Leave Farree for Ankobar.--Description of the road.--Aliu
Amba.--Road to Ankobar.--Incidents of the journey.--Vale
of the Dinkee river.--Valley of the Airahra.--Effect of
denudation.--Ankobar.--British Residency.--Start for
Angolahlah.--Ascent of the Tchakkah.--Road to Angolahlah.--
The town of Angolahlah.--Meet superior officers of Mission.
_May 31st._--Long before the sun had appeared upon the horizon our
mules were saddled and bridled; the hotel bill for Mr. Scott and myself
duly discharged, by a present of two dollars to the owner of the house
where we had been entertained and imprisoned; farewells were exchanged
for the last time with some of my Kafilah friends, and of my escort;
and we were off on our journey to Angolahlah, just as the distant
elevated hills near Ankobar, and the ridge or line of the table land
of Shoa beyond these, were brightly gilded by the first rays of the
rising luminary. Steadily we descended the loose stony declivity of
the hill of Farree, then clattered more briskly along a winding road
that, taking us round the base of a much higher eminence, shut us out
entirely from the sight of the white tobed townspeople, who sat along
the edges of their own cliffs to watch our progress so far on our
journey.
We now descended a bank of about four feet high into the bed of the
stream, by whose denuding agency the rocky flanks of the adjoining
hills had been laid bare. Trees of irregular height, and of very
various foliage, bordered the broad pebbly channel, along which a
gently rippling brook meandered, its course opposed to ours as it
flowed to join the Hawash. Sometimes it scoured a little ledge of
gravel, or fell over and among high boulders, the evidences of its
power in the time of its fullest might, during the heavy rains of July
and August; when its swollen volume, yellow with suspended mud, rushes
along its then pent-up bounds, bearing before it rocks, uprooted trees,
and the rotting debris of jowarhee, beans, or teff, from the upland
fields which it has devastated in its course.
We rode for some time along the bed of the stream, following its
serpentine channel, until we turned upon its right bank, and began to
ascend a long gradual slope, which having overcome, only led us to a
descent equally irksome, both to riders and mules, from its continued
inclination downwards. At its base we crossed another stream, and then
began to climb another height, and then came again the equally tiresome
descent on the opposite side. And thus we proceeded for at least four
hours, alternate hill and stream in regular succession, until we
arrived at Aliu Amba; a village perched upon a flat-topped isolated
rock that, nearly at right angles with the road, juts across the upper
end of a pretty little valley, along which we had been coming for the
last half hour.
When we had managed to scramble over a series of irregular and quite
naturally disposed stone steps, and had gained the level summit of
this ridge, I turned to look in the direction from whence we had come,
and contemplated it with great satisfaction; congratulating myself at
having got two-thirds of the heavy business over of ascending the long
flight of hill steps which, gradually increasing in elevation, form a
kind of giant staircase from our starting place at Farree to the table
land of Shoa.
At Aliu Amba we met numbers of Christian Abyssinians, and were
taken to the house of the Governor, also a Christian, but who was
absent in attendance upon the King. Every civility was paid to us,
and numerous were the inquiries made after Lieut. Barker, who, it
appears, had taken up his residence in this town some months previous
to his return journey. I was glad to be able to say that I had had a
personal interview with him, for I could see, that to be the “Woodage
Kapitan,” friend of the Captain, as he was called in Shoa, was a
great recommendation; and although a lengthened levee, with a crowd
of people whose language you cannot understand, is a terrible bore,
still smiling faces, and a friendly welcome, in a strange country, from
whatever cause, does the traveller’s heart good, and encourages him to
proceed on his undertaking.
We halted for nearly two hours at Aliu Amba, not being able to get away
before, as a sheep had been killed, and our servants were determined
to take advantage of the hospitality of the townspeople. When their
hunger was satisfied, they brought us our mules, for which we had
been asking some time in vain, as Mr. Scott and I were anxious to
breakfast, if we could, at Ankobar with Dr. Roth, and Mr. Bernatz the
artist to the Embassy, A large concourse of the principal people of
the town accompanied us across the market-place to the edge of their
little table hill, from whence they watched us until shut out from view
by the sinuosity of the narrow road, which occupied the summit of a
ledge separating the slopes of two small rivulets, running in opposite
directions around the hill of Aliu Amba, to join each other in the
valley in front.
