Bacuffa in disguise, dressed like a poor man, is said to have asked the

priest after what he was inquiring. The priest answered, He was trying

whether the king would have a son, and who should govern the kingdom

after him. The king abode the investigation patiently; and the answer

was, That he should have a son; but that a Welleta Georgis should

govern the kingdom after him for thirty years, though that Welleta

Georgis should be neither his son nor any descendant of his. Full of

thought at this untoward prediction, he harboured it in his breast

without communicating it to any one, and resolved to blast the hopes

of every Welleta Georgis that should be so unfortunate as to stand

within the possibility of reigning after him. Many innocent people of

different parts disappeared from this unknown crime; and eleven princes

on the mountain of Wechné, some say more, lost their lives for a name

that is very common in Abyssinia, without one overt act of treason,

or even a suspicion of what they were accused. A panic now struck all

ranks of people, without terminating in any scheme of resistance;

which sufficiently shewed that the king had succeeded in dissolving

all confederacies among his subjects, and destroying radically that

rebellious spirit which had operated so fatally in the last reigns.

It is a custom among the kings of Abyssinia, especially in intervals

of peace, to disappear for a time, without any warning. Sometimes,

indeed, one or two confidential servants, pretending to be busied in

other affairs, attend at a distance, and keep their eye upon him,

while, disguised in different manners, he goes like a stranger to those

parts he intends to visit. In one of these private journeys, passing

into Kuara, a province on the N. E. of Abyssinia, near the confines of

Sennaar, Bacuffa happened, or counterfeited, to be seized by a fever,

a common disease of that unwholesome country. He was then in a poor

village belonging to servants of a man of distinction, whose house was

on the top of the hill immediately above, in temperate and wholesome

air. The hospitable landlord, upon the first hearing of the distress

of a stranger, immediately removed him up to his house, where every

attention that could be suggested by a charitable mind was bestowed

upon his diseased guest, who presently recovered his former state of

health, but not till the kind assistance and unwearied diligence of the

beautiful daughter of the house had made the deepest impression upon

him, and laid him under the greatest obligations.

The family consisted of five young men in the flower of their youth,

and one daughter, whose name was Berhan Magass, _the Glory of

Grace_, exceedingly beautiful, gentle, mild, and affable; of great

understanding and prudence beyond her age; the darling, not only of her

own family, but of all the neighbourhood.

Bacuffa recovering his health, returned speedily to the palace, which

he entered privately at night, and appeared early next morning sitting

in judgment, and hearing causes, which, with these princes, is the

first public occupation of the day.

A messenger, with guards and attendants, was immediately sent to

Kuara, and Berhan Magass hurried from her father’s house, she knew not

why, but her surprise was carried to the utmost, by being presented

and married to the king, no reply, condition, or stipulation being

suffered. She gained, however, and preserved his confidence as long

as he lived: not that Bacuffa valued himself upon constancy to one

wife, more than the rest of his predecessors had done. He had, indeed,

many mistresses, but with these he observed a very singular rule; he

never took to his bed any one woman whatever, the fair Berhan Magass

excepted, without her having been first so far intoxicated with wine or

spirits as not to remember any thing that passed in conversation.

While Bacuffa was on his concealed journey to Kuara, a very dangerous

conspiracy was forming at Gondar, under the immediate conduct of Ozoro

Welleta Raphael, the king’s sister, a very ambitious woman, and of

an unquiet, enterprising temper. Disgusted by her brother’s refusal

of a gift of some crown lands which were then vacant, and without

any owners, she thought no vengeance adequate to the affront, but

dethroning Bacuffa. With this view she engaged several men of power in

her interest, and particularly the black servants of the palace who

attend immediately upon the king’s person, and were to seize upon, or

destroy him, the moment he returned. This plot, in all its particulars,

was conveyed to the king.

There was an old, abandoned house of king Yasous, at Bartcho, about a

day’s journey south of Gondar; it stands on a very extensive plain.

The king intending, as he said, to repair, or rather clean and prepare

this house for his immediate reception, ordered all the black slaves

from Gondar thither for that purpose, together with some of their

ringleaders. Kasmati Waragna, in the mean time, was ordered to bring a

thousand horsemen of his Galla Djawi. He arrived at Bartcho nearly at

the same time with the black servants, who being unarmed, as suspecting

nothing, and on foot, after a sharp reproof from the king, were all

surrounded and cut to pieces by the hands of Waragna, and orders were

immediately sent to Gondar to extirpate the remainder there; and this

execution laid a foundation for a feud that endures to this day between

the Galla troops and the black horse, who were then abolished, as the

Galla have been since, though both were part of the king’s household

formerly, before David’s or Bacuffa’s time. As for Welleta Raphael,

she was seized that same night, and was conveyed to Walkayt, to be

confined there, with private instructions, however, to put her to death

speedily, which were executed accordingly.

The queen had a son within the year, whom the council named Yasous,

after his grandfather, whose memory will ever be dear in Abyssinia; and

this again revived the old apprehensions that Welleta Georgis was to

govern the country (as the prophet said) for thirty years. Tormented

with this idea, rather than the havoc it had occasioned, he devised

with himself a scheme which he thought would certainly detect this

future usurper of his crown and dethroner of his child. But first he

directed that the queen should be crowned, a ceremony that carries

great consequences along with it when solemnized properly, as at that

time she is made regent, or Iteghè, in all minorities that may happen

afterwards.

After he had created his wife Iteghè, Bacuffa pretended to be sick:

several days passed without hopes of recovery; but at last the news

of the king’s death were published in Gondar. The joy was so great,

and so universal, that nobody attempted to conceal it. Every one found

himself eased of a load of fear which had become insupportable. Several

princes escaped from the mountain of Wechné to put themselves in the

way of being chosen; some were sent to by those great men who thought

themselves capable of effecting the nomination, and a speedy day was

appointed for the burial of the king’s corpse, when Bacuffa appeared,

in the ordinary seat of justice, early in the morning of that day,

with the Iteghè, and the infant Yasous, his son, sitting in a chair

below him.

There was no occasion to accuse the guilty. The whole court, and all

strangers attending there upon business, fled, and spread an universal

terror through the whole streets of Gondar. All ranks of people were

driven to despair, for all had rejoiced; and much less crimes had been

before punished with death. What this sedition would have ended in, it

is hard to know, had it not been for the immediate resolution of the

king, who ordered a general pardon and amnesty to be proclaimed at the

door of the palace.

There are two kettle-drums of a large size placed one on each side of

the outer gate of the king’s house. They are called the _lion_ and

the _lamb_. The lion is beat at the proclamations which regard war,

attainders for conspiracies and rebellions, promotions to supreme

commands, and suchlike high matters. The lamb[91] is heard only on

beneficent, pacific occasions, of gifts from the crown, of general

amnesties, of private pardons, and reversals of penal ordinances. The

whole town was in expectation of some sanguinary decree, when, to

their utter surprise, they heard the voice of the lamb, a certain sign

of peace and forgivenness; and speedily followed by a proclamation,

forbidding people of all degrees to leave their houses, that the king’s

word was pledged for every one’s security; and that all the principal

men should immediately attend him within the palace, in a public place

which is called the Ashoa, and that upon pain of rebellion.

The king appeared cloathed all in white, being the habit of peace; his

head was bare, dressed, anointed, and perfumed, and his face uncovered.

He thus advanced to the rail of the gallery, about 10 feet above the

heads of the audience, and, in a very graceful, composed, but resolute

manner, began a short oration to the people. “He put them in mind of

their wantonness in having made Oustas, a man not of the royal line

of Solomon, king of Abyssinia; of their having incited his brother,

Tecla Haimanout, to assassinate their father Yasous; that they had

afterwards murdered Tecla Haimanout himself, one brother, and lately

his other brother David, his own immediate predecessor: That he had

taken due vengeance upon all the ringleaders of those crimes, as

was the duty of his place, and, if much blood had been shed, it was

because many enormities had been committed; but that knowing now that

order was established, and conspiracies extinguished among them, he

had counterfeited death, to signify an end was put to Bacuffa and his

bloody measures; that he now was risen again, and appeared to them by

the name of Atzham Georgis, son of Yasous the Great; and ordered every

man home to his house to rejoice at the accession of a new king, under

whom they should have justice, and live without fear, as long as they

respected the king that God had anointed over them.”

This speech was followed by the loudest acclamations, “Long live

Bacuffa! Long live Atzham Georgis!” It was well known that this king

never failed in his word, or any way prevaricated in his promises.

Every one, therefore, went home in as perfect peace as if war had never

been among them; and Bacuffa’s delicacy in this respect was seen a few

days after; for Hannes his brother having been brought clandestinely

from Wechné by Kasmati Georgis, a nobleman of great consequence,

they were both taken by the governor of Wechné and sent in chains to

the king. The ordinary process would have been to put them instantly

to death, as being apprehended in the very highest act of treason;

nor would this have alarmed any person whatever, or been thought an

infraction of the king’s late promise. Bacuffa, however, was of another

mind. He sent the criminal judges, who ordinarily sit upon capital

crimes, to meet the two prisoners in their way to Gondar, and carried

them back to the foot of the mountain of Wechné to have their crimes

proved, and to be tried there out of his presence and influence, where

they were both condemned, Hannes to have an arm cut off, Georgis to be

sent to prison to the governor of Walkayt, with private orders to put

him to death; both which sentences were executed, though Hannes so far

recovered that he was king of Abyssinia in my time, notwithstanding

this mutilation; but it was a direct violation of the laws of the land.

It is said that a discovery, which happened in the king’s feigned

illness, promoted this sudden revolution of manners. In one of his

secret tours through Begemder, (after Tigré, the most powerful province

in Abyssinia, and by much the most plentiful) being disguised like a

poor man, dirty and fatigued with the length of the way and heat of

the weather, he came to the house of a private person, not very rich,

indeed, but of noble manners and carriage, and who, by the justice and

mildness of his behaviour and customs, had acquired a great degree of

influence among his neighbours. The father was old and feeble, but the

son in the vigour of his age, who was then standing in a large pool of

water, at his father’s door, washing his own cotton cloak, or wrapper,

which is their upper garment; an occupation below no young man in

Abyssinia.

Bacuffa, as overcome with heat, threw himself down under the shade of

a tree, and, in a faint voice and foreign dialect, intreated the young

man to wash his cloak likewise, after having finished his own. The

young man consented most willingly; and, throwing by his own garment,

fell to washing the stranger’s with great diligence and attention.

In the mean time, Bacuffa began questioning him about the king, and

what his opinion was of him. The young man answered, he had never

formed any. Bacuffa, however, still plied him with questions, while he

continued washing the cloak, without giving him any answer at all; at

last, being able to hold out no longer, he gathered Bacuffa’s cloak in

his arms, wet as it was, and threw it to him: “I thought, says he, when

you prayed me to take your cloak, that I was doing a charitable action

to some poor Galla fainting with fatigue, and perhaps with hunger;

but, since I have had it in my hands, I have found you an instructor

of kings and nobles, a leader of armies and maker of laws. Take your

cloak, therefore, and wash it yourself, which is what Providence has

ordained to be your business; it is a safer trade, and you will have

less time to censure your superiors, which can never be a proper or

useful occupation to a fellow like you.”

