I must here observe, that what Bermudes[38] says, that Del Wumbarea was

taken prisoner and given in marriage to Arius Dias, was but a fable,

as appears both from the beginning and sequel of the narrative. Del

Wumbarea having thus obtained her son, took a very early opportunity

of shewing she had not yet forgot the father. Nur, governor of Zeyla,

son of Mudgid, who had slain the princes imprisoned upon the mountain

of Geshen, was deeply in love with this lady, and had deserved well

of her, for he had assisted her in making her escape into Atbara that

day her husband was slain. But this heroine had constantly refused

to listen to any proposals; nay, had vowed she never would give her

hand in marriage to any man till he should first bring her the head

of Claudius who had slain her husband. Nur willingly accepted the

condition, which gave him few rivals, but rather seemed to be reserved

for him, and out of the power of every one else.

Claudius, before this, had marched towards Adel, when he received a

message from Nur, that, though Gragnè was dead, there still remained a

governor of Zeyla, whose family was chosen as a particular instrument

for shedding the blood of the Abyssinian princes; and desired him,

therefore, to be prepared, for he was speedily to set out to come to

him. Claudius had been employed in various journies through different

parts of his kingdom, repairing the churches which Gragnè and the other

Moors had burnt; and he was then rebuilding that of Debra Werk[39]

when this message of Nur was brought to him. This prince was of a

temper never to avoid a challenge; and if he did not march against Nur

immediately, he staid no longer than to complete his army as far as

possible. He then began his march for Adel, very much, as it is said,

against the advice of his friends.

That such advice should be given, at this particular time, appears

strange; for till now he had been constantly victorious, and his

kingdom was perfectly obedient, which was not the case when any one of

the former battles had been fought. But many prophecies were current

in the camp, that the king was to be unfortunate this campaign, and

was to lose his life in it. These unfortunate rumours tended much

to discourage the army, at the same time that they seemed to have a

contrary effect on the king, and to confirm him in his resolution to

fight. The truth is, the clergy, who had seen the country delivered

by him from the Mahometans in a manner almost miraculous, and the

constancy with which he withstood the Romish patriarch, and frustrated

the designs of his father against the Alexandrian church, and who had

experienced his extreme liberality in rebuilding the churches, had

wrought his young mind to such a degree of enthusiasm that he was

often heard to say, he preferred a death in the middle of an army of

Infidels to the longest and most prosperous life that ever fell to the

lot of man. It needed not a prophet to have foretold the likely issue

of a battle in these circumstances, where the king, careless of life,

rather sought death than victory; where the number of Portuguese was so

small as to be incapable, of themselves, to effect any thing; where,

even of that number, those that were attached to the king were looked

upon as traitors by those of the party of the patriarch; and where the

Abyssinians, from their repeated quarrels and disputes, heartily hated

them all.

The armies were drawn up and ready to engage, when the chief priest of

Debra Libanos came to the king to tell him a dream, or vision, which

warned him not to fight; but the Moors were then advancing, and the

king on horseback made no reply, but marched briskly forward to the

enemy. The cowardly Abyssinians, upon the first fire, fled, leaving the

king engaged in the middle of the Moorish army with twenty horse and

eighteen Portuguese musqueteers, who were all slain around his person;

and he himself fell, after fighting manfully, and receiving twenty

wounds. His head was cut off, and by Nur delivered to Del Wumbarea,

who directed it to be tied by the hair to the branch of a tree before

her door, that she might keep it constantly in sight. Here it remained

three years, till it was purchased from her by an Armenian merchant,

her first grief, having, it is probable, subsided upon the acquisition

of a new husband. The merchant carried the head to Antioch, and buried

it there in the sepulchre of a saint of the same name.

Thus died king Claudius in the 19th year of his reign, who, by his

virtues and capacity, might hold a first place among any series of

kings we have known, victorious in every action he fought, except

in that one only in which he died. A great slaughter was made after

this among the routed, and many of the first nobility were slain in

endeavouring to escape; among the rest, the dreamer from Debra Libanos,

his vision, by which he knew the king’s death, not having extended so

far as to reveal his own. The Abyssinians immediately transferred the

name of this prince into their catalogue of Saints, and he is called St

Claudius in that country to this day. Though endowed with every other

virtue that entitled him to his place in the kalendar, he seems to have

wanted one--that of dying in charity with his enemies.

This battle was fought on the 22d March 1559; and the victory gained

by Nur was a complete one. The king and most of his principal officers

were slain; great part of the army taken prisoners, the rest dispersed,

and the camp plundered; so that no Moorish general had ever returned

home with the glory that he did. But afterwards, in his behaviour, he

exhibited a spectacle more memorable, and that did him more honour

than the victory itself; for, when he drew near to Adel, he clothed

himself in poor attire like a common soldier, and bare-headed, mounted

on an ordinary mule, with an old saddle and tattered accoutrements, he

forbade the songs and praise with which it is usual to meet conquerors

in that country when returning with victory from the field. He declined

also all share in the success of that day, declaring that the whole of

it was due to God alone, to whose mercy and immediate interposition he

owed the destruction of the Christian army.

The unworthy and unfortunate John Bermudes having arrived in Portugal

from India, continued there till his death; and, in the inscription

over his tomb, is called only _Patriarch of Alexandria_. Yet it is

clear, from the history of these times, that he was first ordained by

the old patriarch Marcus; and that the pope, Paul III. only confirmed

the ordination of this heretical schismatical prelate, though we

have stated that he was ordained by the pope, according to his own

assertion, to be patriarch of Alexandria, Abyssinia, and the Sea.

Bermudes lived many years after this, and never resigned any of his

charges.

However, on his arrival in Europe, several supposed well-meaning

persons at Rome began to discourse among themselves, as if the

conversion of Abyssinia had not had a fair trial when trusted in the

hands of such a man as Bermudes. Scandalous stories as to his moral

character were propagated at Rome to strengthen this. He was said to

have stolen a golden cup in Abyssinia[40]; but this does not appear

to me in any shape probable, or like the manners of the man. He was

a simple, ill-bred zealot, exceedingly vain, but in no-wise coveting

riches or gain of any sort. Sebastian king of Portugal, hearing the

bad posture of the Catholic religion in Abyssinia, and the small hopes

of the conversion of that country, besought the pope to send all the

missionaries that were in that kingdom to preach the gospel in Japan:

but Oviedo stated such strong reasons in his letter to Rome, that he

was confirmed in the mission of Ethiopia.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

MENAS, or ADAMAS SEGUED.

From 1559 to 1563.

_Baharnagash rebels, proclaims Tascar King--Defeated by the

King--Cedes Dobarwa to the Turks, and makes a League with the

Basha of Masuah._

MENAS succeeded his brother Claudius, and found his kingdom in almost

as great confusion as it had been left by his father David. His first

campaign was against Radaet the Jew. The king attacked him at his

strongest post in Samen, where he fought him with various success; and

the enterprise did not seem much advanced, when a hermit, residing

in these mountains, probably tired with the neighbourhood of such

troublesome people, came and told the king, it had been revealed to him

that the conquest of the Jews was not allotted to him, nor was their

time yet come.

While the king seemed disposed to avail himself of the hermit’s

warning, as a decent excuse to get rid of an affair that did not

succeed to his mind, an accident happened which determined him to quit

his present undertaking. Two men, shepherds of Ebenaat in Belessen,

from what injury is not known, engaged two of the king’s servants,

who were their relations, to introduce them into Menas’s tent while

sleeping, with a design to murder him in his bed. While they were

preparing to execute their intention, one of them stumbled over the

lamp that was burning, and threw it down. The king awakening, and

challenging him with a loud voice, the assassin struck at him with his

knife, but so feebly, from the fright, that he dropt the weapon upon

the king’s cloak without hurting him. They sled immediately out of

the tent, but were taken at Ebenaat the next day, and brought back to

the king, who gave orders to the judges to try them: they were both

condemned, the one to be thrust through with lances, the other to be

stoned to death; after which, both their bodies were thrown to the dogs

and to the beasts of the field, as is practised constantly in all cases

of high-treason.

The second year of the reign of Menas was ushered in by a conspiracy

among the principal men of his court, at the head of which was Isaac

Baharnagash, an old and tried servant of his brother Claudius. This

officer had been treated ill by Menas in the beginning of his reign;

and, knowing the prince’s violent and cruel disposition, he could not

persuade himself that he was yet in safety.

Menas, to suppress this rebellion in its infancy, sent Zara Johannes,

an old officer, before him, with what forces he could collect in

the instant; but Isaac, informed of the bad state of that army, and

consequently of his own superiority, left him no time to strengthen

himself, but fell furiously upon him, and, with little resistance,

dispersed his army. This loss did not discourage the king; he had

assembled a very considerable force, and, desirous still to encrease

it, he was advancing slowly that he might collect the scattered remains

of the army that had been defeated. The Baharnagash, though victorious,

saw with some concern that he could not avoid the king, whose courage

and capacity, both as a soldier and a general, left him every thing to

fear for his success.

Ever since the massacre of the princes upon mount Geshen by vizir

Mudgid, in the reign of David III. none of the remains of the royal

family had been confined as heretofore. Tascar, Menas’s nephew, was

then at liberty, and, to strengthen his cause, was proclaimed king

by the Baharnagash, soon after the defeat of Menas’s army under Zara

Johannes. He was a prince very mild and affable in his manners, in all

respects very unlike his uncle then reigning.

It was on the 1st of July 1561, that the king attacked the Baharnagash

in the plain of Woggora; and, having entirely routed his army, Tascar

was taken prisoner, and ordered by the king his uncle to be carried

to the brink of the high rock of Lamalmon, and, having been thrown

over the steep precipice, he was dashed to pieces. Isaac himself

escaped very narrowly, flying to the frontier of his government in

the neighbourhood of Masuah. The Baharnagash comprehended distinctly

to what a dangerous situation he was now reduced. No hopes of safety

remained but in a peace with the basha. This at first appeared not

easily obtained; for, while Isaac remained in his duty in the reign of

Claudius, he had fought with the basha, and lost his brother in the

engagement. But present necessity overcame the memory of past injuries.

Samur Basha was a man of capacity and temper; he had been in possession

of Masuah ever since the year 1558. He saw his own evident interest

in the measure, and appeared full as forward as the Baharnagash to

complete it. Isaac ceded Dobarwa to the basha, and put him into

immediate possession of it, and all the low country between that

and Masuah. By this acquisition, the Turks, before masters of

the sea-coast, became possessed of the whole of the flat country

corresponding thereto, as far as the mountains. Dobarwa is a large

trading town, situated in a country abounding with provisions of all

kinds which Masuah wanted, and it was the key of the province of Tigré

and the high land of Abyssinia.

