers collect the waters that fall in the
east and the west of Ethiopia, and mix together in a latitude where
the tropical rains cease; this land was too high to be overflowed by
the Nile, but near enough to behold every alteration in that river’s
increase from the instant it happened.

Sirius, the brightest star in the Heavens, probably the largest,
perhaps the nearest to us, in either case the most obvious and useful
for the present purpose, was immediately vertical to Meroë; and it
did not long escape observation, that the heliacal rising of the
dog-star was found to be the instant when all Egypt was to prepare
for the reception of a stranger-flood, without which the husbandman’s
labour and expectation of harvest were in vain. The fields were dusty
and desert, the farms without tenants, the tenants without feed, the
houses perhaps situated in the middle of the inundation, when, at a
stated time, this most brilliant sign shone forth to warn the master to
procure a peasant for his field, the peasant to procure feed for his
tenement, and the stranger to remove his habitation from a situation
soon destined to be laid wholly under water.

Nothing could be more natural than the inquiries how the encrease of
the flood was thus connected with the rising of the dog-star; many
useful discoveries were therefore probably made in search after this,
but the cause of the inundation remained still undiscovered; at last
the effects being found regular, and the efficient cause inscrutable,
no wonder if gratitude transferred to the star a portion of respect
for the benefits they were persuaded they received from its influence.
Though these observations were such as concerned Egypt and Nubia alone,
yet from Egypt they passed as objects proper for inquiry, as problems
of the greatest consequence to philosophers, and as phænomena worthy
the attention of all that studied nature.

A great step towards the accounting for these phænomena was believed
to be the discovery of the Nile’s source, and this, as it was attended
with very considerable difficulties, was thought therefore to be a
proper object of investigation, even by kings, who discovered nations
by conquering them, and by their power, revenue, and armies, removed
most of those obstacles which, succeeding each others in detail, weary
the diligence, overcome the courage, and baffle the endeavours of the
most intrepid and persevering travellers.

Sesostris, one of the earliest and greatest conquerors of antiquity,
is mentioned, amidst all his victories, earnestly to have desired to
penetrate to the head of the Nile, as a glory he preferred to almost
universal monarchy:--

    _Venit ad occasum, mundique extrema Sesostris,
     Et Pharios currus regum cervicibus egit:
     Antè tamen vestros amnes Rhodanúmque, Padúmque,
     Quàm Nilum de fonte bibit._----
                                    LUCAN.

Cambyses’ attempt to penetrate into Ethiopia, and the defeat of his
schemes, I have already narrated at sufficient length[124].

    ----_Vesanus in ortus
     Cambyses longi populos pervenit ad œvi,
     Defectusque epulis, & pastus cœde suorum
     Ignoto te, Nile, redit._----
                                          LUCAN.

The attention paid by Alexander, the next prince who attempted an
expedition towards these unknown fountains, merits a little more of
our consideration. After he had conquered Egypt, and was arrived at
the temple of Jupiter Ammon, (the celebrated and ancient deity of
the shepherds) in the Theban desert, the first question he asked was
concerning the spot where the Nile rose. Having received from the
priests sufficient directions for attempting the discovery, he is said,
as the next very sensible step, to have chosen natives of Ethiopia as
the likeliest people to succeed in the search he had commanded them to
make:--

    _Summus Alexander regum, quem Memphis ador at,
     Invidit Nilo, misitque per ultima terræ
     Æthiopum lectos: illos rubicunda perusti
     Zona poli tenuit, Nilum videre calentem._
                                      LUCAN.

These Ethiopians, parting from their temple in the desert of Elvah, or
Oasis, or, which will come to the same thing, from the banks of the
Nile, or Thebes, would hold nearly the same course as Poncet had done,
till they fell in with the Nile about Moscho in the kingdom of Dongola;
they would continue the same route till they came to Halfaia, where
the Bahar el Abiad (or white river) joins the Nile at Hojila, five
miles above that town; and, to avoid the mountains of Kuara, they would
continue on the west side of the Nile, between it and the Bahar el
Abiad; and, keeping the Nile close on their left, they would follow its
direction south to the mountains of Fazuclo, through countries where
its course must necessarily be known. After having passed the great
chain of mountains, called Dyre and Tegla, between lat. 11° and 12° N.
where are the great cataracts, they again came into the flat country of
the Gongas, as far as Bizamo, nearly in 9° N. there the river, leaving
its hitherto constant direction, N. and S. turns due E. and surrounds
Gojam.

It is probable the discoverers, always looking for it to the south,
took this unusual sudden turn east to be only a winding of the river,
which would soon be compensated by an equal return to the west where
they would meet it again; they therefore continued their journey south,
till near the line, and never saw it more, as they could have no
possible notion it had turned back behind them, and that they had left
it as far north as lat. 11° They reported then to Alexander what was
truth, that they had ascended the Nile as far south as lat. 9°, where
it unexpectedly took its course to the east, and was seen no more. The
river, moreover, was not known, nor to be heard of near the Line, or
farther southward, nor was it diminished in size, nor had it given any
symptom they were near its source; they had found the Nile _calentem_,
(warm) while they expected its rise among melting snows.

This discovery (for so far it was one) of the course of the river to
the east, seems to have made a strong impression on Alexander’s mind,
so that when he arrived at near the head of the Indus, then swelled
with the thawing snows of mount Caucasus, and overflowing in summer,
he thought he was arrived at the source of this famous river the Nile
which he had before seen in the west, and rejoiced at it exceedingly,
as the noblest of his atchievements[125]; he immediately wrote to
acquaint his mother of it; but being soon convinced of his error, and
being far above propagating a falsehood, even for his own glory, he
instantly erased what he had wrote upon that subject. This however
did not entirely dissatisfy Alexander, for he proposed an expedition
in person towards these fountains, if he had returned from India in
safety.

    ----_Non illi flamma, nec undæ,
     Nec sterilis Libye, nec Syrticus obstitit Ammon.
     Isset in occasus, mundi devexa secutus:
     Ambissetque polos, Nilumque a fonte bibisset:
     Occurrit suprema dies, naturaque solum
     Hunc potuit finem vesano ponere regi._
                                    LUCAN.

It must no doubt seem preposterous to those that are not very
conversant with the classics, that a prince so well instructed as
Alexander himself was, who had with him in his army many philosophers,
geographers, and astronomers, and was in constant correspondence with
Aristotle, a man of almost universal knowledge, that, after having
seen the Nile in Egypt coming from the south, he should think he was
arrived at the head of it while on the banks of the Indus, so far to
the N. E. of its Ethiopian course. This difficulty, however, has a
very easy solution in the prejudices of those times. The ancients were
incorrigible as to their error in opinion concerning two seas.

The Caspian Sea they had sailed through in several directions, and had
almost marched round it; and whilst they conquered kingdoms between
it and the sea, its water was sweet, it neither ebbed nor flowed, and
yet they most ridiculously would have it to be part of the ocean. On
the other hand, they obstinately persisted in believing that, from the
east coast of Africa, about latitude 15° south, a neck of land ran
east and north-east, and joined the peninsula of India, and by that
means made this part of the ocean a lake. In vain ships of different
nations sailed for ages to Sofala, and saw no such land; this only
made them remove the neck of land further to the south; and though
Eudoxus had sailed from the Red Sea around the Cape of Good Hope, which
must have totally destroyed the possibility of the existence of that
land supposed to join the two continents, rather than allow this, they
neglected the information of this navigator, and treated it as a fable.

It was the constant opinion of the Greeks, that no river could rise
in the torrid zone, as also, that the melting of snow was the cause
of the overflowing of all rivers in the heat of summer, and so of
the Nile among the rest; when, therefore, Alexander heard from his
discoverers, that the Nile, about latitude 9°, ran straight to the
east, and returned no more, he imagined the river’s course was eastward
through the imaginary neck of land inclosing the imaginary lake, and
joining the peninsula of India, and that the river, after it had
crossed, continued north till it came within reach of the thawing of
the snows of Mount Caucasus; and this was also the opinion of Ptolemy
the geographer.

Ptolemy Philadelphus, the second of those princes who had succeeded
to the throne of Alexander in Egypt, was the next who marched into
Ethiopia with an army against the Shangalla. His object was not only to
discover the source of the Nile, but also to procure a perpetual supply
of elephants to enable him to cope with the kings of Syria. The success
of this expedition we have related in the first volume, book ii. chap.
v.

Ptolemy Evergetes, his successor, in the 27th year of his reign, being
in peace with all his neighbours, undertook an expedition to Ethiopia.
His design was certainly to discover the fountains of the Nile, in
which he had probably succeeded had he not mistaken the river itself.
He supposed the Siris, now the Tacazzé, was the Nile, and, ascending
in the direction of its stream, he came to Axum, the capital of the
province of Siré and of Ethiopia. But the story he tells about the snow
which he found knee-deep on the mountains of Samen, makes me question
whether he ever crossed the Siris, or was himself an ocular witness of
what he says he observed there.

Cæsar, between the acquisition of a rich and powerful kingdom, and the
enjoyment of the finest woman in the world, the queen of it, is said
to have employed so interesting an interval in a calm inquiry after
the source of this river, and, in so doing at such a time, surely has
paid it a greater compliment than it ever yet received from any that
attempted the discovery. On that night, which completed the destruction
of the Egyptian monarchy, it is said this was the topic upon which he
entertained the learned of Alexandria at supper; addressing himself to
Achoreus, high priest of the Nile, he says,

    ----_Nihil est, quod noscere malim,
     Quam fluvii causas, per secula tanta latentis,
     Ignotumque caput: spes sit mihi certa videndi
     Niliacos fontes, bellum civile relinquam._
                                   LUCAN.

The poet here pays Cæsar a compliment upon his curiosity, or desire of
knowledge, very much at the expence of his patriotism; for he makes
him declare, in so many words, that he considered making war with his
country as the greatest pleasure of his life, never to be abandoned,
but for that superior gratification--the discovery of the fountains of
the Nile.

Achoreus, proud of being referred to on such a subject by such a
person, enters into a detail of information.

    _Quæ tibi noscendi Nilum, Romane, cupido est,
     Hæc Phariis, Persisque fuit, Macedumque tyrannis:
     Nullaque non ætas voluit conferre futuris
     Notitiam: sed vincit adhuc natura latendi._
                                             LUCAN.

Nero, as we are told, sent two centurions in search of this river, and
on their return they made their report in presence of Seneca, who does
not seem to have greatly distinguished himself by his inquiries. They
reported, that after having gone a very long way, they came to a king
of Ethiopia, who furnished them with necessaries and assistance, and
with his recommendations they arrived at some other kingdoms next to
these, and then came to immense lakes, the end of which was unknown to
the natives, nor did any one ever hope to find it: this was all the
satisfaction Nero procured, and it is probable these centurions went
not far, but were discouraged, and turned back with a trumped-up story
invented to cover their want of spirit, for we know now that there are
no such lakes between Egypt and the source of the Nile, but the lake
Tzana, or Dembea, and while on the banks of this, they might have seen
the country beyond, and on every side of it[126]; but I rather think no
such attempt was made, unless they endeavoured to pass the country of
the Shangalla about the end of June or July, when that province, as I
have already said, is absolutely impassible, by the rapid vegetation of
the trees, and the ground being all laid under water, which they might
have mistaken for a series of lakes.

After all these great efforts, the learned of antiquity began to
look upon the discovery as desperate, and not to be attained, for
which reason both poets and historians speak of it in a strain of
despondency:--

    _Secreto de fonte cadens; qui semper inani
     Quaerendus ratione latet, nec contigit ulli,
     Hoc vidisse caput, fertur sine teste creatus._
                                     CLAUDIAN.

And Pliny, as late as the time of Trajan, says, that these fountains
were in his time utterly unknown--_Nilus incertis ortus fontibus,
it per deserta et ardentia, et immenso longitudinis spatio
ambulans_[127],--nor was there any other attempt made later by the
ancients.

From this it is obvious, that none of the ancients ever made this
discovery of the source of the Nile. They gave it up entirely, and
_caput Nili quaerere_ became a proverb, marking the difficulty, or
rather the impossibility, of any undertaking. Let us now examine the
pretensions of the moderns.

The first in latter days who visited Abyssinia was a monk, and at
the same time a merchant; he was sent by Nonnosus, ambassador of the
emperor Justin, in the fifth year of the reign of that prince, that is
A. D. 522. He is called Cosmas the hermit, as also Indoplaustes. Many
have thought that this name was given him from his having travelled
much in India, properly so called; but we have no evidence that Cosmas
was ever in the Asiatic India, and I rather imagine he obtained his
name from his travels in Abyssinia, called by the ancients India; he
went as far as Axum, and seems to have paid proper attention to the
difference of climates, names, and situations of places, but he arrived
not at the Nile, nor did he attempt it. The province of the Agows was
probably at that time inaccessible, as the court was then in Tigré
at Axum, a considerable distance beyond the Tacazzé, and is to the
eastward of it.

None of the Portuguese who first arrived in Abyssinia, neither
Covillan, Roderigo de Lima, Christopher de Gama, nor the patriarch
Alphonso Mendes, ever saw, or indeed pretended to have seen, the source
of the Nile. At last, in the reign of Za Denghel, came Peter Paez, who
laid claim to this honour; how far his pretensions are just I am now
going to consider.--Paez has left a history of the mission, and some
remarkable occurrences that happened in that country, in two thick
volumes octavo, closely written in a plain stile; copies of this work
were circulated through every college and seminary of Jesuits that
existed in his time, and which have been everywhere found in their
libraries since the disgrace of that learned body.

Athanasius Kircher, a Jesuit, well known for his extensive learning
and voluminous writings, and still more for the rashness with which he
advances the most improbable facts in natural history, is the man that
first published an account of the fountains of the Nile, and, as he
says, from this journal left by Peter Paez.

I must, however, here observe, that no relation of this kind was to be
found in three copies of Peter Paez’s history, to which I had access
when in Italy, on my return home. One of these copies I saw at Milan,
and, by the interest of friends, had an opportunity of perusing it at
my leisure. The other two were at Bologna and Rome. I ran through them
rapidly, attending only to the place where the description ought to
have been, and where I did not find it; but having copied the first and
last page of the Milan manuscript, and comparing them with these two
last mentioned, I found that all the three were, word for word, the
same, and none of them contained one syllable of the discovery of the
source.

However this be, I do not think it is right for me to pronounce thus
much, unless I bring collateral proofs to strengthen my opinion, and
to shew that no such excursion was ever pretended to have been made by
that missionary, in any of his works, unless that which passed through
the hand of Kircher.

Alphonso Mendes came into Abyssinia about a year after Paez’s death.
New and desireable as that discovery must have been to himself, to the
pope, king of Spain, and all his great patrons in Portugal and Italy,
though he wrote the history of the country, and of the particulars
concerning the mission in great detail, and with good judgment, yet he
never mentions this journey of Peter Paez, though it probably must have
been conveyed to Rome and Portugal, after his inspection, and under his
authority.

Balthazar Tellez, a learned Jesuit, has wrote two volumes in folio
with great candour and impartiality, considering the spirit of those
times; and he declares his work to be compiled from this history of
Alphonso Mendes the patriarch, from the two volumes of Peter Paez, as
well as from the regular reports made by the individuals of the company
in some places, and by the provincial letters in others; to all which
he had compleat access, as also to the annual reports of Peter Paez
among the rest, from 1598 to 1622; yet Tellez makes no mention of such
a discovery, though he is very particular as to the merit of each
missionary during the long reign of Sultan Segued, or Socinios, which
occupies more than half of the two volumes.

After these strong presumptions, that Peter Paez neither made such a
journey nor ever pretended it, I shall submit the account that Paez
himself, or Kircher for him, has given of the expedition and consequent
discovery; and if any of my readers can persuade themselves that a
man of genius, such as was Peter Paez, transported by accident to
these fountains, and exulting as he does upon the discovery, the value
of which he seems to have known well, could yet have given such a
description as he does, I am then contented with being only the partner
of Peter Paez.

Before I state the account of his observations in his own, or in
Kircher’s words, I have one observation to make regarding the dates and
time of the journey. That memorable day which has been fixed upon for
the discovery, is the 21st of April 1618. The rains are then begun,
and on that account the season being very unwholesome, armies, without
extreme necessity, are rarely in the field; between September and
February at farthest is the time the Abyssinian army is abroad from the
capital, and in action.

There are two nations of Agows in Abyssinia, the one near the fountains
of the Nile, called the Agows of Damot; the other near the head of the
Tacazzé, in the province of Lasta, called the Tcheratz Agows. Now, we
see from the annals of Socinios’s reign, that he had several campaigns
against the Agows. The first was in the fourth year of his reign, in
the year 1608; his annals say it was against the Tcheratz Agow. His
second campaign was in the seventh year of his reign, or 1611; that,
too, was against the Agows of Lasta; so that if Peter Paez was with
the emperor in either of these campaigns, he could not have seen the
head of any river but that of the Tacazzé. The third campaign was in
1625, against Sacala, Geesh, and Ashoa, when the Galla made an inroad
into Gojam, but retired upon the royal army’s marching against them,
and crossed the Nile into their own country. Socinios upon this had
advanced against the Agows of Damot, then in rebellion also, and had
fought with Sacala, Ashoa, and Geesh likewise, the clan immediately
contiguous to the sources. Now this was surely the time when Peter
Paez, or any attendant on the emperor, might have seen the fountains
of the Nile in safety, as the king’s army, in whole or in part, must
have been encamped near, or perhaps upon, the very sources themselves;
a place, of all other, suited for such a purpose; but this was in the
year 1625, and Peter Paez died in the year 1622.

I shall now state, in Kircher’s own words, translated into English, the
description he has given, as from Paez, of the sources which he saw;
and I will fairly submit, to any reader of judgment, whether this is a
description he ought to be content with from an eye-witness, whether
it may not suit the sources of any other river as well as those of the
Nile, or whether in itself it is distinct enough to leave one clear
idea behind it.

“The river[128], at this day, by the Ethiopians is called the Abaoy;
it rises in the kingdom of Gojam, in a territory called Sabala, whose
inhabitants are called Agows. The source of the Nile is situated
in the west part of Gojam, in the highest part of a valley, which
resembles a great plain on every side, surrounded by high mountains.
On the 21st of April, in the year 1618, being here, together with the
king and his army, I ascended the _place_, and observed every thing
with great attention; I discovered first two round fountains, each
about four palms in diameter, and saw, with the greatest delight, what
neither Cyrus[129] king of the Persians, nor Cambyses, nor Alexander
the Great, nor the famous Julius Cæsar, could ever discover. The two
openings of these fountains have no issue in the plain on the top of
the mountain, but flow from the root of it. The second fountain lies
about a stone-cast west from the first: the inhabitants say that this
whole mountain is full of water, and add, that the whole plain about
the fountain is floating and unsteady, a certain mark that there is
water concealed under it; for which reason, the water does not overflow
at the fountain, but forces itself with great violence out at the
foot of the mountain. The inhabitants, together with the emperor, who
was then present with his army, maintain that that year it trembled
little on account of the drought, but other years, that it trembled and
overflowed so as that it could scarce be approached without danger.
The breadth of the circumference may be about the cast of a sling:
below the top of this mountain the people live about a league distant
from the fountain to the west; and this place is called Geesh, and the
fountain seems to be a cannon-shot distant from Geesh; moreover, the
field where the fountain is, is upon all sides difficult of access,
except on the north side, where it may be ascended with ease.”

I shall make only a few observations upon this description, sufficient
to shew that it cannot be that of Paez, or any man who had ever been
in Abyssinia: there is no such place known as Sabala; he should have
called it Sacala: in the Ethiopic language Sacala means the highest
ridge of land, where the water falls down equally on both sides,
from east and west, or from north and south. So the sharp roofs of
our houses, or tops of our tents, in that manner are called Sacala,
because the water runs down equally on opposite sides; so does it in
the highest lands in every country, and so here in Sacala, where the
Nile runs to the north, but several streams, which form the rivers Lac
and Temsi, fall down the cliff, or precipice, and proceed southward in
the plain of Ashoa about 300 feet below the level of the ground where
the mountain of Geesh stands, at the very foot of which is the marsh
wherein are the sources of the river.

Again, neither Sacala nor Geesh are on the west side of Gojam,
nor approach to these directions; as, first the high mountains of
Litchambara, then the still higher of Amid Amid, are to be crossed
over, before you reach Gojam from Sacala; and after descending from
that high barrier of mountains called Amid Amid, you come into the
province of Damot, when the whole breadth of that province is still
between you and the west part of Gojam. These are mistakes which it is
almost impossible to make, when a man is upon the spot, in the midst
of a whole army, every one capable, and surely willing (as he was a
favourite of the king) to give him every sort of information; nor
was there probably any one there who would not have thought himself
honoured to have been employed to fetch a _straw_ for him from the top
of Amid Amid.

Both the number and situations of the fountains, and the situations of
the mountain and village of Geesh with respect to them, are therefore
absolutely false, as the reader will observe in attending to my
narrative and the map. This relation of Paez’s was in my hand the
5th of November, when I surveyed these fountains, and all the places
adjacent. I measured all his distances with a gunter’s chain in my own
hand, and found every one of them to be imaginary; and these measures
so taken, as also the journal now submitted to the public, were fairly
and fully written the same day that they were made, before the close of
each evening.

It is not easy to conceive what species of information Paez intends to
convey to us by the observation he makes lower, “That the water, which
found way at the foot of the mountain, did not flow at the top of it.”
It would have been very singular if it had; and I fully believe that a
mountain voiding the water at its top, when it had free access to run
out at its bottom, would have been one of the most curious things the
two Jesuits could ever have seen in any voyage. But what mountain is it
he is speaking of? he has never named any one, but has said the Nile
was situated in the highest part of a plain. I cannot think he means
by this that the highest part of a plain is a mountain; if he does, it
is a species of description which would need an interpreter. He says
again, the mountain is full of water, and trembles; and that there is a
village below the top of the mountain, on the mountain itself. This I
never saw; they must have cold and slippery quarters in that mountain,
or whatever it is; and if he means the mountain of Geesh, there is not
a village within a quarter a mile of it. The village of Geesh is in the
middle of a high cliff, descending into the plain of Ashoa. The bottom
of that cliff or plain is 300 feet, as I have already said, below the
base of the mountain of Geesh, and the place where the fountains rise.

Paez next says, that it is three miles from that village of Geesh to
the fountains of the Nile. Now, as my quadrant was placed in my tent,
on the brink of the cliff of Geesh, it was necessary for me to measure
that distance; and by allowing for it to reduce my observations to the
exact spot where the sources rose, I did accordingly with a chain
measure from the brink of the precipice to the center of the altar,
in which the principal fountain stands, and found it 1760 feet or 586
yards 2 feet, and this is the distance Paez calls a league, or the
largest range of a shell shot from a mortar; this I do aver is an error
that is absolutely impossible for any travellers to commit upon the
spot, or else his narrative in general should have very little weight
in point of precision.

I shall close these observations with one which I think must clearly
evince Paez had never been upon the spot. He says the field, in which
the fountains of the Nile are, is of very difficult access, the ascent
to it being very steep, excepting on the north, where it is plain
and easy. Now, if we look at the beginning of this description, we
should think it would be the descent, not the ascent that would be
troublesome; for the fountains were placed in a valley, and people
rather descend into valleys than ascend into them; but supposing it a
valley in which there was a field, upon which there was a mountain, and
on the mountain these fountains, still I say that these mountains are
nearly inaccessible on the three sides, but that the most difficult of
them all is the north, the way we ascend from the plain of Goutto. From
the east, by Sacala, the ascent is made from the valley of Litchambara,
and from the plain of Assoa, to the south, you have the almost
perpendicular craggy cliff of Geesh, covered with thorny bushes, trees,
and bamboos, which conceal the mouths of the caverns; and, on the
north, you have the mountains of Aformasha, thick-set with all sorts of
thorny shrubs and trees, especially with the kantussa; these thickets
are, moreover, full of wild beasts, especially huge, long-haired
baboons, which we frequently met walking upright. Through these high
and difficult mountains we have only narrow paths, like those of sheep,
made by the goats, or the wild beasts we are speaking of, which, after
we had walked on them for a long space, landed us frequently at the
edge of some valley, or precipice, and forced us to go back again to
search for a new road. From towards Zeegam, to the westward, and from
the plain where the river winds so much, is the only easy access to the
fountains of the Nile, and they that ascend to them by this way will
not think even that approach too easy.

It remains only for me to say, that neither have the Jesuits, (Paez his
brethren in the mission, and his contemporaries) made any geographical
use of this discovery, either in longitude or latitude; nor have the
historians of his society, who have followed afterwards, with all
the information and documents before them, thought proper even to
quote his travels; it will not be easy, from the authority of a man
like Athanasius Kircher, writing at Rome, to support the reality of
such a discovery, not to be found in the genuine writings of Peter
Paez himself. With such a voyage, if it had been real, there should
have been published at least an itinerary, and most of the Jesuits
were capable enough to have made a rough observation of longitude and
latitude, in the country where they resided, for near one hundred
years. Add to this, no observation appears from any Jesuit of the
idolatry or pagan worship, which prevailed near the source of the Nile,
and this would seem to have been their immediate province.

From Dancaz they might have taken very properly their departure, and,
by a compass, the use of which was then well known to the Portuguese,
they might have kept their route to those fountains without much
trouble, and, with a sufficient degree of exactness, to shew all the
world the road by which they went. They were not fifty miles distant
from Geesh when at Gorgora, and they have erred above sixty, which is
ten miles more than the whole distance; this happened because they
sought the fountains in Gojam, from which, at Gorgora, they knew
themselves to be at that distance, and where the source of the Nile
never was.