The king took his wet cloak, and the rebuke along with it, and, on his

return, he sent for the man to Gondar, and raised him in a short time

to the first offices in the state. He possessed his entire confidence;

and he deserved it. He was the only man to whom the king had confided

his fears of the usurper Welleta Georgis. While Bacuffa was supposed

to be ill, the queen and this officer only present, he mentioned, for

the first time, some surprise that no such person as Welleta Georgis

had appeared during so long and so many inquiries, and could not help

dropping some words as if he doubted the truth of this prophecy.

Badjerund Waragna, for that was the name of the king’s friend,

maintained modestly that it might be a temptation of the devil to

mislead him to his destruction. He told the king, that, by his own

account of it, this Welleta Georgis was to have no power over _him_, as

he was only to appear in his son’s time. He begged him, therefore, to

lay aside all further thoughts of his prophecy, whilst he trusted his

son’s succession to God’s mercy, and to the prayers, the charity, and

prudence of the queen. The Iteghé all this time was lost in silence.

She desired the king to repeat to her the whole circumstances of the

prophecy, which he distinctly did. “I wish,” says she laughing, “this

Welleta Georgis may not be now nearer us than we imagine; perhaps in

the palace.” “In the palace!” says the king, with great emotion. “I

doubt so,” says the queen; “suppose it should be me your own wife; for

Welleta Georgis was the name given to me in baptism; and your late

coronation of me, should a minority happen in the person of your son,

or even a grandson, undoubtedly leaves me regent of the kingdom by

your own intentions when you made me Iteghè.”

Whether the king was convinced or not, is not known; but he, from this

time, desisted from his persecution of Welleta Georgis; and this the

queen often told me among several anecdotes of that singular reign.

She was my great patroness while at Gondar, and from her I received

constant protection in the most disastrous times. To the credit of the

prophet, she continued regent full thirty years; till the folly and

ambition of her own family gave her a master that put an end to all her

influence, except what she enjoyed from exemplary piety, and the most

extensive works of charity and mercy.

The king died after a vigorous reign, and after having cut off the

greatest part of the ancient nobility near Gondar, who were of age

to have been concerned in the transactions of the last reigns. This

has rendered his memory odious, though it is universally confessed he

saved his country from an aristocratical or democratical usurpation;

both equally unconstitutional, as they equally struck at the root of

monarchy.

The queen, with very great prudence, concealed the day of the king’s

death; nor did any one, after the last experiment, affect rashly to

believe that his death was real. Thus all were upon their guard against

another resurrection. In that interval, she called her brothers from

Kuara, and strengthened her son’s and her own government, by putting

the principal offices of state into the hands of persons attached to

her family, so that, though her son Yasous was an infant, no attempt

was at that time made towards any resolution. Even after the king’s

death was known to be real, for many years afterwards there were people

of credit at different times found, who said they had met him at sundry

places alive; whether by instigation, for any particular purpose, or

not, is difficult to say.

[Illustration]

YASOUS II. OR, ADIAM SEGUED.

From 1729 to 1753.

_Rebellion in the beginning of this Reign--King addicted

to hunting--To building, and the Arts of Peace--Attacks

Sennaar--Loses his Army--Takes Samayat--Receives Baady King of

Sennaar under his Protection._

Besides the queen, mother of Yasous, Bacuffa had several other wives

and divers children by them; none of them, however, had any degree

of interest, or many followers, owing to the very singular practice

of Bacuffa, already mentioned, in not admitting to his bed, from the

time of his coming to the crown, any women except the queen, mother of

Yasous, without having first so far intoxicated them with liquor as to

produce an oblivion of all that passed at the interview. Some say this

arose from his own jealous ideas; but the most general opinion was,

that it was a kind of covenant with the queen, by which she pardoned

him this temporary alienation of his person, for this security, that

he was to give her no rival in his confidence. Indeed, his own temper

led him naturally to estrange himself from every intimate connection,

that could pretend to any lawful share with him in government. And this

had gone so far, that he sent his wife, favourite as she was, and his

son Yasous, to the low, hot, and unwholesome province of Walkayt, the

ordinary place to which state criminals were banished, in order that

they might be under the eye of Ain Egzie, a confidential servant of

his, and governor of that province. It is true this was done without

any mark of disgust; and the queen returned immediately by his own

command; but Yasous staid at Walkayt with Ain Egzie, till he was four

years old, without the king his father having shewn any anxiety for his

return.

The queen’s first care was to call her brothers to court. The eldest,

Welled de l’Oul, had been a favourite of the late king, and occupied

under him a very considerable post in the palace. Geta, her second

brother, was a man of slow parts, but esteemed a good soldier; being

covetous, he was not a favourite of the people, and less so of the

king. The third was Eshtè, (pronounced in that country Shitti); he was

amiable, liberal, affable, and brave, but rather given to indolence

and pleasure, which alone hindered him from being a good statesman

and general. He was a kind friend to strangers, a good master, and

placable enemy; stedfast to his promise, and on all occasions a lover

of truth; a quality so very rare in Abyssinia, that it was said there

had not been one in this respect like him since the time of Yasous the

Great. Notwithstanding this, Bacuffa liked him not, as being too great

a favourite of the people, and, for that reason, never gave him any

employment.

The next brother was Eusebius, a very brave and skilful soldier, but

rash, avaricious, passionate, and treacherous, and as great an enemy

to truth as his brother Eshtè was a friend to it. Bacuffa, upon some

slight complaint, had resolved to put him to death; and, though he was

dissuaded from this, he could never be so far reconciled to him as ever

to release him from prison. The fifth brother was Netcho, whom the

desire of living at home, or, perhaps, a want of money to defray his

expences at court, kept low and in obscurity all his life-time. Yet he

was a tried, gallant, and skilful soldier; and in later years, when

I was at Gondar, was often praised as such by Ras Michael, the best

judge, because the greatest general of his time, though, by reason of

Netcho’s private life, and absence from court, he never charged him

with any important commission. Another brother was dead, and had left a

son called Mammo, a good horseman, the only quality, as far as I know,

that he possessed to which could justly be annexed the epithet of Good.

Of these brothers, Geta and Netcho were alive in my time. Eshtè was

dead, but had left two sons, Ayto Engedan and Ayto Aylo, who were

among the most intimate of my friends, from my entering Ethiopia till

my leaving it; both were brave and good, and endowed with excellent

qualities. Engedan, without any allowance for his country, and want of

education, was, I think, by very much, the most amiable and complete

man that I have ever yet seen.

Sanuda, son of Welled de l’Oul, played a very considerable part in the

revolution that happened in my time; was of a figure more than ordinary

graceful; was brave, and did not want good dispositions; but these

were obscured by debauchery in wine and women, to which there were no

bounds. Eusebius left two sons, both more worthless and profligate than

himself, and both came to untimely ends: Guebra Mehedin, the eldest,

was slain in a private quarrel at Lebec by a near relation, Kasmati

Ayabdar, after having robbed my servants and plundered my baggage, in

Foggora, near the village Dara; and the second, Ayto Confu, was killed

in rebellion at the battle of Serbraxos, among the Begemder horse,

fighting against his sovereign.

Mammo we shall find acting insignificant parts at times, never

trusted, nor of consequence to any one. As for the queen herself,

she was reputed the handsomest woman of her time. She was descended

from Victor, eldest brother to Menas, and son of David, who died

without coming to the crown. This daughter was married to Robel,

governor of Tigré, whose mother was a Portuguese, and the queen

inherited the colour of her European ancestors; indeed was whiter than

most Portuguese. She was very vain of this her descent; had a warm

attachment to the Catholic religion in her heart, as far as she could

ever learn it; nor did she value herself less upon her beauty, as we

may judge by the several names she took at different times. The first

was Iteghè Mantuab, or _the beautiful queen_; the second was Berhan

Magwass, or _the glory of grace_; though her christened name was

Welleta Georgis, as we have already observed.

After the death of her husband, Bacuffa, she is said to have descended

to a variety of attachments of short duration. She married a man of

quality, Kasmati Netcho of Kuara, by whom she had three daughters. The

first was Ozoro Esther, of whom I shall often speak, being, next to her

mother, the greatest friend I had in Abyssinia, and one who had the

most frequent opportunities of being so. She was married, in very early

life, to Kasmati Netcho of Tcherkin, a man of great personal qualities,

and who had a very large territory, reaching down to the Pagan blacks,

or Troglodytes, called Shangalla.

This marriage was of very short duration. Netcho left one son, Ayto

Confu, my very great and firm, though young friend, who likewise

inherited his father’s fortune and virtues. She was afterwards married

to Ayo Mariam Barea, (excepting Ras Michael) reputed the best general

in Abyssinia, but who died before I came into the country. By him she

had one son and a daughter, infants. Lastly, she was married to Ras

Michael, by whom she had two sons, the favourites of Michael’s old

age. Rustic and cruel as that old tyrant was, bred up in blood, and

delighting in it, she governed him despotically, from the day of her

marriage, yet so prudently, as to excite the envy of no one, excepting

the murderers of her husband Mariam Barea, who, luckily, were also the

constitutional enemies of her country.

The second daughter of the Iteghé was Ozoro Welleta Israel, the most

beautiful woman in Abyssinia, with whom I had very little acquaintance,

she being at constant war with Ras Michael. She had married a nobleman

of the first consideration, to whom half of the large and rich province

of Gojam belonged, by whom she had Aylo, one of the largest men that I

ever saw, the only particular remarkable in him.

The third was Ozoro Altash, married to Welled Hawaryat, Ras Michael’s

son, by whom she had three children, two sons and one daughter. One of

them died of the small-pox soon after my arrival at Gondar, as did his

father also; the other son and daughter happily recovered.

Bacuffa had provided sufficiently for the security of his provinces, by

placing tried and veteran officers in his governments. Elias, indeed,

was Ras and Betwudet at Gondar, and he was suspected of wishes contrary

to his allegiance; but far before any, in the confidence of the late

king, was Waragna Shalaka, that is, colonel of a regiment of Djawi

Galla, with which he defended the provinces of Damot and Agow against

his countrymen on the other side of the Nile; for he was a Galla of

that nation himself, and his name was Usho, which signifies _a dog_.

But it was more by his interest, which he preserved with those people,

than by his arms, that he kept those barbarians from wasting that

country.

The reader will easily remember the first occasion of his coming to

Gondar was when Bacuffa saw him washing his clothes in a pool of water;

and from the reproof, and his behaviour to the king on that occasion,

as well as the duty and implicit obedience he paid to his commands

afterwards, he was called Waragna, by way of contradiction, that word

signifying a sturdy rebel, or one that stands up in defiance of the

king. That name became much more famous afterwards in the person of

his son, Waragna Fasil, to the very great detriment of the country in

general.

The first thing the queen did was to send Shalaka Waragna, and

Billetana Gueta David, with a large body of Mahometan fusileers, Djawi

and Toluma Galla, to guard the mountain of Wechné, where the males of

the royal family were imprisoned, that no competitor might be released

from thence. The next step was to marry Ozoro Welleta Tecla Haimanout

to Ras Elias, to confirm him, if possible, in his much suspected

allegiance. After which, the Ras, judges, and soldiers of the king’s

household, made this proclamation--“Bacuffa, king of kings, is dead!