We now rode between two delightful natural hedge rows of a low thorny
bush with dark green leaves, and-bearing clusters of a black sweet
berry; over which trailed in most luxuriant profusion a very sweet
scented jasmine; and pushing its way through this mass of vegetation,
high above all, flowered the common hedge rose of England. Its
well-remembered delicately blushing hue, so unexpectedly greeting
me here, elicited a feeling that, with but a little more ardent
sensitiveness in my nature, would have thrown me on my knees before
it, as Linnæus is said to have knelt to the flowering furze, on first
witnessing its brilliant blossoms in England.
The road now became most shockingly stony, strewed with detached
fragments of the cliffs around, as we approached the bluff termination
of the table land above us. A recent earthquake had brought down
considerable quantities, and no attempt had been made to remove the
blocks, travellers very patiently seeking out a new path around
them. In two or three places, where the _detour_ was too great, some
desperate spirits had forced their mules or donkeys to breast up the
miniature precipices a few feet in height. At one of these situations I
dismounted, preferring to walk through the delightfully hanging gardens
on either side of me, and along an embowered lane, where a dense shade,
and numberless little streams that traversed sometimes considerable
distances, contributed to the agreeable coolness of an elevation
between 6,000 and 7,000 feet above the level of the sea. Here, as
everywhere else, where trees abounded, birds of all characters and
colours gave liveliness to the scene. One similar in size and plumage
to our sparrow, constructed pensile nests, dropping as it were from
the extreme boughs that nodded with these novel appendages. The dove,
slattern as she is, here also built her nest, a ragged stage of sticks;
whilst in the thick bush beneath, the prying traveller could detect
the round black speaking eye of some other little expectant mother of
the feathered race, as, with head thrown aside, she confidingly and
instinctively expects that the goodness of man’s nature will not allow
him to disturb her sacred functions; a pleasing testimony it is to me,
nature’s own evidence of the primitive excellence of man, when he and
all around were pronounced by the Creator to be good.
Very soon tiring, however, in my weak state and on such a road, I got
on to my mule again, which, if she could have spoken, would certainly
have echoed the sentiment of the Portuguese traveller, Bermudez, who,
in the 16th century, describing the very same road, represents it as
giving him an idea of those in hell, from its steepness and roughness.
Our poor animals, in fact, were frequently obliged to come to a
stand-still to recover their breath; but they soon set their faces to
the steep rocks, and managed, in some way or other, to surmount many
very queer-looking places, without shedding us into some uncomfortably
deep water-cut precipices that, as we got nearer to the end of our
journey, began to be exchanged for the verdant hedges of the previous
portion. The whole way we were constantly encountering herds of
donkeys, heavily laden with grain, which was being brought down from
the high land to be exchanged in Efat for cotton and salt. The men who
accompanied them were, to my surprise, much darker coloured than the
people of the lower country, tall, well made, and armed with spear and
shield. With loud cries they encouraged the patient animals before
them, to quicken their slow and cautious pace down the stony descent.
The friendly salutation as we passed was never forgotten, nor did the
laughing fast-talking girls who accompanied them spare their smiles,
which was quite a merciful dispensation, that made our difficult and
fatiguing ascent, much pleasanter than would have been a macadamized
road through a desert.
We at length reached a narrow tortuous ridge of at least a mile in
length, across which, a walk of but a few yards presented to the view
on either side, a deep and extensive valley. That on the left hand
is by far the narrower and more precipitous, being bounded by the
steep, almost perpendicular face of the opposite ridge of Tchakkah,
at the distance of about four miles; whilst that on the right, is of
a character exactly the reverse, a widely extending amphitheatrical
formed valley spreading from below the feet, far towards the east.
From the summit of an inclined plane, eight thousand feet above the
level of the sea, the eye travels for sixty miles over hundreds of
little hills, embosomed in the widely diverging arc that defines the
bay-like valley, in which is contained the whole of the numberless
streams that, joining the small river Dinkee near to Farree, flow into
Lee Adu. This lake formed a bright feature of the scene, embosomed in
the dark green belt of forest that marks the course of the Hawash;
beyond which the sandy plains of Adal, blending with a colourless sky,
constituted an horizon in which sight was lost.