When I set out from Gondar, whose latitude and longitude I had first
well ascertained, I thought in such a pursuit as this, where local
discovery was the only thing sought after in all ages, that the best
way was to substitute perhaps a drier journal, or itinerary, to a more
pleasant account; with this view I kept the length of my journies
each day by a watch, and my direction by the compass. I did observe,
indeed, many altitudes of the sun and stars at Dingleber, at Kelti, and
at Goutto; and lastly, I ascertained the other extreme, the sources
of the Nile, by a number of observations of latitude, and by a very
distinct and favourable one for the longitude: I calculated none of
these celestial observations till I went back to Gondar. I returned by
a different way on the other side of the Nile, and made one observation
of the sun at Welled Abea Abbo, the house of Shalaka Welled Amlac,
of whom I am about to speak. Arrived at Gondar, I summed up my days
journies, reduced my bearings and distances to a plain course, as if
I had been at sea, taking a mean where there was any thing doubtful,
and in this topographical draught laid down every village through
which I had passed, or which I had seen at a small distance out of
the road, to which I may add every river, an immense number of which
I had crossed between Gondar and Geesh, whither I was going. The
reader, upon the inspection of this small map, will form some, but a
very inadequate idea of the immense labour it cost me: However, the
result, when I arrived at Gondar, amply rewarded me for my pains,
upon comparing my route by the compass, to what it came to be when
ascertained by observation; I found my error of computation upon the
whole to be something more than 9 miles in latitude, and very nearly 7
in longitude; an error not perceptible in the journey upon any reduced
scale, and very immaterial to all purposes of geography in any large
one.

Now Peter Paez, or any man laying claim to a discovery so long and so
ardently desired, should surely have done the same; especially as from
Gorgora he had little more than half of the journal to keep. But if it
were true, that he made the discovery which Kircher attributes to him,
still, for want of this necessary attention, he has left the world in
the darkness he found it; he travelled like a thief, discovered that
secret source, and took a peep at it, then covered it again as if he
had been affrightened at the sight of it.

Ludolf and Vossius are very merry, without mentioning names, with this
story of the discovery, which they think Kircher makes for Peter Paez,
whom they call the River Finder: they say, it is extremely laughable
to think, that the emperor of Abyssinia brought a Jesuit of Europe
to be the antiquary of his country, and to instruct him first, that
the fountains of the Nile were in his dominions, and in what part
of them. But, with Vossius’s leave, this is a species of intemperate
ill-founded criticism; neither Kircher, nor Paez, nor whoever was
author of that work, ever said they instructed the emperor about the
place in his dominions where the Nile arose, as what he says is only
that the Agows of Geesh reported that the mountain trembled in dry
weather, and had done so that year, when the emperor, who was present,
confirmed the Agow’s report: this is not saying that Peter Paez told
the emperor encamped with his army upon the fountains, that the Nile
rose in his dominions, and that this was the source. Wo be to the works
of Scaliger, Bochart, or Vossius, when they shall, in their turn, be
submitted to such criticism as this.

A Protestant mission was the next, that I know of at least, which
succeeded that of the Portuguese, and consisted only of one traveller,
Peter Heyling, of Lubec; although he lived in the country, nay,
governed it several years, he never attempted to visit the source of
that river; he had dedicated himself to a studious and solitary life,
having, among other parts of his reading, a very competent knowledge of
Roman, or civil law; he is said to have given a great deal of his time
to the compiling an institute of that law in the Abyssinian language
for the use of that nation, upon a plan he had brought from Germany;
but he did not live to finish it, though that and two other books,
written in Geez, still exist in private hands in Abyssinia, at least I
have been often confidently told so.

The next and last attempt I shall take notice of, and one of the most
extraordinary that ever was made for the discovery of the Nile, was
that of a German nobleman, Peter Joseph le Roux, comte de Desneval.
This gentleman had been in the Danish navy ever since the year 1721,
and in 1739 was raised to the rank of rear-admiral in that service.
He says, in a publication of his own now lying before me, that the
ambassador of Louis XIV. (M. du Roule) and all those sent by the Dutch
and English to visit that country, had perished, because they were
ignorant of the proper _key_ to be employed to enter that country,
which he flattered himself he had found in Denmark.

In 1739 he resigned his Danish commission, and began his first attempt
in Egypt, whilst, for the greater facility of travelling in these
_mild_ and _hospitable_ countries, he took his wife along with him. The
count and the countess went as far as Cairo, where they wisely began
at a festival to dispute upon the etiquette with a Turkish mob, and
this bringing the janizaries and guards of police upon them to take
them into custody, the _grey mare_, as they say, proved the better
_horse_; Madame la comtesse de Desneval exerted herself so much, that
she defeated the body of janizaries, wounding several of them, armed
only with a very feminine weapon, a pair of scissars, which, with full
as much profit, and much more decency, she might have been using,
surrounded with her family at home.

However well acquainted the count was with the key for entering into
Abyssinia, he had not apparently got the door. In fact, his first
scheme was a most ridiculous one; he resolved to ascend the Nile in
a barge armed with small cannon, and all necessary provisions for
himself and wife. Some people wiser than himself, whom he met at Cairo,
suggested to him, that, supposing government might protect him so
far as to allow his barge safely to pass the confines of Egypt and to
the first cataract, where the malice of the pilots would certainly
have destroyed her, and supposing she was arrived at Ibrim or Deir,
the last garrisons depending on Cairo, and that this might have been
atchieved by money, (for by money any thing may be obtained from the
government of Cairo,) yet still, some days journey above the garrisons
of Deir and Ibrim, begin the barren and dreadful deserts of Nubia; and
farther south, at the great cataract of Jan Adel, the Nile falls twenty
feet down a perpendicular rock; so here certainly was to be the end
of his voyage; but the count, being ignorant of the manners of those
countries, and exceedingly presumptuous of his own powers, flattered
himself to obtain such assistance from the garrison of Ibrim and Deir,
that he could unscrew his vessel, take her to pieces, and carry her, by
force of men, round behind the cataract, where he was to rescrew and
launch her again into the Nile.

The Kennouss, inhabiting near the cataract, have several villages,
particularly two, one called Succoot, or the place of tents, where
Kalid Ibn el Waalid, after taking Syene in the Khalifat of Omar,
encamped his army in his march to Dongola; the other, in a plain near
the river, called Asel Dimmo, or the Field of Blood, where the same
Kalid defeated an army of Nubians, who were marching to the relief of
Dongola, which was by him immediately after besieged and taken. These
two villages are on the Egyptian side of the cataract; the direct
occupation of the inhabitants is gathering sena, where it very much
abounds, and they carry it in boats down to Cairo. Above, and on the
other side of the cataract, is another large village of the Kennouss,
called Takaki. Some of these miserable wretches, were brought to the
count, and a treaty made, that all these men of the two villages were
to assist him in his re-embarkation, after he had got his barge round
the cataract; and among these barbarians he would have lost his life.

The count, besides his wife, had brought with him his lieutenant, Mr
Norden, a Dane, who was to serve him as draughtsman; but neither the
count, countess, nor lieutenant understood one word of the languages.
There are always (happily for travellers) wise and honest men among
the French and Venetian merchants at Cairo, who, seeing the obstinacy
of the count, persuaded him that it was more military, and more in
the stile of an admiral, to detach Norden, his inferior officer, to
reconnoitre Ibrim, Deir, and the cataract of Jan Adel, as also to renew
his treaty with the Kennouss at Succoot and Asel Dimmo.

Norden accordingly sailed in the common embarkations used upon
the Nile; the voyage is in every body’s hands. It has certainly a
considerable deal of merit, but is full of squabbles and fightings
with boat-men and porters, which might as well have been left out, as
they lead to no instruction, but serve only to discourage travellers,
for they were chiefly owing to ignorance of language. It was with the
utmost difficulty, and after many disasters, that Norden arrived at
Syenè, and the first cataract; after which greater and greater were
encountered before he reached Ibrim, where the Kascheff put him in
prison, robbed him of what he had in the boat, and scarcely suffered
him to return to Cairo without cutting his throat, which, for a
considerable time, he and his soldiers had determined to do.

This sample of the difficulties, or rather impossibility of the voyage
into Abyssinia by Nubia, discouraged the count; and much reason had he
to be thankful that his attempt had not ended among the Kennouss at
Succoot. He therefore changed his plan, and resolved to enter Abyssinia
by a voyage round the Cape into the Indian Ocean, through the Straits
of Babelmandeb into the Red Sea, and so to Masuah. In this voyage he
began to make use of his Spanish commission, and, having taken two
English ships, under protection of a neutral fort in the Isle of May,
he was met there some days after by commodore Barnet, who made all his
ships prizes, and sent the count home passenger in a Portuguese ship to
Lisbon.




CHAP. XIV.

_Description of the Sources of the Nile--Of Geesh--Accounts of its
several Cataracts--Course from its Rise to the Mediterranean._


I hope that what I have now said will be thought sufficient to convince
all impartial readers, that these celebrated sources have, as it
were, by a fatality, remained to our days as unknown as they were to
antiquity, no good or genuine voucher having yet been produced capable
of proving that they were before discovered, or seen by the curious
eye of any traveller, from earliest ages to this day; and it is with
confidence I propose to my reader, that he will consider me as still
standing at these fountains, and patiently hear from me the recital of
the origin, course, names, and circumstances of this the most famous
river in the world, which he will in vain seek from books, or from any
other human authority whatever, and which, by the care and attention I
have paid to the subject, will, I hope, be found satisfactory here:--

    ----_Non fabula mendax
     Ausa loqui de fonte tuo est: ubicunque videris,
     Quœreris; et nulli contingit gloria genti,
     Ut Nilo sit lœta suo, tua flumina prodam,
     Quâ Deus undarum celator, Nile, tuarum_
     Te mihi nôsse dedit._----
                                              LUCAN.

The Agows of Damot pay divine honour to the Nile; they worship the
river, and thousands of cattle have been offered, and still are
offered, to the spirit supposed to reside at its source. They are
divided into clans, or tribes; and it is worthy of observation, that
it is said there never was a feud, or hereditary animosity between any
two of these clans; or, if the seeds of any such were sown, they did
not vegetate longer than till the next general convocation of all the
tribes, who meet annually at the source of the river, to which they
sacrifice, calling it by the name of the _God of Peace_. One of the
least considerable of these clans, for power and number, has still
the preference among its brethren, from the circumstance that, in its
territory, and near the miserable village that gives it name, are
situated the much sought-for springs from which the Nile rises.

Geesh, however, though not farther distant from these than 600 yards,
is not in sight of the sources of the Nile. The country, upon the same
plane with the fountains, terminates in a cliff about 300 yards deep
down to the plain of Assoa, which flat country continues in the same
subaltern degree of elevation, till it meets the Nile again about
seventy miles southward, after it has made the circuit of the provinces
of Gojam and Damot. This cliff seems purposely fashioned into many
shelves or stages, each of which is occupied by a cluster of houses
seldom above eight or ten in number; some above, some below, some along
the side of each other, but chiefly occupying the space, or two-thirds
of the middle of the cliff, that is, none of them nearer to the top of
the cliff, nor to the plain of Assoa below, than a distance equal to
that proportion of the whole. The reason of choosing this situation is
the fear of the Galla, who have often invaded that part of Abyssinia,
and have even exterminated some clans of Agows entirely.

In the middle of this cliff, in a direction straight north towards
the fountains, is a prodigious cave, whether the work of nature or
of art, I cannot determine; in it are many bye-paths, so that it is
very difficult for a stranger to extricate himself; it is a natural
labyrinth, large enough to contain the inhabitants of the village, and
their cattle; there are likewise two or three lesser ones, which I
did not see; in this large one, I tired myself part of several days,
endeavouring to reach as far northward as possible, but the air, when I
had advanced something above one hundred yards, seemed to threaten to
extinguish my candle by its dampness; and the people were besides not
at all disposed to gratify my curiosity farther, after assuring me that
there was nothing at the end more remarkable than I then saw, which I
have reason to believe was the case.

The face of this cliff, which fronts to the south, has a most
picturesque appearance from the plain of Assoa below, parts of the
houses at every stage appearing, through the thickets of trees and
bushes with which the whole face of the cliff is thickly covered;
impenetrable fences of the very worst kind of thorn, hide the
mouths of the caverns above mentioned, even from sight; there is no
other communication with the houses either from above or below, but
by narrow-winding sheep-paths, which through these thorns are very
difficult to be discerned, for all are allowed to be overgrown with
the utmost wildness, as a part of their defence; lofty and large trees
(most of them of the thorny kind) tower high up above the edge of the
cliff, and seem to be a fence against people falling down into the
plain; these are all at their proper season covered with flowers of
different sorts and colours, so are the bushes below on the face of
the cliff: every thorn in Abyssinia indeed bears a beautiful flower; a
small atonement for the evils they occasion.

From the edge of the cliff of Geesh above where the village is
situated, the ground slopes with a very easy descent due north, and
lands you at the edge of a triangular marsh above eighty-six yards
broad, in the line of the fountains, and two hundred and eighty-six
yards two feet from the edge of the cliff above the house of the priest
of the river, where I resided: this triangle, supposing it a right one,
will measure one hundred and ninety-six yards in its length, or in the
perpendicular; I mean it did so on the 6th of November 1770; doubtless,
like other marshes, in the middle of the dry season, and of the
rains, it will vary its dimensions. I suppose that this perpendicular
represents the north of the marsh, and immediately from the brink of
it the ground rises in a rather steep bank, and forms a round hill not
a hundred yards high, upon the top of which is placed the church of
St Michael Geesh; I did not measure this distance, but am sure it is
very little less than five hundred yards from the church to the middle
fountain. On the east the ground descends likewise with a very easy
tho’ perceptible slope from the large village of Sacala, which gives
its name to that territory; it is distant six miles from the source,
but, to sight, seems scarcely to be two.

I shall suppose the sharp point of the triangle composed of the
hypothenuse and the perpendicular, to point like the needle of a
compass to Sacala, and the line of the hypothenuse to represent the
south side of the marsh near the village Geesh. The base, or line,
uniting the west end of the hypothenuse, and forming the right angle
with the other side, I suppose to be the edge of the marsh formed by
the bottom of the mountain of Geesh, and from this west side of it
rises this high and beautiful mountain, quite detached from others,
like a pyramid, which it resembles in its elegant and regular form. It
is about 4870 feet high measured in the slope; for near one half way
the ascent is very easy and gradual. The base being of a remarkable
breadth, it then becomes exceedingly steep, but all the way covered
with good earth, producing fine grass and clover, interspersed with
wild flowers.

Upon the rock in the middle of this plain, the Agows used to pile up
the bones of the beasts killed in sacrifice, mixing them with billets
of wood, after which they set them on fire. This is now discontinued,
or rather transferred to another place near the church, as they are at
present indulged in the full enjoyment of their idolatrous rites, both
under Fasil and Michael.

In the middle of this marsh (that is about forty yards from each side
of it) and something less from the bottom of the mountain of Geesh,
arises a hillock of a circular form, about three feet from the surface
of the marsh itself, though apparently founded much deeper in it. The
diameter of this is something short of twelve feet, it is surrounded by
a shallow trench, which collects the water and voids it eastward; it
is firmly built with sod or earthen turf, brought from the sides, and
constantly kept in repair, and this is the altar upon which all their
religious ceremonies are performed. In the middle of this altar is a
hole, obviously made, or at least enlarged by the hand of man. It is
kept clear of grass, or other aquatic plants, and the water in it is
perfectly pure and limpid, but has no ebullition or motion of any kind
discernible upon its surface. This mouth, or opening of the source,
is some parts of an inch less than three feet diameter, and the water
stood at that time the 5th of November, about two inches from the lip
or brim, nor did it either increase or diminish during all the time of
my stay at Geesh though we made plentiful use of it.

Upon putting down the shaft of my lance at six feet four inches, I
found a very feeble resistance, as if from weak rushes or grass,
and about six inches deeper I found my lance had entered into soft
earth, but met with no stones or gravel; this was confirmed by another
experiment, made on the 9th with a heavy plummet and line besmeared
with soap, the bottom of which brought up at the above depth only black
earth, such as the marsh itself and its sides are composed of.

Ten feet distant from the first of these springs, a little to the west
of south, is the second fountain, about eleven inches in diameter, but
this is eight feet, three inches deep. And about twenty feet distant
from the first, to the S. S. W. is the third source, its mouth being
something more than two feet large, and it is five feet eight inches
deep. Both these last fountains stand in the middle of small altars,
made, like the former, of firm sod, but neither of them above three
feet diameter, and having a foot of less elevation than the first. The
altar in this third source seemed almost dissolved by the water, which
in both flood nearly up to the brim; at the foot of each appeared a
clear and brisk running rill; these uniting joined the water in the
trench of the first altar, and then proceeded directly out, I suppose,
at the point of the triangle, pointing eastward, in a quantity that
would have filled a pipe of about two inches diameter.

The water from these fountains is very light and good, and perfectly
tasteless; it was at this time most intensely cold, though exposed
to the mid-day sun without shelter, there being no trees nor bushes
nearer it than the cliff of Geesh on its south side, and the trees that
surround Saint Michael Geesh on the north, which, according to the
custom of Abyssinia, is, like other churches, planted in the midst of a
grove.

On Monday the 5th of November, the day after my arrival at Geesh, the
weather perfectly clear, cloudless, and nearly calm, in all respects
well adapted to observation, being extremely anxious to ascertain,
beyond the power of controversy, the precise spot on the globe that
this fountain had so long occupied unknown, I pitched my tent on the
north edge of the cliff, immediately above the priest’s house, having
verified the instrument with all the care possible, both at the
zenith and horizon. With a brass quadrant of three feet radius, by one
meridian altitude of the sun’s upper limb, all necessary æquations
and deductions considered, I determined the latitude of the place of
observation to be 10° 59´ 11´´; and by another observation of the
same kind made on the 6th, 10° 59´ 8´´; after which, by a medium of
thirty-three observations of stars, the largest and nearest, the
first vertical, I found the latitude to be 10° 59´ 10´´; a mean of
which being 10° 59´ 9½´´, say 10° 59´ 10´´; and if we should be so
unnecessarily scrupulous as to add 15´´ for the measured distance the
place of the tent was south of the altar, then we shall have 10° 59´
25´´ in round numbers, for the exact latitude of the principal fountain
of the Nile, though the Jesuits have supposed it, 12° N. by a random
guess; but this being nearly the latitude of Gondar, the capital from
which they set out, shews plainly they knew not the precise latitude of
either of these places.

On the 7th of November I was fortunate enough to be in time for the
observation of an immersion of the first satellite of Jupiter, the
last visible here before that planet’s conjunction with the sun. My
situation was very unfavourable, my view of the heavens being every
way interrupted by a thick grove of bamboo canes, with high and shady
trees growing upon the head of the precipice. Jupiter was low, and the
prodigious mass of that beautiful mountain of Geesh, bade fair to hide
him before our business was done; I was therefore obliged to remove my
telescope up to the edge of the cliff, after which, the weather being
perfectly favourable, I had as fair and distinct a view of the planet
as I could desire, and from that observation I did conclude unalterably
the longitude of the chief fountain of the Nile to be 36° 55´ 30´´
east of the meridian of Greenwich.

The night of the 4th, that very night of my arrival, melancholy
reflections upon my present state, the doubtfulness of my return in
safety, were I permitted to make the attempt, and the fears that even
this would be refused, according to the rule observed in Abyssinia with
all travellers who have once entered the kingdom; the consciousness
of the pain that I was then occasioning to many worthy individuals,
expecting daily that information concerning my situation which it was
not in my power to give them; some other thoughts, perhaps, still
nearer the heart than those, crowded upon my mind, and forbade all
approach of sleep.

I was, at that very moment, in possession of what had, for many years,
been the principal object of my ambition and wishes: indifference,
which from the usual infirmity of human nature follows, at least for
a time, complete enjoyment, had taken place of it. The marsh, and the
fountains, upon comparison with the rise of many of our rivers, became
now a trifling object in my sight. I remembered that magnificent scene
in my own native country, where the Tweed, Clyde, and Annan rise in
one hill; three rivers, as I now thought, not inferior to the Nile in
beauty, preferable to it in the cultivation of those countries through
which they flow; superior, vastly superior to it in the virtues and
qualities of the inhabitants, and in the beauty of its flocks; crowding
its pastures in peace, without fear of violence from man or beast. I
had seen the rise of the Rhine and Rhone, and the more magnificent
sources of the Soane; I began, in my sorrow, to treat the inquiry
about the source of the Nile as a violent effort of a distempered
fancy:--

    What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
    That he should weep for her?--

Grief or despondency now rolling upon me like a torrent; relaxed, not
refreshed, by unquiet and imperfect sleep, I started from my bed in the
utmost agony; I went to the door of my tent; every thing was still;
the Nile, at whose head I stood, was not capable either to promote or
to interrupt my slumbers, but the coolness and serenity of the night
braced my nerves, and chased away those phantoms that, while in bed,
had oppressed and tormented me.

It was true, that numerous dangers, hardships, and sorrows had beset
me through this half of my excursion; but it was still as true,
that another Guide, more powerful than my own courage, health, or
understanding, if any of these can be called man’s own, had uniformly
protected me in all that tedious half; I found my confidence not
abated, that still the same Guide was able to conduct me to my now
wished-for home: I immediately resumed my former fortitude, considered
the Nile indeed as no more than rising from springs, as all other
rivers do, but widely different in this, that it was the palm for three
thousand years held out to all the nations in the world as a _detur
dignissimo_, which, in my cool hours, I had thought was worth the
attempting at the risk of my life, which I had long either resolved
to lose, or lay this discovery, a trophy in which I could have no
competitor, for the honour of my country, at the feet of my sovereign,
whose servant I was.

I had procured from the English ships, while at Jidda, some
quick-silver, perfectly pure, and heavier than the common sort;
warming therefore the tube gently at the fire, I filled it with
this quick-silver, and, to my great surprise, found that it stood
at the height of 22 English inches: suspecting that some air might
have insinuated itself into the tube, I laid it by in a warm part of
the tent, covered till morning, and returning to bed, slept there
profoundly till six, when, satisfied the whole was in perfect order, I
found it to stand at 22 English inches; neither did it vary sensibly
from that height any of the following days I staid at Geesh and thence
I inferred, that, at the sources of the Nile, I was then more than two
miles above the level of the sea; a prodigious height, to enjoy a sky
perpetually clear, as also a hot sun never over-cast for a moment with
clouds from rising to setting.

On the 6th of November, at a quarter past five in the morning,
Fahrenheit’s thermometer stood at 44°, at noon 96°, and at sun-set 46°.
It was, as to sense, cold at night, and still more so an hour before
sun-rise.

The Nile, keeping nearly in the middle of the marsh, runs east for
thirty yards, with a very little increase of stream, but perfectly
visible, till met by the grassy brink of the land declining from
Sacala. This turns it round gradually to the N. E. and then due north;
and, in the two miles it flows in that direction, the river receives
many small contributions from springs that rise in the banks on each
side of it: there are two, particularly one on the hill at the back of
St Michael Geesh, the other a little lower than it on the other side,
on the ground declining from Sacala, These last-mentioned springs
are more than double its quantity; and being arrived under the hill
whereon stands the church of Saint Michael Sacala, about two miles from
its source, it there becomes a stream that would turn a common mill,
shallow, clear, and running over a rocky bottom about three yards wide:
this must be understood to be variable according to the season; and the
present observations are applicable to the 5th of November, when the
rains had ceased for several weeks. There is the ford which we passed
going to Geesh, and we crossed it the day of our arrival, in the time
of my conversation with Woldo about the sash.

Nothing can be more beautiful than this spot; the small rising hills
about us were all thick-covered with verdure, especially with clover,
the largest and finest I ever saw; the tops of the heights crowned with
trees of a prodigious size; the stream, at the banks of which we were
sitting, was limpid and pure as the finest crystal; the ford, covered
thick with a bushy kind of tree that seemed to affect to grow to no
height, but thick with foliage and young blanches, rather to court
the surface of the water, whilst it bore, in prodigious quantities, a
beautiful yellow flower, not unlike a single wild rose of that colour,
but without thorns; and, indeed, upon examination, we found that it was
not a species of the rose, but of hypericum.

From the source to this beautiful ford, below the church of St Michael
Geesh, I enjoyed my second victory over this coy river, after the first
obtained at the fountains themselves. What might still be said of the
world in general no longer applied to me:--

    ----_Nec contigit ulli
     Hoc vidisse caput;_

And again,

    _Nec licuit populis parvum te, Nile, videre._

Here, at the ford, after having stepped over it fifty times, I observed
it no larger than a common mill stream. The Nile, from this ford, turns
to the westward, and, after running over loose stones occasionally,
in that direction, about four miles farther, the angle of inclination
increasing greatly, broken water, and a fall commences of about six
feet, and thus it gets rid of the mountainous place of its nativity,
and issues into the plain of Goutto, where is its first cataract; for,
as I have said before, I don’t account the broken water, or little
falls, cataracts, which are not at all visible in the height of the
rains.

Arrived in the plain of Goutto, the river seems to have lost all its
violence, and scarcely is seen to flow, but, at the same time, it there
makes so many sharp, unnatural windings, that it differs from any
other river I ever saw, making above twenty sharp angular peninsulas
in the course of five miles, through a bare, marshy plain of clay,
quite destitute of trees, and exceedingly inconvenient and unpleasant
to travel. After passing this plain, it turns due north, receives the
tribute of many small streams, the Gometti, the Googueri, and the
Kebezza, which descend from the mountains of Aformasha; and, united,
fall into the Nile about twenty miles below its source; it begins here
to run rapidly, and again receives a number of beautiful rivulets,
which have their rise in the heights of Litchambara, the semi-circular
range of mountains that pass behind, and seem to inclose Aformasha:
These are the Caccino, the Carnachiuli, the Googueri, the Iworra, the
Jeddeli, and the Minch, all which, running into the Davola, join the
Nile something less than a mile west of the church of Abbo.