Menas, at his accession, had received kindly the compliments of

congratulation made by the Portuguese patriarch, Oviedo. But hearing

that he still continued to preach, and that the effect of this was

frequent divisions and animosities among the people, he called him into

his presence, and strictly commanded him to desist, which the patriarch

positively refusing, the king lost all patience, and fell violently

upon him, beating him without mercy, tearing his clothes and beard,

and taking his chalice from him, that he might prevent him from saying

mass. He then banished him to a desert mountain, together with Francis

Lopez, where for seven months he endured all manner of hardships.

The king, in the mean time, published many rigorous proclamations

against the Portuguese. He would not permit them to marry with

Abyssinians. Those that were already married he forbade to go to the

Catholic churches with their husbands; and, having again called the

patriarch into his presence, he ordered him forthwith to leave his

kingdom upon pain of death. But Oviedo, who seems to have had an

ambition to be the proto-martyr, refused absolutely to obey these

commands. He declared that the orders of God were those he obeyed, not

the sinful ordinances of man; and, letting slip his cloak from his

shoulders, he offered his bare neck to the king to strike. This answer

and gesture so incensed Menas, that, drawing his sword, he would have

very soon put the patriarch in possession of the martyrdom he coveted,

had it not been for the interposition of the queen and officers that

stood round him.

Oviedo, after having been again soundly beaten, was banished a second

time to the mountain; and in this sentence were included all the rest

of the Portuguese priests, as well as others. But the bishop would not

submit to this punishment, but with the Portuguese, his countrymen,

joined the Baharnagash, who had already completed his treaty with Samur

Basha.

Isaac, before the Portuguese priests, had shewn a desire of becoming

Catholic, and of protecting, or even embracing, their religion; and

they, on their part, had assured him of a powerful and speedy succour

from India, which was just what he wanted; and with this view he had

placed himself to the greatest advantage, avoiding a battle, and

awaiting those auxiliaries, of the arrival of which the king was very

apprehensive. But the season of ships coming from India had passed

without any appearance of Portuguese, and the king was resolved to try

his fortune without expecting what another season might produce. On the

other hand, Isaac, strengthened by his league with the basha, thought

himself in a condition to take the field, rather than to lessen his

reputation by constantly declining battle.

In these dispositions both armies met, and the confederates were again

beaten by the king, with very little loss or resistance. This battle

was fought on the 20th of April 1562. Immediately after this victory

the king marched to Shoa, and sent several detachments of his army

before him to surprise the robbers called Dobas, and drive off their

cattle. What he intended by retiring so far from his enemies, the

Baharnagash and Basha, is what we do not know. Both of them were yet

alive, but probably so weakened by their last defeat as to leave no

apprehensions of being able to molest the country by any incursions.

The king, being advanced into the province of Ogge, was taken ill of

the Kolla, or low-country fever, and, after a few days illness, he died

there on the 13th of January 1563, leaving three sons, Sertza Denghel,

who succeeded him, Tascar, and Lesana Christos.

Some European historians[41] have advanced that Menas was defeated and

slain in this last engagement just now mentioned. This, however, is

expressly contradicted in the annals of these times, which mention the

death of the king in the terms I have here related; nor were either of

the chiefs of the rebels, the Basha or Baharnagash, slain that day. The

rebellion still continued, Isaac having proclaimed a prince of the name

of John to be king in place of Tascar, his deceased brother.

Menas was a prince of a very morose and violent disposition, but very

well adapted to the time in which he lived; brave in his person, active

and attentive to the affairs of government. He was sober, and an enemy

to all sorts of pleasure; frugal, and, in his dress or stile of living,

little different from any soldier in his army.

These qualities made him feared by the great, without being beloved

by the common soldiers accustomed to the liberality and magnificence

of Claudius; and this want of popularity gave the Romish priests

an opportunity to blacken his character beyond what in truth he

deserved. Thus, they say, that he had changed his religion during his

imprisonment, and turned Mahometan, and that it was from the Moors he

learned that ferocity of manners. But to this the answer is easy, That

the manners of his own countrymen, that is of mountaineers without any

profession but war and blood, in which they had been exercised for

centuries, were, probably of themselves, much more fierce and barbarous

than any he could learn among the people of Adel, occupied from time

immemorial in commerce and the pursuit of riches, and necessarily

engaged in an honest intercourse, and practice of hospitality, with

all the various nations that traded with them. Besides, were this

otherwise, he never had any society with these Moors. Banishment to

the top of a mountain[42] would have been his fate in Abyssinia, had

he lived a few years earlier or later than he did. Yet the mountain

upon which the royal family was confined had not yet produced one of

such savage manners; and it is not probable that he was more strictly

guarded in Adel than he would have been in his own country.

As to his religion, we can only say that he abhorred the Romish

faith, from the behaviour of those that professed it; and, that he

had abundant reason so to do, we need only appeal to their conduct in

the preceding reign, according to the accounts given by the Catholics

themselves. Let any man consider a king such as Claudius was; seated

on his throne in the midst of his courtiers and captains; cursed and

excommunicated; called heretic and liar to his face by an ignorant

peasant and stranger, such as John Bermudes; attacked in the night, and

forced to fly for his life by a body of strangers who depended upon him

for their daily bread: Next consider Menas, at his first accession,

desiring their patriarch to desist from preaching a religion that was

fatal to the quiet of his kingdom by sowing dissentions among it as it

had done in the two preceding reigns; and then figure a fanatic priest,

declaring that he would neither depart nor obey these orders; then say

what would have been done to strangers in France, Spain, or Portugal,

that had behaved in this manner to the sovereign or ministers of these

countries. Add to this, that all the Portuguese to a man appeared in

the army of a rebel subject in the last battle, supporting the cause

of a pretender to his crown. If, upon a fair review of all this, it

is any matter of surprise that he should be averse to such people and

behaviour, I am no judge of the fair feelings of man, and the duty a

prince owes to himself or posterity, his country or dignity.

As to his inclination to the Mahometan religion, the fact is, that

he opposed it even with his sword during his whole reign, and never

swerved from his attachment to the church of Alexandria, or his

friendship and respect to the Abuna Yousef, to the end of his life,

as far as we can learn from history. And least, of all people in the

world, does it become the Roman Catholics to accuse him of being

Mahometan, because a letter is still extant to Menas from pope Paul

III[43], wherein the pope stiles him beloved _son in Christ_, and the

_most holy of priests_.

[Illustration]

SERTZA DENGHEL, OR MELEC SEGUED.

From 1563 to 1595.

_King crowned at Axum--Abyssinia invaded by the Galla--Account

of that People--The king defeats the Army of Adel--Beats the

Falasha, and kills their King--Battle of the Mareb--Basha

slain, and Turks expelled from Dobarwa--King is poisoned--Names

Za Denghel his Successor._

MENAS was succeeded by his son, Sertza Denghel, who took the name of

Melec Segued. He was only twelve years old when he came to the throne,

and was crowned at Axum with all the ancient ceremonies. The beginning

of his reign was marked by a mutiny of his soldiers, who, joining

themselves to some Mahometans, plundered the town, and then disbanded.

A misunderstanding also happened with Ayto Hamelmal, son to Romana

Werk, daughter of Hatzé Naod, which threatened many misfortunes in its

consequences.

Tecla Asfadin, governor of Tigré, was ordered by the king to march

against him; and the armies fought with equal advantage. But Hamelmal

dying soon after, his party dispersed without further trouble. Fasil,

too, his cousin, who had been appointed governor of Damot, rebelled

soon after, and was defeated by the king, who this year (the fourth of

his reign) commanded his army for the first time in person, and greatly

contributed to the victory, though he was but then sixteen years of age.

The sixth year of his reign he marched against a clan of Galla, called

Azé, whom he often beat, staying in the country two whole years. Upon

his return, he found the Baharnagash, Isaac and Harla, and other

malcontents, when a sort of a pacification followed; and having

received from the rebels considerable presents, he sat down at Dobit, a

small town in Dembea, where he passed the winter.

All this time Oviedo and the Portuguese did not appear at court.

The king, however, did not molest the priests in their baptisms,

preachings, or any of their functions. He often spake favourably of

their moral characters, their sobriety, patience, and decency of

their lives; but he condemned decisively the whole of their religious

tenets, which he pronounced to be full of danger and contradiction, and

destructive of civil order and monarchical government. At this period

the Galla again made an irruption into Gojam.

It is now time we should speak of this nation, which has contributed

more to weakening and reducing the Abyssinian empire, than all their

civil wars, and all the foreign enemies put together. When I spoke of

the languages of the several nations in Abyssinia, I took occasion

merely to mention the origin of these Galla, and their progress

northward, till their first hostile appearance in Abyssinia. I shall

now proceed to lay before the reader what further I have collected

concerning them. Many of them were in the king’s service while I was in

Abyssinia; and, from a multitude of conversations I had with all kinds

of them, I flatter myself I have gathered the best accounts regarding

these tribes.

The Galla are a very numerous nation of Shepherds, who probably lived

under or beyond the Line. What the cause of their emigration was we

do not pretend to say with certainty, but they have, for many years,

been in an uniform progress northward. They were at first all infantry,

and said the country they came from would not permit horses to breed

in it, as is the case in 13° north of the Line round Sennaar. Upon

coming northward, and conquering the Abyssinian provinces, and the

small Mahometan districts bordering on them, they have acquired a breed

of horses, which they have multiplied so industriously that they are

become a nation of cavalry, and now hold their infantry in very little

esteem.

As under the Line, to the south of Abyssinia, the land is exceedingly

high, and the sun seldom makes its appearance on account of the

continual rains, the Galla are consequently of a brown complexion,

with long black hair. Some, indeed, who live in the valleys of the

low country, are perfectly black. Although the principal food of this

people at first was milk and butter, yet, when they advanced into

drier climates, they learned of the Abyssinians to plow and sow the

fields, and to make bread. They seem to affect the number seven, and

have divided their immense multitude threefold by that number. They

all agree, that, when the nation advanced to the Abyssinian frontiers,

they were then in the centre of the continent. The ground beginning to

rise before them, seven of their tribes or nations filed off to the

east towards the Indian Ocean; and, after making settlements there, and

multiplying exceedingly, they marched forward due south into Bali and

Dawaro, which they first wasted by constant incursions, then conquered

and settled there in the reign of David III. in 1537.

Another division of seven tribes went off to the west about the same

time, and spread themselves in another semicircle round the south side

of the Nile, and all along its banks round Gojam, and to the east

behind the country of the Agows, (which are on the east side of the

Nile) to that of the Gongas and Gafats. The high woody banks of this

river have hitherto been their barrier to the southward; not but that

they have often fought for, and often conquered, and still oftener

plundered, the countries on the Abyssinian side of that river; and,

from this reign downwards, the scene of action with the Abyssinians has

constantly been on the east side of the river. All I mean is, they have

never made a settlement on the Abyssinian side of the Nile, except

such tribes of them as, from wars among themselves, have gone over to

the king of Abyssinia and obtained lands on the banks of that river,

opposite to the nation they have revolted from, against which they have

ever after been the securest bulwark.