Between the two strongly contrasted yet equally beautiful scenes I
could have oscillated the whole day, had not I been reminded by Mr.
Scott that breakfast would be waiting for us at Ankobar. At this
touching appeal I urged on my mule, who now rested herself by a
gallop along the very level summit of the ridge that, like a natural
suspension bridge, is extended from the hill of Ankobar in the west
to that of Lomee on the south, and forms the boundary between these
bearings of the upper portion of the Dinkee valley.
In two or three places I noticed that the otherwise narrow ridge spread
out into little flats of about fifty yards across. As we passed the
first of these, a small heap of stones, surmounted by a rude wooden
cross, indicated to the passer-by that a church was hidden in the grove
of kolqual and wild fig-trees that occupied the limited expansion.
Each of Mr. Scott’s servants most reverentially dismounted to kiss the
topmost stone, on which the cross stood. A little beyond, the road
again contracted, and from the back of my mule, by merely turning my
face, I could look into either valley on my right or left hand. Along
this path we proceeded cautiously in Indian file, passing in one place
the site of a devastated grove and ruined church; the scarping effects
of constant land-slips on either side the ridge having in this position
defeated all efforts of man to prevent the destruction of the sacred
edifice, its site having been gradually removed during the process of
denudation which is so rapidly altering the physical features of this
country. The eastern face of the hill of Ankobar was now before us, the
head of a subordinate valley scooped out of that side of the ridge only
intervening. Having doubled this by continuing along our level road,
we scrambled over a rough precipitous ascent, fortunately only of a
few yards in extent, and entered a narrow lane or street between high
banks, on which stood a number of straggling thatched round houses,
each in its own enclosure. The road appeared to have been worn into a
hollow way by the constant passage of man and beast during the many
reigns since this hill became a royal residence.
Tradition asserts, and I believe Abyssinian recorded history affirms,
that the first occupier of this commanding height was a Galla Queen
called Anko, and by the addition of “bar”(door) to her name, native
philologists (and they are very curious in these matters) have
determined the designation of this town to be, significant of its
having been the gate or door of Anko. This is rather an unfinished
interpretation, as it omits to tell us what it secured; and were it not
that we had the circumstantial evidence that the town stands upon the
height commanding the only road leading from the low countries to the
table land of Shoa, we should be at a loss for the real reason of its
very apt name, which it must be allowed to be when that circumstance of
situation is known.
After threading our way for at least a quarter of an hour through a
labyrinth of high over-hanging banks, topped by ragged hedges, or
grey moss-covered palings of splintered fir, we at length reached a
large oblong or rather oval building, for one continuous circuit of a
wattled wall offered no angles to determine sides. This was covered by
an ample straw roof, with far-projected eaves, and having two bright
red earthenware pots at the extremities of the crest of the roof, as
a finish to the whole. This was the British Residency, and gladly
we dismounted to meet our expected friends. Turning aside the green
Chinese blind, which, suspended from the top of the entrance, was
sufficient to exclude the beggars, and yet admitted some light into
the interior, we gained admittance; and having passed through a large
central apartment, where mules, horses, and sheep were stabled, I was
conducted into a clay-plastered apartment, about six feet by nine,
between the inner and outer walls of the building, where I found two
gentlemen belonging to the Mission, Dr. Roth, the naturalist, and Mr.
Bernatz, the artist, just about to commence their breakfast.
Greetings and congratulations were exchanged, and numberless inquiries
made about the cause of my detention at Farree. A host of idle
Abyssinian servants gathered around, questioning in like manner the
native servants of Mr. Scott, and it was sometime before we settled
down to partake of the good things which Constantine, the Portuguese
cook, during the bustle of our arrival, had taken the opportunity to
prepare.
Mr. Scott and I having determined to hurry on the same day to
Angolahlah, fresh mules were ordered to be ready by the time I had
sufficiently indulged in the luxury of something like English fare,
which, for the first time for nearly three months, was now placed
before me.
When we started, Mr. Scott volunteered to be guide, and so excused his
servants from being dragged on such an unnecessary journey. Having got
through the town of Ankobar, we began to descend, progressing more
rapidly after passing some distance along the side of a high stockade
surrounding the royal residence, which occupied the whole summit of
the partially detached western extremity of the ridge on which Ankobar
stands. The descent continued for nearly half an hour, the road being
exceedingly rough and stony, until we came to the edge of the little
river Airahra, flowing into the Hawash, the stream of which by its
denudation has cut from the table-land of Tchakkah, the long narrow
ridge which we passed along during the ride to Aliu Amba.