It is now become a considerable stream; its banks high and broken,
covered with old timber trees for the space of about three miles; it
inclines to the north-east, and winds exceedingly, and is then joined
by the small river Diwa from the east. It then makes a semi-circle, and
receives Dee-ohha, turns sharply to the east, and falls down its second
cataract at Kerr. About three miles below this cataract, the large,
pleasant, and limpid Jemma pays its tribute to the Nile. Though its
course is now mostly north, through Maitsha on the east, and Aroossi
and Sankraber on the west, it still is inclining toward the lake Tzana,
and, after receiving the rivers Boha and Amlac Ohha, small streams
from the west, and the Assar, Aroossi, and Kelti, large rivers from
the east, it crosses the south end of the lake Tzana for about seven
leagues, preserving the colour of its stream distinct from that of
the lake, till it issues out at the west side of it in the territory
of Dara, where there is a ford, though very deep and dangerous,
immediately where it first resumes the appearance of a river.

The deep stream is here exceedingly rapid; the banks in the course of
a few miles become very high, and are covered with a verdure, abundant
and varied beyond all description: passing afterwards below Dara, it
bounds that narrow stripe of flat country which is called Foggora,
confined between the lake and the mountains of Begemder, till it
arrives at its third cataract of Alata, a small village of Mahometans,
on the east side of the river, and there exhibits a scene that requires
more fancy, and the description of a more poetical pen than mine,
although the impression the sight of it made upon me will certainly
never be removed but with life.

The course of the river is now S. E.; in that direction it washes
the western part of Begemder and Amhara on the right; the river then
incloses the province of Gojam, so that, in the circle that it makes in
returning towards its source, that province remains always on the right.

From both sides, the Nile receives a number of tributary streams,
the Muga, Gammala, Abea, Aswari, and Mashillo, from the mountains of
Gojam; and the Bashilo, Boha, and Geeshem from those of Begemder and
Amhara; it then passes below Walaka. The river now has a course near
the southward, passes Upper and Lower Shoa. From these countries, on
the east of the Nile, come the great rivers Samba, Jemma, Roma, with
some others, and the Temsi, Gult, and Tzul from the high country of
the Agows, and Amid Amid to the northward. From Shoa the Nile winds
to the S. W. to the W. N. W. nearly inclosing all the south of Gojam.
Immediately adjoining to it, turning still more northerly, is the
province of Bizamo, bordering on the river Yabous, which, coming from
the southward, and terminating this province, falls into the Nile.

The Nile, now turned almost due north, approaches its source so as
to be distant from it only about 62 miles; it is here very deep and
rapid, and is only fordable at certain seasons of the year. The Galla,
however, when they invade Abyssinia, cross it at all times without
difficulty, either by swimming, or on goats skins blown up like
bladders: other means of passing are in small rafts, placed upon two
skins filled with wind; or, twisting their hands round the horse’s
tail, they are drawn over by them; this last is the way that the women,
who follow the armies of Abyssinia, cross unfordable rivers, a case
that always occurs in late campaigns. Crocodiles abound exceedingly in
this part of the Nile; but the people, who live on the banks of the
river, have or pretend to have charms which defend them from the most
voracious of these animals.

Adjoining to the Gongas, and bounding them on the north, arises a vast
chain of very high mountains; the south side of this is inhabited
by tribes of Gongas and others, but on the north-east side, nearest
Abyssinia, is a nation of perfect blacks, called Guba. The Nile seems
to have forced its way through a gap in this prodigious barrier, and
falls down a cataract of about 280 feet. This is immediately followed
by two others in the same ridge of mountains, both very considerable,
if not compared with the first. This high ridge runs west far into the
continent of Africa, where it is called Dyre and Tegla; the east end
(that is east of the Nile) joins the mountainous country of Kuara, and
is there called the Mountains of Pazuclo. These mountains, as far as I
could learn, are all very fully inhabited throughout by many powerful
clans, or nations, mostly Pagans. It is, however, a country the least
known of any in Africa, but a very large quantity of gold is brought
from thence, as well as many slaves; the gold is washed down by the
torrents in the time of the tropical rains, and, upon these ceasing,
they search after that metal found in small pellets entangled among
roots, branches, tufts of grass, hollows, or in any thing that can
imprison and detain it. This is the fine gold of Sennaar, called Tibbar.

The Nile now runs close by Sennaar, in a direction nearly north and
south; it then turns sharply toward the east, is brim-full and vastly
pleasant in the fair season, being indeed the only ornament of this
bare and flat, though cultivated country. From Sennaar it passes many
large towns inhabited by Arabs, all of them white people. The Nile then
passes Gerri, and runs N. E. to join the Tacazzè, passing in its way a
large and populous town called Chendi, probably the ancient metropolis
of _Candace_[130].

If we are not to reject entirely the authority of ancient history, the
island of Meroë, so famous in the first ages, must be found somewhere
between the source of the Nile and this point, where the two rivers
unite; for of the Nile we are certain, and it seems very clear that
the Atbara is the Astaboras of the ancients. Pliny[131] says, it is
the stream which incloses the left side of Meroë as the Nile does
the right; and we must consider him to be looking southward from
Alexandria, when he uses the otherwise equivocal terms of right and
left, and, after this junction of these two rivers, the Nile receives
or unites itself with no other till it falls into the sea at Alexandria.

Much inquiry has been made about this island, once a most distinguished
spot on our globe, the cradle of science and philosophy, which
spread itself from this to enlighten other nations, we are now full
of uncertainty, searching in a desert for the place of its existence;
such is the miserable instability of all human excellence. Nothing but
confusion has followed this inquiry, because they who were engaged in
it rather substituted vain systematical prejudices of their own, than
set themselves to consider those lights which were immediately before
them.

The Jesuits, and a French writer, who is a constant champion of
their errors, have fixed the peninsula of Gojam to be the Meroë of
the ancients. M. le Grande (the compiler alluded to) having in vain
endeavoured to answer the objections against Gojam being Meroë, at last
declares, in a kind of literary passion, that the ancients have spoken
so differently about Meroë, that Gojam is as likely to be the place as
any other.

I have a proper esteem for the merit of M. le Grande, where he
forms his conjectures from his own opinion, and I have also a due
deference to that learned Order the Jesuits; it is to their labours,
that learning in general, and geography in particular, has been more
indebted than to those of any other set of men whatever. Yet still I
can never believe, either that Gojam is Meroë, or that there is any
difficulty in finding its true situation, or that the ancients have
written confusedly about it. On the contrary, I find it described
by its latitude, its distance from places known, the produce of its
soil, colour of its inhabitants, and several other circumstances which
peculiarly belong to it, with greater accuracy and precision than many
other disputed situations.

I shall begin by giving my reasons why Gojam is not Meroë: and, first,
Diodorus[132] tells us, this island had its name from a sister of
Cambyses, king of Persia, who died there in the expedition that prince
had undertaken against Ethiopia. Now, Cambyses’s army perished in
the desert immediately to the southward, after he had passed Meroë,
consequently he never was in Gojam, nor within 200 miles of it; his
mother, therefore, could not have died there, nor would his army have
perished with hunger if he had arrived in Gojam, or near it, for he
would then have been in one of the most plentiful countries in the
world.

The next reason to prove that Gojam is not Meroë, is, that that
island was inclosed between the Astaboras and the Nile, but Gojam is
surrounded entirely by the Nile; there is no other river than it that
can, or ever did, pass for the Astaboras, whose situation was distant,
and which, retaining its ancient name, cannot be mistaken, for it is at
this day called Atbara. Again, as the ancients knew Meroë, if Gojam had
been Meroë, they must have known the fountains of the Nile; and this we
are sure they did not.

On the other hand, Pliny says, Meroë, the most considerable of all
the islands of the Nile, is called Astaboras, from the name of its
left channel--“_Circa clarissimam earum Meroën, Astabores lævo
alveo dictus_;[133]” which, cannot describe any other place than
the confluence of those two rivers, the Nile and Atbara. The same
author says farther, that the sun is vertical twice a year, once when
proceeding northward he enters into the 18th degree, Taurus, and after
returning southward into the 14th degree of the Lion.----Lucan says the
same:--

    ----_Latè tibi gurgite rupto
     Ambitur nigris Meroë fæcunda colonis,
     Læta comis hebeni; quæ quamvis arbore multâ
     Frondeat, æstatem nullâ sibi mitigat umbrâ:
     Linea tam rectum mundi ferit illa Leonem._

Now Gojam, being in lat. 10°, could never answer this description.

But there are in these lines two circumstances which are peculiar to
the peninsula of Atbara, or Meroë, and described as such by the poet.
The first is, the inhabitants of Meroë were black, such were the
Gymnosophists, the first philosophers and inhabitants of this island,
and such they have ever been down to the Saracen conquest. On the other
hand, nobody will pretend to say that the people of Gojam are black;
they are long-haired, and of as fair a complexion as other Abyssinians;
nor was it ever supposed that they had philosophers or science among
them before the Jesuits arrived in the country.

The next circumstance, peculiar to Meroë, is, that the ebony-tree
grew there, which is spread all over the peninsula of Atbara, and out
of it this tree is not found, (as far as I know) unless a few trees
in the province of Kuara, in the low and northernmost part of it; a
country, for its intolerable heat, not inferior to that of Atbara, and
contiguous to it; but in Gojam, a country deluged with six months
rain, this tree would not grow; though so much farther south it is near
two English miles higher than Atbara, and is therefore too cold. Such
are my reasons for believing that Gojam cannot be Meroë. In my return
through the desert I shall confirm this, by proving that Atbara is
Meroë, and that we are to look for it about lat. 16° 29´, near the end
of the tropical rains.

The Nile, now united with the Astaboras, takes its course straight
north for more than two degrees of the meridian; it then makes a
very unexpected turn W. by S. considerably more than that space in
longitude, winding very little till it arrives at Korti, the first town
in the Barabra, or kingdom of Dongola. The river by this time, with
three sides, inclosed the great deserts of Bahiouda the road through
this from Dereira to Korti (before it was cut off by the Arabs, as it
now continues to be) made the fourth side of the square which bound
this desert; by this route it was that Poncet and the unfortunate M. du
Roule went to Abyssinia.

From Korti the Nile runs almost S. W. where it passes Dongola, a
country of the Shepherds, called also Beja, the capital of Barabra,
and comes to Moscho, a considerable town, and welcome place of
refreshment to the weary traveller, when the caravans were suffered
to pass from Egypt into Ethiopia, who, after traversing the dreary
desert of Selima for near 500 miles, found himself at Moscho, in
repose, in the enjoyment of plenty of fresh water, long ago become to
him an indulgence more delicious than ever he had before conceived.
From Moscho the Nile turns gradually to the N. E. and in lat. 22°
15´ it meets with a chain of mountains, and throws itself over them
down a cataract called Jan Adel, which is its seventh cataract; and,
continuing still N. E. it passes Ibrim and Deir, two small garrisons
belonging to Egypt. The fall of the Nile in the country of Kennouss,
which forms the 8th cataract, and its course through Egypt, are already
described in my voyage up the river.




CHAP. XVI

_Various Names of this River--Ancient Opinion concerning the Cause
of its Inundation--Real Manner by_ which it is effected--Remarkable
Disposition of the Peninsula of Africa.


It is not to be wondered, that, in the long course the Nile makes from
its source to the sea, it should have acquired a different name in
every territory, where a different language was spoken; but there is
one thing remarkable, that though the name in sound and in letters is
really different, yet the signification is the same, and has an obvious
reference to the dog-star.

Among the Agow, a barbarous and idolatrous nation, it is called Gzeir,
Geesa[134], Seir; the first of these names signifying _God_; it is
also called Abba, or Ab, _Father_; and by many other terms which I
cannot write in the language of that nation, whilst, with a fervent
and unfeigned devotion, under these, or such-like appellations, they
pray to the Nile, or spirit residing in that river. The next name
it receives is when descended into Gojam, where it is called Abay.
Foreigners, of all denominations, not acquainted with the language of
the country, have, from hearing it was stiled Ab, _Father_, by the
Agows, or Abai, imagined its name Abawi, a case of that noun, which, in
their ignorance, they have made to signify, the Father.

Ludolf, the only one in the age he lived that had any real knowledge
of either the Geez or Amharic, was the first to perceive this: he
found in neither of these languages Abawi could be a nominative, and
consequently could not be applied to any thing; and next he as truly
found it could not be of the singular number, and, if so, could not
signify one river. He stopped, however, as it were, in the very brink
of discovery, for he knew there was no writing or letters in Amharic,
which were therefore necessarily borrowed from the old and written
language Geez, so that all that could be done was, first, attentively
to hear the pronunciation of the word in Amharic, and then to write
it in Geez characters as nearly conformable to the sound as possible.
Now, the name of the river in Amharic is Abay, pronouncing the y open,
or like two (i), and the sense of that word so wrote in Geez, as
well as Amharic, is, “the river that suddenly swells, or overflows,
periodically with rain;” than which a more apposite name could never
have been invented.

By the Gongas, on the south of the mountains Dyre and Tegla, who
are indigenæ, the river is called Dahli, and, on the north of these
mountains, where the great cataracts are by the Guba, Nuba, and
Shangalla, it is stiled Kowass, both which names signify a _watching
dog_, the latrator anubis, or, the _dog-star_. In the plain country,
between Fazuclo and Sennaar, it is called Nil, which signifies _blue_;
and the Arabs interpret it by the word Azergue, which it keeps as far
as Halfaia, or near it, where it joins the White River.

The next name by which the Nile went was Siris: Pliny tells us it was
called Siris both before and after it came into Beja. “_Nec ante Nilus,
quam se totum aquis concordibus rursus junxit. Sic quoque etiamnum
Siris, ut ante nominatus per aliquot millia, et in totum Homero
Egyptus, aliisque Triton_[135].” This name the Greeks thought was given
to it, because of its black colour during the inundation, which mistake
presently produced confusion; and we find, according to this idea, the
compiler of the Old Testament, (I should suppose Esdras, after the
captivity) has translated Siris, _the black river_, by the Hebrew,
Shihor; but nobody ever saw the Nile black when it overflowed; and
it would be a very strong figure to call it so in Egypt, where it is
always white during the whole of the inundation. Had Esdras, or whoever
it was that followed the Greek interpretation of Siris, viz. _black_,
inquired in Beja what was the origin of this name, they would have
there learned it imported the River of the Dog-star, on whose vertical
appearance this Nile, or Siris, overflows; and this idolatrous worship,
paid to the Nile, was probably part of the reason of the question the
prophet Jeremiah asks[136], “And what hast thou to do in Egypt, to
drink the water of Seir? or the water profaned by idolatrous rites?”

As for the first, it is only the translation of the word Bahar, applied
to the Nile. The inhabitants of the Barabra, to this day, call it Bahar
el Nil, or, _the Sea of the Nile_, in contradistinction to the Red Sea,
which they know by no other name but Bahar el Melech, the _Salt Sea_.
The junction of the three great rivers; the Nile, flowing on the west
of Meroë; the Tacazzé, which washes the east side, and joins the Nile
at Maggiran, in lat. 17°; and the Mareb, which falls into this last,
something above this junction--gives the name of Triton to the Nile.

More doubt has been raised as to the third name, Ægyptus, which it
obtains in Homer, and which, I apprehend, was a very ancient name given
it even in Ethiopia. The generality, nay, all interpreters, I may say,
imagine, as in that of Siris, that this name was given it in relation
to its colour, viz. _black_; but with this I cannot agree; Egypt, in
the Ethiopic, is called _y Gipt_, Agar; and, an inhabitant of the
country, _Gypt_, for precisely so it is pronounced, which means the
country of ditches, or canals, drawn from the Nile on both sides at
right angles with the river; nothing, surely is more obvious than to
write y Gipt, so pronouncing Egypt, and, with its termination, _us_,
or _os_, Egyptus. The Nile is also called _Kronides_, Jupiter; as
also several other names; but these are rather the epithets of poets,
relative and transitory, not the permanent appellation of the river.

I would pass over another name, that of Geon, which some of the fathers
of the church have fondly given it, pretending it was one of the rivers
that came from the terrestrial paradise, and encompassed the whole land
of Cush, whilst, for this purpose, they bring it two thousand miles by
a series of miracles, as it were, under the earth and under the sea: To
do what? to surround the whole land of Cush. And does it surround it,
or does it surround any land whatever? This, and some similar wonders
told by St Augustine, have been eagerly catched at, and quoted by
unbelieving sceptics; meaning to insinuate, that no better, in other
respects, was the authority of these fathers when they explain and
defend the truths of Christianity. For my own part, though perfectly
a friend to free and temperate inquiry, these injudicious arguments
which I need not quote, have little weight with me. St Augustine, when
explaining those truths, was undoubtedly under the direction of that
spirit which could not lie, and was promised to the priesthood while
occupied in their master’s commission the propagation of Christian
knowledge; but when, from vanity and human frailty, he attempted to
establish things he had nothing to do with, speaking no longer by
commandment, he reasoned like a mere man, misled by vanity and too
great confidence in his own understanding.

We come now to investigate the reason of the inundation of the Nile,
which, being once explained, I cannot help thinking that all further
inquiries concerning this subject are superfluous.

It is an observation that holds good through all the works of
Providence, That although God, in the beginning, gave an instance of
his almighty power, by creating the world with one single _fiat_, yet,
in the laws he has laid down for the maintaining order and regularity
in the details of his creation, he has invariably produced all these
effects by the least degree of power possible, and by those means that
seem most obvious to human conception. But it seemed, however, not
according to the tenor of his ways and wisdom, to create a country
like Egypt, without springs, or even dews, and subject it to a nearly
vertical sun, that he might save it by so extraordinary an intervention
as was the annual inundation, and make it the most fertile spot of the
universe.

This violent effort seemed to be too great, above all proportion,
for the end for which it was intended, and the cause was therefore
thought to merit the application of the sublimest philosophy; and
accordingly, as Diodorus Siculus[137] tells us, it became the study of
the most learned men of the first ages, the principal of whom, with
their opinions, he quotes, and at the same time alledges the reason why
they were not universally received. The first is Thales of Miletum,
one of the seven sages, who assigns for the cause the Etesian winds,
which blowing, all the hot season, from the Mediterranean, in contrary
direction to the stream of the river, force the Nile to accumulate,
by obstructing its flowing to the sea, occasion it to rise above its
banks, and consequently to overflow the country.

But to this it was answered, That, were this the cause, all rivers
running in a northern direction, to the sea, would be subject to
the same accident; and this it was known they were not. And we may
further add, that were this really the cause, the inundation of the
Nile would be very irregular; for the winds at this season often blow
from the south-west for two or three days together, and then the
inundation would be interrupted. To this it must be added, that a very
considerable part of Egypt, and that the most fertile, the Delta, is
under the dominion of variable winds, which last long, from one point,
at no time.

I shall trespass upon my reader’s patience, on this head, by no more
than one additional observation. If the Etesian winds, by opposing the
stream, occasioned the inundation, they could effect this no longer
than they continued to blow. Now, it was an observation we made when
on the Nile, and it was almost without exception, that as often as
the Etesian winds blew throughout the day, the night was either calm,
or the wind blew gently from the south or east, so that it is morally
impossible the river could have overflowed at all, without a much more
powerful and constant agent than the Etesian winds:--

    ----_Zephyros quoque vana vetustas
    His adscripsit aquis_,----
                                LUCAN.

Vain, indeed! A philosopher of the present age would be thought mad
who should rely on a system so contrary to experiment and observation;
though Thales, the propagator of this now mentioned, was so highly
esteemed for his knowledge.

The next opinion quoted is that of Anaxagoras, who attributes the
inundation of the Nile to snow melting in Ethiopia; and this Diodorus
contradicts, for a very substantial reason, that there is no snow in
Ethiopia to melt. But supposing all the mountainous part of Ethiopia
north of the Line, that is all Abyssinia, were covered with snow,
then the inundation must happen in other months, as it must begin in
January, for the sun being then within few degrees of being vertical,
it must have been the very height of flood when the sun passed over
that country in April; whereas its increase is not discerned till about
June, when the sun has left the zenith of all Abyssinia, having then
passed over Nubia, and is standing vertical to Syene, or as far to the
northward as it can proceed.

It is not my meaning to maintain that there never was snow in
Abyssinia, as climates have wonderfully changed. In Cæsar’s time,
the greatest rivers in the Gaul almost every year were frozen over
for months, so that armed nations, with their families, cattle, and
incumbrances, passed regularly over them upon the ice without fear; an
event that happens not now once in a century. In Prussia[138] also were
found white bears, an animal now confined to the severest snowy regions
of the north; and, what comes still nearer to the present subject, in
the inscription found in Abyssinia by Cosmas Indoplaustes, Ptolomæus
Evergetes, speaking there, in the first person, of his own conquests
in Ethiopia, says, that he had passed the river Siris, and had entered
the kingdom of Samen, a country intolerable on account of cold and deep
snow.

This account I think almost incredible. Ptolemy parted from Egypt, his
fleet coasting along the Red Sea, opposite to his army, and carrying
provisions for it; we know, moreover, the time his ships sailed, the
beginning of June, when the Nile was overflowed, and consequently of
great utility to his army on the first part of his expedition, while
he was in Egypt and part of Nubia. Now supposing him to pass the
desert as quickly as possible, and come to Axum, it must have been then
Summer, or near it; and as it was necessary his fleet should return by
the monsoon in October, so it must have then rained continually, and
the sun been perpendicular to the country when he found the deep snows
in Samen, which is not very probable. The river Tacazzé, moreover,
which Ptolemy crossed, was really not passable at that time, and no
Abyssinian army did ever attempt it during a flood, though, without,
scruple at all seasons they cross the Nile when most deep and rapid.

I remember that when I first ascended Lamalmon, the highest mountain of
that ridge, running the whole length of the province of Samen, it was
in the depth of winter; the thermometer stood at 32°, wind N. W. clear
and cold, but attended with only hoar frost, though at that height, and
at that season; the grass scarcely was discoloured, and only felt crisp
below my feet, with this small degree of freezing; but this vanished
into dew after a quarter of an hour’s sun, nor did I ever see any sign
of congelation upon the water, however shaded and stagnant, upon the
top of that, or any other hill. I have seen hail indeed lie for three
hours in the forenoon upon the mountains of Amid Amid.

The opinion of Democritus was, that the overflowing of the Nile was
owing to the sun’s attraction of snowy vapour from the frozen mountains
of the north, which being carried by the wind southward, and thawed by
warmer climates, fell down upon Ethiopia in deluges of rain: and the
same is advanced by Agatharcides of Cnidus in his Periplus of the Red
Sea. This opinion of Democritus, Diodorus attempts to refute, but we
shall not join him in his refutation, because we are now perfectly
certain, from observation, that Democritus and Agatharcides both of
them had fallen upon the true causes of the inundation.

I shall now mention a treatise of a modern philosopher, wrote expressly
upon this subject, I mean a discourse on the causes of the inundation
of the Nile, by M. de la Chambre, printed at Paris in quarto, 1665,
where, in a long dedication, he modestly assures the king, he is
persuaded that his majesty will consider, as one of the glories of his
reign, the discovery of the true cause of the Nile’s inundation, which
he had then made, after it had baffled the inquiry of all philosophers
for the space of 2000 years; and, indeed, the cause and the discovery
would have been both very remarkable, had they been attended with the
least degree of possibility. M. de la Chambre says, that the nitre
with which the ground in Egypt is impregnated, ferments like a kind of
paste, occasioning the Nile to ferment likewise, and thus increases the
mass of water so much, that it spreads over the whole land of Egypt.

Far be it from me to bear hard upon those attempts with which the
ancients endeavoured to solve those phænomena, when, for want of a
sufficient progress in experimental philosophy and observation, they
were generally destitute of the proper means; but there is no excuse
for a man’s either believing or writing, that earth, impregnated with
so small a quantity of any mixture as not to be discernible to the
eye, smell, or taste, could periodically swell the waters of a river,
then almost dry, to such an immensity, as to cover the whole plains
of Egypt, and discharge millions of tons every day into the sea, at
the same time that it contributed to the health of the people and the
fertility of the land. It puts me in mind of an assertion of M. de
Maillet, almost as absurd as de la Chambre’s treatise, that the Nile,
which in Egypt is the only fountain of pleasure, of health, and plenty,
has a mixture of one tenth of mud during the time of the inundation:
pleasant and wholesome stream, truly, to which Fleetditch would be
Hippocrene.

But whatever were the conjectures of the dreamers of antiquity, modern
travellers and philosophers, describing without system or prejudice
what their eyes saw have found that the inundation of Egypt has been
effected by natural means, perfectly consonant with the ordinary rules
of Providence, and the laws given for the government of the rest of the
universe. They have found that the plentiful fall of the tropical rains
produced every year at the same time, by the action of a violent sun,
has been uniformly, without miracle, the cause of Egypt being regularly
overflowed.

The sun being nearly stationary for some days in the tropic of
Capricorn, the air there becomes so much rarified, that the heavier
winds, charged with watery particles, rush in upon it from the Atlantic
on the west, and from the Indian Ocean on the east. The south wind,
moreover, loaded with heavy vapour, condensed in that high ridge
of mountains not far south of the Line, which forms a spine to the
peninsula of Africa, and, running northward with the other two, furnish
wherewithal to restore the equilibrium.

The sun, having thus gathered such a quantity of vapours as it were
to a focus, now puts them in motion, and drawing them after it in
its rapid progress northward, on the 7th of January, for two years
together, seemed to have extended its power to the atmosphere of
Gondar, when, for the first time, there appeared in the sky white,
dappled, thin clouds, the sun being then distant 34° from the zenith,
without any one cloudy or dark speck having been seen for several
months before. Advancing to the Line with increased velocity, and
describing larger spirals, the sun brings on a few drops of rain at
Gondar the 1st of March, being then distant 5° from the zenith; these
are greedily absorbed by the thirsty soil, and this seems to be the
farthest extent of the sun’s influence, capable of causing rain, which
then only falls in large drops, and lasts but a few minutes: the rainy
season, however, begins most seriously upon its arrival at the zenith
of every place, and these rains continue constant and increasing after
he has passed it, in his progress northward. Before this, green boughs
and leaves appear floating in the Bahar el Abiad, and shew that, in the
latitude where it rises, the rains are already abundant. The Galla,
who inhabit, or have passed that river, give account of its situation,
which lies, as far as I could ever calculate, about 5° from the Line.