Yasous, king of kings, liveth! Mourn for those that are dead, and

rejoice with those that are alive!” Orders were then given for burying

Bacuffa with all magnificence possible.

The first thing that seemed the beginning of trouble in the new

regency, and likely to destroy the calm that had hitherto subsisted,

was an information given by Azage Georgis against Tecla Saluce, a great

officer at court. Georgis accused him before the king and council, that

he had been heard to say that king Yasous was dangerously ill. Tecla

Saluce absolutely denied this charge, and said it was an invention

of his enemy Georgis, and challenged him to prove it. Evidence being

called, he was convicted in the most direct and satisfactory manner;

was therefore condemned to death, and hewn to pieces at the king’s gate

that same day by the common soldiers.

Here is a species of treason without any overt act. The imagining the

king’s death, which seems much to resemble the law of England, may

be defended from the importance of the case, but scarcely from any

principle of justice or reason.

It soon appeared that a conspiracy had been on foot; several great

men fled from court, among these Johannes, who had the charge of the

king’s horses. But Shalaka Waragna and Billetana Gueta David, being

sent immediately after him, this conspiracy was soon stifled, and

the ringleaders dispersed, mostly into Amhara, where they were taken

prisoners by Woodage governor of the province, and sent to the king.

Johannes, finding it impossible to escape, took to one of those papyrus

boats used in navigating the lake Tzana; and, being driven by the wind,

landed in an island[92] belonging to the queen, where he was taken

prisoner, with his wife and family, and delivered up, on condition that

he should not be put to death.

Kasmati Cambi, returning from Damot, fell accidentally upon Palambaras

Masmari and several others, and brought them prisoners to Gondar. A

council was thereupon held, and the conspirators put upon their trial.

Palambaras Masmari, and Abou Barea who was one of the judges, were

condemned to be hanged on the tree before the palace-gate. Johannes and

the rest were committed to close prison, in the hands of the Betwudet.

It was thought a proper expedient to check these disorders, to hasten

the coronation of the king, though very young. The judges and all the

officers being assembled in the presence-chamber, where the king sits

on his throne, (for in the council-chamber he sits in a kind of cage,

or close balcony) where no part of him is discovered, Sarach Masseri

Mammo, whose office it was, stood up with the Kees Hatzé, or king’s

almoner; when this last had anointed him with oil, Mammo placed the

crown upon his head; upon which the whole assembly, his mother only

excepted, fell down and paid him homage; and at his inauguration he

took the name of Adiam Segued.

On a separate throne, on his right hand, sat the queen-mother. She,

too, was crowned, though not anointed; but the same homage was

performed to her that had been done to the king, who sat on the throne

with his head covered; nor did the Abuna interfere, nor was his

attendance judged any part of the ceremony.

The first seeds of discontent had been sown in Damot, where a party of

rebels had attacked Kasmati Cambi in the night, cut most of his army to

pieces, and obliged Shalaka Job to fly into Gojam, and then return in

haste to Gondar.

The king found no better remedy against this rebellion than to appoint

Kasmati Waragna governor of Damot, and Sanuda guardian of Wechné, with

orders to take with him a son of the late Oustas the usurper, and

confine him with the king’s sons upon that mountain. At the same time

he appointed Ayo governor of Begemder; both these preferments being

much to the satisfaction of the whole nation. Waragna, knowing the

necessities of his province, marched from Gondar with what forces he

could collect, and took up his head-quarters at Samseen, where, on

the very night after his arrival, he was set upon by Tensa Mammo at

the head of the Agows. However unexpected this was, Waragna, a good

soldier, was not to be taken by surprise. He knew the country, and

had not a great opinion either of the force or courage of the enemy,

or capacity of their general. Presenting, therefore, only one half of

his troops, which could not be easily discovered in the dark, he sent

Fit-Auraris Tamba to make a small compass, and fall upon their rear

with the other half. Mammo’s troops, thinking this to be a fresh and

separate army, immediately took to flight, and were many of them slain,

after leaving behind them their tents, baggage, and the greatest part

of their fire-arms, which had been of very little service to them in

the dark.

Waragna, who knew the consequence of his province was the riches of

it, and the dependence the capital had upon it for constant supplies

of provisions, was loath to pursue his victory farther, if any means

could be fallen upon to bring about a pacification. To effect this,

he dispatched messengers to his friends, the Galla, on the other side

of the Nile, ordering them to be ready to pass the river on the day

he should appoint, and to lay waste the country of the Agow with fire

and sword. He then decamped with his army from Samseen, and marched to

Sacala, and took up his head-quarters in St Michael’s church, where

he found the Agows in the utmost terror from apprehension of being

over-run with barbarians. But he soon eased them of their fears by a

proclamation, in which he told them plainly, that it was owing to the

goodness of the country, and not any merit in the people, that the

king’s palace and capital was so plentifully supplied with provisions

from thence; that all his pursuit was peace, but that he was resolved

to effect that end by every possible means; therefore the time was now

come that they were to make a resolution, and abide by it, to submit

and behave peaceably as good citizens ought; or, when his army of Galla

joined him, he would extirpate them to the last man. In the mean time,

he published an amnesty of all that had passed.

The Agows knew well that they were in the hands of one who was no

trifler, nor in his heart much their friend. They ran to him, ready to

make that composition which he should raise from them for their past

transgressions and his future protection. The tribute laid upon them,

for both was moderate beyond all expectation, 2000 oxen for the king

and queen, and 500 for himself; upon which he left Sacala, and entered

Goutto, a very fertile country, between Maitsha and the Agows, where he

used the same moderation, and by these means quieted and reconciled his

whole province.

Nothing could have been more advantageous to the king’s affairs than

the prudent conduct of this wise officer, which left him at liberty to

afford him his assistance; for in the mean time a conspiracy was formed

at Gondar, which had taken deep root, and had a powerful faction,

Elias, late Ras and Betwudet, Tensa Mammo, Guebra l’Oul, Matteos and

Agnè, all principal men in Gondar, and possessed of great riches and

dependencies throughout the whole kingdom.

On the 8th of December 1734, being joined by their followers from

without, they all rendezvoused upon the river Kahha, below the

town. After holding council in the king’s house which is there, they

resolved to proclaim one of the princes upon the mountain Wechné, named

Hezekias, king. For this purpose, furnished with a kettle-drum, they

marched in three divisions, by three different ways, to the palace,

avowedly with an intention to force the gates and murder the king and

queen. But Fit-Auraris Ephraim, having intelligence of this tumult,

first shut up and obstructed all the entrances to the king’s house,

then gave advice to Billetana Gueta, Welled de l’Oul, of the rebellion

of Tensa Mammo, their design to murder the king, and their having

proclaimed Hezekias.

These immediately repaired to the king’s house to take council together

what was to be done, and to defend the place if it was necessary. The

rebels were now drawn up, and were beating their kettle-drum to make

their proclamation, “Hezekias was king!” while Shalaka Tchinsho, a

young nobleman of great hopes, who commanded the troops in the court

where was the outer gate, impatient to hear an usurper proclaimed in

the very face of his sovereign, directed the outer-court gate to be

opened, and, with two bodies of Galla, Djawi and Toluma, and several

corps of lances, which compose the king’s household, however inferior

in number, he rushed upon the rebels so suddenly, that they were soon

obliged to think of other occupation.

The first that fell was Asalessi Lensa, who stood by the drum, and was

slain by Shalaka Tchinsho with his own hand; his drum taken and sent to

the king as the first fruits of the day. The soldiers, encouraged by

the example of their leader, fell fiercely upon the rebels, dispersed

and broke through them wherever they saw the greatest number together;

a great slaughter was made, and Tensa Mammo, with difficulty, escaped.

The victory indeed would have been complete, had not an accidental

shot from a distance wounded Shalaka Tchinsho mortally. His own people

carried him within the gate of the palace, where he gloriously expired

at the feet of his sovereign.

The rebels, notwithstanding this check, increased every day in number

and resolution, when the news arrived that Waragna had composed all the

differences in Damot, Agow, and Goutto, and, at the head of a numerous

army, was waiting the king’s orders. This intelligence first had the

effect to disconcert the rebels, who suddenly left the capital in their

way to Wechné.

The king, now master of Gondar, ordered a proclamation to be made for

all persons whatever holding fiefs of the crown, as also all others,

to assemble before him on a short day, where the Itchegué and Abuna,

holding the picture of our Saviour, with the crown of thorns[93], up

before the people, did administer to them a solemn oath, to live and

die with the king and Iteghé; a feeble experiment, often tried by a

weak government. The only consequence of this was present expence to

the crown in a distribution of beef, honey, butter, wheat, and all

kinds of provisions; after which each man returned to his house, ready

to repeat the perjury ten times a day for the same emolument, and same

sincerity.

Messengers were next dispatched to Kasmati Waragna, ordering him to

come to Gondar with the greatest force he could raise. The same day

Azage Kyrillos, whom the king had made governor of Wechné, and Azage

Newaia Selassé, went to the mountain, pretending that king Yasous was

dead, and that the choice of the principal members of government had

fallen upon Hezekias, who thereupon was delivered to him, and saluted

king; and, without losing time, they marched to Kahha, and encamped on

that river below Gondar.

In the mean while, the great men and officers of the court, and in

particular those who had estates and houses in Gondar, began to

consider the danger of the town at the so near approach of the rebels.

Several districts, or streets, situated on eminences, by shutting up

access to them, were made tenable posts, and, having filled them with

good soldiers, they set about the defence of the town and annoying the

enemy. Hezekias had removed to the house of Basha Arkillidas; and it

was agreed to send their whole forces to see if they could succeed in

forcing the king’s house. But before this another stratagem was tried

to alienate the minds of the people of Gondar from their sovereign. It

was said that certain Roman Catholic priests had arrived at Gondar;

that they were shut up privately in the palace with the king and queen;

and, upon the Abuna and Itchegué coming to Hezekias to ask him how he

happened to be proclaimed king, without making to them some confession

of his faith, (a question they put to all young or weak princes),

Hezekias answered, It was because he had heard the Itchegué, and the

rest of the clergy, seemed to be careless about the true faith, by

suffering Catholic priests to live with the king in the palace. A

great ferment immediately followed; all the monks, priests, and madmen

that could be assembled, (and on these occasions they gather quickly),

with the Itchegué and Abuna at their heads, went to Dippabye, the open

place before the palace, and pronounced the Iteghè, Yasous, and all

their abettors, accursed and given up to burn with Dathan and Abiram.

For several days and nights attempts were made to set fire to, and

break open the gate. But the loyalists charged them so vigorously upon

all these occasions, especially Billetana Gueta Welled de l’Oul, and

the walls of the palace were so exceedingly thick and strong, that

little progress was made in proportion to the men these attempts cost

daily. However, on that side of the palace called Adenaga, the rebels

had lodged themselves so near as to set part of it on fire.