A third division of seven tribes remained in the center, due south

of the low country of Shoa; and these are the least known, as having

made, the fewest incursions. They have, indeed, possessed Walaka, a

small province between Amhara and Shoa; but this has been permitted

politically by the governor of Shoa, as a barrier between him and

Abyssinia, on whose sovereign he scarcely acknowledges any dependence

but for form’s sake, his province being at present an hereditary

government descending from father to son.

All these tribes of Galla gird Abyssinia round at all points from east

to west, making inroads, and burning and murdering all that fall into

their hands. The privities of the men they cut off, dry, and hang

them up in their houses. They are so merciless as to spare not even

women with child, whom they rip up in hopes of destroying a male. The

western part of these Galla, which surrounds the peninsula of Gojam and

Damot, are called the Boren Galla; and those that are to the east are

named Bertuma Galla, though this last word is seldom used in history,

where the Galla to the westward are called Boren; and the others Galla

merely, without any other addition. All these tribes, though the most

cruel that ever appeared in any country, are yet governed by the

strictest discipline at home, where the smallest broil or quarrel among

individuals is taken cognizance of, and receives immediate punishment.

Each of the three divisions of Galla elect a king, that is, there is

a king for every seven tribes. There is also a kind of nobility among

them, from whose families alone the sovereign can be chosen. But there

are certain degrees of merit (all warlike) that raise, from time to

time, their plebeian families to nobility, and the right of suffrage.

No one of these nobles can be elected till past forty years of age,

unless he has slain with his own hand a number of men which, added to

his years, makes up forty.

The council of each of the seven tribes first meets separately in its

own district: Here it determines how many are necessary to be left

behind for the governing, guarding, and cultivating the territory,

while those fixed upon by most votes go as delegates to meet the

representatives of the other nations at the domicil, or head-quarters

of the king, among the tribe from which the sovereign of the last

seven years was taken. Here they sit down under a tree which seems to

be sacred, and the god of all the nations. It is called Wanzey[44];

has a white flower, and great quantity of foliage, and is very common

in Abyssinia. After a variety of votes, the number of candidates is

reduced to four, and the suffrage of six of these nations go then no

farther; but the seventh, whose turn it is to have a king out of their

tribe, choose, from among the four, one, whom they crown with a garland

of Wanzey, and put a sceptre, or bludgeon, of that wood in his hands,

which they call Buco.

The king of the western Galla is stiled Lubo, the other Mooty. At this

assembly, the king allots to each their scene of murder and rapine; but

limits them always to speedy returns in case the body of the nation

should have occasion for them. The Galla are reputed very good soldiers

for surprise, and in the first attack, but have not constancy or

perseverance. They accomplish incredible marches; swim rivers holding

by the horses tail, (an exercise to which both they and their horses

are perfectly trained;) do the utmost mischief possible in the shortest

time; and rarely return by the same way they came. They are excellent

light horse for a regular army in an enemy’s country.

Iron is very scarce among them, so that their principal arms are poles

sharpened at the end, and hardened in the fire, which they use like

lances. Their shields are made of bulls hides of a single fold, so

that they are very subject to warp in heat, or become too pliable and

soft in wet weather. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, the report

of their cruelty made such an impression upon the Abyssinians, that,

on their first engagements they rarely stood firmly the Galla’s first

onset. Besides this, the shrill and very barbarous noise they are

always used to make at the moment they charge, used to terrify the

horses and riders, so that a flight generally followed the attack made

by Galla horse.

These melancholy and frantic howls I had occasion to hear often in

those engagements that happened while I was in Abyssinia. The Edjow, a

body of Galla who had been in the late king Joas’s service, and were

relations to him by his mother, who was of that clan of southern Galla,

were constantly in the rebel army, and always in the most disaffected

part, who, with the troops of Begemder and Lasta, attacked the king’s

household, where he was in person; and, though they behaved with a

bravery even to rashness, most of them lost their lives, upon the

long pikes of the king’s black horse, without ever doing any notable

execution, as these horses were too-well trained to be at all moved

with their shrieks, when they charged, though their bravery and

fidelity merited a better fate.

The women are said to be very fruitful. They do not confine themselves

even a day after labour, but wash and return to their work immediately.

They plow, sow, and reap. The cattle tread out the corn, but the men

are the herdsmen, and take charge of the cattle in the fields.

Both sexes are something less than the middle size, exceedingly light

and agile. Both, but especially the men, plait their hair with the

bowels and guts of oxen, which they wear likewise, like belts, twisted

round their middle; and these, as they putrify, occasion a terrible

stench. Both copiously anoint their heads and bodies with butter,

or melted grease, which is continually raining from them, and which

indicates that they came from a country hotter than that which they

now possess. They greatly resemble the Hottentots in this filthy taste

of dress. The rest of their body is naked; a piece of skin only covers

them before; and they wear a goat’s skin on their shoulders, in shape

of a woman’s handkerchief, or tippet.

It has been said[45], that no religion was ever discovered among them.

I imagine that the facts upon which this opinion is founded have never

been sufficiently investigated. The Wanzey-tree, under which their

kings are crowned, is avowedly worshipped for a god in every tribe.

They have certain stones also, for an object of their devotion, which

I never could sufficiently understand to give further description of

them. But they certainly pay adoration to the moon, especially the

new moon, for of this I have frequently been a witness. They likewise

worship certain stars in particular positions, and at different times

of the year, and are, in my opinion, still in the ancient religion of

Sabaism. All of them believe that, after death, they are to live again;

that they are to rise with their body, as they were on earth, to enter

into another life they know not where, but they are to be in a state of

body infinitely more perfect than the present, and are to die no more,

nor suffer grief, sickness, or trouble of any kind. They have very

obscure, or no ideas at all of future punishment; but their reward is

to be a moderate state of enjoyment with the same family and persons

with which they lived on earth. And this is very nearly the same belief

with the other Pagan nations in Africa with which I have conversed

intimately; and this is what writers generally call a belief of the

immortality of the soul. Nor did I ever know one savage that had a more

distinct idea of it, or ever separated it from the immortality of the

body.

The Galla to the south are mostly Mahometans; on the east and west

chiefly Pagans. They intermarry with each other, but suffer no

strangers to live among them. The Moors, however, by courage, patience,

and attention, have found out the means of trading with them in a

tolerable degree of safety. The goods they carry are coarse Surat

blue cloaths, called _marowty_; also myrrh and salt. This last is the

principal and most valuable article.

The Galla sometimes marry the Abyssinian women, but the issue of those

marriages are incapable of all employment. Their form of marriage is

the following: The bridegroom, standing before the parents of the

bride, holds grass in his right hand and the dung of a cow in his left.

He then says, “May this never enter, nor this ever come out, if he does

not do what he promises;” that is, may the grass never enter the cow’s

mouth to feed it, or may she die before it is discharged. Matrimonial

vows, moreover, are very simple; he swears to his bride that he shall

give her meat and drink while living, and bury her when dead.

Polygamy is allowed among them, but the men are commonly content with

one wife. Such, indeed, is their moderation in this respect, that it

is the women that solicit the men to increase the number of their

wives. The love of their children seems to get a speedy ascendency over

passion and pleasure, and is a noble part of the character of these

savages that ought not to be forgot. A young woman, having a child

or two by her husband, intreats and solicits him that he would take

another wife, when she names to him all the beautiful girls of her

acquaintance, especially those that she thinks likeliest to have large

families. After the husband has made his choice, she goes to the tent

of the young woman, and sits behind it in a supplicant posture, till

she has excited the attention of the family within. She then, with an

audible voice, declares who she is; that she is daughter of such a one;

that her husband has all the qualifications for making a woman happy;

that she has only two children by him; and, as her family is so small,

she comes to solicit their daughter for her husband’s wife, that their

families may be joined together, and be strong; and that her children,

from their being few in number, may not fall a prey to their enemies

in the day of battle; for the Galla always fight in families, whether

against one another, or against other enemies.

When she has thus obtained a wife for her husband, she carries her

home, puts her to bed with her husband, where, having left her, she

feasts with the bride’s relations. There the children of the first

marriage are produced, and the men of the bride’s family put each their

hands upon these children’s heads, and afterwards take the oath in the

usual manner, to live and die with them as their own offspring. The

children, then, after this species of adoption, go to their relations,

and visit them for the space of seven days. All that time the husband

remains at home in possession of his new bride; at the end of which

he gives a feast, when the first wife is seated by her husband, and

the young one serves the whole company. The first wife from this day

keeps her precedence; and the second is treated by the first wife like

a grown up-daughter. I believe it would be very long before the love

of their families would introduce this custom among the young women of

Britain.

When a father dies and leaves many children, the eldest succeeds to the

whole inheritance without division; nor is he obliged, at any time, or

by any circumstance, to give his brothers a part afterwards. If the

father is alive when the son first begins to shave his head, which is

a declaration of manhood, he gives two or three milk-cows, or more,

according to his rank and fortune. These, and all their produce, remain

the property of the child to whom they were given by his father; and

these the brother is obliged to pay to him upon his father’s death, in

the same number and kinds. The eldest brother, is moreover, obliged to

give the sister, whenever she is marriageable, whatever other provision

the father may have made in his lifetime for her, with all its increase

from the day of the donation.

When the father becomes old and unfit for war, he is obliged to

surrender his whole effects to his eldest son, who is bound to give him

aliment, and nothing else; and, when the eldest brother dies, leaving

younger brothers behind him, and a widow young enough to bear children,

the youngest brother of all is obliged to marry her; but the children

of the marriage are always accounted as if they were the eldest

brother’s; nor does this marriage of the youngest brother to the widow

entitle him to any part of the deceased’s fortune.

The southern Galla are called Elma Kilelloo, Elma Gooderoo, Elma

Robali, Elma Doolo, Elma Bodena, Elma Horreta, and Elma Michaeli; these

are the seven southern nations which the Mahometan traders pass through

in their way to Narea, the southernmost country the Abyssinians ever

conquered.

The western Galla for their principal clans have the Djawi, Edjow

or Ayzo, and Toluma, and these were the clans we principally fought

with when I was in Abyssinia. They are chiefly Pagans. Some of their

children, who were left young in court, when their fathers fled, after

the murder of the late king their master, were better Christians and

better soldiers than any Abyssinians we had.