Formerly the Airahra flowed into the Barissa, and was a tributary
therefore of the mighty Nile; but a singular natural operation has
effected an alteration in its course, and it now flows in an opposite
direction. Physical geography, I think, does not describe a similar
character of country as the surface of the table land of Abyssinia
presents, or the relative position it occupies in consequence with
surrounding countries. These must both be treated of before I can give
the reader the manner in which nature is gradually effecting what
former Abyssinian monarchs threatened to do, the turning of the waters
of the Nile from the direction of Egypt and the north, to the Indian
Ocean and the East. A mighty operation which is most certainly going
on, and which can be demonstrated, will in the end drain the northern
portion of Abyssinia, by a communication being opened between the
river Hawash and the Abi, or Bruce’s Nile. In this place, however, any
description would fail in the effect of conveying a clear idea to the
mind of the reader; but in a future page, when more familiar with the
country he is now travelling over with me, I will endeavour fully to
explain the manner in which this curious process of natural engineering
is being carried out.
We forded the Airahra a little beyond a square stone building with a
thatched roof, which was pointed out to me as the water mill, that was
erected by the two Armenians whom I met in Tajourah, Demetrius and
Joannes. Whatever ability was displayed in the construction, but little
judgment had been exercised in its situation, for it stood at the
bottom of a deep valley, at the distance of two miles at least, by the
circuitous and rugged road, from the town of Ankobar: whilst, on the
other side, to look up the ascent of the Tchakkah would have certainly
occasioned the fall behind of the cap from off the head.
I do not believe the architects built it for any direct purposes of
utility, but to give the Negoos an idea of their mechanical skill.
It is now unemployed, if we believe some travellers, by reason of
the Jinn or demons, by whose power they say the Shoans believe the
mill was put in motion. This assertion is of the same character with
that which represents Sahale Selassee putting reverentially a pair
of vaccine glasses into an amulet, mistaking the instructions given
for their proper use, when it is notorious that for a great number of
years the analogous operation of inoculation has been practised in
Shoa. I can only say, that when windmills were described as being much
better adapted for the purposes of a people who principally inhabit
the summits of hills, Sahale Selassee so admired the idea that I was
almost afraid I should be obliged to construct one. So far from the
monarch supposing mills to be worked by demons, he never troubled
himself so much, in a conversation with me, as he did to shew how
closely he had observed every part of the mill that had been put up, to
learn its economy, and the manner in which its effects were produced.
The most laborious employment of the women of Abyssinia is grinding
flour. Windmills to perform this duty would diminish considerably the
demand for female slaves in that country, and less encouragement would
be, therefore, given to the internal slave-trade of Africa, whilst the
prohibition of the export of slaves by Mahomedans from the eastern
coast, would extinguish the greater part of the infernal traffic at
once.
Immediately after crossing the Airahra we commenced a most villanous
ascent. I believe that, to be in daily use, and traversed by hundreds
of individuals, the Tchakkah road is unequalled in the world for
steepness, roughness, and everything else that can contribute to make a
road difficult and unsafe. Now a brawling stream, rushing down into the
Airahra, covers with a slippery slime the bald face of the rock; here
loose crumbling stones treacherously detach themselves from beneath the
struggling hoofs of the mule; and there an actual cataract, of at least
eight feet high, has to be scrambled over, splashing through spray and
the flying gravel dislodged by the ascent. Zigzag parallels, as they
are termed in fortifications, are the exact description of the route we
took up the almost perpendicular cliffs; and our faces were alternately
turned nearly due north and south, as we succeeded in accomplishing
some ten or twelve yards in the traverse, at every turn we made,
peeping over into a deep abyss that yawned before us, and prevented
our ride from being extended longer in that direction. Often does the
merciful man here dismount from his tired mule, and sitting upon some
detached portion of rock, congratulate himself, as he gazes downward,
on having effected so much of his painful task; and as he looks upward
receives some encouragement to proceed, when he sees the reward
of perseverance, in the distant image of some preceding traveller
gradually rising in relief against the sky, then suddenly disappearing
over the lofty ridge where terminates his labour.