The king’s house in Gondar stands in the middle of a square court,

which may be full an English mile in circumference. In the midst of

it is a square tower, in which there are many noble apartments. A

strong double wall surrounds it, and this is joined by a platform roof;

loop-holes, and conveniences for discharging missile weapons, are

disposed all around it. The whole tower and wall is built of stone and

lime; but part of the tower being demolished and laid in ruins, and

part of it let fall for want of repair, small apartments, or houses of

one storey, have been built in different parts of the area, or square,

according to the fancy of the prince then reigning, and these go now

by the names of the ancient apartments in the palace, which are fallen

down.

These houses are composed of the frail materials of the country, wood

and clay, thatched with straw, though, in the inside, they are all

magnificently lined, or furnished. They have likewise magnificent

names, which we have mentioned already. These people, barbarous as they

are, have always had a great taste for magnificence and expence. All

around them was silver, gold, and brocade, before the Adelan war, in

which they lost the commerce of that country, by losing their connexion

with India.

The next night the soldiers of Elias made their lodgments so near the

walls, that, with fiery arrows, they set one of these houses, called

“Werk Sacala,” within the square, in flames; but Welled de l’Oul, with

the Toluma Galla, sallying at that instant, surprised Elias’s soldiers,

not expecting such interruption, and put the greatest part of them to

the sword, setting on fire the houses that were near the palace, till

part was entirely burnt to the ground. The next night, an attempt was

made upon the gate to blow it up with gunpowder; but, before it was

completed, the two rebels employed in the work were shot dead from the

wall, and their train miscarried.

On the 25th of December they burned a new house in the town built by

the king, called Riggobee Bet. These frequent fires had turned the

minds of people in general very much against Hezekias the rebel. The

night after, there was another great fire in the king’s house; Zeffan

Bet, and another large building, were destroyed by the rebels, as was

the church of St Raphael. Gondar looked like a town that had been taken

by an enemy, and battles were every day fought in the streets, with no

decisive advantage to either party. Some part of the town was on fire

every night; nobody knew for what reason, nor what was the quarter that

was next to be burnt.

In the mean time, Azage Georgis arrived in the country of the Agows

at Basil Bet, where Waragna was, and delivered him the king’s order,

that he should make all possible haste to his assistance at Gondar,

with as large an army as he could suddenly bring; and these dispatches

conferred upon him at the same time, as a mark of favour, the post of

Ibaba Azage, or governor of Ibaba, together with Elmana and Densa, two

districts inhabited by Galla, subjects to the king, which posts were

then held by Tensa Mammo, and forfeited by his rebellion.

The next morning Waragna left his head-quarters at Basil Bet; thence he

marched to Gumbali, and thence to Sima. At Sima he heard, that, the day

before, it had been proclaimed at Ibaba, by orders of Tensa Mammo, that

Yasous was dead, and Hezekias was now king; upon this intelligence he

marched from Sima, and, while it was yet early in the day, he came to

Ibaba.

The first inquiry was concerning the Shum (or chief of the town) left

there by Tensa Mammo; and this man, coming readily to him to receive

his commands, and offer him any service in his power, was asked by

whose orders the proclamation of Hezekias was made? Being answered,

by Tensa Mammo’s, he directed the Shum and his two sons to be hanged

on three separate trees in the middle of the town; the Shum with

the nagareet round his neck which had served in the proclamation

of Hezekias; he then declared Tensa Mammo a rebel and outlaw, and

confiscated his estate to the king’s use.

At Ibaba he met Fit-Auraris Tamba, with a large body of Damots and

Djawi; then he decamped from Ibaba, and, at the bridge over the

Nile, was met by Azage Georgis, with all Maitsha, Elmana, and Densa

following, and thence proceeded to Waira, where he set Arkillidas at

liberty. This officer, after distinguishing himself before all others

in the king’s defence, had been taken prisoner by Tensa Mammo, and

sent thither. Advancing into Foggora, with a large army, he halted

at Gilda, and sent some soldiers on the road to Gondar, to see if he

could apprehend any travellers, especially those going or coming to or

from market. But, after three days waiting on the road, the soldiers

returned without any person or intelligence, by which he judged the

town was already in great straits. In two days after, he advanced to

Wainarab, and thence he sent his Fit-Auraris forward to set a house

at Tedda on fire, to shew to the king at Gondar that he was thus

far advanced to his assistance. This barbarous custom of burning a

house wherever an army encamps, though but for an hour, is invariably

practised, as a signal by armies, throughout all Abyssinia.

At this time there was a treaty begun between the king and Tensa Mammo.

The rebels, weary of the little advantage they had gained, and hearing

Waragna was about to march against them, offered the queen her own

terms, provided she published a general amnesty, and that each man

should be allowed to keep the posts he had before the rebellion. The

queen, weary and terrified with war, readily agreed to this proposal;

and this facility, instead of accelerating the treaty, gave the rebels

an opportunity of asking further terms, and a settlement was spoken of

for the king Hezekias, in some of the low provinces near Walkayt.

Welled de l’Oul, the queen’s brother, a man in whom the rebels had

trust, seconded his sister’s desire, and carried on the treaty, but

from different motives; it was his opinion, that, to make peace with

the rebels, leaving their party unbroken, was to spread the infection

of rebellion all over the kingdom; and to let them keep their posts,

was leaving a sword in their hands to enable them to defend themselves

on any future occasion. He therefore thought, that, as the king had

Waragna now at his command, they should make use of him to pluck up

this rebellion by the roots, cut off all the ringleaders, and disperse

the faction; but, in the mean time, in order to be able to effect this,

they should keep up the appearance of being anxious for agreeing, in

order to lull the enemy asleep, till Waragna made his instructions and

designs known to the king.

From Wainarab, Waragna sent a messenger to let the king and queen know

of his arrival; and with him came Arkillidas, that no doubt might

remain of the truth of the message. This officer told the king, that

Waragna should advance to Tedda, and offer the rebels battle there; but

if they retired (as he heard they intended) to Abra, he would follow

them thither. He desired the king also to issue his orders to the

several Shums to guard the roads, that as few of the ringleaders of the

rebels might escape as possible.

Hezekias, with his army, decamped, taking the road to Woggora; and

Waragna, following him, came up with him at Fenter, on January 20th

1735. The rebels, inferior in number, though they did not wish an

engagement at that time, were too high-minded to avoid it when offered.

Both armies fought a long time with equal fortune; and though Waragna

at the first onset had slain two men with his own hands, and taken

two prisoners, the battle was supported with great firmness till the

evening, when Waragna ordered all his Galla, the men of Maitsha,

Elmana, and Densa, to leave their horses, and charge the enemy on foot.

This confident step, unknown and unpractised by Galla before, had the

desired effect. The Galla now fought desperately for life, not for

victory, being deprived of their only means of saving themselves by

flight.

Most of the principal officers among the rebels being killed or

wounded, their army at last was broken, and took to flight. Hezekias

was surrounded and taken, fighting bravely; being first hurt in

the leg, and then beat off his horse with a stone. The pursuit was

presently stayed. Tensa Mammo escaped safely through Woggora, a

disaffected province; and had now passed the Tacazzé, when he was taken

by the men of Siré, and brought to the king for the reward that had

been offered for his head by Waragna.

Hezekias was brought to his trial before the king, nor did he presume

to deny his guilt. He was therefore sentenced to die, and committed to

close prison. Tensa Mammo was arraigned, and, although he confessed

the treason, he pleaded the peace he had made with the king before

the arrival of Waragna at Gondar. This plea was unanimously over-ruled

by the judges, because the treaty had not been completed. He was,

therefore, sentenced to die, and immediately carried out to the

daroo-tree before the palace, and hanged between two of his most

confidential counsellors.

The Abuna and Itchegué were next ordered to appear, and answer for the

crime of high treason in excommunicating the king; they declared they

proceeded on no other grounds than an information, that the king and

queen were turned Franks, and had two Catholic priests with them in

the palace. The men complained of were produced, and proved to be two

Greeks; Petros, a native of Rhodes, and Demetrius. This explanation

being given, the Abuna and Itchegué thereupon asked pardon of the king

and queen, and were ordered to make their recantation at Dippabye,

which they immediately did, declaring they were wrong, and had

proceeded on false information.

It was on the 28th of January that Sanuda and Adero were ordered to

carry king Hezekias to Wechné, which they did, and left him there

without disfiguring him in any part of his body, as is the cruel, but

usual custom in such cases. But both the Iteghè and her son were of the

most merciful disposition; and the general reputation they had for this

was often the cause of tumults and rebellions that would not have had

birth in severer reigns.

It was not long after this when there appeared a pretender to the

crown, very little expected. He said he was the old king Bacuffa; that

he had given it out that he was dead, for political reasons, and was

come again to claim his crown and kingdom. Never was resurrection

so little wished for as this; a violent fear fell upon part of the

multitude for some time; but his name making no party, whether true or

false, he was seized upon without bloodshed, tried, and condemned to

die. This punishment was changed into one of a _supposed_ gentler kind,

the cutting off his leg, and sending him to Wechné. The operation,

always performed in the grossest manner by an ax, high up the leg, and

near the knee, is generally fatal; for there is no one, having either

skill or care, to take up the ends of the veins and arteries separated

by the amputation; they only apply useless stiptics and bandages, of

no effect, till the patient bleeds to death. This is the common case,

so that the pretended Bacuffa died, in consequence of the operation,

before he came to Wechné, though he was by his sentence reprieved from

death.

The king, now arrived at the seventh year of his reign, proclaimed a

general hunt, which is a declaration of his near approach to manhood;

but he pursued it no length, and again returned to Gondar.

At that time, a great party of the queen’s relations was made against

Ayo governor of Begemder, It began by a competition between Kasmati

Geta the queen’s brother, and Ayo, who should have that province. The

common voice was for Ayo, not only as a man of the greatest interest

in the province, but in all respects unexceptionable throughout the

kingdom. Welled de l’Oul, (brother to Geta) however, being now Ras

and Betwudet, Geta governor of Samen, Eusebius, and all the rest of

them in high places at court, Geta was preferred to the government

of Begemder. Ayo, though avowedly a good subject of the king, was

determined not to be made a sacrifice to a party. He therefore refused

to resign his government, and prepared to defend himself.

Upon this, Adero, governor of Gojam, with the whole forces of that

province, passed the Nile, and entered Begemder; Geta on the side of

Samen, and last of all Welled de l’Oul marched with a royal army to

join the forces that had already begun to lay waste the country, where

unusual excesses were committed. Ayo’s house was burned to the ground,

so were all those of his party, and their lands destroyed, greatly to

the general damage of the province and capital. Ayo was now obliged to

save himself by flight. It was said, that the king (though his army was

ready) refused to march against Ayo; but with a party of his own set

out for Aden, on the frontiers of Sennaar, to hunt there; nor did he

return till the executions were over in Begemder.

Adero fell back to Gojam, and Welled de l’Oul to Gondar soon after.

