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.”