During the more than usually successful campaign of the Amhara host, an
opportunity was afforded us of laying down, as scientifically as very
limited time would permit, an extensive and most interesting tract of
country hitherto scarcely known--not to be explored by the adventurous
but single traveller, and only to be visited under the peculiar
advantages afforded to the British Embassy by the despotic Negoos. We
were all much disappointed that this acquaintance should not have
extended to the Lake Zooai, as anticipated from the manifesto originally
promulgated at Machal-wans; but Ayto Berri, many years
Quarter-master-general of the royal troops, who, in his _quondam_
capacity of Mohammadan rover, had often visited that famous expanse of
water, strongly discountenanced the contemplated measure of molesting
the inoffensive inhabitants of its five islands--mixed Christians and
pagans living in profound peace with each other, and with every
surrounding neighbour. To his advice may in some measure be ascribed
the alteration in the king's intentions; but the argument which had
probably more weight with His Majesty than the harmless attributes of
the population, was based on the dense and difficult character of the
extensive forests, swarming with Galla and with wild beasts, through
which the army must pass, after crossing the pillaged valley of Germama.
The Christian camp at Boora Roofa was crowded with disconsolate groups
of heathen captives, many with infants at their backs, and nearly all in
a state of nudity, with long raven tresses streaming wildly over their
shoulders. Hopeless slavery was theirs; but influenced by my earnest
remonstrance, aided by the active and reverend missionary. Dr Krapf,
whom philanthropic feelings had enabled to endure the uncongenial
atmosphere of ignorance and unbelief--whom the purest and most
praiseworthy motives had induced to obey the royal summons to the field,
and who, from his long experience, knew when to touch the latent spark
of mercy,--the king wiped out the foul stain of the preceding day by
consenting to liberate the whole. Ere the _nugareet_ sounded the return
of the troops, a proclamation went forth commanding the immediate
release of every prisoner of war; and as the dissatisfied army turned
its back upon the valley, long files of widowed dames and fatherless
girls were to be seen hurrying in freedom across the hills towards their
desolate hearths, overjoyed at the sudden and unexpected restoration of
their liberty through the white man's intercession--the ruthless
soldiery, disappointed at the loss of their booty, having previously
stripped the last covering from all, and sent them forth naked as they
came into the world.
It would be superfluous to dwell upon the satisfaction which filled the
breast of every member of the Embassy, at this signal victory over
savage ferocity; and heartfelt were the congratulations on all sides,
that Providence had permitted us to be thus instrumental in ameliorating
the condition of so large a number of our fellow-creatures.
A long march brought us the same day to the river Alelta, a tributary to
the Nile, and forming near the encampment Lake Sertie, a full mile in
diameter, bounded by low hills of trachyte and porphyry. A web of deep
miry ravines, shut in by high crumbling banks, presented a wet and
slippery footing, and many were the disasters that befel the demure
dames of the royal kitchen. Wicker parasols might be seen floating down
the current as the luckless proprietors struggled in the black slimy mud
among mules and war-steeds, or emerged in truly pitiable condition to be
censured by the austere guardians, who, horror-stricken, had witnessed
from above the absence of all order and decorum.
Each moment rendered the treacherous passage more and more
impracticable; and it was not difficult to understand how, in the month
of June the preceding year, the spot should have proved the grave of
eight hundred of the Amhara cavalry. At that season the country,
flooded for many miles around, becomes one great quagmire, which is not
to be crossed without extreme caution. Before the king had passed with
the main body of the victorious troops escorting immense plunder, the
Sertie Galla, taking advantage of superior knowledge of the locality,
completely cut off the van of the army, consisting of the Mentshar and
Bulga detachments. They had become entangled in the mazy labyrinth, and
were massacred to a man ere assistance could be rendered by the
matchlock-men of the bodyguard, who did not reach the ground until the
enemy were in full retreat.
His Majesty's object in now revisiting the scene of this catastrophe was
sufficiently obvious. No sooner had the imperial cavalcade halted among
the bleached skeletons of the fallen warriors, than champions, whose
steeds were distinguished by greasy garments stripped from the bodies of
Galla victims, caracoled proudly in front of the state umbrellas,
brandishing their bright weapons aloft--exhibiting the human fragments
that had been won during the recent bloody foray--and after a detail of
their individual exploits, shouting defiance to the humbled Sertie. The
wild triumphal exhibition concluding after half an hour, a band of music
advanced, and continued to play until the pavilion had been prepared for
the royal reception.
Early the ensuing morning the king sent confidentially to my tent, to
inquire if none of his guests could divine whether the day were
propitious to the advance of the army--a point upon which he felt
somewhat dubious. Our confession of lamentable want of skill in augury
was succeeded by a march of sixteen miles to Ellulee Jidda over a
monotonous landscape of swelling downs and shallow valleys, intersected
by streamlets that had scooped deep channels in the loose black soil.
The stately relict of a deceased Galla chieftain rode through the ranks
with her tribute in horses and kine, and experienced a most gallant
reception at the hands of the monarch. She might have sat for the
portrait of La Belle Sauvage, but the grease wherein the person of the
handsome dame was embedded, tended unfortunately to destroy the romance
inseparable from her Amazonian appearance and feudal condition.
Various triumphant detachments also met the royal cortege _en route_,
the chiefs and victorious warriors careering in succession before the
van of the army, with green sprigs of asparagus waving above their
dishevelled and newly-dressed locks. Prisoners were seated behind the
cruppers of some of the more merciful, and the flank of each grey steed
was dyed with clotted human gore. A short rambling recitative,
expressive of loyalty and devotion in the field, was followed by savage
yells and whoops, twice or thrice re-echoed by their marshalled band of
followers, when they vaulted lightly from the saddle, prostrated
themselves on the ground, and galloped off, each in his turn, to make
way for some new squadron, whose war chorus came pealing over the
hills--
"The combat's past, the fight is won,
Then triumph o'er the prostrate foe;
The heathen blood has freely run,
Raise high the chaunt, Woko, Woko.
"Let hill and dale return the note,
Woko, Woko, ayah Woko;
Loud ring from every Christian throat
The shout of death, Woko, Woko."
Whilst the army was encamping, the legion of Ayto Shishigo, rejoining
the royal division with three thousand head of oxen, in like manner
reported their successful exploits to the king, who, as usual, occupied
the summit of an adjacent eminence. Tribute was still in a course of
diligent collection, and Galla chieftains, with their hair plaited after
the model of the lotus-flower, were flocking with their dues from all
directions. One refractory village only, of the Jidda tribe,
withholding its impost of a single horse, paid the penalty of its folly.
The inhabitants fled, but their deserted houses were sacked and
consigned to the flames, the stakes and palisades by which, in common
with every hamlet in this direction, it was strongly fortified,
affording fuel for the royal kitchen, and subsequently a scramble to one
half of the army.
Volume Two, Chapter XXVI.