The king himself appeared very much contented with his own expedition,

in which he had shown great dexterity and bravery, having killed

two young elephants, and a gomari, or hippopotamus, with his own

hands. Nor did he stay any time at Gondar, or make any preferments,

the usual consequences of victories, but prepared again for another

hunting-expedition, or an attack upon the Shangalla. The queen and

Welled de l’Oul opposed strongly his resolution. But Yasous seemed to

be weary of being governed. He was fast advancing to manhood, and of

a disposition rather forward for his age. His expedition against the

Shangalla was attended with no accident; and he returned to Gondar on

the 3d of June, with a number of slaves, much better pleased that he

had neglected, rather than taken, his mother’s advice.

It was on the 23d day of December that Yasous again set out on another

hunting-party, and killed two elephants and a rhinoceros. He then

proceeded to Tchelga, and from Tchelga to Waldubba; thence he went

to the rivers Gandova and Shimfa. These are two rivers we shall have

occasion frequently to speak of in our return through Sennaar, in which

kingdom the one is called Dender, the other Rahad. Here he exercised

himself at a very violent species of hunting, that of forcing the

gieratacachin, which means long-tail; it is otherwise called giraffa in

Arabic. It is the tallest of beasts; I never saw it dead, nor, I think,

more than twice alive, and then at a distance. It is, however, often

killed by the elephant-hunters. Its skin is beautifully variegated when

young, but turns brown when arrived at any age. It is, I apprehend, the

camelopardalis, and is the only animal, they say, that, in swiftness,

will beat a horse in the fair field.

It was not with a view to hunt only, that Yasous made these frequent

excursions towards the frontiers of Sennaar. His resolution was formed

(as it appeared soon after) in imitation of his forefather Socinios,

to revive his right over the country of the _Shepherds_, his ancient

vassals, who, since the accession of strength by uniting with the

Arabs, had forgot their ancient tribute and subjection, as we have

already observed.

The king in five days marching from Gidara came to a station of the

Daveina, which is a tribe of shepherds, by much the strongest of any

in Atbara. He fell into their encampments a little before the dawn of

day. The first shew they made was that of resistance, till they had got

their horses and camels saddled; they then all fled, after the king

had killed three of them with his own hand. Ras Woodage signalized

himself likewise by having slain the same number with the king. The

cattle, women, and provisions fell all into the king’s hand, and were

driven off to Gondar. Their arrival gave the town an entertainment to

which they had a long time been strangers. Many thousand camels were

assembled in the plain, where stands the palace of Kahha, (upon a river

of that name) large flocks of horned cattle, of extraordinary beauty,

were also brought from Atbara, which the king ordered to be distributed

among his soldiers, and the priests of Gondar, and such of the officers

of state as had been necessarily detained on account of the police, and

had not followed the army.

This year, 1736, there happened a total eclipse of the sun which very

much affected the minds of the weaker sort of people. The dreamers and

the prophets were everywhere let loose, full of the lying spirit which

possessed them, to foretel that the death of the king, and the downfal

of his government were at hand, and deluges of civil blood were then

speedily to be spilt both in the capital and provinces. There was not,

indeed, at the time any circumstance that warranted such a prediction,

or any thing likely to be more fatal to the state, than the expenditure

of the large sums of money that the turn the king had taken subjected

him to.

He had built a large and very costly church at Koscam, and he was

still engaged in a more expensive work in the building of a palace at

Gondar. He was also rebuilding his house at Riggobee-ber, (the north

end of the town) which had been demolished by the rebels; and had begun

a very large and expensive villa at Azazo, with extensive groves, or

gardens, planted thick with orange and lemon trees, upon the banks of

a beautiful and clear river which divides the palace from the church

of Tecla Haimanout, a large edifice which, some time before, he had

also built and endowed. Besides all these occupations, he was deeply

engaged in ornamenting his palace at Gondar. A rebellion, massacre,

or some such misfortune, had happened among the Christians of Smyrna;

who, coming to Cairo, and finding that city in a still less peaceable

state than the one which they had left, they repaired to Jidda in their

way to India; but missing the monsoon, and being destitute of money

and necessaries, they crossed over the Red Sea for Masuah, and came

to Gondar. There were twelve of them silver-smiths, very excellent in

that fine work called filligrane, who were all received very readily by

the king, liberally furnished both with necessaries and luxuries, and

employed in his palace as their own taste directed them.

By the hands of these, and several Abyssinians whom they had taught,

sons of Greek artists whose fathers were dead, he finished his

presence-chamber in a manner truly admirable. The skirting, which in

our country is generally of wood, was finished with ivory four feet

from the ground. Over this were three rows of mirrors from Venice, all

joined together, and fixed in frames of copper, or cornices gilt with

gold. The roof, in gaiety and taste, corresponded perfectly with the

magnificent finishing of the room; it was the work of the Falasha, and

consisted of painted cane, split and disposed in Mosaic figures, which

produces a gayer effect than it is possible to conceive. This chamber,

indeed, was never perfectly finished, from a want of mirrors. The king

died; taste decayed; the artists were neglected, or employed themselves

in ornamenting saddles, bridles, swords, and other military ornaments,

for which they were very ill paid; part of the mirrors fell down; part

remained till my time; and I was present when the last of them were

destroyed, on a particular occasion, after the battle of Serbraxos, as

will be hereafter mentioned.

The king had begun another chamber of equal expence, consisting of

plates of ivory, with stars of all colours stained in each plate at

proper distances. This, too, was going to ruin; little had been done in

it but the alcove in which he sat, and little of it was seen, as the

throne and person of the king concealed it.

Yasous was charmed with this multiplicity of works and workmen. He

gave up himself to it entirely; he even wrought with his own hand,

and rejoiced at seeing the facility with which, by the use of a

compass and a few straight lines, he could produce the figure of a

star equally exact with any of his Greeks. Bounty followed bounty. The

best villages, and those near the town, were given in property to the

Greeks that they might recreate themselves, but at a distance, always

liable to his call, and with as little loss of time as possible. He

now renounced his favourite hunting-matches and incursions upon the

Shangalla and Shepherds of Atbara.

The extraordinary manner in which the king employed his time soon made

him the object of public censure. Pasquinades began to be circulated

throughout the capital; one in particular, a large roll of parchment,

intituled, “The expeditions of _Yasous the Little_.” The king in

reality was a man of short stature. The Ethiopic word Tannush, joined

to the king’s name Yasous el Tannush, applied both to his stature and

actions. So Tallac, the name given to another Yasous, his predecessor,

signified great in capacity and atchievement, as well as that he was of

a large and masculine person.

These expeditions, though enumerated in a large sheet of parchment,

were confined to a very few miles; from Gondar to Kahha, from Kahha

to Koscam, from Koscam to Azazo, from Azazo to Gondar, from Gondar to

Koscam, from Koscam to Azazo, and so on. It was a similar piece of

ridicule upon his father Philip, as we are informed, that, in the last

century, cost Don Carlos, prince of Spain, his life.

This satire nettled Yasous exceedingly; and, to wipe off the imputation

of inactivity and want of ambition, he prepared for an expedition

against Sennaar. It was not, however, one of those inroads into Atbara

upon the Arabs and Shepherds, whom the Funge had conquered and made

tributary to them; but was a regular campaign with a royal army, aimed

directly at the very vitals of the monarchy of Sennaar, the capital

of the Funge, and at the conquest or extirpation of those strangers

entirely from Atbara.

We have seen, in the course of our history, that these two kingdoms,

Abyssinia and Funge, had been on very bad terms during several of the

last reigns; and that personal affronts and slights had passed between

the cotemporary princes themselves. Baady, son of L’Oul, who succeeded

his father in the year 1733, had been distinguished by no exploits

worthy of a king, but every day had been stained with acts of treachery

and cruelty unworthy of a man. No intercourse had passed between Yasous

and Baady during their respective reigns; there was no war declared,

nor peace established, nor any sort of treaty subsisting between them.

Yasous, without any previous declaration, and without any provocation,

at least as far as is known, raised a very numerous and formidable

army, and gave the command of it to Ras Welled de l’Oul; and Kasmati

Waragna was appointed his Fit-Auraris. The king commanded a chosen

body of troops, separate from the rest of the army, which was to act

as a reserve, or as occasion should require, in the pitched battle.

This he ardently wished for, and had figured to himself that he was

to fight against Baady in person. Yasous, from the moment he entered

the territory of Sennaar, gave his soldiers the accustomed licence

he always had indulged them with, when marching through an enemy’s

country. He knew not, in these circumstances, what was meant by mercy;

all that had the breath of life was sacrificed by the sword, and the

fire consumed the rest.

An universal terror spread around him down to the heart of Atbara. The

Shepherds and Arabs, as many as could fly, dispersed themselves in

the woods, which, all the way from the frontiers of Abyssinia to the

river Dender, are very thick, and in some places almost impenetrable.

Some of the Arabs, either from affection or fear, joined Yasous in

his march; among these was Nile Wed Ageeb, prince of the Arabs; others

taking courage, gathered, and made a stand at the Dender, to try their

fortune, and give their cattle time to pass the Nile, and then, if

defeated, they were to follow them. Kasmati Waragna, (as Fit-Auraris)

joined by the king, no sooner came up with these Arabs on the banks

of the Dender, than he fell furiously upon them, broke and dispersed

them with a considerable slaughter; then leaving Ras Welled de l’Oul

with the king, and the main body to encamp, taking advantage of the

confusion the defeat of the Arabs had occasioned, he advanced by a

forced march to the Nile, to take a view of the town of Sennaar.

Baady had assembled a very large army on the other side of the river,

and was preparing to march out of Sennaar; but, terrified at the king’s

approach, the defeat of the Arabs, and the velocity with which the

Abyssinians advanced, he was about to change his resolution, abandon

Sennaar, and retire north into Atbara.

There is a small kingdom, or principality, called Dar Fowr, all

inhabited by negroes, far in the desert west of Sennaar, joining with

two other petty negro states like itself, still farther westward,

called Selé and Bagirma, while to the eastward it joins with Kordofan,

formerly a province of Dar Fowr, but conquered from it by the Funge.

Hamis, prince of Dar Fowr, had been banished from his country in a late

revolution occasioned by an unsuccessful war against Selé and Bagirma,

and had fled to Sennaar, where he had been received kindly by Baady,

and it was by his assistance the Funge had subdued Kordofan. This

prince, a gallant soldier, could not bruik to see the green standard

of his prophet Mahomet flying before an army of Christians; and, being

informed of the king’s march and separation from the main body nearly

as soon as it happened, he proposed to Baady, that, as an allurement

to Yasous to pass the river with only the troops he had with him, he

should do from prudence what he resolved to do from fear, and fall

back behind Sennaar, leaving it to Yasous to enter; but, in the mean

time, that, he should dispatch him with 4000 of his best horse, armed

with coats of mail, to pass the Nile at a known place below, on the

right of Welled de l’Oul, on whom he should fall by surprise, and, if

lucky enough to defeat him, as was probable, he would then close upon

Yasous’s rear, which would of necessity either oblige him to surrender,

or lose his life and army in attempting to repass the river between

the two Nubian armies. This counsel, for many reasons was perfectly

agreeable to Baady, who instantly fell back from covering Sennaar, and

then detached Hamis to make a circuit out of sight, and cross the Nile

as proposed.

