Although we had found small reason to be flattered with our first
reception in the kingdom of Shoa, at the hands of a Christian ruler who
had sought alliance with Great Britain, it was nevertheless matter of
notoriety that no previous visitors had, under any circumstances, been
treated with one-hundredth part of the same courtesy and condescension,
or had experienced such unequivocal marks of confidence and favour.
Formed on the most liberal scale, and supplied with all that was likely
to add to its weight in such a country, the embassy was almost from the
outset admitted to terms of perfect equality with the haughty despot,
yet numberless diplomatic troubles were still interposed by the general
ignorance of the many, and by the envy and jealousy of a few. No veil
had been thrown over the deep-rooted enmity of the bigoted and powerful
priesthood, who, to serve their own sinister purposes, cunningly
contrived to construe the costly gifts of the British Government into
tribute to the illustrious descendant of the house of Solomon; but the
assertion carried its own refutation. In a weak moment Comus Unquies,
"the king's strong monk," so far forgot the dignity due to his station,
as to barter his bishop's staff to the heretic Gyptzis for a pair of
Birmingham scissors! European medicines had rescued three thousand
patients from the jaws of death; and improved intercourse with the
monarch finally dispelled the jealousy created in a suspicious breast by
the treasonable designs imputed to the foreign visitors, who were found
to have brought no king or queen in a box, and to entertain designs
neither upon the sceptre nor upon the church of Ethiopia.
The opposition of inimical functionaries dressed in fleeting authority,
exposed us to a train of persecutions, trifling perhaps in themselves,
but amounting in the aggregate to more than martyrdom. Few of the
commands issued were obeyed so much in the spirit as to the letter.
_Eshee_, or _Basanye_ [i.e. "Very well."], although doubtless signifying
assent, did not always bring compliance with even the most trifling
application for assistance. The king was too polished to say "No," when
he had inwardly resolved to do nothing; and an uneducated despot, who
has never known any law but his own absolute will, and who lives for
himself alone; who considers and claims as his property every thing in
the country over which he wields the arbitrary sceptre, and whose only
idea of wealth, power, and happiness, is centred in individual
existence, can so ill understand the wants of others, that His Majesty's
offences towards his guests, founded in Oriental suspicion, might rather
be termed sins of omission than of commission.
Covetous, and eager for novelties, Sahela Selassie never fails to wish
for every thing that comes under his observation, but, like a child with
a new toy, soon weary of looking at the bauble, though still vain of its
possession, he casts it aside to be hoarded in the mouldy vaults of some
distant magazine. The savage is the same under every possible form, and
in every grade and position--the one stealing what he covets, whilst
another, seeking plausible pretexts, obtains possession through low
cunning and stratagem. Among such a nation of beggars as the people of
Southern Abyssinia, it was not always easy to satisfy the rapacity of
fastidious extortioners. All wanted "pleasing things"--many demanded
dollars to defray the cost of slaves that they had purchased, but for
whom they could not pay; and for months after my arrival, requisitions
for our own private property were unceasing on the part also of the
monarch.
Neither compulsory measures nor direct applications were ever employed;
but the means resorted to were not the less certain of success. With
that duplicity and want of candour which ever marks uncivilised man, he
was wont to send underhand communications, or meanly to depute his
emissaries to reveal his desires and his intentions in a manner which,
in so despotic a land, could leave no doubt of authenticity; and an
offer of the article coveted being forthwith made, His Majesty hesitated
not, in the presence of his agents, to deny all cognisance of the
transaction, or to swear by the saints that he never sought the property
tendered for his acceptance. Persuasion would not induce him to receive
it at once, and thus to terminate the matter; but no sooner had it been
removed from his sight, than his creatures were again at work with even
greater activity than before; and rude taunts of breach of promise, with
not-to-be-mistaken hints, veiled under the cloak of friendship, were
certain to instigate a second and a third offer, which invariably
elicited an avowal of the disinclination entertained to "receive the
property of his children," but uniformly ended in his accepting it "as a
free gift from the heart," acknowledged in all gratitude by the
benediction--"God restore it to thee, my son! May the Lord glorify and
reward thee!"
Chief of all the sycophants who bask in the favour of the monarch, may
be ranked Wulasma Mohammad, who, in finesse, plausibility, and the
manifold specious devices that are employed to cover total want of
sincerity, can find no equal in the kingdom of Shoa. Lavish in
professions of friendship, he never suffered to escape an opportunity of
gratifying his inwardly-cherished animosity. Presents were frequently
exchanged--the sugarcane and the bunch of green gram, which are the
symbols of hearts knit together in the bonds of unity, arrived with the
same regularity as the week, coupled, of course, with a description of
some "pleasing thing" that was not to be found in Goncho. The lemon,
denoting by its aromatic fragrance the beauties of permanent amity, was
ever sure to follow the receipt of the desired article.
Professions daily grew more profuse, and complimentary inquiries, which
constitute the very essence of friendship, waxed more and more frequent;
but although the regard entertained "amounted even to heaven and earth,"
and although every aid and assistance was volunteered, no packet of
letters ever arrived to the address of the Gyptzis, neither did any
courier ever depart for the sea-coast without being subjected to a
tedious detention on the frontier at the hands of the despotic
state-gaoler.