It is not a matter of small curiosity to know what is their food, that

is so easy of carriage as to enable them to traverse immense deserts,

that they may, without warning, fall upon the towns and villages in the

cultivated country of Abyssinia. This is nothing but coffee roasted,

till it can be pulverised, and then mixed with butter to a consistency

that will suffer it to be rolled up in balls, and put in a leather bag.

A ball of this composition, between the circumference of a shilling

and half-a-crown, about the size of a billiard-ball, keeps them, they

say, in strength and spirits during a whole day’s fatigue, better than

a loaf of bread, or a meal of meat. Its name in Arabia and Abyssinia

is Bun, but I apprehend its true name is Caffé, from Caffa the south

province of Narea, whence it is first said to have come; it is white

in the bean. The coffee-tree is the wood of the country, produced

spontaneously everywhere in great abundance, from Caffa to the banks of

the Nile.

Thus much for this remarkable nation, whose language is perfectly

different from any in Abyssinia, and is the same throughout all the

tribes, with very little variation of dialect. This is a nation that

has conquered some of the finest provinces of Abyssinia, and of whose

inroads we shall hereafter have occasion to speak continually; and it

is very difficult to say how far they might not have accomplished the

conquest of the whole, had not providence interposed in a manner little

expected, but more efficacious than a thousand armies, and all the

inventions of man.

The Galla, before their inroads into Abyssinia, had never in their own

country seen or heard of the small-pox. This disease met them in the

Abyssinian villages. It raged among them with such violence, that whole

provinces conquered by them became half-desert; and, in many places,

they were forced to become tributary to those whom before they kept in

continual fear. But this did not happen till the reign of Yasous the

Great, at the beginning of the present century, where we shall take

fresh notice of it, and now proceed with what remains of the reign

of Sertza Denghel, whom we left with his army in the 9th year of his

reign, residing at Dobit, a small town in Dembea, watching the motion

of the rebels, Isaac Baharnagash, and others, his confederates.

The tenth year of his reign, as soon as the weather permitted him, the

king went into Gojam to oppose the inroads of the Djawi, a clan of the

western or Boren Galla, who then were in possession of the Buco, or

royal dignity, among the seven nations. But they had repassed the Nile

upon the first news of the king’s march, without having time to waste

the country. The king then went to winter in Bizamo, which is south of

the Nile, the native country of these Galla, the Djawi.

If this nation, the Galla, has deserved ill of the Abyssinians by the

frequent inroads made into their country, they must, however, confess

one obligation, that in the end they entirely ruined their ancient

enemy, the Mahometan king of Adel, and reduced him to a state of

perfect insignificance.

Sertza Denghel then returned with his army into Dembea, where, finding

the militia of that province much disaffected by communication with the

Moorish soldiers settled among them from Gragnè’s time to this day, and

that most of them had in their hearts forsaken the Christian religion,

and were all ready to fail in their allegiance, he assembled the

greatest part of them without their arms, and, surrounding them with

his soldiers, cut them to pieces, to the number of 3000 men.

In the 13th year of his reign, Mahomet king of Adel marched out of his

own country with the view of joining the Basha and Baharnagash. But

the king, ever watchful over the motions of his enemies, surprised

the Baharnagash before his junction either with Mahomet or the basha,

and defeated or dispersed his army, obliging him to fly in disguise,

with the utmost danger of being taken prisoner, to hide himself with

the basha at Dobarwa. He then appointed Darguta, governor of Tigré, an

old and experienced officer, giving him the charge of the province,

and to watch the basha; and, leaving with him his wounded, (and in

their place taking some fresh soldiers from Darguta) he, by forced

marches, endeavoured to meet Mahomet, who had not heard of his victory

over Isaac; and being informed that the king of Adel was encamped on

the hither side of the river Wali, having passed it to join Isaac,

the king, by a sudden movement, crossed the river, and came opposite

to Mahomet’s quarters, who was then striking his tents, having just

heard of the fate of the Baharnagash. Mahomet and his whole army were

struck with a panic at this unexpected appearance of the king on the

opposite side of the river, which had cut off his retreat to Adel.

Fearing, however, there might still be an enemy behind him, and that

he should be hemmed in between both, he resolved to pass, but did it

in so tumultuous a manner that the king’s army had no trouble but to

slaughter those who arrived at the opposite bank. Great part of the

cavalry, seeing the fate of their companions at the ford, attempted to

pass above and below by swimming: but, though the river was deep and

smooth, the banks were high, and many were drowned, not being able to

scramble up on the other side. Many were also destroyed by stones, and

the lances of Sertza Denghel’s men, from the banks above; some passed,

however, joining Mahomet, and leaving the rest of the army to attempt a

passage at the ford, crossed with the utmost speed lower down the river

without being pursued, and carried the news of their own defeat to Adel.

The whole Moorish army perished this day except the horse, either by

the sword or in the river; nor had the Moors received so severe a

blow since the defeat of Gragnè by Claudius. The king then decamped,

and took post at Zarroder, on the frontiers of Adel, with a design to

winter there and lay waste the country, into which he intended to march

as soon as the fair weather returned. But it was the misfortune of this

great prince, that his enemies were situated at the two most distant

extremities of the kingdom. For the Galla attacked Gojam on the west,

at the very time he prepared to enter Adel on the east. Without loss of

time, however, he traversed the whole kingdom of Abyssinia, and came up

with the Boren Galla upon the river Madge, but no action of consequence

followed. The Galla, attempting the king’s camp in the night, and

finding themselves too weak to carry it, retreated immediately into

their own country. While returning to Dembea, he met a party of the

Falasha, called Abati, at Wainadega, and entirely destroyed them, so

that not one escaped.

The king was now so formidable that no army of the enemy dared to face

him, and he obliged the Falasha to give up their king Radaet, whom he

banished to Wadge; and the four following years he spent in ravaging

the country of his enemies the Galla, in Shat and Bed, and that of the

Falasha in Samen and Serkè, where he beat Caliph king of the Falasha,

who had succeeded Radaet.

The Galla, in advancing towards Gojam and Damot, had over-run the

whole low country between the mountains of Narea and the Nile. The

king, desirous to open a communication with a country where there was

a great trade, especially for gold, crossed the Nile in his way to

that province, the Galla flying everywhere before him. He was received

with very great joy by the prince of that country, who looked upon him

as his deliverer from those cruel enemies. Here he received many rich

presents; more particularly a large quantity of gold, and he wintered

at Cutheny in that province, where Abba Hedar his brother died, having

been blown up with gun-powder, with his wife and children. The Nareans

desired, this year, to be admitted to the Christian faith; and they

were converted and baptised by a mission of priests sent by the king

for that purpose.

At the time he was rescuing the kingdom of Narea, Cadward Basha, a

young officer of merit and reputation, lately come from Constantinople

to Dawaro as basha of Masuah, had begun his command with making inroads

into Tigré, and driving off a number of the inhabitants into slavery.

The king, necessarily engaged at a distance, suffered these injuries

with a degree of impatience; and, after having provided for the

security of the several countries immediately near him, he marched with

his army directly for Woggora, committing every degree of excess in his

march, in order to provoke the Falasha to descend from their heights

and offer him battle.

A frugal œconomical people, such as the Jews are, could not bear to

see their cattle and crops destroyed in so wanton a manner before

their very faces. They came, therefore, down in immense numbers to

attack the king, one of the most excellent generals Abyssinia ever

had, at the head of a small, but veteran army. Geshen, brother of the

famous Gideon, was then king of the Jews, and commanded the army of

his countrymen. The battle was fought on the plain of Woggora on the

19th of January 1594, with the success that was to be expected. Four

thousand of the Jewish army were slain upon the spot; and, among them,

Geshen, their unfortunate king and leader.

After this victory, Sertza Denghel marched his army into Kuara,

through the country where the Jews had many strong-holds, and received

everywhere their submission. Then turning to the left, he came through

the country of the Shangalla, called Woombarea, and so to that of the

Agows. There he heard that new troubles were meditating in Damot; but

the inhabitants of that province were not yet ripe enough to break out

into open rebellion.

That he might not, therefore, have two enemies at such a distance from

each other upon his hands at once, this year, as soon as the rains

were over, he determined to march and attack the basha. The basha was

very soon informed of his designs, and as soon prepared to meet them;

so that the king found him already in the field, encamped on his own

side of the Mareb, but without having committed, till then, any act

of hostility. He marched out of his camp, and formed, upon seeing the

royal army approach; leaving a sufficient field for the king to draw up

in, if he should incline to cross the river, and attack him.

This confident, rather than prudent conduct of the basha, did not

intimidate the king, who being used to improve every advantage coolly,

and without bravado, embraced this very opportunity his enemy chose

to give him. He formed, therefore, on his own side of the Mareb, and

passed it in as good order as possible, considering it is a swift

stream, and very deep at that season of the year. He halted several

times while his men were in the water, to put them again in order, as

if he had expected to be attacked the moment he landed on the other

side. The basha, a man of knowledge in his profession, who saw this

cautious conduct of the king, is said to have cried out, “How unlike he

is to what I have heard of his father!” alluding to the general rash

behaviour of the late king Menas whilst at the head of his army.

Sertza Denghel having left all his baggage on the other side, and

passed the river, drew up his army in the same deliberate manner in

which he had crossed the Mareb, and formed opposite to the basha; as if

he had been acting under him, and by his orders, availing himself with

great attention of all the advantages the ground could afford him. The

basha, confident in the superior valour of his troops, thought, now he

had got the king between him and the river, that he would easily that

day finish Sertza Denghel’s life and reign.

The battle began with the most determined resolution and vigour on

both sides. The Abyssinian foot drove back the Turkish infantry; and

the king, dismounting from his horse, with his lance and shield in

his hand, and charging at their head, animated them to preserve that

advantage. On the other hand, the basha, who had soon put to flight

part of the Abyssinian horse with whom he had engaged, fell furiously

upon the foot commanded by the king, the Turks making a great carnage

among them with their sabres, and the affair became but doubtful, when

Robel, gentleman of the bed-chamber to the king, who commanded the

pike-men on horseback, part of the king’s household troops, seeing his

master’s danger, charged the Turkish horse where he saw the basha in

person, and, clearing his way, broke his pike upon an officer of the

basha who carried the standard immediately before him, and threw him

dead at his feet. Being without other arms, he then drew the short

crooked knife which the Abyssinians always carry in their girdle, and,

pushing up his horse close before the basha could recover from his

surprise, he plunged it in his throat, so that he expired instantly. So

unlooked-for a spectacle struck a panic into the troops. The Turkish

horse first turned their backs, and a general rout followed.