In the mean time, Yasous advanced to Basboch, where he found

the current too rapid, and the river too deep for his infantry.

He dispatched, therefore, a messenger to Welled de l’Oul for a

reinforcement of horse, and gave his infantry orders to retire to

the main body upon the arrival of the reinforcement of cavalry. This

resolution he had taken upon advancing higher up the river from

Basboch, till opposite to the town of Sennaar, and when divided only

from it by the Nile. He there saw the confusion that reigned in that

large town. No preparation for resistance being visible, the cries

of women at the sight of an enemy so near them, and the hurry of

the men deserting their habitation loaded with the most valuable of

their effects, all increased the king’s impatience to put himself in

possession of this capital of his enemy.

It happened that an Arab, belonging to Nile Wed Ageeb, had seen the

manœuvre of Hamis and his cavalry. This man, crossing the Nile at the

nearest ford, came and told his master, Wed Ageeb, what he had seen,

who informed the king of his danger. Upon interrogating the Arab, it

was found that the affair of Welled de l’Oul would certainly be over

before the king could possibly join him; and in that case he must

fall in the midst of a victorious army, and his destruction must then

be inevitable, if he attempted it. It was, therefore, agreed, as the

only means possible to save the king and that part of the army he had

with him, to retreat in the route Shekh Nile should indicate to them,

marching up with the river Nile close on their right hand, and leaving

the desert between that and the Dender, which is absolutely without

water, to cover their left. This was executed as soon as resolved.

In the mean time, Hamis had crossed the Nile, and continued his march

with the utmost diligence, and, in the close of the evening, had fallen

upon Welled de l’Oul as unexpectedly as he could have wished. The

Abyssinians were everywhere slaughtered and trodden down before they

could prepare themselves for the least resistance. All that could fly

sheltered themselves in the woods: but this refuge was as certain death

as the sword of the Funge; for, after leaving the river Dender, all the

country behind them was perfectly destitute of water. Ras Welled de

l’Oul, and some other principal officers, under the direction of some

faithful Arabs, escaped, and, with much difficulty, two days after,

joined the king.

Besides these, the army, consisting of 18,000 men, either perished

by the sword, by thirst, or were taken prisoners; all the sacred

reliques, which the Abyssinians carry about with their armies to ensure

victory, and avert misfortune; the picture of the crown of thorns,

called _sele quarat rasou_; pieces of the true cross; a crucifix

that had on many occasions spoke, (which should ever after be dumb

since it spoke not that day); all these treasures of priestcraft were

taken by the Funge, and carried in triumph to Sennaar. Great part of

those Arabs, who had joined the king in his march northward, had now

quitted him and attached themselves to the pursuit of the fugitive

remains of Welled de l’Oul’s army. As these Arabs were those that lived

nearest the Abyssinian frontier, and to whom the king had done no

harm, because they had mostly joined him, no sooner was he informed of

their treachery, but just arrived in their country, and scarcely out

of danger from the pursuit of the Funge, Yasous turned short to the

left, destroying with fire and sword all the families of those that had

forsaken him, and so continued to do till arrived on the banks of the

Tacazzé.

The Arabs and Shepherds there, many of whom had just returned from

the destruction of Welled de l’Oul’s army at Sennaar, and were now

rejoicing their families with the news of so complete a victory, and

that all danger from the Christian army was over, were astonished

to see Yasous at the head of a fresh and vigorous army, burning and

destroying their country, and committing all sort of devastation, when

they thought him long ago dead, or fugitive, and skulking half-famished

on the banks of the Dender.

The king returned in this manner to Gondar, carrying more the

appearance of a conqueror than one who had suffered the loss of a

whole army, his soldiers being loaded with the spoils of the Arabs,

and multitudes of cattle driven before them. It was but too visible,

however, by the countenances of many, how wide a difference there was

between the loss and the acquisition.

It was, indeed, not from the presence or behaviour of the king, nor yet

from his discourse, that it could be learned any such misfortune had

befallen him. On the contrary, he affected greater gaiety than usual,

when talking of the expedition; and said publicly, and laughing, one

day, as he arose from council, “Let all those who were not pleased

with the song of Koscam sing that of Sennaar.” From this many were

of opinion, that he enjoyed a kind of malevolent pleasure from the

misfortune which had befallen his army, who, not content with seeing

him cultivate and enjoy the arts of peace, had urged him to undertake a

war of which there was no need, and for which there was no provocation

given, though in it there was every sort of danger to be expected.

Although Yasous gave no consolation to his people, the priests and

fanatics soon endeavoured to prepare them one. Tensa Mammo arrived from

Sennaar with the crown of thorns, the true cross, and all the rest of

that precious merchandise, safe and entire, only a little profaned by

the bloody hands of the Moors. Ras Welled de l’OuL’s army, consisting

of 18,000 of their fellow-citizens, was lying dead upon the Dender.

It was no matter; they had got the speaking crucifix, but had paid

8000 ounces of gold for it. Still it was no matter; they had got the

crown of thorns. The priests made processions from church to church,

singing hallelujahs and songs of thanksgiving, when they should have

been in sackcloth and ashes, upon their knees deprecating any further

chastisement upon their pride, cruelty, and profaneness. All Gondar was

drunk with joy; and Yasous himself was astonished to see them singing

the song of Sennaar much more willingly than that of Koscam.

At this time died Abuna Christodulus; and it was customary for the king

to advance the money to defray the expence of bringing a successor. But

Yasous’s money was all gone to Venice for mirrors; and, to defray the

expence of bringing a new Abuna, as well as of redeeming of the sacred

reliques, he laid a small tax upon the churches, saying merrily, “that

the Abuna and the crosses were to be maintained, and repaired by the

public; but it was incumbent upon the church to purchase new ones when

they were worn out.”

Theodorus, priest of Debra Selalo, Likianos of Azazo, and Georgis

called Kipti, were consigned to the care of three Mahometan merchants

and brokers at court, whose names were Hamet Ali, Abdulla, and

Abdelcader, to go to Cairo and fetch a successor for Christodulus. They

arrived at Hamazen on April 29th 1743, where the Mahometan guides chose

rather to pass the winter-season than at Masuah, as at that place they

were apprehensive they would suffer extortions and ill-usage of every

sort. We know not what came of Georgis Kipti; but, as soon as the rainy

season was over, Theodorus and Likianos came straight to Masuah.

As soon as the Naybe got the whole convoy of priests and Mahometans

into his hands, he demanded of them half of the money the king had

given them to defray the expences of fetching the Abuna. He pretended

also, that both Mahometans and Christians should have passed the rainy

season at Masuah. He declared that this was his perquisite, and that

he had prepared great and exquisite provisions for them, which, being

spoiled and become useless, it was but reasonable they should pay as if

they had consumed them: till this was settled, he declared that none of

them should embark or stir one step from Masuah.

The news of this detention soon arrived at Gondar; and Yasous gave

orders that Michael Suhul, governor of Tigré, (afterwards Ras) and

the Baharnagash, should with an army blockade Masuah, so as to starve

the Naybe into a more reasonable behaviour. But, before this could be

executed, the Naybe had called the priests before him, and declared,

if they did not surrender the money that instant, he would put them to

death; and, in place of giving them time to resolve, he gave them a

very plain hint to obey, by ordering the executioner to strike off the

heads of two criminals condemned for other crimes, after having brought

them into their presence. The poor wretches, Theodorus and Likianos,

did not resemble Portuguese, who would have braved these threats in the

pursuit of martyrdom. The sight of blood was the most convincing of

all arguments the Naybe could use. They gave up the money, leaving the

division of it to his own discretion. He then hurried them on board a

vessel, giving Michael and the Baharnagash notice that they were gone

in safety, and that he had obeyed the king’s orders in all respects.

Michael was at that time in the strictest friendship with the Naybe,

who was his principal instrument in collecting fire-arms in Arabia

to strengthen him in the quarrel he was then meditating against his

sovereign.

On the 8th of February 1744 the priests and their guides sailed from

Masuah; and they did not arrive at Jidda till the 14th of April. There

they found that the ships for Cairo were gone, and that they had lost

the monsoon; and, as no misfortune comes single, the Sherriffe of Mecca

made a demand upon them for as much money as they had paid the Naybe;

and, upon refusal, he put Abdelcader in prison, nor was he released for

a twelvemonth after, when the money was sent from Abyssinia; and it

was then agreed, that 75 ounces of gold[94] should in all future times

be paid for leave of passage to those who went to Cairo to fetch the

Abuna; and 90 ounces a piece to the Sherriffe, and to the Naybe, for

allowing him to pass when chosen, and furnishing him with necessaries

during his stay in their respective government; and this is the

agreement that subsists, to this day.

In this interim, Likianos of Azazo, one of the priests, weary of the

journey and of his religion, and having quarrelled with Abdulla,

renounced the Christian faith, and embraced that of Mahomet; and

Theodorus, Abdulla, and Hamet Ali, being the only three remaining,

hired a vessel at Jidda to carry them to the port of Suez, the bottom

of the Arabic Gulf. Before they had been a month at sea, Abdulla died,

as did Hamet Ali seven days after they arrived at Suez. They had been

on sea three months and six days from Jidda to that port, because they

sailed against the monsoon.

It was the 25th of June that Theodorus arrived at Cairo, delivered the

king’s present, the account of the Abuna’s death, and the king’s desire

of having speedily a successor. The patriarch, having called together

all his bishops, priests, and deacons, conferred the dignity on a

monk of the Order of St Anthony, the only Order of monks the Coptic

church acknowledges. These pass a very austere life in two convents

in a dreary desert, never tasting flesh, but living on olives, salt

sardines[95], wild herbs, and the worst of vegetables. Yet so attached

are they to this solitude, that, when they are called to be ordained to

this prelature of Abyssinia, a warrant from the basha, and a party of

Turks, is necessary to bring this elect one to Cairo in chains, where

he is kept in prison till he is ordained; guarded afterwards, and then

forced on board a vessel which carries him to Abyssinia, whence he is

certain never to return.

The Abuna departed from Suez the 20th of September; the beginning of

November he arrived at Jidda; in February 1745 he sailed from Jidda,

taking with him Abdelcader, now freed from prison; he arrived at Masuah

the 7th of March, and immediately sent an express to notify his arrival

to the king and queen, and to Ras Welled de l’Oul. Congratulations

upon the event were returned from each of them; they requested he would

immediately come to court; but this the Naybe refused to permit, till

he had first received his dues; and Yasous seemed inclined to pay no

more for him than what he had cost already.

The priests, and devout people in Tigré, were very desirous to free

the Abuna from his confinement in Masuah. They saw that the king was

not inclined to advance money, and all of them knew perfectly, that,

whatever face he put upon the matter, the Ras would not give an ounce

of gold to prevent the Abuna from staying there all his life. In this

exigency they applied to Janni, a Greek, living at Adowa, (of whom

I shall hereafter speak), a confidential servant and favourite of

Michael, and also well acquainted at Masuah, to see if he could get him

released by stratagem. Janni concerted the affair with the monks of

the monastery of Bizan, two of whom conducted the Abuna by night out

of the island of Masuah, and landed him safely in their monastery in

the wilderness, with the _myron_, or consecrated oil, in one hand, and

his missal, or liturgy, in the other. So far the escape was complete;

but unluckily no orders had been given for Theodorus, who accordingly

remained behind at Masuah.