In April, all the rivers in Amhara, Begemder, and Lasta, first
discoloured, and then beginning to swell, join the Nile in the several
parts of its course nearest them; the river then, from the height of
its angle of inclination, forces itself through the stagnant lake
without mixing with it. In the beginning of May, hundreds of streams
pour themselves from Gojam, Damot, Maitsha, and Dembea, into the lake
Tzana, which had become low by intense evaporation, but now begins to
fill insensibly, and contributes a large quantity of water to the Nile,
before it falls down the cataract of Alata. In the beginning of June,
the sun having now passed all Abyssinia, the rivers there are all full,
and then is the time of the greatest rains in Abyssinia, while it is
for some days, as it were, stationary in the tropic of Cancer.

These rains are collected by the four great rivers in Abyssinia; the
Mareb, the Bowiha, Tacazzé, and the Nile. All these principal, and
their tributary streams, would, however, be absorbed, nor be able to
pass the burning deserts, or find their way into Egypt, were it not for
the White River, which, rising in a country of almost perpetual rain,
joins to it a never-failing stream, equal to the Nile itself.

In the first days of May, the sun, in his way to the northern tropic,
is vertical over the small village of Gerri, the limit of the tropical
rains. Not all the influence of the sun, which has already past its
zenith, and for many days has been as it were stationary within a few
degrees of it over Syene, in the tropic of Cancer, can bring them
one inch farther to the northward, neither do any dews fall there as
might be reasonably expected from the quantity of fresh and exhalable
water that is then running in the Nile, though it passes close by that
village, and after, through that wild and dreary desert. The fact is
certain, and surely curious; the cause perhaps unknown, although it may
be guessed at.

I conceive, that mountains are necessary to occasion either rain or
dew, by arresting and stopping the great quantity of vapour which is
here driven southward before the Etesian winds. Now, all that country
between Gerri and Syene is flat and desert, so that this interruption
is wanting; and it is owing to the same cause, that the bounds of the
tropical rains do stop farther to the southward as you travel westward,
and in place of lat. 16°, which is their limits at Gerri, they are
confined within lat. 14° in that part of the kingdom of Sennaar which
lies south and west of that capital, where all is free from mountains
till you come to those of Kuara and Fazuclo.

Yet although the sun’s influence when at its greatest, is not strong
enough to draw the boundaries of the summer’s rain farther north than
Gerri, all the time that it is in the tropic of Cancer at its greatest
distance, these rains are then at their heaviest throughout all
Abyssinia; and Egypt, and all its labours, would soon be swept into the
Mediterranean did not the sun now begin to change its sphere of action
by hastening its progress southward.

From Syene the sun passes over the desert, and arrives at Gerri;
here he reverses the effects his influence had when on his passage
northward; for whereas, in his whole course of declination northward,
from the Line to Gerri, he brought on the rains at every place where he
became vertical, so now he cuts off those rains the instant he returns
to the zenith of each of those places passing over Abyssinia in his
journey southward, till arrived at the Line, in the autumnal equinox,
his influence ceases on the side of Abyssinia, and goes to extend
itself to the southern hemisphere. And so precisely is this stupendous
operation calculated, that, on the 25th of September, only three days
after the equinox, the Nile is generally found at Cairo to be at its
highest, and begins to diminish every day after.

Thus far as to the cause and progress of the Nile’s inundation in our
northern hemisphere; but so much light and confirmation is to be drawn
from our consideration of the remainder of the sun’s journey southward,
that I am persuaded my following him thither will require no apology to
my philosophic or inquisitive reader.

Immediately after the sun has passed the Line he begins the rainy
season to the southward, still as he approaches the zenith of each
place; but the situation and necessities of this country being varied,
the manner of promoting the inundation is changed. A high chain of
mountains run from about 6° south all along the middle of the continent
towards the Cape of Good Hope, and intersects the southern part of
the peninsula nearly in the same manner that the river Nile does the
northern. A strong wind from the south, stopping the progress of the
condensed vapours, dashes them against the cold summits of this ridge
of mountains, and forms many rivers which escape in the direction
either east or west, as the level presents itself. If this is towards
the west, they fall down the sides of the mountains into the Atlantic,
and if on the east, into the Indian Ocean. Now all these would be
useless to man, were the Etesian winds to reign, as one would think
must be the case, analogous to what passes in Egypt; nay, if any
one wind prevailed, these rivers, swelled with rains, would not be
navigable, but another wise and providential disposition has remedied
this.

The clouds, drawn by the violent action of the sun, are condensed, then
broken, and fall as rain on the top of this high ridge, and swell every
river, while a wind from the ocean on the east blows like a monsoon up
each of these streams in a direction contrary to their current, during
the whole time of the inundation, and this enables boats to ascend into
the western parts of Sofala, and the interior country to the mountains,
where lies the gold. The same effect, from the same cause, is produced
on the western side towards the Atlantic; the high ridge of mountains
being placed between the different countries west and east, is at once
the source of their riches, and of those rivers which conduct to the
treasures which would be otherwise inaccessible in the eastern parts of
the kingdoms of Benin, Congo, and Angola.

There are three remarkable appearances attending the inundation of
the Nile; every morning in Abyssinia is clear, and the sun shines.
About nine, a small cloud, not above four feet broad, appears in the
east, whirling violently round as if upon an axis, but, arrived near
the zenith, it first abates its motion, then loses its form, and
extends itself greatly, and seems to call up vapours from all opposite
quarters. These clouds having attained nearly the same height, rush
against each other with great violence, and put me always in mind of
Elisha foretelling rain on Mount Carmel[139]. The air, impelled before
the heaviest mass, or swiftest mover, makes an impression of its own
form in the collection of clouds opposite, and the moment it has taken
possession of the space made to receive it, the most violent thunder
possible to be conceived instantly follows, with rain; after some
hours, the sky again clears, with a wind at north, and it is always
disagreeably cold when the thermometer is below 63°.

The second thing remarkable is the variation of the thermometer; when
the sun is in the southern tropic, 36° distant from the zenith of
Gondar, it is seldom lower than 72°; but it falls to 60° and 59° when
the sun is immediately vertical; so happily does the approach of rain
compensate the heat of a too-scorching sun.

The third is, that remarkable stop in the extent of the rains
northward, when the sun, that has conducted the vapours from the Line,
and should seem, now more than ever, to be in possession of them, is
here over-ruled suddenly, till, on its return to the zenith of Gerri,
again it resumes the absolute command over the rain, and reconducts it
to the Line to furnish distant deluges to the southward.

I cannot omit observing here the particular disposition of this
peninsula of Africa; supposing a meridian line, drawn through the
Cape of Good Hope, till it meets the Mediterranean where it bounds
Egypt, and that this meridian has a portion of latitude that will
comprehend all Abyssinia, Nubia, and Egypt below it, this section of
the continent, from south to north, contains 64° divided equally by the
equator, so that, from the Line to the southmost point of Africa, is
32°; and northward, to the edge of the Mediterranean, is 32° also: now,
if on each side we set off 2°, these are the limits of the variable
winds, and we have then 30° south, and 30° north, within which space,
on both sides, the trade-winds are confined; set off again 16° from
the 32°, that is, half the distance between the Cape of Good Hope
and the Line, and 16° between the Line and the Mediterranean, and
you have the limits of the tropical rains, 16° on each side of the
equator: again, take half of 16°, which is 8°, and add it to the limit
of the tropical rains, that is to 16°, and you have 24°, which is the
situation of the tropics.--There is something very remarkable in this
disposition.




CHAP. XVI.

_Egypt not the Gift of the Nile--Ancient Opinion refuted--Modern
Opinion contrary to Proof and Experience._


It is here we shall discuss a question often agitated, whether Egypt
owed its existence to the Nile, and whether it was formerly an arm of
the sea, but in process of time, being filled up by the quantity of mud
which the Nile deposited in its inundation, it at length became firm
land, above the surface of the waters? I believe this is the general
opinion, as well of the books, as of the greatest part of travellers of
the present age; it therefore merits examination, whether it is founded
in fact and observation, or whether it is to be ranked among the old
and ill supported traditions fancifully now again brought into fashion.

Egypt is a valley bounded on the right and left by very rugged
mountains; it must, therefore, occur to any one that the Nile, being
a torrent falling from very high ground in Ethiopia, were this valley
concave, the violent rapidity, or motion, would be much likelier
to carry away mud and soil, than to leave it behind in a state to
accumulate.

The land of Egypt slopes gently from the middle of the valley to the
foot of the mountains on each side, so that the center is really
the highest part of the valley, and in the middle of this runs the
Nile[140]. At right angles with the stream large trenches are cut
to the foot of the mountains, in which canals the water enters, and
insensibly flows down to the end of these trenches, where it diffuses
itself over the level ground.

As the river swells, these canals fill with water, which goes seeking
a level to the foot of the mountains; so that now the flood, which
begins to restagnate towards the bank of the river, acquires no motion,
as the calishes are formed at right angles to the stream. Sometimes,
indeed, the river is so high, when the rains in Ethiopia are excessive,
that the back-water joins the current of the Nile, when immediately
it communicates its motion to the stagnant water, and sweeps away
every thing that is planted into the sea. It is a mistake then to
assert,--the fuller the Nile, the better for Egypt.

It has been said by various authors, that it was necessary Egypt should
be measured every year, on account of the quantity of mud which the
Nile brought down by its inundation, which so covered the land-marks,
that no proprietor knew or could discover the limits of his own farm,
and that this annual necessity first gave rise to the science of
Geometry[141]. How or when Geometry was first known and practised, is
not my business in this place to inquire, though I think the origin
here given is a very probable one. The land of Egypt was certainly
measured annually: it is as certainly so at this very time; and if so,
the present reason for this is probably the very one which first gave
rise to it; but that this is not owing to the mud of the Nile, will
appear on the slightest consideration; for if Egypt increase a foot
in a hundred years, one year’s increase of soil could be but the one
hundredth part of a foot, which could hide no land-mark whatever; and
we see to this day those in Egypt were huge blocks of granite often
with gigantic heads at the end of them; which the Nile, at the rate
Herodotus fixes, of a foot in 100 years, as being added to the soil,
would not cover in several thousand years.

It is absurd to suppose that the Nile is to bring down an equal
quantity of soil every year from the mountains of Abyssinia; whatever
was the case at first when this river began to flow, we are sure
now, that almost every river and brook in Abyssinia runs in a bed of
hard stone, the earth having been long removed; and the rivers now
cannot furnish from their rocky beds what they first did from their
earthy bottoms, when Egypt was supposed, according to Herodotus, to
have its foundation laid in the floods; and therefore, on the first
consideration, this annual and equal increase must be impossible.

At Basboch, before the Nile enters Sennaar, I made several hundred
trials upon its sediment, as it then came down from the cultivated
country of Abyssinia; I thereby found this sediment surprisingly small,
being a mixture of fat earth, and a small quantity of sand. At the
junction of the Nile and Astaboras I did the same, taking up the water
from the middle of the stream, and, having evaporated it afterwards,
I found little more sediment than at Sennaar; the water was indeed
whiter, and the greatest part of the sediment was sand. I repeated
this experiment at Syené with the utmost attention, where the Nile
leaves Nubia, and enters Egypt, and I found the quantity of sediment
fully nine times increased from what it was at Sennaar, and in it only
a trifle of black earth, all the rest being sand. The experiment at
Rosetto was not so often repeated as the others; but the result was,
that, in the strength of the inundation, the sediment consisted mostly
of sand, and, towards the end, was much the greater part of earth. I
think these experiments conclusive, as neither the Nile coming fresh
from Abyssinia, nor the Atbara, though joined by the Mareb, likewise
from the same country, brought any great quantity of soil from thence.

It was at Syené that the water should have been most charged with
mud, for all the accession it was to bring to Egypt was then in its
stream; but there the chief part of the sediment was sand, fanned and
ventilated with perpetual hot winds, and spread on the surface of the
burning desert, never refreshed with the dew of heaven. In that dreary
desert, between Gooz and Syene, we saw huge pillars of this light
sand; their base in the earth, and heads in the clouds, crossing the
wide expanse in various directions, and, upon its becoming calm in the
evening, falling to pieces, and burying themselves in the Nile, with
whose stream they mixed like an impalpable powder, and were hurried
down the river, to compose the many sandy islands we see in the course
of it.

It seems to be an established fact, that water of every sort, fresh
and salt, that of rivers, and what is stagnant, has from early times
sensibly diminished through the whole world; if then the land of Egypt
has been continually rising every year, while the quantity of water
that was to cover it has become less, or at least not increased, dearth
in these latter years must have been frequent in Egypt, for want of the
Nile’s rising to a proper height; but this is so far from being the
case, that, in these last 34 years[142], there has not been one season
of scarcity from the lowness of the Nile, although the rise having
been too great, and the waters too abundant, have thrice in that time
occasioned famine by carrying away the millet.

If the land of Egypt increased (as Herodotus says) one foot in 100
years, this addition must have appeared in the most ancient public
monuments: now, the very base of all the obelisks in Upper Egypt, are
bare and visible, and even the paved plane, laid visibly on purpose to
receive the Gnomonical shade, is not covered, nor scarcely out of its
level, and these small deviations are apparently owing to the falling
of neighbouring buildings. There are in the plain, immediately before
Thebes, two Colossal statues[143], obviously designed for Nilometers,
covered with hieroglyphics, as well as more modern inscriptions; these
statues are uncovered to the lowest part of their base; whereas we
should have now been walking on ground nearly equal in height to their
heads. The same may be said of every public monument, if there had been
any truth in the surface of Egypt increasing a foot in a hundred years.

It appears, at least as far as Hadrian’s time, that if the _pecus_ of
the Greeks be the peek of the present Egyptians, the same quantity of
water overflowed Egypt as now.

The advocates for the supposed increase of the land of Egypt on a
foot in 100 years, pressed by this observation, which they cannot
contradict, have chose to evade it, by supposing, without foundation,
that a smaller measure of the Nile’s increase had been introduced by
the Saracens to obviate the Nile’s scantiness, and this has landed them
in a palpable absurdity; for, while the Nile failed, the introduction
of a lesser measure would not have increased the crop; and, if the
quantity of grain had been exacted when it was not produced, this would
have only doubled the distress, and made it more apparent; this would
never have occasioned the joyful cry, _Wafaa Ullah_, God has given us
our desire, _men Jibbel, alla Jibbel_, the Nile has overflowed, from
the mountains on one side of the valley to the mountains on the other.
Besides, there is no country in the world, perhaps, but where this
trick may be played with impunity, except in Egypt, for a reason that I
am about to explain.

The extension of the land of Egypt northward, the distance between
it and Cyprus, and the situation of Canopus, all shew, that no or
very little alteration has been made these 3000 years. Dr Shaw, and
the other writers, who are advocates for what has been advanced by
Herodotus[144], that Egypt hath been produced by the Nile, have
deserted this ground of maintaining their hypothesis, and have recourse
to the Nilometer to prove, that the soil has increased in height, and
that a greater quantity of water is necessary now to overflow the land
of Egypt than was required in the days of Homer.

If the first part of their assertion can be proved, I shall make no
sort of difficulty of giving up the other. But I rather conceive, that
none of those who have written upon this subject hitherto, whatever
degree of learning and information they may have possessed, have
possessed sufficient _data_ to explain this subject intelligibly. It
seems, indeed, to have remained with _the source of the river_, a
secret reserved for latter times.

It will be necessary for us first to consider what the use of a
Nilometer was, for what cause it was made, and by whom.

It is scarcely necessary to observe, that, in every state or society,
the product or revenue should be known, as well as what will be wanted
for the supply of the necessities of the people. Now, it was only
the ground overflowed by the Nile that could produce grain for the
subsistence of the inhabitants and revenue of the state.

The first consideration, then, was, to know how much of the land of
Egypt was overflowed in a given term of years, and how much grain
was produced upon that average. This could only be ascertained by
measuring, and they, therefore, settled with precision the land that
was overflowed from the earliest times, and do so to this day. These
actual measurements gave them a _maximum_ and a _minimum_, which
furnished them with a mean, and thus they were in possession of all the
principles necessary for making a Nilometer, by dividing a pillar into
corresponding cubits, and divisions of cubits called digits, placing
it also firm and perpendicular, so as to be liable to no alteration or
injury, though in the middle of the stream.

The first stated measure was certainly that mentioned in scripture,
the cubit, _secundum cubitum virilis manus_, measuring from the center
of the round bone in the elbow to the point of the middle finger[145].
This is still the measure of all unpolished nations, but no medium
or term, expressive of its exact contents, having been applied,
writers have differed as to the length of this cubit, and no standard
existing to which it might be referred, a great deal of confusion has
thereupon followed. Dr Arbuthnot[146] says, that there are two cubits
in scripture, the one, 1 foot 9 inches, and 888/1000 parts of an inch,
according to our measure, being the 4th part of a fathom, twice the
span, and six times the palm. The other is equal to 1 foot 824/1000
parts of a foot, or the 400dth part of a stadium. I shall not inquire
into the grounds he goes on; I believe, however, that neither are
precisely the ancient cubit of the east, but both are too large; at
least the Egyptian I found to be very exactly 1 foot 5⅗ inches, which
is 2 inches more than father Mersenne[147] has made his Hebrew cubit.
But this is of less consequence to us now, because Herodotus[148]
informs us, that in his time, and probably at the first institution of
a Nilometer, the measure was the Samian cubit, which is about 18 inches
English, or half an inch less than the ancient cubit.

The reader will then consider, that the divisions of this Nilometer
were a representation of certain facts: That the Nile’s reaching to
such a division corresponded to a certain quantity of corn that was
sown, a proportion of the produce of which was to be paid to the king,
the rest to go to the landlord and the labourer.

The Nilometer then ascertained the contract between king and people
on these terms, That, in the event of so much corn being produced
by the land of Egypt, such a tribute was to be paid: But, in case a
certain quantity of ground, less than that, was overflowed, or, which
is the same thing, a lesser quantity of grain was produced, then the
king was not to exact his tribute, because it was understood such a
quantity only was produced as was sufficient for the maintenance of
the landholder and labourer. This was referred to the Nilometer, whose
division shewed to what height the Nile had risen. Men appointed by
the sovereign were to superintend this Nilometer, and to publish the
height of the Nile, whilst the reason why the king was to have the
direction of the Nilometer, and not his subjects, was very obvious,
though it has not yet been understood, because the king could not gain
by substituting false measures, whereas the people might.

The Nile, though in an average of years it brought down nearly the same
quantity of water, yet, in particular ones, it varied sometimes more
and sometimes less. It is likewise observed, like most other rivers, to
run more on one side of the valley for some years than to the other.
The consequence of this varying and deviation was, that though, upon
the whole, the quantity indicated by the Nilometer was the same, yet
nobody knew his _quota_, or what proportion of the whole was drawn
from the property of each individual; as for this they were obliged to
apply to actual mensuration. Supposing a man’s property was a section
of the land of Egypt, of 12,000 feet from the brink of the river to
the mountain, and of any given breadth, 4000 feet of this perhaps were
overflowed, whilst the other 8000 remained dry, and above the level of
the water. The tenant, after having measured, did not till then know
what his farm of 12,000 feet would give him for that year, only 4000 of
which had been overflowed by the water, and was then fit for sowing;
for this he paid his landlord the highest rent laid upon cultivated
land. But the 8000 feet that still remained were not equally useless,
though not overflowed by the inundation; for 4000 of the 8000, which
lay by the bank of the river, could be overflowed by machines, and by
the labour of man, when, for a certain time, the river was high enough
to be within reach of machinery; so that the value of this 4000 feet to
the farmer was equal to the first, _minus_ the expence and trouble it
cost him for watering it by labour; for this, then, he paid one half of
the rent only to the landlord.

Now, though it was known that the whole farm was 12,000 feet, yet, till
it was measured, no one could say how much of that would be overflowed
by the Nile alone, and so manured without expence; how much was to
be watered by labour, and so pay half rent; and how much was to be
incapable of any such cultivation, and for that year equally useless to
landlord and tenant. I speak not of a fact that happened in antiquity,
but one that is necessary and in practice at this very hour; and though
a man, by this mensuration, attains to the knowledge of what his farm
produces this same year, this is no general rule, as his cultivated
land next year may be doubled, or perhaps reduced to one-fourth; and
his neighbour, on the other side of the Nile, may in his farm make
up the correspondent deficiency, or excess; and the average quantity
produced by them both being the same, the degree of the Nilometer will
be the same likewise.

From this it is obvious to infer, that there are two points of great
advantage to the tenant: The one is, when it is just high enough not
to pay the meery[149], for then he has all the harvest to himself, and
pays nothing, though he has very near the same quantity as if he was
subject to the tax. The other is, when near the whole of these 12,000
feet is overflowed by the Nile, but before the water is in contact
with the current of the river; for then, though he is liable to pay
the meery, he has sown the greatest part of his land possible, without
additional labour or expence; more than this is loss, for then the
water of the inundation is put likewise in motion, and all the floating
pulverised earth that has been trode into an impalpable powder, during
March, April, and May, is swept away by the current into the sea, and
nothing left but a bare, cold, hard till, which produces little, and
is not easily pulverised by the poor instruments of husbandry there
in use, when neither farmer nor landholder pays any thing, because,
indeed, there is not any receipt.

However, from this uncertainty one thing arises which does not seem
to have been understood; for the tenant, not knowing precisely the
quantity of seed that he may want, comes to his farm unprovided, and,
being uncertain of its produce, takes his land only from year to year;
the landlord furnishes him with seed[150], and even with all labouring
utensils.

And here I am to explain what I have before advanced, what to some
will seem a paradox, That the substituting false measures in the
Nilometer by the sovereign is absolutely impracticable. Supposing the
height of the Nilometer, when at 8 cubits, shewed that there was just
corn enough to maintain the inhabitants, and that the tenant knew,
by the quantity of land measured, that he had barely what was to pay
his rent and support his family; this he must know before he sowed,
because he measured immediately after the inundation; and this he must
know likewise by the corn he borrows for seed from his landlord, who,
as I have said, furnishes his tenant both with seed and labouring
utensils. If, then, he finds he can barely maintain himself, and not
pay his rent, upon the proclamation at the Nilometer, he deserts his
farm, and neither plows nor sows[151], but flies to Palestine to the
Arabs, or into the cities, and brings famine along with him. The next
year there is a plague, and sweeps all those poor wretches, in a bad
state of health by living upon bad food, into their graves, so that
the introduction, of a supposed false measure, directly advanced by
Dr Shaw[152], and often alluded to by others, but always without
possibility of foundation, is one of the many errors he has fallen into.

He knew nothing but of the Delta, never was in Upper, and no
considerable time even in Lower Egypt, but when the Nile had overflowed
it, and I suppose never conversed with a fellah, or Egyptian peasant,
in his life. All his _wonders_ are in the land of _Zoan_[153], and
his observations should have reached no further, because they are not
fact, but fanciful imaginations of his own; not from any bad intention,
but because he never was in the way of being better informed, but
determined not to abandon a system he had once formed.

Herodotus[154] mentions, that in the time of Mæris, when, the minimum
came to be 8 Samian cubits, all Egypt below Memphis was overflowed,
but that in his days it took 16 cubits, or at least 15, to put the
same land in like condition for cultivation; or, in other words, the
minimum, when they paid their meery, was 16, or at least 15 cubits in
his time; and the uncertainty of these two terms shews, that there
were unaccountable inequalities, even in his days, as we shall find
there have been ever since. But I must here beg leave to ask, why we
should believe Herodotus knew the management of the Nilometer more than
travellers have done since, as he tells us constantly throughout this
part of his history, that when he inquired of the priests concerning
the Nile, they would tell him nothing about it[155]?

In Mæris’s time there were great lakes dug, as Herodotus says[156], to
carry off the superfluous water, to what place is not said, but surely
into the desert for the use of the Arabs. Now, unless we knew what time
these lakes were opened to receive the stream, we do not know whether
it was the evacuation by the lake, or scarcity of the water that
impeded the rise of the Nile upon the Nilometer. We have no account of
these transactions, and we shall be less inclined to rely upon them,
when I shall shew, that the Nilometer could be of no use in solving
this question at all, either in Herodotus’s days, or any time since,
without a previous knowledge of several other circumstances never yet
taken into the calculation, and of which Herodotus must have been
ignorant.

But let us grant that the Nile in Mæris’s time rose only 8 cubits,
and in the days of Herodotus to 16, let us see if, at certain periods
afterwards, it kept to any thing like that proportion. Above 400 years
after Herodotus, Strabo travelled in Egypt; he went through the whole
country from Alexandria to beyond Syene and the first cataract; and as
he is an historian whose character is established, both for veracity
and sagacity, we may receive what he says as unexceptionable evidence,
especially as he travelled in such company as it is not probable the
priests could have refused him any thing. Now Strabo[157] says, that,
in his days, 8 cubits were a _minimum_, or the _Wafaa Ullah_ of the
Nile’s increase; therefore, from Mæris’s time to Strabo there is not an
inch difference in the _minimum_, and this includes the space of 1400
years.

It may be said, indeed, that the passage in Strabo[158] imports,
that, in the time of Petronius, by a particular care of the banks and
calishes, the Nile at 8 peeks (or cubits) enabled the Egyptians to pay
their meery without hardship; but this was by particular industry,
more than what had been in common use, and this, too, I conceive to
be Strabo’s meaning. But let us compute from Herodotus, who says that
16, or at least 15, were necessary in his time, whilst Strabo informs
us, that, before Petronius exerted himself as to the banks and calishes
just mentioned, the extreme abundance must then have been at 12, and
the _minimum_ at 10. Now, by this passage, beyond all exception, it
is clear that there could have been no increase indicated by the
Nilometer; for 10 cubits watered the whole land of Egypt sufficiently
in Strabo’s time, whereas 16 and 15 were necessary in the days of
Herodotus: and I must likewise observe, that if we should suppose
the same industry and attention used in Mæris’s time that was in
Petronius’s, (and there is every reason to induce us to think there
was) then the proof is positive, that there was no difference in the
soil of Egypt indicated by the Nilometer for the first 1400 years.