The basha’s body was carried upon a mule out of the field, and struck a

terror into all the Mahometans wherever it passed. It no sooner entered

Dobarwa than it was obliged to be carried out at the other end of the

town. Sertza Denghel was not one that slumbered upon a victory. He

entered Dobarwa sword in hand, putting all the Pagans and Mahometans

that fell in his way to death, and, in this manner, pursued them to

the frontiers of Masuah, leaving many to die for want of water in that

desert.

The king, in honour of this brave action performed by Robel, ordered

what follows to be writ in letters of gold, and inserted in the

records of the kingdom: “Robel, servant to Sertza Denghel, and son to

Menetcheli, slew a Turkish basha on horseback with a common knife.”

Sertza Denghel, having thus delivered himself from the most formidable

of his enemies, marched through Gojam again into Narea, extirpating,

all the way he went, the Galla that obstructed his way to that state.

He left an additional number of priests and monks to instruct them in

the Christian religion; though there are some historians of this reign

who pretend that it was not till this second visit that Narea was

converted.

However this may be, victory had everywhere attended his steps, and

he was now preparing to chastise the malcontents at Damot, when he

was accosted by a priest, famous for his holiness and talent for

divination, who warned him not to undertake that war. But the king,

expressing his contempt of both the message and messenger, declared his

fixed resolution to invade Damot without delay. The priest is said

to have limited his advice still further, and to have only begged him

to remember not to eat the fish of a certain river in the territory

of Giba in the province of Shat. The king, however, flushed with his

victory over the Boren Galla, forgot the name of the river and the

injunction; and, having ate fish out of this river, was immediately

after taken dangerously ill, and died on his return.

The writer of his life says, that the fatal effects of this river were

afterwards experienced in the reign of Yasous the Great, at the time

in which he wrote, when the king’s whole army, encamped along the

sides of this river, were taken with violent sickness after eating

the fish caught in it, and that many of the soldiers died. Whether

this be really fact or not, I will not take upon me to decide. Whether

fish, or any other animal, living in water impregnated with poisonous

minerals, can preserve its own life, and yet imbibe a quantity of

poison sufficient to destroy the men that should eat it, seems to me

very doubtful. Something like this is said to happen in oysters, which

are found on copperas beds, or have preparations of copperas thrown

upon them to tinge a part of them with green. I do not, however, think

it likely, that the creature would live after this metallic dose, or

preserve a taste that would make it food for man till he accumulated a

quantity sufficient to destroy him.

Sertza Denghel was of a very humane affable disposition, very different

from his father Menas. He was stedfast in his adherence to the church

of Alexandria, and seemed perfectly indifferent as to the Romish church

and clergy. In conversation, he frequently condemned their tenets, but

always commended the sobriety and sanctity of their lives. He left

no legitimate sons, but many daughters by his wife Mariam Sena; and

two natural sons, Za Mariam and Jacob. He had also a nephew called _Za

Denghel_, son of his brother Lesana Christos.

It is absolutely contrary to truth, what is said by Tellez and others,

that the illegitimate sons have no right to succeed to the crown. There

is, indeed, no sort of difference, as may be seen by many examples in

the course of this history.

Sertza Denghel at first seemed to have intended his nephew, Za Denghel,

to succeed him, a prince who had every good quality; was arrived at an

age fit for governing, and had attended him and distinguished himself

in great part of his wars. But, being upon his death-bed, he changed

his mind, probably at the instigation of the queen and the ambitious

nobles, who desired to have the government in their own hands during a

long minority. His son Jacob, a boy of seven years old, was now brought

into court, and treated as heir-apparent, which everybody thought was

but natural and pardonable from the affection of a father.

At last when he found that he was sick to death, the interest and love

of his country seemed to overcome even the ties of blood; so that,

calling his council together around his bed, he designed his successor

in this last speech: ‘As I am sensible I am at the point of death, next

to the care of my soul, I am anxious for the welfare of my kingdom.

My first idea was to appoint Jacob my son to be successor; and I had

done so unless for his youth, and it is probable neither you nor I

could have cause to repent it. Considering, however, the state of

my kingdom, I prefer its interest to the private affection I bear my

son; and do, therefore, hereby appoint Za Denghel my nephew to succeed

me, and be your king; and recommend him to you as fit for war, ripe

in years, exemplary in the practice of every virtue, and as deserving

of the crown by his good qualities, as he is by his near relation to

the royal family.’ And with these words the king expired in the end of

August 1595, and was buried in the island Roma.

As soon as Sertza Denghel died, the nobility resumed their former

resolutions. The very reasons the dying king had given them, why

Za Denghel was fitted to reign, were those for the which they were

determined to reject him; as they, after so long a reign as the last,

were perfectly weary at being kept in their duty, and desired nothing

more than an infant king and a long minority: this they found in Jacob.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

ZA DENGHEL.

From 1595 to 1604.

_Za Denghel dethroned--Jacob a Minor succeeds--Za Denghel is

restored--Banishes Jacob to Narea--Converted to the Romish

Religion--Battle of Bartcho, and Death of the King._

SERTZA DENGHEL had several daughters, one of whom was married to Kefla

Wahad, governor of the province of Tigré, and another to Athanasius,

governor of Amhara. These two were the most powerful men then in

the kingdom. The empress and her two sons-in-law saw plainly, that

the succession of Za Denghel, a man of ripe years, possessed of

every requisite for reigning, was to exclude them from any share in

government but a subaltern one, for which they were to stand candidates

upon their own merits, in common with the rest of the nobility.

Accordingly, no sooner was Sertza Denghel dead, perhaps some time

before, but a conspiracy was formed to change the order of succession,

and this was immediately executed by order of this triumvirate, who

sent a body of soldiers and seized Za Denghel, and carried him close

prisoner to Dek, a large island in the lake Tzana, belonging to the

queen, where he was kept for some time, till he escaped and hid himself

in the wild inaccessible mountains of Gojam, which there form the

banks of the Nile. They carried their precautions still further; and

subsequent events after shewed, that these were well-grounded. They

sent a party of men at the same time to surprise Socinios, but he,

sufficiently upon his guard, no sooner saw the fate of his cousin, Za

Denghel, than he withdrew himself, but in such a manner that shewed

plainly he knew the value of his own pretensions, and was not to be an

unconcerned spectator if a revolution was to happen.

In order to understand perfectly the claims of those princes, who were

by turns placed on the throne in the bloody war that followed, it will

be necessary to know that the emperor David III. had three sons: The

eldest was Claudius, who succeeded him in the empire; the history of

whose reign we have already given: The second was Jacob, who died a

minor before his brother, but left two sons, Tascar and Facilidas: The

third son was Menas, called Adamas Segued, who succeeded Claudius his

brother in the empire; whose reign we have likewise given in its proper

place.

Menas had four sons; Sertza Denghel, called Melec Segued, who succeeded

his father in the empire, and whose history we have just now finished;

the second Aquieter; the third Abatè; and the fourth, Lesana Christos;

whose son was that Za Denghel of whom we were last speaking, appointed

to succeed to the throne by his uncle Sertza Denghel, when on his

death-bed.

Tascar, the son of Jacob, died a minor; he rebelled against his uncle

Menas, in confederacy with the Baharnagash, as we have already seen;

and his army being beat by his uncle and sovereign, he was, by his

order, thrown over the steep precipice of Lamalmon, and dashed to

pieces. Facilidas, the second remaining son of the same minor Jacob,

lived many years, possessed great estates in Gojam, and died afterwards

in battle, fighting against the Galla, in defence of these possessions.

This Facilidas had a natural son named Socinios, who inherited his

father’s possessions; was nephew to Sertza Denghel, and cousin-german

to Za Denghel appointed to succeed to the throne; so that Za Denghel

being once removed, as Jacob had been postponed, there could be no

doubt of Socinios’s claim as the nearest heir-male to David III.

commonly called Wanag Segued.

Socinios, from his infancy, had been trained to arms, and had undergone

a number of hardships in his uncle’s wars. Part of his estate had

been seized, after his father’s death, by men in power, favourites of

Sertza Denghel; and he hoped for a complete restitution of them from Za

Denghel his cousin, when he should succeed, for these two were as much

connected with each other by friendship and affection, as they were by

blood. Nor would any step, says the historian, have ever been taken

by Socinios towards mounting the throne, had Za Denghel his cousin

succeeded, as by right he ought.

In the mean time, he was at the head of a considerable band of

soldiers; had assisted Fasa Christos, governor of Gojam, in defeating

the Galla, who had over-run that province; and, by his courage and

conduct that day, had left a strong impression upon the minds of the

troops that he would soon become the most capable and active soldier of

his time.

The queen and her two sons-in-law being disappointed in their attempt

upon Socinios, were obliged to take the only step that remained in

their choice, which was to appoint the infant Jacob[46] king, a child

of seven years old, and put him under the tutelage of Ras Athanasius.

The empress Mariam Sena, and her two sons-in-law, had gained to their

party Za Selassé, a person of low birth, native of an obscure nation

of Pagans, called Guraguè, a man esteemed for bravery and conduct, and

beloved by the soldiers; but turbulent and seditious, without honour,

gratitude, or regard, either to his word, to his sovereign, or the

interests of his country.

Jacob had suffered patiently the direction of those that governed him,

so long as the excuse of his minority was a good one. But being now

arrived at the age of 17, he began to put in, by degrees, for his share

in the direction of affairs; and observing some steps that tended to

prolong the government of his tutors, by his own power he banished Za

Selassé, the author of them, into the distant kingdom of Narea.

This vigorous proceeding alarmed the empress and her party. They saw

that the measure taken by Jacob would presently lead all good men

and lovers of their country to support him, and to annihilate their

power. They resolved not to wait till this took place, but instantly to

restore Za Denghel, whom, with great difficulty, they found hid in the

mountains between Gojam and Damot. And, to remove every suspicion in Za

Denghel’s breast, Ras Athanasius repaired to the palace, giving Jacob

publicly, even on the throne, the most abusive and scurrilous language,

calling him an obstinate, stubborn, foolish boy; declaring him degraded

from being king, and announcing to his face the coming of Za Denghel to

supplant him. Jacob’s behaviour on so unexpected an occasion was not

such as Athanasius’s rash speech led to expect. He gave a cool and mild

reply to these invectives; but, finding himself entirely in his enemy’s

power, without losing a moment, he left his palace in the night, taking

the road to Samen, not doubting of safety and protection if he could

reach his mother’s relations among those high, rocky mountains.

Fortune at first seemed to favour his endeavours. He arrived at a small

village immediately in the neighbourhood of the country to which he was

going; but there he was discovered and made prisoner; carried back and

delivered to Za Denghel his rival, whom he found placed on his throne.