The Naybe, exasperated at the Abuna’s flight, wrecked his vengeance on

poor Theodorus; he put him in irons, and threw him into close prison,

where he remained for two months. There was no remedy but paying

80 ounces of gold to the Naybe for his release; he might else have

remained there for ever.

The king, not a little surprised at these frequent insolences on the

part of the Naybe, began to inquire what could be the reason; for

he perfectly knew, not only Suhul Michael, the governor of Tigré,

but even the Baharnagash could reduce Masuah to nothing with their

little finger; and he was informed, that a strong friendship subsisted

between the Naybe and Suhul Michael, and that it was by relying on his

friendship that the Naybe adventured to treat the king’s servants, at

different times, in the manner he had done.

Yasous, desirous to verify this himself, and to dissolve the bands of

so unnatural a friendship, marched into Tigré with a considerable army.

Passing by Adowa, the residence of Suhul Michael, he was pleased with

the warlike appearance of this his feat of government, and the perfect

order and subordination that reigned there. Certain disorders and

tumults were said to prevail in the neighbouring province of Enderta

where Kasmati Woldo commanded. The savage people, called Azabo, living

at Azab, the low country below Enderta and the Dobas, (a nation of

_Shepherds_ near them, still more savage, if possible, than them) had

laid waste the districts that were next to their frontier, burning the

churches, and slaying the priests in the daily inroads which they made

into Abyssinia. All these things, bad enough indeed, were at this time

aggravated, as was thought, for two reasons; the first was to cast

an odium upon Kasmati Woldo, Michael’s great enemy, as incapable of

governing his province; the second, to prevent the king in his progress

to Masuah, as he openly professed his fixed intention was to punish the

Naybe with the utmost severity.

The protection of his subjects, therefore, from the savages, was

represented to the king as the most pressing service; and, marching

with his usual diligence straight to Enderta, he was met there by

Kasmati Woldo, an old experienced officer, who aiming at no preferment,

paying his tribute punctually, and having been constantly occupied in

repelling the incursions of the Pagans on the frontier, had not been at

court since the reign of Theophilus.

After receiving the necessary information about the country he intended

to enter, and taking Kasmati Woldo’s two sons with him, the king

descended into the low country of Dancali, once a petty Mahometan

kingdom, and friendly to Abyssinia, now a mixture of Galla and the

natives called Taltal. Without delay he pushed on to Azab, spreading

desolation through that little province, always desert enough from its

nature, though formerly, from its trade, one of the richest spots in

the world.

The king then turned to the right upon the Dobas, who, not expecting

an army of that strength, fled and left their whole cattle a prey to

Yasous and his soldiers; a greater number was scarce ever seen in

Abyssinia. The king now returned to Enderta, where he confirmed Kasmati

Woldo in his government with distinguished marks of favour; and he this

year again came back victorious to Gondar, leaving his campaign against

the Naybe for another season.

In passing by Adowa, a fray happened among the king’s troops and those

of Michael; several were killed on both sides; and, as the dispute

was between Tigré and Amhara, the two great divisions of the country,

it threatened to create a party-quarrel between the soldiers of one

division and those of the other. No notice was taken of this when

Yasous marched eastward; but, on his return, Michael begged the king

to interfere, and make peace between the two parties. To this Yasous

answered, That he did not think it worth his while, for they would make

peace themselves when they were tired of quarrelling.

Whether this was the motive of sending for Michael to Gondar, or

whether it was the story of the Naybe, or what else was the king’s

motive, we do not know; but, so soon as he was arrived in the capital,

he sent Kasmati Ephraim, and Shalaka Kefla, into Tigré, commanding

Michael’s attendance at Gondar. This Michael absolutely refused; he

pretended Kasmati Woldo had estranged the king’s affection from him,

and that Yasous had called him to Gondar now to put him to death,

upon a pretence of his soldiers quarrel with the king’s troops. This

refusal was repeated to Yasous, without any palliation whatever; and

he instantly marched from Gondar, and encamped upon the river Waar,

where he was reinforced a few days afterwards by Ras Welled de l’Oul,

whose intention was to persuade Michael to submission; for he had been

advised not to trust the king’s oath of forgivenness unless he had

likewise that of Welled de l’Oul.

The king’s readiness disconcerted Suhul Michael. Tho’ well armed and

appointed himself, as also an excellent general, he did not risk the

presenting himself against the king on a plain; for Yasous was much

beloved by the soldiers, and always very kind and liberal to them.

The mountain Samayat, though not the most inaccessible in Tigré, was a

place of great consequence and strength, when possessed by an army and

officer such as Michael. To this natural fortress he carried all his

valuable effects, occupied and obstructed all the avenues to it, and

resolved there to abide his fortune. The king, with his army, sat down

at the foot of the mountain; and, encircling it with troops, he ordered

it to be assaulted on four sides at once; on one, by Kasmati Ayo,

governor of Begemder; on the second, by Kasmati Waragna; the third, by

Kasmati Woldo; and the fourth, by Ras Welled de l’Oul. The king himself

went round about to every place, giving his orders, encouraging his

men, and fighting himself in the foremost ranks like a common soldier.

The mountain was at length carried, with much bloodshed on both sides,

and Michael was beat from every part of it but one, which, though not

strong enough to hold out against the king’s army, if well defended

could not be carried without great loss of men.

Here Michael desired to capitulate. But, before he left the mountain

and surrendered to the king, he desired that an officer of trust

might be sent to him, because he had then upon the mountain a large

collection of treasure, which he desired to keep for the king’s use,

otherwise it would be dissipated and lost in the hands of the common

soldiers. The Ras sent two confidential officers, who took from the

hands of Michael a prodigious sum of gold, the precise amount of which

is not named. He then descended the mountain, carrying, as is the

custom of the country for vanquished rebels, a stone upon his head, as

confessing himself guilty of a capital crime. A violent storm of rain

and wind prevented, for that day, his coming into the presence of the

king; and the devil, as the Abyssinians believe, began in that storm a

correspondence with him which continued many years; I myself have often

heard him vaunt of his having maintained, ever since that time, an

intercourse with St Michael the archangel.

On the morning of the 27th of December, Ras Welled de l’Oul ordered

Michael to attend him in the habit of a penitent; and, followed by his

companions in misfortune, (that part of his troops which was taken

on the mountain) and surrounded by a number of soldiers, with drums

beating and colours flying, he was carried into the king’s presence.

Ras Welled de l’Oul had, with difficulty, engaged the king’s promise

that he was not to put him to death. The good genius of Yasous and his

family was labouring by one last effort to save him. On seeing Michael

upon the ground, Yasous fell into a violent transport of rage, spurned

him with his foot, declaring he retracted his promise, and ordered him

to be carried out, and put to death before the door of his tent. Ras

Welled de l’Oul, Kasmati Waragna, Kasmati Woldo, and all the officers

of consideration, either of the court or army, now fell with their

faces upon the ground, crying to the king for mercy and forgivenness.

Yasous, if in his heart he did not relent, still was obliged to pardon

on such universal solicitation; and this he did, after making the

following observation, which soon after was looked on as a prophecy:

“I have pardoned that traitor at your instance, because I at all times

reward merit more willingly than I punish crimes; but I call you all to

witness, that I wash my hands before God to-day of all that innocent

blood Michael shall shed before he brings about the destruction of his

country, which I know in his heart he has been long meditating.”

I cannot help mentioning it as an extraordinary circumstance, that

at the time I was at Gondar, in the very height of Suhul Michael’s

tyranny, a man quarrelled with another who was a scribe, and accused

him before Michael of having recorded this speech of the king, as I

have now stated it, in a history that he had written of Yasous’s reign.

The book was produced, the passage was found and read; and I certainly

expected to have seen it torn to pieces, or hung upon a tree about

the author’s neck. On the contrary, all the Ras said was, “If what he

writes is true, wherein is the man to blame?” And turning with a grin

to Tecla Haimanout, one of the judges, he said, “Do you remember? I

do believe Yasous did say so.” The book was restored to the author,

and no more said of the matter, not even an order was given to erase

the passage. He had no objection to Yasous and to his whole race being

prophets; he had only taken a resolution that they should not be kings.

A general silence followed this speech of Yasous, instead of the

acclamations of joy usual in such cases. The king then ordered Ras

Welled de l’Oul to lead the army on to Gondar, which he did with

great pomp and military parade, while the king, who could not forget

his forebodings, retired to an island, there to fast some days in

consequence of a vow that he had made. This being finished, Yasous

returned to Gondar; and, as he was now in perfect peace throughout his

kingdom, he began again to decorate the apartments of his palace. A

large number of mirrors had arrived at this time, a present from the

Naybe of Masuah, who, after what had happened to his friend Michael,

began to feel a little uneasy about the fate of his island.

While Yasous was thus employed, news were sent him from Kasmati Ayo,

governor of Begemder, that he had beat the people of Lasta in a pitched

battle in their own country, had forced their strong-holds, dispersed

their troops, and received the general submission of the province,

which had been in rebellion since the time of Hatzè Socinios, that is,

above 100 years. Immediately after these news, came Ayo himself to

parade and throw his _unclean_ trophies of victory before the king,

and brought with him many of the principal people of Lasta to take the

oaths of allegiance to the king.

Yasous received the accounts of the success with great pleasure, and

still more so the oaths and submissions made to him. He then added

Lasta to the province of Begemder, and cloathed Ayo magnificently, as

well as all those noblemen that came with him from Lasta. The end of

this year was not marked with good fortune like the beginning. A plague

of locusts fell upon the country, and consumed every green thing, so

that a famine seemed to be inevitable, because, contrary to their

custom, they had attached themselves chiefly to the grain. This plague

is not so frequent in Abyssinia as the Jesuits have reported it to be.

These good fathers indeed bring the locusts upon the country, that, by

their pretended miracles, they may chace them away.

Michael had continued some time in prison, in the custody of Ras Welled

de l’Oul. But he was afterwards set at full liberty; and it was now

the 17th year of Yasous’s reign, when, on the 17th of September 1746,

at a great promotion of officers of state, Michael, by the nomination

of the king himself, was restored to his government of Tigré; and,

a few days after, he returned to that province. All his ancient

friends and troops flocked to him as soon as he appeared, to welcome

him upon an event looked upon by all as nearly miraculous. Nor did

Michael discourage that idea himself, but gave it to be understood,

among his most intimate friends, that a vision had allured him that

he was thenceforward under the immediate protection of St Michael the

archangel, with whom he was to consult on every emergency.

As soon as he had got a sufficient army together, the first thing he

did was to attack Kasmati Woldo, without any provocation whatever;

and, after beating him in two battles, he drove him from his province,

and forced him to take refuge among the Galla, where, soon after, by

employing small presents, he procured him to be murdered; the ordinary

fate of those who seek protection among those faithless barbarians.

