_I.--The City of the Dog Star_
James Bruce was born at the family residence of Kinnaird
in the county of Stirling, Scotland, on December 14, 1730.
He was educated at Harrow and Edinburgh, and for five
years was a wine and spirit merchant in London. In 1762 he
went as British Consul to Algiers, and did not return to
England again until June, 1774. In the interim, having
travelled through Algiers, Tunis, Syria, some of the
islands of the Levant, Lower and Upper Egypt, and the
African and Arabian coasts of the Red Sea, he made his
famous journeys in Abyssinia, during which he discovered
the sources of the Blue Nile. On his return to Europe he
met with a great reception from Buffon the naturalist, and
the Pope at Rome, but was received with coldness in
England, where the stories of his adventures were received
with incredulity. His book, "Travels to Discover the
Source of the Nile in the years 1768-73," did not appear
till 1790, seventeen years after his return to Europe.
After the publication of his great work, Bruce spent the
remainder of his life in improving his Scottish estate. On
April 26, 1794, at Kinnaird, when going downstairs to hand
a lady guest to her carriage, his foot slipped, and he
fell headlong, dying next morning.
In 1762 Lord Halifax gave me the appointment of British Consul at
Algiers, as affording me the opportunity of exploring the countries of
Barbary, and perhaps of making, later on, a discovery of the sources of
the Nile. On arrival at Algiers I studied closely surgery and medicine,
modern Greek and Arabic, so as to qualify myself to travel without an
interpreter.
I remained in Algiers for three years, and started early in 1768 on my
travels through that kingdom and Tunis, Crete and Rhodes, Syria, Lower
and Upper Egypt. Then I crossed the desert from Assouan to Cosseir on
the Red Sea, explored the Arabian Gulf, and after visiting Jidda,
arrived at Masuah [Massowah] on September 19, 1769. Masuah, which means
the "Harbour of the Shepherds," is a small island close upon the
Abyssinian shore, and the governor is called the naybe. He himself was
cruel, avaricious, and a drunkard, but Achmet, his son, became my
friend, as I had cured him of an intermittent fever, and on November 10
he carried me, my servants and baggage, from the island of Masuah to
Arkeeko, on the mainland, from which point my party started for the
province of Tigré, in Abyssinia, on November 15.
For days we travelled across a gravelly plain, and then over mountains,
bare and full of terrible precipices with thickly wooded intervening
valleys, and on November 22 we descended into the town of Dixan, in the
province of Tigré. It is inhabited by Moors and Christians, and the only
trade is that of selling children, stolen or made captives in war, who
are sent after purchase to Arabia and India. The priests are openly
concerned in this infamous practice. We were frequently delayed by
demands from local chiefs for toll dues, and did not arrive at Adowa
till December 6. This is the residence of the governor of the province
of Tigré--Michael Suhul, ras, or prime minister, of Abyssinia. The
mansion of the ras is situated on the top of a hill. It resembles a
prison rather than a palace, for there were in it 300 people confined in
irons, the object being to extract money from them. Some of them had
been there for twenty years, and most of them were kept in cages like
wild beasts.
On January 17, 1770, we set out on our way to Gondar, and on the
following day reached the plain where the ruins of Axum, supposed to be
the ancient capital of Abyssinia, are situated. In one square are forty
obelisks of one piece of granite. A road is cut in the mountain of red
marble, having on the left a parapet wall about five feet in height. At
equal distances there are solid pedestals, upon the tops of which stood
originally colossal statues of Sirius, Litrator Anubis, or Dog Star.
There are 133 of these pedestals, but only two much mutilated figures of
the Dog remain. There are also pedestals for figures of the Sphinx. Two
magnificent flights of steps several hundred feet long, all of granite,
are the only remains of the great Temple.