In all these cases, it is the invariable, though barbarous practice of

Abyssinia, to mutilate any such pretender to the throne, by cutting off

his nose, ear, hand, or foot, as they shall be inclined the patient

should die or live after the operation, it being an established law,

that no person can succeed to the throne, as to the priesthood, without

being perfect in all his limbs. Za Denghel, as he could not adopt so

inhuman a procedure even with a rival, contented himself with only

banishing Jacob to Narea.

Ever since that period of Menas’s reign, when Samur, basha of Masuah,

had been put in possession of Dobarwa in virtue of a treaty with

Isaac Baharnagash, then in rebellion, the Catholic religion was left

destitute of all support, the fathers that had remained in Abyssinia

being dead, and the entry into that kingdom shut up by the violent

animosity of the Turks, and the cruelties they exercised upon all

missionaries that fell into their hands. The few Catholics that

remained were absolutely deprived of all assistance, when Melchior

Sylvanus, an Indian vicar of the church of St Anne at Goa, was pitched

upon as a proper person to be sent to their relief. His language,

colour, eastern air and manners, seemed to promise that he would

succeed, and baffle the vigilance of the Turks.

He arrived at Masuah in 1597, and entered Abyssinia unsuspected; but

the power of the Turk being much lessened by the great defeat given

them by Sertza Denghel, who slew Cadward Basha, and retook Dobarwa

and all its dependencies, as has been already mentioned, a very

considerable part of their former dangers, the missionaries might

now hope to escape. But there still remained others obstructing the

communication with India, which, however, were surmountable, and gave

way, as most of the kind do, to prudence, courage, and perseverance.

Accordingly, in the year 1600, Peter Paez, the most capable, as well

as most successful missionary that ever entered Ethiopia, arrived at

Masuah, after having suffered a long imprisonment, and many other

hardships, on his way to that island; and, taking upon him the charge

of the Portuguese, relieved Melchior Sylvanus, who returned to India.

Paez, however, did not press on to court as his predecessors, and even

his successors constantly did, but, confining himself to the convent of

Fremona in Tigré, he first set himself by an invincible application to

attain the knowledge of the Geez written language, in which he arrived

to a degree of knowledge superior to that of the natives themselves.

He then applied to the instruction of youth, keeping a school, where

he taught equally the children of the Portuguese, and those of the

Abyssinians. The great progress made by the scholars speedily spread

abroad the reputation of the master. First of all, John Gabriel, one of

the most distinguished officers of the Portuguese, spoke of him in the

warmest terms of commendation to Jacob, then upon the throne, who sent

to Paez, and ordered his attendance as soon as the rainy season should

be over.

In the month of April 1604, Peter, attended only by two of his young

disciples, presented himself to the king, who then held his court at

Dancaz, where he was received with the same honours as are bestowed

upon men of the first rank, to the great discontent of the Abyssinian

monks, who easily foresaw that their humiliation would certainly

follow this exaltation of Petros; nor were they mistaken. In a dispute

held before the king next day, Peter produced the two boys, as more

than sufficient to silence all the theologians in Abyssinia. Nor can

it ever be doubted, by any who know the ignorance of these brutish

priests, but that the victory, in these scholastic disputes, would be

fairly, easily, and completely on the side of the children.

Mass was then said according to the usage of the church of Rome, which

was followed by a sermon (among the first ever preached in Abyssinia,)

but so far surpassing, in elegance and purity of diction, any thing yet

extant in the learned language, Geez, that all the hearers began to

look upon this as the first miracle on the part of the preacher.

Za Denghel was so taken with it, that, from that instant, he not only

resolved to embrace the Catholic religion, but declared this his

resolution to several friends, and soon after to Paez himself, under

an oath of secrecy that he should conceal it for a time. This oath,

prudently exacted from Peter, was as imprudently rendered useless by

the zeal of the king himself, who being of too sanguine a disposition

to temporize after he was convinced, published a proclamation,

forbidding the religious observation of Saturday, or the Jewish

sabbath, for ever after. He likewise ordered letters to be wrote to

the pope Clement VIII. and to Philip III. king of Spain and Portugal,

wherein he offered them his friendship, whilst he requested mechanics

to assist, and Jesuits to instruct his people.

These sudden and violent measures were presently known; and every

wretch that had, from other causes, the seeds of rebellion sown in his

heart, began now to pretend they were only nourished there by a love

and attachment to the true religion.

Many of the courtiers followed the king’s example; some as courtiers

for the sake of the king’s favour, and meaning to adhere to the

religion of Rome no longer than it was a fashion at court, promoted

their interest, and exposed them to no danger; others, from their

firm attachment to the king, the resolution to support him as their

rightful sovereign, and a confidence in his superior judgment, and

that he best knew what was most for the kingdom’s advantage in its

present distracted state, and for the confirmation of his own power,

so intimately connected with the welfare of his people. Few, very few

it is believed, adopted the Catholic faith, from that one discourse

only, however pure the language, however eloquent the preacher. A

hundred years and more had passed without convincing the Abyssinians in

general, or without any material proof that they were prepared to be so.

However, the Jesuits have quoted an instance of this instantaneous

conversion by the sermon, which, for their credit, I will not omit,

though no notice is taken of it in the annals of those times, where it

is not indeed to be expected, nor do I mean that it is less credible on

this account.

An Abyssinian monk, of very advanced years, came forward to Peter

Paez, and said in a loud voice before the king, “Although I have lived

to a very great age, without a doubt of the Alexandrian faith, I

bless God that he has spared me to this day, and thereby given me an

opportunity of choosing a better. The things we knew before, you have

so well explained, that they become still more intelligible; and we are

thereby confirmed in our belief. Those things that were difficult, and

which we could hardly understand, you have made so clear, that we now

wonder at our own blindness in not having seen them plainly before.

For these benefits which I now confess to have received, I here make

my declaration, that it is my stedfast purpose, with the assistance of

Almighty God, to live and die in the faith you profess, and have now

preached.”

Among those of the court most attached to the king was Laeca Mariam,

the inseparable companion of his good and bad fortune, who had followed

his master from principles of duty and affection, without designing to

throw away a consideration upon what were likely to be the consequences

to himself. He was reputed, in his character and abilities as a

soldier, to be equal to Za Selassé, but a very different man, compared

to him in his qualities of civil life; for he was sober in his general

behaviour, sparing in discourse, and much more ready to do a good

office than to promise one; very affable and courteous in his manner,

and of so humble and unassuming a deportment, that it was thought

impossible to be real in a man, who had so often proved his superiority

over others upon trial.

This man, a true royalist, was one of those that embraced the Catholic

religion that day, probably following the example of the king; and

this, in the hands of wicked men their enemies, became very soon a

pretence for the murder of both; for Za Selassé, impatient of a rival

in any thing, more especially in military knowledge, began to hold

seditious assemblies, and especially with the monks, whom he taught to

believe what the king’s conduct daily confirmed, that the Alexandrian

faith was totally reprobated, and no religion would be tolerated but

that of the church of Rome.

Gojam, a province always inveterate against any thing that bore the

smallest inclination to the church of Rome, declared against the king;

and, before he went to join his associates, the traitor, Za Selassé, in

a conference he had with the Abuna Petros, proposed to him to absolve

Za Denghel’s subjects and soldiers from their oaths of allegiance to

their sovereign. The Abuna, a man of very corrupt and bad life, very

hearty in the cause, and an enemy to the king, was staggered at this

proposal; not that he was averse to it, because it might do mischief,

but because he doubted whether any such effect would follow it as Za

Selassé expected; and he, therefore, asked what good he expected from

such a novelty? when this traitor assured him, that it would be most

efficacious for that very reason, because it was then first introduced:

the Abuna forthwith absolved the soldiers and subjects of Za Denghel

from their allegiance, declaring the king excommunicated and accursed,

together with all those that should support him, or favour his cause.

I must here observe, that, though we are now writing the history of the

17th century, this was the first example of any priest excommunicating

his sovereign in Abyssinia, except that of Honorius, who excommunicated

Amda Sion for the repeated commission of incest. And the doubt the

zealot Abuna Petros had of its effect as being a novelty, which fact

the Jesuits themselves attest, shews it was a practice that had not its

origin in the church of Alexandria. Neither had these curses of the

Abuna any visible effect, till Za Selassé had put himself at the head

of an army raised in Gojam. The king was prepared to meet him, and

ready to march from Dancaz.

Za Denghel immediately marched out into the plain of Bartcho, and

in the way was deserted, first by Ras Athanasius, then by many of

his troops; and, by this great desertion in his army, found the

first effects of the Abuna’s curses, insomuch, that John Gabriel, a

Portuguese officer of the first distinction, advised the king to retire

in time, and avoid a battle, by flying to strong-holds for a season,

till the present delusion among his subjects should cease. But the

king, thinking himself dishonoured by avoiding the defiance of a rebel,

resolved upon giving Za Selassé battle, who, being an able general,

knew well the danger he would incur by delay.

It was October 13th 1704 that the king, after drawing up his army in

order of battle, placing 200 Portuguese, with a number of Abyssinian

troops, on the right, took to himself the charge of the left, and

called for Peter Paez to give him absolution; but that Jesuit was

occupied at a convenient distance in Tigré, by his exorcisms destroying

ants, butterflies, mice, locusts, and various other enemies, of much

more importance, in his opinion, than the life of a king who had

been blindly, but directly conducted to slaughter by his fanatical

preachings.

The battle began with great appearance of success. On the right, the

Portuguese, led by old and veteran officers, destroyed and overturned

every thing before them with their fire-arms: but on the left, where

the king commanded, things went otherwise, for the whole of this

division fled, excepting a body of nobility, his own officers and

companions, who remained with him, and fought manfully in his defence.

Above all, the king himself, trained to a degree of excellence in the

use of arms, strong and agile in body, in the flower of his age, and

an excellent horseman, performed feats of valour that seemed above the

power of man: but he and his attendants being surrounded by the whole

army of Za Selassé, and decreasing in number, were unable to support

any longer such disadvantage.

Laeca Mariam, solicitous only for the king’s safety, charging furiously

every one that approached, was thrust through with a lance by a common

soldier who had approached him unobserved. The king, desirous only

to avenge his death, threw himself like lightning into the opposite

squadron, and received a stroke with a lance in his breast, which

threw him from his horse on the ground. Grievous as the wound was,

he instantly recovered himself, and, drawing his sword, continued to

fight with as much vigour as ever. He was now hemmed in by a ring of

soldiers, part of whom, afraid of encountering him, remained at a

distance, throwing missile weapons without good direction or strength,

as if they had been hunting some fierce wild beast. Others, wishing to

take him prisoner, abstained from striking him, out of regard to his

character and dignity; but the traitor, Za Selassé, coming up at that

instant, and seeing the king almost fainting with fatigue, and covered

with wounds, pointed his lance, and, spurring his horse, furiously

struck him in the middle of the forehead, which blow threw the king

senseless to the ground, where he was afterwards slain with many

wounds.