From this let us descend to Hadrian, about 100 years afterwards. We
know from Pliny[159], and from an inscription upon a medal of great
brass of Hadrian’s, who was himself in Egypt, that 16 cubits were then
the fiscal term or rise of the Nile, by which the Egyptians paid their
rent; and this is precisely what Herodotus says, in his time, was no
more than sufficient.

About the beginning of the 4th century, in the emperor Julian’s
reign[160], 15 cubits were a sufficient minimum to incur the payment of
the tribute, and this is one of the terms that Herodotus fixes upon,
as being sufficient to oblige the payment in his days; and the other is
16, or a cubit more; so that if the Nilometer proves any thing at all,
it is this, that presumptively the Nile has never increased from Mæris
to Petronius’s, or in 1400 years, and certainly that, if it has not
diminished, it has not increased for 700 years from Herodotus to the
emperor Julian.

Procopius, in his first book, I think, says, that 18 peeks was too full
a Nile, and occasioned dearth by its quantity. But, in the middle of
the 6th century, he tells[161] us it required 18 cubits for a minimum,
by which Egypt was to pay the meery; so that in 100 years from Julian
to Justinian, the minimum had increased three cubits, which was 4½
feet; not one foot in 100 years as the proposition bears; and this
would prove too much, if it was true, but it is impossible.

Thus far, then, we are at liberty to say, that, as long as Egypt was
a Greek kingdom, no visible alteration or increase of the soil can be
fairly established from history or inspection.




CHAP. XVII.

_The same Subject continued--Nilometer what. How divided and measured._


In the 7th century a revolution happened that stops our Grecian
account from proceeding farther, Egypt was conquered by an ignorant
and barbarous enemy, the Saracen, and Amru Ibn el Aas was governor of
Egypt for Omar, the second Caliph after Mahomet. Omar was a foreigner,
conqueror, bigot and a tyrant; he destroyed the Grecian Nilometer
from motives of religion, the same which had before moved him to burn
the library of Alexandria; and after, with the same degree of _sound
judgment_, determined to establish his empire at Medina, in the middle
of the peninsula of Arabia, a country without water, and surrounded
on all sides with barren sands; but he was nevertheless desirous of
feeding his famished Saracens with the wheat of Egypt, a province he
had subdued; for this purpose he ordered Amru to begin a canal from
the Nile to the Red Sea, to carry the wheat to the Arabian Gulf, and
thence to Yambo, the port of Medina on that gulf.

The traitor Greeks, who had delivered the country to the Saracens, had
probably informed him of the great plenty which constantly reigned
in Egypt, and which every body had an opportunity of knowing by the
cheapness of grain at the market.

Omar thought that a larger tribute was due to put the conquerors
a little more upon a footing with the conquered; for Egypt, which
had once 20,000 cities, had not then the tenth part of them. Having
therefore a larger extent to cultivate, with the same quantity of
water, it produced more grain, and at the same time having fewer
people to eat it, nothing was less oppressive than that a part of the
surplus of the produce should go in augmentation of the tribute. For
this purpose, following the very weak lights of his own judgment, he
introduced a different measure on the Nilometer, and the consequence
of that measure, imposed by a conqueror, affected the people (not
reflecting upon their decrease in population) so much, that they
prepared to fly the country; from which it immediately would have
followed, that all Egypt would have lain desolate and uncultivated, and
all Arabia been starved.

[Illustration: _Mikeas._

_London Published Dec^r. 1^{st}. 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]

They were perfectly acquainted with their ancient measure, and it is
probable that Omar made an excessive addition by the new Nilometers
which he had erected; so that faith being thereby broken between the
government and people, the Egyptians set about watching the Nile
upon the Nilometer with its new measure, as the only way of being
informed when poverty or famine was to overtake them. This being
told to Omar, he ordered the new Nilometer to be demolished; but as
it had been part of the complaint to him, that their counting the
divisions of the Mikeas[162] was the reason why the people were kept
in continual terror, he shut up the access to Christians, and that
prohibition continues in Cairo to this day; and, instead of permitting
ocular inspection, he ordered the daily increase to be proclaimed,
but in a manner so unintelligible, that the Egyptians in general no
longer understood it, nor do they understand it now; for, beginning
at a given point, which was not the bottom of the Nilometer, he went
on, telling the increase by subtracting from the upper division; so
that as nobody knew the lower point from which he began, although they
might comprehend how much it had risen since the crier proclaimed its
increase, yet they never could know the height of the water that was in
the Nilometer when the proclamation began, nor what the division was to
which it had ascended on the pillar.

To understand this, let us premise, that, on the point of the island
Rhoda, between Geeza and Cairo, near the middle of the river, but
nearer to Geeza, is a round tower, and in that an apartment, in the
middle of which is a very neat well, or cistern, lined with marble,
to which the Nile has free access, through a large opening like an
embrasure, the bottom of the well being on the same level with the
bottom of the river. In the middle of this well rises a thin column, as
far as I can remember, of eight faces of blue and white marble, to the
foot of which, if you are permitted to descend, you are then on the
same plane with the foot of the column and bottom of the river. This
pillar is divided into 20 peeks, called Draa El Belledy, of 22 inches
each[163].

The two lowermost peeks are not divided at all, but are left absolutely
without mark, to stand for the quantity of sludge the water deposits
there, and which occupies the place of water. Two peeks are then
divided on the right hand into 24 digits each; then, on the left, four
peeks are divided each into 24 digits; then, on the right, four; and,
on the left, another four: again, four on the right, which complete the
number of 18 peeks from the first division marked on the pillar each
of 22 inches. The whole, marked and unmarked, amounts to 36-8/12 feet
English.

On the night of St John, when the Nucta has fallen, that is, when they
see the rain-water from Ethiopia is so mixed with the Nile that at
Cairo it is become exhalable, and falls down in dews upon the earth,
which till that time it never does, they then begin to cry, having
five peeks of water marked on the Mikeas, and two unmarked for the
sludge; of which they take no notice in the proclamation. Their first
proclamation, suppose the Nile hath risen 12 digits, is 12 from six,
or it wants 12 digits to be six peeks. When it rises three more, it is
nine from six, or, _Tissa am Sitte_, and so it goes on, subtracting the
digits from the upper number, without giving you any information what
that six is, or that they began to count from five, which I suppose is
the assumed depth of the Nile before it begins to increase.

When the river has risen on the Mikeas eight peeks and 23 digits,
they then call _Wahad am erba Tush_, i. e. one from 14, five peeks of
water being left marked in the Mikeas, but only eight of augmentation
that has risen upon the column, according to the divisions, which
make in all 13 peeks and 23 digits, which wants one from being nine
of augmentation, and that being added, they cry _Wafaa Ullah_, which
obliges the country to the payment of the meery. Again, suppose 17
peeks, or cubits, and 23 digits to stand on the column, the cry
is _Wahad am temen Tush_, i. e. one from 18, and, upon this being
filled, and the divisions complete by a certain day in August, the
next is _Ashareen_, 20, or, _men Jibbel, alla Jibbel_, from mountain
to mountain, that is, 18 peeks marked on the pillar, and two unmarked
at the foot of it, supposed to be covered with mud. All the land of
Egypt is then fitted for cultivation; the great canal at Mansoura, and
several others, are opened, which convey the water into the desert,
and hinder any further stagnation on the fields, though there is still
a great part of the water to come from Ethiopia, but which would not
drain soon enough to fit the land for tillage, were the inundation
suffered to go on.

Now, from these 16 peeks the _Wafaa Ullah_ if we deduce 5, which were
in the well, and marked on the column when the crier began, there will
have been but 11 peeks of rise as a minimum, which still made the meery
due, or 15, deducing 5 from 20, the maximum, _men Jibbel, alla Jibbel_,
the increase that fits all Egypt for cultivation, after which is loss
and danger. Therefore, suppose the 16 peeks on the medal of Hadrian
to have been the minimum or fiscal term, we must infer, that the same
quantity of inundation produced the _Wafaa Ullah_ or payment of the
meery, in Hadrian’s time, that it does at this day, and consequently
the land of Egypt has not increased since his time, that is, in the
last 1600 years.

As a summary of the whole relating to this periodical inundation of the
Nile, I shall here deliver my opinion, which I think, as it is founded
upon ancient history, consonant to that of intermediate times, and,
invincibly established by modern observation, can never be overturned
by any argument whatever. And this I shall do as shortly as possible,
lest, having anticipated it in part by reflections explanatory of the
narrative, it may at first sight have the appearance of repetition.

It is agreed on all hands, that Egypt, in early ages, had water enough
to overflow the ground that composed it. It was then a narrow valley
as it is now; having been early the seat of the arts, crowded with a
multitude of people, enriched by the most flourishing and profitable
trade, and its numbers supplied and recruited when needful by the
immense nations to the southward of it, having grain and all the
necessaries and luxuries of life (oil excepted) for the great multitude
which it fed, Egypt was averse to any communication with strangers till
after the foundation of Alexandria.

The first princes, after the building of Memphis, finding the land turn
broader towards the Delta, whereas before it had been a narrow stripe
confined between mountains; observing also that they had great command
of water for fitting their land for cultivation, nay, that great part
of it ran to waste without profit, which must have been the case,
since it is so at this day: observing likewise, that the superabundance
of water in the Nile did harm, and that the neighbouring sandy plains
of Libya needed nothing but a judicious distribution of that water,
to make it equal to the land of Egypt in fertility, and surpass it
in the variety of natural productions, applied themselves very early
to digging large lakes[164], that, preserving a degree of level
sufficient, all the year long watered the dry deserts of Libya like so
many fruitful showers. Geometry, architecture, and all the mechanic
arts of those times, were employed to accomplish those designs. These
canals and vast works communicated one with another to imprison the
water, and set it again at liberty at proper times.

We may be satisfied this was observed attentively all the time of the
dynasties, or reigns of the Egyptian princes. After the accession of
the Ptolemies, who were strangers, the multitude of inhabitants had
greatly decreased. There was no occasion for works to water lands that
were not peopled; so far as they were necessary for cities, gardens,
and pleasure-grounds, they were always kept up. The larger and more
extensive conduits, dykes, and sluices, though they were not used, were
protected by their own solidity and strength from sudden ruin. Egypt,
now confined within its ancient narrow valley, had water enough to keep
it in culture, and make it still the granary of the inhabited world.

When the ancient race of the Ptolemies ended, a scene of war and
confusion, and bad government at home, was succeeded by a worse under
foreigners abroad. The number of its inhabitants was still greatly
decreased, and the valley had yet a quantity of water enough to fit it
for annual culture.

In the reign of the second emperor after the Roman conquest, Petronius
Arbiter, a man well known for taste and learning, was governor of
Egypt. He saw with regret the decay of the magnificent works of
the ancient native Egyptian princes. His sagacity penetrated the
usefulness and propriety of those works. He saw they had once made
Egypt populous and flourishing. Like a good citizen and subject of the
state he served, and from a humane and rational attachment to that
which he governed, he hoped to make it again as flourishing under the
new government as it had been under the old. Like a man of sense, and
master of his subject, he laughed at the dastardly spirit of the modern
Egyptians, anxious and trembling lest the Nile should not overflow land
enough to give them bread, when they had the power in their hands to
procure plenty in abundance for six times the number of the people then
in Egypt. To shew them this, he repaired their ancient works, raised
their banks, refitted their sluices, and by thus imprisoning, as I may
say, the inundation at a proper time in the beginning, he overflowed
all Egypt with 8 peeks of water, as fully, and as effectually, as to
the purposes of agriculture, as before and since it hath been with 16;
and did not open the sluices to allow the water to run and waste in the
desert (where there was now no longer any inhabitants), till the land
of the valley of Egypt had been so well watered as only to need that
the inundation should retire in time to leave the farmer the ground
firm enough for plowing and sowing.

Let any one read what I have already quoted from Strabo; it is just
what I have here repeated, but in fewer words. Let him consider how
fair an experiment this of Petronius was, that by re-establishing
the works of Mæris, and putting the inundation to the same profit
that Mæris did, he found the same quantity of water overflow the same
quantity of ground, and consequently, that the land of Egypt had not
been raised an inch from Mæris’s time to that of Petronius, above 1400
years.

Now the second part of the question comes, what difference of measure
was made by the Saracens, and how does it now stand, after that period,
as to the supposed rise of a foot in a hundred years? It is now above
1100 years since the[165] first of the Hegira, and near 900 years since
the erection of the present Mikeas, which being equal to the period
between Mæris and Herodotus, and again to that between Herodotus and
Julian, we should begin to be certain if any such increase in the
land has ever, from Mæris to the present time, been indicated by the
Nilometer.

The reader will perhaps be surprised, at what I am going to advance,
That those writers, as well as their supporters who have pronounced
so positively on this subject, have not furnished themselves with the
_data_ which are absolutely necessary to solve this question. Quantity
is only to be ascertained by measure, yet none of them have settled
that only medium of judging. The Mikeas, or pillar, is the subject to
be measured, and they are not yet agreed within 20 feet of its extreme
height, nor about the division of any part of it. As this accusation
appears to be a strong one, I shall set down the proof for the reader’s
consideration, that it may not be supposed I mean to criticise
improperly, or to do any author injustice.

And first of the Mikeas. Mr Thomas Humes, a gentleman quoted by[166] Dr
Shaw, who had been a great many years a factor at Cairo, says, that the
Mikeas is 58 feet English in height. Now, there is really no reason why
such an enormous pillar should have been built, as the Nile would drown
all Cairo before it was to rise to this height; accordingly, as we have
seen, its height is not so much by near 22 feet. Dr Perry[167] next,
who has wrote largely upon the subject, says, the Mikeas, or column, is
divided into 24 peeks, and each peek or cubit is 24 inches nearly. Dr
Pococke[168], who travelled at the same time, agrees in the division
of 24 peeks, but says that these peeks are unequal. The 16 lower he
supposes are 21 inches, the 4 next, 24 inches, and the uppermost, 22.
So that one of these gentlemen makes the Mikeas 43 feet, which is above
six feet more than the truth, and the other 48, which is above 11;
besides the second error which Dr Pococke has committed, by saying the
divisions are of three different dimensions, when they really are not
any one of them what he conceives, nor is the Mikeas divided unequally.

As for Mr Humes, who had lived long at Cairo, I would by no means be
thought to insinuate a doubt of his veracity: There may, in change of
times, be occasions when Christians may be admitted to the Mikeas, and
be allowed to measure exactly. This, however, must be with a long rod,
divided and brought on purpose, with a high stool or scaffold, and
this sort of preparation would be attended with much danger if seen in
the hand of a Christian without, and much more if he was to attempt to
apply it to the column within. At Cairo a man may see or hear any thing
he desires, by the ordinary means of gold, which no Turk can withstand
or refuse; but often one villain is paid for being your guide, and
another villain, his brother, pays himself, by informing against
you; the end is mischief to yourself, which, if you are a stranger,
generally involves also your friends. You are asked, What did you at
the Mikeas when you know it is forbidden? and your silence after that
question is an acknowledgement of guilt; sentence immediately follows,
whatever it may be, and execution upon it. I rather am inclined to
think, that though several Christians have obtained admission to the
Mikeas, very few have had the means or instruments, and fewer still the
courage, to measure this column exactly; which leads me to believe, as
Dr Shaw says, he procured the number of feet in a letter from Mr Humes,
that the Doctor has mistaken 58 for 38, which, in a foreign hand, is
very easily done; it would then be 38, instead of 58 English feet, and
to that number it might approach near enough, and the difference be
accounted for, from an aukward manner of measuring with a trembling
hand, there being then only a little more than one foot of error.

From what I have just now mentioned, I hope it is sufficiently plain to
the reader, that the length and division of the column in the Mikeas,
by which the quantity of water, and consequently the increase of the
soil, was to be determined, was utterly unknown to those travellers who
had undertaken this mode of determining it.

I shall now inquire, whether they were better instructed in the length
of that measure, which, after the Saracen conquest, was introduced
into the Nilometer, of Geeza, where it has remained unaltered since
the year 245? Dr Shaw introduces the consideration of this subject by
an enumeration of many different peeks, seven of which he quotes from
Arabian authors, as being then in use. First, the Homaræus 1-2/9 digit
of the common cubit. 2. The Hasamean, or greater peek, of 24 digits.
3. The Belalæan, less than the Hasamean. 4. The black cubit less than
the Belalean 2⅔ digits. 5. The Jossippæan ⅔ of a digit less than the
black cubit. 6. The Chord, or Asaba, 1⅔ digit less than the black peek.
7. The Maharanius, 2⅔ digits less than the black cubit[169]. Now, I
will appeal to any one to what all this information amounts, when I am
not told the length of the common peek to which he refers the rest, as
being 1½ digit, or 2 digits more or less. He himself thinks that the
measuring peek is the Stambouline peek, but then, for computation’s
sake, he takes a peek of his own invention, being a medium of 4 or 5
guesses, and fixes it at 25 inches, for which he has no authority but
his own imagination.

I will not perplex the reader more with the different measures of these
peeks, between the Hasamean and great peek of Kalkasendas, which is
18 inches, and the black peek, a model of which Dr Bernard[170] has
given us from an Arabic MS. at Oxford, the difference is 10 inches. The
first being 18 inches equal to the Samian peek, the other 28½ inches,
and from this difference we may judge, joined to the uncertainties of
the height and divisions of the Mikeas, how impossible it is for us to
determine the increase of 12 inches in a hundred years.

As the generality of writers have fixed upon the Constantinople, or
Stambouline peek, for the measure of the Mikeas, in which choice they
have erred, we will next seek what is the measure of the Stambouline
peek, and whether they have in this article been better informed.

M. de Maillet, French consul at Cairo, says, that this peek is equal
to 2 French feet, or very nearly 26 inches of our measure: and, to
add to this another mistake, he states, that by this peek the Mikeas
is measured; and, for the completing of the confusion, he adds, that
the Nile must rise 48 French feet before it covers _all their lands_.
What he means by all their lands is to very little purpose to inquire,
for he would probably have been drowned in his closet in which he made
these computations, long before he had seen the Nile at that height, or
near it.

Without, then, wandering longer in this extraordinary confusion, which
I have only stated to shew that a traveller may differ from Dr Shaw,
and yet be right, and that this writer, however learned he may be,
cannot, for want of information, be competent to solve this question
which he so much insists upon, I shall now, with great submission to
the judgment of my reader, endeavour to explain, in as few words as
possible, how the real state of the matter stands, and he will then
apply it as he pleases.

There was a very ingenious gentleman whom I met with at Cairo, M.
Antes, a German by birth, and of the Moravian persuasion, who, both
to open to himself more freely the opportunities of propagating his
religious tenets, and to gratify his own mechanical turn, rather than
from a view of gain, to which all his society are (as he was) perfectly
indifferent, exercised the trade of watch-maker at Cairo. This very
worthy and sagacious young man was often my unwearied and useful
partner in many inquiries and trials, as to the manner of executing
some instruments in the most compendious form for experiments proposed
to be made in my travels. By his assistance, I formed a rod of brass,
of half an inch square, and of a thickness which did not easily warp,
and would not alter its dimensions unless with a violent heat. Upon
the three faces of this brasen rod we traced, with good glasses and
dividers, the measure of three different peeks, then the only three
known in Cairo, the exact length of which was taken from the standard
model furnished me by the Cadi. The first was the Stambouline, or
Constantinople peek, exactly 23⅗ inches; the second, the Hendaizy, of
24-7/10 inches; and the third the peek El Belledy, of 22 inches, all
English measure.

It was natural to suppose, that, after knowing as we do, that no
alteration has been made in the Mikeas since the 245th year of the
Hegira, that the peek of Constantinople, a foreign measure, was
probably then not known, nor introduced into Egypt; nor, till after
the conquest of Sultan Selim, in the year 1516, was it likely to
be the peek with which the Mikeas was measured. It did not, as I
conceive, exist in the 245th of the Hegira, though, even if it had,
its dimensions may have been widely different from those fixed upon by
the number of writers whose authority we have quoted, but who do not
agree. It was not likely to be the Hendaizy peek either, for this, too,
was a foreign measure, originally from the island of Meroë, and well
known to the Egyptians in Upper Egypt, but not at all to the Saracens
their present masters. The peek, El Belledy, the measure in common use,
and known to all the Egyptians, was the proper cubit to be employed in
an operation which concerned a whole nation, and was, therefore, the
measure made use of in the division of the Mikeas, for that column, as
I have said, is divided equally into peeks, or draas, called _Draa El
Belledy_, consisting of 22 inches; and each of these peeks is again
divided into 24 digits.

A very ingenious author, who treats of the particular circumstances
of those times, in his MS. called _Han el Mohaderat_, says, that the
inhabitants of Seide counted 24 peeks on their Nilometer, when there
were 18 peeks marked as the rise of the water upon the Mikeas at Rhoda;
and this shews perfectly two things: First, That they knew the whole
secret of counting there both by the marked and unmarked part of the
column; for the peek of the Mikeas being 22 inches English, it was,
by consequence, four inches larger each peek than the Samian peek;
so that if, to 20 peeks of Seide, you add twenty times four inches,
which is 80, the difference of the two peeks, when divided by 18, gives
four, which, added to the 20 peeks on the column, make 24 peeks, the
number sought. Secondly, That this observation in the Han el Mohaderat
sufficiently confirms what I have said both of the length of the column
and length of the peek; that the former is 20 peeks in height, and that
the measure, by which this is ascertained, is the peek El Belledy of
22 inches, as it appears on the brass rod, four inches longer than the
Samian peek, and consequently is not the peek of Stambouline, nor any
foreign measure whatever.

A traveller thinks he has attained to a great deal of precision, when,
observing 18 peeks on the highest division of the column from its
base, or bottom of the well, he finds it 37 feet; he divides this by
18, and the quotient is 24 inches; when he should divide it by 20,
and the answer would be 22 and a fraction, the true content of the
peek El Belledy, or peek of the Mikeas. This erroneous division of his
he calls the peek of the Mikeas; and comparing it with what authors,
less informed than himself, have said, he names the Stambouline peek,
and then the black peek, when it really is his own peek, the creature
of his own error or inadvertence; but, as he does not know this, it
is handed down from traveller to traveller, till unfortunately it is
adopted by some man of reputation, and it then becomes, as in this
case, a sort of literary crime to any man, from the authority of his
own eyes and hands, to dispute it.

Mr Pococke makes two very curious and sensible remarks in point of
fact, but of which he does not know the reason. “The Nile, he says,
in the beginning, turns red, and sometimes green; then the waters are
unwholesome. He supposes that the source of the Nile beginning to flow
plentifully, the waters at first bring away that green or red filth
which may be about the lakes at its rise, or at the rise of these small
rivers that flow into it, near its principal source; for, though there
is so little water in the Nile, when at lowest, that there is hardly
any current in many parts of it, yet it cannot be supposed that the
water should stagnate in the bed of the Nile, so as to become green.
Afterwards the water becomes very red and still more turbid, and then
it begins to be wholesome[171].”

The true reason of this appearance is from those immense marshes spread
over the country about Narea and Caffa, where there is little level,
and where the water accumulates, and is stagnant, before it overflows
into the river Abiad, which rises there. The overflowing of these
immense marshes carry first that discoloured water into Egypt, then
follows, in Abyssinia, the overflowing of the great lake Tzana, through
which the Nile passes, which, having been stagnated and without rain
for six months, under a scorching sun, joins its putrid waters with
the first. There are, moreover, very few rivers in Abyssinia that run
after November, as they stand in prodigious pools below, in the country
of the Shangalla, and afford drink for the elephant, and habitation
and food for the hippopotamus. These pools likewise throw off their
stagnant water into the Nile on receiving the first rains; at last
the rivers, marshes, and lakes, being refreshed by showers, (the rain
becoming constant) and passing through the kingdom of Sennaar, the
soil of which is a red bole; This mixture, and the moving sands of the
deserts, fall into the current, and precipitate all the viscous and
putrid substances, which cohere and float in the river; and thence (as
Pococke has well observed) the sign of the Nile being wholesome, is
not when it is clear and green, but when mingled with fresh water, and
after precipitation it becomes red and turbid, and stains the water of
the Mediterranean.

The next remark of Mr Pococke[172] is equally true. It has been
observed, says he, that after the rainy season is over, the Nile
fallen, and the whole country drained from inundation, it has begun
again to rise; and he gives an instance of that in December 1737,
when it had a sudden increase, which alarmed all Egypt, where the
received opinion was that it presaged calamities. This also is said
to have happened in the time of Cleopatra, when their government was
subverted, their ancient race of kings extinguished in the person of
that princess, and Egypt became a province to the Romans.

The reader will not expect, in these enlightened times, that I should
use arguments to convince him, that this rising of the Nile had nothing
to do with the extinction of the race of the Ptolemies, though popular
preachers and prophets have always made use of these fortuitous events
to confirm the vulgar in their prejudices.

The rains, that cease in Abyssinia about the 8th of September, leave
generally a sickly season in the low country; but other rains begin
towards the end of October, in the last days of the Ethiopic month
Tekemt, which continue moderately about three weeks, and end the 8th
of November, or the 12th of the Ethiopic month Hedar. All sickness and
epidemical diseases then disappear, and the 8th of that month is the
feast of St Michael, the day the king marches, and his army begins
their campaign; but the effect of these second rains seldom make any,
or a very short appearance in Egypt, all the canals being open. But
these are the rains upon which depend their latter crops, and for which
the Agows, at the source of the Nile, pray to the river, or to the
genius residing in the river. We had plentiful showers both in going
and coming to that province, especially in our journey out. Whenever
these rains prove excessive, as in some particular years it seems
they do, though but very rarely, the land-floods, and those from the
marshes, falling upon the ground, already much hardened and broken into
chasms, by two months intense heat of the sun, run violently into the
Nile without sinking into the earth. The consequence is this temporary
rising of the Nile in December, which is as unconnected with the good
and bad crops of Egypt, as it is on those of Palestine or Syria.