It took us one hour to surmount this awful steep, which, had it been
some thousand feet higher, might not, perhaps, have been unjustly
compared with similar passes among the Alps; but even then the
comparison would hold no longer than the ascent, for, arrived upon
the summit, the stranger finds no descent but an extensive table land
spread before him, and he cannot divest himself of an idea, that he has
reached some new continent. A Scotch climate, and Scotch vegetation,
wheat, barley, and linseed, and yet still in inter-tropical Africa;
he feels as if there must be some mistake, an idea of incongruity,
not unlike what I experienced upon seeing in a “united family of
animals,” several rats seeking a warm retreat beneath the fur of a cat.
Everything, in fact, was different to what I had expected, and the
nearly black skins of the natives that we met seemed to be unnatural in
a country where a chill breeze was blowing.
Koom Dingi, the resting-stone, is a solitary remaining hexagonal prism
of grey columnar porphyry, some few feet in height, and stands amidst
the fragments of others, very conspicuously on the extreme edge of the
Tchakkah. Here it is usual for the weary wayfarer after his ascent,
to stop and refresh himself with the bread no Abyssinian on a long
journey fails to provide himself with, and carries wrapt up in the long
mekanet, or girdle, that surrounds his loins.
Mr. Scott and myself, however, pushed on our mules, glad at having got
over the worst part of the road to Angolahlah, and willing to make the
best of our way before sunset, for it began to be a question with my
companion, if we should arrive before night at our destination.
The country seemed highly cultivated, wheat and barley on all sides
growing close to our path; but no trees or hedge rows enlivened with
their verdure or fragrance, the bleak, moor-like scene around. The
farm-houses were few and far between, neither were they so high nor so
comfortable-looking as those of the clustered villages, that crowned
every little hill in the vale of the Dinkee, on the other side of
Ankobar. The walls were generally a circle of rough, unhewn stones,
about three feet high, supporting the usual conical roof of straw. The
smoke escaped in white wreaths from beneath the eaves, or issued in a
volume from the entrance, and had it not been for some substantial and
really English-looking stacks of grain standing near, which prevented
the idea of poverty being connected with the apparent discomforts of
these dwellings, the name of hovels would have been far too superior a
designation for them.
We met very few people on the road, but these had all of them a great
number of questions to put, if we would have stayed to listen. We were
also several times called upon to stop for the night at the houses
of people who ran after us to say, that they knew Mr. Krapf, and
that, consequently, we must be their friends, and partake of their
hospitality. Although shivering with cold, and nearly tired out, we
resisted all such temptations, proceeding at a gentle amble, for which
the mules of Shoa are famous, and after a long ride of seven hours,
just as the sun was setting, its last rays falling upon our faces, the
straggling but extensive town of Angolahlah suddenly opened upon us,
as we rounded the low shoulder of a ridge which had been in sight for
nearly the last hour.
Three extensive, but low hills of nearly equal height, and covered with
houses, enclose a triangular space, which forms the centre of the town.
Across this, Mr. Scott and I quickly galloped our mules, pulling up
opposite a white square tent, at the door of which had already appeared
Capt. Harris and Capt. Graham, the news of our approach having been
conveyed by a forerunner, who had observed us in the distance.
A very pleasant evening followed; conversation upon home and Indian
news occupied the few hours before we retired to rest; and amidst the
luxuries and conveniences, so abundantly supplied to the Embassy by the
indulgent care of a liberal Government, I almost fancied that I had
returned to the pleasures and comforts of civilized life. As my cloak,
coats, and carpet, which constituted my bed, were left at Farree, my
courteous entertainer, Capt. Harris, supplied me with an abundance of
warm clothing for the night, and I slept well in an adjoining tent, of
black worsted-cloth, manufactured by the Abyssinians.
Unfortunately, amidst all his kindness, Capt. Harris considered it to
be his duty to take notes of my conversation, without my being aware in
the slightest degree of such a step, or being conscious of the least
necessity for his doing so. On my becoming aware of this circumstance,
a few weeks after, by the distortion of a most innocent remark of
mine, which was imputed to me in a sense that I never dreamt of
employing it, I retorted in a manner that led to further proceedings;
and from that time all intercourse between the members of the Embassy
and myself ceased for some months.