The battle ended with the death of Za Denghel; many saw him fall, and

more his body after the defeat; but no one chose to be the first that

should in any way dispose of it, or care to own that they knew it. It

lay in this abject state for three days, till it was buried by three

peasants in a corner of the plain, in a little building like a chapel

(which I have seen) not above six feet high, under the shade of a very

fine tree, in Abyssinia called _sassa_: there it lay till ten years

after, when Socinios removed it from that humble mausoleum, and buried

it in a monastery called Daga, in the lake Dembea, with great pomp and

magnificence.

The grief which the death of Za Denghel occasioned was so universal,

and the odium it brought upon the authors of it so great, that neither

Za Selassé nor Ras Athanasius dared for a time take one step towards

naming a successor, which the fear of Za Denghel, and the uncertainty

of victory, had prevented them from doing by common consent before the

battle. There was no doubt but that the election would fall upon Jacob,

but he was far off, confined in the mountainous country of Caffa in

Narea. The distance was great; the particular place uncertain; the way

to it lay through deserts, always dangerous on account of the Galla,

and often impassable.

[Illustration]

JACOB.

From 1604 to 1605.

_Makes Proposals to Socinios, which are rejected--Takes the

Field--Bad Conduct and Defeat of Za Selassé--Battle of Debra

Zeit--Jacob defeated and slain._

During the interim, Socinios appeared in Amhara, not as one

offering himself as a candidate to be supported by the strength and

interest of others, but like a conqueror at the head of a small but

well-disciplined army of veteran troops, ready to compel by force those

who should refuse to swear allegiance to him from conviction of his

right.

The first step he took was to send Bela Christos, a nobleman of known

worth, to Ras Athanasius then in Gojam, stating to him his pretensions

to succeed Za Denghel in the kingdom, desiring his assistance with his

army, and declaring that he would acknowledge the service done him as

soon as it was in his power. Without waiting for an answer, at the head

of his little army he passed the Nile, and entered Gojam. He then sent

a second message to Ras Athanasius, acquainting him that he was at

hand, and ordering him to prepare to receive him as his sovereign.

This abrupt and confident conduct of Socinios very much disconcerted

Ras Athanasius. He had as yet concerted nothing with his friend Za

Selassé, and it was now late to do it. There was no person then within

the bounds of the empire that solicited the crown but Socinios, and

he was now at hand, and very much favoured by the soldiers. For these

reasons, he thought it best to put a good face upon the matter in his

present situation. He, therefore, met Socinios as required, and joined

his army, as if it had been his free choice, and saluted him king in

the midst of repeated chearful congratulations of both armies now

united.

Having succeeded in this to his wish, Socinios lost no time to try the

same experiment with Za Selassé, who was then in Dembea, the province

of which he was governor. To him he sent this message, “That God by

his grace having called him to the throne of his ancestors, he was now

on his march to Dembea, where he requested him to prepare his troops

to receive him, and dispose them to deserve the favours that he was

ready to confer upon all of them.” Za Selassé remained for a while as

if thunder-struck by so peremptory an intimation. Of all masters he

most wished for Jacob, because, from experience, he thought he could

govern him. Of all masters he most feared Socinios, because he knew he

possessed capacity and qualities that would naturally determine him to

govern alone. After having concerted with his friends, he sent Socinios

answer, “That not having till now known any thing of his claims or

intentions, he had sent an invitation to Jacob into Narea, whose answer

he expected; but that, in case Jacob did not appear, he then would

receive Socinios with every mark of duty and affection, and hoped he

would grant him the short delay to which he had inadvertently, though

innocently, engaged himself.”

This answer did in no shape please Socinios, who dispatched the

messenger immediately with this declaration, “That he was already king,

and would never cede his right to Jacob, who was deposed and judged

unworthy to reign; no nor even to his father Melec Segued, though he

should rise again from the grave, and claim the throne he had so long

sat upon.”

Za Selasse, easily penetrating that there was no peace in Socinios’s

intentions, first imprisoned the messenger, and, instead of another

answer, marched instantly with his whole army to surprise him before he

had time to take his measures. And in this he succeeded. For Socinios

being at that instant overtaken by sickness, and not knowing what trust

to put in Athanasius’s army, retired in haste to the mountains of

Amhara; while Athanasius also withdrew his troops till he should know

upon what terms he stood both with Za Selassé and the king.

Still no return came from Jacob. The winter was nearly past, and not

only the soldiers, but people of all ranks began to be weary of this

interregnum, and heartily wished for their ancient form of government.

They said, That since Jacob did not appear, there could be no reason

for excluding Socinios, whose title was undoubted, and who had all the

qualities necessary to make a good king.

Za Selasse, seeing this opinion gained ground among his troops, and

fearing they might mutiny and leave him alone, made a virtue of

necessity: he dispatched an ambassador to acknowledge Socinios as his

sovereign, and declare that he was ready to swear allegiance to him.

Socinios received this embassy with great apparent complacency. He

sent in return a monk, in whom he confided, a person of great worth

and dignity, to be his representative, and receive the homage of Za

Selassé and his army. On the news of this monk’s approach, Za Selassé

sent on his part ten men, the most respectable in his camp, to meet

this representative of the king, and conduct him into the camp, where

Za Selassé, and all his troops, did homage, and swore allegiance

to Socinios. Feasts and presents were now given in the camp, as is

usual at the accession of a new king to the throne, and all the army

abandoned themselves to joy.

These good tidings were immediately communicated both to Socinios and

Ras Athanasius. But, in the midst of this rejoicing, a messenger came

from Jacob, informing Za Selassé that he was then in Dembea; that he

had conferred upon him the title of Ras and Betwudet, that is, had

made him the king’s lieutenant-general throughout the whole empire. Za

Selassé, in possession of the height of his wishes, and making an ample

distribution among his troops, determined immediately to march and join

Jacob in Dembea; but first he wrote privately to the ten men that had

accompanied the monk to Socinios, that they should withdraw themselves

as suddenly and privately as possible before the coming of Jacob was

known. Eight of these were lucky enough to do so; two of them were

overtaken in the flight and brought back to Socinios, who ordered them

to immediate execution.

Ras Athanasius, seeing the prosperous turn that Jacob’s affairs had

taken, renounced his oath to Socinios, and repaired to Jacob at Coga,

while Socinios retired into Amhara at the head of a very respectable

army, waiting an opportunity to repay Jacob for his ambition, and

Athanasius and Za Selassé for their treason and perjury towards him.

Although Jacob was now again seated on the throne, surrounded by the

army and great officers of the empire, his mind was always disturbed

with the apprehension of Socinios. In order to free himself from this

anxiety, he employed Socinios’s mother in an application to her son,

with an offer of peace and friendship; promising, besides, that he

would give him in property the kingdoms of Amhara, Walaka, and Shoa,

and all the lands which his father had ever possessed in any other part

of Abyssinia. Socinios shortly answered, “That what God had given him,

no man could take from him; that the whole kingdom belonged to him, nor

would he ever relinquish any part of it but with his life. He advised

Jacob to consider this, and peaceably resign a crown which did not

belong to him; and the attempting to keep which, would involve him and

his country in a speedy destruction.”

Upon this defiance, seeing Socinios implacable, Jacob took the field,

and was followed by Za Selassé. But this proud and insolent traitor,

who never could confine himself within the line of his duty, even under

a king of his own choosing, would not join his forces with Jacob, but

vain-gloriously led a separate army, subject to his orders alone. In

this manner, having separate camps, choosing different ground, and

sometimes at a considerable distance from each other, they came up

with Socinios in Begemder. Jacob advanced so near him that his tent

could be distinctly seen from that of Socinios, and, on the morrow,

Jacob and Za Selassé, drawing up their armies, offered Socinios battle.

That wise prince saw too well that he was overmatched; and, though

he desired a battle as much as Jacob, it was not upon such terms as

the present. He declined it, and kept hovering about them as near as

possible on the heights and uneven ground, where he could not be forced

to fight till it perfectly suited his own interest.

This refusal on the part of Socinios did but increase Za Selassé’s

pride. He despised Jacob as a general, and thought that Socinios

declining battle was owing only to the apprehension he had of his

presence, courage, and abilities. He continued parading with the

separate army, perfectly intoxicated with confidence and an imaginary

superiority, neglecting all the wholesome rules of war rigidly adhered

to by great generals for the sake of discipline, however distant they

may be from their enemy.

It was not long before this was told Socinios, who soon saw his

advantage in it, and thereupon resolved to fight Za Selassé singly,

and watch attentively till he should find him as far as possible

from Jacob. Nor did he long wait for the occasion; for Za Selassé,

attempting to lead his army through very uneven and stony ground,

called _the Pass of Mount Defer_, and at a considerable distance from

Jacob, Socinios attacked him while in the pass so rudely, that his

army, entangled in broken and unknown ground, was surrounded and almost

cut to pieces. Za Selassé, with a few followers, saved themselves by

the goodness of their horses, and joined the king, being the first

messengers of their own defeat.

Jacob received the news of this misfortune without any apparent

concern. On the contrary, he took Za Selassé roundly to task for

having lost such an army by his misconduct; and from that time put on

a coolness of carriage towards him that could not be bruiked by such

a character. He made direct proposals to Socinios to join him, if he

could be assured that his services would be well received. Socinios,

though he reposed no confidence in one that had changed sides so often,

was yet, for his own sake, desirous to deprive his rival of an officer

of such credit and reputation with the soldiers. He therefore promised

him a favourable reception; and, a treaty being concluded, Socinios

marched into Gojam, followed by Jacob, and there was joined by Za

Selassé whom Jacob had made governor of that province.

Jacob, not knowing how far this desertion might extend, and to shew

Socinios the little value he set upon his new acquisition, immediately

advanced towards him, and offered him battle. This was what Socinios

very earnestly wished for; but, as his army was much inferior to

Jacob’s, he seemed to decline it from motives of fear, till he had

found ground proper for his army to engage in with advantage.

Jacob, sensible of the great superiority he had, (historians say it

was nearly thirty to one) grew every day more impatient to bring

Socinios to an engagement, fearing he might retreat, and thereby

prolong the war, which he had no doubt would be finished by the first

action. Therefore he was anxious to keep him always in sight, without

regarding the ground through which his eagerness led him. Several days

the two armies marched side by side in sight of each other, till they

came to Debra Tzait, or the Mountain of Olives. There Jacob halted; he

then advanced a little further, and seeing Socinios encamped, he did

the same in a low and very disadvantageous post on the banks of the

river Lebart.