It will seem extraordinary that the king, who had such recent

experience of both, the one distinguished for his duty, the other for

his obstinate rebellion, should yet tamely suffer his old and faithful

servant to fall before a man whom in his heart he so much mistrusted.

But the truth is, all Michael’s danger was past the moment he got

free access to the king and queen, though he was deservedly esteemed

to be the ablest soldier in Abyssinia of his time, he was infinitely

more capable in intrigues, and private negociations at court, than

he was in the field, being a pleasant and agreeable speaker in common

conversation; a powerful and copious orator at council; his language,

whether Amharic or Tigré, (but above all the latter) correct and

elegant above any man’s at court; steady to the measures he adopted,

but often appearing to give them up easily, and without passion, when

he saw, by the circumstances of the times, he could not prevail: though

violent in the pursuit of riches, when in his own province, where he

spared no means nor man to procure them, no sooner had he come to

Gondar than he was lavish of his money to extreme; and indeed he set no

value upon it farther than as it served to corrupt men to his ends.

When he surrendered his treasure at the mountain Samayat, he is said to

have divided it into several parcels with his own hand. The greatest

share fell to the king, who thought he had got the whole; but the

officers who received it, and saw different quantities destined for the

Iteghé and Ras Welled de l’Oul, took care to convey them their share,

for fear of making powerful enemies. Kasmati Waragna had his part;

and even Kasmati Woldo, though Michael soon after plundered and slew

him. All Gondar were his friends, because all that capital was bribed

on this occasion. It was gold he only lent them, to resume it, (as he

afterwards did) with great interest, at a proper time.

It still remained in the king’s breast to wipe off his defeat at

Sennaar, as he had, upon every other occasion, been victorious; and

even in this, he still flattered himself he had not been beat in

person. He set out again upon another expedition to Atbara; instead

of coasting along the Dender, he descended along the Tacazzé into

Atbara, where, finding no resistance among the Shepherds, he attached

himself in particular to the tribe called Daveina, which, in the former

expedition, had joined Welled de l’Oul’s army. Upon the first news of

his approach they had submitted; but, notwithstanding all promises and

pretences of peace, he fell upon them unawares, and almost extirpated

the tribe.

Suhul Michael, while the king was thus occupied in the frontier of his

province, did every thing that a faithful, active subject could do.

He furnished him constantly with the best intelligence, supplied him

with the provisions he wanted, and made, from time to time, strong

detachments of troops to reinforce him, and to secure such posts as

were most commodious and important in case of a retreat becoming

necessary.

Yasous, who had succeeded to his wish, was fully sensible of the value

of such services, and sent, therefore, for Michael, commanding his

attendance at Gondar. There was no fear, no hesitation now, as before

in the affair of Samayat. He decamped upon the first notice, even

before the rainy season was over, and arrived at Gondar on August 30th

1747, bringing with him plenty of gold; few soldiers, indeed, but those

picked men, and in better order, than the king had ever yet seen troops.

It was plain now to everybody, that nothing could stop Michael’s

growing fortune. He alone seemed not sensible of this. He was humbler

and less assuming than before. Those whom he had first bribed he

continued still to bribe, and added as many new friends to that list

as he thought could serve him. He pretended to no precedency or

pre-eminence at court, not even such as was due to the rank of his

place, but behaved as a stranger that had no fixed abode among them.

One day, dining with Kasmati Geta, the queen’s brother, who was

governor of Samen, and drinking out of a common-glass decanter called

Brulhé, when it is the privilege and custom of the governor of Tigré

to use a gold cup, being asked, Why he did not claim his privilege? he

said, All the gold he had was in heaven, alluding to the name of the

mountain Samayat, where his gold was surrendered, which word signifies

Heaven. The king, who liked this kind of jests, of which Michael was

full, on hearing this, sent him a gold cup, with a note written and

placed within it, “Happy are they who place their riches in heaven;”

which Michael directed immediately to be engraved by one of the Greeks

upon the cup itself. What became of it I know not; I often wished

to have found it out, and purchased it. I saw it the first day he

dined, after coming from council, at his return from Tigré, after the

execution of Abba Salama; but I never observed it at Serbraxos, nor

since. I heard, indeed, a Greek say he had sent it by Ozoro Esther, as

a present to a church of St Michael in Tigré.

Enderta was now given him in addition to the province of Tigré, and,

soon after, Siré and all the provinces between the Tacazzé and the Red

Sea; so he was now master of near half of Abyssinia.

The rest of this king’s reign was spent at home in his usual amusements

and occupations. Several small expeditions were made by his command,

under Palambaras Selassé, and other officers, to harrass the Shepherds,

whom he conquered almost down to Suakem. His ravages, however, had

been confined to the peninsula of Atbara, and had not ever passed to

the eastward of the Tacazzé, but he had impoverished all that country.

After this, by his orders, the Baharnagash, and other officers, entered

that division called Derkin, between the Mareb and the Atbara, and,

still further, between the Mareb and the mountains, in a part of it

called Ajam. In this country Hassine Wed Ageeb was defeated by the

Baharnagash with great slaughter; and the Shekh of Jibbel Musa, one of

the most powerful of the Shepherds, was taken prisoner by Palambaras

Selassé, without resistance, and carried, with his wife, his family,

and cattle, in triumph to Gondar, where, having sworn allegiance to the

king, he was kindly treated, and sent home with presents, and every

thing that had been taken from him.

This year, being the 24th of Yasous’s reign, he was taken ill, and died

on the 21st day of June 1753, after a very short illness. As he was but

a young man, and of a strong constitution, there was some suspicion he

died by poison given him by the queen’s relations, who were desirous to

secure another minority rather than serve under a king, who, by every

action, shewed he was no longer to be led or governed by any, but least

of all by them.

Yasous was married very young to a lady of noble family in Amhara,

by whom he had two sons, Adigo and Aylo. But their mother pretending

to a share of her husband’s government, and to introduce her friends

at court, so hurt Welleta Georgis the Iteghé, or queen-regent, that

she prevailed on the king to banish both the mother and sons to the

mountain of Wechné.

In order to prevent such interference for the future, the Iteghé

took a step, the like of which had never before been attempted in

Abyssinia. It was to bring a wife to Yasous from a race of Galla. Her

name was Wobit, daughter of Amitzo, to whom Bacuffa had once fled when

he escaped from the mountain before he was king, and had been kindly

entertained there. Her family was of the tribe of Edjow, and the

division of Toluma, that is, of the southern Galla upon the frontiers

of Amhara. They were esteemed the politest, that is, the least

barbarous of the name. But it was no matter, they were Galla, and that

was enough. Between them and Abyssinia, oceans of blood had been shed,

and strong prejudices imbibed against them, never to be effaced by

marriages. She was, however, brought to Gondar, christened by the name

of Bessabéc, and married to Yasous: By her he had a son, named Joas,

who succeeded his father.

[Illustration]

JOAS.

From 1753 to 1768.

_This Prince a Favourer of the Galla his Relations--Great

Dissentions on bringing them to Court--War of Begemder--Ras

Michael brought to Gondar--Defeats Ayo--Mariam Barea refuses to

be accessary to his Death--King favours Waragna Fasil--Battle

of Azazo--King Assassinated in his Palace._

UPON the first news of the death of king Yasous, the old officers and

servants of the crown, remembering the tumults and confusion that

happened in Gondar at his accession, repaired to the palace from their

different governments, each with a small well-regulated body of troops,

sufficient to keep order, and strengthen the hands of Ras Welled de

l’Oul, whom they all looked upon as the father of his country. The

first who arrived was Kasmati Waragna of Damot; then Ayo of Begemder,

and very soon after, though at much the greatest distance, Suhul

Michael, governor of Tigré. These three entered the palace, with

Welled de l’Oul at their head, and received the young king Joas from

the hands of the Iteghé his grandmother, and proclaimed him king, with

the usual formalities, without any opposition or tumult whatever.

A number of promotions immediately followed; but it was observed with

great discontent by many, that the Iteghé’s family and relations were

grown now so numerous, that they were sufficient to occupy all the

great offices of state without the participation of any of the old

families, which were the strength of the crown in former reigns; and

that now no preferment was to be expected unless through some relation

to the queen-mother.

Welled Hawarayat, son to Michael governor of Tigré, had married Ozoro

Altash, the queen’s third daughter, almost a child; and long before

that, Netcho of Tcherkin had married Ozoro Esther, likewise very

young; and Ras Michael, old as he was, had made known his pretensions

to Ozoro Welleta Israel, the queen’s second daughter, immediately

younger than Ozoro Esther. These proposals, from an old man, had been

received with great contempt and derision by Welleta Israel, and she

persevered so long in the derision of Michael’s courtship, that it left

strong impressions on the hard heart of that old warrior, which shewed

themselves after in very disagreeable consequences to that lady all the

time Michael was in power.

The first that broke the peace of this new reign was Nanna Georgis,

chief of one of the clans of Agows of Damot. Engaged in old feuds with

the Galla on the other side of the Nile, the natural enemies of his

country, he could not see, but with great displeasure, a Galla such

as Kasmati Waragna, however worthy, governor of Damot, and capable,

therefore, of over-running the whole province in a moment, by calling

his Pagan countrymen from the other side.

Waragna, though this was in his power, knew the measure was unpopular.

Kasmati Eshté was the queen’s brother, and governor of Ibaba, a royal

residence, which has a large territory and salary annexed to it. When,

therefore, at council, he had complained of the injury done to him by

Nanna Georgis, he refused the taking upon him the redressing these

injuries, and punishing the Agows, unless Kasmati Eshté was joined in

the commission with him.

The reason of this was, as I have often before observed, that, as the

Agows are those that pay the greatest tribute in gold to the king,

and furnish the capital with all sorts of provisions, any calamity

happening in their country is severely felt by the inhabitants of

Gondar; and the knowledge of this occasions a degree of presumption and

confidence in the Agows, of which they have been very often the dupes.

This, indeed, happened at this very instant. For Waragna and Eshtè

marched from Gondar, and with them a number of veteran troops of the

king’s household of Maitsha, depending on Ibaba; and this army, without

bringing one Galla from the other side of the Nile, gave Nanna Georgis

and his Agows such an overthrow that his clan was nearly extirpated,

and many of the principal of that nation slain.

Nanna Georgis, who chiefly was aimed at as the author of this revolt,

escaped, with great difficulty, wounded, from the field; and the feud

which had long subsisted between Waragna’s family and the race of

the Agows, received great addition that day, and came down to their

posterity, as we shall soon see by what happened in Waragna’s son’s

time at the bloody and fatal battle of Banja.

The next affair that called the attention of government, was a

complaint brought by the monks of Magwena, a ridge of rocks of but

small extent not far from Tcherkin, the estate of Kasmati Netcho.

These mountains, for a great part of the year, almost calcined under a

burning sun, have, in several months, violent and copious showers of

rain, which, received in vast caves and hollows of the mountain, and

out of the reach of evaporation, are means of creating and maintaining

all sorts of verdure and all scenes of pleasure, in the hot season of

the year, when the rains do not fall elsewhere; and as the rocks have

a considerable elevation above the level of the plain, they are at no

season infected with those feverish disorders that lay the low country

waste.