Within the site of the Temple is a small, mean modern church, very ill
kept. In it are what are supposed to be the Ark of the Covenant and the
copy of the law which Menilek, the son of Solomon and the Queen of
Sheba, is said in their fabulous history to have been stolen from his
father on his return from Jerusalem to Ethiopia. These are reckoned the
palladia of the country. Another relic of great importance is a picture
of the head of Christ crowned with thorns, said to have been painted by
Saint Luke. This relic on occasions of war with pagans and Mohammedans
is brought out and carried with the army. Within the outer gate of the
church are three small enclosures with octagon pillars in the angles, on
the top of which were formerly images of the Dog Star. Upon a stone in
the middle of one of these enclosures the kings of the country have been
crowned since the days of paganism; and below it is a large oblong slab
of freestone, on which there is a Greek inscription, the translation of
which is "Of King Ptolemy Euergetes, or the Beneficent."
We left Axum on January 20, and on the same day we saw three travellers
cutting three pieces of flesh, thicker and longer than our ordinary
beefsteaks, from the higher part of the buttock of a cow. The beast was
thrown on the ground, and one man held the head, while two others were
busy in cutting out the flesh.
I have been told that my friends have disbelieved this statement. I
pledge myself never to retract the fact here advanced, that the
Abyssinians do feed in common upon live flesh, and that I myself for
several years have been a partaker of that disagreeable and beastly
diet.
Travelling pleasantly enough, though finding it difficult to get food
from the natives, we came on February 4 to the foot of Debra Toon, one
of the highest mountains of the romantic range of Hanza. The toilsome
ascent of Lamalmon, an extensive table-land of great fertility, was
begun on February 8, and on the 14th we arrived at Gondar, the
metropolis of Abyssinia.
_II.--Savage Native Practices_
Gondar is situated on the flat summit of a hill of considerable height,
and consists of 10,000 families in time of peace. The houses are chiefly
of clay, with roofs thatched in the form of cones. The king's palace is
a square building on the west side of the town, flanked with towers, and
originally four stories high, but now only two. The audience chamber is
120 feet long, and the upper windows command a magnificent view of the
great lake Tzana. The palace and contiguous buildings are surrounded by
a stone wall 30 feet high, 1½ miles in circumference. A little way
from Gondar to the north is Koscam, the palace of the iteghé and the
king's other wives. Tecla Haimanout was at this time king, and Suhul
Michael was ras, or prime minister. They were absent at the time of my
arrival.
Petros, an important Greek, who was the only one in Gondar to whom I had
recommendations, came in a state of great dread to me, saying that he
had seen at Michael's encampment, a few miles from Gondar, the stuffed
skin of an intimate friend of his own swinging upon a tree, and drying
in the wind beside the tent of the ras. The iteghé and Ozoro Esther,
wife of Ras Michael, sent for me to the palace at Koscam to attend, as a
medical man, the royal families, because small-pox was then raging in
the city and surrounding districts. I saved the life of Ayto Confu, the
favourite son of Ozoro Esther, and others; and thereafter became
friends of the queen and her suite in the palace.
I rode out on March 8 to meet Ras Michael at Azazo, the scene of a great
battle which had been fought with Fasil, a Galla chief, who had broken
out in rebellion. The first horrid spectacle exhibited by him consisted
of pulling out the eyes of twelve Galla chiefs, who had been taken
prisoners. They were then turned out into the fields to be devoured by
hyenas. Next day the army of 30,000 men marched in triumph into Gondar.
On March 14, I had an interview with the ras, and he said that to
prevent my being murdered for my goods and instruments, and being
bothered by the monks about religious matters, the king, on his
recommendation, had appointed me baalomaal, the commander of the Koccob
Horse.
In the course of the campaign between the king and his rebel governors,
I joined his majesty's forces, and on May 18, 1770, I found myself at
Dara, fourteen miles from the great cataract of the Nile, which I
obtained permission to visit. The shum, or head of the people of the
district, took me to a bridge, which consisted of one arch of
twenty-five feet in breadth, with the extremities firmly based on solid
rock on both sides. The Nile is here confined between two rocks, and
runs in a deep channel with great, roaring, impetuous velocity. The
cataract itself was the most magnificent sight that ever I beheld. Its
height is forty feet. The river had been increased by the rains, and
fell in one sheet of water half a mile in breadth, with a noise that was
truly terrible, and made me for a time perfectly dizzy.