Socinios having now obtained his desire, early in the morning of the

10th of March 1607 fell suddenly upon Jacob cooped up in a low and

narrow place, which gave him no opportunity of availing himself of his

numbers. Jacob soon found that he was over-reached by the superior

generalship of his enemy. Socinios’s troops were so strongly posted,

that Jacob’s soldiers found themselves in a number of ambushes they

had not foreseen, so that, fighting or flying being equally dangerous

to them, his whole army was nearly destroyed in the field, or in the

flight, which was most ardently and vigorously followed till night,

with little loss on the part of Socinios.

This battle, decisive enough by the route and dispersion of the enemy,

became still more so from two circumstances attending it: The first was

the death of his competitor, who fell unknown among a herd of common

soldiers in the beginning of the action, without having performed, in

his own person, any thing worthy of the character he had to sustain,

or that could enable any spectator to give an account in what place

he fell; the consequence of which was, that he was thought to be

alive many years afterwards. The second was the death of the Abuna

Petros. This priest had distinguished himself in Za Denghel’s reign,

by absolving the king’s subjects and soldiers from their oaths of

allegiance, which was followed by the unfortunate death of Za Denghel

in the plain of Bartcho. Vain of the importance he had acquired by the

success of his treason, he had pursued the same conduct with regard

to Socinios, and followed Jacob to battle, where, trusting to his

character and habit for the safety of his person, he neglected the

danger that he ran amidst a flying army. While occupied in uttering

vain curses and excommunications against the conquerors, he was known,

by the crucifix he held in his hand, by a Moorish soldier of Socinios,

who thrust him through with a lance, then cut his head off, and carried

it to the king.

The Abyssinian annals state, that, immediately after seeing the head

of Abuna Peter, Socinios ordered a retreat to be sounded, and that no

more of his enemies should be slain. On the contrary, the Jesuits have

said, that the pursuit was continued even after night; for that a body

of horse, among whom were many Portuguese belonging to the army of

Jacob, flying from Socinios’s troops, fell over a very high precipice,

it being so dark that they did not discover it; and that one soldier,

called Manuel Gonsalez, finding his horse leave him, as it were flying,

lighted luckily on a tree, where, in the utmost trepidation, he sat

all night, not knowing where he was. This fear was greatly encreased

in the morning, when he beheld the horses, and the men who were his

companions, lying dead and dashed to pieces in the plain below.

Ras Athanasius, who had followed the party of Jacob, narrowly escaped

by the swiftness of his horse, and hid himself in the monastery of

Dima, at no great distance from the field of battle; and Peter Paez,

from remembrance of his former good offices, having recommended him

to Sela Christos, Socinios’s brother-in-law, he was pardoned; but

losing favour every day, his effects and lands having been taken

from him on different occasions, he is said at last to have died for

want, justly despised by all men for unsteadiness in allegiance to

his sovereigns, by which he had been the occasion of the death of two

excellent princes, had frequently endangered the life and state of

the third, and had been the means of the slaughter of many thousands

of their subjects, worthier men than himself, as they fell in the

discharge of their duty. But before his death he had still this further

mortification, that his wife, daughter of Sertza Denghel, called Melec

Segued, voluntarily forsook his bed and retired to a single life.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

SOCINIOS, OR MELEC SEGUED.

From 1605 to 1632.

_Socinios embraces the Romish Religion--War with Sennaar--With

the Shepherds--Violent Conduct of the Romish Patriarch--Lasta

rebels--Defeated at Wainadega--Socinios restores the

Alexandrian Religion--Resigns his Crown to his eldest Son._

Socinios, now universally acknowledged as king, began his reign with a

degree of moderation which there was no reason to expect of him. Often

as he had been betrayed, many and inveterate as his enemies were, now

he had them in his power, he sought no vengeance for injuries which

he had suffered, but freely pardoned every one, receiving all men

graciously without reproach or reflections, or even depriving them of

their employments.

Being informed, however, that one Mahardin, a Moor, had been the first

to break through that respect due to a king, by wounding Za Denghel at

the battle of Bartcho, he ordered him to be brought at noon-day before

the gate of his palace, and his head to be there struck off with an

ax, as a just atonement for violated majesty.

The king, now retired to Coga, gave his whole attention to regulate

those abuses, and repair those losses, which this long and bloody

war had occasioned. He had two brothers by the mother’s side, men of

great merit, Sela Christos, and Emana Christos, destined to share the

principal part in the king’s confidence and councils.

Bela Christos, a man of great family, who had been attached to him

since he formed his first pretensions to the crown, was called to

court to take his share in the glory and dangers of this reign, which

it was easy to see would be a very active one; for every province

around was full of rebels and independents, who had shaken off the

yoke of government, paid no taxes, nor shewed other respect to the

king than just what at the moment consisted with their own interest or

inclination.

The Portuguese soldiers, remnants of the army which came into Abyssinia

under Christopher de Gama, had multiplied exceedingly, and their

children had been trained by their parents in the use of fire-arms.

They were at this time incorporated in one body under John Gabriel a

veteran officer, who seems to have constantly remained with the king,

while his soldiers (at least great part of them) had followed the

fortune they thought most likely to prevail ever since the time of

Claudius.

Menas did not esteem them enough to keep them in his army at the

expence of enduring the seditious conversations of their priests

reviling and undervaluing his religion and government. He therefore

banished them the kingdom; but, instead of obeying, they joined the

Baharnagash, then confederated with the Turks and in rebellion against

his sovereign, as we have already mentioned. Sertza Denghel seems to

have scarcely set any value upon them after this, and made very little

use of them during his long reign. Upon the infant Jacob’s being put

upon the throne they all adhered to him; and, after Jacob’s banishment,

part of them had attached themselves to Za Denghel, and behaved with

great spirit in the battle of Bartcho.

Upon Jacob’s restoration they had joined him, and with him were

defeated at the decisive battle of Lebart, being all united against

Socinios; so that, on whatever side they declared themselves, they

were constantly beaten by the cowardice of the Abyssinians with whom

they were joined. Yet, tho’ they had been so often on the side that

was unfortunate, their particular loss had been always inconsiderable;

because, whatever was the fate of the rest of the army, none of the

country troops would ever stand before them, and they made their

retreat from amidst a routed army in nearly the same safety as if they

had been conquerors; because it was not, for several reasons, the

interest of the conquerors to attack them, nor was the experiment ever

likely to be an eligible one to the assailants.

Socinios followed a conduct opposite to that of Menas. He determined to

attach the Portuguese wholly to himself, and to make them depend upon

him entirely. For this reason he made great advances to their priests,

and sent for Peter Paez to court, where, after the usual disputes upon

the pope’s supremacy, and the two natures in Christ, mass was said,

and a sermon preached, much with the same success as it had been in the

time of Za Denghel, and with full as great offence to the Abyssinian

clergy.

The province of Dembea, lying round the lake Tzana, is the most fertile

and the most cultivated country in Abyssinia. It is entirely flat,

and seems to have been produced by the decrease of water in the lake,

which, from very visible marks, appears to have formerly been of four

times the extent of what it is at present. Dembea, however fruitful,

has one inconvenience to which all level countries in this climate are

subject: A mortal fever rages in the whole extent of it, from March to

Heder Michael, the eighth day of November, when there are always gentle

showers. This dangerous fever stops immediately upon the falling of

these rains, as suddenly as the plague does upon the first falling of

the nucta, or dew, in Egypt.

On the south side of this lake the country rises into a rocky

promontory, which forms a peninsula and runs far into the lake. Nothing

can be more beautiful than this small territory, elevated, but not

to an inconvenient height, above the water which surrounds it on all

sides, except the south. The climate is delightful, and no fevers

or other diseases rage here. The prospect of the lake and distant

mountains is magnificent beyond European conception, and Nature seems

to have pointed this place out for pleasure, health, and retirement.

Paez had asked and obtained this territory from the king, who, he says,

gave him a grant of it in perpetuity. The manner of this he describes:

“A civil officer is sent on the part of the king, who calls together

all the proprietors of the neighbouring lands, and visits the bounds

with them; they kill a goat at particular distances, and bury the heads

under ground upon the boundary line of this regality; which heads, Paez

says, it is felony to dig up or remove; and this is a mark or gift of

land in perpetuity.”

Without contradicting the form of burying the goats heads, I shall only

say, I never saw or heard of it, nor is there such a thing as a gift

of land in _perpetuum_ known in Abyssinia. All the land is the king’s;

he gives it to whom he pleases during pleasure, and resumes it when it

is his will. As soon as he dies the whole land in the kingdom (that of

the Abuna excepted) is in the disposal of the crown; and not only so,

but, by the death of every present owner, his possessions, however long

enjoyed, revert to the king, and do not fall to the eldest son. It is

by proclamation the possession and property is reconveyed to the heir,

who thereby becomes absolute master of the land for his own life or

pleasure of the king, under obligation of military and other services;

and that exception, on the part of the Abuna, is not in respect to

the sanctity of his person, or charge, but because it is founded upon

treaty[47], and is become part of the constitution.

The Abyssinians saw, with the utmost astonishment, the erection of a

convent strongly built with stone and lime, of which before they had no

knowledge, and their wonder was still increased, when, at desire of the

king, Paez undertook, of the same materials, to build a palace for him

at the southmost end of this peninsula, which is called Gorgora. It was

with amazement mixed with terror that they saw a house rise upon house,

for so they call the different storeys.

Paez here displayed his whole ingenuity, and the extent of his

abilities. He alone was architect, mason, smith, and carpenter,

and with equal dexterity managed all the instruments used by each

profession in the several stages of the work. The palace was what

we shall call wainscoted with cedar, divided into state-rooms, and

private apartments likewise for the queen and nobility of both sexes

that formed the court, with accommodations and lodgings for guards and

servants.

As the king had at that time a view to attack the rebels, the Agows

and Damots, and to check the inroads of the Galla into Gojam, he

saw with pleasure a work going on that provided the most commodious

residence where his occupation in all probability was chiefly to lie.

His principal aim was to bring into his kingdom a number of Portuguese

troops, which, joined to those already there, and the converts he

proposed to make after embracing the Catholic religion, might enable

him to extirpate that rebellious spirit which seemed now universally

to have taken possession of the hearts of his subjects, and especially

of the clergy, of late taught, he did not seem to know how, that most

dangerous privilege of cursing and excommunicating kings. He had not

seen in Peter Paez and his fellow-priests any thing but submission, and

a love of monarchy; their lives and manners were truly apostolical; and

he never thought, till he came afterwards to be convinced upon proof,

that the patriarch from Rome, and the Abuna from Cairo, tho’ they

differed in their opinion as to the two natures in Christ, did both

heartily agree in the desire of erecting ecclesiastical dominion and

tyranny upon the ruins of monarchy and civil power, and of effecting a

total subordination of the civil government, either to the chairs of St

Mark or St Peter.