The quantity of rain that falls in Ethiopia varies greatly from year
to year, as do the months in which it falls. The quantity that fell,
during 1770, in Gondar, between the vernal equinox and the 8th of
September, through a funnel of one foot English in diameter, was 35.555
inches; and, in 1771, the quantity that fell in the same circumference
was 41.355 inches in the same space[173].

In 1770, August was the rainy month; in 1771 July. Both these years
the people paid the meery, and the _Wafaa Ullah_ was in August. When
July is the rainy month, the rains generally cease for some days in the
beginning of August, and then a prodigious deal falls in the latter end
of that month and the first week of September. In other years, July and
August are the violent rainy months, whilst June is fair. And lastly,
in others, May, June, July, August and the first week of September.
Now we shall suppose (which is the most common case of all) that every
month from June doubles its rain. The _Wafaa Ullah_ generally takes
place about the 9th of August, the tribute being then due, and all
attention to the Mikeas is abandoned at 14 real peeks, the Calish is
then cut, and the water let down to the Delta.

Now these 14 peeks are not a proof how much water there is to overflow
the land; for supposing nine days for its passage from Ethiopia, then
the 9th of August receives at Cairo no later rains than those that have
fallen the 1st of August in Ethiopia, and from that date till the 17th
of September, the Nile increases one third of its whole inundation,
which is never suffered to appear on the Mikeas, but is turned down
to the lakes in the Delta, as I suppose it always has been; so that
the quantity of water which falls in Ethiopia hath never yet been
ascertained, and never can be by the Mikeas, nor can it ever be known
what quantity of water comes in to Egypt, or what quantity of ground
it is sufficient to overflow, unless the dykes were to be kept close
till the Nile attained its extreme height,which would be about the 25th
of September, long before which it would be over the banks and mounds,
if they held in till then, or have swept Cairo and all the Delta into
the Mediterranean, and if it should not do that, it would retire so
late from the fields as to leave the ground in no condition to be sown
that year.

I do not comprehend what idea other travellers have formed of the
beginning of the inundation of the Nile, as they seem to admit that
the banks are not overflowed; and this is certainly the case; because
the cities and villages are built there as securely as on the highest
part of Egypt, and even when the Nile has risen to its greatest height
they still are obliged to water those spots with machines. In another
part of the work it is explained how the calishes carry the water
upon the lands, approaching always to the banks as the river rises in
proportion, and these calishes being derived from the Nile at right
angles with the stream, and carrying the water by the inclination of
the ground, in a direction different from the course of the river, the
water is perfectly stagnated at the foot of the hills, till accumulated
as the stream rises, it moves in a contrary direction backwards again,
and approaches its banks. But when the inundation is so great that the
back-water comes in contact with the current of the Nile, by known laws
it must partake the same motion with it, and so all Egypt become one
torrent.

Dr Shaw, indeed[174], says, that there seems to be a descent from the
banks to the foot of the mountains, but this he considers as an optic
fallacy; I wish he had told us upon what principle of optics; but if it
was really so, how comes it that the banks are every year dry, when the
foot of the mountains is at same time under inundation; or, in other
words, what is the reason of that undisputed fact, that the foot of the
mountains is laid under water in the beginning of the rivers rising,
while the ground which they cultivate by labour near the banks, cannot
supply itself from the river by machines, till near the height of the
inundation? these facts will not be contraverted by any traveller, who
has ever been in Upper Egypt; but if this had been admitted as truth
instead of an optic fallacy, this question would have immediately
followed. If the land of Egypt at the foot of the mountains, is the
lowest, the first overflowed, and the longest covered with water, and
often the only part overflowed at all, whence can it arise that it is
not upon a level with the banks of the river if it is true that the
land of Egypt receives additional height every year by the mud from
Abyssinia deposited by the stream? and this question would not have
been so easily answered.

The Nile for these thirty years has but once so failed as to occasion
dearth, but never in that period so as to produce famine in Egypt.
The redundance of the water sweeping every thing before it, has
thrice been the cause, not of dearth, but of famine and emigration;
but carelessness, I believe, hath been, the occasion of both, and
very often the malice of the Arabs; for there are in Egypt, from
Siout downwards, great remains of ancient works, vast lakes, canals,
and large conduits for water, destined by the ancients to keep this
river under controul, serving as reservoirs to supply a scanty year,
and as drains, or outlets, to prevent the over abundance of water
in wet years, by spreading it in the thirsty sands of Libya to the
great advantage of the Arabs, rather than letting it run to waste in
the Mediterranean. The mouths of these immense drains being out of
repair, in a scanty year, contribute by their evacuation to make it
still scantier by not retaining water, and if after a dearth they are
well secured, or raised too high, and a wet season follows, they then
occasion a destructive inundation.

I hope I have now satisfied the reader, that Egypt was never an arm
of the sea, or formed by sediments brought down in the Nile, but
that it was created with other parts of the globe at the same time,
and for the same purposes; and we are warranted to say this, till we
receive from the hand of Providence a work of such imperfection, that
its destruction can be calculated from the very means by which it was
first formed, and which were the apparent sources of its beauty and
pre-eminence. Egypt, like other countries, will perish by the _fiat_
of Him that made it, but when, or in what manner, lies hid where it
ought to be, inaccessible to the useless, vain inquiries, and idle
speculations of man.




CHAP. XVIII.

_Inquiry about the Possibility of changing the Course of the
Nile--Cause of the Nucta._


It has been thought a problem that merited to be considered, Whether
it was possible to turn the current of the Nile into the Red Sea, and
thereby to famish Egypt? I think the question should more properly
be, Whether the water of the Nile, running into Egypt, could be so
diminished, or diverted, that it should never be sufficient to prepare
that country for annual cultivation? Now to this it is answered, That
there seems to be no doubt but that it is possible, because the Nile,
and all the rivers that run into it, and all the rains that swell those
rivers, fall in a country fully two miles above the level of the sea;
therefore, it cannot be denied, that there is level enough to divert
many of the rivers into the Red Sea, the Indian, and Atlantic Oceans,
or, perhaps, still easier, by turning the course of the river Abiad
till it meets the level of the Niger, or pass through the desert into
the Mediterranean.

Lalibala, as we have already seen, attempted the former method with
great appearance of success; and this prince, to whom the accidental
circumstances of the time had given extraordinary powers, and who was
otherwise a man of great capacity and resolution, might, if he had
persevered, completed his purpose, the thing being possible, that is,
no law of nature against it, and all difficulties are only relative
to the powers vested in those who are engaged in the undertaking.
Alexander the Great would have succeeded--his father Philip would have
miscarried--Lewis the XIV. would perhaps have accomplished it, as
easily as he united the two seas by the canal of Languedoc, and with
the same engineers; but he is the only European prince of whom this
could have been expected with any degree of probability.

Alphonso Albuquerque, viceroy of India, is said to have wrote
frequently to the king of Portugal, Don Emanuel, to send him some
pioneers from Madeira, people accustomed to level ground, and prepare
it for sugar-canes, with whose assistance he was to execute that
enterprise of turning the Nile into the Red Sea, and famishing Egypt.
His son mentions this very improbable story in his[175] father’s
commentaries; and he says further, that he imagines it might have been
done, because it was a known fact that the Arabs in Upper Egypt, when
in rebellion against the Soldan, used to interrupt the course of the
canal between Cosseir on the Red Sea, and Kenna in Egypt.

Tellez and le Grande, mentioning the two opinions of the father and the
son upon this subject, give great praise to the son at the expence of
the father, but without reason.

In the first place, we have seen that the utmost exertion Don Emanuel
could make was to send 400 men to assist the king of Abyssinia, whose
country was then almost conquered by the Turks and Moors. It was not
then from India we were to expect the execution of so arduous an
undertaking. And as to the second, the younger Albuquerque is mistaken
egregiously in point of fact, for there never was a canal between
Cosseir and Kenna, the goods from the Red Sea were transported by a
caravan, and are so yet. We have seen, in the beginning of this work,
the account of my travelling thither from Kenna; this intercourse
probably was often interrupted by the Arabs in the days he mentions,
and so it is still; but it is the caravan, not the canal, that is stopt
by the Arabs, for no canal ever existed.

The sum of all this story is, a long and violent persecution followed
the conquest of Egypt by the Saracens, who were accustomed to live
in tents, which, with their dislike to the Christian churches, made
them destroy all the buildings of stone, as also persecute the masons,
whom they considered as being employed in the advancement of idolatry:
these unhappy workmen, therefore, fled in numbers to Lalibala, an
Abyssinian prince of their own religion, who employed them in many
stupendous works for diverting the Nile into the Red Sea, or the Indian
Ocean, which I have already described, and which exist entire to this
day[176].

This idea, indeed, had subsisted as long as the royal family lived
in the south part of Abyssinia, in Shoa, in the neighbourhood, and
sometimes on the very spot where the attempt was made. When the court,
however, removed northward, and the princes, no longer confined in
Geshen, (a mountain in Amhara) were imprisoned, as they now are, in
Wechné, in Belessen, near Gondar, these transactions of remote times
and places were gradually forgot, and often misrepresented; though,
so far down as the beginning of this century, we find Tecla Haimanout
I.[177] (king of Abyssinia) expostulating by a letter with the basha of
Cairo upon the murder of the French envoy M. du Roule, and threatening
the Turkish regency, that, it they persisted in such misbehaviour, he
would make the Nile the instrument of his vengeance, the keys of which
were in his hand, to give them famine or plenty, as they should deserve
of him. In my time, no sensible man in Abyssinia believed that such a
thing was possible, and few that it had ever been attempted.

As for the opinion of those, that the Nile may be turned into the
Red Sea from Nubia or Egypt, it deserves no answer. What could be
the motive of such an undertaking? Would the Egyptians suffer such
an operation to be carried on in their own country for the sake of
starving themselves? and if the country had been taken from them by an
enemy, still it could not be the interest of that conqueror to let the
inhabitants, now become his subjects, perish, and much less to reduce
them to the necessity of so doing by such an undertaking.

Much has been wrote about a miraculous drop, or dew, called Gotta, or
Nucta, which falls in Egypt precisely on St John’s day, and is believed
to be the peculiar gift of that saint; it stops the plague, causes
dough to leaven, or ferment, and announces a speedy and plentiful
inundation.

I hope my reader will not expect that I should enter into the
discussion of the part St John is thought to have in this event, my
business is only with natural causes.

Memphis and Alexandria, and all the ancient cities of Lower Egypt,
stand upon cisterns, into which the Nile, upon its overflowing, was
admitted, and there remained till it had deposited all its sediment,
and became fit for drinking. These cisterns are now full of filth;
though in disrepair, the water, when the Nile is high insinuates itself
into them through the broken conduits.

In February and March the sun is on its approach to the zenith of one
extremity of Egypt, and of course has a very considerable influence
upon the other. The Nile being now fallen low, the water in the
cisterns putrifies, and the river itself has lost all its volatile
and finer parts by the continued action of a vertical sun; so that,
instead of being subject to evaporation, it becomes daily more and
more inclined to putrefaction. About St John’s day[178] it receives a
plentiful mixture of the fresh and fallen rain from Ethiopia, which
dilutes and refreshes the almost corrupted river, and the sun near at
hand exerts its natural influence upon the water, which now is become
light enough to be exhaled, though it has still with it a mixture of
the corrupted fluid, so that it rises but a small height during the
first few days of the inundation, then falls down and returns to the
earth in plentiful and abundant dews; and that this is really so, I am
persuaded from what I observed myself at Cairo.

My quadrant was placed on the flat roof, or terrass, of a gentleman’s
house where I was taking observations; I had gone down to supper,
and soon after returned, when I found the brass limb of the quadrant
covered with small drops of dew, which were turned to a perfect green,
or copperas colour; and this green had so corroded the brass in an
hour’s time, that the marks remained on the limb of the quadrant
for six months; and the cavities made by the corrosion were plainly
discernible through a microscope.

It is in February, March, or April only, that the plague begins in
Egypt. I do not believe it an endemial disease, I rather think it comes
from Constantinople with merchandise, or passengers, and at this time
of the year that the air having attained a degree of putridity proper
to receive it by the long absence of dews, the infection is thereto
joined, and continues to rage till the period I just spoke of, when it
is suddenly stopped by the dews occasioned by a refreshing mixture of
rain-water, which is poured out into the Nile at the beginning of the
inundation.

The first and most remarkable sign of the change brought about in the
air is the sudden stopping of the plague at Saint John’s day; every
person, though shut up from society for months before, buys, sells, and
communicates with his neighbour without any sort of apprehension; and
it was never known, as far as I could learn upon fair inquiry, that one
fell sick of the plague after this anniversary: it will be observed I
don’t say _died_; there are, I know, examples of that, though I believe
but few; the plague is not always a disease that suddenly terminates,
it often takes a considerable time to come to a head, appearing only by
symptoms; so that people taken ill, under the most putrid influence of
the air, linger on, struggling with the disease which has already got
such hold that they cannot recover; but what I say, and mean is, that
no person is taken ill of the plague so as to die after the dew has
fallen in June; and no symptoms of the plague are ever commonly seen in
Egypt but in those spring months already mentioned, the greater part of
which are totally destitute of moisture.

I think the instance I am going to give, which is universally known,
and cannot be denied, brings this so home that no doubt can remain of
the origin of this dew, and its powerful effects upon the plague.

The Turks and Moors are known to be predestinarians; they believe the
hour of man’s death is so immutably fixed that nothing can either
advance or defer it an instant. Secure in this principle, they expose
in the market-place, immediately after Saint John’s day, the clothes
of the many thousands that have died during the late continuance of
the plague, all which imbibe the moist air of the evening and the
morning, are handled, bought, put on, and worn without any apprehension
of danger; and though these consist of furs, cotton, silk, and
woollen cloths, which are stuffs the most retentive of the infection,
no accident happens to those who wear them from this their happy
confidence.

I shall here sum up all that I have to say relating to the river Nile,
with a tradition handed down to us by Herodotus, the father of ancient
history, upon which moderns less instructed have grafted a number of
errors. Herodotus[179] says, that he was informed by the secretary of
Minerva’s treasury, that one half of the water of the Nile flowed due
north into Egypt, while the other half took an opposite course, and
flowed directly south into Ethiopia.

The secretary was probably of that country himself, and seems by his
observation to have known more of it than all the ancients together.
In fact, we have seen that, between 13° and 14° N. latitude, the Nile,
with all its tributary streams, which have their rise and course within
the tropical rains, falls down into the flat country, (the kingdom of
Sennaar), which is more than a mile lower than the high country in
Abyssinia, and thence, with a little inclination, it runs into Egypt.

Again, in lat. 9° in the kingdom of Gingero, the Zebeé runs south, or
south-east, into the inner Ethiopia, as do also many other rivers, and,
as I have heard from the natives of that country, empty themselves
into a lake, as those on the north of the Line do into the lake
Tzana; thence distribute their waters to the east and to the west.
These become the heads of great rivers that run through the interior
countries of Ethiopia (corresponding to the sea-coast of Melinda and
Mombaza) into the Indian Ocean, whilst, on the westward, they are the
origin of the vast streams that fall into the Atlantic, passing through
Benin and Congo, southward of the river Gambea, and the Sierraleona.

In short, the periodical rains from the tropic of Capricorn to the
Line, being in equal quantity with those that fall between the Line and
the tropic of Cancer, it is plain, that if the land of Ethiopia sloped
equally from the Line southward and northward, half of the rains that
fall on each side would go north, and half south, but as the ground
from 5° N. declines all southward, it follows that the river which runs
to the southward must be equal to those that run to the northward,
_plus_ the rain that falls in the 5° north latitude, where the ground
begins to slope to the southward, and there can be little doubt this
is at least one of the reasons why there are in the southern continent
so many rivers larger than the Nile that run both into the Indian and
Atlantic Oceans.

From this very true and sensible relation handed to us by Herodotus,
from the authority of the secretary of Minerva, the Nubian geographer
has framed a fiction of his own, which is, that the river Nile divides
itself into two branches, one of which runs into Egypt northward, and
one through the country of the negroes westward, into the Atlantic
Ocean. And this opinion has been greedily adopted by M. Ludolf[180],
who cites the authority of Leo Africanus, and that of his monk Gregory,
both of them, in these respects, fully as much mistaken as the Nubian
geographer himself. M. Ludolf, after quoting a passage of Pliny, tells
us that he had consulted the famous Bochart upon that subject whether
the Nile and the Niger (the river that runs through Nigritia into the
Western Ocean) were one and the same river? The famous Bochart answers
him peremptorily in the true spirit of a schoolman,--That there is
nothing more certain than that the Niger is a part of the river Nile.
With great submission, however, I must venture to say there is not the
least foundation for this assertion.

Pliny seems the first who gave rise to it, but he speaks modestly
upon the subject, giving his reasons as he goes along. “Nigri fluvio
eadem natura, quæ Nilo, calamum & papyrum, & easdem gignit animantes,
iisdemque temporibus augescit.[181]” That it has the same soil from
which the Nile takes its colour, the water is the same in taste,
produces the same reeds, and especially the papyrus; has the same
animals in it, such as the crocodile and hippopotamus, and overflows
at the same season; this is saying nothing but what may be applied
with equal truth to every other river between the northern tropic
and the Line; but the other two authors, the Nubian and the monk,
assert each of them a direct falsehood. The Nubian says, that if the
Nile carried all the rains that fall in Abyssinia down into Egypt,
the people would not be safe in their houses. To this I answer by a
matter of fact, the map of the whole course of the Nile is before the
reader; and it is plain from thence, that the whole rain in Abyssinia
must now go, and ever has gone down into Egypt, and yet the people are
very safe in their houses, and very seldom is the whole land of Egypt
compleatly overflowed: and it is by no means less certain from the same
inspection, that, unless a river as large as the Nile, constantly full,
having its rise in countries subject to perpetual rains, and pouring
its stream, which never decreases, into that river, as the Abiad does
at Halfaia, all the waters in Abyssinia collected in the Nile would not
be sufficient to pass its scanty stream through the burning deserts of
Nubia and the Barabra, so as it should be of any utility when arrived
in Egypt.

The next falsehood in point of fact is that of the monk Gregory, who
says that this left branch of the Nile parts from it, after having
passed the kingdom of Dongola into Nubia, after which it runs through
Elvah, and so down the desert into the Mediterranean, between the
Cyrenaicum and Alexandria. Now, first, we know, from the authority of
all antiquity, that there is not a desert more destitute of rivers than
that of the Thebaid. This want of water (not the distance) made the
voyage to the temple of Jupiter Ammon an enterprise next to desperate,
and so worthy of Alexander, who never, however, met a river in his way;
had there been there such a stream, there could be no doubt that the
banks of it would have been fully as well inhabited as those of the
Nile, and the Thebaid consequently no desert. Besides the caravans,
which for ages passed between Egypt and Sennaar, must have seen this
river, and drunk of it; so must the travellers, in the beginning of
this century, Poncet and M. du Roule. They were both at Elvah; and,
passing through the dreary deserts of Selima, they must have gone
along its side, and crossed it, where it parted from the Nile in their
journey to Sennaar. Whereas we know they never saw running water from
the time they left the Nile at Siout in Egypt, till they fell in again
with it at Moscho, during which period they had nothing but well water,
which they carried in skins with them.

The district of Elvah is the Oasis Magna and Oasis Parva of the
ancients; large plentiful springs breaking out in the middle of the
burning sands, and running constantly without diminution, have invited
inhabitants to flock around them. These conducting off the water that
spills over the fountain by trenches, the neighbouring lands have
quickly produced a plentiful vegetation: gardens and verdure are spread
on every side, large groves of palm tree have been planted, and the
overflowings of every fountain have produced a little paradise, like so
many beautiful and fruitful islands amidst an immense ocean.

The coast of the Mediterranean, from the Cyrenaicum or Ptolemaid (that
is, the coast from Bengazi, or Derna, to Alexandria) is well known by
the shipping of every nation; but what pilot or passenger ever saw this
magnificent watering-place in that desert coast, where this branch of
the Nile comes down into the Mediterranean? Besides, the author of this
fable betrays his ignorance in the very beginning, where he derives
this left branch of the Nile from the principal river, and says, that,
after passing the kingdom of Dongola, it enters Nubia. Now, when it
entered Dongola it must have already passed Nubia, for Dongola is the
capital of the Barabra, every inch of which is to the northward of
Nubia. I do not know worse guides in the geography of Africa than Leo
Africanus and the Nubian geographer. I believe them both impostors,
and the commentators upon them have greatly increased by their own
conjectures, the confusion and errors which the text has everywhere
occasioned.

As far as I have been ever able to learn, by a very diligent and
cautious inquiry, from the inhabitants of the neighbouring countries, I
believe the origin of the Niger is in lat. 12° north, and in long. 30°
from the meridian of Greenwich nearly; that it is composed of various
rivers falling down the sides of very high mountains, called Dyre and
Tegla; and runs straight west into the heart of Africa. I conclude
also, that this river (though it has abundant supply from every
mountain) is very much diminished by evaporation, running in a long
course upon the very limits of the tropical rains, when entire, under
the name of Senega; or, perhaps, when divided under those of Senega and
Gambia, it loses itself in the Atlantic Ocean. I conceive also, that,
as Pliny says, it has the same taste and natural productions with the
Nile, because it runs in the same climate, and like that river owes, if
not its existence, yet certainly its increase and fulness to the same
cause, the tropical rains in the northern hemisphere falling from high
mountains.

I hope I have now fully exhausted every subject worthy of inquiry
as to the place where the fountains of the Nile are situated, also
as to its course and various names, the different countries through
which it flows, the true cause, and every thing curious attending
its inundations; and that as, in old times, Caput Nili Quærere, _to
seek the source of the Nile_, was a proverb in use to signify the
impossibility of an attempt, it may hereafter be applied, with as much
reason, to denote the inutility of any such undertakings.




CHAP. XIX.

_Kind reception among the Agows--Their Number, Trade, Character, &c._


After having given my reader so long, though, I hope, no unentertaining
lecture, it is time to go back to Woldo, whom we had left settling
our reception with the chief of the village of Geesh. We found the
measures taken by this man such as convinced us at once of his capacity
and attachment. The miserable Agows, assembled all around him, were
too much interested in the appearance we made, not to be exceedingly
inquisitive how long our stay was to be among them. They saw, by the
horse driven before us, we belonged to Fasil, and suspected, for the
same reason, that they were to maintain us, or, in other words, that
we should live at discretion upon them as long as we chose to tarry
there; but Woldo, with great address, had dispelled these fears almost
as soon as they were formed. He informed them of the king’s grant to
me of the village of Geesh; that Fasil’s tyranny and avarice would end
that day, and another master, like Negadé Ras Georgis, was come to
pass a chearful time among them, with a resolution to pay for every
labour they were ordered to perform, and purchase all things for ready
money: he added, moreover, that no military service was further to be
exacted from them, either by the king or governor of Damot, nor from
their present master, as he had no enemies. We found these news had
circulated with great rapidity, and we met with a hearty welcome upon
our arrival at the village.

Woldo had asked a house from the Shum, who very civilly had granted
me his own; it was just large enough to serve me, but we were obliged
to take possession of four or five others, and we were scarcely
settled in these when a servant arrived from Fasil to intimate to
the Shum his surrendry of the property and sovereignty of Geesh to
me, in consequence of a grant from the king: he brought with him a
fine, large, milk-white cow, two sheep, and two goats; the sheep and
goats I understood were from Welleta Yasous. Fasil also sent us six
jars of hydromel, fifty wheat loaves of very excellent bread, and to
this Welleta Yasous had added two middle-sized horns of excellent
strong spirits. Our hearts were now perfectly at ease, and we passed
a very merry evening. Strates, above all, endeavoured, with many a
bumper of the good hydromel of Buré, to subdue the devil which he had
swallowed in the inchanted water. Woldo, who had done his part to great
perfection, and had reconciled the minds of all the people of the
village to us, had a little apprehension for himself; he thought he had
lost credit with me, and therefore employed the servant of Ayto Aylo
to desire me not to speak of the sash to Fasil’s servant. I assured
him, that, as long as I saw him acting properly, as he now did, it
was much more probable I should give him another sash on our return,
than complain of the means he had used to get this last. This entirely
removed all his fears, and indeed as long after as he was with us, he
every day deserved more and more our commendations.

Before we went to bed I satisfied Fasil’s servant, who had orders from
Welleta Yasous to return immediately; and, as he saw we did not spare
the liquor that he brought us, he promised to send a fresh supply as
soon as he returned home, which he did not fail to perform the day
after.

Woldo was now perfectly happy; he had no superior or spy over his
actions; he had explained himself to the Shum, that we should want
somebody to buy necessaries to make bread for us, and to take care
of the management of our house. We displayed our lesser articles for
barter to the Shum, and told him the most considerable purchases, such
as oxen and sheep, were to be paid in gold. He was struck with the
appearance of our wealth, and the generosity of our proposals, and
told Woldo that he insisted, since we were in his houses, we would
take his daughters for our house-keepers. The proposal was a most
reasonable one, and readily accepted. He accordingly sent for three in
an instant, and we delivered them their charge. The eldest took it upon
her readily, she was about sixteen years of age, of a stature above
the middle size, but she was remarkably genteel, and, colour apart,
her features would have made her a beauty in any country in Europe;
she was, besides, very sprightly; we understood not one word of her
language, though she comprehended very easily the signs that we made.
This nymph of the Nile was called by nickname Irepone, which signifies
some animal that destroys mice, but whether of the ferret or snake kind
I could not perfectly understand; sometimes it was one and sometimes
another, but which it was I thought of no great importance.