Returning to the king's army, I rode through a country of smoking ruins
and awful silence. The miserable natives, though Christians, were being
hunted to be sold into slavery to the Turks. I found that the campaign
was finished, and that we were to return to Gondar, on reaching which,
on May 30, Fasil returned to his allegiance. Having successfully
prescribed for Fasil's principal general, the king was so pleased that
he promised me any favour. I asked the village of Geesh at the source of
the Nile. Whereupon the king said:
"I do give the village of Geesh and its fountains to Yagoube (which was
my name) and his posterity for ever, never to appear under another name
in the Deftar (land register), and never to be taken from him, or
exchanged in peace or war."
On June 5 the king and Michael retired to Tigré; Gusho and Powussen--two
of the rebel governors--entered Gondar in triumph, and proclaimed a
young man, reputed to be the son of Yasous II., who died in 1753, king
under the name of Socinios. I remained at Gondar unmolested until
October 28, 1770, when I determined to make an attempt to reach the head
of the Nile, and with my followers and instruments marched through the
country of the Aroussi, much the most pleasant territory in Abyssinia,
being finely shaded with forests of the Acacia Vera, the tree which
produces the gum arabic. Below these trees grew wild oats of prodigious
height and size. I often made the grain into cakes in remembrance of
Scotland.
_III.--At the Source of the Nile_
After passing the Assar River, going in a south-east direction, 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. This was
on November 2, 1770, and on the following day we rode through a marshy
plain in which the Nile winds more in the space of four miles than I
believe any river in the world. It is not here more than 20 feet broad
and one deep. After this, we pushed forward to a terrible range of
mountains, in which is situated the village of Geesh, where are the
long-expected fountains of the Nile. These mountains are disposed one
range behind the other, nearly in the form of arcs, and three
concentrate circles, which seems to suggest the idea that they are the
Montes Lunæ of antiquity, or the Mountains of the Moon, at the foot of
which the Nile was said to rise. The highest, Amid-Amid, does not exceed
half a mile in height. Crossing the mountains, we had a distinct view of
the territory of Sacala, the mountain of Geesh, and the church of St.
Michael.
Immediately below us was the Nile itself, now a mere brook, with
scarcely water enough in it to turn a mill. I could not satiate myself
with the sight, revolving in my mind all those classic prophecies that
had given the Nile up to perpetual obscurity and concealment. I ran down
the hill towards a little island of green sods, and I stood in rapture
over the principal fountain of the Nile, which rises in the middle of
it. This was November 4, 1770.
It is easier to imagine than to describe the situation of my mind at
that moment, standing on that spot which had baffled the genius,
industry and inquiry of both ancients and moderns over a course of
nearly 3,000 years. Though a mere private Briton, I triumphed here in my
own mind over kings and their armies.
The Agows of Damot pay divine honours to the Nile, sacrificing
multitudes of cattle to the spirit which is supposed to reside at its
source. From the edge of the cliff at Geesh the ground slopes to the
marsh, in whose centre is a hillock, which is the altar on which the
religious ceremonies of the Agows are performed. A shallow trench
surrounds it, and collects the water which flows from a hole in the
middle of the hillock, three feet in diameter and six feet in depth.
This is the principal fountain of the Nile.
Ten feet from this spring is a second fountain, about eleven inches in
diameter and eight feet deep; and at twenty feet distance there is a
third, two feet in diameter and six feet in depth. Both of these are
enclosed, like the first, by an altar of turf. The water from all these
joins and flows eastward in quantities sufficient to fill a pipe of
about two inches in diameter.
I made no fewer than thirty-five observations with the view of
determining with the utmost precision the latitude of the fountains of
the Nile, and I found the mean result to be 10° 59' 25" north latitude.
Equally careful observations proved them to be 36° 55' 30" east
longitude. The mercury in the barometer indicated a height above the sea
of more than two miles. The Shum of Geesh, whose title is kefla abay,
"the Servant of the Nile," told me that the Agows called the river "The
Everlasting God, Light of the World, Eye of the World, God of Peace,
Saviour, Father of the Universe."