On the first of these occasions, the king, before sending the packet to
the Residency, had taken the trouble of breaking the seal of every
individual cover with his own royal fingers; and a protest having been
entered against a procedure so utterly foreign to European ideas of
propriety. His Majesty inquired, with well-feigned simplicity, "Of what
use should my children's letters be to me, who understand not their
language?" Remonstrances were in like manner made to the Abogaz
touching his interference in such manners; but as the crafty old fox
screened himself behind total ignorance of the value attached to written
documents, and volunteered better behaviour, the subject was set at
rest.
But although letters were now thoroughly understood to be held in higher
estimation even than fine gold from Gurague, the evil, far from being
abated, became greater and greater, until at last it was no longer to be
borne. Promises made, were made only to be broken; and a serious
complaint was at last carried to the throne at Angollala, representing
that another packet had been secreted during an entire fortnight in the
fortified vaults of Goncho. After stoutly denying all knowledge of it,
until convicted by incontrovertible evidence, and then declaring it to
be deposited, for safety-sake, in the custody of his brother Jhalia, who
was absent on the frontier, the Wulasma was commanded to set out
forthwith upon the quest, and to return at his peril empty-handed. "Our
friendship has ceased for ever," muttered the burly caitiff betwixt his
closed teeth as he descended the ladder--"for through your means the
king hath become wroth with his servant." "Let his friendship go into
the sea," quoth His Majesty, who had overheard this appalling
announcement--"Is not he an accursed Moslem? Look only to me. Have I
not always told you that my people are bad? Ye have travelled far into
a strange land, and are to Sahela Selassie even as his own children. Ye
have no relative but me."
The escape of the rebel Medoko had formerly led to the suspension of the
Abogaz from rank and office for a period of two years, during which he
danced attendance upon the monarch with shoulders bared, as is the wont
of the disgraced noble. His troubles had now returned. "My ancestors
owed a debt of gratitude to Mohammad's father," continued His Majesty,
after a pause, "and I would fain overlook his faults; but this insolence
is no longer to be borne. I have removed the drunkard from office,
confiscated his goods and chattels, and by the death of Woosen Suggud, I
swear, that unless you intercede, there can be no hope of his
restoration to favour."
Down came the ex-Wulasma in a furious passion, boiling with old
hydromel, and flushed with his rapid ride:--"How should I know that you
wanted these vile letters?" he exclaimed, throwing the packet scornfully
upon the ground--"I have done nothing. What offence have I committed,
that I am thus to suffer through your means?--There is a proverb, that
`the dog of the house is faithful to its master, whereas he who cometh
from beyond is worse than a hyena.'"
But a week had wrought a wonderful change in the sentiments of the
humbled grandee, whose beeves were indeed grazing in the royal pastures,
whilst his jars of old mead reposed in the royal cellars. He at whose
sullen nod the subjects of Efat quailed, and whose presence was as an
incubus to the state-prisoners in Goncho, had been, at the
representation of a foreigner, stripped of wealth and power, and, in
accordance with the usage of the country, was now fain to wait during a
succession of days upon those whom he had injured. Seating himself at
the door of the tent in sackcloth and ashes, he sent in two friends, who
came, according to the custom of the country, to serve as mediators.
"Behold, I am reduced to the condition of a beggar," was his abject
message, "and have no support but in your intercession. My children are
deprived of their bread, and they starve through the faults of their
father."
The Commander-in-chief of the Body-Guard was spokesman on behalf of the
caitiff. He brought me, as a _mamalacha_, a huge Sanga horn, filled to
the brim with the liquor that he loved, and ushered himself in with his
customary string of complimentary enquiries, "_Endiet aderachoon?
Ejegoon dahenaderachoon? Dahena sanabatachoon? Dahena karamoon?
Ejegoon dahena natchoon_?" "How have you passed the night? Have you
rested very well? Have you been quite well since our last interview?
How have you spent the rainy season? Are you in perfect health?"
"Half the people of Habesh," he resumed, in his husky voice, when each
of these points had been satisfactorily disposed of--"have ears like a
hill, and they cannot hear--the residue are liars. Furthermore,
one-half are thieves and drunkards, and the remainder are cowards."
There was no refuting the arguments adduced in support of this position,
and his eloquence proved quite irresistible. A solemn oath was
therefore administered upon the Koran, by which the suppliant, who
united in his own person all the attributes embraced in this able
classification, became pledged never again to interfere with messengers
bearing letters to or from the low country. His pardon was finally
obtained; and he was once more invested with the silver sword of office:
nor is it easy to determine whether the disgrace or the restoration of
the fat frontier functionary created the greater sensation throughout
the realm.
"What can you expect from that besotted old man?" inquired Ayto Melkoo,
who had been a silent spectator of all that passed, and who hated both
the Abogaz and his mediator with equal intensity. "Did you never hear
that the Negoos was once displeased with me, and that I passed a few
months beneath the grates at Goncho; and furthermore, that when the
royal order came to set me at large, the State-Gaoler was drunk, and
never thought again of his prisoner for a full fortnight? _Sahela
Selassie ye moot_! May the king die if it be not so!--the infidel may
swear as long as he pleases, ay, and take his sacred book to witness;
but how can you suppose that he will ever be able to think of these
letters of yours?"
Volume 3, Chapter XLIII.