The first and second day, after disposing of some of our stock in
purchases, she thought herself obliged to render us an account, and
give back the residue at night to Woldo, with a protestation that she
had not stolen or kept any thing to herself. I looked upon this regular
accounting as an ungenerous treatment of our benefactress. I called on
Woldo, and made him produce a parcel that contained the same with the
first commodities we had given her; this consisted of beads, antimony,
small scissars, knives, and large needles; I then brought out a pacquet
of the same that had not been broken, and told her they were intended
to be distributed among her friends, and that we expected no account
from her; on the contrary, that, after she had bestowed these, to buy
us necessaries, and for any purposes she pleased, I had still as many
more to leave her at parting, for the trouble she had given herself.
I often thought the head of the little savage would have turned with
the possession of so much riches, and so great confidence, and it
was impossible to be so blinded, as not to see that I had already
made great progress in her affections. To the number of trifles I had
added one ounce of gold, value about fifty shillings sterling, which I
thought would defray our expences all the time we staid; and having now
perfectly arranged the œconomy of our family, nothing remained but to
make the proper observations.

The houses are all of clay and straw. There was no place for fixing my
clock; I was therefore obliged to employ a very excellent watch made
for me by Elicott. The dawn now began, and a few minutes afterwards
every body was at their doors; all of them crowded to see us, and we
breakfasted in public with very great chearfulness. The white cow
was killed, and every one invited to his share of her. The Shum,
priest of the river, should likewise have been of the party, but he
declined either sitting or eating with us, though his sons were not so
scrupulous.

It is upon the principal fountain and altar, already mentioned, that
once a-year, on the first appearance of the dog-star, (or, as others
say, eleven days after) this priest assembles the heads of the clans;
and having sacrificed a black heifer that never bore a calf, they
plunge the head of it into this fountain, they then wrap it up in its
own hide, so as no more to be seen, after having sprinkled the hide
within and without with water from the fountain. The carcase is then
split in half, and cleaned with extraordinary care; and, thus prepared,
it is laid upon the hillock over the first fountain, and washed all
over with its water, while the elders, or considerable people, carry
water in their hands joined (it must not be in any dish) from the two
other fountains; they then assemble upon the small hill a little well
of St Michael, (it used to be the place where the church now stands)
there they divide the carcase into pieces corresponding to the number
of the tribes, and each tribe has its privilege, or pretensions,
to particular parts, which are not in proportion to the present
consequence of the several clans. Geesh has a principal slice, though
the most inconsiderable territory of the whole; Sacala has the next;
and Zeegam, the most considerable of them all in power and riches, has
the least of the whole. I found it in vain to ask upon what rules this
distribution was founded; their general and constant answer was, It was
so observed in old times.

After having ate this carcase raw, according to their custom, and drunk
the Nile water to the exclusion of any other liquor, they pile up the
bones on the place where they sit, and burn them to ashes. This used
to be performed where the church now stands; but Ras Sela Christos,
some time after, having beaten the Agows, and desirous, at the Jesuits
instigation, to convert them to Christianity, he demolished their altar
where the bones were burnt, and built a church upon the site, the doors
of which, I believe, were never opened since that reign, nor is there
now, as far as we could perceive, any Christian there who might wish
to see it frequented. After Sela Christos had demolished their altar
by building this church, they ate the carcase, and burnt the bones, on
the top of the mountain of Geesh out of the way of profanation, where
the vestiges of this ceremony may yet be seen; but probably the fatigue
attending this, and the great indifference their late governors have
had for Christianity, have brought them back to a small hillock by the
side of the marsh, west of saint Michael’s church, and a little to the
southward, where they perform this solemnity every year, and they will
probably resume their first altar when the church is fallen to ruins,
which they are every day privately hastening.

After they have finished their bloody banquet, they carry the head,
close wrapt from sight in the hide, into the cavern, which they say
reaches below the fountains, and there, by a common light, without
torches, or a number of candles, as denoting a solemnity, they perform
their worship, the particulars of which I never could learn; it is a
piece of free-masonry, which every body knows, and no body ventures
to reveal. At a certain time of the night they leave the cave, but
at what time, or by what rule, I could not learn; neither would they
tell me what became of the head, whether it was ate, or buried, or how
consumed. The Abyssinians have a story, probably created by themselves,
that the devil appears to them, and with him they eat the head,
swearing obedience to him upon certain conditions, that of sending
rain, and a good season for their bees and cattle: however this may be,
it is certain that they pray to the spirit residing in the river, whom
they call the Everlasting God, Light of the World, Eye of the World,
God of Peace, their Saviour, and Father of the Universe.

Our landlord, the Shum, made no scruple of reciting his prayers
for seasonable rain, for plenty of grass, for the preservation of
serpents, at least of one kind of this reptile; he also deprecated
thunder in these prayers, which he pronounced very pathetically with
a kind of tone or song; he called the river “Most High God, Saviour
of the World;” of the other words I could not well judge, but by the
interpretation of Woldo. Those titles, however, of divinity which he
gave the river, I could perfectly comprehend without an interpreter,
and for these only I am a voucher.

I asked the priest, into whose good graces I had purposely insinuated
myself, if ever any spirit had been seen by him? He answered, without
hesitation, Yes; very frequently. He said he had seen the spirit the
evening of the 3d, (just as the sun was setting) under a tree, which
he shewed me at a distance, who told him of the death of a son, and
also that a party from Fasil’s army was coming; that, being afraid,
he consulted his serpent, who ate readily and heartily, from which he
knew no harm was to befal him from us. I asked him if he could prevail
on the spirit to appear to me? He said he could not venture to make
this request. If he thought he would appear to me, if, in the evening,
I sat under that tree alone? he said he believed not. He said he was
of a very graceful figure and appearance; he thought rather older than
middle age; but he seldom chose to look at his face; he had a long
white beard, his cloaths not like theirs, of leather, but like silk,
of the fashion of the country. I asked him how he was certain it was
not a man? he laughed, or rather sneered, shaking his head, and saying,
No, no, it is no man, but a spirit. I asked him then what spirit he
thought it was? he said it was _of the river_, it was God, the Father
of mankind; but I never could bring him to be more explicit. I then
desired to know why he prayed against thunder. He said, because it was
hurtful to the bees, their great revenue being honey and wax: then, why
he prayed for serpents? he replied, Because they taught him the coming
of good or evil. It seems they have all several of these creatures in
their neighbourhood, and the richer sort always in their houses, whom
they take care of, and feed before they undertake a journey, or any
affair of consequence. They take this animal from his hole, and put
butter and milk before him, of which he is extravagantly fond; if he
does not eat, ill-fortune is near at hand.

Nanna Georgis, chief of the Agows of Banja, a man of the greatest
consideration at Gondar, both with the king and Ras Michael, and my
particular friend, as I had kept him in my house, and attended him
in his sickness, after the campaign of 1769, confessed to me his
apprehensions that he should die, because the serpent did not eat upon
his leaving his house to come to Gondar. He was, indeed, very ill of
the low country fever, and very much alarmed; but he recovered, and
returned home, by Ras Michael’s order, to gather the Agows together
against Waragna Fasil; which he did, and soon after, he and other seven
chiefs of the Agows were slain at the battle of Banja; so here the
serpent’s warning was verified by a second trial, though it failed in
the first.

Before an invasion of the Galla, or an inroad of the enemy, they say
these serpents disappear, and are nowhere to be found. Fasil, the
sagacious and cunning governor of the country, was, as it was said,
greatly addicted to this species of divination, in so much as never to
mount his horse, or go from home, if an animal of this kind, which he
had in his keeping, refused to eat.

The Shum’s name was Kefla Abay, or Servant of the river; he was a
man about seventy, not very lean, but infirm, fully as much so as
might have been expected from that age. He conceived that he might
have had eighty-four or eighty-five children. That honourable charge
which he possessed had been in his family from the beginning of the
world, as he imagined. Indeed, if all his predecessors had as numerous
families as he, there was no probability of the succession devolving
to strangers. He had a long white beard, and very moderately thick; an
ornament rare in Abyssinia, where they have seldom any hair upon their
chin. He had round his body a skin wrapt and tied with a broad belt:
I should rather say it was an ox’s hide; but it was so scraped, and
rubbed, and manufactured, that it was of the consistence and appearance
of shamoy, only browner in colour. Above this he wore a cloak with the
hood up, and covering his head; he was, bare-legged, but had sandals,
much like those upon ancient statues; these, however, he put off as
soon as ever he approached the bog where the Nile rises, which we
were all likewise obliged to do. We were allowed to drink the water,
but make no other use of it. None of the inhabitants of Geesh wash
themselves, or their cloaths, in the Nile, but in a stream that falls
from the mountain of Geesh down into the plain of Assoa, which runs
south, and meets the Nile in its turn northward, passing the country of
the Gafats and Gongas.

The Agows, in whose country the Nile rises, are, in point of number,
one of the most considerable nations in Abyssinia; when their whole
force is raised, which seldom happens, they can bring to the field 4000
horse, and a great number of foot; they were, however, once much more
powerful; several unsuccessful battles, and the perpetual inroads of
the Galla, have much diminished their strength. The country, indeed, is
still full of inhabitants, but from their history we learn, that one
clan, called Zeegam, maintained singly a war against the king himself,
from the time of Socinios to that of Yasous the Great, who, after all,
overcame them by surprise and stratagem; and that another clan, the
Denguis, in like manner maintained the war against Facilidas, Hannes
I. and Yasous II. all of them active princes. Their riches, however,
are still greater than their power, for though their province in length
is no where 60 miles, nor half that in breadth, yet Gondar and all
the neighbouring country depend for the necessaries of life, cattle,
honey, butter, wheat, hides, wax, and a number of such articles, upon
the Agows, who come constantly in succession, a thousand and fifteen
hundred at a time, loaded with these commodities, to the capital.

As the dependence upon the Agows is for their produce rather than on
the forces of their country, it has been a maxim with wise princes to
compound with them for an additional tribute, instead of their military
service; the necessities of the times have sometimes altered these wise
regulations, and between their attachment to Fasil, and afterwards to
Ras Michael, they have been very much reduced, whereby the state hath
suffered.

It will naturally occur, that, in a long carriage, such as that of a
hundred miles in such a climate, butter must melt, and be in a state
of fusion, consequently very near putrefaction; this is prevented
by the root of an herb, called Moc-moco, yellow in colour, and in
shape nearly resembling a carrot; this they bruise and mix with their
butter, and a very small quantity preserves it fresh for a considerable
time; and this is a great saving and convenience, for, supposing salt
was employed, it is very doubtful if it would answer the intention;
besides, salt is a money in this country, being circulated in the form
of wedges, or bricks; it serves the purpose of silver coin, and is the
change of gold; so that this herb is of the utmost use in preventing
the increase in price of this necessary article, which is the principal
food of all ranks of people in this country. Brides paint their feet
likewise from the ancle downwards, as also their nails and palms of
their hands, with this drug. I brought with me into Europe a large
quantity of the seed resembling that of coriander, and dispersed it
plentifully through all the royal gardens: whether it has succeeded or
not I cannot say.

Besides the market of Gondar, the neighbouring black savages,
the woolly-headed Shangalla, purchase the greatest part of these
commodities from them, and many others, which they bring from the
capital when they return thence; they receive in exchange elephants
teeth, rhinoceros horns, gold in small pellets, and a quantity of
very fine cotton; of which goods they might receive a much greater
quantity were they content to cultivate trade in a fair way, without
making inroads upon these savages for the sake of slaves, and thereby
disturbing them in their occupations of seeking for gold and hunting
the elephant.

The way this trade, though very much limited, is established, is by
two nations sending their children mutually to each other; there is
then peace between those two families which have such hostages; these
children often intermarry; after which that family is understood to be
protected, and at peace, perhaps, for a generation: but such instances
are rare, the natural propensity of both nations being to theft and
plunder; into these they always relapse; mutual enmity follows in
consequence.

The country of the Agows, called Agow Midrè, from its elevation, must
be of course temperate and wholesome; the days, indeed, are hot, even
at Sacala, and, when exposed to the sun, we are sensible of a scorching
heat; but whenever you are seated in the shade, or in a house, the
temperature is cool, as there is a constant breeze which makes the sun
tolerable even at mid-day, though we are here but 10° from the Line, or
a few minutes more.

Though these Agows are so fortunate in their climate, they are not said
to be long-livers; but their precise age is very difficult to ascertain
to any degree of exactness, as they have no fixed or known epoch to
refer to; and, though their country abounds with all the necessaries
of life, their taxes, tributes, and services, especially at present,
are so multiplied upon them, whilst their distresses of late have been
so great and frequent, that they are only the manufacturers of the
commodities they sell, to satisfy these constant exorbitant demands,
and cannot enjoy any part of their own produce themselves, but live in
misery and penury scarce to be conceived. We saw a number of women,
wrinkled and sun-burnt so as scarce to appear human, wandering about
under a burning sun, with one and sometimes two children upon their
back, gathering the seeds of bent grass to make a kind of bread.

The cloathing of the Agows is all of hides, which they soften and
manufacture in a method peculiar to themselves, and this they wear
in the rainy season, when the weather is cold, for here the rainy
seasons are of long duration, and violent, which still increases the
nearer you approach the Line, for the reasons I have already assigned.
The younger sort are chiefly naked, the married women carrying their
children about with them upon their backs; their cloathing is like
a shirt down to their feet, and girded with a belt or girdle about
their middle; the lower part of it resembles a large double petticoat,
one ply of which they turn back over their shoulders, fastening it
with a broach, or skewer, across their breast before, and carry their
children in it behind. The women are generally thin, and, like the
men, below the middle size. There is no such thing as barrenness known
among them. They begin to bear children before eleven; they marry
generally about that age, and are marriageable two years before: they
close child-bearing before they are thirty, though there are several
instances to the contrary.

Dengui, Sacala, Dengla, and Geesh, are all called by the name of
Ancasha, and their tribute is paid in honey. Quaquera and Azena pay
honey likewise; Banja, honey and gold; Metakel, gold; Zeegam, gold.
There comes from Dengla a particular kind of sheep, called Macoot,
which are said to be of a breed brought from the southward of the Line;
but neither sheep, butter, nor slaves make part of their tribute, being
reserved for presents to the king and great men.

Besides what they sell, and what they pay to the governor of Damot,
the Agows have a particular tribute which they present to the king,
one thousand dabra of honey, each dabra containing about sixty pounds
weight, being a large earthen vessel. They pay, moreover, fifteen
hundred oxen and 1000 ounces of gold: formerly the number of jars of
honey was four thousand, but several of these villages being daily
given to private people by the king, the quantity is diminished by the
quota so alienated. The butter is all sold; and, since the fatal battle
of Banja, the king’s share comes only to about one thousand jars. The
officer that keeps the accounts, and sees the rents paid, is called
Agow Miziker[182]; his post is worth one thousand ounces of gold; and
by this it may be judged with what œconomy this revenue is collected.
This post is generally the next to the governor of Damot, but not of
course; they are separate provinces, and united only by the special
grant of the king.

Although I had with me two large tents sufficient for my people, I was
advised to take possession of the houses to secure our mules and horses
from thieves in the night, as also from the assaults of wild beasts,
of which this country is full. Almost every small collection of houses
has behind it a large cave, or subterraneous dwelling, dug in the rock,
of a prodigious capacity, and which must have been the work of great
labour. It is not possible, at this distance of time, to say whether
these caverns were the ancient habitation of the Agows when they were
Troglodytes, or whether they were intended for retreats upon any alarm
of an irruption of the Galla into their country.

At the same time I must observe, that all the clans, or districts of
the Agows, have the whole mountains of their country perforated in
caves like these; even the clans of Zeegam and Quaquera, the first of
which, from its power arising from the populous state of the country,
and the number of horses it breeds, seems to have no reason to fear
the irregular invasions of naked and ill-armed savages such as are the
Galla. The country of Zeegam, however, which has but few mountains,
hath many of these caverns, one range above another, in every mountain
belonging to them. Quaquera, indeed, borders upon the Shangalla; as
these are all foot, perfectly contiguous, and separated by the river,
the caverns were probably intended as retreats for cattle and women
against the attacks of those barbarians, which were every minute to be
apprehended.

In the country of the Tcheratz Agow, the mountains are all excavated
like these in Damot, although they have no Galla for their neighbours
whole invasions they need be afraid of. Lalibala, indeed, their
great king and saint, about the twelfth century, converted many of
these caves into churches, as if he had considered them as formerly
the receptacles of Pagan superstition. At the same time, it is not
improbable that these caverns were made use of for religious purposes;
that of Geesh, for instance, was probably, in former times, a place
of secret worship paid to the river, because of that use it still is,
not only to the inhabitants of the village, but to the assembly of the
clans in general, who, after the ceremonies I have already spoken of,
retire, and then perform their sacred ceremonies, to which none but
the heads of families in the Agows country are ever admitted.

When I shewed our landlord, Kefla Abay, the dog-star, (Syrius) he knew
it perfectly, saying it was Seir, it was the star of the river, the
messenger or star of the convocation of the tribes, or of the feast;
but I could not observe he ever prayed to it, or looked at it otherwise
than one does to a dial, nor mentioned it with the respect he did the
Abay; nor did he shew any sort of attention to the planets, or to any
other star whatever.

On the 9th of November, having finished my memorandum relating to these
remarkable places, I traced again on foot the whole course of this
river from its source to the plain of Goutto. I was unattended by any
one, having with me only two hunting dogs, and my gun in my hand. The
quantity of game of all sorts, especially the deer kind, was, indeed,
surprising; but though I was, as usual, a very successful sportsman, I
was obliged, for want of help, to leave each deer where he fell. They
sleep in the wild oats, and do not rise till you are about to tread
upon them, and then stare at you for half a minute before they attempt
to run off.

The only mention I shall make of the natural productions of this place
comes the more properly in here, as it relates to my account of the
religion of this people. In the writings of the Jesuits, the Agows are
said to worship _canes_[183]; but of this I could find no traces among
them. I saw no plant of this kind in their whole country, excepting
some large bamboo-trees. This plant, in the Agows language, is called
Krihaha. It grows in great quantity upon the sides of the precipice of
Geesh, and helps to conceal the cavern we have already mentioned; but
though we cut several pieces of these canes, they shewed no sort of
emotion, nor to be the least interested in what we were doing.

Our business being now done, nothing remained but to depart. We had
passed our time in perfect harmony; the address of Woldo, and the
great attachment of our friend Irepone, had kept our house in a
chearful abundance. We had lived, it is true, too magnificently for
philosophers, but neither idly nor riotously; and I believe never
will any _sovereign_ of Geesh be again so popular, or reign over his
subjects with greater mildness. I had practised medicine gratis, and
killed, for three days successively, a cow each day for the poor and
the neighbours. I had cloathed the high priest of the Nile from head
to foot, as also his two sons, and had decorated two of his daughters
with beads of all the colours of the rainbow, adding every other little
present they seemed fond of, or that we thought would be agreeable.
As for our amiable Irepone, we had reserved for her the choicest of
our presents, the most valuable of every article we had with us, and a
large proportion of every one of them; we gave her, besides, some gold;
but she, more generous and nobler in her sentiments than us, seemed
to pay little attention to these that announced to her the separation
from her friend; she tore her fine hair, which she had every day before
braided in a newer and more graceful manner; she threw herself upon
the ground in the house, and refused to see us mount on horseback, or
take our leave, and came not to the door till we were already set out,
then followed us with her good wishes and her eyes as far as she could
see or be heard.

I took my leave of Kefla Abay, the venerable priest of the most famous
river in the world, who recommended me with great earnestness to the
care of his god, which, as Strates humorously enough observed, meant
nothing less than he hoped the devil would take me. All the young men
in the village, with lances and shields, attended us to Saint Michael
Sacala, that is, to the borders of their country, and end of my little
sovereignty.




REGISTER

OF THE

QUANTITY OF RAIN-WATER,

_IN INCHES AND DECIMALS_,

WHICH FELL AT GONDAR, IN ABYSSINIA, IN THE YEAR 1770,

THROUGH A FUNNEL OF ONE FOOT ENGLISH IN DIAMETER.


  The rain began this year on the first of March: there fell }        INCHES.
  in showers, that lasted only a Few minutes, between the    }
  1st of March and the last of April,                        }           .039
                                                                         ____


MAY.

  1.        From the 1st to the 6th,                                     .039
            From the 6th to the 8th,                                     .120
            From the 10th to the 12th it rained chiefly in the night,    .711
            From the 12th to the 14th,                                   .123
  19.       At four in the afternoon a small shower, but heavy rain
            in the night,                                                .526
  21.       At 7 o’clock in the evening a small shower, which continued
            moderately through the night,                                .171
  27.       At 6 in the evening heavy rain for an hour,                  .540
  29.       At 3 in the afternoon frequent showers of light rain.
            It continued one hour 30 minutes,                            .487
            Total rain in May,                                          2.717


JUNE.

  1.        At 12 noon, light rain for 15 minutes,                       .028
  2.        Between 12 o’clock night it has rained 30 minutes, in
            small showers, which lasted 5 or 6 minutes at a time,        .049
  4.        At 8 in the morning slight showers for 30 minutes,           .014
  5.        Between 6 and 10 in the morning four small showers,
            that lasted 32 minutes, and at 12 a very gentle rain
            that lasted 15 minutes,                                      .031
  10.       It has rained very violently for 6 hours 30 minutes,         .342
  11.       Between 2 and 6 in the afternoon, at three several times,
            it has rained 20 minutes,                                    .014
  12.       At noon a violent rain for one hour 30 minutes. At half
            past 1 in the afternoon light rain for an hour. At 4
            afternoon, light rain for 30 minutes. At half past six
            same afternoon, a very gentle rain for 3 hours,              .421
  13.       Between 4 and 5 afternoon it rained twice for 15 minutes,
            but not perceptible in the recipient,                        ----
  16.       Between 2 and 6 afternoon it has rained three times
            smart showers, in all about 20 minutes,                      .033
  17.       There fell in the night small rain for an hour,              .002
  18.       At 1 afternoon there was a strong shower for 15 minutes.
            At half past 1 another for 45 minutes. Same
            day at 6 afternoon, it rained at intervals for 2
            hours,                                                       .750
  19.       At half after 2 afternoon it began to rain violently with
            intervals. At night a slight shower for 20 minutes,          .118
  20.       At twelve noon there was a very slight shower for 6 minutes.
            At half past 5, same day, a small shower that
            lasted 30 minutes. At 8 o’clock evening it began to
            rain smartly at intervals for 4 hours,                       .171
  21.       At a quarter past 11 it rained violently with thunder and
            lightning for about 2 hours. At half past 4 in the
            evening it rained, with intervals, in all about 45 minutes,  .330
  22.       At half past 12 noon, it rained an hour,                     .175
  23.       At one o’clock afternoon slight showers for 2 hours.
            Heavy rain in the night for 4 hours,                         .358
  25.       At a quarter past one afternoon, a small shower, which
            lasted one hour 35 minutes. At night it rained one hour
            30 minutes; heavy rain with thunder and lightning,           .552
  26.       At two in the afternoon, violent rain with intervals for 30
            minutes. At half past five it rained for 30 minutes;
            and the beginning of the night for three hours,              .233
  27.       At a quarter past twelve, a small shower for one hour 45
            minutes, and at night a moderate shower,                     .302
  28.       At half past twelve, a gentle rain. At 50 minutes after
            twelve, violent. At two in the afternoon very gentle
            rain for 15 minutes; and at 7, moderate rain for one
            hour and 30 minutes,                                         .290
  29.       At 1 in the afternoon, light rain, but a heavy rain
            must have fallen somewhere else, as the river Kahha
            is overflowed,                                               .092
  30.       At noon a very gentle rain for 15 minutes,                   .002
                                                                        -----
            Total rain in June,                                         4.307


JULY.

  1.        At 20 minutes past eleven, strong rain for 30 minutes,
            with some showers through the night,                         .306
  2.        At half past eleven, a small shower for 30 minutes, and
            then, at twelve, a violent shower, wind south-west,
            for 45 minutes,                                              .792
  3.        It rained at four in the afternoon, and in the night,        .311
  4.        It rained from twelve to two, and in the night likewise,     .390
  5.        It rained at noon, and some in the night,                    .029
  7.        It rained and hailed violently. It rained in the night
            likewise,                                                   1.686
  8.        Light rain in the night,                                     .038
  9.        Light rain for a few minutes, and no more all day; but
            the river Kahha has suddenly overflowed, and there
            is appearance of rain on the Mountain of the Sun,            .017
  10.       No rain,                                                     ----
  11.       Ditto,                                                       ----
  12.       At half an hour past noon it rained violently,               .422
  13.       Violent rain at mid-day, and also in the night,             1.185
  14.       A few light showers night and day,                           .054
  15.       A small shower in the evening, and another in the night,     .251
  16.       No rain,                                                     ----
  17.       A small shower at one in the afternoon, and flying
            showers throughout the day. It rained at ten at
            night violently,                                             .658
  18.       A gentle shower at noon, but continued raining in the
            night,                                                       .463
  19.       Light showers all the night,                                 .237
  20.       It rained all night till eight o’clock next morning,         .714
  21.       Light showers in the afternoon, but violent rain in the
            night,                                                      1.329
  22.       Light showers in the evening,                                .174
  23.       It rained one shower at half past ten in the morning,        .107
  24.       Light showers night and day,                                 .226
  25.       Light rains and frequent,                                    .015
  26.       Light showers throughout the evening,                        .081
  27.       Light rains,                                                 .148
  28.       Flying showers,                                              .070
  29.       Ditto,                                                       .081
  30.       Light showers,                                               .013
  31.       Flying light showers night and day,                          .292
                                                                       ------
            Total rain in July,                                        10.089


AUGUST.