Once a year, on the first appearance of the Dog Star, the kefla abay
assembles all the heads of the clans at the principal altar, where a
black heifer that never bore a calf is sacrificed. The carcase, which is
washed all over with Nile water, is divided among the different tribes,
and eaten on the spot, raw, and with Nile water. The bones are burned to
ashes, and the head, wrapped in the skin, is carried into a huge cave.
On November 9 I traced on foot the whole course of the river to the
plain of Guotto, and next day we left Geesh on our return to Gondar,
which was reached on the 19th.
_IV.--The Return to Egypt_
Shortly afterwards Socinios, the usurping king, fled on the approach of
King Tecla and Ras Michael with 20,000 men. On their entry into the
city, those who had sympathised with the usurper were executed in
hundreds with a wanton cruelty which shocked and disgusted me. The
bodies of the victims were cut in pieces and scattered about the
streets, and hundreds of hyenas came down from the neighbouring
mountains to feed on the human carrion. I determined to do the best I
could to escape from this bloody country, but was constrained to take a
part in the civil war, and commanded a force of heavy cavalry in King
Tecla's army in the three battles of Serbraxos. My performances so
pleased the king that he decorated me with a heavy gold chain containing
184 links. The upshot of the campaign was that Michael was banished to
Begender and the former rebel Gusho appointed ras in his place.
After many delays I was allowed to depart for Egypt on September 28,
1771, and, passing through the Shangalla country, I reached, on January
2, 1772, the enchanted mountain country of Tcherkin, which abounded in
game--elephants, rhinoceroses, buffaloes, etc. Here they have an
extraordinary way of hunting the elephant by severing the tendon above
the heel of the hind leg with a sharp sword. At Hor Cacamoot, which
means the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I was on January 20 attacked
with dysentery, and compelled to remain there until March 17. Many
hardships were endured and servants lost in a simoom which overtook us
in the march to the Atbara, and after numerous adventures in the country
of the Nubas--pagans, negroids, worshippers of the moon--I arrived on
April 29 at Sennaar, where I was compelled to remain four months.
Summoned to wait upon the king, I found him in a clay-built palace
covering a very extensive area, and of one story. The dress of the king
was simply a loose shirt of Surat blue cotton cloth. I was asked to
treat medically the three principal queens. The favourite was six feet
high, and corpulent beyond all proportion. She seemed to me, next the
elephant and the rhinoceros, to be the largest living creature I had
ever met. A ring of gold passed through her upper lip and weighed it
down like a flap to cover her chin. Her ears reached to her shoulders,
and had the appearance of wings. In each was a large ring of gold; she
had a gold necklace of several rows, and her ankles bore manacles of
gold.
At Sennaar the Nile gets its name of Babar El Azergue, the Blue River.
The meat diet of the upper classes is beef, partly roasted and partly
raw. That of the common people is camel's flesh, the liver and
spare-rib of which are eaten raw. During my stay here I was compelled
to part with all but six of the 184 links of the gold chain which I
received from the king of Abyssinia, to pay for supplies, and I was glad
when permitted to depart on September 2, 1772.
On October 26 we arrived at Gooz, the capital of Barbar. There we made
preparations to cross the great desert, beginning the journey on
November 9. One day we saw twenty moving pillars of sand. On another
occasion we met the simoom, the purple haze in rushing past threatening
suffocation. Many of the wells had dried up, our water and our
provisions became exhausted, our camels died, all of the party suffered
from thirst and fever, and on November 25, in order to save our lives,
we abandoned my valuable papers, quadrant, telescopes, and other
instruments, at Saffieha.
Two days afterwards we got a view of a range of hills marking the course
of the Nile. In the evening we heard the noise of water, and saw a flock
of birds. Christians, Moors, and Turks all burst into tears, embracing
one another and thanking God for our deliverance. That night we encamped
at Seielut, and next morning we came on foot to Assouan. With one accord
we ran to the Nile to drink. I sat down under the shade of a palm and
fell into a profound sleep. We were received heartily by the aga, and
after resting five or six days to recover, we retraced our steps to
Saffieha, and I had the satisfaction of recovering all my baggage. On
December 11 we left Assouan, and sailed down the Nile for Cairo, where
we arrived on January 10, 1773.