  1.        Light rain in the afternoon,                                 .056
  2.        It rained in the night smartly,                              .329
  3.        It rained at noon violently,                                1.318
  4.        It rained from mid-day to evening, and some showers in
            the night,                                                  1.723
  5.        At 2 in the afternoon it began to rain violently for 2
            hours,                                                      1.042
  6.        Smart showers at different times in the evening and night,   .490
  7.        It rained in the night,                                      .580
  8.        Light rain in the night,                                     .053
  9.        Flying showers through the day, but for 6 minutes.
            Evening very violent,                                        .186
  10.       Smart showers in the evening and night,                      .342
  11. & 12. Frequent showers, with a high wind,                         1.184
  13. & 14. Light rain the first day, but violent on the second,        1.423
  15.       Fair all day, but rained at night,                           .475
  16.       Flying showers night and day,                                .144
  17.       A very violent shower of short duration,                     .371
  18. & 19. Several small showers,                                       .609
  20. & 21. Frequent light showers,                                      .236
  22. & 23. Constant rain,                                              1.502
  24.       Frequent showers in the evening,                             .306
  25. & 26. Constant rain,                                              1.763
  27.       Frequent showers,                                            .289
  28.       Ditto,                                                       .280
  29.       It rained in the night,                                      .355
  30.       Ditto,                                                       .302
  31.       Ditto,                                                       .211
                                                                       ------
           Total rain in August,                                       15.569


SEPTEMBER.

  1.        It rained in the night,                                      .079
  2.        Ditto,                                                       .107
  3. & 4.   Frequent showers night and day,                              .358
  5. & 6.   Ditto,                                                       .568
  7.        It rained in the night only,                                 .213
  8.        No rain,                                                     ----
  9.        It rained violently for a few minutes at 8 in the
            Evening,                                                     .055
  10.       No rain,                                                     ----
  11.       It rained in the night only,                                 .227
  12.       It rained smartly in the night,                              .566
  13.       No rain,                                                     ----
  14.       Light showers in the day,                                    .042
  15.       Frequent showers night and day,                              .159
  16.       It rained a little in the night,                             .132
  18.       No rain,                                                     ----
  19.       Ditto,                                                       ----
  20.       Flying showers night and day,                                .263
  21.       No rain,                                                     ----
  22.       Ditto,                                                       ----
  23.       Some rain in the night,                                      .039
  24.       Ditto,                                                       .026
  25.       The rain ceased,                                             ----
                                                                        _____

            Total rain in September,                                    2.834

N. B. This is the festival of the Cross in Egypt, when the inundation
begins to abate. It rains no more in Abyssinia till towards the
beginning of November, and then only for a few days; but these are the
rains Abyssinia cannot want for their latter crops, and it was for
these the Agows prayed when we were at the fountains of the Nile the
5th of November 1770.




STATE

OF THE

QUANTITY OF RAIN-WATER,

WHICH FELL IN ABYSSINIA AT KOSCAM, THE QUEEN’S PALACE, IN 1771, DURING
THE RAINY MONTHS,

_THROUGH A FUNNEL OF ONE FOOT ENGLISH IN DIAMETER, AS IN THE PRECEDING
YEAR 1770._


FEBRUARY.

                                                                      INCHES.
  23.       This day it rained, for the first time, from a
            quarter before four o’clock afternoon to
            half past four ditto,                                        .003
  28.       It rained in the night one hour and a quarter,               .001


MARCH.

  4.        It rained in the night near two hours small rain,            .042
  7.        It rained a small shower in the evening,                     .014
  12.       It rained three quarters of an hour this afternoon,          .017
  24.       It rained and hailed violently for 18 minutes in
            the night,                                                   .017
  29.       It rained an hour and a half in the afternoon,               .066
  30.       It rained hard in the night,                                 .504
                                                                         ----
            Total rain in February and March,                            .664


APRIL.

  3.        It rained, or rather hailed, nine minutes,                   ----
  5.        It rained an hour in the afternoon,                          .067
  8.        Small rain at intervals throughout the afternoon,            .002
  10.       It rained an hour in the night,                              .003
  30.       It rained one hour and a quarter in the night,               .013
                                                                         ----
  Total rain in April,                                                   .085


MAY.

  1.        From the 31st ult. to this day, at different times,          .330
  3.        It rained hard in the night,                                 .355
  6.        It has rained violently since three in the afternoon,
            wind S. E. variable,                                         .095
  7.        It has rained heavily in the night, wind varying
            from N. to S. and S. W.                                      .368
  8.        It rained small rain in the afternoon,                       .042
  11.       It has rained small rain this afternoon, wind N. W.          .002
  14.       It has rained since yesterday at three all night, and
            till noon to-day,                                            .675
  27.       From yesterday at two P. M. it rained to half past
            six, and heavily most part of the night, wind varying
            from N. to S.                                                .634
                                                                        -----
            Total rain in May,                                          2.501


JUNE.

  1.        From yesterday at noon, in the night, and this
            day, wind W. S. W.                                           .212
  3.        At night, south,                                             .002
  5.        It rained in the night, S. W.                                .223
  6.        Ditto,                                                       .006
  9.        It rained in the night and afternoon, wind W. by S.          .725
  10.       Ditto,                                                       .463
  11.       It rained in the night,                                      .343
  13.       It rained from the 12th, at noon, to the 13th at
            ten, S. S. W.                                               1.265
  14.       It rained from three till seven,                             .120
  15.       It rained last night from sun-set till midnight, S.          .160
            N. B. The 16th at night, is the day the Egyptians
            say the Nile ferments, and is troubled, by falling
            of the nucta.
  18.       After three days fair, wind fresh, N. it began to
            rain yesterday, and rained three quarters of an
            hour, wind varying from north to west,                       .490
            19. It rained with intervals from four to ten last
            night, wind north, varying by east to south,
            and south-west, where it fell calm, and rained
            violently,                                                   .530
  20.       It rained from a quarter before six, till ten at night,
            wind at north, fresh; changed to east, then to
            south, and there fell calm; violent thunder and
            lightning,                                                   .635
  21.       It began to rain yesterday at three, and rained till
            near five; wind changed from north to south,
            and fell calm; cleared with wind at north,                   .550
  22.       It began to rain at three, and rained till five; wind
            changed from north to east, then to south, and
            fell calm; cleared with wind at north; fair all
            night,                                                       .149
  25.       It has been fair till yesterday evening: at three it
            began raining, and rained till five this morning,
            a few drops; wind north,                                     .067
  26.       It rained small rain at several times yesterday afternoon,
            and a few drops this morning, wind N.
            calm; at ten it came to south and then to west,              .120
  27.       It rained yesterday afternoon from four to five;
            wind changed from north to west, but speedily
            returned to north, fresh,                                    .054
  28. & 29. It rained the 27th in the afternoon and in the
            night, wind at north. Yesterday it rained small
            rain all day till five, and cleared in the night,
            with wind at north,                                          .268
                                                                        -----
            Total rain in June,                                         6.388


JULY.

    1.        There fell small showers the night of the 29th and
              of the 30th,                                                 .093
    3.        There fell a small shower the second in the afternoon,
              and last night hard,                                         .267
    4.        It rained small rain at noon. From two, and all
              night, heavy and constant rain. It thundered
              from noon till three,                                        .373
    5.        It rained all yesterday afternoon, and by intervals,
              till nine at night. Small rain this morning;
              calm; W. S. W. and S. W.                                     .423
    6.        It rained yesterday afternoon and in the night;
              S. W.                                                        .489

      N. B. The 6th of July is the first of the month Hamlie, and of
      the Egyptian month Abib. It is this day they first begin to cry
      the Nile's increase in the streets of Cairo. The night before,
      or 30th of Senne, is called at Cairo the Eide el Bishaara, or
      the eve of good news, because, after having measured at the
      Mikeas, they come and tell at Cairo that to-morrow they begin
      to count the Nile's rising.

  7.        It rained from two in the afternoon till four, and
            from ten till midnight,                                      .318
  10.       It rained yesternight, and in the afternoon and
            night the day before,                                        .289
  11.       It rained till yesterday afternoon: in the night a
            violent shower that lasted 39 minutes; wind
            south by west,                                              1.162
  12.       It rained a little from two to three in the afternoon,
            but in the night violently for a short time,                 .319
  13.       It rained yesterday from three quarters past twelve
            till midnight; W. S. W. calm,                                .912
  14.       It rained all yesterday afternoon till midnight,             .739
  15.       It rained the 14th in the afternoon, and the 15th
            a few showers through the day,                               .816
  16.       It rained in the night, and small rain in the afternoon,     .290
  17.       It rained in the afternoon two showers, and in the
            night a little; S. W.                                        .212
  19.       It rained in the afternoon the 17th and 18th, and
            the 18th only in the night,                                  .912
  20.       It rained yesterday from two till half past ten constant
            rain, and the hail lay all the afternoon on
            the hills S. E. of the town; very cold wind;
            S. by W.                                                    1.371
  21. & 22. It rained but one small shower the 20th, the 21st
            it rained little in the afternoon, but hard in
            the night,                                                  1.185
  24.       It rained in the morning of yesterday only, fair
            in the afternoon; to-day, in the morning, fair
            in the night,                                                .766
  25.       It rained all yesterday afternoon, and all this
            morning small rain, but none in the night,                   .452
  28.       From the 25th in the afternoon to this day at
            noon,                                                       2.137
  29.       From the 28th at noon to the 29th it rained in
            the first part of the night, but was fair all afternoon
            and this morning,                                            .267
            From the 29th at noon, to the 31st at ditto,                 .568
                                                                       ------
            Total rain in July,                                        14.360


  AUGUST.

  1.        It rained yesterday afternoon, but in the night little.
            To day fair,                                                 .544
  4.        It rained only the third in the evening, and night
            and this morning,                                           1.188
  5.        It rained yesterday evening and in the night, till
            noon little,                                                 .544
  6.        It rained yesterday afternoon, and all night, and
            a little this morning,                                       .250
  8.        It was fair these two days, and only rained one
            hard shower last night,                                      .178
  9.        It rained last night only, was fair all day, and in this
            morning,                                                     .214
  10.       It rained yesterday all the afternoon, and the first
            of the night. To-day fair,                                   .869
  11.       It rained in the night yesterday; all day and this
            morning fair,                                                .188
  12.       It rained a small shower yesterday afternoon, and
            in the night a little,                                       .268
  13.       It rained yesterday at three a hard shower, and
            a little in the night,                                       .308
  14.       It rained a few drops in the day, and a hard
            shower at night,                                             .360
  15.       It rained a hard shower near three, and at ten
            at night,                                                    .386
  16.       In the night,                                                .027
  17.       It rained hard several times in the evening and
            night,                                                       .831
  18.       It rained hard yesterday afternoon, and in the
            night,                                                       .329
  19.       It rained all day, but not hard,                             .491
  20.       It rained in the afternoon only,                             .010
  21.       Ditto,                                                       .097
  22.       It was fair all yesterday, and rained only a hard
            shower at 9,                                                 .424
  23.       It rained hard at noon, and the evening, with little
            intervals, till 9 at night, and again this morning at
            sun-rise till 7,                                            1.148
  24.       It did not rain yesterday,                                   ----
  25.       It rained an hour between two and three,                     .332
  26.       It rained a small shower yesterday, and none in the
            night,                                                       .005
  27.       It rained a hard shower at four, and this day at 12
            morning, the night clear,                                    .268
  28.       It rained hard yesterday at 2 for a few minutes,             .201
  29.       It rained a hard shower for near an hour, after
            two, but clear all night and this morning,                   .450
  30. & 31. It rained a small shower the 30th, and heavily for
            a quarter of an hour the 31st, at night, at ten,             .109
                                                                       ------
            Total rain in August,                                      10.019


  SEPTEMBER.

  2.        It rained yesterday a hard shower in the evening,
            and at ten at night,                                         .664
  3.        It rained only a few drops, which did not appear
            in the funnel,                                               ----
  4.        It rained from noon till sun-set yesterday, with hard
            and violent thunder: night fair,                            1.739
            N. B. It is observed at Gondar, the Pagomen is
            always rainy. It begins this year the 4th, and consists
            of six days, being Leap Year.
  5.        It rained yesterday all afternoon, small rain,               .399
  6.        It rained yesterday all afternoon, and small rain in
            the night till ten,                                          .306
  7.        It rained from before noon till four, small rain;
            the night fair. Wind high at north,                          .846
  8.        It rained from noon for an hour, small rain,                 .214
  9.        It rained a small shower at noon; clouds drive
            from east to west; wind north,                               .107
  10.       Saint John's day, no rain,                                   ----
  11.       It rained from noon till five o'clock, wind W.
            cold; clouds drive from east and west,                      1.135
  12.       It rained a smart shower a little before noon.
            Clouds drive from east and from west,                        .214
  13.       It rained a small shower a little after noon. Cold
            and calm. Clouds drive from east and west,                   .035
  14.       It rained small rain from noon to three, and hard
            from eleven till near midnight,                              .344
  15.       It was fair all yesterday, but rained hard for a few
            minutes at seven, and also a little before midnight,
            from the east,                                               .186
  16.       No rain to-day,                                              ----
  18.       It rained a small shower last night, and to-day at
            noon,                                                        .053
  19.       It rained and hailed violently in the afternoon,            1.096
                                                                        -----
            Total rain in September,                                    7.338

The rain totally ceased the 19th, none having
fallen from this day to the 25th.

Saint John's day is the time observed for the rains beginning
to abate.

    N. B. At the 5th of October the people were all crying for
    rain; the ground all in cracks, and teff in the blade burnt up.


TOTAL _of_ RAIN _that fell in_ ABYSSINIA _in the Years_ 1770 _and_
1771, _in the Rainy Months_.

GONDAR.

1770.

  March }       INCHES.
  &     }          .039
  April,}
  May,            2.717
  June,           4.307
  July,          10.089
  August,        15.569
  September,      2.834
                 ------
                 35.555
                 ------


KOSCAM.

1771.

  February,}    INCHES.
  &        }       .664
  March,   }
  April,           .085
  May,            2.501
  June,           6.388
  July,          14.360
  August,        10.019
  September,      7.338
                 ------
                 41.355
                 ------


_END OF THE THIRD VOLUME._




FOOTNOTES:

[1] Supposed from its name to have been formerly the capital of the
Dobas.

[2] Levit. chap. xix, ver. 28. Jerem. chap. xvi, ver. 6.

[3] See the article kol-quall in the appendix.

[4] I apprehend this is the same instrument used by the ancients,
and censured by the prophets, which, in our translation, is rendered
crisping-pins. Isa. chap. iii. ver. 22.

[5] See the article Erkoom in the Appendix.

[6] A rebel governor of Samen, of which I shall after have occasion to
speak.

[7] Gol. p. 22. proem.

[8] Poncet says that these obelisks are covered with hieroglyphics;
but in this he is wrong; he has mistaken the carving, I shall directly
mention, for hieroglyphics. London edit. 12mo. 1709, p. 106.

[9] Shihor.

[10] See Johnson’s translation of Jerome Lobo, p. 29.

[11] See page 28.

[12] Page 28.

[13] Poncet’s voyage to Ethiopia, p. 99.

[14] It signifies _cold_.

[15] A man much attached to Michael, and had been preferred by him to
many commands and consequently was the only Greek that could be called
a good soldier.

[16] The crooked manner in which they hold their neck when this
ornament is on their forehead, for fear it should fall forward,
perfectly shews the meaning of speaking with a stiff neck when you hold
the horn on high, or erect like the horn of the unicorn.

[17] See Introduction.

[18] See the article ensete in the appendix.

[19] Vid. Le Grande’s Hist. of Abyssinia.

[20] Baalomaal, which, literally translated, is, Master of his effects,
or goods.

[21] Hatzè Azazé.

[22] Strabo, lib. xv. p. 783. Joseph. lib. xviii. cap. 3. Procop. lib.
i. de Bel Pers.

[23] Dan. chap. ii.

[24] Procop. lib. i. cap. 11.

[25] Arrian, lib. ii. cap. 14.

[26] Plut in Artax. lib. xv. p. 730.

[27] Lucretius, lib. v. Ovid. Metam. lib. i. Lucian, in Navig.

[28] Arrian, lib. iv. cap. 11. Exod. chap. 4. Matth. chap. 2.

[29] Justin, lib. vi. Omil. Prob.

[30] Justin, lib. 2.

[31] Herod. lib. iii.

[32] Herod, lib. vi.

[33] Suet. Vespas. cap. 23, Sex. Aurel. Victor, cap. 23.

[34] Lucian. de Votis ceu in Navigio, Esdras, lib. iii.

[35] Valer. Maxim. lib. vi. cap. 2.

[36] Justin lib. xv.

[37] Philostrat. lib. ii.

[38] Val. Max. lib. v. cap. 16.--Q. Curt. lib. viii.

[39] Procop. lib. i. cap. 11.

[40] Justin. lib. i.

[41] Herod. lib. i.

[42] Dio. Chrysost. Orat. 3. pro regno.

[43] Joseph. lib. xi. cap. 1.

[44] Esdras, cap. 5.

[45] Judith, cap. 2.

[46] Ctesias in Persicis. Xenephon, lib. i.

[47] Plutarch, in Apothegmat.

[48] De Mundo.

[49] Herod lib. vii.

[50] Xenoph. lib. iv.

[51] Strabo lib. xv.

[52] Esther, chap. ii.

[53] Joseph. lib. xi. cap. 6.

[54] If I remember right, it is D. Prideaux that says Esther is a
Persian word, of no signification. I rather think it is Abyssinian,
because it has a signification in that language. Eshté, the masculine,
signifies an agreeable present, and is a proper name, of which Esther
is the feminine.

[55] Athen, lib. xii. cap. 2.

[56] Herod, lib. vii.

[57] Herod. lib. iii.

[58] Xenoph. lib. i. Xenoph. lib. viii.

[59] Ammonios, Billetana Gueta to Ayto Confu.

[60] Thucyd. lib. i. Strabo, lib. xiv. Theod. Sic. lib. xi.

[61] Xenoph. lib. i.

[62] Diod. lib. xii.

[63] Vide annals of Abyssinia, life of Socinios.

[64] Esther, chap vii, and viii.

[65] Cicero, lib. v. de Finib.

[66] Ecclesiast. Histor. chap. xxii.

[67] Procop. lib. i. cap. 5. de Bell. Pers.

[68] Agath. lib. iii.

[69] See this history of Abyssinia in vit. David IV.

[70] Vide Ctesiani Hockerii.

[71] Xenoph. lib. i.

[72] Amm. Mar. lib. vii.

[73] Q. Curt. lib. iii. 2. 19.

[74] Q. Curt. v. 12.

[75] Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xiii. cap. 11.

[76] Plin. lib. xiii. cap. 11.

[77] Diod. Sic. lib. ii.

[78] Genesis, chap. xlvii. ver. 4.

[79] Exod. chap. viii. ver. 26.

[80] Herod. lib. ii. p. 104. sec. 40.

[81] Herodot. p. 121. sect. 92.

[82] Herodot. lib. ii. p. 101. sect. 35.

[83] Herodot. lib. ii. p. 101. sect. 35.

[84] Herodot. lib. ii. p. 104. sect. 41.

[85] Gen. chap. i. ver. 29.

[86] Gen. chap. i. ver. 30.

[87] Gen. chap. ix. ver. 3.

[88] Gen. chap. ix. v. 4.

[89] Deut. chap. xii.

[90] Levit. chap. xvii.

[91] Maimon. more. Nebochim.

[92] 1 Sam. chap. xiv. ver. 32. 33.

[93] Levit. chap. xvii. ver. 7.

[94] Arnob. adv. Gent. Clem. Alexan. Sextus Impiricus, lib. iii. cap.
25. and Selden. de Jur. natur. and Gent. cap. 1. lib. vii.

[95] In this particular they resemble the Cynics of old, of whom it was
said, “Omnia quæ ad Bacchum et Venerem pertinuerint in publico facere.”
Diogenes Laertius in Vit. Diogen.

[96] Vide appendix, article Cusso.

[97] The first invention is attributed to the Portuguese.

[98] Ludolf, in his dictionary, says, this word, in Hebrew, signifies
any tall tree. In this, however, he is mistaken. The translators did
not, indeed, know what tree it was, and so have said this to cover
their ignorance; but Arz is as exclusively the oxy-cedrus, as is an oak
or an elm when so named. Arz is indeed a tall tree, but every tall tree
is not Arz, which is the Virginia berry-bearing cedar.

[99] See Ludolf, lib. iii. cap. 2. N^o. 17.

[100] Prince of Shoa, often spoken of in the sequel.

[101] Vide Alvarez’s narrative in his account of the embassy of Don
Roderigo de Lima, page 155.

[102] Vid. Alvarez, hoc loco.

[103] Tournef. tom. i. p. 111.

[104] See the Ethiopic liturgies passim. Ludolf, lib. iii. cap. 5.

[105] Gen. chap. ix. ver. 22.

[106] Exod. chap. iv. ver. 25.

[107] Gen. chap. xvii. ver. 14.

[108] Lib. xvii. p. 950.

[109] The reader will observe, by the obscurity of this passage, that
it is with reluctance I have been determined to mention it at all; but
as it is an historical fact, which has had material consequences, I
have thought it not allowable to omit it altogether. Any naturalist,
wishing for more particular information, may consult the French copy.

[110] Deut. chap. xiv. ver. 1.

[111] Encom. 12th October, Od. 3. tom. 1. Ann. Alexan. p.m. 363.

[112] The largest court, or outer space, surrounding the king’s house.

[113] It signifies the hill, or high ground.

[114] Maguzet.

[115] Guilty of our blood, and subject to the laws of retaliation.

[116] This is a large church belonging to the palace, called by this
extraordinary name, _Noah’s Ark_.

[117] See a figure of this bird in the Appendix.

[118] Polymnia frondosa.

[119] This affected ignorance was probably intended to bring me to
mention the donation the king had given me of Geesh, which he never
much relished, and made effectually useless to me.

[120] It is with pleasure I confess the man then in my mind was my
brave friend Sir William Erskine.

[121] The person here called old Fasil, is Kasmati Waragna, in the time
of Yasous II.

[122] By this is meant the Amharic, for in Geez the word for snow is
Tilze: this may have been invented for translating the scriptures.

[123] Hortus Siccus, a large book for extending and preserving dry
plants.

[124] Vol. II. b. ii. chap. v.

[125] Arrianus de Exped. Alexandri, lib. vi.

[126] Another reason why I think this journey of the centurions is
fictitious is, that they say the distance between Syene and Meroë is
660 miles. Plin. lib. 6. cap. 29.

[127] Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. v. cap. 9.

[128] In Œdipo Syntagma, I. cap. vii. p. 57.

[129] I never heard that Cyrus had attempted this discovery.

[130] Called, in the Ethiopic annals _Hendaqué_; wrote originally, I
suppose, with an _X_ or _Ch_.

[131] Lib. v. cap. 9. Nat. Hist.

[132] Diod. Sicul. Bibliothec. lib. i. p. 20.

[133] Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. v. cap. 9.

[134] From a nation of Shangalla of that name, through which it runs,
after having passed its source, and taken its course into Nubia.

[135] Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. v. cap. 9.

[136] Jerem. chap. ii. ver. xviii.

[137] Diod. Sic. lib. i.

[138] Pausanius Arcad. chap. xvii.

[139] 1 Kings, chap. xviii. ver. 43.

[140] See this figure in Dr Shaw, chap. ii. sect. 3. p. 385.

[141] Herod, lib. ii. p. 127. sect. 109.

[142] Several Arabian MSS. attest this.

[143] Shaamy and Taamy, of whom we have already spoken.

[144] Herod. Eut. sect. 4, 5. Diod. Sic. lib. iii. p. 101. Arist.
Meteorol. lib. i. cap. 14.

[145] Deut. chap. iii. ver. 11.

[146] Encyclop. voce Cubit.

[147] Vide Encyclop. voce Cubit.

[148] Herod. lib. ii. sect. 168. p. 149.

[149] The king’s yearly land-tax, or rent.

[150] Gen. chap. xlvii. ver. 20 & 23.

[151] This was apparently the reason why Joseph, who had bought not
only the lands, but the people of Egypt likewise, transferred them from
farms, not convenient for them, to others where they could thrive. The
same they do spontaneously at this day, now they are free.

[152] Dr Shaw, chap. ii, sect. 3. p. 383.

[153] Psalm lxxviii. ver. 12.

[154] Herod. eut. sect. 13.

[155] Herod. lib. ii. sect. 19.

[156] Herod. lib. ii. sect. 4. 101. and 149.

[157] Strabo, lib. xiii. p. 945.

[158] Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 915.

[159] Plin. lib. xxxvi. cap. 7. Philost. de icon. Nili.

[160] Julian. Epist. egdicio prefecto Egypti.

[161] Procop. lib. iii. de Reb. Goth.

[162] Or Nilometer.

[163] Vid. geometrical elevation and plan of the Mikeas.

[164] We know that these lakes were dug, and in use as early as Moses’s
time. Exod. chap vii. ver. 19. chap. viii. ver. 5.

[165] A. C. 622.

[166] Shaw’s Travels, chap. ii. sect. 3. p. 382.

[167] Descript. of the East, vol. I. p. 256.

[168] A View of the Levant, p. 282. 284. 286.

[169] Shaw, p. 380. 381.

[170] Descript. de l’Egypte, p. 60.

[171] Pococke, vol. i. p. 199, 200.

[172] Pococke, vol. i. p. 201.

[173] See Table, or Register of Rain, that fell in these years,
inserted at the end of this volume.

[174] Shaw’s Travels, sect. 4. p. 401.

[175] Alph. d’Albuquerque, Comment. lib. iv. cap. 7.

[176] Vol. I. b. ii. chap. 8.

[177] See this letter in the life of that prince.

[178] In Abyssinia, the 24th June.

[179] Herod. lib. ii. p. 98. sect. 28.

[180] Vid. Ludolf in Proemio Histor. Æthiop. 1. 8. Id. lib. i. cap.
viii. p. 178. Leo Africanus in descrip. Africa, lib. i. cap. vii.

[181] Plin. lib. v. cap. 8.

[182] Accountant of the Agows.

[183] See a very remarkable letter of Ras Sela Christos to the emperor
Socinios, in Balthazar Tellez, tom. 2. p. 496.


[Transcriber's Note:

Inconsistent punctuation and capitalization are as in the original.

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]





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